News TikTok was the most downloaded and highest grossing non-game app worldwide in H1 2021 App reached nearly 383m first-time installs and approximately $919.2m in consumer spending in H1 2021
News The Orchard inks global distribution deal with UK independent label BE83 Music BE83 houses recordings, management, content creation and publishing
News Timbaland’s sample marketplace Beatclub to provide exclusive beats for Red Bull breaking competition Beatclub was founded by Timbaland and longtime business partner Gary Marella
News Major record companies hammered by UK politicians’ streaming inquiry report DCMS report recommends British competition authority investigates majors, MBW is told
News The Weeknd, Wassim ‘SAL’ Slaiby and Craig Kallman invest in personalized song creation firm, Songfinch Songfinch has raised $2 million in an oversubscribed seed financing round
Interviews ‘Partnership deals are the future of the music business.’ Sarah Scott, Managing Partner of LaPolt Law, discusses artist and label partnership deals, contractual pitfalls, and the advice she’d offer to a younger version of herself
News Virtual concert startup Flymachine raises $21m with backing from Coran Capshaw, Bill Silva and Marty Diamond The financing was led by Greycroft Partners and SignalFire
News Nick Dearmun promoted to General Manager at Three Six Zero Recordings Prior to joining Three Six Zero in 2019, Dearmun worked at Columbia Records UK for five years
News Christina Erskine joins Warner Music as SVP Marketing & Promotions Australasia Cathy Oates and Rich Wiles have also joined the company
News Universal’s Virgin Music Label & Artist Services inks global distribution deal with Serbian hip-hop label Balkaton Balkaton is home to regional artists such as Rasta, Alen Sakić and Link
News Nancy Dubuc joins Warner Music Group Board of Directors Dubuc is currently Chief Executive Officer of VICE Media Group
Analysis News Over 66% of all music listening in the US is now of catalog records, rather than new releases New MRC Data report shows how catalog has increased its dominance over new music in 2021
News Maneskin end Olivia Rodrigo’s 7 week run at No.1 on Spotify’s Weekly Global Top 200 chart The band's Four Seasons cover Beggin' hit No.1 on Spotify's Weekly Top 200 Global Chart
News Natalie Waller elected Chair of Australia’s ARIA Waller has been a member of the ARIA Board since February 2019
News My Sweet Lorde: Are Plagiarism Cases Getting… Gentler? Eamonn Forde notes that more recent accusations of copycatting in music have ended cordially
News Could this technology, built by a Grammy-winning producer, blow up music’s ‘black box’ once and for all? SonicData believes its watermarking technology solves music's metadata problems
News Sony Music backs new Oasis documentary, produced by Noel and Liam Gallagher The film, Oasis Knebworth 1996, will be financed and distributed by Sony Music Entertainment
News BTS Butter co-writer Rufio Hooks signs worldwide publishing deal with Reservoir In May, Butter broke the all-time record for day-one streams on Spotify