Welcome to Music Enterprise Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we be certain 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 maximize their earnings and cut back their touring prices.
Stay Nation‘s acquisition of LA-based expertise administration agency Timeline has highlighted the truth that the live performance and ticketing large can also be a significant participant in expertise administration. And Timeline’s involvement with on-line influencers probably opens a brand new avenue for Stay Nation to advertise its exhibits and artist administration shoppers…
On the opposite facet of the Pacific, HYBE-owned label ADOR filed a lawsuit in opposition to Ok-pop group NewJeans. The lawsuit adopted the group’s announcement every week earlier that it plans to depart ADOR. The label argues that NewJeans don’t have the power to cancel their contract unilaterally.
Elsewhere, Craig Peters, the CEO of Getty Pictures, penned an op-ed for Fortune this week criticizing AI builders’ copyright thievery.
Additionally this week, TikTok revealed its lists of the most important musical tracks and artists on the platform this yr. The corporate mentioned that 13 of the 16 tracks that hit No. 1 on the US Billboard Scorching 100 had been linked to traits on TikTok.
Lastly, MBW regarded again at this yr’s largest music offers. The yr was dominated by personal fairness investments and huge issuances of securities backed by music belongings. On the catalog acquisition facet, Sony Music dominated with quite a few blockbuster offers.
Stay Nation is a reside music promotion and ticketing large, but it surely additionally runs a powerhouse expertise administration enterprise.
Certainly, the Michael Rapino-led firm claimed in its 2023 annual report back to be “one of many world’s main artist administration corporations primarily based on the variety of artists represented.”
On Tuesday (December 3), Stay Nation revealed the newest addition to its expertise administration operation: It’s acquired a majority stake in Timeline – described by LN as one among Los Angeles’ “premier expertise administration corporations.”
Timeline makes a speciality of “younger Hollywood and influencer expertise.” The acquisition of a majority stake in Timeline is a major growth for Stay Nation, given the rise and energy of influencer advertising and marketing on social media platforms…
ADOR, a subsidiary of Ok-pop powerhouse HYBE, has filed a lawsuit to stop woman group NewJeans from terminating their unique contract, escalating a high-stakes dispute within the South Korean music business.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday (December 3) with the Seoul Central District Court docket, challenges the group’s latest try to depart the label, with ADOR asserting that the prevailing contract stays legally binding and can’t be unilaterally terminated.
“Though we didn’t want to search authorized intervention with the artist, we determined that it was essential to make clear to each the artist and all related stakeholders that our unique contract can’t be unilaterally terminated primarily based solely on the claims of 1 facet,” ADOR mentioned in a press release despatched to MBW.
The lawsuit follows a press convention held by NewJeans on November 28, the place the group publicly introduced their intention to exit ADOR. Group member Hanni claimed the label “has neither the power nor the need to guard” the members, citing psychological misery and a “breach of belief…”
TikTok has lengthy promoted itself as a significant driver of music discovery, and its 12 months-Finish Music Report for 2024 reiterates this theme.
In line with TikTok, 13 of the 16 tracks that reached No.1 on the US Billboard Scorching 100 had been indirectly linked to a pattern on the platform.
Moreover, 10 of the 11 tracks to hit No.1 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart had been boosted by TikTok recognition, the report steered.
“In 2024 TikTok actually grew to become the music business’s major launchpad for music, artists and creativity,” Ole Obermann, TikTok’s World Head of Music Improvement, mentioned in a press release…
In a scathing op-ed revealed by Fortune this week, the CEO of images company Getty Pictures, Craig Peters, criticized the argument that utilizing copyrighted content material obtainable on the web to coach AI with out permission is ‘honest use’ beneath copyright legislation.
He advocates as a substitute for a nuanced method to assessing honest use, supporting AI’s potential for societal good with out undermining the artistic industries – together with music.
Peters’ piece concludes with the argument that there “is a good path that rewards creativity and delivers the guarantees of AI”.
He provides: “Let’s cease the rhetoric that each one un-permissioned AI coaching is authorized and that any requirement to respect the rights of creators is on the expense of AI as a know-how…”
As the worth of music corporations and copyrights continues to develop, so do the offers being made within the business – and the involvement in personal fairness in these transactions.
In financial phrases, the most important deal of 2024 (to date, anyway) got here courtesy of PE agency Hellman & Friedman, which struck a ten-figure settlement to accumulate a stake in Irving Azoff’s US-based PRO World Rights Administration (GRM).
One other side of the music business that’s grown quickly in 2024 is the securitization of music belongings. This yr noticed quite a few main asset-backed securitizations from music copyright holders, together with Hipgnosis Songs Fund, Harmony, and Kobalt.
On the catalog offers facet, Sony Music dominated 2024, shopping for all or components of the catalogs of Queen, Pink Floyd, and Michael Jackson…
MBW’s Weekly Spherical-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their earnings and cut back their touring prices.Music Enterprise Worldwide
