Yes, this is weird. Ticketmaster is linking to a letter that describes the DOJ antitrust lawsuit that would break up LiveNation-Ticketmaster as "important work to level the playing field for the live entertainment ecosystem." Confused? Here's a quick thread with context. 🧵👇
There are a range of problems in the live music marketplace. It's important to try and understand the problems holistically.
Jul 8 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
One piece of the Ticketmaster monopoly problem that isn't often discussed: venues may choose Ticketmaster over competitors for entirely practical reasons. This is where one-dimensional analysis fails us. Here's a quick thread of explanation:
Today, @jason_koebler at @404mediaco reported on a new lawsuit alleging that brokers have been hacking their way around ticket transferability protections imposed by Ticketmaster and AEG--typically at artists' request. 404media.co/email/5177b3c5…
May 24 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
One of the ways that Live Nation is pushing back on the DOJ suit is by saying that artists are responsible for pricing tickets. There's enough truth to this that people come away confused. Here's a quick explanation:
Artists typically negotiate with promoter/venue to set the face price of the ticket. That's the only piece where they typically have any control. Artists often don't find out anything about the fee portion of the ticket till it's on sale.
Apr 3 • 22 tweets • 4 min read
Spotify’s demonetization of tracks with less than 1000 plays is problematic on multiple levels. It’s important to understand what it actually means, and to do that, you have to consider how various kinds of artists might be impacted.
For artists who are above the 1000 play threshold, there is a tiny financial benefit; Spotify isn’t just keeping those extra royalties, but redistributing them out across the pool. But it’s not much money; our rough estimate is about .25%
Dec 14, 2023 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
How to fix ticketing: A thread! 🧵🧵🧵
Let's start here: there are multiple problems. It's not just about one company. But you also can't ignore the biggest company in the room.
Sep 29, 2023 • 32 tweets • 5 min read
Are you freaked out about Bandcamp being sold by Epic to Songtradr? Sharing what we know and what we don't know in this THREAD 🧵
First a disclaimer: there's a LOT we don't know, so we're going to be as cautious as we can in getting details right. But things are developing. If we get anything wrong, we'll add corrections to this thread.
Jan 24, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Who sets ticket fees? It was a hot topic in the just-concluded Senate Judiciary panel. Let's clear up any lingering conclusion in a quick thread!🧵👇
There are often multiple kinds of fees tacked on to the ticket base price. The base price reflects a negotiated agreement with the artist and promoter, but the artist typically has no role in setting ticket fees.
Jan 24, 2023 • 27 tweets • 10 min read
Watch the Senate hearing on #Ticketmaster live right here and follow this thread for our ongoing commentary! 🎟️🎟️🎟️🧵 judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/thats…
You can also watch the hearing right here:
@senamyklobuchar is kicking it off with a fiery opening statement, focusing on anticompetitive behavior impacting venues and artists and concertgoers!
Nov 15, 2022 • 22 tweets • 4 min read
Okay, so Ticketmaster's website is down right now, presumably due to demand for Taylor Swift tix. Here's a quick thread about some reasons this is such a nightmare. #breakupticketmaster
First, public service announcement, just because we want to help Swifties have an easier time today, if possible.
For many artists, there's an easy way to increase your interactive streaming royalties by roughly 15%. It doesn't require pitching playlists, paying anyone, or even passing a law. Curious yet?
If you're an artist who writes some portion of your own original material, you have to be sure you're thinking about getting compensated wearing your "songwriter" hat as well as your "recording artist" hat. The money flows separately for these two roles!
Oct 10, 2022 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
About a decade ago, we undertook a massive research project examining musicians' various revenue streams. Here's a few reflections on what we learned about live music, in light of conversations around canceled tours. 🧵
Live revenues work differently than other kinds of music industry revenues like sound recordings and composition revenue in that expenses scale up along with revenue. In other words, the more and bigger shows you play, the more you gotta spend.
Aug 5, 2022 • 42 tweets • 7 min read
Some folks wonder why satellite radio pays more per spin than subscription interactive streaming services do. Let's walk through the math.
Satellite radio pays about 21% of its revenue to rightsholders. Interactive streaming services typically pay over 60%. Satellite radio also has a higher subscription fee every month.
Aug 3, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Musicians, take note: among the provisions in the new Inflation Reduction Act: an extension of the additional health care premium subsidies that were included in the American Rescue Plan. 🧵
These expanded subsidies didn't get much attention at the time that the Rescue Plan passed (because there was a whole lot of crisis happening in every direction) and they might not now (same reason) but some folks can save hundreds of dollars each month.
Jul 19, 2022 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Seeing some confusion about @bandcamp implementing some new tax policies. Will try to clear that up here. 🧵
Q: Are these tax changes a result of Bandcamp being acquired by Epic Games?
A: No. It's a result of the IRS lowering the threshold for reporting for all platforms. It used to be that you'd get a form if you sold more than $20k, now it's a $600 threshhold.
Jul 19, 2022 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
Here's a quick thread addressing aspects of the crisis in music journalism. There's not just one problem. There's multiple, and it's important to try and disaggregate them to be able to understand what's going on.🧵🧵🧵
Ideally, we'd have lots of diverse kinds of publications covering diverse music, with resources allocated to cover the full diversity of musical traditions both nationally and locally, and they'd pay journalists fairly.
Mar 12, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Hearing that Spotify is starting to send around submission information for Discovery Mode, its new wage suppression scheme. It’s perhaps the most brazenly anticompetitive form of payola we’ve seen in digital music.
Reports indicate that Discovery Mode involves a 50% cut in Spotify’s already low rates, in exchange for algorithmic manipulation that boosts these low cost tracks. Bad for artists and bad for fans.
Mar 2, 2022 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
You can bet we have a lot of complicated thoughts about this! 🧵
Too few companies have too much power in every part of the music business. It's easy to understand why mergers and acquistions are viewed with serious skepticism. And some in the music community have real frustrations with how Epic has dealt with music licensing in the past.
Feb 2, 2022 • 31 tweets • 5 min read
Senate Judiciary is currently debating a piece of legislation intended to support news and journalism at a time when Google and Facebook have been swallowing up more and more of the ad revenue. Watch here and read some thoughts in this thread.🧵 judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/break…
This issue matters a whole lot to musicians, in part because we are citizens like everyone else, but because musicians need a healthy music journalism ecosystem that covers the full diversity of musical traditions. That includes local artists and community scale.
Feb 2, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Curtis LeGeyt from the National Association of Broadcasters seems to be saying that if radio has to pay musicians, they won't be able to inform listeners about hurricanes, and tornados. 🙃 #musicfairness
Of course, the biggest barrier to radio stations providing emergency information to local communities is deregulation. NAB pushed Trump's FCC to eliminate the Main Studio Rule, which required stations to have an actual physical studio in the community served. #musicfairness
Jan 24, 2022 • 33 tweets • 5 min read
Seeing this piece making the rounds, and it makes some provocative claims that deserve scrutiny and investigation of the data. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Let's start by observing that the piece's author @tedgioia is an important and respected voice in music writing, and he's definitely on artists' and audiences' sides.
Jan 12, 2022 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
The DMCA is in the news again, after some Twitch streamers are facing suspensions for streaming TV shows without a license. Among other things, it reveals some serious misunderstandings about what the DMCA is and how it works.
One big myth is that the DMCA made it illegal to stream unlicensed music and TV shows and that if DMCA was repealed, users could just stream whatever they want.
