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Members of the American Federation of Musicians voted to ratify the union’s agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The agreement, which covers basic theatrical motion picture and basic television motion picture contracts, gives musicians streaming residuals for the first time, as well as protections against artificial intelligence, according to AFM. In addition to […]
YG Entertainment, home to K-pop groups BLACKPINK and BABYMONSTER, has named Yang Min-seok, the young brother of former CEO and company founder Yang Hyun-sun, as sole CEO. The company announced the appointment following its annual shareholder meeting on Friday (March 29). Yang had previously shared co-CEO duties with Hwang Bo-kyung, who was named CEO in […]
Since the 1970s, D’Addario has manufactured strings for guitars, orchestral instruments and more with an eye on the future — but back then, no one at the Farmingdale, N.Y.-based company could have expected that future to involve smelting metal strings.
After decades of prioritizing music education for children through its D’Addario Foundation, particularly in underserved communities, the company launched Playback in 2015, which prioritizes sustainability. The program repurposes used guitar and orchestral strings in partnership with recycling company TerraCycle. Metal strings are smelted into new alloys, while nylon strings are recycled for industrial plastic applications — keeping both out of landfills, where over 1.5 million pounds of strings accumulate every year, according to Playback. To participate, individuals can place strings into bins at one of the nearly 1,200 collection locations across the country, including hundreds of Guitar Centers and independent retailers, or mail them on their own, so long as shipments exceed 5 pounds, to minimize waste. (D’Addario provides prepaid UPS shipping labels for such donators.)
To date, almost 13 million strings have been recycled through Playback. Acts such as U2, My Morning Jacket and Young the Giant have drawn attention to the initiative, with the lattermost donating a percentage of every ticket sold from its 2023 summer tour to the D’Addario Foundation. Additionally, the company has partnered with competitors, and its site provides links to international string recycling organizations in France and Slovakia, too. “We want to do what’s good for the whole industry,” says Brian Vance, D’Addario vp of fretted strings and accessories.
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In 2022, D’Addario instituted World String Change Day to heighten interest in the program. The idea encourages consumers to try new strings and other accessories, often through deals. It will return for its third year on June 6. “At that moment you’re taking your strings off, it goes right into the Playback bin,” chief marketing officer Jonathan Turitz says. The D’Addario Foundation has also led drives for those looking to donate used instruments, many of which end up in the hands of in-need students. The practice of repairing used instruments for kids was highlighted in the recent Academy Award-winning documentary The Last Repair Shop. “That film is exactly the story of what we’re doing,” Turitz says, “whether it’s the people in the shop or the kids.”
Playback aims to expand globally in the coming years, though logistical issues and costs stand in the way. “The recycling laws, methodologies and practices in Europe are much different than they are in the U.S.,” Vance says, although later this year, D’Addario hopes to conduct testing on scaling the program abroad. And despite the rising costs that come with the program’s success, D’Addario’s ultimate mission remains at the forefront. “We’re facing an existential crisis,” Turitz says. “It’s vital that we put the planet above profit.”
This story originally appeared in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Opus Music Group, which owns a stake in late rapper Juice WRLD’s rights and income streams, is putting its portfolio up for sale as the market conditions that fueled a gold rush for music intellectual property rights cools.
Opus is seeking around $200 million for its package of mostly passive income and royalty streaming rights, according to three sources with knowledge of the deal. Working with bankers from Raine Group, the group has fielded bids for several months, two of those sources said.
After a dramatic runup in the song-catalog investment and management market, persistently high interest rates and a bounce back in the broader market are prompting some, like Opus, to cash out, one of the sources said.
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New York-based Opus launched in 2021 with the backing of activist investor Elliott Investment Management. In 2022, Opus purchased a majority stake in late rapper Juice WRLD’s rights and income streams in a nine-figure deal, Billboard reported at the time. Opus’s portfolio also includes works and recordings from Rauw Alejandro and Maluma, according to its website. Billboard was unable to determine a full accounting of what rights Opus owns or is selling.
Representatives from Opus and Raine Group did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Elliott declined to comment.
Billboard was not able to independently value Opus’ catalog. However, according to a source familiar with the deal, Opus’ catalog had $16 million in net publisher’s share, and at the time the deal was done, the Juice WRLD rights had at least $9 million in annual royalties — publishing and artist royalties combined — according to another source.
Beginning in 2015, a wave of investors sparked a dramatic runup in the market for artist catalogs, song royalties, copyrights and income streams, with rights to works by Smokey Robinson, Bruce Springsteen, Shakira and Justin Bieber selling to both established companies like Primary Wave and the majors, as well as new players like Hipgnosis. In the years since, however, market dynamics have shifted. Interest rates have remained unexpectedly high, making financing further catalog acquisitions expensive, and the yield on U.S. Treasury bills and other stable asset classes has rebounded, making the steady returns of music IP less of a standout to yield-hungry investors.
“When the frenzy started there really were not a lot of great places to reach for yield,” says Michael Bizenov, president of Sound Royalties, which specializes in royalty financing to music clients like Dominican rapper and dembow star El Alfa. “This was a place where you could find yield. As you have yield opportunities in other places, people who were in there as a commodity will stop and reallocate.”
Investors, industry lawyers and bankers said music royalties remain an attractive and stable asset class for those with a long-term appetite. However, those sources said, they expect a wave of consolidation to hit catalog investment firms as companies backed by financial industry investors seek to securitize or exit the investment by 2027.
“There is still a robust marketplace for the sale of music IP, but the ones who were in it because everyone else was in it are getting out,” says Bizenov.
Additional reporting by Ed Christman.
In 1992, Maná scored a hit with “Vivir Sin Aire,” a love song that also served as a metaphor for the environment — and set the Mexican rock band down a path it still walks today. Not only has the group included one song inspired by environmental or social change on every album since, but in 1996, the band — comprising Fernando “Fher” Olvera, Alejandro González, Sergio Vallín and Juan Calleros — cemented its environmental commitment by launching the Selva Negra (Black Jungle) Ecological Foundation, which protects species, restores ecosystems and promotes environmental education.
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Nearly 30 years since its creation, Selva Negra has more than delivered on its mission. It has directly hatched and released 8 million sea turtles, planted over 800,000 trees, produced over 500,000 plants in its communal greenhouse and worked with the Interamerican Development Bank to help preserve Mexican forests and promote projects to raise consciousness on climate change, among many other actions. All the while, the foundation has promoted myriad social justice causes, including providing support and dignified living to immigrant communities in the United States, Mexico and Latin countries.
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Speaking from his home base of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico — and wearing a silver charm of a sea turtle, his favorite animal, around his neck — Maná frontman and Selva Negra president Olvera speaks on why the work is never over.
Fher Olvera (center) bagged saplings with the Selva Negra team.
Courtesy of Selva Negra
Several years ago, you spoke about a plan to develop an environmental curriculumfor schools. How is that coming along?
We do a lot of environmental education on the ground. But what’s most important, and what we tried to achieve with the previous governments, was making ecology a part of the core school curriculum like geography or math. It’s coming along, but our government doesn’t understand the environment. We’re trying to change that.
On the band’s last U.S. tour, you donated to many organizations that help migrants. What is your position on that issue?
More than a political position, it’s a humanitarian position. When we spent time with [President Barack] Obama in the White House, we weren’t supporting Democrats or Republicans — we were supporting the people who work, who put bread on the tables of American families. We are for human rights. The Latin community in the United States is so strong now that it can change an election, and presidents can no longer offend Latins so easily. Well, some can.
Tell us about Platanitos, the place where you have your turtle preserve.
It’s very close, in an area called Nayarit [Mexico]. Platanitos is an enormous beach where the government has an untouchable reserve, and we partnered with them to take care of the turtles. In Platanitos, we have a conservation station that houses the biologists and the team that takes care of the turtles. They collect the eggs, put them in a protected area. There they grow for a little over a month until they hatch, and they push the baby turtles to sea at night so no predators eat them. Last year, we liberated to sea almost 1 million baby turtles, our record. There are many turtle camps worldwide. It shows that man can do good with the same hand that does harm. We took a single species, but there are many more.
Do you feel artists have an obligation to promote social justice now more than ever?
If it comes from the heart, yes. If it’s not within them, and it’s against my principles to say this, they’re under no obligation. An artist’s obligation is to make good art — to give the best of themselves in their songs, their lyrics, the arrangements, everything that makes up the music. Now, if on top of that they want to talk about women’s rights, or education rights, or health, the environment, whatever, then that’s the cherry on the cake. I believe many people have been inspired by Maná to protect the environment — to think globally and act locally.
Fher Olvera releasing turtle with Selva Negra.
Courtesy Selva Negra
This story originally appeared in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
HYBE shares jumped 17.5% to 230,000 won ($170.84) this week following news that the company struck a 10-year partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG) that calls for the label to distribute HYBE’s physical and digital music and put its artists on HYBE’s Weverse social media platform. HYBE America CEO Scooter Braun will oversee all promotional and marketing collaborations between the two companies. After dropping 9.1% over the previous four weeks, the announcement brought the South Korean company’s year-to-date deficit to just 1.5%.
Another K-pop company, SM Entertainment, was one of five music companies to post double-digit stock gains this week, with its shares rising 14% to 87,800 won ($65.22). On Wednesday (March 27), the company announced the appointment of Tak Young-jun to co-CEO alongside existing CEO Jang Cheol-hyuk. SM Entertainment also announced a 1,200-won ($0.89) per-share dividend totaling 28.1 billion won ($20.8 million), an amount equal to the prior year’s dividend.
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The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index rose 1.9% to a record 1,752.24 as 16 stocks posted gains, only three lost ground and one was unchanged. Even with an unusually high number of winners, the float-adjusted index, which gives greater weight to more valuable companies, fell this week because two of the three losers are among the most valuable music companies. Spotify, which has a market capitalization of roughly $50 billion, fell 0.4% to $263.90. Live Nation fell 0.2% to $105.77; its market capitalization is about $24 billion. Two more of the index’s largest companies had gains under 2%: UMG rose 1.6% to 27.88 euros ($30.11) and Warner Music Group (WMG) improved 1.4% to $33.02. Another valuable member of the index, Chinese music streamer Tencent Music Entertainment, rose 2.2% to $11.19.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund shares climbed 13.5% to 69 pence ($0.87) after the company’s board of directors released an internal report on Thursday (March 28) that showed the fund’s investment advisor, Hipgnosis Song Management, “materially” overstated annual revenue and misled investors about the amount of control exercised over the rights in its portfolio. The negative news was welcomed by investors who have taken issue with the company’s accounting practices and portfolio valuation. Hipgnosis shares traded as low as 52.9 pence ($0.67) on March 4 but have rebounded since the company overhauled its board and hired Shot Tower Capital to put together the due diligence report.
CTS Eventim, the German live events promoter and ticketing company, rose 11.1% to 82.45 euros ($89.05) after releasing earnings for the fourth quarter and full-year 2023 on Tuesday (March 26). The company expects “a moderate rise” in total revenue in 2024. Demand is “rising continuously,” CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg wrote in the annual report, and the company expects the recent decline in inflation to provide “new, consumption-driven impetus for growth in the future.”
Believe shares rose 7.2% this week to 16.92 euros ($18.27) following the company’s announcement that it will accept a formal offer from WMG by April 7. WMG revealed its interest in Belief on March 7 and said it would be willing to pay at least 17 euros ($18.36) per share. A consortium that includes Believe CEO Denis Ladegaillerie has lined up a large block of shares and is willing to offer 15 euros ($16.20) per share for the remainder. With Believe shares currently trading so close to WMG’s soft bid, investors apparently don’t think the consortium’s original offer is going to suffice.
Stocks were mixed as the trading week was shortened by some exchanges’ closure for Good Friday. In the United States, the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3% to 16,379.46 and the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 5,254.35. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 7,952.62. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index fell 0.1% to 2,746.63. China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.2% to 3,041.17.
Let me start this column the way I ended the last one: Private equity isn’t destroying the music business. But it’s worth wondering: How will so much outside investment change the way the music industry works?
Obviously, we’re going to see more documentaries, Broadway shows and box sets, both to make money and to promote catalogs. But will this lead to significant changes to royalty distribution or the industry’s balance of power? And is there even a small chance of what might be called a subprime publishing meltdown?
As Cyndi Lauper sang, though, money changes everything — and that was before her recent rights sale. So I spoke with a half dozen serious players — music publishers and private-equity-backed catalog buyers of rights, plus lawyers and consultants who have been working on these deals since investment started flooding into the music business at the end of the 2010s, about how these new players are changing the business. Any new investment sector will have successes and failures — a new report from Shot Tower Capital says Hipgnosis Songs Fund overstated its revenue and overpaid for catalogs, although Hipgnosis has said it disputes this — but what does all of this mean for music in the long term?
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One of the few points of agreement is that this has been great for creators so far, especially songwriters. These deals involve creators who are already making money, but the ability to sell their catalogs lets them replace a steady stream of revenue with a one-time cash infusion — it’s “allowed artists the ability to have more liquidity opportunities,” according to one buyer. This is helpful if they need cash, want to diversify their assets, or have to think about estate planning. The emergence of outside buyers has also spurred traditional music companies to buy more publishing assets, especially in cases where they already own related rights, for reasons that can be either strategic (“we can bundle rights”) or defensive (“we can monetize this without interference”). That competition implies that prices will rise, which is good for creators.
It also means that potential investors will bid for a wider range of catalogs, including more recent songs in more genres — which is already happening. So what happens when some of the world’s biggest investment entities own so many catalogs? They will push — using the various tools at their disposal — to raise the value of their assets. They will not do this out of goodwill, of course; they will do it out of self-interest. But any move that raises the value of the song catalogs that they own will also raise the value of the song catalogs that they do not, and this could be very good for songwriters.
“Investors now stand in the shoes of the songwriter,” as one buyer of catalogs told me, “and will use their political clout to help make how a songwriter is paid fairer.” An executive who works for another company that buys catalogs is skeptical of some private-equity-backed ventures, because “their incentives are misaligned with those of creators.” But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. To the extent that some aspects of copyright regulation involve political power, the influence of private equity could counter that of the big technology companies that generally lobby to undermine copyright. Two executives even suggested that private equity could serve as an engine of reform to make collective management organizations more transparent. “We put up with all of this,” the argument goes, “but Wall Street won’t stand for it!”
Right now, some of the catalog acquisition business rests on the idea that new buyers can do more to promote songs than the current owners, especially with film or theater projects. Eventually, though, at least some of that advantage could disappear. Executives can see what works, and some of them will inevitably bring that knowledge to other companies. Plus, as we reach Peak Rock Doc, catalog owners — traditional publishers and private equity players alike — could start to see diminishing returns.
What about the downsides? The reason private equity has such a bad reputation is that it usually buys assets with considerable leverage and holds them for a limited amount of time, which can often result in layoffs at companies in which they invest. Although deal structures vary, a source familiar with many deals told me that buyers generally don’t borrow more than half the purchase price of copyright assets, which seems reasonable.
Eventually, of course, some buyers will become sellers, presumably because their funds have run their course, or perhaps because they do come under pressure. In some cases, operators will be able to attract other investment. In others, “secondary sales will just expand the field for what is in play,” a publishing executive pointed out. A market for publishing assets inevitably means that not everyone will succeed — but it should also provide other buyers. A certain amount of consolidation may be inevitable, but it might not be so bad. Some writers will worry about how the new owner of their songs will treat them, but realistically — and this might sound cold, but it’s also true — that’s something creators need to think about before they sell.
Is there any chance of a broader market failure — a subprime copyright crisis, of sorts? Music copyrights generate steady cash the way mortgages once did, but while individual investments can rise or fall, it’s harder to imagine that a financial squeeze would lead to a selling frenzy that would send prices downward across the board. This isn’t a massive liquid market the way housing is, plus there’s less leverage and far more due diligence about the assets being purchased. (One lawyer said that this market is encouraging creators and publishers to improve their contracts and document-retention practices.)
Although it might seem counter-intuitive, the market for music copyrights might actually be more solid than that for housing. So far, on-demand streaming has proved pandemic-proof, and it seems recession-proof, so the only danger would be a collapse of the copyright system — and it’s hard to imagine how that would happen, especially now that the music business survived illegal file-sharing. Outside investment in music rights will change, like everything else in the business, but it looks like we’re going to see steady, long-term change — most of which creators have good reason to be optimistic about.
Accounting scandals may not get the public’s attention like a raid by Homeland Security, but questions about the quality of a publicly traded company’s books is a serious matter. This week, an internal report made public by Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the London-listed company that played a major role in turning music rights into a stable, attractive asset class, confirmed what some analysts and shareholders had long suspected.
At best, the 26-page report by Shot Tower Capital, the firm hired by the company’s board of directors in the wake of a shareholder revolt in October, details how the investment advisor, the Merck Mercuriadis-led Hipgnosis Song Management (HSM), made numerous missteps in accounting and financial projections of its vast music rights portfolio that includes music by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shakira and Journey. At worst, the report suggests the investment advisor chose accounting standards that overstated revenue, inflated the portfolio’s valuation and — as the board previously stated — resulted in larger fees paid for managing the portfolio. In any case, information released Thursday presents an unflattering portrait of HSM and its internal operations.
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For its part, HSM considers some “aspects of the report…to be factually inaccurate and misleading,” the company said in a statement on Thursday (Mar. 28). HSM said it received the report the evening before its release and will respond to the board “in due course.”
To be clear, Shot Tower did not explicitly comment on the investment advisor’s intent in using certain accounting practices. The data-heavy report offers analysis, not speculation. But the report, part of the board of directors’ effort to regain shareholders’ trust, made clear that annual revenue was “materially” overstated and laid out numerous examples where the fund’s numbers didn’t reflect the reality behind its assets.
Take, for example, something called right to income (RTI), which are royalties that are paid to the buyer at the close of an acquisition. (If the acquisition’s effective date is prior to the closing date, royalties received by the seller after the effective date are credited to the buyer.) Normally, the amount of the RTI is deducted from the purchase price and is not included in annual revenue figures. However, Shot Tower found that some RTI revenue from Hipgnosis acquisitions was counted as annual revenues rather than an adjustment in the purchase price. As the board’s Mar. 18 update noted, including RTI revenue with annual revenue amounts to “double counting.” Misclassifying RTI “significantly” increased the fund’s income in 2021 and 2022, according to the report. In fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2020, zero and 5.3% of deals had RTI periods that extended for more than one year. In fiscal 2021 and 2022, those numbers jumped to 43.9% and 60.0%.
RTI also came into play with the proposed sale of a portion of the portfolio to Hipgnosis Songs Capital, a joint venture of HSM and investment firm Blackstone. The catalog was presented to shareholders as having a net purchase price of $424.7 million (including RTI revenue of $15.3 million). With pro-forma annual revenue (PFAR) of $24.1 million, HSM assigned a 17.6x multiple to the proposed sale. But Shot Tower believes the catalog’s multiple should have been 14.9x based on higher annual revenue of $28 million and believed the net sale price should have been $416.7 million. Shareholders voted against the proposed sale in October.
In fiscal 2022, the investment advisor changed how it accounted for accrued revenues. The fund is required to make estimates on revenue earned in the period, rather than recognize revenue when the royalties are collected. A new approach, called “usage accruals,” calculated accruals “based on expected usage” rather than when revenues “are paid to, and processed by, collection societies, publishers and administrators.” Shot Tower noted the adoption of usage accruals occurred “at a time when RTI revenue was declining and the Fund could no longer raise capital for continued acquisitions.” In other words, a lack of fresh funding halted acquisitions and reduced the amount of RTI revenue added to annual revenue. Without the change, Shot Tower believes the fund “would have breached its lender covenants” and fiscal 2022 revenue would have been $36 million lower.
Accrued revenue also caused problems with PFAR, a non-IFRS metric meant to show investors organic growth excluding accruals and RTI. But Shot Tower found PFAR did indeed include accrual estimates of income expected to be included in the period, which “presents a picture of organic growth that is higher than growth suggested by the statement data,” according to the report. As such, Shot Tower warned investors not to rely on PFAR as a metric.
More issues arose in Shot Tower’s due diligence investigations into how individual catalogs were valued. The entire portfolio, which stood at $2.8 billion on Mar. 31, 2023, is instead worth $1.95 billion, according to the report — a difference of some $850 million. Given the transparency into the fund’s accounting practices, however, shareholders were unfazed by the demotion. On Thursday, Hipgnosis Song Fund’s share price jumped 8.3% to 69 pence, its highest closing price since Jan. 31 and 30.4% above its low point in 2024, 52.9 pence, set on Mar. 4. Whether the share price will improve further could depend on how shareholders view the board’s reaction to this report.
Last fall, R&B singer October London performed “Back to Your Place” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with a Snoop Dogg introduction and a seven-piece band including harp and violin players. In other words, the performance wasn’t cheap — and probably far more expensive than the few thousand dollars late-night talk-show guests typically receive under union rules.
According to London’s manager, Adrian L. Miller, the appearance, which has scored 281,000 YouTube views so far, was worth it. London’s more stripped-down GMA3 performance in February had even more concrete benefits, boosting ticket sales for the singer’s show at Brooklyn Steel later that night by 100. “It’s not nothing,” Miller says. “It’s good to have the logos and the exposure through TV.”
Still, Miller concedes that the promotional benefits of late-night TV performances aren’t as great as they were in the 2000s. Back then, Jay Leno and David Letterman frequently drew 4 million to 6 million nightly viewers, compared with the roughly 1.5 million to 3 million viewers top talk shows draw today. Plus, he says, “A lot of an artist’s audience is not on television. They’re not watching these shows.”
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For many acts, especially developing artists seeking viral moments, the return on investment for late-night and daytime talk-show performances has become too minuscule to be effective. “They have, like, 2 million viewers of these shows, and that’s what we get on daily posts on TikTok,” says Ethan Curtis, manager of singer-songwriter JVKE, who played The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2022. “It’s an energy drain. We travel and train for the performance and do it in one take. It doesn’t feel worth it for every song.”
And while audiences are down, the cost of mounting a memorable televised performance is way up. Another of Miller’s clients, singer-rapper Anderson .Paak, spent “out of pocket, almost six figures,” he says, for a 2017 Ellen appearance. “Everybody wants a creative director now, and the stylist and the hair and the makeup,” a major-label source says. According to label and management sources, expenses for talk-show performances range from $150,000 to $225,000 — or as high as $700,000 for a potentially career-making Saturday Night Live opportunity.
Targeted talk-show performances sometimes redeem the expense. When JVKE played “Golden Hour” on Fallon in late 2022, his team wanted to “elevate him from a TikTok artist to a ‘real artist,’” Curtis says. “That’s when the late-night show served a purpose: ‘Let’s have an example of JVKE existing outside of TikTok.’ We chopped up the footage, reposted it on social media.” (JVKE’s Fallon performance is no longer available on his socials, but a Tonight Show YouTube video of him “playing my song for the Roots” beforehand has 358,000 views.)
“Most bands come in with the same amount of crew and backline as if they were putting on a show. They ask the record label to pay for it and [labels] don’t want to,” says Chris Gentry, who managed Phoenix in 2009 when the band’s SNL appearance helped turn its album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix into a smash.
In an analysis of 458 artist appearances on top talk shows such as Kimmel, Fallon, Ellen, SNL and The Late Late Show With James Corden, music data analyst Chartmetric found the artists’ monthly Spotify listeners averaged 1.78% more the week after the show. Some artists’ distinctive performances make a bigger impact: BTS on SNL in 2019 and Bartees Strange on Kimmel in 2022 both boosted their monthly Spotify listeners by nearly 85%.
Other talk-show performances barely register. Chartmetric reports that 192 artists experienced decreases in monthly Spotify listeners after their talk-show gigs; London’s Kimmel performance in October had minimal impact on his Spotify metrics. “We’ve had these conversations for a long time: Late night doesn’t move the needle,” says the major-label source, who nonetheless remains a proponent of such appearances because “Jimmy Fallon or NBC helps spread a piece of digital content in an era when we’re constantly trying to break through the noise.”
While Ken Weinstein, a veteran publicist whose company, Big Hassle, represents Phish, Jack White, the Pretenders and many others, acknowledges “labels are definitely more thoughtful about how they spend the money,” he adds that prominent talk-show performances can have promotional benefits far beyond the initial TV appearances. “Honestly, the appearance itself is as valuable as ever,” he says. “Only in a few instances really are there giant sales bumps from a particular TV appearance — but the conversation it begins is still very relevant, very powerful.”
Peter Katsis, who manages Bush, booked frontman Gavin Rossdale on Fallon in January; a Tonight Show Instagram clip of “Glycerine” scored 344,000 views, and numerous media outlets covered the performance. “It’s really not about what Fallon‘s numbers are anymore,” says Katsis. “It really starts with what you decide to do with the opportunity. All that stuff becomes way more valuable than just that initial appearance.”
“Everything’s more expensive, which is the reason to do it at the right time and have it be part of a larger plan,” says Diana Miller, supervising producer for The Talk, which recently booked Bush and Rachel Platten, adding that shows often negotiate with artists over paying a portion of their expenses, in addition to the low thousands of dollars in union rates they pay musicians to appear. “How much would four minutes be for advertising on this show? You can’t just promote to your own fanbase. You can’t assume Ariana Grande fans know she has new music out.”
Some artists have taken it upon themselves to economize. The Lemon Twigs, a band from Long Island, played Fallon in late January with a “very stripped-back backline” and “hardly any money at all,” according to Gentry, who manages the group. “We did it really for the cost of the flight for the drummer from L.A.,” he says. “What’s interesting right now with Fallon is how social media plays into it — 14 million on Instagram, 15 million on TikTok. It’s almost like you get more now.”
This story will appear in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
New funding is coming to the Canadian music industry.
Pascale St-Onge, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, announced at the Juno Awards on March 24 that the government will increase the Canada Music Fund by $32 million over the next two fiscal years.
The Canada Music Fund supports both FACTOR and Musicaction. Those granting bodies provide artists, labels and other organizations with funding for a wide range of activities, including recording, touring, marketing and music video production.
The announcement — though welcomed by Canadian music associations like the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) and the Canadian Live Music Association (CLMA) — falls short of the $50 million that the Liberal government committed to in 2021, and the $60 million increase called for by the industry groups.
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FACTOR has historically received significant funds from Canada’s private radio broadcasters, but as those contributions decline, CIMA and CLMA have been sounding the alarm about the organization’s ability to meet the needs of Canadian artists. FACTOR’s funding challenges come at a time when many artists and organizations are struggling to stay afloat amidst a cost of living crisis.
“CIMA applauds the government’s increased investment in the Canada Music Fund,” said CIMA president Andrew Cash. “This is a recognition of music’s significant contribution to our cultural fabric and national economy.”
L’ADISQ, Quebec’s Association of the Record, Show and Video Industry, highlights that Musicaction — which primarily supports French-speaking projects — has already made cuts in recent months, and this increase will prevent a further reduction in capacity. The association calls the announcement a step in the right direction, but emphasizes the difficult economic context facing music organizations with fewer resources.
The Canadian Live Music Association echoes l’ADISQ’s sentiment, calling the increase “a good start,” and reiterating the tough circumstances industry members are facing. The Canada Music Fund increase was one of three recommendations CLMA put forward for the upcoming federal budget, which the organization hoped would take “urgent action” to protect the live music sector.
With the full budget still to come, more support measures could be in store for Canada’s music sector. -Rosie Long Decter
Canada Ranked 8th Largest Global Music Market In New IFPI Report
Canada’s recorded music revenues are strong, according to a new report from IFPI.
The IFPI’s 2024 State of the Industry report takes a deep dive into the state of recorded music around the world, and ranks Canada eighth in terms of global music markets in 2023, maintaining the country’s spot in the top ten. Canada’s music market grew by 12.19% last year, reaching US$659.6 million in revenues. That growth outpaced both the U.S. market, which grew by 7.2%, and global growth of 10.2% — the second highest recorded global growth rate, according to the report.
Some individual Canadian artists did well on a global scale, too: the report ranks Drake and The Weeknd at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, in its Global Artist 2023 chart, which considers artist, track and album performance. Taylor Swift took the top spot there, followed by South Korean groups SEVENTEEN and Stray Kids.
A statement from IFPI, which represents the global recording industry, and Music Canada, an association representing major Canadian labels, attributes much of Canada’s revenue growth to streaming revenues, which jumped by 8.6% here, and subscription streaming in particular, which increased by 10.1%. The associations emphasize the challenges posed by streaming manipulation, highlighting IFPI’s recent legal complaint against nine Canadian-based sites that sold fraudulent streams. The sites are now offline.
Beyond Canadian borders, IFPI’s State of the Industry highlights how national markets are intertwined worldwide, using the growing popularity of Punjabi music in Canada and the launch of 91 North Records — a collaboration between Warner Music Canada and Warner Music India — as an example. “We set up 91 North Records,” Warner’s Simon Robson says, in “reaction to something that is happening organically and a proactive turbocharge to make sure it doesn’t just continue but flourishes and finds a wider audience.” Robson points out that several of the most popular Indian songs in 2022 came from artists based in Canada. – RLD
Karan Aujla Makes History at 2024 Junos
The 2024 Juno Awards looked to the future of Canadian music, while also honouring its history.
A quartet of acts who’ve had major breakthroughs this year won the major awards given out on the CBC-televised broadcast on Sunday night (March 24) live from Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Punjabi-Canadian global star Karan Aujla won the TikTok Fan Choice award, the only fan-chosen award of the ceremony. “Sometimes I can’t believe I’m that same kid who lost my parents when I was in India, made my way to Canada, and now I’m here!” said the B.C.-based artist, one of Billboard Canada’s inaugural cover stars. “If you are dreaming, make sure you dream big.”
Dressed in a spiffy white outfit with a four backup dancers in red, Aujla performed early on, playing pop hits “Admirin’ You” and “Softly.” Both came from his album Making Memories, which made history as the highest-charting Punjabi debut ever on the Canadian Albums chart. Ikky, who made the album with Aujla, acted as hype man on an elevated platform.
In the Billboard Punjabi Wave cover story, AP Dhillon talked about his performance at the 2023 Junos ceremony and how he lobbied to ensure majorly popular Punjabi music would have a prolonged platform at the awards. Evidently, they’ve kept their word.
This year’s Junos also had the most Indigenous nominees in award history. Anita Landback, Tanas Sylliboy and Sarah Prosper set the stage with a land acknowledgment that intersected with a performance by Juno winner Jeremy Dutcher in Wolastoqey, who then joined in a duet with Elisapie on an Inuktitut version of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.” Along with Aujla and others, it meant performances featured at least six different languages, including English and French.
Several other breakout artists had big wins at this year’s awards. Tate McRae, The Beaches, Charlotte Cardin and TALK all had major years on the charts and were rewarded with awards. The Junos have struggled with star power in recent years — Drake has boycotted the last half decade, while chart-topper Tate McRae was not in attendance to accept her two awards this year — but they have made some strides when it comes to representation of what makes Canadian music unique. -Richard Trapunski
Last Week In Canada: Streaming Fraud Sites Shut Down