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When Luminate reported the fastest-growing music genres in the first half of 2024 (through the week of May 30), contemporary Christian music (CCM)/gospel unexpectedly placed in the top five. When analyzing overall consumption — track-equivalent albums, stream-equivalent albums and on-demand audio — the genre grew 8.9%, more than twice the overall industry growth rate of 3.9% for the same period in 2023.
CCM/gospel’s rise is even stronger on Spotify. Representatives for the platform say the genre has grown 30% in the United States and more than 30% globally in the past year. Over the past five years, the genre has grown 50% stateside and 60% globally.
“This past March alone, the Christian and gospel genre had its biggest streaming month on Spotify ever,” says Maritza “Ritz” McCain, Spotify’s senior editor, Christian and gospel.
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McCain also points to CCM/gospel’s global reach, noting that while the United States is the largest market for Christian music, global consumption is expanding in markets that include Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and the Philippines. She also cites promising growth in markets such as India, Indonesia and Germany.
According to Luminate, the top five CCM/gospel acts for 2024’s first half were Elevation Worship, Lauren Daigle, Phil Wickham, Hillsong Worship and Brandon Lake. Elevation Worship’s song “Praise,” featuring Lake, Chris Brown — a different Chris Brown from the “Run It” singer — and Chandler Moore, is the biggest CCM hit of 2024 thus far, having spent 24 weeks atop Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart.
Cole Flynn, head of marketing at Elevation Worship Records, attributes “six or seven” different factors that have contributed to the shift. For one, the consumption and promotion of CCM by a new generation of social media-savvy fans on those platforms is attracting new listeners.
“This whole generation has grown up with Spotify and Apple Music, and with the ability to access any kind of music they want to hear at any point in time,” says Leigh Holt of Hsquared Management, which manages Daigle and Riley Clemmons. “The barriers have been broken. There are more people who can say, ‘These are the ways I want to express my faith.’”
According to Luminate Insights, the share of listeners who are millennials and younger grew from 39% of overall genre listenership in 2022 to 45% in 2024. Additionally, the number of hours that CCM/gospel fans spent with music each month increased from 47.9 hours to 56.8 so far in 2024 — a 19% increase.
“Worship music does skew younger, agewise and listenerwise,” Flynn says. “People in their 20s and 30s are listening to Elevation Worship, whereas a typical Christian radio audience might be a little older.” He adds that this evolution has necessitated changes in marketing strategies for Elevation Worship, as it has with other CCM/gospel artists. “We’ve released music a little earlier, teased it out a little earlier, tried to get the music in people’s minds and on their phones earlier and give away a little more of the master content than we would have five years ago.”
Lauren Daigle
Jeremy Cowart
A new crop of young talent — who are also social media natives — includes 29-year-old Forrest Frank, 21-year-old Josiah Queen and 24-year-old Seph Schlueter. Frank’s “Good Day” and Schlueter’s “Counting My Blessings” each reached No. 2 on the Hot Christian Songs chart, with the former making its way into the upper echelons of Spotify’s Viral 50 chart this year. And Queen’s “The Prodigal” was in the top 15 on the Christian Airplay chart. All three are nominees for new artist of the year at the Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards in October.
Queen’s debut album, also named The Prodigal, and Frank’s Child of God both debuted at No. 1 on the Top Christian Albums chart in July and August, respectively, and the latter ascended to No. 28 on the Billboard 200.
Like artists in other genres, many top sellers in CCM/ gospel make social media key to their marketing plans. Daigle, 32, has over 5 million monthly Spotify listeners, and videos of concert moments, shared on TikTok, earn millions of views. Elevation Worship has over 1.9 million TikTok followers, and one March TikTok post of its hit “Praise” has garnered more than 19 million views. Brandon Lake, 34, who has over 4 million monthly Spotify listeners, has attracted 4.3 million views since posting a TikTok video in July that used his song “That’s Who I Praise.” And Frank racked up over 9 million views with a video that uses his “Good Day.”
“Content is still king,” Holt says. “The artists who are winning are the artists who are the most authentic on social media. Even with Elevation Worship, their content is very ‘man on the street,’ very accessible to everyone. I feel like that has a lot to do with the growth, as well as fans having insight into artists’ lives. Forrest Frank is great on social media, and Josiah Queen is really fun — he kind of teaches a master class a bit on that. They’ve figured out social media in a very organic way.”
Unlike most genres, CCM/gospel is built around a central message rather than a particular sound, allowing for a greater range of musical styles, including the pop of for King & Country and Frank; Queen’s rustic, singer-songwriter style; Tauren Wells’ pop/R&B vibe; and Lecrae’s rap.
“The expansion of what Christian and gospel music sounds like has helped grow the listenership and, in turn, the consumption of the genre,” McCain says. “Artists like Lauren Daigle, NF and Montell Fish started with a Christian listener base and have grown to see success in broader audiences.” She adds that the inclusion of Christian/gospel artists on non-faith-based playlists such as R&B Weekly, Shine and Fresh Folk has also helped to expand the genre’s reach.
Also bolstering CCM/gospel’s presence are a number of recent collaborations with secular artists, including for King & Country with Timbaland, TobyMac with Sheryl Crow, Lecrae with John Legend, Anne Wilson with Lainey Wilson, Zach Williams with Dolly Parton and CeCe Winans with Carrie Underwood.
“It’s way easier to become a fan of one person and transfer that fandom to another, especially with great collaborations,” Holt says. “For King & Country has always kind of led the way in the Christian space, and that really brings different spotlights to the genre.”
As streaming consumption and social media promotion of CCM/gospel music have increased, so has the number of contemporary Christian radio stations in the United States. According to stationratings.com, the number of U.S. stations carrying the contemporary Christian format rose by 22 from July 2023 to July 2024.
Titan Christian radio chains K-LOVE and Air1, which are owned by the non-profit Educational Media Foundation (EMF) have more than 1,000 broadcast signals. So far this year, the company has added more than a dozen signals to its fold.
“We’ve seen direct correlations of [streaming] consumption mirror the amount of audience we’re getting at radio,” Flynn says of Elevation Worship. “At the top of the radio chart, their song ‘Praise’ gets an audience of 10 million a week — that’s a massive difference. Let’s say radio doesn’t drive direct streams, which is an argument these days. It does drive massive awareness. There’s an intangible with church listeners, worship leaders, people putting it in Sunday morning [church services] set lists that exponentially grow that reach beyond radio, but that might have been the first place they heard it. So [radio]’s a huge help for us when we’re trying to get a song out there.”
“The songs coming out of our community continue to impact our audience, not only across all digital platforms but on terrestrial radio to over 30 million weekly listeners,” Gospel Music Association president Jackie Patillo said in a statement provided to Billboard. “People are hungry for a message that encourages and inspires.”
Growth in streaming, social media and radio reach ultimately impact artists’ touring. Elevation Worship sold out its spring Elevation Nights ’24 Tour before it began, averaging 11,600 tickets sold each night. Meanwhile, Holt says Daigle’s Kaleidoscope Tour has also seen growth in ticket sales.
“It’s a very different market now for ticket buying, post-pandemic, with multiple tours out. There’s a lot of competition,” Holt says. “But our ticket sales have grown this year, and we are back to our pre-pandemic numbers, which has been exciting to see.”
With just a month and a half before the 2024 edition of ADE, organizers have announced a new slew of names for the 2024 program.
Joining the lineup for the annual dance music industry conference in Amsterdam are SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton, who will take part in a conversation with Dutch producer Mau P to talk about the producer’s success and the role SoundCloud has played in supporting him and other artists.
Representatives from Bandcamp are joining the program for a session that will focus on the company’s artist payment model, maximizing revenue in a challenging landscape and why fan engagement and diversified income streams are important for the success of artists.
Also new to the program is a conversation with German producer Ellen Allien and Dimitri Hegemann, the founder of the nightclub and record label Tresor Berlin, who will talk about the UNESCO cultural heritage designation of the Berlin techno scene. Talks from artists including Don Diablo and Laidback Luke, Smallgod, Jaguar, Miss Nine and OVO Sound’s Naomi Sharon and her manager Jasper ‘Djosa’ Cremers will also be featured at the event. Representatives from Warner Music, Hospital Records, Glastonbury, ID&T, Primary Talent, SiriusXM and more have all also been newly added to the program.
This group joins already announced participants including Empire president Tina Davis, Spotify’s head of music for Sub-Saharan Africa Phiona Okumu, Grimes’ manager Daouda Leonard, Believe’s global head of music Romain Vivien and TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson. Previously announced speakers include Timbaland, Martin Garrix, Laurent Garnier, music executive Grace Ladoja and representatives from fabric London, Armada Music, WME and UTA.
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Additional programming includes Australia House, an initiative from Sounds Australia, an organization that helps Australian artists develop their careers abroad. For the duration of ADE, Australia House will take over the city’s Box Sociaal cafe to host execs from around the world for morning coffee, lunch and dinner and to present events by Australian artists on Oct. 16-17.
ADE 2024 will take place at locations throughout Amsterdam and again be divided into Lab and Pro programming, with Lab content tailored for people trying to get into or just starting out in the industry and Pro programming designed for established managers, label execs, artists, streamers, marketers, promoters and more.
The conference also offers consumer-facing events, with last year’s musical offerings happening in more than 200 venues around the city.
Mexican-American singer-songwriter Jacqie Rivera has signed a global deal with Virgin Music Group, Billboard can announce exclusively today (Aug. 29). Her first single under this new partnership, “Si Pasa Una Mosca,” will be released on Friday.
Daughter of the late “Diva de la Banda” Jenni Rivera and sister of fellow singer Chiquis, Jacqie Rivera is best known for her participation in reality shows about her family like The Riveras and I Love Jenni. In 2018, she released a version of a classic love song in Spanish, “Qué Ganas De No Verte Nunca Más,” which her mother had previously recorded, and between 2020 and 2021 she put out a series of singles independently, including “La Razón,” “When It Hurts,” “Existo Yo” and “Hurt.”
This is her first record deal and will include “multiple albums,” her publicist tells Billboard.
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“Being a part of the Virgin team is an answered prayer,” Rivera said in a press release. “It feels so good to have people on your side that believe in your dreams. This is just the beginning for us. Thank you Virgin for being part of my history.”“Everyone at Virgin is so happy to partner with Jacqie on this next phase of her career,” added Victor Gonzalez, President of Latin America and Iberian Peninsula, Virgin Music Group. “Jacqie has made an incredible album, and we can’t wait to share it with the world.”
No further details about the deal were provided.
As for her first single under the label, “Si Pasa Una Mosca” (which means “If a fly passes by”) was written by Salvador Aponte and Leslie Laraim, and produced by Carlos Alvarez. According to the release, the song combines melancholic sounds with a moving narrative that explores the pain and resignation of a relationship that is coming to an end.
“The first time I heard the song, I was driving my car and immediately felt a lump in my throat and started to cry,” Rivera said. “The lyrics are powerful, and I felt connected to them.”Jacqie Rivera is the executor of her mother’s estate, whose latest posthumous releases have been under Sony Music Latin.
A federal judge says Universal Music Group and Playboi Carti didn’t abuse the Digital Millennium Copyright Act when they issued a takedown notice – erroneously, it turns out – against another rapper’s song that used the same beat.
A rapper named G-Baby (Jordan White) sued the label and artist last year after they red-flagged his song “Oi!” for using the same underlying beat as Carti’s “Right Now.” The takedown turned out to be wrong — G-Baby had legally licensed the same beat that Carti had, and he had actually released his song first.
The lawsuit claimed that the move violated the DMCA’s safeguards against improper takedowns, but a judge dismissed those claims Tuesday – citing previous decisions that such restrictions only prohibit intentionally false use of the takedown system.
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“Because the DMCA requires only a good faith belief that material is infringing, a copyright holder is not liable for misrepresentation under the DMCA if they subjectively believe the identified material infringes their copyright, even if that belief is ultimately mistaken,” Judge Analisa Torres wrote.
In G-Baby’s case, the judge noted that he had effectively conceded that the UMG employee who flagged “Oi!” as a copyright infringement did not know that the rapper had properly licensed the beat: “This admission alone dooms White’s claim against UMG,” Torres wrote.
According to Tuesday’s decision, G-Baby paid $250 to producer Pi’erre Bourne (Jordan Timothy Jenks) in 2017 for a non-exclusive license to an instrumental track, which he later used as the basis for “Oi!” The next year, Carti (Jordan Terrell Carter) used the same beat in “Right Now,” a track on the album Die Lit, which reached Number 3 on the Billboard 200.
Shortly after Carti’s song was released, a UMG “content protection specialist” flagged two posts on Twitter in which G-Baby had shared his song. Eventually, the Recording Industry Association of America filed a DMCA takedown, which succeeded in getting the track pulled down from Twitter.
In his lawsuit, G-Baby claimed that UMG had intentionally sought out his song because of animosity from Carti, who he claimed was unhappy that the same beat had been used by someone else.
“Carter and Jenks knew that ‘Oi!’ was properly licensed and not infringing, yet decided to conspire with Universal,” the rapper wrote in his complaint. “Carter, Jenks, and Universal sought the take-down of White’s song with the specific intent of harming White.”
But in Tuesday’s ruling, Judge Torres ruled that even if Carti and Jenks knew that G-Baby’s song was properly licensed, there is no evidence that this information was ever communicated to the UMG staffer who flagged the song for removal.
“White cites no caselaw for the proposition that one employee’s knowledge that a use may be non-infringing should be imputed to another employee who independently issues a takedown notice on behalf of the company,” the judge wrote.
As for Carti himself, Judge Torres ruled that there was no evidence that the rapper had any involvement in or knowledge of the takedown process – meaning he, too, could not have violated the DMCA’s rules.
“Although Carter may well have been aware of (and displeased with) White’s license to use the beat, White has failed to establish that Carter had any part in the takedown notices,” the judge wrote.
Attorneys for both sides did not immediately return requests for comment.
Musicians and songwriters don’t tend to agree on much, but many of them want former president Donald Trump to stop playing their music at his political rallies and campaign events. Whether they can is a quadrennial quandary. The legal answer is yes, at least for songwriters: The big two U.S. performing rights organizations (PROs), ASCAP and BMI, require political campaigns to buy special licenses, from which rightsholders can pull specific works. (The other two, SESAC and GMR, do not issue campaign licenses but can make songs available.) But campaigns don’t always honor those requests.
The use of pop music in campaigns goes back at least a century: Franklin D. Roosevelt used “Happy Days Are Here Again” in his 1932 campaign, and Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis, also a singer, used “You Are My Sunshine,” to which he owned the copyright but did not write. Over the last decade, though, as politics has become more polarizing and pop culture has taken over life in the U.S., this has gone from a subject of occasional interest to one that gets considerable mainstream attention.
In most cases, the unauthorized use of music at a campaign event follows a sort of script: A candidate uses a song and musicians or writers have their lawyers send a cease and desist letter, partly because some campaigns will respect it but often because it’s just a good way to communicate their disapproval in public. How much do I dislike Trump? Enough to have my lawyer write a letter! Some musicians have these letters written, even though a public performance license for an event is only required for a composition, not a recording. Approval is only needed from musicians if the use of music implies an endorsement or involves video, which requires a separate synch license from a song’s publisher.
Now a few recent cases are making this issue more complicated. In mid-August, the estate of Isaac Hayes filed a lawsuit against Trump and his campaign for regularly using “Hold On, I’m Coming” as “outro” music at campaign events. (The estate is suing for copyright infringement, as well as under the Lanham Act, which would cover an implied endorsement, and there will be an emergency hearing in the case on Sept. 3.) Beyoncé has warned the Trump campaign about its use of her song “Freedom,” which has become a theme song for vice president Kamala Harris. And the Foo Fighters objected to the Trump campaign’s use of their song “My Hero” as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the stage to endorse Trump. (They have not sued.)
It seems like an accident of legal history that those three examples fall under the same law as playing a song during an hourlong wait for a candidate to take the stage. In the latter case, no involvement or endorsement is implied — the songs are just used as background music. These cases are different, though. The Hayes estate’s lawsuit claims Trump has used “Hold On, I’m Comin’” 134 times, often as “outro” music, which arguably makes it something of a theme. Beyoncé’s “Freedom” has become identified with the Harris campaign, which uses it with permission. And the Trump campaign used the Foo Fighters song to soundtrack a particular moment, knowing that it would spread widely on video, even though the campaign didn’t have a license for that.
These songs haven’t just been played in public — they have arguably been drafted into service for a cause the writers don’t agree with. “Hold On, I’m Comin’” has been played at Trump events both often and purposefully. Beyoncé should have the right to be identified with the candidate she wants to win. And the Foo Fighters song shows up in news coverage and online video, with the implication that Kennedy is some kind of hero for endorsing Trump.
Although we think of the use of music as a copyright issue involving a public performance, there’s more going on in all three of these cases. The current license system seems to work fine for the way campaigns use music at events in the background. But it would be nice if campaigns could agree with rightsholders, or even with one another, to get permission if a song is used in a way that will identify it with the candidate — and especially if it’s used for a moment that will be widely shared on video. This doesn’t necessarily follow legal logic, but it seems like common sense: If a campaign deliberately selects a song like “My Hero” to soundtrack a moment that is essentially designed to spread on video, doesn’t it make sense to get a video license? Who are we kidding?
Until the situation changes, creators will just keep objecting to the unauthorized use of their work — and they are starting to do so in more creative ways. The Foo Fighters have said they will donate the royalties from Trump’s use of “My Hero” to the Harris campaign. While the Hayes estate’s lawsuit goes forward, it might point out that although “Hold On, I’m Comin’” is played regularly at rallies — it was even rewritten as “Hold On! Edwin’s Coming” for the campaign of Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards — the song gets its name from what co-writer David Porter said to Hayes from the Stax Studios bathroom. If Trump isn’t using the restroom, perhaps another song might work better.
Politicians who use songs with permission also have some bragging rights. Tim Walz can say that Neil Young allowed him to use “Rockin’ in the Free Word” at the Democratic National Convention — an odd choice given the song’s sarcastic lyrics, but still great cred from a music icon. Harris can say the real “Freedom” is hers — and Beyoncé’s support with it. And we can all wait to see who Taylor Swift will endorse.
The electronic producer Odetari is popular on TikTok, where he has more than 2.5 million followers. He posts “maybe three to five times a week, probably even less,” according to Alec Henderson, vp of digital strategy at Artist Partner Group, which signed Odetari last year. That’s often not enough to satiate a global audience consuming social media 24/7.
So APG came up with a workaround. “A lot of what we do internally at APG is create multiple profiles for artists across social channels, and we’ll run fan pages in-house for our artists,” says Corey Calder, svp of marketing and creative services at APG. “We utilize these fan pages to continuously serve artists’ audiences with content,” Henderson adds.
The music industry has become increasingly interested in the marketing potential of these fan pages, which can churn out a lot of posts — song snippets, concert footage, backstage shenanigans, and more — but don’t cost much or require the actual artist to do more work. Some fan pages are started by ardent followers, others by the artists’ own team or label.
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Either way, they function “like having a media outlet at your disposal at all times,” says Laura Spinelli, digital marketing manager for Shopkeeper Management. For Tim Collins, co-founder of the digital marketing agency Creed Media, fan pages “can tell the story of an artist without the artist having to be the voice.”
Fan pages have existed for as long as the internet. While initially listeners had to actively seek them out and follow them, now the most popular social media platforms are all driven by powerful algorithms, which feed their users videos and posts according to their taste profile. This means that even passive supporters can be served fan pages, expanding their reach.
“You might like an official Odetari post, and then that serves information to the app that he is an interest of yours,” Henderson explains. “Our fan pages will almost eat off of that, because then the app is going to serve you more content related to that artist.”
For labels, fan pages can hopefully serve as a cost-efficient alternative to influencers. Marketers have been complaining about the saturation of advertising efforts on TikTok for years now — brands, movies, politicians and more use the platform to sell themselves. As a result, any influencers that command an audience can charge a lot more for their services, even though they generally do not get as many eyeballs as they did when the platform was less popular.
“If you’re going to do influencer marketing and you’re a label, you have to hire an agency or reach out to creators and pay them on a one-off basis to post using your song,” says Benjamin Klein, who runs the Hundred Days Digital marketing agency. “Instead of running a sped-up song campaign or a film-edit campaign that way, you can just launch a page” and put them out yourself.
Having all these accounts on hand — fan pages, sped-up song pages, film-edit pages, lyric pages — offers “a way to circulate catalog and help facilitate music discovery without burdening the artist or having to spend money,” Collins says.
To help promote bbno$’s “It Boy,” the rapper’s team “had close to 60 fan pages pumping one to four posts a day,” says Sam Alavi, who co-manages the artist. They covered “a myriad of different content types: Some were anime focused, some were bbno$ focused, some were clips of old podcasts bbno$ had done, and then they ended with ‘It Boy.’” The single peaked at No. 10 on Billboard’s TikTok Top 50 chart in July.
When an artist’s team runs a fan page, they don’t have to pay to post there. And when fan pages are set up by fans of the artist, they’re usually “so cheap” to work with, according to Arthur Lindsell, managing director of Grail Talent, an agency that links brands with creators. “Their dream is to get reached out to by the team of their favorite singer — give the person who runs the fan account tickets to the tour, and they’re going to be over the moon.”
Courting fan pages run by fans is the political equivalent of firing up the base. While influencers are mercenaries — their heart is in it as long as the check clears — the people behind fan pages rejoice at the opportunity to be loud advocates for their favorite artists, theoretically helping to indoctrinate others. Fan pages “sometimes can initiate interest in an artist, but most of the time they snowball it,” Lindsell says. “It’s about getting people who are slightly interested and hyping them up.”
In addition, fan pages can shift some of the burden of non-stop social media posting away from artists — or shoulder that burden entirely for those who are averse to TikTok. “A lot of artists are just not comfortable using social media,” Klein says. In that case, fan pages can serve as “a way to get your artists into a space that they might not want to participate in if they don’t want to create content,” Spinelli says.
These accounts can also post clips that artists might not want to put up themselves. “A lot of artists want their personal account to stay curated,” says Jen Darmafall, a director at ATG, a management company and marketing agency that runs fan pages for some of its clients. “There’s a lot of content that will be captured at shows, for instance, that they might not want to post on their main account because it will look a little spammy.” The fan pages can function as a spam cannon.
While they can do quantity, some marketers fear fan pages don’t always produce the eye-catching posts necessary to hook new listeners. “When you find the kid who makes the best film edits on TikTok, he’s probably 16 years old, and he just really likes the aesthetic of Ryan Gosling movies, for example,” explains Jake Houstle, co-owner of Black 17 Media, The Orchard’s top TikTok label. “I would much rather pay that kid $50 to create six Ryan Gosling edits for my song,” and hope that his passion for the actor transforms into truly standout posts.
Fan pages face one other challenge. An artist already has to have genuine followers for them to be helpful — otherwise there’s no signal to amplify. If fans could be created out of thin air, everyone would be a star.
“There’s a threshold of how popular the artist needs to be,” Lindsell acknowledges. “No one really gives a shit if something feels obviously manufactured.”
Maison Arts has re-signed Suki Waterhouse to a global publishing deal, further building upon her longstanding partnership with the Los Angeles-based boutique publisher, which has supported her since the start of her career. Under the new deal, Waterhouse’s upcoming album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, will be included and is set to release on Sept. 13 via Sub Pop Records.
The Other Songs has formed a new partnership with Universal Music Publishing Group and has signed “Easily” and “Nothing” singer/songwriter Bruno Major to a worldwide publishing deal. As part of their expansion, the UK-based independent publisher, founded by brothers Alastair and Billy Webber, has also brought on Jacque O’Leary as its new general manager.
Primary Wave Music has acquired the publishing, artist royalties and neighboring rights for the composer, flugelhorn and trumpet player Chuck Mangione. This encompasses his entire catalog, including jazz hits like “Feels So Good,” “Bellavia,” “Land of Make Believe,” “Give It All You Got, But Slowly,” “Children of Sanchez,” “Once Upon A Love Time,” “Chase The Clouds Away.”
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Kobalt has signed songwriter/producer Max Wolfgang to a global publishing administration deal. Though he is perhaps best known for his production work with BLACKPINK, BTS, Ed Sheeran and Olivia Dean, Wolfgang first gained attention as the frontman of British alt-rock band Wolf Gang.
Platinum Grammar Publishing and LISTEN TO THE KIDS PUBLISHING have signed Adam Wendler to a global publishing agreement. A co-writer for Dasha’s viral hit “Austin,” this is Wendler’s first-ever publishing deal.
Prescription Songs, in partnership with Disruptive Label publishing, is excited to announce the recent signing of JAYA. A rising Nigerian artist, songwriter and producer, JAYA has an upcoming placement on DaBaby’s next album and is currently working on records for Oxlade, RunTown, Lion King 2, and a number of Nigerian acts as well.
Song Sleuth has partnered with Regalías Digitales, the leading royalty collection agency in the Latin music industry and beyond, to identify undetected user-generated live music content and maximize collections for their rightsholders. Song Sleuth has also entered into a 12 month commercial trial with ICE, to ensure that ICE Core Society & Publisher Partners are properly collecting on UGC uses of their catalogs.
Position Music has signed Abe Parker to a worldwide publishing deal. An artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist, the rising star has experienced viral success with singles “Butterflies,” “Empty House,” and “Stupid Face.”
Warner Chappell Music and Songs & Daughters have signed singer-songwriter Emmi Elliott. A country and Christian songwriter, president and founder of Songs & Daughters, Nicolle Galyon, says “she’s a brilliant creative.”
Marilyn Manson has launched an appeal seeking to revive his defamation lawsuit against ex-fiance Evan Rachel Wood, arguing a lower judge who dismissed much of the case ignored key evidence.
Manson (real name Brian Warner) sued Wood in 2022, claiming she had “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured” women to make false abuse allegations against him. But a Los Angeles judge tossed out most of the case in a ruling last year.
That ruling came under California’s anti-SLAPP statute — a law that aims to make it easier for judges to quickly dismiss cases that threaten free speech. Wood’s lawyers claimed Manson’s case was exactly that: a prominent musician using a lawsuit to try to silence someone speaking out about alleged abuse.
But in an appeal lodged on Tuesday, Manson’s lawyers argued that a lower judge had repeatedly misapplied that statute to prematurely end a valid lawsuit that had been aimed at exposing a “malicious campaign” by Wood and others.
“This is an appeal of an order granting two anti-SLAPP motions, in which the trial court rubber-stamped Defendants’ assertions of ‘protected activity’ before weighing and disregarding evidence to conclude that plaintiff Brian Warner could never prevail,” his attorneys write.
Manson also claims that the judge ignored key elements of the case, including “bombshell” testimony from another Manson accuser named Ashley Morgan Smithline, who says she “succumbed to pressure” from Wood to make “untrue” accusations against the singer.
Wood strongly denied those allegations, and the judge ultimately refused to consider Smithline’s testimony because it had been filed far past a key deadline for submitting evidence. In Wednesday’s appeal, Manson’s lawyers say that was a clear and reversible error.
“The trial court prioritized convenience over the core function of the anti- SLAPP statute, which is to dispose of truly meritless suits before discovery,” Manson’s lawyers write.
Wood is one of several women to accuse Manson of serious sexual wrongdoing over the past several years. Manson has denied all of the allegations, and many of the lawsuits filed against him have since been dropped, dismissed or settled.
Manson filed the current lawsuit against Wood in March 2022, accusing her and a woman named Illma Gore of launching an “organized attack” that had derailed his career. His lawyer said the women had carried out “a campaign of malicious and unjustified attacks.”
But Wood quickly fought back, moving to strike Manson’s case under the anti-SLAPP law: “For years, plaintiff Brian Warner raped and tortured defendant Evan Rachel Wood and threatened retaliation if she told anyone about it,” her attorneys wrote. “Warner has now made good on those threats by filing the present lawsuit.”
In May 2023, Judge Teresa A. Beaudet largely granted that motion, ruling that Manson had not sufficiently shown that he would ultimately be able to prove many of those accusations against Wood, including that she had been “pressuring multiple women to make false accusations,” as well as the allegation that she had forged a letter from the FBI.
Anti-SLAPP laws, which exist in states across the country, work by putting more burden than usual on defamation plaintiffs like Manson, forcing them to clearly show at the outset that their case is legitimate. In last year’s decision, Judge Beaudet said Manson had failed to do so.
“The court does not find that plaintiff has demonstrated a probability of prevailing on his [intentional infliction of emotional distress] claim based on the FBI Letter,” the judge wrote, referring to one of Manson’s specific legal claims.
Kobalt announced it has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Yamil, the Colombian hitmaker behind FloyyMenor and Cris MJ’s “Gata Only,” Billboard can announce today (Aug. 29). “Yamil is one of the most creative and successful producers/songwriters making music today,” Nestor Casonu, president of Latin at Kobalt, said in a press statement. “We are so […]
Spotify is demanding that a federal judge toss out a lawsuit filed by the Mechanical Licensing Collective over royalty rates, calling the case “nonsensical” and “wasteful.”
The MLC sued earlier this year, claiming Spotify had “unilaterally and unlawfully” chosen to cut its music royalty payments nearly in half through bookmaking trickery – namely, by claiming that the addition of audiobooks to the service entitled the company to pay a lower “bundled” rate.
But in a motion to dismiss filed in court Tuesday, Spotify calls those claims “meritless and wasteful” – arguing that making hundreds of thousands of audiobooks available to subscribers was not a “token” gesture aimed at reducing music royalties.
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“MLC’s position is nonsensical and factually unsupportable,” Spotify’s lawyers write. “And it profoundly devalues the contributions of the tens of thousands of book authors whose works are available with a Spotify Premium subscription—from literary luminaries, to mainstays on best sellers lists, to up-and-coming writers who are finding their audience.”
The MLC, which collects streaming royalties for songwriters and publishers, filed its lawsuit in late May — a week after Billboard estimated that Spotify’s move would result in the company paying roughly $150 million less over the next year. In its complaint, the MLC claimed Spotify was “erroneously recharacterizing” the nature of its streaming services to secure the lower rate.
“The financial consequences of Spotify’s failure to meet its statutory obligations are enormous for songwriters and music publishers,” the group’s attorneys wrote at the time. “If unchecked, the impact on songwriters and music publishers of Spotify’s unlawful underreporting could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
At issue in the lawsuit is Spotify’s recent addition of audiobooks to its premium subscription service. The streamer believes that because of the new offering, it’s now entitled to pay a discounted “bundled” royalty rate under the federal legal settlement that governs how much streamers pay rightsholders.
In Tuesday’s motion, Spotify’s lawyers strongly defend that interpretation. They argue that the market for audiobooks has attracted “billions in consumer dollars” and that adding books was the kind of valuable new perk that had been intended to be covered by the lower bundled rate.
“At the heart of this dispute is an easily answered question: Is audiobook streaming distinct from music streaming, offering greater than token value?” the company’s lawyers write. “The answer is indisputably yes, and there is no need for federal court litigation to confirm it.”
The rule at issue says that streamers can use the bundled rate if they offer “one or more other products or services having more than token value.” Claiming that more than 200,000 audiobooks does not qualify under that rule is “baffling,” Spotify’s lawyers write.
“The creative output of these authors is not merely of ‘token value’,” Tuesday’s filing says. “Acceptance of that unassailable, commonsense proposition should end this meritless and wasteful litigation.”
MLC’s attorneys will file a formal response to the motion in court in the coming months. In a statement to Billboard on Thursday, the group said: “The MLC’s general practice is not to comment publicly on pending litigations. That said, we would reiterate that we take the enforcement obligations assigned to us by Congress extremely seriously and would refer you to the complaint we filed in this matter for more details regarding our position on this matter.”