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Hi everyone -
There's some great analysis over on MBW (and also separately on Billboard) asking whether Sirius could be poised to truly become the first 'full stack' music company by fully integrating its operation across Pandora and Live Nation, thus rolling radio, on-demand streaming and live into one rather scary behemoth of a business. Certainly all the pieces appear to be in place, and just as many predicted Sirius taking over Pandora at some stage when the company first invested in June last year, it doesn't appear beyond the pale to think this Live Nation move may indeed come to pass within 12-18 months. Watch this space...
Elsewhere, another Facebook scandal appears to be blowing up, this time relating to something that, if I'm honest, is not news to me and my colleagues. For years now it has been possible to upload private email lists (or phone number contact lists) and have Facebook match those to users. However much is being made of the fact - quite rightly I might add - that people have no means to 1) know if they are on these lists and 2) request to be removed from them if so. Facebook's defence here is that a person's address book (if we consider it thus) is private property and therefore someone else cannot simply ask to be removed - despite the info in question being their own private data in most respects.
Now, doubtless this story will run and run - and certainly I agree with the argument that we should have far, FAR more control over our personal data - but really this once again boils down to an ongoing erosion of public trust. As investment site Motley Fool points out in its own article below, with Instagram's founders quitting, WhatsApp's having sold up (and now openly criticising Facebook's agenda), not to mention the likes of Oculus's rather odious founder also flying the coop, Mark Zuckerberg is ostensibly in control of all Facebook's businesses now - and that in turn tarnishes them as his reputation and handling of the Facebook platform itself comes under yet more scrutiny and negative press.
Have a great evening,
D.
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Tim Westergren, former Pandora CEO, told CNBC yesterday that he believes SiriusXM has “future-proofed their business” with the Pandora buyout. “People are not seeing the future of the [music] industry very accurately,” he said. “There’s a huge focus on the on-demand subscription business but the winner [will] be the one who perfects the whole demand curve – everything from free radio all the way to full on-demand [streaming]. This combination clearly has the potential to do that.” Westergren didn’t stop there, either. And it’s his next prediction – the Liberty Media ‘expansion’ we referenced above – which could really shake things up for Spotify, Apple Music et al.
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/could-siriusxms-buyout-of-pandora-finally-deliver-the-first-true-full-stack-music-company/
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I’ve been trying to get Facebook to disclose shadow contact information to users for almost a year now. But it has even refused to disclose these shadow details to users in Europe, where privacy law is stronger and explicitly requires companies to tell users what data it has on them. A UK resident named Rob Blackie has been asking Facebook to hand over his shadow contact information for months, but Facebook told him it’s part of “confidential” algorithms, and “we are not in a position to provide you the precise details of our algorithms.” “People own their address books,” a Facebook spokesperson said by email. “We understand that in some cases this may mean that another person may not be able to control the contact information someone else uploads about them.”
https://gizmodo.com/facebook-is-giving-advertisers-access-to-your-shadow-co-1828476051/amp?__twitter_impression=true
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Ross says the future will see the digital music giants look to grab a large piece of SiriusXM’s pie. “It is inevitable that Spotify, Amazon and Apple build further hegemony in the car at Sirius’ expense (just look at the recent improvements in Apple’s Carplay, Android Auto and the Amazon’s Alexa in-car expansion),” he said. “Each is focused on significantly improving the ease of use in the car and is attacking non-music content -- a key differentiator for SiriusXM. Thus, as growth (or stability) inside the car comes into question, Sirius needs a new subscriber funnel.” Added Ross: “SiriusXM and Pandora are better off together than apart, even if the combined company has structural disadvantages versus the likes of Spotify, Amazon and Apple.”
https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/8477113/after-buying-pandora-will-siriusxm-make-a-deal-for-live-nation
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The RIAA counts shipments, not sales -- and that’s where the observation that the CD is declining faster than downloads falls short of being entirely accurate. A look at actual sales from Nielsen Music tells a different story. Nielsen's mid-year numbers show that for the week ending June 29, 2018, CD sales totaled 34.8 million, or nearly twice as many as what the RIAA says. Further, that number is down 19.7 percent year over year -- not the 47.4 percent in shipments, as tracked by the RIAA -- as sales in the previous year’s six month period totaled 43.4 million. Meanwhile, download albums are counted at 28.6 million, down from 36.3 million, a slightly larger 21.4 percent drop than the CD, with track sales down even further, according to Nielsen Music.
https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/digital-and-mobile/8477120/cd-sales-are-not-dying-but-they-are-heading-towards
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One point of near-unanimous agreement among the panelists: in a music landscape dominated by hip-hop, avoiding samples altogether as a legal cop-out is both difficult and futile. "Trying to make hip-hop without sampling is like trying to make fried chicken without chicken," said Dofat. "You have to be really creative to pull that off."
https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8474562/samples-legal-complexities-behind-hip-hop-creative-backbone
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There's no question that Facebook's deep pockets serve as rocket fuel for the growth start-ups it has acquired, but there should also be little doubt that the founders' visions are just as important. While Zuckerberg has given Instagram and WhatsApp much more autonomy than most acquiring companies do -- and it's true that many founders eventually leave after selling -- the risk is that Zuck becoming increasingly overbearing and financially demanding might ruin what made those services so popular to begin with.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/09/26/mark-zuckerberg-could-ruin-facebooks-most-importan.aspx
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A trademark application filed in the US hints that the iconic heavy metal band Led Zeppelin is eyeing the launch of their own streaming service. According to LedZepNews, the application says the service, called The Led Zeppelin Experience, will offer “non-downloadable prerecorded music on-line via a global computer network.” However, as LedZepNews reported, the music on offer may be more than mere studio albums. The filing specifically references live audio, suggesting that the service may stream recordings of the band’s live performances.
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2018/09/is-led-zeppelin-launching-their-own-streaming-service.html
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The estate of rock and roll "teen idol" Ricky Nelson has filed a class action lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment, alleging the label violates contractual agreements with its artists by assessing an intercompany charge on international streaming revenue that deprives artists of accurate royalties from foreign sales. The lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, plainly states that Sony underreports revenue generated by artists abroad by adding a charge on revenues collected by region-specific subsidiaries such as Sony Music UK and Sony Music Australia.
https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8477056/ricky-nelson-estate-class-action-sony-music-international-streaming
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Apple completed its acquisition of music-identification app Shazam this week, but now the latter company has published its latest (and likely final) set of public financial results, via the UK’s Companies House. They reveal Shazam’s figures for the 2017 calendar year, with the company having accepted Apple’s acquisition offer on 10 December that year. What do the financials show? Shazam was reaching more than 400 million annual active users in 2017, up from 300 million the year before. However, Shazam’s growth in revenues flattened out in 2017: it generated turnover of £40.8m (around $53.7m), up just 1.4% year-on-year, compared to the 14.5% growth that Shazam recorded in 2016.
https://musically.com/2018/09/26/shazam-financials-show-revenue-growth-flattened-in-2017-ahead-of-apple-acquisition/
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New blockchain startup Audius recently finished a funding round that brought in about $5.5 million to their platform. As soon as it ended, Audius took to the press to discuss how the company plans to operate upon launching. However, their platform is not due for launch until next year. Their goal is to make a platform that is full decentralized for artists. Artists will be able to control their own intellectual property and where it is distributed, forming a more solid connection with the fans that purchase it. Now that this protocol has been established, they can move forward with the next step – publishing the company’s whitepaper.
https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/audius-music-sharing-blockchain-project-shares-new-loud-and-audius-token-information/
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