Exploration Weekly - MLC Week October 26-30 / Snap Hits Record $50 Billion Valuation / Twitch Creators Receive Another Round of DMCA Takedown Notices

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

Albert Einstein

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) will be launching a full week of panels and programming from October 26-30 ahead of its official date to fully operate in January 2021. The string of webinars will feature updates about the progress on different aspects of The MLC’s operations, and participants will have the opportunity to hear from leading stakeholders who were instrumental to the passage of the Music Modernization Act and the establishment of The MLC.

Snap shot to a record valuation of $50 billion, according to its third-quarter earnings call this week. The company posted revenues of $679 million - $225 million more than it made in Q2, and a 52% year-over-year increase from Q3 2019. As far as user growth, Snapchat added 11 million daily active users this quarter, and now boasts a total of 249 million.

Twitch creators received another round of DMCA takedown notices for archived broadcasts and clips on its service. The news was discovered by esports consultant Rod Breslau, suggesting in a screenshot of an email sent by Twitch, that the company was deleting affected videos straight away rather than asking channels to remove the content or challenge the copyright claims.

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In this newsletter:

Announcing MLC Week October 26-30: Everything You Need to Know About The MLC
Snap Hits Record $50 Billion Valuation After Significant Q3 Growth in Revenue, DAUs
Twitch is Fielding Another Round of DMCA Takedown Notices
SiriusXM Revenue Up Slightly to $2 Billion, Pandora Recovers in Virus-Impacted Q3
Apple Launches “Apple Music TV,” a 24-Hour Music Video Livestream
RIP Google Play Music - Google’s First Music Service is Officially Shut Down

Now, the details...
Compiled by Heidi Seo

Exploration Weekly - October 23, 2020

Announcing MLC Week October 26-30: Everything You Need to Know About The MLC

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) announced a full week of panels and programming intended to provide important updates about The MLC’s progress as the organization prepares to launch its full operations in January 2021. A webinar will be offered each day during the Week, featuring updates about the progress on different aspects of The MLC’s operations. In addition, participants will hear from leading stakeholders who were instrumental to the passage of the Music Modernization Act and the establishment of The MLC, including representatives from the US Copyright Office, National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), Digital Licensing Committee, The MLC Board, and senior leaders of The MLC. For more information about MLC Week, visit www.themlc.com/mlc-week.

Snap Hits Record $50 Billion Valuation After Significant Q3 Growth in Revenue, DAUs

Snap shot to a record valuation of $50 billion after its third-quarter earnings call revealed unexpectedly high revenue and the biggest Q3 gain in daily active users (DAUs) since 2017. The Snapchat developer was expected to bring in less than $550 million this quarter. Instead, it posted revenues of $679 million - $225 million more than it made in Q2, and a 52% year-over-year increase from Q3 2019. As for user growth, Snapchat added 11 million daily active users this quarter - an 18% year-over-year increase - and now boasts a total of 249 million. Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel attributed increases in DAUs and revenue to “product innovation and infrastructure improvements,” including recent features and additions like Profiles, Minis, Lens creation tools, and augmented reality ads.

Twitch is Fielding Another Round of DMCA Takedown Notices

Music rights holders are stepping up the pressure on Twitch to sign platform-wide music licensing deals, with another round of DMCA takedown notices for archived broadcasts and clips on the live video service. Esports consultant Rod Breslau first reported the news on Twitter: “The Twitch DMCA bloodbath has begun, as hundreds of partnered streamers have received emails from Twitch…” The screenshot he provided of one of those emails suggested that Twitch is deleting affected videos straight away rather than asking channels to remove the content or challenge the copyright claims. It is giving creators a “one-time warning” though rather than a more formal punishment. This week, Twitch updated creators on its work to “help you make informed choices about using music on your channel, while respecting the rights of our music community partners”.

SiriusXM Revenue Up Slightly to $2 Billion, Pandora Recovers in Virus-Impacted Q3

According to SiriusXM’s third-quarter 2020 results, satellite radio revenue showed typical, steady improvement while advertising revenue, mainly from Pandora, dipped below the third-quarter of 2019 but improved greatly from a pandemic-related plummet in the second quarter. Total revenue grew 1% to $2 billion, and net income declined 28.2% to $246 million due to expenses from refinancing debt due 2024. Pandora had mixed results that showed the business has recovered from a pandemic-related crash in the second quarter. Pandora’s advertising revenue dropped 3% year-over-year to $306 million, a big turnaround from the 31% decline in the second quarter. In addition, Pandora’s self-pay net subscribers grew by 105,000. And its monthly active users dropped 7.1% to 58.6 million from 63.1 million.

Apple Launches “Apple Music TV,” a 24-Hour Music Video Livestream

Apple launched Apple Music TV, a free 24-hour curated livestream of popular music videos. It will include, according to the company’s announcement, “exclusive new music videos and premiers, special curated music video blocks, and live shows and events as well as chart countdowns and guests.” The service will be available to US residents only on the Apple Music app and the Apple TV app. The launch on Monday October 19 began with a countdown of the top 100 all-time most-streamed songs in the US on Apple Music. It will also have two exclusive video premieres on Friday at 12 PM ET/9 AM PT, Joji’s “777” and Saint Jhn’s “Gorgeous”; the channel will premiere new videos every Friday at that time.

RIP Google Play Music - Google’s First Music Service is Officially Shut Down

Google’s first music streaming experiment, Google Play Music, is officially shut down. Some early hints that GPM would be replaced by YouTube Music appeared as early as 2019. Google eventually replaced GPM with YouTube Music as the “default” music player installed on new Android devices. Over the last three months, Google has issued warnings about the impending changes. GPM users received notifications on the website and app that they could transfer their music to YouTube Music. Now when you access the GPM website, you see a giant splash banner, “Google Play Music is no longer available.” Below that, you see a prompt to transfer your music to the new platform. If you’d prefer not to switch to YouTube Music, you can download your full library.

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