Royalties
Publishing Rights for Avicii’s “Without You” Fetch $65,000 at Auction
The publishing rights to one of Avicii’s most iconic songs has hit the auction market, creating an opportunity for one lucky investor to effectively own a piece of dance music history. It was a track teased heavily in the late years of Avicii’s life. When he first began playing “Without You” in 2016 at high-profile appearances such as Ultra Music Festival and Creamfields, several rough rips began to pop up online as fans feverishly speculated its release date. However, it wasn’t until August 2017 that we finally witnessed the chemistry between Avicii and Sandro Cavazza on the heartstring-tugging collaboration. The publishing rights to “Without You” recently landed on Royalty Exchange, an emerging marketplace which facilitates the sale of royalty-generating ass...
EFCC: Top government officials involved in illicit financial flows
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has accused Nigerian leaders and top government officials of aiding the Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) activities in the country. The EFCC also revealed that corrupt government officials and their private sector collaborators used fronts and ownership structures that do not provide sufficient information about the true identities of the natural persons behind the title to hide illicit money and transferred same to safe havens abroad. The Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Abduralsheed Bawa, disclosed this during a one-day conference that was organised by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CSLAC) on IFF on Corruption in Arbitration in Abuja Bawa, who was represented by the Head of Research Unit, Department of Policy Research a...
Eddie Johns, Artist Behind Daft Punk’s “One More Time” Sample, Seeks Royalties for Source Material
Despite providing the source material for one of Daft Punk‘s biggest hits, artist Eddie Johns has reportedly spent decades uncompensated for his work. That may soon change, however, as news of the legendary duo’s breakup has sparked a renewed drive to get Johns credited, which started with Johns’ case manager Alyssa Cash. Johns, who previously spent over a decade shuffling through homeless shelters, had his original song “More Spell On You” sampled by Daft Punk to create “One More Time.” “He showed me his album cover and when I found this video talking about how it was sampled by Daft Punk, it was like a lightbulb went off,” Cash recalled. “‘That’s Eddie, this is his song.'” The Los Angeles Times ...
US Senators urge Joe Biden to impose more sanctions on Myanmar junta
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Tuesday urged the Biden administration to slap more sanctions on the military junta in Myanmar, including choking revenues to a state energy company, in response to its coup and violent crackdown on protesters. Senators Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Republican, and four others urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a letter to “explore new avenues to support the people of Burma in their ongoing struggle for democracy in the face of escalating crimes against humanity.” They want the Biden administration to stop royalties flowing from businesses including U.S. energy major Chevron to Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, or MOGE, an agency within the energy ministry, that provides financial support to mil...
DPR: We’ve accurate record of crude production
File Photo The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on Friday debunked claims that the exact volume of crude oil produced in the country was not known. Mr Paul Osu, Head, Public Affairs, DPR, in a statement issued in Lagos, said every litre of crude produced in the country was adequately captured during the process of extraction. Osu said it was the responsibility of the DPR to monitor and account for crude oil production as basis for determining government’s revenue through royalty payments by operators for sustainable development. He said: “As a further step to boosting crude accounting process from production to export, DPR recently launched the National Production Monitoring System (NPMS). “NPMS is an online platform for direct and independent acquisition of production data from oil...
Apple Music pays one penny per stream
Engadget Apple Music’s payment rate for artists and labels is fundamentally a penny per stream, according to a letter from the company posted on its artist dashboard and first reported by the Wall Street Journal. That payment rate is higher than Spotify, which has a confusing variable rate scheme that basically tops out at a half-penny per stream. Announcing a penny-per-stream rate is a nice PR win for Apple Music, since it is 1. very simple and 2. Spotify hates talking about its per-stream payments, which the company insists are a misleading figure. Seriously, it just launched an entire website called Loud&Clear last month designed to help artists and fans understand how payments work, and a good chunk of it is devoted to explaining why per-stream rates are not the right thing to focu...
Spotify’s 10 Highest-Earning Artists Have Raked in a Combined $337 Million
An analysis published by financial publication Top Dollar has revealed Spotify‘s top earners and assets—and the numbers are eye-popping. Perhaps not surprising, Drake is the current king of Spotify with a take of $52.5 million in earnings generated from his 21.5 billion streams. His haul is unmatched, even by J Balvin, who took the #2 spot on the outlet’s “Spotify Rich List” by netting $37.9M. The first sighting of dance music producers comes at #16 with The Chainsmokers, who’ve generated an impressive 7.2 billion streams and $17.7 million. Calvin Harris has taken home a cool $14 million so far, landing him at #25. Drake, Post Malone, Ariana Grande, Bad Bunny, and more landed on Top Dollar’s “Spotify Rich List.” c/o Top Dollar ...
Court stops COSON from general distribution practice
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has declared that the General Distribution which is practised by the Copyright Society of Nigeria, COSON, is illegal. The practise involves the annual distribution of the same amount of music royalties, usually about N30,000 each, to thousands of the organization’s members. This practice was challenged in court by the Music Publishers’ Association of Nigeria, MPAN, in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1418/2019; Green Light Music Publishing Ltd, Chocolate City Music Ltd, Premier Music Publishing Company Ltd v. Copyright Society of Nigeria Ltd/Gte. The judgement which was delivered on November 25, 2020, by Justice Oguntoyinbo also ordered COSON to stop further distribution of royalties “in a manner known as ‘General Distribution’ or how so ever called which does not re...
Fiona Apple to Donate Two Years’ Worth of Song Royalties to Charity
Last year, Fiona Apple donated $90,000 worth of royalties from TV and movie placements of her hit song “Criminal” to While They Wait Fund, an organization that provides refugees with legal services and basic necessities. Apple is now launching a similar charitable campaign using two songs off her superb album Fetch the Bolt Cutters. According to a statement, Apple said that for the next two years she will pledge all royalties from TV and movie placements of “Shameika” and “Heavy Balloon” to a pair of nonprofit organizations. Royalties for the former will be given to the Harlem Children’s Zone, which helps support the higher education of kids. Earned royalties for the latter, meanwhile, will benefit Seeding Sovereignty, an Indigenous-led collective working to dismantle imperialist instituti...
