From $15 billion in US sales to Downtown’s $200 million indie artist fund: It’s MBW’s weekly recap

Welcome to Worldwide music businessweekly recap – where we’re sure you’ve caught the top five stories that will make our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is powered by Centtriphelping more than 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring expenses.

This week, MBW announced that the US recorded music industry grew $2.85 billion (23%) over the same period last year, to generate $14.99 billion.

That total revenue figure, comes from RIAA year-end data, marking the largest annual music market record in U.S. history, but with only one caveat.

As Mitch Glazier, President and CEO of the RIAA, explained in a new MBW op/ed“In inflation-adjusted dollars, last year’s figure was 37% lower than it was in 1999.

“We still have a lot of room to grow – reaching and surpassing the historical value of music,” Glazier added.

In another development, TikTok made some big news for the music industry this week with the announcement that it has launched its own music distribution platform, SoundOn.

MBW revealed in September Last year, SoundOn went into beta mode, but the service is now fully operational in the UK, US, Brazil and London.

So far, artists cited by TikTok as having been successful after signing up for SoundOn include Abby Roberts and Chloe Adams in the UK, Games We Play and Muni Long in the US.

(The later artist was reported as one of the most sought after signings of 2022 among major US record companies.)

Meanwhile, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to dominate the headlines this week, with the global music industry’s view of the situation evolving on a daily basis.

In the past few days, all three major music companies have announced to suspend operations in Russia.

Kobalt music group and Downtown have also confirmed that they are suspending their business in Russia, while their headquarters are in Paris Believe said that it currently has no plans to do so, but is “monitoring the situation very closely”.

Besides, Spotify is suspending all monetization – whether from subscriptions or advertising – in the territory.

Also this week: Downtown set up a new $200 million fund to support indie artists and entrepreneurs, while Hipgnosis Get an interest in all 278 songs and derivations written by Leonard Cohen…

1) WITH $15BN REVENUE, 2021 IS THE BIGGEST REVENUE OF THE US INDUSTRY EVERY YEAR (TYPE…)

Here’s the headline, people: The recorded US music industry generated $14.99 billion in 2021 – the largest annual figure in history.

That statistic, revealed today by MBW, comes from the RIAA’s annual year-end data and is up 23% ($2.85 billion) over the same figure from 2020 (12.14 billion). USD).

In fact, you need to go back to 1999 – more than two decades ago – to find the previous five peaks for US industry, when it generated $14.6 billion.

The 2021 numbers also represent significantly larger year-over-year currency growth for US industry (+2.85 billion dollars) than we see in 2020 (+ 1.02 billion dollars). )…

2) TIKTOK ONLY Launches Its OWN MUSIC DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM, SOUNDON

TikTok is now officially a music distributor.

The ByteDanceThe proprietary viral video app has just launched its own music distribution and promotion platform, called SoundOn.

SoundOn has been Live in the UK, US, Brazil and Indonesia and it allows artists to upload their music directly to TikTok and RESSO.

It can also distribute their music to other platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and Instagram…

3) Kobalt and Downtown cut ties with Russia; News continues to be active in the market but is ‘monitoring the situation very closely’

The music business’s relationship with Russia is a fast-moving story right now.

Two of the biggest non-music companies in the industry – Kobalt Music Group and Downtown – have both confirmed that they are suspending business in/with Russia for the past 24 hours.

In doing so, they joined all three major music companies (Universal, Sonyand Warner) – each of them announced this week that they are suspending their own trading activities in the market.

One of the world’s most popular independent music companies – Paris-based Believe – told MBW that it currently has no plans to suspend its business in Russia.

A company spokesperson told us that this is Believe’s strategy “at the moment”, but added that the company is “monitoring the situation very closely”…

4) Hipgnosis buys Leonard Cohen’s portfolio through a Blackstone-backed fund

Hipgnosis received interest in all 278 songs and derivatives written by Leonard Cohen.

Of those 278 compositions, 127 were from Leonard Cohen’s Stranger Music catalog, for which Hipgnosis acquired the writer’s share of royalties.

The Stranger Music catalog covers the period from the beginning of Cohen’s career until 2000 and includes all derivative works, making up a total of 211 songs….

5) US$200 million fund will be launched for INVESTMENT IN INDEPENDENT ARTISTS AND ENTERPRISES

Downtown Music Holdings established a new multi-million dollar fund to support independent artists and startup business owners.

The fund will be backed by a new credit facility with Bank of America, and Downtown will invest more than $200 million.

Downtown’s new $200 million commitment to indie artists and music entrepreneurs comes amid a global boom in indie artists and labels…

MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is powered by Centtrip, helping more than 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their earnings and reduce their touring costs.Worldwide music business