CMU | the music business explained (Page 98)

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

Don’t say gruesome twosome: Ek steps sideways at Spotify to make way for not one but two new CEOs

‘Something Inside’ songwriter goes legal over Tommy Robinson’s use of his anti-apartheid anthem

Donald Trump signs executive order “saving TikTok”

Tabloid claims that Dua Lipa sacked agent over Glasto Kneecap letter are “categorically false” and “deliberately inflammatory”

Major labels add piracy claims to Suno lawsuit after $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement

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

One Liners - quickfire news from the music business • 7 min read

⏩ One Liners: Deals, appointments, legal and industry news round-up including Sony’s Apollo deal, Prescription Songs, Britain’s Got Talent lawsuit plus releases + tours

Apollo provides “$700 million capital solution” to Sony, Big Machine and Prescription Songs appointments, Fremantle Media wins legal battle with ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ contestant, Apple Music adds radio data, new releases including from Halsey, Max Richter and Ray LaMontagne + more…

CMU • 29 Jul 2024

South Africa pushes back against US criticism of fair use copyright reforms

The US copyright industries recently criticised plans to introduce fair use into South Africa’s copyright laws. The South African government has hit back, arguing the reforms allow its copyright regime to “keep up with innovation”. It will also likely make the country more attractive to AI companies…

Chris Cooke • 29 Jul 2024

TikTok • 3 min read

TikTok’s plans to allay data security concerns were simply insufficient, US government insists in new court submission

The US Department Of Justice last week filed documents in response to TikTok’s lawsuit that is trying to block the sell-or-be-banned law passed by Congress earlier this year. The DoJ sets out various data security concerns and says TikTok’s proposals for overcoming them just weren’t good enough…

Chris Cooke • 29 Jul 2024

CMU Digest • 7 min read

📑 CMU Digest: Spotify hits back at MLC lawsuit + Q2 financial updates

CMU Digest is a weekly round-up of the most interesting music business news stories from the last seven days.…

CMU • 29 Jul 2024

Wu-Tang Clan • 2 min read

Martin Shkreli says his copies of single-copy Wu-Tang album are legit and he shouldn’t have to give them up

The ‘Once Upon A Time In Shaolin’ saga continues. The NFT collective that owns the single-copy Wu-Tang album recently went legal after previous owner Martin Shkreli admitted he still has copies of the record. In a new filing Shkreli says his copies are legit and he should be allowed to keep them…

Chris Cooke • 26 Jul 2024

One Liners - quickfire news from the music business • 9 min read

⏩ One Liners: Industry news in brief including deals, appointments and legal from Position Music, Downtown, Primary Wave, Deezer, CIISA + more

Primary Wave x Toto’s Steve Pocaro, Downtown x Lady Blackbird, new Deezer CEO, Italian PRO stats, Philip Glass battles pro-Putin ballet director, Stormzy’s tinted Lambo windows, plus releases & tours news from Aitch, Porter Robinson, Jorja Smith, BABii, Muni Long, Raleigh Ritchie + more…

CMU • 26 Jul 2024

web-blocking • 2 min read

French and Italian record industries secure new web-blocks

Web-blocking remains an anti-piracy tactic of choice for the music industry. This week the record industries of both Italy and France welcomed the issuing of a number of new web-blocking orders in their respective countries, the Italian ones all targeting stream-ripping…

Chris Cooke • 26 Jul 2024

Universal Music • 5 min read

Lucian Grainge is back on the win-win, but which DSP is off his christmas card list? It’s not hard to guess.

UMG’s Q2 earnings call was an unusually sombre affair, with good reason. With UMG’s market cap dropping by billions of dollars, the major’s CEO Lucian Grainge saw the prospect of his massive bonus turn from a near cert to a distant dream. And all because a couple of DSPs aren’t pulling their weight…

Sam Taylor • 26 Jul 2024

Music industry legal news coverage • 2 min read

Man jailed for nearly five years after defrauding $3 million from concert organisers eager to book Justin Bieber

Two men pleaded guilty earlier this year to scamming nearly $3 million out of a number of concert promoters by falsely claiming to have booked pop stars like Justin Bieber and Billie Eilish to perform at shows. One of those men has now been sentenced to nearly five years in jail…

Chris Cooke • 25 Jul 2024

One Liners - quickfire news from the music business • 8 min read

⏩ One Liners: Deals, Appointments, Industry News including Warner Chappell, Wise Music Group, Universal earnings + more

Lucian Grainge's massive bonus looks a lot less certain as UMG's share price falls off a cliff. Wise Music signs The Staves, Armada Music partners with Warner and Africori, Kobalt ups Bob Bruderman and Maximilian Kolb leaves BMG…

CMU • 25 Jul 2024

CMU Approved • 1 min read

🎧 Approved: Antony Szmierek

Mancunian poet-turned-artist Antony Szmierek shares stories of love, hope and ambition. His latest release, ‘Rafters’, blends spoken word with stuttering synths and UK garage beats.…

Kaya Robertson • 25 Jul 2024

TikTok • 2 min read

TikTok criticised over missing safety features in its Lite app

A new report from the Mozilla Foundation raises concerns about the TikTok Lite app, claiming that it does not contain many of the safety features found in the main TikTok app, including the labelling of AI-generated content. TikTok says the report is misleading…

Chris Cooke • 25 Jul 2024