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Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has promoted Jennifer Knoepfle to Head of U.S. A&R, marking a major leadership shift within the company.
The announcement was made by UMPG Chairman & CEO Jody Gerson on Oct. 22, with Knoepfle reporting directly to Gerson. In her new role, Knoepfle will oversee A&R operations across the U.S., while continuing to hold her position as Executive Vice President of the company.
In this expanded role, Knoepfle is tasked with nurturing UMPG’s creative culture and driving talent development by identifying, signing, and fostering new songwriters, producers, and artists.
Her efforts will extend to legacy artists as well, ensuring that UMPG remains a leader in catalog development and contemporary hitmaking. She will be based at the company’s Santa Monica headquarters.
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“I am overjoyed to promote Jenn to this much-deserved position as Head of U.S A&R. She embodies everything a creative music executive should be; she possesses the ear to identify the best artists and writers—often early in their careers—and knows how to support, nurture and amplify their talents. Additionally, she is a thoughtful leader and mentor to our A&R team. I couldn’t be more excited to continue working with Jenn for years to come!”
As part of her expanded duties, Knoepfle has also appointed three executives to key positions within the U.S. A&R team. Daniella Rasho has been promoted to Director of Global A&R, while Deeba Abrishamchi has been named Director of U.S. A&R. Hollie Boston has also joined the company as Director of U.S. A&R.
Knoepfle commented, “Every day, I am humbled to work alongside some of the most revered musical talent in the world. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to expand my role at UMPG, where I have the privilege of working with one of the very best executives in the business, Jody Gerson. I couldn’t be more excited to take on this new chapter, growing our incredible A&R team and working with them to pursue my greatest passion: discovering and nurturing talent, which remains the lifeblood of our industry.”
Knoepfle joined UMPG in 2022 as EVP and Co-Head of U.S. A&R. Since then, she has signed a diverse roster of talent, including notable songwriters and artists like Jack Antonoff, Lord Huron, Maggie Rogers, and Wallows. Prior to UMPG, she spent 13 years at Sony Music Publishing, where she worked with artists such as Leon Bridges, Tate McRae, and Noah Kahan. Earlier in her career, she served as senior director at ASCAP, where she brought major talents like The Killers and Greg Kurstin to the organization.
UMPG continues to build its global presence with 48 offices across 40 countries, representing a vast catalog of iconic songs and hitmakers, with some of the artists represented including Adele, Billie Eilish, Bob Dylan, and The Weeknd.
A$AP Rocky is set to go to trial in Los Angeles early next year on charges that he fired a gun at a former friend and collaborator on the streets near a Hollywood hotel in 2021. The trial of the 36-year-old rapper, fashion mogul, Grammy nominee and celebrity co-chair of the next Met Gala is set to begin […]
Neon Gold and Avenue A Records have joined together to create Futures Music Group, a tech-forward collective of indie labels with an artist-first mentality.
Distributed through Virgin, Futures was co-founded by Neon Gold’s Derek Davies (Charli XCX, Tove Lo, Marina & The Diamonds, Passion Pit, Matt Maeson) and Avenue A’s Dave Wallace (Barns Courtney, Blossoms, Palace, Self Esteem) in early 2024. When the label group’s first release as Futures, “Home” by Good Neighbours, quickly went viral in January, the song quickly put the band on the map and served as a proof-of-concept for the Futures model. Perhaps the biggest debut single by any artist this year, “Home” was certified platinum in less than nine months.
The Futures roster also includes Phantogram, The Knocks, Barns Courtney, Palace and Mt. Joy, the latter of which was signed through a joint venture with the band’s own Bloom Field Records. (Good Neighbours first EP, including “Home,” are also through Futures until the band’s deal with Capitol/Polydor kicks in January 2025).
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Over time, Futures Music Group will grow to include more indie labels (and artists) under its umbrella. It also intends to build an internal team for digital marketing, sync licensing, sales, content production and more that can be shared between the individual labels.
At Futures, artists are signed to license-based deals, keeping master ownership in the artists’ hands, and the royalty split is kept equitable between the label and artist. In some instances, the split moves further into the artist’s favor after certain profit thresholds are met. This allows for what Davies calls “maximum incentive alignment” between both parties, and it rewards the artist for success.
The deal terms and options are “shorter and less onerous than most competitors,” Davies adds. “Our thing is if we do a great job, then we hope people will just keep rolling through and working with us,” says Wallace. “Keeping artists happy is the name of the game. We don’t want to work with an artist who is only working with us because of a contract. There are not many successful record campaigns that come out of a relationship where the artist is unhappy,” adds Davies.
The company also wants to do right by songwriters. The label group has pledged from now on to give points on every master to any non-producing and non-performing songwriter from the label’s share. (Exact deal points for this are handled on a case-by-case basis).
Along with their commitment to artists, Davies and Wallace of Futures have also spent the last few years studying and investing in how new technology will disrupt the music business. Davies, for his part, co-founded the start-up Medallion, which helped artists like Santigold, Greta Van Fleet, Tycho and more build and own direct relationships with their most passionate fans using web3 technology. The co-founders have also been strategic investors in Big Effect, a digital marketing platform founded by Spotify and UMG alum Mike Biggane, and Notes.fm, a royalty management platform from Stem co-founder Tim Luckow.
“We believe the future of the music industry has never been brighter for artists and the independent sector,” says Davies. “The industry has reached what we believe to be the largest inflection point in the history of the label system, as we are moving into a new music economy that is rightly trending towards artist ownership. We believe there’s a meaningful opportunity for a well-financed and resourced label group with a proven track record to deliver major results for artists on indie terms, which is what we’ve set out to build with Futures.”
The founding team includes: Davies (co-CEO), Wallace (co-CEO), Sarah Kesselman (CMO, general manager), Nicky Berger (COO) and Jeff Lin (CFO).
Thousands of musicians, composers, actors and authors from across the creative industries, including ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, all five members of Radiohead and The Cure’s Robert Smith, have signed a statement opposing artificial intelligence companies and developers using their work without a license for training generative AI systems.
Signatories also include all three major record labels — Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group — as well as a wide range of music trade organizations representing record labels, publishers and creators from the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Mexico, the U.K., Ireland, Sweden and Brazil.
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“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted,” reads the single-sentence statement posted at aitrainingstatement.org.
Within several hours of going live on Tuesday (Oct. 22), the statement had been signed by more 11,500 people from across the creative arts, including actors Kevin Bacon, Sean Astin and Rosario Dawson; authors James Patterson, Ian Rankin, Ann Patchett and Kate Mosse; and music artists Billy Bragg, Max Richter and Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora.
The global campaign was conceived and organized by Ed Newton-Rex, a British composer now based in the U.S., who has formerly held several senior executive roles at AI technology and music companies.
In 2010, Newton-Rex founded Jukedeck, a U.K.-based AI music generation company that provided music for video, TV, radio, podcasts and games. It was acquired by TikTok parent company ByteDance in 2019.
Following the acquisition, Newton-Rex, who is also a choral composer, went on to run ByteDance’s European AI Lab before becoming head of audio at tech firm Stability AI. He quit that role last year in protest of the company’s belief that it is acceptable to use copyrighted work without a license on “fair use” grounds without permission from rights holders.
Newton-Rex tells Billboard that several trade groups are supporting his campaign and helped gather signatories but have not provided funding for the initiative.
The statement comes amid increasing concern from creators and rights holders over how their works are being exploited by AI developers for generative training purposes — and how to rein those tech companies in.
Earlier this year, the three major record companies filed lawsuits against AI music firms Suno and Udio alleging the widespread infringement of copyrighted sound recordings “at an almost unimaginable scale.”
In the U.K., the government is soon to launch a consultation on how to regulate AI technology and is understood to be exploring a scheme that would allow AI companies to legally scrape copyright-protected content from artists and rights holders unless they “opt out.”
Creator groups say that any “opt out” solution would be highly damaging to the music business and would prefer an “opt in” scheme that grants rights holders the ability to approve the use of their works by AI companies.
Tech giants Google and Microsoft are meanwhile calling for the British government to soften the country’s copyright laws for AI firms and introduce an exception for text and data mining of copyrighted works, including music, for commercial purposes. Such a premise was raised by the previous Conservative government in 2022 but was abandoned a year later following strong criticism from musicians and creators.
“Copyright serves to safeguard the value of human creativity, while also driving value in the wider music and creative industries,” said Sophie Jones, chief strategy officer at U.K. labels trade body BPI, one of the organizations supporting Newton-Rex, in a statement. “If the U.K. is to remain a global creative powerhouse in an increasingly competitive world,” she continued, “the government must ensure that it is respected and enforced.”
Those views were echoed by the Association of Independent Music (AIM), which has also signed the statement.
“To achieve the benefits of AI for creativity, we urge policymakers not to lose sight of the need for strong copyright protections,” said AIM interim CEO Gee Davy in a statement on Tuesday (Oct. 22). She added that it was “vital” policymakers protect artists and rights holders “to ensure a healthy future for those who create, invest in and release music across genres and all communities, regions and nations of the U.K.”
Tuesday’s statement is just the latest salvo in the battle between generative AI companies and rights holders. In May, Sony Music released a statement warning more than 700 AI companies not to scrape the company’s copyrighted data, while Warner Music released a similar statement in July. That same month in the U.S. Senate, a bill dubbed the No FAKES Act, which aims to protect creators from AI deepfakes, was introduced by a bipartisan group of senators.
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: 2 Live Crew wins a trial to take back control of its music catalog; Young Thug’s attorney wins a decision overturning his criminal contempt conviction; Diddy faces ever more accusations of sexual abuse; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Termination Determination
2 Live Crew won a rare courtroom showdown over copyright law’s “termination right” — a crucial federal provision that allows songwriters and artists to take back the rights to their music decades after they sold them away to a company.
Termination has been at the heart of recent lawsuits involving Cher, Brian Wilson and Dwight Yoakam, and both Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment faced class actions from artists pushing to take back their music en masse. Jay-Z recently invoked termination to win back his debut album, and it was also the core issue behind a new “landmark” copyright rule issued last year about who gets paid streaming royalties.
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2 Live’s dispute kicked off in 2020 when Uncle Luke (Luther Campbell) and the heirs of two co-members invoked termination against Lil Joe Records, which bought the band’s catalog out of bankruptcy in the 1990s. The label fought back by suing the group in federal court, arguing that termination didn’t apply to the five albums at issue in the case.
Such disputes rarely reach a jury. But at a trial earlier this month, attorneys for Lil Joe argued that the protections of the bankruptcy sale had trumped any termination rights held by the members. 2 Live’s attorneys told a different story — one of “deceit and dishonesty” by Lil Joe’s owner that “wouldn’t be out of place in a Netflix movie.”
In their verdict, the jurors sided with 2 Live, allowing them to regain much of their catalog. Go read our entire story here to find out more.
Other top stories this week…
CONTEMPT CLEARED – Georgia’s Supreme Court sided with Brian Steel, an attorney serving as lead counsel to Young Thug in the rapper’s never-ending Atlanta gang trial, and reversed a ruling earlier this year that had held him in contempt of court. The decision will close a bizarre chapter in which Judge Ural Glanville sentenced Steel to 20 days in prison for refusing to reveal how he’d learned of a secret meeting between the judge and prosecutors — an incident that later saw Glanville removed from the case. But it won’t end the trial, which is already the longest in Georgia state history and has no end in sight.
PHOTOG STRIKES AGAIN – The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was hit with a lawsuit over allegations that the museum illegally displayed a copyrighted image of Van Halen snapped by veteran rock photographer Neil Zlozower. If that name sounds familiar, it should: Zlozower has filed more than fifty such lawsuits over the past decade, including cases against Universal Music Group, Spotify, Ticketmaster, Mötley Crüe and many others.
GOING HOME – Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory — a convicted drug trafficker and money-launderer involved in the early careers of rappers Jeezy and T.I. — was released from prison and will serve the remainder of his decades-long sentence in a halfway house. The rise and fall of Meech’s gang has been chronicled in 50 Cent’s Starz series BMF, on which Flenory’s son plays his father.
ALWAYS MORE DIDDY – Since you last heard from Legal Beat a week ago, there have three big developments in the story of Sean “Diddy” Combs, who currently stands accused of decades of sexual abuse:
Combs was hit with another wave of six civil lawsuits, including several alleging assaults as late as 2022 and one claiming he assaulted a 13-year-old girl. The cases were the latest from two attorneys who had already filed six such lawsuits and warned earlier this month that they represent at least 120 other alleged victims.
The new cases prompted Combs’ lawyer to ask the judge overseeing his criminal case to issue a gag order that would bar alleged victims and their attorneys from issuing “extrajudicial statements” about Combs to the press, arguing that such statements are threatening his right to a fair trial.
Separately in the criminal case, the Combs team demanded a court order forcing the government to reveal the names of his alleged sexual abuse victims, arguing he cannot fairly defend himself without knowing their identities: “The government is forcing him, unfairly, to play a guessing a game.”
RAP SCION ARRESTED – T.I.‘s 20-year-old son Clifford “King” Harris Jr. was arrested in Georgia on an open warrant stemming from 2022 charges of speeding, driving with a suspended license and DUI. The incident was sparked when King almost hit a police car as he was pulling out of a gas station; the officers reported that they smelled cannabis when they approached his car and that he was found with a gun on his hip.
Cox Media Group Orlando relaunched its WOEX Éxitos 96.5 station as HITS 96.5. The new Spanish AC format will be a hybrid of Spanish and English music featuring pop hits from the ’80s, ’90s and ’00s by artists like Michael Jackson, Ed Sheeran, Adele and Shakira. HITS 96.5 will be hosted by Spanish-speaking radio personalities including Epi Colon, Liliani Hernandez, […]
Grammy-winning producer Timbaland has taken on a new role as a strategic advisor to Suno, an AI music company that can generate full songs at the click of a button.
News of the deal comes four months after the three major music companies collectively sued Suno (and competitor Udio) for alleged infringement of their copyrighted sound recordings “at an almost unimaginable scale.”
According to a press release from Suno, Timbaland has been a “top user” of the platform for months, and this announcement formalizes his involvement with Suno. The partnership will be kicked off with Timbaland previewing his latest single “Love Again” exclusively on Suno’s platform.
Then, Suno users will be able to participate in a remix contest, which will include feedback and judging from Timbaland himself and over $100,000 in prizes for winning remixes. Timbaland will also release the top two remixes of “Love Again” on streaming services, including Spotify, Apple Music and more.
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Additionally, as part of being a strategic advisor to Suno, Timbaland will assume an “active” role in the “day-to-day product development and strategic creative direction” of new generative AI tools, says the company in a press release.
Suno is one of the most advanced generative AI music companies on the market today. Using simple text prompts, users can generate voice, lyrics and instrumentals in seconds. On May 21, Suno announced that it had raised $125 million in funding across multiple funding rounds, including investments from including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, Matrix and Founder Collective. Suno also said it had been working closely with a team of advisors, including 3LAU, Aaron Levie, Alexandr Wang, Amjad Masad, Andrej Karpathy, Aravind Srinivas, Brendan Iribe, Flosstradamus, Fred Ehrsam, Guillermo Rauch and Shane Mac.
Though many have marveled at its uncanny music-making capabilities, the music business establishment also feared that Suno might have been trained on copyrighted material without consent. (At the time, Suno declined to state what materials were in its training data, and whether or not it included copyrighted music).
Then, Billboard broke the news on June 20 that the major labels were weighing the idea of a lawsuit against Suno and Udio, alleging widespread copyright infringement of their sound recordings for the purposes of AI training. After the lawsuit was officially filed four days later, Suno and Udio then hired top law firm Latham & Watkins, and filed lengthy responses to fire back at the labels. Suno noted it was “no secret” that the company had ingested “essentially all music files of reasonable quality that are accessible on the open Internet” and that it was “fair use” to use these files.
“When I heard what Suno was doing, I was immediately curious,” says Timbaland of the partnership. “After witnessing the potential, I knew I had to be a part of it. By combining forces, we have a unique opportunity to make A.I. work for the artist community and not the other way around. We’re seizing that opportunity, and we’re going to open up the floodgates for generations of artists to flourish on this new frontier. I’m excited and grateful to Suno for this opportunity.”
“It’s an honor to work with a legend like Timbaland,” says Mikey Shulman, CEO of Suno. “At Suno, we’re really excited about exploring new ways for fans to engage with their favorite artists. With Timbaland’s guidance, we’re helping musicians create music at the speed of their ideas—whether they’re just starting out or already selling out stadiums. We couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead!”
Young Thug’s attorney Brian Steel has won a ruling at the Georgia Supreme Court overturning a trial judge’s controversial decision to hold the lawyer in criminal contempt earlier this year amid the rapper’s ongoing Atlanta gang trial.
In a decision Tuesday, the state’s top court reversed Judge Ural Glanville’s June contempt ruling, in which he had sentenced Steel to 20 days in jail for refusing to reveal how he’d learned of a secret meeting between the judge and prosecutors – an incident that later saw Glanville removed from the case.
Given that Glanville’s presence at the secret meeting was directly involved in the dispute with Steel, the Supreme Court ruled that he should have recused himself and allowed another judge to decide the attorney’s fate.
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“The exchange between Steel and Judge Glanville makes clear that Judge Glanville was involved in the controversy,” the high court wrote in its ruling. “For these reasons, a different judge should have presided over the contempt hearing, and the failure to do so requires reversal.”
Thug (Jeffery Williams) and dozens of others were indicted in May 2022 over allegations that his “YSL” was not really a record label called “Young Stoner Life” but rather a violent Atlanta gang called “Young Slime Life.” Citing Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, prosecutors claim the group operated a criminal enterprise that committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.
Months into the massive trial, Steel alerted Judge Glanville in early June that he had learned of a secret “ex parte” meeting that morning between the judge, prosecutors and a witness named Kenneth Copeland. Steel argued that such a meeting, without defense counsel present, had potentially involved coercion of a witness and was clear grounds for a mistrial.
Rather than address Steel’s complaints, Glanville instead repeatedly demanded that he divulge who had informed him about a private meeting in his chambers, suggesting the leak was illegal: “If you don’t tell me how you got this information, you and I are going to have problems.”
When Steel refused to comply, Glanville held him in contempt and sentenced him to 20 days to be served over ten consecutive weekends. After Steel filed an appeal, the Supreme Court put the sentence on pause until it was able issue its decision.
Glanville argued that the ex parte meeting had been entirely proper and repeatedly refused requests to step down from the case. But in July, after he referred the case to another judge, Glanville was ordered to step aside over concerns about how the incident would impact the “public’s confidence in the judicial system.”
The bizarre episode, which resulted in weeks-long delay before Judge Paige Reese Whitaker took over, was just one of many slow-downs in a trial that is already the longest in Georgia state history. It took an unprecedented 10-month process just to pick a jury, and the case has also been halted by the stabbing of another defendant and other unusual events.
While the slow-moving trial has dragged on, Thug has been sitting in jail for more than two years, repeatedly denied bond by both judges to handle the case over fears that he might intimidate witnesses. Prosecutors have only presented part of their vast list of potential witnesses, and the trial is expected to run well into 2025.
Last month, Whitaker appeared to reach her wits’ end with the prosecutors trying the case — complaining of “poor lawyering, “baffling” decisions and steps to repeatedly “hide the ball” amid a “haphazard” trial: “I don’t know if I can stress any more than I already have how much the state’s lawyers need to make an effort to be upfront and forthright in the trial of this case.”
Ricardo Arjona, the Guatemalan singer/songwriter who has defined Latin music as much for his signature songwriting permeated in storytelling as for his longstanding history of sell-out tours, has signed an exclusive, worldwide distribution deal with Interscope Capitol Labels Group.
Under the new agreement—signed via his label, Metamorfosis, which he created in 2011—Arjona’s vast catalog of nearly 300 songs, plus his future releases, will fall under Interscope Capitol Labels Group, Billboard can reveal. Likewise, Arjona will now be part of the label’s roster.
Arjona’s move to Interscope Capitol follows stints with Sony Music, which was his longtime label and most recently distributed him, and Warner Music.
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The partnership with Interscope Capitol will launch with Arjona’s new studio album, SECO, slated for release in early 2025. The album was written during a difficult time for Arjona, when he was wheelchair bound after a back injury at the end of his tour last December and thought he would no longer be able to perform.
In that period, he wrote “Todo termina,” (Everything Ends). The song is one of three singles from SECO that will be released in November; the other two are “Despacio que hay prisa” and “Todo termina”. Plans call for two additional singles to be released in December, before Arjona kicks off 2025 with a SECO residency in New York and his native Guatemala.
Arjona, whose chart history dates back 30 years, to 1994, has placed five No. 1s and 18 top 10s on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart. His last entry on the chart was in 2016. On Top Latin Albums, he’s placed five No. 1s and 15 top 10s. His latest album, released in 2022, peaked at No. 46 on the chart.
But Arjona’s musical output continues to be prolific and his touring record continues to be extraordinary. Last year alone, he landed at No. 11 on Billboard’s year-end Latin touring chart, selling 224,341 tickets and grossing $27.3 million, according to Billboard Boxscore. He is currently the No. 15 highest-grossing Latin touring act of all time, according to Boxscore.
“I speak on behalf of the entire Metamorfosis team when I say we are deeply motivated and profoundly appreciative to collaborate with Interscope Capitol Labels Group,” comments Ricardo Arjona Torres, who is Arjona’s son and runs Metamorfosis. “This resilient team not only showcases a curated and dynamic array of artists but also truly understands their vision.”
“We are incredibly honored to welcome Ricardo Arjona to the Interscope Capitol family. As one of the most iconic artists in the Spanish-speaking world, Ricardo has shaped the musical landscape in ways that transcend generations. We are committed to promoting his legendary catalog while partnering with him on the exciting projects he has in the works,” said Nir Seroussi, executive vice president at Interscope Capitol Labels Group.
“This partnership isn’t just a milestone—it’s a testament to our commitment to artistry, passion, and pushing boundaries,” added Jose Cedeño, SVP of Interscope Capitol Labels Group in Miami. “Ricardo Arjona’s music weaves deep connections between people, and together, we aim to amplify that reach,” he added.
When Warner Music Nashville released Cody Johnson‘s collaboration with Carrie Underwood, excited programmers took note, giving the ballad enough first-week spins that it debuted at No. 21 on the Country Airplay chart dated Oct. 12.
Parmalee took note, too, but the band was far less enthusiastic. Guitarist Josh McSwain texted lead singer Matt Thomas about what seemed a potential threat. Johnson’s single, “I’m Gonna Love You,” had almost exactly the same title and lyrical hook as “Gonna Love You,” a Parmalee ballad that had reached the top 10 on that same chart, just 11 slots ahead of Johnson and Underwood. Thomas was mildly stressed about it until he was able to give it a listen.
“I think I would have been a lot more concerned if we weren’t moving up in the top 10 and the song’s researching and doing well,” Thomas says. “If we’d have heard it was coming out right before ours dropped, then it’d be like, ‘Shit.’”
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There’s no legal issue at play — songwriters live by the general rule that titles can’t be copyrighted — but the programming ramifications are significant. Country broadcasters make an effort to keep the sound of their stations changing, while staying within the perceived boundaries of the format. Playing the same title back-to-back is the opposite of variety. Programmers have periodically faced the issue for years, though many outside of radio may not have contemplated it before.
One harsh scenario from 1982 illustrates the potential consequences. The music scheduling software at WKHK New York inserted a Dolly Parton & Willie Nelson duet, “Everything’s Beautiful (In Its Own Way),” next to Ray Stevens‘ “Everything Is Beautiful.” The programmer eyed the comparable titles and ran a line through Stevens’ single, costing it a spin.
“That is heartbreaking right there,” Thomas says.
That scenario is a bit different, though, than Parmalee’s situation. The Parton/Nelson single was current in ’82, while Stevens’ record was 12 years old. A gold title losing a single spin wouldn’t hurt anyone’s chart position and was unlikely to make much difference in Stevens’ royalties as a songwriter. In fact, programmers generally make an effort to keep their current singles’ spins at their assigned rotation, even if similarities in individual singles create separation hurdles.
“A great example, maybe more so than title separation, is artist separation,” WWWF Farmingdale, N.Y., PD Patrick Shea says. “When you’ve got 14 Morgan Wallen songs and 14 Post Malone songs, how do you make them work? You don’t want to lose spins, because they’re all good and they’re all researching really well, so you juggle to the very best of your ability to make sure that those songs are all getting heard.”
The issue arises more often than one might expect. Jelly Roll‘s”I Am Not Okay” is sharing space on many current playlists with Megan Moroney‘s “Am I Okay?” Meanwhile, Johnson’s “Dirt Cheap” and Justin Moore‘s “This Is My Dirt,” two songs with plots and sentiments that were even more similar than their titles, rose through the chart at the same time. KUZZ Bakersfield, Calif., had both of those titles among the seven singles that were simultaneously in heavy rotation.
“If those are the two of the seven best songs we can play,” KUZZ PD Brent Michaels says, “we’re going to do it, even though thematically — and even sonically, a little bit — they’re sort of the same.”
Labels pay attention to those kinds of details, particularly if the titles emerge from the same firm. Triple Tigers issued a Jordan Fletcher focus track, “Fall in the Summer,” to digital service providers in July, just two months after releasing Scotty McCreery‘s “Fall of Summer” to radio. Executives considered the problem, then shrugged it off.
“How many times has the song ‘Gone’ been written by how many different artists?” Fletcher asks rhetorically. “Or ‘Wasted Time?’ Or, you know, ‘Love Me Tomorrow’? How many times have those names been rewritten and connected with different people in different ways, and nobody gave it a second thought?”
Likewise, Warner Music Nashville released Tyler Braden‘s “Devil You Know” while it was already working Ashley McBryde‘s “Devil I Know” earlier this year. It wasn’t the original game plan — consumption spurred WMN to send Braden’s “Devil” to radio — but programming partners didn’t protest the move.
“If I’m being honest, that shocked me,” Team WMN vp of radio Anna Cage says. “I myself thought that there might be an issue there. But at the end of the day, they’re two completely different songs. Obviously, one’s a female vocal, one’s a male vocal, even though they have the same anecdotal ‘Devil You Know,”Devil I Know.’”
It might create some branding issues, she allows, if consumers search for the song by title online and don’t know the artist’s name. It’s not a concern with Braden and McBryde.
“It wouldn’t take long for them to realize, ‘This isn’t the one I was looking for,’ ” she says.
Programmers are prepared to manually create separation if the titles appear in the same window. Shea would want them in separate quarter-hours, though with the two “Gonna Love You” singles, their tempo already solves that problem: His rotations only allow one ballad per 15-minute sweep. Michaels has even less of an issue — both songs are among the 11 titles KUZZ has in medium rotation, and they play in order. One is slotted at No. 1 in that tier, while the other is entered at No. 6; they automatically appear about four hours apart.
“Right away, we tried to separate those,” Michaels says, “so they didn’t come up too close to one another.”
So even though those repetitive titles get noticed on Music Row and in station music meetings, they may not be the obstacle one might expect.
“I don’t think it’s a radio programming problem,” Shea says. “I think it’s a radio nerd problem because I don’t think your average listener is going to notice anything at all.”
Still, one music nerd understood the conundrum in a heartbeat. Asked about “I’m Gonna Love You” mirroring the Parmalee title, Johnson was immediately sympathetic.
“That was not intentional,” he says. “If you know those guys, tell ’em, ‘My bad.’”
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