Ticketmaster and Facebook have announced a new joint venture between these two industry-leading companies, where fans will be able to buy tickets from Ticketmaster directly through Facebook’s user interface. According to the announcement, the service will be rolled out as soon as the end of April 2016. Due to a “growing number of mobile-addicted fans,” […]
Spotify and the National Music Publishing Association have reached a $30 million settlement agreement to compensate publishers and songwriters for unpaid royalties that resulted from unmatched songs in its database. According to the Agreement, the $30 million will constitute a “payout pool” where $5 million is a “penalty pool.” Under the Agreement, publishers will claim
On the same week Tidal celebrated surpassing three million subscribers and turning one years old, current owner Jay-Z served its former owners legal papers for lying about Tidal’s business specifics when the company was purchased. According to the King of Roc Nation and his attorneys, Tidal’s former owners, Scandinavian company Aspiro AB, were dishonest about
Last Friday the period for individuals and companies to submit comments regarding the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA ended. The US Copyright Office provided this 4-month comment period to help “evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the safe harbor provisions.”1 The Copyright office cited rapid changes in the internet since 1998 when the DMCA was
The music industry is all abuzz as SoundCloud has (finally) launched its first paid subscription service – Go. The subscription is $9.99 a month with a 30-day free demo. The subscription gives you ad-free and offline listening, and is currently only available in the U.S. The most important thing about SoundCloud’s service is that its
While websites that host infringing content are host to millions of users daily, few of these users pay money for the sites’ services. Instead, advertising from consumer brands does. In another step towards severing the “unholy alliance” between on-site advertisers and piracy websites that host infringing content, the British Government’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit
Stiletto Entertainment, an entity that exists to manage Barry Manilow’s affairs and owns the underlying intellectual property rights in Music and Passion Live From Las Vegas, has filed suit against Princess Cruises and Swank Motion Pictures in a potentially lucrative federal infringement suit. Music and Passion Live From Las Vegas is the recording of Manilow’s
On March 21, a jury panel in Florida awarded television celebrity, Hulk Hogan, $140 million in damages an invasion of privacy lawsuit against popular celebrity gossip website, Gawker. Tony Bollea, better known by his wrestling name Hulk Hogan, has been embroiled in a years-long legal battle with Gawker. This lawsuit, concerning a graphic sex tape
According to a report released by the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), radio revenue from digital platforms hit an all-time high in 2015, with traditional radio revenue exceeding $1 billion for the first time in history. The president and CEO of the RAB cites changes in advertising practices as the main driver for this growth, as
World’s richest female athlete, Maria Sharapova, recently announced that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open. In an attempt to get out ahead of any rumors, she held a press conference in which she stated, “I made a huge mistake.” Sharapova tested positive for meldonium, a drug that is currently banned in the
According to a breaking news story by Digital Music News, multiple music streaming services including Tidal, Microsoft, Google Play, Rhapsody, and Slacker will be facing multiple class action lawsuits for their alleged failures to acquire the appropriate mechanical licenses for song recordings in their repertoires. With each suit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars
