Business
Page: 135
Following the example of its bustling Nashville division, BMG is moving headfirst into its focus as a frontline label and investing heavily in developing U.S. acts.
Less than six months after Jon Loba was promoted from president of BMG Nashville to president of frontline recordings at BMG North America, he now expands his reach to president of frontline recordings, The Americas, to include Brazil under his watch. He will oversee new releases across all genres, including pop, rock, R&B/Hip-Hop, country and Latin.
“We’re going to become much more frontline focused,” Loba tells Billboard. “There’s a reallocation of resources to the U.S. We’re going to be much more frontline competitive, including building out our LATAM division.”
Trending on Billboard
The move comes with a heavy investment in A&R, A&R research and digital resources, with BMG doubling the dollars it had been spending on U.S. signings and acquisitions. “The whole idea of putting me in this position was [BMG] very much wanted the rest of the U.S. to match the culture of Nashville and how we broke acts,” Loba says.
BMG’s country division has been a frontline powerhouse with such platinum artists as Jason Aldean, Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson, Parmalee, Dustin Lynch and Blanco Brown, while the non-country genres were “focused on acquisition and established artists,” Loba says. “We want to be intentional about growing organically, as well as being a home for new viral acts.”
Running BMG Nashville has taught Loba that “the icons come from fringes” and copycats need not apply. “We want to be a home for artists that maybe don’t easily find a home elsewhere or that others don’t immediately see the value in,” he says. “We want to be home for a different perspective, a different voice.”
Part of BMG Nashville’s success has come from the strength of its radio promotion team, and Loba expects that team to work to select non-country records going forward. “Radio tends to be the rocket fuel of streams too,” he says. “You may have streaming airplay for a certain amount of time without radio’s involvement, but I still don’t know an artist who doesn’t care about radio airplay, so to be attractive to our current and potential artists, you can’t afford not to have a radio presence.”
BMG expects to still be very involved in the acquisition space, with the focus on signing new acts coming as an additive to the existing business. According to its 2023 year-end report, the Berlin-based BMG made 30 acquisitions last year as revenues grew to 905 million euros (the equivalent of $986 million), up 4.6% over 2022. Among its main acquisitions were the purchase of Paul Simon’s royalty income in his Simon & Garfunkel recordings as well as acquiring the catalog of British rock band The Hollies.
Unlike a number of labels that are combining frontline and catalog operations, BMG’s will remain separate (even though, before new BMG CEO Thomas Coesfeld took over last July, the plan had been to unite the two). Thomas Scherer, who formerly ran the publishing division, is now head of global recorded catalog. According to the 2023 report, recordings account for 34% of BMG’s revenue, 61% comes from publishing and the remaining 5% comes from broader rights.
Loba has also set his executive team, many of whom are refining their duties. Below are the key members of his team and their defined roles.
*JoJamie Hahr, executive vp of recorded music, BMG Nashville, will oversee day-to-day management of BBR Music Group and its three imprints, which are home to such acts as Jelly Roll, Aldean and Wilson. Hahr, who joined the company in 2017, reports to Loba.
*Zarah Ortiz, vp of repertoire and campaign management, will oversee BMG’s building presence in Latin American markets including Mexico and Brazil and such genres as Afro-pop. Based in Miami, Ortiz, who oversees a team in Mexico, reports to Loba, as does GM Daniel Fernandes in Brazil.
*Dan Gill, executive vp of recorded music, West Coast, will oversee the pop, rock, R&B/Hip-Hop and international outbound repertoire. Gill, who joined BMG following its 2014 acquisition of Vagrant Records, led the success of such acts as blink-182 and LP at BMG and will lead the campaign on upcoming releases from YG, Chief Keef, Wiz Khalifa and others. He reports to Loba.
*Gill’s direct reports include Cyndi Lynott, senior vp of marketing, who will lead BMG’s recorded frontline strategy for pop artists including New Kids on the Block and The Script; Sean Heydorn, senior vp at Rise Records, who will now lead all rock frontline efforts, including Rise’s roster and BMG rock acts Godsmack, Lenny Kravitz and Sum41; Shane Cosme, senior vp of international marketing for BMG U.S., who will be responsible for handling U.S. repertoire outside the United States; and Tim Reid, senior vp of repertoire & marketing, who will oversee R&B/Hip-Hop in the United States as well as handle RBC Records, home to Chief Keef and Run the Jewels. Reporting to Reid is Jecoure Lemothe, vp of A&R and marketing, who will also handle day-to-day operations for RBC Records. Lynott, Heydorn, Cosme and Lemothe are L.A.-based, while Reid has relocated from L.A. to Nashville.
*Bryan Columbus, vp of recorded music, Canada, reports directly to Loba; he returns to BMG following a stint at Concord Label Group. Before Concord, Columbus led Canadian market campaigns for Nashville’s Broken Bow Records Music Group through BMG’s partnership with Black Box Music.
Loba hints there will also be more changes coming, including additions to the frontline, global and U.S. teams.
Major League Baseball’s players’ union is firing back at claims that it discriminated against Bad Bunny’s sports agency, saying the company was penalized due to “egregious and systemic” rules violations, including offering prospective clients free VIP tickets to Bad Bunny concerts.
Rimas Sports sued the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) last month, claiming the union had used a “pre-determined investigation” to ban the Puerto Rican agency to protect existing agents from competition. The lawsuit is seeking an injunction that would overturn the league’s penalties and allow Rimas to continue to represent players.
But in a response filing this week, attorneys for the union said Rimas had incurred the punishment through its own “unethical conduct” that had broken MLBPA rules — namely, offering splashy and valuable gifts to prospective clients to win them over.
Trending on Billboard
“The regulations strictly forbid such inducements,” the union’s lawyers wrote in a motion on Wednesday (June 5). “Player agents must compete for clients based on the quality of their representation, not the quality of their gifts.”
The MLBPA’s investigation into Rimas had unearthed “egregious and systemic violations” of those rules, the union’s attorneys said, quoting from an arbitrator’s ruling that said Rimas’ core strategy had been “building a baseball agency by luring players with forbidden gifts.”
“Immunizing Rimas from the consequences of its own bad conduct will harm players and other player agents by encouraging player-player agent relationships borne out of perquisites not performance,” the union’s lawyers wrote. “What Rimas seeks is a get out of jail free card for itself. The public has no interest in such an outcome.”
Launched in 2021 by Bad Bunny (Benito Martínez Ocasio) and his longtime manager, Noah Assad, Rimas Sports aimed to provide homegrown representation to Major League Baseball’s many players from Latin America.
But in April, the MLBPA handed down a raft of penalties against the agency, including decertifying one agent, barring Assad from seeking certification and prohibiting existing certified agents from joining the company. When Rimas challenged the penalties, an arbitrator rejected the appeal and upheld the union’s actions.
Last month, attorneys for Rimas escalated the dispute by filing a lawsuit in federal court that accused the MLBPA of imposing a “death penalty” on the new agency. They claimed the penalties had come from a “discriminatory” investigation that had been launched because Rimas had threatened established agencies with competition.
“The ‘good ole boy’ order of baseball sports agency … was being put at risk, as these Puerto Rican ‘outsiders’ were disrupting baseball sports agency order too much, too fast,” attorneys for Rimas wrote. “This was something that the MLBPA and Rimas Sports’ competitors would not allow.”
Calling the penalties “extraordinary and unprecedented,” Rimas sought a preliminary injunction putting them on hold while the case plays out. The agency claimed the penalties had caused immediate harm, including preventing the agency from completing its agreement to sign reigning National League MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. as a client.
In its initial filing of the lawsuit, Rimas did not specifically indicate what exactly MLBPA accused the group of doing wrong. But in Wednesday’s opposition, the union laid out the accusations in great detail.
According to the filing, certain prospective clients were offered free concert tickets, including VIP concert tickets to Bad Bunny concerts and suite access to a Phoenix Suns game. Another player was allegedly offered a $200,000 interest-free loan. “This kind of conduct became culture at Rimas,” the MLBPA wrote.
The agency was “so dismissive” of the rules around illegal gifts that it continued to violate them even after they were notified that they were under investigation, the union’s attorney wrote Wednesday.
In technical terms, the MLBPA has filed both an opposition to deny Rimas an injunction, as well as a motion to compel arbitration — meaning a judge will order that the dispute must be handled via private arbitrator, not in federal court. A hearing is set for later this month for the judge to weigh the key issue in the case.
The Canadian government has made a major announcement about the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, with implications for artists and music companies at home and abroad.
The CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) has revealed that foreign streaming services with significant revenues will have to make base contributions to Canadian content. Streaming companies with no affiliation to Canadian broadcasters and over $25 million in annual contributions revenues will have to pay 5% of those revenues into specified funds.
Those contributions will be used to boost Canadian content in the music, news and film industries, generating an estimated $200 million in increased funding altogether.
Trending on Billboard
The decision comes after a consultation process that included public hearings last fall, as well as over 360 written submissions.
The government specified that these contributions will go towards “areas of immediate need,” prioritizing already existing funds in order to expedite the delivery process. Those funds include FACTOR and Musicaction, which industry groups like CIMA and the Canadian Live Music Association say are in need of increased funding.
The Beaches Awarded Group of the Year at Billboard Canada Women in Music Launch Announcement
Billboard Canada and iHeartRadio teamed up to present a big award to a major Canadian group this week.
The Beaches received the first-ever Billboard Canada Women in Music Award for Group of the Year on Wednesday (June 5), honoring the Toronto quartet’s breakout year. The band was on hand for the announcement of Billboard Canada‘s Women in Music celebration event, which is officially set for September 7, 2024.
The band was presented with the award by Billboard Canada CEO Amanda Dorenberg and CCO Elizabeth Crisante. At the event, more Canadian artists (including a few legends of the industry) will be recognized and honored for their artistry and blazing trails as women in the industry.
Receiving the award as part of a livestream performance on iHeartRadio’s YouTube, The Beaches played a stripped-back set of three songs from their hit 2023 album, Blame My Ex. The acoustic set saw drummer Eliza Enman McDaniel with just a shaker, leaving space for Jordan Miller’s powerful lead vocal and light harmonies by guitarists Leandra Earl and Kylie Miller.
After the performance, iHeartRadio’s Shannon Burns did a Q&A with the group, joking about playing pool with them and asking them audience-submitted questions. The band talked about their experiences as women in the music industry, providing some advice for up-and-coming female artists.
“Make sure you do it with your friends,” McDaniel said. The group spoke about how isolating it can be to be a woman in a still-male-dominated — though gradually changing — industry. It’s important to be surrounded by women you trust, they emphasized, whether in your band or on your team.
Watch the full performance and announcement here.
Lowell Wins the First Billboard Canada Non-Performing Songwriter Award
Lowell has won the first Billboard Canada Non-Performing Songwriter Award (presented by SOCAN), which honors a Canadian songwriter making a big impact behind the scenes.
The win was announced at Billboard Canada‘s Power Players event on Sunday (June 2) at the CN Tower. The award was presented to Lowell (Elizabeth Lowell Boland) by SOCAN CEO Jennifer Brown and vp of creative and member relations Cameron Kennedy.
“Songwriters have it really tough,” Lowell said while accepting the award. “We make no money, and then we very silently make other people really famous and then just cry about it at night because no one loves us,” she joked.
“So it’s really nice that you guys are giving me a little pat on the back — I’m going to take this on behalf of all of my amazing songwriter friends that have not gotten that pat on the back, yet.”
Lowell, who has also released music under the same name, was one of five finalists for the inaugural edition of the award — the first in Canada recognizing songwriters’ work for other artists. Other shortlisted writers included Tobias Jesso Jr., Jeremy Fedryk, Ali Willa Milner and Aaron Paris — an extremely strong initial shortlist featuring a crop of writers responsible for songs that garnered Grammy nominations, top chart placements and millions of streams.
Lowell has had a major year, including co-writing credits on “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “Bodyguard,” two of the biggest hits on one the year’s biggest albums, Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter. The award considered songs from 2023 before Cowboy Carter was released, but beyond Beyoncé, Lowell has shown a unique ability to help artists break through to a new level.
Lowell additionally co-wrote and co-produced Blame My Ex, the breakthrough album from Toronto band The Beaches, including the Lowell-penned hit “Blame Brett,” which held No. 1 at alternative radio for 17 weeks and is rising at U.S. and Canadian Top 40. She’s also a close collaborator of Lu Kala, the Congolese-Canadian artist who made her Hot 100 debut this past year, co-writing Kala’s emotional ballad “Nothing But Love.”
In her acceptance speech, Lowell highlighted the importance of supporting Canadian talent.
“Some people think I live in L.A. but I don’t, I live in Toronto,” she said, addressing the room full of powerful and influential members of the Canadian music industry. “I like to find talent here, I like to see who L.A. is not looking for and what the world needs, and that’s a lot of people that are here either in this room or working with people in this room. […] My goal is to largely not ignore the real talent which is in this f—ing city,” she continued to a round of cheers.
As someone who’s achieved massive success on their own terms as a singer-songwriter (the 1993 single “What’s Up?” from her band 4 Non Blondes hit No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has 1.7 billion views to date on YouTube) and written a cornucopia of hits for other artists (P!nk, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys), Linda Perry seems like someone who must have it all figured out. And while she’s certainly managed a lengthy, impressive career in the fickle music business on her own terms (her guitar at the 1993 Billboard Music Awards proudly displayed the word “d-ke” at a time when few women were out and proud), a new documentary reveals the tormented human behind the edgy, imposing exterior.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Linda Perry: Let It Die Here, directed by Don Hardy, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday (June 6) and offers a compelling portrait of an artist who can’t stop searching and reaching, but is never quite sure what for. While Perry is full of uncertainty and self-laceration, talking heads such as Brandi Carlile, Christina Aguilera and Dolly Parton offer a far more positive (and accurate) summation of her substantial talents.
Trending on Billboard
Following the riveting film, Perry and a full backing band took the stage for a rare live performance of several of the songs featured in the film. The new material demonstrates her uncanny songcraft and distinctive creative voice (abetted by her demanding work ethic) hasn’t diminished one iota since she blew up on the national stage more than 30 years ago and then promptly backed out of the spotlight. Marvelous new song “Feathers” is a heady blend of soul, alt-rock and Americana, “Let It Die Here” is worthy of Oscar consideration and “Beautiful” (made famous by Aguilera) was a treat to hear sung by the woman who wrote it.
Between songs, she thanked the filmmakers and opened up a bit about the emotionally raw film, including one scene where she dances while sobbing and reflecting on her life. “Sometimes [the creative process] can get the best of me as you witnessed for a whole hour and thirty minutes of how I can spiral because simply I don’t believe in myself,” Perry said. “It’s a wonderful thing to know that something that I say, something that I write, something that I do might matter.”
With characteristic candor (and a bit of a laugh), she admitted that “the closet seen is beyond embarrassing to me, but I feel for her, that girl on that screen during that time. I just wanted to give her a hug and say, ‘Jesus, chill out.’”
Toward the end of her eight-song set, Perry’s child, Rhodes (whom she shares with ex-wife Sara Gilbert), presented her with a bouquet of flowers. Perry kept Rhodes with her on stage for the final two tunes, including the requisite “What’s Up?” finale, even giving her kid the mic to belt a bit of the anthemic tune (to be honest, her child fared better than a few of the folks from the audience she invited onstage to sing).
While Perry keeps plenty busy — she worked on projects from Ringo Starr (Crooked Boy) and Kate Hudson (Glorious) this year already — the documentary and her live set makes one hope that the singer-songwriter gives equal footing to both of those nouns in the near future. It’s been far too long she’s since Linda Perry has written songs for Linda Perry, and it’s clear that she has plenty left to say.
[embedded content]
Equity analysts aren’t convinced the U.S. Department of Justice will accomplish its larger goal of separating Live Nation’s concert promotion and ticketing businesses, thereby undoing the controversial merger it allowed in 2010. But if Live Nation and Ticketmaster were to become separate companies, analysts estimate the combined companies would be worth from $85 to $96 per share, based on a handful of reports Billboard has seen.
Live Nation shares were trading around $101 to $102 the day before the lawsuit was announced on May 23. But shares have since traded in the $93 to $94 range, putting the current price at the upper end of analysts’ “sum of the parts” (SOTP) valuations. In the wake of the lawsuit, some analysts have lowered their price targets for Live Nation, and S&P Global downgraded its rating on Live Nation’s debt.
Any good merger creates value greater than the sum of the parts. Live Nation’s business model is a “flywheel” in which one segment (such as concerts) generates value for other segments (ticketing or sponsorship and advertisements). To the company, the flywheel is the result of hard-won competitive advantages built over the past 14 years. To the DOJ, the flywheel represents Live Nation’s ability to use its dominant market position to its advantage in anti-competitive ways.
Trending on Billboard
Breaking up Live Nation would eliminate the synergies that create value for the combined company. What is currently one stock would become two stocks of two separate companies with different management teams. Live Nation shareholders would likely get ownership in the new, standalone Ticketmaster. Analysts have calculated the value of Live Nation and Ticketmaster using a SOTP approach that combines the value of the business segments as if they were standalone companies.
But analysts have serious doubts the DOJ will succeed in breaking up the company. “Federal Judges…are generally pro-business and we doubt — at least based on [the DOJ’s 128-page] summary — the case is strong enough to either break up Live Nation or for the DOJ to win the lawsuit,” wrote Huber Research analyst Doug Arthur in a Thursday (June 6) note to investors. Similarly, J.P. Morgan sees “a real possibility that [Live Nation] comes out of this a winner” and fends off the DOJ’s ultimate goal of breaking up the company, analysts wrote in a May 29 note to investors.
“The government’s burden is going to be pretty high,” Bill Morrison, partner at Haynes & Boone, tells Billboard. “It’s long been the case in antitrust jurisprudence that it’s not illegal to have a monopoly. What’s illegal is to use that monopoly power in an anti-competitive way. And so that would be the burden that the DOJ would have to prove, which is to show that Live Nation abused its monopoly power and it acted unreasonably to restrain trade to maintain its monopoly.”
There could be outcomes other than a forced divestiture, however. Wolfe Research analysts note the “DOJ does not lose if it reached for the stars and landed on the moon,” they wrote in a May 23 note. “From that perspective, it is entirely possible the DOJ wants to get Live Nation/Ticketmaster to agree to remedies, such as eliminating exclusive ticketing deals, and is using the threat of a breakup to achieve those goals.”
The very existence of the DOJ’s lawsuit has changed how investors will approach Live Nation. The health of the concert business and Live Nation’s strengths will be overshadowed by the pall cast by the DOJ. Northcoast Research downgraded Live Nation from “buy” to “neutral” because analysts believe the stock price will be based on legal news and the political environment rather than fundamentals and business performance. J.P. Morgan also noted a “sentiment overhang” related to the DOJ’s lawsuit and lowered its price target to $116 from $126, although it kept its recommendation at “overweight.”
One variable that has largely gone unmentioned is the possible change in the administration at the White House. President Biden has taken an aggressive stance on protecting competition — the DOJ sank proposed mergers by Spirit-JetBlue and Penguin Random House-Simon & Schuster — reducing the fees consumers face everywhere from airlines to concert tickets, and criminally prosecuting companies over no-poaching rules and wage-fixing. A second Trump administration would bring an entirely new slate of appointments to head influential antitrust positions. “It depends on who is in those key [regulatory] spots, and then what the priorities are of those offices and the philosophy,” Morrison says. “We’ve seen big pivots in the past.”
Live Nation did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
On Friday (May 31), AEG chairman/CEO Jay Marciano became the first major live music executive to voice support for the Department of Justice’s effort to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster, foreshadowing the role AEG will likely play as a key witness in the DOJ’s antitrust case against Ticketmaster.
“AEG has long maintained that Ticketmaster has a monopoly in the U.S. ticketing marketplace and uses that monopoly power to subsidize Live Nation’s content businesses,” Marciano wrote in a memo to staff May 30. Beyond its longstanding criticism that Live Nation uses its scale to overpay for talent, AEG doubled down on its attacks on Ticketmaster’s use of exclusive ticketing contracts, with Marciano telling staff that AEG and its attorneys “strongly believe that DOJ’s lawsuit will succeed and ultimately bring sweeping changes” to the live music industry.
The government interviewed dozens of Live Nation’s competitors during its two-year anti-trust investigation, including AEG — executives at AEG have met with DOJ investigators on at least three separate occasions, including a 2023 meeting to discuss the crash of the ticket presale for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, which AEG promoted through its joint venture with Louis Messina.
Trending on Billboard
That puts Marciano and AEG in a rare position to galvanize public opinion and build support for his call to staff and the larger music community to help “us lay the groundwork now for the future of the industry.”
But AEG’s claims aren’t as compelling as Marciano thinks, according to Live Nation executive vp of corporate and regulatory affairs Dan Wall, who responded to Marciano’s May 30 letter with a statement alleging AEG is trying to use Live Nation’s antitrust case “to advance their own interests.”
“AEG supports this case — indeed, begged DOJ to file it — because it doesn’t want to pay artists market rates or convince venues to adopt its second-rate ticketing system exclusively,” Wall said in a statement provided to Billboard after Marciano’s statement was released.
AEG declined to comment for this story.
The battle between Live Nation and AEG dates back to the federal government’s 2010 approval of Live Nation’s merger with Ticketmaster, which the government approved by imposing a number of conditions on Ticketmaster designed to increase competition. As part of those conditions, referred to as the consent decree, the DOJ required Ticketmaster to license its source code and technology to AEG to create a competing ticketing service. The government did not address some of Ticketmaster’s more controversial tactics at the time, like the use of exclusive contracts to lock venues into long-term deals, which lies at the heart of this current conflict.
AEG only licensed Ticketmaster’s technology for a year, and in 2011 announced it was instead building a new ticketing platform called AXS with the help of Montreal firm Outbox ticketing. It took two years to switch all of AEG’s venues globally to AXS Tickets, and then AEG struggled to sign on new clients, even after merging with Veritix in 2015, and in 2019 ended up losing a major client — Altitude Sports and Entertainment — to a startup called Rival launched by former Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard.
AXS’ struggles were due in part to its ownership structure following the 2015 merger with Veritix, which divided ownership among AEG, private-equity firm TPG and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who previously owned Veritix. In 2019, AXS’ partners began exploring a sale of the company and looked at buying Rival or being bought by Rival, deals AEG blocked thanks to AXS’ ownership rules that required unanimous consent for all material decisions. AEG also blocked a merger between AXS and CTS Eventim, a powerful European ticketing provider that was looking for an entry point in the U.S. market to compete with Ticketmaster.
Gilbert and TPG eventually agreed to sell their stakes in AXS to AEG in 2019, which by then had started to explore a new business model for the ticketer, built around non-exclusive ticketing contracts. Instead of competing with Ticketmaster to sign venues to AXS, AEG would instead focus on expanding its use of AXS ticketing for AEG-promoted tours. Both Live Nation and AEG prefer to use their own ticketing platforms for the concerts they promote because it allows the promoters to directly control the customer data.
Hoping to encourage Ticketmaster to allow AEG to use AXS whenever it brought tours to buildings ticketed by Ticketmaster, AEG offered to allow Live Nation to use Ticketmaster at the venues AEG controls, including the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
AEG would extract a similar concession from Live Nation in 2021 that would earn a mention in the DOJ’s lawsuit against Ticketmaster. On June 15 of that year, leading venue operations company ASM Global, in which AEG owned a minority stake, announced it had renewed its agreement with Ticketmaster to provide ticketing services for a majority of the 300 venues ASM manages.
The government flagged the agreement as suspicious because AEG at the time owned 30% of ASM and had “advocated for AXS to serve as the exclusive primary ticketer for the ASM Global venues,” the complaint reads. “But ASM Global’s majority shareholder, Onex, worried that Live Nation would retaliate by withholding shows from ASM Global venues if ASM Global entirely switched away from using Ticketmaster.”
A source close to the deal called the DOJ’s version of the story an “oversimplification,” noting that AEG and Onex didn’t have the right to require ASM Global clients to use one ticketing system over the other and that the majority of clients opted to stay with Live Nation. ASM did, however, convince Live Nation to grant a rare exception to its venue contracts, allowing ASM venues contracted to Ticketmaster to switch to AXS tickets for any tours AEG brought to the buildings.
In exchange, Ticketmaster paid a large advance for the multiyear contract and issued a press release, quoting ASM Global president/CEO Ron Bension saying, “Aligning with industry leaders like Ticketmaster is a critical component in providing millions of people with the most seamless and secure live experiences.”
Happy to have secured the largest carve-out in Ticketmaster’s exclusivity contract to date, AXS decided to push for more exceptions. In 2022, AEG began routing Swift’s The Eras Tour alongside its partner, Messina Touring Group. The majority of the venues on the tour were Ticketmaster-exclusive facilities, though ASM managed five of the stadiums, representing 12 shows on the 52-date trek. But two of those dates — a pair of concerts at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. — would be ticketed by SeatGeek under its exclusive deal with the Arizona Cardinals. Making matters worse, two of ASM’s management clients decided to partner with Ticketmaster for the sale.
Down to just five shows at two stadiums, AEG dropped the matter, but not before reporting the issue to the DOJ, encouraging them to look at Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s use of exclusive contracts as anti-competitive.
After the fiasco, Live Nation chairman Greg Maffei appeared on CNBC to defend Ticketmaster and claim “AEG, who is the promoter for Taylor Swift, chose to use us because, in reality, we are the largest and most effective ticket seller in the world,” he said. “Even our competitors want to come on our platform.” AEG leadership was quick to respond. “Ticketmaster’s exclusive deals with the vast majority of venues on The Eras Tour required us to ticket through their system,” the leadership said in a statement, adding, “We didn’t have a choice.”
In the months following, AEG’s relationship with Live Nation only worsened. In January 2023, AEG announced it was backing a U.S. tour for chart-topping singer Zach Bryan who had just released a live album called All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster. The album title succinctly encapsulated decades of anti-Ticketmaster sentiment from music fans over Ticketmaster fees, pricing and indignities and AEG was eager to get in early. With AEG as his promoter, Bryan embarked on an expansive tour of non-Ticketmaster buildings, a gambit that hadn’t been attempted since Pearl Jam in the 1990s. AEG even deployed a sophisticated anti-scalping system to keep tickets out of the hands of scalpers.
Despite the tour’s success, Bryan had reached a surprising conclusion about the experience — some of his homies hated AXS tickets too.
“Everyone complained about AXS last year. Using all ticketing sites this year,” he said of his 2023 Quittin’ Time Tour, which was still being promoted by AEG but would no longer route around Ticketmaster buildings and would play all venues, regardless of which company was the ticketer.
“All my homies still do hate Ticketmaster, but hard to realize one guy can’t change the whole system,” Bryan wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “It is intentionally broken and I’ll continue to feel absolutely horrible about the cost of tickets.”
In his written response to Marciano’s letter, Wall, a former litigator for Live Nation who helped architect the 2010 consent decree, says AEG is now trying to use the legal system to compete against Ticketmaster instead of focusing on improving AXS.
Marciano contends that there are many things that the DOJ can do to level the playing field and ended his letter by encouraging his employees not to “get distracted by Live Nation spin” and instead to “prepare for a world with more competition, more innovation, artist and consumer choice, lower ticketing fees, and more music.”
It’s time for another Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music. We also have a weekly interview series spotlighting a single executive and a regularly updated gallery honoring many of the industry figures we’ve lost throughout the year.
ByteDance has hired former Warner Bros. Pictures legal honcho John Rogovin as the Chinese company’s new global general counsel, effective immediately. He reports directly to Liang Rubo, CEO of ByteDance. The role includes oversight of TikTok, which has a lot going on right now. Rogovin’s arrival comes as TikTok and ByteDance engage in a monumental battle with the United States government following the passage of legislation requiring the parent company to sell the app or face a national ban. In early May, the company filed a federal lawsuit aimed at overturning the law, calling it an “unconstitutional” action aimed at “silencing” more than 170 million Americans who use TikTok. TikTok chief Shou Chew rightly said Rogovin’s arrival comes at an “important time” for the company. Rogovin, who clocked time at both the FCC and the DOJ earlier in his career before a 14-year run at WB, added that he looks forward to “helping to ensure that our platforms continue to provide a critical forum for more than two billion users worldwide to entertain, teach, and connect with one another.” Rogovin succeeds departing general counsel Erich Andersen, who has shifted to special counsel.
Trending on Billboard
Federica Tremolada
Spotify
Federica Tremolada was promoted to general manager of Europe for Spotify, effective immediately. Tremolada, who spent the last five years as managing director of Southern and Eastern Europe, fills the shoes of Michael Krause, who earlier this week announced his departure after a seven-year run as GM. Both execs made their own announcements on Linkedin, with Krause calling it a “perfect time to pass the baton” and spend time with family before seeking “new adventures later this year.” Tremolada, meanwhile, called working at Spotify “one of my biggest dreams come true” and listed opening Casa Spotify in Milan, where she is based, and growing the podcast business in the region as some of her tenure highlights. Prior to joining Spotify, Tremolada spent more than a decade at Google, where she rose to head of international partnerships for the YouTube TV squad.
Austin Jenkins was named vp of A&R at Island Records. Based in Nashville, Jenkins started at Island in 2023 and played a pivotal role in the signing and development of artists including Wyatt Flores and Medium Build at the label. He will continue leading Island’s Nashville operations. Jenkins was formerly the founder, guitarist and songwriter for Texas band White Denim. He later founded Fort Worth, Texas, recording studio Niles City Sound with Josh Block and Chris Vivion, where Jenkins and Block co-produced, recorded and mixed Leon Bridges‘ full-length debut album, Coming Home. Jenkins performed guitar and bass on the album and also toured with Bridges as part of his band.
Adam Salomon was named senior director of A&R at Concord Music Publishing. Salomon joins Concord from London-based music management company Chosen Music, where he led A&R efforts. He reports to Concord Music Publishing executive vp of worldwide A&R Kim Frankiewicz. Originally from Sweden, Salomon has held A&R and management roles across independent and major labels in the country, including Universal Music Sweden, where he led the Svenska Inspelningar label.
Producer, songwriter and rapper Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins launched a new record label, Alienz Alive, which Jerkins described in a statement as “a collaborative community of creatives that are Christ-centered where artist development is key. We encourage our artists to use their gifts to uplift and inspire. Sonically speaking the influences are Hip Hop, R&B, and Indie Rock. As long as it glorifies God and it’s dope, all are welcome.” At launch, the Alienz Alive roster includes Jon Keith, GAWVI, IMRSQD Alex Jean and TJ Carroll. Jerkins will be involved in the label’s day-to-day operations.
Madison House is building a bigger booking agency with the hiring of industry veteran Thomas Ponsart as booking agent and Ruby Williams and Madison Dawson as agent assistants. Bay Area-residing Ponsart has more than a decade of experience and learned under the tutelage of Tom Chauncey and Hank Sacks at Partisan Artists. He brings with him a roster that includes John Craigie, Monophonics, Parlor Greens, Madeline Hawthorne, Kelly Finnigan, Anthony Villacari and Goodnight, Texas. Williams arrives from Freshwater Art Gallery & Music Venue in Boyne City, Mich., where she booked artists of all stripes, and is now based in Madison House’s office in Ann Arbor. Dawson is a recent Belmont grad and intern at Madison House in Nashville, where she is based. “The ultimate decision to join forces with Madison House is our shared values, growth mindset, adaptability, freedom to pursue new clients, and their tech forward approach to new systems,” said Ponsart. “Madison House has instilled these values in their team for decades and it makes them a commendable and unique business that I’m excited to call my new home.”
Riser House Records named Amy O’Connor as head of sales and streaming. O’Connor previously served as marketing director at Sony Music/Legacy Recordings, working Sony’s country legacy catalog including music from Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, as well as working with artist estates including Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn. O’Connor previously led the streaming team at Better Noise Music, working on projects for Papa Roach, Mötley Crüe and Five Finger Death Punch. –Jessica Nicholson
Filmmaker and music producer Jesse Lauter joined Peter Shapiro’s Dayglo Presents as head of production & media. In this newly created position, Lauter will oversee the creative side of video and audio production for Dayglo venues, including The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY and the Brooklyn Bowl mini-chain (Brooklyn, Las Vegas, Nashville and Philadelphia), along with the newly added Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock. One of his main responsibilities is directing live-streams for FANS.live and Relix out of the Capitol Theatre. Lauter most recently directed Learning To Live Together: The Return of Mad Dogs & Englishmen about Joe Cocker, and is currently working on a film about swamp rock legends Little Feat. He’s also worked with Dayglo on a part-time basis for years. “I’ve been a part of this family for a long time, and have so much love and respect for Pete and what he has built,” he said. “It’s a perfect fit.” each Lauter is reachable at jesse@dayglopresents.com.
Courtney Zeppetella is no longer senior vp, controller and chief accounting officer of Madison Square Garden Entertainment. Zeppetella’s resignation, effective May 31, was disclosed in an SEC filing three days prior to her exit. The NYC-based executive joined MSGE in May 2022 following a 21-year run at KPMG, where she rose to audit partner. Michael J. Grau, the company’s executive vp and CFO, will serve as the company’s interim principal accounting officer until a replacement is named.
ALL IN THE FAMILY: Billboard‘s longtime Australian correspondent Lars Brandle is now head of content at The Brag Media, where he’ll oversee strategy across Rolling Stone Australia and New Zealand, Variety Australia, The Music Network, Tone Deaf and more titles. Brandle joined Billboard in 2000 out of the London bureau and for many years served as global news editor and later as overnight editor — along the way amassing a paltry 835 pages of written articles. New gig aside, Brandle isn’t fully free of Billboard‘s clasp just yet — The Brag Media holds the license for Billboard in Australia. Talk soon, mate!
Sphere Entertainment hired industry veteran Chandra Allison as executive vp of sales and service at the Las Vegas megavenue. In her new role, Allison will drive sales strategies, develop conferences and events, oversee service teams, and build on Sphere’s strong relations with fellow stakeholders in Vegas. Allison, who has done consultant work for Sphere, most recently served as senior vp of strategy and growth at Oak View Group, where she oversaw growth and strategy for its OVG360 portfolio. Prior to OVG, Allison put in nearly 25 years at The Venetian Resort, where she rose to svp of sales and marketing. “Sphere is a game-changer in this dynamic market,” she said, “and this is a tremendous opportunity to continue working with the team to develop one-of-a-kind experiences that enhance Sphere’s presence in Las Vegas across a range of event categories and guest experiences.”
NASHVILLE NOTES: Kelli Haywood and Leigh Holt teamed to launch Hsquared Management. The company combines the artist rosters from their respective companies, KCH Entertainment and maddjett, while they also reveal their first signing together, Capitol CMG singer-songwriter Riley Clemmons. The Hsquared client roster also includes Lauren Daigle, Carlos Whittaker, Annie F. Downs and Megan Danielle –J.N. … UMG Nashville‘s director of radio marketing Donna Hughes departed after 13 years. Hughes was previously national director of radio syndication at Capitol/EMI Records before those imprints were joined UMG.
ICYMI:
Lee Anderson
Warner Music Group hired Michael Ryan-Southern to lead the company’s acquisition efforts … CAA appointed Darryl Eaton, Emma Banks and Rick Roskin as co-heads of the global touring division … French collective management organization SACEM extended Cécile Rap-Veber’s term as CEO … MNRK Music Group president and CEO Chris Taylor is resigning effective June 28 and will be replaced by COO Sean Stevenson … Lee Anderson was named president of Wasserman Music … Lionel Ridenour was named executive vp of promotion at gamma. … Dennis Ashley Jr. and son Dennis Ashley III launched a new multimedia firm … Day After Day Productions hired Melanie Davis as head of tour marketing, while promoting Marc Ertel to head of creative and Erin Patterson to head of marketing.
Last Week’s Turntable: PierFerd Partners Up
When the U.S. Supreme Court’s nine justices released their annual financial disclosures on Friday (June 7), Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson reported a cooler-than-usual line item: that Beyoncé had personally gifted her four concert tickets.
In a yearly report required by federal ethics laws, Justice Jackson listed her various investments, as well as a nearly $1 million book advance she received from Penguin Random House for her Lovely One memoir set to hit bookshelves this fall.
But the most notable item was under gifts, where the justice listed “Concert Tickets (4),” valued at $3,711. The source of those tickets? “Beyonce Knowles-Carter.”
Trending on Billboard
The filing, obtained by Billboard, did not include any more information, like what particular shows Justice Jackson had attended or how KBJ and Queen Bey had connected. A spokesperson for Beyoncé did not immediately return a request for comment.
This year’s SCOTUS disclosures have drawn far greater attention than usual, following revelations last year that Justice Clarence Thomas had received undisclosed expensive gifts, including trips aboard a private plane, from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. In his own report on Friday, Justice Thomas formally amended the disputed trips to his earlier filings but did not list any new travel reimbursements for 2023.
Members of the federal judiciary are not barred from owning investments, earning outside income or even accepting gifts like expensive concert tickets. But they must disclose such income to avoid any potential conflicts of interest involving cases that they’re tasked with deciding.
When faced with a financial conflict of interest — or even the appearance of such bias — lower federal judges are required to recuse themselves from cases. In a new code of conduct issued last year after the Thomas-Crow uproar, the high court agreed to follow essentially those same rules. But those new regulations noted that recusals are harder at the Supreme Court, where a justice cannot simply be replaced by another judge.
In the case of Justice Jackson, such questions would only arise if Beyoncé had business before the high court — an outcome that’s not impossible, given the rash of copyright litigation in the music industry, but seems unlikely any time soon.
Much of the conversation in the music business this year has been about superfans — where to find them, how to connect with them and the ways to better cater to them during single and album rollouts. Suffice it to say that the team behind Twenty One Pilots and their latest album, Clancy, took that conversation to heart.
This week, Clancy debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and flew in at No. 1 on both the Top Album Sales and Top Rock Albums charts with 143,000 equivalent album units, landing the biggest rock debut of the year so far in the process, with a campaign that leaned heavily into super-serving the group’s biggest fans. That took the form of exclusive listening parties at independent record stores around the country, a multi-pronged sales strategy that offered more than a dozen different ways of purchasing the album and thinking holistically about each tier of fandom and what they want the most.
The result: Nearly 60% of the album’s first week numbers came from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales, according to Elektra vp of D2C, streaming and marketing strategy Thom Skarzynski, who worked on the album rollout. And the success of Clancy helps earn Skarzynski the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Trending on Billboard
Here, Skarzynski discusses the fan-led strategies that went into the album release, as well as the career-long buildup that got the band to this point. “We went into the campaign with a refreshed mindset,” Skarzynski says. “It was all about bringing things back to the surface and carrying the story to life for not only the deeply-rooted superfans but also the more casual listeners who may have lost the plot along the way.”
This week, Twenty One Pilots’ Clancy debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on both Top Album Sales and Top Rock Albums. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
My role at Elektra is multifaceted — depending on the project, I might be involved in marketing, D2C or streaming strategy. In the case of Twenty One Pilots, I was fortunate enough to run point on all three, co-running the overall marketing on this album campaign with Katie Robinson [senior vp of marketing at Elektra], so I truly was able to engulf myself into the whole picture and curate what we needed to happen and when.
That said, the area that I’m most proud of in impacting our debut was what we were able to do via D2C on the band’s store. We took extra care to custom tailor each of our offerings, accounting for every level of fan, what would excite them, and how it would deepen their connection with the band. In the end, D2C accounted for nearly 60% of our first-week activity. Their overwhelming response shows the power of a fan base when they’re being listened to and treated right.
With 143,000 equivalent album units, Clancy nearly doubled the first-week mark from the band’s last album, 2021’s Scaled and Icy. What did you do different this time around to achieve that?
We went into the campaign with a refreshed mindset. It was all about bringing things back to the surface and carrying the story to life for not only the deeply-rooted superfans but also the more casual listeners who may have lost the plot along the way. I must credit the band themselves, management [Chris Woltman and Ashley Pimenta at Element 1] and their creative team [Mark Eshleman and Brandon Rike], as they were true architects in the early teaser campaigns we executed for the core fanbase — sending 1,500 red envelope letters out to fans across the globe, swapping all studio artwork of previous albums to have “red tape” over it. Cryptic moments like that activated their hardcore fans, and from there we just expanded. This album campaign was about bringing every level of fan together and nailing the conclusion to a story the band has been telling for nearly a decade.
The album’s huge sales week was also bolstered by its physical availability — 11 vinyl variants, plus several CD editions and deluxe box sets. What was your approach to the physical sales aspect, and how were you able to pull that off?
Very early on, we connected with the band’s creative director Brandon Rike, and went through ideas and suggestions for this launch — including my absolute favorite, the Clancy Journal — as well as box-set options and how many different vinyl variants we would need to ensure everybody from the fan base had something they loved enough to own. We chose carefully, knowing where each level of fan would be shopping and what they would engage with, and let that be our guide.
We also held listening events at over 175 independent record stores across the country the Saturday prior to album release, which brought out an estimated 20,000 fans. That indie variable was super cool and we were so happy to bring the physical community together to experience the album as one. I am a firm believer that fans want to own an item from an artist they love that they can proudly display or cherish, and that’s what we aimed to offer. Every decision we made was around “thinking like a fan.” Any mindset different from that was unacceptable as we rolled this out.
The album was the final chapter of a conceptual series. How were you able to play into that to help generate excitement among the fan base?
For me, the pressure was on to deliver on behalf of the band and their team, and simply connect the dots wherever possible. This storyline that they’ve built for nine years now is so much bigger than me and I not only accepted that fact but was humbled to be trusted to handle parts of the campaign that played into it. Ultimately, what generates the most excitement are three things: excellent music; a message and lyrics that resonate with people; and bringing fans along on the journey with you.
Clancy also represents the biggest debut for a rock album this year so far. With rock such a sales-heavy format and the industry at large so dependent on streaming, how do you leverage streaming with that sales strategy to deliver such a big debut?
The variety and cadence of the single releases leading up to the album kept the fan base engaged and built up anticipation for the full album. We also had great support from our streaming partners with multiple playlist covers, and excellent positioning in both their new music and flagship playlists across rock, alternative and pop. When it comes to sales itself, we looked at everything mathematically, and strategically pinpointed where we could find wins and where we felt we may have had some challenges. We knew how much we had total control of — D2C, physical retail, indie retail and digital albums — and making each of them the best experience possible maximized our results. We just knew the fan base so well and were able to be strategic with how, when and where we interacted with them.
How are you guys planning to continue to promote the album moving forward?
We are just getting started. “The Craving (single version)” is impacting at Top 40, Alternative and Hot AC radio right now and already getting incredible support. This is also a band that never stops: They have their massive Clancy World Tour which hits arenas and even some stadiums across North America starting in August before going overseas to Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and Europe. In my very first conversation with management back in October, they walked me through a plan that ran through 2026 and beyond. Twelve years in, this is still just the beginning for them.
The Black Keys has parted ways with its managers, Irving Azoff and Steve Moir, following the abrupt cancellation of the band’s arena tour in North America late last month. First reported by the New York Times, a representative for Azoff has confirmed the split, telling Billboard it was an “amicable parting.” Representatives for The Black […]