News Guy Oseary and Ashton Kutcher-led Sound Ventures launches $240m artificial intelligence investment fund Fund's first three investments were in Anthropic, StabilityAI and ChatGPT developer OpenAI
Analysis News HYBE’s revenues grew 44.1% YoY to $306m in Q1, driven by K-Pop stars Tomorrow x Together, Seventeen, Jimin and more HYBE’s revenues grew 44.1% YoY to 410.6 billion South Korea Won in Q1 2023, according to a new investor filing published on Tuesday (May 2)
News Matt Riley promoted to Managing Director of AWAL in the UK, Victoria Needs and Sam Potts upped to SVP roles Based in London, Riley will report directly to Paul Hitchman, President of AWAL
Interviews News The Taylor Swift ticket sale crash was a bit like a Prada store break-in… and 4 other things we learned from Michael Rapino’s new podcast interview Rapino was interviewed on the latest Bob Lefsetz podcast last week
Interviews ‘The industry has controlled what the consumer listens to for way too long.’ Emma Banks of Frtyfve and Instrumental is interviewed in MBW's Inspiring Women series
News Pandora’s monthly user base fell beneath 47m in Q1, as parent SiriusXM saw revenues dip 2% YoY SiriusXM has been struggling to retain Pandora’s user base since its $3.5 billion all-stock acquisition of the streaming company in late 2018
News Clubhouse to lay off over 50% of staff amid ‘resetting’ of live audio app The layoffs were revealed by Clubhouse founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth in an email to staff that was made public on Thursday (April 27).
News From Universal’s AI fightback to Primary Wave’s $100m deal in India… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up The biggest music biz headlines from the past week, all in one place
News YouTube ad revenue dropped 2.5% YoY in Q1, but paid subscription sales increased 9% The number of YouTube Music and YouTube Premium subscriptions reached 80 million towards the end of last year
Analysis Sony generated $2.18bn from recorded music and publishing in calendar Q1, up 9.7% YoY SZA's SOS was Sony Music Entertainment's biggest-selling project globally in the quarter
News Val Blavatnik joins Warner Music Group board, succeeding Alex Blavatnik Since 2021, Val Blavatnik has served on the investment team at LionTree, focused on the media and technology industries
News Triller to pay Sony Music $4.57m as video platform admits liability for breached licensing deal Sony says: "Prompt entry of judgment is needed to protect against any further dissipation of Triller’s assets or, worse still, a bankruptcy filing."
Analysis News Max Lousada on Warner’s dance strategy, A&R, AI and the ‘art’ of what’s possible with technology Max Lousada, CEO of Recorded Music at Warner Music Group, gave a keynote interview at IMS in Ibiza this week
News Lauren Spencer-Smith’s ex-manager files $45m lawsuit against Universal Music Group, alleging ‘libel,’ ‘slander,’ ‘tortious interference’ The lawsuit seeks USD $45 million in damages, including $25 million for alleged defamatory conduct
News With 2bn plays on YouTube per day, Epidemic Sound swung to positive EBITDA in 2022 Epidemic's solid gain in net sales in 2022 was made on “significantly stronger streaming revenues,” the company said in a statement
Analysis News Believe generated $213m in Q1, up 22.2% YoY Paris-headquartered music company Believe has published its financial results for Q1 2023 (the three months to end of March)
Analysis Universal Music Group: Yes, ripping off Drake’s voice for that AI track was illegal – and we’re certain of it. Sir Lucian Grainge and Michael Nash couldn't be more unequivocal: The rash of copycat AI voices, they say, is 'clearly illegal'
Analysis News Tencent Music’s independent artist platform reached 390,000 musicians at the end of 2022, adding 40,000 in Q4 alone Tencent Music Entertainment has published its Annual Report for 2022