News Influence Media, in partnership with Warner Chappell Music, acquires publishing catalog of songwriter Jesse Frasure Influence Media Partners is a US-based music and rights company founded in 2019 and led by Lylette Pizarro, Lynn Hazan, Rene McLean, and Jon Jashni
News Concord buys again as it swoops for Mojo Music & Media’s catalog of more than 30,000 songs The catalog includes the works of the bands REO Speedwagon, KISS, and Cheap Trick
News Bryan Castellani appointed Chief Financial Officer for Warner Music Group Exec has spent more than two decades at The Walt Disney Company, most recently as CFO for Disney Entertainment & ESPN
News Rachel Jacobson appointed Senior Vice President, Creative Sync at Warner Chappell Music Exec previously served as Head of Sync and Artist Relations for the Paris-based Because Music Group
Analysis News Recorded music industry revenues hit $8.4bn in the US in H1 – but paid streaming account growth slowed again While growth in new subscriptions was slower in H1 2023 versus H1 2022, the subscription accounts that were already active in H1 2023 were paying more
News $200m-backed Multimedia Music acquires music library of Hollywood film company Millennium Media Multimedia Music says it has deployed over $150m on acquisitions since launching in late 2021
News Katy Perry sells music rights to Litmus Music in $220m+ deal Katy Perry has sold a bundle of music rights to $500 million-backed Litmus Music
News Head of trade body representing UK songwriters switches to run US trade body representing Spotify, Amazon, and Pandora (who not so long ago were fighting to cut songwriters’ pay) Davies is filling in the role left by Garrett Levin, who stepped down as DiMA’s top executive after relocating to Geneva, Switzerland
Interviews How Mewo.io plans to ‘revolutionize’ the sync music sourcing process using its AI-powered music search platform France headquartered Mewo is a catalog management platform with an AI-assisted search engine
News Gary Gersh steps down as President of Global Touring at AEG Presents Gersh to be succeeded by Rich Schaefer
News JKBX goes live, featuring listings to reserve shares in royalties from hits by Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran and more superstars Song royalties trading platform JKBX is officially live
News DistroKid acquires website hosting and e-commerce company Bandzoogle Bandzoogle offers various e-commerce tools allowing musicians to market and sell products directly to their fanbases
News Spotify launches new paid-for ‘Showcase’ recommendation tool, starting at $100 per promo campaign Whereas Marquee is aimed at promoting brand new music, Spotify is keen to highlight the potential use of Showcase for new releases as well as catalog releases
News Jennifer Lopez signs recording and publishing partnership with BMG for new album, ‘This is Me…Now’ Lopez’s first studio album in nine years will be released by Nuyorican/BMG
News Roger de Graaf and Ewout Swart named Co-Presidents of Spinnin’ Records The move will see De Graaf focus on artist relations and creative projects, while Swart will concentrate on on operations and global acceleration