Industry News

Read enough articles, and you’ll think songwriting is in the throes of decline and decay.  In Nashville, the number of songwriters has been decimated since 2000, according to one tally, and even hit songs are producing paltry payouts (according to another).  Composition licenses are also at the root of a major legal actions involving Spotify, Rhapsody, Xbox […]

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Tidal subscribers are surging at unprecedented rate… In fact, since Kanye’s album dropped exclusively on Tidal in February, the platform has doubled its subscriber number.  Now, it’s added at least another one million thanks to a Beyonce exclusive.  All of which means Tidal has nearly tripled in size in about three months. That’s a 200% […]

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Back in November last year, DMN reported the unveiling of the new ‘Hi-Res MUSIC’ logo for digital download services. Now the RIAA have announced that the Hi-Res music logo is going to be available to music streaming services as well.  “The expansion of the Hi-Res MUSIC definition to encompass streaming technologies reflects the continued evolution of the marketplace to […]

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What’s one way to change YouTube’s f-you attitude? Competition. As the music industry prepares for war against YouTube, another giant is sensing opportunity.  Amazon has now launched a YouTube-like video platform that allows content creators to earn revenue through advertising and royalties on uploaded videos, with far greater control and collaboration.  Which might be exactly the kind […]

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Smartphones are slowly supplanting desktops when it comes to almost every form of music piracy.  But this is a lot more complicated than just shifting screens. Last week, Digital Music News delved into the quickly shifting terrain of music piracy, one that now involves less torrenting and a lot more stream-ripping from YouTube.  It also involves greater amounts of […]

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Spotify is rolling out an entire slate of original videos.  Is that a big part of the future of streaming music? Today, Spotify announced the addition of 12 new original video series on music and popular culture.  The series — which will reportedly last up to 15 minutes each — will be available in the U.S., U.K., Germany […]

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Earlier this year, research group MusicWatch shared data with Digital Music News that showed 53 million Americans actively pirating music content.  But even more shocking was how they were doing it: instead of torrenting on the Pirate Bay, more and more piracy is now happening on YouTube via stream-ripping, with direct streaming piracy and storage […]

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We need to ”wake up and smell the coffee”… Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado joins Nikki Sixx, Debby Harry and other musicians who are standing up against YouTube and campaigning for fair payouts. In a recent blog post for The Guardian, Furtado discusses the ongoing issues that artists are having with YouTube and tells the streaming platform […]

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Diagram #1. If your business is based on recorded music sales, then you know this slide well.  But it’s also created a ripple effect throughout the music industry, with artists and labels moving towards touring, merchandise, and other areas to sustain revenues (with mixed results). Diagram #2. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), signed […]

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Top 10 Music Instagram accounts… 1. Selena Gomez – 76.8 million followers (Image by AleeDear, Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic, cc by 2.0) 2. Taylor Swift – 75.3 million followers (Image by Eva Rinaldi, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic, cc by-sa 2.0) 3. Ariana Grande – 70 million followers (Image by JustEntertainment, Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic, cc by-sa […]

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Youtube: We know our content ID system is a ‘frustrating experience’…but we are making changes… Yesterday, YouTube announced via its blog that it would be making necessary changes to its Content ID system. The news comes after right holders dubbed the system as ‘flawed’, as it fails to pay them when someone files an incorrect dispute. Prior to […]

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Sign this, and you sign away some of your rights. Early last month, Digital Music News broke the story of a broad-reaching agreement between Spotify and music publishers to resolve tens of millions in unpaid royalties.  That agreement, forged by major publishing organization NMPA, would involve a one-time, $5 million penalty payment by Spotify as well […]

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YouTube has just announced the addition of another ad.  And you will watch it. Yes, it’s another YouTube ad, like there weren’t enough already.  But this one is entirely different: YouTube is calling its latest addition a ‘bumper ad,’ which will last six-seconds and can’t be skipped. Google designed these new ads for smartphone users (roughly […]

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The most difficult part about the debate over streaming royalties is that nobody seems to know what streaming services actually pay.  Which is why Digital Music News started an initiative to collect streaming data from anyone who would share their royalty statements. (If you’d like to share, please email us at .  As you can […]

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Although many are gleefully claiming that the cryptocurrency Bitcoin can now be officially declared as dead, it’s initial failure could simply be a minor setback in the technology’s slow but steady march towards ubiquity. ___________________________________ Guest Post by George Howard on Forbes Mike Hearn, one of the original members of the Bitcoin development team, recently […]

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5/18/2016 The negotiations between Alliance Entertainment and Anderson Merchandisers, previously reported by Billboard, has produced a purchase agreement whereby Alliance Entertainment will acquire the music assets and business of ANconnect LLC, a subsidiary unit of Anderson. The deal makes Alliance the largest physical wholesaler in the U.S. — and, with Target, one of the two biggest physical music accounts. The […]

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As live streaming continues to become an increasingly important part of an artist’s digital presence, services like Joicaster are making it easier for said artists to place their video on multiple streaming platforms simultaneously. ___________________________ Guest Post by Bobby Owsinski on Music 3.0 Live Streaming is becoming an important part of an artist’s social repertoire, but until now […]

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Former indie and major label musician (The Lemonheads, Blake Babies) turned music attorney John Strohm who represents, among others, The Alabama Shakes and Bon Iver shares his optimistic vision for the future of streaming and the music business in general. ________________________________ Guest post from Songspace The last 15 years have been a wild ride, but the dust is finally starting […]

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