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Universal Music

172 posts
Lucian Grainge says artist consent will be sought on AI deals - though only for voice clones and AI-generated adaptations public
Universal Music • 3 min read

Lucian Grainge says artist consent will be sought on AI deals - though only for voice clones and AI-generated adaptations

Lucian Grainge has sent a memo to UMG employees updating them on the major’s negotiations with AI companies. Most interestingly he identifies two scenarios where artist consent will be sought before employing AI tools: voice clones and AI-generated songs that “incorporate an artist’s existing songs”…
Chris Cooke
Chris Cooke •
Universal’s Downtown deal must be blocked by regulators before “cultural diversity is weakened irreversibly” says Dutch indie label group president public
Universal Music • 3 min read

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

The debate over Universal’s bid to buy Downtown continues. Kees van Weijen, President of Dutch indie label group STOMP and board member at IMPALA, has set out why he believes the EU competition regulator needs to step in before market consolidation irreversibly weakens cultural diversity in Europe…
Chris Cooke
Chris Cooke •
As EU hits pause on UMG Downtown investigation after “parties fail to provide important info”, Downtown boss whines about “misinformation” public
Downtown Music • 7 min read

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

More Downtown drama as the EU says it has not received an “important piece of information” it needs to investigate UMG’s acquisition, while Downtown’s boss whines about indie “misinformation”. The real question is: why are Universal-aligned execs so scared of IMPALA and other indie trade bodies?…
Chris Cooke & Sam Taylor •
Universal disputes Salt N Pepa’s termination rights claim - says the rappers never transferred any recording rights to their label public
Universal Music • 3 min read

Universal disputes Salt N Pepa’s termination rights claim - says the rappers never transferred any recording rights to their label

Earlier this year Salt N Pepa sued UMG claiming that the major was refusing to allow them to reclaim the rights in their 1980s recordings, even though copyright law allows them to terminate any transfer of rights after 35 years. The major now says there was never any transfer of rights to terminate…
Chris Cooke
Chris Cooke •
Full scale anticompetition investigation on the cards after UMG’s Virgin Music fails to allay EU fears over Downtown merger public
Universal Music • 4 min read

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

The European Commission is set to launch a full-scale ‘phase two’ merger investigation into Universal’s Downtown deal after it failed to convince regulators that the transaction should proceed unhindered. With the rhetoric from UMG surrogates already at fever pitch, will the war of words get worse?…
Sam Taylor •
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