US indie-folk band Big Thief released Double Infinity, their sixth studio album, on 5 September. It was their first new album in over five years, although various solo projects helped bridge that gap. Big Thief’s team at 4AD shared with us how the campaign effectively engaged younger audiences and new territories. Campaign highlights include: A Stronger Focus on South East Asia…

As if audiences weren’t excited enough for Tyler, the Creator’s annual Camp Flog Gnaw on 15th and 16th November - Childish Gambino got fans even more excited ahead of his performance. On his Instagram Stories, he shared a link inviting fans to vote on the setlist for his slot at the festival. Fans were able to watch votes come in in real-time and the idea quickly spread across blogs and fan pages.

Much of the conversation around AI and artist deals has focused on how AI might impact clauses in artist-label agreements. But it’s not the only area that artist teams should be paying attention to. A recent Digiday article surveyed creators of various sizes and content types and found that “brand deals are largely being written without clauses related to AI, intellectual property and copyright, which could leave creators and brands exposed.”

A few months ago, we covered the news that the Jonas Brothers were testing TikTok’s new Bulletin boards. Since then, we’ve noticed a few other high-profile artists such as KATSEYE, Ed Sheeran or Tinie Tempah using the feature. Last week, TikTok announced the wider launch of bulletin boards for all creators over 18 years old with at least 50,000 followers globally.

Artists today face a paradox: unparalleled access to audiences, but intense competition for their attention.

This is certainly the month for major-label deals with AI-music companies. Bloomberg  reported this morning that Klay has become the first GenAI music startup to bag all three majors, with plans to “announce its agreements in the coming days”. One of those deals is no secret: Klay reached its agreement with UMG in October last year when it was still in stealth mode.

We reported on yesterday’s announcement in the UK of the government’s crackdown on the secondary-ticketing market. Now the US-based National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) is using that as inspiration to call for similar measures on its side of the Atlantic. However, it’s also taking particular aim at speculative ticketing: listings for tickets that the seller doesn’t actually own yet. …

Anything UMG can do, WMG can do... similarly. Not long after its rival signed a deal with Stability AI and settled its lawsuit with Udio – laying plans for a licensed next-gen version of the latter’s service – WMG has followed suit. Both agreements were announced yesterday, and appear to match what UMG is doing with the two startups. WMG will work with Stability AI to build “professional-grade tools” for musicians and producers.

A trio of Indian TV industry professionals have launched PayList.music, a monthly gig series in India that aims to shake up the sector.

Our inaugural Music Ally Marketing Week continued with a panel presented by Believe UK focusing on ‘Marketing as a Service'.

The UK's government has formally announced its plans for legislation to crack down on the secondary ticketing market.

Ian Murray MP is the UK's minister for creative industries, media and arts, appointed to that position in a September reshuffle.

Ai company Stability AI has bagged a second major-label partner: Warner Music Group, shortly after signing a deal with UMG.

Spotify appears to have acquired WhoSampled. The news was revealed in a blog post about its SongDNA feature today.

Being sued by the music industry's major labels is clearly no barrier to raising money. GenAI music startup Suno has just trousered $250m.

The latest entrant into the catalogue-buying game is Circuit Capital, a new fund launched by management collective The Circuit Group. It’s backed by $500m in capital from Create Music Group (CMG), which it plans to use to acquire catalogues, but also invest in labels, publishers and other kinds of music companies. Its focus is particularly on the electronic-music sector. “Circuit Capital is our way of ensuring that when artists decide to sell or scale, they can do it with people who speak the same language and share the same values,” said The Circuit Group co-founder Harvey Tadman.

Developments appear to be afoot with the European Commission’s probe into Universal Music Group’s acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings. At least, that’s according to Bloomberg, which reported that the deal will face a “formal warning” from the EC “imminently”. That means an official statement of objections, which would outline the EC’s competition concerns around the deal. UMG would then have the option of challenging the preliminary findings, or address the issues raised in the statement to ensure the deal goes through.

Yesterday's Music Ally Marketing Week sessions included a panel on 'Small Budget Campaign Blueprints for 2026'.

Music Ally SI:X is our annual showcase, contest and mentorship program for music-tech startups. Here are the winners for 2025.

The company behind Baby Shark has gone public in South Korea, with The Pinkfong Company raising KRW 76bn ($51.9m at current exchange rates) in its IPO. Bloomberg reported that this values Pinkfong at KRW 545bn ($372m), although that’s a comedown from the days – in 2021 – when it was valued at more than KRW 1tn. Still, the IPO went well: Pinkfong sold 2m shares to investors in a public offering that was hugely oversubscribed.

Last year, the UK’s Labour Party promised to cap resale prices for tickets if it won the country’s general election and formed the next government. It duly won, and reports suggested that the cap might be set at up to 30% above a ticket’s original face value. Well, things appear to have changed on that front. The Guardian reported yesterday…

Music Ally Marketing Week kicked off with a panel presented by Beautiful Digital exploring modern music marketing.

"Don't be afraid to fail! It’s okay to release a song that doesn’t perform as well as the previous one... Just learn from the experience."

Today's the day for our new tentpole online event, Music Ally Marketing Week, to kick off. It includes four days of panel sessions.

TikTok launched its ‘Share to TikTok’ feature last November with Spotify and Apple Music, as a way for people using those services to quickly share music tracks to the short-video app. Now Amazon Music is joining the party. Its ‘Share to TikTok’ feature will work on its iOS and Android apps, and is built into the ‘Insights’ feature that Amazon Music