In today's CMU Daily: Sony Music CEO Rob Stinger says that AI is a “generational inflection point” and short-form video apps must pay more for music as they become ever more popular, while also talking up the label’s “aggressive” international mergers and acquisitions strategy

One Liners: Queen, DMX, Banx & Ranx, RDx deals; Spotify price hike in France; Beatport playlist; Dice adds Extras; Cher wins royalties lawsuit; Foundry Consultancy launches; Music Photography Awards submissions; New Diddy allegations; new releases from Snow Patrol, Nick Cave, Marc Almond, Max Richter, Sasami, and more

Also today: More than half a billion Ticketmaster customers affected by alleged data hack; UK government says licences will bring drug testing to more festivals this year; Spotify sued by angry Car Thing users

Plus: Niko B is CMU Approved

AI is a “generational inflection point” for the music business, says Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer

At yesterday’s Sony Corp business segment meeting for 2024, Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer talked about the success of the major’s “aggressive” mergers and acquisitions strategy, the impacts of AI, and the increasing value gap in streaming. He said that “the price gap between free and paid has gotten wider” and that ad-supported streaming needs to be “more than just a marketing funnel for paid subscription”. 

The expansion of short-form video “has been rapid, driving total audio streaming consumption growth”, something that Sony believes has “similar commercial potential” to “full track streaming” - but that “some of the leading platforms must deliver greater value”. Without referencing TikTok directly, Stringer said that it is the “premium quality artistry” of Sony content that “drives the appeal” of short-form video platforms, with music playing a key role in the content served up, with “music being central to approximately 70% of videos” created.

Short-form video content is playing a “larger and larger role in music discovery and engagement amongst young listeners”, he went on. As such, platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts are becoming more and more important as “primary consumption sources” which need to be “valued accordingly”. 

As part of that increased value, Sony is “always developing relationships to further the usage of our content and the monetisation model that coexists”, he continued. However, as a percentage of revenue the monetisation of short-form video is “not where we’d like it to be”, at just five or six percent of overall streaming income. 

“It’s well known that we would like to see more revenue coming into the business from short-form video,” added Stringer, “particularly with the number of short-form video users. Single digits is not what we hope for and we are constantly fighting as an industry to get that number up”. 

New technology presents significant commercial potential for Sony Music, said Stringer, highlighting that the major is committed to “the research and development of cutting-edge formats to provide our artists with more creative outlets and ways to reach new fans”. 

Part of this is the opportunities that AI offers which “once it is in place” has the potential to be a “multidimensional tool for creativity, scalability and efficiency” for the music industry. However, on a more cautionary note he noted the importance that human artistry will play as AI evolves, highlighting IFPI’s recent survey that showed that “nearly 80% of music fans say human ingenuity is essential to the creation of music”. 

However, Stringer believes that AI represents a “generational inflection point” for music and content, and Sony is focused on “building transparent and fair partnerships”. Over the last year, he continued, Sony Music has “convened with more than 350 organisations” to set up those partnerships with a range of companies in what he termed the “AI stratosphere”.

“We will go where our artists want to go creatively in the AI space”, he said, “while protecting their rights at every step”. Sony is “not naive about how complex” protecting those rights - and protecting music as an artform will be, though. “We won’t tolerate the illicit training of AI models via reckless and unlicensed misuse” of music, he clarified, and said that Sony “believes strongly that permission is the only way AI models can be training with our content”. 

To that end, Sony has sent out more than 700 letters to opt-out its content from being used in AI training, under mechanisms introduced by the recent EU AI Act.

“We have prospered from disruptive market change before”, he concluded, saying that Sony is “confident that we can navigate this chapter successfully”.

In addition to the current hot topics of streaming monetisation, short-form video and AI, Stringer highlighted the success Sony’s international M&A strategy has delivered, and the role that catalogue plays in Sony’s long-term strategy.

“New investment” in M&A “will be vital in future years to ensure our powerhouse status worldwide,” he said, highlighting the “exciting new entrepreneurial partnerships” that Sony is developing in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, as well as a recent focus on the “rapidly developing” Indian market, where Sony is now “the number one major music company”. 

Similarly, Sony’s strategy in LATAM has delivered significant results, with Stringer saying that the company is “the leader in the Latin region, where so much of the music in the global streaming charts now comes from”. This is in part due to Sony’s integration with Brazilian label Som Livre as well as the major’s investment in Rimas “home of superstar Bad Bunny” and the acquisition of Spanish indie Altafonte.

“Targeted investments” in catalogue are the “base” of Sony’s strategy to “navigate a successful path” through the evolution of technology, added Stringer, saying that Sony “brings together some of the most iconic libraries from all eras of music, including the work of contemporary stars whose hits today become enticing catalogues of tomorrow”. 

Sony was “extremely strategic” in the catalogue deals it has pursued in recent years, added Stringer, saying that the company did not involve itself in the “rush and race with multiples” - referencing the increasingly buoyant valuations seen against catalogue earnings over recent years. 

“The only deals we did on that scale tended to be content deals or catalogue deals where we already had a relationship … and understood the numbers better than anybody”, he continued. “We didn’t enter the rush for catalogue acquisition, and we will continue to be very careful and strategic, bearing in mind interest rates, and bearing in mind the return on capital”.

Sony, concluded Stringer, has “inside track on how these catalogues work”, which is “better than outside investment funds”.

PPL // Events Manager (London Hybrid)

BSI Merch // Digital Content & Campaign Manager (London)

terrible* // Finance Assistant/Bookkeeper (London)

Secretly Distribution // UK Account Relations Director (London)

Republic of Music // Label Manager (Brighton Hybrid)

Domino Publishing // Copyright & Royalties Assistant (London Hybrid)

All Flowers Group // Project Manager (London)

Your Culture // Campaign Management Assistant (Brighton)

Horizon is CMU's new weekly newsletter - published each Friday - that brings you a hand-picked selection of early-stage career opportunities from across the music industry.

Whether you're looking for your first job in music or you're ready to take a step up, Horizon is here to help you find your dream job faster.

👉 Click through to see the current selection.

ONE LINERS

Queen, Spotify, Dice + more

DEALS 

Sony Music is reportedly in talks to acquire Queen’s music catalogue in a deal worth around $1 billion, according to Bloomberg. The band have been known to be seeking a buyer for the last year. 

Artist Legacy Group has signed a deal to oversee the DMX estate, in partnership with the late rapper’s partner Desiree Lindstrom and daughter Sasha Simmons. “A force of nature. That is how I would describe DMX”, says ALG CEO Ashley Austin. “Rapper, poet, actor, preacher - the man’s talent was truly limitless. I am honoured to work alongside Desiree and Sasha as we maximise the estate’s potential. Together, we will ensure that his message and music lives on”.

Sentric Music has signed producers Banx & Ranx to a publishing administration deal as part of its joint venture with Tileyard Music Publishing. The agreement covers their future work. “We are delighted to extend our partnership with Tileyard and to kick this off by signing [Banx & Ranx] is beyond exciting”, says Sentric’s Creative Director Peter McCamley. “The incredible songwriting talent of the duo is evident in their previous successes of which I have been lucky to work with them on”.

LABELS 

Domino and Sentric Music have joined RDx, the global repertoire data exchange service for the record industry spearheaded by trade groups IFPI and WIN. “We are excited to welcome Domino and Sentric to RDx, our innovative platform providing a streamlined solution for delivering repertoire data to multiple music licensing companies”, says WIN CEO Noemí Planas. “This single point of entry significantly enhances efficiencies for independent record companies, while also improving data quality across the value chain enabling more efficient distributions”.

DIGITAL 

Spotify has increased the price of its premium subscription packages by 1.2% in France. For users of its main individual plan, this means an extra €0.13 on their monthly fee, bringing it up to €11.12. This price hike matches the 1.2% levy that the French government imposed on streaming companies earlier this year. In December last year, Spotify threatened to "disinvest" from France if the levy went ahead.

Beatport has announced the launch of a new human-curated playlist dedicated to independent electronic artists, created in partnership with the platform’s distribution partners TuneCore, DistroKid and Music Hub. “By curating a dedicated space for independent electronic music artists, Beatport is not only providing a platform for discovery but also ensuring that standout self-produced artists receive the recognition and compensation they deserve from the get-go”, says Raphael Pujol, Beatport’s VP Global Curation. Taking a little dig at changes made by some other streaming services when it comes to grassroots artists, he adds, “While other platforms may struggle with the distribution of small payments to artists with fewer streams, our focus remains firmly on furthering the voices of independent creators and fostering a more equitable ecosystem for electronic music”.

LIVE BUSINESS 

Ticketing platform Dice has launched Extras, a new feature that will allow event creators to sell additional experiences and other items to ticket buyers. Initially launching in the US and UK, add-ons include things like meet and greet passes, transport options, food and drink, and merch. “Dice has already nailed the ticket-buying experience, and now we want to build on that, making it even easier for fans to get the most out of live events, all on one platform”, says the company’s VP Commerce Jack Driessen.

LEGAL

Cher has won a lawsuit to continue receiving royalties from the Sonny Bono estate under their 1978 divorce settlement. His fourth wife Mary Bono had argued that she could stop paying Cher a 50% cut of her late husband’s publishing royalties under the termination right in US copyright law. The judge overseeing the case said that the rule did not supersede the divorce agreement. 

INDUSTRY PEOPLE 

Music execs Rick Gleave, Jon Hilbrants and Tom Grayson have launched new music technology consultancy Foundry Consultancy. “At Music Foundry, our mission is clear: to blend experience with innovation to provide unparalleled strategic guidance and support in the dynamic landscape of music technology”, says Gleave.

AWARDS

Submissions are now open for the Abbey Road Studios Music Photography Awards. Entries will be accepted until 18 Jul here. The ceremony will take place at the studios on 3 Oct. 

ARTIST NEWS

Further sexual abuse allegations against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs have come to light as part of a six month investigation by Rolling Stone. The magazine spoke to more than 50 people, uncovering allegations that date back to his time as a university student. Responding to a request for comment by Rolling Stone, Combs’ attorney Jonathan Davis said, “We are aware that the proper authorities are conducting a thorough investigation and therefore have confidence any important issues will be addressed in the proper forum, where the rules distinguish facts from fiction”.

RELEASES

Snow Patrol have announced that they will release their first album for six years, ‘The Forest Is The Path’, on 13 Sep. Out now is the single 'The Beginning'. There will also be tour dates in February 2025, opening at the O2 in London on 15 Feb. 

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds have released new single ’Frogs’. New album ‘Wild God’ is out on 30 Aug. 

Marc Almond has released new single ‘Gone With The Wind (Is My Love)’. His new album ‘I’m Not Anyone’ is out on 12 Jul. 

Max Richter will release new album ‘In A Landscape’ on 6 Sep. Out now is new single ‘Movement, Before All Flowers’. 

Sasami is back with new single ‘Honeycrash’. 

Planningtorock has released new track ‘Get Your Fckin Laws Off My Body’. 

Martha Skye Murphy has released new single ‘IRL’. Her debut album ‘Um’ is out on 14 Jun.

Having soundtracked British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement of a General Election earlier this month, D:Ream have announced that they will re-issue their debut album ‘D:Ream On Vol 1’ on 14 Jun.

Hackers claim to have accessed personal data about 560 million Ticketmaster customers

A group of hackers by the name of ShinyHunters have claimed to have got access to personal information about more than half a billion ticket-buyers after hacking the Ticketmaster platform. 

According to the Hackread website, hackers stole 1.3TB of data after hacking the servers of the Live Nation owned ticketing company, accessing the names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, order information and partial payment card data of around 560 million customers. The payment data includes the last four digits of card numbers and expiry dates.

The ShinyHunters group, Hackread explains, is “known for its high-profile data breaches” and has managed to beat recent efforts by the FBI to shut down its operations. That included reclaiming a seized domain, a move which demonstrated the group’s “technical prowess and resilience against law enforcement actions”. 

If the claims being made are true, data protection regulators across the world will take an interest. In Australia, the Department Of Home Affairs has already confirmed to media that it is aware of a “cyber incident” impacting Ticketmaster customers, with a spokesperson telling ABC that they are now “working with Ticketmaster to understand the incident”.

Live Nation is already facing significant political and regulator scrutiny in the US, currently over allegations of anticompetitive conduct, with the country's Department Of Justice filing a lawsuit last week demanding that the live giant be forced to sell its ticketing company. Some politicians in Congress have also been raising concerns about Live Nation’s market dominance and a major data breach will only add to the criticism being made in Washington. 

The alleged hack will also be of interest to data protection authorities in the UK, where in 2020 the Information Commissioner’s Office fined the ticketing company £1.25 million following a much smaller data breach in 2018 that affected about 40,000 customers.

Approved: Niko B

Niko B makes seriously good, unserious music. Unselfconscious and unapologetically mischievous, his debut album ‘Dog Eat Dog Food World’ was unleashed last week.

First previewing some of the bars in his now notorious ‘Victory Lap’ cypher going toe to toe with the likes of Central Cee and Dave last year, the album sees Niko’s cheeky confessional lyricism meet boppy low-fi production. Made almost entirely with beats from rising bedroom YouTube beatmakers, the album spans twelve tracks, delivering acute, introspective observations on small town life that resonate with all, balancing end-times gloom with absurdist wit. The release solidifies Niko’s role as a Gen-Z Mike Skinner: authentic, warm, honest and a little piss-takey.

“Everyone thinks it’s a dog eat dog world, eat someone else before you get eaten”, he says. “While everyone’s around arguing and in competition, I'm just here enjoying my dog food because I like it. This album stemmed from being in awe of everyone around me. I love what people are interested in, even if I don't get it. I love that they love it. This is music I genuinely love. I try to sing in some songs. I have talented friends who are also with me on this project. Please enjoy with open ears, and then listen again while standing on the dining room table or in a car”. 

🎧 Listen to ‘dog eat dog food world’ here

Government confirms it has issued drug-testing licences to “some of the leading festivals in the UK”

Drug testing will be more widely available at UK festivals this summer, as more events have been able to secure licences that allow on-site experts to examine illegal substances. Such efforts were drastically reduced last year, with campaigners saying that the government had changed its policies with too little time for many events to get the required paperwork.

“It is important that we are able to proceed this year with drug testing”, says Katy Porter, CEO of drug-related harm prevention charity The Loop. “The drug market is changing, and we are able to plan and prepare in our harm reduction messaging and response when we are informed regarding the drugs which are in circulation, and equipped with accurate and current information”.

“Licensed by the Home Office and in line with government policy, The Loop’s aim of reducing the consumption of adulterants and contaminated drugs, and reducing the risk of poisoning and overdose, has been welcomed by the two festivals The Loop will be working with”, she adds.

Issues around drug testing were highlighted last year by the Parklife festival in Manchester, which had worked with The Loop for a number of years. This, it said, had always been carried out under a memorandum of understanding with local police. However, last year the UK’s Home Office said that a licence was required, and that this had always been the case. 

It can take up to three months for a licence to be approved, which left Parklife and other festivals without enough time to secure one. The application also increases costs, which could mean some events would be unable to afford to offer the service. Critics called the government’s position “short-sighted”.

The on-site drug testing puts experts on hand at festivals to assess whether there are any substances in circulation that could pose a heightened risk to those consuming them. In some cases, the drugs are provided for testing by festival-goers, sometimes anonymously, or – more commonly at UK festivals – the experts analyse drugs that have been confiscated by police and security.

Either way, any information about substances that could pose a heightened risk is pushed out through social media, and provided to police and on-site medical personnel. That work can prevent harm and save lives by ensuring any heightened risk is known.

In a statement, Parklife’s Jon Drape says, “On-site drug testing is a cornerstone of our harm reduction strategy and we are delighted to have The Loop on-site with us this year”.

Meanwhile, CEO of the Night Time Industries Association Michael Kill comments, “These facilities play a vital role in safeguarding attendees and proactively informing them of potential harms”.

Insisting that it is a “continuation of long-standing government policy”, the Home Office says in a statement that “licences have been issued under strict conditions to drug testing organisations to operate at some of the leading festivals in the UK”.

It adds that “more licences are expected to be issued in the coming weeks”.

Setlist Podcast: “Spotify is not a business partner”, says NMPA boss

In this week's Setlist Podcast: Chris Cooke and Andy Malt discuss the battle between the music publishers and Spotify as it ramps up another gear, Sony Music's lawsuit accusing the Marriott hotel chain of “rampant” copyright infringement, and more.

🎧 Click here to listen - or search for 'Setlist Podcast'

Spotify sued over decision to stop supporting Car Thing 

It’s not only the songwriters of America that Spotify has been angering of late, the car drivers of America are pretty pissed off too. Well, the Car Thing owning car drivers of America are. And while the negative impact of Spotify’s recent decision-making on those drivers is pretty modest when compared to the songwriters, that hasn't stopped them suing. The allegation? Spotify misleadingly sold them all a “hundred dollar paperweight”. 

A lawsuit has been filed with the courts in New York following the news that, later this year, Spotify will stop supporting the Car Thing devices it previously sold to premium subscribers in the US. “As a direct and proximate consequence of Spotify’s conduct”, the lawsuit declares, anyone who owns a Car Thing unknowingly “purchased and owns a useless product” and have therefore suffered damage at the hands of the streaming firm. 

Car Thing, you may remember, was the outcome of Spotify’s short-lived dabblings in the hardware market, it being a thing that you could use to control Spotify in a car. “Car Thing makes it simpler to play exactly what you want”, an official blurb explained in April 2022, “thanks to the intuitive product interface and the ease of using ‘Hey Spotify’ to control what you want to listen to”. 

In July the same year, Spotify announced it was discontinuing the Car Thing and would sell off its remaining stock at a discounted price of $49.99. However, for those subscribers who already had one, it continued to support the device. That support is now ending. 

The lawsuit explains that Car Thing owners have been told that their devices will cease to be supported on 9 Dec. There will be “a forced firmware update which will result in the device becoming obsolete”, leaving affected customers with “a paperweight that cost between $50 and $100”. 

“Many owners of the Car Thing have complained in public forums and to Spotify about the discontinuance of the product”, the lawsuit continues, “and have requested that Spotify address and remedy the problem by providing a refund, equivalent replacement, or allow the Car Thing to be opensourced for use outside of Spotify’s control”. 

Alas, pretty much treating the Car Thing owners as if they were songwriters, Spotify has basically told them to go fuck themselves. “Spotify has stated that it will not refund, or replace, the Car Thing”, the lawsuit explains, “instead recommending that consumers ‘reset your Car Thing to factory settings and safely dispose of your device following local electronic waste guidelines’”. 

Elsewhere the lawsuit claims that “the Car Thing was only functional for a commercially unreasonable period of time”, and that affected customers “did not expect Spotify to discontinue its support for, and disable use of, the Car Thing simply because Spotify did not want to maintain the servers” utilised by the device.  

When asked about its decision to stop supporting Car Thing last week, Spotify told Ars Technica that “the goal of our Car Thing exploration in the US was to learn more about how people listen in the car”. 

That is unlikely to placate angry customers, as it basically means they paid to take part in a big old market research exercise. Though, to be fair, when Spotify began piloting the Car Thing in 2019, it did say that it was releasing the device as part of its research work. 

Presumably when responding to the lawsuit, Spotify will instead argue that Car Things sold for $89.99 (plus taxes and shipping), which isn't that expensive, and - worse case scenario - purchasers got more than two years use out of it. Or maybe it’ll just point to some tedious terms and conditions from when the devices were sold. 

It’s no secret Spotify has been busy cutting its costs over the last year in a bold bid to finally become a profitable company, which is presumably why it doesn’t want to have to continue supporting a device it abandoned in 2022. 

That cost cutting has resulted in significant downsizing in the Spotify workforce. And, most controversially, the streaming service has reclassified its main premium subscription packages in the US as audiobook and music bundles in order to reduce what it has to pay songwriters and music publishers. 

That has also resulted in legal action, the outcome of which will be much more significant than this Car Thing customer spat. Though it will still be interesting to see whether the Car Thing lawsuit does indeed result in any damages for those Americans who, as of December, will be driving around with a hundred dollar paperweight in their vehicles.