Welcome to Music Enterprise Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we make certain you caught the 5 greatest tales to hit our headlines over the previous seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their revenue and cut back their touring prices.
Elsewhere this week, HYBE dominated the information cycle. On Tuesday (Might 27), we discovered that it’s promoting its whole 9.38% stake in rival Ok-Pop agency SM Leisure to Tencent Music for almost $180 million. The subsequent day, HYBE America bought Massive Machine Rock.
On Thursday, information broke that HYBE’s HQ had been raided as a part of a probe into alleged insider buying and selling. In a separate story, South Korea’s monetary regulator was reported to be ramping up an investigation into HYBE’s Chairman. In the meantime, HYBE additionally confirmed its growth into China.
In different world growth information, Dwell Nation boosted its presence in Latin America through the acquisition of Dominican Republic-based promoter SD Live shows. In the meantime, Downtown Music Publishing rebranded Johannesburg-based Sheer Publishing Africa as Downtown Music Publishing Africa.
And eventually, Spotify has hit 100 million paying subscribers in Europe…
Taylor Swift has efficiently acquired the grasp recordings of her first six studio albums from funding agency Shamrock Capital.
The deal brings to a detailed one of many music business’s most high-profile possession disputes. Swift confirmed the information on Friday (Might 30) in a handwritten letter to her followers.
The transaction entails the grasp rights to Swift’s albums Taylor Swift, Fearless, Converse Now, Pink, 1989, and Popularity – recordings which have been on the middle of a six-year battle over artist possession rights. (MBW)
HYBE has formally launched a subsidiary in China, the world’s fifth-largest recorded music market.
A HYBE spokesperson has confirmed that the South Korea-born leisure big arrange an workplace in Beijing final month.
HYBE is behind famous person acts together with BTS, ENHYPEN, Seventeen, and others.
The launch of an workplace in Beijing marks HYBE’s fourth world market presence outdoors of South Korea, having expanded into Japan, adopted by the United States and, most just lately, LatinAmerica over the previous few years.
Dwell Nation is increasing its presence in Latin America through the acquisition of SD Live shows, a stay leisure firm within the Dominican Republic.
Based in 2001, SD Live shows is behind lots of the area’s most outstanding stay occasions, selling Latin and worldwide expertise throughout the Dominican Republic, in addition to supporting exhibits in Aruba, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, and Puerto Rico.
Dwell Nation mentioned on Might 29 that the live performance business is seeing continued momentum throughout Latin America, with the corporate seeing fan attendance within the area up over 25% within the first quarter of 2025.
The corporate added that “rising demand for stay experiences is supported by the worldwide rise of non-English language artists”, who, in line with Dwell Nation, now characterize twice as lots of its high 50 excursions in comparison with 2019.
Downtown Music Publishing has unveiled a division primarily based in and devoted to Africa.
The Johannesburg-headquartered unit, Downtown Music Publishing Africa, has launched following the rebrand of Sheer Publishing Africa.
Sheer was acquired by Downtown Music Holdings in 2020, formally increasing the corporate’s geographic footprint to the African continent.
DMP mentioned that the rebrand alerts “greater than a visible refresh” and marks “a deeper alignment with the worldwide imaginative and prescient” of Downtown Music Publishing.
That’s in line with a LinkedIn submit from co-founder and CEO DanielEk, who mentioned he shared information of the milestone at an occasion in Stockholm this week.
Spotify reported on April 29 that it grew its world Premium Subscriber base to 268 million paying customers in Q1 (the three months ended March 31).
That was up 12% YoY, and up by 5 million web subscribers on the 263 million that SPOT counted on the finish of the prior quarter (This autumn 2024).