Business
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As Cindy Mabe officially takes the reins as chairman/CEO of Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN), she is pledging to make some changes that could radically grow the label she inherits from Mike Dungan.
In a staff memo titled “Our future starts today,” obtained by Billboard, Mabe — Billboard’s 2019 Country Power Players executive of the year — lays out several areas of expansion for the company.
Among her plans are to “dramatically expand our partnerships with independent labels and entrepreneurs.” Mabe states, “Inspiration and new ideas are coming from everywhere. Much of that innovation is coming from the independent sector, but by the same token there is so much more they could do if they partnered with us in key areas. Universal Nashville will actively take a role to position ourselves as the best partners to expand their growth and help develop and support these artists.”
She also vows to expand the label’s space in film and TV. “While we are the leaders in recorded music, I want us also to lead in the music-based film and TV space,” Mabe writes. “Our artists stories are powerful and not linear and so the means of telling their stories should have a wide reach. This means growing our presence in audiovisual to develop our Country culture and our artists stories in film and television.” She gives no further specifics, but UMG launched a film and TV studio in 2020.
As country music grows globally, Mabe also plans to take advantage of that explosion. “We will collaborate even closer (and more creatively) with our label colleagues around the world where we can leverage each other’s strengths to break artists who are either signed to their rosters or ours,” she writes. “There’s so much more we can do together.” Label artists like Keith Urban and Kip Moore already have considerable international followings.
Mabe ascended from president, a role she has held since 2014, to replace Dungan, who retired after 43 years in the music industry on March 31.
Mabe joined UMGN in 2012 as senior vp of marketing, leading marketing initiatives across Capitol Records Nashville, EMI Records Nashville, MCA Nashville and Mercury Nashville — UMG’s expanded suite of country labels following its acquisition of EMI. Prior to that, she spent five years at Capitol Records Nashville as senior vp of marketing.
UMGN is home to, among others, Urban, Carrie Underwood, George Strait, Parker McCollum, Little Big Town, Dierks Bentley, Priscilla Block and Brad Paisley. The company finished 2022 at No. 1 on Billboard’s year-end Top Country Labels chart.
Read Mabe’s memo is in full below:
Good morning team!
We have worked alongside each other and in the trenches together for a while now but today is my first day as Chair and CEO of UMG Nashville. It’s a responsibility that I do not take lightly. To succeed Mike – a mentor and one of the most accomplished executives in the history of Nashville – is humbling. And to be surrounded by our incredible, world class artists and to be working alongside you, the best team in Country music, and with Lucian’s unwavering support, is an honor that gives me a great sense of pride, responsibility and excitement.
It is with that sense of excitement, I want to share with you my vision of how we’re going to build on the incredible work that we’ve done together and position this company for creative and commercial growth in what is a rapidly changing and expanding market. This is the next era of Universal Music Group Nashville!
First, we’re going to continue to sign and develop the best artists in Country music. Our roster reflects what we value the most: GREAT ARTISTS. And with those artists we will push the boundaries and reach of Country music and widen our artistic lens by signing and developing artists who have important stories to share and who shape our culture no matter where they are from and whomever they are influenced by. Country is—and will remain—a genre of deep roots grounded in great storytelling and truth that incorporates creative influences across music styles and genres and fans everywhere have shown us they are open to what our evolving genre has to offer. From Nashville to the world.
Second, we will dramatically expand our partnerships with independent labels and entrepreneurs. The marketplace is in flux with innovation. Inspiration and new ideas are coming from everywhere. Much of that innovation is coming from the independent sector, but by the same token there is so much more they could do if they partnered with us in key areas. Universal Nashville will actively take a role to position ourselves as the best partners to expand their growth and help develop and support these artists.
Third, we will broaden our storytelling to include film and TV. While we are the leaders in recorded music, I want us also to lead in the music-based film and TV space. Our artists stories are powerful and not linear and so the means of telling their stories should have a wide reach. This means growing our presence in audiovisual to develop our Country culture and our artists stories in film and television.
Finally, we will collaborate even closer (and more creatively) with our label colleagues around the world where we can leverage each other’s strengths to break artists who are either signed to their rosters or ours. There’s so much more we can do together.
In my excitement, I wanted to give you a glimpse of what the next era of Universal Nashville is going to look like. I’ll be sharing more about all of these areas in the coming weeks and months, but I wanted you to get a sense of where we’re headed and how excited I am to be working with all of you in this next chapter.
Our future starts today. Let’s build it together!
Cindy
Billboard‘s Global Music Index rose 4.2% this week to 1,263.70, its high level in six weeks, as 14 of the 20 stocks in the index were in positive territory. The index’s most valuable companies were among the gainers: Universal Music Group was up 2.1%, Spotify improved 4.1%, and Live Nation climbed 6.1%.
With additional help from Warner Music Group (+5.9%) and Tencent Music Entertainment (+8.1%), the Billboard Global Music Index outperformed the major indexes. The S&P 500 rose 3.5% to 4,109.31 and the Nasdaq composite improved 3.4% to 12,221.91. In the U.K., the FTSE 100 rose 3.1%.
In the first quarter, the Billboard Global Music Index was up 8.2% overall.
Radio company Audacy was the greatest gainer of the week, improving 18.2% to $0.13. In a proxy statement filed March 24, Audacy said it will propose a reverse stock split at the company’s May 24 shareholder meeting. The New York Stock Exchange will initiate a delisting process for stocks that close below $1.00 for 30 consecutive trading days; Audacy’s share price has not exceeded $1.00 since July 5, 2022. A reverse stock split will reduce the number of outstanding shares. Since the value of the company is unaffected by the event, the reverse split will increase the share price.
Elsewhere, Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE) improved 9.6% to $59.07. On Thursday (March 30), MSGE revealed its final plan to separate its live entertainment company from the rest of its businesses. On April 20, the current parent company will be renamed Sphere Entertainment Co. and be comprised of the state-of-the-art Sphere venue, MSG Networks and Tao Group Hospitality. That will leave a pure-play live entertainment company, MSG Entertainment, which includes such venues as Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall.
Competing interests drove SM Entertainment shares higher in February and early March, but the stock has fallen 36.9% in the last three weeks after dropping another 13.1% this week. The K-pop company’s share price started the year at 76,700 won ($58.71) and surged to 114,700 won ($87.79) on Feb. 10 after HYBE acquired a 14.8% stake from SM’s founder, Lee Soo-man. By March 10, when HYBE and Kakao Entertainment were locked in a battle to become SM’s largest shareholder and lead the company’s expansion following its break from Lee, SM shares hit 147,800 ($113.13). Once Kakao Corp. and Kakao Entertainment’s tender offer expired on March 26, the share price plummeted. Still, SM Entertainment shares are up 21.5% year to date.
SEOUL — South Korea’s SM Entertainment appointed Jang Cheol-hyuk as the company’s new CEO on Friday (March 31), as the K-pop giant vowed to turn over a new leaf by bringing on a fresh leader and board of directors. Jang succeeds outgoing CEO Lee Sung-soo.
“I feel a great responsibility to assume the position as a CEO when SM is about to take a big leap forward,” said Jang in a statement. “We will establish a sound [and] transparent governance structure and faithfully implement the SM 3.0 strategy so that SM can become a fan-and shareholder-centered global entertainment leader.”
The landmark corporate shakeup is part of SM’s bid to improve corporate governance as well as its production system, which in recent years lagged behind rivals and invited investor scrutiny. Friday’s appointments also put an end to the weeks-long drama that gripped the K-pop world, pitting industry giants HYBE, home to boyband BTS, and South Korean tech giant Kakao against each other.
A certified accountant and professional manager, Jang joined SM in early 2022 as CFO and has been involved in creating the blueprint for SM’s future. Dubbed SM 3.0, the plan is to diversify the company’s artist portfolio and delegate more creative control away from the single-pipeline structure helmed by SM founder Lee Soo-man.
For years, Lee hasn’t had an official role at SM — which developed K-pop groups EXO, NCT and Girls’ Generation — but he had nearly unchecked powers as its largest shareholder. He was being paid millions of dollars a year in production fees, a setup that ended late last year following a shareholder revolt.
At Friday’s meeting, Kim Kyung Wook, a former SM CEO and now shareholder, pressed the agency to recoup the production fees, but outgoing CEO Lee Sung-soo — who is Lee Soo-man’s nephew — said the company was not ready to consider that step.
Cracks began to show at SM in February after management, without Lee Soo-man’s approval, signed a partnership deal with Kakao. The founder retaliated by selling most of his shares to HYBE and laying the groundwork for a possible merger between the two largest K-pop agencies.
Friday’s shareholder meeting had been hyped as a spirited battle between HYBE and Kakao before HYBE abruptly threw in the towel last week and ceded some of its SM shares to its rival.
Together with subsidiary Kakao Entertainment, Kakao has now secured nearly 40% of shares in SM, becoming the company’s largest stakeholder. Jang Yoon-Joong, executive vp/global strategy officer at Kakao Entertainment, as well as Align Partners CEO Lee Changhwan — who led the shareholder revolt — have now joined the board as non-executive directors.
Three SM executives, including incoming CEO Jang, were also appointed to the board, while five outside directors were also approved: Kim Kyu-Shik, chairman of the Korean Corporate Governance Forum; Kim Tae-him, attorney at Pyeong San Law Firm; Moon Jungbien, professor at Korea University Business School; Lee Seung-min, partner at Peter & Kim; and Sung M. Cho, CEO of music analytics company Chartmetric.
Before BTS conquered the world, Lee Soo-man was the most famous face of K-pop in Korea for reasons both good and bad. He has been lauded as a visionary but criticized for his harsh treatment of trainees and artists. While he treated stalwart artists like family, keeping them on the roster even after their career peaks, he also was accused of excessive control over the acts’ professional and personal lives. He has also been convicted of embezzlement, though he later received a presidential pardon for his contribution to K-pop.
Lee Soo-man still holds over 3% of SM’s shares but hasn’t disclosed his future plans regarding the company. A representative sent to Friday’s meeting on his behalf stayed silent at the gathering.
“Today marks an end of an era at SM, a company I founded in my name,” said Lee, in a statement emailed to reporters shortly before the shareholder meeting. While not commenting directly on the proceedings, he said he was staying outside the country and is “deeply immersed in the world of global music.”
Even if classical music made up just 1% of U.S. music consumption in 2022, according to Luminate, Apple’s new streaming service dedicated to the genre could mean big things for the subscription market.
Global recorded music revenues rose for the eighth straight year in 2022 — but markets are maturing, and the once high-flying growth rate fell to single digits. That doesn’t mean the music subscription business is getting stale, though. In fact, there are plenty of new ideas and much-needed innovations that can help push the streaming market forward.
The latest, and one of the best, examples of how the music business can build a better mousetrap is Apple Music Classical. Apple wanted to better serve classical music fans but realized the best path was to break away from the Apple Music subscription app that works fine for every other genre. So, it built Apple Music Classical, a standalone app for Apple’s iOS devices — the Android app will arrive later — that launched on Tuesday to some rave reviews (GQ called it “a ton of fun”).
Classical music has always been a second-class citizen in digital music because of the way its metadata — information about the recording — is organized. For most genres, describing music by artist, track and album is an adequate way to organize a massive number of recordings. Download stores and streaming services are built around this classification system. But since the advent of iTunes and download purchases, people have recognized that classical music doesn’t fit well in the standard metadata system. In classical music, music is better organized by such categories as conductor, orchestra and movement. This could help explain why classical music accounted for 2.7% of U.S. digital album sales but just 0.8% of on-demand streams in the U.S. last year, according to Luminate.
“It’s the works-based nature of classical,” says Dart Music founder Chris McMurtry, now a vp at Pex, a digital music rights company. “That’s why Apple had to build a separate app.” McMurtry addressed that problem at Dart Music, a digital distributor that focused on classical music and built a database with metadata fields better suited for the genre.
Apple wasn’t the first company to see an opportunity in classical music. Dart Music launched in 2015 to tackle the metadata angle (its assets were acquired in 2017 by Haawk), and classical-focused streaming isn’t new, either. Idagio debuted in 2015. Primephonic launched in 2019 and was acquired by Apple in 2021. Universal Music Group’s Deutsche Grammophon imprint debuted its own service, Stage+, in 2022.
But Apple’s entry into the classical music streaming market could be the most impactful to date. Apple has billions of customers around the globe and an increasingly successful services business that includes the Apple Music subscription app and Apple TV+, a streaming video-on-demand platform. Those cloud-based services, combined with Apple’s bread-and-butter business of selling smartphones and laptops, give the company the resources and marketing might to activate a passionate group of music aficionados that has been underserved by streaming platforms better suited for rock, pop and hip-hop.
“It exceeded my expectations,” says McMurtry, who looked up well-known names and obscure composers to appreciate the app’s level of detail. He says he was impressed by the depth of metadata — the producers, engineers, mixers, other contributors, year of the recording and even the composers’ birth and death years. “It’s a very educational experience.”
If Apple Music Classical can hook McMurtry, maybe it can lure more people into the music subscription market. In 2022, there were 92 million subscribers to streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music, according to the RIAA. In total, 214 million Americans — 75% of the population 12 and older — streamed music in the past month, according to a January 2023 survey by Edison Research. Younger consumers were far more likely to stream music than older listeners, however, with 53% of people over the age of 55 having done so compared to 89% of 12-to-34-year-olds and 85% of 35-to-54-year-olds. A good classical music app can help narrow that sizable gap, attract more subscribers and generate more subscription revenue.
Going after classical music fans makes financial sense, too. For starters, they’re plentiful, says Russ Crupnick, partner at market research firm MusicWatch. “By comparison, they are somewhat larger than the entire population of vinyl buyers,” he says. As older consumers, they can afford a standalone classical music app: Crupnick says classical music fans’ mean income is 35% higher than average. They’re also twice as likely to purchase expensive, audiophile stereo equipment. When asked if obtaining the highest-quality sound format is important, 64% of classical music fans said yes, and 54% are willing to pay more to get it. Fortunately for them, Apple Music Classical is free of charge to Apple Music subscribers. “It will be interesting to see whether Apple eventually adds fees to monetize the service, or subsidizes it as they have higher resolution audio,” says Crupnick.
There’s great potential outside of the United States, too. Apple Music Classical will eventually be available in three strong markets for classical music: Japan, China and South Korea. In China, the fifth-largest recorded music market in 2022, according to the IFPI, classical music has been a phenomenon since the Cultural Revolution. Gramophone magazine described it as a “gargantuan market for the consumption of recorded classical music even if only as a study aid or as a residue of having Mozart and Beethoven sonatas tinkling through the family home.”
The digital market has performed incredibly well without a mass appeal offering tailored for classical music fans. Record labels generated $16.9 billion from streaming in 2022 while mostly ignoring an important subset of the market. With Apple Music Classical, Idagio and Stage+ super-serving classical music fans, there’s potential to do better.
Classical music has been in the news this month, with the launch of Apple Music’s new classical-specific streaming app and Universal Music Group’s purchase of classical label Hyperion Records. But under the hood, another notable classical music story was brewing: for the first time in its history, Decca Records has nine of the top 10 songs on the classical U.S. on-demand audio streaming songs chart, according to Luminate.
The achievement is the fruit of several different strategies to help boost those artists, including Ludovico Einaudi, Max Richter, Cody Fry, Chad Lawson and Lang Lang, across streaming services, from reworks, playlisting and, of course, TikTok. And it helps earn Decca Records U.S. senior vp of marketing and artist strategy Joseph Oerke the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Oerke tells Billboard about several of those strategies, which go beyond boosting individual artists and songs but also includes growing the genre’s footprint at streaming — which will be helped by Apple Music Classical, but also Deutsche Grammophon’s own streaming service, Stage+, that it launched last November to showcase DG and Decca’s roster of artists. And the growth of classical streaming is becoming apparent in the numbers: on-demand audio streaming of classical music has grown by double-digit percentages in each of the past three years, and outpaced the growth of the on-demand audio streaming business at large in 2022, according to Luminate.
“There is a massive population of people who listen to instrumental and classical music during activities like meditation, yoga, cooking dinner, studying and so much more,” Oerke says. “We’ve intensely focused on these spaces and created opportunities to highlight the genre.”
This week, Decca has nine of the top 10 on-demand streaming audio songs in the U.S., according to Luminate, the first time in the label’s history it has achieved that feat. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
It is quite an exciting week for us. There is an amazing team here at Decca Records US and across the larger Verve Label Group, led by President/CEO Dickon Stainer. This is a tribute to each department. While we always study the charts, our focus remains on artist development and bringing classical music to the widest audience possible. Each track had its own journey to the chart including TikTok virality, the undeniable talent of the artist, the perfect alignment of music and function and so much more. There is no one plan that works for every track, so we constantly analyze audience and streaming data to inform how we tailor each approach. For example, prolific pianist-composer Chad Lawson embraces the healing power of music and writes works that are not only beautiful to listen to but also can inspire mindful moments. We’ve worked with Chad to not only position his music as classical but also as music that can serve a purpose.
Additionally, we’ve released alternate versions of key tracks including sleep re-works that have helped expand the audience. Working with such a collaborative and flexible artist as Chad has increased the opportunities we have for success. We’ve also fully embraced a global outlook and these nine tracks represent artists from the U.S., Iceland, U.K., Italy and China which gives us even more music to work with and broaden our overall appeal. We have the honor to represent classical labels including Decca Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, ECM New Series and Mercury KX as well as working with artists locally signed around the world. This industry-leading wealth of artists and music is a key to our success.
With streaming’s dominance, many people have lamented the struggles that genres like classical and jazz have had in breaking through such a crowded and pop-heavy marketplace structure. How have you guys positioned yourselves to succeed at streaming in particular?
Rather than lament I’ve always chosen to fully embrace how listening habits have evolved over the years and find every possible outlet and platform for classical music. With instrumental music we work with both artist-forward listening as well as more passive forms of consumption. It’s this combination of listening styles that has helped us to grow our market share consistently over the last few years. One approach is to create moments or events that draw attention to our artists and music, with one example being World Sleep Day. We partnered with the World Sleep Society and curated a selection of new music from a range of artists around the world. We then worked with our commercial partners to drive overall awareness for the genre, which many people consume as part of their daily lives, which then drives increased consumption. There is a massive population of people who listen to instrumental and classical music during activities like meditation, yoga, cooking dinner, studying and so much more. We’ve intensely focused on these spaces and created opportunities to highlight the genre.
Deutsche Grammophon also launched its new streaming service, Stage+, in November. How has that service fared so far and what has it allowed you to do with the catalog?
Stage+ is a beautiful platform where you can enjoy some of the greatest musical performances from around the world. I’ve always been a fan of classical music and I attend operas and concerts in New York weekly, but I almost never get to see the Vienna Philharmonic at home, and I’ve only been to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam once in my life. There is so much amazing work being done in concert halls around the world and now classical audience members everywhere can enjoy performances that we might only ever hear about. We are working hand in hand with Deutsche Grammophon to continue growing the audience for Stage+ and look forward to bringing these performances to many more fans in the years to come.
There seems to be more and more interest in classical-specific streaming lately, not only with Stage+ but with the official launch this week of Apple Music Classical. How do you leverage these types of platforms, and how does that help you break through with your fan base?
There has been, wrongly, a stigma that most streaming platforms only carry pop music but not classical or not all of classical music. That’s incorrect, but the perception remains. These classical-specific platforms highlight just how vast the available catalog is and can present recording information in a clean and easily understandable format. Personally, it makes me as a listener feel seen and heard which is not something classical music fans who grew up digging around CD bins in the back of a music store have enjoyed. I think part of our job now is to educate listeners that you can have the entire music store with one tap and find both popular and obscure recordings quickly and easily.
Several streaming services also have added additional data, such as performer, composer and conductor data. What else would you like to see added to better reflect the classical space?
One thing that was missing but now is less of a problem is improved sound quality. The dynamic range of classical music is so vast that higher quality audio was an issue in the past, but now most services offer it which is a huge benefit. While metadata display is an on-going conversation, I’d like to see more contextual information offered to listeners, such as a booklet or liner notes. Classical music has traditionally been about numerous artists recording the same piece — just imagine how many recordings of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony there are — and so each artist’s individual interpretation is the key and listeners are keen to know the back story and the artist’s thoughts on the repertoire. With opera, which is really a challenge at streaming, there is a need for a libretto to understand what is being sung. This extra material helps with a richer listening experience deepening a listener’s connection to the genre.
You guys have also had success leveraging TikTok, particularly with Ludovico Einaudi’s 2013 track “Experience,” which went viral on the platform last year and is still the No. 1 on-demand streaming audio track in the U.S. this week. What was the story there and how have you been able to utilize platforms like that to benefit your artists?
In November 2020 our vp of digital analytics and advertising spotted the increasing uses of “Experience” on TikTok and that it was driving more streaming. We quickly identified the video where the trend started, which was of a student listening to “Experience” which dramatically helped increase his focus while writing a paper. It clearly resonated with a large audience and we could see the potential. From there we quickly delivered the official audio to Einaudi’s TikTok profile, ran influencer campaigns to boost engagement, drove awareness for Einaudi’s own channels, and then encouraged him to deliver an alternate solo piano version of the song. We had already been planning a YouTube livestream for December and decided that a performance of “Experience” needed to be added ASAP. I think most importantly, we looked at how people were engaging with his music and the cultural conversation around it to tailor our approach at broadening and consistently growing the audience.
In general, we are constantly monitoring trends and daily activity on social platforms like TikTok, Reels and Shorts and with our deep understanding of fan behavior we can double down on our consumer-led marketing. Elevating UGC with initiatives like influencer campaigns and plugging our artists and music into relevant cultural trends are just a few ways we work to position our artists at the forefront of online culture to give their music a chance to stand out amongst the thousands of tracks released every day.
How do you keep growing the genre moving forward?
We need to make sure artists and their music are present where fans are and that means a lot of content both premium and casual. The decline of classical music has and always will be lamented but despite that it is still here, both in the concert hall and coming through our speakers. I attended the opera earlier this week and soprano Lise Davidsen gave one of the most thrilling performances I’ve heard and now my job is to make sure others know about her and excite their curiosity to seek her out. She’s but one example of the countless performing and recording artists today who are giving phenomenal performances night after night, and they are the catalyst for moving the genre forward while we are here to amplify their art.
Previous Executive of the Week: Mike G of UTA
Downtown Music continues to reconfigure its business with the appointment of Emily Stephenson as its new president of publishing and Jedd Katrancha as chief commercial officer. Along with the new leaders, global president of Downtown Music Services, Mike Smith, has stepped down “to pursue several personal projects and to focus on his ongoing charitable work,” according to a press release. News of the leadership shuffle arrives just over a week after the company’s CEO, Andrew Bergman, wrote a letter to Downtown staff announcing a second round of layoffs, citing the “reorganization” of the company. Stephenson, who most recently served as the division’s vp of business operations, will now oversee all publishing efforts at Downtown Music, including client acquisition and business development, A&R, rights management and client services for the group’s publishing companies: Downtown Music Publishing, Songtrust and Sheer. She will be joined in these efforts by Jedd Katrancha, who was promoted to chief commercial officer of publishing. Katrancha will oversee business development, A&R and synch for Downtown’s publishing companies. – Kristin Robinson
ASCAP announced the 12 writer and 12 publisher members elected to serve on its board of directors for a two-year term beginning Saturday (April 1). In addition to ASCAP president/chairman of the board Paul Williams, writer members re-elected in the at-large field include composer/songwriter Jon Batiste; composer Richard Bellis; composer Bruce Broughton; songwriter/producer Desmond Child; composer Sharon Farber; writer vice chair composer Dan Foliart; songwriter/composer Michelle Lewis; composer/producer Marcus Miller; songwriter Jimmy Webb; and composer Doug Wood. Composer Alex Shapiro was re-elected in the symphonic and concert field. Meanwhile, the newly elected publisher director is Jon Singer (Spirit Music), while the publisher directors re-elected in the at-large field are Peter Brodsky (Sony Music Publishing); Bob Bruderman (Kobalt); Marti Cuevas (Mayimba Music); Keith Hauprich (BMG US); Dean Kay (Lichelle Music Company); Evan Lamberg (Universal Music Publishing Group); Leeds Levy (Leeds Music); Carianne Marshall (Warner Chappell Music); Mary Megan Peer (peermusic); and publisher vice chair Irwin Z. Robinson (Cromwell Music). James M. Kendrick of European American Music was re-elected in the symphonic and concert field.
Katie Soo was named chief business officer at live event ticketing platform DICE; she joins from educational subscription platform KiwiCo, where she served as chief marketing officer and remains as an advisor. In her role, Soo will oversee DICE’s consumer marketing, business-to-business marketing, fan experience, brand and creative, new growth initiatives and social and communications teams.
[PIAS] appointed Tom Keil as global head of dance and electronic/executive vp of A&R. Based in London, Keil joins the company from Ultra Music in Europe, where he served as general manager/vp of A&R. He can be reached at tom.keil@pias.com.
Business-to-business music and streaming solutions provider Tuned Global announced the hire and promotion of six team members to “supercharge” its business in Europe, according to a press release. Jonas Norberg, founder of DJ artificial intelligence company Pacemaker, was named the company’s head of AI and brings two members of his Pacemaker team with him: co-founder/chief technology officer Daniel Wallner and product development director Victor Garcia. Also hired were Daniel Kirby (as presales technical consultant) and Mateus Moura (as customer success manager), who will both work with Tuned Global’s senior vp/head of EMEA Rick Gleave to provide customers with technical support and insights. Lastly, Virginie Chelles was promoted to vp/head of marketing & communications; now located in France, she will work to boost the company’s growth in the territory.
Sounds and samples marketplace Splice hired Kevin Stewart as senior vp of engineering and David Ericksen as senior vp of product. Both will report to Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava. Stewart joins from Harvest and Ericksen joins from Adobe.
Good Company Entertainment — the firm that manages Jake Owen and Daves Highway and also boasts the independent label GCE Records — added Anna Schaeffer, Amy Jackson, Parker Fowler and Liz Sledge to the team. Schaeffer joins as manager of art direction and social media strategies, Jackson (formerly at UMG) joins as manager of marketing & consumer strategies, Fowler (formerly at Triple Tigers) joins as associate manager and Sledge joins as executive director of the Jake Owen Foundation. Schaeffer can be reached at anna@goodcompanyent.com, Jackson can be reached at amy@goodcompanyent.com, Fowler can be reached at parker@goodcompanyent.com and Sledge can be reached at liz@jakeowenfoundation.org.
Charlotte Bwana was promoted to vp of marketing and brand strategy at Audiomack, where she will lead the execution of brand strategies and oversee promotional initiatives across Africa. She can be reached at charlotte@audiomack.com.
The Alliance for Women Film Composers elected new leadership and a new board, with Heather McIntosh and Allyson Newman elected co-presidents of the organization. They succeed Catherine Joy, who has served as president since 2021. Elsewhere, Esin Aydingoz was elected secretary and Thomas Mikusz was elected treasurer. The remainder of the board is comprised of Joy, Alexandra Petkovski, Chanda Dancy, Connor Cook, Daisy Coole, Ghiya Rushidat, Jenna Fentimen, Laura Karpman, Lili Haydn, Lolita Ritmanis, Mandy Hoffman, Nami Melumad, Starr Parodi and Stephanie Economou. The executive director is Raashi Kulkarni. The alliance also created the position of vp of outreach and inclusion and appointed Sharon Farber to fill the role.
Entertainment business management firm FBMM promoted Regina A. Bassett, Fred Ford, Jeff Jones and Emily Walker to associate business managers.
Shore Fire Media promoted four across the public relations agency’s New York-based teams. Ailie Orzak and Victorie Selce have each been elevated to account executive positions, while Mary Claire “MC” Miskell and Rachel Jacobs were upped to junior account executives.
When the Rolling Stones released “Living In A Ghost Town” in 2020, a lot had changed in the eight years since the legendary rock band had last put out a new song. Streaming music had become dominant, the UK had exited the European Union and a global pandemic had taken grip.
It had also seemingly become more common for the creators of hit songs to face lawsuits. In the wake of a multimillion-dollar verdict in 2015 against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over “Blurred Lines,” a slew of major stars had faced similar copyright infringement cases over some of their biggest hits – including Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber and Dua Lipa.
So it should have perhaps come as no surprise to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards when, last month, they were hit with a lawsuit claiming they’d illegally borrowed key parts of “Ghost Town.” Sergio Garcia Fernandez, who performs under the name Angelslang, alleged that they had “misappropriated many of the recognizable and key protected elements” from his 2006 song “So Sorry,” as well as his 2007 tune “Seed of God.” (Read the full complaint here.)
But such lawsuits, while plentiful, often face long odds. In just the past month, similar song-theft cases against Donald Glover (over his Childish Gambino chart-topper “This Is America”) and Nickelback (over the band’s 2005 hit “Rock Star”) have both been dismissed at the earliest stage of litigation. In Glover’s case, a federal judge ruled last week that the lyrics of the two songs were “entirely different.” In Nickelback’s dispute, another federal judge ruled the week prior that the case at times “borders on the absurd.”
And, according to legal and music experts, the new lawsuit against the Stones likely faces a similar fate.
“Living in a Ghost Town,” a blues-rock tune with some reggae vibes, does sound similar to “So Sorry” and “Seed of God.” Fernandez claims that’s because the new song borrowed key features from his songs, including the “vocal melodies, the chord progressions, the drum beat patterns, the harmonica parts [and] the electric bass line parts.”
But according to Joe Bennett, a forensic musicologist and a professor at Berklee College of Music, “Ghost Town” flatly does not include those elements from Fernandez’s songs. Full stop.
“It simply doesn’t,” Bennett says. “These elements are not the same when compared — all the notes and chords are very obviously different. It’s significant that the complaint doesn’t contain any music notation, because a simple side by side transcription would demonstrate the dissimilarity.”
So then why do the songs sound similar? Bennett says it’s because they share an overall vibe – based on mid-tempo rock grooves in the key of A minor – that’s been ubiquitous in rock and blues since the beginning. Without much digging, he pointed to at least four other songs that sound pretty similar, including B.B. King’s rendition of the “The Thrill Is Gone.” But those commonplace musical tropes cannot be monopolized by one band under copyright law.
“The similarities we hear aren’t protectable elements, and certainly not the intellectual property of Mr. Fernandez,” Bennett said. “The Stones didn’t copy from Fernandez, because they didn’t need to; they’ve been playing grooves like this for a very long time, as have many others.”
Beyond such musical problems, the case against the Stones also potentially suffers from a simpler legal flaw.
In any copyright lawsuit, an accuser needs to show that the alleged infringer had “access” to their work in order to copy it. In cases involving big songs – like in the looming trial against Sheeran over Marvin Gaye’s iconic “Let’s Get It On” – a plaintiff can easily argue that the song was so widely-available that the defendant obviously heard it. But the case against the Stones involve songs of far less renown; when the lawsuit was first filed, the allegedly-copied “So Sorry” listed less than 1000 streams on Spotify.
Faced with that situation, Fernandez instead aimed to directly show how the Stones might have heard the song. In his complaint, his lawyers wrote that he gave a demo CD to “an immediate family member” of Jagger, who then allegedly confirmed in writing that the songs had “a sound The Rolling Stones would be interested in using.”
But according to James Sammataro, a veteran copyright litigator and the co-chair of the music group at at the law firm Pryor Cashman, those arguments fall well short of what’s required under law.
He noted that the complaint “conspicuously” failed to name that family member, and also did not directly claim that they had actually handed the song off to Jagger or had been involved in creating “Ghost Town.”
“A charitable read of the complaint is that plaintiff purportedly gave his demo to a family member of Jagger who might have passed along the demo to Jagger, but that plaintiff have no idea whether it actually happened,” Sammataro wrote. “Such speculative allegations are far too attenuated to infer a reasonable possibility of access. If there was a strong claim of access, the plaintiff would have presumably pled it.”
This article was written in partnership with Allison Parker.
Ryan Kavanaugh’s Proxima entertainment company has acquired a “significant strategic stake” in movie-streaming platform ROW8 and formed a joint venture, Proxima 8. Combining the individual strengths of the two separate brands, Proxima 8 aims to revolutionize the way audiences experience cinema and disrupt the current theatrical window models – like PVOD, SVOD, and PPV – and change how movies are distributed and made available to consumers.
The partnership aims to cater to the preferences of today’s younger audiences, tapping into the vast potential that lies within influencer communities as well as digital platforms. Through the acquisition, Proxima Media will be able to leverage the technology that ROW8 offers, further expanding its distribution capabilities, which includes its ability to geolocate by proximity to specific theaters. Additionally, this partnership will allow Proxima to reduce marketing costs while maximizing revenues on highly commercial genre-specific films. By focusing on distributing Proxima’s youth-focused genres –including horror, thriller, action, love stories, and American comedies – and utilizing its social media and influencer connections, Proxima 8 aims to create a platform that caters to today’s generation.
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With involvement in Proxima as well as the 450 million user-rich social media app Triller, Ryan Kavanaugh has had an impressive career in the entertainment industry, marked by a series of achievements and a track-record of staying ahead of the curve. From bringing comic book universes to the big screen to penning market-defining deals for subscription video on demand platforms, Kavanaugh has proven again and again to embrace new innovations and trends in technology as well as change with market shifts. In a 2014 keynote address at a leading industry conference, Kavanaugh stated, “if the studios don’t change soon, the customers will change it for them as they now have the ability to get (content) where they want it, when they want it, and how they want to pay for it.”
Currently, ROW8 is one of the larger independent digital Premium Video On Demand (PVOD) movie platforms, offering its customers access to a vast library of high-quality movies available to stream instantly on their favorite devices. With agreements in place with many of the biggest studio production houses as well as a recent merger with Rad – a blockchain-based streaming platform – ROW8 has quickly become a key player in the industry. The acquisition of ROW8 by Proxima, according to Kavanaugh, “allows [Proxima] to give the influencer stars of our films a way [and] a destination to send their fans and followers to where they can really participate in [their] journey, not just watch the movie. It will be the first time there will be a two-way connection from fan to movie and movie to fan; it’s not just a platform, but a destination.”
Through his connections with Triller, which Kavanaugh held a controlling stake in from 2019 to 2022, the film financier has unique connections to some of the platform’s top influencers. With Proxima 8, Kavanaugh and ROW8 have shown that they are willing to take risks and embrace change, positioning themselves at the forefront of a dynamic market shift. As video distribution markets further develop and mature, the burgeoning platform will definitely be an industry player to watch in the coming years. Keep checking Billboard for the latest on all things Proxima 8.
LONDON — French music company Believe is making inroads into the publishing business by acquiring U.K.-based publisher Sentric, which represents more than four million songs and over 400,000 songwriters in more than 200 territories.
Under terms of the deal announced on Thursday (March 30), Believe is acquiring full ownership of Sentric Music Group from Utopia Music, with the transaction valuing Sentric at €47 million ($51 million), Believe says in a press release.
(Utopia Music declined to comment).
Believe founder and CEO Denis Ladegaillerie says in a statement that the takeover of Sentric is the company’s “first step” in the “roll-out of a global and comprehensive publishing offer.”
It is the second time in just over a year that ownership of Liverpool-based Sentric Music Group — which also has offices in London, Hamburg, New York and Los Angeles — has changed hands.
In February of 2022, Utopia, a Zug, Switzerland-headquartered fintech company, acquired Sentric amid a frenetic buying spree that saw Utopia acquire 15 companies over a two-year period.
Sentric’s existing leadership team, led by CEO Chris Meehan, will continue to lead the business, says Believe. Paris-based Believe, which has 1,650 employees in more than 50 countries, says the combination of its digital music expertise and global network with Sentric’s industry-leading technology will develop “a comprehensive solution for songwriters and publishers at all levels.”
Believe’s move into publishing follows recent investments the company has made in Europe, India and Asia to further expand its global footprint. They include partnerships with French pop label Structure, Indian label Panorama Music and Germany-based Madizin Music.
Last year also saw Believe make strong gains in some key European countries and eat into the major record labels’ share of the recorded music market. In France, Believe says it was the second-largest music company in digital local repertoire in 2022. In Germany, it claims to have been the third-largest recorded music company for local repertoire in the streaming market, and the market’s second-largest company in hip-hop.
In total, Believe, which acquired the TuneCore distribution platform in 2015, worked with 1.3 million artists last year, either directly or through record labels, with annual revenues rising 31.8% year-on-year to 760.8 million euros ($723.5 million), according to the company’s year-end financial results, published earlier this month.
The company says its acquisition of Sentric will help drive future growth by enabling it to capture a slice of the growing music publishing market. In 2021, global publishing royalties to songwriters and composers grew by 7.2% to €8.5 billion ($9.2 billion), according to the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies’ (CISAC).
The Sentric deal also strengthens Believe’s TuneCore business offering, which provides worldwide digital distribution to independent and self-releasing artists. Believe says 23% of TuneCore’s subscribers already use Sentric’s publishing service. Moving forward, says Believe, Sentric will offer publishing services to all clients within the Believe Group.
“The growth and digital transformation of the songwriters’ market is opening-up many opportunities,” says Ladegaillerie.
For Utopia Music, the future appears cloudier with its sale of Sentric following a period of intense change at the fintech company.
In November, Utopia cut its workforce by about 20%, or about 230 jobs, followed two months later by CEO Markku Mäkeläinen exiting the company and founder and executive chairman Mattias Hjelmstedt taking over as interim chief executive. In February, Utopia said it had sold U.S.-based music database platform ROSTR — which has a directory of artists, managers, booking agents and record labels — back to ROSTR’s founders for an undisclosed sum.
At the time, Hjelmstedt told Billboard that the sale of ROSTR was part of a company-wide refocus on its core financial services business and that the company had recently completed a fresh investment round. (He declined to discuss the size of investment or investors).
However, on Wednesday, Scandinavian news outlet Breakit reported that some Utopia employees have recently gone unpaid and the company’s Swedish arm, Utopia R&D Tech, owes 8 million SEK ($770,000) to the Swedish tax authorities. (Music Business Worldwide was the first to report Breakit‘s story).
In response, a spokesperson for Utopia told Billboard that the company’s “strategic transition” was in response to “current changes in the market landscape,” adding that it is focusing on profitability and growth.
“It has not been an easy journey, but we are very positive about Utopia’s future and look forward to continuing what we are here to do — support the music industry with digital solutions for managing, monitoring, and processing royalties, and distributing the music we all love to listen to,” the Utopia rep said.
A Las Vegas judge on Wednesday (March 29) reportedly refused to dismiss a countersuit filed by Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter against a woman who has accused him of rape, rejecting her arguments that he’s merely using the case to “harass and intimidate” her.
Shannon “Shay” Ruth, who sued Carter in December over allegations that he raped her after a 2001 concert, had asked the judge to dismiss his defamation countersuit under Nevada’s so-called anti-SLAPP law — a statute designed to prevent lawsuits that are filed as retaliation against free speech.
But at a court hearing Wednesday, Judge Nancy Alff denied that anti-SLAPP motion and allowed Carter’s countersuit to move forward, according to a report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Carter reportedly appeared in court with his lawyers on Wednesday, though Ruth was not physically present.
Ruth sued Carter in December, claiming he raped her when she was 17 years old following a 2001 concert in Washington state. Now 39, Ruth says she waited more than 20 years to come forward because she was afraid of retaliation.
“He told plaintiff she would go to jail if she told anyone what happened between them,” Ruth’s lawyers wrote at the time. “He said that he was Nick Carter, and that he had the power to do that. Due to his various threats, plaintiff did not report Carter’s crimes for many years.”
Carter fired back with a countersuit in February, claiming he’d been the victim of a “five-year conspiracy” that aimed to “to harass, defame and extort” him by exploiting the #MeToo movement. He said Ruth was “a vulnerable and highly impressionable individual” who was manipulated into making false accusations by Melissa Schuman Henschel — a former member of the teen-pop group Dream who previously accused Carter of assaulting her in 2003.
Weeks later, Ruth’s attorneys labeled Carter’s lawsuit a SLAPP suit, saying the defamation allegations had been brought with “no other purpose than to harass, intimate, and potentially silence plaintiff.”
“He seeks to use his wealth and celebrity status to outlast plaintiff,” Ruth’s lawyers wrote. “All while hiding behind being the ‘victim’ of the ‘#MeToo’ movement and the preposterous notion that plaintiff is only seeking attention and publicity.”
Wednesday’s ruling, which denied Ruth’s motion, came after Carter’s attorneys submitted detailed arguments backing up their contention that Ruth’s allegations were false and that his allegations of a conspiracy were plausible. His filings included testimony from 12 witnesses who supported his side of the story, including one who called Ruth’s story “factually impossible.”