Warner Music Group (WMG) general counsel Paul Robinson was honored with the Recording Academy’s 2026 Entertainment Law Initiative (ELI) Service Award on Friday (Jan. 30).

Robinson, who has been the top lawyer at WMG since 2006, had initially been set to receive the award last year, before the 2025 annual ELI event was canceled due to the Los Angeles wildfires. He finally received his flowers during Friday’s luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in L.A.

“Even though it’s taken an extra 12 months for me to join this distinguished club, I’m absolutely thrilled to become its 20th member,” Robinson said during his acceptance speech.

Robinson took the opportunity to share four key pieces of advice with young music lawyers in the room. Rule number one: “It’s not about you,” he said, noting, “Our only agenda should be our client’s agenda. We need to detach our egos from the process.”

The second rule, said Robinson, is that lawyers must “ceaselessly adapt and lean into the future.” He noted that the music business has dealt with massive tech disruption over the years, from CDs to streaming and now AI.

“In the immortal words of R.E.O. Speedwagon, ‘Roll with the changes,’” said Robinson, whose team at WMG is the first major to have negotiated licensing deals with both of the two biggest music AI companies, Suno and Udio.

Robinson’s third and fourth principles were that lawyers should always “communicate simply and concisely,” and “bring positivity to solving problems.” He added: “If humanly and legally possible, our advice must include some kind of yes.”

“Let’s face it: we are so fortunate doing what we do,” Robinson said. “We have genuinely inspiring and enviable jobs in the service of artists and songwriters and their music. Excellence in our profession is what ELI stands for. All of us in this room are standard-bearers.”

Robinson thanked the Recording Academy for the “incredible honor” of the ELI Award, as well as his family, colleagues and many mentors in the music business. One of those mentors actually presented Robinson with the award: Fred Wistow, WMG’s first general counsel.

In his remarks, Wistow described Robinson as “a man who cares more, knows more, works more and endures more than anyone else around.”

“People are proud to know him, and I certainly am,” said Wistow.

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. also lauded Robinson during the event for his “commitment to the broader music community.”

“It’s an awesome time to be creative and use AI. Don’t just use it to do what we did yesterday because it’s going to do it better than you. AI does not have imagination. It’s a regurgitation of imagination. And the way to beat it to be AI-proof is to throw your imagination on full f—king blast and not repeat what we did yesterday.”

So declared Will.i.am during an informative and illuminating panel discussion hosted on Wednesday (Jan. 28) by the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), Universal Music Group (UMG) and Billboard. The seven-time Grammy winner and soon-to-be professor, who will be teaching a new AI course at Arizona State University this spring, joined a mix of executives and creatives in dissecting the technology’s benefits and challenges at the event, which was held under the banner, “Artists & Music in the Age of AI.”

The afternoon event, held at Will.i.am’s FYI campus in Los Angeles, was composed of two panels. The first, moderated by Blue Note Records president and musician Don Was, featured Stability AI’s Prem Akkaraju, Songwriters of North America executive and songwriter Erin McAnally, Splice’s Kakul Srivastava and Sound Labs executive and artist BT. Sitting with Will.i.am on the second panel were KLAY Vision’s Ary Attie, NVIDIA’s Shari Reich and Udio’s Andrew Sanchez.

The first panel’s moderator, UMG executive vp and chief digital officer Michael Nash, summed up the conversation’s consensus. “The hopeful thing is we’re having this discussion now,” he said. “It’s early days, and there is an opportunity for a collaboration to take place that’s going to align the future of AI- driven innovation with the interests of the artist community.”

During the event, BMAC co-founder and president/CEO Willie “Prophet” Stiggers said in part, “Innovation should expand opportunity, not erase it. We’re proud to partner with Universal Music Group on a groundbreaking convening that brings CEOs, artists and advocates into the same room. We also thank the technology companies … who showed up in true partnership by bringing creatives into the conversation. When creators are included in the decision-making, innovation becomes a force for progress, not disruption. A seat at the table for creators is not optional. It is essential.”

Later that evening, BMAC hosted its annual Music Maker Dinner in association with producer icons Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis at West Hollywood’s Sun Rose Room. Among the industry executives joining fellow BMAC co-founders Shawn Holiday, Caron Veazey and Damien Smith were ASCAP president Paul Williams, Def Jam Recordings CEO Tunji Balogun, Victoria Monet, Jon Batiste, Adam Blackstone, B2K, Flavor Flav, Amazon’s global head of music industry and culture collaborations Phylicia Fant and Interscope Geffen A&M’s president/head of urban A&R Nicole Wyskoarko.

Jonathan Azu, founder/CEO of artist management firm Culture Collective (Leon Thomas), received BMAC’s inaugural Music Maker Impact Award. And the winners of the 2026 BMAC x ASCAP x Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis Music Maker Grant were announced: Ripton Powell from Atlanta and Sam Paulino from Burlington, Vt.

BMAC kicked off its Grammy Week observance with the Tuesday (Jan. 27) masterclass “Am I The Drama? How Cardi B Turned Authenticity into a Marketing Superpower.” Key members of Cardi B‘s team —including manager and Giant Music co-founder Holiday, day-to-day manager at Full Stop Management Courtney Worrell, Atlantic Records executive vp of sales & streaming Angelique Jones and Walmart head of experiential marketing & cultural engagement Allison Barrie Rand — spoke with moderator and cultural marketer Sierra Lever. BMAC partnered with CURATED by Live Nation in organizing the session about Cardi B, whose Little Miss Drama Tour begins Feb. 11.

Hilary Duff is going on a world tour — and for her longtime fans, the news really is what dreams are made of.

Duff announced her long-awaited return to music last year. The pop icon signed with Atlantic Records in September and soon after shared news of her upcoming album, luck… or something, out Feb. 20. She has released two singles so far, “Mature” and “Roommates.”

By the start of 2026, it was clear she was more than ready to dive back in and continue building on momentum. In January, Duff embarked on a four-city mini tour including London, Toronto, Brooklyn and Los Angeles. And for her hometown finale, she made sure to save a special surprise.

Halfway through her set — which featured beloved hits including “Why Not,” “Come Clean” and “What Dreams Are Made Of” — Duff invited three lucky fans on stage to dance with her. And after delivering spot-on choreography, she had a thank you gift waiting for each one of them. With their backs turned to the packed venue, Duff gave each fan a black t-shirt and told them not to turn around until her signal.

Once they were all ready, the three fans spun to face the audience and revealed major news, with three words spread out across each shirt: “World Tour Loading…”

As the crowd erupted in celebratory cheers and applause, Duff couldn’t help but beam as she took it all in. “It’s a trip,” she later said. “I can’t believe I’m here 18 years later.”

Duff has charted seven songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and all five of her albums have debuted within the Billboard 200’s top 5. Metamorphosis (2003) and Most Wanted (2005) both hit No. 1.

Nancy Seltzer, a PR legend who worked with many of the giants of entertainment, including the late Whitney Houston and Garth Brooks, died Wednesday (Jan. 28) following a brief stay at a hospital in Los Angeles. She was 79.

A smart operator, Seltzer got about her work “quietly, always with integrity, dogged determination, and purpose,” reads a statement on Brooks’ website.

Seltzer’s clients include some of the greatest stars of stage and screen, from Richard Burton to Sean Connery, Robert Downey Jr., and others. For many years, she could be spotted running the Academy Awards red carpet, and had a knack for navigating “moments of triumph and vulnerability with a steady hand and unwavering discretion,” Brooks’ site continues.

“Public relations is the hardest job in show business,” Brooks remarked of Seltzer. “She always handled every situation with the utmost class.”

Seltzer also served as rep for best-selling author Danielle Steel, opera singer Joyce DiDonato and Spanish opera singer Placido Domingo, and Hollywood A-listers including Julia Roberts, Bette Davis, Nicole Kidman, Johnny Depp, Hugh Jackman and many more, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Artists trusted Seltzer not just for her steady hand, experience and class, but recognized her maternal instinct: she was always protective of the talent she represented.

Seltzer started her career in her hometown, New York, before heading west to L.A. where, for almost 50 years, she operated the bicoastal boutique publicity firm, Nancy Seltzer & Associates. The PR business was active at the time of Seltzer’s death.

“Ms. Seltzer was particularly known for her extraordinary trust. She created long lasting friendships with people from all over the world to whom she was also wonderful, kind, caring and fiercely loyal,” reads a statement from her business.

Seltzer also had a hand in promoting a slew of feature films including Pirates of the Caribbean, Breaking Away, All That Jazz, Splash, RoboCop, Spinal Tap, Aliens, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, When Harry Met Sally… and A Few Good Men, and repped such movies as Amadeus, Misery, Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and The Shawshank Redemption.