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Calling the rapid growth of artificial intelligence tools a “moment of revolution,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that the government must act quickly to regulate companies that are developing it.
The New York Democrat said he is working on what he calls “exceedingly ambitious” bipartisan legislation to maximize the technology’s benefits and mitigate significant risks.
While Schumer did not lay out details of such legislation, he offered some key goals: protect U.S. elections from AI-generated misinformation or interference, shield U.S. workers and intellectual property, prevent exploitation by AI algorithms and create new guardrails to ward off bad actors.
AI legislation also should promote American innovation, Schumer said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
“If applied correctly, AI promises to transform life on Earth for the better,” Schumer said. “It will reshape how we fight disease, tackle hunger, manage our lives, enrich our minds and ensure peace. But there are real dangers that present themselves as well: job displacement, misinformation, a new age of weaponry and the risk of being unable to manage this new technology altogether.”
Schumer’s declaration of urgency comes weeks after scientists and tech industry leaders, including high-level executives at Microsoft and Google, issued a warning about the perils that artificial intelligence could pose to humankind.
“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” their statement said.
Worries about artificial intelligence systems outsmarting humans and running wild have intensified in recent months with the rise of a new generation of highly capable AI chatbots such as ChatGPT. It has sent countries around the world scrambling to come up with regulations for the developing technology, with the European Union blazing the trail with its AI Act expected to be approved later this year.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden convened a group of technology leaders in San Francisco to debate what he called the “risks and enormous promises” of artificial intelligence. In May, the administration brought together tech CEOs at the White House to discuss these issues, with the Democratic president telling them, “What you’re doing has enormous potential and enormous danger.”
“We’ll see more technological change in the next 10 years that we saw in the last 50 years,” Biden said.
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients’ office is developing a set of actions the federal government can take over the coming weeks regarding AI, according to the White House.
Schumer’s hands-on involvement in crafting AI legislation is unusual, as Senate leaders usually leave the task to individual senators or committees. But he has taken a personal interest in regulating the development of artificial intelligence, arguing that it is urgent as companies have already introduced human-like chatbots and other products that could alter life as we know it. He is working with another Democrat, Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, and Republican Sens. Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Todd Young of Indiana to speak with experts, educate colleagues and write the legislation.
It’s an unexpected role for Schumer, in particular, who famously carries a low-tech flip phone, and for the Senate as a whole, where the pace of legislation is often glacial.
Senators average around retirement age and aren’t known for their mastery of high-tech. They’ve been mocked in recent years for basic questions at hearings — asking Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg simple questions about how his platform works at a 2018 hearing on Russian interference, for example — and for a bipartisan reluctance to regulate the technology industry at all.
Schumer, along with several Republican colleagues, say the federal government can no longer afford to be laissez-faire with tech companies.
“If the government doesn’t step in, who will fill its place?” Schumer asked. “Individuals and the private sector can’t do the work of protecting our country. Even if many developers have good intentions, there will always be rogue actors, unscrupulous companies, and foreign adversaries that seek to harm us. And companies may not be willing to insert guardrails on their own, certainly if their competitors are not required to insert them as well.”
Attempting to regulate AI, Schumer said, “is unlike anything Congress has dealt with before.”
It is unclear if Schumer will be able to accomplish his goals. The effort is in its earliest stages, with the bipartisan working group just starting a series of briefings for all 100 senators to get them up to speed. In the House, legislation to regulate or oversee artificial intelligence has been more scattershot, and Republican leaders have not laid out any ambitious goals.
Schumer acknowledged that there are more questions than answers about the technology.
“It’s not like labor or healthcare or defense where Congress has a long history we can work off of,” Schumer said. “In fact, experts admit nobody is even sure which questions policymakers should be asking. In many ways, we’re starting from scratch.”
BMI’s recent rate court victory substantially increasing songwriters and publishers’ royalties for live events will be appealed, according to a notice filed by the North American Concert Promoters Association on Wednesday (June 21).
In May, Southern District of New York Judge Louis Stanton awarded the performance rights organization a 138% increase in rate to 0.5% of the event’s “revenue” with an expanded definition of the term to include tickets sold directly onto the secondary market, servicing fees received by the promoters and revenues from box suites and VIP packages. That 0.5% was up from what BMI said was a blended rate of 0.21%, based on 0.3% interim rate for venues that held less than 10,000 seats; and the interim 0.15% for venues that held more than 10,000 during the period of 2018-2022.
At that time, Stanton also set rates for the retroactive period of 2013-2017, with the previously used, less expansive “revenue” definition that only reflected earnings directly from the face value of primary market ticket sales. Those rates ranged from .08% of revenue for venues of up to 2,500 seats to 0.15% for venues with 10,000 or more seats.
On Tuesday, however, lawyers for the concert trade group filed a notice with the Southern District of intent to appeal that decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, according to the filing submitted by Weil, Gotshal & Manges, the law firm representing the concert promoters. The notice to appeal could mean that the group will appeal; or it could be a procedural move that keeps open the option to appeal. The concert trade group had 30 days to file the appeal notice from the last day in court— a few weeks back on a BMI motion regarding interest on whatever fees might be owed from the 2018-2022 term covered by the newly set rates for that period.
In a statement BMI said the concert industry has long fought against rate increases for songwriters.
“Given Live Nation, AEG and [the North American Concert Promoters Association’s] bizarre position throughout trial that concertgoers attend concerts for the experience of the staging, videos and light shows, as opposed to the actual songs and music being performed, their appeal was not a surprise to BMI,” BMI president and CEO Mike O’Neill said in a statement. “For decades, the live concert industry has fought to keep rates suppressed. And even now, when they are making more money than ever, in more ways than ever, they are determined to deny songwriters and composers the fair value of their work, despite the fact that without their contributions, a concert wouldn’t even be possible. BMI will continue to fight on behalf of our affiliates, the creators of the music that is the very backbone of the live concert industry, to prevent that outcome.”
The concert promoters did not. respond to a request for comment at time of publishing. In May, an AEG spokesperson said “AEG Presents and NACPA were defending performing artists, who bear the costs of BMI fees, in this litigation.” Concert promoters have long billed the performing artist for performance rights organizations’ royalty fees.
Sphere Entertainment Co., the company behind an expensive, state-of-the-art venue opening this fall in Las Vegas, is selling about a quarter of its stake in MSG Entertainment — 5.25 million shares of Class A common stock — in a secondary offering, the company announced Wednesday. That amount could grow by 787,500 shares if the offering’s […]
Independent Bay Area-based label, publisher and distributor EMPIRE has promoted industry veteran Tina Davis to the role of president, the company announced today (June 21). Davis, who most recently worked as EMPIRE’s senior vp of A&R, will continue to lead the company’s vast and varied A&R efforts while also getting involved in day-to-day operations and […]
Two major forces in talent representation are coming together via the merger of Agency For the Performing Arts (APA) and Artist Group International (AGI).
Announced today (June 21), this partnership launches the newly formed Independent Artist Group (IAG). The company will have offices in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville and Atlanta.
Current APA president Jim Osborne will lead IAG as CEO. Dennis Arfa, founder and CEO of AGI, will serve as chairman of IAG’s music division. AGI president Marsh Vlasic will serve as vice-chair of this music division, with Vlasic, Arfa, AGI COO Jarred Arfa, AGI president of touring Adam Kornfeld and the rest of the company’s senior agents and staff all joining IAG. As reported by Digital Music News, APA recently let go of several of its music agents.
The creation of IAG follows an agreement between APA and Yucaipa Entertainment LLC, a private investment firm owned by Ron Burkle that, as DMN reports, acquired AGI in January 2012 and made a major non-equity investment into APA in September 2012.
Arfa founded touring agency AGI 35 years ago. The company delivers IAG a client roster that includes Billy Joel, Metallica, Def Leppard, Rod Stewart, Motley Crue, Linkin Park, Jane’s Addiction, Darryl Hall & John Oates, Norah Jones, Neil Young, The Strokes, Smashing Pumpkins, Ghost, Elvis Costello, Cage The Elephant and Five Finger Death Punch.
APA touring music clients coming to IAG include 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige, Ms. Lauryn Hill, 2 Chainz, NE-YO, Key Glock, $not, Kamasi Washington, D’Angelo, blackbear, JAX, Cypress Hill, Bryce Vine, Jon Bellion and Robert Glasper.
The merger follows recent AGI and APA collaborations involving AGI clients Billy Joel, Daryl Hall, Perry Farrell, GHOST and Billy Corgan.
“Dennis Arfa and his exceptional colleagues at AGI are revered in the industry, having built a spectacular artist roster and a sterling reputation,” Osborne says in a statement. “The great news is we have already established a tremendous working relationship with them through shared representation on some of their most valued artists. This new partnership with AGI and our rebrand to Independent Artist Group (IAG)is another major step that elevates us within the agency landscape…and we are not done yet!”
“This was the natural next step in our evolution and made in the best interests of our valued artists,” adds Arfa. “We have admired how Jim Osborne and their colleagues have been market leaders in creating brand expanding, non-touring revenue opportunities for their clients and we are excited to build on that success with them and look forward to integrating under the Independent Artist Group (IAG) banner.”
The first time Ashley Elzinga, a 33-year-old DJ from Traverse City, Mich., heard her doppelgänger’s voice, she was not happy. Not because the sound of an artificial-intelligence imposter was so eerie. Not because AI technology portends robots might someday replace her. She didn’t like the way AI Ashley pronounced “news.” “I was like, ‘Why are they saying nooooose?’” recalls Elzinga in her flat Midwestern accent. “I was so embarrassed.”
It took a few tries for the engineers at Futuri Media, a Cleveland-based AI specialist, to find the right vocal balance between flat and sharp, deadpan and excited. “Now she’s ironing out…,” says Elzinga, a midday host for Portland Top 40 station Live 95.5, then corrects herself: “Now it’s ironing out…. She, or it, is starting to have more emotion and be a bit more accurate resemblance.”
AI Ashley, as Live 95.5 refers to the cloned voice on the air, made “her” debut on the air last Friday, delivering news, introducing songs and hyping station promotions in alternating speaking segments with the real Ashley Z, as Elzinga is known. Live 95.5 hasn’t received any listener complaints, says Dylan Salisbury, the station’s content director: “I don’t even know if they realize it yet.”
Alpha Media, owner of Live 95.5, started experimenting with AI voice technology last fall, according to Phil Becker, the company’s executive vp of content. When company execs learned Elzinga was about to take the full-time job in Traverse City, potentially reducing her hours on Live 95.5, they saw her as a “perfect storm” case study for an on-air test, he says: “The line in Moneyball is ‘the first guy through the wall always gets bloodied.’ That’s where we are right now. We’re OK playing some Moneyball-style radio, because it wins championships.”
Elzinga and Salisbury see AI as an efficiency tool, a way of stretching DJs’ hours so listeners can hear their voices even when they’re not physically present. For Elzinga, who multi-tasks her way through a full-time morning-show gig at her hometown Top 40 station WKHQ, then “tracks” her voice remotely for Live 95.5 and another station in Seattle every day, AI Ashley allows her to work even more. She owns the rights to her voice, approves every on-air AI usage and, Salisbury says, “We have increased her fee.”
“If she says stop, we have to stop,” Salisbury adds. “We’re trying to be respectful during the wild West of AI and go where we think the law is going to go.”
We made history as the world’s first radio station with an AI DJ! Our midday host Ashley has become AI Ashley! We can’t wait for you to meet Ashley, the world’s first artificially intelligent DJ. As to the intelligence of our other DJ’s…we’ll save that for another post 😉 pic.twitter.com/CtlMhYU0IO
— Live 95.5 (@live955) June 13, 2023
Of course, what is a neat, little, high-tech, mostly risk-free magic trick for Elzinga, Salisbury and Alpha Media, the Portland broadcast company that owns Live 95.5 and 205 other stations, is a terrifying prospect for much of the radio industry. When the station posted excitedly about AI Ashley last week, Twitter erupted: An NPR host tweeted an “everyone disliked that” meme, a freelance writer wanted to know, “Why would you participate in the very public elimination of your job?” and even J. Smith-Cameron, who plays Gerri on HBO’s Succession, wondered if Elzinga was “worried you’ll have ALL the days off now that they cloned you?”
For the past three decades, the broadcast industry has faced consolidation and extreme cost-cutting that has oftentimes meant layoffs of on-air talent. Over the past few years, DJs for local radio shows have been outsourced from other markets — much like Elzinga does in Portland and Seattle from her home in Michigan.
“They are eagerly stripping away, as fast as they can, the thing that makes radio unique,” says former radio host and station manager Michele Coppola, who’s now a Portland copywriter.
“My fear is there will be some owners that will [say], ‘This is an efficiency, this is a way for us to save money — that will further deplete the body of truly talented radio people,” adds Steve Reynolds, a Raleigh, N.C., talent coach for radio personalities.
“Futuri claims it’s going to be a tool, just like any other tool, to make a job easier,” says Lance Venta, owner and publisher of Radio Insight. “Voice-tracking, when used properly, is a tool. When it’s used to have a talent voice 35 stations to save money, it’s no longer a tool — it’s a weapon.”
Radio Waits
So far, the rest of the U.S. broadcast industry has yet to plunge into on-air AI voices as aggressively as Live 95.5. But radio stations around the world, and their digital competitors, have tinkered with the technology – and have suggested they may expand. In April, a Swiss station used AI to clone five human presenters on the air; comedian Drew Carey used an AI-generated approximation of his voice on his SiriusXM show in March; and in February, Spotify launched a (voiceless) AI-curated, personalized broadcast called “DJ.” During an April conference call about a soft advertising market, Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of top broadcaster iHeartMedia, told investors after a 3.8% drop in revenue, “We and every other company are looking at how to use AI. I think AI can fundamentally change the cost structure of the company.”
At Audacy, the second-biggest broadcaster, execs have done a “fair bit of experimentation” with AI tools, from voice applications to ChatGPT-style generative text that helps produce drafts of advertising scripts, according to Jeff Sottolano, executive vp and head of programming. But he’s not convinced an AI Ashley-style experiment has “value it creates for the consumer,” because Alpha Media had to expend “up-front investment” on training, reviewing, post-production and editing — all of which, at least for now, contradict the company’s efforts for greater efficiency and cost-cutting.
“All that said, I expect it will continue to get better and easier and faster,” he says. “We don’t look at this as something that’s finished, but something that’s going to continue to evolve. Just because we haven’t done it today doesn’t mean we might not do it tomorrow.”
The human Ashley is happy with the AI arrangement as long as she and her robot counterpart are clearly identified as “Ashley Z” or “AI Ashley” every time she — or it — appears on the air. “You just need to make sure integrity comes first,” she says.
Chinese pop star G.E.M. is looking to grow her Latin American fan base — and break the mold for Chinese artists — by putting out a full-length Spanish version of her latest album, Revelation. And the idea to do it didn’t come from an executive or carefully plotted strategy by her new label, Warner Music China, which released the original Mandarin version in September.
“It wasn’t necessarily something we sat down with her and sort of guided her towards,” Simon Robson, Warner Music Group’s president, international, for recorded music, tells Billboard. “It was more that she wanted to do this, and we wanted to support her.”
Robson says G.E.M.’s Revelación, which Warner Music plans to release on July 10, will be the first Spanish-language album by a major Chinese music artist at any label (as far as WMG is aware). The experiment, the executive says, is “quite indicative of what’s happening with music at the moment and just how impactful Spanish music is becoming.”
Like her Chinese original, the Spanish album — which G.E.M. says she wrote on her own, after essentially teaching herself the language — will feature 14 songs. After debuting in 2008 with her self-titled EP G.E.M, the Shanghai born, Hong Kong-raised singer, whose real name is Gloria Tang Sze-wing (G.E.M. stands for Get Everybody Moving), became one of the top-selling female artists in Asia. Often dubbed China’s Taylor Swift, she holds the record for most-viewed music video on YouTube among all Chinese artists with “Light Years Away” (267 million views), the Chinese theme song for the sci-fi movie “Passengers.”
“It has been an incredible journey working on this project as I do not speak Spanish, but I was determined to fulfill a prophecy that was made to me 10 years ago that one day I would sing in the language,” G.E.M. says in a press release announcing Revelación. “After receiving support from South America for my Chinese album Revelation, I taught myself Spanish and wrote the entire album by myself.”
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A devout Christian, the singer rose to fame in 2014 after appearing on the TV competition show, “I Am A Singer 2.” Her second-place finish boosted her popularity in mainland China. She also received a nomination for an MTV Europe Music Award for Best Mainland China & Hong Kong Act and in 2016 Forbes named her to its 30 Under 30, the only Asian artist featured on the list. She composes songs in Cantonese and Mandarin, and also speaks English.
G.E.M. signed with Warner Music China last July, after a sticky separation from her Hong Kong-based label, Hummingbird Music, which sued her in 2019 to enforce their 2014 contract, which the label said was valid until 2022. Hummingbird was seeking HK $120 million ($15.3 million) in damages, according to Chinese media reports. G.E.M. filed a countersuit for unspecified damages, claiming Hummingbird had failed to fulfill its contractual duties. Both parties were seeking exclusive rights to her copyrighted works, including her stage name. (It is unclear if the suits have been resolved. A WMG spokesperson says he does not have any information about the situation.)
Revelation, G.E.M.’s seventh studio album, is named after the New Testaments’s Book of Revelation. In the wake of the pandemic last summer, the artist found herself prone to melancholy and other negative emotions, and developed the habit of praying, she told Billboard China. Her album was a “direct dialogue between me and heaven,” she said. “I write letters to heaven, and they write back. This is what gradually gave shape to the concept behind Revelation.”
Warner Music released two songs from the album every week — accompanied by videos — for seven weeks leading up to Sept. 22. G.E.M. began noticing that user-generated content and remakes of the song in local languages by Spanish-speaking content creators were appearing on social media platforms, particularly in South America. “Whether it was due to the album’s themes or its vibes, it was evident that it was connecting strongly with Spanish speakers globally,” a WMG spokesperson says. So, she decided to learn Spanish and convert the songs into Spanish “to better share her message and music with this fanbase.”
While the plan is still in its preliminary stages, G.E.M. is planning to perform the Spanish version of the song throughout the next year, with live performances in Latin America, the spokesperson tells Billboard.
Robson says WMG currently has no plans to release any other Chinese artists’ albums in Spanish. “But I think that obviously there is an element of seeing how successful this album is,” he says. “It’s something I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more of just because Spanish music, in the broadest terms, is becoming increasingly influential around the world.”
The Warner Music executive acknowledged that there is an element of risk for G.E.M. and the label with the Spanish project but declined to define what success would look like for the artist. “It’s more about building her fan base in Latin America,” he says. “It’s step by step, really.”
WMG continues to lean into Latin music, at a time when the genre is exploding globally. Between 2020 and 2022, Latin music grew 55.29% in album consumption in the U.S., according to Luminate, more than double the overall industry’s 21.61%.
Robson points to recent tracks like Peso Pluma’s remix of Yng Lvcas’ “La Bebe,” which is holding at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, and the upcoming album or EP from Mexican rapper Natanael Cano, which is scheduled to drop at the end of June, as signs of Warner Music’s efforts on the Latin front. (Yng Lvcas performed last week at a songwriting camp in Madrid organized by Warner Music Spain and Warner Chappell Music Spain, part of an effort by the company, Robson says, to host more joint writing camps for both publishing and recorded music.)
Two years ago, the label named former Universal Music Group executive Alejandro Duque as president of Warner Music Latin America. Duque helped oversee the release of Anitta’s Versions of Me, whose signature single, “Envolver,” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Global 200. But now the Brazilian pop star is gone, after separating with the label in April and signing with UMG’s Republic Records, a definite blow to WMG.
“We’re already starting to build up our roster [in Brazil],” Robson says, noting the recent signing of Brazilian urban funk artist Kayblack.
More broadly, “when you look back two years prior, although we were sort of active, [it is] nothing like to the degree we are now, and are not having the success we have,” Robson says. “Alejandro is an incredibly strong executive and we’re trying to support him as much as possible.”
SRMG, the largest integrated media group from the Middle East/North Africa region, has partnered with Billboard to launch Billboard Arabia. The newly launched platform is dedicated to celebrating artists with Arab roots by spotlighting their music and promoting personal stories on a global stage.
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Billboard Arabia aims to be the premier global destination for artists with Arab roots – bringing the latest releases, reviews and interviews from the biggest names, exclusive coverage of regional and global events, original photography and special video content together in one centralized location. Billboard Arabia will launch several charts over the next year, utilizing data from the top digital streaming platforms such as Spotify, Anghami, YouTube and others, to highlight the artists and songs driving the global and regional music industry.
Billboard Arabia will celebrate and amplify the work of Arab artists for a global audience by republishing content across Billboard’s digital products. It will also host the Billboard Arabia Music Awards, as well as live concerts, activations, and regional and international events to celebrate all music genres and the artists that are inspiring innovation in the industry.
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, MENA (Middle East/North Africa) is the fastest-growing music region in the world. In 2022 alone, a handful of rising Arab artists garnered more than 1 billion streams, demonstrating the significant potential of the music market in the MENA region.
“The music scene in the MENA region is rapidly transforming,” said Jomana R. Al-Rashid, CEO of SRMG. “However, there is currently no dedicated platform to spotlight and tell the stories of the Arab artists leading innovation in the global music industry. Our partnership with Billboard will help fill that void in the market. Billboard Arabia is more than just a digital platform. It will be the premier destination to celebrate the Arab music community and empower the business of music through data-driven charts, live concerts and awards. Our vision at SRMG is to ensure that creators and audiences have increased access to high-quality, original content and impactful experiences.”
“We are excited to join forces with SRMG to launch Billboard Arabia,” said Mike Van, president of Billboard. “Billboard has a strong legacy of recognizing and amplifying artists across genres, languages, and cultures with a mission to share the power of music with new fans everywhere. SRMG’s reach and access in the region coupled with our experience will ensure artists with Arab roots are heard around the world.”
Billboard Arabia was announced Wednesday (June 21) from the SRMG Beach at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. As part of the announcement of Billboard Arabia, several artists from MENA are joining SRMG in Cannes to celebrate the diversity of sounds from the region, including performances from Elyanna, Felukah, Kouz1, DJ Outlaw, Jeed, Moayad Al Nefaie, Flipperachi, Meshaal and DJ Rodge.
Billboard Arabia is now live across Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, all at the @billboardarabia handle.
Two years after the pandemic and its temporary shutdown of concerts and many stores and restaurants devastated the collective management organizations that license public performance royalties for songwriters and publishers, some of those CMOs are reporting record-setting financial results. In April, German society GEMA and the United Kingdom’s PRS both collected and distributed their highest amounts ever. And on June 21, French collective management society SACEM announced that it had collected €1.41 billion ($1.54 billion) in 2022, 34% more than in 2021, and distributed €1.06 billion ($1.15 billion) — a 19% increase over the previous year. Both numbers represent new highs — both for SACEM and at least for European societies.
“Thanks to the resumption of concerts, the explosion of digital, the new agreements signed with the many users of SACEM’s repertoire, and the strategic shift undertaken in its transformation plan, SACEM had a record year in terms of both collections and royalties distributed,” said CEO Céclile Rap-Veber in the organization’s announcement. “These results demonstrate, once again, our ability to adapt and strengthen our expertise in a highly competitive and rapidly changing sector.”
For SACEM, as for all CMOs, some of the increase in revenue and distributions comes from the return of live concerts, which are a significant source of royalty revenue. But the success also reflects the growth of streaming, as well as the ability of CMOs to negotiate better prices for the compositions they license. It’s also important to note that SACEM’s results will not just affect French composers and publishers: CMOs now compete to represent the rightsholders for online use in most countries, excluding the U.S., and SACEM licenses the work of composers around the world, as well as the repertoire of Universal Music Publishing Group
SACEM, the oldest music collecting society, is setting the pace for its rivals. Its collections of €1.41 billion ($1.54 billion) are higher than those of GEMA, which in 2022 took in 1.18 billion euros ($1.25 billion), and PRS, which had revenue of 836.2 million pounds ($1.04 billion).
Direct comparisons are inexact, however, since all of the CMOs use different accounting procedures. (The two biggest U.S. CMOs, ASCAP and BMI, are also constrained in their negotiations by antitrust consent decrees.) SACEM, for example, counts money it collected and distributed in 2022, but since it takes some time to distribute funds, the money it pays out trails slightly. This implies that distributions will rise in the first part of next year. “In 2023, taking into account collections in the second half of 2022 and the first half of 2023, we expect to reach a new distribution record,” SACEM said in its announcement.
SACEM also lowered its expenses. Its ratio of operating expenses to collections was a low of 11.65%, down 3.15 points from 2021. As competition among CMOs heats up — especially between SACEM and the ICE hub run by GEMA, PRS and the Swedish society STIM — all of the societies are trying to cut costs.
In 2022, for the second year in a row, online was the biggest source of royalties — up 38% to €493 million ($538.27 million). The second largest category of revenue was television and radio, which accounted for €353.1 million ($385.56 million), up 19%. General royalties contributed €327 million ($357.06) — up 93% partly due to the return of the live music business.
The financial results only include SACEM’s core operations of collecting public performance and mechanical royalties for composers and music publishers, both in France and for online uses in most countries around the world. They do not include SACEM’s neighboring rights revenue from television and radio play of sound recordings, or the subsidiaries like the one it operates to license the neighboring rights of newspapers and periodicals when their works are used by online companies like Google and Facebook.
A Manhattan judge on Tuesday (June 20) sentenced rapper and podcaster Taxstone to 35 years in prison following his conviction earlier this year on manslaughter charges over his 2016 fatal shooting of rapper Troy Ave’s bodyguard during a T.I. concert at Irving Plaza.
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Taxstone, whose real name is Daryl Campbell, was convicted in March of shooting and killing 33-year-old Ronald “Banga” McPhatter and seriously injuring three others – a crime that prosecutors said stemmed from Taxstone’s longstanding feud with rapper Troy Ave, whose real name Roland Collins.
“Daryl Campbell used a firearm to target his rival, which led to loss of a life and serious injuries to innocent bystanders,” District Attorney Bragg said in a statement Tuesday. “Gun violence cannot be used as a way to address conflict. The toll of guns continues to be staggeringly high and it is horrific that a night out at a concert ended tragically.”
Campbell’s lawyer, Kenneth Montgomery, told Billboard in a brief statement that his client would be appealing the conviction: “Justice wasn’t served,” Montgomery said.
Prosecutors say that Campbell, best known for his Tax Season podcast, confronted Collins in the green room at Irving Plaza on May 25, 2016, shortly before Collins was set to open for T.I. He allegedly shot McPhatter in the chest, fatally wounding him, before shooting Collins in both legs during a struggle for the gun. A man and a woman were also allegedly hit, seriously wounding both.
According to prosecutors, the incident came after years of escalating feuding on social media and podcasts. “When I see you walking up with six dudes, bang-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba,” Campbell said of Collins. Collins responded with a diss track: “Twitter fingers, how many times ya gonna tweet me? I’m always on the flier, guess you too scared to meet me.”
Campbell was eventually arrested on federal guns charges in January 2017, after federal prosecutors said his DNA was found on a handgun that was used in the shooting. After he pleaded guilty to those charges, he was arrested by New York authorities in July 2017 and charged with the shooting itself.
In March, a New York jury found him guilty of manslaughter in the first degree, two counts of assault in the first degree, one count of assault in the second degree and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.