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LONDON — The U.K. competition regulator has closed its investigations into Apple’s App store and Google’s Play Store on the grounds of shifting “administrative priorities” as it prepares to rollout stronger enforcement powers over tech companies.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into Apple in 2021 following complaints from developers over the way that the California-based tech giant operates its app store.
For many years, developers and app makers have complained about Apple’s restrictions to outside developers and the up-to-30% fee it charges them on all purchases made through its app store.
Two of the company’s biggest critics have been Spotify and Fortnite developer Epic Games with the latter taking its fight against Apple through the U.S. courts (Epic eventually lost the case, but in the process a California ordered Apple to make changes to how its store operates, including allowing links to outside platforms and third-party services).
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The CMA opened a separate investigation into suspected anti-competitive conduct by Google in relation to its own app store in June 2022.
Both of those probes have now been dropped, the competition watchdog announced Wednesday (Aug. 21), pending reforms to U.K. competition and consumer protection laws, which are due to come into force later this year under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA).
The act, which was passed by the previous government administration in May, grants the CMA new and expanded powers over how large digital companies operate in the United Kingdom, including the ability to directly impose fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover for firms found to be breaching consumer protection and competition laws.
“Once the new pro-competition digital markets regime comes into force, we’ll be able to consider applying those new powers to concerns we have already identified through our existing work,” said Will Hayter, executive director for digital markets at the CMA, in a statement.
The CMA said that should Apple or Google each or both be designated as having “strategic market status” – a categorization that requires global turnover of more than £25 billion or U.K. turnover of more than £1 billion — it will be able to use its new powers to investigate the companies “more holistically” than it could under its now-closed probes.
The regulator said it expects to launch three to four investigations into companies with strategic market status (SMS) within the first year of its new powers coming into force. If the CMA finds businesses are using their status to gain an unfair competitive advantage, it says it will take “targeted and proportionate action” to address their behavior.
The CMA also said that it has rejected new commitments from Google that would have given app developers the choice of using alternative payment options to Google Play’s billing system, under proposals known as “Developer Only Billing” and “User Choice Billing.” Those proposals failed to “address its competition concerns effectively,” said the CMA.
In response, a spokesperson for Google said the company has actively engaged with the regulator throughout their investigation and has “made a number of significant commitments to further broaden the billing options available to developers through Google Play.”
Google says that its fees are the lowest charged by major app stores with 99% of developers qualifying for a service fee of 15% or less. The company says that in 2022 its Android app business generated almost £10 billion in revenue for British developers and supported over 457,000 jobs in the U.K. Apple did not respond to requests for comment when contacted by Billboard.
The CMA’s warning that it will continue to closely monitor the tech sector over competition concerns and may reopen further inquiries in the not-too-distant future comes as regulators and politicians around the world look at ways to curb the dominance of tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Google and Meta.
In March, the European Commissioned fined Apple 1.8 billion euro ($1.95 billion) for breaking competition laws and unfairly favoring its own music streaming service over rivals including Spotify. [Apple appealed in May.]
The company has also been forced to make a number to how its App store operates in the 27-member EU trading bloc as a result of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which officially came into force in 2022, although companies had until March this year to comply with its terms.
The Digital Markets Act requires tech companies trading within the EU region to open up their services and platforms to other businesses and allow them to operate more freely.
For music streaming services like Spotify that means it is now able to list pricing information inside its app for European users – an update that is “something as obvious as it is overdue,” the company said in a blog post earlier this month. Freemium Spotify users looking to upgrade can also see special introductory offers and the pricing once a promotion ends.
While Spotify has welcomed the gradual loosening of restrictions, it says its long-running battle with Apple isn’t over and continues to criticize the company for preventing EU iOS users from purchasing subscriptions in-app because of what it describes as “illegal and predatory taxes Apple continues to demand, despite the [European] Commission’s ruling.”
Talent, entertainment, sports and advisory company UTA has launched a new Christian Music Division, led by Jonathan Roberts, who joined UTA in May. Additionally, four-time Billboard Christian Airplay chart-topper Phil Wickham recently signed with UTA and will be represented by Roberts. UTA’s Christian music division serves as an extension of UTA’s Heartland initiative, which UTA […]
Downtown Music has struck a deal with Hook, an AI social music app, which will pave the way for fans to create authorized remixes of the millions of licensed recordings in Downtown’s catalog.
In a time when many of music’s biggest stars are releasing sped up or slowed down remixes of songs, and fans are taking to TikTok to post all kinds of musical mashups and edits, it’s clear that listeners want to do more than just play songs, they want to play with songs, but often these remixes are made without proper licenses or authorization in place.
According to a recent study by Pex, nearly 40% of all the music used on TikTok is modified in some way, whether its pitch-altered, sped up, slowed down, or spliced together with another song. Hook hopes to create a legal, licensed environment for users to participate in this rapidly growing part of online music fandom.
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With Hook’s license in place, Downtown Music will receive financial compensation when their works are used in these user-generated content (UGC) remixes. Hook’s platform also gives Downtown’s artists and labels access to valuable data insights, showing them how and where their augmented music, created on Hook, is being used.
Hook sees their AI-powered remix app as a viable new revenue source for artists and labels, allowing them to better capitalize on the fact that much of music culture and fandom has shifted from traditional streaming services and over to short-form apps like TikTok. Hook’s founder/CEO Gaurav Sharma says, “we are challenging the idea that music on social media and UGC only provides promotional value. We believe fan remixing and UGC is a new form of active music consumption and rights holders should be paid for it. This deal represents a new model for music, social, and AI. The team at Downtown understands our mission and we’re humbled by their support.”
Previous to Sharma founding Hook, he served as chief operating officer for JioSaavn, India’s largest music streaming platform and one of the first platforms to secure global streaming licenses with record labels. During his time at the company, Sharma and his team grew JioSaavn to more than 100 million active monthly users.
Harmen Hemminga, vp of product & services strategy at Downtown Music, says of the deal, “Whilst music consumption continues to increase, broaden and localize, the trend of music “prosumption” on social platforms is ever-growing. Users of these platforms are including music in the experiences they share with others across a variety of contextual, inventive ways. Hook offers rights holders the ability to monetize these new and creative forms of use.”
Beyoncé‘s record label has sent a cease-and-desist to Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign over its use of the megastar’s song “Freedom” in a social media video, according to Rolling Stone, which reports that the campaign did not have permission to use the track. In the offending clip, which was posted to Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung‘s […]
A California appeals court has issued a final ruling that Michael Jackson’s estate can proceed with a $600 million sale of the singer’s catalog to Sony Music, rejecting objections from his mother that aimed to block the deal.
A month after the appeals court issued a tentative ruling against Katherine Jackson, the court finalized that decision on Wednesday – ruling that the estate’s executors (John Branca and John McClain) didn’t violate the terms of Michael’s will when they inked the gargantuan deal with Sony.
“The will gave the executors broad powers of sale, with no exception for the specific assets at issue in this case,” the court wrote. “As such, [a lower judge] did not err in concluding that it was Michael’s intent to allow the executors to sell any estate assets, including those at issue in the proposed transaction.”
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Beyond the merits of the deal, the court also rejected Katherine’s appeal for a simpler reason: that she had “forfeited” her arguments by failing to make them before a lower probate court.
Katherine’s attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment. She can still appeal the ruling to the California Supreme Court, though her odds of overturning the ruling are low.
As reported by Billboard earlier this year, the Jackson estate and Sony Music have reached a deal that will see the music giant buy half of the singer’s publishing and recorded masters catalog for more than $600 million.
But because the Jackson estate is still pending before a Los Angeles probate court more than 15 years after his 2009 death, his executors took the then-confidential deal to Judge Mitchell Beckloff for approval. When they did so, Katherine filed objections — among them that the sale “violated Michael’s wishes” and that the catalog would likely continue to gain value over time if retained.
In April 2023, Beckloff rejected those objections and ruled that the deal could move forward. Katherine then filed an appeal, resulting in Wednesday’s ruling.
In the new decision, the court rejected a number of key arguments from Katherine, including her claim that the sale would violate basic inheritance rules because it would prevent all of Michael’s assets from being transferred to his heirs. In doing so, the court said Michael’s will vested Branca and McClain with “full power and authority” to make such deals while in control of the estate.
“The proposed transaction is not a gift or distribution of estate assets—it is an asset sale, pursuant to which the estate receives a significant monetary payment and interest in a joint venture,” the court wrote. “While the proposed transaction will result in the estate exchanging assets for cash and other valuable rights, it neither diminishes the estate’s value nor impairs the executors’ future ability to transfer the estate’s assets to the trust.”
The wrangling over the Sony deal has exposed rifts among Jackson’s heirs. In March, Jackson’s son Blanket asked the judge to stop his grandmother from using estate money to fund her efforts to block the Sony deal. Though both had initially opposed the sale, Blanket and Jackson’s other children accepted the probate judge’s decision allowing it to move forward.
Later that same week, the estate responded to claims from Katherine’s attorneys that she needed estate money to pay for her legal battle, arguing she had received more than $55 million since the singer’s death. The estate’s executors argued that “virtually no request of Mrs. Jackson for her care or maintenance has been declined,” including more than $33 million in cash.
A rep for the estate’s executors declined to comment on Wednesday’s ruling.
A disastrous redesign of Sonos’ mobile app that led to customer complaints, hurt sales and caused the delay of two key product launches cannot be fixed by resurrecting the speaker and headphone company’s old app, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said on Tuesday (Aug. 20). Since its launch in May, customers have complained that the updated app […]
These days, many in the music business are trying to harness the power of the “superfan” — the highly engaged segment of an artist’s audience that regularly shows up to concerts, buys t-shirts, orders physical albums and obsesses over the artist online. In the digital marketing space, that has meant agencies are increasingly turning their attention to fan pages, hoping to capture the attention of that top tier of listeners online.
“The TikTok influencer campaign has been front and center for marketing songs for a while,” says Ethan Curtis, founder of PushPlay, a digital marketing agency that has promoted songs like “Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy, “Golden Hour” by JVKE and “Glimpse of Us” by Joji. “But as it’s gotten more saturated and more expensive, we found there was interest in creating your own fan pages where you can have total control of the narrative.”
“Fan pages” made sneakily by artists’ teams may have become the digital campaign du jour in the last year or so, but the idea isn’t new. Even before TikTok took over music discovery, management and digital teams quietly used anonymous accounts to pose as fans on sites like Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter, sharing interviews, videos and other content around the artists because, as Curtis puts it, “It is a space you can own.”
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Curtis is now taking that concept a step further with his innovative, albeit controversial, new company WtrCoolr, a spinoff of his digital firm that’s dedicated to creating “fan fiction” pages for artists. To put it simply, WtrCoolr is hired to create viral-worthy fake stories about their clients, which include Shaboozey and Young Nudy, among others. While Curtis says he is open to creating videos with all kinds of “imaginative” new narratives, he says he draws the line at any fan fiction that could be “negative” or “cause backlash” for the people featured in the videos.
The results speak for themselves. One popular WtrCoolr-made TikTok video that falsely claimed that Dolly Parton is Shaboozey’s godmother has 1.1 million views and 121,500 likes to date. Posted to the digital agency’s fan account @ShaboozeysVault, Curtis says that the popular video was made by splicing together old interview clips of the artists, along with some AI voiceovers.
“We are huge fans of pop culture, fan fiction and satire,” says Curtis. “We see it as creating our own version of a Marvel Universe but with pop stars.”
All of the TikTok accounts made by WtrCoolr note in their bios that their content is “fan fiction.” The videos on these pages also include “Easter eggs,” which Curtis says point to the fact that the videos are fabrications. But plenty of fans are still falling for it. Many viewers of the Parton video, for example, took it as gospel truth, posting comments like “how many god children does Dolly have and where can I sign up?” and “Dolly is an angel on Earth.”
In the future, Curtis thinks this novel form of “fan fiction” will be useful beyond just trying to engage fan bases online. He sees potential for the pages to serve as “a testing ground” for real-life decisions — like an artist choosing to collaborate with another — to see how the fan base would react. “Traditionally, you don’t get to look before you jump,” he says. “Maybe in the future we will.”
What was the first “fan fiction” post that took off for WtrCoolr?
It was the video of Shaq being a superfan to the rapper Young Nudy [10.4 million views, 1.7 million likes on TikTok]. We had been working on [promoting] the Young Nudy song, “Peaches & Eggplants,” mostly on the influencer side. We had dances and all sorts of different trends going. It was becoming a top rap song by that point and then we sold the client [Young Nudy’s team] on doing one of these fan pages where we just tested out a bunch of stuff. The first narrative video we tried was this video where we found some footage of Shaq — I think it was at Lollapalooza — where he was in the front of the crowd [for a different artist], vibing and head banging. It was a really funny visual. We just got clever with the editing and created the story that Shaq was showing up at every Young Nudy show, and then it went crazy viral.
It was really exciting to see. It brought fans to Nudy and also made existing Nudy fans super excited that Shaq was engaging. Then there was tons of goodwill for Shaq that came from it too. Lots of comments like “protect Shaq at all costs” or “Shaq’s a damn near perfect human being.” It was all around a positive experience. We put on our pages that this is a fan page and fan fiction. We don’t really push that it’s the truth. We’re just having fun and we let that be known.
There was some pickup after that video went viral. Weren’t there some rap blogs posting about the video and taking it as truth?
I don’t know if they were taking it as true necessarily. We didn’t really have any conversations with anyone, but it was definitely getting shared all around — whether it was because of that or just because it was such a funny video. Even Nudy reacted and thought it was funny. I think the label may have reached out to Shaq and invited him to a show, and he thought it was funny but was on the other side of the country that day and couldn’t make it.
I’m sure there’s some people who thought it was true, but a lot of the videos we’ll put Easter eggs at the end that make it obvious that it’s not true. Then in our bios we write that it is fan fiction.
Do you think that there’s anything bad that could come from fans and blogs believing these videos are real — only to later realize later that it was fake?
I don’t know if anything is really bad. We don’t claim for it to be true, and we’re just having fun, weaving stories and basically saying, “Wouldn’t it be funny if?” or, “Wouldn’t it be heartwarming if?” I don’t think we’re really ever touching on stuff that’s of any importance, that could lead to any negative energy or backlash. We’re just trying to make fun stuff that fans enjoy. Just fun little moments. It’s no different from taking a video out of context and slapping meme headings on it.
Do you see this as the future of memes?
I do. I also think there’s a future where what we’re doing becomes sort of like a testing ground for real-life collabs or TV show concepts. I could see a label coming to us and asking us to test how a new post-beef collab between Drake and Kendrick would be received, for example. They could say, “Can you create a post about this and we can see if people turn on Kendrick for backtracking, or if fans will lose their shit over them coming together?” We could see if it’s a disaster or potentially the biggest release of their careers. Traditionally, you don’t get to look before you jump. Maybe in the future we will. But even now with the Shaq video, it basically proved that if Shaq went to an unexpected show and was raging in the front row people would love it. I mean, if it’s been so successful on socials, why wouldn’t it be so successful in real life?
It seemed like the Shaboozey and Dolly Parton video inserted Shaboozey’s name and other new phrases using an AI voice filter. Do you rely on AI in these videos a lot or is it primarily about careful editing?
The majority of it is just clever editing. Every now and then we may change a word up or something [using AI], but the majority of it is just collaging clips together.
How time intensive is it to create these videos?
The process has been changing. It used to be much more time intensive back before we realized that clever editing was more efficient. In the beginning, we would write scripts for the videos, run them through AI and then try to find clips to match the scripts and stuff like that. You have to match the edit up with the artist’s lips so it looks like lip synching. That’s just super time intensive. Then we started realizing that it’s easier to just define a basic objective, go out on the internet and see what we can find. We develop a story from there so that we only have to do a few fake [AI-assisted] words here and there, and then we’ll cut away from the video, show some footage from a music video or something like that. It makes it more efficient.
As far as you know, is WtrCoolr the first team in digital marketing that is trying to do these false-narrative, storytelling videos, or is this something that is seen all over the internet?
We were definitely the first to do it. There’s definitely people that are imitating it now. We see it generally in the content that exists online, especially on meme pages. It’s becoming part of the culture.
Do you run your ideas for fan fiction narratives by the artist before you do them?
We’re working with them, and we’re talking through ideas. There’s as much communication as they want. Some artists want to know what’s going on, but some artists just don’t care to be involved.
It seems like, so far, no one has had any issues with being used in the videos — they even see this positively — but are you concerned about the legal implications of using someone’s likeness to endorse an artist or idea that they haven’t really endorsed?
We’re not claiming it to be true. We include disclaimers that it’s just fan fiction. So, I think if we were claiming for it to be true then that’s a different story, but that’s not what we are doing.
That’s listed on all the page bios, but it isn’t listed on the actual video captions, right?
It’s listed on the profiles, and then a lot of videos we just do Easter eggs at the end that make it sort of apparent that it’s a joke.
I found the idea that you mentioned earlier to be interesting — the idea that you could test out collaborations or things without having to get the artist involved initially, whether it’s Drake and Kendrick collaborating or something else. It reminds me of when people tease a song before they slate it for official release. Do you feel that is a fair comparison?
Totally. What TikTok did for song teasing, this has done for situation teasing.
This story was published as part of Billboard’s new music technology newsletter ‘Machine Learnings.’ Sign up for ‘Machine Learnings,’ and Billboard’s other newsletters, here.
Vans and a Brooklyn art collective have reached a settlement to end a long-running trademark lawsuit over Tyga‘s “Wavy Baby” sneakers – a parody of the company’s classic Old Skool.
Vans claimed the shoe, released in 2022 by a group called MSCHF, was “blatant” infringement. The creators argued it was legal parody protected by the First Amendment since it was designed to criticize “sneakerhead” consumerist culture. But federal courts repeatedly ruled for Vans.
On Tuesday, attorneys for both sides told a federal judge they had agreed to resolve the lawsuit. MSCHF agreed that the “Wavy Baby” had infringed Vans’ trademarks and agreed to never sell it again. Other terms of the “confidential settlement agreement,” including a potential monetary payment, were not disclosed in court filings. Neither side immediately returned request for comment.
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Tyga announced the Wavy Baby in April 2022, sparking plenty of buzz but also immediate comparisons to Vans. Footwear News said the shoe “appears to be loosely based on the classic Vans Old Skool” that had been altered with a “wave-like aesthetic.” The site HighSnobiety went with a bolder headline: “MSCHF & Tyga’s Insane Skate Shoes Look Like Liquified Vans.”
Three days before the shoes were set to drop, Vans filed a lawsuit – claiming MSCHF’s sneakers violated its trademark rights and demanding an immediate restraining order. The lawsuit targeted only MSCHF itself and did not name Tyga (real name: Micheal Stevenson) as a defendant.
Legal trouble was nothing new for MSCHF: the group had previously partnered with Lil Nas X to release a “Satan Shoe” that looked like a pair of Nikes – and had been promptly hit with a similar infringement lawsuit from that sneaker giant. They quickly reached a settlement that saw MSCHF issue voluntary recall on the shoes and offer a buy-back program.
In the case over Tyga’s sneaker, Vans argued that consumers would think Wavy Baby was an authorized product artist endorsement deal rather than a parody by a separate company. The company cited previous partnerships with A$AP Rocky, Metallica and Foo Fighters.
“Given Vans’ history of collaborations with musical artists, on information and belief, the collaboration between MSCHF and Michael Stevenson is intended to deceive consumers into believing they are purchasing a product made by, sponsored by, approved by, or otherwise associated with Vans,” the company’s lawyers wrote at the time.
Unlike the Nike case, MSCHF fought back against the case filed by Vans. It admitted that the Wavy Baby was based on the Old Skool, but said it had a legal right under the First Amendment to use the shoe as “the cultural and physical anchor when creating its art.” The company said it wanted to critique “consumerism inherent in sneakerhead culture” and “the phenomenon of sneaker companies collaborating with anyone to garner clout and shoe sales.”
But a federal judge quickly rejected those arguments and issued a restraining order banning MSCHF from selling any more Wavy Babys. In issuing his ruling, Judge William F. Kuntz said that he – and, more importantly, consumers – didn’t quite get the joke.
“Whatever the actual artistic merits of the Wavy Baby shoes, the shoes do not meet the requirements for a successful parody,” the judge wrote in his April 2022 decision. “While the manifesto accompanying the shoes may contain protected parodic expression, the Wavy Baby shoes and packaging in and of themselves fail to convey the satirical message.”
A federal appeals court later upheld that ruling.
Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communication is launching a new master’s degree in music business in 2025. The addition expands on the undergraduate program in the recording and entertainment industries. Both degree programs are named after renowned music publishing executive and former head of Sony Music Publishing Martin (Marty) Bandier, who graduated from Syracuse in 1962. […]
HarbourView Equity Partners has acquired what it describes as “select publishing assets” belonging to singer-songwriter James Fauntleroy, whose credits include Bruno Mars hits like “That’s What I Like,” Justin Timberlake’s “Suit and Tie” and Ciara’s “Love Sex Magic.” Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
A four-time Grammy winner — including song of the year and best R&B song for “That’s What I Like” — Fauntleroy has worked with Rihanna, Beyonce, Chris Brown, Frank Ocean, Snoop Dogg, Stevie Wonder, Drake, SZA, Nipsey Hussle, Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar, among many others. Most recently, he helped write “Die with a Smile,” the new single from Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.
Fauntleroy is also a member of the songwriter/producer/musician collective 1500 or Nothin’ and a co-founder of the 1500 Sound Academy, a music school for aspiring young talent that’s based in his hometown of Inglewood.
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“James Fauntleroy has made an incredible impact with his contributions across several genres,” said HarbourView founder and CEO Sherrese Clarke Soares. “With a keen ear for creating global hits, he has solidified his position as one of the best singer/songwriters and producers of this generation.”
HarbourView has scooped up over 60 music catalogs since forming in 2021, including assets by Christine McVie, Brad Paisley, Jeremih, Nelly, Luis Fonsi, Pat Benatar, Wiz Khalifa and, most recently, OneRepublic collaborator Noel Zancanella. Beyond music, the Newark-based investment firm also pounces on opportunities across the entertainment, sports and media sectors.
In a statement, Fauntleroy called the sale of publishing assets to HarbourView the “culmination of years of work and dedication invested into the creative community and the craft of songwriting,” adding, “This partnership has already opened up more doors for growth and opportunity for me, and I’m incredibly excited and thankful to enter into this next chapter together.”