YouTube has issued its first annual YouTube Recap. The feature is available to users worldwide and takes the form of a shareable YouTube Short that highlights favorites based on your watch history from the year. “You’ll get a set of up to 12 different cards that spotlight your top channels, interests, and even the evolution of your viewing habits, or which personality type you fall into based on the videos you loved to watch,” YouTube explains of the highlight reel. Along with YouTube Recap, the streamer also released its 2025 U.S. trending lists covering creators, songs, podcasts and cultural moments. Continue reading YouTube Issues Year-End Viewer Recap Alongside Trend Lists

Spotify’s Wrapped 2025 is here, and as usual, the streaming service is mixing up its annual lists including Top Global Artist (Bad Bunny), Top Global Podcast (“The Joe Rogan Experience”) and Top U.S. Artist (Taylor Swift) with some surprises. The company has included top audiobook genres for the first time, also adding “author clips” — messages from authors populated for those who’ve listened to their books. The platform is also extending the traditional Wrapped playlist — a list of each Spotify account holder’s most-played tunes — with the Wrapped Party, which lets friends go head-to-head to see who is the bigger fan. Continue reading Spotify Adds Audiobooks, Party Competition to Wrapped 2025

Apple Music Replay 2025 is here, and this year the platform takes a more granular approach to its users’ listening habits, an attempt to keep pace with Spotify Wrapped. The usual song stats are amplified with a deeper look at each subscriber’s personal music journey. This year, Apple highlights artists discovered this year, loyalty to favorites and comebacks. The company has also morphed its Apple Music for Artists analytics to Artist Replay, which includes the usual business intelligence but adds visual shareable insights encouraging performers to participate in the viral year-end celebration. Continue reading Apple Music Replay 2025 Is More Personalized, Also for Artists

Amazon Prime is providing viewers with Video Recaps, AI-powered highlight rewinds to bring them quickly up to date on seasonal episodes they may have missed for their favorite shows. Amazon is touting the new feature as a “first-of-its-kind application of generative AI,” thought it does follow the X-Ray Recaps — spoiler free text summaries Amazon AI began providing last year. Prime Video Recaps are now available in beta for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S. It is likely Amazon will eventually extend the Recaps to premium licensed shows, too, if it can work out rights issues. Continue reading Amazon Prime Introduces GenAI ‘Video Recaps’ for TV Series

Warner Music Group has settled its copyright infringement lawsuit against Udio and will collaborate on development of the startup’s licensed AI music creation service, set to launch in 2026. “Through this collaboration, Udio will develop a next-generation music creation, listening, and discovery platform powered by generative AI models trained on licensed and authorized music,” WMG announced, noting the deal — which includes recorded music and publishing — “creates new revenue streams for artists and songwriters, while ensuring their work remains protected.” The agreement caps a week in which the major labels also pacted with AI streaming startup Klay. Continue reading WMG Resolves Litigation with Udio in a Big Week for AI Music

Swedish audio streaming and music service Spotify plans to add music videos to its content lineup in the United States and Canada in the coming weeks. The popular streamer had since March 2024 been beta testing music videos in Europe, Asia, South America and other foreign territories and was satisfied with the results, calling the visual clips “a powerful way to build connections between artists and fans.” On average, “songs discovered with music videos are 24 percent more likely to be saved or shared in the following week by those who watched,” Spotify said of the beta test. The move seems to indicate Spotify wants to give its paid subscribers a reason not to switch to YouTube Music. Continue reading Spotify Targets 1B Subs, Adds Music Videos in North America

Sony Group reported a strong quarter ending September 30, with its semiconductor unit reaching an operating profit of nearly $900 million, up almost 50 percent year-over-year as the company’s most profitable segment for the quarter. The music group was another bright spot, with sales up 21 percent to $3.51 billion, and operating income a healthy $749 million. Consumer electronics and gaming were softer sectors. But overall revenue of $20.14 billion far surpassed the expected $19.36 billion, prompting Sony to raise its forecast by 3 percent. The company also announced a repurchase plan for $648 million worth of stock. Continue reading Sony’s Latest Quarter Beats Estimates Led by Music, Imaging

Amazon Music announced a new beta feature called “Fan Groups” that enables users to build their own communities for sharing information and opinions about their favorite music genres and artists. The feature, testing now in Canada on iOS and Android, encourages music fans to listen to songs shared within the groups and interact via chat threads and user posts, while driving new music discovery in the process. Artists will also have the ability to join groups, providing an opportunity to share exclusive content and interact directly with their fans. “The new destination transforms music listening into an interactive community for fans without having to leave the app,” explains Amazon. Continue reading Amazon Music Touts Community with ‘Fan Groups’ Beta Test

Spotify passed 700 million monthly active users in Q3, with subscribers hitting 281 million, a 12 percent increase over the same period in 2024. Total revenue was $4.9 billion, up 12 percent year-over-year, while net income surged 200 percent to $1 billion, attributed to price hikes, subscriber growth and strict cost management. The Swedish company surpassed analyst expectations on both the top and bottom lines. Revenue from premium subscriptions grew 9 percent in Q3. Advertising revenue for the period was down 6 percent, however, to about $515 million. Spotify recently integrated with ChatGPT so that users can get podcast and music recommendations from the popular chatbot. Continue reading Spotify’s Profits Surge 200 Percent for Q3, Topping $1 Billion

Amazon’s generative AI voice assistant Alexa+ is coming to the Amazon Music mobile app for iOS and Android for customers across all subscription tiers in Alexa+ Early Access. Alexa+ was announced in February at Amazon’s Devices & Services event, and began rolling out in early access in the spring. It is reported to now have more than a million users. Customers were able to get early access by registering for it on the Amazon website or purchasing a compatible product. Adding generative AI to Amazon Music is seen as a competitive move following Spotify’s October integration with OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT. Continue reading Alexa+ for iOS and Android Now Available for Amazon Music

To coincide with Adobe MAX 2025 in Los Angeles, Adobe has released a new version of its generative AI tool Firefly, calling it “your all-in-one creative AI studio.” Firefly now offers under one subscription a collection of models that include not only Firefly Image Model 5 (in public beta) but those from partners including Google, OpenAI, Luma AI, ElevenLabs, Topaz Labs, and more. From concept to final product, Firefly is attempting to support every phase of the workflow with AI to generate music, narration and video clips, while supporting areas such as ideation and editing, Adobe says. Continue reading Adobe Firefly Adds Third-Party Models to Generative AI Suite

Three major North American music performing rights organizations, or PROs, have decided to allow registration of musical compositions that are “partially generated using artificial intelligence tools.” ASCAP, BMI and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) have agreed to accept direct registration within their individual societies. For registration purposes, all three PROs define a partially AI-generated musical work as “one that combines elements of AI-generated musical content with elements of human authorship.” Musical compositions that are entirely created using AI continue to be ineligible for registration in these groups. Continue reading Music Groups Will Register Music ‘Partially’ Generated by AI

Spotify has added a feature that lets users follow their favorite venues to stay current on upcoming performances. In March the music streamer created a Concerts Near You playlist option, updated weekly, that helps fans discover when their favorite artists are touring nearby. Now, Spotify says its redesigned Live Events feed, updated daily, is available to both Free and Premium subscribers directly in-app, letting users view venue and scheduled concert details right from their libraries. Spotify is also recommending other smaller venues fans may enjoy based on their tastes. “Great live music isn’t just about the artist you see — it’s also about where you see them,” Spotify believes. Continue reading Spotify Updates Live Events Feed, Lets Fans Follow Venues

Deezer, the Paris-based music streamer, has teamed with TikTok to let users share songs, playlists and listening data on the mobile video platform. Listening stats from “My Deezer Month” and “My Deezer Year” can now be shared straight to TikTok. The move expands a relationship TikTok initiated last year when it added Deezer to its “Add to Music” program. The collaboration gives Deezer, which claims 9.6 million subs, broader reach while providing TikTok users a way to connect over shared interests. Also this month, Deezer added a protocol that allows music to be shared on other streaming music platforms. Continue reading Deezer Partners with TikTok to Let Fans Share Music and Data

Meta Platforms is rolling out Vibes, a short-form AI video generator now in early preview. Using Meta AI, Vibes allows the visually adventurous to create videos from their own ideas or remix existing ones by adding music or changing the style to make it your own. Vibes has its own feed featuring “a range of AI-generated videos from creators and communities.” As you use it, “the feed will become more personalized over time,” according to Meta. Vibes videos can also be cross-posted to Instagram and Facebook Stories and Reels or shared with friends via DM. Vibes is available on the Meta AI app and the Web at Meta.ai. Continue reading Meta Previews Its Vibes AI Video Generator for Social Sharing