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Today’s music industry is international at a fundamental level. Music Ally’s analysis – from our team located around the world – reflects this. Regular Country Profiles feature deep insight from people on the ground; and our news analysis thinks local and looks global.
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- Latest Analysis: Europe
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LATEST GLOBAL news
The BTS ‘Arirang’ effect sees K-Pop album exports grow by 125%
We heard last week that South Korea has now become the third biggest music-exporter in the world, overtaking Canada. Now we’ve got some new figures behind that.
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MORE LATEST GLOBAL news
The BTS ‘Arirang’ effect sees K-Pop album exports grow by 125%
We heard last week that South Korea has now become the third biggest music-exporter in the world, overtaking Canada. Now we’ve got some new figures behind that.
Read more >>
Lila launches UK initiative for South Asian musicians and industry pros
UK-based non-profit Lila has launched its latest initiative, Lila Labs. It’s an extension of the organisation’s existing work supporting South Asian artists and industry professionals.
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Cinq Music teams up with Cream to discover African talent
GoDigital Music-owned Cinq Music wants to help more African artists break worldwide – and it’s working with Afrobeats artist and label boss D’Banj to do it.
Read more >>
AIM reveals nominees for its 2026 Independent Music Awards
UK independent-labels body AIM is preparing for its annual awards in September, with a raft of nominees announced this week for the respected event.
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UK’s Ofcom launches investigation into TikTok over child safety
The list of regulators’ child-safety investigations into TikTok has lengthened again. This time it’s the UK’s communications and media watchdog Ofcom holding the app to account.
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GLOBAL NEWS BY REGION – select a tab to filter:
Lila launches UK initiative for South Asian musicians and industry pros
UK-based non-profit Lila has launched its latest initiative, Lila Labs. It’s an extension of the organisation’s existing work supporting South Asian artists and industry professionals.
Read more >>AIM reveals nominees for its 2026 Independent Music Awards
UK independent-labels body AIM is preparing for its annual awards in September, with a raft of nominees announced this week for the respected event.
Read more >>UK’s Ofcom launches investigation into TikTok over child safety
The list of regulators’ child-safety investigations into TikTok has lengthened again. This time it’s the UK’s communications and media watchdog Ofcom holding the app to account.
Read more >>
Refuge Worldwide and ChariTea launch fundraiser for non-profit platforms
Berlin-based Refuge Worldwide and fairtrade tea brand ChariTea have announced an upcoming event called Groove For Good.
Read more >>
Acquisitions Watch: BandLab Technologies snaps up Aoide and Too Lost buys Gyro·Group
The two latest music-industry acquisitions cover different areas: one an extension of AI-assisted music-making, and the other an expansion into Australasia and Asia-Pacific.
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Understanding Latin America’s Music Market: Platforms, Fans, and Growth Opportunities
By Randi Zimmerman, Content Specialist, Symphonic Latin America was one of the fastest-growing recorded music regions in 2024, with revenue up 22.5%. Today, the region continues to shape global pop, hip-hop, dance, streaming culture, and the way music moves across borders. But LATAM’s influence isn’t just about Spanish-language hits reaching bigger audiences. Artists here are…
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Music Ally Insight Report :: International Focus 2026
Welcome to our sixth annual Music Ally International Focus report – where we bring all of Music Ally’s Country Profiles published in the last 12 months into one place.
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Canadian government rows back on ‘streaming tax’ for DSPs
Global streaming services are cheering after Canada’s government announced a u-turn for the country’s levy on the DSPs’ revenues in the country. The levy was part of Canada’s Online Streaming Act, and was swiftly dubbed ‘the streaming tax’ by the services as they fought against giving up 5% of their local revenues to support Canadian…
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Canada’s levy on global video-streaming services has tripled to 15%
Music-streaming services have been campaigning hard in the last two years against a levy on their Canadian revenues by the country’s telecommunications regulator the CRTC, to fund local content and creators. The DSPs and their industry body DiMA were furious about what they called the ‘streaming tax’, which required them to make a “base contribution” of 5%…
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Mexican corridos music has doubled its stream-share since 2020
Corridos is one of the most traditional music genres, going back through centuries of Mexican storytelling. But it’s now also a thoroughly-modern trend thanks to its streaming growth. A new report from Chartmetric and Duetti has more details on that, hailing corridos as “the third fastest-growing genre in the world by superstar growth rate” with almost…
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MORE LATEST GLOBAL news
Reservoir expands Latin-music business with Nacional Records deal
Reservoir Media is the latest music company eyeing growth in Latin music through partnerships and acquisitions. In this case the latter: it is buying independent label Nacional Records, including the company’s publishing arm Canciones Nacionales.
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Global on-demand music streams up 9.8% in first half of 2026
Fellow stat-nerds, assemble! Luminate’s mid-year report is out, with all manner of figures on music (not to mention TV and film) in the first half of 2026.
Read more >>Understanding Latin America’s Music Market: Platforms, Fans, and Growth Opportunities
By Randi Zimmerman, Content Specialist, Symphonic Latin America was one of the fastest-growing recorded music regions in 2024, with revenue up 22.5%. Today, the region continues to shape global pop, hip-hop, dance, streaming culture, and the way music moves across borders. But LATAM’s influence isn’t just about Spanish-language hits reaching bigger audiences. Artists here are…
Read more >>
Music Ally Insight Report :: International Focus 2026
Welcome to our sixth annual Music Ally International Focus report – where we bring all of Music Ally’s Country Profiles published in the last 12 months into one place.
Read more >>
Grammy Awards add new categories including Asian Pop and Latin
The US Grammy Awards are getting new categories for 2027, including two that continue its expansion into international genres and scenes.
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MORE LATEST GLOBAL news
WMG expands ADA including rebrands of African and MENA distros
Warner Music Group’s distribution and label-services division ADA is getting a significant expansion across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
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Here’s looking at you, Def Jam… Label expands in Casablanca
Universal Music Group’s global expansion of its Def Jam label continues, following previous launches in South-East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, India, Sweden and China. Where to next? Of all the markets, in all the towns, in all the world, it’s launched in Casablanca with Def Jam Recordings North Africa. Its focus will be on the wider Maghreb region – the western part of…
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No Music For Genocide calls for Eurovision boycott over Israel
Earlier this week, we reported on an open letter pushing back on calls for Israel to be kicked out of the Eurovision Song Contest. We predicted (not that riskily, let’s be honest) at the time that “as Eurovision draws nearer, criticism of Israel’s participation, as well as defences of it, will only get louder.” That didn’t…
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PopArabia adds distribution with acquisition of Viral Wave
PopArabia has made its name with publishing and label services across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, but now it is adding distribution too. The company is acquiring label and distributor Viral Wave, which is based in Egypt’s capital Cairo. Its senior commercial manager Rania Ibrahim will oversee the company in a role as…
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Open letter pushes back on calls to ban Israel from Eurovision
Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest is one of the hottest music-political potatoes in the world right now, just under a month before the event in Austria. In December, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia pulled out of this year’s contest in protest at Israel not being excluded because of the war in Gaza – and also…
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MORE LATEST GLOBAL news
Cinq Music teams up with Cream to discover African talent
GoDigital Music-owned Cinq Music wants to help more African artists break worldwide – and it’s working with Afrobeats artist and label boss D’Banj to do it.
Read more >>WMG expands ADA including rebrands of African and MENA distros
Warner Music Group’s distribution and label-services division ADA is getting a significant expansion across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Read more >>Music Ally Insight Report :: International Focus 2026
Welcome to our sixth annual Music Ally International Focus report – where we bring all of Music Ally’s Country Profiles published in the last 12 months into one place.
Read more >>
Korin AI is ’trained with African datasets, built by Africans’
The biggest AI-music startups are based in the US, while there are plenty of innovative firms launching out of Europe and Asia. But Africa, too, has an emerging AI ecosystem. Korin AI is a good example. While its website is currently in a holding pattern ahead of its ‘Korin 2.0’ upgrade launch next week, news site OkayAfrica has…
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Why infrastructure is the key to Africa’s long-term music success: guest column
Guest column: Music Ally publishes guest columns voicing the opinions of notable authors, or advancing specific perspectives on important issues. These are chosen at the Editorial team’s discretion, are not paid-for, and do not necessarily reflect Music Ally’s own opinion. You can read our guest column policy here, and the guest column archive here. This…
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MORE LATEST GLOBAL news
Acquisitions Watch: BandLab Technologies snaps up Aoide and Too Lost buys Gyro·Group
The two latest music-industry acquisitions cover different areas: one an extension of AI-assisted music-making, and the other an expansion into Australasia and Asia-Pacific.
Read more >>
Australian government backs creative industries in AI-training battles
“No company should use Australian books, music, art or news to build or train AI without the artist’s control…”
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Tomorrowland and Fuji Rock Festival reveal livestream partners
We’re entering an era where the biggest, sold-outest festivals use livestreams as a core part of their strategy to reach larger audiences online, and build their brands globally. Two announcements yesterday continue the trend.
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Report predicts $56.8bn of annual recorded-music sales by 2030
Research firm Omdia has published its latest predictions for the growth of the global recorded-music market.
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South Korean bill would require ‘pre-screening’ of music releases
There are arguments afoot in South Korea this week due to a proposed amendment to the country’s Music Industry Promotion Act by the ruling party.
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MORE LATEST GLOBAL news
Guest column: Is the world sleeping on the India sync opportunity?
Last year, I helped sync an Arabic track called ‘Fa9la’ by Bahraini rapper Flipperachi into a Bollywood film called Dhurandhar.
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Indian music educators community Out of the Box to hold Soundboard symposium
There’s been a gradual increase in the number of music conferences in India over the last few years, including Soundboard.
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Madverse launches third edition of Empower Fund for Indian independent artists
For Indian independent artists in the early stages of their career, access to funding “remains one of the biggest challenges”.
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Amplify Music Incubator for artists launches south India-focused edition
The Amplify Music Incubator (AMI) has launched AMI South, for talents from the south Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
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AnArtizen offers ‘Unfair Advantage’ to aspiring music professionals
AnArtizen, an organisation that produces and provides resources to help creative professionals build careers, has launched Unfair Advantage.
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