Music News

Photo Credit: ThoroughlyReviewed / CC by 2.0 Snapchat owner Snap Inc. has finalized a broad number of licensing agreements with major music publishers, according to details tipped to Digital Music News. The yellow ghost isn’t ghosting music publishers — according to signed agreement details shared with Digital Music News. Per paperwork that somehow found its way to DMN’s place of business, Snapchat owner Snap Inc. is signing deals with a broad number of music publishers under deal terms struc

Photo Credit: Snap Inc. Snapchat has announced ‘Under the Ghost,’ a new music performance series hosted at the company’s Santa Monica studio. The new series debuted with Kid Cudi and a timed release of his new single, “Neverland.” Snapchat says the new music performance series isn’t about polished perfection, but rather offers an unfiltered glimpse into the creative process. The series is intended to invite fans into the artist’s inner circle, to hear raw takes of new music. Snapchat calls it

Snoop Dogg at WrestleMania XL. Photo Credit: Diego Serrano Snoop Dogg and Death Row Records are looking to dismiss the $107 million lawsuit filed by Lydia Harris, who they say should also be barred from litigating against them moving forward. Counsel for Snoop Dogg and the relevant label just recently made the dismissal push official. Meanwhile, Universal Music, Jimmy Iovine, and several others are likewise defendants in the pro se complaint. We broke down that complaint when it was filed –

Photo Credit: Kelsea Ballerini by Jack Strutz SoFi’s Rising Stars program provides post-secondary students with financial skills and resources they need to achieve their ambitions. SoFi Technologies has teamed up with Kelsea Ballerini and tnAchieves, a nationally recognized nonprofit dedicated to college access and success, to launch the Rising Stars Program. This $2 million initiative is aimed at helping the next generation of Tennessee students achieve financial independence. SoFi will prov

Photo Credit: Dario Sonos and IKEA appear to be quietly ending their partnership and the ‘Symfonisk’ line of products that turned everyday furniture items like lamps and bookshelves into connected home speakers. Sonos confirmed the partnership had ended to The Verge, stating that current inventory for the Symfonisk line will be phrased out globally. There are no future devices planned. Existing products will continue to receive software updates from Sonos. “Over the past eight years, we’ve ha

SZA, whose SOS Deluxe: Lana generated the most recorded revenue of any Sony Music release during Q1 2025 as well as the 12 months ended March 31st. Photo Credit: Erin Cazes Sony Music Entertainment (SME) achieved a double-digit year-over-year revenue spike during fiscal 2024, but recorded music streaming revenue increased by a modest 4.8% during 2025’s first three months. These and other takeaways come from a new earnings report released by the overarching Sony Group Corp. This performance br

Photo Credit: RTR Distribution RTR Distribution has issued a formal cease and desist letter to UnitedMasters over the use of the term ‘Real-Time Royalties’ on their website. RTR Distribution, a platform for real-time royalty payments for content creators, has issued a formal cease and desist letter to UnitedMasters. This legal kerfuffle is over the unauthorized use of the term “Real-Time Royalties” on their website. RTR Distribution holds a pending patent for real-time royalty payment technolo

Photo Credit: Sony Sony has tapped Post Malone to launch its WH-1000XM6 noise canceling headphones. Posty is bringing his credibility and passion for the sound of music to the forefront of Sony’s ‘For the Music’ campaign. “Great sound is essential for me when I’m making and listening to music,” says Post Malone. “These new noise canceling headphones make you feel completely inside the music.” Sony has enhanced the adaptive noise cancellation optimizer on this refresh of its popular ANC headpho

Photo Credit: Soulja Boy | X/Twitter Rapper Soulja Boy (real name DeAndre Cortez Way) was slapped with a $4 million verdict in a civil sexual assault trial brought by his former assistant. The ‘Jane Doe’ alleges years of physical and sexual abuse during her employment from 2018 to 2020. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2021 with allegations of sexual battery, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Jane Doe says the rapper hired her as a personal assistant for $500 weekly

Photo Credit: SoundCloud SoundCloud and TikTok have announced a new partnership that will add SoundCloud to TikTok’s new music discovery feature, ‘Add to Music App.’ The ‘Add to Music App’ feature gives music fans the ability to save the songs they discover on TikTok to their preferred music streaming service. Since its global roll out in 2024, the feature has generated over a billion track saves on supported music streaming services, per TikTok’s data. The new integration begins rolling out

SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton, who’s responded to the ongoing controversy about his platform’s AI training policies. Photo Credit: SoundCloud Amid pushback targeting an AI-focused update to his platform’s terms of use, SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton has responded to the controversy. But critics say a new TOS adjustment doesn’t go far enough to protect artists. The SoundCloud head addressed the fiasco in a more than 650-word open letter today. This lengthy follow-up arrives on the heels of criticism

SoundCloud says it hasn’t used music uploads to train generative AI models. But related debates are ongoing after the platform seemingly left the door open to training undertakings down the line. Photo Credit: SoundCloud Is SoundCloud using your music to train generative AI models? The company says it “doesn’t allow AI training or scraping with music on our platform,” but questions remain in light of a controversial terms of service update. Former Stability VP of audio Ed Newton-Rex, a longti

SoundExchange president and CEO Michael Huppe. Photo Credit: SoundExchange Ahead of related CRB Web VI hearings, SoundExchange and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) have unveiled a rates agreement covering 2026 through 2030.    SoundExchange and the radio rep just recently put out a joint release about the deal, which was actually finalized closer to April’s beginning. Meanwhile, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) set the overarching Web VI wheels in motion early last year. Unsurp

Madrid, Spain, where the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) is based. Photo Credit: Jorge Fernández Salas The Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) has reported record revenue of €390 million (currently $443.1 million) for 2024, when digital collections spiked by 25.6%. SGAE disclosed these and other financial details today; CISAC, of which SGAE is a member, also highlighted the seemingly solid results in a release. Behind the revenue total, which rose 11.7% YoY and is

Photo Credit: KCAL News, CBS Los Angeles A dump truck crashed into legendary West Hollywood music venue Whisky a Go Go on Friday, colliding with a powerline and other vehicles in the process. Sunset Boulevard and Clark Street were closed in West Hollywood on Friday after a dump truck collided with Whisky a Go Go, leading to power in the area being shut off. The truck first hit a powerline and several other vehicles, including a mail truck, before it crashed into the legendary music venue. “Du

Splice has acquired Spitfire Audio in a reportedly $50 million deal. Photo Credit: Spitfire Splice has acquired Spitfire Audio for a reported $50 million, and with AI front of mind for the businesses, new features are teed up to release later in 2025. New York City-headquartered Splice and London-based Spitfire announced the deal in a brief release and a video this morning. Those official resources opted against disclosing the sale’s price tag; the $50 million estimate comes from the Financia

The heated debate over the controversial Spotify stream minimum is showing few signs of resolving. Photo Credit: Shutter Speed Let the debate over Spotify’s 1,000-stream royalties threshold continue: A distribution exec is firing back against the service’s defense of the controversial minimum. As many know, that much-criticized model went into effect at the behest of the majors last year. Now, audio uploads must rack up 1,000 annual streams on Spotify in order to accrue recording royalties.

Photo Credit: Fortune Live Media / CC by 2.0 During Spotify’s recent Q1 2025 earnings call, CEO Daniel Ek spun word salad for investors who were curious when the ‘super-premium’ tier targeting superfans would arrive. Spotify has been teasing an upgraded Spotify tier for nearly five years now—yet it has not materialized. Spotify now has 678 million monthly active users, adding five million net subscribers for 12% year-over-year growth, reaching 268 million paying customers. Despite that ‘record

Spotify execs and board members are still selling company stock, with co-founder Martin Lorentzon having recently cashed in on nearly $660 million worth of SPOT in a single transaction. Photo Credit: Gizmodo Over $2 billion later, Spotify execs and directors still aren’t finished cashing in on company stock. Now, co-founder Martin Lorentzon has once again parted with SPOT shares, unlocking a more than $665 million windfall in the process. Lorentzon just recently confirmed his latest Spotify st

Photo Credit: Spotify Spotify expands its AI Playlist beta to 40 more countries as YouTube announces a very similar feature. Spotify launched its AI Playlist beta a year ago, a feature that creates playlists on the fly based on listeners’ text prompts. After expanding the beta to a few more countries back in September, Spotify is now rolling the feature out to 40 more countries as the beta continues. Now, Premium subscribers in countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean can “eff

Photo Credit: Myriam Zilles Senator Maggie Hassan is seeking more information from Spotify into the handling of recently discovered fake podcasts peddling real drugs on the platform. Spotify removed dozens of podcasts earlier this week that blatantly promoted online illegal pharmacies selling drugs like Adderall and Oxycontin without a prescription. More than 200 podcasts were removed from the platform, but only after a media frenzy highlighting just how prolific the practice of drug-peddling

Connaught Place, New Delhi. Photo Credit: Kabi1990 DSPs including Spotify India have reportedly removed “all” Pakistani music in response to a related government advisory. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued that advisory eight days ago. Without diving too far into the underlying conflict – India and Pakistan have reportedly extended their ceasefire until May 18th – the notice compelled streaming platforms to boot content “having its origins in Pakistan.” “In the interest of n

Photo Credit: Spotify Spotify invests over a million dollars to help authors and publishers produce more audiobooks in other languages, starting with French and Dutch. Spotify has announced a plan to invest €1 million ($1.1 million) to boost audiobook production in languages other than English, starting with French and Dutch. Adoption of Spotify’s audiobook offerings has been relatively slow in the Netherlands and France, which is why Spotify wants to start with these languages. According to

Spotify has once again raised its prices in France and appears to be taking other monetization-minded steps amid slowing subscriber growth in established markets. Photo Credit: Henrique Ferreira Spotify has once again upped its prices in France, where subscribers are now paying €12.14 (currently $13.88) per month for Individual. The streaming platform just recently made the increases official, one year and change following a prior price-bump round in the European nation. The May 2024 raises,

Photo Credit: Thibault Penin Spotify is planning to raise subscription prices in dozens of countries outside the US this summer, according to sources close to the matter. In the face of slowing subscriber gains for streaming services in the US, Spotify plans to raise its subscription prices in countries across Europe and Latin America as early as June. The news comes from the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the situation. Since increasing its monthly price in the US just last Jul