Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

Profit Didn't Disappear, It Just Moved

Cover image for Profit Didn't Disappear, It Just Moved
Mark Mulligan
One of the recurring themes in analysis of tech businesses is the role of profit, and most often, the apparent lack of it – or at the very least, the way in which it plays second fiddle to growth. Amazon, one of the most successful global businesses in today’s global economy, famously sacrificed profit for much of its existence in order to focus on long-term growth and expansion.
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Quick Take: The Bull Argument for Music Publishing Acquisitions

Zach Fuller
The music rights landgrab continues. This past week alone has seen Primary Wave take a stake in rights to Culture Club, having already inked a deal with the Whitney Houston Estate. Meanwhile, Hipgnosis Song fund have added to their recent acquisition of Eurythmic’s writer credits by taking a stake in the royalties of Al Jackson, a composer whose credits include songs by Otis Redding and Al Green.
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Sports SVOD Services: The Underdogs’ Game

Hanna Kahlert
Cord cutting and “the attention economy” are the landscaping trends reshaping everything video in 2019, and sports television – despite its reliably existent fanbase – is no exception. New sports proposition streaming video on demand (SVOD) entrants face hefty competition on all sides, from regionally established SVOD services with more varied offerings to tech majors waiting in the wings to buy up the biggest rights before moving onto the scene.
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Games Console Incumbents Sony and Microsoft Join Forces Against Tech Majors’ Entrance to Games Streaming

Karol Severin
The enemy of my enemy is my friend – a phrase that nicely sums up the latest major development in games streaming and the console gaming industry. “ Sony and (Microsoft) announced on Thursday that …the two companies will partner on exploring joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content-streaming services.
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Quick Take: Spotify, Stories and Music – the Social Media Divide

Zach Fuller
The story of a song’s creation is one of the great mysteries of music. Regularly are we regaled with anecdotes of a song emerging fully formed in a 15-minute flurry of creative genius. However, while less seductive, the reality is that more often than not a composition goes through many iterations before it is released, or in the case of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah , even after it has been recorded.
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