CMU | the music business explained (Page 16)

Live Nation colludes with ticket touts, says US government as it launches legal action

Cornwall Council will hold meeting about ‘safety risks’ of Bob Vylan’s August Boardmasters performance - even through there weren’t any

Spotify finally adds lossless audio to premium

Anthropic will pay authors $1.5 billion to settle AI copyright case

Universal’s Downtown deal must be blocked by regulators before “cultural diversity is weakened irreversibly” says Dutch indie label group president

As EU hits pause on UMG Downtown investigation after “parties fail to provide important info”, Downtown boss whines about “misinformation”

More upheaval at Warner Music as UK label chiefs will report directly to US execs

Yet another senior exec out at Warner Music as UK boss Tony Harlow quits

Billion dollar piracy win for majors “defies common law and common sense” says Cox

Court dismisses Dave Rowntree’s black box lawsuit against PRS

Supertramp songwriter must continue to share publishing royalties with bandmates, US appeals court concludes

FTC sues ticket touting business that claims it is endorsed by Ticketmaster

Drake’s claims are “farcical” says Lucian Grainge as defamation battle rumbles on

Drake wants to trawl through Papa Grainge’s emails in ‘Not Like Us’ libel battle

Sony sues Napster over $9.2 million in unpaid royalties

Spotify age-checks could result in accounts being deleted, but only if you’re twelve

Increasing number of artists join Spotify boycott over CEO’s AI weapon investments

If China blocks TikTok deal app will “go dark” says US Commerce Secretary, but hints deal “coming soon”

Blackstone bails on consortium bidding to buy TikTok US - will a deal still be done by September deadline?

Anthropic’s ‘fair use’ win in AI copyright case could turn into a trillion dollar loss

No copyright exception for AI training in European law, says new report

Full scale anticompetition investigation on the cards after UMG’s Virgin Music fails to allay EU fears over Downtown merger

Suno AI’s faulty guardrails mean its ‘ReMi’ lyric model will spit out entire lyrical works with basic prompting

Did Ticketmaster’s UK boss Andrew Parsons mislead MPs at a select committee hearing?

Trump must “weigh in” on AI copyright debate and pressure “less innovative countries” on copyright rules, says OpenAI

Everyone’s making loads of money but don’t point the finger at us if you’re not, says Spotify’s updated Loud & Clear

Andrew Tate course on ‘pimping’ and exploiting women remains on Spotify as petition passes 25,000 signatures

Universal will spend billions to dominate emerging markets, says Grainge during Q4 earnings call as major sets out its “eat the world” strategies

Liverpool “new heart of music business” says Sound City as major label execs and industry heavyweights head north

Live Nation boss dismissive of streaming platforms’ superfan ambitions as company reports record year

Spotify wants to be “the best in the world at building AI products” and is focused on “accelerated execution”... but still no super-premium launch

Judge throws out MLC’s audiobooks bundle lawsuit, says Spotify can keep cutting songwriter royalties through its “cynical trick”

Universal Music’s new Spotify deal could be a knock-out blow for streaming platform’s audiobook bundling trick

Universal put “corporate greed” before Drake’s safety, says defamation lawsuit filed over Kendrick Lamar diss track

Beware the “wolf under the cape” in Universal’s Downtown land grab, warns Beggars boss as IMPALA calls for regulators to block the deal

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

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

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

Executives from BMG, Absolute Label Services, Mahogany Music, Punch Records and more to join award winning female entrepreneurs in Liverpool as first Sound City+ 2025 speakers unveiled

AIF makes desperate call for government to “step up, and step up now” to get festivals through “devastating period”, as MVT launches new Liveline fund

New AI transparency proposal in US Congress will “pave the way” for creator compensation says ASCAP boss

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

Universal Music • 9 min read

Indie sector's letter to EU over Universal's Downtown deal

More than 200 business leaders from across the independent music sector have signed an open letter to the European Commission urging it to instigate a more detailed phase two investigation into Universal Music’s acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings…

Chris Cooke • 07 Jul 2025

CMU Selects • 1 min read

CMU Selects - the last week’s standout releases

New music from Ethel Cain, Nilüfer Yanya, Kesha, TeeZandos and nabeel. Five standout releases that stood out to us over the last week…

Kaya Robertson • 07 Jul 2025

Bob Vylan • 6 min read

BBC Music boss steps back, Met Police investigate and Radar Festival responds as Bob Vylan controversy rumbles on

The promoter of Manchester’s Radar Festival has spoken about being forced to remove Bob Vylan from her line-up in the wake of the duo’s Glastonbury set. Meanwhile, the BBC continues to apologise for broadcasting that set, as the Met Police investigates comments made at an earlier Bob Vylan gig…

Chris Cooke • 04 Jul 2025

The Leadmill • 2 min read

“Huge skip” appears outside The Leadmill as team begins to strip venue back to “derelict flour mill”

The team behind Sheffield’s The Leadmill are in the process of vacating the building after being evicted by The Electric Group, which plans to take over running the venue. The current team pledged to strip the building bare if forced to leave and it looks like that’s exactly what they’re doing…

Chris Cooke • 04 Jul 2025

Horizon Future Leaders • 6 min read

🌅 Horizon Future Leaders - Grace Croucher

This week, we caught up with Grace Croucher – Senior Membership & Events Manager at The Ivors Academy - where she leads on strategy, programming and partnerships to support songwriters and composers at every stage of their careers.…

Horizon Music Jobs • 04 Jul 2025

Diddy • 2 min read

Diddy lawyer hails “victory of all victories” as disgraced mogul is denied bail

Although Diddy was found guilty on some charges yesterday, he was acquitted on the charges of racketeering and sex trafficking, prompting his lawyer to claim “a victory of all victories”. However, bail was denied because during the trial Diddy’s own team admitted there was a “pattern of violence”…

Chris Cooke • 03 Jul 2025

Downtown Music • 3 min read

European songwriter organisation ECSA joins call for EU to block UMG’s Downtown deal

Opposition to UMG’s deal to buy Downtown continues to build. Now ECSA has called on the EU to block the deal, sharing concerns expressed by indie labels, while also stressing that a more powerful Universal will have even more “influence” over collecting societies and how the digital pie is sliced…

Chris Cooke • 03 Jul 2025

BBC • 2 min read

Veteran DJ Tony Blackburn says OfCom’s decision to block BBC Radio 2 spin-off is “disgraceful”

The BBC’s plan to launch a new Radio 2 spin-off playing just golden oldies has been blocked by media regulator OfCom, a decision welcomed by commercial rivals, but criticised by the BBC and one of its presenters, Tony Blackburn. Three other new BBC spin-off stations have been given the go ahead…

Chris Cooke • 03 Jul 2025

CMU Approved • 1 min read

🎧Approved: PARADE

Mysterious new eight-piece PARADE fuse off-kilter electronics with live instrumentation, where woozy synths, cinematic brass flourishes and punk guitar lines move together in unexpected ways. New single ‘It Moves’ is a fittingly strange introduction to upcoming EP ‘Lightning Hit The Trees’…

Kaya Robertson • 03 Jul 2025

Ticketmaster • 6 min read

“Red-faced and sweaty” Live Nation executives face CMA legal action over Oasis tickets

Live Nation’s Phil ‘Brick Top’ Bowdery and Ticketmaster UK top banana Andrew Parsons arrived 15 minutes late last week to give evidence to MPs as part of the Business And Trade Committee’s ‘Rip-off Britain’ inquiry. Given how badly things went from there, they might regret having turned up at all……

Sam Taylor • 02 Jul 2025

Warner Music • 3 min read

Warner Music chief announces more job cuts in bid to save $170 million

Warner Music boss Robert Kyncl yesterday wrote to the major’s employees to announce a plan to cut the company’s annual costs by $300 million, with $170 million of the savings coming from job cuts. The CEO says the cuts are needed to “future-proof the company and unlock the next era of growth”…

Chris Cooke • 02 Jul 2025

Artificial Intelligence • 3 min read

Music industry welcomes removal of AI regulation moratorium from One Big Beautiful Bill

When Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill was passed by the House Of Representatives in May it included a provision pausing all state-level regulation of AI in the US. Critics saw it as an attempt by big tech to slow down and lessen AI regulation. The provision has now been removed by the Senate…

Chris Cooke • 02 Jul 2025