From Meta dropping Kobalt’s catalog to Common’s $2.7bn in Q2… It’s MBW’s Weekly Spherical-Up

Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we ensure that you caught the 5 largest tales to hit our headlines over the previous seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their revenue and scale back their touring prices.

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Facebook has been making a number of headlines recently.

Simply final week, we realized that the social platform’s guardian firm, Meta, was being sued by Sweden’s Epidemic Sound for alleged copyright infringement.

Then, only a few days later, MBW confirmed that Kobalt Music Publishing – residence to 700,000 songs – is pulling its entire catalog from Fb and Instagram in america.

Why? As a result of, in response to an inside memo, Kobalt’s present US licensing cope with Meta has expired and the 2 events have failed to succeed in a brand new settlement.

It wasn’t all unhealthy information from the workplaces of Zuckerburg et al this week, nevertheless.

On Monday (July 25), Meta revealed that it’s going to now instantly share a proportion of Fb’s advert income with music rightsholders for sure user-generated content material movies.

This new system works as follows: Video creators who select to make use of licensed music in movies over 60 seconds lengthy on Fb will obtain a 20% share of any promoting income generated by their creation.

The remaining 80% of that promoting income will then be cut up between the suitable music rightsholders and Meta itself.

Elsewhere within the international music enterprise this week, earnings season was in full swing.

On Wednesday (July 27), Spotify printed its Q2 outcomes, and confirmed that it added 6 million web Premium subscribers to its person base in Q2, taking its complete international subs as much as 188 million.

That was larger than the 5 million subscribers SPOT previously told investors it was anticipating so as to add within the second quarter.

In the meantime, additionally on Wednesday, Universal Music Group posted its personal Q2 2022 fiscal outcomes (protecting the three months to finish of June).

UMG’s complete firm revenues throughout recorded music, publishing, and different actions had been up by 17.3% YoY at fixed foreign money to EUR €2.535 billion (USD $2.70bn) within the quarter.

And right this moment (July 29), we reported that Sony’s international music rights operation – throughout recorded music and music publishing – generated USD $2.03 billion within the three months to finish of June 2022 (calendar Q2 2022), up 11.7% year-on-year (vs. calendar Q2 2021) at US dollar-converted fixed foreign money.

Right here’s what occurred this week…

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1) KOBALT IS PULLING ITS 700,000 SONGS OFF FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM. IS THE MUSIC BIZ HEADED FOR A HISTORIC BUST-UP WITH META?

The opposite day MBW jokingly remarked that the worldwide music enterprise had turn into somewhat “cozy” this summer time – with a definite lack of firms (publicly) falling out.

Please, loyal reader, permits us to scratch that concept from the report.

On Sunday (July 24), MBW confirmed that Kobalt Music Publishing – residence to 700,000 songs – is pulling its total catalog from Fb and Instagram in america….

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2) FACEBOOK WILL NOW DIRECTLY SHARE A PROPORTION OF AD REVENUE WITH MUSIC RIGHTSHOLDERS FOR UGC VIDEOS. YOUR MOVE, TIKTOK…

In case you’ve been listening to MBW this month, you’ll know that there’s an more and more loud business debate occurring over “rising” social platforms, and the completely different fashions they use to pay music rightsholders.

Main music execs are beginning to name out the likes of TikTok, Meta and others for solely paying publishers and report labels through lump-sum licensing advances (or so-called ‘buy-out’ offers) – reasonably than sharing an agreed proportion of income for each monetized play/use of music on their platforms.

Monday (July 25), then, was an enormous day: Meta has introduced that it’s altering the way in which artists and music rightsholders are going to be paid from Fb – and that it WILL now be shifting to a ‘revenue-share’ mannequin for user-generated video content material…

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3) ONCE AGAIN, SPOTIFY AVOIDS NETFLIX’S WOES: MUSIC STREAMER ADDED 6M NET SUBSCRIBERS IN Q2

We are able to’t speak about streaming subscribers today with out mentioning Netflix.

The video streamer misplaced almost 1,000,000 web subscribers in Q2 (the three months to finish of June) – which was higher than anticipated however, following the lack of 200,000 web subs in Q1, additionally clearly not excellent news. What, then, of Spotify?

Did it endure from an analogous development in its Q2 numbers? Did its subscriber efficiency ship out a worrying message for the music enterprise?

Nope…

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4) UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP GENERATED $2.7 BILLION IN Q2; RECORDED MUSIC SUBSCRIPTION STREAMING REVENUE GREW 7.0% YOY

In recent times, the music rights enterprise has grown used to the main music firms posting double-digit YoY subscription streaming income progress each quarter that flies by.

On Wednesday (July 27), that narrative modified considerably, as Common Music Group, the world’s largest music rights firm, posted its Q2 2022 fiscal outcomes (protecting the three months to finish of June).…

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3) SONY GENERATED OVER $2BN FROM RECORDED MUSIC AND PUBLISHING IN CALENDAR Q2; RECORDED MUSIC REVENUES WERE UP 11.2% YOY

Sony’s international music rights operation – throughout recorded music and music publishing – generated USD $2.03 billion within the three months to finish of June 2022.

That’s in response to MBW’s calculations primarily based on Sony Group Corp’s calendar Q2 (fiscal Q1) 2022 outcomes, as introduced by the Japanese agency earlier right this moment (July 29).

The $2.03 billion determine was up 11.7% year-on-year (vs. calendar Q2 2021) at US dollar-converted fixed foreign money.

(Understanding Sony’s outcomes at a US dollar-converted fixed foreign money degree is especially essential for calendar Q2 2022, when the energy of the greenback vs. the Japanese Yen – the foreign money through which Sony studies its earnings– rose to historic ranges.)…

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MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.

 Music Enterprise Worldwide