The deals: K-Pop giant Kakao signs licensing pact with NetEase. Lil Durk Teams With AWAL for Label

NetEase Cloud Music entered into a licensing agreement with a South Korean music label Kakao Fun which will allow NetEase to distribute Kakao's catalog in China. Both companies will work together to jointly promote Korean music in the Chinese market. Kakao artists include Jay Park, Chungha, FTISLAND and CNBLUE. According to a press release, Kakao had 2016 million monthly active users and more than 44 million paying subscribers in 2023.

Rapper Lil Durk collaborated with AWAL to relaunch his venture with the company, OTF. Under the agreement, OTF will identify and develop artists with the help of AWAL's global infrastructure and artist development expertise. Durk will act as CEO while OTF's COO, Cedrick “SB” Earserywill work with the CEO of AWAL Lonnie OlynykChairman Pete Giberg and senior vp/head of urban music Norva Denton to strengthen the OTF roster. The first release from the deal, DJ Bandz's “GTA” featuring Rob 49, Skilla Baby and Fivio Foreign, drops on Friday (May 17).

Music Venue Trust has announced its second acquisition of its own Properties of Music Space via the UK's Own Our Venues programme: The ferret in Preston, a 200-capacity venue that has hosted artists such as Ed Sheeran, IDLES, Alt-J and Royal Blood. With the purchase, the venue will be placed in permanent protected status through a “cultural lease” — an agreement designed by Music Venue Properties to guarantee that, as long as The Ferret operates as a venue for grassroots live music for the local community, it can to use the building. Own Our Venues has raised almost £2.6m to date from over 1,200 individual investors. In October 2023, Music Venue Properties made its first purchase when it acquired The Snug in Atherton, Greater Manchester. Seven additional venues across the country have been identified for purchase in this initial phase.

AI solutions company Veritone signed an agreement to power theCAAvault, a synthetic media vault created by Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to store CAA clients' intellectual property, including AI clones and voice recordings. The hope is to ensure that CAA talent is properly compensated for any use of their name, image and likeness.

ASM Global invested in Boston EDGE Sports Group, marking a significant move by the company to become a market leader in providing consulting, development and venue management services to clients and partners in the domestic youth sports and sports tourism industry. Following the closing of the transaction, EDGE will operate under the EDGE Sports Global brand. EDGE brings a portfolio of more than a dozen sports venues to the New England area and is expanding with development projects in Florida, Arizona and beyond. It also owns or manages sports clubs, academies and youth camps with more than 350 teams and 8,000 athletes. Founder/Chairman of EDGE Sports Group Brian DeVellis will continue to serve as president of EDGE Sports Global.

Music Licensing Hub Broma16 signed an international agreement with YouTube and partnerships with three collective management societies from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region. The YouTube deal will see Broma16 collect music rights from the platform in regions such as Africa, Asia, Middle East, Europe and CIS and distribute them to its members. The new partners of a collective company are ANCO (Moldova), SIIP (Uzbekistan) and KAZAKH (Kazakhstan). SIIP and ANCO will use Broma16's online licensing services to collect royalties for their songwriter and publisher members. KAZAK granted Broma16 the right to collect royalties from YouTube.