Universal Music Group is suing Quince over accusations that the ecommerce startup used copyrighted songs in hundreds of Instagram and TikTok posts without paying for them, including Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”

In a case filed Thursday (April 16), UMG called Quince a “sophisticated, multi-billion dollar global operation” that had deliberately chosen to rely on trending songs like Zara Larsson’s “Lush Life” to boost its brand on social media — but had refused to pay for them.

“Due to the resonance of popular music with consumers, Quince and its social media influencers have, without authorization, used many of plaintiffs’ most valuable [songs],” UMG’s lawyers write in a complaint obtained by Billboard. “Plaintiffs have no choice but to bring this suit to remedy the harm done by Quince’s rampant and brazen infringement, which continues to this day.”

The case is the latest in an industry-wide crackdown on brands that use music on social media — a practice that’s been widespread for years, but one that labels and publishers increasingly view as unlicensed advertising. Over the past three years, music companies have filed similar suits against Marriott, Chili’s, NBA teams, Crumbl Cookies, DSW and the University of Southern California.

TikTok and Instagram provide huge libraries of licensed music for users to easily add to their videos, but businesses or paid influencers can’t legally use them. They can instead only utilize a far more limited commercial library; if a popular song isn’t in there, they must go get a sync license directly from the owners — just like any conventional advertisement on TV.

According to UMG, Quince has flouted those rules repeatedly and “disseminated hundreds of infringing videos” over the past several years. The songs include viral sensations like Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” and Gracie Abrams’ “That’s So True” as well as those by huge stars like Bad Bunny, Drake, Rihanna, Olivio Rodrigo, Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande and music legends like Frank Sinatra and Etta James.

UMG says the uncleared music was part of a strategic effort by Quince to gain traction through social media, including through close tracking of “trending audio” — songs and other audio clips that have gone viral on TikTok or Instagram: “The infringing videos are a key aspect of Quince’s promotional, marketing, and branding strategy.”

And the music giant says Quince obviously “knew or should have known” that it needed to pay, but chose to “ignore” the rules. UMG’s lawsuit pointedly notes that the ecommerce platform is a large company that “has knowledge of intellectual property and licensing,” and that one of its top executives previously worked at Spotify.

“Despite its emphasis on social media and touted savvy in this area, including its ‘head of brand’ prominently listing her former position at Spotify, Quince has brazenly used plaintiffs’ music without authorization in its advertising,” UMG’s lawyers write.

UMG claims it first alerted Quince about the problem way back in September 2024. Though the company responded two months later that it had “fully addressed the copyright concerns” raised by UMG, the lawsuit says that statement was “false” — and that unlicensed videos have continued through the present day.

“In March 2026 alone, Quince made at least seven more infringing posts exploiting significant, commercially valuable works,” UMG says, including Dean’s “So Easy (To Fall In Love)” and Bieber’s “Daisies.”

The lawsuit is seeking $150,000 for every UMG song that was allegedly infringed, the maximum allowed under federal copyright law. Though such damages would be heavily litigated during the case, that request would amount to tens of millions of dollars for the more than 100 allegedly-infringed songs listed in UMG’s lawsuit. Quince did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday (April 20).

Big Sean popped out for a surprise appearance during Justin Bieber’s weekend two Coachella set in the desert on Saturday night (April 18). And, after performing his guest verse on JB’s top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit “As Long as You Love Me,” Sean Don made sure to show the pop star a ton of love and gave Justin his flowers for dedicating his life to his craft.

“Before I get off stage, I just wanna say you know God has his hands on you,” Sean began. “You dedicated your whole life to this, you gave us your whole life. I think I speak for everyone when I say thank you, bro. Directly or indirectly, I think you showed us what purpose was.”

The Detroit native got candid about Bieber’s public struggles over the years as a teenage superstar, but credited him for being able to overcome all of the challenges thrown his way to make it through to the other side.

“I gotta say I’m so proud. I’ve seen a lot of the things you’ve gone through,” Sean added. “I’ve seen you at times where it wasn’t always beautiful, but you fought through it. In a world where everyone’s trying to take over the world, you give over the world, bro.”

He continued to credit Bieber’s heart: “People have taken advantage of you, and never once have you turned into them. You’ve always been giving and figured out a way to persevere. I’m speaking on behalf of everybody, thank you so much, bro!”

Bieber took a moment to soak in Sean’s kind words and show his appreciation for the gesture. “Big Sean, that was beautiful,” he said. “Thank you so much for saying those words. That means a lot to me.”

“As Long as You Love Me” landed on the 32-year-old hitmaker’s Believe album in 2012. The Darkchild-produced hit reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Rhythmic Airplay chart.

Bieber’s weekend two set at Coachella was a star-studded affair. In addition to Big Sean, JB made Billie Eilish his special guest for “One Less Lonely Girl” and also brought out SZA and Sexyy Red.

Before Doja Cat headlined her first arena tour in late 2023, Amazon’s merch team approached her managers with a proposition. “What if fans could buy T-shirts and hoodies without waiting in line at merch counters?” they asked. “What if Amazon shipped those T-shirts and hoodies to their homes, so they wouldn’t have to carry them all night?”

“That was super attractive to us,” says Josh Kaplan, the singer’s co-manager. “Most of her fans at shows dance, and having to worry about where you put your merch is cumbersome. If there’s any way to make that easier, we’re interested.”

Six years ago, Amazon execs had the revelation that music stars made much of their revenue on merchandise sales and formed a U.S.-based team to work with them. By 2023, when the team began working with Doja Cat, Amazon’s technology involved QR codes at venues that allowed fans to instantly buy artist gear and have it shipped to their homes. In the years since, that initiative has morphed into Just Walk Out, a technology that uses cameras, sensors, AI and radio-frequency identification (RFID) so fans can grab a merch item and automatically pay for it simply by walking out.

Over the last year, Just Walk Out has evolved into the centerpiece of the retail giant’s music-merch empire. So far, Amazon has deployed it at Mariah Carey‘s Las Vegas residency and LE SSERAFIM‘s tour-stop pop-ups in Seattle and Los Angeles. “It became apparent quickly that queue-busting technology would benefit fans and help artists sell more merch at the venue,” says Kelsey Tubbs, Amazon Music’s artist merch and physical music head. “We’re looking at how we evolve this even further.”

Just Walk Out is “a game-changer,” says Jules Ferree, brands and ventures president for HYBE America, whose Source Music is the label home of LE SSERAFIM. “The frictionless transaction for the attendees was so powerful to witness. Our typical long lines could move at a different pace, which allowed us to pace it differently within the space.”

In addition to disrupting long concert lines, Amazon’s artist-merch program includes online Amazon-branded stores for Doja Cat, LE SSERAFIM and Peso Pluma; a Carey holiday store including a $160 Mariah Claus-with-sleigh-and-reindeer lawn inflatable; and a Drake “immersive virtual shopping experience” selling jigsaw puzzles, hair clips, birthday balloons and dice sets. In a statement, Carey calls her Amazon Music deal “one of the most forward-thinking partnerships I’ve experienced.” 

“We’re able to develop products that aren’t just wearables, [like] T-shirts and hats and typical things that artists release — we’re able to do a body pillow that has Drake’s face on it, and it sells out,” says Matte Babel, chief brand officer at DreamCrew, Drake’s creative studio, which produces films, TV shows and other projects. “Things like that take a little more development time and finessing. The Amazon team was willing to do new things. Sometimes [when] you deal with these big-box retailers or huge marketplaces, they’re not willing to bend.”

Amazon’s entry into the global music-merch market, which MIDiA Music estimates will hit $16.3 billion in 2030, up from $14 billion in 2024, is not hugely surprising. All three major labels have merch companies, and top brands are participating, too: American Express has partnered on merch with Billie Eilish, and American Apparel has a merch partnership with Live Nation. 

Tubbs emphasizes that Amazon’s team, counter to the historically male-dominated music-merch business, in which top execs once employed motorcycle gangs to combat bootleg T-shirts at concerts, is primarily led by women. “From legal to finance and accounting to our head of production, brand management, tour operations — that is unlike what I’ve personally experienced,” says Julia Heiser, the team’s head of live music merch. “It’s been an added benefit on how we’ve talked about this to artists.” 

Adds Tubbs: “We haven’t seen a lot of change in this space over several decades. You need diverse voices. We have wonderful, smart people who haven’t been in the room before who are now in the room. That brings something different to artist conversations.”

For decades, Amazon Music has combined its physical and digital resources to compete with rivals, from Apple to Spotify to physical music and retail stores. In the early days of MP3 downloading, when Apple’s iTunes dominated the market, Amazon secured market share by using physical CDs and T-shirts to draw consumers to its MP3 store. Since then, the company has famously beefed up its Prime service and home-delivery offering and is now using those assets in the music-merch space. Music fans can use Amazon, for example, to buy merch for an upcoming concert, receive it within a day or two, then wear it to the event. 

After Amazon Music partnered with Beyoncé for the 2023 Renaissance tour, according to Heiser, the team discovered a key purchasing trend: Two days before the tour date in a given city, fans’ Beyoncé merch purchases began to slowly increase, peaking the day before the show. After the shows, “There was this halo of two days,” Heiser adds. “In some ways, looking back, it was, like, ‘Duh.’ But it was also this insightful piece of information. Artists are potentially missing out on that [demand] with tour merch when it’s exclusively available [at the venue].”

True to Amazon’s roots as an innovator, the company’s merch operation has, in six short years, moved beyond just selling merch to actually changing the way people buy it. “The first step was, ‘Merch is a big part of artist revenues and how artists are building their brands and careers, so let’s build a merch team,’” Tubbs says. “That’s where the seeds of it came from: We launched this business, then we realized, ‘If we don’t offer solutions around this tour-merch space, we’re leaving a big piece of the pie on the table.’”

After a year hiatus, FORM Arcosanti is returning this October with a major lineup announced on Monday morning (April 20).

Leading the bill are U.K. dance stars Disclosure, pop queen Lorde, and rock outfits Turnstile and Geese. Also playing the 2026 festival are Blood Orange, jazz leader Kamasi Washington, Dylan Brady of 100 gecs, electronic favorite Ben UFO, Adrianne Lenker, Fcukers, Tinashe, Sean Kuti & Egypt 80 and many more. See the complete 2026 lineup below.

The festival will take place from Oct. 9-11 in Arcosanti, Ariz. Located in the Sonoran Desert, Arcosanti is an experimental town fusing ecology and architecture that was designed by visionary architect Paolo Soleri. The intimate event will host 2,500 attendees, with the festival already largely sold out and a final few tickets going on sale today via the festival’s website.

FORM was first launched in 2014 by Zach Tetreault of the band 100 Waters, and has earned praise as an alternative to the typical festival experience. Designed to cultivate connection among attendees and artists, FORM does not have a VIP area or backstage artist tents — with performers intermingling with fans and the entire event happening within the fantastical setting of Arcosanti.

For the first time this year, FORM is partnering with Spotify for the Fresh Finds stage, which will showcase a yet-to-be announced lineup of emerging indeie artists curated by FORM and the streamer, while the Envelop Stage will see longform ambient performances all weekend. FORM is scheduled so that there are no overlapping sets, with the fest also offering hikes and wellness programming by USAL.

Check out the full FORM lineup below.