Streaming
New Report Hints At What Netflix’s Ad-Supported Tier Could Cost For Potential Users
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: NurPhoto / Getty Netflix’s ad-supported tier is the movie streaming service’s worst-kept secret. A new report shows what it could cost when it finally launches. It looks like some users will get some strategically placed ads during their binging experience. A new Bloomberg report dropped details about Netflix’s ad-supported tier. According to the website, the new tier will cost between $7 and $9 per month, a significant price drop from its current $9.99, $15.49, and $19.99 offerings. Per the report shared on Friday (Aug.26), Netflix will sell approximately four minutes of ads per hour that would be placed ahead and in the middle of content. Bloomberg also reports that kid’s content or original movies will not see any ads, and it hopes to launch the ad-sup...
Twitter Adds Podcasts to Live Audio Tab
Twitter will start recommending and streaming podcasts directly to users as part of a redesigned hub that groups live and recorded audio content by category. The podcast integration, which signals Twitter’s continued expansions into audio, launched Thursday to a select group of English-speaking iOS and Android users via the Spaces tab on Twitter’s mobile app. Categories in the redesigned tab include news, sports and music; each category will include live audio rooms, replays of recorded rooms and popular podcast episodes from those categories that will be personalized based on user interests. To bring the podcast episodes onto the platform, a Twitter spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that the company is pulling from existing RSS feeds and will tailor the recommendations based on the...
Deezer Lost Subscribers, Added Revenue in First Half of 2022
With a newfound focus on a small number of lucrative, established markets, music streaming company Deezer reported revenue of 219 million euros ($218 million) in the first half of 2022, up 12.1% as reported (+9.9% at constant currency) versus the prior-year period. The Paris-based company received 132.4 million euros ($131.9 million), or 60.3% of its revenue, in its home country of France, up 11.1% year-over-year. Revenue from the rest of the world improved to 87 million euros ($86.7 million), up 13.6% from the prior-year period, and accounted for 39.7% of revenue, up from 39.1% a year ago. In Brazil, Deezer’s second-largest market, revenues improved 25% at constant currency. Other revenue — advertising and ancillary revenue — grew 58.3% (50.3% at constant currency) to 6.8 million euros ($...
House Representative Rashida Tlaib Takes Aim at Music Streaming Services In New Resolution
Rashida Tlaib, House Representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district, has introduced a resolution that seeks to establish a new royalty program. The resolution effectively continues her fight for musicians to earn a “reasonable” living from their recorded music. “Expressing the sense of Congress that it is the duty of the Federal Government to establish a new royalty program to provide income to featured and non-featured performing artists whose music or audio content is listened to on streaming music services, like Spotify,” reads the bill. Tlaib’s resolution proposes the royalty rate be administered by SoundExchange and the Copyright Royalty Board, who would calculate, collect, retain and distribute payments to the appropriate copyright ...
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...
