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Universal Music Group is in the early stages of talks with Google about licensing artists’ voices for songs created by artificial intelligence, according to The Financial Times. Warner Music Group has also discussed this possibility, The Financial Times reported.
Advances in artificial-intelligence-driven technology have made it relatively easy for a producer sitting at home to create a song involving a convincing facsimile of a superstar’s voice — without that artist’s permission. Hip-hop super-fans have been using the technology to flesh out unfinished leaks of songs from their favorite rappers.
One track in particular grabbed the industry’s attention in March: “Heart On My Sleeve,” which masqueraded as a new collaboration between Drake and the Weeknd. At the time, a Universal Music spokesperson issued a statement saying that “stakeholders in the music ecosystem” have to choose “which side of history… to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation.”
“In our conversations with the labels, we heard that the artists are really pissed about this stuff,” Geraldo Ramos, co-founder and CEO of the music technology company Moises, told Billboard recently. (Moises has developed its own AI-driven voice-cloning technology, along with the technology to detect whether a song clones someone else’s voice.) “How do you protect that artist if you’re a label?” added Matt Henninger, Moises’ vp of sales and business development.
The answer is probably licensing: Develop a system in which artists who are fine with having their voices cloned clear those rights — in exchange for some sort of compensation — while those acts who are uncomfortable with being replicated by technology can opt out. Just as there is a legal framework in place that allows producers to sample 1970s soul, for example, by clearing both the master and publishing rights, in theory there could be some sort of framework through which producers obtain permission to clone a superstar’s voice.
AI-driven technology could “enable fans to pay their heroes the ultimate compliment through a new level of user-driven content,” Warner CEO Robert Kyncl told financial analysts this week. (“There are some [artists] that may not like it,” he continued, “and that’s totally fine.”)
On the same investor call, Kyncl also singled out “one of the first official and professionally AI-generated songs featuring a deceased artist, which came through our ADA Latin division:” A new Pedro Capmany track featuring AI-generated vocals from his father Jose, who died in 2001. “After analyzing hundreds of hours of interviews, acappellas, recorded songs, and live performances from Jose’s career, every nuance and pattern of his voice was modeled using AI and machine learning,” Kyncl explained.
After the music industry’s initial wave of alarm about AI, the conversation has shifted, according to Henninger. With widely accessible voice-cloning technology available, labels can’t really stop civilians from making fake songs accurately mimicking their artists’ vocals. But maybe there’s a way they can make money from all the replicants.
Henninger is starting to hearing different questions around the music industry. “How can [AI] be additive?” he asks. “How can it help revenue? How can it build someone’s brand?”
Reps for Universal and Warner did not respond to requests for comment.
Tom Becci has joined Concord Label Group as chief executive. In the newly created role, he will oversee Concord’s recorded music division, including frontline label and catalog operations.
Becci, who will be based in Los Angeles and report to Concord CEO Bob Valentine, comes to CLG from Red Light Management, where he spent the last seven years working with founder Coran Capshaw in several areas, including organizational structure, new business opportunities and artist contract negotiations. He also monitored Red Light’s investments and played a role in Red Light’s label development and investment in such companies as LEO33, Chess Club Records and AMF Music. Prior to Red Light, he was COO of Universal Music Group Nashville.
“Having admired the work of Concord for years, I am thrilled to join this incredible company,” said Becci in a statement. “It is abundantly clear that the label group’s passionate, dedicated team works day in and day out in service of its artists and has built something truly unique. With the help of the label presidents, the entire Concord staff, and inimitable artists like Pierce the Veil, Killer Mike, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Allison Russell, and so, so many more, I can’t wait to continue building on what has been established and usher Concord Label Group into a new era.”
CLG’s frontline labels include wholly owned Concord/Rounder, Concord Jazz, Fantasy Records, Fearless Records, and KIDZ BOP and joint ventures with Easy Eye Sound, PULSE Records and Loma Vista Recordings. Its catalog labels include such imprints as Fania, Prestige, Specialty, Stax and Telarc.
“Concord is at a pivotal point in its company story,” said Valentine, who ascended to CEO in July. “Tom has spent his career helping to operate and lead some of the most important recorded music and artist management groups in the U.S. He knows what it takes to keep a music enterprise culturally, financially, and operationally healthy and I am eager to work with him as we continue to bolster our global footprint in support of artists and creators, as well as their legacies. As we enter this next chapter for Concord Label Group, I am thrilled to have him at the helm along with our label presidents and Concord’s senior team.”
Sony Music Entertainment’s revenue rose 16% to 358.2 billion yen ($2.5 billion) last quarter, as hit records by SZA, Miley Cyrus and Harry Styles helped boost growth in both recorded music and music publishing.
For the fiscal quarter ended June 30, SME reported quarterly operating income of 73 billion yen ($510 million), a 20% rise on the same period a year ago. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were up 11% year-on-year, totaling 83 billion yen ($580 million).
The company said growth in streaming subscription revenues and the impact of foreign exchange rates were among the key drivers of its positive quarterly financial results. SME said it also benefitted from a 6 billion yen ($41 million) operating income boost from the completed acquisition of an unnamed company.
SZA’s SOS, Miley Cyrus’ Endless Summer Vacation and Harry Styles’ Harry’s House were among the company’s top performing titles of the quarter. SME also named Luke Combs’ Gettin’ Old, the 10th anniversary reissue of Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, Foo Fighters’ But Here We Are and Beyonce’s Renaissance among its 10 best-selling releases in the first three months of the current financial year.
On the back of those sales, Sony Music’s recorded music division’s revenues rose 19% to 237.7 billion yen ($1.6 billion), with streaming revenue growing by almost 19% to 164.8 billion yen ($1.1 billion), accounting for 69% of total recorded music revenue.
Physical sales fell 2.4% year-on-year to 24.9 billion yen ($174 million) and accounted for just over 10% of the quarter’s recorded music revenue. Download sales rose slightly to 7.7 billion yen ($53 million), up around 2% compared to the same quarter a year prior.
License revenue, including public performance, broadcast and sync sales, coupled with merchandising and live performance income, brought in an additional 40.1 billion yen ($280 million) to Sony’s recorded music division.
On the publishing side, revenues increased 19% year-on-year to 75.1 billion yen ($524 million). Within publishing, streaming sales rose 24% to 41.6 billion yen ($290 million), while other publishing income totaled 33.5 billion yen ($234 million).
Revenues from the company’s residual media and platform business, which represents less than 10% of SME’s operating income and includes animation titles and game applications, was more-or-less flat as the same period last year at 42.8 billion yen ($299 million). That total was, however, down 16% when compared to the previous quarter’s 53.4 billion yen ($372 million).
Looking ahead, Sony Music Entertainment raised its forecast for full-year revenue by 6% to 1.49 trillion yen (approximately $10 billion) with a projected operating income of 280 billion yen (approximately $1.9 billion).
Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday (Aug. 8) for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot, capping off three years of legal drama over the violent 2020 incident.
The long sentence for Lanez (real name Daystar Peterson) comes after he was convicted in December on three felony counts over the incident, in which he shot at the feet of Megan (real name Megan Pete) during an argument after a pool party in the Hollywood Hills.
Handed down by Judge David Herriford, the sentence was much harsher than the probation sought by Lanez’s lawyers but less than the 13 years that prosecutors had requested. Neither Tory’s lawyers nor the DA’s office immediately returned a request for comment.
According to The Associated Press, Lanez pleaded for mercy ahead of the sentencing, asking Judge Herriford for probation or a minimal prison sentence: “If I could turn back the series of events that night and change them, I would,” he reportedly said. “The victim was my friend. The victim is someone I still care for to this day.”
“Everything I did wrong that night, I take full responsibility for,” he added.
For his part, Judge Herriford reportedly said it was “difficult to reconcile” the caring person described by Lanez’s supporters in statements delivered in court on Monday (Aug. 7) with the man who shot Megan: “Sometimes good people do bad things. Actions have consequences, and there are no winners in this case.”
Tuesday’s hearing occurred nearly three years after the July 12, 2020, shooting, which happened as a driver was shuttling Lanez, Megan and her assistant and friend Kelsey Harris from a party at Kylie Jenner’s house. According to prosecutors, Megan got out of the vehicle during an argument and began walking away when Lanez shouted, “Dance, bitch!”, and proceeded to shoot at her feet.
Following the incident, Megan initially told police officers that she had cut her foot stepping on broken glass, but days later alleged that she had been shot. Lanez was eventually charged with the shooting in October 2022.
During the trial, Lanez’s lawyers made their best effort to sow doubt over who had pulled the trigger, painting a scenario in which Harris could have been the shooter. But a key defense witness offered confusing eyewitness testimony, and prosecutors pointed to an earlier interview in which Harris pinned the blame squarely on Lanez. Megan herself offered powerful testimony that Lanez had been the one to shoot her; neither Lanez nor the driver took the witness stand.
Ahead of sentencing, prosecutors had sought a 13-year sentence for Lanez, telling the judge Lanez had “waged a campaign to humiliate and re-traumatize the victim.” They said the rapper “not only lacks remorse” but also is “clearly incapable of accepting any responsibility for his own actions.”
In their own filing last week, Lanez’s lawyers asked the judge to sentence him to only probation. They maintained that he was innocent, but said that even if he had committed the crimes, that his punishment should be lessened in light of “childhood trauma” and “alcohol-use disorder.”
Following sentencing, Lanez can still appeal his conviction at a state appellate court. But such a challenge will face an uphill climb: In 2022, California appeals courts overturned a defendant’s guilty verdict in just 19% of cases.
Warner Music Group reported quarterly revenue was up 9% as of mid-year, as the third-largest U.S.-based music company beat Wall Street estimates for revenue and profit on big album releases by Ed Sheeran, Melanie Martinez others.
WMG reported revenue for its fiscal third quarter ending June 30 rose to $1.56 billion — analysts had expected $1.47 billion — driven by strong releases and a 15.5% uptick in music publishing revenue of $283 million. Streaming revenue rose by 9.5% overall and digital revenue was up 8.8% to $1.03 billion compared to the year ago quarter. Net profit edged slightly lower to $124 million from $125 million a year ago but still beat analysts’ expectations.
“We had a great release slate with lots of momentum and success, but at the same time our catalog has also delivered,” WMG Chief Executive Robert Kyncl said on a call with analysts. “We are firing on both engines.”
WMG’s stock was up 8% by mid-day trading in New York.
Executives said the current quarter is off to a good start with major releases from Lil Uzi Vert, Dua Lipa and the Barbie movie soundtrack, and upcoming releases from Zach Bryan and Charlie Puth.
“Our results show we’re gaining real traction,” Kyncl said, adding that as price increases from Spotify, YouTube and others filter in to WMG’s financials this quarter, the company can expect continued strength.
“We see these initial price increases as an encouraging start,” Kyncl said. “There’s no evidence that the services are experiencing elevated levels of customer churn. We believe the market will bear further price increases in the future, and we’re expecting that they’ll arrive on a more regular cadence than in the past. “
The growth in music publishing revenues was driven by a 26.4% uptick in digital revenue and 27.1% increase in streaming revenue, reflecting the impact of digital deal renewals and a revenue true-up of $9 million from the CRB. Mechanical revenue spike about 45% primarily due to a higher share of physical sales in the quarter.
Recorded revenue rose 7.8%, bolstered by a 5.6% increase in digital revenue and a 6.3% increase in streaming revenue on the stronger release schedule and growth in ad-supported revenue.
WMG prefers to use operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) as a metric to assess its overal business health, and OIBDA increased 18% to $275 million in the quarter compaired to $233 million a year ago. Adjusted OIBDA rose 16% to $297 million from $255 million a year ago.
Key WMG financial highlights:
Total revenue rose 9% to $1.56 billion for the second quarter 2023, from $1.43 billion in the same quarter 2022.
Net profit, or net income, was flat at $124 million this quarter compared to $125 million in the year ago quarter.
Digital revenue rose 8.8% to $1.03 billion from $944 million in in the year ago quarter.
Streaming revenue rose 9.5%
Recorded music revenue rose 8% to $1.28 billion from $1.19 billion in the year ago quarter.
Music publishing revenue rose 16% to $283 million from $245 million in the year ago quarter.
Operating income was up 29% to $189 million from $146 million in the year ago quarter.
OIBDA was up 18% to $275 million compared to $233 million in the year ago quarter, with OIBIDA margin of 17.6%, up from 16.3%.
Shortly after notching his first Billboard 200 top ten album with Been One, Rylo Rodriguez became the first artist signed to Lil Baby’s Glass Window Entertainment through a partnership deal with Motown Records and Capitol Music Group. According to sources, the signing of Rodriguez is believed to be a multi-million deal. “I’m overly excited for Rylo […]
The music industry has progressed rapidly over the last decade. TikTok is launching music careers, sites like YouTube are creating new distribution channels and artists like Grimes are open-sourcing their vocals for generative AI creation. But for all of that progress, the opaque systems that control the industry are not in favor of artists driving culture. As listeners, we’ve seen the tip of the iceberg with Taylor Swift’s highly publicized re-recording of her masters and Megan Thee Stallion’s legal dispute with her record label over unpaid royalties.
Music is the most consumed category of art on the planet, and it’s time to evolve the system so that all artists — from top recording stars to indie creators to those who are just getting their careers started — are set up to succeed. But to really grasp what’s needed to shift the power dynamic in the direction of artists, it’s important to peel back the complexities of music revenue.
Changing the narrative on music revenue
There’s a false narrative that is pervasive in the media that says music doesn’t generate any money, driven in large part by the litany of really bad record deals that draw public attention (like the aforementioned Megan Thee Stallion example). But in reality, music makes money — it’s the artists who don’t get paid what they deserve.
The streaming revolution of the 21st century has transformed the way people consume music. But despite streams making up 80-90% of the industry’s revenue, artists see few of those dollars after industry players take their inevitable cuts. Though record labels serve a valuable role in the music ecosystem (from marketing and developing an artist to licensing and distribution), artists can be haunted for decades by bad deals signed early in their careers that unknowingly give away creative control and a significant portion of their future earnings. Artists who have signed contracts with unfavorable terms typically don’t earn negotiating power until they’ve amassed a large following and a fruitful career.
Why the bad deals?
Most artists simply don’t know what they’re signing — it’s not necessarily that they’re making a bad decision. As an artist myself, I experienced this firsthand early in my career. It would take years for me to get paid for my songs — and as someone who’s proficient in accounting from my time studying business in college, my inability to see how much I made from my music was mind-boggling.
The reason that deals are so opaque is that music revenue is growing and coming from more sources than ever before, which creates a complex web of intermediaries within the ecosystem. Every different distributor has a different deal with every different streaming service, and every label has a different deal with every streaming service. And the streaming services are not transparent about how their rates differ across these various deals. Beyond that, there are numerous types of royalties — from performance royalties to mechanical royalties to in-app streaming royalties. Therefore, when it comes to signing on the dotted line, artists must blindly place their trust in a network of counterparties, lacking any real visibility into their actual earnings once every entity has taken their cut. All of this is perpetuated because record labels are incentivized to control information so they can make more competitive deals with artists.
As a result, artists gravitate to what comes naturally — the music. They don’t want to worry about the business side of things because the system isn’t set up in a way that empowers them to ask questions or negotiate favorable deals, and it distracts them from doing what they love.
Finding the opportunity in technology
To rewrite the way music institutions approach music revenue and income, we need to make it as transparent as possible. It seems like a lofty goal for an industry that has long been set in its ways, but technology is making it possible. My company Royal recently launched a free tool that allows any artist to estimate the streaming revenue for their songs. The hope is that artists become more empowered to make deals that uplift their careers.
I’ve also been bullish on crypto since its earliest days, for a variety of reasons, including its ability to transform the music industry with transparency. Blockchain is inherently transparent — in fact, the one thing you can’t do on a blockchain is hide information. It’s all there, at all times. It’s also time-stamped which establishes a clear provenance (traceability of ownership over time). This is especially useful in the music business, where copyright infringement plagues artists and record labels alike. Perhaps most importantly, leveraging tokens that represent rights enables artists to see the value of their songs and create tangible benchmarks upon which to negotiate better deals. With more information always comes more power.
Artists don’t know how much money they’re missing out on, but they could. And it doesn’t have to be a public battle when they do find out. If we embrace technological progress to improve outdated systems, we can create an open data ecosystem that gives artists not only more transparency into their earnings and fan bases but more control over their artistic careers. Better deals alongside more creative freedoms is a winning combination that can define the next 30 years of music — we just have to be willing to change.
Why should artists even care?
As much as streaming has changed the music industry for the better, there are still unanswered questions about how value accrues in this system. Do we equate the value of passively listening to a sleep playlist in the background to actively listening to your favorite album with friends?
This talk of numbers and questions of value may seem like a distraction for artists who just want to spend their time making music — but ignoring this topic completely opens the door to predatory industry practices that threaten musicians’ longevity and entire legacies.
More industry transparency should improve all the variables that play into an artist’s career and result in musicians keeping more ownership of the art they create. Having the humility to acknowledge what music is actually worth is the first step in unlocking more value in this new era of the industry.
Justin Blau is CEO of Royal and a world-renowned musician and producer, known as 3LAU. An early crypto adopter, Justin has been advocating for building the investable layer of music on blockchains since 2017. In 2021, he founded Royal to empower artists to share their music with fans and give people the opportunity to invest in music.
Iggy Azalea is clarifying reports that she has spoken out in support of rapper Tory Lanez (born Daystar Peterson) as the “Say It’ MC is awaiting sentencing in his felony assault and weapons case in connection with his attack on Megan Thee Stallion in July 2020. The Associated Press reported on Monday that Azalea was among the dozens of people who wrote the judge in the case, with her note asking that the sentence be “transformative, not life-destroying.”
In a series of tweets, however, Azalea wrote, “I have not been in touch with tory for months, I have no reason to be, but I do wish him well,” adding, “I don’t ‘support’ anyone. the whole thing is full of oddities. My letter never mentioned anything in regard to what happened that night.”
Lanez’s sentencing will stretch into Tuesday (Aug. 8) and in a written statement, Megan described the ongoing trauma she has suffered since Lanez shot her in the feet after they left a Hollywood party together three years ago. “Since I was viciously shot by the defendant, I have not experienced a single day of peace,” Megan said in a statement read by Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta. “Slowly but surely, I’m healing and coming back, but I will never be the same.”
Megan, who testified during the trial, said she struggled with appearing in person to read the statement, but said she, “simply could not bring myself to be in a room with Tory again.”
In a further clarification, Azalea noted that she was told her statement would be for the judge’s eyes only. “Yet it’s being discussed in public? I never intended to publicly comment,” she wrote. “Iam not in support of throwing away ANY ones life if we can give reasonable punishments that are rehabilitative instead. I support prison reform. Period.”
Further explaining why she wrote a statement, Azalea said she was asked to share her “genuine experience and the type of punishment I think he deserves: I did.” In another tweet Azalea lamented that the statement became a topic of conversation on Monday because, in her words, “it’s not really an explosive revelation. Yes: he should be held accountable. No: the charges don’t warrant 5plus in prison.”
She argued that “most agree” with her position because “it’s a reasonable take.”
Though Megan did not come to court to make her statement in person, she asked Judge David Herriford not to take that as a sign of indifference and urged him to issue a stiff sentence to Lanez. Sentencing hearings typically take only a few hours, but Herriford allowed attorneys for each side to argue factors for Lanez’s potential sentence, allowing seven witnesses to give statement’s about the rapper’s charitable works, his childhood trauma and his status as a father to a six-year-old son.
Prosecutors have asked the judge to hand down a 13-year sentence to Lanez, 31, who was convicted of three felonies: assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. Lanez’s lawyers have argued in a sentencing memo that he should get only probation and be released from jail to enter a residential substance abuse program.
See Azalea’s tweets below.
For the record:1. I have not been in touch with tory for months, I have no reason to be, but I do wish him well. 2. I don’t “support” anyone.the whole thing is full of oddities. My letter never mentioned anything in regard to what happened that night. 3. I was told this…— NOT IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) August 8, 2023
I really hate that this is todays discourse online because it’s not really an explosive revelation. Yes: he should be held accountable. No: the charges don’t warrant 5plus in prison. Most agree with that sentiment because it’s a reasonable take. This is not news worthy. 🤷♀️— NOT IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) August 8, 2023
For 2023, Billboard is introducing the R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players’ Choice Award, a peer-voted accolade chosen by Billboard Pro members to honor the executive they believe has made the most impact across the R&B/hip-hop music business over the past year. After three rounds of voting, Billboard Pro members have chosen Pierre “P” Thomas, CEO of Quality Control, to […]
In February, TikTok’s billion-plus users received an unexpected gift for Valentine’s Day: exclusive access to the catalog of one of hip-hop’s most revered labels, Death Row Records. Snoop Dogg had purchased the catalog in 2022 and pulled it from streaming services. So the only place to hear tracks from Snoop’s classic Doggystyle or 2Pac’s 10-times-platinum All […]