In today's CMU Daily: Spotify’s latest earnings are a mixed bag. Subscriber numbers are up, but user growth is still slow. Cost-cutting is paying off and ad revenue is slowly bouncing back. Meanwhile, the company is rethinking how to attract and keep users in different markets. The big news? Supremium is coming

One Liners: ONErpm x Sick Puppies, Orfium x Pony Canyon, Kakao founder Kim Beom-su arrested, SoundExchange sues AccuRadio, Apple’s new classical chart, UK Music tourism report, Venues Day, Metallica’s All Within My Hands Foundation + more, plus new releases including LSDXOXO, JADE and Yannis & The Yaw

Also today: Kobalt sues a stack of NBA basketball teams for using its songs in social media posts without licence; Ador publishes letter on ‘Bubble Gum’ song-theft claims, ramps up HYBE dispute 

Plus: Lia Pappas-Kemps is CMU approved

Spotify’s Q2: Cost cutting is paying off, Ek teases Supremium launch, hints at secret features beyond hi-res audio

Spotify’s Q2 earnings are out, and despite CEO Daniel Ek’s efforts to put a positive spin on things during the company’s earnings call, the results paint a mixed picture. 

While the streaming giant has beaten expectations on subscriber numbers and seen improvements in its profitability metrics, its monthly active user growth continues to disappoint, slumping even further than last quarter’s 2.16% quarter-on-quarter growth rate to just 1.79%. 

This a far cry from the heady growth seen in previous years where - even as recently as Q2 2023 - Spotify was able to boast nearly 7% quarterly growth in its monthly active users.

And in a surprise announcement - which was, of course, a surprise to no-one - Ek revealed that Spotify’s long-rumoured ultra-premium or ‘Supremium’ tier is moving closer to reality. 

While no specific launch date was mentioned, Ek’s comments made it clear that the offering is well into its development phase.

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Domino // Junior Radio Plugger (London)

Sentric Music // Revenue Optimisation Manager (London/Liverpool)

Sentric Music // Copyright Manager (Liverpool/London)

Horizon is CMU's new weekly newsletter - published each Friday - that brings you a hand-picked selection of early-stage career opportunities from across the music industry.

Whether you're looking for your first job in music or you're ready to take a step up, Horizon is here to help you find your dream job faster.

👉 Click through to see the current selection.

ONE LINERS

Deals

• ONErpm has signed rock trio Sick Puppies with their first single under the deal, ‘There Goes The Neighborhood’, set for release on 26 Jul. 
• Orfium has signed a global UGC monetisation deal with Japanese label Pony Canyon, expanding its presence in the world’s second largest music market. 
• Warner Chappell Music has announced a partnership with Analog Metaverse, a rights management company founded by Grammy-winning producer Salaam Remi. 
• Booking agency Wasserman Music has signed singer-songwriter Olive Klug for exclusive worldwide representation. 

Appointments

• Concord Music Publishing has appointed Jonnie Macson as Vice President Of Royalties. 

Legal

• Kakao founder Kim Beom-su was arrested Tuesday over alleged stock manipulation during the company’s acquisition of SM Entertainment last year. 
• Chris Brown, Yella Breezy and Live Nation are facing a $50 million lawsuit over an alleged assault that took place in Fort Worth, Texas, during Brown’s tour. 
• US collecting society SoundExchange has filed a lawsuit against AccuRadio in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, seeking to recover unpaid royalties for performers and rights owners. 

Digital

• Apple has launched a new weekly classical music chart, the Apple Classical Top 100, available in the Apple Music Classical app. 
• Submix, an audio technology company, has closed a $1 million funding round. 

Other industry news

• Cross sector trade group UK Music says that music tourism in the UK generated £8 billion in spending and attracted 19.2 million visitors in 2023, a 33% increase from 2022. 
• Music Venue Trust has announced its tenth annual Venues Day event, to be held on 8 Oct at Woolwich Works in London.
• The Worldwide Independent Network, the global organisation for indie labels, has launched its Supporters programme with Bandcamp, Marauder and Random Sounds as inaugural partners.
• The Ivors Academy has launched a Friends scheme at its Annual General Meeting and Summer Party.
• Grub Records, a new record shop and wine bar in Sheffield, has launched a Crowdfunder campaign to raise £2500 for its opening. 
• Queen Mary University Of London researcher Madeline Hamilton has found that vocal arrangements in popular music have become simpler since 1950. 

Artist News

• Metallica’s All Within My Hands Foundation has expanded its Metallica Scholars Initiative to all 50 US states and Guam, investing $75,000 in each of eighteen new community colleges.
• Frank Ocean and producer Michael Uzowuru have been collaborating on new music in Miami, according to a recent New York Times article.
• Snoop Dogg will carry the Olympic torch on the final leg of its journey in Saint-Denis, France, ahead of Friday’s Paris 2024 opening ceremony. 

Releases & Tours

• LSDXOXO has released his new single ‘GHOST’, featuring Kelela.
• JADE (AKA Jade Thirlwall of Little Mix) has released her debut solo single ‘Angel Of My Dreams’.
• SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE have released two new singles ‘SOMETHING’S ENDING’ + ‘I'VE BEEN EVIL’. Their new album ‘YOU’LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING’ is out 23 Aug.
• Yannis & The Yaw (the collaboration between Foals’ Yannis Philippakis and Tony Allen) have released their new single ‘Rain Can't Reach Us’.
• Larry June has released his new single ‘Like A Mack’.
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have released their new single ‘Long Dark Night’. Their new album ‘Wild God’ is out 30 Aug.
• Joey Valence & Brae have released their new single ‘PACKAPUNCH’, featuring Danny Brown.
• Madison Beer has released her new single ‘15 MINUTES’.
• Dummy have released their new single ‘Nine Clean Nails’. Their new album ‘Free Energy’ is out 6 Sep.
• SWMRS have announced a UK headline tour, kicking off at Night & Day in Manchester on 19 Nov. Tickets go on sale this Friday here.

NBA basketball teams sued by Kobalt over unlicensed music in social media posts 

Kobalt Music has sued a stack of NBA basketball teams in the US over allegations they have used music in promotional posts on social media without getting the required licences. That includes songs controlled by Kobalt and various independent music publishers that it works with, including Artist Publishing Group, MXM Music and Prescription Songs. 

Each team has been sued separately, though the lawsuits all follow the same template. Each filing insists that the targeted team is “acutely aware” of how intellectual property law works, illustrating that point by listing the trademarks and copyrights the team itself has registered. 

The lawsuits then claim that each targeted team “utilises the full extent of legal protections available for its own intellectual property while simultaneously knowingly and willfully infringing on the property rights” of the music companies. 

🎧 Approved: Lia Pappas-Kemps

With influences that blend the confessional style of Alanis Morissette and the melodic alt-rock of The Strokes, Toronto-based Lia Pappas-Kemps has a sound that would perfectly underscore a coming-of-age film.

Her latest single, ‘Switchblade’, produced by Nathan Ferraro (Beyoncé, Charli XCX, Carly Rae Jepsen), fuses alt-pop and alt-rock elements with a melancholic edge. Papas-Kemp’s delicate vocals, tinged with a malaise, capture the longing and malleability of teenage love while retaining an upbeat catchy energy.

“‘Switchblade’ is a song about infatuation and the feeling of wanting to change for someone into whatever version of you they want”, Pappas-Kemps shares. “I wrote it when I was seventeen, just me and my guitar, and I think you can feel those tender teenage feelings threaded through it”. 

🎧 Watch the video for ‘Switchblade’ here

Ador publishes long letter about song-theft dispute, berates HYBE and warns anyone spreading “nasty rumours” 

Corporate politics being fought out in the public domain is pretty common in the world of K-pop. Meanwhile, the lengths K-pop agencies will go to to protect the reputations of their artists, employing some of the unique features of defamation law in South Korea, are well known. But even by K-pop standards, the seven page letter published by HYBE subsidiary and NewJeans label Ador on its official Instagram page earlier today is quite remarkable. 

The missive was prompted by what is a pretty run-of-the-mill song-theft dispute, the likes of which arrive in the US courts on almost weekly basis. However, that was just a jumping off point for ramping up the rhetoric in the ongoing feud between Ador and parent company HYBE, while also telling anyone currently spreading rumours about NewJeans online - through traditional or social media, or online forums - that this will not be tolerated and there will be consequences.