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Ruth Seymour, the hard-driving broadcast pioneer who transformed KCRW into a public radio powerhouse during her 32-year run at what was a sleepy Santa Monica-based station, died Friday. She was 88.
Seymour died after a long illness at her home in Santa Monica, former KCRW producer/publicity director Sarah Spitz announced.
The Bronx-born Seymour joined the FM station in 1977 as a consultant and became general manager a few months later. Her mission statement for KCRW was “to matter,” and she built it to be “singular, idiosyncratic, daring, independent, smart and compelling” — six words she employed over and over in her fundraising letters and on-air subscription drives.
During her tenure, KCRW became the West Coast flagship station for National Public Radio and launched a mix of news, talk, music, current affairs and cultural programming that included the signature music show Morning Becomes Eclectic; Which Way L.A.?, hosted by Warren Olney in the wake of the 1992 L.A. riots; Le Show, hosted by Harry Shearer; the political roundtable Left, Right and Center; To the Point; and The Politics of Culture.
“I believe we catch a lot of listeners by surprise,” she told the Los Angeles Times in a 1982 interview. “They tune in for one thing, just leave the radio on, and then find themselves wrapped up in something they didn’t expect.”
Through the internet and popular podcasts like The Business, hosted since 2009 by The Hollywood Reporter’s Kim Masters, KCRW gained a strong national profile and reputation before she retired in February 2010 and was succeeded by her onetime assistant, Jennifer Ferro, now station president.
“Ruth was singular in every way. She had a powerful vision that never wavered. There was a spirit in Ruth that no one else has,” Ferro said in a statement. “She didn’t just save NPR or create a new format — Ruth took chances and made decisions because she knew they were right. She trusted her gut. She broke rules and pursued excellence in ways that can’t easily be explained. She was a force of nature.
“Ruth’s legacy lives on at KCRW. She inspires us to be original, to host the smartest people, the most creative artists and to talk to our audience with the utmost respect for their intellect.”
The older of two sisters, Ruth Epstein grew up across the street from the Bronx Zoo. Her father was a furrier and her mother a garment worker, and the family didn’t have a telephone until she was 15.
She attended Sholem Aleichem Folk School in addition to public school and then City College of New York, where she studied one-on-one with the renowned Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich.
Seymour came to Los Angeles in 1961 to accompany her husband, the poet Jack Hirschman, who had landed a teaching job at UCLA after a stint at Dartmouth University, and she was hired as the drama and literary critic at the FM station KPFK. There, she interviewed the likes of Andy Warhol and Anne Sexton.
After freelancing in Europe for station parent Pacifica Radio, she returned to KPFK to serve as program director in 1971, and she produced a celebrity cast reading of selected scenes from the Watergate tapes with Shearer, Rob Reiner and, as President Nixon, Christopher Guest.
However, she was fired in 1976, a couple of years after the FBI had raided the station looking for a cassette from Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army that KPFK had put on the air.
When Seymour arrived at KCRW, it was owned by the Santa Monica School District, had just five employees and was operating out of two converted classrooms on a playground at John Adams Junior High School.
Seymour replaced the oldest transmitter west of the Mississippi with a new one in 1979. Also that year, she ran NPR’s new two-hour Morning Edition program three times each weekday starting at 3 a.m. in a bid to outmaneuver L.A.’s then-leading public station, KUSC. “That way nobody was going to have [the programs] when I didn’t have them,” she said.
She let Shearer do pretty much anything he wanted on his weekly one-hour program.
“Ruth was a towering figure in public radio, embracing a breadth of subject matter and styles that, frankly, does not seem possible anymore,” he said in a statement. “She imagined a listener who was endlessly curious, open to a wide range of opinions and music, and worked tirelessly to satisfy that listener. There will not be one like her again.”
Said Seymour in 1987: “Our audience always understood what we were trying to do. From the very beginning, we were regarded as slightly demented. Not exactly irresponsible but adventurous, interesting. And idealistic.”
She would get the station a new home in the basement of the student activities building at Santa Monica College, which licenses KCRW, in 1984. She also advocated for passage of a 2008 municipal bond that built the station’s first stand-alone building, now located on the campus of SMC’s Center for Media and Design.
In 1996, Seymour made KCRW the first station to carry Ira Glass’ This American Life outside of its home base, Chicago’s WBEZ. She also did interviews, including one with poet Allen Ginsberg in 1985.
“My favorite mental image of Ruth was during the first war in Iraq,” NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg recalled. “She put on a radiothon to raise money to send NPR correspondents to cover it (the great Anne Garrels and others). And to make her on-air pitches, she wore camouflage and combat boots! She knew it would be war to raise the funds, and she dressed for the challenge. I loved and admired her enormously and found her to be a great teacher and inspirer.”
The Times wrote in 1995 that Seymour ruled “with an iron fist … she is renowned for attracting and nurturing brilliant on-air talent and for swiftly cutting them loose if they step out of line or their Arbitron ratings slump.” In 2004, she would fire radio personality Sandra Tsing Loh after she said “fuck” on the air.
“Well, you’re not allowed to do that, especially if you use it as a verb, which she did, and especially if you use it as a verb on Sunday morning in the middle of Weekend Edition,” she recalled a few years later. (The engineer on duty, however, is supposed to replace an expletive with a bleep).
Seymour replaced Claude Brodesser-Akner as host of The Business with Masters, who heard from the exec minutes after she had been laid off by NPR during the 2008 recession. “She called me before I had even gotten into my car,” Masters recalled. “I didn’t know her. She said, ‘Sweetheart, are they meshuga? Their loss will be my gain.’”
During every Hanukkah from 1979-2007, Seymour hosted the three-hour live show Philosophers, Fiddlers and Fools, which featured Yiddish folk music, songs and stories and a memorial to the Holocaust. “I always broadcast the program on Friday evenings so I could bid my listeners a gut yontif,” she said in 2010.
Years after she divorced Hirschman, she changed her surname in 1993 to honor her paternal Polish-born great-grandfather, a rabbi.
Survivors include her daughter, Celia; her sister, Ann, and brother-in-law, Richard; her niece, Jessica; her nephew, Daniel; and cousins Anita and Greg. Her son, David, died at age 25 from lymphoma.
A public memorial service is being planned.
This story was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Holiday music has exploded in popularity over the last decade as listeners hit play, again and again, on their favorite Christmastime songs on their favorite streaming services. The top 100 holiday tracks — track sales and on-demand audio streams in November and December — rose more than ten-fold from 2014 to 2022 compared to all-genre growth of 165% over those years.
But one group of songs has been left out of the holiday gold rush: religious songs.
Back in 2014, the top holiday song was Pentatonix’s version of “Mary, Did You Know?,” a song penned by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene in 1991 and originally recorded by Christian recording artist Michael English the same year. In the November to December holiday listening period, that recording of “Mary, Did You Know?” had 276,000 track equivalent units, according to Luminate — with 92% coming from download purchases.
In 2022, the top song was a secular one: Mariah Carey’s omnipresent “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which amassed 1.6 million track equivalent units in November and December. In 2023, both Carey and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” are on pace to do even better thanks to constantly growing streaming numbers and the artists’ heavy media presences. Universal Music Group Nashville’s campaign for Lee, which included making an official video and an appearance on NBC’s Christmas at the Opry television special, pushed “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” to No. 1 on the Hot 100 for the weeks ended Dec. 9 and 16.
In contrast, this year’s top religious holiday song, Pentatonix’s “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” ranks just No. 47. That lower ranking means fewer royalties from tracks and streams than the 46 secular songs in front of it. From Nov. 3 to Dec. 14, “God Rest” has only 19% of the track equivalent units of the No. 1 recording, “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
The shift to secular holiday music has been abrupt. Pentatonix took the No. 1 spot in 2014 and the No. 2 spot in 2015, but by 2017, the top 10 holiday tracks were filled entirely with secular songs. Since 2018, no religious track has pierced the top 40. One of the top religious songs in recent years, Nat King Cole’s “O Come All Ye Faithful,” was No. 50 in 2022 and No. 46 in 2021.
Secular music’s command of the top 100 holiday recordings has widened over the last decade. In 2014 and 2015, 14 and 13 religious songs were among the top 100 holiday tracks, respectively. In each of the last three years, however, religious songs have accounted for only seven or eight of the top 100.
This change means religious songs have missed out on the recent financial bonanza. As secular songs dominate holiday listening, religious songs have won a smaller share of royalties. In 2014, 14 religious songs accounted for 83% of the top 100 holiday tracks’ royalties, according to Billboard’s estimate based on Luminate data. By 2022, seven religious songs accounted for just 4% of the top 100’s royalties. This year will have a similar disparity as only eight religious songs are currently in the top 100 holiday tracks.
Demographic shifts and the nature of popular holiday music suggest religious music will have a tough time making a comeback. As Billboard has reported, once a track becomes a holiday favorite, it gains a competitive advantage over other holiday tracks. That’s not to say a religious song can’t climb up the ranks in the coming years. But it takes multiple years for a new holiday recording to stick with listeners, and the young recordings with the most success — such as “Merry Christmas” by Elton John & Ed Sheeran and “Like It’s Christmas” by Jonas Brothers — are all secular. And with a declining Christian population in the United States to boot, it seems consumer sentiment is likely to match that trend, favoring songs about a special feeling this time of year over biblical themes.
Each week we’ll be sharing the most important news from the north with Canada’s top music industry stories, supplied by our colleagues at Billboard Canada.
For more Canadian music coverage visit ca.billboard.com.
Bryan Adams Splits With Longtime Manager
After a memorable handshake agreement in Vancouver 44 years ago, manager Bruce Allen and client Bryan Adams have broken up. As confirmed by a source with direct knowledge of the situation, Adams is now self-managing his career.
Bruce Allen
There has been no public announcement of the falling-out, but Bruce Allen Talent’s website no longer lists Adams as a client, and the “Run to You” rocker’s website similarly strikes any mention of Allen as his manager. Insiders say that Adams, short-term, is handling his own affairs.
Allen, now 78, has earned his mostly Canadian client list untold millions of dollars. Among them include some household names such as Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Loverboy and, more recently, Michael Bublé and Jann Arden.
The breach in the handshake agreement is believed to be over artistic direction, in particular Adams’ insistence on investing heavily in new music and videos in recent years. READ MORE
Spotify’s Global Job Cuts Hit Canada
On Dec. 4, Spotify announced it would be slashing its global workforce by 17%. Billboard Canada has learned that Nathan Wiszniak, Head of Artist & Label Partnerships at Spotify Canada, was among those laid off.
At the time of Spotify’s announcement, just a few days after unveiling its popular Spotify Wrapped campaign, it was unclear how many of the roughly 1,500 jobs cut would come from Canada. A spokesperson from Spotify Canada declined to share, but confirmed that Wiszniak was part of the layoffs.
Wiszniak has worked at Spotify Canada for nine years and was one of the founding members when the music streaming company expanded to Canada in 2014. In his role in Music Partnerships, he worked to promote Canadian music and artists and give them a global platform on Spotify.
“From the outset, my mission was to establish and promote an ecosystem that would propel the growth of our industry,” Wiszniak writes in an email to Billboard Canada.
Asked about his accomplishments, he highlights his role in championing Punjabi-Canadian artists like Ikky, Karan Aujla and AP Dhillon (all three appeared on Billboard Canada’s inaugural Punjabi Wave cover) and contributing to their exponential growth and in nurturing the early careers of breakout Canadian artists like Jessie Reyez, Daniel Caesar and Charlotte Cardin.
In the last two years however, he says, Wiszniak’s primary role has been “educating government stakeholders about the intricacies of streaming…during a regulatory phase that occurs once in a generation.” He’s likely referring to Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, which will update Canada’s media policy for the first time in decades. Spotify is at the heart of that bill’s implementation, which could require the company to make more direct and mandatory financial contributions to the Canadian music industry via government regulations.
On Nov. 30, just a few days before the layoff announcement, Wiszniak spoke at the Online Streaming Act hearings, arguing that “imposing initial base contributions on platforms before defining critical elements of the broadcast policy is premature, and risks overlooking the many ways that Spotify already contributes to and supports Canadian and Indigenous artists.” READ MORE
New IFPI Report Reveals Canadian Distrust of AI
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has released a new report detailing how music fans all over the world listen to music, with specific stats for participating countries. Music Canada has shared new data about Canadian listening habits from the report.
Most notably, it includes some vital Canadian perspectives on one of this year’s hot-button topics in the music industry: artificial intelligence. Many are not in favour, at least not of the wild west version of AI that has flooded the internet this year. 76% of Canadians believe that AI shouldn’t be employed to impersonate or clone a musician without their approval.
Even more Canadians — 85% — believe that music created solely using AI should be labelled as AI-generated, and also that human musicians are an essential part of music creation. The data indicates that in ongoing debates over the role of AI in music, Canadian consumers could support certain amounts of regulation and protections for artists.
AI music is already flooding streaming services, and Spotify allegedly removed tens of thousands of AI-generated songs from its platform earlier this year, to prevent those songs from acquiring fake streams and inflated royalties. Meanwhile, TikTok user @ghostwriter977 released an AI-created fake Drake and The Weeknd song earlier this year, gathering millions of streams before the song was taken off streaming platforms. According to the IFPI report, 77% of Canadians agree that AI systems should list which music has been used to train their tools.
The report included over 43,000 respondents from 26 countries, and concludes that globally, we’re listening to more music in more ways than ever. People around the world listen to an average of 20.7 hours of music per week — up from 20.1 hours in 2022 — and the use of paid streaming platforms is rising. For the 16-24 demographic, though, short-form videos are the top method of music listening, not audio streaming services.
On average, Canadians use 7.2 different methods to encounter music and hop between eight different genres. Half of Canadians subscribe to audio streaming services, while a quarter access music through unlicensed methods. In addition to how we listen to music, the report also highlights what music does for us: 83% of Canadians say that music is important to their mental health. READ MORE
Last Week’s Headlines: Top TikTok Tracks, Montreal’s Music and Noise Laws
Santa Fe Klan has signed a management deal with Prajin Parlay Inc., effective immediately, Billboard has learned today (Dec. 22). The indie record label is also home to música Mexicana phenomenon, Peso Pluma.
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“Santa Fe Klan has accomplished an incredible amount for música Mexicana and his community over the last few years,” CEO and manager of Peso, George Prajin, said in a press statement. “He is an impressive young man and we are looking forward to helping him continue cultivating his skills as both a musician and businessman.”
“As I enter this next chapter in my career I’m excited to join the Prajin Parlay roster and I’m excited for my fans to see everything we have planned for 2024,” added the renowned Mexican rapper born Ángel Quezada.
Additionally, Prajin is a partner in Doble P Records alongside Peso, who expressed “I’ve always admired Santa Fe Klan and I know he’s going to make a great addition to our family.”
On the 2023 Billboard Year-End charts, Prajin Parlay Inc.—also home to Jasiel Nuñez, Tito Doble P, and more—landed No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs Publisher chart. The label, next to Doble P Records, had a breakthrough year ranking high on many of the year-end Billboard charts including Hot Latin Songs Imprint, Regional Mexican Albums Labels, and Independent Labels, to name a few.
Born in Guanajato, Mexico, Santa Fe Klan (his artistic name is an ode to his barrio) recorded and uploaded his own music to YouTube and SoundCloud when he was a teenager. His love for rap and hip-hop music was inspired by artists such as Cartel de Santa and MC Davo, and his ultra-personal and raw lyricism ultimately landed him collaborations with artists such as Snoop Dogg, Lupillo Rivera, and Calibre 50.
His first entry on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs arrived in April 2022 with “Mar y Tierra,” part of his fifth studio album Mundo, which debuted at No. 4 on Latin Pop Albums and No. 11 on Latin Rhythms Albums.
Earlier this year, Santa Fe earned his first career No. 1 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart with the Los Ángeles Azules and Cazzu-assisted “Tú y Tú.”
If it’s Friday, you know it’s high time for another spin around the Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music.
BMG made a switch in Brazil, promoting Daniel Fernandes to general manager as Jasmina Zammit departs to take on an international role at the music company’s Berlin headquarters. During his short time at BMG — he joined in 2022 as senior director of A&R — Fernandes is credited with signing Élcio di Carvalho, Ariel Donato and Raffa Torres. He was previously at Sony Music-owned Brazilian label Som Livre. BMG Brazil is based in São Paulo, where Fernandes and his team will work closely with Julio Vieira, vp of finance & operations for Latin America. BMG’s operation in São Paulo was launched in 2016 and evolved from managing existing repertoire to developing its own local signing strategy, offering music publishing and recordings under one roof. “I thank Jasmina for her trust and am looking forward to working with our amazing Brazilian roster and to further grow our local catalogue,” said Fernandes. “The opportunity to lead BMG Brazil’s team is both an honor and a privilege and I am thrilled and excited about the journey ahead.”
Daniel Fernandes and Jasmina Zammit
BMG
German-born Zammit is what you’d call a BMG lifer, having joined as an executive assistant in 2008 — the year it relaunched after Bertelsmann sold its stake in Sony BMG — and rising over the years to vp of international licensing and marketing in Berlin before making the move to Brazil, as general manager, in 2018. Two years later she was appointed managing director. “Setting up and heading the Brazilian operation has been quite a challenge, but foremost an amazing experience!” she writes on LinkedIn. “I am truly grateful for everyone who has helped me navigate through the peculiarities of the local music industry. Thank you to all the business partners, artists and writers for their trust!”
Zammit’s new role back home in Berlin is focused on Latin America and emerging markets.
Warner Music Group‘s global catalog team hired Jeremy Sponder as vice president of U.S. marketing for international repertoire. In his new role, Sponder manages stateside marketing activations for UK/international catalogs of both the shallow and deep persuasions. He’s based in NYC and reports to team vp of communications Lauren Papapietro, while also working closely with Katie Graham and Stuart Wheeley. Sponder shimmies over to WMG’s catalog team from ADA Worldwide, the company’s artist and label services arm, where he has been vp of catalog since 2021. Prior to ADA, Sponder marketed deep/shallow catolog content for UMG’s catalog division, UMEe, and before that spent time five years at at Sony Music-owned indie distributor The Orchard.
Nashville-based live entertainment promoter Outback Presents promoted Jenny Reid to vice president of ticketing, overseeing all ticketing operations and focusing on country and comedy events. Reid and her ticketing team have managed tours in North America for artists and comedians including Alabama, Nate Bargatze, Taylor Tomlinson and John Crist. Reid has been with Outback Presents for four years and previously worked at Huka Entertainment, Ticketfly and Eventbrite. “Jenny has built an incredible team that we are extremely proud of,” says Smardak. “With over ten years of experience in ticketing and box office operations, Jenny has lead the force to establish a powerful ticketing team at Outback.” –Jessica Nicholson
Board Shorts: Music Venue Trust, the UK charity that looks after the interests of some 900 grassroots venues, added four folks to its board of trustees. Joining are Ausa Qureshi, music program manager at Summerhall in Edinburgh; Emma Bownes, a programmer at The O2; Jane Beese, director of music at Factory International; and musician Rhoda Dakar. They join existing trustees Bonita McKinney, Phyllis Belezos, Scott Taylforth, Chris Prosser, Simon Hilton, Sarah Thirtle, Jason Dorman, and Jeremy Pritchard. Exiting the board are Sarah Clover KC and Lohan Presencer … Hipgnosis Songs Fund appointed Christopher Mills, the CEO of North Atlantic Smaller Companies Investment Trust, as an independent non-executive director of the company. HSF also disclosed the committee chair positions of the following members: Cindy Rampersaud, audit and risk management; Robert Naylor, nomination; Simon Holden, portfolio; and Francis Keeling, management engagement.
Last Week’s Turntable: New Leaders at Kakao and Vibe
Hipgnosis Songs Fund capped off an eventful 2023 by lowering the value of its music catalog amidst internal conflict over exactly what the company’s star-studded catalog is worth.
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The publicly listed royalty fund said its operative net asset value per share declined 9.2% to $1.74 on Sept. 30 from $1.92 on March 31, according to its half-year earnings report on Thursday (Dec. 21). The sharp decline stemmed primarily from a “material reduction” in expectations for CRB III and CRB IV income.
The company’s self-reported valuation has long exceeded the value implied by its share price and estimates of equity analysts. In recent months, Hipgnosis Songs Fund has proposed and completed partial catalog sales at discounts to their net asset values.
New board chair Robert Naylor‘s statement to investors described a strained relationship with the fund’s investment advisor, the Merck Mercuriadis-led Hipgnosis Song Management, over the valuation of the five-year-old company’s catalog that includes stakes in songs by Neil Young, Journey and Fleetwood Mac.
Two days earlier, the board postponed the release of half-year earnings after the investment advisor produced a “heavily caveated” opinion on the catalog valuation provided by independent firm Citrin Cooperman that was “materially higher than the valuation implied by proposed and recent transactions in the sector.”
Internal conflicts continued while the results were delayed. According to Naylor, the board’s request of Hipgnosis Song Management about “the matter to be published on the Company’s website in order to provide transparency for shareholders” was rebuffed “under the confidentiality clauses of the Investment Advisory Agreement.”
On Thursday, Naylor urged Hipgnosis Songs Management to provide an opinion on the valuation of Hipgnosis Songs Fund “without caveats” to provide greater transparency to shareholders. In the absence of a caveat-free opinion, the board urged investors to use “a higher degree of caution and less certainty” than normal when considering its fair value and operative NAV.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund shares fell 1% to 0.70 GBP on Thursday.
Gross revenue from continuing operations declined 26.9% to $63.2 million from $86.4 million in the six-month period ended March 31, 2023.
Net revenue from continuing operations declined 29.7% to $54 million from $76.8 million. About half of the decline came from a $11.9 million reversal of accrued royalties in October. Excluding those accrued revenues, net revenue grew 14% to $65.8 million.
Pro-forma annual revenue (PFAR), which measures gross royalties received and excludes revenue accruals, grew 10.4% to $64.9 million.
Following shareholders’ vote against continuation at the annual general meeting on Oct. 26, Hipgnosis Songs Fund transformed its board of directors by naming Naylor to succeed Andrew Sutch as chairman and adding Francis Keeling, a former Universal Music Group executive, and Christopher Mills, CEO and investment manager at North Atlantic Smaller Companies Investment Trust, to replace Andrew Wilkinson and Paul Burger, both of whom left prior to the annual general meeting.
The new board undertook a strategic review and named Shot Tower Capital as lead advisor to conduct due diligence on the catalog. On Thursday, Naylor said he was pleased with the strategic review’s progress thus far. “This process will help the new Board bring forward proposals for delivering value to shareholders,” said Naylor.
But Naylor also described “ongoing failures in the financial reporting and control process” since he joined the board. “Whilst we consider substantial progress has been made in identifying and rectifying these issues,” Naylor added, “we have had to suspend the dividend for at least the remainder of the year in order to ensure compliance with our banking covenants.”
12/21/2023
The year saw both record revenues and widespread upheaval amid the rise of new technologies and existential questions about the future of the industry.
12/21/2023
A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled against Nirvana and revived a child pornography lawsuit filed by the man who appeared as a nude baby on the cover of the band’s 1991 album Nevermind.
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Spencer Elden, now in his 30s, claimed the photo – one of the most iconic album covers in rock history – violated federal child pornography laws by displaying a sexualized image of a minor. But a lower ruled last year that he had waited far too long to bring his lawsuit.
In a decision overturning that ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that each new republication of the image – including a highly-publicized 30th anniversary re-release in 2021 – could constitute a new “injury” to Elden that would reset the statute of limitations.
“Victims of child pornography may suffer a new injury upon the republication of the pornographic material,” Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta wrote for a three-judge panel. “This conclusion is consistent with the Supreme Court’s view that every viewing of child pornography is a repetition of the victim’s abuse.”
The ruling does not mean that Elden has won the case. The lawsuit will now return to a lower court, where he must actually prove that the image meets the definition of child pornography – something Nirvana vigorously disputes and some legal experts doubt.
In a statement to Billboard, Nirvana’s attorney Bert Deixler called the ruling a “procedural setback” that did not affect their core arguments: “We will defend this meritless case with vigor and expect to prevail.”
An attorney for Elden did not immediately return a request for comment.
Originally released Sept. 24, 1991, Nevermind reached the top spot on the Billboard 200 in January 1992 and ultimately spent 554 weeks on the chart. The album has sold more than 30 million copies and is widely considered one of the most influential in the history of popular music.
The album’s cover — a nude infant swimming in a pool chasing after a dollar attached to a fishhook — was long interpreted as an edgy critique of greed and capitalism. But in his 2021 civil lawsuit, Elden claimed it was something else entirely: the kind of “lascivious” display of a minor’s genitals that’s prohibited under federal child pornography statutes.
“Spencer’s true identity and legal name are forever tied to the commercial sexual exploitation he experienced as a minor which has been distributed and sold worldwide from the time he was a baby to the present day,” he claimed at the time.
In addition to Nirvana’s corporate entity, the lawsuit also named Kurt Cobain’s estate, Universal Music Group, Dave Grohl and a number of other companies and individuals. The lawsuit was a civil action, and no allegations of criminal wrongdoing by anyone have been raised.
Nirvana sharply disputed that the image amounted to child pornography, but argued first that the case should be dismissed for a simpler reason: the statute of limitations. They cited the fact that Elden had seemingly endorsed his role in rock history on a number of occasions, including prior to the cutoff year for the 10-year statute of limitations.
“Long before 2011, as Elden has pled, Elden knew about the photograph, and knew that he (and not someone else) was the baby in the photograph,” the band claimed in its motion to dismiss the case. “He has been fully aware of the facts of both the supposed ‘violation’ and ‘injury’ for decades.”
In a ruling in September 2022, a federal judge agreed with Nirvana’s arguments. He ruled that the 10-year time limit began when a victim “reasonably discovers” either the crime or the injury caused by it – and that under either time limit, Elden had clearly filed his case too late.
But in Thursday’s decision, the Ninth Circuit said the time limits were more like those used in defamation cases and other “dignitary torts,” where a new repetition of the offending publication could give grounds to sue, despite the statute of limitations.
“The online dissemination of child pornography haunts victims long after their original images or videos are created,” the court wrote. “As the Supreme Court has explained, the victim’s knowledge of publication of the visual material increases the emotional and psychic harm suffered by the child.”
The court added later: “If a victim learns a defendant has distributed child pornography and does not sue, but then later learns the defendant has done so again many years later, the statute of limitations … does not prevent the plaintiff from bringing a claim based on that new injury.”
The French government’s decision to impose a new tax on music streaming platforms will be highly damaging for the country’s music industry and sets a “dangerous precedent” for other markets, warn streaming executives opposing the levy.
France’s National Assembly officially approved the tax charges on Tuesday (Dec. 19) as part of the country’s 2024 finance bill.
It specifies that streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music earning above 20 million euros ($22 million) in annual turnover will have to pay a new tax charge of 1.2% on all streaming revenue generated in France in addition to their existing tax duties. Social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok which license and feature music will also be subject to the tax charges.
The money will be used to help fund a national body to support the French music sector, The Centre National de la Musique (CNM), which was created in 2020 and is already partly financed by the live music industry.
The new levy comes into effect from Jan. 1, although music streaming services are still waiting for confirmation of when the first payment will be due to the French authorities.
‘A REAL BLOW’
Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira says the tax on streaming platforms’ earnings will have “negative consequences for the entire music industry in France.”
“It is the worst possible outcome of all the different scenarios that we could have ended up with,” Folgueira tells Billboard. “Adding taxes is the worst way of trying to support the industry. It sets a very dangerous precedent for other markets.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Spotify France called the tax “a real blow to innovation, and to the growth prospects of recorded music in France.”
The company said it is “assessing the implications of such a tax” and “strongly remain opposed to this unfair, unjust and disproportionate measure.”
On Wednesday (Dec. 20), Spotify France announced that it was pulling financial support for two local music festivals, the Francofolies de la Rochelle and the Printemps de Bourges, to help offset the extra tax burden.
Plans to tax music streaming platforms’ earnings in France have long been mooted by authorities and were first proposed in April by then-senator Julien Bargeton, who initially suggested a tax rate of 1.75% for services like Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube Music to support the French music industry.
In response, streaming executives and stakeholders from across the country’s music industry put forward a number of alternative funding solutions, including making a voluntary annual contribution of 14 million euros ($15 million) towards The Centre National de la Musique.
Executives closely involved in those talks tell Billboard that the voluntary contribution proposal — which involved the participation of collecting societies and music producers and was tiered depending on a company’s business and turnover — received “near unanimous” backing from across the sector, apart from Amazon, which refused to commit. (Amazon Music, Apple Music and YouTube Music all declined or didn’t respond to requests to comment when contacted by Billboard).
With the music industry unable to agree on an alternative offer, the French Senate voted in November to approve the new tax measures, which were formally ratified earlier this week.
TAX BURDEN
President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to tax music streaming companies to fund cultural programs follows the same principles the country already applies to the film industry. For many decades, the French government has imposed a tax levy on cinema ticket sales (currently amounting to 10.7% of the ticket price) to fund public body The French National Centre of Cinema (CNC).
Since 2010, publishers and distributors of television services, including streaming platforms like Netflix and ad-funded videos platforms such as YouTube, as well as DVD and Blu-Ray retailers, have paid a similar mandatory contribution set at 5.15% of turnover.
Like its cinema counterpart, funding for The Centre National de la Musique will come from across the French music industry, but executives at Spotify and Deezer believe it places an unfair burden on streaming companies who already pay out around 70% of their revenues to rights holders alongside their existing tax commitments in France. They include sales tax (VAT) at 20% and a 3% tax on digital services.
At present, the French live music industry pays a higher rate of tax contribution (3.5% on concert tickets) towards the CNM, but ticketing companies pay a lower rate of VAT sales tax (around 5%) compared to digital music platforms.
Physical music retailers, recording studios, radio services and labels are exempt from paying the new 1.2% levy.
“We’re not questioning the need to finance The Centre National de la Musique or be taxed. What we’re questioning is the decision to only target one distribution format – DSPs,” says one France-based music executive, speaking to Billboard anonymously.
Folgueira says the tax unfairly impacts on European streaming platforms like Deezer and Spotify, which have heavily invested in developing the local market, and disproportionately advantages American tech giants like Google, Apple and Amazon who have a smaller on-the-ground presence and “can easily absorb the costs.”
Paris-based Deezer is the market leading subscription streaming service in France and generates around 60% of its 451 million euros ($478 million) yearly revenue in the country. A tax rate of 1.2% on domestic turnover works out at around 3.2 million euros ($3.5 million), according to Billboard’s calculations.
CUTS COMING?
Folgueira says the new tax burden could possibly mean that Deezer is forced to pass on the extra costs “along the value chain,” which could include reviewing agreements with labels and rights holders.
The CEO says that it’s likely to mean Deezer cutting spend on domestic music projects and marketing, while price rises for subscribers is another possible outcome. “None of which is a good outcome for boosting the French market,” cautions Folgueira.
France is the world’s sixth largest recorded music market with €920 million in revenue in 2022, up 6.4% on the previous year, according to IFPI’s Global Music Report.
Folgueira’s concerns are shared by executives at Spotify. Speaking last week to local news network France Info, Antoine Monin, director general of Spotify France said that the company will reduce its investment in the market as a result of the taxes and said “France will no longer be a priority for Spotify.”
Billboard understands that Spotify France will be making further cost saving announcements in the coming weeks with subscription price rises among the options on the table.
Confirmation of a new tax charge for streaming companies in France comes at a pivotal time for Spotify, which posted an operating profit of 32 million euros ($35 million) in the third quarter of 2023 but has also undergone three rounds of job cuts this year.
Earlier this month, Spotify co-founder and chief executive Daniel Ek announced that the company was to close more than 1,500 posts internationally, representing around 17% of its global workforce.
“For many months now, we have been denouncing the risks underlying the creation of such a tax, particularly in terms of the loss of attractiveness for platform investments in France,” says Alexandre Lasch, managing director of French labels body SNEP. “It is precisely the artists produced in France who will be the victims.”
Despite streaming companies’ opposition to the levy, other sectors of France’s music business have welcomed the increased funding towards domestic culture.
Guilhem Cottet, managing director of the French association of independent music companies UPFI, says the establishment of a mandatory contribution to the CNM from streaming companies will help drive diversity and innovation in the sector.
“The current remuneration model is unjust towards a lot of musical genres which are not heavily listened to by young people — mostly rap and electronica — in France. And if there’s no decent remuneration, labels will cease producing these genres,” says Cottet.
“The tax is a regulation tool to ensure the CNM is able to finance them and make sure diversity prevails.”
Vinyl Group announced on Thursday a binding agreement to acquire The Brag Media, publisher of Australian and New Zealand editions of Rolling Stone and Variety, as well as publisher of its own tiles including TheBrag. com, Tone Deaf and industry news outlet The Music Network.
The proposed takeover of Brag Media, pending certain conditions and expected to close by Jan. 31, is being funded by an $11 million AUD ($7.5 million USD) round of investment in Vinyl Group by billionaire Wisetech Global chief executive Richard White, who when completed will own more than a third of the ASX-listed business. With funding in place, Vinyl Group’s purchase of 100% of Brag Media will break down as $8 million in cash and a further $2 million in deferred compensation through cash or stock.
Brag Media originated as Seventh Street Media in 2017, launching local trade outlet The Industry Observer and youth-focused title Don’t Bore Us, before rebranding as The Brag Media in 2019 — the same year it partnered with Billboard parent Penske Media to launch Rolling Stone Australia. Brag also represents the digital audiences in the market for Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, as well as Rotten Tomatoes, Hypebeast and others. In 2022, Brag bought The Music Network and shuttered Industry Observer. Based on unaudited figures disclosed in the announcement, The Brag Media generated $8.39 million in revenue in its current fiscal year, generating a net profit of $334,824.
Once the acquisition is complete, Brag Media’s portfolio will join a Vinyl Group that also includes music credits specialist Jaxsta, social networking platform Vampr and online record store Vinyl.com. As part of the deal, Brag Media’s co-founder and CEO Luke Girgis is set to remain as publisher and managing director of the company’s publishing business.
“Vinyl Group’s suite of products work together to empower participants of the music ecosystem and reach all corners of the creator economy, and we can’t wait to start working with the iconic mastheads that Luke and The Brag Media have successfully developed in Australia,” said Vinyl Group CEO Josh Simons, who took over the top job in late June following the departure of Beth Appleton. “We’ve identified several impactful synergies between the two businesses that will deliver immediate cost efficiencies and revenue, including streamlining Vampr’s in-app ads business and leveraging The Brag Media’s impressive audience reach to bolster Jaxsta, Vinyl.com and Vampr in the market.”
Girgis added that he “couldn’t be happier about” the consolidation. “Right from the earliest discussions we had, it was clear that the Board, Josh and the team shared our vision for the future of the business, and I’m thrilled that they’ve made this commitment with us.”
White said there is “no doubt that iconic brands like Rolling Stone and Variety make sense and add value to VNL. Combined under the leadership of Josh and Vinyl Group, the consolidated business and team will have a lot more growth levers and options.”
Vinyl Group is Australia’s only ASX-listed music business and trades under the ticker code VNL (it was JXT before a recent parent company name change). Its share price jumped 22% to .055 following the acquisition announcement.