News Spirit Music Group buys Jason Aldean masters in $100m+ deal Spirit will own 90% of the catalog, as Aldean holds on to 10%, MBW understands
News BlackRock teams with Warner to launch new $750m music-buying fund via Influence Media Deal comes three years after Warner launched Tempo Music with Providence Equity Partners
News Thought streaming exclusives were over? Think again. Middle Eastern mega-star Amr Diab signs exclusive multi-year licensing deal with Anghami
Analysis News HYBE, home of BTS, surpassed $1bn in revenues in 2021 – the year it acquired Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings HYBE spent $1 billion on Braun's company in April 2021, and has seen a 58% jump in annual revenues
News Now Sony Music gets clearance for $255m Som Livre acquisition in Brazil MBW confirms that Brazil's CADE has given the green light
News Downtown inks global music publishing deal with Alejandra Ghersi Rodriguez, aka Arca Arca has worked across multiple tracks on Kanye West’s Yeezus album, and produced/co-wrote on Bjork’s Vulnicara and Utopia albums
News Spotify’s $90 Car Thing device now on sale publicly in the US Car Thing is only available for Spotify Premium users
News Sandra Croft joins Downtown Music Services as Marketing Manager in the UK Chelsey Blow also named Client Services Coordinator at the company
News Warner strikes deal with sports music licensing company ClicknClear ClicknClear claims to be the world’s only specialist music rights tech and licensing company for performance sports
Analysis News From SoundCloud’s $218m+ revenues to Snoop Dogg’s $44m+ worth of NFTs: It’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up The biggest stories of the week – and why they matter
News Barry McKee, Warner Chappell Music UK’s Head of Administration, passes away, aged 59 McKee had worked at WCM for more than 30 years
News Avex USA and Sony Music Publishing strike global administration deal SMP will provide worldwide administration services (ex. Japan) to Avex USA’s catalog and roster
News Sony Music Publishing has a new head of US A&R: Walter Jones joins firm in EVP role Jones was most recently Co-Head of A&R at Universal Music Publishing Group
News Universal partners with Marc Geiger-backed NFT platform Curio to develop NFTs for its global artists and labels UMG becomes the first major music company to collaborate with Curio
News Riptide Music CEO Keatly Haldeman exits, launches Web3 music sync licensing platform, Dequency Firm has already raised $4.5m through an investment round led by Borderless Capital