News EMPIRE hires Elliott Peters as VP of Global Business Development, promotes Mike Gallegus to VP of Business and Legal Affairs Peters has previously worked for SoundCloud, Apple and Warner Music
News Another nine-figure music industry acquisition is coming… and it’s Brazilian MBW understands that Som Livre is attracting interest at a $250m-plus valuation
News Sentric signs Tom Speight to exclusive songwriting agreement Singer/songwriter has more than 160m streams across all DSPs
News Universal and music streaming service Boomplay expand license to cover 47 countries across Africa New markets include South Africa, Ethiopia, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon and Senegal
News Epidemic Sound valued at $1.4bn as Blackstone joins $450m investment round in Swedish company Controversial Swedish music company achieves the $1bn-plus valuation it was looking for
News TuneCore launches operations in Latin America, headed up by Bruno Duque The move follows the launch of the company's operations in Africa last month
News Amazon Music is also a merch store now, as streamer integrates in-app product sales from Billie Eilish, Selena Gomez and other artists Integration is launching with exclusive products from Selena Gomez, Weezer, Wale, Florida Georgia Line and more
Analysis ‘The death of the artist’? Why Big Hit and BTS just raised the alarm on the record industry’s future. Why Big Hit's recent investment is symptomatic of a wider, potentially worrying, trend for major record companies
People: DJ SemtexA&R, DJ, producer and broadcaster As an A&R as well as broadcaster and producer, DJ Semtex has been instrumental in breaking artists like Jay-Z, Kanye West and Rihanna in the UK
News MBW’s Weekly Roundup: Michael Gudinski, SoundCloud, Universal, TIDAL, Anghami The biggest music industry stories of the week, all in one place
Analysis News Universal Music Group generated $8.4bn in 2020… and spent over $1.7bn on catalog acquisitions and artist advances Advances and catalog expenditure figure was more than triple the equivalent number from 2019
News Sony Music Publishing launches in Indonesia, led by General Manager Anti Ariandini Company will be 'dedicated to the development and promotion of Indonesian songwriters both locally and around the world'
Analysis News SoundCloud is about to revolutionize streaming payouts, launching user-centric royalties for 100,000 indie artists "SoundCloud is uniquely positioned to offer this transformative new model due to the powerful connection between artists and fans that takes place on our platform."
News Gaana CEO Prashan Agarwal set to exit Indian streaming company MBW's sources tell us that Gaana boss is out at Times and Tencent-owned company
Analysis The US recorded music industry grew by over $1bn in 2020 – but faces big challenges over streaming’s pricing, and its future The RIAA's latest figures show a surging streaming market – with one notable cause for concern