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NetEase Cloud Music struck a licensing agreement with South Korean music company Kakao Entertainment that will allow NetEase to distribute Kakao’s catalog in China. Both companies will work together to jointly promote Korean music in the Chinese market. Kakao artists include Jay Park, Chungha, FTISLAND and CNBLUE. According to a press release, Kakao had 2016 million monthly active users and more than 44 million paying subscribers in 2023.
Rapper Lil Durk partnered with AWAL to re-launch his label venture, OTF. Under the deal, OTF will identify and develop artists with the help of AWAL’s global infrastructure and artist development expertise. Durk will act as CEO while OTF’s COO, Cedrick “SB” Earsery, will work alongside AWAL CEO Lonny Olinick, president Pete Giberg and senior vp/head of urban music Norva Denton to foster the OTF roster. The first release under the deal, “GTA” by DJ Bandz featuring Rob 49, Skilla Baby and Fivio Foreign, is dropping Friday (May 17).
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Music Venue Trust announced the second acquisition by its own Music Venue Properties via the U.K. charity’s Own Our Venues scheme: The Ferret in Preston, a 200-capacity venue that has hosted artists including Ed Sheeran, IDLES, Alt-J and Royal Blood. With the purchase, the venue will be placed in permanent protected status via a “cultural lease” — an agreement designed by Music Venue Properties to guarantee that, as long as The Ferret operates as a space for grassroots live music for the local community, they can use the building. Own Our Venues has raised nearly 2.6 million pounds to date from more than 1,200 individual investors. In October 2023, Music Venue Properties made its first purchase when it acquired The Snug in Atherton, Greater Manchester. An additional seven venues across the country have been identified for purchase in this initial phase.
AI solutions company Veritone signed a deal to power theCAAvault, a synthetic media vault created by Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to store the intellectual property of CAA clients, including AI clones and voice recordings. The hope is to ensure the proper compensation of CAA talent for any use of their name, image and likeness.
ASM Global invested in Boston-based EDGE Sports Group, marking a significant move by the company to become a market leader in providing advisory, development and venue management services to clients and partners in the domestic youth sports and sports tourism industry. Following the close of the transaction, EDGE will operate under the moniker EDGE Sports Global. EDGE brings a portfolio of more than a dozen sports venues in the New England region and is expanding with development projects in Florida, Arizona and more; it also owns or manages youth sports clubs, academies and camps totaling more than 350 teams and 8,000 athletes. EDGE Sports Group founder/president Brian DeVellis will continue serving as president of EDGE Sports Global.
Music licensing hub Broma16 signed an international agreement with YouTube and partnerships with three collecting societies from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region. The YouTube deal will see Broma16 collecting music royalties from the platform in territories including Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the CIS and distributing them to its members. The company’s new collecting society partners are ANCO (Moldavia), SIIP (Uzbekistan) and KAZAK (Kazakhstan). SIIP and ANCO will use Broma16’s online licensing services to collect royalties for their songwriter and publisher members. KAZAK has granted Broma16 the right to collect royalties from YouTube.
She’s got the eye of the tiger, and that’s why Katy Perry‘s “Roar” music video has skyrocketed to 4 billion YouTube views, marking the most of any female artist on the platform. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In the 2013 clip, Perry embarks on an animal-filled frolic […]
Of 15 debuts on the May 11-dated Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart, the most noticeable, at least in terms of a lengthy backstory, may not be Tommy Richman’s seemingly out-of-nowhere breakout hit “Million Dollar Baby” (No. 74) or Kendrick Lamar’s rap battle entry “Euphoria” (No. 98). The most surprising title on the tally overall may […]
Radiohead has officially entered YouTube‘s Billion Views Club, as the video for their 1992 classic, “Creep,” surpassed a billion views on the platform. The milestone marks the UK rockers’ first video to accomplish the feat. The clip is simple but effective, featuring the band — comprised of Thom Yorke; brothers Jonny Greenwood and Colin Greenwood; Ed O’Brien and Philip Selway […]
Dua Lipa and Trixie Mattel are both excellent music artists — but visual art isn’t quite their thing.
The duo teamed up for a collaboration on the RuPaul’s Drag Race alum’s YouTube channel on Monday (March 18), where they challenged each other to paint the album art for Lipa’s upcoming album, Radical Optimism. “I can’t draw. I can do my eyeliner because I mastered it on my own face,” the pop star admitted. “I don’t really like doing things I’m not good at, and this is something I’m not good at.”
However, Mattel and Lipa were soon painting, doing their best at recreating the beachy album cover that features the 28-year-old singer floating in an ocean facing a shark fin. At one point in their wide-ranging conversation, Mattel asked Lipa if it’s true that she had once gotten rejected from her school choir. “I was in primary school and the teacher was like, ‘Alright, who wants to sing and try out for the choir?’ So I decided to stand up for the whole school and he started playing on the piano, and it was in this crazy high note and nothing came out just air and the whole schools started laughing. And he was like, you know what? Better luck next time. That was it. Later on, I was part of the choir but I was in the lower range,” Lipa recalled.
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She then added that she “went to singing lessons in a theater school every Saturday in London and it was the teacher there that helped me build up my confidence.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, Lipa explained the inspiration behind her Radical Optimism album title. “It was actually a term that was introduced to me through a friend of mine,” she said. I was doing an interview with him and he was like, I heard this term radical optimism, and I think that’s something you really need. It stuck with me. He put that term in my psyche and everything in my life started connecting to that about remaining calm in the chaos and being OK when things don’t go the way you intended them to.”
When the time came to reveal their paintings to each other, both Mattel and Lipa were unsatisfied with their work. “Check out Radical Optimism, people, you’re gonna need it,” Mattel joked.
The 11-track project — Lipa’s first proper LP since 2020’s Future Nostalgia — arrives May 3. Watch the full interview below.
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Bon Jovi has notched another video in the Billion Views Club. The band’s clip for their 1994 hit, “Always,” hit one billion views on YouTube. It’s their third music video to reach the accomplishment, following 2000’s “It’s My Life” and 1986’s “Livin’ On a Prayer.” The Marty Callner-directed clip showing a difficult breakup stars Jack […]
Attorneys for Bad Bunny have filed a lawsuit against a fan who posted videos from a recent concert to YouTube, arguing the Puerto Rican rapper was essentially forced to sue after the alleged bootlegger demanded that YouTube keep the clips online.
In a complaint filed Friday in federal court, attorneys for Bad Bunny (Benito Martínez Ocasio) claimed Eric Guillermo Madroñal Garrone posted videos covering ten songs from a February concert in Salt Lake City to his YouTube channel “MADforliveMUSIC,” infringing copyrights and “luring” viewers to his page.
Worse yet, the lawsuit claims, when Bad Bunny submitted a takedown request to YouTube, Garrone responded with a formal counter-notice defending his right to post the clips. That move would legally require YouTube to repost them – unless, that is, Bad Bunny went to court to stop them.
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“Defendants have objected to the removal of the unauthorized bootlegs from YouTube, refused to agree not to re-post the unauthorized bootlegs, and requested that YouTube reinstate the unauthorized bootlegs,” Bad Bunny’s attorneys wrote. “Unless enjoined by this court, defendants will continue to infringe Ocasio’s rights.”
Such disputes over online content happen all the time, but they’re usually handled without a lawsuit. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, artists like Bad Bunny can file a takedown request to online platforms like YouTube, requiring the site to pull down the allegedly infringing material. That’s typically the end of the story, especially in cases of extensive footage of full songs.
But the DMCA also empowers internet users to object to such requests if they believe that they’ve made a “fair use” of the materials in question – like, say, a news clip of a Bad Bunny concert that incidentally featured some of his music, or a parody video that mocked him by riffing on one of his songs.
In the case of Garrone’s footage, Bad Bunny’s representatives filed a takedown notice for all ten of the clips from the Salt Lake City concert, arguing that they featured unauthorized recordings of huge hits like “Yo Perreo Sola,” “Me Porto Bonito,” “Dakiti” and others. That notice initially succeeded in getting the clips pulled down.
But according to the lawsuit, Garrone then filed a DMCA counter-notice, requesting “reinstatement of the videos as soon as possible.” In a copy of the notice that was included in Bad Bunny’s lawsuit, Garrone argued that he had made “legitimate use of the content” and that the takedown notice “constitutes a serious detriment to my informative and outreach activities.”
“The removed videos also cover the start of the worldwide tour of Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Bad Bunny, with this being his first date out of the 47 planned across North America, constituting in itself a newsworthy event of high public interest and significant informative scope,” Garrone wrote. “In my opinion, the artist also benefits from the dissemination of the content in his own promotion, as his show is carefully captured, conveying the reality of the moment without alterations or post-production in the content.”
Under the DMCA, that move would require YouTube to repost Garrone’s footage unless Bad Bunny filed a copyright infringement lawsuit within ten days. In an email included in the lawsuit, YouTube warned Bad Bunny’s reps that “if we don’t get a response from you, the content at issue may be reinstated.”
“Your response must include evidence that you’ve taken legal action against the uploader to keep the content from being reinstated to YouTube,” the video site told Bad Bunny’s reps. “Usually, evidence would include a lawsuit against the producer which names the YouTube URLs at issue and seeks a court order to restrain the alleged infringement.”
On Friday, Bad Bunny’s lawyers did exactly that. They argued that Garrone’s videos “do not qualify as fair use” that would entitle them to reinstatement, and that they instead violated his rights.
“Each of the unauthorized bootlegs, both individually and collectively, negatively impacts the market for authorized uses of the Bad Bunny works by, among other things, luring YouTube viewers and associated advertising revenue away from authorized videos of the Bad Bunny Works,” the rapper’s attorneys wrote.
The lawsuit also accused Garrone of violating federal trademark laws by using Bad Bunny’s name in promoting the clips, and of violating a federal law specifically aimed at bootlegging.
Reps for Bad Bunny did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Garrone could not immediately be located for comment, because his YouTube page has been disabled.
Jennie’s first solo single outside of BLACKPINK, fittingly titled “Solo,” has officially hit one billion YouTube views. Within five hours of its release on YouTube back in 2018, the video had surpassed four million views. “This is not a touching love story/ No romance, no sincerity/ I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry/ From today on I’m […]
Paul Hourican announced on Thursday (Feb. 22) that he was leaving TikTok, where he served as global head of music operations. “After four and a half amazing years and with a lifetime’s worth of memories and achievements in the bag, I have made the decision to move on from TikTok,” Hourican wrote on LinkedIn. He […]
Event discovery platform Bandsintown will be directly integrated into Spotify via a new partnership with the streaming service. The agreement allows artists to directly reach fans through the Spotify app in order to drive stronger engagement and more robust sales for events around the globe. According to Bandsintown, in 2023, the platform increased the number of concerts listed in its database by more than 150,000 year-over-year, while Spotify says it has increased impressions for live events across its platform by 10 times in the last 12 months. – Dave Brooks
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Collectibles, toys and apparel company Super7 secured the rights to create a new set of Mötley Crüe action figures featuring all four members of the iconic metal band: Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Mick Mars. The “ReAction Figures” are 3.75″ tall and retail for $20 each. Super7 has previously designed, manufactured and distributed officially licensed products for artists including Iron Maiden, the Misfits, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Beastie Boys.
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Music financing platform Duetti announced $90 million in new funding, including $15 million in new equity and a new $75 million credit facility. The equity financing is led by Nyca Partners alongside Viola Ventures, Duetti’s lead seed equity investor, and Cohen Circle. The credit facility comes from Northleaf Capital Partners. Duetti allows a wide range of artists to sell master catalogs, individual tracks or parts of tracks, opening up opportunities for those who wouldn’t ordinarily have access to such deals. The new funding will be used to accelerate the growth of Duetti’s catalog acquisitions, the development of the company’s prediction and analytics technology and the expansion of its catalog marketing capabilities. Duetti recently opened offices in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.
Warner Chappell Production Music (WCPM) and Warner Chappell Music (WCM) partnered to launch a new label, Run4Cover, which will pair WCM’s catalog with WCPM’s production expertise to deliver new arrangements of songs in order to minimize licensing complexities for productions and content creators. Run4Cover’s repertoire includes new versions of songs by artists including Radiohead (“Exit Music (For A Film),” “Karma Police”), Curtis Mayfield (“Move On Up”), Kool & The Gang (“Celebration”) and Donna Summer (“Hot Stuff”). The songs are rendered in “diverse styles,” according to a press release, from big band to nu-disco; Run4Cover will also offer custom covers. All Run4Cover compositions are controlled by WCM while the original master recordings are owned by WCPM. Clients will benefit from a streamlined clearance process through a single point of contact. Licensing inquiries can be sent to licensing@warnerchappellpm.com.
AXS and CTS Eventim were appointed the official ticketing services providers for the 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. The two companies will form a joint venture to combine their tech and marketing assets to promote, sell and distribute LA28 tickets globally. Their online storefronts will be made available for the global distribution of Olympics 2028 tickets, which will also be sold through the LA28 website.
ADA Worldwide struck distribution deals with Charlotte, N.C.-based label South Coast Music Group and Valley Entertainment, an indie label with a focus on singer-songwriters, modern Irish artists and World music. Founded by Arnold Taylor, South Coast’s roster includes emerging hip-hop artists including Dustystaytrue, DeeYounginn, Luclover and Big Mali. Valley Entertainment’s catalog includes tracks by David Darling and Jonn Serrie and new recordings from frontline acts including Lisbeth Scott and Squeeze.
OneLand Music Group announced a deal with Create Music Group that encompasses Create’s acquisition of OneLand’s music catalog and a joint venture to release new music, beginning with Atomic Otro Way’s new EP, Dembow 5. “This is a full circle moment for both the Create and OneLand teams,” said OneLand Music Group co-founder Hector Morales in a statement. “In 2019 we partnered with Create to help them sign their first Latin artist. Ever since then, we’ve worked closely with Jonathan [Strauss] and Alex [Williams] to build opportunities for OneLand artists. This venture is a celebration of our shared musical vision and we’re thrilled to be in business with Create’s growing team.”
Music promotion platform Groover announced an $8 million Series A funding round led by investors OneRagtime, Trind, Techmind and MozzaAngels and supported by earlier backers Partech, Bpifrance‘s Tech & Touch fund, Verve Ventures and Frenchfounders. The new funding will help Groover integrate additional services into the platform including promotion, marketing, coaching and career development while supporting the expansion of Groover’s presence in the North American, European and Latin American markets. Launched in 2019 by Dorian Perron, Rafael Cohen and Romain Palmieri, Groover provides artists with the opportunity to network with music industry players to receive feedback on their work. According to a press release, Groover has so far drawn nearly 350,000 independent artists from more than 180 countries and generated more than 4 million personalized reviews.
Music collaboration platform ENGINEEARS closed a $7.5 million seed round led by Drive Capital, with participation from 645 Ventures, Slauson & Co. and FLUS Investment Group, the venture arm of SALXCO. The platform is designed to streamline music collaboration, make payment and project management processes easier and more.
Atlantic Records UK partnered with London-based agency EYC LTD, which specializes in talent and brand management and event planning. Under the deal, Atlantic UK will work closely with EYC to sign and develop artists under a new imprint, EYC Records, while serving as a connection between Atlantic UK’s roster and EYC LTD’s global client base, which includes Louis Vuitton, Prada, Dior, Bentley and Samsung. EYC Records will sign early-stage acts “aligned with the progressive, culture-first ethos of EYC LTD,” according to a press release, working with Atlantic UK and ADA to develop them. The first artist signed to the imprint is Betty, who has already released two singles under the deal: “Mum Says” and “Take Me Under.” EYC Records is also developing the artist project of poet, model and activist Kai-Isaiah Jamal, who will begin releasing music early this year. “I am extremely happy about the launch of EYC Records — a platform to develop the acts we believe in, facilitate brand partnerships in our field of expertise and push our creative visions to the next level,” said EYC LTD director Cora Delaney in a statement.
The Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts is collaborating with Atlantic Records on a semester-long series of career development workshops and sessions with Atlantic executives, including A&R president Pete Ganbarg. Eight events held at the institute’s Brooklyn location and Atlantic’s Manhattan offices will offer students access to Atlantic executives to learn about opportunities on both the business and artistic sides of the label. It will end with a weeklong songwriting camp led by Atlantic staffer and institute alum Stefan Accardo that will match select students and alumni with Atlantic artists. The partnership kicked off on Feb. 13 with the first of two field trips to Atlantic Records’ New York offices.
Cloud-based end-to-end music rights and royalties administration platform RyteBox acquired SR1, a digitally-native royalty calculation suite, from Exactuals. Joe DeCanio, president/CEO of SR1, along with his team will join RyteBox following the acquisition. SR1 helps to streamline royalty management for its clients, including mechanical licenses and reporting; expense processing; royalty statement generation; deal management; sales and income processing; master licensing and invoicing; and neighboring rights. Those capabilities will serve to complement RyteBox’s current services, which include contract and catalog management; revenue and royalty calculations, statements, and analytics; and relationship management for recorded music and publishing.
NeueHouse, a private workspace and social club for creative workers, has teamed up with the Save the Music Foundation to become the official partner of NeueHouse’s Sunset Sounds live music series. The partnership will kick off with the next Sunset Sounds event on Feb. 22: a listening experience hosted by MGMT where guests will have the opportunity to listen to the band’s new album, Loss of Life, one day prior to release. Going forward, NeueHouse will tap Save the Music for programming opportunities for its various shows, with a portion of the proceeds from each going to fund Save the Music’s various student initiatives.
ASM Global has been contracted to manage and operate Thunder Ridge Nature Arena, a new 18,000-capacity venue in Ridgedale, Mo. ASM has partnered with Live Nation to produce live music events at the outdoor amphitheater, which is slated to open in May.
Oak View Group (OVG) acquired the Stadium Club division from Invited, a leading owner-operator of private golf, country and city clubs in North America. Under the deal, OVG will own and operate Stadium Club properties at universities across the United States; OVG and Invited have also struck a long-term partnership focused on “enhanced membership benefits and uniquely curated experiences for both Invited and OVG club members,” according to a press release. Stadium Club properties include Arizona Sands Club at University of Arizona, Baylor Club at Baylor University, Ken Garff University Club at University of Utah, Texas Tech Club at Texas Tech University, University Club of Virginia Tech at Virginia Tech and the Carolina Club at the University of North Carolina.
Big Machine Label Group and W!ZARD Radio Media entered an agreement to develop and launch a slate of new podcasts. Under the partnership, the two companies will handle production, distribution, marketing, promotion and ad sales functions of the podcast slate. The partnership launches with the sports-comedy podcast A Game of No Halves, hosted by British broadcasting legend “Whispering” Bob Harris and his son Miles Myerscough-Harris. The partnership also encompasses the re-launch of the podcast Songwriter Soup, hosted by songwriter Laura Veltz (“Speechless,” “I Could Use a Love Song”), financial advisor Tracy Hackney and producer Kevin Sokolnicki. – Jessica Nicholson
Primary ticketing and event commerce marketplace Tixr struck a deal with Eden Nightclub Ibiza making Tixr the club’s official ticketing partner. “Tixr’s advanced technological solutions provide a transformative answer to the longstanding challenges faced by nightclubs. From optimizing online ticket sales to implementing unique selling strategies and unlocking revenue streams beyond traditional ticketing, Tixr’s innovation resonates with our commitment to redefining the clubbing experience,” said Rinco Soesman, owner/director of Eden Nighclub Ibiza, in a statement.
Amuse struck an automated integration with YouTube for official artist channels (OACs). Users on Amuse’s Boost and Pro tiers can now request their OAC in a quicker, more streamlined process under the integration, merging all of their subscribers and content from different areas of YouTube into one channel. The YouTube OAC integration will now show as an option within an artist’s profile on the Amuse web app. Additionally, eligible Amuse artists will be granted access to supporting YouTube tools involving analytics, merch, ticketing and more.