Business
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In the historically slow first quarter, Live Nation’s revenue dropped 11% to $3.38 billion (an 8% decline in constant currency), but adjusted operating income (AOI) fared better, declining 6% (or 0.5% in constant currency) to $341.1 million.
As the U.S. economy teeters and businesses brace for a protracted and uncertain trade war, Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter and ticketing company, believes the business will recover from the slow start to the year. CEO Michael Rapino expects 2025 to be “a historic year for live music, with a strong start having us on track to deliver double-digit growth in operating income and AOI this year,” he said in a statement.
The first quarter is relatively slow as concerts are concentrated in clubs and theaters before festivals, stadium and amphitheater shows appear later in the year. In 2024, the first quarter accounted for just 16% of Live Nation’s full-year revenue, and the concerts division received just 15% of its 2024 revenue in the first quarter. The second and third quarters, in contrast, accounted for 59% of 2024 revenue.
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Various financial metrics portend well for a stronger finish to 2025. Through mid-April, event-related deferred revenue — money collected for future concerts — of $5.4 billion was up 24% year-over-year. The 95 million concert tickets sold for Live Nation concerts represented a double-digit increase. On-sale sell-through rates were at or better than the same period last year. Ticketmaster’s primary ticketing volume was up 5% and gross transaction value (GTV) was up 10%.
The various divisions expect to have similar margins to previous years. Concerts’ AOI margin should be consistent with the 3% achieved in 2024. Ticketmaster’s AOI margin should be in the high 30s and sponsorships in the low 60s.
Absent stadium and amphitheater shows that occur later in the year, Live Nation’s concerts business had $2.48 billion in revenue, down 14% (11% in constant currency) from the prior-year quarter, from 22.3 million fans who attended 11,300 events. Concerts’ adjusted AOI improved to $6.6 million from a $1.8 million loss a year earlier.
In the ticketing segment, revenue fell 4% (1% at constant currency) to $695 million, and adjusted AOI of $253.1 million was down 11% (7% in constant currency). Concerts’ primary GTV was up 9%. Of the 78 million fee-bearing tickets, a number that was consistent with the first quarter of 2024, concert tickets were up 4% and accounted for 60% of volume. Non-concert tickets were down 9%.
Sponsorship revenue of $216.1 million was up 2% (9% at constant currency) while the division’s adjusted AOI of $136.0 million was up 5% (11% in constant currency). In the quarter, Live Nation secured new name-in-title sponsorships, including Citizens Live at The Wylie and Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park.
Foreign exchange affected AOI by 5% due to Live Nation’s exposure to the Mexican peso and other Latin American currencies. The company expects foreign exchange headwinds to result in low, single-digit impacts to revenue and AOI in the second quarter.
It’s gotta be the May 1st edition of Publishing Briefs, our semimonthly bulletin of recent signings, deals and doings in the wide world of music publishing. Since the last time we gabbed, Kristin Robinson whipped up a comprehensive guide to the comments submitted in the Copyright Office’s inquiry regarding PROs and Robert Levine analyzed the growing pushback among clubs and radio stations on the amount of collecting societies in the U.S.
Caught up? Here’s what else is going on:
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Warner Chappell Music Nashville and Morgan Wallen’s publishing company, Wilder Music, signed songwriter Jared Mullins to a global publishing deal. Wilder’s first signing, Mullins has co-written No. 1s like “Thank God” (Kane Brown feat. Katelyn Brown) and “Homemade” (Jake Owen), and has also collaborated with Wallen, Little Big Town and others. Originally from Maryland and West Virginia, he moved to Nashville in 2013 and has since written for Cole Swindell, Justin Moore and others. In 2022, he co-penned LOCASH’s “Beach Boys,” featuring Mike Love and Bruce Johnston. Wallen praised Mullins’ passion and creativity, while Mullins expressed gratitude for Wallen’s belief in him. “It is incredibly exciting to be working with Jared,” glowed Jessi Vaughn Stevenson, vp of A&R and digital at WCMN. “His talent is vast and varied, and to be partnering with Morgan is the cherry on top.”
Warner Chappell Music signed a worldwide administration deal with the one-and-only Diplo. A three-time Grammy winner, Diplo is known for a mess of global hits like “Where Are Ü Now,” “Lean On,” “Run the World (Girls)” and “Paper Planes.” He is a key member of Major Lazer, LSD, and Jack Ü, and his work with Silk City and Dua Lipa on “Electricity” earned platinum certification. Diplo continues to innovate with ventures like Diplo’s Run Club and his labels Mad Decent and Higher Ground. His recent projects include “Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley: Chapter 2 – Swamp Savant” and he just curated Diplo’s HonkyTonk at Stagecoach Festival, featuring artists like Paris Hilton and Anderson .Paak. “Diplo is a visionary creative whose multi-faceted success includes pushing boundaries with his own projects, creating cross-genre hits for others, and breaking talent through collaboration,” said Gabz Landman, senior vp of A&R at WCM. “It takes a rare kind of talent to be able to build and sustain a successful career that spans multiple decades – something Diplo has done almost effortlessly, and we’re so honored to help amplify his legacy even more.” Diplo added: “The Warner Chappell team … have an immensely skilled, forward thinking staff that I feel can help complement how I approach making and placing music.”
Kobalt signed Bizzy Crook, who played a key role in writing Leon Thomas’ breakout hit “Mutt.” The track recently peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and currently sits at No. 1 on the Hot R&B Songs chart. Thomas praised Crook’s dynamic songwriting process, describing it as complementary to his. “I’ll usually do the hooks and he’ll have really cool ideas for verses, and I’ll shape out a pre-chorus that really brings everything together,” Thomas said. “It’s kind of like playing Tetris with words.” Besides the original release, “Mutt” has been remixed twice, featuring collabs with Freddie Gibbs and Chris Brown. “His talent as a songwriter and storyteller is undeniable, and his work on ‘Mutt’ is a testament to the kind of creativity and vision we love to support,” said Genevieve Huguely, Kobalt’s manager of creative. “Bizzy brings a fresh perspective and a unique voice to everything he touches, and we’re proud to be part of this next chapter in his journey.”
Sony Music Publishing Nashville signed 18-year-old country singer-songwriter Caiden Wallace to a global publishing deal in partnership with Marv Green’s new venture, Out Yonder Music. Hailing from Springville, Calif., Wallace has gained attention with songs like “More Than a Night,” “Manipulate” and “Don’t Call,” which have earned millions of views on social media. His first studio-produced single, “Girl I Never Had,” was released on April 18. Rusty Gaston, CEO of SMP Nashville, praised Wallace’s raw talent and potential, observing that “his California roots are infused into every song he writes, and he is creating something special.” Green, who is Wallace’s uncle, highlighted his nephew’s “spirited work ethic and his natural born artistry” and predicted a major record deal in the near future.
VDW Music Group’s Marion Van Der Wees, BMM’s Timmy Haehl, Thomas Daniel, BMM’s Mike Molinar
Thomas Daniel signed an exclusive co-publishing agreement with Big Machine Music. His songs have been recorded by K-Pop stars ENHYPEN, Lauren Spencer Smith, Alexander Stewart, TAEYEON, and &TEAM. A multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and vocalist, Thomas has over 150 million streams of his own releases. Mike Molinar, BMM’s president, praised Thomas as a “natural,” adding, “his incredible sense of melody and capacity to capture the full range of human emotion lyrically are just a couple of reasons why we are so proud and excited that he chose us as his publishing partner.”
Armada Music Publishing signed new deals with Bloom Twins, SHELLS and Trance Wax, and extended its partnership with Da Beatfreakz. This expansion strengthens Armada’s UK presence and adds to its roster of successful producers and songwriters, including D.O.D, Ki Fitzgeral and Chicane. Ukrainian-born Bloom Twins (twin sisters Anna and Sofia Kuprienko) have joined under exclusive writer agreements to grow their songwriting careers following tracks like “High on Beat” and “DayDream.” SHELLS (Sarah Sheldrake) signed an exclusive deal after achieving a UK Top 5 hit and a BRIT nomination for “Dancing is Healing.” Belfast-based Trance Wax (Garry McCartney) brings his trance-inspired catalog and sold-out shows to the fold. Armada renewed its deal with Da Beatfreakz, whose 26x platinum hit “Prada” has over one billion streams. “This is an exciting time for Armada Music Publishing—we’re honored to join forces with Bloom Twins, SHELLS and Trance Wax, and build on the success of our partnership with Da Beatfreakz,” said Maykel Piron, CEO of Armada Music Group. “Each of them truly represents the very best in songwriting, and we’re thrilled to support them on their respective musical journeys.”
Audius, a decentralized music discovery and community platform, has partnered with Downtown Music to integrate millions of licensed recordings into its ecosystem. This deal includes both recording and publishing assets from Downtown’s catalog, giving over 4 million artists and 5,000 clients more control over monetization and fan engagement. The partnership looks to empower Downtown’s roster, including estates like John Lennon & Yoko Ono and Miles Davis, and contemporary artists like Jason Mraz and Pamungkas, to engage fans beyond traditional streaming. Audius collaborates with major names such as Skrillex, deadmau5 and Disclosure, and integrates with performance rights organizations like ASCAP and BMI. Both companies emphasized the benefits of artist autonomy and direct fan interaction, with Downtown vp of product and services strategy Harmen Hemminga highlighting Audius as a platform that “opens new doors for creative fan engagement and monetization, putting control into the hands of artists and rights holders.”
Musou Music Publishing and Warp Publishing have both joined IMPEL, the international collective licensing agency for digital music publishing rights. Musou Music Group, established in 2006 and headquartered in Athens, Greece, also includes Musou Music Production, Musou Studios and Musou Records. Warp Publishing, with offices in London and Los Angeles, grew out of Warp Records and offers personalized music publishing services to a diverse roster of artists, score composers and songwriters, including Boards of Canada, Slowdive, Khruangbin, Danny Brown and more. It also represents music catalogs for companies like Psychotic Reaction Music, Inni Music and Infine Music. Now in 17 countries, IMPEL represents top independent publishers like Beggars Music, Bucks Music and Reservoir, with a repertoire featuring global icons such as Ed Sheeran, Beyoncé and Rihanna.
Last Publishing Briefs: Reservoir Media Expands to India
Audio entertainment giant SiriusXM reported declines in first quarter revenue and net income on Thursday.
Revenue declined 4% to $2.07 billion and net income declined 15% to $204 million for the quarter ending March 31 compared to the year-ago period. Lower operating expenses from staff cuts and the reversal of Sirius’s streaming strategy partly offset the declines, and SiriusXM’s share price was trending downward, by about -3.4%, as of noon in New York.
It was the first full quarter of company earnings since SiriusXM moved away from its effort to develop a streaming audience and doubled down on its core listener base in vehicles, and it comes amid increased economic uncertainty.
Executives attempted to fend off investor concerns saying that macroeconomic jitters are not likely to negatively impact Sirius’s subscribers, its consumption in cars or marketing revenue.
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“Our strong, recurring revenue-driven business positions us well in this period of heightened volatility,” Tom Barry, SiriusXM chief financial officer, said in a statement. “We do not anticipate that tariff-related pressure on new car sales will have a material impact on our subscriber or financial performance this year. That said, like every business, we’ll continue to closely monitor ongoing developments and broader consumer health.”
The company reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) declined 3% in the quarter to $629 million from $650 million a year ago. SiriusXM’s adjusted EBITDA margin held flat at 30%.
SiriusXM reported a 303,000 decline in subscribers to bring its total number of subscribers to roughly 33 million, which drove a 5% reduction in the business division’s subscriber revenue. Average revenue per user of $14.86, a 3% decline from the prior year.
The SiriusXM division reported gross profit declined 6% to $937 million resulting in a gross margin of 59%.
SiriusXM’s podcast business, which launched two new Alex Cooper channels in the quarter, reported 70 million monthly listeners and a 33%- year over year increase in podcast revenue for the quarter.
The division also said it signed a new agreement that will put SiriusXM’s super premium 360L in all new Mitsubishi vehicles from 2025 through 2030.
SiriusXM’s Pandora and off-platform business reported a 2% decline in total revenue of $487 million largely driven by weaker advertising performance. Ad revenue declined 2% to $355 million as softer digital ad revenue was partly offset by greater podcast revenue. Subscriber revenue for the division held flat at $132 million.
Subscriber acquisition costs for SiriusXM rose 11%, or $10 million, from the year ago period as a result of contractual changes with certain carmakers, the company said. This was partly offset by a nearly 20% decrease in sales and marketing expenses, in addition to significant decreases in product and technology costs and administrative expenses.
This analysis is part of Billboard’s music technology newsletter Machine Learnings. Sign up for Machine Learnings, and other Billboard newsletters for free here.
Last week, I had a drink with a source who works in music marketing. They showed me their latest handiwork: a TikTok page where every post features their client’s song paired with an AI-generated video of a scenic landscape. I promised them anonymity, so I can’t share these videos, but rest assured — all of them were convincingly realistic.
My source has started paying a fan to post hundreds of these AI videos — generated in seconds using OpenAI’s video tool, Sora — to TikTok to promote their artist’s new single, with the hope that at least one of the videos will go viral. And they’re not the only ones experimenting with AI to automate digital marketing. I also recently met with RHEI, a company that claims its proprietary AI agents — AI systems that can make decisions and take actions — can generate lyric videos and populate fan pages for artists without anyone lifting a finger. Already, music companies like Symphonic, Lyrical Lemonade and MNRK use RHEI’s products. Though this technology is still in its infancy, using AI agents or video generators is clearly the super-charged next step for what’s known as “fan page marketing,” which is the promotional method du jour in 2025.
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Music marketers have complained for the last few years that social media, especially TikTok, is oversaturated with content and music, and that breaking through the noise is becoming harder. Their response to this, almost universally, has been to combat the noise by turning up the metaphorical volume even louder. Nowadays, asking artists to post “did I just make the song of the summer?” videos isn’t enough. Now, marketers are promoting artists by circulating thousands of repurposed interview and livestream clips, user-generated content remixes, memes, live videos and — increasingly — AI-generated videos on “fan pages” run or paid for by the artists’ team. Typically, this is all still coupled with classic influencer campaigns where various content creators are paid to make videos to a song, often without disclosing that these are paid advertisements.
More is also more in the world of streaming. In 2018, Luminate reported that about 45,000 songs were uploaded to Spotify daily. Five years later, in 2023, Luminate said that number had grown to 120,000. In some ways, it’s a beautiful thing — it’s easier to release a song than ever before, allowing countless DIY artists chances at success they never would have had otherwise. But it’s also led to what Lucian Grainge, chairman/CEO of Universal Music Group, has called a “content oversupply,” of which he said, “AI has already been a major contributor.”
Major-label artists have some part in this too. Taking advantage of streaming’s infinite shelf, top artists have started to release longer and longer albums. Migos’ 24-track Culture II (2018), Rae Sremmurd’s 27-track SR3MM (2018) and Drake’s 25-track Scorpion (2018), are all popular, early examples of this phenomenon which is now common to see across all genres. More recently, Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, The Kid LAROI and Taylor Swift have all released projects that span more than 30 tracks — something which rarely happened in the days of CDs and cassettes, given those formats’ physical limitations.
Major artists are also trying to capture attention in the age of “content oversupply” by releasing alternate versions of albums and songs, and more remixes than ever. Take Republic Records signee Ariana Grande. She released 12 versions and remixes of her single “yes, and?’ last year (including sped up, slowed down, a capella, extended, and instrumental variations), five versions of “we can’t be friends (wait for your love),” five versions of “the boy is mine” and six versions of the album those songs are on, eternal sunshine.
This strategy has bled over to vinyl, too. Over the last year, Swift, for example, released 36 different vinyl editions of varying colors and contents of The Tortured Poets Department to continue to engage fans and to further its monetary (and chart) success.
In the end, for artists and their teams, there’s no strong downside to any of these marketing strategies on social media, streaming services or physical products, and thus, they’re likely to persist and keep growing. The more songs on an album, the higher the likelihood that fans will stream them — and generate the significant royalties that come with it. And if a single’s a capella version doesn’t do well, that’s not a problem: it’s virtually free to silence the instrumentals on a track and put that result on streaming services. Why not try? Even a few curiosity listens from major fans make it worth it. On social media, the main result of a big fan page and creator campaign push is the appearance of a groundswell of support for the artist. The only danger is that this appearance is a facade.
It’s true that constant promotion can wear out fans. I’ve seen it from time to time, especially with excessive vinyl variants, but really, with fans’ attention being pulled in so many directions at every moment, how many of them will notice just how big all the promotion has become? And how many of them are even aware that some of the fan pages and influencer co-signs they see are part of that campaign anyway?
Streaming services have started to take the effects of saturation seriously — Spotify is now curbing mass uploads and SoundCloud is de-monetizing AI tracks — but that’s not enough to stop the flood, especially not as AI music and content creation surges. Deezer reported last week that 18% of its daily uploaded songs are now fully AI-generated, nearly double the count it reported in January. Sora, meanwhile, became so popular after its release in December that, a few days later, it had to pause users’ ability to make new accounts, citing extremely high demand.
Surely, there’s some limit to how hard the music business can push these pro-saturation tactics. But I also believe this might just be the new state of the internet, where the rise of AI tools are making it easier to flood online platforms with various forms of content. Will the “dead internet theory” — the idea that there’s so much AI slop and even human-made saturation that nothing can be found or trusted — come to pass, or will music marketers continue to break through the exponentially growing noise by fighting back with even more noise?
A federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit claiming Sam Smith and Normani stole key elements of their 2019 hit “Dancing With a Stranger” from an earlier track, ruling that the case was tossed out too soon and should have been decided by a jury trial.
The decision, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, reversed a 2023 ruling by a lower judge that had dismissed the case – a copyright lawsuit claiming Smith and Normani ripped off a little-known earlier song called “Dancing with Strangers.”
At the time, the trial judge said the two songs were simply not similar enough to constitute copyright infringement. But in a ruling Tuesday, the appeals court said a jury of their peers might have decided the case differently if they’d been given the chance.
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A “reasonable jury” could potentially decide that the hooks of the two tracks share the same combination of musical elements “in substantial amounts,” the appeals court wrote, including lyrics, “metric placement” and the same “melodic contour.”
Though the two songs also have key differences, the appeals court said a trial judge cannot simply pick a winner if there are conflicting reports from musical experts: “Under that approach, expert testimony would not be required at all.”
The ruling is a loss for Smith and Normani, but is also a worrying decision for any artist hit with a song-theft copyright lawsuit. If such cases must be litigated all the way to trial to be decided, they become dramatically more expensive for defendants, and give accusers more leverage to secure settlements from artists wary of protracted litigation.
Released in 2019, “Dancing with a Stranger” peaked at No. 7 on the Hot 100 chart, making it one of Smith’s biggest hits and Normani’s peak spot on the chart. The song, released on Smith’s third studio album Love Goes, ultimately spent 45 weeks on the chart.
In March 2022, the two artists were sued over the track by songwriters Jordan Vincent, Christopher Miranda and Rosco Banlaoi, who claimed that the 2019 hit song was “strikingly similar” to their own “Dancing” — and that it was “beyond any real doubt” that their song had been copied.
A year later, the case was dismissed by Judge Wesley L. Hsu, who ruled that the two songs were not “substantially similar” – the legal threshold for proving copyright infringement. He granted Smith and Normani summary judgment, meaning he ended the case without a trial because he believed a jury could not validly side with the plaintiffs.
But in Tuesday’s decision, the Ninth Circuit overturned that ruling, saying that so long as there is “sufficient disagreement” among the musicologists retained by each side, then case “must be submitted” to a jury.
The ruling will send the case back to Judge Hsu for more litigation, including a potential jury trial.
Trisha Yearwood has a new album on the way — and a new label partnership.
Virgin Music Group has teamed with Yearwood and her label, Gwendolyn Records, for new music from the three-time Grammy winner as well as her more recent catalog. The deal reunites Yearwood with Universal Music Group’s Music Corporation of America (MCA), the Nashville-based label she recorded for from 1990 through 2006. MCA will continue to work Yearwood’s catalog from that timeframe.
Yearwood’s new album, The Mirror — her first project in more than six years — is set for release on July 18. The album marks Yearwood’s first set of songs fully co-written and co-produced by the singer herself. In previewing the new project, Yearwood will release two new songs, “The Wall or The Way Over” and “Bringing the Angels.” The album is available for preorder in digital, CD, standard vinyl and limited-edition custom color vinyl formats.
“I’m honored to join forces with Virgin Music Group as I embark on this exciting new chapter,” Yearwood said in a statement. “Bringing my Gwendolyn label into the MCA/Universal family truly feels like coming home. I can’t wait to share my new album, The Mirror. Creating this music has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”
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“Trisha Yearwood is one of the most talented and enduring artists in the world,” Jacqueline Saturn, president of Virgin Music Group North America/executive vp of global artist relations, said in a statement. “We are so proud to have her and her Gwendolyn Records catalog on our roster and are looking forward to her legions of fans hearing this incredible new music.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Trisha Yearwood back to the family, coming full circle as we celebrate and amplify her iconic MCA catalog,” added Mike Harris, president/CEO of MCA. “In partnering her Gwendolyn Records label with Virgin Music Group, Trisha enters an exciting independent chapter — one where she retains creative and commercial control, supported by a world-class global team. We are so happy for her.”
“Trisha is one of the beloved artists in Nashville,” added Jen Bontusa, Virgin’s Nashville-based senior vp of label management. “It’s been amazing working with her and her team so far and we’re looking forward to a long and successful partnership.”
On Wednesday (April 30), Yearwood launched her first headlining tour in six years, starting with a show in Austin, Texas.
Yearwood previously released 10 albums for MCA, starting with her 1991 self-titled debut album, which included her breakthrough debut single: the No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hit “She’s in Love With the Boy.” Yearwood’s time at MCA Nashville brought other chart-toppers including “Thinkin’ About You,” “XXXs and OOOs (An American Girl)” and “Perfect Love.”
Mike Van, who was appointed the first CEO at Billboard earlier this week, has been named to Gold House’s annual list of the 100 most impactful Asian Pacific leaders, it was announced Thursday (May 1).
Van will be celebrated alongside the other honorees on this year’s list, known as The A100 List, during a slate of events taking place in New York on May 9 and May 10. Those include the A100 Celebratory Reception (co-hosted with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and East West Bank); the A100 Honorees Dinner presented by OpenTable, which will host past and present A100 honorees and judges; the Gold Gala, where A100 List honorees known as “A1s” — described as “the most impactful in their respective categories” — will be honored; and the Billboard x Gold House Founders Party, during which DJ Anderson .Paak is set to perform.
In celebration of the A100 and to kick off Asian Pacific Heritage Month, the Nasdaq stock market and Gold House partnered on a half-day Gold Power Summit on Wednesday (April 30) that culminated with Gold House CEO/co-founder Bing Chen and several A100 honorees, including Van, ringing the Nasdaq closing bell, an event broadcast across multiple financial networks. Van also served as a featured speaker on a Gold Power Summit panel on Wednesday.
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Others included on this year’s A100 list include Wicked director Jon M. Chu; Pachinko author Min Jin Lee; comedian and actor Ronny Chieng; K-pop group aespa; Goodwater Capital co-founder/managing partner Eric Kim; and multiple individuals listed under the banner “Los Angeles Wildfire Heroes.”
As part of the celebration of the A100 List and the Asian Pacific community, landmarks across North America will light up in gold lights. Participating cities and landmarks include: Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz Stadium), Chicago (Willis Tower), Honolulu (City Hall), Los Angeles (City Hall & Paramount Tower), Las Vegas (LV City Sign), Ontario (Niagara Falls), New York City (Empire State Building, Nasdaq Tower & The Edge), Seattle (Columbia Center Tower), Toronto (CN Tower), and Vancouver (BC Place & Olympic Cauldron).
Wednesday’s Gold Power Summit marked the second annual edition of the event, which first took place last May. Attendees at the inaugural summit included executives from Citibank, Netflix, McKinsey & Company and EMPIRE.
Big Loud has sold a stake in Morgan Wallen‘s recording catalog to Chord Music Partners, Billboard has confirmed. “Big Loud has sold a minority stake in Morgan Wallen’s master recording catalog to Chord Music Partners, as part of a strategic investment to expand the label’s global footprint and fuel long-term artist development,” a Big Loud […]
In a major first for the festival business, a three-day music festival in Southern California is opening a permanent year-round social club and restaurant in the middle of its festival site, hoping to keep the party going 365 days a year.
On Tuesday (April 29), Allen Sanford, founder of the BeachLife festival in Redondo Beach, Calif., and his business partner Rob Lissner officially opened the doors to the California Surf Club, a 22,000-square-foot public restaurant and private social club that will serve as the centerpiece of this year’s three-day festival headlined by Lenny Kravitz, Sublime and Alanis Morissette.
Sanford, a long-time restaurant owner and venue operator in Los Angeles’ iconic South Bay region, has been working on the adaptive reuse project for several years, leasing and rehabbing two harbor front buildings near Redondo Beach’s popular tourist pier into a members-only lifestyle club and public restaurant on the Redondo Beach waterfront.
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“The California Surf Club is two buildings,” Sanford explained to Billboard. “The south building is a membership club. The north building is a restaurant. During the festival, the south building will be open for all the members of the club. It’ll be open to artists and to some different ticket types. And then the north building will actually be part of the VIP experience.”
Allen noted that “the building is encompassed into the footprint of the festival, which is fairly rare. And it’s all the same vibe and culture of BeachLife.”
Designed by architect Stephen Jones and interior designer Steven Jones, the club mixes casual dining with a coastal-modern casual environment, where members who pay $350 per month can dine, play billiards with friends and relax near a warm fire pit. The club is decorated throughout with vintage surf art and artifacts, floor-to-ceiling glass, reclaimed wood accents and lush landscaping.
There’s currently a waiting list to join, Sanford explained, noting that more than 400 people have already signed up for the private club, which will serve as the unofficial headquarters of Beachlife Festival during the May 2-4 festival.
The California Surf Club also includes the Paddle Perch, a waterfront area outfitted with club-owned standup paddleboards, kayaks and outrigger canoes, as well as hot showers for surfers coming out of the water and a surfboard valet service. It even boasts several performance spaces, including a stage-ready room with a Wrensilva turntable console, high-end AV system, and large-format screen for live music, surf flicks, sports, and special events.
Under director of memberships Chris Brown, California Surf Club offers four membership tiers — Founders, Classic, Ambassador and Groundswell — as well as limited day-rate access. In addition to Sanford and Lissner, California Surf Club is led by president Jeff Jones and COO Jerry Garbus, along with Pennywise frontman Jim Lindberg, musician Donavon Frankenreiter, professional surfer Chris Frohoff, athlete Danny Ching, Quality Seafood President Jeff Jones, Redondo Beach School Superintendent Dr. Nikki Wesley, former Redondo Beach police chief Keith Kauffman and more.
The north building of the Surf Club boasts the public-facing waterfront restaurant with more than 250 seats across indoor dining rooms, shaded patios, firepit lounges and an Airstream courtyard. Led by executive chef Dennis Horton, the restaurant includes live-fire cooking, a lagoon-facing walk-up window with a casual “Lagoon Menu” for beachgoers, a cold seafood bar with shucked-to-order oysters, ceviche, sashimi, and crab, and performance spaces for guest DJ sets.
“The California Surf Club is like a surfer’s second home,” Sanford tells Billboard. “As a 47-year-old father, the only place I can go out to is a restaurant and that’s uncomfortable a lot of times — there’s nothing recreationally to do with my friends and family where we can hang out and enjoy the ocean. It’s literally designed to be your friend’s house that lives on the beach that has really good food and drink. It’s a place to just come and hang out with like-minded people.”
California Surf Club, Redondo Beach
PJ Cordero
California Surf Club, Redondo Beach
PJ Cordero
California Surf Club, Redondo Beach
PJ Cordero
BeachLife Festival
Courtesy Photo
Bayker Blankenship’s “Maxed Out” is a bankrupt ballad set in a barren landscape of dead-end towns and nearly-empty bars. The narrator drinks a few too many Jack and Cokes when he’s not spending the night in the clink: “I’m getting into fights and I’m falling hard,” Blankenship sings. “I maxed out one more credit card.”
Blankenship released the track in April 2024 through a distribution company called Foundation. “Maxed Out” performed well — so well that Blankenship graduated to Foundation’s sister operation, Santa Anna Label Group, a more high-touch distributor that’s able to put marketing muscle behind its artists.
“I appreciate their expertise on the content and digital side,” says Brian Schwartz, who manages Blankenship. When Santa Anna promotes songs, “they analyze, see what’s working and what’s not,” Schwartz continues. “And they know how to pour the fuel on what’s working.” “Maxed Out” now has more than 121 million on-demand streams in the U.S., according to Luminate.
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Foundation and Santa Anna are both under the command of Todd Moscowitz, the founder of Alamo Records. After launching Alamo in 2016 and introducing Santa Anna at the start of 2023, Moscowitz has cobbled the companies together into “a soup-to-nuts, fully integrated ecosystem where artists [have] a path to graduate to a premier frontline label,” as he puts it. This approach is becoming increasingly common, as both major labels and independents look to sign more acts and offer an array of options that allows those artists to grow over time — while also remaining attached to the company that initially offered them funding.
Foundation functions as a feeder system, signing a lot of young artists, many in hip-hop and R&B, primarily to low-money, short-term distribution deals. Santa Anna is a level up, with the capability to support labels — including OVO Sound, which scored a No. 1 album recently with the PARTYNEXTDOOR–Drake collaboration $ome $exy $ongs 4 U — as well as individual artists who have already generated some momentum. And Alamo is the more traditional frontline label: It signs a small number of artists directly and provides services to each of them.
Hybrid companies like this — offering the flexibility of a distributor but the promotional firepower of a major label — often work better in theory than in practice. Most distributors “don’t know how to take artists to the next level,” Moscowitz acknowledges. At the same time, frontline labels still “don’t have much experience in indie distribution.” Artists can get lost in the messy middle ground between the two business models.
This makes the growth of Santa Anna/Foundation all the more impressive. In 2024, Santa Anna added more than a point (1.04%) of current market share to Alamo’s 2.11% total. Many competitors would hack off an arm to add a point of current market share in a year. (Foundation’s contribution is included in that number.)
Already this year, Alamo has grown to a 2.91% current share through the first quarter — 1.83% of it from Santa Anna/Foundation — which is good for eighth among all labels in the U.S. Getting to release a Drake collaborative album was a coup for the company; $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, which Santa Anna co-distributed with Republic Records, earned 246,000 equivalent album units its opening week. The radio-ready single “Nokia” has risen as high as No. 2 on the latest Billboard Hot 100, and remains in the top 10.
“If it’s a lot harder to create superstars, it’s all about, how do you soak up more?” says a senior executive at a competing company. He calls Alamo’s integration with Santa Anna and Foundation “brilliant — and potentially an indicator of where things are going in the future.”
Moscowitz was experimenting with hybrid models inside the major-label system long before it was fashionable. He worked at Def Jam during its 1990s heyday and then moved to Warner Music Group (WMG) in 2004, initially as president of Asylum Records. There, he designed “a fluid system in terms of the deals, because when you’re dealing with entrepreneurs, you must be flexible,” as he put it in 2022. When WMG launched its Independent Label Group in 2006, Moscowitz was named president of the new outfit.
He later co-founded the indie 300 Entertainment, which launched in 2014, before jumping ship to get Alamo off the ground two years later. Alamo, which now functions as a frontline label under the Sony Music umbrella, signed chart-topping rappers like Rod Wave and Lil Durk, who have combined to earn 11 top five Billboard 200 albums for the label, including four No. 1s.
Even as Alamo enjoyed that traditional label success, however, Moscowitz couldn’t help but notice that “distribution [was] becoming an ever more important entry point into the business for artists.” Major labels have launched their own distribution wings one after another in recent years, whether that’s REPUBLIC (Imperial), 300 (Sparta), or more recently, Warner Records (Revolution). To compete in this landscape “with a credible, recognized offering,” Moscowitz invested in Foundation at the end of 2022 and launched Santa Anna shortly after.
In hip-hop, Foundation “was first with this very small advance, very early outreach, blanket approach,” the senior executive says. Another executive familiar with the company says they can easily send out hundreds of deals in a year. Five separate Foundation contracts viewed by Billboard show that in the past, the company often offered artists advances between $20,000 and $30,000 with few guaranteed services. In exchange, the artist has to fork over a set number of songs — maybe two dozen new tracks, or some already-released music along with a smaller number of future records.
Foundation takes a cut of royalties, usually between 20 percent and 30 percent, which attorneys say is in line with industry norms for these sorts of agreements. (Though more competitors are offering similar contracts recently, according to music lawyers, causing advances to rise.) Foundation keeps earning until it recoups its expenses; after that, the company typically gets two or three additional years to collect on the music (known as the “retention period”) before rights revert to the artist. The contracts seen by Billboard auto-renew after recoupment unless artists give the company 30 days’ notice that they want to end the relationship.
Moscowitz is adamant that Foundation’s purpose “is not to have a thousand artists doing 100,000 streams a week and make some distribution revenue.” “Most of our artists’ streams go up dramatically after signing with us,” he says. “Some go up so much that it makes sense to engage the entire company and spend substantial money and effort marketing them.”
That’s where Santa Anna comes into play. While many new distributors have entered the industry in the last decade, “a lot of them don’t do anything,” says Conor Ambrose, founder of the label Listen to the Kids. He partnered with Santa Anna in 2023 due to their ability to help his acts. “Their marketing people are talking to our artists; their playlisting team is talking to our artists,” he says. “Everybody’s actually on the phone every week.”
“Every time we’ve asked Todd for something,” Schwartz adds, “he’s showed up.”
Another difference between Santa Anna and its competitors, according to Moscowitz, is that his operation “will not offer marketing on any artist unless we have a path to long-term rights.” In other words, he doesn’t want to help blow up an artist, only to have that act split to another record company.
“Many of these sorts of deals come with upstream clauses, meaning the major-affiliated distributor — in this case, Santa Anna — may have the right to trade the artist up to a frontline label,” says Loren Wells, a music lawyer familiar with Santa Anna. “The terms of the upstream will be much less favorable than the initial deal. But many young artists may see that outcome as unlikely, or simply think, ‘If the worst case scenario is getting signed to a major label with a decent advance, that’s not really a worst case scenario.’” And in genres like country that still favor old-school record deals, Wells continues, the upstream terms may still seem more appealing than other labels’ traditional offers.
Moscowitz says Santa Anna is able to secure future long-term rights because artists “value what we bring to the table” in terms of marketing and promotion. “If we don’t value ourselves, then no one will ever value us,” the Alamo founder adds.
He is pleased with the results so far. “We have eight or 10 artists like Chuckyy, Raq baby, and Bayker Blankenship who are breaking and will be the future stars of our company,” Moscowitz says. “Santa Anna is functioning exactly the way we want.”