Warner Music Group In The News

Meta renews licensing deal with Merlin for independent music across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger

Merlin claims to represent 15% of the recorded music market

BMG outlines new structure for US frontline recorded music teams, led by Jon Loba

Separately, BMG has also appointed Alexandra Behrens as SVP of Global People Excellence

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…

After stepping down as Peloton’s CEO, Barry McCarthy cashes out $10m in Spotify stock

McCarthy recently stepped down as CEO of struggling connected fitness company Peloton

Sony, Universal, Warner and Merlin strike music licensing deals with Twitch for DJ livestreams

New deals do not apply to other uses of music on the platform such as VODs, Clips, and Highlights

Warner Music Group poaches Goldman Sachs’ Michael Ryan-Southern to lead global M&A

Widely respected finance executive to join WMG

Music streaming services come out swinging against Canada’s new ‘discriminatory tax’ that requires them to hand over 5% of their Canadian revenues

Canada’s Online Streaming Act requires streamers to contribute 5% of their annual revenue to a number of programs designed to aid Canadian content creators

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