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There’s significant change afoot at prominent DIY distributor DistroKid. The company’s founder Philip Kaplan is transitioning from CEO to Chairman. The person taking over day-to-day leadership duties of DistroKid going forward will be Phil Bauer, who has been promoted to President of the company. Bauer has served as DistroKid’s Chief Operating Officer since 2018. DistroKid claims to be the “world’s largest […]

The UK office of France-headquartered digital music company Believe has formed a long-term partnership with Mahogany, the global music brand behind video channels Mahogany Sessions, COVERS and Lagoon. The “long-term label solutions partnership,” as it’s being called, will see Believe handle global distribution for Mahogany’s channels as well as its record label, Mahogany Records. The partnership forms a

Universal Music Group is reportedly planning to make ‘hundreds’ of layoffs this quarter (Q1 2024). That’s according to Bloomberg, which reported the news on Friday (January 12), citing ‘people with knowledge of the matter’. Bloomberg reports that UMG’s recorded music division, Universal’s largest division, ‘will be hit the hardest’. A UMG spokesperson told MBW on Friday: “We continue to

Digital music distribution, publishing and licensing company TuneCore has appointed Akhila Shankar to the role of Head of TuneCore, South Asia. TuneCore, owned by Paris-headquartered digital music company Believe, says Shankar will be based in Mumbai, where she will report to Tash Shah, TuneCore’s Vice President, International, and to Vivek Raina, Managing Director, Believe India. Shankar “will be responsible for

In 2020, MBW broke the news that Sony Music was building a team ‘dedicated to reimagining music through immersive media’ – using Fortnite maker Epic Games‘ Unreal Engine. The following January, Sony Corporation of America took the wraps off a new Los Angeles-based subsidiary called Sony Immersive Music Studios, which focuses on “developing immersive music experiences through the power of creativity and technology”. The

Apple Music Classical, Apple’s dedicated app for classical music lovers, will soon be available in a number of East Asian markets. In a post on X on Tuesday (January 9), Apple announced that the service will be coming to China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau starting on January 24. The expansion into these regions will offer music enthusiasts

Global on-demand audio streams reached the 4 trillion mark for the first time ever in a single year in 2023. That’s according to market monitor Luminate (formerly MRC Data / Nielsen Music), which published its Year-End report for 2023 on Wednesday (January 10, 2023). You can download it here. On-demand audio song streams globally rose 22.3% to 4.1 trillion in 2023 (compared to 3.4 trillion in

Last year, Golnar Khosrowshahi, the Founder and CEO of Reservoir, declared her intention to make the music rights company “the largest holder of Arabic music copyrights.” On Wednesday (January 10), Reservoir took a significant step towards that goal: In conjunction with its MENA partner, PopArabia, the company announced a new music publishing deal with In2Musica, the label, publisher and

Madison Square Garden Entertainment has officially scrapped its plans to build a futuristic Sphere venue in London’s East End. The project, which promised cutting-edge technology and thousands of jobs, had been embroiled in a multi-year battle with local authorities and politicians, eventually becoming what MSG termed a “political football.” “We have informed [UK cabinet minister Michael] Gove

The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has revealed the top songwriters for the third quarter of 2023, recognizing the leading artist-songwriter and non-performing songwriter of the period from July to September 2023. During the three-month period, a total of 1,793 Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum certifications were awarded. Rapper and record producer Tyler, the Creator was hailed as the top