Business
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While attending the University of Madison-Wisconsin as a journalism and marketing major from 2003-2006, Rick Stoner fondly remembers roaming the aisles of Strictly Discs — the Monroe Street record store he acquired from longtime owners Ron and Angie Roloff last fall — just as the world was on the cusp of the digital music explosion.
“Strictly Discs is where I bought CDs before I had an iPod,” Stoner says. “That’s another way of saying that I’m 40 years old.”
Buying the beloved local business, which Ron opened in 1988 as a single-level, 800-square-foot shop (he later expanded it by converting the store’s 1,700-square-foot basement level into a retail space) was a full circle moment for Stoner — albeit not one he actively sought out. “I was not looking for a record store,” he says. “I was looking for a business at a certain price point. And the fact that I saw this listing was a very happy coincidence.”
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The relatively quick five-month acquisition process concluded exactly one year ago, on Halloween 2023. And in January, after serving in advisory roles for three months during the handoff, the Roloffs fully exited the business (which was a subject of Billboard‘s “In a Pandemic” series from 2020 to 2021) to officially embark on their retirement, leaving Stoner to pilot the future of a store that has been a part of Madison’s cultural heart for 36 years. It’s a legacy he doesn’t take lightly, and, to foster a sense of continuity, he felt it was important to keep as many of the store’s existing staffers on board as possible.
Record Store Day 2024 at Strictly Discs in Madison, Wis.
Courtesy of Strictly Discs
“Retaining the team has been really my number one priority,” Stoner says. “Maintaining the business, maintaining the customers — to me, all those things are achievable if you’re retaining the brain trust and knowledge and vibe that comes with the team that has been there for a long time.” The store’s entire staff stayed on after the acquisition, including longtime employees Evan Woodward — who now serves as GM and runs the shop on a day-to-day basis — and Mark Chaney, who fills the role of assistant GM. “Everyone’s worked together really well,” Stoner adds. “I think they appreciate maybe a different approach to things, a little more structure, and I certainly appreciate the knowledge of music that they bring.”
Stoner’s 18-year background as a high-level advertising executive focused on management and new business development at companies including Brado, Derse, BBN and Bader Rutter makes him well-equipped to expand into new areas and supercharge what the store was already doing well. One of the first changes under his purview was instituting a new inventory management system that would be capable of handling the shop’s roughly 500,000 used vinyl records in addition to new product (he chose a system that was originally designed for grocery stores).
Another major item on Stoner’s to-do list was already in motion prior to his acquisition of the business: the conversion of 1,000 square feet of the 5,000 square foot Strictly Discs warehouse in neighboring Cambridge, Wis., into a second retail location, which officially opened Oct. 19 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule (a grand opening is slated for sometime in November after the store’s permanent exterior sign is installed). “We have plenty of customers that aren’t in downtown Madison, and it takes them a while to drive downtown through traffic, find parking,” he says of opening the new storefront. “Now those people will be able to come here. And I also think we’ll be serving a rural customer that maybe just isn’t exposed to the cultural curiosities that come with a record store.”
Stoner is currently looking at creative strategies to build interest and excitement in the new location, including giving customers access to the music lover’s paradise contained in the back 4,000 square feet of the building, which boasts the majority of the business’ used product. Though Stoner has yet to settle on what that would look like, some ideas include quarterly bin-picking days and a “buy a crate and fill the crate” promotion.
Opening day at Strictly Discs’ new retail location in Cambridge, Wis.
Courtesy of Strictly Discs
Strictly Discs’ mountain of used product is one of the business’ key strengths. Beginning in 2010, Ron Roloff focused his energies on acquiring large private music collections in Wisconsin and beyond, leading the store to become known as the home of a treasure trove of hard-to-find records in all different genres. “I think what sets us apart is the volume and quality of more niche genres: jazz, classical,” says Stoner. “We have an extensive soundtrack collection that, before buying the business, I never could have imagined or guessed how well that does for us.”
Those used records are key to another major initiative Stoner has in mind: creating a subscription model that would allow customers to choose a certain number of new or used records per month — which would require integrating the store’s website with the Shopify platform — and either pick up their chosen product in-store or have it delivered to their homes. The idea was partially inspired by similar plans offered by the likes of Vinyl Moon and Vinyl Me, Please — though, as Stoner points out, those companies don’t allow customers the kind of choice Strictly Discs can offer. “If you’re paying $50 or $100 a month, especially if you live in a rural area, the record store is coming to you,” he says. “And I don’t see a lot of shops doing that.”
With a goal of launching some iteration of the subscription model during this year’s holiday shopping season, Stoner and his employees are currently focused on what he calls “the Herculean effort” of cataloging the store’s warehouse inventory. Stoner aims to initially target customers within Wisconsin but outside of Dane County (where Madison is located), drawing interest through targeted ads online and via the store’s email newsletter. “I think my main concern about it is that it doesn’t cannibalize our store,” he says. “So my hope is someone could subscribe to that, pick up things in store, they would get a discount in store for being a member, and it would allow us some growth and customer loyalty.”
Stacks of used vinyl at the Strictly Discs warehouse in Cambridge, Wis.
Courtesy of Strictly Discs
The focus on getting the subscription plans off the ground ties in with Stoner’s overarching goal of beefing up Strictly Disc’s e-commerce efforts. On that front, the Roloffs were already ahead of the game, with a sales mix of 70% in-store and 30% online (within that, the mix is 90% vinyl and 10% CDs; while 65% of vinyl sales are new product.) “I’ve learned that that’s pretty atypical,” he says. I think [we have] the highest online [sales percentage], at least of record stores in our coalition [the Coalition of Independent Music Stores].” And in the long term, he’s looking to flip those stats on their head: “I want that 70-30 to look like 20-80 without hampering the growth of the store,” adds Stoner, who’s hoping to triple the store’s business through online sales.
The plans don’t end there. In addition to supersizing the store’s Record Store Day activities — this year, the store closed down part of Monroe Street with the city’s permission and threw a block party for the event — he’s looking to launch pop-up record shops at music festivals and other events outside of Madison to extend the physical store’s geographic reach.
For all of his ambitious plans, the store’s longtime customers probably won’t notice much of a difference. Like Ron, Stoner is currently intent on keeping Strictly Discs a pure music shop, steering clear of merch sales and other non-music items — which would be difficult to institute in any event, he says, given the shop’s relatively small footprint — and keeping intact what people loved about it in the first place.
“[In] our main record shop in Madison … almost nothing has changed, and that’s been intentional,” Stoner says. “It’ll be a staple of the community for the next 36 years, just like it has been the last 36 years.”
More in this series:Twist & Shout in Denver, Colo.Grimey’s in Nashville, Tenn.Home Rule in Washington, D.C.Sweat Records in Miami, Fla.
SiriusXM reported a 4% decline in revenue and a nearly $3 billion net loss last quarter after it completed a financial maneuver that was aimed at simplifying its publicly traded stock, the company reported on Thursday.
The $2.96 billion quarterly net loss stemmed from a $3.36 billion non-cash impairment charge, a type of accounting expense the means an asset’s value on the company’s balance sheet was written down. When SiriusXM merged with Liberty Media’s tracking stock in September, Liberty Media valued the company’s goodwill based on a sustained lower stock price.
The charge does not impact on SiriusXM’s cash flow. However, lower subscriber revenue and softer-than-projected advertising revenue in the second half of this year caused the company to trim its 2024 revenue goal to $8.675 billion from $8.75 billion targeted earlier in the year.
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SiriusXM’s stock price was down 3.27% at $26.50 as of 11:20 a.m. in New York.
The company reported total third quarter revenue fell 4% to $2.17 billion, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and assets (EBITDA) fell 7% to $693 million, representing a 32% margin, compared to the year-ago quarter.
Tom Barry, SiriusXM’s chief financial officer, described seeing green shoots from the company’s investments in its subscription business and content, including 14,000 more net self-pay subscribers and a 6% increase in podcast advertising revenue.
“We are focused on executing our long-term strategy of strengthening our subscription business, enhancing our advertising offerings, and optimizing costs as we reinvest in the business,” Barry said in a statement.
The growth in self-pay subscribers due to lower churn reversed the contraction the company saw in the third quarter last year when it lost 96,000 subscribers. SiriusXM’s average revenue per user fell $0.53 to $15.16 due to a “higher proportion of subscribers on self-pay promotional and streaming-only plans,” the company said.
Known for its in-car satellite radio subscriptions, SiriusXM launched a new in-car subscription priced at $9.99 for just SiriusXM’s music channels. The company reported seeing podcast and on-demand listeners increasing on the app it rolled out last year.
The company invests heavily in its content. In the third quarter, SiriusXM signed an exclusive deal with “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper and launched shows with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Gen Z political commentator Dylan Douglas, and the beloved former football coaches Jimbo Fisher and Bill Belichick.
Revenue from the company’s Pandora and off-platform business segment slipped 1% to $544 million as Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium’s self-pay subscriber-based declined by 76,000 to 5.9 million. The company said the decline stemmed from fewer trial starts and churn after the price of certain plans was hiked.
A woman who has accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of rape cannot proceed with her lawsuit under a “Jane Doe” pseudonym, a Manhattan federal judge says – a ruling that could potentially impact the many other cases filed against him by anonymous accusers.
In a decision Wednesday, Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil ruled that the privacy rights of Combs’ alleged victim did not trump the right of all defendants “to defend themselves” in open court against such “heinous” allegations.
“Plaintiff’s interest in avoiding public scrutiny, or even embarrassment, does not outweigh the interests of both Combs and the public in the customary and constitutionally-embedded presumption of openness in judicial proceedings,” the judge wrote.
“Plaintiff has chosen to bring this lawsuit, leveling serious charges against Combs and, as such, she has put her credibility in issue,” the judge added. “Combs is, therefore, entitled to investigate her background and challenge her allegations and her credibility.”
The ruling came in one of at least 15 lawsuits brought against Combs in recent weeks by Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, all of which have been filed under “Doe” pseudonyms. Though Vyskocil’s ruling is not binding on other judges, it could influence how they handle the issue in Buzbee’s other cases, as well as numerous other lawsuits that have been filed anonymously against Combs.
Buzbee did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday morning.
Combs has faced a flood of abuse accusations over the past year, starting with civil lawsuits and followed by a bombshell federal indictment last month in which prosecutors allege he ran a sprawling criminal operation for years aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.” If convicted on the charges, which include sex trafficking and racketeering, he faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
In the current case – filed last week by one of the 120 alleged victims that Buzbee claims to represent – the accuser alleges that Comb raped her and threatened her life in 2004 when she was 19 years old.
The case was filed under the Jane Doe pseudonym without prior approval from the judge — a common tactic in such lawsuits but one that Vyskocil ruled Wednesday was technically a violation of federal litigation rules.
In her decision, the judge said anonymous lawsuits are supposed to be the exception rather than the rule – both because American court cases are supposed to be open to the public, and because accused defendants have a right to know who is accusing them of wrongdoing.
Buzbee had argued that abuse accusers can face backlash after filing such cases, and that other accusers might be scared away from speaking out if forced to reveal their identities. Though Vyskocil acknowledged the “toll” that such public scrutiny can take, she repeatedly pointed to the “fundamental unfairness” of allowing only one side to remain anonymous.
“Plaintiff, who is an adult, has now decided to file a lawsuit in which she accuses a famous person of engaging in heinous conduct approximately twenty years ago and, further, accuses a number of businesses of complicity in that alleged conduct,” the judge wrote. “Defendants have a right to defend themselves, including by investigating Plaintiff, and the people have a right to know who is using their courts.”
TIDAL plans to lay off additional employees, its second round of cuts in less than a year. “We have made some internal changes to our TIDAL team to focus on serving artists in the most meaningful way,” a TIDAL spokesperson told Billboard in a statement. “This involved the elimination of some roles across our business […]
EMPIRE is officially stepping into Asia as the powerhouse independent label announces the appointment an executive with a track record of fostering crossover talent. Known for being pivotal in developing several breakout Asian acts, Jeffrey Yoo has been appointed EMPIRE’s senior vp of East Asia, the company announced on Thursday (Oct. 31). The seasoned exec […]
G-Dragon is reclaiming the spotlight on his terms.
The K-pop icon’s first single in seven years, “POWER,” drops Thursday (Oct. 31) as part of a new partnership with his Korean agency, Galaxy Corporation, and EMPIRE, the major independent record label that boasts Shaboozey on its roster.
Known for shattering K-pop conventions and cracking the Billboard charts early in K-pop’s rise as both the leader of boy band BIGBANG and as a solo artist, G-Dragon’s unmistakable confidence — “Guess who’s back/It’s your boy, GD!” — kicks off the hip-hop-infused, high-energy anthem. The comeback cut was co-written by G-Dragon alongside Tommy “TB Hits” Brown, Theron Thomas and Steven Franks.
“‘POWER’ manifests the essence of music,” G-Dragon said in a statement. “I express myself through music. This marks the beginning of a new era and I hope to inspire people who listen to my music.”
“G-Dragon is a cultural force that has laid the foundation for K-Pop’s global dominance,” added Ghazi, founder/CEO of EMPIRE. “This partnership reinforces our mission at EMPIRE to work alongside artists that will shape the future of global music.”
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G-Dragon was signed to EMPIRE by the company’s newly appointed senior vp of East Asia, Jeffrey Yoo.
The signing with the indie label marks a new freedom for the Seoul superstar following his exit from longtime record label YG Entertainment (home to BLACKPINK, TREASURE and BABYMONSTER) last year after two decades.
During his time at YG, G-Dragon led BIGBANG in becoming the first K-pop act to land a Korean-language album on the Billboard 200 in March 2012. He’s also scored three solo entries on the Billboard 200 and held a record for the most entries on the tally among K-pop soloists for years; he now shares the record with BTS‘ RM and J-Hope. While his music career has led to collaborations with the likes of Diplo, Missy Elliot, Sky Ferreira, Skrillex and M.I.A., plus a placement on the 2023’s Elvis soundtrack, G-Dragon also became an integral figure in the fashion and art world with his streetwear brand PEACEMINUSONE along with campaigns with Chanel and Nike.
Looking ahead, the K-pop king will perform at the upcoming MAMA Awards in Japan on Nov. 23, marking his first performance in nearly a decade at the influential K-pop awards show. Earlier this month, Billboard also reported that Tencent Music Entertainment Group had partnered with Galaxy Corporation for his upcoming tour.
G-Dragon
Galaxy Corporation
Simone Schinkel, the CEO of Music Victoria, has announced her departure from the organization at the end of the year. It caps off nearly four years of transformative work that has helped shape and elevate the Victorian music scene.
Schinkel, who took the reins during the challenging early days of the pandemic, has overseen an era of substantial growth, spearheaded major advocacy efforts, and secured more than $88 million in direct government funding for the sector.
Throughout her tenure, Schinkel has driven a range of initiatives and programs aimed at supporting Victoria’s music community, from launching a help desk and resources for industry professionals to expanding the Music Victoria Awards. Her white paper, Priorities for the Victorian Music Industry, played a key role in prompting government action on crucial issues, including lifting a long-standing freeze on new late-night liquor licenses.
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Reflecting on her time with Music Victoria, Schinkel said, “My journey at Music Victoria was made possible through an incredible and inspiring community alliance. We have achieved some great outcomes and it is a bittersweet moment that I announce my departure.”
“While the landscape has changed during my time at Music Victoria, the power of music remains strong. We have continued to shape a more sustainable and equitable future. The Victorian music industry will continue to soar.”
“Our work is a collective effort and I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to engage with some incredible people to achieve our vision to champion the entire Victorian music sector,” said Schinkel.
“I extend my heartfelt gratitude to our 5,000+ members, our dedicated staff and Board – both past and present – and our partners, industry advisors, fellow peak bodies and collaborators,” Schinkel acknowledged.
During her tenure, Schinkel introduced new Music Victoria Award categories to celebrate the diversity of Victoria’s music, including Best Pop, Best DJ, Best Regional Festival, and awards for disabled artists and diaspora talent. In 2023, Music Victoria conducted the first statewide Victorian Live Music Census, offering valuable insights into the health of the industry post-pandemic, with a follow-up scheduled for release later this year.
Schinkel’s collaborative leadership style earned her praise from notable figures within the industry. Kutcha Edwards, a Mutti Mutti musician and Music Victoria Hall of Fame inductee, highlighted her impact on First Nations music communities, noting her “commitment to deep listening, reflecting, and learning.”
Jaddan Comerford, CEO of UNIFIED Music Group, commended Schinkel for her steady leadership through challenging times, while Eliza Hull, a musician and disability advocate, remarked, “Her passion for Victorian music, local artists, and the local industry was evident in every decision she made.”
Music Victoria’s Board Chair, Chris O’Neill, lauded Schinkel’s “incredible passion and dedication” and credited her for transforming the organization’s operations and securing essential support for the sector. Under Schinkel’s direction, Music Victoria expanded its advocacy, refined its internal processes, and fostered an inclusive culture within the team.
Schinkel will step down on Dec. 20, with Music Victoria’s board commencing the search for her successor.
Two more of Young Thug’s co-defendants are taking plea deals in the long-running Atlanta racketeering case against the rapper’s alleged YSL gang, leaving Thug facing trial with just two other defendants.
A week after improper testimony from a state’s witness threw the trial into chaos and sparked talk of a mistrial, prosecutors and defense attorneys continued to show a willingness Wednesday (Oct. 30) to strike deals rather than risk starting the massive trial over from scratch.
At the hearing, Marquavius “Qua” Huey pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, robbery and several other counts, with prosecutors agreeing to drop a slew of others. Under the deal, Huey received a sentence of 25 years, but with just nine to be served in prison — a sharp decrease from the life sentences he was facing if convicted on all the charges.
Another defendant, Rodalius “Lil Rod” Ryan, pled guilty to a single racketeering conspiracy charge and was sentenced to 10 years, which was commuted to time served since he is already serving a life sentence for a 2019 murder.
The two new pleas came a day after Quamarvious Nichols agreed to plead guilty to a single racketeering charge in exchange for prosecutors dropping all other charges against him, including murder and illegal firearms possession. Under the deal, Nichols was sentenced to 20 years, but will only serve seven in prison and the rest on probation.
The flurry of deals follows an incident last week in which a government witness accidentally revealed sensitive information to the jury, prompting defense attorneys to demand a mistrial. Judge Paige Reese Whitaker, who chided prosecutors for “sloppiness” and has repeatedly criticized their handling of the case, said she would consider such a ruling.
Since then, testimony has been halted as prosecutors and defense attorneys have negotiated plea deals behind closed doors. Both sides seem willing to consider compromise rather than a costly redo of the trial, which has stretched across 10 months of jury selection and 11 months of testimony to become the longest-ever in state history.
Whether Thug himself, a Grammy-winning superstar who prosecutors claim was the leader of the gang, will also reach such a deal remains to be seen. The trial is scheduled to resume on Thursday morning (Oct. 31).
Thug was indicted in May 2022 along with dozens of others over allegations that his “YSL” group was not really a record label called “Young Stoner Life” but rather a violent Atlanta gang called “Young Slime Life.” The case, built around Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, claims the group committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.
The pleas struck Tuesday (Oct. 29) and Wednesday mean that Thug (Jeffery Williams) is now facing the remainder of the trial with just two other defendants, Deamonte “Yak Gotti” Kendrick and Shannon Stillwell. Kendrick and Stillwell stand accused of carrying out the 2015 murder of rival gang leader Donovan Thomas, a crime that figures prominently in the prosecution’s case.
When hearing the term “national park,” most people probably don’t think of Trey Anastasio noodling a guitar solo or Nas performing “N.Y. State of Mind.” But at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, both of those things, and much more, happened over the summer.
Located in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Vienna, Va., Wolf Trap is the only national park that’s also a performing arts center and exists solely to be a venue. The park’s centerpiece, the 7,000-capacity amphitheater Filene Center, hosts more than 70 musical performances each season, the 2024 edition of which ended last month with a two-night run by James Taylor.
This season, the park also unveiled a collection of new and updated facilities. Because it’s on designated federal land, this new construction was mandated to aesthetically merge with the park’s pre-existing structures and overall feel. Staff even meticulously documented the areas being refurbished to expand Wolf Trap’s historical record.
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“Everything we’re building is going to be owned by the American people,” says Wolf Trap president/CEO Arvind Manocha. “There’s a lot of checks and balances to make sure that what we’re doing is permanent and meets a standard that’s consistent with the ideals of the way federal land is managed.”
Construction of the public areas started the day after the 2023 season’s final show, with improvements to seating, picnic pavilions, artist areas and more. The centerpiece of the construction is Meadow Commons, a stately, wood-paneled facility that opened in May. Replacing a concessions stand as old as the 53-year-old park itself, the new facility features picnic terraces, expanded food options, modern bathrooms, meeting spaces and elevators that make that area of the park more accessible to guests with mobility issues. The team also used locally sourced timber, installed low-flow toilets, traded out plastic for bamboo serveware and paper straws, installed a wastewater management design that considers local waterways, and built around a pair of 100-year-old trees.
Designed by architectural firm Gensler, whose global projects include the refurbishment of Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater and the construction of Nevada’s Grand Sierra Resort Reno Arena, the Wolf Trap updates were started during the pandemic and done in an architectural style that compliments the Filene Center — which has a striking Brutalist design and is clad in douglas fir — and other pre-existing buildings. Some of these structures date back to when the land was not a venue or park, but a working farm. “I would say it’s contemporary with a rustic heart,” Manocha says of the overall design aesthetic.
Meadow Commons at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Courtesy of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Backstage, an earlier phase of construction revamped the artist area, which Monacha knew — from his time as COO of the LA Phil Association, which oversees the Hollywood Bowl and Disney Hall in Los Angeles — is something that artists notice. (To wit, when Bonnie Raitt came onstage during a June 2022 show, the first thing she said to the audience was, “You guys should see what they’ve done for us back there!”) Wood that previously covered the exterior of the Filene Center was upcycled to cover walls in artist dressing rooms, and a huge map shows performers the location of every National Park in the system. Manocha says artists are now arriving early on show days so they can hike before they play.
Funding for these updates was raised through a private philanthropy campaign orchestrated by Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, a private 501(c)(3) that works with the National Park Service to manage Wolf Trap. The campaign raised $75 million for onsite improvements and the park’s endowment, which also funds an artist training program and an education program designed by Wolf Trap and taught in pre-K schools and childcare centers nationwide. On-site improvements like Meadow Commons are effectively a gift to the park, given that these assets are on federal land and therefore can’t be owned by the Foundation.
While pretty, the land on which Wolf Trap sits is not, on its own, exceptional. You won’t see red rock canyons, towering waterfalls or rolling dunes. Nor does the land possess intrinsic historic value to the creation of the United States, as the country’s roughly 200 other national parks and monuments do. Rather, music and art provide Wolf Trap’s reason for being.
“The Park Service’s remit is to be the stewards of the fabric of American culture,” says Manocha. “In creating a national park for the arts, what the founders said [is] that artistry and creativity is part of the fabric of American culture. It is something that defines us as a people.”
Filene Center at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Courtesy of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Wolf Trap’s origins date back to the mid-1960s and a woman named Catherine Shouse. Born in 1894 in Boston to the family that founded Filene’s Department Store, Shouse was the first woman to receive a master’s degree in education from Harvard. She later became a lauded woman’s rights activist and went on to work in various government sectors. President Calvin Coolidge appointed her to work on women’s prison reform, and she served with every administration thereafter on myriad projects. She also had a farm in Vienna, then a rural outpost of D.C.
When Dulles airport opened 12 miles from Vienna in 1962, the construction of the road connecting it with D.C. split Shouse’s farmland by eminent domain. So, in the mid-’60s, she approached then-President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall and told them she wanted to use the land for a public sanctuary that would blend art and nature. She requested this area be designated part of the National Park Service — which was founded in 1916 with the creation of Yellowstone in Wyoming — to ensure a high level of care and permanent protection.
Shouse’s requests were granted, and Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts opened in the summer of 1971 with an inaugural performance by the New York City Opera. In the 53 years since, programming has diversified to include just about everything: The 2024 season included shows by Wilco, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Nas, Clint Black, TLC, Anastasio and many others.
“We’re programming the National Park for music, and the National Parks are owned by all Americans,” says Manocha. “So, we have an obligation that everyone in this region feels that Wolf Trap belongs to them. I want people to feel like, ‘There’s something here that speaks to me.’”
Filene Center at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Courtesy of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
But given that Wolf Trap is a designated National Park, things also operate a bit differently than at a typical venue. Instead of police officers controlling traffic flow on show nights, the job is handled by Park Police and Rangers in the park system’s signature uniforms. The National Park Service also oversees maintenance of the grounds, which includes 120 acres of parkland, 90 acres of forest, trails and a large fishing pond. The Park Service is not involved in artist booking or other arts-related programming.
Of course, Wolf Trap isn’t the only park to host concerts. Red Rocks Amphitheatre exists inside Red Rocks Park, which is owned and operated by the city of Denver. Lollapalooza is permitted to happen in Chicago’s Grant Park. The 2,500-capacity Blue Ridge Music Center amphitheater exists within Blue Ridge Parkway National Park. But Wolf Trap is an outlier in that concerts are literally its entire reason for being. “It’s not like we have to get permission to put on shows at this park, because we are the park,” says Manocha. “Without the concerts, there is no park here.”
Min Hee-jin’s mission to be reappointed as CEO of NewJeans’ label ADOR just hit another hurdle. On Tuesday (Oct. 29), a South Korean court dismissed the embattled executive’s application to be reinstated in the position, according to reports from Korea JoongAng Daily and Mael Business Newspaper.
According to a source familiar with the matter, the dismissal means the court ruled in favor of HYBE and terminated the case without a judgment on its merits — essentially not conceding or accepting Min’s filing to begin with.
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Min originally submitted her application for reappointment on Sept. 13. In it, she asked the court to order HYBE’s internal board to re-elect a “new” CEO (a.k.a. herself), arguing that she needed to be in the position in order for NewJeans to continue its activities. However, the court’s latest decision has weakened that argument, the source says. Should Min continue her push to be reinstated as CEO, she will likely need to use a different argument to have any chance of her case moving forward.
For the time being, Min is expected to stay on as an internal director of ADOR. She was replaced as CEO by Kim Ju-young, HYBE’s head HR officer, in August.
“We acknowledge and appreciate the court’s wise ruling,” a representative for HYBE tells Billboard in a statement. “In light of this decision, HYBE is dedicated to normalizing ADOR’s operations, improving our multi-label capabilities, and supporting the activities of our artists.”
The development is the latest event in Min and HYBE’s months-long power struggle over ADOR and its powerhouse act NewJeans that stretches back to April 2024. Following an internal audit of ADOR, HYBE — also home to acts like BTS, Seventeen and Le Sserafim — called for the immediate resignation of Min as CEO, accusing her of trying to hijack the label imprint as well as NewJeans. The conflict has since devolved into a tangled web of he-said-she-saids, multiple lawsuits, and ultimately, Min stepping down from her position on Aug. 27.
Throughout the process, the members of NewJeans have become increasingly involved in the conflict, publicly sharing their support for Min during live performances and in a since-deleted 27-minute YouTube video in which they alleged mistreatment and a toxic work environment at HYBE. Most recently, NewJeans member Hanni, 20, appeared in court to testify to South Korean lawmakers about alleged workplace harassment, saying, “I came to the realization that this wasn’t just a feeling. I was honestly convinced that the company hated us.” During her testimony, she cited instances when she felt HYBE undermined the band and senior managers of the company deliberately ignored her.
While Min hasn’t yet released an official statement regarding the latest court decision, she’s gone on the record to South Korean media saying that she plans to “go all the way” in her legal pursuit to be reinstated.
Following the court’s decision, ADOR’s internal board again voted against reinstating Min on Wednesday (Oct. 30).