Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly roundup – where we make sure you’ve caught the five biggest stories that have made headlines over the past seven days. The MBW Roundup is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and lower their touring costs.
This week, French-born music streaming service Deezer laid out a strategy to combat fraudulent streaming activity and the rise of AI music on its platform.
Deezer says it’s building a set of tools to detect AI-generated content and aims to develop a system for tagging generative AI-created music, starting with songs using synthetic artist vocals existing.
Elsewhere after Bloomberg announced last week that HYBE was raising approximately $380 million “to fund acquisitions in the United States and expand its business beyond K-pop,” industry sources later suggested to MBW that the amount end of HYBE’s increase could be even greater.
Many suspect that HYBE will particularly target M&A opportunities in Latin music with the money, as this category continues to explode. This week, MBW picked out ten up-and-coming Latin music companies that may or may not be on HYBE’s mind.
Also this week, Firebird – co-founded by former KKR partner Nat Zilkha and former Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard, with Raine Group as its main investor – revealed the names of a number of adjacent music and music companies. in which he acquired stakes.
Additionally, Anthem Entertainment has expanded its longstanding partnership with Timbaland, while DistroKid faces a potential class action lawsuit over how it handles takedown requests.
Here’s what happened this week…
Credit: UPI/Alamy
1) HYBE RAISE A STACK OF CAPITAL TO BUY LATIN MUSIC COMPANIES. WHO COULD IT TARGET?
Last week, Bloomberg announced that HYBE was raising approximately $380 million “to fund acquisitions in the United States and expand its business beyond K-pop.”
Industry sources later suggested to MBW that HYBE’s final increase figure could be even higher.
“I was told that they already have US$1 billion committed to this increase,” said a well-placed source with knowledge of HYBE’s process. “He could stay there, or go even higher.”
What is HYBE going to spend – or at least try to spend – that money on the acquisition?
Credit: Everett Collection/Alamy
2) FIREBIRD CONFIRMS INVESTMENTS IN MICK MANAGEMENT, LEX BORRERO’S INTERTAIN, DEFECTED, MORE
Firebird Music Holdings has appeared in MBW headlines a few times over the past year.
In September last year, we exclusively revealed that the US company had acquired a minority stake in Coran Capshaw’s Red Light Management.
Two months later, we discovered that Firebird had purchased a substantial stake in UK-headquartered Transgressive Records.
On Tuesday, June 6, Firebird – co-founded by former KKR partner Nat Zilkha and former Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard, with Raine Group as lead investor – revealed the names of a number of other music companies and music. in which he took stakes…”
Photo credit: Marcio Jose Sanchez
3) ANTHEM INVESTS IN TIMBALAND MUSIC MARKET BEATCLUB AND ACQUIRES OTHER PUBLISHING INTERESTS IN ITS CATALOG
Anthem Entertainment, headquartered in Canada, is expanding its longstanding partnership with music producer and songwriter Timbaland.
First, as part of the announcement, the company has invested in Beatclub, the beat market founded by Timbaland and Gary Marella.
Financial terms of the investment, which is part of Beatclub’s Series A-2 funding round, were not disclosed…
4) AS AI-MADE MUSIC EXPLODES, DEEZER IS DEVELOPING A STRATEGY TO IDENTIFY AI TRACKS AND “ELIMINATE ILLEGAL AND FRAUDULENT CONTENT” ON ITS PLATFORM
Deezer says it’s building a set of tools to detect AI-generated content on its platform, and aims to develop a system for tagging music that’s been created by generative AI, starting with songs using synthetic vocals from existing artists.
The beacons will be used to keep artists, labels, and users informed about what is “real” or AI-generated on the platform.
Deezer says its plan will reduce fraudulent activity and that it also plans to “develop a compensation model that distinguishes between different types of music creation…”
5) DISTROKID FACES POTENTIAL CLASS ACTION OVER HOW IT HANDLES WITHDRAWAL REQUESTS
An American independent music label is seeking to launch a class action lawsuit against music distributor DistroKid.
The claim argues that DistroKid’s policies prevent independent labels and artists from defending themselves against claims of copyright infringement that result in the removal of their music from platforms.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday (June 7) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, independent label Doeman Music Group Media argued that DistroKid breached its fiduciary duty to the label by failing to provide information that would help the label to defend against a copyright infringement claim.
Along with DistroKid, he named indie hip-hop artist Raquella George (aka Rocky Snyda) as a defendant. The complaint seeks class action status for the lawsuit…
