Showbiz Sandbox 595: Vinyl Sales and Payola on the Rise in Music Industry

September 28, 2022

With mid-year music revenue figures finally tallied it appears the growth of streaming music has begun to slow as vinyl sales has increase. Also on the rise are reports of payola as indie music artists can’t seem to get played on the radio without paying promoters for the privilege of being put in rotation. These promoters are using a loophole in the law which prevents record labels from paying radio stations in exchange for airplay.

Another loophole allows radio stations in the United States to avoid paying musical performers and creators when their song is actually played. The American Music Fairness Act looks to change that which will have a big impact on terrestrial radio.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how James Earl Jones will continue to provide the voice of Darth Vader thanks to artificial intelligence, Spotify gets into Audiobooks and Rihanna heads to the Super Bowl for the halftime show.

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Showbiz Sandbox 297: Television Networks Brace For Media Measurement Mayhem

October 5, 2015

In the digital age the viewership of television content has been difficult to track across multiple platforms and devices. The announcement of a game-changing merger between web analytics firm Comscore and the TV and box office data outfit Rentrak suggests a much needed solution for cross-media ratings may soon be available.

The combination of Comscore and Rentrak would finally create a company with the deep pockets and technical expertise to legitimately take on Nielsen, the uncontested reigning king of television ratings for the last several decades. The industry welcomes such competition at a time when advertisers are clamoring for accurate audience measurement across all screens, including mobile devices.

Thanks to the increase in delayed viewing, television ratings have become near impossible to report in a timely manner. Overnight ratings have long been the standard for touting a television program’s success (or failure), but now such numbers can represent less than half a show’s total audience once DVR data is counted. This has made keeping track of who watched what when and on which devices extremely confusing.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including the plans to the former hit series “MacGyver” a makeover, “Ghostbusters” gets animated and some of the unnecessary recipients among this year’s MacArthur Genius Awards.

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