News Daniel Ek has now cashed out $800m+ in Spotify stock, with his latest transaction banking $28.8m Ek offloaded 50,000 shares on Wednesday at $576.94 per share, according to an SEC filing
News Create Music Group acquires again, swooping for indie electronic label Monstercat Create plans to invest additional $50m over the next two years in artist development, artist advances, and platform support across Monstercat’s roster
News Sara Nix and Joe Mortimer named Co-Heads of Creative at Capitol Music Group Nix joins Capitol after six years as Executive Producer at Partizan, while Mortimer previously served as Creative Director at Astralwerks
News YouTube is testing a Spotify Duo-like subscription tier in India, France, Taiwan and Hong Kong (report) The video giant is reportedly testing a new “two-person” subscription tier targeting couples, roommates, or any two individuals in a household
News Trump signals willingness to extend TikTok ban deadline again US President signals ban extension during NBC interview
News Apple approves Spotify’s app update in the US after Epic Games court ruling The development follows a court ruling that found Apple violated a 2021 injunction that banned it from imposing anticompetitive pricing
News Merlin joins Music Fights Fraud Alliance to tackle streaming fraud Shortly before joining the alliance, Merlin appointed Sarah McNabb as its first Director of Content Integrity
News Adrian Sarosi joins Luminate as Vice President, General Manager of International Based in London, Sarosi will oversee the company’s international expansion strategy
News Universal Music adopts newly launched Connex platform for music credit management The Connex platform links music creators and their preferred creator tools with labels, distributors, and publishers
News UK government to offer concessions on controversial AI copyright rules as vote nears (report) Ministers have reportedly drafted amendments to the data bill that include promises to conduct an economic impact assessment of the controversial changes
News NMPA says Spotify’s Q1 growth due to ‘undercutting of songwriters’ via audiobook bundling The NMPA says Spotify’s global subscriber and revenue growth is "being subsidized by US songwriters”
News BeatStars teams up with Sureel to block AI companies from training on creator content Sureel will register BeatStars’ entire marketplace catalog, allowing AI companies to see which content they’re prohibited from using in training AI
News Udio and Audible Magic team up to tackle rights management in AI-generated music A “content control pipeline” will allow streaming services and distributors to identify AI-generated tracks from Udio’s platform
News Jason Feinberg appointed SVP/Head of Kobalt’s music publishing platform KOSIGN Feinberg previously held roles at 138 Strategic, Universal Music Group and Pandora’s AMP platform
News Sony Corp strikes strategic partnership with BandLab Technologies to bring spatial sound and other tools to the company’s millions of users Initial phase of partnership integrates Sony’s Spatial Sound technology; co-branded hub within BandLab to act as gateway for future offerings