MBW shares some not-so-great numbers about music played on streaming services - there are 67.1 million tracks on music streaming services that, in the 2022 calendar year, attracted 10 or fewer streams apiece, globally. These 67.1 million songs represent 42% of the entire catalog of tracks available on streaming services - there are 158 million tracks on streaming platforms. Nearly a quarter (24%), or approximately 38 million tracks attracted - zero plays in 2022.

The IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry) reported that global recorded music revenues in 2018 had totaled $19.1 billion. By May 2020, those 2018 revenues had been slightly downgraded to $18.7 billion, whereas this week, the IFPI says it was actually $17.5 billion, the industry analyst Mark Mulligan of MIDIA noted on Twitter. More of the same - a year ago, IFTI reported $25.9 in 2021 revenues. This week it's much less - an even $24 billion. Global recorded music growth from 2021 to 2022? Nine percent, according to the industry. One percent, according to Mulligan.

TikTok has blocked access to major label music for some users of its app in Australia last month in an effort to monitor user behavior – it was an experiment to see just how much its audience really valued 'premium' music. TikTok took that step in the middle of negotiations with the majors for its next round of music licensing agreements. Bloomberg reports that the number of people using TikTok in Australia declined for three consecutive weeks after the experiment began, and the amount of time users spent on the app declined in the same period.

Ticketmaster will refund some of its fees to The Cure fans buying tickets for their US tour, after frontman Robert Smith contacted Ticketmaster over their “unduly high” fees that were, in certain cases, adding up to more than the price of a ticket, Upworthy reports. The Cure had purposefully kept tickets affordable, with some as low as $20, but fans had to pay the service fee of $11.65 per ticket and a facility charge of $10, plus an overall order processing fee of $5.50, adding up to more than the price of a ticket. “After further conversation, Ticketmaster have agreed with us that many of the fees being charged are unduly high, and as a gesture of goodwill have offered a $10 per ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for lowest ticket price (‘ltp’) transactions,” he wrote. Ticketmaster would also issue a $5 refund per ticket for any show on the US tour for all fans who bought more expensive tickets. The band had chosen to use Ticketmaster in order to combat scalping, but had declined to participate in the company’s dynamic pricing and Platinum ticket schemes as they did not want ticket prices to be “instantly and horribly distorted by resale”.

"Scott was one of the finest arts and culture writers in the country, engaged and passionate and capable of delivering insightful articles at short notice on almost any subject... Somehow he combined a deep earnestness and total dedication to his craft with a childlike innocence" - music writer Ted Gioia writes in the introduction of the posthumous collection of writings by Scot Timberg, entitled 'Boom Times for the End of the World', including texts about jazz, pop and classical music. "Here he still survives in the role he played best: the passionate and earnest culture writer".

the beginnings of rock'n'roll. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a Black queer gospel singer and guitarist from Arkansas who emerged in the 1930s, daring to mix gospel with secular music, laying the foundations for rock and roll. Memphis Minnie was a blues musician from the 1930s with a master finger-picking guitar style. Barbara Lynn was the R&B guitarist and singer who came to prominence in the 60s. Beverly Watkins was one of the first women to be recognised as a lead blues guitarist. A few of the representatives of the new generation are: Stephanie Phillips, guitarist and singer of Black feminist punk band Big Joanie; artist Lava La Rue who came to play guitar through a government scheme to support music tuition for lower-income families; vocalist/guitarist Amy Love is one half of English rock duo Nova Twins, together with bassist Georgia South.

There were 589 million users of paid subscription accounts at the end of 2022, according to IFPI, the organization that represents the recorded music industry worldwide, MBW reports. This means that 7% of the world's population has a paid music subscription account. Global recorded music revenues grew 9% year over year in 2022, to reach $26.2 billion, IFPI's also noted in their Global Music Report 2023. Streaming continues to be the driving force behind the overall growth. Subscription audio streaming revenues increased by 10.3% year over year to $12.7 billion in 2022, with total streaming - including both paid subscription and advertising-supported - grew by 11.5% YoY to reach $17.5 billion in 2022, and accounted for 67% of total global recorded music revenues. Last year marked the global music market’s eighth consecutive year of growth.

"As a result of the upheaval, 2022 became one of the most creative and prolific years ever for Ukrainian culture and the country's music scene. The achievement was a significant one: preserving the country's unique identity" - Resident Advisor presents its selection of the best Ukrainian electronic music released since February of last year. It begins with John Object who released his ambient compilation 'Life' the very same day he joined the army ("I guess there was a good chance that was it—my life—and I'd be killed tomorrow"), and finishes with a dark electronic album 'Katakomba' by Chaosy.

According to Spotify's latest Loud and Clear report, 14,700 DIY artists generated $10,000 across recorded music and publishing royalties on the service in 2022, MBW reports. This means that DIY artists comprised approximately 25.8% of the subset of 57,000 artists who generated $10k+ on Spotify in 2022. However, compared to the previous year, the news isn't that good. In 2021, Spotify helped 15,140 DIY artists generate over $10,000.

A new moment in the developing story of artificial intelligence being used in making music. Complex reports about fans of Lil Uzi Vert and Juice WRLD making full songs out of snippets recorded by the two artists, all made with the help of AI, and of course knowledge about how to use exciting new tool. Fans had taken low-quality snippets they found on the internet - mostly Instagram and Snaphat - and used AI technology to turn them into full songs with much higher audio quality. Songs went viral on Twitter.

Human Artistry Campaign coalition, representing 40 different entertainment industry groups, has drawn 7 principles detailing the need for using the new technology to “empower human expression” while also asserting the importance of representing “creators’ interests… in policymaking” regarding the technology, Billboard reports. Principles are aimed at ensuring that AI developers acquire licenses for artistic works used in the “development and training of AI models”, and that governments refrain from creating “copyright or other IP exemptions” for the technology.

Here they are:

Technology has long empowered human expression, and AI will be no different

Human-created works will continue to play an essential role in our lives

Use of copyrighted works, and use of the voices and likenesses of professional performers, requires authorization, licensing, and compliance with all relevant state and federal laws

Governments should not create new copyright or other IP exemptions that allow AI developers to exploit creators without permission or compensation

Copyright should only protect the unique value of human intellectual creativity

Trustworthiness and transparency are essential to the success of AI and protection of creators

Creators’ interests must be represented in policymaking

Carliz De La Cruz Hernández, the ex-girlfriend of Bad Bunny, is suing the performer for using her voice recording of uttering the now-famous catchphrase “Bad Bunny Baby” in two of his songs without her consent. The lawsuit claims that she never legally agreed for her voice recording to be used in Bad Bunny’s songs, live performances, radio, television or any other form of media. De La Cruz Hernández is arguing in the $40 million lawsuit that the unauthorized use of the recording commercially exploits her voice and identity.

Meta has "excluded" the music repertoire by tens of thousands of Italian songwriters from Facebook, in a "shock move", as reported by MBW. The Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE) says that “Meta presented a ‘take it or leave it’ economic offer, threatening to remove the content if the offer was not accepted by SIAE”. SIAE didn’t accept this offer, so Meta “suddenly and unilaterally” started to remove its content.

"Don’t underestimate the power of songs. They are change agents in human life, with more transformative impact on society than any weapon system or policy initiative" - music writer Ted Gioia looks into the issue of protest songs and the place of music in today's society. Gioia collected recent news articles about various acts of suppression and censorship of music, as well as about the inhumane use of music.

Kaytranda has remixed Sam Gellaitry’s single 2021 ‘Assumptions’, adding a new flavour. Canadian producer colors the dance song with his signature groove, making for a much warmer and thicker sound. Speaking of the mix Gellaitry said - “I’ll never forget the first time I heard Kaytranada’s music 11 years ago, a true innovator and inspiration to my music ever since that point."

“[In clubs] You see people in various states of ecstasy, loneliness to connectedness, boredom. A club or a rave is a very concentrated, condensed space where you can live out all these purely human emotions” - German photographer Werner Amann explains in MixMag the idea behind his photographs taken in 1990s techno clubs, collected in a new photo book titled 'Kein Morgen' ("no tomorrow"). Amann frequented now-legendary techno spots like E-Werk, Tresor and the annual Love Parade in Berlin, and he would also travel out of town to other parts of Germany and beyond – partying at the likes of Mayday in Dortmund, Omen in Frankfurt, underground parties in North-Rhine Westphalia, Limelight and Sound Factory in New York, to parades in Zürich and Paris.

Global recorded music revenues grew 6.7% year over year in 2022 to reach $31.2 billion, according to a new report from Midia Research. This marked a significant drop in estimated 24.8% YoY growth for 2021 versus 2020, MBW reports. Streaming accounted for 64.1% of all recorded music industry revenues in 2022, with revenues estimated by Midia to have grown 8.3% YoY, or by $1.5 billion, to $20 billion in 2022.

It's definitely not a definitive list, but rather an interesting perspective by the rock journalism institution on the history of heavy metal (which they believe started with 'Black Sabbath' by, ahem, Blach Sabbath). The list starts with Venom's 'Wellcome to Hell' at No. 100, and reaches the high-point with, well, guess which song!?! A great lead of the article by the way - "Thousands of years after the Bronze and Iron Ages, the true Metal Age dawned half a century ago"!

Music theorist Adam Neely in his latest video is paying homage to jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who recently passed away. The YouTuber analyses his favorite shorter song 'Infant Eyes' and the style of "jazz impressionism" he hears there. Neely builds three pillars of Shorter's compositional style:

Impressionistic harmony that creates tonal ambiguity

Elegant melodic construction that invites improvisation
Deep use of the blues

"The scene Def Leppard and Judas Priest helped consolidate 40-plus years ago has never had this much talent, or represented as many disaffected voices, as it does today" - Guardian argues in its piece about the current British heavy metal scene. Some of the important names the G is picking out are Bristol post-hardcore collective Svalbard, black metal trio Dawn Ray’d, masked prog-metal Londoners Sleep Token, noise-punk duo Nova Twins, anti-fascist metalcore fivesome Ithaca...

Indie-rock supergroup boygenius - the trio of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus - performed at the baggage claim area at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, upon arriving in the city for their SXSW set, Stereogum reports. In two weeks, they’ll release their debut album 'The Record'.

You enjoyed our hummus. You enjoyed our shawarma. You enjoyed our falafel. Arab music is about to take over, you motherfuckers” - rapper, curator, and strategist Suhel Nafar says in the Pitchfork piece about Arabic music which is supposedly "on the brink of a global breakthrough". Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna is to become the first artist to sing her entire set in Arabic on the biggest stage at Coachella. Egyptian artist Wegz, the most-streamed Arab artist on Spotify across Southwest Asia and North Africa in 2022, has recently sold out London’s 2,000-capacity O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and became the first Egyptian artist to perform at the World Cup. The P mentions others - 25-year-old UK-based Palestinian-American artist Lana Lubany, the collective Laylit which hosts parties in New York, Montreal, and Washington D.C., and DJ Nooriyah, who grew up in Saudi Arabia and Japan.

Metalica have bought Furnace Record Pressing, a vinyl pressing plant based in Alexandria, Virginia, in order to keep up with demand for their back catalog on vinyl, in addition to meeting their needs for their forthcoming album, '72 Seasons', coming put in April. The band first started working with Furnace, one of the largest vinyl pressing companies in the U.S., in 2008, Loudwire reports. The company has helped keep Metallica’s catalog in print along with expansive box set reissues of 'Metallica', 'Master of Puppets', 'Ride the Lightning', 'Kill 'Em All', '...And Justice for All', and others. The plant will continue to press non-Metallica projects.

Directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, the team behind 'Everything Everywhere All At Once', won three Oscars in a single evening - Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. At 35 years old, they’re two of the youngest Best Director winners in history, and also the first Best Director winners ever to come from the world of music videos. Stereogum had a tough time selecting only five of their videos as the best ones.

"Several start-ups are now using AI-generated soundscapes of ambient, downtempo and chill-out beats in hopes of having the same impact as sound therapy on issues like depression, anxiety and dementia" - Hii Magazine looks into the "increasingly growing sector that investors are paying attention to." Berlin-based Endel has an AI system that produces soundscapes to help people focus, relax and sleep. The company raised $15 million in a second round of venture capital financing earlier this year, and has over a million active users. Wavepaths, with Brian Eno as a member, is UK company that makes generative music for psychedelic therapy. It is currently used by hundreds of legal clinics in over 30 countries and has raised $4.5 million in its initial seed investment round last year. Brain.fm's algorithmic system selects from a catalogue of human-composed melodies, harmonies and chord progressions.

German composer Volker Bertelmann. also known as Hauschka, won the original score Oscar Sunday night for his music for the World War I epic 'All Quiet on the Western Front'. For this adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque classic, Bertelmann used his great-grandmother’s turn-of-the-century harmonium, a pump organ whose carefully mic’d interior noises - “the breathing, the air, the wooden cracklings” sounded to him like “a war machine.” The song 'Naatu Naatu' by M.M. Keeravaani and Chandrabose from the hit Telugu-language film 'RRR' has made history by becoming the first Indian film song to win an Oscar, beating heavyweights like Lady Gaga and Rihanna.

London rock band Brace Yourself! is putting their Banksy painting up for auction because “people should be able to see it”, Guardian reports. The band was formerly known as Exit Through the Gift Shop, and they were asked by Banksy more than a decade ago to choose a new name owing to copyright issues with his Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary of the same name. The band indeed changed their name, and got a Banksy in return. The painting, also named 'Brace Yourself! - features Death driving a bumper car - is on show in London before sale where it has estimate of $600,000-$800,000.

St. Vincent and The Roots performed a beautiful cover of Portishead‘s ‘Glory Box’ on The Tonight Show on Wednesday (Intl Women's Day). The atmospheric collaboration, faithful to the original 1995 single, saw St. Vincent deliver a powerful and haunting vocal, with her own spin on the song’s electrifying guitar solo. The Tonight Show house band The Roots accompanied her with subtle instrumentation, whereas a live string section gave a final touch.

The last three years have seen a slow rise in global music piracy, after a period of steady decline, according to a report from MUSO, a U.K. technology company. The platform has logged more than 15 billion visits to music piracy sites in 2022. Iran accounts for 15.05% of all piracy traffic picked up by MUSO, followed by India (10.29%), The United States (7%), and Russia (6%), Billboard reports. More than half of all the piracy in the United States takes place via stream-ripping, which relies on programs to get around YouTube’s copyright protection and convert audio into MP3s.

Recorded music revenues in the US - money spent on streaming subscriptions, as well as physical and digital music - grew 6.1% YoY in 2022 to $15.9 billion, the market’s seventh consecutive year of growth, MBW reports. Streaming grew 7.3% to a record high $13.3 billion in revenue and collectively accounts for 84% of revenues. Wholesale revenues – the money that makes its way back to record labels, distributors and artists – were $10.3 billion in 2022, the first time they exceeded $10 billion in the market. Also, retail revenues from paid subscription services (Spotify, Apple Music etc) grew 8% to $10.2 billion in 2022, exceeding the $10 billion mark annually for the first time. Revenues from vinyl records grew 17.2% to $1.2 billion – marking the format’s 16th consecutive year of growth - accounting for 71% of physical format revenues. For the first time since 1987, vinyl albums outsold CDs in units - 41 million vs 33 million.