News From BMG’s reported Concord acquisition talks to UMG’s $3bn Anthropic lawsuit… it’s MBW’s weekly round-up The biggest headlines from the past few days...
News BMG in talks to acquire Concord (report) Bertelsmann's BMG in talks to buy Concord, Bloomberg reports
News 60,000 AI tracks hit Deezer daily as platform moves to license detection tech to wider music industry Deezer also revealed that up to 85% of all streams on AI-generated music were fraudulent in 2025
News Edwin Schröter promoted to CEO at [PIAS], as co-founder Kenny Gates becomes Executive Chairman Schröter has been with [PIAS] for more than 25 years and was previously Group Managing Director.
News JP Evangelista promoted to EVP of Content, Programming & Marketing at Vevo The company veteran and founding team member will oversee the global creative, marketing, and audience strategy.
News Universal Music acquires stake in superfan app Stationhead UMG's minority investment in the company follows Stationhead's merger with online music event platform Mellomanic
Analysis Why distinguishing human creation from AI mimicry matters more than ever The following MBW op/ed comes from Bobby Bickley & Ewan Bloor, Data Scientists at Beatdapp
Interviews Key Songs In The Life Of… Charlie Hellman Spotify's Global Head Of Music talks us through the tracks that have shaped and inspired him throughout his life and career to date
News Sony launches $2B music rights acquisition JV with Singapore’s GIC Sony Music Group is forming a music rights-buying joint venture with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC Pte.
News UMG sues Anthropic for $3bn over ‘brazen’ copyright infringement of 20,000+ songs Music publishers file second copyright infringement lawsuit against AI company Anthropic
News OpenWav fan app launched by Wyclef Jean and 88rising’s Jaeson Ma forms joint venture with Loud House for new artist commerce platform The new project seeks to provide artists and IP owners a way to launch, test and scale consumer products globally without holding inventory.
News Marion Gargula and Laurent Pernin promoted to co-General Managers at BMG France The duo have also been elevated to Vice Presidents at the company.
News Primary Wave makes strategic investment in music financing platform RUN RUN says it has already deployed 'tens of millions of dollars in capital to hundreds of artists across five continents'
News GoldState hires ex-HarbourView exec Rabih Aouad as Principal to lead investments in tech, services and other music-related businesses Aouad will support GoldState's 'growth equity strategy within the global music ecosystem'
News Pam Schoenfeld appointed SVP, Chief Legal Officer at BMI Schoenfeld succeeds Stuart Rosen, who will continue as Senior Legal Advisor until June 30, 2026
News Spotify says it paid out over $11bn to the music industry in 2025 The streaming giant has hailed the figure as "the largest annual payment to music from any retailer in history".
News Saul Fitton joins PULSE Music Group as Senior Vice President/Head of Creative, UK London-based Fitton previously served as Senior Director, A&R for Sony Music Publishing and A&R Manager at Warner Chappell Music
News David Checa joins Warner Chappell Music Colombia as Managing Director The industry veteran will oversee WCM’s operations in one of Latin America’s most influential music markets.