Music Ally’s Post

This week, Spotify announced a record €9,6 billion ($10 billion) payout to music rights holders in 2024, a single year, bringing our total payouts to nearly €60 billion since our founding. This milestone demonstrates that the system we have built together is working. A decade ago, global recorded music revenues amounted to €12,5 billion. We have come a long way since then. The music sector now enjoys sustained growth and record profits. Spotify and other music streaming services pay close to two thirds of their gross revenues to music rightsholders, including record companies, publishers, and collective management organisations. From just 15 million paying Spotify subscribers in 2014 to over 500 million across the entire streaming industry today, streaming has reshaped the music ecosystem, to the benefit of artists, songwriters and other music rightsholders. And payments to the music industry have shifted from a concentrated few at the top to an increasingly diverse and growing ecosystem of artists finding success. In 2025, our focus remains connecting artists with their audience, both current and future, through innovation and on onboarding people to paid streaming. Precisely what has increased our payouts - tenfold - over the past decade. Read more about this announcement on Spotify For the Record:

ByteDance Is Shutting Down TikTok Music Globally: In November, ByteDance's TikTok Music will be shut down in all the countries it currently operates in, including Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and Mexico. A notice on the service's website reads: "We are sorry to inform you that TikTok Music will be closing on 28 November 2024." TechCrunch reports: Subscribers can continue to use the service until November 28, after which renewals will be automatically canceled, the notice said. Users who want to transfer their playlists to other streaming services will need to do so by October 28, and refund requests need to be submitted by November 28. TikTok said that it will continue partnering with music streaming services rather than competing with them. In February, the company launched the "Add to Music" feature on TikTok that lets users add tracks directly to a playlist on Apple Music, Amazon Music, or Spotify. TikTok Music was rooted in a ByteDance product called Resso, which was first launched in India and Indonesia in 2019 and later expanded to Brazil. In 2023, ByteDance rebranded Resso to TikTok Music in Brazil and Indonesia, and soon after expanded it to Singapore, Australia, and Mexico. Resso was banned early this year in India. "Our Add to Music App feature has already enabled hundreds of millions of track saves to playlists on partner music streaming services. We will be closing TikTok Music at the end of November in order to focus on our goal of furthering TikTok's role in driving even greater music listening and value on music streaming services, for the benefit of artists, songwriters, and the industry," Ole Obermann, global head of Music Business Development, TikTok, said in a statement. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here are the five key events from this week in the music industry: 1. Major Labels Sue AI Music Companies Suno and Udio: Sony, Universal, and Warner have filed lawsuits against AI music generators Suno and Udio. They allege unpermitted use of copyrighted songs to train AI, viewing these technologies as a major threat to the music industry’s licensing market. 2. Decline in Music Streaming Subscriptions in Sweden: A YouGov survey in Sweden, the home country of Spotify, reports a decrease in paying music subscribers. Only 56% of people now pay for a premium subscription, down from 59% in 2022, suggesting a potential decline in demand for music streaming services. 3. Believe’s Major Acquisition Plans: Denis Ladegaillerie, who now owns 95% of Believe, is planning a transformative acquisition, possibly a music publisher, to expand Believe’s ecosystem. This follows the recent share tender process that consolidated control under Ladegaillerie. 4. Create Music Group Secures $165 Million Investment: The investment round, led by Flexpoint Ford, values Create Music Group at $1 billion. The Los Angeles-based company plans to use the funds for global expansion and to execute an “ambitious acquisition strategy.” 5. YouTube Negotiates AI Training Licenses: YouTube is in talks with Sony, Universal, and Warner to license music for training AI tools that can clone popular artists’ music. The platform aims to offer upfront payments to artists in exchange for their participation in these AI training efforts. These updates highlight the tensions around AI in music, shifts in streaming market dynamics, and significant financial movements within the industry.

The Future of Music: Digital Streaming and the Upheaval of Traditional Music Labels The music industry is on the brink of a major transformation, driven by the rise of digital streaming platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music. These platforms are not only changing how we consume music but also how artists and labels generate revenue. Ad Revenue from YouTube and Other Platforms YouTube alone generated a staggering $31.5 billion in ad revenue in 2023, contributing significantly to the music industry's income. This shift towards digital ad revenue is reshaping the financial landscape, providing new opportunities for artists to monetize their work. Lifetime Uncapped Royalties One of the most groundbreaking changes is the introduction of lifetime uncapped royalties. This means that artists can continue to earn royalties from their music indefinitely, without a cap on the amount they can earn. This shift promises a more sustainable income for artists, ensuring they are compensated fairly for their creative contributions over the long term. The Impact on Music Labels Traditional music labels, which once held significant control over distribution and revenue, are finding it increasingly challenging to adapt to this new digital landscape. The democratization of music distribution means that independent artists can now reach global audiences without the need for a label, further disrupting the traditional model. Why It's Within Good Reason to Short Major Media Company Stock Given these seismic shifts, it's reasonable to consider shorting major media company stocks. As digital streaming continues to grow and traditional revenue models become obsolete, media companies heavily invested in the old system may struggle to maintain their profitability. This could lead to a decline in their stock prices, making them potential candidates for short selling. As we look to the future, it's clear that digital streaming and the shift towards lifetime uncapped royalties will continue to upend the music industry. This evolution promises a more equitable and sustainable model for artists, but it also poses significant challenges for traditional music labels. What are your thoughts on this transformation? How do you see the future of the music industry unfolding?

ByteDance Is Shutting Down TikTok Music Globally: In November, ByteDance's TikTok Music will be shut down in all the countries it currently operates in, including Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and Mexico. A notice on the service's website reads: "We are sorry to inform you that TikTok Music will be closing on 28 November 2024." TechCrunch reports: Subscribers can continue to use the service until November 28, after which renewals will be automatically canceled, the notice said. Users who want to transfer their playlists to other streaming services will need to do so by October 28, and refund requests need to be submitted by November 28. TikTok said that it will continue partnering with music streaming services rather than competing with them. In February, the company launched the "Add to Music" feature on TikTok that lets users add tracks directly to a playlist on Apple Music, Amazon Music, or Spotify. TikTok Music was rooted in a ByteDance product called Resso, which was first launched in India and Indonesia in 2019 and later expanded to Brazil. In 2023, ByteDance rebranded Resso to TikTok Music in Brazil and Indonesia, and soon after expanded it to Singapore, Australia, and Mexico. Resso was banned early this year in India. "Our Add to Music App feature has already enabled hundreds of millions of track saves to playlists on partner music streaming services. We will be closing TikTok Music at the end of November in order to focus on our goal of furthering TikTok's role in driving even greater music listening and value on music streaming services, for the benefit of artists, songwriters, and the industry," Ole Obermann, global head of Music Business Development, TikTok, said in a statement. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

▶ TikTok announced that it is shutting down its music subscription service, TikTok Music, in five countries on November 28th. Instead, TikTok will focus on its "Add to Music app" feature, which allows TikTok users to save music they discover to playlists on external streaming platforms. This decision seems to be a strategic choice to strengthen cooperation with external music streaming services and promote the value of the music industry. ▶ The "Add to Music App" feature allows TikTok users to save music they discover to their streaming service playlists. We're currently working with Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon, and the feature is available to users in over 180 countries. TikTok is also in talks with other music streaming subscription platforms about "add to music app" partnerships. ▶ Will TikTok get out of the music business completely? My answer is no. The end of TikTok Music only shows that TikTok doesn't need a streaming service, not that it's moving away from music. TikTok still cares about music, it's just going to care about it in a different way. ▶ For labels, streaming services might be important, but for artists, social media might be more important. This is because it allows artists to meet their fans directly. ▶ It'll be more important to meet and get fans than short earning to EVERY industry. https://lnkd.in/gpDCyEGj

Spotify just dropped a big number: $10 billion paid out to the music industry in 2024 alone. That’s a record high and brings its total payouts to $60 billion since its founding. A decade ago, global recorded music revenue sat at $13 billion. Thanks to Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube, that number has skyrocketed. Today, over 500 million people pay for music streaming—and Spotify sees 1 billion as a reachable milestone. But it’s not all applause. Artists—especially those outside the top tier—continue to call out low per-stream payouts. Spotify's VP of Music Business, David Kaefer, counters that in 2014, 10,000 artists made at least $10,000 annually on the platform. Now, well over 10,000 make six figures from Spotify alone. The bigger picture? Spotify’s model is working—for some. The industry is in better shape than ever, but whether more artists can see meaningful gains remains the key debate. So what’s next? If Spotify wants to push toward 1 billion paying listeners, expect more bundling, regional growth strategies, and innovations in monetization. The challenge? Balancing that growth while addressing the ongoing artist-pay debate.

Did my recent upgrade to Spotify premium cause me to purchase a VIP ticket to see one of my favorite musicians 2.5 hours from my home? In my case, no; I’d already decided I’d purchase for the tour before I upgraded. But it looks like in many cases, it does. Interesting takeaways from this article: -      As of 2021, music streaming revenues accounted for 65% of global revenue from recorded music. -      72% of revenue from recorded music comes from live music events (per the Federal Association of the Events Industry in 2017 so older data). So, income from live events is how most musicians make their money. -      Subscribing to Spotify premium in Germany increased willingness to pay for live music events significantly. Downgrading/unsubscribing from Spotify decreased willingness to pay for live music. My note: Perhaps correlation vs. causation of having discretionary income? -      Changes in Spotify subscription status does not seem to impact physical or digital music purchases. Some ideas from the authors for us marketers based on these results: -      Labels or artists could integrate event-specific playlists into their marketing campaigns to promote live events -      Music streaming platforms could further integrate live event ticket-selling into their platforms to drive additional revenue -      The effect of premium streaming purchases leading to live-event purchases may also work in other industries. They list the following industries as examples: motion picture, sports streaming, audiobooks, video game streaming, and software products. (and the musician is Shawn James in case you were curious) Rouven Seifert Michel Clement Matt Weingarden, Journal of Marketing Candice Pauley – I thought you’d find this interesting, given your love of music Thanks to the authors for publishing CC-By Creative Commons https://lnkd.in/gCE9unnw

THE GREAT MUSIC STREAMING RIP OFF : Uber had a devastating effect on the taxi industry. People had built their lives on the regulated taxi industry - then the digital disruption of Uber’s gig economy concept severely damaged the whole model. The government of the day stood by and did nothing to protect an industry from which they had been generating large revenue in license fees. Now under a scheme announced by the government, compensation will be paid retrospectively to help the people who were victims - $150,000 for Sydney taxi plates and between $40,000 and $195,000 for regional plate holders. This is tax payers money. Meanwhile in similar fashion the digital disruption caused by Spotify and music streaming services has not just damaged but virtually destroyed the music recording industry and meanwhile built a multibillion dollar online business derived directly from the recordings created by countless musicians, who have spent their lives learning the art/craft of songwriting and the science of recording music. But the compensation for the use of this music to make such gargantuan profits is unfair and obscenely small. In 2023, music streaming service Spotify generated a revenue of over 13.2 billion euros, up from 11 billion in the previous year. That’s $21,212,425,000.00 in Australian Dollars. The majority of Spotify's revenues came from its premium subscribers - people who pay a monthly fee and no longer buy music from musicians and labels. No browsing through colourful album covers in music shops. Remember music shops? The music CD has thus virtually atrophied and recently retro vinyl records outsold CDs - but the quantities were minuscule. The result of this is CD players are no longer being produced and have been dropped from cars and computers - their last outpost. There is consequently no artifact a music artist can produce that can be sold directly to the consumer as a cottage industry, which was once a complement to the meagre wages earned from playing live music. One CD sale is the equivalent of 200 hours of streaming in terms of revenue reaching the artist. One album sale earns the equivalent income of 5000 streams on Spotify. Spotify pays artists between $0.003 - $0.005 per stream on average. However starting from April 2024, Spotify announced unilaterally that tracks must have reached a threshold of at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months to be included in the recorded music royalty pool calculation! So now you need 6k streams to equal 1 CD sale! And there are rumours that Spotify intends to begin actually charging music artists for the putting their music up on their site for streaming! Why doesn’t governments consider the arts worthy of protecting - and why isn’t the government now retrospectively paying musicians compensation for this loss of opportunity and income, as they are in the case of the taxi industry? #music #musicstreaming

India is currently the world’s second largest music streaming market, after the US and before Brazil. The country’s total annual on-demand music streams in 2023 jumped by close to half a trillion (+463.7 billion) over 2022. In contrast, the US saw a year-on-year jump of just 184 billion streams. If the trends persist, India could end up neck to neck with the US by the end of 2024. Predictably, there’s a massive battle for dominance of the Indian music streaming space. Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, and Wnyk Music are the current market leaders, with Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music snapping at their heels. There are multiple factors that determine market leadership in music streaming, from user engagement and revenue to innovation and regional competition. But THE most important factor of all is licensing agreements. The huge sums of money involved in these agreements aside, they are a frequent source of conflict between streaming companies and music labels. It gets even more complicated when it comes to compensating individual artists. Just consider the 2016 suspension of the Indian Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS) over allegations of mismanagement and non-payment of royalties. The battle for dominance of India’s music streaming industry is not going to be an easy one. Apart from money and innovation, it’s going to take oodles of tact, strategy, and the ability to strike harmonious relationships with artists and music labels. The winners will be those with the largest music libraries - courtesy their ability to make the most friends and influence the most people.