News – Music Business Worldwide

Latin America is catching North America as Spotify’s second-biggest subscriber market – and over 1 in 10 people there now pay for it.

Tim Ingham — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 20:09:25 +0000

Spotify's Q3 2026 shareholder deck shows that Latin America accounted for 24% of the company's 306 million Premium subscribers at the end of September.

Source

Phoebe Bridgers and Sombr producer, Tony Berg, launches new JV label with Warner Records

Rafaela Fornitani — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 18:36:45 +0000

The new label, Crime & Punishment Records, has signed singer-songwriter Elle Bramhall as its first artist.

Source

Liz Morentin launches communications agency Greenvalley Media & Marketing

Rafaela Fornitani — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 16:13:55 +0000

Morentin most recently served as Senior Vice President and Head of Global Communications and Brand Strategy at Virgin Music Group, Universal Music Group's global independent music division.

Source

Three Six Zero launches Entertainment & New Media division, led by Rebecca Dowell

Rafaela Fornitani — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:45:43 +0000

Dowell will look to sign digital creators, multi-hyphenate creatives, and IP-based projects, according to the company.

Source

Chad Hugo accuses Pharrell Williams of trying to ‘erase’ him from The Neptunes, as he fights bid to throw out lawsuit

Mandy Dalugdug — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:31:42 +0000

Hugo's lawyers accuse Williams of an "effort to rewrite history and turn The Neptunes' success into the work of only one person."

Source

Suno admits it has not deleted all the recordings used to train its AI, in answer to UMG and Sony’s ‘laundering’ lawsuit

Murray Stassen — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:25:36 +0000

The 44-page answer was filed on Tuesday (October 20) in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and reviewed by MBW.

Source

Defected founder Simon Dunmore acquires majority stake in House Culture: ‘I was premature in my retirement’

Mandy Dalugdug — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:25:13 +0000

Simon Dunmore, the founder of UK house music label Defected Records, has acquired a majority shareholding in House Culture, a media brand that started life as an Instagram page. House Culture now plans to grow into a “global platform dedicated to documenting, celebrating and furthering the culture” of house music. Dunmore‘s involvement stems from a … Continued

Source

Spotify launches native in-car app with Audi – less than two years after switching off Car Thing

Mandy Dalugdug — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:24:57 +0000

Spotify discontinued Car Thing in 2022, taking a one-time charge of EUR €31 million (around USD $31.4 million) on the device in Q2 2022.

Source

EMPIRE founder Ghazi launches B2B music infrastructure company Supply Chain globally, with Beatport-owned Ampsuite as launch partner

Mandy Dalugdug — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:24:46 +0000

Supply Chain has also hired Craig May as SVP, Marketing, and Kristy May as SVP, Business Affairs.

Source

Universal Music Group becomes first major music company to license TYGER, which uses AI to adapt songs to gameplay in real time

Mandy Dalugdug — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:23:14 +0000

Select recordings and songs from UMG's recorded music and publishing catalogs will become available on TYGER's paid, on-demand subscription service.

Source