Beyoncé and Neil Young song fund Hipgnosis sells 20,000 songs for £18m

London-listed music investor sells ‘non-core’ rights at a discount to raise cash as it battles debt pile

Kendrick Lamar concert in Kigali kicks off drive to put Africa on the global gig circuit

Move Afrika, launched by grandson of Nelson Mandela, aims to draw on success of Afrobeats and support a new generation of musicians

Bath music venue Moles and Nozstock festival close due to cost of living crisis

‘Live music at grassroots level is no longer economically viable’ says co-owner of the cherished gig venue

Sir Robin Millar: the vinyl revival is exposing artists’ climate ‘hypocrisy’

The producer and disability campaigner who made hits with Sade and Everything But the Girl says it’s time records were banned to save the climate

‘I’ve been sacked for asking for time off to tour’: the perils of being a musician with a second job

Thanks to streaming, Brexit and Covid, it’s never been harder to make ends meet as a musician. Three acts with second jobs discuss juggling stadium tours with shelf-stacking

Festival organisers sound alarm as big-name artists shun their events

Industry says with global headliners doing their own tours there are not enough stars to fill festival line-ups in UK and Ireland

I can’t go for that: the vexed business of artists selling off their songs

Hall and Oates are embroiled in bitter legal action over the sale of their rights, while rights-owning company Hipgnosis is in trouble. Is the market for songs as assets going out of tune?

Stars back Andrew Lloyd Webber call for music education funding

Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa among signatories of letter to Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer calling for funds for music in disadvantaged schools

Spotify made £56m profit, but has decided not to pay smaller artists like me. We need you to make some noise

What its Wrapped campaign doesn’t say is that indie musicians and labels are treated terribly, and deserve a better deal, says Damon Krukowski

Nearly a third of professional UK musicians report poor mental wellbeing

Squeeze musician Chris Difford among those expressing concern over findings by Musicians’ Union and Help Musicians

Music mogul Jimmy Iovine accused of sexual abuse and harassment

Representative for Iovine says they are ‘shocked and baffled’ by allegations made in summons in New York

‘Putting a number on art’: musicians nervous as Spotify announces royalty changes

Streaming giant says tweaks will bring more revenue to artists and away from fraudsters, but some musicians are worried about further creeping change

Spotify to phase out service in Uruguay following new copyright bill requiring ‘fair and equitable remuneration’

The streaming platform claimed that it already pays nearly 70% of every dollar to labels and publishers and had contributed to a 20% growth in Uruguay’s music industry in 2022

‘It was a way to share your musical experiences’: why cassette tapes flourished, and still endure

Two new books explore the history of the tape and how it helped spread hip-hop, thrash metal and experimental music around the world one mixtape at a time

YouTube to offer option to flag AI-generated songs that mimic artists’ voices

Record companies will be able to request removal of content that mimics an artist’s ‘unique singing or rapping’