Business
Page: 4
Chris Janson has returned to his former label home of Warner Music via a partnership with the country singer-songwriter’s Harpeth 60 Records imprint. Clay Hunnicutt leads Harpeth 60 Records’ radio promotion staff, with team members including Ray Vaughn and Lauren Bartlett. Janson previously released his first three albums through Warner, earning hits including “Buy Me a Boat” and “Good Vibes.” — Jessica Nicholson
Emerging singer-songwriter Esaú Ortiz signed with Sony Music Latin. The música mexicana artist from Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, first gained traction on social media with songs like “Triple Lavada,” which was featured on playlists such as Apple Music’s Hits 2025 and Spotify’s Éxitos México. His first official project under Sony Music Latin is said to feature “an explosive remix and heavyweight collaborations,” according to a press release. “I know I have the best team to take my music to the next level and to the ears of everyone,” Ortiz said in a statement. ” I believe we will do great things together, which makes me very happy.” — Griselda Flores
Trending on Billboard
Big Wild, a project of producer, singer, songwriter and engineer Jackson Stell, signed a label deal with Giant Music and a management deal with Ceremony Music Group. His first release under Giant was the single “You Belong Here,” which dropped April 11.
Jasmine Amy Rogers, the singer and actor who plays Betty Boop in Boop! The Musical on Broadway, signed a record deal with Nashville-based label Melody Place for the release of new original music at the end of 2025. According to a press release, the music will be “somewhere in the mainstream pop/urban world.” Rogers is also featured on the Boop! The Musical cast album set for release later this spring.
Metalcore band Wind Walkers signed with Fearless Records, which released the group’s new single and video “The End Aesthetic.” Wind Walkers just kicked off its Shapeshifter Tour on April 16 in Little Rock, Ark.
Indie-rock/dream-pop band Yumi Zouma signed with Nettwerk, which released its new single, “Bashville on the Sugar,” on Friday (April 18). Yumi Zouma is managed by Phil Jones at Tuesday’s Artists Management and booked by Alisa Preisler at Ground Control, Beckie Sugden at CAA and Sam Wald at WME. The band was previously signed with Polyvinyl Record Co.
Nettwerk also signed Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter BEL and will release her forthcoming single, “Fresh Start,” on Friday (April 25). BEL is managed by Justin Little and Chad Heimann at Brilliant Corners.
TAMLA Records and Capitol Christian Music Group (Capitol CMG) signed Peech. to their artist roster. In 2024, Peech. broke through with the single “Snowfall” and the mixtape L.I.V.E. On Friday (April 18), he released his latest single, “Don’t Miss Your Moment.” — Jessica Nicholson
Riser House Records signed indie-pop group The Wldlfe and will release the band’s new single, “Make Me Cry,” on Friday (April 25). The band is composed of Jansen Hogan, Carson Hogan, and Jack Crane.
Scotland-born, Texas-raised country singer Callum Kerr signed with ONErpm and Huff Co. Kerr also works as a model and actor. His new single, “Cold Beer Cold,” is out now.
Sony Classical signed Berlin-based pianist Alexander Malofeev, who will release his debut album for the label in the fall. Malofeev first rose to prominence in 2014 at the age of 13, when he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians. He has since performed with leading orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala.
Asher White signed to Joyful Noise, which released her latest single, “Kratom Headache Girls Night,” on Tuesday (April 15). White’s most recent album, Home Constellation Study, was released on Ba Da Bing! in 2024.
Oakland-based punk band The Lucky Eejits signed with Southern California indie label HEY!FEVER Records. The group recently won a spot at this year’s San Francisco Punk in the Park Festival on May 3. Lucky Eejits is set to release new music by the end of this year.
Anjula Acharia remembers when the one person who had set her up for success told her she was going to fail. And Jay-Z was there, too.
In 2008, Acharia and Interscope Geffen A&M’s then chairman, Jimmy Iovine, were sharing breakfast at a New York hotel. Iovine — who had partnered with Acharia’s South Asian music/news hub, Desi Hits, to develop a Universal Music Group-backed imprint — remembered her previously telling him how much “Beware of the Boys,” Jay-Z’s 2003 remix of Panjabi MC’s bhangra single, had meant to her as the kind of cross-continental exchange that she hoped Desi Hits would foster. So when Acharia stood up to leave the breakfast, Iovine asked her to stick around for a few more minutes… at which point Jay made his surprise entrance.
Acharia, who was in her 30s at the time, geeked out, gushing about her love of “Beware of the Boys” and asking the rap superstar about how the remix had come together. Then Iovine pulled the rug out from under her. “While I was sitting with him and Jay-Z, Jimmy told me that Desi Hits was going to fail,” she recalls. “His words were, ‘I know pop culture, I know a visionary, and this is just way too early. This would be right in 10 to 15 years.’ ”
Anjula Acharia. Styling by Kristina Askerova. Hair and Makeup by Shayli Nayak. Versace dress and jewelry, Paris Texas shoes.
Harsh Jani
A Punjabi kid and die-hard music fan born to South Asian immigrants, Acharia grew up in Buckinghamshire, England, devouring music that fused styles from around the world and dreaming of creating a platform that spoke to both Eastern and Western demographics. She was a senior partner at a London-based executive search firm who co-founded Desi Hits Radio as a popular early podcast in the mid-2000s; then Iovine backed Desi Hits in 2007 as a stateside label for South Asian artists after she moved to New York. The pair helped engineer a crossover hit in 2009 with “Jai Ho,” A.R. Rahman’s Academy Award-winning Slumdog Millionaire theme that was remade for U.S. listeners with The Pussycat Dolls added to it.
Trending on Billboard
“She was so talented and passionate about the music,” Iovine reflects today, “but sometimes things just don’t come together.” And by the early 2010s, Acharia admitted her mentor had been correct: The world wasn’t ready. “We didn’t have streaming platforms, social sharing or an ecosystem to support the industry,” she explains. “It was just very segmented back then and really hard for things to travel.” She wondered aloud why Iovine had invested in Desi Hits if he had doubted the idea. “And he says, ‘Because you’re an album, not a single.’ ”
On roughly the timeline Iovine predicted, the industry has changed drastically — and Acharia, who spent that intervening time outside of music, is returning to it with an entirely new album, so to speak. She and Warner Music Group exclusively tell Billboard that they have launched 5 Junction Records, a joint-venture label under WMG, as a pipeline for South Asian artists to reach North American listeners, much like a modern Desi Hits but with significantly more established talent and infrastructure. That talent includes its flagship pair of artists: Bollywood mainstay and pop triple-threat Nora Fatehi and ascendant Indian singer-rapper King. Both already have multiple hits and millions of streams overseas, giving them the ideal foundation to take the first crack at establishing North American footholds.
“It’s always been in our mind to promote this music to the world,” King says. “That has always been the fight, but now, I feel like we are at the right time and right spot. The next five years are looking bright.”
King. Styling by Nikita Jaisinghani. Hair by Javed Sheikh and Makeup by Swapnil Haldankar. Versace jacket and shirt, Brune & Bareskin shoes, Amrapali necklace.
Harsh Jani
Nora Fatehi. Styling by Meagan Concessio. Hair and Makeup by Marianna Mukuchyan. David Koma dress, tights and shoes.
Harsh Jani
Acharia believes that a cultural wave is about to crash down on the U.S. mainstream, similar to how Korean pop, Latin music and Afrobeats all made an impact on top 40 radio beginning in the late 2010s. Based on the South Asian market boom over the past decade — by the end of 2023, India had become the second-largest on-demand streaming market in the world, behind only the United States — and the English-language artists who have made overtures in the hemisphere through touring and studio team-ups, she’s not alone in that prediction.
“The best way to think about it is, what are your next billion-user markets?” WMG CEO Robert Kyncl says. He notes that the South Asian industry has been top of mind for him for over a decade: As vp of content at Netflix in the early 2000s, Kyncl saw firsthand the scope of demand for Hindi shows, and as YouTube’s chief business officer in the 2010s, he spent every year in the region, developing partnerships that he believes are paying off today. “You have to invest,” he says. “If you don’t, you’ll wake up five, 10 years from now and realize you just missed this whole new growth era.”
Kyncl has been friends with Acharia since his Netflix days (when he first discovered Desi Hits in the course of researching Hindi shows) and has followed her career closely. After leaving Desi Hits in 2014, Acharia stayed in the entertainment space by managing Priyanka Chopra Jonas, whom she originally signed as a Bollywood star trying to kick-start a music career and now helps steer as a global superstar. Acharia also joined the venture capital company Trinity Ventures before launching her own fund, A-Series Management and Investments, where she was an early investor in companies like ClassPass and Bumble.
Yet unfinished business gnawed at her. “Music is a place that makes me feel like I’m home, and fusion music makes me feel like I’m being seen,” she says. Acharia spoke to other labels last year about the idea for 5 Junction, but Kyncl personally convinced her to bring the project to WMG. She will work closely with Warner Records CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck and COO Tom Corson, as well as GM Jurgen Grebner, who steered international marketing at Interscope for over 20 years, and Alfonso Perez-Soto, who served as WMG’s emerging markets leader before recently becoming executive vp of corporate development.
Although Acharia was removed from the major-label world for years, some of its most prominent executives believe she’s the perfect steward for this ocean-spanning endeavor. Corson describes her as “a powerful force who is extremely well-connected across the world. We hit it off from the jump, and we’re thrilled to be in business with her.” Kyncl says that, if he were to describe the “ideal entrepreneur,” that person would resemble Acharia. “You have a vision, you’re strategic about it and you won’t stop until you win,” he says. “She has it. It makes absolute sense for us to partner with her, and she’ll make us better by pushing us.”
From left: Fatehi, Acharia and King.
Harsh Jani
Her ties to Kyncl aside, Acharia says that WMG made the most sense as a home for 5 Junction because the label group is “way ahead” in the scene. Since WMG created Warner Music India five years ago, the label has partnered with Diljit Dosanjh, a Bollywood superstar with 25 million Instagram followers who has headlined North American arenas; Karan Aujla, a former songwriter turned singer/rapper/YouTube behemoth; and Kushagra, a 20-year-old indie-pop newcomer whose single “Finding Her” is currently one of India’s biggest streaming hits.
When Jay Mehta became managing director of Warner Music India in April 2020, he was a team of one; now, the label has 34 employees. Part of that growth had to do with timing, as the market quickly expanded globally. Last decade, “India was dominated by Indian streaming services, which did not have a global footprint,” Mehta explains. “Spotify launched in India in 2018, and it took until 2021, 2022 for them to become the leaders [in the country]. We needed Spotify and YouTube to have massive presences in India in order to take artists global.”
Acharia also points out that subtle cultural shifts in North America helped fuel opportunities. “Think about all the foreign-language content on Netflix and other streaming platforms that people have watched — especially during COVID, where people were stuck at home,” she says. “And then, with vertical video, people are watching things with subtitles all the time … Everything affects each other. We’re more used to hearing foreign languages, so we’re more OK to listen to it in our music.”
Harsh Jani
Harsh Jani
At 5 Junction, Acharia will work closely with Mehta’s Warner Music India team, which has utilized streaming data to identify artists who can transcend international borders and songwriting camps to supply them with global hits. Fatehi, a Toronto native of Moroccan descent who moved to India and became a marquee Bollywood act, signed a deal with WMG in early 2024 to help her level up as a singer, dancer and actor. “The larger goal was always to go global, to let the whole world know my story,” she says. When she met Acharia, Fatehi told her that she wanted to become a cross-cultural entertainer along the lines of Jennifer Lopez, and Acharia told her, “Yes, let’s do it together.”
Fatehi says she has never met anyone more persuasive than Acharia. “I feel like our hungers align,” she says. “It’s hard to take a vision and sell it to someone else, because most people don’t have an attention span to listen to you for more than five minutes. But when [Anjula] opens her mouth and starts her pitch, you somehow have FOMO — you feel like you’re going to miss out if you’re not paying attention.”
In January, Fatehi released the Jason Derulo collaboration “Snake,” a thumping dance track built around East Asian melodies. It has earned 18.5 million official on-demand streams globally, according to Luminate; one month after its release, Aujla was featured on “Tell Me,” a OneRepublic collaboration that has earned 28.8 million global streams.
More than two decades after Jay-Z and Panjabi MC linked up, Acharia still believes these types of collaborations are key for breaking South Asian artists in North America. “The strategy that I had 15 years ago was cross-pollination, but we didn’t have the infrastructure to support that,” she says. Now creative borders are easier to cross. For instance, Fatehi and Derulo met up in Morocco to film a music video for “Snake” that combined hip-hop and Bollywood choreography. And after King recruited Nick Jonas for a new version of the former’s smash “Maan Meri Jaan” in 2023, King made a surprise appearance during the Jonas Brothers’ performance at Lollapalooza India in 2024 to perform it, a “cinematic” moment that he says he still can’t believe actually happened.
Harsh Jani
At the same time that Western artists are paying more attention to India as a touring market — Coldplay performed in the country for the first time in January, grossing $30.5 million across five shows in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, according to Billboard Boxscore — South Asian artists are more clearly identifying North American territories where thousands of fans will show up to their shows. Acharia name-checks New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin, but also says that Canadian cities have demonstrated “huge” ticket demand. After Dosanjh scored his first top 10 album in Canada with 2023’s Ghost, his Dil-Luminati tour last year became the highest-grossing North American tour by a Punjabi music artist in history, thanks in part to sold-out stadium shows at Vancouver’s BC Place and Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
Perez-Soto sees Toronto, where the metro area had a South Asian population of more than 1.1 million as of 2021, as a crucial gateway for the rest of North America. “South Asian music through Toronto, like Latin music was through Miami, has established an important bridge between the local origin of the music and the second generation,” he says. “They have this hybrid vision of culture, where things are getting mixed up and mutually enriched.”
Kyncl has kept WMG focused on these macro-trends for years. “It’s not like we’re just starting,” he says. “It’s just that Anjula is adding an additional element, which is bringing talent here.” Under her guidance, Fatehi is spending most of April in the recording studio and will issue the follow-up to “Snake” by the end of the month, with a mix of releases aimed at Eastern and Western markets throughout the year. Meanwhile, King says he is “working on an EP and some collaborations” to follow his January single “Stay,” in addition to multiple Bollywood projects.
Mehta believes that an Indian artist will make an impact on the U.S. mainstream charts in 2025. “We saw it with Hanumankind, on the back of a viral moment,” he says, referencing the Indian rapper’s 2024 track “Big Dawgs,” which exploded on TikTok and peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. “But we want to make a consistent way of bringing a lot of these artists onto the charts. The U.S. is extremely competitive, but if we get the right sound representing the culture and the right artist, with Anjula’s strengths, we should be able to make something big happen.”
Acharia knows this will take time, but for her, the personal stakes are worth the investment. She was once told that Desi Hits wouldn’t last; now, 5 Junction could define her legacy. “It’s something that I started, and I want to finish it,” she says. And for his part, Iovine is proud that the world has finally caught up to her vision.
“I’m not surprised at all at any of her success,” Iovine says, “and I’m glad she’s doing this now.”
This story appears in the April 19, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Billboard
Leading rock label Better Noise Music has announced a raft of new signings, including iconic pop-rock band Yellowcard, which will release its new album on the label later this year.
The as-yet untitled LP, which will be produced by Travis Barker, who also played drums on the album, marks something of a comeback for Yellowcard, which hasn’t released an album of new material since its self-titled set dropped in 2016 via Hopeless Records. The group is known for mid-aughts hits including “Ocean Avenue” and “Lights and Sounds” — the title tracks off the group’s two most successful albums, released in 2003 and 2006, respectively.
Also signing to Better Noise is Swedish power metal band Sabaton, which has racked up 4 billion streams on Spotify alone, according to a press release. The group has released a total of 10 studio albums, most recently on Nuclear Blast with its 2022 LP The War to End All Wars. Sabaton has landed four albums on the Billboard 200.
Trending on Billboard
Better Noise additionally signed American rock band In This Moment, which is currently in the studio working on a new album and set to drop new tracks later this year. The band has scored four entries on the Billboard 200, with its 2014 set, Black Widow, peaking at No. 8.
Finally, Better Noise signed The Rasmus, the popular Finnish rock band that has a new album set to drop in 2025.
“We are beyond excited to welcome Yellowcard, Sabaton, The Rasmus, and In This Moment to the Better Noise family,” said Better Noise president/COO Steve Kline in a statement. “These exceptional bands showcase the diversity and creativity that define our rich roster of rock and alternative artists. Each brings a proven global track record and a distinctive approach to rock music. We look forward to partnering with them and taking each band to the next level and beyond.”
The Better Noise roster also includes Five Finger Death Punch, The Funeral Portrait, Asking Alexandria and The Hu, among many others.
Durand Jones & The Indications – the trio of Durand Jones, Aaron Frazer and Blake Rhein – have announced their most extensive tour to date. Following a successful opening slot on Lenny Kravitz’s European tour, the band will hit their biggest headlining shows yet, with stops at Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater in Austin and The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
The tour will kick off Sept. 11 at The Van Buren in Phoenix and run through some of North America’s most iconic venues, including Webster Hall in New York, Tipitina’s in New Orleans, First Avenue in Minneapolis and The 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. The 37-date trek will come to a close on Nov. 16 at House of Blues in Dallas.
In addition to announcing their fall tour, Durand Jones & The Indications have released the second single from their upcoming album Flowers, due June 27 on Dead Oceans. The new single “Flower Moon” puts Frazer’s signature falsetto front and center as the group waxes poetic about love in springtime. The band draws from their extensive knowledge of soul and R&B history to deliver one of their most irresistible dancefloor tracks yet.
Trending on Billboard
“It felt right to release ‘Flower Moon’ with this record. Spring is here and the flowers are blooming everywhere. We really wanted to catch that essence of the song and bring it to life for the listener,” Jones said in a release. “Also the Flower Moon is happening in a few weeks, so everything just seemed aligned to bring this song to our fans. It’s a feel-good tune to enjoy with friends or a loved one.”
Check out the video for “Flower Moon,” directed by Alec Basse, below.
Flowers will mark Durand Jones & The Indication’s fourth studio album and a return to the band’s roots with a mixture of gritty funk and Southern soul that inspired their 2016 self-titled debut. The album was self-produced in Rhein’s Chicago home studio and reflects the “ups and downs in our personal lives and professional lives,” Frazer said when the album was announced, adding, “and flowers are a sign of maturity, growth, spring, productivity.” The new song follows lead single “Been So Long,” which was released last month.
Check out a full list of tour dates below.
Sept. 11 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren Sept. 12 – Flagstaff, AZ @ Orpheum Theater Sept. 13 – Abiquiú, NM @ Blossoms & Bones Sept. 15 – San Antonio, TX @ The Aztec Theatre Sept. 16 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater Sept. 18 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse Sept. 19 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl Sept. 21 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club Sept. 23 – Philadelphia, PA @ UnionTransfer Sept. 26 – Boston, MA @ Citizens House of Blues Sept. 27 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall Sept. 30 – Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi Annex Oct. 1 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed Oct. 3 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre Oct 4 – Fort Collins, CO @ Washington’s Oct. 5 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot Oct. 7 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater Oct 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre Oct. 11 – Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl Oct. 23 – Del Mar, CA @ The Sound Oct. 24 – Sacramento, CA @ Channel 24 Oct. 27 – Portland, OR @ McMenamins Crystal Ballroom Oct. 28 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom Oct. 29 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SODO Oct. 31 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory Concert House Nov. 1 – Bozeman, MT @ The ELM Nov 3 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue Nov 4 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom Nov 5 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrew’s Hall Nov. 7 – Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall Nov. 8 – Montreal, QC @ Beanfield Theatre Nov. 9 – South Burlington, VT @ HIgher Ground Ballroom Nov 11 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall Nov. 12 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel Nov. 14 – New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina’s Nov. 15 – Houston, TX @ Heights Theater Nov. 16 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
In conjunction with today’s global celebration of Earth Day, Merlin and IMPALA have announced the launch of a new fund intended to accelerate the independent music community’s push towards sustainability.
The initiative is named the Weidenmüller Sustainability Fund in honor of late !K7 founder Horst Weidenmüller, who co-founded Merlin and was a board member for both the digital music licensing partner for indies and IMPALA, the European organization that represents 6,000 independent music companies spread across 30 countries.
Before he passed away in February at age 60, Weidenmüller was central to the creation of the sustainability program IMPALA launched in 2021. This included the 2022 launch of a carbon calculator to assist labels in measuring and reducing their environmental impact through practices like tracking the climate impact of their office energy and water use, their commuting, their business travel and their manufacturing and distribution efforts.
Trending on Billboard
The new fund will provide resources to further develop and enhance this carbon calculator and make it more globally available, support IMPALA in offering advice and training to independent labels and distributors that use the tool and support the work of the IMPALA task force Weidenmüller created in 2020.
IMPALA has an established history of furthering sustainability. Its 2021 Climate Charter created sustainability frameworks in the indie sector, and in 2024 the company released the results of a study looking at the economic benefits of taking sustainability action. This new joint initiative reinforces a commitment by Merlin in equipping rightsholders with tool to address emerging industry challenges.
“Horst was not only a fierce advocate for independent music, but also for our planet,” Merlin CEO Jeremy Sirota says in a statement. “He believed in driving real and sustaining change—through leadership, innovation, and action. We all have a role to play in the preservation of our planet and a more sustainable future. Merlin is proud to launch the Weidenmüller Sustainability Fund and to help meet our commitment through the incredible work of IMPALA.”
“Horst was a true visionary,” continues IMPALA executive chair Helen Smith. “He believed in the power of collective initiatives as well as the business case or individual action. This fund honors Horst’s profound impact across the whole industry.”
Earlier this month Create Music Group announced its acquisition of !K7, the indie electronic label Weidenmüller founded in 1985. Upon the announcement, !K7 CEO Tom Nieuweboer says the partnership will allow the label “to scale our vision while staying true to our core values of independent artistry, innovation, and quality.”
Of the new fund, Nieuweboer adds that “Horst was my companion, mentor, and friend for decades. His passion for music always went hand in hand with a deep sense of responsibility for our planet which was becoming part of the DNA of !K7. Horst was a true role model – for me personally, and for many across the music industry. The launch of the Weidenmüller Sustainability Fund is not only a tribute to his commitment but also a call to the industry to follow in his footsteps. This fund ensures that his vision will not only be remembered but actively carried forward with real impact.”
Australia’s iconic Bluesfest has officially confirmed its return in 2026 following one of its strongest years post-COVID, bolstered in part by emergency support from the New South Wales Government’s Contemporary Music Festival Viability Fund.
Held over the Easter long weekend, Bluesfest 2025 drew more than 109,000 attendees across five days, its highest attendance since 2019, and the third-biggest turnout in the festival’s 35-year history. The milestone comes just months after festival director Peter Noble hinted that the event might be the final edition, citing ongoing economic strain across the live events sector.
Among this year’s lineup were The Pierce Brothers, the reformation of The Beards, Kim Churchill, Nahko, Fools, Eric Stang, RY X, Sweet Talk, 19-Twenty, Roshani, WILSN, and Clarence Bekker.
Trending on Billboard
“We’re the top-selling festival in the country, and we’ve worked hard to get here,” Bluesfest Director Peter Noble said.
That sentiment shifted in part due to the NSW Government’s $2.25 million lifeline distributed across five festivals. Bluesfest, along with Listen Out, Field Day, Lost Paradise, and Yours and Owls, each received up to $500,000 in funding through the initiative, designed to help festivals navigate rising costs related to insurance, freight, currency exchange, and shifting ticket-buying habits.
“The post-COVID era has been a financial nightmare for music festivals in NSW,” said Minister for Music and the Night-time Economy John Graham. “The government needed to step in to save the furniture, and the feedback is that this fund has helped some of these festivals survive.”
“From Bluesfest where I’ve been this weekend, through to Listen Out and Lost Paradise – people of all ages love the outdoor music festival experience and the artists they discover. We can’t afford to lose that cultural experience because the festivals can’t afford to pay their rising bills.
“The festival circuit a vital part of the live music industry which employs almost 15,000 people. It’s too important to lose, that’s why we’re backing festivals with emergency funding and reforms that bring down their costs.”
Head of Sound NSW Emily Collins added, “The funding is providing critical support to iconic festivals and helping ease the burden of a rapidly changing landscape. We’re proud to be supporting great festivals to continue delivering world-class music experiences for the people of NSW.”
The second round of funding from the Contemporary Music Festival Viability Fund opens May 1, ahead of the 2025–2026 summer season. Eligible festivals can apply on an as-needs basis.
As a festival platform, the Fyre brand doesn’t have the best reputation, to say the least. Originally billed as the ultimate FOMO event for influencers and scenesters, the high-profile collapse of the 2017 Fyre Festival in the Bahamas has become the ultimate symbol for hubris in the live music business and an unofficial synonym for any event plagued by disorganization, malaise or misery.
Now that Fyre founder Billy McFarland has tried, and once again failed, to revive the Fyre Fest name, most music fans have written off the brand as dead — but one Cleveland music and media executive has a new vision for the creatively spelled four-letter word.
Enter Fyre Music Streaming Ventures, LLC, a fan-curated on-demand music video streaming service that founder Shawn Rech hopes will become “home for the most passionate music fans and undiscovered talent around the world,” according to a release.
Trending on Billboard
“I just want people to remember the name,” Rech tells Billboard on why he chose Fyre. “It’s really that simple. It’s PT Barnum. All publicity is good publicity.”
Rech tells Billboard that shortly after the second Fyre Festival started collapsing last week, his team was on the phone with McFarland hammering out an agreement to use the Fyre name, logos and trademarks to brand the streaming venture. The agreement with Rech won’t impact McFarland’s ability to stage Fyre Festival at a future date.
Since getting out of prison in late 2022, McFarland has been hyping Fyre Festival 2 as a kind of redemption project following the disastrous 2017 event in the Bahamas that left fans stranded and resulted in a three-year sentence for the founder. Originally announced to be taking place on Isla Mujeres in Mexico, McFarland later moved the festival to Playa del Carmen before canceling it altogether after local officials in the Mexican town denied any knowledge of its existence.
Rech is a veteran entertainment executive and president/co-founder of the TruBlu Crime Network, which he launched with former To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen in 2022. For $4.99 a month, TruBlu subscribers get access to dozens of licensed true crime shows and documentaries like A+E After Dark, Bounty Hunters and Takedown with Chris Hansen, accessible across devices via download apps and native channels built into smart TVs.
Rech says Fyre “is like a curated YouTube with an emphasis on music.” It will operate as both a subscription service and as a FAST channel, an acronym for Free Ad-supported Streaming TV, with more linear-based programming and music content submitted and upvoted by fans. Fyre will also offer audio-only capabilities for fans looking to stream content on their phones at a lower bandwidth. Metadata identification will be verified by GraceNote.
“The relationship is between the artist and the fan through a single conduit. We intend to be that conduit,” Rech says.
Fyre will use both tastemakers and fan behavior to help drive its content strategy and potentially feature McFarland in a potential talent role in the future, although nothing has been finalized.
“He was fine to deal with; I have nothing negative to say,” Rech said when asked about working with McFarland. “He’s a big dreamer.”
You can learn more about the project and sign up for notifications at watchfyretv.com.
How did you get to the last concert you attended?
If you’re like most music fans in the United States and Canada, you probably traveled by car. While taking public transportation would be more environmentally friendly, it’s less likely you went by bus or shuttle.You might be among the few that took the least environmentally friendly option and flew.
Now a new study by REVERB, the longstanding organization focused on sustainability in touring and the broader music industry, is presenting a comprehensive report on all the ways concert attendees get to shows. The study aims to better understand fan travel – long known as the biggest carbon emitter in the live music space – and facilitate solutions to bring down concerts’ environmental impact.
This study was done by REVERB over the last two years at more than 400 shows in over 170 North American cities. REVERB representatives surveyed more than 35,000 fans, asking them about how they got to the show, how they would’ve preferred to get there and the barriers that prevented them from taking a more sustainable travel option.
Out today (April 21), the results of REVERB’s Concert Travel Study aim to give a better sense of the playing field while demonstrating that fans want greener options, info that’s altogether meant to encourage collaboration on solutions among venues, promoters, artists and fans.
Trending on Billboard
The study finds that driving is by far the most common way that fans get to shows, with 80% of respondents reporting taking a car. On average, 3,321 gas powered or hybrid vehicles were driven to any given show. On average, each car went 144 miles roundtrip and carried 2.5 people.
Meanwhile, just 9% of attendees used public transportation, although 33% percent said they would if there were better options available. And while only 7% of fans flew to shows, those flights accounted for 60% of all fan travel emissions.
All in, the study finds that fan travel creates 38 times more emissions than artist and crew travel, tour-related hotel stays and gear transportation combined. The average 11,000 capacity show creates 527 metric tons of fan travel-related carbon emissions, the equivalent of the energy it would take to power 110 homes for a year. On average, even larger concerts create 824 metric tons of carbon emissions.
But 89% of fans would take more sustainable transit options if there were better options and almost everyone surveyed — 90% of participates — said they’re concerned about climate change. See the complete study here.
“We’ve always known that fan travel is the biggest emitter, because you have thousands of fans versus a couple band members or crew members,” says REVERB’s director of impact Madeline Weir tells Billboard. “But the point isn’t to put pressure on fans or say its their fault; we want this to be an opportunity for artists, venues and the industry at large to acknowledge fan travel as the biggest source of emissions and work together with fans to see what solutions would make the fan experience better.”
The study suggests solutions like incentivized carpooling, which would provide better parking spots and expedited exit lanes to fans who arrive with a certain number of people in the car.
Weir also cites a desire to work with the aviation industry to help generate a bigger marketplace for sustainable aviation fuels, in order to bring down the cost of this fuel. Greener air travel is especially crucial when it comes to artist residencies, which typically entail most audience members traveling to see a stationary show.
“We’re never going to say to a band, you shouldn’t do [a residency], because it’s a fan experience and we definitely work with bands that do them,” Weir says. “It’s about talking about solutions with a band and their teams. And a lot of the artists that are at that [residency] scale are already doing a lot for climate, whether it be the offsetting model or more the philanthropy-based model.”
Weir also notes the importance of strategic routing, as emissions are naturally lower when fans travel shorter distances for a show. To wit, when an artist REVERB has partnered with provides the organization with their tour routing, REVERB provides them with information to send out to fans about various sustainable transit options, from carpooling to public transit to bike lanes. REVERB is also partnering with venues to provide tailored data from the study on what each specific venue can do to help fans arrive in greener ways.
The study was co-funded by Billie Eilish, a longtime REVERB partner and of the greenest artists in music. At the Los Angeles and Phoenix dates for Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour this past December, Elish’s team provided shuttles from various park and rides for faster, greener transport to shows, demonstrating that there are straightforward options for artists who want to platform sustainability.
“Artists, venues and fans all need to work together to improve our environment,” Eilish says in a statement. “From solar-powered live shows to more sustainable touring, my team is always looking for ways to help the planet. I have the greatest fans in the world, and I hope this study will be a helpful resource for those looking to learn more about transportation options that cut down on pollution and build a better future for live music.”
REVERB is also helping venues and events look at what Weir calls sustainable “micro-mobility,” including gas powered shuttles, golf carts and other on-site transportation. (She cites Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome as a venue that’s currently enacting such measures.) REVERB is also currently working with Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, NY to create bike valets and promote the use of public transit.
“At Forest Hills, we promote public transit options as the number one way to arrive at the venue,” says the venue’s co-manager Mike Luba. “We love when partners like REVERB and artists amplify this promotion to reduce the number of emitting vehicles driven to our shows. It’s truly better for fans, the community, and us.”
Altogether, the study emphasizes the growing concern about, and push for, sustainability in the industry, with U.S. venues and events increasingly exploring clean energy technology, swapping single-use plastic cups for reusable options and encouraging artists, agents and promoters to incorporate green clauses in various contracts. This work is catching up the sustainability efforts REVERB has been enacting in the live sector since it was created in 2004, with the organization’s co-founder Adam Gardner saying that “listening to fans has always been key to our success.”
While the REVERB study encompasses a lot of data and many options for improvements, what it ultimately makes clear is that demand for greener travel options is significant, with 94% of fans saying they want to be able to take collective action on the issue.
“Venues, artists, promoters and fans themselves all have responsibility to do this together,” says Weir.
Lil Durk wants a judge to dismiss murder-for-hire charges he’s facing over a 2022 shooting, claiming the feds gave “false evidence” to a grand jury by citing song lyrics that he wrote more than six months before the attack ever took place.
Prosecutors charged the Chicago drill star (Durk Banks) last year over allegations that ordered his “OTF” crew to murder rival Quando Rondo in – accusations they backed up by quoting lyrics from a song called “Wonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy” that allegedly referenced the shooting.
But in a motion to dismiss the case filed Friday, Durk’s attorneys said those lyrics could not possibly have made mention of the Rondo shooting because the rapper wrote them “seven months before the incident even happened.”
Trending on Billboard
“The government told the grand jury that Mr. Banks, through specific lyrics in his music, celebrated and profited from a revenge murder that he had ordered,” writes Durk’s lawyer Drew Findling. “That claim is demonstrably false.”
The allegedly incriminating lyrics came as a feature on a track released by Babyface Ray in December 2022 – three months after the Rondo shooting. But in their motion this week, Durk’s lawyer say he recorded his verses in January and had no subsequent involvement in the song. They cited sworn affidavits from two music producers who worked on “Wonderful Wayne,” who both said Durk made no edits to the lyrics after the shooting.
“Unless the government is prosecuting Banks on a theory of extra-sensory prescience, the lyrics could not have soundly informed the grand jury’s finding of probable cause,” Findling writes.
The use of rap music as evidence in criminal cases is controversial, as critics argue it threatens free speech and can sway juries by tapping into racial biases. Over the past few years, the practice has drawn backlash from the music industry and led to efforts by lawmakers to stop it. But it has continued largely unabated, most notably in the recent criminal case against Young Thug in Atlanta, in which prosecutors made extensive use of his music.
Durk was arrested in October on murder-for-hire and gun charges related to the September 2022 shooting at a Los Angeles gas station, which left Rondo (Tyquian Bowman) unscathed but saw friend Lul Pab (Saviay’a Robinson) killed in the crossfire.
Prosecutors say Durk’s Only The Family crew was not merely a well-publicized group of Chicago rappers, but a “hybrid organization” that also functioned as a criminal gang to carry out violent acts “at the direction” of Durk. One of them was the Rondo attack, the feds say, allegedly carried out in retaliation for the 2020 killing of rapper King Von (Dayvon Bennett), a close friend of Durk’s.
“Banks put a monetary bounty out for an individual with whom Banks was feuding named T.B.,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment, referring to Rondo by his initials. “Banks ordered T.B.’s murder and the hitmen used Banks and OTF-related finances to carry out the murder.”
In addition to Durk, prosecutors have also charged several alleged OTF members — Kavon London Grant, Deandre Dontrell Wilson and Asa Houston — as well as two other alleged Chicago gang members named Keith Jones and David Brian Lindsey.
To support those claims, prosecutors alleged that Durk “sought to commercialize” Lul Pub’s death by “rapping about his revenge” on Rondo: “Told me they got an addy (go, go)/ Got location (go, go)/ Green light (go, go, go, go, go),” Durk raps in the track. “Look on the news and see your son/You screamin’, “No, no” (pu–y).”
But in Friday’s motion to dismiss, Durk’s lawyers say that accusation is “patently false,” and that including them in the indictment is the kind of “egregious” prosecutorial conduct that requires the judge to toss the case entirely.
“A prosecutor who knowingly secures an indictment based upon false information, or who allows a falsely obtained indictment to persist, routs the grand jury from its central protective function,” Findling writes. “That is clearly what happened here.”
Durk’s indictment also alleged that “Wonderful Wayne” makes direct reference to a news clip filmed shortly after the shooting, in which Rondo can be heard screaming “no, no!” after seeing Lul Pab’s dead body. But his lawyers now say those were internet edits posted to YouTube, and that the audio from the news broadcast was not used in the original.
“Mr. Banks did not create these videos, and the government has failed to show any nexus between these manufactured video clips and Mr. Banks,” Finding says. “The internet users who posted the videos … are apparent ‘fan pages’ maintained by people with no affiliation to Mr. Banks.”
Dismissing criminal charges at the outset is a drastic step that courts rarely take. But Durks’ attorneys say the lyrics were the “linchpin” to the case against him, forming one of only two pieces of evidence that was presented to the grand jury that issued the indictment.
“For the grand jury not to have been substantially influenced by that evidence in its decision to indict is inconceivable,” Findling writes.
Music stocks bounced back — and performed better than major U.S. indexes— for a second week after President Trump’s tariff policy sent markets into a tailspin.
The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) rose 3.6% to 2,446.90, its second consecutive gain after falling 8.2% the week ended April 4. Fourteen of the 20 stocks were winners and five had gains exceeding 5%. The largest companies were among the week’s winners, which had an outsized impact on the index’s value, while the four worst performers are the index’s least valuable companies.
The BGMI outperformed the Nasdaq and S&P 500, which lost 2.6% and 1.5%, respectively, but fell short of the FTSE 100’s 3.9% improvement. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 2.1% and China’s SSE Composite Index rose 1.2%.
Trending on Billboard
Streaming companies, which analysts believe are well-suited to survive the impacts of the U.S. tariff policy, were among the week’s best performers. Cloud Music was the week’s biggest gainer, rising 10.5% to 156.40 HKD ($20.15). Deezer was the third-best performer with a 6.7% gain.
Spotify, the most valuable music company, rose 5.6% to $574.25. UBS lowered its Spotify price target on Tuesday to $680 from $690 but maintained its buy rating. Tencent Music Entertainment improved just 0.4%, giving it a 10.2% gain in 2025.
Multi-sector companies, particularly those from South Korea, also performed well. YG Entertainment rose 10.0% to 66,800 KRW ($47.10). SM Entertainment rose 9.3% to 116,300 KRW ($81.99) and JYP Entertainment improved 6.2% to 63,300 KRW ($44.63). HYBE rose 2.0% to 230,500 KRW ($162.51).
Universal Music Group rose 3.2% to 23.96 euros ($27.25), turning a deficit into a year-to-date gain of 0.2%. Warner Music Group rose 0.3%, bringing its loss in 2025 to 6.1%.
Live entertainment companies had mixed results. German promoter CTS Eventim gained 4.2% to 97.20 euros ($110.54) and MSG Entertainment rose 1.2% to $30.69. Live Nation fell 1.8% to $127.22. Sphere Entertainment Co. dropped 6.3% to $25.38. The company, which owns the Sphere venue in Las Vegas, has fallen 40.2% year to date.
Radio companies continued their decline. iHeartMedia dropped 14.8%, bringing its year-to-date loss to 54%. Cumulus Media’s 19.4% fall took its year-to-date deficit to 67.5%.
Tariffs continued to be a dominant theme in the financial world this week. Apple and other tech companies that import phones, computers and chips from China and other Asian countries gained a reprieve from the most burdensome tariffs. The announcement, which came on April 11, sent Apple’s stock up 2% on Monday (April 14) and pushed its market capitalization back past $3 trillion. On Thursday, the Trump administration announced new fees on Chinese-made ships entering U.S. ports. Some of those fees were quickly walked back, however, by exempting ships that travel between U.S. ports of call, and from domestic ports to Caribbean islands or U.S. territories.
Billboard
Billboard
Billboard