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4batz has signed a deal with Drake’s label OVO Sound for one EP, according to two executives familiar with the deal. The EP deal is a short-term license, the sources say. A rep for Drake and OVO declined to comment. Multiple labels have been wooing 4batz since his track “act ii: date @ 8” — […]
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne has signed with Monument Records and will now be managed by Little Big Town‘s Karen Fairchild, who is stepping into music management.
Led by co-presidents Shane McAnally and Jason Owen as well as general manager Katie McCartney, Monument will reissue Lynne’s 1999 album, I Am Shelby Lynne, on Apr. 5 in honor of its 25th anniversary, with a limited-edition vinyl release slated for the summer.
Meanwhile, Lynne is also working on her new studio album with Fairchild, fellow singer-songwriter Ashley Monroe and producer/engineer/mixer Gena Johnson (Ashley McBryde‘s Lindeville, Chris Stapleton‘s Starting Over).
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Lynne, who moved back to Nashville in 2018, said in a statement, “It’s good to be back in Nashville. Being back in this city has lit me up. I’ve come full circle and I can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on.”
Since issuing her 1989 debut album, Sunrise, Lynne has traversed genres including country, rock and pop with her music. In the early 1990s, several of her songs, including “Things Are Tough All Over,” cracked the top 30 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart, while her sixth studio album, 1999’s I Am Shelby Lynne, featured the top 20 Billboard Triple A chart hit “Gotta Get Back.” The album also led to Lynne winning best new artist at the 43rd annual Grammy Awards. She has also picked up honors including the ACM Awards’ top new female vocalist accolade. Additionally, she has been featured in movies and TV shows including Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line.
In addition to Little Big Town, Fairchild has written songs recorded by Kelsea Ballerini and Anne Wilson. In a way, Lynne’s signing to Monument Records marks a full-circle moment for Fairchild as well, as Little Big Town’s 2002 self-titled debut album was released on the label (the group has been with Capitol Nashville since 2008).
McAnally said in a statement, “Artists like Shelby Lynne come once in a lifetime. Her impact on artists and fans alike, including me, has been deep and wide. I’m so proud to be a part of bringing her artistry back to the forefront with new music.”
Fairchild added, “It feels important to reintroduce Shelby Lynne’s genius to a fresh wave of artists and fans. I’m blown away by her profound knowledge of music and the enormity of her talent. Shelby’s uniqueness lies in her extraordinary capacity to delve into human pain and beauty through her powerful voice and storytelling.”
A Los Angeles judge is pressing pause on a bombshell sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Lizzo by three of her former backup dancers, halting all proceedings while the star appeals a recent ruling that allowed the case to move forward.
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In a decision Thursday, Judge Mark H. Epstein ordered the case “stayed” while Lizzo challenges his January ruling, which largely rejected her efforts to dismiss the lawsuit under California’s anti-SLAPP statute — a special law that makes it easier to quickly end meritless lawsuits that threaten free speech.
It’s unclear how long that process will take, but it will be at least several months before the case resumes.
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Lizzo (real name Melissa Jefferson) was sued in August by dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez, who claim she and her Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc. created a hostile work environment through a wide range of legal wrongdoing, including sexual harassment and religious and racial discrimination.
In one particularly vivid allegation, Lizzo’s accusers claimed she pushed them to attend a live sex show at a venue in Amsterdam’s famed Red Light District called Bananenbar, and then pressured them to engage with the performers, including “eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas.” After Lizzo herself allegedly led a chant “goading” Davis to touch one performer’s breasts, the lawsuit says, Davis eventually did so.
Repped by Hollywood defense attorney Martin D. Singer, Lizzo fired back in October, arguing that Davis, Williams and Rodriguez filed the case seeking “a quick payday with minimal effort.” He said they had “an axe to grind” against the star because they had been reprimanded over “a pattern of gross misconduct and failure to perform their job up to par.”
Lizzo’s motion to dismiss the case cited the anti-SLAPP statute, which stands for “strategic lawsuits against public participation.” Her lawyers called the harassment lawsuit “a brazen attempt to silence defendants’ creative voices and weaponize their creative expression against them.”
But in his ruling in January, Judge Epstein ruled that the anti-SLAPP law didn’t quite fit all of the lawsuit’s allegations. He tossed out some claims – including a particularly loaded charge that Lizzo fat-shamed one of her dancers – but ruled that remainder of the case could go forward.
Figuring out the proper balance – between protected speech and illegal discrimination – was “no easy task,” Judge Epstein wrote, but he said he had “tried to thread this needle.”
“It is dangerous for the court to weigh in, ham-fisted, into constitutionally protected activity,” the judge wrote. “But it is equally dangerous to turn a blind eye to allegations of discrimination or other forms of misconduct merely because they take place in a speech-related environment.”
It’s that ruling that Lizzo is now appealing. The coming appellate fight will aim to answer tricky questions about the anti-SLAPP statute – a provision that is often used to fight back against defamation lawsuits, not against discrimination lawsuit filed by former employees against their employer.
In statement Friday, the accusers’ attorney Ron Zambrano said: “This case now hinges on appeals. They’ll file, then we’ll cross-file, so the judge has stayed the case for the time being pending those appeals.” An attorney for Lizzo did not immediately return a request for comment.
Just say the name Jennifer Lopez and surely somebody, somewhere, everywhere, will associate her with something: Films, dance, brands, hubby Ben Affleck — and, yes, music. Which is ironic because Lopez has long said music is her first love; it’s what led her to dance and, later, to acting. But as a multi-hyphenate, Lopez has never quite embraced her musicianship as thoroughly as she is now with her current, multi-pronged This Is Me…Now project.
Spearheaded by the album of the same name — her ninth studio album and first in over a decade — the project also includes This is Me…Now, a musical produced by MGM Amazon and streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime; the documentary The Great Love Story Never Told, streaming on Prime Video; and the This Is Me…Now tour, which kicks off June 26 in Orlando and will encompass 30 arena dates in the United States alone.
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“The mindset was, ‘Let’s create a Jennifer Lopez ecosystem that can push out into all the different worlds that she has traversed: her music, her filmmaking, her producing, her acting,” says her longtime manager and business and producing partner Benny Medina. “[What] does a project like that look like and how do you get the attention and placement that you can?”
The album This Is Me…Now, released by Lopez and Medina’s Nuyorican Productions and licensed to BMG, sold 14,000 copies in its debut week last week and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart. This Is Me…Now the musical was also released on Feb. 16 and was followed in quick succession by on-sale tour dates on Feb. 22 and, finally, the release of The Greatest Love Story Never Told, which arrived on Feb. 27. Coming up are more tour dates and multiple private listening sessions with fans — just one of many strategies that Lopez and Medina hope will help spread the gospel of This Is Me…Now. Vinyl, for example, which directly ties into the album’s concept of “then and now,” was a key component of its first-week sales, accounting for nearly a third of all copies sold.
Those little details, contained within such a vast picture, are telling. Medina, who began his career as a Motown artist and later worked at Motown Records under Berry Gordy, approaches every project like the multimedia entrepreneur he is.
But after over 20 years working with Lopez — with whom he’s a partner in every one of her ventures — he admits that this project was particularly challenging.
“Everybody starts with the concept of, ‘Wait a second, is this a movie, a film, a long-form music video?’” he says. “It’s not anything you’ve seen and produced. And that was what was really interesting. Here she was, along with her team, working harder than she’d ever worked to write, produce and finish an album. And then writing and producing a film while being followed around to make a documentary. The only person who’s really ever going to stick with you during something like that is yourself and the other people who’ve signed up as a result of an incredible amount of belief.”
Here, Medina — who earns the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week — breaks down the belief that allowed him and Lopez to pull off This Is Me…Now.
This Is Jennifer Lopez’s first No. 1 in 20 years. How did you do it?
With that amount of time in between a true full studio album release and very few bits of music whatsoever, there was something I found out which was really interesting, and that no record company executives or strategic partners had really thought about: We are not in the current streaming zeitgeist. In reality, her brand doesn’t live in the music world as solidly as it does in the [movie] world because there’s been so much activity on the film side. The very thing that grows you within today’s commerce strategies is the frequency of music; it’s the reason any kid around the block who puts a video on TikTok has a shot. Our goal was to approach this in some ways as a new artist that we were building the algorithm and the relationship with the DSPs and we were going back to radio with the same attitude of, “Listen, give it a shot.”
I think it’s remarkable that such a household name like Jennifer Lopez was willing to do this hard work.
What we’re really trying to do here is start a new journey as to how a legacy artist like Jennifer Lopez can position herself in the marketplace to be able to transact with all the new consumers out in the world who may not have a relationship with her for music, but may only know her as a film superstar.
In terms of the album, vinyl was a big factor in its success. Can you tell us about that?
The great news is that vinyl was having this resurgence and this whole concept was about “then and now.” At that point, we decided to make multiple covers for vinyl and worked to do some specific A&R for the different records. And from there it was to get as many platforms as you possibly could to push out the messaging of This Is Me…Now, any singles related to it, to support the film that was being launched with six of the songs in it, and to push the documentary which was about the making of the project and the mindset.
When I think of Jennifer Lopez, I think of an artist who does many things at the same time. What was different about this project?
We’ve done a lot of those things separately and apart with different partners. We’ve never done a project that encapsulated all of this, and certainly not something as personal as this one. It was from point A to point Z, try to get yourself in every place and position you possibly can, cross your fingers and hope the consumer sees you and engages with you and ultimately wants to consume what you want to put in the marketplace.
You worked with different partners: The documentary is on Amazon, the music via BMG and you worked closely with Apple as a DSP. How did you get everyone to work together?
By going to each platform, speaking with the really super smart people there [and] being really clear in saying: “We want to work with you with this Jennifer Lopez project and start to build her value algorithm and connection with consumers again.” In a way [it was looking at it] much like a new artist, even though we had this global superstar.
What did you learn from this project?
What I learned the most is I’m still so excited about getting down and dirty and in the weeds about creating a new model. It was like taking all of those learnings and putting them all into this modern era. No matter how great or vast the project is, you have to go through certain steps and practices in this era to even put yourself in a position to have a look that turns into consumption and, thus, success. There’s really no way to get around it. I come from an era of, “Let’s get it into the clubs, the streets.” Now, you have to get it out into this massive zeitgeist, and even the biggest artists need to have a program of frequent releases and frequent information.
Today, no matter who you are, from record to record, you have to look at how consumption patterns have changed. How media itself has changed in terms of how much you use it, and thus how engaging your work must be. Our thoughts were, “Let’s make sure we give them a multi-pronged experience.” The musical experience was a trilogy, where every brick was going to be falling forward, but it all emanated from a musical album that was created when Jennifer decided she wanted to speak to her fans again in a voice she hadn’t used for several years.
You have a major tour coming up. In fact, it’s only Jennifer’s third headlining tour ever. Given how successful she is in all realms, why was touring important?
That’s another world that, believe it or not, we’re building for Jennifer Lopez that people are so shocked about. She loves touring. The entertainer is the entertainer. It’s a different type of energy than being on a film set and making movies. It connects you directly to your fans. She speaks so often about being able to look into the eyes of different people who live in different parts of the world and making the connection. She’s actually an artist that’s okay with the meet-and-greet after. She likes to see for herself. And usually, the people who want to meet you after have a story to tell. So, we don’t look at it as a risk, because the flip side is, all of that movie stardom spin has her name out into the world in enough things that people are used to seeing anyway. The idea of getting up and seeing something live in this era was an absolute natural, as well as the fact that we’re looking at what we’re going to be doing in the next five years. And that’s part of our five-year plan: More music, more touring, more live.
You’ve worked with her for 20 years. What’s your secret to sticking together?
I greatly admire, respect and appreciate everything that she can do and that she dreams of doing. And I love a challenge. I’m born of a multimedia world. Where I started at Motown, you had to be able to do it all: Write, produce, and sing and dance, and over the years I personally never saw the difference between whatever studio or soundstage I was walking into because the song or the script will only be as great as the talent. And the song and the script still can be great as well. That’s how I show up every day. Thinking I’m meant to produce art, and results. The secret is our belief and trust in each other. And in my case, I’ve always had the greatest relationship with artists I admire.
In a New Year letter to staff in January, Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl said the company needed to offer better services to the “middle class of artists,” an area being feverishly pursued by his major-label competitors, as well as a handful of independent distribution companies.
This week, WMG revealed it is interested in acquiring French company Believe, which owns a large label services business, digital distributor TuneCore, publishing administration service Sentric and a stable of record labels including Naïve, Nuclear Blast and Groove Attack. WMG said it is willing to pay “at least” 17 euros ($18.60) per share, a premium to the 15 euros ($16.41) per share offered by a consortium led by Believe CEO Denis Ladegaillerie and investment funds EQT and TCV. WMG’s bid values Believe at roughly 1.65 billion euros ($1.8 billion).
WMG’s interest in Believe doesn’t come as a surprise. The middle class of artists Kyncl referenced wants alternatives to traditional recording and publishing deals — and WMG needs the tools to give those artists what they want.
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While WMG can likely bring greater value to Believe’s assets as well, a Believe deal “solves a real stack problem for [WMG],” says Matt Pincus, founder and CEO of MUSIC, a venture with investment bank Liontree. A full “stack” — a tech term that refers to all the technologies and skills required for a project — would allow WMG to serve a more complete range of artists. Presently, WMG’s product offering is missing a distributor for self-published artists, says Pincus, that provides a level of artist services between a do-it-yourself distribution deal and a record label contract. That would augment WMG’s ADA, which distributes indie labels, and create a funnel to bring rising artists into WMG’s system.
Kyncl need only look at how his competitors are serving middle-class artists. Following the rise of iTunes, some independent distributors were eventually acquired by other major labels that wanted to distribute music on a greater scale. Sony Music has The Orchard, a digital distributor acquired in 2015, and AWAL, an artist-development company acquired from Kobalt in 2022. Universal Music Group acquired digital distributor Ingrooves in 2019 and folded it into its artist- and label-services division, Virgin Music Group in 2022. TuneCore, founded in 2006 to allow artists to access a new era of digital stores and services, was acquired by Believe in 2015.
The majors’ emphasis on label services is an acknowledgement that today’s marketplace is a mix of traditional artist deals, do-it-yourself independent artists and everything in-between — distribution deals, joint ventures, licensing deals, profit-sharing arrangements and releases from independent artists backed by a major’s label services provider. Budding superstars often want independence but need the majors’ global infrastructure and expertise. “What really makes a difference in this world is to do what [CEO] Brad [Navin] and the Orchard did with the Bad Bunny record [Un Verano Sin Ti],” says Pincus. “They really helped break that record worldwide.”
Believe would also provide WMG a publishing solution for those same independent artists. “When you consider that Believe also acquired Sentric publishing, this brings together master and publishing for many of these indie artists,” says Vickie Nauman of advisory firm CrossBorderWorks. “That also opens up opportunities for new synch licensing models that otherwise fragmented rights do not allow.”
Geography is another aspect of Believe’s business that could be attractive to WMG. Although the majority of Believe’s revenue comes from Europe, it has employees in more than 50 countries and has a presence in fast-growing markets such as Indian — where it invested in two record labels, Venus and Think Music — and Indonesia. Approximately 27% of Believe’s total revenue in the first nine months of 2023 came from Asia-Pacific and Africa, a 17.4% increase from the prior-year period.
Developing markets have great potential for a couple reasons, Kyncl explained Wednesday at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom 2024 conference. In the Middle East, for example, markets that have young populations, an underdeveloped subscription market and lack collection societies “will see quite a lot of value appreciation.” Developing markets are increasingly becoming music exporters, and Kyncl believes that provides WMG with an arbitrage opportunity. “Let’s say if you have Indonesian content that’s traveling to America,” he said. “It’s a smart place to put money because it’s [going] from a low ARPU country to high ARPU streams [in a developed market].”
An acquisition is hardly a done deal, though. To date, WMG has only expressed an interest in Believe. WMG is playing catch-up, too: The consortium attempting to take Believe private has lined up blocks representing nearly 72% of share capital — enough to “prevent a competing bidder from acquiring control,” according to Believe’s ad-hoc committee — although WMG’s higher bid could change that. An acquisition would require regulatory approval, too, and there is likely to be pushback from music companies and trade associations such as the UK-based Association of Independent Music against further industry consolidation.
But, setting aside the potential roadblocks, WMG would be a good fit for Believe. Sony Music and UMG are both larger than WMG, already have Believe-like companies and would thus face more regulatory scrutiny. The 1.65 billion-euros ($1.8 billion) price tag is in what astronomers call the “Goldilocks zone” for habitable planets’ distance to their suns: It’s too expensive for many independent companies but affordable enough for WMG.
SM Entertainment’s publishing subsidiary, Kreation Music Rights (KMR), announced it has signed 86 songwriters to its roster since launching in September. The fast-growing music publisher also announced plans to expand into Europe and North America. The company says its “top priority” is to recruit top songwriters around the globe, not just writers within SM Entertainment’s […]
The minds behind acts like BTS and BLACKPINK know a thing or two about minting global stars — and Western companies are starting to take note.
BMG acquired the catalog of Cologne, Germany-based record label Coconut Music. The deal includes the recorded rights of singer Haddaway, whose 1993 single, “What Is Love,” became a massive global hit and reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The deal gives BMG 100% control of the track, which was also sampled in Eminem‘s 2010 hit “No Love” featuring Lil Wayne. The song was also covered in 2023 by David Guetta, Anne-Marie and Coi Leray as “Baby Don’t Hurt Me.” Additionally, it was a cornerstone of the recurring Saturday Night Live sketch “Roxbury Guys” and its 1998 film adaptation, A Night at the Roxbury.
The acquisition also includes tracks by Bad Boys Blue, London Beat and Wolfgang Petry. Coconut Music was founded in 1981 by Karin Hartmann and Tony Hendrik.
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The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival announced a partnership with NFT marketplace OpenSea to launch Coachella Keepsakes, a series of three collections that will serve as an “all-access pass” to some of the festival’s exclusive experiences and products, according to a press release. Using the Avalanche blockchain network, each of the collections will pair collectible Coachella IP artwork with real-world benefits, including exclusive access to areas including the VIP Rose Garden and Oasis Lounge as well as limited edition Coachella merchandise, VIP passes and more. The first release in the series, dubbed the VIP Pass + Oasis Lounge Keepsake, was released on Mar. 5; it provides owners with a 2024 VIP festival pass and the new Oasis Lounge. The second release in the series, the Canvas Welcome Box Keepsake (available Mar. 25), will offer access to unique merchandise, digital content, access to the Rose Garden and more; that one will be available starting Mar. 25. The third and final drop will include an artist collaboration, with details to be revealed in late March.
A consortium led by the Persianas Group and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority — an independent investment institution of the Nigerian federation — is partnering with Oak View Group and Live Nation on a proposed 12,000-capacity arena in Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria. Other partners on the $100 million project include Tunde Folawiyo, managing director of the Yinka Folawiyo Group; Nigerian investment fund Adino Capital; and MBO Capital. Upon completion, the venue will become the first dedicated arena in Nigeria. It is expected to create more than 1,500 direct and indirect jobs.
Warner Music Group (WMG) expanded its agreement with Tips Industries Limited (Tips Music), one of India’s leading music labels. WMG has been exclusively distributing Tips Music’s catalog since 2020. Under the new agreement, WMG will spearhead the commercial and distribution responsibilities for all of Tips Music’s frontline and catalog music, spanning 23 Indian languages and more than 30,000 songs. Tips owns the “lion’s share” of Bollywood film soundtracks from the 1990s, according to a press release.
The U.K. office of Believe signed a long-term, global label solutions deal with indie label Bella Union that encompasses new Bella Union releases and select catalog. In addition to all-format physical and digital distribution, Believe will provide services including synchronization; digital service provider and retail editorial and marketing partnerships; strategic release management; unique digital expertise and in-house technology; video and audience development; and ongoing advance funding. Bella Union’s current roster includes Beach House, Father John Misty and Ezra Furman.
Hook, a music platform that allows fans to legally remix popular songs to use on social media, extended its seed round, bringing on additional investments from Natalie Massenet and Nick Brown‘s Imaginary Ventures in addition to a group of strategic music and social media industry investors and advisors. The new investment brings the company’s total seed round to $3.5 million, adding to the original funding led by Point72 Ventures and Edgar Bronfman Jr.‘s Waverley Capital.
Collaborative music creation platform BeatConnect secured $2.25 million CAD ($1.67 million) in funding ahead of its relaunch. The round was supported by music and tech investors including Sfermion, FICC, Anges Québec and Triptyq Capital. The relaunch, slated for the spring, will amount to an overhaul of BeatConnect’s multiplayer Digital Audio Workstation (mDAW) that will incorporate gaming elements into its music production capabilities.
ADA and Warner Music Australia signed a global distribution deal with Americana label Cheatin’ Hearts Records, which is home to Australian country, folk and blues music. Founded by Luke Woods and Aaron Curnow, the label has put out albums by Henry Wagons, Melody Moko, Watty Thompson and more. The first music to be released under the deal is from Tasmanian singer-songwriter Claire Anne Taylor.
Independent digital distributor and artist and label services company IDOL has signed new deals with Le Plan Recordings and Old Soul Music. IDOL expanded its deal with New York-based Le Plan to provide global digital distribution and marketing for all of its catalog and frontline titles along with physical distribution for new releases. Its deal with North Carolina-based Old Soul, recently launched by Austin Hart (a.k.a. producer L’Orange), encompasses global distribution and marketing.
The dispute over the YouTube Music union, whose 43 members were abruptly laid off last week while one was testifying during an Austin City Council meeting, largely depends on the definition of “contractor.” Because they are not permanent, full-time employees, “their project on YouTube Music has ended,” according to a rep from their employer, information-technology subcontractor Cognizant, and “the contract expired at its natural end date.”
Independent contractors, according to Kate Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University’s director of labor education research, are “not under the regulatory state,” so they lack basic workplace protections. “Whether it’s labor law, health and safety or race discrimination, independent contractors have almost no rights in our economy,” she says. “So employers say, ‘We want to make as much money as possible — let’s make all our employees temporary employees.’”
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The 43 YouTube contractors, who work for Cognizant and Google to oversee content for the music-streaming service’s 80 million subscribers, voted unanimously almost a year ago to form a union under the auspices of Alphabet Workers Union-CWA. They’ve complained of hourly wages as low as $19 and a lack of sick pay and benefits. And they say Google has not been willing to bargain with them; in January, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Google’s refusal to do so was illegal and must “bargain on request.” (An appeal is pending.)
In a statement, Google spokeswoman Courtenay Mencini repeated that Cognizant, not Google, is “responsible for these workers’ employment terms.” On Cognizant’s side, Jeff DeMarrais, chief communications officer, says “nobody was laid off” from YouTube Music and the contractors have seven weeks of paid time to “explore other roles within the organization.”
Sam Regan, a YouTube Music data analyst who is on the union’s organizing committee, responds that his team’s project was “never considered as temporary” and the Cognizant moves are, in fact, layoffs, as opposed to reassignments to different areas of the company. “Our team was fired and we had no notice, no warning, that we were going to get laid off,” he says. “It was cold, ruthless, dehumanizing, inhumane. The practice of tech companies laying off large swaths of people without notice is indicative of a pretty sick orientation towards workers in our culture.”
Regan and Katie-Marie Marschner, a subject matter expert on YouTube Music’s charts team until last week, accuse company managers of forcing them to leave their office without giving them a chance to remove their belongings. The office was a “total destruction zone,” Marschner says, alleging company employees and on-site security refused to let them remove certain personal items. “The experience was traumatic for a lot of us,” Regan adds.
Members of the YouTube Music team had been scheduled to testify before the Austin City Council on Feb. 29 to ask city officials to help convince Google to negotiate with their union. But as data analyst Jack Benedict was speaking, Marschner received a text saying her entire team was fired. Shaken, she interrupted the colleague’s speech — a moment captured in a video clip that went viral. Watching the clip afterwards, Marschner says, has been surreal and traumatic. “It’s such an insane experience opening my phone and that’s the first thing I see — myself talking, and not just talking, but the sound of my voice and the pain and shock,” she says.
Marschner accuses Cognizant and Google of “union-busting” and says the team members were “fired illegally.” And Cornell’s Bronfenbrenner is skeptical of Cognizant’s assertion that the temporary employees had a “natural end date” of Feb. 29. “There are a whole lot of questions about that,” she says. “From everything I’ve read, there wasn’t a certain date. And if there was an uncertain date, the employer can’t say their contract just ended and they can’t be laid off.”
Reached at home, Marschner says she plans to continue pursuing union recognition for her team: “We’re not done with this. We’re very much ready to keep the fight going.”
One day after the debut of the newly-reconfigured Interscope Capitol Labels Group (ICLG) under chairman/CEO John Janick, the Universal Music Group’s top West Coast label exec announced more additions to his executive leadership team.
Gary Kelly, who has served as general manager/executive vp/chief revenue officer for Interscope Geffen A&M, will take on the role of GM/chief revenue officer for the new ICLG, continuing largely in the same role in the new structure. And IGA’s executive vp/head of business & legal affairs Jason Kawejsza will retain the same title in the new configuration.
Kelly and Kawejsza join ICLG vice chairman Steve Berman, COO Annie Lee and CFO Geoff Harris in the C-Suite, alongside Janick. All are longtime Interscope execs except Harris, who was previously at Capitol Music Group.
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“Gary and Jason have each been making invaluable contributions to our company for nearly 15 years, and both combine strong business acumen with an entrepreneurial mindset that will continue to be crucial to my leadership team and to ICLG’s success in the years to come,” Janick said in a statement. “I know that everyone in the company joins me in congratulating Gary and Jason on these well-earned promotions.”
The newly-formed Interscope Capitol Labels Group is the result of the major overhaul of the Universal Music Group label structure that UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge first announced on Feb. 1. Under the new structure, UMG’s West Coast labels — Interscope, Geffen, A&M, Capitol, Blue Note, Priority, Verve and Motown — now fall under Janick’s purview at ICLG, while its East Coast labels — consisting mostly of Republic, Def Jam, Island and Mercury — will be overseen by Republic co-founder and CEO Monte Lipman. News of the new East Coast structure is also expected as soon as next week.
”The creation of ICLG is a milestone moment for our company,” Kelly said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to be part of John’s leadership team that will oversee our growth and evolution as we set the standard for what a modern-day music company should be. I look forward to working with everyone in the company who will utilize their best-in-class skill sets, relationships and expertise to deliver on our mission of providing artists with a home to create great music and build their global brands to reach the widest possible audience.”
Under the ICLG umbrella is a new leadership team for Capitol Music Group, with former Geffen boss Tom March as chairman/CEO and UMPG veteran Lilia Parsa as president, following the departures of prior CMG chair/CEO Michelle Jubelirer and president Arjun Pulijal. The company has been going through extensive layoffs in the past week, as IGA and Capitol formally merge together.
“I am so excited to work with John and our entire leadership team at Interscope Capitol Labels Group as we move forward and redesign the company to most effectively support our amazing artists and label partners,” Kawejsza said in a statement.