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Warner Music México has announced the launch of Gorgona, a label which will be “completely” run and managed by women, and will also be focused on promoting women talent.
According to a statement issued by the company Wednesday (April 12), the “historically low” presence of women in key senior industry roles initially led to the formation of Warner Music México’s Gender Equality Committee, comprised exclusively of women across the organization. Then came the idea of creating a label in which all roles — from songwriting to digital music services — would be executed by women.
The creation of Gorgona — a creature who is a protective deity of women according to Greek mythology is — led to their first songwriter’s camp attended by Ali Stone, Erika Vidrio, Escarlata, Ingratax, Marian Ruzzi, and other artists, producers and songwriters.
“The atmosphere in our first camp was very friendly because everyone felt that their opinions and voices were validated in the studio,” says Andrea Fernández, A&R manager at Warner Music Mexico and the label’s creative leader. “They had practically never attended a camp where the participation of women was greater than that of men. We came out with a network of creative women who were able to get to know themselves and their work and produced spectacular songs.”
“Cypher 1: Ella”, which dropped on International Women’s Day, was the first release under Gorgona. A collaboration between singers and emcees Mabiland, Emjay, Mare Advertencia and Delfina Dib, the alternative, urban-leaning song was produced by Maria Vertiz, mixed by Marcella Araica and mastered by Natalia Schlesinger.
The underrepresentation of women in the industry in Mexico reflects the reality of music in general. A report on inclusion issued by The University of California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative earlier this year found that women have been woefully underrepresented across the recorded music industry.
The number of women with producer credits continues to be low. In 2022, only 3.4% of producers were women across all songs included on the year-end Hot 100 chart, according to the report, which examines the gender of artists, songwriters and producers across all 1,100 songs included on Billboard’s Hot 100 year-end charts spanning from 2012 to 2022. Moreover, women represented only 30% of the 160 artists on the Hot 100 year-end chart, while men made up 69.4% and artists who identified as non-binary made up less than 1%.
Amazon Music will serve as the exclusive streaming home for this year’s Stagecoach Festival, which takes place April 28-30 in at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif.
The livestream will be available on the Amazon Music channel on Twitch and Prime Video, starting at 3 p.m. PDT each day, courtesy of sponsors T-Mobile, Magnum Ice Cream and finance company SoFi.
As part of the build-up to the Goldenvoice-presented festival, Amazon will release Amazon Originals from a number of artists preforming at the event, including BRELAND’s reimaging of his track “Happy Song” featuring Danielle Bradbery, and Luke Grimes’ cover of Blaze Foley’s “Clay Pigeons.”
Among the other acts playing the 15th edition of Stagecoach are Chris Stapleton, Jon Pardi, Kane Brown, Lainey Wilson, Luke Bryan, Old Dominion, Gabby Barrett, Brooks & Dunn, Diplo, Bryan Adams, Jackson Dean, Priscilla Block, Keb’ Mo’ and Bailey Zimmerman.
Once on site, Kelly Sutton and Amber Anderson, hosts of Amazon Music’s Country Heat Weekly podcast, will interview participating artists from the Amazon Music backstage set.
Amazon Music will also host the Amazon Music Live lounge, located in the vendor area. The air-conditioned lounge will include charging stations and behind-the-scenes content broadcast on a jumbo screen.
In addition to seeing Yellowstone star Grimes perform, Stagecoach will provide an ever bigger Yellowstone tie in as the Dutton Ranch from the Paramount Network’s hit show will be transported to the desert. Fans will be able to play in a Yellowstone cornhold competition, as well as purchase items from a Yellowstone Airsteam pop-up shop.
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: Mötley Crüe faces a lawsuit claiming the band unceremoniously terminated its longtime guitarist; Kanye West’s Donda Academy is hit with a wrongful termination suit packed with bizarre details; Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler responds to a sexual abuse case; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Mötley Crüe Heads To Court
A private feud between longtime members of the legendary rock band Mötley Crüe has burst into public view.
Crüe co-founder Mick Mars filed a lawsuit last week demanding access to the band’s books — and thus also disclosing for the first time that he and his former bandmates have been locked in private arbitration proceedings for months over the legal mechanics of his exit from the band.
According to Mars, his former “brothers” tossed him to the curb after he said he could no longer tour due to a “tragic” disability called ankylosing spondylitis. The rest of Crüe, on the other hand, says they offered Mars “generous compensation” as a courtesy, but that he instead chose to file an “ugly public lawsuit.”
The case is technically about dry issues like LLC operating agreements. Mars says the band did not have cause to terminate his 25% stake in Crüe’s corporate entities; the band says they all signed an agreement in 2008 that clearly states they owe Mars nothing after he resigned. But each side has also already made much splashier allegations, too.
In his complaint, Mars claimed that Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx “did not play a single note” during a recent tour, and instead essentially mimed along to recorded tracks. In response, the band released sworn statements from touring staffers claiming that it was Mars who had needed backing tracks during concerts: “There were times when he played a completely different song than the rest of the band. This happened at almost every show.”
For a full breakdown of the case against Crüe — including access to the actual complaint Mars filed against the band — go read the entire story here.
Other top stories…
TROUBLE AT SCHOOL – Two former teachers at Kanye West’s Donda Academy filed a lawsuit against the embattled star, alleging wrongful termination, discrimination and unpaid wages. The allegations included bizarre details about West’s controversial school, including that students were fed only sushi and that classes were restricted to the ground floor because West is afraid of stairs.
ROCHESTER CONCERT TRAGEDY – Ronisha Huston, an alleged victim of last month’s deadly stampede at a GloRilla concert in western New York, filed notice that she was formally preparing to sue over the incident. Saying she had suffered emotional distress, Huston’s lawyers need “pre-action discovery” to obtain video footage, emergency plans and other key information from the concert venue.
STEVEN TYLER DENIES ABUSE CLAIMS – The Aerosmith singer denied allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman named Julia Holcomb when she was a minor in the 1970s. The filing raised eyebrows because Tyler’s lawyers argued, among many possible defenses, that Holcomb had possibly consented to his conduct, or that he was immunized from her claims since he had been granted legal custody over her.
TRADEMARK ON A MANTRA? Insomniac Events, a major promoter of dance music events, made waves this week when fans noticed that it had recently filed an application to secure a federal trademark registration on the term “PLUR” — an acronym (peace, love, unity, respect) that has been heavily used in the dance scene since the early ‘90s.
LOVERS & FRIENDS LAWSUIT – Live Nation was hit with a lawsuit over injuries at last year’s Lovers & Friends festival during a stampede triggered by false reports of gunfire. The three fans who filed the case say the concert giant “failed to take basic, reasonable steps” to protect them from such an incident: “Plaintiffs screamed for emergency medical care for their injuries, but none came.”
PANDORA CLAIMS TOSSED – For a second and final time, a California federal judge rejected Pandora’s allegations that comedians have been illegally conspiring to extract unfair prices from the digital streaming service. Those accusations came as counterclaims after the comics sued Pandora, demanding to be paid the spoken-word equivalent of publishing royalties for their underlying jokes.
POP SMOKE KILLER SENTENCED – One of four men charged in the killing of rapper Pop Smoke during a robbery at a Hollywood Hills mansion pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. The man, whose name has not been released because he was a minor when the killing occurred in early 2020, was sentenced to four years and two months in a juvenile facility.
This is Signed, a new biweekly column that rounds up artist signings at labels, agencies, management companies and more.
Paris Hilton signed with management company YMU, where she will be represented under the recently formed FM Group banner — a new division of YMU Music led by FM president Alex Frankel and FM COO Chris Maher. The company will work with Hilton on her music business globally, including a new album that will mark her first since 2006’s Paris.
Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi, best known for his decades-long collaboration with legendary Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki, signed with Deutsche Grammophon. The deal encompasses the full scope of Hisaishi’s career as composer, conductor and pianist. His first album on the label — A Symphonic Celebration, slated for release on June 30 — contains symphonic arrangements of his original soundtracks for Studio Ghibli films including Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro. All tracks on the album were recorded in London by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Hisaishi.
Stockholm-based artist Waterbaby signed to Sub Pop Records globally. On March 29, she released her new single, “Airforce blue,” on the label. She is represented by managers Phil Jones and MNRK in the United Kingdom and Johan Calissendorff in Sweden as well as agent Tom Windish at Wasserman.
Nashville indie-pop singer-songwriter MORGXN signed to Nettwerk, which will release his new single, “Beacon,” on Friday. He is managed by Ron Shapiro.
MNJR, a new full-service artist and label management group launched in Nashville by Mike Reynolds and Norman Jacob, signed country band The Mavericks as well as the group’s frontman, Raul Malo, for his solo projects. Also signing with the company are alt-country group 49 Winchester and emerging artist McKinley James. The Mavericks and Malo release music through their own imprint, Mono Mundo Recordings, in partnership with Thirty Tigers; they’re booked by Clint Wiley at CAA in the United States, Nick Meinema at AEC in Canada and Nigel Hassler at CAA in other territories. 49 Winchester are on New West Records and represented by Jacob Lapidus and Will Scott at CAA for the United States and Lizzie Ford at CAA internationally. James is represented by Clint Wiley at CAA in the United States, Tom Brandt at Brando Bookings for the United Kingdom and Europe and Juan Diego at El Mico Entertainment for Spain.
Appalachian country-folk singer-songwriter Charles Wesley Godwin signed with Big Loud Records. Godwin is managed by Arthur Penhallow Jr. and Reed Turner at True Grit Management.
Producer-artist Michaël Brun (J Balvin, Ed Sheeran) signed to Astralwerks, which recently released his song “Clueless” featuring Oxlade; more music is on the way in 2023. Brun is represented by manager Ardie Farhadieh at LoyalT Management and agent Scott Schreiber at UTA.
Brazilian singer-songwriter Any Gabrielly signed to Republic Records. Formerly a member of the Simon Fuller-assembled pop group Now United, Gabrielly is managed by Fuller at XIX Entertainment.
Moroccan-American singer-songwriter Dounia signed a global distribution deal with ADA Worldwide and will soon begin releasing new singles. She is managed by Matt Geffen, Jamil Davis and Matt Bauerschmidt at The Revels Group, Carron Mitchell at Nixon Peadoby and Julie Greenberg at CAA.
“Zamrock” legends WITCH signed with Desert Daze Sound, a new record label launched by Southern California music festival Desert Daze in partnership with Partisan Records. The label will release Zango, the group’s first album in nearly 40 years, on June 2. WITCH is represented by manager Gio Arlotta and agents Joey Massa at Space Agency in the United States and Polly Miles at FMLY Agency in the United Kingdom and Europe.
TAG Music, a new record label founded by artist-turned-executive Gabe Saporta (Cobra Starship, Midtown), signed Los Angeles-based singer Sophie Powers and emo alt-rock artist Jules Is Dead under a joint venture deal with Atlantic Records. The label released Powers’ new single “Nosebleed” on March 31 and will release Jules Is Dead’s single “Red is My Favorite Color” later this month.
ONErpm Nashville announced a pair of signings: country singer-songwriter William Michael Morgan (“I Met a Girl”), who will release his Keith Stegall-produced EP on the label later this year; and singer-songwriter (and former The Voice contestant) Jesslee, whose debut single, “Unmet You,” is out now. Morgan is managed by Joe Carter and Mike Taliaferro at Carter and Company while his booking is handled by The Kinkead Entertainment Agency; Jesslee is represented by Black Label Nash Entertainment Group for both management and booking.
Hannah Georgas signed to Lucy Rose‘s Real Kind Records, which released her latest single, “This Too Shall Pass.” Georgas is managed by Jen Long, while her booking is handled by Todd Walker at Outer/Most in the United States, Julien Paquin at Paquin Agency in Canada and Colin Keenan at ATC Live in the rest of Europe.
Husband-and-wife country duo The Dryes — comprised of Katelyn and Derek Drye — signed with Wasserman Music for global representation. Formerly contestants on The Voice, the duo is managed by Carrie Lelwica.
Country singer Georgette Jones — daughter of country legends George Jones and Tammy Wynette — signed an artist management deal with Dr. Gerald Murray at Gerald Murray Music; Murray previously managed her father. Jones also signed with PLA Media for public relations.
African producer Dr. Wang signed with independent label KSR Group, which will release his new single, “Love Takes Me Higher” with Josh X, on April 21. Hailing from the Ivory Coast, Wang has produced for artists including Yannick Noah and Aya Nakamura.
Live Nation is facing a lawsuit from three people who say they were injured at last year’s Lovers & Friends Music Festival in Las Vegas, during a stampede triggered by false reports of gunfire.
In a complaint filed last week in Los Angeles, plaintiffs Carla Thomas, James Thomas and Aaliyah Aguilar claimed that Live Nation had “failed to take basic, reasonable steps” to protect them from such an incident.
“Plaintiffs screamed for help from the event organizers and security, but none came,” lawyers for the trio wrote. “Plaintiffs screamed for emergency medical care for their injuries, but none came.”
The two-day Lovers & Friends festival, held over a weekend last May, featured several R&B and rap artists, including Usher, Ludacris and Ne-Yo. But performances were briefly halted that Saturday when a large group of panicked attendees fled the venue over rumors of gun shots. Police later said that there was no evidence that a shooting took place.
Stampedes amid false reports of gunfire have cropped up several times in recent years. Fans suffered injuries during gunfire panics at a Future concert in Brooklyn in 2017, at Lil Wayne and Cardi B concerts in 2018, and at the 2019 Rolling Loud festival in Miami. Just last month, three fans were killed during a stampede at a GloRilla concert in western New York reportedly sparked by fears of a shooter.
In their lawsuit, Thomas, Thomas and Aguilar claimed that the rush at Lovers & Friends was triggered by a “loud noise,” causing a “sea of people” to surge toward them. They said they were “pushed, smashed, dragged, kicked, stepped on, trampled and crushed to the ground” during the incident, causing them “serious injuries” and emotional distress.
And their lawyers say that Live Nation is to blame – specifically, that the company was negligent in how it planned and operated the festival.
“Defendants failed to employ adequate, properly trained, monitored, and supervised reasonable security, safety and medical provision measures,” they wrote. “Defendants failed to provide a safe venue, one that provided adequate signs and warnings that would have guided the crowd into a particular emergency exit route in the event of an alarm or emergency.”
Such lawsuits are common after incidents in which fans are injured at concerts, but they’re not easy to win. Lawyers for the accusers will need to show that the incident was something Live Nation could have seen coming, and that it failed to take specific steps that would have prevented the injuries suffered by their clients.
A rep for Live Nation did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.
The authors of a new report that paints a dismal portrait of gender diversity in recording studios are calling on major labels to step up their efforts to hire more women producers and engineers.
Published by Fix the Mix — an initiative launched in 2022 by nonprofit We Are Moving the Needle and official music credits database Jaxsta — the first annual report, created in conjunction with Middle Tennessee State University and Howard University and released Tuesday (April 11), found that women and non-binary people are drastically underrepresented in audio producing and engineering roles in recording studios.
Analyzing 1,128 songs from 2022, the report (Lost In The Mix: An Analysis of Credited Technical Professionals in the Music Industry Highlighting Women and Non-Binary Producers and Engineers Across DSP Playlists, Genres, Awards, and Record Certifications) found that only 16 of the 240 credited producers and engineers (6.7%) on the top 10 most-streamed tracks of 2022 across five major digital service providers (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube and TikTok) were women and non-binary people.
The levels of representation varied across genres. Among the top 50 songs across 14 genres examined in the report, metal had the lowest percentage of women and non-binary people credited in key technical roles at 0.0%, with rap and Christian & gospel coming in at 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively. On the other end of the spectrum, electronic stands out for its relatively high representation of women and non-binary people in producer roles, accounting for 17.6% of all producer credits on the top 50 songs of 2022, while folk & Americana was close behind at 16.4%.
“While this research notes the genres that have the best and worst gender representations, it is important to note that every genre needs improvement in representation of women and non-binary people,” said report co-author Beverly Keel, dean of Middle Tennessee State University’s College of Media and Entertainment, co-founder of Change the Conversation and co-founder of Nashville Music Equality. “It is difficult to fathom that representation remains so pitifully low in 2023. In any other industry, these low percentages of the genres that have the best gender representation would be an embarrassment, so I hope these ‘high achievers’ are not resting on their laurels.”
Analyzing data from streaming services that report assistant credits, the report also found that women and non-binary people are better represented in assistant roles, which have 12.6% percentage points more women and non-binary people on average than key technical roles. The report suggests that, “while this higher concentration of women and non-binary people in assistant roles may indicate a growing pipeline of these contributors rising into key levels, it could be indicative of a glass ceiling preventing this demographic from an upward trajectory.”
This year’s Grammy Award nominees didn’t fare well in terms of representation either. Of all winning albums in the 28 “best in genre” categories in 2023, 17 credited zero women or non-binary people in the key technical roles of producer and engineer. A total of eight projects listed women and non-binary people as producers (representing 11.5% of all producers) and three projects listed women and non-binary people as engineers (representing 3.9% of all engineers). The total number of women and non-binary people credited in technical roles was 19 out of 249, or just 7.6%. Across the eight Grammy Award categories that honored people in technical roles, only one woman was recognized versus 30 men.
To offer a wider look at the music industry, the report also analyzed the RIAA diamond-certified list (songs that have achieved 10-times-platinum status) and the Spotify “Billions Club” (songs that have received 1 billion streams on the streaming platform). Of the top 50 songs on the RIAA diamond-certified list, there are a total of 248 key technical roles credited. Of those, 224 (98.4%) are filled by men while just 4 (1.6%) are filled by women or non-binary people. Of the four women and non-binary individuals credited, three are producers (two of which were the main artist on the track), while one is an engineer. Among the top 50 songs included on Spotify’s Billions Club, women and non-binary people make up only 2% of key technical roles.
The new report acknowledges that its numbers differ from the “pioneering” research conducted annually by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which found that only 2.8% of music industry producers were women in 2022. The Annenberg study uses the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts as a measuring stick, while the Fix the Mix report looked at 757 top-streamed songs, 30 Grammy-winning albums, the top 50 songs on the Spotify Billions Playlist, and the top 50 songs certified diamond by the RIAA.
“Ensuring that there is more gender and racial diversity among music’s creators is not actually a complex problem if you want to solve it,” said co-author Emily Lazar, Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer and founder of We Are Moving The Needle. “The most important step is for artists and record labels to be able to hire from a more diverse pool of producers, mixers and engineers, but it’s exceedingly hard to hire people when you can’t find them. We hope this report will give decision makers the motivation and tools they need to make real change in their hiring practices so we can achieve gender parity in production, engineering and mastering roles.”
The report finishes with a list of recommendations and solutions to address the gender gap, including accurately crediting all technical contributors, diversifying hiring practices, educating the industry, finding and hiring women and non-binary producers and engineers, demanding data transparency, amplifying representation and encouraging active participation, supporting the changemakers and developing forward-facing solutions.
To see genre, streaming service and key role breakdowns, you can check out the full report here.
Branded, the parent and organizer of Asia’s annual All That Matters conference and showcase event, is now part of the Nodwin Gaming family.
Announced Tuesday (April 11), the Singapore subsidiary of Nodwin has acquired a 51% stake in Branded, the full-service live media specialist.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
As part of the arrangement, Nodwin, part of Nazara Technologies, will acquire all Branded’s existing event IPs, including All That Matters. Also, Nodwin, one of the world’s leading gaming and esports companies, will “expand its network of international sponsors to grow revenues from its live business as it continues its pursuit to grow as a sports media company” with a focus on esports and gaming, reads a statement unveiling the acquisition.
Branded co-founder and CEO Jasper Donat says both parties will tap into business synergies across APAC and beyond, with a view to expanding on its existing events and IP, and co-creating new properties.
“Over the past few years, Branded has transformed from a live event IP creator and producer to a live media company,” he comments. “We are really excited to become a part of the Nodwin Gaming family and share their vision and commitment to the business of growing media and entertainment and the communities around them.”
Based in Singapore, Branded produces All That Matters, which includes the Music Matters stream and complementary tracks on live entertainment, sponsorship, sports and more. ATM is widely considered the most important music conference in the region, with more than 2,000 guests turning up in a regular year, organizers say. The 2022 program featured guest speakers Universal Music Group Lucian Grainge; Spotify’s global head of editorial Sulinna Ong; and TikTok’s global head of music Ole Obermann; and Adam Wilkes, president, AEG Presents Asia Pacific, among others.
“We share very similar synergies be it our common love for gaming, sports, music, esports or entertainment, so this was a near-perfect match,” says Nodwin co-founder and CEO Akshat Rathee, noting Branded’s IP “will add a new dimension to what we already offer.”
On the flip side, Rathee explains, we “will also look at the talented Branded team taking our existing IPs such as Playground, The Premiership, NH7 and others international.”
This year’s ATM celebrates its “coming of age” 18th edition, with a three-day-long industry powwow at Hilton Orchard, which, again, revs up for the Singapore F1 Grand Prix week.
When it comes to the red-hot market for music rights, the only people who may be more important than the buyers and sellers are number crunchers like Nari Matsuura.
The Ottawa, Ontario, native is the partner of Barry Massarsky and founder of the valuation division of their music economics and valuation services practice at Citrin Cooperman, one of just a handful of firms that calculate the future growth rates and discounts essential to determining a music catalog’s market value.
From 2021 to 2022, Matsuura estimates she oversaw 750 catalog valuations totaling $15.5 billion for such clients as Hipgnosis Songs Fund, Primary Wave and Reservoir Media.
But as billions have flooded the music intellectual property market, the practice of valuing catalogs has encountered unexpected controversy, with Massarsky and Matsuura’s team occasionally in the middle. Banks put considerable weight on catalog valuations when determining how much to lend to a buyer, and some question whether Citrin Cooperman’s discount rate — which has not budged since spring 2022 — ignores macroeconomic pressures, such as the rising cost to borrow, that could affect valuations. Lower valuations could lead banks to decrease the amounts they lend overall, which could have a cooling effect on the market. “The reason we did not increase our discount rate along with the rising interest rate environment is because we had originally started at a higher discount rate so that we could accommodate for that rise,” Matsuura says. “We knew that this low interest rate environment was not sustainable in the long term.”
Chilean singer-songwriter Polimá Westcoast signed a global deal with Sony Music U.S. Latin, Billboard has learned. With this agreement, the up-and-coming artist expands his relationship with the label after previously singing with Sony Music Entertainment Chile in 2019.
Born Polimá Ngangu Eduardo Miguel Orellana, the Santiago-born act entered the music industry in 2018 with his edgy “Trap Star,” which captured his trap star-meets-rock star attitude. Polimá Westcoast gradually made a name for himself as a local artist performing at the important Lollapalooza Chile Festival last year and at Viña del Mar International Song Festival in February.
“This is something fundamental for me that not only I worked on, but also along my great team,” the singer said in a statement. “A lot is happening with my career at the international stage. We are ready and determined to take the necessary steps to achieve the next level.”
Although Polimá has been making music for some time now, it was his Pailita-assisted track “Ultra Solo” released last year that really put him on the map. It peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Excl. U.S. chart (dated July 2, 2022). He later landed a remix alongside Paloma Mami, Feid and De La Ghetto. In the past, he’s also collaborated with J Balvin and Quevedo.
“We are very happy to continue working with Polimá Westcoast, who has proven to be one of the most talented and creative artists of his generation,” added Alex Gallardo, president of Sony Music U.S. Latin. “We are confident that together we can bring his music to new audiences worldwide. Today, we welcome him to Sony U.S. Latin, where we are committed to helping him continue to grow his name internationally and become one of the biggest names in Latin music.”
HYBE shares rocketed up 14.9% this week after the K-pop company reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Like Crazy” by Jimin, a member of the group BTS. Investors could also rejoice that Jimin’s album, FACE, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. HYBE shares spiked 7.5% on Thursday (April 5) following Jimin’s U.S. chart success and rose another 5.9% on Friday, closing at 217,000 won ($164.85).
“Like Crazy” is an encouraging success for HYBE’s Big Hit Music imprint and the first track by a BTS member’s solo project to top the Hot 100. In fact, Jimin is the first South Korean solo artist with a No. 1 hit on the chart in the U.S. That’s good news for a company that will be without its biggest act for the foreseeable future and which needs to create additional chart successes outside of its home market. News of BTS’s hiatus sent HYBE’s share price down TK% from June TK to TK. Since then, HYBE has reached No. 51 with JIN’s “The Astronaut” and No. 30 with Jimin’s “Set Me Free, Pt. 2.” It has had more success outside of BTS members’ solo projects. Tomorrow X Together’s The Name Chapter: Temptation (EP) reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 while Seventeen reached No. 4 on the chart with 4th Album Repackage: Sector 17.
HYBE’s share price is up 25.1% year to date.
HYBE was the only stock in the Billboard Global Music Index to see a double-digit increase this week and one of just eight companies to finish in positive territory. Overall, the 20-company index declined 3.1% to 1,224.34 this week. (Year to date, the Billboard Global Music Index is up 4.8%.) On Wall Street, the S&P 500 declined 0.1% to 4,105.02 while the Nasdaq composite dropped 1.1% to 12,087.96.
The index’s most valuable company, Universal Music Group, declined 8.2% to 21.40 euros ($23.53) and is down 5% year to date. Spotify, the second-largest contributor to the index, declined just 0.9% to $132.48 and is up 61% year to date.