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Country singer Josh Turner, known for hits including âYour Manâ and âWould You Go With Me,â has re-signed with longtime label home MCA Nashville. Later this week, Turner will be inducted into the South Carolina Entertainment and Music Hall of Fame. He released the song âHeatinâ Things Upâ on Friday (April 26). â Jessica Nicholson
Sister duo Aly & AJ (âPotential Breakup Song,â âLike Whoa,â âSlow Dancingâ) signed with UTA for global representation in all areas. Composed of Aly and AJ Michalka, the duo will continue to be represented by Scott Felcher at Felcher & Freifeld, LLP, Joel McKuin at McKuin Frankel Whitehead LLP, Jared Rosenberg at Redlight Management and Andrea Pett-Joseph at Brillstein Entertainment.
British-Brazilian singer-songwriter Liana Flores (ârises the moonâ) signed with Verve Records. Flores, who merges bossa nova and folk music, recently toured with Laufey and is ramping up for her first U.S. headlining dates. Sheâll release her debut album later this year, preceded by the single âI wish for the rain.â Her booking agents for North and South America are Sam Gans and Wilson Zheng at High Road Touring, with Primary Talent handling the rest of the world.
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Absolute Label Services signed a deal with Universal/Capitol Records Italy for the release of Jack Savorettiâs first Italian language album. Through the deal, which covers the United Kingdom and Ireland, Absolute will manage the distribution, marketing and promotion of the album, titled Miss Italia (set for release on May 17). Savoretti is managed by Niko Michault and Danielle Livesey at P.U.S.H. Music Management.
Also at Absolute, the company signed a deal to market, promote, distribute and handle synch for a new album from âneo-skiffleâ band Fairground Attraction. The album, titled Beautiful Happening and set for release Sept. 20 on band member Mark Nevinâs Raresong Recordings label, marks the first time all four original members of the group â Nevin, Eddi Reader, Simon Edwards and Roy Dodds â have worked together since 1989.
Downtown Neighboring Rights signed singer-songwriter ANOHNI (lead singer of ANOHNI and the Johnsons), whose entire catalog will be represented by the company. Sheâs been a Downtown Music Publishing client since 2022. The company also unveiled an international agreement with publisher and label Position Music (Welshly Arms, 2WEI, Ryan Oakes) as well as TH3RD BRAIN Records (Emmit Fenn, Zerb).
Singer-songwriter Debbii Dawson signed with RCA Records, which released her new single, âHappy World,â on April 19 ahead of a forthcoming EP. Dawsonâs booking agency is Wasserman and her managers are Matthew Kennedy and Rachel Higg at WeManage. She has a co-publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music and Katy Perryâs Unsub Publishing.
Capitol Christian Music Group signed hip-hop/pop artist gio. The 21-year-oldâs debut single, âreality,â was just released. His first EP in conjunction with the label is slated to arrive in the fall. â Jessica Nicholson
Country artist Louie TheSinger signed with UTA for global representation in all areas. Louie released his first single for Universal Music Group, âBrothers,â in January and recently announced his Desperado Tour, which launches in June. â Jessica Nicholson
RECORDS Nashville artist Alli Walker, along with her manager, Brad Turcotte, joined Vector Management. Walker, who just released her new single, âCreek,â becomes part of a management roster that also includes Charley Crockett, Molly Tuttle and Marcus King. â Jessica Nicholson
Universal Music Group Nashville signed singer-songwriter Timothy Wayne. A Franklin, Tenn., native, Wayne is currently a sophomore at LSU and working on his first project. Heâs slated to support his uncle, Tim McGraw, for several dates on his Standing Room Only Tour. â Jessica Nicholson
French music streamer Deezer reaped the benefits of its price increases as its first-quarter revenues grew 15.0% to 132.5 million euros ($143.5 million at the average exchange rate for the period). Average revenue per user (ARPU) also improved for direct subscribers and business-to-business subscribers from partners including Brazilian mobile carrier TIM and French retailer Fnac Darty.
Deezer raised subscription prices in France, its largest market, in January 2022 and other markets later in the year. After Apple, Amazon, YouTube and Spotify all followed with their own increases, Deezer raised its prices again in September 2023.
In the first quarter, ARPU for direct subscribers grew 6.4% to 5.1 euros ($5.50) as the latest price increase was implemented for over 75% of them, while ARPU from partnerships improved 5.5% to 2.9 euros ($3.1). Both ARPU figures have grown considerably in the last two years. Since the first quarter, direct ARPU has grown 13.3% from 4.5 euros ($4.9) and partnership ARPU has improved 20.8% from 2.4 euros ($2.6).Â
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Partnerships produced most of Deezerâs revenue growth in the quarter. While direct revenue from paid subscriptions grew 5.2% to 86 million euros ($93.1 million), partnerships revenue grew 40.3% to 43.3 million euros ($46.9 million); Deezer provides its streaming platform for its partnersâ branded products. The company attributed partnerships growth to a recent deal with Mercado Libre in Latin America, RTL in Europe and Sonos. The company also renewed deals with TIM and Fnac Darty in the quarter.Â
The first quarter improvement âhighlights clear momentum and evidence that our strategy is on point,â said interim CEO Stu Bergen in a statement. âBy delivering unique experiences to music fans worldwide, Deezer delivers value and innovation to all our stakeholders. We continue to be a catalyst for positive change, challenging the status quo in remuneration and pricing, while maintaining our unwavering support for artists and songwriters.â
France accounted for the majority of Deezerâs revenue (57.4%), though revenue in the country grew just 8.5% to 76.1 million euros ($82.4 million) from the prior-year period. Revenue in the rest of the world jumped 25.2% to 56.4 million euros ($61.1 million) and accounted for 42.6% of revenue, up from 39.1% of revenue in the first quarter of 2023.Â
Although a relatively minor player on the global music streaming stage, Deezer has been influential in the music industryâs efforts to make streaming a more sustainable endeavor for musicians. In 2023, Universal Music Group partnered with Deezer for an artist-centric royalty scheme that aims to provide better royalties for professional musicians. Independent rights group Merlin followed in March.
Part of providing better remuneration to professional artists is removing non-music tracks (also called functional music) from the platform and Deezerâs earnings release confirmed the company has removed over 26 million tracks (non-artist content, noise and duplicates) since October 2023. The company also âenforc[es] a stricter provider policy to ensure exceptional quality content and elevate the user experience,â according to the release.Â
Looking ahead, Deezer maintained its previous guidance given in February: Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be better than -15 million euros (-$16.2 million) â about half of the -29 million euros (-$31 million) in 2023 â and revenue growth is expected at 10%, which would be an improvement from the 7.4% revenue growth it saw in 2023.Â
Mario Olvera Acevedo, an event promoter specializing in Regional Mexican music, has died at the hands of unknown assailants in a direct attack that occurred in the early morning hours on Saturday (April 27).
According to a statement issued by the SecretarĂa de Seguridad Ciudadana (or Secretariat of Public Safety) of the Government of San Pedro Cholula, Puebla, Mexico, police officers responded to the scene after receiving a report of gunshots.
Paramedics from the Municipal Civil Protection confirmed that Olvera, age 42, no longer had vital signs when he was found. They proceeded to cordon off the area while awaiting forensic experts from the State Attorney Generalâs Office.
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Initial investigations indicate that it was a âpresumed direct attack.â According to the press release from Seguridad Ciudadana, after âa motorist hit the rear of the truck of the deceased to force him to get out and shoot him, at that moment a third person on a motorcycle arrived and both subjects fled in the direction of PerifĂŠrico EcolĂłgico, where they finally abandoned the vehicle.â The authorities are still looking for the perpetrators.
The death of Olvera shocked the world of Regional Mexican music. For more than two decades, Olvera was a promoter of events in the states of Tlaxcala and Puebla with his company, Ranch Music Sinaloa, and countless artists and managers had working relationships and friendships with him.
Over the weekend, misinformation circulating in several media outlets about Olveraâs relationship with big stars of the genre suggested he acted as their representative and was a direct part of their teams, neither of which is true.
Last Wednesday (April 23), Olvera attended a meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, of the ADEEM (Association of Entertainment Entrepreneurs in Mexico), of which he was once a member of the board of directors.
Multiple artists took to social media to express their condolences, including Los Tucanes de Tijuana, El Flaco Elizalde and El Yaki. The latter artist said he was close to Olvera and considered him an older brother, though the two were not biologically related.
âThis is how I say goodbye to you my brother! Because I know you would have liked me to share it⌠and I do it from my heart,â wrote El Yaki on Instagram below a photo of the two together. âYou taught me some really bitchinâ things and opened my eyes to something that today little by little Iâm still building [âŚ] Fly high compa!â
In Puebla, Olvera was also known for his activities in the restaurant business. At the time of his death, he owned three establishments: Humo Gris, OsterĂa Humo and Puerto Marisco.
On Monday (April 29), Olveraâs body will be buried at the Valle de Los Angeles Funeral Home in Puebla.
At the end of 2023, the gaming platform Roblox announced that it had more than 71.5 million average daily active users. While it still remains best known to teens and their parents, evangelists see gaming hubs like Roblox and Fortnite as the new frontier of social media â another space where musicians will need to establish a presence if they hope to remain commercially relevant with younger listeners.Â
âJust the way every artist has an Instagram account and a TikTok, eventually everyoneâs going to have a Roblox presence,â predicts Nic Hill, co-founder of the company Sawhorse Production. Hill has worked on Roblox projects for Olivia Rodrigo and Elton John, while Spotify, iHeartMedia and Warner Music Group have all launched Roblox experiences, and Sony Music has an in-house team developing music-focused games or experiences for both Roblox and Fortnite. (The latter boasts of having more than half a billion player accounts.)
In Roblox, players create an avatar and access an ecosystem of millions of games, many of which are developed by creative teenagers rather than massive gaming companies. Roblox lovers, nearly half of whom are female, pay to acquire Robux, a currency which allows them to buy an assortment of items for their avatars, and devote an average of 2.5 hours a day to roaming Robloxâs colorful, blocky virtual byways.
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âThere are different ways that they spend that time,â says Karibi Dagogo-Jack, head of music partnerships at Roblox. âSometimes itâs playing a hardcore first-person shooter game. Sometimes itâs just hanging out with people that have an affinity for a thing they have an affinity forâ â like music.
Fornite, in contrast, came to prominence as a fight-to-the-death survival game â its audience skews older than Robloxâs, and itâs male-dominated â but has been trying to diversify its appeal. Most notably, in March of 2023, Epic Games launched Unreal Engine for Fortnite (UEFN), which means creators can now develop their own worlds and experiences and make them available for the Fortnite audience, giving it some of the user-generated flair of Roblox. Â
Initially the music industryâs main way of engaging with Roblox and Fortnite audiences was through virtual concerts from the Lil Nas Xs and Travis Scotts of the world. But concerts, even virtual ones, are massive undertakings, often taking six months or more to develop and fine-tune, according to sources who have worked on them. That means concerts make sense primarily for a small number of big-name artists. In contrast, sources say putting together a Roblox shop may take closer to four to six weeks.
Even beyond budgetary constraints, concerts are one-time experiences in environments that prioritize constant interaction, an old-school approach to a new-school platform. âArtist events can have a lot more longevity,â says Ricardo Briceno, chief business officer of Gamefam, which built Harmony Hills, the virtual space that also serves as the home of Warner Music Groupâs Roblox concerts.Â
Tony Barnes, founder of Karta, which worked on a popular Roblox experience for TWICE â a âfan hubâ where supporters of the K-Pop group can play games, hang out virtually, and buy digital goods for their avatars â advises clients to think of the platform as âa new community channel that needs to be nurtured.â âYou need to maintain your engagement,â he says. âItâs an always-on strategy.â
The music industry is now in a period that Hill describes as âa constant test and learnâ with Roblox and Fortnite; some projects have generated serious revenue, while others are lucky to break even. âWeâre still scratching the surface,â Briceno says.Â
Yet competition is already fierce. âRoblox is becoming a crowded space,â Hill notes. âEven if youâre a popular name and you show up, you canât just expect everyone to be so excited and somehow find you. A lot of brands are marketing their experiences on the platform.â
Both Roblox and Fortnite incentivize artists and labels to treat the platforms as revenue generators. Artists can sell items on Roblox which players use to customize their avatars; the creator of the item takes home 30%, the creator of the experience â which could also be the artist â where the item is sold gets 40%, and the platform takes 30%.Â
Briceno sold ice antlers for Cher, for example, while TWICE has sold more than 3 million emotes, and an Elton John emote was purchased over 1.5 million times, according to a Roblox representative. Gavin Johnson, director of syncs and partnerships at the electronic music label Monstercat, oversaw the sale of a limited edition Ruby pendant necklace for 1,000,001 Robux (around $10,000) â âthe highest primary sale ever on the platform.â
Over on Fortnite, if a label creates its own customized game-play environment, known as an âisland,â they receive an âengagement payout.â (Roblox offers these too.) â40% of the net revenue from Fortniteâs Item Shop and related real-money purchasesâ is set aside for this purpose, according to Epic Gamesâ website, and then disbursed among island creators according to a complex calculation that takes into account the islandâs ability to attract new players, re-engage dormant players, and keep both types coming back. (One gaming executive says that while the top UEFN experiences âdrive a lot of gameplay and repeat visitors,â thereâs a huge gap between the top few and most of the rest; a rep for Epic Games did not respond to a request for comment.)
For now, artists and labels often find it easier to jump into Roblox, in part because the barrier to entry is low â âbasically anyone can create anything and sell it,â as Briceno puts it. In contrast, âFortnite doesnât allow studios or creators to sell items in-game,â says Michael Herriger, co-founder of Atlas Creative, which built iHeartMediaâs Roblox environment. âEverything that is a Fortnite skin [an outfit to customize a playerâs look in the game], for example, comes directly from the Epic Games store.â
Selling items, designing artist-themed experiences â these can help raise awareness of an act and drive what Barnes calls âfan culture,â but may not involve actual music. Artists and labels are still trying to figure out what effective music integrations might look like. âThe idea of using Roblox to drive discovery of your song is really cool, and maybe untapped,â Dagogo-Jack says.
When Metallica released 72 Seasons in 2023, the band partnered with five popular Roblox games to pipe its music into their creations. (âItâs a fantastic way to promote these brands, be it Metallica or any other musical artist,â says Kohl Couture, who goes by MiniToon, and created the game Piggy, which was part of the Metallica rollout.) Earlier this year, Sony Music unveiled a Fortnite game called Nitewave, where winners of a capture-the-flag-like experience get to control the soundtrack of Sony artists, including songs by Flo Milli and Calvin Harris.Â
While Briceno âvery much believe[s] in a future where there will be music discovery in these platforms,â heâs not sure âthe right tools are available in these platforms just yet.â One potential tool is being developed by the company STYNGR: An ad-supported boombox full of pre-cleared songs â at the moment, just tracks from Universal Music Group â that players can equip their avatar with.Â
In early experiments, when players need to turn on the boombox themselves, 15% do so; if the boombox starts automatically, 90% choose to leave it on. Session lengths increase by as much as 10% while players have the radio blasting musical accompaniment, according to Alex Tarrand, STYNGRâs COO and co-founder, and for a small group of âpower users,â session lengths are tripling.
âThe reason the engagement goes up is people stay longer in games if they like what theyâre listening to,â Tarrand says. âOur thesis is that recorded music makes stuff better.â

Superfans have become an very buzzy topic within the industry since last summer, when Goldman Sachs projected that this segment of fans could put more than $4 billion into the music industry by 2030.Â
As previously reported by Billboard, in January Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl called for âstok[ing] the blue flames of superfansâ and additional âdirect artist-superfan products and experiencesâ, while Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge highlighted the value of âsuperfan experiences and productsâ; and Spotify hinted at future âsuperfan clubsâ in a blog post.â
Defined by Luminate as listeners who âengage with artists and their content in five-plus different waysâ superfans were a topic of conversation at IMS Ibiza 2024, which last week brought hundreds of electronic music industry figures to the island for three days of panels and parties.
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On Friday (April 26), programming included a conversation on superfans presented by industry knowledge platform Music Ally. The talk featured Evie Thomas of Atlantic Records and Warner Music Group UK, Jack Bridges of SoundCloud, Myradh Cormican of U.K. management company Frame Artists and was moderated by Marlen HĂźllbrock of Music Ally.
The conversation cited statistics from Music Ally which found that superfans spend 80% more on music each month than the average listener and that 2% of an artistâs monthly listeners on Spotify account for more than half of that artistâs monthly merchandise purchases.
Additionally, superfans are 54% more likely to be the first among their friends to discover new music and new artists, and superfans are 59% more likely to say they want to connect with an artist on a personal level. Around 15-20% of all music listeners consider themselves superfans.
These are five other takeaways from the talk.
1) Even 100 Superfans Can Successfully Launch a Campaign â If You Can Find Them
Fanbases are spread across myriad platforms, which makes it challenging for artists to understand who their fans are. This is particularly true because given that data is segmented and also often controlled by third parties, meaning that artists have no direct access to fans and must rely on different tools and platforms to figure out who their superfans are.
Music Allyâs HĂźllbrock noted that itâs âincredibly importantâ for artists and labels to figure out how to directly speak to their own fans, âbecause theyâre battling the algorithm if theyâre just posting on their own channels.â One solution here is cutting through the content clutter by taking artist/fan conversations to more more closed and direct spaces like WhatsApp and Discord.
âItâs about how to cut through the noise in an authentic way but also a relative way so even if an artist has 10,000 fans, theyâre reaching a 1,000 or even 100 to successfully launch a campaign,â added Bridges. Thomas noted that itâs key for teams to test to see what different platforms are working and where engagement is happening for each particular artist, âas itâs not one size fits all; every artist is different; every community is different.â
2) Soundcloud Has Long Been a Home For Superfans
âI think thereâs also been an underestimation of how much the superfans mattered before they were being properly identified,â said Bridges, citing the 2022 hit âAfraid To Feelâ by U.K. duo LF System. That song âwent to No. 1 but lived on Soundcloud for nearly a year before it got picked up and signed,â he added. âWhen that got signed and as part of the release strategy, it came off of Soundcloud, and straightaway the artists were inundated with messages every day asking where the record had gone.â
Bridges cites this as a moment âwhere the labels, the artists, the artist managers really realized how important it was to not mess with certain things or go to market without certain platforms.â
He says that over the last 18 months, as the industry has sharply focused on superfans, thereâs been a change in strategy thatâs seen âa lot more artists and labels go to Soundcloud early⌠and build records from nothing and by artists messaging their fans directly, because we have the tools to do that.â
3) Strategy Is Not One Size Fits All
âYou have to look at how much time you have to invest, the reward you have made for your fanbase and where your fans really messaging you and commenting and which platforms are you seeing that on,â said Thomas, adding that ones those factors are sorted, the process can be very bespoke. âMaybe for a bigger artist with bigger budget,â she continued, âyou can do something like Discord where you can bring in agencies and thereâs a lot of paid features.â Meanwhile for artists that want a simpler solution, âsomething as simple as a WhatsApp group can be amazing.â
Cormican of Frame Artists cited Scottish DJ Arielle Free as a success story in terms of using WhatsApp to connect with superfans. âItâs been an easy lift thing to do, weâve just given it space to develop,â she said, noting that the conversation in the group is often about topics beyond music and that many fans from the group meet IRL to attend Freeâs shows.
The panelists also agreed that an artistâs language and tone should be tailored based on what platform theyâre using and what fan group theyâre talking to. On WhatsApp, the artist will likely be more open and relaxed, whereas Instagram caption will be shorter and sharper. Overall, the key is creating different spaces for different fan types.
4) Filtering Superfans By Territory Is Effective
When data is used to separate superfans by location, artists can easily reward these people with special experiences â meet and greets, guest lists, etc. â when they come to town.
Thomas cited Atlantic Records artist Fred again..âs March tour of Australia, for which the team cross-referenced people that were in the artistâs Australian fan community and anyone who had their birthday on the day of one of the Australia shows. The team then DMâd these fans from the Fred again.. account saying that theyâd been put on the guestlist +2 for their birthday.
âThatâs such a unique experience,â said Thomas, âI think it really heightens the user experience of that fan.â In terms of longterm benefits, she compared it to receiving a surprise upgrade by an airline: âYouâre going to want to fly with that airline again.â
5) Bring Superfans Into The Narrative
When coordinating Chase & Statusâ 2023 Boiler Room set, their management at Frame Artists told organizers they wanted a small guest list dedicated to superfans âbecause,â said Cormican, âwe wanted to have their energy in the room.â
This guestlist offer was distributed via the U.K. duoâs Discord channel. When the recording of this set was made live, there were a few people in the crowd who knew every lyric, danced the entire time and never once looked at their phones: the superfans whoâd gotten in on the Discord guestlist.
The team from Frame Artists then messaged one of these fans, Don Lemons, and had him take part in a merchandise campaign. (And offered him âfree guest list for life, obviously,â said Cormican.) When Chase & Status performed at the 2024 Brit Awards, fans from the artistsâ Discord were invited to be part of the performance, as the team âwanted real ravers onstage.â This group got to take part in show rehearsals and the live show, and a video clip of this performance is now Chase & Statusâ highest performing piece of content ever, with 100 million views. The video includes Dom Lemons âwho,â said Cormican, âis now a legend in our scene.â

Billboard Pro members have selected Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) president of Latin America and U.S. Latin Alexandra Lioutikoff as the first recipient of the International Power Playersâ Choice Award. The peer-voted award honors the global executive who Billboard Pro members believe had the most impact across the business in the past year. Being the first to […]
Longtime entrepreneur and executive Richard Stumpf has announced the launch of Hawkeye Music Publishing, a new firm that both signs active songwriters and acts as the dot connector between teams looking to sell music catalogs with their strategic partner Round Hill Music.
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Previous to his new firm Hawkeye, Stumpf found success as an executive at Imagem Music and Cherry Lane Music. More recently, he was the founder and CEO of the indie publisher of Atlas Music Publishing which guided Van Halen, Brandi Carlile, Counting Crows, Dan the Automator, Sean Garrett, Ashley Gorley, and the Al Jackson Jr. catalog (âLetâs Stay Togetherâ) as clients. Eventually, the firm caught the attention of HYBEâs Ithaca Holdings and sold to the Korean music giant at the start of 2019. As part of the sale, Stumpf agreed to stay on as CEO until January 2021, which he did. (The rest of the original Atlas team also departed in 2021).
Since then, Stumpf has taken an advisory role, helping a number of tech companies looking to break into the music business, including Right Box and MerchCat, and lent his expertise to catalog buyers or administrators like Pythagoras Music Fund, GoldState Music and Round Hill Music.
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âWhat was clear to me working alongside tech and catalog companies was that there is an enormous and growing appetite for copyrights â both from a consumer and ownership perspective,â says Stumpf. âI wanted to put myself in a position where I could bring relationship driven catalog business to a home where I knew the music would be treated with the utmost respect and at the same time have a partner who could assist in administering Hawkeye, which would be dedicated to active writers. I found that strategic partner in Round Hill Music. Josh [Gruss, founder of Round Hill] and his team exemplify what it means to be a proactive partner who puts the music and writers first.â
Hawkeye Music Publsihing has not signed its first active songwriter yet, but it has already assembled a team of advisors across the music industry to, as Stumpf puts it, âprovide expertise across several sectors of a constantly evolving and overlapping music space.â This list includes Ann Mincielli (Grammy-winning engineer, co-founder of She Is the Music), Gruss (founder/CEO of Round Hill), Sean Garrett (producer/songwriter), Barry Ehrmann (founder/video producer Enliven Entertainment), Brandon Young (head of music affairs, Activision Blizzard), Chris âCoachâ Rodriguez (assistant program director/ dj for 107.1 The Peak) Julio Guiu (president of Clipperâs Music Group) and Amy Berkholtz (digital media Strategist).
âThis advisory team shares my reverence for the songwriter and the creative process. They are a group that fully embrace innovation,â says Stumpf. âIâm humbled and excited by their participation.â
Adds Gruss, âRich is a real music guy with a lot of creative ideas about maximizing value for copyrights and writers. Heâs a respected industry vet that Iâm happy to have working alongside Round Hill Music. Weâve already been able to welcome Warren Haynes as a Round Hill Music client and are grateful to Rich for the introduction and endorsement.â
Blackstone saw Concordâs most recent offer of $1.25 per share to acquire Hipgnosis Songs Fund and raised it a nickel to $1.30 on Monday, potentially putting a capper on a back-and-forth bidding war for the music rights companyâs assets.
In a joint announcement, HSF and Blackstone said the board of directors of both companies approved of the revised all-cash acquisition of Hipgnosisâs assets at a value of nearly $1.6 billion, up from Concordâs most recent bid that valued the company at around $1.51 billion.
The new price reflects a 48.1% premium over HSFâs closing share price on April 17, the day before Concordâs initial offer became public. Any offer will require the support of investors representing at least 75% of the companyâs public shares at a court meeting expected to be held on June 10; until that date, additional new offers may still be lodged.
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Blackstoneâs official bid arrives a week after the private equity giant made what it called a âpossible offerâ of $1.24 per share, or roughly $1.5 billion, on April 22. HSFâs board of directors signaled that they would support that bid if it was made official, however two days later (April 24) Concord raised their bid by one penny and the board reversed and unanimously recommended shareholders approve the Concord bid.
With Blackstone upping the bid by $0.05, the board now says that âafter careful considerationâ the revised bid ârepresents a superior offer for Hipgnosis shareholdersâ compared to Concord â and now will recommend shareholders to access the new terms.
âThe Board is pleased to unanimously recommend this [offer] for Hipgnosis from Blackstone,â said Hipgnosis chair Robert Naylor. âSince we started our strategic review, we have been clearly focused on looking at all the options to deliver shareholder value. We are delighted that, following competitive interests in acquiring Hipgnosis, our investors now have a chance to immediately realise their holding at an increased premium.â
The London-listed fund owns rights to songs by Neil Young, Journey, Lindsey Buckingham, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shakira, Blondie and other artists.
Hipgnosis Songs Fundâs stock price fell 6.75% on the news, from $1.35 on Friday when Concordâs bid increase pushed the stock to a 52-week high to $1.26 by 9 a.m. Monday New York time.
Blackstone is also the majority owner of Hipgnosis Songs Fundâs investment adviser, Hipgnosis Song Management (HSM), and it funds Hipgnosis Songs Capital (HSC), a private music rights fund operated with HSM that has its own portfolio of music rights from such stars as Justin Bieber and Kenny Chesney.
Lawyers for Sean âDiddyâ Combs pushed back against a womanâs lawsuit that accused him of sexual assault, filing a motion on Friday (April 26) to dismiss some claims that were not under law when the alleged incident occurred.
The motion filed in a New York court claims Combs cannot be sued because certain laws didnât exist when Joi Dickerson-Deal made the allegations against him in 1991.
The music mogulâs lawyers want certain statues from Dickerson-Dealâs claims such as revenge porn and human trafficking to be dismissed with prejudice.
In a filing last year, she said Combs âintentionally druggedâ her then brought her home and sexually assaulted her after a date in Harlem when she was a 19-year-old college student.
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Without her knowledge, Combs videotaped the assault and later shared it with several friends in the music industry, the suit alleges. He denied the allegations, accusing her of seeking to exploit the New York law that temporarily extended the statute of limitations.
Dickerson-Dealâs claim came nearly three decades after his alleged misconduct and the New York State Revenge Porn Law was not codified until 2019, Combsâ lawyers said.
His attorneys also pointed out a few others including the New York Services for Victims of Human Trafficking Law, which came into effect in 2007.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Dickerson has done.
Last month, Combsâ properties in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by federal authorities in a sex trafficking investigation. The criminal investigation is a major escalation in the scrutiny of Combs, who has been the defendant in several recent sexual abuse lawsuits.
In a lawsuit Combs settled the day after it was filed in November, his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, sued him alleging years of sexual abuse, including rape. The lawsuit said he forced her to have sex with male prostitutes while he filmed them.
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.
Another of Combsâ accusers was a woman who said he raped her two decades ago when she was 17.
Combs and his attorneys have denied all of the allegations in the lawsuits.
Britney Spears has settled an outstanding legal dispute with her father that arose following the termination of the pop starâs 13-year conservatorship in 2021, Billboard has confirmed. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
âIt has been our honor and privilege to represent, protect, and defend Britney Spears,â said Spearsâ attorney, Mathew Rosengart, in a statement sent to Billboard. âAlthough the conservatorship was terminated in November, 2021, her wish for freedom is now truly complete. As she desired, her freedom now includes that she will no longer need to attend or be involved with court or entangled with legal proceedings in this matter.â
A legal scuffle ensued in the wake of the conservatorshipâs dissolution in November 2021, when Rosengart vowed to investigate alleged misconduct by Spearsâ father, Jamie Spears, during the years he served as his daughterâs conservator â including claims that he took millions from her estate, tried to control her with drugs and denied her the freedom to remove a birth control device.
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Conflict also arose over Jamieâs request in December 2021 that Britneyâs estate continue paying his legal fees, arguing that the conservatorshipâs termination did not end his ongoing âfiduciary obligationsâ and that he could face âpersonal bankruptcy and ruinâ if his request was turned down. Rosengart responded by calling the request ânot only legally meritless, but an abomination.â
Britney was placed in a conservatorship controlled by her father in 2008 following a string of public breakdowns. The legal arrangement came under scrutiny beginning in 2019, when a pair of documentaries and a movement dubbed #FreeBritney launched by the superstarâs fans went viral, ultimately leading Britney to speak out on her own behalf in public court testimony.
Attorneys for Jamie Spears did not immediately respond to Billboardâs request for comment.
You can read Rosengartâs full statement below.
It has been our honor and privilege to represent, protect, and defend Britney Spears.
Although the conservatorship was terminated in November, 2021, her wish for freedom is now truly complete. As she desired, her freedom now includes that she will no longer need to attend or be involved with court or entangled with legal proceedings in this matter.
Britney Spears won when the court suspended her father, and Britney Spears won when her fundamental rights and civil liberties were restored.
Since obtaining her freedom in late 2021, Britney Spears has achieved remarkable success on several fronts, including her August, 2022 collaboration with Sir Elton John on the smash hit Hold Me Closer (which debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart and became her 24th top-ten single), followed by her landmark book deal with Simon & Schuster for her memoir The Woman in Me, an immediate NY Times #1 bestseller, which received universal, breathtaking praise and would not have been possible during the conservatorship.
We repeat our gratification for being in a position to help restore the civil rights and liberties of Britney Spears and the honor and privilege it has been to serve and protect Ms. Spears and obtain her goals in resolving various legal matters pursuant to her thoughtful and wise instruction and requests, which once again are to her credit.