AI Hiring Spree, Billion-Dollar M&A, Prediction-Market Fraud - Week of July 06

Email us hereSuno spent the week poaching Atlantic and YouTube executives while still tangled in UMG and Sony lawsuits, and the RIAA-led coalition pitched a voluntary black-tile/white-tile AI labeling system for streaming platforms — making it clear the industry is building rules and rosters simultaneously. On the deal front, CVC Capital Partners agreed to take a majority stake in DistroKid for roughly $2 billion, Primary Wave's $1.5 billion Kobalt acquisition closed, and Reservoir Media locked up T.I.'s entire catalog, all while catalog multiples held steady at 12–17x. The week's strangest headline belonged to Spotify, which yanked 500,000-plus streams from Malcolm Todd's 'Earrings' after traders ran a $3 million prediction-market scheme on its chart position — a genuinely new flavor of fraud. Meanwhile, HYBE absorbed its third US copyright suit in two months, Scooter Braun quietly exited its board, and Gen-Z officially outspent millennials on live music for the first time. Just another seven days in the music business.