The legal underbelly of livestreaming concerts
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View this email in your browser (|ARCHIVE|) http://hotpodnews.com/presents.... The fine print of innovation in the music business. This is issue #83, published on April 9, 2020. Happy Thursday everyone! Hope you’re all feeling as healthy and safe as you can in this environment.
Today’s issue dives into the challenges of remote collaboration for behind-the-scenes music artists and the legal side of livestreaming concerts, DJ sets and other musical events, plus a members-only article about Warner Music Group’s quiet efforts to consolidate its podcast operations.
Some more notes before moving on: * A small milestone to celebrate — you’re now one of over 7,000 subscribers to the Water & Music newsletter! Thank you so much again for following my work. If you’ve enjoyed this newsletter so far, I’d really appreciate even the small gesture of forwarding this issue to a friend. This newsletter would not be here were it not for word of mouth! * I talked with Complex (https://www.complex.com/pigeons-and-planes/2020/03/what-is-industry-plant/) (alongside other journalists and artists) about my own definition of what does, and does not, comprise an “industry plant,” and why the somewhat clichéd debate still matters in 2020. * I also guested on a handful of podcasts over the last two weeks, including Lyte’s Spot Lyte On (https://spot-lyte-on.simplecast.com/episodes/the-new-normal-cherie-hu-water-and-music) and Music Tectonics (https://open.spotify.com/episode/2AK2c8BBwN4xh0zqWR1z8l) . In both of those episodes, we covered all of the changes happening in music on a higher level, from the surge in livestreaming activity to the impact of remote work on creativity and industry opportunities.
The legal underbelly of livestreaming concerts
Event cancellations and shutdowns due to COVID-19 have wiped out hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from the hands of artists, promoters and venues. In response, music livestreams are popping up globally at a rate we’ve never seen before — from artists doing spontaneous performances and DJ sets from their living rooms, to major initiatives like UnCancelled (https://uncancelledmusicfestival.com/) and Minecraft’s in-game showcases (https://elsewither.club/) bringing the exploratory, all-you-can-eat, multi-stage experience of a festival into a virtual environment.
Amidst this ongoing surge in activity, one important element has been surprisingly under-addressed: Licensing.
Most of the livestreams that have filled the void of in-person concerts have been free of charge or built on a somewhat frail donation economy around Venmo, PayPal and Cash App, raising the much-needed debate (https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/z3b5xj/music-industry-future-coronavirus-livestreaming-patreon-discwoman) around whether livestreaming will ever become a sustainable source of income for artists.
What I want to drive home is that you cannot talk about the financial longevity of livestreaming in the music business without also talking about rights.
More specifically, because livestreams sit at the intersection of recording and live performance — especially if the streams are archived after the fact — they can involve literally every kind of license in music: Masters, mechanical, sync, performance, trademark, name/likeness, the list goes on. It’s actually a powerful lens for understanding how most of the music business works.
We shouldn’t necessarily hold back emerging, talented artists from sharing their performances with the world today because of licenses that may take weeks to get. But the fact that most people who are scrambling to livestream are probably not clearing their performances beforehand potentially leaves a lot of money on the table for music rights holders — including the artists themselves, not just labels, publishers or performing rights organizations (PROs). Moreover, none of the open livestreaming platforms that are popular today (Instagram, Twitch, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) have the proper legal infrastructure to close that financial gap yet.
In this environment, I thought it would be helpful to summarize the legal issues that artists, event organizers and tech platforms have to consider if they want to expand into livestreaming and/or make a proper income from the format. I also examined this complexity through the lens of three different, equally realistic case studies: 1. An artist doing a spontaneous live session on Instagram, YouTube or Twitch. 2. An artist striking an exclusive, direct livestreaming deal with a paywalled platform (like Nugs.net (http://nugs.net/) ). 3. A major festival brand like Coachella broadcasting its in-person event to the world for free, or constructing a virtual festival lineup from scratch.
Click here to continue reading. (https://www.patreon.com/posts/35791016) The first-mile/last-mile problem of making music remotely
Five years ago, I wrote for Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/cheriehu/2015/12/09/songwriting-is-changing-and-technology-is-finally-catching-up/#5d4c34e87242) about how technology was catching up to major shifts in songwriting. Writing teams were not only becoming larger and more international, but were also embracing more remote, on-the-go recording processes, often through spur-of-the-moment Voice Memos in hotel rooms or green rooms.
Today, the COVID-19 outbreak has forced thousands of artists, songwriters and producers to do 100% of their work from home — creating an environment for studying the extent to which technology is actually in a place to normalize virtual music-making for good.
Of course, remote musical collaboration is nothing new. Several groups, such as Superorganism (https://www.wearesuperorganism.com/) and rap collective YBN (https://www.complex.com/music/2018/09/ybn-is-headed-for-greatness-if-they-can-hold-on) , have been collaborating remotely (https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/9344603/artists-who-worked-remotely-coronavirus) from the outset. A wide range of cloud-based tools are available at artists’ disposal, most of which launched within the past five years — from mobile-app interfaces like Trackd (https://www.trackdmusic.com/) and SoundStorming (https://soundstorming.com/) , to DAW-sharing platforms like Splice (http://splice.com/) , Blend (https://blend.io/) and Spotify-owned Soundtrap (https://www.soundtrap.com/) .
But many artists still prefer to meet and collaborate in person. The rise of songwriting camps (https://www.vulture.com/2018/08/the-songwriting-camps-where-pops-biggest-hits-get-crafted.html) over the past few years underscores the value that the music industry places on this kind of face-to-face communication, and on the magic that comes from hunkering down for hours in a recording studio.
Can that magic exist in the cloud? Regardless of the answer, songwriters and producers don’t have much of a choice but to work in the cloud if they want to stay busy in the coming weeks. As Elias Leight reported (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/remote-songwriting-social-distancing-975072/?curator=MusicREDEF) for Rolling Stone, many songwriters are now hosting virtual co-writing sessions on apps like Zoom, Skype and FaceTime. All of the artists I spoke with for this piece are also using file-sharing platforms such as WeTransfer (https://wetransfer.com/) , Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/) and Box (https://www.box.com/home) to exchange drafts of songs, vocals and beats in progress.
One caveat I’ve only recently realized, though, is that few songwriters and producers do all of their creative work remotely.
Instead, a more common setup is that a songwriter or producer will do their first and/or last collaborative sessions of a project in person. It’s especially crucial in these opening and concluding moments to pick up on emotional and communicative nuances that might otherwise get lost online. Then, once all parties establish a sense of clarity, alignment and trust, they go remote for taking care of the rest of the busy work in the middle.
In other words, remote work can be a powerful tool for behind-the-scenes music creators — but once it takes over 100% of their workflow, many inefficiencies come into play that technology has yet to solve. Click here to continue reading. (https://www.patreon.com/posts/35743009) Unpacking Jefferson Studios, Warner Music Group’s new podcast network
This piece is partially a follow-up to two articles I wrote over the past month about the intersection of music and podcasting: My piece for Hot Pod (https://hotpodnews.com/the-new-hot-way-to-promote-your-album-make-a-podcast/) about hybrid album/podcast release strategies (which, ICYMI, also got syndicated to Vulture (https://www.vulture.com/2020/02/musicians-starting-podcasts-spotify.html) ), and my writeup on Patreon about Sony Music’s investment in podcasts (https://www.patreon.com/posts/34654188) .
Now is a somewhat strange time to be writing more about music/podcast strategies, since both music and podcast listening seem to be down in the aggregate, per (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/streaming-music-down-coronavirus-971059/) multiple (https://qz.com/1825556/is-podcast-listening-up-or-down-due-to-the-coronavirus/) reports (https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/music-streams-down-why-spotify-netflix-1203547387/) . But even as listening declines in the short term, supply of both music and podcasts will likely go through the roof in the long term as innumerable creative, talented people look to keep themselves busy at home.
With this backdrop, there’s one major hybrid music/podcast initiative that I think would be good for you know about, and hasn’t been reported in other publications yet: Warner Music Group has quietly consolidated all of its past podcast operations into a new, singular network, Jefferson Studios (https://www.jeffersonstudios.com/) .
A bit of history: Previously, the bulk of WMG’s podcast activity was housed under Atlantic Records, which formally launched (https://www.billboard.com/amp/articles/business/8221066/atlantic-records-launches-podcast-initiative) its podcast initiative two years ago, in February 2018. The imprint’s flagship shows include What’d I Say (https://open.spotify.com/show/2dLxoaG1Y4NQyxTMdGfAEi?si=nG6NXHtRT5eqBdGKq6kpgA) and Inside the Album (https://open.spotify.com/show/2ESLmXaN8ADW8out0FQhoG?si=2a7Jo5_URniB2Bdf5N1zJg) , both of which feature several WMG artists in interviews about their careers and the inspirations behind some of their most well-known albums.
All of Atlantic’s podcasts used to sit under the URL atlanticpodcasts.com. But now, that link redirects to jeffersonstudios.com. On Spotify, both What’d I Say and Inside the Album — each of which has released new episodes in recent weeks — now credit Jefferson Studios, rather than Atlantic Records, as the main show creator.
Based on Jefferson Studios’ Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/jeffersonstudios/) , it looks like the company officially established the separate podcast division sometime in January 2020, and WMG has proactively expanded its podcast efforts across several other internal departments ever since, instead of just focusing on Atlantic. Click here to continue reading (members only). (https://www.patreon.com/posts/34378846) Good reads
On changing album rollout strategies amidst the pandemic: * They Were Going to Be Spring’s Biggest Albums — Until COVID-19 Hit (Rolling Stone) (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/album-delays-caused-by-covid-19-973870/) * Will Summer Album Releases Be Coronavirus’ Next Victim? (Billboard) (Will Summer Album Releases Be Coronavirus’ Next Victim?)
On virtual events, from back-end strategies to front-end fan experiences: * “Go live and go live often”: Livestream pioneer chats ‘hybrid’ touring (IQ Mag) (https://www.iq-mag.net/2020/04/go-live-often-livestream-emma-mcgann-pioneer-hybrid-touring/#.Xot7hG4pDaZ) * Don’t Just Throw Together a Webinar — The Virtual Events Crash Course You Need (First Round) (https://firstround.com/review/dont-just-throw-together-a-webinar-the-virtual-events-crash-course-you-need/) * I spent the weekend raving online and it was actually really fun (Mixmag) (https://mixmag.net/feature/virtual-raving-lockdown-dj-live-stream)
On deep-dives into the past, present and future of top entertainment executives: * The 72-Hour Man (Tablet) (https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/peter-shapiro-music-producer) * These Top Hollywood Agents Are Signing All the Influencers (New York Times) (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/style/hollywood-agents-influencers.html)
On celebrities outside of music doing incredible work to help those affected by COVID-19: * ‘Without Empathy, Nothing Works.’ Chef José Andrés Wants to Feed the World Through the Pandemic (TIME) (https://time.com/collection/apart-not-alone/5809169/jose-andres-coronavirus-food/)
What I’m listening to * Knxwledge — 1988 (https://open.spotify.com/album/53gOm5R7JN5DAkIuZymFOZ?si=tHuCpz4VQfyAZ8A0URLrEQ) * Thundercat — It Is What It Is (https://open.spotify.com/album/59GRmAvlGs7KjLizFnV7Y9?si=VIzJcxcaQ6qNXVT4HvlUCA) * Waxahatchee — Saint Cloud (https://open.spotify.com/album/04HMMwLmjkftjWy7xc6Bho?si=T2vOfwmnTTWq47FFwHmZpA) * The Weeknd — After Hours (https://open.spotify.com/album/6YlDIxqEjvY63ffH6AwCjd?si=Vb9rPX1TQ3WDVjTLeTnh3g) * Thao & The Get Down Stay Down — “Phenom” (https://open.spotify.com/track/3mbMPenJFGHZgP1iI12soe?si=7Wg6us1oTMGrkIucOITabg) (watch the music video! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGwQZrDNLO8) )
If you’d like to support even more thoughts and conversations on music and tech, I encourage you to become a paying member of the Water & Music ecosystem on Patreon (http://patreon.com/cheriehu?utm_campaign=Water%20%26%20Music&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter) .
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…and much more! Thanks so much for reading! ❤️
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