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Susan Wojcicki, a pioneering tech executive who helped shape Google and YouTube, has died, her husband said. She was 56.
Wojcicki played a key role in Google’s creation and served nine years as YouTube’s CEO, stepping down last year to focus on her “family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about,” she said at the time.
She was one of the most respected female executives in the male-dominated tech industry.
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Her collaboration with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin began shortly after they incorporated their search engine into a business in 1998. Wojcicki rented the garage of her Menlo Park, California, home to them for $1,700 a month, cementing a formative partnership. Page and Brin — both 25 at the time — continued to refine their search engine in Wojcicki’s garage for five months before moving Google into a more formal office and later persuaded their former landlord to come work for their company.
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Wojcicki joined Google, now known as Alphabet, as its marketing manager in 1999 and served in various positions as Google grew its online advertising presence by acquiring YouTube in 2006 and DoubleClick in 2008. She served as Google’s senior vice president of advertising and commerce from 2011 to early 2014 and CEO of YouTube from 2014 to 2023.
“Her loss is devastating for all of us who know and love her, for the thousands of Googlers she led over the years, and for millions of people all over the world who looked up to her, benefited from her advocacy and leadership, and felt the impact of the incredible things she created at Google, YouTube, and beyond,” Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a note to employees.
Former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who was vice president of Google’s sales and operations from 2001 to 2008 before decamping to Facebook, said in a Facebook post that Wojcicki was formative in her tech career.
“She taught me the business and helped me navigate a growing, fairly chaotic organization at the beginning of my career in tech,” Sandberg wrote. “She was the person I turned to for advice over and over again. And she was this person for so many others too.”
Her husband, Dennis Troper, announced her death in a social media post late Friday.
“My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after 2 years of living with non small cell lung cancer,” he wrote.
“Susan was not just my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to many,” Troper said.
No other details of her death were immediately provided.
Wojcicki and Troper’s 19-year-old son, Marco Troper, died in February at the UC Berkeley campus where he resided as a freshman student.
During a chaotic week for stock markets around the world, Universal Music Group (UMG) shares rose 3.3% to 22.15 euros ($24.20), enough to make the Amsterdam-listed company the top-performing music stock of the week.
Stocks were hammered on Monday (Aug. 5) as markets reacted to a disappointing U.S. jobs report the prior Friday (Aug. 2), leading to mounting concerns the economy could fall into a recession. The Billboard Global Music Index fell 2.0% on Monday, though it experienced a lighter decline than both the Nasdaq (down 3.4%) and the S&P 500 (down 3.0%). Investors didn’t panic, however, and markets made gains over the remainder of the week. On Friday (Aug. 9), the Nasdaq closed down 0.2% for the week while the S&P 500 broke even.
UMG received a boost on Wednesday (Aug. 7) from Warner Music Group’s quarterly earnings report — a welcome change after a second-quarter slowdown in UMG’s streaming growth so worried investors that the company’s shares fell 24% the following day. WMG’s latest earnings results, which showed that recorded music streaming revenue grew 8.7% after a few adjustments, may have convinced some UMG investors that they overreacted. In light of this new information, UMG shares jumped 6.6% to 22.74 euros ($24.85) on Wednesday. Notably, this Friday’s closing price is 14% above the lowest closing price — 21.12 euros ($23.08) — since the 24% decline occurred on July 25.
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WMG shares rose 0.3% to $28.34 this week after the company announced that quarterly revenue dropped 1% and net profit improved 14%. The third-largest major’s streaming gains satisfied some, but not all, analysts. Morgan Stanley analysts cited “lowered streaming growth outlook” in lowering their price target to $35 from $41. Guggenheim, encouraged by WMG’s subscription revenue growth acceleration and performance relative to UMG, maintained its $44 price target. JP Morgan, which sees WMG as “well positioned” to capture paid streaming adoption, left its $41 price target unchanged.
The Billboard Global Music Index, a float-adjusted measure of 20 companies’ market capitalizations, rose 3.1%, breaking a streak of four consecutive weeks with a loss. Spotify, the index’s largest component, gained 2.6% to $339.69. Tencent Music Entertainment, which will report earnings on Tuesday (Aug. 13), rose 2.8% to $12.97.
In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 declined 3.6% to 8,168.10. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index fell 3.3% to 2,588.43. China’s Shanghai composite index dropped 1.5% to 2,862.19.
iHeartMedia shares fell 10.7% to $1.33 following the company’s second-quarter earnings on Thursday (Aug. 8). The company reported a 1% increase in second-quarter revenue and sounded optimistic that political advertising will provide a boost to the full-year results. Both third-quarter and full-year revenue are expected to be up by mid-single digits.
Shares of radio broadcaster Townsquare Media dropped 5.8% following the company’s second-quarter results on Tuesday. Revenue fell 2.5% and net loss increased to $48.9 million from $2.7 million in the prior-year period. Its $0.14 earnings per share missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.42.
Dozens of top artists and songwriters have objected to Donald Trump‘s use of their songs at political rallies since he first ran for president in 2015 — among them The Rolling Stones, Adele, Rihanna, Sinead O’Connor‘s estate and Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler.
“Consider this s— shut down right now,” Johnny Marr said in January when Trump played The Smiths‘ “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” at several rallies. After Trump used Sam and Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Comin’” at a 2022 NRA rally, its co-writer, David Porter, was even more succinct, tweeting: “Hell to the NO!”
But artists’ record for successful song takedowns has been spotty. After Tyler’s reps sent multiple cease-and-desist orders objecting to the use of Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” they received the following response from law firm Jones Day: “Without admitting liability, and to avoid any future dispute … the Trump Campaign will not use your client’s music,” the letter read in part.
Yet as recently as July 31, in Harrisburg, Pa., Trump has been using “Hold On, I’m Comin’” to close his rallies — prompting the estate of co-writer Isaac Hayes to announce it would take legal action. According to James L. Walker Jr., an attorney for Hayes Enterprises, the estate is “investigating” the Trump campaign’s use of the song and is considering a lawsuit. “Everything’s on the table,” he says. “It is most unfortunate that these artists have publicly posted on their social media and asked Team Trump and other candidates not to use their music — and yet their candidates keep using their music.”
(The Trump campaign did not respond to interview requests.)
For artists and songwriters, the objection process is simple and the rules straightforward. Performing rights organizations BMI and ASCAP require political campaigns to obtain licenses to use songs in their catalogs (which is to say, almost any recognizable song). “That license gives the campaign the right to use any one of our musical works in our entire catalog wherever their campaign or function works,” says a BMI rep. (According to rules from both ASCAP and BMI, a venue’s public performance license is not enough to cover a campaign’s use of the song — it needs to obtain a separate political license.)
A “caveat” in the license allows songwriters to object to usage in a political campaign, the BMI rep adds: “When we receive an objection, we can pull a song from the campaign’s license.”
Does that stop a political campaign from playing the song at a rally? Not necessarily. “They don’t care as much about artists’ rights as perhaps you’d want,” says Larry Iser, who was an attorney for Jackson Browne when the singer-songwriter sued Republican candidate John McCain for using “Running On Empty” in a 2008 commercial. (They settled, and McCain apologized.)
“It’s not just the Trump campaign,” Iser adds. “Most political campaigns aren’t keen about just taking the song down.”
So what do artists and songwriters typically do in this scenario? For starters, their lawyers send cease-and-desist letters to the campaign. They also complain to reporters, creating negative media coverage. In 2020, The Rolling Stones threatened the Trump campaign with a lawsuit for playing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” at rallies, while Neil Young sued over the campaign’s use of “Devil’s Sidewalk” and “Rockin’ in the Free World” at events. (After the 2020 election, Young voluntarily dropped his suit “with prejudice,” meaning he cannot refile the same claim again. Trump appears to have stopped using the Stones song at his rallies, and the band was never reported to have followed through on its legal threat; representatives for the Stones did not respond to questions.)
While “no artist wants to spend money on litigation if it can be avoided,” says Iser, they also want “to be sure fans understand the artist is not supporting that particular candidate.”
The issue gets more complicated when campaigns stream their rallies online via YouTube or another website. In those cases, the song use would almost certainly require an additional synch license, plus permission to use a recording, and probably a mechanical license, too. “Your ASCAP license does not cover you making a copy and redistributing it over the internet,” says Eleanor M. Lackman, a partner and copyright attorney at law firm Mitchell Silberberg and Knupp. As for social media sites, which generally have licenses with major labels and publishers for users to broadcast songs in their feeds, a TikTok spokesperson said the company would respond to a rightsholder’s request for a takedown depending on the type of use and the song’s contractual situation: “If a licensed rightsholder submits a takedown request, it will be subject to review and — if appropriate — we may take action to mute the track.” (A rep for Meta declined to comment.)
Trump has been uniquely unfazed by artists’ legal threats and criticism, but these conflicts had been coming up for years prior to his first presidential run. In 1988, George H.W. Bush‘s campaign used Bobby McFerrin‘s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” as a presidential campaign theme, but McFerrin, a supporter of Bush’s opponent Michael Dukakis, complained — and the campaign eventually stopped using the song. In 2008, Sam Moore of Sam and Dave asked Democratic candidate Barack Obama to stop using “Hold On, I’m Comin’” at rallies because Moore didn’t want it to appear like he was endorsing a candidate for president — and Obama’s campaign complied.
In other words, these types of conflicts are hardly new. “Every four years,” Lackman says, “this is the big topic.”
One of pop music’s biggest breakouts stole the show at Montreal’s Osheaga Music & Arts Festival last Saturday (Aug. 3). It’s rare to see the festival grounds packed at 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon – especially on a day with a heat warning – but for the celebratory queer pop of Chappell Roan, fans were willing to take the heat.
She was booked for the festival last fall, but since then, the Midwest Princess has exploded in popularity, opening for Olivia Rodrigo and charting six songs on the Billboard Hot 100. Her afternoon slot felt mismatched to her current stature, but Chappell made the most of it, turning in a performance that hit harder than Green Day’s headline set later that night.
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The set followed a similarly frenzied performance at Lollapalooza two days earlier that reportedly broke attendance records. At one point, Chappell made an honest mistake that also reminded the crowd where she should have been on the lineup. “Tonight, we’re going to,” she began – before remembering it was the afternoon.
“She’s the only reason that we’re here today,” said one Montreal fan named Maria. She discovered Roan a year-and-a-half ago on TikTok, and said she got emotional during “Pink Pony Club.” “It’s so nice to have everybody here,” Maria added, “we’re here for the same reason: to support an amazing queer artist and to live in each other’s queer joy.”
More than 147,000 music fans packing into Parc Jean-Drapeau for Osheaga’s three days – the festival’s second-highest attendance in its 17 years. Fans packed in to see sets by acts like SZA, Green Day and Noah Kahan, creating a big-ticket atmosphere. It was also hampered by the later revelation of a tragedy, with one festival-goer found drowned in the Olympic Basin at Parc Jean-Drapeau after leaving the Osheaga grounds. An investigation into the death is underway.
Other highlights included breakout Canadian musician TALK (who’s especially big in Quebec), a rain-delayed set by British singer RAYE, a charismatic performance by Tyla and a Hozier set for a rapt audience in which he called for a ceasefire and “a Palestine free from occupation.” -Rosie Long Decter
Shaboozey Hits 10 Weeks At No. 1 on Billboard Canadian Hot 100
Someone pour him up a double shot of whiskey: Shaboozey just hit a chart milestone in Canada.
The Virginia singer has notched his tenth week atop the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 with “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” The song is also still on top in the U.S., though only for its fourth week.
Shaboozey
Daniel Prakopcyk
In Canada, it’s the clear song of the summer. Briefly knocked from its top spot by Morgan Wallen and Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help” and then Eminem’s “Houdini,” “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has held the spot consecutively since the week of June 22.
It’s maybe an unusual candidate for song of the summer, less peppy and optimistic than “I Had Some Help” or Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” But “A Bar Song” has a folk-country sound that’s always done well in Canada and a thematic depth that helps it resonate.
The song interpolates J-Kwon’s 2004 hip hop track “Tipsy,” replacing its synth line with an acoustic guitar strum. Shaboozey transforms a hype track for the club into a melancholy country anthem about working too hard and not making ends meet. It’s no surprise that “A Bar Song” is connecting widely amidst a cost-of-living crisis.
(It also helps that one of Shaboozey’s primary challengers for song of the summer in the U.S., Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” isn’t as popular in Canada, for obvious reasons).
The 10-week achievement adds to Shaboozey’s list of accomplishments in a year when he has featured on Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter and is set to headline a North American tour for the first time. He’ll play Toronto on Sept. 13 and Quebec City on Sept. 14. –RLD
MRG Group and Paquin Entertainment Group Hire New Executives
Canadian venue management, concert promotion and hospitality company, MRG Group has announced the hire of Robyn Kaszor as director and senior talent buyer.
Based in Montreal, she joins the company from Just For Laughs where she spent the last 18 years, most recently holding the post of vp of festivals with oversight of the company’s festivals in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
The company produces 1100+ shows per year in North America, selling approximately 500K tickets. The company also owns and operates six venues, including The Vogue and Queen Elizabeth theatres in Vancouver and Adelaide Hall in Toronto.
Paquin Entertainment Group, meanwhile, has announced the appointment of media and television executive Andrew Akman as its chief operating officer.
Based in Toronto, Akman is expected to leverage the company’s status as a global, multi-platform entertainment business to produce large-scale events, exhibitions, and theatre, film, and television productions. Paquin is currently in development on several talent-driven projects for broadcasters, streaming platforms, and live audiences, according to the Aug. 6 announcement. Akman has held senior roles at Cineflix Media, Shaw Media, Canwest Media, Alliance Atlantis Communications, and co-founded the television production company Husk Media.
Paquin Entertainment Group, led by Gilles Paquin, has 45 years of experience managing and representing talent and producing film, television, theatre and immersive exhibitions. Akman’s appointment follows Paquin’s acquisition of the Canadian arm of APA as it continues to build on its momentum, now representing more than 350 artists.
Paquin, chairman & CEO, of Paquin Entertainment Group, said: “Andrew’s expertise in media and entertainment and his entrepreneurial spirit make him an ideal fit for Paquin as we continue to expand the range and scale of our global businesses in artist representation, immersive exhibits, live events, brand partnerships, and theatre, film and television.”
[Billboard Canada has a strategic partnership with Paquin.] -David Farrell
Welcome to another edition of Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music. While you’re here, we also have a weekly interview series spotlighting a single executive and a regularly updated gallery honoring many of the industry figures we’ve lost throughout the year.
Adam Muhlbaum is the newly minted general manager of Big Noise Music Group, the pop/punk label home of The Used, The Veronicas, girlfriends, Goldfinger and more, Billboard can announce. In Muhlbaum’s Los Angeles-based role, an upgrade from his gig as senior vp of marketing and project management, he’ll zero in on A&R, licensing and brand partnerships while also overseeing royalties and administration for the label’s roster, which also includes iann dior, Escape the Fate and MOD SUN. Prior to joining BNMG in mid-2018, Muhlbaum spent more than five years at BMG, where he led production runs for major releases from Blink-182, Janet Jackson, Iron Maiden and more. He also had a stint as head of digital sales and operations at Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak. As part of the transition, Muhlbaum will pass day-to-day operations to Heather Castillo, the label’s vp of marketing, and Josh Cohen, manager of label operations.
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Big Noise Music Group was launched in 2018 by former Vagrant Records head Jon Cohen and Goldfinger members John Feldmann and Nick Gross. “Adam has been with us since day one and has consistently proven his value and expertise while still making Big Noise a positive, productive home for our artists and writers,” said Gross, who is also CEO. “The sky’s the limit for our whole amazing team.”
Muhlbaum added: “Helping to build Big Noise for the past six years alongside Nick, Jon, Feldy, and our incredible label team has been a true highlight of my career and more fun than I ever could have imagined. Our next chapter will be focused on bringing broader creative opportunity to our entire roster — current and future.”
Universal Music Publishing Group picked veteran branding executive Alix Kram as the company’s first head of marketing. In the newly created global role, which she’s held since November, Kram oversees marketing efforts at the publisher with a focus on creative storytelling in order to, as UMPG COO Marc Cimino states, “enhance the incredible stories our songs tell and bring them to life.” Additionally, Kram works closely with Bravado, Universal’s merch specialists, to create strategic opportunities for the UMPG catalog. Prior to joining the Universal fam, Kram spent a year-and-a-half leading a retail business development and marketing team at Netflix. Before that, the NYC-based exec spent seven-plus years at Warner Music Group, where as head of global brand licensing and retail she and her team developed creative opportunities for roster artists including Grateful Dead and Wiz Khalifa. She is also the founder of theKRAMcollective, a boutique marketing and branding agency specializing in experiential storytelling, whose clients have included Hasbro, HBO, Atari and others. She reports to Cimino and chairman/CEO Jody Gerson, and also Bravado president Matt Young. “Upon first meeting [Gerson and Cimino], it was clear that they have created a truly global and unique culture – a force in the industry which leads with a passion for songwriters and champions the expertise of the people that make up the company,” said Kram.
ASM Global did some local hiring and promoting in Arizona, naming Ralph Marchetta to regional vp of live entertainment and elevating Melissa Wasson to general manager of State Farm Stadium. Marchetta, previously GM and svp of Footprint Center in Phoenix, has the mighty task of booking both the Desert Diamond Arena and State Farm across Maryland Ave. in Glendale. “He is well-respected by all, and now we have him playing for our team,” said Jason Rio, ASM Global svp of live entertainment and content development. Wasson joined the stadium staff in 2006 back when it was University of Phoenix Stadium and for the last 13 years has served as assistant GM. She has a lifelong connection with the stadium’s biggest tenant — the Arizona Cardinals — given she’s a native of St. Louis, the team’s former home. “Her decades of in-depth experience will prove invaluable as she continues creating unparalleled memorable experiences that thrill locals and visitors,” said Doug Thornton, executive vp.
Across the pond, ASM Global shifted industry veteran Ed Sanderson from a Singapore-based role, where he’s been working on the massive Kai Tak Sports Park project, to executive vp of business for Europe and the UK. Poor guy has to move to Milan, where he’ll be based as he bounces around Europe in support of ASM’s plans to expand its footprint there. “Living by my personal philosophy of ‘biting off more than you can chew and chew like crazy,’ I’m eager to get started, learn, and make a meaningful impact for our customers, clients, partners, and colleagues,” he said.
Former ASM Global executive Roger LeBlanc joined Romeo Entertainment Group as vp of sales development. With decades of experience, LeBlanc most notably founded and led booking and talent buying agency Madison Entertainment before its sale to ASM in early 2023. “Roger’s vast knowledge and his commitment to mentorship will not only enhance the capabilities of our sales team but also propel our growth and set new standards for excellence in our company and the broader industry,” said R.J. Romeo, president and CEO. LeBlanc can be reached at rleblanc@romeoent.com.
courtesy of FivePointFive
Jelena Grozdanich is the new vp of music at FivePointFive, a music-centric welltech app launching soon that will offer live and on-demand classes of functional breathwork. Grozdanich (GROWS-duh-nitch) is coming off a 10-year run at Sony Music Entertainment and Columbia Records, where she rose to director in the latter’s film and TV licensing division. While at Sony/Columbia, she represented a who’s-who of influential artists including Beyoncé, Adele, Miles Davis, A Tribe Called Quest and Elvis Presley, among others. During this decade, she also founded her own talent management firm (Guardian MGMT) and wellness community (TheSecret.LA). Grozdanich is based in Los Angeles. “We are excited to welcome Jelena as our vice president of music at FivePointFive to head up our music division,” said Adam Ludwin, CEO. “Jelena’s love of music, combined with her passion for wellness has led to her being seen as a key figurehead for wellness within the music industry over the last 10 years, so we are thrilled to have her as part of the team.”
CAA promoted Blair Adour, Jibran Ahmed and Sam Reisman to agent roles in the company’s global touring department. All three come from CAA Elevate, the agency’s agent trainee program, and they’ve all put in the work: Ahmed joined CAA in 2018 in the music crossover division before being upped to professional last year; Reisman started in 2019 as an assistant in the music touring division and most recently worked as a coordinator; and Adour joined as a professional in 2021 following a stint at Paradigm. Adour and Reisman are based in New York while Ahmed is in Los Angeles.
Capitol Christian Music Group (CCMG) promoted three executive staffers. Emily Dashiell has been promoted to senior vp of commercial partnerships, Jeff Gunkel has been upped to svp of market development, and Carlos Monnaco has been elevated to svp of finance. Dashiell will oversee the company’s revenue strategies across its portfolio and continue to focus on partner activations with DSPs while guiding the label business across global distribution, e-commerce/D2C, catalog marketing, and more. Gunkel will oversee areas of market development and digital rights, as well as Re:Think Records. Monnaco’s responsibilities expand to include oversight of financial planning and analysis, royalty accounting, and IT. Among the artists on CCMG’s roster are Chris Tomlin, Amy Grant, TobyMac, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, and Crowder. –Jessica Nicholson
Canada native Jenn Dobbins joined BMG as senior vp of rights and royalties in the music company’s U.S.-based copyright and royalties hub in Nashville. Dobbins previously handled asset operations for JKBX, a music investment platform, and earlier she spent six years at Big Machine Label Group, where she rose to director of royalty accounting and income analytics. Throughout her 18-year career in the field, she also made stops at payroll platform Exactuals and Sony Music. At BMG she reports to Eric Scott, evp of rights administration and royalty services, who pointed out her “extensive expertise, deep knowledge, and proven experience in managing complex rights and royalties.”
RADIO, RADIO: Susie Hedrick was named CEO of WideOrbit, a San Francisco-based tech platform that helps broadcasters buy and sell advertising. She replaces founder Eric Mathewson in the role … Nashville Harbor promoted Ryan Dokke to senior vp of streaming and digital partners/radio promotion from vp of promotion and marketing. The label also bumped Andrew Thoen to director of streaming and digital partners/radio promotion from director of Northeast promotion and marketing.
Jessica Roffe joined SoundExchange as associate director of the industry relations team. Roffe has years of artist relations, brand marketing, TV/film production and royalty distribution experience, and joins the collective rights organization following roles at MTV, BMI, NBCUniversal and her own AsUWISH Productions. She is based in Miami and will report to Doug Cohn, vp of artist & label relations. “Excited to be part of the band!!” she said.
Musicians On Call, which brings live and recorded music to hospitals and other health care facilities, announced five new members: Aniket Adhikari as technology manager, Michael Blazer as operations manager, Gabi Coccio as strategic partnerships coordinator, Taylor Leibold as fundraising coordinator and Jennie O’Rourke as digital marketing coordinator. “The talent and experiences Aniket, Michael, Gabi, Taylor and Jennie bring to their roles will take MOC to a whole new level,” said MOC president & CEO Pete Griffin. “I’m confident that the innovative ideas they’ll bring to the table will have a great impact on our mission.”
ICYMI:
Julie Greenwald
Julie Greenwald, one of the most celebrated and influential executives in the music business, will step down from her role as co-chair and COO of Atlantic Records and chairman and CEO of Atlantic Music Group. 10K Projects founder Elliot Grainge will take over the music group-wide role on Oct. 1, while Greenwald will officially exit the company early next year. The announcement arrived days after Warner Music announced it would be undergoing a major restructuring, with CEO of recorded music Max Lousada stepping down soon and Greenwald transitioning to chairman.
Last Week’s Turntable: Mammoth Launches Touring Division
Warner Music Group (WMG) reported strong quarterly profit growth on Wednesday (Aug. 7) thanks to lower costs and solid revenue gains from streaming subscriptions and digital — which helped offset a drop in physical revenue due to release timing and a difficult year-ago comparison, according to the company. All of that led to a boost in the company’s stock, which had risen nearly 2% by the end of trading on Wednesday (though some of those gains were shaved on Thursday).
“Our strong subscription streaming growth in [the third quarter] was driven by the performance of our music and healthy industry trends,” Warner Music Group chief executive Robert Kyncl said in a statement. He added, “Our commitment to long-term artist development, combined with a flatter structure in recorded music, will enable us to super-serve talent and set WMG up for sustained future growth.”
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Here’s what else you should know about the third-largest music company’s latest quarterly earnings call.
A positive note on the company’s strategic reorganization
Kyncl kicked off the call by thanking outgoing leaders Max Lousada and Julie Greenwald and welcoming incoming Atlantic Music Group CEO Elliot Grainge while providing more detail on how WMG’s recently announced global structure will work.
“We’re making changes from a position of strength, and I’m happy to say that we’re firing on all cylinders across new releases, catalog, distribution and publishing,” Kyncl said. Read more about his comments here.
Strong subscription growth across streamers
Overall streaming revenue was up 5% for WMG this quarter, with recorded music streaming revenue up 8.7% — reflecting growth in subscription revenue of 7%. That was welcome news to investors: Warner’s stock spiked around 6% earlier in the trading session on Wednesday before settling at a gain of nearly 2%.
On the call, Kyncl was asked about the sources of WMG’s subscription streaming revenue after other music companies reported less stellar growth on that metric this quarter. That included Universal Music Group (UMG), which saw a 24% drop in its share price after reporting that overall streaming revenue fell 4.2%, leading UMG executive vp of digital strategy Boyd Muir to suggest that streamers like Apple Music and Amazon Music are struggling to add new subscribers.
Kyncl said WMG’s revenue mix has remained largely the same and cautioned the financial community to resist viewing Spotify as a proxy for the music industry. “It’s much more diversified [than Spotify],” Kyncl said.
WMG’s subscription streaming revenue is projected to grow in the fourth quarter, with that growth remaining “consistent across our handful of top DSPs, certainly led by subscriber growth and … price,” said CFO Bryan Castellani.
In a nod to the music industry’s handwringing over Spotify’s bundling practice, Kyncl said in opening remarks that the labels and DSPs are not “adversaries playing a zero-sum game.”
“That’s simply not the case,” Kyncl said. “We’re actively engaged with our partners around ways to drive growth for all of us. Streaming dynamics remain healthy, with plenty of headroom for subscriber growth in both established and emerging markets across multiple partners. Also, price optimization and improvements in the royalty models will provide ongoing opportunities for additional growth.”
Celebrating Brat summer and the Benson boon
From the “pop sensation of the summer” — Kyncl’s description of Charli XCX’s album Brat — to Benson Boone, whom Kyncl called the “breakout star of the year,” the former YouTube exec appeared pleased with Warner’s recent and upcoming slate of music releases.
“So far in 2024, WMG has more new artists debuting on the Spotify Global Top 10 than any other music company,” Kyncl said, highlighting “homegrown successes” like Benson Boone, Teddy Swims and Artemas, the English-Cypriot singer-songwriter signed to 10K Projects.
Streaming’s catalog “halo effect“
When Twenty One Pilots released their latest album, Clancy, the band’s entire body of work benefitted, with streams more than doubling during the first week after the album’s release. That’s “the beauty of streaming,” Kyncl said on the call. “Newly released hits have a halo effect on the rest of an artists’ catalog.”
While loyal fan bases can drive an uptick in an artist’s catalog streams after a new hit’s release, Kyncl added that WMG can amplify and extend that halo effect, transforming hits into “evergreen, deep catalog.”
Universal Music Group (UMG) reached a strategic agreement with ProRata.ai, a new company that enables generative artificial intelligence platforms to fractionally attribute and compensate content owners. Bill Gross, chairman of technology incubator Idealab Studio — which launched ProRata — will serve as CEO. ProRata’s technology allows generative AI platforms to attribute and share revenues on a per-use basis with content owners while preventing “unreliable content from driving AI answers,” according to a press release. In addition, ProRata is building a consumer AI answer engine set to launch this fall that will feature the company’s attribution technology.
“Current AI answer engines rely on shoplifted, plagiarized content,” Gross, the inventor of the pay-per-click monetization model underlying internet search, said in a statement. “This creates an environment where creators get nothing, and disinformation thrives. ProRata is pro-author, pro-artist and pro-consumer. Our technology allows creators to get credited and compensated while consumers get attributed, accurate answers. This solution will lead to a broader movement across the entire AI industry.”
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In his own statement, UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge said, “We are encouraged to see new entrepreneurial innovation set into motion in the Generative AI space guided by objectives that align with our own vision of how this revolutionary technology can be used ethically and positively while rewarding human creativity. Having reached a strategic agreement to help shape their efforts in the music category, we look forward to exploring all the potential ways UMG can work with ProRata to further advance our common goals and values.”
Along with UMG, ProRata has struck early agreements with media publishers including the Financial Times, The Atlantic and Fortune.
In describing the technology, the release reads: “ProRata’s technology analyzes AI output, measures the value of contributing content and calculates proportional compensation. The company uses a proprietary algorithmic approach to score and determine attribution. This attribution method enables copyright holders to share in the upside of generative AI by being credited and compensated for their material on a per-use basis. Unlike music or video streaming, generative AI pay-per-use requires fractional attribution as responses are generated using multiple content sources.”
ProRata is in “advanced discussions” with additional news publishers, authors, and media and entertainment companies. The company’s leadership team and board of directors include executives who have held senior roles at Microsoft, Google and Meta, as well as Michael Lang, the president of Lang Media Group and one of the founders of Hulu. Early investors include Revolution Ventures, Prime Movers Lab and Mayfield.
Immersive technology, media and entertainment company Cosm raised more than $250 million in funding to drive the growth of its “Shared Reality” venues — described in a press release as an “experience that seamlessly bridges the virtual and physical worlds by merging state-of-the-art visuals with the energy and excitement of the crowd and elevated food and beverage service.” The new funding round includes existing investors Steve Winn and Mirasol Capital and first-time investors Avenue Sports Fund led by Marc Lasry, Dan Gilbert‘s ROCK, Baillie Gifford, and David Blitzer‘s Bolt Ventures. Cosm will use the funds to scale, grow its technology and media business units, and speed up the development of more Cosm venues worldwide. The second Cosm venue is slated to open in Dallas later this year, with a third in Atlanta recently announced. “Cosm venues are a new paradigm in live sports, music, and artistic entertainment,” said Chris Evdaimon, investment manager at Baillie Gifford, in a statement. “The mesmerizing viewing experience guarantees the Cosm customer the best seats in the arena and the best viewing angle at any moment of the live event, at an affordable ticket price.”
HYBE Interactive Media (HYBE IM), the interactive media and games division of the storied K-pop company, raised $80 million in a round led by Makers Fund with participation from IMM Investment and parent company HYBE. The funds will be used to expand the company’s games publishing and development efforts, allowing HYBE IM to invest in more games, introduce them in global markets and bolster the division’s in-house development capabilities. HYBE IM’s previously-released titles include Rhythm Hive and BTS Island: In the SEOM. It’s also signed publishing contracts for Macovill’s OZ Re:write and Flint’s RPG Astra: Knights of Veda.
Believe acquired Doğan Music Company, Turkey’s largest independent record label, four years after purchasing a 60% majority stake in the company in 2020; it acquired the remaining 40% of the company for 38.3 million euros ($41.84 million). The transaction is pending approval by the competition regulator.
The U.K. office of Believe signed a global services deal with electronic music brand fabric. Under the agreement, fabric joins the client base of b:electronic, Believe’s electronic music imprint and part of the company’s label & artist solutions division. B:electronic will provide genre specialist label management, video and audience development, editorial and marketing partnerships internationally, and distribution for both catalog and new releases. Fabric’s labels include fabric Originals, fabric Records and Houndstooth, while a new imprint is slated to launch in the near future.
Beatchain partnered with Indian radio network Radio City India to launch Muzartdisco, a digital platform and app that will allow Indian artists to release and promote their music using Beatchain’s A&R tool and artist services platform. Through the platform, artists can also compete for opportunities including studio sessions; mentoring; collaborations with established artists, writers and producers; radio breakout campaigns, social media shoutouts and other opportunities courtesy of Radio City India; and more. Meanwhile, A&R teams using the platform will be able to find artists using a tailored filtering process that makes it easier to find talent that aligns with their mission and niche. According to a press release, Radio India is the country’s leading radio network, boasting a listenership of more than 69 million across 39 cities.
Sports and entertainment collectibles company Panini America partnered with The Rolling Stones to produce the first fully licensed, career-spanning trading card set for the band. Titled Prizm The Rolling Stones, the set will chronicle the Stones’ 60-year recording and touring history, with additional collections to come.
AEG Presents partnered with Jacobs Entertainment — a developer, owner and operator of gaming and entertainment facilities — on Globe Iron, a new indoor 1,200-capacity venue in Cleveland that was once home to the Globe Iron Works Foundry built in 1853. AEG, which will operate and exclusively book the venue’s programming, already books and operates two other Cleveland venues: the Agora Theatre and the Jacobs Pavilion.
Indie record label The Programm, led by Peter “S.Y.” Pestano, struck a joint venture with LLC4/Capitol Records to break new artists, starting with Mexican-American rapper NHC Murda 60x. The joint venture will be steered by Orlando Wharton, executive vp at Capitol Music Group, president of Priority Records and CEO of LLC4. NHC Murda 60x and other Programm artists will have the potential to be upstreamed under the deal.
Independent entertainment company Unity 7 Entertainment announced a distribution partnership with Forecast Music Group (The Orchard/Sony), which will provide global distribution, marketing and promotional support for Unity 7’s artist roster. The partnership will kick off with the release of hip-hop artist Alantra’s debut single, “Get It,” which is set to drop on Sept. 5.
AI-powered, ethically-trained music generation company Soundful teamed with SoundCloud and Kaskade on an AI songwriting competition that will offer the winner a chance to perform alongside Kaskade and have their winning track completed and released by Kaskade as a featured artist.
Warner Music Group’s stock was up around 3% Wednesday (Aug. 7) as investors optimistically received its fiscal third-quarter earnings report, which showed that streaming revenue continues to grow for the third-largest major music company.
On a call discussing the company’s earnings, Warner Music Group (WMG) CEO Robert Kyncl answered questions and shared his perspective on Spotify’s bundling controversy; discussed what WMG is doing to get more mileage out of its catalog; and shared a broad update on the company’s previously-announced $200 million cost savings/reinvestment plan — while remaining mum on the more recent executive restructure that’s been reverberating through the music industry since last week.
See below for three major takeaways from the call.
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Bundling is not inherently bad
Overall streaming revenue was up 5% for Warner this quarter, with recorded music streaming revenue up 8.7% — reflecting growth in subscription revenue of 7%. While that was welcome news to investors, the subject of Spotify’s contentious decision to bundle music and audiobooks — allowing them to qualify for the lower mechanical royalty rate reserved for bundles under the Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) Phonorecords IV agreement — did not go unmentioned. But in his opening remarks and later, during a Q&A period with analysts, Kyncl said the company derives its streaming earnings from a diversity of partners and appeared to tamp down talk of the controversy that erupted over the bundling policy.
“I know that investor attention has recently been focused on the dynamics between labels and DSPs, with some speculating that we’re adversaries playing a zero-sum game. That’s simply not the case,” Kyncl said. “We’re actively engaged with our partners around ways to drive growth for all of us. Streaming dynamics remain healthy … with plenty of headroom for subscriber growth in both established and emerging markets … across multiple partners. Also, price optimization and improvements in the royalty models will provide ongoing opportunities for additional growth.”
Kyncl went on to note that bundling, which could result in lower payments to songwriters, has been used in other industries, like TV, for the purpose of market expansion. “The job of wholesalers like the music companies is to ensure that the sanctity of our pricing are in line with each other. You can expect us to pursue that strategy,” Kyncl said. “As it relates to CRB, I don’t see it as something that will persist in the long term.”
Radio silence on executive restructuring
WMG executives did not directly discuss the internal restructuring plans made public last week, which led longtime co-leader of Atlantic Records and Atlantic Music Group chairman/CEO Julie Greenwald to announce she was stepping down on Tuesday (Aug. 6). During his opening remarks, Kyncl did highlight the “commercially and creatively … successful” partnership between WMG and 10K Projects — whose CEO/founder Elliot Grainge has been picked to succeed Greenwald — by noting English-Cypriot singer-songwriter Artemas’ single “I Like The Way You Kiss Me,” which reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s Global Excl. U.S. chart in April.
However, Kyncl did share details about a restructuring plan he mentioned on WMG’s last earnings call, which included selling the entertainment websites Uproxx and HipHopDX — with the overall goal to increase investment in music, technology and new skill sets and deliver $200 million in savings by the end of fiscal 2025.
“The majority of changes have already been implemented,” Kyncl said. “We are laying a strong foundation to accelerate our progress and yield greater value over time. We made improvements to our royalty systems and the tools used to identify unclaimed revenue, we overhauled our global supply chain, unlocking our ability to scale our third-party distribution business, and we’ve transformed our proprietary tools that identify fan trends while building new ways to engage with super fans.”
Catalog optimization is a major priority
One area where Kyncl is investing in technology is through a project he says is aimed at increasing the “performance of catalog…across all of our DSPs.”
Speaking of recent spikes in streaming for artists in Warner’s “deep” catalog — like Joni Mitchell and Tracy Chapman — as well as “shallow” catalog like Ed Sheeran, Kyncl said generating continued digital success stories for those acts is a top priority.
“We have a project on this across our technology and business teams to move down the entire catalog and make sure it’s properly optimized for streaming and on every large DSP,” he said on the call. “All of this augments our marketing campaigns against catalog which we have done in the past and continue to do and we’re applying more and more frontline focus on catalog.”
Boosted by double-digit growth in recorded streaming and helped by major releases from Beyoncé and Future & Metro Boomin, Sony Music said on Tuesday that total revenue grew 23% to 442 billion yen ($2.7 billion) during its fiscal first quarter, which ended June 30.
Sony’s operating income improved 17% to 86 billion yen ($534 million) and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) jumped 30% to 108 billion yen ($671 million). Adjusted OIBDA margin improved to 24.4%.
Both of Sony’s music divisions — recorded music and publishing — posted similarly solid year-over-year gains during the period, resulting in the ninth consecutive year of growth on the recording side and 11th straight year of gains for publishing.
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Recorded music revenue increased 26% to 299 billion yen ($1.8 billion), with subscription and ad-supported streaming up 19% to 197 billion yen ($1.2 billion) and accounting for roughly 66% of that recorded segment tally. Physical revenue sunk 5.6% to 24 billion yen ($150 million), year over year, while Sony’s “other” category — lumping merchandise, live performances and licensing revenue from synch, public performance and broadcast — jumped 81% to 73 billion yen ($453 million).
Sony said some of its top sellers for the fiscal quarter were Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER, Future and Metro’s WE DON’T TRUST YOU, Travis Scott’s UTOPIA and SZA’s SOS. Some non-all-capped wins included Luke Combs’ Gettin’ Old, 21 Savage’s american dream and Doja Cat’s Scarlet.
Music publishing revenue rose 28.7% to 97 billion yen ($602 million). Streaming revenue climbed 36% to 56.5 billion yen ($351 million), while publishing’s “other” category grew 19.7% to 40.1 billion yen ($249 million) when compared to the year-ago period. The company disclosed that as of March 31, its publishing division either owned or administered approximately 6.24 million songs, an increase of 14% in the last two years.
Sony Music’s visual media and platform revenue declined 7.1% to 39.7 billion yen ($246 million). The segment includes mobile gaming, software for PCs and game consoles, and software development contracts.
Looking ahead, Sony Music Entertainment raised its forecast for full-year revenue by 3% to 1.7 trillion yen (approximately $11.5 billion) with a projected operating income increase of 5% from the previous forecast in May to 20 billion yen.
Warner Music Group reported on Wednesday strong streaming revenue growth and keeping a lid on its costs helped offset declines in merchandise and physical music sales in the company’s third fiscal quarter.
Quarterly net profit rose nearly 14% to $141 million from $124 million in the third quarter last year. Overall revenue fell by 1% to $1.554 billion from $1.564 billion in the year ago quarter due to the roll off of BMG’s distribution deal and a difficult comparison to the year-ago quarter, which included a $7 million benefit from the Copyright Royalty Board in Phonorecords III.
The company’s digital revenue and streaming revenue were up 4.7% and 5.5% respectively, as subscription revenue grew 7%. Recorded Music streaming revenue increased 5.0%, and music publishing streaming revenue increased 7.9%.
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“Our strong subscription streaming growth in [the third quarter] was driven by the performance of our music and healthy industry trends,” Warner Music Group chief executive Robert Kyncl said in a statement. “We’re nurturing the next generation of artists and songwriters, creating fresh impact for our iconic catalog, and working with our partners to increase the value of music. Our commitment to long-term artist development, combined with a flatter structure in recorded music, will enable us to super-serve talent and set WMG up for sustained future growth.”
WMG’s operating income jumped 10% to $207 million in the quarter from $189 million in the third quarter last year. Adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA), which measures profitability over a specific period of time, rose 6% to $316 million from $297 million in the prior-year quarter.
Revenue from WMG’s recorded music division fell by 2% to $1.251 billion from $1.282 in the year-ago quarter. This was due in part to the exiting of BMG as a client, which resulted in $26 million less revenue, and a “renewal with one of the Company’s digital partners” which created an additional $3 million drage on recorded music streaming revenue, the company said.
BMG began winding down its distribution agreement with WMG’s ADA last September to move control of its 80 billion-stream digital business in-house.
Physical revenue fell by 4.8% because of release timing and a tough year-ago comparison, the company said. Artist services and expanded-rights revenue fell by 27.1% mainly due to lower merchandising revenue.
Revenue from WMG’s music publishing division rose by 8% to $305 million from $283 million in the year-ago quarter.
Topline Results:
Total revenue 1% to $1.554 billion in the third fiscal quarter 2024 from $1.564 billion in the same period last year.
Net income rose 14% to $141 million from $124 million in the third quarter 2023.
Recorded music revenue fell by 2% to $1.251 billion from $1.282 billion in the third quarter 2023.
Music publishing revenue rose 8% to $305 million from $283 million in the third quarter 2023.