News EMPIRE Publishing hires Rimas Publishing’s Emilio Morales as SVP, Business Development for Latin America Morales joins from Rimas Publishing, the company behind the publishing catalog of Bad Bunny, where he served as Managing Director.
Analysis Did The Music Industry Underprice Streaming In Emerging Markets? (AKA: How I’d Spend $10k Of Mike O’Neill’s Money) The latest 'Tim's Take' from MBW founder, Tim Ingham
News Music streaming fraud inquiry launched by US Copyright Office Notice of inquiry arrives a day after Michael Smith sentenced to 18 months in prison
News Phono V streaming rate proposals filed with US Copyright Royalty Board, as DIMA points to 30% growth in publishing revenues since 2022 The proceeding will set the mechanical rates on-demand streaming services pay US songwriters and publishers from 2028 through 2032.
Analysis With a new CFO, three licensing deals, and $775M+ raised, what’s stopping $5.4B-valued Suno from an IPO? The signals pointing to the firm's potential stock market ambitions and the barriers it faces in getting there.
News Michael Smith, man behind $8M AI song and bot streaming fraud, sentenced to 18 months in prison US District Judge John G. Koeltl also ordered Michael Smith to forfeit USD $8,091,843.64, the loss figure agreed by both sides.
News Google picks Base for Music for its Gemini Startup Forum – as $1.7M-backed French company says it uses AI to predict music marketing ROI More than 100 startups taking part, from 17 countries, were selected from over 2,000 applications, according to Google
News Adriana Sein joins Believe as President, Americas Exec most recently served as SVP & Global Head of Artist & Market Development at WMG's ADA
News The MLC has paid out more than $4.2B to songwriters and publishers to date – and will begin market share distributions of unmatched and unclaimed royalties in April 2027 Nashville-headquartered org confirmed the figure at its Annual Membership Meeting last Tuesday (September 29)
News New York City’s ‘Click to Cancel’ rule, billed as a first for a US city, has taken effect with music streaming subscriptions covered Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music are all covered by New York City's new "Click to Cancel" rule, which took effect on October 1.
News UMG is now managing 130+ artists in Southeast Asia Granite spoke during a fireside session at the Music Matters strand of the All That Matters conference in Singapore on October 5
News Sony Music has now asked platforms to remove more than 260,000 AI deepfakes imitating artists like Harry Styles, Adele, and Michael Jackson Sony told the Financial Times that the fight against AI tracks impersonating artists such as Harry Styles and Adele is "becoming an uphill struggle."
Interviews ‘I would rather have 1% of a hit record than 100% of a record that wasn’t.’ Tyler Brown, founder of London-based Funfair, on hits, loyalty, and why songwriters should be taking a share of master income
Analysis An $8M streaming fraud, two plays a day. Here’s the pro-rata math behind the bot scheme – and the rule change that would have killed it. Ahead of Tuesday's sentencing in the first US criminal streaming fraud case, MBW breaks down the pro-rata arithmetic behind Michael Smith's bot scheme.
Analysis The Intimacy Economy: Why Music Stars Are Going Small Charli XCX called it “anti-marketing.” MBW columnist Diana Umana argues it’s a structural shift that the biggest artists have already caught on to…