Wixen Music Publishing, Inc. — which holds rights to songs of major artists including Neil Young, The Doors, Tom Petty and Santana — charged in a lawsuit that Spotify failed to seek licenses for significant parts of its 30 million-song catalog.

“While Spotify has become a multibillion dollar company, songwriters and their publishers, such as Wixen, have not been able to fairly and rightfully share in Spotify’s success, as Spotify has in many cases used their music without a license and without compensation,” said the lawsuit filed last week in a federal court in Los Angeles.

The lawsuit said that Spotify initially tried to work with record labels but, “in a race to be first to market, made insufficient efforts to collect the required musical composition information.”

Wixen, which is seeking a jury trial against the Swedish company, presented a list of 10,784 songs for which it questioned Spotify’s permission to stream.

The publisher said it was seeking the maximum allowed $150,000 in damages for copyright damages for each song, meaning an award of at least $1.6 billion, along with the fees of its lawyers.

Spotify did not immediately comment on the latest suit. In May, it reached an agreement to settle a pair of two similar lawsuits under which Spotify said it would set up a $43.45 million fund to compensate songwriters.

Wixen called the settlement, which still needs final approval from a judge, “grossly insufficient” and said that it would opt out of the deal insofar as possible.

Even if unsuccessful, lawsuits amount to a headache for Spotify as the company considers going public.

Spotify, which has been valued at anywhere from $8 billion to $16 billion, has maintained its dominance as streaming rapidly grows and transforms the recorded music market.

Spotify said in July that it had 60 million users worldwide who pay for subscriptions, with 80 million more using its free tier.

THE AGE of digital transformation is dawning on Thailand’s economy and society as evidenced by crucial developments in banking, retail and other sectors.

The Bank of Thailand reported that commercial banks had shut down nearly 300 bank branches in the country in 2017 as customers moved towards Internet and mobile banking services, ushering in a new era of digital banking.

In the meantime, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) is leading the pack by launching its “SCB Express” concept – fully-automated banking centres in various Bangkok locations.

SCB and Kasikorn Bank are seeking regulatory approval to operate e-commerce platforms to link millions of mobile customers with vendors of various goods and services, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In the retail sector, SCB is working with The Mall group, one of Thailand’s biggest retail and shopping centre chains, to introduce an automated cashier-less supermarket service at selected locations.

Central department store group has joined forces with China’s No 2 e-commerce giant, JD.com, to create an “online marketplace”, and the country’s top e-commerce sites, led by Lazada (part of the Alibaba group), 11 Street and Shoppe, have been challenging traditional retail models with disruptive technologies.

With many payments now possible through the ease of touching a mobile-phone screen or waving a card, consumers are expecting more from goods and service providers.

E-commerce, mobile payments using QR Codes, digital banking on the go, cashier-less grocery shopping and other innovations will start to become the norm this year as traditional business models merge with digital technology to stay relevant. Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming the new tool for banks, retail chains and other service providers to stay ahead of their consumers’ expectations.

Since machine-learning technology is now cheaper and easier to manage, it is likely that predictive analytics that capitalise on the abundance of consumer and other data will be more widely used by Thai businesses and industries.

AI will soon usher in a new term, “machine commerce”, in which transactions are automatically generated by computer software using the huge amount of available data in real time.

This will happen this year if the major commercial banks get approval from the Bank of Thailand to launch e-commerce platforms that automatically match millions of bank customers with SMEs and other vendors.

Kasikorn Bank has said it has about 7 million mobile customers and is enlisting SMEs to join its proposed e-commerce platform pending regulatory approval, while SCB has about 6 million mobile customers and is planning a similar marketplace platform.

AI and machine learning will become more commonplace in other sectors, especially in logistics and warehouse management as well as in food, beverage and other manufacturing sectors in which the use of robots and automation systems is rapidly replacing human workers.

To facilitate the advent of a digital economy and society, government and private sector organisations have joined forces to launch the National Digital ID programme to provide reliable online confirmation of personal identities for various activities, including online government services and financial transactions. For example, a person may open a bank account online using the government’s demographic database to verify his or her identity based on the 13-digit ID number assigned to each person.

Such a use will be sanctioned by law to ensure that this and other online activities are legally binding in the digital age.

AS PART OF Thailand’s aspiration to become a cashless society, the country will soon adopt a new nationwide e-payment method using the so-called QR Code familiar to social media users.

The Bank of Thailand has approved plans by five commercial banks to introduce the QR Code e-payment service – Kasikornbank, Siam Commercial Bank, Bangkok Bank, Krungthai Bank and Government Savings Bank.

The addition of the service is expected to help reduce dependence on cash transactions as more businesses are set to accept the new e-payment method.

During a recent experiment in using the service at Bangkok’s Chatuchak Sunday market, more than 1,000 small vendors as well as service providers including motorcycle taxis accepted payment from customers using their mobile phones to transfer money via the QR Code.

The method is convenient and carries no additional transaction costs for either sellers or service providers.

The QR Code e-payment platform was pioneered by China’s e-commerce and social media giants, Alibaba and Wechat, which operate the Alipay and Wechat Pay apps respectively.

Its popularity makes it possible to live in China today without having to use cash for most goods and services.

China is now the world’s leader for QR Code e-payments, which has disrupted more traditional payment services such as debit and credit cards.

The huge number of Chinese tourists in Thailand, totalling nearly 10 million per year, has also prompted the early adoption of the e-payment method among Thai convenience stores and retail operators.

Earlier, the Thai government launched the PromptPay e-payment service for domestic use, making free of charge small-value money transfers via bank accounts.

The PromptPay popularity is expected to further grow when the QR Code system is added to the e-payment platform.

To facilitate nationwide adoption of the new platform, the central bank has taken steps to endorse a single Thai QR Code standard in accordance with the international system for mobile applications.

In practice, consumers after downloading an app for the service that matches their bank accounts could turn their smartphones or other compatible devices into electronic purses by scanning a seller’s QR code to pay for purchases at various goods and services outlets.

The money would then be automatically transferred from the buyer’s bank account into the seller’s account based on a similar arrangement with their participating bank.

The central bank has said that in a future stage it would expand the e-payment platform to cover holders of credit cards so as to make it more versatile.

Overall, the platform is a crucial element of Thailand’s emerging digital economy and society in which the lifestyle of consumers increasingly is closely tied to mobile phones and other smart devices.

For the government, any form of electronic payment is useful since it creates electronic records on transactions that make tax collection more efficient. In addition, the economy will benefit from more electronic transactions by increasing efficiency – cash transactions are more expensive due to higher costs.

For vendors, there is no additional transaction cost since banks are keen to provide the service free of charge at this stage, with some banks even offering additional financial incentives to early adopters without conditions requiring minimum payment per transaction.

The new service will help banks stay close to both consumers and businesses, big and small. This would allow banks to make use of the huge amount of data generated by both buyers and sellers in multiple ways.

While electronic transactions offer definite convenience advantages for consumers, experts warn that they should ensure that their personal devices are fully secured.

People on social media said money had been debited from their accounts using the government-sponsored platform but the recipients at the other end had not received the funds. That prompted the Bank of Thailand to issue a statement clarifying the situation in which it said a computer error transfiguring the last day of 2017 into that of 2018 had wreaked havoc.

According to Chantrawan Sujaritkul, the central bank’s spokesperson, the glitch happened at about 7am yesterday, after which Wanna Noparporn, managing director of National ITMX Co, which operates the PromptPay platform, said the problem would be fixed quickly.

The national money transfer service returned to normal at about 2.30pm yesterday. The central bank said users should not worry as everyone would receive their funds.

Some 53 bankers from 17 commercial banks will participate in the workshop, according to a statement from the International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh (ICCB) yesterday.

Besides, 45 bankers from Thailand and 17 participants from Cambodia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal and Vietnam will take part in the programme.

The ICCB is organising the workshop jointly with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and the ICC Thailand.

The main objective of the workshop is to allow the Bangladeshi bankers to interact with their counterparts in Thailand and understand international trade finance scenario.

The event will also enable the participating bankers to comprehend ICC rules and tools based on real life cases and guide them to undertake secure and successful international trade and finance and avoid risks in cross-border transactions.

ICCB President Mahbubur Rahman will attend while Secretary General Ataur Rahman will coordinate the workshop.

Research conducted by Booking.com for Business has revealed that almost a third (30%) of all working professionals accepted their job fully or in part because of the business travel opportunities it offered and over a third (38%) would actively pursue a new job if it offered more business travel. Travel opportunities are even more of a lure than salary for some, with 31 percent prepared to take a lower paying job if it meant more travel. With this in mind, has business travel been underestimated as a highly valued workplace benefit?

One potential reason for this is that business travel is not what it used to be. In fact, the way business travellers book, manage and conduct their corporate travel has evolved dramatically. Thanks to a rise in tap as you go technologies, business travel is not as burdensome as it might have been in the past. With these tools, last minute bookings and travel arrangements are not only feasible, but make the process as seamless as possible.

What’s more, many businesses are now building in more flexibility when it comes to work travel, with some even creating specific policies that enable employees to add leisure time to a work trip. Thanks to this increased flexibility, the majority of those that travel for business now make time for leisure activities during work trips (73%). For many, this is now a key work perk, with almost half (45%) of those surveyed valuing the ability to blend business travel with leisure activities over more traditional workplace benefits.

Recognising its many benefits, both personal and professional, it is unsurprising that an increasing number of professionals today seek increased opportunities and roles encompassing corporate travel. It brings a significant value add to their professional fulfilment, with 60% agreeing that experiencing new cultures and destinations adds value to their job. Of course, what exactly underpins this value varies between professions.

For creatives, business travel can provide inspiration, for those in professional services, face to face meetings often strengthen client relationships and provide networking opportunities – and for those who work for an NGO, having the opportunity to travel for business is a fundamental part of international development. More generally, we are living in an increasingly connected world, and the reality is that for many businesses, global appeal and reach is crucial. In such a world, travelling and getting to experience different destinations and cultures has something to offer every professional, no matter their industry.

Whilst the benefits of business travel can be seen clearly across a wide variety of professions – business travel, or at least the opportunity to incorporate leisure travel during a work trip, has been found to be most valued by the ‘millennial’ generation. Business travel is even more of a motivator for the millennial employee – 46% would pursue a new job for more travel and 37% accepted their job because of it. This must be a wake-up call to employers, considering that millennials are expected to make up 50% of the global workforce by 2020 and will be critical to the future of many businesses.

Employee loyalty goes hand in hand with employee welfare, and business travel is an underused bargaining chip when it comes to maintaining a high level of employee satisfaction. Professionals are recognising that being able to travel for work purposes is key to their development, performance and ultimately, fulfilment – to the extent that for some employees, the opportunity for business travel can be more important than compensation. With an eye to the future, flexible corporate travel policies will be more crucial than ever as a workplace benefit, as the millennial generation come to represent the majority of the workforce. In this way, employers will do well to mirror the millennial mind-set – seeing travel as essential to professional success.

Ripsy leads the business’s Booking.com for Business division where she is responsible for overseeing product development and growing commercial relationships that help Booking.com build its presence in the business travel arena.

Chairman Jitti Tangsithpakdi said that although the Fed would raise interest rates as the markets expected, the US dollar was likely to depreciate as markets still saw a slower-than-expected US economic recovery.

The baht is therefore projected to appreciate against the dollar to 32.62 next year, which would result in lower local gold prices.

The gold price is forecast to see a low of Bt18,500 per baht weight or $1,150 an ounce, he said.

Next year’s recommended strategy is short-term investment and avoiding long-term investment, Jitti said.

This year, short-term investors could reap a 10-per-cent gain from gold, he added.