San Francisco-based independent label, distribution and publishing company EMPIREhas made a strategic investment in un:hurd music, a platform specializing in automated music marketing and promotion.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

According to a press release from un:hurd, this strategic investment takes place as part of the company’s ongoing fundraise, “of which current investors such as Willard Ahdritz and Dan Runcie’s Trapital Ventures have already re-invested alongside Mindset Ventures MusicTech”.

The financial backing from EMPIRE aims to speed up the development of un:hurd’s technology and at the same time provide EMPIRE artists with marketing tools. EMPIRE is known for launching the careers of artists like Kendrick Lamar, Fireboy DML, Shaboozey, Asake, XXXTentacion, and Anderson .Paak.

“EMPIRE’s investment is a very credible nod to the work we do and it’s [a] credit to the team for the work they’ve put in over the last 12 months to make this happen,” said Alex Brees, CEO and founder of un:hurd.

“I’m incredibly excited to be working with EMPIRE, whose legacy as a leading independent publisher, distributor, and label is monumental and to be able to support their roster of talented artists globally.”

MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry. Stat Of the Week is supported by music data analytics firm Chartmetric.

US performance rights organization ASCAP has reported its revenue and royalty payout numbers for 2024, with both numbers hitting all-time highs.

Revenue came in at $1.835 billion for calendar 2024, up 5.7% year over year. Of that, ASCAP distributed $1.696 billion to artists, songwriters, and music publishers, an increase of 6.5% YoY.

In a statement issued on Thursday (February 27), ASCAP said the record-breaking numbers were “fueled by revenue growth and the lowest overall cost allocation overhead rate in the US at 10%.”

US-licensed performances brought in $1.397 billion in revenue, up 5.3% YoY, with revenues from streaming audio, audio-visual and general licensing driving the growth. Of that, ASCAP paid out $1.284 billion to rights holders, up 5.5% YoY.

Foreign revenue collections came in at $438 million, up 6.8% YoY, of which $411 million was paid out to rightsholders, up 9.8% YoY.

Over the past 10 years, ASCAP has seen a compound annual growth rate of 7% for revenue and 8% for distributions, indicating a long-term trend towards paying out a larger share of revenue to rightsholders.

ASCAP also reported that its membership “soared past the 1 million mark” in 2024 as it attracted a slew of new members. Among them are country star Kacey Musgraves, eighties rockers Def Leppard, pop star Tate McRae, film/TV composer Cliff Martinez, rapper Sexyy Redd, songwriter Justin Tranter, rock icon Jack White of The White Stripes, Dear Evan Hansen star Ben Platt and folk rocker Graham Nash.

AI music generator Suno has been making a lot of big headlines in recent months.

Just last month, the $500 million company was sued for copyright infringement by GEMA, the German collection society and licensing body.

In June, Suno was sued by the major record companies, along with fellow AI firm Udio, for allegedly training their systems using the majors’ recordings without permission – an accusation they pretty much admitted to in court filings in August.

The platform’s controversial reputation in the music industry doesn’t seem to have prevented tech giant Amazon – owner of Spotify rival Amazon Music – from partnering with it.

Amazon has unveiled a new AI-powered version of its Alexa voice assistant, and among the capabilities of the “next-generation” Alexa+ is an integration with AI music platform Suno.

“Using Alexa’s integration with Suno, you can turn simple, creative requests into complete songs, including vocals, lyrics, and instrumentation,” Amazon said in a blog post on Wednesday (February 26).

SoundCloud has announced a new ‘Artist’ subscription tier “to help emerging and aspiring musicians get their music out into the world easily and affordably.”

The music streaming platform describes the tier as “bridging the gap” between Basic and the Next Pro tier for professional artists – a tier that has now been renamed Artist Pro.

“We’re renaming Next Pro to Artist Pro to better reflect the evolution of our offerings and our commitment to supporting artists at every stage of their careers,” SoundCloud said in an announcement on Tuesday (December 17).

At $3.25 per month in the US, or $39 per year, the new Artist tier offers many of the same services as the Next Pro tier, but at a considerably lower price than the $8.25 for the newly renamed Artist Pro.

It comes with three hours of uploads per month (versus unlimited uploads on Artist Pro), offers distribution of two tracks per month to SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok, and more than 60 other platforms; monetization on SoundCloud and other platforms; and one credit per month towards AI mastering.

After three years of litigation, Universal Music Group (UMG) has settled a trademark dispute with investing platform OpenDeal, which does business under the name “Republic,” and blockchain platform Opulous.

UMG had argued that OpenDeal’s use of the “Republic” name created “confusion” with the Republic Records trademark when OpenDeal began to offer clients fractional investing in music.

UMG and OpenDeal notified the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday (December 13) that they had reached a settlement in principle

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Judge Jessica Clarke gave the parties a window of 60 days to refile the case, if the terms of the agreement are not met.

UMG Recordings, on behalf of its label Republic Records, sued OpenDeal in 2021, shortly after OpenDeal began marketing a new investment product allowing retail investors to buy shares in music assets.

In its original complaint, which can be read in full here, UMG said it didn’t have a problem with OpenDeal using the Republic name to trade in investment services – but not when it engages in activities in the music industry. In 2022, UMG amended the complaint to add Opulous as a defendant. The blockchain company partnered with OpenDeal/Republic on the fractional music investment product.