From Jungkook’s 35.5m month-to-month Spotify listeners to Avid’s $1.4bn sale to STG… it’s MBW’s Weekly Spherical-up

Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we make sure that you caught the 5 greatest tales to hit our headlines over the previous seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their revenue and cut back their touring prices.

Three massive tales involving lawsuits hit our pages over the previous seven days.

On Wednesday (August 16), SoundExchange announced that it’s suing SiriusXM, claiming that the satellite tv for pc streaming service “wrongfully withheld greater than $150 million in unpaid royalties over the previous a number of years”.

In the meantime, on Monday (August 14),  Elon Musk’s X filed a motion to dismiss a $250 million-plus copyright lawsuit filed in opposition to the social media platform by music publishers earlier this 12 months.

And on Friday (August 11), document labels sued the Internet Archive, alleging “large ongoing violation” of music copyrights on the web library’s ‘Nice 78 Undertaking’.

Additionally this week, we reported on the sale of audio expertise firm Avid, which has been acquired by non-public fairness agency, Symphony Know-how Group (STG).

Avid, which additionally operates a DIY music distribution service referred to as AvidPlay, is being bought in an all-cash transaction price $1.4 billion.

Elsewhere, Tencent Music Leisure reported that hit 99.4 million subscribers in Q2, whereas Okay-pop star Jungkook surpassed BTS’s month-to-month listener tally on Spotify.

Listed here are 5 of this week’s greatest tales…

1) ELON MUSK’S X FILES MOTION TO DISMISS MUSIC PUBLISHERS’ $250M+ COPYRIGHT LAWSUIT; NMPA SAYS PLATFORM HAS ‘CONSISTENTLY FAILED’ TO STOP ‘RAMPANT PIRACY’ ON ITS PLATFORM

Elon Musk-owned social media service X (previously often known as Twitter) was hit with a multi-million-dollar copyright lawsuit in June.

The entities behind the litigation included outstanding unbiased music publishers, in addition to Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner Chappell Music.

The go well with, which named Musk’s X Corp as the only defendant, alleged “rampant infringement of copyrighted music” on the platform, in search of over $250 million in damages.

Music publishers argued within the grievance that, “whereas quite a few Twitter rivals respect the necessity for correct licenses and agreements for using musical compositions on their platforms, Twitter doesn’t, and as a substitute breeds large copyright infringement that harms music creators.”

Now, two months on from the launch of that litigation, X / Twitter has filed a movement asking the court docket to dismiss the grievance “in its entirety…”

2) SOUNDEXCHANGE SUES SIRIUSXM OVER ALLEGED $150M IN UNPAID ROYALTIES OWED TO ARTISTS AND RIGHTSHOLDERS

US efficiency rights group SoundExchange has launched a lawsuit in opposition to SiriusXM to get better what it claims are “substantial unpaid royalties and late charges owed below the Copyright Act” for using sound recordings on the satellite tv for pc streaming service.

SoundExchange says that it estimates that SiriusXM has “wrongfully withheld greater than $150 million in unpaid royalties over the previous a number of years”.

In a grievance filed with the US District Court docket for the Jap District of Virginia on Wednesday (August 16), SoundExchange alleged that SiriusXM “has exploited the artistic efforts of recording artists with out paying legally mandated compensation….”

3) PRIVATE EQUITY’S LOVE OF MUSIC TECH CONTINUES, AS STG ACQUIRES PRO TOOLS MAKER AVID FOR $1.4BN

One of many world’s most outstanding makers {of professional} music-making software program is being acquired in a deal price $1.4 billion.

Avid Know-how, the developer of video and audio modifying instruments, together with the well-known Professional Instruments DAW, has agreed to be acquired by non-public fairness agency Symphony Know-how Group (STG) in an all-cash transaction price round USD $1.4 billion, together with debt.

The deal is predicted to shut throughout This fall 2023, topic to Avid stockholder approval and regulatory approvals…

4) TENCENT MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT REACHED 99.4M PAYING SUBSCRIBERS IN Q2, AS MUSIC REVENUES JUMPED 47.6%

Tencent Music Leisure (TME), China’s largest operator of music streaming providers, has reported one more large soar in paying subscribers and paying-subscriber income.

The Shenzhen-headquartered firm, which operates music providers QQ Music, Kugo and Kuwou, got here inside a hair of 100 million paying subscribers in Q2 2023, the corporate stated in its newest earnings report, launched on Tuesday (August 15).

Particularly, the corporate reported 99.4 million subscribers for the quarter ended June 30. That represents a rise of 20.2% from the identical quarter a 12 months earlier, when the corporate reported 82.7 million paid subscribers…

5) JUNGKOOK NOW HAS 35.5M+ MONTHLY LISTENERS ON SPOTIFY – OVER HALF A MILLION MORE THAN BTS.

Jungkook is a solo celebrity. On the time of writing, in line with stats out there publicly on Spotify, the HYBE-signed Okay-Pop artist has 35,578,104 month-to-month listeners on the music streaming platform.

BTS, the megastar Okay-Pop group of which Jungkook is a member, has 34,981,739 month-to-month Spotify listeners, which implies that he has formally overtaken his personal band’s month-to-month listener depend on the platform, by 596,365 month-to-month listeners, in line with our calculations…

MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.

 Music Enterprise Worldwide