News Splice acquires Spitfire Audio for a reported $50m as it bets on AI music creation Splice was valued at nearly USD $500m in 2021 after securing $55m in funding
Analysis News From Warner’s Crumbl copyright lawsuit to the EU’s Downtown deal probe… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up The biggest stories from the past week – all in one place…
News Tencent Music close to $2.4 billion deal to acquire podcast firm Ximalaya – with a potential payday for Sony Music Sony Music acquired 4.6 million shares in Ximalaya for a consideration of USD $50 million in 2020
News Confirmed: European competition regulator to assess UMG’s $775m acquisition of Downtown Music European Commission has accepted requests from Austria and the Netherlands to review the proposed acquisition
News Universal Music Group’s Downtown acquisition to be probed by EU competition regulator (report) The FT reports the probe will be announced on Friday (April 25)
News HYBE teams up with Spanish-language TV giant Telemundo on ‘first-of-its-kind’ competition and reality show to form a Regional Mexican group Members of the winning group will win $100,000 and a recording contract with HYBE Latin America
Interviews Oscar Höglund talks Epidemic Sound’s revenue growth and vast reach: ‘We get roughly 3bn daily views. That’s 20 Super Bowls per day, 365 days per year.’ MBW's World Leaders series meets Oscar Höglund, CEO of Epidemic Sound
News India’s Tips Music generated $9.1m in calendar Q1 as EBITDA grew 24% YoY Tips' operating EBITDA grew 24% YoY in calendar Q1 to reach USD $4.3m
News Universal Music Group Nashville rebrands as Music Corporation of America Mike Harris to Lead as President & CEO, and Dave Cobb as Chief Creative Officer
Interviews ‘If everybody’s running one way, you can’t be running the same way. You don’t need to be the 20th version of something.’ MBW’s partnership with the brilliant Did Ya Know? podcast continues with Adrian Sykes in conversation with RCA UK Co-President Stacey Tang…
News Spanish society SGAE distributed $378m to its members in 2024, as annual collections reached record $422m SGAE reports highest annual revenues in 125-year history
News Hannah Thompson-Waitt promoted to SVP, Commercial Strategy, at Virgin Music Group Exec previously served as Vice President of Commercial Strategy
News Meta launches Edits, a rival to TikTok parent-owned CapCut, with plans for expanded music options, including ‘royalty-free’ App is available on both iOS and Android
News Cookie giant Crumbl, reportedly eyeing $2bn sale, sued by Warner Music Group over ‘massive scale’ copyright infringement in TikTok posts WMG has sued US cookie chain Crumbl, alleging that it built its business through “blatant, willful, and repeated copyright infringement.”
Analysis News Tencent Music lets musicians generate AI tracks and send them directly to streaming app QQ Music TME's ESG report explains how the firm's AI capabilities have been expanded across the business
News Nicole George-Middleton promoted to EVP & Head of Creative Membership at ASCAP Most recently, George-Middleton held the positions of SVP of Membership as well as Executive Director of The ASCAP Foundation
Analysis ‘Any proposal to soften the UK’s position on copyright is taking away an artist’s right to build a sustainable career out of their work.’ The following MBW op/ed comes from Camilla Waite, General Counsel, PPL.