Music Business Roundup: PRS Sues SoundCloud, Vine Introduces Music Options, & More

Zane Lowe
Each week on Songwriter U, 
Songspace recaps the top stories in the world of music business. Here’s everything you need to know from the week ending on August 28th.

Videos by American Songwriter

PRS Sues SoundCloud
After a reported five years of trying to negotiate with SoundCloud, the British performing rights organization PRS has decided to sue the company. SoundCloud has not received a license to play PRS rights holders’ works, and have not fully responded to the claim that over 4,500 PRS works are illegally uploaded to their site (they only took down 250 posts).
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Vine Enhances Music Options
The video service Vine has introduced some new features that allow users to easily add music to their Vines. You can now add music from your phone or from Vine’s library of tracks to any video you want to post. Additionally, they have a “snap to beat” feature that helps you loop a track seamlessly so that there is no abrupt cut when the Vine loops –  which will make adding audio a better experience for video watches.
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Streaming Affects Release Dates
Record labels have always carefully planned and emphasized their fourth quarter releases (October – December), largely based on the fact that many consumers would buy albums as Christmas gifts. However, with the rise of streaming, less people are buying CDs or vinyl for gifts – which makes it less important to release albums during the holiday months. This article looks at how streaming is affecting those fourth quarter releases.
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Artist Growth to Work With Sony
With the growing importance of all types of data in the music industry, from streaming counts to social media followers, Artist Growth has filled in the gap for touring data – reporting on merch sales, finances, and other royalties. This unique way of being able to track data that has to do with an artist’s tour has interested Sony Music, as they have signed on as an AG Accel partner.
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Apple Music Loses Key Executive
It was announced this morning that Ian Rogers, co-founder of Beats Music and Topspin, would be leaving Apple Music. He is reportedly exiting for a job opportunity in an unrelated industry in Europe, which comes a surprise to many music industry professionals.
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