The Tragically Hip, Loverboy songwriters Mike Reno and Paul Dean, Feist and Roch Voisine are headed to The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF). All platinum-plus selling and award-winning artists, they will all become 2026 inductees.

They will receive this prestigious honour at an induction ceremony presented by Amazon Music that will take place at Massey Hall in Toronto on September 26. The evening will feature performances and tributes from Canadian and global artists paying tribute to their songbooks. Performers and guests will be announced soon.

The event will also be livestreamed globally on the Amazon Music channel on Twitch for the second time, and streamed across Canada on Prime Video.

The Tragically Hip have sold over 14 million albums worldwide and won 17 Juno Awards, including the Humanitarian Award at the 50th Juno Awards. They were honoured with a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2002, and in 2022, recognized again for their humanitarian efforts supporting social and environmental justice.

In a statement, the band express gratitude for the honour but regret that the late Gord Downie can’t be there to celebrate with them.

“We’re excited to be entering the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and joining previous inductees, as well as this year’s, whose songs we greatly admire,” they say. “It is humbling to be in their company; although it is bittersweet that our bandmate, lyricist and dear friend, Gord Downie, will not be standing with us.”

Read more on all the nominees here. — Kerry Doole

Breakout Canadian Artist TALK Signs With Big Loud Rock, Releases First Single in Three Years

Big Loud Rock — the alternative and rock imprint of heavyweight U.S. country label Big Loud Records — has added a rising Canadian act to its roster.

The Nashville-based label announced the signing of TALK today (May 1). It coincides with the release of his first single in three years, “Time Machine,” out now.

Known for crafting cinematic alternative and pop-rock anthems, the vocal powerhouse, born Nicholas Durocher, captured listeners with his debut single, “Run Away To Mars,” inspired by Christopher Nolan’s film Interstellar.

Released in 2021, the heartfelt ballad resonated with listeners during the pandemic, and went viral on TikTok and across streaming services. The song peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, and made major waves across the border, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Alternative Airplay chart and receiving a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Two years later, TALK shared his debut album, Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees. It went gold in his home country, was longlisted for 2024’s Polaris Music Prize and led to his first-ever Juno win for breakthrough artist of the year. Since then, he has performed alongside artists like Shania Twain and Luke Combs, while landing major synch placements in Grey’s Anatomy and CBS’s Tracker.

Now, he’s stepping into a new era with the U.S. label imprint, as he gears up for his sophomore record, which he worked on at Sandy Pandya’s Toronto-based music company, ArtHaus, which handles his management.

“Big Loud Rock quickly emerged as the most exciting partner to work with on my second album,” he says. “Their belief in pure artistry, drive, and heart above all else has renewed my belief in this unpredictable industry. I’m more than proud to call them my home.”

TALK joins fellow label signees including HARDY, Blame My Youth, Dexter and the Moonrocks, Girl Tones, , Mercury, Zoe Ko and more.

“We’re excited to welcome TALK into the Big Loud Rock family,” shares Big Loud partner and Big Loud Rock president Joey Moi (a Canadian living in Nashville). “His powerhouse vocals and eccentric creative concepts really blew us away. He brings such a fresh, infectious energy to the alternative rock space that we couldn’t help but immerse ourselves in it.”

Moi and his team aren’t wasting any time showcasing TALK’s talents to the world, with the new single “Time Machine” out today. The song is co-produced by Moi, Tofer Brown, TALK and Connor Riddell.

Listen and read more here. — Heather Taylor-Singh

CMRRA Marks 50th Anniversary by Distributing $94 Million in Royalties to Publishers and Songwriters in 2025

The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA) is marking 50 years with some good news. The agency has revealed that it distributed $94 million in royalties to publishers and self-published songwriters in 2025.

While it’s a notable figure, it’s an overall 2% decrease in distributions from 2024, which saw the agency distributing $96 million. Still, 2025’s numbers are a 19% increase from 2023’s figures at $78 million.

This year, much of the CMRAA’s growth is credited to its 477 new client affiliations, which include music publishers, self-published songwriters and administrators. Of that number, 137 were allotted for international collections – a royalty segment the agency didn’t start collecting until 2021. It’s a 33% increase in client affiliations from last year.

Meanwhile, broadcast mechanical distributions — royalty payments that are issued when a musical composition is reused for broadcast on radio or TV — increased by 119%.

It’s a change from the major drivers for last year’s distribution numbers, which were fuelled by a growth in streaming and TikTok.

The numbers come hot on the heels of the CMRRA’s 50th anniversary. In 2025, the agency reported that it renewed licensing deals with major streaming platforms and collaborated with partners including the Juno Awards, Honey Jam and the Indigenous Music Summit.

Looking ahead, the agency shares it will remain focused on supporting music publishers and self‑published songwriters, as the rise of AI and modern technology continues to dominate the Canadian music industry. Ensuring that partners “respect copyright and value songs as creative works,” the agency will continue evolving its licensing framework to be “grounded in consent, transparency and fair value for creators.”

“As we build on our 50‑year legacy, CMRRA is focused on the future, investing in technology, data intelligence, and scalable services that support music publishers and self‑published songwriters,” says the agency’s president, Paul Shaver. “The industry is evolving rapidly, and CMRRA is committed to leading that change by delivering smarter tools, building stronger relationships and creating sustainable opportunities for our clients well into the future.”

Read more here. — H.T.S.

Maverick City Music has won a court order halting a competing Christian music project launched by its estranged co-founder — at least for now.   

A New York judge granted Maverick City’s request for a preliminary injunction on Wednesday (April 29) against Tony Brown, who sold his shares of the Grammy-winning worship collective to current CEO Norman Gyamfi for $5 million in 2023. A bitter legal battle is now waging over the terms of that buy-out deal, with Maverick City’s Gyamfi alleging Brown violated a non-compete provision by launching another Christian music group called God Aura after his departure.

Brown alleges the non-compete is void, along with the rest of his buy-out agreement, because Maverick City has underpaid him by roughly $2 million. Judge Nancy M. Bannon ruled Wednesday that whether the contract holds up remains an open question that will depend on the evidence — and that until a fulsome decision is reached, Brown cannot release any new music.

Among other things, the injunction requires Brown to pull God Aura’s December 2025 album Wonderful Child down from streaming services. The lawsuit now moves into the discovery phase, meaning Maverick City and Brown will exchange evidence with each other.

A lawyer for Maverick City, Steven Cooper of Reed Smith, said in a Friday (May 1) statement to Billboard that his clients “are very pleased that the court shut down Anthony Brown’s improper competitive activities.”

“Mr. Brown tried repeatedly to avoid this hearing, and ultimately his attempts failed, and his bad acts were exposed,” added Cooper. “Mr. Gyamfi and his companies will continue to aggressively pursue those who violate contracts and engage in wrongdoing against them.”

Attorneys for Brown declined to comment on the injunction.

Brown co-founded Maverick City in 2018 alongside Jonathan Jay. The Atlanta-based music collective has won five Grammy Awards and topped Billboard‘s Christian and gospel charts with members and collaborators including Chandler Moore, Naomi Raine and Brandon Lake.

Gyamfi joined Maverick City as a part-owner and executive around 2021 and helped grow Maverick City’s Christian music empire. He eventually bought out Brown, but Brown alleges Gyamfi failed to complete the promised payments based on unsubstantiated sexual harassment complaints against him.

Brown initially sued Maverick City in Georgia, but the dispute was kicked to New York in February due to a forum selection clause in the buyout deal. In that decision, an Atlanta judge rejected Brown’s claim that he was coerced into signing the contract due to threats from Louis Burrell, a music industry veteran and the brother of MC Hammer.

Meanwhile, Maverick City is also dealing with separate litigation tied to Moore’s abrupt departure from the group last month. Moore is alleging that Gyamfi stole his royalties, but the group denies this and says Moore failed to fulfill his contract before exiting.

Just like in the Brown lawsuit, Maverick City tried to get an injunction to stop Moore from pursuing a solo career while the dispute plays out. But the group was unsuccessful in that attempt, and Moore is now releasing music on his own.

Jason Derulo took the witness stand in a Los Angeles federal courtroom on Thursday (April 30) to deny that a session musician on his 2020 chart-topper “Savage Love” deserves writing and production royalties.

Derulo and his label, Columbia Records, are defendants in an ongoing civil trial over the credits for “Savage Love,” a viral TikTok hit from August 2020 that later hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to a remix featuring BTS. The plaintiff is Matthew Spatola, a musician, songwriter and producer who played guitar and bass on the song.

Spatola alleges that he contributed key creative elements to the instrumentals on “Savage Love,” which sampled an earlier beat by New Zealand-born producer Jawsh 685. He’s now accusing Derulo of “cutting him out completely” from the lucrative royalties that would flow from writing and production credits.

Derulo, clad in a blue suit and grey tie, testified on Thursday that Spatola “played a beautiful guitar and bass” on “Savage Love.” But the pop singer told jurors he was the one who composed these instrumentals, and that Spatola just played what he was told.

“Mr. Spatola created absolutely nothing on ‘Savage Love,’” Derulo testified.

Derulo told the jury that he vets potential creative collaborators closely before deciding to work with them in a co-writer or producer capacity. He said that wasn’t the case with Spatola; according to Derulo, he had never even met Spatola before the musician came to his home recording studio for two sessions in April 2020.

“I would never in a million years just invite somebody off the street, that I’ve never heard what they’ve done, to come in and be a producer for me,” said Derulo.

The case, which was filed in 2023 and went to trial on April 22, highlights the prevalence — and potential pitfalls — of informal dealings between artists and their musical collaborators. It is undisputed that Spatola was paid a $2,000 fee for his work on “Savage Love.” But it’s also undisputed that he and Derulo never formally signed a so-called work-for-hire agreement.

Under copyright law, a work-for-hire agreement confirms that a musician does not have authorship rights despite contributing to a song. In this case, no such deal was signed; Derulo merely texted Spatola after the fact asking, “1K good each day?”

Spatola is now alleging that the absence of work-for-hire paperwork is proof that he deserves creative credits. Derulo disagrees — and now it’ll be up to a jury to decide which version of events is the truth.

Jurors are slated to begin deliberating on a verdict next week.

Britney Spears was formally charged with driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol on Thursday (April 30). According to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, the charge is a misdemeanor

Per the court docket viewed by Billboard, Spears is due back in court for an arraignment on Monday (May 4), where she’ll enter a plea. The complaint doesn’t specify how much or what drugs or alcohol the pop star was under the influence of at the time of her arrest on March 4.

Spears was released on her own recognizance on March 5, meaning there was no bail amount attached to her charge.

Billboard has reached out to Spears’ reps for comment.

The “Toxic” singer was arrested on suspicion of DUI on March 4 around 9:28 p.m. PT in Ventura County, Calif., and released from custody the following morning.

“This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable,” a rep for Spears told Billboard following her arrest. “Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law, and hopefully this can be the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life. Hopefully, she can get the help and support she needs during this difficult time.”

The statement continued: “Her boys are going to be spending time with her. Her loved ones are going to come up with an overdue needed plan to set her up for success for well-being.”

Britney Spears broke her silence and returned to Instagram on March 27, where she thanked her fans for their support following the arrest.

“Thank you guys for all your support,” she wrote in a video clip that showed her dancing alongside her 19-year-old son, Jayden Federline. “Spending time with family and friends is such a blessing. Stay kind !!!”

A rep for Spears confirmed to Billboard on April 12 that the singer checked herself into a treatment facility. No additional details were provided about the specifics of the program or her stay.

Believe’s Label & Artist Solutions is now open for business in the United States.

Music industry veteran Thomas Maxwell will lead the new activities as vice president U.S., Label & Artist Solutions (LAS), Believe, reporting to the company’s global head of music, Romain Vivien.

Going forward, Maxwell will sign and develop partnerships with independent labels, and expand the independent music specialist’s presence in the U.S., the world’s No. 1 recorded music market. He’ll split time between New York City, Nashville, and Los Angeles while “scaling the company’s U.S. operations and cementing Believe as a premier partner for growth-minded independent music companies in the region,” reads a statement.

Previously, Maxwell served in multiple positions at IDOL, where he opened and established the first U.S. office for the Paris-based indie distributor, and led signings including Mexican Summer, Young Art, The Ray Charles Foundation, HighNote Records, Old Soul Music, Roundhill, and Acrophase Records. During his time with IDOL, he worked on key releases from artists including Erick the Architect, Ginger Root, TOKiMONSTA, Cate Le Bon, Channel Tres, Yaeji, George Clanton, and Drugdealer.

Also, Maxwell has spoken at conferences and events including SXSW, Indie Week and Music Biz and is said to maintain strong relationships across the streaming and label ecosystem.

“For 20 years,” Vivien comments in a statement, “Believe has succeeded by supporting local music ecosystems and developing labels and artists in nearly every major music market around the world. Thomas’ expertise and connections make him the ideal candidate to lead Believe’s expansion into the largest music market in the world, the United States, and to scale our business to support local artists and labels throughout the region.”

Adds Maxwell: “I’m incredibly excited to be joining Believe at such a dynamic moment for the company and the independent sector. Throughout my career, I’ve focused on helping independent labels and artists navigate an increasingly complex digital ecosystem and build sustainable businesses. Believe’s global scale, technology, and artist-first approach uniquely position the company to support the next generation of independent success, and I’m thrilled to help expand those opportunities in the U.S.”

Believe has long held ambitions for the United States. In 2023, Believe CEO Denis Ladegaillerie told Billboard he was eying the U.S. Then, in 2025, the Paris-based business revealed it was ready to expand its artist and label services. “We’re building teams in 50 countries, and we’re going to build more in other countries, starting with the U.S. this year,” Vivien said at the time.

Founded in 2005 by Ladegaillerie, a former Vivendi executive, Believe has done impressive business by focusing on large European markets, and developing markets globally, including Asia, where the company first established a presence in 2013 (when it was known as Believe Digital).

From 2020 to 2024, Believe’s revenue rose 124% to 988.8 million euros ($1.05 billion) through organic growth and a mix of acquisitions and investments. The Americas, however, accounted for only 15% of Believe’s revenue in 2024, well behind Asia/Oceania/Africa’s 24% and Europe’s 61%, according to the company’s earnings report. Much of that Americas revenue came from U.S.-based digital distributor TuneCore, acquired by Believe in 2015.

Boasting a digital-first mindset, the business’s global portfolio includes German record labels Nuclear Blast and Groove Attack; French label PlayTwo; and Doğan Music Company, Turkey’s largest independent record label.

In 2023, the company moved into publishing by acquiring U.K.-based Sentric Music Group, which represented more than four million songs and over 400,000 songwriters in more than 200 territories at the time of the deal. From that deal, valued at €47 million ($51 million), Believe launched Believe Music Publishing two years later, in 2025.

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In 2023, Believe CEO Denis Ladegaillerie told Billboard he was eying the U.S. Two years later, the Paris-based company is ready to expand its artist and label services business to the world’s largest music market. 
“We’re building teams in 50 countries, and we’re going to build more in other countries, starting with the U.S. this year,” says Romain Vivien, global head of music/president for Europe. In fact, Believe is currently hiring a Los Angeles-based vp of labels and artist solutions for the U.S. who can “grow, scale and motivate high output teams,” according to the job posting.
Related

Believe Makes Bid for Remaining Public Shares a Year After Going Private
Glenn Peoples

Founded in 2005 by Ladegaillerie, Believe has done brisk business by focusing on large European markets and developing markets globally. From 2020 to 2024, Believe’s revenue rose 124% to 988.8 million euros ($1.05 billion) through organic growth and a mix of acquisitions and investments. Its portfolio includes German record labels Nuclear Blast and Groove Attack; French label PlayTwo; and Doğan Music Company, Turkey’s largest independent record label. In 2023, the company moved into publishing by acquiring U.K.-based Sentric Music Group for $51 million, and in 2025,

Believe Music Publishing launches more than two years after Believe acquired U.K.-based publisher Sentric Music Group, which represented more than four million songs and over 400,000 songwriters in more than 200 territories at the time of the deal. Believe bought Sentric from Utopia Music in a transaction that valued it at €47 million ($51 million)

ElevenLabs has launched a newly revamped iteration of ElevenMusic, its AI-powered music platform. Through it, fans can stream, create and remix music, turning them from “passive listeners into active participants,” according to a blog post. This follows the August 2025 launch of ElevenMusic’s original AI music model under the same name, which allowed users to create AI music from written prompts and to use those songs specifically for commercial purposes.

As of Wednesday (April 29), users of ElevenMusic can either make fully new songs — prompting first from a lyric, melody or mood to get an AI-generated song — or remix existing songs’ genres or tempos to make them their own. In a press release about the revamped service, ElevenMusic touts itself as “fully licensed” and “artist-first by design.”

This marks what appears to be a significant shift in ElevenMusic’s business plan. Originally, in August 2025, ElevenMusic announced licensing deals with Kobalt and Merlin (as well as synchronization licensing platform SourceAudio), and it was explained then that this would be a platform for users to create music for commercial purposes.

In an email to Kobalt signees after the 2025 ElevenMusic deal, obtained by Billboard, “the basic concept” of the new ElevenMusic model was described as a way “to help power a scalable, AI-driven production music library that creates custom audio for studios, brands and creators. It’s not meant to replace traditional uses of [one’s] repertoire, but to add value alongside them.” Use cases for the Eleven Music model were listed as “background music for brands, agencies and studios,” “novelty songs” and “UGC-safe content for social platforms.”

The newly launched ElevenMusic service is now chasing the everyday music fan as opposed to professional clients who are looking for production library music. ElevenMusic now touts itself as a “fan engagement layer, creating a place where artists can involve fans in the creative process,” while allowing its users to move “beyond tactic catalogs toward a more adaptive and participatory mode.”

At the time of its launch, the newly reintroduced ElevenMusic features about 4,000 human artists on the platform — mostly emerging acts — whose music can be streamed or remixed by users. It also features the two volumes of its self-assembled The Eleven Album series, which showcases AI-assisted music made alongside participating artists. Artists featured in the volumes include Liza Minnelli, Art Garfunkel, “BBL Drizzy” creator King Willonius, The Danger Twins and Justin Love.

The Wednesday press release about ElevenMusic notes that it gives users a “direct path to monetization while enabling fans to actively participate in the music itself,” but it does not provide details on how that compensation works. However, previous Billboard reporting on the original launch in August 2025 revealed more details on how artists and music companies would be paid.

An email to Kobalt signees at the time about the publisher’s deal with ElevenMusic noted that participants would receive a “pro-rata share of a royalty pool based on how many of [the artist/songwriters’] works were used to train the [Eleven Music] model relative to others.” A source close to the deal also explained that this meant participating artists/writers would receive royalties relative to how many songs they represented in the overall dataset.

The results would then be “weighted using digital proxies,” which the source noted meant that royalty payouts wouldn’t just take into account how many songs one had in the dataset but also the popularity of those songs, determined by looking at their metrics on other digital platforms. The source declined to specify exactly what Kobalt’s “digital proxies” were. It is unclear if the new changes to the platform will impact this payment structure. (Less is known about the nature of Merlin’s deal with ElevenMusic.)

“We’re building with the artist and songwriter communities, not around them,” said Derek Cournoyer, music strategy lead at ElevenLabs, about the launch. “Everything about ElevenMusic, from our fully licensed music model to our commercial approach, is designed with that principle at heart. We’re excited to give fans a more active way to experience the music they love, and create a new gateway into DJing.”

Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler has won a court ruling dismissing much of a lawsuit from a woman who says he sexually assaulted her as a minor.

Julia Misley claims the rocker “groomed” and “manipulated” her as a teenager decades ago — and that he essentially admitted it by referring to her as his almost “teen bride” in a memoir.

But in a ruling Tuesday (April 28), a Los Angeles judge said that much of the decades-delayed lawsuit was barred by the statute of limitations in Massachusetts, where the pair lived during their three-year relationship.

Judge Patricia A. Young ruled that Misley can sue over an alleged sexual encounter during a brief trip to California — where such time limits do not apply thanks to a special sexual abuse law — but dismissed her accusations over the rest of their relationship.

“This is a massive win for Steven Tyler,” said his lawyer, David Long-Daniels, in a statement. “Today, the Court has dismissed with prejudice 99.9% of the claims against Mr. Tyler in this case. The court has decided that only one night, fifty-plus years ago, out of a three year relationship is allowed to remain. We look forward to trying this case on August 31.”

An attorney for Misley did not immediately return a request for comment.

Misley (formerly Holcomb) sued Tyler in 2022, claiming she was the unnamed teenager he referred to in his memoir. She says he abused his fame to win control over her — including signing an agreement with her parents to take legal guardianship — and sexually assaulted her for three years starting in 1973, when she was just 16 years old.

In efforts to dismiss the case, Tyler hasn’t denied the basic facts. But his lawyers have characterized the pairing as a consensual “romantic relationship” between a man “in his mid-twenties at the time” and a woman “between the ages of 16 and 19” — arguing that it was legal under the age of consent.

In Wednesday’s ruling, Judge Young said that was likely true when it came to Massachusetts — a state where she noted that the age of consent “is, and was at all relevant times, 16.” But even if those claims were valid, the judge said the case had been filed far too late under that state’s statute of limitations.

“Plaintiff’s suit was filed more than 35 years after the alleged acts and more than 35 years after she turned 18,” Judge Young wrote. “To be timely, this suit must have been filed within seven years.”

Those same time restrictions do not apply in California, thanks to that state’s Child Victims Act — a 2020 statute that opened a special “lookback window” in which alleged victims could bring lawsuits that would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations. The age of consent in the state was also 18 at the time of Tyler and Misley’s relationship.

“The parties travelled to California on one occasion and engaged in sexual relations here during that trip,” the judge wrote. “The age of consent in California is, and was at all relevant times, 18. Thus, it was against the law for plaintiff and defendant to engage in sexual relations with each other in California because plaintiff was legally incapable of consenting.”

The judge also dismissed accusations relating to conduct in Washington and Oregon, where the pair also briefly traveled, for the same statute-of-limitations reasons.

Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge said on Tuesday (April 29) in an earnings call that the company’s board had approved the sale of half of UMG’s equity stake in Spotify, and that a portion of the proceeds will go to UMG artists.

But none of that was accidental, as UMG artist Taylor Swift sings in “Mastermind.” In March 2018, UMG pledged to give artists a share in any future Spotify divestment, following similar commitments from Warner Music Group and Sony Music Group. Seven months later, when Swift announced she was leaving her longtime label home, Big Machine, to join UMG’s Republic Records in November 2018, she said she negotiated a clause in her contract specifying that any such payout could not be clawed back.

In announcing the deal on Instagram, the “Shake It Off” singer wrote, “As part of my new contract with Universal Music Group, I asked that any sale of their Spotify shares result in a distribution of money to their artists, non-recoupable. They have generously agreed to this, at what they believe will be much better terms than paid out previously than other major labels.”

At the time, that distinction — recoupable or non-recoupable — was at the heart of an industry conversation around labels sharing divestiture revenue with artists. When Warner and Sony first announced in 2016 that they would share any profits from a sale of a stake in the streaming service with artists, there were concerns that any money earmarked for creators would be applied to outstanding advances, and that many artists would not actually receive these proceeds. Warner and Sony later clarified that they would structure payouts to artists according to their record contract terms; Sony said specifically it would not factor in recoupable balances. Two years later, when UMG said it would also share this income with artists, the company did not specify whether it would factor in recoupment — until Swift’s deal was announced in November.

That could be a big boon for many artists, including those who still owe back advances to the labels that initially signed them. While there is no data on how many artists have outstanding balances on the books (record contracts are generally private), Warner Music said in 2023 that a program it instituted to wipe out unrecouped balances for legacy artists had benefited some 4,500 artists in its first year of implementation. Sony, which was first among the majors to do so in 2021, and Universal also announced similar initiatives, while Beggars Group had also done so a few years before. In 2022, Sony said it had paid “millions” to “thousands” of artists through its program, and that it was expanding it to incorporate more of its roster.

How much individual artists stand to earn is not known. The decision by UMG’s board to sell half of its Spotify stake follows UMG investor Pershing Square’s suggestion that the company make this divestment in a non-binding offer Pershing made for the company on April 7.

In a letter to UMG’s board proposing a merger with its Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, Pershing founder Bill Ackman estimated UMG’s share in Spotify to be worth 2.7 billion euros ($3.1 billion), and said that if his offer were approved, Pershing would sell the stake and give 750 million euros ($865.4 million) to artists and use the remaining 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) of net proceeds after taxes to fund the transaction.

Now that UMG plans to sell half its stake — it has not sold any as of yet, the company confirms — that could lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to artists. UMG said in a statement on Wednesday (April 29) it would pay out part of the proceeds from the divestiture in accordance with artists’ contracts. “Consistent with the company’s approach to artist compensation, artists will share in the proceeds,” the release stated. “UMG’s share will initially be directed towards its buyback program.”

Grainge announced the board’s approval for the partial divestiture during the company’s first-quarter earnings presentation alongside a doubling of the label’s share buyback program. A representative of UMG declined to comment further.

Additional reporting by Dan Rys.

Chris Brown is urging a judge to bar any reference to his infamous 2009 domestic assault of Rihanna during an upcoming trial over his housekeeper’s dog bite injuries.

Trial is slated to begin this June in the case brought by Maria Avila, who claims Brown’s 200-pound dog Hades “viciously and brutally mauled” her while she was cleaning the R&B star’s Los Angeles-area house in 2020. Avila is seeking financial damages from Brown, who denies any liability for the alleged incident.

With the trial fast approaching, lawyers for the two sides are now debating what evidence will be admissible for the jury to hear. Brown’s attorneys want the judge to exclude any references to the singer’s domestic violence record, including his felony plea for notoriously assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009.

“Allowing the jury to hear of these domestic violence incidents at trial would encourage the jury to decide the case based on character or emotion, rather than the facts and applicable law,” wrote attorneys Michael Schonbuch and Abigail Morelli in a pretrial motion this past January.

Brown’s lawyers similarly asked the judge to bar any mention of his pending U.K. criminal case for allegedly assaulting a music producer with a bottle at a London nightclub. They argued that referencing these charges, which Brown denies, would “invite jurors to draw improper character inferences and view the defendant as a criminal or otherwise morally blameworthy.”

Avila’s attorney, Nancy Doumanian, countered in a Monday (April 27) response filing that Brown’s motions should be rejected as “overbroad, premature and legally unsound.” Doumanian said it’s too soon to say whether evidence of Brown’s criminal record will be relevant at the trial. Such evidence might be appropriate material for cross-examination, she argued, “if defendants or their witnesses testify in a manner that portrays defendant as law-abiding or non-threatening.”

A judge is set to rule on the pretrial motions at a final hearing on June 5. The trial is then slated to begin on June 15.

Reps for Avila, Brown and Rihanna did not immediately return requests for comment on the matter on Tuesday (April 28).

Avila’s lawsuit, in which she is joined by her husband and her sister, alleges she was taking out the trash at Brown’s Tarzana home when Hades, the dog, attacked her out of nowhere and began “ripping off large chunks of her skin.” She claims Brown saw what happened and fled the scene with Hades, leaving her “alone and bleeding profusely.”

According to Avila, Brown is to blame because he should have known that this breed of dog, known as the Caucasian shepherd, had a propensity for unprovoked violence. She now wants the star to pay for her “permanent and debilitating injuries,” including facial disfigurement, scarring, vision loss and nerve damage.

A man accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and plotting to attack one of superstar singer Taylor Swift’s concerts in Vienna nearly two years ago pleaded guilty as his trial began on Tuesday, his lawyer said.

The plot was thwarted, but Austrian authorities still canceled Swift’s three performances in August 2024. The singer’s fans, known as Swifties, who had flown to Austria from across the globe to attend a performance of her record-setting Eras Tour were devastated, but rallied to turn Vienna into a citywide trading post for friendship bracelets and singalongs.

The defendant, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen known only as Beran A. in line with Austrian privacy rules, faced charges including terrorist offenses and membership in a terrorist organization. He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, and has been in custody since August 2024.

The Vienna plot drew comparisons to a 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving, becoming the deadliest extremist attack in the United Kingdom in recent years.

Defendant regrets his actions

Anna Mair, his defense attorney, said her client pleaded guilty to the charges related to the concert plot.

“Of course, he deeply regrets it all,” Mair said outside the court, adding that “he says it was the biggest mistake of his life.”

Austrian media reported that he also pleaded guilty to being a member of a terrorist organization.

Beran A. is facing trial alongside Arda K., whose full name also has not been made public. They, along with a third man, planned to carry out simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates during Ramadan in 2024 in the name of the Islamic State group. Beran A. and Arda K. never carried out their attacks.

Only Beran A. was charged in connection with the concert plot. He pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the plot for simultaneous attacks.

He allegedly planned to target onlookers gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium — up to 30,000 each night, with another 65,000 inside the venue — with knives or homemade explosives. The suspect hoped to “kill as many people as possible,” authorities said in 2024. The U.S. provided intelligence that fed into the decision to cancel the concerts.

Beran A. also allegedly networked with other members of the Islamic State group ahead of the planned attack. Prosecutors say they discussed purchasing weapons and making bombs, and that the defendant also sought to illegally buy weapons in the days ahead of the performance. In addition, he swore allegiance to the militant group.

Authorities searched his apartment on Aug. 7, 2024, and found bomb-making materials. The concerts were scheduled to begin the next day.

“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating,” Swift wrote in a statement posted to Instagram two weeks later. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”

A representative for Swift did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

The trial is being held in Wiener Neustadt, about an hour south of Vienna. The proceedings are set to continue May 12.

Three attacks planned in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE

Prosecutors have also filed terrorism-related charges against Arda K. in the trial in connection with the plan for simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The third man in that plot, Hasan E., allegedly stabbed a security guard with a knife at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on March 11, 2024. He was arrested and remains in pretrial detention in Saudi Arabia, Austrian prosecutors said.

Beran A. and Arda K. did not carry out their plans in Turkey and the UAE. Beran A. returned to Vienna and then allegedly began plotting to attack a Swift concert there.

This story was first published by The Associated Press.