News As Universal Music hits begin to vanish from TikTok, UMG accuses platform of ‘unwillingness to appropriately compensate artists and songwriters, protect human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and address online safety issues’ Removal of UMG's catalog follows the collapse of the two parties' licensing talks
News Big change at Universal Music Group: John Janick and Monte Lipman to head up newly-restructured label groups in the US Both key executives increase responsibilities at UMG
News Primary Wave moves into Brazilian music with stake in Nas Nuvens Catalog (report) The deal reportedly involves Primary Wave taking a 50% stake in the three-year-old Brazilian music rights company
Analysis News As YouTube Music hits 100m paid subscribers, Lyor Cohen says the platform ‘cares profoundly about the health of the music industry’ YouTube has surpassed 100 million paid YouTube Music and Premium subscribers worldwide
Analysis 78% of small-to-midsize businesses in the US currently misuse personal streaming accounts to play music to their customers. It’s costing the music industry $1.38 billion per year. Ola Sars highlights an important opportunity in publicly-played music for rightsholders
News Sony Music Publishing UK appoints ZaZa Kazadi, Adrienne Bookbinder, Nasra Artan to senior A&R roles The new appointments come some two months after Sony Music Publishing UK reshuffled its A&R department
News TuneCore and Amazon Music UK partner to offer free studio time to independent artists Twelve self-releasing artists at TuneCore will be granted access to Metropolis Studios' Studio X
Analysis TikTok’s biggest headache in its fight with Universal Music Group is UMG’s publishing catalog (and 2 other observations on the feud the whole music industry is talking about) What's really going on behind the scenes of music's big Grammy Week fall-out
News Kenny Ong appointed Managing Director for Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore at Sony Music Ong to spearhead the company's expansion and strategic development across the region
News USTR’s ‘Notorious Markets’ Report doesn’t mention AI-voice cloning, despite RIAA’s efforts The USTR report identifies a 'complex ecosystem' of online services that enable digital piracy
News Warner Chappell Music signs Grammy-nominated R&B artist Coco Jones to exclusive publishing deal Jones is up for five awards at the forthcoming 66th Annual Grammys
News Big Machine Label ups Mike Rittberg to COO, Clay Hunnicutt to EVP, Label Operations Rittberg, a veteran of Universal Music Group, joined Big Machine in 2017, while Hunnicutt, formerly of Big Loud, joined in 2019
News US Copyright Office launches review of The MLC and DLC’s designations The periodic review is mandated under the US's Music Modernization Act of 2018
News Coldplay and Warner Music team up with MIT and Live Nation to tackle environmental impact of concerts A study to be released this year will assess the carbon footprint of concerts and suggest practical solutions to reduce emissions
News Confirmed: Universal Music Group’s music will be removed by TikTok in the coming days TikTok spokesperson says platform is "sad and disappointed" by UMG statement from earlier today
News Universal to stop licensing its music to TikTok… tomorrow The world’s largest music rightsholder just announced that its agreement with TikTok is set to expire tomorrow on January 31.
Interviews The music industry is changing. Thomas Coesfeld is busy preparing BMG for what’s next. The BMG boss discusses the sweeping changes he's made at the Bertelsmann-owned company – and the future of music
News Generative AI music market to be worth $3bn by 2028, says report commissioned by Sacem and GEMA The study found nearly unanimous support for payments to rights holders when their music is used to train AI