Universal Music's New Policy Presents a Speed Bump for Royalties Sales (Billboard)

It appears the major labels don’t want to deal with new buyers who don’t fully understand the music industry and are using letters of direction to leverage a relationship that the majors are more comfortable with.

SONY MUSIC COMPLETES $430M BUYOUT OF AWAL – BUT UK COMPETITION BODY IS INVESTIGATING DEAL (MBW)

Sony has completed its acquisition of AWAL, a leading provider of services to independent recording artists, and Neighbouring Rights, one of the top performance rights collection agencies for artists and independent labels worldwide.

The Fight Over Music-Streaming Royalties Misses the Point (Rolling Stone)

The music industry’s hopes of luring as many music fans as possible into their wider commercial ecosystem are surely weakened by the fractious squabbling now playing out over streaming economics... in essence, bickering over how to move pennies around a plate, rather than how to add dollops more money to their shared meal.

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