Each week Ritch Esra picks the 13 music-business stories worth your time.
Past issues
November 4, 2026not emailed · online only
- Fans Love the Music — What They're Chasing Is the Person Behind It.
- Irving Azoff’s Music Artists Coalition joins Cate Blanchett and CAA on AI licensing brief in New York Times’ case against OpenAI
- Conversation with Ian Harrison CEO of A2IM
- Why Labels Are Creating Their Own Software Right Now
- From Song to Screen: Inside Neural Frames’ Vision for AI Music Video
- The Manager - The Dysfunctional Art of Management
- Is music’s next great licensing failure already underway?
- Instagram lets users DM AI-generated songs to friends
- The Hidden Cost of Early Success
- Guard Your Publishing: A Conversation with Liz Kamlet
- Five 1,000,000,000 songs that could only exist in the streaming era
- Underground Acquiescence
- Copyright: The US Copyright Office (USCO) has launched a public inquiry into music streaming fraud.
October 28, 2026not emailed · online only
- Everyone Can Distribute Music. Who is Actually Developing the Artist?
- Chartmetric x Base for Music: Identifying Growth Levers Through Data to Drive Fan Acquisition
- When the Best Career Move Is to Stop Asking the Industry to Let You In
- Virtual Concerts Still Exist. Why Aren’t We Talking About Them?
- An Open Letter on the Music Rights Market
- Aaron Bay-Schuck - Warner Records CEO on "The Art of the Long Game & Why Patience Still Wins"
- Max Lousada to Deliver Keynote Address to The Ultimate Seminar 2026
- How to Practice Safe AI
- The Indie Rock Explosion: A Conversation with Chris DeVille
- Will the Music Industry Ever Get a Handle on Rightsholder Payouts?
- Don’t say collusion: “no evidence of misconduct or conflict of interest” say major labels and publishers about their Phono V physical negotiations
- Within the next five years, every record label will be running on a holistic Music Operating System
- Copyright: Twitter Hit With $250 Million Copyright-Infringement Lawsuit From Music Publishers
October 21, 2026not emailed · online only
- Can AI Help a Songwriter Finish the Songs Time Left Behind?
- The Supreme Court Just Threw a Wrench Into The Music Industry’s Copyright Cash Machine
- Is the Music Business Collapsing?
- Who Actually Made This? The Question AI Is Forcing Music to Ask.
- I outsourced my life to AI agents for two weeks. It went…weirdly.
- In Conversation with Live Nation's David O'Connor
- Interview with Lucian Grainge Universal Music Group CEO - The Most Powerful Man in Music Isn’t Afraid of AI
- Here’s exactly what Amazon, Spotify, Apple and other streaming services want to pay songwriters for 2028–2032
- Brightlights Launches Predictive Intelligence Platform To Eliminate Guesswork In Live Music Bookings
- Ditto study identifies key pain points for independent artists
- Copyright: Kanye West Tries to Remove Pages of His Extreme Antisemitism From a Copyright Court Battle, Federal Judge Shuts Him Down
October 14, 2026
- The Next Music Economy Will Run on Autonomous AI Agents
- The Undiscovered Showman— A True Story of Being Almost Famous - For Your Grammy® Consideration Best Audio Book Narration and Storytelling
- How To Vote In The 2027 Grammys: A Complete First Round Voting Guide For Grammy Voters
- Zooly: AI can generate almost anything. Except the legal right to use a real person.
- Live Nation Backing New Creator Economy Startup Creator Nation
- Is Playing Live Still Worth It?
- IMPEL and IMPF issue independent publishing licensing framework for generative AI
- Record Research, A Heart for the Charts is a new podcast
- Music and Consciousness
- The Truth About Sync Licensing in India: Why Bollywood Isn't the Only Path
- ROSTR Launches Free Global Database of 33,000 Music Venues
- Did Guitar Hero Change Classic Rock?
- Copyright: US appeals court rejects ‘fair use’ defense over AI training – as Thomson Reuters wins copyright case backed by RIAA and NMPA
October 7, 2026
- The New Sound of Global Music
- AI Music: Coming of Age. Why the Next Music Revolution May Be Bigger Than Napster
- Conversation with Mixing Legend Chris Lord-Alge
- The New Music Industry Pyramid
- Why Stream Counts Don’t Tell the Full Story of Music Marketing Performance
- How much is being close to your favorite artist worth? Superfans are reshaping the concert industry
- Lyrics Show How AI Can Grow Music Revenue Without Replacing People
- Absolute Label Services opens AI-powered Anthology business management ‘Music OS’ to indie sector: ‘Infrastructure is the next logical thing to democratize’
- Interview with Artist Manager Ian Montone
- Zane Lowe sits down with Daniel Glass for a Special A&R Worldwide 25th Anniversary Conversation at MUSEXPO
- Iconic Independent Ace Records Moves Distribution to Proper
- Interview with Songwriter / Producer Gregg Alexander
- Copyright: Rights Intelligence's Linda Collin and Åsa Enström on the limitations of the publishing hub model
Score is the complimentary weekly newsletter from Music Business Registry.
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