Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring costs.
Last week, TikTok made headlines for shutting down its subscription music streaming service.
This week, the ByteDance-owned app made headlines for shutting down its re-licensing negotiations with indie rep Merlin.
In other big news this week, Pink Floyd agreed to sell their recorded music catalog to Sony Music in an agreement worth approximately USD $400 million, according to sources.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, talent giant Creative Artists Agency (CAA) filed a lawsuit against management firm Range Media Partners, accusing the company of “stealing” confidential info and of being “an unlicensed talent agency”.
Elsewhere this week, we reported that Sony Music GSA has undergone a major restructuring under new CEO Christoph Behm, while Spotify started notifying subscribers in Canada that its prices are going up in the market.
It’s true: MBW has confirmed that TikTok recently scrapped re-licensing discussions with Merlin, despite the indie group’s current deal with the ByteDance platform expiring on October 31.
Instead of agreeing a blanket deal with Merlin, TikTok is instead inviting individual Merlin members to negotiate direct licensing deals with its team.
Merlin claims that its members represent 15% of global recorded music consumption by market share. So why would TikTok walk away from the negotiating table?
The reason is something of a shock: as industry discussion over streaming fraud grows ever-louder, TikTok has called into question the legitimacy of music delivered to its platform by certain Merlin members.
The deal is done: Pink Floyd has this week agreed to sell their recorded music catalog to Sony Music in an agreement worth approximately USD $400 million, according to sources.
The transaction is understood to include Floyd’s recordings catalog, plus neighboring rights, plus ‘name and likeness’ rights. It does not include publishing rights.
The news was first reported on Tuesday (October 1) by the Financial Times…
A blockbuster legal dispute is brewing in Hollywood.
Talent giant CAA (Creative Artists Agency) has filed a lawsuit against management firm Range Media Partners this week, accusing it of “stealing confidential information” ahead of the latter company’s launch in 2020.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles’ Superior Court on Monday (September 30), also claims that Range is “an unlicensed talent agency built on deceit…”
Sony Music GSA recently experienced a leadership shakeup, with the company’s now-former boss Patrick Mushatsi-Kareba leaving the business and replaced by Christoph Behm.
Now, just a month into the new role, Behm has made sweeping changes at the business, which will see Sony Music’s GSA labels sit within three new “overarching frontline label groups”, including the Ariola Label Group, the Columbia Label Group, and the RCA Label Group.
Additionally, Sony Music GSA will now be overseen by a newly structured GSA management team…
Spotify has notified customers in Canada that it will be increasing its subscription prices in the market.
The news arrives amid a debate in the market over a proposed tax on non-Canadian streaming companies’ domestic revenues.
In June, Canada’s telecom regulator, the CRTC, announced that starting this fall, non-Canadian streaming services will be required to pay a 5% tax on their Canadian revenues, which will be put into a number of different funds that support Canadian music creators and broadcasters…
