Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web:
A video experiment from Spotify: Pop star Selena Gomez has a new single out, but there’s only one place to watch the accompanying music video. The video for “Bad Liar” is part of the Today’s Top Hits playlist on Spotify. It’s a vertical video that can only be watched on smartphones as part of that playlist. Spotify has been experimenting with video concepts in playlists, and this exclusive get is a different approach than it had previously explored.
Troy Carter on music’s value chain: Troy Carter, Spotify’s new global head of creator services, participated in a Q&A at the Music Business 2017 event. He discussed royalties and licensing rates in the current economy. “I think what needs to happen is we need to reconfigure the entire value chain,” he said.
UK streaming data: BPI has released data for the UK music industry in 2016. The yearbook found that David Bowie was the biggest artist for the UK listeners last year. The report also reviewed data about streaming from the Official Charts Company, which showed that nearly a quarter of all streams last year were of tracks released in 2016 and 23% of them were released in 2015.
FCC votes to start dismantling net neutrality: Under new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, the body has voted to begin the process of repealing net neutrality rules. Its plan is to eliminate Title II of the Communications Act, but Pai has not said whether the proposed changes would include rules to prevent ISPs from blocking or throttling access to legitimate websites, or prioritizing content in exchange for payment. The FCC is taking comments on its proposed plan through August 16.