Music Business News: North America

Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s Verzuz returns with exclusive distribution partnership with Elon Musk’s X

Swizz Beats and Timbaland recently reacquired the Verzuz series from TikTok rival Triller

Queen catalog to be acquired by Sony Music in $1.27bn deal (report)

Sony Music Entertainment is set to acquire the catalog of legendary rock band Queen in a landmark deal worth GBP £1 billion (USD $1.27 billion at current exchange rates). That’s according to Hits, which reported on Wednesday (June 19), citing sources, that Sony Music has emerged as the winning buyer for Queen’s recording and publishing … Continued

News

TikTok launches interactive Taylor Swift experience celebrating The Eras Tour

Swift's in-app experience is the first and longest-running feature of its kind on TikTok

News

Meta’s new generative AI model can take chords or beats and turn them into songs

The company will make the model available to other developers to build tools from it

News

Universal Music artists get access to AI voice cloning tool via UMG’s new deal with tech startup SoundLabs

SoundLabs' tech will allow artists to sing in languages they don’t speak and perform duets with their younger selves, among other things

News

Chris Atlas appointed President of Rostrum Pacific-owned distributor and retailer Fat Beats

Exec has held key positions at Tommy Boy Records, Cornerstone Promotion, Def Jam Recordings, and Warner Records

Analysis News

TikTok is forming an investment team to acquire music content and companies

ByteDance-owned platform is looking for execs with experience at investment banks, management consulting firms, or private equity firms

News

Google unveils AI that can automatically sync soundtracks and dialogue to videos

The new 'video-to-audio' tech from Google's DeepMind isn't ready for public release just yet