Charli XCX brought her Music, Fashion, Film tour to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Monday (Sept. 14), the first of two scheduled shows at the venue.
The outing continues the singer’s push to fold visual and stylistic elements into her live show, following a run of high-profile industry attention around her recent output.
Read the full story at Billboard.
AI music startup Suno has appointed Cherry Miao as its first chief financial officer. Miao joins from data-activation company Hightouch, where she led finance, legal, data and revenue operations, and where she had previously been both a customer and an angel investor before joining the staff.
The hire marks a step toward building out formal financial infrastructure at Suno as the company scales, following a period of rapid growth and continued legal scrutiny from the recorded music industry over its AI-generated tracks. Bringing on a dedicated finance chief typically signals preparation for further fundraising, tighter revenue reporting or an eventual move toward acquisition or public markets.
Read the full story at Music Business Worldwide.
ElevenLabs has released Music v2.5, a new version of its AI music generation model, days after unveiling a licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. The model went live on September 11 and now serves as the default engine for both prompted and reference-based generation within ElevenMusic, the company’s music tool.
The update follows growing scrutiny of AI music platforms over rights clearance, and the timing signals ElevenLabs’ push to pair improved technology with licensed content as it competes for position in the AI audio generation market.
Read the full story at Music Business Worldwide.
AEG Presents has acquired a stake in Greenhouse Talent, a promoter that stages close to 1,500 events annually across Belgium and the Netherlands. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Greenhouse Talent will keep operating from its Ghent and Breda offices under its current leadership, with the investment aimed at expanding AEG’s footprint in the Benelux live music market.
Read the full story at Music Business Worldwide.
Samsung has filed a motion to dismiss a $15 million lawsuit brought by Dua Lipa, arguing that the singer does not hold trademark rights over her own image. The filing sets up a legal dispute over how far publicity and likeness protections extend when no formal trademark is registered.
A hearing on the motion is scheduled for December 14 in the US District Court for the Central District of California. The case could have implications for how brands use artist likenesses in marketing without direct licensing agreements.
Read the full story at Music Business Worldwide.
Universal Music Group has signed a licensing deal with ElevenLabs, the AI audio company now valued at $11 billion, to build a platform allowing fans to create remixes, mashups and other reinterpretations of UMG tracks. The partnership marks one of the label’s most direct moves yet to bring generative AI tools into an official, licensed fan-facing product rather than treating such use as unauthorized.
ElevenLabs, known for its voice-cloning and synthetic audio technology, has been expanding beyond text-to-speech into broader music applications and has drawn significant investor interest amid the AI boom. The UMG deal signals growing willingness among major labels to strike commercial agreements with AI firms rather than pursue litigation alone, following a pattern of licensing talks across the industry as rights holders look to control how their catalogs are used in AI-generated content.
Read the full story at Music Business Worldwide.
Malcolm Todd has announced additional 2026-2027 tour dates for his Do That Again Tour, expanding into Asia, Europe, the UK and Australia. The new leg begins November 23 in Taipei and moves through Tokyo, Manila, Singapore, Seoul, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta before the tour resumes in February 2027 across Stockholm, Copenhagen, Cologne, Brussels, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and London. The run concludes in May 2027 with Australian dates in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
Support acts include Natanya for the European and UK shows and Maden Lane for the Australian dates. The expansion follows the September 2 launch of Todd’s North American tour, which according to the announcement is sold out and includes stops at Radio City Music Hall, Chicago’s The Salt Shed and a three-night stand at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
The tour supports Todd’s sophomore album Do That Again, released via Columbia Records, which the label says reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 with all 13 tracks charting on the U.S. Spotify Chart. Todd’s single “Earrings” has been certified platinum by the RIAA. Artist presales for the newly announced dates begin September 15, with general onsales following later in the week.
Based on a press release provided to Music Industry Weekly by Genesis Salazar, LiveNation.com.
Chief Keef has postponed what was set to be his first Chicago concert in more than ten years. The show has been rescheduled to September 23.
No reason for the delay was given. The concert marks a rare hometown appearance for the rapper, who rose to prominence out of Chicago’s drill scene more than a decade ago but has largely stayed away from performing there since.
Read the full story at Pitchfork.
The ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ franchise is extending its blind box merchandise strategy with a new line of phone huggers, small clip-on figures designed to accessorize phones, tablets and computer screens. The collection includes nine minifigures from the property, sold in the randomized blind box format that has driven demand for the franchise’s collectibles.
The release adds to a growing slate of consumer products tied to ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ reflecting how entertainment IP continues to lean on collectible merchandise as a revenue stream alongside music and streaming.
Read the full story at Billboard.
The Fray will tour Australia and New Zealand in 2027 with Dashboard Confessional, marking a co-headline run across eight dates in the region.
The trek splits evenly between four indoor headline concerts and four outdoor performances booked as part of the Lookout Festival series, giving fans in the region two different concert formats to catch the pairing.
Read the full story at Billboard.