Catalog Gold Rush Meets Suno's Week From Hell — Week of July 13

Email us hereSony Music Publishing closed its $3.5–4 billion Recognition Music Group deal, Pophouse bought into Iron Maiden, Reservoir snapped up T.I. and Nacional Records, and BMG finished off Hal David and John Lee Hooker — catalog M&A didn't so much heat up this week as catch fire. Meanwhile, Suno had a spectacularly complicated seven days: hacked source code revealed it scraped YouTube Music, Deezer, and Genius to build its training data, potentially handing UMG and Sony a gift in their ongoing lawsuit, even as Suno posted an IPO-readiness accounting job, launched iMessage text-to-song, and hired Atlantic and YouTube veterans. On the regulatory front, Australia announced mandatory artist-consent laws for AI training, Washington D.C. capped ticket resale at 10% above face value, and the UK floated a face-value resale ban — all while Luminate's midyear report confirmed the US is growing slower than nearly everywhere else in streaming. Just another seven days in the music business.