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With comprehensive coverage and insightful analysis, our newsletter has got you covered on everything music.

The Housesession office will be closed during the period from 18.12.2023 until 04.01.2024.

We are available for urgent matters but expect a delay in our response.

Statements (Q3 2023 // 2023-3) for our labels and 3rd party partners will be ready in week 51.

Our partner company MDG - Media Data Genius will handle the payout and provide access to the supplier backend where you will find your data.

Our music management offers top-notch support through a highly experienced team working as mentors and music experts.

Our focus is on unleashing the full potential of our artists while ensuring efficient time management.

We rely on comprehensive musical expertise, coupled with trust, integrity, and commitment in our work. Our goal is to nurture artists and achieve mutual career objectives. To accomplish this, we leverage our extensive network, in-depth knowledge, and effective resources, drawing from years of experience in the industry.

Changes at Spotify from Q1 2024

Penalties for streaming manipulation:

Streaming manipulation through so-called "artificial streams" is a huge problem for the entire music industry. The artificial boosting of streams, whether by computer-generated "bots" or manually (e.g. click farms, click cafés, hacked accounts), not only prevents the charts and number of plays on the streaming platforms from reflecting the actual demand for tracks. Far more serious is the fact that this cheats legitimately operating labels and artists out of revenue that is diverted from the revenue pools through such manipulation. In this respect, it is expressly to be welcomed that the DSPs are actively taking steps against such fraudulent attempts.

Spotify has been very committed to this for some time and cancels revenues for streams that are attributable to artificial streaming activities so that they flow back into the revenue pools and are paid out for legitimately generated streams. In addition, anomalous user accounts are blocked and products whose streams are predominantly attributable to suspicious streaming activities are taken offline.

In order to make attempts at manipulation even less attractive in future, Spotify has now announced that it will charge labels and distributors fines if "blatant artificial streaming is detected" in their products. In this way, Spotify wants to proactively prevent fraudulent behaviour instead of only being able to react when it has already taken place, as was previously the case.

New conditions for the monetisation of tracks

Spotify has announced that it will restrict the monetisability of tracks. From the beginning of 2024, tracks must have generated at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months in order to receive royalties. If this minimum quantity is not reached, the respective royalties of the track will flow back into the revenue pool and will be distributed pro rata to all tracks that have reached at least 1,000 streams.

According to Spotify, this new rule affects "tens of millions of tracks" that are online on the platform but were only streamed between 1 and 1,000 times last year, earning an average of 0.03 dollars per month. Nevertheless, the revenues for these songs "have added up to $40 million per year". Instead of having to process millions of micro-payments, which, according to Spotify, often don't actually reach the artists, the DSP now wants to give them to the artists "who are most dependent on streaming revenue" - i.e. those who can already generate at least some relevant income via streaming. According to Spotify, this applies to the vast majority of content online: "99.5% of all streams are of tracks that have at least 1,000 annual streams, and each of those tracks will earn more under this policy".

Spotify also hopes to combat long-tail fraud and AI-supported streaming manipulation, in which an extremely large number of tracks are published and then very few streams are generated via bot farms, resulting in very small amounts of money.

Apple have announced that they will once again tighten the requirements for products and will include even more criteria in the supplier score in future. Specifically, this applies to the following information and requirements, which will now be practically mandatory:

*Lyrics for all tracks that are not instrumental

*Indication of all contributors, including band and ensemble members, studio personnel such as producers and engineers and other contributors who can be heard in tracks. These must be named with their respective roles at track level. For productions with large studio orchestras, Apple expects at least the "essential" instrumentalists, conductor and, if applicable, the name of the orchestra to be stated. Although this requirement has been in place for some time, it is now mandatory

*Motion Art (a short video loop comparable to Spotify Canvas, more info here)

*Spatial audio, i.e. audio files in Dolby Atmos format

Within TIDAL for Artists, you have the ability to customize your presence for your followers. Take charge of key elements such as your profile image, biography, and social media links through TIDAL Artist Home. This includes the option to identify and rectify any inaccurate content.

The launch of TIDAL Artist Home introduces Fans - a platform designed to offer insights into your listeners. Gain an understanding of the most successful TIDAL tracks, the average age of your audience, and the countries where your music is most popular. Utilize this information to adapt and enhance your fan engagement and connection strategies.  

Claim Your Profile: https://artists.tidal.com/login 

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