Welcome to Music Enterprise Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we make sure that you caught the 5 greatest tales to hit our headlines over the previous seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their earnings and cut back their touring prices.
Add one other to the music trade’s copyright lawsuits towards AI builders. The newest salvo comes from German assortment company GEMA, which has taken ChatGPT maker OpenAI to court docket over the tech firm’s alleged use of copyrighted lyrics with out authorization.
In the meantime, billionaire Invoice Ackman, a serious shareholder in Common Music Group, needs to see the Amsterdam-listed firm shift to the New York Inventory Alternate. UMG is pushing again towards the thought.
Elsewhere, Blackstone-owned Hipgnosis Songs Fund accomplished a $1.47-billion bond providing backed by Hipgnosis’ 45,000-strong music portfolio. It’s the newest in a rising variety of asset-backed transactions involving music rights.
Additionally, at Stay Nation‘s investor day presentation this week, CEO MichaelRapino stated that a part of the job of Stay Nation and Ticketmaster is “to take the punch for the artist” when controversies come up over expensive tickets or sold-out reveals.
Lastly, MBW identified this week that TikTok’s SoundOn service and the ‘institution’ report trade are quietly battling it out on the worldwide charts.
OpenAI, the $157 billion-valued US-based AI large behind ChatGPT, has been sued by German assortment society and licensing physique GEMA.
GEMA alleges that OpenAI, through its ChatGPT chatbot, “reproduce[es] protected music lyrics by German authors with out having acquired licenses or paid the authors in query”.
In accordance with the group, the lawsuit goals “to show that OpenAI systematically makes use of GEMA’s repertoire to coach its techniques.”
GEMA represents the copyrights of round 95,000 members in Germany (composers, lyricists, music publishers) in addition to over 2 million rightsholders worldwide…
Billionaire Invoice Ackman is one probably the most highly effective behind-the-scenes gamers within the fashionable financialized music rights trade.
In accordance with Common Music Group‘s 2023 annual report, Ackman, through Pershing Sq. Holdings, controls 10.25% of the corporate’s inventory, making him UMG’s second-largest particular person shareholder behind Vincent Bolloré.
Now, Ackman is asking for a structural uprooting of UMG’s domicile and public itemizing in Amsterdam; Ackman needs each moved to the US.
UMG says at the very least a few of that request may very well be out of the query…
Blackstone’s Hipgnosis has efficiently accomplished a $1.47 billion music rights asset-backed securities transaction (i.e. bond providing).
The ABS deal, known as Lyra 24-2, sees funding large Blackstone increase $1.47 billion in debt financing backed by royalties from the 45,000-song Hipgnosis Songs Fund portfolio it acquired in July.
Blackstone acquired Hipgnosis Songs Fund‘s property from HSF’s then-public shareholders in a transaction price USD $1.584 billion.
In accordance with an announcement on Monday (November 11) confirming the completion of the ABS deal, proceeds from the issuance will predominantly be used to “repay current debt in full and assist future acquisitions”…
TikTok lately scrapped re-licensing discussions with Merlin, blaming “operational challenges with Merlin prior to now the place music that isn’t high quality managed for copyright is delivered”.
Their deal formally expired final month (October 31), with many outstanding indie distro corporations, together with UnitedMasters and Ditto Music, inking direct offers with ByteDance.
However there’s one other, a lot quieter tussle happening on international charts: TikTok’s SoundOn service vs. the ‘institution’ report trade.
Simply the opposite week, SoundOn A&R exec Josh Mateer highlighted varied latest achievements from SoundOn artists. A type of achievements: a latest No.1 place on Spotify‘s International Every day Viral chart with the Charlie Jeer single Her Eyes…
Within the widespread narrative at this time, Stay Nation’s Ticketmaster is a villain, squeezing each final penny out of concertgoers who simply wish to see a present.
However that narrative is deceptive, as a result of – within the view of Stay Nation CEO Michael Rapino – it misunderstands what Ticketmaster, and Stay Nation extra broadly, actually are.
“We’re a B2B enterprise,” Rapino stated through the firm’s 2024 investor presentation, held on Wednesday (November 13).
“We’ve two B2B [business-to-business] shoppers, venues for Ticketmaster, and artists for the live performance division”…
