Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring costs.
This week, the European Commission set a provisional deadline of July 22 to make its initial decision in the Phase 1 investigation of Universal Music Group‘s proposed acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings.
Elsewhere, HarbourView Equity Partners is leading an $85 million investment in Animaj, a kids and family content-focused entertainment company which uses “proprietary GenAI tools”.
Also this week, a copyright lawsuit between a group of music publishers and Elon Musk’sX has been paused for 90 days while they try to settle out of court.
Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court has rejected an attempt at a rehearing in a copyright infringement case over Ed Sheeran’s hit Thinking Out Loud.
Finally, US President Donald Trump extended ByteDance‘s deadline to sell TikTok’s US operations by another 90 days, pushing the latest deadline to mid-September.
Here’s what happened this week…
1) EUROPEAN COMPETITION REGULATORS TO MAKE INITIAL RULING ON UNIVERSAL’S $775M DOWNTOWN BUYOUT BY JULY 22
Europe’s competition watchdog – the European Commission – revealed in April that it was preparing to investigate Universal Music Group‘s proposed acquisition of Downtown MusicHoldings.
UMG was required to formally notify the EU about the deal, which would kickstart a Phase 1 investigation, at the end of which we’ll find out if the deal has been approved or raises serious competition concerns. We won’t have long to wait…
2) HARBOURVIEW LEADS $85M INVESTMENT IN AI-POWERED KIDS ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY ANIMAJ
HarbourView Equity Partners is leading an $85 million investment in Animaj, a kids and family content-focused entertainment company.
Animaj uses proprietary GenAI production tools and what it calls a “multi-platform franchise-building model”.
The Paris-headquartered company says that it “acquires and scales high-potential IPs by using data-driven insights, automating animation pipelines through AI,” and then distributing that content to platforms like YouTube, Roblox, TikTok, and Spotify.
3) MUSIC PUBLISHERS AND ELON MUSK’S X GRANTED 90 DAY PAUSE TO COPYRIGHT LAWSUIT FOR ‘GOOD FAITH NEGOTIATIONS’ TO TRY TO SETTLE OUT OF COURT
The many music publishers who sued Elon Musk’s X over alleged copyright infringement are aiming to settle the matter out of court.
That’s according to an order for a stay of proceedings filed by the court on Wednesday (June 11), and obtained by MBW.
According to the order, the judge has temporarily frozen all legal proceedings in this case for 90 days after both parties jointly requested the pause to try to settle the dispute outside of court
4) US SUPREME COURT REJECTS APPEAL IN ED SHEERAN COPYRIGHT CASE OVER ‘THINKING OUT LOUD’
The US Supreme Court has rejected an attempt at a rehearing in a copyright infringement case over Ed Sheeran’s hit Thinking Out Loud.
On Monday (June 16), the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Structured Asset Sales (SAS) – which lost a case in a lower court, where it claimed that Thinking Out Loud violated the copyright on Marvin Gaye’s 1973 song Let’s Get It On…. (MBW)
5) TRUMP GRANTS THIRD TIKTOK EXTENSION AS US SALE TALKS STALL
US President Donald Trump will extend ByteDance‘s deadline to sell TikTok’s US operations by another 90 days, pushing the latest deadline to mid-September.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to multiple news outlets on Tuesday (June 17): “President Trump will sign an additional Executive Order this week to keep TikTok up and running.”
MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.Music Business Worldwide
