business
The Giving Block launches crypto donation service for high-net worth individuals
The Giving Block, an online platform which allows nonprofit organizations and charities to accept digital asset donations, has launched a service tailored to donors wishing to send large amounts of crypto. In a Wednesday announcement, the Giving Block said it partnered with crypto tax startup Taxbit, New York-based accounting firm Friedman LLP, and Ren to start a service aimed at individuals, institutions, and advisors looking to reduce their tax exposure when donating crypto. Giving Block co-founder Pat Duffy said the Private Client Services streamlines its existing donation process allowing “high-value donors to quickly and securely give large gifts to their favorite charities while reducing their tax bill.” According to the platform, individuals wishing to make large donations in crypto...
Voyager Digital will be crypto brokerage partner for National Women’s Soccer League
Crypto trading platform Voyager Digital has inked a deal with the National Women’s Soccer League, or NWSL, aiming to provide players crypto education and financial support. In a Tuesday announcement, Voyager said it would become the league’s first cryptocurrency brokerage partner as part of a multi-year deal. The trading platform said a “significant amount” of the investment would fund rostered players’ crypto accounts. There are expected to be 12 teams in the NWSL starting in 2022, so up to 312 players could benefit from the Voyager partnership. “Voyager’s investment in the league is especially innovative because we’ve collectively designed the partnership to include direct financial resources for every one of our players, as well as education on the revolutionary ...
Sony Music, Anghami Form Arabic Record Label With a Global Scope
Sony Music Middle East and top Arab music streamer Anghami have teamed up to launch Vibe Music Arabia, a new joint-venture record label designed to support the Arabic artist community in Saudi Arabia and the Levant and wider GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) regions. The wholly independent label, which was first announced at MDLBEAST’s XP Music Conference in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, this week, “will act as a creative, accelerator and educational hub” aimed at empowering Arabian musicians, songwriters, producers and content creators both regionally and globally, according to a press release. Music put out by Vibe Music Arabia will be released on all streaming platforms and services around the world in an effort to score breakthroughs for its artists in countries outside the Middle East. Taking t...
How Spotify Helped Nearly 300 Afghan Music Students and Teachers Reach Portugal
On Dec. 1, Elizabeth Nieto‘s boss at Spotify — chief human resources officer Katarina Berg — learned that nearly 300 Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) students and teachers and their families were in limbo in Doha, Qatar. Promised asylum in Lisbon, Portugal, they were attempting to charter a plane to the European city and needed money. “See what we can do,” Berg told Nieto, the streaming giant’s global head of equity and impact. Nieto had to wrangle with Spotify’s in-house lawyers to cut a sizable check for the plane by Dec. 6; on Monday (Dec. 13), the SAS flight carrying 273 Afghans landed in Lisbon, where the musicians and faculty members will be able to recreate their school. “The renaissance of Afghanistan music will start in Lisbon,” Nieto says. “We have an opportunity to...
U.K. Introduces Vaccine Passports for Clubs and Venues
LONDON – New restrictions for nightclubs and music venues in England have been introduced to tackle a sharp rise in cases of the coronavirus omicron variant. Members of Parliament backed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s controversial ‘Plan B’ measures on Tuesday (Dec. 14), with 369 MPs voting in favor of making COVID-19 vaccine passports a legal requirement to enter clubs and some concert halls, versus 126 against. The rules come into force on Wednesday, meaning that people aged over 18 in England will need to show they’ve either had two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine or proof of a negative test taken in the past 48 hours to enter a number of music venues, including nightclubs and indoor unseated venues with more than 500 people. Proof of vaccine status via an NHS Covid Pass is also needed fo...
Block, formerly Square, will allow users to gift BTC for the holidays using Cash App
Digital payments company Block, formerly called Square, has announced that Cash App users will be able to gift friends and family both crypto and stock over the holiday season. According to a Tuesday tweet, Cash App said its users — roughly 40 million active monthly — could send as little as $1 in Bitcoin (BTC) or stock as a gift in the same way they had been sending cash. The payments firm joins others including PayPal and Coinbase in allowing users to send crypto as payments or gifts to third parties. With Cash App, you can now send as little as $1 in stock or bitcoin. It’s as easy as sending cash, and you don’t need to own stock or bitcoin to gift it. So this holiday season, forget the scented candles or novelty beach towel, and help your cousin start investing. pic.twitter.com/HS...
Adele’s ’30’ Sales Prove She Can Still Deliver at Retail in a Streaming Industry
With Adele’s 30 breaking through with 1.45 million album consumption units and selling consistently with the holiday sales rush in full force, an initial fear that Columbia/Sony Music may have shipped too much product into the U.S. marketplace has dissipated. While it didn’t take off like a moonshot the way 25 did when it opened with 3.5 million units sold in 2015, Adele’s latest “did fantastic in the debut week and now there are consistent sales,” says one physical music executive. “This title feels like it definitely has legs.” Nevertheless, industry sources initially speculated that Sony had shipped anywhere from 1.2 million to 1.7 million pieces of physical product in the U.S., with that higher figure fueled by the belief that as much as 1 million combined CD and vinyl albums went to T...
Recruiters say crypto firms seeking leadership in engineering, legal and finance
The crypto industry has enjoyed astronomical growth over the last couple of years. Now, talent recruitment experts say that crypto firms are in dire need of good leadership to scale their businesses. Previously seen as a nascent market, crypto is now a fast-maturing industry that attracts a lot of talent, David Richardson, partner at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, told Cointelegraph. “It’s all driven by the growth rate of these firms and hiring leaders that can help them continue to scale and continue to keep pace with the growth rate in the business,” he said. Crypto companies are looking for executives who have scaled businesses successfully. They are ready to onboard such talent without prior knowledge of crypto or digital currency, added Heidrick & Struggles ...
Nick Holmstén’s Next Venture Will Attempt to Reinvent the Superstar Rollout
Nick Holmstén wants to reinvent the superstar rollout and revitalize Times Square with his new startup, the former Spotify executive tells Billboard. When Holmstén first sat down with Billboard to unveil his next move in November 2020, he unveiled a “multi-billion-dollar development with a street-facing stage and retail space in Times Square,” in partnership with Fortress Investment Group called TSX Entertainment with plans to open in 2022. A year later, Spotify’s former global head of music and the architect of its playlist strategy has more to share about his new startup, his vision for the future of music marketing, and one of his biggest goals: “I believe there is a fair to big chance that this will be the place where future New Year’s Eve celebrations will be,” Holmstén says. Holmstén...
Austria Poised to Loosen Online Copyright Restrictions — Will Other EU Countries Follow?
BERLIN — A spectre is haunting the European music business: The 2019 European Union Copyright Directive, intended to give creators and rightsholders more power to control the use of their content on online platforms, could instead create another set of problems. One of the pillars of the Copyright Directive was a provision that would hold online platforms responsible for unlicensed copyrighted material uploaded by users. In May, however, Germany passed a law implementing the directive with an exception that classified clips of under 15 seconds shared on online platforms like YouTube as “minor use,” presumptively allowing the use of the material without a license unless copyright holders specifically objected. Although the German law is contrary to both the text and the intention of t...
Lewis Black Calls for Spotify to Remove His Content Until Comedy Licensing Dispute Is Resolved
Comedian Lewis Black is calling for Spotify to remove his content amid a licensing dispute between the streaming service and hundreds of comics. Black’s request comes in response to Spotify’s removal on Nov. 24 of numerous comedy recordings it offers, including work from major comedy stars like Mike Birbiglia, John Mulaney and Jeff Foxworthy. The streaming giant is currently battling with collection agencies Spoken Giants and Word Collections over whether comedians and spoken word artists should receive royalties for their underlying works, as well as their recordings. “I believe that the written words that go into making songs or comedy should be valued equally,” Black said in a statement to Billboard. “Comedy is an art form that starts on the page before it moves to the stage. Just as in...
Duke Concept Launches Live Nation Joint Venture
While Burna Boy will make history this spring when he becomes the first Nigerian artist to headline New York’s Madison Square Garden, the April 28 concert also marks a major milestone for promoter Osita “Duke” Ugeh, CEO of concert promoter Duke Concept, who has spent the past 10 years bringing African artists to the U.S. With Burna Boy’s Madison Square Garden show, Ugeh — who’s Nigerian-born and based in New York — launches a new joint venture with Live Nation to co-promote African artists touring in the U.S. Through Duke Concept, Ugeh and Live Nation have been co-producing concerts together for years, and under the new arrangement, Ugeh will retain the autonomy to continue to independently promote his own events. “Over the past few years working with Duke, our relationship has grown immen...
