in Artist News, CIVIS GOOGLEANUS SUM, Google's Assault on Artists, In a Goolag State of Mind 520 Words

@cmu: Offensive Google Charm Offensive Returns to the Colonies: Music Managers Forum UK to launch part two of Digital Dollar report this week

The [Google-backed] Music Managers Forum [UK] will this week publish Part Two of its report ‘Dissecting The Digital Dollar’, which has been produced by CMU Insights, the training and consultancy wing of this here CMU.

As previously reported, Part One of the ‘Digital Dollar’ report was published just under a year ago. It set out to explain in one place how streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music are being licensed by the music industry and what happens to digital royalties as they work their way from the streaming service through to artists and songwriters.

But…they never look at what happens to advertising or subscription revenue at the streaming service BEFORE royalties are calculated–taking the “share” out of “revenue share.”

Read the apology for Spotify…er…post…on Complete Music Update.  And if you’re really at a loss for what to do of an evening.

MMF UK Presents:
Dissecting the Digital Dollar
Part 2
US Launch Events
Jon Webster and Jonny Dawson from the UK MMF will be visiting the US this October to present our latest report, Dissecting the Digital Dollar Part 2. The report follows on from Part 1 which was published last year which set out the landscape of the way streaming services are licensed and highlighted seven areas to be explored.
Part 2 presents the findings from numerous debates and discussions with over 200 managers, artists, lawyers, accountants, labels, publishers, DSPs, CMOs and policy makers in numerous territories. It makes recommendations from the MMF to support a more transparent music industry that operates in the interests of artists and their fans and sets a blueprint for the MMF’s plan of action in these areas. Jon and Jonny will give an overview of the opinions expressed and the subsequent recommendations, focusing particularly on the key issues with the way digital services are licensed and the way digital royalties are processed and shared. The session will close with a discussion about the conclusions and open Q&A.
The events are as follows-
 
Wednesday 12th October- New York at Kickstarter HQ 
Thursday 13th October- Nashville at City Winery 
Friday 14th October- Los Angeles at Gibson Guitars 
Arrival 9.30am / Start 10 am / Finish 12pm / with Refreshments
To RSVP please email phoebe@themmf.net with the city you wish to attend the event in in the subject line.
 
Full details attached

For better analysis read Chris Castle’s post Transparency Starts Upstream for Streaming Royalties on Huffington Post.

We’ve seen stories recently about various successes for artists in negotiations with major labels about “transparency” in the payment of the artist’s share of streaming royalties received by record companies. This is great news of course, but the new buzz word “transparency” should be understood in context. There is nothing the digital services would like more than to deflect the ire of artists and songwriters who are enraged about minuscule royalties away from the services and onto record companies or music publishers.

Creators need to be alert that they are not being duped into a false deflection because even in the best case, record companies can only pay on the royalties they receive from services.