Conversations on songwriting featuring top names like Luciano Luna and Salvador Aponte, as well as panels on artist strategy, investment, social media and artistic development will be the backbone of a new music conference — Unión Musical — taking place July 9 and 10 in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The confab, launched as a private, by invitation only event focused on regional Mexican music two years ago, opens its doors to the public for the first time at Expo Guadalajara, with programming that includes broader topics. Although the focus is still heavily on música mexicana, the applications of the conversations and panels apply to the industry at large.

Unión Musical is the brainchild of Ivan Sergey, CEO of monitoring system Scanner Sound and singer/ songwriters Andrea Merodio and Rodrigo Ruiz.

The fact that Ruiz and Merodio are both songwriters incentivized them to create the event.

“We wanted to integrate in a single place valuable conversations that provide teachings on everything having to do with the music industry, integrating several genres with industry leaders willing to connect, listen and share knowledge and experience,” says Merodio, who oversees PR and social media strategy, among others.

This year’s programming, which takes place across two days, beginning at 3 p.m. Guadalajara time, includes panels on AI, artist strategy and social media investment. Speakers include regional Mexican leaders like respected manager and producer Fernando Camacho (Banda MS), Roberto Ruiz (Kartel Records) and Isael Gutiérrez (VIP Entertainment).

The event will also include an award ceremony honoring a “Legendary producer” as well as Lifetime achievement artist winners.

Tickets to Unión Musical can be purchased here.

When Ryan Castro released Sendé, his second studio album, his goal was to share a glimpse into his life and the island that shaped him — Curaçao.

With its Caribbean charm, Curaçao became the foundation that helped mold the Colombian star’s artistic identity for his sophomore LP. From its rhythmic sounds — dancehall, kizomba, Afrobeats and reggae — to its Dutch colonial architecture and stunning ocean views, the island serves as a constant reminder of his formative years and the cultural influences that continue to inspire his music.

“Being on this island is where I made it in Colombia. I think it was the right time to tell and let people know what I experienced here, because my cultural influences also come from here,” he tells Billboard Español. “I love dancehall, and maybe that’s why I’m making this album. The words I use — like ‘awoo’ — have their origin here, on the island, and many things about who I am as an artist are connected to this place. That’s why I believe this is the perfect moment to share this story with the people.”

If Sendé‘s success is any indication — it landed on Billboard‘s 25 Best Latin Albums of 2025 So Far (Staff Picks) list — Castro’s story is proving as impactful as his sound.

In Billboard‘s 24 Hours with Ryan Castro in Curaçao video, the Colombian artist walks us through his life on the island. From working as a waiter at the seafood restaurant Perla del Mar — where we shared an enormous lobster — to taking viewers inside the humble apartment he once lived in, and introducing us to his family — including his mother, who still works as a nurse in Curaçao — he shows us of the place that shaped him. He even revisited his days as a security guard at a nursing home, remembering the sacrifices he made while chasing his dreams of a music career.

“I worked in many jobs, always with the dream of moving forward with music,” Castro says. “The first thing I bought was a sound system to play the tracks, because I needed to listen to them before heading to work, to motivate myself and to set myself on the right path as well.”

From El Cantante del Ghetto to a rising Latin sensation, Castro can appreciate how far he has come. “Being able to rise to fame, travel the world, and take care of my family — honestly, for us, it’s a source of pride, and this little corner is a part of that,” he shares. “It’s a very special and humble place for us, one that we carry in our hearts.”

When the Universal Music Group announced in December that its Virgin Music Group subsidiary was acquiring indie label services company Downtown Music in a $775 million transaction, it ended months of speculation about the future of Downtown — which is comprised of FUGA, CD Baby, Songtrust and more — as its longtime financial backer looked for an exit.

What it started, however, is an increasingly heated back and forth among industry stakeholders about whether the world’s largest music company should be allowed to acquire one of the few remaining standalone services powering distribution for independent companies.

The backlash started right away, with indie music trade organizations like IMPALA, AIM, IMPF and Beggars Group releasing statements the following day referring to the deal as a “land grab”; days later, WIN, A2IM, Secretly Group and others released a joint statement urging regulators to block the deal. Last month, Universal formally notified the European Union of its intention to move forward with the deal, which triggered a standard antitrust review by the European Commission, the entity that has until July 22 to decide to wave the deal through or investigate further, leading to further volleys from the indie community against the proposed deal, which would bring another big indie distro company under UMG’s purview following its acquisition of [PIAS] last fall.

Late last week, Virgin’s co-CEOs Nat Pastor and JT Meyers sent out a memo to staff, obtained by Billboard, pushing back on many of the claims from the indie community, which largely center on anticompetitive grounds and concerns that UMG would gain access to data from the indies that use FUGA as their pipeline to the broader marketplace. 

“The deal with Downtown will strengthen the foundation we’ve built thus far,” Pastor and Meyers wrote. “Our motivation for the merger and our excitement about it are rooted in this singular opportunity: by combining Downtown’s and Virgin’s unique capabilities, the unified company will offer an even more robust and flexible suite of services to independent labels everywhere.” On the data issue, they added, “Virgin will not only uphold Downtown’s data privacy policies, we will also expand and strengthen them. Virgin already handles — with the care and confidentiality they deserve — the sensitive client data of hundreds of partners. Betraying the trust our clients have bestowed on us would be self-destructive: they would quickly, and quite rightly, end the relationship. Which is why we’re proud to say that since the day we entered this business, we have never had a single complaint of misuse of client information of any kind.”

And in terms of the issues raised by many in the indie music community around major-owned consolidation — not just with UMG, but with Sony buying AWAL in 2022 and Warner very publicly in an acquisitive phase as it looks to bolster its own offerings — they pointed to the increase in private equity and entrepreneurial investment in distribution in the past half-decade.

“The more investment that flows into the services businesses, the more independent labels benefit, because more investment means better resources and greater competition among services providers,” the two wrote. “Today, approximately 100 services companies are competing to partner with independent labels and artists. The stronger the provider of services, the greater the chance that the independent label and artist has to succeed in today’s market.”

Now, the indie community is hitting back once again in a new open letter, signed by more than 200 indie music executives, headlined “We must keep music open” that pushes for the European Commission to decide by that July 22 deadline to continue its investigation of the deal by entering a “Phase II” review, writing, “This isn’t just a simple ‘investment’ in one of the world’s most prominent independent companies; it is about control.”

“The implications are profound,” the signatories write, in a letter sent to EC executive vp Teresa Ribera, which raises many of the same points that the individual companies have brought up in past statements. “A concentration of this magnitude would narrow the range of voices, styles and cultures that reach the public,” it continues. “It would give UMG further power to shape digital services, influence monetization thresholds and extract more, at the expense of the independent sector. That would reduce choice for consumers, stifle experimentation, and undermine Europe’s role as a vibrant incubator of musical and artistic expression. Fans will hear less of the new and more of the same. Artists working outside the commercial mainstream will struggle to find traction. And a once-thriving creative economy will begin to stagnate.”

The letter is signed by business owners, association leaders and top execs from companies such as A2IM, 4AD, AIM, Beggars, Better Noise, Chrysalis, Cooking Vinyl, Dead Oceans, Domino, Epitaph, Exceleration Music, Hopeless, Jagjaguwar, Matador, Merge, Rough Trade, Secretly, Sub Pop, The Numero Group, Warp, XL, Young and more. 

“Independent music companies play a vital role in promoting music innovation, fostering diversity and protecting culture,” they wrote. “To fulfill that role, we must have fair and non-discriminatory access to the best  infrastructure in the music economy. And not be forced into structural dependence on our biggest competitor who is also shifting payment models on digital services.”

Suno has announced that Paul Sinclair, former general manager and executive vp at Atlantic Records, is joining the AI music company as its first chief music officer. In this newly created role, the New York-based executive, who has been advising Suno for months now, will guide how the company’s tools are developed to support music creators at all skill levels and to “unlock new experiences between artists and fans,” as stated in a company press release.

Sinclair brings over two decades of music industry experience to his new role at Suno. First, he worked at Warner Music Group as director of digital properties, beginning in 2001, according to LinkedIn. With a longtime interest in spearheading innovation and technology in the music business, Sinclair then joined WMG’s Atlantic Records in 2006 as vp, business development and emerging technologies and stayed at the company until 2024.

While working as Atlantic’s general manager and evp, Sinclair oversaw overall label operations and provided leadership in areas like marketing, digital, artist development, creative, sales/streaming and more. He left Atlantic late last year as part of the company’s major restructuring, which also saw other top Atlantic execs like CEO Julie Greenwald, head of marketing Grace James, senior vp or touring Harlan Frey, evp of press and media strategy Sheila Richman and many more exiting at the same time. Now, Atlantic is helmed by CEO Elliot Grainge and the GM role is held by Tony Talamo, who previously worked with Grainge at his label 10K Projects.

News of Sinclair’s hire follows a busy last few months for Suno. In recent weeks, the company has announced a bevy of new features, designed to give users more control to edit the AI-generated music that Suno produces and hopefully court more seasoned musicians to use the platform. As part of that roll out of new fetures, the AI music company also noted its acquisition of WavTool, a browser-based digital audio workstation (DAW).

Meanwhile, the major music companies — including Sinclair’s former employer WMG — are still pursuing blockbuster lawsuits against Suno and its competitor Udio, alleging that the companies have infringed on their copyrighted sound recordings on “an almost unimaginable scale” by using them to train models without a license. In early June, however, it was reported that the majors are in licensing talks with Suno and Udio to see if private licensing agreements can be reached. It’s unclear how far along those discussions are.

Sinclair is the latest music industry veteran to be recruited by Suno. Last year, multi-platinum hitmaker Timbaland joined Suno as a strategic advisor in October 2024 to help with “day-to-day product development” and “creative direction.”