Music Business Analysis

Robert Kyncl turns up heat on PRO metadata matching, and other things we learned from his NMPA keynote in New York

Warner boss was grilled by NMPA chief, David Israelite, at New York event this week

How Sony’s $6bn+ M&A splurge has set the pace for music acquisitions over the past decade

Rob Stringer claimed last month that Sony has outstripped spending at other major companies

What’s behind France and Canada’s music streaming taxes, and where could they happen next (hint: the USA?)

This year, two significant music markets – France and Canada – have slapped new taxes on the revenues of music streaming services

Analysis News

Music Publishers file complaint with US Federal Trade Commission against Spotify over audiobook bundle

NMPA has also referred the matter to the state attorneys general in Tennessee, New York, California, Colorado, Georgia, Connecticut, Illinois, Washington DC, North Carolina and Oregon

Analysis News

TuneCore has paid out over $4 billion to self-releasing artists to date

TuneCore has paid out around $1 billion since December 2022

Analysis News

From price hikes at Spotify to Warner’s major new hire… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up

The five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days…

Analysis News

Bill Ackman, a major Universal Music shareholder, just got richer – and much more ambitious. What might this mean for UMG?

How Pershing Square's new money-game connects to Universal Music Group – and the music business at large

Analysis News

Spotify’s bundle battle with songwriters dampens Reservoir’s earnings forecast for FY 2024

Three things we learned from Reservoir’s latest earnings call

Analysis

Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s catalog turned out to be worth more than a lot of people thought.

In light of Blackstone's latest bid, MBW crunches the numbers on what HSF spent on assets... and what they're worth now

Analysis News

From Sony Music’s reported Queen catalog talks to Live Nation’s DoJ battle… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up

The five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days…

Analysis News

Sony Music Group boss Rob Stringer talks acquisitions, artificial intelligence and how music streaming services should start charging free users

Sony Music wants to see an end to free music subscriptions, and 5 other things we learned from its latest investor presentation

Analysis Blog

‘It is unethical for generative AI companies to make money off the backs of artists and songwriters, without compensation or attribution.’

The following op/ed comes from Tracy Chan, a former SoundCloud, Twitch, and Spotify executive and currently the CEO of Australia-born AI music company Splash

Analysis

The DoJ is suing to break up Live Nation. What exactly does the lawsuit aim to achieve – and could the concert giant win?

The DoJ has its work cut out for it, if it wants to see Live Nation and Ticketmaster broken up

Analysis News

Three quarters of all royalties generated by UK artists on Spotify in 2023 came from listeners outside of the UK

Spotify has recently broken out streaming royalty data for a bunch of individual markets in Europe

Analysis

Suno could get sued by the record business. Who’s backing it with $125m?

Here, we take a look at Suno’s investors, their philosophies, and the other businesses they’ve put money behind...