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The future of an international drumming competition designed to highlight and encourage young female drummers is in question after the program’s co-founder/executive director resigned earlier this month following accusations he made inappropriate comments to one of the contestants.
David Levine was asked to step down from the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Hit Like a Girl on Mar. 10 after Irish singer-drummer Ria Rua posted a video to Instagram claiming he asked her for “inappropriate pictures” in 2019 and told the then-20-year-old he “enjoyed” blurring out the outline of her breast in one of her photographs so he could use it in promotional assets for the contest. Levine says his comments were meant to be supportive and sarcastic, not offensive.
“Women shouldn’t have to deal with this stuff,” Rua said in the Instagram video. She then shared a screenshot of Levine’s email, which included the line, “Please send me more of those photos, even the ones your Mum may not like.” For “context,” she then showed the profile picture from her contest entry page that prompted his request. In it, she was not wearing a top under her jacket. “He edited out my boob and he said he enjoyed it,” she said.
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Rua tells Billboard that, in addition to the email, Levine made some of these comments over two phone calls. She said he asked if her mom liked the photo, and she replied, “I don’t know. I’m sure she doesn’t love it.” The second call was about a possible cymbal endorsement deal, in which she says she brought up the altered photo and he said “he had enjoyed photoshopping my boob.”
In a statement announcing his resignation, posted to Instagram, Levine said, “I wish to sincerely apologize for the inappropriate and offensive comments I made to [Ria Rua] as well as the harm my behavior has caused to others in the female drumming community. There is no excuse for my bad judgment, abusing my authority and undermining Hit Like A Girl’s good works. The Hit Like A Girl Board has requested my resignation as Executive Director and I am fully complying with that request, effective today, March 10, 2024 at 12:00 PM PT. Furthermore, I will be entering sexual harassment sensitivity counseling in the days ahead.”
He concluded: “Until new Directors can be installed the Hit Like A Girl and Drum Summit websites, social media and YouTube along with all current projects will be suspended,” adding, “I would ask that everyone in the drumming community continue to support the growth of female drummers through other channels.”
When reached for comment, Levine — who also owns TRX Cymbals and developed Drum Summit: Empowering Women Through Drumming — told Billboard in an email, “The board members asked for my resignation immediately after Ria Rua’s messages were posted and I complied. I sincerely hope the organization’s mission and work will continue however I am not involved in that process.” He also said his comments to Rua were “my attempt at sarcasm.”
Sexual harassment is by far the most widely-cited problem facing female creators in the music industry, according to a 2021 study by MIDiA Research, in conjunction with Tunecore and its parent company, Believe. The study found that “almost two-thirds of female creators identified sexual harassment or objectification as a key challenge.” The #MeToo movement empowered women to come forward with personal stories, ranging from drugging and rape to sexist behavior and misogyny. The industry, as a whole, still seems reluctant to speak out, instead feeling more comfortable addressing parity and advancement for women, including with initiatives like the Hit Like a Girl contest.
Rua started playing music in primary school, initially with the tin whistle and then guitar. At 12, she picked up drums and accompanied an accordion marching band, then joined The National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. In 2017, she entered a Hit Like a Girl competition, which she says seemed “massive,” sponsored by “all the big companies” and judged by “the best drummers and percussionists in the world.” In 2018 she won the organization’s Joe Hibbs Award.
Rua decided to share her story now, she tells Billboard, because she writes songs about women’s issues and had just released a new song about this specific experience and wanted to “practice what I preach.” In the Instagram video, she also noted she’d been inspired to speak out by recent allegations of sexual misconduct, “especially all the stuff about P. Diddy.”
“[Levine] is still the head of [Hit Like A Girl] and it’s still running to this day,” she said in her video. ”If it happened to me, I’m sure it happened to other women out there.”
Less than a year after Rua’s incidents with Levine, she says she told a then-Hit Like a Girl board member. She asked the board member to discuss it with the board, but not to tell Levine. The board member, who left the organization in 2021 because of what Rua told her about Levine — and does not wish to be named because of an unrelated personal issue — confirmed that account to Billboard. “I had no evidence of anything. I couldn’t really do anything formally.”
“At that time, I was still pretty afraid,” Rua says. “This guy is massive. He runs Hit Like a Girl. He owns the TRX Cymbal company. He owns another management company that manages a lot of the top brands.”
Rua posted a second video in which she sobbed and thanked everyone for supporting her, and then a third video explaining she came forward because she had written her song “Asking For It” “about my story with David” and now, when she sings it, “I’m going to remember the support that I had.”
Hit Like A Girl began in 2012 “as a drum contest/market development project,” as Levine puts it, which he co-founded with DRUM! magazine publisher Phil Hood and Mindy Abovitz, founder of female-focused Tom Tom magazine — both of whom left the organization years ago.
Levine told Billboard in an email that Rua entered the contest in 2017 and 2018 under her birth name — which Billboard has decided not to run at her request — and that during this time they “had multiple conversations by phone, email, text, etc.” He continued, “She was a talented musician and an interesting person.” He also attached the 2017 photo she submitted. Rua says they exchanged only one email and one Instagram message and had two phone calls. She provided the email and Instagram message to Billboard.
“At some point in 2018 [name redacted] introduced her new persona, Ria Rua, with a completely new look,” Levine tells Billboard in an email. “During a phone call I asked her if I could use one of the photos for a social media post to promote her and the contest. She told me that her mother didn’t approve of them. I responded in an email that she should send me the photos, ‘even the one’s her mum may not like.’ As with the rest of the email, I was trying to show support but, unfortunately, my attempt at sarcasm was not appreciated.
“I felt that the image she sent me was a bit too provocative for the Hit Like A Girl audience so I retouched it and sent it back to her for approval, which she provided. My recollection of our conversation is that I said something to the effect that I was happy to be able to photoshop the image so that it would be appropriate for us to share.”
Rua says she distinctly remembers him using the word “enjoyed” when talking about editing the photo. After that, she never entered the contest again.
Hit Like A Girl was incorporated and received 501(c)(3) charitable status in 2021, and Levine became executive director, he told Billboard, “with a board of directors that included six women.” He added, “We also established chapters in nearly 60 countries around the world that were managed exclusively by women. I often relied on these women for advice and approval.”
Since Rua’s post, she says other women have shared similar correspondence they received from Levine or conversations they had with him after entering the contest.
One California-based drummer — who does not wish to be named — shared screenshots with Billboard of “some weird stuff he said to me on text.”
In the thread, Levine provides suggestions on drum technique and then writes, “Second, try to move your head and body more when you play to show you’re feeling the best and having fun. It will drive the boys crazy.” In another, he writes, “Let me know if you come back up to LA. Maybe I’ll break quarantine for you,” followed by a wink emoji. In regard to some photos she had submitted during the pandemic, he also remarked, “I’ll have to get you a sexier mask, though. You Look like a nurse at a retirement home.”
Asked about these comments, Levine told Billboard in an email, “I don’t recall the other exchange you reference but I did offer advice on how contestants might improve their entries from time to time, when asked. I see now that my comments were inappropriate.”
He concludes by writing that Hit Like A Girl accomplished “many amazing and unprecedented things for girls and women in the past 12 years, not least the fact that drums are no longer considered a ‘gendered’ instrument.”
MC Lyte is among the honorees who will be saluted at the SEED Summit + Awards. Founded by industry veteran Valeisha Butterfield, the inaugural event will take place March 22-24 at the 1 Hotel in Los Angeles.
Also being honored alongside rap legend Lyte will be Massah David and Miatta Johnson, founders of the creative agency MVD Inc., and financial expert-coach Dr. Lynn Richardson. The award ceremony will take place on the evening of March 23.
Among the creators, executives and artists participating in the SEED Summit earlier that day will be songwriter-producer Bryan-Michael Cox, singers Melanie Fiona and Estelle, 11th & Co chairman/CEO Ebonie Ward, Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor, Franklin Entertainment’s DeVon Franklin and Reign Ventures’ Monique Ludlett. The summit will conclude on March 24 with the SEED Retreat, a full day devoted to wellness of the mind, body and soul.
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Butterfield conceived of SEED, an organization and multimedia platform, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. What began as a series of masterclasses to inspire creators, executives and performers, SEED has since expanded beyond the summit and awards to include the SEED Book Club, which produces best-selling books for television and film adaptation through SEED Entertainment, and SEED Wellbeing.
“The power of storytelling transforms lives and as we celebrate this tremendous milestone with our inaugural SEED Summit + Awards, the culture stands together for the launch of SEED,” said Butterfield in a statement. “Illuminating the most iconic stories and people of our generation is our mission as we plant seeds into the next generation of creators, storytellers, leaders and professionals following in our footsteps.”
Butterfield separately serves as vp of partnerships and engagement at Google. She also chairs the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective and is the former co-president of the Grammys’ parent organization.
In a joint statement, honorees MC Lyte and Dr. Lynn Richardson commented, “Valeisha’s entire life and career have been dedicated to elevating the culture, so to be recognized with this inaugural award, we’re humbled and grateful. We commit to continuing to plant seeds into the next generation of creators and artists.”
Added Luckett, “I’m delighted to be a part of this year’s SEED summit. Valeisha always does a wonderful job of curating a safe space for us to share our experiences and empower one another.”
Partners in the SEED Summit + Awards include Pronghorn, iBest Wines and The Chris Paul Family Foundation. The event will be hosted by media personalities Alesha Reneé and Gia Peppers.
For more information about the SEED Summit + Awards, visit the SEED website.
Global music sales grew for the ninth consecutive year in 2023, with recorded music revenues increasing in every market and region, and across almost all formats, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) Global Music Report 2024.
Total revenues climbed to $28.6 billion, a rise of just over 10% on the previous year, and the second highest growth rate on record after 2021’s 18.5% year-on-year spike.
2023’s total sales figure is the highest level since 1999 — when IFPI first started compiling global music revenues and sales totaled $22.2 billion — on an absolute dollar basis, not accounting for inflation. Piracy and declining physical sales saw the market bottom out at $13 billion in 2014.
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Driving last year’s growth was an 11.2% rise in paid streaming subscription revenue, which totaled $14 billion, up from $12.7 billion in 2022, and accounted for almost half (48.9%) of global music sales.
The rise in global paid streaming revenue comes after many of the leading streaming services, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and Deezer, all raised their subscription prices in key territories over the past 12-18 months. For the majority of streaming services, the hikes were their first price rises since launching more than a decade ago.
Despite the rising cost for consumers, the number of music streaming subscribers continues to grow globally, with IFPI reporting that the number of paid subscriptions to streaming services surpassed 500 million for the first time in 2023.
When shared usership and family accounts are considered, there are now more than 667 million users of paid subscription accounts globally, says the London-based organization, up 13% from the 589 million recorded in the previous 12 months.
Total streaming revenues, comprising of paid subscription and advertising-supported tiers, rose 10% to $19.3 billion to make up 67% of worldwide recorded music sales, roughly flat with last year’s share of the market.
Nevertheless, streaming’s year-on-year growth continues to slow as a result of its already high penetration of the global music market. In 2021, total streaming revenues spiked 24% year-on-year. In 2022, the rate of growth had more than halved to 11.5%.
Sales Up Across All Formats
Although streaming continues to dominate global music revenues, 2023 also saw strong gains in physical record sales and performance rights revenues. Combined CD and vinyl revenues grew for a third consecutive year to $5.1 billion, up 13% on 2022’s total, with Asia generating almost half (49%) of all physical revenues worldwide.
IFPI attributed the region’s continued dominance of the physical market to strong sales of K-pop acts such as boyband Seventeen, who topped IFPI’s 2023 global album charts with FML and also had the year’s eighth best-selling album with follow-up set SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN.
In terms of market share, physical accounted for just under 18% of the overall market last year, marginally up from 17.5% in 2022 but still down on 2021’s share.
Performance rights revenue, meanwhile, climbed 9.5% to $2.7 billion, representing 9.5% of global revenues, while sync income was up 4.7% to $632 Million, representing 2.2%.
The only formats to record a decline in 2023 were digital downloads and what IFPI classifies as other (non-streaming) digital formats, which fell by 2.6% to $900 million, representing just 3.2% of the global market.
“The figures in this year’s report reflect a truly global and diverse industry,” said IFPI chief financial officer and interim joint head John Nolan in a statement accompanying the report.
Nolan said the strong rise in paid streaming subscribers worldwide, as well as services’ price increases, contributed “significantly” to overall revenue growth. He also said the music industry’s recovery from its lows of a decade ago wouldn’t have been possible without “record companies’ sustained investment in artists and their careers.”
According to IFPI figures, record companies invest $7.1 billion each year globally in A&R and marketing alone. They are also paying out more money than ever before to artists, said IFPI, with label payments to musicians increasing by 96% between 2016 and 2021, versus a 63% rise in record company revenues.
No Change in the Global Top 10 Music Markets, With U.S. Still On Top
In terms of world markets, IFPI said that music revenues were up in all of the 58 markets it tracks, with the U.S. retaining its long-held No. 1 position with music sales growing 7.2%, compared to 4.8% growth last year.
Japan holds steady in second place with sales growing 7.6% in 2023. The third and fourth-biggest markets for recorded music remain the United Kingdom (+8.1%) and Germany (+7%), respectively.
The rest of the top 10 is made up of China (+25.9%), representing the fastest rate of increase in any top 10 market, followed by France (+4.4%), South Korea (percentage not provided), Canada (+12.2%), Brazil (+13.4%) and Australia (+11.3%). (IFPI’s free-to-access report does not provide market-by-market revenue breakdowns).
Those cross-market gains are mirrored on a regional basis with revenues from the U.S. and Canada region up 7.4%.
Combined, the U.S. and Canada region accounts for almost 41% of global recorded music revenues, reports IFPI, while Latin America — where streaming makes up 86% of the market — saw growth of 19.4%, far outpacing the global growth rate and representing the 14th consecutive year of revenue growth in the region.
Europe remains the second-biggest region for music sales, accounting for more than a quarter (28%) of global revenues and growing 8.9% year-on-year. In third place is Asia, where revenues rose by almost 15% in 2023, driven by strong gains in physical and digital sales.
Once again, the fastest-growing market region was Sub-Saharan Africa, which recorded a 25% rise in music sales, largely driven by increased take up of paid subscription services (up by just under a quarter) and the thriving South African music market, which grew by almost a fifth and contributed more than three quarters of the region’s revenue.
Revenues in the Middle East and North Africa, where streaming holds a 98% share of the recorded music market, rose by almost 15%.
(IFPI uses current exchange rates when compiling its Global Music Report, restating all historic local currency values on an annual basis. Market values therefore vary retrospectively as a result of foreign currency movements, says IFPI, which represents more than 8,000 record company members worldwide, including all three major labels, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.)
Transformation Underway
Present at the Global Music report’s launch in central London were senior executives from all three major labels, as well as Konrad von Löhneysen, founder and director of Germany-based independent Embassy Of Music. Leila Oliveira, president of Warner Music Brazil, also participated in the event via video call from Rio.
Reflecting current industry trends, the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the record business, and particularly risks around generative AI, was a key topic of conversation among the speakers.
“The reality is that we’re at the beginning stages of another transformational event for the music industry,” said Dennis Kooker, president of global digital business at Sony Music Entertainment.
“While I’m enthusiastic about where the evolution will lead, it is essential that we find new products and new business models around these technologies to ensure the future of human creativity can be invested in, and that creators can be rewarded,” Kooker said.
He subsequently warned: “We must also fight the position that too many companies want to take to ignore copyright and intellectual property rights, and use our content without permission or without proper compensation.”
Adam Granite, executive vp of market development at Universal Music Group, said that while AI used “in the service of artists is wonderful,” AI that uses musicians’ work “without authorization and compensation is not.”
“We believe it’s perfectly possible to develop and adopt AI technology while also ensuring artists rights are protected,” said Granite, citing UMG’s recent partnerships with Roland Corporation and YouTube on AI initiatives as industry-led developments that give “artists a seat at the table and will help safeguard their rights” as more AI products enter the music business.
If you believe everything you read — and the state of U.S. politics suggests that, unfortunately, many people do — private equity has replaced money as the root of all evil. The truth, as usual, is a bit more complicated.
The latest piping hot take comes from The New York Times opinion section, in a piece that argues that “private equity is destroying our music ecosystem.” (No, not the ecosystem!) The problem seems to be that private equity, which often loads companies up with debt and can be unrealistic in its goals for returns — this much is true, although it’s not clear that public companies or other sources of capital are better — is “gobbling up the rights for old hits and pumping them back into our present.” This sounds downright grotesque, what with the gobbling and the pumping and so on, but it’s really just an ostentatious way to say that companies with money are buying creators’ rights as an investment.
This is bad for the ecosystem, the Times says, because the investors behind these deals — the most prominent example in the piece is Primary Wave’s purchase of 50% of Whitney Houston’s music and other rights — promote the songs they own in a way that somehow squeezes out new music. If that’s the case, though, they’re doing a terrible job of it. In 2023, a full 48% of U.S. on-demand audio streaming came from music released between 2019 and 2023, according to Luminate. A Billboard analysis of 2021 music consumption in the United States showed that music from after 2010 accounted for 78.7% of on-demand streaming, music released in or after 2000 accounted for 90% and all music recorded before 1980 accounted for fewer streams than Drake.
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This idea that new music is losing ground to old songs seems to come from a misunderstanding of catalog music, which consists of tracks released more than 18 months ago. The market share of catalog has never been higher — it was 72.6% last year, up from 65.1% in 2020, and it was much lower before streaming took off. But while many people associate catalog with classic rock — AC/DC, the Eagles and the ’60s and ’70s acts that dominated the category in the CD era — that’s an outdated idea. The music that drives this category isn’t that “deep catalog,” but rather what many executives call “shallow catalog” — releases from the last five or 10 years, often from artists who are still active. Some journalists see the size of some private equity deals and jump to the conclusion that classic rock is killing new music. Even by music business standards, though, this is bad math. When it comes to on-demand streaming, Drake isn’t only bigger than the Beatles — he’s more popular than all the music from the ’60s, plus the ’70s and the ’50s, combined.
The Times opinion essay gets the trend backward: Private equity doesn’t make songs popular, it buys songs that are steady in the popularity they already have. Even before music streaming got big, some investors realized that classic songs generate steady royalties that are far less vulnerable to market cycles than most assets. U.S. songwriters got more interested in selling their rights after 2006, when the IRS began to treat income from catalog sales as a capital gain, which is subject to a lower tax rate than personal income from publishing royalties. Streaming simply smoothed out the peaks and valleys of reissue revenue into predictable returns that appeal to investors — especially for songs that have stood the test of time.
Although private equity invests in song catalogs, it rarely manages them, and most of the executives who do come from the music business. (At least some of what they do now is not so different from what they did then.) For that matter, most of the ways the opinion piece says investors are “building extended multimedia universes around songs” aren’t quite as new as they seem. The Monkees and Alvin and the Chipmunks were both “multimedia universes” in their day, as was Tom T. Hall’s “Harper Valley PTA,” a country hit (for Jeannie C. Riley) that inspired a movie, a TV show, Spanish and Norwegian translations, and a sequel song. Nicki Minaj built her hit “Super Freaky Girl” around Rick James’ “Super Freak” — with encouragement from the 50% owner Hipgnosis Songs Fund, according to the Times — but James’ song was the basis for a hit back in the CD era. Remember “U Can’t Touch This?” Hammer time?
The radical thing about on-demand streaming is that most of the music ever made is now easily available, in a way that its popularity can be measured by consumption rather than purchase. And it has become clear that music from the last few years is more popular with listeners than industry executives thought, especially relative to brand-new and older music. When older songs do blow up big on streaming services, it often has less to do with promotion than serendipity — Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” returned to the Hot 100 in 2020 after a TikTok video of a skateboarder went viral and Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill hit No. 3 two years later after Stranger Things music supervisor Nora Felder decided it would be the perfect song to use as a plot device. And although many adults consider those songs classics, one reason they became hits again is that, from the perspective of younger fans, they are new. Isn’t this a good thing?
There are plenty of problems with streaming, including its low payments to most creators and the difficulty of breaking new acts. But neither of these has anything to do with private equity — the first comes from the way royalties are distributed and the reluctance of consumers to pay more for subscriptions, while the latter has more to do with how hard it is to stand out amid the sheer volume of new music that comes online every day. More serious discussion about these issues is important, but lamenting the fact that important creators earn so much money for the rights to their work isn’t the right way to start it.
China‘s Tencent Music Entertainment Group saw its profit jump 36% to 5.22 billion yuan ($735 million) in 2023 as growth in paid subscriptions helped offset mixed results in its social media business, according to an earnings filing on Tuesday (Mar. 19). The leading music streaming company in China — Tencent Music operates QQ Music, Kugou […]
When video-blogger Martina Sazunic moved from Seoul to Tokyo in 2016, she was shocked to learn that — unlike in South Korea — using music by some of Japan’s biggest pop stars on her YouTube channel was not permitted. Doing so, she quickly learned, would result in the offending video being taken down at the request of the rights holder.
“In [South] Korea, the record labels were open to uploading music videos and that encouraged people to share and spread Korean music. At the same time in Japan, labels refused to upload their music,” says Sazunic, a Canadian expat, who has spent 15 years producing content for YouTube and since 2021 has run the popular lifestyle channel King Kogi (188,000 subscribers), featuring videos about her adopted homeland.
For many years, local labels were reluctant to upload official music videos on YouTube through fear of cannibalizing physical sales and would only release truncated versions of songs on the platform. Use of sound recordings in user-generated content would, for the most part, be blocked and taken down. The rising popularity of streaming in the world’s second-biggest recorded music market — worth $2.7 billion in 2022, according to IFPI, behind only the United States — has, however, been transformative, leading local labels and management companies to pivot away from blocking songs on UGC platforms and towards licensing and monetizing them.
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“It’s been an uneasy process for consumers in Japan and that’s entirely down to Japanese rights holders, but the market is moving wholeheartedly into embracing music usage on UGC,” says Rob Wells, chief executive of Los Angeles-headquartered Orfium, one of several international tech firms now fighting it out to grow their share of the country’s emerging, yet potentially huge, UGC music market.
At present, UGC monetization is in its infancy in Japan, says Wells, but he predicts the market will rapidly grow over the next five years to deliver rights holders the kind of returns they already receive from other major music territories.
In 2022, Alphabet-owned YouTube says it paid out a record $6 billion to the music industry, although executives in Asia tell Billboard that only around 5% of that total — around $300 million – went to rights holders in Japan. That’s despite YouTube being the most popular video platform in the country with over 70 million monthly active users (YouTube declined to comment when contacted by Billboard for this article).
The main reason why Japan’s digital music market lags behind other countries is down to stakeholders’ historic desire to protect the enduring popularity of physical music formats, primarily CDs and music DVDs/Blu-ray discs, which accounted for 66% of revenues in 2022, according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ).
Digital’s share of the market is fast-growing though with streaming revenues rising 25% year-on-year to 93 billion yen ($618 million) in 2022, fueled by increased consumer take up of subscription services during the pandemic. That same year, overall digital music sales exceeded 100 billion yen ($665 million) for the first time since the RIAJ began tracking the data in 2005.
In response to the changing market, many of Japan’s leading labels and management companies (which often own the master recording rights for their acts) are rushing to partner with copyright technology companies to track and monetize the use of their content online.
Orfium, which generates income for clients by tracking and monetizing the use of music in broadcast and UGC platforms, has been active in Japan since 2022 when it acquired social media firm Breaker and is now one of the biggest operators in the local market. Others include Los Angeles-based PEX, Swiss-based Utopia Music, Spain’s BMAT and California-based Vobile.
French Music company Believe began operating in Japan last year and recently launched PLAYCODE, a new imprint dedicated to championing Japanese hip-hop acts. Prior to the company entering the market, Erika Ogawa, general manager of Believe Japan, said YouTube was being “under-utilized” by the music industry in Japan.
“It has untapped potential, particularly in terms of monetization, audience engagement and artist development which should be exploited by leveraging all its capabilities,” said Ogawa last year in a blogpost.
“I see Japan as being a huge opportunity for us and the wider industry,” says Wells, who served as Universal Music Group’s president of global digital business before joining Orfium in 2017. The company now has over 700 employees across nine territories in Europe, Asia and the U.S.
Wells says the company’s clients in Japan, which include Warner Music Japan, Victor Entertainment and leading music and entertainment company Avex Inc, have seen a 77% year-on-year rise in the number of YouTube UGC views being monetized with revenues growing 34%. (Wells declined to provide equivalent financial figures. Globally, Orfium says it generated more than $200 million in incremental revenue in 2022. Notable U.S. clients include Sony Music Publishing, Warner Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Kobalt, Ingrooves and Hipgnosis.)
In recent months, the company has ramped up its operations in Japan, signing a deal with JASRAC, Japan’s largest collective management organization. It has also started working with entertainment company Bandai Namco Music Live, a leading player in the Japanese anime music market that represents an extensive catalog of more than 100,000 sound recordings and compositions, as well as more than 3,000 digital creators, including many YouTubers and Virtual YouTubers — a popular trend in Japan where online creators use virtual avatars and are known as VTubers.
The Bandai Namco deal marks Orfium’s entry into the global anime market — a rapidly growing sector that generated almost $25 billion in 2023, according to Morgan Stanley Research, and is projected to rise to over $35 billion within the next three years. The rising global prominence of Japanese anime opens up opportunities for the country’s creators of anime music, says Alan Swarts, CEO of Orfium Japan. Anime ranks as one of the continent’s most popular music genres behind only pop and Enka (traditional Japanese music), with 11 of last year’s top 30 songs in Japan being either anime theme songs or anime related. Anime titles in Bandai’s catalog include the hugely popular Love Live series, One-Punch Man and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Swarts points to last year’s launch of a new weekly global chart by Billboard Japan, ranking the top 20 Japanese songs based on streaming and/or sales activity from more than 200 international markets, excluding Japan, as a significant development in the country’s music business that has heightened local labels’ focus on reaching global audiences.
“For a long time, Japan was a very insular physical-based market. That’s now changed and within Japanese music companies there is a big push to go global and make Japanese music as a big as Latin and K-pop has become outside their native territories,” says Swarts. “Utilizing streaming services and UGC platforms like YouTube will be key towards achieving that aim.”
“For us, Japan is the jump off point – the gateway to the rest of Asia,” says Wells. “People will soon realize that there are no more blocks on them being able to share music on these [UGC] platforms and that will quickly accelerate the growth.”
Nelly signed with WME for global representation. The rapper and singer’s most recent album, Heartland, was released in 2021 and peaked at No. 7 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart, while the single “Lil Bit” featuring Florida Georgia Line remained at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Country Digital Song Sales chart for three weeks. Signed to RECORDS (Sony Music), Nelly also recently launched MoShine, a moonshine brand.
Symphonic metal band Nightwish renewed its contract with Nuclear Blast, reaching a new global multi-album deal with the label that it first signed with 20 years ago. The label also announced that it signed American death metal band Gatecreeper, which will release its third album, Dark Superstition, on the Nuclear Blast on May 17. Gatecreeper is represented by managers James Vitalo and James Grottola at Gold Theory Artists and booking agent Merrick Jarmulowicz at Ground Control Touring.
Play It Again Sam, an imprint of the [PIAS] label group, will release Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds‘ forthcoming album under a global license, in partnership with Cave’s label, Bad Seed. Titled Wild God, the album is slated for release on Aug. 30.
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Activist Artists Management signed folk-pop singer-songwriter Weyes Blood for management. She will be represented by Activist founding partners Bernie Cahill and Matt Maher, along with Activist senior director of A&R/creative Anna Kolander and head of global marketing Chris Ruff. Weyes Blood’s most recent album, And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s Heatseekers Albums chart. She has performed at festivals including Coachella and Pitchfork and toured throughout the United States, Europe and Australia.
Indie-electronic pop group Metronomy signed with Ninja Tune, which released the band’s latest single, “Nice Town.” It marks the first release from the band’s upcoming Posse EP Volume 1 follow-up.
UTA signed country band Ole 60 for global representation in all areas. The group will continue being represented by Davis Danziger, Wales Toney and Ty Little at Whale Tale Management and lawyer Matt Cottingham. Coming up, Ole 60 is slated to support Dylan Gossett and Charles Wesley Godwin on their upcoming tours and will play the Grind City Music Festival in Memphis.
New York band Wild Pink signed with Fire Talk Records, which released the group’s label debut, the single “Air Drumming Fix You,” on Mar. 7. The group is booked by Ryan Farlow at Arrival Artists (North America) and Joren Heuvels at Hometown Talent (United Kingdom, EU and Asia) and managed by Joseph Marro at Lesser Matters. The band has a publishing deal with Downtown.
Nashville-based singer-songwriter Abbey Cone signed with Downtown Artist & Label Services for distribution. Her first release under the Downtown banner is a live cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Cone’s team also includes Amanda Quinton of Quinton Digital for management, Wasserman Group for booking and Warner Chappell Music/T.R.U.T.H. for publishing.
Veteran British singer-songwriter Dave Mason signed an exclusive management deal with Red Light in Atlanta. His team at the firm consists of Charlie Brusoc and Nick Manarino, which will work with Mason on his forthcoming music releases as well as the release of his memoir, which is slated for release this summer. He’s booked by Alec Vidmar and Darius Sabet at UTA.
Philadelphia artist Julia Pratt signed to RECORDS (Sony Music), which released her latest single, “Carolina,” last week in advance of a new EP. Pratt is managed by Doug Neumann and Josh Roth at Standards Music and booked by Seth Rappaport at Paladin Artists.
Singer-songwriter Alli Walker signed with RECORDS Nashville. To celebrate the partnership, Walker has released the track “I Like Big Trucks,” adding a country flavor to the 1990s Sir Mix-a-Lot hit “Baby Got Back.” Josh Easler, executive vp of promotion & commercial strategy for RECORDS Nashville, says, “The RECORDS Nashville team is always looking for artistry that stands out, and Alli Walker does just that. We are excited to get started amplifying what she is already having success with.” – Jessica Nicholson
Nashville punk band Winona Fighter, fronted by Chloe Kinnon, signed with Rise Records and shared a new single and music video, “I’m in the Market to Please No One.” More new music is slated for release this year. The band is booked by Justin Edwards at WME and managed by Michael Iurato at In De Goot Entertainment.
Country artist Dusty Black signed with Brown Sellers Brown and Stone Country Records for management and label representation, respectively. Black was formerly the CEO of Black Tie Moving before making the transition to artist.
ADA Japan signed a deal to distribute, promote and market Japanese-language songs by the Korean boy group One Pact via its South Korean label and entertainment agency, Armada Entertainment. Jump-starting the partnership was ADA’s release of One Pact’s debut local single, “Must Be Nice.” The band came to prominence after appearing on the Korean TV music audition series Boys Planet and the rap battle show High School Rapper 4.
MaKenzie signed with Warner Records, which released her new single, “Maybe” featuring TA Thomas, on Friday (Mar. 15). The R&B artist is managed by Tarek “Terk” Stevens at Terk Entertainment Group and attorney Donald Woodard at Carter + Woodard. Also at Warner Records, alt-rocker Willy Cobb signed with the label’s War Buddha Records imprint, which released his debut single, “Cigarette Smell,” on Friday (Mar. 15). Cobb is managed by Neil Mason at Red Light.
How to Dress Well (a.k.a. Tom Krell) signed with Sargent House for the release of his forthcoming album, I Am Toward You, which is set to drop May 10. He is managed by Shaun MacDonald at Codex Management.
BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville signed Alison Nichols, who earned a viral TikTok hit with her debut release, “is it just me?”, followed by her latest release, “HOOPS.” Nichols, who is of Asian-American heritage, grew up in Georgia and gleans influence from the Texas country music scene. – Jessica Nicholson
British-Chinese sibling duo Esme Emerson (Esme and Emerson Lee-Scott) signed with Communion Records and released its new single, “Please,” on the label, with an EP due later this year. The duo is booked by rowan@infinitefuture.co.uk.
Musician and social media influencer Peet Montzingo signed a management deal with Do Less. The signing coincided with the release of his HARV-produced debut single, “Party With a Weirdo,” on Friday (Mar. 15) through Vydia.
Punk band Gloom Girl MFG signed with R+D Artist Group for management ahead of the release of its Cage the Elephant-produced EP, POLYCRISIS. Additionally, the group recently signed with Reliant Talent Agency for booking. Gloom Girl MFG is signed to Los Angeles-based label Signs From the Universe.
Iconoclast, an artist and brand development company, said on Tuesday (March 19) it acquired legendary Great American Songbook singer Tony Bennett‘s catalog, as well as his name and image likeness rights.
The vocal titan known for his renditions of “Because of You” and “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” dedicated his nearly seven-decade career to the canon of American jazz classics, show tunes and popular songs from the first half of the century that are known as the Great American Songbook. Bennett, who died last July, became a bridge late in life between the classics and modern pop music through concerts and recordings with Amy Winehouse, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang and others.
Iconoclast founder Olivier Chastan, along with Bennett’s son and manager Danny Bennett, said the company has secured several Tony Bennett-branded projects, including a New York City restaurant, a series of watches with luxury American watch company Bulova and a Paramount+ documentary called The Lady and The Legend, about Bennett’s frequent collaborations with Lady Gaga.
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“We all walk in the footsteps of giants. Tony was one of these giants,” Chastan said in a statement. “Besides his extraordinary talent that radiated for over 60 years, Tony’s legacy is one of character, integrity, kindness and courage. We are truly honored to be the custodians of this incredible and historical legend.”
Danny Bennett said he expects the deal will ensure his father’s works “endure for future generations.”
“In working with Tony for over 40 years, my philosophy was always that I didn’t manage a career but, rather, managed a legacy,” said Danny Bennett. “Iconoclast … will continue this tradition.”
Chastan founded Iconoclast in 2021, after having previously led Irving Azoff‘s Iconic Artists Group. The company owns rights to works by artists including The Band musician Robbie Robertson, Marianne Faithfull and David Cassidy.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Iconoclast was represented by Sam Roseme and Peter Paterno of King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano, and Tony Bennett was represented by Don Friedman of Grubman, Shire, Meiselas & Sacks.
Live Nation shares gained 4.0% to hit $103.77 this week, marking the stock’s best closing price since May 2, 2022, and the first time the concert promotion giant had five straight closes above $100 since late April and early May that same year.
Other music stocks didn’t fare as well. Most of the 20 companies in the Billboard Global Music Index dropped this week, with 13 stocks losing ground and just seven finishing the week in positive territory. The index fell 0.1% to 1,697.90, marking the first time it’s decreased in successive weeks since it fell during three consecutive weeks in October 2023. Multi-week declines are rare for the index: Since the beginning of 2023, it has had just two two-week declines, two three-week declines and one four-week decline (in July and August 2023). This week’s slight drop brought the index’s year-to-date gain to 10.8%.
In a relatively quiet week free of earnings releases or market-moving news, there was roughly an even mix of gains and losses from the most valuable companies. Universal Music Group increased 2.1% to 27.32 euros ($29.77) while Spotify dropped 1.7% to $254.89 and Warner Music Group (WMG) fell 2.9% to $32.94. Elsewhere, German promoter CTS Eventim rose 2.1% to 76.70 euros ($83.56) and reached a new 52-week high of 77.80 euros ($84.76).
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K-pop companies rebounded after a string of weekly declines. HYBE improved 2.3% to 199,000 won ($149.59) and SM Entertainment climbed 2.5% to 74,900 won ($56.30). YG Entertainment jumped 6.3% to 43,050 won ($32.36) but is still down 19.6% year to date.
French indie music company Believe finished at 15.52 euros ($16.91), still well above the 15.00 euros ($16.34) tender offer by a consortium that seeks to take the company private. WMG has expressed interest in Believe at 17.00 euros ($18.52) per share.
The companies with the largest gains and losses are among the least valuable on the index. The week’s greatest gainer was Abu Dhabi-based music streamer Anghami, which rose 15.6% to $1.11 and has a market capitalization of just $30.7 million — less than 0.1% of Spotify’s. Radio broadcast giant iHeartMedia and French music streamer Deezer had the index’s biggest losses of 10.0% and 10.3%, but iHeartMedia’s market cap is only $255 million while Deezer’s is about 245 million euros ($267 million).
The index’s four live music stocks had an average gain of 0.9% this week, topping the 0.4% gain of the seven record label and publishing stocks. Five streaming stocks averaged a less than 0.1% decline. Three radio companies — iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media and SiriusXM — had an average decline of 5.1%.
Key U.S. indexes also saw small declines this week. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.7% to 15,973.17. The S&P 500 fell 0.1% to 5,117.09. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 gained 0.9% to 7,727.42. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index declined 0.5% to 2,666.84. China’s Shanghai Composite Index grew 0.3% to 3,054.64.
Billboard Power Players is expanding to Canada for the first time in 2024, nominations have now officially opened via this nomination form.
For its relative size, the country has produced some huge international success stories over the last decade, with artists like Drake, The Weeknd, Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber and Tate McRae making big waves on the world stage.
That’s the case behind the scenes, too, including previous Power List honourees like Kristen Burke, the president of Warner Music Canada and the only female head of a major label in Canada; Wassim “Sal” Slaiby of The Weeknd’s XO Records and the founder of Universal Arabic Music; and Michael Rapino, the Canadian-born president and CEO of Live Nation who finished fourth on the recently revealed 2024 Power 100 list, behind only Taylor Swift and the global CEOs of two major labels.
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Billboard Canada Power Players, however, will be the first time the award will be exclusive to Canadians or those who’ve made an impact in Canada’s music industry. – Richard Trapunski
New U.S. Visa Fees Could Prove Costly for Canadian Musicians
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has published its final rule updating visa fees in several categories, along with a Frequently Asked Questions page summary.
Overall, creative arts petitioners will be hit with higher costs, increased petition prep requirements, and lengthier times for premium processing. This will affect Canadian and other musicians, as well as art workers, travelling across the border to play in the U.S.
After consultation with stakeholders including the American Federation of Musicians, final fees have been reduced from the initial amounts proposed by the Department of Homeland Security for nonprofits and certain small businesses with 25 or fewer employees.
The new fees, though, could prove costly for Canadian musicians, for whom crossing the border is a necessary part of a music career.
The fee increases were originally for early 2023, but will now take effect on April 1, 2024. – David Farrell
Music Declares Emergency Will Host a Climate Summit in Halifax Ahead of the Juno Awards
Music Declares Emergency (MDE) Canada is looking to spark conversation about the climate crisis at this year’s Juno Awards. Ahead of the ceremony on March 24, the advocacy organization will host a Mini Music Climate Summit at the Halifax Central Library, on March 22, to promote the need for climate action in the music industry.
The free, one-day event will consider topics such as sustainable transportation, carbon calculation, merch and food, and much more, providing an opportunity for industry members to share best practices and develop strategies around curbing emissions in the industry. MDE Canada previously held Canada’s first Music Climate Summit in Toronto in 2022.
The climate summit accompanies MDE Canada’s Climate Emergency Concert on March 17 in Halifax, where artists like Talia Schlanger and Jenn Grant will pay tribute to Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, two Canadian musicians who have used their platforms to promote environmental awareness. – Rosie Long Decter
Last Week ‘In Canada’: No to ‘Laughs,’ But Yes to Women in Music