State Champ Radio Business
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For touring professionals in the live music industry, healthcare has long been an elusive benefit. While local stagehands working in venues across the country have enjoyed employer-provided health insurance for decades through International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) contracts, their counterparts on the road — the audio engineers, lighting technicians, production coordinators, and other crew members who travel with touring shows — have been left to navigate the healthcare system on their own.
Now, IATSE is working to change that through an ambitious grassroots campaign to extend its National Benefit Fund to touring professionals, offering them access to the same healthcare and retirement benefits enjoyed by their venue-based colleagues.
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The disparity — what some stagehands call the tale of two crews — becomes starkly apparent when touring and local union members work side by side in the same venue.
“I’ll be in an arena for 20 plus hours working side by side with someone from the local IATSE, and we’re in the same situation, the same long hours, possibly a dangerous environment, yet they are covered,” says Ally Vatter, a production coordinator who has been touring for 21 years, currently with Nine Inch Nails. “They are insured. I pay out of pocket, but if I can’t afford that, then I won’t be insured.”
The consequences of this gap can be severe. In 2009, before the Affordable Care Act eliminated pre-existing condition exclusions, Vatter’s appendix burst while on tour. As an uninsurable 27-year-old, she was left with a $50,000 hospital bill and discharged from the hospital just a day and a half after surgery because she had no insurance. The artist she was working for organized an early crowdfunding effort that eventually paid off the debt, but the experience highlighted a systemic problem.
“We work so hard, and we work for millionaires, and we’re over here begging each other for help,” Vatter says, noting that crowdfunding campaigns for touring crew members facing medical crises remain common today.
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Nathan Honor, a sound engineer and member of IATSE Local 4 in Brooklyn and Local 100 on the East Coast, recalls his own pre-union touring days: “I broke my foot at one point and had to do an entire tour with a limp, with a bad foot, and never really dealt with it, and it had lasting repercussions.”
The irony, as Joseph Juntunen points out, is that a solution already exists. Juntunen, a special representative for IATSE who spent years touring with acts like Black 47 and Graham Parker before helping organize unions at Webster Hall and Brooklyn Steel, explains that the National Benefit Fund has been providing healthcare and retirement benefits to IATSE members across various entertainment sectors for decades.
“When an employer makes a contribution to that fund, that money belongs to the recipient. It belongs to the person that earns that money through their labor, and it goes with them wherever they go,” Juntunen says.
The fund currently serves the vast majority of IATSE’s more than 180,000 members who work in TV, film, Broadway, trade shows and venues. The touring initiative, which would extend access to an estimated 33,000 professionals working in the touring industry globally, is designed around the realities of touring work, which involves professionals potentially working for multiple employers throughout the year.
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Here’s how it would function: When an artist or management company agrees to participate, they make contributions to the National Benefit Fund on behalf of their touring crew members. These contributions then go into individual “cap accounts” that belong to the workers and accumulate across different tours and employers.
“If you do one tour for two months at the beginning of the year, that money goes into your cap account. If you do another tour three months later on the same plan, that money would go into that cap account,” Honor explains. “Every quarter, there is a qualifying period where you choose your level of coverage, and then money is deducted from that cap account to buy your health insurance.”
Critically, the money stays in the worker’s account even during gaps between tours. “Even if no employer makes a contribution for two years, that money stays in your cap account, and you can use it to buy health insurance,” Honor says.
The system offers flexible tiered coverage options, ranging from catastrophic coverage for younger, healthier workers to premium “Cadillac” plans for those with families or greater healthcare needs. Workers can also pay out of pocket to upgrade their coverage if their cap account contributions aren’t sufficient for their desired plan level.
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Healthcare is provided through Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the plan’s large membership base allows for competitive rates that individual touring professionals could never achieve on their own.
Unlike traditional union initiatives, the health plan is entirely voluntary — no employer or worker is mandated to participate. Instead, IATSE is building support through a grassroots campaign, encouraging touring professionals to have conversations with their employers about joining the program.
“The touring industry is very big and broad, but it’s also small in the way that there’s a big word-of-mouth system that happens,” Vatter says. “Word travels quickly.”
The campaign is targeting artists, managers and tour managers — the key decision makers who control touring budgets. A town hall for interested parties is planned, and committee members have been working to spread awareness across the industry.
“We’re not looking to start fights with the employers. We’re not looking to have adversarial relationships,” Juntunen emphasizes. “We’re looking to work together to build a more sustainable, healthy touring industry.”
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The ultimate vision is for healthcare contributions to become a standard line item in touring budgets, much like they already are for venue work. If major promoters like Live Nation or AEG were to adopt the program across their tours, it could rapidly become an industry standard.
“We think this is really an opportunity for artists and management to put their money where their mouth is and help the people who are making the show,” Honor says.
According to Juntunen, the response so far has been encouraging. “The conversation is expanding rapidly, and we are in active discussions with several teams right now for next year’s touring cycle,” he says.
For touring professionals who have spent their careers without the basic security that their venue-based counterparts take for granted, the initiative represents more than just healthcare — it’s recognition of their essential role in the industry.
“This is the first time that someone extended an olive branch to the touring industry and said, ‘Hey, we see you. We understand we’re working right there with you, and we really want to make sure that you guys are safe and covered and taking care of yourselves as well,’” Vatter says. “Because in the end, we have the same goal, right? It’s to get that show up and make it work.”
As Honor notes, touring is “a very high impact business” where veteran crew members often reach their 40s, 50s, and 60s with health problems they can’t afford to treat and no retirement savings. “Not a day goes by at work that you don’t meet somebody who’s been touring for 20, 30, 40 years, and they don’t have anything saved,” he says.
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A judge has thrown out civil sexual assault claims brought against Kevin Liles by an executive assistant who worked for the legendary record executive at Def Jam in the early 2000s.
An anonymous woman filed suit in February alleging Liles, who was her boss and the president of Def Jam, made sexually inappropriate comments, groped her and ultimately raped her in 2002. Liles denied the claims as “patently false,” saying when they were filed that he has “intentionally built a reputation for doing things the right way, treating people the right way and empowering women.”
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As it turns out, these allegations are barred entirely from court. That’s because Def Jam’s corporate parent, Universal Music Group (UMG), already paid the woman $47,500 in 2005 to settle a civil rights complaint she’d filed with New York state regulators.
That original complaint alleged the woman was unlawfully fired in retaliation for complaining about verbal harassment and inappropriate dancing by Liles. It did not include rape claims. Without admitting any wrongdoing, UMG agreed to pay the woman in exchange for her agreeing not to bring any further legal action.
Liles was not involved in that settlement agreement, since he’d left Def Jam by the time it was signed. But U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald held in a Monday (Nov. 24) order that the release language still “expressly and unambiguously covered” Liles, meaning the woman cannot now sue the music mogul.
“The agreement and release itself contains no language cabining its terms at all,” wrote Judge Buchwald. “To the contrary, the agreement consistently and intentionally utilizes broad language discharging ‘any and all’ claims which ‘are known or reasonably should be known’ by plaintiff.”
The judge threw out the lawsuit permanently, saying there’s no amendment the woman could make that would allow her to “avoid the consequences of a comprehensive settlement agreement.”
Reps for Liles declined to comment on the decision Monday. Lawyers for the accuser did not immediately return requests for comment.
Liles ran Def Jam from 1999 to 2004, and he co-founded 300 Entertainment with Lyor Cohen, Roger Gold and Todd Moscowitz in 2012. The label, which quickly gained recognition for developing hip-hop superstars like Megan Thee Stallion, Migos and Young Thug, was acquired by Warner for $400 million in 2021. He left his role as 300’s CEO last year.
A few months after the former Def Jam assistant brought her lawsuit this past year, Liles put out a statement saying rapper Lady Luck was trying to extort him with false sexual assault claims of her own. Liles said in May that Lady Luck, who was signed to Def Jam during his tenure, had threatened to release a book and file a lawsuit filled with “utterly false and horrendous allegations” if he didn’t pay her $30 million.
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Claire Rothman, a pioneering woman in the live entertainment industry whose positions included president and general manager of The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., died Saturday (Nov. 22) in Las Vegas. She was 97.
Rothman began her facilities career at the Spectrum in Philadelphia in 1967, when she was 39. In a 2018 Billboard roundtable with other women who broke barriers in live entertainment, she said, “It was the time when the National Hockey League expanded from six to 12 teams and a lot of new venues came up. The Spectrum was one. Two weeks after I took the job, it filed for bankruptcy. I was newly divorced, with one kid in college and one in high school. I thought, ‘Oh, God, what did I do?’ But in five years, we brought the Spectrum out of bankruptcy. We paid 100 cents on the dollar, and I wrote out every check. We formed one of the first partnerships with Electric Factory Concerts. We provided the building, they provided the acts.”
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Rothman was hired by then-Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke to come to the Forum seven years later, in 1975, after stints at Wild Kingdom in Orlando, Fla., and the Cleveland Coliseum. She’s credited with introducing Cooke to Jerry Buss, who at that time owned a tennis franchise, the Los Angeles Strings, which she hoped to bring to the Forum, according to Men’s Health. In 1979, Buss bought the Lakers, which played at the Forum until 1999.
Buss’ daughter Jeanie, who is the controlling owner of the Lakers, paid tribute to Rothman Sunday night (Nov. 23), telling the Los Angeles Times, “Claire paved the way for women working in live entertainment. She was tenacious, creative and indomitable. My father always described her as the MVP who championed the Fabulous Forum as the West Coast concert rival to the legendary Madison Square Garden.”
Earlier today, the Lakers posted a photo of Rothman and Jeanie Buss on its Instagram with the caption, “Remembering an icon: Claire Rothman, the pioneering President of the Forum during the Showtime era.” The photo was taken in 2018, and Buss subsequently posted it on her social media, writing, “I was blessed with this amazing woman as my mentor, Claire Rothman. She has been there for me at every crossroads and hurdle placed before me. I don’t tell her enough of how grateful I am. Thank you Claire! I love you.”
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During her early tenure at the Forum, Rothman was the only woman managing a venue that included an NBA (the Los Angeles Lakers) and NHL (Los Angeles Kings) franchise while also juggling concerts, circuses and other entertainment.
“So I was a curiosity. Everybody remembered my name because I was the only one,” she told Billboard. “I was very fortunate to work for men who had good relationships with their mothers and their wives. They were sure of their masculinity. Every man I ever worked for pushed me [to succeed]. A psychologist friend of mine said the reason they were supportive was I never gave them the feeling that I wanted their jobs — because I didn’t. I had ambition, but I wanted to do it myself.”
Rothman helped oversee a golden time for the Lakers, known as the Showtime era, that started in 1979 as players like Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar helped the team dominate and win five championships over 10 years. That period was captured in the 2022-2023 HBO drama Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. Rothman was portrayed by Gaby Hoffman in the series.
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Rothman also heightened the Forum’s appeal as a must-stop for concerts, including by bringing Prince to the venue for a six-night run in 1985, and was bold and unrelenting when it came to pursuing talent. A 1985 Los Angeles Times profile on Rothman recounted her asking Barry Manilow to play the arena in front of rival promoters, the Nederlanders, who were also pursuing the singer. “When Manilow half-jokingly asked why she would make a pitch in front of the competition, Rothman replied, ‘I’m cuter,’” the Los Angeles Times reported.
Rothman left the Forum in 1995, moving to Ticketmaster, where she was executive vp until 1999. She also served on a number of boards, including City of Hope, the Music Center of Los Angeles County and the Reprise Theater Company, according to her LinkedIn page.
Survivors include a son, daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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iHeartRadio’s chief programming officer and president, Tom Poleman, sent a letter to staff on Friday (Nov. 21), obtained by Billboard, pledging that the company doesn’t and won’t “use AI-generated personalities” or “play AI music that features synthetic vocalists pretending to be human,” among other promises.
The pledge marks the beginning of iHeart’s new “Guaranteed Human” program, which will also see the company publish only “Guaranteed Human” podcasts, according to Poleman’s letter.
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Starting Monday (Nov. 24), “‘Guaranteed Human’ is a core part of our brand,” Poleman wrote. “You’ll hear it in our imaging, and we want listeners to feel it every time they tune in.” iHeartRadio DJs must now add a line to their hourly legal IDs about being “Guaranteed Human.”
“Remember, this isn’t a tagline — it’s a promise,” Poleman added. “And it’s part of every station’s personality.”
News of the pro-human content initiative comes after recent headlines about the growth — and increasing indistinguishability — of AI-generated voices, songs and podcasts. According to French streaming service Deezer, 97% of participants in a recent study could not tell the difference between AI and human-made songs; the platform also estimates that 50,000 full AI-generated songs are added to their service every day. Billboard also recently revealed that AI music company Suno is generating 7 million tracks a day.
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While most of these AI songs aren’t receiving many streams or sales, there have been several breakthroughs in recent weeks. This includes Xania Monet, an artist whose work was recorded using Suno and paired with AI images. Her song “How Was I Supposed to Know?” recently debuted on the Adult R&B Airplay chart and has been put in rotation by a handful of radio stations across the U.S.
In terms of radio DJs, an AI radio personality called DJ Tori has taken over the undesirable overnight and weekend shifts at a hard-rock radio station in Hiawatha, Iowa, called KFMW Rock 108, according to a Rolling Stone report. Her voice and image — that of a fashionable tattooed rocker — are both AI-generated. Meanwhile, will.i.am launched RAiDiO.FYI, an interactive AI radio app featuring synthetic voices that tell you about the songs that are playing. Spotify also continues to push its AI DJ feature, programmed based on the voice and persona of one of its employees.
In the world of podcasting, a company called Inception Point AI, founded by a former Wondery executive, has more than 5,000 podcasts and is generating 3,000 episodes a week at a cost of $1 or less per episode.
To underscore his point to iHeart employees, Poleman added some stats, including that “70% of consumers say they use AI as a tool, yet 90% want their media to be from real humans,” and that “92% say nothing can replace human connection — up from 76% in 2016.”
Read the full letter below.
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Team,
A few weeks ago, I shared that iHeart is one of the last truly human entertainment sources and our listeners come to us for companionship, connection, and authenticity — something AI can’t replicate. We’re Guaranteed Human. We don’t use AI-generated personalities. We don’t play AI music that features synthetic vocalists pretending to be human. And the podcasts we publish are also Guaranteed Human.
Thank you for leaning into our commitment to keep everything we do real and authentic. That’s what makes us special. And now we’re taking it a step further.
Starting Monday, 11/24, we’re making “Guaranteed Human” a core part of our brand. You’ll hear it in our imaging, and we want listeners to feel it every time they tune in. Here’s how:
Hourly Legal IDs:
We’re changing hourly legal IDs beginning Monday to say:
“(Station call letters/name), (city of license) an iHeartRadio station… Guaranteed Human” (with the iHeartRadio audio signature heartbeat).
These will run every hour on our stations.
Sweepers
To augment our legal IDs, we also want you to create fun, nonchalant sweepers that fit your station’s vibe and reinforce that we’re Guaranteed Human. Sweepers should end with the words “Guaranteed Human.” Drop them in every hour, between songs or talk content where it feels natural. Many stations will also start these on Monday, with others ramping up in the following weeks.
Attached are examples of the hourly legal ID and sweepers.
Remember, this isn’t a tagline — it’s a promise. And it’s part of every station’s personality. When listeners interact with us, they know they’re connecting with real voices, real stories, and real emotion. That’s our superpower.
A little about why this matters so much; research says:
70% of consumers say they use AI as a tool, yet 90% want their media to be from real humans.
92% use social media, but 2/3 say it makes them feel worse and more disconnected.
92% say nothing can replace human connection — up from 76% in 2016.
9 in 10 say human trust can’t be replicated with AI.
To be clear, we do encourage the use of AI powered productivity and distribution tools that help scale our business operations – such as scheduling, audience insights, data analysis, workflow automation, show prep, editing and organization. Those tools help us reach more people efficiently, while preserving the human creativity and authenticity that define our brand.
We talk to our listeners constantly, and they tell us they are also using AI as a tool, but they tell us there’s a limit:
3/4 expect AI will complicate their lives in the next year and beyond.
82% are worried about the impact AI will have on society.
2/3 are worried about losing their jobs to AI.
And, funny enough, 2/3 even fear that AI could someday go to war with humans.
The bottom line is our research tells us that 96% of consumers think “Guaranteed Human” content is appealing. So, we’re leaning in.
Thank you for keeping it real and making “Guaranteed Human” something that our audience hears and feels every day.
Sometimes you have to pick a side — we’re on the side of humans.
Tom
Trending on Billboard Red Bull Records is shutting down after nearly two decades, Billboard has confirmed. “After 18 years of operation, Red Bull Records globally will be winding down by the close of the year,” a Red Bull spokesperson tells Billboard. The news was first reported by Hits Daily Double. Related Launched in 2007 by […]
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Three years after Aaron Carter’s sudden death at the age of 34, the deceased singer’s family has been granted a trial next year against doctors and pharmacies that gave him access to Xanax pills.
The 2000s teen pop sensation drowned in a bathtub in 2022 after inhaling refrigerant gas and taking Xanax. Carter’s former fiancée later sued on behalf of the son they had together, alleging that psychiatrist Dr. John Faber and dentist Dr. Jason Mirabile over-prescribed him Xanax, and that Walgreens and an independent Los Angeles pharmacy wrongly filled the prescriptions without checking to see if Carter was abusing the drug.
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Both the doctors and the pharmacies sought to throw out the case based on expert reports concluding that the amount of Xanax in Carter’s system was not enough to make him lose consciousness, and that the real culprit was the gas he inhaled from canisters of compressed air (known as difluoroethane). But Carter’s lawyers have their own experts who say Xanax was at least partly to blame for his drowning — meaning the case must be decided by a jury.
“Defendant concedes that plaintiff’s opposition, supported by expert Dr. George C. Georgaklis, raises a triable issue of material fact as to the medical malpractice claim,” wrote Judge Daniel L. Alexander in a July 31 order rejecting Dr. Mirabile’s argument. “Thus, the Court denies the motion for summary adjudication as to medical negligence and wrongful death.”
Judge Alexander similarly denied Santa Monica Medical Plaza Pharmacy’s motion on Sept. 22 and arguments from both Walgreens and Dr. Faber this past Friday (Nov. 21). The negligence and wrongful death claims are now set for trial in June 2026, unless a settlement is reached before then.
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The various summary judgment orders did, however, trim away portions of the lawsuit that sought damages for the pain and suffering Carter experienced before his death. The judge said these are claims that only Carter’s estate representative has the right to bring, not his now four-year-old son, Princeton Lyric Carter.
That means that if the lawsuit indeed goes to trial in June, the child can only seek financial damages from the doctors and pharmacies for harm he himself suffered from Carter’s death. This includes loss of financial support and emotional damage from not getting to know his father.
In a statement to Billboard on Monday (Nov. 24), the Carter family’s attorney Marc Lazo said his team is now “hopeful that the defendants will realize the magnitude of their liability and enter into good-faith settlement negotiations accordingly.”
Lawyers for the doctors and pharmacies did not immediately return requests for comment.
Carter got his start opening for the Backstreet Boys, of which his older brother Nick Carter was a member, in the late 1990s. He later became a teen heartthrob in his own right, with his 2000 album Aaron’s Party (Come and Get It) peaking at No. 4 and spending 67 weeks on the Billboard 200.
Carter was open later in life about struggling with substance abuse. The singer did multiple stints in rehab, and he had been attending outpatient therapy in the months leading up to his death.
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This past summer, we were selected among 13 Syracuse University students in the Bandier Music Business Program to study the music business hands-on by visiting five cities across three countries in Latin America.
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Bandier visits different emerging music markets almost every spring, with previous trips touching down in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea and Indonesia, among others. This year, for the first time ever, Latin America was our destination, and we visited Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, where we met with over 75 executives across virtually every sector of the music business. We gratefully learned from top executives at Spotify, YouTube, Sony, Universal, Warner, Live Nation, Believe and countless local labels, publishers, collecting societies and more. We also attended multiple festivals (including Laufey at Popload in Sao Paulo!) and nightclubs, immersed ourselves in local culture, and enjoyed incredible food.
What we encountered challenged what we know about the music industry in the U.S. and opened our eyes to the different opportunities and challenges to be found in different territories. Here are our takeaways as students of the music industry looking to make an impact across countries and cultures.
Different Strokes
Some of the aspects of the music business in Latin America were surprisingly (at least for many of us traveling there for the first time) different from what we’ve known in the U.S. For starters, YouTube ad-supported models were much more important in these markets. In the United States, paid subscriptions easily account for more than two-thirds of the total recorded music market, and 80 percent of streaming revenues. But in markets like Colombia, ad-supported streaming was worth nearly 40 percent of the entire market. This puts enormous focus and importance on finding ways to improve conversion rates from ad-supported to paying subscriptions.
Relatedly, with much of the internet access coming from mobile partners, music partnerships with telecoms become even more important. In Brazil, for example, Deezer offers “free” service with TIM Brasil; and in Colombia, Claro users having access to Claro Música, now a top five service in the country.
Merch was also very different from our U.S. experiences as we traveled; counterfeit merch thrives in some of these markets, to the point where some tours and shows have accepted they cannot compete with the enormous markdowns happening just outside Latin American venues.
And finally, as AI-generated music rises in popularity, we were fascinated to learn more about Latin America’s legal framework, rooted in continental law, including moral rights. While the U.S. enforces moral rights in some ways, largely in the context of encoding them into other laws, these rights were more powerful and central in Latin America. Moral rights are not transferable and are distinct from economic rights (like copyright) and focus on the author’s personality and identity. We heard from certain executives that moral rights could be used as an important tool for protecting artists from AI engines that might look to train without permission.
What’s Next (Emerging Genres in South America)
We aren’t just studying the music business – we are all also huge music fans. And we found a lot of exciting new sounds in our travels that deserve a bigger audience. In Colombia, Latin Afrobeats, a blend of African diasporic beats with reggaetón and champeta, is showing regional growth on the DSPs, and combines elements that will already be familiar to music fans. Executives told us that this movement largely emerged from Cali, and has spread along the Atlantic coast to Cartagena, Barranquilla and elsewhere, with consumption growing in Bogota, behind artists such as Zaider, DFZM, Hamilton and Junior Zamora. (If you want to know more about this, read Billboard‘s excellent list The New Generation of Afro-Colombian Artists: 10 Gems to Know.)
In Brazil, Funk Brasilero, a genre deriving from the favelas and peripheries of major cities, has been around for a decade or more now, but deserves to expand beyond the country. Some of the favorite songs and artists we discovered on this trip include DJ Caio Prince, MC Jacaré, MC Delux and MC Pedrinho. While often known for its samba, Pedra do Sal was one of many center stages where we were able to fully absorb the culture and energy of Funk Brasiliero. Where is this energy in the pop versions of funk that get pushed in the States? The genre is held back by the disorganization of those driving it as much as anything else. But we, along with many of the other Bandier students on the trip, felt that these hyper-local scenes that are youth-driven offer authentic soundscapes for the next global crossover.
Bandier program music business students with Colombian icon Carlos Vives.
Claudia Elena Vasquez
Mexico in the Crosshairs?
Latin music’s path north — from South America, through Mexico and into the U.S. — makes it all the more concerning that Mexican artists have had to cancel tours because of visa issues. Even big artists like Grupo Firme and Julión Álvarez have had concerts canceled because the Trump administration has revoked their visas. At least one major label executive we spoke with acknowledged that they were keeping an eye on this increased U.S. scrutiny, particularly as it relates to corridos. The U.S. government has cited these specific songs as glorifying cartels, while at the same time, some local Mexican governments have been banning them. If these issues continue, they threaten to disrupt the distribution pipeline that has been so successfully running south to north in recent years.
Brazil vs. LATAM
Brazil operates as both part of and apart from the LATAM music business. While often grouped under the “Latin” umbrella, Brazil’s linguistic, cultural and historical differences create a distinct industry ecosystem. Spanish-language charts are often dominated by Mexican or Colombian acts, but Brazil has built its own parallel, Portuguese infrastructure, with its own genres like funk, Sertanejo and Forro. This makes it all the more remarkable that Brazil has re-emerged as a top 10 IFPI market, underscoring how important music is to the population. We felt it in the clubs and on the streets, and everywhere from sports bars to restaurants. But it also presents unique challenges for crossing over Brazilian acts. We learned that most Latin American music works its way up South America and into Mexico before crossing over to the States; a lack of Spanish makes this path much less likely.
Props to Puerto Rico
We didn’t visit Puerto Rico on this trip, but the influence of the island was everywhere – and powerful, thanks to the expansion of reggaetón. Even before we touched down in Bogotá and Medellín in Colombia, we knew that reggaetón was not only a ruling genre in the country, but that the Colombian version is a worldwide phenomenon, behind artists like J Balvin and Karol G. As a Puerto Rican (Adriana) writing this, I can attest that I know a thing or two about reggaetón, but upon immersing myself in Colombian culture, I took note of a few differences the genre has there.
Though not always, Colombian reggaetón tends to sound more pop-oriented with more bouncy melodies. Another factor is the production tends to be more minimalist, focusing on the genre’s signature dembow rhythm, while Puerto Rican reggaetón usually carries more instrumental elements. The end result, however, is the same: Reggaetón is a unifying force throughout Latin America.
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In 2025, Universal Music Japan‘s president and CEO, Naoshi Fujikura, was chosen for inclusion in Billboard‘s Global Power Players list for a fifth consecutive time, making this his sixth appearance. In this year’s interview, he talked about the potential that Universal Music companies in other countries see in the Japanese market, the challenges Japan faces, and hits from artists such as Mrs. GREEN APPLE and Fujii Kaze.
According to IFPI, master recording revenue rose worldwide in 2024 for the 10th consecutive year, but in Japan it fell from last year’s level. This was due to declines in CD album and music video sales that weren’t made up for by digital sales. How do you feel about this?
To start off with, the fact that the global music market has grown for ten consecutive years is not something to be taken for granted. It’s a wonderful achievement. In 2025, the amount of growth in some of the more developed markets was slower, but the number of subscribers in China grew materially. I think it’s wonderful that we’re seeing continuous worldwide growth, even if the rate of growth varies by country.
People have pointed out that Japan has been slow to adopt streaming, but attending global conferences, what I’ve seen is that people aren’t looking at the Japanese market as some sort of anomalous far-Eastern market, but instead they’ve started talking about it as a business model that offers valuable insights for the rest of the world. In many countries, streaming is the main revenue source, and companies are competing for market share, but in Japan, physical accounts for 60% of revenue. Streaming co-exists alongside this. So the situation isn’t gloomy, we have also been cultivating a superfan culture for many years. Looking at our artist roster, Mrs. GREEN APPLE is the first artist in Japan whose songs have broken a total of 10 billion streams, but their best hits album, 10, sold over 770,000 copies in its first week. timelesz, who gained a massive buzz from their auditions program ‘timlesz AUDITION PROJECT’ on Netflix and sold roughly 650,000 copies of their album FAM in its first week. I don’t think you can make the sweeping generalization that Japan has been slow in shifting to digital media.
Another of the pressing issues facing Japan is strengthening its exports. According to the “Export Power” ranking announced by Luminate, in 2024 the No. 1 country was the U.S., followed by the U.K. at No. 2, Canada at No. 3, and South Korea at No. 4. Japan was ranked in 14th place. What difficulties do you think Japan faces with respect to exports?
I think there has traditionally been a lack of resources and experience in marketing to overseas audiences. There aren’t enough people who can share great artists or pieces of music in an appealing way, using language that resonates with the local markets. We have few experiences of success in creating overseas hits, and I think we need to be more ambitious. But what’s really important is to present songs and artists with universal appeal that transcends language barriers. I think if we do that, it will fling open the door for us. We believe it is only a matter of time though for more Japanese artists to break through globally, and at UMJ we are already turning this into reality with artists like Fujii Kaze, Ado and others.
Ado appeared in a Billboard US’ podcast, and has also been covered in several articles, right?
In 2025, Ado went on a tour of 33 countries, bringing a total of over 500,000 people to her shows. Her merchandise is also extremely popular, so her influence on the industry is incalculable. Thanks to the movie ONE PIECE FILM RED, she crossed the language barrier to be an artist that people around the world wanted to hear in person at least once. At her overseas shows, almost all of the audiences were made up of local fans. That impressed on me the fact that global success could be seen not only in winning awards or taking top positions in the charts, but also through this kind of success.
Right, it can be another kind of record for artists to aim for. On the topic of awards, they’ve announced that the MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN will be held again in 2026.
We’ve worked with Japanese artists, like Joe Hisaishi, Tomoyasu Hotei, Perfume, and MIYAVI, on their overseas activities. I’m glad to see how the Japanese music industry is coming together now, across company and organization lines, to hold these awards, even receiving government support. The other day, in New York, I met with the representatives of Universal Music Group in different countries, and one of our colleagues from Germany was surprised that this idea became a reality.
When the winner of the Artist of the Year award was announced, you could be seen cheering behind Mrs. GREEN APPLE.
I’d actually been watching from the balcony at first. But as the announcement of different winners went on, Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s name wasn’t coming up, so I started to get worried. So when there was a break, I knew I just couldn’t stay up there in the balcony, and I moved near the band. When they announced that Mrs. GREEN APPLE won, I was so surprised and overjoyed that I sprang out of my seat. It was apparently caught on camera. The results are determined by voting, so I couldn’t even guess who might win until right before the results were announced. All that worry just made my happiness all the greater.
The smile on your face, and the look of relief on the faces of everyone in the band, was really striking. This year Mrs. GREEN APPLE and Fujii Kaze are making big stirs in the charts. In addition to putting out new releases for five straight months, Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s been getting a lot of mass media exposure through an NHK TV series and through movies. Fujii Kaze released a hit album that’s entirely in English. These two artists are using totally different approaches, but they’ve both created hits. What are your feelings on that?
Fujikura: There’s something that Motoki Ohmori and Fujii Kaze both have in common, which is that they both want to sing where they’re needed. That’s what motivates them. I’m always telling employees to maximize the value of artists.
As a result of that, for Fujii Kaze, instead of us in Japan approaching overseas labels, we had multiple labels approaching Fujii Kaze and asking to work with him, which led to an agreement being signed.
In September, Fujii Kaze’s Prema, which is all in English, became a hit with sales of around 200,000 copies. His songs are also all getting heavy streaming plays. It’s been a wonderful success. One of the issues in Japan is a decline in the number of people who listen to international music. I think it’s really significant how he’s opened up a new market, and I’m looking forward to seeing where he goes in the future.
Fujii Kaze has a lot of fans outside Japan, in Southeast Asia. Was a lot of attention paid to these overseas markets when promoting the new album?
When “Hachikō” was released on streaming, we held an event, but we held it in Thailand, not Japan. That led to it being shared not only in Thailand but around the world. In the past, not being in Japan on the day of a song’s release would have been unthinkable. But with this many fans now accessible around the world, where you need to be and what you need to do to generate excitement has changed.
We’re already in the second half of the year. What do you think it will be like?
I may be repeating myself from previous years, but without good artists, you can’t generate excitement, and you can’t create hit songs. So it’s important not to just get caught up in techniques and monetization. At the heart of it all, you have to have great artists and great music. I want to keep maintaining that philosophy moving forward, as well.
—This interview by Seiji Isozaki and Naoko Takashima first appeared on Billboard Japan
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Every two weeks, users on the AI music platform Suno create as much music as what is currently available on Spotify, according to Suno investor presentation materials obtained by Billboard. Those users are primarily male, aged 25-34, and spend an average of 20 minutes creating the some 7 million songs produced on the platform daily, according to the documents and additional sources.
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Suno sees a future where, as it expands its offerings, creators and listeners will not need to leave the app to create, stream or share their music socially. The goal is listed as creating “high-value, high-intent music discovery” and “artist-fan interaction.”
Now, Suno might have the money to fulfill that ambitious vision. Suno announced last week that it had raised $250 million in a C fundraise, led by Menlo Ventures, with additional investors including NVIDIA’s venture capital arm NVentures and Hallwood Media. The round brings Suno’s valuation up to $2.45 billion.
“In just two years, we’ve seen millions of people make their ideas a reality through Suno, from first-time creators to top songwriters and producers integrating the tool into their daily workflows,” Suno CEO Mikey Shulman said in a statement about the company’s new influx of cash. “This funding allows us to keep expanding what’s possible, empowering more artists to experiment, collaborate and build on their creativity. We’re proud to be at the forefront of this historic moment for music.”
The investment materials, obtained by Billboard, provide more insight into the company’s aspirations for what Shulman calls the “future of music” which he is “seeing … take shape in real time.” In the materials, Suno claims that by 2028 the company will grow to $1 billion in revenue, and “this is before we consider monetizing consumption.” Eventually, the company says, the Suno of “tomorrow … will power the new, bigger music ecosystem and will be a $500 billion company.” Reps for Suno did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
According to the pitch deck, this funding round will be allocated to the following uses: 30% computing power, 20% mergers and acquisitions, 20% discovery, 20% marketing, 15% data and 5% partnerships. Already, the company has shown an interest in growing and expanding its offerings via acquisition, having purchased digital audio workstation WavTool in June 2025.
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Notably, compute power — the hardware, processors, memory, storage and energy that operate data centers — is the company’s biggest expense since Jan. 2024, which is a common situation for many AI companies. “Amid the AI boom, compute power is emerging as one of this decade’s most critical resources … there is an unquenchable need for more,” a McKinsey study said about the cost of compute in the age of AI.
OpenAI’s AI video and social platform, Sora, for example, especially struggles against high compute costs due to the complexities of generating video. According to an estimate by Forbes, Sora costs the company as much as $15 million per day to run. According to Suno’s financials, reviewed by Billboard, Suno has spent over $32 million on training its model since January 2024. That breaks down to $32 million spent on compute power and $2,000 spent on data costs — meaning the cost of content, like music, which it uses to train its model.
Suno is currently in the middle of a number of lawsuits concerning the data on which it trains its model. This includes two class action copyright infringement lawsuits, filed by indie musician groups; one lawsuit from Danish rights group Koda; and one from German collection society GEMA. Most significantly, however, is the copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the three major music companies, Sony, Universal and Warner, against Suno for $500 million, claiming widespread copyright infringement of their sound recordings “at an almost unimaginable scale” to train its model.
In recent months, there have been reports that Suno — and Udio, which was also sued in a near-identical lawsuit by the majors — has been in licensing and settlement talks with the majors. At least part of that reporting proved to be true: recently, Udio settled with both Universal and Warner and created a license structure for their recorded music and publishing interests. (Sony’s lawsuit against the company is still ongoing). Now, to work with the music companies, Udio is pivoting its service to become more of a fan engagement platform where users can play with participating songs in a “walled garden,” meaning users cannot download and post the creations on streaming services.
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Suno’s pitch deck does not say anything about its lawsuits with copyright holders. It also does not discuss any plan for licensing musical content.
Suno sold investors on its vision to create a service where you can “create, listen and inspire” on the platform, “turn[ing] music from passive consumption into an active participatory culture.” To expand this vision, Suno plans to roll out more products like a voice beautification filter and a social media service. It also touts that its work has cultural power outside of consumption on its own service, including a photo of cover art from viral AI band The Velvet Sundown next to the text, “Suno songs go viral off platform.”
The deck shows an image of a user playing guitar in a TikTok-like vertical social media video. In the top right corner, above typical social media buttons (“Like” “comment” and share”) is a button that says “Create Hook,” implying that users will connect through iterating and remixing each other’s creations in a video, social-forward way.
The company’s vision for the future, however, hinges on customer acquisition and reducing the number of users who leave the service after joining. According to the deck, Suno says it has 1 million subscribers already, up 300% year over year, and it currently says approximately 25% of subscribers remain after 30 days. On a weekly basis, Suno says it has 78% retention for subscribers and 39% weekly retention for all users.
Suno’s investment materials say that one positive indicator is that the company is “reactivating” an increasing number of users, meaning these users came back after one month. As of July 2025, Suno claims 350,000 reactivated users per week. The company attributes this to things like new features, increased awareness and improvements in their model.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall.
Trending on Billboard Chordal has onboarded Futures Music Group and eight additional music companies to its sync licensing platform, the company tells Billboard. The new deals follow major alliances with TikTok and Kobalt Music Group, both of which became Chordal clients over the summer. Futures, an indie label collective co-founded by Neon Gold’s Derek Davies […]
