Weekly radar recap
Michael Smith got 18 months. Sony passed 260,000 takedowns.
Drum and bass led the radar at plus 2.3, UK garage at plus 1.8, Afro house cooled hardest at minus 2.9. None of that is what the week was about. Three institutions published a number, and all three describe the same gap.
The case closed, and the inquiry opened anyway
Michael Smith, the music streaming fraudster at the centre of the biggest case of its kind, was given an 18 month jail sentence over an $8 million AI streaming fraud scheme. That is the most prosecutable version of the problem the industry has produced so far. Days later, on October 7, Music Business Worldwide reported that the US Copyright Office had launched its own inquiry into music streaming fraud. A conviction did not settle the question. The regulator opened a process on top of it, which says the industry does not expect one prosecution to change the economics.
A takedown count measures the other side's output
On October 5, Sony Music said it has now asked platforms to remove more than 260,000 AI deepfakes imitating artists including Harry Styles, Adele and Michael Jackson. MusicRadar reported the next day that the figure has doubled in six months, with Sony saying it will keep enforcing its artists' rights but that "it's becoming an uphill struggle." Sony published the number to pressure platforms and policymakers. Read it the other way and a takedown count is a production rate for the thing being removed, not a score.
What saves a room is paperwork, and paperwork expires
The live and club economy produced eight of the week's twelve notable stories while its momentum index moved a quarter of a point. Olympia London's Grand Hall cancelled all December events, citing planning issues. Birmingham organised a protest party against the demolition of Digbeth clubs, the Miami home of III Points is being turned into a college campus, and the Warehouse Project is taking a fallow year in 2027. Going the other way, London's Heaven will be protected from redevelopment for five years. Eight stories and almost no momentum movement: that volume is churn, not direction.
Drum and bass rose with tutorial searches sitting in its drivers, including "ableton drum n bass tutorial." UK garage rose on Mixmag features for Silva Bumpa and Ahadadream. Only one of those is an audience telling you what it wants to learn.
Rising
Cooling
Notable evidence
- How Shimza’s Pacha residency is helping African dance music take root in Ibiza
- US musician given 18-month prison sentence for $8 million AI streaming fraud
- Beloved British rapper Sway has died, aged 44
- Roni Size to host “world’s deepest rave” in abandoned Welsh mine
- Interactive bus tour visiting Dublin’s “vanished” music venues to begin this autumn
- Home of Miami music festival III Points to be turned into college campus
- Birmingham protest party organised to save Digbeth clubs from demolition
- Olympia London's Grand Hall cancels all December events, citing planning issues
- New study claims that Ibiza’s club promoter tactics are negatively impacting small businesses
- The Warehouse Project is taking a fallow year in 2027
- London club night and venue Lost hints at return with 24-hour events
- London's Heaven will be protected from redevelopment for five years