Major labels are cracking down on an illegal streaming app in Canada.

Sony Music Group and Universal Music Group will begin legal proceedings in Canada against the developers of Musi, a streaming app that sources music from YouTube without the authorization of artists. The app, which has been deemed “parasitic” by the majors, features the same content as YouTube and YouTube Music, but with fewer or no advertisements.

Although it was pulled from Apple’s App Store in 2024 following a slew of copyright claims and infringements, users who previously installed the app can still access it, and the majors are now stepping in to crack down on its activity.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has teamed up with Music Canada, its local national group representing the three majors in Canada, to represent both labels in the action. They claim that Musi is illegally making copyrighted material available to the public and deliberately circumventing technical protections that would normally protect such content on YouTube from theft.

“We are serving notice on parasitic apps, which are designed specifically to exploit artists and their music, and undermine legitimate music services,” says IFPI CEO Victoria Oakley. “Musi and similar illegal services have no place in today’s music ecosystem which is built on the premise of empowering innovation through licensing. This legal action is an important step, and we hope it will be further supported by effective, direct action from the mobile app stores and the music services being directly exploited by these apps.”

The platform has charged users for subscriptions and advertising models, making a profit by circumventing legitimate competition, they argue, and simultaneously depriving artists of certain royalties and income.

“This litigation sends a clear message that services designed to circumvent platform protections and exploit music without authorisation are not legitimate businesses,” says Music Canada CEO Patrick Rogers. “The industry will continue taking coordinated action to protect artists and fans from unlawful exploitation. Our goal is simple: ensure artists are paid when their music is played — and shutting down parasitic apps is one way to achieve that.”

Copyright has been a top priority for the Canadian music business, with major labels and music companies taking action. Earlier this year, Music Canada secured a first-of-its-kind court order from the Federal Court of Canada to block popular YouTube stream-ripping sites like Y2Mate, YTMP3 and Savefrom, which count over 1.7 million monthly users and are known for facilitating illegal music downloads. “I believe artists should be paid when their music is played. To create the best possible environment for that to happen, we have to shut down sites that promote stealing music,” said Rogers of the groundbreaking victory.

Canadians have also tightened the knot on copyright protection in the face of AI, which has been the catalyst for new concerns and cases of infringement, specifically with unlicensed music borrowing from copyrighted music. Music Publishers Canada recently made a landmark intervention in a federal case regarding generative AI and copyright laws, putting forward the idea that only a human can be the author of copyright, and CEO Margaret McGuffin calling it “imperative” that Canadian copyright laws respect creators and encourage human expression in the face of AI.

This story was originally published by Billboard Canada.

Since Robert Kyncl became Warner Music Group’s CEO in early 2023, the record label behind Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Stella Lefty and Burna Boy has undergone cost cuts, a corporate re-org and a slew of leadership changes. During the company’s earnings call on Wednesday (Aug. 5) for its third fiscal quarter, Kyncl sought to reassure investors that Warner’s consequent reinvestment and bottom line growth was evidence that “our long-term strategy is working.”

“Over the last three years, we’ve done lots of difficult things,” Kyncl said, reflecting on the company’s cost cuts, amounting to more than $600 million combined, and its work negotiating updated deals with streaming partners. “There’s a strategy here that was set in motion, and it’s delivering results. And we have an amazing team of executives who are rowing in the same direction.”

Kyncl’s message came days after the unexpected departure of CFO and COO Armin Zerza, whom Kyncl thanked for his “long-lasting” contributions, including sharpening WMG’s focus on “capital allocation, forecasting, and … investor messaging.”

“All of those are deeply institutionalized in our company now, and I’m very confident about them continuing,” Kyncl said, extending thanks to Louis Dickler, WMG’s chief accounting officer who was named acting CFO, and Tom Corson, Warner Records’ co-chairman and COO, who was named COO of WMG the same day as Zerza’s exit was announced..

Earlier this week, WMG released preliminary financial information showing that quarterly revenue rose by 10% to nearly $1.9 billion on an 11% increase in digital revenue, which hit about $1.25 billion. Supporting that digital growth was a 12% increase in recorded music streaming revenue year-over-year to just over $1 billion. Breaking down the 12% increase, acting CFO Dickler said that 6% to 7% came from subscription streaming income, 3.5% came from improved licensing deals with digital streaming partners and 1% came from expanded global market share.

Kyncl praised chief digital officer Carletta Higgins for inking those deals with all of WMG’s major streaming partners, including, most recently, Apple.

WMG’s market share has risen since a corporate reorganization in 2024 brought Elliot Grainge‘s 10K Projects under the Atlantic Music Group umbrella, but Kyncl said that much of its market share gains came after the 10K acquisition. WMG’s current share of the overall U.S. recorded music market, including catalog, rose by around 0.3%, and its share of the market for music released in the last 18 months grew by around 0.8%, according to Luminate.

Kyncl said Stella Lefty’s Billboard Hot 100 top 5 hit “Boston” and Shakira and Burna Boy’s “Dai Dai (FIFA World Cup Official Song 2026),” the first World Cup anthem to top both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, are the latest hits that contributed to three years of “significant improvement” for WMG’s global market share, which is not publicly available.

In the latter half of 2026, the label expects to release music from Alex Warren, sombr, David Guetta, Ravyn Lanae, Myke Towers, Teddy Swims, and Miley Cyrus.

While WMG does not issue guidance on subscription streaming growth, Dickler said the guidance that the company can achieve high single-digit top-line growth is “obviously … anchored by growth in paid streaming.”

A$AP Rocky is over the drama between himself and Drake.

The Harlem rapper and actor stopped by The Jason Lee Show recently and was asked directly if he would be open to fighting his former friend in a celebrity boxing match, to which Rocky said he was not interested in at all. He also addressed Drake’s disses on “Burning Bridges,” on which the Toronto rapper asked why Rihanna didn’t help promote Rocky’s latest project Don’t Be Dumb.

“He don’t wanna see me,” Rocky said about Lee’s celebrity boxing idea.” F— some gloves, n—a. Bare knuckle, like the Irish. We ain’t doin’ all that celebrity boxing sh–.”

And when it came to the “Your baby mama ain’t even post your single, damn/ Where she at? Yeah, where she at,” lines on “Burning Bridges,” Rocky explained that the jab doesn’t make sense to him. “That’s stupid,” he said. “This is the problem, though: If she would’ve posted my album, everybody would have been like, ‘You only went No. 1 ’cause your girl posted.’ … She not on my f—ing album. What single she supposed to be posting? She posted my album … after it went No. 1.”

“Everybody done moved on with their lives and motherf—as still strung up on that sh–,” he added after Lee jokingly asked if he took Drake’s girl. “It’s just bugged out to me. The Internet antics and smear campaigns and all that, we see right through that. That’s why I just be like, ‘I ain’t responding to that.’”

According to A$AP, his issues with Drake stem from when he started dating Rihanna around 2020. “I thought [Drake] was my mans. I thought he was my dude,” he told Akademiks in an interview earlier this year. “I first met him and he seemed embraceful and sh–. We went on tour with him. I think when I got with [Rihanna], he started throwing shots out of nowhere. I just woke up and felt like he was throwing subs and sh–.”

Rocky also watched never-before-seen footage of his daughter crawling for the first time and talked about how Rihanna has always been there for him whether it be as a friend or romantic partner.

You can watch the full conversation between Rocky and Jason Lee below.

With No. 1s on both sides of the Atlantic, Il Divo has experienced the peaks of a music career like few others. And in 2021, the crushing lows that come with the loss of a bandmate.

As the pandemic raged around the globe, Carlos Marín, the Spanish baritone and a beloved member of the classic crossover act, died unexpectedly at the age of 53.

The group’s surviving artists Urs Bühler (the Swiss tenor), Sébastien Izambard (the French pop artist) and David Miller (the American tenor) grieved, lifted. And with the discovery of Steven LaBrie, the Mexican-American baritone, a gift that would enable Il Divo to fulfil its second act.

“It was super difficult, to be honest,” recounts Izambard of the tragedy. “A part of us thought, we need to keep representing the legacy of our band. If Carlos had still been in this world, he would probably have told us to keep going.”

When the group considered pushing on, Miller pitched LaBrie, an artist he had worked with who possessed “an incredible voice,” Izambard says in a Zoom with Billboard. A recording of LaBrie’s talents came down the phone. “I was blown away, personally,” he explains. “I was like, there are some similarities in this voice. We talked the four of us, with Steven, to say how hard it’s gonna be, how big a role it to take on for Steven to be part of our band.”

Marín’s passing, he continues, “was a good lesson for me, especially. I want to enjoy life, as much as I can. That was a great message for all of us.”

Fast forward to 2026, and the chaps are enjoying life and music. A new album is in the works, the followup to 2024’s XX, a 20th anniversary collection of new material, including an original song.

“The plan is to do new music,” Bühler confirms, “then go back out and share that with the world. With some collaborations as well.” Watch this space.

Il Divo are giants in their lane. Initially assembled and mentored by Simon Cowell in 2003, the vocal group has sold more than 30 million albums, bagged two No. 1s on the Official U.K. Albums Chart and became the first classical crossover act to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, doing so 20 years ago, in 2006, with Ancora.

Along the way, they’ve collaborated with the likes of Celine Dion, Toni Braxton and Michael Ball, and entertained a who’s who of important figures, from former U.S. presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Australian audiences will be among the first to catch this new era of Il Divo. The group will return to Australia for a special all-star concert, Dec. 5, led by Jose Carreras, and featuring performances by Robbie Williams, the Corrs, Ronan Keating, Natalie Imbruglia, Darren Hayes, Katherine Jenkins and more.

Echo Pacific Entertainment is promoting the Carreras & Friends show at the Gabba Stadium in Brisbane — host city for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It’ll mark Il Divo’s first live performance in these parts since a four-city run in 2023, produced by TEG Dainty, and serve as an early Christmas present for the act.

Carreras and his groundbreaking work with Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo was an early inspiration for Il Divo. “It could well be said that Il Divo wouldn’t exist without the Three Tenors,” Miller enthuses. “Yet another reason to thank Maestro Carreras.”