Streaming
Spotify’s Discovery Mode Under Scrutiny by Congress (Again)
Members of Congress are once again taking aim at Spotify’s controversial Discovery Mode feature, which allows artists and labels to receive a lower royalty rate on select tracks in exchange for higher priority in the platform’s algorithms. In a letter obtained by Billboard, dated March 29, 2022 and addressed to Spotify founder, CEO and chairman Daniel Ek, Reps. Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY), Judy Chu (D-CA) and Tony Cardenas (D-CA) – co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Multicultural Media – express concerns that Discovery Mode “lacks transparency” for both artists and consumers and ask the company to publish “on a monthly basis the name of every track enrolled in the program” and the agreed-upon discounted royalty rate for each. Variety first reported on the letter. “Choosing to accept...
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek to Be Deposed in Eminem Copyright Infringement Suit
A federal judge says Spotify CEO Daniel Ek must sit for depositions in a copyright lawsuit over Eminem’s music, rejecting the streamer’s arguments that he’s not personally involved in “day-to-day” licensing operations or that he’s too busy to participate in the case. Spotify claimed that Ek had little information to offer about the lawsuit and that Eight Mile Style was trying to drag him into a deposition simply to “harass and annoy” him. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffery S. Frensley ruled Thursday (March 31) that the executive would need to find the time. “Undoubtedly Mr. Ek has a full schedule [and] the Court credits Spotify’s assertion that he is very busy indeed,” Judge Frensley wrote. “Yet, the issue of proper licensing relationships with the artists whose work comprises the entirety ...
New Around the World: Demi Lovato’s ‘Cool for the Summer’ Reheats on Global Charts
Glass Animals, GAYLE and Anitta infuse the upper reaches of the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated April 2) with songs from 2020, ’21 and ’22, respectively. But elsewhere on the global tallies, a hit from the mid-2010s roars back. Demi Lovato debuts in the top half of both global charts with 2015’s “Cool for the Summer,” at No. 66 on the Global Excl. U.S. list and at No. 93 on the Global 200. The song, from 2015, earned 13.4 million official streams and sold 950 downloads worldwide in the week ending March 24, according to Luminate, formerly MRC Data. Those figures represent increases of 224% and 573%, respectively, week-over-week. [embedded content] “Cool” is resurging as a sped-up, pitched-up remix of it has gone viral, soundtracking numerous dance videos ...
New Around the World: Aitch & Ashanti’s ‘Baby’ Update Hits Global Excl. U.S. Chart
Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” continues to simmer atop the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated March 26), while Lil Durk debuts a double-digit sum of tracks from his new No. 1 Billboard 200 album, 7220, on the Global 200. Elsewhere on this week’s global surveys, British rapper Aitch makes his first appearance, debuting on the Global Excl. U.S. list at No. 109 with “Baby,” alongside Ashanti. Released March 10, the song arrives propelled by 7.2 million official streams and 2,300 downloads sold outside the U.S. in the week ending March 17, according to Luminate, formerly MRC Data. Those figures make up 96% and 98%, respectively, of the song’s worldwide totals. It’s likewise the first global chart entry for New York-born Ashanti, building upon her extensive U.S. ch...
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 ...
Amazon Closes $8.5 Billion Deal to Acquire MGM
Amazon has officially brought yet another company under its wing. Jeff Bezos’ empire announced today that it has closed its $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM. The deal, which was first announced back in May 2021, adds more than 4,000 movies and 17,000 TV shows to Amazon’s Prime Video catalog. This merger means that giant franchises like the James Bond series, as well as Silence of the Lambs, Rocky, and The Hobbit, now belong to Amazon. The company now owns the rights to some storied TV classics, such as The Apprentice and the fabled racist Donald Trump tapes. With their ownership of MGM’s studios now in effect, Amazon plans to use the acquisition to boost Prime Video and Amazon Studios’ growing catalog of new originals. Advertisement Related Video “The storied, nearly century-old studio — wi...
Netflix Tests New Fee for Sharing Passwords Between Households
The modern American family is held together as much by shared streaming passwords as it is by love. Many first calls from college are prompted by a blank Netflix login screen, and every additional personal account represents someone who knows the secret word, one our most prized shibboleths. Netflix knows we love those people, even when they live in other households, and it’s now trying to puzzle out exactly how many more dollars per month we love them. In a new blog post, the streaming giant announced that it would test new multiple-household password-sharing fees in three markets: Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. Of course, they didn’t use the word ‘fee,’ but that’s what you’re left with once you’ve translated from the original corporate gobbledygook: “We’ve been working on ways t...
HBO Max and Discovery+ to Merge into One Streaming Platform
The streaming wars continue to escalate as plans to consolidate Discovery+ and HBO Max into one streaming platform were announced today (March 14th). As reported by Variety, Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels has revealed that the two company’s flagship apps will initially be offered as a bundle with the goal of integrating them into a single service “in several months.” “One of the most important items here is that we believe in a combined product as opposed to a bundle,” Wiedenfels said at the Deutsche Bank 30th Annual Media, Internet & Telecom Conference. “The question is, in order to get to that point and do it in a way that’s actually a great user experience for our subscribers, that’s going to take some time. Again, that’s nothing that’s going to happen in weeks — hopefully not in y...
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...
Executive of the Week: Spotify Global Head of Editorial Sulinna Ong
As global head of editorial at the biggest music streamer in the world, Sulinna Ong has plenty on her plate — not least of which is overseeing the programming of Spotify’s playlists across genres, territories and fandoms. And this past week has been a big one for Ong and her team, as they revamped Spotify’s flagship K-Pop playlist, K-Pop ON! (온), with a new name, a massive marketing push and a focused plan for new content catered to fans of the genre that has expanded significantly around the world in recent years. And the push has already started to pay off: daily streams and listening hours for the playlists grew 40% week over week, according to Spotify, and the playlist moved into the top five of the company’s most-streamed playlists, which Ong says is “a first for the playlist and the ...
Spotify Suspends Premium Accounts in Russia
Spotify has suspended its premium accounts in Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, a company executive said on Wednesday (March 9). Paul Vogel, the streaming platform’s CFO, said the shutdown would result in a loss of about 1.5 million paying customers in the first quarter of 2022, Variety reported. That is not expected to be material for the company: Russia represents less than 1% of Spotify’s total revenue of 9.67 billion euros ($10.93 billion) in 2021, up 22.7% from 2020. In the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Spotify said last Wednesday that it was closing its office in Russia and removing content from state-sponsored broadcasters RT and Sputnik. The platform has been unable to add new premium accounts or to run advertising in Russia since credit card companies Visa, Mas...
‘Euphoria’ Synchs Drive Streaming Gains ‘Unlike Any Other TV Show’
Since its debut in 2018, HBO’s high school drama Euphoria has been a sensation, but when the show came back for its long awaited second season on Jan. 9, 2022, it reached new heights — and helped a handful of hits experience a second spike of popularity along the way. With a viewership doubling over the first three episodes, as Variety reported in February, Euphoria‘s new season quickly became an important vehicle for massive streaming bumps of older tracks. For the show’s music — which pivots from Thelonius Monk or Judy Garland to Lil Xan and 100 Gecs’ Laura Les within a single hour-long episode, all curated by music supervisor Jen Malone and featuring an original score by producer-artist Labrinth — there was a measurable spike in listenership after each episode aired for nearly every s...
