Spotify paid out more than $7 billion to the recording industry last year, more than other services “and more than any single retailer in history in a single year,” blogged CEO Daniel Ek Thursday. Major label streaming services “are healthier than ever,” said Ek, noting publishers earned over $1 billion from Spotify for the second straight year. Some 100 Spotify professional artists protested in Los Angeles this month about the music streaming service's payouts and priorities, the Los Angeles Times reported. Grammy Award-winning songwriter Kennedi Lykken, who has written for Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande and Britney Spears, said her last royalty check from Spotify totaled $432. “I’m not ungrateful, but I can’t live on that," she said. In 2021, over 1,000 artists generated more than $1 million from Spotify alone; 50,000 generated $10,000-plus, Ek said. Spotify generates more than a fifth of global recorded revenue, he said, saying multiplying those amounts by four gives an estimate of “how much the artist is generating beyond just Spotify.” Ek compared the music publishing business to the “hyper-competitive worlds of film or sports,” noting, “it’s difficult to make it in music. I get that." The streaming service's published royalty fixtures "show that Spotify is improving on the music industry of the past, and more and more artists are able to stand out in the streaming era,” Ek said. Among Spotify artists generating $10,000 or more from the service, 28% “self-distribute,” and 34% lived in countries outside the top 10 music markets, he said, noting the industry is “less concentrated” today than in the CD era when a quarter of sales went to the top 50 artists. At Spotify, 12% of sales come from the top 50 artists, he said. The service has paid out over $30 billion since its launch, he said.

The pandemic-fueled surge in subscriptions for over-the-top video services (sub OTT users) is slowing, said eMarketer Wednesday. Over 677.4 million people worldwide, including projections for 2022, will have joined the ranks of sub OTT users in the three years since the pandemic began, but the positive effect of stay-at-home trends fueled by COVID-19 is “fading,” and subscriber adds will shrink to 269.4 million over the next three years, said the company. For 2022, global sub OTT usership will grow by 9.1% -- compared with 26% in 2020 -- with video viewing one of the most common digital activities globally, it said. Over 1.8 billion people will use a sub OTT service at least once a month this year, double that from four years ago; the figure is expected to reach 2.2 billion by 2025, it said. More than 55% of all digital video viewers will pay for at least one service this year; that compares with YouTube viewership at 63.5%, it said.

Two legal fights over attempts to charge streaming services local video franchise fees are heading from federal courts to state jurisdictions. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Beatty in East St. Louis, Illinois, sided Thursday with Shiloh, Illinois, in its request that its franchise fee suit be remanded to the state Circuit Court in St. Clair County, Illinois. Beatty said in his docket 3:21-CV-807 order that numerous federal courts facing similar streaming franchise fee suits have favored remand to state courts since the litigation involves state taxation regimes. Being sued are DirecTV, Dish Network, Disney, Hulu and Netflix, which had opposed Shiloh's motion. The same defendants dropped their appeal of a U.S. District Court decision to remand a video franchise fees fight to Georgia state court. In a docket 21-13111 order Thursday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the appellants' motion to dismiss.

Netflix is testing features for subscribers in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru to limit password-sharing, it said Wednesday. Its policy that allows people who live together to share a Netflix account with separate profiles and multiple streams has “created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared,” the company said. It's working on ways to monetize password-sharing among members who share “outside their household,” so they can still “do so easily and securely, while also paying a bit more.” Members in the test countries who are on standard and premium plans can add two “sub accounts” with independent profiles, personalized recommendations, login and password for about $3 a month. Netflix will study results from the tests of the two features in the three countries “before making changes anywhere else in the world.”

Social network Gab overhauled its Gab TV video hosting platform with a new video player and backend video processing system to improve speed, it said Thursday. It said it plans to implement Gab Ads into the platform so some creators can monetize content. It said Gab TV uploading is available only to Gab paid subscribers, but it's working on a free version with some storage limits. Gab said it also expanded and improved its cloud infrastructure.

The FCC’s Media and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureaus will co-host a virtual forum on audio description for online video March 28, at 1 p.m. EDT, said a public notice in docket 21-140. “Consumers currently watch a large volume of video programming online, but the availability of audio description online is inconsistent,” said the PN. The event will include an introduction from Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer, and executives from Apple, Paramount, NBCUniversal and PBS Kids, plus American Council of the Blind representatives. The forum will focus on the availability of audio description for online video and ways to enhance accessibility, the PN said. The agency had a similar forum on online captioning in December (see 2112020075).

Arkansas' Video Service Act (VSA), like comparable laws in other states, doesn't apply to Netflix and Hulu because they don't provide "video service" and thus don't owe franchise fees, Dish Network told the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday. In a docket 21-3435 amicus brief backing the streaming services, Dish said the lower court was correct in saying even if they did provide video programming, it falls in the "public internet" exception in the VSA. Counsel for Ashdown, Arkansas, which is appealing the lower court's decision (see 2112230003), didn't comment. DirecTV filed a similar brief this week (see 2203150067).

Former President Donald Trump joined criticism of DirecTV dropping One America News (OAN) (see 2203140015). "It is far bigger and more popular than anyone knows, and importantly, it represents the voice of a very large group of people!!" he said in a statement Monday. Though AT&T spinoff DirectTV is dropping OAN, Trump seemingly conflated it with CNN owner WarnerMedia and criticized Warner -- which AT&T is in the process of selling -- for the OAN move. DirecTV didn't comment Tuesday.

Netflix scheduled the release of its first-quarter results for April 19, after the markets close at 4 p.m. EDT, said the company Tuesday. It's forecasting Q1 global streaming paid net additions of 2.5 million, which would be down nearly 70% sequentially from Q4 and 37% fewer than in Q1 2021. Analysts said Netflix lost about $50 billion of its market value in the 24 hours after its Jan. 20 earnings announcement in which it said it finished Q4 falling nearly 3% short of its projected global net additions (see 2201210003).

Facing suits seeking franchise fee payments for its streaming service, DirecTV told the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals it agrees with a lower court's rejection of similar litigation against Netflix and Hulu. In a docket 21-3435 amicus brief Tuesday, DirecTV said the Arkansas Video Service Act, on which the city of Ashdown's suit relies, doesn't support the Arkansas community's claims against Netflix and Hulu. Ashdown, which didn't comment, is appealing the lower court decision (see 2112230003).