Universal Music Publishing Group In The News

Amazon Music to bundle Audiobooks from Audible – and unlike Spotify’s bundling move, publishers say it won’t decrease revenue for songwriters

Audible’s library includes a US catalog of more than 1 million audiobooks

ChatGPT maker OpenAI, valued at $157bn, sued by GEMA in Germany over unlicensed use of song lyrics

GEMA represents the copyrights of around 95,000 members in Germany (composers, lyricists, music publishers) as well as over two million rightsholders worldwide

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Audio and video collab platform Pibox raises $1.2M, joins Google for Startups program

Pibox says its tools have led to an 86% increase in team efficiency “and sparked new and better ideas"

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Jon Platt accepts International Executive of the Year honor, pays tribute to Sony Music Publishing, the songwriting community and more at MBW’s Music Business UK Awards

Yesterday evening (November 5) saw MBW's Music Business UK Awards take place in Covent Garden, celebrating the very best that the UK music biz has to offer.

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Universal’s Virgin Music Group acquires Outdustry, expanding its presence in China and India

Universal's global indie artist and label services division acquires Outdustry to focus on expansion into 'high potential markets'

Analysis News

From Timbaland’s Suno partnership to UnitedMasters’ direct TikTok deal… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up

The biggest stories from the past week – all in one place…

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Jennifer Knoepfle promoted to Head of US A&R at Universal Music Publishing Group

Exec joined UMPG as Executive Vice President and Co-Head of US A&R in 2022

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NBA teams accuse music publishers including Kobalt of ‘extortion’ in copyright dispute, claim ‘fair use’

Fourteen NBA teams have been sued by music publishers over alleged unlicensed use of music in their social media posts