Music Business Worldwide

From Warner Music’s leadership shake-up to Suno’s courtroom defiance… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up

Rafaela Fornitani — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 16:18:29 +0000

The biggest headlines from the past few days...

Josh Remsberg appointed Head of Commercial Partnerships at direct-to-fan platform EVEN

Mandy Dalugdug — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 14:20:14 +0000

Remsberg will run EVEN's commercial relationships across the music business, dealing with labels, distributors, managers, artist teams, and other partners.

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Read Simon Robson’s farewell note to Warner Music staff, as he exits after nearly 30 years

Tim Ingham — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 14:02:29 +0000

Robson, President, EMEA, Recorded Music, WMG, will step down in December.

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Warner Music Group Shake-Up: Val Blavatnik joins, Elliot Grainge adds ADA, Simon Robson exits

Tim Ingham — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 14:00:44 +0000

Alejandro Duque promoted, as Aaron Bay-Schuck is confirmed as the sole Chairman and CEO of Warner Records Group

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ASCAP names Jackson Wagener as Senior Vice President and Head of General Licensing

Rafaela Fornitani — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 13:25:56 +0000

He will oversee the team that licenses the organization's repertory of over 20 million musical works to restaurants, bars, fitness studios, live music venues, and other establishments that use music.

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BMG’s Jim Selby elected to ASCAP Board of Directors

Rafaela Fornitani — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 13:25:39 +0000

Selby has joined the board as a publisher member, ASCAP President and Chairman of the Board Paul Williams.

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Man who pocketed $8m using AI songs and bot streams asks for no prison time, arguing ‘no artist suffered any perceptible harm’

Mandy Dalugdug — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 13:25:18 +0000

Michael Smith's lawyers argued that his scheme caused only "tiny, immeasurable losses" spread across millions of songwriters and artists, Billboard reported.

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Sound designers and SFX libraries launch Professional Sound Alliance to fight AI scraping: ‘Now sound will have protection of our own’

Mandy Dalugdug — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:00:54 +0000

The Alliance says it was formed in response to two forms of unauthorized use, which it calls Data Piracy and Sync Piracy.

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LANDR expands AI fraud detection built with machine learning lab Mila – and says artificial streams flagged by Spotify for music it distributes fell 95% between Q1 2025 and Q2 2026

Murray Stassen — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:44:52 +0000

Distribution and music creation platform expands streaming fraud detection system

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Over 50% of a major streaming service’s tracks come from DistroKid – and other revelations from UMG’s lawsuit

Tim Ingham — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:22:02 +0000

UMG's lawsuit accuses the DIY distributor of "deceptive trade practices and blatant copyright infringement", and of flooding streaming services with AI-generated "slop.

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