Warner Chappell Music (WCM) announced Monday (April 15) an exclusive publishing agreement with Electronic Arts (EA) to manage music across the gaming giant’s extensive library.

This partnership includes soundtracks from world-renowned titles like EA Sports’ sports simulation games to action-adventure, role-playing experiences, and more. The deal also involves WCM leveraging its roster of songwriters and producers to collaborate on new music projects with EA.

EA develops and publishes games, content and online services for consoles, mobile devices and PCs. The company is behind popular titles like EA SPORTS FC, Battlefield, Apex Legends, The Sims, EA SPORTS Madden NFL, Need for Speed, Titanfall, Plants vs. Zombies and EA SPORTS F1.

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Warner Music Group has partnered with British health tech startup MediMusic to explore the potential of music as a therapeutic tool.

The collaboration, which marks the record label’s first music therapy deal, aims to harness the power of music to ease  pain, anxiety and stress through clinical trials of personalized playlists, according to a press release last week (December 13).

The partnership builds on the growing intersection of the music and health sectors. While music’s emotional impact has been long recognized, MediMusic utilizes AI and machine learning to create evidence-based playlists tailored to individual patient needs. 

Their algorithms analyze music’s ‘digital DNA,’ creating a healthcare-specific fingerprint, to curate 20-minute personalized tracks, delivered through the MediBeatstreaming device and a pair of headphones.

Music streaming services have raised concerns over the French government’s proposed tax on music streaming services. Amongst the companies slamming the new plans is Spotify, which has warned that such a move may lead to the company deprioritizing France in the future.

Antoine Monin, the Director General of Spotify France, expressed his dismay, labeling the tax a “monumental strategic error, which goes against the issues of economic, cultural and European technology”.

In an interview with French news channel France Info, Monin highlighted the potential adverse impact on European streaming companies, particularly Spotify and Deezer, compared to their US-based counterparts such as Apple, Amazon, and YouTube. 

Monin argued that the tax would disproportionately affect European platforms, given their dominance in the French streaming market and their primary focus on music streaming, in contrast to the diversified portfolios of the tech giants.

“The adoption of this tax is really a blow to the music sector, to innovation and to European independent platforms like Spotify or Deezer” according to a translated text of Monin’s interview with France Info