6 Major Music Industry Stories You Missed Over The Holiday Break
While you were enjoying the annual music industry holiday break, things were far from quiet. Lawyers went into overdrive filing lawsuits against Spotify and Ticketmaster, Pandora struck its biggest licensing deal yet, SFX stumbled and The Beatles finally arrived on streaming. This and more:
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Over the holiday break:
1. Spotify acknowledged that its music publishing payment system was not compensating writers and publishers properly and committed to overhaul it.
2. That did not deter musician and music industry critic David Lowery from filing a $150 million class action lawsuit against Spotify for nonpayment of royalties. A similar suit from the legal team behind the Flo & Eddie pre-1972 class action suit is also reportedly in the works.
3. Pandora signed landmark direct licensing deals with ASCAP and BMI and dropped their appeal in Rate Court.
4. Songkick sued Live Nation for allegedly abusing their power to stop direct to fan ticket sales.
5. Struggles continued at SFX with news that James Barton, who some saw as a possible savior, will not be making the move from Live Nation. The EDM conglomerate also defaulted on a $10 million Spotify deal and lost one of its hottest management firms.
6. And just in case you really went digital cold turkey for the last 2 weeks, The Beatles arrived on 9 major streaming services Christmas Eve and were immediately a big hit with all ages. (statistics, top tracks)
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