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These days, a new Beyoncé album is generally a cause for celebration — fans pore over album covers, track listings, song lyrics and rollout plans, searching for hidden gems and rare treasures. For Cowboy Carter, her latest album released in March, one of those gems came in the form of Shaboozey, the rising country singer who had made some minor waves in his career to date and was featured on two tracks on the album, “Spaghetti” with Linda Martell” and “Sweet / Honey / Buckiin.’”
If those guest spots introduced Shaboozey to the mainstream of pop culture, it was what came next that has truly brought him to the forefront. Two weeks after the release of Cowboy Carter, the Virginia-born singer released “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” through American Dogwood/EMPIRE, a flip of J-Kwon’s 2004 song “Tipsy” that is a fun-loving, infectious romp of a song, and has quickly captured hearts, minds — and a very captive audience. This week, the song makes a historic jump on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, bounding from No. 6 to No. 1 — and replacing Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” on top of the list, marking the first time ever that two Black artists have led the chart in back to back weeks since the chart became an all-encompassing genre ranking in 1958.
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The song, which will herald the artist’s next album, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, due out May 31, has been on such an upswing that even in the week that Taylor Swift flooded the Hot 100 with her new 31-song Tortured Poets Department album, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” was one of just two songs on the entire Hot 100 to actually rise, as it moved from No. 36 to No. 27, with a possible jump into the top five on the cards for next week, as the Swift fervor ebbs. And all that momentum helps his Range Media co-manager Jared Cotter earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Cotter talks about how the Beyoncé look helped boost Shaboozey’s latest hit, the value of being in the right place at the right time (and being prepared for the moment when it comes) and the history-making hit that brought them here. “He will be a superstar that continues to push boundaries and make great music for years to come,” Cotter says. “This is just the beginning.”
This week, Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” reached No. 1 on Hot Country Songs, his first chart-topper. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
A key decision was making sure we were prepared for the Beyoncé moment. We didn’t even have it locked in 100% but I wanted the team to be prepared if it happened, so we moved our original release date for the song up by three weeks. That way we were able to take advantage of truly an extremely unique opportunity with lots of heat and algorithmic love. The Beyoncé Bounce is real!
The song replace’s Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” at No. 1, the first time in history that two Black artists led the chart back to back. What is the significance of that for you and Shaboozey?
As Black men, we are aware and in awe of the history that we’ve made. Country is a genre that historically has been very closed, and something like this typically could never happen. It’s a positive sign that times are changing and that country listeners just want great music, no matter who it comes from. Thank you to Beyoncé and her team for knocking down that door.
Shaboozey has been buzzing for a while, but he exploded into the mainstream with two features on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album. How did that come about, and how were you guys able to use that momentum to help push “A Bar Song”?
Beyoncé’ was already familiar with Boozey because her team — including her Mom, Tina Knowles — showed us a lot of love on Shaboozey’s “Let It Burn.” But primarily the Beyoncé features came about because her A&R, Ricky Lawson, happened to be at our Range Showcase Night at Winston House in Venice, Calif. Shaboozey is an incredible live performer and that night was special. It’s a testament to taking advantage of the opportunities that are presented to you because you never know who is watching.
On this week’s Hot 100, amid a flood of new Taylor Swift songs, “A Bar Song” was one of only two songs on the entire chart to actually move up, going from No. 36 to No. 27. How was the song able to do that?
It’s the perfect song. It has a tried and true interpolation in J-Kwon’s “Tipsy,” so the familiarity is there and everything about the verses and chorus is a hook. Plus, it’s fun. After also having success with Paul Russell’s hit “Lil Boo Thang” this year I truly believe that people just want to have fun again.
Shaboozey first partnered with EMPIRE in 2021, and is having this huge moment three years later. Why did the EMPIRE partnership make sense over a traditional Nashville-type deal, and how have you built his career in that period of time to lay the foundation for this type of moment now?
EMPIRE has been an incredible partner. What Ghazi, Nima [Etminan] and Tina [Davis] have built is nothing short of amazing — I don’t think they get enough credit for what they’ve done and continue to do in multiple genres. They’ve been huge supporters of Shaboozey, and have shown immense patience as he figured out his sound. Now that the timing is right, they’re throwing everything at this project with staff and resources. Their belief in him is palpable from everyone on their team. As a manager I couldn’t be happier to be in business with all of EMPIRE, including Sak Pase, Peter Kadin and Harrison Golding.
With the likes of Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan and Bailey Zimmerman, among others, country music music has had a big mainstream boost in the past year-plus. At the same time, Range has been signing more country acts of late and investing in the genre. Did you see this uptick in country music coming, and how do capitalize on the mainstream popularity of the genre moving forward?
Yes. Range is at the forefront of this country revolution and I’m happy to add my energy. It’s been extremely valuable to lean on country music veterans at Range like Matt Graham, Jack Minihan and Shawn McSpadden as I navigate a new genre as a manager. Our staff in the newly-opened Nashville office is second to none, and we’ll continue to capitalize on the uptick with passion, expertise, and boots on the ground.
What’s next for Shaboozey?
More great music and great shows coming to a city near you. He will be a superstar that continues to push boundaries and make great music for years to come. This is just the beginning.
Last Week’s Executive: Sabrina Carpenter’s Manager Janelle Lopez Genzink
Australia’s music community has reached a “crisis” point, as myriad factors contribute to the closure of grassroots venues and popular festivals, and a generation of homegrown artists are essentially overlooked and locked out of the sales charts.
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Artist managers are proposing a solution.
Announced Friday (May 3), the Association of Artist Managers (AAM) unveils “Michael’s Rule,” a policy that would ensure at least one local artist would be among the support acts on every international tour of these parts.
The campaign bears the name of Michael McMartin, the late, great artist manager who guided the career of Hoodoo Gurus for more than 40 years, and is broken down into three main tenets: every international artist must include an Australian artist among their opening acts; the Australian artist must appear on the same stage at the international artist using reasonable sound and lighting; and the Australian artist must be announced at the same time as the tour so that they benefit from all the marketing and promotion.
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The Rule came from a discussion amongst senior members of the artist management fraternity in the lead-in to the 2024 AAM Awards in Sydney, and is born out of the frustration at the limited options for the discoverability of artists in Australia.
These challenges have been recognized by governments across Australia in recent years, notes Maggie Collins, executive director of the AAM, the trade body that represents more than 300 artist managers.
“Promoters received significant public funding during the pandemic and they understandably continue to receive public support for some of their major events,” she explains in a statement. “We think it is only reasonable that, in return, they should ‘do their bit’ to help give Australian artists a leg up by the simple means of including at least one local act on every international tour.”
Collins used the platform of the 2024 AAM Awards to present “Michael’s Rule.”
“If there’s one overarching issue that managers have been flagging time and time again, it is this: we need more Australians loving more Australian music. We have a major discoverability problem and if we don’t solve this issue, which is both economical and cultural,” she explained to a full house at Sydney’s Crowbar.
Had “Michael’s Rule” existed for major international tours, such as Taylor Swift’s seven-date The Eras Tour, which visited Sydney and Melbourne in 2023, “how many more fans could we have introduced to a local artist and started creating our own megastar of the future.”
The support act rule had once been a widely accepted industry code after lobbying by artist managers in the early 2000s. With the launch of “Michael’s Rule,” a voluntary code, senior artist managers call for its reintroduction “at this time of crisis for Australian music,” reads a statement from AAM.
If promoters are not willing to agree, the trade body insists it make formal representations for federal government to step in and make it a condition of issuing visas that international artists touring Australia must comply.Labels body ARIA welcomes “Michael’s Rule.” “Doing whatever we can to get our local artists in front of new audiences is the most important issue facing our local industry,” says ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd in a separate media release, “and as such the Michael’s Rule is a fantastic initiative, which we are confident can be implemented in a way that doesn’t impact the viability of international touring.”ARIA’s latest year-end charts spelled out the problem. Just four Australian albums cracked the top 100 last year, led by INXS hits collection The Very Best (at No. 58), and only three Australian-made singles impacted the top 100, none of which were released in 2023. The best-placed Australian track was The Kid Laroi’s 2021 collaboration with Justin Bieber, “Stay.”Other initiatives, including “looking to broaden venues like sports stadiums to multi-use facilities in NSW is a really important step to increase the availability of entertainment for everyone outside of sport,” adds Herd, “and continue to increase opportunities to see local artists alongside global icons.”The unveiling of the industry code closely follows the announcement that Brisbane’s The Zoo, one of the country’s longest-operating grassroots music venues, would close its doors due to crushing financial pressures, and a string of music festivals, including Splendour in the Grass, would skip this year – or close for good.
Drake’s track with an AI 2Pac verse didn’t last long. A day after the Tupac Shakur estate threatened to sue Drake for using an AI imitation of the later rapper’s voice on “Taylor Made Freestyle,” he took down the recording. In using 2Pac’s voice, though, Drake opened yet another important debate about generative AI that reveals just how risky the business is — and how rightsholders may have more power to shape it than they realize.
So let’s get legal! In the cease-and-desist letter he sent on behalf of the Shakur estate, lawyer Howard King referenced both Shakur’s personality rights, which encompasses publicity rights, or what some states refer to as likeness rights, plus the copyrights to the rapper’s recordings and songs. Most coverage of this focused on the former issue, since personality rights are relatively straightforward — Shakur’s estate controls the rights to the rapper’s distinctive style. The second gets complicated, since the recording copyrights — and potentially the song copyrights — have less to do with Drake’s use of 2Pac-style vocals than how he was able to create them in the first place.
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To create such a convincing imitation of 2Pac, an AI model would almost certainly have to ingest — and, in the course of doing so, copy — a significant number of Shakur’s recordings. So King, in his letter, demanded from Drake “a detailed explanation for how the sound-alike was created and the persons or company that created it, including all recordings and other data ‘scraped’ or used.” Any answer Drake gave would have taken the issue into legal terra incognita — an AI’s ingestion of recordings and songs would implicate copyright, although it’s not clear if this could be done without a license under fair use. The stakes would be high, though. As opposed to a California right of publicity violation, which would be relatively easy to prove and incur limited damages, copyright infringement is federal and comes with statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work infringed. That means a company that ingests 20 works to create one would be liable a maximum of $3 million.
For the last year, music creators and rightsholders have been talking about generative AI as something that’s coming — the deals they’ll negotiate, the terms they’ll set, the business they’ll do — once they negotiate the right deals. But technology companies tend to beg forgiveness rather than ask permission, and it seems some of them have already ingested a considerable amount of music for AI without a license. Think about it: None of the major labels have announced deals for AI companies to ingest their catalogs of recordings, but enough recordings have been ingested to make AI vocal imitations of Drake, 2Pac, Snoop — even Frank Sinatra doing Lil Jon’s “Skeet skeet.” That means that a company or companies could be in big trouble. Or that they have a first-mover advantage over their rivals. Or both.
Part of the reason technology companies forge ahead is that deals that involve new technology get complicated. In this case, how do you value a license you’re not sure you need? If you think that companies need a license to ingest music for the purposes of allowing users to make AI vocal imitations — as seems likely — the price for that license is going to be relatively high, with complicated terms, because rightsholders would presumably want to be compensated on an ongoing basis. (It’s insanely difficult to create a fair one-time license to ingest a catalog of music: first, since copyright law controls copying, the licensor would forfeit any control not specified in the contract; second, it would be hard for a potential buyer to raise the kind of money a seller might want, so the economics of ongoing payments make more sense.) If you think that ingestion would fall under fair use — which is very possible in some edge cases but much less so generally — why would you pay a high fee, much less constrain yourself with complicated terms?
The legal cases that will tip the scales in one direction or the other will proceed at the speed of litigation, which moves slower than culture, much less technology. The first big case will be against Anthropic, which Universal Music, Concord, ABKCO and other music publishers sued in October for training an AI on lyrics to compositions they control. (Universal’s agreement with YouTube on AI principles might make a ruling that this is fair use somewhat less likely, since it shows that major labels are willing to license their music.) There are already other cases in other parts of the media business — The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December, for example — and one of them could set an important precedent.
Until that happens — and maybe after, too — there will be settlements. Very few rightsholders have much of an interest in stopping AI — some could in some cases, but it’s a losing battle. What they really want to do is leverage the power they have to destroy, or at least delay, a nascent business in order to shape it. (“The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it,” in the words of Paul Atreides, Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, who might be exaggerating but certainly has a point.) That will give them real power — not only to monetize music with AI but to shape the terms of engagement in a way that, let’s face it, is likely to favor big companies with big catalogs. It will be interesting to see what they do with it.
Taylor Swift is returning to the road to complete the final leg of her Eras Tour for fans eager to hear the singer-songwriter perform new tracks like “Fortnight,” “Down Bad” and “Florida!!!” from her new album, The Tortured Poets Department.
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But those fans may be in for some sticker shock. Prices to see Swift at one of her final nine shows in the United States have increased following the release of the album April 19, with the average get-in-the-door price — the lowest price available — hovering around $2,600 per ticket, according to data from TicketIQ. That means it would cost a couple more than $5,000 just to be in the same building as Swift in Miami (Oct 18-20), New Orleans (Oct 25-27) and Indianapolis (Nov. 1-3) this fall.
In Europe, however — where Swift starts a 51-show run on May 9 with a kickoff date at Paris’ La Defense Arena — tickets cost only a fraction of that. Right now, the get-in-the door price to see the opening of the European leg of the Eras Tour is $340 a ticket — 87% cheaper than the average price in the United States.
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That means a fan in Miami could fly to Paris for about $900 a person (according to prices generated on kayak.com), spend two nights at a four-star hotel at $250 a night and purchase a $340 concert ticket for a grand total of $1,740 — which is still $760 less than the cheapest tickets currently available for her Miami shows.
Tickets to see Swift in Stockholm (May 17-19) are even cheaper, at $312 for the cheapest tickets, while tickets for her show in Portugal (May 24-25) start at $336 and in Spain (May 29-30) start at $324. Prices do start to climb in the United Kingdom, with the get-in-the-door price hovering around £540 (about $674 USD) for Swift’s Liverpool shows (June 13-15). Prices to see Swift at Wembley Stadium (June 21-23) hover around £720 ($900).
The reason for the huge difference in price, experts say, is due in part to longstanding consumer skepticism about resale tickets in most of Europe. That’s coupled with a much more aggressive regulatory environment where artists and consumers are empowered to report and remove illegal ticket listings, and where prices are kept low thanks to laws limiting how high tickets can be marked up over face value.
The European approach is significantly different from that of the United States, where ticket resale is not regulated and deceptive marketing practices, including the use of deceptive websites and speculative ticket listings, continue unabated despite widespread outcry from consumers. And federal officials don’t regularly enforce the few ticketing laws that do exist. It took five years after the BOTS Act — banning automated programs that jump the queue and buy up tickets — was passed for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to bring a case against brokers for violating the bill.
Sam Shemtob, managing director for ticket resale advocacy group Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing (FEAT), points to Europe as a model for how governments can be more vigilant about regulating resale markets. In countries like France, Germany and the Netherlands, ticket resellers face limits on how much tickets can be marked up on secondary sites — typically 20% over face value. Other countries like the United Kingdom allow resale but restrict who is allowed to post tickets for resale and give artists and event promoters the right to take some resale ticket listings down.
Adopting European-style regulations in the United States by restricting ticket markups to 20% above face value would transform the concert business overnight and likely drive prices down dramatically on the secondary market. Markup caps would also likely make programs like Ticketmaster’s platinum ticket pricing (which charges high markups for a small percentage of tickets to offset the resale market) obsolete and significantly reduce the number of ticket brokers and bad actors using bots to disrupt ticket sales and illegally buy up tickets.
A federal cap on ticket markups would also significantly disrupt the secondary ticketing market and push many brokers out of business, which might create unintended consequences for sports teams that are much more willing to sell season tickets to brokers and depend on resellers for distribution. It’s also unclear if Americans would even accept a regulatory framework capping how much tickets could be marked up. Lawmakers in New York, Utah, Colorado, Connecticut and Virginia have all passed laws in the last decade making it illegal to restrict how and where ticket brokers resell tickets. While U.S. consumers often complain about the excesses of ticket resale and like the idea of using technology to keep tickets out of the hands of scalpers, they also dislike the restrictions that come with non-transferable tickets and tend to loudly oppose policies that create inconveniences.
Shemtob notes that Europe’s ticketing rules aren’t just about protecting price, but are also designed to empower citizens to take action.
On Jan. 1, 2025, Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA) will go into effect, creating a uniform set of guidelines for online ticket resale requiring resellers to disclose their names and contact details to potential ticket buyers. The DSA also mandates that resale platforms track takedowns of public ticket listings (to help provide a record of the deceptive activity taking place) and ban deceptive marketing practices.
While many of the DSA’s reforms mirror U.S. efforts to clean up ticketing, Shemtob says a provision in the DSA bill that makes it simple to flag, report and take down ticket listings that violate the rules is a game-changer for consumer advocates. The law creates “a clear process for removing illegal ticket listings as and when they appear,” he said in a statement provided to Billboard, putting in place “the groundwork for a fairer, more transparent ticket-buying experience for consumers.”
Besides keeping prices in Europe low, the legislation has also led to a surprising boom in tourism from U.S. fans traveling to the continent to pursue cheaper Eras Tour tickets: A spokesperson for StubHub told Billboard that 68% of ticket purchases for Swift’s 51-show run in Europe have come from U.S. buyers.
Helped by paid music subscriptions and a strong performance from its music publishing division, Universal Music Group generated revenue of 2.59 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in the first quarter of 2024, a 5.8% increase (7.9% at constant currency) over the prior-year quarter, the company announced Thursday (May 2).
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Notably, UMG’s margins improved from a year earlier. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) improved 13.2% to 591 million euros ($640 million). As a percent of revenue, adjusted EBITDA margin was 22.8%, up 1.5 percentage points from 21.3% from the first quarter of 2023.
CFO Boyd Muir attributed the margin improvement to revenue growth and a change in product mix — namely, less physical sales — but during Thursday’s earnings call he cautioned “not to read too much into any one quarter” and urged investors to look at trends over longer periods.
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The quarterly earnings release arrived a day after UMG announced a new licensing deal with TikTok. Analysts probed for insights into the economics of the agreement and possible impacts to UMG’s financial statements. Executives declined to provide details about the deal but insisted it provides fair value relative to other short-form video platforms.
Michael Nash, UMG’s executive vp/chief digital officer, said the new TikTok deal is “a substantial improvement” from the previous one and the revenue “does markedly improve for our last deal.” Some of the deal’s value is difficult to quantify, however. Nash added the new agreement contains “aspects of economic value” — such as ad credits, data and marketing programs — that won’t show up in future financial statements.
Each of the company’s divisions — recorded music, music publishing and merchandise — showed improvements in the first quarter. “This broad-based growth continues to underpin our confidence about the longer-term health of our business,” said Muir.
Subscription services were a main driving force in UMG’s quarter. Recorded-music subscription revenue grew 10.7% to 1.12 billion euros ($1.2 billion) and accounted for 43.3% of total company revenue, up from 41.4% in the fourth quarter of 2023. Recent price increases by Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music weren’t the only — or the primary — factor. “Subscriber growth is the biggest driver of the year-over-year growth rates we see at UMG,” said Muir.
Total streaming revenue grew at a slower rate, however, gaining 8.9% to 343 million euros ($371 million). Speaking about ad-supported streaming, Muir said he is “encouraged” by improvements but “cautious” about growth “until we see a consistent broad-based improvement across all partners and across all geographies and probably over a more consistent, longer-term timeframe.”
Total recorded-music revenues grew just 3.4% to 1.99 billion euros ($2.15 billion). Top sellers in the quarter came from Taylor Swift, Noah Kahan, Morgan Wallen, Ariana Grande and Olivia Rodrigo. Physical revenue in the recorded-music segment dropped 18.5% to 255 million euros ($276 million). (Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Society, which sold 859,000 vinyl copies in its first week of release, will impact UMG’s second quarter results.) Muir explained the decrease in physical sales stemmed from particular strong physical sales in Japan in the prior-year quarter. Licensing and other revenue fell 1.8% to 222 million euros ($240 million).
Music publishing revenue jumped 16.7% to 496 million euros ($537 million) thanks to digital revenue’s 22.9% increase to 284 million euros ($307 million). Performance revenue’s 26.7% increase to 114 million euros ($123 million) more than compensated for synch revenue’s decline of 10.1% to 62 million euros ($67 million)
Merchandising revenue grew 6.5% (7.5% at constant currency) to 114 million euros ($123 million). Touring merchandise sales increased while direct-to-consumer sales and retail sales declined.
The company remains on track to realize 75 million euros ($80 million) in cost savings in 2024, said Muir. In February, the company announced a plan to save $270 million annually through organization redesign and layoffs. As part of the redesign, UMG created label operations on the coasts under the leadership of two top executives. On the East Coast, Republic Corps is led by Republic Records co-founder Monte Lipman. On the West Coast, Interscope Capital Labels Group is helmed by John Janick, previously the chairman/CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M.
Independent talent agency 33 & West has hired veteran music agent Christianne Weiss to support the agency’s expansion. As part of her multiyear deal with 33 & West, Weiss is bringing the multiplatinum Grammy-nominated artist Starship to the company’s artist roster, with more to be announced in the coming weeks. Explore Explore See latest videos, […]
Guy Moot, CEO and co-chair of Warner Chappell Music, recently celebrated his five-year anniversary with the major publisher with a renewed five-year term. It’s easy to see why he’s staying on. Since taking the helm in 2019, Moot, along with co-chair and COO Carianne Marshall, managed to turn the company’s slow and steady long-term business, which originated all the way back in 1811 as Chappell & Co., into a modernized, fierce competitor with a honed A&R strategy. He focused on signing artist/songwriters with “cultural relevance” like RAYE, Mitski, Frank Ocean, Laufey, Zach Bryan, Teddy Swims and Benson Boone, recruiting the growing “mid tier” of artists, and buying catalogs, like his personal favorite David Bowie, that WCM can actively boost.
Moot’s wins have been more than just cultural — they are backed up by chart data. For the last three quarters, including this latest one, WCM — which regularly ranked third on Billboard’s Publishers Quarterly for Hot 100 songs — surpassed Universal Music Publishing Group to land in second place. It’s also No. 2 for the last two quarters amid Pop Airplay and No. 1 in market share on Country Airplay.
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But on a sunny April morning in his Downtown Los Angeles office, Moot tells Billboard that, despite WCM’s obvious wins, he is uninterested in sizing the company’s value by what its major competition is doing. “I don’t want to be just like them,” he says with a shrug. “I want to be doing our own thing.”
Warner Chappell’s thing is about leaning into the shifting music business head-on, echoing Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl‘s theme of 2024 as “the year of the next 10.” That includes the company’s new partnership with Bandlab and its artist service platform ReverbNation, through which WCM will provide administration to anyone who needs it and a full-service JV tier to develop Bandlab’s most promising writers. The company has also been working on a program to release collections of songwriter demos to the general public. With these and other initiatives, it hopes will help it stand out from an increasingly-crowded publishing field.
“This business is like no other business,” Moot says. “The competition is great, but almost no one actually sees it through and actually delivers something that’s worked. Last year, I said to all our team that we’ve got to double down and really deliver, and now, it seems like we’ve really gotten some momentum.”
Billboard: Robert Kyncl has been CEO at Warner Music Group for a little over a year now, and has put a strong emphasis on improving the technology at the company. Has that changed anything within Warner Chappell in terms of the way that you are looking at modernizing and keeping up with the speed of change?
Guy Moot: Definitely. I think a lot of the things that don’t add up in the music industry make him question, “Why, and how?” He’s tasked us to challenge the third parties for more transparency and speed of payment. We’re certainly investing a lot in tech. It’s not all delivered yet, but we know we need to fast-track for the next three to five years. We’ve always had issues in publishing with rights flows, transparency, PROs, but I also think the next big forefront will be how we get paid for UGC. That’s the real challenge. With those really sketchy sped-up versions, cover versions of our songs, there’s a lot of progress we’re making internally to match and track those and we’re seeing really great results. We want to get to a world where we can always find when somebody sped up one of our songs and there’s no master attached.
How can you track a song when it’s been manipulated like that?
Various matching tools, and it’s improving. I still think there’s a lot slipping through the net. When we make our digital agreements now, it’s still about setting terms that get songwriters paid more, but secondly, it’s also about getting levels of service and more data and info from the companies. I’m making a bold prediction here, and it’s a personal thing that I haven’t seen yet, but I’m hopeful AI will be helpful in the future of publishing administration. I’ve got a lot of hope that we will be able to completely map out a song’s DNA and then follow its uses through a whole ecosystem.
You’ve mentioned that you’d like to quicken the rate in which your writers get paid, but is that always possible? Some songs are released without complete publishing splits.
I think you’re as good as the information going in, and it’s not perfect. The MLC has actually been the nearest to having a comprehensive database, for America at least. And from our point of view, it seems to be working quite well. But it would be great if we had one authoritative database for the songwriting industry and we don’t.
What are you most proud of from your first five years on the job?
Carianne and I have been together five years, and we’ve seen a lot of progress at the company. When we got here, I had a couple observations. One, Chapell didn’t really have a strategy, in our point of view. It was a solid company. It was working great catalogs, and the other thing that I personally noticed from my A&R background is that we didn’t have many artists. We had a lot of songwriters for other artists at the time. I thought it was really important that we build a roster of both songwriters who do great work for others and artists who really mean something to fans and have some cultural relevance in a broad spectrum of genres. We started that process with Frank Ocean, but what’s exciting now is that we’re gaining artists not just across genres but across the world, and it feels like a new generation of artists.
The great thing about publishing is, you could do anything from an acquisition to a very short-term deal, but wherever you are, you’re really at the beginning of the process. We’ve got some great stories. Benson Boone is a great story for us right now. We’ve been there from the beginning with him attending our writing camps. Another one is when I was in the U.K., when we signed RAYE, she was very young. I think it was 2016. She’s had such a progression. Mitski, Zach Bryan, too.
I always use this term “culturally relevant signings.” I know we have just talked about some difficulties, but publishing’s easy if you sign someone you’re really proud of. Sure, our job is really complex sometimes, but also it feels really simple. What we do is we take the essence of what excites us about music, and we talk [to partners] about it.
So much has changed, even in five years. Music is more global, more artists are opting for independence over major labels, etc. What are you looking for when you are finding new music and new artists/writers?
We don’t just chase hits. I mean, we love hits, and we have a lot of hits, but we’re not just going out and buying every hit, chasing every hit. We often talk about the mid tier. I think in publishing we want people who consistently stream or slowly build. It’s going to be about fan bases and artist development. Those used to be fast-tracked by record companies, but that’s not so much the case now. I think sometimes you have to take a three-to-five-year approach if you’re developing, which many publishers do. Sometimes the economics of big label deals and the pressure that comes with that is too much. Not every artist is built for that.
Country music is everywhere right now, and Warner Chappell has the biggest market share in Nashville, according to Billboard’s Publishers Quarterly. How do you collaborate between the L.A.-based team and Nashville team?
Ben Vaughn runs an incredible team [in Nashville]. Everyone is talking about Nashville. I think you’re going to see more and more crossovers — you can already see it with the Dasha record in the U.K. We also see a lot of the country-adjacent artists, like Zach Bryan. I think it can all live together. I sat with Ryan Press, who runs North America for us, and Ben Vaughn last week here. I’m like, ‘“I don’t want to spend all this time working out what’s Nashville, what’s traditional, what’s country-adjacent. We’re all in it together.” I wouldn’t have it any other way.
What’s the balance between frontline and catalog? Catalog has seemingly become a more and more important part of a publishers’ business.
We look at catalog here with the same excitement as we do frontline, so David Bowie was incredible to buy. We don’t just have one head of catalog, we have a broad church of people from all different departments, like a catalog committee, where we talk about what we can do.
There are so many buyers in the catalog market right now. What do you think is the distinction between Warner Chappell and others as a buyer?
Don’t get me wrong, I have lots of friends who are in funds. We are partners with some of them. But Warner Chappell is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, music publishers. We are not going anywhere. We are not on a timeline or a window to sell. We’re not trying to buy an asset and sell it — we are here for the long term. Anything that we look at, we look at it through the lens of, How can we add value? How can we grow it? We’re not passive. So anything that we buy, we will have a plan for it. This can be anything, including that we know there are geographical areas where we can work it better specifically — like with George Michael’s catalog, we are working with the estate and identified that Latin America and Asia are two places where it’s been done well, but we can do better. Another big difference I noticed when I went to Warner is it’s a pure-play music company.
A source of mine called this the “year of the second sale” — saying that there are a number of funds looking to sell their assets. It’s been less about buying catalogs from artists directly this year and often about buying from other catalog owners. Have you seen that firsthand?
You’re starting to see some consolidation happen. I think some are just hitting that time horizon, some are just doing what funds do. You raise a fund, you have an exit window, a timeline horizon where you would expect to return money to your investors. Some of them may have overpaid. Some of them may just want to get out of the sector. There are a myriad of different reasons [why this is happening], but I think some of them are going to be long-term holders too.
Warner has been working on a special project with the Edith Piaf estate to use AI to clone her voice for use in a biopic about her life. It seems there could be some applications for AI within catalog marketing. Is Warner interested in doing more projects like this?
I think you can look at all of those things [enabled by AI] with the approval and respect of the estate. I think that’s the other thing you get from [selling to a] publisher, is we are music-first. We are going to do what’s right by the music, the songwriter and the artist. AI is interesting because we don’t know what the consumption and demand is yet. I mean, it was funny to see Frank Sinatra sing “Gangster’s Anthem” or something, but I don’t really see the real consumption there.
What is the most pressing issue for publishers as you see it?
I would say that one of the biggest challenges we’re all going to face as songwriters and publishers is how to get more songs out. Particularly as there are fewer huge stars, you’ve got to look at this game internationally. So we have an internal tool called Arrow, which is a searchable repository of our demos, and it’s multilingual, so someone in Hong Kong can look, and we can, too.
What sets WCM apart from the other majors?
There’s a focus on the individual here. Every songwriter is unique, so we meet them where they are in their careers and help them achieve their full potential. The same could be said for how we develop our team. We’ve created a culture where there’s a real, collective commitment to songwriters. Which is only possible because of each individual’s expertise.
This is something we’re quite proud to be building. Our songwriters benefit from being part of it — our global Warner Chappell collective — in terms of reach, collaborators and opportunities. And our teams around the world do, too.
Carianne and I are intentional about approaching everything from a human element. We certainly aren’t trying to be like anyone else. Being distinctive is about what you do and how you deliver on your promises, not what you say.
Britney Spears has reached a settlement to finalize her divorce from husband Sam Asghari, according to court documents obtained by Billboard.
Less than a year after the pair announced they would end their 14-month marriage, attorneys for both Spears and Asghari filed paperwork Wednesday in Los Angeles court to end the proceedings. The filings say the “uncontested” divorce is bound by “a written agreement regarding their property” and spousal support.
Asghari filed for divorce from Spears in August, citing irreconcilable differences. The pair had dated since they met on the set of her “Slumber Party” music video in 2016 before getting engaged in September 2021. They soon tied the knot in a star-studded Los Angeles wedding ceremony in June 2022, which featured a gatecrashing incident by a man Spears had briefly married in 2004.
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Following the news of the divorce, Asghari said at the time: “We will hold onto the love and respect we have for each other and I wish her the best always.” In her own statement, Spears said: “6 years is a long time to be with someone so, I’m a little shocked but … I’m not here to explain why because its honestly nobody’s business !!!”
The mention in Wednesday’s legal filings of a “written agreement” is likely a reference to a prenuptial agreement. When the pair married in 2022, TMZ reported that Asghari had signed “an ironclad prenup” which meant that he “doesn’t get a dollar from the fortune Brit’s made up to this point.” Such legal agreements are standard procedure for celebrities who have a large disparity in assets with a new spouse, since state law could potentially require splitting property in the event of divorce.
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Beyond referencing such an agreement, Wednesday’s filings included little detail. Asghari’s attorneys said he would “give up forever any right to receive spousal or partner support” except for what is listed in their settlement agreement. The extent to which Spears pays for his legal bills is also governed by the written contract.
The agreements were signed by attorneys for both sides. Spears was represented by celebrity divorce specialist Laura Wasser and her longtime personal attorney Mathew Rosengart, who also handled her long conservatorship battle. Asghari was represented by Neal Hersh, another well-known celebrity divorce attorney. Neither side immediately returned requests for comment.
News of Wednesday’s agreement was first reported by TMZ. To be finalized, the deal must now be signed by the judge overseeing the case, though that step is formality.
It’s been a busy few weeks for Spears’ lawyers. Last week, she reached another settlement to end a long-running legal dispute with her father Jamie Spears over allegations of misconduct during his years running the pop star’s 13-year conservatorship that ended in 2021.
Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge penned a memo to staff, obtained by Billboard, about the music company’s new licensing agreement with TikTok that ended a three-month standoff between the two entities, saying the deal ended with “a decidedly positive outcome,” with TikTok agreeing “to key changes in several critical areas.”
The announcement of the new deal, which came after a high-profile dispute between the world’s largest music company and one of the current premier social media platforms in the world that first erupted in late January, was announced early this morning (May 2). The agreement will see UMG’s millions of compositions and songs, both from its recorded divisions and its publishing company, return to the platform “in due course.” The feud has been one of the biggest talking points in the music business for the better part of this year, with artists and songwriters caught in the middle of the corporate standoff and looking for alternate ways to promote and market their music beyond the parameters of TikTok.
In his memo today, Grainge broke down some of the particulars of the new agreement, saying that UMG was able to get TikTok to address its major concerns. “This agreement marks another significant step we’ve taken to guide the industry’s evolution towards a future where human artistry must be respected, artists and songwriters are treated fairly, and their fans are provided with platforms that better prioritize safety and integrity,” Grainge wrote.
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During the dispute, many in the industry were split about the issue and its effects on artists and songwriters, particularly those without much leverage or who were trying to build a following. Many music companies and organizations came out in support of UMG, saying that its fight for better remuneration and protections in an AI age was an important one for the industry as a whole, and dozens of artists also signed an open letter stressing the importance of protections against AI infringement and other issues. At the same time, many artists and songwriters — both developing artists that relied on TikTok to build a following, and some of the bigger names in the music business — decried the ban as having a negative effect on the industry, and some of the biggest artists in the world, including several with UMG connections, found ways around the ban and were able to continue to benefit from their music being on the app while the dispute dragged on.
Grainge acknowledged that friction in his memo today. “As an organization committed to breaking new ground, driving the industry forward, and protecting artists and songwriters from the negative effects of disruptive technology, we expect and even embrace the inevitable conflicts that will result from fulfilling our commitments,” he wrote. “But ultimately, the point of engaging in such conflicts is to find higher common ground from which progress can be made.”
As part of the agreement, Grainge referred back to the open letter that UMG penned in January when negotiations first collapsed, wherein the company outlined three issues it could not come to terms with TikTok on: fair compensation for artists, protection from AI, and safety for its artists. On the compensation issue, Grainge says the new deal improves compensation for artists and songwriters and that the “total value” from the partnership “will be more closely aligned with other platforms in the social music category,” referencing the amount of advertising money that social companies bring in even for content they host for free. He also wrote that TikTok will be working to improve its content identification moderation, and “implement tools and processes to help address provenance and attribution issues, helping artists and songwriters to more effectively monetize their work.”
On the AI issue, Grainge wrote that the platform “addressed the primary concern we expressed in our open letter that AI generated content would ‘massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists,’” and committed to respecting artists’ right of publicity to own their voices and to support training AI models on licensed content, rather than without artists’ or rights owners’ consent. That means the ability to take down “fake artist” AI content uploaded by third parties, among other protections.
In terms of safety for users and artists on the platform, Grainge wrote that the platform “agreed to take steps to address our concerns around platform integrity and the negative impact of social media on its users.” Some of those steps he outlined included “policies and tools to prevent and remediate hate speech and bullying,” as well as addressing deepfakes, infringing content and “algorithmic manipulation” on TikTok.
“I want to express my deep gratitude to all of UMG’s artists and songwriters who, over the last few months, have had to endure having their music removed from TikTok during the dispute,” Grainge ended on. “We appreciate how difficult this may have been for some of them and we are so grateful for their willingness to pursue the path we took. I have no doubt that their advocacy — both publicly and behind the scenes — will positively influence the future of the industry for all artists.”
Read Grainge’s full memo below.
Dear Colleagues:
I’m very pleased to share the good news that our dispute with TikTok has ended with a decidedly positive outcome: they have agreed to key changes in several critical areas (including artificial intelligence, platform safety, remuneration) and we will once again license our music to them.
This agreement marks another significant step we’ve taken to guide the industry’s evolution towards a future where human artistry must be respected, artists and songwriters are treated fairly, and their fans are provided with platforms that better prioritize safety and integrity.
I want to express how grateful we are for the outpouring of support from so many corners of the global music community over the last several months. Artist rights organizations, independent labels, music publishers, music advocacy groups and of course so many individual artists and songwriters were outspoken in their support, recognizing the importance of what we were seeking to achieve. United in purpose, they strengthened our resolve to fight for the result we have achieved: a deal that will benefit not only UMG artists and songwriters but the entire music ecosystem.
As an organization committed to breaking new ground, driving the industry forward, and protecting artists and songwriters from the negative effects of disruptive technology, we expect and even embrace the inevitable conflicts that will result from fulfilling our commitments. But ultimately, the point of engaging in such conflicts is to find higher common ground from which progress can be made. I am enormously proud of what our teams and our artists have been able to achieve with TikTok in finding that common ground on which we will build a foundation for a brighter future.
Three months ago, on January 30, we issued an open letter to the artist and songwriter community that stated plainly that any new deal with TikTok would have to address three critical issues, including:
Protecting artists and songwriters from the harmful effects of AI, and dilution of royalties by a flood of AI content;
Improving the compensation paid to artists and songwriters; and
Prioritizing online safety for both TikTok’s users and our artists.
To convey to you the essence of what we’ve accomplished, I’ll highlight the gains we’ve achieved on all three issues within the context of why these issues have been so important for UMG and all of us as a community.
I. Protecting Human Artists from the Harmful Effects of AI
TikTok has now addressed the primary concern we expressed in our open letter that AI generated content would “massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists.” Further, they have made a number of commitments regarding AI that demonstrate respect for our artists’ and songwriters’ works and “rights of publicity,” as well as support of UMG’s principles on AI, including on training without consent.
AI technology, when used responsibly, offers artists enormous untapped potential, but when used irresponsibly, threatens to cause them deep harm. UMG has been leading the industry in addressing AI’s potentially harmful effects while embracing its opportunities. Our Responsible AI initiative, which was launched last year, puts the protection of artists and the advancement of their interests at the very core of how we think about AI. The goals of that initiative are:
·protecting human artists from being economically disadvantaged by AI;
·guarding against the use of AI-generated deepfakes; and
·requiring transparency in how AI companies train their models.
Our new agreement with TikTok will protect the integrity and value of human artistry and ensure that “fake artist” AI content uploaded by third parties that misappropriates the identities of our artists and infringes upon their right of publicity can be removed. This new deal will extend artist protections even further and promote a better environment for authentic artist/fan engagement.
The deal is only the most recent example of how we are advancing our AI initiative. Over the last year, with artists, as always, at the forefront of our strategy, we developed relationships with a wide array of leading tech companies and entrepreneurs and have been collaborating with a growing number of them on various market-led opportunities and approaches for the responsible use of AI.
II. Improving Compensation for Artists and Songwriters
Under the new agreement, artist and songwriter compensation will be greater than under our prior TikTok deal, and the total value UMG’s artists and songwriters garner from this partnership will be more closely aligned with other platforms in the social music category. Further, TikTok will implement tools and processes to help address provenance and attribution issues, helping artists and songwriters to more effectively monetize their work.
As technology evolves and allows fans to enjoy and consume music in new ways and from new sources, the health and vitality of the music industry requires that artists and songwriters be fairly compensated from the revenue generated by those new sources. Social media is a critical category for advancement of this objective.
In 2017, as the growth of social media was transforming culture, UMG and Facebook entered into the first-ever deal to monetize what had yet to be monetized—the use of music on social platforms. Since that first Facebook deal, the continued growth of social media and its free-to-consumer music engagement has been remarkable.
In fact, the revenue streams from this social music engagement generate tens of billions of dollars in advertising revenue for digital platforms. (And that consumer engagement also greatly benefits platforms in another way—it enables them to acquire customers for their other business ventures, such as eCommerce.) Given the vast sums that music generates for these platforms, any claim that the “free promotion” they provide would ever be sufficient and fair compensation for the use of that music would be absurd.
Revenue streams from several categories that are “free to the consumer” today (such as ad-supported streaming, synch and neighboring rights) account for more than 30% of all revenue for the entire global recorded music industry—almost double what it was a decade ago. For some artists, that can translate into anywhere from 20% to 40% of their income from recordings.
With the commercial significance of this sector in mind, during the last few months, we’ve accelerated engagement with music on other monetized social platforms including Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube Shorts. And, in a recent agreement with Spotify—which will make available a range of new features that were previously found only on social media platforms—we’ve even broadened the very definition of the social music category. In short, the income from social media is increasingly important income to artists, songwriters, labels and publishers, which is why we have pushed hard—and will continue to push hard—to protect and develop it.
III. Providing Online Safety for TikTok’s Users and Artists
Under our new deal, TikTok have agreed to take steps to address our concerns around platform integrity and the negative impact of social media on its users.
The harmful consequences of unmonitored social media have been highly publicized of late. It is a critical part of our mission to work toward promoting the safety and integrity of environments for our artists and their fans.
Some of the concerns on our agenda with TikTok will include safeguards such as policies and tools to prevent and remediate hate speech and bullying. Some of the platform integrity measures include important steps to help address deep-fakes, infringing and unauthorized content and algorithmic manipulation.
I want to close by saying something more about the unprecedented support we received from the music community, especially those individual artists and songwriters who raised their voices in various forums. Of special note are those who signed the recent Artist Rights Alliance open letter which called on tech platforms to employ AI in a responsible manner and not at the expense of recording artists and songwriters. Their widespread support underscored the importance of striking AI protections. In particular, I want to express my deep gratitude to all of UMG’s artists and songwriters who, over the last few months, have had to endure having their music removed from TikTok during the dispute. We appreciate how difficult this may have been for some of them and we are so grateful for their willingness to pursue the path we took. I have no doubt that their advocacy—both publicly and behind the scenes—will positively influence the future of the industry for all artists.
Thank you to all who helped make this possible. This is yet another example of what the music community can accomplish when we work together.
Lucian
Chinese music streaming service provider NetEase Cloud Music entered a licensing agreement with K-pop label JYP Entertainment, granting it the right to digitally distribute JYP’s catalog in China. JYP artists include J.Y. Park, TWICE, Stray Kids, BOY STORY, ITZY, Yao Chen and NMIXX.
TikTok announced a partnership with European ticketing provider CTS Eventim through which artists can now promote their live dates in their TikTok videos and sell tickets via the CTS Eventim platform. The feature is available to any certified artist on TikTok in Germany, with additional markets to follow.
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Warner Music South East Europe launched Balkan Electro, a new EDM-focused label, in collaboration with Ensis Records. Through the deal, Ensis artists can be distributed, upstreamed and marketed through the new label. Warner Music Poland will also collaborate to sign new local talent to Balkan Electro, which will additionally team with Amsterdam-based Spinnin’ Records and the dance-focused teams at Warner Music Central Europe and Warner Music France. The first releases on Balkan Electo are Prisko and TBX’s “Back to 95” (April 19), Melli’s “Losing My Mind” (April 26) and Kevin’s Palacios and Jordan’s Grace’s “Bright As You” (May 10).
The City of El Paso has approved a $30.9 million performance-based incentive agreement to support the creation of Notes Live‘s new $80 million, 12,500-capacity open-air amphitheater in El Paso, Tex., to be named the Sunset Amphitheater. According to a press release, the project will support more than 2,000 direct and indirect jobs with the potential to generate a $5.4 billion impact for the El Paso community. Construction is slated to begin in late 2024 with an opening set for early 2026.
Concert discovery app Songkick teamed up with Black music and culture ticketing and marketing company Shoobs in a deal that will see Songkick list and promote Shoobs events to its 155 million users via its app, website and eCRM. The partnership is designed to boost the visibility of Black culture events and performers including Afro Nation Portugal, Burna Boy and Piano People in the Park.
Ticketing company AXS acquired a majority stake in WRSTBND, a provider of access control, credentialing and point-of-sale solutions for live events and venues. WRSTBND will use the investment to grow its capabilities and offerings to clients while integrating AXS’ Mobile ID technology with WRSTBND’s ecosystem. “[WRSTBND’s] hardware and software technology combined with the scale of AXS’ premier festivals and live event clients, including Coachella, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest, and Hyde Park BST will create the most seamless and cutting-edge access and payment solutions available anywhere,” said AXS chief strategy officer Marc Ruxin in a statement.
Celebrity Coaches, which provides transportation and logistics for live events, acquired Nashville-based entertainment coach leasing company Moonstruck Leasing. The acquisition will add several luxury Prevost motorcoaches to Celebrity’s existing fleet. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), an international performing rights organization, partnered with music recognition technology company Audoo to implement its Audoo Audio Meter in select public spaces and retail locations in urban areas across Ireland, with plans to expand it to all business types in the country. The partnership is designed to help promote a more accurate and transparent breakdown of royalty distributions to music creators by recognizing background music being played via Audoo Audio Meteres and reporting the data back to IMRO. Business owners in Ireland can request an Audoo Audio Meter free of charge.
Private equity firm PAI Partners acquired a majority stake in Audiotonix, which designs, engineers and manufactures professional audio mixing consoles, production software and ancillary products. Investment house Ardian (which acquired Audiotonix in March 2020) will retain a minority stake alongside Audiotonix management. The U.K.-headquartered Audiotonix specializes in designing, engineering and manufacturing products that help enable high sound quality for several formats, including concerts, theater shows and sporting events. Its products have been used on tours by artists including Coldplay and U2 as well as at the Super Bowl and Sphere in Las Vegas.
RoEx, a tech startup driving intelligent audio production tools, was awarded a 250,000 pound ($313,000) grant by national innovation agency Innovate UK as part of a funding competition called Creative Catalyst: AI in the Music Industry. The grant will support the research and development of RoEx’s new model, ProStyle, which will provide a platform for mix engineers to partner with RoEx to train a machine learning model that captures their individual mixing style, thereby allowing them to monetize their sonic identity. Through this, the goal is for musicians and creators to have the ability to mix tracks in the engineer’s style using ProStyle.
Full-service entertainment marketing company FlyteVu and Club CMO, a community of more than 1,500 chief marketing officers across 30 cities globally, struck a partnership through which FlyteVu will offer Club CMO members “backstage” access — both in-person and virtually — to FlyteVu-marketed sports, music and pop culture events. Through the partnership, Club CMO members will be offered a closer look at FlyteVu’s industry expertise and knowledge, which they can then take back to their own organizations.