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Spotify will raise the price of an individual subscription in the United States by $1 — from $9.99 to $10.99 — according to a report Friday (July 21) at the Wall Street Journal. The move has been widely expected by investors and analysts following numerous comments by Spotify executives about an eagerness to raise the […]
With Taylor Swift’s re-recorded version of Speak Now topping the Billboard 200 albums chart and achieving the biggest week of 2023, the singer has pitted her new versions against the original versions she released through Big Machine Label Group in 2010. That could be seen as another blow for Shamrock Capital, which purchased Swift’s Big Machine catalog in 2020. But if Swift thought her re-recordings would erode the performance of the Big Machine originals, she was wrong — for the most part. The original versions owned by Shamrock did well through 2022 and haven’t shown much clear evidence of attrition until 2023, according to Billboard’s analysis of Luminate sales and streaming data in the United States.
Through 2022, Swift’s Big Machine catalog has performed roughly in line with industry trends. Take Swift’s 2008 album Fearless, for example: It generated on-demand audio streams of 230.5 million in 2019 and 345.3 million in 2022 — an increase of 49.8% over three years. Had the album’s streams grown in line with the industry’s annual growth in on-demand audio streams — 48.3% from 2019 to 2022 —Fearless would have had 341.9 million on-demand audio streams. That’s only a 1% variation.
The original version of Swift’s 2012 album Red did even better than Fearless, generating 283.5 million on-demand audio streams in 2019 and 484.7 million on-demand audio streams in 2022, about 19% greater than what would be expected. Had the album’s streams grown in line with the industry’s annual growth in on-demand audio streams — 17.3% in 2020, 12.7% in 2021 and 12.2% in 2022 — Red would have had 420.6 million on-demand audio streams.
At the same time, Swift’s re-recordings have done phenomenally well. Since the beginning of 2021, the three Taylor’s Version albums have accounted for 3.88 billion on-demand audio streams to the original versions’ 2.86 billion on-demand audio streams. The actual numbers are even more skewed in the Taylor’s Versions’ favor since the re-recordings of Speak Now were released on July 7 of this year and have a brief streaming history. Since 2021, Red (Taylor’s Version) has generated 2.6 times more on-demand audio streams than the original version, while Fearless (Taylor’s Version) has about 1.9 times as many on-demand audio streams.
All the work Swift did to promote her re-recordings, as well as the success of her Republic Records albums and her current U.S. tour, may have also helped sales of the original Big Machine catalog. The original version of Red has sold more albums — 26,000 — through week 28 of 2023 than in all of 2022 and is already close to surpassing sales numbers for calendar years 2019, 2020 and 2021. Speak Now has also surpassed last year’s album sales and is on track to beat annual sales from 2019 to 2021.
Of course, Shamrock does not enjoy the spoils of the three albums of re-recordings. Through week 28 of this year, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) have sold 2.23 million units in the United States. But these couldn’t be considered sales that were lost to Shamrock. Whether or not Swift re-recorded the three albums, Shamrock would benefit only from the sales of the original versions. And so far, it doesn’t appear the Taylor’s Version albums are crowding those out.
Streaming is a different story, though. There is some evidence that the Taylor’s Version reissues have led to a decline in streams for the original Big Machine albums. In the 18 weeks before the release of Red (Taylor’s Version) on Nov. 11, 2021, the original version averaged 9.7 million on-demand audio streams per week. In the 18 weeks after Red (Taylor’s Version) was released, the original version’s weekly on-demand audio streams declined 41% to 5.7 million.
And despite putting up decent streaming numbers through 2022, the original versions of Fearless and Red have underperformed expectations in 2023. The overall market’s on-demand audio streams grew 13.5% in the first 28 weeks of 2023. Had Fearless matched the market’s growth, the album would have generated about 296 million streams through week 28. Instead, the original version of Fearless had roughly 162 million streams — more than 45% below expectations. Red performed better but was also off the market’s pace. Through week 28, the original version of Red had 181.6 million on-demand audio streams — about 14% below expectations.
While the original versions have held up fairly well in purchases and, until this year, on-demand audio streams, the biggest loss is probably the lack of synch opportunities. Swift’s re-recordings have been used in a Match.com ad in 2020 (“Love Story [Taylor’s Version]”), the movie Spirit Untamed in 2021 (“Wildest Dreams [Taylor’s Version]”) and the movie DC League of Super-Pets in 2022 (“Bad Blood [Taylor’s Version], the only song from the album 1989 that has so far been re-recorded).
Ultimately, however, Swift’s re-recordings may be more responsible for her consumption boom than the original Big Machine versions. Swift’s annual on-demand audio streams more than doubled between 2019 and 2022 — from 3.12 billion to 7.85 billion. If she continues her current pace, her on-demand audio streams will increase more than 74% in 2023. The re-recordings have added to the deafening buzz around her Republic Records albums. The Big Machine originals are merely along for the ride.
Shamrock did not respond to Billboard’s request for comment on this story.
President Joe Biden said Friday that new commitments by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other companies that are leading the development of artificial intelligence technology to meet a set of AI safeguards brokered by his White House are an important step toward managing the “enormous” promise and risks posed by the technology.
Biden announced that his administration has secured voluntary commitments from seven U.S. companies meant to ensure their AI products are safe before they release them. Some of the commitments call for third-party oversight of the workings of commercial AI systems, though they don’t detail who will audit the technology or hold the companies accountable.
“We must be clear eyed and vigilant about the threats emerging technologies can pose,” Biden said, adding that the companies have a “fundamental obligation” to ensure their products are safe.
“Social media has shown us the harm that powerful technology can do without the right safeguards in place,” Biden added. “These commitments are a promising step, but we have a lot more work to do together.”
A surge of commercial investment in generative AI tools that can write convincingly human-like text and churn out new images and other media has brought public fascination as well as concern about their ability to trick people and spread disinformation, among other dangers.
The four tech giants, along with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and startups Anthropic and Inflection, have committed to security testing “carried out in part by independent experts” to guard against major risks, such as to biosecurity and cybersecurity, the White House said in a statement.
That testing will also examine the potential for societal harms, such as bias and discrimination, and more theoretical dangers about advanced AI systems that could gain control of physical systems or “self-replicate” by making copies of themselves.
The companies have also committed to methods for reporting vulnerabilities to their systems and to using digital watermarking to help distinguish between real and AI-generated images known as deepfakes.
They will also publicly report flaws and risks in their technology, including effects on fairness and bias, the White House said.
The voluntary commitments are meant to be an immediate way of addressing risks ahead of a longer-term push to get Congress to pass laws regulating the technology. Company executives plan to gather with Biden at the White House on Friday as they pledge to follow the standards.
Some advocates for AI regulations said Biden’s move is a start but more needs to be done to hold the companies and their products accountable.
“A closed-door deliberation with corporate actors resulting in voluntary safeguards isn’t enough,” said Amba Kak, executive director of the AI Now Institute. “We need a much more wide-ranging public deliberation, and that’s going to bring up issues that companies almost certainly won’t voluntarily commit to because it would lead to substantively different results, ones that may more directly impact their business models.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he will introduce legislation to regulate AI. He said in a statement that he will work closely with the Biden administration “and our bipartisan colleagues” to build upon the pledges made Friday.
A number of technology executives have called for regulation, and several went to the White House in May to speak with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other officials.
Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a blog post Friday that his company is making some commitments that go beyond the White House pledge, including support for regulation that would create a “licensing regime for highly capable models.”
But some experts and upstart competitors worry that the type of regulation being floated could be a boon for deep-pocketed first-movers led by OpenAI, Google and Microsoft as smaller players are elbowed out by the high cost of making their AI systems known as large language models adhere to regulatory strictures.
The White House pledge notes that it mostly only applies to models that “are overall more powerful than the current industry frontier,” set by currently available models such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 and image generator DALL-E 2 and similar releases from Anthropic, Google and Amazon.
A number of countries have been looking at ways to regulate AI, including European Union lawmakers who have been negotiating sweeping AI rules for the 27-nation bloc that could restrict applications deemed to have the highest risks.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently said the United Nations is “the ideal place” to adopt global standards and appointed a board that will report back on options for global AI governance by the end of the year.
Guterres also said he welcomed calls from some countries for the creation of a new U.N. body to support global efforts to govern AI, inspired by such models as the International Atomic Energy Agency or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The White House said Friday that it has already consulted on the voluntary commitments with a number of countries.
The pledge is heavily focused on safety risks but doesn’t address other worries about the latest AI technology, including the effect on jobs and market competition, the environmental resources required to build the models, and copyright concerns about the writings, art and other human handiwork being used to teach AI systems how to produce human-like content.
Last week, OpenAI and The Associated Press announced a deal for the AI company to license AP’s archive of news stories. The amount it will pay for that content was not disclosed.
Sales and streams of Jason Aldean‘s single “Try That in a Small Town” have surged, following controversy that erupted this week surrounding the song and its corresponding music video.
After selling around 1,000 copies of the song each day from July 14 through July 17, according to preliminary reports from Luminate, sales rose after Billboard’s July 18 exclusive that CMT had pulled the video. The song earned 12,000 in sales on July 18, before surging to 108,000 in sales on July 19 and 103,000 in sales on July 20. The latest sales total for the week (July 14-20) is 227,000, according to the preliminary reports.
U.S. official on-demand daily streams of “Try That in a Small Town” also exploded over the past week.
After earning 204,000 official U.S. on-demand streams on July 14, and then dipping to 194,000 on July 15 and 174,000 on July 16, streams rose 24.3% to 216,000 on July 17, then surged 178% on July 18 to 600,000. On July 19, U.S. official on-demand streams of “Try That in a Small Town” skyrocketed to 3.2 million, a 440.2% increase.
The sales and streaming spikes come the same week social media commenters began questioning the song’s lyrics and the video’s imagery — with many calling it racist and anti-protest. “Try That in a Small Town” was written by songwriters Kelley Lovelace, Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy and Neil Thrasher. The video features Aldean performing in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn. — the same location where a lynch mob murdered a Black man, Henry Choate, in 1927 — with an American flag hanging from the entrance. The performance is interspersed with footage of a flag burning, protesters screaming and attacking police in various scenarios as well as looting and robbing a convenience store.
Artists including Sheryl Crow and Margo Price have spoken out against Aldean and/or the song and video, while others, including Aldean’s labelmate Blanco Brown, have defended the singer.
Aldean issued a statement on July 18 that read in part, “In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to a comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless, but dangerous. There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage- and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music- this one goes too far.”
In the week since it was released, the official music video for “Try That in a Small Town” has now been viewed more than 9 million times on YouTube. On the morning of July 18, before the controversy broke, it had been viewed around 350,000 times.
In terms of radio airplay, on last week’s Country Airplay chart (dated July 15), “Try That in a Small Town” rose one spot from 26-25, though it declined 2% in audience impressions for the week. On this week’s Country Airplay chart (dated July 22), the song holds at No. 25 but gained 16% to 6.5 million audience impressions in its ninth week on the chart.
In April, Myke Towers landed his third top 10 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart with his fourth studio album, La Vida Es Una, which debuted at No. 9 on the tally. It was Towers’ third straight top 10, an impressive showing despite the fact that it landed below his previous album, 2021’s Lyke Myke, which had debuted at No. 3. The 23-track set also boasted a lighter, more island sound, a departure for the Puerto Rican reggaetón star — a versatile artist who can definitely sing, but who is best known for party reggaetón tracks and hard-hitting lyrics on his trap fare.
La Vida Es Una included collaborations with reggaetón giants like Ozuna, J Balvin and Daddy Yankee, who is featured on the first focus track, “Ulala,” which hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart. But the set’s biggest success has come not via a collaboration, but with a solo track — “Lala,” a lilting, romantic reggaetón whose chorus plays over a vocal loop of “Lala, lala, lala,” turning it into an irresistible invitation to dance.
So irresistible, in fact, that this week, a full four months after the album’s release, “Lala” surged from No. 13 to crown Billboard’s Global Excl. U.S. chart (dated July 22), becoming Towers’ first leader on the list.
The song’s rise has been remarkable in its swiftness. “Lala” entered the charts for the first time when it debuted at No. 25 on Latin Rhythm Airplay less than two weeks ago. Last week, it debuted at No. 50 on Hot Latin Songs, at No. 26 on the Billboard Global 200 and at No. 13 on the Billboard Global Ex-U.S. chart. Then, in a single week, it shot to No. 1 on the latter.
How did this happen? “Music discovery has no time frame, and once a track gets into the online conversation it’s our job to jump in and maximize that buzz to turn it into a hit,” says Alejandro Duque, president of Warner Music Latin America, who has oversight of the label’s U.S. Latin and Latin American operations. Duque, who took over the job two years ago after 19 years with Universal, is, at 40, the youngest head of a Latin multinational music company. He’s also been firmly embedded in the digital landscape, an area he’s worked in since the early 2000s when Latin music began its digital transition. That intimate knowledge has allowed him to deeply mine data to bolster hits.
“Everyone has the same data,” he told Billboard last year. “You have to know how to interpret it. Having experience in data tendencies and how consumers behave lets you apply that to marketing and release strategies.”
Duque’s successes interpreting data include Anitta’s “Envolver” and, most recently, Yng Lvcas’ “La Bebe Remix” featuring Peso Pluma, which topped the Latin and Latin Rhythm Airplay charts and has spent 20 weeks on the Global 200 chart, peaking at No. 2. In Towers’ case, the success is particularly sweet because the artist had three previous top 10s on the Global Ex-U.S. chart, all collaborations. To get to the No. 1 spot solo is a feather on Duque’s cap, in tandem with Towers’ joint management team, with Orlando Cepeda and Brandon Silverstein sharing duties through their separate offices. And it earns Duque the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Duque spoke to Billboard about how this “Lala” of a love song became a global success in a single week.
La Vida es Una came out in March. Why is “Lala” rising to the top four months later?
In mid-June, a micro-influencer posted a CapCut filter with “Lala’s” audio, which kicked things off. That post was organically picked up by a couple of major influencers, which led to even more users making their own creations with it — right now, we’re seeing thousands of creations daily. This was an enormous music discovery opportunity. People weren’t just listening to the snippet on social media, they started searching for the track on streaming platforms and fully engaging with it.
When did you realize “Lala” was a hit in the making?
We see tracks going viral on social media on almost a daily basis, but not all of them lead to an effect on streaming. The way we see it is that TikTok and other social media platforms help generate awareness and buzz around the songs — and it’s all about creating the curiosity that will get people wanting to explore more and listen to the music or watch the music video. Once people are exposed to the song, it becomes about whether they will like it, share it and keep engaging with it. Once we saw “Lala” started translating very quickly from TikTok creations to YouTube views and audio streaming, we knew people were connecting to the song itself and not just the trend.
Are there any specific countries that led the charge?
The micro-influencer that helped kick off the CapCut trend is from Chile, which was one of the key countries that led the initial growth. Spain has been a key country for the song since its release, and it was also one of the first countries to see the growth alongside the trend. After that, we started seeing numbers come up in Colombia, Peru, Mexico and then the U.S. We’re now seeing the track expand to other parts of Europe and gaining new chart positions in countries like Italy and Switzerland. We strategically use data to understand the growth trajectory and which countries we should impact next, as each song has its own trajectory and requires a customized strategy.
What exactly do you do?
Music discovery has no time frame, and once a track gets into the online conversation it’s our job to jump in and maximize that buzz to turn it into a hit. It’s a very similar strategy we used with Yng Lvcas and Peso Pluma’s “La Bebe Remix,” where we identified which countries were connecting with the song first — through consumption data, but also social listening and engagement — and kept expanding our targets until the track hit No. 2 globally.
Did you have a global strategy with the song?
Yes. We always approach key releases with a regional and global strategy, and we rely on data to adjust as we go. Our strategy here started before La Vida Es Una’s release, with teaser and album launch campaigns across countries where Myke has a strong audience, especially the U.S., Latin America and Spain. After release day, we’re constantly monitoring how fans are engaging with the music on different platforms. That’s why we were able to identify what started out as a small trend so quickly and were able to jump into action and maximize the growth as much as possible.
“Lala” is not simply reggaeton; it has a swaying island vibe, too. What does this signal in the evolution of urban Latin music?
For a while, reggaeton was the Latin genre dominating the global charts. This year, we’re seeing different types of Latin songs connecting with a global audience — from songs like “Lala,” which has a more island sound, to “La Bebe Remix,” which is a Mexican reggaeton track reaching No. 2 on Spotify’s Global Chart and the Billboard Global 200. The Argentinian urban movement is also making an impact. We have a massive record with “Los Del Espacio,” a song from Lit Killah with seven other key Argentine artists including Maria Becerra and Tiago PZK. The track reached No. 17 on the Billboard Global 200. People have talked about the explosion in Latin music for years, and rightfully so, but today we are really seeing an unprecedented diversity in the hits coming from across the region.
What comes next for Myke Towers?
We’re very excited, there’s a lot of surprises coming up. From big general market collaborations to a few Latin ones, we continue to focus on building his reach and audience and growing his fan base every day.
An Atlanta judge on Friday once again refused to release Young Thug from jail while he awaits trial in a sweeping RICO case against alleged gang members, denying him bond for a fourth time over fears of witness intimidation.
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At a hearing in Fulton County Superior Court, Judge Ural Glanville cited claims by prosecutors that “recent conversations” with witnesses in the case suggested that the superstar rapper (real name Jeffery Williams) was “asking for permission to harm others.”
“The court finds that would pose a significant risk to the community,” Judge Glanville said. “For that reason I’m going to continue to deny bond at this time. That’s my ruling.”
Earlier in the hearing, Thug’s attorney Brian Steel had argued that his client posed no such risk, and that the rapper’s pre-trial incarceration – for 14 months and counting – were causing serious harm to his health, including exacerbating a kidney condition with poor nutrition. At one point, he likened Thug’s stay in jail to a form of “torture.”
Among other alleged evidence, prosecutors claimed that a person close to Thug told police the rapper had messaged her “Snitch hoes get murked. Them and their kids.” Thug’s lawyers strongly disputed the existence of that text, and prosecutors later clarified that it had been sent in 2010.
In his closing plea to Judge Glanville, Steel sharply criticized the claims made by prosecutors to keep the rapper behind bars.
“Your honor, you are being given information that is not appropriate,” Steel said. “I would not come before the court, for a third time. Mr. Williams can have a bond with whatever conditions the court needs. It will just be the right thing to do under law.”
But Judge Glanville was unswayed, saying the claim of potential witness intimidation “still troubles the court.”
Such denials of bond are a loss for any criminal defendant, but they have loomed particularly large in the YSL case in recent months, as the start of the actual trial has repeatedly been delayed.
The trial technically started in January, but after six months of attempting to pick a jury that will decide the case, not one single juror has yet to be chosen as of Friday. The delay has largely been driven by the fact that the massive case, dealing with years of allegations and many separate defendants, is expected to run well into next year. Many prospective jurors have successfully argued that they cannot afford to halt their lives for that long, citing jobs, childcare commitments and health problems.
Young Thug was indicted in May 2022, along with dozens of others, on accusations that his YSL was not really a record label called “Young Stoner Life,” but a violent Atlanta street gang called “Young Slime Life.” Prosecutors claim members of YSL committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.
The case is built around Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a law based on the more famous federal RICO statute that’s been used to target the mafia, drug cartels and other forms of organized crime. Such laws make it easier for prosecutors to sweep up many members of an alleged criminal conspiracy based on many smaller acts that aren’t directly related.
The rapper Gunna was also charged in the original indictment, but he agreed in December to plead guilty to the single charge he was facing. At the time, Gunna said he was not cooperating with prosecutors, but he acknowledged in court that YSL was both “a music label and a gang.”
Thug, who continues to strongly deny the charges he’s facing, has repeatedly sought to be released on bond ahead of trial. But such release has been repeatedly denied, largely because prosecutors have warned the judge that he might threaten witnesses or otherwise obstruct the case.
In April, Thug’s attorney again demanded that his client be released from jail. Steel argued that his client was “innocent of all charges” and that he should not be left “languishing in county jail” while the case continued to drag on.
“Conditions can be set to ensure that Mr. Williams comes back to court when required to do so, and due to the extended nature of this trial, Mr. Williams respectfully requests this Honorable Court reconsider its position on bond,” Steel wrote at the time.
Universal Music UK appointed Sally Davies as managing director of Abbey Road, the legendary recording studio forever linked with iconic albums by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Kate Bush and more. This is an in-house move for Davies, who arrives after a 10-year run at U-Live, the live promoter within the Vivendi Group and UMUK. As CEO of U-Live, she notably produced the immersive dinner show Mamma Mia the Party! alongside ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus. Prior to U-Live, Davies spent seven years with AEG as assistant GM/director of events of The O2 arena. Since Abbey Road became part of UMG as part of its 2012 acquisition of EMI (the studio was initially called EMI Recording Studios), it has expanded its services beyond recording and mixing. It offers audio mastering, audio restoration, and post-production services, among others. Davies is based in London and will report to UMUK COO David Sharpe.
“I’ve known Sally for a long time so it was an easy decision to appoint her to one of the most important leadership positions in our industry, at the forefront of world class recordings, sound innovation and creative education,” commented David Joseph, chairman and CEO of Universal Music UK. “Sally balances creativity and business strategy exceptionally well and I couldn’t be happier to welcome her back to the Universal Music family.”
Interscope Records appointed Manny Prado vice president of marketing and A&R. In the newly created role, Prado will work alongside executives Nir Seroussi and Jose Cedeño to sign and develop artists for Interscope Miami as well as work closely with its existing roster, according to a press statement. Most recently, Prado served as vp of West Coast operations at Sony Music Latin, where he worked for 20 years. During his tenure at the label, he was a key figure in the careers of Becky G, Carin León and Christian Nodal, among others. “Manny Prado is simply one of the most talented and driven executives working in music,” said Nir Seroussi, executive vice president of Interscope Geffen A&M Records. “We’re thrilled to have him join the team at Interscope Miami as we continue to build a best-in-class platform for Latin artists.” –Griselda Flores
ASCAP hired Tim Daugherty as senior vice president of general licensing. Based in New York City and reporting to head of licensing Stephanie Ruyle, Daugherty will oversee all licensing for brick-and-mortar businesses like bars, hotels and live music venues. Daugherty’s résumé includes five years with Vice Media, where he was most recently svp of revenue and digital operations, and earlier he held roles with Lonely Planet Global and Turner Broadcasting. Ruyle said she was eager to work with her new svp to “respond to the evolving economic and technology landscape for general licensees and to ensure that ASCAP members are fairly compensated for the public performance of their works.”
Verve Label Group hired longtime Spotify executive Monica Santucci as the UMG division’s new vice president of streaming, overseeing strategy and initiatives for the entire VLG family, including Verve Records, Decca Records US, Impulse! and Verve Forecast. Santucci joined Spotify back in 2013 in its label relations department and went on to launch and manage hugely popular franchises like Spotify Singles and the Live at Electric Lady series. Prior to Spotify, she spent six years at Sony Music, where she rose to associate director of digital sales. Dickon Stainer, president and CEO of VLG, said the NYC-based Santucci joined “at the perfect moment to help our artists and their music navigate the many routes to worldwide discovery.”
Porter’s Call, a Franklin, Tennessee-based nonprofit that has provided counseling and support to recording artists since 2001, is changing leadership. Effective May 2024, Porter’s Call founder/executive director Al Andrews will step down from his leadership role. Beth Barcus and Chad Karger will take the helm as co-executive directors. Phil Shay, who joined Porter’s Call in 2022, has been named director of development, while two additional staffers have joined the team: office and hospitality manager Audrey Ragan and porter Jared Farley. –Jessica Nicholson
Influence Media Partners, the music and entertainment investment firm backed by BlackRock and WMG, hired Lisa Licht as their chief marketing advisor, overseeing strategy in the spheres of partnerships, content development and communications. Over the decades, the experienced marketer has held C-suite and senior roles at Live Nation, Yahoo, Hasbro, Fox and Mattel, and owns her own consulting firm (where she advises companies like Build-a-Bear, Cameo and Illumination). Assisting Licht will be Nneka Ani, who has been promoted to head of marketing and will continue to manage corporate communications and develop opportunities around the fund’s portfolio. Additionally, Influence exec Danny Klotz has been named head of underwriting and will manage the company’s pipeline of deals and run the investment team’s catalog models and projections, among other duties. Launched in 2019 and led by Lylette Pizarro, Lynn Hazan, Rene McLean and Jon Jashni, Influence’s fund has invested in catalogs from a diverse slate of artists including Blake Shelton, Tainy, Future and Julia Michaels.
ICYMI: Longtime IFPI chief executive Frances Moore is retiring from the global trade body at year’s end … Four executives were promoted at Interscope Geffen A&M … Andre Perry was elected board president at NIVA … Amazon Music elevated Ryan Redington to general manager … Tencent Music’s chief strategy officer stepped down … and UMG upped Manusha Sarawan to MD of Southern and East Africa.
The Oriel Company welcomed Chrissy Borsellino as senior director of communications and Kelli Wasilauski as the director of operations in Nashville. Borsellino arrives from ADA Worldwide, where she was head of PR and promo, while earlier in her career she notably took the lead in launching a U.S. publicity division at WMA. Wasilauski most recently served as vp of publicity at Adkins Publicity, where she helped grow the company’s roster by double-digits and worked on high-profile campaigns for Billy Ray Cyrus, The Judds and others. The communications agency, launched in early 2021 by veteran publicists Carleen Donovan, Chloë Walsh and Jen Appel, has offices in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville. You can reach the new additions to the Oriel team at kelli@theoriel.co and chrissy@theoriel.co.
Yendi Rodriguez has been promoted to vice president, creative and songwriter services, U.S. Latin at Sony Music Publishing. In her new role, Rodriguez will lead expansion efforts for the U.S. Latin roster with emphasis on career development, talent discovery, creative collaboration and song placements. She will also continue to liaise across the company’s divisions including administration and synch to advance songwriter service efforts. The Miami-based executive will report to Jorge Mejia, president & CEO, Latin America and U.S. Latin, Sony Music Publishing. “Music has always been my passion and it is an honor to be working alongside the best songwriters in the business,” Rodriguez said. According to a press statement, Rodriguez has been key to landing top signings including Keityn, Bizarrap, Nicki Nicole, The Rude Boyz and Jay Wheeler, as well as renewals including Tainy, Camilo and Farruko, among many others. –GF
Sarah Gallagher was promoted to managing director at Modest! Management, home to Olly Murs, JLS and other artists. Gallagher is fast-approaching her 14-year anniversary at the London-based company, where she has overseen a slew of successful campaigns and tours. She reports directly to co-founders Richard Griffiths and Harry Magee. In addition to Sarah’s promotion, Natalie Vassileiou has been elevated to operations director, working alongside Gallagher to manage the day-to-day running of Modest!.
Discogs promoted Anbu Ilango to vp of engineering, Jen Agosta to brand director and Jeffrey Smith to vp of marketing.
Courtney Johanson, who was with public relations company The Greenroom PR for more than a decade, has left the company to join Red Light Management in a management capacity for artists Kip Moore, Caylee Hammack and Tucker Beathard. At The Greenroom PR, Johanson worked on campaigns for clients including Moore, Hammack and Beathard, as well as Brooks & Dunn, Rascal Flatts and Elvie Shane. –JN
Ami Gan has taken her leave as CEO of OnlyFans, the subscription platform popular among adult content creators and the occasional music artist (see: Iggy Azalea, Bhad Bhabie, Bella Thorne and Rubi Rose, among others). Gan, previously chief marketing officer, spent two and a half years in the top job and says that during her tenure the company paid out $10 billion to creators. Replacing her will be Keily Blair, who rises from chief strategy officer. “Spending nearly 3 years at OnlyFans while it echoed throughout the cultural zeitgeist, has been beyond rewarding,” said Gan, who returns to her roots as founder of a marketing firm called Hoxton Projects.
Nashville Bites: Alyssa Ramsey was promoted to manager of label services at Play It Again Entertainment, the label and management company founded by singer-songwriter Dallas Davidson. She’ll oversee label projects and artist development, including A&R and release timelines. Ramsey works with Cade Price to manage rising singer Dylan Marlowe. .. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum hired senior director of education and community engagement Katherine Palmer and director of facilities Ed Schulte. Palmer arrives from the Phoenix-based Musical Instrument Museum, where she was curator of education. Schulte has been the Nashville Zoo director of facilities for the last five years … Newly launched public relations firm King Publicity added Christina Bosch in a publicist role, effective immediately. She was most recently vice president at The Nash News. Bosch can be reached at christina@kingpublicity.com.
In June, Dylan Bourne, who manages JELEEL! and Dwellers, opened Instagram to find his inbox flooded with messages. Earlier that day, he had posted an exasperated friend’s observation about the habits of some music industry attorneys: “Seems like the standard with all these lawyers is [to] sign a million things you can’t possibly time manage.” Many of Bourne’s followers were quietly harboring the same frustration, and they started sending him their own stories of long delays and extended silences.
“I just had this feeling that if both myself and another respected peer were both experiencing these same difficulties, we couldn’t be alone, and I was curious to hear other people’s perspectives on the matter,” Bourne tells Billboard. “I could have never imagined the volume of responses that came in from fellow managers, artists, producers, and even lawyers.”
While attorneys operate almost entirely behind the scenes in the music industry, they wield a significant amount of power. Artists require a lawyer before they can sign a record deal, and “the lawyer controls that conversation in most cases,” explains one senior label executive. As a result, “Lawyers are the center of A&R.”
With great power comes great responsibility. But “there is no scrutiny on lawyers,” says one artist manager who requested anonymity to speak freely. “There’s no way to hold them accountable other than firing them.”
Jason Berger, a partner at Lewis Brisbois, was among those who reached out to Bourne after the post. “He’s right,” Berger says. “Some lawyers abuse that position because of the money that can be made when you’re in such a unique space.”
“This is a problem with lawyers that I’ve observed since I started practicing,” adds Gandhar Savur, founder of Savur Law. “I sometimes don’t get a response from an opposing lawyer for months, and these lawyers somehow flourish professionally while routinely not responding to people or getting transactions closed. It’s something that reflects poorly on our profession as a whole.”
Other attorneys bristled at the critique. “Often, lawyers will be blamed for the shortcomings of incompetent managers,” one attorney says. “Even some managers that are very prominent in the business have no idea what they’re doing” — and they bog down lawyers with requests that should be handled by an accountant or a label, the attorney continues, preventing them from focusing on their actual jobs.
“Lawyers aren’t just like, ‘We’re gonna cash these checks and screw our clients because we don’t care,’” adds Zach Bohlender, a former music attorney who left the profession to co-found Charta, a company that aims to save lawyers time by distilling the process of drawing up side-artist and producer agreements. “We feel that stress. It’s really tough mentally.”
The simmering tension between music-industry factions is partially a symptom of a shift in the broader ecosystem. “The blame shouldn’t all fall on [lawyers’] shoulders,” Bourne acknowledges. “Every role has been affected by the oversaturation our market is experiencing.”
Executives on both sides of the debate agree that there are more artists than ever before, and today’s music lawyers have more to do than their predecessors. “The workload of an artist attorney has definitely increased as music-making has become more collaborative,” says Adam Zia, founding partner of the Zia Firm. “There used to be a few producers for every album; now there might be 20 or 30 different writers and producers.” And a contract has to be drawn up and negotiated for each one of those collaborators.
“When we started going to five agreements per song, we should have taken them down from 35 pages to three pages,” says Josh Pothier, director of Kingsway Music Library, a collection of original compositions created by the producer Ging (formerly known as Frank Dukes) for sampling purposes.
“You look through those agreements, and there are still B-side protections that haven’t been necessary since we were pressing 7-inch singles,” Pothier continues. “We had a real opportunity to restructure this business when it went digital. We didn’t take it, and now we’re really struggling.”
Not only does each contemporary release tend to come laden with more paperwork, there are also simply more releases than there used to be. “Now artists are terrified that if they don’t put out music constantly, people are just going to forget them,” Bohlender explains.
But many of the managers and lawyers who spoke for this story also pointed out that lawyers are “incentivized” to take on a lot of clients since most of them operate on a 5% commission for the deals they shepherd across the finish line. “We represent developing acts for basically nothing, and there’s a venture component — you represent X number of artists, and hopefully a couple end up making it and they make everything worthwhile from a financial standpoint,” says the attorney who requested anonymity. But this can frustrate managers who see their lawyers single-mindedly chasing “after big money deals and just leaving all the smaller shit to the side,” as Pothier puts it.
More artists releasing more music with more paperwork, combined with a business model that encourages volume, means that “everybody’s completely jammed,” according to Lucas Keller, founder and president of Milk & Honey. Jammed to the point where attorneys’ response time is almost a joke around the music industry.
“A guy called me the other day and said, ‘I want to sack my lawyer — he takes too long on agreements, two months sometimes,’” Keller recalls. While his friend was annoyed, the Milk & Honey boss thought two months was actually a pretty decent turnaround time relative to some of the lags he’s seen. “The guy sounds great!” he quipped. “We should send him more business!”
Lawyers are hardly the only music industry operators accused of stretching themselves thin — the major labels have been charged with doing the same thing. However, “When a label is over-signing stuff, they’re paying money for it, and the artist is making a judgment call: ‘There’s a very real possibility that I could be shelved or get lost in the sauce,’” says Matt Buser, founder of Buser Legal. In contrast, he notes, “When you sign up with an attorney, you might even be paying the attorney a retainer. The consideration flow is different.”
And unlike labels, lawyers also have certain duties to their clients, according to Stephen Gillers, who teaches ethics at New York University School of Law. Under the court’s rules of professional conduct, “you can’t take on more clients than you can competently handle,” Gillers says. (He also notes that “you cannot take on a client in a matter if the matter is adverse to another client,” another problem in the music industry.)
What can be done to both help artists who need legal counsel and ease the burden on their lawyers? “We could do a lot better at streamlining a lawyer’s job by making a global template for agreements,” Pothier says. Several managers also believe that artificial intelligence might one day take over some of the time-consuming contract-drafting duties.
Bohlender is attempting to create his own tech solution with Charta. “How do we create a more efficient way to draft contracts?” he asks. His platform aims to distill producer and side-artist agreements to a few key provisions that can be quickly negotiated and then slotted into standardized contracts.
But for now, Bohlender notes, solutions are scarce: “No one’s winning.”
Swiss-based tech company Utopia Music is undertaking a fresh round of job cuts. In a memo to staff on Friday (July 20), co-founder/interim CEO Mattias Hjelmstedt said the company is closing its research and development offices in the United Kingdom and Finland, resulting in the loss of around 5% of its global workforce.
The closures come less than a week after distribution and music services company Absolute Label Services was reacquired from Utopia by its original owners. Billboard understands that around 25 jobs are being lost as a result of London-based Utopia UK (R&D) Ltd and Helsinki-based Utopia R&D Tech Finland Oy being shuttered.
In the staff memo, Hjelmstedt says the cuts are being made in line with the company’s “shifting focus from hyper-growth to sustainable growth and profitability.” Moving forward, writes Hjelmstedt, Utopia’s office in the Swedish capital city Stockholm — where the majority of its engineers are based — will remain the firm’s main research and development hub as part of “a leaner and more efficient setup.”
Utopia’s 10 other employing divisions or companies are not affected by the cost-cutting measures. They include Proper Music Group, the United Kingdom’s leading independent physical music distributor which provides distribution services for 1,000-plus indie labels and service companies. Also unaffected is Utopia Distribution Services, which in September 2022 acquired the assets of Cinram Novum, one of the United Kingdom’s leading physical home entertainment suppliers that provides warehouse, fulfillment and distribution services to a range of labels, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and [PIAS].
“While not taken lightly, consolidating our R&D entities is a necessary step,” Hjelmstedt writes, “as it will enable us to more efficiently deliver new products and improve our existing services.” He adds that all impacted employees will be considered for any future openings.
Friday’s announcement marks the third round of layoffs to take place at Utopia in just under nine months. In November, around 230 posts were cut (then representing 20% of the company’s global workforce), followed by a further 100 redundancies in April. High-profile exits in 2023 have included former CEO Markku Mäkeläinen and Roberto Neri, the United Kingdom-based former CEO of Utopia’s Music Services division.
Twelve months ago, when Utopia was still turning heads throughout the industry on the back of a frenetic buying spree that saw it rapidly acquire 15 companies, the firm’s global workforce numbered around 1,200. Sources tell Billboard that following the closure of the London and Helsinki tech divisions – and the exit of a number of staff who were already in the process of leaving – the number of employees will be around 440.
Alongside job cuts, Utopia has offloaded three companies this year, the most recent being Absolute, which it acquired in early 2022. Other divestments in 2023 include U.S.-based music database platform ROSTR and United Kingdom-based publisher Sentric, which in April was sold to French music company Believe in a deal worth €47 million ($51 million).
In February, the Zug, Switzerland-based tech company was hit with a lawsuit from U.S. music technology company SourceAudio over a stalled acquisition deal. According to a complaint filed Feb. 13 in Delaware court, lawyers for California-based SourceAudio claim that Utopia owes the tech company over $37 million for failing to complete an agreed acquisition deal. (Utopia estimates that this will be settled in the next coming weeks.)
Following Friday’s announcement of more job losses, a spokesperson for Utopia said the company was “streamlining its organization to increase efficiency.” Despite the consolidation, Utopia will continue to develop its product offering, said the spokesperson, and its physical distribution business “remains a priority area.”
Read the memo in full below.
Dear colleagues,
2023 has been a year of transformation, optimization, and delivery. We have been shifting focus from hyper-growth to sustainable growth and profitability. We have taken the necessary, and sometimes difficult, decisions to get there. While we see the fruits of our actions taken so far – with more products on the market and increased sales traction – we need to further consolidate our research and development (R&D) organization. The main purpose for this consolidation is streamlining our operations to increase focus on delivering our market-ready products to the music industry.
Moving forward, Utopia R&D Stockholm will continue to be our main R&D hub. Through this concentration we will be able to build on the successes delivered through this entity with a leaner and more efficient setup. As part of this consolidation, we will close down two R&D entities, Utopia UK (R&D) Ltd, and Utopia R&D Tech Finland Oy. This will not impact our other 11 employing entities. Our Finnish and UK R&D offices represent a relatively small footprint in Utopia’s overall R&D teams and we have a very strong R&D office in Stockholm that will continue developing, maintaining, and improving our core products.
Our product offering and promise to deliver world class services to our customers also remains. However, we sadly have to say farewell to some very appreciated colleagues, who have greatly contributed to our mission through their hard work, as a result. I want to express my sincere apologies to those affected and would like to thank every one of you for your hard work – you have greatly contributed to our mission. I trust you to bid the employees who are leaving a heartfelt farewell – they deserve all the respect and support we can give. All impacted employees will of course be considered for any future openings.
I’m extremely proud of all the hard work you have put in so far, and continue to deliver. The output from this last six-week cycle was truly amazing – you keep showing impressive dedication, competence, and passion. I’m convinced that we are fully equipped to continue delivering superior services to the music industry through our current customer offerings; Distribution, Radio Monitoring, TrackNClaim, Enhance & Discover, HeartBeat, and Accelerate. While not taken lightly, consolidating our R&D entities is a necessary step to realize our long-term vision of Fair Pay for Every Play as it will enable us to more efficiently deliver new products and improve our existing services.
Mattias
YouTube raised prices on the individual plans for both YouTube Premium and YouTube Music for new and current U.S.-based subscribers on Thursday (July 20), marking the first time YouTube Premium has increased prices for individual plans in the United States since launching in 2018. Subscribers to YouTube Premium will pay $13.99 per month, up from […]