News US music streaming revenues grew 30% in 2018 to hit $7.4bn, as subscriptions topped 50m $9.8bn generated at retail, with $6.6bn making its way back to artists and labels in wholesale payments
News Warner Music eyes stake in Saudi Arabia’s Rotana Music – report The WSJ reports that the stake is 'worth at least tens of millions of dollars'
Analysis News The major labels generated over $1.5bn more from streaming in 2018 than they did in the previous year Majors now turning over the equivalent of $19m a day from the likes of Spotify
News UK tastemaker Annie Mac to head up gender equality initiative, the Equalising Music Pledge The campaign is also endorsed by PRS Foundation’s Keychange initiative
News Hi-Res music streaming service Qobuz launches in the US Qobuz currently has over 100,000 active customers
News TIDAL lets users mute artists and tracks Tracks and artists can be blocked from appearing in My Mix and Artist and Track Radio playlists
Analysis News Universal Music Group is being valued at $42bn – and could ignite a major label sales frenzy The sale of up to 50% of UMG could tempt Sony and Warner to consider their options
News Class action lawsuits filed in New York against Sony and Universal The suits seek damages for copyright infringement and declaratory relief
News EMPIRE hires Amir Abbassy in Content role and Peter Kadin as VP of Marketing Company will soon release music from Iggy Azalea and Robin Thicke
News Music Modernization Act: Labels and publishers back NMPA’s bid to run new mechanical rights society Universal, Sony and Warner, as well as indies, support publisher org's application
News Marshmello just played a live set to 10m people in video game Fortnite – and that wasn’t even the most interesting move he made this weekend DJ's new single, performed in Hindi, is out now, featuring Pritam
Analysis English-language music is losing its stranglehold on global pop charts – and YouTube is driving the change When YouTube’s charts say what's popular, you better believe it. And, right now, "what's popular" applies increasingly less to U.S. pop stars.
News Why is SiriusXM buying Pandora in a $3.5bn deal – and what’s it going to do with a music streaming platform? The biggest deal of 2019 so far should close by the end of this week
News Sentric and Strictly Confidential renew deal with Joe Hammill Hammill landed his first No.1 record in 2016 after co-writing Alice On The Roof’s debut album Higher
News Nigeria’s Mavin Records secures multi-million dollar investment from Kupanda Holdings “Our mission is to grow Mavin Global into the music powerhouse of Africa,” says Don Jazzy