Music Business News: North America

Sony generated $2.77bn from recorded music and publishing in calendar Q2 2025, up 8.8% YoY

Bad Bunny's latest album was Sony's biggest revenue-generating project in the three months around the world

Substack isn’t the right model for music. But there’s still a future to believe in.

MBW Views is a series of exclusive op/eds from eminent music industry people… with something to say. The following comes from Matt Jones, CEO of Medallion and former CEO of Songkick. Jones has spent over 15 years building direct-to-fan platforms and has facilitated hundreds of millions in artist revenue through various fan engagement models. Substack … Continued

News

Ed Poston Joins Symphonic Distribution as Head of A&R, bringing over 15 Years of industry experience

During his career, Poston has been credited with early support and signings of high-profile artists such as Ed Sheeran, Avicii, and Cashmere Cat,

Interviews

Key Songs In The Life Of… Katie Welle

Sony Music Publishing's President, Head of US A&R takes us on a musical journey into her past - and gives us a peek into some music in her future

News

HYBE revenues topped $500M in Q2, up 10.2% YoY – as country music starred for its US labels

Group revenue climbed 10.2% YoY in Q2 to 705.6 billion South Korean won, while operating profit jumped 29% YoY to 65.9 billion won.

News

Amid legal battle, Salt-N-Pepa claims UMG ‘keeps us from re-releasing our music’

Cheryl James and Sandra Denton told Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts that UMG removed their music from streaming platforms.

News

TikTok sets new livestreaming record with 74M Tomorrowland viewers

The latest figure marks a 362.5% jump from the 16 million viewers who watched the same festival on TikTok in 2023, according to TikTok data.

News

Exclusive: Kobalt’s AI deal with Suno rival ElevenLabs guarantees publishing ‘parity’ with recorded music

MBW has confirmed details of this potentially precedent-setting deal, which could reshape the music industry's approach to generative AI licensing.