Why The Weeknd’s Catalog Is a Safe Billion-Dollar Bet
After a year chock-full of massive and record-breaking music rights deals, The Weeknd is closing out 2025 as the first living solo artist to strike a $1 billion deal by leveraging his catalog. Whereas a typical catalog deal involves artists selling some or all of their music rights, The Weeknd — real name Abel Tesfaye — […]
Udio 2.0 Could Face Consumers Reluctant to Embrace AI Music
In October, Universal Music Group and AI music company Udio announced a watershed partnership with the goal of enabling consumers worldwide to enjoy AI-generated music via a new subscription platform expected to launch next year. Just a few weeks later, Warner Music Group entered a similar partnership with Udio, although it’s currently unclear if their licensed AI platform will […]
How Data Can Unlock Music Catalog Valuations
How can a $120 million price tag be assigned to the catalog of a band that isn’t exactly a household name outside of its rabid fan base in the nu metal music scene?
One Year After ‘Brat’ Summer, Charli XCX Is Never Out of Season
A defining moment in 2024 was “Brat summer,” the slime-green-coded cultural force inspired by the club-pop sounds and party girl vibes of Charli XCX’s monumental sixth album. Charli was just one of the pop stars to blow up and reach new levels of fame last year, but in the year since Brat’s success, the singer’s wider discography […]
Emmys Ratings a Modest Win Amid a Middling Awards Season
The 77th Emmy Awards just had its most-viewed broadcast in years, definitively reversing course after taking a viewership nosedive during the pandemic.
What Will Drive Music Discovery If TikTok Is Banned?
The question of whether TikTok parent company ByteDance will actually sell its golden goose or let the app go dark in its biggest market has weighed particularly heavily on music creators and fans.
Legislative Help Does Only So Much for Working Musicians
In the face of a revenue slowdown across both recorded and live music, the industry’s main players want to build new income streams and add more value to their creations.
New Luminate Music Forecast Spots Budding Fan Trends
Industry leaders are looking for ways to diversify income streams and restore some of the value music has lost in the digital age.
‘Sinners’ and the Impact of a Movie Soundtrack
One of the biggest movie releases of 2025 so far has been Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s vampire-slashing, Southern Gothic horror-thriller. Given the key role music plays in the film, it’s no surprise that the Sinners Original Motion Picture Soundtrack has enjoyed big streaming numbers — and a few TikTok-viral songs, to boot. But the most unique aspect of Ludwig Göransson’s soundtrack is its […]
Original Recordings or ‘Taylor’s Versions’ … Which Albums Are Swifties Streaming?
Six years after Taylor Swift lost the master rights to her albums with Big Machine Records, the pop megastar finally and fully owns her early catalog as of this May.