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Soundstripe, the Nashville-based music licensing company for creatives, agencies and brands, acquired tech startup The Rights, which helps streamline the synch licensing process for labels, publishers and music supervisors. According to a press release, the deal will help Soundstripe “accelerate its development of the music industry’s most robust click-to-license platform,” which is slated to launch in the first half of this year.
Warner Music Group’s indie distributor and artist services arm ADA extended its partnership with Sonny Fodera‘s label Solotoko, which has also released music by Dom Dolla, John Summit and Tita Lau, among others.

Nashville-based Walk Off Entertainment inked a global distribution deal with Virgin Music Group. Walk Off Entertainment was founded by Chris Ruediger, who also founded the creative community/promotional outlet The 615 House. The first releases under the new deal are expected in the first quarter of 2025; the company’s client roster includes Gareth and Abby Anderson. – Jessica Nicholson

Trending on Billboard

Record label LASAL announced a strategic distribution and joint venture partnership with Capitol CMG, marking “a new era in the faith-based music industry and a significant milestone for both companies,” according to a press release. Capitol will act as a partner in signing and developing artists alongside LASAL. “In Spanish, LASAL translates to ‘The Salt,’ which adds flavor and restores balance within the body,” Samuel Ash, founder of LASAL, said in a statement. “That is our purpose: to restore balance in the music industry while allowing artists to freely express their creativity and faith without limits. Capitol CMG shares this vision, and together, we believe we can inspire and impact the world.” – Griselda Flores

Independent distributor IDOL signed global partnerships with two labels: Brooklyn-based Mexican Summer (Cate Le Bon, Hayden Pedigo) and Dom Recs, a new imprint launched by Dan Petruzzi and Roxy Summers that is gearing up for its first album release, Twin Shadow’s Georgie. Both labels will receive global digital distribution, marketing and audience development services under their respective deals.

Tuned Global, a leading cloud platform for the music industry, partnered with AudioShake in a deal that will give Tuned Global clients access to AudioShake’s AI-based tools, including stem separation and lyric transcriptions. AudioShake technology is now available to Tuned Global’s white-label streaming applications and via Tuned Global’s advanced APIs.

Ticketing and live event marketplace Tixr partnered with full-scale event production company Social House Entertainment. Through the pact, Social House will integrate Tixr technology to optimize ticket sales and allow it to better manage merch, VIP experiences and other event services while streamlining the ticketing process. Social House is behind the popular multi-city Tacos and Tequila Festival and other events.

Tickets for Good, which offers affordable event tickets to healthcare workers, teachers, charity staff and others facing economic barriers, expanded into the Netherlands following launches in the U.S. and the U.K. The launch is being supported by Greenhouse Talent, ID&T, Mojo Concerts and This is Live, as well as ambassadors Robbie Williams and MassiveMusic founder Hans Brouwer. Led by Simone van Hövell and Linda Holleman, Tickets For Good Netherlands encompasses more than 30 healthcare institutions, reaching over 150,000 healthcare workers.

Live Nation Urban partnered with Black on the Block, a monthly vendor festival that highlights Black-owned businesses. Through the deal, Black on the Block will expand to seven cities in 2025, kicking off March 23 at Global Life Field in Arlington, Tex. Other new stops made possible by the pact include Houston, Atlanta, Detroit and Charlotte, N.C.

Ben Vaughn, president/CEO of Warner Chappell Nashville, died on Thursday (Jan. 30). A cause of death was not disclosed. He was 49.
The much-beloved Vaughn, who was Billboard‘s Country Power Players executive of the year in 2020, joined Warner Chappell Nashville (WCN) in 2012 and was promoted to president in 2017, adding the role of CEO in 2019. The Belmont University alumnus was honored with Belmont’s Music City Milestone Award in 2015.

Warner Chappell Music co-chairs Guy Moot and Carianne Marshall released the following memo to Warner Chappell Music staffers that read in part, “It is with broken hearts that we share the unthinkable news that Ben Vaughn, President & CEO of Warner Chappell Nashville, passed away this morning. Our deepest condolences are with his family and many friends.”

Under Vaughn, WCN had consistently dominated the country music publishing market. In 2024, they were crowned ASCAP Country Music and BMI Publisher of the Year (for the fifth time) and marked their third consecutive quarter at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay publisher rankings. Apart from Q3 of 2022 to Q3 of 2023, Warner Chappell Nashville had held the quarterly top spot, dating back to the first quarter of 2017. In November 2019, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC all named WCN their country publisher of the year — only the third time a publishing company has been honored as such, and a first for WCN.

Trending on Billboard

Among the singer/songwriters Vaughn worked with were Thomas Rhett, Zach Bryan, Chris Stapleton, Riley Green, Warren Zeiders, Hunter Phelps, Bailey Zimmerman, Jessi Alexander, Liz Rose, Josh Phillips, Thomas Rhett, Nicolle Galyon and Randy Montana.

The father of three was extraordinarily passionate about songwriters, especially developing ones, and relished helping young singer/songwriters find their voice and their first record deal. “There’s so many people that want that record deal, so helping someone get to that spot is one of the hardest things in the music business,” Vaughn told Billboard in 2020. “So the job is to take away the nos and help that person get to a place where you get a yes.”

Tributes poured in quickly. Jon Platt, chairman/CEO of Sony Music Publishing, who worked with Vaughn at EMI and then brought him over to Warner Chappell in 2012, said in a statement, “I am deeply saddened by the passing of my friend Ben Vaughn, and united in grief with the entire songwriting community.  Ben dedicated his life to songwriters.  As an exceptional leader and mentor, he leaves an indelible mark on the music business. I extend my deepest condolences to his loved ones and all who were touched by his spirit. I feel privileged to have known Ben and shared a close relationship with him. He was the best of the best and I will miss him greatly.”  

“Ben was warm, welcoming, and always someone that supported and elevated the American songwriter,” says Lucas Keller, president/founder of Milk & Honey. “The world will not be the same without him – this is a loss most cannot process today.  We met 15 years ago on my first trip to Nashville when he was at EMI, and I’ll never forget him.”

“Our hearts are heavy today in learning about the passing of longtime ACM Board Member and former ACM Board Chair, and good friend to all of us, Ben Vaughn,” added Damon Whiteside, CEO of the Academy of Country Music. “Ben was a champion of the country music genre and strong advocate for songwriters and good songs. He served as board chair of the Academy in 2018 and was the first music publisher to serve as chairman in the Academy’s history, in addition to serving on the ACM Lifting Lives board. On behalf of the ACM Board, ACM Lifting Lives Board, and the ACM staff, we send our condolences to Ben’s family, friends, coworkers, and all of those who crossed his path and were lifted up by his passion. His memory will live on forever through the great music he made happen.”

Vaughn grew up in the tiny community of Sullivan, Ky., and comes from “a proud tradition of coal miners, teachers and mechanics,” he told Billboard. As a high school student, he got a job as a weekend DJ at country radio station WMSK-FM, which set him on a path to Nashville. “I would devour the vinyl and read all the publishing and writer credits,” he told Billboard. “I thought, ‘I want to go where these people are.’ ”

That led him to Nashville’s Belmont University and an internship at WCN in 1994 under then-executive vp Tim Wipperman, who taught Vaughn the intricacies of publishing. While there, he got to know producer Scott Hendricks, whose Big Tractor publishing company had a partnership with WCN. Hendricks was so impressed with Vaughn that he eventually asked him to run Big Tractor — while Vaughn was still a college student. “He said, ‘I’m going to give you six months to see how it goes, but if you quit school, I’ll fire you,’ ” recalls Vaughn.

Through the decades, Vaughn remained in wonderment of songwriters and the new worlds they created. “It is awe-inspiring how much talent it takes to create something out of nothing that literally can make the whole world sing,” he said. “The most sacred responsibility is to help connect writers’ dreams to their goals. The fact that as publishers we are trusted to hold that space for them is everything.”

Moot and Marshall’s full memo to WMG:

To everyone at WMG,

It is with broken hearts that we share the unthinkable news that Ben Vaughn, President & CEO of Warner Chappell Nashville, passed away this morning. Our deepest condolences are with his family and many friends.

Ben has led our Nashville team since 2012, and we know that many of you around the world got to know him over the years. Anyone who had the pleasure of working with him will be as shocked and saddened as we are.

First and foremost, Ben was an extraordinary human being. He met everyone with enthusiasm, warmth, and generosity. His smile was huge, and his sense of humor was infectious.

He was always a passionate advocate of songwriters and a topflight music publisher. The Nashville community has lost one of its greatest champions, and he will be profoundly missed by so many across our company and the entire industry.

We are planning to visit the Nashville team very soon and thank you all for helping support them through this awful tragedy.

With love,

Guy & Carianne

This is a developing story.

While the Los Angeles wildfires have all but silenced the many parties and performances that were slated to precede the Feb. 2 Grammy Awards ceremony, legendary record man Clive Davis says his annual pre-Grammy gala — which he is calling his 50th — will still take place on Feb. 1, this time for a cause greater than celebrating the music industry. 
“Seeing the ongoing devastation that has been caused by the wildfires in Los Angeles, we feel strongly that the pre-Grammy gala should be a fundraising event to provide needed funds for all those affected, including many in the music community,” Davis says. “We are working closely with our longtime partners at the Recording Academy and will help support their MusiCares Los Angeles Fire Relief effort through fundraising at our event. We want to ensure that the evening will not only be a memorable night of music but will also provide impactful support for those very much in need.” 

A week before Davis, 93, made the decision to convert the gala into a philanthropic event, he spoke to Billboard about its origins in 1976 and some of the more memorable experiences he’s had at his soiree — which he calls “one of the most exciting aspects of my life” — over the last five decades. One of Grammy Week’s most coveted invitations, the gathering attracts a cross-section of celebrity that in previous years has included former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Kim Kardashian, Caitlyn Jenner, Beck, Serena Williams, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Dave Grohl, St. Vincent, Quincy Jones, Clarence Avant, Dua Lipa, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and “Weird Al” Yankovic. They come to mingle and watch musical performances by an unannounced lineup of acts that have included Whitney Houston, Dionne Warwick, Lainey Wilson, Jelly Roll, Gladys Knight and Green Day, to name just a few. 

Trending on Billboard

Clive Davis and Whitney Houston onstage at the 2011 event

Lester Cohen/WireImage

Davis says a documentary about the gala’s history by producers Jesse Collins and Rob Ford is in the works and will include never-before-seen footage from the event over the years. 

Now that invitations have gone out, what kind of response are you getting in light of the fires? 

The response is the strongest ever. But beyond that, the paramount concern is safety, health and getting out of this disaster. 

Your first gala was in 1976. What led to your decision to throw a party?

I started Arista. Obviously, you can only hope that your first record goes straight to the top of the charts, and that’s what happened [with Barry Manilow’s “Mandy”]. Barry then gets two Grammy nominations. He comes to me and says, “Where’s our party? Every label has a party the night of the Grammys.” I said, “You’re right, but Barry, we just formed. At best we’ll have one table at Chasen’s.” 

I thought, “I’ve got to come up with a different idea.” I decided to have our party the day before the Grammys. I invited everybody, and Stevie Wonder showed up, Elton John showed up and John Denver showed up. I said to myself, “My God, I think I’ve landed on a really compelling idea to celebrate the night before.” And that began the tradition. 

Barry Manilow (left) and Clive Davis at the 2016 Pre-Grammy Gala and Salute to Industry Icons.

Lester Cohen/WireImage

The evening always includes a budding star and at least one classic performer who blows the audience away. Where did that idea come from? 

In 2001, for the first time, I was going to introduce a best new artist category, and I told Alicia Keys, “I’ve got good news and bad news. I’m going to invite you to sing ‘Fallin’ ’ at my party.” This was before she broke. She said, “What could be the bad news?” I said, “Well, right before I introduce you, Angie Stone and Gladys Knight [are] singing ‘Neither One of Us,’ and I can’t let Gladys leave the stage without singing ‘Midnight Train to Georgia.’ ” I love that one of the great old-time performances will be followed by the introduction of a brand-new artist. 

Will the 50th anniversary be reflected in the party? 

There will be elements. We have some great performers who will show why over the 50-year period this evening is so unique. 

You will present Universal Music Publishing Group chairman/CEO Jody Gerson with the Industry Icon Award. Does she choose any of the performers? 

Yes, she’ll have one performer sing in her honor. 

If you could only pick one favorite memory from the gala, what would it be? 

At the height of Arista Records, there was a short-lived attempt to stop my earning capacity, which had been very considerable. I had to leave Arista and form J Records, which would mean I would no longer be working with Whitney Houston or Santana 30 years after signing him initially. That was the only year [2000] I had only two artists perform: Santana on the birth of Supernatural [the massive hit album Arista released in 1999] and Whitney Houston. The emotion I felt with her singing “I Believe in You and Me” and “I Will Always Love You” to me can never be duplicated. 

Have you thought that 50 years is a good number to step away from the party on a high note? 

We’ll deal with the future afterward. This evening is my paramount consideration.

Carlos Santana and Alicia Keys onstage at the 2005 gala.

Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Esha Tewari is taking the next big step in her career. The rising singer-songwriter has officially signed with Warner Music in collaboration with Atlantic Records, setting the stage for a massive year ahead.
The deal, announced today (Jan. 30), marks a pivotal moment for Tewari, who built an impressive following through TikTok and streaming platforms.

Trending on Billboard

“I am super excited to welcome Esha Tewari to the Warner Music family and to be working with Atlantic Records to take her music to a global audience,” Rosen said. “Esha is an incredible talent with a unique ability to connect with her fans through her songs, and I can’t wait to work with her to amplify her music and her authentic storytelling to every corner of the world.”

For Tewari, the decision to sign with Warner wasn’t just about major-label backing—it was about finding a team that aligned with her fiercely independent vision.

“I’m so excited to be a part of the Warner Music family,” Tewari comments in a statement. “From LA to New York, we met with executives who spoke about an evolving label system that now gives artists more ownership and control. Warner stood out as their actions matched their words.”

She continues, “Especially this early in my career, the deal I have done with Warner Music gives me the ability to remain hands-on with the whole creative vision, and allows me to remain the leader of my now expanded team.”

Tewari first started making waves in February 2024 by posting covers and original songs on TikTok, quickly amassing a loyal fanbase she calls “Tewarians.”

Her independently released single “Beautiful Boy” went viral, catapulting her to over 601,000 monthly Spotify listeners, 217,000 Instagram followers, and 172,000 TikTok followers.

Her success continued with the release of two EPs—i can and Better Off—which helped establish her indie-folk sound. Now, she’s gearing up for her third EP, led by the heartfelt new single “You Were Mine,” which has already racked up 17,000 TikTok creations using the original sound.

With her career gaining momentum, Tewari is preparing for a North American tour in mid-2025, but first, she’s returning to Australian stages this April and May for her second national headline tour.

If the demand is anything to go by, she’s becoming a serious live force—Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth have already sold out, prompting a second show in Perth, while Adelaide is nearing capacity. It follows her completely sold-out Australian tour in November 2024.

In December, Influence Media Partners, the music investing company backed by BlackRock and the Warner Music Group, joined the growing music industry trend of using asset-backed securitization to finance acquisitions and operations by raising about $360 million through a private placement in a deal lead by Goldman Sachs, sources say.
Besides the Influence Media deal, the waning months of 2024 also saw Concord raising $850 million through its third asset-backed bond offering run by Apollo Global Management in October; while Blackstone led a $1.47 billion securitization for its Hipgnosis Song Asset company. In each deal, the bonds and notes are collateralized by the music assets and income streams of the respective companies. The offerings from Concord and Hipgnosis have public filings with the appropriate regulatory agencies, but the Influence Media offering, as a private placement, does not have to file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

As interest rates rise, asset-backed securities (ABS) are expected to become increasingly popular funding vehicles for music companies because they have fixed, five-year interest rates. In the past, Concord CEO Bob Valentine has compared these securitizations to fixed, low-interest-rate loans.

Trending on Billboard

Influence Media co-managing partner Lynn Hazan, the former CFO for Epic Records, worked with BlackRock executives on the deal, according to sources.

Influence Media, which was founded in 2019, has since bought stakes in some 30 music catalogs, and in early 2022 received additional funding to the tune of $750 million provided by BlackRock and the Warner Music Group. The acquired catalogs include music by Enrique Iglesias, Future, Logic, Julia Michaels, Ali Tamposi, Tainy and Harry Styles collaborator Tyler Johnson. The new funding is expected to be deployed in buying more music catalog assets.

Initially, it looked like the Influence Media Partners asset-backed securities offering was slow in coming together as bond investors looked at the Concord and Hipgnosis offerings, but in the end, the Influence offering — which also had Truist as the co-structuring and co-placement agent — came together nicely for the New York-based music investment company, attracting funding from about a half-dozen investors, sources say.

01/29/2025

With 2025 in full swing, 18 top executives from across the music business share predictions for the year.

01/29/2025

From the late 1990s into the 2000s, “VH1 Save the Music” was a household name known for its annual Divas Live benefit concerts featuring such bold-faced icons as Aretha, Whitney, Mariah and Celine. But by the end of the 2010s, following the television network’s pivot to reality series like Love & Hip-Hop and Basketball Wives, the branding no longer made sense.
“In 2019, it was pretty clear strategically that going forward, the VH1 brand was not going to be part of our future,” says Henry Donahue, executive director at the Save the Music Foundation. As a result, “VH1” was dropped from the organization’s name that same year.

Far from being a disaster, unbundling from VH1 gave Save the Music new life, says Donahue — and in 2025, it’s arguably doing better than ever. According to Donahue, Save the Music’s annual operating budget in 2018 — the year before the VH1 name was dropped — was $4.7 million. Last year, that number had risen to nearly $11 million, including more than $1 million from a new $10 million endowment fund that the foundation formally announced on Wednesday (Jan. 29). (Save the Music notes the 2024 numbers are still unaudited.)

Trending on Billboard

The fund, of which $4 million has already been raised, will “ensure the cultural institution’s sustainability and long-term support for music education,” according to a press release. Notably, the endowment coincides with a formal split from Save the Music and VH1’s longtime corporate parent Paramount Global (formerly Viacom), though the entertainment giant has pledged an initial six-figure donation.

The breakup had been a long time coming. In the five years since it dropped the VH1 branding, Save the Music has substantially reduced its dependence on Paramount after the company opted to move away from social responsibility initiatives, the foundation says. By 2024, 95% of Save the Music’s organizational budget came from non-Paramount sources, with notable backers including tech and music industry behemoths like TikTok, Live Nation, Meta, Amazon and AEG Presents.

The split from Paramount marks the end of a long and productive relationship. Since it was founded by then-VH1 president John Sykes in 1997, Save the Music has donated more than $75 million worth of instruments and technology to over 2,800 school music programs in more than 300 districts across the U.S. and improved the educational fortunes of countless under-resourced students.

Sykes tells Billboard that the foundation came about after he visited Brooklyn elementary school P.S. 58 as part of a “principal for a day” initiative and, while sitting in on the school’s music class, “saw these kids playing their instruments [that] were held together with tape, literally tape, and strings missing on violins, and they didn’t care. They were so, so excited and so connected to the music… they had no idea that the instruments they were playing were falling apart.”

While speaking with the music teacher, Sykes (now president of entertainment enterprises at iHeartMedia and chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) learned that the music program would likely have to close down for lack of funds. “And I said, ‘Well, how much do you need?’” he remembers. “And she said, ‘Well, a lot — $5,000.’ I said, ‘You got it.’”

Sykes was particularly encouraged by something else the teacher said: That the children who played instruments tended to earn better grades in math and English. Around the same time, he read a magazine article that described how music “helps wire a kid’s brain.”

“I said, ‘Oh, my God. This is bigger than one school. This could impact the country,’” he says. “And VH1 was a national channel. So I went back to our team and I said, ‘We’re going to adopt more schools across the country and partner with our cable systems to raise money and start using the power of VH1’s reach to go and influence local governments not to cut music programs. And we’re going to raise money to fund those programs.’”

Soon enough, Save the Music had equipped roughly a dozen New York schools with musical instruments. When Sykes put in a personal call to President Bill Clinton, who had famously played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show during the 1992 election campaign, Clinton agreed to donate one of his saxes to an underprivileged school in Washington, D.C. When the President sent First Lady Hillary Clinton to hand the instrument over, says Sykes, “It became a national story.”

The foundation was formally unveiled in April 1997 during that year’s VH1 Honors awards show, which raised $150,000 for the organization and featured callouts from A-list artists touting the importance of music education. The following year, VH1 Divas Live — a once-annual concert special benefitting the foundation — was launched with Dion, Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain and Gloria Estefan and became a phenomenon, grabbing big ratings and even selling albums. (A series of commercially-released VH1 Divas albums sold a combined 1 million copies in the U.S., according to Luminate.)

In its current iteration, Save the Music makes a capital investment in between 100 to 150 school music programs in the U.S. every year, says Donahue. The foundation identifies districts to support via a rubric that looks at two primary factors: economic need, which accounts for everything from median income and racial demographics to free and reduced lunch rates; and readiness and willingness of the district to work with them, including by providing a certified music teacher. They also look at scale, preferring projects that allow them to target “30 or 50 or 100 schools all at once” in a district or a region, says Donahue.

The gradual de-coupling from Paramount brought opportunities and funding Save the Music otherwise wouldn’t have had. In 2021, the new paradigm “was validated,” Donahue says, when the foundation received a $2 million grant from MacKenzie Scott — the co-founder of Amazon and ex-wife of Jeff Bezos — “which we never would have gotten had we been VH1 Save the Music.”

The shift away from Paramount also allowed Save the Music to become much more responsive to communities’ needs, says Donahue. “[We wanted to] push towards a strategy where our work was much more community based,” he says. “So we were listening to the people in the communities that we served, as opposed to taking direction from the corporate parent or however we fit into the corporate strategy.”

Save the Music’s sought-after post-VH1 program is the J Dilla Music Technology Grant, which invests in music technology curriculums and equipment for elementary, middle and high schools in an effort to help train the next generation of producers, engineers, songwriters, DJs and more. Chiho Feindler, who has served as Save the Music’s chief program officer since 2008, says the grant allows kids to be trained early in the kind of behind-the-scenes jobs that can lead to real careers.

“We often talk about everybody wants to become the Jay Z…but there are a thousand other jobs behind that that can be equally, if not more satisfying,” Feindler adds.

“[It’s] our most-demanded program,” Donahue says of the J Dilla grant, which has gone to more than 100 schools, including “35 or 40” just during the 2024-25 school year. “That’s the thing that schools now ask about most often and it’s the thing that people in the music industry ask about most often.”

A more recent focus has been expanding the foundation’s grants for Latin music programs to encompass additional genres and styles beyond mariachi — another result of the new freedom and depth of engagement with communities made possible by the gradual split with Paramount. “Mariachi is really a small part of the Latin community,” says Feindler, “[but] mariachi is not a solution for all of the Spanish-speaking community.” (Full disclosure: Billboard recently hosted a fundraiser via Instagram for Save the Music’s “Miami Saves Music” project, which is aiming to invest in instrumental and music tech programs for roughly 100 public schools in Miami-Dade County by 2027.)

Feindler adds that Save the Music is also looking to offer more support to preschool and elementary school-aged music programs by providing kid-friendly instruments like xylophones and drums after focusing “for the longest time… on more of the band and stringed [instruments],” she says.

Another new initiative was announced on Wednesday: a giveaway campaign hosted on the charity platform Propellor that will allow fans to bid on more than a dozen auction items from artists including Sabrina Carpenter, The War and Treaty, Blake Shelton and Patti LaBelle to support the foundation.

Though Save the Music is far from its nationally televised Divas Live days, it still attracts A-list talent. In 2023, Ed Sheeran teamed with the foundation to surprise five schools with “pop-up” classroom visits while donating a portion of the proceeds from digital album sales from his Autumn Variations album, along with 100% of the ticket proceeds from an Amazon Live performance, to the organization. Last year, Save the Music also secured the support of Jelly Roll, who visited and performed at his former high school in Antioch, Tenn., and made a substantial donation to the foundation. And in October, Maren Morris, Brittney Spencer and Live Nation Women’s Ali Harnell were honored at Save the Music’s Hometown to Hometown benefit in Nashville, which raised more than $300,000 for music education programs in under-resourced public high schools.

With or without Paramount, Save the Music will continue to endure, says Sykes, because at heart it’s not just about learning to play an instrument but about giving kids a chance at carving out a successful path in life.

“This is not just, ‘Junior is happy because he’s playing the flute or the violin,’” he says. “That kid’s going to go to college, that kid’s going to do better, that kid’s going to stay in school, that kid’s going to feel better about himself or herself. There’s so many different positive outcomes of music education.”

As the music industry prepares to celebrate at the 67th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 2), the latest report from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative suggests that things for women in music are holding steady but not moving forward. The study is based on the year-end Billboard Hot 100 chart and Grammy nominations in key categories.
After documenting significant change for women last year, the Spotify-supported study finds that there was little movement in 2024. Women comprised 37.7% of artists across the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart last year, which is a bit better than 2023 (35%) and a significant improvement from 2012 (22.7%). More than a third (38.9%) of individual artists on the year-end chart were women, compared to 40.6% in 2023 and 35.8% in 2012.

“Women artists in 2024 saw little change,” Dr. Smith said in a statement. “In fact, it is the number of men that has declined while the number of women in 2024 was consistent with prior years. This suggests that it is fluctuations in the number of men, not gains for women that is driving these findings. For those interested in seeing change in the music industry, this is not a sign of progress.”

Trending on Billboard

The percentage of women songwriters on the year-end Hot 100 chart in 2024 was 18.9%, which was similar to the percentage in 2023 (19.5%) and significantly higher than the 11% of songwriters in 2012 who were women. Whereas women of color were responsible for the gains seen for women in 2023, this was not the case in 2024. Last year, the number of women of color represented on the year-end chart as songwriters dipped while the number of white women songwriters increased. Just over half (54%) of those songs featured at least one woman songwriter, on par with 2023 and significantly higher than 2012.

“While there may be movement in the independent space, the songs and charts evaluated represent the agenda-setting music that has the greatest opportunity to launch and grow a career,” said Dr. Smith. “Until the people in the executive ranks and A&R roles take seriously the lack of women in the industry, we will continue to see little change.”

Looking to producers of popular songs in 2024, once again there was no increase for women. A total of 5.9% of producing credits on the Hot 100 year-end chart were held by women, compared to 6.5% in 2023 and 2.4% in 2012. And of the 14 women producers on the year-end chart in 2024, only two were women of color. Across all 13 years of the study, 93.3% of songs lacked any women producers.

“Behind the scenes, women have not lost ground since the gains we saw last year,” said Dr. Smith. “However, the numbers are not growing. Programs like Be The Change, Keychange, She Is The Music, Spotify’s EQL, Women’s Audio Mission, and others are supporting talented women who are ready to take on opportunities. These numbers can continue to grow if the industry looks to these organizations and the many qualified women ready to work as songwriters and producers.”

Artist race/ethnicity was also assessed in the report. The percentage of artists of color (what the study calls “underrepresented artists”) on the year-end chart in 2024 (44.6%) fell significantly from 2023, when the number stood at 61%. Despite the decline, the percentage of artists of color remained on par with the proportion of the U.S. population that is people of color. Additionally, it was still meaningfully greater than 2012 (38.4%).

The drop affected both men and women of color, though the decline for women was steeper. In 2024, 40.8% of all women artists were women of color, while 46.9% of men were men of color. In 2023, nearly two-thirds of women on the popular charts were women of color (64.9%) as were more than half of men (59.4%).

The report also assessed Grammy nominations in the six categories that comprise the General Field: album, record and song of the year, best new artist, and producer and songwriter of the year, non-classical. According to Annenberg, just under a quarter (22.7%) of all nominees in these categories in 2025 were women, similar to 2024 (24%) and significantly greater than 2013 (7.9%).

The Annenberg analysis counts all nominees in album and record of the year, not just artists; in those two categories, producers, engineer/mixers and mastering engineers are nominated alongside artists. (There are no so-called “supplemental” nominees in the other four categories named above.)

This year, female solo artists took four of the eight nominations for best new artist, the same as last year. But last year, a male/female duo (The War and Treaty) was also nominated. That represents a slight drop for women this year, but women still had parity.

In song of the year, the number of female songwriters who are nominated inched up this year, from eight last year to nine this year.

Annenberg reports that the one nomination for a woman in the producer of the year, non-classical category represented a significant jump, as Alissia is only the second woman to be nominated in the category since the study began tracking nominations. (Linda Perry was nominated in the category six years ago.)

Meanwhile, four of the five nominees for songwriter of the year, non-classical this year are women: Jessi Alexander, Amy Allen, Jessie Jo Dillon and RAYE. The only male nominee is Édgar Barrera. This compares to just one female nominee last year.

“The Recording Academy has demonstrated that it can recognize the contributions of women to the music industry—this is clear through the increase we observed last year and that it has continued into this year,” said Dr. Smith. “The challenge now is to continue that growth and to see more women receiving acknowledgement of their talent and effort through awards like the Grammys, particularly for women in producing roles.”

The latest report from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative can be found here.

LONDON — Musicians and creator groups are calling upon the British government to take legislative action to help end the “endemic” misogyny, bullying and discrimination that many female artists still routinely face throughout the industry.
“We need a cultural change in the music industry… and the only way that can happen is if people are educated and there are consequences to their actions,” Charisse Beaumont, CEO of Black Lives in Music (BLiM), told a cross-party committee of MPs on Tuesday (Jan. 28).

Appearing alongside Beaumont at the Parliamentary session was singer-songwriter Celeste, classical soprano singer Lucy Cox and Naomi Pohl, general secretary of the U.K. Musicians’ Union, who all echoed calls for greater protections and support for women working across all sectors of the music business, particularly those in freelance employment.

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“What is most prevalent in my daily experience of being a female in the music industry is this idea of an ingrained bias or even an unconscious sexist bias,” Celeste told MPs.

“I think that all women will deal with it but there will be a scale of how much you [encounter it]. I can imagine that what I might experience might be different to an artist who is on a global scale and I know, for example, from some of my close friends and peers who are just starting out in music … [that they] experience things that I haven’t experienced when I have had the protection of already being established,” said the singer, whose debut album, Not Your Muse, topped the U.K. charts in 2021.

Beaumont called on the current Labour government to enact the original recommendations made by the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) in its highly critical report “Misogyny in Music,” published last January.

That report painted a damning picture of the music business as an industry “still routinely described as a boys club” where a “culture of silence” prevailed with many victims of sexual harassment or abuse afraid to report such incidents.

It followed an inquiry into misogyny in the U.K. music industry, which began in June 2022 and saw artists and executives give evidence, including senior executives from all three major labels, representatives of the live industry, former BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac and British pop singer and Ivors Academy board director Rebecca Ferguson.

In response, the committee made a number of recommendations, including banning the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and other forms of confidentiality clauses in cases involving sexual abuse, bullying or misconduct, as well as stronger rights for freelance music workers, nearly all of which were rejected by the then-Conservative government.

With Sir Keir Starmer‘s Labour Party now in power, musicians and artist representatives used Tuesday’s catch-up session with committee members as an opportunity to exert pressure on politicians to act.

In a statement, Beaumont said her organization had heard “hundreds” of stories from women about harassment they had faced in the music industry, including being “sexually assaulted by male artists, as well as promoters, [and] people assaulting women in music education” since the launch of its anonymous survey YourSafetyYourSay in April.

BLiM’s chief executive also described accounts of young women being pressured to take part in “almost naked casting videos” and feeling “pressured to drink and take drugs,” as well as “male producers grooming young female vocalists.”

Black Lives in Music reports that 71% of respondents to its anonymous survey feel that bullying and harassment is accepted as being part of the industry they work in and only 29% feel there are people in their U.K. music business who will protect them.

NDAs are frequently used to protect perpetrators, says the organization, which identifies a normalization of harassment and objectification of women in the industry, particularly Black women. These problems are often underreported, says BLiM, as women fear the consequences and lack of support.

“Often there is no recourse or accountability, so reporting incidents is futile as those doing the bullying control the narrative. It’s happening under their watch and they are too powerful,” said Beaumont in a statement following Tuesday’s session.

BLiM said its research into bullying and harassment in the British music business will be made available to the newly formed U.K. body The Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA), which has the remit of upholding and improving standards of behavior across the creative industries, including music, and is due to officially launch later this year.

UTA signed Mexican singer-songwriter Jasiel Nuñez. Managed by George Prajin, founder/CEO of Prajin Parlay and co-founder of Double P Records along with global superstar Peso Pluma, with whom he has a longstanding creative partnership. The Guadalajara native contributed to Peso’s 2023 album Génesis on tracks like “Laguna” and “Rosa Pastel,” the latter of which reached No. 24 on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart. In 2024, Nuñez also joined Peso on his Éxodo tour. Nuñez’s latest album, La Odisea — featuring collaborations with Luis R Conriquez, Tito Double P and Danny Lux — landed at No. 8 on Billboard‘s Top Latin Albums chart and at No. 6 on Regional Mexican Albums. “I’m excited and thankful to become part of the United Talent Agency family,” said Nuñez in a statement. “This marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter, and I’m ready to push música Mexicana to new heights.” — Isabela Raygoza
Americana music luminary Charley Crockett signed with Island Records and will release his upcoming 15th album, The Lonesome Drifter, with the label in March. In 2024, Crockett released the indie albums $10 Cowboy and $10 Cowboy Chapter II: Visions of Dallas. He is nominated for best Americana album at this year’s Grammy Awards. — Jessica Nicholson

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Alternative rock trio The Hunna (“Bonfire,” “She’s Casual”) signed with FLG, the recently launched imprint of Frontiers Label Group. According to a press release, the band has racked up more than 750 million streams since hitting the scene in 2015.

EaJ (“Car Crash”), formerly a member of the Korean rock band Day6, signed a global label deal with Position Music. Born Jae Park, eaJ is managed by Coulter Reynolds and Jerren Devine of Reynolds Management.

Metal/alt-rock singer-songwriter Violent Vira signed with Mom+Pop Music, which released her latest single, “Saccharine,” on Friday (Jan. 24) and will put out her next album later this year. Booked by CAA, Vira recently got off a 34-city tour and also played last year’s Sick New World festival.

Peso Pluma’s Double P Records added Mexican singer-songwriter Julian Mercado and legacy group Reynaldos de la Sierra to its roster. Both artists, plus newcomer Saul Villareal, will be managed by George Prajin, whose roster includes superstar Peso Pluma as well as Tito Double P, Santa Fe Klan and Gabito Ballesteros. “Double P Records is a place where artists can come to grow their careers, but also a place where they can feel at home with their family, their mentor, their manager and their friends all at once,” Peso said in a statement. Prajin added, “We are excited to be welcoming Julian, Reynaldos de la Sierra and Saul to our family. As fans of their music, we have been witnessing their drive to propel their career and are confident that with our team onboard we can help them grow even further than they ever imagined.” — Griselda Flores

Provident Entertainment/Sony Music has signed former American Idol contestant Madison Watkins to the label’s roster. Watkins, who has been making music since 2019, just released a new song, “Spin,” and is readying a new project for release in 2025. — Jessica Nicholson

Monument Records, in a joint venture with Sony Music, inked a deal with six-piece, Denver-formed band Clay Street Unit. Fronted by lead singer/guitarist Sam Walker, the group recently released the EP Introducing Clay Street Unit. — Jessica Nicholson

North Carolina-based Ramseur Management signed Americana singer-songwriter Jack Blocker, who is prepping his upcoming debut LP. The firm is led by Dolph Ramseur, long-time manager for folk band The Avett Brothers, and its roster also includes Amythyst Kiah, Big Richard and Colby T. Helms. Blockers’s day-to-day managers will be Morgan Deese Locklear and Lisette Rodriguez. — Jessica Nicholson

Nashville-based label River House Artists signed twin-brother duo The Kentucky Gentlemen to its roster. The band, composed of Brandon and Derek Campbell, has previously toured with The War and Treaty and been featured on songs by Will Hoge and Fancy Hagood. The duo recently released the song “Country Hymn.” — Jessica Nicholson

Composer Mara Keen signed with ABKCO Music & Records. Keen has contributed to film and TV projects including Netflix’s Princess Power and Scrappack Production’s Just One More Thing.