The music business explained: news, analysis, insights and jobs for music industry professionals

SXSW ditches weapons sponsors to burnish brand - so why won’t it ditch its ties to Saudi Arabia?

SXSW London could disrupt delicately balanced music ecosystem and should reconsider its date

Could Co-op Group terminate Manchester arena naming rights deal? Fury mounts as safety incident forces yet more Co-op Live show cancellations

CNM statement shows that Spotify’s rage about new French streaming levy misrepresents key facts

France has stood firm against Spotify’s bullying - and Spotify is having a tantrum

WMG is toying with an offer for Believe that would wipe out Warner’s cash reserves - but is it serious, would Believe shareholders sell and can WMG afford to bet the farm?

Mean Millennials scrap streaming subscriptions, mail order music is booming - and Apple Music might be making £500 million or more in the UK

Manchester City Council has spent nearly £90,000 fighting Night & Day legal battle

Hipgnosis Songs Fund takes a haircut - and might have bigger problems to come

Dodgy distributor 3tone linked to company being investigated by Serious Fraud Office

Artificial Intelligence and the music industry in 2023

MP3.to • 2 min read

Yout owner forces u-turn on record industry’s attempt to delist mp3 conversion site from Google’s search results

The Spanish record industry recently included MP3.to - a service that converts MP3s into other file formats - on a copyright takedown notice submitted to Google. It resulted in Google de-listing MP3.to. However, the service has successfully argued that there are no copyright issues with its site…

Chris Cooke • 05 Dec 2024

Artificial Intelligence • 3 min read

EU AI Act can only provide a “temporary fix” to the “darker aspect” of AI’s “profound disruption” to creative industries says open letter

Organisations representing creators across Europe have written to EU Commissioners Henna Virkkunen and Glenn Micallef calling for an ambitious AI strategy that deals with the impact generative AI is having on the creative industries, insisting that the existing EU AI Act is only a “temporary fix”…

Chris Cooke • 05 Dec 2024

CMU Approved • 1 min read

🎧 Approved: jasmine.4.t

Manchester-based singer-songwriter and trans woman jasmine.4.t brings a fresh perspective to indie-folk, with a sound full of glowing, quiet intensity. Her new single layers delicate lyrics over soft strums and swelling strings, creating a genuinely lovely folk song…

Kaya Robertson • 05 Dec 2024

Ador • 3 min read

NewJeans drama escalates as bust-up with label Ador goes legal

HYBE label Ador has begun legal proceedings against NewJeans after the group announced last week that they were terminating their contract with the company because it failed to address various grievances they raised. Ador says the contract stands and it now wants a court to confirm that…

Chris Cooke • 05 Dec 2024

Artificial Intelligence • 3 min read

AI generated music will suck €4 billion a year away from music creators by 2028 says CISAC

CISAC has published a new report looking at the impact generative AI will have on music creators’ earnings. It estimates that 24% of those earnings could be at risk, resulting in annual losses of €4 billion by 2028, while the value of AI-generated music will surge to €16 billion a year…

Chris Cooke • 04 Dec 2024

Lizzo • 2 min read

Lizzo can’t be sued by former employee, but the company Lizzo runs can

Last year Lizzo was sued by a clothing designer who previously worked on the musician’s tour, and who claims she was the victim of sexual and racial harassment. Both Lizzo and her company Big Grrrl Big Touring were named as defendants. A judge has now ruled that Lizzo herself can’t be sued…

Chris Cooke • 04 Dec 2024

Village People • 3 min read

Village People founder loves Trump using YMCA, but hates people calling it a gay anthem

Despite previously complaining about Donald Trump’s regular use of ‘YMCA’ at his rallies, Village People’s Victor Willis says he’s now happy for the President Elect to use his song. However, he wants everyone who reports on that usage to stop calling his track a ‘gay anthem’…

Chris Cooke • 04 Dec 2024

Hybe • 3 min read

HYBE denies wrongdoing over pre-IPO deals that netted founder Bang Si-hyuk $285 million

HYBE has denied any wrongdoing after it emerged South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service is investigating deals done between founder Bang Si-hyuk and investors before the K-pop company’s IPO in 2020. The regulator is investigating whether those deals should have been declared ahead of the IPO…

Chris Cooke • 03 Dec 2024

Sony Music • 2 min read

Sony Music commits “blatant and massive piracy”, says a former business partner

Ultra Music Publishing has sued Sony Music over allegations of copyright infringement. Sony now owns the Ultra record label, but not the publishing company. It says Sony has infringed rights in compositions it controls by uploading, selling and synchronising them without the necessary licences…

Chris Cooke • 03 Dec 2024

Youth Music • 2 min read

Youth Music calls on industry and education to collaborate to “close the gap from learning to earning”

A new report from Youth Music makes four recommendations for how the music industry can collaborate with music education to better support its future workforce. It calls for more joined-up thinking, career skills in the curriculum, funding for non-formal pathways and safer working cultures…

Chris Cooke • 03 Dec 2024

CMU Approved • 1 min read

🎧 Approved: MOULD

Bristol’s MOULD have a sound that masterfully shifts between reckless urgency and unpredictable tension. Their latest single, ‘CHUNKS’, starts with a math-rock riff before exploding into a post-punk anthem, chaotic yet controlled, capturing a frenetic exploration of disillusionment…

Kaya Robertson • 03 Dec 2024

Kneecap • 3 min read

UK government “broke own laws” by blocking Kneecap export grant

Kneecap went legal earlier this year after the then Conservative government stopped them from receiving funding via the Music Export Growth Scheme on political grounds. The new Labour government agrees that blocking the grant in that way was unlawful, meaning the rap trio has won their legal action…

Chris Cooke • 02 Dec 2024