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An inductee of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is protesting one of the Hall’s upcoming inductions. Complicating matters is that the protest comes from Jann S. Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone and a co-founder and former chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, who was himself inducted into the institution as a non-performer in 2004, when he was a recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
Wenner says that entertainment attorney Allen Grubman, who is also a founding board member and set to receive the Ertegun award next month, does not meet the Hall’s criteria for the honor. “Allen Grubman has made no contribution of any kind, by any definition, to the creative development or the history of rock & roll,” says Wenner. “He has been chosen because of his clout as entertainment super lawyer. This decision is about money and bending to the ego of a music business power broker.”
Grubman — long one of the most powerful attorneys in the music industry — counts Bruce Springsteen, Lizzo, The Weeknd, Lil Nas X, J Balvin, U2, Mariah Carey, the David Bowie estate, Lady Gaga and Madonna among the clients of his firm, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, as well as Spotify, Live Nation, and the major record companies and music publishers. He will be one three recipients of the Ertegun award at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Nov. 5 in Los Angeles along with Interscope Records co-founder/CEO Jimmy Iovine and Sugar Hill Records founder Sylvia Robinson, who will be inducted posthumously.
Grubman was nominated by Jon Landau, who, in addition to being a founding board member of the hall of fame and the head of its nominating committee, is the manager of Springsteen, a client of Grubman’s firm. Landau — who began his career as a rock critic — and Wenner have been friends and allies since the beginnings of Rolling Stone, as Wenner details in his recent memoir, Like a Rolling Stone. Wenner also takes aim at Grubman in his book in passing, saying the lawyer “didn’t know Jerry Lee Lewis from Jerry Lewis.”
“Jon remains one of my oldest and best friends,” Wenner told Billboard. “But we completely disagree about this. We have different agendas. Mine is the integrity of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Jon has got a business relationship to maintain.” And that relationship, he adds, constitutes a “conflict of interest” when it comes to Landau’s endorsement of Grubman.
The Rolling Stone founder decided to go public with his dissatisfaction after Billboard contacted him about a passage in his memoir detailing his decision to retire as chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation at the beginning of 2020 (both Billboard and Rolling Stone are owned by Penske Media Corp.; Wenner no longer has a full-time role with the magazine he founded). “My only worry was the pressure to compromise the integrity of the nominating and voting. I should have known better,” wrote Wenner, who remains a board member. “After I resigned, I was told that music business power-brokers on the board were going to be inducted. These individuals had made not one iota of difference to the history, present or future of the creation of music, which was the explicit criterion. But they had accumulated influence and wealth. It was an inside job.”
Allen Grubman at New World Stages at Worldwide Plaza in New York City.
Michael Kovac/GI for NARAS
Wenner doesn’t name anyone in his book, but in May, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced that Grubman, who is a founder and board member, would receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award, which, according to the organization’s website, is given to “non-performing industry professionals who, through their dedicated belief and support of artists and their music, have had a major influence on the creative development and growth of rock & roll and music that has impacted youth culture.”
When Billboard contacted Wenner about the passage, he confirmed that he was referring to Grubman.
This year’s Ahmet Ertegun Award inductees were chosen for the first time by a committee formed by the hall of fame foundation’s current chairman, iHeartMedia president of entertainment enterprises John Sykes. He is a committee member along with Landau (who also heads the hall’s nominating committee); Jody Gerson, the chairman/CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group; Jon Platt, chairman/CEO, Sony Music Publishing; Rob Light, the head of CAA’s music department; and Joel Peresman, president/CEO of the foundation. A hall of fame insider says that in past years the Ertegun inductees were chosen via a “consensus decision” that included Wenner, Landau, and musicians Paul Shaffer and Robbie Robertson. The source adds that the creation of a formal committee had been Wenner’s suggestion, although Wenner had wanted more people outside of the industry, such as music historians and artists.
According to one source familiar with the situation, “Wenner presented his case against Allen to the full committee” in a “a lively 20-minute debate” during which all of the committee members got to express their views. Multiple sources confirm that the subsequent vote was five-to-one in favor of Grubman’s induction with Wenner casting the sole dissenting vote. (The committee voted unanimously to induct Iovine and Robinson.)
Wenner’s account of the proceedings is significantly different. He says that the discussion and vote regarding Grubman’s induction “was no more than a 45-minute phone call, and prior to that call, I was told by Jon that my dissent would be useless. The issue was already settled,” he says.
In response, the source says, “It is generally routine for committee members to discuss how they would likely vote on different issues before a meeting and how an upcoming vote will likely go.”
Another source familiar with the committee’s voting process says Grubman’s induction is justified because he is “one of the all-time great dealmakers, but his impact and those of the next generation of agents and lawyers who followed him, is not always appreciated.” The source contends that Grubman’s decades of “staunch advocacy and success in negotiating groundbreaking deals for these artists changed the balance of power in the industry,” providing the artists he has represented “the security and stability that allowed them to focus on their craft.”
Wenner says the argument that Grubman “is responsible for historic changes in recording artists’ contractual relationships with record companies is ex-post facto hogwash. This is an artful but disingenuous fig leaf to cover the absence of a valid reason. It is putting lipstick on a pig.”
Wenner says that inducting Grubman into the hall of fame is the equivalent of giving former CAA founder and Disney studios chief Michael Ovitz an Oscar. “The underlying and inescapable truth is that he has not made one iota of difference then, now or for the future of rock & roll,” he says. “He doesn’t make music. He makes money.”
A statement issued by the foundation did not address Wenner’s allegations directly but instead adopts language the hall of fame’s website uses to describe its criteria for the Ahmet Ertegun award: “The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame relies on a diverse group of expert music professionals and artists to select those who are inducted each year. We welcome this year’s group of very well deserving inductees and congratulate them on their significant influence on the music and artists that have moved youth culture.” Grubman, Landau, and spokespersons for Light and Platt declined to comment. Sykes, Peresman and Gerson did not respond to requests for comment.
But one source with ties to the organization says, “This is just Jann being Jann. After all of his great contributions, it’s sad that he’s making these unnecessary personal attacks to bring attention to himself.”
“That is a personal attack,” says Wenner. “Why can’t they defend themselves?”
After dipping her toes in the Los Angeles fashion industry as a merchandiser and “not really feeling it,” veteran music publicist Romina Magorno discovered her passion for public relations when she got her first big break at D Baron Media in 2006.
“I took the gig as an assistant at a 30K pay cut, which was insane, but it was in my gut. Something told me I was made to be in public relations,” says Magorno, who credits D Baron Media founder and CEO Diana Baron as the mentor who taught her how to be a true, traditional publicist.
At the agency, Magorno worked on projects like Los Lonely Boys, JoJo, Leann Rimes and All-American Rejects, to name a few. She relocated to Miami in 2010, where she worked at Nevarez Communications and tackled her first Latin projects, including Daddy Yankee, Chyno y Nacho, Elvis Crespo and Amelia Vega. Two years later, in September 2012, she decided to launch her own public relations agency.
“I realized that in order for me to really solidify myself in this space (Latin at that time), I needed to branch out on my own,” she explains. “I was also about to have a baby and wanted more flexibility with my time.”
Magorno now spearheads her own boutique public relations and marketing firm, Imagine It Media, with a foundation in music, entertainment and communications strategy for the U.S. Latin crossover markets, Mexico and Latin America. The Miami-based agency also specializes in talent wrangling, strategic brand partnerships and event media management.
In the past 10 years, Imagine It helmed major projects for Camila Cabello, The Spongebob Movie soundtrack, Justin Quiles and LMFAO’s Sky Blu, among others. Currently, the company’s roster includes Anitta, Tainy, Farruko, Myke Towers, Piso 21, Jorge Drexler, Steve Aoki, C. Tangana, Yahritza y Su Esencia and newcomer Un León Marinero, to name a few, as well as corporate clients NEON16, Sony Music Latin and NTERTAIN.
Below, learn more about Magorno and her agency.
What were some initial challenges when you first opened?
The credibility. I had shifted markets and did not really have super solid relationships and I found bookers, producers and journalists had their favorites and it was a challenge for sure. But I persevered and eventually, the phone calls and emails were answered. I am a people person, it’s hard to say no to this face. Ha! JK.
In your 16-year career, how do you keep motivated with your business?
Breaking new talent. Giving them my platform to really break into the market. Nowadays with streaming, it’s just so amazing to have an endless jukebox of artists and music to discover. For example, the Latin folk music movement is really making noise and having a revival. We most recently signed an indie artist from Mexico, Un León Marinero, who is in this space. He is an incredible songwriter and musician and I am so excited to show the world his talent. You have to check out his music.
What drives you to want to work with an artist?
There are many components to this question. Talent, of course, but also that I really connect with the person behind the music. It is something that is very important to me. Another component when I started my own thing, what drove me then, was to retain one big client so that I would have leverage on my hands. Having big artists means a lot of the opportunities are incoming, and although that is wonderful, what really drives me is moving things and opening doors for the up and comers. I have artists that have been with me for many years and at the beginning, media would shut the doors over and over again. Eventually, the doors opened and the feeling of accomplishment for me is so rewarding.
Who do you turn to for business advice or who has taught you the most about the business?
It’s always good to have a few people you can go to. My fellow PR colleagues Kary An Diaz and Nini Veras have been solid when it comes to advice on work-related things. But there are two people who have helped me see things clearly and supported me on so many facets, Ivelisse Malave and Lex Borrero. These executives have always been my cheerleaders and I am so thankful to have them in my life and to get to work together on projects.
What’s the most crucial advice you can offer to up-and-coming publicists?
Focus. Stay behind the scenes. Work with integrity and really learn to not only offer PR services but also to know and understand strategy. I see so many of the new schools of publicists who have no real understanding of what it is to sit and build a strategy. This is something I wish I would have learned a lot earlier on in my career, but things were a lot different then too.
For months, South Korean politicians have been scrambling to find a solution to the forced breakup of BTS, the biggest cultural export their country has known over the last several decades.
On Monday (Oct. 17), the boy band’s label Big Hit Music, a subsidiary of HYBE, appeared to put an end to the handwringing, saying that each of the BTS members would, in fact, serve their mandatory military service. That means, before long — Jin turns 30 in December — the group will not be able to perform with its full seven-member lineup until 2025.
While the timing will vary for the members — Jin, RM, J-Hope, Suga, Jimin, V and Jungkook — based on their age, the departures will create yet another challenge for Seoul-based HYBE. The company, which went public on the South Korean Stock Exchange in October of 2020, has been working to diversify its roster and silence financial analysts who said the company had the look of a one-hit wonder with BTS, the act that has landed six No. 1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100.
HYBE had already been dealing with the stress put on the company by the act’s joint announcement in June that it was taking an undetermined break from group activities to pursue solo projects. But no amount of lobbying by politicians or HYBE itself has helped BTS avoid the responsibilities that all able-bodied South Korean males from 18 to 28 have to serve at least 18 months in the military, though the length of service may vary. In December of 2020, the South Korean National Assembly passed the so-called “BTS law” to allow K-pop entertainers to postpone required service until the age of 30 with a recommendation from the culture minister.
For now, the market seems to have priced in the reality that either through military service or their own desire to work on their solo careers, this version of BTS would not be able to stay together for much longer.
HYBE’s stock, traded on South Korea’s stock exchange, fell 2.54% to 115,000 won ($80.40) on Monday, with other K-pop companies’ stocks staying within 1% of their Friday closing price.
Mandatory military service issue has been a divisive issue in South Korea in recent years as K-pop’s popularity has grown worldwide. While many, including some lawmakers, say the musicians’ contribution to the country’s global recognition should qualify them for an exemption, others that include the defense ministry have opposed the move.
In a country that has superpower neighbors such as China and Russia, as well as a saber-rattling North Korea, many South Koreans believe that the military requirement serves as a social equalizer. And attempts to avoid mandatory service have suspended or derailed the careers of several entertainers and other public figures. Boy bands such as 2 PM and Bigbang have significantly limited their public appearances or paused group activities after its members entered the military.
Jin, the group’s eldest member, turns 30 in December and is expected to start his military service by the end of the year if no sudden amendments are made to the country’s compulsory draft legislation. Jungkook, the youngest member, is 25 years old.
For HYBE, the big question remains: Has the company done enough to diversify its artist roster to account for a potential drop in revenues from a less-active BTS. Since acquiring Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in April 2021, the share of HYBE’s revenue BTS accounts for, which was 85% in 2020, has fallen to about 60% in 2021, according to one analyst estimate.
Bernie Cho, owner of Seoul-based DFSB Kollective artists and label services agency, says HYBE “has silenced naysayers by rolling out a deep K-pop artists roster that goes beyond BTS,” including new acts Seventeen, TXT and ENHYPEN. Combined, the three groups, which debuted in 2021, accounted for 7.7 million album unit sales — more than half of HYBE’s 2021 total K-pop album sales worldwide, according to company filings. And this year, two girl bands – Le Sserafim and NewJeans – have joined their male labelmates as “some of the best-selling artists of the year,” Cho says.
Nevertheless, earlier this month, NH Investment & Securities, one of South Korea’s largest securities firms, lowered its target stock price for HYBE by 19% to 250,000 won ($177) citing a “delay in growth even after acquiring Ithaca Holdings.”
BTS fuels tremendous merchandise sales in Korea, along with physical CDs and is essentially the flagship act for a growing global K-pop industry. Attention around BTS helps generate some $3.54 billion in visits from foreigners and exports of consumer goods like clothes, makeup and food, according to the Hyundai Research Institute. One Korean politician, Sung-Il-jong of the ruling People Power Party, has estimated that a No. 1 song on the Billboard charts can create a halo effect that generates an economic boom of $1.38 billion for the South Korean economy.
Twelve full months of revenue from HYBE America — which houses artist management and Big Machine Label Group, which manages top international acts like Justin Bieber — are expected to further strengthen HYBE’s income statement.
The company also will try to cobble together BTS-like sales and streams from BTS solo projects. In July, J-Hope was the first to release solo material with the album Jack in the Box, which featured singles “MORE” and “Arson.”
The members, for their part, seem to want to try to stay together as BTS. At a special free concert on Saturday in Busan, South Korea, where 55,000 fans attended, Jin teased a solo project as the members pledged to carry on group activities well into their careers. “We will continue for 30 years,” Jimin said, “and even perform when we are 70 years old.”
But it was J-Hope, the first to open up about the group’s future, who seemed to signal that military service was looming — and that the group could be entering a challenging period. “I think we’re in a phase where we need your trust,” he said.
Additional reporting by Jeyup S. Kwaaak
Burt Goldstein, a colorful music industry character and executive who headed up two music retailing operations and three independent distribution companies across his more than three-decade career, died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Albuquerque, NM on Oct. 9. on, his birthday. He was 73.
Goldstein’s career spanned from the early 1970s, when he opened his first Musical Maze store in Manhattan, to the 1980s, when he served as the top music retail executive for the Crazy Eddie appliance retail chain. Later that decade, he pivoted to indie distribution — first with his own company Impact Distribution, opened in 1988; then by heading up Profile Records’ Landmark Distributors. He later started his own distribution company Big Daddy in 1996, which he sold in 2007 to Music Video Distributors (MVD). Along the way he mentored a number of executives who went on to music industry careers of their own.
While Goldstein could be a hard-nosed business executive and a tough negotiator — as the major label executives who had to deal with him during the 1980s when he oversaw the Crazy Eddie music department can attest — he was also known for having plenty of fun along the way, often in a tongue-in-cheek manner, former colleagues recall. In fact, when he became a distributor, he would often begin sales calls by performing a magic trick, testifies his Big Daddy partner Doug Bail, who also worked with him at Benel Distributors.
In fact, at one NARM convention (now called Music Biz), Goldstein cornered the keynote speaker —Google’s then-head of new business development Chris Sacca — and pointed out that Goldstein’s shoes had a multi-color weave containing all of Google’s corporate colors. He then proceeded to try and talk Sacca into buying thousands of pairs of shoes for all of Google’s employees. At another NARM convention, Goldstein got in trouble with the trade organization by breaking the rules and selling CDs on display at the Big Daddy’s trade booth. But Goldstein was donating all the sales to Bob Benjamin’s Light Of Day charity and wouldn’t be deterred. After they shut him down the first time, he continued to sell the CDs before being stopped once again.
Harry Spero, who nowadays heads up his own ad agency, Spero Media, recalls his days working alongside Goldstein at Crazy Eddie, where he experienced both sides of Goldstein — the hard-nosed businessman and his omnipresent joy-of-life attitude. “One week, he would have a war with CBS until he got what he wanted, then the next week he would have a war with WEA, followed the next week with PolyGram. He was always at war with one of the labels.”
Jay Rosenberg, who also worked at Crazy Eddie, echoes Spero, remembering that during his days at the chain, “We had epic battles with the labels.” Rich Masio, who worked at Big Daddy, quoted two Goldstein sayings that displayed the executive’s take no prisoner’s style — “You eat what you kill” and “Good luck to you, my friend and the horse you rode in on” — the latter of which would be inscribed on the Big Daddy company t-shirt. The first saying was to remind the sales team to keep selling, and the second was for when he was done with you, Masio explains.
Goldstein was born in 1949 and grew up in Brooklyn, graduating from Long Island University in 1971 with a B.S. in Sociology. But while going to school, he began working at the Uni Sonic record store across the street from the LIU Brooklyn campus. After graduating, he stayed on to manage the store, thus launching his music industry career. By 1973, he moved on and opened his first Musical Maze in the Gramercy Park area of Manhattan, around the corner from Baruch College and the School of Visual Arts. In 2006, Goldstein told MusicMorselsonline.com that by age 15 he knew he was going to open a record store.
The Musical Maze enterprise would soon grow to four stores and a pop-up store or two. Along the way, the original Musical Maze, located between 23rd Street and 22nd Street on Third Avenue, seemed to employ a who’s-who from the downtown New York music scene of Max’s Kansas City and CBGB’s. At one time or another, Musical Maze staffers included George Scott from James Chance and the Contortions, Peter Holsapple from The dB’s, Jimi “Quidd” Hatzidimitriou from the Dots, Ed Ryan from The Rudies and, very briefly, Lance Loud from the Mumps as well as Drew Wheeler, a New York Rocker contributor and future Billboard copy editor.
During his Musical Maze days, Goldstein married his girlfriend Jan DeGeer Goldstein, who worked with him at the small indie chain, on March 2, 1984, in Las Vegas, according to an item in Billboard‘s “Lifelines” column. In addition to being his partner in life, DeGeer Goldstein also worked with him during the Crazy Eddie days and later on at Big Daddy.
The local Musical Maze chain would continue on even as Goldstein began his next retailing adventure in 1979, running the music sections for the then-rapidly growing Crazy Eddie electronics chain, whose commercials were infamous for using a fast-talking DJ Jerry Carroll as the chain’s pitchman, touting the stores “insane prices.”
Goldstein actually worked for the Crazy Eddie chain’s sister company Benel Distributors — also known as the Record and Tape Asylum, an operation that supplied and operated the music presence in the chain’s 43 stores — at its peak. At Benel, Goldstein held the title of executive vp, and was the key person negotiating with the major record labels on marketing dollars and promotional campaigns for new releases.
While there, Goldstein hired Rosenberg as a buyer for the chain, and within a couple of years Rosenberg became head buyer. Rosenberg says Goldstein “helped shape my music industry career. I learned a lot from Burt on how to deal with labels and distribution.” In fact, Goldstein, in his own inimitable way, would often remind Rosenberg of that. As Rosenberg recalls — and posted on his Facebook page — “Burt used to tell people, ‘I taught Jay everything he knows, but not everything I know.’”
After Crazy Eddie imploded in the late 1980s due to financial trouble detailed in a recently issued book on the chain and its owner Eddie Antar, Goldstein’s career went in a different direction when he opened up an indie music distribution operation, Impact Distribution, in Chicago in 1988. That would launch the next phase of his career. Soon, he was also working with Landmark, the distribution arm owned by the Profile Records principals, first opening a branch in Los Angeles while maintaining the Impact branch in Chicago. In 1991, Impact was merged under the Landmark banner and, in the process, stood at the forefront of a trend that would sweep the indie music sector: the end of regional distribution networks for indie labels and the move to national distribution.
Still, Orchard senior vp of product development Alan Becker remembers Goldstein more for his retail days. “Burt was a very colorful guy and a throwback to the retail guys of a bygone era,” Becker says.
Landmark eventually blew up due to infighting between the two Profile principals, which indirectly evolved into an unsuccessful involuntary Chapter 11 filing against Landmark by three of its labels. That filing nevertheless spelled the end of Landmark, as it made the other Landmark-distributed labels and its retail account base skittish. In the aftermath, Goldstein started Big Daddy, his most successful distribution company. After merging Big Daddy into MVD in 2007, Goldstein retired from the music industry.
Larry Germack, who worked at Big Daddy, recalls his days on Goldstein’s staff. “He was a great record man; the headmaster of the old school record business, who pressed the flesh to the end, ” Germack says. “I am really saddened by his passing. Burt’s personality and verve were strong. He was an entertainer, had a good vibe about him; and he was one-of-a kind in the true sense of the word.”
On his last day, the Goldstein family and friends went out to dinner at a restaurant to celebrate his birthday. Some of his former staffers recalled that on his birthday, it was Goldstein’s way to encourage a roomful of strangers to sing “Happy Birthday” to him, leading them like a conductor. His friends wondered if that happened on his last night too.
In an e-mail informing friends of Goldstein’s passing, his wife Jan wrote that her husband “was happy…and often said he had such a great life.”
In addition to his wife, Goldstein is survived by his daughters, Ali and Jessie, and his brother Steve.
Inspired by his father-in-law’s example, Goldstein generously donated his body to the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. To make a charitable donation, visit UNMfund.org.
Jenna Park Adler was promoted to co-head of CAA‘s global hip-hop/R&B touring group alongside existing head Mark Cheatham. Adler’s clients include Jennifer Lopez, Doja Cat, Charli XCX, Green Day, Chloe x Halle, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Deftones and Mark Ronson.
Robert Santelli was named executive director at the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University. He will oversee the Springsteen Archives and work to create programs, exhibits and collaborations with music museums and universities in the U.S. Santelli can be reached at bsantell@springsteenarchives.org.
BMG named Brandon Riester vp of A&R, recorded music. In the role, the Los Angeles-based executive will sign and develop artists for the label’s frontline recording team and participate in song development alongside BMG’s songwriters and publishing team. He reports directly to executive vp of recorded music Dan Gill. He was most recently A&R for Nuyorican Records. Riester can be reached at brandon.riester@bmg.com.
Colin Reed, longtime chairman and CEO at Ryman Hospitality Properties, is transitioning to executive chairman of the company after more than 21 years as CEO. Succeeding him in the CEO role is Mark Fioravanti, who will also hold the title of president, effective Jan. 1. Reed’s new role will include his responsibilities as executive chairman of Ryman’s board of directors and as chairman of the Opry Entertainment Group (OEG) board of directors. He will also focus on working with OEG strategic investor Atairos as well as NBCUniversal to exploit opportunities for value creation, advance the company’s ESG and DEI goals and handle community and government affairs. He will also continue his role with artist and shareholder relations alongside Fioravanti.
ASM Global named Liam Thornton as executive vp of strategy and development. In the role, he will be responsible for strategic planning, market research, site selection, lease and partnership negotiations, development feasibility, site planning, project advisory and investment analysis. Thornton can be reached at lthornton@asmglobal.com.
Also at ASM Global, Kimberly Weedmark was named general manager for the Los Angeles Convention Center; she joins the company from Universal Studios Hollywood, where she served as vp of special events and group sales. In her new role, she will work with the City of Los Angeles to continue to grow the convention hall.
Warner Chappell Music promoted Petter Walther Walthinsen to head of A&R for Warner Chappell Music Nordics. In the expanded role, Walthinsen will be responsible for the strategy, direction and culture of the company’s A&R department across the Nordics, with all A&R executives in the region reporting to him. Walthinsen, who will report to the region’s managing director Lars Karlsson, was previously senior A&R manager at Warner Chappell Music Norway.
Lily Golightly was hired as senior vp of publicity at Verve Label Group. She will oversee U.S. communications efforts for the company’s imprints, including Verve Records, Impulse!, Verve Forecast, Decca Records U.S., Decca Classics, Deutsche Grammophon and ECM. She previously spent over seven years at 300 Entertainment and operated her own independent publicity company, No Big Deal PR, through January 2020.
Andre Rodriguez was hired as Warner Music Latina’s director of commercial operations. In his new role, he will lead commercial operations for the entire Latin American region, and his team of six employees together will work to bridge the gap between the labels’ marketing and production departments to increase efficiency. He will report directly to senior vp of commercial services Marcela Vaccari. Rodriguez previously served as 10K Project’s senior director of production, and in addition to his new role at Warner, he will continue to manage artists under his self-owned company MUSTDIE.
Russell Hunt was hired as senior creative manager at Reservoir Media. Hunt will be based in the company’s London office, working closely with U.K. head of creative Charlie Pinder to expand Reservoir’s global presence. He will report to executive vp and global creative director Donna Caseine. He joins the company from Tigerspring, where he was head of A&R U.K.
Dan McEvoy and Bertie Gibbon joined the team at ATC Management. McEvoy brings client Black Country, New Road, while Gibbon will oversee the careers of new ATC clients Sorry, The Goa Express and Miss Tiny. McEvoy can be reached at dan@atcmanagement.com and Gibbon can be reached at matthew@atcmanagement.com.
Nashville-based publishing company SoNash launched and announced its executive team: president Travis Chaney, vp Bridgette Tatum, creative director Abigail Wate Ayala and creative consultant Juli Newton-Griffith. Wate Ayala can be reached at Abigail@sonashpublishing.com and Tatum can be reached at bridgette@sonashpublishing.com.
Music technology platform Vydia hired Susan “Sweetness” Ybern and Elena Lanza as label & artist relations managers. Both will play a crucial role in the company’s new business growth, marketing and strategy with artists and labels. They will be responsible for sourcing, negotiating and signing new partnerships deals while working collaboratively across the marketing, legal, client success and product management departments. Ybern can be reached at sweetness@vydia.com and Lanza can be reached at elena.lanza@vydia.com.
Alison Hemmings joined Audible as associate director of public relations. Most recently she worked on the communications team at iHeartMedia, leading publicity and media strategy for the iHeartPodcast Network.
SMACKTok, which offers influencer marketing services under the SMACK umbrella, hired Aleks Samul as coordinator. She will report directly to SMACK founder Marissa Turk and assist in day-to-day operations for the company. Samul can be reached at aleks@smacksongs.com.
Nashville-based marketing agency Thinkswell — which helps artists establish themselves as brands and assists brands in reaching new audiences — hired James Crowley as head of strategy, Jenni Hand as head of operations, Katie Sulzner as digital marketing manager and Nicole Marchesi as digital marketing manager. Michael Adcock was also promoted to art director. Crowley will use data analytics to build a comprehensive digital advertising and social media strategy for clients; Hand will manage campaigns, organizational structure and lead all efforts for artists and organizations; Sulzner will create high level strategic campaigns; Marchesi will execute marketing camapaigns and create video and graphic design content for clients; and Adcock will oversees all creative direction and brand development at the company. Crowley can be reached at James@thinkswell.com, Hand can be reached at jenni@thinkswell.com, Sulzner can be reached at katie@thinkswell.com, Marchesi can be reached at nicole@thinkswell.com and Adcock can be reached at michael@thinkswell.com.
For the record… We’re hiring!” reads the lawn sign in front of Nashville’s United Record Pressing, the largest vinyl pressing plant in the United States. With an expansion underway that will bring in 48 new presses — upping the manufacturer’s count to nearly 100 and more than doubling its total output from approximately 40,000 to over 100,000 units of vinyl per day — the need to staff up is crucial. And URP isn’t the only Tennessee plant on the prowl.
As the vinyl boom continues — the format generated $570 million in revenue through June 2022 (up 22% year over year), according to the Mid-Year 2022 RIAA Music Revenue Report — pressing plants around the world are not only striving to keep up with demand but planning how to get ahead of it. Tennessee is aiming to take the lead, increasing its number of plants from two to five in 2022 and planting a flag as the U.S. vinyl hub. The state offers advantages in distribution, in taxes and, most notably, in culture.
“All music resonates from Tennessee,” says Brandon Seavers, CEO of Memphis Record Pressing (MRP), which was founded in 2014 and is undergoing its own $30 million expansion. “We really take pride in our musical heritage.”
“We’ve got wine country in California,” adds Drake Coker, CEO of Nashville Record Pressing, one of three new manufacturers that have come online in the past year in Music City. “Tennessee is going to be vinyl country.”
The growth in Tennessee’s vinyl production capacity is substantial. MRP — owned by Czech Republic-based GZ Media, the world’s largest vinyl record manufacturer — is adding 33,000 square feet to house 36 new presses to be up and running by early 2023; NRP, also owned by GZ Media, opened in June. Physical Music Products, a smaller plant with three presses currently online (and five more expected by early 2023) that was founded by Nashville-based mastering engineer Piper Payne, opened in March, and The Vinyl Lab, a music venue and boutique two-press plant, has been operational since April 2021.
“Nashville is exploding right now,” says URP CEO Mark Michaels. He cites everything from “attractive” economics and state tax rates to the presence of tech giants like Amazon and Oracle as drivers for the city’s growth.
And, as Coker points out, an estimated 75% of the U.S. population lives within a 24-hour drive of Nashville, making it what he calls “a distribution heaven.” (Nashville and Memphis are centrally located to two of the country’s major distributors in Franklin, Ind., and La Vergne, Tenn.)
It’s not just proximity to distributors that makes Nashville and Memphis ideal cities to house a pressing plant. The Vinyl Lab founder Scott Lemasters believes it’s about proximity to everything. “The components that you need to make a record: the mastering houses and studios, the people who cut the lacquers. There’s even a plating facility in town. Everything is within a 10-minute radius,” he says. “Half our jobs are just running around town.”
But not everything can be done locally, and surely not everything can be sourced locally. So how did so many plants within one state manage to break ground on expansions or entirely new facilities all at once — and during a global supply-chain shortage?
Michaels believes URP, which was founded in 1949, had a bit of luck on its side. After the plant relocated to its current, larger facility in 2017, Michaels never thought it would need to further expand. “And then, as we saw 2020 and the growth of vinyl, it created an incredible acceleration and demand,” he says. “All of our customers were just crying for capacity.” By the top of 2021, URP decided to grow its operations yet again — fortuitous timing, with Michaels noting that supply-chain challenges got much worse soon after.
It’s something Seavers can attest to as well. At the start of 2021, MRP booked three-and-a-half months of work in five weeks. “It was more than a flood,” he says. “It strained every system that we had.” With the financial support of GZ Media, MRP added another 36 presses to its facility for a total of 52, which will eventually boost its vinyl units per day from 36,000 to 130,000. “Having GZ behind it all really has been key,” says Seavers.
The hustle to get GZ-backed sister plant NRP operational is further proof of how essential that kind of backing can be for a plant at any stage and of any size. For decades, GZ has been building a family of plants across North America, including Precision Record Pressing in Ontario. It was that plant’s president, Shawn Johnson, who approached Coker about relocating to Nashville to head up the newest sibling. Coker arrived in fall 2021, secured a space for NRP by December (because of Nashville’s current growth, he says commercial real estate was hard to come by) and started construction and operations in March. He compares the process to a plane leaving the runway as it’s still being built.
Capital and technological support from GZ have allowed that plane to take off, fueled by already existing customer relationships. “Every record that we can make in the next four years is already presold,” Coker says. “Who gets to start a company and not worry about sales?”
The Vinyl Lab — a multifunctional space that includes a pressing plant and a venue that will open in October — has enjoyed a similar safety net from the start. Scott first conceived the idea for The Vinyl Lab in 2015 and, after a series of setbacks, leased its space in January 2020. The following December, the Grand Ole Opry called. The Opry had continued holding shows in an empty hall during the pandemic, recording each one and eventually choosing 12 performances to release as an album — which it wanted on vinyl. “They called us, and we were like, ‘Our machine is not even in its final resting spot yet,’ ” he recalls with a laugh, noting he secured the company’s first Phoenix Alpha press in 2019. “We were fully transparent with [the Opry]. That order was due on June 3, and we delivered it on June 2.”
Lemasters, who operates The Vinyl Lab alongside Clint Elliott and Heather Gray, says their orders have mostly been word-of-mouth (in addition to ads they posted in bathroom stalls). He praises both the city and the vinyl community as a whole for the eagerness to help one another, recalling the time Jack White and Ben Blackwell of Third Man Records referred Dualtone Records to The Vinyl Lab, which led to a steady flow of work early on.
“That’s what’s great about the industry right now, is that we are still in a very collaborative phase,” says Seavers. “We would never be where we are if we hadn’t had that.”
Investment bank JPMorgan Chase has severed ties with embattled rapper Kanye West. The news was broken by conservative commentator Candace Owens, who tweeted on Wednesday (Oct. 12), “Earlier today I learned that @kanyewest was officially kicked out of JP Morgan Chase bank. I was told there was no official reason given, but they sent this letter as well to confirm that he has until late November to find another place for the Yeezy empire to bank.”
The text of the undated letter posted by Owens opens with an acknowledgment that per a “recent discussion,” the largest bank in the U.S. “has decided to end its banking relationship with Yeezy, LLC and its affiliated entities,” noting that the rapper was encouraged to transfer his business to another financial institution before Nov. 21.
A spokesperson for Chase declined to comment at press time, though Billboard has confirmed the contents of the letter and that it was dated Sept. 20, weeks before West’s recent string of anti-Semitic comments and a parallel controversy over the “White Lives Matter” shirt he wore at his recent Paris Fashion Week show. The New York Times‘ DealBook reported that it had also confirmed the closure of Ye’s account.
In early Sept. West told Bloomberg that he was done working with corporate partners, saying, “It’s time for me to got it alone. It’s fine. I made the companies money. The companies made me money. We created ideas that will change apparel forever… Now it’s time for ye to make the new industry. No more companies standing between me and the audience.”
The story also noted that Ye had been at odds with Chase already after he’d publicly criticized a number of senior executives and CEO Jamie Dimon, telling Bloomberg about his experience with the bank, “I feel like there’s a lot of controlling and handling to suppress my ability to affect the American economy and industry.”
At the time, West was doing a kind of publicity tour to discuss his break with retail partner The Gap and his troubled relationship with athletic brand, Adidas, with the letter from Chase seemingly arriving within days of the media appearances in which Ye aired his grievances with his fashion and financial partners.
The loss of support from the bank is just one of the crises swirling around West, who has also come under increasing fire over the past week for his repeated use of hateful, anti-Semitic tropes and stereotypes. Those comments — including a number that were edited out of a recent interview with Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson — led to widespread condemnation from fellow artists such as Ariana Grande and Jack Antonoff, as well as an invite from the L.A. Holocaust Museum to come and learn about the potentially deadly results of anti-Semitic hate speech.
West was also locked-out by Twitter after a string of posts, including one in which he threatened to go, “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” At the same time, the Yeezy boss had an Instagram posts removed by parent company Meta after it said the rapper violated its speech policies by posting text messages between him and fellow rapper/entrepreneur P. Diddy claiming he would, “show the Jews that told you to call that no one can threaten or influence me.”
A spokesperson for West has not returned multiple requests for comment.
See Owens’ post below.
Earlier today I learned that @kanyewest was officially kicked out of JP Morgan Chase bank. I was told there was no official reason given, but they sent this letter as well to confirm that he has until late November to find another place for the Yeezy empire to bank. pic.twitter.com/FUskokb6fP— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) October 12, 2022
Carlton James Group invested $50 million in Bristol, U.K.-based distribution and artist label services company 3tone Music Group to fund the additional expansion of the company’s distribution platform. 3tone, which is run by CEO Dean Roberts and managing director Chris Borud, was first backed by Carlton James Group in 2019. The company offers indie artists unlimited digital distribution to multiple streaming platforms for an annual fee, a model that echoes more established companies like DistroKid and TuneCore.
Warner Music acquired a stake in Serbian label Mascom Records. The acquisition expands the companies’ relationship, as Mascom has acted as Warner Music’s local distributor for more than 20 years. Under the new arrangement, they will work together to build a roster of local artists, with the opportunity for artists to be upstreamed into Warner’s global network. Mascom’s catalog will continue to be distributed by Warner’s ADA. The companies have recently been jointly working with Serbian artist Sergej Panic on his new releases “Kabul” and “Mia Bella.” In a statement, Izabela Ciszek-Podziemska, general manager of Warner Music South East Europe, called the deal “a landmark development” for Warner in the region.
U.K.-based livestreaming company Driift acquired the livestreaming technology and sales platform Dreamstage, with the combined businesses set to operate under the Driift name, led by CEO Ric Salmon and COO Claire Mas. Driift also secured an additional $4 million investment from Deezer, bringing the company’s total investment from the European streaming service to $7 million in 2022. Deezer is now the largest shareholder in Driift; it had become a majority shareholder in Dreamstage prior to the acquisition.
Atlantic Records partnered with Record Store Day for a new series that will showcase developing artists at independent music retail stores across the U.S. The first artist to be highlighted by the program is Neon Gold/Atlantic singer-songwriter Joe P, who will kick off the series with the release of a deluxe vinyl edition of his debut EP, Emily Can’t Sing. The series will feature 10 to 12 emerging artists over the next year while incorporating exclusive in-store signings and performances. Joe P has already signed on for eight upcoming in-store signings while he’s on tour. The partnership was negotiated by Record Store Day’s Michael Kurtz and Atlantic Records’ Jack McMorrow. In November and December, the series will feature the artist Surf Curse.
Warner Music Poland and Groupa STEP, owner of the independent Polish hip-hop label Step Records, launched a new business partnership to support local hip-hop artists. No further information was provided about the deal.
Cyanite, which offers AI-powered music tagging and search, will provide BMG with automatic tagging to make its entire 3 million song repertoire more searchable and accessible for synch placements. Under the agreement, Cyanite’s technology will be integrated into BMG’s internal content management system BMG Songs.
Social-first media company The News Movement will use UnitedMasters‘ independent music repertoire to soundtrack its news stories on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Snap under a new partnership.
Session, the company behind the collaboration app Session Studio for music creators, partnered with SoundCloud in a deal that will see the streaming platform become the first to digitally receive both song audio and essential song metadata directly from the Session Studio app. Session Studio is designed to make it easier for songwriters, artists, producers and more to track who contributed what at the point of creation across mobile, desktop and online.
Web3 platform OneOf signed an exclusive three-year partnership with the Latin Recording Academy. Under the deal, OneOf will host the first-ever NFT collection tied to the Latin Grammy Awards. The first collection will debut throughout October 2022.
Pop-rock singer Charlotte Sands (“Dressed,” “Loved You a Little”) signed a distribution deal with Vydia, as did house DJ Robbie Rivera, for whom Vydia will also handle marketing, synch, project management and DSP pitching for forthcoming releases on Rivera’s Juicy Music Group along with Rivera’s existing catalog. The Rivera deal includes a catalog transfer of over 350 songs via Juicy Music.
Ryan Oakes signed a recording and publishing deal with Position Music that will cover both new and existing repertoire.
New York artist VÉRITÉ partnered with Troy Carter and Suzy Ryoo‘s Venice Music, which offers tools, services and artist support while allowing artists to retain creative autonomy and ownership over their work.
Berlin-based house and techno record label Get Physical Music signed a global sales and distribution deal with independent digital label services provider LabelWorx. The deal covers Get Physical’s full catalog, along with its imprints Cocada Music, Kindisch, Metaphysical and Poesie Musik.
Digital collaboration-based music platform BeatConnect closed an initial investment round of $2.2 million. Participants include lead investors FICC (Fonds d’investissement de la culture et des communications) and its partners, which contributed a total of $1 million. Also joining the round was angel investor network Anges Québec with around $615,000 and entertainment tech investment fund Triptyq Capital with around $540,000. BeatConnect will use the funds to build a new tool aimed at linking multiple DAWs together for cross-platform collaboration and remote sharing sessions for music creators.
R. Wayne Martin‘s boutique management firm mthree signed music producer John Hiler (Rihanna, Madonna, Smashing Pumpkins) to its new division focused on managing music producers. His day-to-day manager at the firm is Jeff Betten.
Nettwerk Records announced a slew of signings, including lo-fi trio PanCake, Flemish lo-fi producer Phlocalyst, Germany-based singer-songwriter M. Byrd, Berlin-based songwriter and producer Chris James, Los Angeles rock band The Strike and pop singer Michal Leah, whose new single “the way i love you” drops on Friday (Oct. 14).
Triple 8 Management signed singer-songwriter Erin Kinsey, who is signed to RECORDS/Columbia Nashville.
Texas-based singer E Bleu signed a 10-song partnership with AWAL that will provide him with marketing and streaming support while allowing him to keep his masters. His most recent release is the Shawn Barron-executive produced single “No Biggie.”
Create Music Group signed Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) #9797 (a.k.a. Jimbo).