Business News
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Universal Music UK appointed Sally Davies as managing director of Abbey Road, the legendary recording studio forever linked with iconic albums by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Kate Bush and more. This is an in-house move for Davies, who arrives after a 10-year run at U-Live, the live promoter within the Vivendi Group and UMUK. As CEO of U-Live, she notably produced the immersive dinner show Mamma Mia the Party! alongside ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus. Prior to U-Live, Davies spent seven years with AEG as assistant GM/director of events of The O2 arena. Since Abbey Road became part of UMG as part of its 2012 acquisition of EMI (the studio was initially called EMI Recording Studios), it has expanded its services beyond recording and mixing. It offers audio mastering, audio restoration, and post-production services, among others. Davies is based in London and will report to UMUK COO David Sharpe.
“I’ve known Sally for a long time so it was an easy decision to appoint her to one of the most important leadership positions in our industry, at the forefront of world class recordings, sound innovation and creative education,” commented David Joseph, chairman and CEO of Universal Music UK. “Sally balances creativity and business strategy exceptionally well and I couldn’t be happier to welcome her back to the Universal Music family.”
Interscope Records appointed Manny Prado vice president of marketing and A&R. In the newly created role, Prado will work alongside executives Nir Seroussi and Jose Cedeño to sign and develop artists for Interscope Miami as well as work closely with its existing roster, according to a press statement. Most recently, Prado served as vp of West Coast operations at Sony Music Latin, where he worked for 20 years. During his tenure at the label, he was a key figure in the careers of Becky G, Carin León and Christian Nodal, among others. “Manny Prado is simply one of the most talented and driven executives working in music,” said Nir Seroussi, executive vice president of Interscope Geffen A&M Records. “We’re thrilled to have him join the team at Interscope Miami as we continue to build a best-in-class platform for Latin artists.” –Griselda Flores
ASCAP hired Tim Daugherty as senior vice president of general licensing. Based in New York City and reporting to head of licensing Stephanie Ruyle, Daugherty will oversee all licensing for brick-and-mortar businesses like bars, hotels and live music venues. Daugherty’s résumé includes five years with Vice Media, where he was most recently svp of revenue and digital operations, and earlier he held roles with Lonely Planet Global and Turner Broadcasting. Ruyle said she was eager to work with her new svp to “respond to the evolving economic and technology landscape for general licensees and to ensure that ASCAP members are fairly compensated for the public performance of their works.”
Verve Label Group hired longtime Spotify executive Monica Santucci as the UMG division’s new vice president of streaming, overseeing strategy and initiatives for the entire VLG family, including Verve Records, Decca Records US, Impulse! and Verve Forecast. Santucci joined Spotify back in 2013 in its label relations department and went on to launch and manage hugely popular franchises like Spotify Singles and the Live at Electric Lady series. Prior to Spotify, she spent six years at Sony Music, where she rose to associate director of digital sales. Dickon Stainer, president and CEO of VLG, said the NYC-based Santucci joined “at the perfect moment to help our artists and their music navigate the many routes to worldwide discovery.”
Porter’s Call, a Franklin, Tennessee-based nonprofit that has provided counseling and support to recording artists since 2001, is changing leadership. Effective May 2024, Porter’s Call founder/executive director Al Andrews will step down from his leadership role. Beth Barcus and Chad Karger will take the helm as co-executive directors. Phil Shay, who joined Porter’s Call in 2022, has been named director of development, while two additional staffers have joined the team: office and hospitality manager Audrey Ragan and porter Jared Farley. –Jessica Nicholson
Influence Media Partners, the music and entertainment investment firm backed by BlackRock and WMG, hired Lisa Licht as their chief marketing advisor, overseeing strategy in the spheres of partnerships, content development and communications. Over the decades, the experienced marketer has held C-suite and senior roles at Live Nation, Yahoo, Hasbro, Fox and Mattel, and owns her own consulting firm (where she advises companies like Build-a-Bear, Cameo and Illumination). Assisting Licht will be Nneka Ani, who has been promoted to head of marketing and will continue to manage corporate communications and develop opportunities around the fund’s portfolio. Additionally, Influence exec Danny Klotz has been named head of underwriting and will manage the company’s pipeline of deals and run the investment team’s catalog models and projections, among other duties. Launched in 2019 and led by Lylette Pizarro, Lynn Hazan, Rene McLean and Jon Jashni, Influence’s fund has invested in catalogs from a diverse slate of artists including Blake Shelton, Tainy, Future and Julia Michaels.
ICYMI: Longtime IFPI chief executive Frances Moore is retiring from the global trade body at year’s end … Four executives were promoted at Interscope Geffen A&M … Andre Perry was elected board president at NIVA … Amazon Music elevated Ryan Redington to general manager … Tencent Music’s chief strategy officer stepped down … and UMG upped Manusha Sarawan to MD of Southern and East Africa.
The Oriel Company welcomed Chrissy Borsellino as senior director of communications and Kelli Wasilauski as the director of operations in Nashville. Borsellino arrives from ADA Worldwide, where she was head of PR and promo, while earlier in her career she notably took the lead in launching a U.S. publicity division at WMA. Wasilauski most recently served as vp of publicity at Adkins Publicity, where she helped grow the company’s roster by double-digits and worked on high-profile campaigns for Billy Ray Cyrus, The Judds and others. The communications agency, launched in early 2021 by veteran publicists Carleen Donovan, Chloë Walsh and Jen Appel, has offices in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville. You can reach the new additions to the Oriel team at kelli@theoriel.co and chrissy@theoriel.co.
Yendi Rodriguez has been promoted to vice president, creative and songwriter services, U.S. Latin at Sony Music Publishing. In her new role, Rodriguez will lead expansion efforts for the U.S. Latin roster with emphasis on career development, talent discovery, creative collaboration and song placements. She will also continue to liaise across the company’s divisions including administration and synch to advance songwriter service efforts. The Miami-based executive will report to Jorge Mejia, president & CEO, Latin America and U.S. Latin, Sony Music Publishing. “Music has always been my passion and it is an honor to be working alongside the best songwriters in the business,” Rodriguez said. According to a press statement, Rodriguez has been key to landing top signings including Keityn, Bizarrap, Nicki Nicole, The Rude Boyz and Jay Wheeler, as well as renewals including Tainy, Camilo and Farruko, among many others. –GF
Sarah Gallagher was promoted to managing director at Modest! Management, home to Olly Murs, JLS and other artists. Gallagher is fast-approaching her 14-year anniversary at the London-based company, where she has overseen a slew of successful campaigns and tours. She reports directly to co-founders Richard Griffiths and Harry Magee. In addition to Sarah’s promotion, Natalie Vassileiou has been elevated to operations director, working alongside Gallagher to manage the day-to-day running of Modest!.
Discogs promoted Anbu Ilango to vp of engineering, Jen Agosta to brand director and Jeffrey Smith to vp of marketing.
Courtney Johanson, who was with public relations company The Greenroom PR for more than a decade, has left the company to join Red Light Management in a management capacity for artists Kip Moore, Caylee Hammack and Tucker Beathard. At The Greenroom PR, Johanson worked on campaigns for clients including Moore, Hammack and Beathard, as well as Brooks & Dunn, Rascal Flatts and Elvie Shane. –JN
Ami Gan has taken her leave as CEO of OnlyFans, the subscription platform popular among adult content creators and the occasional music artist (see: Iggy Azalea, Bhad Bhabie, Bella Thorne and Rubi Rose, among others). Gan, previously chief marketing officer, spent two and a half years in the top job and says that during her tenure the company paid out $10 billion to creators. Replacing her will be Keily Blair, who rises from chief strategy officer. “Spending nearly 3 years at OnlyFans while it echoed throughout the cultural zeitgeist, has been beyond rewarding,” said Gan, who returns to her roots as founder of a marketing firm called Hoxton Projects.
Nashville Bites: Alyssa Ramsey was promoted to manager of label services at Play It Again Entertainment, the label and management company founded by singer-songwriter Dallas Davidson. She’ll oversee label projects and artist development, including A&R and release timelines. Ramsey works with Cade Price to manage rising singer Dylan Marlowe. .. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum hired senior director of education and community engagement Katherine Palmer and director of facilities Ed Schulte. Palmer arrives from the Phoenix-based Musical Instrument Museum, where she was curator of education. Schulte has been the Nashville Zoo director of facilities for the last five years … Newly launched public relations firm King Publicity added Christina Bosch in a publicist role, effective immediately. She was most recently vice president at The Nash News. Bosch can be reached at christina@kingpublicity.com.
In 2022, SoundExchange reported that collections fell slightly to $1.017 billion from 2021’s $1.06 billion — a decrease of about $43 million, or 4.1%. Likewise, distributions fell 3.4% to $959 million from 2021’s $993 million.
However, those collection decreases mainly appear to be due to either revenue or content payout declines from digital services in direct licensing arrangements with labels as well as from foreign collection societies.
Of the $1.017 billion in total collections, $813 million was derived from statutory royalties, while $204 million was paid to SoundExchange via direct licensing deals between labels and services and from foreign collection societies. That’s a drop from the prior year when statutory royalty payments to SoundExchange were $824 million and direct licensing payments were $236 million. So while the statutory royalties fell slightly by $11 million — a decline of 1.3% — the bulk of the decline, or $32 million, was due to a 13.6% fall in direct licensing payments and from foreign societies.
Overall, SoundExchange president/CEO Michael Huppe declared 2022 a “tremendous year” for SoundExchange, in a note leading the organization’s annual report.
“Living up to our mission to foster an equitable music industry where all creators can thrive, the company collected $1.017 billion digital royalties from more than 3,600 digital streaming platforms and distributed them to more than 600,000 creators and rights holders,” Huppe wrote in the note. “In doing so, the company crossed the $[10] billion threshold for distributing royalty payments since its inception in 2003.”
As a percentage of revenue, SoundExchange claims a 6.6% operating administration rate or a 7.2% consolidated administration rate. Either way, the organization claims it has “maintained one of the music industry’s lowest admin rates.
However, expenses grew a whopping 17.5% to $74 million from the prior year’s total of $63 million. While SoundExchange didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, the cost increase could have been due to costs associated with upgrades to the organization’s technological infrastructure.
According to Huppe’s note in the annual report, SoundExchange also “unveiled a suite of next-generation solutions to make the business of music easier and fairer — including a new look, a new website that serves as a resource for creators, publishers, and digital service providers, and a mobile app to give creators easy on-the-go access to their accounts.”
Its expense structure is also undoubtedly impacted by finding and paying the correct rights holders, particularly on the indie artist side of things. According to a press release, “SoundExchange collects and distributes digital performance royalties on behalf of 650,000 music creators and growing.”
Finally, SoundExchange attributed the $10 billion in distributions to date to its “proprietary music tech solutions that turn data into accurate revenue.”
Global recording industry trade body IFPI announced on Thursday that Frances Moore will step down as CEO at the end of the year, ending a consequential tenure that began in 2010. Moore has agreed to assist in the search for her successor at the organization, which represents more than 8,000 record company members worldwide, including all three major labels.
Moore joined IFPI in 1994 as regional director for Europe; her 13-year tenure as chief executive makes her its longest-serving leader ever and, according to IFPI, the longest-serving leader of a recorded music trade body.
Under Moore’s leadership, IFPI has guided the global industry through a throng of seismic changes, namely its transition to digital streaming, along with major initiatives to strengthen copyright protections and intellectual property rights and the ongoing fight against music piracy. Those initiatives helped lay the groundwork for the recorded music industry’s year-on-year recovery from the lows of just over a decade ago when piracy was rampant.
When Moore started at CEO in 2010, global music sales had fallen to $13.8 billion from a high of over $22 billion in 1999. Last year, recorded music sales had rebounded to $26.2 billion, a rise of 9% on the previous year and the eighth consecutive year of growth, according to the organization’s most recent “Global Music Report.”
Noteworthy achievements during her 13-year tenure include the hard-fought enactment of the EU Copyright Directive – a landmark piece of legislation, which made online platforms like YouTube liable for unlicensed content, effectively closing safe harbor protections in Europe, and which was passed in 2019 after extensive lobbying from IFPI.
Moore’s reign has also seen IFPI take a leading role in combating stream manipulation and copyright infringing websites around the world. Legal action taken or coordinated by IFPI in the digital era has led to around 5,200 infringing sites being blocked or shut down, says the London-based organization.
As the music industry has become more global, IFPI also created the IFPI Global Charts and in 2015, IFPI struck a blow to piracy by aligning the global release of new music to Fridays.
“After three decades with IFPI, thirteen of which as its Global CEO, it is time for me to hang up my spurs!” Moore,who trained as a barrister, said in a statement. “I have loved working for IFPI and the recording industry and feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to serve in this role. I am very proud and appreciative of the IFPI team, both now and over the years. Every achievement has been the result of a team effort. ”
She continued, “I have had the good fortune of living through so much of the industry’s transformation from analogue to digital. On my first day at IFPI thirty years ago, I was dealing with legislation on blank tape levies and here we are today dealing with legislation on AI!”
Along with advocating and taking actions on behalf of it members, IFPI of course endures as the recorded music industry’s main resource for documenting the industry’s progress. It’s annual “Global Music Report” continues to be the standard, and under Moore IFPI launched the IFPI Global Charts, the industry’s official annual ranking for the best-selling artists.
In a written statement, the IFPI Main Board said, thanked Moore for “navigating IFPI through arguably the most demanding and complex period of modern music’s history. At once, she has led us through music’s digital transition and the industry’s expansion worldwide, enabling a return to growth that mutually benefits artists, labels and the broader music ecosystem. Not only has she herself been an excellent and effective advocate for labels and creators, but Frances has built an incredible team of professionals to assure that her legacy will carry on.”
BALI — When Denis Ladegaillerie takes his place on stage for the Music Matters conference in Singapore later this year, the Believe chief executive officer should have some tales to share. Success stories.
Ten years ago, Believe (then Believe Digital) embarked on an Asia Pacific odyssey. The risk is paying off, thanks in no small part to the expanding reach and adoption of streaming services, and the waves of regional acts passing through the pipeline, crossing borders like never before.
Ladegaillerie, the Paris-based music company’s founder, returns to the annual summit this September brimming with confidence for his business’s regional operations, which are now active in 15 APAC territories. Royalties to labels and artists have ballooned to €700 million ($784), Billboard can confirm. The magical €1 billion ($1.12 billion) milestone is on the horizon.
Believe established its APAC presence back in 2013, initially in Indonesia. Playing to the beat of its mantra, “local approach, global vision,” the brand set about building from scratch a network tuned to each local music scene, cognizant of the language, culture and genre specificities that make each market unique.
Believe paid tribute to its APAC origins in May by returning to Bali for a gathering of 130-plus staff, or “Believers” as they’re known within the company, from 11 countries.
Participants included Antoine El Iman; managing director of Southeast Asia and Australia/New Zealand; Dahlia Wijaya, country director, Indonesia; Georgette Tengco, country director, Philippines; Somwalee Limrachtamorn, country director, Thailand; and Mick Tarbuk, country manager, Australia & New Zealand, whose affiliate landed two ARIA No. 1 albums in 12 months, with Cub Sport’s Jesus At The Gay Bar (April 2023) and Northlane’s Obsidian (April 2022).
Cub Sport
Bryant
Also among guests, Believe’s streaming partners, including Paul Smith, managing director of YouTube Music APAC, one of the most powerful brands in the region (and also a guest speaker at ATM 2023), and several key artists, including Indonesia pop star Yura Yunita, a native of Bandung, West Java, who boasts more than 1.2 million followers on Instagram and upwards of 1 million subscribers to her YouTube channel.
The region “was untapped territory,” recounts Sylvain Delange, managing director Asia Pacific. “The business opportunity was tiny at the time because digital was not existent. Well, it existed, but it was ringback tones.”
The Frenchman is a big believer — in the traditional sense — that the pan-Asian music market could achieve lift-off; he was tapped to build the regional business from the ground up.
Previously, he served for five years in Tokyo, promoting French music abroad for the French Music Office. That organization no longer exists, though the relationships he built in Asia still do, and Delange got a head start.
Delange “is an instrumental part of the transformation of the market that we’ve been a part of,” notes Ladegaillerie.
Timing is everything. Launch before the streaming platforms mature and make inroads, and the ship has sunk before it sailed.
Start too late, you miss out.
“When you have international players, and especially big players, like Apple, Spotify or YouTube entering the market, that levels the playing field for everyone,” reckons Delange.
Those big players, when they arrived, brought with them certain standards. “Standards of business practices, content management, monetization, good practices, in terms of marketing releases, and so on,” he continued, creating “a much healthier environment for the music ecosystem.”
The Asian market is as exciting as it is diverse, and the recorded music business is spiking.
The numbers back it up.
Luminate’s 2023 “Midyear Music Report” found that, overall, on-demand audio and video streaming in the first half lifted by 107% year-on-year – a world-leading rate of growth.
And earlier, the IFPI reported that Asia notched double-digit growth for the third consecutive year, up by 15.4%, “outpacing the overall global growth rate.”
China, meanwhile, has joined the recording music industry’s elite. According to the IFPI’s Global Music Report, the world’s most populous market is now the No. 5 ranked country for the first time, bumping France into No. 6. APAC accounts for four of the top 10 markets (Japan at No. 2, South Korea at No. 7, Australia at No. 10), and four of the top 10 acts globally are from APAC – BTS, SEVENTEEN, Stray Kids, and Jay Chou.
Believe itself has evolved from pure distribution-driven business into one focused on “local content, globally,” explains Delange, who confirms the Asia Pacific activities has generated north of €700 million in distributions.
That pile includes its businesses in India, Southeast Asia, China, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, where Believe is ranked No. 3 in terms of digital market share, according to Oricon market research, behind Universal and Sony Music, and ahead of Warner Music.
Acquisitions, investments and partnerships will continue to play a part. Notable deals struck in recent years include the acquisition of a stake in Philippines-based Viva Music and Artists Group (VMAG); the acquisition of India’s Venus Music, and subsequent rebranded to Ishtar; and the purchase of a 76% interest in South Indian soundtrack specialist Think Music, all in 2021.
“The objective for us is to is to strengthen our position on market segment by bringing in people that have a very specific expertise,” explains Delange. “Our positioning is to basically build on our past 10-year success, continue to educate. There’s still a lot of education to be done on many topics. We will continue to build on our teams, we’re going to continue to invest in local players, we’re going to continue to build the partnerships closely with the DSPS.”
Soon, the “emerging markets” tag will be gone from the vernacular.
A decade from now, “Asia would have been very-well emerged,” says Delange. “We do anticipate that Asia Pacific is going to become the largest music market in the world in the next 10 years.”
HarbourView Equity Partners has acquired selected recorded and publishing assets of Blackbear, the hit songwriter and artist whose credits include “Hot Girl Bummer,” “Do Re Mi” and songwriting collaborations like Justin Bieber‘s “Boyfriend.” In the U.S., Blackbear’s catalog has generated 4.45 million album consumption units, according to Luminate. While the deal announcement doesn’t specify what […]
KOMI, a creator commerce tool used by Lizzo and Elton John, said on Tuesday (July 18) that it raised $12 million from a group of investors including venture capital firms RTP and Third Prime, as well as Sony Music and Live Nation. In addition to the $5 million in seed funding KOMI says it raised […]
Houston-based rapper KenTheMan (born Kentavia Miller) signed a label deal with Roc Nation, which released her latest single, “I Love a Freak,” on Friday (July 14), with an EP on the way. The rapper, known for tracks including “Not My N*gga” and “He Be Like,” is slated to perform at Rolling Loud Miami on Sunday (July 23).
YG Entertainment K-pop group TREASURE signed a label deal with Columbia Records in the United States. Columbia will release the group’s forthcoming album in partnership with YG.
Paris-based indie distributor IDOL signed a direct artist partnership with U.S. rapper-producer (and Flatbush Zombies founding member) Erick the Architect (“Death by Dishonor,” “Let It Go”). IDOL will handle global digital distribution and marketing for his debut solo album, to be released on his own label, Architect Recording Company; the first single, “Parkour” (produced by James Blake), dropped on July 11. He is managed by Quincy Jones Productions.
Virgin Music signed an agreement with Paul Rosenberg‘s Goliath Records for Rise of the Silverback, the upcoming album from battle rapper and social media personality Nems. The album will be preceded by the single “Drip.” Nems is represented by managers Busy Rivera and Mex Guevara, the latter of whom also serves as his booking agent.
New York-based nonprofit Daniel’s Music Foundation launched Just Call Me By My Name, a new record label focused on musicians with disabilities. Distributed by The Orchard, the label will release compilation albums coinciding with “key disability awareness dates.” The first EP, Just Call Me By My Name: Volume 1, will drop on Friday (July 21). It features five artists: singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist James Ian (who has spinal muscular atrophy type 3); singer-songwriter, piano player and mixer-arranger Devin Gutierrez (on the autism spectrum and with optic nerve hypoplasia, which causes blindness); 12-year-old opera singer Iolanta Mamatkazina (who is blind); rock and blues guitarist Jake Nielsen (who has cerebral palsy); and singer-songwriter/Daniel’s Music Foundation co-founder Daniel Trush and his songwriting partner Gerard Powers. Musicians on the label are sourced through the Danny Awards, an annual awards show produced by Daniel’s Music Foundation that recognizes musicians with disabilities.
Madrid-based artist Ralphie Choo signed to Warner Records, which will release his debut album, SUPERNOVA, in partnership with RUSIA IDK on September 15. The album is preceded by the single “MÁQUINA CULONA” featuring Mura Masa.
Republic Records China signed Mandarin pop star Hannah Rebecca Jin, who has been a recording artist in her native country for over 20 years and broke through in the late ’90s with albums including Wake Up Your Ears and So Proud. The signing marks a reunion between Jin and Tony Wen, the producer Jin worked with at the beginning of her career who now serves as MD of Republic Records China. Jin’s first single for the label is a reimagined version of her hit single, “So Proud.” She will next team up with Wen to co-produce an all-new original album for the label.
Big Noise Music Group signed 16-year-old rapper and pop-punk singer and content creator Gavin Magnus to a multi-album deal. Magnus previously signed with Columbia Records at age 12. His first release on Big Noise will be the single “PSYCHO.”
New Jersey-based band Nicotine Dolls, whose lead singer, Sam Cieri, previously appeared on America’s Got Talent, signed to Nettwerk. The label will release the band’s new single, “How Do You Love Me,” off its forthcoming EP. Nicotine Dolls is represented by manager JR Schumann and booking agents Winston Simone and Sara Schlievert at Paladin Artists.
Golden State Entertainment signed tiny deaths, a project from Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Claire de Lune, who was a founding member of all-women group The Chalice alongside Lizzo and Sophia Eris. Formed in 2022, Golden State Entertainment is an affiliate company of the Golden State Warriors that creates original content. In addition to her artist career, de Lune works as a sportswriter for The Guardian, where she is a regular NBA columnist. She was previously signed to Handwritten Records.
WME signed Seedphrase (born Daniel Maegaard), an artist, DJ, entrepreneur and early-stage crypto investor whose digital art collection includes some of the rarest NFTs in the world. He is slated to drop original music this year, in addition to various Web3 releases. Seedphrase is managed by Three Six Zero.
Vere Music and Brickhouse Entertainment signed pop singer-songwriter Mary-Clair, with Vere serving as her distributor and Brickhouse as her management. The first release under the deal is Mary-Clair’s debut single, “Heaven in the Way,” which was co-written by Tedd T.
Since the rise of digital music technology in the 1990s, royalties from online music have proved bountiful for star performers.
But back then, forward-thinking music industry executives and musicians helped make sure that non-featured performers on recordings, like session players and backup singers, could also share in digital music royalties. One of those income streams — the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution (IPRD) Fund, which marks its 25th anniversary this year — reports paying out $650 million to date to such artists.
For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2021 — the most recent full year for which its finances are available — the nonprofit fund has distributed $57.2 million to eligible performers.
Most of the fund’s revenue comes from SoundExchange, which collects royalties for every song played on digital radio like Pandora, webcasters like iHeartRadio and satellite radio services like SiriusXM. Those royalties are split: 50% to the record label, 45% to the featured artist and 5% to non-featured performers.
Fund participants span a spectrum of musical skills and styles. They include vocalists such as Carmen Carter (who has recorded with Beyoncé, Céline Dion, Whitney Houston and Luis Miguel), Wendy Moten (Carrie Underwood, Buddy Guy, Cece Winans) and Dan Navarro (Dolly Parton, Julio Iglesias, Neil Young), as well as musicians like guitarist Michael Landau (Enrique Iglesias, Diana Ross, LeAnn Rimes), keyboardist Greg Phillinganes (Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder) and drummer Abraham Laboriel Jr. (Paul McCartney, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus), among many others.
But while collecting royalties from Sound Exchange is easy and many musicians are easy to find, tracking down every performer who should get a cut can be a challenge. Though the fund paid out royalties to some 27,000 non-featured musicians last year, many are still unaware of its existence — or that they might have royalties to be claimed, says fund CEO Stefanie Taub.
“The big thing for us is we really want to make sure that the non-featured performers are aware that we’re here and there is this money source for them,” says Taub, a 25-year AFTRA and SAG-AFTRA veteran who prior to leading the fund sat on its board of directors.
The SoundExchange royalties paid to labels and performers are the result of the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recording Act of 1995 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which between them amended copyright law so that, among other things, digital and satellite radio services pay royalties for recorded music. (Terrestrial radio doesn’t make any payments to record labels and performers but pays royalties to songwriters and music publishers.)
As part of the revamped copyright law, AFM (American Federation of Musicians) was designated to be the agent to pay out half, or 2.5%, of the 5% due to non-featured musicians on songs played on digital and satellite radio, while AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) was designated to oversee the other half (2.5%) of the royalties for non-featured singers.
The two unions agreed to collaborate on a single administrator to collect and pay out the royalties. Thus, the AFM & SAG-AFTRA IPRD Fund was born.
“Back then, it made sense to create this fund so they didn’t waste money with duplicate efforts,” Taub says. “So it’s very unique that these two completely separate unions came together to create this fund.”
Stefanie Taub
Courtesy of AFM SAG-AFTRA Fund
How do you view this anniversary of the fund?
We’re very proud of the fact that we paid over a half-billion dollars to non-featured performers in our 25 years. We’re in a unique space because many people are aware of how featured artists — name artists on recordings — get paid for their music. But there’s not as much awareness that our fund exists and that it pays the non-featured performers. People really don’t know we exist, especially when we first started out. Back then, we were collecting a very small amount: under $100,000 a year. Nowadays, we collect more than $50 million a year. So that is something we really want to promote: This money is there for these performers, and we are here to pay it to them.
Does a musician need to be in the union to qualify for funds?
That’s a misconception. Even though the unions created this fund, their executives sit on the board, and our name includes the unions; the fund distributes to all performers without regard to union status. We’re required by law to distribute to everyone [regardless of] status.
Where does the Screen Actors Guild, which represents and pays actors, come into the picture? Are its funds blended into what you collect?
SAG represents mostly actors but also other performers in film and TV, [so] if a singer did a song in a film, that would be represented by SAG; if they do a record, they are represented by AFTRA. But the SAG funds are completely separate, and what we collect is completely separate from anything that the unions do on their own.
Your financial statement for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, shows that the fund collected $63.1 million in royalties. How much came from SoundExchange?
It fluctuates, but it has been around $50 million or more for [each] of the past five or six years.
Foreign royalties also flow into the fund. What’s the source of those monies?
They are due to copyright treaties and to reciprocal agreements with collection organizations in other countries — and those royalties consist of many different things, including what they call “private copying”; in some foreign countries, they collect a royalty on devices like iPhones and iPads and things like that. Some countries do pay the U.S. [royalties] on broadcast terrestrial radio and even [on] what they call “communication to the public,” like songs played in nightclubs and restaurants. Every country is a little bit different in what royalties they pay to the U.S.
So, percentagewise, what would you say the breakout is from SoundExchange versus the other sources of income?
I would say SoundExchange is about 80% of what we collect. But we’re growing in the international space every year, and we’re hoping to increase that as time goes on. We had a very good year last year. Our financials are not showing yet for that, but we collected over $25 million internationally last year.
Are there other challenges your organization faces in paying out royalties?
When we reach out to people [eligible for payments], some don’t believe us because no one has ever gotten a secondary income stream from their recordings. Of course, we need to verify their identity and we ask for certain information. And these days, everybody’s concerned about their privacy, so they think it’s a scam sometimes. But the more we can get our message out, the more that creates awareness, so [that] people actually do sign up for us.
How do you reach musicians who might be due money?
We have a whole department called artist relations, and their only job is to either take incoming inquiries or to actively search for folks where we’ve seen their names on credits but need to find them. We use all types of resources, whether it’s the internet, social media or other publicly available information. We also try to get other participants who have been paid to let their friends know about our fund.
A big question for funds like yours is, how much of what you collect do you match with eligible recipients and pay out every year?
Our current percentage is about 82% payout, and we are reducing the unmatched number every year.
And your administrative costs are about 14% of your revenue.
We have an obligation to make sure we’re doing the right thing with other people’s money. It’s not my money, so I always look at the most efficient way to get the job done so that as much of what we collect as possible can go out the door to the performers.
What if the album credits don’t specify who played on what song?
When we get the money from SoundExchange, we do our research on a track-by-track basis and by individuals. It’s very difficult because, depending particularly on the age of the recording — or where it was done — sometimes there’s no information at all. That’s why we really encourage people to also look at the list on our website of all the recordings that we have money for. If they make a claim on a recording, then we always require proof that shows they are on the recording. That proof could be a union contract, liner notes or something printed somewhere on the internet. And we cross-check multiple sources to make sure that everything’s matching.
What if the featured artist says, “Yeah, he played on my track”?
We accept that, too. Or often there might be other side musicians on the track who vouch for the third, and we will accept that.
How many titles do you research and pay out on?
In April 2023, the fund distributed royalties on 50,000 titles. And we’re increasing that every day. But it’s very time-consuming to research non-featured artists, especially now when there is often no printed [credits] because there is no physical recording. But there’s a current drive to get more metadata to be included in a lot of [digital] tracks.
It’s the record labels that should make sure songwriters, publishers, side musicians and singers are listed.
Yes, and they’re not as driven to make sure that the non-featured artists are getting credit.
There have been some recent grievances with the fund, including a suit over $45 million in undistributed funds and another complaint about a data purchase and service fee paid to the unions. What has happened with those complaints?
The former was settled in November 2020, and the latter was resolved in March 2022. We welcome the resolution of these matters so we can focus our resources on what we do best, which is putting money into artists’ pockets.
Are there any other messages you would like to get out?
Just to let people know that they should take a look at our website and make sure that if they’ve done any non-featured work on songs, they should sign up and create an account so that we can find them and pay them. That’s the whole reason we exist — to pay performers. We want to make sure that we’re creating that awareness.
This story originally appeared in the July 15, 2023, issue of Billboard.
BRISBANE — Budjerah signs with United Talent Agency (UTA) for representation in the Americas, Billboard can exclusively reveal.
The fast-rising Australian singer and songwriter is repped by global touring agent Noah Simon, whose roster has included Post Malone, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Jacob Collier, Masego and others.
Hailing from Fingal Head, New South Wales, Budjerah is one of the most promising young artists in his homeland. The 21-year-old singer and songwriter was the inaugural winner of the Michael Gudinski prize at the 2021 ARIA Awards, won his first APRA Music Award in 2022 for most performed R&B/soul work of the year for “Higher” with Matt Corby, and collected best new artist at the 2023 Rolling Stone Australia Awards.
The young man with the golden voice has several chances to add to his collection next month at the 2023 National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs); he’s in the hunt for artist of the year, song and film clip of the year, both for “Therapy,” which has chalked up more than 6 million streams.
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On the live front, Budjerah supported Ed Sheeran on the Brit’s 2023 stadium tour (and jumped on a remix of Sheeran’s “2step”), performed a sold-out headline show at the Sydney Opera House for Vivid LIVE, scored a slot on the For The Love festival run, and he’s booked for the traveling Spilt Milk fest in November and December.
The Coodjinburra artist’s career is guided by Lemon Tree Music, Regan Lethbridge and David Morgan’s Australia-based artist management company, whose stable includes Tones And I and Tash Sultana.
“I am thrilled to represent Budjerah and proudly welcome him to the UTA family,” comments Simon. “He is undoubtedly a singular talent with a timeless voice and in close collaboration with Lemon Tree, we’re excited to introduce his exceptional artistry to the Americas.”
To celebrate the UTA pact, Budjerah shares the new single “Video Game” (via Warner Music Australia), a “thank you to all my fans who’ve supported me at my shows over the last year,” he says in a statement.
Penned by Meg Mac, Matt Corby and Chris Collins, the stripped-back track explores the emotions behind growing up and finding himself, and can be streamed below.
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Shares of SM Entertainment gained 11.8% to KRW 117,900 ($92.88) this week, making the K-pop company the greatest gainer on the Billboard Global Music Index. The home of groups such as NCT 127 and Red Velvet, SM got good news this week after boy band EXO’s latest release, EXIST — The 7th Album, sold over 1 million copies in South Korea on its first day of release. In the United States, the group currently has four of the top five songs on Billboard’s Hot Trending Songs chart. Year to date, SM Entertainment shares are up 37.5%.
Led by SM Entertainment’s double-digit gain, 13 of the Billboard Global Music Index’s 21 stocks finished in positive territory this week. The index rose 1.7% to 1,355.35, its third-straight weekly increase and the sixth in the last seven weeks. Music stocks lagged behind many major indexes, however. In the United States, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite gained 2.4% and 3.3%, respectively. The United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 improved 2.4%. And South Korea’s KOSPI composite index rose 4%.
Spotify continues its hot streak by gaining 9.6% to $172.03, bringing the stock’s year-to-date improvement to 117.9%. The streaming giant got a boost this week after analysts at Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo increased their price targets to $185 and $250, respectively. Wells Fargo analysts are enthusiastic about Spotify’s prospects to improve its margins following the company’s layoffs and reduction of podcast content costs. Long-awaited price increases in the United States could improve Spotify’s gross margin by three percentage points and add nearly $727 million of revenue in 2024, according to the analysts.
Another K-pop company experienced the index’s largest decline this week: Shares of HYBE, home to BTS and Tomorrow X Together, fell 10.3% to KRW 256,500 ($202.08). The company was in the South Korean media this week following complaints of sexual harassment by security guards at an &TEAM singing event in Seoul. In a statement, HYBE apologized to the fans and explained that attendees at such events are searched to prevent recordings from leaking to the public.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd.’s decline of 3.9% to 0.74 pounds per share was the index’s biggest decline of the week after HYBE. On Thursday (July 13), Hipgnosis reported a $12.9 million improvement in pro-forma annual revenue million in calendar year 2022, although both gross and net revenue declined due mainly to two large, non-recurring adjustments. Still, investors remain wary of the stock, which has declined 14.3% year to date. As Billboard reported this week, Hipgnosis is shopping some assets that could help bolster its share price if sold. Shareholders will get a chance to weigh in on the fund’s future at the annual meeting in September by voting to change fund managers, liquidate the fund or stay on course.