Music Industry
City of London Approves Terrifying, Gargantuan Spherical Music Venue
London sees your Flaming Lips bubble concert and raises you… one giant bubble. City planning authorities have given the green light to the MSG Sphere, a dauntingly futuristic-looking, 21,500-capacity arena that will become London’s largest indoor concert venue. Conceptualized by Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp — the team behind the eponymous Manhattan arena — the MSG Sphere’s ball-shaped structure will boast a programmable LED exterior and gargantuan HD displays inside to give crowds “multi-sensory experiences.” Its planned features also include a separate 1,500-capacity venue for smaller artists, a 450-capacity restaurant and nightclub, retail spaces, cafes, and outdoor leisure areas. The Sphere will live on a nearly 5-acre plot of land MSG purchased in Stratford, right by Olympi...
Leonard Cohen’s Estate Sells His Catalog of Music
Leonard Cohen’s estate has sold the rights to his catalog of music. According to Variety, Hipgnosis Song Management purchased Cohen’s complete catalog for an undisclosed sum. Under the terms of the deal, Hipgnosis received songwriting rights to the 211 songs composed by Cohen from the beginning of his career through 2000, and total ownership of the 67 songs he wrote between 2001 until his death in 2016. All told, that amounts to a total of 278 songs — including Cohen’s best known works like “Hallelujah,” “Suzanne,” and “Bird on a Wire.” “To now be the custodians and managers of Leonard Cohen’s incomparable songs is a wonderful yet very serious responsibility that we approach with excitement and fully understand the importance of,” Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis said in a statement.&nb...
Kanye West Says He Won’t Release Donda 2 on Streaming Services
For his upcoming album Donda 2, Kanye West says he will forgo traditional streaming platforms and release it exclusively via his own Stem Player. “Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player,” West wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday evening. “Not on Apple Amazon Spotify or YouTube. Today artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes. It’s time to free music from this oppressive system. It’s time to take control and build our own.” A collaboration with Kano Computing, West originally released the Stem Player in August 2021. The pocket-size device allows users to remix pre-loaded recordings by manipulating various aspects of a track, including vocals, drums, bass, and samples. It currently retails for $200. Advertisement Related Video West previously said he...
HitPiece Draws Ire of Musicians for Allegedly Selling NFTs Without Permission
A digital marketplace called HitPiece is allegedly selling songs as NFTs without the consent of artists or proper licensing. According to LinkedIn, HitPiece was co-founded by industry executive Rory Felton and Michael Berrin (formerly known as the rapper MC Serch), with the financial backing of Blake Modersitzki. The marketplace went live in beta in early December, offering fans the chance to bid on a “One of One NFT for each unique song recording.” This was news to many of the artists whose music is up for sale on HitPiece, and who only learned of the marketplace’s existence on Tuesday. Advertisement Related Video “Bottom feeding scavengers of late capitalism sucking the last marrow from our bones and/or running a scam on me, you, or everyone, because obviously, I didn’t approve this, and...
Spotify Adds “Content Advisory” on COVID-19 Content in Wake of Neil Young Boycott
Spotify has announced that it will begin adding a “content advisory” to all podcasts that include information about COVID-19, following the company’s decision to continue streaming The Joe Rogan Experience despite a boycott from Neil Young. In a new open letter issued on Sunday (January 30th), CEO Daniel Ek also revealed that Spotify is making the company’s “platform rules” public for all to see. As previously reported, Young called out Spotify for presenting Rogan’s podcast, which has been criticized for disseminating questionable information about COVID-19 and its vaccines. The legendary rocker issued an ultimatum to the company to either remove his music or the podcast. As he put it, “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” Spotify promptly removed Young’s music, stating, “We want all ...
5 Lessons From Elon Musk the Music Industry Should Follow
Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is a fearless leader. With a tank full of rocket fuel and an electrifying personality, these are many lessons musicians can follow from the self-proclaimed “Technoking of Tesla.” Originally from Pretoria, South Africa, Musk was born to be an entrepreneur. He developed and sold his first video game, Blastar, at the age of 12. Musk became infatuated by inventions and innovation so much that his parents and doctors ordered hearing tests. He went on to obtain a Bachelor’s degree in economics and physics and then moved to California to pursue a Ph.D in energy physics, but dropped out to catch a wave during the internet boom. Alongside his brother Kimbal, Musk in 1995 co-founded Zip2 Corporation, an online city guide providing content for The Ne...
Bob Dylan Sells Recorded Music Catalog to Sony for $200 Million
Bob Dylan has struck a deal with Sony Music to sell the rights to his recorded music catalog. According to Billboard, the transaction is valued at over $200 million. The deal includes all of Dylan’s recordings – 39 studio albums, 16 Bootleg Series compilations, and numerous singles and rarities – plus unreleased material that could be released in the future, according to Billboard. The 80-year-old songwriter previously sold his catalog’s publishing rights to Universal in a deal estimated to be worth over $300 million. (Recording rights pertain to the individual master recordings of songs, while publishing rights refer to the words and music that make up a musical composition. In theory, publishing rights are more valuable, as an artist could always re-record their music. Publishing rights ...
Independent Venues Report “No-Show Rates as High as 50%”
Appearing before the House Small Business Committee this week, representatives of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) said they were seeing “no-show rates as high as 50%.” Via Billboard, Raeanne Presley, NIVA member and co-owner of Presleys’ Theater in Branson, MO, explained that smaller venues are suffering during an unprecedented lack of consumer confidence. “Today, the roller coaster ride of the pandemic continues,” she said. “Traditionally, about 5% of ticket buyers don’t attend performances, but now, sagging consumer confidence is causing national no-show rates as high as 50%. This is devastating because most of our venues rely on in-house sales to pay core bills.” In other words, while ticket purchases are important, food, beverages, and other extras help keep the ...
Cancún Music Week’s 2022 Summit Will Be Geared Toward Underground Electronic Industry
Ah, networking. The necessity we love to hate. Luckily, next year’s Cancún Music Week will offer an opportunity for electronic music industry professionals to trade in their Zoom coffee chats for cocktails on the beach. The program for the five-day event includes a bevy of keynote sessions, technology exhibitions and masterclasses, as well as 50 different parties between the hours of 1PM to 5AM. Organizers also announced this week that the rescheduled summit, slated for April 13-17 at Cancún’s Breathless Resort & Spa, will be built around the theme “Recover & Rebuild” with a specific emphasis on underground electronica. Fitting into this banner are workshop topics like eco-friendly event-planning and cryptocurrency, as well as morning wellnes...
Former C3 Managers and Proximity CEO Partner to Form Innovative New Agency, Kompass Music Group
As standards continue to change throughout the workforce, Jay Rogovin, Alec Donkin, Jade Gaines, and Blake Coppelson look to switch up the music industry with the launch of their new agency, Kompass Music Group. The vision behind Kompass Music Group is rooted in its goal to retool how the music industry is structured, providing unique support to their roster of artists while simultaneously spreading that influence into each sector of the music space. They aim to address and develop a stronger community understanding of topics such as sexual violence, risk reduction, mental health, diversity and inclusion, and environmental health. To help execute their key initiatives, Kompass has tapped 4’ o’clock Consulting. Founders Kristin Karas, COO of DanceSafe and Stacey Forrester, Co-Founder of Goo...
Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing? How Spotify’s Discovery Mode May Harm Artists and Listeners
This is an opinion column. The thoughts and viewpoints expressed are those of the author, Richard James Burgess. Burgess, who is credited for coining the music genre terms “EDM” and “New Romantic,” is the CEO of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM). On its face, Spotify’s Discovery Mode might seem like a boon for some artists. Agree to accept a reduced royalty rate and the platform’s algorithms will suggest that artist’s music to more users—in hopes of expanding their base of listeners. But the scheme will most likely generate more profit for Spotify while hurting the very people Discovery Mode is alleged to benefit: artists and listeners. Spotify’s Broken Promise to Listeners When Spotify launched, its premise was an exci...
Three in Four Black Music Professionals Have Experienced Racism, Study Finds
New research out of the U.K. has put numbers to the issue of racism in the music industry. Thorough and wide-reaching, the first-of-its-kind study, titled “Being Black in the UK Music Industry,” quantifies experiences of anti-Blackness and its consequences on wages, mental health and education. On both the creative and business ends, 88% of Black music professionals have experienced direct or indirect racism in their line of work, according to the study. “We’re not allowed to be above average…We’re expected to be perfect,” one respondent described. “We’re expected to be the full package before our career has even started.” Nearly three in four Black respondents have also experienced racial microaggressions: “...
