Welcome to Music Enterprise Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we ensure 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 earnings and scale back their touring prices.
One in 5 paid music subscribers can be keen to pay for a “super-premium” subscription tier, based on analysis cited by Common Music Group‘s management group.
That perception into the considering on monetization of superfans is simply one of many issues we gleaned from the corporate’s newest earnings name, which got here sizzling on the heels of the announcement that UMG had inked a contemporary licensing take care of TikTok.
We additionally realized this week that Harmony is bowing out of its bidding struggle with Blackstone for possession of Hipgnosis Songs Fund‘s property.
In the meantime, Warner Music Group launched its fiscal Q2 (calendar Q1) earnings this week, posting whole revenues of USD $1.494 billion for the quarter.
The identical day as WMG’s earnings, Downtown Music introduced it had secured an extra $500 million credit score capability from Financial institution of America, with which the corporate plans to pay advances to indie artists.
Lastly, TikTok sued the US authorities, asking a federal appeals courtroom in DC to overview the constitutionality of the recently-passed regulation forcing mother or father firm ByteDance to promote TikTok’s US operations or face a nationwide ban.
Right here’s what occurred this week…
It’s no shock that TikTok was a key matter of dialogue on Common Music Group‘s Q1 earnings name on Thursday (Might 2).
Simply hours forward of UMG revealing that its revenues grew 7.9% YoY at fixed forex to USD $2.8 billion in Q1, the businesses ended a three-month-long licensing dispute with a shiny new deal.
However that’s not all that was on UMG management’s minds. Monetizing superfans continues to be an enormous precedence.
In response to an analyst’s query, UMG Chair and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge mentioned: “We all know that we may higher monetize higher-value clients, the analysis means that 1 in 5 paid music subscribers can be keen to pay for a premium tier. That’s attractive…”
The race to accumulate UK-listed Hipgnosis Songs Fund took a flip Thursday (Might 9) as Harmony introduced that it might not elevate its newest provide – leaving international funding agency Blackstone because the frontrunner within the ongoing takeover battle.
Harmony’s newest announcement signifies its withdrawal from the competitors, leaving Blackstone in a powerful place.
“Harmony Bidco confirms that its provide of $1.25 per Hipgnosis Share is last and won’t be elevated,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement obtained by MBW.
The Hipgnosis Songs Fund board had earlier beneficial Blackstone’s provide to its shareholders, whereas withdrawing its earlier suggestion of Harmony’s $1.25-per-share provide…
Warner Music Group has issued its monetary outcomes for the three months ended March 31, 2024 (calendar Q1 – the corporate’s fiscal Q2).
In response to the corporate’s outcomes, WMG noticed its quarterly international company-wide revenues attain USD $1.494 billion (throughout recorded music, music publishing, and different actions).
Warner Music Group’s recorded music revenues had been up 4.3% YoY at fixed forex to $1.189 billion.
That development was pushed, based on WMG, by development in digital and licensing income, and was “partially offset by decrease bodily and artist companies and expanded-rights income”…
4) DOWNTOWN SECURES $500M CREDIT AGREEMENT FROM BANK OF AMERICA FOR INDIE ARTIST ADVANCES
Downtown Music, a division of Downtown Music Holdings, simply secured one other $500 million of credit score capability from Financial institution of America to broaden its companies for impartial artists and labels.
Downtown says that it initially established its partnership with Financial institution of America in 2022 with a $200 million credit score facility to supply artists and rightsholders with advances in change “for a short-term share of future royalties”.
The corporate has now expanded its credit score facility with BoA by an extra $500 million to spice up its capability to pay advances to indie artists.
As famous by Bloomberg on Thursday (Might 9), Downtown gives advances “starting from tens of hundreds of {dollars} to a number of million {dollars}”.
At present, throughout its operations, Downtown Music Holdings claims to be the world’s largest impartial service supplier…
TikTok and mother or father firm ByteDance have filed swimsuit in opposition to the US authorities over its recently-passed regulation that requires ByteDance to promote the platform’s US operations or face a nationwide ban.
In a criticism that TikTok mentioned it filed on Tuesday (Might 7) with the US Courtroom of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the corporate described the regulation as “unconstitutional.”
“Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok: a vibrant on-line discussion board for protected speech and expression utilized by 170 million People to create, share, and think about movies over the Web,” the criticism acknowledged.
“For the primary time in historical past, Congress has enacted a regulation that topics a single, named speech platform to a everlasting, nationwide ban, and bars each American from collaborating in a singular on-line group with greater than 1 billion individuals worldwide…”
MBW’s Weekly Spherical-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their earnings and scale back their touring prices.Music Enterprise Worldwide