It’s Official: Harry Fox Agency Is Now Owned by SESAC

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The merger, first announced last month, is now ‘official official’ with the formal approval of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA).  The following statement from John Josephson of SESAC was emailed to Digital Music News this (Friday) afternoon:

“SESAC is pleased to announce that, following  approval by the NMPA Board and membership, the acquisition of the Harry Fox Agency has been completed. The Harry Fox Agency (HFA) is the leading U.S. mechanical rights organization and this acquisition establishes SESAC as the only Music Rights Organization in the United States.  SESAC will have the ability to offer singular licenses for the works of its affiliated writers and publishers that aggregate both performance and mechanical rights for those users interested in such an option. We look forward to driving greater efficiency in licensing for music users, as well as enhanced value for music creators and publishers.”

John Josephson, Chairman and CEO of SESAC, Inc.

 

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Source: Industry News

95 Percent of Streaming Music Catalogs Are ‘Irrelevant’ to Consumers, Study Finds

95percent_streaming

 

Spotify has 20 million paying subscribers, but only a percentage are paying $9.99.  And, 55 million are paying $0 a month.  “Organic subscription growth… is not growing fast enough,” declared MiDIA analyst Mark Mulligan asserted in a recent research note, while pointing to Spotify’s cut-rate pricing surge as an exception.

So why aren’t those numbers better?

Mulligan feels that a big part of the problem is that the average consumer simply doesn’t care about enormous selections and vast catalogs, and they’re definitely not willing to pay for it.  “Most people aren’t interested in all the music in the world and most people aren’t interested in spending $9.99 (or the local market equivalent) a month for music,” Mulligan continued.

“Indeed, just 5% of streaming catalogues is regularly frequented.  Most of the rest is irrelevant for most consumers.”

Mulligan strongly suggests dropping the price to widen the appeal of streaming, a move the industry has staunchly resisted.  But the returns could be simply enormous for smaller-sized, niche-focused services.  “Imagine genre specific playlist apps for $3 or $4 month,” Mulligan proposed.  “A dozen curated playlists, a handful of featured albums and a couple of radio stations, all just of your favorite style of music and all streamed into a dedicated app.”<!–/*
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There’s actually research suggesting that existing subscribers are willing to pay more for streaming, but that doesn’t address the hundreds of millions that are paying $0 a month.  Would they pay for something simpler? “Niche services are not a nice-to-have, optional extra for the industry,” Mulligan insisted.  “They will be crucial to unlocking the scale end of the subscription market and they will be needed sooner rather than later.”

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Enter Apple Music, which may only steal good, paying users from rival services but do little to expand the market.  “Apple Music looks set to add a significant amount of new users before year-end but many of those will come at the direct expense of the incumbents,” Mulligan noted.

“All the while YouTube is leaving everyone else for dust: the amount of net new video streams (i.e. free YouTube views) in H1 2015 was more than double that of net new audio streams.”

 

Top image from MiDIA; buffet image by Iwan Gabovitch, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC by 2.0).  Written while listening to Ravel.

 

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Source: Industry News

Executive Shuffles: Imagem Music, Sony/ATV, Don Griffin

shuffle imagem music sony/atv

Imagem Music has promoted three people, according to All Access:

  • Bill Gaden is now now CEO of Imagem US. Gaden was previously COO.
  • Steve King is now Vice President of Creative Services. King was previously Director of Creative Services.
  • Isabel Arissó is now Manager of Creative Services. Arisso was previously Coordinator of A&R and Creative Services.

Michèle Hamelink has been promoted to European A&R Scout at Sony/ATV. Hamelink has worked at the company’s Amsterdam office since April 2012.<!–/*
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Guitarist Don Griffin has died in a car accident at the age of 60. Griffin performed with The Miracles and Anita Baker. Griffin was working with a new funk band, getting ready to perform.

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Source: Industry News

The 100 Biggest Copyright Infringers of All Time (as Ranked by Google)

google_infringing_100

Rankings calculated by total takedowns by Google, based on requests by content owners and/or their agents.  Infringing sites and urls published by Google as part of its Transparency Report, which lists all takedown requests (and compliance to those requests), as well as the requesting companies and organizations. 

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Source: Industry News