Music News Stream

RSS May 5, 2026 3:18pm · Music Business WorldWide

From Wine to Diamonds, Every Major Consumer Industry Protects You From Fakes. Why Doesn’t Music?

Music supervisor and Catalog founder Frederic Schindler argues it's time for standardized 'Music Facts' labels – modeled on food nutrition panels – to make the origin of every track in the supply chain visible to consumers. Source

RSS May 5, 2026 3:16pm · Music Business WorldWide

A bill in France would force AI firms to prove they didn’t use copyrighted content to train their tech. The country’s music biz is urging lawmakers to pass it

The law would reverse the burden of proof in copyright disputes involving AI in France Source

RSS May 5, 2026 2:57pm · Music Business WorldWide

The US Copyright Office is hiking registration fees by 43%. Independent music orgs say many artists won’t be able to afford it.

With the fee hike, independent creators could lose access to the Copyright Claims Board, a more affordable way to pursue infringement cases, the coalition said. Source

RSS May 5, 2026 2:31pm · Music Business WorldWide

On… Universal, Spotify, Virgin, and the ‘leakage’ causing analyst discomfort.

This article orginally appeared in Tim Ingham’s latest ‘Tim’s Take’ email, issued exclusively to MBW+ subscribers. Source

RSS May 5, 2026 2:11pm · Music Business WorldWide

Leslie Ahrens promoted to Managing Director & EVP Creative Latin America at Kobalt

Kobalt elevates longtime exec Leslie Ahrens to lead Latin America, as Nestor Casonu exits after 11 years. Source

RSS May 5, 2026 1:02pm · Music Business WorldWide

Sony Music expands JV with German rap label Two Sides, as founder Lucas Teuchner takes on broader advisory role for the major in the GSA region

The Berlin-based hip-hop label and management company is behind superstar rapper Apache 207 Source

RSS May 5, 2026 12:30pm · Musically

Symphonic Next connects indie rightsholders to capital

Distributer Symphonic has announced the launch of Symphonic Next, which is “designed to connect clients with the capital, partnerships, and strategic pathways needed to grow and monetize their businesses.” The platform bridges Symphonic’s expanding role in catalogue monetisation and the accompanying relationships with investment. Next will aim to offer “tailored financial solutions” – think data-assessed and […]

RSS May 5, 2026 12:30pm · Musically

Spotify Discovery Mode “payola” lawsuit to move into arbitration

Back in November 2025, disgruntled Spotify user Genevieve Capolongo filed a lawsuit against the DSP, claiming that its Discovery Mode feature means that listeners are being misled because “Spotify’s playlists and recommendations are shaped by undisclosed pay-for-play arrangements and hidden commercial incentives”. The lawsuit was aiming to achieve class-action status for the case – which would mean […]

RSS May 5, 2026 12:30pm · Musically

Sony reportedly looking to buy Recognition Music Group’s publishing assets

Recognition Music Group, if you don’t – get it – recognise the name, was the result of the bundling-together of three companies connected to former catalogues-aquirer Hipgnosis: Hipgnosis Songs Fund, Hipgnosis Songs Assets and Hipgnosis Song Management. The new moniker was applied when the companies were bought by the giant (and controversial) “alternative asset” manager, Blackstone, last year. Private […]

RSS May 5, 2026 12:30pm · Musically

YouTube allows creators to replace music with copyright issues with genAI songs

US-based YouTube creators who are finding their videos struck down by pesky content ID claims due to the use of copyright-protected music can now generate replacement instrumental tracks in the back-end of the site, YouTube Studio. The “replace song” tool will now include a “create” button. Users fretting about their videos being muted, de-monetised or blocked can […]

RSS May 5, 2026 11:21am · Music Business WorldWide

UnitedMasters hires Alessandro ‘Moz’ Moro to lead UK division; signs London acts Grace Carter and Kid Apollo

Alessandro ‘Moz’ Moro previously worked across Warner Records, Island Records, Platoon and EMPIRE. Source

RSS May 5, 2026 11:05am · Music Business WorldWide

Live Nation says court ruling against ticket broker supports the company’s bid to dismiss FTC’s BOTS Act lawsuit

Live Nation argued that the Key Investment Group lawsuit is not comparable to its case as they were brought under different subparagraphs of the BOTS Act. Source

RSS May 5, 2026 11:00am · Musically

Suno reportedly looking to raise $1/4 billion+ in latest funding round

Only six months ago, GenAI music platform Suno announced a $250m Series-C funding round. That valued the company at $2.45bn and took its total funding (post seed and Series A rounds) to $375M. Now, Billboard reports, Suno is looking for another round of funding – that’s Series-D for those of you keeping track – and is looking to raise […]

RSS May 5, 2026 9:57am · Music Business WorldWide

Suno is raising another $250 million+ at a $5 billion valuation (reports)

Suno will likely raise above $250 million, the same amount that it pulled in during its Series C just six months ago, sources told Billboard. Source

RSS May 4, 2026 4:47pm · Music Business WorldWide

Udio admits to scraping YouTube audio for AI training in answer to Sony Music lawsuit

Udio admitted that its models were trained with “a vast amount of different kinds of sound recordings” gathered from publicly available sources. Source

RSS May 1, 2026 12:43pm · Musically

Charli XCX is planning ‘conversations’ with fans in New York

Fancy a chat with Charli XCX? If you’re in New York, you may have to join a long queue… With fans eagerly awaiting her next post-Brat move, the British star’s latest Instagram post reveals plans for something called ‘Conversations’ to be held in New York this month. “i love talking about making things and process and stuff […]

RSS May 1, 2026 12:40pm · Musically

Financials roundup: Apple, Roblox and Reddit Q1 2026 trends

Q1 financial-results season is up and running, so much so that we’re having to bundle some of the key announcements together today for reasons of space. We’ll start with Apple, which enjoyed a bumper $111.2bn quarter – its fiscal Q2 – including $30.98bn of revenues from its services: music, TV, games, cloud storage and more. Alas, no new stats […]

RSS May 1, 2026 12:40pm · Musically

Instagram is cracking down even harder on ‘unoriginal content’

For several years now, Instagram has been talking about its desire to boost ‘original’ content in its app, and as part of that drive, to reduce the reach of unoriginal or ‘reposted’ content. We reported on the first announcement of this in April 2022, including The Verge’s sharp take on the motivations behind it: “Translation? […]

RSS May 1, 2026 12:30pm · Musically

PRS for Music reveals its collections grew by 7.7% in 2025

UK collecting society PRS for Music has published its annual financial results, revealing that its collections grew by 7.7% to £1.24bn in 2025. £1.07bn of that was paid out to songwriters, composers and music publishers, up 4.9% year-on-year. And the society hailed the fact that it collected more than £100m from live music for the […]

RSS May 1, 2026 12:30pm · Musically

Hip-hop trends: Genre-blends, fan communities, discovery worries

Online hip-hop community Rap Fame has been surveying its independent artists – 1,595 of them to be specific – to uncover some current trends in the genre. Among the findings: genre boundaries are “seriously fluid” with more than 83% of respondents saying they flit between different sub-genres. “Right now, trap and drill are king, with almost 50% […]