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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Authorities in Nevada confirmed Tuesday (July 18) that they served a search warrant this week in connection with the long-unsolved killing of rapper Tupac Shakur nearly 30 years ago.
Shakur, one of the most prolific figures in hip-hop, was killed on the night of Sept. 7, 1996, in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. He was 25.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the search warrant was executed Monday in the nearby city of Henderson.
Department spokesperson Aden OcampoGomez said he could not provide further details on the latest development in the case, including whether it was served at a home or a business, citing the open investigation.
Nevada does not have a statute of limitations for prosecuting homicide cases.
Tupac was gunned down inside a black vehicle stopped at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip. Shot multiple times, the rapper was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died a week later.
Largely considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time, the six-time Grammy-nominated Shakur has had five No. 1 albums: 1995’s Me Against the World, 1996’s All Eyez on Me and three posthumous releases: 1996’s The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, which was recorded under the name Makaveli, as well as 2001’s Until the End of Time and 2004’s Loyal to the Game.
In 2017, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Snoop Dogg. In June of this year, the rapper received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
His professional music career only lasted five years, but Tupac secured 21 Billboard Hot 100 hits, including two top 10s: “Dear Mama/Old School” in 1995 and his best-known track, 1996’s “How Do U Want It/California Love,” featuring K-Ci and JoJo. The latter spent two weeks at the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 from his final studio album and Death Row Records debut, All Eyez on Me.
According to Luminate, Tupac has sold 33 million albums (41 million when including track sale and streaming equivalents). The rapper’s on-demand video and audio streams total 10.1 billion.
He’s also had some museum exhibits that paid homage to his life including “Tupac Shakur. Wake Me When I’m Free,” which opened in 2021.
KOMI, a creator commerce tool used by Lizzo and Elton John, said on Tuesday (July 18) that it raised $12 million from a group of investors including venture capital firms RTP and Third Prime, as well as Sony Music and Live Nation. In addition to the $5 million in seed funding KOMI says it raised […]
Houston-based rapper KenTheMan (born Kentavia Miller) signed a label deal with Roc Nation, which released her latest single, “I Love a Freak,” on Friday (July 14), with an EP on the way. The rapper, known for tracks including “Not My N*gga” and “He Be Like,” is slated to perform at Rolling Loud Miami on Sunday (July 23).
YG Entertainment K-pop group TREASURE signed a label deal with Columbia Records in the United States. Columbia will release the group’s forthcoming album in partnership with YG.
Paris-based indie distributor IDOL signed a direct artist partnership with U.S. rapper-producer (and Flatbush Zombies founding member) Erick the Architect (“Death by Dishonor,” “Let It Go”). IDOL will handle global digital distribution and marketing for his debut solo album, to be released on his own label, Architect Recording Company; the first single, “Parkour” (produced by James Blake), dropped on July 11. He is managed by Quincy Jones Productions.
Virgin Music signed an agreement with Paul Rosenberg‘s Goliath Records for Rise of the Silverback, the upcoming album from battle rapper and social media personality Nems. The album will be preceded by the single “Drip.” Nems is represented by managers Busy Rivera and Mex Guevara, the latter of whom also serves as his booking agent.
New York-based nonprofit Daniel’s Music Foundation launched Just Call Me By My Name, a new record label focused on musicians with disabilities. Distributed by The Orchard, the label will release compilation albums coinciding with “key disability awareness dates.” The first EP, Just Call Me By My Name: Volume 1, will drop on Friday (July 21). It features five artists: singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist James Ian (who has spinal muscular atrophy type 3); singer-songwriter, piano player and mixer-arranger Devin Gutierrez (on the autism spectrum and with optic nerve hypoplasia, which causes blindness); 12-year-old opera singer Iolanta Mamatkazina (who is blind); rock and blues guitarist Jake Nielsen (who has cerebral palsy); and singer-songwriter/Daniel’s Music Foundation co-founder Daniel Trush and his songwriting partner Gerard Powers. Musicians on the label are sourced through the Danny Awards, an annual awards show produced by Daniel’s Music Foundation that recognizes musicians with disabilities.
Madrid-based artist Ralphie Choo signed to Warner Records, which will release his debut album, SUPERNOVA, in partnership with RUSIA IDK on September 15. The album is preceded by the single “MÁQUINA CULONA” featuring Mura Masa.
Republic Records China signed Mandarin pop star Hannah Rebecca Jin, who has been a recording artist in her native country for over 20 years and broke through in the late ’90s with albums including Wake Up Your Ears and So Proud. The signing marks a reunion between Jin and Tony Wen, the producer Jin worked with at the beginning of her career who now serves as MD of Republic Records China. Jin’s first single for the label is a reimagined version of her hit single, “So Proud.” She will next team up with Wen to co-produce an all-new original album for the label.
Big Noise Music Group signed 16-year-old rapper and pop-punk singer and content creator Gavin Magnus to a multi-album deal. Magnus previously signed with Columbia Records at age 12. His first release on Big Noise will be the single “PSYCHO.”
New Jersey-based band Nicotine Dolls, whose lead singer, Sam Cieri, previously appeared on America’s Got Talent, signed to Nettwerk. The label will release the band’s new single, “How Do You Love Me,” off its forthcoming EP. Nicotine Dolls is represented by manager JR Schumann and booking agents Winston Simone and Sara Schlievert at Paladin Artists.
Golden State Entertainment signed tiny deaths, a project from Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Claire de Lune, who was a founding member of all-women group The Chalice alongside Lizzo and Sophia Eris. Formed in 2022, Golden State Entertainment is an affiliate company of the Golden State Warriors that creates original content. In addition to her artist career, de Lune works as a sportswriter for The Guardian, where she is a regular NBA columnist. She was previously signed to Handwritten Records.
WME signed Seedphrase (born Daniel Maegaard), an artist, DJ, entrepreneur and early-stage crypto investor whose digital art collection includes some of the rarest NFTs in the world. He is slated to drop original music this year, in addition to various Web3 releases. Seedphrase is managed by Three Six Zero.
Vere Music and Brickhouse Entertainment signed pop singer-songwriter Mary-Clair, with Vere serving as her distributor and Brickhouse as her management. The first release under the deal is Mary-Clair’s debut single, “Heaven in the Way,” which was co-written by Tedd T.
Amazon Music elevated Ryan Redington to general manager on Tuesday (July 18). The announcement was made by Steve Boom, who joined Amazon’s senior leadership team in December, where he now oversees not just Amazon Music but Audible, Wondery, Amp, Twitch and Amazon Games.
Redington has “played a number of critical leadership roles in Amazon Music’s journey to becoming one of the leading global streaming services today,” Boom wrote to staff in an email. “… He’s earned trust with the industry across dozens of artist partnerships, finding new ways to scale their new releases through global concerts and festival livestreams. Amazon Music already pays rightsholders billions annually, and under Ryan’s leadership we will continue to build a foundation to help artists scale and monetize their fanbases in new ways.”
Redington is a 15-year veteran of Amazon, starting on the video team and then moving over to the physical sales side of the organization, focusing on CDs and vinyl. He subsequently shifted to digital and was part of the team that launched Amazon Music back in 2014.
In his wide-ranging current role, he oversees artist and genre marketing, label and artist relations, playlisting and programming, livestreams and editorial content, physical merchandise, and artist analytics.
Last year, Amazon Music Unlimited raised its price for Prime subscribers and expanded its ad-free offering for Prime members from 2 million songs to more than 100 million songs. Prime members can only listen to all that music on shuffle, unless they upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited.
“We need to think about a streaming service as not just being a catalog of recorded music, but being a host of services that connect artists and fans together,” Boom told The Verge in November. “… When you get into areas like merch, there are unlimited amounts that people are willing to spend to connect with their favorite artist and to represent their fandom. Obviously, Amazon has a position as a pretty big global retailer that is good at e-commerce and logistics, and it is a brand that people really trust as a place to spend money. I think that sets us up really well for the future.”
In January, Amazon announced that it was upping prices again for U.S. and U.K. subscribers. Amazon Music Unlimited went from $9.99 to $10.99 for individual subscribers in the U.S. and increased from $4.99 to $5.99 for subscribers to the student plan.
Warner Music Group and TikTok struck a multi-year licensing deal allowing creators on the short-form video app to use WMG music on Tuesday, marking the first publicly announced deal between a major music company since the popular social media platform since licensing renegotiations began about 18 months ago.
The companies said in a joint statement that the multi-platform agreement licenses the full repertoire of Warner Recorded Music and Warner Chappell Music to TikTok, TikTok Music, CapCut, and TikTok’s Commercial Music Library.
It is the first sizeable deal struck since WMG’s Chief Executive Officer Robert Kyncl took over in January, and it marks the cooling of what has at times been tough negotiations between TikTok and the music industry establishment.
Kyncl and TikTok’s chief execurtive Shou Chew said the agreement would benefit artists.
“We are very excited to partner with Warner Music Group to create a shared vision for the future in which artists, songwriters, music fans and the industry can all benefit from the power of discovery on TikTok platforms,” Chew said.
While terms of the deal were not disclosed, Kyncl described the deal as an “expanded and significantly improved partnership for both companies. We can jointly deliver greater value to WMG’s artists and songwriters and TikTok’s users.”
TikTok has been engaged in ongoing negotiations for roughly the last year over remuneration to the 100-plus rights holders through whom it must license music played on its app. Billboard reported that TikTok had struck short-term licensing deals in 2020 with most major music companies–shorter than the 18-24-month licenses common between the music and tech industries–to use 30-second clips of songs.
But negotiations to reach more permanent agreements had been fraught, with the music industry pushing for greater incentives for rights holders and TikTok exploring what music was really worth on its platform.
Kyncl’s WMG being the first to announce it struck an agreement with TikTok comes after he signaled a friendlier tone during comments he made at a banking conference in March. Kyncl expressed empathy for executives at TikTok at the Morgan Stanley conference, who he said are at “a company that’s kind of embattled today with lots of different institutions around the world.”
“That’s all I look for, fair setup on both sides and to grow a business together,” Kyncl said in March.
A whole generation of live music fans is being trained to expect the worst when it comes to purchasing tickets for concerts, according to National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) president Dayna Frank.
“It’s imperative to the future of live music, especially for the emerging class and the emerging artists, to be able to make buying a ticket and going to a show at even club level venues easy and simple,” Frank said at the NIVA ’23 conference in Washington, D.C. “It’s devastating what we’ve trained young people to expect when they go buy a ticket: how hard it is, you’ve got to be online at a certain time, you might not get it, you might pay $85 when there are $25 tickets available.”
Frank was speaking on the panel “Fix The Tix: How We Stop Predatory Ticketing Practices from Harming Fans and Artists,” which was held at The Anthem on July 10. Appearing alongside her was Lyte CEO Ant Taylor, who agreed with Frank’s assessment of the bleak ticket-buying process for music fans in 2023.
“The thing that we forget about or that we frequently don’t talk about is that on the other side of all this bulls— is the fan,” said Taylor. “How many fans aren’t even coming to an onsale anymore because they’ve given up because of all the points of friction?”
Since concerts restarted following COVID-19 lockdowns, obtaining tickets for high-profile artists like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé has become a game of uncertainty and chance due to factors including bots, unscrupulous brokers and high demand from fans who have waited years to see their favorite artists. And while neither of those superstars will have their livelihoods affected by ticketing issues, smaller artists, venues and promoters in the live music ecosystem can be severely impacted, particularly by brokers who scoop up tickets and place them on the secondary market at markedly higher prices. Because fewer fans are willing to buy tickets at those higher prices, post-pandemic “no-show” rates — or the percentage of people who buy tickets but don’t attend a show — have remained frustratingly high.
“I don’t know how many folks are tracking how many of their tickets are on the secondary markets the day of the show, but we’ll easily see 20-30 tickets just sitting there, unsold,” said Frank, who also owns famed independent venue First Avenue in Minneapolis.
Frank stated that a common no-show rate was around 7% prior to the pandemic. Now, even though no-shows have gone down from their pandemic high, independent venues are continuing to see rates of 12-15% regularly. That means fewer bar and merch sales, which can often be the revenue that makes or breaks a show for small artists and venues.
The current state of concert ticketing in the United States was a major concern for attendees of the second annual conference that hosted independent venues, promoters, agents and ticketers from July 9-12 in the nation’s capital. The “Fix the Tix” panel focused on issues facing the ticketing industry and possible solutions – many of which can be found in the Fix the Tix Act NIVA is lobbying for the federal government to pass. The legislation would ban the sale of speculative tickets (tickets that brokers don’t have in their possession) and the use of bots, as well as require up front pricing and caps on resale prices while providing funds for enforcement.
“The Fix the Tix proposal says that promoters and artists should be able to put terms and conditions on the tickets as they transfer hands,” said Frank, who added that brokers have been lobbying the federal government to make non-transferable tickets illegal for well over a decade. The brokers’ argument, according to Frank, is that they own a ticket and have the right to do anything they want with it — but live music professionals believe the ticket is actually a license, she says.
“That ticket can change hands 25 times, but ultimately the product is the show that we’re responsible for,” Frank continued. “As the people responsible for the product, we should be able to have terms and conditions on this license…Our product involves people coming into our houses which we are legally responsible for. We have to have oversight of how those tickets are transferred.”
Fellow panelist Frank Riley of High Road Touring agreed. “The only way to put this genie back in the bottle is to regain control of who’s in charge of the ticket, and that’s been the artist and the promoter,” said Riley. “Any other solution that’s out there will not work.”
Riley said that putting a cap on how much a ticket can be resold for would be a major hit to brokers on the secondary market. “If you eliminate the profit motive out of the secondary market [as we know it], it will disappear,” he said.
As NIVA, the National Independent Talent Organization, Universal Music Group and many other music industry entities who have signed on to the Fix the Tix legislation are fighting for federal regulation over ticketing, University of Chicago Booth School of Business professor of economics and entrepreneurship Eric Budish suggested that transparency about where the funds go could bolster those efforts.
“Congress or somebody else should figure out who made how much money on the Taylor Swift tour. Taylor Swift made a lot of money and good for her,” Budish said. “But if a ticket got resold for $2,000, there’s 35% fees on that, give or take, so the resale platform probably made more on that ticket than Taylor Swift did. The broker made more money on that ticket than Taylor Swift did. The search engines made a bunch of money in aggregate on those tickets. I’d love to see that money added up. I think that could be really persuasive to a large number of consumers.”
Another approach to tackling the issue came from panelist Neeta Ragoowansi, executive director of Folk Alliance International and president of Music Managers Forum in the United States. Ragoowansi explained that selling fake tickets or listing tickets that a seller does not actually own constitutes copyright infringement, since the seller is using the name of an artist and/or venue to sell an item without permission. She suggested taking legal action against brokers or search engines who are allowing them to operate these illegal practices, similar to how the National Music Publishers’ Association filed suit against Twitter for copyright infringement over its failure to license music.
Naming NIVA, NITO, Music Managers Forum and the Recording Academy, Ragoowansi said, “There’s a variety of interested parties that have members who have standing to file suit there. File suit on mass, class action or even just 15-20 parties who have a variety of causes of action.”
A class action against the brokers or search engines could make substantial headlines, says Ragoowansi, adding it would “allow for the parties to come to the table and start talking about settlement and creating a precedent so that others don’t come in.”
“There is a myth that at the SACEM restaurant, there are people serving food with white gloves and an orchestra playing,” the organization’s CEO, Cécile Rap-Veber, says with a hint of amusement in her voice. “It is a good story, but it is not true.”
Rap-Veber, who joined SACEM in 2013 and got the top job in 2021, is referring to what she calls its “old-fashioned” reputation. SACEM, which stands for Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Éditeurs de Musique, was founded in 1851 after composers Ernest Bourget, Victor Parizot and Paul Henrion refused to pay their bill at the Paris cafe Les Ambassadeurs until they got paid for the use of their compositions there. It became the first music collecting society, as well as the model for those that followed, and over the years, it grew into something of a French cultural institution: important, successful and perhaps overly aware of it.
Rap-Veber is not running your père’s SACEM, however. As a result of European Union (EU) legislation, collective management organizations (CMOs) in Europe now compete to represent and license online rights throughout the continent (and in some other countries) on behalf of songwriters and publishers. “We are now a global society,” she says.
SACEM still licenses public performance rights in France, but it now competes with other societies, most significantly ICE — a licensing hub owned and operated by the U.K. CMO PRS, the German GEMA and the Swedish STIM — to license works to online services in many international markets. (The United States is not one of them, but SACEM represents online rights in many markets for ASCAP and Universal Music Publishing Group, among others.)
Rap-Veber has pursued a “SACEM 3.0” strategy that she describes as “maximizing rates and minimizing costs,” plus offering new services like URights, which can track the use of music internationally, and MusicStart, which lets creators register their works on a blockchain-based system.
A statuette celebrating the diamond certification of the soundtrack to the 2006 movie musical Le Soldat Rose.
Matthew Avignone
These strategies appear to be working. In June, SACEM announced that 2022 was its best year ever. CMOs across Europe are benefiting from the return of live music and growth in streaming. But SACEM grew more than its peers — its collections increased 31% in 2022 to 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion). Even as growth boosts the entire sector, “I have to prove that we deliver the best services at the best cost,” she says. “And honestly, I think we can prove that.”
Congratulations on setting a record for SACEM.
It might be a worldwide record as well. And there is nearly 300 million euros [$328.8 million] more on top of it. In France, we collect neighboring rights [royalties for sound recordings] and private-copy levies [on blank media, which are distributed among rights holders in various businesses] for all the culture industries. So if I talk about the performance of our team, it’s not 1.4 billion euros — it’s 1.7 billion euros [$1.9 billion]. And when I look at the first quarter of 2023, that’s also very good.
Why so good?
In the first quarter of 2022, France still had some COVID-19 restrictions, and then the summer and the rest of the year were great. We also have new agreements — with Hipgnosis, with [Hungarian CMO] Artisjus to collect online, and with ASCAP — plus renewed agreements with better rates, especially for online. And now we collect [for online uses] in more than 150 countries directly.
You talk about running SACEM like a business. Is that a reflection of the competition among the various societies?
There was a time when there was a kind of monopoly in each country. There was no consciousness of the cost because there was no competition. Then the European Commission said any rights holder can withdraw his rights for online uses, and suddenly we were in competition. And we have the highest tariffs in the world.
Rap-Veber’s husband made this painting from a photo he took at a private 2007 Amy Winehouse concert booked by former Universal managing director Valery Zeiton.
Matthew Avignone
How do they compare with U.S. royalties under the new Copyright Royalty Board settlement?
They have reached 15.1%, and it will rise. We already had 15% when Apple Music released its service in 2015. And it’s not just the rate — it’s the minimum per subscriber. Ours is higher since it’s independent of discounts. When you see our effective net rate, it’s above 15%. I’m sure it’s easier for us than for a small Eastern European society: It’s the strength of your repertoire, and it’s unbelievable the repertoire we represent.
What’s your reaction to claims that streaming payouts are less fair for songwriters and publishers than recorded-music rights holders?
The highest tariff we had on CDs was 9% of the gross price. Then iTunes forced the community to agree on 8% on each download. Now we’re above 15%. Digital has become our biggest source of revenue. I think the main issue is that [the revenue is] going to very few people. There are people, especially in urban music, who are very happy.
CMOs are coming under pressure from some of the big publishers and platforms, both of which would rather strike direct deals than go through organizations like SACEM.
To go direct with one publisher? What does that mean? We represent [the publisher-led mechanical rights organization] IMPEL, [Canadian rights organization] SOCAN, Artisjus, ASCAP and Universal Music Publishing [among others], so we mutualize our cost [of operations] and we decreased our commission on digital for our members to 9%. That’s what I’m most proud of in the last [few] years. I want to use technology to process more at a lower cost. I think it’s the wrong way to think to go direct: It’s one thing for the majors, but what about the others?
You got the top job at SACEM in an interesting way. The tradition at CMOs is that the chief executive retires with a gold watch, but you basically replaced Jean-Noël Tronc as CEO in 2021.
Jean-Noël had been here for 10 years, and I was about to quit because — honestly, I had a job opportunity, OK? So I left SACEM, and Jean-Noël and the board had a discussion, and they decided to stop their relationship. The board asked me to take the interim job, but I already had this new job. And the team here said, “Are you kidding? You’re not going anywhere!” So I went back to the board and said, “I’m interested if you agree with my plan [for] SACEM 3.0,” and they did.
For a long time, there were no women running CMOs. Now there are many: Beth Matthews at ASCAP, Andrea Martin at PRS, Jennifer Brown at SOCAN and Cristina Perpiñá-Robert at SGAE. What took so long?
There was a lot of ego. It was a small circle of people: “We are so smart, ho ho ho! Let’s have lunch and a cigar.” CEOs then were more focused on an institutional view, and now we’re more focused on day-to-day matters and how to reduce costs. Women know how to reduce costs.
What’s your favorite song?
There are so many, it depends on the mood. The songs of the moment…
That’s cheating.
Serge Gainsbourg’s “Initials B.B.,” for sure. Songs by David Bowie, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John, The Beatles, “Live and Let Die” from Wings. When you want to feel better, listen to “Sunny” by [German disco act] Boney M. Or Queen of the Night [the aria in “The Magic Flute”] from Mozart.
Rap-Veber says she discovered this photo of Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, which was taken for their 1969 joint album, when she was looking for ways to monetize Universal Music Group’s archives. “It had never been exploited before I found it,” she says.
Matthew Avignone
SACEM operates in a very different legal environment from the United States. France has stronger copyright laws to protect creators but also regulations that require SACEM to set aside money to fund culture.
It’s part of our DNA because that’s what a “collective” is. With SACEM, you have the highest rates in the world: concerts, more than 8%; broadcasters, more than 3%. If we take tiny amounts [for cultural funding], you will still get paid more than from any other CMO.
Some Americans hate this idea on principle.
Many of these cultural funds come from private copy levies that don’t exist in the Anglo-American system. By law in France, and this is typically French, 25% of this revenue must be allocated to cultural action. So we pay out the 75% that no one else in the world pays, except GEMA. The publishers benefit from it, too, because it helps them develop new creators.
According to EU regulations, I am required to ask you about artificial intelligence.
Last year, it was the metaverse, but this will last much longer. We see opportunities and dangers. Opportunities: As a tool, it can help musicians create music. The main issue for us is how we know whether or not our works have been used in a new product [and] how we can get paid. It’s a worldwide discussion, but I think Europe — and I hope France — will be at the center of it. We already have 120,000 songs uploaded a day, and 60% of the 100 million tracks on Spotify have less than 100 streams a year. Why do the platforms take all of this nothing music?
A lot of songwriting talent in Africa is turning to SACEM or other European societies to license their online rights internationally. How are you handling that?
African creators are usually with their local societies for their home countries, but many are SACEM members for the rest of the world. One problem is that many of these societies in Africa are controlled by the government. The only thing I can do is partner with them to help them improve their systems. In Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, we just entered worldwide digital agreements so we can represent their repertoire for the world. We’re working with Morocco, too, and PRS is doing partnerships in some English-speaking countries. The idea is to be a bridge between the continents. I don’t wantto be seen as a colonialist — I want to be a partner.
TikTok has announced the launch of ‘Elevate,’ its program to uplift emerging artists both through in-app promotion and the sponsorship of in-person events. The inaugural class for Elevate includes artists CHINCHILLA, Sam Barber, Omar Courtz, Isabel LaRosa, Kaliiii, and Lu Kala.
In an exclusive interview with Billboard, TikTok’s North America artist partnerships lead, Rachel Dunham, says the program is designed to “represent artists across diverse genres and backgrounds, signed and unsigned,” she says. “The main intention of this program is really to help artists create sustained careers.”
To do this, the Elevate program will provide its talent with promotion on the @musicontiktok social handles and will host concerts in each of them in their hometowns until the end of the program in October. This year’s class is from is from a range of places, including Canada, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, Puerto Rico, and the U.K. and TikTok’s artist team will “amplify” their local, in-person activations with Elevate artists “so that the rest of the world can be introduced to them through the lens of their hometowns and their roots,” says Dunham.
The news comes as the social media app continues to expand its reach into the music business. Earlier this month, TikTok launched a “social media streaming service” called TikTok Music in Brazil and Indonesia, replacing previous TikTok-founded streaming service Resso, which was launched in March 2020 in India, Indonesia and later Brazil. The new TikTok Music will be a subscription based service that allows users to synch their existing TikTok accounts in order to listen to, share, and download the tracks they discover on the social media app.
The company is also continuing to build its roster with SoundOn, its music distribution service that is aimed at helping independent emerging artists get music onto all streaming services. The tool was originally launched in Brazil and Indonesia in early 2022 and then in the U.S. and the U.K. shortly after. It was expanded to Australia in February 2023.
According to Dunham, Elevate is “separate from those efforts, but as those efforts continue to build we will absolutely leverage them when possible.”
TikTok joins the likes of YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud and others in forming a program geared towards amplifying young talent through on-platform promotion, but Dunham highlights a key difference in TikTok’s Elevate: “The level of discoverability that TikTok provides I think is truly unparalleled. That’s a huge credit to our recommendation system as well,” she says. “I think it’s also pretty incredible that unlike other platforms where artists just share content to their fans, on TikTok, the fans are sharing content back and using the artists’ music to soundtrack their lives too. It creates this incredible feedback loop.”
According to the company, more details will be revealed about Elevate as the program continues into the fall.
Tony Yip, the chief strategy officer for Chinese audio streaming company Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), will step down on August 31, the company announced Monday (July 17). He plans to spend more time with his family overseas and pursue other personal interests, according to the press release. The company did not indicate who will replace […]
LONDON (AP) — Kevin Spacey’s lawyers enlisted the help of an A-list star Monday in his sexual assault trial, calling on Elton John and his husband David Furnish to cast doubt on one of the Oscar winner’s accusers at the end of the defense case. John appeared briefly in the London court by video link […]