News Warner Music Group to cut a further 10% of workforce, 600 jobs to go, in move to ‘free up more funds to invest in music’ Robert Kyncl confirms WMG is exiting its owned and operated media businesses, including Uproxx and IMGN
News Hipgnosis Songs Fund shareholders vote in favor of giving £20m ‘bung’ to bidders on its catalog Decision could result in multiple companies each being paid £20 million by UK-listed fund
News Downtown, Hipgnosis and NMPA rally behind Universal Music Group in its fight with TikTok Andrew Bergman, David Israelite, Merck Mercuriadis all publicly support UMG's position
News Merck Mercuriadis to exit CEO role at Hipgnosis Song Management, becoming Chairman; Ben Katovsky promoted to Chief Executive of company HSM, which has approximately $3 billion-worth of assets under management, counts Blackstone as a majority investor
News Big change at Universal Music Group: John Janick and Monte Lipman to head up newly-restructured label groups in the US Both key executives increase responsibilities at UMG
Analysis TikTok’s biggest headache in its fight with Universal Music Group is UMG’s publishing catalog (and 2 other observations on the feud the whole music industry is talking about) What's really going on behind the scenes of music's big Grammy Week fall-out
News Confirmed: Universal Music Group’s music will be removed by TikTok in the coming days TikTok spokesperson says platform is "sad and disappointed" by UMG statement from earlier today
Interviews The music industry is changing. Thomas Coesfeld is busy preparing BMG for what’s next. The BMG boss discusses the sweeping changes he's made at the Bertelsmann-owned company – and the future of music
Analysis News A year after he took charge as CEO, Robert Kyncl has quietly transformed Warner Music Group’s leadership Kyncl has hired multiple execs from his former employer, Google/YouTube; others have been handpicked from Disney, Instacart, Mastercard, and Justworks
Analysis As ‘artist-centric’ nobbles DIY aggregators, is a big-money ‘middle class’ distribution acquisition inevitable in 2024? Could any of the three majors, looking for a swift market share boost, execute a humdinger of an acquisition in the rest of 2024?
News Rick Gerson’s Alpha Wave Global, backer of Elon Musk and X, has invested in Gamma Gamma's logo started appearing on the section of Alpha Wave's homepage reflecting its investments earlier this month
Analysis Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s Chairman is determined to abolish Merck Mercuriadis’ ‘call option’. He was less bothered when Round Hill Music Royalty Fund’s investment manager had a near-identical clause. A tale of two call options...
Analysis News Merck Mercuriadis seems willing – currently – to trade in his ‘call option’ at Hipgnosis Songs Fund. So why is the company’s board offering to ‘bribe’ potential bidders with a £20 million bung in an attempt to offset it? Yesterday, this saga took a turn for the bizarre
Analysis Observations on Universal Music Group’s 2024 restructuring program The 'why', the 'where', and the 'how many' of the music biz's biggest story of the moment under the microscope
News As SoundCloud considers options for sale (or investment), it hires ex-Kobalt exec Tom Sansone as CFO and COO Sansone, who reports to Eliah Seton at SoundCloud, brings more than 20 years of global financial and operational experience with him across tech and music industries.