A Little Knowledge… #23

📬 BULLETIN NEWS: UK campaign against 'crippling' merch fees steps up a notch

Back in January 2022 the Featured Artists Coalition launched its '100% Venues' campaign, urging venues to stop taking cuts of up to 25% of artists' merchandise sold at concerts. This week, the campaign stepped up another gear, with an open letter setting out four principles that FAC would like venues to agree to:

• First, that support acts must never be subject to commission charges on merch sales. 
• Second, that artists should be able to staff and run the merch operations at their own shows. 
• Third, rates must be agreed in advance rather than sprung on artists when they get to a venue. 
• And fourth, "every show must be open to negotiation on merchandise commissions”. 
• "Ironically, it is when artists step up to play bigger venues, and the moment their costs and opportunities increase, that the most crippling fees kick in," said FAC CEO David Martin.
• Alongside the open letter, FAC has launched a petition on Change.org this morning to drum up more support for the campaign.

👉 Music Ally archive:  Merch

🛠️ TOOLS: AudioShake deconstructs recordings into individual stems

AudioShake is a powerful AI tool that can deconstruct a recording into individual stems. It has some clear practical applications but can also provide you with new ideas for your marketing campaigns, like removing certain instruments from tracks so that fans can play along or make UGC versions. It's already been used by companies like Downtown Music Holdings, Cherry Red Records, Mute Records, BMG and more. 

You might not think of de-mixed stems as a marketing tool, but they have plenty of business uses: for sync licensing, to explore creative partnerships, re-mix possibilities, reissues, UGC on social media, in education, fitness, VR/AR, gaming and more. It’s an enticing prospect: audio becomes more interactive and accessible – and opens new marketing opportunities for teams by giving new life creatively for the artists’ works.

👉 Read more in Tools: we look at the marketing opportunities that using AudioShake can present to you, its key features, and pricing.

🤔 A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA...

And finally… our daily Bulletin newsletter is loved by subscribers for its instant industry analysis - but secretly, the part they like most is the ‘A Little Something Extra’ section at the bottom of the email. Here's a few of the best recent links:

• Researchers have discovered the most distant active supermassive black hole to date
• Something to celebrate this week: a family business that's been making sausages... for 500 years
• Do you want to watch footage of more than 5,500 people dancing to Tina Turner's 'Nutbush City Limits' to break a world record? Of course you do!

This is only a glimpse into this week's The Knowledge newsletter – subscribe for FREE and every Friday it’ll arrive in your inbox, with:

🎓 Exclusive access to selected courses in our LEARNING HUB 🛠️ The best new platforms in TOOLS, 🌍Highlights from our latest COUNTRY PROFILE REPORTS 😵 💫 Some great and/or strange music in SOMETHING 4 THE WEEKEND, 🕰 A look back in TIME MACHINE, 🎧 The Music Ally Focus PODCAST, and 🤔 more links to our favourite unusual stuff in A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA.