Music Business News: United States

Analysis

We talked with Anthropic’s Claude about The Beatles. Those copyright ‘guardrails’ seem to be working… pretty much.

Anthropic's Claude can still be tempted into referencing Beatles lyrics – but chatbot refuses to print them verbatim

News

Katie Welle promoted to President, Head of US A&R at Sony Music Publishing

Based in Los Angeles, Welle will report to Sony Music Publishing Chairman/CEO Jon Platt

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Sir Lucian Grainge issues update on UMG’s L.A. wildfire relief efforts: ‘The road to recovery will be very long. We will be there every step of the way.’

UMG's CEO has pledged support for those impacted by the wildfires in Southern California

News

Jamie Kinelski appointed SVP of A&R at Universal Music Publishing Group

Jamie Kinelski previously served as Senior Vice President & Head of West Coast Creative at Kobalt since 2022

Analysis News

Spotify paid out $10 billion to the music industry in 2024 – a full $1bn more than in 2023

Streaming company has paid out nearly $60bn to music rightsholders since Spotify was founded in 2008.

News

Playboi Carti sued by Eric Mercer Jr. aka Blakk Soul for alleged copyright infringement and breach of contract over ‘Kelly K’

Eric Mercer Jr. says he had a contract giving him 5% ownership of Kelly K, but never saw a cent from the song's commercialization

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Travis Scott named top artist-songwriter in Q3 2024; Mike Dean claims title of top non-performing songwriter on NMPA’s Gold & Platinum Program (based on RIAA certifications)

The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has revealed the top songwriters in the US for the third quarter of 2024

News

Bruno Mars breaks own record, hitting 150M monthly Spotify listeners

Bruno Mars continues to shatter records, this time becoming the first artist to reach 150 million monthly listeners on Spotify. The feat, announced Monday (January 27), comes just over two months after Mars surpassed The Weeknd‘s previous record of 120.7 million monthly listeners. With the latest listener count, Mars’ listeners now account for a little … Continued