Question – does the global success of the indie artist Adele disprove the argument that major record company dominance hampers market access for independent artists?

With US and European regulators currently scrutinizing Vivendi and Universal Music Group’s acquisition of EMI Recorded Music, Music & Copyright would like your opinion on the matter of major record company dominance. We want to know if you think the incredible global success of Adele disproves the argument that the dominance of the recorded-music industry by a small number of major record companies somehow hampers market access for independent artists? For those that don’t know, Adele is signed to XL Recordings, one the UKs leading independent record companies.

Please cast your vote and we welcome any comments. The result will be announced in the next issue of Music & Copyright due out on March 7.

Music & Copyright
If you like this blog then Music & Copyright might be just what you are looking for. It is a fortnightly research service covering global copyright and legal issues affecting the music industry. It is unrivalled in its coverage of this complex and fascinating area of the music industry. It is also why our extensive client list includes companies and organizations from all sectors of the music industry operating all around the world. But don’t take our word for it, please get in touch and we will send you the latest issue.

Music & Copyright is published by Informa Telecoms & Media.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Uniformity makes it tough on music-streaming startups

Mobile is the value-add that attracts the highest premium in streaming services. According to sources at the US streaming service Rdio, the majority of its subscribers take the top-premium mobile-access plan.

Filed under: mobile music, Music subscriptions, Uncategorized, download, mobile music, Music subscriptions, rdio, Spotify

Why the case against ReDigi should go to a full trial for the good of the music industry

Earlier this month, US District Judge Richard Sullivan ruled against EMI’s Capitol Records’ request for a preliminary injunction against the digital-music reseller ReDigi. Capitol had wanted the service closed down but Judge Sullivan denied the record company’s demand and insisted that the service should stay online and the case go to trial. The judge’s action has been widely reported as a victory for ReDigi and to some extent it is. Not every day can a start-up company say it has fended off one of the world’s biggest record companies. But in the longer term, having the case go to a full trial can only be a good thing for the music industry. Should Judge Sullivan have ruled without a trial that ReDigi was infringing copyright then the issue of legality would rumble on and proponents of digital resale would simply claim they have been trodden on by a big corporation wanting to protect its business.

Filed under: download, Intellectual property, Legal, Music industry, capitol records, Music industry, redigi

Streaming and subscriptions have really begun to make their mark

At the end of last month the music industry once again descended on Cannes for the annual institution that is MIDEM. Opinions from the trade floor and the many conferences and panel sessions left visitors in no doubt that there has been a major shift in opinion from across the music industry that streaming and subscription services have really started to take off.

Filed under: Music industry, Music subscriptions, Music industry, Music subscriptions, Spotify, STREAMING, universal music

Tax havens still attract big-name artists, but how do the big five music markets compare for tax rates?

For many years, the biggest-earning artists have benefited from moving their residence to countries with more-favorable tax rates. The Rolling Stones famously became tax exiles in France in the early 1970s and subsequently released the album “Exile on Main Street” soon after. Are tax rates in the big five music markets still driving the highest-earning artists into exile?

Filed under: Music industry, Music industry, tax

Live music faces up to a challenging 2012

With the organization and promotion of live events differing from country to country, comparisons of how one country’s live music sector is performing against another are not always easy to make. However, the live industry has, in recent years, seen the emergence of a small number of global players, such as Live Nation and CTS Eventim, and their financial details have provided an insight into current and possible future trends.

Filed under: Music industry, Uncategorized, concert, festival, live music, live nation, Music industry

Is the X Factor simply a great entertainment program or is it TV nepotism at its absolute worst?

A simple answer to these questions is yes, on both counts. Large numbers of viewers across the UK tuned in to watch some great TV moments over the course of the last few months culminating in Little Mix being crowned the X Factor winners in front of 10,000 adoring X Factor fans at Wembley. The girl band will no doubt go on to achieve great things, as will runner-up Marcus Collins and probably a few of the other contestants.

But in comparison with previous years, which offered a degree of subtlety in the way viewers were duped into thinking they were just being entertained, this year’s show was explicit in its very blatant advertising of all things X Factor-related. As has been widely reported, the UK broadcasting regulator OFCOM has received complaints that the “established artists” that performed alongside the contestants were signed to Simon Cowell’s record company Syco, which is part of Syco Entertainment, a global joint venture between Cowell and Sony Music Entertainment. Syco TV co-produced the X Factor show.

Filed under: Music industry, Uncategorized, Little Mix, music tv, Simon Cowell, tv, x factor

Consolidation in the music publishing sector is set to shake up Pan-European licensing

The European Commission (EC) is planning to publish draft legislation proposals early next year that will include new rules for the cross-border licensing of digital music. For several years representatives of the EC have expressed a mixture of mild irritation and outright annoyance over the licensing process for digital-music services in Europe. The number of such services has grown rapidly in the region, but several service providers continue to bemoan the time-consuming process involved in securing rights to operate in several countries. New business models specializing in digital-music delivery have brought change to collection societies, but according to some service providers, rights remain fragmented, and some providers have questioned whether the major publishers’ Pan-European initiatives have simply added a new layer of fragmentation and complexity to the licensing process, with Europe’s largest collection societies the only ones seeing any benefit.

Filed under: Collection societies, Intellectual property, Legal, Music industry, CELAS, collection society, Legal, licensing, Music industry, Pan European, royalties

Are blue-chip companies unknowingly supporting pirate music sites?

Pirate-music sites offering free music downloads are being indirectly funded by a wide range of blue-chip companies. A survey conducted by Music & Copyright in the UK has found that all of the companies whose advertising appeared on a selection of pirate sites were unaware of the ads’ presence. Should these companies know where their ads are going?

Filed under: free, Intellectual property, Legal, Music industry, Uncategorized, advertising, collection society, download, Internet, Legal, mp3, Music industry

SoundExchange takes the crown as the world’s biggest performance-rights society

With digital recorded-music sales still several years away from fully compensating for the decline in physical recorded-music sales in almost all developed markets, record companies are continuing to place greater emphasis on revenue streams from other sources. Performance-rights is one of those “other” sources that has seen growth in the majority of countries, even though so many of the music users required to pay performance-rights have suffered because of the aftereffects of the global financial crisis.

In our annual survey of the performance-rights sector, Music & Copyright can reveal that total performance-rights distributions were up 8.9% in 2010, to US$1.59 billion, a big increase on the 0.6% growth in 2009 (see table below).

Filed under: Collection societies, Intellectual property, Music industry, artists, performance rights, performers