Category Archives: Copyright

A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Influenced, My Stories

Four For Friday

A bit of Copyright, NFTs and Stallone.

NFTs

Remember when they were all the rage.

Sina Estavi is a crypto entrepreneur. He purchased an NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet for $2.9M. It’s now worth $4.

Or check out this research which claims that 95% of NFT’s are worthless.

Not sure how owning a chunk of digital art on a blockchain is a valuable investment. Even Justin Beiber is down 95% on his Bored Ape NFT.

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are unique chunks of cryptographic data that connect to a digital object.

Let’s say we have a picture and its copy. If these objects are turned into NFTs, they will be distributed with unique identification codes, and will, be considered unique apart from the other. From this moment, the object that was once just a copy gained its own determined proof of existence, separating from its source.

Although the two NFTs now have an identical visual appearance, they cannot be treated as one thing and can have different financial values, hence the name ‘non-fungible’.

And somehow people came to the conclusion that these are good investments.

THE LABELS vs X

You know when you go on X(Twitter) and you see a music snippet shared by an account. It could be part of a video clip or a live performance.

Well the labels see this as “breeding” mass copyright infringement.

And since X basically ignores the takedowns from the labels, as a result, the labels sued, asking for $250 million and an ongoing licensing fee.

But X put in a motion to dismiss. The labels then counter argued and a judge in Nashville needs to decide if it goes to trial.

ROLLING STONES

Taylor Swift has shown other artists the financial windfall that could happen if you own your masters.

When Swift realized that she would never get her masters back, she went about and re-recorded the whole albums and made those albums, the versions people should stream and license.

This puts the power of Copyright back in her hands.

The Rolling Stones wished they could have done something similar because they lost their rights to all of their pre-1971 albums to their manager Allen Klein.

It’s just another case of a person who’s never made any art in their life, claiming it as their own and using it to for financial advantage. Geez, it sounds like a record label. Then again, labels did come up with the cash that most artists could never pay back.

As “The Rolling Stones” grew in popularity, they hired music-business accountant Allen Klein.

Klein negotiated a new deal with Decca and he also got a million-pound advance payment for their next album.

But he wasn’t paying Keith Richards and Mick Jagger their songwriting royalties. So they ended the partnership however as part of the severance, Klein managed to keep ownership of the Rolling Stones music for the years he managed them from 1965 to 1970.

But the Stones did receive millions of dollars in royalties from Klein but not as much as if they’d owned their music outright.

STALLONE

After writing the script of Rocky, Sylvester Stallone was offered $360K to not play the role.

The production company that was interested didn’t want him to play the role.

And since 1976, the rights to the Rocky franchise (which Stallone created) are in the hands of producer Irvin Winkler.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories

Four For Friday

Ahh copyright. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Well it does really. It gives the writer an incentive to create for their whole life plus 90 years after death. Don’t know how it’s even possible after death, but hey, who am I to judge the intellectuals who wrote and debated this change.

It also gives rise to lawsuits and perpetual payments to corporations for valuable copyrights. It’s also a form of censorship and anti-innovation (remember Napster).

THINKING OUT LOUD

Thank god this silliness has been put to rest.

Remember when Ed Townsend’s estate wanted Ed Sheeran to pay them millions for writing a song with a similar feel to Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On”. The trial went to jury and they lost. They appealed and then they withdrew their appeal.

This is what happens when people who create nothing of culture believe they are entitled to that culture.

And for the record, “Let’s Get It On” is not so original itself. It’s also influenced by what came before it. Cause that’s how creativity works.

CAN YOU COPYRIGHT A BEAT?

But the madness continues.

Reggaeton is a style of popular and electronic music that originated in Panama during the late 1980s and it was later popularized in Puerto Rico. It’s basically massive in Latin America and from the 2010’s it’s creeped into the mainstream of English speaking countries.

In 1990, a song came out called “Fish Market” from producers Steely & Clevie. In that song there was a drum rhythm.

The lawsuit claims at least 80% of the genres songs have used that drum beat.

Sort of like the 4/4 drum beat and it’s variations.

They are common elements and building blocks to creating. The fact that 80% of the Reggaeton industry use this beat shows how common it is.

AI

What’s people’s view on AI?

We’ve had AI in our lives for a long time, yet many have failed to recognize it. At a basic level which everyone would recognize, remember “Spell Check” in Word docs or Google Search.

For the recent waves of AI to work, they need training. And this training involves material which is under copyright.

So.

If I develop an AI tool and train it with the music and books and movies I’ve purchased, am I breaching Copyright?

If I then release the AI tool for others to be allowed to create, is the tool breaching Copyright?

All the AI knows is how to write and review based on inputs.

Basically it’s a tool, that people can use however they want. It’s innovative at the moment. And the copyright industry doesn’t like innovation if it’s not paying them. So it tries to censor or kill the innovation.

Until the come to an agreement and they accept it.

REVENUES

$8.4 billion in six months was brought into the labels accounts with streaming payments making up 84 percent of that pie.

So if you are an artist or songwriter and you’re not getting a cut, your deal is super shitty. Change it.

Because if there was no value in streaming, all of the Investment House and Hedge Funds wouldn’t be buying up the rights to valuable catalogs.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Stupidity

Four For Friday

Copyright and Spotify again.

SHARE PRICE

It’s cool how copyright makes money for valuable Intellectual Property. And you can’t get a bigger and more valuable IP than “The Beatles”.

The thing is, not one of the members from The Beatles held or even hold their rights. At one stage, Michael Jackson was the sole holder of the rights.

And with all the transfers and sell offs, The Beatles catalog settled at Round Hill Music Royalty Fund. But like all companies on the stock exchange, the share price just didn’t reflect the true value of the Company.

In this case, shares in the company were trading around $0.70. And share prices this low don’t make share holders and board members happy.

So in comes Alchemy Copyrights with a $496 million buyout offer which means shareholders in Round Hill Music will get $1.15 in cash per share. Suddenly, you have happy shareholders and board members, who get a nice payday for holding shares in culture.

They created nothing culturally and yet still benefit. But I keep hearing how stronger copyright is needed to protect the creators.

Mmmm.

SHARE PRICE 2

Hipgnosis Songs Fund is also selling some of its catalogues for $465 million. This is to pay down debt and increase its share price

And as expected, the share price increased,

Again, you have an organization that created nothing culturally and yet it still benefits. And I keep hearing how stronger copyright is needed to protect the creators.

COPYRIGHT FAMILY DISPUTE

Motown songwriter and producer Ron Miller died in 2007. If Copyright expired on the death of the creator like it once did, then this would be a non issue.

But, Copyright doesn’t expire at this point. It’s still valid for another 70 to 90 years, depending on the country.

Fast forward to 2022, Sony Music Publishing signs a deal with Lisa Miller, for rights to 130 of her fathers songs.

But Ron’s other children Julie Moss and Mark Miller from Ron’s first wife didn’t like this and are now going to court.

They allege that Lisa Miller tricked her mother, Aurora Miller (Ron’s second wife) to sign away her claim to the songs.

The claim further states;

“As Aurora’s health continued to decline, Lisa began forging Aurora’s signature on notices of copyright termination.”

And I keep hearing how stronger copyright is needed to protect the creators. In this case a dead creator.

SHOWCASE

Spotify’s new marketing tool.

Artists can buy dedicated space on listeners home pages to promote new releases, deep cuts, etc.

Each click from a fan on the showcase button will cost the artist 40 cents per click until their campaign budget is maxed.

Spotify believes that people who see these ads are six times more likely to stream the release.

It shits me how artists always have to cough up cash.

Back in the label days, if the label marketed you, they billed you to recoup their costs.

If an independent act marketed themselves, they paid for a marketing campaign themselves.

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Copyright, Music, My Stories

Four For Friday

It’s all about Spotify today.

MONEY LAUNDERING

This time around Swedish criminal gangs are using Spotify launder money.

The scheme is interesting.

The drug money they have is converted to bitcoin.

Bitcoin is then used to pay “fake stream” entities to do exactly that, create fake streams on Spotify for an artist.

The artist in question is linked or involved with the gang.

By creating the fake streams, the artists would end up on top of the charts and as a byproduct, those fake streams would lead to real streams.

As the Guardian article explains:

Higher streams lead to higher payouts from Spotify. The newspaper said that in Sweden, amassing a million streams pays about 40,000 to 60,000 kronor (£2,800 to £4,300).

WHITE NOISE

Have you ever come across a Podcast that’s just white noise.

It’s definitely annoying and I don’t care what people say about it, it’s basically streaming spam.

The rule was if the podcast got over a 100 listens (it can be from the same user) they would qualify for ad supported payments.

Well now it’s 1000 unique listeners before they qualify. Hopefully they just filter out.

SONGS AND SPAM

In 2018, 20,000 songs would get uploaded to Spotify. In 2023, it’s at 120,000. A large majority of those uploads are via bots and they are basically the same as email spam

AI COVERS

AI-generated “covers” of popular songs using artists’ voices are still being released on Spotify.

Universal’s trying to partner with Google on a tool that lets fans create these songs without infringing copyright.

Universal has also partnered with Deezer to ensure that music created by breathing people gets a higher preference on the service than AI created music.

It’s a start, however AI is really making streaming economics even trickier.

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Copyright, Music, My Stories, Treating Fans Like Shit

Four For Friday

A bit about this and a bit about that.

MOVIES/TV SHOWS

I watched “Oppenheimer”. I don’t recommend it.

Which is tough to say as I’m a fan of Christopher Nolan.

I’m surprised that Nolan thought it should be made into a movie, then again, creative people are inspired by things that others don’t see as inspiring. In this case it was a the 2005 biography “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwinx

The story focuses on Oppenheimer’s studies, his direction of the Manhattan Project during World War II, and his eventual fall from grace due to his 1954 security hearing.

Since the last hour was like a “Law and Order” episode, maybe a limited TV series would have been better. But a TV series doesn’t have the gross takings that a cinematic release has.

It’s approaching the $800 million mark from a $100 million budget. It will be seen as a success, but its not re-watchable.

I also finally got around to watching “Avatar: The Way Of Water” on Disney+.

I didn’t think a sequel was necessary however James Cameron has a habit of surprising people and he sure did it with this movie. It’s long run time didn’t feel that long and the story flowed.

By the end of it, I made a commitment to watch the third one in the Cinemas. And it hooked my kids as well.

“Painkiller” on Netflix is a must watch. OxyContin destroyed many families and the series does a good job of telling the story.

SHOWS MADE AND THEN CANCELLED OR REMOVED TO SAVE ON TAX

In May, Disney+ said it would cut US$1.5bn of content from its streaming platform, so the company’s value is reduced which means they pay a lot less tax.

This involves axing current programs which are or were popular like “Willow” and not releasing other big budget series’s like “Nautilus”.

Paramount+ also did the same removing “The Pink Ladies” and Jordan Peele’s “Twilight Zone”. Warner Bros also removed “Westworld” along with others.

Time will tell how subscribers will respond to the streamers removing shows when they need to save a bit of cash.

CEASE AND DESIST

There is a high chance that a fan of the artist will have a different political view to that of the artist.

And the artists are okay with this when they are taking the money from these fans because at that point in time they don’t know the political view of the fan.

Suddenly, a politician plays the music of an artist at a rally, there are fans of the artist in that rally and the artist then sends a cease and desist letter to the politician to stop.

How much say or veto rights can an artist really have in how their music is used?

NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

James Hetfield wasn’t sure he wanted to go there and explore themes of vulnerability. Bob Rock insisted that he explore this path of being vulnerable and urged Hetfield to take vocal lessons.

Well that song just surpassed a billion streams on Spotify.

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Copyright, Music, My Stories, Stupidity

Four For Friday

Censorship, false strikes and political correctness makes up the post today.

FAT BOTTOMED GIRLS

The lyrics “fat bottomed” and “big fat fatty” and “Oh, won’t you take me home tonight” are deemed to be inappropriate for a Queen’s Greatest Hits package and songbook aimed at children.

What’s next.

A Motley Crue or AC/DC Children’s song book.

If people want to dumb down lyrics and make them politically correct they should let shows like “The Voice” do it.

DRAGONFORCE

It’s the Wild West when it comes to Content ID on YouTube. An unknown internet user claimed the song “Valley Of The Damned” from Dragonforce as their own and YouTube allowed em.

Because there are no human checks.

Since Dragonforce disagreed with the decision by Content ID, they filled in a form disputing the decision.

But this is where it gets stupid.

You would think that the dispute would go to someone (preferably a human) at YouTube.

However, the counter claim from Dragonforce is sent directly to the person who sent the false strike and who YouTube now believes owns the supposed copyright.

And it’s this person who has the final decision in the matter unless legal action is pursued.

If the person who sent the false strike denies Dragonforce’s claim, the Dragonforce channel receives a strike. If the channel receives three strikes, it is removed from the platform.

So Dragonforce went back and forth for a week over the false strike and finally some common sense prevailed.

CONTENT ID

Content ID was created by Google to appease the labels and various movie studios to take videos offline. It was then enhanced to give the labels and movie studios an option to monetize the uploads from other users.

The labels and studios keep complaining about Content ID but have done nothing to innovate an alternative.

Google now posts a transparency report on the Content ID system.

Rightsholders claimed more than 826 million videos on YouTube from July to December 2022. This is the highest figure since YouTube started reporting these figures and it led to $1.5B in revenue paid to the rights-holders.

All up, $9 billion in ‘claimed’ revenue was paid out to copyright holders since Content ID launched.

SCAMMERS

The downside is scammers. As this article from Torrentfreak states;

Two men set up a company to find and claim unmonetized music. Through a third-party partner with access to the Content ID system, the pair generated over $24 million in revenue from YouTube by falsely claiming ownership.

The abuse didn’t go unnoticed and the repercussions were severe.

In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted the duo and last week the first defendant was sentenced to more than five years in prison.

It’s unregulated and there will always be criminals. It’s a perfect match.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

Four For Friday

It’s all about the money in music and the lawsuits which come about because of it.

THE GREAT 78 PROJECT

The “Great 78 Project” from the Internet Archive is digitizing 78-rpm records from the early 1900s until the 1950s.

78rpm records are some of the earliest musical recordings, and were produced from 1898 through the 1950s when they were replaced by 33 1/3rpm and 45rpm vinyl records.

The Archives asked people to donate their albums so that the cultural past survives for future generations to study and enjoy.

At the moment the collection is at 400,000 plus recordings. The majority of these 78s are forgotten and the 78rpm versions are not on streaming services.

Sounds great right. Preserve some cultural history from donated records and provide access to people to enjoy.

But the labels don’t get paid when this happens and suddenly don’t like it.

Universal, Sony and other labels (as part of the RIAA) are suing for copyright infringement.

The labels’ have used colorful phrases to describe the “78 Project”, as an “illegal record store”.

From the 400K plus songs, the labels named close to 3K sound-recording copyrights that the Archive allegedly infringed.

And they want $412 million for it because as far as the labels are concerned the music is available on streaming services.

The Great78 project, is not a substitute for music streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music.

When you listen to it, you hear that the music was digitized from the 78rpm record.

You get the crackle and the hiss of the record. It is a totally different version from the clean remastered versions you hear on music streaming services.

It’s ridiculous that it’s even an issue.

SIRIUS XM

SoundExchange, is responsible for collecting and distributing digital music royalties.

Sirius XM is responsible for playing music and paying digital royalties.

SoundExchange claims that Sirius XM is performing some creative accounting by inflating the revenue from its webcasts so it pays less in music royalties to the tune of $150 million.

Isn’t it funny how the labels and publishers go straight to litigation when someone else like Sirius XM does the exact same thing that they did to artists for 80 plus years.

Twitter/X

Twitter/X users put up snippets of live concerts, music videos, interviews and basically themselves jamming to their favorite music or playing the vinyl or CD of their favorite music.

Posts like these.

Two minute snippets of live performances that someone recorded which isn’t the user.

Or something like this.

Footage from a concert that the user attended and shared on the platform.

The users on other social media sites do the same thing.

But the RIAA, the labels lobbyist and litigation arm don’t like it.

They have accused X Corp of breeding mass copyright infringement because the company fails to respond to takedown notices and lacks a proper termination policy.

For this crime, the labels want $250 million from X Corp.

Elon Musk wants the case dismissed and his legal team have asked the courts to consider it as the labels have no hard proof of any wrong doing.

$3 MILLION PER HOUR

It’s the combined amount of how much the labels made in the first six months of 2023.

And they made that money because they have schemed, paid or legislated their way into owning the rights of a lot of music.

The music created by artists in bedrooms, parents basements, hotels, tour buses and at soundchecks, the labels now own.

And they will own these rights for the life of the artist plus 70 years after their death. In some jurisdictions, it’s 90 years after their death.

Final Note

The artists who create culture and value are never in the conversation. Even if the labels (and the RIAA) get all the monies paid to them, they will not share any of it with the artists.

And it is the artists who gave them this power to litigate, by signing away their rights in shitty contracts so they could have a recording career. And maybe a chance to make it big.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Treating Fans Like Shit

Four For Friday

MOTLEY CRUE

How many times can they release the same album?

All the music here has been released before circa 2003 when the band remastered their albums on their own Motley Records label.

But let me highlight how many issues of the album they have done recently.

In 2022, they released a Limited Edition, Reissue, Black/Clear Split Vinyl edition. The music on this edition was just the normal album.

In 2018, they released a Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered, Clear With Red Swirl Vinyl Edition. The music on this edition was just the normal album.

In 2016, they released a Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered, Red With Black Swirl, 180g Vinyl edition. The music on this edition was just the normal album.

In 2011, they released a Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered, Mini Vinyl Replica edition. The music on this edition was just the normal album.

Again in 2011, they also released a Reissue, 180g, Gatefold edition. And again, the music on this edition was just the normal album.

Between 2003 and 2023, they also released various CD versions of the album with wording like, HDCD, Club Edition, Limited Edition, Enhanced, Reissue, Remastered and SHM-CD (for Japanese Releases). Apart from the 2003 edition, it’s been the same album re-released.

But, it’s selling for $370AUD. It looks like a nice collectors piece and if you don’t have this album, you’ll be thinking “why not”, but at that price I would have expected something to be included that hasn’t been released as yet.

Take a cue from Mr Coverdale, who puts the effort in with his evolution compositions, different jams/rehearsals of the songs and live recordings.

STEVE JOBS

At 12 years old Jobs called Bill Hewlett (the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard) to ask for spare computer parts.

Jobs got the parts and a summer job working the assembly line at Hewlett-Packard.

Steve Jobs, believes asking is the single thing that “separates the people that do things from the people that just dream about them.”

METALLICA

Brian Slagel is putting together the Metal Massacre compilation album.

Slagel met Lars Ulrich a year ago at a Michael Schenker concert. Lars calls him up and asks him, “if he puts together a band can he be on the record?”

BON JOVI

It’s 1982 and Jon Bon Jovi has just finished writing and recording “Runaway”.

He shopped it around and couldn’t get a record deal. He couldn’t get a band together to play live because original bands didn’t make enough money.

Luck would have it that a brand-new radio station would open in New York. It was so new it didn’t have a receptionist so nobody was there to stop Jon from walking straight to the DJ and asking him to play “Runaway”.

The song quickly gained traction and Hobart entered Bon Jovi into a contest the radio station was running for the best unsigned band.

Jon won, he got his Mercury deal and by the summer of 1983, the song had become a huge hit.

It’s amazing what could happen from asking.

SONG ON REPEAT

“Crime Of The Century” by Revolution Saints.

That Chorus hook is undeniable. It’s from the new album “Eagle Flight” which has Joel Hoekstra and Jeff Pilson joining Deen Castronovo.

Check it out.

BONUS SONG I’M LISTENING TO

“Burn For Me” by The Night Flight Orchestra. It’s the Bowie “Modern Love” feel which hooks me in and then that feel gets put in the TNFO blender and what comes out is an infectious AOR Rock song.

And that Chorus hook. Wow.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Piracy, Stupidity

Four For Friday

RIAA POWERS

How much power is too much power?

Two years ago, the RIAA won a piracy lawsuit against two sites that offered YouTube-rippers. For those that don’t know, these sites allow the user to turn a YouTube video into an mp3.

After the verdict, the RIAA demanded $83 million in damages from the site owners.

And suddenly, there was an appeal.

As the TorrentFreak article explains;

“If the record companies can really get multi-million dollar judgments without having to prove a single instance of infringement within the United States, then no one who operates a website is safe,” Gurvits (Defense Lawyer) said at the time.

There has to be some onus on the RIAA to prove infringement.

And they can’t because they don’t know who infringed.

It’s easy to get a techie to run a report and say that the YouTube ripping sites were accessed by U.S IP addresses. But. It’s not easy to prove who is responsible when their evidence is made up of IP addresses.

But accessing the sites doesn’t constitute Copyright infringement. And the RIAA cannot prove what infringement took place or what videos from YouTube were turned into mp3s.

So why is the law allowing them to bring cases to trial without this proof.

JASON ALDEAN

The song “Try That In A Small Town” came out in May 2023 and it was out of the public conversation. It was a dud and no one cared enough to listen to it. His true fans did but no one else.

Then someone (Critic Zero) started the backlash against the song in the middle of July, 2023 and by doing so, they amplified the song by providing much needed free marketing.

The criticism then spread to other blogs and news outlets faster than Covid and as a by product the streams and downloads of the song kept going up. In the space of two weeks the songs Spotify numbers went from 1.5 million to 12.3 million.

To top off the controversy, Aldean and his team had to edit the music video because it contained footage which was copyrighted.

SPOTIFY INCREASE

The price of Premium Family is changing from A$18.99/month to A$20.99/month.

My favorite part is the reason Spotify gives for the increase, which is word for word to what Netflix gave a year ago;

We’re increasing the price of Premium Family so that we can continue to invest in and innovate on our product offerings and features, and bring you the best experience.

Really.

It’s nice to know that Spotify is using subscription money to pay people for podcasts that a lot of their customers don’t like.

BAND I’M SEEING

I’ve got tickets to watch “The Night Flight Orchestra” in Sydney next Friday. Readers of the blog will know that I am a fan. Each album has been reviewed glowingly.

In case you are interested.

You can read the debut album “Internal Affairs” (2012) review here.

“Skyline Whispers” (2015) is here.

“Amber Galactic” (2017) is here.

“Sometimes The World Ain’t Enough” (2018) is here.

“Aeromantic” (2020) is here.

“Aeromantic II” (2021) is here.

SONG IM LISTENING TO

“Crime Of The Century” by Revolution Saints. It’s a great piece of melodic rock and that Chorus just sticks around forever.

My review of the recent album is here.

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A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Copyright, Influenced, Music, My Stories

Four For Friday

It’s all about Copyright, that little piece of legislation meant to give creators a monopoly on their works, so they could create new works, however the creators now sell or license their rights to a corporation, who then seem to hold onto the rights forever and by doing so, the Corporations keep lobbying hard to change laws so copyright lasts forever.

THE VALUE IN COPYRIGHTS KEEPS GETTING BIGGER

It’s 2008 and the Global Finacial Crisis decimated assets across the world. In these wastelands, the Investment Houses turned to Copyrights to balance portfolios.

The arrival of streaming services took off the cloak and funny math on royalties by the labels. While artists complained about the pay per stream rate, one thing they couldn’t complain about was the amount of money paid to the organizations that held the rights.

15 years later, these portfolios keep making money for the Investment Houses as the majority of music consumers transitioned to streaming.

In 2022, Germany generated 1.656 Billion in streaming revenue. The total income for the country was 2.07 Billion so streaming equated to 80 percent of it.

Globally in 2022, streaming revenues reached 17.5 billion U.S. dollars. 70 percent of total recorded music revenue.

If you are not getting a cut of it, someone else definitely is.

COPYRIGHT AFTER DEATH

It’s been five years since Aretha Franklin died and her heirs are still fighting over who handles her Estate, which has her Royalties paid to.

The unusual trial will determine which of the two handwritten wills, including one found in couch cushions, will come in force.

The interesting part is how Aretha valued her earnings from Copyright, which she listed as $1. Meanwhile, the Estate earned $4 million in one year after her death.

SPOTIFY PAYMENTS TO SWEDISH ARTISTS

Since 2008, Sabaton has amassed 2.5 billion streams on Spotify. Check out the research.

It is estimated that Spotify has paid the rights holder of Sabaton’s catalogue between $9.6 million and $15.9 million during this time.

If Sabaton owned their Masters 100%, then they would have received between $7.6 and $12.6 million dollars from Spotify. It equates to $507K and $840K per year. There are five members in the band, so taking the lower amount, each member would get $100K each. This takes into account that they have no manager percentage, accountant percentage and so forth.

If they had a 50% Royalty agreement with their label, they would have received between $3.7 and $6.3 million dollars. It equates to $247K and $420K.

If they had a 20% Royalty agreement with their label, they would have received between $1.5 and $2.5 million dollars as the label would get the other 80%. It equates to $100K and $167K. Taking the lower value, each member would receive $20K for the year, which comes to $1,666 per month. This takes into account that they have no manager percentage, accountant percentage and so forth.

RE-RECORDINGS

The Law states that artists can get back their rights after so many years. But the labels are fighting each case tooth and nail.

So if the artists have the means, they are creating new masters and are making those new masters as canon. This in turn gives them control over their music and they can then license these recordings to TV Shows and Movies and Games on their own terms.

SONG I AM LISTENING TO

Chokehold from Sleep Token.

It came up on a Release Radar many months ago and I’ve been hooked ever since. Hooked enough to buy the Vinyl album when it came out a few weeks ago.

From the U.K, they combine Pop, R&B, World, New Age, Church, Classical, Folk and Djent like tech metal. And I’m a fan.

To show how much cross over appeal they have, you can watch Daughtry do a live acoustic cover of the song.

Metal music is always resilient to changes in genres however it’s also easily adaptable to other genres or it can be used as a fusion element.

And fusion is happening everywhere.

Taylor Sheridan is good at mashing unrelated and different story ideas into one cohesive story.
Yellowstone is a mash up of Classic Westerns, Medieval dramas with a lot of back story and political thrillers. Tulsa King is “The Godfather” in a Western setting.

And then I did some research on em, and they have a gimmick, wearing face covering like ninjas from an anime.

Check em out.

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