Midweek Music Update: Wednesday 29 October 2025
Welcome to this fortnight's round-up of news, commentary and industry announcements that you may have missed from the past few weeks.
If you are looking for advice in relation to any of the issues mentioned, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Legal updates
Universal Music wins legal battle in the Netherlands over streaming royalties (Complete Music News)
Lizzo sued for copyright infringement over track referencing the Sydney Sweeney jeans advert (MBW)
Australia declines bid to exclude AI training from copyright law protections (MBW)
Independent artists file new lawsuit against Suno and Udio over their use of AI (MBW)
In the news
Spotify increases premium subscription prices again in the UK (MBW)
YouTube’s yearly contributions to the music industry have now reached $8bn (Music Ally)
Spotify introduce new “venue favouriting” feature to their platform (Music Week)
Musixmatch enters AI innovation agreements with Sony, Universal and Warner Chappel (ROTD)
Standon Calling festival shuts down after entering liquidation (NME)
Spotify secures patent for technology capable of creating automated song mashups (MWB)
Ticketmaster set to increase the number of tickets going to fans (Music Week)
OpenAI has begun developing a new AI music creation tool (Music Ally)
Artist marketing platform un:hurd announces successful seven-figure funding round (MBW)
YouTube introduces AI tool to detect deepfake content (Digital Music News)
Industry changes/developments
IMPALA report warns that the Downtown deal poses major threat to cultural diversity (Music Week)
Features and commentary
Remembering Kiss’ key band member, Ace Frehley (The Guardian)
