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Creative Artists Agency has appointed nine managing directors and changed up its agency board membership.
The new managing directors include Rob Light, Howard Nuchow, Joe Cohen, Michael Levine, Joel Lubin, Maha Dakhil, Chris Silbermann, Tiffany Ward and Paul Danforth. CFO Carol Sawdye and chief legal officer Hilary Krane will continue in their roles.
The managing directors will work alongside CAA co-chairman and CEO Bryan Lourd, co-chairmen Kevin Huvane and Richard Lovett and president Jim Burtson on varying strategic business and operational matters.
The agency board will work with the CAA co-chairmen and president “on ensuring the continued strength of the company’s highly regarded culture of service, collaboration, and opportunity, built for personal client service,” including dealmaking, training and development and innovation. The move marks the latest rework for the agency since its sale to Artémis, the investment firm controlled by François-Henri Pinault, last September.
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Members of the agency board include Katie Anderson, Emma Banks, Lorrie Bartlett, Matt Blake, Alan Braun, Austin Brown, William Brown, Libby Bush, Ben Dey, Jaime Feld, John Garvey, Liz Gray, Sloan Harris, Jeff Krones, Franklin Latt, Brandon Lawrence, Michelle Kydd Lee, Joe Machota, Lisa Joseph Metelus, Matthew O’Donohoe, Praveen Pandian, Dan Rabinow, Rachel Rusch, Roeg Sutherland, Nick Thimm, Natalie Tran and Ida Ziniti.
“Today’s announcement highlights not only the strength, momentum, breadth and depth of today’s CAA, but the incredibly exciting promise of our future, with two new teams of exceptionally talented, proven leaders, committed to serving our clients and colleagues,” said Lourd. “We have always been clear in our mission – to deliver world-class personal service to world-class clients. With our expanded corporate leadership structure and an entire company of the world’s best dealmakers, creative thinkers and career representatives, CAA has never been better positioned to help clients capture the best opportunities and navigate the challenges of today’s media and sports industries.”
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
For the past decade, on-demand streaming drove incredible gains in recorded music revenue, which climbed from $6.7 billion in 2014 to $17.1 billion last year in the U.S. alone. Now there’s only so much room for growth in the U.S. and Europe, and developing markets aren’t as predictable. But look, up in the sky, it’s a nerd, who could help an artist buy a plane, it’s SUPERFANS!
Basically, now that the music business takes in a modest amount of money from an enormous number of people, it needs to find ways to also capture much larger amounts of money from smaller numbers of more dedicated fans. A July 2023 Goldman Sachs report said there was a $4.2 billion “addressable market opportunity for superfan monetization,” and Billboard just reported on how this same excitement is sweeping labels — as well as some of the challenges they will face. Of course, this is just an MBA’s way of saying what most fans already know: They want to buy more from their favorite acts than access to their music on a streaming service. The question — besides who actually qualifies as a superfan! — is how to find them and what they want.
To get sense of what this business might look like, let’s look at the iconic group that pioneered one kind of superfan model, as well as newer stars that have turned a very different model into something of a science: the Grateful Dead and K-pop groups. Both are very popular — phenomenally so by some measures — but neither is exactly mainstream in the way that Taylor Swift or Beyoncé is. Their popularity is deeper than it is wide. Neither the Dead nor K-pop is for everyone — both tend to inspire either devotion or disdain — but the fans who like them tend to go all-in.
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Those fans help these acts overperform by different measures. The Dead only ever had one hit single, but the band had the highest-grossing tours in 1991 and 1993, partly thanks to hardcore Deadheads who saw multiple shows, and the 2023 Dead & Company tour grossed as much ($114.7 million) as the last BTS tour ($113.6 million), according to Billboard Boxscore. K-pop acts dominate the sales market. In 2023, K-pop acts had seven of the top-selling CDs in the U.S., three of the top-selling albums, and none of the top albums by total consumption, once streaming was included. On a relative basis compared to other acts, their fans buy more than they listen — a great business considering that many of those buyers probably listen to those albums on streaming services as well. (K-pop is far more popular internationally.)
Both the Dead and the K-pop groups essentially doubled-down on what they do well in order to super-serve their fans. The Dead built its reputation as an improvisational live act, the best in popular music, and it never completely captured that same magic in the studio. So after the group broke up in 1995, it started to release more live recordings, and a 2006 deal with Rhino led to increasingly-ambitious reissue projects — a 73-CD set of the 1972 European tour, a series of reissues available every quarter on a subscription-first basis, and an 80-CD set of one show from each year of the band’s 30-year career. Recently the group broke a record for having the most albums on the top 40 spots in the Billboard 200. This undercounts their business success, though, since some of the box sets Rhino releases sell for more than $100.
K-pop acts tend to focus on selling merchandise, and given the declining number of CD players, many young fans probably see CDs as more of a souvenir than a way to listen to music. K-pop is all about fandom — having it, displaying it, and in some cases arguing about it — so those acts tend to sell merchandise that appeals to a collector’s mentality. (I find it odd that some fans buy CDs in different colors, but I probably have a dozen live versions of the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star,” and some people find that a bit much, too.) K-pop fans spend a considerable amount of money on merchandise — $24 a month, according to research from Luminate, which is 140% more than the average U.S. listener. From a financial perspective, K-pop acts are basically in the tchotchke business; BTS sells clothes, jewelry and even Uno cards. And while the Dead sells more than its share of merchandise, including “drinkware” and “home goods,” it has always really been a live band, in both art and business terms.
The music industry tends to see these business models as exceptions, since it’s dominated by labels that are very much in the recorded music business. But they might also offer inspiration on how to turn a star-level audience into a superstar-level career. (The Dead’s business, which is still overseen by Warner Music’s Rhino, also shows that many superfans don’t fade away — I saw a few concerts in 1991, and I plan to buy the next vinyl box set, too.) Charts change much faster than loyalties.
What can the rest of the business learn from these successes? Most important, that it’s both possible and potentially difficult to monetize superfans — they’re willing to spend money, but only on the right items; BTS live recordings might not do as well as an expanded clothing line. And that requires expertise. Rhino president Mark Pinkus works closely with the Dead, as does archivist Dave Lemieux. They choose the shows fans want to hear and know which to sell as part of the Dave’s Picks reissue series and which belong in box sets. K-pop fans are enthusiastic, but also demanding — they want to buy branded hoodies, but only if they’re designed the right way.
Selling streaming subscriptions to a mass audience requires executives who could focus on the mainstream. Getting part of that audience to spend twice that much money on a single act is certainly possible — but it takes a different skill entirely.
South Korean investment and management firm Beyond Music has acquired the music catalog of Puerto Rican reggaetón star Yandel, including his publishing interests and royalties, his share of performance royalties and neighboring rights royalties. The acquisition is a “first of its kind” for an Asian music company that’s acquiring a Latin artist’s catalog directly, according to […]
The Association of Independent Music has announced the departure of chief executive Silvia Montello, citing personal reasons. Montello began leading the London-based indie sector trade body in early 2023 following the exit of Paul Pacifico, who left for the Saudi Music Commission. Taking over on an interim basis is Gee Davy, who now occupies three C-suite spots as AIM’s chief executive, operating and policy officer.
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Davy, who joined AIM in 2017, previously handled day-to-day leadership of AIM in between Pacifico’s departure and Montello’s arrival. “With the trust of the inspirational team and board, and our excellent senior management at my side, I am looking forward to delivering on AIM’s commitment to support the UK’s innovative independent music community and level the music playing field,” Davy said.
Montello joined AIM less than a year after becoming the first-ever female CEO of the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM), the global non-profit representing electronic music companies. Prior to AFEM, she held senior roles at the U.K. arm of Universal Music, where she worked as director of catalog marketing between 2006 and 2010, and BMG, where she served as group senior vp of recordings operations and integrations from 2014 to 2016. She was subsequently appointed senior vp of operations at the then-Kobalt-owned artist services company AWAL, a post she held from 2017 to 2020.
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“It’s unfortunate that we are losing Silvia so soon into her tenure, but on behalf of the board I wish her well in her next endeavours,” said AIM chair Ruth Barlow. “The board and I are working closely with Gee and the AIM team as we continue to support and promote the independent music sector, delivering and creating value for our community via our membership events and activities schedule, industry affairs work and beyond.”
AIM represents more than 1,000 U.K. indie labels, artists and music companies, including Beggars Group, Domino, Warp and Ninja Tune. The U.K. is the world’s third biggest recorded music market behind the U.S. and Japan with sales of just under $1.7 billion in trade value, according to IFPI’s 2023 Global Music Report.
On Tuesday evening (April 9), as Belmont University’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business celebrated a special “Belmont at the Opry” program, the program also revealed a $58 million lead gift from music industry executive and philanthropist Mike Curb and the Mike Curb Foundation, which will fuel a further expansion of the program’s presence on Nashville’s Music Row, with the renovation of existing buildings and the construction of a new state-of-the-art facility.
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The expansion comes as Belmont’s music business program celebrated its half-century milestone last year. The program launched in 1973, founded by the late Robert E. Mulloy and with support from former University president Dr. Herbert Gabhart and music industry executive Cecil Scaife (who was part of Sun Records in Memphis before relocating to Nashville), with the intent of providing formal education and real-world career experience to young adults with aspirations of entering various sectors of the music business, including record production, label operations, songwriting, music publishing. The Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business was established in 2003 and is located at 34 Music Square East in Nashville (Belmont has contributed to preserving the historic Music Row recording studios Columbia Studio A and Owen Bradley’s Quonset Hut). The program is also a mainstay on Billboard’s annual Top Music Business Schools list.
The expansion project will be in two phases. The first, which is underway, includes the renovation of the historic Buddy Lee Attractions/Capitol Records building at 38 Music Square East. The renovation will add 17,000 square feet of space, including songwriting rooms, live sound classrooms, listening spaces and student lounges. The renovation will also include an updated space for Nashville’s Leadership Music office.
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Phase two will involve developing a 75,000-square-foot building behind the program’s current Music Row-area building, with construction of the new facility beginning over the next 24 months. The building will serve both students and the greater Music Row-area community, encompassing a performance venue that can accommodate more than 150 people, as well as networking and gathering spaces for both students and industry professionals, a coffee shop, content creation rooms and underground parking. Phase two will involve a broader fundraising campaign, which launched Tuesday night.
Curb’s gift, and renderings of the spaces, were unveiled during a reception held just prior to the “Belmont at the Opry” event, which featured prominent Belmont University alumni, including artists Trisha Yearwood, Brad Paisley, Tyler Hubbard, Hailey Whitters, Ashley Cooke and Ian Munsick, as well as songwriters Ashley Gorley, Hillary Lindsey and Nicolle Galyon.
Other Belmont alumni among Nashville’s music industry community include Steven Curtis Chapman, Josh Turner, COIN, Brian Kelley, Sony Music Nashville CEO Rusty Gaston, producer/guitarist Dann Huff, UMG Nashville chair/CEO Cindy Mabe, Spirit Music Nashville CEO/Chief Creative Frank Rogers and Warner Chappell Nashville president/CEO Ben Vaughn.
“Mike Curb’s remarkable generosity and partnership with Belmont over many years has been invaluable in advancing entertainment and music business education,” Belmont University President Dr. Greg Jones said. “This latest transformational gift solidifies Belmont’s position at the forefront of developing the next generation of music industry leaders. We are profoundly grateful to Mike and Linda for their continued investment in Belmont’s mission.”
“As Nashville’s music industry has grown and evolved into an international entertainment hub, it’s crucial that our education system keeps pace to develop skilled talent,” Curb added. “Belmont has been a fantastic partner over the years in preparing aspiring artists, songwriters, engineers, and music business leaders who go on to become invaluable employees for record companies throughout Nashville and the industry at large. With this latest investment, we’ll build upon that strong foundation to push entertainment and music business education ahead to the next level, ensuring a steady stream of well-prepared professionals for the ever-growing industry.”
“For 50 years, our faculty, stage and world-class facilities have made Belmont a top destination for future music executives, engineers, artists and songwriters. Mike’s partnership over decades has allowed Belmont to continually elevate our entertainment curriculum and facilities in lockstep with industry needs,” said Brittany Schaffer, who joined the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business as dean in May 2023. “This lead gift allows us to deepen our integration with Music Row, creating an unprecedented immersive experience that will directly connect our students with industry leaders and opportunities while driving innovation alongside our partners in Nashville’s entertainment landscape.”
In the music industry, I’ve realized how important it is to open doors for others. Being a Latin woman in this industry means running into quite a few locked doors. These barriers aren’t just about missing opportunities; they often come down to gender or where we come from, making it feel like we’re all scrambling for a key that’s hard to find.
After nearly 15 years in this field, we’ve been lucky enough to enter rooms we never dreamed possible. Having secured a seat at the table and pushed open doors that were once closed to us, we feel a deep responsibility to keep those doors ajar for others. This journey has highlighted the unique hurdles women face in the music industry and has motivated me to ensure these doors stay open, particularly for other women aiming to make their mark and overcome the challenges we once faced.
In the MIDIA Women in Music 2022 survey, when respondents were asked what would encourage women and other “non-male gender identities” to grow in the music industry, mentoring and coaching opportunities were overwhelmingly the top response. It’s a resource I wish I had when I was coming up through the business, as I often faced a lack of access to other women, and particularly fellow Latinas, who could help guide me throughout my career. I was fortunate to have lots of great colleagues who inspired me but I was always craving that deeper connection and a safe space to have open conversations with women in this industry who have stood where I did or could offer fresh perspectives.
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As a foundational team member at Symphonic Distribution, I’ve navigated the challenges of expanding a business within a small music market. As a Latina, these experiences have equipped me with the insight to provide the mentorship opportunities I always wished were available to me, to others. With the launch of the Women Empowered+ Program at Symphonic, we’ve created a testament to the belief that mentorship can change careers and lives, particularly for women.
Since beginning the program in 2022, we have connected 165 mentors from companies across the music industry with 340 mentees spanning the U.S., Mexico, Latin America, South America, Europe and Africa. This initiative reflects our commitment to dismantling the barriers that disproportionately affect women in music, providing them with the guidance, support, and opportunities they have historically been denied.
As we prepared to launch our third year of the program this March during Women’s History Month, I began reflecting on what we have been doing well and what we could do better going forward — not just at Symphonic but in the industry in general. With this perspective, I’d like to share some suggestions and insights aimed at creating effective mentorship programs for women and diverse genders in the music industry, for companies committed to making an impact.
Structure Objectives and a Matching Protocol
Define the program’s objectives upfront, ensuring both parties have a mutual understanding of their roles, expectations, timeline and time commitment. Launch the program with a clear framework, pairing mentors and mentees based on complementary interests and career goals. We created a simple Airtable form with all the details we felt were needed to fully understand each of our mentors and mentees.
Resources, Support and Honesty
Provide training and/or resources to prepare participants for effective mentoring relationships. The cornerstone of an effective mentorship is confidentiality, fostering an environment where open and honest conversations can occur, grounded in trust and mutual respect. Maintain a support system for addressing challenges, while allowing flexibility to meet diverse needs and schedules. This ensures the program is both supportive and adaptable to individual circumstances.
Feedback and Community Building
Implement a continuous feedback loop to refine the program and recognize participants’ efforts and achievements through the program through surveys. Foster a community of past and present mentees and mentors to encourage networking, shared learning and ongoing support, enhancing the overall impact and sustainability of the mentorship initiative. This can be done via Facebook Groups, Slack, Whatsapp or any other community-building platforms. We discovered that some of the mentors and mentees can help by being the community manager for these.
By bringing the next generation of female music executives up through your mentoring program, we are in turn training the next generation of mentors who will be able to reach out and continue to help bring people in. Whether mentoring or being mentored, we are all contributing to the common goal of making things better for those who come after us.
As we gear up for another year of fostering connections and growth through the Women Empowered+ Program, I’m reminded of the transformative power when we choose to support and uplift one another. We encourage every company in the music industry to create similar programs to cultivate more diverse talent and hope our experience can be a guide for others to take action and inspire even more women to join our industry. In a world where the music industry’s doors seem heavy and unwelcoming, let us be the force that opens them wider, inviting in the voices of women who have waited for their chance to be heard. Together, we can ensure that the next generation of female talent finds a nurturing space where their goals are encouraged, supported by a community that understands the unique challenges they face and believes in the power of mentorship to change not just careers, but lives.
Janette Berrios is the vp of corporate marketing for Symphonic Distribution, a leading independent music distributor with a global presence. She was included on Billboard‘s prestigious Indie Power Players list in 2022 and 2021 and was honored with the “Wonder Women in Latin Music” award presented by the LAMC and Amazon Music.
Music talent agents Michael Gorfaine and Sam Schwartz were honored at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s (LACO) 2024 Gala Celebration on Saturday (April 6) at the Skirball Cultural Center’s Ahmanson Ballroom in Los Angeles. The agents, co-founders of Gorfaine/Schwartz, received the LACO Hollywood Ally Award.
In accepting his award, Gorfaine said, “John Williams shared something with me that I believe should be a guiding principle: ‘Be in service to music.’ It’s our responsibility to support the wonderful musicians who play, the talented composers who write, and the dedicated teachers who teach.”
For more than 40 years, Gorfaine and Schwartz have represented top composers, songwriters, music supervisors and record producers working in film, TV and video games.
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The event raised a record-breaking $1 million to benefit LACO’s artistic and educational initiatives. Highlights included a concert with LACO artists led by music director Jaime Martín.
Film composer James Newton Howard, who was honored by LACO in 2022, was the honorary chair. In addition to Williams and Howard, others in attendance included composers Glen Ballard, Sean Callery, John Debney, Harry Gregson-Williams, Corky Hale, Steve Jablonsky, Julia Newman, Thomas Newman, Mike Post, Theodore Shapiro, Alan Silvestri, Michael Skloff, Mike Stoller and Brian Tyler; and industry executives Spring Aspers, Paul Broucek, Alex Hodges, Tom MacDougall, Tracy McKnight, Alison Smith and Randy Spendlove.
Brigitta B. Troy and Alden Lawrence served as event chairs. Peggy Falcon and Anne Grausam were event committee co-chairs.
Shaheen and Anil Nanji, longtime LACO advocates, community leaders and philanthropists, received the LACO Heartstrings Award.
For information on LACO, visit LACO.org.
Music investment enterprise Firebird acquired a stake in JET Management, the Los Angeles-based company that boasts a roster including Justice, Madeon, LP Giobbi and Suki Waterhouse.
Launched in 2023 by founders Nathan Hubbard and Nat Zilkha, Firebird is a multi-sector music company that includes labels and publishing, with an emphasis on management and label services.
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In 2023, Zilkha told Billboard that he and his partners are building Firebird to respond to a changing industry in which artists are moving away from label structures to partner with companies that can provide label services and artist development, as well as help them tap into additional income streams, such as publishing, merchandising, branding and live events.
“Firebird partners with artists and their teams to build longer lasting, higher impact, and more profitable careers,” Hubbard said in a statement on the new partnership. “JET is on the cutting edge of building the brands of the most respected artists that influence culture. Tyler, John and their team have an impressive track record of partnering with artists of all types to ignite both their fan bases and businesses in harmony.”
“The music industry is evolving rapidly, and power is continuing to shift towards artists and their teams. Firebird’s artist-first ethos and ambitions around empowering the core team is what drew us in at the start, but the people are what kept us around,” added JET Management co-founder John Scholz. “This is a great group of sharp industry veterans walking the same path as us that we couldn’t be happier to lock arms with.”
“Firebird’s strengths complement JET’s vision seamlessly,” adds JET co-founder Tyler Goldberg. “This partnership allows us to streamline operations, broaden our reach, and ultimately deliver greater value to our clients.”
JET clients including Waterhouse, Justice, Neil Frances and Blond:ish are all slated play both weekends of Coachella later this month.
Thus far, Firebird has acquired stakes in companies including Coran Capshaw’s Red Light Management, which represents roughly 400 artists including Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Brandi Carlile and Chris Stapleton; Mick Management, which specializes in independent singer-songwriters such as Maggie Rogers and Hamilton Leithauser; Transgressive Records; and U.K.-based electronic label Defected Records.
“We are maintaining separate brands of the companies that we invest in,” Zilkha told Billboard last year. “We allow their creative process to remain very independent from us; but we’re giving those companies an ecosystem that helps them create opportunities for themselves and the artists that they work with.”
Firebird says it generates $2 billion in gross revenue annually across its businesses and with its collective of artistists reaching a global audience of more than a billion fans.
The Recording Academy has promoted Adam Roth to executive vp of global partnerships & business development. Roth will be responsible for growing the Recording Academy’s global footprint through the negotiation and development of integrated partnership programs with both globally recognized brands and local on-the-ground sponsors. Roth previously served as svp of partnerships & business development […]
Argentinian music sensation Paulo Londra has inked a deal with WME for worldwide representation, the company tells Billboard.
Since exploding onto the scene in 2019, the 25-year-old singer/rapper has been a dominant force in the Latin American music scene and is widely considered one of the pioneers of Argentina’s burgeoning trap movement.
Born Paulo Ezequiel Londra, he began his musical journey as a battle rapper in Buenos Aires’ El Quinto Escalón. Soon after, he released popular singles like “Relax” and “Condenado para el Millón” in 2017.
However, it was his 2019 debut album, Homerun, that catapulted Londra to international recognition. The album debuted and peaked at No. 12 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart and at No. 10 on Latin Rhythm Albums, with its hit single, “Adan y Eva,” landing in Spotify’s Global Top 10. Its music video currently boasts over 1.2 billion views on YouTube.
In 2022, the Córdoba-born artist released his second album, Back to the Game, under Warner Music Latina. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100 chart and boasts collaborations with artists such as Ed Sheeran, Travis Barker, Timbaland, Feid and Duki.
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Adding another feather to his cap, Londra performed the official Latin remix for “The World is Yours To Take,” a song off the 2022 FIFA World Cup soundtrack, alongside Lil Baby and Tears for Free.
Most recently, Londra signed with indie powerhouse label Dale Play Records — home to producer Bizarrap, rapper Duki and urban/pop act Nicki Nicole — and is currently working on new music.
Additionally, plans are underway for Londra to embark on a global tour. He continues to be managed by Ignacio Amato and Cruz Pereyra Lucena from Buena Productora.
