Exploration Weekly - UK Music Exports Up Record 13.7% in 2021 / YT Shortens Content ID Appeal Period / Recognise the Music Campaign Embraces Audio ID

Aaron Davis -



British music exports were up 13.7% to a record high of USD $709 million in 2021, according to the latest analysis by UK trade body BPI. The report was also driven by a record number of UK artists, nearly 400, achieving 100 million-plus global streams.

YouTube Content ID is shortening the appeal window after a disputed claim is rejected from 30 days to seven. The manual review period for a disputed claim will still be maintained at 30 days. YouTube will also be releasing “block claims” - where creators will be blocked from uploading their video after Content ID flags the use of copyrighted content.

A UK initiative - Recognise the Music - is partnering with Music Venue Trust, Featured Artists Coalition, AIM, the MMF, and Audoo in order to use Audio ID to process public performance royalty payouts. Venues and businesses will be able to sign up to use Audoo’s “Audio Meter” device, and allow it to identify music played in public and feed that data back to the relevant collecting societies.

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Compiled by Heidi Seo


Exploration Weekly - July 22, 2022

Adele, Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa Drive British Music Exports to Record $709 Million

British music exports soared 13.7% to a high of USD $709 million in 2021, the highest total on record, per the latest analysis from British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the trade body for independent and major record labels in the UK. The 2021 total is the highest since the BPI began its annual survey of record label overseas income in 2000 and was driven by a record number of U.K. artists, nearly 400, each achieving 100 million-plus global streams. The analysis reveals that physical and digital download sales, streams and other consumption of British music increased in Europe by 17.6%, North America by 11.0% and Asia by 11.1%.

YouTube Cuts Content ID Appeal Period From 30 Days to Seven

YouTube’s automatic system that sweeps for unauthorized use of copyrighted content - Content ID - is shortening the appeal window after a disputed claim is rejected from 30 days to seven days. The copyright owner will still have 30 days to manually review the disputed video. YouTube is also adding another option for creators with what it calls “block claims,” where Content ID prevents creators from uploading their video at all because it thinks copyrighted content has been used. It now lets creators hit by block claims choose to escalate their case straight to the appeal stage. And with the new, shorter appeal stage, that means creators who pick this option will wait a maximum of seven days for a response from a copyright owner. If the owner does not respond within seven days, the case expires.

Recognise the Music Wants More Accurate Public Performance Payouts

A new UK initiative called Recognise the Music is hoping to make sure public performance royalties are paid out more accurately via a partnership involving the Music Venue Trust, Featured Artists Coalition, AIM, the MMF and startup Audoo. The idea: venues and businesses will sign up to get first dibs on Audoo’s ‘Audio Meter’ device, which identifies music playing in their buildings, and feeds that data back to the relevant collecting societies. Its website is opening up today for registrations, with the initiative’s founders estimating that there are around 400,000 venues in the UK that have a license to play music. The aim is to ease the reliance on those businesses to report what’s been played.

African Music Service Mdundo Reached 20.3M Monthly Active Users Last Month, Up 74% Since June 2021

Mdundo has now issued a new update to its MAU number, revealing that its service had 20.3 million monthly active users in June 2022, which was up 74% versus June 2021. The company says that it is aiming to reach 50 million Monthly Active Users as well as a positive EBITDA for the financial year ending June 2025. For the 2022/2023 financial year, the company says that it expects to hit 25 million monthly active users. Mdundo’s biggest country for Monthly Active Users in June was Nigeria, with a total of 4.9 million monthly users, followed by South Africa with 3.7 million, Kenya with 2.8 million and Tanzania with 2.4 million.

YouTube Creators Can Now Link Their Shopify Stores to the Platform

YouTube creators and merchants will now have the ability to link their Shopify stores to their YouTube channels via a newly announced partnership between the two platforms. Revealed on July 19 in a blog post by YouTube VP of Shopping Product David Katz, the partnership will allow creators to display their Shopify-listed products across their YouTube channels while benefiting from Shopify’s real-time inventory syncing “so that viewers are never disappointed to find a product out of stock,” Katz wrote. Additionally, creators can enable checkout directly from YouTube so users can purchase items without ever leaving the platform. Shopify has also previously announced partnerships with TikTok in August and Spotify in October.

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