Bill Ackman's special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Pershing Square Tontine Holdings (PSTH), has reportedly abandoned a deal that would see his company buy a 10% stake in Universal Music Group (UMG) for USD 4 billion (£2.9 billion).

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States froze the deal, claiming that acquiring 10% of a firm through a SPAC is not a proper SPAC transaction.

It is to be noted that New York Stock Exchange listed Pershing Square Tontine Holdings disclosed the deal last month on June 20. It planned to finalize the deal after UMG listed its 60% shares in Amsterdam in September.

The company will be fined $77,150 by China's SAMR for failing to disclose the purchases of applications, Kugou and Kuwo

Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), a company that develops music streaming services for the Chinese market, is being forced by Antitrust regulators in China to surrender exclusive rights to the catalogues of certain record labels in the country.

Sources claim that the expected order comes after an antitrust investigation against TME in China, where the company was investigated in 2019 for establishing exclusive license arrangements with three major record labels in the country.

Amazon, an e-Commerce firm, has reportedly introduced a new subscription service known as the Vinyl of the Month Club. This latest service will focus on delivering ‘golden era’ records from the 1960s and 1970s to the door of the music fans, handpicked by the Amazon Music team.

The subscription service is priced at $25 per month, designed to gain an advantage from the rising trend of vinyl record sales. This new club joins other subscription offerings of the e-Commerce company, including Kindle Unlimited, Book Box, Audible, and Amazon Prime. All the subscribers including Amazon Prime members will gain access to the service. It will showcase albums by ABBA, Areth

Humit, a social networking app for music discovery and sharing, has announced raising funds from an undisclosed pre-seed round that was led by VC firm Antler India, with First Cheque as a participant.

The funding round also witnessed participation from other angel investors like Ankit Mathuria (CTO, OYO Rooms), Sarath Sura (Co-founder, Sierra Atlantic), Kshitij Khandelwal (Co-founder, Pixxel), Exotel), Gajendra Jangid (Co-founder, CARS24), and Alagu Periyannan (CTO, Bluejeans), among several others.

Humit, established in 2020 by BITS Pilani alumni Rohit Ganapathy, Prithvi Sankar, and Ishaan Negi, offers Spotify users an audio-focused on

British music artists & bands such as Radiohead, Biffy Clyro, the Chemical Brothers, & Annie Lennox are reportedly calling on the UK government to provide financial support for post-Brexit touring in the EU.

As per the terms of the Brexit agreement, all performing artists must carry work permits to earn money from concerts and performances in EU countries. They also must have a carnet to transport musical instruments and other goods across borders. Moreover, the UK-registered touring vehicles will be able to make only 3 stops prior to returning home, as the multi-stop tours are currently unviable.

In response to these new ru

• The funding round brings Songtradr's total valuation to over $300 million
• Songtradr has boosted its revenue by 100% year on year in 2020

Songtradr Inc., a music company headquartered in Santa Monica, has announced that it has seized $50 million in Series D funding for its business-to-business music licensing platform. In a statement, the company mentioned that the raised funds brings Songtradr's total valuation to over $300 million.

The round included investment firms from Australia, including Perennial Value Management, Regal Funds Man

The app recently disclosed plans to launch Shazamkit, a new platform that allows developers to integrate its audio technology into their app

Apple’s music recognition platform, Shazam has successfully surpassed the 1 billion Shazams (searches) and 50 billion tags milestone. The platform, which was first launched as a text message service in 2002, was acquired by Apple for USD 400 million in 2018. Since then, it has been witnessing momentous growth year by year.

According to Oliver Schusser, Vice President of Apple Music and Beats, “Shazam is one of the most popular music apps in the world, with 1 billion

Spotify has reportedly launched ‘Spotify Greenroom’, which was previously named Locker Room. The application is developed by Betty Labs, a startup acquired by Spotify in March.

The streaming platform is offering a new way of establishing connections between creators and their audiences with the help of live audio- something currently mastered by popular audio conversation app Clubhouse.

Along with that, the company has plans to introduce a Spotify creator fund, to pay creators catering to live audiences for their work.

During the announcement of launching Greenroom, the company stat