CMU Trends is a series of guides, briefings and reports that explain the inner workings of the music industry, and analyse key developments in the business. To navigate them by theme CLICK HERE for the CMU Library.

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For all the latest CMU Trends guides, briefings and reports CLICK HERE. You can access archive articles from CMU Trends below.

Browse the revamped CMU Library21 July 2021

CMU Trends: Artist And Songwriter Rights In Relation To Recordings And Songs4 November 2020

Trends: Safe Harbour In Five Steps3 September 2018

Trends: Catalogue marketing in the streaming age25 June 2018

Trends: Top Five American Copyright Quirks18 June 2018

Trends: Spotify - past, present and future2 March 2018

Trends: China, AI and music education - setting the agenda23 February 2018

Trends: AI - The next revolution in music?19 February 2018

Trends: Top five streaming challenges9 February 2018

Trends: Reviewing the sales v licence debate26 January 2018

Trends: Agent of change - the story so far19 January 2018

Trends: Five contenders for music’s enemy number one – update!12 January 2018

Trends: Top five music lawsuits to watch in 20185 January 2018

Trends: Online music piracy - past, present and future22 December 2017

Trends: Dissecting The Digital Dollar - Step by step20 October 2017

Trends: Global music data and blockchain - the story so far22 September 2017

Trends: The rights of artists and songwriters post-assignment - performer and moral rights18 August 2017

Trends: Value of music – the story so far30 June 2017

Trends: Making money from music media in the digital age5 June 2017

Trends: The latest record industry stats – three reasons for optimism, three reasons for gloom2 May 2017

Trends: Realising the revenue potential of free streams17 April 2017

Trends: 1972 and all that… Again!3 April 2017

Trends: The push for digital transparency gets political6 March 2017

Trends: The record label of the future - the story so far13 February 2017

Trends: Can contributory infringement be a crime in the US?6 February 2017

Trends: Five contenders for music's enemy number one30 January 2017

Trends: Tackling the touts in 2016 - A recap19 December 2016

Trends: Reviewing the potential of the new creative tech - the story so far30 November 2016

Trends: Reviewing the streaming market as we head into 201721 November 2016

Trends: Dancing babies, fair use and takedowns - Explaining Lenz v Universal14 November 2016

Trends: Deals, data and disputes - when copyrights are co-owned31 October 2016

Trends: What challenges remain to truly unlock the power of direct-to-fan?17 October 2016

Trends: How do artists know if they’re getting a good deal from streaming? There are too many unknowns10 October 2016

Trends: The big challenge of mid-price and free streams26 September 2016

Trends: Music rights and the European Copyright Directive19 September 2016

Trends: Assessing the music industry in 2016 - is it saved yet?12 September 2016

Trends: Seeking alternative ways to stream - the SupaPass approach25 July 2016

Trends: As FanFair launches, where next for the touting debate?19 July 2016

Trends: Working through the streaming stats – which matter?11 July 2016

Trends: A matter of consent - why American publishers are talking about collective licensing rules4 July 2016

Trends: The physical market in 2016 - who the hell is buying all these CDs?20 June 2016

Trends: Tracking digital dollars - the transparency problem13 June 2016

Trends: The music industry and YouTube6 June 2016

Trends: Building a more skilled music industry31 May 2016

Trends: The music industry’s big copyright data problem23 December 2015

Trends: Why ‘making available’ is now on the European Commission’s copyright agenda23 December 2015

Trends: Five key digital challenges for the music industry in 201623 December 2015

Trends: The ads sector in focus - Five take-aways from Resilient Music’s research27 September 2015

Trends: Meet the supervisors27 September 2015

Trends: Sync licensing - A beginner’s guide27 September 2015

Trends: The challenge of converting freemium17 July 2015

Trends: Mastering a music city - Investing in music to boost city economies17 July 2015

Trends: Music’s new opinion formers - Driving sustained listening through playlists17 July 2015

Trends: The cost of recorded music29 May 2015

Trends: Five things you should know about UK consumers29 May 2015

Trends: Tackling the Digital Pie Debate29 May 2015

Trends: What's the point of a record label anyway?29 May 2015

Trends: How to sell out gracefully - better brand partnerships29 May 2015

Trends: Music marketing is broken - let's fix it29 May 2015

Trends: Music licensing - explained at last!29 May 2015

Trends: How the Consumer Rights Act will impact on secondary ticketing, or not15 April 2015

Trends: Why the music industry hopes to put safe harbours on the European agenda15 April 2015

Trends: Can the music industry deliver a Tidal wave of exclusives?15 April 2015

Trends: Should green festivals shout about it more?15 March 2015

Trends: Copyright terms, rebooting the copyrights of unpublished works and the 2039 Rule15 March 2015

Trends: Five things to take from the entertainment retailers’ new manifesto15 March 2015

Trends: The recorded music year just gone - market by market15 February 2015

Trends: Five music business trends to watch in 201515 February 2015

Trends: Using music to boost tourism, and tourism to showcase music - Iceland Airwaves15 February 2015

Trends: Game Changers - innovation, disruption and new music technology at M For Montreal23 December 2014

Trends: The emerging digital spectrum, and the challenge of freemium23 December 2014

Trends: Finally coming on stream - digital developments in Japan23 December 2014

Trends: What is it about 1972?23 December 2014

Trends: What one thing could the labels do to placate artists in 2014?15 October 2014

Trends: What one thing could Google do to placate the record labels in 2014?15 October 2014

Trends: As the GRD runs aground, what next?15 October 2014

Trends: How could we better communicate copyright?15 October 2014

Trends: The real revolution is direct-to-fan16 May 2014

Trends: How to stand out in such a crowded festival market?16 May 2014

Trends: Dan Le Sac on "What Artists Really Think About Streaming Royalties"16 May 2014

Trends: Maximising music rights - an overview16 May 2014

Trends: Ticketing questions of both the primary and secondary kind6 March 2014

Trends: The digital royalties debate6 March 2014

Trends: The Google dimension6 March 2014

Trends: How should we be pricing digital?6 March 2014

Trends: A recovering record industry?15 January 2014

Trends: Takedowns and web-blocks15 January 2014

Trends: Plenty of digital debates15 January 2014

Trends: Social considerations15 January 2014

Trends: Copyright changes15 January 2014

Trends: The growth and float of SFX15 January 2014

Trends: The HMV crash15 January 2014

Trends: The end of EMI15 January 2014