Deals
Jonas Group Publishing and Jonas Catalog Holdings have acquired a substantial catalogue of music rights, including publishing and recordings, from hit songwriter and artist Julia Michaels. The portfolio includes Michaels' Grammy-nominated song 'If The World Was Ending', as well as global hits such as 'Lose You To Love Me' recorded by Selena Gomez. Leslie T DiPiero, President of Jonas Group Publishing, says, "Julia Michaels is a known master of songwriting and is revered across multiple genres of music". Michaels adds, "Music is all about passion, and I'm so happy this music lives with Leslie, Kevin and their passionate team that values songwriters and creators".
HE.SHE.THEY. Records has announced a new global flagship electronic partnership with music distribution platform Too Lost, set to launch at ADE 2024. The collaboration aims to expand the label's reach and spotlight diverse voices on a wider scale. Sophia Kearney and Steven Braines, co-founders of HE.SHE.THEY. Records, say, "Together with Too Lost we are primed to offer an amazing home to a diverse range of artists at all different stages of their recording careers". Too Lost comments, "We have long admired their work and we look forward to supporting the next phase of their label for a long lasting future together". To mark the occasion, HE.SHE.THEY. will host events at ADE 2024, including stages at Dockyard Warehouse Festival and Mystic Garden Festival, featuring artists such as Indira Paganotto, DAX J and SPFDJ.
Blue Lab Beats has launched their own record label, Blue Adventure Records. The production duo, comprised of Mr DM and NK, aims to platform and champion new voices in music through the imprint. NK says, "I hope that by releasing artists who think outside the box, Blue Adventure Records will encourage other creatives to do the same". The label's first release is 'Options', a new single from Blue Lab Beats featuring Farah Audhali. Mr DM adds, "Releasing 'Options' with Farah is our first stance as an independent act. It has been an enjoyable few years with Blue Note Records and we can't wait for what the future holds for us".
Killphonic Rights has raised $3 million in working capital from Stilwell Creative Capital in exchange for a proportional equity stake. The LA-based management company will use the investment to expand services for its roster of artists, songwriters, labels and publishers. Stilwell Creative Capital aims to leverage Killphonic's industry expertise to enhance collections and licensing opportunities for its growing rights catalogue. Brian Baum, CEO of Stilwell, says, "We feel that Killphonic will be an invaluable partner in monetising the songs in our catalogue."
Vingroup has signed a memorandum of understanding with Warner Music Group and Indochina Productions to promote Vietnam as a destination for international music stars and filmmakers. The agreement, formalised during the Vietnam Tourism - Cinema Promotion Programme in Hollywood, California, will see Vingroup offer its Vinpearl resorts and VinWonders amusement parks as filming locations. Lisa Nguyen, Managing Director of Warner Music Vietnam, says, "Vietnam's breathtaking natural beauty makes it a potentially ideal location for film productions and concerts. Some of our artists, such as Charlie Puth, have performed here." Nicholas Simon, General Director of Indochina Productions, adds, "With Vingroup's backing, we're confident that Vietnam will become a sought-after location for numerous international blockbusters in the future."
Artist and brand development company Iconoclast has acquired the catalogue of rapper, singer and actress Eve, including her shares of hit singles such as 'Gangsta Lovin'', 'Love Is Blind' and 'Who's That Girl'.
Appointments
Graduation has appointed Rich Castillo as its new Head Of A&R. Castillo, who will report to Graduation Founder and CEO Charlie Lycett, will oversee the creative direction of A&R strategy for the global music company. In addition to his role at Graduation, Castillo will launch his own label, Lionbear Records, which will be distributed via Graduation's label services arm. Castillo brings extensive experience from his previous roles at Polydor Records, Atlantic Music and EMI Records, where he most recently served as SVP of A&R. Castillo says, "I'm looking forward to working closely with Charlie and the team at Graduation. This next phase will make Graduation a destination for ambitious artists that want forward-thinking deals".
Livelihood Music Company has appointed songwriter Ali Tamposi as a principal. Tamposi, who has written hits for artists including Kelly Clarkson, Camila Cabello and Dua Lipa, will join fellow songwriters JKash and Michael Pollack at the helm of the independent music publisher. "I'm THRILLED to be joining Livelihood Music Company, and expanding my sphere into the role of publisher", says Tamposi.
Streaming, Digital, Broadcast & Retail
MIDiA’s latest research on the music creator economy reveals that a quarter of music creators now upload directly to user-generated content platforms like TikTok without using a distributor or label. According to the report, creators with less than five years' tenure represented close to half of all music creators in 2023, bringing with them different needs and aspirations. This new cohort prioritises creative fulfilment and high-quality fanbases over large-scale, anonymous audiences, gravitating towards platforms like SoundCloud, YouTube and TikTok for direct fan engagement. MIDiA’s Mark Mulligan notes, "Today's creators want platforms where they can build high value, smaller fanbases, rather than low value, large-but-anonymous audiences".
Audius has expanded its music marketplace feature to allow direct fan-to-artist payments for all artists globally. The decentralised music platform's monetisation tool, previously in private beta, now enables artists to set their own pricing terms, with fans able to pay using credit cards in USDC. Roneil Rumburg, CEO of Audius, says, "It's been very cool and surprising to see how artists have leveraged our music marketplace to engage with their fans while creating an entirely new revenue stream for themselves." As part of this expansion, 10% of every payment will be captured by the Audius community treasury, subject to a pending governance proposal. Producer Kato On The Track, an early adopter of the feature, notes, "I can build new communities on Audius, and they have the tools that let me engage with my audience in ways that I can't do on other music platforms."
Spotify has decided to close Chartable, the podcast analytics platform it acquired in February 2022, as part of a company refocus. Chartable users will be notified via email about next steps. The platform's "SmartLinks and SmartPromos" attribution tools are still planned to be incorporated into Spotify’s Megaphone platform, while the streaming service has also recently announced similar attribution tools for its app. Dave Zohrob, Chartable's co-founder, left Spotify in July, and Podsights, another Spotify acquisition, was integrated into Spotify Ad Analytics in June 2023.
Noctil has expanded its metadata capabilities to support the DDEX RDR 1.5 standard. The no-code metadata platform's adoption of this standard aims to streamline the exchange of metadata related to sound recordings, music videos, and performers in the music and audiovisual industries. DDEX, a non-profit organisation, developed the Recording Data and Rights (RDR) standard to address challenges faced by record labels and licensing companies in exchanging information. Jacob Varghese, Founder & Director of Noctil, says, "This standard is essential for ensuring accurate and timely royalty payments and facilitating efficient data exchange within the music and audiovisual industries".
Meta has announced an overhaul of its metaverse avatars, with upgraded avatars available on Meta Horizon OS, the company's VR operating system, as well as Facebook, Instagram and Messenger from today. Aigerim Shorman, a VP on the Horizon team, says, "With the upgraded avatars, Meta is going to give users new ways to fine-tune things like eye size, nose shape and body shapes". The company also plans to introduce generative AI capabilities for avatar creation in 2025, allowing users to generate avatars based on text prompts.
Warner Music has partnered with Connyct, a new mobile short-form video app focused on college communities, ahead of its launch. The app, which requires a .edu email address to join, aims to connect students through content creation, event planning and shared interests. Connyct will feature an extensive library of licensed music clips from Warner to soundtrack users' videos and events. "Music is the heartbeat of the college experience, and Warner Music Group is committed to ensuring that our artists' music is available wherever their fans are", says Rachel Scarpati, Vice President Of Digital Strategy & Business Development at the major.
Spike AI has developed an artificial intelligence model that aims to bring high-quality mixing to musicians worldwide. The technology, set to launch in Q1 2025, translates the expertise of renowned mixing engineer Spike Stent into an AI plugin for digital audio workstations. Spike says, "We wanted to offer something unique that everyone can access. That's what's so brilliant about Spike AI. It lets people create something new that will help artists and producers who don't have the option of hiring someone like me". The plugin allows users to interact with the AI model via chatbot, making professional-level mixing accessible without deep technical knowledge.
Spotify has resolved a widespread outage that affected over 40,000 users in the United States and Canada on Sunday. The streaming platform experienced service disruptions for approximately three hours, during which users were unable to stream most content or load playlists, according to Downdetector. Spotify confirmed the resolution of the issue on social media platform X, stating, "Everything's looking much better now!" The company has not disclosed the cause of the outage that appeared to impact only North American customers.
Warner Musicp has announced plans to shut down its independent artist distribution service Level Music in 2025. The company says it will focus its efforts on ADA, its main distribution brand for the independent community. Level, which was quietly launched in 2018, will stop accepting new songs immediately, with all live releases to be taken down on 18 Nov. Warner says, "We're focusing all of our efforts behind the ADA brand, as we continue to strengthen our global suite of services for artists and label partners across the independent community".
German collecting society GEMA has introduced a licensing model for AI providers to address the use of copyrighted music in AI training and the creation of AI-generated songs. Christina von Gemmingen-Hornberg from GEMA says, "As GEMA, we have always made it clear that we are prepared to negotiate fair terms of use and remuneration models with the AI companies." The organisation's model proposes that authors should receive compensation beyond a one-time payment for training data, citing a study projecting the generative AI music market to reach over $3 billion in value by 2028.
InMarket has partnered with TikTok to measure the real-world impact of advertising campaigns using its Lift Conversion Index. The collaboration allows TikTok advertisers to access insights on how campaigns drive offline store visits and sales lift, optimising their return on ad spend. During the pilot programme, TikTok performance was 1.2x higher than InMarket's LCI Incremental Lift benchmark, with 96% of campaigns leading to Incremental Lift within retail and dining categories. Todd Morris, CEO of InMarket, says, "We're THRILLED to expand our partnership as our award-winning measurement solution becomes available for all advertisers on TikTok". Casey Hamlyn, Head of Measurement in North America at TikTok, adds, "LCI provides our advertisers with valuable insights into the effectiveness of their campaigns in driving real-world actions".
Live
Oasis has announced they will not use Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing model for their upcoming 2025 North American concerts. The band says, "Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing model will not be applied to the forthcoming sale of tickets to Oasis concerts in North America". Oasis explained that while dynamic pricing can be useful to combat ticket touting, when combined with unprecedented demand and inadequate technology, it "can lead to an unacceptable experience for fans". The move follows issues faced by fans during the UK and Ireland ticket sales, which prompted a probe by the UK government into the use of dynamic pricing for concert tickets.
Andrew Lloyd Webber has condemned dynamic pricing for show tickets as "racketeering" following the outcry over prices for the Oasis concerts. "I don't think theatres should be in the business of trying to push prices up. You need to break even, but I don't like making theatre inaccessible. Dynamic pricing is racketeering, really it's completely wrong", Lloyd Webber tells The Sunday Times magazine.
Music Venue Properties has announced the purchase of a venue in Swansea. The acquisition of The Bunkhouse is part of the groundbreaking initiative, instigated by the Music Venue Trust, aimed at securing the long-term future of grassroots music venues. A spokesperson for the venue says, "We can finally focus on continuing to develop the next generation of talent, knowing that The Bunkhouse is secure and will remain a cornerstone of Swansea's music scene".
The Last Dinner Party has addressed a security incident at their cancelled Lincoln Engine Shed gig on Saturday. The band clarified that security policies implemented at the venue, which reportedly involved questioning male attendees extensively about their knowledge of the band, were created and enforced by the venue without their consultation. The Engine Shed has apologised for the incident, saying, "As an urgent measure, we will also be implementing further staff training on our door entry policy to ensure that this cannot happen again". The Last Dinner Party stated, "Our shows are intended to be safe, welcoming spaces for everyone, which is something we deeply care about”.
Music therapy charity Nordoff And Robbins has announced that tickets are now on sale for its annual Carol Service, taking place on 10 Dec at St Luke's Church in London's Chelsea. The event will feature performances and celebrity readers to be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets are priced at £60 each, including a souvenir brochure, mulled wine and mince pie. Sandra Schembri, CEO of Nordoff And Robbins, says, "We are THRILLED that the Nordoff And Robbins Carol Service is returning once again to St Luke's Church. With costs increasing across the board and the demand for our services now higher than ever, money raised through this wonderful event will be vital in helping us to continue delivering music therapy to those in need nationwide".
Live Nation has revealed plans to construct a temporary 50,000-capacity open-air music venue at the former Downsview Airport in north Toronto. The Rogers Stadium, set to host its first concerts in June 2025, will operate seasonally as part of a larger redevelopment project. Erik Hoffman, President, Music, Live Nation Canada, says, "This was a natural response to an unprecedented level of stadium-level artists on the road today. We now have another home for them to perform." The venue will cater to diverse music genres, including K-pop, Afrobeats, Latin and Punjabi. Live Nation expects the stadium to inject an estimated $80-$100 million into the local economy during its operation, though the company has declined to share the project's cost.
Glastonbury Festival has launched a redesigned website, featuring improved mobile functionality and accessibility options. The festival organisers say, "We hope you find its clear navigation easy to use," adding that the site includes "a new, tiered information section" and integrated photo galleries. The updated website comes as Glastonbury prepares to announce ticket sale dates for next year’s event. While no official announcements have been made regarding the 2025 line-up, industry speculation suggests Cher may be in talks to perform in the festival's legends slot, according to an unnamed source quoted in The Sun.
Other Industry News & Events
BPI has released the fourth episode of its BPI Innovation Podcasts series, focusing on the collaboration between LSO Live and Popins. The episode, hosted by BPI Innovation Manager Amalie Briden, explores how the classical label and the US-based volumetric video start-up partnered to create collectible holograms of musicians. Becky Lees, Head of LSO Live, and Christina Calio, Co-Founder of Popins, discuss their interest in using emerging technologies to enhance audience and fan relationships in the music industry. The podcast series, which airs fortnightly, aims to spotlight innovative ideas shaping the music industry today, bringing together record label executives and start-up founders to explore key issues and opportunities. BPI says, "The BPI Innovation Podcast series is designed for anyone working in, or interested in the recorded music industry and the tech start-ups and scale-ups that are shaping meaningful change in how we discover, consume and engage with music."
Music conference and showcase festival BIME has announced its return to Bilbao, Spain, for its fifteenth edition from 29 Oct to 1 Nov. The event will feature 90 artist showcases, workshops and discussions on topics including artificial intelligence, ticketing and 'glocalisation'. Speakers include Scott Cohen, CEO of JKVX, Alexandra Lioutikoff from Universal Music Publishing and creative director Toni Segarra. ‘Music as a political tool and cultural identity in a globalised world’ will also be discussed by Fermin Muguruza, Garbiñe Ubeda, Tamer Nafar and Malena D'Alessio.
The UK Music Video Awards has revealed the nominations for its 2024 ceremony, set to take place on 24 Oct at Magazine London. Charli XCX leads with seven nominations across music genre and craft categories for her videos ‘360’, ‘Von Dutch’ and ‘Guess’. Other artists receiving multiple nominations include Jade, Raye, AntsLive, Fontaines DC, Mette and Childish Gambino. The awards celebrate music video creativity in the UK and internationally, recognising directors, production companies and filmmaking talent in areas such as cinematography, choreography and visual effects.
Artist News
Coldplay has confirmed they will retire after releasing their twelfth album. In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Chris Martin discussed the band's future as they prepare to release their tenth album, 'Moon Music', on 4 Oct. "We are only going to do twelve proper albums and that's real. Yeah, I promise," Martin says, explaining the decision as a way to maintain quality control and emulate their musical heroes. The band has recently completed the European leg of their ‘Music of the Spheres Tour’, which the band says has become the first rock tour to gross $1 billion.
James Blunt has announced he will change his name to whatever the public wants if the re-release of his debut album 'Back To Bedlam' reaches number one, 20 years after its original release. The singer-songwriter made the announcement on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X. Blunt explains, "I have signed up to changing my name to whatever the public want - they can change my name". He adds, "I swear on my life and the life of my one fan - Brian from Glasgow - I will change my name should it hit number one". The album, which originally featured hit singles 'High', 'Wisemen' and 'You're Beautiful', is set to be re-released as part of a campaign by Blunt's record label to return it to the top of the charts.
Queen's Brian May has resigned as vice president of the RSPCA after serving in the role since 2012. May announced his decision on 27 Sep via his official Instagram account, citing concerns over animal welfare standards in the RSPCA Assured scheme. "It is with profound sadness and not without massive soul-searching that today I have to offer my resignation as a vice president of the RSPCA," May says in his statement. He adds, "As more and more evidence comes to light, I find the RSPCA's response completely inadequate."
Bright Eyes have cancelled all remaining 2024 tour dates due to frontman Conor Oberst's unspecified vocal condition. The indie rock band scrapped several shows, including appearances at Chicago's Riot Fest and Las Vegas' Best Friends Festival, where Blood Brothers will replace them as headliners. In a statement, the group says, "Over the past week, Conor has undergone multiple tests to determine the cause of his recent vocal problems. It's come to light that he has developed a condition that is exacerbated by excessive singing, requiring both treatment and recuperation." The band expressed confidence in returning to touring next year, with an extensive 2025 North American itinerary still scheduled to begin on 16 Jan in Phoenix.
Lynyrd Skynyrd has cancelled several upcoming shows due to health emergencies affecting frontman Johnny Van Zant's family and crew. Van Zant's daughter Taylor was hospitalised after experiencing numbness, with doctors discovering a mass on her brain, while the band's bus driver Brad Gibson is in intensive care following a scooter accident. "I want to get Brad back on his feet, along with Taylor – so if you guys could say a prayer", says Van Zant, explaining the cancellation of concerts in Alaska, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. The band has ruled out cancer for Taylor, who remains under neurological care.