Garrett Levin: Celebs Rumors

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn a big win for the publishing and songwriting community, the Copyright Royalty Board reaffirmed the 15.1% headline rate increase in royalties paid by streaming services to publishers for the 2018-22 period.The rate was decided in 2018, but streaming services Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube/Google and Pandora appealed the following year, arguing that the increase will make their business models untenable in light of the billions of dollars that they already pay in royalties.While the decision was not immediately released publicly, sources and National Music Publishers Assn. president/CEO David Israelite shared that the headline rate will increase to 15.1% from 11.4%, as decided.However, in a minor win for the streaming services, the TCC rate, or percentage of label revenue, has been capped, and the definition of bundling — the “family plans” and other discount packages — has reverted to an earlier definition more favorable to the services.

DEALSJnr Choi has signed to Sony Music’s Epic and Black Butter labels, following last year’s independently released ‘SS21’ album.Concord Music Publishing has signed and acquired the full publishing catalogue of songwriter Josh Miller. His past works include songs for Jason Derulo, Backstreet Boys, Bebe Rexha and more.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOlivia Rodrigo, BTS, Bad Bunny, Doja Cat, Pooh Shiesty were among the artists topping the major streaming services’ year-end charts, according to a list distributed Thursday by the Digital Media Association, of which Amazon, Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify and YouTube are members.DIMA noted that streaming continued to rise in 2021, and that major hip-hop and reggaeton artists garnered many of the top spots in the year-end lists, “benefitting from streaming platforms’ ability to drive discovery and the exploding popularity of Latin music.” DIMA CEO Garrett Levin said, “The story of music in 2021 was defined by the amazing artists, both familiar and new, who were able to harness the power of streaming to connect