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Coldplay latest act to freeze out streaming services (Mylo Xyloto now on Spotify: 1st Feb 2012)


busybeeburns

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Sorry to bump this but Jon Hopkins just tweeted this which, I think is relevant here:

 

Jon_Hopkins Got paid £8 for 90,000 plays. Fuck spotify.

 

 

I rest my case. The whole thing is just more "everything should be free to everyone on the internet" nonsense dressed up with a token payment to make people feel better about it.

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PRS supports Spotify amid royalties row

 

PRS for Music has given its support to Spotify after songwriters attacked the platform for allegedly paying them meagre royalties.

 

Coldplay kept their album Mylo Xyloto from being available on the service last month, after which independent distributor ST Holdings removed much of its catalogue, citing “negligible” royalties and accusing Spotify of “cannibalising revenue from the likes of iTunes”.

 

The outcry hit new levels last week when Mercury-nominated songwriter and performer Jon Hopkins tweeted: “Got paid £8 for 90,000 plays. Fuck Spotify.”

 

However, director of media licensing at PRS William Booth told Music Week: “Spotify is one of a number of new digital streaming services at the forefront, along with download services, of providing a legal alternative to piracy online.

 

“Spotify has always done the right thing and worked with rights holders to ensure their music offering is fully licensed before launch. Our writers and publishers are earning royalties from digital music and this is a growing part of our business; we all need to support these services that are giving users a legal, virus-free and high-quality alternative to peer-to-peer sites and generating an additional income stream for creators. Comparisons with radio or TV broadcasts that may have millions of listeners or viewers are difficult and not always either accurate or appropriate.”

 

Spotify has promised to announce a “new direction” for the service at a press conference next Wednesday (November 30) in New York.

 

http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1047628&c=1

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Sorry to bump this but Jon Hopkins just tweeted this which, I think is relevant here:

 

Jon_Hopkins Got paid £8 for 90,000 plays. Fuck spotify.

 

I'd probably be a bit bitter about that too, honestly...yikes.

 

However, I do have to say that I do agree with the sentiment of the article you posted after, to a degree...I do think it's a raw deal in some ways for artists as Jon Hopkins has shown here, but at the same time, I kind of think of streaming services like Spotify etc as a small way to combat piracy. I guess £8 is so small it makes no real difference whether 90,000 people pirated his tracks vs. streamed them on Spotify, but I feel like if I happened to be an artist, I'd still be supportive, at least in a small way, of Spotify as an idea and as a platform.

 

But yeah, the whole industry really just isn't redeemable from the hands of piracy so it does seem a bit useless to try anymore.

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  • 1 month later...

Coldplay Manager: I'M Very Concerned. Spotify Competes With Downloads.

 

Hardly new news, but worth mentioning just the same.

 

Coldplay's Manager: "I Am Very Concerned. Spotify Competes With Downloads."

Monday, January 09, 2012

by paul

 

Coldplay's latest album will eventually make it to Spotify, according to the band's manager. But not until most of the juice has been squeezed from iTunes, which is probably months from now. "I am very concerned,” manager Dave Holmes told BusinessWeek ahead of the weekend. "Spotify competes with download stores."

 

The comments come right as the album, Mylo Xyloto, crosses platinum in the US. Of that, nearly 60 percent of the one-million-plus sales have come from paid downloads, according to Nielsen Soundscan. And, in turn, a big chunk of those downloads came from the iTunes Store.

 

Which means Spotify users will be the last to get access, according to a loose windowing timetable offered by Holmes. "Like all of Coldplay's other titles, the new album will be on [spotify] eventually," the manager relayed, which also means the same process starts over again when Coldplay releases another album.

 

All of which seems like a raw deal to Spotify executives, especially since major labels have already been paid tens of millions of dollars (at least) for licensing privileges. Yet superstar artists have a very influential voice in this discussion, despite the presence of massive, upfront licensing ransoms. "If Lady Gaga doesn't want her latest album on Spotify, her label will listen or she may get a creative flu or miss certain promotional appearances," Ted Cohen chimed in. "A recording artist can be petulant."

 

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120109coldplay

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I'd probably be a bit bitter about that too, honestly...yikes.

 

However, I do have to say that I do agree with the sentiment of the article you posted after, to a degree...I do think it's a raw deal in some ways for artists as Jon Hopkins has shown here, but at the same time, I kind of think of streaming services like Spotify etc as a small way to combat piracy. I guess £8 is so small it makes no real difference whether 90,000 people pirated his tracks vs. streamed them on Spotify, but I feel like if I happened to be an artist, I'd still be supportive, at least in a small way, of Spotify as an idea and as a platform.

 

But yeah, the whole industry really just isn't redeemable from the hands of piracy so it does seem a bit useless to try anymore.

 

 

I guess the thing that bothers me most about Spotify (and to lesser extent the other paid streaming services-most of which pay more per play in royalties) is that they're attempting to set themselves up in a profit making enterprise without kicking any significant money down the chain to the people who are supplying them with their product. I'd imagine that's really what galls some artists/labels about the whole thing.

 

That said, I still say that when big commercial acts can still generate tens of millions of dollars in sales and shift millions of units via traditional channels (which Coldplay has with MX), the industry has a lot less incentive to change radically anytime soon than some people would like to believe.

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Spotify getting static from some top music acts

 

Spotify getting static from some top music acts

 

The Spotify revolution isn’t music to everyone’s ears — especially for three of the hottest acts in the industry. Adele, the Black Keys and Coldplay — ranked No. 1, 3 and 5 respectively on Billboard’s Top 200 chart — have steered clear of the streaming service, concerning themselves strictly with physical and digital album sales. (Adele’s “21” is available on Spotify, but only as a four-track sampler, rather than an LP.)

 

The strategy is paying dividends for all three acts, most recently the Black Keys, who are closing in on 300,000 copies sold since the Dec. 6 release of “El Camino.”

 

The musicians all share the same concern: Streaming eats into sales. It’s a notion that Spotify rebuts. “We can’t speak for the artists; however, there is not a shred of evidence that holding back albums on Spotify cannibalizes downloads or helps overall sales in any way,” said spokeswoman Dawn Bridges.

 

There’s no question the streaming service, which has 2.5 million paid subscribers and more than 10 million users, is helping gain recognition for new artist, but what about those with proven track records?

 

Elevated royalty rates may be playing a larger role than expected in the decision-making process that ultimately encourages selling over streaming.

Another revenue source — touring — makes it easier for acts to pass on streaming, for now. “The real money is being made on the road with tickets and merchandise,” said Big Hassle PR President Ken Weinstein, who reps such heavyweights as the Kings of Leon, the Strokes and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant.

 

Spotify also has other issues to address, in addition to rebellious artists.

Rival Pandora, the online radio service, just announced it has 125 million registered users as its shares have risen nearly 25 percent since the start of the year.

 

But BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield came to Spotify’s defense. “As services such as Spotify evolve into all-encompassing music destinations across in-home/mobile platforms leveraging third-party apps, we expect Pandora usage to suffer.”

 

http://www.nypost.com/

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  • 2 weeks later...

pg-8-coldplay-ap.jpg

 

Coldplay 'wrong' on Mylo Xyloto streaming boycott - industry expert reports

 

Legal action against illegal file-sharers has helped to bring an 8 per cent rise in global digital-music revenues, but an industry report claims stars should stop boycotting streaming services such as Spotify.

 

A rise in the take-up of legal music-subscription services helped digital revenues to hit $5.2bn (£3.3bn) in 2011, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said.

 

One in four internet users still accesses unauthorised services on a monthly basis. But legislation to inhibit file-sharing has caused a drop in illegal activity.

 

The removal of the US file-sharing site LimeWire and the Hong Kong-based Megaupload has helped to reduce the use of peer-to-peer services by 26 per cent.

 

However, music fans need to see the latest releases on legal services and the decision by artists including Coldplay, who withheld their Mylo Xyloto album from Spotify to maximise full-price sales, is harming the industry.

 

Rob Wells, president of Global Digital Business at Universal Music, said: "While the individual payment for a stream is lower than a download, every time that track is played it triggers a royalty payment. Artists need to be patient."

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/coldplay-wrong-on-download-boycott-6293680.html

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_58132343_coldplayget.jpg

Coldplay's manager said he was worried that Spotify was competing with download stores

 

Spotify boycotts 'alienate fans' (BBC)

 

Singers and bands who withhold their albums from music streaming services, such as Spotify, are in danger of alienating their fans, an executive from record label Universal has said. Acts including Adele and Coldplay kept their latest albums off Spotify, which is seen by some as damaging sales. But Francis Keeling, vice president of digital at Universal Music, said such acts risk "alienating their fanbases".

 

Universal is the world's most successful record label. Adele's track Rolling In The Deep was the most-played single of 2011 on Spotify UK, but the star has withheld the complete album, 21 - released by the XL label - from the service. Coldplay's manager Dave Holmes recently told Bloomberg Businessweek that the band's Mylo Xyloto, released on EMI, would be on Spotify eventually. But he said: "I am very concerned. Spotify competes with download stores."

 

The Black Keys and Tom Waits are among the other high-profile acts who have kept their latest releases off streaming services. Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach told Billboard magazine that the royalties from streaming services were "so minuscule it's laughable".

 

"It's a cool thing to have if you're in a new band and you want to be heard," he said. "But if you are a bigger band that's already known and you rely on record sales for a living, then it's really no place to be."

 

Universal has said its research proved that Spotify did not cannibalise sales, and Mr Keeling said the label negotiated with artists on a case-by-case basis. "Over time, we're trying to convince our artists that streaming services are the right thing to do and these services should be supported," he said, according to PaidContent. Mr Keeling was speaking at the label's Investors' Open Day in London, where Spotify announced that it now had three million paying subscribers, with approximately 12 million more using its free service.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16755449

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Coldplay buckles and finally launches Mylo Xyloto on Spotify

 

Back in October, we pondered whether Coldplay’s decision to say no to streaming was a good or bad thing for the UK band. Whatever the right answer may be, the band’s latest album has finally appeared on the music-streaming platform.

 

As Music Ally reports, Mylo Xyloto went live on Spotify some time this morning, though no official announcement has been made yet.

 

CPLAY-520x357.jpg

 

As we reported a few months back, a source at Coldplay’s record label, EMI, said that the company was “a little embarrassed” by the band’s decision to not release its album on Spotify and other music-streaming sites.

 

It’s thought that Coldplay has been trying to keep its Mylo Xyloto album, which was launched last October, intact and playable in its entirety, rather than breaking the tracks up for separate listening. Though as we noted at the time, once you purchase an album on any service, physical or digital, you can listen to the songs in any order and as standalone tracks.

 

Whilst Coldplay’s back catalog has always been available on Spotify, it seems the intention was always to delay the new album’s launch on the streaming platform, to help maximize sales elsewhere – including on Apple’s iTunes Store. Indeed, the album was heavily promoted on iTunes when it was launched.

 

Coldplay’s manager Dave Holmes has argued that the album would’ve sold far less copies if it had been available on Spotify from the start, though he has previously indicated that it would eventually make it on to streaming sites.

 

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  • 1 year later...

Justin Timberlake Made A Fortune Giving His Album Away

 

I wonder if the guys made a mistake?

 

Justin Timberlake Made a Fortune Giving His Album Away

BusinessWeekBy Claire Suddath | BusinessWeek – Fri, Mar 29, 2013 1:13 PM EDT

 

The suit-and-tie look works for Justin Timberlake. His album The 20/20 Experience sold 980,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen (NLSN) SoundScan. That’s 63 percent more copies than RCA (SNE), Timberlake’s record label, expected—and a figure most artists haven’t touched in years. Even Adele’s 21, the top-selling album of the past two years, enjoyed a mere third of Timberlake’s sales during its debut week. And what’s remarkable is how much of The 20/20 Experience’s sales can be credited to one of the recording industry’s biggest bêtes noires: the free online streaming service.

 

Many of music’s biggest acts still haven’t warmed up to streaming services such as Rdio and Spotify. The Beatles aren’t on Spotify. Neither is AC/DC. When Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto debuted in 2011, the band refused to put the album on Spotify for four months, choosing instead to work with Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes and Amazon’s (AMZN) MP3 store. But Timberlake’s 20/20 is streaming for free everywhere. This week it took up six of the top 10 most played songs on Rdio. On Spotify it was streamed nearly 7.7 million times, making it one of the most popular albums ever to appear on the service. It also became the most preordered and the fastest-selling album in iTunes’ history. That might be because a week before 20/20 was released, RCA streamed the album in its entirety on iTunes.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/justin-timberlake-made-a-fortune-giving-his-album-away-171352523.html

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I wonder if the guys made a mistake?

 

Justin Timberlake Made a Fortune Giving His Album Away

BusinessWeekBy Claire Suddath | BusinessWeek – Fri, Mar 29, 2013 1:13 PM EDT

 

The suit-and-tie look works for Justin Timberlake. His album The 20/20 Experience sold 980,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen (NLSN) SoundScan. That’s 63 percent more copies than RCA (SNE), Timberlake’s record label, expected—and a figure most artists haven’t touched in years. Even Adele’s 21, the top-selling album of the past two years, enjoyed a mere third of Timberlake’s sales during its debut week. And what’s remarkable is how much of The 20/20 Experience’s sales can be credited to one of the recording industry’s biggest bêtes noires: the free online streaming service.

 

Many of music’s biggest acts still haven’t warmed up to streaming services such as Rdio and Spotify. The Beatles aren’t on Spotify. Neither is AC/DC. When Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto debuted in 2011, the band refused to put the album on Spotify for four months, choosing instead to work with Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes and Amazon’s (AMZN) MP3 store. But Timberlake’s 20/20 is streaming for free everywhere. This week it took up six of the top 10 most played songs on Rdio. On Spotify it was streamed nearly 7.7 million times, making it one of the most popular albums ever to appear on the service. It also became the most preordered and the fastest-selling album in iTunes’ history. That might be because a week before 20/20 was released, RCA streamed the album in its entirety on iTunes.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/justin-timberlake-made-a-fortune-giving-his-album-away-171352523.html

 

I think the boys did all right the way they went. I think whatever beef they had must have been specifically with Spotify. as they've never been one of those groups that tries to withhold their releases from all digital sources (unlike most of the other groups that article mentioned).

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