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The front door to the Record Plant — where Beyoncé once booked every room to record Lemonade, Kanye West and Pharrell rode motorized scooters through the hallways and Michael Jackson, Rihanna, Eminem, Lady Gaga and hundreds of others made classic albums — is locked. There are no cars in its parking lot across the street. And the 55-year-old studio, which moved to this location on North Sycamore Avenue in Los Angeles in 1985, is “set to close” forever, according to a July report in Los Angeles magazine that was widely repeated online.
But the truth is more complicated. The fate of the Record Plant is in the hands of a U.S. bankruptcy court in California, the result of a multimillion-dollar squabble between a fast-talking Italian music producer and a prolific hitmaker for Bruno Mars’ songwriting and production team, the Smeezingtons. Court trustees will sell the Record Plant’s assets to pay its creditors, then grant what’s left of the business to the highest bidder. The new owner could then decide to close it for good or keep it open.
“I think the brand means something,” says Rick Stevens, a former major-label executive who bought the studio in 1991. “The high-tech living room, the level of service and differentiating itself from most of the other recording studios on the planet — if somebody [buys it and] does that, the Record Plant brand could be revitalized and reborn.”
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The latest era of Record Plant turmoil began in 2016, when Stevens realized producers were eschewing expensive studios to make music with ProTools and Ableton in their bedrooms. “I had been planning an exit for a couple of years,” he says. “It was time to move on.”
At the time, Stevens was also working as CEO of an entertainment company run by billionaire Ron Burkle; they built an investment firm that sought to buy holdings in electronic dance music. Stevens found himself regularly visiting the dance-party island of Ibiza, “in the heyday of the EDM world,” as Stevens recalls. There, he befriended Marcel Boekhoorn, an accountant-turned-entrepreneur who was a billionaire and owned a yacht. Boekhoorn said he was working with Mars and a colleague, Philip Lawrence, the songwriter and producer whose name appears on the credits of just about every Mars song, plus hits by Adele, Justin Bieber and others.
A self-taught pianist who had been a performer at Disney World, Lawrence first met Mars through a mutual friend. They rose together, and Lawrence soon became an eight-time Grammy Award winner, mega-rich in the music business. He was also troubled. In a 2020 interview, he acknowledged cheating on his wife, celebrity stylist and fashion designer Urbana Chappa, then going to rehab. “I did not understand the impact of my behavior. I did not understand how damaging cheating is,” he said. “I had to get sober. That was my initial assignment — what is this thing that’s blocking me from becoming a whole person? … How can I be well?”
Boekhoorn and Lawrence partnered in a new company, Philmar, which bought the Record Plant from Stevens in late 2016. Their idea, according to Amsterdam filmmaker Remko Peters, a friend of Boekhoorn who wound up as a managing partner at the studio, was that Lawrence would scout and develop music talent and bring them to the Record Plant to record. (Boekhoorn declined to answer questions for this story.)
The plan worked — for a few years. Shawn Mendes, Chaka Khan, Mars himself and other top stars recorded at the Record Plant during this period. But soon, Lawrence and Patrizio Moi, the Italian producer who has worked with Bieber, Meghan Trainor, Pavarotti and others and had a long-standing deal to work in Record Plant’s upstairs studio, had a dispute over money. “Lawrence,” Moi says, “did not do what he was supposed to do.”
‘I WANT TO LIVE HERE’
The first Record Plant first opened in 1968 in New York City, and the Los Angeles installation followed a year later, debuting with a party invitation that read, “L.A.’s First Hunchy Punchy Recording Studio,” as co-founder Chris Stone later wrote. One of its founders, engineer Gary Kellgren, supplemented its state-of-the-art technology, including multitrack tape machines, large consoles and monitor mixers, with an innovation — studios resembling living rooms. “When we started Record Plant, recording studios were like hospitals: fluorescent lights, white walls and concrete floors,” Stone wrote. “The best and greatest compliment that any artist who came to work with us could make was, ‘My God, this is beautiful — I want to live here.’”
Soon megastars from John Lennon to Fleetwood Mac to Stevie Wonder were recording at the studio on 3rd Street in West Hollywood, and the off-duty activities, for many, had become at least as attractive as making records. “This place was a rock ‘n’ roll mecca complete with a hot tub room and other creative spaces specifically designed for orgies and drug use,” wrote Jim Peterik, a member of the ’80s band Survivor, in his 2014 memoir Through the Eye of the Tiger. “Each recording console was equipped with razor blades for chopping cocaine and at least three boxes of Kleenex.” Buck Dharma, guitarist for Blue Öyster Cult, which recorded its 1979 album Mirrors at the LA Record Plant, recalls to Billboard, “We were half-jokingly cautioned about getting into the hot tub. It had a reputation for being funky.”
In 1991, Stevens, a former A&R executive at MGM and Polydor, read a Los Angeles Times article about the LA installment of the Record Plant, by now in its second location on North Sycamore Avenue, and assembled a group to buy it. His innovation was to pamper clients “at the highest level, the way they live,” he says. “My goal was to say, ‘I want these people treated like they’re at a five-star hotel.’” He also brought in a key employee: Rose Mann-Cherney, on-site manager, beloved by clients for decades. “Nobody knew better how to deal with the stars,” Stevens says. “She was able to help me execute my vision.” (Mann-Cherney did not respond to requests for comment.)
The reborn Record Plant returned to its former glory, drawing music’s biggest names for years: Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Eminem, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Bieber and dozens of others. Prince built his own studio there in the late ‘90s, and signed the studio’s guest book with his symbol. “Record Plant is the best studio I’ve ever been in. It’s unexplainable. I don’t know if it’s the piece of property it sits on or the stories in the walls,” says Paul Blair, the producer known as DJ White Shadow, who worked on Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP and other hits at the studio. “It was just like the perfect storm of awesomeness. There was this little glass room that had all the records. I’d go back there and Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones would be drinking red wine. Before Fifth Harmony took off — the girls were probably 14 — they were laying on the floor playing board games while taking turns cutting their parts.”
Adds CJ deVillar, a Record Plant staff engineer from 1997 to 1999 who worked with Michael Jackson and many other stars: “It was a really great culture there for a while.”
LAWSUITS, DIVORCE AND BANKRUPTCY
In 2014, Moi visited the Record Plant and decided he loved everything about it — “I had goosebumps,” he says — and made a deal with Stevens to rent a two-room upstairs studio, Digi-Plant, as resident producer. Moi spent earnings from his London real-estate portfolio to invest in equipment and renovations.
When Boekhoorn and Lawrence’s Philmar bought the studio two years later, Moi was disappointed. He and Stevens were close — Stevens calls Moi “my favorite Italian guy” — and Moi had suggested buying it himself, but they never advanced beyond the price-negotiation phase. Philmar won out with a better offer. “It’s business, right?” Moi says. “I was upset, but I was like, ‘That’s how it went.’”
In January 2017, Peters, the studio’s managing partner, proposed a deal to Moi: The Italian producer would relinquish Digi-Plant so BMG could rent it for a higher price. In exchange, Moi would receive equity in the Record Plant, making him a minority owner. Moi agreed. (Peters says the BMG story is “not correct.” He believes Lawrence and Moi initially liked each other but had their own ways of making and producing music, and their relationship eventually soured.) “It’s always about money,” Peters says. “What’s new?”
Moi declared himself an owner of Record Plant and insisted on receiving shares of its profits. But Lawrence and Philmar “began manufacturing excuses to string along Moi, and ultimately refused to share any profits,” Moi’s attorneys argued in court documents. A source close to Lawrence responds that Moi, “a difficult man,” took advantage of the proposed 2017 deal to “hijack” the Record Plant trademark, “somehow get control” of its email address and “started launching lawsuits.” The source adds: “He absolutely robbed the Record Plant.”
Record Plant Recording Studio
Remko Peters
Moi sued Philmar in 2018, arguing that he had a 20% stake in the Record Plant, according to court documents. (This later increased to 27%, when Moi bought out a minority partner, he says.) Two years later, Boekhoorn, the Dutch billionaire who was a partner in Philmar, left the business, selling his stake to Lawrence for nearly $2.8 million, according to court records. “It’s one of the most expensive studios in L.A.,” Peters says. “After Covid, people bought their own studios at houses.”
That left Lawrence as president and CEO of the Record Plant. And the litigation with Moi was taking a toll on Lawrence’s finances. According to Moi, Lawrence told him, “This thing is a money pit. This thing is not working financially. Take the Record Plant but dismiss the lawsuit.”
In October 2020, Lawrence and Moi began negotiating a legal settlement. Moi says he met with Lawrence in New York for several hours, four or five days in a row, hammering out a handshake deal. On Nov. 8, 2020, Moi visited Lawrence’s house in Los Angeles for a one-on-one meeting, with no attorneys present, and asked the Smeezingtons songwriter to sign a complicated, 89-page agreement that would make Moi and Lawrence co-owners of the Record Plant. As court records show, Lawrence signed a “Purchase and Sale Agreement” transferring ownership of the studio to Moi, as well as numerous other documents, such as a transfer of the Record Plant trademark and its website domain.
As part of the agreement, Moi paid Lawrence $1. Why such a low amount? Because Lawrence owed so much money to Moi, as a Record Plant partner who owned 27% of the company but had not received any equity payments, they executed the deal basically for free — and in exchange for wiping out Lawrence’s debt to him, Moi took ownership of the studio. “The dollar was whatever,” Moi says. “He had to put some price in there.”
Moi moved to take over ownership of the Record Plant, but Lawrence objected, claiming the November 2020 agreement he signed was made under false pretenses — “specious,” his attorneys later called the agreement in a lawsuit. Miles Cooley, an attorney for Lawrence, later declared in court that Moi had neglected a “proposed transaction,” a “closing” and several other requirements outlined in a letter of agreement in order for him to take over the Record Plant. “Without those items resolved, it was illogical, absurd and entirely without any factual basis for Moi to assert that he was ‘owner’ of Record Plant,” Cooley said.
The source close to Lawrence says the Smeezingtons songwriter was characteristically “trusting, probably over-generous, not contentious” and “was just trying to find an amicable solution with Moi.” The source adds that Lawrence “just took Moi’s word he was going to do the right thing,” but “Moi just went in and grabbed everything,” including Record Plant’s trademarks. In court documents, Lawrence and Philmar accused Moi of “international misrepresentation” and “fraudulent inducement.” In his statement, Cooley added, “No court in this state would ever believe that Lawrence transferred the Record Plant business to Moi for $1.”
Moi’s response in court was to declare the Nov. 8 agreement to be “binding and enforceable” and accused Lawrence and Philmar of acting with “malice, fraud and oppression.” The dueling lawsuits are elaborate and ugly. They became uglier still when Lawrence threw in an unexpected curveball — last August, he filed for bankruptcy.
Moi’s attorneys dug up Lawrence’s 2022 divorce proceeding with his wife, Chappa. In April, Robb Report described their Los Angeles mansion — which contained a Moroccan-inspired spa — as a “lavish Encino spread … loaded with every amenity imaginable and then some.” The cost of the house was $11.5 million. The article did not mention that Chappa had hired a forensic accountant to look into Lawrence’s financial affairs, in order to determine his obligations to her and the couple’s four young children. According to court records, Lawrence had nearly $22 million in property assets from three homes and $90 million from selling his song catalog to Tempo Music Investments, a music-investment company that partners with Warner Music Group. Lawrence also borrowed $15 million from Hipgnosis, the music-catalog company that has purchased hundreds of millions of dollars worth of songs from top songwriters, using his own catalog as collateral.
But Lawrence also had massive debts, including more than $23 million due in back taxes, according to court records. And as part of their divorce proceeding, Chappa accused Lawrence of withholding key financial details about his assets. According to court records, Lawrence asked a business manager to hold $2.3 million of his money — an amount he had not disclosed in the divorce proceeding.
“Look, he knows he made mistakes,” the source close to Lawrence says. “He got himself in a bit of a mess.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE RECORD PLANT?
The type of bankruptcy Lawrence’s company Philmar filed in March was Chapter 11 — a reorganization of the company’s debts and assets under court supervision. But in June, Moi requested that the bankruptcy court change the designation to Chapter 7 — a more extreme form of bankruptcy that would require Philmar to liquidate all of its assets to pay off its many creditors. The court agreed.
“He couldn’t keep up the legal fees,” says the source close to Lawrence. “His only option, at that point, was bankruptcy.”
Where does that leave the Record Plant? It’s unclear. Moi is aggressive about wanting to be the studio’s owner, and has plans to renovate the studios, buy more equipment and work with the landlord, CIM Group, to resume the studio’s rent payments. (A CIM representative declined to comment.) He claims he owns the Record Plant trademarks, while bankruptcy-court trustees control the furniture, speakers, consoles and microphones contained in the building.
Due to Philmar’s Chapter 7 status, the trustees in the bankruptcy proceeding are required to sell the Record Plant assets to pay off the creditors (which include CIM for back rent payments, and Moi for equipment, as the Italian producer argues in court). But another buyer could come in and take over the assets. Amy L. Goldman, a court trustee, said in a July filing she has had sale discussions with “Mr. Moi, the landlord, [Philmar’s] principals, and at least two others.” “When you sell in bankruptcy, you are required to get the highest and best price,” says Mary Whitmer, a bankruptcy attorney in Cleveland who is not involved in the case. “[The trustee] will tell all of them, ‘Whatever bid you make, I’m going to shop it around.’”
Despite his bankruptcies, Lawrence, who identifies himself as the Record Plant’s owner and CEO, plans to keep the studio open if he winds up as the permanent owner, sources close to him say. Boekhoorn, the Dutch investor, could potentially be involved. (“Perhaps,” says Peters, Boekhoorn’s filmmaker friend who worked at the Record Plant. “I cannot say yes, I cannot say no.”) But if Moi emerges as the studio’s owner through the bankruptcy proceeding, he will keep running it as a music studio. “I will double down and invest whatever it takes to relaunch it,” he says. “Three more studios upstairs, and renovate four studios downstairs. A major Italian renovation.”
Adds Moi: “We want the Record Plant to survive. I’m trying my best.”
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.
Warner Chappell Music promoted David Goldsen to senior vp of North America A&R. Los Angeles-based Goldsen will continue to sign and develop songwriters and artists across multiple genres, help with leadership efforts for the North America A&R department, and continue supporting songwriters in international markets and overseeing the publisher’s A&R efforts in Australia. Goldsen joined Warner Chappell in 2009 and in 2022 was named vp of creative and head of A&R for WCM. Over the past year and change, he has signed a string of top-tier country, rock, jazz and alternative artists, including Zach Bryan, Teddy Swims, The Red Clay Strays, Laufey and Sleep Token. Goldsen also continues to work closely with Mitski, whom he signed in 2018 and who had a hit in 2023/2024 with “My Love Mine All Mine.” He’ll continue to report to Ryan Press, president of North America.
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“David has consistently proven his natural ability to discover and sign top talent,” said Press. “He has steadily built a star-studded roster, and in the past year alone, has brought in many of the artists and songwriters leading today’s charts. I’ve had the opportunity to work with him for over 15 years, and I’m proud of everything he’s accomplished on our team as an A&R executive and inspiring leader.” –Jessica Nicholson
Meanwhile…
Isadora Kamotskin was promoted to marketing director at Warner Music Finland, where’s she’s been a staple since 2016. It’s a step up from her previous role as marketing manager of the label’s domestic marketing department, where she’s worked on partnerships with radio and streaming partners and been pivotal in pushing several Finnish acts including Antti Tuisku, BEHM, Kaija Koo and others. With this promotion, Kamotskin will join the management team of both Warner Music Finland and Warner Music Live, and will report to the territory’s managing director, Ramona Forsström. “She has a strategic vision, strong marketing skills, a deep understanding of our roster and the ability to help artists achieve success,” said Forsström. “Her passion for music, her people oriented management style and ability to inspire her team are invaluable strengths.”
Audio Up‘s record label, Audio Chateau, has secured $4.5 million in additional funding through investors including Glen Barros, managing partner at Exceleration Music, as well as Gillian Hormel and Jonathan Schulman. It has also on-boarded Grayson Flatness, formerly of InGrooves, who will act as an A&R consultant, and industry veteran Kate London, who’ll act as head of legal & business affairs for the label, overseeing business and legal dealings across all music endeavors. This is in addition to London’s responsibilities overseeing business and legal affairs for Audio Up Media. She has previously held executive roles at Global Music Rights, Interscope Records and Warner Records, in addition to her private practice experience.
RADIO, RADIO: iHeartMedia appointed Angela Reed to senior vp of its Inside Sales division, overseeing the company’s slate of broadcast, events, digital and podcast products across all markets. Reed, who previously held leaderships roles at Miradore, KnowBe4 and Time Doctor, will report to Julie Donohue, iHeartMedia’s president of multimarket partnerships … Cumulus Media promoted Carolyn Chauncey to senior vp of marketing and podcasting, a role that will see her lead day-to-day operations, content acquisition, editorial and production at the Cumulus Podcast Network. Chauncey will continue to direct corporate marketing for Cumulus Media, Westwood One and the Cumulus Podcast Network, reporting to Collin R. Jones, president of Westwood One. Elsewhere at Cumulus, Megan Devine was promoted to vp of podcast sales planning and yield optimization.
Outback Presents hired Christine Melko Ross to lead the company’s Canadian operations as senior vp of global operations. As her title implies, the Montreal-based live executive will also spearhead international expansion strategies beyond North America. Melko Ross arrives at Outback following a 23-year run at the Just For Laughs Group, producer of the legendary comedy festival. At JFL, she was instrumental in running the flagship Montreal festival and in expanding it to Toronto. [This year’s festival was canceled in March amid a bankruptcy filing and layoffs.] Before joining JFL, Melko Ross was lead talent buyer for Donald K. Donald/Universal Concerts/House of Blues Concerts, managing tours for artists as diametrically different as The Backstreet Boys and Leonard Cohen. “Everyone at Outback Presents is excited to have Christine join the team,” said Outback Presents co-CEO Michael Smardak. “Her extensive achievements and experience in comedy will be invaluable to our global growth. We are very proud to have her join us.” Melko Ross is reachable at christine.melkoross@outbackpresents.com.
NASHVILLE NOTES: The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum promoted Haley Houser to associate director to the CEO, Aaron Helvig to director of school and music programs, Dana Romanello to director of museum sales and Joe Bridges to director of security … Southwest Value Partners, developer of Nashville Yards, the nearly completed 19-acre mixed use entertainment district in downtown Nashville, announced Christian Parker as chief operating officer, Steve Lewis a director of security, and Rocky Ryan as vp of operations of the massive project. When completed, Nashville Yards will boast several Class A+ buildings including offices for CAA, AEG Presents and Messina Touring Group, as well as The Pinnacle, a 4,500-capacity music venue … Daywind Music Group promoted Joe Dan Cornett to director of publishing of its bluegrass label Billy Blue Music. Cornett has been with DMG for 10 years, serving as both catalog manager and creative director.
Grammy Award-winning pianist, composer and arranger John Beasley succeeded Chuck Owen as president of the International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers (ISJAC). Other 2024 appointments at ISJAC, a non-profit advocacy organization for jazz composers and arrangers, include Mike Conrad as vp of membership and Erica von Kleist as vp of development, with board of directors Billy Childs, Patrice Rushen and Rio Sakairi. Owen, who co-founded ISJAC in 2016, remains on the board. “I am fortunate to receive the baton from Owen, who has left a solid and well-marked footprint,” Beasley said. “I’m most excited to bond and exchange ideas with our current and new members across the globe to help each other further our personal and collective artistic growth, which ultimately furthers the art of arranging and composing.”
Big Loud Records promoted Eric England to senior vp of insights and analytics. England joined the team in September 2021 and established the label’s Insights & Analytics department, leading the label’s data-forward methodology. England has a PhD from Virginia Tech, and started his music industry career following time at The Ohio State University, The Kraft Heinz Company and Mars Petcare. –J.N.
YOU DOWN WITH NEW JVs? BrickHouse Entertainment’s Scott Brickell, Ron Smith and Chase Swayze, along with former Hootie and the Blowfish manager Rusty Harmon, partnered up with Vere Music on Hit and Run Music, a new ADA-distributed marketing, distribution and label venture based in Nashville. The label’s inaugural artist is Micah Christopher … Origins Records and Hitmaker Music formed a new venture that will focus on developing Black country and Americana artists. Leading the JV are Origins executive Kadeem Phillips and ex-MNRK Music Group svp/GM Gina Miller.
ICYMI:
Elliot Grainge
Shari Bryant stepped down as co-president of Roc Nation‘s record label, which has been merged with the company’s distribution wing to form ROC Nation Distribution … Elliot Grainge, son of the industry’s most powerful person, will soon take the helm at Atlantic Music Group. Those who have worked with Grainge predict how the transition may go in this inside look at the abrupt generational shift at Atlantic, the storied label co-founded by music legend Ahmet Ertegun in 1947.
Last Week’s Turntable: Big Noise Amped About New GM
Primary Wave Music has acquired the producer royalty and neighboring rights royalty streams for artist manager, music critic, and record producer Jon Landau.
This deal includes Landau’s points and neighboring rights royalties to songs by Bruce Springsteen, whom he worked with as a co-producer for Born To Run, The River, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The Promise, Born in the U.S.A., Live 1975-1985, Human Touch, Lucky Town and Tracks. The deal also entails his producer and neighboring rights royalties for his production on Jackson Browne’s The Pretender.
A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Landau was a pivotal figure in rock music during his decades-long career. Landau got his start writing about music for publications like Crawdaddy and The Boston Phoenix and by 1967 he was hired by Jann Wenner as the lead writer for the brand new Rolling Stone publication, a position he held for a decade.
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By 1970, Landau was simultaneously writing for Rolling Stone and getting back to his roots as a lifelong musician by producing MC5’s studio album debut Back In The USA.
He got to know Springsteen in 1974 after he reviewed a performance by the singer-songwriter and called him the “future” of rock music. The following year, he co-produced Born To Run, cementing both his relationship with The Boss and his career as a producer. He would go on to co-produce eight more of his records. During this time, he also befriended Browne and produced 1976’s The Pretender, featuring songs like “Here Come Those Tears Again” and the title track.
Two decades later, Landau experienced another career peak as the manager for Shania Twain. He helped build the country-pop artist’s career, leading her to true super stardom with her 1997 album Come On Over, featuring the song “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and “You’re Still The One.”
Landau has also worked with artists like Natalie Merchant, Train, Alejandro Escovedo, Livingston Taylor and more.
“I thank all at Primary Wave for recognizing my contributions over the last fifty years and look forward to having an ongoing and productive relationship with them,” says Landau of the deal.
Marty Silverstone, president of global synch at Primary Wave, adds: “We’re honored to be partnering with Jon Landau and all of the legendary music he helped shape. He’s an influential figure in music, and we’re proud to welcome him to the Primary Wave family.”
The transaction between Landau and Primary Wave Music was facilitated by David Simone and Winston Simone.
Sonos is letting go of 6% of its workforce — more than 100 people — after a disastrous redesign of their app and mounting customer complaints forced the company to lower its projected sales and delay product launches. The layoffs, first reported by The Verge, were announced in a company filing on Wednesday (Aug. 14). […]
Mobile learning platform Duolingo has struck a partnership with Sony Music that will bring more than 60 recordings from Sony artists including Whitney Houston, Hozier, Pink and Meghan Trainor to Duolingo’s music education course, it was announced Thursday (Aug. 15). The tracks, which are now available on the Duolingo platform, will help music learners “study […]
UnitedMasters is looking to add to their expansive roster and give independent artists a chance to join the software and service platform’s team. Billboard learned on Tuesday (Aug. 13) that UnitedMasters has launched the DEBUT+ app in the United States, which will equip emerging artists with UM’s resources and forward-thinking tools needed to properly elevate […]
Music industry professionals are not, by definition, first responders, but they do have the ability to rescue people.
That fact alone may be a buoy for many music-affiliated workers who are suffering their own form of burnout, despondency or depression.
Reminding music professionals of their product’s impact is one of the finer points delivered during 24/7: A Mental Health in Entertainment Conference, presented Aug. 7 by Belmont University in Nashville.
“I’ll have individuals in the industry come to me and say, ‘Well, it’s not like we’re doing brain surgery. I know our place in the music industry isn’t that important,’ ” Entertainment Health Services president Elizabeth Porter said during the conference’s “Work/Life Unbalanced” workshop. “I say it’s more important … I say there’s two big influencers in the world: the entertainment industry and politics.”
Politics is all too often divisive. Music, at its best, can rally a group — or, at least, an individual. Porter’s Call founder Al Andrews remembered a “very dark and suicidal time” decades ago when he discovered Jennifer Warnes‘ “Song of Bernadette,” and he played it repeatedly, reveling in its healing message as he bounced back. During his work as a therapist, Andrews has encountered numerous stories about songs that led his patients back from the brink.
“We all have moments when we are rescued, moments where we were sinking and someone threw a rope to us and pulled us in,” he said during the day’s closing session. “Often music is involved. Hope is accompanied by a soundtrack. It almost always is.”
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The power of music is what pulls many into the industry’s labor force. But the experience of working daily with emotions — particularly when companies are understaffed and the job never seems to stop — makes music’s employees particularly vulnerable to burnout and depression. The allure of a vocation connected to fame and entertainment compounds the issue.
“We have a really unique industry because I think it’s one of the only ones that ties so closely to our personal identities,” C3 Presents festival director Brad Parker said. “The pandemic showed that to a lot of us. I kind of felt like part of me was stripped away whenever live music went away during the pandemic, and I did a lot of soul searching to really reinforce that people enjoy Brad Parker outside of the identity of ‘He’s the Bonnaroo guy.’ “
Parker recalled how he was more than willing, during the first five to seven years of his career, to take work-related after-hours calls, fearing that if he didn’t, others were standing in line to replace him. It’s that kind of fear that keeps many of the industry’s worker bees buzzing on the job into the evening.
“The industry is 24/7,” Shading the Limelight founder Cristi Williams said, “hence the title of this conference.”
Williams, in the event’s first presentation, explored the mindset of celebrities, whose emotions and behaviors influence their staffs and ripple outward across the rest of the industry. Fame, she said, is accompanied by two driving forces: a sense of unworthiness that creates self-imposed shame and a competing sense of entitlement that leads to unrealistic expectations. The celebrity’s outlook rides a pendulum, Williams said, that swings back and forth between those points. If that phenomenon goes uncontrolled, the pendulum can become a wrecking ball.
“Success is a lot harder to manage than failure,” she said, “and when the pendulum is oscillating further and faster, it tends to derail us.”
That pendulum — and others — are unavoidable. Mental health, Williams maintained, comes from controlling the swing and the emotional reaction to it.
In recognition of the industry’s fragility, Belmont’s Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business dean Brittany Schaffer announced plans to create a Center for Mental Health in Entertainment. She cited four leaders for a steering committee — Andrews, Onsite Workshops vp of entertainment and specialized services Debbie Carroll, Prescription Songs A&R manager Rachel Wein and Music Health Alliance founder/CEO Tatum Hauck Allsep — charged with shaping the program, which will eventually be housed in Belmont’s Music Row building, projected to open in 2028.
“Until then,” Schaffer said, “we are going to work on building out the team to support the center so that it can exist long before the building does.”
Warner Music Nashville co-head/co-CEO Cris Lacy laid out four issues that trip up the emotional well-being of artists and the industry around them: the tendency to compare their careers to their peers, negative criticism from social media, executives who prioritize self-promotion over their support role and a “texture of scarcity” that, presumably, leads to fear and depression.
One obvious solution for artists and the business as a whole lies in the industry’s own product. There is, Andrews suggested, a “noble purpose” in music, and every person in the business contributes to its influence.
“If you’re in the industry, every one of you is a part of getting the songs out there,” he said. “Everybody in this room has a song that saved their life, and you’re a part of the songs that get out there into people’s hearts. Some of those people, like you and me, are lingering on the edge or not in a good place, or maybe they’re just fighting a great battle, and you’ve brewed [hope]. I want you to believe that. I want you to embrace that. Be encouraged today for what you do.”
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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.”