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.
This is proving to be a year of regulatory headaches for Live Nation and its ticketing subsidiary, Ticketmaster. Not only is the company battling an antitrust lawsuit brought by the US Department of Justice, it’s now facing a probe by the UK’s competition regulator over the use of dynamic pricing in the on-sale of tickets for Oasis‘ reunion tour next year.
In a new analysis, MBW founder Tim Ingham took a look at the predicament created by the fact that demand for Oasis tickets far exceeds any possible supply, and concluded that Ticketmaster might be offering the most important artist service on the market today: Being a pain sponge.
Elsewhere in the music world, we got word this week that Brazil‘s recorded music industry, one of the fastest-growing in the world, grew an impressive 21% YoY in H1 2024.
Meanwhile, Bertelsmann-owned BMG is facing a patent infringement lawsuit in the US, brought by a company called Muvox LLC, which alleges the music company infringed on a patent covering song selection based on mood.
Speaking of courtroom battles, this week we dug into the details of Spotify‘s victory in a lawsuit over unlicensed streaming of Eminem songs – a lawsuit the streamer won despite the court concluding that it didn’t actually have a license for those songs.
Here’s what happened this week…
Credit: Simon Emmett
1) UK COMPETITION REGULATOR LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO TICKETMASTER OVER OASIS TICKET SALE
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an investigation into Live Nation-owned ticketing giant Ticketmaster.
The reason for the investigation? Saturday’s on-sale for Oasis’ 2025 UK and Ireland stadium tour, including “how so-called ‘dynamic pricing’ may have been used”, the CMA said in a statement on September 5.
The competition watchdog said that it plans to scrutinize “whether the sale of Oasis tickets by Ticketmaster may have breached consumer protection law”.
Over 10 million fans from 158 countries are confirmed to have queued up on Saturday (August 31) to buy tickets to the tour…
Credit: Simon Emmett
2) ON… OASIS, TICKETMASTER, ‘DYNAMIC’ PRICING, UBER, MONEY, AND THE TRUTH.
Seems like everyone working in music these days wants to be in artist services.
But do you know what might be the most valuable artist service offered by any corner of the music industry?
Being a pain sponge. Soaking up the hate and the brickbats and the accusations of greed and skulduggery so the artist doesn’t have to – and doing it without complaint.
Who’s the No.1 artist pain sponge in the world?
Ticketmaster, of course…
Credit: Press/UMG
3) THE US MUSIC STREAMING MARKET MIGHT BE FEELING LESS-THAN-FIZZY, BUT OVER IN BRAZIL… IT’S STILL PARTY TIME.
It’s fair to say that the global music business felt a little glum last week.
It would have taken a foolhardy exec to pop open the Tattinger after the RIAA confirmed on Thursday (August 29) that the largest recorded music market in the world, the US, only grew industry revenues by 4% YoY in the first half of 2024. Total streaming subscription accounts in the US grew by just 2.7% YoY in the same period.
But what’s this?
One of the world’s most commercially exciting – and fastest-growing – markets had no trouble bouncing up by double digits in H1 2024…
Photo credit: N Universe/Shutterstock
4) BMG FACES LAWSUIT IN THE US FOR ALLEGED PATENT INFRINGEMENT
An obscure company called Muvox LLC has filed a lawsuit against BMG in the United States for alleged patent infringement.
The lawsuit was filed in a Texas court last month and references a patent titled ‘Music streaming, playlist creation and streaming architecture‘, which describes “a method for selecting a song” based on other songs with similar “moods”.
As first reported by patent litigation information resource RPX, the lawsuit targets “song recommendation features” within the BMG Synch service.
According to a lawsuit filed in the same Texas court on August 21, the company suing BMG also appears to be suing technology giant IBM for alleged infringement of the same patent…
Jacob Giampa/Shutterstock
5) SPOTIFY JUST WON A LONG-RUNNING LAWSUIT OVER STREAMING OF EMINEM’S CATALOG – DESPITE THE COURT FINDING IT DIDN’T HAVE A LICENSE FOR THE MUSIC. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR PUBLISHERS?
After a five-year-long court battle, Spotify has effectively won a court case in which it was accused of having streamed Eminem songs without permission.
The music streaming giant won the case despite the court finding that Spotify did not have a license to stream those tracks.
The court also concluded that, if Spotify were to be on the hook for copyright infringement, the penalty would have had to be paid by… Kobalt Music Group.
Yet the biggest loser in this case is Eight Mile Style, the co-publisher of 242 Eminem tracks, including the rapper’s biggest hit, Lose Yourself, and other hits such as Stan, The Real Slim Shady, The Way I Am, and Without Me…
MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.Music Business Worldwide
