Analysis News In tough year for merch sales, Bravado CEO exits Universal Music Group Stat Of The Week: Universal Music Group had its best ever quarter in Q3 2020, generating over $2bn... despite its merch division seeing revenues fall 44.4% year-on-year
News iHeartMedia acquires podcast technology company Voxnest iHeartMedia owned a minority stake in Voxnest prior to this acquisition
News Secretly Publishing inks worldwide deals with Grammy-winning rock band The War on Drugs and other Fort William Management artists Agreements bring catalogs and future works of artists including Beirut, Dehd, Grizzly Bear and The War on Drugs to Secretly Publishing roster
News Primary Wave strikes ‘multi-million dollar’ 10-year strategic partnership with the Four Seasons From 1962 to 1978, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons sold more than 100m records
News Penske Media and MRC form data Joint Venture Company brings together MRC Data, Alpha Data and Variety Business Intelligence
News Quincy Jones invests in AI Music startup Musimap, which has developed a ‘psycho-emotional profiling engine’ Company's AI tech builds emotional profiles for listeners
News With 40m global users, Taiwan-born livestream app LIVIT launches in the US, strikes exclusive ‘six-figure’ deal with rapper Flawless Real Talk App allows its users to monetize their streams with fan 'gifts'
News Calvin Harris sells publishing catalog to Vine Alternative Investments Sony/ATV to continue administration services for the catalog
Interviews Round Hill: Our $375m IPO will be good news for songwriters Josh Gruss and Neil Gillis on their new public fund, Hipgnosis – and the future of music rights ownership
News Donna Caseine promoted to EVP, Global Creative Director at Reservoir as part of team expansion Company bolsters Creative team with key promotions and new hires
News Music tech company Output, whose software has been used in songs by Drake & Justin Bieber, raises $45m Company was founded in 2013 by CEO Gregg Lehrman
News Russell Emanuel named President & CEO of Sony/ATV’s newly centralized Production Music Division Appointment gives Emanuel oversight of Sony/ATV’s global production music business
News Twitch music copyright headache gets worse as ‘thousands’ of videos get deleted over infringement notices Rightsholders put pressure on livestreaming platform
News Amy Hartman appointed SVP Creative Services at Spirit Music Group Exec joins Spirit from Roc Nation
News SoundCloud launches new DJ Plan with unlimited offline catalog access Platform will also be introducing curated playlists in the coming months
News Sony Music India inks exclusive deal with award-winning Bollywood composer, Amaal Mallik Mallik will also continue working as a music director on film projects
News BMG expands into live music, buying majority stake in German concert promoter Undercover CEO Hartwig Masuch explained last month that super-fan data was a big reason behind his interest in live
Analysis News Universal Music Group just generated over a billion dollars from streaming in a single quarter… during a global pandemic Vivendi-owned company has already posted over $400m more from streaming in 2020 than it did at the same stage of 2019