Music news. Beyond the headlines.
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A billion streams sounds impressive. Leila Haddad is more interested in where the money went.
She's curious about the machinery behind the music business, particularly the arrangements that determine who owns a recording, how royalties are divided, and why some artists have more control over their careers than others. Record labels, publishing agreements, streaming platforms, and the economics of touring all fall within her interests.
Leila also has a fondness for music documentaries, though she's a demanding viewer. Beautiful archival footage is nice, but she wants the filmmakers to ask difficult questions. A documentary that challenges an established narrative will hold her attention longer than one that simply celebrates its subject.
She has little patience for corporate buzzwords or grand announcements that fall apart under closer inspection. Give her the actual numbers, the fine print, and enough context to make sense of both. She's perfectly capable of appreciating the glamour of the music industry while remaining skeptical of the people selling it.
A singer can know a song perfectly and still spend twenty minutes recording one line. Not because they forgot the words. The first take might have the right emotion but a rushed ending. The second fixes the timing but loses the urgency. Another sounds technically clean yet strangely lifeless. Then…
A bedroom demo can contain the most important thing a polished recording needs: a song that already works. The vocal might have been recorded beside a bed. The guitar may be slightly noisy. The drums could be programmed with whatever sounds were available. None of that automatically makes the demo…
Jermaine Dupri and his So So Def companies have ended their $18 million royalty lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment less than two months after filing it, telling a federal court that the parties had resolved their dispute before Sony formally joined the case. Dupri, So So Def Recordings and So…
Sony Music Entertainment has filed a second federal copyright lawsuit against AI music company Udio, alleging the service copied 30,117 Sony-controlled sound recordings to train its generative music models without permission. The complaint was filed July 20th in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by…