From Meta losing Kobalt’s catalog to Universal’s $2.7bn in Q2… It’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up

Welcome to Worldwide music businessWeekly aggregator – where we make sure you’ve captured the five biggest stories to make our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is powered by Centtriphelping more than 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring expenses.

Facebook has been making a lot of headlines lately.

Just last week, we learned that the parent company of the social platform, Meta, was sued by Sweden Translation audio Because accused of copyright infringement.

Then, just a few days later, MBW confirmed that Kobalt Music Publishing House – where 700,000 songs are stored – is drag its entire catalog from Facebook and Instagram in U.S.A.

Why? Because, according to an internal memo, KobaltThe current US licensing agreement with Meta has expired and the two parties have not reached a new agreement.

That’s not bad news from the Zuckerburg offices et al this week, however.

On Monday (July 25), Meta disclosure that it will now directly share a portion of Facebook’s advertising revenue with music rights holders on certain user-generated content videos.

This new system works like this: Video creators who choose to use licensed music in videos longer than 60 seconds on Facebook will receive a 20% share of any advertising revenue they generate.

The rest 80% That advertising revenue will then be split between the appropriate music copyright holders and Meta itself.

Elsewhere in the global music business this week, earnings season has been in full swing.

On Wednesday (July 27), Spotify announced Q2 results and confirmed that it added 6 million pure Premium subscribers to its user base in Q2, bringing its total global subscribers to 188 million.

That is bigger more than 5 million SPOT subscribers previously told investors it was expected to add to the second quarter.

Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, Universal Music Group announced its own Q2 2022 financial results (covering the three months to the end of June).

UMG’s total corporate revenue from music, publishing and other activities has increased 17.3% YoY in constant currency is €2,535 billion € (2.70 billion USD) in the quarter.

And today (July 29), we reported that Sonyglobal music copyright activity – on recorded music and music publishing – generates USD 2.03 billion dollars in the three months to the end of June 2022 (second quarter of 2022), increasing by 11.7% on a yearly basis (compared to the 2nd quarter calendar of 2021) in constant currency denominated in US dollars.

Here’s what happened this week…

1) KOBALT IS DRAWING 700,000 OF IT’S SONGS FROM FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM. HAS MUSIC BIZ GROW HISTORY WITH META?

MBW joked one day that the global music business had gotten a little “cozy” this summer – with an apparent lack of (public) companies.

Dear readers, please allow us to take that idea off the record.

On Sunday (July 24), MBW confirmed that Kobalt Music Publishing – which hosts 700,000 songs – is pulling its entire catalog from Facebook and Instagram in the US….

2) FACEBOOK NOW DIRECTLY SHARE THE PROBLEM OF ADVERTISING REVENUE WITH MUSIC RIGHTS FOR UGC VIDEOS. YOUR MOVE, TIKTOK…

If you’ve been paying attention to MBW this month, you’ll know that there’s a growing debate in the industry going on about “emerging” social platforms and the different models they use to pay. money to music copyright holders.

Top music execs are starting to call on the likes of TikTok, Meta, and others to pay exclusively to publishers and record labels through one-time (aka) licensing advancements as a ‘repurchase’ transaction) – instead of sharing an agreed rate of revenue for every play/use of monetized music on their platform.

Then Monday (July 25) is a big day: Meta has announced that it is changing the way artists and music rights holders will be paid from Facebook – and now it WILL move to a new model. ‘revenue sharing’ model for user-generated video content…

3) AGAIN, THE NETFLIX PROBLEM CANNOT BE AVOID: MUSIC STREAMER ADDED 6 MILLION NET SUBSCRIBERS IN Q2

We can’t talk about streaming subscribers these days without mentioning Netflix.

Video streamers lost almost a million net subscribers in Q2 (three months to the end of June) – better than expected but, after losing 200,000 net subscribers in Q1, apparently also not good news. So what is Spotify?

Does it suffer from a similar trend in its Q2 numbers? Does its subscriber performance send a disturbing message to the music business?

No…

4) POPULAR MUSIC GROUP EARNED USD 2.7 BILLION IN Q2; STREAM REGISTRATION REGISTRATION REVENUE REVENUE 7.0% YEAR

In recent years, the music copyright business has become familiar with major music companies posting double-digit YoY revenue growth from online subscriptions every quarter.

On Wednesday (July 27), that story changed somewhat, when Universal Music Group, the world’s largest publisher of music rights, announced its Q2 2022 financial results (including three month to end of June).…

3) SONY HAS CREATED MORE THAN $2BN FROM MUSIC FILMED AND PUBLISHED IN Q2 SCHEDULE; RECORDED MUSIC SALES UP 11.2% y/y

Sony’s global music copyright operations – including recorded music and music publishing – generated $2.03 billion in the three months to the end of June 2022.

That’s according to MBW’s calculation based on Sony Group Corp’s 2022 Q2 (financial Q1) business results, as the Japanese company announced earlier today (July 29).

The figure of $2.03 billion is up 11.7% year-on-year (compared to calendar Q2 2021) in constant currency converted to US dollars.

(Understanding Sony’s results in constant currency denominated in US dollars is particularly important for the Q2 2022 calendar, when the strength of the dollar against the Japanese Yen – the unit of currency in which Sony reports earnings – increasing to historical levels.)…

MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is powered by Centtrip, helping more than 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring costs.

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