Music Technology Policy

MTP readers know I take a dim view of the music business (and the larger entertainment industry) falling over themselves to drive traffic to YouTube.  Big Machine is taking a major step in the right direction to protect their artists’ brands from being used to hand Google negotiation leverage on a silver platter.  This trend won’t reverse itself overnight, but Big Machine is to be applauded for having the foresight (per usual, frankly) to set the right strategy for the industry.

Here’s the press release:

Big Machine Label Group will soon launch a proprietary digital video platform that gives fans direct access to content featuring the label’s superstar roster of talent.  Big Machine TV (www.BigMachineTV.com) will offer music videos and behind-the-scenes content when it goes live in February, later hosting exclusive interviews, announcements, contests and more. All of the label’s artists, including superstars Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Reba, Florida Georgia Line, Rascal Flatts and Thomas Rhett, will have individual channels on the platform that allow viewers to seamlessly search for desired content for an immersive online fan experience.

The development of Big Machine TV comes just as Nielsen Music’s recent 2016 U.S. Year-End Report shows that music video streaming is up 8% year over year, reaching nearly 180 billion streams last year. Video viewership on the new BMLG platform will count towards Nielsen’s consumption charts.

“Big Machine has always pushed the envelope, and we found ourselves asking, ‘is there a better way’ when it comes to syndicating our online content, pushing it onto social media, protecting it and ultimately monetizing it at the highest rate possible to benefit our artists,” said BMLG President and CEO Scott Borchetta. “And the answer was ‘yes’. The Big Machine TV platform is an incredible tool to better serve our artists and their fans by delivering content when and how we want, all the while making sure the creators are compensated fairly.”

Big Machine Label Group has repeatedly been known for making groundbreaking moves among the music industry and in 2016 was named by Fast Company magazine as one of the “Most Innovative Companies” in America. In 2012, in an unprecedented deal, BMLG made history by working with Clear Channel, the largest owner of U.S. radio stations, to secure sound-recording performance royalties to the label and its artists. This became the first time in history that artists would get paid of their recordings on terrestrial radio stations.