Music Business News: Europe

BMG, following ‘more efficient and more effective’ strategy under new CEO Thomas Coesfeld, reorganizes structure; around 40 staff cut

MBW obtains internal note that confirms a range of changes at Bertelsmann-owned company

From Spotify changing its royalty model to Universal’s $3bn in Q3… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up

The five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days

Hipgnosis Songs Fund has been left concussed by ‘discontinuation’. But with a seemingly rock solid ‘call option’, Merck Mercuriadis still holds all the cards.

On: Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the all important 'call option', Blackstone, and the most likely outcome of this week's mess

PRS For Music sponsors Pop category at the nearly-here A&R Awards

Royalty collection/distribution giant supports hyper-competitive category at imminent big night

The Beatles’ last song ‘Now and Then’ to be released November 2

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr relied on AI tech to salvage the song that John Lennon wrote and recorded as a demo in 1978

Universal Music revenues hit $3bn in Q3, driven by sales from superstars like Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift

Universal Music Group has published its financial results for Q3 2023

PRS for Music’s latest quarterly distribution was $288.7m, its ‘largest single royalty payment’ to date

The figure represents a 13% jump compared to last year’s October distribution

Global songwriter royalty collections hit $11.35bn in 2022 – with Latin America revenues up 64.9% YoY

Publisher and songwriter royalties collected globally grew 28% YoY in 2022