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Luis Fernández has been appointed chairman of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises. Fernández, who previously served as president of Telemundo’s news division, Noticias Telemundo, from 2015-2021, will report directly to Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group. “Throughout his extraordinary career, Luis has time and again shown visionary leadership, building and growing the most successful Spanish language […]
Another woman – the fourth in three weeks – is suing Sean “Diddy” Combs over allegations of sexual assault.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York federal court, an unnamed Jane Doe accuser claims she was “sex trafficked” and “gang raped” by Combs, former Bad Boy Records president Harve Pierre and another man in 2003 when she was 17 years old.
“Ms. Doe has lived with her memories of this fateful night for 20 years, during which time she has suffered extreme emotional distress that has impacted nearly every aspect of her life and personal relationships,” the woman’s lawyers write. “Given the brave women who have come forward against Ms. Combs and Mr. Pierre in recent weeks, Ms. Doe is doing the same.
The new case comes just weeks after Combs was hit with explosive allegations of rape by R&B singer and longtime romantic partner Cassie. That case quickly settled, but Combs was then sued by two other women who say they were sexually assaulted by the hip hop mogul. Combs has strongly denied all of the allegations. Another case was filed against Pierre and Bad Boy, alleging sexual assault.
In the complaint filed in court Wednesday, the accuser’s lawyer Douglas Wigdor (the same attorney who represented Cassie) says the new allegations “are in many ways even more egregious” than the prior cases. “Given the brave women who have come forward against Ms. Combs and Mr. Pierre in recent weeks, Ms. Doe is doing the same.”
In a public statement in response to the new allegations, Combs said: “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”
“For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy,” Combs wrote. “Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
Pierre could not immediately be reached for comment.
The new lawsuit contains graphic allegations of sexual assault.
The alleged victim claims that she met Pierre at a Detroit club in 2003, when she was just a junior in high school. After he “smoked crack cocaine” and “sexually assaulted Ms. Doe by forcing her to give him oral sex,” she says she flew to New York on Combs’ private jet to visit him in his Manhattan recording studio.
While at the studio, the lawsuit claims that Combs, Pierre and an unnamed third man “plied Ms. Doe with drugs and alcohol” until she was so inebriated that she “she could not possibly have consented to having sex with anyone, much less someone twice her age.”
“While at the studio, Ms. Doe was gang raped by Mr. Combs, the Third Assailant and Mr. Pierre, in that order,” Wigdor writes in the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims the unnamed man “raped Ms. Doe as she told him to stop,” and that Pierre “violently forced her to give him oral sex, during which Ms. Doe was choking and struggling to breathe.”
After the attack, the lawsuit says the accuser “could barely stand up” and “had to be helped to walk out of the building and back into a car.” She says she was then flown back to Michigan.
“Defendants preyed on a vulnerable high school teenager,” Wigdor said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “The depravity of these abhorrent acts has, not surprisingly, scarred our client for life.”
The previous cases against Combs – as well as the flurry of other high-profile sexual assault cases filed over the last month – were brought under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, a law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for bringing such cases.
Wednesday’s case was not filed under the ASA, because that law expired on Thanksgiving. Instead, it was filed under the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, a New York City provision that created a similar “lookback” window that doesn’t expire until 2025.
A federal appeals court has sided with Vans and ruled that Tyga‘s “Wavy Baby” sneakers – a parody of the company’s classic Old Skool – likely violate the shoe company’s trademarks.
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Released last year by a New York art collective called MSCHF, the sneakers were a clear riff on the Vans shoe – a warped, surreal version of the Old Skool. Vans filed a lawsuit calling it “blatant trademark infringement, but the creators claimed that it was legal parody protected by the First Amendment, designed to criticize “sneakerhead” consumerist culture.
In a ruling Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit didn’t buy that argument, upholding an earlier ruling that banned MSCHF from selling any more pairs of Wavy Baby. The court said that “no special First Amendment protections apply” and that the sneaker likely violates Vans’ trademark rights.
“If a parodic use of protected marks and trade dress leaves confusion as to the source of a product, the parody has not ‘succeeded’ for purposes of the [federal trademark law], and the infringement is unlawful,” the court wrote.
Tyga announced the Wavy Baby in April 2022, sparking plenty of buzz but also immediate comparisons to Vans. Footwear News said the shoe “appears to be loosely based on the classic Vans Old Skool” that had been altered with a “wave-like aesthetic.” The site HighSnobiety went with a bolder headline: “MSCHF & Tyga’s Insane Skate Shoes Look Like Liquified Vans.”
Three days before the shoes were set to drop on April 18, Vans filed a lawsuit – claiming MSCHF’s sneakers violated its trademark rights and demanding an immediate restraining order. (The lawsuit did not name Tyga, whose real name is Micheal Stevenson, as a defendant.) Legal trouble was nothing new for MSCHF: the group had previously partnered with Lil Nas X to release a “Satan Shoe” that looked like a pair of Nikes – and had been promptly hit with a similar infringement lawsuit from that sneaker giant.
In the case over Tyga’s sneaker, Vans that consumers would think Wavy Baby was an authorized product artist endorsement deal rather than a parody by a separate company. The company cited previous partnerships with A$AP Rocky, Metallica and Foo Fighters.
“Given Vans’ history of collaborations with musical artists, on information and belief, the collaboration between MSCHF and Michael Stevenson is intended to deceive consumers into believing they arepurchasing a product made by, sponsored by, approved by, or otherwise associated with Vans,” the company’s lawyers wrote at the time.
MSCHF fired back with the First Amendment. It admitted that the Wavy Baby was based on the Old Skool, but said it had a legal right to use the shoe as “the cultural and physical anchor when creating its art.” The company said it wanted to critique “consumerism inherent in sneakerhead culture” and “the phenomenon of sneaker companies collaborating with anyone to garner clout and shoe sales.”
Weeks later, a federal judge rejected those arguments and issued a restraining order banning MSCHF from selling any more Wavy Babys. In issuing his ruling, Judge William F. Kuntz said that he – and, more importantly, consumers – didn’t quite get the joke.
“Whatever the actual artistic merits of the Wavy Baby shoes, the shoes do not meet the requirements for a successful parody,” the judge wrote at the time. “While the manifesto accompanying the shoes may contain protected parodic expression, the Wavy Baby shoes and packaging in and of themselves fail to convey the satirical message.”
On Tuesday, the Second Circuit upheld Judge Kuntz’s ruling and injunction. Among other reasons, the court cited a recent Supreme Court ruling in which the justices ruled that Jack Daniels could sue over dog toys that parodied its whiskey bottles – a decision that lowered First Amendment protections for such parodies.
Attorneys for both sides did not immediately return requests for comment.
South by Southwest Music Festival 2024 has revealed a second slate of artists set to perform in Austin next year. Among the highlights are Glasser, SPRINTS, GRÓA, Gruff Rhys, Ho99o9, Holly Macve, Kikuo, LAIR, Pink Pablo, PVA, Pylon Reenactment Society and Ralphie Choo, all of whom will showcase their talents during the six-day festival.
Next year’s SXSW Music Festival will take place from March 11-16 throughout the Austin area. Other emerging acts announced on Wednesday (Dec. 6) include RUBIO, Sinkane, Sofia Kourtesis, Sycco, Tamera, TENGGER, 250, Alexander Biggs, Enola Gay, DICE, HALLEY, HIEN, Skateland, Yo Diablo, Water Damage, TENGGER, Sui Zhen and RUBIO. The festival has created playlists on Spotify and YouTube featuring the music of the showcasing artists.
The list of showcase partners for the 38th annual SXSW has also grown, with labels like New West Records and Bayonet Records, as well as promoter High Road Touring and agency Mint Talent Group, being announced. Elsewhere, newly announced presenters include Adult Decisions, All The Vibes, ATC Live, Atomic Music Group, Breakout West, CareFreeBlackGirl, Chicken Ranch Records, City Slang, Dear Life Records, Dedstrange, Don Giovanni Records, Everything R&B, Father/Daughter Records, Fierce Panda, FOCUS Wales, Island Wave, Italians Do It Better, Gorilla vs. Bear, Jazz Re:Freshed, The Line of Best Fit, The Loyalty Firm, M for Montreal, Music from Ireland, Now Wave, Pop Montreal, Reeperbahn Festival, The Smoke Out, Space Agency, The Spanish Wave, Synásthesie Festival, Taiwan Beats, Tokyo Calling, Traffic Music and Wide Days Scotland.
Founded in 1987 in Austin, SXSW has grown to encompass tech, film and TV, music, education and culture. The entirety of the 2024 conference and festival will run from March 8-16.
In April 2021, it was announced that SXSW signed a “lifeline” deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC, making P-MRC a stakeholder and long-term partner with the Austin festival. P-MRC is the parent company of Billboard.
See below for the full list of showcasing artists announced on Wednesday.
250 (Seoul SOUTH KOREA)Afternoon Bike Ride (Montreal CANADA)Akira Galaxy (Los Angeles CA)Ako（a子） (Himeji City JAPAN)Alexander Biggs (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Alex Nicol (Montreal CANADA)Amis du Teche (Breaux Bridge LA)Angelo Moore and the Brand New Step (Austin TX)Anna Smyrk (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Anna Vaverková (Prague CZECHIA)Another Sky (London UK-ENGLAND)Arches (Hong Kong HONG KONG)Askew (London UK-ENGLAND)Axel Flóvent (Reykjavik ICELAND)Äyanna (London UK-ENGLAND)The Ayoub Sisters (London UK-ENGLAND)Bad Bad Hats (Minneapolis MN)The Beatbox Collective (London UK-ENGLAND)beccs (Warehan MA)Bee Bee Sea (Castel Goffredo ITALY)Being Dead (Austin TX)Benjamin Walker (Chile MEXICO)Bess Atwell (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)Bleach Lab (London UK-ENGLAND)BLK JKS (Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA)Bloomsday (Brooklyn NY)Blue Lake (Copenhagen DENMARK)Boy With Apple (Gothenburg SWEDEN)BROTHER DEGE (Lafayette LA)Buffalo Nichols (Milwaukee WI)Caleb Landry Jones (Garland TX)Camidoh (Accra GHANA)Carla Geneve (Perth AUSTRALIA)Certainly So (Nashville TN)Cha’keeta B (Austin TX)Chalk (Belfast UK-N. IRELAND)Chartreuse (The Black Country UK-ENGLAND)Chelsea Carmichael (London UK-ENGLAND)Chiaki Mayumura (Setagya JAPAN)Chief Cleopatra (Austin TX)China Bears (Bridgwater UK-ENGLAND)Chxrry22 (Toronto CANADA)CLT DRP (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)Conchur White (Portadown UK-N. IRELAND)CURRLS (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)Danny Bonilla (Dallas TX)Dasom Baek (Seoul SOUTH KOREA)Daydream Twins (Austin TX)Dead Tooth (Brooklyn NY)Delights (Manchester UK-ENGLAND)DICE (Perth AUSTRALIA)Dirt Buyer (Brooklyn NY)Discovery Zone (New York NY)Divorce (Nottingham UK-ENGLAND)Dobrawa Czocher (Warsaw POLAND)DOMICO (Tokyo JAPAN)Do Nothing (Nottingham UK-ENGLAND)Dream Nails (London UK-ENGLAND)Dumb Buoys Fishing Club (London UK-ENGLAND)dust (Newcastle AUSTRALIA)Earth Tongue (Wellington NEW ZEALAND)Eleni Drake (London UK-ENGLAND)Elisapie (Salluit CANADA)Elle Shimada (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Ellie Bleach (London UK-ENGLAND)Emily Barker (Perth AUSTRALIA)Emily Frembgen (Brooklyn NY)Emma Aibara (Yokohama JAPAN)Enola Gay (Belfast UK-N. IRELAND)Etta Bond (London UK-ENGLAND)fantasy of a broken heart (Brooklyn NY)Fat Dog (London UK-ENGLAND)FAZI 法兹 (Xi’an CHINA)Field Guide (Winnipeg CANADA)Folk Bitch Trio (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)FONTINE (Winnipeg CANADA)Forest Claudette (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Friedberg (Berlin GERMANY)Fust (Durham NC)Gavin James (Dublin IRELAND)Glasser (New York NY)Glixen (Phoenix AZ)Good Looks (Austin TX)Grandbrothers (Berlin GERMANY)GRÓA (Reykjavik ICELAND)Gruff Rhys (Cardiff UK-WALES)Gurriers (Dublin IRELAND)HALLEY (Waseda JAPAN)Harvest Thieves (Austin TX)Hause Plants (Lisbon PORTUGAL)The HawtThorns (Nashville TN)HIEN (Budapest HUNGARY)HighSchool (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Hinako Omori (London UK-ENGLAND)HMS Morris (Cardiff UK-WALES)Ho99o9 (Newark NJ)Holly Macve (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)Hooks & The Huckleberries (Albuquerque NM)Hour (Philadelphia PA)The Howdies (Athens GA)Humour (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)HYPNOSIS THERAPY (Seoul SOUTH KOREA)IFE (New Orleans LA)Iona Zajac (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)Iris Jean (Alkmaar NETHERLANDS)Izo FitzRoy (London UK-ENGLAND)Jack Barksdale (Fort Worth TX)Jack Harris (Cleveland OH)JADA (London UK-ENGLAND)Jad Fair and the Placebos (Manor TX)Jaimee Harris (Nashville TN)JÁNA (Stockholm SWEDEN)Jazz re:freshed DJs (London UK-ENGLAND)Jeannel (Berlin GERMANY)Jeshi (London UK-ENGLAND)JFDR (Reykjavík ICELAND)JM Stevens (Austin TX)Jon Muq (Austin TX)Jon Vinyl (Toronto CANADA)Juani Mustard (Viña Del Mar CHILE)JUANPALITOSCHINOS (Mexico City MEXICO)Justin Webb (Nashville TN)Kali Claire (London UK-ENGLAND)Ken Yates (London CANADA)Kikuo (Tokyo JAPAN)Kroi (Tokyo JAPAN)LAIR (Jatiwangi INDONESIA)Laney Tripp (New Smyrna Beach CA)Larry Seaman (Austin TX)Laura-Mary Carter (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)Laura Misch (London UK-ENGLAND)Lauren Housley & The Northern Cowboys (Sheffield UK-ENGLAND)Lauren Lakis (Austin TX)L E M F R E C K (Newport UK-WALES)Library Card (Rotterdam NETHERLANDS)Lindsay Beaver & Brad Stivers (Austin TX)Lisa Morales (Austin TX)Logan Crosby (Milledgeville GA)Logan Halstead (Powell County KY)Los Cogelones (Mexico MEXICO)Lottery Winners (Leigh UK-ENGLAND)Madam Radar (Austin TX)Malugi (Berlin GERMANY)Mama Terra (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)The Manatees (Southampton UK-ENGLAND)maxime. (Montreal CANADA)May Rio (Brooklyn NY)Meagre Martin (Berlin GERMANY)Mia June (Perth AUSTRALIA)Mick Flannery (Cork IRELAND)Minas (Cardiff UK-WALES)Miranda and the Beat (Brooklyn NY)Miranda del Sol (New York NY)MØAA (Seattle WA)Moody Bank$ (Austin TX)Nagasaki Swim (Rotterdam NETHERLANDS)Natalie Jane Hill (Asheville NC)Native Harrow (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)néomí (Den Haag NETHERLANDS)NeOne Wonderer (Wolverhampton UK-ENGLAND)Neon Waltz (John O’groats UK-SCOTLAND)Night Lunch (Montreal CANADA)NOBRO (Montreal CANADA)O. (London UK-ENGLAND)Omni (Atlanta GA)OSKA (Vienna AUSTRIA)PAPISA (São Paulo BRAZIL)Pelvis Wrestley (Austin TX)Perennial (Amherst MA)Pink Pablo (San Juan PUERTO RICO)Planet Giza (Montreal CANADA)Plastic Palms (Turin ITALY)poolblood (Toronto CANADA)Population II (Montreal CANADA)Presence (Camarillo CA)The Psychotic Monks (Saint-Ouen FRANCE)PVA (London UK-ENGLAND)Pylon Reenactment Society (Athens GA)Rainbow Girls (Bodega CA)Ralphie Choo (Madrid SPAIN)The Rare Occasions (Los Angeles CA)Redbud (Austin TX)rEDOLENT (Edinburgh UK-SCOTLAND)Robby Hecht (Nashville TN)Rodeo Boys (Lansing MI)Rory James (Edinburgh UK-SCOTLAND)RUBIO (Mexico City MEXICO)Sam Williams (Paris TN)San Gabriel (Austin TX)San Saba County (Austin TX)Seafoam Walls (Miami FL)Selfish Sons (Brisbane AUSTRALIA)She’s In Parties (Colchester UK-ENGLAND)Sinkane (Brooklyn NY)Skateland (Austin TX)SNACKTIME (Philadelphia PA)Soda Blonde (Dublin IRELAND)Sofia Kourtesis (Berlin GERMANY)Sofi Paez (Berlin GERMANY)Softee (Moorhead MN)South Summit (Perth AUSTRALIA)SPRINTS (Dublin IRELAND)Stuck in the Sound (Paris FRANCE)Styrofoam Winos (Nashville TN)Sui Zhen (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)The Sully Band (San Diego CA)Sultan Stevenson (London UK-ENGLAND)Swallow the Rat (Auckland NEW ZEALAND)Sycco (Brisbane AUSTRALIA)Talia Goddess (Brooklyn NY)Tamera (London UK-ENGLAND)Teenage Sequence (Fort-Worth TX)Telehealth (Seattle WA)TENGGER (Seoul SOUTH KOREA)t e s t p r e s s (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)Texas String Assembly (Austin TX)TFD (Total Fucking Darkness) (Vancouver CANADA)This Is Lorelei (New York NY)THUS LOVE (Brattleboro VT)The Tiarras (Austin TX)Tokyo Syoki Syodo (Shimokitazawa JAPAN)TRACY DE SA (Sevres FRANCE)Tufan Derince (Diyarbakir TURKEY)twst (Barry UK-WALES)Venus Twins (Brooklyn NY)Vera Sola (Los Angeles CA)The Vices (Groningen NETHERLANDS)The View (Dundee UK-SCOTLAND)VLURE (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)Vulva Voce (Manchester UK-ENGLAND)Water Damage (Austin TX)William The Conqueror (Newquay UK-ENGLAND)Wyldest (London UK-ENGLAND)The XCERTS (Aberdeen UK-SCOTLAND)Yb. (Brisbane AUSTRALIA)YHWH Nailgun (New York NY)Yo Diablo (Valencia SPAIN)Yogetsu Akasaka (Tokyo JAPAN)YU-KA (Tokyo JAPAN)Zheani (Brisbane AUSTRALIA)Zoon (Winnipeg CANADA)ZÓRA (Budapest HUNGARY)zouz (Montréal CANADA)
Taiwanese Mandopop singer-songwriter Jay Chou and his record label JVR Music have entered into a strategic partnership with Universal Music Greater China. Under the agreement, announced Wednesday in Beijing, UMG will market and distribute Chou’s back catalog and future projects, while also absorbing a JVR artist roster that includes Patrick Brasca and Young (Cao Yang). Earlier […]
Sped-up remixes continue to resonate on TikTok: The four most popular songs on the platform in the U.S. in 2023 were all sped-up, according to TikTok’s year-end report. The leader of the pack was the “more sped-up” version of Justine Skye’s “Collide,” followed by sped-up renditions of FIFTY FIFTY’s “Cupid,” PARTYNEXTDOOR’s “Her Way,” and Toosii’s “Favorite Song.”
U.K. listeners also enjoyed using up-tempo re-works of songs in their TikTok videos. In addition to “Collide” (No. 2 on the platform) and “Cupid” (No. 3), they also favored a sped-up version of George Ezra’s “Green Green Grass” (No. 4), MEYY’s “Pretty” (No. 6), and Raye and 070 Shake’s “Escapism” (No. 10).
The sped-up remixes that zip around TikTok are usually made first by creators (sometimes funded by label marketing efforts). If they start to perform well, it’s become routine for labels to release their own official versions.
“Back in the day, we used club remixes to diversify the visibility of a record,” Nima Nasseri, who then served as global head of A&R strategy for Universal Music Group’s music strategy and tactics team, explained in 2022. “The purpose was to bring back visibility to the main version. Now people are discovering the main version from the sped-up or slowed one. Instead of spending $50,000 for a remix from a big-name DJ, you’re spending relatively minimal amounts [on a sped-up rendition] and getting much more return and reach.”
Why have these simple remixes proved consistently effective? Steven Pardo, digital marketing director at Secretly Group, told Billboard in 2022 that “in a video platform that prioritizes catching attention immediately, being able to get the impact of the lyrics across more quickly is advantageous.”
Scott Plagenhoef, global head of music programming at Apple Music, echoed this sentiment during an interview with Billboard in March: “Sped-up songs allow for more of a track to be heard within the time constraints of a TikTok video and mirror the pace at which users consume content online.”
Increasing tempo can also “make the songs better — it brings out a different emotion,” according to Josh “Bru” Brubaker, a popular TikToker and radio personality for Audacy.
In the last 15 months, sped-up remixes have spurred chart surges for Thundercat‘s “Them Changes,” Miguel’s “Sure Thing” (actually a resurge, as it first charted over a decade ago), The Weeknd’s “Die for You,” Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary,” Mariah Carey’s “It’s a Wrap,” and more.
Due to TikTok’s popularity and its ability to drive streaming activity, Billboard launched a TikTok Top 50 chart in September, ranking tracks on the platform according to a combination of creations, video views and user engagement in the U.S. “The chart gives a clear picture of the music that is being listened to on TikTok, and consequently starting to trend on DSPs and other services,” Ole Obermann, global head of music business development at TikTok, said in a statement.
Across the first two months of the chart, hip-hop proved to be by far the most popular genre, accounting for more than 35% of chart entries. Pop was next, hovering at 20%, largely thanks to Taylor Swift, who had nine different charting tracks in the first eight weeks. The third most popular genre was R&B (10%).
U.S. listeners did listen to some music at its original tempo, according to TikTok’s year-end report. PinkPantheress and Ice Spice‘s “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2,” Ohboyprince’s “Bounce When She Walk,” Young Nudy and 21 Savage’s “Peaches & Eggplants,” Ice Spice’s “In Ha Mood,” Jain’s “Makeba,” and Swift’s “Cruel Summer” rounded out the rest of the top 10.
BERLIN — SUISA Digital Licensing is suing Twitter International in Munich District Court for copyright infringement on X, the online platform formerly known as Twitter. The suit alleges that music compositions controlled by SUISA Digital are found on the platform, and that the company has made no effort to license them or act promptly to remove the infringing content.
“SUISA Digital is using all of the resources at its disposal to defend the interests of authors and publishers it represents,” said SUISA Digital CEO Fabian Niggemeier in a press release about the lawsuit. “This is the only way we can effectively represent the interests of authors and publishers and ensure that they are compensated fairly by Twitter International.”
Rights to the songs in question, many of which were found in full videos on X, are represented by SUISA Digital, a subsidiary of SUISA, the Swiss collecting society. (SUISA Digital represents both public performance rights and mechanical rights for the works in question.) SUISA Digital says that it has tried to get in touch with X/Twitter in order to negotiate licensing arrangements, but it has yet to receive a serious response.
SUISA Digital also works closely with the U.S. performing rights society SESAC, as partners in their joint venture MINT. “SUISA Digital has our full backing in its lawsuit against Twitter International,” said SESAC International president Alexander Wolf in the press release.
Although SUISA Digital is officially based in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the organization filed the lawsuit in Munich, since it’s part of a larger market, as well as one that has traditionally been friendly to copyright.
This isn’t the only music infringement lawsuit against X/Twitter. In June, dozens of music publishers sued the company for similar behavior. But there are several important differences between the two cases. In the U.S., X operates under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which offers online platforms “safe harbor” for infringement committed by their users, as long as they act to remove unauthorized content. (The publishers’ suit alleges that the company didn’t do that, or have a policy to ban repeat infringers.)
In Germany, the equivalent law falls under the European Copyright Directive, which is broadly similar but requires platforms to make efforts to license content – which the SESAC lawsuit alleges that Twitter did not do.
The other difference is damages. While the music publishers’ suit could be worth as much as $255 million, although that’s a maximum based on statutory damages, in Germany the case would have to establish damages based on the value of the licenses Twitter needed but did not get. Presumably, the idea behind this lawsuit is to force the Elon Musk-led company to enter into serious licensing negotiations.
“I’m a musician. The risk I take is in my chosen career path. I don’t want to take risk in my investments.” This was the most common remark we heard from entertainer clients for years.
And the most common advice those musicians would receive to address their concerns was, “Invest in municipal bonds. Your principal is protected, default risk is low, and you get tax-free income.” For the most part, that was true… until interest rates stayed close to 0% from 2020-2022 and then rose at their fastest pace in US history since then. During that time, municipal bonds were not what they were promised to be — down almost 10% in 2022 — especially for those who thought they couldn’t lose money owning them.
To be fair, barring defaults, and even with the recent price declines, municipal bonds bought prior to the rise in interest rates will give investors the return they signed up for when they bought them. But now we have artists coming to us excited that they are getting paid 5% pre-tax on cash in money market funds. However, those heady money market rates can be cut in half by taxes and they won’t last forever — we suspect they won’t even last much longer from here.
So, what can you do for an attractive risk-adjusted return these days while avoiding the volatility of the stock market? Let’s look at some particularly interesting options.
Intermediate Duration Municipal Bonds
While past performance doesn’t always translate into the future, over rolling two-year periods, high-quality intermediate municipal bonds have never lost money. Now, with interest rates at their highest levels in almost 20 years and municipalities’ finances healthy, these bonds look more attractive than they have in a long time.
However, balancing exposure to different sources of return in fixed income is important. We do not recommend just buying Treasuries or Treasury/municipality ladders. Consider an actively managed bond portfolio (as opposed to laddering) with the flexibility to move between municipal bonds and taxable bonds based on their relative attractiveness. This allows you to maximize after-tax returns while also managing interest rate exposure.
Hedged Exposure to Stocks
The S&P 500 is up over 18% year-to-date (as of Dec. 4), but it’s done so in a fairly volatile manner and more than half of the stocks in it are actually down for the year.
For investors concerned about volatility, they can consider reducing exposure to the market in the near-to-medium term by using a defined outcome exchange-traded fund (DOETF). Like other ETFs, these types of securities have daily liquidity and relatively low cost. But what makes DOETFs different from the index ETFs that many investors are familiar with is that they utilize options to create a specially designed payoff. For instance, recently created versions of DOETFs allow an investor to capture around 15% of any upside in stocks while not experiencing the first 15% of any market decline.
So, if the market is up 20% over the next year, investors will be up around 15%. If the market rises 8%, investors’ returns will be the same. If the market is down 10%, the investors won’t have any gains but also won’t take any loss. And if the market has an awful year and ends down 20%, investors would only be down 5%.
Private Credit
Every week brings new headlines about banks cutting back lending in different areas. It raises the question, “Who is lending money to businesses these days?” Private debt funds.
This area has grown substantially since the financial crisis as government regulations have made it harder and costlier for banks to lend. The private markets have stepped into that void. One notable aspect of these loans is that they’re made at floating rates, with financing usually made similarly. That’s protected them from the run-up in interest rates, as fixed interest investments have declined in value. That’s also allowed them to keep up better with inflation. Investors contemplating private credit should consider the fact that some of these strategies are only available to accredited investors or qualified purchasers and they’re often illiquid, with money locked up for several years at a time.
Real Estate
In addition to private credit, we’re seeing attractive opportunities to lend into the commercial real estate (CRE) market, partly for the same reasons as private credit (with banks stepping back) and partly for real estate-specific reasons, such as the pressure on office prices since the pandemic. However, with office being only one small piece of the overall market and with lenders having attractive bargaining power as assets are revalued and refinanced, that’s an area we’ve been highlighting in 2023.
Finally, and further up the risk spectrum, is real estate equity. Even inside that asset class, the risks can vary. With the turbulence in the market, we’re starting to see more attractive opportunities emerge in the “core plus” space, which are typically well-leased, income-producing properties in good locations. They’re often found in commuter suburbs in secondary or tertiary markets.
Like private credit, these real estate strategies are often illiquid, and even some of the strategies which are advertised as more liquid have gated investor redemptions recently. But for investors with enough cash flowing in to meet their outflows (even in a distressed situation) and a longer time horizon, the rewards for accepting that illiquidity can be meaningful.
What to Do
As always, investors should consult with a licensed investment advisor before making investment decisions. While each of the asset classes discussed here may be of interest, they are not suitable for all investors. At the same time, we recognize that having excess cash earning 5% in money market funds may feel nice for now, but it may not feel so nice looking back on things in a year’s time. Investors don’t need to feel tied to cash or forced to swing for the fences — there are many options worth considering in the middle ground.
Finally, while we’ve mostly focused on safer options here, which are meant to guard against the risk of market volatility, there’s another risk that investors must weigh — the risk of running out of money during retirement. Taking too little volatility risk can potentially generate excessive depletion risk. We recommend discussing this, and other considerations, with your financial advisor.
Adam Sansiveri is a senior managing director and head of the Nashville Private Client Group at Bernstein. Stacie Jacobsen is a director in Bernstein’s Wealth Strategies Group. Sansiveri and Jacobsen are co-heads of the Sports, Media and Entertainment Group at Bernstein Private Wealth Management, a division of AllianceBernstein. AllianceBernstein is a leading global research and investment management firm headquartered in Nashville with over $700 billion under management and offices in 53 cities in 26 countries.
YG Entertainment has renewed its exclusive contract with all four members of BLACKPINK, the company announced Wednesday (Dec. 6), sending stock in the K-pop giant soaring on news that its most successful act would remain with the agency. At the market’s open, YG’s share price skyrocketed from 48,000 KRW ($36.57) — its lowest since January […]
Sphere Entertainment provided the first inside glimpse at the finances of James Dolan‘s $2 billion Sphere project in Las Vegas in a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday (Dec. 5).
Spun off from Madison Square Garden Entertainment in April and now trading on the NYSE as SPHR, the company is expected to report positive adjusted income this quarter thanks to the opening of the venue and a successful run of shows including U2:UV’s Achtung Baby Live At Sphere.
According to Billboard Boxscore, U2‘s 17-show run beginning in September at Sphere generated nearly $110 million in ticket sales. The SEC filing notes that those shows generated a total of $30.7 million in revenue for Sphere Entertainment through Nov. 30. Meanwhile, Sphere Entertainment’s own content offering, Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard from Earth, has generated approximately $44.5 million in total revenue from ticket sales from 111 showings.
U2 played its first show at Sphere on Sept. 29, 2023, kicking off a multi-month run at the venue. Due to the strong demand, 15 more shows have been added in January, February and March 2024, bringing the band’s planned number of performances to 40.
Also in the SEC filing, the company announced plans to raise money through the sale of $225 million in convertible senior notes that are due to mature in 2028, as well as the option for purchasers to buy an additional $33.75 million in notes.
Sphere Entertainment plans to use a portion of the proceeds from the notes sale to fund capped call transactions designed to reduce the potential dilution of its common stock from the conversion of debt into equity. The remainder of the net proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including capital for Sphere-related growth initiatives, according to a release announcing the offering. The initial conversion rate, interest rate and certain other terms of the notes will be negotiated between Sphere Entertainment and the initial purchasers.
Sphere Entertainment began the quarter (starting Sept. 30) with $433.5 million in cash on hand, with $123 million coming from advance ticket sales. The principal balance of the company’s total debt at the beginning of the quarter was approximately $1.2 billion, including $932.3 million of debt under the MSGN Credit Facilities. Under the terms of the MSGN deal, $103.1 million in required quarterly amortization payments are due between Sept. 30, 2023, and Oct. 11, 2024.
Shares of Sphere Entertainment dropped nearly 20% in trading after the company announced the debt offering, but bounced back slightly and were down 15.5% to $28.41 at the market’s close.