On November 24, UK labor politician Kevin Brennan introduced a new draft bill titled Copyright (Rights and Remuneration of Musicians, Etc), in which a portion of artists’ UK streaming royalties could bypass the label system and get paid to performers directly via a collection society. The draft “Brennan Bill” seeks to write the model of Equitable Remuneration (ER) into UK law.

According to new figures published by the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) and CISAC, the royalty collection organization is now number 32 in the global rankings for music rights collections in 2020, up fourteen spots from the 2019 report. This was due to past settlements from TV and radio users as well as deals struck with Facebook and audio-streaming service Hungama Music.

TikTok and APRA AMCOS have both entered into a new multi-year licensing deal, an agreement that will deliver a new revenue stream for the more than 111,000 songwriters, composers, and music publisher members part of the Australasian PRO.

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Compiled by Heidi Seo


Exploration Weekly - November 26, 2021

Record Labels Really, Really Don’t Like a New Bill That Could - Eventually - Change How Artists Get Paid in the UK

Labor politician Kevin Brennan recently introduced a new draft bill titled Copyright (Rights and Remuneration of Musicians, Etc), in which signed artists could see a portion of their UK streaming royalties bypass the label system entirely, and be paid to performers directly via a collection society. The draft will be presented to the UK Parliament next Friday (December 3). Brennan sits on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee (DMCS), the cross-party UK Parliamentary group which, back in January, grilled (on a live video stream) the country’s major label heads during an inquiry into the Economics of Music Streaming. The draft ‘Brennan Bill’, published on November 24, seeks to write the model of Equitable Remuneration (ER) into UK law. Applying ER to streams would align the way artists are paid their streaming royalties with the way royalties are paid to artists from radio play in the UK.

India Moves Up the Global Music-Rights Collections Rankings

Indian royalty collection society the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) banked Rs172.6 crore (around $23.2m) in the financial year ended March 2020. This was good enough to place India at number 32 in the global rankings for music rights collections, according to umbrella body CISAC. That is a rise of fourteen spots from the 2019 report. The 2020 figures were boosted thanks to past settlements from TV and radio users as well as deals struck with Facebook and audio-streaming service Hungama Music, the CISAC report states. IPRS has paid out Rs325 crore over the last two years, states IPRS CEO Rakesh Nigam. Out of this, approximately Rs200 crore was distributed to author-composers, around Rs108 crore to publishers and the rest to foreign societies. Notably, IPRS is the only copyright society registered in India under its Copyright Act of 1957.

TikTok, APRA AMCOS Sign Multi-Year “Landmark Deal”

TikTok has struck a new, multi-year licensing arrangement with APRA AMCOS, the Australasian PRO that represents more than 111,000 songwriters, composers and music publisher members. This new pact is the first between both parties, and is a retroactive one that’ll deliver a new revenue stream for music creators in Australia and New Zealand, reads a statement from APRA AMCOS. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though the society confirms that the partnership accounts for TikTok’s past use of musical works, including the service Musical.ly. APRA AMCOS’ agreement with TikTok “legitimizes the use of music on the platform in Australia and New Zealand, and recognizes the important contribution that the songwriters, composers and publishers of that music make to TikTok’s success,” comments APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston.

Sony Music Buys $100M of Shares in NetEase’s Music Service; Chinese Platform’s IPO Set for December 2

Chinese technology giant NetEase Inc. has confirmed that its subsidiary Cloud Village – which operates music streaming service NetEase Cloud Music – will list on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 2 under the symbol “9899.HK.” A pre-IPO prospectus reveals three “cornerstone investors” are backing Cloud Village’s listing: current parent company NetEase, Orbis Investment Management Limited, and Sony Music Entertainment. The latter company is buying shares in Cloud Village worth USD $100 million, as per an agreement signed by Cloud Village and Sony Music on November 22. Cloud Village tells its shareholders in the prospectus that it currently has active direct licensing agreements in place with all three major music companies. The firm is aiming to raise around US $450 million in the IPO, which is expected to initially comprise 16 million new ordinary shares.

TikTok Wants to Shake Up B2B Music Licensing on Its Service

TikTok global head of music Ole Obermann explained at a keynote interview at last week’s Midem Digital Edition conference that the company has ambitions to create deals that cover B2B (commercial) usage by brands and businesses. “I do think there’s a massive, massive opportunity here. When you look at the sync business or the commercial use of music business, it’s a large business. It’s hundreds of millions of dollar annually,” he said, “But the issue is that all of those licences have to happen on a one-off basis on both the master recording and the publishing side. And in many cases there may be multiple rightsholders. So what ends up happening more often than not is you miss that moment in time where the account has that special song that they want to use in the heat of the moment, because you just can’t get the rights quickly enough.”


Random Ramblings

  • BTS writes history as the first Asian act to win the top prize at the AMAs.
  • The Weeknd leads the Billboard‘s Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs with “Blinding Lights”.
  • Music is contagious, according to mathematicians.
  • Adele makes crossover history as “Easy on Me” with Chris Stapleton debuts on the Country Airplay Chart.
  • Cat Stevens drops a new visual of his immortalized rendition of “Morning Has Broken”.

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