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Business News Digital
Cür Music committed $8 million in advances to the majors
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 8 March 2016
With the all the major record companies now offering to share unallocated streaming service advances with their artists – and all but Universal pledging to share the profits if and when they sell any equity they have in the streaming companies that was obtained as part of a licensing deal – artists and their reps are more interested than ever into what advances and equity those major labels are actually receiving.
Though, of course, in the main, the specifics of the majors’ deals with any new advance-paying, equity-distributing streaming start-ups remain secret. Which is a problem. And it’s why the boss of the UK’s Music Managers Forum, Annabella Coldrick – while welcoming the news back in January that mid-price US streaming service Cür Music had now been licensed by the majors – noted that “Yet again the majors are doing secret deals, taking equity stakes and making it impossible for our artists to know if they are getting a fair share of revenues. We are calling on the majors to take seriously the issue of transparency in streaming and to sign a code of conduct to commit to fundamental principles”.
Some filings made by Cür Music itself have offered some guidance on what these latest deals may have looked like. And a Wall Street Journal profile piece on the latest streaming music start-up on the block also puts some figures on the table. It says of Cür Music’s CEO Tom Brophy: “After starting the company in 2014, he has obtained licences from all three major record companies, giving them a collective $8 million in advance money as part of the deal and issuing them a 5% stake in the company”.
So that’s nice isn’t it? And while those are only top line figures, they confirm that advances and equity remain a sufficiently significant part of streaming deals that artists and their managers should continue to fight not only for a cut of that action, but some disclosure on what exactly the big rights owners are getting in return for licensing newbie digital platforms.
