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It was a special Juneteenth for Allison Russell.
Not only did she serve as the special Toronto opener for Sarah McLachlan on the Canadian icon’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy 30th-anniversary tour, but she earned another big honor: Billboard Canada Women In Music Breakthrough Artist of the Year.
“It’s an honor to be acknowledged for the work that I’m doing and that we’re all doing together,” said the singer-songwriter when she was presented with the award in an interview with iHeartRadio Pure Country host Shannon Ella on Wednesday (June 19).
“There’s still such an imbalance in our industry, and it’s [an important moment] to be here speaking with you on Juneteenth [the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in America], which is a significant date because I’m not just a woman, I’m a queer Black woman,” she says.
Born and raised in Montreal but living and working in Nashville, Allison Russell has been an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and a vital voice for the representation of Black women in country, roots and Americana music. As her platform has gotten bigger, she’s used it to benefit her whole community.
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And it has gotten much bigger. This year, Russell won her first Grammy for best American roots performance for her song “Eve Was Black” and performed at the ceremony, playing clarinet and singing with none other than Joni Mitchell. She also made her Billboard Hot 100 debut with “Wildflower and Barley,” a duet with Hozier, who she’s also been touring with.
On those big stages, she’s usually playing with The Rainbow Coalition Band — a talented ensemble of Black and POC, queer and historically marginalized musicians.
“I make a point of playing with all women and gender-diverse folks on stage,” Russell says. “I do that because there is such an imbalance. It’s still a remarkable, unusual thing. No one says it’s so crazy that it’s just a bunch of dudes up there.”
More winners will be announced over the summer, culminating with the Billboard Canada Women In Music celebration on September 7. – Richard Trapunski
Read more from the interview at ca.billboard.com.
Music Publishers Canada Names 2024 Women in the Studio National Accelerator Class
There’s a gender imbalance behind the scenes in Canadian music, and Music Publishers Canada (MPC)’s Women in the Studio National Accelerator aims to address it.
Recently released statistics have confirmed the major gender gap that exists in multiple facets of the Canadian music industry, and this is especially glaring in the field of music production.
The Women In The Studio program fosters professional growth and advancement of talented producer-songwriters from across Canada. MPC has announced all six participants for this year’s program: Alysha Brilla from Toronto, Cat Hiltz from Vancouver, Charmie from Toronto, Jinting (Jinting Zhao) from Edmonton, JoJo Worthington from Montreal and Samantha Selci from Toronto.
Now in its sixth year, the program offers participants a series of curated workshops, skills training and networking opportunities with music industry leaders. The goal is to equip them with skills and connections crucial for their advancement in the music industry.
The accelerator will run virtually from June to December and include creative collaborations and an in-person residency week in Toronto in August. It focuses on topics including technical skills, financial literacy, music business skills and branding. Participants have also committed to exploring volunteer opportunities within their own communities.
Music Publishers Canada CEO Margaret McGuffin said in a statement that “with the help of our program partners and industry network, we are looking forward to breaking down some of the barriers that exist for this group of talented producers and give them the support they need to enter the next phase of their careers.” – Kerry Doole
Country Singer Bayker Blankenship Debuts on Billboard Canadian Hot 100 With ‘Maxed Out’
A new country artist is making his mark on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 this week.
Bayker Blankenship of Livingston, Tenn., has landed on the chart for the first time with “Maxed Out,” a melancholy tune about being down on your luck and low on available credit. With a relaxed pace and a touch of grit in Blankenship’s voice, the song strikes a poignant tone.
The song has been gaining steam online, appearing on Spotify’s Viral 50 USA playlist as well as charting on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts, though it hasn’t hit the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 yet. But that doesn’t mean it won’t soon — another viral artist, Lay Bankz, hit the Canadian Hot 100 earlier this year before she landed on its U.S. counterpart.
The song is only Blankenship’s second single, following 2021’s “Can’t Get Enough,” but the singer has built an impressive following online. He boasts nearly half a million followers on TikTok, where he posts his song clips as well as covers of songs by country stars like Zach Bryan and Dylan Gossett. Blankenship, who is releasing with Santa Anna Label Group, could join their ranks soon if he can keep up the momentum.
Meanwhile, breakout country singer Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” retakes the top spot on the Canadian Hot 100 this week. The Beyoncé collaborator has hit No. 1 in Canada, which he has yet to do on the American Hot 100. – Rosie Long Decter
Global investment firm KKR has agreed to acquire the European festivals organizer Superstruct Entertainment from Providence Equity Partners, it was announced on Friday (June 21). Superstruct — which organizes Sziget, the Budapest music festival that’s one of Europe’s largest, and Wacken Open Air, the world’s largest heavy metal festival held in Germany — was founded […]
In May, Taylor Swift notched her 14th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with the help of 14 different vinyl versions of The Tortured Poets Department, which sold an astounding 859,000 units in the album’s debut week. She has now stayed atop the Billboard 200 for eight consecutive weeks by rolling out additional variants, proving the pop megastar has mastered the art of giving superfans what they want.
Swift isn’t alone in upping her variant game. Luminate looked at the number of physical variants — defined as distinct UPCs per project — in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart each week since the beginning of 2019 and found that the amount has trended upwards since that year, when the average number of physical variants in the top 10 was 3.3 per week, according to data shared with Billboard. While that number fell to 2.8 per week in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on release schedules and supply chains — physical album sales also fell, from 73.5 million units in 2019 to 68 million units in 2020 due to a sharp drop in CD sales — the average number of physical variants in the top 10 has increased sharply in the post-pandemic years.
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Making albums available in different colors, formats and packages has proven to be a shrewd move for prominent artists aiming for the top of the chart. In 2021, Adele’s 30 debuted atop the Billboard 200 with a Target-exclusive CD, vinyl exclusives at Amazon and Walmart, and three items sold through her official webstore: a cassette and two deluxe boxed sets.
Like she did with The Tortured Poets Department, Swift has frequently topped the Billboard 200 with the help of physical variants. Her 2022 album Midnights had the biggest week for an album in nearly seven years. And in 2023, her 1989 (Taylor’s Version) had the biggest week in nearly a decade with the help of 15 collectible physical formats.
Also in 2023, Travis Scott’s Utopia reached No. 1 thanks to 84 variants, as the album was made available in three different track lists and multiple CD and LP variants including zine and merchandise bundles. The same year, Fall Out Boy’s So Much (for) Stardust had a whopping 116 physical variants, according to Luminate, although it reached only No. 6 on Billboard 200.
CD variants have helped numerous K-pop artists achieve high Billboard 200 debuts. K-pop fans have long clamored for collectibles from their favorite artists, and in South Korea, labels employ lottery-style marketing strategies and package CDs with merchandise — even though many fans don’t own a CD player. In March, With YOU-th by TWICE debuted atop the Billboard 200 with the help of 14 CD variants. “To the fans, it’s not just an issue of buying music,” Bernie Cho, the head of DFSB Kollective, a Korean music export agency, told Billboard in 2020. “You’re showing your loyalty.”
But physical variants aren’t the exclusive domain of albums popular enough to land in the top 10. “For certain records, multiple variants can support a chart position, but it’s not the main driver for Concord,” says Joe Dent, executive vp of operations at Concord Label Group.
“Fans want to support their favorite artists of course, but oftentimes they want to support a particular shop or webstore that they love as well,” Dent continues. “We strive to meet those fans wherever they are.” For example, Concord’s Rounder Records made vinyl variants of Sierra Ferrell’s Trail of Flowers available as exclusives to indie record stores, Magnolia Record Club and Spotify Fans First, while several other vinyl variants sold through her website and the Rounder Records webstore, says Dent.
AWAL, home to such indie artists as Laufey and JVKE, has a similar mindset. “The way we look at physical never starts with the commercial opportunity,” says CEO Lonny Olinick. “It starts with how the artist wants to express themselves and what the fans are likely to love. And what it really comes down to is how an artist can deepen the connection they have with their fans.”
Variants can also be a marketing strategy for catalog albums that aren’t likely to achieve a high chart position. “We use the variants as an opportunity to excite the market,” says Rell Lafargue, president/COO at Reservoir Music. “For example, if we have something that has been out of print for decades, we might want to do a color variant to reintroduce it into the marketplace as a new, distinct and fun physical product.” Reservoir’s Tommy Boy Records took this approach for the upcoming reissue of Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force’s 1986 album Planet Rock by opting for a limited edition pressing with a three-color splatter.
Each additional variant adds to the complexity of releasing an album. That challenge was exacerbated by COVID-related supply chain issues, leading to longer lead times and searches for alternate manufacturers. But while logistical challenges remain, says Lafargue, they aren’t as persistent. “While it can be challenging to manage multiple variants or exclusives instead of a singular version, it is worth the extra effort to expose the record to different retailers and get it into the hands of even more fans,” he says.
The proliferation of physical variants doesn’t come as a surprise. Streaming has made music both plentiful and easily accessible — almost to a fault. Some artists are now releasing physical albums a week or two before making them available on streaming platforms. So while chart position remains a big motivator for many, there’s also something to be said for the way physical variants can foster a feeling of closeness between artists and fans.
Artists “look to cut through the volume of digital music being released,” says Olinick. “Bringing that connection into the real world, whether through live shows or physical products, is hugely impactful.”
Now that it’s officially summer, we can start calling 2024 the summer of BRAT. Charli XCX’s sixth studio album, released June 7 on Atlantic Records, has taken the internet, and dance floors, by storm, spawning memes, jokes and posts galore, all colored the fluorescent “brat green” on social media — and that’s before you even get to the music. The record itself is a triumph of dance-pop that has not only ignited Charli’s legions of fans but brought her the biggest debut week of her career, having moved 82,000 equivalent album units in the United States to debut at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
It’s a testament to the groundswell of support that Charli has cultivated, and that her management team, creative and design teams, and label Atlantic Records have helped nurture. The album arrived with 14 different vinyl variants and a number of exclusive editions, helping to sell 45,000 copies (the biggest sales week of Charli’s career) while becoming nearly inescapable in the cultural discourse. It also proved that Charli is a true innovator who’s much more than the “Boom Clap” and “I Love It” hits of a decade ago, or even the songwriting superstar she’s been for other artists throughout her career. All that hype and success has helped Atlantic’s vp of marketing Marisa Aron earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
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Here, Aron discusses the marketing plan and rollout of BRAT, how Charli helped build hype for the album more than a year ago and the groundswell of support — including a gigantic record-store listening party at more than 170 stores across the country three days before the album’s release — that led into BRAT’s debut. But just as the solstice has only passed this week, there’s much more to come: as Aron puts it, “BRAT Summer has just begun.”
This week, Charli XCX’s BRAT debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 82,000 equivalent album units, her biggest first week ever. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
The success of BRAT is a testament to Charli’s incredible artistry and vision. She not only created the most culturally important pop and dance album of the year but also delivered a masterclass in artistic direction and marketing strategy. Charli has an amazing team, and together with the unwavering support from our team at Atlantic we all worked to execute her vision to the fullest. Our key decision? To trust her implicitly. We fully embraced her vision, her plan, her ideas and helped her bring BRAT to life.
What was the overall marketing plan for the release?
The marketing plan for BRAT is all about amplifying Charli’s authentic voice and connecting directly with her fans. We knew we had an incredibly important album on our hands, one that was innovative, bold, fun, loud and would create a lot of conversation. We wanted to put together a campaign that captured that energy and put BRAT into the cultural zeitgeist. The plan doesn’t end with the album release; stay tuned, there is a lot more to come.
The album also sold 45,000 copies, her largest sales week ever, including 14 different vinyl variants. What was your guys’ approach to physical for this album, and how did it pay off?
The physical release plan was so much fun to put together. It was a collaborative effort between Charli; [creative director] Imogene; design team SPECIAL OFFER, Inc.; Charli’s management team; and our team at Atlantic. From the start, we wanted to create a series of limited-edition drops that would keep fans excited throughout the campaign. It was important that each variant felt unique and special both in design and in the rollout.
We started the campaign ahead of the album and artwork announcement with the limited edition 360_brat vinyl, released at first only to Charli’s followers on her private Instagram. This moment helped set the tone for the rest of the campaign. When the official album pre-order went live, we partnered with major retailers like Target and Urban Outfitters, as well as local record stores, Blood Records and more to create exclusive variants that gave fans more options to choose from.
On Tuesday, June 4th, we unleashed BRAT into the world a little early. Thousands of Charli’s fans went to their local record stores for a first listen, three days before the official release. It was a massive undertaking — Atlantic’s biggest listening event campaign ever — with 179 stores across the country.
BRAT’s physical release wasn’t just about sales figures; it was about creating a deeper connection with fans. From the unique packaging that you have to rip into to get to the music, to the events and limited-edition drops, it is a reminder that in the digital age, the physical album can still be a powerful, personal and meaningful experience.
This album almost immediately became a cultural touchstone, and was a huge talking point online, with fans making memes of the cover art and the color palette seemingly everywhere. What was your approach to the digital marketplace for the project?
The BRAT campaign started in February when Charli threw a legendary Boiler Room in Brooklyn with A. G. Cook, George Daniel, Finn Keane and Doss, drawing a record-breaking 40,000 RSVPs — the most in the history of Boiler Room. There were surprise appearances from Addison Rae and Julia Fox. This was the first time people got to hear a few tracks from the forthcoming album, turning it into one of the year’s most viral moments and really setting the tone for what was to come.
The approach was about creating really memorable moments both online and in real life, from surprise DJ sets, exclusive Club Angel events, single reworks with Addison Rae, Robyn, Yung Lean, Skream and Benga to one of the most talked about music videos of the year (“360”) and so much more. We carefully planned out the timing of it all.
The “brat green” that we all have filling our timelines right now goes back to Charli’s brilliant vision for BRAT artwork. Once the artwork was revealed fans started to recreate it themselves, which inspired us to launch the brat generator. From there, it really started to take on a life of its own. We continued to incorporate brat green throughout all the marketing. One of the most fun pre-album moments in the campaign happened in Brooklyn a few days before “360” was released. Terry [from the digital team] had an amazing idea of painting a huge wall “brat green” during a livestream, and thus the “brat wall” was born.
It’s been 12 years since Charli first hit the Hot 100 top 10 with her feature on Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” and 10 years since Charli’s first solo Hot 100 top 10 with “Boom Clap.” Her career feels bigger now than it’s ever been. How did you energize those day one fans and pull in new ones for the run-up to this release?
Speaking from my own experience, it honestly is just really fun to be a Charli fan. For example, a full year before the album campaign even started Charli brilliantly started a new private Instagram account, @360_brat. What goes down on that account is strictly confidential, so I won’t give too much away. But Charli’s early vision and authenticity has made BRAT an undeniable phenomenon which really resonated with her early fans, and then throughout the campaign brought new fans in.
Steve Aoki‘s longstanding Dim Mak label has a new president, with Lorne Padman — the imprint’s vp for the last decade — assuming the position. In the role, the Los Angeles-based Padman will oversee strategy for the imprint, which was founded by Aoki in 1996 while he was a student at UC Santa Barbara.
The current Dim Mak roster includes producers like Henry Fong, Chyl, Ookay, Deorro, Cash Cash, Cheyenne Giles, Sikdope, 4B and more, with upcoming releases from Ray Ray, Mila Falls, Nostalgix and Aoki and Afrojack’s collaborative Afroki project, among others.
“Throughout Lorne’s ten years as vice president, he has been an integral part of the label’s success story,” Aoki tells Billboard. “His ability to cultivate strong relationships within the industry has been critical in elevating the reputation of Dim Mak’s brand. I’m confident that Lorne’s leadership and hard work will continue to steer the label toward further growth and excellence.”
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Padman tells Billboard that for him, the label’s health and vibrancy is demonstrated by the fact that artists from across the roster collaborate often, without being pushed to by management. “For me,” he says, “that’s an indication we must be doing something right, if we’re creating an ecosystem of talent that all want to work with each other and get along socially and musically.”
These artists make many different styles of electronic music, with Dim Mak focused less on cultivating a specific sound and more on releasing compelling, relevant output. The idea, Padman says, is to offer a “complementary roster of different sounds, from really fresh underground and cool and new. But also, a bit like a financial portfolio, you can’t only be taking moonshots, you also need to have some established things that will guard our reputation and can also financially open the possibility of being able to take swings at emerging artists.”
Taking swings is built into Dim Mak’s business model, with the label’s New Noise imprint having released music from a totally new artist every two weeks for the last decade. This structure offers artists with what is often their first official release, providing them with the Dim Mak visibility boost while helping the label identify emerging sounds and trends. Altogether, Padman says, it’s “an avenue to market for development artists that are potentially too small for some other other labels.”
Padman brings decades of experience to the role, having DJ’d in Australia for 18 years. (“With only six Saturday off,” he says.) He was part of the development teams for the first releases by Avicii and The Chainsmokers and also has experience in management, radio, television, production and songwriting.
This history gives him the ability to speak the same language as artists and offer feedback in technical terms. But, he says, “I only ever feel like I have 49% of the vote” regarding the creative decisions any artist or member of the team — which includes staff across A&R, video, marketing, social media and art direction — should make.
“I want the artists to feel good and empowered, and I definitely don’t want to feel like Dim Mak is a distributor and that we’re not adding any value,” he says. “But at the same time, I don’t want them to feel like they’re being told what to be, because they have to choose that themselves.”
Padman’s previous label experience includes a run as national promotions and label manager at Australia’s Vicious Recordings, where he was working when he met Aoki. “At that time I felt Vicious was quite successful,” Padman says, “then Steve said something to the effect of, ‘But no one’s wearing a Vicious t-shirt.’ That stuck in my head. People will wear Dim Mak shirts and get Dim Mak tattoos, but no one’s wearing Sony or Warner or Universal or Republic shirts. There are labels and lifestyle labels. I always have to keep cognizant of the fact that Dim Mak is a lifestyle label.”
Padman also has a close working relationship with the dance/electronic categories at the Grammys, having co-authored proposals including the one that introduced the Dance Pop category to last year’s awards.
“I’ve always felt that it’s about reputation more than anything really,” he says of his and Dim Mak’s position in the wider industry ecosystem. “I’ve always felt like that if I can live my life through the four principles [of coaching expert Dan Sullivan] of showing up on time, doing what I say I’ll do, finishing what I started and saying please and thank you, then I’m going to be referable.”
Ye (formerly Kanye West) has finalized a settlement with the estate of Donna Summer to resolve a copyright lawsuit that accused him of “shamelessly” using her 1977 hit “I Feel Love” without permission in his song “Good (Don’t Die).”
In court filings on Thursday, attorneys for both sides said they had “entered into a settlement agreement that is a full and final settlement of all of the claims in the action” and that each side would pay its own legal bills from the dispute. Neither side immediately returned requests for more information on the specific terms of the agreement.
The final settlement, first announced in court filings last month, comes less than four months after Summer’s estate sued the rapper for allegedly interpolating her track in “Good,” which he released on his chart-topping Vultures 1 album.
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Making good on threats to sue issued publicly weeks earlier, the estate’s attorneys claimed at the time that the rapper had “shamelessly used instantly recognizable portions” of her song in his track, despite the fact that her estate had already “explicitly denied” him authorization to do so.
“Summer’s estate … wanted no association with West’s controversial history and specifically rejected West’s proposed use,” her attorneys write. “In the face of this rejection, defendants arrogantly and unilaterally decided they would simply steal ‘I Feel Love’ and use it without permission.”
The Summer estate’s lawyers say Ye re-recorded “almost verbatim” the key portions of her song and then used them as the hook for his own. The estate claims the songs were so similar that fans and critics “instantly recognized” his track as a “blatant rip-off.” The lawsuit also named album collaborator Ty Dolla $ign (Tyrone William Griffin Jr.) as a defendant.
Before the case was even filed, “Good” had been pulled from streaming platforms and removed from digital download versions of the album. As of Friday, the song is still not included on Vultures 1 on Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music, though it’s available on YouTube from unofficial accounts.
It is unclear if Thursday’s settlement will allow Ye’s song to return to official circulation, or merely resolve the allegations of past copyright infringement over its initial use of Summer’s song. Attorneys for Ye, Ty Dolla and the estate did not respond to messages asking about the status of the song.
But at least in their initial lawsuit, the Summer estate did not seem to open to collecting an ongoing royalty from the controversial rapper.
“This lawsuit is about more than Defendants’ mere failure to pay the appropriate licensing fee for using another’s musical property. It is also about the rights of artists to decide how their works are used and presented to the public, and the need to prevent anyone from simply stealing creative works when they cannot secure the right to use them legally.”
Ye has been sued repeatedly for uncleared samples and interpolations in his music.
In 2022, he was hit with a lawsuit claiming his song “Life of the Party” illegally sampled a song by the pioneering rap group Boogie Down Productions; accused in another case over allegations that he used an uncleared snippet of Marshall Jefferson’s 1986 house track “Move Your Body” in the song “Flowers”; and sued in a different case by a Texas pastor for allegedly sampling from his recorded sermon in “Come to Life.”
Before that, West and Pusha T were sued in 2019 for sampling George Jackson‘s “I Can’t Do Without You” on the track “Come Back Baby.” That same year, he was sued for allegedly using an audio snippet of a young girl praying in his 2016 song “Ultralight Beam.” Further back, West was hit with similar cases over allegedly unlicensed samples used in “New Slaves,” “Bound 2” and “My Joy.”
It’s time for another spin around the Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music. Don’t forget to dig into this year’s Indie Power Players list. We also have a weekly interview series spotlighting a single executive and a regularly updated gallery honoring many of the industry figures we’ve lost throughout the year.
Bravado, the merch and brand management arm of Universal Music Group, announced across-the-board changes to its leadership structure. Joining Bravado’s c-suite as chief financial officer is NYC-based Colin McIntosh, most recently CFO and chief operating officer at REVOLT Media. McIntosh reports to company president Matt Young, as do a slew of newly promoted Bravadoans. In Los Angeles, Alyssa Tobias is upped to svp and head of creative services, Ashley Fogerty is now svp of business affairs and Brian Schechter is senior vp and head of brand management. In London, David Boyne is managing director of Bravado, UK, while Rachel Redfearn continues to lead the region’s A&R and brand management and label liaison teams as svp of UK A&R. Working alongside McIntosh in the NYC office is Bill Ashton, who is promoted to svp of commerce at the company, and down Nashville way Stacie Swanson was elevated to vp of artist strategy. But wait there’s more: Reporting to Ashton in the commerce department is NYC-based Briana Farrell, who was promoted to vp of U.S. retail, and Londoner Keith Taperell, now the vp of licensing. “Helping artists connect with fans around the world will always be our driving force, and I’m excited to announce this new leadership, who will ensure that artists’ visions are brought to life,” said Young.
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Warner Records welcomed Terese Joseph as senior vp of A&R administration. Based in Los Angeles, Joseph will report to Karen Kwak, evp/head of A&R, and work closely with Julian Petty, evp/head of business and legal affairs. The veteran executive most recently served as head of label operations at Se LaVi/Rebel Music but launched her career at UMG, where she logged time at Def Jam, Victor Victor Worldwide and Capitol. “I’ve known Terese for many years, starting back in our Island Def Jam days in New York,” said Kwak, who oversaw A&R at UMG’s U.S. labels until 2016. “She’s a well-respected and knowledgeable player in the field, playing an integral role in the delivery of massively successful projects for music legends to newcomers alike.”
Sony Music Nashville promoted Lauren “LT” Thomas to svp of promotion, with Thomas having day-to-day oversight of both the RCA Nashville and Columbia Nashville imprints. Thomas will continue to report to evp of promotion Steve Hodges and work with him across the roster on all national promotional strategies and initiatives. During her tenure, Thomas has helped earn radio hits for artists including Luke Combs, Megan Moroney, Nate Smith, Mitchell Tenpenny and Old Dominion. Thomas joined Sony Music Nashville in 2009 and previously spent five years at KMLE in Phoenix, Arizona. Thomas is also a 2019 Billboard 40 Under 40 honoree. –Jessica Nicholson
AEG Presents ditched the “co-” from Don Strasburg‘s title and named the live music veteran as sole president of the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest regions. The Denver-based executive will oversee AEG’s regional offices in the Colorado capitol and Seattle, and continue managing the team that books concerts in a full slate of venues. Until recently, Strasburg served as co-president of the expansive region alongside Brent Fedrizzi, who in May was promoted to president of North American regional offices. During a lengthy career, Strasburg has been a plank owner of sorts at Bill Graham Presents/Chuck Morris Presents, Live Nation and AEG Live. “Don has a drive to win and succeed that is unmatched,” noted Shawn Trell, AEG Presents’ evp, COO and general counsel. “He’s got an almost innate sense of knowing what the audience wants and where the trends are heading.”
Emre Dokucu
Turkish conductor, arranger, guitarist and pianist Cenk Eroglu joined Frontiers Label Group as the Italian metal label’s new in-house writer and producer. FLG is the home of such artists as Winger, Stryper and Blue Öyster Cult, among others. Eroglu has a long creative partnership with the former, having appeared on a Kip Winger solo album and later as a core player on the prog-adjacent rock band’s first release for Frontiers, 2006’s IV. “I am truly excited to welcome Cenk to Frontiers Records, and I am confident that his impressive background and top-notch craftsmanship will bring some major added value to our label,” said the label’s president Serafino Perugino. “I am looking forward to working together on new epic projects.”
Vickie Nauman, founder of music-tech consultancy CrossBorderWorks and a former executive at 7digital and Sonos, joined Musical AI as an advisor. Formerly Somms.ai, Musical AI provides tools to help rights holders monitor and manage how their IP can be used in AI creation. “Happy to be a part of this journey,” Naumna said on LinkedIn. “I believe AI can be transformative to us all if used wisely, and generative AI needs licensed models.”
Night Time Industries Association chief executive Michael Kill joined the International Nightlife Association, a Barcelona-based advocate for nightlife venues, as Vice President. In a joint announcement, the organizations called it a validation of Kill’s leadership and the NTIA’s “growing impact on global nightlife policy and advocacy.” Kill remarked that he’s “excited to collaborate with our international counterparts to drive positive change and innovation in the nightlife sector. Together, we will work towards a vibrant, sustainable, and safe nightlife environment for all.”
NASHVILLE NOTES: Contemporary Christian music industry veteran Tim Robinson launched Aligned Talent Agency. The Brentwood, Tennessee-based firm represents artists Love & The Outcome, Dan Bremnes, 7eventh Time Down, Ignescent and others. Robinson most recently served as a booking agent with Greg Oliver Agency –J.N. … Milestone Publicity promoted Campbell Jenkins to publicist, effective immediately. The Belmont University grad joined the Music City-based PR firm a year ago … BMG Canada appointed Bryan Columbus as vp of recorded music. He was previously label director for Concord Label Group/Canada.
The creative team for next year’s SXSW London is taking shape with the appointment of Adem Holness as head of music and Katy Arnander as director of programming. Additionally, Alex Poohs will serve as a consulting creative advisor and Elliot Willis has taken the role of SXSW London’s commercial director. The festival and conference will take place over one week in June 2025 at venues and spaces around Shoreditch in east London. (In April 2021, it was announced that SXSW had signed a “lifeline” deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC, making P-MRC a stakeholder and long-term partner with the Austin festival. P-MRC is the parent company of Billboard.)
Independent music distribution and marketing company Symphonic Distribution hired Guji Lorenzana as its first territory manager for Asia. Based in Los Angeles, Lorenzana is tasked with growing Symphonic’s presence in the region, by way of expanding its artist roster and forging new business partnerships. A former solo artist and member of Philippines boy-band TFTI, Lorenzana arrives from Ingrooves Music Group, where he was country manager for Philippines.
Aaron Hamel is the new label director for Materia Music, a Seattle-based video game imprint, distributor, publisher and rights administrator. Hamel’s appointment follows Materia’s recent acquisition of the remaining game music inventory of Ship to Shore, a boutique label he founded that’s centered on discovering and re-issuing cult soundtracks. “He shares our passion for discovering and promoting the rich musical heritage of video games as well as bringing innovative new products to the video game music community and marketplace,” said Sebastian Wolff, Materia Music’s founder and CEO.
Victoria Fleary was promoted to vp of social at iONE Digital, a content company targeting Black and urban lifestyle enthusiasts. Fleary joined the company two years ago as senior director of social following stops at Emmis Communications and BET. “Victoria’s promotion is a result of the dedicated work that she has put in since her first day at iOne,” said Sam Stiers, GM/evp. “Her relentless drive, creativity, and commitment to excellence in digital media has truly been an inspiration to everyone around her.”
Gregg Stewart is the new senior manager of communications at Universal Music Canada. Previously he worked with Bell Media for 12 years, leaving as Director of Music Strategy & Industry Relations. He was also with the Much MTV Group for a year and between 2000 and 2006 was with UMG’s digital marketing division. –David Farrell
Live Redesigned creative producer Melody Tseng is the art director and set designer for Alanis Morissette’s recently launched Triple Moon Tour, which carries through late September. Tseng joined the NYC-based live company three years ago as an associate creative producer. She previously worked on projects for Live Nation, Diversified Production Services and others. “Melody, as she always does, brought her unique creative vision to life as both the Art Director and Creative Set Designer for the tour through the artistic use of various stage and scenic elements.”
ICYMI:
Jess Ducrou
Jessica Ducrou is departing as co-CEO of Australia’s Secret Sounds Group, producer of Splendour in the Grass festival … Bradley Jordan‘s Peachtree Entertainment brought in Chuck Steedman of LiveCo, Nathan Baugh of 46 Entertainment and Shane Quick of Premier Productions … Fat Beats appointed Warner Music Group veteran Chris Atlas to president … Songtradr welcomed Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos and music lawyer Priyanka Khimani to its board of directors.
Last Week’s Turntable: Sphere Goes Hollywood
One of Young Thug’s co-defendants is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to force the judge overseeing the rapper’s high-profile gang trial to recuse himself, arguing that a secret meeting with prosecutors and a witness was a serious violation of judicial ethics.
Judge Ural Glanville himself has already repeatedly refused requests from Thug’s attorney Brian Steel and other defense lawyers that he step aside over allegations about the so-called ex parte meeting – and instead ordered Steel jailed after he refused to divulge how he learned of it.
So on Thursday, lawyers for fellow rapper and co-defendant Yak Gotti (Deamonte Kendrick) filed an emergency petition asking the state’s high court to force Glanville to do so.
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“Glanville’s actions offend public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary,” wrote Yak Gotti’s attorney Doug Weinstein. “An appearance of impropriety and bias hangs over the present trial due to Glanville’s failure to follow the law.”
If the petition is granted, it would be the second time Georgia’s Supreme Court has jumped into the YSL trial. Last week, the high court hit pause on Steel’s jail sentence and agreed to review the judge’s decision to hold the lawyer in contempt.
Thug (Jeffery Williams) and dozens of others were indicted in May 2022 over allegations that his “YSL” was not really a record label called “Young Stoner Life” but rather a violent Atlanta gang called “Young Slime Life.” Prosecutors claim the group committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade. After kicking off in January 2023, the trial is already the longest in Georgia state history and is expected to run until early next year.
In an extraordinary courtroom episode last week, Steel revealed that he had learned of an ex parte meeting between Glanville, prosecutors and a witness named Kenneth Copeland. Steel argued that such a meeting, without defense counsel present, was clear grounds for a mistrial. He claimed Glanville had helped prosecutors coerce the uncooperative Copeland into testifying with threats of extended jail time.
Copeland is a central witness for the entire racketeering case against Thug and the other alleged YSL members, but he’s particularly important for the case against Yak Gotti. His testimony pertains to the 2015 murder of Donovan “Nut” Thomas Jr., which Gotti and fellow defendant Shannon Stillwell are directly charged with committing.
Rather than address Steel’s complaints, Glanville instead demanded to know how he had learned of the meeting, suggesting that it had been the result of an illegal leak. The judge eventually held Steel in contempt of court when the lawyer refused to name names, sentencing him to serve 20 days in county jail as punishment.
Earlier this week, Steel and other defense attorneys later demanded that the judge step aside from the case over the incident. In his motion, Thug’s attorney argued that Glanville had “forfeited [his] role as an impartial judge and has become a member of the prosecution team.” But the judge quickly denied the request, saying it was based on “bare assertions and legal conclusions.”
In his petition to the Supreme Court, Yak Gotti’s attorney Weinstein echoed Steel’s arguments. He said the allegations against the judge “casts a pall” over the ongoing case and represents “obstruction of defendant’s right to a fair and impartial trial.”
“Defense counsel should have been afforded an opportunity to attend any hearing where a sworn witness in a critical stage of the trial is being coerced to testify,” Weinstein wrote. “The only logical conclusion for the secret nature of the proceeding was to give Glanville in conjunction with the State the unfettered ability to harass and intimidate the sworn witness into testifying.”
David Furnish felt a rush of endorphins wash over him. It was a warm June evening in 2023, and the surging crowd of over 120,000 had gathered to witness the first-ever Glastonbury Festival set — and, at least for the time being, the last public concert in the United Kingdom — by Elton John. That crush of concertgoers was screaming for Furnish’s star client — who also happens to be his husband.
“Even the concession stands in the back closed down so that they could watch the show,” Furnish recalls, still flabbergasted nearly a year later. “The crowd just filled in around the stands and along the entire north barrier. It was a sea of joy.”
The performance would break records for the annual festival: Along with that in-person crowd, John’s performance garnered 7.3 million overnight viewers on BBC One, making it the most-watched Glastonbury set in history. And if not for Furnish, it never would have happened.
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“Elton and I have been talking about it for years. He would say, ‘I just don’t know if I’m right for Glastonbury,’ ” Furnish tells Billboard over Zoom today as John chuckles next to him at their home in Windsor, just outside of London. “I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? You’ll go down really, really well.’ And sure enough, it was overwhelmingly wonderful on every level.”
While Furnish, 61, has been a part of John’s life for just over three decades — the couple began dating in 1993, entered a civil partnership in 2005 and officially tied the knot in 2014 — he has spent the last nine years working as the icon’s manager, bringing his years of experience in advertising to preserving John’s legacy, reestablishing him as a legendary singer and revitalizing his brand. That meant taking an aggressive approach to telling John’s life story through a tell-all memoir (Me) and blockbuster feature film (2019’s Rocketman), introducing his music to a younger audience through strategic partnerships and closing out his touring career with a record-setting farewell outing that was the highest-grossing trek by any artist prior to Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour.
“I cannot think of anybody in the world who would have done a better job than David has over the last nine years,” John says. “This man has done the most incredible job with my career, and what’s more, he has helped me enjoy it even more than I thought I could.”
Jack Alexander
Born and raised in Toronto, Furnish didn’t imagine a future where he would be working behind the scenes for an entertainment legend. After graduating from high school, Furnish says he originally dreamed of becoming “a musical theater-type actor.” But on his family’s advice, he instead pursued a business degree at the University of Western Ontario, where he graduated in 1985. Recruited out of college by storied advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather, Furnish thrived, becoming the youngest director at the company by the time he was 30.
“At the end of the day, I’m more of a creative than a businessman. That’s just the dominant side of my brain,” he explains. “I chose advertising because it was the most creative business I felt I could get into.”
But after meeting John in 1993 at a dinner party hosted by a mutual friend (they began dating shortly thereafter), Furnish found himself in need of something a bit more flexible. Leaving advertising behind, he pursued a career in film, producing multiple movies, including 1999’s Women Talking Dirty and 2006’s It’s a Boy Girl Thing, through John’s own cinematic imprint, Rocket Pictures — where he also made his directorial debut with the singer’s 1997 tell-all documentary, Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras.
During that time, Furnish noticed that his husband’s career needed further direction. “I was trained to understand how you start at the beginning of a journey and then figure out what steps to take with the audience to get them from point A to point B,” Furnish explains. “I also knew the most important thing for Elton was keeping his songs alive and relevant for the next generation. So the rest came rather naturally.”
Taking over as the star’s manager in 2015, Furnish devised a business plan to reinvigorate John’s career — an approach the singer points to as a marked improvement from his past management. “Before David started managing me, our relationship with the record company [Universal Music Group] was just my former manager saying, ‘Let’s go in there and ask them for more money.’ And that is a terrible attitude to have,” John says with a laugh. “Now I have the best relationship with my record company because [David] came in with a plan to get us in better shape.”
Elton John and David Furnish with party attendees (clockwise, from left) Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Lucien Laviscount, Andrew Watt, Charlotte Lawrence and Brandi Carlile at the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s annual Academy Awards Viewing Party in March.
Michael Kovac/Getty Images
After sharing his plan with John, Furnish says he immediately sent the strategy to UMG CEO Lucian Grainge, aiming to show the label that “things were going to be different.” That open line of communication led to a groundbreaking deal between Rocket Entertainment and UMG in 2018, in which the two companies signed a global partnership spanning recorded music, publishing and licensing rights for the rest of John’s career.
Furnish explains that, with John’s label contract set to expire in 2018, it felt right to begin renegotiations with UMG as soon as he signed on. “To do any negotiation, you want to have the most robust environment, and you want to do it at the right time,” he says. “We didn’t go in and say, ‘Here’s the new plan, so we want a new deal.’ It was a simultaneous conversation, and we all walked away happy with the results.”
With negotiations at UMG squared away, Furnish set his sights on bolstering John’s reputation among younger audiences. The first step in that direction came with Apple Music. Meeting with co-creator Jimmy Iovine “back when it was still called Beats Music,” Furnish pitched him on John as an asset for what would become Elton John’s Rocket Hour, now one of Apple Music’s longest-running programs. “We just took what Elton naturally does in his everyday life — he listens to everything — and found a passionate vehicle for it,” he says. The strategy worked: Along with burnishing John’s reputation among young listeners, the show has also championed vibrant new talent like Lil Nas X, Rina Sawayama and, most recently, Chappell Roan.
Another cornerstone of Furnish’s plan came to fruition with the 2019 release of Rocketman, the award-winning musical biopic starring Taron Egerton and covering the early years of John’s career. The film scored John his second Academy Award win for best original song — with longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin for “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” — and introduced John’s catalog to an eager, younger audience.
As John puts it, “Things really started to change with the film.” Its themes of “self-love, addiction, familial love and acceptance” helped make the living legend’s career more accessible for less-familiar viewers, Furnish says. In the years since Rocketman’s release, he reports, 58% of John’s streams have been generated by 18- to 35-year-olds.
Elton John (left) and David Furnish onstage at the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s annual Academy Awards Viewing Party in March.
Michael Kovac/Getty Images
With more youthful listeners hearing John’s music, he and Furnish ensured that he would keep their attention with a pair of hit remixes: 2021’s “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix),” featuring Dua Lipa, and 2022’s “Hold Me Closer,” featuring Britney Spears. The tracks returned John’s music to the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in over 20 years, with both songs putting him in the chart’s top 10 for the first time since his 1997 No. 1, “Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight.”
The active effort to bolster John’s audience reflects the pair’s shared interest in holding on to his legendary catalog. While other legacy artists have sold off their song collections to companies like Primary Wave or Concord, Furnish and John remain steadfast in their desire to maintain control.
“To be the custodians of that legacy that Elton and Bernie built is more important to us than anything. Elton’s catalog is about as blue chip as I would want an investment to be,” Furnish says. “Look at the disruption that has happened with Hipgnosis [Songs Fund]; I can’t think of anything more worrying than selling your catalog to a group you liked and then suddenly, it’s in the hands of somebody else. That’s heartbreaking, especially after spending your life protecting it.”
With their two sons, Zachary (now 13) and Elijah (11), reaching school age, John and Furnish enacted the final component of their plan: ending the singer’s touring career. “It was never a question whether I wanted to stop, because I knew I needed to be with our boys. I had been on the road since I was 16, 17 years of age,” John says, sighing. “Of course, I’ve enjoyed it all, but you have to know when to quit. And I wanted to quit at the top.”
Starting in September 2018 and running through July 2023, John achieved his goal with the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. Across 330 shows spanning five continents, the trek grossed a whopping $939 million in ticket sales, according to Billboard Boxscore, becoming the first tour in history to surpass the $900 million mark.
That figure is a point of pride for both John and Furnish, especially considering all the work they had invested in making John’s departure as spectacular as possible. “Elton put the most extraordinary foundation in place at the beginning of his career, and I got such a greater sense of appreciation for how hard he worked throughout this tour,” Furnish says. “As a businessperson, I knew how to chart a path that could get him to where he deserves to be. When you put those together, it’s a winning combination.”
The tour also secured John a prestigious honor held by only 18 other creatives — an EGOT — thanks to an Emmy win for outstanding variety special (live) for his Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium special on Disney+. “It was such an important moment for Elton professionally and for us as a family,” Furnish says of the November 2022 performance, John’s last in North America. “To have it honored that way, and preserved in time forever, is really beautiful.”
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Yet despite pulling together an unheard-of string of accolades in his husband’s career, Furnish also speaks with unparalleled passion about his work as chairman for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Throughout his conversation with Billboard, he regularly mentions the organization’s work in Johannesburg, the southern United States and elsewhere to improve community access to standard HIV testing and treatment, reduce the stigma surrounding the spread of the virus and raise millions of dollars to help end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
It’s important, Furnish points out, to translate the success of both his and John’s careers into actionable, meaningful change in the world. “You need the other side of life to keep your feet on the ground, to take the gifts that you’ve been given and the opportunities that you’ve been given and help other people,” he says. “We both work incredibly hard, but we also realize we’re incredibly lucky. We have an obligation to give back.”
With so many career-defining victories over the last decade, John says he feels privileged to share them with his companion — in no small part because their partnership is what helped make those victories happen. “The complete trust that we have in each other is a godsend,” he says. “Looking at this from a completely egotistical point of view, I’ve always been a big artist. But what David has done lifted me into the echelon of artists like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Paul McCartney. That’s how good he is.”
Furnish quickly interrupts to correct his husband: “No — that’s how good you are.”
This story will appear in the June 22, 2024, issue of Billboard.
TikTok disclosed a letter Thursday that accused the Biden administration of engaging in “political demagoguery” during high-stakes negotiations between the government and the company as it sought to relieve concerns about its presence in the U.S.
The letter — sent to David Newman, a top official in the Justice Department’s national security division, before President Biden signed the potential TikTok ban into law — was submitted in federal court along with a legal brief supporting the company’s lawsuit against measure. TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, which is expected to be one of the biggest legal battles in tech and internet history.
The internal documents provide details about negotiations between TikTok and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a secretive inter-agency panel that investigates corporate deals over national security concerns, between January 2021 and August 2022.
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TikTok has said those talks ultimately resulted in a 90-page draft security agreement that would have required the company to implement more robust safeguards around U.S. user data. It would have also required TikTok to put in a “kill switch” that would have allowed CFIUS to suspend the platform if it was found to be non-compliant with the agreement.
CFIUS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department said it is looking forward to defending the recently enacted legislation, which it says addresses “critical national security concerns in a manner that is consistent with the First Amendment and other constitutional limitations.”
“Alongside others in our intelligence community and in Congress, the Justice Department has consistently warned about the threat of autocratic nations that can weaponize technology — such as the apps and software that run on our phones – to use against us,” the statement said. “This threat is compounded when those autocratic nations require companies under their control to turn over sensitive data to the government in secret.”
The letter sent to Newman details additional meetings between TikTok and government officials since then, including a March 2023 call the company said was arranged by Paul Rosen, the U.S. Treasury’s undersecretary for investment security.
According to TikTok, Rosen told the company that “senior government officials” deemed the draft agreement to be insufficient to address the government’s national security concerns. Rosen also said a solution would have to involve a divestment by ByteDance and the migration of the social platform’s source code, or its fundamental programming, out of China.
TikTok’s lawsuit has painted divestment as a technological impossibility since the law requires all of TikTok’s millions of lines of code to be wrested from ByteDance so that there would be no “operational relationship” between the Chinese company and the new U.S. app.
After the Wall Street Journal reported in March 2023 that CFIUS had threatened ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a ban, TikTok’s attorneys held another call with senior staff from the Justice and Treasury departments where they said leaks to the media by government officials were “problematic and damaging.”
That call was followed by an in-person meeting in May 2023 between TikTok’s attorneys, technical experts and senior staff at the Treasury Department focused on data safety measures and TikTok’s source code, the company’s attorneys said. The last meeting with CFIUS occurred in September 2023.
In the letter to Newman, TikTok’s attorneys say CFIUS provides a constructive way to address the government’s concern. However, they added, the agency can only serve this purpose when the law – which imposes confidentiality – and regulations “are followed and both sides are engaged in good-faith discussions, as opposed to political subterfuge, where CFIUS negotiations are misappropriated for legislative purposes.”
The legal brief also shared details of, but does not include, a one-page document the Justice Department allegedly provided to members of Congress in March, a month before they passed the federal bill that would require the platform to be sold to an approved buyer or face a ban.
TikTok’s attorneys said the document asserted TikTok collects sensitive data without alleging the Chinese government has ever obtained such data. According to the company, the document also alleged that TikTok’s algorithm creates the potential for China to influence content on the platform without alleging the country has ever done so.