Music licensing platform Pex has partnered with the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center to provide what they call the “first neutral, third-party copyright dispute resolution service” to address copyright infringement. The system is intended for use by creators, rights holders, platforms, and all those that create and house content. It will be made available within Pex’s Attribution Engine.

Roblox and the NMPA signed a new agreement that is expected to create future opportunities for collaboration between music publishers and creators. It will also settle any previous claims against Roblox filed by NMPA members, and additionally offer songwriters new ways to monetize their songs and catalogs.

TikTok has officially reached one billion monthly active users, the company announced this week. That is up from 689 million monthly active users counted in July 2020. Facebook has a reported 2.9 billion MAUs, YouTube has 2.3 billion, and Twitter has 206 million daily active users, for comparison.

Exploration Group Presents: How the Music Business Works (Second Edition)


Exploration is excited to announce the official release for our next book, “How The Music Business Works: 2nd Edition”!

We wrote the first edition back in 2018 as a free digital ebook, which later garnered more than 15,000 reads worldwide. Due to the changing nature of the music world and how it operates over the past few years, the second edition accommodates for these shifts and changes, and will be available for free digitally and in print to be the most current and comprehensive music industry resource to date.

Register here for the Release Event on October 14th at 3:30 PM Central Time (US & CA).

We are also hosting a book giveaway for two lucky winners to walk away with a full set of books that includes:

  • “How the Music Business Works. 2nd Edition" by Exploration Group
  • “The 11 Contracts that Every Artist, Songwriter, and Producer Should Know” by Steve Gordon
  • “All You Need To Know About the Music Business” by Donald S. Passman
  • “What They’ll Never Tell You About the Music Business” by Pete M. Thall
  • “Shout, Sister, Shout!” by Gayle F. Wald
  • One Year Subscription to Billboard PRO (non-renewable)

Just enter your email address and sign up to our live webinar for a chance to win!

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Compiled by Heidi Seo

Exploration Weekly - October 1, 2021

Pex Launches New Copyright Dispute Resolution Service in Partnership with WIPO Center

Los Angeles-based music licensing platform Pex has partnered with the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center to provide an impartial human review system for copyright infringement - or what Pex calls the “first neutral, third-party copyright dispute resolution service”. The system is intended for use by all of those who create and house content, including creators, rightsholders, and platforms. A specialized agency of the United Nations servicing 193 member states, WIPO is the global forum for intellectual property (IP) services, policy, information, and cooperation. The WIPO Center offers alternative dispute resolution (ADR) options to court litigation, enabling parties to settle their IP and technology disputes. The new service launched in collaboration with Pex and WIPO is available within Pex’s Attribution Engine – a real-time marketplace that identifies, attributes, and licenses copyrighted content before it’s published.

NMPA and Roblox Strike Industry-Wide Agreement

The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) and Roblox announced an agreement that settles any previous claims against Roblox and sets the foundation for future partnerships with global publishers that will unlock new creative and commercial opportunities on its platform. It settles claims filed by NMPA members, offers an industry-wide opt-in open to all eligible NMPA publishers and opens a negotiation period for members to engage individually in new go-forward licensing deals with the Roblox global platform that brings millions of people together through shared experiences. The agreement expands Roblox’s existing relationships with major publishers to the entire publishing industry. The global Roblox community now has more than 48 million daily active users. The deal paves the way for innovative partnerships between Roblox and publishers that will offer songwriters new ways to monetize their songs and catalogs.

TikTok Says It’s Got 1 Billion Monthly Active Users

TikTok says it officially has more than one billion monthly active users. The social app’s last user count update was in July 2020, when it said it had 689 million monthly active users. That was up from 508 million in December 2019, 271 million in December 2018, and 55 million in January 2018. According to Reuters, TikTok has the most active users in the United States, Europe, Brazil, and Southeast Asia, but did not give specific figures for regional user counts. For comparison, Facebook, which launched in 2004, just hit 2.9 billion monthly active users; YouTube, founded in 2005, has a reported 2.3 billion; and Twitter, 2006, has 206 million daily active users.

Global Song Streams are Up 25.9% This Year, Says MRC Study of Worldwide Music Trends

For 2021 to date, global music streaming is up by 25.9% from the same period in 2020, according to a new study of international music trends from MRC Data. The total amount of on-demand audio song streams from January through August of this year was 1.7 trillion, as opposed to 1.4 trillion during the first eight months of last year. On the other hand, global digital song sales, such as paid music downloads, were down 14.2% for the first eight months of this year, with just 250.2 million, versus 291.5 million at the same point last year. According to MRC Data, 72% of streams this year have come from the world excluding the U.S. and the remaining 28% of music streaming activity was in the U.S. Also included in the report are lists ranging from rankings of which songs have had the most international staying over the past 12 months to the individual countries that are experiencing the greatest music growth, as well as a look at why collaborations can be key to crossover between different nations.

US Ad Spending Forecast Raised on “Unprecedented” First-Half Growth

In June, media investment and intelligence company Magna forecast a 15% increase in U.S. advertising spending this year to a record $259 million thanks to the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Now, it has boosted that projection to 23% to $277.6 billion after record growth of 32% during the first half of 2021 that came in stronger-than-expected across the board amid “a strong economic outlook.” Magna also said on Monday that it has raised its estimated media owner ad revenue gain for 2022 to 12% “when the U.S. market reaches the $300 billion mark for the first time,” hitting nearly $311 billion. First-half ad revenue of pure-play digital ad formats also grew by 49% and is predicted to show a 36.2% gain for the full year 2021, according to the report. However, local broadcast and cable TV will be the one category that will see ad spending drop this year, by 4.7%, its forecast noted.

Random Ramblings

  • Music livestreaming’s total (un)addressable market.
  • The countries that shaped the first year of the Billboard Global Charts.
  • The birth of the unjazz.
  • The Mozart song that might ease epileptic seizures.
  • Coldplay and BTS make an intercosmic collaboration of “My Universe” in a new video.

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