Posts by Murray Stassen

UMG asks court to dismiss US musicians’ union lawsuit over Udio AI deal

Universal Music has asked a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit brought against it by the American Federation of Musicians

News

Court declines to dismiss independent artists’ copyright class action against Udio – but moves the case from Illinois to New York

A federal judge has declined to dismiss the copyright class action brought against AI music generator Udio

Analysis News

Saregama, India’s oldest label, is using AI to make music videos for songs whose visuals it never owned – and refresh its catalog for Gen Z

Saregama's Managing Director was speaking on the firm's Q2 2026 earnings call

Analysis News

Reservoir generated $41.5M in calendar Q2, up 12% YoY, with recorded music revenues up 35%

Reservoir Media has published its financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2026 – the company's fiscal Q1 2027 (calendar Q2 2026).

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Spotify says it doesn’t need deals with all the majors to launch its AI covers and remixes tool

Comments landed hours after Spotify announced a licensing agreement with Merlin

Analysis News

The EU AI Act’s rules on AI content labeling and training are now law and enforceable. Here’s what they mean for the music business.

The European Union's rules requiring AI-generated content to be labeled took effect on Sunday (August 2).

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Stephanie Yu promoted to General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs at Sony Music

Yu will be responsible for overseeing the business, legal, and governmental affairs strategies and activities for the company globally.

Analysis News

Spotify hits 300m Premium subscribers in Q2, adding 7m, as streamer posts $762m operating profit

Spotify's total Monthly Active Users, which combine paying users and ad-supported users, reached 777 million

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Merlin signs Spotify licensing deal for AI-powered ‘fan-made’ covers and remixes

The tool will let fans create covers and remixes of songs from participating Merlin members' artists and songwriters.

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Warner Music Group and its CFO didn’t part ways because of a dud quarter – WMG filing shows subscription streaming revenues up 11% YoY in calendar Q2

Overall revenues up 9% YoY at constant currency to approximately $1.86 billion

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Suno loses copyright infringement lawsuit brought by GEMA in Germany

AI music generator Suno has lost the copyright infringement lawsuit brought by German collecting society GEMA. The collecting society alleged that Suno used, stored and reproduced copyrighted music to train its AI tool without a license or payment to the rightsholders. Reuters reported on Friday morning (July 31) that the Munich Regional Court found Suno … Continued

Analysis News

Universal Music Group generated $3.83B in Q2, up 13.3% YoY – driven by Noah Kahan, BTS, Olivia Rodrigo, Drake, and Olivia Dean

UMG published its fresh set of quarterly results on July 30

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UMG’s new releases in India will go exclusively to paid streaming subscribers for first 72 hours

Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of UMG, announced the move on the company's earnings call on Thursday (July 30).

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IFPI rolls out labels’ AI chart-eligibility rules across its global network of official music charts

IFPI has applied the framework to the charts it directly manages

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SoundPatrol sued by Lucas Keller and Oak Felder, who allege they helped develop its copyright-detection software without compensation

Soundpatrol struck partnered with Universal and Sony in September 2025 to detect copyright infringement in AI-generated music