Streaming
AI-Driven Rights Management Agency Muserk Forms Joint Venture to Reduce Piracy of Japanese Content
Muserk, the AI tech-driven global rights management agency for music and video, has partnered with leading Japanese marketing and media research company Video Research on a new joint venture designed to cut down on piracy of Japanese content worldwide. Dubbed Muserk V.I.D., the venture “will service, manage and protect the online rights of the major broadcasters, networks, and production companies of Japan, around the world,” according to a release announcing the deal. Through the partnership with Muserk, Video Research – which provides marketing, media and TV audience research for leading media firms and advertisers in Japan – will utilize Muserk’s AI technologies, M-Match and M-PAC, to manage and protect its clients’ online video rights. Founded by CEO Paul Goldman – who will serve as CE...
Executive Turntable: TalentX Founder Named Triller Chief Strategy Officer, Radio Promo Vets Launch New Company
Social media star, entrepreneur and TalentX Entertainment co-founder Josh Richards has been named chief strategy officer at AI-driven music video and entertainment platform Triller, which he also invested in. In his new role, Richards will lead strategy at Triller while also overseeing the company’s implementation of live streaming and monetization tools. Triller, a rival to the wildly popular video-sharing platform TikTok, last year raised $28 million in a funding round led by Proxima Media last year, also drawing investors including Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne. In June, the platform — which currently has music licensing partnerships with Warner, Sony Music and UMG — hit 50 million monthly active users. “After seeing the US and other countries’ governments’ concerns over Tik...
Amazon Prospers During Pandemic With Expectation-Beating Results
Amazon dodged a coronavirus bullet in its second quarter, posting big gains in sales and operating income as shoppers around the world stayed home and did the bulk of their shopping online. The online retail giant, which operates the Amazon Music streaming platform and is one of a small handful of tech companies in the “trillion-dollar club”, reported net sales of $88.9 billion in the quarter ending June 30, 2020, beating analysts’ expectations with a whopping 40 per cent improvement on the same period last year. Also during the period, operating income almost doubled to $5.8 billion, up from $3.1 billion in second quarter of the previous year. Revenue from subscription services ballooned to $6 billion, well advanced from the $4.6 billion reported in the corresponding per...
Disney+ Tackling Adaptation of Broadway Musical ‘Once On This Island’
With Hamilton on Disney+ being a runaway sensation, The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the streaming service is working to bring another Broadway musical to the screen. Playwright Jocelyn Bioh and director Wanuri Kahiu are developing Once On This Island, a feature adaptation of the 1990 Broadway musical that is based on the Rosa Guy novel, My Love, My Love; or, The Peasant Girl. Marc Platt, the producer behind Broadway’s Wicked as well as movies ranging from Legally Blonde to La La Land, is producing. As opposed to Hamilton, which was a recording of a stage performance, Island will be a more traditional adaptation. Disney’s live-action division is running point on the project. The story is set in the French Antilles in the Caribbean Sea and tells of a peasant girl who falls in l...
SiriusXM, Pandora Add Self-Pay Subscribers, Advertising Falls Amid Pandemic
Audio entertainment giant SiriusXM, the home of Howard Stern, on Thursday said it added self-pay subscribers in its satellite radio and Pandora businesses for the second quarter, the first one that was fully affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The company, controlled by John Malone‘s Liberty Media, said its satellite radio subscribers fell when including promotional subs, just like had been the case in the first quarter. In the year-ago period, it had added a total of 174,000 net users. In the latest period, SiriusXM added 264,000 self-pay customers, but lost 768,000 promotional subs to end June with 30.3 million self-pay and 34.3 million total users, down 516,000. “Paid promotional subscribers decreased due to declines in shipments from automakers offering paid trial su...
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Grilled at Big Tech Hearing About Being Unfair to Streamers
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos might be the richest person in the world, but he’s also a rookie. Until Wednesday, he had never before been grilled by lawmakers on Capitol Hill. That changed today when top executives at the nation’s leading technology companies gathered — at least virtually — for testimony before a House of Representatives antitrust subcommittee. There, Bezos faced blistering questions about whether the e-commerce giant has abused its market power. “A lot of people want to know when the HBO Max app will be available on your Fire devices,” Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told Bezos. “I understand negotiations are ongoing but your company is not only asking for financial terms but also for content from Warner Media…. Is it fair to use your gatekeepe...
What’s Streaming on Shudder in August 2020
Shudder is ready to close out the summer by turning up the heat. In August, AMC’s horror streaming service has curated a twisted lineup of originals, classics, and premieres to get us ready for the spooky season ahead. For original features, there’s Rob Savage’s quarantine-based Host, Jayro Bustamante’s politically-charged La Llorona, Jay Baruchel’s new slasher Random Acts of Violence, and Frank Sabatella’s vampiric subversion The Shed. And after kicking off summer, Joe Bob Briggs is ready to bring the house down with a double-feature they’ve dubbed a Summer Sleepover. Special guests are promised, and they’ve already confirmed Hatchet director Adam Green. But there are also a handful of classic being added to the service, including Jawbreaker, Urban Legends: Final Cut, and the original Rin...
Stone Temple Pilots to Perform Core in Its Entirety During Livestream
Stone Temple Pilots, featuring current lead singer Jeff Gutt, have announced an upcoming livestream performance of their classic 1992 debut album, Core. Plus, they’ve released a pair of archival concert recordings from 2011 and 2019, the former featuring the late Scott Weiland, the band’s original frontman. As live music remains in a relative stasis during the pandemic, the Stone Temple Pilots livestream is the latest in a bevy of virtual performances from isolated bands and artists. Like a ticket to a physical concert, access to the pay-per-view performance costs $9.99. The show airs next Friday (July 31st) at 5:00 p.m. PT / 8:00 p.m. ET via live music curator nugs.tv. Stone Temple Pilots are also sharing shows from 2011 and 2019 via nugs, which hosts official live recordings of many popu...
The Sword Announce Conquest of Quarantine Session, Cover T. Rex’s “Children of the Revolution”: Watch
The Sword have announced a new socially distant performance series, Conquest of Quarantine. The heavy rockers are today premiering the first tune from the three-song lockdown session, a cover of T. Rex’s “Children of the Revolution’, exclusively via Heavy Consequence. The new series comes on the heels of The Sword’s recent career-spanning compilations, Conquest of Kingdoms and Chronology 2006-2018. Both cull archival live recordings, B-sides, and rarities. As singer-guitarist J.D. Cronise told us in our recent interview, the band hoped to tour in support of the album before the pandemic effectively paused live music. Instead, The Sword performed together virtually in isolation and streaming the footage for fans. “Since we’re not touring this summer as originally planned, we figured we shou...
Clutch Announce Live from the Doom Saloon Volume II Livestream Concert
If you’ve ever wanted to build your own Clutch setlist, now’s your chance. The band might even play it during its upcoming livestream performance, dubbed “Live from the Doom Saloon Volume II”. Clutch are encouraging fans to pick their “dream 14-song setlist” for the virtual concert, which costs $9 and streams at 5:00 p.m. PT / 8:00 p.m. ET on August 7th (and available on-demand through that weekend). Donations from the show go to benefit the Innocent Lives Foundation. Any Clutch song from their 1991 “Pitchfork” 7-inch through 2018’s Book of Bad Decisions and their recent Weathermaker Vault Series is game. It’s a lot to choose from, but whoever submits the winning setlist — as picked by the band — will receive an insane prize pack including: a TremLord 30 combo amplifier from Orange Am...
Brazilian Funk Powerhouse KondZilla Launches Twitch Channel With Exclusive Deal
The arrangement — which involves exclusive music, video and gaming content — follows the Twitch deal with rapper Logic earlier this week. Brazilian funk music company KondZilla, which operates one of the biggest YouTube channels in the world, has signed a partnership with Twitch to operate a channel on the streaming platform, in one of the first major deals Twitch has done with an international artist or label. Under terms of its deal, KondZilla is providing exclusive music, gaming, video and podcast content, including live remixing of video game tracks produced by DJs on Kondzilla Records, Andre Izidro, head of marketing and intelligence at KondZilla, tells Billboard. The Twitch channel will promote games, chats and feature funk music and stars from KondZilla, such as Mc Jotta...
Spotify and Universal Music Group Ink Licensing Deal, Expanding Label’s Role as ‘Early Adopter’ of Tools
Spotify and Universal Music Group have finalized a new and expanded multi-year global licensing agreement. As part of the arrangement, announced Wednesday (July 22), the label group deepens its role as an early adopter of Spotify’s marketing tools and other tech features that both parties hope will foster more impactful connections between fans and artists in innovative ways. “With this agreement, UMG and Spotify are more aligned than ever in our commitment to ensuring the entire music ecosystem thrives and reaches new audiences around the globe,” said Sir Lucian Grainge, UMG chairman and CEO, in a statement. “Given our commitment to innovation and early adoption of music technologies, and Spotify’s leadership in the development of forward-thinking tools, our ...
