Can Music Keep up in the Attention Economy?
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Bulletin YOUR DAILY ENTERTAINMENT NEWS UPDATE DECEMBER 16, 2020 Page 1 of 30 INSIDE Streaming Is Stalling: Can Music • Bob Dylan’s Keep Up in the Attention Economy? ‘Incredibly Unusual’ Decisions That Let BY WILL PAGE Him Own All His Songs • Joie Manda Exiting Music streaming services have continued to add of streams won’t impact the music industry’s aggre- Interscope Geffen U.S. subscribers this year, according to MIDiA Re- gate streaming revenue — if subscribers are added and A&M: Exclusive search, growing by 11 million paying users from Janu- consumption stays flat, rights holders just make more ary to September, to 117.9 million. But in a potentially per stream. But a move toward podcasts could cost • Sen. Amy Klobuchar: Save Our troubling sign for the recorded music business, the rights holders leverage in licensing negotiations. Stages Act Passage number of total streams has remained the same. Perhaps more important, with some 55,000 new ‘Is Looking Good’ For the past four months and counting, audio music tracks being uploaded onto streaming services every streams have averaged 17.5 billion a week. That’s up day — up from the 40,000 reported in April 2019 — • How Indie Venues Could Emerge slightly from the early March pre-pandemic peak, be- you have a dilemma: more songs (and more users) From the Pandemic fore the lockdown cut music listening down by 13% to competing for a fixed number of streams. Stronger Than Ever a year low of less than 15 billion streams, as consum- Has streaming volume really peaked in the U.S., ers stopped commuting and obsessed over the news. though, or is the current growth freeze just a blip? • Music Stocks Are Skyrocketing Past Streaming gradually rebounded, increasing 15% by the A number of factors seem temporary. Label sources Analyst Expectations end of June — but has plateaued since. point to the previous year, where cyclical trends in This could actually be good news for streaming ser- the release schedule led to finite periods of flatness. • Five Takeaways vices, which for the past two years have been pouring The presidential election also appears to have cut into From TikTok’s First- Ever Annual Music money into podcasts, which cost them less. Streaming music time, given the sharp dip in streaming during Report companies don’t have to share as much revenue on election week itself. Thanksgiving has also histori- podcasts — a growing number of which they own — as cally seen a 2% to 3% dip in music streaming. (The • BILLBOARD 200 they do on streams of music, most of which they don’t. U.K., by comparison, where neither occurred, saw CLICK HERE But for record labels, publishers, songwriters and streaming dip 5% when the pandemic hit but regained artists, this may be the calm before the storm. In the momentum in three weeks and has continued to edge short term, at least, the lack of growth in the number (continued) Interscope_Eilish_Die_18_121220.indd 1 12/2/20 8:45 AM Page 3 of 30 IN BRIEF upwards since.) Another obvious factor Tom Silverman, founder of Tommy Boy Will Page is a visiting fellow at the Lon- limiting music streaming time for now is the Records, views kids’ obsession with swiping don School of Economics who previously lack of commuting, with most offices still 30-second clips on TikTok as a new era of was the chief economist at both Spotify and closed. the sub-song, asking, “If a single used to be PRS for Music. His book, Tarzan Econom- Other forces are putting permanent pres- an ad or trailer for an album, is a sub-song a ics, will be published by Little Brown and sure on streaming volume, though. Gaming trailer or ad for a single?” Company in the United States in early is competing for attention with music. Mar- If young kids are hooked on Roblox, and 2021. He would like to thank Ally Glerum, ket research firm IDG Consulting reports older kids are TikToking, then their parents Product Manager at MRC Entertainment, as increasing average gameplay hours per user may increasingly be listening to podcasts. well as Podnews, MIDiA, IDG Consulting, across the board. Counter Strike Global Between 2014 and 2019, time spent with Sensor Tower and Chartmetric for provid- Offensive play increased 40% since the pan- music was down 5% and time spent with ing data and helpful suggestions. demic started and Defense of the Ancients is spoken word was up 20%, according to a re- A version of this article originally up 38%. Roblox, which appeals to kids 9 and port by NPR and Edison Research. The lack appeared in the Dec. 19, 2020 issue of up, hit 120 million global monthly active us- of authoritative data on podcast consump- Billboard. ers in June 2020, and IDG Consulting now tion, however, makes it difficult to gauge its puts that figure at about 160 million — a fifth impact on music streaming. Measurement of which are likely in the U.S. That’s a 33% is difficult: a download of a podcast on Bob Dylan’s increase in just the past five months. the Apple app does not constitute a listen, TikTok is also giving music stream- while Spotify claims that 22% of its users ‘Incredibly ing platforms a run for their money. The engaged with podcast content in the third company claimed 100 million U.S. daily quarter, up from 21% the prior quarter, but Unusual’ Decisions active users in September. For context the does not define what that means. U.S. online population under the age of 29 is When artists resume touring and releas- That Let Him Own only 110 million, meaning TikTok may have ing big albums to drive ticket sales, music already soaked up its addressable market. streaming could still return back to growth, All His Songs The app has been installed more than 66 but the new attention economy guards million times this year, according to app against such complacency. With these BY ED CHRISTMAN analytics company Sensor Tower, and 37% three “attention merchants” competing for of that activity happened between April consumers’ increasingly scarce time, it’s hen Bob Dylan sold his and June. The company estimates that 40% likely that music streaming will struggle to publishing catalog to of TikTok’s U.S. growth was accumulated grow even when things return to normal. Universal Music Group, in 2020. (From July to September, installs We know that songs are getting shorter, and both fans and industry dropped by 31%, possibly indicating a satu- without more songs being consumed, music executivesW were most curious about the ration point.) is already losing the battle for attention. price. Others had another question: How did “A MAD, MAD GENIUS” - CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND “JACOB COLLIER... REPRESENTS A NEW WAY OF CONSIDERING “I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO BLOWN MUSICAL GENIUSES...PRINCE AWAY BY A PERFORMANCE WAS NOT THE LAST GREATEST IN MY LIFE.” - STEVE VAI LIVING PERFORMER." - VICE “HURTS MY BRAIN & HUGS MY SOUL ALL AT ONCE” "AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE" - TORI KELLY - STEREOGUM “I CAN HANDS DOWN “MAD GOOD, RIGHT?” SAY IT WAS THE BEST - ANNIE MAC, CONCERT I’VE EVER BBC RADIO 1 BEEN TO IN MY LIFE.” - LENNON STELLA “I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE SEEN "NOT ONLY DOES HE A TALENT LIKE HAVE A SEEMINGLY THIS. BEYOND ENDLESS SUPPLY OF CATEGORY” IDEAS. HE'S GOT THE - QUINCY JONES CHOPS TO EXECUTE THEM AND THE FEARLESSNESS TO ALBUM OF THE YEAR "SUCH A TRY ANYTHING." BRILLIANT MIND" - KCRW - NPR DJESSE VOL. 3 “A GENIUS” - “SPECTACULAR, DANIEL CAESAR GLORIOUS, MUSICAL WIZARDRY” “SERIOUSLY, BEST R&B PERFORMANCE - TED WHAT *CAN'T* JACOB COLLIER DO?” ALL I NEED - SEVENTEEN BEST ARRANGEMENT, INSTRUMENTS AND VOCALS HE WON'T HOLD YOU Interscope_Jacob Collier_18_121220.indd 1 12/2/20 8:47 AM Page 5 of 30 IN BRIEF Dylan manage to get ownership of so much usually amounts to 56 years for songs cre- With his new manager, Albert Grossman, of his song catalog, which was almost all his ated before then. Dylan filed a notice of Dylan made the Witmark deal a co-pub- by 1990? copyright termination for the songs on his lishing agreement under which Dylan and When Dylan started his career in the early first album on Feb. 17, 2010, according to the Grossman owned half the publishing and 1960s, standard music publishing contracts U.S. Copyright Office. The reversion became Witmark owned the other half, according gave the songwriter a 50% cut of royalties, effective on June 30, 2018 – 56 year after the to Hardy’s book. But instead of signing with and the publisher the other 50%. Songwrit- album was released. While Dylan got back Witmark under the standard contract that ers typically signed contracts that gave a those copyrights in the U.S., other countries covered two terms of copyright, Dylan had publisher two terms of copyright ownership, don’t provide for termination rights, so the foresight to make a deal for just one of 28 years each, for a total of 56 years. those songs were already owned by Univer- term of 28 years. That means he regained In 1962, Dylan signed his first publishing sal elsewhere. (Dylan also filed termination full ownership of the songs created under deal, with Leeds Music Publishing; then, notices for his copyrights on arrangements the contract beginning in 1990. later that year, he signed another deal with of a few songs he covered.) It was “incredibly astute and incredibly Witmark & Sons, according to Phil Hardy’s Dylan doesn’t seem to have filed any other unusual,” says an executive who deals in the book Nickels & Dimes: Music Publishing & termination notices with the Copyright buying and selling of publishing catalogs.