Business Frame Weekly – Live Nation has had a wild few days on the stock market / Hyperion Records has made 200 albums from its catalog available for streaming

Hyperion Records has made 200 albums from its catalog available for streaming for the first time on Friday (July 28).

Barcelona-based private music copyright management organization Unison has introduced SOLO.

Live Nation has had a wild few days on the stock market.

In this newsletter:

• Hyperion Records has made 200 albums from its catalog available for streaming for the first time on Friday (July 28), four months after being acquired by Universal Music Group.
• Barcelona-based private music copyright management organization Unison has introduced SOLO, a global management platform for digital rights.
• Concert promoter, venue owner, and Ticketmaster parent Live Nation has had a wild few days on the stock market.
• Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is selling 675,000 Spotify shares worth $100 million.
• Los Angeles-based B2B music licensing company Songtradr has forged a partnership with live streaming service, Twitch.
• Universal Music Group recorded a stellar Q2 and has embarked on an ambitious campaign to shift the music streaming business to an “artist-centric” model.

August 01, 2023

Hyperion Records, a classical label founded 43 years ago, has made 200 albums from its catalog available for streaming for the first time on Friday (July 28), four months after being acquired by Universal Music Group.

Hyperion Records, a classical label founded 43 years ago, has made 200 albums from its catalog available for streaming for the first time on Friday (July 28), four months after being acquired by Universal Music Group. Founded in the UK in 1980 by the late Ted Perry MBE, the label has been managed by his son, Simon Perry, for over 20 years. Hyperion aims to stream its entire catalog of over 2,000 recordings by spring 2024. The initial release of 200 albums includes the latest Dvořák album from the Grammy Award-winning Takács Quartet; a collection of choral anthems from Stephen Layton and Trinity College Choir Cambridge; and a new issue in The Orlando Consort’s survey of French poet-composer Guillaume de Machaut.

Barcelona-based private music copyright management organization Unison has introduced SOLO, a global management platform for digital rights.

Barcelona-based private music copyright management organization Unison has introduced SOLO, a global management platform for digital rights. SOLO will provide artists and creators with professional tools to manage their digital rights, offering solutions for both copyright and master rights, all without intermediaries, according to a press release last week (July 26). The project has received partial financing from the Next Generation EU funds, operating under the framework of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan spearheaded by the Government of Spain.

Concert promoter, venue owner, and Ticketmaster parent Live Nation has had a wild few days on the stock market.

Concert promoter, venue owner, and Ticketmaster parent Live Nation has had a wild few days on the stock market. The company’s share price jumped in after-hours trading Thursday (July 27) after it released an impressive Q2 earnings report, showing revenue up 27% YoY to USD $5.6 billion, adjusted operating income up 23% YoY to $590 million, and earnings per share jumping a solid 55%, to $1.02 per share. Revenues from its concerts division came in at $4.63 billion, up up 28% YoY on a constant currency basis. Ticketing (i.e. Ticketmaster) brought in $709.3 million, up 23% YoY, while sponsorships and advertising brought in $302.9 million, up 13% YoY.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is selling 675,000 Spotify shares worth $100 million.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is selling 675,000 Spotify shares worth $100 million. That’s according to an SEC filing that went live on Thursday (July 27). J.P. Morgan Securities is named in the filing as the broker for the sale.The filing also reveals that these shares are to be sold by D.G.E Investments Limited, an entity indirectly wholly owned by Ek. According to the filing, of those 675,000 shares being sold by Ek, 471,565 were acquired on May 5, 2022, on the open market.

Los Angeles-based B2B music licensing company Songtradr has forged a partnership with live streaming service, Twitch.

Los Angeles-based B2B music licensing company Songtradr has forged a partnership with live streaming service, Twitch. This partnership brings Songtradr’s music service, Pretzel, to Twitch streamers, offering what it says is “a treasure trove of licensed music to enhance their streams”. Songtradr acquired Pretzel, a platform that supplies “stream safe” music to livestreamers on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube, in 2021. Through this partnership with Songtradr, Twitch streamers will have access to Pretzel’s Premium Subscription tier for 90 days until September 15, giving them free trial access to over 550,000 “Twitch-safe” tracks.

Universal Music Group recorded a stellar Q2 and has embarked on an ambitious campaign to shift the music streaming business to an “artist-centric” model.

Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s largest music rights company, recorded a stellar Q2, but the company isn’t resting on its laurels, and has embarked on an ambitious campaign to shift the music streaming business to an “artist-centric” model. And evidently, Spotify, the world’s largest subscription music streaming service, is one of the platforms working with UMG as it conducts its artist-centric research. “They will be collaborating with us on deep data analysis, formally taking part in this foundational piece of our expanding artist-centric initiative,” UMG Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge told analysts on the company’s Q2 earnings call on Wednesday (July 26). That’s just one of a number of highlights to be gleaned from the earnings call, during which UMG’s leadership went over an impressive array of financial results, including an 8.8% YoY jump in revenue, on a constant currency basis, to €2.697 billion (USD $2.93 billion).

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