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When Co-op Live, the latest arena from developer Oak View Group (OVG), opens in Manchester, England, in April, it will look a bit different from most similarly sized British venues.
Inside, it will serve up an eminently modern offering: the United Kingdom’s largest arena concert capacity, an acoustically efficient infrastructure and a star-studded concert lineup including Stevie Nicks, Olivia Rodrigo and Nicki Minaj. But outside, the venue’s innovations will be most visible. Situated on the Manchester Ship Canal, Co-op Live is surrounded by a “biodiversity ring” — over 29,000 square feet of lush greenery offering a natural habitat for local wildlife and a surrounding green wall to attract bees. A mile-long pedestrian path partially along the water will encourage more environmentally friendly travel to and from the 23,500-capacity venue.
Since OVG broke ground on Co-op Live in 2021, chairman/CEO Tim Leiweke has frequently walked that route to the arena, which was built by local suppliers to reduce the transportation of materials, is entirely powered by electricity to eliminate the use of gas on site and even collects rain to water its plants and flush its toilets. “Co-op Live is going to be the most sustainable arena in the U.K. and one of the most in the world,” he tells Billboard. “It is our intent, our ambition and our commitment to be carbon neutral, but it takes a year to be certified” with an “excellent” rating from the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, run by U.K. accreditation service BRE Global.
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A veteran of the live sector — and of innovation in arena construction, specifically — who once served as president of AEG, Leiweke is known for his enthusiasm for ambitious new projects like Co-op Live and Green Operations & Advanced Leadership (GOAL), a sustainability program developed by founding members OVG; State Farm Arena and its NBA sports tenant the Atlanta Hawks; Fenway Sports Group; and green building expert Jason F. McLennan for arenas, stadiums, convention centers and other venues. “I love GOAL. It’s the most important thing we’ve done toward sustainability,” Leiweke says. “It’s hugely important that we get other people in the industry committed to GOAL. That’s one of [OVG’s] highest priorities.”
Building Co-op Live is only the latest milestone in OVG’s commitment to creating more sustainable concert spaces that began with its billion-dollar, four-year renovation of Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena (formerly Key Arena), which reopened in late 2021. Now OVG is working to bring sustainability to each of the more than 400 buildings it owns, operates or partners with.
“As an industry, we are a lightning rod of attention,” Leiweke says. “Can we use that platform that has such a big profile to be an example of tackling this issue and doing the right thing?”
A rendering of U.K. venue Co-op Live, where a pedestrian path encourages foot travel to the arena.
Courtesy of Oak View Group
During Climate Pledge Arena’s renovation, OVG floated its iconic roof in the air for conservation — Seattle designated Key Arena’s exterior a municipal landmark in 2017 — and overhauled the 60-year-old building to consume zero fossil fuel, use solar panels for 100% renewable energy power and employ a “Rain to Rink” system harvesting water off the roof to help create the ice for NHL tenant the Seattle Kraken. Naming-rights partner Amazon chose the new arena’s moniker, basing it on its Climate Pledge with environmental advocacy group Global Optimism. Today, it’s a zero-waste venue without single-use plastics — and was the first arena to achieve International Living Future Institute Zero Carbon Certification, meaning it’s energy-efficient, combustion-free and powered entirely by renewable sources.
After working with OVG on Climate Pledge, Amazon provided its web services software to track venue performance for sustainability measures such as energy and water use, greenhouse gas emissions and waste management. In October 2021, OVG and fellow founding members launched GOAL to provide resources to venues exploring how to operate more sustainably.
“You don’t have to be Climate Pledge Arena and chances are you won’t be, at least not at first,” says Kristen Fulmer, OVG head of sustainability and director of GOAL. “It’s important that we meet operators where they are and make incremental improvements over time.”
Take OVG’s newly built Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif., as an example. It’s surrounded by drought-resistant plants, uses electric Zambonis to maintain the ice used by AHL team the Coachella Valley Firebirds, runs on solar panels covering its parking lot and is sunk 25 feet below grade to limit exposure of its exterior facade and thus reduce its HVAC dependence. Parking lot lights are on dusk-to-dawn sensors, the venue composts, and prepaid parking reduces the time cars spend idling.
“When you open a venue that has all these elements already designed into it, [sustainability] becomes part of your daily procedure,” Acrisure senior vp John Page says. And GOAL provides a “tracking system that allows us to evaluate on an ongoing basis how we can lower our carbon footprint” and reach a target of carbon neutrality by 2025.
As with Acrisure, GOAL’s approach to sustainability often utilizes creative solutions to regional issues, a practice made easier by the data it collects from its now 50 members. (Leiweke intends to double that number by the end of 2024.) “No one does a better job than State Farm Arena on recycling,” Leiweke says. “We brought them in and said, ‘Great, write the playbook.’ And then we bring in all of the other people in our industry that we see as best in class on green and sustainability and say, ‘Great, write that playbook.’ ”
Even with its collected best practices, Leiweke says, “Amazingly, many people turn down [GOAL] because they say it will cost too much money, which is ridiculous. How much do you think it’s going to cost to replace the Earth?” It’s true that upfront costs are higher at OVG’s tricked-out-for-sustainability venues — but, Leiweke insists, GOAL’s energy tracking and operational data will prove they’re saving money in the long term. “It’s usually about how long you’re looking at the budget,” Fulmer says, “and usually it will pay for itself.”
In the meantime, there are ways to defray costs. Corporate partners, Fulmer explains, are often eager to contribute funding for environmental causes, promote their own sustainability agendas or both. GOAL helps those that want to back specific measures — say, funding a venue’s switch from plastic to compostable cups — to team up with venues in exchange for on-site branding or activations.
As artists calculate their carbon footprint for upcoming tours, GOAL venues and partners can provide numbers, as well as initiatives and proposals, to lessen a tour’s impact.
“Do I think it makes a difference that Billie Eilish is going to play my venue when she has a choice because she knows how committed we are to sustainability? 100%,” Leiweke says. “But that’s not the only reason we did it. We did it because we should all be doing this.”
This story will appear in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
In early September 2022, organizers of the Harvest Moon festival in Miramar, Fla., were forced to cancel their three-day country music event for an unusual reason: They could not find affordable cancellation insurance for the festival, which was scheduled to take place Oct. 27-29, little more than a month away.
Executives with destination-festival producer Topeka thought they had a policy in place when they announced Harvest Moon — which was to feature headliners Eric Church and the Turnpike Troubadours — and had had no problem getting coverage in the past; the festival fell outside the official hurricane season. But approximately six weeks before the event, weather forecasts indicated that Miramar could be in the path of two developing superstorms. As a result, sources close to the festival tell Billboard that Harvest Moon promoters were suddenly being quoted prohibitively high prices that led to the decision to scrap the event and refund buyers, despite being 70% sold.
While these circumstances are rare, the incident underscores how the liabilities posed by inclement weather and climate change have significantly increased financial risk for independent promoters.The event business used to be much more competitive, which meant much lower prices for the policyholders. But a substantial increase in the number of festivals taking place yearly in North America, coupled with an increase in adverse weather, has caused event cancellation insurance premiums to triple and deductibles to balloon in recent years.
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For much of the last decade, event cancellation insurance enabled promoters to insure their expenses and forecast profits for about 80 cents per $100. So, for example, a promoter that booked an artist for $500,000 could purchase a $4,000 policy covering that expense in the event of an adverse weather cancellation.
But policy prices have risen exponentially now that “insurance companies are increasingly relying on historic data about regional weather patterns and spending more time trying to identify the statistical risk based on location and time of year,” says Paul Bassman, a broker with Dallas event coverage firm Higginbotham.
Tim Epstein, an attorney for independent festivals in North America, says rising premium costs are first felt by indie promoters and organizers. While Live Nation and AEG have begun reducing payouts for festivals that cancel 60 to 30 days in advance, prompting some artists to carry their own policies, indie promoters can’t often stipulate similar terms for their acts, and, as a result, “people are becoming more cognizant of the risks they face from weather,” he says.
This story will appear in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
On its surface, Cali Vibes seems like a normal music festival. In February, the three-day Long Beach, Calif., event held its third annual edition, welcoming 20,000 fans per day with a bill topped by Gwen Stefani, Stick Figure, Slightly Stoopid and Rebelution. But a closer look reveals quiet innovation. Attendees drink from reusable plastic cups instead of single-use ones. Solar panels power the artists lounge. Staff members posted at each garbage station advise guests on whether waste should be thrown away, recycled or composted. Excess food is donated to local shelters.
The festival is a fun time — and a testing ground for sustainability initiatives that may eventually be used throughout the live sector. In 2023, Goldenvoice parent company AEG Presents designated Cali Vibes as an incubator to pilot green measures with the hope of expanding them across AEG’s festival portfolio. Cali Vibes designed its program in partnership with Three Squares, a Los Angeles-based environmental consulting firm.
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“Environment is part of the DNA of the festival,” says Goldenvoice vp of festivals Nic Adler, who in his position oversees California festivals including Cali Vibes, Cruel World, Just Like Heaven, Portola, Camp Flog Gnaw and Goldenvoice’s other “non-desert” (i.e., not Coachella or Stagecoach) events, which all typically draw between 20,000 and 30,000 fans per day.
“Cali Vibes is definitely the greenest one,” says Adler, who also helps book the shows, which focus on reggae, roots rock and hip-hop. “It’s harder to do something on the scale of 125,000 people a day [like Coachella or Stagecoach] versus 30,000, so the festivals we oversee are testing grounds for our larger events.
“We’re all aware that bringing 50 truckloads of stuff and 50,000 people to a site is not sustainable,” he continues. “But there’s a way to go at it where everybody does better.”
Goldenvoice doesn’t promote Cali Vibes as a green festival — but it certainly could. That starts with how fans reach the festival grounds at Long Beach’s Marina Green Park. Cali Vibes promotes public transit use by offering attendees free or discounted rides through a partnership with L.A. Metro and electric scooter company Bird. (Scientists cite the emissions from fan travel as the single biggest challenge in greening concerts.) This year, most Cali Vibes transport vehicles were electric. While the festival can’t control how artists arrive at the site or how the event’s equipment is delivered, its “no idling” rule reduces emissions by requiring cars and gas-powered golf carts to be turned off when not in motion. Adler says the rule will likely be implemented at Coachella 2024.
Reusable cups from r.Cup were the rule.
Nicolita Bradley
Elsewhere, festival signage is made from wood so it can be reused, while thousands of square feet of plastic banners at stages are taken by upcycling company Rewilder after the event wraps and sewn into tote bags and backpacks sold at the following year’s merchandise stand. Unsold merch is refashioned into staff uniforms. This year, the festival’s reusable cup program, r.Cup, had an 81% return rate, which translated to the elimination of 300,000 single-use plastic cups. Water is served in aluminum cans, and refill stations are located throughout the event. Each ticket includes a $5 sustainability charge — Adler says it helps fans “feel like they’re participating” — which is split between greening festival operations and nonprofits including Surfrider Foundation and Plastic Pollution Coalition; Cali Vibes has donated $130,000 since the program’s inception.
Such forward-facing initiatives are crucial, Adler explains, because “festivals are inherently discovery-based in terms of new music, new people, new food” and can instill new habits that might stick with attendees. “We are an example,” he says, that could inspire fans to get their own reusable cup, learn to compost or go vegetarian.
Roughly 20% to 30% of food vendors at Goldenvoice festivals are vegan, with all vendors required to offer at least one vegetarian option. When Morrissey and Siouxsie Sioux headlined Cruel World in 2022 and 2023, respectively, both artists required that meat not be sold, resulting in roughly 80% vegan options — and demonstrating the power artists have to demand sustainability initiatives. Meanwhile, festival staff collect and compost food waste from vendors and divert excess food to local nonprofits and homeless shelters.
Beyond the solar-powered artists lounge — which Adler says has become a point of pride even if it isn’t “that great-looking” — the fest has shifted to clean energy in several areas, including solar-powered light towers in parking lots, merch stations and bathroom zones, and battery-powered LED lights in some locations. In 2023, the use of renewable diesel in generators and heavy equipment eliminated 43 tons of carbon emissions.
And since festival greening often means entering unknown territory, Adler says his team “spends a lot of the year going to random parking lots to meet someone to test a solar battery. We’ve seen more things we don’t like than things that will work, but that’s the process to find the right products.”
Staffers served as garbage station guides.
Juliana Bernstein
When it comes to green initiatives, Adler thinks the live sector is “crossing the threshold.” As sustainable technologies become more widely available and adopted, “the more prices are going to come down, so more festivals will want to use solar batteries or electric vans. The minute [the costs] start affecting the bottom line in a positive way, there’s going to be a full push for all of this.”
That hasn’t happened just yet, but even so, Adler can’t “recall a time in this business where it has been easier to use these alternatives.” He predicts that in five to 10 years, green energy tech will be established and affordable enough for producers to feel confident using it for large-scale stages and other major energy use points.
But for Adler, the goal is not necessarily to create a zero-emissions festival — “If you restrict it too much, people might not come back” — but instead an enjoyable, inspiring environment that implements and showcases ever-improving sustainability components and which vendors, artists and fans are happy to return to.
“You must create the opportunity for people to do the right thing,” he says. “That’s what our team is focused on the most: Have we created enough opportunities for people to participate in doing better?”
This story will appear in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
BMI, which was acquired by New Mountain Capital in February, last night notified songwriters and publishers that its previous owners, mainly radio and TV stations, have followed through on their commitment to disburse a $100 million bonus from the undisclosed amount received for the sale — which sources say was over $1 billion — to songwriters and publishers. What’s more, it disclosed to each songwriter and publisher how much they will be receiving.
Songwriters and publishers expressed gratitude for the payout — after all, the sellers were under no legal obligation to share any of the sale price with BMI members. In fact, some consider it a very generous reward from the prior owners. However, other sources have suggested that morally, the previous owners should shared something, considering it was songwriters’ and music publishers’ rights that generated all the licensing revenue and created the value for the sale price to be achieved.
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In any event, publishers and songwriters contacted by Billboard Thursday (March 28) said they were engaging in mathematical analysis to try and figure out what their payment represented, even though BMI laid out on its website some details on how it arrived at each individual payout. According to the website, BMI looked at the most recent five years of payouts (2019-2023) and used that as a basis to determine how much each payout should be — after taking into consideration whether the songwriter’s catalog was there for all five years or is still there even if the songwriter has left. Then, it apparently divided songwriters into tiers based on undisclosed parameters and paid every songwriter or publisher in that tier the same amount according to the website. Only songwriters or publishers that had received over $500 in royalties were eligible for a bonus distribution.
BMI didn’t provide any information on how it calculated allocations other than to say it split the bonus payouts evenly between songwriters and publishers — and that sold catalogs’ bonuses would be pro-rated between the new owners and old owners. But it did disclose that the method it used “is different from how we calculate our quarterly distributions,” according to the letter signed by BMI president/CEO Mike O’Neill that accompanied news of the allocation. “We thought very carefully about how we determined this allocation and made every effort to be as inclusive as possible and have it applied to the greatest number of earning BMI affiliates,” O’Neill’s letter stated. “Your allocation is truly well deserved, and I’m very pleased to deliver it to you on behalf of BMI’s former shareholders. Moving forward, your future with BMI is brighter than ever.”
Meanwhile, publishers’ data teams spent the day analyzing the payouts, looking at instances where they could see payouts on multiple catalogs or songwriters with similar characteristics for the five-year terms in order to compare them. Others measured their bonus payout as a percentage of the $100 million or compared it to the suspected sale price.
Still others decided that the best way to measure the bonus was to add up all the royalties BMI paid for a song catalog for the five-year period to see what percentage of that amount the bonus comprised; and then to compare that percentage with other songwriters or catalogs. One such catalog, an A-level writer/producer with several No. 1 hits during the period, earned about $4.1 million from BMI over those five years and received a bonus of $47,000 — or a 1.15% bonus on the earnings for the period, according to one source who had access to that data.
Another publishing source says comparing songwriters on its rosters who are equally successful to what each received as a bonus created quite a bit of confusion. In one instance, when they compared two songwriters at the same level, both got the same amount even though one has been at BMI for all five years while the other has only been there for only a few of the five years. “BMI might file this under ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ or ‘looking a gift horse in the mouth,’ but so far I can’t see any rhyme or reason on how they are determining the payouts,” that publisher says, but quickly adds, “Having said that, I am very happy for getting the money.”
A BMI representative was unavailable to comment at deadline — the organization was holding its Trailblazers of Gospel Music Awards event in Atlanta on Thursday. But the O’Neill letter to those receiving bonus payments also noted that the new owners will give BMI increased capabilities and leave the organization in “the best possible position to tap into numerous growth opportunities that will ensure your long-term success…increasing your distributions, elevating the services we provide and exploring new revenue streams that will benefit you.”
LONDON — Utopia Music is planning to rebrand as Proper Group AG, named after its core physical music distribution business, to reflect changes to the Swiss-based firm’s “strategic direction,” the company said Thursday (March 28).
The proposed name change, which needs to be approved by shareholders, comes almost two months after co-founder and former head Mattias Hjelmstedt exited Utopia Music following a shake-up of its executive ranks.
“As Utopia has evolved under new leadership, we recognize the need to align our brand with our new strategy and as a result, new market positioning,” said Michael Stebler, who was appointed CEO in January, in a statement sent to Billboard.
“Our previous brand identity doesn’t accurately reflect who we are today and where we aim to go in the future,” said the chief executive – a former managing director of Investment Advisors Zug AG, which operated on behalf of Utopia’s majority shareholder group. Like Utopia Music, Investment Advisors Zug AG is headquartered in the scenic Swiss town of Zug, located close to Zurich.
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Utopia Music acquired Proper Music Group, the United Kingdom’s biggest independent physical music distributor, which provides distribution services for nearly 6,000 indie labels and service companies, for an undisclosed sum in January 2022.
Eight months later, the company bought up the assets of U.K.-based Cinram Novum — which provides warehouse, fulfillment and distribution services to music labels and home entertainment companies, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and [PIAS] — and renamed it Utopia Distribution Services (UDS).
Both acquisitions took place during a period of intense hyper-growth between 2020 and 2022 when Utopia rapidly acquired 15 companies spanning music tech, finance, publishing, marketing and distribution.
A well-documented downsizing followed, encompassing multiple rounds of job cuts, company divestments and ongoing legal actions, eventually leading to the appointment of a new CEO and executive team at the start of the year.
Changing the company’s name to Proper Group “represents a fresh start,” said Stebler, “and reflects the changes to our strategic direction, where distribution sits at the core of the commercial value chain.”
Under the new arrangement, Billboard understands that Utopia/Proper Group will be divided into four main departments: Proper Distribution, Proper Payments, Proper Processing and Proper Music Data.
Together, the company says, they will provide clients with a “comprehensive suite of tech services” — including cross-platform analytics and royalty tracking, processing and payments — all built around the firm’s music distribution business, which has long generated the bulk of its revenue.
“By leveraging the Proper brand,” the company will “benefit from the positive and strong brand equity Proper has in the music industry,” said Stebler.
The company’s executive team remains unchanged with Stebler supported by deputy CEOs Alain Couttolenc and Drew Hill, a long-serving veteran of the U.K. physical music industry, who doubles as Utopia/Proper Group’s chief of distribution.
Hill’s responsibilities include overseeing the U.K.’s biggest distribution warehouse for physical music and home entertainment — a 25,000-square meter facility in the town of Bicester with handling capacity of up to 250,000 units per day — which Utopia opened last year as part of a £100 million ($125 million) long-term deal with international logistics company DP World.
More recently, Utopia successfully secured around half of a Series C funding round (understood to total more than 15 million euros) with a second tranche of C-round funding underway. The funds will be used to drive commercial growth, enhance product development and strengthen the company’s balance sheet, Stebler told Billboard in January.
Shareholders will get to vote on the proposed name change when Utopia holds its Annual General Meeting at the start of May.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the troubled publicly traded music royalty company that owns full or partial rights to song catalogs from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shakira, Justin Bieber and Neil Young, issued a damning report Thursday (March 28) compiled by a third party that details missteps the fund and its investment advisor made leading to a 26% portfolio downgrade earlier this month.
The London-listed fund, which became the poster child for music as an investable asset class, cut the value of its portfolio earlier this month and told investors not to expect the resumption of dividends “for the foreseeable future” while the company focuses on paying down debts.
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Compiled by the board’s lead independent adviser, Shot Tower Capital, the report found that Hipgnosis Song Management, run by Hipgnosis founder and music manager Merck Mercuriadis, materially overstated the fund’s revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and supported catalog acquisitions with financial analysis that failed to meet “music industry standards.” Hipgnosis Songs Fund itself overstated the scope of its music assets — the kinds of royalties and administration rights it owned and its share of those rights — in disclosures to investors and regulators. And in a pitch last September to investors to sell some 29 catalogs to a sister Hipgnosis company, the fund included a better-than-could-be-expected post-deal valuation, the report found.
In a statement announcing the report, the fund’s board said it is exploring “all options for the future of the company,” and that it will release its strategic review and proposals by April 26.
Hipgnosis Song Management said it was still reviewing the report, which it received late yesterday. “However, there are aspects of the report that HSM strongly disagrees with and considers to be factually inaccurate and misleading,” the company stated.
“Throughout the life of the company, HSM has worked constructively, and in good faith, with the company’s board and other advisers to deliver the best outcome for the company’s shareholders,” the company continued. “Each adviser was recruited by the company’s board to advise on their specific area of expertise and with clear areas of responsibility.”
Investors found heart in the report; at the close of London markets on Thursday, Hipgnosis Songs Fund was trading at 0.69 pounds ($0.87), up 8.3% on the day and 30.43% above its 52-week low of 0.53 pounds ($0.69) set on March 4.
Here are some of the most revealing findings from Shot Tower’s report:
“The Fund overpa(id) for the majority of the catalogs it acquired.”
Hipgnosis Songs Fund, at the investment adviser’s direction, famously paid top-dollar for music assets — more than $2.2 billion overall. Today, those assets are worth $1.948 billion, with 67 of 105 acquisition deals currently worth less than their purchase price.
The investment advisor’s “diligence and underwriting standards” are the reason why.
Hipgnosis Song Management predicted aggressive growth, but three-quarters of its catalogs missed those expectations “by an average of 23% annually” and the overall annual royalties the fund earned from catalogs has fallen to $121.6 million from $134.2 million.
“Passive catalogs grew significantly better than catalogs managed by the Investment Advisor.“
A significant portion of the rights the fund had in its portfolio included passive rights. However, Mercuriadis and Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s board frequently touted that their industry expertise would be a valuable tool to make these rights outperform passive catalogs.
“The fund’s public reports contain disclosures that imply greater ownership control over songs… than would have been the case.”
Multiple reports from the fund presented that it had 100% “interest ownership” in acquired catalogs, which suggests ownership and control. “In fact, a material number of catalogs represent only a fractional, non-controlling income stream in the compositions without any copyright ownership,” the report reads.
Despite promoting itself as a caretaker of artists’ and songwriters’ works, Mercuriadis’ investment advisory group “failed to invest in systems and provide the services required to effectively manage a catalog of 40,000+ songs generating +120 million of royalty income annually.”
Hipgnosis Songs Management has not tracked or managed the catalog at the song level, and its legal bookkeeping included numerous oversights and missing files that could present complications to the collection of royalties.
The report found “multiple areas where fund expenses appear unrelated to the fund and/or are excessive.”
These costly items included $1.5 to $2 million spent annually for awards shows and public relations, “including significant payments to multiple music industry periodicals”; $1.2 million in fees in 2023 from deals the fund ended up not doing; and $5.7 million in fees related to the abandoned deal to sell catalogs to its sister fund, Hipgnosis Songs Capital.
Warner Chappell has signed Teddy Swims to a global publishing deal. Signed to Warner Records for his recorded music, the new deal unites his entire catalog under the WMG umbrella. News of the deal arrives the same week that his breakthrough hit “Lose Control” reached No. 1 on the Hot 100.
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Position Music has signed Zach Skelton, co-writer for Shawn Mendes, OneRepublic, Paul McCartney, Lil Nas X, and more, to a worldwide publishing deal.
Avex USA Publishing has signed DJ Smallz 732 to a global publishing deal. One of the most sought-after Jersey club producers, Smallz signs his deal on the heels of co-creating “Everybody” by Nick Minaj and Lil Uzi Vert from Minaj’s hit album Pink Friday 2.
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Red Bull‘s publishing division has signed producer Charlie Shuffler to a global deal. Best known for his records with Lil Yachty, Trippie Redd, Rico Nasty and Lil Peep, Shuffler has been a tastemaker since the early days of SoundCloud rap.
Big Machine Music has signed artist/writer George Birge to an exclusive co-publishing deal. News of the agreement arrives as Birge heads out on the road as the opener for Parker McCollum’s tour and just before the singer opens for Luke Bryan’s tour.
Concord Music Publishing has signed soul singer-songwriter William Bell to a publishing administration deal, including a selection of his back catalog and all future works. A legendary signee of Stax Records and inductee in the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, Bell has been making timeless soul records since his first album The Soul of a Bell, released in 1967.
BeatStars has announced the launch of Creator Rights Agency, its new division designed to help make clearing intellectual property rights more streamlined and affordable. It is described in the company’s press release as an “end-to-end service that allows creators to get data-driven recommendations from experts for licensing, protecting, and getting paid for their intellectual property. The CRA consolidates management, legal, and accounting services needed by creators in today’s music industry, charging a 10% commission only on the deals that are successfully negotiated by the CRA.”
BMG has acquired Eurodance pioneer Dr. Alban‘s recorded music interest in his catalog, including defining records like “It’s My Life” and “Sing Hallelujah.” The acquisition further bolsters BMG’s interests in 90s Eurodance. Recently, the company also holds a stake in “Planet of the Bass” by Kyle Gordon, which went viral on TikTok for its parody of the genre.
Bella Figura Music has acquired the writer’s share of The Human League-founder Adrian Wright‘s catalog. Wright’s current publisher will now work with Bella Figura’s sync and creative team to maximize commercial opportunities for his catalog.
Park Ave West Songs, founded by songwriter KT Mack, has signed Chris Canterbury to a global publishing deal.
Wise Music Group has signed Portico Quartet to its publishing roster through Campbell Connelly & Co. The influential composers and producers have been a mainstay in UK music their debut album Knee-Deep in the North Sea, was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2008.
The Last Briefing: Cat Stevens Signs With UMPG
Universal Music Group announced on Thursday (March 28) that its artists will soon have the ability to tease unreleased music on Spotify.
Sharing snippets of unreleased songs on social media has been one of the most popular promotional methods for artists during the TikTok era (sometimes to the chagrin of songwriters). In many instances, artists haven’t even finished writing the song that they tease. But fan enthusiasm can make these scraps of music go viral anyway, especially on TikTok, sending artists scrambling to write another verse, record a full song, and release it as soon as possible — hopefully to a rapturous reception.
The Universal Music Group announcement is notable because it comes as the company’s stand-off with TikTok nears the end of its second month. Official recordings of UMG acts are not currently available on the app. (Same goes for many, but not all, songs that feature contributions from UMPG songwriters.) While most UMG artists continue to use the app as a social tool to communicate with their followers, their ability to promote their music on TikTok is severely limited.
Teasing songs on Spotify represents a potential alternative for these acts. “We’re excited to broaden our relationship with Spotify through the introduction of new content offerings and collaborations that will bring deeper ‘social music’ experiences to the platform,” UMG chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge said in a statement.
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Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek added that “the forthcoming features will put more power in the hands of artists and their teams to help them authentically express themselves, efficiently promote their work, and better monetize their art.”
UMG did not say when its artists would be able to start sharing pre-release snippets on the platform. It’s also not clear the extent to which Spotify users will actively hunt for pre-release music on the streaming service — many prefer more passive forms of engagement.
TikTok, in contrast, excels at engaging those who see fandom as a participatory sport — they want to comment on unreleased demos and make their own remixes. And for younger listeners especially, the app is often a popular source of music discovery.
Midia Research found that TikTok is the second biggest driver of music discovery for Gen Z after YouTube. U.S. TikTokers “are nearly twice as likely to discover music on short-form video platforms than the average user of social or social-form video platforms,” according to a Luminate study released in November.
Spotify is then where many of these listeners go and listen to full songs they found on TikTok. To make this process even more friction-less, TikTok launched a new feature last year that allows users to quickly save music they find on the platform to Spotify and other streaming services.
But Spotify executives have been eager to tout the streamer’s ability to drive discovery on its own. “There’s a disconnect between where music is being teased and where music is actually being streamed,” Sulinna Ong, Spotify’s global head of editorial, said at the company’s Stream On event in 2023. “The most powerful time to reach fans is when they’ve chosen to engage with music, like when they open up Spotify.”
At the same event, Spotify co-president Gustav Soderstrom said that “Spotify recommendations drive close to half of all user streams.” “Each time your music gets played on a playlist like Release Radar, you receive, on average, three times more streams from that listener over the next six months,” he added. “And when a listener decides to follow you, they listen to, on average, five times more of your music.” This recommendation system sets Spotify apart from platforms that deliver “just a fleeting moment of viral fame.”
UMG also announced on Thursday that its publishing arm inked a deal with Spotify so the platform can share music videos in the U.S. Spotify music videos launched in beta for premium users in 11 countries — but not in the U.S. — earlier in March. At the time, Charlie Hellman, Spotify’s vp and head of music product, called videos “an important part of so many artists’ tool kits.
“It’s a natural fit for them to live in the same place that more than half a billion people choose to listen to music,” Hellman added in a statement.
For decades, festivals have created weekendlong oases for music fans — and left a mind-boggling amount of waste in their wakes. But as artists and fans increasingly learn about their impact on the environment, eco-minded — and creative — organizers have started pushing to make festivals greener.
Whether headliner- (solar power) or supporting act-size (“Pee into tea,” anyone?), their ideas are making the live space more sustainable. Just imagine if they could all happen in one place. Below, Billboard digs into a look at the eco-friendly festival of the future.
Catch Some Rays
Illustration by Sinelab
Most festival stages are powered by generators burning diesel fuel, but advances in solar technology now make it possible to store and generate enough power to meet a major festival’s heavy energy needs. Late last year, Massive Attack announced Act 1.5, the first 100% solar-powered festival in the United Kingdom, with the help of solar panels and battery packs that store sufficient energy on site without needing diesel generators.
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It Takes a Village
Illustration by Sinelab
Tennessee’s Bonnaroo offers fans interested in sustainability a dedicated place at the festival to organize and learn about new green efforts proposed by its nonprofit division, Bonnaroo Works Fund. That includes the Roo Works cafe, where green entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas in a group setting; a nonprofit village where patrons can interact with green groups; a “learning garden” highlighting sustainable farming practices; and a volunteer program called Rooduce, Roouse and Roocycle.
Keeper Cups
Illustration by Sinelab
Single-use beverage cups are a major source of festival landfill waste. Companies like r.Cup have begun working with major promoters like Goldenvoice to switch to washable, reusable cups, which are collected each night and washed at a local cleaning center. In 2023, r.Cup’s program diverted 1.1 tons (roughly 30,000 cups per day) of waste from local landfills.
Plant Seeds of Change
Illustration by Sinelab
To offset the carbon dioxide emissions of large events, promoters are increasingly planting trees and creating forest reserves. Groups like the European Festival Forest focus their offset efforts in certain regions of the globe, like Iceland, while other organizers plant and restore forests at festival sites for future concertgoers’ benefit.
Making (Vegan) Concessions
Illustration by Sinelab
In 2022, Goldenvoice’s Cruel World Festival in Pasadena, Calif., launched the largest vegan and vegetarian dining pavilion for any festival west of the Mississippi, with 10 vegan and 20 vegetarian vendors offering items like maneatingplant’s vegan bao buns, dairy-free milkshakes from Monty’s Good Burger and plant-based sushi burritos from Oona Sushi.
Water Works
Illustration by Sinelab
Last year, Amsterdam’s DGTL festival launched an initiative to protect the site’s limited groundwater supply — it’s located within an industrial port in the city — by partnering with local sanitation companies to, well, “make tea out of pee.” By harnessing the same water purification technology that’s used to convert wastewater in space, DGTL created water reuse applications that will likely be expanded in the future.
Wipe Deforestation Out
Illustration by Sinelab
Festivals like Lollapalooza and Outside Lands have switched to bamboo-based toilet paper this year, not because of the material’s post-flush qualities but to help curb deforestation. Bamboo grows much faster than trees cultivated for paper products, and activists see it as a possible long-term solution to the developing world’s need for lumber, which is increasing in price as deforestation continues.
Start a Movement
Illustration by Sinelab
For its Music of the Spheres tour, Coldplay deployed a kinetic dancefloor, harnessing the crowd’s movement to activate LED lights and other visuals — and to generate electricity that was then routed to power elements of the production. On the tour, custom-made Energy Centers were also assembled in a circle for fans to generate energy by riding stationary bikes.
Wrist Watch
Illustration by Sinelab
Light-up wristbands are now common audience accessories on major tours (and at some festivals), though some activists worry about the waste they create. For its Music of the Spheres tour, Coldplay partnered with Canadian company Pixmob to make biodegradable light-up wristbands — the first of their kind — from compostable plant-based plastics. Now Pixmob only makes biodegradable wristbands, having done so for events like the Super Bowl and the Olympic Games and tours by Taylor Swift and Imagine Dragons.
This story will appear in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Attorneys for Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge fired back at a lawsuit that claims he and the label “aided and abetted” Sean “Diddy” Combs in his alleged sexual abuse, saying the accusations are so “offensively false” that they plan to seek legal penalties against the lawyer who filed them.
In a motion to dismiss all claims against UMG and Grainge, the label’s lawyers blasted attorney Tyrone Blackburn for filing “knowingly false allegations” of criminal wrongdoing “without the slightest factual or legal basis.” They said they would seek so-called sanctions against him in a future filing.
“A license to practice law is a privilege,” wrote Donald Zakarin, a longtime music industry litigator who represents UMG and Grainge. “Mr. Blackburn, plaintiff’s lawyer, has misused that license to self-promote, gratuitously, falsely and recklessly accusing the UMG defendants of criminal behavior.”
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The Wednesday filing came in response to a lawsuit filed last month by a producer named Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, who says the rapper sexually assaulted and harassed him. The lawsuit is one of several abuse cases filed against Combs, in addition to an apparent federal criminal investigation that led to raids of his homes this week. Combs has strongly denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
But the case filed by Jones went far beyond a simple assault claim, arguing that Diddy, Grainge and many others had also violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act – the federal RICO statute that’s more often used in criminal cases against mobsters and drug cartels. He also accused the various defendants of violating federal sex trafficking laws.
In Wednesday’s filing, UMG’s lawyers said those claims were “entirely invented by Mr. Blackburn.”
“The [complaint] hurls accusations of criminal racketeering and criminal sex trafficking against the UMG defendants, respected individuals and companies having utterly nothing to do with plaintiff’s claims,” Zakarin wrote Wednesday’s filings. “These accusations are recklessly false and, but for the fact that they are embodied in a complaint, would be libelous.”
In addition to the original allegations, UMG’s lawyers also sharply criticized Blackburn for filing a second, updated complaint this week – a filing that they claim drastically altered the allegations. In his filing, Zakarin called it the worst lawyering he had seen in nearly 50 years as an attorney.
“In all that time, I have never seen any attorney display anything remotely like the utter indifference shown by Mr. Blackburn towards his obligations as an attorney,” Zakarin wrote. “I have never seen any lawyer, in any pleading, in any court, accuse people and companies of criminal conduct without the slightest basis and then try to file an amended pleading completely jettisoning every allegation underpinning the original claims and substituting completely different and irreconcilable allegations to support the very same claims.”
In a letter to the judge Thursday, he called the UMG motion a “public relations stunt” that had been filed in bad faith. “They did not have any issues marrying themselves to Mr. Combs when it was popular. Now, suddenly … they are treating Mr. Combs like he has the plague,” Blackburn wrote in the letter.
In a statement to Billboard on Thursday, Blackburn said: “UMG should produce their financial records. Let’s see what the money was used for. Stop trying to escape liability.”
A spokesman for UMG did not immediately return a request for comment on the motion.