CMU | the music business explained (Page 23)

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

Secondary Ticketing • 4 min read

Culture minister tells ticket touting platforms to “get ready for change”

MPs took part in a debate on secondary ticketing yesterday, with culture minister Chris Bryant insisting the new government will make good on its pledge to introduce a ticket touting price cap, and will do so in a way that ensures this new regulation - unlike past regulations - is properly enforced…

Chris Cooke • 25 Oct 2024

TikTok • 3 min read

IMPALA urges TikTok to re-open Merlin negotiations as we reach the direct deal deadline for indies

IMPALA has written an open letter to TikTok over its decision to abandon licensing talks with Merlin and force indie labels and distributors to sign direct deals by today. It urges TikTok to return to the negotiating table with the global indie label digital licensing organisation…

Chris Cooke • 25 Oct 2024

Horizon Future Leaders • 8 min read

🌅 Horizon Future Leaders - Kit Muir-Rogers Q&A

As part of our new Horizon Future Leaders series, we’re connecting with the music industry’s next generation of leaders to gather candid advice and insights into their career journeys. This week, we caught up with Kit Muir-Rogers, Co-founder of GigPig.…

Horizon Music Jobs • 25 Oct 2024

Agents x Managers Conference • 7 min read

Matt Hanner, founder of live agency Runway, on this year’s Agents x Managers Conference

With the second edition of the Agents x Managers conference coming up in December, Matt Hanner, founder of live agency Runway, sat down with CMU’s Sam Taylor to talk about what being a live agent means today, not checking email at weekends, and why he wants his team to make more money than he does…

Sam Taylor • 24 Oct 2024

Diddy • 2 min read

Diddy lawyers say gagging order should restrict any government investigator with access to the case files

Diddy’s legal team have written another letter to the court about the gagging order they want issued restricting what anyone involved in the criminal case against the musician can say in public. There is currently a disagreement with prosecutors over who the gagging order should apply to…

Chris Cooke • 24 Oct 2024

Black Lives In Music • 1 min read

Black Lives In Music launches Anti-Racism code for the music industry

Black Lives In Music launched a new anti-racism code for the music industry at WOMEX this week. It also previewed a new software called EquiTrack which will help music companies track their diversity and inclusion work and assess the impact it is having…

Chris Cooke • 24 Oct 2024

CISAC • 3 min read

Live music booming, but songwriters still not feeling the benefits of streaming, say latest CISAC stats

A booming live music sector and continued growth in the digital music market both contributed to an €830 million increase in royalties collected by the world’s songwriter collecting societies in 2023, according to the latest Global Collections Report published by CISAC…

Chris Cooke • 24 Oct 2024

Op-Eds • 3 min read

Op-ed: Dorothea Thompson of Bray & Krais on the Morrissey + Marr trademark tensions

After Morrissey and Johnny Marr had a public set-to about the trademark THE SMITHS, Dorothea Thompson takes a look at the ins and outs of trademark registration and how to sort things out…

CMU Contributors • 23 Oct 2024

Artificial Intelligence • 4 min read

1000+ music creators back statement calling unlicensed AI training “major, unjust threat to livelihood”

Thousands of creators from across the creative industries have endorsed a statement saying that AI companies which train their models with existing content without getting permission first are posing an “unjust threat” to the livelihoods of people working in those sectors…

Chris Cooke • 23 Oct 2024

Triller • 5 min read

Triller brings in former VEVO exec to kickstart “transformation journey” as vertical video’s poor cousin licks its lips at prospect of TikTok ban

Triller is BACK! Just in time for Halloween. And this time it’s deadly serious about being the biggest app of all time and wiping the floor with every other feeble app out there. TikTok doesn’t have its own Bare Knuckle Fighting championship, does it? Oh and it’s got a new CEO too…

Sam Taylor & Chris Cooke • 23 Oct 2024