Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring costs.
New stats arrived this week that illustrate the growing volume of content getting uploaded to the likes of Spotify, YouTube Music and other music streaming services each day.
According to Luminate (the entertainment market monitor and insights provider that was once known as MRC Data and Nielsen Music), an average of 120,000 ISRCs (i.e. new music audio files) were added to music streaming services – across audio and video platforms – per day in Q1 2023.
If the number of average daily new track uploads continues at the same rate of 120,000 per day for the rest of the year, by the end of 2023, over 43 million new tracks will have been uploaded to Spotify and other music streaming services this year.
That 120,000 track-per-day average is up from the 93,400 average tracks uploaded per day in all of 2022, according to Luminate.
Also this week, Universal Music Group (UMG) entered into “a first-of-its-kind strategic relationship” with generative AI sound wellness startup Endel to create what they call “AI-powered, artist-driven functional music”.
Meanwhile, during Sony Group Corporation’s annual presentation to investors on Wednesday (May 24), Sony Music Group Chairman Rob Stringer raised serious concerns over streaming fraud. He said that streaming fraud “is a problem that must be eliminated”, and also called for better payouts from short-form video platforms.
Plus, SoundCloud is reducing its current global staff headcount by 8%, while BandLab secured an additional $25 million in financing, valuing the company at $425 million.
A new set of stats have arrived that illustrate just how fast the deluge of new content is actually growing on DSPs.
According to Luminate (the entertainment market monitor and insights provider that was once known as MRC Data and Nielsen Music), an average of 120,000 ISRCs (i.e. new music audio files) were added to music streaming services – across audio and video platforms – per day in Q1 2023.
That works out to a total of 10.08 million new tracks uploaded to the likes of Spotify, YouTube Music and other music streaming services in the first three months of the year alone, according to Luminate…
Universal Music Group (UMG) has entered into “a first-of-its-kind strategic relationship” with generative AI sound wellness startup Endel to create what they call “AI-powered, artist-driven functional music”.
According to Endel, so-called functional music (e.g. music for sleep, running, relaxation etc) “represents one of the largest sub-categories of music listening worldwide, encompassing an estimated 15 billion streams a month across all music platforms”.
Under this “groundbreaking” agreement, the two companies will use Endel’s proprietary AI technology to let UMG artists “reimagine” their music and create “science-backed soundscapes designed to enhance listeners’ wellness” using both new music and new versions of catalog music…
Sony Music Group Chairman Rob Stringer just added his name to the growing number of music industry leaders raising serious concerns over streaming fraud.
During Sony Group Corporation’s annual presentation to investors on Wednesday (May 24), Stringer called for tougher enforcement by digital service providers (DSPs) – plus, potentially, an anti-fraud-minded switch to a new music streaming royalty payout model – to address what many see as a growing problem of illegitimate streams taking revenue away from artists and rights-holders.
“Fraud on key DSPs is a problem that must be eliminated through aggressive enforcement by these DSPs and distributors, or by changing payment methods [i.e. royalty payout models] to better reduce the incentive for fraud,” Stringer said during his presentation… (MBW)
Singapore-based BandLab Technologies, the parent company of social music creation platform BandLab, has secured an additional USD $25 million in its Series B1 financing round, valuing the company at $425 million.
This latest investment comes after the company’s successful Series B round in April 2022, where BandLab raised $65 million and achieved a post-money valuation of $315 million…
