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Universal Music Group (UMG) shareholders approved CEO Lucian Grainge‘s 138.8 million euros ($128 million) compensation package from 2023 in a nonbinding advisory vote at the company’s annual general meeting in The Netherlands on Thursday (May 16).
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A majority of investors voted to approve all proposals up for a vote this year, including the reappointment of billionaire Bill Ackman, Cyrille Bollore and others as non-executive directors despite criticism from shareholder advisory groups Glass Lewis, who last month called UMG’s pay practices excessive and said the board lacked independence.
Advisory shareholder votes like these are only advisory and not enforceable, but they are closely watched as indicators of investors’ feelings on a company’s pay policies and the people who make up their boards. Anytime a significant percentage of investors expresses disapproval, which Glass Lewis defines as 20% or more, directors consult with shareholders about how to make internal changes to address their concerns.
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Investors in Live Nation and Cumulus Media used recent shareholder meetings to vote their disapproval of those companies’ CEO pay packages.
UMG did not immediately disclose the percentage of votes cast in support of the proposals at this year’s annual meeting, which was livestreamed only to registered shareholders. Last year, a slim majority of UMG investors representing roughly 59% of shares voted in approval of UMG’s remuneration policy, which details the 2023 compensation packages paid out to Grainge and deputy CEO Vincent Vallejo.
About 58% of UMG’s voting shares are collectively held by Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management, Tencent, Bollore and Vivendi. Last year, all four shareholders voted to approve UMG’s remuneration policy.
Grainge’s total 2023 compensation is 138,814,000 euros, or $128,264,000 based on a monthly average foreign exchange rate of 0.924. In 2022, he was the third highest-paid music executive, having made total compensation of 47.3 million euros ($49.7 million) thanks to a 28.8 million euros ($30.3 million) performance bonus in addition to a base salary of 15.4 million euros ($16.2 million).
In 2023, Grainge had a base salary of 7.5 million euros (just over $8 million) and bonus of 15.16 million euros (nearly $16.3 million), and a one-time transition equity award worth 92,406,852 euros (roughly $100 million). That award was paid out in half in restricted stock units and half in performance stock options. The performance stock options vest over the coming five years and can only be excised once UMG’s stock hits certain thresholds.
Glenn Peoples contributed reporting.
Concord confirmed on Thursday it will no longer proceed with its $1.51 billion offer to buy Hipgnosis Songs Fund, giving rival bidder Blackstone a now unimpeded path to acquire the Merck Mercuriadis-founded company and its catalogs of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Journey, Neil Young and others. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news […]
NetEase Cloud Music struck a licensing agreement with South Korean music company Kakao Entertainment that will allow NetEase to distribute Kakao’s catalog in China. Both companies will work together to jointly promote Korean music in the Chinese market. Kakao artists include Jay Park, Chungha, FTISLAND and CNBLUE. According to a press release, Kakao had 2016 million monthly active users and more than 44 million paying subscribers in 2023.
Rapper Lil Durk partnered with AWAL to re-launch his label venture, OTF. Under the deal, OTF will identify and develop artists with the help of AWAL’s global infrastructure and artist development expertise. Durk will act as CEO while OTF’s COO, Cedrick “SB” Earsery, will work alongside AWAL CEO Lonny Olinick, president Pete Giberg and senior vp/head of urban music Norva Denton to foster the OTF roster. The first release under the deal, “GTA” by DJ Bandz featuring Rob 49, Skilla Baby and Fivio Foreign, is dropping Friday (May 17).
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Music Venue Trust announced the second acquisition by its own Music Venue Properties via the U.K. charity’s Own Our Venues scheme: The Ferret in Preston, a 200-capacity venue that has hosted artists including Ed Sheeran, IDLES, Alt-J and Royal Blood. With the purchase, the venue will be placed in permanent protected status via a “cultural lease” — an agreement designed by Music Venue Properties to guarantee that, as long as The Ferret operates as a space for grassroots live music for the local community, they can use the building. Own Our Venues has raised nearly 2.6 million pounds to date from more than 1,200 individual investors. In October 2023, Music Venue Properties made its first purchase when it acquired The Snug in Atherton, Greater Manchester. An additional seven venues across the country have been identified for purchase in this initial phase.
AI solutions company Veritone signed a deal to power theCAAvault, a synthetic media vault created by Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to store the intellectual property of CAA clients, including AI clones and voice recordings. The hope is to ensure the proper compensation of CAA talent for any use of their name, image and likeness.
ASM Global invested in Boston-based EDGE Sports Group, marking a significant move by the company to become a market leader in providing advisory, development and venue management services to clients and partners in the domestic youth sports and sports tourism industry. Following the close of the transaction, EDGE will operate under the moniker EDGE Sports Global. EDGE brings a portfolio of more than a dozen sports venues in the New England region and is expanding with development projects in Florida, Arizona and more; it also owns or manages youth sports clubs, academies and camps totaling more than 350 teams and 8,000 athletes. EDGE Sports Group founder/president Brian DeVellis will continue serving as president of EDGE Sports Global.
Music licensing hub Broma16 signed an international agreement with YouTube and partnerships with three collecting societies from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region. The YouTube deal will see Broma16 collecting music royalties from the platform in territories including Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the CIS and distributing them to its members. The company’s new collecting society partners are ANCO (Moldavia), SIIP (Uzbekistan) and KAZAK (Kazakhstan). SIIP and ANCO will use Broma16’s online licensing services to collect royalties for their songwriter and publisher members. KAZAK has granted Broma16 the right to collect royalties from YouTube.
NASHVILLE – The Music Business Association conference kicked off successfully in Nashville this week, with the annual gathering bringing together more than 2,100 music industry professionals representing attendance from over 750 companies and more than 30 countries, the trade group’s president, Portia Sabin, announced on Tuesday (May 14) in her annual address on the state of the Music Biz organization.
What’s more, Sabin said proposals for programming at the conference, which is crowd-sourced from industry executives, saw a 30% increase this year, “reflective of everything our industry wants to discuss — from hot topics like AI, gaming, and social impact, to perennial favorites like synch, music and money, and marketing. And don’t worry, we still have the critical but non-sexy topics like metadata and neighboring rights.”
With a full-court press of panels and seminars on many of the industry’s challenges and opportunities, Sabin also reported that about 325 speakers/panelists are set to take part in this year’s conference. She additionally noted the the trade group’s membership has grown by 106 companies and organizations since last year’s gathering, with Deezer, Audiomack, Pirames International, SonoSuite, the NMPA (National Music Publisher’s Association) Louisiana Entertainment (a division of Louisiana Economic Development) and Toronto Metropolitan University joining the fold.
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Beyond the convention, Sabin reported that the organization continues to stage its Music Biz Roadshow event series in places like Dallas, Miami and Huntsville, Ala., with programs for local indie musicians that have included topics like “Tech Solutions in Music,” “The State of Independent Distribution” and “Where’s My Money and How Do I Get It?” Those events have featured companies like the Mechanical Licensing Collective, CD Baby, Bandcamp, TropiSounds, Songtrust, Symphonic Distribution, Syntax Creative, Switchchord and Music Audience Exchange. “If your company wants to be a part of a Roadshow this year, please let my team know – they are some of the most fun and inspirational events we do and we’d love to have you join us,” Sabin said.
Besides going on the road, the trade group has also created a new virtual series, Music Biz Passport, which explores a different international market each time. “These events are meant to connect music business executives from the U.S. with international trendsetters so they may both learn what does and doesn’t work in these communities, and build new partnerships that will ultimately make our industry stronger,” Sabin elaborated, adding that upcoming events will focus on local music industries in Finland, Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
On the good works front, Sabin reported that Music Biz has partnered with the Music Health Alliance to set up the MHA Mental Health Fund. Since its launch, backed by a $50,000 contribution from the SCARS Foundation — an organization created by Sully Erna and the band Godsmack to support mental health initiatives — the fund has grown to $355,000 and served more than 500 music industry professionals through 5,246 outpatient counseling and psychiatry visits.
Meanwhile, the organization’s scholarship foundation has raised $60,000 and given out 12 scholarships to deserving music business students to the tune of $5,000 each, Sabin reported, thanking the scholarship committee for their hard work as well as “Lisa Robinson and Aaron Tochini for going above and beyond.”
Finally, Sabin celebrated another big accomplishment the trade group achieved during the year: persuading Luminate to abandon its implemented plan to unweight physical sales data, thus changing the chart methodology. Following the initial change to unweight sales data, Sabin, the retail coalitions and other stakeholders pulled together to partner with Streetpulse to collect that data from indie stores. After indie music retailers began boycotting reporting to Luminate, Music Biz worked with the coalitions to negotiate a deal that brought indie store data back into the Luminate system. As a result of that effort, the number of stores reporting to Luminate has more than doubled to 315 stores, up from the 140 retailers that previously reported to Luminate before the imbroglio.
“I want to thank everyone who was invested and made their voices heard on this issue, from retail stores to labels to distributors to individual artists – and of course to Rob Jonas and Luminate for coming to the table and being good partners,” Sabin said. “Those who’ve been around since the NARM days know that physical retailers are the original heart of Music Biz, and this year’s Record Store Day was another off-the-charts success… proving yet again that physical is a vital part of our industry.”
Sabin closed by noting that the conference is moving to Atlanta next year and will take place May 12 to May 15 at the city’s Renaissance Waverly Hotel. “It’s a great property that’s close to The Battery and Braves Stadium; and we’re especially excited that we were able to buy out the entire hotel, meaning everyone there will be a Music Biz attendee,” she said. “Sounds like sleepaway camp, right?”
Downtown Music has launched a new royalties and financial services division called DR&FS, which will streamline all of its royalty services, accounting and payments systems, the company announced Tuesday (May 14). The division is an outgrowth of Curve Royalty Systems, a royalty processing platform acquired by Downtown in January 2023. Curve’s founder, Tom Allen, has been […]
iann dior (featured on the 24kGoldn smash “Mood”) signed to Big Noise Music Group, which released his latest single, “Edge of Tomorrow,” on Friday (May 10). Formerly signed to 10k Projects, dior is managed by Andile Ndlovu at Fractal and booked by Mitch Blackman and Griffin Perkiel at IAG.
Fourteen-year-old singer-songwriter Maddox Batson (“Tears in the River”) signed with WME for global representation across departments including touring, brand partnerships, TV, film and digital. Batson is also signed to Prosper Entertainment and OH Creative.
BRITs Rising Star award-winning trio FLO (“Cardboard Box”) signed to PPL for the collection of the group’s international neighboring rights royalties. FLO is composed of Jorja Douglas, Renée Downer and Stella Quaresma. The group’s debut album is slated for release on Island Records this year.
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Stockholm-formed, Los Angeles-based band Solence signed with Better Noise Music, which will release the group’s new album this fall (preceded by the track “F— the Bad Vibes”). Solence is managed by Mike Mowery and Anna Greenhall at 10th Street Entertainment.
Country singer-songwriter Vincent Mason (“Hell Is a Dance Floor”) signed with WME in multiple areas.
Alt-rock artist Kami Kehoe (“SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD”) signed with Coup D’Etat Recordings and 10k Projects, which released her new single, “WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG,” on May 3. Kehoe is managed by Alyce Hayek at Grass Fed Music and booked by Tom Windish and Andrew Buck at Wasserman. Her lawyer is Matthew Kamen of Grubman Shire Meiselas. This is the first joint venture signing for Coup D’Etat and 10k.
R&B artist Skylar Simone signed with Def Jam Recordings, which released her new single, “Shiver,” on May 3.
Singer-songwriter Zach John King, who plays what’s described as a blend of country, Americana and indie rock, signed with The Neal Agency for booking. King is slated to release his debut EP, Wannabe Cowboy, on May 24. He’s managed by Matt Reed at Hyphen Media Group, Boom Music Group for publishing and CMDSHFT for distribution.
Aric Improta and Stephen Harrison, coming together under the moniker House of Protection, signed with Red Bull Records. Improta and Harrison — previously of Night Verses and The Chariot, respectively — both recently departed the group Fever 333. The duo’s debut single is “It’s Supposed to Hurt.” The project is described in a press release as “bridging the disparate worlds of hardcore, electronica and punk.”
Nashville alternative band Jive Talk signed with War Buddha/Warner Records, which released the group’s new single, “Rat People,” on May 3. The band kicked off its tour on May 8 and is slated to play Bonnaroo. Jive Talk is managed by Neil Mason and Patrick Waters at Red Light.
Folk-pop singer-songwriter Julia Minichiello signed with Nashville-based Odyssey Entertainment Group for management. In 2021, Minichiello won the #Sing2gether TikTok contest held by Universal Pictures, which secured her a guest spot on The Kelly Clarkson Show. She’s also represented by lawyer Matt Cottingham.
In 2025, the annual Music Biz conference will be held May 12-15 at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel.
The conference attracts more than 2,300 music industry executives each year and has been held in Nashville for nearly a decade. The 2024 conference kicks off this week in Nashville, running from May 13-16.
Music Business Association president Portia Sabin announced the new dates and venue during her address during the Music Biz Brunch at the Music Biz conference on Tuesday morning (May 14), held at the JW Marriott Nashville.
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Sabin previously told Billboard that the conference’s move from Nashville to Atlanta was inspired by the September 2022 start of the Music Biz Roadshow program, which has previously traveled to cities including Atlanta, Dallas and Miami.
“With the Music Biz Roadshow, we bring our members to different cities across the U.S. for free educational programs for artists and musicians,” Sabin told Billboard. “We got inspired by doing that because there are so many great music cities out there in the U.S.”
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Beginning in 2025, the Music Biz event will revert to the way the conference had been scheduled when it was then-called NARM, when the conference frequently shifted to a new city.
“We will be on probably a two-year schedule, staying in a town for two years before going to another town,” Sabin said. Sabin noted that the conference could potentially be hosted in cities including Miami and San Diego in the future.
The Music Biz conference’s panel lineup for Tuesday (May 14) includes a wide range of topics currently impacting the industry, including neighboring rights, metadata, catalog sales and the growing popularity of Latin music in sync.
In 2013, the organization formerly known as the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) rebranded as the Music Business Association. The conference spent four years in Los Angeles before relocating the conference to Nashville in 2015. The Music Business Association headquarters continues to be based in Nashville.
Led by SZA’s SOS, Travis Scott’s UTOPIA and growth in paid subscription streaming services, Sony Music revenue grew 16.9% to 1.59 trillion yen ($11.05 billion) in its fiscal year ended March 31, its parent company, Sony Corp., reported Tuesday, May 14.
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Sony Music’s revenue topped guidance of 1.56-1.57 trillion yen given in Sony Corp’s previous quarterly earnings in February. Its adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization (AOIBDA) of 368.7 billion yen ($2.55 billion) also topped guidance of 350-360 billion yen.
The yen-denominated revenue figures were boosted by foreign exchange rates. Of Sony Music’s revenue gain, about 32%, or 76.5 billion yen ($529 million), came from foreign exchange. Both recorded music and music publishing divisions enjoyed higher revenue from streaming services and paid subscriptions — Spotify’s price increase in July 2023, and continued subscriber growth at all platforms, also provided a boost to recent earnings by Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.
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Recorded music revenue of 1.07 trillion yen ($7.39 billion) was up 20.4% from the prior year. While physical revenue dropped 7.4% to 101.3 billion yen ($701.7 million), streaming jumped 18.5% to 709.5 billion yen ($4.91 billion) and accounted for 66.5% of recorded music revenue, down from 67.7% in fiscal 2022. The “other” category, which includes merchandise, rose 59.8% to 221.4 billion yen ($1.53 billion).
Other top releases for the fiscal year were Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, Miley Cyrus’s Endless Summer Vacation, Luke Combs’ Gettin’ Old, Peso Pluma’s Genesis, Doja Cat’s Scarlet, Rod Wave’s Nostalgia and Beyoncé’s Renaissance.
Music publishing full-year revenue rose 18.1% to 326.7 billion yen ($2.26 billion). Streaming revenue improved 21.1% to 185 billion yen ($1.28 billion) and accounted for 56.6% of publishing revenue, up from 55.2% in fiscal 2022.
Visual media and platform revenue declined 0.4% to 202.1 billion yen ($1.4 billion). Within the segment, gaming revenue fell 9.5% to 98.2 billion yen ($680 million).
Stray Kids’ “Social Path (feat. LiSA)” was the top music release for Sony Music Entertainment Japan for the full fiscal year. Other top releases in Japan were King Gnu’s The Greatest Unknown, SixTONES’ The Vibes and two releases by Nogizaka46: Monopoly and Ohitorisama Tengoku.
For the second straight quarter, Sony Music’s operating income of 301.7 billion yen was the largest of any Sony Corp. business and accounted for about a quarter of the parent company’s total operating income. Although Games & Network Services’ revenue of 4.26 trillion yen ($29.55 billion) was more than 2.5 times Sony Music’s revenue, it had operating income of 290.2 billion yen ($2 billion) – about 4% lower than Sony Music’s operating income.
Even though Sony Corp.’s full-year revenue grew about 13% on a constant currency basis, the company is wary of uncertain business conditions and volatility. As such, Sony Music’s parent company is putting a greater focus on earnings, efficiency and business profitability.
During the earnings call, Sony Corp.’s management discussed the company’s “mid-range plan” that includes a partial spin-off off its financial services division in Oct. 2025 and increasing focus on growth in its three entertainment segments — music, film and games and network services — and its imaging and sensing solutions business. The parent company aims to achieve an annual growth rate of 10% or more in these business segments.
“In the music segment, we continue to aim to grow faster than the market by strengthening our efforts in emerging markets, increasing monetization opportunities for our music catalog, and incorporating adjacent businesses such as merchandising,” said Hiroki Totoki, president, COO and CFO.
Looking ahead to the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, Sony Music expects 4% increases in both revenue and operating income.
Sony Music’s fiscal fourth quarter revenue climbed 23.5% to 422.2 billion yen ($2.85 billion). Recorded music revenue in the quarter rose 29.4% to 288 billion yen ($1.94 billion) due to 23.9% growth in streaming revenue and a 91.9% improvement in the “other” category. Music publishing revenue grew 25.5% to 82.9 billion yen ($558.6 billion). Visual media and platform revenue dropped 3.8% to 51.4 billion yen ($346.6 million) due to a 22.2% decline in gaming revenue.
Both SOS and UTOPIA were also Sony Music’s top two albums in the fiscal fourth quarter as well as the full year. Other top albums in the quarter were 21 Savage’s American Dream, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, Bad Bunny’s nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana, Peso Pluma’s Genesis, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, Tate McRae’s Think Later, Justin Timberlake’s Everything I Thought It Was and Harry Styles’ Harry’s House.
Executives of Tencent Music Entertainment Group said on Monday that higher than expected subscriber growth pushed its first quarter profits up 28% to RMB1.53 billion ($212 million). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Through marketing promotions timed around the Chinese New Year holiday, TME was able to […]
Live Nation was the top-performing music stock and one of four stocks in positive territory this week. The concert promoter gained 2.5% to $97.02 while three other concert promotion stocks — Sphere Entertainment Co., Madison Square Garden Entertainment and CTS Eventim — each lost ground.
The Billboard Global Music Index fell 1.9% to 1,788.83 as 16 of its 20 stocks finished the week in negative territory. Music streaming companies Deezer and Anghami were two of the week’s other big winners with gains of 1.0% and 0.9%, respectively. Still, the index has risen 16.6% year to date and 12 of the 20 stocks have posted gains in 2024.
Another notable gainer this week was Believe, which closed Friday at 15.04 euros ($16.21), up 0.3% from the prior week. A closing price of 15.04 euros is above the 15.00 euros offer price by consortium of investors that aims to take Believe private. Some minority shareholders may remain, however, because the consortium, which has lined up 71.92% of share equity, will not implement a squeeze-out and force shareholders representing the remaining 28.08% of share capital to sell.
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iHeartMedia shares declined 42.7% to $1.30, leaving the radio broadcaster with a market capitalization of just $194 million. Its shares fell 36.1% on Thursday following its first-quarter earnings release and dropped another 5.8% on Friday.
As streaming has surged in popularity and economic importance, radio companies have struggled to reinvent themselves. In 2021, iHeartMedia shares surpassed $28 after the advertising market recovered from a COVID-19 pandemic-related collapse. But in the subsequent three years, its shares have lost nearly all their value as sluggish radio advertising has overshadowed iHeartMedia’s budding podcast business.
The index didn’t fall further than 1.9% because many of its most valuable companies suffered only minor losses this week. Spotify, the largest contributor to the float-adjusted index, dropped only 0.5% while HYBE, one of the index’s more valuable components, fell just 1.5%.
Those small losses, and Live Nation’s 2.5% gain, helped offset larger losses by some other valuable components of the index. Universal Music Group fell 3.1% to 28.01 euros ($30.22) and Warner Music Group dropped 7.3% to $31.64 following its fiscal second quarter earnings release on Thursday. Evercore and Morgan Stanley both dropped their price targets by $2 on WMG’s stock on Friday. Guggenheim maintain its WMG price target.
While music stocks had a rough week, stocks were broadly up around the world. In the United States, the S&P 500 gained 1.9% to 5,222.68 and the Nasdaq composite improved 1.1% to 16,340.87. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 rose 2.7% to 8,433.76. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 1.9% to 2,727.63. China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.6% to 3,154.55.