News Concord makes strategic investment in The Azoff Company’s indie label, Giant Music Giant has also entered into a global distribution partnership with Concord-owned Stem
News Jasper Niebuhr appointed Managing Director, GSA at BMG Niebuhr will spearhead BMG's integrated recorded music and music publishing operations across Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
News Splice acquires AI-powered voice production platform Kits AI Kits AI was backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Palm Tree Crew, 3LAU, Louis Bell, Steve Aoki, Wyclef Jean, Electric Feel Ventures, WndrCo Ventures, and 1Confirmation.
News Melanie Geiger named Director of Atlantic Records Germany Warner Music veteran succeeds Tun Schumacher to lead the label in Germany
News AEG’s AXS sues website it claims creates counterfeit tickets SecureMyPass.com is being accused of generating fake tickets bearing the AXS trademarks and selling those tickets to unsuspecting customers.
News BeatStars acquires ‘ethical’ generative music startup Lemonaide AI Lemonaide AI co-founders Michael “MJ” Jacob and Anirudh Mani will lead technology and innovation across the company.
News Record labels, Spotify sue pirate group Anna’s Archive over scraping and ‘brazen theft’ of millions of tracks Pirate group accused of 'brazen theft of millions of files containing nearly all of the world's commercial sound recordings.'
News Universal launches Def Jam Recordings China division in Chengdu, ‘the capital of Chinese hip-hop’ Def Jam Recording China has partnered with China Mobile's Migu to discover talent, and create and distribute music.
News Milk & Honey continues UK expansion, signing Grammy-winning mixer Dan Grech-Marguerat Grech-Marguerat has worked on breakthrough projects for artists including Lana Del Rey, Halsey, George Ezra and The Killers
News DistroKid investor buys indie distributor Zebralution from GEMA GEMA confirmed that it is selling "its 100% shareholding in Zebralution GmbH"
News SM Entertainment targets M&A deals and AI tech integration as K-pop giant outlines ‘NEXT 3.0’ strategy The K-pop powerhouse is also aiming to build Asia's "largest and most respected publishing company" via its Kreation Music Rights (KMR) subsidiary
News Hannah Karp appointed EVP & Chief Communications Officer for Warner Music Group She joins the company’s executive leadership team following a decade at Billboard, where she was most recently Editor-in-Chief
News Dani Deahl promoted to Vice President of Creator Policy & Corporate Affairs at Caldecott Music Group Deahl will oversee policy strategy across Caldecott's three divisions: BandLab Technologies, NME Networks, and Vista Musical Instruments
News UMG ‘set to win EU nod’ to buy Downtown Music, Reuters reports The European Commission opened an in-depth Phase II investigation into the proposed acquisition in July 2025
News UMG strikes licensing deal with NetEase Cloud Music for China including ‘artist-centric’ terms covering AI, plans to expand Super VIP tier The agreement includes provisions addressing artificial intelligence, with both companies committing to what they called artist-centric AI principles.
News Matt Spetzler’s Jamen Capital launches $200M-backed independent music financing platform, Pipeline The Jamen Capital-backed firm says that its launch comes at a "pivotal moment for the global music industry"
News Udio strikes AI licensing deal with Merlin after UMG and Warner Music settlements The deal includes terms intended to protect what the companies called “the value of human artistry.”
Analysis News On… Warner’s cutbacks, and the bigger story. The following article originally appeared in Tim Ingham’s latest ‘Tim’s Take’ email, issued exclusively to MBW+ subscribers.