Tuesday, April 6, 2010 5:05PM - By Seraphina L.
Conduit Labs, known for its Facebook game Music Pets, has recently struck a deal with Universal Music Group and plenty of other indie rock labels such as Domino, Beggars Group, DFA, Downtown Records and Modular. However, Universal Music Group is licensing the game company the largest amount of music for all their games.
This means artists such as Lady Gaga and Rihanna will be part their social media games such as Superdance and Loudcrowd as well, making the music available to more than 1 million users.
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Thursday, May 14, 2009 3:00PM - By Morelli
Vivendi, owner of Universal Music Group, posted a 16 percent rise in earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal year. Chief Financial Officer Philippe Capron said that they “can see some impact of the recession on our activities, but most are protected by subscriptions.” Primarily the millions of subscribers to World Of Warcraft, the online multiplayer game from Vivendi-owned Activision Blizzard.
Universal Music was able to maintain its earnings at $1.04 billion, with digital sales accounting for 28 percent of recorded music sales revenue. The artists seem to be in good hands, and the upcoming partnership with Google to create the music video site Vevo.com, could amend declining CD sales.
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Monday, April 6, 2009 5:00PM - By Morelli
The ongoing battle over music licensing and revenue sharing has been producing new ideas, business models and even some contradictory statistics. Free music seems to be on the rise, as major labels supported Google’s free music download service in China last week. But PRS for Music, which criticized Google for trying to pay artists unfairly, reported that UK musicians are doing better than ever, and earned $30 million more from licensing and tours in 2008 than the year before.
In an attempt to evolve with the times, the Future of Music Coalition (FMC) published an article describing principles for artist compensation in new business models, while EMI.com went ahead and started offering registered users free access to pre-release content. Royalty collectors are asking for more money, but if music is headed towards free access, where will the money come from?
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Thursday, March 5, 2009 12:00PM - By Morelli
Universal Music Group and YouTube/Google are a few weeks away from an agreement over the label’s video rights. YouTube will be responsible for creating a new site, Vevo.com, which would distribute Universal’s video content, and step up advertising revenue with new strategies.
Sony renewed their contract in February, and now Universal, home of U2 and the Killers, will also end their war with YouTube. The soon to be launched Vevo is supposed to generate enough cash to pay for the licensing bill.
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