And The Update Is...Spotify Deletes 500K Streams ,TIDAL Takes a Stand Against AI,The Charts Have a New Enemy

[music] Welcome to Am The Update Is. I am your host Ross Golan and this is the Music Industry News for the week of June 29th, 2026. Happy 250th birthday to the United States of America. One of the leaders in the world for intellectual property protection so songwriters everywhere can be protected. We do lead the world in participation with streaming services which sounds crazy to those who are listening to this who don't know that but that is a true story. All right well let's get to some news. Here's a story for you. Spotify deletes streams of a chart topping song after suspicious kalshi bets. That's right the platform removed more than 500,000 streams of Malcolm Todd's track earrings on concern traders propelled it to number one. Well that's interesting because we're used to labels and all these other people dealing with peola but we are not used to random traders taking advantage of processes of streaming services. That is a wild story. It makes you wonder how many times it's been done before and how many times that will continue to happen. Maybe the biggest news that people have been talking about this week is that title introduces AI music policy and labeling system. They are not going to pay AI generated music and royalties. Shots fired to use Spotify and Apple. Are you going to pay AI slop creators? I hope not title is leading the way there. Congrats title. I hope people use your platform and others can learn from that. Primary wave isn't just stopping at cobalt. They're investing a hundred million dollars in Atticus Works partnership which is a strategy that's revolving around books and theater and working with authors, states and rights holders. Virgin Music Group announces new leadership team following downtown acquisition. Shout out to all of our friends over at downtown and Virgin. You guys know who we are talking about also in that same breath, same thing with firebird announcing their 750 million dollars or whatever they got for investing in and the music industry as well. Shout out to those guys. All these people are friends with each other and we like them. So that's that's a personal shout out because you know good good folks always written for those people. Soundcloud and Twitch launch DJ performance series. Soundcloud sessions will feature DJs through live streams created to help them connect with fans and grow audiences. For signings, Timberland after all these years has a new management Ben Willis and Josh Adriano of Indie Pop for management. That is a surprise if you know Tim and his team. That is a big move. They very successful producer. Ash shout out to you. She's a she's a gem. She signs with Atlantic Records, Universal Music Publishing Group, and Doomsday for Publishing. That is a big deal because Ash is an exceptionally talented human. Kempetra is signed with new management. That should help her as she's about to release her album. Ellie Goulding signed for new touring so maybe we'll get a tour from her and if you have if you've never seen her live she's wonderful. Lucky day signs with Warner Records. Warner Records not stopping don't stop won't stop. Okay let's get to some charts. Choosing Texas by Ella Langley is back to number one on Billboard Hot 100 chart. I think that means that it's been number one for six years now. You seem pretty sad for girls so in love by Olivia Rodrigo is number one on Billboard 200 chart for the second week in a row. 21 by Hugo Davies at number one on Spotify's Top Albums debut global chart. Always excited to see people top charts that are not household names in some circles. Sombra debuted at number one for his new single My Body Isn't Ready and considering that he's number one at at top 40 radio at the moment. That guy is just killing it with 100% songs. You can always check out the interview we did with him. That was enlightening. ML2 by young boy never broke again NBA young boy. Davies at number one on Spotify's Top Album debut USA chart. If you don't know how big young boy is he may be the highest selling rapper of all time. He's some stat like that. It's pretty insane. So not surprised to see him there. So nobody's as prolific as he is. Okay anyway that's our news for the day. Again have a safe July 4th weekend and we will see you on the flip side. New episode coming out Tuesday. It's a really good one with an artist that I love. Super stoked about that. Don't forget to join our Patreon. We got a lot of content that's coming up every week now on that and and we're excited to give away some UA gear to some lucky Patreon followers. All right. Talk to you soon. Bye!