From Spotify’s 1,000 plays threshold to Taylor Swift’s blockbuster 1989 rerecording… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up

Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we ensure that you caught the 5 greatest tales to hit our headlines over the previous seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their revenue and cut back their touring prices.

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We reported this week that from Q1 2024, 1,000 streams would be the minimal yearly play-count quantity that every monitor on Spotify has to hit with a purpose to begin producing royalties.

As we first reported final month, Spotify believes that this transfer will de-monetize a portion of tracks that beforehand absorbed 0.5% of the service’s ‘Streamshare’ (i.e. ‘pro-rata’-based) royalty pool.

Spotify has informed trade gamers that it expects the brand new 1,000-play minimal annual threshold will reallocate tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} per 12 months from that 0.5% to the opposite 99.5% of the royalty pool.

Additionally this week, we reported that Taylor Swift’s blockbuster rerecording of 1989 (Taylor’s Model) attracted 1,329% extra streams than the unique model of 1989 within the US final week.

Elsewhere, in response to MBW’s calculations based mostly on Sony Group Corp’s calendar Q3 2023 (fiscal Q2 2023) outcomes, Sony’s international music rights operation – throughout recorded music and music publishing – generated USD $2.330 billion within the three months to finish of September 2023.

Plus, music funding platform beatBread has launched advances of as much as $3 million for songwriters, whereas non-public fairness agency STG accomplished its $1.4 billion acquisition of music tech agency Avid.

Right here’s what occurred this week…

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1) CONFIRMED: FROM NEXT YEAR, TRACKS ON SPOTIFY WILL HAVE TO BE PLAYED 1,000 TIMES BEFORE THEY START EARNING MONEY

Final month Music Business Worldwide broke the information that main modifications have been coming to Spotify’s royalty mannequin in Q1 2024.

Probably the most controversial of these modifications? A brand new minimal annual threshold for streams earlier than any monitor begins producing royalties on the service.

On the time of our report, we couldn’t verify a exact quantity for this minimal threshold. Now we are able to: It’s 1,000 performs.

The information was first nodded to by a visitor submit from the President of the distribution platform Stem, Kristin Graziani, printed on Thursday (November 2).

MBW has subsequently confirmed with sources near conversations between Spotify and music rightsholders that 1,000 streams will certainly be the minimal yearly play-count quantity that every monitor on the service has to hit with a purpose to begin producing royalties from Q1 2024.

We’ve additionally re-confirmed Spotify’s behind-the-scenes line on this to document labels and distributors proper now: That the transfer is “designed to [demonetize] a inhabitants of tracks that at the moment, on common, earn lower than 5 cents per 30 days”.

5 cents in recorded music royalties on Spotify within the US at the moment may be generated by round 200 performs…

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2) SONY GENERATED $2.33BN FROM RECORDED MUSIC AND PUBLISHING IN CALENDAR Q3, UP 8.3% YOY

Sony’s international music rights operation – throughout recorded music and music publishing – generated USD $2.330 billion within the three months to finish of September 2023.

That’s in response to MBW’s calculations based mostly on Sony Group Corp’s calendar Q3 2023 (fiscal Q2 2023) outcomes, as introduced by the Japanese agency yesterday (November 9).

The $2.330 billion determine was up 8.3% year-on-year (vs. calendar Q3 2022) at US dollar-converted fixed forex.

In financial phrases, Sony’s total music rights operation (recorded music plus music publishing) generated roughly $177.8 million extra in calendar Q3 2023 than within the prior-year quarter…

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3) MUSIC FUNDING PLATFORM BEATBREAD LAUNCHES ADVANCES OF UP TO $3M FOR SONGWRITERS, HIRES BMG’S SPENCER LEBOFF

Since its launch in 2020, music funding platform beatBread has been providing artists, indie labels and distributors advances on their catalog and as-yet-unreleased music.

Now, the Utah-headquartered agency is increasing its providers to songwriters by way of a brand new Songwriting Advance Division.

Songwriters will now be eligible for advances of as much as USD $3 million towards the publishing rights on their catalog or catalog plus future songs, beatBread introduced on Thursday (November 9)…

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4) PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM STG CLOSES ACQUISITION OF MUSIC TECH FIRM AVID IN $1.4BN CASH DEAL

It’s a achieved deal. Avid Know-how has formally been acquired by an affiliate of personal fairness agency Symphony Know-how Group (STG) in an all-cash transaction valued at roughly $1.4 billion.

Avid is the maker of fashionable music manufacturing software program Professional Instruments, which is extensively used within the recording trade. The corporate claims on its web site that each document nominated for Report of the Yr on the 2022 Grammys was made with the assistance of Professional Instruments.

Avid additionally operates a DIY music distribution service referred to as AvidPlay Music Distribution, which distributes music to over 150 platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal…

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5) TAYLOR SWIFT’S 1989 (TAYLOR’S VERSION) ATTRACTED 1,329% MORE STREAMS THAN THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF 1989 IN THE US LAST WEEK

Taylor Swift simply cemented her standing as the largest artist on earth proper now with a re-recorded Taylor’s Model launch of her traditional 1989.

As you may count on, it did slightly properly in its opening week.

In keeping with knowledge from US market monitor Luminate, 1989 (Taylor’s Model) ‘offered’ the ‘equal’ of 1.653 million copies within the US in its first chart week (to finish of Thursday, November 2) after being launched on Friday, October 27.

That 1.653 million quantity is predicated on a weighting method from Luminate which pulls collectively streams and ‘actual’ gross sales into an ‘equal’ determine….

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MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.

 Music Enterprise Worldwide