Focusing on its core digital music business helped BMG keep earnings steady on lower revenue in the first half of 2025, the company reported Thursday (Aug. 28). The Berlin-based company had revenue of 424 million euros ($463 million) in the first six months of the year, down 8% from the prior-year period. Organic revenue — income from existing operations — fell just 4%. 

Operating EBITDA was flat at 122 million euros ($133 million). With the reduction in revenue, EBITDA margin improved to 29% from 26.5% in the first half of 2024. The margin improvement was the result of numerous factors, CEO Thomas Coesfeld told Billboard. “It’s distribution, it’s catalog acquisitions, and first and foremost, it’s about focusing the business, for the time being, on publishing and recordings.” 

Music streaming revenue had high single-digit growth, which put BMG on par with its larger competitors. That helped push digital’s share of total revenue to 72% from 69% a year earlier. While subscriber growth has slowed in major markets, Coesfeld is “optimistic” about streaming’s ability to drive continuing growth. “It’s prices in the Western world, and it’s usage expansion, penetration and our [royalty] pool increases in all fast-growing markets.”

The revenue decline was also the result of greater emphasis on digital. Back in 2023, not long after Coesfeld took the CEO role, BMG sold its stakes in two live entertainment companies, Undercover and Karo, to focus on its core businesses. Physical product, which has lower margins than digital formats, also played a lesser role in the first half of the year. The decline in physical sales was “very intentional,” said Coesfeld, adding that BMG’s physical distributor, Universal Music Group, has helped with forecasting and adjusting order sizes to reduce inventory on hand. As a result, he said, physical sales declined but costs improved.

BMG, which has grown through numerous acquisitions since its founding in 2008, continues to see catalog acquisitions as “the centerpiece” of its strategy to acquire repertoire. BMG acquired 17 catalogs in the first half of the year, up from 10 in the prior-year period. While details on the acquisitions were not revealed, the company claimed the deals were “consistently delivering strong returns and fueling future growth.” 

Coesfeld also pointed to the successes of the front-line division in the U.S. headed by John Loba. In the first half of the year, BMG’s recorded music division had standout success from Jelly Roll, Spiritbox, yung kai, Wiz Khalifa and Billy Idol, among others. Signings and extensions in the period include MeeK, Olly Murs, Evanescence, Mark Keller, i-dle, Joyce Wrice, Fredrik and Jessi. A deal with pop hitmakers OneRepublic was announced in July.

“The first song [“Beautiful Colors”] being released by OneRepublic, that puts BMG in a different position compared to last year,” said Coesfeld. “It’s in pop, it’s in the U.S. And, still, at the same time, we keep releasing great songs in [the] country [genre] in the U.S. out of Nashville.” 

Sting is being sued by his former Police bandmates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland over alleged missing royalties for their signature song “Every Breath You Take,” according to reports published by the Los Angeles Times and other titles.

Summers and Copeland filed their lawsuit in London High Court, in which they claim they were never properly credited as songwriters on “Every Breath You Take,” their biggest hit in the U.S. The pair also claim they never received royalties for their contributions to it.

Sting (real name: Gordon Matthew Sumner) and his publishing company, Magnetic Publishing, are listed as defendants in the suit.

Released in 1983, “Every Breath You Take” went all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the band’s first and only leader on the chart, and won a brace of Grammy Awards, for song of the year and best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals.

The evergreen number grew wings when Summers’ arpeggio was sampled on Puff Daddy and Faith Evans’ Notorious B.I.G. tribute from 1997, “I’ll Be Missing You.” In 2023, Puff Daddy went on the record as saying he pays Sting $5,000 every day for the use of that sample, a comment he later walked back.

In 2022, Sting sold his entire song catalog from his early days in The Police through his solo career to the Universal Music Publishing Group, a business decision that reunites his music publishing rights with his master recordings.

While terms of that deal were not disclosed, Billboard previously reported that Sting had been shopping a music asset bundle that produced an annual royalty income stream of about $12-$13 million and was looking at a roughly $360 million payday.

With their bleach-blonde hair, tight performances, and collection of radio friendly hits, including “Roxanne,” “Message In A Bottle”, “Walking On The Moon”, “Don’t Stand So Close To Me”, “Every Little Thing She Does,” “King Of Pain” and more, The Police were arguably the biggest band in the world, certainly for an album cycle or two.

In the UK, the band landed five consecutive No. 1s on the Official UK Albums Chart. The bandmates went their separate ways after completing the 1984 world tour in support of the Synchronicity album, before reuniting briefly in 1986 for a rerecording in “Don’t Stand So Close To Me,” which appeared on a greatest hits collection.

The former bandmates settled their differences to mount a 2007–2008 world tour, marking the 30th anniversary of their formation. Sting is booked to perform at QPAC’s Glasshouse Theatre in Brisbane next year, where he will present his musical The Last Ship.

Longtime best friends Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez have shared a lot over the years — and now they get to share their engagement journeys.

On Wednesday (Aug. 27) — the day after Swift and NFL star Travis Kelce shared that they’re getting married following two years of dating — Gomez shared the news on her Instagram Stories with the message: “When bestie gets engaged 🥰.”

Gomez herself is also engaged, sharing the news back in December that she and pop producer Benny Blanco are getting married. “forever begins now..,” Gomez captioned the Instagram announcement, with Swift responding in the comments: “Yes I will be the flower girl.”

In a second Instagram Stories post on Wednesday night, Gomez also shared a fan-made meme from X user @solelynostalgia. The meme shows a quote-tweet of a 2009 post from Swift, in which she wrote to Gomez: “Real love still happens sometimes. It’s not just something we make up when we’re nine. I have to believe that. You do too.” Above that nearly two-decade-old tweet, a message reads, “16 years later,” above side-by-side images of Swift and Gomez’s engagement photos.

While they haven’t shared a wedding date, Gomez and Blanco’s nuptials are rumored to be coming very soon, with the girls trip the singer/actress was on this past weekend reported to be her bachelorette party.

Swift and Gomez have been friends since 2008 — the year before Taylor’s sweet Twitter message about love. Their friendship started when they were both dating Jonas Brothers (Taylor dated Joe while Selena dated Nick), and Gomez said after their respective breakups: “I like to say the best thing we got out of those relationships was each other.”

The Ye documentary In Whose Name? has released an explosive trailer, featuring appearances from Drake, Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk.

Directed by Nico Ballesteros, the doc follows Ye (formerly Kanye West) from about 2018 until 2024 and is completely shot on an iPhone. The trailer jumps around from West’s deteriorating relationship with then-wife Kim Kardashian — who filed for divorce in 2021 — to his failed 2020 presidential run and Sunday Service performances.

“The best thing about being an artist who’s bipolar is anything you do and say is an art piece,” Ye says in the clip.

The doc pulls the curtain back on Ye to give fans an authentic look at the method to his madness in recent years and what makes him one of the most polarizing artists of the 21st century.

There are plenty of celebrity cameos, including studio sessions with Drake, Pharrell and Swizz Beatz. West is also shown walking out with Playboi Carti and Marilyn Manson at the Donda 2 listening party in Miami and delves into his relationship with his children.

“Should I have blown up the Gap sh–? Should I have blown up the Adidas sh–? But the answer is yes,” he says, referencing his split with the companies following his antisemitic remarks in 2022.

In Whose Name? will be released in about 1,000 theaters across the U.S. on Sept. 19 for a limited time. Tickets can be purchased on the doc’s website. “A documentary six years in the making,” a press release for the film reads. “3,000 hours of footage refined to one story about the world’s most polarizing living artist.”

Watch the In Whose Name? trailer below.

Will Flavor Flav go from King Swiftie to Reverend Swiftie?

After Tuesday’s news that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged, the Public Enemy hype man is sharing his well-wishes for his favorite pop star in a new video message.

“Flavor Flav right here in the building, a.k.a. King Swiftie,” Flav begins his video, posted Wednesday (Aug. 27) by TMZ. “I want to congratulate my girl Taylor Swift on her engagement to my boy Travis Kelce. Hey yo, check this out: I knew this was gonna happen. I could not wait for the day to happen, you know what I’m saying? Now my girl Taylor is engaged to my boy. I’m stoked!”

Beyond Flav’s excitement for his pals, he also has a generous offer for the newly engaged couple.

“I can’t wait for the wedding. Not only that, but when y’all get married, let your boy Flavor Flav be the officiator,” he volunteers. “I would love to officiate the wedding, you know what I’m saying? But most of all, congratulations, Taylor and Travis. May God bless you all with the longest, [most] prosperous marriage ever, you hear me? I’m happy for you both. King Swiftie in the building, giving you all of my blessings. Taylor Swift, you got the gift.”

Flavor Flav has been a vocal member of the Swifties fanbase since attending the Detroit stop of Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour in 2023. He attended several Eras concerts after that and was often spotted trading friendship bracelets with fellow fans.

Watch Flav’s message for Swift and Kelce here.