Spotify now has the power to make an artist famous — with one playlist add. It also can dramatically boost an artist’s earnings with a simple drag n’ drop. According to a study recently conducted by the University of Minnesota and the Euro…
Category archives: Music Royalties
In-Venue Music Recognition Technology Is Changing Artist Payouts — One Country at a Time
One of the biggest challenges confronting the music industry is simple recognition. If a song is played, is it actually recognized, processed, and paid? In the U.S., that’s a serious question on the streaming side, where some estimates peg unrecognize…
Fraud Detection Software Is Coming to the Music Industry — And It Will Change Everything
Up until this point, it’s been extremely difficult to detect fraud in music royalty statements. That’s about to change in a very serious way. Since the early days of the music industry, there’s always been a very serious problem…
Spotify Is Dramatically Changing the Rules for Remixers — Here’s the First Big Change
Spotify just made a huge change for remixers on its streaming service. The music streaming giant stated in a blog post that remixers will now receive credit for their remixes by having the streams count towards their monthly listeners. While this only…
Turns Out Huffington Post’s CEO Used to Work for Spotify
Last week, the Huffington Post deleted an article that was critical of Spotify. Now, there’s a clue that might explain why that happened. The article itself wasn’t that damning. It didn’t claim financial impropriety, sexual abuse, o…
The Huffington Post Rips Down an Article Sharply Criticizing Spotify — Here’s the Original
The Huffington Post abruptly yanked an article critical of Spotify, possibly under pressure from the company. Here’s what was removed — in its entirety. But first, a little background. The op-ed was written by artist advocate Blake Morgan, and i…
Facebook Will Stop Ripping Down Music Videos — Effective Immediately
Facebook won’t be ripping down music videos anymore — at least if they involve songs owned by Universal Music Group. If there was one deal that needed to get done in 2017, this was it. According to an email from Universal Music Group, Facebook ha…
How to Build a Major Label Payment Platform on an Indie Label Budget
Want to know the secret to building a great payment system? It all boils down to three key factors — all of which any label, publisher or music group can now afford. Once upon a time, bigger labels and publishers could beat smaller labels and publisher…
My Song Got 1.254 Million Views on YouTube. I Got Paid $42.56
How much does YouTube really pay? A top executive at the company says $3 CPM. But most of the royalty payments shared with Digital Music News are a tiny fraction of that. We want to believe YouTube executive Lyor Cohen when he says YouTube pays a $3 …
How Post Malone Stuck It to YouTube, Got a #1 Hit, and Cashed a Big Fat Check
Everyone’s complaining about how little YouTube pays artists. So Post Malone, 21 Savage, and Republic Records did something about it. The music industry spends a lot of time complaining about YouTube. Now, we’re starting to see more and m…