Sony's $3.5B Catalog Deal Closes, Suno Hack Exposes 2M Scraped Clips - July 16

Email us hereSony Music Publishing's $3.5–4B acquisition of Recognition Music Group closes the week's biggest deal, while hacked Suno source code confirms the AI company scraped over 2 million clips from YouTube Music, Deezer, and Genius without user notification. Australia moves toward mandatory AI copyright consent laws, and the FIFA World Cup closing ceremony is shaping up to be the live event of the summer. Deals & M&A • SMP completes $3.5B–$4B Recognition Music Group 45,000-song catalog acquisition with GIC joint venture. • Too Lost acquires Australia's largest indie distributor GYRO.Group in its first post-nine-figure-raise M&A move. • BandLab acquires licensed-only AI studio Aiode, built entirely on professional session musician recordings. • Suno posts Director of Accounting role flagging IPO readiness ambitions amid ongoing legal pressure. • Cinq Music acquires D'Banj's catalog, partners with C.R.E.A.M. to develop 10 emerging African artists. Lawsuits & AI • Hacked Suno code confirms scraping 2M+ YouTube Music clips, 12K Deezer hours, 17K Genius hours. • Australia's PM Albanese pledges mandatory consent-and-payment law for AI training on creative works by 2027. • Federal court enters $3.2M default judgment against Triller (now "Eight") in Merlin's licensing suit. Streaming & Tech • Luminate H1 2026: global on-demand audio streams up 9.8% to 2.8 trillion; US growing at just 4.8%. • Spotify brings parent-controlled children's accounts to its free tier across six major markets. • Samsung pre-installs Amazon Music on Galaxy devices in new strategic distribution partnership. • Suno launches iMessage text-to-song integration for iPhone, riding TikTok AI-song trend. Live & Touring • Post Malone headlines FIFA World Cup 2026 closing ceremony July 19 at MetLife; Madonna, Shakira, BTS at halftime. Artists & Releases • K-Pop Demon Hunters lead Luminate H1 global chart at 1.124B streams; Taylor Swift second at 1.115B. • South Korea overtakes Canada as third-largest music-export market behind the US and UK. Also Today • Core music industry funding hit $5.75B in Q2 2026, quadrupling year-over-year. • US CD sales surged 16% to 16.3M units in H1 2026; K-pop drove over half the gain. • 54% of US musicians feel positive about generative AI tools versus 35% of non-musicians. Five minutes, six categories, zero fluff.