by Julia Gomberg
Another month is behind us and you know what that means: we’re dropping a hand-selected group of headlines aimed at keeping independent artists aware of what’s happening in the music industry each month.
Check out what you might have missed in September!
COVID-19 Spawns New ‘Livestreamers’ Chart for Music Industry
Industry trade publication Pollstar has been tracking livestream numbers since the pandemic broke and recently released two new charts to its catalog. The Top 50 Livestreams highlight the most viewed performances while the Top 50 Livestreamers recognize the artists that have racked up the most online traffic. Read more here.
Concord Launches $10M Impact Investment Initiative
Concord has launched a $10 million Impact Investment Initiative to deploy capital into projects, businesses and organizations in the music and theater industries that serve or are led by members of underrepresented and marginalized communities. For its 2021 class and going forward, Techstars has pledged to a benchmark of 50% diverse CEOs and founders including people of color, women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, historically marginalized communities, indigenous people and military veterans. Read more here.
TuneCore Continues International Expansion, Launches TuneCore Brazil and TuneCore Russia
TuneCore announced its continued international expansion with the launches of TuneCore Russia and TuneCore Brazil. These openings mark the 9th and 10th countries with local TuneCore hires, and several more planned in the coming year. TuneCore is owned by Paris-based Believe, which distributes over one-third of the world’s digital music. The leading digital music distribution service will expand its team into Mosco and Rio De Janeiro, supported by local language websites and country managers. Read more here.
UK Music Industry Reacts To Government’s Winter Economy Plan
Organizations and figures from across the UK music industry have called Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Winter Economy Plan as the potential death sentence for the UK’s live music and culture sector. Aseries of measures aimed at supporting businesses and their employees through a winter that will see ongoing COVID-19-related restrictions, including a 10pm curfew for bars, pubs and restaurants. Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd said today’s plan did not offer sector-specific support for the challenges faced by the live music industry. Read more here.
Italy’s Recorded Music Industry Grew 2.1% In H1 2020, with Streaming Up 26.4%
In late March, FIMI – whose members include Universal Mjusic, Sony Music, Warner Music and BMG in Italy – forecasted that Covid-19 would halt the annual growth of Italy’s recorded music business, while noting that the country was already seeing “signs of crisis”. However, released data shows that in the first six months of 2020, the country’s recorded music industry generated wholesale revenues of €87.97m, up 2.1% on the same period of 2019. Read more here.
Songtrust Partners with Ghana-Based Distribution Platform Highvibes
Ghana-based music distribution and music rights management platform Highvibes partnered with Downtown Holdings-owned Songtrust to power its music publishing administration service. The partnership will allow songwriters in Africa who distribute music through Highvibes to collect publishing royalties in both Africa and Songtrust’s entire global royalty collection network which exceeds more than 215 countries and territories. Read more here.