Finance
The Ledger: Inside Universal Music’s 2021 Annual Report
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Universal Music Group’s first-ever annual report, released Thursday, offers an exhaustive look at the company’s finances and operations as well as environmental, social and governance initiatives. If you want to know how many metric tons of paper was purchased for internal use (24) or the number of megawatt hours of electricity from renewable sources (7,982), it’s in there. In terms of dollars and cents behind investments and catalogs, the annual report has a few things worth highlighting. UMG sold Alamo Records for 102 million euros ($112.7 million) for a gain of 98 million euros ($108.3 million). Sony Music reportedly...
How CFOs & CIOs are Funding Digital Transformation with OPEX, not CAPEX
Zakhe Khuzwayo, co-founder and CFO at InnoVent. CFOs and CIOs, collaborating to drive the accelerated digital transformation necessitated by rapid technology advances and COVID-19, now have a smart alternative to traditional financing and management of IT assets that boosts business efficiencies and competitiveness. Rapid technology advances driving the 4IR (Fourth Industrial Revolution), as well as the impact of COVID-19, has accelerated digital transformation in organisations, transforming IT overnight from a back-end support function into an essential enabler for all business operations. Such a shift requires greater access to top technology, resulting in IT spending reaching an all-time high as organisations swop offices for work-from-home and virtual meetings; physical shops for e-com...
Understanding the Risks to Cryptocurrency Trading
Sourced from Hacker Noon. Alongside self-fertilizing crops and low-carbon shipping, cryptocurrencies have made the World Economic Forum (WEF) list of top tech trends in 2022 bolstered by research by the Thomson Reuters Foundation that describes it as moving from the ‘fringes of finance to the mainstream’. Perceptions around cryptocurrencies have shifted, with several countries adopting it as legal tender, banks looking to create their own forms of digital currency, and consumers putting their savings into crypto wallets instead of traditional financial institutions. Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy & Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa. Countries are either considering or are already partially using Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which essentially allows for companies and individuals...
Egypt’s Largest Banks Join Forces to Launch New $85M Fintech Fund
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Mastercard & Ukheshe Launch “First-of-its-Kind” Virtual Card Solution
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UBA & Cellulant Join Forces to Unite Africa’s Payments Ecosystem
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The Ledger: Should Music Streamers Follow Netflix’s Lead on Account Sharing?
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. The music business should watch what Netflix is doing in select Latin American countries to bring in more revenue as painlessly as possible. In the next few weeks, Netflix will begin testing new two features in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru: “Add an extra member,” which allows subscribers to standard and premium plans to add up to two people they don’t live with for a few dollars a month; And “transfer profile to a new account” for people to take their profile information — namely their viewing history and recommendations — to a new account rather than create a new account from scratch. “We recognize that people have many ...
After Months Declining, Music Stocks Tick Up as Fed Raises Interest Rate
Music stocks that had been pummeled in recent months received a respite on Wednesday (March 16) after the Federal Reserve moved to combat inflation and soaring economy by raising the federal funds rate from 0.25% to 0.50%. The federal fund rate is the benchmark rate for inter-bank loans and borrowing costs for credit cards, mortgages and auto loans. Shares of Universal Music Group rose 5.0% on the day to 21.96 euros while Spotify improved 7.9% to $133.58 and Warner Music Group climbed 1.4% to $35.47. The Fed’s move had been expected since its first announced its intention to do so on Dec. 15, 2021. By raising the federal funds rate, the Fed will make borrowing money more costly, reducing businesses and consumer spending to rein in inflation. The Fed stated on Wednesday it “anticipates that...
Horizon – A Unique Mobile Payment Innovation Seeking to Foster Financial Inclusion
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6 Digital Loan Companies Raided in Nigeria for Alleged Malpractice
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Valkyrie Investments‘ Leah Wald on Bitcoin ETFs and the future of digital assets
Cointelegraph sat down with Leah Wald, CEO of digital asset investment firm Valkyrie Investments, to learn more about the importance of a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) and the future of digital assets. For context, Valkyrie Investments was launched in 2020 and is one of the only asset managers to have three Bitcoin-adjacent ETFs trading on the Nasdaq. Valkyrie launched a Bitcoin Strategy ETF in October 2021 that offered indirect exposure to BTC with cash-settled futures contracts following a United States Securities and Exchange (SEC) approval for a similar ETF from ProShares. Valkyrie also has a balance sheet opportunities ETF that invests in public companies with exposure to Bitcoin. In addition, the investment firm’s Bitcoin Miners ETF began trading on the Nasdaq o...
The Ledger: Leaving Russia Will Have Little Impact on Streaming Services, Record Labels
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Strong steps taken by Western music companies to cease operations in Russia will have a big impact on the country but will do little damage to the global market. Russia is the 16th largest recorded music market in the world with a trade value $199 million in 2020, according to the IFPI. That was on par with Sweden, which has about 7% of Russia’s population, as well as Mexico, India and Switzerland. For the largest record labels, music publishers and music streaming companies, each with multi-billion-dollar revenues, Russia is a tiny part of their worldwide businesses. Spotify’s decision to suspend operations in Rus...
