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Radio Edit | 3.24.23

Radio Edit | 3.24.23

a music industry newsletter

Radio Edit Team
March 24, 2023

This week’s stories include a yearly check-up on the global music industry, an 8-figure money pit for streaming services, and a look at how the industry is reexamining radio.

Other stories include a follow-up to Beyoncé’s partnership with Adidas and a slew of signings and deals in the publishing world.

Top Stories

2023 IFPI Global Music Report: 4 Key Takeaways

In their annual report, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) outlined a state of the union for how the global music industry is performing. Here are some important highlights from that report:

A slowdown in growth: while total recorded music revenues climbed 9% to $26.2b in 2022, that rate of growth is half of what the industry saw in the year prior. Other comps include a 10.3% bump in paid streaming subscriptions (21.9% in 2021), total streaming revenue up 11.5% (24%), and physical format revenue up 4% (16%). While concerning, the report notes the abnormal rate of growth 2021 saw from a post-pandemic rebound in music consumption.
Accounting for 17.5% of the global music market, physical sales generated nearly as much revenue as ad-supported streams for rights’ holders (18.7) and brought in more than sync, performance rights, and digital downloads combined.
Sub-Saharan Africa is now Africa’s fastest-growing region after seeing music sales jump up 35% yoy. As the continent’s largest music market, South Africa is a focus point for growth potential as the country only counts 4 million of its 50 million population as paid subscribers.
China has leapfrogged France to become the world’s fifth-largest music market after revenue jumped 28% yoy. In a territory historically rampant with piracy, local streaming services under the Tencent Music umbrella have been driving an increase in legitimate recorded music revenue. Billboard

Music Streaming Services Are Spending Tens Of Millions On Tracks With Zero Streams

A SXSW presentation from market monitor and insights provider, Luminate, revealed that 24% of the 158mm tracks on music streaming services garnered zero streams in the 2022 calendar year. The significance of this figure is realized when you contextualize it with the amount of money these services are paying for cloud hosting. Spotify, for example, is conservatively estimated to have spent about $150mm last year on cloud storage services and software license fees. Applying the 24% ratio to Spotify, that would mean that Spotify paid approximately $38mm last year to host tracks which received no streams.

This is noteworthy because that expense eats into the company’s revenues derived from ad-supported and paid subscriptions, severely impacting their margin at a time when labels are calling for streaming services to increase subscription prices. mbw

The Industry Reexamines Radio

While it was a pretty quiet week overall, there was a lot of talk about radio. Here are some highlights:

Citing an intention to approach radio more strategically and better align with their needs, Sony Music Nashville has announced that they’ll be shutting down their Arista imprint and redistribute its roster to RCA and Columbia. Noting the cost and time it takes to take a song to radio, this strategic approach will involve going to radio once there is fan engagement and streaming momentum behind a target track.
As they look to spend their promotional dollars more wisely, UMG will look to decrease their radio expenses. According to industry executives, a label hoping to hit the top of the mainstream R&B/hip-hop airplay charts will need to budget at least six figures. For a pop campaign, this figure could triple to $300k.
At last week’s CRS convention in Nashville, Jacobs Media President, Fred Jacobs, emphasized the importance of developing on-air radio talent who can successfully connect with an audience, citing a 2023 survey where “62% of respondents cited their appreciation of the on-air talent as a motivating factor for listening to AM/FM. This figure exceeds the 55% of respondents who cited the music as a contributing factor to their radio consumption.”
As NPR is expected to cut roughly 10% of its workforce, Futuri has launched a new product called RadioGPT that can perform some of the more menial tasks at radio like weather & news programming, blog posts and social media. Rogers Sports & Media, which represents over 250 stations across North America, will be debuting the product next month. According to Futuri CEO, Daniel Anstandig, RadioGPT is intended to increase a station’s bandwidth to do more live/local content by performing the tedious admin and programming tasks that eat up time and manpower.

What Else Is Going On

Signings

G-Eazy signs to Bad Habit for management; joins The Neighbourhood, Bakar, and Dora Jar

Streaming / Radio

China’s leading streaming platform, Tencent Music, reported a 9.3% decrease in revenue in 2022

Publishing

Grammy-nominated Turnstile signs worldwide publishing deal with Pulse Music Group and Rick Rubin’s American Songs

Warner Chappell Music and Limited Edition Music team up for new publishing partnership; will focus on signing and developing songwriters in the rock, alt, pop, and alternative country space

Songs managed by Italian collection agency SIAE blocked on Meta platform after the two sides fail to reach new deal

Post Malone avoids jury trial over “Circles” lawsuit with last-minute settlement

Position Music and Big Noise Music Group announce publishing joint venture; under this partnership Position will represent John Feldmann and Big Noise’s catalog of Mod Sun, The Used + more

Live / Touring

2023 Pitchfork Music Festival announces lineup

Live Nation acquires majority stake in Hong Kong-based event organizer, Clockenflap

Other

Beyoncé and Adidas part ways after Ivy Park clothing line falls $210mm short of revenue projections in 2022

Latin Grammys add 3 new categories: Best Songwriter of the Year, Best Singer-Songwriter Song, and Best Portuguese-Language Urban Performance

UTA and partner KLUTCH Sports Group open office in Atlanta

Appointments / Departures

Appointments

Former EMI A&R Director Joe Etchells tapped as new Head of A&R and Artist Development at Various Artists Management

Kobalt appoints Lindsey Lanier VP, Creative and Desi O’Meara Director, Creative

Better Noise Music promotes Trish Sterling to VP, Marketing

As part of Arista’s restructuring, Ali O’Connell (director of promotion and artist development) and Amy Menz (specialist/promotion & artist development) will move to RCA, Nicole Walden (former RCA specialist/promotion & artist development) will slide over to the national team and Lisa Owen (director of promotion and artist development) will shift to Columbia

Departures

Leaving Arista, is Lyndsay Church (senior director of promotion and artist development)

Upcoming Shows

London | Mar 25 | Don Broco | Alexandra Palace | Tickets

NYC | Mar 28 | Grace McKagan | Mercury Lounge | Tickets

Featured Releases

The Japanese House / Boyhood (S) / Dirty Hit

Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon Music

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Lana Del Rey / Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (A) / Interscope

Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon Music

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