top of page

Publishing Catch-Up: MLC Audits DSPs, Snoop Gets Into Production Music, AI Battles Continue

  • Writer: Meg Adams
    Meg Adams
  • Jan 18, 2024
  • 5 min read

We catch up on the latest publishing news, from acquisitions to facts and figures, new hires and more.


Deals & Acquisitions

Universal Music Publishing Group has formed a joint venture with DnB Allstars, the London-based label and events company specializing in drum and bass.


The newly formed unit will serve as a production music arm of Death Row Records, for licensing newly created music for TV, film, ads etc. 


Music industry veteran Barry Weiss, CEO and Co-Founder of music labels RECORDS and RECORDS Nashville launches Bossy Sonys (formerly TwentySeven Music Publishing).


US-based music rights investment firm GoldState Music has announced what it describes in a press release as a “significant investment” and a new partnership with funds managed by private equity Flexpoint Ford Asset Opportunities.


Legendary lyricist Will Jennings, known for crafting some of the most beloved hits of the last five decades, has sold his extensive catalog to a publishing company headed by music publisher Lance Freed and Fuji Music Group.



PROs, CMOs and Royalties

UK-based royalty collection and distribution organization PRS for Music has announced the appointment of Stevie Spring CBE as its new Chair.


The audits are intended to ensure the accuracy of reported and paid royalties beyond the measures already taken by the MLC.


Bridgeport, which has sued over 800 artists and labels for copyright infringement, is the first music company to exercise audit rights for the collection society.


The Copyright Royalty Board has granted songwriters and publishers a royalty bump starting in January.



Signings

Since her first album, Del Rey has released music with Polydor Records and Interscope Records. Her publishing agreement unites her publishing and recorded music under the Universal Music Group umbrella.


Reservoir Media, in conjunction with PopArabia, has agreed a new publishing deal with In2Musica, the label, publisher and production house of Lebanese star Nancy Ajram.


The announcement follows the breakout success of Grace's single "Strangers," which recently topped the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Chart.


Warner Chappell Music has signed an exclusive global publishing agreement with Mick Jones.


Sharon Van Etten has signed an exclusive global publishing agreement with Warner Chappell Music.


Universal Music Publishing Group has announced that the British producer, songwriter and composer Danny L Harle has been signed to an exclusive, global administration agreement.


Downtown Music Publishing has signed a global music publishing agreement with Josh Ramsay, the Grammy-nominated songwriter, producer and lead vocalist of Marianas Trench.



Funding, Facts & Figures

The board of the music investment company has called for an extraordinary general meeting for shareholders in order to vote on a proposal that could draw out potential bidders.


Verswire launched in 2022 as a startup described as a label/ management/ tech-style accelerator and a year and half later the company is now getting into the music publishing game in partnership with Kobalt.



Legal

Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group and ABKCO have sued Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company backed by the likes of Amazon, Google and Zoom, over its use of copyrighted song lyrics.


Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has asked a Tennessee federal court to reject an early bid by three music publishers to stop it from using and reproducing their song lyrics through its chatbot Claude.


TikTok rival Triller simply will not give up on its ambition of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. 


The UK government has again confirmed it is no longer planning to introduce a new data mining exception in copyright law to benefit the AI sector, but it remains under intense lobbying from tech companies.


The European Parliament has voted by a resounding margin in favor of changes to the music streaming economy. 532 MEPs voted for and just 61 against a resolution (33 abstained) that includes a series of proposed changes.


The three main institutions of the European Union – its Council, Commission and Parliament – are nearing the end of their negotiations to agree on a final draft of the EU’s new AI Act.



People

The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) has appointed Chris Barkley as Senior Vice President of Government Affairs.


In her new role, she will report to Guy Moot, Co-Chair and CEO of Warner Chappell Music (WCM), the music publishing arm of Warner Music Group (WMG).


Wise Music Group has appointed Betsey Perlmutter as vice president of Schirmer Theatrical, Wise Music Group’s concert and theatrical production company.


Entner will be focused on business development, partnering with key stakeholders to understand songwriters’ creative goals, and working directly with agencies and brands to showcase vital focus areas of the publisher’s catalogue. 


As Snoop revitalizes Death Row Records he appoints Kat MacLean Daley as his VP & Head of Publishing, responsible for the company’s day-to-day operations in music with focus on the newly established publishing arm.



Interesting Reads

Founding Partner and CEO Josh Kessler, delves into the successes Heavy Duty Music has had.


Will this year prove to be even more disruptive? We’ve dissected and wrapped up predictions from experts across music and media for 2024 to find out.


The year saw K-pop companies making mega moves on a global scale, while the catalog market remained hot. Billboard breaks down the top 10 biggest deals of 2023.


AI ventures simply cannot succeed if they are forced to contend with the copyrights in the billions of works they have scraped for the purpose of machine learning (ML).



Comments

Gradient Background

Subscribe to the Synchtank Weekly Newsletter

bottom of page