CMU | the music business explained (Page 5)

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

Horizon Future Leaders • 6 min read

🌅 Horizon Future Leaders - Oscar Tremain Q&A

As part of our Horizon Future Leaders series of interviews, we are 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 Oscar Tremain, VP Of Product & Client Relations at rightsHUB.…

Horizon Music Jobs • 31 Jan 2025

US Copyright Office • 3 min read

Simply prompting an AI model doesn’t make you the author of a copyrighted work, according to the US Copyright Office

When people have tried to register AI-generated works with the US Copyright Office, it has always said that only AI-assisted works enjoy copyright protection. It reaffirms that position in a new report, but provides more information on how to distinguish between AI-generated and AI-assisted content…

Chris Cooke • 30 Jan 2025

CMU Approved • 1 min read

🎧 Approved: SASAMI

SASAMI, a classically trained musician known for blending genres, pushes boundaries with her new single, ‘In Love With A Memory’. A haunting duet with Clairo, their vocals are a delicate interplay that feels suspended between the living and the spectral…

Kaya Robertson • 30 Jan 2025

Artificial Intelligence • 5 min read

UK government is “giving away the property rights” of creators, warn Lords as they force AI copyright safeguards into Data Bill

Peers in the House of Lords have rallied together in a cross-party effort to force a number of amendments into the government’s Data (Use And Access) Bill. Those amendments - which still need to pass through the Commons - aim to provide safeguards for copyright owners in the context of AI…

Sam Taylor • 30 Jan 2025

MLC • 5 min read

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

The MLC’s lawsuit targeting Spotify’s “cynical trick” to reduce royalties to songwriters through its US-subscriber audiobooks bundle has been thrown out by the court, with the judge saying there is “no set of facts” that the collecting society could use to support its position…

Sam Taylor • 30 Jan 2025

Sacha Lord • 5 min read

Sacha Lord quits as Night Time Advisor to Manchester Mayor as Arts Council confirms it is “seeking to recover” Culture Recovery Fund grant

A lengthy investigation by Arts Council England into a Culture Recovery Fund grant to Sacha Lord ends with a whimper rather than a bang, and raises more questions than it answers, with Manchester mayor Andy Burnham saying it is “not clear why the Arts Council” has come to its decision…

Sam Taylor • 29 Jan 2025

Black Lives In Music • 2 min read

With “hundreds of stories from women of being harassed”, UK government needs to tackle harassment and abuse in the music industry

Parliament’s Women And Equalities Select Committee staged another session yesterday on misogyny in music, following its report on that topic last year. The last government declined to enact any of the committee’s legislative proposals. MPs were told that current ministers should now do that work…

Chris Cooke • 29 Jan 2025

Playboi Carti • 2 min read

Playboi Carti sued by former collaborator over unpaid royalties on 2017 track

A singer and producer who provided vocals for Playboi Carti track ‘Kelly K’ says he has never been paid any royalties, despite being allocated a 5% share of the song copyright. He’s suing Playboi Carti as a result, though it’s not clear if those royalties should have been coming via the rapper…

Chris Cooke • 29 Jan 2025

ECSA • 3 min read

Composers “negotiating in the dark” for “meagre” royalties from TV and movie producers says new ECSA report

NDAs, buy-outs and ‘pseudo publishing deals’ are in conflict with key principles in the 2019 European Copyright Directive and are being used by video streaming platforms, and TV and movie producers, to drive down royalties to audiovisual composers, says a new report from ECSA…

Chris Cooke • 28 Jan 2025

Eminem • 2 min read

Eminem sues local Ford dealership over “one shot” TikTok rip-off

A Ford dealership in Michigan is the latest company to be sued for using music in promotional videos on TikTok without securing the necessary licences. LaFontaine Ford St Clair has been sued by Eminem’s publisher Eight Mile Style after it used ‘Lose Yourself’ in social media posts last autumn…

Chris Cooke • 28 Jan 2025

Web blocking • 2 min read

Movie producers and publishers want US to implement web-blocking to halt piracy

Web-blocking is an anti-piracy tactic of choice for the music industry, but is not an option under US copyright law. The copyright industries would like that to change, and some optimism was expressed last week at an Anti-Piracy Symposium that web-blocking will be available in the US at some point…

Chris Cooke • 28 Jan 2025

CMU Approved • 1 min read

🎧 Approved: Nature TV

Brighton’s Nature TV are easy breezy, blending soulful indie-pop with 70s-soaked rhythms. Their latest single manages to capture a sense of warmth while still exploring the melancholy of wanting more.…

Kaya Robertson • 28 Jan 2025