Sony Music France and Sony Music Publishing France acquired Lusafrica and Africa Nostra, a label and publishing company, respectively. Together, the associated companies promote Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) and African artists. Founded in 1988, Lusafrica launched the career of Grammy-winning singer Cesária Évora, among others. It later signed African artists including Bonga and Boubacar Traoré, along with Latin artists such as Polo Montañez. Africa Nostra was launched in 2000. The companies jointly have a catalog of more than 4,000 titles. Through the acquisition, Sony is looking to expand the companies’ reach into new markets.
Humanable, which allows music creators to certify that their songwriting, performances and recordings were created without the use of generative AI, entered a partnership with Symphonic Distribution through which Symphonic artists and writers can opt in to the Humanable platform. “It’s long past time for DSPs and other distributors to adopt an industry standard like Humanable to label GenAI music,” said Randall Foster, chief creative officer at Symphonic, in a statement. According to a press release, Hummable has certified 3.4 million songs to date.
Audacy signed a content distribution partnership with iHeartMedia. Under the deal, Audacy’s collection of more than 240 radio brands and podcasts will now be available on the iHeartRadio app. Through the app, Audacy content will be available on more than 500 additional platforms and over 2,000 additional devices, from smart speakers to tablets to smartphones.
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Warner Music Finland acquired the catalog of Finnish independent record company Skorpioni, which announced it was closing up shop earlier this year. Over the years, Skorpioni has released music by ibe, MELO, Turisti, DJ Ibusal, Sliki & Hamuelos and Fabe.
BMG acquired the artist and label rights of German band Seeed. The deal encompasses the band’s first five albums: New Dubby Conquerors (2001), Music Monks (2003), Next! (2005), Live (2006), and Seeed (2012). The group released its sixth album, Bam Bam, on BMG in 2019.
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TikTok struck a partnership with Tomorrowland through which the platform will serve as the festival’s official content partner for the next year. The deal will see TikTok offering 24/7 live streams of the festival, behind-the-scenes content and interactive fan experiences, among other things. Tomorrowland is slated to take place later this month in Boom, Belgium, over two weekends. Ahead of the festival, TikTok’s music distributor, SoundOn, will host a songwriting camp alongside Tomorrowland’s record label, Tomorrowland Music. The camp will bring together artists from both labels to write and release original music to soundtrack the activities both on and off the TikTok platform during both weekends of the festival; the resulting songs will be performed live onstage at Tomorrowland and released and distributed by SoundOn. With the partnership, TikTok will explore additional opportunities to collaborate with Tomorrowland’s other live music events, including Unity at Sphere and Tomorrowland Brazil.
AI-powered music creation platform Moises will sponsor NPR’s Tiny Desk series in 2025. “Many of the key founders of Moises are musicians, which is why we feel such kinship with Tiny Desk and the community of artists and music lovers it serves,” said Geraldo Ramos, CEO/co-founder of Moises, in a statement. “This sponsorship is about supporting musicians at every stage of their journey.”
Synch platform SourceAudio and Musical AI, which offers an attribution model for generative AI in music, struck a deal through which SourceAudio clients will have the option to participate in joint SourceAudio-Musical AI datasets. Musical AI “will ensure these tracks are made available for potential training in rightsholder-determined ways and that any outputs generated from rightsholders’ works are attributed to the proper parties,” according to a press release — thereby allowing generative AI companies to pay rights holders for the use of their work. According to the release, SourceAudio’s music dataset licensing marketplace has generated more than $1.35 million in new annual recurring revenue since its May 2025 launch for rightsholders who opted in.
Global music distributor and supply chain services company AudioSalad signed a partnership with Japanese music technology company RecoChoku. Through the deal, the companies will introduce advanced hybrid distribution and delivery to global DSPs, analytics, localized support and streamlined distribution channels that address the needs of the Japanese music industry. “This partnership with AudioSalad enables us to realize both comprehensive global-standard distribution asset management and a hybrid form of music distribution with delivery-agency operations,” said RecoChoku GM Kaz Aida in a statement. “By adding our meticulous distribution operation support services, we are able to offer each service in an all-in-one manner that meets the needs of rights holders.”
SongTools, which provides one-click marketing and ad tech solutions for music creators, signed a partnership with African music distributor M.A.D Solutions that will bring SongTools’ marketing toolkit directly into the M.A.D Solutions dashboard. “Through our label and services division, Engage, we’re proud to introduce Engage Pro — a cutting-edge digital marketing and playlisting solution developed in collaboration with Songtools,” said M.A.D Solutions CEO Bugwu Aneto-Okeke in a statement.
On the Radar Radio announced a partnership with Olympus Projects and Too Lost Worldwide Music Distribution. Through the deal, On the Radio will continue its global expansion with On the Radar UK, which is set to roll out in September, spotlighting U.K. artists “who are pushing boundaries in Drill, Grime, Rap, and experimental genres.” On the Radar previously unveiled On the Radar Brazil. A trailer for On the Radar U.K. can be viewed here.
Loaded Dice Entertainment signed a distribution deal with Jamvana, which will also provide content management and royalty tracking for Loaded Dice artists. The first release under the deal was a deluxe version of Hudson Thames‘ latest studio album, Bambino, on Friday (June 27).
Tickets for Good, which offers free and heavily discounted tickets, launched in Belgium and announced a funding round of 3 million pounds ($4.1 million). Last month, Tickets for Good hosted its first event for Belgian members by offering local healthcare workers the chance to attend a Robbie Williams concert in Amsterdam.