Music Business News: Europe

Spotify adds share cards, setlist playlists, and a new in-app destination to its Reserved ticketing feature

Ticket holders will get pre- and post-show setlist playlists and a single in-app destination for their Reserved content.

News

Partisan acquires Firebird’s interest in indie pubco OTM Music, merges it with its Left Music publishing arm

As part of the merger, OTM will incorporate the team and roster of Left Music, the publishing company Partisan set up with Craig Michie in 2022.

News

Robert Palmer estate strikes deal with Primary Wave covering publishing and recording catalogs, plus name, image & likeness rights

Palmer recorded 14 studio albums and three live albums

Analysis News

The US and UK’s share of the world’s ‘Superstar’ artists has fallen from 55.7% to 40.7% since 2021, shows Chartmetric data

Figures come from Global Music Pulse, a new report from Chartmetric, which tracks 14m artists across streaming and social services

News

Khosla Ventures-backed AI music company GRAI acquires social music platform Hangout

Hangout launched in November 2024 with a catalog of over 100 million tracks, licensed from Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Merlin.

News

Vinyl counterfeiter who made $3.6M from fake Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar records jailed for 3.5 years in the UK

Rehan Ahmed generated £2.7M (USD $3.6M) from counterfeit vinyl pressed at a west London plant, in a case referred to police by the BPI.

News

UK-based avatar concert producer Unit1 Studio raises $20M led by Balderton Capital

The fundraise lands alongside what Unit1 calls a world first: the transfer of an avatar concert production from one venue to another.

News

Apple to open 600-capacity live music venue in London, with two recording studios and a broadcast control room built in

Artists who play the new Apple Music Hall can leave with a Spatial Audio recording, a mix ready for broadcast, and multi-camera video of the same show.