“One thing I’d like us all to remember is that our world has fundamentally changed… the music business is in a very different place than it was 10 years ago,” Kyncl writes.
The year saw K-pop companies making mega moves on a global scale, while the catalog market remained hot.
Also this week: SoundCloud announces artist services deals with Helix and Payday Records, ASM Global strikes a new sustainability partnership and more.
WMG becomes the second major to sign on to the new structure, which is still limited to the streamer's home territory.
The company is planning changes to its royalty model for 2024 that will disqualify some tracks from payments and increase penalties for fraud.
Negotiations with major labels are ongoing and slowing down the project's beta release.
"As an organization that promotes the unifying and healing power of music, we are shocked and heartbroken," the Recording Academy states.
Higginson replaces outgoing digital chief Oana Ruxandra.
Ruxandra, who has been with Warner for eight of the past 10 years, led investments and partnerships in the digital, gaming, web3 and AI spaces.
Young’s on-demand audio streams are down a third since he left Spotify, which means he's missing out on about $16,000 in royalties each month.
