welcome to The music industry around the worldWeekly Recap – where we make sure you’ve caught the five biggest stories that have made headlines in the past seven days. The MBW Roundup is supported by Centtripwhich helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and lower their touring costs.
This week, Utopia Music became the latest company to drastically reduce the size of its global workforce.
The acquired company, headquartered in Switzerland, confirmed to MBW that it had made a number of redundancies.
A Utopia spokesperson told us, “Like many growing businesses in the current macro environment, Utopia is changing its internal structure to optimize its business.”
News of job losses at Utopia follows a wave of layoffs that has swept across the tech side of the global music industry.
Also this week, Warner Music Group released its financial results for the third calendar quarter of 2022 (the three months ending at the end of September).
The company told investors that it generated total revenue of US$1.497 billion in recorded music, music publishing and other activities, up 16% year over year at constant currency.
This announcement of quarterly results was the last in Steve Cooperhis 11-year tenure as chief executive of WMG; Cooper will be replaced in the role in the New Year by Youtubecommercial director of , Robert Kyncyl.
Somewhere else, Universal Music GroupDeutsche Grammophon, owned by Deutsche Grammophon, which claims to be the oldest record company in the world, has unveiled its own high-resolution classical music streaming service.
Additionally, artist funding platform beatBread has closed a $100 million institutional fund, while a Senate committee plans to hold a hearing to review the US box office industry.
Utopia Music has become the latest company to drastically reduce the size of its global workforce.
The acquiring company, headquartered in Switzerland, confirmed to MBW that it had made a number of redundancies.
Sources suggest that these cuts have mostly come to Utopia’s core team – including some top executives – as well as its tech-focused workforce.
To date, Utopia’s technical employees have been responsible for creating the company’s proprietary music monitoring platform, sometimes referred to as the “Utopia Open Platform” (UOP).
MBW understands that Utopia’s global team is 1,200 strong. This figure includes both contractors and around 800 employees…
Warner Music GroupTuesday’s (November 22) earnings call ended on a bullish note – and it’s easy to see why.
WMG posted revenue of $1.5 billion for the three months to the end of September (up 16% year-on-year at constant currency), with adjusted EBITDA also up 16% year-on-year.
As a result, WMG’s share price soared 15% on Tuesday as Bank Of America upgraded the company’s shares.
Fittingly, this glowing quarterly earnings announcement was the last of Steve Cooper’s 11-year tenure as WMG’s chief executive; Cooper will be replaced in the role in the New Year by YouTube business manager Robert Kyncyl…
Deutsche Grammophon, owned by Universal Music Group, which claims to be the oldest record company in the world, has just launched its own high-resolution classical music streaming service.
Called STAGE+, the service is described by Deutsche Grammophon in a press release as “revolutionary”. The label calls it “the latest milestone in the digital development of classical music.”
According to the STAGE+ site, a subscription to the service will cost €14.90 per month, or €149 per year…
Music funding platform beatBread has been making a lot of headlines this year.
In February, for example, the company raised $34 million in a funding round led by fintech-focused venture capital firm Deciens Capital.
Over the summer, beatBread closed what it called a “seven-figure artist funding deal” with singer-songwriter Elley Duhé – its biggest deal to date.
Now, MBW can reveal that beatBread has big plans to accelerate its growth in artist funding, and it just closed a $100 million institutional fund with asset manager Variant Investments to do just that.
U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, confirmed Tuesday (Nov. 22) that they will hold a hearing to “consider” what they refer to as “lack of competition in the ticketing industry”.
In a press release, they write that the hearing follows “significant service failures and delays on Ticketmaster’s website that prevented fans from purchasing concert tickets.”
Klobuchar and Lee said the court date and witnesses will be announced at a later date…
