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The Raine Group has raised $760 million for investments in fast-growing start-ups in the telecommunications, media and technology space, the London-based investment and advisory firm said on Thursday.
Raine Group raised the money for the new Raine Partners IV fund from public pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and others. The fund’s first investment was the mobile games developer Tripledot Studios, according to a statement.
With nearly $4 billion in assets under management, Raine Group has grown since its 2009 founding to serve as an adviser or investor in some of the biggest deals in sports, media and entertainment.
Earlier this year, it advised pro wrestling giant WWE on its $21 billion combination with Endeavor and on the estimated $300-million sale of Quality Control to HYBE America.
The Raine Group’s music investment and advisory team — Fred Davis, Joe Puthenveetil and Rob Frech — have invested in SoundCloud and Firebird Music Holdings, and also worked as advisors to Francisco Partners when it acquired Kobalt and helped Larry Jackson raise $1 billion in capital for his new venture, gamma.
The Raine Group also owns stakes in DraftKings, Moonbug, Imagine Entertainment, TelevisaUnivision and VideoAmp.
Similar to its predecessor funds, Raine Partners IV will invest in growth-stage media and technology companies, with a particular focus on sports, media, entertainment and gaming.
The Raine Group co-founder and partner John Salter said they chose Tripledot Studios for the fund’s first investment because it’s “one of the strongest (companies) in casual gaming.”
“As a highly profitable business with more than 400 staff and about 50 million monthly active users, we look forward to actively working with their team to drive continued growth in the casual gaming market,” Salter said in a statement.
LONDON — Global hit records by Harry Styles, Glass Animals and Ed Sheeran, coupled with the popularity of U.K. acts in emerging markets like the Middle East and Africa, helped British music exports climb to a record high of £709 million ($910 million) in 2022, according to new figures released by labels trade body BPI.
The London-based organization says 2022’s export tally is the highest annual total since BPI began analyzing labels’ overseas income in 2000. Last year also marked the ninth consecutive year of growth in U.K. music export trade revenues, which slumped to just over £200 million ($254 million at today’s exchange rates) in 2007.
BPI, which represents over 500 independent labels, as well as the U.K. arms of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, says the consistent year-on-year rise puts the country’s record industry on track to exceed £1 billion ($1.27 billion) in annual music exports by the end of the decade.
Driving last year’s 20% growth was a combination of globally successful British artists and the strong value of the U.S. dollar and other foreign currencies against the pound sterling.
British singer-songwriter Harry Styles’ hit single “As It Was” was the world’s most-streamed song in 2022, according to Luminate data cited by BPI, while Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” was number two. Other songs by U.K. artists in the year-end global top 10 included Elton John and Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)” and Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers.”
In total, around 450 U.K. artists accumulated more than 100 million global streams last year, up from almost 400 in 2021, BPI reports. That list includes Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Calvin Harris, Coldplay, Dave and Sam Smith, as well as veteran acts The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Queen. Overall, British artists claimed more than a quarter of the 50 most-streamed songs on Spotify in 2022.
Worldwide, consumption of British music increased in every region last year, says BPI, with export revenues rising 11% in Europe and up 28% in North America (equivalent trade values were not provided). The fastest-growing regions for U.K. music exports were Africa (up 48%) and the Middle East (up 59%).
On a country-by-country basis, all but one of the U.K.’s leading music export markets recorded a rise in export sales, including the U.S. – the leading international market for British acts – where revenues grew 28% to £292 million ($371 million). The second biggest country for U.K. music sales is Germany, where revenues climbed 4% to £58 million ($74 million), followed by France (up 15% to $54 million).
In line with the past several years, the U.K.’s share of the global recorded music market remains around 10%, reports BPI, despite the growing international popularity of music acts from Latin America and Asia, particularly South Korea.
In a statement, BPI interim chief executive Sophie Jones said the continued success of U.K. labels and artists overseas was “an exceptional achievement in the face of unprecedented competition on the global music stage, both from long-established and rapidly-expanding new music markets.”
The U.K. is the world’s third biggest recorded music market behind the U.S. and Japan with sales of just over $1.8 billion in trade value, according to IFPI’s 2022 Global Music Report.
Neko Health, a medical technology company co-founded by Daniel Ek, said on Wednesday (July 5) it has raised 60 million euros ($65 million) from a group of outside investors led by European tech venture capitalist Klaus Hommels‘ Lakestar. Founded in 2018 by Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne, this is the first time the Swedish health-tech company […]
Sherrese Clarke Soares‘ HarbourView Equity Partners and Diddy‘s Revolt are among the bidders finalizing second-round offers to acquire a majority stake in BET Media Group from Paramount Global, according to two sources with knowledge of the talks.
Jesse Collins Entertainment, which produced the Grammys and this year’s SuperBowl halftime performance by Rihanna, is also mulling joining HarbourView and Revolt’s joint offer for the package of networks that includes VH1, said one of the sources, who requested anonymity due to the confidential nature of the talks.
Paramount Global is reportedly exploring selling a majority stake in BET Media Group, which includes BET, BET+, BET Gospel, BET HER, BET International, BET Jams, BET Soul, BET Studios and VH1, for as much as $3 billion, as it looks to offload assets like book publisher Simon & Shuster and preschool service Noggin to focus on its streaming business.
Sources say other bidders submitting second-round offers for BET Media Group include Tyler Perry and Byron Allen. Paramount is reportedly looking to finalize deals this fall.
A spokesperson for BET declined to comment for this story.
Soares, whose private equity firm owns rights to songs by regional Mexican trio Eslabon Armado, Luis Fonsi and Florida Georgia Line, confirmed during a red-carpet interview with Billboard at the BET Awards that HarbourView has an active bid for the media group.
“We are here because of how much we support the brand and how excited we are about the opportunity around the brand itself,” Soares said, declining to share further details.
A former Morgan Stanley managing director, Soares founded HarbourView in 2021, initially to acquire publishing and music recording rights — an investment strategy she helped develop as CEO and co-founder of Tempo Music. More recently, Soares has guided HarbourView’s investments in media companies, aiming to build out a distribution network for content soundtracked by artists in its catalog.
In March, HarbourView led a $90 million investment in a minority stake in MACRO, a film, television and branding company founded by Charles D. King, whose projects include Judas and the Black Messiah. Directed by Shaka King, Judas made history in 2021 as the first-ever film with an all-Black production team to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.
“Our interest is to be fuel to the entertainment and media segment,” Soares told Billboard at the BET Awards, referencing HarbourView’s investments in catalogs and MACRO. Regarding the results of the bids for BET, Soares said, “We’ll let the cards fall where they may.”
Sara Evans signed with Nashville-based label Melody Place, which she joins in partnership with her own imprint, Born to Fly Records. The country singer is slated to return to the recording studio in October to work on new music, with an expected album release in 2024. It will be her first album of original material in seven years. “When the Melody Place team approached me about working together and expanding all the things I’d already been doing with my own label — Born To Fly Records, it became clear that they share the same passion and excitement about trying new and innovative things to connect fans with music,” said Evans in a statement. Evans is represented by manager Craig Dunn at One Spark Entertainment and agents Doug Neff and Becky Gardenhire at WME.
Independent artist Petey (“Don’t Tell the Boys,” “Lean Into Life”) signed with Capitol Records, which will release his new single, “I’ll Wait,” on July 7. He’s represented by managers Ethan Silverman and William Crane and agent Tor Breon at WME. He was previously signed to Terrible Records.
Bronx rapper Scar Lip (“Glizzy Gobbler,” “This Is New York”) signed with Epic Records, which will be releasing new music from the spitter “very soon.”
Singer-songwriter Vera Sola signed to City Slang Records, which released her new single, “Desire Path,” on June 28. It’s her first new release since 2019. Sola is represented by manager Jim Martin at XXVII Arts and agent Will Church at ATC.
Country singer/songwriter and rapper C’ing Jerome (“Barn Don’t Close”) signed a record deal with Average Joes Entertainment. The label released his latest single, “Average Joe,” on June 16.
Page 1 Management added London-based songwriter/producer Tommy Sanders and songwriter/producer David Kerckhoff to its roster. Sanders will work with Rob Turnham out of Page 1’s London office and Kerckhoff will work with Nina Musolino out of Page 1’s Nashville office.
Boston band Final Gasp signed with Relapse Records, which will release the group’s debut album, Mourning Moon, on September 22. The group’s 2021 EP, Haunting Whisper, was released by Triple B Records.
MNRK Music Group signed English “tech metal” band Turin to its heavy metal and hard rock imprint MNRK Heavy.
Twitter owner Elon Musk has limited the number of tweets that users can view each day — restrictions he described as an attempt to prevent unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data from the social media platform.
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The site is now requiring people to log on to view tweets and profiles — a change in its longtime practice to allow everyone to peruse the chatter on what Musk has frequently touted as the world’s digital town square since buying it for $44 billion last year.
The restrictions could result in users being locked out of Twitter for the day after scrolling through several hundred tweets. Thousands of users complained Saturday (July 1) of not being able to access the site.
In a Friday tweet, Musk described the new restrictions as a temporary measure that was taken because “we were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users!”
Musk has pushed back on what he calls misuse of Twitter data to train popular artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT. They scour reams of information online to generate human-like text, photos, video and other content.
Musk elaborated on the limits Saturday, saying unverified accounts will temporarily be restricted to reading 600 posts per day, while verified accounts will be able to scroll through up to 6,000.
After facing backlash, he tweeted that the thresholds would be raised to 800 posts for unverified accounts and 8,000 for verified accounts before later settling on 1,000 and 10,000 tweets, respectively.
The crackdown began to have ripple effects, causing more than 7,500 people at one point Saturday to report problems using the social media service, based on complaints registered on Downdetector, a website that tracks online outages.
Although that’s a relatively small number of Twitter’s more than 200 million worldwide users, the trouble was widespread enough to cause the #TwitterDown hashtag to trend in some parts of the world.
The higher threshold allowed on verified accounts is part of an $8-per-month subscription service that Musk rolled out earlier this year in an effort to boost Twitter revenue. It has fallen sharply since the billionaire Tesla CEO took over the company and laid off roughly three-fourths of the workforce to cut costs and stave off bankruptcy.
Advertisers have since curbed their spending on Twitter, partly because of changes that have allowed more sometimes-hateful and prickly content that offends a wider part of the service’s audience.
Musk recently hired longtime NBC Universal executive Linda Yaccarino as Twitter’s CEO to try to win back advertisers.
An Associated Press inquiry about Saturday’s access problems triggered a crude automated reply that Twitter sends to most media queries without addressing the question.
Ryan Beuschel joined The Neal Agency as head of business development, where he’ll assist in artist development across a TNA roster that includes Morgan Wallen, HARDY and Anne Wilson. The Michigan native is fresh off a nine-year tour of Warner Chappell Music, where he rose to vp of A&R and is credited with signing recently crowned Billboard Country Power Players rookie of the year Bailey Zimmerman (a TNA client). Beuschel got his start interning at Universal Music Publishing Group and later held roles at UMG and ASCAP. “Ryan has been a close friend of mine for many years,” said agency founder and co-head Austin Neal. “He carries the same entrepreneurial spirit and artist first mentality that aligns with the core values of our company.” Reach Beuschel at Ryan@TheNealAgency. net.
Sony Music’s distribution and indie artist services company AWAL hired Vijay Basrur to captain its expansion into the opportunity-rich India and South Asia markets. This new chapter for AWAL follows the acquisition of Basrur’s homegrown digital distribution service, OKListen, which works with 4,000-plus artists across India. Based in Mumbai and supported by Sony Music India, the Basrur-led AWAL division will help indie-centric artists with their marketing, creative, synchs, radio promotion and, of course, distribution needs. He’ll report to AWAL CEO Lonny Olinick and Sony Music India managing director Vinit Thakkar. “The independent music community across the region is full of potential,” said Olinick.
Linda Bloss-Baum will depart SoundExchange, where she is senior vp of government relations and public policy, to join the Kogod School of Business at American University as a full-time faculty member. The Washington D.C.-based Bloss-Baum started at SoundExchange in 2021 after holding roles at Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Time Warner Inc. At the Kogod School of Business, where she has been an adjunct professor for a decade, she’ll serve as assistant program director in the business and entertainment program and teach two undergraduate courses. Bloss-Baum officially starts her new job on Aug. 15.
Ticketing and events marketplace Tixr continues a hiring spree with the appointment of Irene Hedges to chief strategy officer. Hedges, most recently Warner Bros.’ svp of corporate business development and strategy, will spend her time at Tixr launching new business verticals and expanding the company internationally, among other duties. Other recent appointments at Tixr include Matt Baca to vp of finance, Acacia Diaz to vp of marketing and Nate Liberman to vp of sports. But wait there’s more: industry veteran Sara Mertz was promoted to vp of music partnerships – venues.
ICYMI: Rihanna stepped down as Savage X Fenty boss … Patrick Moore was appointed CEO at Opry Entertainment Group … Jarred Arfa was named evp/head of global music at the newly launched Independent Artist Group … SoundCloud promoted Tracy Chan to chief content officer … Runner Music hired Amanda Hill as co-chief creative officer … German music rights body GEMA announced Dr. Tobias Holzmüller will take over as CEO starting in October … and UMG Nashville named Charlene Bryant as svp of business development and strategy.
Lauren Lieu was promoted to senior director of creative at Play It Again Music Group, the full-service music company founded by singer-songwriter Dallas Davidson. In her new role, Lieu will serve as head of PIA’s publishing arm, which has a roster including Davidson, Lee Brice, Lewis Brice, Tyler Farr and Dylan Marlowe, among others. “Lauren Lieu is a warrior,” remarked Davidson. Prior to joining PIA in 2021 as director of creative, she served as creative manager at ole Music Publishing. Reach Lieu at Lauren@piamusic.com.
PR firm Shore Fire Media promoted Alena Joyiens to senior account executive. The Brooklyn-based publicist joined Shore Fire in 2019 as a junior account executive and since then was upped to account executive, leading campaigns for Kesha, Bonnie Raitt, ODESZA, Debbie Gibson and other clients. Her remit has also included several book campaigns, including for Decoding ‘Despacito’: An Oral History of Latin Music by Leila Cobo, the chief content officer for Latin music at Billboard. Joyiens can be reached at ajoyiens@shorefire.com.
Speaking of, Erica Goldish has left Shore Fire for a new opportunity at brand strategy & communications firm FYI Brand Group, where her client roster includes 21 Savage, Cardi B, DJ Khaled, Doja Cat, Metro Boomin’, Travis Scott, Wizkid and many more. Goldish joined Shore Fire in 2021 as a junior account executive and dropped the junior a year later.
Nashville Bites: Charly Salvatore’s marketing/management firm underscore works added two new employees: artist manager/director of marketing Jamie Ernst and associate manager Jordin Wentworth. Ernst is a former Average Joes day-to-day manager who brings Sister Hazel to the underscore client list. Wentworth was recently a ClearBox Rights project manager … Shore Fire Media promoted Nashville-based Olivia Del Valle to senior account executive from account executive … Mason Stanfield joined KATC Colorado Springs, Colo., as PD/morning host. He arrives after working the morning shift at KRMD Shreveport, La. … KUZZ Bakersfield, Calif., morning team Cliff Dumas and Tanya Brakebill announced their retirement from radio following their June 23 shift. –Tom Roland
South by Southwest has increased the rates paid to domestic artists performing at the annual festival in Austin by 40-50%, following a petition and rally demanding higher pay.
The 2024 event artist application, which opened Tuesday, outlines that solo artists performing at SXSW will receive $150 — a $50 rate increase from previous years. Bands will now be paid $350 rather than the previous rate of $250. As in years prior, international artists will not receive financial compensation.
Also consistent with previous years, domestic artists playing SXSW must choose to take a monetary payment, or receive an artist credential that includes primary access to all music-related events, artist-only amenities including special rates on hotels, meals and drinks and artist networking space, and secondary access to film and television related programming.
SXSW charges an all acts an application fee, which is $35 until Aug. 25 and then $55 until applications close on Oct. 27.
“Our purpose at SXSW is to help creative people achieve their goals,” said SXSW’s vp of music festival James Minor in a statement. “As an industry event, showcasing at SXSW provides indispensable networking, mentoring, and career development opportunities that are not a part of standard consumer-focused festivals.
“Artists continue to make connections at SXSW that further their careers, and it is essential for us to provide opportunities that make the most impact in supporting the thousands of artists who come to Austin every March.”
In April 2021, Penske Media Corporation, which owns Billboard, became an investor in SXSW by taking a 50% stake in the conference and festival.
The rate increase comes follows an artist-led petition from earlier this year that urged SXSW to increase compensation for musicians playing the festival. Published by the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW), the petition was signed by more than 400 artists including Amber Coffman of Dirty Projectors, DIIV, Eve 6, Mountain Goats, Jeremy Messersmith, Speedy Ortiz, Zola Jesus, Pedro the Lion, YACHT and Emperor X, along with the Songwriters of North America (SoNA). On May 31, the organization led a rally outside Penske Media Corporation’s New York offices.
As reported by Texas Public Radio, during a Parks and Recreation Board meeting in Austin on Monday, Pat Buchta, the head of nonprofit Austin Texas Musicians, remarked on the rate increase, saying “Respectfully, is that enough? Our musicians do not think so, and musician input is the one thing that everybody seems to be missing in this conversation.”
The pace that global music industry revenues have been growing is expected to slow this year, as the industry is “on the cusp of another major structural change” stemming from the changing price of streaming subscriptions, artificial intelligence and new payment models, according to a closely watched report from Goldman Sachs.
In its latest Music in the Air report, published Wednesday, Goldman’s research analysts say they expect global music industry revenues in 2023 to grow by 7.1%, down from an 8% growth projection last year, as live music and publishing growth rates return to more normal ranges of 6% and 8% growth this year respectively. The compound annual growth rate for revenues from 2023 to 2030 ticked up slightly to 7.3%, from 7.1% last year, and streaming revenue is expected to hold steady at an 11%-growth rate, according to the report.
That indicates steady and even more broadbased growth, researchers say, but the industry is about to face a fresh wave of massive changes.
“We believe the music industry is on the cusp of another major structural change given the persistent under-monetisation of music content, outdated streaming royalty payout structures and the deployment of Generative AI,” Goldman researchers wrote in the new report. “In the wake of these developments, we believe a more coordinated and collaborative response from the main stakeholders will be key to ensure that the industry not only continues on its path of sustainable growth but also captures new business opportunities.”
Echoing a frequent refrain of music industry executives, Goldman’s researchers say monetization of music content is way behind the rate of consumption. They estimate that the revenue earned per audio stream has fallen 20% over the past five years, and that the revenue companies earn per hour of music streamed on Spotify is four times lower than for Netflix.
They estimate that up to $4.2 billion in potential revenue could be gained over time by charging different audience segments, such as super fans, more for subscriptions.
Goldman analysts also wrote that the current method of treating all streams lasting less than 30 seconds the same and paying content owners a pro-rata share of streams “needs to evolve…to cope with dilution of market share.” This weakening, they say, is coming from the fast-growing number of songs uploaded to digital service provider (DSP) platforms, fraudulent and artificial streams and “the propensity of algorithms to push lower royalty content.”
Researchers also sounded a positive note on the potential for generative AI to lower barriers for artists, boost music creation capabilities and improve industry productivity overall, with the major music companies best positioned to benefit.
“We believe the quality of the input to large language models is critical and the largest owners of proprietary (intellectual property) are best positioned to leverage the technology,” researchers wrote, noting the industry will need to be aligned in controlling the deployment of that tech.
The report also notes that, despite fears of market dillution from the rush of new content, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment both maintained their recorded music market share in 2022, with only Warner Music Group losing market share — about half a percentage point — to independents.
“We continue to expect modest dilution of market share over time, mostly driven by the revenue mix shift towards EM, although we believe that the major record labels will continue to expand their presence in EMs through partnerships, investments and bolt-on M&A,” researchers wrote.
Spotify maintains its clear lead among the DSPs with 34.8% of total global market share in 2022, although it edged 60 basis points lower. YouTube Music was the “major gainer,” gaining about 3 percentage points of market share over the past three years to hold market share in 2022.
A third music-focused electronic-traded fund — or ETF — is set to debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday (June 30). The aptly named MUSQ Global Music Industry ETF, trading under the ticker MUSQIX, has 48 stocks representative of the modern music business, including Universal Music Group, Spotify and Live Nation.
To MUSQ’s founder, David Schulhof, the fast-growing ETF market is primed for an index that allows investors to easily buy into the global music business’s growth story. “It’s been hard to invest in music for the last 25 years,” he says. “You had to be a [limited partner] at KKR or Blackstone or Apollo. And it was really hard to get liquidity.”
Schulhof, most recently the president of music publishing at LiveOne, invested in music assets as the co-founder and CEO of Evergreen Copyrights, which was acquired by BMG Rights Management in 2010, but everyday investors weren’t able to participate in music’s growing popularity as an asset class. “There were a lot of other private equity-backed companies, but it was hard for investors to get exposure” to music, he says.
With MUSQ, Schulhof says he’s giving “the Robinhood investor” a liquid investment to participate in the music business. MUSQ has 48 companies spanning the music content and distribution (including Warner Music Group, Believe), digital music (Spotify, Tencent Music Entertainment), live music and ticketing (Live Nation, Madison Square Garden, Vivid Seats), satellite and broadcast radio (iHeartMedia, SiriusXM, Townsquare Media) and music equipment and technology (Dolby, Sonos). U.S.-based stocks account for 45% of the index’s value; the remaining 55% coming primarily from South Korea, Japan and China.
MUSQ avoids video streaming and other digital entertainment stocks that may rise and fall with music but aren’t dedicated to music. Still, not all of the fund’s companies generate most or all of their value from music. MUSQ’s three largest companies are Apple, Amazon and Alphabet. The next-largest company by weight, Sony Group Corp., owns film, gaming and electronics divisions in addition to Sony Music Entertainment. According to the index’s criteria, a company can be considered for inclusion if it derives at least 50% of its annual revenues from the global music business, is a top five company, or have at least 10% of the global market share in one of the five segments of the music business the index covers.
“I had to include them,” says Schulman, “and I couldn’t ignore them. But I created, I think, a fair, balanced approach, which was to cap their market share on the index at 7%.”
To be eligible for the index, a company must have a minimum market capitalization or assets under management $100 million and a minimum average daily trading volume of $200,000 over the previous six months. Some small companies, such as music streamers Deezer and Anghami, and the newly public Alliance Entertainment, didn’t make the cut. But many other small, unheralded companies are among the index’s 48 stocks, including Stingray, a Canadian streaming company that services cable television networks, and Cliq Digital, a German provider of streaming services that bundle music, movies, audiobooks and other content.
MUSQ is part of a trend of music-focused funds attempting to tap into the booming ETF business. KPOP, which focuses on South Korean companies that create music and video content, launched in 2022. TUNE, another music-focused ETF, launched on June 22. Investors increasingly favor the simplicity of ETFs built around themes such as music, battery technology and sustainability. ETF’s asset under management ballooned from $3.4 trillion in 2016 to $10 trillion in 2021, according to EPFR. PwC believes ETFs will grow to $20 trillion by 2026.
“I have to believe that some amount of that money is going to be interested in music,” says Schulhof.