Create Music Group-owned digital content studio Flighthouse Media sees an opportunity in bringing sports media to Gen Z fans, and to make it happen, it’s launching a new brand: Fieldhouse.

Fieldhouse is “a sports-first, chaos-powered content brand built for the next generation of fans,” the company said in a statement on Monday (July 28).

What, exactly, does that mean? For one thing, it means content like “gamified debates” and hot takes designed to “spark rivalries, ignite group chats, and keep fans engaged beyond the game.”

In other words, it’s ESPN for the TikTok generation.

TikTok and iHeartRadio have teamed up to launch a live streaming singing competition on Monday (July 28) that will run through September.

The Next up: Live Music competition will give unsigned artists a platform to reach more audiences. Participants must be US residents over 18 with at least 50,000 TikTokfollowers and consistent engagement. They must own rights to at least one original song and remain unsigned by a major label or have label clearance.

Through TikTok’s live streaming feature, contestants will advance based on a combination of likes, views and comments, and judges’ scores

Spotify‘s stock price plunged 11.5% on Tuesday (July 29), erasing over $16 billion from the streaming giant’s market capitalization.

One key factor in the tumble: as part of its Q2 earnings today, the company forecast lower-than-expected profits for Q3, partly due to mounting payroll taxes tied to its soaring share price.

All this despite Spotify delivering strong operational results in Q2, with premium subscribers growing to 276 million (up 8 million quarter-over-quarter) and monthly active users reaching 696 million (up 18 million quarter-over-quarter).

However, investors appear to have been spooked by Spotify’s Q3 operating income guidance of €485 million ($550m), which fell well short of analyst estimates around €560 million.

Spotify’s Q2 operating income also fell short of analyst expectations, weighing in at €406 million ($460m) – below SPOT’s own guidance for the quarter.

A coalition of European creative industry groups representing millions of authors, performers, publishers, producers and other rightsholder organizations has slammed the European Commission’s implementation of AI Act provisions designed to protect intellectual property rights in the age of generative AI.

The group called the measures a “betrayal” of the law’s original intent, according to a press release on Tuesday (July 29).

The backlash comes just weeks after the Commission published its General-Purpose AI Code of Practice on July 10 and accompanying guidelines on July 18. The measures are part of the world’s first AI regulation, which entered into force on August 1, 2024.

Starting Saturday (August 2), “the obligations for providers of GPAI models enter into application,” according to the EU. This means that companies developing general-purpose AI models “must document technical information about their models for the purpose of providing that information upon request to the AI Office and national competent authorities,” among other things.

TikTok has been very busy lately expanding the platforms that are integrated with its ‘Add to Music App’ feature, which lets users save songs they found on TikTok to the music streaming service of their choice.

The latest addition, announced by TikTok on Tuesday (July 29) is YouTube Music. TikTok users who hit the ‘Add Song’ button next to a song name at the bottom of a video will have the song added to the ‘TikTok Songs’ playlist on their YouTube Music account.

Since it first launched the feature in the US and UK in November 2023, TikTok has rapidly expanded both the countries where the feature is available and the platforms integrated with it.

Beginning with Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, the feature was expanded to include South Korea’s Melon and France-headquartered Deezer last fall, SoundCloudthis past May and Middle East and North Africa-focused streamer Anghami just a few weeks ago.

Amid now-resolved recent clashes certain music industry giants and its ongoing potential shutdown in the US, TikTok has been playing up its growing role in the music business.

‘Add to Music App’ is a key aspect of this strategy.

Spotify has landed a major airline partnership, securing placement across United’s more than 680 aircraft fleet.

The deal gives Spotify access to over 130,000 seatback entertainment screens, allowing the company to showcase its video and audio podcasts, audiobooks, and playlists for free to millions of travelers annually.

In 2024, United carried 173.6 million passengers, up 5.3% from a year earlier. According to Airways magazine, United is the largest airline in the world based on available seat miles, which represent an airline’s total passenger-carrying capacity.

Following the Spotify integration, Spotify will appear as a new content option in in-flight screens of more than 680 United aircraft, replacing “audio” under the home menu. Over the coming months, most of United’s fleet will receive a dedicated Spotify featured channel where all Spotify content — songs, podcasts, video podcasts, audiobooks and playlists — will be housed together.

United explains that from 2026, passengers will be able to log into the Spotify app on the in-flight entertainment screen of using their personal devices, allowing them to enjoy personalized content on Starlink-equipped aircraft