CMU Digest

CMU Digest 10.12.18: Tencent, Apple, Mixcloud, WINTEL, Ticketmaster

By | Published on Monday 10 December 2018

Tencent

The key stories from the last week in the music business…

The Tencent Music IPO got underway. The Chinese web giant confirmed in July that it would spin-off its music division as a standalone company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. However the IPO was pushed back as tech sector share prices dipped and the trade war between China and the US intensified. But after the stock market responded well to China/US talks at the recent G20 meeting, Tencent announced the IPO was go. The standalone music business will operate China’s market-leading steaming service QQ Music and other digital, distribution and label interests. [READ MORE]

It emerged that Apple had registered the trademark Apple Music For Business in the US and elsewhere. It suggests that the tech giant is planning to push into B2B streaming, offering higher priced subscriptions to businesses which want to stream music in public spaces. The Spotify-backed B2B streaming firm Soundtrack Your Brand recently estimated that the music industry was losing $2.65 billion per year by not properly exploiting this market. [READ MORE]

Mixcloud put live its subscriptions set-up Select. Rather than offering a platform-wide subscription, users will be able to subscribe to individual channels. The channel owners will set the monthly rate, though there is a £2.99 per month minimum. That money will be shared between the channel owner and any music companies whose songs or recordings are used in the channel’s programmes or mixes. [READ MORE]

The World Independent Network published its latest WINTEL report, which measures music industry market share based on copyright ownership rather than distribution. This means that music controlled by indie labels but distributed by Sony, Universal or Warner is allocated to the independent sector rather than the majors. WIN reckons 22.4% of the revenue generated by independently controlled music goes through a major label distributor. By doing the maths WIN’s way, the indie labels accounted for 39.9% of the global recorded music market last year. [READ MORE]

Ticketmaster tried to have a class action lawsuit over its secondary ticketing operations in the US dismissed on a technicality. The Live Nation company still operates platforms and services for ticket touts Stateside. Ticket-buyer Allen Lee sued alleging that Ticketmaster illegally “accepts kickbacks for secretly facilitating a shortage of its product and then a sale by a third party at a higher price”. But Ticketmaster argues that the terms and conditions on its website say that customers must take any grievances to independent arbitration before pursuing any action in the courts, and on that basis it has asked for the case to be dismissed. [READ MORE]

The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• Superstruct bought a controlling stake in Finnish festival Flow [INFO]
• Indian streaming services JioMusic and Saavn formally merged [INFO]
• Bucks announced an alliance with Mushroom Music Publishing [INFO]
• Sentric Music announced an alliance with Riptide Music Group [INFO]
• Universal Music announced a distribution deal with Edgeout Records [INFO]
• Universal Production Music signed a deal with Liquid Cinema [INFO]
• BMG signed a deal with the estate of Kurt Weill [INFO]
• Sony’s RCA signed CamelPhat [INFO]



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