Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring costs.
This week, Reuters reported that the European Commission plans to escalate its investigation into Universal Music Group‘s $775 million Downtown Music Holdings acquisition, signaling deeper regulatory scrutiny of major label consolidation.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster gained momentum with revelations of undisclosed kickback schemes involving venue giant Oak View Group.
Elsewhere, fresh data from Luminate painted a sobering picture for those chasing US chart hits, while Warner Music Group bolstered its catalog strategy with a key hire.
Also this week, Primary Wave continued its acquisition spree via a deal with Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green’s estate, marking the latest in a series of catalog acquisitions backed by the company’s $2 billion partnership with Brookfield Asset Management.
Here are some of the biggest headlines from the past few days…
The European Commission is planning to open a “full-scale” investigation into Universal Music Group’s proposed acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings. That’s according to a report published by Reuters on July 16, citing “three people with direct knowledge of the matter”.
The move represents an escalation from the initial Phase 1 review to a more extensive Phase II investigation lasting up to 90 working days.
UMG’s Virgin Music Group revealed in December that it had agreed to buy Downtown Music Holdings LLC in a $775 million deal. The reported investigation comes after over 200 people signed a letter objecting to UMG’s proposed takeover of Downtown, including 20 employees from Beggars Group and Secretly Group companies.
Universal maintains confidence in the deal, with a spokesperson stating: “[We] remain confident that the combination of Virgin and Downtown will create an improved offering in the growing and highly competitive label services category that today consists of roughly 100 companies…”
The Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster potentially gained new ammunition this week with revelations of a previously undisclosed kickback scheme. The kickback arrangement was revealed as part of the DOJ’s investigation into bid-rigging allegations against OVG CEO Tim Leiweke.
OVG reportedly entered into a pact with the ticketing services provider, via which the ticketing company agreed to make annual $7.5 million “Sponsorship Payments” to OVG. These payments were “subject to adjustments based on the volume of primary, fee-bearing tickets sold” for venues managed by OVG360 in North America over a 10-year period.
The critical issue identified by the DOJ is that OVG failed to disclose this financial arrangement to venue owners, despite having fiduciary duties to them. The revelations could significantly strengthen the DOJ’s ongoing antitrust case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster…
New data from Luminate’s midyear report reveals fundamental shifts in American music consumption patterns. The USA’s market share of global audio streaming volume has substantially fallen – down from 43.4% in 2019 to just 27.9% in H1 2025.
Even more striking is the decline of megahits. The USA’s Top 10 tracks in H1 2025 claimed a half-a-percent share of the market’s total audio streams (0.52%). Go back just a few years, and the equivalent stat was as high as 1.6%.
Perhaps most significantly, tracks younger than 18 months old (‘current’ releases) were streamed 168.5 billion times in the first half of 2025. That was down in volume terms by 3.3% YoY vs. the same period of 2024, when ‘current’ tracks racked up 174.3 billion streams…
Warner Music Group made a strategic hire to capitalize on the growing catalog market, appointing industry veteran Orla Lee-Fisher as Head of Dual Catalog Strategy. Lee-Fisher will “champion” catalogs represented by WMG. That will involve “crafting and leading campaigns for the company’s off-roster catalog” across both recorded music and publishing rights.
Lee-Fisher joins WMG from Universal Music Group, where she worked for more than 20 years, serving in a variety of roles, including General Manager of Polydor Records and Managing Director of A&M Records. Most recently, she was EVP, Global Marketing and worked across campaigns for superstar artists including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Sir Elton John.
The appointment comes two weeks after we learned that WMG and private investment giant Bain Capital are launching a $1.2 billion joint venture to acquire “legendary” music catalogs across both recorded music and music publishing…
Primary Wave has struck a music rights deal with the estate of Peter Green, the founder and original lead of Fleetwood Mac. According to Primary Wave, terms of the deal will see the publisher acquire the assets comprised in Green’s Rattlesnake music publishing catalog, and his interest in all compositions written by him, as well as certain recordings.
Green’s writing credits include Fleetwood Mac songs such as Albatross, Black Magic Woman,Oh Well, The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown), and Man of the World. Rolling Stone ranked Green at No.58 in its list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”
This partnership marks the latest Fleetwood Mac-related deal for Primary Wave. In December 2020, the company acquired a majority stake in the publishing catalog of another Fleetwood Mac member, Stevie Nicks. The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that Primary Wave bought an 80% interest in the copyrights, which its sources said were valued at approximately $100 million…
