Music News

Kevin Liles, who’s taken a step towards officially seeking the dismissal of a sexual assault lawsuit filed against him by a Jane Doe plaintiff. Photo Credit: Maryland GovPics Universal Music Group (UMG) and 300 Entertainment co-founder Kevin Liles are taking steps to seek the dismissal of a Jane Doe accuser’s sexual assault lawsuit. The major label and the former Warner Music higher-up (who was an exec with UMG’s Def Jam as well as the overarching Island Def Jam in the 90s and early 2000s) ma

Photo Credit: Alejandro Luengo The Trump administration’s efforts for a TikTok deal may have gone down in flames thanks to the president’s tariffs. But Trump insists a deal is still on the table. President Trump still says a potential deal to spin off TikTok’s US assets is “still on the table,” just days after it was put on hold and the deadline extended yet again. But China’s displeasure with the recently imposed trade tariffs may have killed any chance for a deal. Trump remains undeterred on

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: !K7 Create Music Group has announced the acquisition of indie electronic label !K7. The deal was already in motion before the death of !K7 Founder Horst Weidenmueller in February 2025 at age 60. A representative shared the following statement from Weidenmueller. “This transition is a deeply personal one for me, but I know that with Create Music Group, !K7 is in the right hands. Create Music Group shares our commitment to artists, labels, and creativity, and I am confident that th

Photo Credit: Google Google has announced it is adding its text-to-music model Lyria to Vertex AI. Vertex AI is now the only generative AI platform with models across all modalities—video, image, speech, and music. Vertex AI can now build a complete, production ready asset starting from just a text prompt, to an image, to a complete video featuring both music and speech. The model was also updated with Veo 2, an advanced video generation model to allow video to be refined and repurposed with p

Photo Credit: KTLA 5 News A three-car crash led Los Angeles police to chase down a suspect in his underwear before shooting a woman married to Weezer’s bassist in a wild twist. Jillian Shriner, 51, wife of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner, was shot by police in a strange story that now sees her facing charges of attempted murder. The bizarre story was released by the LAPD and began on April 8 in the Eagle Rock neighborhood, in the eastbound lanes of the 134 Freeway. California Highway Patrol resp

Photo Credit: Nicholas Green Superfan apps like Weverse (HYBE) and the freshly-launched Berriz (Kakao Entertainment) have become critical tools for K-pop labels — helping transform fan engagement into scalable revenue streams while addressing core industry challenges along the way. Now, it looks like Warner Music’s superfan app is getting off its starting blocks. Traditional streaming economics often fail to capture the full financial potential of highly engaged ‘superfans’—those who drive mus

Photo Credit: Shift Instagram is prepping a new push to entice TikTok creators away from the platform as the site remains in limbo in the United States. While Trump offered a second extension on the TikTok ban, the increasing trade war between the US and China has left dim prospects of a deal materializing. Instagram is looking to appeal to creators who want a platform whose stability in the United States is not in question. They’ve added an iPad app and have worked on improving search functio

Photo Credit: Flou For all the attention paid to missing music metadata, copyright infringement, and royalty battles, the music industry often overlooks a potentially bigger issue: chaotic music contracting. Enter Flou, whose CEO, Alexiomar Rodriguez, is helming one of the more promising missions in the music industry: to fix the chaos that surrounds music agreements. Here’s a breakdown of his vision for ‘Music Contracts 2.0’ — including a detailed white paper. What’s wrong with music contract

Photo Credit: Karol G by Junta de Andalucia / CC by 2.0 A high court in Colombia rules that Karol G and J Balvin’s track “+57” violated the rights of children due to lyrics that ‘sexualized’ minors. A Colombian high court has ordered Karol G, J Balvin, and several other reggaeton artists who helped record the song last year, including Feid, DFZM, and Maluma, to refrain from publishing music that violates the rights of minors. The 14-page ruling determined that the song did, in fact, violate t

Photo Credit: Rubby Pérez / Instagram Merengue singer Rubby Pérez has died after sustaining injuries during the Jet Set Club roof collapse in the Dominican Republic. He was performing on stage at the time. The Jet Set Club was a converted cinema and hosted large dance events, though authorities have not yet identified what caused the structural failure. At least 124 people died in the collapse of the roof, with 150 others reportedly injured. The death toll is expected to rise as authorities an

Photo Credit: Edison Research A new study from Edison Research finds ad-supported streaming has more listeners than its paid, ad-free counterparts. For decades, music on the radio was the most accessible and free way to listen to music. But radio stations have traditionally been supported by ads, so listeners were well accustomed to hearing them between songs. The only way to get an “ad-free” experience was by purchasing an album on vinyl, tape, or CD. These days, thanks to streaming services

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. speaks during Grammys on the Hill in support of the expanded No Fakes Act. Photo Credit: The Recording Academy Federal lawmakers have reintroduced the No Fakes Act, which is drawing strong support from in and well beyond the music industry. Senators and representatives from both sides of the aisle reintroduced the legislation today. We’ve covered the years-old bill (which, looking to tackle AI deepfakes, would establish bolstered voice and likeness prote

A live performance from Quavo, who, along with Hybe America and Quality Control, is facing a copyright infringement lawsuit from sculptor Daniel Arsham. Photo Credit: Jørund Føreland Pedersen Hybe America, its Quality Control subsidiary, and Quavo are facing a copyright lawsuit for allegedly infringing on a visual artist’s work in social media posts. Daniel Arsham, touted as “one of the most well-known contemporary artists in the world,” submitted the unique action to a New York federal court

Photo Credit: Jim Herrington The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville is prepping a new exhibit titled ‘Dolly Parton: Journey of a Seeker.’ The exhibit will open to the public on May 20 and will be available through September. The new exhibition is intended to celebrate Dolly Parton’s career, highlighting her journey as a singer, songwriter, actress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Some of the highlights from the exhibit include personal artifacts such as costumes Dolly wore, m

Photo Credit: Spotify It’s The White Lotus Effect: Streams of Billy Preston’s “Nothing From Nothing” spike on Spotify following its feature in the season finale. Each season of HBO’s The White Lotus leaves fans reeling and streaming, first with the show’s iconic theme song, and most recently with the season 3 finale on Sunday night. Between the music and the products, it seems like everyone wants to feel a part of that White Lotus aesthetic — something the media is calling “The White Lotus Eff

YouTube is now testing an AI instrumentals generator as well as a feature that matches Shorts clips to music. Photo Credit: Kelly Sikkema YouTube is officially testing AI-generated instrumentals as well as a Shorts soundtrack-matching feature. Creator Insider, billed as “an informal YouTube channel” operated by the platform’s “Creator technical team,” revealed those new offerings in a brief video. On the instrumentals side, the “gradually” expanding AI-music support appears straightforward e

Photo Credit: Spotify Spotify unveiled major advertising updates at its Spotify Advance event in NYC earlier this month. The detailed changes led to online speculation that Spotify Premium members would begin receiving advertisements—sparking calls for cancelation if that happens. Spotify has flatly denied the rumor. Spotify Advance detailed several new changes to how Spotify will deliver ads on the audio platform. They include a new programmatic marketplace that enables real-time bidding for

Photo Credit: HBO / Max Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ lawyers have subpoenaed Warner Bros. seeking raw, unedited footage from the HBO docuseries, ‘The Fall of Diddy.’ His lawyers sent the subpoena back in March to Warner Bros. asking for “all recordings, including raw and unedited footage” from the interviews with two accusers who appeared in the series. The docuseries aired on HBO/Max in January. The subpoena also contains a demand for any notes or journals the accusers gave the documentary’s producers

Photo Credit: DMX by Mika Väisänen / CC by 3.0 The DMX Estate secures a victory in an ongoing lawsuit challenging their sole ownership of the late rapper’s copyright and IP rights. DMX’s estate has secured a major victory in an ongoing lawsuit that challenges the estate’s sole ownership of the late rapper’s copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property rights. The judge issued a decision and order on Monday (April 7) that rejects the claims by DMX’s ex-wife, Tashera Simmons, that she

The reintroduced TICKET Act is riding a fresh wave of congressional support. Photo Credit: Claudio Schwarz Riding a new wave of bipartisan support, the Transparency in Charges for Key Events Ticketing Act (TICKET Act) is one step closer to becoming law. Lawmakers made this latest round of approval official during a House Energy and Commerce committee markup today. Nearly all the involved representatives voted in favor of the reintroduced TICKET Act, which is also picking up steam in the Senat

A federal lawmaker is criticizing the latest TikTok sale deadline extension. Photo Credit: Solen Feyissa Is the latest extension to the TikTok forced-sale deadline “a clear violation of the law”? At least one member of Congress believes so, and he’s expressing “deep reservations” as a result. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) just recently voiced that pushback in an open letter to President Trump, who last week extended the cutoff for ByteDance to divest from TikTok in the U.S. Prior to this extens

Photo Credit: National Police of the Dominican Republic At least 44 people have died while over 100 were being treated for injuries after a roof collapsed at a Dominican Republic nightclub. Rescue crews have been searching for potential survivors in the rubble at the Jet Set club in Santo Domingo after a roof collapsed, killing at least 44 people. More than 100 others have been treated for injuries. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the roof collapse. “We presume that many of them are s

Photo Credit: David Shankbone / CC by 3.0 Cassie Ventura is set to testify against her former partner Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs using her real name instead of the ‘Victim 1’ designation. She will tell the court about her relationship with the rap mogul during his upcoming trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. She is one of four victims who are set to testify in court at Comb’s trial—and the first to make public allegations against the rap mogul. Ventura sued Diddy in November 2023 for wh

Photo Credit: Scooter Braun and Jermaine Dupri Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def Recordings enters a distribution partnership with Hybe America, led by Scooter Braun. The agreement sees Hybe distribute So So Def’s catalog while the two work together on releases for upcoming talent. Since the 1990s, Dupri and So So Def have worked with stars like Mariah Carey, Usher, Nelly, Xscape, Bow Wow, and Jagged Edge. Dupri also notably mentored Braun when he entered the music industry over 20 years ago. “Every