The latest thing in Chinese TV? Micro-dramas. These are 90-minute films broken down into one-minute episodes, with the first few episodes made available for free online before viewers have to pay – as much as $30 per drama – to watch the rest in an app. Oh, and a growing number of these micro-dramas are AI-generated video. They’re the talk of the TV industry’s MIPCOM conference this week.

Ireland was one of the first countries to pilot a ‘basic income’ scheme for artists and creative arts workers, paying them €325 a week to support their craft – initially as a response to the challenges posed by Covid-19. Now plans are afoot to extend the pilot and make it a permanent initiative from September 2026. “The Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme, which I extended this year, will end in 2026, and I will bring a successor scheme to Government with the intention of embedding a permanent basic income in the Arts and Culture sector,” 

‘Operation Authentica’ is the ongoing crackdown by the Brazilian authorities on companies offering streaming-fraud services to artificially boost streams and other engagement metrics on music, video and social platforms. The latest firm to be targeted is TurbineDigital, which according to the IFPI was offering “fake engagement services across platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Instagram, and others”. A civil court in São Paulo 

Universal Music Group is “very actively engaged with nearly a dozen different companies on significant new products and service plans that hold promise for a dramatic expansion of the AI music landscape” according to the latest memo to colleagues from chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge, which was sent yesterday. Grainge also cited existing deals with startups ProRata and Klay; with BandLab and Soundlabs; and a a recently-signed deal with Japanese telco KDDI “to develop new music experiences for fans and artists using Gen AI” in his memo.

Universal Music Group boss Sir Lucian Grainge has sent a memo to staff updating them on the major label's latest deals in AI.

Dame Caroline Dinenage is Chair of the UK's Culture Media and Sport (CMS) committee – the cross-party body that holds the government's Department of Culture Media and Sport to account. She spoke at the Music Ally Publishing Summit about, amongst other topics, the current state of AI regulation in the UK – and didn't mince her words when it came to describing the way that generative AI music platforms were trained.

Neil Young is unhappy with Big Tech again. A couple of months after announcing that he was quitting Facebook in protest at its chatbot policies, now Amazon is in his crosshairs.  In a blog post on his website, Young took aim at Amazon, its Whole Foods subsidiary, and Facebook again. “Forget Amazon and Whole Foods. Forget Facebook. Buy local. Buy direct,” wrote Young.

Last month, US regulator the FTC and seven states sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster for “engaging in illegal ticket resale tactics”. Now that lawsuit is bringing fresh heat for the companies from two senators: Marsha Blackburn and Ben Ray Luján. They have written to Live Nation’s president and CFO Joe Berchtold with some pointed questions about the issues raised by the lawsuit – harking back to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2023.

The arguments about Virgin Music Group’s proposed $775m acquisition of Downtown Music have been raging since UMG announced it in December 2024. Now, as we await the first regulatory decision on whether the deal should go ahead, it feels like a good time to analyse those arguments. So that's what we've done. Music Ally’s analysis breaks down five main strands in the opposition to the deal, with the first focusing on market concentration, and the second on whether UMG might misuse access to sensitive competitor data from the independent sector.

One of Doja Cat’s Fortnite skins is bald headed, and that’s just something people are going to have to get used to. We know this how? Because she tweeted it during a brief takeover of the Fortnite X account earlier this week. Doja Cat is the star of the game’s annual ‘Fortnitemares’ promotion alongside Jason from Friday 13th, Ghostface from Scream, Wednesday Addams and, er, Scooby-Doo.

It’s been a few years since ‘social graph’ features were all the rage in music discovery. Now they’re making a comeback, from Spotify’s messaging to SoundCloud’s latest announcement yesterday. It has launched a group of new ‘social discovery’ features on its service. They include two playlist features based on the currently popular tracks of every listener’s friends and favourite artists.

UMG has quietly introduced the new app House of Carmen, where micro-influencers have the chance to get paid for their content and work with big artists worldwide. “As creator marketing has continued its growth trajectory, we realised there was a real need to bring it in-house,” described UMG UK commercial director Janey Stride. “Somewhere we could house a global creator database, appropriately categorise creators, effectively and directly communicate with them, deliver prompt payment for activity and integrate all of our data sources.”

A recent TikTok study of over 150,000 accounts analysed by content writers at Buffer has revealed findings for how “posting frequency impacts your odds of success.” While Buffer reports that the common “3 times a day” mantra isn’t exactly incorrect, they argue that there is a bit more nuance to it than that. Unsurprisingly, posting more often means more views per post, and increases your odds of going viral with a single post.

Spooky season is almost upon us — the perfect time to haunt the socials with some fun and festive treats…(or tricks?) Whether your artist has a Halloween gig approaching or an October single coming out, here are some ways to pumpkin spice up the feeds for the holiday. Tips and tricks for Halloween posts? Offer a sneak peak. Behind-the-scenes-style content helps fans feel involved and gives a special glimpse into the life of your artist.

Big news overnight in the defamation lawsuit brought by Drake against his longtime recordings partner Universal Music Group. It’s been dismissed. However, Drake’s legal team has already said he plans to appeal. The key phrase in the ruling is this: “nonactionable opinion”. That’s how Judge Jeannette Vargas saw the lyrics of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ diss track, with its famous “Certified Lover Boy?

In December 2024, Universal Music Group announced that a deal to buy Downtown Music Holdings for $775m. Then the arguments began.

Spotify’s drive to sign direct licensing deal with music publishers continue. The last year has seen it ink agreements with the publishing arms of all three major labels as well as Kobalt. Now BMG has its own direct agreement with the streaming giant. The announcement came with the same boiler-plate details as the other deals: it’s a multi-year US agreement that “ensures songwriters share more directly in the value created by their work”.

UK collecting society PRS for Music is in the spotlight again – this time thanks to a letter from some prominent songwriters asking it to justify its expenses.  Bloomberg reported on the letter, signed by songwriters including Thom Yorke, Paul McCartney and Elton John, which asked for a review of the collecting society’s administration costs. “This request is prompted by growing concerns about the transparency, accuracy and overall representation of members’ interests,” explained the letter.

Far from being furious (and litigious) about their IP being sucked into the maw of GenAI platforms, will rightsholders eventually be banging on the doors of these companies wanting more mash-up action for their big brands and stars? This is the future that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is seemingly working towards. And this despite the fact that earlier this week his company had to scramble to…

Scottish electronic DJ and producer Barry Can’t Swim (real name: Joshua Mainnie) released Loner, his second album, in July 2025, coming after his debut, When Will We Land?, in October 2023. There was no real break between the campaigns, with live performances of new music working to bridge the two albums. Ninja Tune’s Louis Lloyd Gilchrist (senior product manager), …

Forgive us an involuntary shudder when a huge social-media platform tells us that its latest change will make something “easier and more fun”. That’s often code for ‘shoving more rubbish you haven’t asked for into your feed’. Let’s hope that isn’t Facebook’s plan this time round, eh? “We’ve upgraded Facebook’s recommendations engine so it learns your interests quicker and shows you newer and more relevant reels,” 

68% of South Asian musicians and professionals feel poorly represented or invisible in the UK music industry. That’s the sobering finding of a report, The South Asian Soundcheck, published by non-profit organisation Lila. Based on a survey of 349 people, the report found that 45% face stereotypes about what kind of music they should be making; 40% have to deal with family concerns that music is not a stable career; and 32% have experienced direct racial discrimination.

Japan was famously slow to jump aboard music-streaming’s bandwagon, but research firm Luminate now thinks it is “the growth story to watch in global premium streaming music”.  The company’s data shows that Japan accounts for nearly a third of all premium (paid) streams across the Asia-Pacific region. What’s more, 66% of Gen-Z in Japan are music streamers, with 42% of them now paying – up from 36% in 2023.

AI giant Anthropic has been denied its motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against it by music publishers alleging copyright infringement of their lyrics. It’s a setback for the company, because previously the publishers’ lawsuit had been narrowed down by Judge Eumi K. Lee. However, they were allowed to refile, and Lee has declined to throw out the amended complaints. The case will now proceed.

Why is singing like blowing up a balloon? You’ll find out if you watch one of TED-Ed’s latest videos: ‘How to improve your singing’. Hosted by opera singer Denyce Graves-Montgomery, it’s the first in a new music-education series produced in partnership with YouTube itself. But the project goes beyond YouTube too. The 'Think Like a Musician' series will “bring high-quality music education resources to teachers around the world”