Business
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Since investing in the Chicago Sky in 2006, singer Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child fame has sung the national anthem at multiple games, joined a Sky star in a photo-op with local high school players, hung out with fans at a meet-and-greet — and, of course, enjoyed the best seats in the house.
With her minority stake in the 2021 WNBA champion team, Williams belongs to an exclusive group of pop stars who own a slice of a sports team, including Usher, J. Cole, Pitbull, Fergie, Marc Anthony and Justin Timberlake. And with the Sky recently valued at $85 million, her investment is paying off in multiple ways.
“It checks a lot of the boxes — [she] is from the city, a fan of the sport, a woman, a member of an iconic group,” says Jonathan Azu, founder and CEO of Culture Collective, which manages Williams. “It has the hallmarks of why you would do something like that: ‘I’m associated with this team, so it brings a lot of value to my brand.’ ”
Michelle Williams speaks to kids at a the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boys and Girls Club Monday, Feb. 27, 2006 in Chicago.
Jeff Roberson/AP Images
For an artist, that kind of value is both figurative and literal. Whether it’s Usher buying a small stake in the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, Anthony and Fergie becoming minority owners of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, Cole buying into the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets or Pitbull becoming co-owner of NASCAR’s Trackhouse Racing Team, money is a primary motivator.
“The stock market can go down, but the value of, say, the Texas Rangers is not going to go down,” says Michael Rapkoch, founder and CEO of Dallas-based Sports Value Consulting. Usher’s $9 million Cavs investment, for instance, may have more than quadrupled in value since he first made it in 2005, according to Forbes estimates. “I’m very happy to say that I don’t just have a basketball team, I have a championship team,” Usher tells Billboard, noting the Cavs won in 2016 under his watch. “That legacy is associated with something that I made an investment in.”
Perhaps the best-known artist-turned-team owner is Jay-Z, who spent $1 million on a small stake in the NBA’s Nets in 2004, helped move the franchise from New Jersey to his native Brooklyn, then divested from the team in 2013 to avoid a conflict of interest with his Roc Nation Sports agency. His windfall from that deal, according to Forbes, was an estimated $1.4 million.
Marc Anthony attends the NFL, ESPN/ESPN Deportes and the Miami Dolphins press conference at the Time Warner Center on July 21, 2009 in New York City.
Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images
Investing in a team can also mean easy self-marketing. When Timberlake, whose investing group owns a reported 2.8% of his hometown NBA team, the Memphis Grizzlies, played camera operator at home games, Sports Illustrated covered the story. “Sports is entertainment. There is crossover at every level,” Mark Cuban, who recently sold his majority stake in the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks for a reported $3.5 billion, tells Billboard.
That said, even a minority stake can be risky — “no different than any business,” as Cuban says. “If it’s not well run [and] customers aren’t happy, you can lose a lot of money.” That’s why none of longtime Bay Area music business manager Tim Jorstad’s clients have ever bought stakes in teams, even though many of his clients, which include the Doobie Brothers, Jefferson Airplane and members of Journey and the Grateful Dead, are regional sports fans.
Nonetheless, the perks tend to outweigh the potential downside for artists craving a piece of the sports pie. “It’s a fun investment. [Artist-owners] go to a lot of games and get to sit in the owners’ box and go onto the field and schmooze,” Jorstad says. “There are very few other normal investments where you get that kind of public exposure.”
J. Cole during the Miami Heat vs Charlotte Hornets game at FTX Arena on November 10, 2022 in Miami, Florida.
Lauren Sopourn/Getty Images
Additional reporting by Gail Mitchell.
This story will appear in the Feb. 10, 2024, issue of Billboard.
The $10 billion-a-year sports agency business is almost as hard to break into as the big leagues themselves — the gatekeepers are entrenched and powerful, and the cost of competing with them can be prohibitive. Right now, though, a growing disconnect between athletes and agents — players want their agents to find them lucrative ways to leverage their fame, while agents want to focus on the high-dollar contracts — is creating opportunities for entrepreneurs to disrupt the business. Some of them are coming from the music industry, leveraging their own cultural cachet to find clients and opportunities, including Jay-Z, whose Roc Nation includes a sports agency business; Young Money APAA Sports; and Quality Control Sports. More music stars are on their way this year too.
The business is now dominated by five firms — CAA Sports, Wasserman Sports, WME Sports, Excel Sports and Octagon — which together generate half of the $6 billion in commissions that the top 20 firms collected, according to Forbes. On the surface, these companies operate a bit like music and film/TV agencies, where executives identify opportunities for their clients and negotiate on their behalf. But the vast majority of the money comes from long-term player contracts that deliver giant commissions, and many athletes think this leads agents to ignore sports-adjacent opportunities and investments. Roc Nation and Rich Paul’s Klutch Sports, built on their reputation for combining sports and entertainment, used this to challenge the entrenched players, successfully enough that they are now ranked No. 7 and No. 9 by revenue, respectively, according to Forbes.
Does that mean other musicians and music executives will follow their lead — or even that they should? Launching a sports agency is expensive — it can take between $40 million and $50 million, according to Forbes, which is a big bet even for most stars. So that usually means finding additional investors, in the form of financial backers or other entrepreneurs, plus athletes who are either looking for an agent or a new one.
Roc Nation, which had a rock-solid source of both cash and credibility in Jay-Z, entered the sports business in 2013, five years after the company’s launch, with four-time All-Star Yankees second baseman Robinson Canó. Its sports division now has 190 clients, including Charlotte Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball and New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, and about $2 billion in player salaries and another $500 million in sponsorships and nonsalary deals, according to Forbes, which estimates that the company’s sports operations generate $203 million a year. (Roc Nation declined to comment on its finances.) Klutch Sports, where Paul is agent and manager for LeBron James, as well as a board member for Live Nation Entertainment, generates about half that.
That kind of success brings competition, including from music executives Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas, who launched Quality Control Sports in 2019, four years before HYBE purchased their company. Their agency’s clients include New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara and Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Richie James. The Lil Wayne-owned Young Money APAA Sports has also put points on the board by signing University of Miami’s Leonard Taylor III ahead of the 2024 NFL draft.
That doesn’t mean every venture succeeds, though. Jeezy started his Sports 99 agency in 2019, but it closed during the pandemic, and Kanye West’s Donda Sports, launched in 2022 with basketball players Aaron Donald and Jaylen Brown, imploded within months after West made a series of antisemitic comments.
The fast-paced evolution of both the sports and music businesses may continue to tempt musicians with money and influence, but anyone who enters the sports agency business, no matter how famous, will probably do so as an underdog.
This story will appear in the Feb. 10, 2024, issue of Billboard.
From Celine Dion to Joni Mitchell and Allison Russell, Canadian artists made a big splash at the Grammys last weekend.
But there’s one Canadian music executive who also cleaned up. She may be the wealthiest, most influential, yet under-the-radar woman in the country’s music industry: Golnar Khosrowshahi of independent publishing and management company, Reservoir Media.
Among the 10 Grammy honours for Reservoir Media is Joni Mitchell at Newport, who won in the folk album category. The legendary singer-songwriter also made her Grammy performance debut. Following a brain aneurysm in 2015, Mitchell had stopped performing, but in 2022 she made a triumphant comeback at the Newport Folk Festival, bringing her living room jam sessions — Joni Jams — to the festival stage. At the awards, she took the stage accompanied by frequent collaborator Brandi Carlile, cello and violin duo SistaStrings, and Canadian Allison Russell on clarinet.
The NYC-based Reservoir firm has offices in L.A., Nashville, Toronto, London and Abu Dhabi and signed Mitchell to an all-encompassing global music publishing admin deal in 2021.
Notably, Reservoir is owned by the Iranian-Canadian Khosrowshahi family, who founded and then sold the Future Shop home electronics chain to Best Buy in 2001 for $580M. Reservoir is run by daughter Golnar, a classically trained pianist with impeccable business credentials.
The music firm now represents 150,000 copyrights and 36,000 master recordings that include the Tommy Boy and Chrysalis catalogues.
In addition to Joni Mitchell, Reservoir also represented winners by boygenius, SZA and Killer Mike. – David Farrell, Rosie Long Decter and Richard Trapunski
Charlotte Cardin Tops 2024 Juno Awards Nominations
Charlotte Cardin has earned the most nominations for the 2024 Juno Awards. The breakthrough Montreal pop singer-songwriter got six nods, including artist of the year, album of the year and pop album of the year (99 NIGHTS), single of the year (“Confetti”) and TikTok Fan Choice. She’s also nominated for songwriter of the year.
Daniel Caesar and TALK follow with five nods each. Allison Russell, Aysanabee, Connor Price, Lauren Spencer Smith, Tate McRae and DVBBS each received three nominations.
The nominations were announced on Feb. 6 in a press conference at the CBC Building. Comeback artist Nelly Furtado, who’ll be performing as well as hosting the broadcast ceremony, was a surprise guest at the nominees announcement. She also received a nomination for “Eat Your Man,” her collaboration with Dom Dolla, for dance recording of the year.
Punjabi-Canadian artist Karan Aujla, a cover star for Billboard Canada’s inaugural digital cover, was also nominated for breakthrough artist of the year and announced as a performer at the Junos ceremony at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax on March 24. He follows fellow cover star AP Dhillon, who played the first full Punjabi performance at the awards last year. Joining Aujla as performers will be country breakout Josh Ross and singer-songwriter TALK.
Another Punjabi-Canadian artist, Shubh, is nominated for the TikTok Fan Choice, a fan-voted award, along with Aujla, Cardin, Ross, Caesar, DVBBS, Tate McRae, ThxSoMch and Walk off the Earth.
McRae’s “greedy,” which has topped the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 multiple times, is also nominated for single of the year, along with Cardin’s “Confetti,” Caesar’s “Always,” LU KALA’s “Pretty Girl Era,” and TALK’s “A Little Bit Happy.”
Nominated with Cardin for album of the year are Néo-Romance by Alexandra Stréliski, NEVER ENOUGH by Daniel Caesar, Mirror by Lauren Spencer Smith and Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees by TALK.
Cardin, Caesar, Smith and McRae, all relatively young artists, are all nominated for artist of the year as well, along with the legacy artist of the category, Shania Twain.
The Junos will be broadcast live on CBC from Halifax’s Scotiabank Centre on Sunday, March 24. Tickets for the show and the JUNO Week events are on sale at ticketmaster.ca/junos. The majority of the awards will be presented at The Juno Opening Night Awards the night before the main ceremony on March 23.
Find the full list of nominations here and interviews from the red carpet at ca.billboard.com – Richard Trapunski
How Canadian Music Took Over 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend
Toronto was alive with music at the 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend – not just on the ice, but all around the city. As the hockey spectacle returned to the city for the first time since 2000, and to Canada for the first time since 2012, the multiple-day event brought live music from major stars including Nelly Furtado, the Kid Laroi and Diplo.
As the stars of the game played each other in skills competitions and 3-on-3 hockey, music was an integral component. Each of the four teams chosen by an NHL player was co-captained by a celebrity: Tate McRae, Justin Bieber, Michael Bublé and Will Arnett. They weren’t just there to sit on the bench, but they helped choose each team at the player draft on Thursday night (Feb. 1). Bieber even helped out with the players’ on-ice warm-ups.
“We went all-in [with music] this year,” said Steve Mayer, the NHL’s Chief Content Officer. “We’re so happy that we have what represents not only the best in the NHL coming here, but in our minds, the best in Canadian music. And being here in Canada with seven Canadian teams, we better know our Canadian music.”
The headliner of this year’s NHL All-Star Game was one of the biggest artists in the world. McRae comes from a hockey family, and the sport’s culture is a major part of her current image. So it felt natural to see her perform on three different stages on the ice in a glittery top with six dancers and the production value you might see at a big award show.
“For the past year or two years now, I feel like I’ve fully immersed myself in the hockey world,” McRae told Billboard Canada.
Michael Bublé said he’s proud seeing what McRae has accomplished and called her before the game.
“I told her I was happy for and proud for her,” he remarked. “And as a Canadian, it made me happy to see another young Canadian breaking through….Honestly, we’re kind of dominating music right now. We are sending a ton of artists out there, and we’ve already got a ton of career artists out there. This little place made a bunch of great ones.”
The star factor revved way up on Thursday night (Feb. 1), when Justin Bieber played an invite-only concert at the 2,500-capacity venue History, his first gig in over a year. Diplo, The Kid Laroi and Nelly Furtado also played at concerts over the weekend, but Bieber’s was the one that captured the most headlines and social media attention in a set that spanned his whole career. – Richard Trapunski
Last Week In Canada: Drake’s OVO Sound Partners With Santa Anna
It’s time for another quick whirl around the Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music. Are you asking yourself “Hey, Wha’ Happened?!” amid this week’s overhaul at Capitol Music Group? Here’s a rundown. When you’re done processing that, get a readout of the most powerful people in the music biz with the latest Power 100 list.
Merlin, the global digital licensing agency for the independent music industry, has spent the last few months enhancing its finance, data analytics, software and member operations teams with numerous new hires and promotions.
Experienced financial controller Carol Zuma-Hall, formerly finance lead at Platoon and head of finance at The Orchard, joined Merlin to oversee its technical accounting and compliance related finance activities. Merlin’s new director of insights is Martin Vovk, following a dozen years at Sony Music. He’ll conduct in-depth data analysis and manage insights communications. Following a lengthy stint consulting for Merlin, Gary Watson made it official by taking the director of data operations role, where he’ll manage data flows and data visualization projects. Reporting to Watson will be Maria Lavric, who was appointed manager of data operations. She’ll handle non-financial trends data and other reporting. Matthew Price was right for the data engineer role and will develop what Merlin calls its “Data Lake,” which processes nearly 1 billion rows of data daily (FUN!!!). Joining the team as a paralegal is Emillia Walsh, who’ll scrutinize copyright infringement claims and just overall enhance the organization’s legal apparatus. Molly Kempen is the new royalty reporting coordinator, responsible for processing statements and keeping deadlines.
“The expansion of our multi disciplinary data analytics team this year is a testament to Merlin’s ongoing commitment to delivering value,” said Charlie Lexton, Merlin’s COO. “Each new Merliner brings a unique set of skills that are instrumental in our evolution. We are excited to see their contributions enhance our operations, improve our data capabilities, and further strengthen our relationships with Merlin’s global membership and digital partners.”
Data crunchers aside, Merlin also welcomed Simon Stride last year as a development manager, overseeing software projects from soup to nuts. Over at member operations, Alice Moss joined as senior manager, focusing on day-to-day support of Merlin’s members and working on ways to address operational issues between members and digital partners. Finally, Mariah Mu and ex-intern Ben Sperling have joined as coordinators on the member and partner success team. It should be noted that Mu is based in Bangkok and serves as the Merliner contact for members and partners in the entire Southeast Asia region.
“The integration of Alice, Mariah, and Ben into our Member & Partner Success team marks a significant enhancement in our capability to serve our members effectively,” said Jim Mahoney, svp of member & partner success. “Alice’s experience, coupled with Mariah’s knowledge of the digital and Southeast Asian marketplace and Ben’s keen approach to process improvement and communications, creates a dynamic synergy. This team embodies our commitment to excellence, ensuring that each member and partner experiences the full benefit of Merlin’s expansive network and resources.”
Meanwhile…
Warner Music Denmark promoted industry veteran Karen Vincent to general manager of the Copenhagen-based imprint. She reports to Mark Fry, president of Warner Music Nordics. In her capacity as marketing director, a role she’s held since 2017, Vincent has worked campaigns for regional artists including Christopher, Gobs and Nicklas Sahl, among others, and also has assisted in global releases from the likes of Bruno Mars and Dual Lipa. Prior to WMG, Vincent was senior product manager at Copenhagen Records while concurrently working as the global publicist for Danish rockers Volbeat. At the dawn of her music career, Vincent held gigs at Sony Music and EMI Music as well. “It’s great news that Karen has agreed to run Warner Music Denmark,” said Fry. “She’s been an indispensable part of the team, crafting incredible campaigns for local, regional and international artists, and I can’t wait to work with her as we continue to support the best Danish creative talent.”
Reactional Music, the maker of an interactive music engine for video games, hired Epic Games veteran Ben Lumsden as head of business development, Unreal. In his new role, Lumsden will oversee Reactional’s work developing partnerships across music, games and creator worlds, focusing on use cases built on the Unreal games engines developed by Epic Games. Speaking of… at Epic, he rose to senior business development lead in support of the company’s media and entertainment operation in Europe. Prior to Epic, he worked in virtual production on films and games such as District 9, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Godzilla, among others. He is also an accomplished composer for films. “Music and creativity needs great tech and creative minds to enable the new generation of music delivery, consumption and creation,” said Lumsden. “The consumer is more sophisticated, more creative and they spend more time in digital worlds. Music and audio has such an important role to play in the new era of gaming and creator worlds as consumption habits change to become part of these digital worlds.”
Noble Steed Music, the artist management company and label that boasts an “intuitive and patient approach to artist career development,” hired industry veteran Evan Levy as senior manager and content director. He arrives from Amazon Music, where he managed audio content for the last two years. Levy is tasked with building out the company’s content team, which will develop music-centric media, podcasts, social content and more. He’ll report to NBS founder Jason Spiewak. Prior to Amazon, Levy held key leadership positions at SiriusXM Pandora, CBS Radio, ABC News Radio and MTV Networks. “We are thrilled to welcome Evan to the Noble Steed Music family,” said Spiewak. “Evan’s expertise and creative vision will undoubtedly elevate our content and reinforce our commitment to delivering exceptional entertainment experiences to the masses.”
Curb Records‘ national director of promotion Mike Rogers is set to retire, effective March 1. Rogers, a 35-year radio promotion veteran, has been with Curb Records since 2002 and was previously part of the promotion team at CBS/Sony. Rogers shared: “[Curb Records chairman] Mike Curb’s belief in me these last 21 years was unparalleled. I was and always will be proudest of all we have accomplished in my time at Curb. You entrusted me to give your music its best shot and I hope I made you proud. To have actually learned from a legend will always be a crowning achievement in my career. Now, it’s time to ‘do some life’ with my wife, Laura, and our two daughters, all of whom sacrificed a ton as I lived out that road life as a radio promotion rep.” –Jessica Nicholson
UTA promoted 104 individuals across 25 departments, including music and comedy. In the interest of brevity, let’s stick to music, where the agency upped Grace Cunningham, St. John Faulkner, Sammy Gardiner, Anastasia Klochkivska, Taylor Krebs, Joe Marino, Matt Popper, Ashley Ramos, Katie Sexton, Evan Steinberg, Tyler Stimmel and Kingsley Williams to coordinator. UTA also promoted Tom Grainger, Alexis Lesko, Tom Matthews, Lolo McCluskey, Sheq Milli and Jamie Waldman to agent. The company stressed that a majority of those elevated to agent emerged from UTA’s Agent Training Program, adding that women constituted more than 50% of the promotions announced.
RADIO, RADIO: Warner Music Nashville bumped Andy Flick up to national director of radio, effective immediately. Flick, a longtime Sony pro who joined WMN in 2021 as regional manager, radio (North), will continue reporting to vp of radio Anna Cage. In the last three years, Flick has worked campaigns for Dan + Shay, Gabby Barrett and Zach Bryan, among many others … Happy retirement to NPR OG Linda Wertheimer … Canadian media conglomerate Bell Media is selling 45 of its 103 radio stations across the country because it lacks viability.
Lina Tebbs was named director of UK Production Music for Warner Chappell Music, reporting to UK managing director Shani Gonzales. She takes over for Kate Alderton, svp of operations and finance, who has been running the department for the last two years. In her new role, Tebbs will be tasked with scouting ways to service WCMs giant catalog to the film, TV, radio and advertising industries in the UK. She and her team will also work with other like-minded teams around the globe on cross-market opportunities. Tebbs arrives from Felt Music, where she was global head of business development and marketing. Prior to joining Felt in 2019, Tebbs held leadership roles at Audio Network and EMEA. “With Lina at the helm of our operations in the UK, the team will have a fresh outlook and exciting new ideas for how to build on our brand and further grow our roster and relationships,” said Gonzales.
Stem, the 9-year-old music distribution and payments platform, awarded four of its key leaders with promotions this week. Atop the table is Seth Faber, who was upped from svp of artist & label strategy to general manager of the company. In his elevated role, Faber will oversee artist marketing/development, commerce, international, customer success, content operations, brand marketing and product. Todd Perry is now vp of artist and label relations, hip-hop & R&B. Previously head of artist & label relations, hip-hop & R&B, Perry is credited with signing Veeze and for his work Jeezy’s latest album. Natalie Sellers, who joined Stem in 2018, is assuming the role of senior director of artist & label commerce & partnerships, where she’ll work to expand the company’s network of partners and create marketing and development opportunities. Finally, Lexi Roney was promoted to director of brand marketing following her time as marketing manager at Stem. As director, Roney will be responsible for leading and expanding all branding and partnership initiatives for Stem Distribution. The company said Faber and Perry will continue to report to president Kristin Graziani, while Sellers and Roney frame up to Faber.
CSW Publicity amped up its music division with the hiring of Heidi Anne-Noel as senior vp of music publicity. She’ll work alongside evp and founder Cara Woodnicki on all things music. Anne-Noel joins CSW from BMF, where as a vp she oversaw campaigns for clients including ONErpm, Awich, Abigail Barlow and others. Prior to BMF, she was at SiriusXM/Pandora and earlier at Capitol Records, where she worked closed with Katy Perry, Capital Cities, Sky Ferreira and others. Woodnicki comments, “Heidi is an incredible asset to any team and one of the best publicists I know, I’m beyond thrilled to be working alongside her again, this time at CSW.”
Derek Patten has returned to agency EastCoast Entertainment as director of artist services. Patten’s first spin at ECE was in 2018, when he helped lay the framework for the department he now leads. His background experience covers several professional areas including film (The Foot Fist Way) and live entertainment (Royal Caribbean Cruise Line). “We are delighted to have Derek with us again,” shares ECE’s President, John Wolfslayer. “His wealth of experience and unwavering dedication to the success of artists make him an invaluable asset to our team.”
Pophouse Entertainment, the creative production company co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, announced a slew of promotions and new hires. Linda Höljö has been named COO, Natalia Fontecha is head of capital raising and investor relations, Sophie McKibbin is head of business and legal affairs, while Ryan Amstad is head of new production development, and Jon Spalding commercial director. Over at Mamma Mia! The Party, the souped-up uber-immersive dinner theatre production in London, Sophie Arendt has been appointed managing director.
BOARD SHORTS: Worldwide Independent Network, a support group for independent music trade groups, welcomed five new members to its board: Dario Draštata (Dallas Records, Croatia), Fran Sandoval (IMICHILE, Chile) and Marty Ro (Sound Republica, South Korea) as directors, together with Alejandro Varela (S-Music, Argentina) and Sridhar Swaminathan (SIMCA, India) as observers. Zena White and Maria Amato were reappointed as Chair and Treasurer, respectively … Dewei Zheng resigned as a non-executive director of Chinese music platform Cloud Music (formerly NetEase Cloud Music), effective Feb. 15.
David J. Krystal, whose orchestration work can be heard in The Flash, IT, Shazam! and Hidden Figures, among others, recently launched his own company to support his work: David Krystal Music Service. In an announcement, Krystal’s company looks to “synthesize the rich tradition of classic Hollywood scoring and orchestration with the fast-paced and powerful blockbuster film scores of today” and pledges “meticulous attention to detail.”
ICYMI:
Capitol Music Group chief Michelle Jubelirer announced her abrupt exit this week … and a day later Tom March, then-president of Geffen, was named her successor. Lillia Parsa (pictured) was also brought in from UMPG as co-president of CMG … Warner Music chief Robert Kyncl telegraphed a 10% staff reduction … which resulted in the exit of Warner Chappell Australia’s longtime managing director … Ricardo Chamberlain was been named COO of Marc Anthoney’s Puntilla Music … The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) selected its leadership for the coming year … and Eliza Tew is director of brand partnerships/talent manager for Clay Busch’s new agency, SiX18 Media.
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The fallout from Warner Music Group’s company-wide cull has already reached Australia, where the head of the domestic Warner Chappell company, Matthew Capper, is understood to be among the departures.
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Capper has led Warner Chappell Australia as managing director since 2010, and boasts more than 20 years’ service with the company.
A popular figure in the music publishing community, Capper joined Warner Chappell in 2003, initially as a copyright/royalty analyst, was promoted to general manager in 2004, and was named managing director in July 2010.
Prior to working at Warner Chappell, Capper cut his teeth as administration manager at Festival Music Publishing, a now-defunct Australian independent music publishing brand which was acquired by Mushroom Music in 2005.
Outside of his duties leading Warner Chappell’s affiliate from Melbourne, he is non-executive director of APRA and AMCOS, deputy chair of AMCOS, chair and non-executive director of publishers trade association AMPAL, and treasurer and non-executive director of ICMP, the global trade body representing the music publishing industry worldwide.
On his election to the board of APRA in 2007, he become the youngest-ever director of the authors’ rights society, aged 30 – a record that still stands.
Capper will finish up with Warner Chappell Australia on Feb. 29, 2024, sources say, tying in to sweeping changes announced earlier in the week by Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl.
In an internal memo to staff obtained by Billboard, Kyncl wrote that the company will be reducing headcount by 10%, or some 600 people, as part of a plan to free up $200 million in cost savings to reinvest into the business.
Those cost savings will be realized by the end of September 2025, Kyncl said in the memo; some of those laid off have already begun to be informed, while the “vast majority” will be notified “by the end of September 2024,” he writes.
“As we carry out our plan, it’s important to bear in mind why we’re making these difficult choices,” the memo continued. “We’re getting on the front foot to create a sustainable competitive advantage over the next decade. We’ll do so by increasing funding behind artists and songwriters, new skill sets, and tech, to help us deliver on our three strategic priorities,” which he says includes growing engagement with music, increasing the value of music and evolving how Warner’s teams work together.”
Just before news broke of those company-wide cuts, WMG announced that its quarterly revenue grew 17% for the period ended Dec. 31, 2023, up 11% in normalized revenue, to $1.75 billion — its highest quarterly result ever.
With a slate of new artists and a recently launched North American joint venture, SM Entertainment’s revenue reached 250 billion won ($189.5 million at the period’s average exchange rate) in the fourth quarter of 2023, down 3.4% year over year and 6.1% lower than the third quarter, the company announced Wednesday (Feb. 7). Operating profit dropped 51.7% to 10.9 billion won ($8.3 million) while the company posted a net loss of 19.7 billion won ($14.9 million) compared to a 1.9 billion won ($1.4 million) net profit in the prior-year period.
The company attributed a decline in revenue from its concert-related subsidiaries to smaller-sized concerts and a decline in its content-related subsidiaries to “slow business conditions.” SM Entertainment’s share price rose 0.2% to 73,000 won ($54.77) after the earnings release.
SM Entertainment sold 5.6 million albums in the fourth quarter, up 40% from the prior-year quarter; NCT 127’s album Fact Check sold 1.86 million units and aespa’s Drama EP sold 1.26 million units. As for concerts, NCT Wish performed 24 shows in nine cities in Japan ahead of its debut album’s release later this quarter. SHINee performed for 80,000 fans at four concerts in Japan. NCT 127 had six concerts in Seoul, Korea with a total attendance of 60,000.
For the full year, SM Entertainment released 64 albums that sold a record 20.1 million units, and its artists performed at 340 concerts around the world. RIIZE, the first boy band launched under the company’s new multi-production system — an organizational structure introduced in 2023 to break from the previous system that relied solely on founder and ousted chief producer Lee Soo-man — sold more than 1 million units of its debut album, Get a Guitar, which was released in September.
“The multi-production system, which is the core part of our SM 3.0 strategy, has been operating successfully since its introduction last year, and active musical activities are underway under the guidance of each production SM director,” CEO Jang Cheol Hyuk said during Wednesday’s earnings call. The system is meant to speed the introduction of new artists and material by providing other leaders with decision-making powers.
Looking ahead to 2024, SM Entertainment will launch four new artists: NCT Wish, virtual artist naevis, an unnamed girl group and a U.K.-based boy band. The company also plans to release global albums for major artists at least once a year and expand the scale of global concerts, Jang said.
In the first quarter, SM has EPs from NCT Dream, TEN, Taeyong and Wendy, while NCT 127 is performing 13 dates in Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Macau. The second quarter will see a new album from aespa and EPs from Red Velvet, RIIZE, SHINee, SUHO and WayV, as well as 15 concert dates for NCT Dream in Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia. Other artists including MINHO, TVXQ!, Super Junior-L.S.S., SHINee, TAEmin and aespa each have a handful of shows in the first or second quarter.
SM Entertainment also expects to see results from its North American partnership with Kakao Entertainment. The two companies are “working to establish and expand local partnerships for artists,” said Jang. He pointed to the joint venture’s strategic agreement with Moon & Back, a U.K.-based entertainment and TV production company, that will cast a five-member boy group in the United Kingdom and perform songs sourced from KMR, SM Entertainment’s new music publishing subsidiary.
On Wednesday around midnight, a new song showed up on RapCaviar, Spotify‘s premier hip-hop playlist: “All Falls Down,” Kanye West’s second hit single ever, which came out almost 20 years ago. While RapCaviar is mostly focused on new releases, it does occasionally feature throwbacks. Still, the addition felt notable, because a new release from West and Ty Dolla $ign is expected to arrive at midnight tonight and executives around the music industry are curious how streaming service gatekeepers will respond.
Will they support the renowned artist who now goes by Ye, despite the fact that his repeated antisemitism and conservative trolling has caused a widespread backlash, leading most of his prominent business partners to sever ties since 2022? Or will they just ignore the new album all together?
“It’s going to be complicated,” says one former Spotify employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “There’s going to be a difference of opinion within those places on how to handle it. Some people in leadership positions will want to be harsh on Kanye for the nasty antisemitic things he has said. There will also be another side, the hip-hop teams, who will say, ‘No, it’s Kanye, people say crazy shit all the time, plus he apologized. We don’t care. We’re playlisting because it’s Kanye.’”
A digital marketer who helps artists with streaming strategy was more skeptical. “Streaming services didn’t support ‘Vultures’ [Ye’s previous song], so I would be very shocked” if they support the rest of the album, he says. “Even though Ye did his apology, it felt like that came and went so fast.”
Reps for Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music did not respond to a request for comment.
Streaming services mostly avoid trying to wade into moral debates about artists’ character. One exception came when Spotify announced a new policy in 2018, writing on its blog that “in some circumstances, when an artist or creator does something that is especially harmful or hateful (for example, violence against children and sexual violence), it may affect the ways we work with or support that artist or creator.”
The backlash against this announcement was swift. Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, CEO of Top Dawg Entertainment, told Billboard, “I don’t think it’s right for artists to be censored.” Others felt similarly, and a few weeks later, Spotify said “we are moving away from implementing a policy around artist conduct.”
That said, two former employees say Spotify still occasionally flexes its muscles around playlisting. When Megan Thee Stallion was shot by Tory Lanez in 2020, “his songs weren’t getting in any playlists after that,” according to a former employee. (Lanez was found guilty in court in December 2022.)
But Ye is not on trial, and he also has more than 140 Hot 100 hits to date. Many of these are still in regular rotation: His catalog has earned more than 480 million on-demand streams already this year in the U.S., according to Luminate.
Even so, his newest song sank like a stone. When Ye and Ty Dolla $ign released “Vultures” in November, it failed to crack the Hot 100, and it has amassed only around 33 million Spotify streams, a flop by Ye’s high-flying standards. (He released a video for the track “Talking/Once Again” with Ty earlier this week, but it is not yet available on streaming services.)
Two sources familiar with Ye’s search for a distribution deal say several streaming services signaled to them that they were unlikely to support new music from the star due to widespread outrage over his antisemitic comments. “For an artist as big as Kanye to release a new track and receive no major editorial placements is quite an outlier,” notes Nicki Camberg, a data journalist at the company Chartmetric, which tracks data on playlisting, social media, and streaming for artists. (“Vultures” was released through Label Engine, a distribution company owned by Create Music Group, according to identification information in YouTube’s Content Management System.)
“Vultures” has fared slightly better on the airwaves than it has on streaming services. The song has received airplay from around 30 stations, according to Mediabase. Two stations in Ye’s hometown of Chicago played the song the day it came out, and they’ve played it far more than anyone else: 199 spins so far in 2024 from WGCI and 181 from WPWX. The station that played “Vultures” third most this year, KVEG in Las Vegas, has played it 50 times.
Aside from the iHeart-owned WGCI, it’s noticeable that the stations playing “Vultures” are mostly owned by smaller radio companies, not the behemoths like iHeart, Audacy and Sirius. The track has received 2,144 spins overall, with 6.187 million audience impressions.
In the mid-2010s, radio was eclipsed by streaming services as the most important driver of listening behavior. Now a similar thing has happened to streaming services: Young fans are increasingly likely to discover music on short-form video platforms like TikTok. (Though they can’t find Universal Music Group songs there at the moment.) As a result, executives told Billboard in 2022 that “Spotify and Apple editorial playlists don’t have as much punch” as they used to.
Even on an earnings call on Thursday (Feb. 8), Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl noted that “the data discovery and consumption trends” in music “are driven by the algorithms of the larger platforms and users sharing playlists with each other” — not playlists controlled by the various platforms. “The guys who do playlists had a lot of power four or five years ago,” says one longtime A&R. “Now their power is dwindling, because it doesn’t matter what they say. The kids choose at the end of the day.”
This could work to Ye’s advantage. If he’s able to luck into a viral moment, it won’t matter much whether he’s put on editorial playlists initially; listeners will find the music and play it, and the audience response will impact streaming services.
So far, “Vultures” hasn’t generated this kind of enthusiasm. “From a fan perspective, if it was going crazy and everyone was talking about it, that would push it,” the digital marketer says. “But I haven’t seen that anywhere.”
For the first time, Billboard is expanding its peer-voted Power Players’ Choice Award to cover music’s top lawyers, asking industry members from all sectors to honor the attorney they believe had the most impact across the business in the past year. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news […]
The recording and publishing catalogs of late country star Toby Keith continue to bring in a combined $9 million per year in streaming and sales activity, according to Billboard estimates.
Keith, who died Monday (Feb. 5) at age 62, had slowed his output considerably over the last decade, releasing just two proper studio albums over that period: 2015’s 35 MPH Town and 2021’s Peso in My Pocket. But a vast stable of past smashes over the past 30 years, including the multi-platinum albums Pull My Chain, Unleashed and Shock’n Y’all along with 20 No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, including “Who’s That Man,” “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” and “How Do You Like Me Now,” allowed his catalog to remain lucrative up to the present day.
Over the last three years, Keith’s catalog has averaged nearly 475,000 album consumption units per year in the United States, according to Luminate. That consists of an average of nearly 61,000 albums (CDs, LPs, downloads) per year, as well as 152,000 tracks and about 570 million on-demand streams.
While streaming has helped country music begin to gain an international audience, some artists in the genre are racking up fans outside the United States faster than others, and Keith’s audience remained largely a domestic one. As it is, Keith’s U.S. streaming accounts for about 83% of the 686 million streams his music averaged on a global basis annually over the last three years. Likewise, his U.S. song downloads make up 91% of his annual average of 167,000 downloads over the last three years.
Overall, Billboard estimates that Keith’s album sales and streaming activity generated about $5.3 million in revenue on average over each of the last three years for his recorded music catalog, while his publishing has brought in about $3.7 million per year. However, since Keith has a stake in close to 50% of his songs, and because he likely owned the albums he released since he started his Show Dog Nashville label in 2005, he likely gets the bulk of that revenue as his take-home pay. Before Show Dog, he released music on Universal Music Group-distributed labels including Mercury, A&M and Dreamworks Nashville.
Keith was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2021 but didn’t publicly reveal the news until the following year. He died less than two months after he performed his final shows: a trio of December concerts at Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas.
Worldwide Independent Network (WIN), the organization that brings together local independent music trade bodies across the globe, taps five new board members, while ratifying the reappointment of its chair and treasurer.
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Dario Draštata (Dallas Records, Croatia), Fran Sandoval (IMICHILE, Chile) and Marty Ro (Sound Republica, South Korea) are among the new directors named to the 20-strong WIN board, announced Thursday, Feb. 8. The other new faces are Alejandro Varela (S-Music, Argentina) and Sridhar Swaminathan (SIMCA, India), who are named as observers.
The trade association gives “warm thanks” to outgoing members Francesca Trainini (PMI, Italy), Jeffrey Chiang (Fluxus, South Korea) and Oliver Knust (IMICHILE, Chile).
Renewed each year, the board is comprised of independent music company and trade association representatives from around the world, appointed by WIN members on a geographical basis.
The organization rings in the changes this year by creating a new international structure based on five regional blocs: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australasia, a move that reflects “diversity of languages, genres and cultures that make up its membership,” reads a statement.
Meanwhile, Zena White (Partisan Records, U.S.) and Maria Amato (AIR, Australia) are reappointed as chair and treasurer, respectively. Melbourne-based Amato, the CEO of the Australian Independent Record Labels Assn., in 2022 became WIN’s first female chair and the organization’s first from the southern hemisphere.
“I am grateful to be given the opportunity to continue as chair of WIN and my congratulations go to our five new board members,” comments White in a statement. “Our North Star is to strengthen the sector by having an independent music trade association in all countries where there is a commercial music business. The new regional bloc structure reflects our purpose to connect as many territories as we can. I am particularly proud of WIN’s work with groups in Latin America and Asia-Pacific on their specific agendas, as well as adding associations in India, Paraguay and Bulgaria to our membership.”
The organization launched in 2006 and became a trade association in 2016, serving as a global coordination and support body for the independent sector, and representing thousands of music companies and professionals worldwide. Its focus is on long-term development and sustainability.
Each year, WIN commissions and publishes the WINTEL market report that measures the economic and cultural impact of the independent music sector globally.
Next up, White and Noemí Planas, CEO of WIN, will join reps from member associations in other Latin American countries to visit Guadalajara, Mexico in late February and early March for the FIM GDL conference and to host an independent labels summit and WINHUB networking gathering.
WIN board for 2024:North America
Garry West (Compass Records, U.S.)
Gord Dimitrieff (Aporia Records, Canada)
Jason Peterson (GoDigital Media Group, U.S.)
Richard Burgess (A2IM, U.S.)
Zena White (Partisan Records, U.S.)
Observer: Tony Kiewel (Sub Pop, U.S.)
Latin America
Francisca Sandoval (IMICHILE, Chile)
Sandra Rodrigues (ABMI, Brazil)
Observer: Alejandro Varela (S-Music, Argentina)
Europe
Dario Draštata (Dallas Records, Croatia)
Gee Davy (AIM, UK)
Geert De Blaere (N.E.W.S., Belgium)
Jörg Heidemann (VUT, Germany)
Mark Kitcatt (Everlasting Records, Spain)
Observer: Helen Smith (IMPALA, Europe)
Asia
Marty Ro (Sound Republica, South Korea)
Takuya Yamazaki (IMCJ, Japan)
Observer: Sridhar Swaminathan (SIMCA, India)
Australasia
Maria Amato (AIR, Australia)
Observer: Dylan Pellett (IMNZ, New Zealand)