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Multimedia platform Verzuz, co-founded by Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, has secured a distribution partnership with Elon Musk’s X. The news was announced by Beatz and Timbaland during an activation in Cannes, France today (June 19).
Under the terms of the new partnership, the Verzuz co-founders maintain their full 100% ownership and creative control of the platform, while X has exclusive distribution rights. Now viewers will be able to watch the livestream series for free through X, which reaches an audience of more than 550 million active users.
Earlier this year, Beatz and Timbaland reacquired the Verzuz platform from previous partner Triller. At the same time, the pair retained their equity — along with the artists who participated in Verzuz — in Triller.
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In a release announcing the X alliance, Beatz said, “We are beyond thrilled to have found the best partner for Verzuz. Not only are we excited to have Verzuz on X, we’re excited to help X build the biggest entertainment company in the world. I would like to thank Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino, Brett Weitz, Mitchell Smith and the entire X team for believing in the Verzuz vision. We can’t wait to get to work.”
“We are thrilled to partner with X, the most innovative platform globally,” commented Timbaland. “Our goal has always been to bring Verzuz to the world, which we can now do bigger than ever.”
Added X CEO Yaccarino, “X is so proud to partner with trailblazing creators, artists and entrepreneurs Swizz Beatz and Timbaland. Our platform stands at the forefront of innovation, and Verzuz defines the essence of an innovative content experience. As we continue to work with the most exciting voices to bring premium content to X, there is no better fit than this series. Together we will redefine how consumers engage with their favorite entertainment, one Verzuz at a time.”
The last sing-off presented by Verzuz, whose president is Steve Pamon, was between R&B stars Omarion and Mario in Los Angeles in summer 2022. Also featuring a pre-show with Ray J, Bobby V, Pleasure P and Sammy, the battle drew over 5.1 million total viewers across Instagram, Fite TV, Triller, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Twitch.
Under its partnership with Uncontained Media, headed by Christian Sarabia and Raymond Garcia, Verzuz has also produced such shows as the Emmy-winning Drive with Swizz Beatz. Uncontained Media will serve as the production company and executive producers of Verzuz.
Vinyl sales were up 14.2% across all U.S. independent retailers in 2023, according to Luminate, marking the continued growth of a format whose renewed popularity has coincided with a growing industry focus on sustainability — one that has consistently identified vinyl’s carbon footprint as problematic.
Now, the Vinyl Record Manufacturer’s Association (VRMA) and the Vinyl Alliance (VA) have released a study that looks at the carbon footprint of the manufacturing process and offers recommendations on how to mitigate it.
“We hope this report — and a series of subsequent updates — encourages everyone in the vinyl record industry to be radically transparent about the environmental impact of making vinyl records, and what steps we can take to reduce that impact,” the report reads, adding that the data backing it up is “based on a very limited number of businesses in the supply chain.” However, it continues, “we have a range of other companies who are in the process of contributing their carbon footprints, and we hope this report will encourage many more businesses in the supply chain to participate as well.”
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The study considers the vinyl industry’s scope one, two and three emissions, which are involved in the entire lifespan of a vinyl record. Respectively, they encompass a company’s direct emissions; indirect emissions from electricity purchased; and all other indirect emissions in a company’s value chain. The study was made in accordance with Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, which standardizes, on an international level, how businesses measure, report and manage their greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the report, the “cradle-to-factory gate” footprint of a single vinyl album is approximately 1.15 kg CO2e, or the equivalent of driving a car for three miles. Fifty percent of those emissions come from the plastic PVC compound used to press the records, another 30% are from energyconsumption at the factory and 13% of emissions are from print packaging like jackets, inserts and sleeves. The remaining percentage includes the manufacturing of lacquers, cutting tools and stampers, and other packaging.
But while vinyl emissions are an oft-cited problem, the report goes a step further by offering five recommendations vinyl manufacturers can take to reduce carbon emissions from their production processes.
The first is to eliminate air freight. “If a label or artist presses at a single location, then ships records to global markets by air freight,” the study states, “these shipping emissions will dwarf anything else you might do to reduce the carbon footprint of your release.”
The next recommendation is to switch to “bio-attributed” PVC compound. A relatively recent invention, “bio-attributed” PVC is made from a waste product created during paper production and uses plant-based raw materials to replace the petroleum that PVC is typically made with. Such usage could cut an album’s carbon footprint by roughly 44%, according to the report.
The report also recommends that manufacturers press on lighter 140-gram, versus 180-gram, vinyl. Heavier weights can increase a record’s footprint by between 14% and 26%, as can the use of splatter vinyl, which entails sprinkling various colors onto a background color before the record is pressed. The report also advises manufacturers to keep their packaging simple, noting that a jacket gatefold on a single record adds 10% to 15% to the typical footprint of a record compared to a standard 3mm spine jacket.
Finally, the report advises all companies in the supply chain to transition to zero-carbon energy. “Pressing plants often have gas boilers, and replacing these with electric or hydrogen boilers represents a huge challenge,” the report states, “but one that has to be grasped.”
The inaugural report was compiled by a working group led by Peter Frings of Stamper Discs alongside Adam Teskey and Alex Deninson of Vinyl Factory Manufacturing Ltd; Ryan Weitzel of A to Z Media; Karen Emanuel and John Service of Key Production; Ian Stanton of Beggars Group; Kamal Nasseredine of Precision Pressing; Vladimir Visek of GZ Media; Ryan Mitrovitch of Vinyl Alliance; Bryan Ekus of VRMA; and Ruben Planting of Deep Grooves.
Chris Atlas has been named president of Fat Beats. The appointment of the music industry veteran comes as the legendary distributor and retail brand celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. In his new role at Fat Beats, New York-based Atlas will be setting the course for the company’s future. Along with business development and marketing, his […]
Songtradr welcomes to its board of directors Alex Rigopulos, co-founder of Harmonix and the studio’s director at Epic Games, best known as the maker of “Fortnite,” and veteran music lawyer Priyanka Khimani, managing partner at Khimani Associates, as the B2B music company embarks on its next phase of growth and development.Rigopulos brings a wealth of experience from his extensive career in the video game and entertainment industry. A co-founder of Harmonix, acquired by Epic Games in 2021, Rigopulos was instrumental in the development of “Guitar Hero,” “Rock Band,” and “Dance Central,” game-changers in the way music intersected with interactive entertainment.
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Rigopulos’ “deep understanding of both music and technology will be invaluable as Songtradr continues to expand its global footprint,” reads a statement. Meanwhile, Khimani is one of South Asia and MENA’s most influential music entertainment lawyers, her talents highlighted in Billboard’s 2023 Women In Music special. As managing partner at Khimani Associates, she has represented such clients as AR Rahman, AP Dhillon, Divine, Reservoir Media, Warner Music Group, Snap Inc and Netflix, and has been “a formidable advocate for intellectual property rights and creative talent,” reads a statement.
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Khimani’s expertise in entertainment law and her commitment to protecting creative works “align perfectly with Songtradr’s mission to empower artists and rights holders worldwide,” the licensing platform’s statement continues.
Adds Paul Wiltshire, CEO of Songtradr, “Alex’s visionary approach to integrating music, technology, and video games, along with Priyanka’s extensive rights knowledge and dedication to the creative community, will provide strategic insights and strengthen our leadership as we continue to innovate and grow in the global music marketplace.”These new appointments of Rigopulos and Khimani to the Songtradr board, where they join Lindsay Nahmiache, Helge Steffen, and Wiltshire, reaffirms its “commitment to leveraging top-tier expertise to drive forward its mission of powering the world with music,” the corporate statement continues.
Songtradr made headlines in September 2023 with the acquisition of Bandcamp, a crucial commerce platform for independent musicians, buying the business from Epic Games.The plan, Wiltshire said at the time, was to “introduce the opportunity of licensing” to Bandcamp artists who are interested in seeding their music to various brands and platforms. “We think that alone is a really big piece, and we want to get that right,” Wiltshire added. “That will create a lot of opportunity for the independent market and the artists on there.”
The consortium acquiring French music company Believe has acquired 85.04% of share capital and 73.27% of voting rights in a tender offer that ends Friday (June 21). Believe owns digital distributor TuneCore, publishing administration service Sentric and such record labels as Naive, Nuclear Blast and Groove Attack. The bidding company is a consortium led by […]
Warner Music Group shares rose 6.6% to $31.47 this week, narrowing the stock’s year-to-date loss to 12.1%. Other gainers in the record label and music publisher space were HYBE, up 1.8% to 200,500 won ($144.95), and Universal Music Group, up 1.4% to 28.63 euros ($30.67).
Streaming companies had the best week, however. Led by LiveOne’s 6.4% gain, music streaming stocks had an average gain of 0.3% — versus an average 0.3% decline for record labels and publishers. Elsewhere, Tencent Music Entertainment gained 5.2% to $14.80 and Spotify added 1.6% to $313.02. The three companies also boast three of the top four year-to-date performances: Live One is up 30.0%, Tencent Music is up 64.3% and Spotify is up 66.6%. The fourth company in that equation is Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which is up 41.4% due to its upcoming acquisition by Blackstone.
Despite overall strength among streaming companies, three of them posted losses. Cloud Music fell 2.4% to 103.00 HKD ($13.19), lowering its year-to-date gain to 14.8%. Anghami lost 2.8% to $1.03, putting the stock’s year-to-date loss at 1.0%. And Deezer stumbled 6.1% to 1.86 euros ($1.99), bringing its year-to-date loss to 12.7%.
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The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index rose 1.1% to 1,820.01, bringing its year-to-date gain to 18.7% and its 52-week improvement to 36.5%. Although the index mustered a small gain, 11 of its 20 stocks lost value compared to seven gainers and two that were unchanged.
While overall music stocks managed only a small increase, the Nasdaq composite rose 3.2% to 17,688.88 and enjoyed its fifth-straight closing record on Friday (June 14). Th eS&P 500 improved 1.6% to 5,431.60. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 1.3% to 2,758.42. On the losing side, China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.6% to 3,032.63 and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 fell 1.2% to 8,146.86.
The Billboard Global Music Index is outperforming these major indexes in 2024, however. Through June 14, the Nasdaq is up 17.8% and the S&P 500 is up 13.9%. Indexes in other countries have managed smaller gains. The FTSE is up 5.3%, the KOSPI composite index is up 3.9% and the Shanghai Composite Index is up 1.9%.
LiveOne shares improved 6.4% to $1.82 after the company announced it had surpassed 3.8 million total members, a 25% year-over-year increase, while Tesla memberships rose to 1.8 million, up 32% year-over-year (nearly all new Tesla vehicles sold in the United States come with a paid membership to LiveOne’s Slacker Radio). “Our goal is to forge meaningful alliances with companies that share our passion for innovation, bespoke programming, and delivering exceptional customer value,” Brad Konkol, head of Slacker Radio, said in a statement.
Live Nation shares fell 2.0% to $88.75 as the company continued to lose ground in the wake of the Department of Justice’s lawsuit seeking to break up the company’s concert promotion and ticketing businesses. CFRA Research lowered its Live Nation price target to $98 from $105 on Wednesday (June 12). Although its earnings-per-share estimates were unchanged, CFRA opted for a more conservative valuation multiple to reflect “business risk from the DOJ and live entertainment moving to the slower part of the year starting in October,” analyst Kenneth Leon wrote.
The Billboard Global Music Index’s biggest loss of the week came from Cumulus Media, which fell 18.1% to $1.94. The Atlanta-based radio company’s shares are down 63.5% year to date. Fellow radio company iHeartMedia dropped 3.2% to $1.21 this week, bringing its year-to-date loss to 54.7%.
Nine sites that were selling fraudulent streams have been taken offline, according to IFPI and Music Canada.
IFPI, the worldwide recording industry association, and Music Canada, a trade group that represents major Canadian labels, filed a legal complaint with the Canadian Competition Bureau against the sites, accusing them of selling false plays and streams to manipulate streaming service data. The nine connected sites, the most popular of which used the domain name MRINSTA.com, have since gone offline (though you can still see them via the Wayback Machine).
“Streaming manipulation has no place in music,” stated Lauri Rechardt, the IFPI’s chief legal officer. “Perpetrators and enablers of streaming manipulation cannot be allowed to continue to divert revenue away from the artists who create the music.”
As streaming has grown in popularity, so have efforts to game platforms’ royalty models. Vancouver-based fraud detection software company Beatdapp estimates that as many as 10% of music streams are fake. Fake streams are often generated through streaming farms, which use bots to automatically stream particular songs and boost their stats.
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Canada recorded 145.3 billion streams in 2023. – Rosie Long Decter
Warner Music Canada’s Head of A&R Leaves to Start New Management Company, SWING
It was only January of this year that Victoria, B.C. pop-funk act Diamond Cafe announced his signing to Warner Music Canada. Now, George Kalivas, the man who signed him, is breaking off on his own to manage him — and building a whole new company around the artist.
SWING is launching as a Toronto-based management company with Diamond Cafe as its first artist, though Kalivas says the eventual plan is to “evolve into a full-service record label in no time.”
Kalivas started in marketing at Warner Canada seven years ago, handling domestic artists signed to the label and international releases signed to subsidiaries like Atlantic and 300. But he had “one foot in A&R,” he says, which became official two years ago when Kristen Burke became label president.
His first signing was Crash Adams, a Canadian pop duo known for viral TikTok trends. After the joint launch of 91 North Records by Warner Canada and Warner India, Kalivas helped sign the label’s second artist, AR Paisley. A long-simmering Canadian rapper, Paisley hit the top 10 of the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 this year with “Drippy,” a posthumous collaboration with the late Punjabi-Canadian superstar Sidhu Moose Wala.
But it was Diamond Cafe that made Kalivas realize the time was right to strike off on his own “I haven’t seen a triple threat artist like him — writer, performer and producer — in 15 years,” he says. “He’s next level.”
As publishing and song catalogs become a major money-maker in the music industry, artists like Diamond Cafe, who can work both in front of and behind the scenes, are being scouted heavily. For SWING, it’s enough to structure a whole new company around. – Richard Trapunski
Texas Songwriter Livingston Debuts on the Canadian Hot 100 With ‘Shadow’
Texas singer-songwriter Livingston is making a splash on the Canadian charts this week.
The 21-year-old has landed on the Canadian Hot 100 for the first time with his single “Shadow,” which debuted at No. 100. The ominous single, which finds Livingston warning about the dangers we pose to ourselves, shows off his belt and falsetto over keyboard stabs and jittery percussion. “Shadow” is also performing well on the iTunes charts and has gathered over 1 million YouTube views since its Mar. 7 release.
Livingston’s new album, A Hometown Odyssey, also found a spot on the Canadian Albums chart this week, debuting at No. 92. Livingston first gained popularity as a teenager on TikTok during the pandemic and signed shortly thereafter with Elektra Records. His website states that he “reclaimed his independence” from his major label deal a year ago. Hometown Odyssey is independently released.
Independence seems to suit Livingston well. Though he isn’t charting on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 or Billboard 200 yet, sometimes rising American artists — like Benson Boone — perform better in Canada before gaining steam in the United States. – Rosie Long Decter
Sam Holdsworth, former editor-in-chief and publisher of Billboard, died May 18 at 72 of a heart attack.
Holdsworth, who was also co-founder of Musician magazine, was part of a consortium that bought Billboard Publications Inc. (BPI) in 1984 from the Littleford family in a move that led him to become Billboard’s publisher.
The consortium was helmed by investor Boston Ventures and an internal BPI management group fronted by Holdsworth and Jerry Hobbs in a move that was seen as a non-disruptive way to keep BPI — which included Billboard, Musician and Amusement Business, among other titles — intact. Hobbs, who had served as executive vp of BPI and Billboard’s publisher, became president/CEO of the new entity, while Holdsworth became publisher of Billboard and then publisher/editor-in-chief. BPI had purchased Musician in 1981, which brought Holdsworth into the company.
“As publisher, Sam had a wonderful calming influence on all around him in an otherwise stressful publishing environment. I’ll always appreciate the faith he showed in me and his willingness to delegate crucial tasks to his trusted management team,” Ken Schlager, who served as managing editor under Holdsworth, tells Billboard.
“He and Jerry Hobbs brought Billboard into a new era,” says Adam White, who was Billboard‘s editor-in-chief when Holdsworth became publisher, before leaving in 1985 and then coming back as international editor in 1989. “For that alone, he should be remembered.”
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Holdsworth and his childhood friend, Gordon Baird, founded Musician magazine in 1976. “He was the brains and taste and I was the mouth and energy…Our early days as a magazine for school music programs were so rocky, until Sam proposed a left sharp turn after our first year to jazz and rock,” Baird wrote in a piece published Monday (June 10) in The Gloucester (Maine) Times. The two had met in Gloucester 70 years earlier as tots, as their mothers were best friends.
With its new direction, Musician quickly became a must-read for music aficionados and artists alike and was able to attract top-notch music journalists who appreciated the trust Holdsworth gave them to steer their own pieces. “Sam was able to cajole them in to writing major pieces at a fraction of the price [that Rolling Stone paid writers],” Baird continued. “The photogs followed. Musician took off. Readers came to us, record company publicists came to us, Paul McCartney came to us, Springsteen, Michael Jackson, George Harrison, Bono, Clapton and Steely Dan came to us to be interviewed. Sam’s formula was the music first and the lifestyle a distant second.”
When BPI approached Holdsworth and Baird to buy Musician, “Sam was totally visionary and bargained for half the purchase price in Billboard stock,” Baird added.
“At that time, I was responsible for the growth and development of Billboard and its numerous ancillary products,” Hobbs says. “After a lunch in NYC, we quickly decided the fit would be a good one and in early 1981 our partnership began when Billboard Publications acquired [Musician]. Little did we anticipate our relationship would be so fruitful, exciting and long-lasting. Moreover, that it’d evolve into a lifelong personal friendship.”
Hobbs had found the perfect partner to help realize his goal of acquiring and expanding BPI to include not only music properties but also those devoted to film and theater as well as art and design. “During my first year working with Sam, his talents, personality and entrepreneurial spirit became apparent,” Hobbs says. “I realized I’d need a partner to help orchestrate a deal, raise the funds and execute on a plan we would develop to take the business forward.”
Hobbs and Holdsworth’s plan changed how Billboard moved forward with a model that still works today. “We were keen to develop data to complement and expand the information we would gather for our publications and the audiences we served,” Hobbs says. “In effect, we would utilize Billboard as the model for our new venture. Unlike most other B2B publishers then who were mainly dependent on advertisers for their revenue, we wanted to create and own products and services that our audiences would be willing to pay for to receive.”
In 1994, Dutch publisher VNU acquired the American titles, at which point Holdsworth left Billboard and moved with his family to New Mexico. He later became part of an investment group led by JP Morgan Partners. One of their acquisitions was Ryko Corporation, which included the Rykodisc label; Holdsworth oversaw the company until Warner Music Group bought it in 2006. “He was very good at looking beyond the past and around the corner,” says Baird, who talked to Holdsworth hours before he died. “He was also good at being the in right place at the right time for some of those label buyouts and sales, some of them came to him.”
Holdsworth continued to work with investments, as well as paint and write, from his farm in Silver City, N. Mex. He was working on the farm when his heart attack occurred. At the time of his death, he was managing director of Sword, Rowe and Company, a New Jersey-based investment banking and M&A firm, according to his LinkedIn profile.
As Hobbs says, Holdsworth was a rare blend of both creative and business acumen and had a discerning eye. “‘Sam was, indeed, a Renaissance man. He exhibited an alluring blend of the mandatory characteristics: authenticity, creativity, curiosity and resilience, the sine qua non elements that draw people in,” Hobbs says. “And he never confused the most with the best.”
Survivors include Holdsworth’s wife, Betsy, and his three children.
It’s time for another spin around the Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music. Don’t forget to dig into this year’s Indie Power Players list. 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.
Sphere Entertainment has turned to Hollywood studio veteran Carolyn Blackwood as its new head of Sphere Studios, which develops and produces the “multi-sensory entertainment experiences” for concerts, corporate events and more at the next-generation spherical wonder. At Sphere, Blackwood will lead a team of creative, production and other various wizards responsible for those immersive experiences, plus work closely with MSG Ventures on developing the production technologies needed to create them. Blackwood has more than 25 years of studio experience, and was most recently chief operating officer at Warner Bros. Pictures. Prior to WB, she spent 20-plus years at New Line Cinema, where she rose to president and chief content officer. Between those two studios, she was integrally involved with some of the biggest films of the last quarter-century, including The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Barbie and The Conjuring franchise.
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“Throughout my career, I have focused on creative and business innovation in the entertainment industry, as well as the pursuit of production excellence, and this is a tremendous opportunity to be part of the cutting-edge work at Sphere,” said Blackwood. Sphere’s newly elevated president and COO Jennifer Koester added that she believe’s Blackwood’s “expertise bringing high-profile entertainment projects to life will be an asset as we continue to build on, and grow, the Studios’ capabilities.”
The creative team at Sphere also includes chief creative officer Ned McNeilage, who joined earlier this year. Since opening last year with a successful run of U2 shows, the Las Vegas megavenue has been in a jam-y mood with a four concert mini-residency by Phish and an in-progress 24-date residency by Dead & Company. An eight-date run by Eagles is scheduled for the fall.
Meanwhile…
Universal Music India and South Asia promoted Viral Jani to chief revenue officer. Jani joined UMGISA in 2023 as head of digital, strategy & transformation, having previously held senior positions at Times Network, GroupM and Twitter, among others. The promotion follows the May elevation of Sanujeet Bhujabal from evp of content to managing director of the Mumbai-based label division. “[The promotions of Bhujabal and Jani] reflects the company’s commitment to growth and development of one of Universal Music Group’s most important emerging markets,” noted Adam Granite, CEO, Universal Music Group AMEA. “Together they will work closely, alongside Chairman & CEO Devraj Sanyal and myself, to deliver our mission of creating the best music-based entertainment company in the region.”
Warner Chappell Music promoted A&R exec Jessi Vaughn Stevenson to vp, A&R and digital. Stevenson will continue reporting to Ben Vaughn, president/CEO WCM Nashville, as she strategizes opportunities for songwriters. During her career, Stevenson has worked with songwriters including Jessi Alexander, Rhett Akins, Parker McCollum, Hailey Whitters, Morgan Wallen and Randy Montana. “Jessi has always shown commitment to songwriters, helping them with their craft and careers,” said Vaughn. “She is always thinking of new ways to support songwriters and is a wonderful team player. We’re happy to announce her promotion.” –Jessica Nicholson
APM Music elevated creative executive Adam Weitz from senior director to vp of TV and film sync. Weitz has spent the bulk of his 16-year sync licensing career — roughly 11-and-a-half years — at APM, a production music joint venture between Universal Music Publishing Group and Sony Music Publishing. During that time he and his TV/Film team has banked large-scale licensing deals with Hollywood studios, streaming platforms and others, and locked in placements with hundreds of films and shows, including recent wins in Oppenheimer, Succession, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Ted Lasso and more. He also spearheads APM’s sample clearance business, which has collaborated with Drake, Beck, The Black Keys and others. Weitz reports to chief revenue officer Chad Elbert and president Adam Taylor, who remarked, “His deep industry connections and unique blend of creative and licensing expertise have established him as one of the very best in the industry.” Prior to joining APM in 2013, the Los Angeles-based exec spent nearly five years in leadership at sync licensing house Visions from the Roof. Under the pseudonym Phofo, Weitz composed music for several animated shows including Sushi Pack, Care Bears and Club Penguin, and he co-produced the first studio LP by MC Paul Barman. Reach him at aweitz@apmmusic.com.
BOARD SHORTS: Furnace Record Pressing founder and former CEO Eric Astor was elected to the Vinyl Record Manufacturing Association‘s board of directors. VRMA works to advance the record manufacturing sector — in which Astor has been deeply invested since FRP’s 1996 founding. He recently transitioned to an advisor role at the Metallica-backed Virginia plant, with Ali Miller taking over as CEO in March … OpenAI (ChatGPT) appointed Paul M. Nakasone, the former head of the National Security Agency (NSA), to its board of directors.
BMG appointed Alexandra Behrens as senior vp of global people excellence, a most excellent way of saying she’ll oversee HR services and operations across the company. Behrens is sliding over from Bertelsmann sister company Gruner + Jahr (G+J), where she led the people management & services team during a 15-year run at the print publishing giant. “Alexandra’s leadership will be instrumental in driving our global HR initiatives and fostering a culture of excellence across all of our locations,” said BMG CHRO Nikola Holle-Spiegel, to whom she’ll report. BMG recently announced a fine-tuning of its frontline recordings business under Jon Loba.
Digital Media Association (DiMA) promoted Sally Rose Larson to senior vp of government and external affairs. Prior to joining DiMA in 2019 as the audio streaming trade group’s vp of government relations, the Georgia native served as legislative director and later deputy chief of staff to Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), and was chief copyright advisor to House Judiciary Committee GOPers.
Reed Smith welcomed Jackson Abbeduto as counsel in its global entertainment and media industry group. Based in the lauded law firm‘s Century City, Calif. office, Abbeduto arrives following a year as counsel at Granderson Des Rochers. Prior to that, he spent nearly a decade at Universal Music Publishing Group and three years at YouTube as an executive. “Music is very important to our overall practice strategy, and considering our partner Gregor Pryor is the leading digital music lawyer in Europe, Jackson will have all the resources necessary to help us be on the forefront of advising clients in the US on all cutting-edge digital issues,” said Stephen Sessa, the co-chair of Reed Smith’s global entertainment and media industry group.
RADIO, RADIO: Cumulus Media promoted Kriston Aitken to chief human resources officer, taking over for a retiring Todd McCarty, who held the role for nine years. The HR veteran joined Cumulus in 2016 and was elevated to vp of Human Resources two years ago … Jose George and Olivia Morley joined advertising consulting firm Madison and Wall as senior analysts, according to Radio Ink … Samantha Melbourneweaver is joining NPR as managing editor/digital audience growth & engagement. She was previously the assistant managing editor of audience at the Los Angeles Times.
CAA promoted 15 employees, including Shayna Ehrlich to music marketing executive in the agency’s music touring department. She joined the firm in March 2019 as a music and comedy tour marketing assistant and later shed the laughs part of her workload. Prior to joining CAA, the NYC-based Ehrlich was in media strategy at iHeartMedia. THR has more details on the moves.
Hollywood-based publicist and former TV programmer Kiki Ayers launched My Best Kid Life, a new “daily guide on how parents and kids can live their best life” that will focus on wellness, nutrition, co-parenting and more, plus feature exclusive interviews with celebs discussing parenthood. Unique to MBKL is that all images used for the company are in the style of comic book, cartoon or anime. Pryor to this new venture, Ayers ran her PR firm Ayers Publicity and worked as an entertainment reporter. Earlier in her career, Ayers was a music programming manager at REVOLT and was in production at both MTV2 and The Jerry Springer Show.
ICYMI:
Richard Burgess
A2IM president and CEO Richard James Burgess telegraphed his exit from the indie label trade group … UTA hired ex-Ingrooves chief Bob Roback as COO … Downtown named Molly Neuman as president of its CD Baby arm … Jennifer Koester was promoted to president and COO of Sphere Entertainment … UnitedMasters hired Def Jam vet LaTrice Burnette as evp and head of music … and COLTURE‘s Ty Baisden was named executive of the year in Billboard‘s Indie Power Players list.
Last Week’s Turntable: TikTok Lawyers Up
Twitch signed music licensing deals with all three major labels — Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment — as well as “a large number” of indie labels represented by Merlin, according to a blog post. The deals specifically cover DJs who live-stream on the platform; other uses of music are not covered.
Under the deals, starting this summer, DJs will need to opt into a new agreement that will apply to all streaming on their Twitch channels. Thereafter, a portion of DJs’ earnings on the platform will be paid to music companies, with the majority of those earnings subject to a 50-50 split between DJs and Twitch. To help DJs adjust to the change, Twitch says it will offer a one-year subsidy to help cover the difference in revenue that will be paid out to music companies, with the amount of the subsidy gradually reducing over time.
“It’s crucial that DJs understand the status quo on Twitch was not sustainable, and any viable future for the community required we find a solution,” the blog post reads. “We’ve worked with music partners over the past few years to develop this program. Without it, those who stream DJ content on Twitch without the necessary rights do so at the risk of receiving DMCA notifications and copyright penalties which could restrict their ability to stream on Twitch.”
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According to Twitch, the number of DJs streaming on the platform has “more than quadrupled” since early 2020.
Tencent and its subsidiary Tencent Music Entertainment acquired a 10% stake in Thailand-based entertainment platform GMM Music for $70 million, valuing the company at $700 million. The stake will be paid for with a combination of cash and a minority stake in the Tencent-owned music streaming app JOOX Thailand. According to a press release, the deal “will strengthen GMM Music’s spin-off plan” and allow it “to expand its business, achieve sustainable growth, acquire world-class expertise, and invest in future music innovations to keep pace with the rapid evolution of the global music industry.” In a statement, GMM Music CEO Phawit Chitrakorn said the deal will help the company “drive the New Music Economy in Thailand towards sustainable growth” while allowing it to expand its business in additional markets, including China.
Neon Gold Records, the independent label known for launching the careers of artists including Tove Lo, Charli XCX and MARINA, signed a global distribution agreement with Virgin Music Group. Recent releases from Neon Gold include Good Neighbours’ debut single “Home” (now receiving global support from Capitol and Polydor) and Mt. Joy’s “Highway Queen”; other acts on the roster include The Knocks and Juliana Madrid. The label also revealed its newest signing: alt-pop band Phantogram, whose new single, “All a Mystery,” was released May 31. Neon Gold previously had joint ventures with Columbia (2010-2013) and Atlantic (2014-2024).
Bandcamp partnered with EMPIRE in a deal that will allow the independent record label to expand retail opportunities for its artists, who include Shaboozey, Key Glock, Conway the Machine, Dinner Party, Olamide, Asake and Black Sherif. With the deal, EMPIRE artists will now have the ability to connect with Bandcamp’s community of more than 47 million fans, to whom they can directly sell digital releases, vinyl and exclusive merchandise through the Bandcamp platform.
L.A.-based record label D36, which centers on aspiring musicians from South Asia and its diaspora, formed a joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment. Through the joint venture, acts of South Asian heritage will better be able to connect with audiences in both South Asia and international markets, including the United States. D36 is run by CEO Abhi Kanakadandila and GM/co-founder Abdullah Ahmad.
The U.K.-based Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) partnered with KUVO Powered by DJ Monitor to help foster the adoption of KUVO’s music identification technology in U.K. venues — all in hopes of ensuring proper royalty payouts for creators of the music DJs play. According to a press release, NTIA will work to make KUVO’s technology “standard practice across the U.K. club and DJ events industry…with a focus on building towards a more transparent and fair music royalty ecosystem within the UK.” There is no cost for venues to participate in the initiative and there will be no effect on the license fees venues pay for music. It also “respects DJ setlist privacy — no details of which DJ played which tracks are captured by the technology and no playlists are publicised,” the release adds.
Downtown Artist & Label Services officially partnered with AI-powered marketing operating system SymphonyOS to offer SymphonyOS marketing tools to Downtown artists at a reduced price. The deal was struck after Downtown ran multiple successful SymphonyOS-driven campaigns with artists including Hunter Hayes, mehro and Ryan Nealon. SymphonyOS offers AI-powered campaign creation, aggregated analytics, a website builder tool and features including Forever Saves, which allows fans to “subscribe” to an artist’s future releases.
1336 Records, a new label venture from System of a Down’s Shavo Odadjian, launched in partnership with Sumerian Music Group. The first release under the deal is “Paradise,” the debut single from Seven Hours After Violet — Odadjian’s new band also featuring Taylor Barber (Left To Suffer), Morgoth (Winds of Plague), Alejandro Aranda (Scarypoolparty) and Josh Johnson.
SURF Music — a platform that allows songwriters, producers and other creators to connect, collaborate, package, pitch and sell their original unreleased music to Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese labels and A&R professionals — has welcomed Universal Music Japan, Sony Japan, Avex and Fujipacific to the platform as official users. By joining SURF Music, the labels will have the ability to explore SURF’s marketplace of unreleased demos using AI-supported search tools.
VNYLab, a new music platform designed to bring independent artists closer to their fans, acquired Patron Empowerment, the developer of the similar Rhythmic Rebellion platform. The multi-million-dollar deal will accelerate the growth of VNYLab, which is set to officially debut this summer. VNYLab was founded by Jon Zeit, Wes Mason and Nikki Fernandez. Patron Empowerment founder/CEO Greg Allen has joined VNYLab as a partner.
Ford signed a 10-year naming rights agreement with Notes Live for a new music amphitheater coming to Colorado Springs, Colo. The 8,000-capacity venue, formerly known as The Sunset and now called Ford Amphitheater, is set to open on Aug. 9 with a performance by Ryan Tedder and his band OneRepublic.