Mark Hoebich

Shares of Warner Music Group outperformed today after reporting earnings that showed its revenue jumped nine percent and subscription streaming revenue grew more than eight percent. According to Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl, the results show music's "resilience to the economy."

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Some of the best partnerships start with friction. For years, Dolby Laboratories and Google saw the tech landscape through different lenses. Google has been a champion of open source. Dolby, too, believes in openness—supporting industry standards and enabling innovation across a wide ecosystem—but we’ve traditionally focused on delivering end-to-end quality through tightly integrated experiences. But something shifted when leaders on both sides started asking a different question: Not “Where do we differ?” but “What do we share?” And it turned out, we have quite a bit in common. We both serve creators. We both serve consumers. We both want developers to build extraordinary experiences in sound, video, and storytelling. And these experiences are to be available across the cross-section of devices and endpoints. By focusing on those shared goals instead of our differing approaches, we built a partnership rooted in a specific purpose - not just “being aligned.” Now, we’re seeing the results in the form of the first-ever Google product to ship with Dolby technology built in at the OS level. It’s a big win for us, our partners, and consumers alike, and I think it’s a lesson the tech world could take to heart: In a complex, interconnected ecosystem, the most valuable partnerships aren’t always the most obvious. But if you start with the consumer, stay open, be curious, and build from common ground, you’ll often find more alignment than you expect.

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EXCLUSIVE: Here’s another big deal that the new David Ellison led Paramount is working on: Legendary Entertainment is in talks for a new multi-picture global theatrical distribution deal (sans China) with the Melrose Ave lot. Read More: https://lnkd.in/eREAmZjS

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How are anime streaming and theatrical releases able to co-exist? Crunchyroll's EVP of Global Commerce, Mitchel Berger, spoke with TheWrap to share a deep dive on how we brought "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle" to big screens around the world. 🌎 Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g_BgTq8M

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The Golden Globes announced 25 podcasts that are eligible for nominations this year: “The list was determined by the Globes data partner, Luminate, the entertainment industry’s leading authority on audio analytics and insights.” By way of comparison, Golden Globes nominations across tv and feature films: “Golden Globes nominations and awards are determined by an independent body of international journalist voters.” I throw no shade on any of the nominees in the podcast space that are eligible but popularity and quality are entirely and wildly different criteria. As a result, zero narrative series in the podcast space qualified.

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The sync licensing business has always been fragmented, inefficient, and frustratingly analog in a digital world. SourceAudio is trying to change all that. The Los Angeles-based company, which bills itself as “the music industry’s most widely adopted sync platform,” is quietly revolutionizing how music is licensed for commercial use — and the numbers support its bold claims. Andrew Harding, Co-founder of SourceAudio, told MBW: "Our deals vary in scale, from annual blanket agreements exceeding $1 million in radio to ad agencies doing an average of 40 individual syncs per month at rates around $2,000 each." Full Story: https://lnkd.in/gy7uWeJ4 #musicindustry

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Skydance Media and Paramount Global today announced the completion of their merger, creating a premier standalone global media and entertainment company, Paramount, a Skydance Corporation. The close of this transaction positions Paramount to forge a new path forward in the entertainment industry, combining its extensive creative library and global distribution network with Skydance's production expertise and industry-leading technological capabilities.   LionTree is proud to have served as financial advisor to Paramount Global on this transformative transaction.   https://lnkd.in/e33qrjbn

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Relic Entertainment CEO Justin Dowdeswell explains his vision for the future of the storied RTS developer, following its breakaway from Sega. "If we have an Achilles heel [...] one would be how long it's taken us in the past to release games." https://lnkd.in/ex_ypW9k

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Ziad Ahmed (Vice President, Head of UTA’s Next Gen) joined Assistants vs. Agents’ latest AVA IRL’s Next Gen Panel, a conversation series curated for the next generation of entertainment, bringing together some 600 rising professionals.    This year’s theme: Spotlighting inspired career journeys of people who have made it, inclusive of all the pivots, breakthroughs, burnouts, and bounce backs that got them here.   Ahmed spoke on a panel titled “Why Wait for a Seat When You Can Build the Table?”; as someone who’s usually one of the youngest executives in the room—and by a decade or more—he discussed what’s often misunderstood about Gen Z’s growing influence in shaping media and culture.

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Paramount has tapped Jesse Sisgold, Skydance Media President & COO and Skydance Sports Chair, to lead its new division, Paramount Sports Entertainment, as its first president 💼 Career highlights: ◾Joined Skydance senior management in 2016, led acquisition of The Workshop Entertainment to form Skydance Interactive. ◾Helped create Skydance Sports and secure NFL partnership in 2022. ◾ Former managing shareholder of boutique entertainment and venture capital law firm; launched Anomaly Productions. ◾ Minority owner of Angel City FC; board member of UCLA Institute of Environment, Conservation International Global Council, and Angels at Risk. ◾ Named to SBJ 4SE in 2023; earned J.D. with honors from UC Hastings and B.A. with honors from UC San Diego. Sisgold’s appointment strengthens Paramount Sports Entertainment’s focus on sports and interactive content. https://ow.ly/vBnh50WVVEC

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Gaming is more than entertainment—it’s culture, connection, and commerce. Xsolla and NewsNation have teamed up to launch a first-of-its-kind vodcast spotlighting the studios, tech, and stories shaping the future of play. Read more: https://xsolla.blog/xnsp Nexstar Media Group, Inc.

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Jacob Varghese, founder of #MusicBizMember Noctil, recently gave his insights to Music Week on how siloed and inaccurate metadata allows unclaimed royalties to pile up, and what the industry needs to do to improve the contributing outdated systems 📊💵 Read it at the 🔗 in comments!

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#C21investigates: Ahead of #Mipcom next week, C21's resident formats expert Siobhan Crawford talks to distributors All Right Media, PRIMITIVES, Lineup Industries and CAN'T STOP media about the state of indie distribution, key trends and how to survive as a medium-sized fish in a big pond. READ THE FULL STORY: https://lnkd.in/eenkC6GC #television #entertainment #tv #broadcasting #tvproduction

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