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Martha Henderson, the banking star who had a major role in City National Bank financing the entertainment industry over four decades, and whose expertise has seen her repeatedly honored on Billboard’s “Women in Music” and other power lists, is set to retire.
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Currently serving as vice chairman of entertainment banking at City National Bank, Henderson will step down on Feb. 2, 2024, ending her 40-year tenure with the organization.
Los Angeles-based Henderson joined City National in 1983 from Wells Fargo, where she launched her career in its private bank unit serving the entertainment industry.
With Henderson at the helm, City National’s team serving the entertainment industry now provides financial expertise to more than 90% of entertainment business managers, according to a statement from the bank, plus more than 50% of all Broadway shows, and upwards of 80% of the country music industry in Nashville.
Also, she created a team to serve the needs of Latin entertainers, expanded its business to New York, Miami, Atlanta and on Music Row in Nashville, and more.
“Martha is an institution at City National and I am grateful for her extraordinary service,” comments Kelly Coffey, CEO City National Entertainment. “Her decades of leadership and the profound impact she has had are felt throughout the organization.”
As she prepared for retirement over the last several years, explains Howard Hammond, CEO, City National Bank, Henderson “invested herself in ensuring the continuing entertainment banking leadership team is well prepared to support our clients,” singling-out experienced teammate JaHan Wang, executive vice president of entertainment banking.
Henderson’s financial wizardry hasn’t gone unnoticed outside of the bank. Billboard named her to its “Power” list in 2023 and 2022, and recognized her in its “Women in Music” list of the most powerful women in the music industry for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018.
Separately, Variety named Henderson in its “Women’s Impact Report” as one of the most important women in Hollywood, doing so in 2016, 2019 and 2020, while Barron’s profiled her as the most powerful banker in Hollywood in 2017.
“Among the career highlights I am most proud of is the opportunity I had to grow and develop the next generation of leadership at the bank to continue our focus on serving clients,” comments Henderson ahead of he departure. “I’m confident City National’s unwavering dedication to the industry will only grow.”
Bailee Madison — best known as an actor for her roles in films and TV shows including Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, Just Go With It, The Strangers: Prey at Night and A Week Away — has signed with Jonas Group Entertainment’s Red Van Records ahead of the release of her upcoming song, “Kinda Fun,” […]
Mexican American artist Xavi has signed with WME for global representation in all areas, as reported by Billboard last week. The last few months have been pivotal for the 19-year-old singer-songwriter (born Joshua Xavier Gutiérrez) who kicked off 2024 with his first No. 1 on any Billboard chart thanks to his romantic corrido “La Diabla,” […]
LONDON — Paid-for streaming revenues grew to a record high of £1.86 billion ($2.4 billion) in the United Kingdom last year, helping drive a 9.6% rise in overall music spending, according to year-end figures from the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA).
In 2023, British music fans spent a total of £2.2 billion ($2.8 billion) on music purchases via subscriptions to music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, and vinyl and CD purchases. That’s more-or-less equal to 2001’s total, the historic peak of the CD era, when U.K. music sales stood at just over £2.2 billion, reports ERA. When compared to 2019, the last full year pre-pandemic, music sales have climbed by almost 39% in the space of four years.
Driving the growth was a 9.8% year-on-year rise in subscription streaming revenues, while spending on physical formats was up 10.9% to £311 million ($395 million) the London-based organization says in its preliminary annual figures published on Tuesday (Jan. 9).
Breaking down physical music revenues, vinyl album sales grew 18% to £177 million with Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version), The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds and Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd among the year’s best-selling titles.
Despite CD sales falling 7% year-on-year in volume terms to 10.8 million units, revenue from the long-written-off format actually rose 2% in 2023 to £126 million ($160 million), marking the first increase in CD revenue in two decades.
ERA says the growth can be attributed to the format’s continued popularity among dedicated music fans, keen to buy their favorite artists in multiple and deluxe formats, as well as a rise in the number of Gen Z and Millennials buying CDs.
This Life by British pop group Take That was 2023’s top CD album in the U.K. with just over 127,000 units sold. Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was the year’s second most popular CD release.
Streaming now makes up more than 88% of all music sales in the U.K., compared to 64% five years ago, with physical formats accounting for 9.4% of today’s market, according to labels trade body BPI, which released its year-end listening figures last week.
BPI reports that more than 179 billion music tracks were streamed in the U.K. in 2023, up 12.8% on the previous year’s total, with the equivalent of 182.8 million albums streamed or purchased in 2023 across digital and physical formats, up 10% on the previous 12 months.
In a statement, ERA CEO Kim Bayley said the year-end figures represented a “red letter day” for the U.K. music industry with the rise in revenues “a testament not just to the creativity of artists, but to the entrepreneurial drive of digital services and retailers.”
Although both ERA and BPI use Official Charts Company sales data as the basis for their reporting, the two organizations take different approaches to measuring the health of the recorded music business. ERA’s figures are based on retail spending in the U.K., whereas BPI’s measure music consumption levels. (ERA’s subscription streaming numbers are estimates based on information provided by digital services and label trade income reported to BPI). BPI and ERA are both due to publish their full annual reports later in the year.
Overall, revenues across the U.K. entertainment market – comprising of music, video and games retail sales – were up 7% on 2022’s total to a record high of £11.9 billion ($15.1 billion), marking the eleventh successive year of growth. Streaming and digital services accounted for almost 92% of entertainment revenue, reports ERA.
Of the three sectors, recorded music sales are in third place, trailing both games and video (comprising of video-on-demand subscription services such as Netflix and DVD sales), which totaled £4.7 billion ($6 billion) and £4.9 billion ($6.2 billion) respectively.
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 Wednesday, Jan. 31, the Recording Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing will come together with its Songwriters & Composers Wing at the Grammy Museum in downtown L.A. to host “A Celebration of Craft.” The event will honor Leslie Ann Jones, a seven-time Grammy winner and the first woman chair of the Recording Academy’s board of trustees (1999-2001), who has been a top recording and mixing engineer and record producer for more than four decades.
The celebration — a first joint Grammy Week event for the Academy’s craft wings — will kick off the Academy’s official events in the lead-up to the 66th annual Grammy Awards.
The event will also shine a light on this year’s nominees for songwriter of the year, non-classical.
“I’m so excited for our Producers & Engineers and Songwriters & Composers Wings to come together for A Celebration of Craft later this month,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “I look forward to joining with music people from both of these communities to kick off our Grammy Week celebrations.”
Maureen Droney, vp of the Producers & Engineers Wing, added in a statement: “From her decades-spanning recording career to her work as former chair of the Recording Academy’s board of trustees, a co-chair of the P&E Wing, and much more, Leslie Ann Jones has always been committed to the music community and to excellence in recording.”
In her statement, Susan Stewart, MD of the Songwriters & Composers Wing, said: “A Celebration of Craft will mark the first Grammy Week event for the Songwriters & Composers Wing since our Wing was founded in 2021, and we could not be more enthusiastic to come together with our community for an evening dedicated to celebrating their creativity.”
Jones has held staff positions at ABC Recording Studios in Los Angeles, the Automatt Recording Studios in San Francisco, Capitol Studios in Hollywood, and now Skywalker Sound, where she records and mixes music for records, films, video games and TV and produces records, primarily in the classical genre.
Jones, the daughter of famed comedy recording star Spike Jones, serves on the advisory board of Institute for the Musical Arts and on the board of directors of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.). She is also an artistic advisor to the Technology and Applied Composition degree program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Jones was inducted into the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame in 2019 and was the recipient of the 2022 G.A.N.G. Lifetime Achievement Award. She is also a member of the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board.
Grammy Week culminates with the 66th annual Grammy Awards at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, Feb. 4. The ceremony will be broadcast live on CBS and stream live and on-demand on Paramount+ at 8-11:30 p.m. ET/5-8:30 p.m. PT.
Warner Music Group and Red Light Management have entered into a strategic partnership designed to help Red Light artists better target the world’s second-biggest music market, Japan.
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Under the pact, Warner Music Japan’s international marketing and ADA divisions will work with Red Light to build a marketing and label channel for Red Light artists. They will also work to foster collaboration between Red Light artists and domestic performers in Japan.
The partnership kicks off with the promotion of Ghostly Kisses, the musical project of French-Canadian singer-songwriter Margaux Sauvé, who is signed to British label Akira Records. She performed for the first time in Tokyo in December ahead of her new album release set for early this year.
Red Light Management’s roster of artists, writers and producers includes Dave Matthews Band, Punctual, Enrique Iglesias, Brittany Howard, Lady A, Lionel Richie, Interpol, ODESZA, Phish, The Strokes, Sabrina Carpenter, Chris Stapleton, Danny L Harle and Lewis Thompson.
James Sandom, managing partner at Red Light Management, said in a statement, “We’re super excited to partner with Warner Music on this initiative to help our artists with a dynamic new route into Japan. The Japanese market has unique characteristics, a landscape requiring bespoke attention and knowledge of the local music and entertainment sector. Bringing this knowledge together with our artists will help them build fan communities in this special market, with the aim of enabling a new generation of artists to find success in Japan.”
Kaz Shimada, COO of Warner Music Japan, added, “In recent years we have worked hard to help international artists connect with local fans as we transitioned from physical to digital. This exciting new partnership is another significant step forward, as we combine our experience promoting some of the biggest global stars in Japan with Red Light Management’s super-talented managers and amazing roster of artists.”
Music stocks mirrored the poor start to 2024 seen in markets around the world, but K-pop giant HYBE bucked the trend with a 7.9% gain to 252,000 won ($191.67) this week. HYBE made the news multiple times during a relatively slow, holiday-shortened week — though none of it was the type of financial news that […]
Now that 2023 has come to a close and the year-end charts have been digested, it’s time to look ahead. 2024 is already looking to be a big year for music in Canada.
Upcoming Canadian album releases include a double album from long-running pop-punk band Sum 41, a new album from long-running rock band Mother Mother that follows the huge TikTok resurgence of their older song “Hayloft,” plus new ones from well-established bands like The Strumbellas, Chromeo, off-kilter pop artist Allie X, country singer Corb Lund and more. There are also plenty of albums from up-and-coming artists to keep an eye on.
Promising B.C. rapper Boslen’s Conversations Over Dinner project is tentatively scheduled for March. Singer/poet Mustafa announced his debut album is coming this year. Montreal rapper Lou Phelps announced his forthcoming album Chélbé, executive-produced by Kaytranada. Speaking of that in-demand Montreal producer, he closed out 2023 with a pair of new solo songs following his collaborative album as Kaytraminé, which seem to signify something new on the horizon.
Indigenous hip-hop duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids could have a big breakout year coming. They signed to Sony Music Canada last year and announced their major label debut will come out this summer. And after appearing on Billboard Canada’s Punjabi Wave cover, Jonita Gandhi has her first EP on 91 North Records set to release in February.
Some major tours are hitting Canada in 2024 as well.
Diljit Dosanjh is set to play the biggest Punjabi concert outside of India at Vancouver’s BC Place in April. That Vancouver venue is surprisingly the only Canadian host for the Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds tour. And aside from the six dates at Toronto’s stadium Rogers Centre, Vancouver will get the only Canadian dates on Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour.
Pop-punk has reached its stadium era. Veterans Blink-182 and Green Day will both play Toronto’s Rogers Centre (home of the Blue Jays) this summer. Green Day is also joining SZA and Noah Kahan as headliners for Montreal’s biggest music festival Osheaga.
Head to ca.billboard.com for a full list.
Two Canadian Cities Establish Music Strategies
Canadian cities are getting strategic when it comes to promoting and supporting their music scenes.
Following the lead of its neighbour Toronto, Kingston, Ontario is moving forward with a music strategy and establishing an official music office. The Kingston city council approved $200,000 in funding from the capital budget in a meeting just before Christmas. The funding will establish the music office and support music programming in the city for the year. The city will also hire and appoint a music officer in charge of the office.
“The strategy hopes to improve living and working conditions for musicians and industry workers while also better leveraging Kingston’s existing music scene as a piece of the city’s tourism tapestry,” reports Yahoo’s Local Journalism Initiative.
Kingston is the 12th most populous city in Ontario but has a notable music history. It’s home to Queen’s University, which has made it a popular location for student bars and student bands. It’s also famously the city that spawned The Tragically Hip, one of Canada’s most beloved bands. Establishing a music strategy codifies music as a major identity for the city and helps it market its music scene while supporting the artists and infrastructure of those who play there.
Vancouver also has a music strategy and has just appointed a music task force to help the city implement it.
A press release explains that the task force will help the City “celebrate the sound of Vancouver and the music of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.” It will also aim to attract and retain artists, businesses, tourism and events that strengthen the local economy.
The city aims to build a music sector that thrives year-round. – Richard Trapunski & Kerry Doole
Rising TikTok Star Alexander Stewart Makes His Billboard Canadian Hot 100 Debut
Canadian singer-songwriter Alexander Stewart is starting 2024 off with a bang, making his debut on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 with the explosive “i wish you cheated,” off of his new EP, if you only knew. The lovelorn single arrives on the Jan. 6 chart at No. 100 after gathering steam since Stewart’s October performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Starting off with mournful piano and Stewart’s voice, the song has a strong premise: Stewart wishes his ex had cheated on him so that he could have clarity and a simple justification for feeling angry and upset. The piano cuts out at the end of the chorus as Stewart asks: “how do I move on / when you did nothing wrong?” Then, Stewart ramps up the energy with backup vocals, dropouts and a theatricality that calls to mind Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license.”
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The Toronto-born musician is now based in L.A. and has built up an impressive online fanbase, with six million followers on TikTok and 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube. He released if you only knew with entertainment company FAE, and according to a press release the initial TikTok campaign for “i wish you cheated” amassed more than 43 million views. Stewart was the second-most popular artist on TikTok in Canada in 2023, behind Lauren Spencer Smith, who charted on the Billboard Hot 100 last year with “Last Christmas.”
This is Stewart’s first time on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, and he could be poised to climb higher if he can gather momentum as holiday music drops off the charts in the coming weeks. The top 10 of this week’s Billboard Canadian Hot 100 are all holiday songs. – Rosie Long Decter
The modern music industry may run on subscriptions — streaming, satellite radio, Peloton, et al. — but it still depends greatly on the advertising business. Indeed, non-subscription-based streaming, along with social media and broadcast radio, continues to produce important royalties and licensing income for record labels and music publishers.
Unfortunately, 2023 was a lackluster year for advertising-based businesses, as brands held back due to economic pressures. The slowdown extended into the fourth quarter: Trade Desk, a digital advertising platform, warned in November that expectations for revenue growth in 2024 “may be premature.”
So, can people expect improvements in 2024? According to a new report by Mediaocean, the outlook is mixed: While some advertising-based businesses can expect more demand this year, others may not witness a rebound.
In November, Mediaocean surveyed nearly 1,100 marketers, ad agencies, media companies and tech platforms, among other companies, about how they expect to spend on various types of advertising in the coming year. The survey revealed that advertising dollars will continue to flee from legacy media — namely print and television — in favor of social media, digital display and video and connected TVs.
Social platforms such as TikTok top the list of predicted ad spending in 2024: 69% of respondents said they expect to increase their spend in 2024 on social media, while only 28% said they will maintain social media spending and just 3% plan to decrease spending. Social media has taken the biggest jump in the last two years. When surveyed at the end of 2021, 56% of respondents — 13 percentage points less than the latest survey — said they expected to spend more on social platforms, while the percentage of people who planned to maintain spending in 2022 was 10 percentage points higher at 38%.
Digital display and video advertising showed a similar breakdown to social media: 65% of respondents expect to increase, 30% plan to maintain and 5% expect to decrease their spending. Most respondents also expect to increase their spending for connected TV and search. These categories were little changed from the prior year.
Radio and audio advertising will fare about the same as last year: 24% of respondents expect to increase spending on radio and audio in 2024, down from 25% in 2023, while 54% of respondents plan to maintain their spending levels and 22% expect to decrease their spending. Going into 2023, 51% of respondents expected to maintain radio and audio spending and 24% planned to spend less. However, those numbers mark a distinct downward trend from 2022, when 61% of respondents said they expected to maintain radio ad spending while just 15% expected a reduction.
Given that data, radio companies that have both digital and broadcast businesses should fare better than those without a digital component – and they may already be seeing a recovery. Speaking at the Wells Fargo TMT Summit on November 29, iHeartMedia chairman and CEO Bob Pittman said the company’s digital advertising “seems to have already recovered” and that radio advertising will recover when brands see an economic recovery on the horizon. “Advertising tends to be a leading indicator,” he added. The same trend can be seen, albeit in a more negative direction, at Audacy, which faces a possible bankruptcy caused in part by lagging broadcast revenue: In the third quarter of 2023, spot and network advertising was down 8.9% year over year while digital revenue rose 3.4%.
TV advertising has taken the biggest fall over the last two years. Going into 2022, only 15% of respondents expected to spend less on local TV and 13% planned to spend less on national TV. Two years later, 33% expect to spend less on local TV and 27% expect to reduce spending on national TV.
Although audio streaming has eaten into the time people spend listening to radio, about 90% of Americans still listen to the radio each week. The same can’t be said for video, however, as video streaming has sharply reduced the audience for cable television. In the third quarter, the penetration rate of traditional pay TV — cable, telco and satellite — fell to 54.8% after those companies lost nearly 2 million subscribers, according to MoffettNathanson. That marks the lowest penetration rate since 1989.
That can be chalked up to the swift rise of video streaming platforms. In the third quarter, YouTube TV surpassed satellite company Dish Network to become the fourth-largest multi-channel video programming distributor. MoffetNathanson believes YouTube TV could surpass satellite company DirecTV for third place in less than a year.
Happy New Year! It’s time for another quick spin around the Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music.
ASM Global welcomed live music veteran and former artist manager Jason Rio as senior vice president of live entertainment and content development. In his new role, Rio will oversee ASM’s plans to grow its position in content generation for its arenas, stadiums, theaters and convention centers. Rio brings years of promoter expertise ranging from his time at Live Nation, where he held senior roles in the major Houston and Chicago markets, to his most recent assignment as vp of music for the Ambassador Theatre Group. In a past work life, Rio spent 20 years managing the likes of The Fray, Liz Phair, Michelle Branch and others. He also worked for Pres. Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012 … Across the pond, Andy O’Sullivan joined the company as CEO of landmark multi-use event space Olympia London. He arrives following an 11-year run as venue director at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. “I’m incredibly excited to be joining such a transformational project at such a critical time, one that’s taking shape right here in London!” he said.
Wise Music Group hired Betsey Perlmutter as vice president of Schirmer Theatrical, the company’s concert and theatrical production arm. In her new position, Perlmutter will focus on leveraging WMG’s global catalog across symphonic, ballet, concert and theatrical disciplines. She is best known as former producer and artistic planning manager for the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, where she oversaw the expansion of non-traditional concert programming, spanning musical theater, contemporary opera, chamber music and the launch of The Art of the Score film music series. Prior to the Phil, she held positions at Wave Hill Cultural Center and the New York Public Library. “Betsey’s extensive experience with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center is invaluable to us as we embark on this new stage of international creative rights development,” said Robert Thompson, president.
DICE hired Piper McCoy as vp of communications, overseeing campaigns, executive profiling, thought leadership initiatives and government affairs comms. She previously held the same role at Buzzfeed, and has held key roles at Rush Communications, Roc Nation, New Era Cap and Walmart. “With over 20 years of experience across the media, sports and entertainment industries, Piper has been brought on board to build DICE’s stakeholder and industry engagement, drive growth across Europe and the US, and guide DICE in reshaping the live music industry through impactful strategic storytelling campaigns,” the company said in its announcement.
Board Shorts: The Golden Globe Foundation, formed last year following the award show’s sale to Eldridge Globes, elected its officers and board of directors for the year. Veteran photojournalist Earl Gibson III will serve as board chair, freelance journalist Henry Arnaud as treasurer, and leadership consultant Tom Kittleson as secretary. The foundation’s board also includes Silvia Bizio, Mia Farrell, Jeff Harris, Helen Hoehne, Adam Tanswell, and Meher Tatna.
Sony Music’s AWAL promoted a pair, putting Jacqueline Rossi in charge of the company’s global commercial partnerships team and Dale Connone at the helm of streaming and promotion efforts. Rossi was most recently senior director of global commercial partnerships, while Rossi led initiatives related to digital services. He also helms the independent label service IN2UNE, an AWAL-owned music coalition.
Dale Watson’s annual Ameripolitan Music Awards hired industry mainstay Roger Christian as head of marketing and promotion ahead of its 10th annual show, taking place Feb. 18 at The Moody Theater in Austin. With over 40 years of experience in the bank, Christian has held senior roles at MCA, Sony/CBS, Jem Records Texas and Big State Distributing, among others, and most recently centered his efforts growing his Roger Christian Entertainment Group. “Promoting the Ameripolitan Music Awards is the kind of challenge I love,” Christian said. “I’m so very honored to be working with Dale, Celine and all the incredibly talented artists in Ameripolitan Music.”
Last Week’s Turntable: BMG Lifer Heads Back to Berlin