Business News
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Live Nation, Sphere Entertainment Co. and CTS Eventim were the top three music stocks this week amidst news that consumers continue to spend despite nagging inflation and a resumption of U.S. student loan payments for millions of borrowers. Live Nation shares rose 6% to $88.00, narrowly beating Sphere Entertainment’s 5.9% gain to $39.35. German promoter and ticketing company CTS Eventim jumped 4.7% to 56.40 euros ($59.79).
Despite some economic warning signs, consumers continue to spend on experiences such as concerts, travel and luxury goods. Americans spent 5.8% more in August than in the prior-year period, according to the National Retail Federation. Many consumers are now facing the resumption of monthly student loan payments after a long grace period caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — it was one factor in retail giant Target cutting its profit forecasts in August. Gas prices are on the rise in much of the United States. Still, concert ticket sales are booming and airlines reported strong revenue this summer. More encouraging news came from Friday’s U.S. jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Non-farm employment rose by 336,000 and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.8%.
It was a big week for Sphere Entertainment as its shares climbed 11.1% on Monday following U2’s opening weekend at Sphere in Las Vegas. The rave reviews and mind-blowing videos pushed Sphere Entertainment’s stock price as high as $43.59, up 17.3%, before falling 5% to $39.23 at the end of the trading day. Sphere Entertainment didn’t maintain the momentum, however, and dropped 5% from Tuesday to Friday. Still, Sphere’s opening provided a boost to the company and validated Sphere Entertainment CEO James Dolan’s vision to create a new category of venue built specifically for music. Now, investors will likely consider how many other artists have the necessarily large and fervent fan bases to book Sphere residencies and build productions worthy of Dolan’s $2.3 billion gamble.
The 21-stock Billboard Global Music Index improved 2.1% to 1,373.62 as 12 stocks finished the week in positive territory. The index’s four live music companies had an average gain of 4.3%. Six streaming companies had an average gain of 1.6% while eight companies in recorded music and publishing dropped an average of 0.9% and three radio companies fell an average of 7.6%.
Music outperformed many indexes as stocks had a mixed week. In the United States, the S&P 500 improved 0.8% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite improved 1.8%. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 fell 1.5%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index fell 2.3%.
Another of the index’s more prominent components, Warner Music Group (WMG), rose 4.5% to $32.80, the fourth-largest gain of the week. WMG closed its year-to-date deficit to 6.3% after gaining 2.8% on Friday and pushing its market capitalization to nearly $17 billion. Universal Music Group improved less than 0.1%. Two K-pop companies, HYBE and SM Entertainment, fell 3.8% and 1.9%, respectively.
Spotify, a major player on the index with a $31.3 billion market capitalization, improved 3.5% to $160.07 and took its year-to-date gain to 102.7%. Spotify announced on Wednesday that it’s giving subscribers in the United Kingdom and Australia up to 15 hours of audiobook streaming time per month; the allotment will roll out to U.S. subscribers later this year. Audiobooks are an integral part of Spotify’s plans to become a one-stop audio destination. The news wasn’t cause for concern that Spotify will incur a previously undisclosed expense from this streaming allotment. Guggenheim analysts wrote in a report on Tuesday that they don’t expect audiobook streaming to add to expenses and that Spotify likely built those costs into its latest guidance (which is 26% gross margin and a $45 million operating loss in the third quarter).
Three radio companies were among the four worst-performing music stocks of the week. iHeartMedia shares fell 14.2% to $2.71, bringing the year-to-date loss to 55.8%. Cumulus Media shares dropped 4.5% and SiriusXM shares fell 4.0%. The other notable decline of the week came from Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which fell a further 7.1% to 0.745 GBP ($0.91) in the wake of its Sept. 14 announcement that it will sell $465 million in catalog assets to help lift its struggling share price.
For as much as has been said and written about Taylor Swift in recent years, there’s a chance people have been underestimating the 33-year-old musician’s unique place in the business world.
Swift’s prowess as a recording artist and songwriter is well known. As the most popular artist in the United States across several consumption metrics, she has 11.7 million equivalent album units this year through Sept. 21 — about 70% more than the No. 2 artist, Morgan Wallen, according to Luminate. (EAUs convert streams and track sales into album units.) Swift also has the highest album sales, physical album sales, digital album sales, digital track sales, on-demand audio streams and airplay spins so far in 2023.
But in recent weeks, Swift’s status as super-celebrity became more apparent when she single-handedly brought a legion of young females into the professional football fold. Her attendance at two Kansas City Chiefs games, her undefined relationship with Chiefs player Travis Kelce and frequent pictures of her watching and celebrating from a luxury box above the playing field have done for the NFL what no amount of corporate-led marketing has been able to achieve. TV ratings for the Oct. 1 game between the Chiefs and New York Jets averaged 27 million viewers, the second-highest number for Sunday Night Football this season. More impressively, viewing among girls 12 to 17 was 53% higher than the season’s first three Sunday Night Football broadcasts. Women 18 to 24 were up 24%. Women over 35 were up 34%.
The Taylor Swift Effect created large ripples beyond TV ratings. Sales of Kelce’s Kansas City jersey spiked nearly 400% in the days following the Sept. 24 game Swift attended against the Chicago Bears. Secondary market prices for tickets to the Chiefs’ Oct. 1 game in New Jersey against the New York Jets rose 43%. U.S. Google searches for Travis Kelce jumped more than 14 times from Sept. 23 to Sept. 25 and remain more than three times greater than search traffic before the Sept. 24th game, according to Google Trends. Search traffic for the Kansas City Chiefs rose 13-fold over that three-day span.
That ability to cross over to older generations separates Swift from other Gen Z idols. “She’s the equivalent of a four-quadrant movie,” says Brad Gelfond, a former brand partnership executive at Warner Records. That’s a Hollywood term for a movie with broad appeal that attracts four demographic “quadrants” of an audience: females under 25, males under 25, females over 25 and males over 25. Swift’s place in mainstream pop culture reached a new level in 2022 when demand for tickets to The Eras Tour pre-sale effectively broke Ticketmaster’s platform. That led to a Senate hearing on Jan. 24, during which lawmakers such as 63-year-old Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and 77-year-old Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) quoted her song lyrics, as well as a plethora of proposed Swift-themed legislation that followed.
Few artists have a similarly broad-reaching appeal. One current artist with cross-generational pull is Beyoncé, but even that comparison is limited, says Ash Stahl, CEO of Flighthouse Media, a digital media producer targeting Gen Z. While Beyoncé is pop royalty, Swift is more relatable. “I would never expect to see Beyonce on screen at an NFL game chest bumping the guy next to her,” she says. That kind of appeal is rare in Hollywood, too. “She’s up there with The Rock,” says Gelfond. That would be Dwayne Johnson, the professional wrestler-turned-actor who transformed from reliable box office draw to media mini-mogul. Johnson is co-owner of a film and TV company, Seven Bucks Productions (Skyscraper, Jungle Cruise, Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), as well as co-owner of the XFL professional football league.
Among Gen Z, Swift has a sway and longevity that surpasses social media stars popular with the demographic. TikTok star Charli D’Amelio comes close, but her popularity was short-lived, says Stahl. Meanwhile, Vine and YouTube star David Dobrik “didn’t keep his hands clean,” his career tarnished following multiple accusations of sexual assault, bullying, professional negligence and cultural insensitivity against him and his collaborators. Being brand-safe is an important factor in keeping and attracting fans.
YouTuber Mr. Beast is popular among young men but lacks a female fan base, adds Stahl. “‘Mr. Beast, hold my beer,’ said Taylor Swift,” jokes Marcie Allen of MAC Consulting, who has decades of experience working with artists and brands. Aside from attracting fans from different generations, what separates Swift from Gen Z’s online stars is her ability to sell out stadiums. While live-streamer Kai Cenat is facing charges of inciting a riot in New York with a PlayStation 5 giveaway gone awry, Swift’s current tour could surpass $1 billion in ticket sales. What’s more, Swift’s tour could generate $4.6 billion in economic impact for local economies, according to research company QuestionPro. Swift versus these other Gen Z celebrities simply isn’t a close comparison.
With unrivaled popularity and cultural cachet, one must wonder what Swift is doing — or could possibly do — between album and tour cycles. “She’s positioned to be the Reese Witherspoon of music,” says Allen. Witherspoon, an actress known for such movies as Legally Blonde and Walk the Line, founded a production company, Hello Sunshine, in 2016, to give females a greater voice in Hollywood. Hello Sunshine’s predecessor, Pacific Standard, produced the film Gone Girl as well as Wild, in which Witherspoon played the starring role. It wasn’t long before the smart money caught on to Witherspoon’s desire to build a female-first media company. Candle Media, backed by investment titan Blackstone and co-founded by two former Disney executives, acquired a stake in Hello Sunshine for $900 million in 2021.
Could Swift follow Witherspoon and Johnson into building a media fortune? A clue comes from growing demand for the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie. Set to open Oct. 13, it has advance ticket sales of $100 million a week before debuting in more than 8,500 theaters worldwide and is expected to top the U.S. box office. Swift is a producer of the Sam Wrench-directed film and cut a direct deal with AMC to distribute it.
Swift may be outgrowing the typical ways an artist makes money — touring, recording, writing songs, promoting products and the like. And she has proven to have a clear head for business, perhaps most notably by re-recording her Big Machine-era catalog while withholding synch opportunities for the recordings sold to Ithaca Holdings in 2019 and then to Shamrock Holdings in 2020. The move has earned her tens of millions of dollars, if not more, while padding the release schedule between new albums with fresh batches of songs and creating new moments built off the nostalgia and goodwill she’s built up. It’s all evidence that Swift doesn’t mind taking risks if she’ll reap the rewards and that she has enough brand loyalty to pull off something big. “Taylor is so far past doing a brand partnership deal,” says Allen. “She can build her own brand.”
If it’s Friday that means another spin around the Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across the music industry.
Warner Music Finland‘s front office is getting a new look. Managing director Niko Nordström and head of A&R Asko Kallonen, who arrived at WMF in 2007 after Warner Music acquired their Helsinski Music Company label, are both headed for the ovi. Taking over later this year in the MD role will be current general manager Ramona Forsström, who has clocked 15-plus years at the imprint. In Kallonen’s old office in the A&R department will be veteran producer Jukka Immonen, who starts on New Year’s Day and brings with him the artist roster of his Fried Music label (which WMG has additionally acquired via undisclosed terms). Kallonen, meanwhile, will continue to serve as an A&R consultant for Immonen and his team after he passes the mic. The Warner Music Finland roster includes Antti Tuisku, Arttu Wiskari, BEHM, Ellinoora, Kaija Koo and SANNI, among others. Immonen will report to Forsström, who will report to Warner Music Nordics president Mark Fry. Calling Forsström a “huge talent whose counsel I value and who delivers time and again for our artists and our business,” Fry added that “her fresh leadership perspective will help us grow our roster and our artists’ careers.”
SoundExchange appointed Peter Karafotas as senior vp of government relations and public policy. Based in Washington, D.C., he will report directly to the organization’s president and CEO Michael Huppe. Karafotas arrives from Capitol Hill, where he recently served as chief of staff to Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-RI) until his resignation earlier this year to run a nonprofit. In his new role, Karafotas will lead on global public policy issues affecting music creators. He replaces Linda Bloss-Baum, who left over the summer for a full-time teaching gig at American University. Said Huppe: “I am thrilled to have someone with Peter’s expertise at the helm of our Government Relations & Public Policy department at a time when SoundExchange is amplifying our legislative efforts to ensure creators are paid fairly.”
Evan Bogart‘s music rights, label and publishing company Seeker Music hired Dan Stuart as general counsel. Stuart previously completed a five-year run as senior vp of business affairs at AWAL, during which AWAL’s U.S. clientele enjoyed significant growth and AWAL was acquired by Sony Music. Prior to that, Stuart worked for five years as a partner at King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano, and worked for 15 years as an attorney at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Stuart’s career also includes time well spent as a music journalist, a DJ-in-residence, and in radio. “What I’ve known about Dan since the day I met him” about 20 years ago “is how smart, dedicated, passionate, authentic, and well-respected he is,” said Bogart. “He is one of the best in the business, and in my view it’s because he’s not just a lawyer, he’s an OG music guy who really cares about music and music creators.” –Jessica Nicholson
Kobalt promoted Kat Basolo to senior vp of creative synch. The Los Angeles-based exec was most recently vp of creative synch and in the past year helped score a number synch opportunities for Kobalt artists with several major brands, TV shows and films. Prior to joining Kobalt in 2014, she worked at Sony Music Entertainment for 10 years. Global head of synch Rob Christensen credited Basolo with “procuring thousands of synch opportunities” for clients during her tenure. “But more than any stat,” he added, “she has excellent relationships with so many of the world’s top music supervisors because she works hard to understand their needs and then delivers time and time again.”
Dreamcatcher vp of promotion Jim Dandy announced his departure from the company for a new opportunity at New Revolution Entertainment . Following the recent departures of national director of promotion Kellie LaJack, West Coast regional Rick Young, Midwest regional Charlie Dean and promotion manager Annie Brooks, the label is operating without a promotion staff. Dreamcatcher partner Jim Mazza said the situation is temporary, explaining that the promotion team is independently contracted and was let go with no current singles at radio. The label intends to re-form a promotion staff when its lone artist, Tenille Arts, releases her next single in early 2024. Under the circumstances, Mitch Rosell, who signed with the label in August, asked for — and received — his release from his contract. –Tom Roland
Amanda Rae Kopp is promoted to chief product officer at JKBX, a start-up offering investors fractional shares in hit songs. Kopp will be responsible for refining product strategies and driving innovation at the emerging platform. Prior to JKBX, which officially launched Sept. 12, Kopp was a global product leader at Warner Music Group.
Fantasy Records appointed Lindsay Brandt as vp of marketing and creative. In the newly-created position, Brandt will serve as in-house creative director and head of marketing, focusing on content development and digital strategy. Previously, Brandt served as senior director of creative & digital at Activist Artists Management, working with artists including The Lumineers and Bob Weir. Brandt said in a statement, “My vinyl collection boasts numerous albums with the iconic Fantasy Records logo. I’m humbled to join a team that holds music in such high regard and delighted to tell the story of these profound artists.” –JN
FlyteVu, the full-service marketing agency founded in 2015 by former Warner Music Nashville senior vp Jeremy Holley and ex-CAA agent Laura Hutfless, made several promotions and hires of late. Sina Seger, on staff since 2017, is the firm’s very first general manager — and will oversee day-to-day operations. Elsewhere, Nicole Ranieri has been promoted from account director to head of accounts, and industry veteran Ally Venable joins the team as head of talent. Venable joins from Mandolin Entertainment, a boutique artist and brand management firm. In the past 12 months, FlyteVu has launched two new sister agencies: FV Incubator, handling marketing for start-ups, and FV3, focused on brands and Web3. “Over the past eight years, FlyteVu has built a solid reputation for innovation, excellence, and generosity in the industry,” said Hutfless. “Sina and our Leadership Team have played instrumental roles in our growth and success. We are thrilled to enter FlyteVu’s next chapter as we continue to innovate, disrupt and propel our clients forward.”
Shore Fire Media elevated Haley Griffin and Henry Thomas to junior account executives. Both joined the leading PR firm a mere year ago as interns and were promoted to publicity assistants late in the year. Griffin is a Berklee College of Music graduate, while Thomas is a Skidmore College grad. “In just over a year, Haley and Henry have displayed their talent, commitment, and growth,” said senior vp Rebecca Shapiro. “We’re excited to recognize their contributions and confident that they will shine in their new roles.”
Kobalt promoted Kat Basolo to senior vp of creative synch. The Los Angeles-based exec was most recently vp of creative synch and in the past year helped score a number synch opportunities for Kobalt artists with several major brands, TV shows and films. Prior to joining Kobalt in 2014, she worked at Sony Music Entertainment for 10 years. Global head of synch Rob Christensen credited Basolo with “procuring thousands of synch opportunities” for clients during her tenure. “But more than any stat,” he added, “she has excellent relationships with so many of the world’s top music supervisors because she works hard to understand their needs and then delivers time and time again.”
ICYMI: Warner Music‘s chief digital officer Oana Ruxandra announced she’s leaving the label … Anthem made it official with Jason Klein and Sal Fazzari … and Kenny MacPherson was placed on leave from his job at Hipgnosis Songs Fund, following the filing of a lawsuit claiming he sexually assaulted a staffer in 2005 while he ran another company.
Melanie Johnson is named chief commercial officer at Audoo, the music tech company looking to shake up the royalty reporting system for musicians. Based in London and reporting to CEO Ryan Edwards, Johnson is tasked with overseeing the continued global expansion of the company’s proprietary platform Audoo Audio Meter. She arrives with a packed CV that includes lengthy tenures at Facebook, Sony Music Publishing and EMI Music Publishing. Most recently, Johnson served as vp of partnerships at Utopia Music. “Mel’s stellar professional and personal reputation precedes her,” Edwards correctly notes. “Adding her expertise to Audoo as we mark a milestone five years in business, we move closer to our goal of being the partner of choice for PROs and CMOs, and continue on the mission of revolutionising the public performance royalties space worldwide.”
Reactional Music, the maker of an interactive music engine for video games, hired Spotify veteran Jacob Deshayes as chief operating officer. In his new role, Deshayes will oversee Reactional’s platform and manage partnerships, technical programs and strategy. “In joining Reactional Music I am thrilled to have the opportunity to apply my experience on three of my foremost passions – music, tech and video games – as we unlock groundbreaking tools for a new innovative form of music creation, as well as ways for the world of gamers to personalize their musical experience,” he said. Additionally, Reactional selected one of its founders, former Take Two Interactive CEO Kelly Sumner, as board chairman.
Croshal Entertainment Group, the artist management and label service firm founded by longtime Sony Music and Maverick executive Fred Croshal, made a pair of key promotions. Jimmy Brunetti, previously vp of label services, has been elevated to executive vp of business development and project management. Kirbie Croshal, most recently director of social media and project management, is now senior vp of marketing and digital strategies. Brunetti and Croshal have logged 15 and 17 years at CEG, respectively.
Last Week’s Turntable: Glass Ceiling Breaker Departed Sony
Beatport has announced the recipients of its second annual diversity and parity grants. Awards totaling $150,000 will be given to the organizations Change the Beat, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, ONE OFF TRAKS, Other Village People, Saffron and We Are Moving the Needle.
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life works to empower young people from around the world via fundraising initiatives for grassroots projects. The organization will use the money to teach DJing and production to 32 young women over eight weeks in Leeds, U.K.
ONE OFF TRAKS, an Australian writing camp collaboration and platform for women, trans and non-binary artists, will use its grant to host and expand the writing camp in 2024.
Based in South Africa, Other Village People powers three queer-centered platforms. The organization will use its grant for its newest initiative Queertopia, a three-day festival celebrating South African contemporary queer nightlife culture and movements.
The U.K.’s Saffron works to foster equality in music tech by creating safe and inclusive spaces for people underrepresented in the space. The organization will use its grant to work with 20 Black creatives in the U.K. in endeavors such as community building, knowledge sharing and other educational opportunities.
We Are Moving the Need, based in the States, works to evolve the recording industry with the focus of gender equity and inclusivity. The platform will use its grant on its touring CTRL symposium, which aims to build community and evolve the recording industry via events in Los Angeles, Nashville and New York.
The fund, now in its second year, is awarding two kinds of grants: one that awards amounts between $3,000 to $15,000 to smaller organizations consisting of one to three staff members, and one awarding amounts between $15,001 and $30,000 to organizations with more than four staff members.
“The electronic music community is filled with vibrant groups of creative people who want to make our industry and world better,” Sofia Ilyas, Chief Community Officer of The Beatport Group, says in a statement. “The recipients of our second annual Diversity + Parity Fund exemplify the spirit of positive change, and it is our hope that their endeavors will resonate in powerful ways across our industry.”
Two groups of artist managers have come together to form The Circuit Group, a new entity that will create business opportunities around artists’ intellectual property. Founded by Dean and Jessica Wilson of Seven20 — whose clients include deadmau5 — along with Brett Fischer, David Gray and Harvey Tadman of AYITA — clients include Chris Lake […]
Multimedia Music has acquired the entire film and TV music catalog of composer Christopher Lennertz, known for his work on films including Horrible Bosses, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Sausage Party, Bad Moms and Baywatch and TV shows including The Boys, Lost in Space and Supernatural.
Lennertz is a multiple Emmy nominee and 20-time BMI Awards honoree who was recently named a BMI Icon at the organization’s 2023 Film, TV & Visual Media Awards in May.
“We are huge fans of Chris Lennertz’s work, he has created fantastic scores for so many successful films and TV series,” said Multimedia Music partner James Gibb in a statement. “We’re delighted to add his body of work to our catalog of wonderful film music by some of the best composers in the business.”
“When looking for the ideal place to entrust Christopher’s catalogue, we turned to Multimedia Music based on their great reputation and their great people,” added Lennertz’s agent, Richard Kraft of Kraft-Engel Management.
The deal is just the latest for Multimedia Music, led by Gibb and Phil Hope, which claims it’s spent a total of $150 million on acquisitions since it launched in late 2021. Previous deals include purchasing a 50% stake in a catalog of music publishing and master rights from the film music library of Amblin partners; the STX music library of master and publishing rights; the catalog of composer James Newton Howard; and the master and publishing rights to a 48-title film score catalog from Atlantic Screen Music.
Canada-based audio group Lenbrook acquired the assets of U.K. music technology company MQA nearly six months after MQA lost its founding financial backer and filed for administration. The purchase adds several patents as well as two audio codecs — MQA and SCL6 — to Lenbrook’s intellectual property portfolio. “We view this acquisition as an opportunity to ensure the technologies developed by the scientists and engineers at MQA continue to serve the industry’s interests rather than be confined to any single brand or company,” said Lenbrook CEO Gordon Simmonds in a statement. Lenbrook has retained a core group of MQA engineers and developers as well as sales and marketing staff including Andy Dowell, formerly the head of licensing at MQA, who will continue leading business development activities. A press release states that “MQA had amassed over 120 licensees [including Lenbrook] and several content partnerships, so Lenbrook’s primary objective in this acquisition was to provide certainty for business and technical developments that were underway prior to MQA’s administration.”
Universal Music Middle East & North Africa (MENA) partnered with Cairo-based Harb Talent Management on a deal that will see the two companies work together on talent discovery, development, music production, marketing and promo, live events and brand partnerships in Egypt. Under the agreement, Universal Music MENA announced three signings to its roster: Egyptian hip-hop artists Ahmed Santa, Slyver and Abu El Anwar. All three are expected to release music later this year and next.
Vassal Benford, CEO/chairman of the B.B. King estate, the B.B. King music company and the family trust, announced the launch of the B.B. King Life Legacy Initiative, which will encompass several new partnerships, retail products and brand concepts. The first project announced is a partnership with Heritage Distilling for an exclusive line of King-branded spirits. Also forthcoming are a new music project that will feature artists including Quavo, Jason Derulo and Swae Lee; a King theatrical biopic; a King documentary featuring a new single from Quavo; and a 24-hour B.B. King blues network.
Create Music Group struck a partnership with Black Lion, a music technology company behind a valuation engine that analyzes the performance and value of song catalogs to reduce the amount of time music companies spend evaluating potential acquisitions and signings. “This strategic partnership will significantly expand our ability to identify, research and make deals with rights holders all around the world,” said Create Music Group co-founder/chief business operator Wayne Hampton in a statement. “Black Lion’s cutting-edge technology will streamline our deal making process and enable us to generate increased revenue for Create and for all of our partners.”
India-based record label Saregama India acquired a 51.8% stake in youth-focused Indian digital content creator and publisher Pocket Aces, “with a clear path” to acquire an additional 41% in the next 15 months, according to a press release. “This acquisition will further strengthen Saregama’s strategic ambition to take [a] leadership position in New Music across all Indian languages,” the release continues. Pocket Aces boasts an intellectual property catalog of more than 3,000 pieces of content including web series and music videos on its channels — FilterCopy, Nutshell and Gobble — as well as a talent management arm with a roster of more than 100 digital influencers and a long-form studio called Dice Media. The release claims Pocket Aces has more than 95 million followers, “which Saregama will leverage to further popularize its music library among the 18-35 audience segment. It will also create synergies across the artiste & influencer management and long-format video creation businesses of the two companies.”
Every Thursday, labels deliver all their new releases to TikTok. This is typically a mundane process, but an essential one. Just as record companies want their new tracks playable on all the streaming services at midnight, they want them on TikTok — a crucial promotional venue and driver of music discovery, especially for younger listeners.
But on Sept. 22, things began to go wrong with what’s ordinarily a relatively seamless operation. Five executives — all affiliated with Sony Music or managers with artists in the Sony Music ecosystem — told Billboard that they encountered problems getting their music on TikTok. The issues varied, as did their duration: Some songs’ delivery was temporarily delayed; some never made it; some temporarily faced copyright takedowns even though they were legitimate major-label releases that didn’t infringe on the works of others.
Two sources were told by Sony Music that even Bad Bunny‘s new single “Un Preview” — distributed by The Orchard, which Sony owns — was initially available on all streaming services when it came out Sept. 25, but not on TikTok. (A rep for Bad Bunny did not respond to a request for comment.) It does not appear that the other major label groups experienced similar problems.
While TikTok is renowned for its technical abilities, especially its algorithm, no platform is impervious to mistakes; perhaps someone accidentally pressed the wrong button at headquarters. Funny as that sounds, a version of it has happened before: Back in 2019, major labels suddenly encountered problems delivering songs containing swear words to TikTok. When asked about the platform’s unexpected turn towards the puritanical, a representative said that “due to an internal error, we inadvertently restricted explicit tracks from TikTok globally.”
But last week’s hiccups on TikTok arose against a different backdrop. Sony Music was in the process of negotiating a new deal with the ByteDance-owned company, according to multiple sources. And Sony Music executives told at least two people that they believed sudden problems with getting music onto TikTok were linked to the ongoing negotiations.
Reps for both Sony Music and TikTok declined to comment.
This bizarre episode served as a discomfiting reminder of both TikTok’s power and the music industry’s uneasy relationship with the platform. TikTok often seems like it’s the only service capable of jumpstarting a hit — “the biggest game in town,” as one manager told Billboard last year. That means a label’s music has to be on there if it hopes for commercial success.
But TikTok is also notorious for its low payouts to rights holders. And this has created tension, leading some of music’s most powerful figures to demand better rates from the platform in public remarks.
In September 2022, Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge warned of a value gap “forming fast in the new iterations of short-form video.” “We will fight and determine how our artists get paid and when they get paid in the same way that we have done throughout the industry for many, many, many years,” Grainge added during a call with investors the following month.
Sony Music Group Chairman Rob Stringer echoed this sentiment during a call with investors in May. “Some of the short-form video providers are relatively new, but we are clearly monitoring their progress, and it doesn’t take a scientist to realize that we are being underpaid by some of those content providers,” he said. “As [our] negotiations go on, that will be our position until we are satisfied that we have been paid properly.”
Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl has been more measured in his public comments about TikTok. Warner announced a new multi-year licensing deal with TikTok this summer.
Nearly four years ago, when TikTok said it “inadvertently restricted explicit tracks,” the problem took a number of weeks to resolve. Labels first noticed that songs containing swears were having trouble at the end of August. It was October before a TikTok rep said the company was “finally able to notify labels of the full restoration of affected tracks.”
The various issues experienced by Sony Music affiliates in September were fixed far more quickly. No one was TikTok-less for even a full week.
Still, an executive says, the experience was unnerving — a reminder that his artists’ access to a platform with more than a billion monthly active users “can be cut off overnight.”
The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music launched a new Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) music industry degree this fall, it was announced Tuesday (Oct. 3).
Dubbed as the lone program of its kind in the University of California system, the new degree will prepare graduates for careers in artist and label management, publicity, finance, live-music promotion, digital marketing, music supervision, music publishing and licensing and more. The degree will also offer creative instruction in audio technology, musicianship, songwriting and production. Courses will be taught by new and longtime UCLA faculty as well as working industry professionals.
The B.A. program “builds on the success of the School of Music’s popular undergraduate minor,” according to a press release, which states that more than a quarter of the U.S.’s music industry job postings are in California while seven of the top 10 U.S. cities employing music professionals are located within 50 miles of the school’s Westwood campus. In addition to the fundamentals, the school will focus on such burgeoning topics as new global markets, streaming algorithms, generative artificial intelligence and musical activism.
“Our goal and responsibility is to empower a diverse community of exceptional students as nextgeneration transformational thinkers in the music industry,” said Eileen Strempel, inaugural dean of the Herb Alpert School of Music, in a statement. “The success of our previous programs built our credibility and infrastructure, while providing us the time to assemble a powerful 12-member advisoryboard chaired by Warner Records visionary Tom Corson to guide us in building this new major’s curriculum.”
“What sets UCLA’s offering apart from other music industry degree programs is the integration of direct skills engagement such as internships, apprenticeships, and student-led projects with the liberal arts curriculum of a major research institution,” added Robert Fink, founding chair of the school’s music industry degree program. He continued that students will be “challenged to take a critical view of the formative effects music industry and technology has had on musical practices around the world.”
Warner Records co-chairman/COO Tom Corson will serve as the inaugural chair of the dean’s board of advisors at the school.
“UCLA’s School of Music is closely affiliated with our industry and knows it well,” said Corson in a statement. “Every business needs people who have the passion and the training that this program will provide. We need future professionals who’ve seriously considered many aspects of the music industry — cultural impact, creative innovation, and operational reality — and bring a fresh, informed point of view to the business.”
Permanent faculty members at The Herb Alpert School of Music will include Thomas Hodgson, who specializes in data science, algorithmic justice and the global music business; Catherine Provenzano, who focuses on new technologies; and David MacFayden, a Soviet popular music authority who will bring his expertise to bear in instructing students on how to understand new models of music distribution and economic value. Students will also receive instruction from working professionals such as songwriter Amy Kuney (Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Akon), who also performs as gender-complex artist AMES; and Lauren Spalding, co-founder of Femme House, a nonprofit collective dedicated to forging new opportunities for women, gender-expansive, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ creatives.
Since its founding in 2018, The Herb Alpert School of Music has regularly appeared on Billboard‘s Top Music Business Schools list.
In 2020, amidst the pandemic, Nick Maiale started thinking about the music industry beyond titles and company affiliations. Having spent over a decade working in music, including at the Music Business Association and Music Biz Conference, he felt inspired to promote more than professional development — he wanted to advocate for personal growth, too.
Through his work, Maiale was consistently meeting impressive and driven young professionals, but a throughline started to emerge. “After listening to [so many] stories of working in the industry and feeling the limitations [of it], I asked myself ‘How can I help add value to these people’s lives?’…Our business is so fast-paced and revenue driven that we don’t always get the opportunity to step back and get to know people for who they are — and this leaves us placing strong emphasis on job titles, company affiliation and status,” he says. “The answer was clear: build a company that helps my community navigate the industry.”
By the end of 2020, Maiale had launched jump.global, a “community-first” company that manages music business executives. And come November, it will host its first annual summit in Los Angeles. “I started to think about this around the same time I thought about starting the company as a whole,” says Maiale, who serves as founder/CEO. “ I thought it would take place somewhere like Wyoming with 30 people in a cabin — but here we are, about to welcome a much larger number than that to Los Angeles in just a month.”
Held Nov. 12-14 at The LINE Hotel, conversations will largely avoid hot topics like AI and streaming and instead center on stress management, burnout prevention, resilience in the music business and more. Speakers include J Erving (founder of Human Re Sources and executive vp at Sony Music), Moody Jones (GM of dance at EMPIRE), Fadia Kader (executive vp/GM at Venice Music) and Gwen Bethel Riley (senior vp of music/head of content partnerships at Peloton).
“The topics we are covering at the summit are necessary to work in any industry or simply just to exist: leadership, effective communication, stress management, pivoting, financial literacy,” says Maiale. “Imagine a music industry where more people are trained on different personality types, emotional intelligence, how to deal with conflict in the workplace, how to manage their money and how to really address and support mental health.”
Perhaps the best evidence of the need for such a summit is also the biggest challenge in launching it: “Getting people to focus on themselves, as opposed to their work,” says Maiale. “It’s going to take a lot of work, but we believe that as a community, we can all make the music business more human.”
Fittingly, attendee badges will solely list their first and last names, with no companies or titles to be found.
Registration and more information on the jump.global annual summit can be found here. The event kicks off Nov. 12 with a NO EGO Welcome Party.
Latin music consumption is growing almost twice as fast as the overall music consumption in the U.S., driven largely by Latin music super fans and by the growth of regional Mexican music, according to Luminate’s most recent research on Latin music.
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Unveiled at a Monday morning (Oct. 2) session during Latin Music Week 2023 presented by Luminate CEO Rob Jonas, Luminate’s research also found an unlikely discovery platform for Latin music: WhatsApp. A whooping 73% of Hispanic listeners use WhatsApp, 265% more than the general population.
Luminate’s numbers once again underscored the impressive growth of Latin music consumption. For example, in the first 34 weeks of 2022, there were 47.4 billion on demand audio streams. For the first 34 weeks of 2023, that number had jumped to 57.9 billion streams, a 22.2% upward change that far surpasses the 13.3% growth registered for the industry overall. All told, Latin is now the 5th largest major music genre in the U.S., behind only the big four core genres: R&B and Hip-Hop, pop, rock and country.
Latin music is also seeing consumption growth outside Latin pockets. A stunning 40% of all U.S. listeners report listening to music in languages other than English; and among those languages, the most listened to — after English — is Spanish. While 93% listen to music in English, roughly 23% of listeners will listen to music in Spanish.
Likewise, while the English language share of streaming in the U.S. –- as measured by the top 10,000 most streamed tracks of the past 12 months — has dipped slightly by 4% in the past year, streaming of Spanish language tracks has increased by 3.5%.
A key driver to the growth are Latin super fans. According to Luminate’s data, they spend 120% more per month on music related activities than other fans, and 30% more than U.S. super fans.
“The trends we saw starting in 2022 have accelerated and developed the growth of Latin music,” says Jonas. “We initially saw a lot of growth in streaming, but now, that growth translated to revenue. In 2023, it’s definitely been exceeding expectations.”
You can access Luminate’s full report here.