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Tucked into the side of Southern California’s new SoFi Stadium is a Palm Springs-inspired hideaway dreamt up by actor David Arquette and nightlife company The h.wood Group. The field level suite – called Bootsy Bellows at SoFi Stadium – is a truncated version of the West Hollywood bar by the same name (Arquette’s mother’s name) and more stylish than most sporting spaces. Decked out in velvet furniture, breezeblocks and gold-trimming, the suite is an elevated experience for NFL fans watching home teams LA Rams and Chargers, but the operators are stepping up their game for major concerts.
“No one’s really experienced something like that with the decor and everything, so it’s been very special,” The h.wood Group co-founder John Terzian tells Billboard about the reception to the suite. “If you can make people feel warm in a stadium setting, feel like they’re kind of in a living room, you’ve done a pretty good job.”
This summer alone, SoFi Stadium has hosted Twice, Morgan Wallen and Metallica, in addition to six nights of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour that just wrapped up a star-studded three nights. The h.wood Group has taken the growing demand for stadium concerts and not only expanded their presence at SoFi, but also made improvements over the past three years.
Timothy Norris
“The first season, you could only order like a burger, chicken tenders and fries – standard stadium food. People were paying $10,000 for a table to come to a game, they don’t really just want to eat chicken tenders,” explains The h.wood Group co-founder Brian Toll. Going forward the stadium agreed to allow Bootsy Bellows to take advanced orders to deliver additional offerings like sushi platters and Tomahawk steaks.
The h.wood Group also expanded their seating options for concerts. Instead of being limited to their large suite, Bootsy Bellows has been able to take over more space along the sidelines. For concerts, Terzian says, they can run an entire sideline of suites and, depending on the show, add seats on the field for Bootsy Bellows designed pods. “We’ve extended [the space] so that you have this incredible experience where you have your own little section with a couch and a high top [tables] essentially on the field itself,” he says. “That was a massive thing that we did from last year to this year. It’s all about viewing experiences and things that we keep improving.”
Wonho Lee
The ultimate appeal of the Bootsy suites, according to Terzian, is the level of accommodation. In a stadium that can hold up to 100,000 fans, The h.wood Group tries to simplify an overwhelming experience with an exclusive entrance, dedicated staff to get patrons to the suite and private bathrooms, as well as in suite bars and servers. The difference “has been our attention to handling any sort of talent that comes in,” says Terzian. “The whole idea is when you’re in there, you have your own bar, there’s a DJ going, there aren’t people asking for pictures. You have fun whether it’s with family or friends. It’s supposed to be a safe space.”
Organizers behind the Electric Zoo festival on Randalls Island in New York canceled the Friday (Sept. 1) opening day because Department of Parks & Recreation officials would not issue the permits needed to stage the city’s largest EDM festival, promoters behind the event have confirmed with Billboard.
On Friday, when event organizers with Brooklyn venue company and concert promoter Avant Gardner canceled the festival’s first day, they blamed “global supply chain disruptions” in a statement, saying, “These unexpected delays have prevented us from completing the construction of the main stage in time for Day 1.” Organizers did not provide further specifics. A rep for the festival told Billboard on Tuesday (Sept. 5) that the application for the permits had been made well in advance, adding that the permit issue was resolved when the festival finally opened on Saturday.
Touring industry sources, however, say it was due to organizers’ failure to pay vendors from last year’s festival that led to a shortage of experienced concert professionals willing to work at this year’s event. Specifically, the main festival stage caused the most issues early Friday during an inspection of the site hours before the event was scheduled to open. City officials demanded the festival staff fix several safety and security issues before the festival could open. It took organizers more than 24 hours to fix the issues, leading to the festival opening two hours late on Saturday.
The problems did not stop there, though. Making matters worse, many fans did not receive their festival wristbands and tickets in the mail as promised, forcing attendees to queue up for hours to retrieve their tickets. And then on Sunday, organizers were forced to shut down access to the festival after the site reached maximum capacity. Some fans who reached the festival site after the gates were closed decided to jump fences or run through security checkpoints as a group, joining other ticket-holding fans in mad dashes past security staff. Hoping to deter fans from boarding ferries to Randalls Island, festival organizers announced on X (formerly Twitter) that the event had reached maximum capacity for “unknown reasons” and promised “everyone denied entry today will be issued a refund.”
The problems experienced at Electric Zoo mirror ongoing issues at the Avante Gardner venue. Created by owner and creative director Jürgen “Billy” Bildstein in 2017, Avante Gardner is known as a favorite for fans and acts because of its size and flexible space. To state regulators however, the 6,000-capacity venue has been the subject of ongoing legal disputes and investigations by agencies like the New York State Liquor Authority over overcrowding and drug use since 2016, according to court records. On Aug. 22, liquor authority chair and commissioner Lily Fan testified that Avant Gardner “couldn’t care less what people do in their establishment so long as they made money.”
The price tag for this year’s chaotic festival — including refund costs to fans who didn’t make it in, as well as paying Friday night performers The Chainsmokers, Excision and Kx5 their full fees — could total $25 million, according to former insiders at SFX Entertainment, which owned the festival from 2013 to 2022.
Electric Zoo was originally launched in 2009 by founders Mike Bindra and Laura De Palma and grew to be the East Coast’s biggest electronic festival, always taking place over Labor Day weekend. In June 2022, Bildstein led the purchase of Electric Zoo from LiveStyle, a holding company created in the aftermath of SFX Entertainment’s bankruptcy in 2015. Bildstein agreed to pay $15 million for the festival property, Billboard reported at the time, paying about half the money in cash and while agreeing to a convertible debt note to cover the unpaid portion of the purchase.
Avant Gardner staged the 2022 festival and racked up debt with a number of talent agencies and vendors, sources tell Billboard, leading to delays building out the festival site in 2023 that were partially to blame for the permit delays.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams suggested the city will launch an investigation into Electric Zoo’s organizers for going beyond the festival’s approved capacity. The New York Police Department estimated event organizers oversold the festival’s 42,500-person capacity limit by 7,000 tickets on Sunday.
“It’s unfortunate that the organizers wanted to turn our city into a zoo, and we were not going to allow that to happen,” Adams said during an NYPD briefing on Tuesday. “And we will be dealing with them in the next few days based on their behavior and actions.”
Deezer plans to implement a new streaming model with Universal Music Group later this year — a step that Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira called “the most ambitious change to the economic model since the creation of music streaming and a change that will support the creation of high-quality content in the years to come.”
In an announcement on Wednesday (September 6), Deezer said it would roll out this “artist-centric” system in the French market starting in the fourth quarter of 2023. The new model aims to reward artists and songs that are driving listener engagement while also de-prioritizing white noise and other “functional” audio. “The sound of rain or a washing machine is not as valuable as a song from your favorite artist streamed in HiFi,” Folgueira declared.
As part of the new model, plays racked up by “professional artists” — which Deezer defines as acts with more than 1,000 streams per month spread across 500 unique listeners — with a “double boost.” (The announcement did not define what that “double boost” entails.) Similarly, songs that are driving listener engagement — the metrics for measuring this were also undefined — will receive the same bump.
In addition, Deezer plans to replace “non-artist noise content” — the sounds of whales or washing machines — with its own functional music, while also excluding this audio from the royalty pool so that payouts to raindrop recordings don’t come at the expense of payouts to singer-songwriters. “We are now embracing a necessary change, to better reflect the value of each piece of content and eliminate all wrong incentives,” Folgueira said in a statement. “There is no other industry where all content is valued the same.”
“With this multi-faceted approach, music by artists that attracts and engages fans will receive weighting that better recognizes its value, and the fraud and gaming, which serves only to deprive artists their due compensation, will be aggressively addressed,” added Michael Nash, UMG’s evp and chief digital officer. He also noted that the model may change in the future: “As the ever-evolving music landscape continues its rapid transformation, UMG and Deezer will rigorously address the impact of these changes as we incorporate new insights from data analysis and fine-tune the model, as appropriate.”
UMG’s quest for a new streaming ecosystem has been a major talking point for the company since January. That month, in a letter to staff, UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge called for the development of “a model that will be a win for artists, fans, and labels alike, and, at the same time, also enhances the value proposition of the [streaming] platforms themselves, accelerating subscriber growth, and better monetizing fandom.”
Since then, UMG announced partnerships with both Tidal and Deezer to try to determine what that model might look like. Streamers can do “a better job of monetizing these high integrity, high intense artist-fan relationships,” Nash told financial analysts in March. “We’ve been speaking with platforms… about the enhancement of offers to the consumer that reflect the engagement with artists that are really driving the economic models of the platform.”
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, however, appeared less enthusiastic about implementing a major change to the streaming model during an earnings call in July. “Most studies we’ve done on this [show] that even if you change it to a user-centric or an artist-centric approach, it seldom leads to these gigantic differences that most people perceive it to do,” he said.
“But we’re always open to hearing how we can make the system [fairer] to more artists,” he added.
Apple Music is doubling down on classical music with the acquisition of Swedish label BIS Records.
Following the launch earlier this year of its standalone app Apple Music Classical (AMC), the tech giant makes its move for BIS, a classical specialist which has operated since 1973.
The acquisition ticks several boxes for both parties.
For BIS, the timing, and its new teammates, were right. “A few days ago BIS Records turned 50 years old and I am immensely proud of what our small team of people has accomplished during this half-century,” writes BIS founder Robert von Bahr in a blog post.
Its strong suit, “while paying our dues to the core repertoire,” he continues, “has been to nurture young classical artists and interesting living composers and to safeguard the musical treasure that we all represent long into the future. It is to that end that, after much careful consideration, and having just turned 80, I am excited to announce the rather momentous news that we have made the decision to become part of the Apple family.”
For Apple, the hardware colossus with a market cap that’s fast approaching $3 trillion, its latest purchase is a statement of intent. Classical music is hot right now, the newest member of its family comes bearing the goods, with a catalog of contemporary composers and early music. And Apple wants ownership.
Apple made its splash in the classical water with the March launch of AMC, stemming from its August 2021 acquisition of Primephonic.
The new app, Apple boldly declared at the time, was the “ultimate classical experience” with the “largest classical music catalog,” boasting over 5 million tracks and works from new releases to recognized masterpieces.
The game is changing, fast. Last November, Deutsche Grammophon launched a new standalone streaming service, Stage+, catering to its own catalog and that of Decca Classics. And, recently, Universal Music Group bought Hyperion Records, and announced its asset would finally enter into the streaming age.
Following the latest transaction, BIS will become part of Apple Music Classical and its artist services service Platoon. Financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed. At the time of writing, BIS Recordings were available on Apple’s DSPs and eClassical.
Von Bahr and his staff won’t be going anywhere. “As proud as I am of this milestone,” he writes, “I am even more proud of the fact that the entire personnel of BIS, including me, have been retained. We all look forward to a future, filled with new music and artists in golden sound from this increased force in classical music.”
Read more here.
Elliot Goldman, the veteran record executive who co-founded Arista Records, led BMG Music as president and CEO, and served in senior roles with Warner and CBS Records across a decorated career in music, has died at the age of 88.
Goldman joined CBS Records in the 1960s, rising to administrative vice president. Later, with Clive Davis, he established Arista Records, serving as executive VP and general manager at the very inception of the storied label.
“Clive and I formed Arista Records in 1973,” he recounted in an interview with Billboard published in 2015. “One of our first releases was from a gentleman you’ve probably heard of: Barry Manilow.”
Later, Goldman took on duties as senior VP at Warner Communications, and, in 1985, was named president and chief executive of RCA/Ariola International. When BMG parent Bertelsmann acquired RCA outright from the General Electric Company, the German media giant restructured the asset into three operating units; BMG Music, BMG Music International and Arista, all part of BMG. Goldman would guide BMG Music as president and CEO, departing in 1987.
”Elliot expertly managed RCA/ Ariola through very difficult corporate transitions and company restructuring,” Michael Dornemann, co-chairman of the Bertelsmann Music Group, remarked on his departure, The New York Times reported.
A graduate of Cornell, where he majored in political science, and of Columbia Law School, Goldman served on the board of directors of the RIAA, and on the board of directors and executive committee of the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Foundation at its inception.
During his lifetime, he also served on the executive council of the T.J. Martell Foundation; was co-chairman of the Home Entertainment Division of UJA/Federation; founding member and president emeritus of the Music for Youth foundation; and a recipient of the AMC Cancer Research Center’s Humanitarian of the Year Award.
Goldman leveraged his considerable major label experience into consultancy work with a string independent and major record company clients throughout the 1990s.
Before entering the music industry, Goldman enjoyed various roles in government, including the position as head of the New York office for the 1964 election campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Arista and J Records founder Clive Davis leads tributes to the late executive.
“Elliot Goldman played a substantial role in the history of Arista Records and strongly contributed to its success,” comments Davis in a statement. “He was also a great family man and Jill, Ben and the Goldman children have my deepest sympathy for this irreplaceable loss.”
He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Jill, his son Ben (Allysa Lawson Goldman), daughters Elizabeth and Cathy and his four grandchildren, Justin Goldman, Dylan Goldman, Sophie Gibbons and Olivia Gibbons.Ben and Justin have both carved out successful careers in music.
Spotify is currently testing a feature that would put song lyrics on the app behind a paywall for free users, the company has confirmed to Billboard. “At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests, some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others serve only as an […]
Coldplay’s former manager, Dave Holmes, is suing the band for more than £10 million ($12 million) in damages and outstanding payments, according to documents filed in the London High Court.
Holmes managed Coldplay for more than two decades, helping the British group become one of the world’s biggest rock acts prior to being dismissed by them in late 2022.
In legal papers filed in the U.K. courts, which have been viewed by Billboard, attorneys for Holmes say he is suing the four members of Coldplay — Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Chris Martin — for more than £10 million ($12 million) over the defendants’ “failure and refusal to comply” with the terms of their management contract. News of the lawsuit was first reported by Variety last month.
The dispute centers around a proposed contract agreement that Holmes says the band entered into with his California-based management company, DHMC, relating to Coldplay’s yet-to-be-released tenth and eleventh studio albums and related tours, which the former manager claims he is due unpaid commission on.
According to the lawsuit, filed Aug. 11 in the U.K. Business and Property Courts, Coldplay received an advance of £35 million ($44 million) for its tenth album from Warner Music Group-owned Parlophone Records. Holmes says he also negotiated advances of £15 million ($19 million) each for the group’s subsequent two studio albums as part of the extension of Coldplay’s recording contract with Parlophone, signed in June 2021.
One month later, Holmes was paid £1.5 million ($1.9 million) by the band, representing his 10% commission fee from the initial £15 million advance payment Coldplay received from the label for its tenth album. Holmes was paid a further £1.5 million ($1.9 million) in October 2021 but says the band still owes him outstanding commission from the record company advances.
In addition, Holmes claims he is due payment for “extensive services” his company carried out relating to the prospective albums and touring schedules prior to his termination as manager.
These services allegedly include scheduling, marketing, budgeting, sponsorship and ticket pricing for the U.S., Asia and Australia legs of the 2022/23 “Music of the Spheres” world tour, as well as work on the band’s next two releases, such as arranging writing and recording sessions in Jamaica and London and preparing promotional campaigns.
Listed among the services Holmes says he and his team carried out for Coldplay’s as-yet-unscheduled tenth album are budgeting and marketing activities, clearing an instrumental sample from musician Hal Walker, arranging a recording session on a film set in Boston, and liaising with producer Max Martin’s manager to arrange recording and production sessions.
Holmes also claims that preparatory work was carried out around possible touring scenarios in 2024/25, including meeting with promoters.
According to legal papers filed by Holmes’ attorneys, Coldplay argues that a contract agreement for the band’s tenth and eleventh albums was never concluded and that commission deals between Holmes and the group for any of its previous nine albums, including the group’s first two releases, expired at the end of last year.
Although the cause of the fallout between Holmes and Coldplay is not detailed in the lawsuit, court documents do reveal that Coldplay asked Holmes to step down from managing the band in June last year and instead become head of touring, whereby he would receive commission on touring and live performance revenue but forgo payment on recording or publishing revenue.
According to the lawsuit, in September, Coldplay’s solicitors wrote to Holmes to inform him that the head of touring proposal was no longer on offer and his involvement with the band was to officially end Dec. 31, 2022. Since then, the band has been managed by long-term associates Phil Harvey, Mandi Frost and Arlene Moon.
Holmes is now asking the U.K. courts to determine if the so-called “Albums 10/11 Agreement” stands and for Coldplay to pay him any outstanding commission, as per its terms. Alternatively, his attorneys are asking that Holmes receive “reasonable remuneration in respect” of the services he carried out for the multi-million-selling British band.
“Dave Holmes successfully managed Coldplay for more than 22 years, steering them to be one of the most successful bands in music history. Now, as the legal case shows, Coldplay is refusing to honor Dave’s management contract and pay him what he is owed,” says Holmes’ lawyer, Phil Sherrell, in a statement provided to Billboard.
Representatives for Coldplay confirmed with Billboard that Holmes’ management contract with the four-piece expired at the end of 2022 “at which point they decided not to start a new one. The matter is now in the hands of Coldplay’s lawyers and the claims are being vigorously disputed.”
WeVerse, the social media platform owned by K-pop company HYBE, will add 13 artists from SM Entertainment on Sept. 12, the companies announced Tuesday (Sept. 5). That opens the platform to such artists as NCT 127, Red Velvet, Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, RIIZE and aespa. The partnership was announced in April. “With this momentous occasion, […]
Warner Music Group and Elliot Grainge’s 10K Projects announced a new joint venture today (Sept. 5). As part of the deal, 10K will become a standalone label under the WMG umbrella, joining the likes of Atlantic Records and Warner Records among WMG’s collection of record labels.
Grainge, the son of Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge, initially launched 10K Projects in 2016 under Universal’s Capitol Music Group umbrella, with many of its projects distributed through Virgin Music. The label found success with artists like XXXTentacion, Trippie Redd, iann dior, Internet Money, controversial artist 6ix9ine and, most recently, Ice Spice.
As part of the switch from UMG to WMG, Eliot Grainge will remain as 10K’s CEO, and co-presidents Zach Friedman and Tony Talamo will also remain in place atop the label’s leadership ranks. Additionally, Grainge will join WMG’s global leadership team, the company said.
“Joining Warner Music Group provides us with the backing, the collective expertise and vision to empower our artists and our employees on the next phase of our journey,” Grainge said in a statement, pointing to Warner Recorded Music CEO Max Lousada and Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl as reasons behind the switch. “Max and Robert have been making all the right moves to position WMG for the future in what I think is one of the most fertile and exciting growth periods for the global music business. They have also shown that they value the kind of independent spirit and commitment to artist development that has made 10K successful so far. I know I speak for Zach, Tony and the entire team when I say how excited we are to get started in our new home.”
10K will be bringing along its full roster of artists, which also includes Surfaces, Aitch, YTB Fatt, SXMPRA and COIN, among others, while through its Homemade Projects subsidiary it also manages influencers and has a merchandise operation that works with several artists as well. Ice Spice will continue to record for 10K Projects/Capitol Music Group.
“Elliot and 10K don’t just discover original talent, they understand how to ignite fandom and create fresh impact with each release,” Lousada said in a statement. “It’s a label full of next generation possibilities — with its artists, its leader, and its team. As 10K joins our thriving network of independent music brands, we’re committed to giving it the freedom and backing to reach new heights.”
“We welcome 10K’s extraordinary artists, its talented founder Elliot, and his entrepreneurial team to WMG,” Kyncl added. “Together, we’ll grow our investment in artistry and accelerate the pace of our innovation.”
When Reneé Rapp’s manager and talent agent began routing the singer-actress’ debut 2023 tour, they opted to break a key rule in the touring business – always play the smaller venues before playing the larger venues.
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It’s a rule WME agent Ben Totis normally agreed with, and yet, Totis and Rapp’s manager Adam Mersel also believed Rapp had developed a special connection with fans as one of four stars on Mindy Kaling’s hit HBO series The Sex Lives of College Girls playing Leighton, an au-pair raised queer sorority princess attending a fictional liberal arts college in Vermont. The popular show created a huge audience for Rapp, especially with Gen Z adult females, and served as a perfect segue for Rapp’s pursuit of a music career. In July, Rapp confirmed she was leaving the show as it entered its third season.
“Original music and pop music has always been her passion,” Mersel said. “Now’s she getting back into the studio, making music and really taking a swing at it.”
While her popularity and name recognition are certainly a major advantage in live touring, the adage in the industry has long been that all artists — even high-profile new artists like Olivia Rodrigo in 2021 and in 2018 — should build their touring business slowly and deliberately, making sure the artist is ready and the early audiences are invested.
“One of the age-old rules of this business is don’t skip steps,” booking agent veteran Tom Windish with Wasserman Music told Billboard last month. Windish, who counts Eilish, Lorde and Alt-J as clients explains “if you sold 500 tickets the last time, maybe you’ll try to sell 1,000 this time. You’re not just bumping up to 2,000 because you have this data that’s indicating there might be more [demand].”
Rapp is not following that strategy. The North Carolina native put tickets on sale for the LA Greek Theatre (5,900 capacity) on Sept. 30 and the Anthem in Washington DC (6,000 capacity) on Oct. 27 two months before she had even released her debut record Snow Angel on Aug. 18 on Interscope.
As Totis and Mersel had hoped, both shows quickly sold out. She quickly sold out the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the Mission Ballroom in Denver and the Roadrunner in Boston (despite penning a breakup song on her new album called “I Hate Boston”). In total, Rapp has sold out 22 of the 30 North America dates on her tour, which begins Sept. 15 at the Bayou Music Center in Houston.
Mersel and Totis said there were plenty of reasons to think Rapp could be the exception to the “no skipping steps” rule. While the 23-year-old was new to the record and touring business, she had been involved in musical theater from an early age – and won best actress at the 2018 National High School Musical Theatre Awards (the Jimmy Awards).
“She grew up singing in North Carolina and that is always what she wanted to do with her life,” Mersel explains. “Musical theater sort of was by accident. She was running around really trying to hustle and make it, especially through high school.”
In December, Rapp released her EP and booked some teaser shows including the Troubador in LA and Le Poisson Rouge in New York “just to get her out there in front of her fans and get her on stage for the first time,” Totis explained.
“They were all just supposed to be small shows, but in New York we had 10,000 people sign up for waitlist because the tickets went so quickly,” Totis said, leading her team to add two more New York shows that same month.
Rapp is planning a four-show “take over” in New York starting Nov. 3 – playing two Terminal Five dates along with Brooklyn’s Avante Gardner and Kings Theater. After New York she heads to Europe where she has sold out five of 15 booked shows in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium before closing out her tour with back-to-back sold out shows March 1 at the famed Hammersmith Apollo in London and a March 4 show at 3Olympia in Dublin.
As for Snow Angel, it debuted at an impressive No. 10 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the biggest U.S. sales debut for a debut female pop album in 2023
“The music’s great and she’s extremely talented. I don’t think anyone is concerned about her being comfortable on stage knowing where she came from,” Totis said.