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Even if Spotify’s new royalty model won’t pay artists’ whose tracks don’t hit 1,000 streams in a year, songwriters will still earn money from those plays — for now, at least.
As Billboard reported last month, Spotify is planning to implement three changes to its royalty model early next year that would affect the lowest-streaming acts, non-music noise tracks and distributors and labels committing fraud. Under this new scheme, more than two-thirds of the tracks uploaded to that platform will be eligible to receive royalties — but that, notably, that will only impact about 0.5% of the royalty pool.
Nevertheless, this has sparked debate around the music community, with some questioning the ethics of not paying artists for whatever streams they garnered simply because they were not popular enough. Others supported the plan, citing the paltry sums an artist would be making for under 1,000 annual streams anyway (which amounts to about five cents). Many also believe this new rule could provide alleviate the issue of the royalty pool being divided among the exponentially-growing number of songs on Spotify’s platform, which likely dilutes the amount of money flowing to career artists.
But this change to Spotify’s royalty model does not affect songwriters and publishers payments at all, a source close to the company confirmed to Billboard. It just affects those who are involved in the master recording copyright.
For the uninitiated, there are two copyrights associated with every song released: the underlying musical work (often also called the “composition” or “song”) copyright, which protects the lyrics and melodies written by songwriters, and the master recording (also called the “sound recording”) copyright, which protects the artists’ one specific recording of that musical work.
In the United States, the royalty rates that songwriters and publishers can charge for the composition side of things are controlled by a government entity known as the Copyright Royalty Board. Every five years, the statutory rate structure for songwriters and publishers is renegotiated with the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) as well as Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) and other groups and individuals who represent the music industry’s fight to raise rates. (Other territories often base their publishing royalty rates off of those set in the U.S.)
Not everyone agrees on what specific rate structure they want, which has led to some infighting, but they all unite behind one principle: songwriters should earn more money. In fact, publishing earns just a fraction what the recorded music side does on streaming overall, the rates are far from equal. Many in the music business wish the current Copyright Royalty Board system could be abolished, freeing songwriters and publishers to negotiate rates in a free market without government interference, but this is unlikely to change, given it would require an act of Congress to overhaul an over one hundred year old law and services, many of which are owned by some of the world’s largest technology companies, would certainly lobby against it.
Those whose interests lie on the recording side, like record labels, get to negotiate directly with streaming services to set their royalty structure. This is why the streaming payment system can be experimented with in the ways seen now through Spotify’s recent changes, as well as Deezer’s new “artist-centric” payment plan, created with UMG. Overall, the publishing side of the business is handcuffed to whatever the current ruling says.
The system of streaming royalty payments for publishers and songwriters for 2023-2027 (also known as “phonorecords IV” “phono IV” or “CRB IV”), the current five year period, has already been set. National Music Publishers’ Association president and CEO David Israelite says it is possible that the next five year period, phono V, could be reconfigured to more closely mirror what is happening on the master recording side but that determination process won’t begin until about early 2026.
“We will have the benefit of watching how this plays out for a while before we ever have to address it, but it’s way too early to speculate what we might do,” says Israelite. Still, he adds, “it is horrible that we are locked in the statutory rate structure where we have no flexibility other than these five year windows but that is our situation… It’s a very different conversation than one company sitting down with another company and agreeing what they want to do [like it happens on the master side]. We are asking a court through litigation or an agreement to set a structure that applies to everyone and to build consensus around that. It’s much harder to change.”
Hipgnosis Song Management (HSM) has announced that Daniel Pounder will become the company’s next chief financial officer, replacing Chris Helm by the end of this year. HSM has also created a new position of general counsel, tapping Jonathan Baker for the job. Both join from BMG.
The news arrives after a number of personnel changes to the company in recent weeks, including Hipgnosis Songs Fund board chair, Andrew Sutch, and two other board members who either resigned or failed to win re-election to their seats.
Hipgnosis — which owns rights to songs by Journey, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, and many more — is comprised of three branches: Hipgnosis Song Management, Hipgnosis Songs Capital and Hipgnosis Songs Fund. The latter of the three has been mired in controversy in recent weeks after it was announced that the London-listed trust would not pay its investors a dividend because of new, lower projections for revenue.
During a shareholder continuation vote on Oct. 26, where investors were asked to vote on whether they wanted to keep the investment trust going or liquidate the fund, selling $440 million worth of catalogs to the private side of the company — Hipgnosis Songs Capital — which is backed by Blackstone, more than 80% of investors voted in favor of the board drawing up “proposals for the reconstruction, reorganization or winding-up of the company to shareholders for their approval within six months,” the board said in a regulatory filing. “These proposals may or may not involve … liquidating all or part of the company’s existing portfolio of investments.”
In his role as CFO, Pounder will oversee the finances and investment functions of all three. He has over two decades of experience in music finance and accounting, including senior roles at BMG, Viacom, Famous Music and Sony Music Publishing. He completed his accountancy training with Deloitte and was admitted into the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 2003. By 2013, he was admitted as a fellow.
Current CFO, Chris Helm, will pass the responsibilities to Pounder over the next month and a half. According to a press release, the two will be “working closely” together to do a complete hand over until then. Helm will then be leaving to “launch a new business of his own early next year.”
Baker will oversee the legal affairs of the company’s catalog acquisition and day-to-day legal and business affairs for Hipgnosis. He will coordinate with the company’s outside counsel, including Bill Leibowitz, and will hold the responsibility for governance and compliance matters for the company and the fund’s clients.
Previous to this, Baker has 20 years of legal experience. He joins from BMG, where he has been general counsel in the U.K. and evp legal and business affairs international since 2012. Prior to that role, he worked at Simkins, a media and entertainment law firm.
Merck Mercuriadis, CEO and founder of Hipgnosis Song Management, says of the appointments: “It is always a priority for me to continually strengthen our executive leadership team to ensure we have the best institutional investment, finance and music capabilities and experience to deliver the next stage of development for Hipgnosis and our funds. This was the case starting with the appointment of Ben Katovsky as president and Chief Operating Officer one year ago and we’re delighted to welcome Dan and Jon to round out this process, particularly as this group of leaders have a proven successful chemistry of working together.
He adds, “Dan’s extensive experience and expertise in global music finance, ability to leverage data and technology and proven track record in supporting and enabling growing businesses will be of significant value to HSM and our fund clients as we work to further institutionalize the reporting and rigor of the song asset class. Likewise, Jon’s experience and expertise in global music legal affairs will support our funds while allowing us to prioritize responsible governane and compliance for Hipgnosis.”
The owner of one of the country’s most recognizable independent venue companies has agreed to accept a petition on behalf of its bartenders, ID checkers, ticket collectors and floor staff to unionize.
Dayne Frank, president and CEO of First Avenue Productions which owns the famed First Avenue venue and operates six other venue locations in the Twin Cities area, was presented with petition from more than 200 employees earlier this month asking the company to recognize efforts to unionize as part of UNITE HERE Local 17, Minnesota’s hospitality workers’ union. UNITE HERE has about 300,000 members nationwide and is a member of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
“We recognize that our employees are a key to our success,” Frank said in a statement sent to Billboard, “and it is why we have continually worked to provide them competitive pay, health insurance for anyone working more than 25 hours per week, 401k matching contributions, and more. So when bartenders, service, and event staff expressed their desire to form a union, there was only one answer, which is why we will voluntarily recognize the union, and are committed to bargaining in good faith.”
Employees at First Avenue Productions, which include staff from 7th Street Entry, the Fitzgerald Theater, the Palace Theatre, the Turf Club, Fine Line and the Depot Tavern, began organizing earlier this year through the city’s Restaurant Opportunities Center as part of an effort to address staff disagreements over pay, scheduling and training.
On Nov. 2, more than 70% of the company’s employees voted in favor of moving forward with unionization through UNITE HERE. Frank is expected to begin contact negotiations with UNITE Here in the coming weeks.
“Bargaining in good faith will require everyone to look at the challenges we face as a whole, and how we can strengthen our workplace, incorporate more perspectives, and ultimately move forward together,” Frank said. “While this might be difficult, and will inevitably result in change, I am committed to working together to address those challenges.”
Frank is also a founding board member of the National Independent Venue Association and as the group’s former president led successful efforts to petition the federal government for billions of dollars in relief aid for thousands independent venues facing closure due to COVID-19, including those managed by First Avenue Productions which received more than $17 million from the Shuttered Venue Operator Grant program. The federal aid program is widely credited with preventing the collapse of the independent venue industry.
Warner Music has revamped its regional Mexican music operation, announcing veteran executives Delia Orjuela and Ruben Abraham as co-heads of its growing Música Mexicana division.
In their new roles, Orjuela and Abraham will jointly lead the division’s overall strategy for the U.S. and Mexico. Orjuela will focus on artist relations and creative projects, and Abraham will concentrate on operations, growth and dealmaking.
Abraham, an 18-year veteran of Warner, was most recently senior vp of marketing and artist strategy for Warner Music Latina, based out of Miami.
He will now join Orjuela – who joined Warner Music Latina as general manager of Mexican music in 2021–in Los Angeles. Both executives will report to Tomás Rodríguez, president of Warner Music Mexico and Central America, with additional oversight from Alejandro Duque, president of Warner Music Latin America.
Warner’s restructure is aligned with the label’s new focus on Mexican music. Years before, Warner had been a powerhouse in that arena, but over the years the label focused more on pop.
Once Duque joined the company as president in 2021, he made Mexican music a priority and launched the Música Mexicana division, signing acts like Los Aptos, Tomas Ballardo and DannyLux, who performed at Coachella this year. Last year, the label also signed veterans Grupo Pesado, who had been in Warner decades ago, and stars like El Komander.
“Música Mexicana is a diverse body of music with a long, rich, and beautiful history. Delia and Ruben’s deep experience, relationships, and passion for Mexican music make them the ideal leaders as we strengthen our commitment to taking Música Mexicana into a new era of global growth and influence,” said Duque in a statement.
“I look forward to leading Warner Music’s Música Mexicana division alongside my colleague Ruben Abraham,” said Orjuela. “Together, we will build on the foundation that has been established to help take Mexican artists and music to new heights.”
“It’s an honor to help shape the future of Música Mexicana,” said Abraham. “The growth of Mexican music consumption in Mexico itself and in the U.S. is a big priority for us, and I’m excited to collaborate with Delia to accelerate our artist development and reach. With the teams, tools, and expertise of our network, we have an incredible opportunity to amplify Mexican music worldwide.”
Tomas Rodriguez adds: “Delia and Ruben are powerhouses when it comes to championing artists and driving business results. Our Música Mexicana efforts are in the perfect hands under their strategic leadership.”
Regional Mexican music, also known as Música Mexicana, has long been one of the backbones of Spanish language music in the United States, bolstered by a huge Mexican American population. But in the past year, both local and global interest in the music has exploded, and major labels like Sony and Warner are putting new emphasis and resources behind the music.
Sony Music México announced on Thursday (Nov. 9) the launch of M4 Records, a label run by music executive Manuel Cuevas, who has helped propel the careers of artists such as Carlos Rivera, Yuridia, Lila Downs, Filipa Giordano, Gilberto Santa Rosa and, more recently, regional Mexican singer Luis Ángel “El Flaco”. “Manuel is an executive […]
Amazon started cutting jobs in the company’s music division this week, according to Reuters.
“We have been closely monitoring our organizational needs and prioritizing what matters most to customers and the long-term health of our businesses,” an Amazon spokesperson told Billboard in a statement. “Some roles have been eliminated on the Amazon Music team. We will continue to invest in Amazon Music, and spend our resources on the products and services that matter most to customers, creators, and artists.”
The rep did not provide any information on the extent of the cuts.
The latest wave of cuts adds to a brutal period for tech — and a rough one for the music industry. In the last 18-ish months, the tech behemoths, from Google to Meta to X (formerly Twitter) to Microsoft, have all laid off tens of thousands of workers.
Amazon has also gone through waves of big cuts already, first eliminating 18,000 jobs, and then cutting another 9,000. “The overriding tenet of our annual planning this year was to be leaner while doing so in a way that enables us to still invest robustly in the key long-term customer experiences that we believe can meaningfully improve customers’ lives and Amazon as a whole,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees in March.
In July, the site layoffs.fyi, which tracks the tech industry, estimated that more than 386,000 tech workers had been fired around the world since the beginning of 2022.
In music, Downtown Music Holdings, Warner Music Group, Spotify, Motown Records, Soundcloud, BMI, and more have laid off employees. (Downtown and SoundCloud have both done two rounds of cuts.) The language music executives have used in their layoff announcements has echoed messages from the tech world, often relying on buzzwords — think “efficiency” and “evolution” — and emphasizing the importance of “future success” as if that suddenly became an organizational priority.
It’s widely believed around the music industry that there are more layoffs to come.
An Atlanta judge ruled Thursday that he would allow many of Young Thug’s rap lyrics to be used as evidence against him and other alleged gang members in their upcoming criminal trial, rejecting arguments that doing so would violate the First Amendment.
The ruling came a day after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville held a hotly-anticipated hearing about the use of lyrics as evidence – a controversial practice that has drawn backlash from the music industry and efforts by lawmakers to stop it.
The lyrics could play a key role in the trial, which will kick off later this month. Prosecutors allege that Thug (Jeffery Williams) and his “YSL” were not really a popular music collective called “Young Stoner Life,” but a violent Atlanta gang called “Young Slime Life” that committed murders, carjackings, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.
Representing the superstar artist, attorney Brian Steel blasted prosecutors for attempting to use creative expression to convict his client. “They are targeting the right to free speech, and that’s wrong,” Steel said. “They are saying that just because he his singing about it, he is now part of a crime.”
But after an hours-long hearing that ran until nearly 9 pm on Wednesday evening, Judge Glanville largely rejected those arguments. “They’re not prosecuting your clients because of the songs they wrote,” Glanville said from the bench. “They’re using the songs to prove other things your clients may have been involved in. I don’t think it’s an attack on free speech.”
In a formal ruling on Thursday morning, the judge denied Thug’s request to ban the lyrics entirely, and granted a motion by prosecutors to preliminarily admit them. Though Judge Glanville said prosecutors would still need to establish why they were using them and that Steel could object during the trial, the judge repeatedly suggested at Wednesday’s hearing that he would allow lyrics to be admitted as evidence and that it would be up to jurors to decide how much weight to give them.
At the hearing, prosecutor Michael Carlson urged Judge Glanville to avoid sweeping questions about free speech. He said the actual issue before the court was not rap lyrics but rather “proclamations of violence” by alleged gang members that are “highly relevant in this case.”
“The issue here is not rap,” Carlson said. “This is not randomly the state attempting to bring in Run DMC from the 80s. This is specific. These are party admissions. They just happen come in the form of lyrics.”
Near the end of the hearing, Carlson sharply criticized the suggestion that the rap lyrics in question were simply works of art without a direct link to real events. “People can look at that indictment and see one thing that’s for sure not fantasy: People are dead. Murdered.”
“That’s not fantasy, your honor,” Carlson said. “That’s tragically real.”
Earlier on Wednesday, prosecutor Symone Hylton highlighted specific lyrics that the state plans to play for jurors during the trial and explained why they were relevant enough to be admitted. They included lines from Thug’s 2016 song “Slime Shit,” in which he raps about “killin’ 12 shit” and “hundred rounds in a Tahoe.”
Hylton argued that “12” is a well-known euphemism for police officers, and that the lyric referred to a specific incident in which an officer was shot by a YSL member. And she said that the “Tahoe” lyric was a boast about the 2015 murder of Donovan Thomas – a key allegation in the indictment.
“Not only did Donovan Thomas drive a Tahoe, there were multiple rounds of shell casings laid out on the ground where he was killed in front of his barber shop,” Hylton said. “While [the lyric] may on the surface seem irrelevant, when you put it to the facts that are going to come out in this case, that particular verse becomes very relevant.”
Among other songs, she also referenced the 2018 track “Anybody,” in which Thug raps “I never killed anybody/ But I got somethin’ to do with that body”; and the song “Really Be Slime,” a 2021 compilation track released by Young Stoner Life Records that features the line “You wanna be slime? Go catch you a body.”
“It’s the state’s contention that [the lyric] means you go out and you go murder someone,” Hylton said. “That’s how you become ‘slime’.”
Young Thug, Gunna and dozens of other alleged YSL members were indicted in May 2022. Gunna and several other defendants eventually reached plea deals, and other defendants were separated from the main case, leaving just Thug and five others to face a jury. If fully convicted, he could face a life sentence.
After months of delays, a jury was finally seated last week, clearing the way for the trial to kick off on Nov. 27 – proceedings that are expected to last well into 2024. But before then, Judge Ural Glanville must decide on whether the jury can hear his lyrics as part of the prosecution’s case.
Civil liberties activists and defense attorneys have long criticized the use of rap lyrics to win criminal convictions. They argue that it unfairly targets constitutionally protected speech, treating hyperbolic verse as literal confessions; they also say it can unfairly sway juries by tapping into racial biases.
Lawmakers in California enacted legislation last year restricting the use of creative expression as evidence in criminal cases, and a federal bill in Congress that would impose similar restrictions has been widely supported by the music industry. But absent such statutes, courts around the country have mostly upheld the right of prosecutors to cite rap lyrics, particularly in gang-related cases.
In his arguments Wednesday, Thug’s lawyer Steel echoed such concerns in pushing to exclude the lyrics from the case. He noted that many other artists had used similar phrases – he name-dropped Rick Ross, Meek Mill and Cardi B — and that rap lyrics are often exaggerated or wholly fictional. Steel argued that individual lyrics should only be admitted when prosecutors have linked them much more specifically to actual alleged actions – an analysis he said the DA’s office had failed to perform.
But Steel’s main message for Judge Glanville was that using the lyrics would violate the First Amendment and its protections for free speech, arguing that it would effectively criminalize the output of a “prolific songwriter.”
“A person in America can say I hate Brian Steel, I hate criminal defense lawyers, I hate prosecutors, I hate judges,” Steel said. “We believe that we flourish when we can share ideas even when they’re repugnant, even when you don’t agree with them.”
“If you allow this evidence,” Steel said, “it’s going to have a chilling effect.”
But Judge Glanville was skeptical of Steel’s arguments from the beginning, repeatedly suggesting that he believed some of the lyrics were relevant enough to be admitted in the case — and occasionally showing frustration with Steel’s arguments to the contrary. At one point, he interrupted Steel to say that “the First Amendment is not on trial.”
Later, Steel said that prosecutors were using Thug’s “words” to convince jurors that he was “a bad man” — the kind of improper “character” evidence that is typically rejected. But Judge Glanville again had a quick retort: “No they’re not. They’re using his words to show that he’s involved in a gang.”
Releases by Travis Scott, SZA, Harry Styles and Luke Combs, along with continued paid subscription growth, helped Sony Music Entertainment revenues hit a record 408 billion yen ($2.83 billion at the quarter’s average exchange rate) in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, up 13.7% from the prior-year period, parent company Sony Corp. announced Thursday.
The company’s previous high for quarterly revenue was 363.7 billion yen ($2.57 billion) in the third quarter of fiscal 2022 (the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022).
Adjusted operating income grew 10.9% to 97 billion ($672 million). Adjusted OI excludes the impact of a $41.2 million one-time benefit recognized in the prior-year quarter related to settlements of copyright infringement lawsuits. The appreciation of the yen contributed some of the revenue growth in the quarter. Of the 49.4 billion yen ($342 million) revenue increase, foreign exchange accounted for a 12.7 billion yen ($88 million) gain — about a quarter of the improvement.
Recorded music revenues grew 13.3% to 253.8 billion yen ($1.76 billion) on the strength of subscription streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music. Streaming revenue grew 14.4% to 173.9 billion yen ($1.2 billion), accounting for 69% of recorded music revenues. Other revenues, which encompass merchandise, licensing and live performances, jumped 51.6% to 50.9 billion yen ($352 million). Physical revenues dropped 14.4% to 20.8 billion yen and download sales fell 42.2% to 8.2 billion yen ($57 million), although the two categories combined accounted for only 11.4% of recorded music sales.
Miley Cyrus’s Endless Summer Vacation, Beyoncé’s Renaissance, Lil Durk’s Almost Healed, Doja Cat’s Scarlet and Luke Comb’s This One’s For You were also among Sony Music’s top ten recorded music releases ranked by revenue. In Japan, Sony Music Entertainment’s top title was Social Path, a Japanese-language EP by K-pop group Stray Kids released with JYP Entertainment. Social Path hit No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums chart for two weeks in September.
In the music publishing division, a 14.8% increase in streaming revenue helped total publishing revenue increase 12.6% to 82.7 billion yen ($573 million). Other publishing revenue, which includes mechanical, performance royalties and synch licensing, grew 9.6% to 34.3 billion yen ($237 million).
The visual media and platform division rose 5.7% to 62.9 billion yen ($436 million) and accounted for 15.7% of Sony Music’s total revenue. The division includes mobile games, software for PCs and game consoles, and sales related to software development contracts.
Sony Music increased its full-year guidance for revenue by 5%, or 70 billion yen ($485 million), and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization by 4%, or 15 billion yen ($104 million). The upward revisions were due to the impact of foreign exchange, increased streaming revenues in the music publishing division and higher mobile game sales in the visual media and platform division.
Financial metrics for Sony Music’s second fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30, 2023:
Revenue of 408.7 billion yen ($2.83 billion), up 13.7% year over year.
Adjusted operating income of 97 billion yen ($672 million), up 10.9% year over year.
Recorded music revenue of 253.7 billion yen ($1.76 billion), up 13.3% year over year.
Music publishing revenues of 82.7 billion yen ($573 million), up 12.6% year over year.
Visual media and platform revenue of 62.9 billion yen ($436 million), up 5.7% year over year.
Antonio “L.A.” Reid — the legendary music industry executive who headed up labels including Epic, Island Def Jam and Arista over the course of a storied career — has been sued for sexual assault and harassment by former Arista A&R executive Drew Dixon.
In a complaint filed Wednesday (Nov. 8) in U.S. District Court in New York, Dixon publicly claims for the first time that Reid sexually assaulted her on two separate occasions — incidents she claims derailed her once-promising career and ultimately cost her millions of dollars in lost income. Dixon had previously accused Reid of harassment in a 2017 article for The New York Times as well as a subsequent documentary.
The lawsuit was brought under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which allows alleged victims of sexual offenses that fall outside the statute of limitations to file civil suits for a year-long period spanning from Nov. 24, 2022, to Nov. 24, 2023.
Dixon contextualizes Reid’s alleged harassment and assault with the abuse she claims to have suffered at the hands of another former boss: Russell Simmons. In the same 2017 New York Times article where she lodged harassment claims against Reid, Dixon claimed that Simmons raped her during her tenure as an A&R executive at his Def Jam label. She now claims that Reid was “aware” of Simmon’s alleged assault at the time she began working for him at Arista — and that Reid nevertheless went on to abuse her as well.
According to the Nov. 8 complaint, the first alleged assault occurred on a private plane to Puerto Rico in 2001, when Dixon was serving as vp of A&R at Arista during Reid’s tenure as president/CEO. Dixon claims she was told not to book her own flight to Puerto Rico, where Reid was hosting a company-wide retreat, because Reid had invited a group of senior executives to join him on a private jet. But when she arrived, she claims she “was confused…to find Mr. Reid all alone.” Dixon claims that Reid began flirting right away and, after asking her to sit beside him to go over materials for a presentation, he began “kissing her and digitally penetrated her vulva without her consent.”
Dixon goes on to state that though she was entitled to her own room at the hotel in Puerto Rico, she insisted on sharing a room with her assistant “to avoid any possibility that Mr. Reid might try to find another way to be alone with her during the retreat.” She says that throughout their time there, she “stayed close to her assistant” before taking a commercial flight home in order to avoid a similar incident.
The second alleged assault occurred later that same year following a work event in New York, when Reid allegedly insisted that Dixon “join him for a ride to drop her at home so they could continue to discuss work and he could listen to some of the music she had been waiting for him to review,” including a demo of a young singer named Alice Smith. Dixon says she agreed because “it was not a very long ride” and because she knew Reid’s driver would be present — and also “that if she continued to avoid Mr. Reid, she would never be able to get anything approved for her artists.”
Not long into the car ride, Dixon alleges, Reid began “to grope and kiss” her as she “squirmed and pushed him away” while his driver “stared straight ahead.” After Reid allegedly “complained and became visibly irritated with her lack of compliance,” Dixon says she “froze” and claims that Reid once again “digitally penetrated” her vulva without her consent.
Following the second alleged assault, Dixon says she “intensified her efforts to avoid” Reid, knowing that reporting the alleged assaults would be “career ending.” Though she says she was advised by other Arista executives, at Reid’s behest, “to wear skirts and high heels” at work, she claims she began wearing “jeans and Birkenstock clogs” to the office under the belief that it would make her less of a target for Reid.
However, Dixon claims that Reid continued to sexually harass her, including by inviting her to meetings in his hotel room at the Four Seasons “night after night.” Though she says she continually turned down these overtures, she claims Reid began calling her late at night and that, when she began letting his calls go straight to voicemail, he “became angrier and angrier” and “turned hostile towards her, and her artists, and her ideas.”
Dixon claims Reid then channeled his anger into thwarting her career and the careers of her artists.
“Promotional and recording budgets were suddenly reduced dramatically or frozen altogether,” the complaint reads. “Song demos and artist auditions were flatly rejected. Ms. Dixon could not do her job at Arista, and she became increasingly concerned that her stifled success at Arista would impede her ability to secure a similar job at another label.”
Dixon additionally accuses Reid of “blocking” artists she attempted to sign — including, she claims, future megastars Kanye West and John Legend. After allegedly bringing in West for an audition, she claims Reid passed on the rapper “and then proceeded to berate Ms. Dixon in front of the whole A&R department about how bad she was at her job and what a waste of his time the audition had been, all while Kanye waited in the lobby.”
In the case of Legend, Dixon claims that while Reid initially showed some interest in the singer after Dixon played a demo for him, her subsequent refusals to join him in his hotel room led Reid to no-show at Legend’s audition as punishment.
“Once she realized Mr. Reid would continue to stifle her career and the prospects of any of the artists she brought to him and that he would continue to undermine the artists she had already signed like Toya in order to punish Ms. Dixon for rejecting his sexual pressures, Ms. Dixon gave up not just on Arista, but on her dream of starting a label,” the complaint reads. “She left Arista to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School in 2002. Resigned to the fact that she would not ever be able to function in the music industry without being sexualized.”
Dixon claims that after graduating from Harvard with honors in 2004, she joined Legend as a GM at his Homeschool Records, where she worked with the singer to co-executive produce Estelle‘s U.S. debut album, Shine, and arranged for West to record a feature on the Grammy-winning single “American Boy.” However, while working on the promotion of the album with staff at Atlantic Records, she claims coming into contact with Reid and Simmons’ “enablers” at the label “triggered depression” and caused her to retreat from the industry once again.
According to the complaint, Dixon came into contact with Reid once more, during his tenure as chairman/CEO at Island Def Jam, when she was trying to kickstart a career as a songwriter-producer. Claiming she “still had not worked through the abuse she had experienced in the music industry,” she says she set up a meeting with Reid to play a demo of her songs with the hope of placing them with some of his artists. During the meeting, she said Reid “insisted that she stand up and sing for him” despite coming to him as a songwriter-producer, leading to the return of “the crass feeling of being objectified” by Reid. “No amount of time, education, marital status, or additional hit records would undo the harm of the assaults,” the complaint reads.
Dixon says the legacy of Reid’s assaults is ongoing. In 2017, after starting her own label, The Ninth Floor, she alleges that an unnamed label executive who initially “appeared to love” the music of her artist, Ella Wylde, cut off communications after allegedly learning of Dixon’s history with Reid.
“Mr. Reid’s looming presence and power in the music industry affects Ms. Dixon in the present day,” the complaint reads. “As she attempts to participate in new dimensions of the industry such as the highly lucrative music royalty space where her combination of A&R chops and her Harvard MBA should make her a highly employable senior professional, Ms. Dixon has been told that although she is well-known, well-respected, and highly qualified, she is essentially blackballed because she has spoken out against Mr. Simmons and Mr. Reid. Thus, the harm is ongoing and unceasing.”
Dixon is suing Reid for sexual battery/assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and gender-motivated violence. She is demanding a trial by jury.
Representatives for Reid’s current company, mega, did not return a request for comment at press time.
Though Dixon’s assault claims against Reid are new, Reid’s image began to crumble in 2017 when the then-Epic Records head was accused of sexually harassing one of his female assistants. That allegation led to Reid’s exit from the label, where it was alleged that other executives knew of his conduct but did nothing to stop it. Since that time, Reid has continued to work in the industry, launching the HitCo label alongside Charles Goldstuck before selling it to Concord in 2022. Earlier this year, Reid launched mega, a music collective co-founded by Usher which is distributed by Larry Jackson‘s gamma.
In 2020, Reid, also an accomplished record producer, sold his music catalog to Hipgnosis Songs Fund and joined the company’s advisory board.
Stories about sexual assault allegations can be traumatizing for survivors of sexual assault. If you or anyone you know needs support, you can reach out to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). The organization provides free, confidential support to sexual assault victims. Call RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE) or visit the anti-sexual violence organization’s website for more information.
Former Recording Academy president/CEO Neil Portnow has been sued by an unnamed female musician who says he drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2018. Also named as a defendant is the Recording Academy itself, which the plaintiff accuses of enabling the assault through negligence.
In the lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court on Wednesday (Nov. 8), the woman — described in the complaint as “an internationally acclaimed musician, inventor, and former member of The Recording Academy” who performed at Carnegie Hall in 2015 — claims that while meeting with Portnow in his hotel room in June 2018 to conduct an interview with him for her magazine, she “began to feel woozy” after drinking a glass of wine he offered her.
When the woman allegedly attempted to exit Portnow’s hotel room, she claims Portnow refused to help her leave “while begging her to stay” and attempting to kiss and massage her body. After allegedly losing consciousness, she says she would periodically wake to find Portnow sexually assaulting her in his hotel bed, forcing her hand to “manipulate” his penis and penetrating her vagina with both his penis and fingers.
The woman claims she awoke the next morning “woozy and confused” in the hotel bed as Portnow took a phone call. Once he finished the call, she claims Portnow “begged” her to stay in the hotel room “and under his control” but that she resisted. She says she gathered her things and made her escape after he left.
According to the complaint, the woman first met Portnow in January 2018 at the Paley Center for Media in New York, where he was speaking on a panel at an event for the 50th annual Grammy Awards. One week later, she says she received two VIP tickets to the Grammys and afterparty access from Portnow’s secretary, though she was unable to attend.
In February 2018, the woman says she emailed Portnow to thank him for the tickets, apologize for not being able to attend and tell him about her magazine. She says Portnow subsequently reached out to her in May 2018 telling her that he was traveling to New York City, at which point she told him she was interested in interviewing him for her magazine — leading to their alleged June 2018 meeting in his hotel room.
“In the immediate aftermath” of the alleged assault, the plaintiff says she tried reaching out to Portnow several times “to understand and gain clarity as to what had occurred,” but that Portnow ignored her and returned to Los Angeles around June 15, 2018.
The woman further claims that in October 2018, she emailed the Recording Academy to notify them of the assault and received an email response from the Academy’s chief people and culture officer (a position then filled by Gaetano Frizzi) “asking for a phone call to discuss the allegations.” She claims, however, that no one from the Academy ever reached out to interview her.
The following month, the woman says she received an email from Portnow’s legal representative that contained a private message from Portnow. According to a copy of the email which is included in the complaint, Portnow does not directly mention the woman’s assault allegation but instead expresses that he was “deeply saddened by your communications which unfortunately now require me to have an attorney involved.” Portnow also states that he had “always respected” the defendant and that “it is important that we hear each other with compassion and care.”
In December 2018, the woman says she filed a police report with the New York City Police Department naming Portnow as the man who sexually assaulted her.
In the aftermath of the alleged rape, the woman claims she “has suffered and will continue to suffer, great pain of mind and body, severe and permanent emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation, physical, personal & psychological injuries.” She also says she has “incurred and will continue to incur expenses for psychological treatment, therapy, and counselling,” “has and/or will incur loss of income and/or loss of earning capacity in her musical career” and was “unable to maintain” her status as an Academy voting member.
The woman is suing Portnow for sexual battery; the Recording Academy for negligent hiring, supervision and retention; and both defendants for gender-motivated violence. She is demanding a trial by jury.
In a lengthy statement sent to Billboard, a spokesperson for Portnow called the woman’s allegations “completely false.”
“The claims are the product of the Plaintiff’s imagination and undoubtedly motivated by Mr. Portnow’s refusal to comply with the Plaintiff’s outrageous demands for money and assistance in obtaining a residence visa for her.
“A series of erratic, bizarre text messages and e-mails to both Mr. Portnow and the Recording Academy from the Plaintiff had already persuaded numerous previous Plaintiff’s lawyers who resigned, as well as a police agency, that her claims were baseless. The latest incarnation offers a ‘new and improved’ story, padding it with even more outrageous and untrue allegations.
“More than 5 years later, Mr. Portnow remains consistent in his refusal to assist the Plaintiff in her absurd demands that he help her in procuring a United States permanent resident visa, marry her, make children with her, support her musical career, or pay her millions of dollars so that she would not bring her frivolous lawsuit.
“When the first attempt was made to extract money and other benefits as listed above, Mr. Portnow, who was at that time President/CEO of the Recording Academy, immediately enlisted the Academy’s HR Department to review the nonsensical text messages and emails that he made immediately available. An outside independent investigation led by top-tier lawyers, reviewed all relevant texts, emails, interviewed witnesses, and found absolutely no proof to support any of the allegations. The Academy’s Executive Committee and Board of Trustees were made aware of the results of the investigation and report; subsequently, Mr. Portnow served at the helm of the Recording Academy for the balance of the term of his contract. Throughout these processes, Mr. Portnow voluntarily and fully cooperated with and supported the investigation of these false allegations.
“Accordingly, Mr. Portnow will defend the case with vigor and will prevail.”
The Recording Academy sent the following statement to Billboard: “We continue to believe the claims to be without merit and intend to vigorously defend the Academy in this lawsuit.”
The woman’s allegations were partially aired nearly four years ago in the explosive discrimination complaint filed by Deborah Dugan, who briefly replaced Portnow as Recording Academy president/CEO after he stepped down in August 2019. The following January, Dugan was placed on administrative leave, after which she filed a discrimination complaint against the Academy with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In that complaint — details from which are outlined in the new lawsuit — Dugan claimed that during a May 2019 meeting of the board prior to assuming Academy leadership, she was informed that sexual assault allegations had been lodged against Portnow by a foreign female recording artist who was also a member of the Academy. Dugan alleged that she was placed on leave after she refused to bring Portnow back as a consultant for the Grammys.
Shortly after Dugan filed her complaint, Portnow released a statement calling the rape allegations “ludicrous, and untrue. The suggestion that there was is disseminating a lie.” He added that following “an in-depth independent investigation” of the allegations, he was “completely exonerated.”
Dugan and the Recording Academy reached a confidential settlement in June 2021.