This week, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Live Nation and its ticketing arm Ticketmaster, accusing the company of profiting from scalpers operating on its platform.
Meanwhile, Sony Music Group and Spotify struck new multi-year global licensing deals, including a direct agreement for Sony Music Publishing in the US.
Elsewhere, Spotify enhanced its free tier with more on-demand playback features.
Plus, Michelle Jubelirer and Arjun Pulijal launched new venture Soft Shock with strategic investment from HarbourView Equity Partners.
Also this week, BMG completed its “single largest catalog acquisition investment” to date, acquiring Jason Aldean’s recorded catalog and other rights.
Here are some of the biggest headlines from the past few days…
1. MICHELLE JUBELIRER AND ARJUN PULIJAL LAUNCH NEW VENTURE, SOFT SHOCK, BACKED BY HARBOURVIEW
Michelle Jubelirer and Arjun Pulijal have launched a new venture backed by a strategic investment from HarbourView Equity Partners. Their new company, Soft Shock, is described as “a management and media collective that reimagines how talent is developed and empowered across the entertainment landscape”.
Jubelirer is the former chair and CEO of Capitol Music Group, and Arjun Pulijal is the former President of CMG.
Soft Shock offers talent management, creative marketing services, brand creation, and creative development/production/distribution across all mediums.
“The name Soft Shock exemplifies our approach to everything,” said Soft Shock Co-Founder Michelle Jubelirer on Thursday (September 18). “We are humanistic and empathetic first… but we are going to fiercely protect artists and fight to make things happen for them.” (MBW)
2. SONY AND SPOTIFY STRIKE NEW GLOBAL DEALS, INCLUDING A DIRECT AGREEMENT FOR SONY MUSIC PUBLISHING IN THE US
Sony Music Group and Spotify have struck a new multi-year global licensing deal that spans both recorded music and publishing. The partnership sees Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Publishing each enter into multi-year agreements with Spotify. Spotify’s agreement with Sony Music Publishing includes a new direct licensing arrangement in the US, which the streaming company says will “ensur[e] songwriters share more directly in the growth of streaming”.
The agreements mark Spotify’s latest direct deal with a prominent music publisher and moves its agreement with SMP beyond the traditional CRB model in the US.
This means that the direct deal supersedes the audiobook ‘bundling’ payment structure that, starting in March last year, saw Spotify dramatically cut the rate of mechanical royalties paid to publishers and songwriters in the US. All three majors have now inked direct publishing agreements with Spotify. (MBW)
3. WHY IS SPOTIFY GIVING FREE USERS A BETTER DEAL?
Spotify announced this week that it’s giving more away to its free users. The platform confirmed on September 15 that its ad-supported users can now search for songs – and manually play tracks from playlists and albums for the first time on mobile. They can also press play on specific tracks shared by their friends.
Previously, mobile users of Spotify ‘free’ were largely locked into a shuffle-only playing experience.
Despite these perks, Spotify is remaining careful not to make its ‘free’ tier as pleasurable to use as its ‘Premium’ paid-for tier. Of course, ‘free’ users will still receive interruptive audio ads. Non-premium listeners will also be limited to a certain number (TBC) of minutes per day for on-demand playback. In addition, ‘free’ users won’t be able to ‘cue’ songs to follow the ones they’re currently listening to.
Spotify is betting that its improved free service will increase engagement, boost ad revenues, help retain free users, and ultimately convert ad-supported users to Premium subscribers. (MBW)
4. BMG ACQUIRES JASON ALDEAN’S RECORDED CATALOG PLUS TRANCHE OF OTHER RIGHTS IN $250M DEAL
BMG has acquired the recorded music catalog of Country music superstar Jason Aldean.
The acquisition is part of a broader deal that sees the company acquire interests in the recorded catalogs and publishing rights of a music collection from what it calls a “cross-section” of 23 artists and songwriters. BMG said on Thursday (September 18) that the entire acquisition encompasses over 1,000 songs across multiple genres.
BMG said that the overall deal represents its “single largest catalog acquisition investment” to date, and brings the company’s total investment in music rights since the launch of parent company Bertelsmann’s Boost program in 2021 to more than $1.5 billion.
The deal is worth around USD $250 million, according to MBW’s sources. (MBW)
5. LIVE NATION AND TICKETMASTER SUED BY FTC OVER ALLEGED ‘ILLEGAL TICKET RESALE TACTICS’
The US’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued Live Nation and its ticketing arm, Ticketmaster, accusing the company of profiting from scalpers operating on its platform.
In a complaint filed on Thursday (September 18) in the US District Court for the Central District of California, the FTC accused Ticketmaster of failing to uphold its own ticket purchase limits, in effect allowing scalpers to buy up large numbers of tickets and to resell them on the secondary market at markups.
The FTC says Ticketmaster is motivated to do this because it makes additional fees on the tickets’ resale (MBW)
Partner message: MBW’s Weekly Round-up is supported by BMI, the global leader in performing rights management, dedicated to supporting songwriters, composers and publishers and championing the value of music. Find out more about BMI here. Music Business Worldwide
