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From Taylor Swift T-shirts to Fleetwood Mac Rumours vinyl LPs, the global music merchandise business will grow to a retail value of $16.3 billion by 2030, according to a new report by MIDiA Research.
Merch become a priority for many artists in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the concert business. And as touring resumed and fans opened their wallets, the global merch business rose to $13.4 billion in 2023. But merch sales are expected to cool considerably, as MIDiA forecasts merch sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just 2.8% through the end of the decade. There’s still plenty of opportunity, though — if artists and merch companies don’t treat merch like a cash grab.
“As the market has become more sophisticated, fan expectations for quality have risen,” MIDiA’s Tatiana Cirisano said in a statement. “But record labels focusing on monetising fandom risk ‘overharvesting’ — exploiting this resource to the point of diminishing returns.”
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Music companies, Cirisano added, “must nurture deep, long-lasting fandom to sustain this growth.”
Physical music, which MIDiA considers to be merch because many consumers treat vinyl LPs and CDs as collectible items, is forecasted to peak in 2025 and decrease through 2030. Physical merchandise such as artist-branded apparel and digital merchandise such as virtual goods and NFTs are expected to make up for physical music’s decline and lift total merch revenues.
Merch isn’t the most financially appealing part of the music business. That would be digital music, which enjoys both higher margins and higher growth rates. In the first half of 2024, Universal Music Group’s recorded music business had earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) margin of 25.4%, nearly five times its merch division’s 5.3% EBITDA margin. And while MIDiA expects merch to grow at a 2.8% CAGR through 2030, Goldman Sachs forecasts the global music streaming market will grow at a 9.9% CAGR over that time frame.
But merch has always been an important part of the music business because of music fans’ unending desire for T-shirts and keepsakes of their favorite artists. Consolidation in the merch business began about six years ago as major labels and some indies invested in merchandising companies to diversify their revenues and expand the services they offer to artist clients.
Warner Music Group, for example, acquired German merch specialist EMP in 2018. Universal Music Group acquired boutique merch company Epic Rights in 2019. Sony Music Entertainment made a strategic investment in merchandise company Ceremony of Roses in 2022, and its Thread Shop merch agency purchased the merch division of The Araca Group in 2019. Also in 2019, Indie company EMPIRE took a majority stake in merch/ecommerce company Top Drawer Merch / Electric Family.
The Core Records and Capitol Music Group have signed Hannah McFarland to their joint venture; it is the first signing announced by the two entities. McFarland’s single, “Hey Highway,” out Friday (Oct. 25), will be the first official release from the new label. “Signing with The Core Records and Capitol Music Group feels like the […]
At most huge pop tours, there’s a moment when shrieking fans reach a true fever pitch — when the lights dim right before the show begins, or when the intro to the artist’s biggest hit kicks in, or during the break before the encore. All of those happened at Olivia Rodrigo’s first arena tour — but her favorite part of the show was when those eardrum-rattling cries were, in fact, mad as hell.
“When we play ‘all-american bitch,’ ” Rodrigo tells Billboard, “there’s a part at the end of the song where I ask the audience to think about something that pisses them off and then tell them to scream about it when the lights go off.” On the opener to her 2023 album, GUTS, Rodrigo juxtaposes folksy, facetious calm in the verses with enraged pop-punk in the refrain as she lays out society’s double standards for young women before unleashing a piercing wail. For nearly a hundred nights this year, the singer-songwriter has closed her main set by adding her own scream to an arena already full of them. “It’s definitely cathartic for me,” she says, “and I hope it is for the audience as well.”
The same could be said of the entire GUTS tour, where Rodrigo’s fans worldwide found the space to release their pent-up energy, as well as their excitement about one of the decade’s biggest new superstars. After bursting into the spotlight in 2021 with her debut album, Sour, and its No. 1 smashes “drivers license” and “good 4 u,” the former Disney+ TV star won the Grammy Award for best new artist in 2022 and quickly ascended to pop’s A-list. Yet the 2022 tour supporting Sour primarily played theaters, had to navigate lingering COVID-19 concerns and catered to a limited number of international markets, as Rodrigo, then 19, found her sea legs as a live performer.
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Two years later, the rock-fueled GUTS became another commercial triumph: Lead single “vampire” also topped the Billboard Hot 100, and the album scored one of 2023’s 10 biggest debut weeks. And this time, Rodrigo was prepared for arena audiences. The GUTS tour featured more than double the number of dates as her Sour trek while traveling to four continents (South America will become the fifth in March 2025) and grossed $186.6 million, according to Billboard Boxscore — even with its 1.4 million tickets sold at an average price of $128.81, in line with price-conscious acts like Coldplay and P!nk, and less than that of several major pop arena shows.
As for the show itself, “I actually made GUTS with the concert in mind,” Rodrigo says. “It’s so much fun to play songs that are more driving and heavy. I had a great time performing that aspect of the show every night.” Here’s how it all went down.
In her dressing room backstage.
Sami Drasin
‘She Knew Exactly What It Was That She Wanted’
As GUTS came together, so did plans for an accompanying tour that amplified every aspect of Rodrigo’s previous live run — bigger venues, more countries — all guided by a more defined point of view from the superstar at its center.
Aleen Keshishian (co-manager, Lighthouse Management + Media founder/CEO): Olivia had creative tour ideas when she was still writing GUTS, even before we had signed a deal with Live Nation or hired anyone for the tour. She already had visual references, voice notes, images.
Zack Morgenroth (co-manager, Lighthouse Management + Media partner): That gave us a lot of time to plan, and put together the right team, and get the show right.
Jason Danter (tour production manager): I connected with Zack and Aleen in March 2023; at that point, I was deep into getting the Beyoncé [Renaissance] tour up and running. I met Olivia when she came to the Beyoncé show at SoFi Stadium [in Inglewood, Calif.].
Tarik Mikou (creative director, Moment Factory): We’ve been working with Olivia for a while — we did her first live TV performance [on Saturday Night Live] and did the Sour tour, so I was really happy to get a call back for the GUTS tour.
Melissa Garcia (choreographer): They called me in for the Sour tour, and Olivia and I really meshed. A trusting environment [and] being able to have back-and-forth conversations is so important, especially when it comes to movement and putting artists in vulnerable situations.
Jared Braverman (senior vp of touring, Live Nation): It was very clear from initial conversations that the goal of this tour was to be global — to get to markets that Olivia had never been to and continue to grow by not just focusing on major cities. [Olivia] is massive everywhere. That’s a challenging thing to navigate — making time and space for all of these markets.
Morgenroth: The Sour tour was her first time out on the road and was a huge underplay, given the success of the album.
Dave Tamaroff (partner, WME): Her last tour could have been in arenas, based on everything she had going on.
Michelle An (president/head of creative strategy, Interscope Geffen A&M): There were a lot of conversations about [arenas] on the last tour, and ultimately, Olivia was the final decision-maker — she felt like she needed to do the theater run to get to know the fans in a more intimate way.
Sami Drasin
Morgenroth: There was so much demand from fans this time around that Live Nation said to us that arenas now felt like an underplay — we probably could have done stadiums everywhere. That being said, there was so much preparation for an arena tour: choosing each venue, making sure we had a good cadence for her. We tended to do only four shows in a week and never three shows in a row.
Tamaroff: We were surgical in our approach to the routing.
Morgenroth: Olivia cares so deeply about the fan experience, and that was also so key in the pricing of the tickets, which could have been priced for so much more. Everything, from having the Silver Star program — where fans could get a limited number of tickets everywhere around the arena for something like $20 — to looking at the landscape of touring artists and trying to price our tickets somewhere in the middle of them, was very intentional.
Keshishian: [Silver Star] was something that Coldplay had first done with Live Nation. Jared Braverman suggested it and Olivia loved it.
Braverman: [Pricing] takes a level of restraint, where you look at what you can do versus what you should do. You’ve got a young audience that’s very connected to Olivia, and we wanted to make this tour accessible for them.
Keshishian: We spent a lot of money on this tour, [but] we were incredibly judicious, going over every single line item in the budget to make sure we were spending money on the things that mattered to Olivia.
Garcia: Olivia is the captain of the ship — right from the very beginning, she knew exactly what it was that she wanted.
Mikou: We had like, 15 meetings, in Zoom and in person. She had reference boards on Pinterest. She would show us an image and be like, “I would love something like that in the show,” and give us these leads.
An: We definitely wanted fans to get to know the album. It wasn’t straight from the album release [in September 2023] into the tour [which began in February 2024].
Heather Picchiottino (costume designer): Olivia’s songwriting progression from Sour to GUTS felt very raw and up-front, so we wove punk rock through [the tour’s production].
Olivia Rodrigo: I tried to make the concert feel like my own spin on a rock show. My dream was for people to jump and scream and be all sweaty by the end.
Mikou: When you get to the dress rehearsals and start seeing the ideas pushed forward — we knew we had something special with this show.
The band.
Sami Drasin
Sami Drasin
‘It’s So Much Bigger in Every Way’
When the GUTS tour kicked off at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif., on Feb. 23, Rodrigo unveiled a multi-act, visually striking stage show with dancing, wailing guitars and even a giant, suspended crescent moon for her to sit on while circling the audience.
Daisy Spencer (touring guitarist): We rehearsed so much leading up to the kickoff. We were so ready and eager to finally perform the show in front of people who were hearing it for the first time.
Garcia: Instead of reaching a few thousand people, she was in a much larger environment — which puts a lot more pressure on her.
Keshishian: There’s no comparison between theaters and arenas, in terms of prep.
Spencer: It’s so much bigger in every way. The energy on the Sour tour was palpable, like we were beginning something very exciting and everyone in the room could feel it. But I couldn’t have ever imagined what the GUTS tour would be like.
Rodrigo: An arena feels wildly different than a theater to me.
Garcia: One of the big notes that I would say [to Olivia] was “Invite the audience in”: Open your chest up, allow them in. And she absolutely did that. Between the Sour tour and this tour, she is absolutely way more comfortable in her skin.
Picchiottino: Olivia had so many iconic looks on the Sour tour, and some of the detailing in them were bows or little ruffles or tulle fabric. We really contrasted that with GUTS, with references to punk rock through clean, ’90s, minimal silhouettes, made out of fabrics that were metal mesh jewelry as opposed to a tissue fabric.
Mikou: We worked on creating four acts in the show. We start really strong with an energetic vibe, but we also go into her vocal range early on with “vampire” and “drivers license.” And then in the second act, we embark on a visual journey with dancers.
The dancers.
Sami Drasin
Keshishian: In terms of choreography, she didn’t want it to feel like a traditional pop show where the dancers can sometimes overpower the music. I think the dancers are only in six numbers.
Danter: It’s primarily a younger audience that wants to see her and hear her, so it doesn’t have to be overly complicated visually.
Garcia: We wanted to create a visceral reaction from her fans, and for Olivia, a rock approach was extremely important, so she wasn’t quite sure if she wanted to use dancers. We came up with utilizing the dancers in a very unique way to match her creative intention.
Mikou: And then in the third act, she’s flying on the moon.
Keshishian: From the very first conversation we had with her, she said, “I’d love to fly on a moon over my audience.”
Mikou: We had about 60 stars all around to create this immersive vibe in the arena, and the moon was on a 260-foot linear flying track and was a light box as well.
Garcia: Riding around the venue on the moon — that was another way for her to feel like she really gave every single person her time.
Mikou: That act has these big visual moments, but it’s also really simple and elegant at times, like “making the bed,” where’s she rising alone on a lift, surrounded by fans and their iPhone lights.
Keshishian: And then you have these beautiful acoustic moments where she’s just with Daisy [who’s playing] guitar at the edge of the thrust, and it’s just about the lyrics and her voice.
Spencer: That was all Olivia’s idea, and I feel so honored to sit next to her while we all have a giant group therapy session together on “happier” and “favorite crime.” I’m almost on the verge of tears when we finish that section because it’s such a beautiful feeling to hear everyone singing along with us.
Mikou: We ended with the punk-rock vibe in the fourth act, exploding everything at the end with the full band and fire on the screens.
Picchiottino: I think my favorite moment is the start of act four, when the chaos comes into the show. Olivia enters in this red romper in this foil fabric, and with the color of the lighting, it just signals this incredible energy.
Mikou: My personal favorite moment is probably “obsessed.” She gets on the plexiglass and starts to look at her audience, but with the camera below [the stage, feeding into the arena screens], it’s just such a strong image. That’s Olivia 2.0: so rock’n’roll, so much guitar, so much attitude.
Danter: Olivia turned 21 a couple of days before opening night, and as somebody with such short touring experience, she’s very, very professional.
Sami Drasin
Sami Drasin
Keshishian: She gets to the venue every single day six hours early. She practices the piano, she does vocal warmups, she does cardio. She does her sound check before literally every show, even on multiple nights in the same venue, which very few artists do.
Danter: Most artists don’t get that discipline until they’ve got a number of tours under their belt. But by [the opener in] Palm Springs, we were all like, “We’ve got nothing to worry about here.”
Rodrigo: The first dozen shows or so, it was a big adjustment for me, energywise. I had to really learn how to look up and take in the space. You definitely perform differently when you’re performing to that many people.
Danter: And now she’s an arena headliner, and it’s as if she’s been doing it for a long, long time.
‘These Gatherings Have Become Like a Ritual’
As Rodrigo traveled North America in early spring, Europe before summer, North America (again) in July and August, and Asia in early fall, fans around the world learned about the tour’s unofficial dress code, viral moments, philanthropic goals — and the superstar-in-waiting who opened its first leg.
Keshishian: Tour support is something that we talked about very early on. The Sour tour had Gracie Abrams opening, and then Chappell Roan opened in San Francisco on the last Sour date in North America.
Remi Wolf (opener, GUTS European leg): I was told that Olivia very carefully curated the openers for the show, so it was a major deal when we got the original call.
Keshishian: Olivia has this incredible knowledge of and reverence for female artists, in particular people who paved the way for her, like Alanis Morissette and Sheryl Crow and Bikini Kill. Her mom introduced her to a lot of these artists, including The Breeders. I went with her to see them play at the Wiltern [in October 2023] and was so excited to meet Kim and Kelley [Deal] backstage, and they agreed to open for her in New York and L.A.
Kim Deal (singer-guitarist, The Breeders): [Olivia] has talked about how, you know, “The Breeders broke my mind — there was pre-‘Cannonball’ and there was post-‘Cannonball.’ ” And I think she likes loud guitars — in this day and age! She finds loud guitars exciting and wants to be around them.
Sami Drasin
Tamaroff: She did four shows [with The Breeders] in New York and six in Los Angeles, and she really could have done a dozen more, based on demand.
Morgenroth: [The openers] are, in part, a tribute to Olivia’s ear. She’s known Chappell for a while. She’s always thought she was an incredible artist.
Rodrigo: Having her on the first leg of the GUTS tour was so much fun. I’m inspired by her so much as an artist, but she’s also been such a good friend to me over the years and she really helped me through some of the more stressful parts of the tour.
Braverman: We all knew what a talented artist and great performer [Chappell] is and hoped that fans would be as excited as we all were for her to be joining on these shows. The initial response was positive, but it wasn’t until the tour got underway that we started to see a shift that literally grew more each and every show.
Keshishian: Chappell was a surprise guest in L.A. [in August, after opening for the tour in February and March]. People asked us if we were going to have guest performers at all six shows in L.A., and we didn’t feel that we needed surprises just for the sake of it. But having Chappell come back and seeing her perform in front of Olivia’s audience after all this time, after so much had happened [in her own career]? It was really fun.
Rodrigo: It’s been incredible to watch her get the recognition she so rightfully deserves. She’s just further proof that being unapologetically yourself always pays off.
Morgenroth: From the moment people arrived at the show, we wanted them to have a great experience, and that’s everything from the merch, where things were customized for each city, to activations outside on the [concourse] and outside of the venue, like the interactive tour bus that we put together with Interscope and partners like American Express.
An: As we continued putting out singles and videos from the album [before the tour], fans got a better idea of what to wear and how to style themselves, and then they all connected by the time the tour came.
Keshishian: It became a really fun night for fans to get dressed up in creative outfits that Olivia inspired.
Garcia: Olivia has created a very unique vocabulary, and I think that’s why songs like “love is embarrassing” became so large on social media, with people trying to learn the dance from the show.
Keshishian: Her “love is embarrassing” dance went viral, and all these kids were doing the dance with the little “L” on the forehead.
Morgenroth: There was this viral TikTok trend, “Am I Too Old To Be Here?,” that would be used at the shows because there were so many people of different ages attending. And then we have this “Dad Idea, Right?” moment, where the kids get a kick out of how many dads are enjoying the show.
Keshishian: In every city, she wore a different tank top [during the encore] that had these cheeky jokes about the city, like “Phuket, It’s Fine” in Bangkok or “Bad Idea, Innit?” in London.
Picchiottino: That was Olivia’s idea: “How fun would it be to have a new slogan for each city and make each show feel special?”
An: I think for the Livies, these gatherings have become like a ritual. They can scream at the top of their lungs about what’s bothering them and be a little more alternative or punk, but at the same time be feminine and girlie. You just see everything that Olivia stands for being celebrated.
Fans turn out in their GUTS best.
Sami Drasin
Sami Drasin
Keshishian: Before the tour began, it was important to Olivia to add a charitable component and do something that would have a lasting impact after the tour was over. That became the Fund 4 Good, and it was focused on what is important to her, which is helping women and girls. We vetted each organization in every country that Olivia toured in, and we wanted to have a very localized impact because obviously women in different countries have different needs.
Rodrigo: Being on tour [so soon] after Roe v. Wade got overturned made activism very important — especially considering I performed in many states that currently have abortion bans in place, I wanted to do everything I could to support organizations in each territory that are doing essential work in providing access to health care and other human rights.
Morgenroth: We’ve tied it beyond the tour already — she did an Erewhon smoothie, and all of the proceeds from her side were given to the fund. This is something that is going to be part of everything from here on out.
Keshishian: Olivia performed in the Philippines for the first time in October — which was a dream of hers, as a Filipino American — and she wanted to do it as a gift, so all net proceeds will go to a local charity [women’s health care organization Jhpiego] through the Fund 4 Good.
Rodrigo: Through the fund, I’ve met lots of incredible people who are making such positive changes in the world, and I’ve learned so much. I look forward to learning more and continuing to champion causes I care about.
‘She’s Revealing Another Side of Herself’
As Rodrigo wrapped the GUTS 2024 run and prepares for the Oct. 29 release of its Netflix tour film, she has snapped into focus as a new-school arena rock performer with a fastidious streak.
Danter: When you get to rehearsals and everything starts to fall into place, a lot of artists and managers go, “OK, this is the show.” As we got closer to opening night, we were still getting notes from Olivia, Zack and Aleen. It’s that search for perfection, which is refreshing.
Garcia: There was that younger vibe about her on the Sour tour, a little sillier, and on the GUTS tour, she definitely is thinking more and every detail matters more, no matter how microscopic.
Picchiottino: I’ve really enjoyed the process of refining and refining, being so specific about the tour visuals. I think I have over 60 sketches on my iPad, for five looks.
An: You could really feel that she was more confident this go-round because she understood how things worked and knew what conversations to have. She was the boss of this.
Mikou: The evolution from the last tour, it’s almost like she’s revealing another side of herself.
Sami Drasin
Braverman: In a lot of ways, it’s like a throwback rock show. I don’t think a lot of these fans had experienced anything like that.
Keshishian: Most of the band was on the Sour tour, and every member is female or nonbinary. So for all these people watching, to see them rocking out in an arena, I think it’s really powerful.
Deal: She’s very respectful of the younger members of her audience — she knows they’re there, she’s very sweet with them, and she does not talk down to them at all. There are some cusswords and there are some loud guitars, and she expects them to be where she is. And I thought that was very cool.
Keshishian: Regarding the film, there are tens of millions of people that did not get tickets to this show, and we wanted to make sure that all of Olivia’s fans had the ability to see it. So we set up 22 cameras for the last two L.A. shows, and we chose Netflix to be our partner because they have the largest global reach.
Tamaroff: Watching her prove who she is as a global superstar… she’s one of the most talented singer-songwriters on the planet already, but being able to showcase her talent as a performer, hearing people say that this was one of the best nights of their lives, that’s why we all do what we do.
Garcia: With age comes a little bit more pressure, and I think it’s coming from herself: to be better, to figure out the next challenge for herself, to see where she can break through next. She just keeps growing.
Rodrigo: I wanted to make sure that I could still connect with the audience, even in a venue as big as an arena.
Rodrigo will be honored as 2024 Touring Artist of the Year at the Billboard Live Music Summit & Awards in Los Angeles on Nov. 14.
This story appears in the Oct. 26, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Collaborative Fund and Imaginary Ventures, with additional investment from BMG parent company Bertelsmann and superstar manager Guy Oseary, have led a multimillion fundraising round for [cafeteria], a new market research app that pays teens to opine on what they want from top U.S. brands.
Co-founded and led by Rishi Malhotra — known for creating India’s top streaming platform JioSaavn — Malhotra says [cafeteria] gleans marketing insights from a critical mass of teenagers through open-ended, one-on-one conversations that could start with questions like, “What do you wish McDonald’s had on its menu?” or “What do you think of this Billie Eilish song?”
Major brands can use the conversations with teens to glean insights — for example, teens on average say they are willing to pay $314 to see their favorite artist live — or identify trends before they’re trendy — like Canadian singer songwriter Tate McCrae, which teens were talking about in February, says Malhotra, whose co-founders on the app are former Luminary execs Mark Silverstein and Leeann Sheely.
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“Once something is already a trend, it might be a little late. But when something is pre-trend it’s very actionable,” says Malhotra, who came up with the idea for [cafeteria] by observing his own teenage children. “There is also future testing (applications), like, what do you think about this record?”
[cafeteria] soft-launched three months ago and now has a few thousand users in 39 U.S. states and 60 cities. On average they spend five minutes at [cafeteria]’s virtual “tables” — chat rooms where they answer artificial intelligence-generated questions either by text or voice note. While teens do earn money for providing feedback, Malhotra said they do not expect this to be a major money-making endeavor for its participants.
The seed funding round was led by Collaborative Fund, investors in Beyond Meat, Lyft and Sweetgreen, and Imaginary Ventures, investors in Skims, Glossier and Daily Harvest, followed by Oseary, an early investor in Peloton who leads the venture capital firm Sound Ventures with Ashton Kutcher, which has stakes in Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Pinterest, Robinhood, and others.
The [cafeteria] app
[cafeteria]
After opening its doors in early 2018, It didn’t take long for multi-venue dance destination Avant Garder to dominate New York’s nightlife scene. Each year, the indoor/outdoor complex that includes Brooklyn Mirage, the Kings Hall and Great Hall has attracted some of the biggest names in dance, including a busy 2024 season that saw sellouts by Black Coffee, Swedish House Mafia, DavidGuetta, Gesaffelstein, Diplo, Anderson. Paak, Carl Cox, Deadmau5 and Three 6 Mafia.
That success comes in spite of the high-profile September 2023 collapse of the Electric Zoo festival — the Randall’s Island EDM festival purchased by Avant Gardner co-founder Billy Bildstein and the company’s former chief creative officer Philipp Wiederkehr the year before. Once a staple of the New York festival scene, the 2023 version of Electric Zoo was marred by missed permit deadlines, rampant overcrowding and safety violations later cited by former ally turned critic, Mayor Eric Adams.
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“It’s something I wanted to address head-on,” says Josh Wyatt, Avant Gardner’s new CEO, who officially begins his new role on Wednesday (Oct. 23) but has spent the last several months working behind the scenes to settle any lingering issues in the aftermath of the Electric Zoo debacle. “If I were to make a constructive criticism of the company in the past, it’s that they have not always done a good job of communicating with the various [Electric Zoo] stakeholders.”
“Over the last eight weeks, I have reached out to every key stakeholder in Electric Zoo and I’ve made them whole,” Wyatt added of refunding ticket holders, settling with vendors and managing small litigation issues. “I’m proud of that.”
Wyatt counts two decades of experience in the hospitality and nightlife sectors, including his most recent tenure as CEO of the members-only social club NeueHouse and its sister company, the photography museum Fotografiska. He also served as president of Equinox Hotels and as co-founder/managing partner of Generator Hostels.
Wyatt joins Avant Gardner after the company brought on a new unnamed investor, which has “inject(ed) the company with growth capital to allow myself as the new CEO to really operate the company,” he says, adding that Bildstein will serve as “my partner in this journey” as founder/creative director. Together, the two will explore the first phase of experiential evolution inside Avant Gardner with a handful of new initiatives including the launch of a music venue/mocktail bar, as well as new community spaces like a hi-fi listening room for audiophiles and immersive art and visual studios for guests.
“That’s the trend that’s happening right now and It’s something that we see a lot of our guests asking for — places to chill out and refresh,” Wyatt says.
Global royalty collections for song rightsholders grew 7.6% last year, to a new high of 11.75 billion Euros ($10.9 billion, based on the average exchange rate for 2023), according to CISAC (the Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d´Auteurs et Compositeurs), the Paris-based collecting societies trade organization. Much of the growth was driven by two categories: Digital collections rose 9.6% to 4.52 billion Euros ($4.18 billion), while live and background music royalties grew 21.8% — fueled largely by the concert business — to overtake the pre-pandemic total from 2019.
The big collecting societies all had good years, but the CISAC report offers unparalleled insight into a complicated but important part of the music publishing business. (CISAC includes other collecting societies from outside the music business, but publishing accounts for most of these royalties, which are, in turn, more important to music than to other businesses. CISAC breaks out music royalties, but its figures only include those that go through CISAC member societies rather than direct deals.) There are no big surprises here: Digital has been the main driver of growth recently, more than doubling in five years from 2.06 billion Euros ($1.90 billion) in 2019 to 4.52 billion Euros ($4.18 billion) last year — although last year’s growth of 9.6% was lower than in any of the preceding four. Digital now accounts for 38.5% of collections, more than any other category.
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Collections for broadcast and live concerts and background music represent the two other major sources of revenue, accounting for 28.7% and 26.1%, respectively. (Background music refers to compositions played in public, at restaurants, stores or bars, for example.) Royalties from TV and radio declined 5.3% to 3.37 billion Euros ($3.11 billion) after a significant jump the previous year. They have stayed fairly steady over the past half-decade.
The live and background music figures are more complicated because of the disruption from the pandemic. Last year those categories grew to 3.06 billion euros ($2.82 billion), fueled mostly by the return of live music revenue, which in some regions may lag live music events. More significantly, that represents a 12.7% jump from 2019.
Collecting societies take in most of their business in Europe and the U.S.; CISAC has one category for Western Europe and another for the U.S. and Canada. Western Europe collections rose 8.2%, while those in the U.S. and Canada rose 7.8%. Taken as a whole, Europe accounts for more than half of total collecting society revenue, and the U.S. and Canada together account for another 27.1%. Asia-Pacific royalties shrank by .3%, largely due to currency fluctuations in Japan, without which the region would have seen 6.8% growth. The fastest growing region is Latin America, up by 26.2% — and by 108.2% over the past two years – although it only accounts for 5.9% of the overall market. Africa, where executives have seen massive potential for years, is still growing very slowly – up 3.2% to .6% of the overall market.
General CISAC collections are also up 7.6%, to 13.09 billion Euros ($12.1 billion), also an all-time high, with digital up 9.6% to 4.62 billion Euros ($4.3 billion). (This includes collecting societies for other media, such as writing and visual art, which many countries in Europe have.)
Billboard will follow this news story with a more extensive analysis of growth sectors, the future of various markets, and how this business might grow in the years ahead.
Music stars Snoop Dogg, SZA, Latto, Charlie Wilson, Metro Boomin and Tyler, the Creator are among this year’s slate of EBONY Power 100 honorees. The awards ceremony — which will also commemorate the legendary magazine’s 79th anniversary — will take place Nov. 17 at Nya Studios West in Los Angeles.
The 100 honorees are divided among 10 categories: Artists in Residence, Business Disruptors, Community Crusaders, Entertainment Powerhouses, Generation Next, Influential Creators, Leaders in Sport, Media Mavens, Music Innovators and STEM Trailblazers. Representing a diverse array of talent, business entrepreneurs, leaders and pioneers, the list’s additional 2024 honorees include Kevin Hart, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Jennifer Hudson, Maya Rudolph, Doechii, Jaylen Brown, Keke Palmer and Shannon Sharpe. For a complete list of EBONY Power 100 honorees and updates, visit here.
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In a release announcing the 2024 honorees, EBONY CEO Eden Bridgeman said, “We have been gearing up for the most anticipated EBONY Power 100 yet. This iconic list is not just a celebration; it’s a vital recognition of those who are shaping culture and driving real change in our communities. At a time when honoring Black excellence is more important than ever, the excitement is building, and we are excited to unveil the transformative leaders who will define this year’s EBONY Power 100!”
Over the last several years, prior music industry honorees have included Usher, Tems, H.E.R., Travis Scott and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. The 2024 EBONY Power 100 Gala is supported in sponsorship by Nationwide, Prime’s new original series Cross, United Airlines and Baccarat.
EMPIRE president Tina Davis took part in a keynote conversation during ADE 2024, speaking before a crowded audience at the annual dance music industry conference in Amsterdam.
The Saturday (Oct. 19 )talk spanned many facets of Davis’ career, starting when she was a 25-year-old running the A&R department at Def Jam and taking the bus to work.
“I didn’t have a car. I was sitting in a bus going to work every day, running Def Jam on the West Coast, making pennies,” Davis said while talking about pursuing her career despite feelings of self-doubt. “I think it’s just all about how much you want it, how much drive [you have] and how much you believe in yourself. Even though you might doubt yourself, just try anyway.”
The conversation, moderated by journalist Pay Komüs, focused largely on Davis’ work as president of EMPIRE, a position she ascended to in the summer of 2023 after five years at the independent Bay Area-based label, publisher and distributor. The executive spoke about working on EMPIRE’S global business, the importance of authenticity for artists and how such authenticity helped Shaboozey become one of the breakout artists of 2024. The hip-hop/country artist signed to EMPIRE IN 2021, and three years later his hit single, “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” made him famous. The song is currently in its 15th week at No. 1 on the Hot 100.
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Davis was one of the thousands of industry executives who traveled to Amsterdam for ADE, which has already announced dates for next year’s event: Oct. 22-26, 2025. These are five key takeaways from her keynote.
Working Globally Means Working Collaboratively
With teams in the U.S., Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Davis stressed that it’s crucial that each territory takes the lead in its own decision-making. “We’re not in San Francisco telling the people in Africa, ‘This is how you need to do it,’ or telling [our team] here in Amsterdam, ‘You need to do it this way,’” she said. “We can’t tell you how it needs to be done. We have a structure in mind. We know how we like it. We know it’s about authenticity. We know it’s about being culturally significant. But for the most part, we make sure we work with the people we have in our company and take their advice, listen to them; they listen to us, and we work together as a strategy in everything that we do.”
Every Artist Is a Partner
“We don’t sign artists, we sign partners,” Davis said of bringing new acts onto the roster. “We look at them as partners. We look at their business and figure out how we can help them scale up, just as we’re doing for ourselves.” For this type of structure to work, Davis stressed that trust is essential to “make sure that relationship is strong. We want to make sure that our artists feel our presence, and they understand how much we care about their future.”
Artist Authenticity Is Crucial
EMPIRE, Davis said, “is a company that leans heavily on authenticity and culture. If you’re not true to yourself, you can’t be true to us, and you can’t be true to your consumer.” The company “isn’t against” artists who consistently change styles, she continued, “but at the same time, it’s sort of like, ‘Okay, is that really who you are?’ Let’s figure out how we can get a middle ground, or figure out how you can present yourself in a different way, but still not lose the fan base you have.’”
On The Success of Shaboozey — And the Patience Required to Get Him to This Point
Expanding on her thoughts on authenticity, Davis said that EMPIRE is “intricate when it comes to making sure the direction fits the talent.” She recalled that when Shaboozey was presented to the company, “he had wicks in his head, he’s a tall African American, and he came in doing country and hip-hop. Nothing really was working at that time. It had happened before, but nothing at that time was really at the top of the charts that sounded like him.”
But Davis says that when the team met him, they felt his authenticity. “So you can’t tell somebody that looks like that, ‘Hey, you’re not country. You can’t do country,’” she said. During the three years Shaboozey was signed to EMPIRE before blowing up, “we honed in and allowed him to just continue on his journey and keep growing. He was putting out music, and the first records and project did okay, but it took a minute for it to get to this point, and we had the patience for that.”
Artists Don’t Need a Major Label to Succeed
Davis questioned the need for artists to be on a major label to be successful, suggesting they shift their mindset about major label deals being essential — particularly when it comes to artists maintaining control of their masters by staying independent. “I cannot tell you why someone like Justin Timberlake still has a record deal at a major,” Davis observed. “It makes no sense. Mind you, his deal probably is a little bit better than most of the newer artists that are coming up, but it still makes no sense; he should be distributing himself. He could go on TuneCore and make a lot more money than he’d make with that major from that big check that they give him.
She continued that changing artists’ mentality around major label deals has been “a process. It’s been an old rule for years that only majors can break you, but Shaboozey shows you right now that you really don’t need a major.”
Not Paying Attention To What Other People Are Doing Can Be a Key to Success
Davis observed that you’ve “got to kind of have blinders on when you’re working on your own thing, when you’re focused on your own vision, when you’re trying to accomplish something. You can’t look to the side, because you’re going to lose a race. You have to stay focused and look at what you’re working on because you have to figure out how you make your lane in the highway where everybody is still driving in the same direction.”
She also emphasized EMPIRE’S position as an innovator and leader, continuing that other companies “look at us. They follow us. They’re all turning toward where we have always been. When they started hiring DEI departments, we didn’t need it. We were already diverse. When they were like, ‘We need more women.’ We were 51% women. We were like, ‘We don’t need to worry about that.’ We’re purveyors of taste. We’re leaders; we don’t like to follow.”
Longtime songwriter advocate John Titta, who served as executive vp/chief creative officer at ASCAP, died Monday (Oct. 21) after a two-year battle with cancer. His age is unknown.
“All of us at ASCAP are heartbroken,” said ASCAP president/chairman and songwriter Paul Williams in a statement. “John Titta was one of a kind, and truly one of the most beloved music industry executives I have known, with deep ties to songwriters across genres and generations. John — you had a song in your heart always, and you will always be in our hearts. I miss you already.”
ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews added, “John Titta’s warmth, his humor, his kindness, his love of family, and his passion for music were infectious. He was a north star for me personally, and for all of us at ASCAP. John was instrumental in the success of so many songwriters throughout his storied career, and he shared his love of music and songwriters so freely that we all felt the joy. All of us in the ASCAP family are devastated by his passing. Titta — we love you.”
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The lifelong Staten Island resident started as a musician, songwriter and music teacher before joining Screen Gems/EMI music as a manager, signing such acts as The Smithereens and working with the legendary Carole King and Lou Reed. He then moved to PolyGram Music Publishing, where, as vp of A&R, he signed Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Pearl Jam, Brian McKnight, k.d. lang, Billy Ray Cyrus and songwriter Jimmy Webb, among others. Before joining ASCAP in 2013, where he led the membership team, he also had stints at Warner Chappell Music as senior vp/GM, where he worked with Missy Elliott, Shaggy, Bruce Hornsby, Kid Rock and many others, as well as running his own independent music publishing company and label, MPCA Music Publishing and Recordings.
He kept his creative side alive by playing on albums by Ringo Starr, Michael McDonald, Sambora and others, as well as producing and A&R’ing albums by Dionne Warwick, Todd Rundgren, Donny & Marie Osmond and others.
Tributes to Titta came pouring in on social media from top songwriters. “There’s a giant hole in the hearts of all of us who loved John Titta today. Such a huge loss,” wrote Diane Warren on Facebook. “John loved songwriters. And we loved him. Rest in Power my dear friend. There’s some pretty great songwriters up there waiting to give you a big hug.”
Sam Hollander also expressed his appreciation, writing on Facebook, “John was one of the genuinely good guys in this layered industry—a real advocate for songwriters & artists back when music was more than just algorithms. If he believed in you, he fought for you, no matter your place in the proverbial pecking order. I was blessed to have him in my corner & share decades of incredible hangs—he was just a sweet, funny, generous soul who made you feel heard.”
Titta was also a Songwriters Hall of Fame board member. “The quintessential New York Italian, John loved his family, friends — especially those who became family, music, songwriters, artists, creative talent, The Godfather films, Staten Island and life itself. He was extremely proud of being a SHOF Board member, thought of it as ‘the feather in his cap’ and was one of our most active and dedicated board members,” says Linda Moran, president/CEO of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, via email. “Even when going through personal hardships and heartaches, he always had a smile on his face and a kind word to say, so that you would never know what he was experiencing.”
Fellow board member and Universal Music Publishing Group North America president Evan Lamberg tells Billboard, “John’s love of people, artists and songwriters is unmatched. The way he cared for his friends, of which he had many, was all heart. He made a big positive difference in so many lives and we will all miss him dearly.”
Titta seemed impossibly connected to a wide swath of the entertainment community. When a luminary would die, most recently songwriters JD Souther and Kris Kristofferson and comedian Bob Newhart, he would endearingly post a photo of himself with the deceased and share a warm, personal memory on social media.
Survivors include his wife Lana, sons Alex and Julian, daughter Martine, grandson Mason, and his brother Michael. The family is planning a private service to be followed by a memorial at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the John and Rose Titta Fund, set up by Titta in memory of his parents to help children on the autism spectrum through music programs. Donations can be made through the ASCAP Foundation.
Tuesday night’s (Oct. 22) Spirit of Life annual dinner may have been the first to feature a drone light show during cocktail hour, but that was far from the only surprise at the 2024 edition that honored AEG Presents chairman and CEO Jay Marciano.
Though it had already been announced that Elton John would play to help fete Marciano, no one was expecting Celine Dion. Looking luminescent in a gorgeous black gown, the Canadian legend wowed the crowd as she introduced Marciano, whom she has known and worked with for more than 25 years.
“I know that your career has been marked by great accomplishments and has survived its share of great challenges, but it has been marked, above all, by a consistent expression of empathy, she said of Marciano. “In your leadership roles, you have shown such a generosity of spirit, a kindness and understanding of humanity that your legacy seems to be writing itself.”
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Marciano accepted his award in front of an audience of more than 1,200 attendees at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium that included a number of past Spirit of Life honorees, including Irving Azoff, Lucian Grainge, Rob Light, Sylvia Rhone, Don Passman, Jon Platt, Neil Portnow and John Sykes.
From left: John Sykes, President, Entertainment Enterprises, iHeartMedia, Inc., Jon Platt, Sylvia Rhone, CEO, Epic Records, honoree Jay Marciano, Chairman & CEO, AEG Presents, Evan Lamberg, President, MFEI & President, North America, Universal Music Publishing, Alissa Pollack, EVP, Global Music Marketing, iHeartMedia and Rob Light attend MFEI Spirit Of Life honoring Jay Marciano at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on Oct. 22, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
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Before Dion and Marciano (and John) took the stage, there was the matter of some fundraising and some fun to be had.
Following the cocktail hour, the evening opened with a mockumentary expressing deep skepticism about presenting the Spirit of Life Award to a concert promoter for the first time given how low promoters are on the music food chain, according to many of the film’s participants. The humorous fake doc, which featured Jody Gerson, Azoff, Kelsea Ballerini, Kane Brown, and many more artists and executives, also gave Marciano’s pretend origin story as an accordion player who started in the ‘70s playing with Herbie Hancock and tried to join a pre-Tears for Fears Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith in an outfit called George & The Rockets. Both Tears for Fears members were in on the joke and played their parts in the doc to Spinal Tap perfection.
The evening was hosted by comedian/Saturday Night Life alum Fred Armisen, who moved the night quickly along. He introduced David Blaine, who explained his connection to cancer was a personal one: the illusionist’s mother was diagnosed with cancer when he was 16 and died when he was 20. As he told the story beside a set of his initials that he had set ablaze, he added that “City of Hope is about putting out fires,” and then proceeded to put out the fire by spewing voluminous amounts of water from his mouth as if he had swallowed a fire hose. He also wondered into the audience for two slight-of-hand tricks that left the audience shaking its head in disbelief.
As dinner was being served, a live auction that included such items as Super Bowl tickets and a meeting with New Orleans native son Jon Batiste, a golden pass to AEG’s tentpole festivals, Coachella, Stagecoach and Jazzfest; and a Wes Lang original work of art, raised several hundred thousand dollars, greatly aided by Universal Music Group chairman Lucian Grainge and former Hipgnosis’ chairman Merck Mercuriadis, each of whom paid $100,000 for custom Rolexes that were originally gifted to Elton John and his band by AEG. Bernie Taupin was on hand to describe the auction items and help up the ante. It was all more money in the coffers of City of Hope, which the Music, Film and Entertainment Industry (MFEI) division has raised more the $160 million for since the partnership started in 1973, said Universal Music Publishing Group North American president Evan Lamberg, who is chairman of the MFEI board. He took on the new role after five years as president of the board, a position now held by iHeart’s executive vp of global music marketing Alissa Pollack, who also spoke about the Duarte, Calif.-based center, whose mission is to cure and prevent cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and other life threatening diseases.
Elton John performs onstage during MFEI Spirit Of Life honoring Jay Marciano at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on Oct. 22, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
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In his acceptance speech, Marciano joked, “I may be Elton John’s worst opening act ever. As soon as you can get me off the stage tonight, the Spirit of Life will intersect with the Circle of Life.” He then got serious about the music industry’s relationship with City of Hope, which first came to Marciano’s attention when he worked at Universal with Zach Horowitz, whose parents helped build City of Hope. “As a concert promoter, I’ve been on a lot of tours, but when I took the tour of the City of Hope campus in Duarte earlier this year to witness firsthand the comprehensive, compassionate care, it was a deeply moving and powerful experience. I’m reminded that what counts in this life: In this moment when our world is so terribly divided on too many fronts, City of Hope remains the kind of common ground we can all stand on together… Our industry is often maligned for our excesses. We’re loud, we’re narcissistic, we’re showy, but we are also very generous. When the world is facing a crisis, it’s often our industry and the people in this room that step up first to lend a helping hand.”
Marciano introduced John, who called Marciano one of the “four diamonds” in his career, and credited Marciano with his deal to for his 2004 residency at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace, which changed the face of how Las Vegas was,” and also coordinating his farewell tour. “We went out in the sunshine; I didn’t want to go out in the twilight.”
John closed the evening with a loving version of “Your Song,” a tender take on “Tiny Dancer” and an extremely robust, extended performance of “Rocket Man,” that had the crowd on its feet long before the song ended.