DANIEL EK Addresses The ‘Myths’ Of Streaming Music…

by Sheme Jobs

SPOTIFY CEO DANIEL EK has taken to the company blog to address TAYLOR SWIFT’s decision to remove her albums from the streaming service.

EK writes, “TAYLOR SWIFT is absolutely right: Music is art, art has real value, and artists deserve to be paid for it. We started SPOTIFY because we love music and piracy was killing it. So all the talk swirling around lately about how SPOTIFY is making money on the backs of artists upsets me big time. Our whole reason for existence is to help fans find music and help artists connect with fans through a platform that protects them from piracy and pays them for their amazing work.

“QUINCY JONES posted on FACEBOOK that “SPOTIFY is not the enemy; piracy is the enemy”. You know why? Two numbers: Zero and Two Billion. Piracy doesn’t pay artists a penny — nothing, zilch, zero. SPOTIFY has paid more than two billion dollars to labels, publishers and collecting societies for distribution to songwriters and recording artists. A billion dollars from the time we started SPOTIFY in 2008 to last year and another billion dollars since then. And that’s two billion dollars’ worth of listening that would have happened with zero or little compensation to artists and songwriters through piracy or practically equivalent services if there was no SPOTIFY — we’re working day and night to recover money for artists and the music business that piracy was stealing away.

“When I hear stories about artists and songwriters who say they’ve seen little or no money from streaming and are naturally angry and frustrated, I’m really frustrated, too. The music industry is changing — and we’re proud of our part in that change — but lots of problems that have plagued the industry since its inception continue to exist. As I said, we’ve already paid more than $2 billion in royalties to the music industry and if that money is not flowing to the creative community in a timely and transparent way, that’s a big problem. We will do anything we can to work with the industry to increase transparency, improve speed of payments, and give artists the opportunity to promote themselves and connect with fans – that’s our responsibility as a leader in this industry; and it’s the right thing to do.”

Read the full post here.

Music Streaming Service Guvera Is Now In India….

by Sheme Jobs

Australian streaming service Guvera first launched in 2010 as an MP3 download site, but has since transitioned to streaming. The service offers both free ad-supported and paid accounts.

In the past year Guvera has expanded to Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Now, Guvera has expanded to India.
Founder Claes Loberg said:

“We are both proud and excited to be the first-of-its-kind international music streaming offering to enter India; a market that is truly diverse in terms of its taste for music…”

Earlier this year WiMP opened an office in India, and Rdio said they would soon expand to India. Looks like Guvera could have some serious competition in the region.

Executive Movement: Capitol Records, UMPG, Man Made Music, StubHub…

by Sheme Jobs

Richard Conlon is now Universal Music Publishing Group‘s Special Advisor on Performing Rights. Conlon was previously SVP of Corporate Strategy, Communications, and New Media at BMI. He left his position earlier this year to pursue other opportunities.

Last week Capitol Records laid off around 14 people as part of a restructuring. The label is planning on hiring additional people in the coming weeks. Layoffs include Katy Perry’s longtime publicist Heidi Anne-Noel, Leslie Hermelin of Astralwerks, Lucy Robinson of Harvest Records, Gihan Salem of Capitol, and longtime Blue Note Records publicist J.R. Rich. Ambrosia Healy was recently hired to oversee publicity at all of Capitol’s labels.
Sonic branding company Man Made Music has hired Kevin Perlmutter as SVP and Chief Strategist. Perlmutter was previously Senior Director of Brand Strategy at Interbrand.

Chris Tsakalakis recently left his position as StubHub‘s President. Tsakalakis has been in this position since 2007. StubHub is looking for a replacement.

by Sheme Jobs

Scott Borchetta: “Pulling Taylor Swift From Spotify Is About Creating And Sustaining Value For Artists.”

by Sheme Jobs

Tongues have been wagging since the news last week that on the same day TAYLOR SWIFT announced plans for a world tour in support of her new “1989” album and hours before expected record-setting sales figures for her latest project were due, BIG MACHINE RECORDS instructed SPOTIFY to remove her entire catalog from its subscription streaming service. BIG MACHINE Pres./CEO SCOTT BORCHETTA has long been a vocal critic of streaming services such as SPOTIFY, saying on more than one occasion, to different publications — the streaming business model is, “A race to the bottom.”

This weekend on the syndicated SIXX SENSE WITH NIKKI SIXX, NIKKI SIXX and co-host JENN MARINO welcomed BORCHETTA, who spoke candidly about the headline-making decision to pull SWIFT’s music catalogue from SPOTIFY, the reasoning behind it, and why it’s important to the future of the music industry.

Here’s part of the conversation:

SIXX: “I figured there’s nobody better to talk about what’s in the news with TAYLOR SWIFT, and pulling all of her music off SPOTIFY. Obviously, you being the label, you would be the right person to go to because you were involved in this decision. So, can you explain it to me?”

BORCHETTA: “Yes, for all of TAYLOR’s records in the streaming era, if you will, we have never put them on any free streaming services for the first 90 to 120 days. And the reason being is we never wanted to embarrass a fan. What I mean by that is, if this fan went and purchased the record, CD, iTUNES, wherever, and then their friends go, ‘why did you pay for it? It’s free on SPOTIFY,’ we’re being completely disrespectful to that super-fan who wants to invest, who believes in their favorite artist … MOTLEY CRUE is one of my favorites, they’ve never let me down. I buy their records, right? So why would I want to go and do that only to know that, well, they ripped me off. I could have gotten it for free.”

SIXX: “So is this a 90-day, 120-day thing, or is this permanent?”

BORCHETTA: “This is what we decided to do. So, what we had done in the past with her records, is after that initial period, we put them up for streaming services. And for this album coming in to everything that’s going on in the business and how dramatic the streaming moment is and how it’s affecting sales, we determined that her fan base is so in on her, let’s pull everything off of SPOTIFY, and any other service that doesn’t offer a premium service. Now if you are a premium subscriber to BEATS or RDIO or any of the other services that don’t offer just a free-only, then you will find her catalogue. So the problem we have with SPOTIFY is, they don’t allow you to do anything with your music. They take it, and they say we’re going to put it everywhere we want to put it, and we really don’t care about what you want to do. Give us everything that you have and we’re going to do what we want with it. And that doesn’t work for us.”

SIXX: “What do you think is the upside of SPOTIFY?”

BORCHETTA: “Well, they have a very good player. It’s a good service. And they’re gonna just have to change their ways on how they do business. If you’re going to do an ad-supported free service, why would anybody pay for the premium service? The premium service that you pay for, which they do have a premium service, has to mean something. So, what we’re saying is it can’t be endless free. Give people a 30-day trial, and then make them convert. Music has never been free. It’s always cost something and it’s time to make a stand and this is the time to do it.”

MARINO: “Do you think other artists are going to follow suit? Is that kind of what we’re hoping for in this whole thing?”

BORCHETTA: “Yeah. It’s already happening. I’ve had calls from so many other managers and artists. There’s a big fist in the air about this. SPOTIFY is a really good service, they just need to be a better partner and there is a lot of support for this.”

SIXX: “Artists are looking for exposure. So however that happens, you know, we do interviews, we do videos, we write songs, we tour, we’re looking for exposure to satisfy our fans, and to get them to invest in us, because if they invest in us, we can continue to make music. We’ve talked about this in the past. Artists need to make money to keep making music, so everybody makes money … SPOTIFY is one of those things that I hear young artists talking about. ‘Man, if we could just get our music on there, like we just want the exposure.’ And when you’re in TAYLOR’s position, or a lot of other artists’ position, you’re saying ‘you know, I like what you do, I just want to be paid for what I do.’”

BORCHETTA: “Exactly. And I think that’s where you can make a delineation between a free service, which works as a promotional service to create value. So, if you’re using a service like SPOTIFY for discovery, it’s like okay, here’s perhaps the new single that you can stream for 30 days, or here is a brand new artist that we’re excited about, that we’re going to expose, but when you get into … the big question you’re really asking, NIKKI, is how do you go from zero to value? And then what happens at value? So that’s where you could work with these services. Okay, let’s get in there, let’s get exposed, let’s create value, and once you have value, that means you have a career. And that means you have to sustain that career, because people want to keep hearing your music.”

SIXX: “Right. So, as a label, would you look at TAYLOR. She’s all the way up here and you go, look, we have value in her and we want to maximize that value, she wants to maximize that value, and we also want to help change this platform. But as a label, would you look at a brand new artist that you just signed six months ago — you just got their album, you guys really believe in it — you would have a different outlook for SPOTIFY, you might say, let them stream it? Or would you use the same kind of idea.”

BORCHETTA: “I think you have to look at all promotion opportunities to expose something brand new, so that’s where you can have a different conversation. And I think you really hit the nail on the head — one size does not fit all. And that’s the problem.”

SIXX: “That’s going to be their problem. They’re going to say, ‘Well, wait a minute. So we’ll help expose your band for you, but in five years, when they’re one of the biggest bands in the world, you won’t let us have that.’ That’s going to be their complaint.”

BORCHETTA: “Well, it’s no different than a band coming a doing a free radio show, and then coming back around and playing the arena two years later. There has to be a value system in place for us to continue to build careers.”

Listen to the full exchange at www.SixxSense.com.