Not long after Macklemore challenged Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft to match his $1 million donation to organizations supporting the Palestinian people, the billionaire has responded by saying Ed Sheeran previously asked him to “commit” $2 million “to match his donation to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis.”

“I have dedicated much of my life to building bridges between all people,” Kraft wrote in a statement released Wednesday (Sept. 16). “I believe deeply that all lives are worth protecting. Earlier today, before Macklemore challenged me to match his donation, Ed called me and asked me to commit $2 million to match his donation to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis. Ed now plans to reach out to other venue owners and our goal is to continue to work together to build bridges.

“In addition, I’d like the people who are speaking in support of the Palestinian people to know that for decades, I have supported efforts that create opportunity for Palestinians and have brought young Palestinians and Israelis together to build businesses, create jobs, and forge relationships.”

Notably, Kraft did not specify if, or when, he would be committing the money, or which organization or organizationss would be the beneficiaries of the funds. For his part, Macklemore said he would donate the $1 million, representing his net earnings from Sheeran’s tour, to six organizations supporting Palestinians: Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, HEAL Palestine, Gaza Soup Kitchen, Medical Aid for Palestinians, the UNRWA USA National Committee and Anera.

A representative for Kraft’s company, The Kraft Group, did not immediately return Billboard‘s request for clarification on whether, and where, Kraft would be committing those funds.

Macklemore’s challenge followed the rapper’s removal as an opener on Sheeran’s Loop Tour in the U.S. due to statements he made in support of Palestinians at Sheeran’s tour stops at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on Sept. 4 and 5. His comments, which included the phrase “Free Palestine,” were accompanied by a performance of Macklemore’s 2024 track “Hind’s Hall” — which accuses the Israeli government of committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza — alongside images of the violence. Notably, the United Nations has also classified Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, though Israel and its close ally the U.S. have denied this. Gaza’s Health Ministry has reported that more than 73,000 Palestinians have died from repeated Israeli strikes as of July, while countless others have faced displacement, homelessness and hunger.

On Monday (Sept. 14), the Loop Tour’s U.S. promoter, Messina Touring Group, released a statement announcing that Macklemore had indeed been removed from the lineup. “We have been notified by venues on the upcoming U.S. tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans,” the statement read. “After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates.”

When Macklemore addressed his removal from the tour later that day, he alleged that Kraft had threatened to cancel Sheeran’s upcoming shows at Gillette Stadium unless Macklemore was dropped from the bill. The rapper further claimed that Kraft had “rallied” owners of other stadiums on the trek and that Sheeran had been given an “ultimatum” that he would not be permitted to play in their venues unless Macklemore got the boot.

On Tuesday (Sept. 15), Kraft responded with a statement claiming Macklemore had “a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community,” and that to allow him to perform at Gillette Stadium “would cross [a] line.”

Later on Tuesday, Sheeran released his own statement, in which he claimed that Macklemore’s removal from the tour had been the “venue’s and promoter’s decision,” and that he had spent that last week “trying to build bridges” by speaking with the stadiums along with “activists on both sides.” He added, “However, there is room for multiple approaches to the same end: peace. I choose to use my fame and platform to be a place of safety and sanctuary, to maintain diplomacy and keep conversations open, not closed.”

In the wake of the controversy, all of the remaining opening acts on Sheeran’s tour, including Aaron Rowe, Finneas and Lukas Graham, dropped out of the trek and posted statements in support of Macklemore’s support of Palestinians.

The IFPI, the international trade body that represents the recorded music business, has launched a new initiative through which participants commit to baseline practices to prevent, detect and respond to streaming fraud.

Dubbed the “Streaming Integrity Initiative,” or SII, it has so far been supported by Absolute Label Services, ADA, AWAL, CD Baby, CmdShft, Ditto Music, FUGA, GoDigital, HYBE, IDOL, IMPALA, InnerCat Music Group, Merlin, Redeye, Revelator, RouteNote, Secretly Distribution, Symphonic, Sony Music Group, The Orchard, Too Lost, Universal Music Group, Virgin Music Group and Warner Music Group. Notably, the largest DIY music distributor, Distrokid, has not yet signed on.

To be part of SII, participants sign on to five core commitments, including:

SII is the latest move by the recorded music industry to get a handle on the persistent issue of streaming fraud, or the manipulation of digital service providers (DSPs) to siphon royalties from plays that are not from genuine fans. Experts say that the problem is significant, costing artists and platforms hundreds of millions, or even billions, each year — and as AI makes it easier than ever to perform these schemes, it’s become a hot topic.

In recent years, Trust and Safety, a symposium run by by Music Business Association, was formed for the express purpose of educating the music establishment about the issue. Two years ago, a coalition of industry players formed the Music Fights Fraud Alliance (MFFA) in the U.S. to band together distributors and streaming services and establish a way to share data and coordinate anti-fraud efforts. A representative for SII says that while the initiative liases closely with the MFFA, it is not directly connected.

SII is part of a wider campaign from the IFPI called End Streaming Fraud that aims to raise awareness for the issue. According to French streaming service Deezer, the problem is deeply tied to the rise of generative AI music online: The service reported earlier this year that up to 80% of streams on AI songs are artificial. The development of agentic AI also poses a threat, allowing bad actors to more easily scale illegal bot farms.

“Streaming fraud misleads fans and deprives legitimate artists and songwriters of income that should rightfully flow to them,” Victoria Oakley, CEO of IFPI, said in a statement. “This is theft, plain and simple. We welcome the leadership shown by the first distributors to publicly support the Streaming Integrity Initiative, and hope this leads to direct, effective and coordinated action to protect artists, songwriters and fans from streaming fraud.”

“Tackling illegitimate activity effectively requires every part of the industry to move together,” added Sarah McNabb, Merlin’s director of content integrity. “These commitments reflect Merlin’s own position and align closely with what Merlin already requires of its members. It’s encouraging to see so many of our members already putting their names to this announcement, and we’re glad to stand alongside IFPI in this initiative as it continues to grow.”

Helen Smith, IMPALA’s executive chair, said: “IMPALA’s Digital Music Plan adopted earlier this year set out our recommendations for growing the market and identified industry collaboration on a new scale as a top priority. With recommendations for DSPs and labels as well as distributors, working together on integrity, promoting human artistry and other key aspects across the whole chain is vital.”

Lil Durk has been acquitted of all charges accusing him of orchestrating a murder-for-hire conspiracy that targeted Quando Rondo and ultimately killed the rival rapper’s cousin.

A jury in Los Angeles federal court deliberated for three days before finding the Chicago drill star (Durk Banks) not guilty on Friday (Sept. 11) of murder-for-hire, stalking and conspiracy counts that could have subjected him to life in prison, Billboard confirmed. Durk’s alleged co-conspirators, David “Browneyez” Lindsey and Deandre “OTF Dede” Wilson, were convicted of stalking and conspiracy but acquitted of murder-for-hire as well. They’ll be sentenced at a later date.

Durk remains in custody, since he still faces an additional racketeering charge that accuses him of operating his OTF label as a violent gang. Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald excluded that new count from the original trial and scolded prosecutors for tacking it on at the last minute. A second trial is currently scheduled for Oct. 5.

Durk’s attorney, Drew Findling, said the defense team is “so elated and proud” while speaking outside the courthouse following the verdict. “22 months ago, Durk and I made an agreement that we would make history with the greatest verdict in this country, and it happened today,” said Findling. “Durk is not guilty of all charges.”

“So now we work to get pull the shackles off,” added Findling. “The shackles must come off, and he must walk free so that he can come home to his beautiful family and to the world that loves him.”

A rep for the prosecution did return a request for comment.

Prosecutors claimed during a two-week trial that Durk ordered his Only the Family (OTF) crew to murder Rondo in retaliation for the 2020 killing of his close friend and collaborator King Von. Rondo was shot at a Los Angeles gas station in 2022 and survived, but his cousin Saviay’a Robinson, also known as Lul Pab, was killed in the crossfire.

The case rested largely on testimony from three alleged participants in the plot who pled guilty and became government cooperators: Kacey “OTF Jam” Hester, Keith “Flacka” Jones, and Kavon “Vonnie” Grant. The trio told jurors that Durk planned for a group of shooters to travel from Chicago to Los Angeles in 2022 and offered cash rewards for the attack, though no payments were ever completed.

The jury also heard some of Durk’s music during the trial, including his top 40 hits “Who Want Smoke??”, “Ahhh Ha” and “Pissed Me Off.” Prosecutors argued that Durk telegraphed the Rondo murder plot in these tracks, such as in the “Ahhh Ha” lyrics, “Don’t respond to s–t with Von/ I’m like, ‘f–k it, you trippin’, go get your gun’/ They droppin’ locations, I’m gettin’ it done/ F–k tweetin’, we slidin’, the feds are comin’.”

Durk has consistently maintained that he had nothing to do with the shooting. His lawyers argued throughout the trial that the cooperating witnesses were lying and that Vonnie, who had access to Durk’s credit cards as his personal assistant, was the real mastermind of the plot.

Defense attorneys said Vonnie and the other cooperators falsely pinned the blame on Durk because the famous rapper was a “big fish” that they could hand over to prosecutors and, in exchange, get shorter prison sentences of their own. They leaned hard into attacking Vonnie’s credibility, playing recordings of jailhouse phone calls where he said the trial would be his “time to shine” and “perform.”

Durk’s team also strongly urged the jury not to give any weight to his lyrics, saying his music is artistic expression tailored towards commercial appeal and does not reflect any literal plans or admissions. The use of rap lyrics in criminal trials is a controversial practice that’s been banned by many states but remains legal in federal prosecutions.

Durk’s trial has captivated the hip-hop world, drawing droves of fans sporting in “Free Durk” t-shirts. Even fellow artists like Ye (formerly Kanye West) and mgk have shown up to court to lend support to Durk.

The Chicago native, who rose to fame in his hometown’s drill scene before signing with Def Jam and later Alamo Records, was at the peak of his career when he was arrested in 2024 while attempting to get on a flight to Dubai. He had just two years prior achieved his first his first solo No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, 7220. His follow-up, Almost Healed, debuted at No. 3 on the chart in 2023.

This story was updated on Sept. 11 at 9:40 p.m. ET to add a statement from Durk’s lawyer.

1990s Jamaican dancehall star Shabba Ranks has launched a court battle over his publishing rights.

Shabba (born Rexton Gordon) sued the publishing arm of reggae label Greensleeves Records on Friday (Sept. 11). The lawsuit, obtained and first reported by Billboard, aims to reclaim compositions including the Billboard Hot 100 hits “Slow and Sexy”, “Housecall”, “Mr. Loverman” and “Let’s Get It On.” Shabba’s catalog also includes the 1990 song “Dem Bow”, the namesake for reggaetón’s iconic “dembow” rhythm that is currently at the center of a long-running copyright infringement lawsuit entangling the entire genre.

Friday’s lawsuit, meanwhile, centers on copyright termination — the provision of U.S. copyright law that enables authors to claw back their intellectual property decades after signing it away. Labels and publishers have a habit of fighting back when musicians invoke this right, often leading to litigation.

Such is the case here. Shabba first notified Greensleeves in 2023 that he wanted to exercise his termination right, but the publisher said no. According to Greensleeves, Shabba’s 1989 publishing deal stipulated that his compositions were “works made for hire,” which are explicitly excluded from the copyright termination statute.

Shabba, however, is contesting the validity of that work-for-hire provision, and he wants a judge to declare that his copyright termination is effective regardless.

“The compositions are not and could not have been works made for hire under the U.S. Copyright Act, regardless of the language of the assignment,” wrote Shabba’s attorneys at Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt. “Gordon was never at any time an employee of [Greensleeves], and musical compositions are not recognized in the U.S. Copyright Act as a type of work that can be deemed a work made for hire simply by agreement between the hiring party and a non-employee author.”

Reps for Shabba and Greensleeves did not immediately return requests for comment on the lawsuit Friday.

Copyright termination is a hot topic in music law right now. Salt-N-Pepa is battling Universal Music Group (UMG) over the provision in a case that has caught the industry’s attention. Meanwhile, all three major labels are currently trying to get the Supreme Court to reverse a controversial recent ruling that extended the termination right overseas.

Calgary has its sights set on becoming Canada’s next major music hub.

That’s the ambition Alberta Premier Danielle Smith laid out following a recent trip to Nashville, where she met with Tennessee chamber of commerce and tourism industry leaders to learn more about the growth of Music City. Smith sees Nashville as a model Calgary could follow, arguing that the foundations that helped turn the Tennessee city into a music powerhouse already exist at home.

“There are a number of changes that they made 25 years ago in order to become what they are today,” Smith said in a recent news conference. “I want to find out a little bit about what that is and see if we can develop some excellent partnerships with the music industry so that we can do a transfer of talent and transfer of expertise.”

Calgary’s music industry continues to grow yearly with major events like the Calgary Stampede and Cowboys Music Festival, which draw around 1.4 million and 165,000 fans respectively, and Smith believes that its estimated $2.3 billion value can reach Nashville’s own $28.3 billion impact by taking the right steps.

Calgary is already scaling its musical infrastructure, notably with the addition of Scotia Place, a new arena and home for the Calgary Flames, which is currently being built and set to open in fall 2027, and will also host concerts. The province is also looking to expand on existing infrastructure, with Stampede Park aiming to become a year-round entertainment destination as part of its 20-year plan, which aligns with the premier’s vision for the province.

Read more here. — Stefano Rebuli

The Beaches Score Their First Gold-Certified Single in the U.S. With ‘Blame Brett’: ‘Beyond Humbled’

The Beaches have secured their first-ever gold-certified single in the U.S.

The Toronto rock act’s song “Blame Brett” received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). While the 2023 track officially went gold back in April this year, it wasn’t until over the weekend that the band — comprised of sisters Jordan and Kylie Miller, Leandra Earl and Eliza Enman-McDaniel — shared the news on social media.

“Thank you everyone, we’ll forever be blaming Brett,” read the caption, accompanied by a video of Earl holding up the band’s RIAA plaque.

Released on their sophomore album, 2023’s Blame My Ex, “Blame Brett” has served as a breakthrough moment for the band. The punchy breakup song became a fan favourite and evidently reached listeners beyond their home country.

Much of its success is credited to a viral moment on TikTok, which helped the group land some major radio placements in the U.S.— their first charting song in the country.

On the Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, it reached No. 27, remaining on the ranking for 20 weeks, while it peaked at No. 17 on the Alternative Airplay chart, spending 23 weeks there. On Pop Airplay, “Blame Brett” reached No. 33 with 10 weeks on the chart. Over three years later, the track is reaching another major music industry milestone.

Not to mention, its success brought The Beaches to bigger venues and higher placements on festival lineups.

Read more here. — Stefano Rebuli

Vancouver’s Reliant Music Signs Global Distribution Deal With Warner Music Group’s ADA Benelux

Vancouver-based A&R and song management company Reliant Music has embarked on a global partnership with ADA Benelux, the Western Europe distribution and artist services initiative of Warner Music Group.

Known for producing dance music tracks Reliant’s global distribution deal will focus on expanding its international presence in a region where the genre is quite popular.

ADA Benelux is WMG’s independent distribution division for the Benelux region, including Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg — the major music label expanded into the Western European market in 2020.

Recently, Reliant has worked with major acts like Armin van Buuren, Timmy Trumpet, Hardwell, Nicky Romero and Fedde Le Grand, among others.

Founded in 2012, Reliant creates “fire toplines for global DJs and electronic music artists,” per their website. Headquartered on the Canadian west coast, the company has a second office in Toronto, and A&R is led by John Dexter and Adrian Lock across North America. To foster local growth, the company newly opened a creative hub at Vancouver’s Armoury Studios.

Nearly a decade after its launch, Reliant expanded to Europe in 2021, hiring Mischa Daniëls, who leads A&R in Europe. Currently, they have two Europeans offices in Amsterdam and Berlin.

Read more here. — Heather Taylor-Singh

Indie music finance platform beatBread named Andreea Gleeson as its new CEO, the company announced Thursday (Sept. 10). She will succeed Tracy Maddux, who had served as interim CEO following the death of beatBread’s founding CEO Peter Sinclair in August 2025.

Gleeson comes from Believe-owned indie music distributor TuneCore, which she joined in 2015 and rose to CEO of in 2021. During her time there, Gleeson oversaw TuneCore’s expansion into several new global markets, the evolution of its publishing administration business to include artist development and the launch of its artist discovery platform TuneCore Accelerator.

Founded in 2020 to issue capital to independent artists, labels and songwriters who want to maintain ownership of their music, beatBread says it has issued around $100 million in advances through some 2,000 transactions with creators. Gleeson’s job now is to deploy some of the $124 million beatBread raised last year in credit and equity capital from Citi, Deciens Capital and others to scale the company’s AI-enhanced underwriting technology internationally.

“What drew me to beatBread is that Peter and this team solved a real problem for independent artists: how to access growth capital without giving up ownership or control,” said Gleeson in a statement. “They’ve built sophisticated technology and a funding model that consistently gives artists more choice. I’ve spent much of my career focused on what independent artists will need next, and access to better capital on artist-friendly terms is one of the most important opportunities ahead.”

Last October, beatBread launched a $100 million Global Independence Fund to support indie labels and distributors, partly in response to Universal Music Group’s acquisition of Downtown Music. In its release announcing Gleeson’s hire, the company says she will work to develop existing and new relationships with labels and distributors, and work with beatBread’s tech group to scale its proprietary chordCashAI technology, “which underpins the company’s ability to assess, price and structure funding across a broad range of creators and music businesses.”

Ishan Sachdev, general partner at beatBread’s longtime investor Deciens, said beatBread’s “technology and its ability to fund artists well … creates a significant opportunity to scale the business across a much larger global market. Andreea brings the operating experience and track record of building global businesses at the intersection of technology and music to capitalize on that opportunity.”

Maddux, who was CEO of TuneCore rival CD Baby from 2010-2020, will continue to support the company through the leadership transition. Both he and Gleeson have also been appointed to serve on the beatBread board of directors.

“Our priority over the course of the past year has been preserving the momentum that Peter [Sinclair] built, and positioning the company for long-term success,” said Maddux. “Andreea brings a rare combination of deep artist credibility, operational excellence and global scaling experience, and she is exactly the right leader to take beatBread to the next level in its growth journey.”

A former management executive claims in a new lawsuit that N.O.R.E. sexually assaulted her during an album promotion event in 1999.

Carmen Bryan, a former finance officer at Def Jam affiliate Rush Management who shares a child with Nas, filed civil claims against N.O.R.E. (born Victor James Santiago Jr.) on Wednesday (Sept. 9). The lawsuit, obtained by Billboard, seeks unspecified financial damages for “severe emotional distress.”

Bryan, who ran in the same circles as N.O.R.E. in the 1990s, alleges the rapper assaulted her at a Manhattan nightclub while he was doing pre-release promotion for his sophomore album Melvin Flynt Da Hustler in May 1999. According to the lawsuit, N.O.R.E. grabbed Bryan while “visibly intoxicated” and “committed an act of non-consensual digital penetration.”

“Ms. Bryan made clear verbal objections and repeatedly pleaded for Santiago to stop,” reads the legal complaint. “Santiago ignored her objections and pleas. Santiago physically overpowered Ms. Bryan.”

Afterward, N.O.R.E. allegedly recognized Bryan crying outside the club and apologized, saying, “Carm, I didn’t know it was you. You’re always doing something different with your hair.” Bryan says he repeated a similar apology a few weeks later at a barbecue that she and Nas hosted for their daughter’s birthday.

Bryan claims she disclosed the assault the day after it occurred to Jay-Z, a “trusted confidant.” She says Jay-Z “reacted strongly and threatened to confront” N.O.R.E., but Bryan asked him not to because she didn’t want to escalate the situation. She ultimately opted not to report the assault.

“She struggled agonizingly between the urgent need to address the violation of her bodily autonomy and the intense, culturally ingrained pressure to avoid bringing legal or public harm to a successful Black male,” read the lawsuit. “In an environment that routinely demanded absolute loyalty to the artist over the safety of women, advocating for her own basic human rights felt akin to a direct betrayal of the culture itself.”

Bryan alleges that she suppressed the trauma of the incident for years. That changed in 2023, when her memories were triggered by R&B singer Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura’s explosive sexual misconduct lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs. Bryan says she could not eat or sleep after the news broke and ultimately decided to pursue legal action of her own.

Now, Bryan is suing N.O.R.E. under New York City’s Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, which opened a limited window to bring sexual assault claims that would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations.

Bryan’s attorneys, Marjorie Mesidor and Heather Palmore, said in a statement shared with Billboard, “For far too long, the music and nightlife industries have normalized sexual violence, treating non-consensual contact and physical domination as an occupational hazard or ‘par for the course’ — as if enduring abuse is somehow what women signed up for when entering these spaces.”

“No woman signs up to be assaulted,” added Mesidor and Palmore. “The assertion that an assault is excusable — or simply did not happen — because a perpetrator failed to recognize his victim strips women of their fundamental humanity. Ms. Bryan is coming forward not only to demand accountability for the lasting trauma and public humiliation inflicted upon her, but to challenge the culture of entitlement that treats women’s bodies as collateral damage.”

Reps for N.O.R.E. did not immediately return a request for comment. A rep for Jay-Z, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, also did not return an inquiry.

UPDATE (Sept. 9): Local authorities have denied an application to reinstate permits for a canceled performance in Istanbul.

A letter from the Istanbul Provincial Police Department dated Monday (Sept. 7) and reviewed by Billboard says the decision to deny the new application was made given the possibility that “differing views and reactions which may arise before or during the event could come into confrontation, thereby disrupting public order.” The statement continues that situations requiring the attention of security forces might happen and that it could therefore be difficult to made sure the event happens safely. The letter says that as such, holding the event under current circumstances “would not be appropriate in terms of public order and security.”

PREVIOUSLY: The promoter of a canceled Anyma performance in Turkey is appealing the decision by local authorities.

On Sunday (Sept. 6), Anyma announced that the show, scheduled to take place on Saturday (Sept. 12) at Istanbul’s Ataköy Marina Arena as part of his ÆDEN tour, had been canceled after visuals from a previous performance were changed with AI to make them appear different than they actually are.

“Selected darker moments from our story and show were taken out of context, manipulated with AI, paired with other music and circulated online to manufacture a false sinister narrative that simply does not exist and does not reflect the show’s essence or intention,” the artist born Matteo Milleri wrote on social media.

Religious groups claimed the visuals and the show at large were satanic and petitioned the Turkish Ministry of Culture, which subsequently revoked the previously approved show permits. Anyma’s statement continued that he and his team did not get the opportunity to discuss that decision with local authorities.

“None of my visuals are AI-generated and the greatest irony is that AI was used to alter my work by those who condemn it and they ultimately turned it into something to fit their own narrative,” Anyma’s statement added. “My art was turned into social media and political propaganda. What happened next is unacceptable…. Neither my team, the promoter, nor I received any meaningful warning or opportunity for dialogue before the show was cancelled. Nobody asked us to explain the work, provide context or discuss possible adaptations. We were and are ready to do so. We strongly reject the false religious and political meaning being attributed to this work. We have performed around the world and have always engaged in respectful conversation according to the local culture and customs. We would have willingly done the same in Türkiye, had legitimate concerns been raised through dialogue.”

The Turkish promoter of the performance has now submitted a second permit application that includes Anyma’s statement, along with the request for the decision to be reconsidered so the event can proceed as scheduled.

But with the Turkish government shutting down myriad musical performances by artists including Robbie Williams, Polish metal band Behemoth, Russian band Slaughter to Prevail and others over the last several years for reasons related to safety, politics and religion, security risks around the Anyma show remain high even if the permit is reinstated.

The Sept. 12 show had been anticipating roughly 12,000 international attendees. The promoters, as such, estimated that the performance could have represented millions in marketing, media and tourism value.

Anyma’s ÆDEN tour is scheduled for stops in Milan on Sept. 19, Madrid on Sept. 26 and shows in Sydney, Athens, Mumbai, Abu Dhabi, Paris and Santiago De Chile through the end of 2026.

A civil lawsuit from the parents of murdered teenager Celeste Rivas Hernandez has opened up a second front in D4vd’s legal battle. This new case doesn’t just target the “Romantic Homicide” singer – it also claims his managers are partially at fault for Rivas’ sexual abuse.

The claims by Mercedes Martinez and Jesus Rivas Alvarado, obtained by Billboard, were submitted to Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday (Sept. 4). 21-year-old D4vd (born David Anthony Burke) was already facing criminal charges alleging he stabbed Rivas to death and dismembered her body after the 14-year-old threatened to go public with their illegal sexual relationship in April 2025. He has pled not guilty.

It’s common for the families of murder victims to bring their own private lawsuits in addition to the criminal process; OJ Simpson, for example, famously faced lengthy civil litigation despite his acquittal. Like in D4vd’s criminal case, the new civil lawsuit alleges that the singer acted alone in killing Rivas, and he’s the only one facing claims for wrongful death. However, Rivas’ parents are alleging that various people in D4vd’s orbit should also be held financially liable for the sexual abuse of Rivas, which allegedly began when she was 13 years old.

Among those accused of negligence in the lawsuit are D4vd’s management company, Mogul Vision, its CEO Josh Marshall and his day-to-day manager Robert Morgenroth. The group had guided D4vd’s ascendant pop career since its early days; D4vd told Billboard in a 2023 interview that Marshall discovered him on SoundCloud before the success of his breakout 2022 single “Romantic Homicide.”

The new lawsuit alleges that the Mogul Vision team, alongside D4vd’s mother and live-in security guard, “made arrangements that enabled Burke to be alone with Decedent and to continue his abuse of her.” It says Mogul Vision leased the Hollywood Hills home where D4vd lived, and that Morgenroth even had his own room at the house.  

“[They] knew or should have known of Burke’s dangerous propensities toward, and sexual exploitation of, Decedent, a minor, and failed to take reasonable steps to protect her, to supervise Burke, or to prevent the continued abuse,” reads the lawsuit.

Rivas’ parents are seeking unspecified financial damages in the case. Marshall and Morgenroth did not immediately return requests for comment on the claims.

Legal experts tell Billboard that D4vd’s managers might indeed be on the hook, depending on what the facts and evidence ultimately show. “Enabling child sex abuse is a crime, and in the civil courts, a person or entity can be held civilly liable for its role in allowing the abuse to occur,” says Dave Ring, an attorney who specializes in sexual abuse litigation.

“The relationship between D4vd and Celeste went on for some time,” says Ring. “How did D4vd’s key personnel not know what was taking place? That will be the main focus of the lawsuit.”

James McMillan, a lawyer and founder of the label and management company Art@War, notes that the Mogul Vision team could be in trouble even if they weren’t explicitly told Rivas was underage. That’s because the negligence standard allows for liability when a person “should have known” about wrongdoing — that is, if they turned a blind eye to something obvious.

“It’s not just if they knew specifically, but if they should have known based on inferences,” says McMillan. “What did she look like? Did she look like a little kid? That would be up for a jury or a judge to decide.”

For McMillan, the lawsuit serves as a reminder that managers “have a responsibility as human beings to govern ourselves accordingly and be good citizens.” While the D4vd case is extreme, he says that managers are often put in tough positions with their artist clients, whether that be witnessing criminal conduct or just bad behavior that reflects poorly on them.

“You’ve got a decision to make whether you want to be involved in something like that or if you want to turn a blind eye,” says McMillan. “Managers who are smart have to make decisions that are in alignment with the longevity and success of their long-term career and not get caught up in the moment with an artist.”

Suno launched V6, its latest batch of AI music models on Wednesday (Sept. 9) — its first “in partnership with the music industry,” as the company says. Suno, which was recently valued at $5.4 billion, also announced that in the future it will be launching products to provide AI-enabled remixing, sampling and other derivative features for music from participating partners. The news comes just hours after Suno inked its latest music partnership with French giant Believe.

Alongside Warner Music Group and BMG, Suno’s two other music industry allies, Believe’s participating music will train the V6 models, along with what’s called “user inputs.” On a special bonus episode of Billboard On the Record, Mikey Shulman, CEO and co-founder of Suno, explains the training process and how user input plays into it.

“When users make a song, they will implicitly tell us whether it is good or bad — or more accurately, [Suno] will give users two songs and they will implicitly tell us one of those is better than the other,” Shulman says. “We are able to take that signal and learn from it what makes a song particularly catchy, particularly good and use that information about these differences between songs to steer our models toward making music better.”

Jack Dolby, chief product officer at Suno, clarifies that while Suno’s music industry partners will receive a revenue share for their contributions to Suno, it’s not in exchange for training. “We consider this [the] partnership launching, and that’s why the payment starts,” Dolby says. “But it’s not because of the training data or the way that we built the model itself. It’s actually everything else the part the partnership enables in the future… I think the wrong way to think about these deals is that these deals are about making our models better. It’s not really about the data.”

According to Suno, there are three products within this new roll out — V6, V6 Wild and V6 Mini — all of which are said to be the fastest and highest audio quality of any of their models to date. Suno will also retire its previous models, and as of Sept. 3, the company has significantly limited downloads of its music — all of which were first promised in Suno’s partnership with WMG in late 2025.

A blog post about V6 details some of the new features available, including editing part of an existing song using plain language, building a mashup from multiple sources in one request, generating music from text, audio, images and video and more.

Despite Suno’s growing number of deals with music companies like BMG, WMG and Believe, Suno is being sued by a number of players in the music industry. This includes Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music’s lawsuit against the company, filed in 2024, accusing the AI company of copyright infringement; a recent class action lawsuit led by country star Jason Isbell which claimed that Suno designed its AI music generator to evoke artists’ identifying characteristics; a Mexican label, Gerencia 360 Music, which claimed that Suno’s AI models were trained on unlicensed regional Mexican hits; and a copyright infringement suit from Round Hill Music, accusing Suno of infringing on tens of thousands of songs.

To watch Shulman’s exclusive podcast interview with Billboard On the Record, check out the YouTube video below or click here for more viewing and listening options. An edited and condensed excerpt of the conversation can also be found below.

Tell me about v6 Wild — that seems to be a brand-new product line for Suno.

It is. It’s the first time we’re actually releasing something like this. Let me take a step back. I won’t just give you the answer of ‘it’s for everybody,’ even though it is… I think V6 Wild will make some of the most interesting stuff that you will ever hear, but when compared to V6 — if you’re just comparing the songs apples to apples — V6 Wild is going to take more liberties, and that is going to ultimately mean it doesn’t always give you the thing that you were looking for. So, if there’s a thing that you are looking for, V6 Wild may not be the right thing for you. However, if you are looking for peak creativity, the most interesting sounds, even if it’s not going to be the quote-unquote “perfect” thing, then V6 Wild is the model that you want to use.

Given you’re saying this is in partnership with the music industry, is there compensation flowing to Warner, BMG [and Believe], the [three] partners that you guys have announced?

It’s a little bit hard to get into the specifics here, but this is — and will be — a really important new line of business for all of our partners going forward. It will get easier as time goes on, especially as the products themselves get more and more defined, to actually say exactly how these new lines of business will develop.

Got it. I spoke with your chief product officer before this call just to kind of get a lay of the land of V6, and he was mentioning that this is a revenue share with your partners. Is that correct?

That’s right.

So, it’s a revenue share from the V6 models that rolled out today and then down the line, you have these [products] that you’re building toward, which will involve artist works that you can remix, make samples of — all that stuff. I imagine there’s also going to be another revenue stream that appears from that, right? How does that work?

It’s a little too early to say, but I would stress here that there’s going to be a lot of differentiation on the product side going forward. There’s not just going to be one product. There will be a whole bunch of different products, a whole suite of products. They will be different platform to platform. They may be different partner to partner. And so, maybe unfortunately, that means that some of these business models are going to get more complicated in the short term. But actually, the really exciting thing is that as that happens, the differentiation, the depth with which we can pull our users into music more, ultimately, the engagement and excitement and enjoyment that our users get from the platform gets much, much larger. And so, I don’t think anybody has all the answers today of exactly what these models, these business models, will look like. We have I would say good ideas and good guesses, and I’m mostly excited to develop the products with our partners. That has to be the thing that actually informs what the business models look like.

When you start working toward these models, where there are certain songs that you can remix and sample and that kind of thing, do artists get the opportunity to decide whether or not they want their songs to be on Suno, available for users to remix?

Ultimately, some stuff will be different rights holder to rights holder, partner to partner. But we are never going to have songs on platform for users to remix, interact with, otherwise adapt without rights holder consent.

Okay, but sometimes the rights holders means —

Sorry, meaning without the artist’s consent, the creative’s consent.

I was looking back at the press releases that were put out when you guys started these partnerships with BMG and with Warner. I noticed in it that it’s never referred to in either case as a licensing deal. I think that’s how the music industry sees these deals. Instead, with the Warner press release, it refers to it as a partnership. And then in the BMG one it’s a “global alliance that establishes a strategic framework. I’m wondering: are these licensing deals or not? And if so, is this licensing for using their works for training?

I don’t want to speak to how other people may perceive the deal. I’ll tell you how I think of these partnerships, which is what I said before. It’s really geared toward long-term development of things that could not have existed without these two parties coming together. And so, whether that is products that are user facing, whether that are products that are ultimately artist or creative facing and I think this is something I think you and I have discussed previously on this podcast.

In my opinion, there aren’t enough really long term partnerships like this in the music industry, where we’re trying to think about what could the music business look like in 10 years. What is something that we think might actually take five or 10 years to even develop, and why don’t we try to go and be audacious to do that? And there, you need a lot of long term alignment and truly to feel like a partner instead of to feel like a counterparty.

Okay, but is licensing a component of this partnership?

We will be licensing works in order to do the products that we’re building later on, whether that is remixing or sampling or otherwise modifying a piece of content.

I know the music industry is very concerned about how models are trained. That’s been a focus for a lot of companies recently, and has resulted in some litigation. How were the V6 models trained?

 Good question. At a very high level, we have our partner data. We also have all of the interactions that are —

Partner data? What does that mean?

For the initial release, it is Warner, [BMG and Believe]. We have all of the interactions that our users give us from the platform. And so I think we’ve discussed this on this on this podcast before. But just to remind the listeners, there’s a lot of usage on platform. There’s a lot of songs made every day. You’ve even reported on some of that. When users make a song, they will implicitly tell us whether it is good or bad or more accurately, will give users two songs and they will implicitly tell us one of those is better than the other. And we are able to take that signal and learn from it what makes a song particularly catchy, particularly good and use that information about these differences between songs to steer our models toward making music better or worse — hopefully better.

Got it. So you have data from Warner, and then you have user inputs — whether they like songs or not, how they’re prompting, that sort of thing. Is there more music beyond that is unlicensed that is used in training V6 models?

All of the data that we have from our partners is licensed. All of the user interactions then go in on top of that, and so that is, in our opinion, what makes for a licensed model.

Okay, so data from partners is licensed. But there are some people who you are not partnered with and their data might be training these models too…

There is there’s no unlicensed partner data.

So, are there no Universal songs or Kobalt songs or something that are training the V6 models?

Correct. No Universal songs. No Kobalt songs. No Sony songs, etc.