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UMG And DGMC Collaborate To Establish “Music City” In The UAE
The partnership hopes to bolster the Middle East’s music community and promote industry growth with cutting-edge facilities and education academies.

In a significant move for the local music industry, Universal Music Group (UMG), a global leader in music-based entertainment, and DGMC, an emerging creative facility and global destination, have unveiled a strategic collaboration aimed at bolstering the music community in the Middle East.
The partnership aims to cultivate a vibrant and sustainable music ecosystem, with its flagship project, “Music City”, set to be established in the UAE. The initiative will serve as a regional center catering to both local talents and international artists and songwriters.
The collaboration includes the establishment of cutting-edge recording studios, the launch of educational academies, and the introduction of a comprehensive label dedicated to supporting local and regional artists across various facets of their careers, including recording, touring, branding, and merchandising.
At its core, the UMG-DGMC partnership is committed to fostering growth and nurturing the talents of artists and songwriters in the region, with a focus on unlocking their creative and commercial potential.
Rasha Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairwoman of DGMC, expressed excitement about the partnership, stating, “We are thrilled to partner with UMG, the world’s leading music group, on this unique and exciting endeavor. Building a state-of-the-art music infrastructure and providing industry services to support aspiring musical artists is critical to our leadership’s vision to promote culture and the arts”.
Also Read: Best Music Streaming Services In The Middle East
Adam Granite, Executive Vice President of Market Development at Universal Music Group, added: “We have long recognized the potential in the Middle East and are incredibly proud to be working with world-class partners like DGMC. We share their excitement and vision to harness this potential and nurture the next generation of recording artists and songwriters. Our partnership will create a powerful platform for the incredible talent in the region and accelerate their careers at home and abroad”.
To make “Music City” a massive success, ambitious development plans include the construction of three new Capitol Studios recording studios, marking the first-ever expansion of Capitol Studios outside of Hollywood. These studios will feature cutting-edge facilities such as Dolby Atmos mixing rooms, recording studios, green rooms, writer’s rooms, and rehearsal studios. Additionally, a range of immersive music experiences for fans is in the pipeline.
News
Google Releases Veo 2 AI Video Tool To MENA Users
The state-of-the-art video generation model is now available in Gemini, offering realistic AI-generated videos with better physics, motion, and detail.

Starting today, users of Gemini Advanced in the MENA region — and globally — can tap into Veo 2, Google’s next-generation video model.
Originally unveiled in 2024, Veo 2 has now been fully integrated into Gemini, supporting multiple languages including Arabic and English. The rollout now brings Google’s most advanced video AI directly into the hands of everyday users.
Veo 2 builds on the foundations of its predecessor with a more sophisticated understanding of the physical world. It’s designed to produce high-fidelity video content with cinematic detail, realistic motion, and greater visual consistency across a wide range of subjects and styles. Whether recreating natural landscapes, human interactions, or stylized environments, the model is capable of interpreting and translating written prompts into eight-second 720p videos that feel almost handcrafted.
Users can generate content directly through the Gemini platform — either via the web or mobile apps. The experience is pretty straightforward: users enter a text-based prompt, and Veo 2 returns a video in 16:9 landscape format, delivered as an MP4 file. These aren’t just generic clips — they can reflect creative, abstract, or highly specific scenarios, making the tool especially useful for content creators, marketers, or anyone experimenting with visual storytelling.
Also Read: Getting Started With Google Gemini: A Beginner’s Guide
To ensure transparency, each video is embedded with SynthID — a digital watermark developed by Google’s DeepMind. The watermark is invisible to the human eye but persists across editing, compression, and sharing. It identifies the video as AI-generated, addressing concerns around misinformation and media authenticity.
While Veo 2 is still in its early phases of public rollout, the technology is part of a broader push by Google to democratize advanced AI tools. With text-to-image, code generation, and now video creation integrated into Gemini, Google is positioning the platform as a full-spectrum creative assistant.
Access to Veo 2 starts today and will continue expanding in the coming weeks. Interested users can try it out at gemini.google.com or through the Gemini app on Android and iOS.