CMU | the music business explained (Page 188)

Live Nation boss Michael Rapino talked to Trump, hired Trump allies, reveals latest filing in antitrust case

StubHub fined £900,000 by UK regulator for illegal drip pricing

Google says any music uploaded to YouTube is fair game for AI training - and there’s nothing musicians can do

Suno really doesn’t want you to know how many audio files it copied when training its music AI model

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

BTS fans hate Live Nation over Aussie and Malaysian ticket pre-sales

Chance The Rapper and Pat The Manager back in court, over claims Pat improperly inserted himself into Chance’s deals

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

UK competition regulator should urgently investigate live music sector, MPs say, citing “climate of fear” around Live Nation’s dominance

Spotify’s transformation into an AI slop factory commences as it announces Universal “superfan” remix gimmick and Live Nation ticketing wheeze

Music industry welcomes revised NO FAKES Act, but Spotify says “still work to do”

Live Nation and Ticketmaster should still be split up, lawmakers told, as US government’s antitrust settlement criticised in Congress

Spotify increases subscription prices in Canada, but rolls back previous price increases in India

Op-ed: More than the Beatles: the quiet secrets behind Liverpool’s world-class music industry

BMG and Concord confirm merger

Universal and Sony must be allowed to see Warner’s deal with Suno, lawyers tell judge as AI legal battle continues

Music streaming services targeted as Texas Attorney General launches payola investigation

Live Nation pays $9.9 million to settle yet another investigation into dodgy ticketing practices

The European rule on whether samples need to be cleared moves to a “maybe” with latest Kraftwerk ruling

BTS lawyers go after album leaker and knock-off merch sellers

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

Grass needs more time to grow says AEG as it puts a pin in LIDO Festival

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

Major music publishers buy into termination rights lawsuit to take fight to Supreme Court

Spotify wants $300 million in damages from Anna’s Archive, and for court to go after piracy site’s service providers

Cox Communications celebrates as US Supreme Court overturns critical music piracy judgement

Claude’s AI lyrics cause market dilution, say music publishers calling for courts to reject fair use defence

Declare trademark claims bogus says FKA in Twigs vs Twigs

Chance The Rapper wins sunset clause dispute with former manager

American man pleads guilty to multi-million dollar streaming fraud, faces five years in jail

Cautious welcome for UK government’s latest AI copyright stance, as BMG files latest Anthropic lawsuit

DoJ’s Live Nation settlement “proof Trump Administration cannot be trusted to protect American consumers”, says new Senate report on Ticketmaster

StubHub to more clearly state prices and terms for touted tickets, and offer Taylor Swift fans refunds, but only in British Columbia

“Robbing them blind, baby - that’s how we do it”, boast Live Nation execs about “so stupid” ticket-buyers

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

High Court sides with Kneecap, ending the Hezbollah flag criminal case against Mo Chara

Google had every opportunity to train its AI legally, but chose to do it on the cheap instead, say indie musicians in new lawsuit

Live Nation settles DoJ antitrust lawsuit - but state lawsuits may continue

Chance The Rapper and Pat The Manager bust-up heads to court over disputed sunset clause

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

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

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

Producer who accused Karol G of beat-theft dismisses his lawsuit, adding “we were wrong”

Anna’s Archive rolls out the red carpet for robots - and asks them to “persuade” their humans to make donations

After a Live Nation lobbyist boasted he got antitrust chief sacked, US Senators ask if company has hired a “bevy of cozy MAGA friends”

European Commission approves Universal’s $775 million Downtown acquisition - but did it ask the right questions?

Spotify is all in on AI, its best engineers haven't written a single line of code since December - and why that should worry the music industry

Adding “hot takes” to unlicensed music is not fair use, judge confirms in rockumentary copyright case

IMPALA report warns European music diversity will erode without intervention on ownership, market access and infrastructure

European Commission must tackle “coercive buy-out practices” when US video streamers commission music, says MEP

Charlie Puth got musician to provide vocals for ‘Furious 7’ track, then Warner cheated him out rights and royalties, says lawsuit

Music publishers file new Anthropic lawsuit, adding in piracy claims and $3 billion mega-damages

Meta dropped songs from Reels library to bully Wixen into accepting lower royalty rates, says lawsuit

Horizon Future Leaders: Four issues shaping the industry

Five key developments over the Christmas break

Music and AI: 2025’s developments that will shape 2026’s disputes

Artists from South East Europe at risk of “cultural erasure” as a result of Spotify’s 1000 stream threshold

As indie community calls again for Universal’s Downtown deal to be blocked, will UMG flog off Curve to get over regulators?

MIT study “marks a new anchor for meaningful actions” to make live music more environmentally sustainable

Indie publishers make demands of collecting societies as they start to negotiate AI deals

Bob Vylan sue RTÉ over claims they instigated “antisemitic chant” during Glastonbury set

After King Gizzard boycotted Spotify, tracks by an AI-clone of the band started streaming

Ador founder wants to develop alternative K-pop management model with new agency

Indie publisher trade body says members should reject AI deals that do not value songs properly

“Creators are collateral damage” in AI race says Jorja Smith’s label, after AI voice clone track goes viral

Kneecap sue MP who “lied to the world” about group’s Canada ban

Johnny Cash estate uses ELVIS Act to sue Coke over tribute act ad soundtrack

Suno picks up Songkick as part of AI licensing deal with Warner Music

Live Nation and AEG provide a “disgusting service”, says Olivia Dean, after for-profit touting of tickets

Fugee Pras Michel jailed for fourteen years after illegal lobbying

Ticket touting platforms start frantic lobbying campaign claiming new anti-tout laws will increase ticket fraud

StubHub share price craters as UK prepares to announce ticket touting ban

Regulators must consider UMG’s AI deals in Downtown case, says IAO President

North American songwriter groups join call for transparency and creator consent as music companies start signing AI deals

Starmer must “honour his pledge” to cap prices in “extortionate and pernicious” secondary ticketing market

Downtown accused of planning “calculated destruction” of a short-lived YouTube music client in bombastic new lawsuit

No “self-service buffet” for AI companies says GEMA CEO as OpenAI loses landmark lyrics lawsuit

Manchester Evening News pays damages after incorrectly labelling Bob Vylan’s “sun salutation” as a Nazi salute

Slipknot.com owner hires domain name specialist to fight back against band’s cybersquatting claims

“Misleading rhetoric and “deceitful buzzwords” not good enough, says Council Of Music Makers in call for creator consent, control and compensation in AI deals

Axing of controversial EBacc is a “step in the right direction” for music education says Ed Sheeran

Former Guns N Roses manager sues band over autobiography blocker clause

Judgement in Getty’s UK lawsuit against Stability “underscores growing gap” between copyright and tech, says leading lawyer

Spotify’s streaming fraud initiatives are “nothing more than window dressing” says rapper RBX as he files class action lawsuit

Streaming services don’t want French language quotas in Québec

Universal has settled its lawsuit with Udio, and signed AI deals with Udio and Stability

Spotify questions MLC’s “motivations” in pursuing audiobook bundling dispute lawsuit

Lizzo is being sued over an uncleared sample - on a track she never released

Viagogo is unfair, opaque and violates EU law, consumer group tells regulator

Bobby Vylan says he has no regrets about “death to the IDF” chant at Glastonbury

Ticketmaster says FTC allegations it colluded with touts “nonsensical”, but it is changing some of its rules and shutting down TradeDesk

New Udio lawsuit hones in on the “significant and unequal harm” inflicted on independent musicians by music AI

Majors tell US Supreme Court to ignore ISP’s doom and gloom predictions and uphold billion dollar piracy ruling

Drake vows to appeal after judge throws out defamation lawsuit against Universal

High profile songwriters express concern about PRS transparency, accuracy and admin costs

Anthropic’s own guardrails revive full copyright lawsuit from litigious music publishers

Suno tells court to reject stream-ripping “gambit” by major labels in AI legal battle

As indie labels ramp up campaign for EU to block the UMG x Downtown merger, a French music lawyer says concerns around data are “fantasy or paranoia”

As FT says major labels are close to “landmark” AI licensing deals, is a new battle royale going to kick off within the music industry?

No one seems to know if Kneecap are still banned from Canada - or whether they were ever actually banned at all

One Liners - quickfire news from the music business • 2 min read

⏩ One Liners: Olly Alexander, Deezer, Pharrell Williams x Miley Cyrus + more

Warner x Tips; Deezer CEO departs; Ticketmaster and IDOL appointments; Co-op Live licence; UK Eurovision entry; new music from Pharrell Williams x Miley Cyrus, Liam Payne, Martin Garrix, Griff, Cage The Elephant, Twenty One Pilots, Sevdaliza, Jordy, Mui Zyu, Joe & The Shitboys, and Hamferð…

Andy Malt • 01 Mar 2024

Universal Music • 3 min read

Universal Music sends another memo to songwriters about its big TikTok bust-up

As the deadline passed for TikTok to remove Universal published songs from its platform, the major has sent another memo to its artists and songwriters. It admits some of them may be finding that the disruption caused by its TikTok bust-up is proving difficult, but insists it will all be worth it…

Chris Cooke • 01 Mar 2024

NTIA • 2 min read

Consumers keen to socialise but night-time economy still struggling, NTIA annual report finds

UK consumers are keen to socialise more as we move further away from the pandemic and its lockdowns, and as a result they are spending more in the night-time economy. However, the industry is not seeing any financial boost from this, thanks to inflation and the ongoing impact of COVID losses…

Andy Malt • 01 Mar 2024

Sound Off • 2 min read

New report outlines “the scathing history” of sexual abuse and cover ups in the music industry

Four US organisations have published a report called ‘Sound Off’ that summarises allegations of sexual harassment and assault that have been made against more than 50 people working in the music industry, while also calling for commitments from music companies to create a safe working environment…

Chris Cooke • 01 Mar 2024

And Finally • 6 min read

And Finally! Apple brushed off Bing for its lack of Annie Lennox knowledge

Six years ago, Microsoft made a play to convince Apple to ditch Google and make Bing the default search engine on its Safari browser. Why is this not the case? Because Bing didn’t know enough about Annie Lennox. Check out this and more of this week’s funniest music news stories…

Andy Malt • 01 Mar 2024

Universal Music • 8 min read

€111 million in TikTok revenue is nothing when you’re Lucian Grainge - but, he says, “my phone is always open” if Shou Zi Chew wants to be friends again

The Lucian-Shou bromance is over, and Lucian would like Shou to know that he really doesn’t care and they were never really friends anyway. So much so that he spent an hour telling everyone just how much he doesn’t care. Really. Doesn’t care. Not at all.…

Sam Taylor • 29 Feb 2024

One Liners - quickfire news from the music business • 5 min read

⏩ One Liners: Charli XCX, St Vincent, Cyndi Lauper + more

Cyndi Lauper, SM, Bella Union, Alternative Songs deals; Steve retires from AFO; Sony and BMG promotions; UK Women In Music; Apple EU fine; Bauer local rebrands; John and Taupin for Gershwin Prize; MTV EMAs; Ezra Furman, Shygirl, Onyx gigs; new music from Charli XCX, St Vincent + more…

Andy Malt • 29 Feb 2024

CMU Approved • 1 min read

Approved: Orbury Common

Creating dance music imbued with sounds and themes of the British countryside, Orbury Common are set to release their debut album ‘Sylvan Chute’ this summer. Out now is first single ‘The Resident’, which sees the duo add their own vocals into the mix for the first time…

Andy Malt • 29 Feb 2024

ERA • 2 min read

UK music retail revenues reach record high, according to ERA stats

UK music retail revenues are out-performing the 2001 peak of the CD era, with ERA reporting that music retailers and streaming services generated £2223 million in revenues in the twelve months leading up to last week. Though there is still some way to go if you adjust 2001’s revenues for inflation…

Chris Cooke • 29 Feb 2024

Ja Rule • 2 min read

Ja Rule says he told promoter criminal record could cause problems for now cancelled UK tour

Ja Rule’s upcoming UK tour was cancelled earlier this week after the rapper was refused permission to enter the country because of his criminal record. He insists he previously raised concerns about the impact of his criminal record with the tour’s promoter, but was told there wouldn’t be an issue…

Chris Cooke • 29 Feb 2024

Earth, Wind & Fire • 2 min read

Trademark dispute over Earth, Wind & Fire tribute shows back in court

A company owned by the family of Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White wants summary judgement in its trademark legal battle with the promoters of tribute shows that involve musicians who previously performed with the band. It’s alleged that the marketing of the shows implies official status…

Chris Cooke • 29 Feb 2024

Universal Music • 3 min read

Universal Music made €11.1 billion in 2023; CEO hits out at TikTok on earnings call

Universal's "former deal" with TikTok made €111 million in 2023 says Lucian Grainge but "his phone is open 24 hours a day. We hope that we will be able to find solutions".…

Sam Taylor • 28 Feb 2024

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