Music industry

This burden of A&R outgoings significantly reduces the potential profitability, and the resultant multiple valuation, of owned music catalogs like Universal’s. Therefore, if you were an activist investor in a major music company today and wanted to maximize your payday, you might encourage said music company to spin out only the most valuable part of its assets — namely, its catalog rights — and keep the signing-and-developing-new-talent part of its business completely separate. … [Read more...] about New Records Drop Every Minute. But Back-Catalogs Are Driving The Music Industry’s Transformation

GG: That’s part of why we’re choosing to have a voice in these times. It’s not just the labels, the agents partnering with the labels, or Live Nation. You can say the record label owner is white, the agent is white, the show runner is white and that it’s easy for them to cut a deal because they’re white — but it’s not just color. It’s a responsibility that also falls on the artists because often, whether it’s Drake, Megan Thee Stallion or Cardi B, they have black representation, and that black representation needs to know there’s a responsibility to say to Live Nation, “Ok, you can have the deal, but we want to make sure there’s a certain diversity within the people that actually help grow my artists.” … [Read more...] about Black Concert Promoters Want to Talk About Live Music’s Exclusion Problem

“The message to the music industry here is the stage is open,” Nate Nanzer, head of global partnerships at Fortnite parent company Epic Games, tells Rolling Stone. “We want great partners who are into what we’re doing and are going to be great collaborators. Everything we’ve done in the past with music has been a deep collaboration with the artist, everything from Marshmello to Travis to Diplo, and we’ll continue to do that.” … [Read more...] about Fortnite Is Launching More Music Concerts. Dominic Fike Is Up First

“YouTube is a place where artists and fans around the world come to connect and build community,” YouTube’s chief business officer, Robert Kyncl, said. “With traditional concerts on hold, never has there been a more important time to support the live music industry through our partnership with NIVA. We’re committed to doing our part in saving independent venues and continuing to bring artists and fans together through music.” … [Read more...] about YouTube Music Teams With NIVA to Support Independent Venues

Furthermore, Arrowhawk has had to cover unexpected costs due to damages that have started to occur in transit. Even though the company recently switched to higher-grade mailers, which are bigger and have more padding, DeHayes says they’ve had more damages to vinyl this summer than at any other point in the label’s seven-year history. “Every damage is a disappointed fan who has to wait longer,” she says. “[Then there’s the] replacement cost and additional shipping for us.” While DeHayes says there is no way to know for certain that these damages are USPS’ fault, she explains that vinyl is already at risk of warping in the summer — so spending weeks in transit ups the chance of damages. … [Read more...] about How USPS Pandemonium Threatens Indie Musicians and Labels