Create Music Group said it raised $450 million through a combination of equity investments and debt capital on Wednesday, valuing the fast-growing independent company at $2.2 billion up from a $1 billion valuation less than two years ago.

Founded in 2015, Los Angeles-based Create Music Group says it has invested more than $500 million over the past year acquisitions, advances, and other growth initiatives, including most recently Nettwerk Music Group, in which it invested $300 million to support a management buy-out.

Create’s co-founder and CEO Jonathan Strauss says Create is supporting “visionary entrepreneurs” who are capitalizing on changing tastes in music and preferences for new media, and the new capital will go to support future growth.

“This capital will not only accelerate our roadmap, expanding our footprint in media, IP and technology, but also empower our partners to build generational businesses that redefine culture and value creation across the global entertainment ecosystem,” said Strauss.

The new funding round brings institutional investors Ares Management and 2 Mile into the company as minority stakeholders, while Create’s founders remain majority owners.

Flexpoint Ford invested $165 million in Create in mid-2024, which at the time was part of a funding round that Create says gave it a valuation of $1 billion.

Create operates the Gen Z-focused digital entertainment and marketing agency Flighthouse and the independent music distribution platform Label Engine, as well as electronic and dance labels Monstercat, !K7 Music and Cr2 Records and Broke Records.

“The music industry is as dynamic as it has ever been, with rapid growth in new consumption channels and means of creation, which is creating vast opportunities for agile, digital-first companies to reshape the status quo,” said Will Smith, Create’s chief financial officer. “The newly raised capital will support continued acquisitions, strategic investments, technology development, and global expansion.”

Truist Securities and Bank of California served as joint lead arrangers for the financing.

A month after iconic singer Dee Snider resigned from Twisted Sister due to “health challenges,” the group announced on Tuesday (March 3) that their planned 50th anniversary run of shows will still take place with another legendary hard rocker stepping in to handle lead vocals.

“Twisted Sister members Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda are thrilled to announce that iconic vocalist and front man Sebastian Bach will be fronting the band for a handful of select dates this fall,” the band’s longtime guitarists said in a statement. “These appearances do not affect or conflict with Sebastian’s current or future solo touring schedule, which remains fully intact”; Bach reposted the announcement on his Instagram page.

At press time the band had not announced the full roster of shows for its golden anniversary outing outside of a Sept. 4 stop at the Alaska State Fair.

The news came a month after the “I Wanna Rock” band announced that Snider, 70, was forced to resign from the group due to “a series of health challenges“; Snider suffers from degenerative arthritis, which has required multiple operations, as well as heart issues exacerbated by life on the road. That led to the cancellation of shows that were scheduled to take place in Sao Paolo, Brazil on April 25 and run through the summer. At the time, they said that their touring future would be “determined in the next several weeks.”

Coincidentally, Skid Row announced a month ago that they were launching a worldwide search for their next lead vocalist. The group founded in Toms River, New Jersey in 1986 with singer Matt Fallon — who was replaced by Bach the next year — was led by Bach through 1996, after which a series of lead singers have filled his shoes including Johnny Solinger (1999-2015) and a series of four short-time vocalists over the past decade, including Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale in 2024.

Twisted Sister is best known for their 1984 anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” which hit No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100; the song appeared on the band’s third studio album, Stay Hungry, which peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200.

Check out the announcement and listen to a snippet of Bach rehearsing “You Can’t Stop Rock n’ Roll” with the band.

Charlotte de Witte won’t make it to Australia this weekend, as planned, due the aftershock of military strikes in the Middle East.

The high-profile Belgian techno DJ and producer was booked for an exclusive show this Friday, March 6 at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, followed by a headline set at Pitch Music & Arts festival, set for March 6-10 in Moyston, Victoria.

Those shows are now scrapped.

“It is with a heavy heart that I have to cancel my upcoming shows in Australia this weekend,” she writes on Instagram Stories. “Due to the recent escalation of conflict and drone attacks in the Middle East, it is not possible to risk free reroute travel for myself and my crew. This decision was not taken lightly.”

De Witte signs off, “I am truly sorry for the disappointment and was very much looking forward to being with you.”

Those dates are produced by Untitled Group, the Melbourne-based independent festival, concert and events specialist. A statement from Untitled points to the “ongoing global travel disruptions amid conflict in the Middle East.”

The Sydney show is postponed, not canceled, the message continues. “We know how much these shows meant to fans and share in the disappointment, however the safety of Charlotte and her crew remains the priority.  A new date for the Sydney show is currently being finalized, with an update to be provided within the next 7 days. We look forward to welcoming Charlotte back to Australia as soon as possible.”

All tickets will remain valid for the rescheduled date, or refund information will be shared when a new show is announced.

According to Untitled, 27 performers for this year’s Pitch program were scheduled to travel via stopovers through the Middle East with their journeys being directly affected. Of those, 25 artists were able to be rerouted and will make their way to Pitch. However, de Witte and German producer Sedef Adasï are “no longer able to join us this year,” reads a statement from Pitch, posted on Instagram Stories.

Those disruptions are the result of aerial strikes launched on Iran last Saturday, March 28, by the United States, alongside Israel, which Donald Trump said were aimed at targeting the country’s nuclear program.

Iran has responded by firing missiles and drones at Middle Eastern nations allied to the United States, the BBC reports, as the US-Israeli war threatens to spread and escalate. The U.S. State Department on Monday warned Americans to “depart now” from 14 countries in the region due to “serious safety risks”.

Nine Inch Nails are active, and on the road. But the end might be closer than we realize.  

NIN spearhead Trent Reznor gave fans a surprise warning when the industrial rock heavyweights visited Tulsa, OK last Friday night, Feb. 27.

“I don’t know if we’re going to be touring anymore after this,” he remarked in a video film from the crowd at the BOK Center, “but I’m proud of the show that we’re doing right now. And I’m f—ing grateful that you’ve chosen to spend your evening with us tonight. Thank you very much.”

Reznor shared his thoughts as the recounted a performance in Tulsa “many years” ago when NIN was the support act for Peter Murphy at Cain’s Ballroom. That night, Reznor had a life-affirming moment, as he watched a member of the audience scream back the lyrics of “Head Like a Hole,” a classic early NIN song from the 1989 album Pretty Hate Machine.

On the same day that Reznor hinted at the end of the road for his Rock And Roll Hall of Fame-inducted band, another surprise: NIN released a companion album to its Tron: Ares soundtrack, titled Tron Ares: Divergence. It’s the followup to TRON: Ares, the first-ever film score from Oscar-winning composers Reznor and Atticus Ross (credited under their Nine Inch Nails), which debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

NIN ensured the 1980s were buried under a ton of metal with Pretty Hate Machine. Although it only peaked at No. 75 on the Billboard 200, the album marked ground zero in a new movement of heavy edged music, with the synth in its stable. It’s one of 18 NIN appearances on the all-genres albums chart, including two leaders: 1999’s The Fragile (one week at No. 1) and 2015’s With Teeth (one week).

Reznor and Co. are currently on the second leg of its Peel It Back tour, which scheduled to wrap up March 16 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, CA. The first leg got underway June 15, 2025, in Dublin, and ended with two shows at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles last September.

Check out the remaining 2026 dates for NIN’s Peel It Back North American tour below.

March 3: American Airlines Center — Dallas, Texas
March 6: Desert Diamond Arena — Glendale, Arizona
March 7: MGM Grand Garden Arena — Las Vegas, Nevada
March 9: Pechanga Arena — San Diego, California
March 10: Honda Center — Anaheim, California
March 13: Delta Center — Salt Lake City, Utah
March 15: Chase Center — San Francisco, California
March 16: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, California

SYDNEY, Australia — As it celebrates its 100^th anniversary, APRA AMCOS this week opens its doors for a once-in-a-quarter century gathering of international rights professionals.

The Australasian PRO this week hosts the board of directors of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), which represents 228 societies across 111 countries, for what marks the first such assembly in Sydney for 25 years.

The meeting brings together heads of major collective management organizations including ASCAP (U.S.), JASRAC (Japan), PRS for Music (U.K.), SOCAN (Canada) and UBC (Brazil), as well as organizations like DACS (UK), which manages rights for visual artists, and SACD (France), which manages rights for audiovisual directors and screenwriters.

The meetings of APRA AMCOS reps and counterparts from its sister collecting societies, united under the CISAC banner, will explore at length the challenges of the AI revolution, the “most significant threat in a generation,” a statement reads.

“APRA and CISAC have been advocating for creators’ rights for 100 years, and to be able to meet on home soil to both celebrate our history and look forward to our next 100 years together is a great honor,” comments AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston, who has been chair of CISAC since 2025. “We stand strong in our collaboration with CMOs from around the world, united under the CISAC banner, as we advocate for the value of human creativity in the face of the AI revolution.”

AI and its threat to the creative industries is the issue of our time. A recently published study, commissioned by CISAC, found that the market size for Generative AI music could reach up to €16 billion annually by 2028, with as much as 24% of music creators’ revenues at risk without effective regulation and licensing frameworks.

APRA AMCOS was a key cog in the creative industries‘ successful lobbying efforts that saw Australia reject a Text and Data Mining exception into its copyright laws, effectively shutting the lid on industrial-scale theft of creative intellectual property.

“The scale of transformation we are witnessing today calls for the same collective resolve that defined our founding a century ago,” comments CISAC director general Gadi Oron. “Our responsibility — now as always — is to ensure that innovation strengthens the creative economy rather than diminishes it, and that creators receive a fair share of the value their works generate. Human creativity is the fuel that powers AI systems and it must be protected, respected and fairly remunerated.”

APRA AMCOS raises its century with a full year of special programs. As previously reported, those birthday festivities include the launch of a new “hall of fame-style” event in November, along with the “biggest ever” APRA Music Awards in Sydney in April and Silver Scroll Awards/Kaitito Kaiaka in New Zealand this October, and the first-ever Gudinski SongHubs in Melbourne, a nod to the late, great Mushroom Group founder Michael Gudinski.

Formed by six music publishers a century ago this month, the Australasian Performing Right Association now represents over 128,000 music creators.

Revenue and distributions continue to push into unchartered territory. Including its sister organization AMCOS, the Australasian rights organization last October posted annual revenue of A$787.9 million ($511 million) for 2024-25, up 6.5% from the previous financial year, with net distributable revenue at A$683.4 million ($443 million), up 7.8% year-on-year, also an all-time result.

Based on recent results, Billboard reported at the time, the A$800 million revenue milestone should be easily surpassed in the next annual report. The magical A$1 billion figure is on the near horizon.