Showbiz Sandbox 595: Vinyl Sales and Payola on the Rise in Music Industry

With mid-year music revenue figures finally tallied it appears the growth of streaming music has begun to slow as vinyl sales has increase. Also on the rise are reports of payola as indie music artists can’t seem to get played on the radio without paying promoters for the privilege of being put in rotation. These promoters are using a loophole in the law which prevents record labels from paying radio stations in exchange for airplay.

Another loophole allows radio stations in the United States to avoid paying musical performers and creators when their song is actually played. The American Music Fairness Act looks to change that which will have a big impact on terrestrial radio.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how James Earl Jones will continue to provide the voice of Darth Vader thanks to artificial intelligence, Spotify gets into Audiobooks and Rihanna heads to the Super Bowl for the halftime show.

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Showbiz Sandbox 594: Fall Film Festivals Set The Stage For Awards Season

The annual film festivals in Venice, Telluride and Toronto overlap not only in their timing but often in their official selections and this year was no exception. As usual, titles that begin their festival tour as anticipated awards season contenders sometimes wind up as afterthoughts while unexpected discoveries gain wide recognition. The movie that took home the top prize in Toronto comes from a distinguished filmmaker who might be headed for a close encounter with an Oscar come Academy Awards time.

Speaking of filmmakers, and despite widespread reports to the contrary, Woody Allen says he’s not retiring after his next film, which is being shot in Paris entirely in French. He just said he was thinking of not making movies since most of them go straight to streaming services these days, which for a filmmaker, is kind of like… you know, retiring.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences plans to get its act together, big changes at CNN and The Phantom of the Opera winds up its historic Broadway run.

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Showbiz Sandbox 593: This Year’s Emmy Awards Turns Into A Rerun

The 74th Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards were held this week and they managed to honor most of the winners from last year’s ceremony. The same shows, and at times the same actors, continue to top most of the big categories. This begs the perennial question, what is the actual purpose of the Emmy Awards?

Meanwhile, the world’s second largest movie theater chain officially filed for bankruptcy. We discuss what this will mean not only for Cineworld, but also whether the move will affect the industry-at-large.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how “CoComelon” is creating video games for toddlers, the Sundance Film Festival names a new head director and a Bollywood movie tops the worldwide box office.

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Showbiz Sandbox 592: Why Is HBO Max Dumping Content?

At a time when streaming services are hoarding content in an attempt to attract subscribers and capture market share, Warner Bros. Discovery has taken the opposite approach with HBO Max; they are removing shows from their platform. Now comes reports that pulling shows from its library can save the company around $100 million annually. We explain where those savings might come from.

Certainly HBO Max won’t be dropping “House of Dragons,” one of three big fantasy shows to premiere over the last month. Is that too many shows with dragons and elves for audiences to watch at one time, or has each found significant viewership?

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the new agreement between streamers and music publishers, who killed the queen of crime novelists and the absurdity of nonstop reports about standing ovations at film festivals.

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