State Champ Radio Business
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LyricFind is suing Musixmatch over allegations that its rival struck an exclusive licensing deal with Warner Music Group (WMG) that’s “unprecedented in the music industry” and is aimed at securing an illegal monopoly for providing lyrics to streamers like Spotify.
In a complaint filed Wednesday (March 6) in San Francisco federal court, LyricFind accuses Musixmatch and private equity owner TPG Global of violating federal antitrust laws by signing the deal with Warner Chappell Music (WCM), the publishing division of WMG, claiming it was designed to crush competition.
“TPG’s and Musixmatch’s goal was simple: make sure that Spotify, and other [streamers], have no choice but to obtain [lyrics] from Musixmatch despite its higher fees — a plainly anticompetitive result,” the company’s attorneys write. “LyricFind brings this lawsuit to stop defendants’ unlawful conduct, which has eliminated competition and raised prices.”
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The three major music companies have typically licensed their vast catalogs of lyrics to companies like Musixmatch on a non-exclusive basis, LyricFind says, allowing rival companies to compete to offer the best lyric services to streamers. But Musixmatch’s new deal with Warner allegedly shuts out competitors from offering the music giant’s lyrics — an “unprecedented” approach.
“To compete effectively, LyricFind and Musixmatch must be able to provide Lyric Data Services for all major publishers’ song titles,” the company’s attorneys write. “Defendants’ scheme had the intended effect [and] the only remaining practical choice for [digital services providers] is to contract with Musixmatch, at whatever price Musixmatch demands.”
In a statement to Billboard, a spokesman for Musixmatch said: “It’s our policy not to discuss legal matters publicly. We believe these are meritless accusations and choose to concentrate on what matters most: our customers & partners.”
A spokesman for WMG, which was not named in the lawsuit nor accused of any wrongdoing, did not immediately return a request for comment.
In early 2024, LyricFind says it was “very far along in negotiations” to replace Musixmatch as the lyrics provider for Spotify, the world’s largest music streamer and “Musixmatch’s largest customer.” When TPG and Musixmatch learned of the talks, they allegedly became “desperate” and struck the licensing agreement with Warner in an effort to kill the deal.
The move worked, LyricFind’s attorneys say: After the Warner agreement was in place, Spotify said it “had no choice” but to break off the negotiations with the lyrics provider. Instead, the streamer re-upped its previous agreement with Musixmatch despite “having already negotiated a significantly better price and service with LyricFind.”
“LyricFind was robbed of an opportunity to partner with Spotify on a contract worth tens of millions of dollars to LyricFind, and that would have strengthened LyricFind’s competitive position in the rest of the market,” the company’s attorneys write in the lawsuit.
The Musixmatch-Warner deal is also scuttling other business for LyricFind, the lawsuit says, including prompting iHeartRadio to break off renewal talks “when it learned that LyricFind would no longer be able to service WCM’s catalog.” Instead, the radio giant signed with Musixmatch “at a price over five times higher.”
“Other DSPs that have already invested great sums to integrate LyricFind’s system will also be forced to switch to Musixmatch, and nobody else, at a significant cost, while paying Musixmatch’s monopoly fees,” the suit says. “LyricFind’s viability as a business is now in jeopardy, as it can no longer compete for DSPs’ business.”
In a statement announcing the case, LyricFind CEO Darryl Ballantyne said the company was “taking action now to protect every music streaming service’s right to partner with the lyric provider of their choice.”
“Musixmatch is now effectively the gatekeeper to any DSP that wants to have a complete lyric offering,” Ballantyne said. “There is simply no way around having to work with Musixmatch.”
Read the entire complaint here:
Growth in recorded music, publishing and merchandise helped Universal Music Group (UMG) post strong revenue growth in both the fourth quarter and full year 2024, while cost savings from layoffs helped the company produce even better earnings gains.
Driven by an 8.2% increase in recorded music subscription revenue, full-year revenue was up 6.5% (7.6% at constant currency) to 11.83 billion euros ($12.8 billion). With a lower cost base, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EDITDA) improved 13.8% to 2.66 billion euros ($2.88 billion), while adjusted EBITDA margin climbed to 22.2% from 21.3% in 2023.
During Thursday’s earnings call, CEO Lucian Grainge called 2024 “a tremendously successful year for us at UMG” and cited the company’s “healthy revenue and double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth for each and every year since 2021 when UMG became a standalone public company.” He rattled off a host of UMG’s accomplishments for the year, including having four of the top five artists on Spotify and nine of the top 10 artists — and all of the top five — on the IFPI Global Artist Chart. UMG also had the two biggest new artist breakthroughs of 2024 in Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. Roan won the Grammy for best new artist in February.
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In the recorded music segment, full-year revenue increased 5.2% (6.4% in constant currency) to 8.9 billion euros ($9.63 billion). Adjusted EBITDA climbed 11.4% to 2.28 billion euros ($2.47 billion). Streaming revenue grew 5.9% to 6.04 billion euros ($6.54 billion), with subscription revenue doing the heavy lifting, rising 8.2% while other streaming revenue — namely ad-supported streaming — fell 0.8%. Downloads and other digital revenue dropped 13.0% but accounted for just 180 million euros ($195 million), or roughly 2% of recorded music revenue. Physical revenue fell 1.6% (up 1.1% in constant currency) to 1.36 billion euros ($1.47 billion). Licensing and other revenue jumped 12.9% to 1.33 billion euros ($1.44 billion).
In music publishing, full-year revenue rose 8.4% (9.0% in constant currency) to 2.12 billion euros ($2.29 billion) and adjusted EBITDA improved 8.7% to 511 million euros ($553 million). Led by strong streaming growth, digital revenue improved 12.4% to 1.27 billion euros ($1.37 billion) and accounted for 60% of total publishing revenue. Performance revenue grew 6.3% to 442 million euros ($478 million). Synch revenue fell 0.4% to 253 million euros ($274 million). Mechanical royalties dropped 4.6% to 103 million euros ($112 million).
Full-year merchandise revenue grew 19.3% to 842 million euros ($911 million), although adjusted EBITDA declined 8.5% to 43 million euros ($47 million). UMG COO/CFO Boyd Muir said the revenue growth reflected “robust superfan demand that is driving strong growth in both direct-consumer and touring revenue.” The lower EBITDA resulted from lower-margin touring merchandise sales, said Muir, though UMG expects merchandise margins to improve as the company ramps up its direct-to-consumer business.
UMG experienced 75 million euros ($81 million) of cost savings in 2024 in the first phase of a 250-million-euro ($270 million) cost savings program. Muir said the company will provide an update on the second phase of the program at a later date and added the implementation “remains on — if not slightly ahead of — schedule.” When UMG announced its cost-savings plan in February 2024, Grainge said the redesign “carefully preserves what we’re best at: creative A&R, marketing independence, unique label brand identities” and an entrepreneurial and competitive spirit.
Cash paid for catalog acquisitions grew to 266 million euros ($288 million) in 2024 from 178 million euros ($193 million) in 2023. Last year’s figure included the acquisition of the remaining stake in RS Group in Thailand and the completion of a 2023 catalog acquisition. UMG had a busy M&A year, buying the remaining share of [PIAS] and investing in Chord Music Partners, NTWRK and Mavin Global. As a result of that activity, free cash flow fell to 523 million euros ($566 million) in 2024 from 1.08 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in the prior year.
Comprehensive fourth-quarter revenue grew 7.2% to 3.44 billion euros ($3.67 billion), or 7.9% in constant currency. Adjusted EBITDA jumped 19.1% to 799 million euros ($852 million). Adjusted EBITDA margin rose to 23.2% from 21.1%. Excluding one-time items, fourth quarter revenue was up 6.1% in constant currency. That non-recurring revenue included the 20 million euros ($21 million) of DSP catch-up income and 40 million euros ($43 million) of legal settlements.
Recorded music subscription revenue climbed 7.9% (9.0% in constant currency) in the fourth quarter, safely within the company’s prior long-term guidance of 8% to 10%, though it suffered a one-percentage-point hit from a decline in revenue from fitness platforms. Ad-supported streaming revenue fell 5.1% (4.1% in constant currency). Combined subscription and ad-supported streaming revenue grew 4.6% (5.6% at constant currency).
Ukrainian electro-folk duo ONUKA spent last summer touring European concert halls and headlining festivals. Now, due to a recent wartime directive, they must remain inside their home country — so the band boards trains and buses to gigs at underground shelters, as well as buildings near metro stations, in case Russian missile attacks interrupt the music.
“These shelters can accommodate up to 1,000 people. It’s a big concrete room with some seats,” says Eugene Filatov, 41, ONUKA’s producer, who performs with his wife, frontwoman Nata Zhyzhchenko, 39, and five bandmates. “People still need this cultural life.”
The group recently downsized its 2025 touring ambitions due to a late-February announcement by Ukraine’s culture ministry: As of March 3, male Ukrainian “journalists and culture professionals” of draft age will no longer receive recommendation letters for traveling abroad. So ONUKA is performing closer to its Kyiv home, readying a new album, the long-delayed Ukrainian Constructivism, for release next month, and spending more time with the couple’s children, 4-year-old Alex and 1-year-old Lina.
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By Telegram call from Kyiv, three days after U.S. President Donald Trump‘s chaotic and disturbing Oval Office news conference with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Filatov and Zhyzhchenko discuss the long-term impact of Russia’s February 2022 invasion on their family and music. (Filatov, who has an “education sector” deferral from military enlistment because he is a lecturer at Ukraine’s Chernihiv Music College, also responded to follow-up email questions.)
When we previously spoke in 2023, ONUKA was still touring the world. Nata said, “When you are outside, especially when your child or parents or family is here, it’s very hard to accept.” How is your family? Is everybody OK?
Zhyzhchenko: Our kids are safe. They’re all right. The first night, in maternity hospital, [Lina] spent the night inside. That was the worst night for us. I think she’s a war kid. She decided to come to our family in a country that is at war, in a city at war, in the night.
“War kid.”
Zhyzhchenko: This generation of children are totally war kids. They have another mentality, and this is their route, this is their life, this is their routine. We don’t have to compare our childhood with their childhood, because they are another generation. They are a war generation.
In our past interviews, you’ve spoken of Russian missiles disturbing your lives. Are explosions still happening where you live in Kyiv?
Zhyzhchenko: It’s still going on. We have another kind of weapons. It’s like flying scooters.
Filatov: It’s like big drones. Every night, there are a couple hundred of them. We sometimes hear it.
Zhyzhchenko: It sounds like a scooter, and they are flying at nighttime. That’s why the sound spreads very brightly, and physically that is why we can define them from a few kilometers. When we are lying in our beds, it’s some kind of big noise scooter sound in the sirens of night.
How terrifying.
Filatov: Thanks for the American people who are supporting Ukraine. We feel much more safe, because American systems are really, really huge and really helpful. It saves our lives. The explosions happen mostly every day, somewhere, in some cities of Ukraine.
Zhyzhchenko: It doesn’t stop.
Filatov: It’s kind of a lottery.
Zhyzhchenko: A few weeks ago, some piece of this drone collapsed near our house, and it injured the post office. This is the post office —
Filatov: — where we take our packages mostly every day.
Zhyzhchenko: Even a few times a day. It’s close here to us, less than a kilometer. We have this acceptance. It’s our reality.
Filatov: Life goes on, anyway.
How are you able to play shows under these conditions?
Filatov: Performing in shelters is a relatively new practice for Ukrainian artists. In Kharkiv, all cultural events take place exclusively in venues that have shelters — no theaters or concert halls operate unless they provide a safe space.
Zhyzhchenko: Everything happens under rockets. We have to take that fact.
What do the shelter performances feel like?
Zhyzhchenko: It’s a very pleasant feeling, because you know your performance won’t be interrupted. You have to evacuate people if you hear the siren. In a shelter, you have to not interrupt your performance. It’s some kind of comfort and very confident feeling.
How do you get to the shows?
Filatov: We usually travel either by train or by bus with the whole team. Trains can sometimes be the fastest option, especially when border queues are long, but traveling by road gives us more flexibility. So, we just trust our luck and hope for a smooth crossing. Sometimes, though, it turns into quite an adventure — like [summer 2024], when we had to travel non-stop for two days from a festival in Poland just to make it in time for Atlas Weekend in Kyiv.
Who takes care of your kids when you are performing outside of Kyiv?
Filatov: We have a support system that includes nannies, grandparents and kindergarten. They take turns depending on the circumstances.
Do your kids get to see any of the performances? What do they think?
Filatov: They are really small. Our small girl doesn’t even understand, for now, what’s going on. Our boy, Alex — it’s sad to notice that in the kindergarten, for example, they have some games, and they [name] the games after the weapons, or the missiles, or the drones.
Zhyzhchenko: When they are in kindergarten, they go to a shelter, and it is some kind of ritual. They call this shelter “the cave.” He says, “We were in the cave today, and we draw in there,” or singing some song in this cave. It’s not so terrifying for him, because it’s his reality. No one is panicking, because we have adjusted to it. The main safety is the behavior of elder people and adults around this situation.
How are the rest of your family — parents, grandparents, siblings?
Zhyzhchenko: Everyone is safe. Everyone is working with the nation and charity causes and everyone volunteers. But inside our musical team, some people are on the front line. … Everyone has some relatives or friends who [have] died and these deaths are closer and closer.
Who are you referring to, “inside our musical team”?
Zhyzhchenko: Our graphic designer was on the front line and now we have no answer [from] him. This is a hard situation, how to understand that nothing is OK. You just have to see when this person was online the last time, and you see that this date is not changing. It’s hard to realize that maybe he’s captured, maybe he’s in hospital. But I think the reality is much worse. We are trying to go through with his command, and get information about what happened to him.
What did you make of the Feb. 28 press conference with President Zelensky and President Trump?
Zhyzhchenko: All people are very upset about what’s going on. But I think all this is temporary. Everything changes so much. It’s like a roller coaster. Some days we are best friends, the next day we are enemies, the next day we are supporters, the next day it’s very chaotic.
I do hope all people in the world understand that Russia invaded Ukraine, and we are the victim and we are standing. … We defend all Europe, because everything will be changing, very fast and terrible, if Ukraine falls. I really believe we will stand and we will not fall and we will survive.
If I wanted to leave, I would leave Ukraine. But I’m here with my little kids. I actually truly and sincerely believe in this roller coaster life.
Music branding” does not involve stamping horses with band logos (at least not yet). But it does apply to just about anything else in which a commercial entity — from Taco Bell to JPMorganChase — partners with an artist or music company.
Which is why, at the beginning of last year’s Brat Summer, Charli xcx appeared as a 3D hologram activated by White Claw drinkers who aimed their phones at a product logo; why Nike spent in the low seven figures to license Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” for a Super Bowl LIX commercial; why Will Ferrell sang a PayPal jingle set to Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere”; and why Pinterest set up Coachella “manifest stations” filled with beauty products curated by singer Victoria Monét.
“It can be a tour sponsorship, a social media campaign, a tie-in with a brand’s philanthropic endeavor,” says Marcie Allen, president of MAC Consulting, who has been connecting artists with brands for 30 years and was one of 15 music industry experts who helped Billboard compile its first Branding Power Players list since 2019. “Brand partnerships are bigger than they have ever been because they give companies the ability to break through the noise.”
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There are no metrics that quantify the overall music-branding market, because it’s so multifaceted — from the multimillion-dollar advertising synch business to singer-songwriter RAYE performing intimate concerts at Hilton hotel rooms, footage of which appeared in commercials and social media posts. That said, a hint of its scale can be found in the financial filings of the industry’s largest concert promoter, Live Nation, whose worldwide sponsorship revenue has grown from $590.3 million in 2019 to $1.2 billion in 2024. (Advertising and sponsorship amounted to just over 5% of Live Nation’s total revenue last year.)
“We’re seeing brands spending more in music than ever before,” says Russell Wallach, the promoter’s global president of media and sponsorship. He adds that Live Nation research shows 80% of its customers are “interested” in participating with brands at live events. “What brands are doing from an experiential standpoint has been significantly elevated over the last few years.”
Post-pandemic, according to Allen, brands have returned aggressively to the live space — like T-Mobile sponsoring this summer’s Post Malone-Jelly Roll tour.
The synch business, too, has more than rebounded since the pandemic: Global revenue amounted to $400 million in 2020, mostly due to production shutdowns, but it hit $632 million in 2023, according to IFPI. That’s an increase of 58%, from 0.4% of global recording-industry revenue in 2020 to 2.2%. (These numbers don’t include publishing, but they do include film/TV synchs in addition to advertising.) For this year’s Super Bowl, licensed songs cost between $400,000 and $2.5 million on the publishing side alone, music industry sources say, not counting the separate fees for licensing master recordings. According to Brian Monaco, Sony Music Publishing’s president/global chief marketing officer, 50% of this year’s Super Bowl ads, which cost brands a reported $7 million to $8 million apiece, employed synchs.
In the streaming era, brands and music companies are more efficient than ever in using data to align artists’ fan bases with companies’ target demographics, says Rich Yaffa, Universal Music Group’s executive vp of global brands: “When we partner with a brand, our goal is to make fans of our artists fans of their brands.”
Stephanie Miles, Wasserman Music’s head of music brand partnerships, says brands recently have become more willing to work on elaborate activations with artists. One act she declines to name spent months negotiating a fashion shoot and a live event to ensure both artist and brand emphasized the same regional market. “The days of receiving an opportunity that has been completely conceptualized by a brand, and the artist taking it as is, are long gone,” she says.
“Deals are definitely becoming more complicated and sophisticated,” adds Andrew Klein, managing director of AEG’s global partnerships. “It used to be [when] Coca-Cola’s coming out with a new product, [it would] just hand out the can [at concerts] and do a sampling program. They’re now trying to get a lot more return on investment. Yes, they want to sponsor the tour, but they also want to use the music for that artist in a campaign, use [their] name and likeness or tap into their social media.”
Will the good times in music branding continue? It’s hard to say, given President Donald Trump’s unsettling of the economy with layoffs, deportations, tariffs and threats of tariffs in the first weeks of his administration. “We’re starting to see a bit of a spend slowdown,” says Toni Wallace, partner and head of music brand strategy and partnerships at UTA. “There’s no question the demand and opportunity is there; it’s just ‘Let’s see how this first quarter goes.’ ”
It wasn’t long ago that artists, fearing claims of “selling out,” avoided collaborations with major corporations: In the late ’80s, after Pepsi landed Michael Jackson, Madonna and David Bowie in commercials and Whitney Houston sang a Diet Coke jingle, Neil Young responded with the scathing “This Note’s for You”: “Ain’t singing for Pepsi/Ain’t singing for Coke/I don’t sing for nobody/Makes me look like a joke.”
But things have changed: In 1999, Sting refashioned his “Desert Rose” music video into a Jaguar commercial; Bob Dylan licensed “Love Sick” to a Victoria’s Secret spot in 2004; an instrumental portion of Vampire Weekend’s 2019 “Harmony Hall” — an upbeat-sounding tune that nevertheless is about antisemitism — was used in a Choice Hotels TV plug; and last year, Megan Thee Stallion’s colorful 2024 Amazon Music ad included the original track “It’s Prime Day.”
“You had rockers who never wanted to be seen associated with anything: ‘It’s too commercialized,’ ” says Jeff Straughn, Primary Wave’s senior partner/chief brand officer. “Today, it’s ‘How can I sell it?’ ”
This story appears in the March 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Welcome to a snug-fitting Publishing Briefs, our semimonthly bulletin of recent signings, deals and doings in the wide world of music publishing. Since the last edition, OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder signed himself, Deadmau5 sold his catalog, Kobalt launched a new platform targeting the creator middle class, a deal for the $uicideBoy$’ publishing catalog is being shopped, and Primary Wave signed a marketing and admin deal with “Wichita Lineman” songwriter Jimmy Webb.
Caught up? Here’s what else is going on:
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Reservoir Media paired with PopArabia to acquire the publishing and master rights to Egyptian star Omar Kamal‘s catalog. Kamal is a key figure in popularizing mahraganat, a genre blending Egyptian rhythms, electronic music and rap. His 2020 hit “Mahragan Bent El Geran” with Hassan Shakosh became a cultural phenomenon, earning over 700 million YouTube views, and subsequent hits, “Oud Al Batal” and “LGHBTITA,” have attracted over 500 million and 300 million YouTube views, respectively. PopArabia vp of A&R Wissam Khodur highlighted Kamal’s ability to “pivot into mahraganat with his own unique twist,” while Reservoir CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi called the acquisition “another key growth moment” for both companies’ efforts in the booming Egyptian market. “This deal builds upon our other recent strategic acquisitions and further supports our efforts to become a major tastemaker in the region,” she said.
A Lau inked a global publishing deal with Position Music, joining artists like Tinashe and Cannons. Known for his work with Ice Spice, Lil Tjay and French Montana, Lau is a rising executive producer in NYC’s hip-hop scene. His credits include Ice Spice’s “Butterfly Ku” and Lil Tjay’s “Bla Bla.” Lau owns Off Record Studio in Manhattan and leads the Off Record producer collective, focusing on artist development, and this year plans to executive produce records for Ice Spice, Megan Thee Stallion and Babytron. Position Music’s vp of A&R Delmar Powell and partner Mark Chipello praised Lau’s record-crafting skills and talent for building connections, with Powell calling him a “dynamic producer with a sharp ear and a relentless work ethic.” He’s managed by Peter Robinson of Olympus Projects.
Kobalt signed South Arcade to a global publishing deal, representing the band’s entire catalog. The Oxford-based group, formed in 2021, has quickly gained prominence with over 20 million streams on their debut EP and nearly 800,000 monthly Spotify listeners, leading to multiple sold-out headline shows and support slots for bands like Dead Pony and Yours Truly. South Arcade has received significant radio support, including BBC Radio 1 features. Kobalt executives praised the band’s talent and potential, with head of creative (UK and GSA) Kenny McGoff highlighting their music as brimming with “energy and life,” and svp of creative Melissa Emert-Hutner saying the group “embodies everything that draws me to an artist – immense talent, unwavering drive, and incredibly catchy songs.” Manager Ben Karter offered props to Team Kobalt, which “truly understood the band’s vision and music, rather than just buying into their data.”
Concord Music Publishing signed Wyoming rapper Ryan Charles to a global publishing deal, covering his full catalog and future works. Charles, whose style blends cowboy culture with 2000s rap, is known for standout tracks including “Gettin’ Western,” “Old Dirt Fancy” and “New Boot Goofin’,” which he performed on American Song Contest as representative of his home state. He also collaborated with Ian Munsick on “Cowboy Killer,” amassing over 37 million Spotify streams. In 2023, he released tracks like “Turquoise Stones,” “Cold Beer Diet” and “Heartbreak Rodeo,” surpassing 65 million global streams. Melissa Spillman, VP A&R at Concord, praised Charles for his crossover appeal to country and rap fans, adding, “I can confidently say Ryan is unlike anyone I’ve ever worked with.”
Concord Music Publishing ANZ, established after Concord acquired Native Tongue in 2022, signed a worldwide publishing deal with Melbourne artist Glass Beams. Led by a masked Rajan Silva, Glass Beams blends Indian and South Asian heritage with psychedelic soundscapes, leaning heavily on live instrumentation and DIY electronica sounds. Their debut EP Mirage and breakout EP Mahal have propelled them to international success, with the group set to perform at Coachella and Primavera Sound this year. Jaime Gough, Managing Director of Concord ANZ, praised Rajan as a “supremely gifted artist and songwriter, who through Glass Beams has created a unique brand of serpentine, psychedelic-tinged music, capturing a spirit that drifts between worlds; mystical, elusive, and endlessly mesmerizing.”
Downtown Music Publishing signed writer-producer Cameron Montgomery, who has contributed to hit songs for Morgan Wallen, Kane Brown, 24kGoldn, HARDY and more. Based in both Nashville and Los Angeles, Montgomery is also working on music for film, brands and collaborations in the visual arts space. Downtown Music Publishing also represents Jason Isbell, Sadler Vaden, Tommy Prine and is aligned with the John Prine Estate, which it represents along with Oh Boy Records. –Jessica Nicholson
Regalias Digitales, an independent music publisher specializing in both Latin and non-Latin music, has signed several notable talents to global publishing administration deals. Among them are Peysoh and Wallie The Sensei, both collaborators on Kendrick Lamar’s latest album GNX. The roster also includes Mexican hip-hop icon Dharius, hip-hop artist 03 Greedo, rising roots/bluegrass artist Lindsay Lou, popular EDM duo Bonnie X Clyde, Cypress Hill member Eric “Bobo” Correa, New Age act Beautiful Chorus, and Uncle Murda, a protégé of 50 Cent.
Arden Records is expanding its artist-first lo-fi music label with a new publishing division. Founded in 2021 in partnership with Platoon, the label connects lo-fi artists, producers and songwriters. Co-founded by Nepalese artist sagun and executives Jordan Smith and Andrew Kwan, its roster includes sagun, clay house, DAVI JUNO and French WiFi. The publishing arm aims to create opportunities for lo-fi creators. Arden’s ethos, inspired by nature and tranquility, is reflected in projects like its Earth Day compilation. Smith stresses their commitment to community, while Kwan underscores their dedication to authentic musicianship amid the rise of AI-generated music. “We remain steadfast in championing our artists, ensuring their authentic musicianship receives the recognition it deserves,” said Kwan. “Now, through the launch of our publishing venture, we are excited to continue this mission from a fresh and dynamic perspective.”
Pixel Grip, a darkwave/club pop band, signed a co-publishing deal with Brill Building Music Publishing. Known for underground staples like “ALPHAPUSSY” and “Stamina,” the band’s next single, “Split,” drops on March 14, followed by their album Percepticide: The Death of Reality in May. Recently, they opened for HEALTH on a sold-out tour, further solidifying their presence in the scene.
MUSIC CITY MINUTES: Spirit Music Group renewed its co-publishing agreement with songwriter David Garcia and acquired rights to some of his catalog … The Warner Chappell Music Live Song Pitch Round is scheduled for March 13 at The Listening Room. Among the writers performing are Lydia Vaughan, Josh Kerr and Summer Overstreet … Finalists were revealed for the AIMP Nashville Awards, presented by the Association for Independent Music Publishers on April 8 at Marathon Music Works. Jordan Davis, Shaboozey and Carly Pearce are on the ballot, along with double nominees Tucker Wetmore, ERNEST, Laci Kaye Booth, Vincent Mason, Daniel Ross and Jessi Jo Dillon.
Last Publishing Briefs: ‘Cowgirls’ Co-Writer Finds Home at Range
Rimas Entertainment, home to Bad Bunny and the No. 1 label on Billboard‘s 2024 year-end Top Independent Labels chart, has acquired a “significant” stake in Dale Play Records, the maverick Argentine label that’s home to DJ Bizarrap, Rels B and rapper Duki, Billboard can reveal.
The partnership includes Sony Music Latin Iberia, which continues to own a stake in the label. Helping bring the deal to fruition were Rob Stringer, Sony Music Group chairman and Sony Music Entertainment CEO; Afo Verde, chairman/CEO of Sony Music Latin America, Spain and Portugal; and Brad Navin and Jason Pascal of The Orchard.
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Fede Lauria, the Argentine executive who founded Dale Play out of Argentina and grew the label to its current stature, will retain a smaller percentage of the company and continue as CEO. The Orchard will also continue to distribute Dale Play as it has for years. The company’s other business verticals, which include booking and management — including the management of Duki, Nicki Nicole and Bizarrap — are not part of the deal and will remain solely under Lauria.
The partnership brings together two indie companies that have redefined the way Latin music is made and promoted on a global scale, with both developing and capitalizing on a new wave of urban music in Spanish — one centered in Puerto Rico (Rimas) and the other in Argentina (Dale Play) — with international ambitions. Rimas has already expanded its roster beyond Puerto Rico, signing Spain’s Quevedo and Mexico’s Latin Mafia.
“From day one, our mission has been to support and develop artists with authenticity and respect for their identity,” said Rimas Entertainment CEO Noah Assad in a statement. “With Federico and Dale Play, we’ve built a relationship founded on trust and mutual admiration. This alliance will allow us to break new boundaries and create opportunities for our artists and teams.”
In an earlier conversation with Billboard, Assad noted that this is Rimas’ first major acquisition and that it follows a longstanding friendship and years of business dealings between him and Lauria.
“We’re working hand in hand and all we’re doing is adding more value to each other, him to me and me to him,” he said. “The collaboration already existed. We’re formalizing something that was already happening.”
Lauria was already an established concert promoter in Argentina with the company Dale Play (which currently sells over 1 million tickets per year, mostly in Argentina) when he created the label portion of his business, Dale Play Records, in 2017, focusing on a previously untapped rap and trap music scene bubbling out of Argentina. Sony Music came in as a partner in 2020.
“Afo and I have had a long-standing friendship for many years, united by a mission to elevate Latin music to the highest level,” said Lauria in a statement. The new partnership with Rimas, he told Billboard earlier, “reflects a journey we have been on for many years with Noah, Jomy and the RIMAS team. We share the same vision and values. Our companies are 360 companies with similar philosophies and origins. They’re rare in the global market. We do management, booking, label, publishing. The potential that these two ecosystems have together and the mutual collaboration that our artists and businesses can have is huge.”
Fede Lauria, Noah Assad and Afo Verde.
Afo Verde/Sony Music Latin Iberia
Added Verde in a statement: “I have great admiration for the achievements of both Fede and Noah. They epitomize the new generation of executives and label leaders, characterized by their independent spirit and innovative approach. It is a privilege to continue our partnership with them, and I love that they wanted to work together.”
Assad and Lauria’s working relationship dates back to Bad Bunny’s early days as an artist playing small venues in Buenos Aires, which Lauria booked. Today, he still promotes Bunny’s Argentina stadium and arena dates. The two have since worked together on multiple artist collaborations and started discussing a possible partnership three years ago, with conversations solidifying last year.
“This alliance is key to expanding our global reach and connecting with talent wherever it may be,” said Jonathan “Jomy” Miranda, president of Rimas Entertainment, in a statement. “We have always been at the forefront of discovering new artists, and now, through this partnership, we will have ears in more corners of the world to support and develop the next generation of stars.”
“Rimas is still Rimas and Dale Play is still Dale Play,” said Lauria during his conversation with Billboard, when asked about the future management of the respective labels. But, he adds, both labels have been “an essential part of the development of a cultural movement, and we’re in the process of shaping artists in Spain and Mexico that aren’t Argentine or Puerto Rican. Being together gives us huge power.”
Everything aligned to make the partnership come together now, said Assad. “We want a partner that has a clear vision, knows what they want and knows their destination,” he adds. “Culturally speaking, we share a lot of the same culture, and that’s why we’re doing this strategic alliance.”
Jay-Z’s rape accuser says in court filings that she stands by her story, directly contradicting his recent lawsuit that claims she admitted to fabricating the allegations — prompting the star’s lawyers to offer testimony from private investigators and demand that the accuser sit for a deposition.
In Los Angeles court filings Monday (March 3), the unnamed Jane Doe stated that she had flatly refused to recant her story when approached last month by investigators for Jay-Z — an experience she said left her “intimidated and terrified.” She also denied that her attorney, Tony Buzbee, had pushed her to sue.
Those statements, which Doe made in a sworn affidavit, directly contradicted allegations leveled by Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) in a separate lawsuit filed earlier on Monday. In that case, he claimed Doe had “voluntarily admitted” directly to his team that her now-dropped lawsuit was premised on a false accusation.
“Although I ultimately chose not to pursue them, I stand by my claims in the New York action and believe that I had a meritorious claim against Jay-Z,” the woman wrote in Monday’s filing. “I ultimately decided to dismiss the [case] because I was frightened by the reaction of Jay-Z and his supporters, and the likelihood that I would have to be publicly named and subjected to public attacks.”
In the same sworn statement, the unnamed woman stressed that Buzbee had not sought her out, nor had he urged her to add Jay-Z to her allegations: “I told them that neither of those things ever happened, and I asked them to leave me alone.”
Monday’s statement from Doe quickly prompted a response from Jay-Z’s lawyers. In a flurry of new filings on Wednesday (March 5), they offered up sworn statements from the actual private investigators who allegedly talked to her, asking the judge for permission to add them to the case record.
In those statements, one of the investigators said, “Jane Doe stated to me that Mr. Carter did not sexually assault her.” At another point, the same investigator added: “Jane Doe stated ‘Buzbee brought Jay Z into it,’ and ‘he was the one that kind of pushed me towards going forward with him.’” Another investigator said Doe had told him that “lawyers at Mr. Buzbee’s law firm told her that, if she pursued Mr. Carter, she would get a payout.”
In the same filings, Jay-Z’s lawyers also made an alternative request: that the judge permit them to depose both the accuser and Buzbee under oath. “The new declaration only further reinforces the need for Jane Doe and Mr. Buzbee to sit for a deposition regarding their conversations, including her conversations with his colleagues who convinced Jane Doe to drop her lawsuit,” they wrote.
Depositions are not typically granted at the outset of such a case; instead, they are conducted during the later “discovery” phase as a case moves toward trial. But Jay-Z’s lawyers say Doe’s filing has opened the door to those issues and that the rapper is now “entitled to find out” what the woman knows.
In a detailed statement to Billboard on Wednesday, Buzbee strongly denied the various claims advanced by Jay-Z’s investigators in the new court filings. He said he believes they “flat out made all of this up” and that he “can’t wait to see what they have been paid and who is paying them.”
“Jane Doe’s case was signed up in October by another law firm to pursue allegations against Jay-Z and P. Diddy. Apparently it came in through Facebook to that firm’s page. After it was vetted it was sent to my firm weeks later,” Buzbee said. “The allegation that I sat with Jane Doe and suggested a suit against Jay-Z is not only a lie, it’s proveably and demonstrably false and is contrary to the documentation from referring counsel’s intake process and our own firm documents.”
The blockbuster case against Jay-Z, filed in December, claimed that he and Sean “Diddy” Combs drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl at an after-party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. It represented a shocking expansion of the already-sprawling claims against Combs and came amid speculation that other stars might be implicated in Diddy’s alleged decades of abusive behavior.
Jay-Z forcefully denied the allegations, calling them a “blackmail attempt.” He accused Buzbee of trying to extort settlements from innocent celebrities by falsely tying them to Diddy and vowed to fight back and never pay his accuser.
Last month, Doe abruptly dropped the case — without explanation and without any kind of payment from Jay-Z. Two weeks later, Jay-Z sued both Doe and Buzbee for defamation, malicious prosecution and other wrongdoing, claiming they had carried out an “evil conspiracy” to extort a settlement from him by making the “false and malicious” rape allegations.
“Mr. Carter does not commence this action lightly,” his lawyers wrote in Monday’s lawsuit. “But the extortion and abuse of Mr. Carter by Doe and her lawyers must stop.”
The recent filing from Doe rebutting those allegations, also filed Monday, was lodged in a separate lawsuit in California in which Jay-Z is suing Buzbee for extortion and defamation over the same rape allegations. At a hearing in that case last week, a Los Angeles judge said he would likely dismiss the star’s extortion claims but likely allow the defamation claims against the lawyer to proceed.
Reggaetón icon Daddy Yankee filed a massive lawsuit on Tuesday (March 4) against his ex-wife, Mireddys González Castellanos, and her sister, Ayeicha González Castellanos, for financial mismanagement, defamation, irregularities and negligence in the management of his music companies El Cartel Records and Los Cangris.
The 23-page lawsuit, filed in the Tribunal de Primera Instancia in Carolina, Puerto Rico, amounts to $250 million and accuses the sisters of breach of fiduciary duties, breach of contract and more. According to the complaint, after Yankee regained control of the companies, his team discovered administrative and fiscal irregularities. One claim detailed in the lawsuit states that Yankee (Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez) found uncashed checks — some for royalty payments dating back to the early 2000s — that had expired because the defendants never deposited them.
“Due to this gross and stubborn negligence of the defendants’ administrative management, the plaintiffs lost thousands of dollars,” the lawsuit states.
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The lawsuit follows an injunction Yankee filed in December against his then-estranged wife, whom he officially divorced last month, claiming she had withdrawn $100 million from the companies’ bank accounts without authorization. According to that legal filing, the alleged theft of company funds occurred after Yankee had already revoked Mireddys and Ayeicha’s authority and “warned that they could not carry out any transactions on behalf of the companies.”
A few days later, both parties agreed that the Puerto Rican star would regain the presidency of El Cartel Records and Los Cangris, where his ex-wife allegedly served as CEO and her sister as secretary/treasurer.
Now, Yankee claims that after regaining control of the companies in December, his team discovered irregularities, including the “disappearance” of key documentation related to the companies’ finances and his successful La Última Vuelta World Tour. The lawsuit also alleges that between Dec. 26 and Dec. 30, just before the completion of the court-ordered administrative transition, the sisters “deleted or removed essential emails related to the operation of the companies and migrated the information to devices that have not been turned over or identified.”
Furthermore, Yankee alleges that the sisters’ “disorganized, unprofessional and irresponsible handling of matters related to Ayala Rodríguez’s career” and a “defamatory campaign promoted by the co-defendants and their agents and legal representatives with their endorsement” has caused him to lose income and damaged his “career, good name and personal prestige as one of the most important international Latin music figures.”
Billboard reached out to Mireddys González’s attorneys for comment but did not hear back at press time.
Growing up in Virginia, John Mlynczak, now president/CEO of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), didn’t have much money to spare, but he always dreamed about the day he could take home a Martin guitar. In college, he says his now-wife and mom “plotted and saved up to both go in together” to buy him one as a gift. “I still have it,” he recalls with pride. “It was made in Mexico. I didn’t care. I would not have been able to hold that brand and that signature square headstock in my hand if it wasn’t for the affordability and quality” of what Martin was making in its Mexican factories.
Mlynczak’s story is a common one. Many musicians, whether they know it or not, are playing instruments that were made entirely (or in part) in Mexico, Canada or China. For example, 989,621 acoustic guitars were imported from China and 187,722 acoustic guitars were imported from Mexico in 2024, according to data from the U.S. International Trade Commission. Top guitar brands like Fender, Martin, Taylor and more create many of their moderately priced products in Mexico; popular drum kit manufacturers like PDP, Yamaha and Pearl all list instruments made in China on their sites. While Mlynczak says instrument brands “have so much strong manufacturing in the U.S.” already — more than most other industries — those American-made products are cost-prohibitive for a lot of musicians.
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So when the Trump administration enacted a new 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada and added an additional 10% tariff for Chinese goods on Tuesday (March 4), Mlynczak and NAMM sprung into action to help members weather the storm — though really, the trade organization has been helping members with storm after storm over the last decade, which has been especially turbulent for the instrument market. Whether it was the tariffs during Trump’s first term in 2018, the stress on the supply chain during COVID-19, or this week’s latest action, NAMM has engaged in a never-ending effort to make the voice of music manufacturers heard.
Though there’s not much anyone can do to stop the tariffs, NAMM is creating working groups for its members to come together and share tips, including providing essential information straight from Washington, D.C.; encouraging members to submit comments to Congress about how tariffs affect business; and building alliances with other impacted industries.
“The global supply chain has allowed us to make high-quality, affordable products, and it’s taken decades to do that,” says Mlynczak. “When you start raising the price everywhere of what it costs to import goods, it’s challenging, and it really threatens everything we’ve learned to do as an industry.”
Now that these tariffs have taken effect, what is NAMM’s role in helping its members?
NAMM’s first job as a trade association is to represent our industry on anything that affects them, and research and get the facts and help our industry navigate any policy. NAMM has been involved in tariffs, especially since the 2018 tariffs were imposed. We did a lot of work on that, and we were monitoring all the pre-election coverage on tariffs last year. We were fully ready for this and have been heavily involved, not only with our NAMM members but also building alliances with other associations and industries that were also impacted.
What are the key differences about the tariffs in 2025 versus those during Trump’s first term in 2018?
There was a different mechanism used by President Trump at the time, and there was an exception process. So after the tariffs were imposed, we led efforts to try to get exceptions from tariffs for music product categories. It was a long process that we worked through with many associations. This round, however, the tariffs so far have been implemented with no exceptions and no process for exceptions.
Were you able to get any exceptions last time? If so, for what product categories?
In 2018, very few exceptions were granted for musical instruments — those typically were granted to larger industries. We are actually a very small industry overall. While we work really hard for exceptions for music-making equipment, concerns about the furniture industry or the lumber industry, for example, can dominate the conversation… Unfortunately, we fought the good fight, but few exceptions were granted – but really that’s true for most industries.
What country or region is most popular for the manufacturing of musical instruments?
China is the largest manufacturing hub for products worldwide. Secondarily, there is a lot of instrument manufacturing in Mexico, U.S., Canada, Indonesia. We have lots of manufacturing in Europe too. But I think the thing to keep in mind is that this is important for the affordability of products and the level of musicians that can afford them. As an industry, you have people who are starting out playing music for the first time. They don’t know how much to invest, but they want a quality product and a price that is reasonable. They’re not ready to get a customized mahogany-backed instrument right away, right? As you progress as a musician, then you start spending more.
We have lots of companies that make musical products in the U.S. We are proud to have a substantial amount of high quality music products made in the U.S. — it’s an impressive number compared to other industries — but the way it works is you have your highest level custom products made in the U.S., then your mid level and entry level products are made by partners in Mexico, China and other countries.
One thing we’d like people to understand is the reason why we have companies that can afford to build their highest-end products in the U.S. is because they have the revenue from the mid-to-entry level products from overseas. Our supply chain is deeply interconnected. It’s not like an instrument is solely made in China or Mexico. What happens is you have certain components that are made really well in China that are then imported for final assembly. Or you have a factory in Mexico that has a specialty in making certain components that are imported. Then they are assembled in the U.S. This happens because this work is highly specialized.
What’s really devastating about this idea of “Oh, we’ll just move manufacturing elsewhere” is that it’s actually not that easy. What we’re building are not generic widgets that come off a line. These workers around the world are trained to understand how to test musical products, to buff the bell of a brass instrument perfectly, to tune the strings on a violin. There are handmade components to these instruments that take — in some cases — decades to do right. These factories often have multi-generational workers. This isn’t a skill set you pick up overnight.
Now that you know Trump’s tariffs are being enacted — and that there are no exceptions — what course of action do you take from here as a trade organization?
Our members are looking for the most factual information, so we have a lobbying firm and law firm in D.C. that allows us to get vetted, factual information. With all the news coming out, it’s difficult to get down to the actual nitty-gritty information that a brand needs. So we are a source for our members to come to. What we try to do is save them time — there’s thousands of companies impacted right now. We’re also creating a working group of members specifically who are impacted by tariffs and bringing them together every two weeks so we can feed them what we’re hearing, anything like “We think this might happen” or “There’s talks of this…”’ and they can share advice with each other.
I know this is not a support group, this is business, but in a tough time that impacts the whole industry, it almost feels like that.
Yeah, these are groups of competitors coming together, but they all are actually concerned for each other and their product categories. They’re concerned for music-making in general. It’s really sweet to see that, as an industry, people are literally sitting across from their number one competitor and saying, “What are you hearing? How can we work together?”
I know, as a trade organization, you can’t speak to individual companies and how they are reacting, but have you heard of any solutions that companies are turning to that seem helpful?
The challenge is that these tariffs are intentionally punitive, intentionally non-exemptible. The retaliatory tariffs actually make the impact harsher because we have so much strong manufacturing in the U.S., so not only do import tariffs cause problems, but export tariffs do too. American-made instruments are really coveted by musicians around the world. It’s a double whammy. The squeeze is really real.
Given tariffs often lead to an increase in the price of products, do you think this will lead to a surge in the used instrument market?
It could… we’re actually in a surge of used products right now because of COVID. In the pandemic lockdown, we saw a really big boom of musical product sales, and our industry is at the tail end of that now. Lots of instruments are being re-sold on the used market. So I don’t know how much more surging it can do, but that’s a perfectly good idea.
The instrument market has been hit with so many challenges over the last decade. From the 2018 tariffs, the supply chain disruption and surge in sales during COVID-19, and now this. Has this been a uniquely challenging decade for this market or has this market experienced this level of ups and downs before?
You’re right. It’s been a wild seven years. From NAMM’s perspective, there’s never been a more important time for us to be there as a trade association, to double down on policy work, and double down on working groups. I feel like now we are probably more united as an industry than ever.
We’re a 124-year-old organization. Historically, musical products are seen as a luxury good. Of course, I would argue music is essential to life, but we are a luxury, unlike bread or gas or housing. Luxury industries historically struggle with high inflation and rising costs… When that happens, traditionally, it becomes harder for us because people don’t buy a seventh guitar — they are trying to figure out how to feed their family. In these times, we as an industry have to come together because the last thing we want to see is companies going out of business.
NAMM members are resilient — we are very used to contracting businesses or experiencing booms, like during COVID. We have a lot of multi-generational companies and incredibly resilient people. This is probably a weather-the-storm situation, and our job is to help companies do that.
If there are less affordable, high-quality options for American families to help their children get interested in playing an instrument, what ripple effect could that have on the market long-term?
Every company recognizes that a user’s first touch point, when they buy an instrument at an affordable price, that if it’s not a quality instrument or the user has a bad experience, then we’ve lost a customer for life.
It’s important to remember that these truly are quality instruments coming from these overseas suppliers. In the instrument market, you need options at every level. Our customers’ buying habits are like a pyramid. There is a very, very small market for the highest tier, custom instrument models, but it is very wide at the bottom. You can’t have that custom shop model at the top without the support of a very wide entry-level bottom.
I understand the reasoning given for being “America First,” but we’re not an industry that builds only in America and only for Americans, and every musical brand wants to sell in the United States. We are global and interconnected. It’s very hard to disrupt that. Our companies say that any change will take about three to five years to implement. We’re talking years of planning. The biggest issue right now is that this administration has been predictably unpredictable.
We need to remember that there’s an executive order that was signed that required departments to research tariffs on every other country by April, so we could see more and more and more of these. So even though the guidance is to stop making in China, Mexico and Canada, our companies don’t know where to move to because we don’t know where the tariffs could be imposed next.
Mercury Records has promoted Tyler Arnold to chairman/CEO and Ben Adelson to president/COO of the label, the company announced Wednesday (March 5). Arnold previously served as president while Adelson served as general manager at the label, which they relaunched in 2022.
Under Arnold and Adelson’s leadership, Mercury has released hit albums including Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion and The Diamond Collection, Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (Forever) and, via the label’s partnership with Big Loud, Morgan Wallen‘s One Thing At A Time and Dangerous: The Double Album. Most recently, Wallen’s single “I’m the Problem” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Arnold and Adelson will report to REPUBLIC Collective founder/chairman/CEO Monte Lipman and founder/vice-chairman/COO Avery Lipman, who noted in a statement, “Tyler and Ben began their careers at Republic, and we’ve had a front-row seat to their incredible growth. It’s been nothing short of inspiring to watch. With Mercury, they are building a legacy that honors the label’s history by developing, breaking and supporting the next generation of career-defining artists.”
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“The last three years at Mercury have been incredibly special,” said Arnold. “I could not be prouder of our artists, our team and the culture we’ve created. Ben and I set out to build a label that supported artist development with time, patience and a real commitment to A&R and creative marketing. I’m very grateful to Monte and Avery for their continued support of our vision and am so excited for this next chapter of Mercury Records.”
Adelson added, “I am honored to continue building the legacy of Mercury Records. More than anything, I’m most proud of our authentic and dynamic roster and the team we have brought together. Thank you to Monte and Avery for their continued support and guidance.”
New York-based Arnold started as an intern at Republic Records and, after joining the label as an A&R assistant, signed Malone. He ultimately rose to the role of vp. In addition to Malone, he’s also signed such top acts as Metro Boomin and Bo Burnham and partnered with Big Loud to build Wallen into a superstar. He has been named to Billboard‘s Power 100, R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players, Country Power Players and 40 Under 40 lists.
Los Angeles-based Adelson also started at Republic as an intern and was hired as an assistant to Avery Lipman in 2008. He subsequently managed Young the Giant, kickstarting the band’s rise to an arena-level act, before rejoining Republic as director of A&R and rising to become executive vp of A&R in 2018. He has signed artists including Kahan, James Bay, Stephen Sanchez, Conan Gray and Lord Huron. He has been named to Billboard‘s Power 100, Country Power Players and 40 Under 40 lists.
The Mercury Records roster also includes AJR, Chelsea Cutler, Bay, Jeremy Zucker, Huron, Sanchez and ZAYN.
