News MBW’s Weekly Roundup: Vivendi, Beach Boys, Big Hit x UMG, Warner x Rotana, MLC The biggest music industry stories of the week, all in one place
News Theresa Adebiyi joins Troy Carter’s Venice as Director, Audience and Culture Adebiyi was previously Creative Director and Project Manager at Partisan Records
News Round Hill launches Sound Hill Neighboring Rights division Sound Hill will also offer royalty financing for neighboring rights
News Warner names six initial recipients of grants from its $100m Social Justice Fund Recipients include the Black Cultural Archives, Black Futures Lab, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC), Howard University, REFORM Alliance and Rhythm & Blues Foundation
News Former Shazam and LyricFind executive Will Mills joins UK music tech startup Audoo Firm recently closed a £5.2m series A funding round
News EMPIRE opens West Asia and North Africa division, hires Suhel Nafar as VP, Strategy and Market Development Most recently, Nafar worked at Spotify as the Global Lead of Arab Music & Culture
Interviews David Hodges on writing with Ed Sheeran, selling his catalog, and refusing to be fixated on fame The Grammy-winning writer and producer opens up on his career and his approach to songwriting
News Irving Azoff buys Beach Boys rights in what looks likely to be a $100m-plus deal Deal includes sound recordings, brand, select musical compositions and memorabilia
News Universal launches Virgin Music Label & Artist Services around the world, rebranding Caroline and Caroline International Virgin Music Label & Artist Services leadership teams appointed in the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan & Latin America
News Jill Pedone joins Sumerian Records as Chief Strategy Officer Company also plans to expand into London later this year
News Big Hit and Universal ‘rewrite global music history’ with joint K-pop label, expanded partnership Global search for K-pop boy band set to begin in 2022 as Bang Si-Hyuk and Sir Lucian Grainge announce new pact
News Spotify bins Secret Genius, launches Noteable hub for songwriters, producers and publishers Noteable to act as 'one central space for the community,' says SPOT
News Grammy-winning artist and songwriter Jacob Collier renews publishing deal with Concord Deal includes Collier’s full catalog and future works
News Spotify, Apple and others pay $424.38m in historical Unmatched Royalties to Mechanical Licensing Collective 'This is a massive win for music creators and the streaming services themselves,' says NMPA President & CEO David Israelite
News Warner Chappell enters publishing partnership with Atlanta record label LVRN Partnership is spearheaded by LVRN founders Tunde Balogun and Justice Baiden
News Another giant podcast buy: iHeartMedia to acquire Triton Digital for $230m Acquisition is the latest of iHeartMedia’s investments in the audio technology space
News Ditto Music launches training initiative for people from minority and working-class backgrounds Initiative will be comprised of a Training Programme and Music Industry Fair & Networking Event
News Zach Horowitz sees ‘immense’ opportunity in new podcast company for Latin listeners Former UMG exec says lessons learned from his Latin investments at major hint at the future possibilities for podcasts