In a sign of how far the music industry has come, a new report from MTV News has revealed how music publishers have been splitting off their content, leaving millions of users out of pocket.
The report, based on research from The Atlantic and SoundScan, suggests that for many music publishers, the split is now in its eighth year, and that they are still only halfway through their transition to a new, decentralized digital publishing model.
As part of its digital transformation, the company has decided to break up its publishing business into several companies.
These include the music streaming service, SoundCloud, which is now split into a standalone company, as well as the labels, which have decided to separate themselves into separate entities.
The Atlantic and soundscan also analyzed the revenue split for each of the companies and found that they have collectively generated a whopping $5.3 billion in digital revenue from the streaming service.
SoundScan estimates that they earned $1.3 million per month on the streaming platform alone.
However, the Atlantic found that the revenue is being split between three separate entities, with SoundCloud alone making up about a third of the money.
SoundScan CEO and founder Tom Gaffney said that he was excited by the report, but acknowledged that the industry is still in its early stages.
He added that the split was inevitable given the digital revolution and the fact that music was being sold as a commodity.
But in a statement, SoundScan also noted that the majority of music fans will still pay for the service, which means that publishers will be able to keep a slice of the pie.
“It’s the way it’s always been, and we know how much of a pain it can be to keep track of all the songs on SoundCloud,” said SoundScan CEO John Tappin.
“We think that this split is necessary to help publishers keep a fair share of the revenue, and it is the right thing to do for consumers and for music in general.”
SoundScan’s split comes at a time when the music and video industry has been experiencing a massive resurgence in popularity, with music streaming and digital distribution now a major part of a consumer’s life.
But the split of these two digital businesses will be a major challenge for consumers as well.
While there has been some success in the past in turning digital revenue into physical sales, many people are still unhappy with the process.
Soundscan and other publishers say they plan to take this approach with Soundcloud.
SoundCloud CEO Ben Koller also hinted at a potential move to a decentralized model in a recent interview with Billboard.
The company has reportedly been working with music publishers to develop a new digital distribution model.
However, some critics argue that this approach will make it harder for artists to earn back their music and also will cause some of the most dedicated fans to leave SoundCloud altogether.
And while SoundScan has a number of revenue streams in place, there are concerns that these could be cut off if the split happens.MTV News’ Nick Schager reports from the Atlantic Cities studios in New York and Los Angeles.
