Streaming
James Earl Jones Abdicates Darth Vader Voice Role to AI Technology
James Earl Jones has apparently relinquished the role of lead Star Wars antagonist Darth Vader to AI voice technology. The 91-year old actor and EGOT winner originated the character with his vocal performance in 1977’s Star Wars. In a report by Vanity Fair about the Ukrainian start-up Respeecher, it was revealed that the process of transitioning the vocal responsibilities from Jones to the company’s proprietary AI algorithm has been ongoing since the Sith Lord’s revival in the 2022 Star Wars prequel series, Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Respeecher programmers employed an algorithm that uses archival recordings to create new dialogue. Jones provided his singular, sinister take on Darth Vader for a number of Star Wars spin-offs throughout the years, but his last contribution came in 2019’s The Ri...
Streaming Is Growing — Just Not Like It Used To: 5 Takeaways From the RIAA Mid-Year Report
The music subscription market, the driving force behind the U.S. recorded music industry’s six-year growth streak, posted another gain in the first half of 2022, according to RIAA midyear figures released Wednesday (Sept. 21). But revenue from paid services such as Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music have slowed from earlier break-neck paces. After rising at double-digit growth rates in recent years, subscription revenue grew by only 9.4% in the first half of 2022, down from 11.3% at the mid-point of 2021 and 13.7% at the mid-point of 2020. The $387.6 million increase, to $4.5 billion, was less than half of the $823.5 million reported a year earlier, a period in which streaming services surged during the early pandemic’s lock-down periods and strict restrictions. Still, subscription rev...
‘Andor’: How to Stream the ‘Star Wars’ Prequel Series on Disney+
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. A new era begins with Andor, the Rogue One prequel series, now streaming on Disney+. The three-episode premiere arrived on Wednesday (Sept 21). Diego Luna stars as Andor in the 12-episode series from the Star Wars franchise, which follows Cassian Andor’s journey as a rebel hero. Stellan Skarsgård, Genevive O’Reilly, Alex Ferns, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona and Denise Gough are among the cast. Read on for details on how to watch Andor and other Disney+ exclusives for free. How to Watch Andor on Disney+ Andor is streaming exclusively on Disney+, at no extr...
Tiktok Owner ByteDance Offers to Buy Back $3B in Outstanding Shares
TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. could spend as much as $3 billion to buy back shares from investors after the company scrapped its plans to go public this year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing a memo sent to ByteDance investors. The China-based company offered to repurchase investors’ existing shares for up to $176.94 per share, a move that would value ByteDance at close to $300 billion, much higher than previously reported, according to the WSJ. While the company did not provide a reason for the share repurchase in its memo, the move would provide liquidity to some of its long-term shareholders, offering some recompense for the scrapped IPO plans, the WSJ reported. ByteDance indefinitely shelved plans for an initial public offering in the U.S. or Hong Kon...
The Ledger: Spotify Beats SXM Media to Top Podcast Network Rankings
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. With the help of ratings juggernaut Joe Rogan, Spotify topped SXM Media — just barely — in Edison Research’s Q2 2022 podcast network rankings, covering April 1 to June 30, after taking the runner-up position the previous two quarters. The streaming company has made Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, a cornerstone in its efforts to expand the audio platform beyond its music roots. If Rogan’s role was to help make Spotify a podcast leader, he accomplished his mission. “Rogan is not the only reason they’re no. 1, but he’s the main reason,” says Edison Research president Larry Rosin. For all the c...
Ben Gibbard Talks Death Cab for Cutie at 25 Years and Today’s ‘Unfair and Unethical’ Streaming Economy
Twenty-five years after Death Cab for Cutie began as a solo project for frontman Ben Gibbard, the indie band is thriving. As the quintet celebrates its silver anniversary, they’re showing no signs of following anyone into the dark. Their 10th album, Asphalt Meadows (out now), follows 2018’s Thank You for Today and has already spawned the group’s seventh No. 1 Adult Alternative Airplay hit with “Here to Forever.” Plus, Death Cab is revving up to launch a tour on Sept. 22 in Madison, Wisconsin. Here, Gibbard shares how the Seattle-based band wrote Asphalt Meadows during the pandemic, what the group’s legacy is after 25 years and the moment he knew that they had arrived. Congratulations on your 10th album. That’s a big milestone number. Did you go into it wanting to create something special t...
Cinq Sues Create Music Group for ‘Falsely Claiming’ Copyright Infringement
Record label and distributor Cinq Music Group sued Create Music Group on Monday, accusing the company of preventing it from monetizing Swell’s 2016 song “I’m Sorry” on YouTube. Cinq’s complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, asks for “no less than $200,000” in damages, claiming intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic relations, and negligent interference with prospective economic relations. Billboard previously reported that more than 10 sources — including artist managers, lawyers and executives at other royalty collection companies — said they know of times when Create has claimed YouTube publishing royalties it has no right to receive. Create vehemently denied the allegations. Cinq’s lawsuit, in contrast, invol...
Can YouTube Catch Spotify to Become Music’s Top Royalty Stream?
Spotify is the king of music streaming — but its lead is dwindling. YouTube generated over $6 billion to the music industry in the 12 months ended June 2022, the company announced Tuesday (Sept. 13). That was a 50% increase from the last figure YouTube reported, $4 billion over a 12-month period, in June 2020. Reaching the $6 billion milestone raises the question of when — if at all — YouTube might surpass Spotify in terms of value to rights holders and creators. “We want our twin engine of ads and subscriptions to be the #1 contributor of revenue to the industry by 2025,” wrote Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s global head of music, in a blog post on Tuesday. That won’t be easy, but it isn’t impossible. Consider how fast YouTube has grown since Cohen joined the company from Warner Music Group (where ...
The Santa Clauses Trailer Finds Tim Allen’s Potential Replacement in Peyton Manning?: Watch
Tim Allen may have been unceremoniously replaced in the new Buzz Lightyear movie, but he’s bowing out gracefully in The Santa Clauses, the Disney+ sequel series to his long-running Christmas comedy franchise. Watch the first trailer below. The preview opens with a solemn announcement from Allen’s jolly, ol’ Kris Kringle: “For the good of Christmas, for the good of my family, I, Santa Claus have decided to retire.” The news doesn’t exactly land with a warm reception from the elves in Santa’s workshop, who devolve into despair and lead their big boss man Mr. Claus to ask, “we have a grief counselor, right?” It won’t be a complete Blue Christmas though as Santa sets off to find his successor. Unlike the 1994 film’s fine-print fiasco that initially caused the unsuspecting Christmas curmudgeon ...
Netflix Might Abandon the Binge Model and Start Releasing TV Episodes Weekly
Netflix made binge-watching famous, but as the streaming industry looks more and more like cable with content split between a million competitors, Netflix may soon adopt cable’s traditional releasing model, too. According to Puck News, the platform is considering releasing episodes of TV shows weekly instead of all at once. Puck’s new profile on Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings reports that “Netflix says there’s no hard evidence that week-to-week episodes reduce subscriber churn, but the Netflix churn rate has been inching higher, and it is now the only streamer with a default all-at-once strategy.” Because of this, Hastings “appears” to be willing to switch models after previously refusing to abandoning binge mode. The argument for releasing episodes weekly is that it drums up consistent ...
Surprise! BTS: PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE – LA Is Now Streaming on Disney+
Surprise! As part of the Disney+ Day celebration, BTS’s PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE – LA is now streaming on the platform as of today (September 8th). PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE – LA is described as a “stage-focused” concert film, showcasing the enormous event held at So-Fi Stadium at the end of 2021. The four concerts, November 27th-28th and December 1st-2nd, saw the 70,000-seat arena entirely sold out for all four nights. (Read our recap of the spectacular show here.) While the timing is a surprise, this concert film was announced without a release date in July as one of multiple projects created for Disney+, alongside a spin-off of BTS’s In the Soop (In the Soop: Friendcation, which was released on Disney+ in South Korea) and a still-to-come docuseries called BTS Monuments: Beyond th...
Publishers, Streamers Reach Deal for Highest Streaming Royalty Rate Ever: Here’s How It Works
Songwriter and publisher U.S. mechanical streaming royalty rates are going up — slowly — to a headline rate of 15.35% of total revenue from 2023-2027. That’s the big news out of Wednesday’s (Aug. 31) joint announcement on the “Phonorecords IV” settlement from the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), the Nashville Songwriters Associations International and the Digital Media Association (DiMA). But how long will it take to get there and at what pace? What are the other conditions? Billboard now has more more key details about the deal. Under the new settlement agreement — which the NMPA touts will set the “highest royalty rate in the history of streaming anywhere” — the headline rate will escalate from 15.1% of revenue in 2023 to 15.2% in 2024 and then a half a percentage point inc...
