Category: Uncategorized

According to the Financial Times, the estate of David Bowie is negotiating the sale of the legendary artist’s songwriting catalog. Citing ‘people familiar with the matter’, the FT reports further that negotiations ‘are at an advanced stage’ and that the catalog has ‘attracted bids of around $200 million’. Source: David Bowie estate in talks to sell catalog for $200m (report)

After more than a decade of operations, France’s Hadopi agency will now complete its merger with the Higher Audiovisual Council to create a new and powerful regulator. Following the French parliament’s adoption of a new law last month, the Arcom body will launch in January 2022, tackling everything from illegal streaming and site blocking to Read More …

Following the “Blurred Lines” verdict, artists have been more careful than ever about spotting problematic interpolations ahead of time. Looming fears of plagiarism accusations turn nervous artists, songwriters, and their teams to consult forensic musicologists to do preliminary analyses on songs that borderline inspiration and infringement with past work. Source: ‘It’s Made People More Paranoid’: Read More …

Utopia, with offices in Zug, London, Helsinki and Stockholm, says it’s on a mission to revolutionize the monitoring of music consumption – and consequent royalty payments to rights-holders – worldwide. The company claims to be building a technology platform that “brings a completely new approach to serving all music industry needs and to enable accounting, transparency and Read More …

There is a real pressure on those left to run an estate to ensure that the artist does not fade from the public’s view and become an anachronism. There are more opportunities now for estates to take the lead, but for a long time the estate was at the mercy of the whims of the Read More …