Nirvana will receive the Video Vanguard award at this year's ceremonies, while George Michael will be honored with an all-star tribute.
Pan-African developer The Zaria Group announces plans for a 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Nairobi to help kit out the city’s infrastructure. Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, will be the home of a proposed $294 million, 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena at the Nairobi Railway City precinct.
The picture book cover features images of all six members in KATSEYE, including Manon, who announced a hiatus from the group in February.
There are a number of ways to stream the weekly WWE TV event — watch online for free.
Moonbug Entertainment, the company behind CoComelon, launches Big Feelings Music, with Snoop Dogg’s Doggyland among its initial partnerships. Moonbug Entertainment, the company behind the kids’ entertainment YouTube channel CoComelon, has announced the launch of Big Feelings Music, a new music...
UMG and Sony file another copyright lawsuit against Suno, and the AI company claps back with a statement that the suit is “fundamentally flawed.” Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment continue to heat things up in their ongoing legal battle against the AI music platform Suno.
Raymond Boodarian was ordered to remain in a state hospital under an involuntary medication order after being accused of fatally shooting Robin Kaye and Thomas Deluca in July 2025
In this week's Legal Beat newsletter, a scathing new lawsuit over AI music, a "Not Like Us" court date for Drake, a legal shakeup for Diddy, and much more.
"Weird hill to die on, but at least you’re gone," he wrote.
Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Daphne-Rubin Vega, and others will perform a livestream from Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre
Streaming won the listening war. Physical media found another job: making money. Apparently physical media is back, which is wonderful news for anyone who has spent the past twenty years wondering what to do with all those shelves.
A look at the record-establishing songs dating to the Billboard Hot 100’s 1958 inception.
Ella Langley is officially the longest running No.1 on the Hot 100 with “Choosin’ Texas,” while Karol G reaches a new high on the chart with her song “BbY WOW,” while Taylor Swift, Stella Lefty, Olivia Dean and Ariana Grande continue to remain in the top 10.
This is sponsored content. Fans at Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players concert in New York share their favorite songs that help them get into motion. Narrator: The Planet Fitness movement mixes celebrate the music that keeps us moving, and there’s no better place to tap into that energy than New...
"I truly can't believe y'all think this is what I'm doing with my free time," the actor wrote.
It may be some time before cameras begin to roll on Jon M. Chu’s Britney Spears movie biopic, but the “Wicked” filmmaker has read some of the script from writer Liz Meriwether.
Ozzy Osbourne’s Ozzfest is due to return to the United States next year after a decade-long hiatus and a reemergence in Ozzy’s UK hometown. Though Ozzy Osbourne died last year, his legacy lives on with a cornucopia of creative projects headed by his family.
The collab is each act’s first leader on the all-format ranking.
“I’ve been impatiently waiting to tell you that my brand new single ‘Patient Zero’ will be out on September 25 (!!!!!!!!!!!!),” the superstar wrote on her social media accounts
Taylor Swift’s big news, at least for the moment, has turned out to be a new single, “Patient Zero,” coming out on digital services Friday, with few other details announced. “I’ve been impatiently waiting to tell you that my brand new single ‘Patient Zero’ will be out on September 25 (!!!!!!!!!!!!)...
Netflix will officially submit “Too Much To Ask” from the animated feature “Ray Gunn” for consideration in the original song category at the Oscars, Variety has learned exclusively.
The film will follow the trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who was convicted in the 1996 death of the hip-hop legend
Apple announces the opening of Apple Music Hall in London, designed to connect artists and fans through bespoke, intimate performances. Apple has announced the opening of Apple Music Hall, a brand-new state-of-the-art live music venue in London’s Battersea Power Station, designed to connect artists...
How do you know which recommender system is actually best? The standard approach of holding out some user... The post From IR to RecSys: Evaluating LLM-based Judges in Cranfield-style Recommendation Collections appeared first on Spotify Engineering.
TL;DR: We investigate whether personalised shelf concepts can be generated from listener profiles and... The post Hypothesis-Driven Shelf Generation for Personalised Recommendation appeared first on Spotify Engineering.
TL;DR: Recommender systems have always assumed a human recipient butAI agents break that assumption. In our... The post Who Are We Recommending To? Recommender Systems in the Agentic Web appeared first on Spotify Engineering.
FineParser runs in a CPU-powered container, preserving tables and layout before handing documents to an LLM
Thirty years after nearly landing his dream job, watch Mitch Malloy perform “Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love” with Michael Anthony
BigDiskBuster leaves Microsoft's antivirus running but unable to install updates
The R&B great “will take some time off and will be back on stage soon,” a rep said
Sitting alongside London's River Thames, musicians can simultaneously perform and record at Apple Music Hall
'Podium is poised to take full advantage of the changing landscape for audio around the globe,' said Goldstuck Source
Ahead of its quick-approaching launch, AI-powered music startup GRAI has officially acquired social streaming platform Hangout. Warsaw-headquartered GRAI reached out with word of the purchase today, about one month after licensing some two dozen AI patents from Universal Music.
China’s AI darling goes on the defense after engineer highlighted Grok-esque security flaws
There’s no long tail like a “Choosin’ Texas” long tail. Ella Langley’s smash has just set the all-time record for the most weeks spent by a single at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart: 23. That pushes it out of the tie it held last week with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for […]
Lionel Richie will miss at least a few concert dates after being hospitalized this week and undergoing a procedure to treat atrial fibrillation, the singer’s rep says. “Lionel underwent a common procedure for Atrial fibrillation (AFib),” Richie’s representative said in a statement given to Variety.
The homage to the late singer will include a medley at the Sunday awards show
Schrems campaign raises specter of another legal challenge as legislators propose changes to GDPR
Used by crims to compromise 12K+ email inboxes across 10K+ global orgs
SPONSORED FEATURE: AI agents may be unpredictable. Who they are, what they can do, and who owns them shouldn’t be.
Initial partners include Snoop Dogg's Doggyland, Baby Bandstand, Badanamu, Bob Zoom, English Tree TV, Lotty Friends, Mooseclumps, and Skyvibe. Source
As the summer begins to wind down in September, Hollywood is just getting started with a new crop of awards season movies premiering at the Venice Film Festival.
The company set out that description in a statement responding to a second copyright lawsuit filed by Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Source
HIBP confirms cybercrims stuck a straw into marketing reservoir, sucking up six-years of leaky Whopper secrets
Trafalgar Releasing and HYBE are expanding HYBE Cine Fest into a global event for the first time, bringing the week-long cinema festival to more than 60 territories from Oct. 24-31. The festival previously launched in Latin America in 2024 and expanded across Asia in 2025.
Long-delayed sustainability labels land as Commission eyes minimum efficiency standards
Hangout launched in November 2024 with a catalog of over 100 million tracks, licensed from Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Merlin. Source
Did Copilot write the synchronization code?
We reported yesterday on Universal Music Group and Sony Music’s new legal complaint against Suno, with a filing that attacked its latest v6 models as “the fruit of the same poisoned tree”. The post is from Music Ally.
The Sanremo Music Festival is a veritable institution in Italy: an annual music contest and TV broadcast that’s often had a secondary purpose of choosing Italy’s entry for the next Eurovision Song Contest. The post is from Music Ally.
Earlier this year, we wrote about the ‘text-to-song’ craze on TikTok, where people were feeding their message-threads into Suno to generate songs – some of which went viral. The post is from Music Ally.
It’s not often we get to write about the launch of a new print magazine focused on music: the recent past has seen plenty of them shut down or go online-only (then shut down or dwindle). The post is from Music Ally.
First site is due in Hertfordshire next March, with Nvidia's Vera Rubin systems and a longer-term 1 GW ambition
ValuePunks, the catalog valuation platform built by Swiss music technology company Tribe Music Group AG, is extending its offering into publishing this week. This free valuation gives songwriters, composers, and publishers a quick, transparent way to value their catalogs.
In a September interview with Sources , Mark Zuckerberg dropped the finding that Threads is as big – or at least closing in on – X, the platform it was designed to compete with. The platforms’ respective monthly active user reported numbers are 550 million for X, as of May 2026, and 500 millio...
Rehan Ahmed generated £2.7M (USD $3.6M) from counterfeit vinyl pressed at a west London plant, in a case referred to police by the BPI. Source
Letter lands ahead of the PM's first face-to-face meeting with the US president
Judge Jed S. Rakoff explained the one-page order issued over a week ago, which sent the case to private arbitration. Source
The fundraise lands alongside what Unit1 calls a world first: the transfer of an avatar concert production from one venue to another. Source
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
We received good feedback on the previous release candidate 3, which resulted in several bugfixes and small improvements. The Picard team hence decided to release a fourth release candidate in preparation for the final release of Picard 3.0.
Human error sent reused instructions at the wrong database, taking historical access logs with it
Other changes also afoot as employees unionize and the distro itself sees modifications
Amix gains newer CPU support and a package manager as Open Look joins the retro comeback
Apple Music Hall is being unveiled this morning: a 600-cap venue in the Battersea Power Station complex. Apple plans to host a range of artists for concerts, up to superstar level, with the venue fully hardwired for livestreams and spatial audio.
Apple is bringing a new live music venue to London. Located in Battersea Power Station, Apple Music Hall is a state-of-the-art venue “designed to connect artists and fans through bespoke, intimate performances unlike anywhere else,” Apple said in its announcement on Tuesday.
The venue is opening below Battersea Power Station, also well recognized for featuring on the cover of Pink Floyd’s Animals album. | Image: Apple Apple is preparing to open a new "state-of-the-art" live music venue in the UK, a 600-capacity space for hosting performances, recording sessions, and...
Mike Bracken says the dash to adopt sovereign AI risks giving more control to a handful of tech suppliers
We are very pleased to announce that the MetaBrainz Foundation has appointed Silona Bonewald as Executive Director, following the unfortunate passing of our Rob at the beginning of the year.
USA alone has 37GW under construction, but Alibaba doesn't think the AI boom will run out of steam
Snapchat announces a suite of new AI-powered tools for Lens+ subscribers, including creating songs out of your chats. Since the launch of Snapchat’s Lens+ premium subscription model last year, the company has stepped it up with even more exclusive Lenses and other immersive AR experiences to keep...
Shein files a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Selena’s estate, arguing it should be shielded from liability as an e-commerce platform that isn’t manufacturing the allegedly infringing items.
Chasing pack has its problems too, with maturity, cost, and complex licenses
Public pushback puts bit barn resource use under the microscope
Mixed-reality concert firm Unit 1 Studio raises $26.7 million in a new funding round to expand its technology and grow its roster of avatar-based concerts. UK-based mixed-reality concert production firm Unit1 Studio has announced securing £20 million ($26.7 million) in its latest round of funding...
My music is staying. My money and attention are leaving. I canceled my Spotify subscription. Yes, my music is still there, and if that is where you listen to me, please enjoy it.
Of 225 flaws found by Glasswing and tracked by VulnCheck researcher, just one has confirmed exploitation in the wild
Hi! It’s been a while since our last release since we have been working on stability improvements for both website and search to better cope with all the load we are handling recently.
Warner Chappell is streamlining its leadership structure, and as part of a new C-suite shakeup, co-chair and COO Carianne Marshall is exiting the company.
Fueled by the AI boom, the House of Zen's rise isn't just Instinct - Lisa Su is riding high on some Epyc design chops too
Electro-pop duo Sylvan Esso pulled their music from Spotify a year ago but are now reluctantly putting it back on the streaming platform due to financial struggles.
A scientific review of 57 studies finds that music may do more than distract from pain; it might change the way the brain interprets pain signals. Scientists reviewing 57 individual studies found that music may do more for your mind and body than just distract from pain—it might actually change how...
Winamp announces a strategic partnership with Deezer to power the development of Winamp’s newest iteration of its iconic music player. Winamp has announced a landmark strategic partnership with Deezer to power Winamp’s own premium music subscription service in the development of the next generation...
BeLive Entertainment retains 100% control of Colombiana de Escenarios, which runs the venue under a concession. Source
The bill would add music to the tourism-promotion duties the Commerce Department already carries under the Visit America Act. Source
Weeks after adjusting its rules to allow the registration of certain machine-generated works, the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) has quietly returned to a zero-tolerance AI policy. KOMCA just recently implemented the change, which is live on the appropriate website.
A man has been sentenced to prison after making millions from fake records in the largest seizure of counterfeit vinyl in UK history. A 40-year-old man has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison after making £2.7 million ($3.6 million) from fake records in the largest seizure of...
Four-time Best Direction winner honored with first award celebrating “a sustained and influential body of work from artists who have pushed creative boundaries and developed a clear directorial voice”
Warner Music Group has announced that Carianne Marshall will transition out of her role as co-chair and chief operating officer of Warner Chappell Music, the company’s publishing division, at the end of this month, “as the company streamlines its leadership structure,” the announcement reads.
Taylor Swift has been pegged to receive a key award at Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards. CBS and MTV announced Monday morning that Swift will be the recipient of the inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honors, a newly minted award set to go to artists who direct some or all of their own music […]
The Justice Department opposes certain aspects of Judge Chhabria's opinion in Kadrey v. Meta, specifically regarding the transformation and market impact of AI training on copyrighted works.
After receiving “substantive objections and comments” concerning the proposed Phonorecords V settlement, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has ordered the involved companies and organizations to provide a significant amount of “additional information.” Chief Copyright Royalty Judge Trevor Jefferson...
Last week, Spotify turned up the volume in Seoul once again. From September 10 through 13, Spotify House Seoul returned to Anderson C in Seongsu for its biggest edition yet.
Creators of Post Script, made with vocals by the late Mark E Smith, defend it as ‘a great, positive record’, but fiancee describes it as ‘ethically wrong’ The fiancee and last manager of the late Mark E Smith, frontman of the Fall, has hit out against the release of an album being marketed as the...
The show goes on for Ed Sheeran’s US stadium tour, but without any support artists or backing band. They all pulled out last week following the decision to remove Macklemore from the tour following his ‘Free Palestine’ on-stage speeches. The post is from Music Ally.
Just under a year ago, US duo Sylvain Esso removed their music from Spotify in protest at then-CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in military-tech company Helsing. The post is from Music Ally.
Earlier this summer, South Korean collecting society Komca announced that it would be allowing ‘AI-assisted’ music to be registered as works, as long as a human had made a creative contribution to the lyrics, composition and arrangement. The post is from Music Ally.
There’s plenty going on in the UK this week, starting with the upcoming National Album Day, which takes place on 17 October. The organisers have published the list of albums that are getting limited-edition re-releases for this year’s event. The post is from Music Ally.
We reported on startup Unit1 Studio when it launched in October 2025 with technology that could help artists turn themselves into digital avatars for concerts. The post is from Music Ally.
You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t posted nearly as much here lately as I used to. Some of that is the fact that I’m a lot busier now than I was, but a big part is the fact the blog traffic for everyone has been falling for a long time now.
In our recent report on Suno’s new v6 models, we explained that they were trained on a fresh dataset including music licensed from WMG and BMG, plus “user data”. The post is from Music Ally.
Some admit to spending thousands of dollars for barricade spots and other VIP perks at concerts, which is slowly becoming common When Harry Styles announced a fall residency at Madison Square Garden, 43-year-old Tara Bess knew she had to be there.
The Kansas City Chiefs triumphed over the Indianapolis Colts at Arrowhead Stadium
Here’s a recap of recent music industry hires, in-house promotions, and departures as of September 20th, 2026. If you have a job shuffle to share, we’re all ears. Send us a note to news@digitalmusicnews.com.
In August, I wrote about my love of the music history podcast No Dogs in Space, but mourned the fact that there hadn't been a new episode in over two years. Little did I know that hosts Carolina Hidalgo and Marcus Parks were gearing up to announce the show's return with season four, Punk 2.0.
Unit1 hopes to offer lower cost version of shows such as Abba Voyage, showcasing living and dead artists in any venue The former chief executive of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s entertainment group has obtained a near-£15m investment for his UK music tech startup that hopes to recreate classic concerts by...
1 I was reading the new issue of “Mojo” in Apple News+. Yes, it’s available there, but usually I don’t bother, the old acts are still old and over thirty-odd years they’ve written about them already and now all we have is people who weren’t there commenting, and I was. But even worse is the […]
Will be fine. Back in the early nineties, Jackson Browne was accused of physically abusing Daryl Hannah. What really happened there? We’ll never know. Browne denied it and Hannah never pressed charges.
Band members Luke Silas, Ary Warnaar, Peter Burkman, and James DeVito (left to right). Maybe their next album will be recorded entirely in a windmill? | Image: Joshua Tarn Anamanaguchi, the band consisting of Peter Berkman, James DeVito, Luke Silas, and Ary Warnaar, are most known for their...
Twenty years ago, even Madonna faced radio blacklisting for being overtly political. But in our age of streaming, there’s less excuse for not speaking out It must have come as a surprise to Ed Sheeran when all of his support acts withdrew from the remainder of the US leg of his tour.
The Copyright Royalty Judges are asking exactly the right questions about Phonorecords V: rates, inflation, overlapping ownership, arm's-length bargaining and independent participation.
NOTE: FACTION TALK IS NOW ON CHANNEL 137 Tune in Saturday September 19th to Faction Talk, channel 137, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West. If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
MIDiA Research has previously documented the phenomena that is live podcasting. We’re all aware a podcast can fill an auditorium. What hasn’t yet been tested is where the pull comes from (the format, the host, or the producer?) because until now, most live podcast events have tested only one for...
The recorded music business in Argentina grew around 70% in 2025 following an almost 200% increase in 2024, but inflation – which was 31.5% in 2025 and 117.8% the previous […] The post is from Music Ally.
In the past, the British Royal Mail has already honoured AC/DC, The Who and Spice Girls with special stamp issues – now Duran Duran becomes the latest act to get […] The post is from Music Ally.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has revised its 2026 U.S. ad spend growth forecast upwards from 9.5% to 12.3%, driven in large part by increased spending through automated, on-platform AI […] The post is from Music Ally.
Spotify announced yesterday that it’s launching a new program that will give approximately 10,000 emerging independent artists each year resources, community, and support that aims to help them “turn early […] The post is from Music Ally.
At Spotify, we have long believed that great recommendations are about more than predicting the next track.... The post Contexts, Conversations & Connections: Spotify Research at RecSys 2026 appeared first on Spotify Engineering.
MIDiA Research finds that 42% of live radio listeners aged 20 to 34 tune in for music discovery, highlighting demand for human curation London, UK – Radio offers qualities that more modern consumption methods (streaming services) often struggle to replicate. Source
Just a correction Bob, I’m not sure what you were looking at but Macklemore’s ‘Hind’s Hall’ has 48 million streams on spotify. And ‘Hind’s Hall 2’ has 6 million streams. I’m not a macklemore fan at all, but the numbers are the numbers.
Corey Kent’s sound brings together his Oklahoma roots with country soul and a rocker’s edge. Earlier this month, he brought that mix to Bloomington, Indiana, for the latest iteration of Spotify Homegrown Live, presented by Hilton, ahead of the release of his new album Heartland Rock and Roll, out...
Discover Chartmetric Flow, an AI agent built for the music industry that turns complex questions into simple answers, data-driven analysis, research, and strategy in minutes.
The most successful creators are not just creative storytellers – they’re commercially minded entrepreneurs. The most sophisticated operators in this field recognise that launching their own product lines can be a lucrative and reliable revenue stream. Source
The interface of the Nova plug-in for browsing and loading Nova plug-ins inside your DAW. | Screenshot: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge Lunacy, purveyor of fine VST plug-ins like Cube, a synth that you control by moving a ball around a 3D space, has just launched Nova, a platform where creators can...
Today, Spotify is launching Fresh Finds Forward, a new program that will give approximately 10,000 emerging independent artists each year the resources, community, and support to turn early momentum into long-term growth.
After teasing a music-related reveal a few days ago, Rockstar has officially announced the soundtrack for Grand Theft Auto VI. Called Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album, the soundtrack will feature 34 songs, which Rockstar describes as "brand-new, original tracks." Based on the first six singles, which...
The Spotify Partner Program is bigger than ever. This fall, we’re bringing the program to more than 35 new markets, opening the door for eligible creators in Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and beyond to earn more from their work. Following the Spotify Partner Program’s success across the...
On this week’s episode, On this week’s episode, Nick Peck shows how a veteran audio director builds iconic effects from field recording to final mix. Nick has worked on hundreds of Star Wars projects since 1998, including serving as Audio Director on Star Wars Battlefront, and in this conversation...
On a Sunday in August 2025, I approached the O2 Forum Kentish Town to see an act I had heard plenty about. On this warm August afternoon, the main attraction was flamboyant, distinctive, petite in size and, by all accounts, electric. Source
Taylor Swift has long been keenly aware of the power of music videos to help expand the worlds she meticulously builds in her songwriting. Now, for the first time, all 58 of Taylor’s videos are coming to Spotify, giving her fans the opportunity to dive deeper than ever into her catalog.
Featuring Tom Morello, Chuck D and Idles’ Joe Talbot, the rapper’s new project celebrates the shared ideals of punk and hip-hop – ‘both the voice of the voiceless’ Adam Briggs has never been one for subtlety – in his lyrics, his punchlines or his activism. In person, the man has a huge presence.
This fall, Coach is launching “Live Your Story,” a global campaign celebrating self-expression through music, fashion, and culture. And Spotify is helping to bring it to life with the Tabby Tour, an experiential and digital activation making stops at college campuses across the U.S., U.K, Japan,...