Welcome to Music Business Worldwide's weekly roundup. Over the past seven days, we've found five biggest stories to catch the five biggest stories. MBW Roundup is supported St Stripover 500 of the world's best-selling artists will help maximize income and reduce tour costs.
Deather's disclosure of the volume of Prat Road, the French-based streaming service Deather, is a good indicator of what's going on with the music streaming service, and the latest updates are a bit surprising. Deezer says 18% of the tracks uploaded daily, or about 20,000, are fully generated through AI.
Meanwhile, in the Land of Investment, music veteran Charles Goldstack has released some big news. His gold state company raised $500 million to buy music assets.
Warner Music Group announced its new CFO this week. Previously, Armin Zerza from Activision Blizzard will inherit the success of WMG's current CFO, Bryan Castellani.
Meanwhile, the consortium led by Believe founder and CEO Denis Ladegaillie has announced its intention to acquire completely private shares by acquiring (a rather small) shares in a company that the consortium does not yet own.
Finally, the US Copyright Office is considering regulations surrounding an increase in domestically operated performance rights organizations. In submissions to the office, publishers such as Sony, Warner Chappell, Concord, and Reservoir urged cuts in professional regulations.
This is what happened this week…
1) AI Music Invasion doubles with Deezer: 20,000 bot creation tracks uploaded daily and uploaded to streaming platforms
Deezer, a music streaming service based in France, has revealed that around 18% of all tracks currently uploaded to its platform are fully generated by artificial intelligence.
On Wednesday (April 16th), the company revealed that over 20,000 AI-generated tracks are being delivered to the platform every day.
“AI-generated content continues to flood streaming platforms like Deezer, and there are no signs that it will be slow,” said Aurelien Herault, Deezer's chief innovation officer.
Deezer launched AI detection tools in January after filing two patent applications for Technology in December…
2) Charles Gold Stack's Gold State raises $500 million to buy music rights
Founded by Charles Goldstack in 2022, Gold State Music has raised USD 500 million to win more music rights.
According to a announcement on Thursday (April 17), Strategic Capital Raising includes “structured capital facilities,” co-led by Northleaf Capital Partners and Ares Management Funds, and “separately leveraged.” Additional terms for private transactions have not been disclosed.
Goldstate's new backer, Ares Management Corporation, is a giant in the alternative investment sector.
3) Sony, Warner Chappell, Concord, Reservoir encourages less professional regulations in US Copyright Office responses
Large music publishers such as Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Concord and Reservoir have submitted responses to the US Copyright Office's Performance Rights Group Survey (Pro).
All are insisting on reducing sector regulations.
The US Copyright Office (USCO) began its investigation in February to investigate “questions related to increased strengths and licensing revenue sharing practices for strengths.”
US professionals also submitted responses to the USCO, broadly advocating light touch on regulations, urging the Copyright Bureau to shape the professional landscape with the power of the free market…
4) Armin Zerza played a key role in the $69 billion sale of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft. He is currently working as CFO in the Warner Music Group.
Warner Music Group has hired a new Chief Financial Officer.
Armin Zerza will join WMG on May 5th as effective executive vice president and CFO, reporting to CEO Robert Kyncl. Zelza will replace Brian Castellani as Warner's EVP and CFO. Castellani joined WMG's executive team in October 2023.
Zerza recently worked for the C-Suite of Gaming Giant Activision Blizzard, and was traded on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.
During his decade at Activision Blizzard, he served as both CFO and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). He played a pivotal role in all the cash of the company, a $68.7 billion acquisition by Microsoft that closed in 2023…
5) Denis Ladegaillie, backed by EQT and TCV, moves to get it fully
The consortium, led by Believe founder and CEO Denis Ladegaillie, has announced plans to acquire the remaining stake in the music company from public shareholders.
The consortium, which also includes the EQT X funds and funds, currently holds 96.65% of Believe's share capital personally. Sub-4% Believe's shares are held by public shareholders of Paris Euronext.
The Ladegaillie Consortium (“Upbeat Bidco”) is currently being discontinued through a tender acquisition offer that it believes its total share capital is approximately 1.54 billion euros (US$1.75 billion).
This offer, at 15.30 euros per share, represents a premium of 2.9% over Believe's 30-day volume weighted average…
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