Universal Music and Bandlab Unveil AI Partnership Intended to Protect Artist Rights

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Four hours and 22 minutes is a long time to be doing anything except sleeping, even watching a state-of-the-art Rock and Roll Hall of Fame awards show that included Willie Nelson, Elton John, Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Page, Stevie Nicks and many more. Yet it’s a testament to the almost superhuman talent and vision of Missy Elliott that as the show hit the four-hour mark, she had the entire audience out of their seats for a visually and musically explosive medley of her greatest hits — including “Get Ur Freak On,” “The Rain” and the closer, “Lose Control” — as she rocked the stage in an all-gold glitter suit accompanied by rappers, a DJ, approximately 30 lithely limbed dancers and an eye-popping video presentation that spanned the entire width of the Barclays Center floor.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music With all the hoopla around “Now and Then” — which has been officially billed as “The Last Beatles Song” and erroneously described as the legendary group’s “first new song in 50 years” — some reality-checking is in order. Yes, it is a “new” Beatles song in that all four members, including the late John Lennon and George Harrison, play and sing on a previously unreleased composition.

K.J. Yossman Trinity Creative Partnership have snapped up U.K. sales rights for historical war film “Love, Courage and the Battle for Bushy Run,” which is launching at AFM.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music 100 Gecs are one of the most strangely fascinating acts to hit music in many years. They’re smart and stupid and appealing and annoying and infectious and grating and many other opposites, and although they take what they do seriously, they seemingly can’t believe they’re being taken seriously.

Drake and Jennifer Lopez are some of the latest artists to sign an open letter calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict.Adam Lambert has also joined the pair in adding his signature to the Artists4Ceasefire letter, which asks US President Joe Biden and Congress to push for the decision that would bring “an end to the bombing of Gaza”, with the aim of securing “the safe release of hostages”.The letter was signed originally by Dua Lipa, R.E.M.‘s Michael Stipe, Caroline Polachek, Killer Mike, Vic Mensa, Miguel, Kaytranada, Macklemore, as well as actors Cate Blanchett, Joaquin Phoenix, John Cusack, Lena Waithe and others.Part of the letter, which was published last week, reads: “We urge your administration, and all world leaders, to honour all of the lives in the Holy Land and call for and facilitate a ceasefire without delay – an end to the bombing of Gaza, and the safe release of hostages.“More than 5,000 people have been killed in the last week and a half – a number any person of conscience knows is catastrophic. We believe all life is sacred, no matter faith or ethnicity and we condemn the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.”The letter continued: “Half of Gaza’s two million residents are children, and more than two thirds are refugees and their descendants being forced to flee their homes.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Hard as it may be to imagine, at the dawn of the ‘90s, Prince was at a make-or-break point in his career, at least as a chart-busting superstar. He was one of the biggest artists in the world, but it had been several years since he’d had a real hit, and his image and public statements had been confusing, to say the least.

revenue at Universal Music Group in the third quarter, the world’s largest record label said Wednesday.Total revenue was 2.75 billion euros ($2.9 billion) in the quarter, up 3.3%. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stood at 581 million euros ($612 million), up 5.1%, the company reported.When adjusting for constant currency, revenue was up nearly 10% in the quarter and adjusted EBITDA rose 11.3%.EBITDA for the quarter fell 11.3% to 478 million euros, reflecting the impact of non-cash share-based compensation expenses of 103 million euros during the quarter.Recorded music sales totaled 2 billion euros, down 1.1% from a year ago.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Hipgnosis Songs Fund — the company that led the music-catalog gold rush of recent years by spending more than $2 billion for song assets by Neil Young, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and many others — is facing an uncertain future as some 83.2% of its investors voted Thursday that a new board make major structural changes to the overextended company. Investors also rejected a proposal by its leadership to shore up its finances by selling off around $440 million of its 65,000-song catalog to a sister fund backed by Blackstone.

EXCLUSIVE: Christine Günther and Chevy Chen, the co-founding heads of Berlin and Los Angeles-based production company Fireglory Pictures, first met in Germany via Doug Liman’s executive produced series Covert Affairs.

Rihanna has reportedly been planning her musical comeback, looking to release new music and go on a world tour next year.The ‘Don’t Stop’ singer has been teasing her ninth studio album, dubbed ‘R9’ since 2018, first promising to release it in 2019. That year, she captioned a video of a dog dancing to House Of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’ with the message “Update: me listening to R9 by myself and refusing to release it.”Now, Entertainment Tonight has reported that the Bajan-born pop star is planning her musical return and has recently signed a deal with Live Nation.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Reunited pop-punk icons Blink-182 will be back on the road in the summer of 2024 with a stadium and arena tour through North America in support of their just-released album, “One More Time.” Produced by Live Nation, the 30-city trek includes stadium performances at Petco Park in the band’s hometown of San Diego, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Citi Field in New York, Fenway Park in Boston, and Rogers Centre in Toronto, along with 25 arena performances. “One More Time”, marks the first time in a decade that the original trio of Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker have been in the studio together.

YouTube is working on a new AI tool that would allow users to create videos that use the voices of well-known musicians.Billboard reported that the company is currently in talks with record labels to negotiate permission for the use of artists’ intellectual property.If it goes ahead, the beta version of the tool would allow a “select group of creators” to use the voices of the artists that agree to participate to create new video content on the platform.However, it is reported that conversations between YouTube and record labels are taking longer than expected. YouTube had intended to unveil the tool at their ‘Made on YouTube’ event in September, but that did not happen.Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group are some of the major labels that are currently in talks over voice rights for the beta version, although it is expected that any wider launch of the tool would require a new set of legal agreements.UMG CEO Lucian Grainge has said that the new technology could “amplify human imagination and enrich musical creativity in extraordinary new ways.”Robert Kyncl, the CEO of Warner Music Group said, “You have to embrace the technology, because it’s not like you can put technology in a bottle.”It is thought that many major artists are resistant to allowing their voices to be used, and Billboard reports that there remain questions about how artists would be paid for the new content that the tool would create.This week (October 18), music publishers including Universal Music Group Publishing, Concord Music Group and ABKCO sued an Amazon-backed AI company over alleged copyright infringement.

Naman Ramachandran Mick Jagger is basking in the acclaim for the new Rolling Stones album “Hackney Diamonds,” the band’s first album of new material since 2005’s “A Bigger Bang.” Reviewing the album for Variety, Jem Aswad said it “sounds classic without feeling dated,” adding “if there’s a better way to end the Rolling Stones’ 60-plus-year recording career, it’s hard to imagine what it could be.” “I’ve got really good reactions from people that seem to be genuine,” Jagger told The Guardian. In a freewheeling interview with the British newspaper, Jagger, 80, weighed in on mortality, missing late drummer Charlie Watts and contemporary U.S. politics.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music News arrived gradually of the Rolling Stones’ special celebration in New York of their new album, “Hackney Diamonds.” First it was a “Rolling Stones event on the evening of Oct. 19,” then it was an album-release party, and then rumors spread that they were going to perform “a couple of songs, but with the boys, you never know” (yes, the person quoted actually called them “the boys”).

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Three major music publishers, Universal, Concord and ABKCO, filed a complaint against the new AI company Anthropic for copyright violations, according to legal documents obtained Wednesday by Variety. The legal issues stem from Anthropic’s series of AI models referred to as Claude, and is the latest move in the music industry’s efforts to stave off what it perceives as a massive copyright threat from AI developers. “Publishers bring this action to address the systematic and widespread infringement of their copyrighted song lyrics by the artificial intelligence (“AI”) company Anthropic,” the complaint reads.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Of all the fallen stars of the rock era, Sly Stone is definitely in the top 5 who seemed least likely to be writing an autobiography at 80 years old. As the founder and guiding light of Sly and the Family Stone, he was one of the most brilliant stars of the Sixties, a charismatic and pioneering musician who not only fronted the first major multi-genre/ multi-racial/ multi-gender band, but whose songs addressed the turmoil and the spirit of the era and, initially anyway, landed on the side of positivity and self-empowerment: “Everybody Is a Star,” “You Can Make It If You Try,” “Everyday People,” “Stand!,” “I Want to Take You Higher.” He and the group were undisputed pioneers of funk, rock and soul music (and later became one of the most sampled artists in hip-hop history), and their electrifying performance at Woodstock turned them into one of the world’s biggest acts.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Graham Nash — member of the Hollies and Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Grammy winner, two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and two-time Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee — has entered into an agreement with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group that will see the company acquiring, developing, and expanding his musical legacy. The deal encompasses a range of assets from Nash’s career, including his solo work as well as of his work with the Hollies and the various incarnations and variations of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

In a time when consumers are more discerning than ever before about questioning the talent of “nepo babies,” Drake had the guts to say… who cares?

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Half of the employees at Bandcamp, the artist-centric indie music platform, have been laid off just weeks after the company was acquired by Songtradr, a rep for the company confirms to Variety. In a statement, Songtradr confirmed that it has completed its acquisition of Bandcamp and continued: “Over the past few years the operating costs of Bandcamp have significantly increased. It required some adjustments to ensure a sustainable and healthy company that can serve its community of artists and fans.

Just before Suzanne Somers sadly passed away, her husband Alan Hamel reportedly did something very sweet.