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Long-form stories, investigations and practical music-industry analysis.
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PledgeMusic goes bankrupt, other sites in decline. What is the future for crowdfunding in the music
In early May 2019 music crowdfunding website PledgeMusic announced it was officially entering bankruptcy. Most of the artists who were pledged money through the website will almost certainly not receive the money that was promised to them as the company had used this money to pay company debts instead, breaking their own promise that all funds go directly to the artist. So what went wrong? Is crowdfunding still a viable way to raise money for your projects? How it all began
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Jul 11, 201910 min read


Bittersweet Victory: Why The Rolling Stones owned 100% of a song they didn’t write and how the
At the 2019 Ivor Novello Awards, Richard Ashcroft announced that after 22 years the dispute over his song, “Bittersweet Symphony” was over. The Rolling Stones would no longer be listed as songwriters or collect any royalties from the song. Many people are applauding Keith Richards and Mick Jagger for doing this, I’m not so quick to give them credit (pun intended!). At the time the message coming from The Rolling Stones camp was they were entitled to every penny from the tra
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May 27, 20198 min read


Who should you join? (In order to make sure you are paid everything you are entitled to)
Aside from the distributors and retailers of music, there are a huge number of societies, organisations and companies that collect and distribute the many other revenue streams in the music industry. Some of them are the source of the revenue, like in the case of “Collective Management Organisations” (CMOs) in the areas of Performing Rights and Neighbouring rights, others are middle-men who collect from the various sources and then distribute to their members. So which should
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Feb 24, 20199 min read


The Truth about Spotify. Part 1
Streaming accounts for 37% of all the revenue from recorded music and with over 220million subscribers and a market share of 36% Spotify...
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Nov 21, 20187 min read


Trump Signs “Music Modernization Act” but the USA is still decades behind the rest of th
On the 11th October 2018, President Trump signed the Music Modernization Act (MMA), or the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music...
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Oct 15, 20183 min read


The $25billion question…What is music copyright?
When a song is written, and then recorded, there are two copyrights involved. The owners of these copyrights get control over the works...
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Apr 1, 20188 min read


The lowdown on plagiarism in the music industry, and how to protect yourself.
A question I get asked a lot is how to “copyright” your songs, or generally protect them. The question isn’t as straightforward as it...
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Jan 28, 20187 min read


The Music Industry is dead, or is it?
Over the last few years, time and time again, we have seen and heard stories proclaiming the death of the music industry. Record...
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Aug 10, 20174 min read
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