The biggest music industry news | February 2024
All of the industry news you may have missed (but shouldn’t) in February, for artists and music fans alike.
Independent music makes up half of Spotify’s 2023 payout
A huge win for independent artists and labels see them make up 50% of Spotify’s payouts in 2023. Of Spotify’s whopping $9 billion paid to the music industry last year, $4.5 billion went to independent artists and labels around the world. Considering Spotify is now responsible for 20% of the global recorded music revenues, it’s a massive win for independents.
Get notifications when your music’s added to playlists
It can be hard to keep track of your music across all platforms. How do you know when your tracks get added to editorial playlists? Playlist Alert is an app that does just that. They’ve just added Apple Music, meaning you can get a notification within minutes of your songs being added to playlists on Spotify and Apple Music. It even features handy Apple Watch integration.
Composers and publishers receive almost $400 million back payment
The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) has backlogged an underpayment for streaming services following a rise in streaming royalties. An underpayment of $419.2 million was found across 14 digital service providers. The figure contains $281 million in mechanical royalties and $137.8 million in performance royalties owed to creators and representatives.
The vast majority of TikTok videos use music
A report found that an impressive 85% of the videos uploaded on TikTok use music. This represents a clear potential for musicians, with the potential to get used and heard in videos better than ever before. With free uploads to TikTok’s music library through RouteNote, artists can expand their reach and prime their music for trending with ease.
Spotify takes inspiration from TikTok
Spotify have built in a feature that allows listeners to explore music with ease. By swiping up through a feed of snippets, visually powered by Spotify Canvas artworks. Spotify have added a little bubble to artist profiles that allow listeners to explore the music of an artist with quick swipes in this new vertical feed.
Deezer pair up listeners with their new Duo plan
Following in the footsteps of Spotify, Deezer have launched a Duo subscription. This plan allows two listeners to sign up to the music streaming service together at a discounted price compared to two individual plans.
The EU face up to concert ticket scalpers
The European Union have introduced new legislation that forces ticket sellers to enforce stricter practices to prevent ticket scalpers. It’s thought that $13 billion is spent in ticket reselling. The EU’s new Digital Services Act hopes to prevent the inflated prices from ticket resellers, allowing more of that money to go to artists and the genuine industry.
Ableton Live 12 gets a launch date
We finally know when to expect the next iteration of one of the most popular music production programs in the world. Ableton Live 12 is coming March 5th, 2024. Users still have a chance to purchase Live 11 for a free upgrade to 12 until the day it’s launched.
Artists stats get a fresh look on Pandora
Pandora have updated the dashboard on their Artist Marketing Platform (AMP). The new look provides artists with an easy way to explore their music data on the service. It also introduces an expanded Insights section which artists can explore to see how their music is performing on the platform.
An ec-stat-ic month for industry stats!
A lot of stats came out this month. YouTube Music and Premium hit 100 million subscribers. Spotify finished 2023 with 602 million monthly active users and 236 million subscribers, paying out a record $9 billion to the industry. Of the huge number of Spotify streams last year, 26% came from independent music. Overall, music subscriptions hit a record 713.4 million around the world by the end of Q3 2023.
Stay up to date with all of the biggest music industry news on the RouteNote blog, updated daily.