Stuart Dredge

Sony Music has launched the latest lawsuit accusing brands of using recordings in their social-media posts without the necessary licences. And in this case, it’s suing a major brandowner: The Kroger Co.

If there’s one area of the music industry that’s ripe for some positive involvement of AI, it’s analytics. Having a deluge of streaming and social data hitting you in the nose is all very well, but making sense of it is another challenge.

Popular Tennessee music festival Bonnaroo is taking a year off in 2027, with a statement making it clear that extreme weather over the past couple of editions is the reason.

The three major labels are no longer merely licensing AI startups: they’re also investing in them. Witness Stability AI’s announcement yesterday of a $76m Series B funding round from investors including UMG, Sony Music and WMG – as well as gaming giant Electronic Arts.

Streaming service Audiomack has rolled out an inventive feature for its African listeners: Night Plan. It’s all about cutting their mobile-data costs.

Trade publication Billboard and research firm Luminate are longstanding partners, particularly around the former’s US charts. They also both made AI-music-related announcements yesterday.

Stability AI may be raising big funding from the biggest music companies, but one of its rivals in the label-approved AI-music sector is rolling out new features this week.

SoundCloud, one of the most prominent streaming services, is testing a feature to help artists sell music downloads to fans.

Music-industry awards shows getting out of London isn't just a Brit Awards thing. Charity Youth Music is also escaping the UK capital.

In fact, let's not get ahead of ourselves: UK-based startup Fanfare is also launching itself next week, on 1 September.