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.
It seems a lot of businesses out there don’t feel they need to license the music they use in social media ads, a reality that was highlighted this week by two instances of litigation.
First, Universal Music Group sued the owner of the Chili’s restaurant chain, alleging dozens of violations of publishing and recorded music copyrights in Chili’s social media ads.
The same week, Sony Music apparently settled with Marriott International over similar allegations against the hotel chain.
Meanwhile, Oliver Chastan‘s acquisition vehicle Iconoclast acquired the rights to the music of 70s heartthrob David Cassidy, in a deal that MBW understands was valued in the $10 million range.
In an opinion article, Spotify‘s Chief Human Resources Officer and GM of Sweden, Katarina Berg, criticized Sweden’s “outdated bureaucracy” and said an administrative court’s decision to bar engineers from working night shifts means the company has shifted parts of 250 jobs out of the country.
Finally, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino told an audience at Bloomberg’s Screentime event this week that Ticketmaster was hit with “billions” of bots during the on-sale of tickets for next summer’s Oasis shows.
In the latest in a growing number of lawsuits over unauthorized use of music in social marketing, Universal Music Group (UMG) has sued the owner of US Tex-Mex restaurant chain Chili’s for allegedly infringing its copyrights in numerous social media posts.
In a complaint filed in a federal court in Dallas on Tuesday (October 8), record companies and music publishers owned by UMG said Chili’s owner Brinker International “failed to pay… for the music that serves as the soundtrack for Chili’s social media ads” posted on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
The complaint claimed publishing and recorded music copyright violations on songs by ABBA, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Shania Twain, and the Spice Girls. It also cited alleged recording copyright violations on tracks by The Weeknd and Lana Del Rey, as well as a publishing copyright violation on Free’s All Right Now, among others…
Five months after launching a copyright infringement suit against hotel giant Marriott, Sony Music Entertainment appears to have settled the case.
In a joint filing with a federal court in Maryland on Tuesday (October 8), Sony and Marriott asked that the case be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning it can’t be refiled.
Court documents didn’t indicate whether the two companies had come to an out-of-court settlement.
Sony, along with affiliated labels Sony Music Latin, Arista Music, Arista Records, Ultra, LaFace, and Records Label LLC – plus Rimas Entertainment, the home of Bad Bunny – filed the lawsuit last May, alleging “rampant” copyright infringement by Marriott International in its social media posts…
Spotify says it’s moving ‘parts’ of 250 Sweden-based roles abroad, following a court ruling denying SPOT’s request to allow its engineers based in the company’s home market to work night shifts.
In response to the ruling by The Administrative Court of Appeal, Spotify’s Chief Human Resources Officer and GM of Sweden, Katarina Berg, penned an article for Sweden’s Dagens Industri on Friday (October 4), claiming that “outdated bureaucracy” in Sweden threatens the market’s position “as one of Europe’s and even the world’s leading tech hubs”.
Berg added that the court’s decision means that Spotify has “moved parts of 250 positions to other countries,” and that “future recruitment of engineers will unfortunately mainly take place outside of Sweden”.
Added Berg: “This not only means a loss of income for the individuals concerned, but also for Sweden’s tax revenue…”
Olivier Chastan’s acquisition vehicle Iconoclast has struck a deal for the rights of American actor and musician David Cassidy.
The company noted on Tuesday (October 8) that Cassidy’s portrayal in the 1970s of Keith Partridge in The Partridge Family “turned him into a teen idol of unprecedented proportions”.
Iconoclast says it has acquired Cassidy’s publishing catalog, sound recordings, and name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. Sources tell MBW that the value of the deal was north of $10 million.
Iconoclast notes that Cassidy’s hit singles like I Think I Love You “topped charts worldwide”, and that he “became the face of a generation, selling millions of records and sparking a level of fanatical fandom that earned him a place in pop culture history, blazing a trail for multimedia stardom…”
The recent sale of tickets to Oasis’ 2025 reunion tour was “the biggest on-sale in history” with “the most demand in history,” Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino said.
During an appearance at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday (October 9), Rapino also revealed that Ticketmaster – Live Nation’s ticketing division – was hit by “multi billions” of bots during the sale.
He also said that scalpers were selling $6,000 tickets to Oasis shows – even before ticket sales officially opened.
“They’re a professional, $12 billion business trying to capture seats. So it’s an arms race with us trying to stop them, not let them in the door, not let them hold the tickets,” Rapino said…
