This week, strong quarters from Sony Music and Live Nation showed recorded music and live still growing, while a $600M-plus catalog close and a European live takeover show capital pouring into rights and stages. Underneath the growth, a different fight plays out: AI's place in copyright and standards, a major buying back an indie distributor, and fresh pushes to plug licensing gaps.
1. Sony Music revenue up 10%, helped by the Michael Jackson biopic and Ella Langley
Sony's music division reported that revenue rose 10% year-on-year in its fiscal second quarter (the calendar quarter ending September 30), reaching 598 billion yen (about $3.71bn) across recorded music, publishing, merchandise and live. The segment covers Sony Music Entertainment, its Japanese arm and Sony Music Publishing. Recorded music alone jumped 19.5%, helped by a near-300% spike in Michael Jackson catalog sales after the biopic Michael, and by country artist Ella Langley crossing 1.8 billion cumulative streams. Streaming revenue rose 7.4% in recorded music and 5.7% in publishing on a dollar basis.
Top sellers in the quarter included Ateez, Michael Jackson, Ella Langley, Bad Bunny, SZA and Shakira (with Burna Boy). Physical music revenue rose 16.5% to 32 billion yen, and operating income rose 6.4% to 123 billion yen (about $760m), reflecting higher streaming revenue.
2. Live Nation hits a record $10.1bn quarter as international attendance drives growth
Live Nation reported $10.1 billion in revenue for its third quarter, up 19% year-on-year, with operating income of $892 million, up 13%. Total fan attendance grew 19% to 61 million people, and crucially, international attendance grew 29% and accounted for 60% of the company's total fan growth. The concerts division brought in $8.7bn, ticketing $870m, and sponsorship and advertising nearly $506m. Deferred revenue — money already taken for shows not yet played — sat at $3.8bn, up 8% from last year.
"In a world of endless screens and AI-generated everything, the one thing that can't be replicated is being there," said CEO Michael Rapino, who expects 180 million fans in attendance through 2026. "Artists are taking their music to more fans in more places than ever, and fans are showing up in record numbers."
3. Influence Media closes $600M-plus Anthem catalog deal with BlackRock backing
Influence Media Partners has completed its acquisition of Anthem Entertainment's catalogs, in a transaction valued at over $600 million and struck alongside funds managed by BlackRock. The deal adds stakes in more than 24,000 released songs — including The Weeknd's "Die For You," Britney Spears' "Oops!… I Did It Again" and OneRepublic's "Counting Stars" — plus 60,000 additional works that have never been used commercially. Influence Media says the acquired catalogs also include titles that have appeared in film and TV properties such as Spider-Man, Breaking Bad and LEGO Ninjago. MBW previously reported, citing Billboard, that Anthem's annual net publisher's share and net label share stood at $45m–$50m. Truist led the debt financing; Goldman Sachs advised Anthem.
The backstory sharpens the point: these assets had failed to sell at auction in 2017 and 2022 before Influence prevailed, with seller Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan exiting. "We believe renowned entertainment assets with enduring cultural relevance can deliver long-term value for our investors," said Paul Braude of BlackRock's Direct Private Opportunities Group when the deal was announced in July.
4. Warner reacquires Zebralution, and IMPALA warns Europe loses "a part of its diversity"
Warner Music has bought back German digital distributor Zebralution, which it owned from 2007 to 2017 before selling it under a divestment commitment made to independent labels in 2012. IMPALA, the pan-European body for the indie sector, responded by asking Warner to let any Zebralution clients who want to stay independent switch distributors "promptly," and to guarantee that those who stay get a "level playing field" on pay and promotional tools versus Warner's own artists.
Because Warner is the smallest major — 14.8% market share against Sony's 22.7% and Universal's 32.5% — IMPALA sees one positive side: "we hope this acquisition boosts competition among the majors." Still, it says the indie sector "has lost another part of its infrastructure." IMPALA has long warned that such deals give the majors more market power and more access to marketing and consumption data; it urged regulators to step in on Sony's purchase of AWAL and Universal's purchase of Downtown and FUGA.
5. CISAC reports record €15.5bn in creator collections, with a big asterisk
CISAC, the global body for collecting societies — organizations that gather royalties on behalf of songwriters and composers — published its annual report showing €15.5bn in global collections for 2025, up 11.3% and a new record. The caveat: 2025 was the first year to include figures from the US Mechanical Licensing Collective (the body that distributes US streaming mechanical royalties). Strip that out and growth was a steadier 5.3%. Music-specific collections hit €14.06bn, with digital now 42.4% of members' income — and far higher in emerging markets, reaching 88.6% in Indonesia.
Live and background music collections rose 7.3% to €3.62bn, staying ahead of TV and radio, which fell 3% to €3.32bn. "Every royalty in these pages began with a human idea," wrote president Björn Ulvaeus in his foreword. "That simple truth should never be forgotten as the world launches the technologies of tomorrow." The report also looks at "cultural diversity in streaming": CISAC wants to make the discovery of local music measurable, and says radio-style local quotas "cannot simply be transferred" to streaming services.
6. Music organizations file an amicus brief backing authors and newspapers against OpenAI
A coalition of music bodies — the RIAA, NMPA, A2IM, SONA and ARA — has intervened in the OpenAI lawsuit brought by book authors and newspaper owners, filing an amicus brief (a submission by non-parties who want to influence the court). The case turns on "fair use" — the US doctrine that lets certain copying happen without permission. If training AI models on copyrighted work counts as fair use, AI firms could ingest existing songs, books and articles without licensing any of it. Every US music AI case, including the suits against Suno, Udio and Anthropic, hinges on the same question.
The stakes rose after Trump's Department of Justice told the judge that ruling against OpenAI would be "inconsistent with basic copyright law principles." The music groups argue the opposite: copyright exists to "encourage humans to produce creative works," and letting AI generate "digital imitations" undermines that incentive. They also argue that AI "has the unique capacity to output endless content that displaces the market for and diminishes the value of the copyrighted works on which it trained."
7. DDEX admits ElevenLabs as its first AI member
DDEX — the non-profit that sets the data standards the industry uses to exchange metadata, royalty and rights information — has announced ElevenLabs as its first AI member. The AI audio company joins a membership of more than 150 organizations that includes Apple, Spotify, Universal, Sony, Warner, ASCAP, BMI and PRS for Music. The move follows the first physical meeting of DDEX's AI Working Group in Nashville and the committee draft of a Generative AI Declaration Standard (GAI-D), which is now heading through peer review toward publication in early 2027.
DDEX says ElevenLabs' expertise will give it a deeper understanding of AI issues, while DDEX will give ElevenLabs insight into how the whole music value chain operates. "We're looking forward to taking part in their plenaries and working groups to help shape their approach to the communication of music, as it relates to AI and more," said Gabriella Heybourne of ElevenLabs. DDEX invites any organization with a business interest in AI to join.
8. Enhanced Group takes a 77% controlling stake in Germany's DEAG
Enhanced Group, a sports, entertainment and performance products company, has agreed to acquire roughly 77% of DEAG, the Berlin-headquartered live entertainment and ticketing platform operating across Europe with a growing US presence. The all-stock deal issues about 11 million new Enhanced Class A shares at $8 each — about 13% above Enhanced's previous closing price — valuing DEAG's equity at around $115m, with an implied enterprise value near $139m. Enhanced says the combined business should generate roughly $670m in revenue and $26m in adjusted EBITDA (operating profit before certain accounting items) in 2027. DEAG keeps its management, with incoming CEO Markus Breitenecker joining from ProSiebenSat.1.
DEAG has completed over 30 acquisitions since 2019, consolidating independent promoters in Europe's fragmented live market, and Enhanced intends to fund more of that buy-and-build push. Enhanced says the price — 5.3 times DEAG's expected 2027 EBITDA, against a median of 14.1 times for listed live companies such as CTS Eventim, Live Nation and TKO — is a 63% discount. It "believes demand for live, shared human experiences will only grow as AI and automation reshape work."
9. Live Nation and Ticketmaster fire back at the FTC's BOTS Act suit
Live Nation and Ticketmaster have filed an amended answer arguing the FTC is "belatedly, selectively, arbitrarily, and unequally enforcing the BOTS Act" — the 2016 US law aimed at scalpers who use bots to beat ticket-buying limits. The FTC and seven states allege the companies let brokers exceed ticket limits and then relist those tickets for resale, driving up prices for ordinary fans. The defendants counter that the BOTS Act was written to punish scalpers and bot operators, not ticketing platforms, and note that the FTC never brought a single enforcement action under the statute from its 2016 passage until this suit.
Their filing also points to the difficulty of tracing resale transactions back to specific primary purchases on Ticketmaster — a challenge to any restitution claim. The move follows a failed attempt to have the case dismissed and the FTC's demand for a jury trial. Investors do not seem worried: Live Nation's share price hit an all-time high of $189 in August, and Morgan Stanley, BTIG and UBS expect it to pass $200.
10. Soundtrack signs SESAC, completing US PRO coverage and pegging a $1.4bn licensing gap
B2B music streamer Soundtrack (formerly Soundtrack Your Brand) has signed a licensing deal with US performing rights organization SESAC, completing deals with all four major US PROs (the bodies that license public performance of songs) alongside ASCAP, BMI and GMR. Alongside the deal, Soundtrack released a commissioned study of 1,525 decision-makers across nearly 15,000 US business locations: 97% play music, 79% do so via consumer streaming services licensed only for personal use, and just 19% are fully compliant. The company estimates unlicensed business music costs the US industry $1.4 billion a year.
Soundtrack's point is that non-compliance stems from confusion, not bad intent — 58% of respondents believed streaming from personal accounts was legal. CEO Ola Sars positions the firm as a "one-stop-shop," claiming to be the first consumer-style business-music service offering a fully licensed US solution. Soundtrack says closing that gap would be worth more than a 10% increase on the $11.5bn the US recorded music industry earned in wholesale revenue in 2025.
11. Goldman says superfans are the next frontier — and selling to them is the strategy
Goldman Sachs' latest Music in the Air report raised its long-term forecast for the music industry for the first time since 2022, and the superfan is one reason. Goldman now says its old rule — that a superfan spends about twice the average listener — is too conservative, and notes that nearly half of fans on pay-what-you-want stores pay above the minimum. The report maps the monetization tools: storefronts, memberships, messaging and presales. It also confirms that selling directly to fans before a track hits streaming does not cannibalize later streams.
In a Hypebot guest column, Julius Farahwaran, founder of the direct-to-fan platform Musikeers, adds practical advice: low entry prices with an open ceiling, release windows run as multi-week "seasons" rather than one-day drops, and rewards for loyalty, not just spending. "The report says where the money will be," he writes. "Who keeps it will be decided in month four."
12. Nebula17 names a COO and signs an Orchard deal to push J-pop into the US
Nebula17, the LA-based company founded by former Avex USA chief Naoki Osada, has expanded its team and roster and struck a global distribution partnership with Sony Music's The Orchard, giving its Japanese artists and partners greater access to US and international streaming. Key hires include COO Daniel Hong, who previously ran YG USA and served as COO at JYP USA — direct experience breaking K-pop acts in America. The company added publishing and label signings and is leading A&R for the US launch of Japanese boy band BE:FIRST, whose global EP WATCH ME debuted at No. 130 on the Billboard 200.
Osada argues J-pop is ready for its moment, crediting the US breakthroughs of K-pop and Afrobeats for opening ears to global sounds, plus "significant" Japanese government investment in exporting the country's IP. His goal is to "localize" Japanese music for US fans while keeping its authenticity, with the company's West Hollywood studio house used as a meeting point for Japanese and US creators.
