🌳 IC Digest: This Song Plants Trees (at Artists' Expense) Edition

Plus, lending Topshelf Records a hand, officially announcing our Bandcamp integration, upcoming industry events + more

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Sep 27, 2022

Hey there,

Notice anything different? We've moved this newsletter + blog to Substack, and we couldn't be happier about it. There's something magical about using a purpose-built tool that does exactly what you need, which is literally why we build IC the way that we do. Do one thing well, and you'll be fine (he says, fingers crossed).

— Hunter, IC co-founder & recent Reeperbahn attendee 😅

🌳 This Song Plants Trees (at Artists’ Expense)

Do you know how Spotify and other streaming services actually calculate that infamous monthly royalty rate? Seems most folks don't! If they did, they might have thought twice about sharing "This Song Plants Trees," a well-meaning bit of viral media which nevertheless pits trees vs. artists. Read all about it below and give it a like/share/comment if you fancy.

Infinite Catablog

🌳This Song Plants Trees (At Artists' Expense)

Every spin on Spotify - or any streaming service really - giveth, and every spin taketh away. Your humble royalty accounting professional refers here to the way streaming services calculate royalties. Every time you spin a track past the 30 second mark, a royalty is generated for the rightsholder (the catalog and/or artist), right? Wrong…

3 years ago · Hunter Giles

Quick Hits

Ireland’s experimenting with paying musicians a UBI, sláinte

Hipgnosis hits a wall but Blackstone’s gonna profit either way, sigh

MIDiA’s got a new “entertainment manifesto” we’d all be foolish to ignore

Concord explains how and why they turned down $5b

📢 FRIENDS IN NEED

The good folks at Topshelf Records are in a perilous situation after the mail order fulfillment company they partnered with went bankrupt, owing them tens of thousands of dollars in revenue and forcing them to relocate 17 years of inventory with no advance notice. They could be forced to shut down without urgent help, and have launched a Kickstarter campaign, which we absolutely encourage you to contribute to if you have the means.

🚀 PRODUCT UPDATES

We soft-announced this before, but let’s make it official…

Infinite Catablog

🎉 Announcing our Integration with Bandcamp

When Dev and I first started IC, it was because we knew firsthand - as an artist and label, respectively - how hard it was for catalogs to track profits and pay creators their royalties accurately, transparently, and on-time. The process was hard enough as it was, and it was definitely getting worse…

3 years ago · Hunter Giles

📆 IC EVENTS

🖥 On Oct 20th at 2pm ET we’ll be hosting a webinar called “Royalty Accounting for Everyone!” with our friends from Music Biz. Find out more and register for the free event here.

📆 UPCOMING INDUSTRY EVENTS

Oct 4th - 7th ‣ Ireland Music Week (Dublin, Ireland)

Oct 11th - 14th ‣ Mondo.NYC (NY, USA)

Oct 12th - 14th ‣ MaMa Convention (Paris, France)

Oct 13th ‣ Ditto X: Meet The Music Industry (London, UK)

Oct 19th - 23rd ‣ Amsterdam Dance Event (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Oct 19th - 23rd ‣ WOMEX ( Lisbon, Portugal)

Oct 25th - 27th - Redeye Label Hang (NC, USA)*

*we’ll be there!

🧐 WHAT YOU'RE UP TO

🎧 Catapult Recordings’ Cooper Anderson did an interview on the Other Record Labels podcast about starting a label when he was 14 years old!

🎤 Applications opened for the annual nonclassical Battle of the Bands competition, “championing the unusual, unorthodox and unheard”. Want the chance to perform at their annual showcase event in front of a friendly crowd and panel of industry experts? Apply here!

🎧 I N N I released Sounds of Fischer Vol. 1, ft Jónsi, Sin Fang, Kjartan Holm & Alex Somers

🎧 Hand in Hive released Wyldest's second album Feed the Flowers Nightmares

🎧 Father/Daughter released the new S. Raekwon EP, including a limited edition cassette

🎧 Double Double Whammy announced they'll be releasing Babehoven's first full length LP, Light Moving Time, on October 28th, and dropped its lead single, I'm On Your Team

🎧 Songwriter Paisley Fields, pianist for queer country pioneers Lavender Country, released his new album Limp Wrist on Don Giovanni

🗓️ After a hiatus Bandcamp started Bancamp Fridays back up, with the next event taking place October 7th