The music distribution platform Bandcamp announced in a Reddit post on Tuesday that it’s banning AI-generated music and audio.

“We want musicians to keep making music, and for fans to have confidence that the music they find on Bandcamp was created by humans,” the company said.

Bandcamp’s new guidelines state that music and audio generated “wholly or in substantial part by AI” is not permitted and that it will not allow the use of AI tools to impersonate other artists or styles.

So, if Drake had released “Taylor Made Freestyle” on Bandcamp, he would’ve had a problem (and maybe it would’ve been for his own good).

Mark Cuban‘s putting some money on pop-punk, as the billionaire businessman has made an investment in Burwoodland, the live events producer behind Emo Night Brooklyn, Gimme Gimme Disco and Broadway Rave. Burwoodland declined to give financial details on how much Cuban has invested, only calling the development “an important milestone” as the company continues to expand from its New York headquarters into more parts of the U.S., Canada and Europe.

“It’s time we all got off our asses, left the house and had fun,” Cuban said in a statement. “Alex and Ethan know how to create amazing memories and experiences that people plan their weeks around. In an AI world, what you do is far more important than what you prompt.”

Songwriter groups have hailed a ruling in the US Fifth Circuit Appeals Court that significantly expands the reach of the termination right under American copyright law to the advantage of music creators. 

The landmark ruling, according to Music Creators North America, is both an “enormous victory for the American and global creator community” and “judicial recognition” that the US Copyright Act is meant to “protect the rights of creators first and foremost”.  

Although the ruling relates to a dispute between one songwriter and one small independent music publisher over the rights in a single song, the judgement could impact on all American music publishers that control rights in songs that stem from decades old publishing deals. 

Spotify says it isn’t pushing AI-generated music onto listeners, but many users aren’t convinced. 

The streaming giant is facing renewed criticism after subscribers reported AI-made tracks surfacing in personalised playlists like Discover Weekly and Release Radar, often without any clear indication that the music wasn’t created by a human artist.

Sarah Trahern, the CEO of the Country Music Association, will retire at the end of 2026, she announced Wednesday. She will continue to lead the CMA through the end of the year while the search for a successor gets underway.

Trahern has led the organization since 2014. The CMA is responsible for two of the signature events in country music, the CMA Awards telecast in November and CMA Fest in June.

Luminate, the data partner for Variety and much of the entertainment industry, has unveiled its 2025 Year-End Music Report today, fueled by the company’s 30 trillion data points from hundreds of verified sources.

Apple is launching a new Creator Studio subscription bundle that offers access to six creative apps as well as premium content in iWork apps, the company announced on Tuesday.

The bundle costs $12.99 per month or $129 per year and includes access to Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Pixelmator Pro on Mac and iPad, as well as Motion, Compressor, and MainStage on Mac. It also includes premium content for Keynote, Pages, and Numbers. Later, the bundle will include Freeform for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. College students and educators can subscribe for $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year.

Apple Creator Studio will be available beginning January 28. All new subscribers will get a one-month free trial.

Sony Music Publishing Nashville has acquired independent publishing and artist development company Big Yellow Dog Music (BYD), effective immediately. With the agreement, the company now owns and administers Big Yellow Dog’s catalog of songs and serves as full-service publisher for its roster of songwriters.

Founded in 1998 by Kerry O’Neil and Carla Wallace and based in Nashville, Big Yellow Dog Music’s catalog includes Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass,” “Dear Future Husband,” “No” and “Like I’m Gonna Lose You,” Maren Morris’ “The Bones,” “My Church,” “80’s Mercedes” and “I Could Use A Love Song,” songs from the Kacey Musgraves, Chris Stapleton, Sabrina Carpenter, Hozier, Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, Leon Bridges, MUNA, The Black Keys, Aminé, Leon Thomas and more. The company has earned 41 No. 1 songs, Grammy awards and nominations, and honors across BMI, ASCAP, SESAC and ACM awards.

Making Vinyl, the world’s largest B2B conference dedicated to the vinyl record industry, will bring its U.S. edition to the Washington, DC area for the first time, taking place May 27–29, 2026, at the Westin Old Town Alexandria.

The event will convene global leaders from across the vinyl supply chain — including pressing plants, record labels, packaging specialists, equipment manufacturers, distributors, and retailers — for three days of forward-looking discussions, workshops, and curated networking.

• Apple to use Google’s Gemini for Siri, future AI features.

• Tie-up likely to raise questions on Apple's partnership with OpenAI

• Google’s valuation hits $4 trillion on AI momentum and optimism

Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab will use Google's Gemini models for its revamped Siri coming later this year under a ‌multi-year deal that deepens the tech giants' alliance in the artificial intelligence era and bolsters Alphabet's position in the race against OpenAI.

The deal announced Monday marks a major vote of confidence for Google. Its technology already drives much of Samsung's "Galaxy AI," but the Siri deal unlocks a large market with Apple's installed base of more than two billion active devices.

The biggest threat to Spotify’s SPOT -1.74% ▼ dominance is no longer just piracy, but a growing sense of boredom among its 281 million subscribers. Many users have begun to experience algorithm fatigue, where the platform’s automated recommendations feel stale or repetitive. To break this cycle, the new co-CEOs, Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström, are leaning into artificial intelligence not just to predict what you want, but to let you direct it. They are testing features like Prompted Playlists, where listeners can type in specific, conversational requests to gain more active control over their discovery experience.

New year, same Mechanical Licensing Collective v. Spotify legal battle, which has hit the ground running in 2026 with an intensifying showdown over the MLC’s appeal efforts. Coming up on the second anniversary of its kickoff, that increasingly convoluted courtroom confrontation was technically tossed with prejudice in early 2025. As we reported then, the court sided with Spotify by determining that the DSP’s (audiobook and music) Premium bundling reclassifications were lawful.

By now, most are aware of the seemingly minor maneuver’s huge mechanical royalties fallout. Subsequent direct deals or not, and with the specter of Phono V negotiations looming large, the streaming platform is still taking heat for its bundling obsession.

Bruno Mars has added 30-plus new dates to his 2026 “Romantic Tour,” announced earlier this week, which marks his first full headline tour in nearly a decade. Produced by Live Nation, the 2026 tour will be his first full headlining stadium tour, spanning nearly 70 shows to date across North America, Europe and the U.K.

Second shows have been added in Las Vegas, Arlington, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, Miami, Santa Clara, Madrid, Milan and more, with Paris and Vancouver each hosting three nights each. In Toronto, Amsterdam, East Rutherford and Los Angeles, the tour has expanded to four stadium shows per city, while London will see an extraordinary six-night run at Wembley Stadium in July.

Live Music Society (LMS), a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting small venues and listening rooms, has announced its programming lineup for early 2026.

The schedule kicks off at the 30A Songwriters Festival, taking place from January 16–19, 2026, across 30 music venues along Florida’s Gulf Coast. Live Music Society will host dedicated stages at the Havana Beach Bar & Grill at The Pearl Hotel in Santa Rosa Beach, featuring performances by Rhett Miller, Susan Werner, James McMurtry, Kim Richey, and more.

LMS will then make its return to Folk Alliance International in New Orleans. From January 23–24, the organization will host a showcase stage at Napoleon B featuring an eclectic roster: Hip Horns Brass Collective, Luke Winslow King, Marcus Trummer, Liz Barnes, Casii Stephan, Chuck Prophet, Las Guaracheras, Dustin Gaspard, Morganway, Ramy Essam, Angélique Francis, and The Rebel Eves.

Spotify’s stock is still on the decline in 2026 despite broader market upticks. Now, a flurry of price target downgrades are buffeting SPOT after a Goldman Sachs downgrade last year.
It’s no secret that Spotify’s stock (SPOT) has been trending downward since last year. While multiple contributing factors are at play—including the departure of co-founder Daniel Ek from the CEO helm—analysts have predominantly remained bullish.

Andreea Gleeson, CEO of the digital music distributor TuneCore, will be stepping down from her post, she announced Wednesday in an internal memo obtained by Variety.

The company’s leadership will be overseen by Romain Vivien, the France-based parent company Believe’s global head of music, with senior executives including chief revenue officer Brian Miller and chief technology and product officer Luxi Huang. A rep for the company tells Variety that Gleeson’s role will not be filled, although she will continue indefinitely as a strategic advisor for Believe.

The music behind “Song Sung Blue,” “A Minecraft Movie” and “Sinners” lead the nominations for the 16th annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards.

The ceremony honors outstanding achievement in the craft of music supervision in film, television, documentaries, advertising, trailers and video games. 

“Sinners” leads this year’s contenders, earning three nominations recognizing Niki Sherrod’s music supervision and the film’s two original songs. Additional film contenders include “Wicked: For Good,” “F1” and “Marty Supreme.” Top TV contenders include “The Studio,” “Dark Winds” and “Poker Face.”

After a three-year run, SXSW Sydney, the Australian offshoot of the music, film, tech and media conference, will not be returning in 2026.

In a message posted on its website, SXSW Sydney confirmed that the event has been canceled, in a further blow to the arts and culture scene in Australia that is reeling from the calamitous cancellation of Adelaide Writers Week on Tuesday.

Merlin has confirmed the makeup of its Board for the 2026–2027 term, bringing together representatives from independent labels, distributors, and rightsholders across 12 countries spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, and Oceania.

The Board is elected by Merlin’s global membership, which comprises tens of thousands of independent music companies worldwide. The organisation says its membership collectively represents around 15% of the global recorded music market.

Readers will recall that we have been following attorney Tim Kappel‘s excellent work at trial and on appeal on behalf of his client Cyril Vetter in the case of Vetter v. Resnick. That case in a nutshell challenged the long-standing—but erroneous—practice in the entertainment industry of limiting statutory terminations to US rights only instead of worldwide rights (or more precisely the territory in the original grant being terminated which often is world-wide rights).

The case was brought in federal court for the Middle District of Louisiana before Chief Judge Shelly Dick who held for Cyril in an intricate and well reasoned opinion, clearly drafted and clearly drafted with the knowledge that the case would likely go all the way up. And sure enough, the defendant’s appealed to the 5th Circuit which has jurisdiction over Louisiana.

Our guidelines for generative AI in music and audio are as follows:

Music and audio that is generated wholly or in substantial part by AI is not permitted on Bandcamp. 
Any use of AI tools to impersonate other artists or styles is strictly prohibited in accordance with our existing policies prohibiting impersonation and intellectual property infringement.
If you encounter music or audio that appears to be made entirely or with heavy reliance on generative AI, please use our reporting tools to flag the content for review by our team. We reserve the right to remove any music on suspicion of being AI-generated.

TikTok is preparing to carve off parts of its US business, but not all US workers are joining the new entity. Some US staff were told this week that they will not work for the new joint venture, called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, led by managing investors Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. Instead, they will work for a separate TikTok global entity that will remain under ByteDance's ownership, called TT Commerce & Global Services LLC.

The change, outlined in a memo sent to impacted employees, includes workers who focus on US products that will remain tied to TikTok's global operations after the deal closes. In December, TikTok's CEO Shou Chew told staff those business lines would include "certain commercial activities, including e-commerce, advertising, and marketing."

Spotify’s new co-CEOs, Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström, start off the new year with a message of renewed leadership, creative responsibility, and what’s ahead for the brand.  

2025 was a massive year for this company. Now that it’s January, we go again. And we, of course, have new job titles. For us, this is less a fresh start and more a continuation of the Spotify journey we’ve been on for the last 15+ years. As January is a natural time for reflection, we thought it would be helpful to share some thoughts with you all.