News Troy Carter’s Q&A launches Venice Innovation Labs, including app that can read ‘sentiment analysis before songs are released’ "The launch of Venice Innovation Labs marks an important milestone for Q&A."
Analysis Blog The Great Royalties Hustle BigStar’s Nick Lawrence on why the royalties system is well past its sell-by date
Analysis Blog Why The Beatles, 56 years ago, were prototyping the kind of pop artist that 2020 demands There's no doubt 2020 was an innovative year for music and artists – but, says Dave Roberts, it owes a clear debt to 1964
News Pop Smoke was SoundCloud’s Top Artist this year. His music was streamed over 191.5m times on the platform in 2020 SoundCloud's Top Track was Lil Mosey's single Blueberry Faygo
News Better Noise Music makes chart history in the US as No.1 Active Rock label for third consecutive year Label also saw 34% growth from 12% market share to 16.1% of all Active Rock airplay
News MBMB Publishing joins independent licensing agency IMPEL MBMB is the independent publishing arm of UK dance label Cr2 Records
Interviews How East Goes Global is turning US and UK artists into social media stars in China Andrew Spalter explains how, with the right tools, China offers a vast audience to many Western artists
Analysis Blog Why the music industry must think big about livestreaming: ‘Could an artist following in Freddie Mercury’s footsteps execute the same call-and-response with an internet audience?’ The CEO of Kiswe, which provided the tech for BTS' record-breaking digital concert earlier this year, on the future of shows in screens
News Nigeria-based music streaming service uduX, licensed by all three majors, partners with telco MTN, which has over 60m subscribers in the market Deal will see MTN subscribers gain access to discounted data bundles for accessing content
News Greg Dorfman promoted to Executive Vice President, Promotion for Elektra Music Group He most recently served as EMG’s Senior Vice President of Alternative Promotion
News Universal buys Bob Dylan publishing rights, acquiring catalog worth hundreds of millions of dollars Expert industry sources tells MBW that Dylan's catalog would command a pricetag somewhere in the region of $250m to $400m in the current frothy music rights M&A marketplace
News Primary Wave buys majority stake in Stevie Nicks publishing catalog for around $80m Deal includes hits like Landslide, Edge of Seventeen, Stand Back and Dreams
News ‘AI-enabled’ indie label Snafu Records adds ex-UMG Nordics CEO Per Sundin and songwriter/producer Savan Kotecha to list of sharholders Los-Angeles-based label launched with $2.9m in seed funding earlier this year
Interviews ‘People were staring at me and Post. It wasn’t what they expected.’ Dre London explains how he and Post Malone launched one of the year's biggest alcohol brands (and lots more besides) during a pandemic
Analysis The One True Fan Theory Peter Robinson wonders if the secret to a happy and successful artist career is focusing on your biggest fan – literally