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R. Kelly is suing the federal Bureau of Prisons over allegations that the agency leaked private information about the disgraced singer to social media personality Tasha K — the same YouTube gossip host that Cardi B sued for defamation last year.
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In a complaint filed Monday (Nov. 13) in Chicago federal court, Kelly’s lawyers say an unnamed Bureau of Prisons (BOP) agent illegally accessed Kelly’s digital prison records — including recordings of private phone calls with his girlfriend and lawyers — and sold them to Tasha, who then broadcast them online to more than 1 million followers.
“The defendant United States of America breached its duty of care to the plaintiff when it allowed countless BOP officers to access plaintiff’s confidential information without any legal basis to do so,” Kelly’s lawyer Jennifer Bonjean writes.
The lawsuit, which also names Tasha K (Latasha Kebe) as a defendant, claims that the influencer then “rallied her massive following to harass the plaintiff with the use of the stolen information and created chaos in plaintiff’s personal life.”
The leaks left Kelly “isolated and fearful to communicate with his attorneys or other third parties,” the lawsuit claims, because he knew it could be “released to the general public for mass exploitation.”
Kelly was convicted in 2021 on racketeering and sex trafficking charges stemming from accusations that he orchestrated a long-running scheme to abuse women. In September 2022, he was convicted in Chicago on separate federal charges of child pornography and enticement of minors for sex. The singer, who is currently appealing both convictions, was later sentenced to 30 years in prison.
If Kebe’s name sounds familiar, it should. Last year, Cardi B won a $3.9 million defamation judgment against the blogger over false statements Kebe made about drug use, STDs and prostitution on her YouTube channel “UnWinewithTashaK.” Kebe has since filed for federal bankruptcy, citing her inability to pay that huge judgment.
In his new lawsuit, Kelly claims that Kebe first published private information in November 2019, starting with a video called “R. Kelly Can’t Control his Girlfriends while Behind Bars” that contained information Kebe said came from a “phone tap somewhere.” Later posts allegedly divulged more personal information, including highly-sensitive communications with his legal team.
“The communications … related to personal and family problems, romantic interests, health problems, literacy issues, and issues related to the defense of his pending criminal cases,” Kelly’s lawyers write.
According to the lawsuit, an internal BOP investigation revealed that an unnamed officer had pulled Kelly’s records from the agency’s TruView system, a digital database of information on prisoners. The officer then allegedly scanned them and “emailed that scan to third parties, including defendant Kebe.” But that probe ended without any action against the officer, Kelly’s lawyers claim.
“No charges were brought against defendant BOP Officer A, and the government has refused to reveal any details about the investigation including the identity of Officer A,” Bonjean wrote in Monday’s complaint. “In short, there has been a cover-up of the rampant BOP misconduct that is ongoing.”
Kelly’s lawyers claim that illegal leaks continued even after the BOP was made aware of the initial disclosures to Kebe. They cited a report last summer by the Washington Post about Kelly’s $25,000 in commissary funds — a report that resulted in federal prosecutors seizing the money to pay off his victims.
In technical legal terms, Kelly’s lawyers allege that the leaks amounted to negligence, an invasion of his privacy, an intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil theft and civil conspiracy. They also claim that the officer who stole the records violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — a federal statute that makes computer hacking illegal.
A spokesperson for the BOP declined to comment, citing agency policy on pending litigation. An attorney who has represented Tasha K on other matters did not immediately return a request for comment.
Nepal’s government in the capital of Kathmandu decided to ban the popular social media app TikTok on Monday, saying it was disrupting “social harmony” in the country, home of Mount Everest. The announcement was made following a Cabinet meeting. Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud said the app would be banned immediately. “The government has decided […]
The Warner Music Group has signed on to Deezer’s new royalty payment structure in France, which was developed in partnership with Universal Music Group and announced in September, the president of the major label’s French operations confirmed today (Nov. 13). The move, which was first confirmed in a story with French outlet Les Echos, has been in place since Oct. 1, and only covers streams in France, where Deezer is based.
In September, Deezer and UMG announced their new model, which they referred to as an “artist-centric” royalty model aimed at combatting fraud, reducing the royalty pool for so-called “non-artist noise” like white noise and nature sounds, and boosting payouts for what the companies referred to as “professional artists,” or artists who were accumulating 1,000 streams per month from 500 unique listeners. The model replaces the existing pro-rata model, in which rights holders were paid by share of streams, regardless of their stature or content, which is still in place globally.
“We are delighted to partner with Deezer on this artist-centric model which rewards engaging music and demonetizes non-artist noise,” Warner Music France president Alain Veille told the outlet. “Our new deal will benefit creative talent at all stages of their careers and support our ability to invest in the next generation.”
In opting in to Deezer’s new structure, WMG joins UMG and a handful of small indies, while the third major, Sony Music, has so far not signed on. The move comes amid a year’s worth of conversation in the music industry about how to tweak the streaming royalty structure as the amount of tracks being uploaded each day to major services surpasses 100,000, and fraud on services is becoming an increasingly big topic. Universal also announced a royalty review with SoundCloud and TIDAL, while Spotify released its own tweaked model, which has far lower thresholds for artists than Deezer’s and is more narrowly aimed at fraud, rather than at determining the level of streams that constitutes an artist’s professional status.
When Deezer and UMG first announced the new model, it was met with pushback from several corners of the music business, particularly the indie sector, which was concerned about those seemingly-arbitrary levels to qualify as a “professional” and about the one-label study that led to its adoption. And while there is broad consensus in the industry that the model needs to change — including public statements from UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge and WMG CEO Robert Kyncl — there is not universal agreement in how to do so, and there is a possibility that each digital service provider could adopt its own model moving forward.
In initially announcing the model in September, Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira told Billboard that he expected more rights holders than UMG to sign on, and planned on rolling out the new structure globally in the coming year. For now, the model is limited to France.
Warner Records has launched underscore works recordings, a joint venture with Charly Salvatore’s Nashville-based management company underscore works.
The new label will focus on discovering and developing fresh country music talent, and launches with two new signings: Dipper and Wesko.
Salvatore launched underscore works in 2022; the company works with artists including Warren Zeiders, Priscilla Block and Dalton Dover. Zeiders, who is signed directly to Warner Records, debuted on Billboard’s Hot 100 with “Pretty Little Poison,” which is currently in the top 20 on the Country Airplay chart.
Texas native Dipper recently released his debut EP Evergreen, including his first single, “She’s Got Wings.” Dipper also signed a global publishing deal with Bailey Zimmerman, The Core Entertainment and Warner Chappell Music.
North Carolina native Wesko spent the past four years performing with his band and writing songs, while working as a foreman for an erosion control company and balancing a full college course load. He continued building his audience in North Carolina, as well as building his social media following before signing with underscore works recordings.
Warner Records’ Co-Chairman & CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck and Co-Chairman & COO Tom Corson said in a statement, “Together with Charly, we’ve already seen incredible success with Warren Zeiders – a newcomer to the scene who has quickly made a big impact. The underscore team shares the same dedication we have when it comes to artist development and building meaningful and lasting careers, making it a no brainer to expand our partnership so we can support even more special artists. Dipper and Wesko are two genuinely talented, hard-working musicians with bright futures ahead, and we look forward to collaborating with underscore to bring even more great music to fans around the world.”
Salvatore added, “Aaron, Tom, and the entire world-class Warner Records team have an amazing track record when it comes to breaking new acts and, more importantly, sustaining that momentum. They’ve been incredible partners with Warren, and there’s no one else I’d want to be running alongside as we take this exciting next step in the underscore works journey. With a deep passion for developing emerging artists, I’m thrilled to embark on this new chapter with remarkable talents like Dipper and Wesko, who are destined to captivate the world’s stage.”
South Korean music company HYBE, home of K-pop giants BTS and Seventeen, has made its first entry into the Latin music sector with the acquisition of Exile Music, the music division of Spanish-language studio Exile Content. HYBE said HYBE Latin America will incorporate K-pop business methods and focus on artist management and talent discovery across […]
Over the past few years, we have been living in a music business in which, it’s often said, hits can come from anywhere around the world. Often, however, the hits we’re talking about have musical and production elements of pop, hip-hop and R&B — only with a twist or in another language. This is great. Unless you want the world to sound a little weirder, in which case it’s still great but you might wonder what else is out there.
As it happens, there’s a country that often seems to specialize in arty, off-kilter music — Iceland. Ever since the Sugarcubes emerged as what we used to call “college rock” darlings in the late 1980s, the Nordic country has exported more than its share of adventurous music: Björk, who emerged from the Sugarcubes as a solo act; Sigur Rós; Gus Gus, and more recently Laufey and Daði Freyr. (I originally heard this as “Daddy Feyr,” which says something about how our musical world is shrinking — but it’s actually his given name.)
The challenges of exporting acts from Iceland are significant: Few international music companies have offices there, the language isn’t spoken much outside the island, and there isn’t exactly much of a touring market in a country of 372,000 — far fewer people than saw Taylor Swift in Los Angeles this year. One of the important investors in the music business there is actually the government.
Last week, at the Iceland Airwaves festival and conference in Reykjavík, I got some sense of how that works and saw some a handful of Icelandic acts that could build solid global careers. (The festival flew me to Reykjavík to moderate a panel, with no expectation that I would cover the event, and I didn’t plan to do so.) None of them sound like they’re chasing the next streaming hit, which I found refreshing.
Since 2006, in fact, former Sugarcubes drummer Sigtryggur Baldursson has played a significant role in the international marketing of Icelandic music — first as part of Iceland Music Export, then since 2012 as managing director for its successor organization, Iceland Music. The organization coordinates grants and provides support for acts “to help people market music from here on their own terms,” Baldursson says. “We help labels and independent artists market their music better, but also to create better support for it.”
The direct results have been encouraging. But music has also helped brand Iceland, drawing tourists to a country with a vital culture as well as beautiful landscapes and hot springs. Björk is the most famous person in the country — by a kilometer.
Starting in January, Iceland is amping up its efforts. During the pandemic lockdown, the music business created a coalition to lobby the government for support, which eventually resulted in the creation of a new office that will fold two smaller organizations into the existing Iceland Music. As part of that change, Baldursson will step down as CEO in favor of María Rut Reynisdóttir. “The establishment of the new office,” Reynisdóttir says, “is a major milestone for the Icelandic music scene.”
All of the Nordic countries have “music export” organizations, and the ones in Finland and Norway are bigger because there’re less private investment in music than in Denmark and Sweden. “Formally opening the music center is an important milestone for music and musicians in this country,” says Lilja Dögg Alfreðsdóttir, Minister of Culture and Business Affairs. (Iceland, uniquely as far as I can tell, has one combined ministry for both business and culture.) “The music center can become one of the cornerstones of music life and industry.”
It’s hard to imagine this kind of government investment in music in the U.S., where it would quickly become a political clusterf—, with the disciples of Kid Rock facing off against those of Maren Morris. European countries are also more accustomed to public funding of the arts, including television and high culture institutions like opera. This isn’t necessarily the best solution overall — the U.S. still drives pop culture. But it works for them. One reason the U.S. drives pop culture is that it’s a big enough, rich enough country that private investment can pay off.
That’s one reason smaller countries subsidize their culture businesses — so they don’t get overwhelmed. France, famously, protects its film business, and many countries have radio airplay regulations that reserve a certain amount of time for local artists. Iceland even funds its book business to prevent local-language literature from being swamped by English authors.
That kind of thinking puts Iceland in an interesting situation. On one hand, most of the country’s pop music isn’t in Icelandic — it limits the potential audience. But much of it still has a certain spare kind of artiness — what’s Icelandic for je ne sais quoi? It’s often pop but not poppy, arty but not inaccessible. It’s too diverse to be considered a definable style but much of it has a certain aesthetic.
Iceland Airwaves is also a music festival, so I was able to check out some artists as well. Along with some acts from elsewhere, I enjoyed the off-kilter pop of local star Briet, the haunting electronic soundscapes of Kónguló, and, especially, the furiously arty punk of Gróa, which reminded me of the Raincoats.
Realistically, their combined potential to go viral seems pretty low, but that’s fine — Baldursson points out that most Icelandic acts depend more on playing live, anyway. These kinds of acts, Baldursson says, “they shoot from here out into the stratosphere.”
iHeartMedia shares dropped 19.6% to $2.01 this week as the company warned investors of continued softness in radio advertising dollars. Fourth quarter results “will be weaker than we originally anticipated,” said CEO Bob Pittman during Thursday’s earnings call. In October, consolidated revenue was down 8% from the prior-year period. For the fourth quarter, iHeartMedia expects consolidated revenue excluding political ad revenue to decline in the low single digits.
Still, iHeartMedia’s third-quarter results were in line with previous guidance. Revenue of $953 million was down 3.6% from the prior-year period, a bit better than the guidance of a low single-digit decrease. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $204 million was within the guidance of $195 million to $205 million.
The week’s sharp decline brought iHeartMedia’s year-to-date loss to 67.2%, far deeper than the declines of broadcast radio company Cumulus Media (-21.9%) and satellite radio company SiriusXM (-20.7%). Not only has broadcast radio suffered from weak national advertising, it lacks the high growth rates of music streaming and podcasting. PwC’s latest forecasts call for U.S. radio advertising revenues to rise just 4% from 2023 to 2027 while U.S. podcast advertising — where iHeartMedia has a large footprint — will grow 41% to $2 billion.
Next year’s elections should provide a shot in the arm, though. “As we look forward to 2024, we expect to generate significantly better free cash flow driven in part by an improving macro environment, as well as the impact of political dollars,” said CFO Rich Bressler. In 2020, the company generated $167 million in political revenues, he noted.
The Billboard Global Music Index mostly held steady this week, dropping just 0.3% to 1,390.68. Of the index’s 20 stocks, seven gained this while while 13 finished in negative territory. Most stocks had low-single-digit gains or losses and iHeartMedia was the only stock with a double-digit move in either direction.
French company Believe was the index’s greatest gainer of the week after improving 7.4% to 9.93 euros ($10.64). German concert promoter CTS Eventim, which will release third-quarter earnings on Nov. 21, gained 5.5% to 62.75 euros ($67.24). Music streaming company LiveOne gained 4.7% to $1.12. Chinese music streamer Cloud Music, which has not yet announced the date of its third-quarter earnings release, gained 3.3% to 99.50 HKD ($12.74).
Shares of Sphere Entertainment Co. dropped 1.5% to $35.95 after a roller-coaster week. Following the company’s Nov. 3 announcement that CFO Gautum Ranji had left the company, Sphere Entertainment shares dropped 9.6% to $32.97 on Monday. The share price fell an additional 4.5% to $31.87 on Wednesday following the quarterly earnings release. But Sphere Entertainment picked up momentum in the latter half of the week, gaining 12.8% over Thursday and Friday to close at $35.95.
U.S. stocks were broadly up this week despite news that consumer sentiment declined in November and expectations for future inflation reached their highest level since 2011. The Nasdaq composite rose 2.4% while the S&P 500 improved 1.3%. Many major U.S. tech stocks posted big gains. Microsoft hit an all-time high of $370.09 on Friday and finished the week at $369.67, up 4.8%. Apple rose 5.5% to $186.40. Amazon improved 3.6% to $143.56. Meta jumped 4.5% to $32.8.77. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 fell 0.8%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 1.7%.
Music companies’ third-quarter earnings reports have so far been full of good news and positive trends. Subscription and streaming growth continue to drive revenues for record labels and publishers. Live entertainment continues its post-pandemic expansion. Margins are healthy. Overall, these have been solid report cards for the state of the music business.
Among the companies to report thus far are Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Spotify, Believe, Sphere Entertainment Co., MSG Entertainment, HYBE and SiriusXM. Next week’s earnings reports will come from Warner Music Group (Nov. 16) and Tencent Music Entertainment (Nov. 14). German concert promoter CTS Eventim will report on Nov. 21.
Here are seven items from the earnings releases to date that stood out and deserve more attention.
Universal Music Group struck out against “merchants of garbage.” During Universal Music Group’s Oct. 26 earnings call, chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge got a lot of attention when he bemoaned the “merchants of garbage” — creators of low-value functional music such as generic mood music and nature sounds — that want to be on equal royalty terms at streaming platforms as such UMG artists as Taylor Swift, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Grainge’s memorable turn of phrase came in defense of UMG’s artist-centric royalty scheme crafted in partnership with French music streaming service Deezer. “Sorry, I can’t really think of another word for content that no one really actually wants to listen to,” Grainge said.
Spotify’s price increase gave a much-needed uplift to subscription revenues. The price for an individual Spotify subscription in the U.S. was $9.99 from 2011 to July 2023. The price hike to $10.99 in roughly 50 markets may have arrived later than its competitors, but it came just when Spotify needed a boost. Spotify’s premium average revenue per user dropped 6% year over year (1% at constant currency) mainly because the company had a larger share of family plans compared to the prior-year, CFO Paul Vogel said during the July 25 earnings call. Early returns from the price increase in the U.S., U.K. and dozens of other markets helped offset those losses. Because Spotify’s number of subscribers increased 16% year over year to 226 million, subscription revenue grew 10% year over year (16% at constant currency) to 2.9 billion euros ($3.1 billion). With three full months of a price increase in the fourth quarter and considering the price increase covered about 75% of Spotify’s revenue base, the company expects the price increase to provide “a positive, mid-single digit” benefit (excluding foreign exchange) in the fourth quarter, said Vogel.
No company lowered guidance, and some have raised guidance. Sony Music raised guidance for revenue and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization by 5% and 4%, respectively. Reservoir Media raised guidance for fiscal 2024 revenue and adjusted EBITDA by 10% each. It’s one thing for a company to meet expectations it had previously laid out to investors. But raising previously released expectations is something else altogether — a sign the future will be better than expected. It’s usually a benefit to the stock price, too. The share price is the present value of future cash flows. When an estimate for future cash flows takes a sudden jump, that changes the financial model used to calculate the share price.
Consumers aren’t slowing their spending on live music. In August, concerns arose that a resumption of student loan payments, paused to help people struggling during the pandemic, would take a bite out of pocketbooks and cause music fans to pull back on the record amounts they were spending on live entertainment. Three months later, there is no indication that consumers are slowing down, according to Live Nation. “We’re seeing no sign of weaknesses,” said president and CFO Joe Berchtold, noting that Ticketmaster’s October sales in North American were up double-digits year over year. “We’re not seeing any pullback in any way from a club to a stadium tour from Milan to Argentina right now,” added president and CEO Michael Rapino.
SM Entertainment has big plans for its new publishing subsidiary, Kreation Music Rights. The K-pop stalwart has been “aggressively recruiting global writers” and plans to have 80 of them under contract this year, CEO Jang Cheol Hyuk said during the Nov. 8 earnings call. SM Entertainment is pursuing collaborations with both domestic and international publishers and plans to recruit foreign writers “who wish to advance into K-pop by establishing overseas subsidiaries,” Jiang said.
Radio advertising continues to struggle — but the clouds may be starting to part. iHeartMedia’s October revenues were down 8% and the company expects its fourth-quarter revenue excluding political revenue to be down in the mid-single digit percent year over year. The fourth quarter will be iHeartMedia’s strongest quarter of the year “but will be weaker than we originally anticipated due to some dampening of advertising demand which coincided with the uncertainty caused by the recent geopolitical events,” CEO Bob Pittman said during Thursday’s earnings call. That said, iHeartMedia’s digital business “is sort of in recovery mode,” said Pittman, and the company is “seeing the pieces falling into place” for radio’s recovery as most advertisers expect to be “back in growth mode…and spending to support that” in 2024.
The market for catalog acquisitions isn’t slowing down. Reservoir Media CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi said catalog prices aren’t contracting despite higher interest rates. “We’re still seeing a lot of demand for assets and continued infusion of new capital within the competitive set,” she said during Tuesday’s earnings call. “And that is certainly fueling the demand. The pipeline is robust. And it ranges in size from large to a lot of smaller deals.” Reservoir Media hasn’t been suffering from sticker shock, though. Acquisitions in the Middle East-North Africa market — such as some catalog of Saudi Arabian label Mashrex in June — provide the company with good value, Khosrowshahi added. “If we’re looking at a market here that is somewhat saturated with a lot of capital in the marketplace, and we’re able to execute [deals in MENA] at these lower multiples, that makes it just that much more attractive to us.”
In the Mechanical Licensing Collective’s (The MLC) third annual membership meeting, the Nashville-based non-profit organization revealed that it has distributed $1.5 billion in total royalties to date to songwriters and publishers, up by about $500 million from March.
This year marked the Music Modernization Act‘s fifth anniversary since passing into law — the landmark occasion that instructed the MLC’s formation. As part of the law, a new blanket license was created for musical work (also known as “song” or “composition”) mechanical royalties that greatly simplified music licensing for digital services like Spotify and Apple Music, among others.
The previous, piece-meal system was not only complicated for the services — it also led to a growing pool of over $400 million in streaming royalties that were unallocated because the compositions’ owners couldn’t be found. (This is colloquially known in the business as “black box” money, although the MLC uses the term “historical unmatched royalties.”) The MLC was tasked to implement and administer this new blanket license and distribute the money in this stagnant royalty pool. It officially opened its doors on Jan. 1, 2021.
According to its latest report, The MLC has completed 31 monthly royalty distributions to date, each one of them completed on time or early. Its match rate for all royalties processed through October is also up 1% since their last reporting in March, rising from 89% to 90%. According to the MLC, the match rate represented the percentage of total royalties processed that were able to match to a registered work in their database.
The MLC reported a membership of 32,000 people — 9,000 of which joined in 2023 — and touts 33 million works in its database, with data for over 3 million works added in 2023 alone. An MLC spokesperson clarified that this metric means that there were 3 million new songs this year, calculated by taking the total number of songs registered at the beginning of the year and comparing that to the total number registered at the end of September.
During the membership meeting, The MLC also announced some new board appointments. Alisa Coleman was re-elected by The MLC’s Class B Members to serve on The MLC’s Board of Directors for a second three-year term; The MLC’s Class A Members selected Troy Verges to fill the open seat as a songwriter director of the board, a position previously held by Craig Wiseman; The Class A Members selected Kevin Kadish to serve a second three-year term as a songwriter director of the board. (The Class C membership will not change in 2024.)
“We are proud of these accomplishments, particularly in reaching the milestone of distributing over $1.5 billion in royalties,” said Kris Ahrend, CEO of the MLC. “We have effectively illuminated the black box by empowering our members with several tools that enable them to take actions intended to eliminate the black box. We look forward to continuing our work to fulfill our mission of ensuring songwriters, composers, lyricists and music publishers receive their mechanical royalties from streaming & download services in the United States accurately and on time.”
As part of the five year anniversary of the MMA, Congress hosted a committee hearing in June to review its impact on the music business so far. Ahrend, along with Garrett Levin (then-president and CEO, Digital Media Association), Michael Molinar (president, Big Machine Music), Abby North (president, North Music Group), Daniel Tashian (songwriter, producer) and David Porter (songwriter, producer) all spoke as witnesses.
The 2024 Grammy Awards nominations were released today (Nov. 10), with SZA, Victoria Monet and Phoebe Bridgers among the artists receiving the most nods for the Feb. 4 awards. For the fourth time in the past six years, Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA) artists racked up the most nominations among labels in the “Big Four” categories of record, album and song of the year and best new artist.
IGA artists accumulated 13 nominations among those top categories, more than doubling the next-highest label tally. They include Jon Batiste (Verve/Interscope), boygenius, Olivia Rodrigo (Geffen) and Lana Del Rey, all of whom landed multiple nominations. Billie Eilish also scored two, for record and song of the year for her track “What Was I Made For?” off the Barbie soundtrack album. (Eilish is a Darkroom/Interscope artist, though that soundtrack was released by Atlantic Records; in this case, those nominations are being counted for both Interscope and Atlantic. Warner Records artist Dua Lipa’s contribution to that soundtrack, “Dance The Night,” was also nominated for song of the year and is also counted for both labels.)
Notably, three of those Interscope artists — Eilish, Rodrigo and Bridgers, who is a member of boygenius — were nominees for best new artist within the past four years, with both Eilish (in 2020) and Rodrigo (in 2022) winning the honor. This year, Interscope has another artist, Gracie Abrams, nominated in the category.
Behind IGA, both Atlantic and RCA picked up five nominations among the Big Four categories, tying for second place among labels. Atlantic has three from the Barbie soundtrack, as well as an album of the year nomination for Janelle Monae’s The Age Of Pleasure and a best new artist nod for dance act Fred Again… SZA led the way for RCA, with her hit “Kill Bill” earning record and song of the year noms and album SOS picking up an album of the year nod, while Victoria Monet was recognized for record of the year for “On My Mama” as well as best new artist for the Sony-owned label.
Beyond those three labels, Taylor Swift’s three nominations in the Big Four — record and song for “Anti-Hero” and album for Midnights — led the way for Republic, which also saw Noah Kahan (Mercury/Republic) pick up a best new artist nomination to round out its total of four nods. Meanwhile, Miley Cyrus’ three Big Four nominations — record and song for “Flowers,” album for Endless Summer Vacation — accounted for all nods in the Big Four for Columbia, which led all labels in Big Four nominations last year. Other labels whose artists received Big Four nominations include Capitol (Ice Spice, best new artist, in collaboration with 10K Projects), BBR Music Group (Jelly Roll, best new artist), Def Jam (Coco Jones, best new artist), UMG Nashville (The War and Treaty, best new artist) and Warner Records (Dua Lipa’s “Dance The Night,” song of the year).
Broken out by label group, Universal Music Group led the way with 20 nominations in the Big Four categories, while Sony Music Entertainment picked up eight, Warner Music Group accounted for five and BMG, which owns BBR Music Group, received one.