Takeaway Takeover - Feb 2024
Media meltdowns, new Moogs and the museumification of Taylor Swift
TAKEAWAYS
Salient statements from this week’s music news.
1. Complex Acquired by NTWRK, With Investment From Universal Music Group
The deal, with additional investment from Main Street Advisors, Goldman Sachs and Jimmy Iovine, takes advantage of the media’s firesale prices and marks the first move in UMG’s promised focus on superfans in 2024.
Takeaway: Buzzfeed is selling Complex for much less than half of what it acquired it for just three years ago, amid a wider run of layoffs and closings of media outlets across the industry.
2. V&A Museum Seeks Swiftie to Advise on Taylor Swift Fan Culture
The London institution is bringing a new focus to modern trends such as Crocs, Legos, Pokemon, drag and emojis.
Takeaway: Successful applicants for the Swift role will surely evince a depth of knowledge dating back nearly two decades: literacy in “No it’s Becky”, the alleged secret album Karma, the “scrunchie theory”, “maple latte” and “I ♥ TS”.
3. Major Labels’ $1bn Copyright Win Against Cox Communications Overturned on Appeal
The appeals court ruled that Cox couldn’t be liable because it did not profit from the specific acts of infringement.
Takeaway: The appeals court’s ruling in favor of Cox means the case will likely head to a retrial and poses a potential setback for the music industry, which has since filed a number of similar copyright lawsuits against US internet providers on the argument that the ISPs are legally responsible for their customers’ infringements if they don’t take sufficient action to prevent piracy.
4. TikTok Expands ‘Add to Music App’ to Over 160 More Countries
The timing could be coincidental, but it could be part of proving TikTok’s value to the music rightsholders outside of licensing fees.
Takeaway: It’s unclear whether UMG will feel a material pinch from this and related moves, having emphasized last month TikTok’s seemingly small contribution to its total revenue. But the absence of the world’s biggest music company from TikTok is, of course, impacting the app as well – especially given songs’ historical role in on-platform media.
5. Application Costs for Musicians and DJs to Legally Perform Stateside Will Increase 129%
Expect to see fewer foreign artists touring as a three-year O-Visa for musicians and DJs will jump from $460 to $1,055. A single event P-Visa will move from $460 to $1,015, a 121% jump.
Takeaway: This is the first time artist visa costs have increased since 2016. On its website, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (UCIS) said higher fees were needed "to cover the cost of doing business and avoid the accumulation of future backlogs."
6. Live Nation Annual Revenues Hit Another Record in Fiscal 2023
Every sector of the concert giant’s business increased last year — more shows, more tickets, more attendees, more merch, more sponsorships.
Takeaway: Concertgoers in North America increased by 16.6% to 81.3 million, with international attendance rising 25.4% to 64.5 million. Naturally, the greatest attendance gains came from stadium shows like Beyonce, Luke Combs, and Metallica, with gains of 60% to 29 million. Additionally, the overall number of concerts increased 15.3% in North America (33,629), and 13.5% internationally (16,430).
7. Moog’s New Synth Keyboard, “Leaked” via Super Bowl
We missed one major product placement in Usher’s brilliantly branded Super Bowl set.
Takeaway: This would also be the first major hardware release since the acquisition of Moog Music by gear conglomerate inMusic. Given the time required for engineering and design, those processes, of course, started long before that acquisition. But this could give us a clue as to how Moog will handle manufacturing and assembly going forward.
