Business
Page: 304
London’s O2 Academy Brixton has been permitted to reopen as a music venue so long as it meets “extensive and robust” new safety measures, following a fatal crowd crush last year.
The 5,000-capacity venue has been closed after two people died and several people were seriously injured during a crowd stampede outside a sold-out concert by Nigerian singer Asake on Dec. 15, 2022. A 21-year-old woman injured on the night remains in hospital in a critical condition.
In an announcement on Friday (Sept. 15), Lambeth Council said the venue would be allowed to host live music events again but “only once it is compliant” with 77 new safety conditions.
They include stronger doors, new crowd management systems, more detailed risk assessments, a new ticketing system, a new centralised control and command centre, as well as new security and management.
Responding to the council’s decision, which followed a two-day hearing, O2 Academy Brixton owner and operator Academy Music Group (AMG) said it was “committed to ensuring” the tragic events of Dec. 15 “can never be repeated.”
“Our heartfelt condolences remain with the family and friends of [victims] Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson,” the London-based company said in a statement.
AMG said it will hold test events before reopening O2 Academy Brixton at an unspecified date.
Crowd management company Showsec has been brought in to look after security for the venue, replacing AP Security, which has been criticized for its operation at Brixton, including allegations that some staff regularly took bribes to let people into concerts without tickets.
When O2 Academy Brixton reopens, operators AMG will be subject to “rigorous independent scrutiny to ensure public safety,” said Lambeth Council’s licensing sub-committee.
“The robust, far-reaching and enforceable measures we have determined must be taken by the Academy, subject to independent oversight and scrutiny, will result in [it] being among the most highly regulated licensed venues in the country,” said the council committee in its 50-page report.
During the two-day hearing to determine whether O2 Academy Brixton should reopen, much of which was held in private, London’s Metropolitan Police said it didn’t have confidence in AMG — which runs 18 music venues across the U.K. — as the licensee, but didn’t want to see the building permanently closed.
The hearing saw several other people speak in favour of AMG’s application, including local businesses and music promoter Mazin Tappuni, who told the committee that the closure of O2 Academy Brixton was putting off some international artists from visiting the U.K. because of a shortage of similarly sized venues in the British capital.
More than 110,000 people signed an online petition to save the historic venue, which opened in 1929 as a cinema and began hosting live music gigs in the early 1980s. The Smiths, David Bowie, Madonna, Bob Dylan, Blur and the Clash are just a few of the famous acts to have played there.
“Brixton Academy has consistently held a special place in the hearts of music aficionados, and its cultural significance is immeasurable,” said Michael Kill, CEO of trade group The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), in a statement welcoming the council’s decision.
Kill said the venue’s safe reopening would help ensure “its continued success as a hub for live music and entertainment.”
A police investigation into whether any criminal offences were committed on Dec. 15, 2022, is ongoing.
NSYNC thrilled fans Wednesday night at the MTV Video Music Awards when they came out to present Taylor Swift with the VMA for best pop video for “Anti-Hero.” The moment would turn out to be bittersweet for fans hoping for a reunion tour from the five-member group, however; Billboard has confirmed there are no such plans.
It turns out that *NSYNC star Justin Timberlake has touring plans of his own for 2024. Billboard has confirmed that Timberlake has holds on dates at arenas in North America for a major run, with sources saying the trek will be accompanied by a new album from the singer. As they say in the business, Timberlake is going back into cycle, which means there won’t be any full-fledged *NSYNC tour any time soon.
That leaves some serious money on the table for the group’s other four members. While not a boy band, the reunion of Blink-182 earlier this year shows that fans are willing to pay big bucks for nostalgia. An arena tour could gross for the five could easily generate $2.2 million to $2.4 million per night in ticket sales — equaling a take-home of $265,000 to $290,000 per night for each member of the group (assuming the profits were split evenly). That means a full 40-city North America tour could gross upwards of $95 million. Add in merch sales and other opportunities, and it could easily be a $120 million earner.
On the bright side, if *NSYNC does decide to return to the road sometime in the future, the road map to successful boy band reunification has been charted by their contemporaries –notably New Kids on the Block, who reunited in 2008 more than 14 years after the end of the band’s Face the Music tour in 1994.
“There really wasn’t a proven runway for pop bands of any kind to reunite and feel like it was going to be a financial success,” says talent manager Jared Paul, the group’s manager and architect of its 2008 reunion and tour.
“It has to start with the music — that’s what turned the idea of ‘maybe someday’ into a reality for New Kids when some music fell into their laps that really inspired them,” explains Paul. “The real challenge though was, it was so unproven, we had to make so many decisions that we’re just betting on ourselves.”
Today, Paul runs Faculty Inc., a full-service entertainment company, tour producer and partner with Live Nation. Besides managing New Kids on the Block (who have now been reunited longer than they were broken up), Faculty Inc. also owns the touring rights for Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance and manages the recently reunited boy band Big Time Rush.
Paul says he’s rooting for an *NYSNC reunion one day and says pulling off a boy band reunion is the ultimate moon shot — where everything has to align perfectly for there to be even a chance of success.
“You have to align your schedules, but more importantly, you have to align your creative vision,” says Paul. “You have to be willing, if you’ve gone off on your own or shifted your focus on your family, to essentially agree on your time commitment, what you are going to sing, where you’re going to tour, what you’re going to wear and, if there is new music involved, which direction the album is going to lean.”
There’s also the challenge of rebuilding the *NSYNC business, but much of that work has already been done thanks to licensing deals with merch companies like Epic Rights, which manages some of the group’s rights. That can significantly reduce the window of time it will take to reunite.
There are also murmurs that the group could reunite without Timberlake. The band has fielded offers for a four-man reunion in the past, following its appearance at Coachella in 2019. But a source with knowledge of the group’s thinking says it was never seriously considered, noting that anything short of a five-person comeback is off the table.
Warner Chappell Music entered into new contracts with Guy Moot, co-chair/CEO, and Carianne Marshall, co-chair/COO, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday (Sept. 15).
The new employment agreements go into effect on Oct. 1 and lock in both executives until Mar. 31, 2028. Both Moot and Marshall enjoyed 25% raises; the former’s base salary jumped from $1,750,000 to $2,187,500, while the latter’s rose from $1,250,000 to $1,562,500. Annual discretionary bonus targets for the pair increased as well, climbing from $1,750,000 to $2,187,500.
Marshall ascended to the COO role in April 2018, while Moot was named CEO the following year. They’ve since moved to sign acts like Frank Ocean, the Quincy Jones catalog and the Pop Smoke estate. “I don’t want us to be looking at every deal just because it’s in the market — we want to pick the winners, be selective [but] aggressive in how we close those deals,” Moot told Billboard in 2020.
“We can drive value for a lot of these catalogs by not just continuing to take good care of the big copyrights but also doing a deep dive,” Marshall added. “For the first time, we have a global head of synchronization, which is really important: We want to work with anyone who wants to use our songs to try to figure out how to create solutions for them. It’s important to us to be able to search our catalog to find something in every genre and at every price point with a quick turnaround.”
In the first quarter of 2019, Warner Chappell had a 16.13% share of the top 100 radio songs. In the first quarter of 2023, that share rose to 20.71%, though it fell to 17.21% in the second quarter. Also in the second quarter, Warner Chappell’s Hot 100 Songs market share was 19.94%.
Will Hipgnosis Songs Fund, a trailblazer in making music an alternative asset class in the financial world, fight to see another day? The sale of catalogs for $465 million, announced Thursday, is meant to help Hipgnosis Song Fund’s sagging share price and bring it closer to the company’s per-share net asset value (NAV). But it also intends to give investors a reason to vote for a five-year continuation in the annual meeting that’s likely to be held in October.
Given its need to shore up investor support, the catalog sale didn’t come as a surprise. Board chair Andrew Sutch said at a July 13 investor presentation that the board was pursuing options to boost shareholder value, and Hipgnosis has said that many of its largest shareholders favor share buybacks and partial debt repayment to help the struggling share price. This transaction provides the capital for those measures: Hipgnosis intends to use $180 million for share buybacks and $250 million to pay down the revolving credit facility.
Whether the deal ultimately succeeds depends on investors’ belief they are getting a good deal on the sale — the majority of which is to a sister company, the Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital (a joint venture with the royalty fund’s investment advisory, Hipgnosis Song Management, led by Merck Mecuriadis). Hipgnosis Songs Fund has long traded at a steep discount to its per-share NAV. That could partly be explained by higher interest rates that make the royalty fund, launched when interest rates were lower, a relatively less attractive investment to safer bonds. A larger factor could be investors’ lack of faith in NAV. Hipgnosis, which has argued the share price does not accurately reflect the value of its catalog, is now giving the market a transaction to help prove its point.
In the days following the announcement, some analysts have shown concern about the deal’s terms, transparency and related-party buyer. Investec analysts criticized the deal for valuing the assets “as being little more than the IPO price” in an investor note on Friday (Sept. 15) and stated, “there is substantial value leakage to related parties that again sadly raises significant corporate governance concerns.”
Numis predicts that Hipgnosis investors’ views will be “mixed, particularly given the Round Hill offer,” analysts wrote in a Sept. 14 investor note. In that deal, announced Sept. 8, Round Hill Music Royalty Fund — a royalty fund listed on the London Stock Exchange like Hipgnosis Songs Fund — received a buyout offer from U.S. music company Concord. Unlike the Hipgnsosis deal, Concord bid for the entire publicly traded company — at a price 11.5% below Round Hill’s net asset value. It’s a more straightforward transaction than Hipgnosis’ proposed partial catalog sale.
Numis believes that Hipgnosis’ share price’s discount to NAV “may persist for some time,” which could mean the board and the investment advisor, Hipgnosis Songs Management, “will continue to come under pressure.”
Analysts at Stifel, who have long been critical of Hipgnosis and Round Hill’s music royalty funds’ valuation methodologies, focused on the value Hipgnosis Songs Fund was extracting from Hipgnosis Songs Capital. The $465 million transaction consists of two parts. The first disposal worth $440 million, which accounts for 95% of the purchase price, is 17.5% below the fair value and 26% above the catalogs’ acquisition price.
Little is known about the smaller, second disposal that amounts to a $25 million slice of a catalog acquired from Kobalt Music in 2020 for $323 million. Hipgnosis Songs Capital is not the buyer of the second disposal.
Adding to the deal’s complexity, Hipgnosis Songs Fund is on the hook for bonuses and other payments under the original acquisition agreements; the company believes that will amount to $5.5 million, and it will be capped at $30 million. In addition, Hipgnosis Songs Capital is due royalties on the acquired catalog earned going back to Jan. 1 — about $15.3 million through Sept. 14.
“The complex nature of the deal suggests that it is hard to say the NAV has been validated,” wrote Stifel analyst Sachin Saggar.
If the share price is any gauge of investors’ initial reaction to the deal, opinions aren’t good. Shares of Hipgnosis Songs Fund dropped 6.5% on Thursday and another 7% on Friday. The 13% two-day decline eliminated nearly all of the 15.7% bump the share price received on Sept. 8 following news of Concord’s bid for Round Hill.
If investors are considering what Hipgnosis Songs Fund has left after the sale, they will find many jewels remaining in its catalog, including Neal Schon of Journey, Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom DeLonge of Blink-182, Neil Young, Blondie, Steve Winwood, Rodney Jerkins, Chrissie Hyde of the Pretenders, RZA, Teddy Geiger and The Chainsmokers. Five of those names — Journey, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink-182, Fleetwood Mac and The Chainsmokers — rank in the year-to-date top 500 recording artists ranked by global on-demand audio streams, according to Luminate. Two of them, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fleetwood Mac, are in the top 100. It’s also keeping Walter Afanasieff, co-writer of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which is a No. 1 song in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada every November and December.
Hipgnosis is giving up some quality, though: The 29 catalogs in the first portfolio include 21 of 473 songs in Spotify’s Billions Club, five of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs, and five of YouTube’s 30 most-viewed music videos. They include some older music by Barry Manilow and Rick James as well as newer artists like Poo Bear, RedOne, Martin Bresso and Colombian star Shakira, who ranks No. 55 in global audio on-demand streams. But, on average, these are younger songs with less proven royalty histories than the average song in Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s portfolio. In general, younger songs are less valuable than older, more established songs. Shareholders will vote on the sale at the annual general meeting.
The second disposal represents “non-core” assets worth $25 million that represent a small portion of the 33,000 songs acquired from Kobalt Music for $323 million in 2020. That deal also included the 18,000-song publishing catalog of Canadian music company Nettwerk. Hipgnosis Songs Fund said at the time it paid Kobalt an 18.3 times net publisher share multiple for the catalogs.
Hipgnosis believes the two disposals achieve multiple aims. The $465 million price tag is “the smallest possible that would provide the required capital” for share buybacks and debt repayment, the company stated in a press release. Also, the catalogs the company chose to sell leave intact “the fundamental investment case for Hipgnosis Songs Fund….by protecting the strength of the remaining portfolio.” Come October, we’ll see what investors are thinking.
As the COO/executive vp of Sony Latin Iberia, María Fernández is one of the most powerful people in Latin music. She not only runs the operational and financial aspects of the largest Latin music company but is also an artist and management-forward executive who oversees her multiple divisions with a famously empathetic style.
This week, Fernández’s work is at the forefront, as the RIAA Honors, which is celebrating Latin music this year, announced it was recognizing her as industry executive of the year for 2023. Fernandez will be feted during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday (Sept. 19) alongside Gloria Estefan (Icon), Emilio Estefan (industry trailblazer), Sebastian Yatra (artist of the year) and representatives Veronica Escobar and María Elvira Salazar (policymakers of the year).
A native of Venezuela who started her career in media, Fernández is a finance whiz who joined Sony as CFO and rose to the rank of COO five years ago. Her role expanded during the pandemic when she made mentoring and training young executives a central part of her job and a personal mission. She now oversees the strategic approach of the company and all of its different operations, including finance, people experience, technology and acquisitions, and is regularly involved in big artist deals. And ahead of the RIAA Honors, Fernández is Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Fernández discusses her finance background, her role as a mentor within her community and the state of Latin music around the globe. “It’s a moment in history when you can show that Latin music is not only one genre, and the fact that we have amazing artists representing each one of those genres and seeing that on global charts is extremely fulfilling.”
You have a background in finance. How do you apply that to your job at a music company?
I think I bring to the more strategic, financial and operational areas the understanding of artists’ needs and therefore how we can organize ourselves to incorporate those needs in everything that we do. For instance, an artist will want to do a more expensive video because they have a creative vision. From a purely financial standpoint, you won’t see a return from that investment because the streaming of the video won’t compensate for the level of investment. But when you understand why that is important for the artist and how it fits into the whole strategy, not only do you understand the logic of what you want to do, but you can sell it.
That’s interesting because “Let me talk to finance” is among the more dreaded words one can hear.
Historically, the financial group is the team that says no to everything. And there’s a struggle between the creative and financial groups. One thing we’re trying to do more and more is make sure both sides understand each other’s needs. By the way, you can say exactly the same thing when we’re talking about employees because the base of the values in our region is that we have two rosters: artists and employees, and we need to take care of both of them. You need superstar employees and executives to manage superstar artists.
I think you’re unusual in that you work often and directly with managers. I cannot tell you how many times a manager has told me, “I’m meeting with Maria Fernández today.” What happens when your mutual needs don’t align?
I work with a lot of managers and maybe there’s a logic as to why a manager needs something for their artist, but that need doesn’t necessarily align with our needs in that moment. But it’s always [about] how to make sure we understand each other even if we’re not always going to be on the same page. To me, it’s the messaging. The way I see it, we are here to serve. We’re here to make things easier, [even] with all the limitations we have in a corporation and making sure we follow procedure.
What are you proud of in the last year?
The presence of our artists on the charts and the variety of genres on the charts. Right now, you have urban songs, but you have Shakira on the top of the charts with a song like “Acróstico.” Then you have regional Mexican artists like Fuerza Regida and an artist like Luísa Sonza from Brazil at the top of Spotify Brazil with a bossa nova song called “Chico.” It’s a moment in history when you can show that Latin music is not only one genre, and the fact that we have amazing artists representing each one of those genres and seeing that on global charts is extremely fulfilling. And to be honest, what I’m doing in terms of helping the next generation of executives, especially women, to make sure they’re prepared continues to be the highlight of my career at this point. I’ve dedicated a lot of time to that and I feel very proud of the accomplishments in terms of getting them ready to be promoted, changing jobs, doing new things in the organization.
What did you specifically do in terms of your mentorship work?
What I’m doing personally is I am dedicating a significant amount of time to take care of the career development of employees in the U.S. and also in the region, in order to allow them to take over executive leadership positions in the future. We do mentoring, talk to them, we develop career plans, if they have an issue we discuss the issues, if they need training in a particular area, through conversations we figure out what they’re missing to get to the next level. We follow up on plans to make sure they have everything they need.
That sounds very time-consuming for a busy executive. How do you manage?
You’d be surprised. Sometimes you don’t need to do too much. Sometimes someone simply has a blind spot and the second you tell them about it, they can go in and fix it. We’re always busy. And we’re not always taking the time to analyze where you’re at, what do you like, what makes you happy. My policy is very simple. Anyone who wants to talk to me can get on my agenda. If they need to talk to me every week, I’ll be there every week.
Is this mandatory?
No. But anyone that asks me to mentor them, I do. At this point, it’s 80% women and 20% men. And the fact that I can do it, shows that others can do it too. If we can have that ripple effect that we can make a little bit of time in our very busy schedules to help someone else when they need it, I think by default this will make us a better company. Formally I started during the pandemic, around 2020. And I’m proud to say that some of the people I started mentoring at that time are now in senior positions in the organization.
I still see very few women in really senior leadership positions in our industry. How can this change?
I am very happy to report that I’m seeing it happening. I personally don’t like the idea of a woman getting the position because she’s a woman, but because she’s the best candidate. And what I’m proud of is, we’ve been able to have many more women in senior positions applying and making sure they’re the best of the best. In Sony Music, we have such talented women in the structure that I don’t think it’s going to be challenging to find very compelling female candidates when you’re trying to fill a position.
What do you see happening with Latin music now?
A big difference is people [who are not Latin] are used to equating “Latin music is urban music,” and that’s not the case. Latin music is very rich, it has a lot of genres, it has a lot of history. “Latino” is not reggaetón. Latino is 100 genres per country. And that to me means more and more artists are open to collaborating with artists from different places. Camilo collaborated with an artist from India; Luísa Sonza is on a song that features Demi Lovato, singing in Portuguese. Soon we will see what will happen with Korean music being more present in the U.S. I think it’s a new era in terms of music.
What is your biggest challenge?
The challenge for a region like ours is, how do we make sure we collaborate with everything that is happening and make sure people understand the music, the artist and what they want to accomplish? How do you create global artists when their presence in some charts is limited? For example, in Brazil, over 90% of the chart is local music, and in general, most of the countries are going back to local music. So, as a global company, how do you balance those things? The importance of the local artist, [and then] the local artist wants to be global. How do we fulfill those dreams?
Peggy Gou has expanded her WME representation and is now globally represented by the agency. Based in Berlin, Gou’s 2023 tour schedule has included EDC Mexico, Sónar Barcelona, KappaFuturFestival, Lollapalooza Stockholm, Electric Castle, Creamfields North and ARC Music Festival. Upcoming plays include Australia’s Beyond The Valley and Wildlands festivals. She’s also played events including Primavera, […]
BERLIN — After introducing himself in German — a daring act for a foreigner — Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl said a few words about why he was so excited to be at the opening of the company’s new Berlin office. “The world is noisier than ever,” he said, just as the roar of nearby S-Bahn made it so, but there was considerable excitement about the music coming out of Germany. He shared one example: “Komet,” a recent hit by veteran rock artist Udo Lindenberg and rapper Apache 207 that has broken chart records.
While the German music business has historically been divided among its major cities, Berlin is emerging as the country’s music capital, and although Warner’s German headquarters will remain in Hamburg, it celebrated the opening of its new Berlin office with a big party. (The new office is for both Warner Music Central Europe and Warner Chappell Music Germany.) Next week, during the Reeperbahn Festival, the company will have a second “hauswarming” party at its remodeled Hamburg offices.
“We see this new space, alongside our revitalised Hamburg headquarters, as a sign of our commitment to local players in the creative and cultural scene,” said Doreen Schimk, co-president of Warner Music Central Europe, who spoke in German. “It shows the importance of Berlin as a European metropolis and a location for the music industry.”
Fabian Drebes, also co-president of Warner Music Central Europe, spoke about how the new building would serve as a “new creative hub with possibilities for events, concerts and more to support our national and international artists.”
Lars Karlsson, Managing Director Warner Chappell Music GSA & Nordics, Doreen Schimk, Co-President Warner Music Central Europe, Natascha Augustin, Vice President Warner Chappell Music Germany, Fabian Drebes, Co-President Warner Music Central Europe
Doering Agency
Warner occupies the top floor of the Schicklerhaus, a late-19th-century building near the Jannowitzbrücke S-Bahn stop, a block from the River Spree, not far from where the Berlin Wall once divided the city. These days, it’s about a mile from AEG’s Mercedes-Benz Arena. It’s a sleek, modern office, with prime roof space that overlooks the river. As about 500 partygoers mingled on the roof and a terrace, a drone hovered overhead taking photos. German artists attending included Peter Schilling, Katja Krasavice, and Shirin David.
“The music industry is of increasing importance for Berlin,” said Franziska Giffey, a deputy mayor for business, energy and labor. Speaking in what she called “Berlinish” — a mix of German and English that’s increasingly popular in a city filled with newcomers from all over the world – she said that music business jobs increased by 700 to about 6,800 this year, and that Warner would add another 150.
“Without the scene of such a vibrant city, we wouldn’t be the No. 1 publisher,” said Natascha Augustin, vp of Warner Chappell Music Germany. Warner Chappell leads the German music publishing business partly because of Augustin and her signings in German hip-hop. She told a story about starting out with a small Berlin office, moving to a slightly bigger one, and ending up here.
“Berlin,” said Lars Karlsson, managing director of Warner Chappell Music Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and Scandinavia, “is one of the most important cultural cities in the world.”
I’m a California-raised Filipino American who spent my formative years (in the mid-aughts) worshiping bands like Death Cab for Cutie and much of the Myspace-era Warped Tour scene. So when I was 16, I decided to pursue my dream of starting my own band. But as I took a closer look at the artists I loved, the realization hit: Apart from Joey Santiago of the Pixies (who is Filipino), there was no one who looked like me.
Even as I transitioned into the business side of the music industry — working at large management companies, agencies and in touring — the lack of diversity was hard to ignore. And while the industry has changed a lot since I was a teenager, it still has so much room to grow.
As an active songwriter and senior director of A&R at Angry Mob Music Publishing, I’m a big advocate for songwriting camps and the significant opportunity they offer to everyone involved. I recently joined an organization called Mono Stereo Groove, which focuses on the representation of AAPI songwriters in the industry, and, inspired by all of the amazing work being done by those involved in the organization, I wanted to spearhead my own initiative. So at Angry Mob, I decided to introduce a diversity initiative into all creative areas, including by focusing on one of the most important elements in all of songwriting: the community.
This is why I recently launched the New Normal Writing Camp — an all-inclusive, diversity-forward camp that says it all in the name. I wanted to show that diversity should be represented not only on the artist level but also within the writing rooms, which have been very slow to catch up in terms of diversity. Our first annual New Normal Writing Camp, held in June 2023, featured 70% female artists/writers and 50% women producers representing more than 12 cultural backgrounds and featured artists including UMI, Deb Never, Yuna and Paravi. The hope is that camps like this will continue to push the industry to embrace all of the beautifully diverse writers and producers who deserve to be in high-level writing rooms.
The music industry can be difficult to work in, and these songwriting camps give the participants a chance to be themselves, get out of their comfort zones and make music in an intimate, safe space. Through these camps, I have the opportunity to create a diverse environment where songwriters and other professionals can network with those who do and don’t look like them, be exposed to a variety of genres and work with people with whom they otherwise may not have had the opportunity.
The best parts of these week-long writing events are the beautiful songs that are created and the lasting friendships that come out of them. It’s truly special to see people connect through their life stories, cultures and interests, creating music that reflects those. Unless you’re a person of color, it might be hard to grasp how crucial it is to see others who look like you pursuing their dreams and being given a fair shot in a white male-dominated industry. That’s why camps like these — also including Spotify’s GLOW camp for LGBTQ+ writers, Spotify’s Frequency camp for black writers and ASCAP’s She Is the Music camp for women songwriters — are so important.
When chatting about my intention to create writing environments that reflect the world we live in, the response from some industry professionals is usually one of surprise. While that response isn’t necessarily bad, it proves this inclusive approach is far from the norm. But it shouldn’t be. What the industry is blinded to is the potential to miss out on this generation’s next big artist/songwriter/producer — all because its leaders aren’t investing in underrepresented songwriters. All companies need to prioritize this issue, and I feel incredibly lucky to have the Angry Mob team behind me, championing my passion and continuously working alongside me to ensure we’re building a diverse roster of clients and organizing diverse writing camps.
It’s obvious that the music industry has a lot of growing to do, and I could have given up on it a long time ago due to my own experiences with close-minded gatekeepers — but I know that my work, however small, can really move the needle in the right direction. I am extremely proud to be a Filipino American, and it’s important to me to create spaces in the industry where the AAPI community and other underrepresented POC can grow and pursue opportunities that are often not given to them, helping ease the need to work twice as hard to even be considered.
My hope for the future of our industry is equity. I am honored to write about this topic and even share my experience, but I would also like for opportunities in the music industry for underrepresented groups to look the same as everyone else’s. Harkening back to the name of the songwriting camp I launched at Angry Mob, I’m optimistic that we can make diversity in songwriting camps the new normal and not something we need to push for any longer. When combined together, the small steps we take within the industry to provide opportunities to underrepresented groups will impact the future of music in immense ways.
Ralph Torrefranca is the senior director of A&R at Angry Mob Music. He is also a songwriter and the singer/guitarist in the post-punk band Cuffed Up.
European independent labels trade group IMPALA says it has concerns that the new “artist-centric” streaming model being rolled out by Deezer and Universal Music Group (UMG) later this year could create a “two-tier” music market that unfairly disadvantages indie artists and labels.
In an announcement on Friday (Sept. 15), Brussels-based IMPALA says that Deezer’s plans to introduce a new methodology for paying out streaming royalties for UMG artists from October 1 — at first only in France, Deezer’s biggest market — risks impacting independent and micro labels, which provide 80% of all new releases in Europe.
Among those whom IMPALA warns could be affected by the new streaming model announced by Deezer and UMG last week are new artists yet to be discovered, acts that deliberately cater to niche audiences and musicians from smaller markets.
The European trade body, which represents nearly 6,000 independent companies and labels, including Beggars Group, Cooking Vinyl, Epitaph and PIAS Music Group, says “the fact that the Deezer proposal has been developed in a vacuum” with UMG, the world’s biggest music company, “instead of the sector generally is also a concern.”
In response to its members’ worries, IMPALA says it is seeking “more clarity” from Deezer about its new streaming royalties model, which replaces the existing pro-rata setup — whereby one stream equals one play, with the total number of plays proportionally divided up by artists and labels — with a new system that prioritizes active listening, meaning users who intentionally search for or click on an artist’s song.
Under the new “artist-centric” model, “professional artists,” which Deezer and UMG categorize as artists who have accumulated at least 1,000 monthly streams from at least 500 unique users, will receive a higher share of streaming royalties, while Deezer will remove “non-artist noise” — essentially, white noise and nature sounds, which the company says accounts for 2% of streams — from the available royalty pool. As part of its reforms, Deezer has also vowed to crack down on streaming fraud and malicious actors exploiting the system.
At present, Universal is the only label signed up to the new streaming royalty allocation model, although in an interview with Billboard, Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira said the Paris-based company is in discussions “with all content providers” and anticipates that more than 50% of its repertoire will be on the new model come its launch in October. He said the company also plans to expand the offer beyond France, where it will be piloted this fall, to “all providers in all countries” in 2024.
Responding to the UMG-Deezer plan, IMPALA’s executive chair Helen Smith said she welcomes Deezer’s “commitment to improve the streaming market” but cautions that “more debate is needed on this vital question… and its potential impact on the music ecosystem.”
In April, IMPALA published an updated version of its own 10-point plan to reform streaming, which proposed various changes to how digital royalties are allocated, including attaching a premium value to tracks that the listener has sought out as well as a so-called “Fan Participation Model,” whereby artists and rights holders could generate incremental revenue within digital services through offering special features and extra tracks.
The trade group says it has discussed its proposals with multiple digital services and will continue to push for “meaningful streaming reform.”
“It’s a common thread through the history of recorded music that the great artistic advances and changes have come from, and through, the independent sector. I don’t expect Goldman Sachs to know that but Deezer and UMG certainly do,” said Mark Kitcatt, chair of IMPALA’s streaming reform group.
Kitcatt added, “We hope that services will join with us to reform the streaming world in a way that increases opportunity and reward for all dedicated music creators, and enhances and enriches the experience for fans, rather than just diverting more royalties towards the biggest artists.”
23 PR (or Twnty Three) expands its presence in the United States with the appointment of James Rainis as head of U.S. public relations, Billboard can exclusively reveal.
The independent comms and artist management firm recruits Rainis from Shore Fire Media, where he worked on campaigns for the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bon Iver, Ghostface Killah, Oneohtrix Point Never, and PJ Morton, over a nine-year stint.
Founded in 2014 by Melody Forghani, 23 PR is based in Sydney, Australia and represents a diverse roster of talent, including RAYE, Little Simz, Obongjayar, KAYTRAMINÉ, Caroline Polachek, Skepta, and Joji.
In 2019, Amanda Perlstein, formerly of Stones Throw, Partisan, Shore Fire, and Big Hassle, launched 23 PR U.S. With Perlstein at the helm, the American arm secured relationships with Logic1000, CLIP, Baird, Luna Li, Haviah Mighty, and others, and works in tandem with HQ to offer tailored U.S.-only, Australia-only, and, when required, joint campaigns.
“Melody and Amanda have built a formidable press operation both in Australia and the U.S. while always honoring the vision and goals of the musicians they represent,” comments Rainis in a statement. “I’m thrilled to join the team and to expand 23’s U.S. operations, all while working with a diverse roster of artists on the bleeding edge of music today.”
Adds Perlstein: “Melody and I are thrilled to welcome James to our U.S. team. We can’t wait to see where he takes the company next with his keen eye for spotting talent early, extensive knowledge of music, and a commitment to developing an inclusive company culture.”
Since the U.S. division opened for business, the indie firm has brought acts like Kucka, Maple Glider, altopalo, Sunset Rollercoaster, MAY-A to the “global stage,” reps say.
A statement from the company reads, “Our love of music is at the center of every campaign through the promotion and protection of artists and their stories.”