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Primary Wave Music and Prince Legacy, two companies with ties to Prince‘s assets, released a statement Monday afternoon in response to reports of an unreleased documentary accusing the late musician of physical and emotional abuse.
“Those with the responsibility of carrying out Prince’s wishes shall honor his creativity and genius,” the statement reads. “We are working to resolve matters concerning the documentary so that his story may be told in a way that is factually correct and does not mischaracterize or sensationalize his life. We look forward to continuing to share Prince’s gifts and celebrate his profound and lasting impact on the world.”
On Sunday, a lengthy report from the New York Times Magazine revealed that an unreleased nine-hour documentary from O.J.: Made in America filmmaker Ezra Edelman featured interviews with dozens of Prince’s former business partners, lovers, friends and associates which included multiple allegations of physical and emotional abuse.
The article chronicled a dense back-and-forth between the film’s production team and Prince’s estate in a battle over the documentary’s release. Per NYT, the project has been in development with Netflix for nearly five years.
The film allegedly includes an interview with Prince’s ex-lover Jill Jones, who recalls a night in which he slapped and repeatedly punched her in the face. Another past relationship, Susannah Melvoin, reportedly told filmmakers that after she moved in with the musician, he monitored her phone calls, told her not to leave the house and tried to keep her separated from her sister. In another interview, his ex-wife Mayte Garcia allegedly recalls being left alone after her and Prince’s child died.
Other interviews allege the famous singer exhibited controlling nature and that he suffered abuse as a child. Additional sources, however, also recall positive memories of the singer, which created what Edelman described as one of the hardest projects of his career.
“How can you tell the truth about someone who, when you’re talking to people, they all had different things to say?” he said.
In a statement to NYT, Netflix said “this documentary project has proved every bit as complex as Prince himself. We have meticulously archived Prince’s life and worked hard to support Ezra’s series. But there are still meaningful contractual issues with the estate that are holding up a documentary release.”
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
As more music industry entrepreneurs rush into the nascent AI sector, the number of new companies seems to grow by the day. To help artists, creators and others navigate the space, Billboard has compiled a directory of music-centric AI startups.
Given how quickly the sector is growing, this is not an exhaustive list, but it will continue to be updated. The directory also does not make judgment calls about the quality of the models’ outputs and whether their training process is “ethical.” It is an agnostic directory of what is available. Potential users should research any company they are considering.
Although a number of the following companies fit into more than one business sector, for the sake of brevity, no company is listed more than once.
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To learn more about what is considered to be an “ethical” AI model, please read our AI FAQs, where key questions are answered by top experts in the field, or visit Fairly Trained, a nonprofit dedicated to certifying “ethical” AI music models.
General Music Creation
AIVA: A music generator that also provides additional editing tools so that users can edit the generated songs and make them their own.
Beatoven: A text-to-music generator that provides royalty-free music for content creators.
Boomy: This music generator creates instrumentals using a number of controllable parameters such as genre and BPM. It also allows users to publish and monetize their generated works.
Create: A stem and sample arrangement tool created by Splice. This model uses AI to generate new arrangements of different Splice samples, which are intended to spark the songwriting process and help users find new samples.
Gennie: A text-to-music generator created by Soundation that produces 12-second-long samples.
Hydra II: A text-to-music generator created by Rightsify that aims to create royalty-free music for commercial spaces. It is trained on Rightsify’s owned catalog of songs.
Infinite Album: A music generator that provides “fully licensed” and “copyright safe” AI music for gamers.
Jen: A text-to-music generator created by Futureverse that was trained on 40 licensed music catalogs and uses blockchain technology to verify and timestamp its creations.
Lemonaide: A “melodic idea” generator. This model creates musical ideas in MIDI form to help songwriters get started on their next idea.
MusicGen: A text-to-music generator created by Meta.
Music LM: A text-to-music generator created by Google.
Ripple: A music generator created by ByteDance. This product can convert a hummed melody into an instrumental and can expand upon the result.
Song Starter: A music generator created by BandLab that is designed to help young artists start new song ideas.
Soundful: This company has collaborated with Kaskade, Starrah and other artists and producers to create their own AI beat generators, a new play on the “type-beat.”
SoundGen: A text-to-music generator that can also act as a “musical assistant” to help flesh out a creator’s music.
Soundraw: A generator that creates royalty-free beats, some of which have been used by Trippie Redd, Fivio Foreign and French Montana.
Stable Audio: A text-to-music generator created by Stability AI. This model also offers audio-to-audio generation, which enables users to manipulate any uploaded audio sample using text prompts.
Suno: A text-to-music generator. This model can create lyrics, vocals and instrumentals with the click of a button. Suno and another generator, Udio, are currently being sued by the three major music companies for alleged widespread copyright infringement during the training process. Suno and Udio claim the training qualifies as fair use under U.S. copyright law and contend the lawsuits are attempts to stifle independent competition.
Tuney: A music generator. This model is known for soundtracking brand advertisements and offering “adaptive music” to make a generated track better fit any given project.
Udio: A text-to-music generator that can create lyrics, vocals and instrumentals with a keyboard stroke. This model is best known for generating “BBL Drizzy,” a parody song by comic Willonius Hatcher that was then sampled by Metro Boomin and became a viral hit. Udio, like Suno, is defending itself against a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the three major music companies. Udio and Suno claim their training counts as fair use and accuse the label groups of attempting to stifle independent competition.
Voice Conversion
Covers.AI: A voice filter platform created by Mayk.It. The platform offers the ability to build your own AI voice, as well as try on the voices of characters like SpongeBob, Mario or Ash Ketcham.
Elf.Tech: A Grimes voice filter created by CreateSafe and Grimes. This tool is the first major artist-voice converter, and Grimes debuted it in response to the virality of Ghostwriter977’s “Heart on My Sleeve,” which deepfaked the voices of Drake and The Weeknd.
Hooky: A voice filter platform best known for its official partnership with Lauv, who used Hooky technology to translate his song “Love U Like That” into Korean.
Kits.AI: A voice filter, stem separation and mastering platform. This company can provide DIY voice cloning as well as a suite of other generic types of voices. It is certified by Fairly Trained.
Supertone: A voice filter platform, acquired by HYBE, that allows users to change their voice in real time. It also offers a tool called Clear to remove noise and reverb from vocal stems.
Voice-Swap: A voice filter and stem separation platform. This company offers an exclusive roster of artist voices to choose from, including Imogen Heap, and it hopes to become an “agency” for artists’ voices.
Vocoflex: A voice filter plug-in created by Dreamtonics that offers the ability to change the tone of a singer’s voice in real time.
Stem Separation
Audioshake: A stem separation and lyric transcription tool. This company is best known for its recent participation in Disney’s accelerator program.
LALA.AI: A stem separation and voice conversion tool.
Moises AI: A stem separation, pitch-changer, chord detection and smart metronome tool created by Music AI.
Sounds.Studio: A stem separation tool created by Never Before Heard Sounds.
Stem-Swap: A stem separation tool created by Voice-Swap.
Dynamic Music
Endel: A personalized soundscape generator that enhances activities including sleep and focus. The company also releases collaborations with artists like Grimes, James Blake and 6LACK.
Lifescore: A personalized soundtrack generator that enhances activities like driving, working out and more.
Plus Music.AI: A personalized soundtrack generator for video-game play.
Reactional Music: A personalized soundtrack generator that adapts music with actions taken in video games in real time.
Management
Drop Track: An AI-powered music publicity tool.
Musical AI: An AI-powered rights management tool that enables rights holders to manage their catalog and license their works for generative AI training as desired.
Musiio: An AI music tagging and search tool owned by SoundCloud. This tool creates fingerprints to better track and search songs, and it automates tagging songs by mood, keywords, language, genre and lyrical content.
Triniti: A suite of AI tools for music creation, marketing, management and distribution created by CreateSafe. It is best known for the AI voice application programming interface behind Grimes’ Elf.Tech synthetic voice model.
Other
Hook: An AI music remix app that allows users to create mashups and edits with proper licensing in place.
LANDR: A suite of plug-ins and producer services, many of which are powered by AI, including an AI mastering tool.
Morpho: A timbre transfer tool created by Neutone.
From Ghostwriter’s “fake Drake” song to Metro Boomin‘s “BBL Drizzy,” a lot has happened in a very short time when it comes to the evolution of AI’s use in music. And it’s much more prevalent than the headlines suggest. Every day, songwriters are using AI voices to better target pitch records to artists, producers are trying out AI beats and samples, film/TV licensing experts are using AI stem separation to help them clean up old audio, estates and catalog owners are using AI to better market older songs, and superfans are using AI to create next-level fan fiction and UGC about their favorite artists.
For those just starting out in the brave new world of AI music, and understanding all the buzzwords that come with it, Billboard contacted some of the sector’s leading experts to get answers to top questions.
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What are some of the most common ways AI is already being used by songwriters and producers?
TRINITY, music producer: As a producer and songwriter, I use AI and feel inspired by AI tools every day. For example, I love using Splice Create Mode. It allows me to search through the Splice sample catalog while coming up with ideas quickly, and then I export it into my DAW Studio One. It keeps the flow of my sessions going as I create. I heard we’ll soon be able to record vocal ideas into Create Mode, which will be even more intuitive and fun. Also, the Izotope Ozone suite is great. The suite has mastering and mixing assistant AI tools built into its plug-ins. These tools help producers and songwriters mix and master tracks and song ideas.
I’ve also heard other songwriters and producers using AI to get started with song ideas. When you feel blocked, you have AI tools like Jen, Melody Studio and Lemonaide to help you come up with new chord progressions. Also, Akai MPC AI and LALA AI are both great for stem splitting, which allows you to separate [out] any part of the music. For example, if I just want to solo and sample the drums in a record, I can do that now in minutes.
AI is not meant to replace us as producers and songwriters. It’s meant to inspire and push our creativity. It’s all about your perspective and how you use it. The future is now; we should embrace it. Just think about how far we have come from the flip phones to the phones we have now that feel more limitless every day. I believe the foundation and heart of us as producers and songwriters will never get lost. We must master our craft to become the greatest producers and songwriters. AI in music creation is meant to assist and free [up] more mental space while I create. I think of AI as my J.A.R.V.I.S. and I’m Iron Man.
How can a user tell if a generative AI company is considered “ethical” or not?
Michael Pelczynski, chief strategy and impact officer, Voice-Swap: If you’re paying for services from a generative AI company, ask yourself, “Where is my money going?” If you’re an artist, producer or songwriter, this question becomes even more crucial: “Why?” Because as a customer, the impact of your usage directly affects you and your rights as a creator. Not many companies in this space truly lead by example when it comes to ethical practices. Doing so requires effort, time and money. It’s more than just marketing yourself as ethical. To make AI use safer and more accessible for musicians, make sure the platform or company you choose compensates everyone involved, both for the final product and for the training sources.
Two of the most popular [ways to determine whether a company is ethical] are the Fairly Trained certification that highlights companies committed to ethical AI training practices, and the BMAT x Voice-Swap technical certification that sets new standards for the ethical and legal utilization of AI-generated voices.
When a generative AI company says it has “ethically” sourced the data it trained on, what does that usually mean?
Alex Bestall, founder and CEO, Rightsify and Global Copyright Exchange (GCX): [Ethical datasets] require [an AI company to] license the works and get opt-ins from the rights holders and contributors… Beyond copyright, it is also important for vocalists whose likeness is used in a dataset to have a clear opt-in.
What are some examples of AI that can be useful to music-makers that are not generative?
Jessica Powell, CEO, AudioShake: There are loads of tools powered by AI that are not generative. Loop and sample suggestion are a great way to help producers and artists brainstorm the next steps in a track. Stem separation can open up a recording for synch licensing, immersive mixing or remixing. And metadata tagging can help prepare a song for synch-licensing opportunities, playlisting and other experiences that require an understanding of genre, BPM and other factors.
In the last year, several lawsuits have been filed between artists of various fields and generative AI companies, primarily concerning the training process. What is the controversy about?
Shara Senderoff, co-founder, Futureverse and Raised in Space: The heart of the controversy lies in generative AI companies using copyrighted work to train their models without artists’ permission. Creators argue that this practice infringes on their intellectual property rights, as these AI models can produce content closely resembling their original works. This raises significant legal and ethical questions about creative ownership and the value of human artistry in the digital age. The creator community is incensed [by] seeing AI companies profit from their efforts without proper recognition or compensation.
Are there any tools out there today that can be used to detect generative AI use in music? Why are these tools important to have?
Amadea Choplin, COO, Pex: The more reliable tools available today use automated content recognition (ACR) and music recognition technology (MRT) to identify uses of existing AI-generated music. Pex can recognize new uses of existing AI tracks, detect impersonations of artists via voice identification and help determine when music is likely to be AI-generated. Other companies that can detect AI-generated music include Believe and Deezer; however, we have not tested them ourselves. We are living in the most content-dense period in human history where any person with a smartphone can be a creator in an instant, and AI-powered technology is fueling this growth. Tools that operate at mass scale are critical to correctly identifying creators and ensuring they are properly compensated for their creations.
Romain Simiand, chief product officer, Ircam Amplify: Most AI detection tools provide only one side of the coin. As an example, tools such as aivoicedetector.com are primarily meant to detect deepfakes for speech. IRCAM Amplify focuses primarily on prompt-based tools used widely. Yet, because we know this approach is not bulletproof, we are currently supercharging our product to highlight voice clones and identify per-stem AI-generated content. Another interesting contender is resemble.ai, but while it seems their approach is similar, the methodology described diverges greatly.
Finally, we have pex.com, which focuses on voice identification. I haven’t tested the tool but this approach seems to require the original catalog to be made available, which is a potential problem.
AI recognition tools like the AI Generated Detector released by IRCAM Amplify and the others mentioned above help with the fair use and distribution of AI-generated content.
We think AI can be a creativity booster in the music sector, but it is as important to be able to recognize those tracks that have been generated with AI [automatically] as well as identifying deepfakes — videos and audio that are typically used maliciously or to spread false information.
In the United States, what laws are currently being proposed to protect artists from AI vocal deepfakes?
Morna Willens, chief policy officer, RIAA: Policymakers in the U.S. have been focused on guardrails for artificial intelligence that promote innovation while protecting all of us from unconsented use of our images and voices to create invasive deepfakes and voice clones. Across legislative efforts, First Amendment speech protections are expressly covered and provisions are in place to help remove damaging AI content that would violate these laws.
On the federal level, Reps. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Nathaniel Moran (R-TX), Joe Morelle (D-NY) and Rob Wittman (R-VA) introduced the No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas and Unauthorized Duplications Act to create a national framework that would safeguard Americans from their voice and likeness being used in nonconsensual AI-generated imitations.
Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) released a discussion draft of a bill called Nurture Originals, Foster Art and Keep Entertainment Safe Act with similar aims of protecting individuals from AI deepfakes and voice clones. While not yet formally introduced, we’re hopeful that the final version will provide strong and comprehensive protections against exploitive AI content.
Most recently, Sens. Blackburn, Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) introduced the Content Origin Protection and Integrity From Edited and Deepfaked Media Act, offering federal transparency guidelines for authenticating and detecting AI-generated content while also holding violators accountable for harmful deepfakes.
In the states, existing “right of publicity” laws address some of the harms caused by unconsented deepfakes and voice clones, and policymakers are working to strengthen and update these. The landmark Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act made Tennessee the first state to update its laws to address the threats posed by unconsented AI deepfakes and voice clones. Many states are similarly considering updates to local laws for the AI era.
RIAA has worked on behalf of the artists, rights holders and the creative community to educate policymakers on the impact of AI — both challenges and opportunities. These efforts are a promising start, and we’ll continue to advocate for artists and the entire music ecosystem as technologies develop and new issues emerge.
What legal consequences could a user face for releasing a song that deepfakes another artist’s voice? Could that user be shielded from liability if the song is clearly meant to be parody?
Joseph Fishman, music law professor, Vanderbilt University: The most important area of law that the user would need to worry about is publicity rights, also known as name/image/likeness laws, or NIL. For now, the scope of publicity rights varies state by state, though Congress is working on enacting an additional federal version whose details are still up for grabs. Several states include voice as a protected aspect of the rights holder’s identity. Some companies in the past have gotten in legal trouble for mimicking a celebrity’s voice, but so far those cases have involved commercial advertisements. Whether one could get in similar trouble simply for using vocal mimicry in a new song, outside of the commercial context, is a different and largely untested question. This year, Tennessee became the first state to expand its publicity rights statute to cover that scenario expressly, and other jurisdictions may soon follow. We still don’t know whether that expansion would survive a First Amendment challenge.
If the song is an obvious parody, the user should be on safer ground. There’s pretty widespread agreement that using someone’s likeness for parody or other forms of criticism is protected speech under the First Amendment. Some state publicity rights statutes even include specific parody exemptions.
Major labels and distribution companies were once distinct entities with different ways of doing business. In today’s music industry, however, “distributors are starting to look like labels, and labels are starting to look like distributors,” says entertainment attorney David Fritz.
Each of the major label groups has its own distribution arm: Sony relies on The Orchard, Universal leans on Virgin, Warner has ADA. Confusingly, at varying points in the last five years, many of the frontline labels have launched distribution offerings too, whether that’s Republic (Imperial), 300 (Sparta), Alamo (which is affiliated with both Santa Anna and another distribution company, Foundation), or Interscope. Sony also has AWAL, which focuses more on nurturing individual artists, whereas The Orchard usually looks to sign and support labels. These companies are all in competition with each other — and often with the various frontline labels as well.
For Kirk Harding, a veteran artist manager and co-owner of the Bad Habit label, the meaning of all this activity is clear. “Everyone knows what the future is,” he says. “The major labels are going to be distribution companies with really big catalogs.”
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This would have been hard to fathom just five years ago. “It’s a fundamental change in how we’re operating,” acknowledges one major label A&R executive.
Frontline major label deals typically come with budgets — for recording, marketing and more — along with access to teams of people who can theoretically help artists find new songwriting partners, polish their TikTok clips and find money to support a tour. Since the label invests resources and services in the artists, it takes a significant chunk of the money that they earn, as well as rights to the songs they make.
Distribution deals are often the polar opposite. They typically come with far less money up front, few, if any, services, and significantly shorter terms. Since the company offering the deal doesn’t commit much, it doesn’t take much.
The frontline major labels were historically opposed to offering distribution agreements precisely because they tend to be short-term deals where the majority of the money made goes to the artist. That severely limits the upside for the record companies, which through the decades built their multi-billion-dollar valuations via long-term agreements — often five albums or more — in which they obtained artists’ recordings in perpetuity. Each major label group maintained a distribution arm for acts that insisted on a different arrangement, or for independent labels that needed help to get to market, but the frontline labels almost always signed the stars, and were thus seen as the real engines of growth.
Now, thanks to streaming, social media and advances in music production technology, artists can record songs, distribute them and amass fans on their own, meaning they have the luxury of turning down unappealing deals. And it turns out that, given the choice, many artists want to maintain flexibility — and make the majority of the money from their art. “Every artist we talk to is asking for a distro situation,” the A&R says.
This puts major labels in a bind. The long duration of traditional recording agreements allowed them to build up massive catalogs. This in turn ensured they had leverage in negotiations with streaming platforms — and protected them as catalog listening grew in the streaming era. The rise of short-term distribution deals, then, seems likely to erode the size of their catalogs over time even quicker than 35-year termination rights, meaning major labels are effectively mortgaging their future for short-term gains.
But like politicians looking to win re-election, they may feel they have no other choice. Even executives who believe distribution deals don’t make sense for them say they’re now feeling pressured to offer them anyway. “Majors have had to adapt and start offering different types of agreements just to even be in the ring on some of these potential signings,” says Gandhar Savur, a music lawyer.
Not only that, but the major labels have been losing market share to an array of new digital distributors that undercut them by allowing artists to upload songs to streaming platforms for a negligible fee or small percentage of royalties. This forces the majors to play defense. “They see some indie artists that come out of distribution systems and think, ‘I want that too,’” says Joie Manda, a former major label executive who launched Encore Recordings in 2021.
Offering distribution deals isn’t just about playing defense, though. They can help the majors limit risk by signing artists earlier, when they have smaller fan bases, which makes deals cheaper. Artists who do well and need additional support can later be “upstreamed” to a more traditional frontline arrangement. (And if the majors want to sign a viral act that lucked into one big song but has little other music of promise, a distribution deal may be the best way to do that.)
For artists, all the major label forays into distribution mean they potentially have a lot of different options at their disposal. “Artists want choices; they want the option for high service or low service, long term or short term,” says Mike Caren, founder of Artist Partner Group. “The choices are out there, and some companies want to provide all the choices under a single banner.”
Making the right choice remains a challenge, however.
A distribution deal “is not a label deal,” Harding emphasizes — even if it’s with a label. “All you can expect them to do is distribute. If you want them to do more, you have to pay more.”
Young artists in particular may not understand these distinctions, or know which option is better for them. Caren cautions that distribution agreements “can become traps where confusing pitches lead to false promises of short term with high service,” he says, adding, “This can be an unsustainable and dangerous territory that may lead to a lot of frustrated artists.”
Distribution offers will often come with one advance to cover all of an artist’s needs, according to Matt Buser, a music lawyer. “It forces artists to budget out all these different buckets of money,” he explains. “It gives them a lot of autonomy. But if you don’t know what you’re doing, and you blow all the money, and you have to ask for more, the record company gets more rights, or a longer deal, or something in exchange.”
It’s not uncommon for artists to be messaged distribution agreements via Instagram the moment they start to show growth — some companies don’t even pretend to want to meet the acts they sign. There are distributors who “play moneyball where they send very low-risk, low-effort offers to kids at scale,” says Eric Parker, who manages the rising U.K. act Myles Smith, among others. “I’ve seen one distributor send the exact same agreement to over 10 different kids.”
Parker calls this approach “race to the bottom A&R-ing in the age of data analytics.” It’s like using artists as lottery tickets — buy as many as possible as cheaply as possible, and pray one gets lucky.
Manda also believes some artists “are not getting the right guidance” when they’re evaluating different offers from labels and distributors. “Artists need to spend time with, and talk with, the people they might partner with,” he says.
He has a dim view of the major labels’ decision to throw themselves headlong into distribution. The majors “need to lean more into their superpower, which is signing, developing and breaking superstars over the long term,” Manda says. It’s notable that, even as the majors expand their distribution webs, most of the recent breakout artists this year — Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Benson Boone, Teddy Swims — have come via traditional label deals.
Despite this, the major label scramble to get artists into distribution deals continues. “Everyone is competing now in the space of, ‘It’s no longer wait and see what this becomes — stick it into distribution,’” says one senior executive. “Every artist has two or three distro offers after one video.”
Meow Wolf, the arts and entertainment company known for its fantastical immersive installations, will open its newest location in Houston’s Fifth Ward neighborhood on Oct. 31.
News of the Halloween opening comes alongside the reveal of the theme for the venue: Radio Tave, an explorable radio station that will transmit visitors to, a press release says, “unexpected frequencies.” A play off of “radio wave,” the installation is set in a radio station in an alternative dimension and thus has a special focus on sound. Radio Tave will be made up of dozens of rooms designed by more than 100 artists, more than half of whom are based in Texas.
“Music and sound play an even bigger role in this exhibition than before,” Meow Wolf’s senior creative producer Susie Cowan tells Billboard. “We’ve got some incredible interactives that transform how people experience sound — things you can play with and explore that are just as fun to listen to as they are to look at. It’s a true audiovisual feast — it’s vibrant, one-of-a-kind and totally captivating.”
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Cowan adds that the space plans to “host musical performances and special events, just like what you’ve seen in our Denver and Santa Fe exhibitions” with programming announcements forthcoming. (The upcoming music calendars at the Denver and Santa Fe spaces include bands and DJs including The Polyphonic Spree and Tycho.)
Meow Wolf Houston
Tarick Foteh | Courtesy of Meow Wolf
Meow Wolf Houston marks the fifth Meow Wolf location in the U.S. and the second in Texas; its Dallas/Fort Worth installation opened in July 2023. The original Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, N.M., opened in 2016, with subsequent expansions to Denver, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, where an installation inside a movie theater is set to open in 2026. Each installation has a theme, with visitors working to unravel the storyline and mystery built into the design of each venue.
These concepts each typically take two to four years to create, with artists, storytellers, engineers and more contributing to each one. “For Radio Tave specifically,” Cowan says, “we wanted to create something that expanded the worlds we’ve built in Dallas with The Real Unreal and Santa Fe with House of Eternal Return. Starting with the idea of a community radio station, we used sound — music, audio, voice and sonic energy — as the central theme, driving the story and shaping the participant’s experience.”
Tickets for Radio Tave open to the general public on Oct. 1, with season pass holders and email subscribers able to get earlier pre-sale tickets later this month.
Meow Wolf Houston
Tarick Foteh/Courtesy of Meow Wolf
The space will also feature Cowboix Hevvven, a honky-tonk inspired working bar and restaurant with a jukebox offering 30 licensed songs by Texas artists. The Texas influence runs deep in the project, with many Texans working on the project and the team fabricating a fictional small East Texas town as the setting for the radio station.
“On top of that,’ says Cowan, “we’ve got 35 collaborating artists from Texas who have contributed to their own unique spaces, drawing inspiration from their roots, plus an additional 10 Houston artists who are part of our Art Team Task Force.” The space will also feature a plethora of Houston-specific Easter eggs for guests to discover.
“Houston is such a cultural hub, and we were immediately drawn to its vibrant complexity and rich artistic scene,” adds Cowan. “The city’s deep love for art really aligns with what Meow Wolf is all about — there’s creativity everywhere you look. We’re always inspired by the places we go, but working with Texas artists has been something special.”
The White Stripes have filed a copyright lawsuit against Donald Trump for using “Seven Nation Army” in a social media post, making good on threats to sue the Republican presidential candidate.
In a complaint filed Monday in Manhattan federal court, Jack White and Meg White accused Trump and his campaign of “flagrant misappropriation” of one of the “most well-known and influential musical works of all time.”
The lawsuit accuses Trump not only of infringing the band’s rights to the song, but also of violating federal trademark law by falsely suggesting the duo support his bid for another presidential term.
“The new association with Defendant Trump that Defendants have foisted upon Plaintiffs through the Infringing Trump Videos is even more offensive to Plaintiffs because Plaintiffs vehemently oppose the policies adopted and actions taken by Defendant Trump when he was President and those he has proposed for the second term he seeks,” attorneys for the White Stripes wrote.
In a social media post announcing the lawsuit, White included a screenshot of the complaint with a one-line caption: “This machine sues fascists.”
The filing of the case came less than two weeks after White blasted Trump over the apparent use of his song. In the disputed clip, posted by the former president’s deputy director of communications, Trump ascends the stairs of a plane as the iconic bass riff of “Seven Nation Army” plays.
“Oh….Don’t even think about using my music you fascists,” White began. “Law suit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your 5 thousand others.)”
Numerous artists have spoken out about in recent weeks about Trump’s use of their music. Beyoncé, Celine Dion, the Foo Fighters, ABBA and Sinead O’Connor‘s estate have all spoken out against the former president’s use of their songs.
Most of the complaints have come as public statements or cease-and-desist letters, but others have taken legal action before the White Stripes. In August, the estate of Isaac Hayes sued in federal court, accusing the campaign of using his “Hold On, I’m Coming” at rallies and in video recordings of those events. Last week, the Hayes estate won an injunction barring the use of the song while the case plays out.
The use of copyrighted music at campaign rallies is a sometimes murky issue, with candidates often claiming that they secured a blanket license from ASCAP or BMI to perform the track. But the use of a song in a video is more straightforward; if a candidate hasn’t secured a sync license directly from the artist or their label, it is copyright infringement to use it.
In their lawsuit on Monday, the White Stripes said that Trump knew or should have known that he needed a license to play their song in his video — citing the fact that he has been “on the receiving end of numerous copyright claims by musical artists whose work he used without permission.”
The band also cited its previous opposition to his use of their music. Back in 2016, the White Stripes “publicly denounced” Trump for using their songs, saying that they were “disgusted by that association.”
A representative for the Trump campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
Scalpers hoping to earn a big payout flipping Chappell Roan tickets likely just watched their profits vanish after the singer announced she was shutting down resellers charging outrageous markups for her Oct. 1 show in Franklin, Tenn.
The news was greeted with praise by fans who have watched the “Good Luck, Babe!” singer’s star rise to new heights this summer — as well as by questions from ticket buyers wondering how the singer was able to call a mulligan on tickets she’d already sold to ensure actual fans get to attend her show instead.
The answer isn’t totally clear — Roan’s reps did not respond to Billboard‘s requests for comment — but there’s enough information already available about the Franklin show to tell part of the story. It’s also worth noting that Roan isn’t the first artist to deal with scalpers trying to mark up fan-friendly $30 lawn tickets to as high as $900; in years past, major artists like Ed Sheeran and Eric Church, among others, have utilized the same strategy. And while not a perfect system, it’s still an impactful way to ensure that more fans have access to affordable tickets.
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In many ways, for a breakthrough artist like Roan, there are worse problems to have. Over the last year, thanks to the success of her 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, her work as a supporting act on Olivia Rodrigo‘s Guts World Tour and her breakout performances this summer at Lollapalooza and Coachella, Roan, as some say in music business parlance, is the blowing the f— up. Now, as with any big star, scalpers are taking advantage.
In one less extensive example of this, tickets for Roan’s Oct. 2 show at Walmart Amphitheatre near Rogers, Ark., were originally priced between $30 and $80 when they went on sale in June. Now, they’re selling for $300 to $1,200 on StubHub and other secondary sites — though in that case, only a couple dozen tickets, out of 11,000 total capacity, appear to be listed on StubHub.
But in Franklin, there were dozens, maybe hundreds, more resale tickets on sale for the show at the 7,500-capacity FirstBank Amphitheater. Located just 20 miles south of Nashville, Franklin is a much bigger music market than Rogers, and the price gouging for tickets apparently prompted someone from her team to work with reps from Ticketmaster to find out who is scalping those tickets and take them away from those responsible.
Catching scalpers on Ticketmaster, especially after a sale has been made, isn’t particularly complicated. While there are laws governing ticket ownership and rights, in most cases ticketing companies treat tickets like revocable licenses, meaning they have the right to disable tickets that a fan purchased and refund them their money if they are caught violating Ticketmaster’s terms of service.
For example, many scalpers will try to buy up as many tickets as possible using multiple credit cards. That’s a violation of Ticketmaster’s “limit per order” policy, which limits the number of tickets that can be purchased per order based on the event and demand for tickets.
Ticketmaster prohibits users from using multiple IP addresses or email addresses when buying tickets, so if someone successfully completed a purchase of a Chappell Roan ticket but was later found to have used multiple email addresses or a VPN to hide their IP addresses, that could be grounds for their tickets to be canceled and refunded. It wouldn’t take long for a couple of Ticketmaster executives to comb through the transactions for a 15,000-capacity show and find purchases tied to bots with no IP addresses, or large purchases from newly-created accounts linked to free email services.
Once those transactions are identified, most are investigated and the purchases canceled. In Roan’s case, the canceled tickets were pooled and sold via lottery to fans who had to register in advance for a shot at buying them. Though it’s unclear how many tickets were canceled and reissued to fans, it’s unlikely that more than a few hundred tickets were involved.
While this practice is popular with fans and punishes amateur scalpers, there is an argument to be made that, in some cases, it enriches professional scalpers who are better at avoiding detection by reducing the number of tickets available on resale sites and in turn driving up the price for those tickets that aren’t taken down.
But the effort isn’t specifically aimed at eliminating all ticket scalping. Instead, it’s about randomly disrupting the predatory practices of scalpers targeting vulnerable shows by rising artists like Roan who don’t want to charge fans hundreds of dollars to see their concerts. And by focusing on high-margin shows where scalpers are set to make big paydays, artists like Roan really can impact the pocketbooks of professional ticket resellers and help keep more of their tickets affordable for fans.
Until Morgan Wallen showed up on country radio, the genre hadn’t spawned a No. 1 hit on Billboard‘s Songs of the Summer chart since John Denver‘s “Annie’s Song” in 1974. But this year, Wallen’s collaboration with Post Malone, “I Had Some Help,” hit No. 1, while Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” took No. 2. That follows last summer, when Wallen’s “Last Night” and Luke Combs‘ cover of Tracy Chapman‘s “Fast Car” topped the chart.
“It feels good to know there’s this much quality coming out of Nashville,” says Steve Stewart, director of country content for broadcast chain Cox Media Group. “There’s a great model that’s already been built and thriving, which is why so many artists from other formats have moved to Nashville.”
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“I Had Some Help” and “A Bar Song” took dramatically different roads to summer dominance. The former involved two megastars, one known for pop and hip-hop, the other a country fixture for years, joining for Post Malone’s long-awaited dip into the genre. The latter seemed to come out of nowhere, from a Nigerian-American singer-songwriter from Virginia who had put out two albums before Beyoncé collaborated with him on “Spaghettii” and “Sweet Honey Buckiin” earlier this year. Black artists have historically struggled to break into country music, but Shaboozey, who records for EMPIRE, a label most known for hip-hop, may have finally cracked the code and positioned himself for longterm commercial success.
“The power of great songs override everything,” says Tim Roberts, vp of programming and format captain for No. 2 broadcast chain Audacy. “Does it open more doors? Why wouldn’t it?” Adds Scott Donato, program director and operations manager at WGTY, a country station in York, Pa.: “He has an opportunity to continue this with multiple singles. I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s got next.”
The advanced chart metrics, in certain ways, suggest “A Bar Song” was even more dominant than the Post Malone-Wallen collaboration. Shaboozey’s smash topped the Hot 100 for eight weeks throughout the summer, while “I Had Some Help” led the list for just six weeks. But not everybody in country radio is convinced “A Bar Song” fits the format, given its interpolation of J-Kwon‘s 2001 hip-hop hit “Tipsy.”
“I don’t think you can argue that Shaboozey song is the biggest song of the summer, in any genre,” says Nate Deaton, general manager of KRTY.com, an online country station in Los Gatos, Calif. “It’s everything a song should be — except country. This whole concept of country evolving into a melting pot, for lack of a better word, of genres, is an interesting phenomenon. I don’t know if it lasts.”
Country radio has never been a format known for diversity or risk. But as radio ratings decline in general during the streaming era, the genre is one of the few retaining reliable listeners and hit-making clout.
“Country absolutely can keep it going,” says Randy Chase, executive vp of programming for Summit Media, a radio chain in Birmingham, Ala., that owns several country stations. “This is all about being aggressive. Country [radio] needs to move faster — I’ve said that for years. The big difference between country and Top 40, adult contemporary and rhythmic is the amount of music the industry is pumping out. It is still a firehose of music, while in the other formats, the faucet is just trickling.”
Sony Music Entertainment Korea signed a deal to distribute the roster of K-pop label Attrakt, including its most successful act, FIFTY FIFTY. Sony Korea will also oversee global marketing campaigns and business development initiatives for the company, while Arista Records will handle U.S.-based marketing and distribution. FIFTY FIFTY has a new album slated for release at the end of September.
Apple Music partnered with Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel in a deal that will give the latter company’s customers access to Apple Music later this year by bundling it with Bharti Airtel’s Wynk Music platform, greatly expanding the streamer’s footprint in the world’s most populous country. Access to Apple TV+ is also included in the agreement for Bharti Airtel’s Xstream customers.
Flo Rida and his JettSet1 Enterprises struck a partnership with High Point Gamer, Dash Media Partners and executive producer Damon Jones that’s aimed at building out the gaming lifestyle segment for underserved communities globally, including by increasing educational and career opportunities to those communities in the gaming and tech sectors. Under the deal, the partners also plan to tour High Point’s Madden God tournament series and other console games via a festival-style model. “Together, we’re building career pipelines that will empower the next generation of leaders in gaming and entertainment,” said High Point Gamer co-founder Derek Watford in a statement, adding that the Madden God 4 tournament will be held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. at the end of the year.
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Seat Unique, an online platform that connects fans with hospitality packages and premium tickets for live events, raised 14.5 million pounds ($19.04 million) as part of an extended Series A funding round led by Nickleby Capital. The funds will be used to further develop the Seat Unique platform, expand its reach into new sectors and more.
Myst Music, a label dedicated to showcasing South Asian music to a global audience, announced a global distribution and label services deal with The Orchard. Under the agreement, Myst artists will have access to The Orchard’s full suite of artist and label services. Sri Lankan musician, actress and model Jacqueline Fernandez will be the first artist to release music under the deal later this month.
Three Norwegian indie labels — PropellerRecordings, IndieRecordings and 777 Music — merged to form the new label group Sounds Like Gold. Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, the label group will be partnered with Virgin Music Group worldwide. The company is being managed by the founders of Propeller Recordings, Indie Recordings and 777 Music to provide distribution, marketing, administration and creative support to executives working with artists including boy pablo, Highasakite, Gåte and Jan Eggum. The management team includes Kristine Bjørnstad and Tim Dunham, the founders of 777 and former heads of Virgin Music Group’s Nordic operation. Additionally, Sounds Like Gold has assumed operations of the historic record label Grappa and its affiliates, with Grappa founder Helge Westbye serving as the label group’s chairman of the board.
Independent distributor IDOL signed a global partnership with Berlin-based indie label City Slang. Under the deal, IDOL will handle digital distribution, digital marketing and audience development for City Slang’s frontline and catalog releases globally. IDOL will service Caribou’s upcoming album Honey, due out Oct. 4, along with music from Eferklang, Faux Real, Jessica Pratt, Lambrini Girls, Los Bitchos, SPRINTS, Calexico, Tindersticks and Lambchop.
Indie hip-hop label Backwoodz Studioz signed a global distribution deal with Rhymesayers Entertainment that will bring Backwoodz’s catalog to retailers for the first time, including releases by Armand Hammer, billy woods, Kenny Segal, Blockhead, ELUCID, Cavalier, ShrapKnel, Moor Mother, AKAI SOLO, Fatboi Sharif and Fielded. The first release under the deal will be a reissue of artist and Backwoodz founder billy woods and Kenny Segal’s 2019 album Hiding Places on Sept. 27th. “For much of the last ten years, our physical distribution network has been an a la carte affair, working with a variety of different entities on a case-by-case basis,” said woods in a statement, adding, “This distribution partnership should benefit our artists by bringing all our titles under one umbrella, thus simplifying and streamlining our operations, while simultaneously increasing our reach and marketing abilities.”
Licensing platform Soundstripe partnered with DAACI to launch its new AI song editing feature. The tool “analyzes a song and instantly identifies its short, self-contained sections,” allowing editors to rearrange, loop, add or delete those sections in-browser to produce different variations and mixes of a track, according to a press release. They can then download them to insert into their projects. Soundstripe also saves the Content ID of the original track, “keeping producers within the parameters of the original license while editing the track,” the release adds.
iHeartMedia and TelevisaUnivision struck strategic media partnerships with Airtasker, a global marketplace for local services including home repairs, pet care and event planning. iHeart will contribute $5 million in audio advertising media in exchange for a four-year, $5 million convertible note with a 5.0% coupon rate. Univision will invest $4.75 million in terrestrial and digital broadcast services for 17.2% equity in Airtasker.
Turntable Labs secured $8.2 million in seed funding ahead of the public launch of its new social music platform Hangout, which allows music fans, coworkers and more “to gather, DJ together and interact in a playful virtual setting,” according to a press release. The round, which will be used to expand Hangout’s engineering infrastructure team, was led by Founders Fund, Elizabeth Street Ventures, 468 Capital and f7 Ventures, with contributions from angel investor Michael Giumarin, CEO of WordOut. Created by Turntable.fm co-founder Joseph Perla, Hangout boasts virtual DJ booths that allow users to privately spin selected tracks for themselves and their friends while also offering “public themed rooms based on their tastes and interests.” The platform, which is slated for a full public launch later this year, also offers custom digital avatars and chat options.
Canada’s ACTRA Recording Artists’ Collecting Society (ACTRA RACS) partnered with no-code metadata platform Noctil to streamline the ingestion and processing of artist and sound recording metadata. The move is designed to improve the accuracy and efficiency of ACTRA RACS’ operations. Noctil uses AI and machine learning technologies to improve matching and identification, leading to faster and more accurate royalty distributions to artists and performers.
Christian Hayes, a singer-songwriter from Rome, Ga., has signed with Capitol Records. Hayes is one of Capitol’s first signings since the label realigned in February under Tom March as chairman/CEO of Capitol Music Group and Lillia Parsa and Arjun Pulijal as co-presidents.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Christian to the Capitol Records family. As a singer, songwriter and performer, he demonstrates remarkable depth,” said March in a statement. “Christian is gifted at channeling raw, genuine emotion into music that resonates with listeners and transcends genres.”
“It all still feels surreal — music has always been a part of my life and to be able to sign with such a longstanding powerhouse of a label like Capitol is more than I could’ve ever dreamt. The team at Capitol has a point to prove and so do I,” said Hayes.
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Hayes’ debut EP, Last I Love You, will come out Sept. 20. The EP’s title track, shortened to “LILY,” has been streamed more than 1.2 million times on Spotify, with more than 2 million total global streams, according to the company.
Hayes began writing poems and songs when he was seven after his grandfather, a former poet laureate for the state of Georgia, gave him a journal. He then picked up a guitar when he was eight. He was active in leading worship music at his church before enrolling in the U.S. Navy Reserve and later attending the University of Alabama beginning in 2018. He subsequently moved to Nashville and has penned more than 900 songs.
Inspired by the music of the Eagles, James Taylor and The Chicks, the singer-songwriter self-released “Leaving,” which landed on Apple Music playlists as well as Spotify’s New Music Friday Country playlist.
Hayes has already inked deals with WME for booking and Universal Music Publishing Group for publishing. “After hearing ‘LILY,’ we were huge fans of Christian’s songwriting,” said Cyndi Forman, senior VP of A&R at UMPG Nashville. “Christian’s approach to songwriting is unique, yet fits right in at a time when genres are blending.”
Hayes is managed by Wild Rose Projects’ Helena Capps.