Apple Music has raised its subscription prices for the first time in nearly four years, according to prices listed on the Apple Music website.

In the U.S., the price for the individual plan rose from $10.99 to $11.99 per month, while the family plan increased from $16.99 to $19.99 per month and the student plan rose from $5.99 to $6.99 per month.

This marks the first hike in Apple Music subscription prices since October 2022, when the company cited increased licensing costs.

Representatives for Apple Music did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rival streaming platform Spotify has hiked its subscription prices fairly steadily over the last several years after maintaining a $9.99 price for its individual premium plan since it first launched in the U.S. in 2011. Its first increase arrived in July 2023, followed by another hike in July 2024 and a third increase in February of this year. The price for Spotify’s individual premium plan is now $12.99 a month, while its family plan is $21.99, its duo plan is $18.99 and its student plan costs $6.99.

In an interview with Kristin Robinson for Billboard‘s On the Record podcast in April, Apple Music vp Oliver Schusser noted that the platform is the only music streamer without a free tier. “And believe it or not, we’re really proud of that,” he said, adding, “I think it’s not the right thing for songwriters and artists to just say, you know what, we’re going to give this away for free — especially with the very little monetization that artists and songwriters are going to get in return.”

Schusser went on to lament the idea of free (ad-supported) streaming tiers, arguing they led to lower subscription prices across the board. “The fact that all paid services have to compete with free means, at the end of the day, not enough people are paying, because they can get it for free, and the paid services can’t actually charge the correct price for the service because they’re always competing with free,” he said.

Desiigner (born Sidney Selby III) was arrested on a second-degree domestic violence charge in South Carolina on Wednesday (July 15), according to Horry County Sheriff’s Office records viewed by Billboard.

Records show that the “Panda” rapper was booked on Wednesday at 2:21 p.m. ET. He remains behind bars without bail as of press time.

In addition to the domestic violence charge, Desiigner is facing three charges of malicious injury to animals and personal property valued at between $2,000 and $10,000. Each of the latter three charges comes with a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

According to a police report viewed by Complex, Desiigner got into an argument with his girlfriend and mother of his child over TVs assembled on the wall inside a home. The rapper allegedly smashed both of her phones with a hammer.

The victim allegedly fled the situation to a neighbor’s house with their child and locked herself in the bathroom, while Desiigner damaged the neighbor’s car and home windows as he looked for a way to breach the residence. She also claimed that Desiigner physically pushed her and tossed her purse over a fence.

This is far from Desiigner’s first run-in with the law. The Brooklyn-bred rapper was previously arrested on March 23 on a third-degree charge of domestic violence in South Carolina; the following day, he posted a $1,500 bond and was released. Before that, he was arrested in April 2023 on indecent exposure charges, with authorities alleging he was masturbating while aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis.

Desiigner broke out in 2016 with “Panda,” which spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. He also earned a pair of top 40 Hot 100 hits with “Timmy Turner” (No. 34 peak) and as a guest on BTS’ “Mic Drop” (No. 28). More recently, Desiigner released his ii deluxe project in April and his “Outside” single in May via LOD Entertainment.

Desiigner’s reps did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment.

In 2025, the Polaris Music Prize celebrated its 20th anniversary. Entering its third decade, the award is undergoing what might be its biggest period of change. From funding to voting process, the organization is continuing to evolve.

The cultural not-for-profit organization has spent the better part of two decades creating a space in the industry for Canadian acts to be recognized based solely on artistic merit, rather than sales, genre or support from a record label. Founded in the 2000s as Canada’s answer to the Mercury Prize, the organization became a registered Canadian charity in 2017.

Over its two-decade run, the Polaris Music Prize has awarded many notable acts, including Kaytranada, Haviah Mighty, Jeremy Dutcher (Twice), Caribou, Feist and more. It’s also recognized greats like Alanis Morissette, Leonard Cohen, Beverly Glenn-Copeland and Neil Young through the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize.

To commemorate its anniversary, Polaris introduced the SOCAN Polaris Song Prize and launched Polaris Festival, a multi-day event across Toronto, showcasing a range of Canadian talent.

But while new initiatives were introduced during its 2025 prize cycle, the longstanding album prize winnings dwindled from $50,000 to $30,000, while the 10 short-listed artists would no longer be awarded $3,000 — potentially indicating funding issues.

As it enters its 21st year, the Polaris Music Prize is finding new ways to persevere, experimenting with new initiatives without abandoning its guiding principles.

Last week, the Polaris Prize unveiled its 2026 short list of 10 albums competing to be named the best in Canada. It includes acts like Charlotte Cornfield, Peaches, Tanya Tagaq and Canada’s hottest band, Angine de Poitrine.

The winner, though, will be decided in a whole new way.

When the organization announced the long list at NXNE, it subtly revealed that the final album winner will be decided by a 205-person voting pool. That represents the first major process change in two decades. In previous years, that 200-plus jury voted to determine the long and short list, but an annually chosen 11-person grand jury made the winning album decision each year.

“It’s something that we’ve been thinking about for a while,” Amber Still, executive director at Polaris Music Prize, tells Billboard Canada.

Still joined the organization’s board in 2021, assuming the role from Claire Dagenais, who took over the position in March 2020 following the departure of Polaris Prize founder Steve Jordan.

“Since I’ve come on the board, we’ve been looking at everything that Polaris has been doing and seeing if there’s any way that we can improve it or find opportunity within it,” Still says, pointing to the award gala and ceremony’s move to Massey Hall back in 2023.

Still explains that the expanded jury is a part of a one-year “pilot program” to ensure that it’s successful and satisfies the existing members. “We will evaluate it at the end and then see if it will be permanent.”

Read more on the Polaris Prize’s updates here. — Heather Taylor-Singh

Angine de Poitrine Make Their Much-Anticipated Toronto Debut

The rise of Angine de Poitrine has happened so quickly, it’s hard to remember they’ve never played Canada’s biggest concert market. That changed Tuesday night (July 14) as they made their debut in Toronto twice in one night: first opening for Jack White at RBC Amphitheatre, then for their own headlining show at Mod Club.

As with many of White’s concerts, this was a no-phones show, so footage of that opening concert is already rare. However, White posted his own photo with the polka-dotted black-and-white alien duo after the show.

But fans were ready with their cameras out at Mod Club.

There are some concerts that you know will be “I saw them when” moments: The Weeknd’s debut at Mod Club in 2011, a young Adele playing The Rivoli in 2008, even Nirvana at Lee’s Palace in 1990. Leading up to this concert, it felt like Angine de Poitrine could join those ranks.

The Saguenay, Quebec, duo have already shown they can command crowds of nearly 100,000, but they kept their first headlining Toronto show nice and intimate at about 600 people. (They returned to play there again two more times this week, will play Guelph, Ontario’s Hillside Festival on Sunday (July 19), then will return to Toronto to play the much bigger History on November 5.) You could feel the anticipation in the air for the Billboard Canada Global Breakthrough Award winners.

The crowd was ready to erupt, even cheering for the band’s crew (also dressed in black-and-white) erecting their DIY polka-dot sheet backdrop.

When the band finally took the stage, it was a minute before they started playing. Instead, they stood and turned to the crowd, soaking up their cheers, Khn raised his hands to the triangle on his signature hat igniting a light within it, and the two members spoke a few words in their made-up language (somewhere between a sci-fi B-movie robot, a hawk and WWE wrestler Kane), and then began the simple stop-start drum and bass loop that begins Vol. II closer “Angor.” Khn signalled the crowd to clap along by clapping on the side of his helmet, which again timed to the triangle light inside.

Much has been made of the unusualness of their music — the odd time signatures, polyrhythms and microtones (the notes between the notes) — but seeing them live, you can tell why this music is so crowd-pleasing. Their instrumental grooves have a weight to them you can see in their viral online performances but you can feel live in the room. The heavy riffs and build-ups create a visceral tension and release that adds drama that doesn’t need vocals. After the recent wide release of their vinyl albums, Angine de Poitrine charted on multiple Billboard charts, including the Top Dance Albums chart. That felt like a weird fit at the time, but you could see people moving to the off-kilter grooves and clapping along to the non-4/4 time signatures.

It was hot and sweaty in the Mod Club, and it wasn’t long before Klek’s arm makeup wore off — by now its own in-joke. Angine de Poitrine played eight songs in just over an hour, and it felt like an athletic feat, especially right after playing at RBC Amphitheatre with Jack White during a Toronto heat wave. Still, it felt like a taste of things to come as the band continue their extraterrestrial ascent.

Head here for the full recap. — Richard Trapunski

Kneecap to Sue Indigenous Leader for Defamation After Being Denied Entry Into Canada

Kneecap are reportedly filing another defamation lawsuit after being denied entry into Canada. The Irish trio’s counsel Tom Hogan has been granted permission by the high court of Dublin to serve papers for a defamation lawsuit to Harvey Yesno, an Indigenous leader of the Eabametoong First Nation in Canada.

Last year, the group was blocked from entering Canada after Yesno and several other Indigenous leaders signed a statement published by Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem, in partnership with Allied Voices for Israel and the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, which denounced the group for their “history of promoting violence, intimidation and discrimination.

“Kneecap has outwardly supported antisemitism, genocide, and the indiscriminate murder of civilians. Allowing them to play in Canada would be a stain on our country’s reputation,” read the statement, which urged that Live Nation cancel the group’s shows in Oct. 2025 at Toronto’s History (Oct. 14-15) and Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre (Oct. 22-23).

Kneecap are suing for damages, claiming the statement harmed their reputations as professional artists and public figures after being picked up, spread and republished by various media outlets, as reported by the Irish Times.

Later, Liberal MP Vince Gasparro, who the group is already suing for defamation, announced on behalf of the federal government that the group was deemed ineligible to enter the country, explaining in a video posted to X that the band “have amplified political violence and publicly displayed support for terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas.” The group responded, calling his remarks “wholly untrue and deeply malicious” and adding that they had received no formal notice about any official ban.

The new lawsuit against Yesno was approved in Ireland as the group had an arguable case that they had been defamed in their home country, with their personal and professional relationships “bound up” in the jurisdiction.

Read more here. — Stefano Rebuli

Amid the flurry of mergers, acquisitions and asset sales that have taken place in the music industry this year, the sale of three scaled music rights catalog companies — Anthem, Iconoclast and Crescendo — is a sign that the catalog investment market is approaching a milestone.

Since 2018, when Hipgnosis Songs Fund listed on the London Stock Exchange and raised £200 million ($260 million) to invest in music intellectual property, the market for music as an “investible asset,” as Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis described it, has grown by the tens of billions.

Private equity funds including KKR and Bain have long invested in major music companies, while independent catalog companies like Primary Wave, Round Hill Music and the publisher Reservoir have been acquiring publishing rights and master recordings for decades. However, in the eight years since Hipgnosis’ listing, there has been a boom in catalog investing as more private equity firms, insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, global private credit investors and family offices — to name a few — have been drawn to the annuity-like returns music royalties provide in the streaming era.

As the practice of treating music as an asset class has grown in popularity, it has also evolved, with companies from indie giants like Concord to the four-year-old music rights company Duetti securitizing their music portfolios to raise capital from debt markets. The rating agency KBRA says it has rated more than 80 music asset-backed securities with a cumulative value of $12.9 billion since 2020, and many of those, including Concord, Lyra and Canon, racked up triple the interest that was expected.

Jimmy Stone, managing partner at Alderbrook, which advises on music investing, wrote in a recent research note that market activity in the first quarter, like Primary Wave’s acquisition of indie publisher Kobalt, signals that activity is now shifting from catalog acquisitions to the consolidation of scaled companies. And the backers of Anthem, Crescendo, Iconoclast and others are attempting to seize this moment and exit their music investments on a high note.

Iconoclast, the music rights and brand development company started by Olivier Chastan and backed by the $2-trillion investment manager PIMCO, is in the final stages of a sale to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group, according to three sources. Music Business Worldwide previously reported Iconoclast was seeking a sale price around $500 million.

Chastan previously headed Iconic Artists Group, when the firm acquired rights to music by Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, David Crosby and Linda Ronstadt.

Iconoclast has acquired select music rights to more than 30 catalogs, including Diplo’s Mad Decent Publishing, David Cassidy, Marianne Faithfull, Tony Bennett and The Band’s Robbie Robertson. Music Business Worldwide wrote that Iconoclast is generating at least $25 million in annual revenue.

Anthem Entertainment, the Canadian music company whose portfolio includes the publishing assets and recorded master royalties of Rush, Timbaland, and the music from the Spider-Man franchise, is also nearing a sale, to Influence Media.

The main owner of Anthem, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, previously went to market to sell the fund in 2017 and 2022, but those auctions came in below expectations. This time, around a dozen parties bid between $500 million and $600 million. Influence Media bid slightly above $650 million, sources say.

Meanwhile, global private markets investment firm Northleaf Capital is in advanced talks to sell the Crescendo catalog — which contains Pete Townshend’s publishing from his The Who repertoire; T. Rex’s publishing catalog and masters; and Ingrid Michaelson’s music assets — to Litmus Music for around $500 million, sources say.

Northleaf acquired Crescendo in 2021 after providing $500 million in funding to Lyric Capital Group in a deal that was termed a “strategic alliance.” Lyric Capital was formed by Jon Singer and Ross Cameron when they were executives at Spirit Music to buy Spirit Music and its catalog from original owner Pegasus Capital in 2018. Spirit Music is now the operational music company of Lyric Capital and serves as administrator for the Crescendo catalog. That portfolio also includes the 2014 acquisition by Spirit Music of the Cal IV Entertainment portfolio’s country hits like Faith Hill’s “Breathe,” Keith Urban’s “Stupid Boy,” Tim McGraw’s “Watch The Wind Blow By” and Jason Aldean’s “Big Green Tractor.”

Litmus was launched in 2022 by music industry executives Hank Forsyth and Dan McCarroll with $500 million from private equity giant Carlyle Group. Its portfolio includes rights to music by Katy Perry, Benny Blanco and Keith Urban.

Stone says music catalog companies raised more than $4 billion in the first quarter this year, surpassing all of the capital acquisition funds raised in 2024.

That’s plenty of dry powder for investment deals.

SYDNEY, Australia — The Australian prime minister’s assurances that tech and AI companies can’t use copyright-protected works including consent, credit and compensation has been warmly welcomed by the international music publishers community.

Earlier, on Wednesday, prime minister Anthony Albanese addressed AI in a presentation at the University of Sydney, with a speech that left no doubt about the government’s position.

“No company should use Australian books, music, art or news to build or train AI without the artist’s control. That includes the artist’s control of the price and value of their work,” he remarked. “Anything less, is theft.”

Those comments put at ease an industry nervous that copyright projections could be carved out by a tech sector hungry to use music and creative works for AI purposes without licenses.

That won’t happen, Albanese insists. And the “implications are global,” notes John Phelan, director general of the Brussels-based International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP), which represents 90% of the world’s commercially released music and whose members include Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, BMG, Kobalt, Reservoir and Concord Music Publishing, alongside thousands of other indie publishers.

“Our international industry fully agrees” with Albanese’s stance, Phelan adds, “and looks forward to continuing to build only those AI and music markets which are built wholly on consent, credit and compensation.”

ICMP’s Australasian affiliate AMPAL had lobbied against text and data mining exceptions, and signed the creative industries’ Open Letter to Government, along with ARIA, AIR, APRA AMCOS and other trade bodies and artists, calling on the federal government to reject any weakening of copyright protections.

“Australia holds something no other country possesses: more than sixty thousand years of First Nations culture,” reads the AI Open Letter. “Those songs, stories, images and languages are living cultural heritage. Any framework that weakens the protection of creative work puts that heritage at risk of being absorbed into AI systems in ways that are extractive, disrespectful and irreversible.”

Members from the association and other industry bodies visited Parliament House in Canberra earlier this month, in a united effort to get the message through. “If AI companies want to use music, they need permission, they need a license and they need to pay fairly,” AMPAL CEO Damian Rinaldi said at the time. “Licensing is already working. Australia should not weaken copyright to solve a problem the market is already solving.” 

Albanese agreed. And despite lobbying from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google and others, the government rejected the tech sector requests that music be used without permission, and pushed back on proposals for a fund for the use of creative industries’ work. 

In his speech this week, Albanese remarked that Australian writers, musicians, artists and journalists “must retain ownership and control of their work,” and that “our laws will spell that out, plain as day.” At the same time, Albanese announced the create of an “Office of AI,” operating within the department of prime minister and cabinet and facilitate the design of “Australian standards” for the technology.

Australia’s industry leaders have welcomed Albanese’s comments, while the ICMP’s Phelan thanked the the PM for delivering a “landmark and highly positive statement” on the issue.

The prime minister’s speech “AI in Australia’s interests” can be read here.

The DC Council in Washington, D.C., has passed one of the most comprehensive ticketing regulation bills in the country. On Tuesday (July 15), the council voted unanimously to give final approval to The RESALE Act, which includes a host of consumer protections — from a resale cap of 10% on concert tickets to requiring ticket resellers to acquire a license if they advertise more than 50 tickets in a year.

Championed by councilmember Charles Allen, the RESALE Act includes several measures that have been proposed or enacted in various states across the U.S. This includes the 10% resale cap, ticket price transparency for fans — so buyers can see the full price of tickets from the beginning of the sale — and the banning of speculative ticket sales and advertising (speculative tickets are tickets that the reseller does not actually possess).

As of June 2026, 20 states across the U.S. have introduced similar legislation on resale and speculative ticketing. But D.C.’s coalition of advocates for the RESALE Act — including the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) and the Fix the Tix Coalition, which is made up of more than 30 live music and event industry organizations and local promoters and venues — lobbied for additional laws not typically seen in similar bills around the country. Audrey Fix Schaefer, NIVA’s board president and director of communications for I.M.P., 9:30 Club and The Anthem in D.C., tells Billboard she hopes the RESALE Act will “become model legislation throughout the land.”

The RESALE Act will also require any ticket reseller that advertises 50 or more tickets a year to register with the district and obtain a license. According to advocates of the bill, requiring this will increase oversight and accountability in the secondary marketplace, as well as inform buyers if they’re purchasing from a professional reseller or a casual fan. When tickets are being resold on the secondary market, the seller will also be obligated to provide the original price of the primary ticket for purchasers to view.

“It is pretty phenomenal that the city thought this was important enough that they’re investing in a new section of the licensing office to” handle the licensing registrations, Fix Schaefer says. “They put it in the budget.”

The RESALE Act will also prohibit surveillance pricing, which prevents ticket sellers from using consumers’ personal data to manipulate or personalize prices. The bill ensures the District has the authority and resources necessary to hold bad actors accountable.

Councilmember Allen, who authored the RESALE Act, said in a statement, “People are sick of big tech wringing more and more money out of them. DC is a leader here and I expect many other jurisdictions to step in once they see we can save our residents money and keep more dollars in our local economy instead of propping up big tech.”

“Black Cat has always been proud of our city and its music scene, and is excited to see DC become one of the first places in the nation where bands can set concert prices with confidence and fans will be free from price gouging,” added Catherine Ferrando, vp and co-owner of independent D.C. venue Black Cat.

Following yesterday’s final Council approval, the RESALE Act will advance through the remaining steps of the District’s legislative process before it can take effect. The act will need to be signed by Washington, D.C., mayor Muriel Bowser, who has shown support for the bill. Once a bill is signed by the mayor, D.C. legislation is shared with both chambers of the U.S. Congress, which have 30 days to either veto the legislation or allow it to become law without interference. If the mayor signs the RESALE Act and Congress doesn’t block it, the law would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

Bad Bunny wants a judge to reconsider a recent ruling that refused to dismiss a sprawling lawsuit over the origins of reggaeton, arguing his accusers are citing a “Frankenstein” copyright.

The ruling, issued earlier this month, said only a jury could decide whether reggae duo Steely & Clevie own the dembow rhythm — the boom-ch-boom-chick beat heard in almost every reggaeton song. The judge’s decision likely means years more of litigation in the massive case, which targets Bunny and dozens of other artists over nearly 2,000 songs.

But in a motion Wednesday (July 15), attorneys for the reggaeton superstar pleaded with the judge to overturn that ruling, arguing that the case has a fatal flaw that had not been properly acknowledged.

“Plaintiff’s supposed selection and arrangement does not exist in any single work,” writes Kenneth Freundlich, the star’s lawyer. “They have assembled a ‘Frankenstein’ across three separate songs.”

The huge case, filed in 2021 by Cleveland “Clevie” Browne and the heirs of Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson against Bunny, Karol G, Daddy Yankee and many others, claims their 1989 song “Fish Market” is the ultimate source of dembow. But it also asserts ownership over two later songs called “Dem Bow” and “Pounder (Dub Mix II)” — both of which were allegedly based on “Fish Market” and helped spawn the sound of reggaeton.

In the ruling earlier this month, the judge said that only a jury could decide whether the dembow rhythm is copyrightable. But in Wednesday’s motion, Bad Bunny’s lawyers said it had overlooked one thing: that Steely & Clevie’s alleged proprietary beat does not exist entirely in any of the three songs that allegedly spawned it.

“The consequence of this omission is concrete, and it is not merely a case management problem: Plaintiffs are asserting exclusive rights in a supposed selection and arrangement that does not exist,” Freundlich writes.

If the judge declines to review his own ruling, Bad Bunny wants an alternative route: The right to immediately appeal the ruling to a federal appeals court before the complex case gets bogged down in discovery and an eventual trial.

“Resolving it now may appreciably shorten the time, effort, or expense of conducting the proceedings, especially where what lies ahead is an [infringement] analysis of over one thousand works,” the star’s attorneys write.

In a statement to Billboard, Steely & Clevie’s attorney Stephen Doniger said it was “disappointing that defendants continue to push their false narrative” about dembow: “Defendants offer nothing new and no basis for reconsideration. We hope the court will quickly deny this motion.”

R. Kelly’s legal team is ramping up efforts to lobby President Donald Trump for clemency as the singer serves a decades-long prison sentence for sex crimes.

Case filings before the Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney show that the disgraced R&B star (Robert Sylvester Kelly) has a pending petition for commutation of his 31-year prison sentence for racketeering, sex trafficking, child pornography and enticing minors for sex. A presidential commutation would wipe Kelly’s sentence but leave his conviction intact, as opposed to a full pardon.

The actual text of the clemency petition, first reported by the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday (July 14), was not available. It’s not clear exactly when the application was submitted, only that it was at some point in 2026. Kelly’s lawyer did not return a request for details on Wednesday (July 15).

Historically, the Pardon Attorney’s office has conducted a structured, multi-level review of clemency applications before deciding whether to send a recommendation along to the White House for a final decision. Trump, however, has been known to break with this tradition and grant pardons and commutations unilaterally based largely on lobbying within his inner circle. As Mark Osler, a leading clemency attorney and law professor at the University of St. Thomas told Billboard last year, “The mechanism is falling apart.”

Kelly’s legal team seems to understand this; even before filing an official clemency petition, his lawyer, Beau Brindley, has been publicly appealing to Trump directly for relief. Last June, for example, Brindley said in a statement to Billboard that Trump “is the only one with both the power and the courage” to set Kelly free.

The attorney has also not given up on securing Kelly’s release through the court system. While the former singer’s appeals have all been rejected by higher courts, Brindley is still pursuing a new trial in Chicago. He argued in a series of court filings last year that jailhouse officials were trying to kill Kelly, though a judge quickly rejected his calls for immediate release.

BandLab Technologies has acquired AI-powered digital audio workstation Aiode, adding to its suite of products which includes BandLab, Cakewalk, ReverbNation and Airbit.

Aiode is a digital music-making product that allows music creators to write and produce songs by using audio-to-audio models, meaning a user can upload a half-finished track they’ve made, for example, and Aiode’s AI-powered virtual musicians can help finish out the song idea stem-by-stem. It also allows musicians to regenerate specific portions of songs to help take their ideas in a new direction, to quickly find new samples and to work alongside models based on real musicians, who have collaborated with Aiode, to create with their artistic flair.

Developed alongside session musicians and producers, the product has only been trained on licensed pre-existing music as well as audio created by professional musicians in-house. The models within Aiode’s platform are also proprietary and all of its licensed training data is traceable to its source.

Aiode adds to BandLab Technologies’ suite of options for a growing class of do-it-yourself music creators, including BandLab, which is a social music creation platform, and Cakewalk, its suite of desktop music tools. Based in Singapore, BandLab Technologies is a division of Caldecott Music Group, which also owns NME Networks and Vista Musical Instruments.

This deal is part of a growing trend in AI music acquisitions in the last year. In 2025, AI music company Suno acquired WavTool, a browser-based digital audio workstation, and Epidemic Sound purchased Song Sleuth, an AI recognition startup. In January, Beatstars acquired AI music tool Lemonaide, and Splice bought Kits AI. Then, in February, Google acquired AI music startup ProducerAI, which is now available as part of Google Labs’ offerings, which also includes its music model Lyria 3.

“Aiode shares BandLab Technologies’ ethos of innovation and giving music makers every opportunity to find success,” says Idan Dobrecki, CEO and co-founder of Aiode. “Since Aiode was founded in 2022, we’ve worked side by side with professional musicians to create technology that respects their artistry and keeps them involved in how their musical identity is represented. BandLab Technologies gives us the opportunity to bring that approach to more creators,”

“For Aiode, joining a group that understands both accessible creation and professional production is a rare fit,” says Blue Dobrecky, COO and co-founder of Aiode. “BandLab Technologies’ breadth of experience gives us a much broader foundation for where Aiode can go as the ways people make music continue to evolve.”

SYDNEY, Australia — A nervous music community was put at ease Wednesday, July 15 when prime minister Anthony Albanese removed any doubt that creatives would maintain control, and the value, for their work in the age of artificial intelligence.

During an address on AI at the University of Sydney, the nation’s leader gave the strongest of assurances that tech companies would not have the right to copyright-protected content, including music, to train AI “without the artist’s control.”

“Australian writers, musicians, artists and journalists must retain ownership and control of their work,” he remarked. “Our laws will spell that out plain as day. An artist’s creative endeavor is their work and their property.”

No company “should use Australian books, music, art or news to build or train AI without the artist’s control, and that includes the artist’s control of the price and value of their work,” he said.

Australia, Albanese suggests, has the opportunity to take the lead on this hot button topic.

“Nowhere do artists or rights holders have sufficient control of their work when it comes to AI training,” he added. “And that is why the best way to secure the strongest copyright protections for Australian artists is for Australia to be active and involved.”

Also during his speech, titled “AI in Australia’s interests,” the PM unveiled a new Office of AI which, with effect from today, would design the new Australian standards — essentially a functioning licensing framework built on consent and payment.

With those words, the domestic music industry, which has lobbied tirelessly on the protection of copyrights, breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“The prime minister could not have been clearer: Australian writers and musicians keep ownership and control of their work. Artists control what that work is worth, not the government and not a technology company,” remarks ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd.

“Control of price, value and terms of use are what underpin a commercial licensing market,” Herd adds. “The artist decides what their work is worth and who may use it. That is how licensing works everywhere else in the world and it is how it should work here. In the prime minister’s words: anything less is theft.”

The message to AI businesses “is clear,” she continued. “Now is the time to get on with licensing. Right now deals are being signed across music, journalism and publishing around the world. Australia’s creative industries are ready do business.”

Rights organization APRA AMCOS echoed those comments, and applauded Albanese for his “clear and unequivocal support for Australia’s artists, creators and copyright holders.” 

“The prime minister has made it clear,” says APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston. “The future of AI development in Australia must respect creator rights, that permission and payment must be sought, and crucially, the creative economy must benefit from AI innovation and development in Australia.”

APRA AMCOS has put a price on what a copyright carve-out would mean to the music space. The PRO’s landmark AI and Music Report found that, without a mandatory licensing framework, Australian and New Zealand songwriters and composers face a 23 per cent hit to their revenues. The bottom line: Australian and New Zealand creators would miss out on more than A$500 million ($350 million) over just four years. 

Albanese’s comments on AI and copyright follow the Attorney General’s confirmation late last year that there would no copyright exception for AI training. Then, in December, the publication of the Productivity Commission’s final report on Harnessing data and digital technology, which concluded that it would be “premature to make changes to Australia’s copyright laws.”

Now, more than half a year on, the prime minister has given his word on the matter.

Damian Rinaldi, CEO of AMPAL, the music publishers’ association, welcomes the PM’s “unequivocal recognition that ‘an artist’s creative endeavor is their work and property’, and that Australian creators and rightsholders must retain ownership and control of their work, including its price and value.” And his declaration that “anything less is theft” sends a “powerful and unambiguous message,” Rinaldi continues. “Permission must come first.”

Maggie Collins, executive director of the Association of Artist Managers (AAM) was among the many industry leaders who made a submission to the National Cultural Policy, and was anxiously awaiting the outcome of today’s presentation.

“Australia knows its worth, and today’s speech by prime minister Albanese on the future of AI in this country made that crystal clear, when he articulated without a shadow of a doubt, that in embracing this new age,” she writes in a message to AAM’s members. “Australian writers, musicians, artists and journalists must retain ownership and control of their work.”

Read Albanese’s speech in full here.