Sam Taylor - CMU | the music business explained

Universal Music Publishing is having its own brandwank moment

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Universal Music Publishing • 4 min read

Universal Music Publishing is having its own brandwank moment

Universal Music Publishing has a new logo, dropping the traditional Universal globe for a circle in a square. As you’d expect, it’s accompanied by some branding nonsense telling us the new logo actually “represents the four corners of the planet - standing for a worldwide community of songwriters”…

Chris Cooke & Sam Taylor • 10 Jun 2026

Universal Music has found its backbone and told Bill Ackman to take a hike

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Universal Music • 9 min read

Universal Music has found its backbone and told Bill Ackman to take a hike

The board of Universal Music has swatted away Pershing Square Capital’s takeover bid after the major’s biggest shareholder said he didn’t fancy it. But the problem that drove Ackman’s bid is still there - and Universal is going to have to do something radical to keep its shareholders happy…

Sam Taylor • 01 Jun 2026

Gamma - which released Kanye’s comeback album - sues to unmask whoever is behind “coordinated and malicious” anonymous smear campaign

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Gamma • 5 min read

Gamma - which released Kanye’s comeback album - sues to unmask whoever is behind “coordinated and malicious” anonymous smear campaign

Larry Jackson’s artist services company Gamma - which released Kanye’s ‘Bully’ comeback - is under attack by a anonymous hater who has used an orchestrated bot campaign to smear him and his company. He wants the US courts to unmask the perpetrator, but that might not be quite so straightforward…

Chris Cooke & Sam Taylor • 27 May 2026

Eddie Dalton’s (actually quite modest) chart success sparks further debate about where AI music fits in

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Eddie Dalton • 6 min read

Eddie Dalton’s (actually quite modest) chart success sparks further debate about where AI music fits in

An AI-generated artist called Eddie Dalton got a lot of press coverage this weekend after reaching number two in the UK charts. Though it was the sales chart that excludes streaming data, which isn’t so impressive. But it still prompted more debate in the music community about where AI music fits in…

Chris Cooke & Sam Taylor • 13 Apr 2026

Bill Ackman wants to buy Universal Music and put “psychopath” Epstein associate Michael Ovitz in charge

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Universal Music • 7 min read

Bill Ackman wants to buy Universal Music and put “psychopath” Epstein associate Michael Ovitz in charge

Controversial hedge fund manager Bill Ackman wants to buy Universal Music. His plan: load UMG with debt, sell its Spotify stake, and put a man named in the Epstein files in as chair. Lucian Grainge could make tens of millions from the deal, but Universal’s superstar artists might have other ideas…

Sam Taylor • 07 Apr 2026

Universal CEO Lucian Grainge makes 764 times more than his employees - and female staff get 48% less than male counterparts

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Universal Music • 6 min read

Universal CEO Lucian Grainge makes 764 times more than his employees - and female staff get 48% less than male counterparts

Universal Music published its annual report earlier this week. Buried in the 295 page document are a number of startling revelations about the “most successful music company in the world” - the most shocking being that women working for Universal make just half what their male counterparts are paid…

Sam Taylor • 01 Apr 2026

New generation of British artists propel UK record industry to £1.5 billion high, says BPI

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BPI • 4 min read

New generation of British artists propel UK record industry to £1.5 billion high, says BPI

Not a single UK artist made the Official Charts top five most-streamed tracks in 2024. In 2025, Lola Young, Olivia Dean and Chrystal all broke through. Revenue hit £1.57 billion, vinyl reached a three-decade high - but adjust for inflation and the industry is still hundreds of millions short…

Sam Taylor • 12 Mar 2026

Lucian is the hostess with the mostess and AI is the superfan future we never knew we wanted

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Universal Music • 17 min read

Lucian is the hostess with the mostess and AI is the superfan future we never knew we wanted

Universal Music’s latest dog and pony show was everything you could dream of: Lucian channeling Ethel Merman, the return of the superfan and turntable.fm risen from the dead. AI is the future, revenue is up nearly 9% and Lucian has never been more energised. So why is the share price in the bin?…

Sam Taylor • 06 Mar 2026

Warner Music’s Robert Kyncl is betting the company on an AI future. Can he deliver?

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Warner Music • 12 min read

Warner Music’s Robert Kyncl is betting the company on an AI future. Can he deliver?

Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl has published a shareholder memo in which he lays out why he should be music’s AI visionary-in-chief and his big AI bet for Warner. Everyone wins, nobody loses. Unless you work for Warner, in which case you might want to find a new job before you’re replaced by an AI…

Sam Taylor • 04 Mar 2026

Suno is a feral pig rampaging through a well-tended garden, say creator orgs

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Suno • 7 min read

Suno is a feral pig rampaging through a well-tended garden, say creator orgs

A coalition of creator organisations has published a scathing open letter comparing Suno to jewel thieves, arguing the AI platform built its $2.45bn valuation on unlicensed scraping, pays almost nothing to creators, and has become a fraud-fodder factory on an industrial scale…

Sam Taylor • 25 Feb 2026

Why did Live Nation delete a bombastic article written by its top lawyer attacking the DOJ?

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Live Nation • 11 min read

Why did Live Nation delete a bombastic article written by its top lawyer attacking the DOJ?

Live Nation’s top lawyer Dan Wall wrote a rant about the DoJ’s big antitrust lawsuit against the company last week. It was published on Live Nation’s investor portal, only to be yanked down shortly after. Live Nation didn’t want people to see it - but why?…

Sam Taylor • 24 Feb 2026

Merlin CEO Jeremy Sirota said “independent music is not raw material for tech companies to exploit without consent” before quitting to join AI music scraper-in-chief Suno

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Merlin • 4 min read

Merlin CEO Jeremy Sirota said “independent music is not raw material for tech companies to exploit without consent” before quitting to join AI music scraper-in-chief Suno

No more TED talks, daddy! Ex-Merlin CEO Jeremy Sirota has moved to the dark side and joined one of the very companies he railed against. Having defended Merlin members against the predations of big tech, Sirota has signed up as big cheese of all things commercial at music scraping slop factory Suno…

Sam Taylor • 24 Feb 2026