Streaming
Controversial Twitch Leak Highlights Gap In Compensation Between Streamers and Musicians
A massive leak in confidential data from Twitch is highlighting the disparity between the take-home pay of the platform’s top gamers versus artists. The breach, which was confirmed by Twitch on October 6th, reportedly amounted to over 100GB of crucial data stolen, according to BBC News. At the time of writing, Twitch’s analysis of how it all happened is still ongoing. In the meantime, the internet has been feverishly dissecting the documents, some of which contain sensitive information related to compensation. For the music industry, there’s at least one key takeaway: there is a wide gulf between the earnings of top gaming personalities versus the platform’s top musicians. The top earning musician on Twitch from August 2019 to October 2021 is prolif...
R. Kelly’s Music Sees Major Spike in Streaming and Sales Following Guilty Verdict
R. Kelly may have been found guilty last month in his federal sex crimes trial, but the news seems to have caused a major spike in his sales and streaming numbers. According to streaming data provided by Billboard, the disgraced artist’s catalog experienced a 14% rise in streaming during the week of his September 27th conviction, as well as a 55% rise in radio play across the country. However, the real impact came in the week immediately following the guilty verdict. A report by Rolling Stone points out R. Kelly’s music received a 500% surge in sales, while his streaming numbers also rose by another 22% from the week prior. Advertisement Related Video Interestingly, a comparable bump came back in January 2019 when Lifetime first began airing its bombshell documentary series Surviving R. Ke...
Twitch Claims “Server Configuration Change” Allowed Hackers To Gain Access Private Information
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty Following a massive hack, Twitch has released an update on the situation. Here is what you need to know. It’s been a lousy month for technology. First, Facebook and its family of social media apps suffered a massive outage due to a mistake on their end. Now, Twitch has confirmed in a tweet that it was indeed the victim of a massive data breach which resulted in its source code and other private information leaking out. The Twitch spokesperson revealed a hacker gained access to the company’s servers due to a misconfiguration change. “We can confirm a breach has taken place,” the tweet reads, “Our teams are working with urgency to understand the extent of this. We will update the community as soon as additional information is availabl...
R. Kelly’s YouTube Channels Are Terminated
The Alphabet-owned streaming giant terminated the channels based on its creator responsibility guidelines which, in 2018, were updated to penalize creators for behavior off the platform. Per those guidelines, the tech giant can terminate a creator’s channels if they’re accused of a very egregious crime and if the content is closely related to the crimes, or should the creator be convicted or plead guilty. And based on its “repeat infringer” policies, R. Kelly (full name Robert Sylvester Kelly) will be banned from using, owning, or creating any other YouTube channels going forward. “We can confirm that we have terminated two channels linked to R. Kelly in accordance with our creator responsibility guidelines,” reads a YouTube statement, provided to Billboard. Kelly failed those guidel...
Pandora Is Shutting Down Next Big Sound
The post characterizes the platform’s closure as “the final step of a multi-year transition,” adding that the Next Big Sound team “is excited to focus on improving and expanding” Pandora’s Artist Marketing Platform (AMP), which provides artists with streaming data around their music on the service. The AMP tools have been a focus for Next Big Sound since shortly after Pandora’s acquisition of the company in 2015. Moving forward, AMP will continue sharing Pandora streaming data with Next Big Sound partners including Billboard, MRC Data and Chartmetric. Next Big Sound adds it is working to ensure that the integration process “is as seamless as possible for all of our users and partners,” noting that full track-level reporting is already available in Pandora’s AMP dashboard. That said, ...
Electronic Livestream Mainstay Boiler Room Acquired by Ticketing Platform Dice
The company plans to work with Boiler Room on enhancing its programming and creating additional revenue for artists, rights holders, collectives, festivals and clubs. U.K.-based ticketing platform Dice has acquired the long-running electronic livestream series Boiler Room. According to a statement from Dice, the company plans to work with Boiler Room on enhancing its programming and creating additional revenue for artists, rights holders, collectives, festivals and clubs. The news comes just a week after Dice announced that it would use its newly-acquired $122 million in Series C funding to grow its team, reach new artists and venues and expand its livestream offerings. Founded in 2014, Dice is a discovery and events app that works with over 3,600 venues, festivals and promoters ...
New Study Reveals Fewer Than 800 U.K. Musicians Make Livable Wage From Music Streaming
A new study has revealed that only approximately 720 of musicians in the U.K. earn enough money from music streaming to sustain a living. Analyzing data from 2014-2020—along with focus groups and interviews with musicians—the Intellectual Property Office released the “Music Creators’ Earnings In The Digital Era” study, which revealed that only the top 0.4% of UK artists make a livable wage from streaming on platforms like Spotify or Apple Music. 1,723 artists in total fell into the top 0.4% bracket, but the majority of those artists were not native to the U.K. U.S.-based artists accounted for 43.2% of the top streams in the U.K. Haithem Ferdi Recommended Articles “We estimate that this 1,723 UK figure may translate into around 720 UK artists achieving this ...
What’s the Deal with Seinfeld’s Bizarre Pilot?
In this age of streaming, serialized television, and full-season orders for everything, the pilot feels like a lost, forgotten art. You see, kids, back when television aired on a handful of networks and you had to watch whatever happened to be on the boob tube at any given moment, network executives would order a test episode, or “pilot,” to see whether a show would work. It’s a pre-natal version of the show you’d come to know and love, often with characters, approaches, or visual tics that were dropped by episode 2. Now, Netflix is bringing Seinfeld, in all its remastered HD glory, to its shores on October 1st, offering audiences new and old the chance to binge their way through all ten seasons of the iconic, game-changing sitcom. But if you truly start at the beginning, with its dee...
Dave Chappelle Announces New Netflix Special The Closer
Dave Chappelle is here to rescue you from your existential dread — or, at least he’s going to try. Today, the renowned comedian has unveiled the trailer for The Closer, his new Netflix standup special, just ahead of its release on October 5th. “Comedians have a responsibility to speak recklessly,” Chappelle says in the trailer’s first seconds. “Sometimes, the funniest thing to say is mean. Remember: I’m not saying it to be mean, I’m saying it because it’s funny.” Billed as Chappelle’s “sixth chapter” — meaning his sixth Netflix special overall — The Closer follows 2019’s Sticks & Stones. See the trailer for The Closer below. Chappelle’s 2021 so far has been mind-boggling, to say the least. Back in June, he joined Foo Fighters onstage at Madison Square Garden fo...
Warner Music Becomes Twitch’s First Major-Label Partner
Warner Music Group (WMG) is the first major recording company to partner with Twitch in a deal that will bring WMG artist channels, original music programming and more to the livestreaming platform. To start, WMG is launching artist channels for Warner Records stars Bella Poarch and Saweetie, plus Atlantic Records singer and producer Sueco, where they’ll share exclusive and behind-the-scenes content. Additionally, social media-focused digital media company IMGN — which WMG acquired last year — will produce a slate of original shows like “The Drop,” to discuss music news; “Freestyle Throwdown,” where rappers freestyle based on topics chosen by the audience; and “The One,” where guest artists perform the songs that influenced them. “...
Netflix Drops Dazzling Opening Title Sequence for Cowboy Bebop: Watch
Netflix has unveiled the opening credits to its highly-anticipated adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. Watch the intro below. Taking cues from the beloved original anime series, the colorful sequence is equal parts comic book ka-pow and live action noir as it introduces viewers to the show’s titular gang of interstellar bounty hunters over a jazzy rendition of the anime’s original theme song — “Tank!” by composer Yoko Kanno‘s band Seatbelts. “I think it’s time we blow this thing/ Get everybody and their stuff together/ OK, 3, 2, 1, let’s jam,” pronounces a male voice, kicking the action off over a jumping bassline and the blast of a full horn section. Cowboy Bebop stars John Cho as Spike Siegel, Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black, Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine, Elena Satine as Julia, and Alex Hassell...
Netflix Summons the Lord of Dreams in First Teaser for The Sandman: Watch
Netflix has released a first look at its upcoming adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. Watch it below. “Tonight, we will achieve what no one has even attempted. We will summon and imprison…Death,” promises Charles Dance’s Roderick Burgess. The occultist then performs a ceremony, however, that brings forth not Death, but Dream, played by Tom Sturridge. While not shown in the teaser, the series also reunites Dance with his Game of Thrones co-star Gwendoline Christie, who plays Lucifer. Other stars in the series include Boyd Holbrook (Corinthian), Vivienne Acheampong (Lucienne), Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Death), Asim Chaudhry (Abel), Sanjeev Bhaskar (Cain), and more. Advertisement Related Video Based on Gaiman’s 1989 comic book published by DC Comics, The Sandman will premiere sometime later...
