Australasian collecting societies APRA and AMCOS have struck an agreement to represent Universal Music Publishing in licensing the music publishing giant’s digital rights throughout Asia, excluding Japan. The multi-territory arrangement is non-exclusive, and was announced today. “Universal is proud to be the first music publisher to enter into a multi territory licensing and administration arrangement…

Google’s YouTube has renewed its contract with Vevo, and taken a stake in the company.  Reports suggest that with this new deal on the table that Google will get a 7% stake in Vevo for a $40-50 million investment.  YouTube said in  statement, “We made an investment in Vevo” also adding ”We are excited by their…

Last week’s No. 1, Kanye West’s Yeezus, fell by 80%, dropping to No. 3 on the Billboard 200—the largest second-week percentage drop for a No. 1-debuting album in more than a year. It sold 65,000 in its sophomore frame, compared with last week’s 327,000. Comparatively, the average second-week drop for a No. 1-debuting album in…

Terrestrial radio pays roughly 28% more to publishers per play, per listener than Pandora, according to Billboard estimates from numbers provided in blog posts by David Lowery and Jay Frank. But publishing is a small part of Pandora’s royalties. When payments TO all parties (publishers, record labels, performing artists) are taken into account, Pandora’s per-play, per-listener royalty is…