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A Florida reggae band has decided to drop a copyright case accusing Dua Lipa of copying her smash hit song âLevitatingâ from their earlier track, two days after a federal judge cast serious doubt on the lawsuitâs allegations.
The band, called Artikal Sound System, sued the star last year over accusations that her 2020 song â which spent 77 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart â borrowed its core hook from their lesser-known 2017 tune, âLive Your Life.â
But in a filing on Wednesday (June 7), attorneys for both Artikal Sound System and Lipa filed a joint motion, asking the judge to permanently dismiss the case. There was no indication that Lipa had agreed to pay any money or change the credits to her song.
The filing came just two days after U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes ruled strongly for Lipa, saying that there was no sign that anyone involved in creating âLevitatingâ had had âaccessâ to the earlier song â a key requirement in any copyright lawsuit.
That ruling technically dismissed the case against Lipa, but Judge Sykes gave Artikal Sound System another chance to refile an updated version of the case within two weeks. Instead, the band appears to have decided not to pursue further litigation against Lipa and the other âLevitatingâ co-writers.
In a statement to Billboard on Wednesday evening, Lipaâs attorney Christine Lepera confirmed that the band had chosen to walk away from the litigation unilaterally and that no settlement had been reached.
âFollowing the courtâs decision dismissing their complaint, the plaintiffs voluntarily chose to discontinue the case with prejudice, without any consideration whatsoever from the defendants, who were prepared to vigorously defend any continuation of the case,â said Lepera, an attorney at the law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp.
An attorney for the band did not immediately return a request for comment.
Artikal Sound Systemâs decision to drop the lawsuit brings an end to one of two high-profile cases filed against Lipa last year over âLevitating,â which peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 before securing the honor of being the longest-running top 10 song ever by a female artist on the chart.
The other case, filed by songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, claims that Lipa lifted the melody to her track from their 1979 song âWiggle and Giggle All Nightâ and their 1980 song âDon Diablo.â That case is still pending but faces similar counter-arguments from Lipaâs lawyers about a lack of âaccess.â
Artikal Sound System is a reggae band based out of South Florida, founded in 2012 as a duo before later adding additional musicians and vocalist Logan Rex. The band released âLive Your Lifeâ on its 2017 EP Smoke and Mirrors.
In their March lawsuit, the band said the songs sounded so similar that it was âhighly unlikely that âLevitatingâ was created independently.â The lawsuit also named Dua Lipaâs label, Warner Records, as well as others who helped create the hit track.
In November, Lipaâs lawyers argued that Artikal Sound System had no proof that Lipa or the other writers ever heard âLive Your Lifeâ before they wrote âLevitating.â They called the allegations âspeculative,â âvagueâ and supported by little real evidence.
Artikal Sound System offered a complex theory for how such âaccessâ might have happened, stating that one of Lipaâs co-writers had previously worked with a woman who was allegedly taught guitar by the brother-in-law of one band member.
But in her ruling on Monday Judge Sykes flatly rejected that argument: âThese attenuated links, which bear little connection to either of the two musical compositions at issue here, also do not suggest a reasonable likelihood that defendants actually encountered plaintiffsâ song.â
Anthem Entertainment, a leading independent publisher, has expanded its partnership with Timbaland, the company announced Wednesday (June 7). Under the new arrangement, Anthem has extended its publishing deal with the songwriter/producer while promising to build on their co-publishing venture, Blue Stone. The company has also invested in Timbalandâs startup, Beatclub. As part of the newly […]
Two U.S. senators are asking TikTok to explain what they called âmisleading or inaccurateâ responses about how it stores and provides access to U.S. user data after recent news reports raised questions about how the Chinese-owned social media platform handles some sensitive information.
In a letter sent Tuesday to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn cited a report from Forbes that said TikTok had stored financial information of U.S. content creators who get paid by the company â including their Social Security numbers and tax IDs â on China-based servers.
The senators also cited another report from The New York Times, published in late May, that said TikTok employees regularly shared user information, such as driverâs licenses information of some American users, on an internal messaging app called Lark that employees from TikTokâs Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, could easily access.
Forbes first reported Wednesday on the letter.
TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said, âWe are reviewing the letter. We remain confident in the accuracy of our testimony and responses to Congress.â
TikTok has said servers that contain U.S. user data have been physically stored in Virginia and Singapore, where its headquartered. But who can access that data â and from where â is an ongoing question.
Chew, the companyâs CEO, said at a congressional hearing in March that access to the data was provided âas-requiredâ to engineers globally for business purposes. He also said some ByteDance employees still maintained access to some U.S. user data, but that would end once Project Texas â the companyâs plan to siphon off U.S. user data from China â was completed.
The popular social media app has been under scrutiny from Western governments, whoâve been wary of the companyâs Chinese ownership and have prohibited its use on government-issued devices. Earlier this year, the Biden administration threatened to ban the platform nationwide if the companyâs Chinese owners donât sell their stakes.
To assuage concerns from U.S. lawmakers, TikTok has been touting its Project Texas plan to store U.S. user data on servers owned and maintained by the software giant Oracle. Last year, the company said it began directing all U.S. user traffic to those servers but also continued to back up data on its own servers.
Chew said the company began deleting all historic U.S. user data from non-Oracle servers in March, and the process is expected to be completed this year.
In their letter, the senators also said the recent news reports appear to contradict testimonies from another TikTok official about where U.S. user data is stored.
You might not be seeing many headlines these days about the massive litigation underway in Houston over the deadly 2021 disaster at Travis Scottâs Astroworld festival. Thatâs by design.
In a ruling Tuesday, an appeals court in Texas refused to lift a strict gag order that for more than a year has barred attorneys and others from discussing the sprawling litigation over the crowd crush at Astroworld, which left 10 dead and hundreds physically injured.
ABC News had challenged the âsweepingâ restrictions, arguing they clearly violated the First Amendmentâs protections on free speech and had created a ânews desert,â in which almost no reliable information about an important case was being shared with the public.
But in its decision on Tuesday, a three-judge panel from the Court of Appeals For The First District of Texas rejected those arguments. Ruling on a battle over judicial transparency, the appeals court did not issue any written explanation for why it had denied ABCâs challenge.
Starting hours after Nov. 5, 2021 incident, lawyers claiming to represent more than 4,900 victims eventually filed more than 400 lawsuits against Scott, Live Nation and other organizers. The cases, later consolidated into a single âmultidistrict litigation,â accuse the Astroworld organizers of being legally negligent in how they planned and conducted the event, including not providing enough security and having insufficient emergency protocols in place. Combined, the victims are seeking billions in damages.
But for a case dealing with a mass-casualty event at a popular music festival with billions at stake, relatively little is known about the Astroworld litigation.
Shortly after Judge Kristen Brauchle Hawkins was appointed to oversee the cases, she issued a âpublicity orderâ that largely prohibited attorneys from speaking about the case, citing concerns that âextensive media coverageâ threatened to deprive the parties of their right to a fair trial by tainting the jury pool.
The Feb. 15 ruling was both specific and broad â banning attorneys from discussing a wide range of particular topics, including âthe strength and weaknesses of any partyâ and ârulings of the court,â but also imposing catch-all restrictions on âany other informationâ that would âprejudice the trial.â
In challenging that order to the appeals court, ABC News argued that it had deprived the public of information about important judicial proceedings over a newsworthy event. The network warned that attorneys were refusing to share even basic information about the case with journalists, out of âfear of violating its broad and vague provisions.â
âThe Gag Order, coupled with the lack of transparency from local and state officials, has created a news desert where many questions raised in the days after the Astroworld Festival remain unanswered,â the company wrote. âBy [lifting] the Gag Order, this court would provide those connected to both the Astroworld Festival and the litigation the âbreathing spaceâ needed to freely share their experiences, the press the ability to hold them to account, and the public the valuable information they need to better understand the events of November 5, 2021.â
But on Tuesday, the appeals court rejected those arguments. In a one-paragraph decision, the panel recounted ABC Newsâ argument and said simply: âWe deny the petition.â
ABC News can appeal the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court. An attorney for the company did not return a request for comment on Wednesday.
A former executive at ByteDance, the Chinese company which owns the popular short-video app TikTok, says in a legal filing that some members of the ruling Communist Party used data held by the company to identify and locate protesters in Hong Kong.
Yintao Yu, formerly head of engineering for ByteDance in the U.S., says those same people had access to U.S. user data, an accusation that the company denies.
Yu, who worked for the company in 2018, made the allegations in a recent filing for a wrongful dismissal case filed in May in the San Francisco Superior Court. In the documents submitted to the court he said ByteDance had a âsuperuserâ credential â also known as a god credential â that enabled a special committee of Chinese Communist Party members stationed at the company to view all data collected by ByteDance including those of U.S. users.
The credential acted as a âbackdoor to any barrier ByteDance had supposedly installed to protect data from the C.C.Pâs surveillance,â the filing says.
ByteDance said in a statement that Yuâs accusations were âbaseless.â
âItâs curious that Mr. Yu has never raised these allegations in the five years since his employment for Flipagram was terminated in July 2018,â the company said, referring to an app that ByteDance later shut down for business reasons. âHis actions are clearly intended to garner media attention.
âWe plan to vigorously oppose what we believe are baseless claims and allegations in this complaint,â ByteDance said.
Charles Jung, Yuâs lawyer and a partner at the law firm Nassiri & Jung, said Yu chose to raise the allegations because he was âdisturbed to hear the recent Congressional testimony of TikTokâs CEOâ when Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean, vehemently denied Chinese authorities had access to user data.
âTelling the truth openly in court is risky, but social change requires the courage to tell the truth,â Jung said. âItâs important to him that public policy be based on accurate information, so heâs determined to tell his story.â
TikTok is under intense scrutiny in the U.S. and worldwide over how it handles data and whether it poses a national security risk. Some American lawmakers have expressed concern that TikTokâs ties to ByteDance means the data it holds is subject to Chinese law.
They also contend that the app, which has over 150 million monthly active users in the U.S. and more than a billion users worldwide, could be used to expand Chinaâs influence.
During the combative March House hearing, lawmakers from both parties grilled Chew over his companyâs alleged ties to Beijing, data security and harmful content on the app. Chew repeatedly denied TikTok shares user data or has any ties with Chinese authorities.
To allay such concerns, TikTok has said that it would work with Oracle to store all U.S. data within the country.
In an earlier court filing, Yu accused ByteDance of serving as a âpropaganda toolâ for the Chinese Communist Party by promoting nationalistic content and demoting content that does not serve the partyâs aims. He also said that ByteDance was responsive to the Communist Partyâs requests to share information.
Yu also accused ByteDance of scraping content from competitors and users to repost on its sites to exaggerate key engagement metrics. He says he was fired for sharing his concerns about âwrongful conductâ he saw with others in the company.
In mainland China, ByteDance operates Douyin, which is targeted at the domestic market. TikTok is its global app that is available in most other countries. It was also available in Hong Kong until TikTok pulled out of the market in 2020 following the imposition of a sweeping national security law.
Anyone who tries to open TikTok from within Hong Kong will see a message that reads âWe regret to inform you that we have discontinued operating TikTok in Hong Kong.â
A Grammy Award-winning composer who is suing YouTube over access to its anti-piracy tools is now asking a federal appeals court to postpone her looming trial, filing an emergency motion that says the upcoming proceedings will be âenormously wasteful.â
With a trial set to kick off next week, Maria Schneider asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday to âstayâ the proceedings, arguing she needs time to litigate her appeal that seeks to overturn a ruling last month that refused to let the case proceed as a class action.
Schneider says that decision, which means the case will not include tens of thousands of other copyright owners, was not only âmanifestly erroneousâ but also came âonly three weeks before trialâ â a sudden change that âgravely underminesâ the goals of her case.
âThe named plaintiffs here joined the case to litigate class claims, and to vindicate their view that YouTube tramples on the rights of independent artists and smaller copyright holders overall, not just those of the individual plaintiffs,â her lawyers told the appeals court.
âA brief stay here to allow this court to ⊠ensure that the district courtâs last-minute, haphazard, and erroneous conclusion that this case cannot be tried on a classwide basis does not endanger the progress of this litigation,â Schneiderâs attorneys wrote.
Schneiderâs lawsuit claims that YouTube has become a âhotbed of piracyâ because the platform provides âpowerful copyright ownersâ like record labels with tools including Content ID to block and monetize unauthorized uses of their content, but fails to do the same for âordinary owners.â She says songwriters and other smaller rights holders are forced instead to use âvastly inferior and time-consuming manual meansâ of policing infringement, allowing piracy of their material to flourish.
For its part, YouTube says it has done nothing wrong. In court documents, the company has argued that itâs spent âspent over $100 million developing industry-leading toolsâ to prevent piracy, but that it limits access because âin the hands of the wrong party, these tools can cause serious harm.â
The case was filed as a class action, aiming to let potentially tens of thousands of aggrieved copyright owners team up to fight what Schneiderâs lawsuit called âinstitutionalized misbehavior.â An expert retained by her legal team said the class could include between 10,000 and 20,000 rightsholders.
But in a May 22 ruling, Judge James Donato refused to âcertifyâ the case as a class action, dramatically reducing the scope of the lawsuit. Under federal law, class-action accusers must share very similar legal concerns â and the judge said Schneiderâs fellow rightsholders would have widely different cases against YouTube.
âIt has been said that copyright claims are poor candidates for class-action treatment, and for good reason,â the judge wrote at the time. âEvery copyright claim turns upon facts which are particular to that single claim of infringement [and] every copyright claim is also subject to defenses that require their own individualized inquiries.â
Following that ruling Schneider quickly moved to postpone the trial, which is set to kick off on June 12, while she launched an appeal. But at a hearing days after the ruling, Judge Donato said he would stick to the schedule: âIâm not going to do that. You got a trial set on June 12th. This is a 2020 case; okay. Itâs showtime.â
In Mondayâs emergency petition to the appeals court, Schneiderâs lawyers argued that such a decision was unfair, forcing them to proceed to an expensive trial when the ruling on class certification might later be overturned on appeal.
âThe class should not be forced into a situation where an appellate victory would be illusory, placing them back at square one, and the fruits of three years of hard-fought litigation evaporate even when the district courtâs failure to certify a class has been confirmed as erroneous,â her lawyers wrote.
A response to the emergency motion from Google is due by the end of Wednesday.
Read the entire petition here:
This month the music industry is flocking to New York. Though it has always been one of the industryâs biggest capitals, the New York City mayorâs office of media and entertainment has coined June New York Music Month, complete with its own hashtag (#NYMusicMonth), in celebration for its history of musical excellence. Longtime events like Songwriters Hall of Fame, which will honor talents like Snoop Dogg and Liz Rose, will continue this year as always, but the city has also added more events like Anti Social Camp, a 100-session songwriting camp designed to âreinvigorateâ the New York scene, to draw in more musicians and music executives than ever.
No week this June is more bustling than June 12-16, which, depending on who you ask, goes by a variety of nicknames. Dubbed âPublishersâ Week,â âSongwritersâ Week,â or âIndie Week,â the week will be a particular high point of celebration and schmoozing in the city that never sleeps.
See below for a list of events around the city:
United Jewish Appeal (UJA) Music Visionary of the Year Celebration (June 7)
This annual luncheon, held in Ziegfeld Ballroom, is one of the first events to kick off a packed musical month for New York City. A fundraiser for UJAâs efforts â supporting Holocaust survivors, combating poverty and providing care for those with mental and physical health needs â its Music Visionary of the Year luncheon is a celebration of the music business and some of its most astute leaders. This yearâs event will be emceed by Grammy-winning artist Jon Batiste and will honor Amazonâs vice president of audio, Twitch and games, Steve Boom.
NYMM Conference (June 7)
Presented by the Mayorâs Office of Media and Entertainment and the NYU Steinhardt Music Business Program, this yearâs annual NYMM Conference (at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum) will feature speed talks, panels and other chats with more than 40 of New Yorkâs music industry experts. Panels throughout the day are set to include a Web3-focused chat with Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid, a panel celebrating 50 years of hip-hop with Apple Musicâs Ebro Darden, and a state-of-the-industry panel featuring A2IMâs Richard James Burges and the RIAAâs Mitch Glazier, among others.
She Is The Music Camp (June 9-11)
She Is The Music, one of the music industryâs leading gender inclusivity efforts, is hosting a songwriting camp in New York City to connect and empower young women and non-binary songwriters and producers and create a safe space for them to connect. Curated by Archana Gopal and Cassidy Murphy and sponsored by Guayaki Yerba Mate, the camp will take place at Kensaltown East Studios all weekend long. Some of the participants include Hayes Warner, Sam Short, Simone, Olivia Reid, and more.
Anti Social Camp (June 12-17)
Founded during the height of the pandemic, Anti Social Camp goes far beyond that of a traditional songwriting camp. Featuring 100 sessions, 150 partnered artists, and a slew of major brands and music businesses already signed on, Anti Social Camp is a week-long songwriting extravaganza stretching out over the entire city. Most of the events are private to the songwriters and artists already participating, but its opening ceremony and industry showcase, both on June 12, are available for the public to enjoy.
American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) Indie Week (June 13-15)
A2IM Indie Week is back again this year with a three days of programming, featuring panels held some of the most dominate independent businesses in music and a number of networking opportunities. Held at the InterContinental in Times Square, panel topics include the best methods for artist royalty collection, the changing state of A&R, the rise of regional Mexican music, and more. The conference kicks off on June 12 with an opening night party, presented by ADA.
Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) Global Summit (June 13)
Since 2017, the Association of Independent Music Publishers gathers in New York for a day-long event, specially designed to act as a touch-base for the indie publishing sector in particular. This year, the well-attended event, which is held at the 3 West Club, will feature panels and keynote addresses from some of the industryâs aforemost leaders.
TJ Martell Honors Gala (June 13)
The TJ Martell New York Honors Gala brings the music industry together in its fight to find treatment and a cure for cancer. The foundation was established in 1975 by music industry executive, Tony Martell, as a promise to his son T.J., who later lost his battle with leukemia, that he would raise $1 million for childâs cancer research. Since then, the foundation has raised over $250 million. This yearâs event will honor Warner Recordsâ Tom Corson, Def Jamâs Archie Davis, and Grammy-winning songwriter/producer Shane McAnally, and feature Omar Apollo, Kristin Chenoweth, Josh Groban and more.
National Music Publishersâ Association (NMPA) Annual Meeting (June 14)
Known as a critical touch-base for the music publishing industry and as a stage for major announcements from the NMPAâs CEO and President, David Israelite, the NMPA Annual Meeting attracts publishing executives from around the world. In the past, the event has been the stage for the trade organization to announce major legal actions, including the NMPAâs copyright infringement suit against Roblox, announced in 2021. The event also honors top songwriters, with this yearâs key awards going to Brandi Carlile and Ashley Gorley. Warner Music Group CEO, Robert Kyncl, will also stop by for a keynote conversation.
Libera Awards (June 15)
The Libera Awards are held each year at the end of A2IMâs Indie Week, designed to honor the achievements of independent musicians. This year, Wet Leg leads the tally with six nominations followed by Sudan Archives, Allison Russell, Fontaines D.C., and Soul Glo with three each. This yearâs award show will take place at the historic Town Hall in New York.
Songwritersâ Hall of Fame (June 15)
A star studded event honoring musicâs greatest songwriters of all time, the Songwriters Hall of Fame is a canât-miss event. Now in its 52nd year, the awards dinner will induct Glen Ballard, Snoop Dogg, Gloria Estefan, Jeff Lynne, Teddy Riley and Liz Rose into the Hall of Fame. Tim Rice will receive the Johnny Mercer Award, the organizationâs highest honor. The event will also honor Post Malone with its Hal David Starlight Award, an honor created for younger songwriters who have impacted the industry already.
SiriusXM will ensure you get more CoComelon and Blippi in your daily diet with the launch of Moonbug Radio. The satellite radio service today (June 7) unveils the exclusive new channel, a collaboration with Moonbug Entertainment, a subsidiary of Candle Media, the global entertainment company behind some of worldâs most popular kidsâ content. Moonbug Radio […]
Karol Gâs just-announced signing with Interscope Records had been rumored for months in Miami music circles, as far back as the release of her record-making album Mañana SerĂĄ Bonito last February.
So when Interscope finally announced the signing on Monday, after what sources describe as a âlengthyâ and complex negotiation, it wasnât entirely surprising. However, new information indicates this is no ordinary record deal.
According to a source with knowledge of the negotiations, Karol G, whose real name is Carolina Giraldo Navarro, will actually be releasing music under her own imprint, Bichota Records, and will be distributed by Interscope and worked by the label. Moving forward, she will own her masters as well.Â
âIt is one of the most ambitious deals signed by a Latin artist in recent memory,â says the source, who also said the deal is âvalued at almost $100 million.â
The arrangement marks a departure from Karol Gâs previous recording deal with Universal Music Latino, and seems to be more aligned with her manager Noah Assadâs independent mentality. Assadâs other superstar client, Bad Bunny, records under indie Rimas and is distributed by The Orchard.
Karol Gâs move from Latin label to mainstream label is still fairly uncommon, even at a time when Latin musicâs success is growing to unprecedented levels both globally and in the United States. It follows news from April that Brazilian star Anitta signed with Republic Records, but also work with Universal Music Latin Entertainment. While stars who are signed to major labels have historically released their music jointly between Latin and mainstream labels, according to language â Shakira long released her English albums on Epic and her Spanish language albums on via Sony Music Latin, for example, and Enrique Iglesias released both on Interscope and Universal Music Latin â Karol Gâs recordings will fall entirely under Interscopeâs purview, with the label promoting and marketing her to both English and Spanish-language markets.
Even though Interscope doesnât have a Latin division per se, it has a Miami office run by Latin music veteran executive Nir Seroussi and it works Interscopeâs Latin projects, which also include Kali Uchis and Cuco.
Karol Gâs signing to Interscope â much as with Anittaâs Republic signing â signals the Latin superstarâs intent to break into a mainstream U.S. audience and expand her brand globally even more than she has already. And although she has recorded in English in the past (in the track âDonât Be Shyâ with TiĂ«sto) there are no immediate plans to release English language music right now, sources say.
âIâm continuously amazed at the support my fans give me, which motivates me to deliver the best of me, and Iâm certain that this partnership with Interscope and their incredible team will help us continue building and making history,â said Karol G in a statement announcing the deal. âIâm thrilled to see whatâs to come.â
SYDNEY, Australia â Iconic Australian concert promoter Michael Chugg and his company Chugg Music are joining forces with Select Music and artist manager Dan Biddle on Wheelhouse Agency, a new venture.
The booking agency will lasso the growing business that is country and Americana across Australasia, and boasts an extensive roster at launch, including Sheppard co-founder Amy Sheppard, INXSâ Andrew Farriss, Casey Barnes, Kingswood, Shannon Noll and more.
Wheelhouseâs leadership team includes Chugg and his business partner Andrew Stone, the reigning artist manager of Australiaâs AAM Awards; Select Musicâs Stephen Wade (CEO) and Rob Giovannoni (senior agent), and country music artist manager Dan Biddle, director of Dan Biddle Management and special projects manager for Chugg Music.
Giovannoni and Biddle are named co-heads of the agency in addition to their existing roles, while Katie Krollig, a six-year veteran with Select Music, joins the Wheelhouse team as lead agent while continuing to service her roster of Select Music artists.
Wheelhouse Agency represents âa big moment for us,â Chugg tells Billboard from Nashville, ahead of the presentation of Billboardâs 2023 Country Power Players.
Chuggâs appetite for country music is legendary. Last year, he became the first-ever recipient of the Country Music Associationâs Rob Potts International Live Music Advancement Award. He was the sole Australian shortlisted for the new category, which celebrates an individualâs significant contributions to the live music industry by helping to build audiences for country music outside the United States.
With the late Potts, Chugg built the CMC Rocks festival brand, which expanded with CMC Rocks The Snowys, CMC Rocks The Hunter and the popular CMC Rocks Qld leg, and he has guided Barnesâ award-winning career in country through Chugg Music.
Country music is exploding in popularity in Australia right now.
Morgan Wallenâs âLast Nightâ is the current No. 1 on the ARIA Singles Chart, a position it has locked-up for two months. Itâs parent, One Thing At A Time, also led the national albums survey, thanks in part to his successful Australasian tour in March, which included a set at CMC Rocks Qld.
Close behind on the national chart is another U.S. country star, Luke Combs, whose âFast Carâ sits at No. 5, its peak position in its ninth week since release. Combs will tour Australia and New Zealand this August.
Frontier Touring, which struck a joint venture with Chugg Entertainment in 2019, is producer of both treks.
âThe growth of country music in Australia over the last few years has been well documented and it was clear that the market needed a new agency to service the many great new artists coming through along with the established artists who are kicking major goals,â comments Chugg in a statement.
âWith our many decades of experience across all facets of live touring, combined with our knowledge of the country music industry, there is no better team in Australia to help artists develop their live careers and grow their audiences.â
Read more at wheelhouseagency.com.au.
Wheelhouse Agency roster:
Amy Sheppard
Andrew Farriss
Bud Rokesky
Casey Barnes
Henry Wagons
James Blundell
Kingswood
Lane Pittman
Leroy Macqueen
Loren Ryan
McAlister Kemp
Sara Berki
Sara Storer
Shannon Noll
Sweet Talk
Taylor Moss
The Paper Kites
Travis Collins
Wagons