‘ Money doesn’t talk, it swears’ – Bob Dylan, 1965 For most of their history, music royalties have operated under a nebulous framework of rights owners and collection societies with staggered payments and general lack of transparency largely attributable to the technology available.

If a week is a long time in politics what must three years be in streaming video? In the case of Netflix, it turns out not a lot…in one key metric- domestic engagement. On other metrics Netflix has been surging ahead.

Disclaimer: Kobalt is a label, a publisher, as well as a Performing Rights Organisation (PRO). This post focuses on its label business, but does not presume to overlook its other aspects. News has emerged of Kobalt potentially looking to raise an additional $100 million of investment , following a 2017 round of $89 million and a 2015 $60-million round led by Google Ventures.

The past ten years of video content, and media content more generally, has been characterised by debates on subscription verus ad-supported revenue models. For a while, Netflix’s subscription model was the envy of the media landscape, suggesting subscription models were the most sustainable means of building business in the digital economy.

In this era of access to all music and everything about it, I do enjoy reading artist interviews, and pay attention to artists’ views on the modern music industry. What caught me recently were Mark Ronson’s remarks on songwriting in the age of the playlist in The Guardian: “Everything has to be produced so it sounds competitively as loud as possible coming out of an iPhone or as loud as possible when it comes out of a Spotify hits playlist; you have to make sure the kick drum and the guitar have the same loudness and presence all the way through the whole fucking song or you don’t stand a chance.

De La Soul’s seminal early albums, including 3 Feet High and Rising and De La Soul is Dead , have been among the more notable holdouts from streaming services. Major artists such as Prince and Led Zeppelin also held off for years but eventually ceded, acknowledging the impact that not appearing on digital platforms could harm their legacy among younger audiences.

Warner Music and Spotify have been involved in a rather unseemly and very public spat this week over Spotify’s India launch . I’ll leave for someone else, the discussions of the potential implications of a blanket license for songwriter rights in India for an on-demand streaming service.

YouTube has been notoriously coy about its user growth, with the official PR line for the company still stating that it has ‘Over one billion users.’ For a company that has been the driving force behind online video consumption for the last 12 years, YouTube has been both derided for the superficiality of its video content and for using its safe harbour privileges to undermine existing media models.

Facebook has commissioned LaVar Ball for a docu-series, which revolves around his basketball superstar sons - Lonzo, Liangelo, LaMelo and their fast-rising careers in the second most widely viewed sport in the US.

In this report MIDiA Research analysts present their predictions for what will be the big trends in digital media and tech across music, video, media in 2018. Key Predictions Competition for time and attention will define the coming years for digital content; growth will come often at the expense of competing services Free-to-view video services will provide subscription services with increased competition in 2018 2018 will be the year we start to see music consumption shift away from catalogue Increased investor scrutiny on Spotify, once it is public, will see it focus on new metrics and concentrate more heavily on its free user numbers We are nearing peak in the attention economy.

October 27 was one of the busiest days in terms of major games releases in 2017. On that day, Super Mario Odyssey, Assassin’s Creed and Wolfenstein II were released, attracting gamers across the genre spectrum.

I have written about the journey of the network-level adblocker Shine numerous times. The company has come into the public eye due to its disruptive effort of offering adblocking at the network level to carriers.

Twitter has launched Twitter Lite on Google Play store in 24 countries. The move comes after successful testing in the Philippines. Users in countries where mobile data is expensive, and perhaps disposable income is relatively low, will welcome the Lite version.

Last night at the Oscars Netflix finally won its first Academy Award, and then a second one, and then a third one. Like London buses, Netflix had spent a long time waiting and then suddenly three came along at once.

It has been a strange few years for SoundCloud. Since its emergence out of the Berlin tech scene of the late 2000s, it struggled to convert its popularity with creators into a commercially viable business, despite courting $1 billion-plus valuations and mooted acquisitions from Spotify back in 2016.

Universal Music Group recorded an impressive €6 billion in revenue in 2018, bolstering a JP Morgan valuation of $50 billion . No doubt, UMG is enjoying a purple patch, riding and driving the wave of recorded music industry growth.

Eleven Sports announced last week it had successfully agreed long-term distribution agreements with all four TV operators in Portugal – Altice, NOS, Nowo and Vodafone. Achieving this agreement puts Eleven Sports on TV platforms across 3.

Last Thursday 14th February 2019 Bloomberg reported that Apple is now in control of Operatedata Ltd – the UK based startup, home to the DataTiger brand. The company says its technology can “individually optimise marketing flows for your customers in real time across all channels”.