On Thursday, the board of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., announced that the historic performing arts venue will be renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center, the White House said.

The vote was announced by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on social media

Universal Music Group and music creation platform Splice have established a partnership to create AI music tools together, the companies announced on Thursday, the latest in a flurry of AI developments to hit the business in the past several months.

The partnership brings together the world’s largest music company and one of the industry’s biggest music software platforms, though UMG and Splice were vague on the sorts of tools they’d actually be creating beyond saying they’d be “advanced commercial AI tools that can deliver high fidelity and precise expression of artistic intent.”

YouTube will stop submitting its data to the U.S. Billboard charts next month due to a dispute over how streams are counted, according to an announcement Wednesday from the streamer’s global head of music Lyor Cohen.

At the center of the issue is the methodology by which Billboard counts paid/subscription versus ad-supported (i.e. free) streams: While Billboard updated its chart rules on Monday to upgrade ad-supported streams — increasing from 1:3 to 1:2.5, i.e. 2.5 ad-supported streams now equal one paid/subscription stream — YouTube has long argued that they should be weighted equally.

Spotify has been taking heat in recent months for its decision to accept and run recruitment ads for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

Now, in an unwelcome end-of-year twist for the company, it’s being threatened by the US administration with new “fees or restrictions” on its business. Not because of anything Spotify has done, but because of intensifying tensions between the US and the European Union.

This being 2025 (and this being this US administration) the threat was made in a post on X by the official United States Trade Representative account.

Every year, music-industry economist Will Page publishes his ‘Global Value of Music Copyright’ report. It aggregates revenues for recorded music, publishers and collecting societies – while avoiding double-counting for the latter two.

The aim is to get to a Big Number that reflects recordings and publishing. And that Big Number for 2024 (note, not 2025) is $47.2bn.

“That’s up just $2.3bn (5.2%) on the prior year; growth is slowing largely because this is the first year where the pandemic effects have vanished,” wrote Page in his report. “After years of recovery, we’re now settling back into a steadier state.”

Massive Attack, Brian Eno and Caribou (Dan Snaith) are just some of the artists that have called on Live Nation Entertainment to drop operations in Israel.

The artists, musicians and music workers have signed an open letter as part of the Musicians for Palestine campaign, calling on the multinational company to drop Live Nation Israel and adopt “policies to ensure its programme and partnerships are not complicit in oppression anywhere”.

“As musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, and workers, we refuse to be silent as apartheid Israel continues its genocidal oppression against the Indigenous Palestinian people,” the letter reads.

As the calendar flips, Billboard writers look ahead to 14 questions the music business will confront in 2026, from Live Nation to AI to UMG and more.

The government is fighting Live Nation and Ticketmaster's attempt to prematurely end the blockbuster antitrust case

Billboard cuts include editors at large Robert Levine and Steve Knopper, senior director of live music and touring Dave Brooks and lead analyst Glenn Peoples, an individual with knowledge told TheWrap. Executive editor Frank DiGiacomo was also laid off, prompting him to change his Instagram bio to read “(An, not the) Executive Editor at Billboard.”

At other PMC outlets, Rolling Stone writers Andre Gee and Brittany Spanos and Variety senior entertainment writer Adam B. Vary and associate news editor J. Kim Murphy were all pink-slipped, confirming their exits with social media posts.

Less than three years after setting sail, audio startup Mirelo, which says it lets “anyone generate perfectly synchronized sound effects for videos,” has scored a $41 million raise.
Berlin-based Mirelo reached out with word of its Andreessen Horowitz- and Index Ventures-led seed round. Atlantic.vc (a Mimi Hearing Technologies and SoundCloud stakeholder) and Menlo Park-headquartered TriplePoint Capital also contributed to the sizable tranche.

Likewise supporting Mirelo: A number of angel investors, including but not limited to Google vet Yariv Adan, Fleet founder Alexandre Berriche, Meta AI scientist Léon Bottou, and OpenAI startups exec for EMEA Laura Modiano.

Howard Stern has signed a new contract with SiriusXM, putting an end to months of speculation over whether or not the legendary talk radio host would retire. It’s been a busy few months for Howard Stern fans, as speculation abounded over whether the legendary radio host would be retiring once his contract with SiriusXM came to an end. Now, Stern has announced a new three-year deal with the satellite radio giant, confirmed on his show on Tuesday morning.

 Perry Farrell and his Jane’s Addiction bandmates appear to have formally buried the hatchet, ending a year of legal warfare and public vitriol that began with an infamous on-stage brawl in Boston.

While the group has reconciled personally, the “truce” confirms the permanent end of the band as members pivot to solo projects.

The resolution was shared in a pair of announcements on the band’s social media channels.

The Music Hall Of Williamsburg concert venue in New York City will close at the end of 2026. The Brooklyn-based venue’s promoters, The Bowery Presents, confirmed it will keep hosting shows throughout next year.

The Bowery Presents co-partners Jim Glancy and John Moore made the announcement in a memo obtained by Variety and BrooklynVegan.

An analysis of the industry and trends behind the GRAMMY nominees – Best New Artists are slightly newer. UMG dominate (again). Gender balance slips.

Following yesterday’s announcement that Apple Music would soon be available on ChatGPT, the app is now live. Here’s what you can do with it.

The National Independent Talent Organization (NITO), representing over 60 leading independent management and talent agencies, has issued a formal letter to the U.S. Senate urging the immediate passage of the American Music Fairness Act (AMFA).

The bipartisan legislation seeks to close a decades-old loophole that allows terrestrial AM/FM radio broadcasters to avoid paying performers. Currently, the U.S. is the only democratic nation where artists are not compensated for broadcast airplay, placing American creators in the same category as North Korea and Iran.

While streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music pay royalties to both songwriters and performers, broadcast radio only pays songwriters. This disparity costs American artists an estimated $500 million annually in lost foreign royalties, as many countries withhold payments to U.S. artists because the U.S. does not reciprocate.

Is ASCAP systematically underpaying radio performance royalties for non-feature music? A number of production music owners and publishers believe so, and they’ve slapped the PRO with a $123 million lawsuit as a result.
Alibi Music, Capp Records, Manhattan Production Music, and eight others, repped by entertainment attorney Richard Busch, submitted that multimillion-dollar complaint to the New York Supreme Court yesterday. A copy of the suit was shared with DMN.

Naming the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) as the lone defendant, the action covers multiple bases in its 16 detail-oriented pages. But at the top level, the plaintiffs maintain that “ASCAP is unreasonably and unfairly diverting over $15 million” in radio royalties from non-feature music owners annually.

Having confirmed its lineup of Bandcamp Friday promotions for 2026 earlier this month, now Bandcamp has revealed how much money the initiative drummed up for artists and labels in 2025.

“Across this year’s Bandcamp Fridays, fans contributed $19 million directly to artists and labels, surpassing 2024’s total and underscoring the continued strength of fan-driven support on the platform,” announced the company.

In a new experiment, Meta is limiting the number of links users can post on Facebook, unless they have a paid Meta Verified subscription.

Over the last week, several users have spotted Meta’s test, which impacts link posting. Social media strategist Matt Navarra noted that users part of the test can only post two links unless they pay for a Meta Verified subscription, which starts from $14.99 per month.

According to the screenshot posted by Navarra, users can still post affiliate links, comments, and links to Meta platform posts, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Record collecting connects us. When a record changes hands, its story moves with it.

That connection starts in local shops, swap meets, and scenes, and grows into something global. Discogs’ Year-In-Review is powered by Discogs Collection data and shaped by you. The global story shows what united collectors this year: the records, artists, labels, reissues, and 7-inches that defined collections around the world. The regional story shows how each community made the year its own. In the U.S., Taylor Swift led the way. In the Nordic countries, metal and hard rock outpaced pop. Across Latin America, classic Cumbia and MPB experienced a surge. In Oceania, new Larrikin hip-hop stole the stage.

A federal judge in Los Angeles has certified a nationwide class action accusing Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster unit of using monopoly power to inflate ticket prices and fees — a major step for a consumer case that targets more than a decade of ticket purchases.

In a December 12 order, U.S. District Judge George H. Wu ruled that the plaintiffs met the requirements to move forward as a class under federal rules. Reuters reported the lawsuit seeks damages spanning roughly 15 years and is tied to purchases of more than 400 million tickets.

The class covers U.S. consumers who bought primary tickets and paid associated fees for events at major concert venues through Ticketmaster or an affiliated Live Nation entity dating back to 2010. Live Nation and Ticketmaster have denied wrongdoing.

Concerts discovery service Bandsintown has released its 2025 ‘High Notes’ report, based on data from 8bn events, 100 million fans and 700,000 artists on its platform.

Findings included a 65% surge in trap music, making it this year’s fastest-rising genre — accompanied by a notable 37% rise for shoegaze. Rock charted as number one for fan engagement according to the data.

Bandsintown’s top five rising artists were Sombr, Lola Young, Jennie, Doechii and Ella Langley. Established artists with the most new followers included Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar.

The Rolling Stones have called off plans for a 2026 stadium tour of the United Kingdom and Europe, a source close to the band confirms to Variety, following reports that guitarist Keith Richards was unable to “commit” to it.


While never officially announced, the group’s touring pianist Chuck Leavell and a spokesperson recently told press in the U.K. that the band has nearly completed a new album — their second with 35-year-old producer Andrew Watt — and planned on touring the U.K. and Europe. However, Richards, who turns 82 on Thursday, is said to be unable to commit to the rigors of another tour. Live dates in recent years have shown that he has faced challenges due to a long battle with arthritis, which he has called “benign” and said has forced him to change his style of playing.