USA TOUR STARTS THIS WEEKEND! New Io Echo Dates Added

USA TOUR STARTS THIS WEEKEND! ＋＋＋New Io Echo dates added＋＋＋

Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek on Tuesday said his company expects to pay rights holders to the tune of half-a-billion dollars in 2013.

Ek, speaking at a technology and media event hosted by the Founders Forum in Los Angeles, said the amount Spotify is projected to pay artists, labels, publishers and other rights holders this year -- $500 million -- is equivalent to the total amount that the company had paid out since it launched its on-demand music streaming service in 2008.

By comparison, Pandora Media paid $230.2 million to rights holders in the four quarters ending Oct. 31, the latest period for which it reported its financial performance, and VEVO paid out $200 million since it launched in 2009.

Universal Music Group president of global digital business Rob Wells, who spoke at the same event, acknowledged that Spotify is a “substantial” source of revenue for the record company, making it unlikely that Universal would sever ties with the service when their licensing contract comes up for renewal.

Continue Reading

#2013

            A record-breaking 55.74 million digital songs were sold last week (ending Dec. 30) -- the single-largest week for download song sales ever according to Nielsen SoundScan. It beats the previous record of 47.73 million sold during the week ending Dec. 28, 2008 (see above chart).  The huge sales surge last week is owed largely to consumers redeeming music download gift cards received on Christmas Day. A week earlier (ending Dec. 23) there were 25.50 million songs sold.

o compare: Last year, in the first full week after Christmas (week ending Jan. 1, 2012), there were 46.42 million songs sold. The week earlier (ending Dec. 25, 2011), there were 38.25 million sold.  Unlike in 2011, where the gift card impact was spread into two separate SoundScan tracking weeks, 2012's haul is mostly housed in a single SoundScan frame.

Continue Reading

         Record companies have defied the global economic downturn to invest US$4.5 billion annually in artists and repertoire (A&R) and marketing, according to a comprehensive new report from IFPI on the changing economics of the music business.

Record companies remain the primary investors in artists, maintaining A&R spend despite declining overall revenues in recent years. Labels spent US$2.7 billion in 2011, only marginally down on 2008 (US$2.8 billion), despite an overall decline of 16 per cent in the trade value of the industry globally over the same period. Revenues invested in A&R increased from 15 to 16 per cent of industry turnover between 2008 and 2011.

Music companies invest a greater proportion of their global revenues in A&R than most other sectors do in research and development (R&D). Comparisons show music industry investment exceeding that of industries including software and computing (9.6%) and the pharmaceutical and biotech sector (15.3%). The comparisons are based on the European Commission's 2011 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard.

Two new surveys, conducted in the UK and Germany in 2012, show more than 70 per cent of unsigned acts want a record deal, with marketing leading the perceived benefits of record company support.

Continue Reading