Music Business News: France

From Bolloré urging UMG to reject Ackman’s $64B bid to Gamma’s lawsuit to unmask the creators of two smear sites… it’s MBW’s weekly round-up

The biggest headlines from the past few days...

‘The future of the industry belongs to executives who can bridge the creative, commercial, and technological divides.’

EMIC founder Daniel Findikian talks music industry education, emerging markets, and more

Bolloré urges Universal Music Group to reject Bill Ackman’s $64B takeover bid

"We think the price is not there at all," Bolloré told shareholders.

Evan Whikehart named General Manager, North America at IDOL, as Paris-headquartered indie says its annual revenue topped $50m globally last year

Whikehart joins from Secretly Distribution

Managers of Grammy winners Justice and Gesaffelstein back music biz masters targeting emerging markets

The program's strategic advisory board includes several senior executives from the French music business

Believe unveils AZTEC, its first US record label joint venture, with music exec Az Cohen

Az Cohen previously held roles at 300 Entertainment

Sacem paid out $1.7bn to composers and publishers in 2025 on 21% YoY revenue jump to $2bn

International collections rose 13% while revenue collected within France was largely flat.

Believe partners with Google to offer AI music creation tool Flow Music to its artists

Google says that Flow Music can help artists with lyrics, experimenting with melodies or genres, and creating new instruments.