Warner Music Music (WMG) announced on Wednesday that it’s acquiring AI attribution startup Sureel AI. Sureel’s patented technology creates “AI DNA” for songs and breaks them down into component parts to trace how AI models use those elements. Through the acquisition, WMG aims to better track when its artists’ and songwriters’ work is used in AI-generated content or for training AI models.
Source: Warner Music acquires AI attribution startup Sureel AI
Prediction market apps like Kalshi and Polymarket have quickly become huge businesses – and to the layperson, they look and feel like gambling apps. Now, you can stake your prediction money on anything– including events in the music industry. In 2026, there’s a huge and growing market that has turned the data of the music industry into a febrile space of predictions. It’s a space where money goes in, and then more money might come back out if you are lucky.
Source: Music prediction is a $400m market in 2026 so far – on one platform
Universal Music Group and its subsidiary Virgin Music Group have agreed to sell Curve Royalty Systems to Jamen Capital and Merlin. The sale is the divestment that the European Commission required as a condition of clearing Universal Music Group‘s $775 million acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings in February. It paves the way for Curve, the royalty processing platform used by thousands of record labels, distributors and publishers, to operate as an independent business again.
Source: Universal sells Curve Royalty Systems to Merlin and Matt Spetzler’s Jamen Capital
Midnight Labs, an AI company focused on intellectual property protection in the entertainment industry, has secured an investment from Sony’s Innovation Fund to help bolster its efforts to combat piracy and deepfakes plaguing entertainment companies and content creators in the U.S. and Japan. The company — which is based in Dublin, Tokyo and San Francisco — says its automated enforcement tools have removed more than 2.8 billion pieces of infringement content, including those that’ve been generated by AI.
Source: Sony Invests in AI Copyright-Protection Firm Midnight Labs
SAG-AFTRA members have ratified a four-year contract with the major studios, which includes new provisions on synthetic actors and a merger of the union’s two pension funds. The contract allows producers to use AI performers only if they bring “significant additional value” compared to a live actor or that actor’s digital avatar. The union has argued that the language — coupled with an arbitration provision — will limit the use of AI replicas to a handful of edge cases.
Source: SAG-AFTRA Members Approve Four-Year Deal With AI Terms and Pension Merger
mprs, the rights management company focused on producer and mixer royalties, is expanding into producer catalog acquisitions. Milk & Honey has signed up to partner in the new acquisition vehicle, while advising on M&A opportunities in the market. Founded in 2021, mprs – pronounced ‘Empress‘ – was spun out of artist management and services company mtheory when Universal Music Group acquired mtheory’s label division.
Source: Producer royalty company mprs is now buying producer catalogs
Country music star Garth Brooks is considering a sale of his catalog, eyeing roughly $2 billion for the rights to his songs and recordings, according to people familiar with the matter. Brooks, an album sales and touring juggernaut, is seeking a price that would be among the largest deals for an individual artist or group’s catalog. He would sell both his publishing, or songwriting, and recorded music rights.
Source: Garth Brooks Considers Sale of Music Catalog, Seeking Roughly $2 Billion
Suno CEO and co-founder Mikey Shulman wrote in a blog post on Wednesday (June 3) that, “as with our previous funding rounds,” the Series D saw “participation from some of the best artists, producers, songwriters, and people from across the music industry.” He didn’t name any of them. The funding more than doubles Suno‘s valuation from the $2.45 billion it achieved after closing a $250 million Series C round seven months ago in November.
Source: Suno raises over $400 million, pushing valuation to $5.4 billion
The company behind ChatGPT has no plans to share advertising revenue with publishers, OpenAI’s vice president of media partnerships has confirmed. Varun Shetty was asked at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Marseille on Tuesday whether they are considering a revenue share model on publisher content being surfaced next to adverts, which are being trialed on ChatGPT. Shetty responded: “Not at this point.”
Source: OpenAI not planning to share advertising revenue with publishers
The organizations urge publishers to negotiate usage-based e-book lending models as well as perpetual-use options. “Our organizations, representing the vast majority of public libraries in the U.S. and Canada, call on the Big Five publishers, as well as platform providers, to come to the table to work with libraries to identify and implement sustainable solutions, no matter the format,” the signatories state.
Source: Library Orgs Urge Big Five to Address Digital Pricing