Today I presented the 11th edition of the IMS Business Report at the ever-brilliant annual electronic music industry conference in Ibiza. And who doesn’t like a conference in Ibiza?! The full report is available via the IMS website. Here are some highlights.
–Fandom and listening still on the up
– Genres on the rise
Continued live momentum

– Mark Mulligan, MIDIA

Warner Music Group has sued US cookie chain Crumbl, alleging that it built its business through “blatant, willful, and repeated copyright infringement.”

The complaint was lodged in a US District Court in Utah on Tuesday (April 22), claiming Crumbl used at least 159 of WMG’s recordings and compositions in promotional videos posted to TikTok and Instagram, where the cookie company has 9.8 million and 6.1 million followers, respectively.

– Mandy Dalugdug, Music Business Worldwide

Back in September, the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, requesting the examination of “concerns” and “emerging issues” with U.S. performance rights organizations (PROs). More specifically, the Committee expressed concerns about the alleged “lack of transparency” with PROs and the so-called “proliferation” of new PROs in the market.

So early this year the U.S. Copyright Office opened a notice of inquiry that allowed licensors and licensees to submit a comment and weigh in about whether or not they like the way that the U.S. PRO system works today. 

– Kristin Robinson, Billboard

Last month, we told you about Tencent Music Entertainment‘s integration with DeepSeek.
DeepSeek is the China-headquartered AI platform that triggered concerns across the AI sector earlier this year when its chatbot demonstrated that advanced AI systems can be developed with significantly lower costs and computational resources than previously estimated.
The chatbot’s debut led $157 billion-valued OpenAI to suspect that DeepSeek’s model had been trained on its data without permission, an ironic twist in light of the various copyright infringement lawsuits OpenAI is facing itself. One of those lawsuits was filed by German collection society and licensing body GEMA in November.

– Murray Stassen, Music Business Worldwide

Leading music publishers including Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Concord, and Reservoir have submitted responses to the US Copyright Office’s inquiry into Performance Rights Organizations (PROs).
All have argued strongly for reduced regulation in the sector.
The US Copyright Office (USCO) launched its investigation in February, examining “questions related to the increase in the number of PROs and the licensing revenue distribution practices of PROs”.

– Ashley King, Digital Music News

The European Commission said on Friday it would investigate Universal Music Group’s planned $775 million acquisition of independent music services company Downtown Music, confirming earlier media reports.
“The transaction threatens to significantly affect competition in certain markets of the music value chain, where both companies are active, in Austria and in the Netherlands, as well as in many other member states,” it said in a statement.

– Retuers