News Merck Mercuriadis’ Hipgnosis just spent over $100m on a rock catalog, say MBW sources Who is the artist at the center of Merck Mercuriadis's latest nine-figure deal?
News Warner Music Group buys stake in virtual concerts platform Wave Warner says partnership will enable it to unleash "more powerful artist activations"
News Jay-Z reportedly finalizes TIDAL sale to Jack Dorsey for $302m (UPDATE)… as platform boasts of paying ‘4X more per stream’ than rivals Final sales price, as reported by TMZ, is over $50 million more than expected
News YouTube is now generating $2bn a month from ads – and grew faster than Netflix in Q1 Latest Alphabet results show 49% year-on-year growth in Q1 ads
News British songwriter Maya Delilah signs co-publishing deal with Amadeus Publishing and Bucks Music Group She has 4.8 million likes on TikTok
News From Downtown’s $400m copyright sale to Tencent’s trouble in China: It’s MBW’s Weekly Round-up The biggest music industry stories of the week, all in one place
News Warner Music Group partners with tech company Genies to develop avatars and NFTs for WMG artists Genies has previously built avatars for the likes of Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Rihanna, Migos, Cardi B and others
News EU accuses Apple of breaking competition law over app store rules, after Spotify anti-trust complaint Preliminary findings from the European Commission's anti-trust investigation published today
News Coldplay’s UK label bosses discuss new project and lead single, Higher Power Parlophone Co-Presidents Mark Mitchell and Nick Burgess on "a different type of campaign" and how Coldplay are always starting again
Analysis Goldman Sachs: Universal is worth over $50bn, and global music streaming revenues will rise $3bn this year Latest Music In The Air report has been obtained by MBW - and it'll put a spring in the industry's step
News European Music Managers Alliance hires Yvonne Stausbøll as its first Executive Director "This is a significant step for EMMA," says trade org
News BMG is speeding up payments for over 20,000 songwriters (which is also good news for KKR) Songwriters will be paid within 60 days rather than 90
Interviews Adam Leber nearly gave up on artist management. Now, with Lil Nas X and Miley Cyrus’ help, he’s smashing it. "There has to be a reason you're willing to base your life around an artist's – because that's what this job is."
News Yousician raises $28m in B Round, new investors include Amazon Alexa Fund and Paul McCartney’s MPL Ventures Silicon Valley firm True Ventures is the company’s lead investor
News Virgin Music Label and Artist Services partners with Hip-Hop label Biordi Music in Australia Label was launched in 2019 by Australian musician Lowkee
News Kim Lim promoted to Managing Director of Universal Music Malaysia Exec will oversee UMG’s operations throughout Malaysia
News Tencent could be hit with $1.5bn fine and forced to sell two music apps in China (report) Reuters reports that anti-competitive watchdogs could force TME to sell off Kugou and Kuwo
News Sony says it’s ‘aggressively pursuing’ music acquisitions… and buys a Mexican catalog to prove it Comment comes as Sony Music Group posts a strong quarter in the three months to end of March