Two juries have now found social media platforms liable for harms to children—raising a deeper question: where were the boards overseeing these profitable, engagement-driven systems?
Co-founder of beloved punk and metal groups dies following battle with ALS
SNL UK has Jamie Dornan as host and Wolf Alice as musical guest.
Playing the first of two nights at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood Friday night, Paul McCartney acknowledged the tiered arrangement that had VIPs up in the balcony and the hoi polloi down on the floor. “Hello, you people upstairs, in the posh seats,” he said early in the show.
Masked collective occupy Ubiquiti's Manhattan office in effort to stop the use of their tech to assist Russian military's communications
Plus, Karol G lives a full-circle moment, singing a duet with Alicia Keys on the same song she covered 16 years ago.
The song tops Country Airplay for a second week.
The Mexican group will wrap its extensive Vivir Sin Aire trek that kicked off in 2025 on Nov. 8 at the Moody Center in Austin.
The singer's new sneaker is a beige and black iteration with nods to his Puerto Rican roots.
Band will release new single "Shine Again" on April 1 ahead of fall arena tour
McCartney joyously soared through 21 songs as the audience hung on his every word.
Boomboxes, instant cameras, and even landlines are making a comeback. Here are the coolest retro-inspired devices available.
Breathing capacity could have compensated for lower atmospheric oxygen.
A quantum experiment shows that we can formally test if the order of events matters.
Specially equipped nets can help save some species, while allowing fisherman to still catch others.
"I just thought it's the most perfect song for how the world is right now," the Noongar Wongi rapper said.
"The TSA agents are selling plasma to pay rent while he takes the day off, cheats at golf, and bombs other countries for fun," White wrote.
Spotify and the major labels are seeking a cool $322.2 million in damages from Anna’s Archive over its alleged “brazen theft of millions of music and other files.” The majors and Spotify jointly requested that sizable sum in a motion for default judgment.
Trump will be the first sitting U.S. president with a signature appearing on currency
Lauren Conrad, Stephen Colletti & Talan Torriero filmed themselves strutting to the singer's "Dracula" remix while promoting their reality series reunion special.
Looks like it’s time to kick the Vetter v. Resnik copyright termination battle up a notch. Now, the major labels have taken a stake in the relevant work, moved to step in as defendants, and disclosed plans to seek a higher-court appeal.
Universal Music Group says Kendrick Lamar's lyrics calling Drake a pedophile represent "classic opinion," and Drake's attempt to revive his defamation lawsuit should fail
UMG argues that any claims against Drake in Kendrick Lamar’s hit diss track “Not Like Us” are protected hyperbole in the context of a rap battle. Drake’s appeal seeking to revive his lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar’s incendiary diss track “Not Like Us” hits a snag as...
Fat Joe’s former employee, who sued the rapper with serious allegations of sexual abuse, is now walking back those claims in an amended complaint. Rapper and emcee Fat Joe can breathe a sigh of relief in his legal back-and-forth with a former employee, who amended their initial complaint to remove...
Billboard is summing up the key testimony and takeaways from the third week of the blockbuster antitrust trial.
The long-awaited project premiered during an online listening party held by Ye
With over 30 state attorneys general continuing to battle Live Nation at trial, antitrust officials are still facing scrutiny over their settlement – including allegations of “improper lobbying.” Those allegations are the latest example of post-settlement turbulence for Live Nation and the DOJ.
Earlier this month, the pop star was arrested for driving while under the influence of a "combination of drugs and alcohol" and released from custody overnight
Over three decades later, this historical curiosity has more than a few rough edges
Things are moving fast, and competitors have offered something similar for a while.
Raw Farm denies link to illnesses while patients keep identifying its products.
Deezer has announced it has licensed its AI detection technology to the Hungarian rights body, the Bureau for the Protection of Performers’ Rights (Előadóművészi Jogvédő Iroda Egyesület, EJI).
"Let me see the driver!"
... music they had put out prior. While admittedly I never returned to the album after a few listens years ago, the band left a lasting impression on ...
The records that were hits at the same time as the British Invasion. Tune in Saturday March 28th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West. If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
Big Tech declaring AV1 royalty-free “doesn't mean that it is."
“I don’t know”: Department of War fails to justify blacklisting Anthropic.
The “Trump Kennedy Center” earlier this month followed through on its threat to sue acclaimed jazz musician Chuck Redd, after he backed out of a Christmas Eve 2025 concert over the Washington, D.C., cultural institution’s name change to add President Donald Trump.
I Bought an iPod in 2026 — And It Fixed My Relationship With Music There's a very good reason why people are flocking to the iPod 5.5 Gen a decade ...
Most of what you hear about AI and music is a conversation about the wrong thing. There is a much more interesting and useful discussion to be had, and almost nobody is having it. The post Music AI is not AI Music appeared first on New Music Strategies.
Shakira has broken sales records by selling over 500,000 tickets in just a few hours for her Madrid residency this fall. She’s added two additional dates in October to accommodate the demand, for a total of 11 dates this fall.
Unlike their flawed first album, Queen’s second effort was nearly perfect to begin with. “’Queen II’ was the single biggest leap we ever made,” guitarist Brian May has said. “That’s when we really started making music the way we wanted to.” Where the band’s debut suffered from a muddy mix and some...
The guitarist detailed his plans for 2026, including a new solo album and the upcoming Fleetwood Mac doc
The band cited "unforeseen personal reasons" for her absence
BTS have revealed the venues and on-sale details for the Latin America leg of their upcoming world tour, ARIRANG. The LATAM leg is co-promoted by Live Nation and will kick off on October 2.
The music industry is seeing unprecedented democratisation in both consumption and creation. Leading execs often point to the rise of consumer creation and the ‘Instagrammification’ of music as a growth engine. Source
The project commemorates one year since the release of her third studio album, Paid in Memories
The biggest headlines from the past few days... Source
About two months ago, Russ became the second-highest RIAA-certified independent rapper in history. Source
Hackers claimed the attack was retaliation after Patel vowed to "hunt" them.
A motion for default judgment and an accompanying memorandum of law were filed on March 25. Source
Memory, storage shortages have made all kinds of consumer tech more expensive.
"It reminds me of sort of Lucy and Charlie Brown with the football."
Elevations span UTA LIVE, Creators, Sports and Filmed Entertainment as agency expands senior leadership ranks Source
CMO becomes first in Hungary to deploy Deezer's AI detection tech. Source
Melanie Martinez may be the most reluctant star ever to sell out two nights at Madison Square Garden. Even as she rose to stardom as a teenager on “The Voice” a dozen-plus years ago and platinum status with her early albums, she never seemed comfortable with the trappings of fame, especially as a...
Charlie Puth is, objectively, busy these days. In October, he released the Phil Collins-indebted “Changes,” the delectable first taste of his fourth album “Whatever’s Clever!,” out today.
M2 Ultra Mac Pro is no longer for sale, and Apple says no replacement is planned.
With Tift Merritt revealing that she has an album of new material on the way after nine years without one, fans may have an instinctual reaction to the fact that it’s titled “Sugar,” as if to say, of course — because they’ve had a sweet tooth for what she has to offer that has gone […]
It’s been said countless times that for a new artist, especially a successful one, the second album is exponentially more difficult than the first. There’s the constantly looming threat of the sophomore slump, and the old saw that the artist has had their entire life to write the first album and...
It’s no overstatement to say that a lot of today’s pop music would not sound the way it does without Robyn. Her self-titled 2005 album and its follow-up “Body Talk” paved the way for and contextualized a genre once called “intellipop” — a cringe and condescending term that has aged very badly, but...
Deep cuts are the lifeblood of music fandom, and now The Hidden Jams wants to become the platform where people come together to curate and discover underlooked tracks from artists’ back catalogues.
Bandcamp may be best known as a collection of artist-run stores selling music and merch, but as part of its curation work the company also has one foot in online radio. Bandcamp Radio already hosts a weekly ‘Bandcamp Selects’ show as well as metal and hip-hop focused shows.
The RV Tech joint venture passed a key milestone, opens up $1 billion for Rivian.
The narrative of ‘artist formerly signed to a major label enjoys life as an independent musician again’ is one that pops up regularly. James Blake is the latest example.
It’s been quite the path for YouTube-focused music network and distributor Distro Nation over the years. Founded as Indmusic, it was acquired by Live Nation in 2016, renamed Live Nation Video Network, then separated off again in 2024, becoming Distro Nation.
‘Shadow library’ website Anna’s Archive’s decision to scrape Spotify and announced that it would be making a huge stash of metadata and audio files available last year is increasingly looking like the mother of all own-goals.
Spain’s Association of Musical Promoters (APM) has published its annual report, revealing the latest year-on-year growth for the country’s live-music sector. Revenues grew by 11.2% to €807.2m ($929.9m at current exchange rates) in 2025, following a 25.3% spike the previous year in a sustained...
The 2025 annual report of BMG’s parent company Bertelsmann offers the latest insight into its music division’s financial performance. While BMG’s revenues fell in 2025, there are other positive metrics to report. The decline was 6.5%, with BMG posting €900m ($1.04bn at current exchange rates) of...
Deezer isn’t just using its in-house AI-music detection technology to announce scary updates on the ever-increasing scale of AI slop being uploaded to DSPs.
Supreme Court Reverses $1 Billion Verdict, Rules Cox Not Contributorily Liable for Subscribers’ Copyright Infringement — “Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, filed an opinion concurring only in the judgment.
In a letter, senators press for mandated annual electricity disclosure for data centers.
Neon chief Tom Quinn, YouTuber Markiplier and actress Sophia Bush are among the speakers lined up for the conference strand at SXSW London, the U.K. spinoff of the Austin, Texas festival.
Last year, the electronic artist Grimes posted to X that she will only release her music on LinkedIn from now on – in what sounded like a joke. But this week, a profile with Grimes’ real name Claire Boucher appeared on LinkedIn, which was quickly picked up online.
Snapchat has announced its launch of AI Clips in Lens Studio, which creators can use to design and publish AR and AI effects on Snapchat. AI Clips are a new AI-powered lens format – something that Snapchat says is like nothing else on the market right now.
Emplifi released research last week on the specifics of what drives Reels viewership, using data from 10,110 Facebook Reels published by 704 brand pages. Unsurprisingly, human speech is important for engagement, with videos including human speech in the first three seconds driving better response.
China’s music market is a high-velocity landscape defined by a massive untapped rural reservoir, a thriving fan economy and a digital infrastructure that often outpaces the West. In our latest Country Profile, we dive into the key numbers and market insights. Recorded music revenue grew by 9.6% in...
Both of the chip's CPU dies will include 64MB of extra cache stacked beneath.
The US Space Force might move additional payloads off of ULA's grounded Vulcan rocket.
One of the best ways to follow Suno’s changing attitudes towards the music industry is through snapshots of its CEO Mikey Shulman’s rhetoric when talking about rightsholders.
Primary Wave Music announces a strategic investment and alliance with POPS Music, home to the largest catalog of Vietnamese and Indonesian music. Leading indie publisher Primary Wave Music has announced a strategic partnership with POPS Music to further expand into international markets.
Taylor Swift picked up the most trophies out of any artist at the iHeartRadio Music Awards on Thursday night, walking away with seven wins in nine nominated categories to extend her record as iHeartRadio’s most decorated artist of all time.
The Spanish live entertainment sector generated a record €807.2 million (currently $930.8 million) from ticket sales during 2025 – up 11.2% year over year – as both Barcelona and Madrid posted double-digit revenue spikes.
“Choreographed sports” licensing specialist ClicknClear recently commanded headlines for securing a Universal Music Group deal. But internal documents and investor concerns are raising pressing questions about the company’s business model, revenue outlook, and overall footing.
Lexus and Icelandic-Chinese artist Laufey will celebrate the centennial of jazz legend Miles Davis with ‘100 Miles,’ a live-streamed performance event on March 27th at an undisclosed location.
Suno announced today that is has released version 5.5, which it calls “our best and most expressive model yet.” New features include Voices, Custom models, and My Taste.
X admonished for "fishing expedition" as judge dismisses ad boycott lawsuit.
I couldn’t have a conversation with Seymour Stein without him mentioning Mike Vernon. Oh, that’s a little extreme, but Seymour mentioned Mike all the time, just like he mentioned Syd Nathan and King Records…that’s where he got his start.
Even with court orders, music firms struggle to eliminate notorious shadow library.
Sony Music has reached a settlement in the lawsuit against the University of Southern California over copyright infringement in social media posts. On Wednesday, documents filed in Manhattan federal court revealed that Sony Music reached a settlement with the University of Southern California...
Ultra-sensitive data may have been hacked.
Apple Music: "What do you want to hear?" Me: "Atmospheric instrumental black metal to write to." Apple Music: "Here's three metal songs with vocals, a field recording, an ambient electronic track, and a piece of doom jazz." I am skeptical of AI's ability to serve up the music I want to begin with,...
IMPALA unveils the fifth edition of 100 Artists to Watch, in partnership with YouTube and co-funded by the European Union. A new generation of independent artists working with labels across Europe has been selected for the fifth edition of IMPALA’s 100 Artists to Watch program for 2026, curated by...
Sublime returns after nearly 30 years with their first full-length album with Jakob Nowell as front man, son of original front man Bradley Nowell. After nearly three decades, Sublime returns with Until the Sun Explodes, their first full-length album with Jakob Nowell as front man—son of original...
Dan Clancy is the CEO of Twitch. This is a must-listen. Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dan-clancy/id1316200737?i=1000757533142 https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/e2f676e0-03c9-406b-8eb4-bfcb81c3701c/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-dan-clancy
Google announces its music generation model Lyria 3 Pro just a month after the release of Lyria 3, letting users make tracks up to three minutes long. Just a few weeks after the release of Google’s music generation model Lyria 3, the company announced the upcoming Lyria 3 Pro, a model that will...
As its Bertelsmann parent reportedly closes in on a deal to acquire Concord, BMG is touting a “strong” 2025 showing – including double-digit recorded revenue growth from paid streaming.
POPS claims to be 'home to the largest catalog of Vietnamese and Indonesian music' Source
Colleen Theis, President and COO of The Orchard, sits down with MBW to discuss the songs – but more importantly, the experiences – that have defined her life to date Source
The global music company has opened a new HQ in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil. Source
Jon Baltz, CEO and Co-Founder of Distro Nation, will join Symphonic’s executive team as Head of UGC & Rights Management, along with his team. Source
TuneCore has published the fourth edition of its ‘TuneCore Accelerator Report’, trumpeting some of the stats from its in-house artist-development program. The company says that the Accelerator “contributed to over 2.8 billion artist discoveries and 6.8 billion track discoveries for artists in the...
Spotify has unveiled its new ‘Listening Lounge’ in the company’s London office, designed as a showcase – custom-built sound system included – for its lossless audio.
The new service, called Sentinel, draws on the company's lyrics database. Source
Symphonic Distribution has announced the acquisition of Distro Nation, a New York-based distributor and YouTube monetization platform. Distro Nation was originally founded in 2011 as INDMUSIC, which helped bring about viral moments including Baauer’s “Harlem Shake.” INDMUSIC was eventually absorbed...
On this week’s podcast episode, I talk with author, musician, and lecturer Craig Anderton for Part 2 of our conversation, this time about vocal production, mixing strategy, performance dynamics, and the deeper decisions that separate polished recordings from generic ones.
Bagging on major labels is a music industry pastime. But being signed to a major definitely has its perks — like access to Netflix’s all-important music team. How do we know that?
On March 25, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled in Cox Communications v. Sony Music, overturning a billion-dollar copyright liability verdict against Cox. The decision significantly limits Internet Service Providers' (ISPs) responsibility for user copyright infringement, undermining DMCA protections and...
Spotify’s partnership with NAVER, Korea’s leading digital platform, is built around one simple goal: making it easier for listeners in Korea to discover and enjoy audio across the apps they already use.
Spotify is beta-testing a new feature called Artist Profile Protection that lets artists review releases before they go live. Sometimes songs end up on the wrong artist pages because of metadata mixups or shared names. But increasingly, artists have been targeted by impostors and AI-generated...
How you listen can shape what you hear. That’s the idea behind the new Spotify Listening Lounge, an acoustic space at our London headquarters purpose-built for deeper, intentional listening.
BTS is so back. This week, the global pop superstars took the stage at New York City’s Pier 17 for their first U.S. performance in four years. Part of Spotify x BTS: SWIMSIDE, a global series of immersive live events, the night was a celebration of the band’s latest album, ARIRANG.
The Supreme Court has issued its ruling in a lengthy copyright battle between Cox Communications and major record labels, determining that the cable and internet service provider isn't responsible for illegally downloaded music, as reported earlier by the Associated Press.
Mitch Glazier, RIAA Chairman and CEO: “We are disappointed in the Court’s decision vacating a jury’s determination that Cox Communications contributed to mass scale copyright infringement, based on overwhelming evidence that the company knowingly facilitated theft.
Google is expanding the capabilities of its Lyria 3 music-making AI, enabling it to create tracks up to three minutes long and from within multiple other Google Products. Until now, Lyria had been limited to 30-second clips.
Directed By, Spotify’s documentary-style series that pulls back the curtain on the collaborative work behind music videos, is back with a new episode. Go behind the scenes with athlete-turned-visual-artist Savanah Leaf as she and Kelsey Lu build the visual world of “Running To Pain,” leaning into...
Every year the International Federation of the Phonograph Industry (IFPI) puts out a report regarding the state of the music business world-wide. Almost every year there are things that jump out, but sometimes the most important are a little buried and easily overlooked.
Few filmmakers have shaped popular cinema as profoundly as Steven Spielberg. So when Sean Fennessey, co-host of The Big Picture from Spotify’s The Ringer, sat down with the director at SXSW earlier this month, it made for a conversation movie fans won’t want to miss.
There has been a lot of scrutiny recently about how dance music is funded. Two cases in point illustrate why. Boiler Room, the influential livestreaming platform, was acquired by DICE in 2021, then sold to Superstruct, a private equity-backed entity, in January 2025. Source
Back to basics. | Image: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge Akai MPC is one of the most storied names in music history. But over the last decade, it's strayed pretty far from its roots as a humble sampler.
The new feature lets you explore samples, covers, and more about the people behind your favorite songs, says Spotify.
Behind every great song is a complex web of people, stories, and inspirations that span genres and decades. Today, we’re bringing those relationships to the forefront of the listening experience by revealing the intricate network of people and creative connections behind the music you love.
As the music industry gathers for Canada’s Juno Awards, the local edition of Spotify’s Loud & Clear report is here to offer a transparent look at the streaming economy. The big takeaway? More Canadian artists than ever are building sustainable careers, powered by fans at home and around the world.
The White House AI framework isn’t just a technology policy—it’s a geopolitical choice. By treating AI training as lawful and sidelining creator rights, the U.S. risks trading away one of its greatest assets: soft power.
It’s been 20 years since Miley Cyrus introduced the world to Hannah Montana, the typical teen by day and secret pop star by night who became a cultural phenomenon.
Siri, can you tell me where I belong? | Image: DEEWEE Last week's recommendation, Sotomayor's Wabi Sabi, has a very particular vibe that you don't find in a lot of records.
The vocoder was never supposed to be a revolution in music. It wasn't supposed to be anything in music, really. Its development began a century ago, when an engineer at Bell Labs was looking for a simpler way to send phone calls across copper telephone lines.