Music & other services
-Apple Music announced on 7 April the creation of a $50 million-plus fund available as advances on future royalties to independent labels, to help them pay artists and maintain operations. Royalty advances will be offered to independent labels with a direct Apple Music distribution deal who meet a minimum quarterly threshold of $10,000 in Apple Music earnings. Each advance will be based on the label’s past earnings, and will be recoupable against the label’s future earnings. (see here)
-Spotify set up a Covid-19 Music Relief project – via a dedicated website, Spotify recommends verified organisations offering financial relief to those in the music community most in need, and match dollar-for-dollar public donations up to a total of $10m. Spotify's partners initially included MusiCares (US), PRS Foundation (UK), and HelpMusicians (UK). As of April 2020, new partners include: Centre National de la Musique (France), Deutsche Orchester-Stiftung (Germany),Initiative Musik (Germany), Irish Music Industry Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund (Ireland), Musikerforbundet (Sweden), Support Act (Australia), União Brasileira de Compositores (Brazil), Unison Benevolent Fund(Canada).
Spotify is also waiving its revenue share on music talent marketplace SoundBetter, waiving fees on its Anchor Listener Support feature, and offering extended free trials for educators on its cloud based audio recording platform Soundtrap. Spotify is also working on a feature that will enable artists drive listeners to a their favoured fundraiser.
Spotify for Artists has a new feature, the Artist Fundraising Pick to amplify artists’ fundraising with Spotify’s global reach and a $1M artist relief effort from Cash App: see here.
- Facebook started a small business grant programme: Facebook is offering $100M in cash grants and ad credits for up to 30,000 eligible small businesses in over 30 countries where it operates. (see here)
-Bandcamp waived their revenue share on sales on Friday, March 20, helping artists raise $4.3 million in music and merchandise sales over the 24-hour period (see here). The online service will repeat this initiative on 1st May, 5th June and 3rd July (see here).
-Sync-licensing company Songtradr announced on March 19th that it would be giving its share of any new licensing transactions directly to artists for the next month through April 18th. (see here)
-Starting March 20th, Mixcloud is waiving its revenue share from its Mixcloud Select subscription platform for 3 months, giving Select channel creators 100% of the income after the underlying artists & songwriters played in the shows have been paid. They are also offering new joiners 3 months for pro account upgrades. (see here)
- Soundcloud launched a series of initiatives:
On March 20 it announced:
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50% off SoundCloud Pro Unlimited subscriptions for creators. (see here)
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A regularly updated resource guide to help artists to keep creating and building their career. (see here)
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A partnership with livestreaming platform Twitch to help Soundcloud pro creators connect with their fans via livestream. (see here)
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‘Live creator office hours’ with SoundCloud’s artist relations and marketing teams sharing professional advice with creators. (see here)
On April 2nd it announced further support (see here)
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New direct fan-support button for all creators
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$5m in free promotional support for creators
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Launch of Repost, a new marketing and distribution service made available to all creators
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$10m artist accelerator programme to support independent creators
-Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube music, Facebook, SiriusXM/Pandora, Tidal announced a donation to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund, the US Recording Academy’s charity for musicians in need — but none of the companies disclosed the size of their donations.