MusicWeek 04.05.20
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If the old stockmarket adage that ‘good investing is boring’ is true, there are some encouraging signs for public music companies right now. Because, while the stockmarket crash for various music companies attracted acres of coverage, little has been written about their quiet recovery since.
Music Week looked at a range of companies that either own major music companies or have music at the heart of their business: Vivendi SA (owner of Universal Music Group), Spotify Technology, Live Nation Entertainment, Ten Cent Music Entertainment Group, Hipgnosis Songs Fund, Eventbrite, Sonos and Sony Corp (owner of Sony Music). And, between March 31 – one week into the UK lockdown – and April 29, none of those companies have seen a decline in stock price, with most seeing some modest increases. Of course, there’s a long way to go before some make up the ground lost before
then – Live Nation stock is still $30 below its 2020 peak. But it’s also almost $20 above its mid-March low point, when the imminent devastation of the live sector started to become apparent. That’s an indication that investors at least foresee a future for live music, despite weeks of relentless cancellations and postponements. Meanwhile, Spotify’s stock rose by almost $40 from its own mid-March slump and is now trading at pre-pandemic levels. It’s difficult to read too much into this as we start to plot a way out of
lockdown, but it’s possible the financial scales are tipping back towards recorded music after a lengthy period of live sector dominance. But, really, everyone should hope that the pandemic does not create a new culture of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ across the industry, publicly-traded or not, once all this is over. Because the success of the biz in recent years has been built on a complex,
interdependent ecosystem. You don’t need to be a stockmarket expert to know that, if you tilt things too far one way, that whole system might over balance.
Mark Sutherland, Editor
mark.sutherland@
futurenet.com
frontline 04 The Big Story PRS & PPL survey Covid-19’s effect on royalties collections 06 News 08 Rising Star 10 The Playlist 11 On The Radar Boston Manor’s quarantine rock 12 Sync Story
features
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Cover story Tom Watson’s UK Music battle plan
20 Rita Ora The pop superstar sets the scene for an exciting new chapter
regulars 22 Hitmakers John Rocca on the making of Freeez’s ’80s dance smash IOU 25 Charts
42
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musicweeknews @musicweek musicweekinsta 27.01.20 Music Week | 3
“We’re like Bonnie and Clyde, but without any pride” EDITORIAL
EDITOR Mark Sutherland
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DEPUTY EDITOR George Garner
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NEWS EDITOR Andre Paine
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SENIOR STAFF WRITER James Hanley
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ART EDITOR Steve Newman
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The Aftershow Evanescence star Amy
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