{"id":123377,"date":"2022-01-28T20:30:09","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T20:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=123377"},"modified":"2022-01-28T20:38:34","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T20:38:34","slug":"sony-buying-bob-dylan-catalog-to-warner-buying-land-in-the-metaverse-its-mbws-weekly-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/sony-buying-bob-dylan-catalog-to-warner-buying-land-in-the-metaverse-its-mbws-weekly-round-up\/","title":{"rendered":"From Sony buying Bob Dylan’s catalog to Warner buying land in the metaverse: It’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to\u00a0Music Business Worldwide<\/a>\u2019s weekly round-up \u2013 where we make sure\u00a0you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW\u2019s round-up is supported by\u00a0Centtrip<\/a>, which helps\u00a0over 500 of the world\u2019s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bob Dylan had some nice things to say about both Sony Music Group Chairman Rob Stringer and Columbia Records this week.<\/p>\n

After the landmark sale of his entire recordings catalog to the major was announced on Monday (January 24), in a deal sources suggest was worth north of $150 million, Dylan commented: “Columbia Records and Rob Stringer have been nothing but good to me for many, many years and a whole lot of records. I\u2019m glad that all my recordings can stay where they belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Dylan was a darn sight nicer about Sony than his contemporary, Neil Young, was about Spotify this week<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Dylan’s deal with Sony follows the sale of his publishing catalog to Universal Music Group for around $350 million<\/a> in 2020.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in major label land, Warner Music Group announced that it’s bought “LAND” \u2013 that is, virtual land \u2013 in the metaverse, via a deal with decentralized gaming platform The Sandbox.<\/p>\n

WMG plans to create what it describes as \u201cthe first music-themed world\u201d within The Sandbox metaverse and virtual land will be sold adjacent to its own property.<\/p>\n

If you’re wondering how much virtual land in the metaverse could cost you, just last year, a company acquired<\/a> a virtual Sandbox property for a record $4.3 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n

WMG’s partnership with the platform comes just two months after the The Sandbox raised $93 million<\/a> in a Series B round led by SoftBank \u2013 and one week after its parent company Animoca Brands<\/span> raised $358 million<\/a> at a $5 billion valuation “to grow the open metaverse”.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, Universal Music Group also delivered a big announcement this week in the form of “expanded” agreements with Amazon Music and Amazon-owned livestream platform Twitch.<\/p>\n

UMG says that Twitch has agreed to \u201cprovide commercial opportunities for UMG and its artists\u201d and UMG also says that it will work closely with Twitch to produce an exclusive series of artist features and experiences, in addition to other music-based content, specifically for the service.<\/p>\n

Under UMG\u2019s expanded agreement with Amazon Music, subscribers to Amazon Music Unlimited will now have access to stream more music\u00a0 from UMG\u2019s catalog in HD, Ultra HD, and spatial audio.<\/p>\n

(The agreement follows Twitch’s\u00a0partnership<\/a> with Warner Music Group in September, which was its first with a major record company.)<\/p>\n

Also this week, Swedish music distributor Amuse appointed Roshi Motman as its new CEO, as co-founder Diego Farias exited the firm.<\/p>\n

Here’s what happened over the past seven days…<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/figure>1) SONY MUSIC ACQUIRES BOB DYLAN\u2019S RECORDED MUSIC CATALOG<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

Sony Music Entertainment (SME) has fully acquired Bob Dylan\u2019s catalog of recorded music.<\/p>\n

SME has also acquired the rights to multiple future new releases, in what the company calls “a major expansion” of its six-decade relationship with the legendary artist.<\/p>\n

The deal, which SME calls a “landmark agreement”, concluded in July 2021 and comprises the entirety of Bob Dylan\u2019s recorded body of work since 1962, beginning with the artist\u2019s self-titled debut album and continuing through 2020\u2019s Rough and Rowdy Ways….<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/figure>2) WARNER STRIKES DEAL TO CREATE ‘FIRST MUSIC-THEMED WORLD’ IN THE SANDBOX GAMING METAVERSE<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

Warner Music Group is making a serious move into the metaverse.<\/p>\n

Decentralized gaming virtual world The Sandbox has partnered with WMG to create what it describes as “the first music-themed world” within The Sandbox gaming metaverse.<\/p>\n

According to a media release announcing the partnership, the Warner Music Group virtual ‘LAND’ within The Sandbox will be a “combination of musical theme park and concert venue” and will feature concerts and musical experiences featuring WMG\u2019s roster of artists..<\/p>\n

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Credit: Caspar Camille Rubin<\/figcaption><\/a><\/figure>3) Universal expands agreements with Twitch and Amazon Music<\/span><\/a><\/h6>\n

Universal Music Group (UMG) has just announced what it calls an “expansion” to its agreements with Amazon Music and Amazon-owned livestreaming platform Twitch.<\/p>\n

According to a media statement, the expanded agreements “will provide customers with enhanced access to some of the world\u2019s most popular music content on Amazon, including live streams, high quality and spatial audio, artist merchandise, and exclusive experiences” with UMG\u2019s roster of artists.<\/p>\n

Additionally, UMG says that it will work with Twitch to “foster new innovative opportunities for artists and labels to creatively and commercially engage with their fans and new audiences”…<\/p>\n

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<\/figure>4) Neil Young’s Spotify Exodus is a test case for artists who dare question music industry dogma<\/span><\/a><\/h6>\n

Neil Young, sir, I apologize. But I\u2019m afraid I\u2019m going to have to question your grasp of the facts.<\/p>\n

The past 72 hours has shown this may not be the wisest move: the man ain\u2019t afraid of going nuclear when he suspects that misinformation is at play.<\/p>\n

Yet I\u2019m surprised to see Young\u00a0state that 60% of his streaming revenue\u00a0(paid to his label,\u00a0Warner Records) is currently derived from just one service:\u00a0Spotify.<\/p>\n

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<\/figure>5) ROSHI MOTMAN APPOINTED CEO OF AMUSE, AS CO-FOUNDER DIEGO FARIAS EXITS<\/a><\/h6>\n

Roshi Motman has been been appointed CEO of Swedish independent music distribution and artist services company Amuse.<\/p>\n

Motman, who has held the position as Amuse\u2019s COO since October 2020, succeeds Co-founder Diego Farias, who is now stepping down from his role as CEO and exiting the firm after seven years.<\/p>\n

Motman’s appointment is effective as of this month (January 2022)…<\/p>\n

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<\/figure>MBW\u2019s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world\u2019s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The biggest stories of the week \u2013 and why they matter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":111195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[129688],"class_list":["post-123377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-round-up"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}