News and Trends

"Patient Zero" went to the VMAs, Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music before YouTube got it on September 29. TikTok's hub followed a day later. Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/tiktok-builds-a-taylor-swift-patient-zero-hub-as-her-video-rollout-keeps-skipping-youtube/

whynow is a London-headquartered media and commerce company Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/embargoed-warner-sells-emp-the-merch-business-it-acquired-for-180m-in-2018-to-whynow-owned-by-mick-jaggers-son-gabe-jagger/

US federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that an AI company's copying of protected material to build its training data was not fair use. Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/us-appeals-court-rejects-fair-use-defense-over-ai-training-as-thomson-reuters-wins-copyright-case-backed-by-riaa-and-nmpa/

Both appointments are effective immediately, Music Services said on Tuesday (September 29). Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/sesac-music-groups-music-services-division-appoints-nick-lapointe-senior-director-of-business-development-jay-sudarma-promoted-to-vp-of-marketing/

Latin music accounted for 9.1% of total US recorded music revenue in H1 2026, up from 8.8% at the mid-point of 2025. Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/us-latin-recorded-music-revenues-reached-542-2m-in-h1-2026-up-8-6-yoy-outpacing-the-overall-us-market/

Max Ciociola turned Musixmatch into the world’s largest lyrics company. Now, with backing from TPG – and having struck a deal with Suno for a copyright-detection tool called Sentinel – it’s on a path to becoming something much bigger… Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/musixmatch-lyrics-are-becoming-the-llm-of-the-music-industry/

Alejandro Duque promoted, as Aaron Bay-Schuck is confirmed as the sole Chairman and CEO of Warner Records Group Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/val-blavatnik-joins-elliot-grainge-adds-ada-simon-robson-exits/

Michael Smith's lawyers argued that his scheme caused only "tiny, immeasurable losses" spread across millions of songwriters and artists, Billboard reported. Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/man-who-pocketed-8m-using-ai-songs-and-bot-streams-asks-for-no-prison-time-arguing-no-artist-suffered-any-perceptible-harm/

The decision points the case toward a jury trial, four and a half years after it was filed by Sound and Color, LLC. Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/sam-smith-and-normani-must-face-a-jury-over-dancing-with-a-stranger-as-judge-refuses-to-end-copyright-case/

As part of the merger, OTM will incorporate the team and roster of Left Music, the publishing company Partisan set up with Craig Michie in 2022. Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/partisan-acquires-firebirds-interest-in-indie-pubco-otm-music-merges-it-with-its-left-music-publishing-arm/

Epidemic Group, the parent company of Epidemic Sound, has named Erik Wahlberg as its Chief Executive Officer. Wahlberg is the founder and CEO of Blenda Labs, a Stockholm video production technology company that Epidemic Group bought in July 2026. He takes over from Sara Börsvik, who moves from interim CEO into the joint role of … Continued Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/erik-wahlberg-appointed-ceo-of-epidemic-group-as-sara-borsvik-takes-on-joint-coo-and-cfo-role/

Figures come from Global Music Pulse, a new report from Chartmetric, which tracks 14m artists across streaming and social services Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/us-uk-share-of-worlds-superstar-artists-has-fallen-from-55-7-to-40-7-since-2021-chartmetric-data/

HYBE CINE FEST 2026 will run in theaters from October 24 through October 31. Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/hybe-cine-fest-expands-to-over-60-territories-with-two-live-bts-broadcasts-and-concert-films-from-seventeen-tomorrow-x-together-and-enhypen/

The hearing will be the last stage of the appeal before the panel rules on whether to revive the case, docketed as Graham v. UMG Recordings, Inc. Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/drake-appeal-against-umg-over-kendrick-lamars-not-like-us-set-for-december-4-hearing/

Judge Jed S. Rakoff explained the one-page order issued over a week ago, which sent the case to private arbitration. Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/judge-explains-stubhub-arbitration-ruling-ticket-buyer-agreed-to-terms-barring-class-actions-when-he-clicked-buy-now/

Artists who play the new Apple Music Hall can leave with a Spatial Audio recording, a mix ready for broadcast, and multi-camera video of the same show. Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/apple-to-open-600-capacity-live-music-venue-in-london-with-two-recording-studios-and-a-broadcast-control-room-built-in/

The sold-out gala honored Red Light Management founder Coran Capshaw with its Lifetime Music Industry Award. Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/t-j-martell-foundation-raises-more-than-3-2m-at-gala-honoring-red-light-managements-coran-capshaw-with-dave-matthews-chris-stapleton-and-trey-anastasio-performing/

A WMG media release said Marshall's exit comes as the company "streamlines its leadership structure." Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/carianne-marshall-to-exit-warner-chappell-music/

The deal allows Symphonic to pull audio files and metadata out of MassiveMusic's catalog infrastructure when a label transfers its releases. Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/symphonic-adds-massivemusic-audio-delivery-to-its-transfertrack-migration-tech-removing-what-it-calls-one-of-the-last-manual-steps-for-labels-switching-distributors/

Both sides set out their positions in statements filed on Friday (September 11) Source source https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/anthropic-bought-songbooks-scanned-them-and-destroyed-them-music-publishers-allege-now-they-want-to-know-which-songs-were-in-them/