Headlines: Post-Covid Festivals To Pay 20% Less

Live events make up the bulk of earnings for many artists. But whenever concerts do resume, artists already reeling from the sudden halt in live payments will have to contend with Live Nation's plan to pay artists 20% less in the future. That will likely result in a greater focus on driving revenues through royalty payments.

Live Nation Plans to Reduce Payments, Shift Risk to Artists for 2021 Festivals (Billboard)

“In order for us to move forward, we must make certain changes to our agreements with the artists,” the memo continues. That includes across the board pay cuts “adjusted downward 20% from 2020 levels.”

Proposed Wording in Music Modernization Act Worries Songwriting Advocates (Variety)

They worry that if a composer recovered rights to a song in 2019 that a publisher had licensed to a streaming service in 2015, the wording of the proposed “server fixation” rule would allow that publisher to continue benefitting from plays on said service.

Just What Is Tencent's Engame? (MIDIA Research)

Just as Apple, Amazon and Alphabet are building digital entertainment portfolios designed to compete in the ‘attention economy’, so is Tencent. In fact, it is fair to say that Tencent is prepping itself as a direct competitor to those companies.