Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassation is running a random lottery through its computer system to pick a new prosecutor who gets to investigate the chief prosecutor and his deputies. The position caps out at two years before whoever lands the gig goes back to their old job, and Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov asked to watch the whole process go down.
Judge Daniela Taleva from the Sofia City Court held the role until her term ran out recently. The court originally picked her through a random draw from 22 approved judges back when the new investigation rules kicked in under amendments to the criminal procedure code.
Bulgaria's parliament lined up to greenlight Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov stepping down after protesters spent days hammering the government over economic failures and corruption allegations. Boyko Borisov from GERB confirmed the resignation hits the floor as agenda item number one, and there's zero chance of reshuffling the cabinet to save face. Zhelyazkov got the gig back in January with 125 votes backing him.
The whole thing went down right before lawmakers were about to run another no-confidence vote targeting the government's busted economic policies. Zhelyazkov told everyone the people's voice matters more than clinging to power, which sounds nice but basically admits they couldn't weather the storm. Regular parliamentary...
Sociologist Yuri Aslanov says Bulgaria's government collapsed after massive street protests forced politicians to bail, and another snap election looks inevitable. The ruling party couldn't handle the heat from citizens demanding accountability and clean governance, though the timing and outcome stay fuzzy with potential wild cards like President Radev's rumored political project and the euro rollout shaking things up.
Aslanov figures the BSP and Slavi Trifonov's crew are toast because they backed the unpopular coalition, while PP-DB might score some points for riding the protest wave even though protesters aren't exactly treating them like heroes. If Radev jumps into the race himself instead of endorsing some puppet candidate, the...
Warner Music shuffled the deck across Australia and Southeast Asia by bumping up Alex Young to handle domestic artist operations and promoting Dan Ellis to run international strategy for the whole region. Young gets Charlotte Kindred as her right hand for export planning, plus Sarah Thomas scored a new gig working from New York to connect artists with overseas markets. Ellis landed a crew that covers PR and artist relations through Lucy Baker, while Jordon Dionatos and Lisan Yee split international duties between Australia and Singapore.
The label also brought in more focused digital teams, with Manny Kupelian taking over creator strategy and Mat Buck stepping up to manage streaming and social alongside Luke Vespa. Dan Rosen runs the...
Jay-Z's private equity outfit MarcyPen teamed up with South Korean asset manager Hanwha to drop a $500 million fund aimed at boosting Korean culture brands worldwide. MarcyPen handles over $900 million in assets after merging Jay-Z's Marcy Venture Partners with Pendulum Holdings back in September, and Hanwha brings about $70 billion under management to the table.
The fund targets companies in entertainment, beauty, food, and lifestyle that want to scale globally off the back of K-pop and shows like Squid Game blowing up everywhere. Both sides plan to hunt for high-potential Asian businesses ready to make moves internationally, with MarcyPen bringing experience in consumer-facing ventures and Hanwha offering deep connections across...
Graham Gouldman from 10cc is going after his old manager, Harvey Lisberg, and the publisher Man-Ken Music for hanging onto US copyrights, he says belong back to him. The songwriter sent termination notices back in 2020 for 13 tracks he registered between 1965 and 1968, but Lisberg allegedly kept collecting royalties even after the deadlines passed. US copyright law lets original creators reclaim rights after 56 years for pre-1978 works, and Gouldman claims Man-Ken just ignored the whole thing.
The lawsuit wants nearly $2 million in damages plus whatever profits the publisher made after the termination dates hit. Gouldman signed an admin deal with Sony Music Publishing, and they discovered Man-Ken was still acting like they controlled...
Pro Music Rights and its parent company are threatening to sue Wisconsin Representative Scott Fitzgerald after he asked the FTC to investigate the PRO for sketchy business practices. Chairman Jake P. Noch says the letter contains false claims about the company's catalog and accuses Fitzgerald of anti-Semitic commentary, while PMR also floated antitrust action against BMI, ASCAP, and the MIC Coalition for trying to squash competition.
Fitzgerald questioned PMR's claim that it controls 7.4% of the US market, and BMI's analysis suggested that number looks way too high. The company says it represents over 2.5 million works from artists like Wiz Khalifa and Pharrell, plus AI-generated tracks, and it maintains that regulators have never...
Rostrum Pacific pulled $150 million from Crayhill Capital Management to buy up music catalogs, and the indie label outfit plans to scale up acquisitions through its SpaceHeater distribution platform. CEO Benjy Grinberg merged Rostrum Records, Fat Beats, Cantora Records, and SpaceHeater under one company back in 2023, and the catalog previously handled by ADA moved over to SpaceHeater for distribution.
Scott Margolin from Rostrum said the money lets them chase catalog deals at any size while building out what they already own. SpaceHeater uses AI-powered tracking tech to monitor how songs get used for training models, and the platform claims it delivers better transparency on compensation. Crayhill manages about $2.9 billion in assets...
Spotify dropped a beta feature in New Zealand that lets people type out prompts to generate custom playlists, and the algorithm pulls from their entire listening history plus wider music trends. Users can ask for stuff like deep cuts from their top artists over the last five years or request a workout mix that shifts from high-energy tracks to chill songs for cooldown. Each track shows up with an explanation about why the algorithm picked it, and people can tweak their prompts or set playlists to refresh regularly.
Gustav Söderström, the co-president who will become co-CEO soon, said the company wants to make discovery smarter for artists while giving listeners more control over personalization. Spotify already tested AI playlist...
