Games Industry Biz reports: “Digital publishing company Keleops has acquired Kotaku from G/O Media in an undisclosed, all-cash asset deal. As reported by Axios, Kotaku’s editorial staff will remain at the site and more senior staff will be hired. Keleops CEO Jean-Guillaume Kleis told the publication that “he had no immediate strategy shifts and he hadn’t yet met with Kotaku’s editor-in-chief”.”
Digital Music News reports: “Music AI startup Arthos has announced a $730,000 raise and the upcoming launch of its first product, a digital audio workstation (DAW) called Mozart AI. London-based Arthos reached out today with word of the pre-seed funding and the debuting DAW. Co-founded and led by Sundar Arvind, the startup says it’s “on a mission to 10x every artist” with “ethical AI.”
Tip Ranks reports: “Netflix (NFLX) has held discussions with Spotify (SPOT) about partnering on several projects, such as a music awards show, a live concert series, or big celebrity interviews, Jessica Toonkel of The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people close to the conversations. The streaming TV company is also rebooting “Star Search,” while releasing a new show called “Building the Band,” the sources added.”
Pitchbook reports: “AI and ML startups are taking a greater share of venture debt funding, receiving 38.4% of the $30 billion total in US and European value so far this year, according to PitchBook data. Driven by soaring infrastructure costs and the pressure to sustain high valuations, the venture debt industry is coalescing around AI and ML companies as startups are seeking debt financing at earlier stages.”
GamesBeat reports: “Didimo, the company behind game character creation solutions, announced today that it has entered a strategic partnership with P-Labs. Together, the two have created a scalable workflow for game companies to quickly create large and artistically consistent groups of characters, combining P-Labs’ 3D artwork AI and Didimo’s Popul8 creation engine.”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “In January last year, BandLab, the social music creation platform owned by Singapore-based BandLab Technologies, launched a service called ‘BandLab Licensing‘ that offers sync and licensing opportunities for film, TV, games, and advertising. Now, the platform, which counts over 100 million creators, has expanded its music licensing service, introducing what it calls “a structure with clear guidelines” that allows artists, labels, and publishers to signal interest in licensing their music to train AI models.”
Games Industry Biz reports: “The average weekly spending by 18-24 year-old Americans on video games has dropped sharply year-over-year, according to data provided by Circana in a new report. As shared by the Wall Street Journal, spending on video games has dipped by close to 25% for this age bracket. For other age groups, the percentage drop is much smaller, representing the pressures young people in the US are facing on their personal expenditure.”
Broadband TV News reports: “Germany’s online video market continues to expand rapidly across all platforms, with artificial intelligence (AI), short-form content and local journalism emerging as dominant forces shaping its development. Despite the hype surrounding TikTok, YouTube remains the most-used video platform in 2025, according to the latest Online Video Monitor published by German media authorities BLM and LFK.”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “Warner Music Group and private investment giant Bain Capital are launching a $1.2 billion joint venture to acquire “legendary” music catalogs across both recorded music and music publishing. MBW understands that roughly half of the $1.2 billion is made up of debt, half with cash, with equal liability on both sides of the JV.”
NBC News reports: “Netflix is reaching for the stars. The streaming giant announced Monday that it “is teaming up with NASA to bring space a little closer to home” by streaming live launches into subscribers’ homes later this summer. The move continues Netflix’s voyage into live streaming content, which has proved to be successful so far.”
