Business News
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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).