In today's CMU Daily: TikTok Music will close down at the end of November. The standalone music service launched last year as an evolution of Resso, the earlier music platform operated by TikTok owner Bytedance. TikTok says it now wants to focus on its Add To Music App feature, which integrates with other music services 

One Liners: UMG China Greater Bay Area, Beggars Group, Reactionary Music, Fish56Octagon, Another Rhythm Records, LPME Records, Gamma, Prescription Songs, ADA, Range Music Publishing, UMPG, BBR, BMG, DCD2 Records, Kilimanjaro Live, AIF, Black Lives In Music + more

Also today: Two festival organisers have already sued collapsed ticketing company Lyte in a bid to secure the hundreds of thousands they say they are owed; Dickon Stainer is the new CEO of Universal Music UK; the latest song-theft lawsuit filed with the US courts targets former Migos member Quavo

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TikTok Music to close

TikTok has announced that it is closing TikTok Music, its standalone music streaming service, at the end of November. The exact reason is unclear, although the company says its current focus is integrating the main TikTok app with other music services via the Add To Music App feature. 

Ole Obermann, Global Head Of Music Business at TikTok, says in a statement, “Our Add to Music App feature has already enabled hundreds of millions of track saves to playlists on partner music streaming services. We will be closing TikTok Music at the end of November in order to focus on our goal of furthering TikTok’s role in driving even greater music listening and value on music streaming services, for the benefit of artists, songwriters and the industry”.

TikTok owner Bytedance originally launched a standalone music streaming service under another brand, Resso, in Indonesia, Brazil and India. That was then replaced by TikTok Music in Indonesia and Brazil in July 2023, which then expanded into Mexico, Singapore and Australia.

According to data provided to CMU by Appfigures.com, a leading mobile analytics and intelligence platform, TikTok Music has been downloaded 7.2 million times since its launch in July 2023. The vast majority of those downloads - 6.5 million - came from Brazil (3.5 million) and Indonesia (3 million). Mexico, Australia and Singapore racked up just 0.68 million downloads between them. 

Over the same period, and in the same five countries, the combined downloads of Spotify, Deezer and YouTube Music...

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Deals

• Universal Music has launched Universal Music China Greater Bay Area, a new label division covering China's Greater Bay Area including Hong Kong and Macau.
• Beggars Group has signed a licensing agreement with Reactional Music, a music personalisation engine and delivery platform for games.
• TikTok viral sensation Fish56Octagon has launched a new record label called Octagon Discs in partnership with Another Rhythm Records, a subdivision of The Other Songs.
• LPME Records/Studios has formed a partnership with US label Gamma. to promote Middle Eastern talent globally. 
• Prescription Songs has signed Grammy Award-winning producer and songwriter Tobias Wincorn. 
• Kesha has launched her own record label, Kesha Records, and signed a global distribution deal with ADA, the independent label and artist services arm of Warner Music. 
• Range Music Publishing has signed a global administration deal with Universal Music Publishing Group. 
• BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville has signed country music star Blake Shelton.
• Reservoir Media has secured publishing deals with Snoop Dogg and Death Row Records. 
• Vienna Vienna has signed to Pete Wentz's DCD2 Records, releasing the single 'Vienna (Everything's Fine)'. 

Appointments

• Kilimanjaro Live has appointed Lottie Bradshaw as a new promoter working alongside Kilimanjaro Live director and promoter Alan Day, primarily on Action! Presents, the company's promoting brand focused on alternative talent in rock, metal and punk. 
• Warner Music Nashville has appointed Gregg Nadel as Co-Chair & Co-President alongside Cris Lacy, effective 1 Oct.
• Universal Music Group Nashville has appointed Robert Kilduff as Chief Financial Officer. 

Streaming, Digital, Broadcast & Retail

• Christina Aguilera has re-recorded six tracks from her debut album to mark its 25th anniversary, in collaboration with Spotify. 
• Spotify has expanded its AI Playlist feature to the United States, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. 

Legal

• Ice Spice has settled a copyright lawsuit over her song 'In Ha Mood'. The case, filed by rapper D.Chamberz, alleged that Ice Spice's track was "strikingly similar" to his 2021 song 'In That Mood'. 
• T.I. and Tameka "Tiny" Harris have won a $71 million jury verdict against toymaker MGA in a lawsuit over alleged design theft from their teen pop group OMG Girlz. 
• Martin Shkreli has been ordered by a Brooklyn federal judge to update the court on how many tracks he copied from the Wu-Tang Clan album 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin'. The order comes after PleasrDAO, the cryptocurrency group that now owns the album, argued Shkreli may not have surrendered all copies as part of their ongoing legal battle. 

Live

• Iron Maiden have announced that there will be no dynamic ticket pricing for their 2025 'Run For Your Lives' UK and European tour, with resale prices capped at face value. 
• Afro Nation has announced Burna Boy and Tems as the first headliners for its fifth anniversary festival in Portugal, set to take place from 9 to 11 Jul 2025. 
• The Association Of Independent Festivals has announced the launch of a free business support programme for multi-venue festivals in England, set to begin in October 2024. 
• Act 1.5 has announced a series of environmentally conscious concerts featuring Massive Attack, IDLES, and Nile Rodgers at Liverpool's M&S Bank Arena from 28 to 30 Nov. The concerts will utilise 100% renewable energy, promote public transport use, and implement a meat-free policy at the arena.

Other Industry News & Events

• Black Lives In Music has announced 'Classically Black', a one-day symposium exploring the cutting edge of classical music, to be held at Kings Place in London on 19 Oct. 
• Italian record industry trade group FIMI has announced its participation in the 2024 Milan Digital Week programme with a panel discussion on artificial intelligence in the music industry. 
• The Cat's Mother, a music and creative industries network and mentoring platform, has announced the second annual Cat's Mother Of The Year Awards, set to take place on 1 Oct at the Rosewood London. 
• Music charity Youth Music has announced that Jordan Stephens will receive its first ever Grassroots Hero Award.
• The BBC's historic Maida Vale Studios in London were acquired by a group led by composer Hans Zimmer last year and their initial plans for renovation have now been unveiled. 
• Live Nation has entered into a partnership with Third & Hayden, an Atlanta-based management, label and publishing company founded by Kei Henderson, to provide resources to emerging artists. 
• Serato has announced a limited-edition reissue of its Scratch Live Control Vinyl to mark the company's 25th anniversary.
• HYBE has launched a new reporting portal to combat AI-generated deepfake content of its artists. 
• Amazon Music has launched its City Sessions livestream series across Europe, with shows set to take place in the UK, Spain, Germany and Italy before the end of the year. 

Two festivals sue over unpaid ticket revenue following collapse of Lyte

The organisers of two US festivals have filed legal action in relation to the recent collapse of ticketing business Lyte. The lawsuits provide some insight into the current state of affairs at the Lyte company, and also about how some promoters were using the ticketing platform to implement a cross between secondary ticketing and dynamic pricing. 

According to Billboard, the promoter of Ohio’s Lost Lands Music Festival worked with AEG Presents, which discovered that Lyte founder and CEO Ant Taylor had resigned on 12 Sep and that the ticketing company had “ceased virtually all of its business operations and laid off virtually all of its employees”. 

AEG execs then made contact with Lyte CFO Lisa Bashi two days later. According to the festival’s legal filing, “she could not commit to the timing of any payment or even that there would be a payment” of money owed from sales of tickets to the festival on the Lyte platform. 

Bashi also revealed that an outside company was being hired “to help consult on how to wind down operations, making it clear that defendant had become insolvent”.

Dickon Stainer appointed to run Universal Music in the UK

Universal Music has announced the appointment of Dickon Stainer to the role of CEO at its UK business, taking over from David Joseph, who announced his departure from the company yesterday. 

“Dickon has embraced an expansive musical worldview throughout his career, taking artists from a wide variety of genres and bringing them to audiences globally”, says overall Universal CEO Lucian Grainge. “He not only has deep experience in leveraging our worldwide organisation on behalf of our artists, but a track record that includes global commercial and creative artist successes and countless awards in many countries”.

In his most recent role at the major, as CEO of the Global Classics & Jazz division, Stainer oversaw labels in both Europe and the US. He has been a key player in the classical music industry for decades, mostly at Universal, with a brief stint at Warner Classics.

Quavo sued for song-theft over ‘Bubblegum’

Quavo has been sued for song-theft by another rapper called L.Mont over his 2018 track ‘Bubblegum’. The former Migos member, real name Quavious Marshall, is accused of copyright infringement, as are his record label and music publisher, Universal Music and Warner Chappell respectively.

L.Mont, real name Lamount London, says he gave Marshall a CD that contained a 2015 track he had released, also called ‘Bubblegum’, after performing the opening set at a 2 Chainz and Migos show in 2016. 

Marshall then, “without express authorisation”, copied “protected elements” of the earlier ‘Bubblegum’ track “in his sound recording of the same name”. Or so alleges a new lawsuit filed with the courts in California.

Releases & Tours

• DJ Koze has collaborated with Arnim Teutoburg-Weiss and The Düsseldorf Düsterboys on new single ‘Wie schön du bist’.
• High. have released their new single ‘In A Hole’. Their new EP ‘Come Back Down’ is out 24 Jan.
• UNKLE has announced his Rōnin Live show at Outernet London, with support from DJ Krush and Scar. Tickets are on sale here.
• Sundara Karma have announced a farewell UK tour, including at O2 Forum Kentish Town on 8 Dec. Tickets go on general sale this Friday here.
• Jack Savoretti has announced his 2025 UK tour, including a show at Sheffield City Hall on 27 Feb.
• ‘Act 1.5 presents…’ have announced their next round of headliners for their events at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena on 28-30 Nov, including Massive Attack, IDLES and Nile Rodgers. Tickets go on general sale this Friday here.