US music publishers settle on 15.35% for 2023 to 2027 mechanical streaming rates, avoiding costly legal fights with Amazon, Apple, Google, Pandora, and Spotify (Jem Aswad/Variety)

Jem Aswad / Variety:
YouTube says Music and Premium together have 80M+ paying subscribers, up from 50M in September 2021, and payments to creators and others reached $50B since 2019  —  It’s a dramatic leap, especially for a platform where so much can be had for free, and would seem to place YouTube …

Jem Aswad / Variety:
YouTube says it paid over $6B to the music industry between July 2021 and June 2022, up $2B YoY, and that user generated content drove more than 30% of payouts  —  YouTube, the world’s largest streaming platform for music, announced that it has paid more than $6 billion to the music industry …

Ariel Shapiro / The Verge:
Spotify releases Wrapped 2022 for users, adding a “music personality” feature, and says Joe Rogan, Emma Chamberlain, and others were its top podcasters  —  Spotify Wrapped is here, and with it, a slew of year-end charts, data, and graphics ripe for sharing.

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Roku reports Q3 revenue up 12% YoY to $761.4M vs. $694M est., 21.9B streaming hours, and 2.3M streaming accounts added; stock drops 17%+ on weak Q4 guidance  —  Roku handily topped Wall Street estimates for the third quarter of 2022, as the streaming platform and media company packed …

The Verge:
Spotify updates its iOS app to remove audiobook purchasing options, saying in a message to users that “it’s not ideal”, to comply with Apple’s App Store rules  —  An update for Spotify’s iOS app released Thursday had a big change for its audiobooks vertical — and not for the better.