News Tencent to acquire gaming device maker Black Shark to help it build the Metaverse (report) Black Shark to shift focus to virtual reality, says report
News Italy’s entire Top 20 albums and Top 10 singles in 2021 were from local artists Taxi Driver by Rkomi was the No.1 album in 2021
News Cosmos Music buys Ace Records catalog, including recordings by Etta James, B.B. King and more Catalog amounts to some 9,000 masters and 3,000 compositions
News Germany generated 165bn music streams in 2021… almost a fifth more than in 2020 716 million streams were generated on December 24 alone
News Arjun Pulijal named President of Capitol Music Group Arjun Pulijal first joined Capitol in 2013 as a Director of Marketing
Analysis News At least $5 billion was spent on music rights acquisitions in 2021. Could 2022 be even bigger? MBW rifles back through our 2021 headlines to get a grip on just how huge a year it was for music rights buyouts
Analysis News From WMG’s $250m David Bowie deal to catalog claiming 82% of the US market: It’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up The biggest stories of the week – and why they matter
News Nas to let fans buy shares in streaming royalties via NFTs on music investment platform Royal Royal closed a $55 million Series A round in November
News The Orchard bolsters artist and label roster in Africa, confirms three executive hires Key executives named in Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria
News NFT marketplace OpenSea valued at $13.3bn as it raises $300m in Series C funding OpenSea was founded in 2017
News Triller to go public in the US via merger with SeaChange Nasdaq-listed SeaChange will change its name to TrillerVerz Corp.
News Cutting Edge and Blantyre Capital commit $125m to acquire film and TV music rights A third of this sum has already been invested in music rights
News Believe acquires 51% stake in French indie label Jo&Co Jo&Co founder, Sébastien Saussez, will continue managing the label
News Round Hill Royalty Fund acquires publishing rights from country singer/songwriter Niko Moon Deal includes songs performed by Zac Brown Band, Avicii, and Sir Rosevelt
News US Judge recommends $80m+ in damages in case against stream-ripping services Case was brought by the RIAA and more than a dozen record labels including Universal, Warner and Sony