The Pitch newsletter is a monthly update of legal issues and news affecting or related to the music, film and television, fine arts, media, professional athletics, eSports, and gaming industries. The Pitch features a diverse...more
In April 2024, Spotify announced a price increase for its ad-free premium subscription plan. This is the second price increase in 10 months and will go into effect in the United States later this year. According to Spotify,...more
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse are the latest buzzwords online, including in the legal industry. But have you heard about Web3? Web3 is a tech buzzword for a blockchain-powered phase of the internet (different...more
Thank you for reading the May 2022 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we discuss Spotify's exploration into NFTs, two new USPTO policies with practical implications for trademark applicants...more
As I write this, Ukraine remains under siege and its people (courageous and resolute as they are) subject to indiscriminate atrocities at the hands of Russian armed forces under the deranged authoritarian control of President...more
Welcome back to the Spotlight and oh-me, oh-my, do we have a full slate of developments in the National Football League (NFL) – and that’s to say nothing of what happened on the field, with the Cincinnati Bengals and Los...more
After a compelling weekend of playoff football in the NFL, in which all four of the matchups came down to the final play of each game (serving to drive even more eyeballs to the NFL in what has been a fruitful season for the...more
Less than three weeks remain for either the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) or for Congress to act to stem the impending chaos on July 1 when college athletes’ name, image and likeness (NIL) laws go into...more
Hope is in the air (not to mention copious amounts of tree pollen) here in New York – and that’s to say nothing of the Knicks’ hardwood resurgence, the Giants’ highly-acclaimed moves in last week’s NFL Draft and the Yankees’...more
Happy Spring! After an especially long winter throughout several parts of the country, it is a welcome sight to see many of the familiar hallmarks of this time of year (even as our daily lives remain markedly different from...more
Spotify, the popular music streaming service, just launched its service in India– but without the support of Warner Music Group (WMG). ...more
The music business is financially stronger than it has been in several years, thanks to streaming, which now makes up 75% of the industry’s revenues in the United States. Revenues from streaming in the first half of 2018 grew...more
Spotify Technology S.A. went public on April 3, 2018 through a direct listing of its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Key Points: ..A direct listing is an innovative structure that provides companies with an...more
Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service, was sued last week for over $366 million by two music publishers, Bluewater Music Services in Nashville and a group of companies affiliated with Bob Gaudio, the...more
Spotify will pay up to $43.5 million to end a lawsuit filed by a class of song owners who claimed the music streaming giant failed to pay the mechanical rights for songs offered through its service....more
On August 4, 2016, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) rejected changes to the 1941 consent decrees with ASCAP and BMI. These decrees have been in place since 1941, when the DOJ settled antitrust claims with ASCAP and BMI...more
In a putative class action alleging widespread copyright infringement commenced in December 2015 against Spotify, Plaintiff, the lead singer for the bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, recently moved pursuant to Federal...more
Users of Facebook no doubt have seen at least some of their friends post the “copyright” update. In brief, the post states “I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details,” including photos,...more
January 2015’s strategic movement in the digital media business already seems like a full year squeezed into one month. In this edition of our MDM newsletter, we walk you through some of those major developments that set the...more