金融時報:披頭士音樂平安夜登陸流媒體

所屬教程:金融時報原文閱讀

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2021年10月22日

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披頭士音樂平安夜登陸流媒體

全世界的披頭士樂隊(Beatles)粉絲今年將得到一份圣誕厚禮：這個偶像樂隊的所有唱片將于周四早晨在各大流媒體平臺上線。對很多用戶來說，這不僅代表的是一張他們聽了多年的唱片數(shù)字化這么簡單，而是“情懷”的問題。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

coup政變[ku?]

label商標['le?b(?)l]

lossmaking總是虧損的['l?s,me?k??]

segment分割['segm(?)nt]

tribute貢品['tr?bju?t]

The Beatles follow long and winding road to streaming services （478 words）

By Henry Mance, Media Correspondent

The Beatles'songs will be available on music streaming services from tomorrow, after the group's management company reached a deal with Spotify, Apple Music and other providers.

The move is a coup for the streaming companies, which have been attacked by artists such as Taylor Swift for their royalty rates, and which were unable to agree immediate access to Adele's new album.

All 13 of The Beatles' studio albums will go live at 12.01am local time on December 24 on nine music services: Amazon Prime, Apple Music, Deezer, Google Play, Microsoft-owned Groove, Rhapsody, Slacker, Spotify and Tidal.

The Beatles' recordings are controlled by Apple Corps, the band's own management company, and music label EMI. They did not appear on Apple iTunes until 2010, seven years after the launch of the download store, following what Steve Jobs, then chief executive, described as “a long and winding road”.

“In many ways this is quite early for The Beatles. Their estate is always fashionably late to the digital party,” said Mark Mulligan, a music industry analyst with Midia Research. “2016 is a coming of age for streaming.”

Although criticised for their payments by artists, streaming services are lossmaking, with income from advertising and subscriptions unable to cover the cost of royalties, marketing and technology development.

Unlike video streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, music streaming companies do not own content rights and seek to offer a comprehensive catalogue. They also face strong competition from YouTube, the Google-owned video platform, which argues that it does not have to pay to license music.

Major record labels earned $2.2bn from streaming services last year, but such revenues are also likely to undermine sales from CDs and individual downloads. The trade-off is crucial for The Beatles, whose label has continued to exploit the band's back catalogue, including a deluxe reissue of the 1 album this year.

However, Mr Mulligan said that The Beatles were unlikely to lose many album sales by being on streaming services because their fans are segmented across different platforms.

Although terms of the royalty payments were not disclosed, The Beatles' management company would have received “an amazing deal”, Mr Mulligan said.

The Beatles' absence from streaming services has given voice to tribute bands and other artists who have recorded their songs. A version of Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles Tribute Band has been streamed 7.4m times on Spotify. However, that is likely to have earned the tribute band only a few thousand pounds, according to estimated royalty rates.

The solo catalogues of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison are already available on streaming services. Lennon's version of Imagine has been streamed 21m times on Spotify — although that lags behind well behind the 256m plays racked up by Four Five Seconds, a collaboration between Mr McCartney, Rihanna and Kanye West that was released earlier this year.

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1.Who attacked s streaming services for royalty rates?

A.Taylor Swift

B.Radiohead

C.AC/DC

D.Prince

答案(1)

2.How many studio albums of The Beatles' will go live on Christmas Eve?

A.24

B.9

C.4

D.13