News Sony Group develops tech to track original music in AI-generated songs (report) When AI developers cooperate for analysis, Sony connects directly to their base model systems to extract training data.
News From UMG’s approved Downtown deal to Spotify’s AI ambitions… it’s MBW’s weekly round-up The biggest headlines from the past few days...
News The Empire Strikes Back: The majors and Merlin gained (a bit) of market share on Spotify last year. Spotify's new annual report updates a crucial yearly stat – with a surprise new number
Analysis News NetEase Cloud Music now counts over 1 million registered indie artists The platform has published its FY 2025 results, in which it reported that its membership subscription revenues rose 13.3% YoY in 2025
Analysis News Songs are reaching 1bn Spotify streams 14x faster than a decade ago, and other stats from Chartmetric’s 2025 Year in Music report The report highlights several notable shifts shaping the music economy.
News Sam Siegler and Mike Nucero named Creative Directors at Matt Pincus’ Trust Records Design duo behind the label’s visual identity formalize roles after four years of collaboration
Analysis News Sound Royalties says it closed a record $135m in funded contracts in 2025 The company, which was founded in 2014 by Alex Heiche, provides advances to music creators against their future royalty income
News Kobalt strikes strategic publishing deal with London-based Geo Music Group, covering funding for songwriters and admin services The agreement gives Geo Music’s roster access to Kobalt's royalty collection, accounting and payment infrastructure.
News UMG strikes global deal with ClicknClear to license songs for gymnastics, figure skating and more UMG and ClicknClear estimate that over 150 million athletes join choreographed sports globally, creating “a multi-billion-dollar demand for music licensing.”
News Olivier Chastan’s Iconoclast in sale talks at price tag of around $500 million Multiple sources tell MBW that Iconoclast is in talks with approximately 10 different parties
News Mitchell Shymansky appointed Chief Data & Technology Officer at Create Music Group Shymansky joins Create following nearly two decades at Universal Music Group
News Jody Farber promoted to CFO of Peermusic, as Bill Gorjance retires after 20 years Gorjance will serve as International Vice President of the Classical music division in a part-time role.
News Roslyn Pineda appointed President, Asia for Sony Music Publishing, as Carol Ng retires Pineda succeeds longtime SMP Asia President, Carol Ng, who will remain with the company until her planned retirement at the end of March this year.
News Spotify eyes AI ‘derivatives’ as new revenue stream for artists – says its tech to let fans make remixes and covers is ready Spotify says it wants to enable listeners to interact with their favorite artists' music through AI
Analysis Suno’s revenue opportunity, $1.65bn M&A spending power, and TikTok: 3 things worth knowing from WMG’s latest earnings call Elsewhere on the call, WMG's leadership team discussed TikTok, DSP pricing, and more. Here are three things that stood out.