Business
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As the world continues to adjust to different types of “new normal” following the generational disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic of the past few years, Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl outlined a new policy for the major label requiring employees to return to the office four times a week, while expanding free lunches and […]
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has launched a new social media campaign that appears to be in response to a recent Billboard exclusive that revealed that ASCAP’s main competitor, Broadcast Music Inc (BMI), may sell itself to a private equity firm. Sources say the potential deal has an estimated price tag of $1.7 billion.
Just two days after the Billboard story was published on last Wednesday (Aug 23), ASCAP — which, along with BMI, is one of the largest U.S.-based performing rights organizations — posted a graphic on Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter) that read: “ASCAP. Creators first. Not for profit. Not for sale.” In the caption of the post, ASCAP continued to point out that it is the “only U.S. PRO that operates as a not-for-profit” and that it is the “only one founded and governed by songwriters, composers and music publishers.”
In the last three days, the organization has posted seven other similar posts on its socials, seemingly highlighting their distinctions from BMI. The posts include quotes like: “Private equity never wrote an iconic love song,” “ASCAP. Growth without greed,” and “ASCAP writers. Who owns us? Who gets paid? You. And you.”
ASCAP CEO, Elizabeth Matthews, provided a statement about the social campaign to Billboard, saying “it’s important for everyone to understand what makes ASCAP different. We are a membership association, founded and run by songwriters, composers and music publishers. We are the only US PRO that operates as a not-for-profit, and our distribution policy is set by a board of writers and publishers, who are elected by our members. ASCAP’s governing articles require us to put creators first, which puts us in a category of one. And we’ve been overwhelmed by the positive response from our members.”
“Our focus is not on how our competitors position themselves,” replied a representative of BMI when asked to comment on ASCAP’s latest social posts. “Relying on the past never sustained a business for the future. Our goal is to stay ahead of the changing industry and invest in our business to grow the value of our affiliates’ music. Any path forward would prioritize the best interests of our songwriters, composers and publishers, including their financial success. Our focus is on delivering for our affiliates.”
BMI first began experimenting with its business model in March 2022 when it hired Goldman Sachs as an outside advisor to explore new strategic opportunities for growth. This was believed to include a possible sale to an outside firm, but by August 2022, Bloomberg announced that BMI had ditched its exploration of such a sale. A few days later, Billboard found that the PRO laid off about 30 staffers from its workforce, citing “uncertain” economic conditions.
By October 2022, BMI announced that it would be switching from its 80-plus year status as a non-profit organization to a for-profit company. In an interview with Billboard at the time, the company’s CEO and president, Mike O’Neill, explained that the company made this switch because “growth requires investment, not just maintenance… This new [commercial] model will grow at a faster rate.”
This summer, reports surfaced that BMI was once again considering a sale. O’Neill explained to his staff in a memo that the company’s new for-profit model and recent investments into improving its operations “has only intensified outside interest” in purchasing the PRO.
Amid growing concern about the future of BMI, songwriter groups — including Songwriters of North America, Black Music Artists Coalition, Music Artists Coalition, Artists Rights Alliance, and SAG-AFTRA — provided Billboard with an open letter to BMI on Aug. 18. Outlining three areas of concern, the songwriter groups question how they will be impacted by BMI’s increased profits; the proceeds from any potential BMI sale; and what may happen operationally at BMI in the event that the organization is sold. “Songwriters have a right to understand these decisions and how it impacts us,” the letter read.
Days after, Billboard reported that multiple sources say BMI is considering an offer to sell to New Mountain Capital, a private equity firm that has been quietly shopping for music assets over the last few years, according to sources. The deal has yet to be signed, as New Mountain Capital has entered an exclusive window to scrutinize the deal. Sources suggest that the deal, if it takes place, will be worth around $1.7 billion.
In response to that exclusive, the same songwriter groups provided Billboard with another open letter to BMI on Aug. 28, expressing that they were “extremely disappointed and upset” to hear the news of a possible sale. The coalition asked for BMI’s chief executive to respond to songwriters with more information “prior to taking any other action” towards the possible sale to New Mountain.
Of his previous trips to Africa, Larry Jackson says simply, “[They have been] tattooed on my heart.” Now, with his latest venture, he’s looking to put his own stamp on the continent.
Gamma, Jackson’s recently launched media company, announced in May that it was expanding operations into Africa and the Middle East with Sipho Dlamini and Naomi Campbell onboard as president and special advisor for Africa and the Middle East, respectively. And this month, the company named Larry Gaaga vp/GM for Africa and Dany Neville as vp of A&R for the Middle East. One of Gaaga’s primary focuses will be spearheading initiatives to develop local talent, and he’s already begun discussions with Dlamini and Campbell on how they’ll discover and develop more African female artists. In his role, Neville will be identifying and nurturing Middle Eastern talent.
The move into both regions comes at an opportune time. According to the 2023 IFPI Global Music Report, Sub-Saharan Africa became the fastest-growing region in the world last year, with a 34.7% increase in revenue largely driven by South Africa’s booming market, where sales were up by 31.4%. Meanwhile, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), 2021’s fastest-growing region, experienced a 23.8% increase in revenue driven almost entirely by streaming, which has a 95.5% share of the region’s recorded music market — the highest of any in the world.
Gamma is joining a long list of Western music companies to have set up shop in both territories over the last few years. UMG Nigeria and Sony Music Entertainment West Africa have both established offices in Lagos, Nigeria. In 2020, EMPIRE signed a distribution and publishing deal with Olamide’s independent label YBNL Nation, leading to the launch of EMPIRE Africa in Lagos two years later. Elsewhere on the continent, Warner Music Africa is based out of Johannesburg, South Africa, where Universal Music Africa also established one of two regional headquarters (the other is in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire). UMG has also been making inroads in the MENA region, from Republic Records partnering with Wassim “Sal” Slaiby to launch Universal Arabic Music to becoming the first major music company to open operations in Casablanca, Morocco. Universal Music MENA and Sony Music Middle East have headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, while Warner Music Middle East is based out of Beirut.
Gamma will have staff in Johannesburg, Lagos and Dubai, with plans for a physical office in Lagos. Dlamini will be based in Lagos and Dubai while frequently traveling to South Africa, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the markets; Campbell will also be frequently present in both regions, says a company spokesperson. On the African continent, Gaaga will help guide teams in Johannesburg and Lagos (where he’ll be based). And in the Middle East, Neville will be stationed in Dubai, where he’s established himself as one of the UAE’s groundbreaking on-air radio personalities/DJs.
The company has already gained a foothold in Africa thanks to its acquisition of music distribution service Vydia in December. Vydia’s founder/gamma chief technology and product officer Roy LaManna says that since Vydia launched on the continent in 2017, it’s become the company’s second-largest territory in the world thanks to partnerships with local record labels like Mr. Eazi’s emPawa Africa and Don Jazzy’s Mavin Records — which gamma is now using to further expand there. In April, gamma exclusively distributed and marketed a re-release of Mavin artist Rema’s Rave & Roses debut album in African territories, marking the company’s first regional move. The album includes Rema’s latest smash “Calm Down” with Selena Gomez, which has amassed 7.52 billion total on-demand streams globally, including user-generated content (UGC does not count toward Billboard’s charts). Vydia says the single has garnered 482 million streams across the African continent, while Rave & Roses has amassed more than 580 million streams across all tracks.
By owning Vydia, gamma will be able to support African artists in building careers in their home countries and beyond by offering technology and data that “can identify where tracks and artists are performing and then support and elevate them into a better space,” says Dlamini, while also offering staff on the ground where they are.
Dlamini has an impressive track record. For 24 years, he has been a music industry leader in Africa, including the seven years he spent at UMG, first as MD and then as CEO, along with a four-year stint at the Southern African Music Rights Organization (SAMRO), where he was eventually promoted to CEO. Prior, Dlamini was vp of operations at CSM Sport & Entertainment in Dubai, where he oversaw the largest concerts and music festivals in the region. In his previous role as MD of Universal Music South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, he launched Def Jam Africa — where he hired Gaaga as vp of A&R last year — with headquarters in Lagos and Johannesburg.
Jackson says he “had always admired” Dlamini’s hustle as CEO of Universal Music South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. “[He] built them into the No. 1 market share of any company in music in Africa,” he says. When the two eventually met through a mutual friend, music industry veteran Marc Byers, he continues, “I knew that I wanted to work together.”
While Campbell may not be known for her music industry experience — which has been limited to music video cameos and one studio album — she has long been a champion of developing opportunities in both Africa and the Middle East. She’s founded several charitable organizations benefiting emerging markets, including Fashion for Relief, which helps develop fashion, technology, business, entertainment and arts industries around the world, as well as the Emerge Initiative, which supports the next generation of creatives and entrepreneurs through apprenticeships, after-school programs and more.
“Naomi is truly one of the most powerful and impressive dignitaries in the world,” says Jackson. “She’s really rising to the challenge of being an executive and really has foresight, energy, ambition, ideas, influence – all of it.” Before gamma, Campbell helped him sort out “some work visa issues” when he traveled to South Africa with Drake in 2016 (during his stint as global creative director at Apple Music) by tapping her contacts within the country’s government as well as with Nelson Mandela’s family. Since then, she has introduced him to some of the most notable figures in Africa and the Middle East, from Afrobeats superstars Wizkid and Burna Boy to the Saudi Arabian minister of culture, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al Saud.
“I’m proud that a brother, a man of color and culture, is taking the reins and starting his own company,” says Campbell. “When he offered me this gig, I said yes because it’s a challenge for me. Yes, it’s not my day job, but at the end of the day, it’s about if you care. And I care, as everyone knows, about the continent and all the emerging markets.” Campbell also signed a podcast deal with gamma, according to Jackson, with the show expected to launch later this year.
For all of their promise, the African and Middle Eastern music markets come with significant hurdles. Chief among them is the issue of low streaming service subscribers in Africa, which Jackson is currently focused on finding solutions for.
“Streaming services in one of the biggest [African] territories, if not the biggest territory, Nigeria, have very low subscriber growth and very low subscribers in general,” says Jackson, adding that he’s already been speaking with his former Apple colleague Oliver Schusser about solving what he calls the biggest issue limiting that growth: payment.
While “the value of music and people’s willingness to pay for music” on the continent “is a lot less than in other territories,” Jackson admits, part of the payment issue stems from the fact that more people in Africa are likely to own a mobile phone than a bank account — which is why streaming services have been relying on telecommunications deals to significantly grow their subscriber bases. Through partnerships with local wireless providers in key markets — Vodacam in Tanzania, Airtel in Nigeria and MTN in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa — Africa-focused streaming service Mdundo can bypass the issue of low penetration of payment cards in Africa and reach 185 million wireless subscribers, according to the company’s June 2023 guidance report. Other streamers have developed alternative payment methods, such as M-Pesa, which transforms a user’s SIM card and phone into a virtual banking system. Spotify allowed users in Kenya to pay using M-Pesa when the company began operating in the country two years ago.
While Jackson certainly sees the value in streamers making telco deals in Africa, he believes more can be done to convert music fans into streaming subscribers by, for example, making exclusive deals with artists — a strategy he successfully implemented during his previous gig. “Nothing has more relevance than Drake’s album being exclusive on Apple,” he says. “You can debate that all day, [but] there’s no carrier deal that’s going to bring you that level of audience. Bringing the artists and the culture and the community together with the streaming services I think is a missing part that hasn’t been done.”
Sony Music Nashville artist Nate Smith, who earned a No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hit with “Whiskey on You” early this year, signed with The Neal Agency for booking representation. He is also represented by The Core Entertainment for artist management. The Neal Agency’s roster also includes Morgan Wallen, Bailey Zimmerman, HARDY, Ernest, Chase Rice, Anne Wilson, Ella Langley and Jake Worthington, as well as lifestyle brands Whiskey Jam and Stevenson Ranch. – Jessica Nicholson
Genre-agnostic singer-songwriter Atlus signed with UTA for global booking representation. The Denver native is preparing to hit the road on his nine-stop High Expectations tour and will release his latest single, “Tom Petty,” on Friday (Aug. 1). He’s represented by Brett Saliba and Mackenzie Coberley at UTA.
Warner Music China signed Chinese R&B artist Elva Hsiao. The label will work to strengthen Hsiao’s domestic following while using its international network to boost her fanbase throughout Asia and the rest of the globe. According to a press release, Hsiao was the first native Mandarin-speaking artist to release an R&B album into the Chinese market and is one of the country’s biggest-selling artists.
The Familie signed singer-songwriter sombr (born Shane Boose) to its roster. Sombr signed with Warner Records earlier this year and will be releasing an EP in September. He’s best known for the track “Caroline,” which was propelled by TikTok where he boasts over 258,000 followers and 8.7 million likes.
Artist-songwriter-producer JHart (a.k.a. James Abrahart) partnered with United Masters for the distribution of his upcoming D’Mile-produced EP, The Wishing, The Wanting, The Longing, which is slated for release on Oct. 27. As a songwriter, he has co-written songs for artists including Justin Bieber, Jason Derulo, Rita Ora and Little Mix. He is managed by Lucas Keller, Danny Herrle and Nic Warner at Milk & Honey Music + Sports.
Songwriter-executive producer-vocalist Trey Campbell signed a worldwide management deal with SILO: Music. The Grammy-nominated Campbell has collaborated with artists including Kim Petras, Giveon, Ellie Goulding, Ariana Grande, Lola Young and John Legend. He was brought to the company by SILO: Music director of A&R, management/publishing Jessica Thomas.
Cincinnati-based singer-songwriter Nolan Taylor (“68”) signed with Atlantic Records, which released his latest single, “Wicked Ways,” on Friday (Aug. 25). He’s represented by Kanan Vitolo at WME for booking and managed by Julian Wilkey at Unlikely MGMT.
Chicago band Friko — comprised of Niko Kapetan (vocals/guitar) and Bailey Minzenberger (drums) — signed with ATO Records. The label re-released a new 7-inch vinyl of the band’s “Crimson to Chrome,” limited to 500 copies worldwide, and will put out its debut album early next year. Friko is represented by manager Dawn White and booking agent Erik Selz at Arrival Artists.
LONDON — Located around 65 miles outside London, Bicester in leafy Oxfordshire is far removed from the bustling world of rock and roll. Despite its lack of star power, the historic market town is nevertheless set to play a key role in the British record industry as home to the United Kingdom’s biggest distribution warehouse for physical music and home entertainment.
Due to begin trading today (Aug. 29), the new 25,000-square meter facility is being opened by Swiss-based Utopia Music as part of a £100 million ($125 million) long-term deal with international logistics company DP World. With handling capacity of up to 250,000 units per day, operators say the state-of-the-art warehouse will distribute over 30 million CDs, vinyl records and Blu-ray discs a year across the United Kingdom and export markets on behalf of clients, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and [PIAS].
For Utopia Music, the opening of the Bicester site provides a much-needed boost after a troubled 12 months that has seen the company undergo multiple rounds of job cuts, executive departures, office closures, legal action over a stalled acquisition deal and the offloading of three of its businesses — Absolute Label Services, U.S.-based music database platform ROSTR and U.K.-based publisher Sentric.
For the wider music industry, the new warehouse facility acts as further proof of the continued demand for physical music formats, driven by the ongoing vinyl boom.
Last year, vinyl sales climbed 2.9% to 5.5 million units in the United Kingdom, marking the 15th consecutive year of growth, according to labels trade body BPI. In contrast, CD sales fell 19% year-on-year to 11.6 million units in 2022, though the format still accounted for more than two-thirds (67%) of all physical music purchases. Total revenue from physical music sales stood at £280 million ($352 million) in the United Kingdom last year — down 3.8% versus 2021 but up £9 million ($11 million) on 2020’s total, according to trade organization the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA).
The latest year-to-date figures from BPI, meanwhile, show slight growth across the U.K. physical music market in 2023 compared to last year, while vinyl sales are up by around 15% versus the first 33 weeks of 2022 in volume terms. The trade body says that physical music revenues are on track to record double-digit percentage growth in 2023.
“A lot of people were too quick to write off physical and maybe now realize there is still a large and viable business here,” says Utopia Music vp of distribution Drew Hill on the eve of the new facility opening.
Fintech firm Utopia Music has owned a large stake in the U.K. physical music distribution business since January 2022, when it acquired Proper Music Group, the United Kingdom’s biggest independent physical music distributor, for an undisclosed sum. Eight months later, Utopia bought up the assets of Cinram Novum — which provides warehouse, fulfillment and distribution services to music labels and home entertainment companies — and renamed it Utopia Distribution Services (UDS).
Drew Hill
Utopia Music
Over the summer, stock has been transported from UDS’ previous warehouse in Aylesbury to the new Bicester site, which will handle 70% of all U.K. physical music sales, as well as 35% of domestic physical video (DVD and Blu-ray discs) sales each year, according to Utopia. Proper Music Group, which trades as a standalone entity within the Utopia group and provides distribution to over 5,000 indie labels and service companies, will continue to operate from its existing warehouse in Dartford.
Hill says the multi-million-pound investment that UDS is making in physical music will help ensure the survival of CD and vinyl formats for future generations. “Lots of other distributors have either gone to the wall or they have been massively underfunded. The physical music business is still a quarter of a billion-pound industry, and it really needed someone to come in and upgrade the infrastructure to be able to support that,” he says.
Utopia Music co-founder and interim CEO Mattias Hjelmstedt says the Bicester facility “marks a new beginning for the U.K.’s physical distribution market.”
The continuing shift away from physical formats toward streaming does, however, present considerable challenges to any company operating in the physical market. In 2022, Proper Music Group recorded revenue of £30.1 million ($38 million) for the nine-month period ending Dec. 31, down from £42 million ($53 million) in the prior 12-month accounting period, according to its latest financial records. The company says lower sales and increased operating costs were behind the £1.9 million ($2.4 million) net loss it posted last year.
In response to inflationary pressures, Proper raised its prices for the first time in over 15 years in late 2022, with UDS also increasing prices on what Cinram Novum was previously charging clients. Hill declines to reveal how much prices have increased but is confident that the measures taken will help Proper return to profitability in 2024, while the new Bicester facility will enable UDS to grow its client base through increased capacity and a greater focus on direct-to-consumer sales.
By tapping into DP World’s global network, which spans 75 countries on six continents, UDS will also be looking to grow physical music exports outside the United Kingdom. It also, says Hill, has long-term plans to replicate its centralized distribution model overseas, possibly in North America or Europe.
Commenting on Utopia’s well-publicized recent difficulties, Hill says support from the Swiss-based tech firm has been “unwavering” and both Proper and UDS have been “ring-fenced” from the cuts Utopia has implemented elsewhere over the past year.
“[CEO] Mattias [Hjelmstedt] has talked internally about how physical distribution is the engine room of Utopia. We provide a funnel through which it can present and sell its other products and services,” says Hill, who has worked for Proper for more than 15 years.
Hill adds that he has no concerns about the financial stability of Utopia and points to the growing popularity of vinyl, deluxe boxsets and special edition releases among music fans as a thriving growth area for the physical music business.
“Over time, maybe we will start to shift fewer units, but they will be units of higher value,” he says. “As long as you create a beautiful package with valuable content in it, people will always want to buy it.”
A coalition of songwriter and artist groups have expressed that they are “extremely disappointed and upset” with BMI in a letter to the firm’s CEO and president Mike O’Neill. Obtained by Billboard, the letter is written in response to last week’s news that the performing rights organization may sell to private equity firm New Mountain Capital for around $1.7 billion, according to multiple sources.
Consisting of Songwriters of North America (SONA), Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), Music Artists Coalition, Artist Rights Alliance, and SAG AFTRA, the coalition’s new letter asks O’Neill for “real, substantive answers” to questions they posed to the company leader in a previous letter from Aug. 18, citing that O’Neill’s original response did “not answer any of [their] questions.”
The Aug. 18 letter addressed three major concerns: BMI’s profits; the proceeds from any potential BMI sale; and what may happen operationally at BMI in the event that the organization is sold.
Five days later, on Aug. 23, Billboard reported that BMI was, in fact, in the process of selling. Spurred by that report, the coalition wrote their second letter to O’Neill, asking for the executive to respond to songwriters “prior to taking any other action” towards its possible sale. “If you do not want to provide us with written answers, we are happy to meet with you as a group,” it says.
They also call out BMI for responding to their last request by saying that there was an uplift in BMI’s distributions last year. “Of course distributions went up — all PROs’ revenue went up,” the new letter reads. “This does not answer any of our questions. And it does not explain where the $145m EBITDA (as reported by Billboard today) came from and why that money was not distributed to songwriters.”
A representative for BMI replied to the letter in a statement to Billboard a few hours after its receipt, saying, “Relying on the past has never sustained a business for the future. Our goal is to stay ahead of the changing industry and invest in our business to grow the value of our affiliates’ music. Any path forward would prioritize the best interests of our songwriters, composers and publishers, including their financial success. Our focus is on delivering for our affiliates.”
BMI’s changing business model has been the source of concern and confusion within the music industry since March 2022. At that time, it was reported that the performing rights organization had hired Goldman Sachs as an outside advisor to explore new strategic opportunities for growth. As a non-profit organization since its inception over 80 years prior, the Goldman Sachs news signaled a major shift for BMI and was rumored to include a possible sale to an outside firm. In August 2022, however, Bloomberg announced that BMI had ditched its exploration of such a sale. A few days later, Billboard reported that the PRO laid off “just under 10%” of its workforce, about 30 people, in order to approve “efficiency” during “uncertain economic times,” said O’Neill in a company-wide email.
Last October, BMI announced that it would be switching from its non-profit status to become a for-profit company. O’Neill explained to Billboard that the company made this switch because “growth requires investment, not just maintenance… This new [commercial] model will grow at a faster rate.” Given the fast-shifting performance royalty landscape, moving from in-person to mainly digital collections, BMI appeared to want to invest more in modernizing its operations with its new model.
This summer, BMI resurfaced the potential of selling to an outside firm. In a memo to staff in late July, O’Neill said that the company has been increasingly interested in a sale over the last year. He added that by leveraging the company’s new for-profit model and recent investments made into BMI to improve its operations, BMI “has only intensified outside interest.”
Read the songwriter groups’ full letter here:
Mr. Mike O’NeillBroadcast Music, Inc.
Re: BMI
Dear Mike:
We were extremely disappointed and upset to read the announcement of BMI’s sale to New Mountain Capitol.
Songwriters have real questions and deserve real answers before any further action is taken. While we appreciated you responding to our letter, all of our questions went unanswered.
Your response was that distributions went up last year. Of course distributions went up – all PROs’ revenue went up. This does not answer any of our questions. And, it does not explain where the $145m EBITDA (as reported by Billboard today) came from and why that money was not distributed to songwriters.
We understand that a deal has been agreed, but has not closed. Prior to taking any other action, we are giving you another opportunity to provide songwriters with real, substantive answers to the questions we posed.
If you do not want to provide us with written answers, we are happy to meet with you as a group.
Sincerely,
Black Music Action CoalitionMusic Artists CoalitionSongwriters of North AmericaSAG-AFTRAArtist Rights Alliance
Eminem is demanding that Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy stop using “Lose Yourself” on campaign stops — and he’s invoking the unique rules of BMI’s special “political entities” license to do so.
In a letter obtained by Billboard, BMI formally asked Ramaswamy’s campaign last week to stop using Eminem’s music, less than two weeks after the candidate was captured in a viral video rapping the lyrics to the smash hit song at an event in Iowa.
The letter alerted the campaign that Eminem had invoked his rights under BMI’s Political Entities License, which allows an artist to immediately withdraw their music from the more than 20 million songs made available to political campaigns under the blanket license.
“This letter serves as notice that the Eminem Works are excluded from the Agreement effective immediately,” the group wrote in the letter. “BMI will consider any performance of the Eminem Works by the Vivek 2024 campaign from this date forward to be a material breach of the agreement for which BMI reserves all rights and remedies.”
A spokesman for the Ramaswamy campaign could not immediately be reached for comment.
Top artists have long chafed at the use of their music by politicians, particularly conservatives. Foo Fighters and John Mellencamp blasted John McCain for using their music during the 2008 presidential election, while Neil Young, Guns N’ Roses, Pharrell, Rihanna and the estate of Tom Petty have all spoken out about their music being used at campaign events for Donald Trump.
Like any other group hosting large public gatherings, political campaigns pay ASCAP and BMI for blanket licenses to publicly perform copyrighted music — meaning candidates have automatic access to songs without ever directly contacting the musicians themselves. But, owing to repeated backlash, both ASCAP and BMI now offer special licenses for political entities, which allow artists to exclude individual songs from a particular campaign’s blanket deal.
It was this provision that was invoked by Eminem, according to BMI’s letter: “BMI has received a communication from Marshall B. Mathers, III, professionally known as Eminem, objecting to the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign’s use of Eminem’s musical compositions and requesting that BMI remove all Eminem Works from the Agreement.”
In the past, there had been some confusion about whether the existing ASCAP and BMI licenses held by venues themselves — hotels, convention centers, event spaces and so on — gave campaigns some legal cover to keep using disputed songs even after they had been withdrawn. Back in 2018, Axl Rose claimed that the Trump campaign was doing exactly that when it came to Guns N’ Roses songs.
“Unfortunately, the Trump campaign is using loopholes in the various venues’ blanket performance licenses, which were not intended for such craven political purposes without the songwriters’ consent,” Rose wrote in a tweet at the time.
But BMI’s rules now expressly avoid that problem, warning licensees that “a venue license does not cover events and functions hosted by political campaigns and organizations held at venues.”
“Political campaigns must obtain a BMI Political Entities License to authorize to use of the musical works, whether at a traditional location such as a hotel or convention center, or at a nontraditional location such as airport hangars or community fields, where political events take place,” BMI states on its website.
Entertainment consulting company Venue Coalition has hired veteran entertainment executive Steve Kirsner as vp of booking. In his new role, Kirsner will focus on servicing the company’s 150+ member venues across North America, assisting them with national and regional booking as well as doing advocacy work for the national touring industry. The addition of Kirsner […]
Demi Lovato has made the move to CAA. The Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and actress, who was most recently with UTA, is now represented in all areas worldwide by CAA.
Lovato rose to fame as a Disney star in roles on Camp Rock and Sonny with a Chance. The artist released her first album Don’t Forget in 2008, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and has since received two Grammy nominations, four Billboard Music Awards nominations and three Brit Award nominations for her work. All seven of Lovato’s studio albums have appeared on the Billboard 200 chart and reached the top 10.
Lovato has accumulated 36 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including four top 10 titles: “This Is Me,” with Joe Jonas (No. 9 in 2008); “Skyscraper” (No. 10 in 2011); “Heart Attack” (No. 10 in 2013); and “Sorry Not Sorry” (No. 6 in 2017). Eight of her singles have been top 10 hits on the Pop Airplay chart, from 18 overall chart titles. Two singles, 2012’s “Give Your Heart a Break” and 2017’s “Sorry Not Sorry,” reached No. 1 on that chart.
Throughout her career, Lovato has earned 9.7 million equivalent album units, sold 23.9 million song downloads and her songs have collectively registered 7.7 billion U.S. on-demand streams in the U.S., according to Luminate.
Next month, Lovato will release Revamped, featuring rock versions of the artist’s hit songs. With all new vocals and production, the 10-track album will allow Lovato to reimagine her career-defining songs with a fresh perspective that reflects her current artistic vision.
Lovato has also been celebrated for her deeply personal documentaries, 2017’s Simply Complicated and 2021’s Dancing with the Devil. She currently serves as Global Citizen’s official ambassador for mental health, with a special focus on vulnerable communities around the world and, in 2013, Lovato became a New York Times best-selling author with a book of affirmations titled Staying Stong: 365 Days a Year.
Lovato will next be seen on MTV’s Video Music Awards where she’s nominated for two awards and will perform.
Billboard recently reported that Lovato parted ways with manager Scooter Braun in July. Lovato signed with Braun and his SB Projects firm in 2019. She was previously managed by Phil McIntyre of PhilyMack. One source close to the situation told Billboard it was time for Lovato to go in a new direction, even though she was thankful for her time with SB Projects.
Lovato will continue to be represented by Rob Cohen at Carroll Guido Groffman Cohen Bar & Karalian and align Public Relations.
It’s not every day that you see a federal judge cite Biggie, Wu-Tang, Kanye, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Neil Young in a single ruling.
But that’s what Judge Martha Pacold did Friday, when she tossed out a copyright lawsuit claiming Future ripped off his 2018 song “When I Think About It” from an earlier track by a little-known Virginia rapper. The judge ruled the accuser was essentially trying to sue over basic lyrics that are ubiquitous in hip hop.
“The thematic elements that [the accusers] address—guns, money, and jewelry—are frequently present in hip-hop and rap music,” the judge wrote. “The commonality of these themes in hop-hop and rap place [them] outside the protections of copyright law.”
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To prove her point on each guns, money, and jewelry, Pacold actually pointed to specific sets of lyrics for each one: First to Notorious B.I.G.’s “Machine Gun Funk,” then to Wu-Tang Clan’s C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me), and finally to Kanye West’s “Diamonds From Sierra Leone.”
“Where elements of a work are indispensable, or at least standard, in the treatment of a given topic, they receive no protection,” the judge wrote.
Lawyers for DaQuan Robinson sued Future (real name Nayvadius Wilburn) in 2021, claiming “When I Think About It” infringed Robinson’s earlier song “When U Think About It.” They claimed he had emailed a draft of his song to Future’s producer a year before the infringing song was released.
But in Friday’s decision, Pacold ruled that it did not matter whether Future had copied Robinson’s song, because the material he allegedly borrowed – even if he did so — was not covered by copyrights in the first place: “None of the elements Robinson has identified in ‘When U Think About It’ is protectable.”
Future’s song features the lyric “when I think about it,” which the lawsuit claimed infringed Robinson’s use of the lyric “when you think about it.” But the judge ruled that such a short, simple phrase could not be monopolized by any one lyricist.
“It is a fragmentary expression that is commonplace in everyday speech and ubiquitous in popular music,” Pacold wrote. She cited an earlier decision by another court that dismissed a similar lawsuit against Kanye West over his allusion the “Nietzschean aphorism” about “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” in his 2007 hit “Stronger.”
Future’s song and Robinson’s song tell similar stories about overcoming adversity, the judge said, but this basic idea is “too common a narrative to be protectable.” Adding to her earlier musical references, she cited the plot F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to prove the point.
“A story about a person proving to those around him that he is better, despite a past full of hardships is general enough that it could also describe the plot of famous works of American literature,” Pacold wrote.
Even then, the judge wasn’t quite done making artistic references. To reject another one of Robinson’s claims — that Future had copied his use of a “core lyric” to help convey his song’s overall message — she cited Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and their seminal 1970 song “Our House.”
“The core lyric, ‘our house is a very, very, very fine house,’ is used to support the entire rest of the song, which uses the house and its constituent elements as the setting for the narrator’s relationship,” Pacold wrote. “This songwriting technique is not unique to Robinson, nor mid-century Canadian-American bands that feature intricate vocal harmonies. The mere use of a ‘core lyric’ to support a song’s storyline is not a protectable element because it is a frequently utilized technique in popular songwriting.”
The ruling can be appealed to a federal appeals court. Often, judges will allow accusers like Robinson to file an updated version of their case, but Pacold refused to do so: “Amendment would be futile because the relevant songs and their lyrics cannot change.”
Neither side immediately returned requests for comment on the ruling.