Universal Music Asks Streaming Services to Block AI Access to Its Songs

Paul Mescal has made his music debut with the release of an original song, Slide Away, from his new film Carmen.

Becky G was very emotional during the Latin American Music Awards ceremony, where she almost broke down in tears upon receiving her third award of the night. With great joy, she accepted her award, honored her Latin roots, and thanked her family of Mexican origin in her speech.“First, I want to thank my Marca MP brothers for believing in me, for being part of this incredible, beautiful song,” said the 26-year-old singer while she received applause and cheers from the audience.

EXCLUSIVE: One day after New Mexico dropped criminal charges against Rust actor and producer Alec Baldwin in the tragic set death of DP Halyna Hutchins, Deadline has learned that the Oscar nominee and multi-Emmy winner is set to star in Mike Hatton’s feature directorial debut, Hollywood Heist.

Thania Garcia Karol G’s winning streak at the Latin American Music Awards continues for the second year in a row as the Colombian star won in eight categories including artist of the year. Though Karol wasn’t in Las Vegas to collect her Latin AMA in person, her collaborator — and the second biggest winner of the evening — Becky G accepted their joint wins for “Mamiii” as the song of the year, collaboration of the year, and best pop/urban collaboration. Throughout the night, artists either premiered new music or gave the first televised taste of a new song including Wisin and Anuel AA who debuted their track “Mi Exxx,” while Peso Pluma and Becky G gave the first televised performance of their corrido “Chanel.”

McKinley Franklin editor Piracy is projected to expand to new heights in one of the most popular forms of entertainment consumption — streaming services. By 2027, there is a projected loss of $113 billion for streaming video providers serving U.S. customers due to content theft, according to a report from research firm Parks Associates.  Parks’ latest forecast reveals piracy rates for U.S. streaming services in film and television programming will increase from 22% in 2022 to 24.5% in 2027. This increase will also bring an estimated $700 million value of fraudulent advertising delivered online to consumers that same year. 

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Blue Fox Entertainment has acquired North American rights to “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe,” a queer coming-of-age story about two teens who form a special bond after a chance meeting one summer. The sale comes a few months after its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Blue Fox is planning a wide theatrical release of the film this summer, though the exact date has yet to be determined. Blue Fox’s international division is handling the international sales. “It’s rare when a best-selling book, talented crew, amazing director and cast all come together to create a ‘must see’ film, and we are very proud to bring ‘Aristotle and Dante’ to audiences across the U.S.,” said Blue Fox executive James Huntsman.

Universal Music has again called on the streaming platforms to play their part in ensuring that generative AI tools are not infringing the copyrights of the music industry. Though this time it stresses that that also involves removing music created by copyright infringing AI technologies, as well as stopping said technologies from scraping the music stored on their servers.The latest statement has been issued after another AI-created Drake track caught everyone’s attention.

Thania Garcia Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN) has tapped Lori Christian and Rob Femia to join its executive board. Christian has been upped to executive VP of marketing, while Femia has been named executive VP of business and legal affairs for the label group consisting of Capitol Records Nashville, EMI Records Nashville, Mercury Nashville, and MCA Nashville. Christian was formerly senior VP of marketing, a role she occupied in 2020 after leading the publicity department at UMG Nashville following the 2012 merger of EMI and UMG. In her elevated post, she will oversee UMG Nashville’s artist development, brands and sponsorship, creative services, international marketing, and media marketing departments for the label’s artist roster. She has previously worked to launch projects for Alan Jackson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton, Darius Rucker, Keith Urban, and Luke Bryan, among others.

Alec Baldwin is trying to get have a big lawsuit against him dismissed.

Universal Music Group has been in correspondence with the major music streaming platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify, to demand that the companies help block the AI programs that are creating new songs based on the music of UMG artists. A report published last week by the Financial Times contains emails and interviews with sources close to UMG.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor “Subscription fatigue” among consumers is only getting worse, making it even more challenging for direct-to-streaming video providers to retain customers, according to Deloitte’s latest Digital Media Trends survey. As streaming video competition continues to intensify, subscription growth rates across the industry have slowed — and churn rates have increased, according to the Deloitte’s 17th annual Digital Media Trends report. On average, U.S. consumers pay $48 per month for subscription-video services, Deloitte’s survey found. About half of those surveyed agreed that they “pay too much” for SVOD services, while about one-third said they intend to reduce their number of entertainment subscriptions.

Love was not exactly blind when it came to season 4 contestant Zack Goytowski. The quirky 31-year-old criminal defense attorney fell for two women in the pods — one who baked him cupcakes for his birthday (33-year-old senior program manager Bliss Poureetezadi), and one who was kind of the pod mean girl and created drama with several of the other girls (26-year-old business owner Irina Solomonova).Claiming he knew Irina's true nature, Zack cut Bliss loose in the pods and proposed to Irina in a very cringey musical moment.But it was clear from the moment the pair laid eyes on one another that things weren't exactly… blissful.

Love was not exactly blind when it came to season 4 contestant Zack Goytowski. The quirky 31-year-old criminal defense attorney fell for two women in the pods — one who baked him cupcakes for his birthday (33-year-old senior program manager Bliss Poureetezadi), and one who was kind of the pod mean girl and created drama with several of the other girls (26-year-old business owner Irina Solomonova).Claiming he knew Irina's true nature, Zack cut Bliss loose in the pods and proposed to Irina in a very cringey musical moment.But it was clear from the moment the pair laid eyes on one another that things weren't exactly… blissful.

Marcelo Cajueiro Wondery, Amazon’s premium podcast studio, announced April 13 at Rio de Janeiro’s Rio2C, Latin America’s largest creativity and innovation event, a slate of upcoming Portuguese-language titles with Brazilian podcasters for Amazon Music. “Historias da Firma,” a spin-off of storyteller Deia Freitas’ “Nao Inviabilize,” will be exclusive on Amazon Music. Freitas’ new podcast will feature weekly episodes of 10-15 minutes with funny, absurd anonymous stories that happened to employees in Brazilian companies. Chico Felitti, creator of podcasts “A Mulher da Casa Abandonada” and “Ateliê,” is developing a new true crime podcast with Wondery, which will be first available on Amazon Music.

The Wizarding World is getting a fresh take.

Warner Bros. Discovery unveiled three tiers for its new Max service today. The pricing keeps Max in line with HBO Max, and at the top end of the entertainment streaming spectrum. A price hike several months ago by HBO Max made it the most expensive service among major streamers, and the new set of plans will keep it just ahead of Netflix’s most popular U.S. plan, which now costst $15.49 a month.

It was announced today at the Warner Bros Discovery streamer presser that this spring’s DC feature, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, would be hitting the newly revamped Max service on its relaunch date, May 23.

Variety’s Miami Entertainment Impact list will be celebrated April 13 at the Miami Entertainment Town event, presented by City National Bank. CEO The Latin Recording Academy   Abud’s appreciation for Miami is multi-layered.

Mexico's National Association of Performers. The organization said in a statement Sunday translated to English from Spanish, 'The National Association of Performers communicates the death of member Julián Figueroa. 'The statement continued: 'Actor and singer, has launched various albums like Julián Figueroa y su banda.

From the Bachelor mansion to the driving range! Michelle Money and Mike Weir have been going strong since 2016.