Music industry hits ‘Roblox’ with a $200 million lawsuit

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorYoung Thug has landed a major role in the musical dramedy “Throw It Back” — appearing in the movie and overseeing its soundtrack as executive producer. Directed by Shadae Lamar Smith from a script written with Rochée Jeffrey, the film stars Shahadi Wright Joseph and will feature Tiffany Haddish in a supporting role.

Brexit negotiator Lord Frost used a government committee hearing today (Tuesday June 29) to hit back at Elton John over his claims around the European touring fiasco, before coming under fire himself for his “inaction” over the situation.Sir Elton has been very vocal over the government jeopardising the future of touring for the UK artists, after the Brexit deal secured with the EU failed to negotiate visa-free travel and Europe-wide work permits for musicians and crew.

just 28 people who attended pilot events researching the impact of large-scale gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic tested positive for the virus.The new data was released by scientists working for the UK government’s Events Research Programme (ERP), which was commissioned in February to help determine the roadmap out of lockdown restrictions.

a weekend of events in Liverpool, the BRIT Awards and Download Festival.Events organisers were eagerly anticipating the results of the programme last week ahead of a planned summer of live music, but they were delayed without explanation.They are now attempting to open up the industry once again, after initial results suggested that attending a live music event posed as much risk of contracting COVID-19 as going shopping.A spokesperson for Boris Johnson told The Guardian: “These pilots provide

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorA year on from the “Blackout Tuesday,” during which the music industry paused to take a look at its racial policies and plan to reform them, how is it doing? According to both last week’s USC-Annenberg “Inclusion in the Music Business” study and a “report card” released over the weekend by the Black Music Action Coalition — a 200-plus-member organization formed around this time last year — it’s doing fair-to-badly.BMAC’s 37-page report takes a look at dozens of

Michele Amabile Angermiller Michelle Edgar is joining LiveXLive Media as head of strategic partnerships where she will work on artist and label relations in addition to liaising with consumer brands and creating partnership opportunities. LiveXLive is a global platform for livestream and on-demand audio, video, and podcast/vodcast content in music, comedy and pop culture.

Sinead O’Connor has confirmed her retirement from the music industry, weeks after making similar claims and later retracting them.The Irish singer said on social media that she had been in “two minds” about retiring, but confirmed that she will now begin a new career as a writer.“This is to announce that having been in two minds about retiring I have now, in consultation with my medical team, and on their advice, decided to go ahead and retire so that I may now focus on my new career as a

Fast-rising singer-songwriter Clairo has signed with Universal Music Publishing Group, in advance of her forthcoming second full-length album, “Sling,” which was co-produced by Jack Antonoff and marks her major-label debut (on the Fader label via UMG’s Republic Records). Now 22, Clairo’s (Claire Cottrill) success story began in 2017 when her song “Pretty Girl” went viral and made her a titan in the indie-sphere; it’s clocked more than 74 million YouTube views.

The Asheville Blade, former sales assistant Hannah Green says she was subjected to frequent abuse and is suing the firm for over $1million to ensure “Moog Music never does this to anyone else ever again”.Green joined the North Carolina firm in 2018 as a sales assistant and a “personal assistant to the head of sales”, but says she was given a full-time role that involved managing 20 accounts on her own by the end of the year.She says her job title failed to properly reflect the change in tasks,

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe new report on “Inclusion in the Music Business: Gender & Race/Ethnicity Across Executives, Artists & Talent Teams” from the USC-Annenberg Inclusion Initiative makes no bones about how far the music industry has to go in its stated goals of gender and racial equality — even after most major music companies loudly trumpeted their commitments to advancing its efforts in those directions in the wake of Blackout Tuesday and the Black Lives Matter protests last year.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBlack and underrepresented artists may be heavily represented on the charts, but the music companies that release, promote and tour those artists have a long way to go when it comes to diversity in their executive ranks, according to “Inclusion in the Music Business: Gender & Race/Ethnicity Across Executives, Artists & Talent Teams,” an authoritative new study from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.

coronavirus restrictions on June 21.After figures showed that the rumoured delay could see over 5,000 events cancelled, LIVE CEO Greg Parmley says they want “transparency” from the government on the process.Parmley said: “The briefing we are seeing of a delay to our reopening later this month is devastating to the live music industry.

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Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorOnline-game company Roblox insisted that it does not tolerate copyright infringement, releasing a statement saying it is “surprised and disappointed” by a lawsuit filed on behalf of National Music Publishers’ Association members.On Wednesday, the NMPA sued Roblox seeking monetary damages of at least $200 million, alleging the platform allows rampant unauthorized use of songs without paying songwriters or copyright holders.Roblox, in a statement Thursday, said, “We

Roblox Corporation, the developer behind the massively successful online video game Roblox, with a $200million lawsuit alleging widespread copyright infringement.The suit was filed by the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) on behalf of big publishers such as ABKCO Music & Records and indie labels such as Big Machine Records.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorThe National Music Publishers’ Association filed a lawsuit against Roblox, accusing the massively multiplayer online game company of illegally using songs from numerous artists — and seeking a minimum of $200 million in damages.Songs that are being used in Roblox’s online game without the company compensating writers or copyright holders include those recorded by Ariana Grande, Imagine Dragons, deadmau5, Ed Sheeran, and the Rolling Stones, among other artists,

[PIAS], the Europe-based independent music company, and Universal Music Group announced a strategic global alliance on Wednesday (June 9). According to the announcement, under the new initiative, UMG will have access to [PIAS]’ international distribution network and expertise in providing services to the independent music community through its recently rebranded, long-standing services division [Integral].

Chris Willman Music Writer+ Nick Petropoulos, who joined Arista Records early last year after an 11-year run at Glassnote Records, has been upped by Arista to oversee the label’s promotion department.