From the USA’ $15bn income to Downtown’s $200m indie artist fund: It’s MBW’s Weekly Spherical-Up

Welcome to Music Enterprise Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we be certain you caught the 5 greatest tales to hit our headlines over the previous seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their revenue and scale back their touring prices.

This week, MBW broke the information that the US recorded music business grew by $2.85 billion (or 23%) year-over-year in 2021, to generate USD $14.99 billion.

That complete income determine, which got here from RIAA annual year-end information, marked the US recorded music market’s greatest yearly tally in historical past, however with only one caveat.

As Mitch Glazier, Chairman and CEO of the RIAA, defined in a brand new MBW op/ed, “in inflation-adjusted {dollars}, final yr’s determine is 37% decrease than it was in 1999″.

Glazier added: “We nonetheless have loads of room to develop – to succeed in and surpass historic values for music.”

Elsewhere, TikTok delivered some huge information for the music business this week with the announcement that it’s launched its personal music distribution platform, SoundOn.

MBW revealed in September final yr that SoundOn had entered beta mode, however the service is now absolutely dwell within the UK, US, Brazil and London.

Artists cited by TikTok as having discovered success after signing as much as SoundOn, thus far, embrace Abby Roberts and Chloe Adams within the UK, and Video games We Play and Muni Lengthy within the US.

(The latter artist is reported to be one in all 2022’s most hotly-sought-after signings amongst main document corporations in the USA.)

In the meantime, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued to dominate headlines this week, with the worldwide music business’s place on the state of affairs evolving each day.

Prior to now few days, all three main music corporations introduced that they’re suspending their operations in Russia.

Kobalt Music Group and Downtown have additionally each confirmed that they’re pausing their enterprise exercise in Russia, whereas Paris-headquartered Imagine says that it has at the moment has no plans to take action, however is “monitoring the state of affairs very intently”.

As well as, Spotify is halting all monetization – whether or not from subscriptions or adverts – within the territory.

Additionally this week: Downtown established a brand new $200 million fund to help indie artists and entrepreneurs, whereas Hipgnosis acquired an curiosity in all 278 songs and derivatives written by Leonard Cohen…

1) WITH $15BN IN REVENUE, 2021 WAS THE US RECORD INDUSTRY’S BIGGEST EVER YEAR (KIND OF…)

Right here’s the headline, people: The US recorded music business generated USD $14.99 billion in 2021 – its greatest annual tally in historical past.

That stat, revealed right now by MBW, comes from RIAA annual year-end information, and was up by a whopping 23% (or by $2.85 billion) on the equal determine from 2020 ($12.14bn).

In truth, you’d have to go all the best way again to 1999 – over 20 years in the past – to search out the earlier peak yr for the US business, when it generated $14.6 billion.

The 2021 quantity additionally represented considerably bigger YoY financial development for the US business (+$2.85bn) than we noticed in 2020 (+$1.02bn)…

2) TIKTOK JUST LAUNCHED ITS OWN MUSIC DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM, SOUNDON

TikTok is formally a music distributor now.

The ByteDance-owned viral video app has simply launched its personal promotion and music distribution platform, referred to as SoundOn.

SoundOn is already Reside within the UK, US, Brazil and Indonesia, and it lets artists add their music on to TikTok and RESSO.

It could actually additionally distribute their music to different platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and Instagram…

3) Kobalt and Downtown minimize ties with Russia; Imagine continues to function in market however is ‘monitoring the state of affairs very intently’ 

The music enterprise’s relationship with Russia is a fast-moving story proper now.

Two of the business’s largest non-major music corporations – Kobalt Music Group and Downtown – have prior to now 24 hours each confirmed that they’re suspending enterprise exercise in/with Russia.

In doing so, they be part of all three main music corporations (Common, Sony, and Warner) – every of whom have this week introduced they’re halting their very own enterprise actions available in the market.

One other of the world’s most outstanding unbiased music corporations – Paris-headquartered Imagine – tells MBW that it at the moment has no plans to droop enterprise actions in Russia.

An organization spokesperson informed us that this was Imagine’s technique “for the second”, however added that the agency is “monitoring the state of affairs very intently”…

4) Hipgnosis buys Leonard Cohen catalog through Blackstone-backed fund

Hipgnosis has acquired an curiosity in all 278 songs and derivatives written by Leonard Cohen.

Inside these 278 compositions, 127 songs are from Leonard Cohen’s Stranger Music catalog, for which Hipgnosis has acquired the author’s share of royalties.

The Stranger Music catalog covers the interval from the inception of Cohen’s profession by means of to the yr 2000 and contains all by-product works, making a complete of 211 songs….

5) DOWNTOWN LAUNCHES $200M FUND TO INVEST IN INDEPENDENT ARTISTS AND ENTREPRENEURS

Downtown Music Holdings has established a brand new multi-million greenback fund to help unbiased artists and entrepreneurial enterprise homeowners.

The fund shall be supported by a brand new credit score facility with Financial institution of America, and can see Downtown make investments over $200 million.

Downtown’s new $200 million dedication to indie artists and music entrepreneurs comes amidst a worldwide growth within the unbiased artist and label sector…

MBW’s Weekly Spherical-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their revenue and scale back their touring prices.Music Enterprise Worldwide