Business
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If it’s Friday that means another spin around the Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across the music industry.
Caron Veazey and her nearly four-year-old consultancy firm Something In Common have partnered with global management company Three Six Zero, with Veazey officially joining as partner. The industry veteran brings with her singer-actress Mette Towley (aka METTE), who is fresh off a role as Video Girl Barbie in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie and recently released an EP via RCA, METTENARRATIVE. Veazey is co-founder and co-chair of the Black Music Action Coalition and prior to forming Something in Common, spent nearly a decade managing the career of Pharrell Williams during the pinnacle of his “Happy” and “Get Lucky”-fueled fame. During that time she also general-managed Pharrell’s i am OTHER creative collective.
“I believe things happen at the right time, and now could not be a more perfect time to partner with Mark and the team at Three Six Zero,” Veazey said. “I’m so impressed with what they have built, and very excited about the ambition for the future. They are a group of big forward thinkers, and I am truly energized to join the team.”
Robin Nastri joined Sony Music Publishing in the newly created role of senior vp, global business office. SMP devised the position to oversee what it calls “global transformation initiatives” like streamlining global operations and enhancing its technologies in order to boost the publisher’s growth. She reports to chief financial officer Tom Kelly. Nastri joins SMP after an inventive, 25-year tenure at IT company Accenture, where in 2019 she and her team won inventor of the year for creating the company’s market-leading automation platform. “I am deeply grateful to be joining Sony Music Publishing at such an exciting time,” she sai. “My heartfelt thanks go to Jon Platt, Tom Kelly, and the entire SMP team for entrusting me with this incredible opportunity. It is a privilege to work with such a talented and dedicated team, all with a passion for changing the world by supporting the songwriters who inspire it.”
Sara Benz joined Big Machine Records as a project manager, tasked with overseeing release campaigns and driving audience growth for the label’s star-heavy artist roster (Tim McGraw, Carly Pearce and Midland, heard of’em?). Benz most recently served as a senior A&R coordinator at Universal Music following a stint at Small Giant Records + Management. “She has hit the ground running and is making a huge difference with our team and our artists,” said Big Machine Records’ GM, Clay Hunnicutt. “This is truly only the beginning for her.” Benz is based in Nashville and is at sara.benz@bmlg.net.
What about Bob Papke? Well, ASM Global has tapped him as the venue management firm’s first vp of industry relations and client development. Papke, a member of the ASM family for 33 years, will now oversee all entertainment industry relations for the 80-plus venues that the company manages, including one that he’ll continue to helm: the Maxwell C. King Center in his home base of Melbourne, Florida. He was most recently vp of live entertainment for theaters. Prior to ASM, Papke managed several venues in environs such as Jacksonville, Toronto, Miami Beach and Richmond, Virgina. “Bob has put his heart and soul into this division for years and has created a pathway for our continued success,” said Will Beekman, vp of theater operations. “He has also outlined a strategic and detailed plan for a smooth transition of leadership to ensure that our partners and venues are left in great hands. I thank him for his decades of commitment and look forward to him taking the reins and continuing what he started.”
Across the Board: Ticketmaster veteran Don Orris and former Shazam exec Will Mills joined the advisory board of Tickets for Good, a platform giving UK health and charity works access to free or discounted event tickets … HeadCount, a non-profit that enlists politically engaged music artists to help inspire youth participation in elections, appointed CAA Foundation executive Travis Merriweather to its board of directors.
Boutique publicity firm Reybee, Inc promoted Heather Hawke from publicist to senior director of publicity. Since joining Reybee in November of 2018, she has worked with or led press campaigns for artists such as Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor, Spice Girls, Eve, Circa Waves and Josie Cotton, among others. The LA-based Hawke is also a veteran journalist and photographer, having founded Decorated Youth Magazine and boasting a portfolio of visual work for clients including Warner Records, Rolling Stone and The FADER. “Ever since she joined my company, I’ve been hard-pressed to find anyone who out-thinks, out-shines or out-hustles Heather,” said president and founder Rey Roldan. “She’s the best in class and provides a tremendous service to our clients across a broad array of creative opportunities. Plus, she gives me a run for the money and challenges me every day to re-think and re-learn some of my old-seated, old school music industry habits. She scares me.”
Create Music Group promoted Mark Hill Jr. to senior vp of A&R and business development. He will oversee the company’s A&R team and continue to sign and develop new acts, as well as manage recording projects for roster artists. Based in Los Angeles, Hill joined CMG in 2016 as an intern and in seven years has helped cement deals with Ice Spice and signed artists like YNW Melly and Lucki, among others. “From the very beginning of his tenure here, Mark has been a powerhouse,” said Create Music Group co-founder and chief business operator, Wayne Hampton. “His passion for music, his keen eye for talent, and his ability to lead our teams, have made him an invaluable member of the A&R team. I look forward to seeing him continue to build his career at Create.” He reports to Hampton and co-founder and CEO Jonathan Strauss.
ICYMI: Live Nation president of Asia Pacific Roger Field resigned this week after more than 13 years with the company. It’s understood that Alex Klos will now step into the permanent role as COO of LN ANZ, alongside his position as CFO … Independent promoter and entertainment company LiveCo promoted Shane Quick to president of touring and strategic expansion … Hipgnosis Songs Fund shareholders voted to bid adieu to board chair Andrew Sutch (he already signaled his departure), while directors Andrew Wilkinson and Paul Burger also resigned this week.
Rogét Chahayed’s TruSauce publishing company recently hired Warner Records veteran Sarah Ferrie as its new head of creative. Ferrie has ten years of music business experience, dating back to an A&R role at Capitol Records before stints at GODMODE and Columbia Records. In late 2018, she joined WMG, where she signed Maude Latour and Sofia Valdes, and worked on major releases including Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia. Ferrie is based in Los Angeles.
Nashville-based business management and bookkeeping firm, Luma Business Services, hired Mallori Kirchenschlager as a business manager. Kirchenschlager joined the company earlier in 2023 after an eight-year tenure at business and financial management firm Flood Bumstead McCready & McCarthy. The Belmont University grad got her start at CAA as a music agent assistant and later was director of strategic alliances and events at the International Entertainment Buyers Association. “I am thrilled to have Mallori join the incredible team we have built,” shares Luma’s Founder and President Adrien Good. “Her talents and diverse experience across the industry are a huge asset to our clients and I am excited to work alongside her everyday.”
Milestone Publicity promoted Taran Smith and Lily Collins to account executives, and Campbell Jenkins to associate publicist. Smith has been with the Nashville-based PR agency since April of 2022, and has worked with acts including Leftover Salmon and Robbie Fulks. Collins joined the firm in August of 2022 and has assisted national and tour campaigns for Gin Blossoms, Lonestar and others. Jenkins has spent her short time at Milestone assisting other publicists on various client campaigns.
PRG hired Ariane Coldiron as senior vp of corporate events at the live project management firm. At PRG, Coldiron will be in charge of the business-y events being serviced by the company, which offers audio, lighting, video and other technical production services. She arrives after nearly a decade at trade show specialists Freeman, where as svp she drove the firm’s agency business and managed a portfolio that included Google, SalesForce and HP.
Last Week’s Turntable: WHY&HOW Promotes Three Company Veterans
French music streaming company Deezer added 500,000 subscribers in the third quarter, helping its revenues improve by 4.8% (5.5% at constant currency) to 120.7 million euros ($131.4 million), the company announced Thursday (Oct. 26).
“We are back to meaningful subscriber growth and secured top line acceleration starting in Q4 thanks to the implementation of a new wave of price increases, as well as the ongoing growth of new partnerships,” said CEO Jeronimo Folgueira in a statement.
A relatively small music subscription service, Deezer has recently taken an outsized position of influence with its partnership with Universal Music Group to revamp how it calculates artist royalties and addresses fraud. The “artist-centric” system was announced in September and will be implemented in France in the current quarter, to be followed by additional markets. Around half of Deezer’s streams are already running on the new model, the company said Thursday.
While direct subscriptions remained flat at 5.6 million, subscribers from partnerships grew from 3.8 million to 4.3 million. Deezer said it had “very strong initial subscriber growth” in Brazil and Mexico stemming from its partnership with Uruguay-based e-commerce giant Mercado Libre. The third quarter was also the first full quarter for which Deezer managed the Sonos Radio service. Deezer also powers the music streaming in RTL+, a multimedia platform launched by RTL Germany that has 4.5 million subscribers, according to RTL’s website.
Revenue from direct subscribers grew 3.3% to 71.7 million euros ($78 million). Revenue from partnerships increased 11.9% to 34.2 million euros ($37.2 million). Other revenue (advertising and ancillary revenue) decreased 16% to 4.1 million euros ($4.5 million).
France accounted for 59% of Deezer’s revenue in the quarter compared to 60% in the prior-year period. Direct subscribers in France increased by 200,000 while subscribers elsewhere decreased by an equal amount.
Direct subscribers are more lucrative than partnerships on a per-subscriber basis. Direct subscriber ARPU (average revenue per user) rose 3.4% to 4.9 euros ($5.33) while partnerships ARPU improved 10.6% to 2.9 euros ($3.16). Direct subscriber ARPU will get a further boost from a price increase instituted on Sept. 21 for all new subscribers in France, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands. For all current direct subscribers, the increase will progressively roll out starting on Oct. 24.
Deezer reiterated its previous guidance of 7% to 10% revenue growth for the full year and a “significant reduction” in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the second half of the year.
Q3 2023 financial metrics:
Revenue grew 4.8% (5.5% at constant currency) to 120.7 million euros ($131.4 million).
Total subscribers grew 4.9% to 9.9 million.
Direct subscribers were flat at 5.6 million. Subscribers from partnerships grew by 500,000 to 4.3 million.
ARPU from direct subscribers grew 3.4% to 4.9 euros ($5.33).
ARPU from partnerships grew 10.6% to 2.9 euros ($3.16).
Led by strong subscription growth and a dominant quarter from Taylor Swift, along with strong sales of releases by Olivia Rodrigo, Morgan Wallen and Seventeen, Universal Music Group (UMG) grew revenue 3.3% (9.9% at constant currency) to 2.75 billion euros ($3 billion at the period’s average exchange rate) in the third quarter, the company announced Thursday (Oct. 26).
UMG will get another boost this quarter from Swift’s release of the re-recorded version of her 2014 album, 1989, on Friday. “She is a phenomena,” said UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge, listing a string of global chart successes of Swift’s previous 2023 album of re-recordings, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), released in July. “This level of performance can only really be described as truly astonishing.”
UMG’s fourth quarter will also benefit from the new release of an unreleased track by The Beatles, “Now and Then,” on Nov. 2. “Now and Then” was written by John Lennon in the late ‘70s and just recently finished by the band’s remaining members, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. “The fact that more than four decades after its original recording, we can use the latest technology to bring this recording everywhere is truly remarkable and something that we’re very proud of,” said Grainge.
Third-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EDITDA) increased 5.1%, or 11.3% at constant currency, to 581 million euros ($632 million), and adjusted EBITDA margin improved 0.3 percentage points to 21.1%.
The company’s recorded music segment declined 1.1% to $2.04 billion ($2.2 billion), a 5.2% increase at constant currency (or an 8.9% increase excluding a 71 million euro legal settlement recognized in the prior-year quarter). Subscription revenue grew 6.7% (13% at constant currency), despite not yet receiving a boost from recent price increases at Spotify and YouTube Music. Those benefits are expected to be felt in the fourth quarter, said CFO Boyd Muir, who noted that “each of these services raised prices in certain markets, and on certain plans, not across all subscribers.” YouTube, which Muir said “has a particularly global subscriber base,” raised prices first in the United States and other markets in the following weeks. As a result, “the benefit will initially be more limited.”
Recorded music’s ad-supported streaming revenue grew 5%, the same as the previous quarter. UMG remains “cautious” about ad-supported growth in the coming quarters, said Muir. Results in any quarter come from a mix of fixed and variable deal structures, he explained, meaning UMG’s results aren’t a close reflection of trends in the advertising market. “We do, however, continue to see opportunities for improved deal terms and product innovation driving higher levels of growth in this business over the medium term,” he said.
Downloads and other digital revenue declined 56.9% (53.2% at constant currency) due to the prior-year legal settlement and a broad decline in download sales. Licensing and other revenue declined 11.8% (6.9% at constant currency) due to a strong prior-year quarter that benefitted from artists’ return to touring as the concert business recovered from pandemic-era shutdowns.
Music publishing revenue grew 17.5% (24.6% at constant currency) to 491 million euros ($534 million). Excluding a 53 million euro ($58 million) catch-up payment in the music publishing segment related to the Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) Phonorecords III ruling for streaming royalties from 2018 to 2022, publishing revenue improved 4.8% (11.2% at constant currency).
Publishing’s digital revenue grew 25.6% (33.6% at constant currency) on strong streaming and subscription growth and the CRB III catch-up payment. Synch revenue declined 3.5% (and grew 3.8% at constant currency) while mechanical revenue was stable.
Revenue growth “is beyond our expectation and guidance,” said Muir, while noting that “the revenues that are incremental to our expected growth are actually coming from lower-margin areas of our business.” In the third quarter, 75% of UMG’s revenue above analyst’s consensus expectations came from merchandise and physical products. “They are EBITDA-accretive, but margin-dilutive of the business segments we must pursue,” said Muir. UMG still expects a one-point improvement in adjusted EBITDA in calendar year 2023.
Revenue grew 3.3% (9.1% at constant currency) to 2.75 billion euros ($3 billion).
Recorded music revenue declined 1.1% to $2.04 billion ($2.2 billion), a 5.2% increase at constant currency.
Publishing revenue grew 25.6% (33.6% at constant currency), or 4.8% (11.2% at constant currency) excluding a CRB III retroactive royalty adjustment.
Adjusted EBITDA increased 5.1%, or 11.3% at constant currency, to 581 million euros ($632 million).
Adjusted EBITDA margin improved 0.3 percentage points to 21.1%.
Utopia Music is facing another lawsuit over an aborted deal to buy a U.S. music technology company called SourceAudio, this time over allegations that the Swiss company violated a $400,000 settlement that aimed end the dispute.
The two companies have been battling since February, when SourceAudio filed a lawsuit claiming that Utopia – a buzzy music fintech firm – had bailed on 2022 deal to buy the smaller company for $26.5 million. The case claimed that after a year of delays, Utopia owed more than $37 million on the deal.
That case, filed in Delaware, quickly settled on confidential terms. But in a new lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles, SourceAudio says Utopia has now flaked on that agreement, too.
“Desperate to get the Delaware litigation out of the public eye, Utopia negotiated an agreement to pay SourceAudio $400,000 in exchange for a full release and dismissal of the lawsuit,” the company’s lawyers write. “But as with the underlying contract, Utopia has refused to pay what it owes.”
According to the new lawsuit, just days after signing the legal settlement, Utopia “failed to make the required settlement payment—with no explanation at all.”
“It now appears that the settlement was simply a ruse by Utopia to buy time and avoid paying its debts,” the smaller company’s lawyers write. “SourceAudio brings this action to collect what it is owed [or] to rescind the fraudulently procured settlement agreement. Utopia’s gameplaying must come to an end.”
A spokesman for Utopia did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday.
Utopia, a Swiss-based tech company that delivers financial services for labels, publishers and distributors, had been on a buying spree over 2021 and 2022. The company has acquired at least 15 companies, including music tech company Musimap, U.K. physical distributor Cinram Novum and Lyric Financial, a provider of royalty-backed cash advances.
But last fall, news broke that Utopia would restructure operations and lay off 20% of its workforce, representing about 230 jobs. In April, the company undertook a fresh round of job cuts, eliminating another 15% of its global workforce. Then in July, Utopia announced it was closing its research and development offices in the United Kingdom and Finland, resulting in the loss of another 5% of its global workforce.
SourceAudio — a tech platform for digital asset management and monetization — sued in February, claiming it had struck a deal in March 2022 to sell itself to Utopia for $26.5 million. Since almost immediately after the deal was reached, SourceAudio claimed, the bigger company had continually balked at actually completing the purchase.
“Despite repeated assurances that Utopia would be able to close…, Utopia engaged in a pattern of discontinuing discussions for an extended period of time, only to resurface immediately before the next intended closing date to indicate that it was unable to close by such date,” the complaint read.
In Wednesday’s new lawsuit, SourceAudio claims that Utopia quickly agreed to pay $400,000 to end the earlier case. Though Utopia made an initial $50,000 payment under the deal, the lawsuit claims, the remaining $350,000 – due this month – has not been paid.
“Defendants fraudulently represented through their attorney that they would perform the settlement agreement, while never intending to make any payment beyond the first installment of $50,000,” The company wrote. “Defendants’ objective with its false promise was to secure a release and dismissal of the Delaware action in exchange for a $50,000 payment and nothing further.”
This time every year, music’s biggest stars unleash carefully constructed marketing campaigns for new Christmas music, hoping to join Bing Crosby and Mariah Carey on the lucrative list of holiday classics. Duran Duran chose a different direction.
After dressing as top-hatted ghouls and covering Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” and The Specials’ “Ghost Town” at the Wynn Las Vegas casino last Halloween, the veteran U.K. band recorded a themed album, Danse Macabre, which is due Oct. 27. “Funnily enough, I can’t think of many Christmas songs that I like, apart from the few obvious ones,” keyboardist Nick Rhodes says. “But Halloween, I can think of plenty of songs I love. It’s the mood and the chaos and the dark spirit of excitement about it.”
For decades, Halloween’s soundtrack has come from a reliable archive of catalog hits: Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” (1984), Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (1982), Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” (1984), Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” (1978) and, of course, Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers’ undead “Monster Mash” (1962). But in recent years, thanks to TikTok memes, Netflix and Disney synchs and music streaming, newer songs have joined the pantheon, from Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary,” which went viral after TikTok users spliced it into a dance clip from Netflix’s 2022 hit Wednesday, to LVCRFT’s “Skeleton Sam,” a spooky novelty track engineered by hit songwriters who aspire to update the Halloween music canon.
“There’s room in the marketplace for more than just ‘Monster Mash’ and ‘Ghostbusters,’ ” says Kay Anderson, vp of marketing for Craft Recordings, the Concord catalog label that represents late singer Andrew Gold, including his meme-friendly ’90s Halloween-season hit, “Spooky Scary Skeletons.” “The demand is there, and the momentum for Halloween-themed content kicks off earlier each year.”
When singer-songwriter Evan Bogart was a kid, his mother threw bobbing-for-apples Halloween parties and put dry ice in the pool to create ghostly smoke. By 2018, the son of Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart was a hit songwriter for Lizzo, Rihanna, Beyoncé and others and, as he recalls, his horror movie-obsessed friends wondered: “Why isn’t there any f—ing Halloween music? We’ve been listening to the same stuff since we were kids: Rockwell, The Specials, Warren Zevon, Ray Parker, Oingo Boingo. Most of it’s decades old.” They formed a collective, LVCRFT, and made an album of all-new music, 2019’s This Is Halloween Vol. 1, which included “Skeleton Sam.” The single has since racked up more than 8.5 million on-demand audio streams, according to Luminate, and its Oct. 31 streams increased from 57,343 in 2019 to 569,313 last year. LVCRFT followed the album up with new installments every year.
At the same time, Kat Basolo, senior vp of creative synch for Bogart’s publisher, Kobalt, had been thinking up song ideas to pitch to Freeform, Disney’s streaming channel for young adults. When Bogart mentioned his Halloween music obsession to Basolo, she encouraged him to cover songs from Kobalt’s catalog for Freeform’s annual, heavily promoted “31 Nights of Halloween” campaign. Kobalt also represents Gold, and LVCRFT chose “Spooky Scary Skeletons” and “It Must Be Halloween,” which the Disney channel wound up licensing. “It was very successful,” Basolo says. “That became a well we would keep tapping into.”
In Basolo’s view, the resurgence of new Halloween tracks is, at least in part, a synch phenomenon: Horror movies and spooky shows such as Wednesday, American Horror Story, the Hocus Pocus franchise and this year’s Haunted Mansion remake have led to more topical placement opportunities for artists, labels and publishers. “There’s a lot of content out there that people are constantly clamoring for because they’re genuinely Halloween fans,” she says. “Halloween is a very popular holiday for a reason, and people tend to have a cult-like affinity. They look for content out there that has themes that are adjacent.”
Streaming numbers for “Spooky Scary Skeletons,” “Skeleton Sam” and other Halloween hits may not be as big as those of “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” but they add up. “Bloody Mary” never charted when Gaga released it in 2011, but after the Wednesday-related TikTok phenomenon, it hit No. 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022, scoring over 412 million plays on Spotify and placement in the service’s Halloween Party playlist, which has 981,000 likes. “Bloody Mary” streams grew from 128,708 on Oct. 31, 2019 to 166,893 on October 31, 2022, an increase of 29.7%. However, from October 1-9, 2023, the streams have totaled 2.04 million, according to Luminate.
Since the pandemic, Spotify’s playlist team has noticed what Talia Kraines, the services’ senior editor, pop, describes as “massive spikes on our Halloween playlists” earlier and earlier each year. One enduring seasonal beneficiary of stay-at-home TikTok and binge-watching has been the Beetlejuice soundtrack — the popularity of Schitt’s Creek led to discovery of Catherine O’Hara’s other films, including Beetlejuice, which led to streaming Harry Belafonte’s classic “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song).” “Labels have tended to focus on the classics. Catalog teams at labels are trying to go deeper and find more songs to pitch because the existing classics are so well covered,” Kraines says, pointing to September-October spikes for spooky-adjacent songs like Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy,” Rihanna’s “Disturbia” and the Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck.” “A lot of the new Halloween music is coming from real baby artists who don’t have that major label or publisher system in place.”
Even songs unrelated to Halloween, such as Ghost’s “Mary on a Cross,” which went viral a year ago, and Ava Max’s pop smash “Sweet but Psycho,” have landed on Spotify’s Halloween Party and other official streaming playlists this year. Rapper Ashnikko’s adult-oriented “Halloweenie” tracks, released from 2018 to 2021, have drawn roughly 67 million on-demand streams as of Oct. 9, according to Luminate.
“It takes years to mature a song like that into a classic,” says Mike Chester, executive vp of commerce and promotion at Warner Records, which represents Ashnikko. “It’s not ubiquitous like Christmas season, so you have to focus on the week leading up to Halloween and maximize that attention. It’s a pretty tight window, but it’s rabid in that moment.” Kobalt’s Basolo adds that Halloween synch prep begins earlier every year: “I’m looking at Halloween at the beginning of summer. It’s [about getting] ahead of the timeline and thinking about it a few months in advance.”
By contrast, Duran Duran never expected to make a Halloween album. The group’s ghoulish October 2022 Vegas show was a one-off, so spontaneous that singer Simon Le Bon had to put in extra work memorizing new lyrics, but it evolved into the upcoming album of covers and originals. “We hadn’t thought about it that much as any kind of business proposition — we thought we just wanted to do a Halloween album,” Rhodes says. “But one thing we definitely have on our side is that I’m not sure I know many other artists who’ve done a Halloween album. It’s a whole new genre.”
Independent promoter and entertainment company LiveCo has elevated Shane Quick to president of touring and strategic expansion. In his new role, Quick will be responsible for conceiving, identifying and developing new opportunities for productions and tours, venues and festivals, and new business and acquisitions for the company, which was founded earlier this year.
LiveCo was formed in February by consolidating five independent promoters. The concert promotion company combined BASE Entertainment, Premier Productions, Icon Concerts, Rush Concerts and Peachtree Entertainment, launching with a team that includes Brian Becker and Mark Maluso (BASE Entertainment), Michael Pugh and Quick (Premier Productions), Paul Meloche (Icon Concerts), Jacob Reiser (Rush Concerts) and Bradley Jordan (Peachtree Entertainment).
Quick, who was previously president of Premier Productions, will now report directly to LiveCo CEO Becker in an effort to develop new opportunities, advise and collaborate with all LiveCo companies.
In a statement, Becker said Quick’s appointment to the new role “comes as a natural progression for someone with his track record, innovative thinking, creativity and dedication to the live entertainment industry, artists and audiences,” adding, “We look forward to the new and exciting growth opportunities Shane will develop now and in the future.”
Throughout his 25 years of experience in the live entertainment industry, Quick has led Premier Productions’ faith and Christian business as well as live family entertainment. He also launched Alabama’s Rock The South, among other festival events.
“Joining LiveCo as the president of touring and strategic expansion is an incredible opportunity to shape the future of LiveCo,” said Quick in a release. “I am honored to be a part of a company that is dedicated to delivering extraordinary experiences to audiences worldwide. Together with LiveCo’s visionary leadership team and talented staff, we will explore new horizons, forge strategic partnerships, and create compelling productions that will leave a lasting impact.”
Concord Music Publishing has signed Amaarae to a global publishing deal, in partnership with Immensum Music. This deal includes the Ghanian-American pop artist’s full catalog and all future works, including Fountain Baby, released earlier this year.
One Two Many (OTM) Music has signed Grammy-nominated producer Dot Da Genius to an exclusive global publishing deal, including both his back catalog and future works. This includes songs the producer has made with Steve Aoki, Don Toliver, Denzel Curry, JID, and Kid Cudi.
Warner Chappell Brazil has acquired a catalog from music publishing company Deck, which covers over 10,000 musical compositions by Pitty, Chico César, Falamansa and Sorriso Maroto, among other artists. The deal was first reported by POPline. According to the website’s report, the agreement between Warner and Deck — record label and publisher founded in 1998 — is one of the largest in Brazilian music.
Warner Chappell Music U.K. and Transgressive Publishing have renewed their joint venture partnership, which has been going for the last 17 years. The extension marks Warner Chappell’s longest-standing JV to date. Along with this news, Transgressive has also announced a new deal with the Foals for their catalog, side projects and future recordings.
Avex USA Publishing and The Revels Group’s Coup D’Etat Music have entered a joint venture to sign Victony to a global deal. A trusted collaborator of Rema, Burna Boy, Don Toliver and more and creator of viral hit “Soweto,” Victony is an essential part of the rising popularity of Afrobeats worldwide.
Peermusic has acquired Arctic Rights Management (ARM), the largest indie publisher in Norway. The deal will give peermusic the publishing rights to ARM’s 5,000+ recordings and compositions. This includes the publishing interest in songs like “Don’t Start Now” and “New Rules” by Dua Lipa and “365” by Zedd and Katy Perry.
Kobalt has signed U.K.-based songwriter and producer Toby Scott to a global publishing administration deal. Scott is an in-demand collaborator in the dance space and his discography includes songs with Galantis, David Guetta, Tiesto, Alok, Dom Dolla, Anyma, D.O.D, Jax Jones, Purple Disco Machine, Martin Solveig, Sophie and the Giants and Robin Schulz.
Warner Chappell Music and Tape Room Music has jointly signed country songwriter and producer Casey Brown to a global publishing deal. Over the course of his career, Brown has worked with Parmalee, Russell Dickerson, Dierks Bentley, Ashley McBryde, Keith Urban, Thomas Rhett, Tyler Hubbard, and Lauren Alaina.
Sentric Music Group has signed electronic musician and composer Amon Tobin to a worldwide publishing administration deal. To date, Tobin has released 17 studio albums, first under Ninja Tune and now under his own label Nomark, and his songs have appeared in films like The Italian Job, 21 and Rampart, Divine Intervention, Taxidermia, Splinter Cell, Infamous and more. As part of the deal, Sentric will represent Tobin’s catalog for synch opportunities.
Warner Chappell Music has signed Jenee Fleenor to a global publishing deal. The first woman to be nominated and win Musician of the Year at the 2019 CMA Awards, Fleenor is an in-demand fiddler, playing on top country songs like “I’ll Name the Dogs” by Blake Shelton, “Heartache Medication” by Jon Pardi, and “Til You Can’t” by Cody Johnson. She also releases music as an artist in her own right, beginning with 2019’s “Fiddle & Steel” and is part of a supergroup called the Wood Box Heroes.
Rogét Chahayed‘s TruSauce Publishing has signed rising producer Brandon Shoop to a worldwide publishing deal. Based in Los Angeles, Shoop’s credits include “Cybah” by Syd & Lucky Daye, “Moonlit Breakers” by Paul Dally & Dijon, “Lip Service” by Cautious Clay, “Sleeping With My Friends” by GAYLE, and Chloe George’s “Ghost Town.”
Investors in Hipgnosis Songs Fund on Thursday overwhelmingly demanded a new board make structural changes to the troubled music rights company in ways that don’t include selling off part of its 65,000-song catalog, which includes compositions by Neil Young, Shakira and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
At the company’s annual meeting of shareholders in London, a majority of investors voted no on a resolution “to continue running the fund in its current form”–what’s known as a continuation vote — and they rejected a plan to sell a package of 29 song catalogs to Hipgnosis’ Blackstone-backed sister fund, according to the fund.
The ‘no’ vote signals unequivocal shareholder anger with the company founded by Merck Mercuriadis, and it kicks off a 6-month countdown for the board to come up with a plan “for the reconstruction, reorganisation, or winding-up of the company,” possibly “liquidating all or part of the company’s existing porfolio of investments,” according to the board’s statement.
“While shareholders have not supported our proposed transaction or the continuation vote, it is clear that they share our belief in the inherent quality and potential of these assets,” Sylvia Coleman, senior independent director of Hipgnosis Songs Fund said in an emailed statement. “Directors are now expediting the appointment of a new chair who will drive the strategic review we have already announced, with a clear focus on delivering improved shareholder value.”
Investors voted against the re-election of Hipgnosis Songs Fund board Chair Andrew Sutch at the meeting, speeding up the timetable for his departure. Sutch had already announced he would step down before the company’s next annual general meeting in 2024. On Wednesday, the day before the company’s annual meeting, fund directors Andrew Wilkinson and Paul Burger resigned, and last week, the board embarked on a strategic review into the company’s management team.
“Shareholders have spoken and sent a clear message that the status quo is unacceptable and that a total reset is required,” Tom Treanor, the head of research at Asset Value Investors, which owns a roughly 5% stake in the fund, said in an email. “We look forward to a refreshed board working closely with shareholders to turn the company around.”
Mercuriadis, the former manager of Elton John and Guns N’ Roses, will continue as Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s investment advisor. Mercuriadis founded Hipgnosis in 2017 and took it public on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in July 2018.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s share price rose 1.2% to 75.90 British pence ($0.92) at 11:20 in London.
Global music rights revenue collections reached €10.83 billion ($11.4 billion) in 2022, according to CISAC, the trade organization of collective management societies. That’s a new record that reflects growth of 28% over 2021, as live concert revenue continues to recover from the pandemic and digital income keeps growing.
Income from concerts — the royalties collected from the public performance of songs being played live — was up 185.7% based on a sample of 100 societies, since different organizations account for that revenue differently. And since these numbers are from 2022, when the concert business still hadn’t fully recovered, next year’s numbers will be better still.
The real change is in digital, though, which is now worth €4.08 billion ($4.3 billion), up 33.5% from 2021 and almost double its value from 2019. It now accounts for 37.7% of collections revenue — marking the first time it has been the biggest category — and is likely to be the main engine of growth for years to come. The TV and radio category, traditionally the largest source of revenue, is now No. 2 behind digital with $3.55 billion.
The CISAC Global Collections Report tracks money taken in by collective management organizations for authors’ rights — composers and publishers in the music business, plus audiovisual creators, writers and more. (Neighboring rights revenue for recordings is not included.) More than 90% of the money comes from song rights — specifically, the funds that flow through societies rather than through direct deals.
By any measure, the growth in the CISAC report is remarkable — a record both for the revenue collected and year-on-year growth. And while some of that reflects the unprecedented disappearance and return of the live business, digital growth has been, and will continue to be, steady.
“This is a remarkable return to growth as our whole sector fully recovers from the disastrous three-year pandemic,” said CISAC director general Gadi Oron in the announcement of the results. “While live and public performance have bounced back strongly, the recovery is driven most of all by digital which has now become creators’ largest source of income.”
Much of this growth reflects the changing role of collecting societies in the streaming era. Rather than just represent and license rights in the market in which they operate, societies also compete online. The biggest of the societies — PRS, SACEM and others — now license online rights from writers in most countries.
The growth is worldwide, too. All of the top ten music markets increased collections revenue, with an average growth rate of more than 25%. The biggest market is the United States with €2.616 billion ($2.759) and 30.5% growth; then France, with €1.325 billion ($1.398 billion) and more than 39% growth. Rounding out the top 10 are the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Australia, Canada, Spain and Korea.
Deezer is partnering with French collective management society SACEM to explore the potential impact that “artist-centric” streaming royalty payment models will have on remuneration for songwriters and publishers.
In a joint announcement on Wednesday (Oct. 25), Deezer and SACEM said they were carrying out an “in depth” study that will analyze streaming data to evaluate the viability of different economic models “aimed at remunerating songwriters, composers and publishing rights owners more fairly.”
A representative for Deezer tells Billboard that the first stage of the study commenced earlier this month using data from paid subscription accounts in France in the first quarter of 2023.
The next stage of the project, which is expected to last several months and focuses purely on the French digital music market, will see Deezer and SACEM specifically evaluate the impact that an artist-centric streaming model would have on the society’s 210,000-plus members and international partners, which include Universal Music Publishing Group and Wixen Music Publishing, as well as collective management organizations (CMOs) SOCAN and ASCAP.
“Songwriters, composers and publishers play a crucial role in the music industry as the creative driving force behind the songs we love, and it’s time to evolve how we reward these efforts,” said Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira in a statement.
The joint initiative comes less than two months after Deezer announced it was partnering with Universal Music Group (UMG) on what it calls an “artist-centric music streaming model” for recorded music.
The new artist-centric model for recorded music replaces the traditional pro-rata model whereby one stream equals one play and the total number of plays is divided up by artists and labels according to how many they each accrue.
Since launching Oct. 1, the model has been exclusively limited to France, Deezer’s home market, and, so far, only applies to artists signed to UMG and French independent label Wagram Music. However, a spokesperson for Deezer says discussions are ongoing with all labels and content providers and that the company plans to have achieved “a full rollout with all providers and countries” in 2024.
The new model promises royalty “boosts” for “professional” artists whose music is actively searched for by users, as well as boosts for artists who maintain a level of 1,000 streams per month from at least 500 unique accounts.
It also includes a monetization cap of 1,000 streams for each user, meaning that every single user’s contribution to the royalty pool is counted as 1,000 plays no matter what the actual amount is. (If a subscriber listens to 2,000 streams, for example, then their streams will count half.) Deezer says the cap will help tackle fraud and ensure that royalties are shared more fairly between artists and rights holders.
Following in Deezer’s footsteps, Spotify is understood to be planning similar changes to its streaming royalty model that will come into effect in 2024. These are reported to include introducing minimum annual stream thresholds and financial penalties for music distributors and labels committing fraudulent acts, as well as a minimum play-time length for non-music tracks, such as bird sounds or white noise, before they can generate royalties.
Over the past two years, several other streaming services, including Soundcloud and Tidal, have either introduced or announced that they are exploring different economic models to the standard pro rata streaming model following criticism from creators over low royalty payouts.
In a statement, SACEM CEO Cécile Rap-Veber said the launch of the study into how alternative remuneration models will impact publishers, authors and composers was an “essential” development, “which we hope will make it possible to increase the value of streaming for our members.”