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National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) president/CEO David Israelite joined the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) to give his annual State of Music Publishing address on Wednesday (April 2) at Lawry’s in Beverly Hills. In his speech, Israelite discussed hot button issues for publishers, including Spotify bundling (“we are still at war”), AI concerns, PRO reform and more.
Israelite started by sharing the NMPA’s data on the revenue sources for songwriters and publishers. It found that songwriters and publishers earn 45% of revenue from streaming services, 11% from general licensing and live, 9% from traditional synchronization licensing, 8% from mass synch (licenses for UGC video platforms like YouTube), 8% from radio, 7% from TV, 4% from labels, 2% from social media, 1% from sheet music, and 1% from lyrics. The NMPA says that 75% of its income is regulated by either a compulsory license or a consent decree, while the remaining 25% is handled via free-market negotiation.

On the AI front, Israelite explained that the NMPA is actively watching and supporting pending legal action.

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“We have not filed our own lawsuit yet, but I can promise you that if there is a path forward with a productive lawsuit, we will be filing it,” he said. As far as trying to regulate AI through policy, Israelite added, “We’re doing everything that can be done.” The NMPA is participating in both a White House initiative and a Copyright Office initiative, but he added, “If you are waiting for the government to protect your rights and AI models, I think that is a very bad strategy.”

Instead, Israelite said that the “most emphasis” should be placed on forming business relationships with AI companies. “When that date comes [that AI companies are willing to come to the table to license music], I believe the most important principle is that the song is just as valuable, if not more, than the sound recording in the AI model,” he continued.

During the speech, Israelite said he had a recent conversation with “the CEO of one of the major AI companies” who told him that “by far, the song [as opposed to the sound recording] is the most important input into these models. I tell you this because I am fearful that as these models develop, if we do not protect our rights, we will find ourselves in a situation where we are not getting as much or more than the sound recording when it comes to revenue…that is a responsibility of this entire community to fight for that.”

Israelite added that his “number one problem when it comes to revenue is how we are treated with these bundled plans,” pointing to publishers’ ongoing issues with Spotify. Last year, Spotify added audiobooks into its premium tier offerings and began claiming those tiers as “bundles,” a term referring to a type of subscription that qualifies for a discounted rate for music. Spotify claimed that it now had to pay to license both books and music from the same subscription price and subsequently started paying songwriters and publishers about 40% less for music, according to the NMPA. At the time, Billboard estimated that this would lead to a $150 million reduction in payments to publishers in the next year, compared to what publishers would have been paid if the tiers had never been reclassified.

In January, news broke that Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify had forged a direct deal that gave UMG’s publishing arm improved terms, effectively minimizing the harm caused by the previous year’s bundling change. Shortly after, Warner Music Group (WMG) followed suit with its own direct deal with Spotify for improved publishing remuneration. “I know in this room in particular, there is a great concern about what those market deals mean for the whole industry,” Israelite says. “I want to be very clear about this. I believe those market deals are a good thing, but until everybody benefits from the same protections about how bundles are treated, we are still at war. Nothing has changed.”

Israelite added later that UMG and WMG’s direct deals could be cited as “evidence” to support the publishers’ position during the next Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) fight, which will determine the U.S. mechanical royalty rates for publishers in the future. The CRB proceedings begin again in 10 months, and Israelite estimates his organization will spend $36 million in the next trial to fight for the publishers’ position. While he often noted that “we shouldn’t be in this system in the first place” during his address, Israelite conceded that despite his calls for a legislative proposal that would give publishers and writers the right to pull out of the 100-year-old system of government-regulated price setting for royalties, the “brilliant idea” is “next to impossible to accomplish.”

Israelite went on to detail all the ways the NMPA and others are still fighting back against Spotify over the bundling debacle. He noted that the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) “is doing a fantastic job of continuing the fight” against Spotify, adding that its lawsuit, which was dismissed earlier this year by a judge who called the federal royalty rules “unambiguous,” has “been revived.” He added, “[It’s] our best chance of getting back what we lost.”

Elsewhere in his speech, Israelite told the crowd of independent publishers that the NMPA has now sent three rounds of takedown notices to Spotify for various podcast episodes, citing copyright infringement of its members’ songs, and that “over 11,000 podcasts have been removed from Spotify” as a consequence.

The recent calls for performing rights organization (PRO) reform are also top of mind for publishers in 2025. Last year, the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, requesting an examination of PROs, citing two areas of concern: the “proliferation” of new PROs and the lack of transparency about the distribution of general licensing revenue. This spurred the Copyright Office to take action, opening a notice of inquiry that allows industry stakeholders to submit comments, sharing their point of view about what, if anything, should be reformed at American PROs. However, some fear that the notice of inquiry could lead to increased regulation at the PROs, further constraining publishing income.

Israelite addressed this by giving publishers a preview of the NMPA’s forthcoming comments. “I will tell you today exactly what our comments are going to say,” he said. “It is very simple. Music publishers and songwriters are already over-regulated by the federal government. Congress should be focused on decreasing regulation of our industry, not increasing regulation of our industry, and to the extent that any of these issues are substantive issues. This should be dealt with between the PROs and their members. It has nothing to do with the Copyright Office. It has nothing to do with Congress. It has nothing to do with the federal government.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amazon has put in a bid to purchase TikTok, a Trump administration official said Wednesday, in an eleventh-hour pitch as a U.S. ban on the platform is set to go into effect Saturday.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Amazon offer was made in a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

The New York Times first reported on the bid.

President Donald Trump on Inauguration Day gave the platform a reprieve, barreling past a law that had been upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court, which said the ban was necessary for national security.

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Under the law, TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance is required to sell the platform to an approved buyer or take it offline in the United States. Trump has suggested he could further extend the pause on the ban, but he has also said he expects a deal to be forged by Saturday.

Amazon declined to comment. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The existence of an Amazon bid surfaced as Trump was scheduled on Wednesday to meet with senior officials to discuss the coming deadline for a TikTok sale.

Although it’s unclear if ByteDance plans to sell TikTok, several possible bidders have come forward in the past few months. Among the possible investors are the software company Oracle and the investment firm Blackstone. Oracle announced in 2020 that it had a 12.5% stake in TikTok Global after securing its business as the app’s cloud technology provider.

In January, the artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI presented ByteDance with a merger proposal that would combine Perplexity’s business with TikTok’s U.S. operation. Last month, the company outlined its approach to rebuilding TikTok in a blog post, arguing that it is “singularly positioned to rebuild the TikTok algorithm without creating a monopoly.”

“Any acquisition by a consortium of investors could in effect keep ByteDance in control of the algorithm, while any acquisition by a competitor would likely create a monopoly in the short form video and information space,” Perplexity said in its post.

The company said it would remake the TikTok algorithm and ensure that infrastructure would be developed and maintained in “American data centers with American oversight, ensuring alignment with domestic privacy standards and regulations.”

Other potential bidders include a consortium organized by billionaire businessman Frank McCourt, which recently recruited Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as a strategic adviser. Investors in the consortium say they’ve offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash for TikTok’s U.S. platform. Jesse Tinsley, the founder of the payroll firm Employer.com, says he too has organized a consortium and is offering ByteDance more than $30 billion for the platform. Wyoming small business owner Reid Rasner has also announced that he offered ByteDance roughly $47.5 billion.

Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share user data — such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers — with China’s authoritarian government. TikTok said it has never done that and would not do so if asked. The U.S. government has not provided evidence of that happening.

Trump has millions of followers on TikTok and has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters.

During his first term, he took a more skeptical view of TikTok and issued executive orders banning dealings with ByteDance as well as the owners of the Chinese messaging app WeChat.

This story was originally published by The Associated Press.

SOCAN, Canada’s largest member-owned music rights organization, turns 100 this year. It’s celebrating with a major milestone — but also issuing a warning to the Canadian music industry.
The organization has reported a record-high half-billion dollars in total royalty distributions to music creators and publishers.

Today (April 2), SOCAN released its 2024 Annual Report, which shows a total of $512.4-million in distributed royalty payments. SOCAN revenue also grew to $559.4-million in 2024, a 7% increase over 2023. SOCAN currently has nearly 200,000 songwriter, composer, and music publisher members.

SOCAN’s record royalty distributions were 17.5% higher than 2023. That includes royalties paid to music creators and publishers derived from data matched to revenue received in 2023 and beginning of 2024.

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That would seem to be unqualified good news, but in a statement, SOCAN called the results “bittersweet for the member-owned, not-for-profit.” That’s because SOCAN data shows less than 10% of music consumed online in Canada was written or composed by Canadians.

“Never in history has consuming Canadian meant more to our nation,” SOCAN writes. “As SOCAN celebrates 100 years, the organization urges Canadians to support homegrown talent. The music that Canadian songwriters and composers create is important to Canada’s local economy, our culture, our storytelling, and our global identity.”

SOCAN CEO Jennifer Brown (one of Billboard Canada‘s 2024 Power Players) drives home the “support local” message.

“Canadians are increasingly choosing local products and services, driving the success of Canadian businesses and entrepreneurs. It’s important to show the same support for our songwriters and composers — not just today, but always,” she says. “Canadian music fans, businesses and government, alongside the international music companies choosing to grow their business in Canada, all play a role in showcasing music as part of Canada’s cultural identity.”

Clearly, the performing rights org is hopeful that the current surge in patriotic Canadian pride in the face of a trade war with and threats of annexation from the U.S. may have an impact on the way we all use and consume music.

The report features other data, including an increase in revenue from music uses that took place in Canada by $18.1-million to a high of $421.6-million. The increase is led by revenue from digital sources totaling $208.7-million, a 10.8% year-over-year increase, and General Licensing and Concerts increasing 15%. Revenue from music uses in international territories, meanwhile, increased an impressive 14.9% to $137.8-million, a testament to the talent and success of Canadian music creators on the global stage.

SOCAN also boasts a new software platform to be be complete in 2025, improved distribution processing times, an educational SOCAN Academy initiative, and development and networking programs. “Even with these essential enhanced efforts, SOCAN was able to maintain their expense-to-revenue ratio at 12%” the report says.

SOCAN’s Annual and General meeting is scheduled for May 21, in Toronto.

This story was originally published by Billboard Canada.

A federal judge says President Donald Trump must face a copyright lawsuit filed by the estate of Isaac Hayes over the president’s alleged use of the 1966 song “Hold On, I’m Coming” on the campaign trail. In a ruling issued Wednesday (April 2), court records show that Judge Thomas Thrash Jr. denied a motion by […]

A federal judge says Drake can move forward with discovery in his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” allowing his attorneys to begin demanding documents like Lamar’s record deal.
UMG had asked Judge Jeannette A. Vargas to halt the discovery process last month, arguing that Drake’s case was so flawed that it would likely be quickly dismissed — and that the star was unfairly demanding “highly commercially sensitive documents” in the meantime.

But at a hearing Wednesday (April 2) in Manhattan federal court, the judge denied that motion in a ruling from the bench. The judge had hinted in earlier rulings that she does not typically delay discovery before deciding if a case will be dismissed, barring extraordinary circumstances.

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In response to the ruling, Drake’s lead attorney Michael Gottlieb said: “Now it’s time to see what UMG was so desperately trying to hide.” An attorney for UMG declined to comment, and a spokesman for the company did not immediately return a request for comment.

Lamar released “Not Like Us” last May amid a high-profile beef with Drake that saw the two stars release a series of bruising diss tracks. The song, a knockout punch that blasted Drake as a “certified pedophile” over an infectious beat, eventually became a chart-topping hit in its own right and was the centerpiece of Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show.

In January, Drake took the unusual step of suing UMG over the song, claiming his label had defamed him by boosting the track’s popularity. The lawsuit, which doesn’t name Lamar himself as a defendant, alleges that UMG “waged a campaign” against its own artist to spread a “malicious narrative” about pedophilia that it knew to be false.

UMG filed a scathing motion seeking to dismiss the case last month, arguing not only that it was “meritless” but also ridiculing Drake for suing in the first place. Days later, the company asked Judge Vargas to pause discovery until she ruled on that motion, warning that exchanging evidence would be a waste of time if the case was then immediately tossed out of court.

But in a quick response, Drake’s lawyers argued discovery must go on because the lawsuit was not going anywhere: “UMG completely ignores the complaint’s allegations that millions of people, all over the world, did understand the defamatory material as a factual assertion that plaintiff is a pedophile.”

Following Wednesday’s decision, Drake’s attorneys will now continue to push ahead with seeking key documents and demanding to depose witnesses. That process will continue unless the judge grants UMG’s motion in the months ahead and dismisses the lawsuit.

In the earlier filings in the case, UMG attached the actual discovery requests filed by Drake’s team, detailing the materials his attorneys are seeking.

Among many others, they want documents relating to decisions on “whether to omit or censor any lyrics” from “Not Like Us” during the Super Bowl halftime show; anything related to the promotion of the song on Spotify and Apple Music; and any communications with the Recording Academy ahead of Lamar’s string of award wins at the Grammy Awards in February; and “all contracts and agreements between you and Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, his agents, or anyone working on his behalf.”

Country music label Monument Records, home to artists including Walker Hayes and Tigirlily Gold, is folding, with some aspects of the label to be overseen by Sony Music Nashville, Billboard can confirm. No reason was given for the label’s shuttering. Country Aircheck first reported the news. Sony Music songwriter/producer Shane McAnally and manager Jason Owen […]

While some recent industry statistics show a slowdown in the U.S. streaming market, spending remains quite healthy, according to new figures from market research firm MusicWatch.
Most notably, 50 million more Americans bought recorded music in 2024 than a decade earlier. Products included in that count are on-demand music subscriptions, paid internet radio subscriptions, physical formats such as CDs and LPs, and digital downloads. Some of that increase can be attributed to population growth over the last 10 years. The total U.S. population — including people under 13 and non-internet users who are typically not counted in market research surveys — grew by roughly 19 million over that period. But since the number of music buyers far outstripped population growth, most of the growth came from an increased interest in music products.

By MusicWatch’s estimate, about half of all Americans aged 13 to 70 — 132 million people — paid for a music subscription in 2024, including on-demand music streaming and satellite radio. Recently released RIAA figures put the subscription count at 100 million, which is an average for 2024 (meaning the subscriber count at the end of the year was higher than 100 million). Satellite radio company SiriusXM finished 2024 with 31.6 million self-pay subscribers, according to its latest financial results.

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Not only are more Americans spending money on music, they’re spending more — even after adjusting for inflation. Americans spent $112 per capita on recorded music in 2024, up nearly 10% from $102 in 2023, according to MusicWatch. Back in 2014, per-capita spending was approximately $80, which is about $91 when adjusted for inflation. Taking inflation into account, per-capita spending increased approximately 32% over the past decade.

Live music spending fared even better than recorded music, jumping 17% to $281. Ticket inflation explains some of that increase, but not all — the percentage of people who bought a ticket rose to 56% from 51% in 2023. What’s more, spending on music merchandise such as T-shirts rose 45%.

Over the last decade, streaming turned U.S. recorded music revenue growth positive after an approximately 15-year downslide caused by digital piracy and a shift to selling single-track downloads rather than albums. Digital download sales have declined sharply over the past decade — from $2.3 billion in 2015 to $329 million in 2024, according to the RIAA — and piracy still exists despite the sharp rise in music buyers. MusicWatch found that 14 million Americans admitted to stream ripping music files in 2024. “Music piracy isn’t the scourge it was 20 years ago,” MusicWatch wrote, “but it’s still happening.”

Music piracy isn’t the only old habit that dies hard. While CD sales have fallen 61% over the last decade, 56 million Americans still listen to CDs in the car, and 48 million listen to digital downloads while driving. Both numbers are in decline, MusicWatch notes, “but nevertheless they represent a massive pool of listeners.”

SiriusXM wants a federal judge to dismiss a class action claiming the company earns billions by foisting a deceptive “royalty fee” on subscribers, arguing there’s “nothing misleading” about its pricing.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court last year, claims that SiriusXM adds a huge “U.S. Music Royalty Fee” onto the advertised price — an “invented” charge with a deceptive name designed to falsely make consumers think that it’s mandated by the government to pay for music rights.

But in a Monday response, attorneys for the satcaster argue that the company “prominently and repeatedly” discloses all fees that consumers face before they purchase their subscription, including a base price and “taxes and fees.”

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“There is nothing misleading about Sirius XM’s practices,” the company’s attorneys say. “Every piece of information which plaintiffs say Sirius XM attempted to ‘conceal’ is and has always been out in the open. Plaintiffs were told what they had to pay if they wanted their music plans, and they received what they paid for—as contemplated by every statement exchanged between Sirius XM and its customers.”

The case, filed in June by four aggrieved SiriusXM customers who say they want to represent millions of other subscribers, claims that the Royalty Fee amounts to 21.4% of the original price – netting the company a whopping $1.36 billion in 2023 alone. The accusers say the fee itself is not illegal, but that it needs to be clearly advertised and explained to potential buyers.

“This action challenges a deceptive pricing scheme whereby SiriusXM falsely advertises its music plans at lower prices than it actually charges,” attorneys for plaintiffs wrote at the time. “SiriusXM intentionally does not disclose the fee to its subscribers. SiriusXM even goes so far as to not mention the words ‘U.S. Music Royalty Fee’ in any of its advertising, including in the fine print.”

The name of the fee aims to make it sound important and official, the lawsuit claimed, but it’s really just a “disguised double charge for the music plan itself” that no other competing music services imposes on their users as an additional fee on top of the actual price.

“Reasonable consumers would expect that the advertised price for SiriusXM’s music plans would include the fundamental costs of obtaining the permissions necessary to provide the music content that SiriusXM has promised is included in those plans,” lawyers for the subscribers wrote in their complaint.

But in Monday’s response, Sirius said there was nothing misleading about the name of the fee, which they say “offsets royalties payable to holders of copyrights in sound records and holders of copyrights in musical compositions.”

“Sirius XM has done exactly what it said it would do: charge a monthly price for music subscriptions, plus ‘fees and taxes,’ for a prominently and repeatedly disclosed total price that is the sum of the two,” the company wrote. “And the fee Sirius XM charges is exactly what its name suggests: one to cover the royalty expenses.”

Attorneys for the plaintiffs will file a response in the weeks ahead, and then a judge will rule on SiriusXM’s motion at some point in the next few months. If denied, the case will proceed toward an eventual trial.

Julie Greenwald was in Los Angeles, on the set of the video shoot for Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga‘s “Die With a Smile,” when she found out her life was about to look very different. “All of a sudden, I get told, ‘Hey, we’re gonna change your role,’” she recalled. “It was wild. I’ve been on this run for 35 years. But listen: shit happens. And there’s a lot of stuff that’s not in your control, especially when you work for someone else.”
Greenwald was one of several high-ranking veterans who exited Atlantic Music Group last year during a broader restructuring at both Atlantic and its parent company, Warner Music Group. She spoke about the experience briefly Tuesday night (April 1) during a conversation with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute, where she is serving as the program’s Executive In Residence this month.

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The post-Atlantic period has “been a huge pivot for me,” Greenwald said. “I went out on a high in terms of setting up my records. But there’s nothing more brutal than, all of a sudden, the consolidation.”

The talk at the Clive Davis Institute marked some of Greenwald’s first comments since splitting from her old gig, and a rare chance to see a music industry luminary speak off the cuff — about Atlantic’s decision to drop Chappell Roan in 2020, her frustration with data-driven A&R, and the challenge of working with young artist managers who rarely understand the music business. 

Lowe steered the conversation to Roan almost by accident; he appeared not to know that Atlantic had initially signed the star back in 2015. The singer released her debut EP through the label in 2017, and followed it with “Pink Pony Club” in April 2020, just as COVID-19 was tearing through the U.S. “The pandemic was the craziest time to be running a record company,” Greenwald said. 

Labels were forced to try to sign artists over Zoom, which she called “disgusting” — “I never signed an act [before] if we didn’t break bread.” And amid fears that Covid-19 would have a lasting negative impact on the labels’ bottom line, Greenwald was instructed to “trim down the record company.”

Although she needed to cut costs, she was reluctant to fire staff during the pandemic. Instead, she went to her A&R department with a question: “Are there [artists] that we no longer should be in business with?” “Let’s make some tough decisions,” she remembered saying. “Because I always believed that if we couldn’t stand and believe in and back you 1,000%, we shouldn’t hold people just to hold people.” 

“Pink Pony Club” wasn’t taking off at the time, and Roan was among the acts that Atlantic dropped. She was subsequently picked up by Island Records and became one of the breakout stars of 2024, winning best new artist at the Grammy Awards in February. (This trajectory is more common than labels would like: Mars, for example, was dropped by Motown before he signed to Atlantic.)

What Greenwald called the “stand and believe” impulse has largely vanished from the major labels. “The last two years of my Atlantic run, I kept yelling at my A&R staff,” she said cheerfully. She described them as “under siege by data …  Everybody wants to hedge,” Greenwald added. “Nobody wants to just find something with one stream that’s brand spanking new and say, ‘I believe this is going to be somebody amazing.’”

She contrasted this approach with the behavior of young managers. Even though — or perhaps because — most of them have next to no experience in the music industry, Greenwald said, they find artists they like, long before their listening data is showing signs of exponential growth. Then they do something daring: “Call them up and say, ‘I believe.’” 

By the time those managers are across the table from Greenwald, their risky bet is about to pay off. “I’m sitting in a room talking to somebody who has no experience, and they’re going to decide whether or not this artist signs [to] Atlantic or RCA,” she continued. “I’m looking at my A&R people going, ‘How did this woman who was a telemarketer from Kentucky get to that act before you?’”

While Greenwald admired managers’ willingness to throw caution to the winds and commit fully to artists they love, she was less enamored with some of the management contracts she saw young acts signing. “I had to clean up a million contracts for some of my artists,” she said. “I was just paying advances to managers to get them out of these artists’ lives with the artists’ future money.” 

“It’s easy to say the label is the big bad guy,” she added later. “I always used to say, when I write my book, it’s going to be [called] ‘Why managers messed up the industry.’”

Major labels currently face a tough climate. That’s not because of TikTok’s outsized role in music discovery, or the threat of artificial intelligence, according to Greenwald. “People are not growing up anymore going, ‘I want to sign to Atlantic or Def Jam or Columbia or Interscope,’” she explained, hitting her palm for emphasis. “People are saying, ‘I want to make this shit on my own and I want to be independent.’” 

Now that Greenwald has some free time — a first after more than three decades in the music business — she has been asking herself, “What kind of company do I want to build now?” 

“To cut through and have a career, I think it’s about collaboration and having the right team,” she added. “Do you need 500 million people to do it? Not anymore.”

Tim Pithouse has been named general manager at Def Jam Recordings. Most recently president of the international management and entertainment company Three Six Zero, Pithouse will oversee the venerable label and its diverse roster.
In announcing Pithouse’s appointment, Def Jam chairman/CEO Tunji Balogun stated in the news release, “I’ve known Tim Pithouse for almost a decade, going back to our days at Sony Music where we worked closely together to develop and break several new artists. Not only is Tim a world-class executive, he’s also the rare person in our business who understands how culture moves and always has his finger on the pulse of what’s next. His breadth of knowledge and instinctive ability to interact with artists and their teams will be integral in helping to carry out our overall vision for the label. I’m thrilled to welcome Tim to the family at Def Jam.”

Currently based at Def Jam’s New York headquarters, Pithouse said, “Def Jam has long stood at the creative intersection of artistry, success and culture. Having the opportunity to be part of this dynamic team and again work with Tunji Balogun and his unrivalled style and taste is a privilege. I’m thrilled to be here and honored to help write the next chapter of this iconic label.”

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During his two-year tenure as president at Three Six Zero, U.K.-born Pithouse supervised various departments including management and representation, recordings and publishing, film, television and recording studios. He also assisted in launching global campaigns for artists such as Calvin Harris, WILLOW, FKA Twigs, Skepta and Kid Cudi, among others.

Before joining Three Six Zero, Pithouse created The Orchard’s global artist & label services division. In addition to signing Baby Keem, Tems, Daniel Caesar and Jack White there, Pithouse established stragegic partnerships with Human Re Sources, Nvak and Terrible Records.

Prior to that, Pithouse spent 12 yeas at Sony Music Entertainment. Based in Sydney, Australia, he held several posts including account manager and general manager, marketing & artist development. Pithouse is also an active advisor for the Metallic Creative Agency and the Creative Futures Collective charity.