#hookblast

Back in 2015, when Katy Perry appeared on the cover of Forbes after earning $135 million in a single year, she knew she’d secured her place in the pop star firmament—and wouldn’t ever have to worry about fading into oblivion. “I don’t feel like my career is a ticking time bomb,” she said. “I don’t feel like I’ll always have to be feeding the meter of show business. I got my spot, yo.”

Three years later, Perry has proved herself right: She’s the highest-paid woman in music, pulling in $83 million pretax during our scoring period. One of the hardest-working names on the list, Perry played 80 dates of her Witness: The Tour in Forbes‘ June-to-June timeframe, grossing over $1 million per night. She also managed to find time to serve as a judge on ABC’s American Idol reboot, reportedly earning north of $20 million for her troubles. read more at forbes.com

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Taylor Swift has announced that she is leaving her lifelong record label, Big Machine Label Group (BMLG), to sign with Republic Records and Universal Music Group (UMG). The financial terms of the deal have not been made public.

As part of her new contract, Swift, 28, asked that “any sale of [UMG’s] Spotify shares result in a distribution of money to their artists, non-recoupable”. She said that the label had agreed to this, “at what they believe will be much better terms than paid out previously by other major labels”.

Swift highlighted this as “a sign that we are headed towards positive change for creators – a goal I’m never going to stop trying to help achieve, in whatever ways I can”. read more at theguardian.com

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Pandora can now be streamed through all of Amazon’s smart devices, including Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show.

The music streaming company published a blog post today (November 19) announcing the news, ‘just in time for the holidays’.

Pandora is also available on Echo Amazon rivals – Facebook’s Portal and Portal+  smart devices, which were released in October with Pandora as a launch partner. read more at musicbusinessworldwide.com

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Recently, Warner Music Group, parent to Warner Bros. Records, Atlantic Records, and ticketing platform Songkick, announced it had purchased millennial entertainment and lifestyle media brand Uproxx, parent to flagship Uproxx.com, film and TV site HitFlix, and sports site Dime. (Alas, the powers that be were not interested in acquiring BroBible.com.) The announcement was crammed with buzzwords: “Daily content and programming.” “Authenticity and transparency.” “Pioneering personalities and credible brands.” “Creative and entrepreneurial environment.” read more at spin.com

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To refresh your memory: last summer, MBW extensively reported on reams of artists on Spotify who weren’t quite what they seemed.

They were, in a very obvious sense, fake – pseudonyms created by songwriters and performers who, for some reason, didn’t wish to be identified on Spotify’s platform.

Draw your own conclusions from what we discovered:

Things haven’t gotten any better for the major labels: judging by ChartMetric stats analysed by MBW, over 90% of the tracks on Ambient Chill today (August 2) are under the names of fake artists.

ChartMetric data suggests that only one major label – Universal Music Group – has a presence on the playlist, with just two tracks out of 71, equivalent to a 2.8% share. read more at musicbusinessworldwide.com

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City National Bank has acquired LA-based Exactuals, which provides software solutions designed to handle complex payments in the entertainment industry.

Exactuals’ payment system, PaymentHub, allows studios, unions, guilds, payroll companies, music publishers, record labels, distributors and marketplaces to provide direct deposit payments, tax document management and online reporting to rights-holders, performers, managers, service providers and independent contractors worldwide.

According to the company, this automated system reduces or eliminates the need for costly paper checks and reporting. read more at musicbusinessworldwide.com

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Tom Windish’s main mantra in life seems to be: don’t take no for an answer.

It’s not a bad rule for a talent agent who specialises in breaking artists whose appeal might not be immediately obvious, either through ultra-poppy hooks or off the chart social numbers.

It’s certainly the right attitude for someone who has launched and steered the live trajectories of artists from Low to Lorde, Alt-J, The xx, Diplo and beyond. read more at musicbusinessworldwide.com

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Music Industry Inside Out has been in touch with some professional workers behind the studio glass. ARIA award-winning producer, Magoo, and platinum record selling studio gun Lee Prebble offered their opinions and advice on recording approaches. read more at musicindustryinsideout.com.au

Follow @HookBlast on Twitter for the best curated music industry news feed on the web.

See vetted & verified music industry opportunities for bands, songwriters, & musicians.