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The Ledger: When Should Subscription Services Raise Prices?

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. Over the last decade, streaming platforms have mostly held prices steady while racking up over half a billion subscribers globally. But for years, music executives have questioned subscription services’ decision to sacrifice higher prices — and with them higher royalties to labels and artists — to gain more subscribers. Music streaming is following an age-old business tactic: launch at an affordable price, gain customers and, once people are hooked, raise prices. The question is when to raise prices. Too early a raise could risk alienating subscribers, while one that’s too late risks leaving revenue on the table once su...

Disney Hiking Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ Prices This Year

In potentially bad news for your wallet, you’ll have to shell out a bit more soon if you want to keep watching Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ without ads. Disney is hiking the prices of ad-free subscriptions in the US this year, coinciding with the launch of its ad-supported version of Disney+. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Disney+’s ad-supported tier will launch on December 8th and cost $7.99 a month — the same price the ad-free tier is now. As a result, the ad-free tier will then jump up to $10.99 a month or $109.99 a year, equalling a $3 monthly increase or $30 yearly increase. Meanwhile, beginning October 10th, Hulu will raise prices for all its subscribers. The ad-supported tier, which is currently $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year, will jump to $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year. Hulu’s current $12...

New Armie Hammer Docuseries Reveals Texts and Recordings Behind Abuse Allegations: Watch

Warning: The following article contains potentially triggering material relating to sexual assault and violence. If you are a victim of sexual assault, you can access helpful resources by calling RAINN at 1-800-656-4673. The first trailer for the Discovery+ docuseries House of Hammer, centered on disgraced actor Armie Hammer and his obscenely wealthy family, has been released, and with it comes explosive interviews and thorough documentation regarding his alleged history of sexual abuse. The preview introduces three on-camera interviewees including two accusers as well as Casey Hammer, the actor’s aunt and the granddaughter of oil tycoon Armand Hammer, who addresses the audience directly by promising to expose the “dark, twisted secrets of the Hammer family.” It also shows threatening text...

HBO Max and Discovery+ Will Become One Streaming Service

Following the recent merger of Warner Bros. Discovery, the company confirmed plans to re-launch its two streaming platforms, HBO Max and Discovery+, as a single service, projected to roll out in the U.S. beginning Summer 2023. Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced the news during the company’s Q2 earnings call on Thursday (August 4th). By combining HBO Max, “the most acclaimed streaming service among consumers,” and Discovery+’s library of “real-life entertainment,” Warner Bros. Discovery says the new streaming service will achieve the “best of both” — acknowledging customer complaints aimed at HBO Max’s user interface and Discovery+’s catalog. Ultimately, the company said their “leading objective is growing engagement.” Once both apps are integrated, the company said, they’ll begin ...

The Ledger: Spotify’s Paul Vogel Is Cautiously Optimistic on Growth

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. Music executives are balancing optimism about streaming growth with caution about the state of the economy and future growth. As we reported Wednesday, Spotify had a solid second quarter, finishing with 188 million subscribers — 1 million ahead of its guidance., It also reached 433 million total monthly listeners — 5 million above its guidance. Beating guidance helped Spotify shares climb 12.2% to $116.61 on Wednesday, its highest mark since June 24. In the second quarter, Spotify’s subscription growth was led by Europe and Latin America, while emerging markets such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines were standouts...

“Race to the Bottom”: U.S. Representative Drafts Letter to Congress for Music Streaming Royalty Reform

The hammer may soon come down on digital service providers. It’s an axiom among music industry professionals that royalties generated from streaming services are abysmal. While these companies rake in record profits and lease luxury office spaces for their employees, the musicians who constitute their userbases often bemoan their business models for practices many deem to be exploitative. Rashida Tlaib, the U.S. representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district, has written a letter to Congress proposing that musicians should be fairly compensated for their work distributed by digital service providers like Spotify and Apple Music. Tlaib says she has been working closely with the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) to advocate for royalty reform.  “W...

Blockchain Streaming Platform Audius Victim of $6M Hack

Audius, a blockchain-based streaming service, announced over the weekend that a hacker managed to steal and sell millions of dollars worth of AUDIO tokens from the platform. The hacker was able to find and exploit a bug in Audius’ smart contract — the code that allows decentralized platforms to function without intermediaries. Other companies have been hit in a similar fashion: The blockchain security firm Beosin recently estimated that close to $2 billion has been lost to hacking incidents in the first half of 2022. “The most common hacking techniques continue to be contract vulnerability exploitation and flash loans,” Beosin noted. On Saturday, Audius tweeted that it was looking into “reports of an unauthorized transfer… from the community treasury.” The following day, the company publis...

Breaking Bad Set to Leave Netflix: Report

Netflix’s deal for Breaking Bad has been mutually beneficial for both parties, even leading to the creation of a prequel movie exclusively for the streamer. According to a report from TheWrap, however, the show is one of several titles in the service’s US library that will be departing unless an extension is reached before the current agreement expires in early 2025. Per TheWrap, Netflix’s license with Sony Television for Breaking Bad runs through February 10th, 2025. Netflix also has the streaming rights for the prequel series Better Call Saul, which has seen renewed interest since the final season debuted on AMC in April. Breaking Bad is just one of several popular series that are set to leave Netflix. New Girl, Community, NCIS, and How to Get Away with Murder all hav...

Netflix to Start Charging “Extra Home” Fee for Sharing Accounts Between Households

Netflix is cracking down on users mooching off of their family members, friends, and exes: This summer, the streamer will begin to implement an “extra home” fee for those using the same account with people they don’t live with. The small fee, which equates to about $2 or $3, will go into effect on August 22th in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. “If your Netflix account is being used on a TV outside of your home, you will need to pay an extra $2.99 per month for each extra home. You will only be charged when you or someone who uses your account chooses to add an extra home—this fee will NOT be automatically charged,” Netflix wrote on their Honduras pricing page. After a trial period in the previously-mentioned countries, Netflix will start implem...

The Ledger: Royalty Growth Requires Changing More Than How They’re Calculated

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. If The Beatles wrote a song about music royalties, the band would sing about a “Long and Winding Road” to higher subscription fees and better pay for artists and labels. The music subscription business model has become the record industry’s main breadwinner since launching in the early 2000s. But for two decades, many artists and rights holders have bristled at the royalty rates paid by streaming services. Some rates have improved: ad-supported royalties grew as online advertising matured. Royalties from subscription services have less wiggle room for change, however. The biggest innovation is a change in how to divvy a...

Netflix’s Cheaper Ad-Supported Tier Will Offer Smaller, Worse Catalog

You get what you pay for, the saying goes, and Netflix seems determined to prove that point with a cheaper, ad-supported tier that also comes with a smaller, worse catalog. As Protocol reports, the backbone of the ad-supported tier seems likely to be Netflix originals. Many of the company’s existing contracts for third-party content would allow other companies to take a slice of the ad-money pie, and while co-CEO Ted Sarandos has been trying to renegotiate those deals, it’s hard to convince other companies to willingly take less money. “We will clear some additional content, but certainly not all of it,” Sarandos said. “But I don’t think it’s a material hold-back to the business.” Advertisement Related Video He added, “The vast majority of what people watch on Netflix, we ca...

SoundCloud, Warner Music Group Strike Deal on Fan-Powered Royalties

SoundCloud has finalized a deal with Warner Music Group that would allow WMG’s artists with songs on the SoundCloud platform the ability to get paid based on the number of individual users streaming their music, rather than by market share of total streams, sources tell Billboard. The revenue model is part of SoundCloud’s Fan-Powered Royalties initiative, which it launched last March with the aim of re-tooling how the platform doles out streaming revenue to rights holders and providing more detailed data to help support independent artists on the platform. In practice, it allows independent creators who own their rights and upload their works to SoundCloud through its Repost system the ability to get paid according to how many fans stream their music, rather than the current industry stand...