Author: Trichordist Editor

Trichordist Editor

Researchers Claim That Releasing YouTube Music Videos Reduces Album Sales | Hypebot

In 2009, Warner blocked videos on YouTube by not only their artists but by anybody using bits of their music. This period gave researchers a chunk of data to compare and after doing their statistical magic on all other causes, found that the “blackout had both statistically and economically significant positive effects on album sales, specifically the best-selling albums in a week.”

The paper is available for free:

“Online Music, Sales Displacement, and Internet Search: Evidence from YouTube”

The key point seems to be that for top-selling albums by artists with which listeners are already familiar, YouTube’s free listening acts as direct competition to sales of such albums. In fact, they seem to claim that not having videos on YouTube increased sales by “on average 10,000 units per week for top albums.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT HYPEBOT:
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2014/04/report-claims-that-releasing-youtube-music-videos-reduces-album-sales.html

by Trichordist Editor

YouTube’s Monopoly Effects and Keeping an Eye on Those Songwriters

And there’s even more to read here:
http://www.completemusicupdate.com/article/beggars-reviewing-5050-streaming-split-with-artists/

Music Technology Policy

In case you didn’t believe there was a reason why YouTube executives were booed at this year’s MIDEM global music industry trade conference, you may find this reporting from the Music Tank meeting in London this week as reported by Complete Music Update:

Last night’s MusicTank debate…was…generally optimistic….And though the debate was technically initiated by Thom Yorke’s Spotify-bashing of last year, the DSPs were generally portrayed as good partners for artists and rights owners. With perhaps one exception – any DSP bashing last night was reserved for YouTube.

The Google-owned platform is an important partner for the music industry everyone agreed, but the music community’s relationship with the content giant – skewed by the firm’s opt-out rather than opt-in approach to dealing with rights owners – needs to change.

There has been a real swing against YouTube in the music community in the last year, with growing resentment…

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by Trichordist Editor

Everyone hates the DMCA | VOX INDIE

Unfortunately, rather than manage copyright, it’s provided a huge loophole through which a number of online pirate entrepreneurs sail blissfully through. Known as the “safe harbor” provision, this oft-abused language has served to shelter digital thieves at the expense of rights holders. ”Safe Harbor” has enabled the growth of a criminal cancer and it’s a cancer–that as of now–cannot be beaten, only kept (marginally) at bay. As Wikipedia notes, “The DMCA’s principal innovation in the field of copyright is the exemption from direct and indirect liability of internet service providers and other intermediaries.” As I’ve suggested previously, any update to the law should include a requirement that in order to qualify for the limitations to liability that safe-harbor offers, certain user-generated content sites must implement reasonable technology to mitigate content theft.

READ THE FULL POST AT VOX INDIE:
http://voxindie.org/everyone-hates-the-dmca

by Trichordist Editor

Why Can’t Songwriters Audit? A Brief Guide to Statutory Audits Under the U.S. Copyright Act

Essential reading for all songwriters and musicians.

Music Technology Policy

BLANCHE

Whoever you are…I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

From A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams

Songwriters earn a sizable percentage of their ever decreasing income from mechanical royalties.  Until the last few years, mechanical royalties were almost always licensed under direct licenses to record companies that incorporated by reference the statutory license provisions of Section 115 of the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act and the corresponding regulations.  Section 115 is a direct–and almost word for word–descendant of Section 1(e) of the 1909 U.S. Copyright Act.

Why so little change in nearly 70 years?  Until 2000 or so, nobody used statutory licenses except in the rarest of circumstances.  Instead, the statutory license became something like the Uniform Partnership Act or the Uniform Commercial Code.  It could be used for reference but was often–almost always–modified in a direct license.

The main point that was added in these…

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by Trichordist Editor

One Band Have Worked Out a Way to Cheat Spotify out of Money| Noisey.Vice

We just can’t get enough of this story. There’s a great interview with the band at the link below.

Spotify is a great way for most musicians to make money. By most musicians, I mean a superstar economy of 1% who account for 77% of all artist revenue from streaming. And by “money” I mean the $0.007 per stream that most artists receive.

READ THE FULL STORY AT VICE:
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/one-band-have-worked-out-a-way-to-cheat-spotify-out-of-money

by Trichordist Editor

London Police Attempt to cut off illegal websites’ advertising revenue | BBC

What we find so interesting about this is that the digital music services that report to be friends of musicians are not taking a strong public position against Ad funded Piracy and supporting these measures.

Spotify, Pandora and the like are affected by the downward economic pressure created by Ad Funded Piracy that diminishes both the amount consumers are willing to spend on subscription fees and the amount that can be charged for legitimate advertising on legitimate services.

Why aren’t Spotify and Pandora more publicly engaged in the fight against Ad Funded Piracy as it certainly is a large contributing factor as to why these businesses remain unprofitable.

Websites offering illegal copyrighted material could see their advertising revenue cut under a new initiative.

Police have created an online database of websites “verified” as being illegal.

It is hoped that firms that handle advertising will use the resource to make sure they do not serve advertising on those sites, cutting off revenue.

Top piracy sites generate millions of pounds thanks to advertising.

One estimate, from the Digital Citizens Alliance – a group backed by rights holders – suggested that piracy websites worldwide generated $227m (£137m) from advertising revenue each year.

Even smaller sites commanded revenues into the hundreds of thousands, the group said.

READ THE FULL STORY AT THE BBC:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26788800

by Trichordist Editor

Nobody should be surprised that Spotify is already planning its IPO| Musically

Watch stories about Spotify planning a stock market flotation this Autumn spread across the web in the coming hours, triggered by a report on tech/business site Quartz.

“The popular music-streaming company has participated in informal chats with some of the investment banks likely to fight for a role in a potential IPO, sources familiar with the process said,” claims the article.

“The six-year-old service may start holding formal meetings as early as next month in anticipation of an offering in autumn. (Though the timeline for a possible IPO could change for a number of reasons, including unfavorable market conditions.)”

READ THE FULL POST AT MUSICALLY:
http://musically.com/2014/03/27/spotify-ipo-planning/

RELATED:

Music Streaming Math, Can It All Add Up?

#SXSW REWIND : Venture Capitalist Admits Artists Can Not Make A Living On Streaming Royalties

Why Spotify is NOT the Enemy of Artists, and Who Is…

by Trichordist Editor