Exploration Weekly - TikTok Radio Joins SiriusXM / Germany Approves EU Copyright Reforms / UMG No Longer Accepting LODs for Royalty Sales

“A city is not adorned by external things, but by the virtue of those who dwell in it.”

Epictetus

TikTok Radio is now coming to SiriusXM this summer as a full-time music channel, available in vehicles and as a streaming channel on the SiriusXM app, desktop, and all connected devices. Subsidiary Pandora will also be launching a TikTok Tastemakers series - a selection of exclusively hosted playlists featuring TikTok creators who will take listeners through their favorite songs with additional commentary.

Germany’s parliament recently passed EU copyright reforms on May 20, sparking controversy that the move could potentially make it harder for music rights holders to agree to future license deals with sites like TikTok and Triller. The decision was made as part of the European Union’s Copyright Directive. The European Parliament approved the Directive in 2019, with the 27 member states of the European Union given two years to adopt its terms into national law.

Universal Music Group (UMG) announced this week that it will no longer be accepting letters of directions (LODs) for the sale of royalty streams, according to Billboard. UMG will now only pay artists and their creative collaborators, and any investors buying the rights to a percentage of that income will need to come to their own arrangements with creators to receive the royalties. The policy does not apply to publishing deals.

In this newsletter:

TikTok Radio is Coming to SiriusXM as Companies Join Forces to Create “Exclusive Audio Experiences”
Germany Passes Controversial EU Copyright Reforms, Sparking Ire
Universal Music’s New Policy Presents a Speed Bump for Royalty Sales
Songwriters Demand Greater Transparency from the Copyright Royalty Board Over Mechanical Rates
NetEase Cloud Music to go Public in Spin-Off Listing

Now, the details...
Compiled by Heidi Seo

Exploration Weekly - May 28, 2021

TikTok Radio is Coming to SiriusXM as Companies Join Forces to Create “Exclusive Audio Experiences”

TikTok is launching TikTok Radio, a full-time SiriusXM music channel going live this summer. The station will be available in vehicles and as a streaming channel on the SiriusXM App, desktop, and all connected devices. TikTok Radio will be presented by TikTok creators, tastemakers, and DJs, including influencers like Bella Poarch, Christian Shelton and Nick Tangorra. The station will be part of a new TikTok collaboration with SiriusXM and its subsidiary, Pandora, to jointly promote emerging talent. In addition, Pandora is launching a TikTok Tastemakers series – a selection of exclusively hosted playlists featuring TikTok creators who will take listeners through their favorite songs with additional commentary. Pandora listeners can also tune into the TikTok Hits Playlist featuring recent songs featured and trending on TikTok.

Germany Passes Controversial EU Copyright Reforms, Sparking Ire

Germany’s parliament approved controversial copyright laws that could make it harder for music rights holders to agree to future license deals with clip-focused sites like TikTok and Triller, in spite of strong objections from labels, artists and publishers. The reforms, passed by the Bundestag on May 20, are part of widespread changes to Germany’s copyright laws under the European Union’s Copyright Directive. The European Parliament approved the Directive in 2019, with the 27 member states of the European Union given two years to adopt its terms into national law. Those terms include the requirement for platforms that rely on user-generated content, such as YouTube or Facebook, to make "best efforts" to remove unlicensed content, take concrete steps to ensure it wasn't uploaded again and reach "fair remuneration" deals with rights holders.

Universal Music’s New Policy Presents a Speed Bump for Royalty Sales

Universal Music Group (UMG) is no longer accepting letters of direction for the sale of royalty streams, Billboard has learned. That means that investors who have purchased some or all of an artist, producer, engineer or side performer’s revenue stream on a sound recording owned or controlled by UMG will now need to coordinate that payment directly through the artist with whom the label has a deal. The policy does not apply to publishing deals, where the majority of third-party acquisitions have been taking place. The company says the policy does not prevent artists from independently transferring UMG royalties to a third party, it just means UMG will now only pay artists and their creative collaborators; and any investors buying the rights to a percentage of that income will need to come to their own arrangements with creators to receive the royalties. It is unclear whether the policy will be enforced retroactively against earlier letters of direction.

Songwriters Demand Greater Transparency from the Copyright Royalty Board Over Mechanical Rates

Tennessee- and Toronto-based Music Creators North America (MCNA), “an alliance of independent songwriter and composer organizations,” just recently issued the mechanical royalty rate-related demand to the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), in the form of a more than 1,000-word-long open letter. The message is addressed to the CRB’s current three judges (Chief Judge Feder, Judge Strickler, and Judge Ruwe) and signed by the Songwriters Guild of America’s president, Rick Carnes, as well as MCNA officer and co-chair Ashley Irwin. The organizations emphasize at the start of their newest open letter that they have “deep concerns” about the “notice of settlement in principle” filed before the CRB by the major labels and the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) earlier this year. The stateside statutory mechanical rate (for physical) has remained at 9.1 cents per composition and copy since January 1st, 2006 – with a two-cent mechanical rate, “in one of the most damaging and egregious acts in music industry history,” having remained in place between 1909 and 1978, the message notes. At the time of this piece’s publishing, the CRB hadn’t formally addressed the MCNA’s demands.

NetEase Cloud Music to go Public in Spin-Off Listing

NetEase Cloud Music is expected to spin off in a public listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The listing will be for Cloud Village, the operator of NetEase Cloud Music, although NetEase will continue to hold at least 50% of the voting rights in the subsidiary. According to the NetEase filing, its number of monthly active users stands at 180 million in 2020. In the past, the company has preferred to use registered users (more than 800 million) as its main public metric. Last August, NetEase said that it had been seeing “triple-digit revenue growth” for the streaming service in the previous quarter.

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