Showbiz Sandbox 651: The Next Hit Song May Be Written and Performed by AI

March 18, 2024

In what Rolling Stone magazine has dubbed ChatGPT for music, a new service called Suno is trying to democratic music by using artificial intelligence to allow anyone to create a hit song. With no need to learn how to play an instrument or sing, the latest advances in generative AI are creating tunes with a few text prompts that are indistinguishable from those created by trained musicians.

The creators of Suno aren’t saying what content was used to train their AI. That is probably why the European Union is passing legislation to regulate the use of AI, requiring developers to provide a list of copyrighted material used to train their technology.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Neil Young’s music is back on Spotify, Iranian filmmaker Ashgar Farhadi wins his plagiarism case and Roman Polanski is headed back to court.

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Showbiz Sandbox 582: Movie Theaters Come Roaring Back at CinemaCon

May 3, 2022

When cinema operators from around the world gathered in Las Vegas for CinemaCon last week, it quickly became obvious that movie theaters ain’t dead yet. Though a global pandemic may have decimated their business model for several years, audiences seem to slowly be returning to movie theaters. So have Hollywood studios who are starting to realize they can’t survive on streaming revenue alone.

Speaking of streaming, a poor earnings report in which Netflix announced they lost subscribers for the first time in a decade, has served as a moment for self-reflection for the company as well as the industry-at-large.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including an abrupt end to CNN+, “Fast & Furious 10” loses its director and Europe’s new media laws.

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Showbiz Sandbox 424: Talking Telluride, Toronto and Emmys with Indiewire’s Anne Thompson

September 18, 2018

Every September the annual awards season begins to take shape at three major film festivals; Venice, Telluride and Toronto. Anne Thompson, Indiewire’s editor at large, was at the latter two and she joins us to explain how this year’s Oscars race looks like it will be filled with a bounty of great movies, including one from director Alfonso Cuaron, which is looking for a way to overcome the stigma of being released by Netflix.

Speaking of awards, the timing works out to have Thompson also give us her thoughts on the recent Emmy Awards, honoring the best and brightest prime time television series from the past year.

Meanwhile, the European Union passed reforms to copyright law that have proven to be contentious given that it could mean big changes for tech platforms such as Google, Youtube and others. Content owners, on the other hand, are delighted with the outcome.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including Time magazine gets another new owner, Spotify allows users to download more music and Paul McCartney enjoys his first #1 debut for his latest album.

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Showbiz Sandbox 408: CinemaCon Shrugs Off Unwanted Disruptions

April 30, 2018

Movie theater owners from around the world descended upon Las Vegas for CinemaCon last week. Studios wooed exhibitors with clips from upcoming film releases while industry manufacturers lured attendees with the latest technology, including high-resolution LED screens as a method of showing movies to the masses. Much like the subscription service MoviePass, the screens left cinema operators wondering if they were just one more “innovation” nobody had asked for.

Meanwhile “Avengers: Infinity War” broke box office records both in North America and globally when it opened over the weekend. The latest Marvel superhero movie earned over $640 million in just three days, putting it on track to pass the billion dollar mark.

Speaking of “war,” one is brewing between the Writers Guild of America and talent agencies. The WGA wants to cancel their current agency agreements and rewrite them to prevent franchised agents from profiting off of packaging deals with television networks. Such arrangements currently allow agents to double dip and at times earn more than their clients for a project.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including Steven Spielberg signing on to direct the movie adaptation of DC Comic’s “Blackhawk,” the next “Star Trek” film lands a female director and Bill Cosby is found guilty of sexual assault.

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Showbiz Sandbox 393: Disney Acquisition of Fox Underscores Hollywood’s Digital Transition

December 18, 2017

In one of the largest deals Hollywood has ever seen, the Walt Disney Company announced it had agreed to buy most of 21st Century Fox in a transaction valued at $66.1 billion. Disney will scoop up Fox assets that include 20th Century Fox film and TV studios, 300 cable channels, 22 regional sports networks, control over the Hulu streaming service and a stake in Sky. Fox will keep its news, sports and broadcast networks, as well as its publishing empire.

The move underscores how movie studios have become an intellectual property business where scale matters. Rupert Murdoch feared Fox never scaled properly to compete in the age of digital on-demand consumption of content and that his company was at the peak of its value. Selling a portion of his empire also avoids a family power struggle over who would take control of the company once he steps down.

Meanwhile, the first award nominations from a guild have arrived courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild. And the Library of Congress added 25 new works to the National Film Registry, including fiction and documentaries, features and shorts. We’ll discuss what significant works they’ve enshrined.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including the FCC officially ditches net neutrality regulation, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces this year’s entries and why Norway is switching off FM radio.

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Showbiz Sandbox 349: How the 2016 Box Office Defied the Odds

January 3, 2017

Apparently political pollsters aren’t the only forecasters whose predictions can be wrong. With fewer high profile blockbusters than 2015, some in Hollywood believed that the 2016 North American box office could surpass the previous year. However, a number of unexpected hits like “The Jungle Book” and “Deadpool” helped box office climb to a record high of $11.4 billion.

Meanwhile in China, the rapid box office growth that saw a 50% rise in 2015 slowed dramatically. In fact, the country’s box office actually fell in the last half of 2016, causing a modest 3% gain, year-over-year. We’ll explain what caused the Chinese box office to cool off so quickly and why there may be some good news buried in the financials.

Our resident theatre expert Michael Giltz will brief us on all the new productions opening on Broadway this spring. He’ll tell us which shows he would invest in (if he had the money) and which might be headed to a town near you when they go out on tour.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, a banner year for cable news networks and how record labels are finally seeing some profits from streaming music revenue.

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Showbiz Sandbox 326: How Brexit Will Affect the Entertainment Business

June 27, 2016

Thanks to the passage of a referendum in the United Kingdom dubbed Brexit, Britain will soon be leaving the European Union. Entertainment companies beyond those in the UK suddenly face a lot of uncertainty and confusion over deals they have already made and will be making in the months and years to come. We discuss how the Brexit vote may affect the entertainment industry.

In other troubling news, the long awaited (as in 20 years) sequel to “Independence Day” opened to disappointing box office returns. This has led to industry pundits spouting erroneous lessons Hollywood can take away from its release. Knowledgeable nuggets such as don’t wait too long to make a sequel (or did they forget about “Star Wars”) and don’t make sequels without the original star (though “Jurassic World” proved that theory wrong just last year).

We also take a look at virtual print fees or VPFs. A letter from one of our listeners asked us to clarify how small independent distributors can afford them. So, we review the history of VPFs, how they work around the world and when studios will stop paying them to theater owners.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including a court decides that legendary rock band Led Zeppelin didn’t plagiarize its biggest hit, “Mr. Robot” gets more episodes in its second season and “Star Trek” fan films get a green light from Paramount Pictures (sort of).

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Showbiz Sandbox 322: Cannes Film Festival Spurs Critical Debate

May 24, 2016

This year’s Cannes Film Festival ended over the weekend with the awarding of the Palm d’Or, the festival’s top prize, to an unlikely, albeit quite solid, movie from director Ken Loach. A critically panned movie from filmmaker Xavier Dolan was given the runner up award, the Grand Prix, leaving many in Cannes baffled over how the jury made its selections. However festival director Thierry Fremaux has always said, Cannes is not set up for critics.

The Broadway season also came to a close last week earning a record $1.3 billion in ticket sales. Musical productions took in most of the revenue over the past year, though it was “The Lion King” and not “Hamilton”, which only opened in August, which ruled the box office.

Over at HBO Michael Lombardo, the longtime head of programming for the premium cable network is stepping down, whereas at Viacom Sumner Redstone has stirred up a hornets nest by ousting his longtime protogé, the company’s chief executive, from the trust that will eventually control the company.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including whether the wave of summer blockbusters will prove to be too much competition, rumors of Adele’s massive record deal and Bill Cosby gets his day in criminal court.

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Showbiz Sandbox 291: Media Companies Come Clean On Cord Cutting

August 24, 2015

After years of denying cord cutting was happening on any level, several large media companies are finally confessing that cord cutting is a growing trend which may soon affect their bottom lines. After decades of steady growth, cable operators are now beginning to see flat or declining subscriber numbers as new content streaming services pop-up.

Clearly, the business models the television industry has relied on in the past are evolving rapidly, more so than movies or theater or even publishing at the moment. Yet some industry insiders believe the cable cord isn’t being cut, but that it’s slowly fraying as the definition of what it means to be a television network has changed.

Some media companies aren’t waiting to study market indicators before making strategic moves. Last week NBCUniversal made a $200-million investment in the online news outlet Buzzfeed, leaving many to wonder how this could possibly benefit the network.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including how boy band One Direction wants to take a break, why Spotify wants to breach your privacy and Cirque du Soleil is headed to Broadway.

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Showbiz Sandbox 288: This Summer’s Box Office Is Turning Into A Blockbuster

July 27, 2015

A string of big budget Hollywood sequels and prequels like “Jurassic World”, “Avengers” and “Minions” have driven the 2015 summer box office nearly 15% higher than last year. And not just in the United States. Countries all over the world are reporting strong movie attendance, especially in China where homegrown productions have been the top grossing releases.

It doesn’t hurt that North American moviegoers are currently paying the highest ticket prices on record. Just ask IMAX which just reported the highest quarterly earnings in the company’s history.

It isn’t all good news for Hollywood studios however. The European Union is charging the six major distributors with antitrust violations over what regulators allege are illegal licensing contracts with cable operators. Should the EU prove their case, it could cause havoc by eradicating longstanding entertainment industry business models.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including the Emmy Award nominations, the approval of AT&T’s merger with DirecTV, why Neil Young is yanking his music from streaming services.

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