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The Grammy Museum announced today that on Jan. 25, it will begin offering free general admission for all visitors ages 17 and under. The new policy is expected to more than double the number of youths who visit the museum’s galleries each year.
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The new free-admission policy was made possible by the Stengaard Gross Family Education Initiative through a donation made to the Campaign for Music Education, a fundraising campaign launched in 2022. The Campaign for Music Education has recently surpassed its fundraising goal of $5 million. With this initial milestone now achieved, the Grammy Museum has doubled its fundraising goal to $10 million, which it hopes to reach in 2026.
“The Grammy Museum has always been committed to increase access to music education by reaching underserved communities where access to our museum and programming could make a huge impact,” Michael Sticka, Grammy Museum president and CEO, said in a statement. “Waiving admission for kids 17 and under will go a long way towards achieving that goal.”
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(Sticka, who has been leading the Museum since 2018, just renewed his contract to serve in this role until 2029.)
Additional funds raised through the Campaign for Music Education will expand the museum’s education and community programs, which have served more than 550,000 students through programs such as Grammy Camp, Grammy in the Schools and the Quinn Coleman Scholarship Fund. The Campaign for Music Education is co-chaired by such stars as Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Bruno Mars, Shawn Mendes, and Rosalía.
Additionally, as a result of the Campaign for Music Education, the Museum will unveil Sonic Playground, a new hands-on, permanent exhibit opening next month. Featuring 17 music-making interactives, Sonic Playground allows visitors to play different roles in the music industry, from rapper, singer, and producer to performer, music supervisor, and voice actor, and discover the myriad ways they could pursue a career in the music industry. Sonic Playground is made possible by a donation from Deborah DeBerry Long, dedicated to the legacy of Jim Long.
Additional donors to the Campaign for Music Education include the Ray Charles Foundation, Deborah DeBerry Long, the Living Legacy Foundation, the Natalie Cole Foundation, and BeatHeadz.
In a TikTok video from June, Charlene Kaye, an excellent guitarist and bass player, sits on a stool with an electric bass at a Guitar Center and plays Paul McCartney’s iconic riff from The Beatles’ “Come Together” — incorrectly. On purpose. Two men in flannel and sweatshirts quickly rush over to guitarsplain: “No, it’s bum, bum, ba, ba, DOO, bum.” “Yeah, there’s one other note.” “Higher.”
In this one-minute experiment, the artist and comedian demonstrated to her 71,400 followers how male guitarists often treat female guitarists, how music stores can be unexpected snake pits and why men have dominated the guitar market for decades. “I’m a millennial, so my haven after school was going to Guitar Center and playing all the guitars there for hours,” Kaye says. “I was a much worse guitar player back then, and I would always get looks from these dude-bros who were the gatekeepers of Blink-182 and John Mayer. I couldn’t be a girl in there without getting hit on or corrected.”
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But the guitar patriarchy is changing, Kaye says, and sales metrics in recent years bear her out. Guitar Center itself has been working, as the company’s vp of guitar merchandising Matthew Schneider puts it, to “make sure everybody’s treated nice.” During the pandemic, homebound would-be players shifted to purchasing new axes online, boosting industry sales and freeing women from having to interact with the so-called dude-bros in stores. According to the Fender Play app, 45% of new players in 2020 were female, a 15% increase from 2019. Last year, the number increased to 49%. “The growth is palpable and active,” says John Dolak of the National Association of Music Merchants.
Kaye acknowledges the 300-store Guitar Center, which she calls the “epicenter of white dude riffs,” has been improving its culture, including by spotlighting women players in catalogs and store windows. The retailer’s Hollywood store put on a splashy event in June to introduce Orianthi’s new Gibson SJ-200 and featured Joan Jett in TV ads and YouTube videos as a partner for the chain’s fall 2021 Guitar-A-Thon, among many other female-fronted events. In November, two months after singer Blu DeTiger became the first woman to collaborate with Fender on a signature bass, she posted a TikTok of an employee at Guitar Center, where she bought her first bass at age 7, helping her pull the instrument from the wall. “The store is for everybody, regardless of your skill level, regardless of your gender,” says Maria Brown, Guitar Center’s director of content, artists, events and social media. “It needs to be an open environment where it’s supportive for whatever you’re trying to check out and buy.”
For decades, the male-dominated guitar industry was much less inviting, female players say. Lzzy Hale, guitarist for hard-rock band Halestorm, recalls taking lessons at 16 from a male teacher, who told her mom afterwards, “I would love to teach your daughter, but traditionally, women don’t stick with it, so I don’t want to waste my time.” (Hale says her mom recalled years later that she dutifully “told him off.”) In the ’80s, when Sue Foley was starting her career playing biker bars, she says, “You’d just get dudes saying, ‘Show us your tits!’” But the veteran blues guitarist has older guitar-playing brothers and has never let such crude commentary bother her: “I always say, you’re going to get in the ring, you have to be ready for it. Don’t expect to get an easy ride. This is guitar. This is tough. It’s hard to play guitar, it hurts your fingers, there’s a lot of things about guitar that might trip up a girl who’s not used to that more rugged approach. You’ve got to be tough.”
The guitar industry, in general, has spent the last few years honoring women — and trying to attract them as customers. H.E.R. and Susan Tedeschi (Fender), St. Vincent (Ernie Ball) and Miranda Lambert (Gibson) are among the guitar heroines who’ve released signature models in recent years, and Gibson named Hale its first-ever brand ambassador in 2022. Dominating everything, as always, is guitarist Taylor Swift, whose “effect on society,” says Jim D’Addario, founder/board chairman of guitar strings company D’Addario, has been to see to it that “many more young ladies are picking up the guitar.”
According to Brian T. Majeski, principal at The Music Trades, which analyzes musical-instrument sales data, Swift-inspired female guitarists are part of a “wealth of anecdotal evidence indicating that numbers have been trending up the past decade.” NAMM’s Dolak adds, “Historically, the guitar-playing universe used to be dominated by men. However, these numbers have changed at a breakneck speed since the pandemic.”
Although the Music Trades Association projects 2025 global guitar sales to hit $19.9 billion, which would be an increase of 15.7% since the pandemic-boosted $17.2 billion in 2020, many in the industry fear revenue declines. “The industry is really kind of dormant, or actually declining 2% to 3% a year,” D’Addario says of musical instruments in general, explaining that guitar players who lose interest sell their instruments on eBay, where they compete with Fender and Gibson, rather than storing them forever in their basements and attics. Regarding guitars, Majeski adds, “The business is soft right now.”
So companies that make and sell guitars have emphasized women, in part for cultural and gender-equity reasons, but also in part to expand their business to a broader demographic. In 2022, Andy Mooney, Fender’s CEO, told Entrepreneur that the company experienced an uptick in guitar sales to women during the pandemic. “Women were buying guitars online because in the brick-and-mortar stores there was nobody to relate to, and they weren’t getting treated well,” he said at the time. Fender did not respond to interview requests for Mooney or other representatives, but the company has taken small steps to acknowledge women guitar players in recent years — like adding Tedeschi’s green model to its male-dominated signature collection in June.
Gibson, too, has featured women in recent campaigns, including its G3 mentorship and scholarship program, whose participants include many women. On a broad level, the iconic company known for masculine players such as Led Zeppelin‘s Jimmy Page and The Who‘s Pete Townshend has been spelunking its history, focusing on unsung female Gibson players such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Mary Ford, guitarist in a legendary ’40s duo with husband Les Paul. “When it comes to the guitar, men are expected to be good, and women aren’t expected to be good. That’s just been the way it is, for a long time,” says Emily Wolfe, a singer and guitarist who narrates an official Gibson video for the recent launch of Ford’s Les Paul Standard. “When you have a woman who’s really good at it, it’s like, ‘Yeah, we’ve been here for a long time — look at Mary Ford.’”
The concept of a pop superstar like Swift encouraging young women to pick up guitar is by no means new. Bonnie Raitt had this effect twice — first when she emerged as a folkie singer-guitarist in the early ’70s, then when she scored hits in the late ’80s. (Foley cites Jennifer Batten, Michael Jackson‘s lead guitarist, as a similar influencer for female players.) “The environment was always, ‘Men excel and women are stumbling along behind,’ but Bonnie Raitt was disproving every stereotype from day one,” says longtime blues guitarist Rory Block. “She was so dynamic and so strong, and I immediately said, ‘This is good, this is possible, women can do this.’ She paved the pathway for women — for me.”
But despite the influence of artists like Swift and the guitar industry’s appeals to female customers, social media has perhaps had the biggest impact on this sales demographic. Mallory Nees, senior social media manager for online musical-instrument retailer Reverb, says she took up guitar at age 11 in Whitewater, Wisc., where the local music store displayed posters exclusively of male stars.
It took a move to Chicago, as an adult, for Nees to learn about female players like St. Vincent and Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker. Today, she says, girls and women everywhere can purchase instruments on Reverb and “improve their technique through YouTube videos and TikTok videos and creators that they trust and this whole ecosystem exists online anonymously and is fundamentally judgment-free, which was definitively not the case when I was learning to play.”
Elizabeth Heidt, Gibson’s chief marketing officer, adds that many women see YouTube and Instagram as a “safe space” for guitar playing, compared to music stores, which carry an “intimidation factor.”
“Those other spaces allow people the freedom to play, to share, to grow and see themselves,” she says. “That was a big shift.”
Hale explains the changing guitar culture a different way. “It was only a few short years ago I was playing festivals overseas, and I was the only woman on the bill,” she says. “We’re still losing some battles on the way, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”
“This is our music,” Hale adds. “We’re not playing rock music [and] we’re not playing guitar because our boyfriends think it’s hot. We’re not doing it because we’re trying to prove something that girls can do. We’re doing it because we want to have ownership over the music that we love. We want to rage.”
Raphael Saadiq is partnering with the USC Thornton School of Music as the inaugural member of the Dean’s Creative Vanguard Program, Billboard has learned exclusively. Under the leadership of dean Jason King in conjunction with key USC Thornton instructors, the Grammy-winning artist, songwriter, producer and instrumentalist (D’Angelo, Solange, TV series Insecure) will mentor students through spring 2025.
In this new role, Saadiq will work closely with the senior students in Thornton’s pop performance program to help them develop and refine their original songwriting and live performance skills. Also collaborating with Saadiq will be USC faculty member and artist/producer Tim Kobza. A special showcase featuring the student creatives will take place at El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on March 9. Select USC Thornton students will have the opportunity as well to obtain additional firsthand experience in the creative process and music production by working with Saadiq at his esteemed Blakeslee Recording Studio.
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In the wake of earning four nominations in the upcoming 67th annual Grammy Awards for his contributions to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter — including album and song of the year (“Texas Hold ‘Em”) — Saadiq recently met and visited with the Thornton students. “I was thrilled to hang out with the Thornton music students and the faculty members who so graciously make this program work,” he tells Billboard. “I was surprised and somewhat nervous for a second; it took me back to my time as a student at YMP, the Young Musicians Program at the University of Berkeley, Calif.
“The students at USC had great questions, well-thought out and clever,” adds Saadiq, a founding member of the seminal ‘90s R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné! “That’s all I needed to hear to get my wheels spinning. The insights and experiences I’ve gathered could be beneficial as we share, grow and inspire each other. Here’s to the great exchange of ideas and the bright future we’re building. I look forward to the next wave of great musicians and songwriters at USC.”
Raphael Saadiq and Students
Dario Griffin/USC
Officially launching in 2025 under the direction of USC Thornton School of Music dean Jason King, the Dean’s Creative Vanguard Program is an initiative designed to foster creative interaction between a wide-ranging group of distinguished music artists and Thornton students. Masterclasses, workshops, private instruction and public discussions are among the collaborative efforts comprising the initiative. As the announcement release further notes, each artist selected for the Creative Vanguard Program will “exemplify the following qualities: creative leadership; culture-defining impact; collaboration; interdisciplinary exploration; innovation and experimentation; and representation of musical continuum (artists whose work bridges the past, present and future of music).”
Additional members of the Dean’s Creative Vanguard Program will be announced over the course of the year.
In announcing the program and Saadiq’s involvement, King stated, “Raphael Saadiq, in my opinion, is one of the MVPs of popular music of the last 40 years. He has excelled at incredibly high levels as a songwriter, as a producer, as a performer and so much more. He’s a visionary in the music industry, so what a joy to be able to bring him to meet the students, to work with the students who are graduating, to help them with their songs, to help them with their arrangements and their productions, and to be able to give them some guidance as they move into their professional careers post-graduation.”
Sean Holt, vice dean of USC Thornton’s contemporary music division and a musician/producer, added, “We’re just really excited tw have an icon like Raphael Saadiq work with us this semester, coming in to co-teach and co-supervise our seniors as they prepare for their senior showcase in the spring. The students got to meet Raphael not only as a maestro but as a fellow practitioner and a fellow traveler, and he shared so openly from the heart. It was so inspiring. We’re looking forward to his impact on our population as they get ready to make their final statement at their senior showcase.”
Over the past decade, vinyl has grown from a can-you-believe that comeback story to a serious business. Vinyl sales revenue in the U.S. grew 10% in 2023 to $1.4 billion, the same size as the market for Latin music. (The latter brings in far more money overseas. So, over the last few years, to feed demand, labels have started to release a growing array of products, from “collectible” color variations of hit pop albums to high-end products aimed at the audiophile market.
Rhino Entertainment, the catalog division of Warner Music Group, will announce today (Dec. 10) that it is launching a new premium reissue series, Rhino Reserves. The albums will retail for $31.98, with a level of quality higher than many reissues, for a price lower than higher-end audiophile reissues from Mobile Fidelity, which licenses albums from labels, or the company’s own Rhino High Fidelity albums. The first two albums, out Jan. 31 as part of Rhino’s annual Start Your Ear Off Right promotion, are Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel’s 1977 album Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs and New Orleans icon Allen Toussaint’s 1975 Southern Nights.
One impetus for Rhino Reserves is the success of Rhino High Fidelity, an audiophile line that sells for $39.98 online, in numbered editions of 5000 (although the company often releases more unnumbered albums, if demand is high). The High Fidelity releases are sourced from analog tape and pressed on high-quality vinyl, and a few have sold out, including box sets of Doors and ZZ Top albums.
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“This is High Fidelity without the bells and whistles,” says Rhino senior director of A&R Patrick Milligan. “But these are in retail,” unlike the Rhino High Fidelity releases, which are only sold online. Milligan says the series will be sourced from analog masters, with the same attention to detail as the High Fidelity Series, and that the records will be pressed at Fidelity Records Pressing, the new plant owned by company behind Mobile Fidelity reissues. (The High Fidelity series is pressed at Optimal, in Germany.) They will be cut by mastering engineer Matthew Lutthans, although the first two releases will be done by Chris Bellman.
There is already some competition at this level. Blue Note has done well with its audiophile Tone Poet jazz reissues, as well as a high-quality but lower-priced set of reissues. Mobile Fidelity, which has been releasing high-end reissues for decades, is now more active than ever, as is Analogue Production. Both of those companies license the rights to reissue albums from the labels that own the rights.
Rhino Reserves will not release albums on a particular schedule, and the hope is that it will feature some hard-to-find classics, like the first pair of reissues, both of which are beloved by crate diggers but hard to find in high-quality pressings. Reissue buyers seem to be becoming a bit more varied in their tastes, as the generation that grew up with songs from the sixties gives way to one raised on seventies and eighties music.
CD Baby, one of the biggest do-it-yourself distribution services in the industry, laid off members of its creator services team last week, a source close to the matter tells Billboard. Responsible for providing customer support, this team is now being “consolidat[ed]” in an effort to “re-allocat[e] resources” within the company, says a spokesperson for CD Baby.
News of CD Baby’s employment cuts echo the recent news that Distrokid was placing 37 union employees responsible for quality control and customer service on “administrative leave.” These roles were to be outsourced to contractors, located internationally. Its other competitor, TuneCore, was recently sued by UMG in a landmark $500 million lawsuit for allegedly allowing its users to distribute songs that clearly infringed on UMG’s copyrights to streaming services.
Over the last year or so, a number of music businesses, even beyond the realm of DIY distribution, have restructured their companies, leaving hundreds, if not thousands, of music professionals on the search for new jobs. This year alone, UMG completely restructured its recorded music division, laying off hundreds of employees. WMG followed suit with similar restructuring of Atlantic Music Group and layoffs. WMG also shut down LEVEL, one of its distributors. In late 2023, BMG laid off “dozens” in its film/tv, theatrical and international marketing departments.
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A spokesperson for CD Baby replied to Billboard’s request for comment, saying: “In an effort to support the changing needs of artists and the industry, we are consolidating certain CD Baby functions within Downtown and re-allocating resources towards long-term growth opportunities. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the elimination of certain roles and positions at CD Baby. We want to recognize the achievements of these staff members during their tenure with CD Baby. Their dedication to innovation helped CD Baby to become a globally recognized leader in the distribution space. Going forward, we will stay committed to this music-first and pioneering approach, building the services that benefit artists today and in the future.”
CD Baby has helped independent musicians get their music out since its founding in 1998. In the intervening years, it has become one of the pioneers and leaders of the DIY distributor market, democratizing the music business and opening it up to musicians of all backgrounds. CD Baby, and the other services owned by its parent company AVL Digital Group, sold to Downtown Music Holdings in 2021 for a reported $200 million dollars. At the time, CD Baby’s then-CEO Tracy Maddux said of the deal: “This transaction will allow us to take the services we offer the independent music community to the next level.”
This year, the two biggest players in live music, AEG and Live Nation, put energy and resources into making power sources at live events, and festivals in particular, cleaner and greener.
This largely took the form of batteries, with the option to use batteries to power not just the errant parking lot light but full mainstage operations becoming real with the evolution of technology, as driven by the electric vehicle industry.
The effect was felt at the highest levels, with Lollapalooza in August becoming the first major festival in the U.S. to power its mainstage using battery power. Meanwhile AEG/Goldenvoice, which has been experimenting with battery systems for a few years with lower-priority power needs, had a breakthrough year in 2024 through a hybrid system that uses industrial-tier batteries, clean generators, biodiesel, solar and grid power to dramatically reduce “scope 1” emissions at events. (“Scope 1” refers to the emissions created by power sources at the event itself, versus a scope 3 emission that would include carbon emitted by fan travel to and from shows.) The hybrid system from AEG/Goldenvoice saved the use of more than 6,000 gallons of diesel fuel (truly, stop for a second to consider how much that is) at its Portola Festival in San Francisco alone. This same system at Camp Flog Gnaw in L.A. in November ended up being, the company said, Goldenvoice’s “cleanest energy festival to date.”
What’s also encouraging is that huge and longstanding festival energy providers like CES Power are also looking at ways to implement battery systems and starting to shift inventory to include batteries.
These aren’t yet perfect systems. Batteries still must be charged by generators, with the standard diesel-chugging kind still primarily used for this charging. Plus, these systems are still more expensive than traditional power sources, which can make it hard for producers to use them even with the best intentions. But with industry leaders putting time, money and attention towards these projects, there’s reason to believe the trickle-down effect will happen in time as prices across the battery industry come down and technology advances.
When it comes to sustainability, there’s a lot of industry talk about freely sharing information about the stuff that’s working, given that this work is so important for the industry and humanity at large. And yet, one gets the sense that a competitive spirit is still driving some of this innovation within the perpetually-competitive live events world, which if true feels like a welcome battle to wage.
Spotify continued its remarkable run this week by briefly surpassing a $100 billion market capitalization before falling slightly by the close of trading on Friday (Dec. 6). The company’s shares rose 4.5% to $498.63, marking the music streamer’s second-best closing price ever. The best closing price of $502.38 came on Wednesday (Dec. 4) when Spotify reached a new intraday high of $506.47, valuing the Swedish company at approximately $100.8 billion.
The $100 billion threshold arrived the same day Spotify launched its 2024 Wrapped, the personalized, data-driven product that breaks down listeners’ streaming time and ranks their most popular artists and tracks. Wrapped, first launched in 2015, has become both a major media event and an immensely successful product that listeners share incessantly on social media.
At Friday’s closing price, Spotify has gained 165.4% in 2024, making it the only music company to have a triple-digit gain. This improvement is three times higher than that of Live Nation, which has risen 46.1% this year. Cloud Music is close behind with a 44.2% gain year-to-date.
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With a valuation of more than double the next-largest music company, Spotify is a major driver of the 20-stock Billboard Global Music Index, which rose 2.8% to an all-time high of 2,280.51. That brings its year-to-date gain to 48.7%. Ten of the 20 stocks were gainers while nine lost ground and one was unchanged. Radio companies, buoyed by iHeartMedia’s 14% gain, led the way with an average gain of 5.9%. Streaming companies posted a 4.4% average gain. Live music companies were essentially flat. Multi-format companies (record labels, music publishers) fell 2.1% on average.
Most other streaming companies were gainers this week. Tencent Music Entertainment rose 10% to $11.54. Cloud Music increased 9.7% to 129.40 HKD ($16.63). LiveOne jumped 6% to $0.88. Deezer improved 2.9% to 1.37 euros ($1.45). Abu Dhabi-based Anghami fell 6.8% to $0.73.
On the live front, MSG Entertainment improved 1.6% to $36.26 this week. The company announced on Tuesday (Dec. 3) that it spent $25 million repurchasing its Class A common shares due to their price “relative to the company’s long-term growth potential.” Elsewhere, Live Nation fell 1.1% to $140.26 while Sphere Entertainment Co., which announced additional Dead & Company dates this week, fell 5.1% to $40.27.
In other noteworthy stock moves this week, HYBE dropped 3.2% to 214,000 won ($150.15) after news broke that South Korean authorities are investigating chairman Bang Si-hyuk for possible violations of the country’s Capital Markets Act. The move came after a report claimed Bang had a secret agreement with shareholders prior to HYBE’s initial public stock offering that gave him a $285 million profit when the company went public in 2020. HYBE shares fell 6.7% over the two trading days following the news report but recovered more than half its losses later in the week. Other K-pop stocks fell in unison with HYBE. JYP Entertainment dropped 5.2%, YG Entertainment lost 5.8% and SM Entertainment sank 7.5%.
Elsewhere, stocks were mostly up globally. In the United States, the Nasdaq composite rose 3.3% and the S&P 500 gained 1%. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 improved 0.3%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index grew 2.4%. Dragged down by political turmoil, South Korea’s KOSPI composite dropped 1.1%.
A year that could have been sleepy ended up hosting a slew of massive deals, from starry catalog acquisitions to top-dollar asset-backed securities deals.
Drop that stylus on this week’s stacked Executive Turntable, Billboard’s compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music.
Read on for some very personnel news and don’t forget to cast your vote for the Power 100 Players’ Choice Award, plus peruse our annual list of the industry’s savviest financial advisers, our weekly interview series spotlighting a single c-suiter and our calendar of notable industry events.
SoCal concert promoter Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG Presents, announced the retirement of its senior vice president, Susan Rosenbluth. With a career spanning six decades, Rosenbluth has worked with artists like Elton John, Talking Heads, BTS and Van Morrison, among others. She began her career at the Greek Theatre in 1978 and became its general manager by 1982. She later managed concert presentations at various venues for Nederlander, including the Pantages Theatre, the Pacific Amphitheatre and the Honda Center, and became a talent buyer in 1995. In 2003, Rosenbluth joined Goldenvoice, overseeing talent buying for concerts across California, Alaska, Hawaii and Arizona. She also spearheaded the Latin concert promotion division and became a key figure in promoting K-pop acts in North America, including BTS and BLACKPINK. She also co-chairs AEG’s Women’s Leadership Council and has received numerous awards, including from Billboard and Pollstar. “My work life has been filled with so many meaningful experiences, due to the Goldenvoice concert promotion team, artists and their crews who come together to present these events,” said Rosenbluth, “I am grateful to the people of the concert community.” Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett added: “Susan is a legend… that goes without saying. But she also charted a new course for Goldenvoice musically and made us better for it.”
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Goldenvoice has promoted Lea Swanson to vp of talent, where she’ll oversee booking for the Mountain Winery, contribute to talent buying at key Los Angeles venues like the Peacock Theater and Shrine Auditorium, and book shows in across multiple markets in California and Hawaii. Based in San Diego, Swanson will report to COO Melissa Ormond. Swanson brings over 25 years of experience in talent buying, including 17 years with Goldenvoice parent AEG Presents. Her career began in 1999 at Viejas Casino, where she helped develop a 1,500-capacity concert venue. She has since booked a wide range of events, from small clubs to full-size arenas, and worked with venues like the Rady Shell, Humphreys Concerts by the Bay and Pechanga Resort Casino. Stoked for her new role, Swanson emphasized the can’t-pass-up opportunity to grow within the mega-market just north of her. “After over 17 years with AEG Presents in my home market of San Diego and supporting numerous casino clients, I feel fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to step into this elevated role,” she said. “A year after accepting the lead booking role at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, having the chance to grow and promote shows in one of the primary music markets in North America was an opportunity I had to take.”
Bill Walshe is Sphere Entertainment‘s new executive vp and global head of venue operations and development. The hospitality industry veteran will lead operations at the mothership in Las Vegas, while also running point on developing a global network of other orbs the world over. Reporting to Jennifer Koester, president and COO, Walshe will lean on his skillset to enhance the guest experience at Sphere. Walshe’s career includes leadership positions at Viceroy Hotel Group, The Doyle Collection and Jumeirah Group, where he oversaw sales, marketing, and innovation initiatives. Koester praised Walshe’s expertise in international markets, citing his ability to align with Sphere’s ambitious vision. “Sphere is a global destination for immersive experiences unlike anywhere else,” said Koester. “Bill’s expertise across premier brands in international markets will be an asset as we continue to deliver an unparalleled experience for guests, artists, and partners at our Las Vegas venue, while pursuing our long-term growth goals for this next-generation entertainment medium.”
The New York Philharmonic appointed Matías Tarnopolsky to president and CEO of the storied symphony, effective New Year’s Day. Currently leading The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, Tarnopolsky has held prominent roles at Cal Performances, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He previously served as vice president of artistic planning at the New York Phil from 2005 to 2009. Board co-chairmen Peter W. May and Oscar L. Tang praised Tarnopolsky’s innovative leadership and strong relationships within the artistic community. Gustavo Dudamel, the Philharmonic’s incoming music and artistic director, expressed confidence in their shared vision for the orchestra. “I vividly remember when Matías came to Caracas in 2006 and, from that moment, I knew that I had met someone who would become one of the most important leaders in our industry,” recalled Dudamel. Tarnopolsky said he looks forward to returning to the Phil, inspired by its newly renovated David Geffen Hall, Dudamel’s leadership and plans to elevate the Philharmonic’s cultural impact and foster inclusivity. “We will rededicate ourselves to the New York Philharmonic’s contemporary place in the cultural and civic life of New York, for all New Yorkers, to create an inclusive, expansive, and joyful musical future,“ he said.
Rachael Stoeltje will become chief of the Library of Congress‘s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, beginning in January. She’ll oversee the Packard Campus in Virginia, managing the world’s largest collection of films, TV programs, radio broadcasts and sound recordings, focusing on acquisition, preservation and accessibility. Previously, Stoeltje directed Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive, leading its expansion and film digitization and preservation efforts. As president of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, she championed diversity and global cooperation in media preservation. Library of Congress associate librarian for researcher and collections services Hannah Sommers praised Stoeltje’s career as “visionary” and “laser-focused on the future and leading by example.” Stoeltje emphasized tackling challenges like AI’s impact on archival authenticity and global archival risks. “The big issues on the horizon are an important part of our future work, along with preserving and making accessible our nation’s moving image and sound recording cultural heritage,” she said.
Capitol Records tapped Sam Breslin as vice president of marketing, a bump-up from his previous role of senior director. In his elevated position, Breslin will continue crafting and implementing strategies for a wide array of newer and legacy artists at the legendary label. Having joined Capitol over a decade ago as a coordinator, he has since contributed to significant successes for Lewis Capaldi, The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Niall Horan, Norah Jones, Good Neighbours, Beck and more.
Venu Holding Corporation (VENU) named Terri Liebler as its chief marketing officer. With 30 years of experience in sports and entertainment, Liebler previously served as senior vp in Live Nation Entertainment’s media and sponsorship division, where she led strategic planning and innovative growth initiatives. During her 22-year tenure at Live Nation, she played a key role in expanding U.S. and international venue and festival platforms and cultivating partnerships. Liebler’s career also includes roles with the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics and San Antonio Spurs, as well as work on the Premium Seat operations team for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. VENU’s founder and CEO, J.W. Roth, praised Liebler’s passion and leadership, anticipating she’ll bring with her “an unrelenting enthusiasm and dedication for our brands that will undoubtedly drive our unparalleled venues to new heights.”
VENU also announced that Live Nation Entertainment veteran Will Hodgson has been its president since October. He spent 13 years at LNE, where he led House of Blues Entertainment, overseeing 20 venues, 17 restaurants, and seven cocktail lounges. His background also includes investment banking and developing ticketing solutions for major festivals. “Will is a rockstar, he will do an incredible job quarterbacking our strategic growth and operations,” said J.W. Roth. “His unique expertise across live music, finance, ticketing, food and beverage, and real estate development is a powerful fit for our vision.”
Nashville-based music publishing company Little Extra Music hired Victoria Goodvin to represent the company’s catalog. Goodvin’s career includes time at Song Factory Music, Wide Open Music, Liv Write Play and Row Entertainment. Also joining the team is Tristan Scaife (son of Little Extra Music co-founder Joe Scaife), who will work alongside Goodvin. LEM was founded in 2013 by Scaife and Lisa Ramsey-Perkins. The company’s catalog features more than 100 cuts, including the four-week Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper “She Got the Best of Me,” and the Walker Hayes-recorded “You Broke Up With Me. Writers Rob Snyder, Tia Sillers, Kylie Sackley, Will Bowen and Kelsey Waters are represented in the catalog. –Jessica Nicholson
NASHVILLE NOTES: PLA Media appointed Krista Dykes as senior media relations manager. Dykes began her career in 2007, contributing to communications projects in online insurance and inside the country music industry. She most recently served as media relations manager for the Country Music Association from 2015 to 2023, fostering relationships with national media and TV affiliates, and she’s the founder of the Secret Mom Hacks podcast and Mom Boss Mastermind, a virtual networking group for entrepreneurial mothers … O’Neil Hagaman, LLC promoted Tiffany Wiggers to principal, where she will influence the Nashville firm’s productivity and growth while continuing to serve her diverse client base. Wiggers, who began as an intern in 2004, is a current member of the Tennessee and Nashville Bar Association’s Entertainment Divisions, as well as the Gospel Music Association and the Country Music Association.
Big Loud Rock appointed Jenn Essiembre as senior vp of A&R. Reporting to Big Loud partner Joey Moi and GM Lloyd Norman, Essiembre will lead the label’s A&R strategy, focusing on talent identification and development. Essiembre previously served as vp at 300 Publishing, a division of 300 Entertainment, where she signed and developed artists and songwriters like Sean Momberger, Hunxho and Spencer Jordan. Her career began at ole Music Publishing, where she facilitated placements for stars like Sam Smith, Justin Timberlake, and Maluma. Essiembre expressed enthusiasm for her new role, aligning with Big Loud Rock’s artist development values, while Moi praised her energy, expertise and vision. “From our first conversation, I knew she’d be the right fit for this role,” he said.
Independent publisher OTM Music has appointed Emmy Feldman as U.S. head of A&R. Feldman brings extensive music experience, having helped open the Brooklyn outpost of Rough Trade before spending seven years in A&R at Atlantic Records and Canvasback Music. She then moved to Heavy Duty, where she managed a roster of songwriters, producers, and artists, including Buddy Ross and BJ Burton. In July of this year, she joined OTM, managing a roster that includes Dot Da Genius, Metronomy, Sub Focus, Still Woozy and Hemlocke Springs. OTM Music, launched by CEO Alex Sheridan in 2017, supports a roster of songwriters who have collaborated with SZA, Travis Scott, and A$AP Rocky. Recent high-profile deals include Kid Cudi producer Dot Da Genius, Sub Focus, and partnerships with artists like Sudan Archives and HONNE. Operating in London, New York, and Los Angeles, OTM also named Kristin Genovese as U.S. Head of Sync and added Kate Sweetsur and Ethan Mizen to its UK A&R team.
Hook, a new AI-powered social music app centered on remixes and mashups, expanded its leadership team with four key appointments. Katerina Kosta, formerly of TikTok/ByteDance and Jukedeck, joined as head of AI to develop ethically-trained AI tools that enhance music creativity while ensuring fair artist treatment. Grammy-nominated engineer Prash Mistry is now head of audio development and UK general manager. Karan Bhatnagar, previously head of digital at Three Six Zero management, stepped in as head of artist and creator strategy to support artist campaigns. Ed Pak, with a decade of industry experience and involvement in Saavn’s acquisition by Reliance Jio, is taking on the role of head of business development and Partnerships. The app, launched on Apple’s App Store this fall, also announced new offices in Los Angeles and London.
SILO Music appointed Marcy Bulkeley as head of sync A&R and music supervision of the publishing, management and sync house. Bulkeley will manage sync licensing and music supervision for film, TV, motion picture advertising and emerging media through her venture, Subtle Mother Music Supervision Services. With over 25 years of industry experience, she is known for her expertise in music curation and creative collaboration. Previously, as vp of sync A&R at Universal Music Group, she led custom music and remix projects, earning Clio awards and Guild of Music Supervisors nominations. SILO Music’s CEO, Jack Ormandy, praised Bulkeley’s innovative approach as aligning with the company’s mission to create elevated experiences through music. Under her leadership, SILO aims to expand its reach, delivering bar-none music curation and sync services to clients across multiple industries.
Bootleg, a company specializing in high-end concert recordings, appointed Rohan Adarkar as an equity advisor. The longtime entrepreneur is tasked with helping the company by leveraging his expertise in scaling entertainment tech products and building partnerships with global music stakeholders. In 2003, Adarkar co-founded txttunes, an early text-to-pay service for DRM-free MP3 downloads, which partnered with the American Association for Independent Musicians during the 50th Grammy Awards before its acquisition in 2007. Adarkar also founded totally different, a B2B consultancy, and advises the New Zealand government and its Ministry of Arts and Culture. He is a trustee of the Click Foundation, supporting education initiatives.
Splice appointed Jeff Roberto as senior vp of marketing, tasking him with leading global marketing initiatives and expanding the platform’s presence for musicians. Roberto brings extensive experience, including leadership roles at Nodle, DistroKid, and Picsart, where he helped drive a $130 million funding round and a $1 billion valuation. His career also spans Shazam, Napster, MAGNIFI and Astralwerks Records. Roberto aims to enhance Splice’s impact through innovative AI tools and brand growth. CEO Kakul Srivastava commended Roberto’s industry expertise and commitment to creative communities, emphasizing Splice’s AI roadmap as transformational.
Various Artists Management elevated Rebecca Dixon to global head of marketing & general manager UK. Dixon, previously head of marketing and promotions, will now split her time between VAM’s London and LA offices, reporting to CEOs David Bianchi and Matt Luxon. In her expanded role, Dixon will oversee UK marketing and audience development, deepen her involvement in LA, and strengthen partnerships across Europe. Over her decade-long tenure with VAM, she has led innovative campaigns for artists like Ashnikko, Tom Grennan, and The Libertines. Her promotion follows her recognition as the Trailblazer: The Richard Antwi Award winner at the Music Business UK Awards.
Fixated, a digital entertainment company launched in early 2024 by former BMG North America president Zach Katz and creator economy exec Jason Wilhelm, has added key hires to its executive and talent management teams. Jeff Shaivitz (svp of business and sales), Kou Chaichian (vp of brand partnerships) and Daniel Coughlan (head of content development) bring extensive expertise to support the company’s growth. Additionally, new talent managers Anooj Desai, Kasia Turek and Kyle Rooney have joined to oversee Fixated’s growing roster of top digital creators.
ICYMI:
Cara Donatto
Cara Donatto is appointed evp of media strategy for Atlantic Music Group, overseeing publicity and communications strategy and execution … BMG promoted Katie Kerkhover to the role of svp of A&R, Frontline Recordings in North America … Troy “Tracker” Johnson is launching TRACK mgmt following nearly 10 years with Big Loud … Sony Music UK hired former UMG exec Azi Eftekhari as its COO, in charge of key areas, including the label’s Commercial Group. [KEEP READING]
Last Week’s Turntable: UMG Touts Liszt of Promotions in Classics Group
Paul Robinson, Warner Music Group’s executive vp/general counsel, will be recognized on Friday, Jan. 31, when the Recording Academy Entertainment Law Initiative (ELI) hosts its annual Grammy Week luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. Robinson will receive the 2025 ELI Service Award.
“As a part of its mission, the Recording Academy works to advocate for creators, and the Entertainment Law Initiative advances this through legal representation, celebrating the achievements of entertainment law practitioners, and providing year-round educational opportunities to cultivate future leaders in the field,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “Paul exemplifies these values, and we are proud to honor him … for his three decades at Warner Music Group, where he has championed fair practices and guided the industry through transformative changes.”
Robinson joined Warner Music Group’s legal department in January 1995 as associate general counsel. In December 2006, he was appointed to his current role, in which he is responsible for WMG’s worldwide legal, business affairs, public policy, compliance and corporate governance functions. Before joining WMG, Robinson was a partner at the New York City law firm of Mayer, Katz, Baker, Leibowitz & Roberts.
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The Entertainment Law Initiative was established by the Recording Academy to foster discussion on legal issues shaping the music industry. Each year, the recipient of the Service Award is selected by the ELI’s executive committee.
The ELI Grammy Week Luncheon also recognizes the winner and runners-up of the Entertainment Law Initiative writing competition.
Individual tickets, along with a limited number of discounted student tickets, will be available for purchase on Wednesday, Dec. 11. For more information, visit https://www.recordingacademy.com/entertainment-law-initiative.
Grammy Week culminates with the 67th Annual Grammy Awards at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, Feb. 2, broadcasting live on CBS and streaming live and on-demand on Paramount+ from 8-11:30 p.m. ET/5-8:30 p.m. PT. Prior to the telecast, the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony will be held at the Peacock Theater at 12:30 p.m. PT/3:30 p.m. ET and be streamed live on live.Grammy.com and the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel.