Business
Page: 123
Carín León, the soulful yet big-voiced regional Mexican singer who ended 2023 as the 10th highest-grossing Latin touring act of the year on Billboard’s Boxscore charts, has announced a new partnership between his label, Socios Music, and Virgin Music Group and Island Records.
The deal is unique in that both Virgin and Island will distribute and market León’s product under Socios Music, the label León formed in partnership with his manager, Jorge Juárez. Virgin will distribute and market everywhere for the U.S. Latin market as well as global markets, while Island will work the U.S. mainstream market. The agreement encompasses parts of León’s back catalog as well as new material, including León’s most recent album, Boca Chueca, Vol. 1 (released May 30), which debuted at No. 5 on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Albums chart and No. 8 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart.
To date, León has placed 16 songs on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart, including three in the top 10, and six No. 1s on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart. The hits include numerous collaborations with major Mexican music acts like Grupo Firme, as well as pop acts like Maluma, Camilo and Kany García. León has also raised eyebrows (in a good way) with his forays into the country music market. “The One (Pero No Como Yo),” his bilingual collab with country star Kane Brown, peaked at No. 46 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, and he played Stagecoach this spring in addition to making his debut at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
“Carín León has established himself as one of the most exciting and creative artists in the world today,” said JT Myers and Nat Pastor, co-CEOs of Virgin Music Group, in a statement. “He has also assembled around him a world-class team and together we are already building upon the amazing work they’ve done throughout Carín’s incredible career.”
“Carín León is a true outlier,” said Justin Eshak and Imran Majid, Co-CEOs of Island Records. “He transcends not only stylistic and sonic boundaries, but also cultural boundaries. We’re thrilled to work with Carín and manager Jorge Juarez via this new partnership with Virgin Music Group and Socios Music.”
León first appeared on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart as a soloist in 2019 with “Me la aventé” and, during the pandemic, scored a major hit with his cover of Latin pop song “Tu,” recorded as a live session during lockdown. Initially signed to indie Tamarindo Rekordsz, in December 2022 he began working with Juárez, a veteran concert promoter and manager.
Juárez negotiated last year’s tour with AEG Live and León’s publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group, as well as the new deal with Virgin and Island.
“We are proud to have assembled an incredibly collaborative team at both Virgin Music Group and Island Records to work alongside us to take Carín’s career to even greater heights,” said Jorge Juarez, Leon’s manager and business partner at Socios Music. “We are already seeing huge benefits from this new partnership and are excited for the future.”
In support of the new music, Carín’s forthcoming Boca Chueca Tour 2024 kicks off July 22 in Paso Robles, California, with stops in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Nashville, Houston and Toronto, as well as a landmark performance at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. See the complete list of dates and tickets here.
Spotify has officially unveiled a basic premium tier for users who prefer not to pay extra for audiobooks, the company announced Friday (June 21). The plan is priced at $10.99 — $1 less than its premium individual plan, which includes 15 hours of audiobook listening time per month.
The reveal of the basic tier, which Spotify teased during its Q1 earnings call in April, follows the company’s June 3 announcement that it would be raising prices in the United States for a second consecutive year. Starting in July, its premium individual plan will bump up to the $11.99 price point, while its duo plan will rise to $16.99 a month (up from $15.99) and its family plan will spike $3 to $19.99 a month.
The news also follows a recent Bloomberg report that Spotify plans to roll out a high-fidelity audio tier later this year for $5 more per month than its premium individual plan.
Trending on Billboard
Shares of Spotify rose 1.5% to $317.86 this week, marking their third consecutive weekly gain. On Friday alone, the stock gained more than 1.2%.
The new tier comes amid a pitched battle between Spotify and music publishers following the streamer’s decision to reclassify its premium offerings as “bundles,” which qualifies those plans for a discounted rate on mechanical royalties in the United States. According to Billboard estimates, publishers and songwriters will earn roughly $150 million less in royalties in the first year following the change.
On May 15, nearly one month after the bundles were first reported, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) sent Spotify a cease and desist letter for allegedly hosting unlicensed lyrics, music videos and podcast content on the service. The following day, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (the MLC) sued the streaming company, alleging it had “improperly” classified its premium tiers as bundles.
Later in May, NMPA president/CEO David Israelite sent a letter to Judiciary Committee leadership in both the U.S. House and Senate asking for an overhaul of the statutory license in section 115 of the Copyright Act, which “prevents private negotiations in a free market” for mechanical royalty rates for songwriters and music publishers in the United States. At the NMPA’s annual meeting on June 12, Israelite announced that the organization had filed an official complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and sent letters to the attorneys general for nine states along with consumer trade groups, alleging Spotify has violated the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (“ROSCA”), section 5 of the FTC Act and other consumer protection laws.
Spotify has hit back at the various actions taken by the NMPA, at various points calling its accusations “baseless” and “misleading.” Of the MLC lawsuit, the streamer argued that “bundles were a critical component” of the Phono IV agreement struck between publishers and streaming services, that “multiple DSPs include bundles as part of their mix of subscription offerings” and that it “paid a record amount to publishers and [collecting] societies in 2023 and is on track to pay out an even larger amount in 2024.”
James Dolan, executive chairman/CEO of MSG Entertainment, will lead the New York-based live events company for another three years. Dolan received a new contract that will keep him at MSG Entertainment through June 2027, the company revealed on Friday (June 21) in a regulatory filing. Dolan, who is also the CEO of both MSG Sports […]
SiriusXM had its best week since December 2023 this week, leading all music stocks in a week when the losers outnumbered the winners two to one. Shares of the company jumped 12.3% to $2.93 following the company’s decision to conduct a 1-for-10 reverse stock split when it merges with the Liberty Media SiriusXM Group tracking stock later this year. SiriusXM gained 16.4% in the week ended Dec. 15, 2023.
The reverse split is meant to boost SiriusXM’s beleaguered share price. After years of steady growth in its satellite radio business, the company has suffered declines in both revenue and satellite subscribers as it attempts to build a competitive streaming service. The company lost 445,000 self-pay subscribers in 2023 — a 1% decline — and experienced a 1.4% drop in the first quarter of 2024. The revamped streaming app launched in December at $9.99 per month, about half the average revenue per user generated from satellite radio subscriptions in 2023.
SiriusXM was the only music stock to post a double-digit gain this week and one of only six stocks in the 20-company Billboard Global Music Index to see growth. With 13 stocks declining and one — French music company Believe — unchanged, the index fell 0.3% to 1,814.88. On average, live music stocks fared the best with an average gain of 0.6%. Other segments posted declines: streaming stocks fell 3.7%, radio stocks dropped 2.9%, and record labels and publishers dipped 1.3%.
Trending on Billboard
Live Nation rose 4.7% to $92.96, its highest closing price since June 5. The company’s shares are down 8.3% since the Department of Justice brought an antitrust lawsuit that seeks to break up its concert promotion and ticketing operations, but it’s held steady since an initial post-lawsuit drop. Friday’s closing price was just 52 cents below the price the day after the lawsuit was announced on May 23.
Shares of Spotify rose 1.5% to $317.86 to mark their third successive weekly gain. Cost-cutting and price-hiking have helped Spotify’s stock gain 69.2% in 2024 and 101.8% in the last 52 weeks. There was more price-related news on Friday (June 21) as Spotify revealed a new “basic” plan in the United States, which costs $10.99 per month and offers users a plan that doesn’t include audiobooks. The “premium individual” plan includes both music and 15 hours of audiobook listening for $11.99 per month, while the “audiobook access” tier provides 15 hours of audiobook listening and the ad-supported music service for $9.99 per month.
iHeartMedia was the index’s worst performer after dropping 17.4% to $1.00. The radio giant’s stock is down 62.5% year to date amidst a weak radio advertising market and steady growth at competing streaming services. LiveOne fell 12.6% to $1.59, bringing its year-to-date gain to 13.6%.
Music was outperformed by broader indexes as stocks reached new highs this week. On Thursday (June 20), the S&P 500 set a new all-time high of 5,503.53 and the Nasdaq composite reached a new high of 17,936.79. For the week, the S&P 500 rose 0.6% to 5,464.62 and the Nasdaq composite was barely above breakeven at 17,689.36. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 rose 1.1% to 8,237.72. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 0.9% to 2,784.26. China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.1% to 2,998.14.
It was a special Juneteenth for Allison Russell.
Not only did she serve as the special Toronto opener for Sarah McLachlan on the Canadian icon’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy 30th-anniversary tour, but she earned another big honor: Billboard Canada Women In Music Breakthrough Artist of the Year.
“It’s an honor to be acknowledged for the work that I’m doing and that we’re all doing together,” said the singer-songwriter when she was presented with the award in an interview with iHeartRadio Pure Country host Shannon Ella on Wednesday (June 19).
“There’s still such an imbalance in our industry, and it’s [an important moment] to be here speaking with you on Juneteenth [the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in America], which is a significant date because I’m not just a woman, I’m a queer Black woman,” she says.
Born and raised in Montreal but living and working in Nashville, Allison Russell has been an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and a vital voice for the representation of Black women in country, roots and Americana music. As her platform has gotten bigger, she’s used it to benefit her whole community.
Trending on Billboard
And it has gotten much bigger. This year, Russell won her first Grammy for best American roots performance for her song “Eve Was Black” and performed at the ceremony, playing clarinet and singing with none other than Joni Mitchell. She also made her Billboard Hot 100 debut with “Wildflower and Barley,” a duet with Hozier, who she’s also been touring with.
On those big stages, she’s usually playing with The Rainbow Coalition Band — a talented ensemble of Black and POC, queer and historically marginalized musicians.
“I make a point of playing with all women and gender-diverse folks on stage,” Russell says. “I do that because there is such an imbalance. It’s still a remarkable, unusual thing. No one says it’s so crazy that it’s just a bunch of dudes up there.”
More winners will be announced over the summer, culminating with the Billboard Canada Women In Music celebration on September 7. – Richard Trapunski
Read more from the interview at ca.billboard.com.
Music Publishers Canada Names 2024 Women in the Studio National Accelerator Class
There’s a gender imbalance behind the scenes in Canadian music, and Music Publishers Canada (MPC)’s Women in the Studio National Accelerator aims to address it.
Recently released statistics have confirmed the major gender gap that exists in multiple facets of the Canadian music industry, and this is especially glaring in the field of music production.
The Women In The Studio program fosters professional growth and advancement of talented producer-songwriters from across Canada. MPC has announced all six participants for this year’s program: Alysha Brilla from Toronto, Cat Hiltz from Vancouver, Charmie from Toronto, Jinting (Jinting Zhao) from Edmonton, JoJo Worthington from Montreal and Samantha Selci from Toronto.
Now in its sixth year, the program offers participants a series of curated workshops, skills training and networking opportunities with music industry leaders. The goal is to equip them with skills and connections crucial for their advancement in the music industry.
The accelerator will run virtually from June to December and include creative collaborations and an in-person residency week in Toronto in August. It focuses on topics including technical skills, financial literacy, music business skills and branding. Participants have also committed to exploring volunteer opportunities within their own communities.
Music Publishers Canada CEO Margaret McGuffin said in a statement that “with the help of our program partners and industry network, we are looking forward to breaking down some of the barriers that exist for this group of talented producers and give them the support they need to enter the next phase of their careers.” – Kerry Doole
Country Singer Bayker Blankenship Debuts on Billboard Canadian Hot 100 With ‘Maxed Out’
A new country artist is making his mark on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 this week.
Bayker Blankenship of Livingston, Tenn., has landed on the chart for the first time with “Maxed Out,” a melancholy tune about being down on your luck and low on available credit. With a relaxed pace and a touch of grit in Blankenship’s voice, the song strikes a poignant tone.
The song has been gaining steam online, appearing on Spotify’s Viral 50 USA playlist as well as charting on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts, though it hasn’t hit the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 yet. But that doesn’t mean it won’t soon — another viral artist, Lay Bankz, hit the Canadian Hot 100 earlier this year before she landed on its U.S. counterpart.
The song is only Blankenship’s second single, following 2021’s “Can’t Get Enough,” but the singer has built an impressive following online. He boasts nearly half a million followers on TikTok, where he posts his song clips as well as covers of songs by country stars like Zach Bryan and Dylan Gossett. Blankenship, who is releasing with Santa Anna Label Group, could join their ranks soon if he can keep up the momentum.
Meanwhile, breakout country singer Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” retakes the top spot on the Canadian Hot 100 this week. The Beyoncé collaborator has hit No. 1 in Canada, which he has yet to do on the American Hot 100. – Rosie Long Decter
Global investment firm KKR has agreed to acquire the European festivals organizer Superstruct Entertainment from Providence Equity Partners, it was announced on Friday (June 21). Superstruct — which organizes Sziget, the Budapest music festival that’s one of Europe’s largest, and Wacken Open Air, the world’s largest heavy metal festival held in Germany — was founded […]
In May, Taylor Swift notched her 14th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with the help of 14 different vinyl versions of The Tortured Poets Department, which sold an astounding 859,000 units in the album’s debut week. She has now stayed atop the Billboard 200 for eight consecutive weeks by rolling out additional variants, proving the pop megastar has mastered the art of giving superfans what they want.
Swift isn’t alone in upping her variant game. Luminate looked at the number of physical variants — defined as distinct UPCs per project — in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart each week since the beginning of 2019 and found that the amount has trended upwards since that year, when the average number of physical variants in the top 10 was 3.3 per week, according to data shared with Billboard. While that number fell to 2.8 per week in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on release schedules and supply chains — physical album sales also fell, from 73.5 million units in 2019 to 68 million units in 2020 due to a sharp drop in CD sales — the average number of physical variants in the top 10 has increased sharply in the post-pandemic years.
Trending on Billboard
Making albums available in different colors, formats and packages has proven to be a shrewd move for prominent artists aiming for the top of the chart. In 2021, Adele’s 30 debuted atop the Billboard 200 with a Target-exclusive CD, vinyl exclusives at Amazon and Walmart, and three items sold through her official webstore: a cassette and two deluxe boxed sets.
Like she did with The Tortured Poets Department, Swift has frequently topped the Billboard 200 with the help of physical variants. Her 2022 album Midnights had the biggest week for an album in nearly seven years. And in 2023, her 1989 (Taylor’s Version) had the biggest week in nearly a decade with the help of 15 collectible physical formats.
Also in 2023, Travis Scott’s Utopia reached No. 1 thanks to 84 variants, as the album was made available in three different track lists and multiple CD and LP variants including zine and merchandise bundles. The same year, Fall Out Boy’s So Much (for) Stardust had a whopping 116 physical variants, according to Luminate, although it reached only No. 6 on Billboard 200.
CD variants have helped numerous K-pop artists achieve high Billboard 200 debuts. K-pop fans have long clamored for collectibles from their favorite artists, and in South Korea, labels employ lottery-style marketing strategies and package CDs with merchandise — even though many fans don’t own a CD player. In March, With YOU-th by TWICE debuted atop the Billboard 200 with the help of 14 CD variants. “To the fans, it’s not just an issue of buying music,” Bernie Cho, the head of DFSB Kollective, a Korean music export agency, told Billboard in 2020. “You’re showing your loyalty.”
But physical variants aren’t the exclusive domain of albums popular enough to land in the top 10. “For certain records, multiple variants can support a chart position, but it’s not the main driver for Concord,” says Joe Dent, executive vp of operations at Concord Label Group.
“Fans want to support their favorite artists of course, but oftentimes they want to support a particular shop or webstore that they love as well,” Dent continues. “We strive to meet those fans wherever they are.” For example, Concord’s Rounder Records made vinyl variants of Sierra Ferrell’s Trail of Flowers available as exclusives to indie record stores, Magnolia Record Club and Spotify Fans First, while several other vinyl variants sold through her website and the Rounder Records webstore, says Dent.
AWAL, home to such indie artists as Laufey and JVKE, has a similar mindset. “The way we look at physical never starts with the commercial opportunity,” says CEO Lonny Olinick. “It starts with how the artist wants to express themselves and what the fans are likely to love. And what it really comes down to is how an artist can deepen the connection they have with their fans.”
Variants can also be a marketing strategy for catalog albums that aren’t likely to achieve a high chart position. “We use the variants as an opportunity to excite the market,” says Rell Lafargue, president/COO at Reservoir Music. “For example, if we have something that has been out of print for decades, we might want to do a color variant to reintroduce it into the marketplace as a new, distinct and fun physical product.” Reservoir’s Tommy Boy Records took this approach for the upcoming reissue of Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force’s 1986 album Planet Rock by opting for a limited edition pressing with a three-color splatter.
Each additional variant adds to the complexity of releasing an album. That challenge was exacerbated by COVID-related supply chain issues, leading to longer lead times and searches for alternate manufacturers. But while logistical challenges remain, says Lafargue, they aren’t as persistent. “While it can be challenging to manage multiple variants or exclusives instead of a singular version, it is worth the extra effort to expose the record to different retailers and get it into the hands of even more fans,” he says.
The proliferation of physical variants doesn’t come as a surprise. Streaming has made music both plentiful and easily accessible — almost to a fault. Some artists are now releasing physical albums a week or two before making them available on streaming platforms. So while chart position remains a big motivator for many, there’s also something to be said for the way physical variants can foster a feeling of closeness between artists and fans.
Artists “look to cut through the volume of digital music being released,” says Olinick. “Bringing that connection into the real world, whether through live shows or physical products, is hugely impactful.”
Now that it’s officially summer, we can start calling 2024 the summer of BRAT. Charli XCX’s sixth studio album, released June 7 on Atlantic Records, has taken the internet, and dance floors, by storm, spawning memes, jokes and posts galore, all colored the fluorescent “brat green” on social media — and that’s before you even get to the music. The record itself is a triumph of dance-pop that has not only ignited Charli’s legions of fans but brought her the biggest debut week of her career, having moved 82,000 equivalent album units in the United States to debut at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
It’s a testament to the groundswell of support that Charli has cultivated, and that her management team, creative and design teams, and label Atlantic Records have helped nurture. The album arrived with 14 different vinyl variants and a number of exclusive editions, helping to sell 45,000 copies (the biggest sales week of Charli’s career) while becoming nearly inescapable in the cultural discourse. It also proved that Charli is a true innovator who’s much more than the “Boom Clap” and “I Love It” hits of a decade ago, or even the songwriting superstar she’s been for other artists throughout her career. All that hype and success has helped Atlantic’s vp of marketing Marisa Aron earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Trending on Billboard
Here, Aron discusses the marketing plan and rollout of BRAT, how Charli helped build hype for the album more than a year ago and the groundswell of support — including a gigantic record-store listening party at more than 170 stores across the country three days before the album’s release — that led into BRAT’s debut. But just as the solstice has only passed this week, there’s much more to come: as Aron puts it, “BRAT Summer has just begun.”
This week, Charli XCX’s BRAT debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 82,000 equivalent album units, her biggest first week ever. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
The success of BRAT is a testament to Charli’s incredible artistry and vision. She not only created the most culturally important pop and dance album of the year but also delivered a masterclass in artistic direction and marketing strategy. Charli has an amazing team, and together with the unwavering support from our team at Atlantic we all worked to execute her vision to the fullest. Our key decision? To trust her implicitly. We fully embraced her vision, her plan, her ideas and helped her bring BRAT to life.
What was the overall marketing plan for the release?
The marketing plan for BRAT is all about amplifying Charli’s authentic voice and connecting directly with her fans. We knew we had an incredibly important album on our hands, one that was innovative, bold, fun, loud and would create a lot of conversation. We wanted to put together a campaign that captured that energy and put BRAT into the cultural zeitgeist. The plan doesn’t end with the album release; stay tuned, there is a lot more to come.
The album also sold 45,000 copies, her largest sales week ever, including 14 different vinyl variants. What was your guys’ approach to physical for this album, and how did it pay off?
The physical release plan was so much fun to put together. It was a collaborative effort between Charli; [creative director] Imogene; design team SPECIAL OFFER, Inc.; Charli’s management team; and our team at Atlantic. From the start, we wanted to create a series of limited-edition drops that would keep fans excited throughout the campaign. It was important that each variant felt unique and special both in design and in the rollout.
We started the campaign ahead of the album and artwork announcement with the limited edition 360_brat vinyl, released at first only to Charli’s followers on her private Instagram. This moment helped set the tone for the rest of the campaign. When the official album pre-order went live, we partnered with major retailers like Target and Urban Outfitters, as well as local record stores, Blood Records and more to create exclusive variants that gave fans more options to choose from.
On Tuesday, June 4th, we unleashed BRAT into the world a little early. Thousands of Charli’s fans went to their local record stores for a first listen, three days before the official release. It was a massive undertaking — Atlantic’s biggest listening event campaign ever — with 179 stores across the country.
BRAT’s physical release wasn’t just about sales figures; it was about creating a deeper connection with fans. From the unique packaging that you have to rip into to get to the music, to the events and limited-edition drops, it is a reminder that in the digital age, the physical album can still be a powerful, personal and meaningful experience.
This album almost immediately became a cultural touchstone, and was a huge talking point online, with fans making memes of the cover art and the color palette seemingly everywhere. What was your approach to the digital marketplace for the project?
The BRAT campaign started in February when Charli threw a legendary Boiler Room in Brooklyn with A. G. Cook, George Daniel, Finn Keane and Doss, drawing a record-breaking 40,000 RSVPs — the most in the history of Boiler Room. There were surprise appearances from Addison Rae and Julia Fox. This was the first time people got to hear a few tracks from the forthcoming album, turning it into one of the year’s most viral moments and really setting the tone for what was to come.
The approach was about creating really memorable moments both online and in real life, from surprise DJ sets, exclusive Club Angel events, single reworks with Addison Rae, Robyn, Yung Lean, Skream and Benga to one of the most talked about music videos of the year (“360”) and so much more. We carefully planned out the timing of it all.
The “brat green” that we all have filling our timelines right now goes back to Charli’s brilliant vision for BRAT artwork. Once the artwork was revealed fans started to recreate it themselves, which inspired us to launch the brat generator. From there, it really started to take on a life of its own. We continued to incorporate brat green throughout all the marketing. One of the most fun pre-album moments in the campaign happened in Brooklyn a few days before “360” was released. Terry [from the digital team] had an amazing idea of painting a huge wall “brat green” during a livestream, and thus the “brat wall” was born.
It’s been 12 years since Charli first hit the Hot 100 top 10 with her feature on Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” and 10 years since Charli’s first solo Hot 100 top 10 with “Boom Clap.” Her career feels bigger now than it’s ever been. How did you energize those day one fans and pull in new ones for the run-up to this release?
Speaking from my own experience, it honestly is just really fun to be a Charli fan. For example, a full year before the album campaign even started Charli brilliantly started a new private Instagram account, @360_brat. What goes down on that account is strictly confidential, so I won’t give too much away. But Charli’s early vision and authenticity has made BRAT an undeniable phenomenon which really resonated with her early fans, and then throughout the campaign brought new fans in.
Steve Aoki‘s longstanding Dim Mak label has a new president, with Lorne Padman — the imprint’s vp for the last decade — assuming the position. In the role, the Los Angeles-based Padman will oversee strategy for the imprint, which was founded by Aoki in 1996 while he was a student at UC Santa Barbara.
The current Dim Mak roster includes producers like Henry Fong, Chyl, Ookay, Deorro, Cash Cash, Cheyenne Giles, Sikdope, 4B and more, with upcoming releases from Ray Ray, Mila Falls, Nostalgix and Aoki and Afrojack’s collaborative Afroki project, among others.
“Throughout Lorne’s ten years as vice president, he has been an integral part of the label’s success story,” Aoki tells Billboard. “His ability to cultivate strong relationships within the industry has been critical in elevating the reputation of Dim Mak’s brand. I’m confident that Lorne’s leadership and hard work will continue to steer the label toward further growth and excellence.”
Trending on Billboard
Padman tells Billboard that for him, the label’s health and vibrancy is demonstrated by the fact that artists from across the roster collaborate often, without being pushed to by management. “For me,” he says, “that’s an indication we must be doing something right, if we’re creating an ecosystem of talent that all want to work with each other and get along socially and musically.”
These artists make many different styles of electronic music, with Dim Mak focused less on cultivating a specific sound and more on releasing compelling, relevant output. The idea, Padman says, is to offer a “complementary roster of different sounds, from really fresh underground and cool and new. But also, a bit like a financial portfolio, you can’t only be taking moonshots, you also need to have some established things that will guard our reputation and can also financially open the possibility of being able to take swings at emerging artists.”
Taking swings is built into Dim Mak’s business model, with the label’s New Noise imprint having released music from a totally new artist every two weeks for the last decade. This structure offers artists with what is often their first official release, providing them with the Dim Mak visibility boost while helping the label identify emerging sounds and trends. Altogether, Padman says, it’s “an avenue to market for development artists that are potentially too small for some other other labels.”
Padman brings decades of experience to the role, having DJ’d in Australia for 18 years. (“With only six Saturday off,” he says.) He was part of the development teams for the first releases by Avicii and The Chainsmokers and also has experience in management, radio, television, production and songwriting.
This history gives him the ability to speak the same language as artists and offer feedback in technical terms. But, he says, “I only ever feel like I have 49% of the vote” regarding the creative decisions any artist or member of the team — which includes staff across A&R, video, marketing, social media and art direction — should make.
“I want the artists to feel good and empowered, and I definitely don’t want to feel like Dim Mak is a distributor and that we’re not adding any value,” he says. “But at the same time, I don’t want them to feel like they’re being told what to be, because they have to choose that themselves.”
Padman’s previous label experience includes a run as national promotions and label manager at Australia’s Vicious Recordings, where he was working when he met Aoki. “At that time I felt Vicious was quite successful,” Padman says, “then Steve said something to the effect of, ‘But no one’s wearing a Vicious t-shirt.’ That stuck in my head. People will wear Dim Mak shirts and get Dim Mak tattoos, but no one’s wearing Sony or Warner or Universal or Republic shirts. There are labels and lifestyle labels. I always have to keep cognizant of the fact that Dim Mak is a lifestyle label.”
Padman also has a close working relationship with the dance/electronic categories at the Grammys, having co-authored proposals including the one that introduced the Dance Pop category to last year’s awards.
“I’ve always felt that it’s about reputation more than anything really,” he says of his and Dim Mak’s position in the wider industry ecosystem. “I’ve always felt like that if I can live my life through the four principles [of coaching expert Dan Sullivan] of showing up on time, doing what I say I’ll do, finishing what I started and saying please and thank you, then I’m going to be referable.”
Ye (formerly Kanye West) has finalized a settlement with the estate of Donna Summer to resolve a copyright lawsuit that accused him of “shamelessly” using her 1977 hit “I Feel Love” without permission in his song “Good (Don’t Die).”
In court filings on Thursday, attorneys for both sides said they had “entered into a settlement agreement that is a full and final settlement of all of the claims in the action” and that each side would pay its own legal bills from the dispute. Neither side immediately returned requests for more information on the specific terms of the agreement.
The final settlement, first announced in court filings last month, comes less than four months after Summer’s estate sued the rapper for allegedly interpolating her track in “Good,” which he released on his chart-topping Vultures 1 album.
Trending on Billboard
Making good on threats to sue issued publicly weeks earlier, the estate’s attorneys claimed at the time that the rapper had “shamelessly used instantly recognizable portions” of her song in his track, despite the fact that her estate had already “explicitly denied” him authorization to do so.
“Summer’s estate … wanted no association with West’s controversial history and specifically rejected West’s proposed use,” her attorneys write. “In the face of this rejection, defendants arrogantly and unilaterally decided they would simply steal ‘I Feel Love’ and use it without permission.”
The Summer estate’s lawyers say Ye re-recorded “almost verbatim” the key portions of her song and then used them as the hook for his own. The estate claims the songs were so similar that fans and critics “instantly recognized” his track as a “blatant rip-off.” The lawsuit also named album collaborator Ty Dolla $ign (Tyrone William Griffin Jr.) as a defendant.
Before the case was even filed, “Good” had been pulled from streaming platforms and removed from digital download versions of the album. As of Friday, the song is still not included on Vultures 1 on Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music, though it’s available on YouTube from unofficial accounts.
It is unclear if Thursday’s settlement will allow Ye’s song to return to official circulation, or merely resolve the allegations of past copyright infringement over its initial use of Summer’s song. Attorneys for Ye, Ty Dolla and the estate did not respond to messages asking about the status of the song.
But at least in their initial lawsuit, the Summer estate did not seem to open to collecting an ongoing royalty from the controversial rapper.
“This lawsuit is about more than Defendants’ mere failure to pay the appropriate licensing fee for using another’s musical property. It is also about the rights of artists to decide how their works are used and presented to the public, and the need to prevent anyone from simply stealing creative works when they cannot secure the right to use them legally.”
Ye has been sued repeatedly for uncleared samples and interpolations in his music.
In 2022, he was hit with a lawsuit claiming his song “Life of the Party” illegally sampled a song by the pioneering rap group Boogie Down Productions; accused in another case over allegations that he used an uncleared snippet of Marshall Jefferson’s 1986 house track “Move Your Body” in the song “Flowers”; and sued in a different case by a Texas pastor for allegedly sampling from his recorded sermon in “Come to Life.”
Before that, West and Pusha T were sued in 2019 for sampling George Jackson‘s “I Can’t Do Without You” on the track “Come Back Baby.” That same year, he was sued for allegedly using an audio snippet of a young girl praying in his 2016 song “Ultralight Beam.” Further back, West was hit with similar cases over allegedly unlicensed samples used in “New Slaves,” “Bound 2” and “My Joy.”