Music Business Worldwide reports: “In the past six months alone, the Los Angeles-headquartered company – which dubs itself “the world’s largest B2B music licensing marketplace” – has acquired the likes of music and sound design firm Song Zu (in a multi-million dollar deal), as well as UK-based sync licensing business Cuesongs.”
Variety reports: “In a dystopian view of the coming media wars, financial analyst and investor Richard Greenfield says Hollywood studios don’t have the heft to do battle in a future dominated by streaming.”
Variety reports: “As expected, Casey Wasserman has raised the curtain on Wasserman Music, a new powerhouse player in music built on the back of Paradigm’s former music division.”
The Hollywood Reporter reports: “The media startup, co-founded by YouTube vet Benjamin Grubbs and tech veteran Jonathan Shambroom, will see digital media vet Adam Wescott running its content arm.”
TechCrunch reports: “Earlier this year, Roku acquired the program catalog from Quibi, the short-form video app backed by Jeffrey Katzenberg that had failed to gain traction amid the pandemic, despite nearly $2 billion in financing.”
Gamesindustry.biz reports: “Ubisoft continues its efforts to support and explore blockchain technology by joining the Tezos ecosystem as a corporate baker.”
Variety reports: “Kevin Mayer, the hard-charging executive who was one of the architects of Disney Plus, says sports-only streaming platforms have every chance of being viable. As chairman of DAZN, he now has a chance to prove his point.”
The Hollywood Reporter reports: “Foreign platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Spotify will contribute 3 percent of their local revenues via a “digital services tax,” starting on Jan. 1, 2022.”
TechCrunch reports: “Venmo is adding support for cryptocurrency, starting today. The company says it will begin to roll out the ability for Venmo’s more than 70 million users to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies directly in the app, similar to the support Venmo parent company PayPal added late last year.”
Variety reports: “Video infrastructure provider Bitmovin has raised $25 million in Series C financing, led by Swisscom Ventures, the venture arm of the Switzerland telco.”
