On January 20, hours after President Donald J. Trump was inaugurated, thousands of readers lined up for one of the 1,100 midnight release parties held across the country for Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. The book, which is the third in the TikTok-beloved Empyrean series, received a 2.5 million copy first print run according to the book’s publisher, Entangled Publishing. Today, many in the industry are wondering: will we see its like again?
Source: TikTok Uncertainty Prompts the Book Business to Envision an Even Better Future
In June, the three major labels sued the generative AI music companies Udio and Suno for training their software on copyrighted music without a license. Now, GEMA, the German PRO, is also taking legal action against Suno, in a case filed today (Jan. 21) in the Munich Regional Court. In an announcement, GEMA said that it documented that the Suno system outputs content that “largely corresponds to world-famous works whose authors GEMA represents.
MakersPlace, a digital art platform specializing in non-fungible tokens, is shutting down amid a sharp drop in the NFT market. The company, launched in 2018, announced its closure on Jan. 15 after six years of operations. “Ongoing market challenges and funding difficulties have made it impossible to sustain operations while fulfilling our mission,” MakersPlace’s content manager, Brady Evan Walker, said in the announcement.
Blackstone’s rumored SESAC sale has an over $3 billion price tag and multiple prospective purchasers, according to new reports. Blackstone reportedly began entertaining private equity offers for SESAC after Hellman & Friedman took a majority stake in Global Music Rights (GMR) late last year. SESAC Music Group’s portfolio includes Audiam and the Harry Fox Agency, to name only a couple.