News Switzerland’s MusicBird acquires publishing catalog of R&B duo and Drake collaborators Majid Jordan Majid Jordan have co-written and co-produced tracks for artists including Drake, Beyoncé, DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus.
News UK-based investor Independent Franchise Partners takes 3% stake in Universal Music Group worth $1.2bn+ Reuter reports that the transaction makes IFP the sixth-largest shareholder in UMG
News Casey Wasserman to sell talent agency amid fallout over Epstein files (report) Wasserman backer Providence Equity Partners says it 'remain[s] fully committed' to the agency
News Sony Group develops tech to track original music in AI-generated songs (report) When AI developers cooperate for analysis, Sony connects directly to their base model systems to extract training data.
News YouTube Music rolls out AI-powered playlist generator tool for Premium users The launch makes YouTube Music the latest to offer the feature as rivals Spotify, Amazon Music and Deezer have already rolled out the same tool in recent years.
News From UMG’s approved Downtown deal to Spotify’s AI ambitions… it’s MBW’s weekly round-up The biggest headlines from the past few days...
News The Empire Strikes Back: The majors and Merlin gained (a bit) of market share on Spotify last year. Spotify's new annual report updates a crucial yearly stat – with a surprise new number
News Scott Borchetta exits HYBE AMERICA Borchetta has served as the CEO of Big Machine Label Group since HYBE’s purchase of Ithaca Holdings in 2021.
Analysis News HYBE posts record annual revenues of $1.86bn for 2025 as K-Pop firm’s concert revenues hit all-time high – but operating profit plunged 73% South Korea-based entertainment giant HYBE has published its Q4 and FY 2025 earnings.
Analysis News NetEase Cloud Music now counts over 1 million registered indie artists The platform has published its FY 2025 results, in which it reported that its membership subscription revenues rose 13.3% YoY in 2025
News Warner Music Group plans to sell EMP, the merch business it acquired for $180m in 2018 Regulatory filings indicate that WMG signed a non-binding letter of intent to sell EMP.
News ASCAP paid out a record $1.76bn to songwriters and publishers in 2025 The US organization delivered a record $1.945 billion in revenue in the calendar year.
Analysis News Songs are reaching 1bn Spotify streams 14x faster than a decade ago, and other stats from Chartmetric’s 2025 Year in Music report The report highlights several notable shifts shaping the music economy.
News Sam Siegler and Mike Nucero named Creative Directors at Matt Pincus’ Trust Records Design duo behind the label’s visual identity formalize roles after four years of collaboration