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For artists who choose not to sign with a record label, some may be independent and others will be do-it-yourself independent.
What’s the difference? Take Laufey, the Icelandic jazz artist whose latest album, Bewitched, reached No. 23 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in September. Laufey is signed to AWAL, the Sony Music-owned company that provides marketing and distribution services for independent artists. She hasn’t signed away the rights to her music, but AWAL helps promote her recordings at digital service providers and retail.
Oliver Anthony Music, on the other hand, is DIY independent. By all appearances, the “Rich Men North of Richmond” singer, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, has left his recordings on autopilot without any kind of marketing behind them since he broke into the national consciousness in August and topped the Hot 100 for two straight weeks. Following the success of “Rich Men,” Lunsford has released more songs without the usual promotional muscle required to get new music noticed. As he told Billboard earlier this week, he manages himself and is avoiding record labels as he prepares to record an album.
He’s clearly getting some help. Lunsford has a basic but professional website and an e-commerce store that sells a handful of variations on Oliver Anthony Music hats, T-shirts, bumper stickers and beer koozies. For concerts, Anthony signed with UTA for representation and has a year of touring ahead of him, starting in February with dates in Europe and the Eastern half of the United States. He has an informal publicist who helps with media requests. And he told Billboard he has encountered “many artists,” such as country star Jamey Johnson, who have lent support and guidance.
Comparing “Rich Men” to other tracks to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 this year, though, suggests being DIY creates some missed opportunities. Combined sales and streams of Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” and SZA’s “Kill Bill” dropped between 17% and 55% over the 10-week period after the last date those tracks were No. 1. “Rich Men,” in contrast, dropped 83.4%. It makes sense: A major label marketing machine is better than an independent artist’s system in helping a track get hot and maintain momentum over months and years.
With a little help, “Rich Men” could arguably have far more sales and streams. As a DIY artist, Lunsford uses social media activity to keep listeners engaged and depends on the continued interest of journalists to keep him in the public eye. As he told Billboard this week, becoming a full-time musician means “you’re essentially a business owner and an entrepreneur and a lot of other things, too. And those are things I’m not quite used to yet.”
But Lunsford has done extremely well taking the DIY route. Billboard estimates that “Rich Men” has grossed $2 million from recorded music and publishing royalties from U.S. sales and streams since its release in August. While his weekly download sales are down sharply from their peak in August, our estimates still put the track’s royalties at an impressive $60,000 per week. And because Oliver Anthony Music is a DIY independent artist who retains the rights to his master recording and publishing, he should be pocketing nearly all that money (less any fees for distribution and publishing administration).
Besides, Lunsford seems content being a DIY artist — even if that means leaving money and celebrity on the table. There’s something to be said about saying “no” to the usual impulses to staff up and scale a business as fast as possible. Lunsford can ease into stardom at a comfortable pace rather than jump headfirst into the music business’ shark-filled waters. Read through the YouTube comments to his videos and you sense that listeners put value in Lunsford not being an industry insider — it adds to his authenticity. At the end of the day, not being too much of a business is probably good for Lunsford’s business.
Surprisingly, “Rich Men” has held up better than a couple of other No. 1s in 2023: Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” and Jimin’s “Like Crazy.” Track sales and streams for “Try That” dropped 91.1% in the 10 weeks after it was No. 1. For “Like Crazy,” the first No. 1 for a solo member of superstar K-pop group BTS, track sales and streams dropped 92.9% over the same period. Although “Rich Men” has fallen far from its peak, its 83.4% drop in track sales and streams is considerably better than those other two hits.
There are obvious parallels between “Try That” and “Rich Men.” Both reached No. 1 because of widespread media attention. Both started conversations about social issues: race for Aldean, class for Lunsford. Both were celebrated as conservative anthems, although Anthony has distanced himself from political partisanship. Both are country tracks — Aldean’s a mainstream song built for maximum radio play, Lunsford’s a more old-fashioned slice of Appalachian roots music.
What’s more, both “Try That” and “Rich Men” did brisk business in track sales. As Billboard noted when “Rich Men” ascended the chart, artists popular with conservatives often have strong download numbers. In a typical week, the No. 1 track on the Hot 100 might sell 15,000 downloads, but when the culture wars stoke demand, the No. 1 will sell ten times that many. “Try That” sold 175,000 downloads in the week it was No. 1, while “Rich Men” averaged 132,000 weekly downloads in its two weeks atop the Hot 100.
Download buyers don’t offer the same consistency as streamers, though, and both “Rich Men” and “Try That” lost 99% of their track sales in the 10 weeks after they topped the chart. And because download sales were a big reason why those tracks reached No. 1, their total consumption (measured in both download sales and streams) dropped more than No. 1s that relied more on streaming. But heavy download sales were instrumental in getting each track to No. 1, and “Rich Men” still sells well, too: Last week, the track was the No. 41 most purchased track in the United States., according to Luminate.
Lunsford could easily ditch the DIY approach and assemble a team, but he’s in the rare position of not necessarily needing one. “Rich Men” succeeded without help from a marketing expert, social media guru or even a manager. Instead, Lunsford benefitted from an unprecedented groundswell of interest that gifted him an immense online following. His 1.15 million YouTube followers give him a similar audience as more established country musicians Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown Band, and twice as many as Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves. He has about as many Spotify followers as Bailey Zimmerman, a rising country star signed to Warner Music Nashville and Elektra Records.
When Lunsford eventually releases a new album, he won’t need many resources to instantly reach millions of fans — and he prefers it that way. “I think the most special thing about it being on the chart at all,” he told Billboard, “is that it made it to the chart without some big, corporate schmucky schmuck somewhere pumping a bunch of money into making it get there.”
This past week has been one of the big ones on the music calendar, with the Recording Academy announcing the nominees for the 2024 Grammy Awards, set to take place on Feb. 4. When they were unveiled, one of the year’s biggest honorees was Victoria Monet, whose album JAGUAR II was a critical smash when it debuted in September of this year. Monet, who started her career as an artist in a girl group before seeing success as a songwriter for Ariana Grande, Blackpink, Travis Scott and others, earned seven nominations, the second-most of any artist, including nods in the coveted best new artist and record of the year categories.
The nominations span a variety of areas: in addition to best new artist and record of the year for her song “On My Mama,” she earned nods for R&B album, R&B performance, R&B song, traditional R&B performance and engineered album, non-classical, recognizing her for artistry, songwriting, performance and overall quality. It’s a testament to Monet’s work rate and vision, as well as to the team around her, including manager Rachelle Jean-Louis, who earns the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Jean-Louis discusses the work and planning that went into setting up and delivering JAGUAR II, how the album campaign extended into every facet of Monet’s career and the dedication and teamwork that it took to pull off a feat that is now being recognized with so many nominations by the academy. “One thing I’ve heard people say is, ‘If the music is great, people will find it,’” Jean-Louis says. “Sure — but they’re more likely to find it if you can give them as many touch points and opportunities as possible.”
This week, Victoria Monet was nominated for seven Grammy Awards, including best new artist and record of the year, the second-most of any artist for the upcoming 2024 awards. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
The first important decision was made years ago, on the heels of her writing two No. 1 records. She had an opportunity to open on a tour she was excited about, and I advised she focus on her artistry and developing an identifiable world and sound, specifically as an artist, for fans. That was our first “tough” conversation — convincing someone I’d just started working with to pause and reflect on the big picture. We focused on developing her own sound with longtime collaborator D’Mile. That world became JAGUAR — the first project we released independently in 2020, and now, JAGUAR II. I A&R’d and co-executive produced both projects and worked alongside her and D’Mile to make something we were all proud of.
The next important decision at that time was choosing to stay independent and partner with Platoon for the first JAGUAR so she had full creative autonomy and as bulletproof of an identity as possible before going back into a major label system. Back then, she had interest from the majors because of songwriting success, but I wanted loyal core fans there for her, not just anyone she was affiliated with, so if and when she did decide to partner with one, it would be a true partnership to help amplify her vision. JAGUAR II was released via Lovett Music in partnership with RCA Records to help her music reach new heights.
She was a songwriter for years before beginning her recording career, which is not always an easy transition for artists to make. How did you help that process, and what were the challenges involved?
This is actually a common misconception. Victoria did start her music career as an artist; she was signed in a girl group that ended up getting dropped from their label. To provide for herself and keep working while sorting out contracts and having developed further under an incredible songwriter like Lashawn Daniels, who wrote hits like “Say My Name” for Destiny’s Child, she tried to keep her dream of artistry alive by songwriting. It can be incredibly difficult for people who have success as songwriters first to be able to brand themselves and differentiate the songs they write for others from their own work. Victoria has always been great at that. Victoria’s artistic voice really is unique. After the music was made, I wanted to make sure her visual identity was credible and set her apart. I searched Vimeo for hours looking for directors before finding Valentin Petit, an incredible French director, to shoot “Moment” as the first true music video from JAGUAR. It’s important to me that the visual art match the caliber of the music. We have an incredible creative team that is dedicated to that, which you can see by the videos for JAGUAR II. Our creative director Charlotte and art director Jess are both fearless, talented women who work hand in hand with us to push the art and story forward.
This nominated album, JAGUAR II, is the second half of a two-project series. How did you approach the entire rollout differently from perhaps a more traditional release schedule?
Attention spans are so short. One thing I’ve heard people say is, “If the music is great, people will find it.” Sure — but they’re more likely to find it if you can give them as many touch points and opportunities as possible. When we first started talking about the rollout for JAGUAR in 2019, we were going to do three parts to be consistent and give fans more chances to discover Victoria and her music. More singles to focus on one at a time to point back to a cohesive world. We didn’t plan for a pandemic to happen in the middle of that process, but we adapted and released four singles off a nine-song project to keep it going consistently for as long as possible over the course of a year. A lot of the rollout for both JAGUAR and JAGUAR II is sustained by content in between our videos and singles, and great press moments thanks to our longtime indie publicist Dana Meyerson at biz3. We released two singles in 2021 after the birth of her daughter to stay in the conversation, did her first pre-show award show performance at BET Awards that year, then revisited the remaining songs for JAGUAR II.
Coming back to the remaining music years later, Victoria felt something was missing and that she could do better, so I set more sessions for her. Those songs were “Cadillac,” “Party Girls (feat. Buju Banton),” “Alright” produced by Kaytranada, “How Does It Make You Feel,” “Stop (Askin Me 4Shyt)” and “On My Mama.” More than half of the album. She was right.
For JAGUAR II specifically, how did you want to present it, given it was such a long-awaited project and yet, also, her debut album?
Victoria is one of the most dedicated perfectionists I’ve ever met — in the way that I imagine the greats I’ve always respected were when they created some of the most important albums of our time. We wanted to continue the theme of JAGUAR being a representation of Victoria as a complex Black woman, making sure each song showed another side of her so it could speak to women everywhere. We still believe in albums as experiences, not chasing singles, so that was a determining factor of what songs to pick to represent JAGUAR II. The singles were all different enough to keep fans engaged and looking forward to the album.
We started with “Smoke” featuring Lucky Daye since it continued the sound established with D’Mile on the first project. It served the true R&B purists in her fanbase. Victoria felt strongly about “Party Girls” as the next single to get out ahead of the summer given the island influence. Our label supported her vision to deliver a visual that continued to elevate her art, and it accomplished that by raising the bar for her.
“On My Mama” was the easiest entry point for all of the above — there’s enough musicality for the purists, a recognizable sample that isn’t overused, a hip-hop element to bring in new fans, a universal celebratory message and an incredible video with choreo that continues to have its own viral moment. It’s an ode to Black culture and Victoria’s identity on multiple fronts as a Black woman. “On My Mama” is where she arrived, right before we put out the album. Thanks to our passionate radio team led by Sam Selolwane, “On My Mama” has hit No. 1 on urban radio and is making its way across the charts at other formats as well.
In addition to the singles, the key to this rollout was using her live show to propel the music. Victoria is an incredible performer. In March of this year, we kicked off her new era with “Smoke,” and quickly followed with the announcement of her first-ever solo show in partnership with Spotify to bring the experience to Los Angeles. We did this again right after “On My Mama” came out in June, announcing her highly anticipated first solo tour, which sold out in minutes. By the time the album came out, we had a sold-out tour for loyal fans and so much positive feedback on the songs. The tour intentionally brought most of the songs on JAGUAR II to life to keep people going back to the album after its release. Word of mouth, whether via the Internet or real life, is still some of the most valuable advertising, and the tour has accomplished that.
There is a wide breadth to these nominations, which celebrate artistry, songwriting, performance and overall quality. What does that say about Victoria as an artist, and to the work you guys have put in?
It says a lot about Victoria. Her dimensions as an artist are mirrored by her dimensions as a person: she’s already wearing many hats of intersectionality as an openly bisexual Black woman. She’s also a mother, so these nominations are already serving as lessons for her daughter that she can do whatever she chooses to. It’s a beautiful thing to watch Victoria be nominated as an artist for the first time and share that experience with her daughter, who is also making history as the youngest ever to be nominated. Representation matters deeply. The nominations amongst her peers in the Recording Academy speak to seeing the range of her skills, each of which she works hard to hone.
The nominations speak to the years of hard work collectively by Victoria and our largely female team. It’s a largely affirming moment in my own life and career for every time I thought maybe the world would not recognize what I have been working hard to get people to see and sacrificing time with family and loved ones to do. I advocated for a difficult path in favor of creative control for Victoria and she trusted me.
I’m an independent manager that is also an openly queer Black woman. I’m a first-generation American and daughter of Haitian immigrants. This is something I have dreamt of since I was a kid. The majority of superstars have male managers, and most of them are white. While the journey was incredibly difficult and at times isolating, it makes these nominations very rewarding for me personally. It’s a reminder to trust my instincts. This is a moment for our entire team, in which we are being seen. Everyone has been working tirelessly at their crafts before meeting Victoria and came together to make something we are all proud of.
What can all these nominations help you guys further accomplish moving forward — and what is next for you guys?
The nominations have started opening doors to opportunities our team has been pitching and campaigning for Victoria for years, but the work doesn’t stop. There’s certainly a tangible validity to them that is really helping our cause. Things aren’t necessarily automatically easier or not requiring work per se, but they absolutely are helping as another co-sign to the credibility of Victoria as an artist.
Victoria has been telling me just about every week she’s been doing promo, touring or working that she can’t wait to get back in the studio because she’s inspired, and I can’t wait to dive back into the creative process. There’s still so much to do. We’re looking forward to releasing more music and content and doing more collaborations. We’re excited to bring her live show to more people and continue to build her audience globally. She’s expressed a desire to act as well.
And what do these mean for you as a manager?
I want to be able to continue to open doors for myself and others through these nominations. I have two stellar artist clients — one being Victoria and one being an incredible rising vocalist named Saint Harison that I want to make sure reach as many people as possible with their talent. The journey for Victoria has been an incredible story that people are authentically connecting to. I’ve always been a creative first and foremost, and my heart has been in storytelling. Whether that’s helping to get out the stories of my clients or telling stories of my own, that has been the root of my passion that I’m excited to keep exploring.
Friday funday, it’s time for another Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across the music industry.
UMG hired Gary Chan to take on the dual role of managing director of Universal Music Hong Kong and senior vice president of Universal Music Greater China, effective immediately. Chan hangs his hat in Hong Kong and reports directly to UMGC chairman and CEO Timothy Xu. Chan was until very recently the chairman of IFPI Hong Kong and arrives to Universal from Media Asia Group Holdings Limited, where he was executive director for 15 year. In year’s past he also held MD roles at both Warner Music Hong Kong and EMI Music Hong Kong. The UMHK artist roster includes Alan Tam, Eason Chan, Xu Zhian, Jiang Haijia, JNYBeatz and others. “Gary’s remarkable contributions to the entertainment industry extend far beyond Hong Kong, marking his dedication and visionary approach,” said Xu. “His leadership will be instrumental in driving the next wave of growth for Chinese music culture and unlocking greater global success.”
Rickey Minor was elected 2nd vice chair of The Television Academy. He’ll serve a two-year term running from Jan. 1, 2024 through Dec. 31, 2025. Minor has won two Primetime Emmys for outstanding music direction and has received 15 Primetime Emmy nominations, including three nods each for music direction of The Oscars and the Kennedy Center Honors, and two for the Grammy Awards. He was the musical director and bandleader on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno from 2010 to 2014, and before that was musical director for American Idol for several years. In other election results, Cris Abrego was elected to a two-year term as chairman of the Television Academy, succeeding Frank Scherma. Other incoming officers are Sharon Lieblein, vice chair; Allison Binder, secretary; and Ann Leslie Uzdavinis, treasurer. Sherri Chung was elected governor to represent the music branch for a two-year term. Jeff Russo is the other governor representing the music branch. He is in the middle of a two-year term. —Paul Grein
Kobalt Music promoted Melissa Emert-Hutner to senior vp of creative, a role with oversight of the NYC creative team and a remit that includes signing more quality artists and writers. Since joining Kobalt in 2016 as vp of creative, Emert-Hutner has worked with a slew of talent, including IDLES, Bon Ever, Conor Oberst, First Aid Kit, Del Water Gap and others. Prior to Kobalt, she held senior roles at Nettwerk Music Group, Sneak Attack Media and Sanctuary Records. “Melissa’s hard work, diligence, teamwork, and passion for music makes this promotion very well deserved,” said Kobalt head of global creative, Alison Donald. “I have no doubt under her leadership, the NY creative team will continue to thrive.”
The Association of Independent Music (AIM) named Ruth Barlow as its new chair at the org’s 2023 annual general meeting on Thursday (Nov. 16). Barlow, a 21-year veteran of Beggars Group, where she is director of live licensing, will work closely with AIM CEO Silvia Montello and the board to support the UK indie music trade group over a two-year term. She replaces outgoing chair Nadia Khan. AIM, based in London, also named four new board members: Tim Dellow (Transgressive), Jackie Joseph (Chrysalis Records / Blue Raincoat Music), Peter Quicke (Ninja Tune) and Chloé van Bergen (Secretly Group). “As AIM’s new chair I want to make all members feel valued and heard and help strive for consensus, increasing engagement among all members of our community,” commented Barlow. “Above all I want to support AIM’s efforts to attract new members, particularly from regional and under-represented groups, and to help arm a new generation of independents with a shared sense of community and knowledge.”
Warner Chappell Music promoted BJ Hill to senior vp of A&R. Throughout his career, Hill has worked with songwriters and artists including Nicolle Galyon, Jordan Reynolds, Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood, Dan+Shay and more. Hill began at Warner Chappell as an associate catalog manager in 2002 and moved to the A&R department in 2005, working his way through the ranks over the past 18 years. He’s played a key role in songs including Dan+Shay’s 8x Platinum-RIAA certified “Tequila” and Lady A’s 11x Platinum RIAA-certified “Need You Now.” Ben Vaughn, president and CEO of Warner Chappell Music Nashville said: “I’ve been lucky enough to work with BJ for over a decade, and he’s always been an unwavering supporter, resource, and friend to our songwriters and the whole Warner Chappell team.” —Jessica Nicholson
ICYMI: Kakao’s chief investment officer was indicted for allegedly manipulating SM Entertainment’s stock price to ward off HYBE’s rival bid for a stake in the K-pop company … Warner Music Latina appointed Brenda Carrasco as vp of marketing and artist strategy … and WMG chief Robert Kyncl laid out the label’s three-pronged approach to AI.
SESAC Music Group hired Ali Hernandez as chief human resources officer. Based in New York, Hernandez is tasked with leading HR strategies and initiatives across SESAC’s family of businesses, including The Harry Fox Agency, Rumblefish, Audium and Mint Digital Services, as well as the namesake performing rights org. She previously as CHRO at TIME and held roles at the Knight Foundation and the Miami Herald Media Company. John Josephson, chairman and CEO, said of Hernandez: “Her passion and expertise in driving business results through collaborative and inclusive solutions centered around people will be a key element of our ongoing drive to build a global organization and to elevate and develop our team around the world.”
Sound Future Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to accelerate climate innovation for the live event industry, appointed Kelci Zile as chief development officer. Zile, who is treasurer of the Sound Future board of directors, will use her new role at the org to lead fundraising efforts and also identify sustainable technology solutions for the live events industries. She is also a director of venture community at EnVest, and a venture partner at SNØCAP. “Live events are a phenomenal testbed to demonstrate that sustainability can be as good for the Earth as it is for the bottom line,” said Zile. “We need solutions that meaningfully cut emissions and increase profit to come to market as soon as possible.” Sound Future also elevated co-founder and chief marketing officer Brandy Schultz to president.
Nashville Notes: Jordan Josephs joined Nashville-based business management firm FBMM in a move to “help take our LA office to the next level.” Josephs works closely with FBMM’s director of West Coast operations, Paul Barnabe … The Country Music Association and CMA Foundation added new staff and promoted a pair of staffers. Ryan Nelson joined from Yamaha to be senior director of event operations; LeighAnn Rodd came from Cracker Barrell to be director of insights; and Victoria Rutledge departed NAMI Tennessee to join the CMA Foundation as director of major gifts. CMA also promoted Justin Randall to senior director of IT and Megan Wise to senior director of brand partnerships … Provident Entertainment, Sony Music’s Christian music label, promoted Charles Van Dyke to vice president of promotions. In his new role, Van Dyke will lead the radio promotions team for both Provident and Sony’s other gospel music label RCA Inspiration.
Last Week’s Turntable: Atlantic A&R Veteran Heads Home
Vault Music — a platform created by the co-founders of online sports betting company FanDuel that allows artists to create exclusive, limited-edition music releases — has launched a new game that lets players create and manage their own fantasy roster of musicians for cash prizes.
Dubbed Fantasy Record Label, the game — launched by Nigel Eccles and Rob Jones — is designed to create a new revenue stream for emerging musicians while simultaneously giving music fans a way to invest in artists.
To play, users are invited to “sign” five artists on Vault Music by purchasing a “vault” — a digital music collectible built using NFT technology — from the artists they see as having growth potential. Rosters are scored on the change in artists’ Spotify monthly listeners count, a metric that’s updated daily. Final standings are calculated by adding all five artists’ Spotify monthly listener gains and losses over a one-week period, after which the top 10 fantasy record labels win cash prizes.
As an artist becomes more successful, demand increases for their vaults, thereby raising the price of those assets and benefitting players who have “signed” them to their rosters. Players can buy, sell or trade vaults each week. Artists receive 70% of each sale, with 15% percent taken in processing costs and Vault Music taking an additional 15%. Each time one of their vaults is resold, artists receive 7% of the resale price.
“Think fantasy sports but for the music industry,” said Eccles, co-founder/CEO of Vault Music, in a statement. “I believe that unlike the sports and gaming industries, music has failed to energize top fans and embrace new formats. Streaming has been great for the music industry’s bottom line, but it serves passive listeners, not diehard fans. Our goal is to bring joy, pride, and competition back to collecting music, and create upside for both fans and artists in the process.”
Successful players also receive “Vault points,” which are airdropped each week based on performance and which are designed to encourage roster optimization and long-term strategy. “Over the next few months we plan to reveal more about the value of points,” Eccles tells Billboard. “Our first players are helping build the ecosystem so we want to use points as a way to track that so we can give back to them when the product is more developed.”
According to Eccles, nearly all artists on Vault Music will be available for players to “sign.” Some of the more prominent artists on Vault Music currently include BLÜ EYES, Jordan Hart, Naika, Telescreens and FLETCHER.
“The best part about this game is that we’re using fandom to put more money in artists’ pockets at the time when they need it most,” added Kara Burney, chief marketing officer at Vault Music. “Already we’ve seen artists earn more with a single release on Vault Music than they’ve earned from streaming in a year. That’s because in our game, just as with real record labels, up-and-coming artists have the most potential upside. Our players are incentivized to discover, collect releases, and sign the next music stars to their fantasy label before their big break. It’s a music economy where everybody wins.”
At launch, Fantasy Record Label is only available in the United States, though Vault hopes to extend it to other markets soon.
Universal Music Group (UMG) wants a federal judge to immediately block artificial intelligence company Anthropic PBC from using copyrighted music to train future AI models, warning that the “damage will be done” by the time the case is over.
A month after UMG sued Anthropic for infringement over its use of copyrighted music to train its AI models, the music giant on Thursday demanded a preliminary injunction that will prohibit the AI firm from continuing to use its songs while the case plays out in court.
The music giant warned that denying its request would allow Anthropic “to continue using the Works as inputs, this time to train a more-powerful Claude, magnifying the already-massive harm to Publishers and songwriters.”
“Anthropic must not be allowed to flout copyright law,” UMG’s lawyers wrote. “If the Court waits until this litigation ends to address what is already clear—that Anthropic is improperly using Publishers’ copyrighted works—then the damage will be done.”
“Anthropic has already usurped Publishers’ and songwriters’ control over the use of their works, denied them credit, and jeopardized their reputations,” the company wrote. “If unchecked, Anthropic’s wanton copying will also irreversibly harm the licensing market for lyrics, Publishers’ relationships with licensees, and their goodwill with the songwriters they represent.”
UMG filed its lawsuit Oct 18, marking the first major case in what is expected to be a key legal battle over the future of AI music. Joined by Concord Music Group, ABKCO and other music companies, UMG claims that Anthropic – valued at $4.1 billion earlier this year — is violating copyrights en masse by using songs without authorization to teach its AI models learn how to spit out new lyrics.
“In the process of building and operating AI models, Anthropic unlawfully copies and disseminates vast amounts of copyrighted works,” lawyers for the music companies wrote. “Publishers embrace innovation and recognize the great promise of AI when used ethically and responsibly. But Anthropic violates these principles on a systematic and widespread basis.”
AI models like the popular ChatGPT are “trained” to produce new content by feeding them vast quantities of existing works known as “inputs.” Whether doing so infringes the copyrights to that underlying material is something of an existential question for the booming sector, since depriving AI models of new inputs could limit their abilities. Content owners in many sectors – including book authors, comedians and visual artists – have all filed similar lawsuits over training.
Anthropic and other AI firms believe that such training is protected by copyright’s fair use doctrine — an important rule that allows people to reuse protected works without breaking the law. In a filing at the Copyright Office last month, Anthropic previewed how it might make such argument in UMG’s lawsuit.
“The copying is merely an intermediate step, extracting unprotectable elements about the entire corpus of works, in order to create new outputs,” the company wrote in that filing. “This sort of transformative use has been recognized as lawful in the past and should continue to be considered lawful in this case.”
But in Thursday’s motion for the injunction, UMG and the music companies sharply disputed such a notion, saying plainly: “Anthropic’s infringement is not fair use”
“Anthropic … may argue that generative AI companies can facilitate immense value to society and should be excused from complying with copyright law to foster their rapid growth,” UMG wrote. “Undisputedly, Anthropic will be a more valuable company if it can avoid paying for the content on which it admittedly relies, but that should hardly compel the Court to provide it a get-out-of-jail-free card for its wholesale theft of copyrighted content.”
A spokesperson for Anthropic did not immediately return a request for comment on Friday.
Sean “Diddy” Combs was sued Thursday by R&B singer and longtime romantic partner Cassie over allegations that he repeatedly physically abused her over the course of a decade, including one instance of rape.
In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, attorneys for Cassie (full name Casandra Ventura) claimed she “endured over a decade of his violent behavior and disturbed demands,” including repeated physical beatings and forcing her to “engage in sex acts with male sex workers” while he masturbated.
According to the lawsuit, after she attempted to separate herself from him in 2018, Combs “forced her into her home and raped her while she repeatedly said ‘no’ and tried to push him away.”
“Ms. Ventura has now fully escaped Mr. Combs, but the harm that the assaults and sexual abuse he caused her to experience for nearly a decade will forever haunt her,” wrote Cassie’s attorney Douglas Wigdor, who has filed a number of high-profile sexual abuse cases. “She cannot, however, continue to live in silence about what she endured. Mr. Combs remains immensely powerful, and immensely dangerous.”
In a statement, Combs’ attorney – well-known celebrity defense lawyer Ben Brafman – said his client “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.”
“For the past 6 months, Mr. Combs has been subjected to Ms. Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 million, under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail,” Brafman said. “Despite withdrawing her initial threat, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ reputation and seeking a pay day.”
In his own statement, Wigdor disputed Brafman’s accusations about the settlement negotiations: “Mr. Comb’s offered Ms. Ventura eight figures to silence her and prevent the filing of this lawsuit. She rejected his efforts and decided to give a voice to all women who suffer in silence. Ms. Ventura should be applauded for her bravery.”
Ventura, who had an on-and-off public relationship with Combs for 11 years until they split in 2018, says that she met the hip-hop mogul in 2005, when she was just 19 and he was 37. After he signed her to his Bad Boy Records label, she says Combs “lured” her into a romantic relationship – albeit one in which he “asserted complete control over Ms. Ventura’s personal and professional life.”
“He provided unprecedented avenues for success for the aspiring artist, but in return, demanded obedience, loyalty, and silence,” her lawyers write in her complaint.
During the relationship, Ventura says she suffered “episodes of horrific abuse,” including times when he would fly into an “uncontrollable rage” and “beat Ms. Ventura savagely.” She says he would remind her of his ability to harm her, including by requiring her to carry his gun in her purse.
After years of “again and again” attempting to “escape his tight hold over her life,” Ventura says that in September 2018, she and Combs went to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Malibu “for what she believed would be a discussion about concluding their relationship for good.” Instead, he “forced himself into her apartment and tried to kiss Ms. Ventura” as she “told him to stop and attempted to push him away.”
“Mr. Combs then forcibly pulled off Ms. Ventura’s clothing and unbuckled his belt,” she says. “He proceeded to rape Ms. Ventura while she repeatedly said ‘no’ and tried to push him away.”
Combs is the latest high-profile music executive to face disturbing accusations of sexual wrongdoing over the past month. Former Recording Academy president/CEO Neil Portnow was sued over allegations of sexual assault last week; the the same day, label exec Antonio “L.A.” Reid was hit with similar accusations. Last month, longtime publishing exec Kenny MacPherson was sued for sexual harassment, accused of subjecting a woman to an “onslaught of unwanted sexual advances.”
All three of those cases, like the new case against Combs, were filed under newly enacted laws in New York and California that revised the time limits for bringing abuse lawsuits, creating limited windows for alleged survivors to take legal action over years-old accusations that would typically be barred under the statute of limitations. In New York, the look-back window closes later this month.
In her complaint against Combs, Ventura specifically thanked lawmakers for passing those new laws, saying they would allow her to seek “justice” after she had been “unable to speak up against the years of abuse she endured.”
“After years in silence and darkness, I am finally ready to tell my story, and to speak up on behalf of myself and for the benefit of other women who face violence and abuse in their relationships,” Ventura said in a statement. “With the expiration of New York’s Adult Survivors Act fast approaching, it became clear that this was an opportunity to speak up about the trauma I have experienced and that I will be recovering from for the rest of my life.”
CreateSafe, a music technology studio known best for its work on Grimes’ AI voice model, has raised $4.6 million in seed round funding for its new AI music creation toolkit, TRINITI.
Offering a “full creative stack” for musicians from the inception of songwriting to its release, TRINITI’s round was led by Polychain Capital, a cryptocurrency and blockchain tech investment firm, as well as Crush Ventures, Anthony Saleh (manager of Kendrick Lamar, Nas and Gunna), Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media, MoonPay, Chaac Ventures, Unified Music Group and Dan Weisman (vp at Bernstein Private Wealth Management).
Grimes has also joined CreateSafe’s advisory board to continue to collaborate with the brand.
Starting today, TRINITI will offer five tools:
Voice transformation and cloning: make your own voice model and offer it up for licensing, transform your voice into someone else’s
Sample Generation: create audio samples from text-based prompts
Chat: ask questions to a chat bot trained on music industry knowledge
Distribution: share music on streaming services
Management: manage rights to songs and records
“Music is the core of humankind,” said CreateSafe founder/CEO Daouda Leonard. “However, the story of music as a profession has been corrupted by middle men, who have misguided the industry while taking money from artists. For a few years, we’ve been saying that we are building the operating system for the new music business. With AI, it’s possible to fulfill that promise. We want to pioneer the age of exponential creativity and give power back to creators. With TRINITI, you can turn inspiration into a song and set of visuals. That music gets distributed to DSPs, a marketing plan can be generated, and all of the business on the backend can be easily managed. This whole process takes seconds.”
“As a team we’d always discussed finding novel ways of wealth redistribution via art,” added Grimes. “We immediately hopped onto blockchain tech because of the new possibilities for distribution, cutting out middle men, etc. Throwing generative music into the picture and removing all our label strings so we can reward derivative music — combined with everything we’d been working towards the last few years with blockchain — allowed a unique approach to distribution.
“I’m really proud of the team that they were able to execute this so fast and with such vision,” Grimes continued. “There’s a lot to talk about but ultimately, art generates so much money as an industry and artists see so little of it. A lot of people talk about abundance as one of the main end goals of tech, acceleration, AI, etc… for us the first step is actually figuring out how to remove friction from the process of getting resources into artists’ hands.”
Ron and Angie Roloff, owners of Madison, Wis.-based record store Strictly Discs, have sold the business after 35 years.
Stepping in as the store’s new president/owner is Rick Stoner, who takes over following an 18-year marketing agency career. The Roloffs will continue in their day-to-day roles through the end of 2023 before assuming an advisory relationship with Strictly Discs starting next year as they transition into retirement.
“Angie and I are grateful to our staff and customers, who we’ve had the privilege to work with for 35 years,” said Ron in a statement.
Stoner has served in several vp-level leadership, business development and digital and event marketing roles at prominent consumer brands. He’s a 2006 University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate and a board member at Communications Arts Partners (CAPs), an alumni organization that supports the university’s communications arts department.
“I’ve been a Strictly Discs customer since I was a student here in Madison,” said Stoner in a statement. “I view the store as everything right about the culture of the Madison community and look forward to maintaining that presence. Entrepreneurship has long been a destination for me and my family. Owning Strictly Discs is a dream come true. I can’t wait to meet our dedicated and loyal customers and get to work with our team to grow the business.”
The acquisition includes nearly half a million records, carefully curated over close to four decades. The business will maintain an e-commerce presence, which Stoner views as a key area for growth initiatives such as a subscription-based record club as well as pop-up, event-based record stores.
In June 2024, Strictly Discs is slated to open a second retail location in nearby Cambridge, Wis. in a space that hosts the majority of the store’s inventory.
Several Strictly Discs employees will remain with the business following the transition. They include 14-year employee Evan Woodward, who leads the buying team and works the front counter, as well as assistant manager Mark Chaney. Joining the team are Dru Korab, a record collector, DJ, media production professional and Stoner’s college classmate who will step into a part-time operations role in addition to his minority investment in the business. Also holding a minority investment is Stoner’s friend Kyle Nakatsuji, founder/CEO of Clearcover, principal at American Family Ventures and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
Opened in 1988, Strictly Discs was a subject of Billboard’s “In a Pandemic” series from 2020-2021. During this time, Angie discussed the challenges she and Ron faced and the creative solutions they employed at the store during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Angie tells Billboard that an evaluation of Strictly Discs’ worth, performed during the pandemic, “planted the seed” that ultimately led her and Ron to sell the business. After listing it in early May, they were approached by Stoner in June; a letter of intent was signed in July. The deal finally closed on Oct. 31.
Starting next year, Ron will continue on with the store in an outside buying capacity, while Angie will serve as the “boots on the ground” for the Milwaukee-based Stoner when he’s not in Madison, she says. “We’re invested in his success because we’ve lent him money as part of this process,” Angie continues. “So we’re definitely not leaving and we’ll be available to him really in any capacity that he needs us for.”
Angie says Stoner brought a good mixture of knowing what made the business work while proposing solid ideas about where it could grow: “He already understood that the things that have made Strictly Discs successful are the people and the product and certainly the experience. I think he respects all of that, and he knows that there are areas that he wants to grow the business but he doesn’t want to fundamentally change what we’ve already done.”
At the heart of Strictly Discs’ more than three-decade run is a love story: Angie and Ron met at Strictly Discs in 1994, when Angie was a customer and Ron was working the front counter. In the years since, says Angie, the store has become their baby.
“We don’t have kids and so it’s kind of like Strictly Discs takes that place,” Angie says, adding that with both she and Ron being “super high-strung type A personalities,” even while on vacation, they would end up talking about the store. “That’s the part of it that I’m looking forward to having go away,” she says.
In September, the singer-songwriter Zach Bryan scored his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. He chose not to put out any singles to hype up Zach Bryan in the weeks leading up to its release. “We decided we weren’t dropping any singles for this album because it’s a cohesive project, and that’s the way it needs to be viewed,” says Stefan Max, Bryan’s co-manager and a former major-label A&R executive.
Bryan scored a Billboard Hot 100 hit anyway — “I Remember Everything,” his collaboration with Kacey Musgraves, debuted at No. 1 — but that was just the cherry on top of a winning rollout. “I don’t know how many albums I’ve made at major labels over the last 15 years that have gone on to be incredible, but the label would delay its release because they’re like, ‘We need a big single,’ ” Max explains. “Everything was so singles-driven. Now we’re like, ‘Do we have a good album?’ Then we can build our campaign around that.”
For much of the 21st century, the music industry narrative has been that the album is dying. First came the MP3, which allowed fans to cherry-pick their favorite songs to download. Then came the rise of streaming services, which meant that fans didn’t even have to download music to assemble their personal playlists. They were followed by TikTok, which can transform scraps of songs into hits before they are even finished — rendering a whole three-minute track superfluous and making an album feel like an unnecessary extravagance.
Looking around the pop music landscape today, though, it’s hard to find an artist who is having sustained impact solely on the strength of hit singles. Bryan, Rod Wave, Taylor Swift and Peso Pluma have all commanded attention and chart achievements by releasing albums that listeners engage with from start to finish and return to week after week.
“Albums feel really significant right now,” one senior label executive says. “It’s what a lot of people talk about. It’s what is really driving a lot of discovery.”
In truth, the demise-of-albums lament was probably exaggerated in the first place. That conversation “was always overdone,” says Jeff Vaughn, founder and CEO of Signal Records. “The album represents a definitive artistic statement, and I think fans crave it.”
“We are in an era where individual pieces of music get exposed more readily and more easily than an entire body of work, which speaks to why people think of this as a singles era,” adds Jonathan Tanners, who manages production duo Take a Daytrip and rapper TOBi, among others. Despite that perception, Tanners continues, “We, as an audience, still have a deep reverence for boldness of vision. If you are reaching the [Mount] Rushmore of artistic and commercial heights, you’re making great albums.”
Still, few would deny that the industry was extraordinarily singles-minded in the early years of TikTok, which really took hold in 2019 and 2020. Executives now speak about that era as if emerging from a long hangover. “The period we just went through created a bit of an emptiness that allowed fewer true artists to be seen because labels were following the viral hits,” says Scott Cutler, a songwriter and CEO of Pulse Music Group, which operates a publishing company as well as a recently launched label operation. “Kids burn through those viral songs really fast.”
Signing the artists behind a lot of those viral tracks was not a successful long-term business proposition for many labels. “If somebody’s playing basketball and they make an incredible half-court shot, an NBA scout’s not like, ‘You’re the next LeBron James!’ ” says Jeremy Maciak, a manager and former major-label A&R executive. “That’s what was happening.” Few of the artists who got deals from viral singles were able to repeat the feat.
Backlash to viral-single fever isn’t the only factor boosting the album’s status. The return of the vinyl LP as a commercial tool is also helping. Vinyl sales have grown steadily for 17 years, but jumped by a stunning 46% in 2020 and 51% in 2021, according to Luminate. The increased prevalence of vinyl records can’t help but reinforce the idea that an entire collection of songs represents something significant and worth shelling out $20 to $30.
Luminate determined that 50% of LP buyers don’t have a turntable, which underlines this point even further. They see value in owning an album they can’t even play. Travis Scott’s Utopia is one of the year’s top sellers, boosted by more than 340,000 album sales, without an enduring hit single. Lana Del Rey hasn’t had a top 40 hit as an unaccompanied solo artist in nearly a decade, but she has sold over 500,000 vinyl LPs and more than 145,000 CDs this year.
Vinyl releases aren’t necessary to build an audience devoted to albums, though. Rising rapper Yeat has amassed more than 1.8 billion streams this year, according to Luminate; he doesn’t have a single top 40 hit as a soloist, yet his fans press play on his releases and just keep listening.
Another artist with an impressively dedicated following among music streamers is the rapper Rod Wave, who recently eked out a narrow victory over Doja Cat to spend a second week atop the Billboard 200 with Nostalgia — his third straight No. 1 album. That week, Rod Wave’s biggest single was at No. 33 on the Hot 100, while Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” was No. 1, demonstrating that a big hit may not be enough to send an album to the top.
In this environment, a new term is becoming more and more popular: “world-building,” industry jargon meaning that, for an artist to be successful, listeners need to care about something beyond a 15-second snippet of music on social media. “I don’t think the difference is between people who make albums and people who make singles,” Tanners says. “The difference is between people who have the vision to create unified worlds and people who are either not interested in that or not capable of that.”
“People want to invest in artists who are building their own worlds,” says Ashley Calhoun, president of Pulse Music Group. “There is a real appetite for that coming back around.”
And albums are more conducive to that world-building process, Vaughn notes. “It’s very difficult to do that just around a single,” he says. “Around a more complete artistic statement, all of a sudden the cover art is special, there are experiential events you can do, there are partnerships with brands. You can actually telegraph: ‘This is coming, here’s why it’s important,’ and that’s how you take the next step.”
It’s not lost on music executives how old-fashioned this sounds. Much of the industry bent itself out of shape trying to get singles to pop on TikTok because it seemed like a cheat code — overnight virality as a substitute for the yearslong, painstaking work of building a fan base. But after all those contortions, many of the same old principles still apply.
“Great artists always move albums and move tickets,” Vaughn says. “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
While Spotify is planning to start penalizing labels and distributors for egregious instances of streaming fraud, Apple Music quietly rolled out its own strengthened fraud protections — including hitting repeat offenders with “financial adjustments” — more than a year ago, according to an email obtained by Billboard that the platform sent to music industry partners in March. Apple Music’s internal metrics indicate that the policy has already led to a 30% drop in streaming manipulation.
In the March email, the streamer defines manipulation as “the deliberate, artificial creation of plays for royalty, chart, and popularity purposes” as well as “the delivery of deceptive or manipulative content, like an album of 31-second songs.” “In October [2022], we launched new tools and policies designed to prevent stream manipulation on Apple Music,” the email explains. “Since we launched the new tools, manipulated streams have accounted for only 0.3 percent of all streams.”
That 0.3 percent figure is lower than the stats cited by some of Apple Music’s rivals. A Spotify spokesperson told a Swedish newspaper earlier this year that “less than one percent of all streams on Spotify have been determined to be tampered with,” while Deezer has said that it finds 7% of plays to be fraudulent. (This comparison only goes so far, though, because each service might define fraud differently, and not all of them have ad-supported tiers.)
In a statement, an Apple Music spokesperson said the platform “takes stream manipulation very seriously. Apple Music has a team of people dedicated to tracking and investigating any instances where manipulation is suspected. Penalties include cancellation of user accounts, removal of content, termination of distributor agreements, and financial adjustments.”
When Apple Music emailed industry partners in March, the streaming service noted that “despite the low percentage [of fraud], manipulation remains a widespread and persistent problem: That 0.3% of streams came from more than 85,000 albums across hundreds of record labels.”
As a result, the email indicates the company outlined a sharper anti-fraud policy in October 2022, promising to take “remedial actions against content providers with repeated and significant stream manipulation.” This means of incentivizing reform has worked for some — half the distributors that were flagged for fake streaming have reduced manipulation on their content by over 45%, the company said.
To help labels and distributors figure out where fraud is occurring, Apple Music’s email says the platform started sending daily reports detailing “a content provider’s albums with streams held in review.” “After each review,” the email goes on, “we remove manipulated streams and release legitimate plays. At the end of each month, content providers also receive a report with all excluded streams.” (Spotify has now also ramped up the reporting it provides to labels and distributors, according to one executive at a distribution company, “adding a new dimension of seeing repeat offenders.”)
“This all happens before Apple Music pays royalties and tabulates charts,” the email noted. “We block wrongdoers from the primary advantages of stream manipulation and redirect royalties to valid plays of content.”
The last six months have seen a flurry of companies committing publicly to fraud mitigation. More than half a dozen distributors formed “a global task force aimed at eradicating streaming fraud” in June. And when Deezer announced a new partnership with Universal Music Group in September, Michael Nash, UMG’s executive vp and chief digital officer, promised that “fraud and gaming, which serves only to deprive artists their due compensation, will be aggressively addressed.”