Outlander Capital

Spotify is in the Dogg house. Actually, they are no longer in Snoop Dogg's house as he announced his move to pull his music from the platform and over to Web3 streaming start-up Tune.FM. With the intention of eventually migrating all of Death Row Records music, which he also owns. Mr. Dogg has been an early adopter of Web3 technologies, and Tune.FM promises to pay artists instantaneously through micropayments of their native JAM token for every second streamed of their music. Could this be the perfect blend of tech, commerce and artistry?

Amazon apparently likes their IP rights "owned," not stirred. Their full acquisition of the James Bond franchise looks to recalibrate the entire 007 ecosystem. And few are primed (no pun intended) to bring it to life in a more expansive way than Amazon. Amazon's data-driven approach to pretty much everything could be a key factor to evolve what some consider a more "heritage" property. Few doubt their ability to produce new forms of entertainment to bring the espionage world to life in interesting ways, but the main concern from fans is reducing a storied brand into just "content." This acquisition was definitely not inexpensive, so the balance of commerce and creativity will need to be struck quickly. And the biggest question floating around with this regime change - who will portray Bond in this new era? 😎

Huge win for artists against AI! Supported by major industry players like Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music, the NO FAKES Act was introduced in the U.S. Senate with bipartisan support. The legislation shows a commitment to protecting artists and consumers alike by fostering responsible AI usage. "Although copyright owners already have recourse against AI-generated content that is trained on their works, the protection for voice and visual likeness varies by state, and is often vaguely defined. The NO FAKES act standardizes protection nationwide, and finally gives individuals recourse against unauthorized imitation of their likeness. This protection also opens the door for individuals to license their likeness for AI-generated content on more concrete terms." says Jaden Warren (Head of Diligence for Outlander Capital). https://lnkd.in/gdQhzwJM

If you are a global media and artistic rights holder, the best defense against AI might be going on offense. Sony Music proactively sent letters to 700 companies affiliated with music streaming to clearly indicate that SMG "opts out" of allowing their music to help train any form of AI. An industry report was also released this week that benchmarked AI music platforms were generating ~10 songs per second. 😬 https://lnkd.in/gA7xafKV

"Who still watches TV with an antenna?" Nearly 23 million households. Which is a surprising stat to most people. Thanks to ATSC 3.0, these OTA (Over The Air) households are about to get a major upgrade that will provide them with a "NextGen TV" experience. ATSC 3.0 refers to a suite of over 20 broadcast standards and features, which will deliver 4K Ultra HD, theater quality audio and two-way interactivity. Meaning functions like pausing a live broadcast will be possible with a compatible TV monitor and antenna. To help accelerate this adoption, NBCUniversal announced this week that they are rolling out these features in a pilot program across four major metro areas to give viewers a more personalized local news experience. The future of broadcast is looking bright. It might be time to pick up an antenna and see all the things your TV can do. https://lnkd.in/gEvM-Vyb

Arg... the digital pirates are back. A recent report shows a nearly 7% increase in visits to media piracy sites. That equates to 229B visits across Film, TV and Music. With an estimated loss of $29-71B to the entertainment industry. This has created momentum for the industry to appeal to Congress for tighter enforcement of laws, even to the point of cutting off access to known piracy sites at the internet service provider level. https://lnkd.in/g2tcDYiY

It's April 2nd, so this isn't a joke. Spotify flipped the switch on some of their touted upgrades to defend the platform from artificial streams and other ways bad actors have been gaming the system, like essentially uploading tracks of "noise." They have also firmly established the 1,000 stream threshold and an undisclosed amount of unique listeners in order to be in the royalty sharing program. All good moves that benefit the listeners, artists and the platform itself. https://lnkd.in/g7m6PeQJ

As the legal clock tick-tocks on TikTok, there are clear alliances being forged between major music rights holders and platforms. TikTok has been the the leading form of music discovery with GenZ for years, but more moves like this could definitely shift the pendulum back toward Spotify or Apple Music's direction. https://lnkd.in/dkFpPMhP

Tennessee has a hunk-a-hunk-a-burnin' legislation to protect musicians - the ELVIS Act. The state bill passed late last week that puts protections into place for artists, musicians, songwriters and publishers against the misuse of AI with their musical creations, IP and likeness. This bi-partisan move was embraced by the global entertainment industry, but particularly celebrated by Nashville's nexus of country musicians and producers. This will hopefully usher in similar legislation across other industry hubs that establish fair guardrails on where AI can be used for good, and not at the expense of the human element. https://lnkd.in/gxHC7dHB

It comes as no surprise that the streaming of music is up, way up. More data was recently released behind Spotify's 2023 payout of over $9B to the music industry. Most notable is the nearly tripling of artists that were paid at various compensation levels from 2017 to 2023. 💵 Artists generating over $10K, from 23,400 to 66,000 💰 Artists generating over $100k, from 4,300 to 11,600 🤑 Artists generating over $1M, from 460 to 1,250 One area that needs to be remedied is the very small percentage of streaming revenue that are paid to publishing rights holders (essentially songwriters). We are bullish on the platforms making this right very soon for these very talented artists. https://lnkd.in/dQWyt2df