In the world of music sync, where the complexities of rights management often stifle creativity and delay transactions, the newly announced partnership between Kobalt Music and Chordal offers a glimpse into what the future could look like.

Kobalt, a leading independent music publisher, is integrating Chordal’s music rights technology as the enterprise sync platform for its catalog of over one million songs. The collaboration marks the first time Kobalt has relied on a third-party platform to power its global sync transactions, signaling an important shift in how music rights and licenses are handled in an increasingly digital world.

“This partnership with Kobalt is a defining moment — not just for Chordal, but for the future of music licensing,” said Grayson Sanders, CEO of Chordal, in a statement. “Kobalt has long been at the forefront of modernizing rights management and we’re honored to help advance their mission to benefit creators worldwide.”

For decades, music licensing — particularly for fractionally owned songs — has been mired in inefficiencies. Rights conflicts, time-consuming paperwork and tedious approval processes have made licensing music a slow and frustrating endeavor. Chordal’s new technology, particularly its licensing system InstantClear, introduced in March, aims to change all that.

A key part of this partnership is InstantClear, a pre-cleared licensing system designed to streamline the process for songs that have multiple rights holders. Traditionally, coordinating approvals for these works has been arduous, often stalling deals before they are finalized. InstantClear facilitates key aspects of licensing and payments, allowing various rights holders to quickly approve their respective shares and supporting automated, custom legal contracts.

Rob Christensen, executive vp and head of global sync at Kobalt, praised the versatility the partnership brings. “Chordal’s platform seamlessly integrates the creative and operational sides of the sync business, and their ability to consolidate rights holders on fractionally owned songs and masters greatly simplifies the process for buyers,” he said in a statement. In addition to streamlining operations, Christensen highlighted Chordal’s creative tools, which he described as “game changers” for music supervisors and creatives seeking music for projects.

This collaboration also highlights the broader shift in rights management as the music business embraces innovative technologies. Kobalt’s integration with Chordal’s API enables music supervisors, producers and brands to access Kobalt’s catalog in real time, meaning buyers can quickly license music without long waits for clearance. Importantly, Sanders and Christensen emphasize that the partnership doesn’t aim to take control away from creators but rather to empower them. Kobalt writers and artists will have “the final say over where their music is used and at what price point,” Christensen said.

Chordal’s presence has grown steadily in recent years, attracting major publishers and labels such as Reservoir Media, Believe and Primary Wave to its platform. With $4.5 million raised, the company has worked with clients since 2023 after beginning work on the platform in 2019.

Cardi B is putting an end to the chatter surrounding having anthems “WAP” and “Up” on her forthcoming sophomore album, Am I the Drama?. The Bronx bombshell addressed the critics once and for all with a stern message to X on Wednesday evening (June 25).

“This will be the last and only time I’m gonna address this,” she began. “WAP and Up are two of my biggest songs, my fans have been asking me to put them on an album, and people search for them on IOP all the time… they deserve a home.”

Cardi continued: “I let haters make me not submit WAP for the Grammy’s and at this point I’m giving my fans what they want! These two songs don’t even count for first week sales so what are yall even crying about??? Do ya say anything when all these artist pull out all their little tricks and ponies to sell out??? Exactly….Now let them eat cake. Go cry about it!!!”

The inclusion of “WAP” and “Up” does not impact first-week sales, but can help boost RIAA certifications. Both hits reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 2020 and March 2021, respectively.

Cardi returned with her fiery “Outside” single June 20 to set the tone for what should be a busy summer for the Bardi Gang.

All three of the aforementioned tunes are part of the loaded 23-song tracklist, with Am I the Drama? slated to arrive on Sept. 19.

It’s been an arduous journey of more than seven years from Invasion of Privacy to Cardi B’s sophomore album. She has plenty to get off her chest as well. The Grammy-winning rapper has since moved on from estranged husband Offset, and is currently in a relationship with NFL star Stefon Diggs.

The athlete and Cardi are going strong heading into the summer, as the couple is spending Paris Fashion Week in a massive French castle.

There was an immigration raid last night at a small Latina-owned garment factory just off Times Square in mid-Manhattan. The workers hid in the dark listening to la migra (or ICE) take away the people next door — it was terrifying.

I can’t tell you what happened after — but I know there’s another raid planned for tonight. Actually, six nights a week, and twice on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Those raids are fictional — they are a key plot point in Broadway show Real Women Have Curves. It’s a musical set in Boyle Heights, the Chicano neighborhood in Los Angeles. And although the show says a lot about immigrants in the 1980’s, it says just as much about immigrants today.

Joy Huerta (of Grammy-winning duo Jesse & Joy) co-wrote the Tony-nominated score with Benjamin Velez. She is the first Mexican woman nominated for a Tony award in a composing category for Broadway (disclosure: she’s also a friend and client). She packed a ton of immigrant reality into her songs: generational solidarity and conflict, workplace drudgery and  exploitation, young women’s dreams — some extinguished, some still burning bright. It’s a show about finding your place, chasing the future, flying high. But with the constant fear that it could all come crashing down with someone pounding at the door.

I know that story well. I am the daughter of immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala and I hold all of those struggles and fears deep in my heart. It’s no wonder that I cried at least five times watching this musical—as I watched my story and the story of other immigrants and children of immigrants play out right in front of me.

This isn’t a review or a plug. It’s a call to action. This year, this week, today, real federal agents are brutalizing real people in the real Boyle Heights — and in cities and neighborhoods all over the country. Workers are being dragged from their jobs into prisons. Citizen children are being caught in the middle.

At a time of dehumanizing language and rampant violence against immigrants, Real Women steps up to its moment. It isn’t afraid to shine a pro-immigrant light into Trumpian darkness.

But on this country’s vast stage, that light is comparatively tiny. You can see this literally the minute you leave the show, at the James Earl Jones Theater. Turn right and in 250 feet, you’re at the headquarters of Fox News, which dominates the corner of 48th Street and Sixth Avenue, its digital news zipper blaring all the latest disasters from Trumpworld.

Talk about immigration fiction.

Fox is ground zero for the kinds of vicious lies about immigrants that Trump has been spewing on the presidential stage for a decade. (He launched his first campaign by slandering Mexico as a nation of rapists on June 15, 2015.) And the MAGA megaphone is colossal, while this hit Broadway show can reach only about a thousand people a night.

We need more and louder pro-immigrant voices and defenders. We need more Joy Huertas. More performers like Tatianna Córdoba, Justina Machado, Florencia Cuenca and the other cast members just as wonderful who bring Real Women to life every night. Imagine being these women, in this moment, being able to choke back tears as you perform the realities of our communities night after the night.

We need recording stars like Snow Tha Product and Ángela Aguilar to summon the courage to say and sing out loud: Stop attacking immigrants. ICE out of L.A., out of N.Y., out of everywhere.

The war on immigrants is devastating and lawless and needs to stop.

It’s a simple message that happens to be true. Immigrants are hard-working people just trying to make their way. Like the Irish, Italians, Germans and others who had their stories told on Broadway back in the day. If Joy Huerta had written a show about the Boyle Heights of a few decades earlier, it could have been a Californian “Fiddler on the Roof” — that’s how Jewish Boyle Heights used to be.

A lesson the U.S. keeps learning and forgetting is that immigrants are us. They love, fight, bleed, suffer, weep like everyone else. They deserve justice, as we all do.

Real Women Have Curves didn’t set out to be a musical for the Trump era. But it is. And now it needs backup. It’s closing on June 29. We need more songs, more voices, more artists.

Yes, it’s scary. High profiles make big targets. Artists who stick their necks out can lose revenue. Some can get detained and deported. But millions of regular people, many of them vulnerable immigrants, conquered their fear and took to the streets last weekend.

Who in the entertainment world will join them, to keep this struggle going?

Entertainment attorney Marjorie García is partner at King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano.

Australia asked for more AC/DC, and they delivered.

Just hours after tickets went on sale Thursday (June 26) for the legendary rock band’s 2025 stadium tour, promoter TEG Van Egmond has announced second dates in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane due to overwhelming demand.

The newly added shows will take place on Sunday, Nov. 16 at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Tuesday, Nov. 25 at Accor Stadium in Sydney, and Thursday, Dec. 18 at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium. Each is being billed as the final date for that city.

The Power Up Tour now spans eight dates, kicking off Nov. 12 in Melbourne and wrapping Dec. 18 in Brisbane, marking AC/DC’s first full national tour of Australia in nearly a decade. The band will play shows in each of the country’s five major cities — Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane — with support from Australian punk outfit Amyl and the Sniffers.

The tour is in support of AC/DC’s 2020 album Power Up, which debuted at No. 1 in Australia and both sides of the Atlantic. The release cemented the band’s place in Australian chart history, becoming their sixth No. 1 album — the most of any Australian group, tied with Hilltop Hoods. Power Up followed their streak of chart-toppers including Back In Black (1981), Live (1992), Ballbreaker (1995), Black Ice (2008), and Rock or Bust (2014).

Internationally, the Power Up era has been box-office gold. In 2023, the band sold over 2 million tickets across 24 European shows. They recently wrapped a 10-date sold-out run in North America, and are about to begin a 15-show tour across Europe this week before bringing the show home to Australia for the summer leg.

It’s been 10 years since AC/DC’s last visit to Australian shores. The band’s 2015 Rock or Bust tour saw over 520,000 tickets sold across 11 dates, including shows in Auckland and Wellington.

Produced by TEG Van Egmond, the 2025 tour is one of the most anticipated Australian rock events in recent memory. The addition of second and final shows in three major cities cements the band’s enduring legacy — and the unshakable demand to see them live.

AC/DC 2025 Australian Tour Dates with special guests Amyl and The Sniffers

Wednesday, Nov. 12 – Melbourne Cricket Ground

Sunday, Nov. 16 – Melbourne Cricket Ground (NEW SHOW)

Friday, Nov. 21 – Sydney, Accor Stadium

Tuesday, Nov. 25 – Sydney, Accor Stadium

Sunday, Nov. 30 – Adelaide, bp Adelaide Grand Final

Thursday, Dec. 4 – Perth, Optus Stadium

Sunday, Dec. 14 – Brisbane, Suncorp Stadium

Thursday, Dec. 18 – Brisbane, Suncorp Stadium