Music Business Worldwide

Music Business Worldwide
Screenshot of Music Business Worldwide webpage showing headlines on the left side, an internal ad for mailing list subscriber, a job listing section, and popular articles section on the right side
Screenshot of the website in December 2024
Type of businessPrivate company
Type of site
Digital media, international news[1]
Available inEnglish
Headquarters
United Kingdom
OwnersPenske Media Corporation, Tim Ingham[2]
Founder(s)Tim Ingham
IndustryMusic industry
URLwww.musicbusinessworldwide.com
AdvertisingYes
CommercialYes
RegistrationNone
Launched2015; 10 years ago (2015)
Current statusActive
Written inPHP

Music Business Worldwide (MBW) is a global music industry news and analysis website launched in 2015 by former Music Week editor Tim Ingham. As of December 2020, it ranked 22,845 in the list of most visited global websites according to Alexa Internet.[3]

History

Music Business Worldwide was founded by former Music Week editor Tim Ingham. He registered the company in 2014 and launched the website in 2015.[4][5] In August 2015, Music Business Worldwide signed a content partnership deal with Business Insider.[6]

In May 2017, ex-Music Week publisher Dave Roberts joined Music Business Worldwide as associate publisher.[7] In October 2017, Ingham was presented with a Gold Badge award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (now The Ivors Academy) for having "supported or inspired the UK songwriting and composing community".[8]

In 2018, Music Business Worldwide signed a global content partnership with Rolling Stone.[9] In February 2020, Penske Media Corporation, the owner of Rolling Stone made a strategic investment into Music Business Worldwide.[9] As of December 2020, Music Business Worldwide was "more than 25% but not more than 50%" owned by each of P-Mrc Holdings, Llc and Tim Ingham.[2]

In 2019, MBW launched a weekly podcast. The first 124 episodes were broadcast without an overarching theme but were, in August 2021,[10] formalised as Season One. Until that point, the podcast had been hosted only on MBW's website, but thereafter all episodes were made available on mainstream podcasting platforms including Spotify,[11] with an even wider selection of platforms publishing it starting in July 2022.[12][13]

Spotify coverage

In August 2016, Music Business Worldwide cited sources who said that Spotify was commissioning and promoting pseudonymous artists – which MBW dubbed "fake artists" – on its platform.[14] In July 2017, the Vulture made similar accusations, citing MBW's story.[15] When Billboard covered the story, a Spotify representative denied such a practice.[16] Music Business Worldwide fired back by publishing a list of so-called “fake artists” on Spotify, who had no website or social media presence.[14][17][18][19]

In February 2018, the publication uncovered a scam run on Spotify from Bulgaria. Music Business Worldwide estimated that the enterprise saw Spotify pay out over $1 million in royalties to the scammers.[20][21][22]

Streaming calculations

Music Business Worldwide has published reports featuring calculations, based on public filings, of the amount of money generated from streaming by the three major record companies. In February 2019, MBW calculated that Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group jointly generated approximately $19 million a day from streaming during 2018.[23] In February 2020, Music Business Worldwide calculated that the three companies were now collectively generating over $1 million per hour in royalties from streaming platforms.[24]

References

  1. ^ Weissman, Dick (2017). Understanding the Music Business: Real World Insights. Taylor & Francis. p. 389. ISBN 978-1-3155-5876-9.
  2. ^ a b "Music Business Worldwide Ltd.: Persons with significant control". Companies House. Archived from the original on 2020-12-13. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  3. ^ "musicbusinessworldwide.com". Alexa Internet. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  4. ^ "Music Business Worldwide Ltd". Companies House. Archived from the original on 2020-12-13. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  5. ^ Griffiths, Emma (2015-10-12). "The 10 music industry newsletters you should subscribe to (Part 1)". synchtank.com. Archived from the original on 2020-10-27. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  6. ^ "MBW Connects With Business Insider Readers". fyimusicnews.ca. 2015-08-31. Archived from the original on 2015-09-02. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  7. ^ Sanchez, Daniel (2017-05-10). "The Latest Music Industry Jobs: Hires, Fires, Shakeups, and Promotions". Digital Music News. Archived from the original on 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  8. ^ "Gold Badge Awards 2017: Recipients". The Ivors Academy. 2017-10-02. Archived from the original on 2020-08-15. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  9. ^ a b "Rolling Stone and Music Business Worldwide Enter Comprehensive New Deal". Rolling Stone. 2020-02-11. Archived from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  10. ^ "MB Podcast on ListenNotes". Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  11. ^ "Season 1 Finale!". Spotify Podcasts. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  12. ^ "MB Podcast on Buzzsprout". Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  13. ^ "MBW Podcast on Apple Podcasts". Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  14. ^ a b Ingham, Tim (2017-07-09). "Spotify denies it's playlisting fake artists. So why are all these fake artists on its playlists?". Music Business Worldwide. Archived from the original on 2020-11-03. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  15. ^ Raymond, Adam K. (2017-07-05). "The Streaming Problem: How Spammers, Superstars, and Tech Giants Gamed the Music Industry". Vulture. Archived from the original on 2020-11-11. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  16. ^ Gensler, Andy (2017-07-07). "Spotify on Non-Existent Artist Allegations: 'We Do Not and Have Never Created Fake Artists'". Billboard. Archived from the original on 2020-11-09. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  17. ^ "Spotify denies promoting 'fake artists'". BBC News. 2017-07-10. Archived from the original on 2019-06-16. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  18. ^ Trakin, Roy; Aswad, Jem (2017-07-11). "Spotify Denies Creating 'Fake Artists,' Although Multiple Sources Claim the Practice Is Real". Variety. Archived from the original on 2020-08-09. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  19. ^ Deahl, Dani; Singleton, Micah (2017-07-12). "What's really going on with Spotify's fake artist controversy". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2020-12-04. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  20. ^ Wang, Amy X. (2018-02-22). "A Bulgarian scheme scammed Spotify for $1 million—without breaking a single law". Quartz (publication). Archived from the original on 2020-11-12. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  21. ^ Delatronchette, Louis (2018-02-26). "Spotify: un Bulgare aurait gagné une petite fortune grâce à des playlists truquée" [Spotify: a Bulgarian would have made a small fortune thanks to rigged playlists]. Le Figaro (in French). Archived from the original on 2019-06-03. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  22. ^ Moorstedt, Michael (2018-02-26). "Clevere Menschen + dumme Maschinen = $$" [Clever people + stupid machines = $$]. Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 2020-11-09. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  23. ^ Binder, Matt (2019-02-25). "Three major music labels make $19 million a day from streaming while artists count their pocket change". Mashable. Archived from the original on 2020-11-01. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  24. ^ Corcoran, Nina (2020-02-27). "Major Labels Make $1 Million an Hour Off Streaming: Report". Consequence of Sound. Archived from the original on 2020-12-03. Retrieved 2020-12-13.