News Round Hill buys music rights from Herman Rarebell, original drummer in The Scorpions The Scorpions are estimated to have sold over 100 million records globally
News Jo Charrington named Co-President of EMI Records, teaming up with Rebecca Allen to run Universal’s biggest UK label Charrington signed and developed the likes of Sam Smith and 5SOS at Capitol
News Music’s next big-money buyout will be the Middle East’s Qanawat Music, sources tell MBW Qanawat Music operates as a music distributor across the Middle East and North Africa
Analysis News Spotify is paying $310m to Barcelona for a sponsorship. According to our calculations, that’s more than it’s ever paid an artist in royalties. Spotify announced its big deal yesterday. It's worth 89.08 billion streams.
News Universal’s Virgin Music strikes global partnership with Australia’s Mushroom Group Mushroom appoints Korda Marshall as International Director to co-lead the partnership with Mushroom Label and Publishing’s COO Chris Maund
News Ross Greening upped to SVP, European Regional Administration and Global Copyright/Society Relations, at UMPG Greening previously held the role of Vice President, Regional European Administration
News Tra’Von Williams joins Joie Manda’s Encore Recordings as VP and Head of Streaming Encore was launched in November 2021 by music industry veteran Joie Manda
News Catrin Drabble promoted to CFO at Kobalt, as Tom Sansone steps down Drabble joined Kobalt in 2017
News Trends and analytics platform P-MRC Data changes name to Luminate Luminate powers the Billboard charts
News PULSE Music Group forms publishing JV with Grammy-winning songwriter Starrah Starrah will sign and develop her own roster of artists, writers and producers
News Sony Music’s $430m acquisition of AWAL officially cleared by UK competition watchdog “Having carefully assessed the merger we found that it is not likely to affect competition in a way that will reduce the choice or quality of recorded music available or increase prices.”
News Mathew Knowles joins teaching staff at London music college LCCM – and there’s a full scholarship named after him, too. US music executive joins LCCM as a visiting lecturer
News HIFI closes eight-figure funding round with backing from Quincy Jones, Coran Capshaw, Diplo, 3LAU and more Michelle Jubelirer, Ron Laffitte, Gee Roberson, Tom Windish and many others also joined the round
Analysis News France’s recorded music industry topped $1bn in 2021 Results were published today (March 15) by French trade body SNEP
News TikTok’s partner for its new SoundOn distribution service is… TuneCore TikTok confirms that Believe's service has been signed up
Analysis News Is this the real reason Epic Games acquired Bandcamp? (Clue: It’s got nothing to do with the metaverse.) Did shock acquisition have more to do with Big Tech commission rates than it did virtual worlds?
News Jonathan Abon and Jordan Gremli join Utopia Music in VP Product roles Jordan Gremli has also been hired as VP Product, Creator Services, at the Switzerland-based company
News Ray Alba and Nathan Sheppard named Senior Vice Presidents of Marketing at Capitol Records Alba and Sheppard will co-lead the label’s marketing department