Let's stop talking about this right away. AI is the dominant trend in the music business in 2025, but nothing else comes particularly close.
Topics that felt relevant just a few years ago, like the need for record labels, streaming payments, and the black box of billion-dollar royalties, feel trivial now as the industry faces an even bigger question in the age of AI: Will music fans always care if a song was generated by AI? How much of a threat will AI songs pose? How do artists get paid? Who will own this?
While 2024 was the year the music industry fought back and filed massive copyright lawsuits against some of the leading AI music development companies, 2025 is the first year on the road to legalization, with those legal battles now turning into licensed partnerships. AI music creators are getting record deals and their songs are starting to hit the charts.
Still, the music industry was still in a period of great change, with the exception of AI, of course. Warner Music Group has announced a series of job cuts, with major label heads Sylvia Rhone and David Massey stepping down. K-pop has become more mainstream than ever, and rock music has made an unexpected comeback.
below, hollywood reporter We recap the stories that defined the music business this year.
A truce between the label and AI begins.
Last year, major music companies declared war on industry-leading AI music generation platforms Suno and Udio, and Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, and Warner Music Group filed landmark lawsuits against the startups, accusing them of infringing on millions of songs by the world's most iconic artists.
“These are simple cases of copyright infringement involving the unauthorized copying of sound recordings on a large scale,” RIAA chief legal officer Ken Doroshaw said when the suit was first filed in 2024. “Instead of putting their services on a sound and legal footing, Snow and Udio are trying to hide the full extent of their infringement.”
A year later, as is often the case with these entertainment/tech industry skirmishes, the legal battle is now moving toward settlement and partnership. Universal Music Group was the first to sign the deal, announcing its partnership with Udio in late October. When Udio and UMG announced they were removing the ability to download works on Udio, effectively keeping AI music in a walled garden, the industry rejoiced and Udio's own user base was outraged.
WMG made its own Udio settlement shortly thereafter, and subsequently became the first (and as of this article's publication, still the only) music company to similarly settle with Suno. Sony has not yet reached an agreement with the two companies.
Meanwhile, labels other than Suno and Udio are partnering with other companies, including Spotify, to develop more AI music creation tools and features. As the next chapter of the AI music era unfolds, we enter 2026 with more questions than answers. How do labels and platforms get permission for opt-in training deals from all these artists and songwriters? Who gets paid and how? Will new ethically sourced models help? Only time will tell.
The country's coastal invasions continue
Country's strong momentum in the streaming era continues into 2025 as Big Loud/Republic's Morgan Wallen releases one of the year's biggest albums. I'm the problem, The song topped Billboard's 200 albums chart for 12 consecutive weeks. With the country showing no signs of slowing down yet, record labels based on both the East and West Coasts have increased their presence in Music City in recent years. They are signing more artists who traditionally would have stuck to the Nashville system, inspired by artists like Warner Records' Zach Bryan, who became one of the genre's biggest artists during his time at Los Angeles-based Warner Records.
Two of the industry's largest coastal record labels, UMG's Interscope and WMG's Atlantic, have opened rural outposts in 2025. Interscope has revived its famous Lost Highway label, welcoming Kacey Musgraves as the label's first new act. Meanwhile, Atlantic launched a country brand called Atlantic Outpost a few months later. Don't expect the intrigue into rural Los Angeles and New York to stop over the next year.
Distribution has become a hot purchasing market
Although it has calmed down somewhat in recent years, the music acquisition space remains active, with artists from Jack White to Kelly Clarkson, Slipknot to Notorious B.I.G.'s legacy selling entire stakes in their catalogs this year. Meanwhile, WMG announced a $1.2 billion catalog acquisition deal with Bain Capital, hinting at even bigger splashes to come.
But some of the most important acquisitions this year weren't individual artist catalogs, but instead music distribution platforms. UMG's move began in late 2024 with news that its Virgin Music Group would acquire Downtown Music, the parent company of distributors CD Baby and Fuga, for $775 million. (The deal is still under review by EU competition authorities.)
Since then, Concord has launched its own haymaker and acquired indie music distributor Stem in March. Will we see more music companies gobbling up distribution platforms in 2026? As the independent music sector continues to grow – half of Spotify's royalties went to independent artists last year, the company announced in March – music companies, always hungry for more market share, are expected to continue targeting distribution.
“Labels need access to independent artists,” said one music technology executive. THR In March. “It's all about the user. Users need users. Nobody wants to be in the major label system. The majors will evolve further into service companies.”
rock and roll isn't dead yet
Rock is booming in 2025, thanks to artists like Sleep Token and Ghost. In May, they topped Billboard's 200 albums chart for consecutive weeks for the first time in several years. Meanwhile, Luminate's mid-year report suggested that rock has surpassed both Latin and country as the fastest growing genre in the US.
Artists like Turnstyle, Alex G, and MJ Lenderman are breaking the zeitgeist, and beyond the numbers, rock and guitar-driven music seems to have an element of cool that wasn't there a decade ago.
YUNGBLUD, who was nominated for three rock categories at this year's Grammy Awards, said of this trend: THR In November.
“The real situation is when it's spherical every time it rears its head again and dominates or kicks the mainstream,” the singer said. “There are multiple scenes going on at the same time, and multiple scenes are accentuated by the freedom of the internet,” he continued. “I don’t think it takes just one person in rock music.”
K-POP groups let their members shine in solos
In K-pop, it has long been the practice for only one or two members of a group to release solo work during a group's career. Things have changed in 2025, allowing groups like Seventeen, ATEEZ, and Twice to give artists their own shine.
Several groups had different reasoning. For example, Seventeen were in the midst of a transition period when they released their album. happy burst day It is scheduled for May, as some of the members are currently serving in the military. Due to the long hiatus, solo projects are most likely to produce new music while the members are gone.
SEVENTEEN's Hoshi said, “I want to show more of each member's individuality and abilities.'' THR In his May cover story, he talked about his decision to include 13 solo songs. happy burst day. He added that showcasing the group's individual talents only strengthened and presented a better side when they later reunited as a complete group.
ATEEZ, Twice, and Tomorrow x Together are just a few of the other groups adopting the solo song model in 2025. Unlike Seventeen, these groups chose this path as a way for each member to gain their own reputation and style while working in the group. It's worth noting that more than six years have passed since each group debuted (10 years in Twice's case). But for a group that actively works as a unit, dedicating valuable tracklist space to individual songs is a bold statement.
This decision pays off in the long run, allowing artists to build solid solo discography and further establish their solo identities outside of their respective groups before their debut albums are released.
Nicole Fell contributed to this report.
