Welcome to Music Enterprise Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we be certain that you caught the 5 largest tales to hit our headlines over the previous seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their revenue and cut back their touring prices.
That is proving to be a yr of regulatory complications for Reside Nation and its ticketing subsidiary, Ticketmaster. Not solely is the corporate battling an antitrust lawsuit introduced by the US Division of Justice, it’s now dealing with a probe by the UK’s competitors regulator over the usage of dynamic pricing within the on-sale of tickets for Oasis‘ reunion tour subsequent yr.
In a brand new evaluation, MBW founder Tim Ingham took a have a look at the predicament created by the truth that demand for Oasis tickets far exceeds any potential provide, and concluded that Ticketmaster could be providing crucial artist service in the marketplace in the present day: Being a ache sponge.
Elsewhere within the music world, we bought phrase this week that Brazil‘s recorded music business, one of many fastest-growing on the earth, grew a formidable 21% YoY in H1 2024.
In the meantime, Bertelsmann-owned BMG is dealing with a patent infringement lawsuit within the US, introduced by an organization referred to as Muvox LLC, which alleges the music firm infringed on a patent overlaying music choice primarily based on temper.
Talking of courtroom battles, this week we dug into the main points of Spotify‘s victory in a lawsuit over unlicensed streaming of Eminem songs – a lawsuit the streamer received regardless of the court docket concluding that it didn’t even have a license for these songs.
Right here’s what occurred this week…
1) UK COMPETITION REGULATOR LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO TICKETMASTER OVER OASIS TICKET SALE
The UK’s Competitors and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an investigation into Reside Nation-owned ticketing large Ticketmaster.
The rationale for the investigation? Saturday’s on-sale for Oasis’ 2025 UK and Eire stadium tour, together with “how so-called ‘dynamic pricing’ could have been used”, the CMA stated in a press release on September 5.
The competitors watchdog stated that it plans to scrutinize “whether or not the sale of Oasis tickets by Ticketmaster could have breached client safety legislation”.
Over 10 million followers from 158 international locations are confirmed to have queued up on Saturday (August 31) to purchase tickets to the tour…
2) ON… OASIS, TICKETMASTER, ‘DYNAMIC’ PRICING, UBER, MONEY, AND THE TRUTH.
Looks as if everybody working in music lately needs to be in artist companies.
However are you aware what could be probably the most priceless artist service supplied by any nook of the music business?
Being a ache sponge. Absorbing the hate and the brickbats and the accusations of greed and skulduggery so the artist doesn’t must – and doing it with out criticism.
Who’s the No.1 artist ache sponge on the earth?
Ticketmaster, after all…
3) THE US MUSIC STREAMING MARKET MIGHT BE FEELING LESS-THAN-FIZZY, BUT OVER IN BRAZIL… IT’S STILL PARTY TIME.
It’s truthful to say that the worldwide music enterprise felt a bit of glum final week.
It could have taken a foolhardy exec to pop open the Tattinger after the RIAA confirmed on Thursday (August 29) that the most important recorded music market on the earth, the US, solely grew business revenues by 4% YoY within the first half of 2024. Whole streaming subscription accounts within the US grew by simply 2.7% YoY in the identical interval.
However what’s this?
One of many world’s most commercially thrilling – and fastest-growing – markets had no bother bouncing up by double digits in H1 2024…
4) BMG FACES LAWSUIT IN THE US FOR ALLEGED PATENT INFRINGEMENT
An obscure firm referred to as Muvox LLC has filed a lawsuit in opposition to BMG in america for alleged patent infringement.
The lawsuit was filed in a Texas court docket final month and references a patent titled ‘Music streaming, playlist creation and streaming structure‘, which describes “a way for choosing a music” primarily based on different songs with related “moods”.
As first reported by patent litigation info useful resource RPX, the lawsuit targets “music suggestion options” throughout the BMG Synch service.
In accordance with a lawsuit filed in the identical Texas court docket on August 21, the corporate suing BMG additionally seems to be suing know-how large IBM for alleged infringement of the identical patent…
5) SPOTIFY JUST WON A LONG-RUNNING LAWSUIT OVER STREAMING OF EMINEM’S CATALOG – DESPITE THE COURT FINDING IT DIDN’T HAVE A LICENSE FOR THE MUSIC. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR PUBLISHERS?
After a five-year-long court docket battle, Spotify has successfully received a court docket case by which it was accused of getting streamed Eminem songs with out permission.
The music streaming large received the case regardless of the court docket discovering that Spotify didn’t have a license to stream these tracks.
The court docket additionally concluded that, if Spotify had been to be on the hook for copyright infringement, the penalty would have needed to be paid by… Kobalt Music Group.
But the most important loser on this case is Eight Mile Fashion, the co-publisher of 242 Eminem tracks, together with the rapper’s largest hit, Lose Your self, and different hits reminiscent of Stan, The Actual Slim Shady, The Method I Am, and With out Me…
MBW’s Weekly Spherical-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their revenue and cut back their touring prices.Music Enterprise Worldwide