{"id":236059,"date":"2025-07-11T16:52:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T15:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=236059"},"modified":"2025-07-11T16:52:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T15:52:24","slug":"from-hipgnosis-return-to-sunos-new-chief-music-officer-its-mbws-weekly-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/from-hipgnosis-return-to-sunos-new-chief-music-officer-its-mbws-weekly-round-up\/","title":{"rendered":"From Hipgnosis’ return to Suno’s new Chief Music Officer… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to\u00a0Music Business Worldwide<\/a>\u2019s weekly round-up \u2013 where we make sure\u00a0you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW\u2019s round-up is supported by\u00a0<\/i>Centtrip<\/i><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0which helps over 500 of the world\u2019s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring costs.<\/i><\/p>\n

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This week, we learned that Merck Mercuriadis<\/strong>, the maverick founder of Hipgnosis Songs Fund<\/strong>, is launching a new investment firm targeting artist management companies and music catalogs. His new company will also be called Hipgnosis.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, South Korea\u2019s financial regulator is reportedly preparing to refer HYBE<\/strong> Chairman Bang Si-hyuk <\/strong>to prosecutors over allegations related to the company\u2019s IPO.<\/p>\n

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Also this week, over 200 people, including 20 employees from Beggars Group<\/strong> and Secretly Group<\/strong>, signed a letter objecting to Universal Music Group\u2019s<\/strong> proposed takeover of Downtown Music Holdings<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Paul Sinclair<\/strong>, who most recently served as General Manager and Executive Vice President of Warner\u2019s Atlantic Records<\/strong>, has joined AI music platform Suno<\/strong> as\u00a0Chief Music Officer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Finally, Michael Nash<\/strong>, EVP and Chief Digital Officer at Universal Music Group<\/strong>, delivered a keynote presentation at the UN\u2019s AI for Good<\/strong> summit in Geneva<\/strong> on Tuesday (July 8).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what happened this week\u2026<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/i><\/a><\/figure>1) \u00a0Hipgnosis is back: Merck Mercuriadis launching new company with \u2018hundreds of millions\u2019 in investment secured (report)<\/strong><\/a>
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You didn\u2019t think he was done, did you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Merck Mercuriadis<\/strong>, the maverick founder of\u00a0Hipgnosis Songs Fund<\/strong>, is launching a new investment firm targeting artist management companies and music catalogs through a partnership structure that gives acts and their representatives ownership stakes.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Financial Times<\/em>\u00a0reported\u00a0on Saturday (July 5) that\u00a0Mercuriadis\u2019\u00a0new venture has already secured commitments in the \u201chundreds of millions\u201d of dollars, citing people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0FT<\/em>\u00a0quoted\u00a0Mercuriadis as saying: \u201cI\u2019m going to amass five or six really important management companies, all of which have superstar artists and superstar managers that go with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about them having control and all about them making the majority of the money [rather than labels]…”<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/i><\/a>
Credit: Yonhap\/Newcom\/Alamy<\/figcaption><\/figure>2) HYBE vows to cooperate with authorities as South Korea financial regulator aims to refer Bang Si-hyuk to prosecutors (report)<\/span><\/a><\/h6>\n

HYBE<\/strong> has pledged to cooperate fully with authorities as South Korea\u2019s financial regulator reportedly prepares to refer the K-pop giant\u2019s founder and Chairman,\u00a0Bang Si-hyuk<\/strong>, to prosecutors over allegations related to the company\u2019s 2020 IPO.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to\u00a0The Korea Herald<\/em>,\u00a0Korea Times<\/em>\u00a0and other local news outlets,\u00a0which report that The\u00a0Securities and Futures Commission\u2019s capital market investigation team voted on Monday (July 7) to refer Chairman Bang<\/strong> to prosecutors, with the commission set to formally consider the recommendation at its July 16 meeting.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/i><\/a><\/figure>3) 200+ people sign letter objecting to UMG\u2019s proposed takeover of Downtown, including 20 employees from Beggars Group and Secretly Group companies<\/span><\/a><\/h6>\n

Over<\/strong>\u00a0200<\/strong> employees\u00a0of indie companies have signed an open letter, distributed by\u00a0IMPALA<\/strong>, addressed to Europe\u2019s competition watchdog.<\/p>\n

It urges the\u00a0EC<\/strong>\u00a0to conduct a \u201cdeep investigation\u201d into\u00a0Universal Music Group\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0proposed acquisition of\u00a0Downtown Music Holdings<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The letter\u2019s signatories include significant representation from two leading indie music companies: UK-headquartered\u00a0Beggars Group<\/strong>\u00a0and US-headquartered\u00a0Secretly Group.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They include 12 executives working for companies owned or co-owned by Beggars\/XL, including\u00a04AD<\/strong>,\u00a0Everlasting Records,\u00a0Matador,\u00a0Popstock,\u00a0Rough Trade<\/strong>, and\u00a0Young<\/strong>, plus\u00a0XL\u00a0Recordings<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Beggars Group<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

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Photo: Jimmy Fontaine<\/figcaption><\/figure>4) Paul Sinclair joins AI platform Suno as Chief Music Officer<\/a>
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A prominent record label executive is joining the leadership team of Suno, the AI music-making platform that \u2013 along with rival Udio<\/strong> \u2013 is facing a copyright infringement lawsuit by the majors.<\/p>\n

Paul Sinclair<\/strong>, who spent over two decades at\u00a0Warner Music Group<\/strong>\u00a0(WMG)\u00a0in various roles, is taking up the post of Suno\u2019s Chief Music Officer, a role in which he will \u201cguide how Suno\u2019s AI-powered tools are integrated into the process of songmaking,\u201d Suno said.<\/p>\n

Sinclair spent the last several months advising Suno, the Boston-headquartered company said in a statement on Monday (July 7)…<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/i><\/a><\/figure>5) UMG\u2019s Michael Nash on AI: \u2018Copyright is not the enemy of innovation\u2026\u2019 and 3 other things we learned from his keynote at the UN\u2019s AI summit
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Michael Nash<\/strong>, EVP and Chief Digital Officer at\u00a0Universal Music Group<\/strong>, delivered a keynote presentation at the UN\u2019s AI for Good<\/strong> summit in Geneva on Tuesday (July 8).<\/p>\n

This summit, which counts over\u00a013,000<\/strong>\u00a0registered delegates, gathers UN decision makers, politicians, ambassadors, and other stakeholders to discuss AI in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.<\/p>\n

During his speech, Nash offered insights into how the world\u2019s largest music rights company is approaching artificial intelligence, and why he believes \u201cmarket-based solutions are the answer\u201d to AI\u2019s challenges in music.<\/p>\n

Here are four<\/strong> things that stood out from Nash\u2019s presentation…<\/p>\n\n

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<\/a><\/i><\/a><\/a><\/figure>MBW\u2019s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world\u2019s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6911,"featured_media":111195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}