Every Saturday CMU puts together a summary of five key music business stories from the past week, plus other interesting or popular stories from CMU that you might have missed first time round.
This week: Grainge and Kyncl talk superfans in new year memos; full-year music market stats show revenue and consumption growth; more AI legislative proposals including ELVIS Act; Ad regulator gets busy with Viagogo; Bytedance cans Resso India.
The bosses of both Universal Music and Warner Music put the spotlight on superfans in their start of year memos
Sam Taylor
Universal CEO Lucian Grainge bragged at length about his company's successes in his memo, hailing the changes it has forced to the streaming business model and insisting it has led the way in music and AI. Grainge revealed that Universal is "already in advanced discussions with our platform partners" about developing new superfan experiences and products and to expect more news "in the coming months".
Chris Cooke
Meanwhile Warner CEO Robert Kyncl, one year into the job, set out a plan for ensuring that a "winning decade” is ahead. Both major label bosses then confirmed that a priority in 2024 will be working with artists on developing new products and experiences for superfans. Kyncl said that the superfan opportunity is "relatively untapped and under-monetised”.
New market stats for 2023 show music revenue growth in the UK plus consumption growth worldwide
Chris Cooke
ERA - the British trade body for entertainment retailers and platforms - confirmed that music revenues in the UK in 2023 were up 9.6% to £2.22 billion. Streaming accounted for 84% of that, though vinyl and CD sales were also up, by 17.8% and 2% respectively. When video and gaming is also factored in, entertainment retail at large saw revenues increase 7% to £11.87 billion.
Sam Taylor
Music data company Luminate's 'Year-End Report' provides music consumption data for the world and reported that, across both the music and social media platforms, there were 7.1 trillion music streams worldwide in 2023. Although the US has the highest number of streams, second place India saw 80% growth last year, with more than a trillion streams being delivered in that market alone.
CMU's current series of virtual masterclasses kicks off on Tuesday 30 January at 2.30pm UK / 3.30pm CET / 9.30am East Coast.
Providing an essential overview of key topics, developments and debates across the music business including stats, strategies and current trends, the CMU masterclass sessions are a great way to keep up to date or refresh your knowledge.
Delivered live on Zoom and available on-demand afterwards, sessions include guides to the current music business landscape including streaming, copyright and AI, as well as taking an in-depth look at the economics of streaming, including money + allocation, data + transparency, and rights + innovation.
Click through to see the full schedule and book your place.
The music industry welcomed proposed new laws in the US to help artists protect their voices from unapproved AI vocal clones
Chris Cooke
In Washington, new legislation was introduced in the House Of Representatives that states "every individual has a property right in their own likeness and voice". Meanwhile the governor of the US state of Tennessee unveiled a proposed new law, the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act - or ELVIS Act - that specifically enables performers to protect their voices.
There has been much debate in the last year about the legal protections for performers when it comes to AI being used to imitate their vocals. Although copyright law can help to an extent, it is likely publicity and personality rights will be more helpful. In the US those currently exist at a state level, though this week's proposals in Congress would introduce a US-wide right in federal law.
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority rapped Viagogo over NME advertorial articles
Chris Cooke
The advertorials covered the BST Hyde Park shows in London and Taylor Swift's upcoming UK tour and suggested readers buy tickets from touts on the Viagogo site. However, the terms of tickets for those concerts prohibit for-profit resale, meaning promoters could cancel any touted tickets. The article failed to warn consumers that that might happen.
Anti-touting campaigners at the FanFair Alliance submitted a complaint about the articles to the ASA. The regulator agreed that information about resale restrictions on the tickets was "material information" and therefore Viagogo broke its rules by not including it. The resale site was told to ensure material information is included in any future promo features.
TikTok owner Bytedance confirmed it is shutting down its Resso music service in India
Chris Cooke
The decision came after the Indian government forced the music app to be removed from the Google and Apple app stores last month. Resso also previously operated in Indonesia and Brazil, but was replaced in those countries last year by the new TikTok Music service, which is more closely integrated with the main TikTok app.
However, in India, TikTok has been banned since 2020 over concerns that the Chinese government has access to user-data because Bytedance is China-based. Resso wasn't previously impacted by the TikTok ban. But, Bytedance confirmed this week, the forced removal of the music service from the app stores means "we can no longer continue to serve users of Resso in India".
ICYMI:
🤡 Utopia Music - the beleagured Swiss music tech company - has a new CEO plus two deputy CEOs. For those of us counting that's either three, four, five - or possibly seven - CEO-type variants in under 12 months, which must be some sort of record: Markku Mäkeläinen (left January 2023), Robert Neri (left April 2023), Mattias Hjelmstedt (as 'Executive Chair'), Alain Couttolenc (appointed 19 Oct 2023), Michael Stelbert (leader of Utopia's "Christmas Coup" appointed 12 Jan 2024).
😵💫 The board of the Hipgnosis Songs Fund has warned investors to exercise “a higher degree of caution” in relation to the latest reduced valuation of the company’s songs catalogue, confirming ongoing tensions between the fund and its advisor Hipgnosis Song Management.
🦇 A court has ruled that a previously dismissed sexual abuse lawsuit filed against Marilyn Manson in 2021 can go forward to trial after all. A lower court said that Ashley Walters had waited too long to launch her legal action. However, she successfully argued that she had repressed her memories of what happened until 2020 and that her legal action should be allowed under a ‘delayed discovery rule’.
🏴☠️ Generative AI is being used to create fake pre-release ‘pirate’ tracks, says UMG content protection boss. Universal Music’s VP Of Global Content Protection, Graeme Grant, has made a submission to WIPO on the impact of generative AI on music copyright, noting that - among other things - people involved in pre-release leaks are being scammed by people using AI to generate vocal clones.
🎪 Live Nation has bought a controlling stake in Margate's Dreamland amusement park and music venue and promises to "enhance" the "much-loved resort". It follows the securing of a new licence in 2023 that allows the number of outdoor events and late night indoor events at the complex to increase.
📼 BPI's annual stats-bang showed that streaming now accounts for 87.7% of UK music consumption and while vinyl sales have grown, cassette sales have slumped. That's despite Olivia Rodrigo's fans really loving cassettes, accounting for a whopping 6% of all cassettes sold in the UK in 2023. It's also worth pointing out - contrary to the impression we might have given in our original piece which prompted a number of irate emails - cassettes are, of course, a superb physical music format. They rarely if ever get tangled and if they do this is likely user error. Furthermore cassette decks can, in fact, search both backwards and forwards. Quite why they aren't outselling vinyl five to one is anyone's guess.