News MBW’s Weekly Roundup: BMG x KKR, CTM, Universal, Eliah Seton, Matt Gudinski The biggest music industry stories of the week, all in one place
News Kardinal Offishall appointed Senior Vice President, A&R at Universal Music Canada Artist and exec works closely with the company’s Urban Marketing team led by industry veteran Craig 'Big C' Mannix
News Patreon is now valued at $4bn after raising $155m in latest funding round Platform's creators have earned over $2bn since the company’s inception in 2013
News Official: Eliah Seton named President of SoundCloud Seton joins SoundCloud from Warner Music Group
News Another $1bn washes into the music business, as CTM partners with US fund to buy publishing and master rights Partnership has already acquired over 1,000 songs from TEN Music Group, including hits by Rihanna and Shakira
News Tencent-owned music streaming service JOOX inks licensing deal with Merlin Agreement licenses Merlin content via JOOX’s ad-supported and premium tiers, as well as its karaoke feature
News Spotify opens personalized ‘On Repeat’ playlist to brand sponsorship Playlist opens for sponsorship across 30 markets in North America, Europe, Latin America, and APAC
News Sony Music Publishing India signs global deal with Anand Audio Company represents over 5,000 tracks and over 700 original Kannada film soundtracks
News Universal and Republic team with Wassim ‘SAL’ Slaiby to launch Universal Arabic Music New label 'will create new opportunities to advance Arabic music and culture with global partners, platforms and brands,' says UMG
News TikTok strikes multi-territory licensing deal with South Africa’s SAMRO/CAPASSO Through CAPASSO's existing partnerships, the deal will cover 58 territories across Africa
News This robot rapper has 9m followers on TikTok. The company that created him thinks traditional A&R is ‘inefficient and unreliable’ Anthony Martini, co-founder of Factory New, tells MBW about the concept behind his new label, its virtual artists and company's future goals...
News David McConnell promoted to Chief Technology Officer at Songtradr McConnell started at Songtradr in February of 2020 as Director of Technology Architect
News Katy Wolaver promoted to Senior Vice President, A&R and Wallace Joseph to VP, A&R at Warner Chappell Music They have helped to sign and develop talent such as Ava Max, Summer Walker, Sasha Sloan and others
News Influence Media Partners launches $100m fund to invest in catalogs of female music creators Influence Media is led by Founder and Co-Managing Partner Lylette Pizarro, and Co-Managing Partner Lynn Hazan
News Warner’s ADA Worldwide launches icons+giants JV label in partnership with Billy Mann and Benton James Mann has sold over 110m albums as a hit producer and songwriter; James is a former Head of Urban A&R for Red Bull Songs