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06 Jun 2024

Drake Posts Cryptic ‘Yes Man’ Caption After Removing Kendrick Lamar Disses from Instagram

On Wednesday night (June 5), Drake removed the rest of his Instagram posts related to the Kendrick Lamar beef and posted a carousel of stoic contemplative pictures of himself.

The photos came with a vague caption that read, “The only yes man around me is my Rolex dealer.” While it looks like it’s back to business for Drake as he seems to be moving on and focusing on what’s next, the post does leave us with more questions than answers.

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Since the battle with Lamar has died down, the Toronto rapper has been featured on two songs. First, he assisted friend Sexyy Red on her song “U My Everything,” which debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 44, where he raps over “BBL Drizzy” for a portion of his guest verse. Then, he gave Canadian parody rapper Snowd4y the greenlight to release their Plain White T’s “Hey There Delilah” Toronto slang remix “Wah Gwan Delilah.”

Recently, Gordo aka DJ Carnage posted a picture on social media with Drake asking, “you guys ready for summer 2024…”

However, the DJ and producer walked that photo back in an interview with Complex claiming it was a troll job. “I am being completely honest, I went over to his house cause I ran out of milk, so I went and got 2%, whole, Goat milk. He has everything. So I went & I just took that photo just to f—k with people,” he told the outlet. Gordo worked closely with Drake on his dance-adjacent album Honestly, Nevermind where he produced five of the project’s 14 tracks.

Kendrick, on the other hand, still has links to his diss tracks up on his X and Instagram, and just announced a concert in LA for the upcoming Juneteenth.

06 Jun 2024

gamma. Recruits Lionel Ridenour as EVP of Promotion

R&B/hip-hop industry veteran Lionel Ridenour has been appointed executive vp of promotion at gamma. In his new role, Ridenour will oversee the company’s radio promotion efforts across all formats and genres. The appointment comes in the wake of Ridenour’s promotional work on behalf of gamma. projects by Usher, 4batz, Sexyy Red and October London.

In a press release announcing Ridenour’s appointment, gamma. co-founder/CEO Larry Jackson said, “Early into the formation of gamma., we oftentimes heard the critique that one of things we would be challenged to deliver on is radio promotion, for any artist at the highest level. So we challenged ourselves to roll up our sleeves and debunk that theory. And it is because of Lionel, his staff and our efficient spend in this area that we now have such an unbelievably strong radio market share for a company that’s only a year old.

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“Radio is still such an important mainstream access point to the heartland of so many countries, especially the U.S., and I am so happy to be able to have Lionel leading the charge for us in that regard,” Jackson added. “It’s also incredibly noteworthy that he’s the first African-American head of promotion in 40 years for any major music company (we’re not a label, of course) and I am so proud to be able to be a part of this historic moment in the overall business.”

Added Ridenour, “I’m thrilled to be joining gamma. and want to thank Larry and Ike [Youssef, gamma. president] for the opportunity to grow past the boundaries of industry norms and lead all promotion efforts on behalf of a wide variety of incredible talent. It’s gratifying to be a part of an intrepid company reshaping the manner in which careers can be magnified and propelled.”

Over the last decade, Ridenour’s Anchor Promotions has worked with various major and independent labels, including Warner Records, Alamo, Red Bull, Hitco and Geffen Records. Founded by CEO Ridenour in 2013, Anchor was the industry’s only Black-owned label services and promotion company.

Prior to Anchor, Ridenour began honing his promotional skills during his first industry gig as co-founder of the street promotion team Mainframe Records, later brought in-house by Capitol Records. His resumé since then includes supervising promotion for LaFace Records, Bad Boy and Rowdy Records. After a decade of working closely with Clive Davis at Arista Records — overseeing promotion for projects by artists such as Biggie, TLC, Usher, OutKast and Whitney Houston — Ridenour went on to lead the music departments at Virgin Records and Malaco Records. Last year, he received the Living Legends Foundation’s Music Executive Award.

06 Jun 2024

Former ICM Partner Dennis Ashley Jr. and Son Launch New Multimedia Firm

Veteran music executive Dennis Ashley Jr. is joining forces with his son, Dennis Ashley III, to launch a new multimedia firm, Dash Media Partners, the pair has announced. According to a press release, the company will offer “a comprehensive suite of services in music, gaming, television and film production, events, branding and beyond.”

Ashley Jr. is a former partner at ICM Partners, which he joined in 2006 after two years spent operating his own agency. Beginning in 2016, he served as co-head of West Coast urban music division at ICM, where he first worked as a summer intern in the ’80s. While at the agency, Ashley Jr.’s clients included J. Cole, Missy Elliott, Trey Songz, D’Angelo, PartyNextDoor, Jeremih, Jeezy, Nelly, Mary J. Blige, Machine Gun Kelly, Marsha Ambrosius and Brian McKnight.

Ashley III is an entrepreneur known for successfully launching and scaling ventures across diverse industries, working with companies including Jordan Brand, Nobu, H. Wood Group and Triller.

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“With streaming platforms reshaping the way content is consumed and brand partnerships becoming increasingly integral to success,” the father-son duo is “well-positioned to leverage emerging trends…by merging Dennis Ashley Jr’s wealth of experience and industry connections with Dennis Ashley III’s innovative vision and fresh perspective,” reads a press release announcing the new venture.

“This is more than just a business venture for us,” said Ashley III in a statement. “It’s a chance to combine our passion for entertainment with our shared commitment to excellence and innovation. Together, we believe we can create something truly extraordinary.”

06 Jun 2024

Lady A’s Dave Haywood & Wife Kelli Are Expecting Their Third Child: ‘Always Been a Big Fan of Trios’

Country music trio Lady A member Dave Haywood and music executive Kelli Cashiola Haywood are expecting their third child, a boy, in July.

Dave revealed his wife’s pregnancy by posting on Instagram, sharing a black and white photo of the couple and their two older children, son Cash Van (9) and daughter Lillie Renee (6).

“I’ve always been a big fan of trios,” he wrote, adding, “Baby Boy Haywood coming in July.”

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Haywood and Cashiola were married in 2012. Haywood’s Lady A bandmate Charles Kelley commented on Haywood’s post, writing, “Hard secret to keep. Now I can shout it out!”

Kelli, a Nashville music industry executive and entrepreneur, recently teamed up with fellow music executive Leigh Holt to launch HSquared Management, with their first signee being Capitol Christian Music Group artist Riley Clemmons. The company also merged the artist rosters of the two executives’ companies, Holt’s maddjet and Haywood’s KCH Entertainment.

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Lady A’s latest single, “Love You Back,” is currently charting at No. 52 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. The trio previously told Audacy’s Katie & Company that they are working on a new album, with Kelley stating, “We’re definitely going in a nostalgic direction, I think we tend to do that a lot… It’s just a really warm record, so far, we’ve cut half of it, and we’ll just continue to over the early [part] of this year and keep trying to chase what we feel [are] the best songs and are able to live with it…”

During their career, Lady A has earned two top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits, including 2010’s “Need You Now” and 2011’s “Just a Kiss.” They’ve also notched 11 No. 1 Country Airplay hits, including “Champagne Night” and “What If I Never Get Over You.”

See Dave Haywood’s Instagram post below:

06 Jun 2024

Chappell Roan Hits Top 10 on Album Sales Chart for First Time

Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess reaches the top 10 of Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart for the first time, as the set re-enters the list dated June 8 at No. 8. The set sold 6,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending May 30 (the album’s best sales week yet, up 168%), according to Luminate. The surge in sales is owed to a replenishment of stock for the CD and vinyl editions of the album across retail, along with continued exposure of the artist and the growth of the album’s hit single “Good Luck, Babe!,” which reaches the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time, rallying 43-31.

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Midwest Princess also hits new peaks on the Billboard 200 (28-16), Top Current Album Sales (38-8), Vinyl Albums (a re-entry at No. 5) and Top Streaming Albums (29-20).

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Also in the top 10 of Top Album Sales, the latest releases from Twenty One Pilots, RM and Wallows arrive.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Twenty One Pilots’ Clancy debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, marking the band’s second leader on the list. Clancy bows with 113,000 copies sold – the largest sales week of 2024 for a rock album. (Rock albums are defined as those titles that have charted, or are eligible to chart on the Top Rock Albums ranking.) Clancy’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across 11 vinyl variants, signed and unsigned zine/CD journal editions and digipak CDs, deluxe CD boxed sets containing branded merch, and a deluxe digital album with four bonus live tracks.

RM logs his third top five-charting set on Top Album Sales as Right Place, Wrong Person enters at No. 2 with 43,000 sold – his best debut sales week. The album’s first-week sales were supported by its availability across 13 different CD variants, all containing branded paper merch and other collectibles. Taylor Swift’s former leader The Tortured Poets Department falls 1-3 with 41,000 sold (down 81%), and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft falls 2-4 with nearly 41,000 (down 79%).

Wallows scores its fourth top 10-charting effort, and highest sales week yet, as Model enters with nearly 15,000 sold at No. 5. The set’s first-week sales were supported by its availability across a dozen vinyl variants (including three signed editions, one for each of the trio’s members), two cassettes, two CDs (one of which was signed by the band) and a standard digital album.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s chart-topping minisode 3: TOMORROW climbs 12-6 with 9,000 (up 52% following a stock replenishment at brick-and-mortar retail). SEVENTEEN’s SEVENTEEN Best Album ‘17 Is Right Here’ rises 8-7 with 7,000 (down 7%) and two chart-toppers from Swift close out the top 10: Lover (11-9 with 6,000; down 6%) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (13-10 with nearly 6,000; down 7%).

06 Jun 2024

Will Smith Ranks His Mount Rushmore of Acting Performances While Tearing Up on ‘Hot Ones’

Will Smith made his Hot Ones debut on Thursday (June 6), and while it was a struggle, the multi-hyphenate superstar got through the finish line, albeit with some tears in his eyes.

The musician-actor is currently on a press tour with Bad Boys: Ride or Die set to hit theaters across the globe on Friday (June 7).

After chewing through the final steaming wing with his “brain slow-roasting in hot sauce,” as host Sean Evans fittingly put it, the “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” rapper revealed his Mount Rushmore of movie performances that best define his career as an actor.

“I think the individual best movie all-around that I’ve ever made is The Pursuit of Happyness. I think that’s the one,” he said while wiping away spicy tears. “Right behind that is the first Men in Black.”

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Smith got off-track briefly to also give credit to Bad Boys and Aladdin for being the blockbusters that he had the most fun starring in.

He continued: “If I had to put four of them in a time capsule it would be Pursuit of Happyness, the first Men in Black, it would be I Am Legend, and probably King Richard.”

Of the four blockbusters handpicked by the four-time Grammy winner, I Am Legend and Men in Black are two of the most dominant at the box office in his Hall-of-Fame career, as the pair of films grossed $585 million and $589 million globally.

While the Academy Award winner is no stranger to topping the box office as one of the highest grossing actors of the last 30 years, Smith’s also had commercial success on the music side in his career.

The 55-year-old boasts a pair of Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits on his résumé from the late ’90s. “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” spent three weeks atop the chart in early 1998 and the Dru Hill and Kool Mo Dee-assisted “Wild Wild West” reached No. 1 the following year.

Watch Will Smith’s Hot Ones episode below.

06 Jun 2024

Creepy Nuts, SixTONES & Mrs. GREEN APPLE Top Billboard Japan’s 2024 Mid-Year Charts

Creepy Nuts, SixTONES and Mrs. GREEN APPLE lead in their respective categories on Billboard Japan’s 2024 mid-year charts, tallying the weeks from Nov. 27, 2023, through May 26, 2024.

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Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” tops the Japan Hot 100 on the mid-year roundup. The MASHLE season 2 opener was released digitally on Jan. 7, and has been streamed 348,998,877 times during the tallying period. Total streams for the hip-hop hit sailed past 300 million at the second fastest pace in Japan chart history, second only to YOASOBI’s “Idol,” the No. 1 song of the year for 2023. “BBBB” also holds the No. 1 spot on Billboard Japan’s Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan list for the first half of the year. This chart ranks songs from Japan being heard in more than 200 countries and regions worldwide.

On “BBBB” ruling the mid-year charts, Creepy Nuts’ rapper R-shitei shares, “I wasn’t expecting it at all, so I’m surprised, or rather… It still hasn’t really hit me yet. But I’m thankful. It’s gratifying,” while DJ Matsunaga says with a laugh, “The song became a hit when I was working at my own pace, in a kind of ‘I’ll just take it slow and have fun making music’ mindset, which highlighted the unexpectedness of it all. I’m at a place where it’s all too much of a blessing and I haven’t been able to take it in.”

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Fifteen-year-old singer-songwriter tuki.’s “Bansanka” follows at No. 2 on the mid-year Japan Hot 100, and YOASOBI’s “Idol” is still going strong at No. 3.

SixTONES

SixTONES

Billboard Japan

On the Japan Hot Albums list, SixTONES’ fourth project THE VIBES takes the top spot, selling a total of 571,187 copies during the tallying period after being released Jan. 10, hitting No. 1 for the sales metric.

“We’re thankful for being ranked No. 1 for the first half of this year,” says SixTONES member Jesse. “We’re very happy and full of gratitude because this is the result of our music reaching so many people. Each of our albums has its own concept, and this time we aimed to create a work that ‘boosts your vibes’ by including a wide range of songs with a focus on rock. We’re sure anyone can find a song in this set that ‘boosts their vibes,’ and that this album will make people go, ‘Such idols exist?!’ with surprise. If you haven’t listened to it yet, please give it a try! Our group will continue to take on various musical challenges, so please look forward to it!”

At No. 2 on the mid-year albums chart is SEVENTEEN’s best-of collection 17 IS RIGHT HERE, and Hikaru Utada’s all-time greatest hits album SCIENCE FICTION, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the J-pop superstar’s debut, is at No. 3.

Mrs. GREEN APPLE

Mrs. GREEN APPLE

Billboard Japan

Mrs. GREEN APPLE is the top artist on the mid-year Japan Artist 100 chart, compiled from the results of the Japan Hot 100 and Hot Albums charts. The three-man band has been a constant on the Japan Hot 100, with 14 tracks including “Que Sera Sera” and “Dance Hall” charting on the list.

“We’re very honored to be ranked No. 1 on the artist chart,” says Mrs. GREEN APPLE frontman Motoki Ohmori. “We’d like to thank our JAM’S (fandom) and the many people who always support us from the bottom of our hearts. We hope to keep making the ship that is Mrs. GREEN APPLE bigger through various activities to deliver works that we ourselves can be excited about and think are good! Once again, thank you very much for this honor.”

YOASOBI follows at No. 2 on the Artist 100 tally, now one of Japan’s biggest acts whose performances at this year’s Coachella and visit to the White House made headlines in the duo’s home country. Veteran band back number comes in at No. 3, with nine songs charting in the top 100, including hits “Suiheisen” and “Takaneno Hanakosan.” 

Billboard Japan Hot 100 Mid-Year Chart 2024

1. “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” / Creepy Nuts
2. “Bansanka” / tuki.
3. “Idol” / YOASOBI
4. “Show” / Ado
5. “Que Sera Sera” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
6. “Kaiju No Hanauta” / Vaundy
7. “IKUOKUKONEN” / Omoinotake
8. “SPECIALZ” / King Gnu
9. “The Brave” / YOASOBI
10. “Be a flower” / Ryokuoushoku Shakai

Billboard Japan Hot Albums Mid-Year Chart 2024

1. THE VIBES / SixTONES
2. 17 IS RIGHT HERE / SEVENTEEN
3. SCIENCE FICTION / Hikaru Utada
4. THE GREATEST UNKNOWN / King Gnu
5. SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN / SEVENTEEN
6. MATCH UP / INI
7. AWARD / WEST.
8. Road to A / Travis Japan
9. PULL UP! / Hey! Say! JUMP
10. Reboot / TREASURE

Billboard Japan Artist 100 Mid-Year Chart 2024

1. Mrs. GREEN APPLE
2. YOASOBI
3. back number
4. Ado
5. Vaundy
6. Official HIGE DANdism
7. King Gnu
8. Creepy Nuts
9. Yuuri
10. Aimyon

06 Jun 2024

Here’s the Date of the 2025 NAACP Image Awards — and All Key Dates

The 56th NAACP Image Awards will take place on Feb. 22, 2025, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, Calif., where the show has been held 15 times since 1992. The ceremony will air live on BET. 

Submissions for nominations consideration will open Monday, Aug. 26. All entries must be received by Friday, Nov. 8 at the NCAACP Image Awards’ website. Nominations will be announced on Jan. 7, 2025.

The 2024 NAACP Image Awards were held on March 16. Usher received the President’s Award and also won entertainer of the year and outstanding male artist. Among music stars, Victoria Monét and Chris Brown also won multiple awards. Monét won outstanding album for Jaguar II and outstanding new artist. Brown won three awards, including two (outstanding music video/visual album and outstanding duo, group or collaboration, contemporary) for “Sensational,” featuring Davido & Lojay.

Queen Latifah hosted the show the last two years. Anthony Anderson, star of the long-running blackish, hosted the eight years before that.

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The NAACP Image Awards, which originated in 1967, celebrates excellence in the categories of motion pictures, television + streaming, recordings, literature, and podcasts. A release says the show is committed to “uplifting values that inspire equality, justice, and progressive change, and highlighting artists committed to these values.”

Following are key dates and deadlines for the 56th NAACP Image Awards:

Monday, Aug. 26

Submissions open

Friday, Oct. 11

Early-bird submissions close

Friday, Nov. 8

Submissions close

Monday, Dec. 2

Nominating committee voting begins

Friday, Dec. 13

Nominating committee voting ends

Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025

Nomination announcement; public voting begins

Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025

56th NAACP Image Awards in Pasadena, Calif. 

06 Jun 2024

Madonna Sends a Reminder to Her LGBTQ+ Fans for Pride Month: ‘Don’t Hide Your Pride’

For the last 40 years, pop icon Madonna has cemented her status as a bonafide gay icon. This year, the Queen of Pop wants to remind her LGBTQ fans that without them, she wouldn’t still be here.

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In a touching message shared to her Instagram on Thursday (June 6), Madonna paid tribute to the queer community and thanked them for their ceaseless support of her career. In a short video, Madge interspersed clips of herself performing during her Truth or Dare era with photos of Pride marches and protests around the world, while a stripped-back instrumental from her anthem “Vogue” plays in the background.

“When Truth or Dare was released in 1991 I had no idea it was going to cause such a stir,” she wrote in her caption. “But that could be said of most of the things I do!! I simply wanted to capture the world I was living in — and share it with the world.”

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In her message, Madonna shared her gratitude for the gay community, who “always supported me from day one” and inspired much of her work. “When I arrived in New York for the first time in 1979 — You made an awkward girl from Michigan feel like she fit in, like she wasn’t a freak. That it was OK to be different,” she wrote. “I am forever indebted. In this increasingly chaotic world, we are living in. I will never stop fighting for diversity, inclusiveness and equal rights for all!!!”

With the final lines of her post, Madonna gave her LGBTQ+ fans a call to action: “DON’T HIDE YOUR PRIDE! Let’s celebrate this month and every month,” she wrote, along with five rainbow flag emojis.

The superstar’s message comes just one month after she wrapped her globe-spanning, career-encompassing Celebration Tour in Rio de Janeiro on May 5. The tour made $225.4 million dollars, becoming her highest grossing tour since 2012’s MDNA Tour and her sixth trek to gross more than $100 million. With her latter accomplishment, the singer became the fifth artist in history (and the first woman) to surpass the nine-figure mark six times.

Check out Madonna’s full Pride Month message below:

06 Jun 2024

Warner Music Group Hires Top Goldman Sachs Music Banker to Lead Distro Shopping Expedition

After taking itself out of the bidding for French music group and distributor Believe in April, Warner Music Group (WMG) is shopping for an alternative distribution company that could help it gain market share in the competitive space that serves independent creators and labels — and it’s hired a top music investment banker from Goldman Sachs to lead the effort.

Since taking over as WMG’s CEO last year, Robert Kyncl has said the company is prepared to build in-house the technology and services he thinks it needs. Now he’s ready to buy them as well.

“As part of our mission to be a destination for artists and songwriters at every stage of development, we are expanding our lower-touch services that many indie artists, labels and songwriters rely on,” Kyncl said on a conference call discussing WMG’s quarterly earnings on May 9. “We have a clear plan to develop this area of our ecosystem, and we’re building solutions in-house while staying vigilant about [merger and acquisition] opportunities, which could accelerate our capabilities.”

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On Thursday (June 6), WMG announced the hire of Goldman Sachs’ global head of music & live entertainment investment banking Michael Ryan-Southern to a newly created executive vp role. Reporting to Kyncl, Ryan-Southern will be responsible for acquiring companies and catalogs that can boost WMG’s growth and revenues. When he officially joins in August, the first item on his shopping list will be an independent distribution company, smaller in size and cost than Believe, that an inside source described as a “bolt-on” acquisition to help grow WMG’s market share in the independent distribution and services business without affecting its overall profit margins.

Among the companies that WMG is eyeing, according to sources, are leading independent distributors DistroKid and CD Baby. WMG is “active in the market” but is still in the exploratory stage, those sources say.

A WMG spokesperson declined to comment for this story. A representative for Downtown, which owns CD Baby, also declined to comment, except to say that Downtown “is singularly focused on continuing to grow our business and support our clients’ success.” Representatives for DistroKid did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

WMG approached Paris-based Believe in February with a nonbinding offer to acquire it at a price of “at least” 17 euros ($18.60) per share. It ultimately decided not to submit a formal offer in April. Asked why the company did not pursue an offer for Believe, Kyncl said on the May 9 call that it backed away “for a variety of reasons,” including the brief amount of time it was given to conduct due diligence.

Ryan-Southern is a former EMI publishing executive who, along with Goldman’s global head of entertainment investment banking, Aaron Siegel, was on some of music’s biggest deals. These included New Mountain Capital’s acquisition of BMI and the spinoff of Sphere Entertainment, which owns the Sphere in Las Vegas, MSG Networks and Tao Group Hospitality, from Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which owns and operates the Garden and Radio City Music Hall among other venues in New York and Chicago. Ryan-Southern and Siegal also advised Believe founder/CEO Denis Ladegaillerie and his consortium with investment funds EQT and TCV on their effort to take Believe private.

Buying or building something that can leverage WMG’s independent distribution and services division, ADA, would help the music company recruit more early-stage artists, something its executives consider core to its success.

WMG launched ADA in 1993, roughly 20 years before Sony bought a stake in The Orchard and Universal Music Group launched Caroline International as an indie-label distributor that was later rebranded as Virgin Music Group. And though WMG was the first major to carve out a presence serving the independent artist market — renting its major-label services to indies, as industry sources have described it — competition in the market has heated up.

UMG and Sony have invested tens of millions in recent years buying rival startups in the space. A minority shareholder since 2006, UMG acquired Ingrooves in 2019. In 2022, UMG acquired Mtheory Artist Partnerships as well as a 49% stake in [PIAS]. Sony closed out its full acquisition of The Orchard in 2015 and then bought AWAL in 2022.

The Orchard now holds a commanding lead in the U.S. market with a 7.27% current market share, according to Luminate. UMG’s Virgin Music Group, which comprises Ingrooves, Mtheory and Virgin Music Label & Artist Services, holds around 3.42% of the current market. ADA has a current market share of 1.68%. Its biggest client, BMG, which contributes 0.94% to ADA’s current share, is winding down its distribution agreement.

WMG now needs to “turbocharge” this part of its business to capitalize on the fast-growing independent sector, says Fred Davis, partner at The Raine Group.

“The world now is divided into three categories of artists: those signed to major labels, those signed to indie labels and indie artists without a label,” Davis says. “Distribution platforms are proving to be a viable source of A&R for the major labels.”

Focusing WMG’s A&R more on capturing opportunities, particularly in genres that are just beginning to experience growth, was one of Kyncl’s top 2024 agenda items highlighted in a New Year’s Day note he sent to all staff. In April, WMG’s publishing division, Warner Chappell Music (WCM), partnered with ReverbNation, BandLab Technologies’ premium artist services platform, to identify and sign emerging songwriters. WCM administers music rights for any users who enroll in a new program through ReverbNation Publishing Administration, and signed songwriters gain access to WCM’s services.

WMG has acquired majority stakes or launched joint ventures with a few distribution-oriented companies in recent years — some before Kyncl joined WMG — primarily in emerging markets in the Middle East and Asia. Among them: a majority stake in Africori, the leading digital music distribution, music rights management and artist development company in Africa, in January 2022. That March, it also acquired Qanawat Music, a leading distributor in the Middle East and North Africa.

Last year, WMG did two deals in India: It acquired a majority stake in Indian digital media company Divo and formed a joint venture with Sky Digital, which aggregates releases from Punjabi and Hindi labels.

While WMG has made acquisitions in other geographical regions, rival majors have bought companies serving the U.S. market for independents. “It would make sense for [WMG] to augment its distribution with an acquisition,” says a source familiar with the company’s strategy.