Business
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Investment giant Apollo Global Management is backing Sony Music Group to the tune of $700 million to help the company fund music acquisitions, it was announced Friday (July 26). The deal could provide the financial assistance needed for Sony’s planned acquisition of Queen‘s recording and music publishing catalogs. Sources have told Billboard the band is […]
Tributes from across the live music industry have been paid to Chris York, one of the United Kingdom’s leading promoters and a director of SJM Concerts, following his death at age 55 following a long illness.
In a statement on Thursday (July 25), SJM Concerts said the company was “deeply saddened” to announce the passing of a man who “helped define the U.K.’s live music scene” over the past three decades.
York’s career in the live music industry began in the late 1980s when he started booking gigs at Warwick University, where he was a student.
After finishing his studies, York worked as a booker at London’s The Venue — putting on early shows by Pulp, Suede and PJ Harvey — before deepening his knowledge of the live business with roles at U.K. live promoters Straight Music and MCP Concerts.
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In 1993, York joined SJM Concerts, where he “formed a solid and unshakeable partnership and friendship” with the company’s founder, Simon Moran, that “would last the rest of his career,” the Manchester-based firm said in a statement.
Artists that York promoted during his three decades at SJM included Oasis, Foo Fighters, Green Day, The Chemical Brothers, Lily Allen, Massive Attack, Smashing Pumpkins, Underworld, Robert Plant, Underworld, Lorde, Morrissey, Lorde, Placebo, Kraftwerk, Swedish House Mafia, Suede and Stereophonics, among many others.
Oasis singer Liam Gallagher, The Doves, The Pogues, Stereophonics and Suede are among the many acts who posted tributes on social media.
“Chris York was a true unsung hero of the music world,” wrote The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess on X, adding that the British group “are proud” to have called York a friend.
“You might not recognise the name but if you’re a London gig-goer then you’ll have been at one of the thousands of gigs [York] put on through SJM,” stated Suede’s bassist Mat Osman, who called York “a huge friend and supporter” of the group. “He put on Suede shows from the lowliest to the biggest and was a constant presence in our career,” he added.
Posting on X, U.K. indie rock group Shed Seven said it was “heartbroken” to hear of York’s death. The promoter “played a pivotal role in shaping our career from the very beginning, standing by us every step of the way,” said the band, who topped the U.K. albums charts earlier this year. Shed Seven went on to call York “a kind and inspirational man, a true gent, one of the good guys.”
Those sentiments were echoed by U.K. venue operator Academy Music Group, which called York “a force of nature, exceptional promoter, industry pioneer and above all, a genuine music fan and all-round lovely man.”
During his career, York also worked closely with The Who’s Roger Daltrey, live producer Des Murphy and fellow SJM director Rob Ballantine on establishing the annual Teenage Cancer Trust spring concert series at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Since its launch in 2006, the event has raised more than £30 million ($38 million) for charity with everyone from Ed Sheeran to New Order to Paul McCartney taking part.
In 2021, York was awarded the Jo Walker Meador International Award by the Country Music Association for his work on the Country to Country (C2C) Music festival, which SJM launched in 2013 in partnership with AEG Europe. The event has since become Europe’s biggest country music festival, taking place annually at London’s The O2 arena, Glasgow’s OVO Hydro and Belfast’s The SSE Arena.
“When he got involved at the start of C2C Chris really knew f— all about country. But to his credit he knew what he had to do and immersed himself in every aspect of it and soon became a go-to oracle on country, which he always maintained,” Steve Homer, CEO of AEG Presents U.K., tells Billboard. “He has left a big hole in the live music industry and I’m not sure it will ever be filled.”
“Chris was so loved by the business as you can see from the tributes that are flooding in for him from far and wide,” Emma Banks, co-head of global touring at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and a close friend of York, tells Billboard.
“I am going to miss working with him. I am going to miss his wisdom. I am going to miss chatting with him about pretty much everything and having a laugh with him,” Banks adds. “My thoughts are with Alice, his family, friends and the team at SJM.”
Also paying tribute was Live Nation U.K. and Ireland chairman Denis Desmond, who said York was “a fighter to the end. His legacy will live on.”
By raising prices and cutting costs, Spotify has transformed into the kind of profitable company investors always hoped it could become, and the streamer’s upbeat second-quarter earnings on Tuesday (July 23) led its share price to jump 9.1% to $321.87 this week.
After Spotify announced it grew revenues by 20%, improved its gross margin and beat guidance on new subscriber additions, a slew of analysts raised their price targets, including Goldman Sachs (from $320 to $425), JP Morgan (from $375 to $425), Rosenblatt (from $396 to $399), Pivotal Research (from $400 to $460), Barclays (from $350 to $360), Cowen (from $273 to $356) and B of A Securities (from $380 to $430).
Universal Music Group (UMG), the other music company that released earnings this week, had the opposite reaction from investors when its second-quarter subscription revenue fell far short of analysts’ expectations, leading its share price to drop 24.1% to 21.34 euros ($23.17). But it wasn’t all bad news: Overall revenue at the music giant grew 8.7% to 2.93 billion euros ($3.16 billion) and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 17.4% to 580 million euros ($624 million).
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But investors focused on UMG’s streaming numbers above all else. The recorded music division’s subscription revenue grew 6.9%, down from 12.5% in the prior-year quarter, while overall streaming revenue grew 4.1% compared to 11% a year earlier. A number of analysts lowered their UMG price targets following Wednesday’s earnings announcement, albeit by smaller margins than the decline in the share price.
UMG went public in Sept. 2021, giving investors an opportunity to capitalize on the largest music company during a time of streaming growth and industry expansion. Even optimistic investors will have to bear through short-term ups and downs, however. “If you think the longer term analysis holds then [UMG’s current price] represents a significant buying opportunity,” J.P. Morgan analyst Daniel Kerven wrote in an email to investors on Friday (July 26). “Ultimately we believe you will still get to the same destination…just the pace of getting there was never likely to be linear, particularly on a quarter by quarter basis.”
The Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) fell 1.2% to 1,757.70 this week, marking the third consecutive weekly decline. The index has risen 14.6% year to date but fell 3.2% in July and is 4.9% off its all-time high of 1,847.64 set on May 17. Nine of the index’s 20 stocks were winners, 10 lost ground and one was unchanged.
UMG’s earnings appeared to have an impact on similar companies that have yet to release their own. Warner Music Group shares fell 6.6% the day UMG released earnings and ended the week down 6.8% to $29.83. Believe shares dropped 9.1% to 13.76 euros ($14.96). However, because UMG’s publishing business fared well — revenues grew 10.1% to 511 million euros ($550 million) — it’s not a coincidence that shares of Reservoir Media, which gets most of its revenue from music publishing, jumped 11.4% to $8.61.
Many major indexes lost ground this week despite gains on Friday following encouraging U.S. inflation data. In the United States, the Nasdaq composite fell 2.1% to 17,357.88 and the S&P 500 declined 0.8% to 5,459.10. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index dipped 2.3% to 2,731.90. China’s Shanghai Composite Index was down 3.1% to 2,890.90. An outlier was the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100, which gained 1.6% to 8,285.71.
In 2022, Will Page, the former director of economics at Spotify, encouraged a U.K. committee looking into streaming economics to consider how collecting societies have divvied up fixed pots of cash for more than 100 years. A fairer system for paying royalties, he said, might consider how long a person listens.
Page’s suggestion wasn’t a new, radical idea. Other royalty accounting systems already take listening time into account. In the U.K., collection societies such as PRS For Music and PPL apply a “value per second” rule to royalty payouts. So, Page explained, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which clocks in at 5:55, earns twice the royalty as “You’re My Best Friend,” which runs just 2:52. A similar approach is codified into U.S. copyright law: Songs over five minutes long receive a higher mechanical royalty than shorter songs.
But streaming platforms have long paid royalties using a “pro rata” method that treats every song equally. At Spotify, for example, any two songs by Queen are treated the same. But there has been a movement in recent years to make royalty payments fairer to non-superstar artists. SoundCloud adopted a user-centric approach that pays royalties from each listener rather than pool all listeners’ revenue. Deezer has a “user-centric” approach — adopted by Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Merlin — which rewards professional artists at the expense of “functional” music.
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Two years after testifying to the committee, Page has released a paper, “A Case for Completion,” that outlines how streaming platforms could reward songs that get streamed in their entirety. The idea is simple: For each stream, the streaming service asks whether the song was streamed to completion. If the song was skipped before the listener got to the end, a portion of the royalties are transferred to songs that were streamed to completion.
The financial model looks like this: Labels earn about 50 million pounds ($64 million) for 10 billion streams. Page estimates that 10% of the songs will not be streamed to completion. Of those songs’ 5 million-pound ($6.4 million) royalty pool, 40%, or 1.3 million pounds ($1.7 million), goes to the completed songs’ royalty pool. That in turn increases the completed songs’ pool from 45 million pounds ($58 million) to 46.3 million pounds ($59.6 million). On a per-stream basis, a typical 0.0048-pound ($0.0062) pro-rata royalty becomes either a 0.0035-pound ($0.0045) incomplete royalty or a 0.005-pound ($0.0064) complete royalty.
Importantly, Page believes this completion-based scheme complements the current royalty accounting system, whether it’s pro-rata, user-centric or artist-centric. “If we are going to depart from the pro rata model, which has served us since Rhapsody got its license in December 2001 — which is 23-plus years ago — then we need a baby step that doesn’t mess with royalty accounting,” says Page. Tracking duration would add too much stress to a royalty accounting system that encompasses trillions of streams annually, accounting experts told Page. In contrast, setting a threshold that creates a binary outcome — either a song was completed, or it wasn’t — is more feasible, he argues.
The proposal may run into naysayers who believe skipping is a critical aspect to streaming. On-demand services with hundreds of millions of songs charge for the right to skip through playlists and algorithmically created radio stations. In contrast, free, non-interactive streaming services such as Pandora don’t allow unlimited skipping. What’s more, decidedly unskippable formats such as terrestrial radio are losing listening time to platforms that give the listener greater freedom. Whether TikTok has reduced attention spans or listeners are impatient in a world of unlimited choice, skipping is simply a way of life in 2024.
But skipping, however prized by today’s music listeners, isn’t necessarily rampant. As Page explains in an interview with Billboard, he gained confidence in completion-based royalty accounting after learning that completion rates surpass 90% once a person has been listening longer than three minutes. To Page, this means shorter attention spans select shorter songs and people willing to listen longer will do so. “Sprinters enter sprints; marathon runners enter marathons,” says Page. “For the most part, people who want longer songs go for longer songs and stay the journey. Jazz and classical have got the highest completion rates from all the genres.”
Paying based on completing a song makes sense intuitively, because in streaming the business goal is listener engagement, and one sign a listener is engaged is how much a song gets heard. From that perspective, a stream that ends halfway through a song is less valuable to both the streaming platform and the rights holders than a song that somebody listens to all the way through. So, rewarding completion makes sense from this business point of view.
It does. And I think a key strength of the proposal, and I’ve road tested it with the great and good in music and tech — I’m very open on strengths and weaknesses and anomalies. I’m putting all my cards on the table here for this to be accepted and be a model to give people even more assurances. But the strength is it’s asymmetrical. I am not promoting completion. If Glenn Peoples does nothing with this listening experience, I do nothing with these royalty calculations. I must be absolutely clear here. I am only punishing incompletion. I take action when you show intent. If you do nothing, I do nothing. If you step in there and say, “I’m done with this song, move me on to the next one,” I’m going to do something with the royalty structure. That’s crucial in terms of the argument. It’s got a strong common-sense property, as you alluded to, but it’s asymmetric. And to be absolutely clear, streaming services don’t pay a penny more or a penny less. We simply reallocate away from the incomplete pool to the complete group.
The deterrence against fraud or gaming the system, whatever you want to call it, seems to be a strong argument. If some artists are making music based on this 30-second threshold, I don’t see how that’s good for anybody. The royalty model shouldn’t be influencing how music is created and released.
Drake had an album where there were like eight songs which lasted between 40 and 50 seconds — skits — and they’re going to get paid the same as a seven-minute jazz composition with McCoy Tyner? These are questions of fairness. The current model has unfair properties in it as well. We have to remember [that] nobody thought about jazz and classical when they invented the 30-second rule. [An on-demand stream earns a royalty if it is streamed for 30 seconds or longer.] Nobody argued for duration.
Now let me allow me to play Devil’s Advocate. As a user of a subscription service, I pay for the ability to skip songs. And if I skip a song 45 seconds in, it doesn’t necessarily mean that song is less valuable. It means that I enjoy that ability to skip songs. If I don’t want to skip songs, I’ll listen to SiriusXM. And the ability to skip songs is one of the best things about an on-demand service. So why should skipping be punished if it has so much value to me?
I respect that view. I would say that argument is weak because the majority of people are paying for the concierge service. In the vast majority of instances, the act of skipping is a negative signal by the consumer. And for a lot of people, the engagement they have with their music platform is approximately this: in the pocket it goes and that’s it for the day. I’m not paying so I have to skip songs. I’m not paying so I have to select songs. I’m paying to enjoy the music. If you can serve it up for me, I’ll pay, I’ll stay even longer. So I quote [intellectual property expert] David Safir in a piece where there was a heated debate at the NY:LON conference in London. David calmed the debate down by saying, “Hold on, we haven’t even decided who we’re defining fairness for. Is it the creator, the platform, or the consumer?” As the consumer pays for convenience, the act of skipping, or the act of even leaning in, could be a sign of inconvenience. That is negative for the consumer’s experience in terms of willingness to pay and willingness to stay.
When I skip, it’s to sample the big catalog of music. It’s one way to listen to more music — not all of which I’m going to go back and listen to again. But at least I hear it. Again, whether it’s an editorial playlist, or just bouncing around the app, skipping allows me to sample the catalog. And not skipping would really get in the way, I think.
I remember with [Spotify’s] Discover Weekly, we began to wonder whether the reason it was successful is you used to spend a bit of your time searching for music that could involve a lot of skipping, and a bit of your time consuming music. And as time became more precious, you didn’t have any time to search. Nobody went to record shops anymore, and therefore there was even less time to consume. And what Discover Weekly did was internalize the search cost, the experimental costs, the skipping costs, and it gave you exactly what you needed. In terms of what pays everyone’s bills in this business, it might be the skipping — I doubt it. It might be the searching — I doubt it. I think what drives it is I just pull out my phone and it delivers me music and I stay the course. I think it’s that.
The [U.K. Competition and Markets Authority] asked the four streaming platforms in the U.K. to reveal a source of streams and just how much is human editorial: not a lot, 5% back then, probably two and a half percent now. How much is algorithmic? Not a lot. The vast majority of listening is people-owned playlists. That was a bombshell. That shook the industry out of a rut because, wait a second, 85% of listening might not be platform directed.
So, you know, it’s interesting to just think about that context as well. If you’re skipping, and you look at that table, you look at all the evidence, I think that the evidence weighs towards skipping as a negative signal in terms of the attribution, the value, utility that person’s gained from their platform, as opposed to a positive one. People want to stay in the saddle of music. They want to complete.
Reading the paper, I sensed some undercurrents, perhaps, of criticism of how people, especially young people, listen to music these days. You quoted somebody saying that wedding bands only play two minutes of a song because TikTok has ruined its users’ attention spans. Is part of this about trying to get people to listen to an entire song, and get their attention spans back?
I really owe a long-time mentor of mine, Fred Goldring, for that quote. He told the story about a wedding band that played a two-and-a-half-hour medley because people don’t have the attention spans for full songs anymore. I was like, “Oh, my goodness! What has TikTok has done? Is that what the 30-second rule has done to our music? Is that where we’re at?” If I can expand on that, Arctic Monkeys are a very successful band. They played the Emirates Stadium [in London] twice last summer. The first night was predominantly die-hard fans in their 40s and 50s. The second night was teenage girls who had discovered them on TikTok, and they only knew 34 seconds of all its songs. If you stick around after the chorus, we’re going to sing another verse. It’s called a composition, people; we’ve had these things for a long time. Yeah, there is a concern there.
Now, the concern could just be misplaced. I think the concern is actually very real. Songs are getting shorter. Choruses have been moved to the front, and Swedish artists were doing this in 2013. Many artists are doing it now. But in an attention economy, any alteration to pro rata [royalty calculations] that helps music win attention, that creates incentives that compete for attention, has to be good. Because music is in competition with so many other distractions. Now, completion has a different agenda, but it’s going to help this industry think about, how does it compete for attention?
You noted in the paper that complexity could be the opponent of a successful royalty system. I’m wondering to what extent people, and mainly creators, will need to understand how this royalty system would work. You’ll understand it. Attorneys will understand it, as they must. But ostensibly, these new royalty schemes are to create more fairness for creators. Do you think creators would understand this well enough?
Is the consumer aware that under pro rata, that if I’m a light user, and Glenn Peoples is a heavy user, my money is being used to compensate Glenn’s consumption? Probably not. If they were, would they change your habits? Maybe. Maybe that user-centric property is interesting. But I’m not sure how interested the consumer is in the actual royalty model. If you surveyed them and said, “How many people know it takes 30 seconds before you get paid?” Less than 1%.
On the industry side, something as simple as a completion index, a third threshold, I feel fits the curve. Even drummers will understand this. That’s really important. Now, where it could get complex in that proposal is that Glenn’s completion of a two-minute pop song would be worth more than my incompletion after listening to six and a half minutes of a seven-minute song. Curb the concern, though, because I did go on to show that genre is not necessarily a driver of completion; neither is song length. That’s a reassurance.
Convicted pharma executive Martin Shkreli is firing back in a lawsuit over Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, arguing he had a legal right to retain copies of the one-of-a-kind album even after he handed it over to federal prosecutors.
The filing came a month after Shkreli was sued by PleasrDAO — a digital art collective that bought the album in 2021 after Shkreli was forced to forfeit it as part of his criminal case. The company is seeking an injunction barring him from leaking the album and forcing him to turn over any copies.
But in an opposition filing on Wednesday (July 24), Shkreli’s attorneys argued that he had been well within his rights when he made copies of the album before the forfeiture — and that he had not been required to turn those copies over to prosecutors.
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“Defendant continues to have the right to use them to this day,” Shkreli’s attorneys write.
PleasrDAO has argued a leak of the famously secret album would “irreparably harm” its value. But Shkreli’s attorneys say the feds made no promises to Pleasr that they were buying the only copy in existence.
“Plaintiff was well aware that its purchase of assets from did not include any promise or expectation of ‘exclusivity’ or ‘uniqueness,’” Shkreli’s lawyers write. “It bought a copy of a musical work that it knew was not unique, and cannot now claim to be irreparably harmed by the existence of its non-uniqueness.”
PleasrDAO sued Shkreli last month over the potential leak of the album, accusing him of violating both their purchase agreement and the federal forfeiture order. They also accused him of violating federal trade secrets law, which protects valuable proprietary information from misappropriation.
Wu-Tang’s legendary album was recorded in secret and published just once, on a CD secured in an engraved nickel and silver box. Though the group intended the bizarre trappings as a protest against the commodification of music, Shaolin later became the ultimate commodity. In 2015, Shkreli — soon to become infamous as the man who intentionally spiked the price of crucial AIDS medications — bought it at auction for $2 million.
When it was initially sold, Shaolin came with much-discussed stipulations — namely, that the one-of-a-kind album could not be released to the general public until 2103. But Shkreli’s lawyers say the deal granted him the right to “duplicate or replicate the work for private use.”
After Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud in 2017, he forfeited the album to federal prosecutors to help pay his multi-million dollar restitution sentence. Pleasr then bought the album from the government in 2021 for $4 million, and in 2024 acquired the copyrights and other rights to the album for another $750,000.
In Wednesday’s filing, Shkreli’s lawyers argued that when the government sold the album, it expressly told Pleasr that it would not “assume” any of the promises or guarantees that had been made in Shkreli’s original deal with Wu-Tang — including the claims about the album’s one-of-a-kind status.
“It would be fundamentally unfair for this court to restrict Shkreli from his permitted use of the work after the [government] explicitly disclaimed any warranties, described the assets as being sold “As-Is, Where-Is,” and listed only physical objects to be delivered on the sale of the assets,” his lawyers write.
A hearing on the potential injunction is set for next month. A rep for PleasrDAO’s attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment.
It’s been 25 years since Eminem announced himself on the international stage with his iconic, revered 1999 album The Slim Shady LP. The album — technically his second, but his first on major label Interscope — included huge singles like “Guilty Conscience,” “Role Model” and, most significantly, “My Name Is,” which introduced his alter-ego character Slim Shady to the world. His even bigger followup album, 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP, doubled down with “The Real Slim Shady,” which hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spawned one of the most iconic awards show performances of all time, with the bleach-blonde-haired hip-hop superstar lording over his legion of lookalikes.
But it’s been a quarter century since then, and Slim Shady is dead, locked in Eminem’s basement. The final nail came with his latest album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace), which this week became Em’s 11th album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, racking up 281,000 equivalent album units and landing the biggest week for a hip-hop album this year so far. In addition to the star power that Eminem brings with any new release, the album’s big first week was also the result of a meticulous, months-long marketing rollout involving Fortnite activations, a mock true crime video, print newspaper obituaries and big-time singles like “Houdini,” which landed at No. 2 on the Hot 100 upon its release. And it helps earn Interscope Geffen A&M senior vp of marketing Jason Sangerman the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
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Here, Sangerman — who has worked on 11 Eminem albums himself over the course of his career — talks about that extended marketing plan, the collaborations with Eminem and his longtime manager and Shady Records CEO Paul Rosenberg to set the record up, and what comes next. “The great thing about an artist like Eminem is he keeps everyone guessing, and that includes us, so it keeps you operating at the highest level,” he says.
This week, Eminem’s latest album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace), debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the biggest first week for a hip-hop album this year. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
Everything we do when we begin to engage in discussions around the marketing strategy is led by Eminem and his partner and manager Paul Rosenberg. Once we have our initial plan, the Shady Records team and the larger Interscope team begin building it out. There’s a ton of brainstorming and we all work well bouncing ideas off one another — but when it comes to the execution, precision is non-negotiable.
The key to this rollout was thinking and working comprehensively. It always starts with the music. Marshall delivered yet another amazing album; this time it also came with a high-concept narrative woven throughout. We put a plan together with Paul that gave us plenty of runway to activate all the essential components — social platforms, press, radio, DSPs, D2C, gaming, our Complex relationship, IRL pop-ups, etc. The plan not only enabled us to engage his global fanbase, but we created new entry points for prospective fans, which was key to a successful launch.
The concept of this album — killing off the iconic alter ego of one of the most successful rappers of all time — must have both been a marketer’s dream and nearly overwhelming to contemplate. How did you approach setting it up?
The character of Slim Shady and the world built around him is all Marshall’s creation. It’s always a privilege to help provide a tangible experience for the fans based off his ideas, and so a lot of the marketing plan starts directly from Marshall and Paul. The larger Interscope team then creates a space to augment and build upon those innovative ideas. It’s always critical, but especially so given the nature of this particular album, to get the chronology right for each moment. We couldn’t make a move that would potentially give away something planned for a future payoff.
In what ways were you able to call back to the original Slim Shady character from 25 years ago?
It’s so wild to hear “25 years ago,” because Eminem was the first concert I saw when I was growing up. It was the Slim Shady Tour at the House of Blues on Sunset. I still have the original T-shirt. That colorful crayon style Slim Shady logo was one of the pieces that was brought back into the mix for this album. Once “Houdini” was released, there were elements of nostalgia in everything we did, and they became Easter eggs for the album marketing — the “Rap Boy” costume, the blonde hair, a flash mob of “real” Slim Shadys popping up in Washington Square Park in New York, etc.
The Complex “Face Off” piece is of course an integral part of the campaign, and a key element in explaining the concept around the album. It goes without saying that Marshall has earned the right to be very judicious about the way he puts himself out there to the world. Complex came to us with a really creative idea that builds off the album’s narrative and brings it to life in a way that makes sense for him and his fans.
Another important element to all of this is that many of us at Interscope have been working with Eminem and Paul for years. Some of us, like [vice chairman] Steve Berman, since the very first record. So, there’s an institutional knowledge built in among the team that we bring to each Eminem release, and we definitely tapped into that for this campaign.
How were you able to use the singles and music videos to help promote the album and its themes?
The great thing about an artist like Eminem is he keeps everyone guessing, and that includes us, so it keeps you operating at the highest level. Of course, he’s dropped albums recently with little to no warning as surprise releases, but in this case, we were having conversations with Paul and Marshall in Detroit about the best way to roll out this project last year. Given the album’s theme, they wanted there to be true singles along with videos to set the project up. Paul and the team at Shady led those conversations. They’ve always had an extraordinary vision.
Obviously, Eminem’s songwriting is unparalleled, but he’s also a super visual artist. So the video for “Houdini” was crucial to launching this campaign. It has a similar energy to first singles from earlier albums — so right there you have another benefit of the team’s long-term continuity. We had the ability to tap into a collective knowledge base from past releases. The “Houdini” video allowed fans who have always loved Slim to reconnect while introducing the character to a new generation of fans.
“Houdini” was the spark that activated everything we had been planning for so long. Every single person on the team did their part to help mobilize and expand fandom around the track. We always try to build an entire world around a release, and the immediate global reaction to “Houdini” allowed us to pour gasoline on the fire.
How was the rollout for this project different from any other in Eminem’s career — and in your career as well?
This plan started well before the album was announced. If you look back at the Eminem and Fortnite activation from the end of last year, you’ll see that some of the aspects in that collaboration included throwback Slim Shady themes — the popcorn trail started all the way back then. There was a long roadmap leading up to the album release that had storytelling components every week, using every medium that made sense. We used advanced AI technology in some of our visuals, but we also ran a fake “true crime” show commercial on TV to announce the album, and then we took out the Slim Shady obituaries as print-only media in physical newspapers. Some of the music critics at those papers didn’t even see them until they got traction from other outlets. Regarding my career, this is the 11th Eminem project I’ve worked — I’m just lucky to be anywhere around something like this.
Slim Shady is dead. Where does Eminem go from here?
Eminem always likes the element of surprise, and since I don’t need him making an album called “The Death of Jason Sangerman,” I’ll leave that up to him to answer.
Fabled Mexican music singer and producer Pepe Aguilar has signed a worldwide deal with SESAC Latina, Billboard has learned. Previously with BMI, he now joins his children, Ángela and Leonardo Aguilar, who are also part of the SESAC Latina roster. “We are pleased to announce that superstar Pepe Aguilar has affiliated with SESAC Latina,” Celeste Zendejas, SVP, […]
Welcome to another edition of Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music. While you’re here, we also have a weekly interview series spotlighting a single executive and a regularly updated gallery honoring many of the industry figures we’ve lost throughout the year.
Maximilian Kolb announced his departure as BMG‘s executive vp of repertoire and marketing for continental Europe, effective at the end of the month. Kolb, who has been running things in Europe since late 2021, said the industry is in the midst of “one of its most revolutionary periods” and that it was time for a “new chapter” in his life. Assuming Kolb’s responsibilities in Europe on an interim basis will be Alistair Norbury, president of repertoire and marketing in the U.K. and Asia-Pacific regions. BMG CEO Thomas Coesfeld lauded Kolb’s contributions over the years, saying “his leadership and vision have been instrumental in the growth and success of our GSA and Continental Europe operations.” Kolb joined BMG from Sony in 2012 as an A&R manager and was promoted to director A&R recorded music for Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GSA) five years later. In 2019, he was elevated to managing director of the GSA block and then snagged his most recent role in October 2021. Some of Kolb and company’s most recent wins include the acquisition of German independent label Telamo and the addition of rights packages from Jean-Michel Jarre, Tina Turner, Martin Solveig, Cro and more. Kolb has not telegraphed his next move professionally.
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Over in the U.S., BMG elevated Jen Morgan to vice president, global content & creative, executing content creation initiatives for BMG artists, as well as developing and executing marketing and sales content strategies supporting BMG’s artists and global objectives. Morgan previously served as vp, creative & imaging, and joined BBRMG in 2010. –Jessica Nicholson
Meanwhile…
Prescription Songs promoted Siara Behar and Eddie Fourcell each to vice president of A&R at the Dr. Luke-founded publisher. Behar was previously senior director of A&R and during her seven years at the company has signed or worked with a host of top writers, including Play-N-Skillz, DallasK, ALOISIO, JayM, LU KALA, Space Primates, Chloe George, Micah Premnath, Seb (1Mind). Prescribed since early 2021, most recently as senior A&R executive, Fourcell has found success with a roster that includes Grammy winner Lunchmoney Lewis (“All My Life” by Lil Durk and J Cole) and Jay-Z collaborator Fridayy, plus B Ham, Kaine, MizzyLoft and Baerose, among others. Fourcell earned his industry stripes at Mary J. Blige’s MJB Productions, where he rose from intern to head of A&R. “Siara and Eddie go above and beyond for our writers and creatives at Prescription Songs,” said Dr. Luke. “We are so grateful and proud to announce their well-deserved promotions and continued leadership roles.” Both executives report to Rhea Pasricha, head of A&R on the West Coast, and Katie Fagan, head of A&R at Prescription Songs Nashville.
PULSE Music Group promoted Steven Gringer to senior vp of A&R. Foley is celebrating his tenth year at PULSE, where in 2014 he started as an A&R coordinator for its publishing division before quickly being promoted to creative director that same year. He eventually rose to vp of A&R for publishing, his most recent title at the company, where he’s based in Los Angeles and reports to Ashley Calhoun, president. Prior to PULSE, Gringer worked in A&R at Shapiro Bernstein Music Publishing. Gringer’s portfolio at PULSE includes Noah Kahan collaborator Gabe Simon, Jack Harlow producer Angel Lopez, Latin music hitmaker Manuel Lara, cross-genre writer-producer DVLP and others. “What makes Steven really incredible as an A&R executive is his deft ability to work across genres, creating pop, latin, hip-hop and international opportunities for our roster of songwriters and producers,” raved Calhoun and co-CEOs Scott Cutler and Josh Abraham in a statement. “As we continue to take the careers of our clients to the next level, Steven’s work over the past 10 years at PULSE Music Group has been an instrumental part of this success.”
Live music company Mammoth hired Rob Owens as president of global touring and Angela Brown as president of global tour marketing. Owens was most recently vp of talent at NoCap Shows and earlier in his career held director-level gigs at AEG Presents and Nederlander Concerts — where for years he booked the historic Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Brown, who is based in St. Louis, joined Mammoth following 27 years at Live Nation, where she rose to vp of marketing and along the way helped promote tours for Beyoncé, Drake and Billy Joel, among many others.
credit: Amanda Brandl
Alyssa Kitchen was promoted to general manager of the legendary Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY. The New Jersey native and self-professed former “emo kid” was previously assistant GM and director of finance at the venue. Prior to storming The Capitol (sorry), Kitchen served in senior accountant roles at Relix Media Group and Hear & There.
Jelena Grozdanich is the new vp of music at FivePointFive, a welltech app launching soon that will offer live and on-demand classes of functional breathwork. Grozdanich (GROWS-duh-nitch) is coming off a 10-year run at Sony Music Entertainment and Columbia Records, where she rose to director in the latter’s film and TV licensing division. While at Sony/Columbia, she represented a who’s-who of influential artists including Beyoncé, Adele, Miles Davis, A Tribe Called Quest and Elvis Presley, among others. During this decade, she also founded her own talent management firm (Guardian MGMT) and wellness community (TheSecret.LA). Grozdanich is based in Los Angeles.
NASHVILLE NOTES: Writer/artist development company Eclipse Music Group hired Courtney Crist as vp of publishing. She joins EMG from Anthem Entertainment, where as senior director she worked with writers including Ronnie Bowman, Early James and Brit Taylor, among others. “Courtney is a songwriter’s best friend, ultimate ally and has the best ears in the business,” said Penny Gattis, a partner at Eclipse … EastCoast Entertainment added Beth Potter to their Nashville office. Potter arrived from Downtown Band Entertainment, home of the Music City-based party band of the same name. ECE recently signed on to rep the band.
Lisa Goich recently left The Recording Academy, where she oversaw the jazz and comedy genres for the Grammy Awards, to launch her own consulting firm. LGA Creative Consulting will work with emerging artists and entrepreneurs from concept to creation on their creative projects. Prior to joining the Recording Academy in 2011, Goich worked in radio, website production (notably for Carole King) and was a coordinator and web-and-social media guru for the Playboy Jazz Festival.
Alana Battaglia joined the publicity team at The Untold. In her new role, she will manage accounts with notable clients including talent agency UTA and its new UTA Creators division as well as Don Toliver’s newly released Fortnite game Hardstone — a playable experience tied to his new album, Hardstone Psycho. Battaglia was previously director of public relations at gaming and esports organization FaZe Clan, where she led strategy and execution for internal and external facing communications and publicity. Prior to that, she was on the digital publicity team at Universal Pictures. –Chris Eggertsen
ICYMI:
Bob Bruderman
Legendary Columbia Records and PolyGram president Dick Asher passed away at age 92 … Alexis Lanternier was named CEO of French streamer Deezer, replacing interim CEO Stu Berger … HYBE promoted Jason Jaesang Lee to be the company’s new chief executive, replacing Jiwon Park … and Kobalt elevated longtime executive Bob Bruderman to the role of chief digital officer.
Last Week’s Turntable: Tree Paine’s Ex-Assistant Comes Full Circle
As a music journalist, I tend to look at fan armies with only professional interest — what they mean for the industry and how I can make sure they won’t figure out where I live. Last week, however, I suddenly had to face the fact that I’m in one — and I have been for the last 35 years. And I realized that many creators might need to change the way they think about cultivating and keeping superfans.
I went to Stockholm last week to see Bruce Springsteen, one of my favorite artists, for what must be at least the 30th time. I stayed in a hotel close to the venue, which was full of people like me — by which I mean Springsteen fans of a certain age (ahem) who wanted to see the concert enough to travel from all over Northern Europe and, in some cases, the U.S. Many came with spouses or children, and some planned on seeing a few shows — or even a couple of weeks’ worth. One couple said that they were happy Springsteen now gives himself a couple of days off between shows, since it gave them more time for sightseeing during the vacations they organize around concerts.
These people don’t think of themselves as part of a fan army. They don’t have a nickname or collect different versions of the same CD. I don’t, either. In fact, I feel a bit sheepish saying that this concert was one of the highlights of my summer, or that I spent a few hundred dollars to go, but it is and I did, and it was totally worth it. After the show, about two dozen people gathered in the lobby after the show to talk highlights and trade war stories, and some of them gathered again the following night after cancelled flights left them stranded in Stockholm. I feel even more sheepish about how much I enjoyed that.
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Whatever. From a music business perspective, this is just what superfans do. One difference between his and most is that Springsteen built his audience the old-fashioned way — with unforgettable live shows that convinced fans to come back and bring friends (and, these days, kids). The people in my hotel are obviously the exception — I’m talking about a few dozen people in a venue that holds more than 50,000 — but at this point I think Springsteen concerts mostly draw serious fans. (Springsteen opened with “Seeds,” which he only ever released as a live performance on a 1986 box set, so I assume he thinks the same.) And although it’s hard to be sure, I think most of them were won over by his concerts.
These days, music executives focus less on live acts — how live are most pop performances anyway? — and more on hit singles. Fan armies are built online, usually around the shared experience of hoping a song will go to No. 1 or buying extra copies in order to boost it. But how long will that last? The music you love when you’re young tends to remain in your life, but going to concerts might have more appeal over time than trading gossip about chart position online. Cultivating an audience devoted enough to keep coming back year after year can be much harder — but it can also be more effective.
The problem is that this part of the business is hard to see in data. Industry executives often talk about how much superfans are worth in terms of the CDs or tchotchkes they buy, but it’s harder to measure the effect of fans who keep coming back over the course of years. I saw one Springsteen show this year and two last year, which doesn’t really move the needle. The 30-or-so shows I’ve seen would, of course, but those were over a period of 36 years — starting with, if you’re curious, the Tunnel of Love Tour in May 1988. (I was already enough of a fan to attend two of the five shows — and then I was really hooked.)
What keeps me coming back — and I think what keeps most fans coming back — is that Springsteen delivers shows that are both consistently great and fairly different. If he’s had an off night, I haven’t seen it. At the same time, he makes every tour different and varies the set list every night, with moments of genuine magic — in Stockholm he delivered a haunting “Racing in the Street” and pulled a kid up onstage to sing the chorus of “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day.” Others keep going back to hear rare favorites — seeing Springsteen play “Jole Blon” in September 2012 was a profound experience for me, even if most of my friends had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.
You could say a lot of these things about a lot of rock bands — there was a time when playing a different set every night was the rule instead of the exception. And it does seem to draw people in. Fans love a curveball of a cover, and some even appreciate the flubs — there’s so much more at stake without the artificial perfection that comes from a click track. Communities are built from appreciating, comparing and, yes, griping about difference performances. Just read the New Yorker story about Dead & Company to get the idea.
Like any true fan, I’m going to say Springsteen is different. More than any other current artist, he believes — and gets concertgoers to believe, at least for the time he’s onstage — that rock actually matters, that there’s more at stake onstage than entertainment, that this kind of music can actually sustain you. As I get older, with less time to drive down an empty highway for no reason at all, it gets harder to believe that. But I’d like to. Maybe in some way I need to — so much that I’ll be back next year and probably again the year after that.
South Korea-based music distributor YG PLUS, a subsidiary of K-pop powerhouse YG Entertainment (BLACKPINK, BabyMonster), signed a licensing deal with African streaming and download service Boomplay that will bring YG’s catalog to the platform. According to a press release, Boomplay boasts 70 million users. “We look forward to a successful partnership with YG PLUS that will bring their catalogue to new listeners and help connect their artists with music lovers and fans in the African region,” said Boomplay in a statement.
Hitmaker Distribution struck a distribution deal with indie label Blac Noize! Recordings, in which Hitmaker founder/CEO Tony Bucher is a partner. Blac Noize’s roster includes HitKidd, Jdot Breezy, Nevi, Toure and Marc Nasty.
Tunespotter, an audio-visual clip database that allows users to search, listen to and view “synch moments” from movies, TV shows, trailers, games and commercials, acquired What-song.com. The deal effectively combines “the data and search power of two leading music search platforms – letting users see, hear, and learn more about sought-after TV or movie moments in a single, easy-to-use place,” according to a press release. “The database we’ve established gives Tunespotter an immediate aggregator and audience,” added What-song.com founder Tom Andrew. “Their ability to empower the user journey with their incredible visual tool chest and social app capabilities extends our reach and consolidates our strengths, positively impacting consumers with more rewarding, long form engagement.” Tunespotter claims that What-song.com attracts more than 1 million unique users per month.
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Warner Music Brazil invested in and partnered with Sua Música Group, which owns the Sua Música Brazilian music platform and distributor Sua Música Digital. Through the deal, the companies will team up to develop regional artists and songwriters. According to a press release, Sua Música Digital manages the digital careers of and handles royalty management for more than 1,000 artists across Brazil, including Tarcísio do Acordeon, Vitor Fernandes and Thiago Aquino. “The combination of Sua Música’s significant presence in regional music with our national reach and global network will amplify the efforts of both companies and offer artists new creative and commercial possibilities and opportunities,” said Warner Music Brazil president Leila Oliveira in a statement.
Private equity company Goldman Sachs Alternatives acquired a majority stake in live experiences company TAIT from Providence Equity Partners, subject to regulatory approvals. No financial details were disclosed. “Goldman Sachs’ network and expertise will enable us to grow our global footprint and offerings, empowering the company to better serve clients, drive innovation, and pioneer new technology,” said TAIT CEO Adam Davis in a statement announcing the deal. TAIT has worked with artists and brands including Taylor Swift, Cirque Du Soleil, Beyoncé, Royal Opera House, Nike, Google and The Olympics.
Downtown-owned business-to-business distributor FUGA announced partnerships with three U.K. music companies: One House, drum and bass label Critical Music and Berry’s Room, an imprint of British-Nigerian Afrobeats artist Maleek Berry. One House (Eliza Rose, Pretty Girl) will take advantage of FUGA’s global distribution and marketing services, including physical distribution, synch, YouTube channel management and access to FUGA’s trends and analytics platform. Critical Music (QZB, Mefjus, Waeys, Ivy Lab) will use FUGA’s global distribution and marketing services to support its current and future releases. And Berry’s Room will utilize FUGA’s distribution, marketing and YouTube channel management services for Berry’s catalog and the release of his upcoming debut album; FUGA will als help the imprint support other Afrobeats artists.
Shamrock Capital‘s Content Strategy division acquired a film, TV and music portfolio from Vine Alternative Investments. The portfolio boasts an ownership interest in more than 450 songs, according to a press release. Shamrock would not confirm which songs were included in the deal.
Producer and creative executive RedOne’s 2101 Records imprint signed a distribution deal with Vydia, a distribution service under the gamma. umbrella. Vydia will support 2101’s roster and manage the rights and distribution of RedOne’s back catalog.
Independent dance music label Armada Music partnered with electronic music duo Deep Dish in a deal that will see Armada managing part of Deep Dish’s music catalog — namely, the duo’s 2005 album George Is On. Through the deal, the album returned to DSPs and download portals worldwide on Friday (July 19) for the first time in several years.
Global growth firm Triple G Ventures, led by CEO Gregg Stein, announced a partnership with Revelator, which provides digital IP infrastructure to independent music businesses. Through the deal, Triple G will help to enhance Revelator’s market presence, drive growth and increase awareness of Revelator’s end-to-end digital rights and royalty management solutions. Stein will also now serve as Revelator’s new chief marketing officer.