A roundup of important music news you missed over the holiday break from Hypebot and across the web.
10 Music News You Missed over the holidays
- Major new Spotify exposé: The Ghosts in the Machine: Spotify’s plot against musicians (Harper’s Magazine)
- Is There Any Escape from the Spotify Syndrome? – “The history of recorded music is now at our fingertips. But the streamer’s algorithmic skill at giving us what we like may keep us from what we’ll love.” (New Yorker)
- Ticket reform stalls: Major Music Legislation pulled from final Federal Funding Bill (Hypebot)
- Inside how Live Nation makes money: It’s not just tickets and fees: How Live Nation quietly takes your money at every possible opportunity (Sherwood)
- Amazon Music signs on for UMG’s ‘artist-centric’ push (Music Ally)
- Anthropic AI reaches deal with music publishers over lyric dispute, adds guardrails (Verge)
- Pershing Square Completes 2.6% UMG Stock Distribution (Digital Music News)
- Future of TikTok: Trump asks Supreme Court to pause TikTok ban (Reuters)
- Indies sound alarm after UMG Downtown and PIAS acquisitions (Hypebot)
- DistroKid Union Petition: 4300 Artists Rally for Workers’ Rights (Hypebot)
- Spotify execs reaped $900M in gains in 2024: Executives cash in as streaming service stock price soars (Financial Times)
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Bruce Houghton
