Exploration Weekly - Triller Signs Licensing Deal with ICE / The MLC Announces Nashville HQ / Latin Music Revenues Rise 18.6% in the US During H1 2020

Aaron Davis -


“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


The California Copyright Conference will be holding a panel next Tuesday October 13 at 2:30 PM PST. The event will discuss ways to prepare for the Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) by defining and organizing metadata as well as maintaining relationships with co-publishers and songwriters. We are pleased to have one of our own, Jeff Cvetkovski (VP of Operations at Exploration), participate in the panel alongside speakers Dae Bogan (Head of Third Party Partnerships at The MLC) and Abby North (Owner of North Music Group). Zoom registration is available at the link here.

In other news, Triller announced a licensing deal with European licensing hub ICE on October 2, covering more than 160 territories for musical works represented by collection societies PRS for Music, GEMA, STIM, and IMRO, along with several other music publishers. The agreement includes a partnership to develop “data reporting” to ensure that royalties are distributed quickly and accurately to rights owners.

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) officially announced the location of its Nashville headquarters at MarketStreet Enterprises’ Three Thirty Three building, at the corner of 11th Avenue and Pine Street in the heart of The Gulch neighborhood. The offices in the five-story building will be occupied on the second floor covering 17,800 square feet. The MLC is set to open its new headquarters in Spring 2021.

The RIAA announced in a new report that Latin music revenues in the US have increased by 18.6% in the first half of 2020, to $296.1 million, marking the fourth consecutive year for double-digit percentage growth at retail value in the Latin music market. The biggest driver of growth in the past year was paid streaming music subscriptions with revenues rising 27.6%. Streaming now accounts for 96% of the Latin music market.

If you don't know about SONA, then you need to know. Our next video discusses more about this music trade organization in our weekly “Music Industry - 5 Mins or Less” video series! Learn more here:



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Compiled by Heidi Seo

Exploration Weekly - October 9, 2020

Triller Signs Deal with European Licensing Hub ICE, Plans to Streamline Data

Triller announced a multi-territory licensing deal with European licensing hub ICE on October 2. The agreement covers Triller in more than 160 territories for musical works represented by collection societies PRS for Music (UK), GEMA (Germany), STIM (Sweden), and IMRO (Ireland), along with several music publishers; all of which are members of what is known as the “ICE Core”. The deal reflects “the essential value that songwriters bring” to digital platforms like Triller, a press release stated, and also includes a partnership to develop “data reporting” to ensure that royalties are distributed quickly and accurately to rights owners. ICE offers publishers, collective management organizations, and other rights holders a suite of services including copyright administration and online processing for multi-territorial licenses. It represents more than 330,000 rights holders, to whom it has paid out upwards of €1 billion ($1.17 billion) since 2016.

The Mechanical Licensing Collective Announces Location of Its Nashville Headquarters

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) officially announced that its Nashville-based headquarters will be located in MarketStreet Enterprises’ Three Thirty Three building, at the corner of 11th Avenue and Pine Street in the heart of The Gulch neighborhood - home to several music-related companies, including Music Row. The new location also places The MLC close to downtown where a number of larger music companies have based their administrative teams, as well as to many colleges and universities, where The MLC intends to conduct regular outreach activities intended to help educate the next generation of music industry creators and professionals about The MLC’s mission and about best practices for music data management. Planning to occupy 17,800 square feet on the 2nd floor of the five-story building, The MLC is set to open its new headquarters in Spring 2021.

RIAA Unveils Mid-Year 2020 Latin Report: “Streaming is Helping Sustain the Industry”

According to a new report by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Latin music revenues in the US increased 18.6% in the first half of 2020, to $296.1 million, marking the fourth consecutive year for double-digit percentage growth at retail value in the Latin music market. Streaming now accounts for 96% of the market. The report also notes that Latin music continued to grow its share of overall US music revenues to 5.2% and total streaming revenues grew 20.3% to $285.2 million. Similar to the overall US market, the biggest driver of growth for Latin music in the past year was paid streaming music subscriptions with revenues rising 27.6% to $196.2 million. Paid subscriptions now account for over two-thirds of the Latin music streaming market in the first half of 2020.

Led Zeppelin Wins “Stairway to Heaven” Copyright Battle as Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Case

The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the copyright battle over Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” leaving in place a ruling that rejected infringement allegations over the 1971 song. The justices denied a petition aimed at reviving the case, a six year battle over claims that the song’s writers, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, plagiarized the song’s iconic intro from the 1968 song “Taurus” by the group Spirit. The decision follows a March victory for the group in which the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict finding the song did not infringe on “Taurus”. Journalist Michael Skidmore had filed the suit in 2014, on behalf of the estate of Randy Wolfe, the late Spirit frontman. After losing at trial, Skidmore appealed to the 9th Circuit. The Supreme Court then declined to hear without comment.

House Judiciary Hearing Reveals Need for Copyright Law Updates

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “Copyright and the Internet in 2020: Reactions to the Copyright Office’s Report on the Efficacy of 17 U.S.C. § 512 After Two Decades”. Picking up on the ongoing Senate IP Subcommittee hearings on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the hearing gave Committee members an opportunity to dive deeper into the Copyright Office’s Report on Section 512 and get feedback from lawyers, copyright policy experts, and creators on how the DMCA is holding up twenty two years after its enactment. While the hearing’s witnesses did not all agree on what exactly needs to be done, it was clear that parts of the law governing online copyright infringement were in need of updating.

Report: Q2 Music Streaming Revenues Declined Quarter-on-Quarter

According to a latest analysis by research firm Counterpoint Research, the global music streaming market was worth $6.7 billion in the second quarter of 2020. That’s growth of 13% year-on-year, but a decline of 2% quarter-on-quarter - “the first-ever QoQ decline in terms of revenues” for music streaming. An important caveat is that Counterpoint has not broken this figure down into subscriptions versus advertising. Ad revenues took a major hit in Q2, but subscriptions seemed to be decelerating, not declining. Spotify, for example, saw its subscription revenues grow by 3% quarter-on-quarter in Q2, but its ad revenues fall by 11%.

Random Ramblings

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  • Machine Gun Kelly leads Billboard’s Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums with "Tickets to My Downfall".
  • Demi Lovato highlights vulnerability and strength in her new heartbreak anthem "Still Have Me".

Who is Exploration?

Exploration is proud to be the company of choice to administer much of the world’s most important media. Utilizing competent staff and advanced technology, our clients are able to better control their data and collect their money.

We’re writing a free book on how the music business works. Learn more here.

The catalog metadata template offers the minimum viable data needed to collect publishing royalties. Download the .csv file here.

To see who is collecting your royalties, request a free copyright audit here!

Please feel free to reach out anytime if you have any questions or ideas!

Hope you have a great weekend!

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