News Hacker who stole Ed Sheeran’s unreleased music to sell for crypto gets 18-month jail term in the UK Hacker illegally accessed cloud-based accounts of 89 artists, including Ed Sheeran and Lil Uzi Vert
News Taylor Swift’s Midnights ‘priciest’ ever digital album sold by Tencent Music in China (report) Midnights was released on Friday, October 21
News Adidas terminates Kanye West partnership, talent agency CAA drops him as a client Moves prompted by recent antisemitic statements made by the artist
News TikTok parent sells 46,000 Pico VR headsets in China in race to beat Meta ByteDance acquired Chinese VR headset maker Pico for an undisclosed amount last year
News Pollen owes £75m to creditors with only one potential buyer in sight (report) Report comes two months after the company fell into adminsitration
Analysis News Apple Music just raised its subscription price to $10.99 in the US. Will Spotify be next? In the US, starting from Monday (October 24), an individual Apple Music subscription will go up by $1 per month
News Merlin strikes multi-territory licensing deal with TikTok rival Kuaishou Kuaishou claims to have more than 1 billion Monthly Active Users worldwide
Analysis Why aren’t music royalties paid by the second? Stef Van Vugt, founder and CEO of Fruits Music, suggests some changes to the way royalties are earned – and paid out
News Nearly $700m has been paid to songwriters and publishers by the MLC to date The Mechanical Licensing Collective counts 22,000 members, after adding more than 6,000 in 2022
News YouTube Premium Family Plan price rises 28% to $22.99 per month in the US Subscribers were notified of the change via email
News Ahmed Nureni named General Manager of Warner Music Middle East, as Moe Hamzeh steps down after 5 years Nureni will also remain GM of Qanawat Music
Analysis News From BTS joining the military to Simon Cowell’s TikTok ‘talent show’… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up Our biggest stories of the week, brought to you in association with Centtrip
News Epidemic Sound bolsters management team with appointment of former Airbnb and Google execs Rikard Herlitz appointed Chief Technology Officer and Julian Persaud named Chief Commercial Officer
Analysis News Robert Kyncl’s to-do list. The new Warner Music Group boss may have these queries on his mind when he joins the music company in January
News Songtradr launches new ‘Smart Sync’ digital rights management tool Smart Sync 'offers the most advanced digital rights management technology in the market,' says Songtradr
News Brian Glover named Senior Director of Streaming at Create Music Group Glover joins Create from independent label Cinematic Music Group
Analysis News The three major music publishers now own or control over 10 million songs between them (kind of) Investor figures from the three majors suggest they are – or will soon be – looking after double-digit millions of songs
Analysis News This AI firm just raised $101m at a reported $1bn valuation – and music is one of its areas of focus Stability AI is described as the 'world's first community-driven, open-source artificial intelligence company'