Kendrick Lamar came into the Grammys with the most nominations — nine — and to the surprise of few, he exited with the most wins: an impressive five, including record of the year for “Luther,” his collaboration with SZA.

But the love was very much spread around at the 2026 ceremony, with different winners in each of the four top categories. Bad Bunny picked up the climactic prize, album of the year; Billie Eilish got song of the year, for “Wildflower”; and Olivia Dean, in perhaps the only truly predictable category out of the top four, scored a win as best new artist.

– Chris Willman, Jordan Moreau, Variety

The music creator economy may be the canary in the coal mine for AI’s impact on music. Leading company Native Instruments just announced that it is entering preliminary insolvency (per Music Radar). Native Instruments make beautiful software, hardware, and sounds that appeal most to established, successful music creators – creators that have spent years honing their craft. What it doesn’t do so well is cater for the emerging generation of younger creators that want to go to 0-100 in a millisecond.

The music industry needs to learn not just where AI fits in it, but where it fits in AI. This requires work from the industry, such as creating ‘lanes’ for AI as we argued in our Future of music streaming report. However, it also requires artists to put in work too.

– Mark Mulligan, MIDiA

Deezer is now receiving over 60,000 fully AI-generated tracks every day – and is moving to license its AI-detection technology to the wider music industry.

The Paris-headquartered streaming service revealed the new figures today (January 29), confirming that synthetic content now accounts for roughly 39% of all music delivered to the platform daily.

The 60,000 figure marks another significant jump from the 50,000 tracks Deezer reported in November, the 30,000 in September, and the 10,000 it disclosed when it first launched its AI detection tool in January 2025.

– Murray Stassen, Music Business Worldwide

California could become the next state in the U.S. to put a limit on the price of resale concert tickets. Today (Feb. 5), California state assemblyman Matt Haney introduced a spot bill titled the California Fans First Act that would cap the price of a resold concert ticket to no more than 10% above the ticket’s original face value.

The bill – labeled AB 1720 – would make it illegal to resell a concert, theater, comedy or other live entertainment ticket (sports are not included) at a price higher than face value (the cost of the ticket plus fees from the primary ticketing source) plus 10% for shows taking place in California.

– Taylor Mims, Billboard

Thanks in large part to continued capital commitments on the catalog side, the music industry has kicked off 2026 with a funding bang.

As compiled by DMN Pro’s Music Industry Funding Tracker, that bang refers to north of $2.43 billion in core funding for January 2026 – up materially from January 2025’s $404.14 million.

Behind the current-year sum, Sony Music and Singapore’s GIC contributed a reported $2 billion (possibly up to $3 billion, assuming the unconfirmed range is accurate) via their new catalog fund, with indie-focused IP investor Duetti having secured $200 million of its own. Additionally, Atlantic Screen Group pulled down $30 million to scoop up the rights behind film and TV scores.

– Dylan Smith, Digital Music News

Following more than two decades at Hopeless Records, the company’s executive vice president Ian Harrison recently succeeded Dr Richard James Burgess as CEO of A2IM, the US independent music coalition of more than 700 labels.

“In general, we’re seeing that the idea of investing in artist development long term is becoming harder for partners, especially newer ones. For a label that has a pretty good catalogue and history, while it’s not easy, it is possible to invest in a new artist while you’re waiting to earn that income. There are some labels making a better return on recordings from [streaming], but it does stretch the time horizon.”

– Andre Paine, MusicWeek