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Anitta has parted ways with her longtime manager Brandon Silverstein, according to a source familiar with the situation. The split was first reported by Variety. The change comes on the heels of Anitta’s April 4 departure from Warner Music Group after having long voiced irritation with the label on social media, including a tweet thread […]
During the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) annual meeting on Wednesday (June 14), the trade organization said it calculated total U.S. publishing revenue at $5.6 billion in 2022, up from $4.7 billion in 2021 — a more than 19% increase year over year.
During his presentation at the meeting, held at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, NMPA president/CEO David Israelite further noted that $5.6 billion figure does not include monies likely owed to publishers after the Copyright Royalty Board’s recent ruling upholding a rate increase for streaming services, rising gradually from 11.4% to 15.1% of service revenue for the 2018-2022 period. Once that increase is retroactively applied later this year, publishers’ should see a substantial additional payday.
Based on revenues earned in January and February 2023, compared to the same two months from 2022, Israelite said publishing earnings are up 27% so far this year. That’s due to a number of factors, including an increased royalty rate from streaming services that’s now set at 15.1% of revenue in 2023 and will increase gradually to 15.35% in 2027. Streaming services raising their subscription prices have also contributed to higher revenues, as well as growing diversity in publishers’ revenue streams.
Since 2014, when U.S. publishers earned $2.2 billion, annual revenues have grown more than 160% overall, according to the NMPA.
Breaking down revenue categories, performance royalties made up 48% of revenue — dropping below 50% for the first time. That fall in percentage, however, was “because the growth in other categories has been so significant, specifically with regard to synchronization,” Israelite said. Synch revenues made up 26.07% of earnings, mechanical 20.27% and other 5.37%.
Elsewhere during the event, NMPA executive vp/general counsel Danielle Aguirre announced that the organization had also distributed $66 million to its members from legal recoveries and settlements last year. “This is equal to a 456% average return on your dues,” she said, adding that the amount collected brings the NMPA’s all-time legal recovery number to $1.2 billion.
In a blockbuster announcement, Aguirre also revealed that NMPA members were suing Twitter over allegations of widespread copyright infringement, with dozens of music publishers seeking hundreds of millions in damages for infringing over 1,700 songs. If the claims are proven, the social media giant could be forced to pay as much as $255 million in damages.
Apart from Israelite’s state of the union address, which provided publishers with key analysis on the successes and pitfalls of the previous year, the meeting also doled out awards to several individuals. Among them, the organization honored RIAA chairman/CEO Mitch Glazier with the NMPA Industry Legacy Award, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois with the NMPA President’s Award for his leadership in passing the Music Modernization Act and the CASE Act, Brandi Carlile with the Songwriter Icon Award and Ashley Gorley with the first-ever NMPA Non-Performing Songwriter Icon Award.
Coming out to perform in honor of Carlile was Allison Russell, who performed Carlile’s “This Time Tomorrow”; and Brandy Clark, who performed Carlile’s “You and Me on the Rock.” Coming out for Gorley was special guest Luke Bryan, who performed two Gorley-penned hits: “What Make You Country” and “Play It Again.”
This story is developing.
The National Music Publishers’ Association says its members are suing Twitter over allegations of widespread copyright infringement and seeking hundreds of millions in damages, telling the Elon Musk-owned site it can no longer “refuse to pay songwriters and music publishers.”
In the lawsuit, which the group plans to announce during its annual meeting Wednesday (June 14), dozens of music publishers allege that Twitter had infringed more than 1,700 different songs — a claim that, if proven, could put the social media giant on the hook for as much as $255 million in damages.
“Twitter profits handsomely from its infringement of publishers’ repertoires of musical compositions,” the music companies write in their complaint, which was obtained by Billboard. “Twitter’s unlawful conduct has caused and continues to cause substantial and irreparable harm to Publishers, their songwriter clients, and the entire music ecosystem.”
Twitter did not respond to immediate request for comment.
The plaintiffs named in the lawsuit, set to be filed in Tennessee federal court, include Concord, UMPG, peermusic, ABKCO Music, Anthem Entertainment, Big Machine Music, BMG Rights Management, Hipgnosis Songs Group, Kobalt Music Publishing America, Mayimba Music, Reservoir Media Management, Sony Music Publishing, Spirit Music Group, The Royalty Network, Ultra Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, and Wixen Music Publishing.
The announcement that the NMPA would be pursuing legal action against Twitter shouldn’t come as a total surprise. In a February speech at the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) summit, NMPA president and CEO David Israelite called Twitter his “top legal focus” this year. He warned that the company was “hiding behind” the Digital Millenium Copyright Act – the federal law that limits how websites like Twitter can be sued over copyright infringement by their users.
In a statement on Wednesday, Israelite echoed that threat, saying that Twitter could no longer “hide behind the DMCA and refuse to pay songwriters and music publishers.”
“Twitter stands alone as the largest social media platform that has completely refused to license the millions of songs on its service,” Israelite said in a statement. “Twitter knows full well that music is leaked, launched, and streamed by billions of people every day on its platform.”
The DMCA provides websites like Twitter with a legal immunity — a “safe harbor” — against copyright lawsuits over material uploaded by their users, so long as they promptly remove infringing content and ban repeated violators from the platform. But in their new lawsuit, the publishers allege that Twitter failed to do either, meaning the site has legally forfeited the DMCA’s protections.
“Twitter routinely ignores known repeat infringers and known infringements, refusing to take simple steps that are available to Twitter to stop these specific instances of infringement of which it is aware,” the publishers wrote.
The NMPA annual meeting each year is known to feature at least one bombshell announcement from Israelite. Last year, the NMPA launched a legal action against over a hundred different apps that skim music from digital services without obtaining licenses, sent cease and desist notices to Apple and Google app stores, and filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against music video-making app Vinkle. In 2021, Israelite announced $200 million copyright infringement lawsuit against Roblox for hosting thousands of unlicensed songs within the game’s library.
The NMPA’s public grievances with Twitter date back to at least April 2021, when a Billboard published a guest column, co-penned by Israelite and RIAA chief Mitch Glazier. In it, the two leaders called for social media platform to license music and noted that in the last year music creators had sent more than 2 million notices to Twitter of unlicensed and infringing appearances of copyrighted music on the platform, more than 200,000 of which were of unreleased songs. “The company’s response to date has been totally inadequate,” the article lamented. It went on to suggest three ways for Twitter to address the grievances the music business has had with its operations: “licensing music and pay music creators like others do,” “better content protection tools,” and “stop demanding exorbitant payments from creators for content protection.”
Since Jack Dorsey stepped down from Twitter in November 2021, the stability of the company has been in constant flux. By the time Musk bought the company and assumed the role of CEO in October 2022, Twitter’s future seemed even more uncertain amid Musk’s controversial leadership, widespread cost cutting measures, and restructuring of the company. Since Dorsey’s departure, Israelite has taken to the platform to express his hope that subsequent chiefs like Parag Agrawal, Musk and now Linda Yaccarino would “finally” “take a new approach” with licensing music.
But in Wednesday’s lawsuit, the publishers said things had only gotten worse: “Twitter’s change in ownership in October 2022 has not led to improvements in how it acts with respect to copyright. On the contrary, Twitter’s internal affairs regarding matters pertinent to this case are in disarray.”
Licensing for games, social media, and other applications is quickly becoming a major component of music publishers’ income. At last year’s annual meeting, NMPA announced that licensing from new revenue streams — like Twitch, Roblox, Peloton and others — now account for 29.11% of music publishers’ income, something that is expected to only rise over time. This has come with the success of the NMPA’s aggressive legal agenda in recent years, and has helped publishers diversify their income from streaming, which is strictly regulated in the U.S. by the Copyright Royalty Board.
In the lawsuit against Twitter, the publishers noted that TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat had all entered into such broader licensing deals, enabling their users to use copyrighted music while still compensating songwriters. Twitter, they wrote, cannot not continue to be the exception.
“Twitter is seizing for itself an artificial competitive advantage against companies that are not violating copyright law, undercutting existing markets, cheapening the value of music, and undermining Publishers’ well-established business models,” lawyers for the publishers wrote.
LONDON — Amid increasing concern among artists, songwriters, record labels and publishers over the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the music industry, European regulators are finalizing sweeping new laws that will help determine what AI companies can and cannot do with copyrighted music works.
On Wednesday (June 14), Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act with 499 votes for, 28 against and 93 abstentions. The draft legislation, which was first proposed in April 2021 and covers a wide range of AI applications, including its use in the music industry, will now go before the European Parliament, European Commission and the European Council for review and possible amendments ahead of its planned adoption by the end of the year.
For music rightsholders, the European Union’s (EU) AI Act is the world’s first legal framework for regulating AI technology in the record business and comes as other countries, including the United States, China and the United Kingdom, explore their own paths to policing the rapidly evolving AI sector.
The EU proposals state that generative AI systems will be forced to disclose any content that they produce which is AI-generated — helping distinguish deep-fake content from the real thing — and provide detailed publicly available summaries of any copyright-protected music or data that they have used for training purposes.
“The AI Act will set the tone worldwide in the development and governance of artificial intelligence,” MEP and co-rapporteur Dragos Tudorache said following Wednesday’s vote. The EU legislation would ensure that AI technology “evolves and is used in accordance with the European values of democracy, fundamental rights, and the rule of law,” he added.
The EU’s AI Act arrives as the music business is urgently trying to respond to recent advances in the technology. The issue came to a head in April with the release of “Heart on My Sleeve,” the now-infamous song uploaded to TikTok that is said to have been created using AI to imitate vocals from Drake and The Weeknd. The song was quickly pulled from streaming services following a request from Universal Music Group, which represents both artists, but not before it had racked up hundreds of thousands of streams.
A few days before “Heart on My Sleeve” become a short-lived viral hit, UMG wrote to streaming services, including Spotify and Apple Music, asking them to stop AI companies from accessing the label’s copyrighted songs “without obtaining the required consents” to “train” their machines. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has also warned against AI companies violating copyrights by using existing music to generate new tunes.
If the EU’s AI Act passes in its present draft form, it will strengthen supplementary protections against the unlawful use of music in training AI systems. Existing European laws dealing with text and data-mining copyright exceptions mean that rightsholders will still technically need to opt out of those exceptions if they want to ensure their music is not used by AI companies that are either operating or accessible in the European Union.
The AI Act would not undo or change any of the copyright protections currently provided under EU law, including the Copyright Directive, which came into force in 2019 and effectively ended safe harbor provisions for digital platforms in Europe.
That means that if an AI company were to use copyright-protected songs for training purposes — and publicly declare the material it had used as required by the AI Act — it would still be subject to infringement claims for any AI-generated content it then tried to commercially release, including infringement of the copyright, legal, personality and data rights of artists and rightsholders.
“What cannot, is not, and will not be tolerated anywhere is infringement of songwriters’ and composers’ rights,” said John Phelan, director general of international music publishing trade association ICMP, in a statement. The AI Act, he says, will ensure “special attention for intellectual property rights” but further improvements to the legislation “are there to be won.”
There is a bright blue neon sign letting guests know they have arrived at the Breakaway House. But in keeping with the conspicuous tone of their new neighborhood, the lit up sign isn’t visible to visitors until after they’ve made their way inside of the gates of the 4,000 square foot home housing the offices of one of North America’s fastest-growing festival brands.
The neon sign is one of a half-dozen Breakaway Festival art pieces inside the house, where Breakaway’s marketing team works around a large kitchen table, while another groups gathers around a poolside table for a midday strategy session. Breakaway co-founder Adam Lynn and chief growth officer William Van Orsdell serve as host to a rotating door of music executives, finance advisors and journalists booked for another day of meetings inside the new L.A. digs to discuss the company’s recent expansion.
“William and I have no fundraising experience at all, but we went out and and raised quite a bit of money,” Lynn tells Billboard. “We’re now closing our $6 million series A, which has given us a lot of growth capital to expand our boutique festival to seven markets this year, with a focus on dance music and pop music.
The $6 million investment round was led by private investment firm RSE Ventures with participation from Marshall Sandman‘s Animal Capital, Honey founder George Ruan, New York Rangers captain Jacob Trouba, Splice co-founder Steve Martocci and investment firms Human Ventures, Bustle Digital Group (BDG) and Gross Labs. Breakaway also recently signed a partnership with Another Planet Entertainment for a San Francisco event and has eyes to expansion in other markets.
Launched in 2016 in Columbus, Ohio with EDM and hip-hop acts including Alison Wonderland, Dillon Francis, Rae Sremmurd and RL Grime to college towns, the festival expanded to three locations the following year and modeled itself as a dance and pop-driven Vans Warped Tour, bringing an approachable high-end dance experience to underserved markets.
Fast forward to 2023 and Breakaway has expanded to seven U.S. cities and launched Spring Break(away) with emerging curated events company All Roads Traveled, hosting five weekends in March of entertainment and immersive experiences in Mexico. Built for Gen Z and young Millennial music fans, Breakaway has worked with The Chainsmokers, Halsey, Kygo, Zedd, Migos, Odesza, Post Malone, Future, Illenium, Khalid, Twenty One Pilots, Jack Harlow, Machine Gun Kelly, Chelsea Cutler and Juice WRLD, among many others.
“What began in 2016 as a music festival has grown into a multi-faceted entertainment brand that continues to change the way thousands of consumers across the country experience and enjoy music,” said Matt Higgins, cofounder and CEO of RSE Ventures. “Adam and his team have done an incredible job building a brand and company with a clear mission, and we’re excited to partner with these next-generation music leaders as they continue scaling Breakaway’s geographic footprint and range of offerings.”
Lynn said he sees Breakaway as platform for connecting young music fans with artists, experiences and brands and partners looking to connect with Gen Z and young millennials, deploying new capital to expand its national footprint and support its ultimate mission of “powering the voice of today’s generation through music, community, art, technology and digital content.”
“This marks an important milestone for Breakaway as we look to the future, opening the door to even more opportunities for innovation as we expand both the breadth and depth of experiences for Millennial and Gen Z consumers,” Lynn says. “When you can actually see your favorite artist on a stage and not just on a jumbo screen, it changes the way you listen to music — it becomes an unforgettable experience. We are building a boutique brand at scale and trying to give every fan that one moment they can remember.”
Van Orsdel adds, “As one of the last independent groups in live entertainment, we carry the flag of the ‘underdog’ in the music industry. We are so proud of the group of strategic investors we put together to drive Breakaway’s ascent through reimagined real-life experiences, digital opportunities and more that will help turn the brand into a household name.”
50 Cent has reached a settlement with Rémy Martin to end a lawsuit that claimed his Branson brand of cognac copied the design of the company’s bottles.
E. Rémy Martin & Co. sued in 2021, claiming the liquor brand owned by the rapper (real name Curtis Jackson) had infringed patent and trade dress rights by mimicking Rémy’s XO bottle. 50 Cent’s company, Sire Spirits, called the case “meritless” and accused the bigger rival of trying to “destroy a competitor.”
But in a filing on Monday, the two sides said they had squashed their beef — reaching a “confidential” settlement agreement on June 1 that would fully resolve the litigation. The specific terms of the deal, like whether any money was exchanged or products would be changed, were not made public.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for Rémy confirmed to Billboard the agreement would end the case, but declined to offer more details: “Rémy appreciates and respects Mr. Jackson’s entry into the Cognac market and the parties share a common vision for the future of this exceptional and precious spirit. The parties are gratified that this matter could be resolved amicably.”
An attorney for Sire Spirits did not immediately return a request for comment.
50 Cent launched Branson in 2018, selling the cognac in a circular bottle with gem-like facets that was designed by the rapper himself. But in August 2021, Rémy Martin sued on the grounds that the bottle was “nearly indistinguishable” from the “toroidal” shape of its own famous bottle.
“Defendants have willfully and blatantly designed their bottle to unfairly capitalize on the goodwill and reputation that Plaintiff’s bottle has achieved and to unabashedly profit from its bad faith infringement,” the company’s lawyers wrote in their complaint.
Rémy Martin accused the Branson bottle of infringing both design patents and trade dress — a form of trademark that covers the well-known shape or packaging of a product, like a Coca-Cola bottle or blue Tiffany’s box. The lawsuit claimed the bottle was “a blatant attempt” to make consumers think of Rémy Martin.
In October, 50 Cent and Sire fired back, blasting the rival for trying to “eliminate” an upstart competitor and “monopolize the Cognac market.” The company said Rémy Martin’s case was so weak that it should be dismissed at the outset.
“This action is a naked effort to use meritless litigation to financially destroy a competitor,” Sire’s attorneys wrote at the time. “Rémy Martin must be stopped, and the claims against Sire Spirits should not be allowed to survive.”
But in a pair of rulings last year, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein refused to dismiss the case against 50 Cent’s company. “This is not a case in which the claimed and accused designs are so plainly dissimilar that it is implausible that an ordinary observer would confuse them,” the judge wrote at the time.
Those decisions sent the case deeper into litigation and headed toward an eventual trial. But the case has largely been on ice for months as the two sides worked toward the settlement that was reached earlier this month.
Halsey has signed a new recording deal with Columbia Records, the label announced today (June 14). The news comes two months after the singer’s managers announced they had parted ways with Capitol Records after eight years, a decision managers Jason Aron and Anthony Li of Anti-Pop called “bittersweet” at the time. Halsey released four albums […]
Would you rather own the rights to Bruce Springsteen’s song catalog or the musical scores to hit Nickelodeon TV shows such as iCarly, Victorious and Henry Danger?
While those tween comedies may not be household names, fans stream them worldwide, and unlike Springsteen’s masters and publishing rights — which Sony bought for $500 million in 2021 — the rights to their scores sold for tens of millions, presenting, for some, an appealing and approachable investment.The Nickelodeon shows’ music is an example of the kinds of deals being done by a new crop of music investment funds that are focused on acquiring the one type of music they know best, often for a much lower price than the deals making headlines.
Funds like Armada Music’s BEAT (focused on dance), Jamar Chess’ Wahoo Music Fund One (Latin), Singapore’s blackx (the Asian music market) and Multimedia Music (film and TV music) have all launched in roughly the last 18 months with similar aims: to exploit their specialized genre knowledge and industry connections to buy rights to songs in one category and earn a return.
The principals of these funds, which have raised between $100 million (BEAT, blackx) and $200 million (Multimedia) from banks and investment firms, say the primary difference between them and funds like Primary Wave and Hipgnosis, which have institutional and private equity backing, is that their success hinges on a lower cost of entry and therefore present less risk.
“It’s a niche within a niche,” says Phil Hope, founder/CEO of Multimedia Music, which recently bought the music income and copyrights to scores from the Nickelodeon shows. “People see that there’s a well-priced opportunity in what we’re doing. Is it as obvious or as sexy as buying a big artist’s catalog? It needs a bit of explaining.”
Each fund faces its own challenges, but in an investment class, where the slowing of streaming growth and high interest rates are prompting greater investor scrutiny, these funds present the next natural step, says Bob Valentine, president of Concord. “We are now at the evolution stage of the investment thesis,” says Valentine, who will become Concord’s CEO in July. “There is still supersize growth in some of these genres — like Latin, dance, EDM. Investment managers are thinking, ‘The cost of capital is going up. Let’s find the genres that are going to outpace that index trend. Then, if the cost of capital goes up, we still outpace it.’ ”
Founded in late 2021 by Hope and James Gibb, Multimedia Music has acquired the rights to dozens of film and TV scores, including James Newton Howard’s catalog (Pretty Woman, Fantastic Beasts and the Hunger Games films), the STX music library catalog (Bad Moms, The Foreigner) and in-demand composers like Tyler Bates (the Guardians of the Galaxy and John Wick franchises, Deadpool 2).Multimedia has raised $200 million in debt and investment from Metropolitan Partners, Pinnacle Financial Partners and others to buy the rights to film and TV music that is reliably played — whether streamed, broadcast or licensed by filmmakers.
“Initially, investors were excited but didn’t understand it. They kept saying, ‘I don’t know who’s going to be streaming film and TV music on Spotify,’ ” Gibb says. “What we’re looking at are the TV shows and films that have longevity so that every time they get played anywhere in the world, we get streaming royalties paid back to us.”
Chess, whose Latin music-focused Wahoo Music Fund One launched in 2022, says he also spends time educating prospective investors. “You’re buying into cultural artifacts and less into a net publisher’s share of now. That’s why it’s a good deal,” says Chess, whose grandfather, Leonard Chess, co-founded Chicago’s legendary Chess Records.
Last year, Wahoo acquired a 50% stake in the publishing and recording catalog of Oro Solido, a classic merengue group, for an undisclosed amount. Chess says he is in talks to acquire two more catalogs that are also considered classics in the Latin genre — a status that makes them marketable for new recordings and sampling by current Latin artists.
But despite the surging popularity of Latin American music — recorded-music revenue grew by nearly 26% in Latin America last year, according to IFPI — Chess says investor interest is still lagging.“We are not competing against a Sony buying [Bad Bunny’s label] Rimas,” says Chess, who is also president of Spirit Music Latino. “There is a wealth of opportunity across the [Latin American] territories, and sometimes lining up investors can be a challenge.”
BEAT Music Fund was launched in April by independent dance music label Armada Music. Its first acquisitions were rights belonging to artists it has ties to, like Detroit techno forefather Kevin Saunderson’s KMS Records and Russian DJ ARTY. BEAT enters the investment space at a time when the global dance music industry grew by 34% to $11.3 billion in revenue in 2022. Its fan base is also growing 10 times faster than hip-hop on TikTok, according to a new report from MIDiA Research.
“Our plan is to invest $100 million in its first two years and increase the investment to at least $500 million in coming years,” says Nadine van Bodegraven, COO for the fund. “Our goal is to announce at least one new deal every month this year.”
Bay Area-based record label, distributor and publisher EMPIRE has named Alexandra Moore its new chief business officer, the company announced today (June 14). In her new role, Moore will be leading business and revenue-driving initiatives, overseeing content distribution, e-commerce, business development, mergers and acquisitions and the company’s international expansion, which has recently extended to Japan, […]
Spanish star Alejandro Sanz, widely recognized as one of the leading singer/songwriters in Spanish language music, has signed a recording deal with Sony Music, Billboard has exclusively learned.
Sanz inked his new contract June 13 in Madrid, with Afo Verde, chairman/CEO of Sony Music Latin-Iberia, and José María Barbat, president of Sony Music Iberia.
“Happy to join the Sony Music family, a company where I have many friends which whom I share LOVE for MUSIC [sic]. I’m sure together we will have fun doing what we love most,” said Sanz, who holds the record for having the best-selling and second best-selling albums in Spain’s history: 1997’s Más and 2000’s El Alma Al Aire, respectively.
“We’re very honored and excited to welcome Alejandro to Sony Music and deeply hope this will be a very happy stage in his life,” said Verde. “It will no doubt be a thrill for us to work together with this marvelous artist, not only because of his professional excellence but also his human qualities.”
Sanz has won four Grammy awards and 25 Latin Grammys — the most for a Spanish artist — in his storied career, which includes 18 albums that have sold over 25 million copies, according to his label. He has also collaborated with a long string of artists, from Shakira to Alicia Keys, and was one of Rosalía’s early supporters, and is also known for his social activism and his work with organizations like Save The Children and Doctors Without Borders.
“Beyond his uncommon talent, Alejandro is an amazing person,” added Barbat, citing Sanz’s multiple collaborations, and the fact that he was one of Rosalía’s early advocates.
Originally signed to Warner Music, where he remained for over a decade, Sanz became an international star with 1997’s Más, which boasted global hit “Corazón Partío,” a track that managed to blend his Spanish pop with tinges of flamenco and exceptional lyrics. Sanz quickly became a model to follow in terms of musicality and commercial appeal, and developed close friendships with artists like Shakira and Carlos Vives. He also became a top touring act; his current Sanz en Vivo tour includes over 60 dates that already saw him play throughout Latin America, followed by Spain in June, July and August and the U.S. and Mexico in the Fall.
In 2011, left Warner for Universal Music, where he remained up until now.
Then, last year, Sanz signed an unorthodox management agreement with two separate executives, each of them focused on a different area of his career. Alex Mizrahi, who heads management and promotion company OCESA-Seitrack, now oversees Sanz’s international management and business; and Iñigo Zabala, the former president of Warner Music Iberia and Latin America, and the person who originally signed Sanz to Warner years ago, oversees his recording career and creative output.
Those changes have now led to Sony Music.
“Dear Alex, thanks for your trust,” Verde said to Sanz. “Thanks to you and your beautiful team: Iñigo Zabala, Alex Mizrahi and Octavio Padilla. Welcome home. From the bottom of my heart. This is just beginning.”