Palo Alto-based startup PIP Labs announced an $80 million funding round for Story Protocol, a blockchain platform to track intellectual property rights in the era of artificial intelligence and the data scraping that enables model training. CEO and co-founder Seung Yoon “SY” Lee says the company aims to create a more sustainable IP environment for digital consumers and builders. The raise, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Polychain Capital, values the startup at $2.25 billion. The move comes after Sahara AI announced it raised $43 million this month to fund a blockchain-based IP tracking system. Continue reading Story Raises $80M to Create Blockchain-Based IP Protection

The U.S Copyright Office has finalized its rule change on streaming royalties, delivering a long-awaited clarification on who receives streaming royalties when songwriters exercise termination rights that allow authors and heirs to terminate copyright grants — including transfers or licenses — for their music. The rule clarifies who is entitled to collect mechanical royalties paid by streaming platforms after the termination has been invoked. Specifically, the final rule confirms “that the derivative works exception to termination rights under the Copyright Act does not apply to the statutory blanket mechanical license established under the Music Modernization Act.” Continue reading Music Industry Lauds Copyright Ruling in Streaming Dispute

Spotify is rolling out AUX, an in-house music advisory agency for brands. “With AUX, we’ll use our deep expertise to counsel brands about how best to use music to enrich their campaigns and connect them with emerging artists to help them reach new audiences,” Spotify announced, joining Meta Platforms, YouTube, Snapchat and others in connecting creatives with brands. AUX aims to provide emerging artists with an avenue to another potential income source, as well as a path to wider exposure, as the idea is to get brands to pay Spotify to access the new service. Continue reading Spotify In-House Agency AUX to Connect Brands with Music

Adobe Firefly is out of beta and in release, adding generative AI features to the Creative Cloud suite. The upgrade starts this week with Firefly added to Photoshop and Illustrator. “AI-powered innovation” is also being integrated into Premiere Pro and After Effects, the company says. Creative Cloud paid plans now include the Firefly web application, “a playground for exploring AI-assisted creative expression.” The company is also going wide with Adobe GenStudio for enterprises, and is rolling out a bonus program that pays contributors to Adobe Stock, on which Firefly was trained for model training data. Continue reading Adobe Releases Firefly and Intros Contributor Model Training

Universal Music Group and Deezer have set Q4 as the launch date for a new, artist-centric streaming royalty model the companies jointly developed. Indie streaming platform Deezer will launch the concept model in its native France in Q4 2023. The companies conceived the new compensation methodology as part of a previously announced collaboration, using “deep data analysis” for an outcome they say “better reflects the true value of artist-fan relationships.” Calling streaming “the most significant technology advancement in music in many years,” the partners conclude “a flood of uploads with no meaningful engagement” has necessitated reassessment. Continue reading Universal, Deezer to Reinvent Music Streaming Royalty Model

Spotify is expanding beyond music and podcasts by adding audiobooks. The company is starting out with just over 300,000 titles, available for purchase in the U.S. “This is just the beginning,” says Spotify, promising a geographic expansion. In June, the audio streamer completed its purchase of global audiobooks distributor Findaway, announced last year. The acquisition was designed to make it a major player on entry, competing with Amazon’s Audible, the nation’s biggest audiobook service. Unlike Audible, Spotify is individually pricing audiobook titles and offering them à la carte, not by subscription. Continue reading Spotify Rolls Out U.S. Audiobook Service with 300,000 Titles

After a 12-year run that saw YouTube emerge as the dominant U.S. social video platform, chief business officer Robert Kyncl announced he is stepping aside. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced that Google president of global customer solutions Mary Ellen Coe will assume the role of CBO, effective October 3, with Kyncl continuing as part of YouTube’s executive team until early 2023 during the transition. Known as YouTube’s Hollywood connection, Kyncl was ultimately unable to transition YouTube into the long-form streaming platform Google once envisioned, but he oversaw its rise to short-form video powerhouse. Continue reading YouTube CBO Robert Kyncl Exiting, Mary Ellen Coe Steps Up

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) is working on new legislation to help musicians boost their share of the revenue pouring into streaming services, which currently sits at fractions of a cent per stream. Tlaib is working with the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) on a new royalty program that would increase the royalty rate per-stream model. Tlaib and her team are actively collaborating to draft the resolution. The Recording Industry Association of America says that streaming accounts for 83 percent of all recorded music income.  Continue reading House Rep Plans to Update Streaming Revenue for Musicians

Warner Music Group has become the first major music label to adopt SoundCloud’s fan-powered royalties payout model. Launched last year, the model is designed around what the music streaming service calls “the fan economy,” enabling artists to engage directly with fans for more control and increased monetization opportunities. The audio distribution platform allows every artist to be paid “based on fan listening behavior on SoundCloud,” with subscription and advertising revenue “distributed among the artists [the fans] listen to, rather than being pooled under the traditional pro-rata model the music industry has been using for over a decade,” explains SoundCloud. Continue reading Warner Music Adopts SoundCloud’s Fan-Powered Royalties

Comedian Lewis Black has slapped subscription-based streaming service Pandora with a $10.2 million copyright infringement lawsuit. Black becomes the latest humorist to take legal action against an audio streamer for unauthorized use of their work. Earlier this year, comedians Nick Di Paolo and Andrew Dice Clay — and the estates of Robin Williams and George Carlin — sued Pandora, which is owned by SiriusXM. Black is represented by the rights organization Spoken Giants, which is not a party to the suit, while the others are on the Word Collections roster. Continue reading Lewis Black Hits Pandora with $10 Million Copyright Lawsuit

CES held its first-ever panel discussion on NFTs – non-fungible tokens for the uninitiated – with two experts who have grown up with the nascent industry sector. United Talent Agency head of digital assets Lesley Silverman noted that her company established the new division in March 2021. Her guest was Art Blocks founder and CEO Erick Calderon, who first got involved with NFTs in 2017 by following a thread on Reddit. Both had advice for newbies: Don’t let the jargon intimidate you and store your seed phrase in a cold storage device. Continue reading CES: The ABCs of NFTs & Blockchain with Industry Pioneers

Tidal unveiled an upgrade to its paid music plan and introduced two new plans — a cost-free tier (a first for the platform) and Tidal HiFi Plus. The standard $9.99-per-month subscription, now called Tidal HiFi, provides users with lossless and high-resolution audio and customized listening insights through features such as Tidal Connect and My Activity. With the new $19.99-per-month Tidal HiFi Plus, users get immersive formats including Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio as well as exclusive access to Tidal’s Master Quality Authenticated recordings. Tidal also launched an innovative direct-to-artist payments program with plans to introduce fan-centered royalties next year. Continue reading Tidal Launches New Music Tiers, Model to Pay Artists Directly

Apple Music informed musicians that it pays one penny per stream, which is roughly double the rate paid by Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service. Spotify pays about one-third to one-half penny per stream, which is potentially offset by its 155 million subscribers (out of 345 total active users) versus Apple Music’s 60+ million. The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) responded to Apple’s announcement by saying that all music streamers should pay one penny per stream “at a minimum.” Continue reading Apple Music Pays 1 Cent per Stream but Metric Is Misleading

The Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) fined e-commerce giant Alibaba $2.8 billion for antitrust violations, a rebuke to its founder, high-profile tycoon Jack Ma. Investigation into whether Alibaba prevented sellers from offering their goods on other e-commerce platforms began in December. The official Communist Party newspaper called monopolies “the great enemy of the market economy” and said regulation was “a kind of love and care.” In 2015, China fined Qualcomm $975 million, also for antitrust violations. Continue reading China Signals Tighter Big Tech Regulation with Alibaba Fine

In its year-end report, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) stated that, in the U.S., recorded music revenues grew 9.2 percent to $12.2 billion at estimated retail value, the fifth consecutive year of growth. Paid subscription services, ad-supported on-demand platforms and digital radio added $10.1 billion in revenue, a 13.4 percent jump. Paid subscriptions to on-demand services such as Apple Music and Spotify represented the majority of recorded music revenue, growing 14.6 percent to $7 billion in 2020. Continue reading Streaming Now Makes Up 83 Percent of Total Music Revenue