Business
Page: 430
Multimedia Music acquired the music publishing and music master rights for the entire film music library of STX Entertainment, which encompasses titles such as Bad Moms, The Gentlemen and Den of Thieves and music from composers such as Hans Zimmer, Cliff Martinez and Nicholas Britell. The eight-figure deal does not include rights in any of STX’s current or future films.
Deezer struck a long-term partnership with Sonos to power Sonos Radio and the subscription service Sonos Radio HD. Starting in April, Deezer will provide Sonos with a catalog of 90 million tracks, metadata, licensing, reporting & royalty management, business intelligence & data and strategic collaboration for growth and monetization of the service. Deezer and Sonos will deliver services to 16 countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Yusuf/Cat Stevens signed to Dark Horse Records, which will release the singer-songwriter’s forthcoming album as well as seven legacy albums from his catalog, which are owned by Yusuf’s Cat-O-Log Records. Dark Horse’s merchandising arm, DH Merchandise, will operate the official Yusuf/Cat Stevens store.
ClicknClear, a music tech company that provides access to officially licensed music for performance sports and fitness, signed a multi-year agreement with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), a leading sports organization in the United States. The NFHS promotes amateur sports participation throughout all 50 states and Washington, D.C., serving 19,500 high schools and an estimated 12 million young people across the country. It also administers high school athletics and activities and establishes regulations for the sanctioning of events. Through the deal, ClicknClear will license the catalogs of its more than 800 label and publisher partners to NFHS’s performance sports participants, with the NFHS also using ClicknClear’s license verifications system to enforce that licensing. Performance sports include cheerleading, dance, gymnastics, figure skating, marching band and show choir. ClicknClear’s music catalog currently includes 5 million tracks and more than 15 million publishing rights from Sony Music, Warner Music, Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG, Kobalt, Concord and Downtown, among many others.
Cutting Edge Media Music (CEMM) secured $100 million in new financing from a consortium of banks led by Pinnacle Financial Partners. CEMM — a financing and investment company with expertise in music for film, TV, video games and more — is supported by other businesses under its parent company, the Cutting Edge Group (CEG), including Cutting Edge Music Publishing, Lakeshore Records, Broadway Records, Music.Film and White Stork. “I look forward to our partnership with Pinnacle to help give the next wave of film and TV composers the opportunity to monetize their catalogues,” said Cutting Edge Group founder/CEO Philip Moross in a statement. CEG’s head of mergers and acquisitions, Tim Hegarty, represented Cutting Edge in the deal.
Triller acquired Julius, a software solution for influencer marketing. “We are delighted to integrate the industry-leading technology from Julius into Triller’s Creator Platform,” said Triller CEO Mahi de Silva in a statement, adding that with the acquisition, “Our unique AI-powered platform now delivers an end-to-end solution for the creator economy from brand storytelling to driving e-commerce.”
Music credits database Jaxsta executed a heads of agreement (a.k.a. letter of intent) to acquire Vampr, a music industry social networking platform. The acquisition increases Jaxsta’s footprint in the creator community by 1.3 million creators. According to a press release, Vampr’s freemium business model successfully converts 4% of the app’s weekly active users into paying subscribers — a number that’s expected to increase when Vampr Pro is bundled with the Jaxsta Creator subscription. Vampr founder/CEO Josh Simons will join Jaxsta as chief strategy officer.
GreenCity Partners and ASM Global struck a deal to develop and operate the proposed 17,000-seat GreenCity Arena in Henrico County, Va., which is part of a planned $2.3 billion mixed-use/net-zero energy GreenCity development. The agreement allows ASM Global to partner in other aspects of the development, including its main street retail and hospitality uses. Construction is slated to begin in early 2024, with completion expected in 2026.
In more ASM Global news, the company struck a long-term lease agreement and $40 million renovation plan with the City of Glendale, Ariz., for the Desert Diamond Arena as part of a strategy to increase the venue’s returns and prominence as a key component in the city’s growth as an entertainment hub. ASM Global has operated the city-owned venue for the past six-and-a-half years. The firm HOK has been selected to help with the venue’s renovation and design.
ASM Global also signed with the city of Fishers, Ind., to provide pre-opening services and professional management for the city’s new $170 million sports and entertainment center, which is set to open in Dec. 2024. In addition to hosting concerts and other events, the forthcoming 7,500-seat venue will be home to the East Coast Hockey League’s Indy Fuel. Expected to break ground in March, the venue is part of the city’s $1.1 billion in economic and entertainment investments announced in September.
Los Angeles-based rock duo Loveless signed with BMG worldwide. The duo, which released their debut self-produced EP, End of an Era, last year, is slated to embark on a headline tour this spring in North America and Europe, in addition to festival dates.
Amazon Music is the new title sponsor of The Ivors, under a global deal that will see the company showcase the Ivors’ commitment to supporting songwriters via exclusive content offerings and live performances as well as an “immersive” red carpet and backstage interviews that will be livestreamed on the Amazon Music UK Twitch channel for the 2023 ceremony. Additionally, the company will integrate the Ivors’ 2023 “Rising Star” nominees into its global developing artist program, Breakthrough.
Micro-licensing and music solutions company Lickd struck a deal with EMPIRE and Kobalt Music Group to license their music catalogs to Lickd’s Chorus music player for use in the metaverse world of Decentraland’s Vegas City.
SESAC Digital Licensing and Wise Music Australia partnered on an exclusive digital licensing deal for the Wise Music catalog in Asia (excluding Japan, South Korea and China) for rights including performance, mechanicals, grand rights, hire materials and synchronization. SESAC Digital will negotiate agreements with online service providers on behalf of Wise Music in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam. The partnership will be administered by Mint Digital Services, an alliance between SESAC-US and Swiss authors’ rights society SUISA.
Singer-songwriter Susan Tedeschi signed with Brian Greenbaum at CAA. The signing coincides with the 25th-anniversary reissue of Tedeschi’s 1998 album, Just Won’t Burn. Tedeschi and her husband, musician Derek Truck, are with Full Stop Management for their solo work.
Memphis-based music credit and information services provider Sound Credit partnered with PPL for neighboring rights collections in North America. Via its sister brand Soundways, Sound Credit’s North American artist community will now be able to take advantage of PPL’s international collections service.
Live Nation will serve as the exclusive promoter for BECU Live and the Pepsi Outdoor Summer Concert series under a new deal with Northern Quest Resort & Casino and the Kalispel Tribe of Indians in Washington state.
Grammy-nominated songwriter and artist Delacey signed to Photo Finish Records, which released her new single, “Man on the Moon,” on Friday (Feb. 17).
Underoath signed to MNRK Heavy on a global basis. The label released the rock band’s latest single, “Let Go,” on Feb. 15.
Virgin Music UK reached a sales and distribution deal with Liverpool-based independent label Modern Sky UK (Jamie Webster, Leah Weller, Red Rum Club).
Pop duo Crash Adams signed to Warner Music Canada/Warner Records, which released their latest single, “California Girl.”
British DJ/producer Riton signed with Atlantic Records/Big Beat, which released his first-ever solo single, “Sugar,” on Friday (Feb. 17).
Sony Classical signed organist Anna Lapwood and will release a five-track EP of film transcriptions in April, with an album to come later in the year.
Tuned Global singed a deal with Lululemon Studio to provide their B2B white-label playlist app for Lululemon’s in-person and virtual workouts.
Chicago trio Lifeguard signed with Matador Records. New music from the band — which previously released an album and two EPs — is expected in the spring.
Spotify is experimenting with “token-enabled playlists,” meaning users in possession of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can connect their wallets and listen to collections of music put together by the likes of Overlord (a company developing blockchain-based games) and KINGSHIP (Universal Music Group’s Bored Ape band). Android users in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and New Zealand can now test the new feature.
“At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests in an effort to improve our user experience,” a spokesperson for the streaming platform said in a statement. “Some of those end up paving the path for our broader user experience and others serve only as important learnings. We have no further news to share on future plans at this time.”
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek discussed blockchain technology — which enables the creation of unique digital files that are also uncopyable — on the Culture: Now Streaming podcast in 2019. “The most important thing is it will enable paying for things digitally in many of the places around the world where those kind of methods just doesn’t exist,” Ek said. “A service like Spotify, you can imagine what would happen by allowing users for instance to be able to pay artists directly. That can open up massive opportunities where all of a sudden, a user in Japan might pay a creator in Argentina. And that opens up huge opportunities for how we can further our mission.”
Last year, Spotify started allowing “a small group of artists [to] promote their existing third-party NFT offerings via their artist profiles,” according to a statement from the company. (At the time, Spotify reiterated that it “routinely conduct[s] a number of tests in an effort to improve artist and fan experiences” some of which “serve only as an important learning.”)
Steve Aoki and The Wombats were among those testing the feature, which was made available to Android users in the U.S.
A woman who sued Marilyn Manson for sexual assault says in a new legal filing that the allegations were untrue, claiming she had been “manipulated” by the rocker’s ex-girlfriend, Evan Rachel Wood.
With Manson currently suing Wood for allegedly orchestrating an “organized attack” of false rape accusations, the singer’s lawyers filed a bombshell statement Thursday (Feb. 23) from Ashley Morgan Smithline — one of several women who has accused Manson of sexual abuse over the past two years.
In it, Smithline claims that she had been “manipulated by Ms. Wood” and others, and eventually had agreed to “spread publicly false accusations of abuse” against Manson (real name Brian Warner).
“I succumbed to pressure from Evan Rachel Wood and her associates to make accusations of rape and assault against Mr. Warner that were not true,” Smithline wrote in the sworn statement. “Eventually, I started to believe that what I was repeatedly told happened to Ms. Wood and [others] also happened to me.”
In a statement to Billboard, a spokesperson for Wood strongly denied Smithline’s accusations: “Evan never pressured or manipulated Ashley. It was Ashley who first contacted Evan about the abuse she had suffered. It’s unfortunate that the harassment and threats Ashley received after filing her federal lawsuit appear to have pressured her to change her testimony.”
The statement by Smithline is a major revelation in Manson’s two-year legal saga, in which at least five women have accused him of serious sexual wrongdoing. After Wood posted her allegations to Instagram in February 2021, lawsuits quickly followed from Smithline, Manson’s former assistant Ashley Walters, Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco and a Jane Doe accuser.
Smithline’s case was dismissed last month after she fired her lawyer and stopped participating in the case.
Manson has denied all of the allegations and filed his own defamation lawsuit in March 2022 claiming that Wood and another woman, Illma Gore, had “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously” with false accusations against him.
In her declaration on Thursday, Smithline told a story that supported Manson’s allegations against Wood. She said she had been initially contacted by other alleged victims and, when she denied that such abuse had happened to her, was repeatedly told that she might just not remember it.
“While at first I knew Mr. Warner did not do these things to me, I eventually I began to question whether he actually did,” Smithline wrote. “On numerous occasions, I was told … that I may just be misremembering what happened, repressing my memories of what happened, or that my memories had not yet surfaced — which they said happened to people against whom these acts were perpetrated.”
Eventually, Smithline said she agreed to participate. She said Gore drafted an accusation statement for her and posted it to her account for her, and that she was then connected with Jay Ellwanger, the same lawyer who represented Bianco.
“Leading up to the filing of the complaint, I felt pressured by Mr. Ellwanger to go on a press tour, which included an interview on The View and an interview and photoshoot with People magazine,” Smithline wrote. “I was very uncomfortable doing this press but felt pressured to do it.”
Smithline also noted that she had “never received any money” from Manson as part of any settlement agreement to stop pursuing her case and that she did not intend to refile her case against him.
“Looking back, I feel I was manipulated by Ms. Wood, Ms. Gore, Ms. Bianco, and Mr. Ellwanger to spread publicly false accusations of abuse against Mr. Warner,” Smithline wrote.
In a statement to Billboard, Ellwanger said that his response to Smithline’s allegations was “constrained by ethical obligations regarding client confidentiality” to his former client. “But what I can say is that the specific allegations regarding my representation of Ms. Smithline are categorically and verifiably false.”
The new revelations come as Wood’s attorneys are seeking to dismiss Manson’s case by citing California’s so-called anti-SLAPP statute — a law that aims to make it easier to dismiss cases that threaten free speech. Wood’s lawyers say Manson’s case is exactly that: an effort to punish Wood after she chose to speak publicly about years of abuse.
“For years, plaintiff Brian Warner raped and tortured defendant Evan Rachel Wood and threatened retaliation if she told anyone about it,” her attorneys wrote. “Warner has now made good on those threats by filing the present lawsuit.”
Manson’s attorneys want to cite Thursday’s new statements from Smithline as a reason to deny the anti-SLAPP motion since such motions require courts to assess the validity of a case’s allegations. In asking the court to heed the filing, they wrote: “This newly obtained evidence is critical to Warner’s opposition to the anti-SLAPP motions, in which defendants argue that there is no ‘admissible evidence substantiating his allegations.’”
In a statement to Billboard, Manson’s attorney, Howard King, said Smithline’s declaration “proves” that the lawsuit’s core accusations are true. “As we have always said, the coordinated campaign of #MeToo lies against Brian Warner is going to go down as one of the greatest hoaxes of all time,” King said. “Vulnerable women were manipulated by unscrupulous individuals seeking to build their own brands and pursue their own vendettas.”
Read Smithline’s entire declaration here:
It’s a good thing that there’s a German word for pleasure in the misfortune of others: schadenfreude.
Just before the Grammy Awards, The New York Times published an investigation that revealed that BMG signed, then let go before it released any music, the French rapper Freeze Corleone, who had previously been dropped by Universal Music Group for lyrics in previous music in which he compared himself to Hitler. Then, the following week, on Feb. 9, the German newsweekly Der Spiegel reported that Universal Music had made a distribution deal with the band Weimar, at least some of whose members had extreme right-wing affiliations in their past — and which the label immediately dropped when this came to its attention. (The band has since issued a statement renouncing extremism, xenophobia and racism, and two of the members admitted to a “right-wing-motivated past” but said they had since changed their ways.)
The schadenfreude, directed toward both labels, came from competitors and may have been heightened by BMG’s penchant for criticizing the majors for a business model it deems outmoded. “Look what they did,” some said. “Well, I mean, sure — OK — that last bad thing we did wasn’t exactly good but wasn’t much of a story. But this? This is a story!”
Both companies can claim some moral high ground: BMG’s French operation released Freeze from his one-album contract as soon as Dominique Casimir, who is now the company’s chief content officer, asked for additional checks into the rapper’s history. (BMG’s deal with Freeze gave it the right to reject the album if it included antisemitic lyrics, which it didn’t.) Universal, which wasn’t aware of Weimar’s members’ backgrounds — the musician that Der Spiegel describes as the worst of the band’s members did not have his name on the recording contract and wasn’t in the group as far as the label knew — dropped the act when it discovered its past connections to the far-right.
But I don’t think either has much to be proud of, either. BMG knew Freeze had been dropped by Universal and signed him anyway; a memo sent by an executive in the label’s French office said the rapper “faced controversy,” which is offensive in its understatement. Less is known about the Weimar situation — Universal said in a statement that despite efforts to vet the act, “we were unaware of the band members’ background” — but a group named after the inter-war German government would seem to merit more intense scrutiny. (To be fair, the group’s lyrics, which seem so alarming given the members’ backgrounds, seem melodramatic but cliché taken out of context.) Most people in the music business seem to have an opinion on which of these incidents was worse, but there are no bragging rights for having the industry’s second-worst antisemitic issue of 2023 — especially when it’s only February.
My own opinion on all of this is complicated by the fact that I’m Jewish, and I happen to live in Berlin, not far from the offices of these companies. And I’ve already disappointed some industry acquaintances looking for an easy villain by pointing out that the people involved — Casimir directly and BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch and Universal Music Central Europe chairman and CEO Frank Briegmann far less directly — are decent people who try hard to do the right thing and in both of these cases did so as soon as they fully understood the situation. That’s important.
However unsatisfying it might seem, the villain here may be a gold-rush for streaming market share and an industrywide shift toward single-album deals and distribution agreements. Until a decade ago, most artists signed long-term recording contracts and worked closely with A&R executives. These days, some artists simply hand over finished music — which sounds really cool until something like this happens — and the economics of streaming incentivize grabbing market share now and asking questions later.
That’s an explanation, though — not an excuse. And while both BMG and UMG have admitted they messed up, neither has publicly discussed any kind of plan to avoid making the same kind of mistake in the future. Both companies should do so — and soon. That’s especially important for BMG, which is owned by Bertelsmann, a German media conglomerate that printed books for the Nazi army during World War II. Everyone who ran Bertelsmann back then is dead, and everyone I know who works there now is very nice, but the company’s past gives it a responsibility to do better.
Both BMG and UMG want to put these controversies, and these artists, behind them — but they can’t avoid taking responsibility. (This can be complicated: UMG is still distributing the Freeze album it put out before it dropped the rapper, presumably because he has an ongoing defamation lawsuit against the label. “Universal Music France (UMF) does not work with Freeze Corleone and has not done so since September 2020 when, after one week, we ended our relationship with him with immediate effect,” according to a statement from the company. “Because this is the subject of a pending legal matter, we are unable to comment further, other than to say that we deeply regret that we were unaware of the situation prior to starting collaboration with Freeze Corleone.”) In 2018, when BMG faced another controversy about rappers with antisemitic lyrics, it donated 100,000 euros to a campaign against antisemitism, which is a significant gesture — but situations like this can’t be solved with an expensive swear jar. Companies need to think about how to keep this kind of thing from happening again.
At a bare minimum, record companies need to spend a few hours learning about artists they sign or distribute. (Going out to lunch or dinner: Not scalable, usually inefficient, often worth the time.) If they release controversial music — which may well be the right move when it comes to music that’s political, rather than racist or antisemitic — they should put their brand names on it. (BMG planned to release Freeze’s album without its logo, which the label has done for other acts, for reasons that have nothing to do with controversy.) If you’re not proud of it — not necessarily as politics but at least as art and expression — don’t put it out.
And if you take antisemitism and fascism seriously, don’t just drop acts that cross the line. Tell Spotify that Joe Rogan went too far when he said on his podcast that “the idea that Jewish people are not into money” is “like saying Italians aren’t into pizza.” (I like both, as do most people I know, but crudeness aside, no one has threatened Italians with genocide for their alleged food preferences.) Try to get Roger Waters to criticize Israel in ways that don’t play into antisemitic conspiracy theories. Ask Jay Electronica why he started the 2020 album A Written Testimony by sampling the notoriously antisemitic Louis Farrakhan asking, “Who are the real children of Israel?”
These won’t be easy conversations, but it’s time to have them. Then, maybe, we can try to go the rest of the year without anything like this happening again. We only have 10 and a half months to go.
For the Record is a regular column from deputy editorial director Robert Levine analyzing news and trends in the music industry. Find more here.
Veteran talent buyer Jon Halperin has joined the expanding team at From The Roots as talent buyer for its boutique festival site and amphitheater, Poconos Park in Pennsylvania.
From The Roots is a new music real estate development, venue management and independent promoter company founded by veteran entertainment entrepreneur, executive and marketer John M. Oakes.
In early 2022, From the Roots acquired more than 200 acres of land, including the nearly $40 million- development formerly known as Mt. Laurel Performing Arts Center and the Tom Ridge Pavilion.
“From The Roots recognized the venue’s immediate potential, took action, renovated, upgraded and reopened as Poconos Park,” according to a press release.
Halperin has been buying music talent for nearly 25 years for venues like the Chain Reaction in Anaheim, Calif. (where he booked the Mars Volta’s first show) as well as The Glass House in Pomona, Calif.
“It’s great to be working with Jon again,” says Oakes. “Jon has decades of history and knowledge from booking a wide range of talent across genres. We are excited to work with him to curate headliners and continue to foster developing artists on shows as he has throughout his career.”
Halperin will work remotely from Southern California and continues to book the Isle of Light festival in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, as well as the Gridlife and Celebrez en Rose festival brand. Halperin also worked for the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, First City Festival in Monterey Calif., All Tomorrow’s Parties Warped Tour and Hootenanny.
“This opportunity allows me to continue to expand my talent buying reach,” says Halperin, “While at the same time it is very exciting to be a part of a growing a larger capacity independent venue and company!”
The European Union’s executive branch said Thursday that it has temporarily banned TikTok from phones used by employees as a cybersecurity measure, reflecting widening worries from Western officials over the Chinese-owned video sharing app.
In a first for the European Commission, its Corporate Management Board suspended the use of TikTok on devices issued to staff or personal devices that staff use for work.
TikTok faces intensifying scrutiny from Europe and the U.S. over security and data privacy amid worries that the hugely popular app could be used to promote pro-Beijing views or sweep up users’ information. It comes as China and the West are locked in a wider tug of war over technology ranging from spy balloons to computer chips.
The EU’s action follows similar moves in the U.S., where more than half of the states and Congress have banned TikTok from official government devices.
“The reason why this decision has been taken is to … increase the commission’s cybersecurity,” commission spokesperson Sonya Gospodinova said at a press briefing in Brussels. “Also, the measure aims to protect the commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyberattacks against the corporate environment of the commission.”
Caroline Greer, TikTok’s Brussels-based public policy official, tweeted that the suspension “is misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions.”
“We have requested a meeting to set the record straight,” she said, adding that TikTok, which has 125 million users in the 27-nation European Union, is “continuing to enhance” its approach to data security. That includes opening three European data centers and minimizing data sent outside of the continent.
Commission spokespeople declined to say whether a specific incident triggered the suspension or what’s needed to get it lifted.
Staffers would be required to delete TikTok from devices that they use for professional business by March 15, EU representatives said, but did not provide any details on how that would be enforced for people who use personal phones for work.
In Norway, which is not a member of the 27-nation EU, the justice minister was forced to apologize this month for failing to disclose that she had installed TikTok on her government-issued phone.
TikTok also has come under pressure from the EU to comply with upcoming new digital regulations aimed at getting big online platforms to clean up toxic and illegal content along with the bloc’s strict data privacy rules.
Two former Iowa tourism officials were each sentenced to more than a year in prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud charges related to a failed 2018 music festival headlined by Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson.
Aaron McCreight, 48, was sentenced to 18 months, and Doug Hargrave, 56, was sentenced to 15 months over charges that they lied to a Cedar Rapids bank in order to finance Newbo Evolve, a three-day music and cultural event held in the city in August 2018.
Prosecutors said the pair – executives at a local promotional group called Go Cedar Rapids — submitted inflated data about the event’s underwhelming ticket sales and projected revenues, and that they lied to the bank that Newbo Evolve was expected to turn a small profit.
In reality, McCreight and Hargrave expected to lose more than $600,000, prosecutors said. The festival eventually lost more than $2 million, and was unable to repay most of the loan to the bank. 97 vendors that provided services to the festival lost a combined $800,000 unpaid fees.
The two men — former executives at a local promotional group called Go Cedar Rapids — each pleaded guilty last January to a single charge of bank fraud.
In addition to the prison time, McCreight and Hargrave were ordered to jointly repay a combined $1.4 million in restitution, and each will be subject to three years of supervised release after their prison terms are complete.
Newbo Evolve was held in Cedar Rapids from Aug. 3-5, 2018, featuring performances by Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, The Wallflowers, Robert DeLong and others.
According to court documents, McCreight, Hargrave and Go Cedar Rapids secured $1.5 million in initial funding from a local bank, telling the lender they expected to sell 11,000 tickets to each of the two headliners and 4,000 three-day passes to the entire festival.
But three months after tickets went on sale, McCreight reported internally that tickets were “not selling as originally budgeted.” By June, the group had sold just just 6,500 total tickets and was internally projecting a loss of $644,846 — with deadlines to pay the artists and vendors looming.
“As the Newbo Evolve event dates approached, GoCR did not have enough money to, among other things, pay Kelly Clarkson, pay production costs, and buy the alcohol that was to be sold at the concert venue,” prosecutors wrote. “Without additional funding, Newbo Evolve would have to be cancelled.”
Faced with that pressure, court documents show, McCreight and Hargrave committed bank fraud. Reporting that ticket sales had “spiked” in recent weeks, they falsely told the bank that 15,000 total tickets had been sold and that the event was forecast to turn a profit of $65,653. And the move worked: the bank eventually extended their line of credit to $2,200,000.
“Ultimately, Newbo Evolve lost more than $2 million,” prosecutors wrote in charging documents. “As a result, GoCR was unable to repay much of its loan from the lending bank when the loan was due.”
When he pleaded guilty last year, an attorney for McCreight told Billboard that he was a “good man” who made a “bad decision” under “extreme pressures.”
“His motive was not based in personal greed, but in an attempt to salvage the Newbo Evolve event for the Cedar Rapids community,” said attorney William White. “Had the event sold more tickets and been profitable, it is unlikely any prosecution would have ensued. However, that was not the case, and Mr. McCreight accepts his involvement in the lending bank losing money and is extremely remorseful.”
Attorneys for both McCreight and Hargrave were not immediately available for comment on the prison sentences.
Read the full judgments against McCreight and Hargrave here:
A federal judge will sentence R. Kelly for his Chicago convictions of child pornography and enticement of minors for sex on Thursday (Feb. 23), when the 56-year-old singer will learn if he must spend the rest of his life behind bars or if he will have some hope of getting out.
The central question for the judge at the hearing in Kelly’s hometown of Chicago is whether to heed prosecutors’ request to order that Kelly serve a new sentence only after he completes his 30-year term imposed last year in New York for racketeering and sex trafficking.
A sentence that Kelly must serve consecutively would be tantamount to a life sentence.
Prosecutors acknowledge that a lengthy term served after the New York sentence would practically erase any chance of Kelly ever leaving prison alive. They say the Grammy Award-winner’s crimes against children and his lack of remorse justified that.
They recommend a 25-year sentence served consecutively. That would make him eligible for release in 2066, a year shy of his 100th birthday. The defense wants a sentence of around 10 years, served simultaneously.
If the judge does let Kelly serve his new sentence simultaneously with the New York sentence, he will serve no more than the 30 years and should be eligible for release at around age 80 — providing him some hope of one day resuming life outside prison.
Jurors in Chicago convicted Kelly last year on six of 13 counts — three counts of producing child porn and three of enticement of minors for sex. Kelly was acquitted of the marquee count, alleging he successfully rigged his 2008 state child pornography trial.
Kelly rose from poverty in Chicago to become one of the world’s biggest R&B stars. Known for his smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and for sex-infused songs such as “Bump n’ Grind,” he sold millions of albums even after allegations about his abuse of girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s.
In presentencing filings, prosecutors described Kelly as “a serial sexual predator” who used his fame and wealth to reel in star-struck fans to sexually abuse and then discard them.
Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, accused prosecutors of offering an “embellished narrative” regarding Kelly and seeking to get the judge to join what she called the government’s “blood-thirsty campaign to make Kelly a symbol of the #MeToo movement.”
Bonjean said Kelly has suffered enough, including financially. She said his worth once approached $1 billion, but that he “is now destitute.”
SYDNEY, Australia — Brendon Bainbridge is leaving TEG after 17 years, the past six of those leading the live entertainment, ticketing, digital and data giant’s activities in Asia.
Bainbridge has been “an asset to TEG from day one and I want to personally thank him for his friendship, commitment, loyalty and immense efforts in successfully launching TEG in Asia,” comments TEG CEO Geoff Jones in a statement announcing the move.
During his six-year stint as managing director, Asia, “Brendon has grown the business in the region, leading through the pandemic, the entertainment and ticketing industry’s most challenging period in recent times, positioning TEG Asia to now capitalize on a wealth of opportunity in the region,” adds Jones.
Before making the move to Singapore, Bainbridge served for 11 years as managing director of Ticketek New Zealand.
Bainbridge is leaving to go live in Colorado, according to the company, and TEG is working on opportunities for him to continue working with the company after his relocation.
His successor at TEG is Timothy Ho, who is named as managing director, Asia, and has worked closely with Bainbridge for the last year, creating what should be “seamless transition for our business in the region,” enthuses Jones.
The incoming chief has 15 years’ experience in live entertainment and ticketing prior to joining to TEG, and was a “clear choice to step into the role,” says Sydney-based Jones.
The region, notes Ho, “is at the forefront of every major discussion now for live entertainment and ticketing – it’s a great time to be stepping into this leadership role and fulfilling TEG’s long-term vision and commitment to Asia.”
Currently, the TEG empire includes TEG Live, TEG Sport, TEG Experiences, TEG Dainty, SXSW Sydney, TEG MJR, TEG Van Egmond, Laneway Festival, FAN+, Handsome Tours, Qudos Bank Arena and ticketing giant Ticketek, a multiple winner at the 2022 Ticketing Business Forum international awards in Manchester, England.
In other news, TEG’s owners are reportedly preparing for an auction process.
In one article published last month in the Australian Financial Review, TEG is said to be pitched to big global buyout funds as “a unique business worldwide,” one that has expanded its footprint in recent years.
Another tale which ran in The Australian, suggested a sale process for the group could kick off this April, with investment bank Jefferies tapped to facilitate.
TEG was acquired in 2019 by Silver Lake, the U.S.-based private equity company which specializes in technology investing. Financial terms weren’t revealed, but sources say TEG carried a price tag of $1 billion-plus.
A spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
After Bonnie Raitt’s “Just Like That” won the Grammy Award for song of the year, her team put out a shorter radio edit of the tear-jerking ballad — and then proceeded to do almost no further radio advertising or promotion.
“I’m afraid the song is not something we feel an aggressive marketing approach fits,” Kathy Kane, Raitt’s manager, says by email. “We didn’t put it forth as a single with a specific [radio] impact date aggressively going for ads. We are simply here to support those interested in the song.”
The lack of a radio strategy around “Just Like That” is distinct from the strategy around the album, which has the same title. A year ago, before Raitt put out the album on her own label, Redwing Records, she attended a Zoom video call with programmers as part of a marketing campaign to extend the rock, pop and blues star’s long history of radio hits. The strategy worked: Just Like That made its debut last May at No. 1 on several Billboard charts, including Top Current Album Sales, and hit No. 6 on Top Rock Albums.
But when “Just Like That” won song of the year, Raitt’s team opted for a low-key promotional effort for the country-leaning ballad about a woman who loses her son and falls in love with the man who received his heart. While the song topped Billboard’s Rock Digital Song Sales chart and hit No. 6 on Digital Song Sales the week after the Grammys, radio spins increased from just 27 to 41 over the past week.
That said, some influential radio programmers are working to boost the airplay.
“Hopefully, I can be the station that breaks these records so other stations can follow,” says Dan Mathews, program director for Top 40 stations Rhythm 105.9 in Sacramento, Calif., Jamz 99.3 FM in Salina, Kan., and Hitz 90.5 in Edgar, Neb., all of which now air “Just Like That” every two hours. “Our listenership has gone up just playing that record.”
The low-key approach has had sporadic success elsewhere. Dennis Constantine, a longtime adult album alternative programmer, added two or three “Just Like That” spins per day to 92.5 the River in Boston and The Point in Burlington, Vt. (They play the original version, not the shorter radio edit.) “We were playing other tracks off the album, and when that won best song of the year, we started playing it everywhere,” says Constantine, program director for the two stations and a consultant for another in Flagstaff, Ariz. “It makes sense. She’s a legend in our format.”