Business
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Four K-pop companies’ stocks fell in value by an average of 19.0% in 2024, a significant reversal of fortune after gaining an average of 30.0% the prior year.
Some of the K-pop companies’ declines can be attributed to the poor showing of Korean stocks in general. The KOSPI composite index, an index of all stocks traded on the stock market division of the Korea Exchange, fell 9.6% in 2024. Korean stocks especially suffered from political turmoil in the year’s waning weeks. Since South Korean Prime Minister Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Dec. 3 through the end of the year, the KOSPI fell 4.3%.
But collectively and individually, HYBE, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment fared worse than the South Korean stock index. The South Korean companies are expanding beyond their home country, establishing roots in the Americas and exporting their K-pop model of artist development to local markets. Many of the new projects have yet to pay dividends, however, and a lack of new releases or concerts by major artists often resulted in lower revenue and profits in recent quarters.
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YG Entertainment, home to BLACKPINK and BABYMONSTER, fared the best, dropping 10.0% to 45,800 won ($31.07). In the third quarter, YG Entertainment’s revenue dropped 42% year over year while a 14.8 billion won ($10 million) net income in the third quarter of 2023 turned into a 937 million ($636,000) net loss.
BTS’s label HYBE fell 17.2% to 193,400 won ($131.18), with its third-quarter net profit dropping 99% on lower concert and recorded music revenue. In the second quarter, HYBE set a company record for quarterly revenue but its operating profit fell 37.4%. The company was also hampered by controversies in 2024. Chairman Bang Si-hyuk is reportedly being investigated by South Korean regulators over a profit-sharing deal with early investors that led Bang to realize a $285 million profit from the company’s 2020 initial public offering. HYBE has also been embroiled in an ongoing feud with Min Hee-Jin, the former CEO of HYBE’s ADOR imprint.
SM Entertainment, the home of aespa and NCT Dream, sank 17.9% to 75,600 won ($51.28). In the third quarter, net profit fell 95.6% on 9% lower revenue. In the second quarter, net profit was down 70.3% while revenue increased 5.9% from the prior-year period. The company has a new North American joint venture with Kakao Entertainment that launched in late 2023 and has produced a new British boy band, dearALICE, launched through a BBC miniseries.
Faring the worst was JYP Entertainment, home to Stray Kids and iTZY, which plummeted 31.0% to 69,900 won ($47.41). In the first three quarters of 2024, JYP’s revenue was down 1.6% and net profit was 30.4% lower than the prior-year period. In the second quarter, an absence of major artist activity caused the company’s revenue to drop 36.9% from the prior-year period while its net profit fell 95% year over year. JYP was able to rebound in the third quarter, however, as revenue and net profit were up 22.1% and 11.7%, respectively.
Dr. Sasha J. Carr, a clinical psychologist who focused on family care for all ages, died in Norwalk, Conn., on Saturday (Dec. 28). She was 55. A cause of death has not been reported.
Dr. Carr was the daughter of Barbara Carr, longtime co-manager of Bruce Springsteen, and the stepdaughter of music critic and author Dave Marsh.
She was predeceased by her sister Kristen Ann Carr, who died in 1993 at age 21 of sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. The Kristen Ann Carr Fund, supported by major artists and executives, was established in her sister’s memory to advance sarcoma research and support families affected by cancer.
Dr. Carr was born in London, lived in New York City through her high school years and had been a longtime resident of Norwalk. In 2022, she relocated to Burlington, Vt. She attended The Chapin School in New York, received her undergraduate degree in 1992 from Brown University and was awarded a Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 2006 from Rutgers University.
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While her parents have been prominent in the music industry, Dr. Carr’s career followed a different path.
In Norwalk, she built a consulting practice, Off to Dreamland, and was a sought-after family sleep expert, dedicated to helping babies, children and families get the rest they need.
She was also a faculty member of the Family Sleep Institute. She published an illustrated children’s book, Putting Bungee to Bed, which empowered children to develop good sleep habits. Her passion for travel and adventure inspired her to help families in yet another way, by acting as a travel agent for kids-oriented vacations.
Dr. Carr’s career was focused on family care for all ages, and she was one of the first to address the unique and challenging role of caregivers with her book The Caregiver’s Essential Handbook: More than 1,200 Tips to Help You Care for and Comfort the Seniors in Your Life (McGraw-Hill, 2003).
Dr. Carr was a devoted mother to her beloved son Weston Kristoff Carr, 13. She is survived by Weston; her mother Barbara Carr and stepfather Dave Marsh of Norwalk; her father Patrick Carr of Florida ; and many loving aunts, uncles and cousins. Sasha was predeceased by her sister, Kristen Ann.
For those who wish to make a contribution in Dr. Carr’s memory, her family has requested donations be made to the Kristen Ann Carr Fund, for which Dr. Carr was a founding Board of Trustees member, or a charity of their choice.
Lil Durk’s trial on federal murder-for-hire charges will be pushed back until October after both his lawyers and federal prosecutors agreed to a months-long delay.
The case against Durk — over an alleged plot to kill rival rapper Quando Rondo in a 2022 Los Angeles shooting that left another man dead — had been scheduled to go to trial next week because federal “speedy trial” rules require such cases to be quickly heard by a jury.
But in a motion on Tuesday (Dec. 31), both sides agreed to a request from Lil Durk (real name Durk Devontay Banks) and his co-defendants to postpone the courtroom showdown until Oct. 14 to give them more time to prepare for the trial — a request that prosecutors did not oppose.
“Due to the nature of the prosecution and the number of defendants, including the charges in the indictment and the voluminous discovery that will be produced to defendants, this case is so unusual and so complex that it is unreasonable to expect adequate preparation for pretrial proceedings or for the trial itself within the Speedy Trial Act time limits,” the parties told the judge in the new filing.
Durk was arrested in October on conspiracy, murder-for-hire and firearms charges for allegedly orchestrating the 2022 attack at a Los Angeles gas station, which left Rondo (Tyquian Bowman) unscathed but saw his friend Lul Pab (Saviay’a Robinson) killed in the crossfire. Durk allegedly ordered the shooting in retaliation for the 2020 killing of rapper King Von (Dayvon Bennett), a close friend and frequent collaborator.
In charging documents, prosecutors claim that Durk’s “Only The Family” (“OTF”) crew was not merely a well-publicized group of Chicago rappers, but a “hybrid organization” that also functioned as a criminal gang to carry out violent acts “at the direction” of Durk, including the Rondo attack.
“Banks put a monetary bounty out for an individual with whom Banks was feuding named T.B.,” prosecutors wrote in the charges last month, referring to Rondo by his initials. “Banks ordered T.B.’s murder and the hitmen used Banks and OTF-related finances to carry out the murder.”
Among other evidence, prosecutors say the assailants booked flights to Los Angeles using a credit card connected to Durk. The feds say the card was issued under a bank account that listed Durk’s one-time manager as an owner, and that another credit card was issued under the same account to Durk’s father. Charging documents also cite a text allegedly sent by Durk to another co-conspirator in the lead-up to the shooting: “Don’t book no flights under no names involved wit me.”
Durk has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to the charges. In addition to the star himself, prosecutors have also charged those who they say actually carried out the attack, including alleged OTF members Kavon London Grant, Deandre Dontrell Wilson and Asa Houston, as well as Keith Jones and David Brian Lindsey, two other alleged Chicago gang members.
With the rapper seeking release on pre-trial bond, prosecutors unsealed new documents in December linking him to another shooting that left Stephon Mack, an alleged Chicago gang leader, dead in 2022. The feds argued that the earlier slaying had also been an act of revenge by Durk, ordered after the star’s brother was killed by a member of Mack’s gang.
Following those revelations, a federal magistrate judge denied Durk’s motion to be released on bond at a December hearing, leaving him in jail until his eventual trial. He’s currently being housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, a federal prison frequently used to house defendants before and during trial.
In some cases, denial of bond might prompt defense attorneys to force prosecutors to stick to the speedy trial schedule and quickly present the case to a jury. But in Tuesday’s order, attorneys for Durk and the other defendants said the complexity of the Rondo shooting case would require more time to adequately prepare a defense — and that “the government does not object to the continuance.”
“Defense counsel represent that failure to grant the continuance would deny them reasonable time necessary for effective preparation,” the judge wrote, adding that defense lawyers needed plenty of time to “conduct and complete an independent investigation of the case” and “complete additional legal research” ahead of trial.
Classic rock is still big — it’s the pictures that are getting smaller.
The definitive modern pop music documentary was Beatles Anthology, the 1995 multi-night television project released with three CD sets of band outtakes and a coffee table book. More recent years brought Ron Howard’s 2016 documentary about the band’s touring years, Peter Jackson’s 2021 series about the making of Let It Be, and the self-explanatory Beatles ’64. In 2027, the Beatles’ Apple Corps will release four more films, one about each individual member of the band.
Bob Dylan, like the Beatles, has always loomed too large for one movie. Don’t Look Back, arguably the most powerful rock documentary ever made, followed Dylan’s 1965 tour of the U.K. Martin Scorsese’s 2005 No Direction Home chronicled the first five years of his career. Then the director made another documentary, this one full of fictional elements and in-jokes, just about Dylan’s 1975-’76 Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
Now James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, which opened Christmas Day in the U.S., offers a fictionalized take on the first chapter of Dylan’s career, from 1961 through the 1965 concert at which he “went electric.” Timothée Chalamet stars as Dylan, with Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Elle Fanning as a character based on Suze Rotolo (the woman pictured on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan). It’s a fantastic film, and the performances are incredible — Chalamet captures Dylan’s lost-boy charisma, and Norton channels Seeger’s inflexible idealism perfectly. The movie, based on author Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric!, took in more than $23 million during its first week in theaters, and reviews have been almost universally favorable.
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The story of the movie is anything but unknown, and there’s not much suspense in it — Dylan grows up fast in the Greenwich Village folk scene, then plays an electric rock set at the Newport Folk Festival, upsetting much of the audience. Dylan’s early career now has the quality of myth, so even the most casual rock fan knows where the story is going — the joy is in seeing it get there in the hands of such talented storytellers. How surprising was Dylan’s decision to play with a rock band, given that the half-electric album Bringing It All Back Home had been out for three months and the single “Like A Rolling Stone” came out five days before the show? Were people booing because Dylan went electric, because the volume obscured his voice, or because his new songs weren’t political? Wald’s excellent book gets at the truth behind the myth — the movie just retells it.
And why not? Stories become myths partly because they’re compelling, and A Complete Unknown evokes nothing so much as a superhero origin story — except that in Dylan’s case, so much of his origin involves making up his actual origin as he went along. In the movie, by the time people realize that this brash young Jewish kid from Minnesota didn’t really work in a traveling circus, he had managed to acquire his own mystique. (In real life, it was a bit more complicated.) As with comic book movies, this leaves plenty of room for sequels, and jokes about this have already been made.
Now’s the time: Chalamet captures Dylan so well that I hope someone signs him up for a sequel based on Dylan’s 1965 tour with the Band, ending with his 1966 motorcycle crash. After that, there’s a domestic drama to be made about Dylan’s retreat into family life in Woodstock, ending with his divorce and Blood on the Tracks. That’s only the first decade and a half of Dylan’s career — there’s another movie to be made about Dylan’s born-again period, when he again offered new music to fans who didn’t receive it well. And what about a comeback story on the making of Oh Mercy or Time Out of Mind?
Dylan’s career lends itself to a certain kind of expansive storytelling, partly because he’s changed so much. (Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There had six different actors essentially playing six different Dylans.) But it’s also worth asking if Dylan is pointing the way forward for music films, as he did with Don’t Look Back. Think about it. Walk the Line told the Johnny Cash story in a way that ends in the late ‘60s, but Cash went on to decline in the ‘80s and came back in the ‘90s, with some of his best work, on the “American Recordings” albums. Isn’t that story worth its own movie? Straight Outta Compton tells the N.W.A. story, but the group’s members went on to have compelling careers that are worth their own stories.
Film executives might suggest that the big stories have already been done, but these days aren’t big stories just foundations for a franchise? Seeing a hero become himself is just the beginning — the best stories are often about what happens next. That’s certainly true in Dylan’s case, and I think it’s true of other artists, to one extent or another. That’s the idea behind the forthcoming Paul McCartney documentary Man on the Run, which tells his story after the Beatles broke up. I hope a Dylan movie sequel follows.
Billionaire hedge fund investor and Universal Music Group director Bill Ackman is a step closer to de-listing his Pershing Square Holdings from the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, a move that Ackman — whose Pershing Square company has owned around 10% of stock in the Universal Music Group since 2021 — has advocated for UMG to do, too.
The Euronext Amsterdam approved a plan for Pershing Square Holdings to de-list, with the closed-end fund’s last day of trading to be Jan. 30. The investment vehicle will consolidate trading of its shares on the London Stock Exchange, where it was co-listed in 2017 and where the majority of its trading happens.
Ackman and his family own more than 20% of the fund, and in November he advocated for moving the fund and UMG’s listing from the main Netherlands’ stock exchange after fans of an Israeli soccer team were attacked in early November in Amsterdam.
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UMG said at the time that it will review and decide what is in the best interests of all shareholders.
In a separate announcement on Thursday, Pershing Square said it distributed around 47 million shares of Universal Music Group stock, or roughly 2.6% of its overall stake, to investors as part of a planned wind-down of one of the funds Pershing Square initially used to purchase UMG shares from Vivendi in September 2021.
Pershing Square, which managed the closed-end fund called PSVII, said it decided to distribute, rather than cash out, the UMG stock “because we believe that UMG stock is substantially undervalued at its current share price, and the tax-free stock distribution enables our limited partners to continue to own UMG shares.”
Pershing Square continues to own around 140 million shares, equal to a 7.6% stake in UMG, through its core funds — Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd., Pershing Square, L.P. and Pershing Square International, Ltd. — Bill Ackman, Pershing Square employees and other affiliates, according to a company statement. UMG is still Pershing Square’s largest single holding.
As of Dec. 31, Pershing Square said UMG has had a total return of “46% including dividends over the approximately three-and-one-quarter-year life of the investment.” The company said that is better than “the S&P 500’s 37% return and the Amsterdam Exchange Index’s return of 21% over the same period.”
In 2025, indie digital rights nonprofit Merlin will double down on its recently unveiled AI policy while moving forward with its “first AI pilot program” in tandem with an unnamed “global partner,” CEO Jeremy Sirota said in a New Year’s memo to staff.
Sirota’s mention of the new program in the Thursday (Jan. 2) letter, obtained by Billboard, includes a nod to Merlin’s recently released memo outlining the organization’s position on AI, in which it warned tech companies not to harvest data from Merlin members to train AI algorithms while also stating that it supports “AI products that aid human creativity, or provide new opportunities for artists to create and collaborate in developing new original works.”
“We are proving that innovation, respect for artists and delivering on our policy on AI and abiding by our position on AI can go hand in hand,” Sirota wrote in the memo. “Let’s continue to identify AI partners who want to be on the right side of history about copyright, consent and culture.”
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Sirota’s memo also highlights new deals with both Meta and Audiomack signed in 2024, adding that “nearly 400 of our members joined” the latter agreement, “putting it near the top of deals for the total number of members opted in.” He additionally touts new agreements with social streaming platforms Rhythm and Turntable/Hangout as well as renewals with Peloton, Tencent, Twitch, YouTube, Anghami, Deezer and iHeart, among others.
Additionally, Sirota makes special mention of Merlin’s Data Warehouse and Insights initiative, noting that in 2024, Merlin “greatly expanded the access independents have to critical insights” via its recorded music data, which he notes is “one of the largest sets” in the industry. He also makes sure to hype Merlin Connect — a new initiative launched in June that aims to help emerging tech and social platforms license independent music while increasing earnings for Merlin members — stating that the program is “creating a blueprint for how music powers the next wave of digital experiences.”
Elsewhere in the memo, Sirota says that Merlin’s effective admin fee for members, which “is initially set at 1.5%,” was just 1.17% between 2021 and 2023 thanks to nearly 16 million pounds paid back to members in the form of rebates. “Every year we set a goal of maximizing how much we pay back to our members as a rebate,” Sirota writes, adding that while there’s “no guarantee we can always achieve these incredibly low rates… this is a remarkable achievement to celebrate.”
For 2025, Sirota outlines three major goals: to “super serve” Merlin members via its “Insights visualization rollout,” which he says “will expand the scope of business intelligence available to our members”; “supercharge Merlin Connect”; and expand Merlin Engage, a mentorship program that aims to “empower the next generation of female leaders in the independent music space” and which last year expanded to 30 participants, he says.
Read Sirota’s full memo below.
Hi Merlin Team,
As we start a new year, I’m struck by a simple truth: while our members represent over 15% of the global recorded music market, the music industry’s future will not be shaped by those with the broadest reach or even deepest pockets. It will be owned by those with the clearest vision and strongest commitment to artists. This is why we stay laser-focused on our singular mission: strengthening the world’s leading independents to compete and strengthen their independence. I couldn’t be prouder of our mission and this team.
Let’s never forget that our difference is more than just a business model; it’s a belief system. We deliver true independence as the only global deal making organization that is member-led, member-owned and member-governed. Every single day, we wake up and get to solve the most important question: how can we better serve our members? Our key performance indicator is simple: the success of our members and the artists they represent.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t specifically acknowledge your incredible cross functional work in December, which culminated in the launch of Merlin’s first AI pilot program. This was an impressive accomplishment achieved in close partnership with our members. It also marks an exciting start to our AI journey with a global partner. We are proving that innovation, respect for artists, and delivering on our policy on AI and abiding by our position on AI can go hand in hand. Let’s continue to identify AI partners who want to be on the right side of history about copyright, consent, and culture.
Let’s reflect back on 2024 and then look forward to 2025.
Membership
Collectively, our membership rivals the largest players in music. Merlin stands as the guardian of independence in digital music, not just through deals and technology, but as a force that protects and empowers independents to thrive on their own terms. We are indies – smart, adaptable, and fiercely dedicated to proving that independence, partnership with artists and market leadership can go hand in hand. From our newest team member to our longest-serving partner, we share one goal: ensuring independent music maintains its significance and voice in the digital future.
Everyone at Merlin is inspired by the diversity of artists, music, and experimentation our independent members bring to the world. This year we were proud to welcome a number of leading and innovative independents into Merlin deals: Artist Partner Group (U.S.), Nettwerk Music Group (Canada), Rostrum Pacific (U.S.), UNFD (Australia), VP Music Group, and Wide Awake (Netherlands).
Merlin members rule. Here’s just a small sample of the incredible releases from our members’ artists in 2024 (and a soundtrack to start the new year):
Armada Music – the world is always a better place when Armin van Buuren releases new music
Better Noise – The Hu’s live album
Curb Records – the resurgence of Sixpence None the Richer “Kiss Me”
Domino Records – who doesn’t love Arctic Monkeys, but, also, what an amazing debut solo album from Beth Gibbons
EMPIRE – one word: Shaboozey
Exceleration & Redeye – Daptone Records released the new album from Thee Sacred Souls “Got a Story to Tell”
Hopeless – a new Neck Deep album and 30 years of Hopeless
Lex Records – the album by Eyedress “Vampire in Beverly Hills”
Muting the Noise – Adam Port’s amazing track “Move”
Nettwerk – bôa “Duvet”
Ninja Tune – the viral hit by nimino “I Only Smoke When I Drink”
Pony Canyon – the new album “Rejoice” from OFFICIAL HIGE DANDISM
Secret City – Patrick Watson “Je Te Laisserai des Mots” (the first French language song to reach 1bn streams on Spotify)
Secretly – the continued success of Mitski “My Love Mine All Mine” and Khruangbin (Best New Artist nod at Grammys)
Sub Pop – Suki Waterhouse
UnitedMasters – what a year for FloyyMenor
Warp Records – releases from Flying Lotus and Nighmares on Wax
Finally, you know that our Admin Fee is used to cover our budget and is initially set at 1.5%. Every year we set a goal of maximizing how much we pay back to our members as a rebate (i.e., the difference between our actual budget and the 1.5%). I’m pleased to report that, over the last three years, we have paid back nearly £16,000,000 to our members in rebates. From 2021 through 2023, our average effective admin fee was 1.17%. There’s no guarantee we can always achieve these incredibly low rates, but this is a remarkable achievement to celebrate. It’s a testament to your hard work and the creativity in how we operate this organization.
Partnership
Yes, we renewed our licensing agreement with Meta. More importantly, we strengthened and expanded our partnership. Meta is a partner who values Merlin, its members, independent music and building together. That’s why I continue to prioritize this partnership. The Meta team is keen on helping our members and their artists drive culture, are keen on fandom, and appreciate the unbelievable talent of independent artists.
We also struck a new deal with Audiomack, an artist-first music streaming platform that empowers artists to reach and engage with fans worldwide. Despite being in business for over twelve years, and a significant number of our members having direct deals, nearly 400 of our members joined the Merlin deal, putting it near the top of deals for the total number of members opted in. That is the value of Merlin and the importance placed by Audiomack on our partnership.
We ensured our members are at the forefront of social streaming platforms, striking deals with Rythm, the pioneering community-based group listening platform, and Turntable (Hangout), designed to make music a more social experience.
Every partnership matters to me, but I want to applaud your enhanced approach to dealmaking and partnership in renewing with Peloton (new features), Tencent (VIP tier), Twitch (DJ program), and YouTube (working in partnership with them on the full spectrum of our relationship from content integrity through to their product innovations).
Beyond new deals, we renewed our partnerships with Anghami, Deezer, FLO, iHeart, JioSaavn, JOOX, KKBox, Kuaishou, Lickd, and VEVO.
These are music services that value Merlin, its members and independent music. One stand-out you might have missed is our Soundtrack Your Brand partnership where, thanks to a cross functional team effort, we have increased our members’ deal participation by over 50%.
Another stand-out is our Canva partnership, where Merlin members and their artists’ music account for over 40% of Canva’s music library. That’s the power of independent music.
Merliners
2024 was our Year of Connectivity. To continue providing opportunities for the Merlin team to build closer relationships with our members, our partners, the trade associations, and each other, we held our first ever company-wide global retreat (which you affectionately called The Great Merlin Escape). We set goals of fostering greater understanding and empathy, building context across teams, and leaning more into strategic thinking. It was great to have a dedicated facilitator to help Merliners better understand their own strengths, learn how to more effectively collaborate cross functionally, and implement practices that help Merliners more effectively serve the needs of our members. Don’t forget you can find the group photo here.
For a small team, I am amazed at how many opportunities we create to connect with our partners, members, and the network of dedicated trade associations around the world. The web sessions and in-person meet-ups we hosted had attendees numbering in the thousands; we traveled to over 30+ countries; we participated in dozens of panels, moderated many more, and delivered keynotes; and we were proud to organize unique visits to our members’ offices where so many Merliners could listen to, learn from and interact with our members. I can’t wait to do more of those this year.
We integrated these connections into our daily operations by launching and improving the internal systems that make knowledge-sharing about our business relationships easier throughout the org, all in the service of helping members and partners get more from Merlin.
Continuing with the theme of connectivity, I want to again extend a warm welcome so many talented people who joined in 2024 across virtually every discipline: Alice Moss arrived from SoundCloud into our Member Operations team; Carol Zuma-Hall from Platoon/Apple as our new Controller; Ceri Brown as our new UI/UX designer; Emillia Walsh as our talented Paralegal; Gary Watson moved from a consultancy role on our Data Warehouse initiative to leading our Data Operations team; Jac Powell came from Universal Music as senior data analyst; Kirsty Langdell as our new People & Culture Lead; Leah Kraft with time at Spotify and Disney joined Member Relations; Maria Lavric in our newly-formed Data Operations team; Martin Vovk joins from Sony Music as our new Insights lead; Matt Price as a Data Engineer supporting our warehouse; Molly Kempen on our reporting team; Sara Oman on our analytics team; Simon-Turner Thompson as our new product manager; and Wes Green as our first-in-kind Product Owner.
I also want to welcome back Kaoruko Hill, our second boomerang employee, as our new GM for APAC. And the unbelievably talented Neil Miller, who joined as our new General Counsel, supporting the best Business Affairs team in the world.
Technology and Innovation
We’re building a future where independent music thrives on its own terms – innovative, authentic, and uncompromised. This isn’t about competing with or trying to recreate the past. It’s about redefining what’s possible when technology and independence join forces.
But scale alone is not enough. Music discovery and consumption have fundamentally changed. Gaming, social platforms, and new consumption models have shifted power toward independents. Our deals don’t just ride these changes – they shape how value flows to rightsholders.
This is how Merlin helps our members stay at the forefront of the industry. We are in this business because we love music and the artists who make it. Our superpower at Merlin is built on supporting our global membership through three core philosophies: rights, relationships, and resourcing (here).
Along those lines, I’m thrilled with how far along we’ve come with our Data Warehouse and our Insights initiative. Merlin sits on one of the largest sets of recorded music data in the industry. Our ability to leverage that data will unlock so many opportunities for our members. From helping our members understand rapidly changing platform trends to navigating new markets, we have greatly expanded the access independents have to critical insights. Kudos to the team in refining and improving Dremio and our capability for better business analytics and insights performance. This sets the stage for 2025 in continuing to improve how we help members understand their performance within the global marketplace.
And, of course, Merlin Connect. While others guard old models, we saw that emerging platforms needed a fresh approach to music licensing. These platforms want quality music but traditional licensing remains complex, slow, and expensive. We built something different: a streamlined path to independent music, backed by API delivery and hands-on support. This isn’t another licensing deal – we’re investing in the future of independent music and creating a blueprint for how music powers the next wave of digital experiences. What’s most exciting? The unlimited possibilities we can explore and technologies we haven’t even heard of yet.
Through Merlin Connect, we’re opening new channels for our members’ music while solving a critical market problem. It’s exciting that platforms want to work exclusively with Merlin and its members as their music solution of choice. They know the transformative impact our members’ music will have on their platforms and we can’t wait to be the catalyst for that impact this year.
2025 and Beyond
Let’s crank our initiatives up to 11:
Super Serve Our Members: With our Insights visualization rollout, we will expand the scope of business intelligence available to our members, and deliver it via a self-serve tool in the Wizard.
Supercharge Merlin Connect: Let’s continue to drive opportunities into emerging platforms and create monetization opportunities by making music accessible to more business innovators.
Expand Merlin Engage; Build More Community: This mentorship program, from across the global Merlin membership, is helping empower the next generation of female leaders in the independent music space. Last year, we expanded our program to 30 participants, brought on board a seasoned facilitator (Miriam Meima), and offered additional workshops in managing up, storytelling (also offered to program alumni), and other workshops in soft skills. This year we’re going bigger.
Enjoy a well-deserved break with your friends and family. I look forward to our work together in 2025 and beyond.
Let’s build a future for true independence!
Jeremy
Lauren Davis, a veteran music business attorney, has been promoted to associate chair of New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.
Davis joined the institute’s full-time faculty in 2006, teaching courses on the legal and business aspects of the music industry, including intellectual property law. She has also lectured on social entrepreneurship and advancing equity and inclusion in music. As the director of professional development at CDI, she oversees the professional planning and Senior Year Professional Development courses for graduating students.
With 33 years of experience as a music and entertainment attorney, Davis has represented high-profile recording artists, songwriters, producers, publishers, and music companies. She has also served as the faculty senator on NYU’s Faculty Council for six years, advocating for faculty interests.
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Nick Sansano, chair of the Clive Davis Institute, praised Davis for her unwavering support and inspiration to students since the institute’s inception.
“Her music business and legal expertise, and her academic focus on policy, rights advocacy, and gender equity in the music industry has influenced and directed the professional lives of so many of our students and alumni,” he said. “Her willingness to take on the role of Associate Chair, deepening her contribution to the development of our curriculum and mission, is a huge win for our program.”
Davis expressed her excitement about her new role, stating it has been a privilege to teach and prepare future industry leaders over the past 18 years, adding that she’s “excited to roll up my sleeves, work with Nick Sansano as chair, and help steer the Clive Davis Institute’s growth and expansion in the years ahead.”
Named after the iconic music executive, the program offers a distinctive BFA that blends business, creative and intellectual exploration as part of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The CDI marked its 20th anniversary earlier this year and is a fixture in Billboard‘s annual list of top music business schools.
Jingle Punks and Audio Up Media founder Jared Gutstadt has been accused of sexual assault in a new lawsuit filed by singer-songwriter and actor Mary Koons (known professionally as Scarlett Burke), who alleges that the influential executive “trapped” her “in a cycle of manipulation, abuse and exploitation” for years.
Filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday (Dec. 31), the complaint alleges that Gutstadt “manipulated” Koons “into a sexual relationship under the guise of advancing her career”; repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted her; “isolated” her from professional opportunities “unless she complied with his sexual and logistical demands”; and “engaged in stalking, harassment, intimidation and retaliation” when she tried to escape his control — in the process “causing her significant and irreparable financial and professional harm.”
Audio Up and Anthem Entertainment — the former parent company of creative music agency Jingle Punks, which Gutstadt founded in 2008 — are also named as defendants in the lawsuit for allegedly facilitating Guststadt’s grip over Koons “by exerting substantial financial control and decision-making power over [her] professional opportunities and working conditions, particularly through her employment and contractual relationships with Jingle Punks.”
The allegations were first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Gutstadt is best known for founding Jingle Punks and Audio Up, a podcast network he launched in 2020. Anthem (then known as ole Music Publishing) acquired Jingle Punks in 2015, ultimately leading to Gutstadt’s exit four years later. In July, Anthem and Gutstadt struck a joint venture enabling Audio Up to develop scripted podcasts from some of the publishing and intellectual property assets he created at Jingle Punks. In October, Jingle Punks was acquired by music licensing company Slipstream along with Anthem’s other production music businesses. (Slipstream is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.)
According to the complaint — filed by L.A.-based attorney Samuel Brown at Hennig Kramer along with Parisis Filippatos, Tanvir Rahman and Gabrielle Rosen Harvey at New York firm Filippatos — Koons met Gutstadt in 2017, when she was 27 and he was 39. Over the next several years, she alleges she endured “psychological manipulation, physical violence and sexual abuse, leading to severe emotional and psychological trauma,” according to the complaint. “The relentless pattern of abuse culminated in an environment where Ms. Koons felt she had no choice but to comply with Mr. Gutstadt’s sexual demands, to avoid the horrifying consequences of refusing him.”
In the lawsuit, Koons claims she met Gutstadt in May 2017 at the Peppermint Club in West Hollywood, where Gustadt’s band, The Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra, had a residency. That night, she says, Gutstadt “fixated” on her immediately and later had his assistant contact Koons’ then-manager to arrange a meeting. Over the next several weeks, Koons claims Gutstadt “launched a calculated campaign to groom” her, “bombarding her with messages about prestigious career opportunities designed to captivate and overwhelm her,” inviting her to dinners with high-profile music and TV executives, and bringing her along on trips to Nashville and Lake Tahoe “under the guise of collaborating on music projects” for Jingle Punks’ then-parent company ole Music (later Anthem).
Koons says that within a week of meeting Gutstadt, he requested that she record “Let the Dice Roll,” a song he was planning to pitch as the theme for the Netflix series Girls Incarcerated. “This marked the start of her employment with Jingle Punks and her entrapment in his manipulative control,” according to the suit. After Netflix acquired the song, Koons claims Gutstadt paid her only $500 (“a glaring underpayment that disregarded the value of her work and contribution”) and kept the rights to the song for himself.
According to the lawsuit, the first flash of Koons’ alleged abuse occurred “in or around” June 2017 after Gutstadt invited Koons to a dinner that had “several prominent music executives” in attendance. After driving her back to her Studio City apartment, Koons says Gustadt “began incessantly pressuring” her to kiss him, and, when she obliged by agreeing to kiss him on the cheek, he “turned his head at the last moment, tricking her into kissing him on the lips.”
The following month, Koons said that Gutstadt invited her to join him in Nashville for a week of writing sessions with him and his team, during which she says she was put up in a seedy “motel along the interstate,” half an hour’s drive from the Thompson Hotel where Gutstadt was staying. Claiming she felt unsafe, she says she asked Gutstadt to move her to a different hotel and that, instead of providing her with her own room, he manipulated her into staying in his. Koons claims the first sexual assault happened that night, when she alleges Gutstadt “forcibly grabbed her hand and put it on his penis” and “ignored her pleas for him to stop.”
Over the next several months, Koons says Gustadt “overwhelmed” her with “lavish gifts and gestures,” including freelance work opportunities, and “deliberately isolated” her from supportive people in her life, including her manager, “who, like many others, recognized that something was wrong and tried to separate” her from Gutstadt.
In a pattern of alleged abusive behavior that Koons says occurred over the next seven and a half years, she says Gutstadt’s “manipulative tactics paved the way for his coercive sexual relationship” with her. “In or around” August 2017, she says Koons invited her to a Jingle Punks company retreat in Lake Tahoe, only to again deceive her into sharing a hotel room with him and failing to include her in any of the “team building activities.” It was around this time that Koons says she became aware of a “misogynistic” culture at Jingle Punks and Anthem, including an alleged incident at the Tahoe retreat in which a male Jingle Punks music supervisor attempted to assault a female Jingle Punks composer in her hotel room. Koons claims that despite the company being aware of the alleged incident, “no action was taken” to address it.
Koons says she was subsequently “lured into an intermittent extramarital affair” with Gutstadt, who she says “would also constantly resort to coercion and manipulation to convince Ms. Koons she had to stay with him in order to advance her career” — all while being denied the opportunity to “reap the benefits of her work” as a songwriter for the company and being cut off from outside work opportunities. In one account, she says that when the Deutsch advertising agency reached out to her with an offer of work, Gutstadt “became enraged” and verbally abused her before compelling her to tell the Deutsch executive that any future offers needed to be run through Gutstadt and Jingle Punks.
According to the lawsuit, Koons says that Gutstadt, in a bid at “entrenching his dominance over her,” eventually left her completely financially dependent on him, after which she says “the abuse escalated significantly.” Each time she says she tried to release his grip on her, he would allegedly lure her back with lucrative work opportunities on high-profile projects, including paid writing sessions for the movie Trolls and an opportunity to write for country star Chris Stapleton.
In the fall of 2018, Koons says that after taking her to an Emmy Awards party, Gutstadt effectively forced her to have sex with him at his office after making her “feel indebted to him” for the invite. “This was not consensual sex,” the lawsuit reads. That same October, she says Gutstadt manipulated her into signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) “not tied to any specific project” with Gutstadt or his company. After signing it, she says Gustadt “warned her that if she ever spoke out, no one would believe her, and that breaching the NDA would not only destroy her career but allow him to ruin her entirely.” She claims that as a party to the NDA, ole Music (now Anthem) “exerted additional control over Ms. Koons by restricting her ability to speak out” about Gutstadt’s alleged abuse.
Koons claims the abuse further escalated after she signed the NDA and that she was forced to take jobs with Gustadt, Jingle Punks, ole Music and Audio Up, including through signing multiple agreements with the companies that served “to strip her of her creative ownership” and deny her adequate financial compensation. According to the lawsuit, one of these alleged agreements — a development deal with Jingle Punks and ole Music for Make It Up As We Go, a podcast series based around Koons’ original music — saw Koons effectively “signing away her creative rights” to the project and being paid just $10,000, described as “a paltry and insulting amount that grossly undervalued her contributions and highlighted the agreement’s exploitative nature.”
The lawsuit includes multiple allegations of physical abuse. In one April 2019 incident described in the complaint, Koons claims that after allegedly protesting when Gutstadt “took most of the money” she earned from participating in a two-day Deutsch songwriting session, he “became violent” and began hitting both her and her dog. In another alleged incident in October 2019, Koons claims that Gustadt “violently tackled her to the ground” after she attempted to read text messages between him and his wife.
In another account of alleged abuse, Koons claims that while recording two songs with him and another songwriter at Audio Up’s Audio Chateau in L.A. in January 2022, she awoke in the middle of the night to find Gutstadt “raping her in her sleep.” She claims Gutstadt raped her again in September 2023 — while they were staying at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, Calif., during an Audio Up writing retreat — after Gutstadt became enraged when Koons “refused his sexual advances.”
Throughout Koons’ alleged relationship with Gutstadt, she says Anthem/ole Music “enabled” a culture of “harassment and coercion,” thereby “solidifying its complicity in the ongoing mistreatment” of Koons as well as multiple other female employees by Jingle Punks staffers.
“Mr. Gutstadt’s deliberate and vindictive behavior has marginalized Ms. Koons, stunting her professional growth and obstructing her visibility within the industry,” the complaint reads, adding that she “has suffered and continues to suffer from profound emotional distress,” including post-traumatic stress disorder.
Koons is seeking compensatory damages, lost wages and earnings, a money judgment for “mental pain and anguish and severe emotional distress,” and punitive and exemplary damages, among other relief.
Representatives for Gutstadt, Anthem and Audio Up had not responded to Billboard‘s request for comment at press time.
Marcelo Figoli is no stranger to big numbers. As the founder and owner of Fenix Entertainment — the Argentina-based conglomerate that encompasses live shows, amusement parks, soccer teams and media — Figoli has offices in eight countries, produces more than 100 live events per year and has successfully promoted tours by the likes of Ricardo Arjona, Ricky Martin, Romeo Santos and Shakira.
But Figoli capped 2024 with his biggest tour ever: namely, the Luis Miguel 2023-24 Tour — co-promoted alongside Henry Cardenas’ CMN — which became not only the highest-grossing Latin tour of the year but also the highest-grossing Latin tour of all time, according to numbers reported to Billboard Boxscore.
In December, when Billboard published its top tours of the year recap, the Miguel tour had reported more than 2 million tickets sold over 128 shows, generating a gross income of $290.4 million in 2024 alone. That number doesn’t include the 2023 figures or Miguel’s final Mexico City shows.
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“I was very emotional [when I heard the news],” Figoli tells Billboard of his record. “I felt immense happiness, for the artist and for the work we did.”
Below, Billboard speaks with Figoli about the stunning success of the Miguel tour and how it broke all records.
Despite its size, Fenix is an independent company. How do you distinguish yourself from other promoters worldwide?
We offer something different. We do more artisanal work, if you will, and put more thought into each of the artists and the products. I throw myself into it. I’m passionate, I go crazy, I review sales numbers every day, I’m a workaholic. I’m very calm when it comes to handling the stress generated by these massive events that I organize, but I’m very nervous in the day-to-day work leading up to achieving success.
We can provide a plus in markets like Latin America and in some cases — as with Luis Miguel and Arjona— in the entire world. Also, Fenix has partnered with CMN in recent years, and that consolidation continues to open a space for us.
Had you worked with Luis Miguel before?
We did countless concerts with Luis Miguel, but we had worked in the South American markets. Never a global tour like this one. But we’d worked very well because we have great respect and great admiration for his career. For us, he is one of the greatest artists in the world in any language, and we firmly believe in his career and that is why we bet on his tour. I thought the tour was going to be big, solid, strong. It may have exceeded my expectations, but I did know that this tour was going to do what it did. Initially, we were going to partner with CMN only in the United States and we ended up partnering for everything.
There’s a big leap from a “solid” and “strong” tour to the most successful in history. What do you attribute it to?
For me, the key to success was, first, how high we aimed. And second, how we planned the tour launch at the same time at a global scale, rather than market to market. We launched the global tour on the same day. The same day we put all the cities up for sale, and on the same day, with the same launch, we created a global explosion. We were able to get hundreds of thousands of fans around the world talking about it at the same time. We had billboards up in every city that went on sale, and we had digital and radio campaigns in each of those cities from day one. It’s the kind of launch that I have only seen for mass-consumer products. It was important to show that confidence and aggressiveness in the tour, and positioning it as a global tour, not a local tour. The way we framed it made it go viral.
How was working with CMN?
A lot of coming together, a lot of pre-production before launch. We work very well with the CMN team and the artist’s team. Plus, Henry is a legendary promoter.
It strikes me that Luis Miguel didn’t even have a new album or single…
But he was having a good personal and artistic moment, and that had an influence. Also, the launch strategy around the tour. In addition, we did a great job with our marketing teams, influencers, etc. But the basis is in the greatness of the artist. I’ve worked with so many artists, and I can’t think of many who could pull off a tour [of this magnitude and stamina]. He has demonstrated extraordinary professionalism and courtesy.
How do you see next year for Latin tours?
Excellent. We’re trying to convince Ricardo Montaner to do a farewell tour. Obviously we are negotiating for Ricardo Arona’s global tour. And with artists in development, we’ve had extraordinary success with Emilia Mernes and her 10 Arenas Movistar in Buenos Aires, where she played to over 290,000 people. I think Emilia is going to be a big deal in 2025.
In the end, 2024 was the year that the U.S. performance rights societies found out what type of valuations they can command when they are put up on the block. As the year comes to a close, a select group of private equity suitors is kicking the tires on yet another performance rights organization, SESAC, according to sources.
Those sources say that deals like New Mountain Capital’s acquisition of BMI in February and Hellman & Friedman signing a letter of intent in September to replace Taxes Pacific Group as the majority owner of Global Music Rights that gave GMR a $3.3 billion valuation served as a catalyst for some private equity firms to reach out to SESAC’s corporate owner Blackstone to see if it was interested in selling.
Consequently, Blackstone is fielding inbound interest from a group of private equity firms that unsuccessfully bid on GMR, according to a source familiar with the matter.
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Many private equity firms look at GMR and are “all shocked by the final valuation,” says a music asset investor. “Those firms have a real appetite for music because music assets are doing well.” In fact, some sources suggest that SESAC has been a fantastic performer for Blackstone. Nevertheless, as an investment firm representing institutional clients, Blackstone has a fiduciary obligation to maximize returns on their investments. So with the aid of the Moelis & Co. and Morgan Stanley investment banks, Blackstone is selectively and informally shopping the PRO and its subsidiaries to a targeted group of private equity firms, while so far eschewing to reach out to potential strategic buyers, sources say. “You can’t blame Blackstone for testing to see what the market will pay for SESAC,” says one music asset buyer.
SESAC, Blackstone, Moelis and Morgan Stanley executives either declined to comment or didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Blackstone, which bought SESAC in 2017 for $1.125 billion, has since invested in the company as the PRO, led by chairman John Josephson, has been making subsequent add-on acquisitions to complement its core business. During Josephson’s tenure, SESAC has acquired the Harry Fox Agency and Audiam to go along with earlier acquisitions like RumbleFish and Christian Copyright Licensing International. What’s more, in 2021, when Blackstone bought Hasbro’s music assets, including the MNRK record label and the Audio Network production music house, the latter company was added to SESAC’s portfolio. (Sources say Audio Network is included in the SESAC assets being looked at, but Billboard could not determine if MNRK is also included in any potential deal.)
Along the way, Blackstone loaded up SESAC with about $1 billion in debt through a series of asset-backed bond offerings, with the latest securitization for $180 million happening earlier this year. On Feb. 8, Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) noted that the proceeds from that bond sale would be used for “distribution to equity investors” as well as to pay certain transaction expenses and make deposits into certain transaction accounts.
According to that credit rating report, SESAC had revenue of $388.6 million in 2024, presumably the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2024. It also said that the company is expected to hit over $400 million in its current fiscal year, likely the one that will end Jan. 31, 2025. What’s more, that $388.6 million revenue total tracks only the SESAC businesses that are part of the collateral for the February 2024 securitization offering, which included SESAC, Christian Copyrights and Audio Network. Revenue from the Harry Fox Agency (HFA), the Stephen Arnold Group (SAG) and a few other smaller entities are not included as collateral. With HFA and SGA consistently reaching a combined total of $20 million to $25 million, according to revenue numbers given in earlier SESAC bond rating documents — published by the likes of Morningstar and the Kroll Bond Rating Agency — for 2022 and 2019 SESAC bond offerings, it’s conceivable that SESAC’s revenue was already above $400 million by the end of its most recent fiscal year. Those assets are included in what’s being shopped, sources say.
A 2019 Morningstar analysis found that SESAC has had a 12.9% annual growth rate since 1994. While that report didn’t cite revenue from those earlier years, other SESAC-related documents obtained by Billboard through the years show that SESAC had grown from $9 million in revenue in 1994 to about $57 million by 2004, then to about $206 million by 2014 and about $275 million by 2018.
While it’s unclear what price will tempt Blackstone to sell, sources say that as recently as last year, Blackstone and SESAC executives were saying that the PRO and its subsidiary companies were carrying about a $2 billion to $2.5 billion valuation. However, that’s when its securitized net cash flow was $118 million on collections (revenue) of about $318 million, versus the latest financials, which put securitized net cash flow at $147 million on $388.6 million in revenue, according to the Kroll report. That represents increases of 24.6% in securitized net cash flow and nearly 22.2% in collections/revenue over the prior year. Besides that growth, the implied valuation of SESAC is further enhanced by the BMI and GMR deals, which shows that PROs are attractive to private equity, sources say.
Unlike BMI and ASCAP, SESAC and GMR are not stymied by consent decrees, which is also a positive as far as private equity is concerned. A further deal point is that SESAC has a diversified revenue base. According to the Kroll report, at the end of fiscal year 2024, SESAC derived 37.2% of its annual revenue from general licensing, 21.7% from digital, 18.9% from TV, 9.7% from Audio Network, 6.4% from radio, 0.7% from foreign affiliates and 5.5% from other efforts.
On the other hand, that percentage breakout shows that even with the company’s diversification efforts into related music industry functions, its core business remains SESAC’s performance rights licensing, which it does through a boutique strategy of inviting songwriters to join as members. Through this strategy, it has landed such clients as Bob Dylan, Adele and Neil Diamond.
Still yet another plus that suitors will find attractive, says a music industry source, is the savvy stewardship of SESAC under Josephson. “He is been very effective there,” that source adds.
Moreover, in order to improve profitability, SESAC has been quietly pruning songwriters who are not generating enough royalties from their catalog. According to Kroll, the number of songwriter and publisher affiliates (with the former presumably the preponderance of the total), has shrunk from 35,000 in 2019 to 15,000 last year.
Pricing is paramount in whether Blackstone will do a deal. But it will be weighted against the possible return on investment if it chooses to retain ownership of SESAC. As it is, Blackstone and its equity investors likely have already clawed back a good portion of their initial investment in SESAC. In addition to the aforementioned possible equity distribution from the February bond offering, during the eight years it has owned SESAC, it’s likely that Blackstone made earlier dividend payouts to investors from the PRO’s profits down through the years; and possibly from earlier bond offerings, too. Besides that, Blackstone has provided itself with an annual $30 million management fee as measured against 16% of SESAC’s core retained collections, whichever is greater. (While the rating agencies do not define core retained collections, that could be the equivalent of net publisher share — what’s left after making royalty payments to songwriters and publishers.)
As for possible suitors, so far the only private equity firm that has come up in more than one conversation with music industry sources is TA Associates, a Boston-based private equity firm that says it has raised $65 billion in capital. A perusal of the investment firm’s website reveals that it has invested in another music company: In 2022, it acquired TouchTunes, the digital jukebox network that supplies music to bars, clubs, restaurants and other social spaces in North America and Europe. Moreover, a source says that TA may have even looked at SESAC in the past; SESAC has come up for sale a few times over the years and consequently had a few other institutional investor owners in the past, including Rizvi Traverse; before that, Oct-Ziff Capital Management Group was a minority shareholder in the company.
TA Associates representatives couldn’t be reached for comment over the year-end holidays.
Moelis, which is one of the banks said to be shopping SESAC, has made its mark elsewhere in the music business in 2024. Earlier this year, it was the buy-side advisor to New Mountain Capital in its BMI acquisition and the sell-side advisor for GMR in its search for an investor to replace the Texas Pacific Group. Morgan Stanley has music industry experience, including investing with Kobalt in making music acquisitions, among other deals.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall.