Member Updates
Music Biz broadcasts the latest announcements from around our community on our social feeds as our member companies continue to push the industry forward. If you are launching a new product, have been featured in an industry trade publication, or have a major announcement coming soon, we’d love to help spread the word — share it with Henryk Bik, Music Biz’s Communications & Content Manager, at henryk.bik@musicbiz.org.
NEW FOR 2024 Music Biz’s member news will be shared exclusively on our social channels, as the Member Updates section of our website is set to go offline later this year.
March 4, 2021 – Music Biz Member TikTok Launches TikTok for Black Creatives Incubator Program
TikTok has announced the launch of “TikTok for Black Creatives,” a new three-month incubator program that will invest in and support emerging Black creators and music artists on the company’s platform. The program will focus on nurturing and developing 100 talented Black creators & artists, featuring motivational town halls with a series of successful Black entrepreneurs and celebrities, as well as community-building forums & educational events hosted by TikTok executives. In addition, TikTok has partnered with multi-platform media company,... Read More
March 4, 2021 – Feed Media Group and eOne Sign Licensing Deal to Add More Indie Music to Adaptr
Music Biz members Feed Media Group (FMG) and Entertainment One (eOne) have signed a deal that will bring tracks from eOne’s independent artists & labels to the new Adaptr platform, designed to help music startups launch and develop traction faster by streamlining the process of copyright negotiations. eOne is just the latest addition to the Adaptr catalog, which also includes songs from Warner Music Group, BMG Records, Equal Vision Records, Vio Mobile, and A-Train Distribution. “Our mission with Adaptr is to give developers the tools to quickly and easily deliver the right song to the right person at the right time,” said FMG’s Head of Platform and Licensing,... Read More
March 3, 2021 – Music Biz Member UMG Rebrands Caroline Worldwide as Virgin Music Label & Artist Services
Universal Music Group has launched Virgin Label Music to serve the company’s independent label & artist endeavors with a branding that is, “…inspired and influenced by the spirit and ethos of the iconic Virgin Records label.” In the U.S., Caroline will be renamed Virgin Label & Artist Services, and will continue under the leadership of Jacqueline Saturn, President, Virgin Music Label & Artist Services. Caroline operations in the U.K., German and France will also be renamed to Virgin Music Music Label &... Read More
March 3, 2021 – Music Biz Members DistroKid and Twitch Partner to Help Creators Become New Twitch Affiliates
DistroKid and Twitch have teamed up to create a streamlined path for qualifying creators in the DistroKid community to become Twitch Affiliates. This move will help artists establish a new income stream from streaming on Twitch, as Affiliates are able to earn money via channel subscriptions, ad placements and virtual “Bits” currency. In a blog post, DistroKid said the partnership came about from discussions to extend qualifications for the Affiliate program, “… to recognize the work that DistroKid members have put into creating music &... Read More
March 2, 2021 – SOCAN is Hiring! — Chief Membership Officer
Music Biz partner SOCAN is looking to hire a new Chief Membership Officer: Overall Responsibility: Lead the Member Services Department to champion and advocate for SOCAN members and clients ensuring pro-active service is provided through problem identification and resolution. Areas of the department include relationship management focused on recruitment, retention and repatriation also customer service and pro-active royalty tracking and query management. About SOCAN SOCAN is Canada’s largest member-based rights management organization. We serve and champion more than 160,000 music creators,... Read More
March 2, 2021 – Music Biz Member SoundCloud Preps Launch of User-Centric Royalty Payments Structure
SoundCloud today announced that starting April 1, 2021, it will begin implementing its own version of a user-centric royalty payment structure — dubbed “fan-powered royalties” — for its nearly 100,000 independent artists on the platform. User-centric payment systems distribute royalties to artists from a percentage of each music fan’s subscription fee, based on the artists or labels they individually listen to in a given month. This move differs from the typically implemented “pro rata” model, where royalties are distributed based on each artist or label’s total market share of plays across a platform,... Read More
March 1, 2021 – Music Biz Member EMPIRE Opens West Asia & North Africa Division
EMPIRE has announced the expansion of its independent label services, publishing and distribution businesses into a new territory: North Africa and West Asia. To lead operations in the region, the company has hired Suhel Nafar as its new VP of Strategy & Market Development. Nafar previously served as Global Lead of Arab Music & Culture for Spotify, who helped the country launch in and specifically program content for the region, including more than 120 curated playlists tailor-made for the region.... Read More
February 24, 2021 – Music Biz Member Pex Secures $57 Million Investment Round
Music Biz member Pex announced this month that it has secured $57 million in investments, which it plans to use to scale up its Attribution Engine (AE) technology. Pex hails AE’s ability to analyze over 10,000 hours of content per minute to find all available audio & video copyright uses, attribute the copyrights to every owner, and ensure that rightsholders have properly licensed & cleared the copyright so creators are properly compensated. “My vision has always been to deliver a set of technologies that brought transparency,... Read More
February 24, 2021 – Music Biz Member Vevo Launches Moods AI Tool for Emotion-Based Ad Targeting
This month, Vevo has launched Moods, an AI-based tool that identifies and groups Vevo music videos by the mood they convey (i.e., fun, heartfelt, impassioned, empowering, etc.) in order to create more favorable brand-interaction experiences for consumers as they watch Vevo content. The company worked with music data company Musixmatch to build a proprietary model that matches videos with labels based on the energy and tone of each song. “With Moods, we can not only curate Vevo programming to better match a person’s mood,... Read More
February 23, 2021 – Music Biz Member Spotify Announces HiFi Tier, New Tools for Creators, and Global Expansion Plans
During their “Stream On” event this past Monday, Spotify announced a slew of new products and services marking significant steps to expand their platform in 2021 and beyond. This include a new HiFi high-resolution music streaming subscription tier set to launch some time this year, as well as new exclusive podcast content. Spotify also announced new and expanded tools in support of creatives, with its Canvas product being made available to all artists from here on out.... Read More
