Rock isn’t dead, it just moved to Canada

In a decade in indie when, in America, male voices led the way, the difference-maker was our Canadian women singers and a basket of funding for our Arts — Frank Guan, Vulture

Universal signs licensing deal with China’s Tencent

The deal gives UMG distribution in across various platforms and gives Tencent the authority to sub-license to third-party music provider across the country —MBW

RIP: The lowly MP3

On Monday, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits – the German agency that invented the audio format and licensed some patents for it –officially terminated its licensing program. This doesn’t mean that MP3s stored on your hard drive will stop working, but don’t expect to see many new devices enabling the format from here on out — TNW

7 laws blockchain will force to change

One of the key innovations of bitcoin and other virtual currencies is the ability to transact pseudonymously. Most virtual currency transactions do not require the transacting parties to know each other, meet face-to-face, or directly interact to exchange value — Lauren Gilmore, TNW

SoundExchange buys Canadian mechanical rights society

Aside from the fact that it allies two societies based in different countries, it also brings into common ownership agencies respectively representing the two different sets of music rights – ie the recording rights and the song rights – albeit the performing rights in the former and the mechanical rights in the latter — CMU

Deadmau5 countersues in cat-based trademark case

Joel Zimmerman is standing up for his feline friend, Professor Meowingtons—and not taking any guff from a US company that has claimed “the mouse is clearly the copycat in this case” — The Hollywood Reporter

Fewer Ontario students get music classes due to lack of funds, staff, report says

Only 41 percent of elementary schools have music teachers, rural students least likely to learn band or choir —Toronto Star

Portuguese ballad earns country’s first Eurovision victory

A long losing streak was broken by Salvador Sobral —Christopher Shea, NY Times

Eminem lawsuit against New Zealand political party ends

Judge may not rule for months on whether music for political party's TV ad was too close to rapper’s smash hit “Lose Yourself" — Nick Perry, AP

Suspicious minds: why Elvis's posthumous popularity is plummeting

With a third of young adults having never heard an Elvis song and the value of his merchandise sinking, is the king of rock’n’roll destined to be remembered as nothing more than a goofy tribute act?  — Thomas Hobbs, The Guardian