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While rehearsing for its 2013 Las Vegas residency, Mötley Crüe instructed Nicolai Sabottka, its new pyrotechnics specialist, to set the venue on fire — walls, ceiling, floor, everything. But when flames exploded behind Tommy Lee’s head, the drummer, believing he was on fire, freaked out and ran off. Everyone laughed. Lee returned and demanded of Sabottka: “What the f–k is going on here?” To which an unfazed Sabottka replied: “We tried to warn you.”
Sabottka, CEO of Berlin-based FFP Spezialeffekte und Veranstaltungslogistik (which translates to “Special Effects and Event Logistics”), has spent the past 26 years mastering the art of blowing stuff up at concerts while ensuring everybody remains safe. Although he earned a degree in pyrotechnics at a Dresden school specializing in explosives technology, his true studies came from working with Rammstein, the electro-metal band known for towering flames and violent explosions.
He joined Rammstein’s crew in 1997 as a tour manager, monitoring rhythm guitarist Paul Landers. “He would just put gasoline onstage and set it on fire,” Sabottka recalls. “We thought, ‘That’s not a good idea.’ ” Over time, Sabottka learned to be safer and more intentional, innovating flamethrowers attached to guitars and face masks, as well as an exploding backpack for frontman Till Lindemann. One of his proudest inventions was to shoot flames up the delay towers used to spread audio through a stadium.
“I can text [Sabottka] and go, ‘I have this idea to have a wrecking ball, and it hits a car and the car explodes,’” says Robert Long, Mötley Crüe’s production manager. “And 10 minutes later, I’ll get a video of him experimenting with something.”
Over the years, beginning with work for British pop star Robbie Williams, Sabottka and FFP have expanded beyond the Rammstein Universe, working not only with reliably pyro-friendly hard-rock bands like Mötley Crüe and KISS but Lady Gaga and, on the Brit Awards over the years, Taylor Swift and Sam Smith. And while rock concerts have set off explosions since the late ’60s, Sabottka and FFP are evolving the look, feel, sound and even smell of stadium concerts.
“Rammstein brought a whole other level to what you can do from a pyro standpoint,” Long says. “It changed the face of the industry more than most people would admit, because every company is doing it now.”
Sabottka, 57, started working with Rammstein in 1997 as a tour manager, referred by his brother, Scumeck, a German promoter. Nicolai declined, believing the press he’d read that Rammstein had fascistic tendencies. But he met with the band in an East Berlin cafe and, as he says in an email, “found out there were no Nazis but a pretty intense bunch.” The Berlin band was on the brink of international success, scoring an MTV hit with its anthem “Du Hast.”
He accepted the job. Sharing a bus with band and crew, Sabottka and frontman Till Lindemann bonded on long European trips. They’d “sit and drink and talk sh-t: ‘Oh, we could do this and we could do that,’” he recalls.
Sabottka earned the band’s respect, in part because he sweet-talked European fire officials into approving extreme effects. “He has the right logistics and permits to make it happen at all,” Landers says, calling from a Cape Town wind-surfing vacation. “He came up with flames at a height I’d never seen before. I knew, ‘OK, he is our guy.’ The small, student-looking guy [is] now a serious, professional deadly weapon. He’s a big, big part of our show.”
Sabottka won’t leak details about the effects for Rammstein’s upcoming European stadium tour, opening May 20 in Vilnius, Lithuania, but says the pyro will be “more impressive.” He’ll likely employ a favorite tool, lycopodium, a yellowish powder that creates giant flames that are relatively easy to control.
His pyro obsession began when he was a kid, hunting mice with friends in an open field near his home in Germany where he “managed to set the entire area on fire,” he says. Finding World War II ammunition in canals near his house, he drilled into it in his bedroom, with explosive results. Later, his father found black, ashy residue on his car, because Sabottka had tried to make napalm bombs out of a plastic bag to drip onto his toy soldiers. Police occasionally escorted 16-year-old Nicolai home from school. “I launched the largest smoke bomb in school, and everyone knew it was me, but they couldn’t prove it,” he recalls.
When Rammstein took a break from touring in the early 2000s, Sabottka formed FFP, and worked with other artists, beginning with British pop star Robbie Williams, who requested 100-foot-tall flames and a crucifix catching fire in a stained-glass window. “Most people [in the pyro business] can do what Nicolai can do. What they can’t do is talk the fire marshal into accepting it,” says Wob Roberts, production manager for Williams, as well as for Smith’s recent Brit Awards performance. “He’s really calm. Even when he raves about something, he barely raises his voice.”
Today, FFP has 70 employees worldwide across the company’s offices in Berlin, Los Angeles and London. Using artists’ own ideas as a guide, Sabottka and his staff are constantly tinkering. “They know how to take things right up to the limit,” says LeRoy Bennett, production designer for the Chromatica Ball Tour. “They’re super safety-conscious, but they’ll do things that are pretty intense.”
Rammstein pays attention to Sabottka’s excursions into pop and classic rock. “Sometimes I see a TV show, some band is playing, Mötley Crüe, and I see big flames and I say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know they had such big flames,’” Landers says. “Then it turns out Nicolai did the show.”
In a zoom call from his Los Angeles office, the bearded and bespectacled Sabottka laughs off his incendiary history. “I just like to set things on fire,” he says. “It’s surprising I’m still alive.”
A version of this story originally appeared in the March 11, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Back in 2017, at a Universal Music Latin Entertainment convention in Miami, Jesús López played the newly-released “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee for those in attendance. “We all thought it was a hit,” says López, the chairman/CEO of Universal Music Latin America and Iberian Peninsula. “Admittedly, never what it became, but we knew it was something special.”
That evening, López also introduced two new signings: Sebastian Yatra and Karol G. The two Colombians, he said, “are the two big new artists in the company.”
It would take “Despacito” six months to make history as it soared to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and stayed there for a then-record 16 weeks, tying the time spent by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day” at No. 1 in 1995-96. (The record would eventually be broken by Lil Nas X‘s “Old Town Road.)
It took Karol G six years to make a different kind of history, as the first woman to place an all-Spanish album at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with her latest project, Mañana Será Bonito. The set earned 94,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending March 2, according to Luminate, its starting sum largely powered by streaming activity and with single “TQG” with fellow Colombian Shakira as one of its driving forces.
But there was no one tipping point for Mañana, or for Karol G. Rather, the success was the result of long-term planning and a series of key actions over the years, beginning with the door that “Despacito” opened, and including a steady stream of releases — four albums total; opening a 2019 arena tour for Gloria Trevi, which expanded her Mexican-American fan base; her hit “Tusa” with Nicki Minaj; and her 2021 album, KG2516.
“We haven’t stopped,” says López, who, thanks to another history-making moment, is Billboard‘s Executive of the Week.
Karol G has been on an upward trajectory that’s only accelerated the past year. Regardless, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 is remarkable. Short-term, when did the road to No. 1 begin?
We began in April 2022 with Coachella. We started to have meetings to plan the launch of [new single] “Provenza,” and that’s when we began to plan the next album. I wanted February 2023, but Karol was aiming for November 2022 to coincide with the Latin Grammys. Then, between production and her tour, the date moved. Beginning in Coachella we designed a truly clear strategy to release singles one after another with a story for each single. Remember, singles now have a narrative behind them. We started climbing step by step. Clearly there was no tipping point, but rather different important moments.
Was the No. 1 a goal, and why did you see it possible?
Once we saw those first-day numbers we thought we could be No. 1, and we worked every campaign we thought could help. Initially, we were aiming to beat Bad Bunny’s numbers at that moment. If we hit 40,000 to 50,000 equivalent album units, we would place higher. Then the data started coming in. The weekend after release we knew we were in the battle for the No. 1, and by Monday I thought it would happen. My team was a little more reticent, and I was more optimistic, which is usually not the case. But I’m also more analytical and I crunched my numbers and it looked like we would be No. 1. Karol was all over it and she’d ask every day if we need more posts or more tweets. The artists and the company all came together because we knew what this meant. It was once again a very big statement for Universal Music.
Karol took up painting in the past couple of years, and the album cover, as well as the merch generated around it, uses her artwork. Was the merch important in this release?
Yes. All that began last year with Coachella, and we started to experiment when we released [singles] “Provenza” and “Gatubela,” designing merch that would bring her fans closer. The cover of Mañana Será Bonito, for example, will be a mythical cover, and it represents Latinidad and colombianidad 100%. I love Karol’s integral approach to things. And she’s very persistent. She works each detail very thoroughly. She has her ideas, and then she truly executes them very well.
How important was TikTok in the album’s success?
It’s not essential to the album, but it is for the singles. TikTok is the new radio; it breaks songs, and that’s how we’re using it. It’s been very important in this stage for singles like “Provenza,” “Gatubela,” “Cairo,” and right now our focus is to have “TQG” break records as well. The number of creations that fans are making with the music on TikTok is astronomical. It has to do with the storyline of empowerment around the song, and the collaboration between a legend [Karol G] and a legend legend [Shakira].
Shakira is signed to Sony. Was it complex to close the collab with her?
No. Not at all. We already have rules in place amongst ourselves [labels]. When we bring two names together, we know what we have to do. If two artists want to work together, we don’t put obstacles [in the way].
Given her No. 1, I have to think some of Karol’s consumption comes from the mainstream and not necessarily from Latins. Have you been working that market as well?
Yes. Since “Tusa,” everything we do we also work on the mainstream. We have PR teams, radio teams. But overall, it’s about people communicating differently today. There are no barriers. If you sell 12,000 tickets in a city that doesn’t have a big Latin population, clearly you’re reaching non-Latins. At school, a Latin girl sits next to her non-Latin friend. And since Latin is hot right now, there’s greater consumption. But, there’s still much to do in the mainstream, and I believe her tours and endorsements, as well as this single, will allow us to continue growing that market. The single and the album are already big hits in countries like Italy and France, but we need to do more work in England, for example.
In your opinion, what’s Karol’s appeal?
She’s a mix of many things. Obviously, getting here is not just about singing well or being clever. She is, first and foremost, a workaholic, meticulous, takes care of every detail. In the urban world, she’s a woman who sings very well, and that allows her to both rap and phrase beautifully; her songs have more range. And she’s very good at grasping where she wants to be, and she’s a natural role model for women who didn’t have role models. She’s very confident in who she is and that has allowed millions of women to identify with her and feel valued. She’s the girl next door. Karol is a diamond. Really, it’s not easy to find all these qualities in a person.
How important was this No. 1? And what’s next?
I don’t want people to always think ours is the company of “Despacito” or J Balvin or “Mi Gente” or even “Macarena.” Sometimes we forget what we’ve done. This success was very important to Latin women overall, to Karol G, but also to Universal Music Latino. The point is to write the next story. And the next, next, next great one will be Feid. I think he’ll be the biggest artist of 2023.
Previous Executive of the Week: Val Pensa of RCA
Polito Vega, the larger-than-life radio personality and longtime programming director of New York City’s WSKQ (Mega 97.9 FM) — the top-rated Spanish-language station in the country — who for decades reigned as the most powerful man in that corner of radio, has died, the station confirmed on Thursday. He was 84.
Vega spent more than 50 years on the air in NYC, earning the moniker “El Rey de la radio” (The King of Radio). He was known as much for his deep booming bass, which anchored numerous popular shows through the years, as for his trademark starched white outfits and baseball cap.
Vega was so well-known in the city that there was an oft-told joke that went like this: Two friends are standing on Fifth Avenue in New York as Polito Vega and the Pope stroll by, talking together. One of them asks, “Who’s that?” The other replies, “I don’t know who the old guy with the white robe is, but he must be important if he’s that friendly with Polito!”
Vega’s importance to Latin music cannot be overstated. He was the most influential tastemaker in the country’s top market dating back to when tropical music first became popular in the city in the 1960s and 1970s and stretching all the way to the 21st century.
“The architect of Hispanic radio at a global level,” wrote DJ Alex Sensation on his Instagram feed.
In 2009, Vega celebrated 50 years on the air with two shows at Madison Square Garden featuring performances by a group of A-list talents – Enrique Iglesias, Laura Pausini and Luis Fonsi, among many others. The shows were meant to signal his imminent retirement.
Three years later, in 2012, he celebrated 53 years on the air with “El Megatón Mundial de Polito Vega” (The Polito Vega World Megathon), a show at Citi Field in Queens featuring performances by Gloria Estefan, Don Omar, Alejandro Sanz, Juanes, Ricardo Arjona, Daddy Yankee, Paulina Rubio and Tito “El Bambino,” among others.
“I’ve only done radio in New York; I belong to the city,” he told Billboard at the time. “I go out on the street and people go crazy saying ‘Polito, Polito, Polito.’ I still have the same enthusiasm I had at the beginning; the same positive attitude in front of a microphone.”
Born in Hipólito Vega Torres, Puerto Rico, Vega came to the Big Apple harboring more artistic ambitions. He wanted to become a singer, but instead found his calling behind the microphone inside a radio booth rather than on stage. It was the early 1960s, and in NYC and around the country, Spanish-language radio was a fledgling business where broadcasts mostly lived part-time on AM stations. Vega’s first job was as a DJ on a half-hour show called “Fiesta Time,” which aired on the now-defunct WEVD-AM.
“The radio station was part time, but they decided to program 24 hours and they gave me a shift that went from midnight to 6 a.m. I felt I was in heaven,” he said. “The show was so successful and I felt that liberty to express myself that I’ve maintained to this day.”
Vega eventually landed at WBNX, where he met the senior program director Raúl Alarcón. It was the beginning of what would be a life-changing relationship. Alarcón, who’d had radio stations in Cuba before fleeing after the revolution and had big ambitions of his own, would soon acquire his first station in the U.S., launching what would become SBS. Forty years ago, he hired Vega, who never left.
As for Vega, he developed his signature voice and a reputation for defending the music he was passionate about. Vega was the first to play a record by a Fania artist on the radio, the first to play bachata, the first to play reggaetón.
“I grew up listening to Polito,” Prince Royce told Billboard a decade ago. “He was one of the first to support my music, and the first time I heard one of my songs on the air it was on his show.”
“He has that rare and unique combination of personal assets and experiences that make him a veritable expert where Latin music is concerned,” remarked SBS president and CEO Raúl Alarcón, who took over the business his father founded. “He has seen – and heard – it all, and he retains an uncanny ability to judge what’s good and what’s lacking, despite the constant change in musical trends and the whims of an extremely fickle public. He has a golden ear that can’t be fooled and he is as unfailingly relevant today as he was 50 years ago.”
Radio personality Charlamagne Tha God, rapper Master P and Vicky Cornell, wife of late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell are among the first speakers lined up for the Hollywood & Mind Summit, taking place May 11 in Los Angeles at United Talent Agency (UTA).
The conference, which will focus on how the entertainment industry can elevate mental health, will also feature Christina Wootton, head of partnerships at Roblox; Carmela Wallace, mother of the late Jarad “Juice WRLD” Higgins and Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Valerie June, as well as a number of mental health professionals.
The one-day summit, which takes place during Mental Health Awareness Month, will bring together executives and talent across television, film, music and digital with mental health experts for discussions on mental health storytelling, the power of song, and opportunities to elevate mental wellness through tech and gaming, among other topics.
Courtesy Photo
“The entertainment industry has unique and unrivaled influence to help stem our global mental health crisis,” said Cathy Applefeld Olson, veteran entertainment journalist and founder of Hollywood & Mind. “Our inaugural Summit will gather key stakeholders across Hollywood and the mental health sector to delve into essential conversations, share learnings and ask the next important questions.” (Olson is a Billboard contributor.)
Following the day-time summit, Hollywood & Mind will host an evening launch party at UTA, where attendees can network as well as experience activations including a Mindfulness Wall presented by Case Kenny, author and host of the podcast New Mindset, Who Dis?
In addition to UTA, other sponsors include Hallmark Media, Publicis Health, Milk & Honey Music + Sports + Ventures and MTV Entertainment Studios.
Snoop Dogg kept his word. Less than a month after pledging to bring the Death Row Records catalog back to traditional streaming services “real soon,” the rapper-entrepreneur did just that on Thursday night (March 9). “Yessir. Heard you,” he tweeted along with a six-second hype clip. “Death Row Records catalog is back streaming everywhere tonight.”
Death Row released Snoop Dogg’s first two albums: the seven-times platinum Doggystyle in 1993 and the two-times platinum Tha Doggfather in 1996. Other album releases now back on Spotify, Apple Music and other services include 2Pac’s All Eyez on Me and The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, as well as the label’s comprehensive Greatest Hits album, Lady of Rage’s Necessary Roughness and Kurupt’s Against the Grain, among many others.
The label’s other stone-cold classic, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, returned to DSPs in early February after it was reunited with Interscope Records after Dre sold his music assets to UMG and Shamrock Holdings for an estimated $200 million.
Snoop (real name Calvin Broadus) acquired the Death Row catalog and brand, along with its trademark, name and logo, from MNRK Music Group in February 2022, and almost immediately pulled the legendary catalog off streaming services, telling REVOLT it was because “those platforms don’t pay.” In December, Snoop quietly sold a stake in the label’s catalog to gamma, a new full-service music company led by former Apple Music executive Larry Jackson. Their first course of action was to release the catalog — without mentioning their partnership — exclusively on TikTok to give fans the ability to create their own videos using clips from classic albums like Doggystyle. The deal was touted as the “first-ever catalog reissue to release exclusively through SoundOn,” the distribution and marketing service that TikTok launched in 2022.
“Since I took Death Row off streaming almost a year ago, not a day goes by without people asking me to put it back up,” Snoop said at the time of the TikTok announcement.
Founded in 1992 by Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, The D.O.C. and Dick Griffey, Death Row’s fortunes began to falter late in that decade following the murder of 2Pac, the departures of Dre and Snoop and the imprisonment of Knight. In 2006, the label declared bankruptcy following a slew of legal troubles, including a lawsuit brought by “silent” Death Row co-founder Lydia Harris that resulted in a $107 million judgment being awarded in Harris’ favor.
Death Row was eventually sold to Toronto-based development company WIDEawake Entertainment Group at auction for $18 million in 2009. When WIDEawake declared bankruptcy in 2012, Death Row was acquired by eOne (then known as Entertainment One). In 2019, eOne was acquired by Hasbro. Last April, Blackstone purchased eOne Music (which was rebranded as MNRK Music Group in September) for $385 million. The acquisition included Death Row, which was then sold to Snoop.
LONDON – Vinyl sales generated more money for record labels and artists than CDs for the first time in more than three decades in the United Kingdom last year, helping drive a 4.7% rise in overall music revenue, according to annual figures from labels trade body BPI published Thursday (March 9).
In 2022, sales of vinyl LPs climbed 3.1% year-on-year in the U.K. to £119.5 million ($142.4 million) and now account for over half (55%) of all trade revenues from physical sales. The last time vinyl revenues eclipsed CD sales in the United Kingdom, BPI says, was in 1987 when Michael Jackson’s Bad was the year’s best-selling album and Rick Astley had the best-selling single of the year with “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
In total, 5.5 million vinyl LPs were sold in the United Kingdom last year. That marks the highest level of vinyl purchases in the country since 1990, according to BPI figures released in January measuring music consumption. The best-selling vinyl titles in the U.K. in 2022 were Taylor Swift’s Midnights, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House and Arctic Monkeys’ The Car.
Despite the ongoing vinyl revival, overall revenue from physical formats was down 10.5% to £216 million ($258 million), with CD sales slipping 24% to £89 million ($107 million).
Offsetting that decline was 6.3% year-on-year growth in streaming revenues, which climbed to £885 million ($1 billion) and accounted for 67% of U.K. recorded music revenues in 2022 — up from 66.2% the 12 months prior. Vinyl sales made up 9% of the market in terms of annual trade revenues, while CDs accounted for 7%.
Breaking down streaming revenue, paid subscriptions generated £763 million ($910 million), up 4.8% on 2021, while ad-funded revenue grew by more than a fifth (22%) to £63 million ($75 million). Digital download sales fell 17.5% to £28 million ($33 million).
Synch revenues were up even more sharply, rising 39% year-on-year to £43 million ($51 million), while public performance income spiked 23% to £143 million ($170 million).
Total U.K. recorded music sales — comprising digital and physical revenues, public performance rights and synch — climbed 4.7% to £1.32 billion ($1.57 billion) in 2022. That marks a rise of 36% over the past five years, according to BPI, as well as the eighth-consecutive year of growth.
The United Kingdom is the world’s third biggest recorded music market behind the United States and Japan with sales of just over $1.8 billion in trade value, according to IFPI’s 2022 Global Music Report. (BPI’s year-end sales figures are based on pound sterling, rather than the far stronger U.S. dollar, hence the perceived decline in overall revenues when BPI’s figures are converted into dollars at a constant currency basis).
“2022 was another great year for British music, but we must guard against any complacency in the face of growing challenges and keep promoting and protecting the value of music,” BPI chief strategy officer and interim CEO Sophie Jones said in a statement. She also called upon the U.K. music community to work together to “create the impetus” for further growth and “futureproof the success of British music in an increasingly competitive global music market.”
As previously reported, British artists accounted for the top 10 biggest-selling singles in the U.K. last year (either as the lead or as a featured artist) for the first time since year-end charts were introduced more than 50 years ago. Leading the pack was Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” which topped the U.K. singles chart for 10 consecutive weeks (it also spent 15 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100) and was streamed more than 180 million times in the country.
Joining Styles in the U.K. top 10 was Ed Sheeran, Cat Burns, Glass Animals, Lost Frequencies & Calum Scott, LF System, Sam Fender and Kate Bush, whose 1985 track “Running Up That Hill” spent three weeks at No. 1 following its high-profile Stranger Things synch; it was streamed 124 million times in her home country last year.
Styles also landed the year’s best-selling album with his third studio set, Harry’s House, making him the first artist to have both the United Kingdom’s top single and top album since Lewis Capaldi in 2019. Sheeran’s = (Equals) and Swift’s Midnights were the year’s second and third-best-selling albums.
On Thursday (March 9), the RIAA released its annual year-end report on recorded music revenues in the U.S., with an encouraging top line: In 2022, total revenue was up 6% to $15.9 billion, with paid subscription and wholesale revenues each surpassing $10 billion for the first time. That marks the seventh straight year of growth for an industry that at this point is far removed from the doldrums of the early part of the century.
In fact, the industry could credibly be a little underwhelmed by the rate of growth, as the 6% figure is the lowest percent increase across those seven years — and the only time other than pandemic-affected 2020 (+9.2%) that growth has fallen below double digits during that period. In actual figures, it’s the smallest increase ($900 million) year over year since 2016, when the business grew 11.4% and added $700 million.
There are plenty of other interesting takeaways to discern from digging through the RIAA’s report. Here are four (plus one bonus item!) that stand out.
Paid Subscriptions — Anything to Worry About?
Both the average number of paid subscribers (those subscribing to full-catalog services like Apple Music or Spotify’s paid tier) and the revenue from full-catalog paid subscriptions grew at much slower rates, both in percentage terms and in actual numbers, than in recent years. The former metric showed an increase of 8 million subscribers (9.5%; 84 million in 2021 to 92 million in 2022), while the latter metric reflected an increase of $600 million (7.2%; $8.56 billion to $9.17 billion). As with the overall growth rate for the industry, that’s the first time in several years that those figures grew by less than double-digit percentages. So, is it anything to worry about, when looking at how much growth there is left in the paid streaming business?
Not necessarily. For one thing, between 2018 and 2022, paid subscribers (up 96.2%) and revenue from full-catalog subscriptions (up 93.6%) have grown fairly in line with each other, and the revenue per subscriber has averaged $98.92 over that period of time (pandemic-affected 2020 was an outlier year, at $92.35). In 2022, the average revenue per subscriber was $99.77, which was down from $101.94 in 2021 but not out of line with the overall average.
That number should be expected to grow, given price increases by Apple Music, Amazon Music and Deezer in the past year and the increasing pressure on Spotify to boost its price higher than $9.99/month, where it has stayed since entering the U.S. in 2011. This will be something to keep an eye on as the year progresses, as strategies shift from gaining subscribers to getting more out of those who do subscribe, given that a ceiling on the number of subscribers could be coming into view (for context, the U.S. government counted 124 million households in the latest census).
Another reason for optimism: The above numbers don’t include limited-tier subscription revenue — things like Amazon Prime and fitness apps like Peloton — which crossed the $1 billion mark for the first time in 2022. Since 2020, when the pandemic led to a home fitness app craze and resulted in additional areas of limited music subscription beyond the traditional paid streaming realm, limited-tier subscription revenue has grown 47.7%. As more licensing opportunities arise, that sector should continue to contribute meaningful revenue moving forward.
Ad-Supported Streaming Takes a Hit
Ad-supported on-demand streaming revenue reached $1.8 billion in 2022, accounting for 11% of the overall revenues for the business last year. But growth was just 5.5% over 2021 — a big reality check after the category grew 46.7% in 2021 over pandemic-affected 2020 and 16.4% at the mid-year mark of 2022. Even in 2020, when the world essentially came to a standstill for several months, year-end ad-supported streaming revenues grew 16.8%, up $170 million — higher than the $95 million gain seen in 2022.
The advertising slump last year was certainly a blow to U.S. industries, with layoffs across the music and tech landscapes in particular. Many companies cited “economic headwinds” due to a combination of factors, including the war in Ukraine, rising interest rates, inflation and the threat of recession as companies scaled back spending that had ballooned coming out of the pandemic and readjusted forecasts for an uncertain future. All of that certainly played a part. But since 2018, ad-supported on-demand streaming revenue grew 137%, becoming an increasingly large part of the overall pie. In comparison, 5.5% is likely a disappointing number to many in the industry.
Vinyl, Vinyl, Vinyl
Another year, another big headline involving vinyl’s 16-year winning streak: For the first time since 1987, the number of vinyl LPs sold in the United States (41 million) surpassed the number of CDs sold in the calendar year (33 million). Vinyl sales reached $1.2 billion in 2022, up 17.2%, while CD sales plummeted once again, decreasing 17.6% to $482 million. Despite the eye-popping vinyl revenue numbers, however, actual unit sales only rose 3%, meaning that the price of vinyl is getting more expensive. In 2021, the average vinyl record cost $26.12; in 2022, that number rose to $29.65. There’s plenty to unpack there, including increased production costs and inflation.
Another notable development in the vinyl craze that has sharpened in recent years is the shifting market share among vinyl retailers. As far back as 2015, when the industry started to emerge from its nadir, the market was dominated by indie records stores (45.42%), internet/mail order sellers like Amazon (32.88%) and chain stores like Best Buy (15%), according to Luminate. By 2018, indie stores and Amazon sales had essentially settled into a market share tie — each at 41% — while the Best Buys of the world had shrunk to just north of 10%.
But beginning in 2019, a fourth player began to emerge: Mass merchant stores like Walmart and Target, which dramatically expanded their inventories. As a result, their market share went from less than 1% in 2015 — accounting for some 7,000 sales — to 10.19% in 2019 and 14.75% in 2021, with sales of 6.1 million units. While the market share economics have shifted during that time, sales have continued to increase for each sector across the board. In short, part of what has been driving the boom has been sheer visibility in some of the biggest stores in the country, which has correlated to more sales, and thus more visibility, and around and around we’ve gone. (For those curious, in 2022 indie stores accounted for 48.1% of the market, having reclaimed their dominant position as the country emerged from the pandemic.)
The Synch Explosion
In the past few years, more and more songs have caught huge waves due to synchs in popular TV shows and films. Think Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” following its Stranger Things placement, The Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck” following its Wednesday placement and Gerry Rafferty’s “Right Down The Line” from Euphoria, to name a few. That seems to have stemmed from the explosion of content, as the streaming wars in TV/film world heated up during that time — with Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, Apple TV+ and the rest all throwing money around to reel in subscribers. The RIAA numbers back that up: In 2022, synch revenue grew 24.8%, from $306.5 million to $382.5 million, marking a gigantic jump. In fact, from 2020 to 2022, synch revenue jumped 44.2%, outpacing the industry at large (which was up 30.3% in that span).
Will that upward trend continue? It’s unclear. The TV/film streamers have publicly cut back their content spends in the past six months as the battle for market share and subscribers veered into profligacy and waste, while corporations looked to reel in costs amid the broader economic landscape. But it’s possible those gains are here to stay, even if they regress a bit. One music group executive recently told Billboard that in addition to the big four streamers (Spotify, Apple, Amazon and YouTube), Netflix was quickly becoming a fifth major source of revenue thanks to a combination of direct synch payments and the long tail of streams that result from a high-profile placement. That’s something to keep an eye on moving forward.
Bonus Takeaway — Ringtones!
Finally, a small bonus addition from a personal favorite aspect of the RIAA report. The mid-to-late-2000s were, of course, a time of great uncertainty and anxiety in the recorded music business, as piracy and digital music chipped away at a once-dominant physical sales format. At their height in 2007, ringtones and ringbacks were able to plug the gap to the tune of $1.1 billion, according to the RIAA. (That would be around $1.6 billion today.) So, how much money did ringtones and ringbacks generate in 2022?
$11 million!
Please, RIAA, continue printing this as a line in every report, no matter how small the figure gets. While it’s currently the smallest line item by revenue in the entire report, I cherish it more than all the others.
TikTok is facing a slew of class action lawsuits alleging it tracks and harvests troves of personal information on users through its in-app browser.
In the most recent suit filed on Wednesday, users allege TikTok has “secretly amassed massive amounts of highly invasive information and data by tracking their activities on third-party websites.” At least a dozen class actions have been filed since November alleging violations of the federal wiretap act, among other claims.
TikTok remains under fire by the government due to concerns that data it collects on American users can be leveraged by the Chinese government to advance its interests. The company could, for example, be forced to tweak its algorithm to boost content that undermines U.S. democratic institutions or muffles criticism of China and its allies, according to lawmakers. A bipartisan bill backed by the White House was introduced on Tuesday that would establish a unified process for reviewing and addressing technology that could be subject to foreign influence. Under the measure, Chinese parent company ByteDance could be forced to sell TikTok or the platform could be completely banned, though that would face significant hurdles.
The first suit, known as Recht v. TikTok, was filed in November. It was based on a report from Felix Krause, a software researcher who found that the company injects lines of code that commands the platform to copy user activity on external websites. Of the seven popular apps he tested — including Instagram, Snapchat, Amazon — he found that only TikTok monitored keystrokes.
The named plaintiff in the complaint, California resident Austin Recht, says he clicked on an ad to a third-party website, where he bought merchandise after he entered private data that included his credit card information. Tiktok “surreptitiously collected data associated” with his activity on the third-party site accessed through the platform’s in-app browser, according to the complaint.
The class actions detail how TikTok intercepts and harvests data. The in-app browser inserts code into the websites visited by users with the purpose of tracking “every detail about [their] activity,” Recht claims.
“In the case of online purchase transactions, this would include all of the details of the purchase, the name of the purchaser, their address, telephone number, credit card or bank information, usernames, passwords, dates of birth,” reads the complaint filed in California federal court.
The data isn’t limited to purchase information and extends to private information about users’ health, the suit alleges. When users click on a link to Planned Parenthood on TikTok, for example, their activity on the site is tracked and harvested. This could identify users looking for abortion services or those looking for information about gender identity, according to the suit.
TikTok has faced legal action for illegally harvesting user data. In 2020, it was sued for alleged violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, a state statute that prohibits private companies from collecting users biometric identifiers without first obtaining consent. It settled the litigation for $92 million.
In response to suits alleging violations of the Federal Wiretap Act, Tiktok has said that the purported class members are covered under the settlement for those who sued for violations of the Illinois privacy law because it “addressed all user data collected through the app.”
Though the plaintiffs in the suit don’t allege any injury, the Federal Wiretap Act doesn’t require proof of actual harm to recover monetary damages. The law prohibits the intentional interception of communications, which includes personal information.
Some of the suits also allege violations of state invasion of privacy and competition laws. A hearing has been set for March 30 on whether the litigation should be consolidated.
In California, TikTok could face massive damages if there’s a data leak. Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, companies that mishandle personal data face statutory damages ranging from $100 to $750 for each consumer per incident.
TikTok didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
This article originally appeared on THR.com.
Adidas is still wrestling with how to dispose of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) worth of Yeezy shoes after its breakup with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, forcing the German sportswear maker into a big loss at the end of last year and expectations of more pain ahead.
CEO Bjorn Gulden said selling the popular line of shoes would mean paying royalties to Ye, who was dropped by Adidas five months ago after making antisemitic remarks on social media and in interviews. During an earnings call Wednesday, he pointed to “many variables” about what to do with the shoes now stacked in warehouses.
Destroying them could “raise sustainability issues,” though some companies have offered recycling solutions, said Gulden, who was named CEO after the blowup over Ye’s remarks. Restitching them to hide the Yeezy brand so they could be sold “is not very honest, so it’s not an option,” he added.
Suggestions to give them away to those in need in places like earthquake-hit Syria or Turkey would mean the product would “come back again very quickly” due to its high market value, “so that’s not really an option,” Gulden said.
If Adidas does decide to sell the shoes, “I can promise you that the people that have been hurt by this will also get something good out of it and get donations and proceeds in different ways, shapes or forms,” the CEO said.
Adidas split with Ye in October, following other brands that were facing pressure to end ties with the rapper over his antisemitic and other offensive remarks. The company is now struggling to find ways to become profitable again and replace its banner Yeezy line, which analysts have said amounted to as much as 15% of its net income.
The Ye breakup cost 600 million euros in lost sales in the last three months of 2022, helping drive the company to a net loss of 513 million euros. The decline, also attributed to higher supply costs and slumping revenue in China, contrasts with profit of 213 million euros in the fourth quarter of 2021.
More losses could be ahead, with the company forecasting a 500 million-euro hit to profit earnings this year if it decides not to repurpose the remaining Yeezy products in stock. The company is predicting a 2023 operating loss of 700 million euros.
Gulden said “so many companies” were willing to buy the popular shoes but that would mean paying royalties to Ye. Rumors that the company was in talks to sell them, however, “are not true.”
He had heard from “gazillions of people that have opinions about this, and of course when you’re sitting on the inside, it looks a little bit different than it looks on the outside.”
Gulden also said Adidas is still investigating former employees’ allegations that Ye created a toxic work environment and that the sportswear company knew about his problematic behavior and failed to protect workers.
The CEO called 2023 “a transition year,” saying “we can then start to build a profitable business again in 2024.”
Last year, fourth-quarter net sales were up a bare 1.3% at 5.21 billion euros from the same quarter a year ago. The company pointed to revenue dropping 50% in China and higher costs for supplies and shipping, which could not be offset by price hikes.
For the full year, the Herzogenaurach, Germany-based company said it made a net profit of 638 million euros on sales that rose 6%, to 22.5 billion euros.
Adidas also further shook up its leadership by replacing its top sales and marketing executives. Global sales head Roland Auschel will leave the company after 33 years and be succeeded by Arthur Hoeld, now head of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
Brian Grevy, head of global brands, will step down March 31. CEO Gulden will take on his product and marketing responsibilities.
A sonic mirage? The mysterious reverb of distant guitar? A hazy musical apparition? However the ear perceives the initial seconds of Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” the six-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 and record-breaking streaming smash, the seed behind the runaway track was planted during a simple writing exercise.
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“The idea really began with the word ‘flowers’ itself,” says “Flowers” co-writer Michael Pollack, speaking to Billboard from a music camp ahead of the release of Cyrus’ new album Endless Summer Vacation. “It’s been really incredible to watch,” he says of the fervent reaction to the song. “This is the kind of record you dream about having your whole career and I’m so grateful to be a part of it.”
Pollack has enjoyed a charmed rise. When he was just a student at Vanderbilt University, he accompanied his idol Billy Joel on the piano during an audience Q&A (he asked to come up to the stage, Joel accepted, and the subsequent video went viral). Since that auspicious introduction to the public sphere a decade ago, he’s been a close collaborator to artists like Lauv, Ben Platt, Justin Bieber and Maroon 5. For the latter band he co-wrote “Memories,” and with Bieber he collaborated on his Justice track “Holy.” As a result of Pollack’s prolific discography, he shared the title of songwriter of the year for 2022 at the BMI Pop Awards, tying with fellow chart-topper Omar Fedi.
When it comes to Pollack’s harmonious musical relationship with Cyrus, the two first met in May 2021 during a writing session. “We started working together periodically then, but really hit our stride in January of 2022,” Pollack says. “There’s an endless list of what makes Miley special as a collaborator, but one of her greatest strengths is her taste. Miley has impeccable taste. She listens to and loves such a wide breadth of music. Because of that, I don’t have to guess if something is great or not when we’re writing. If Miley says something is great, I trust her wholeheartedly.”
Pollack, who says he almost always writes on the piano (“It’s where I feel most comfortable and it’s where my best ideas have come”), is credited as a co-writer on “Flowers” alongside Gregory “Aldae” Hein and Cyrus. When it comes to the song’s birth, the songwriter says the majority of the track easily came into view.
“Compared to other songs, the lyrics for ‘Flowers’ came relatively quickly,” he notes. “The only line that gave us trouble was the end of the pre-chorus.” Pollack is referring to when Cyrus potently muses, “I didn’t wanna leave you, I didn’t wanna lie.” “I think it was really important to contrast the empowerment of the chorus with a little bit of sadness and vulnerability, and that line ‘started to cry, but then remembered I’ does exactly that. I also love that the sentence is incomplete. It’s a subtle cliffhanger to take you to the chorus.”
Perhaps that’s why “Flowers” soars with its singular sound, presenting a blend of genres that simultaneously compete and gel together. While a friend told him it brought to mind Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” (alluding to its crescendos, disco violins and empowering theme, no doubt), many have also pointed out similarities to Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man.” Pollack won’t comment on the connection (perhaps that’s Miley’s story to tell), but any listener can detect that the song boasts a chorus that is the inverse of what Cyrus sings on “Flowers.” (Bruno croons, “I should have bought you flowers and held your hand.” Interestingly, Mars’ co-writer Philip Lawrence once said that “When I Was Your Man” was inspired in part by the artistry of Billy Joel.)
Pollack will say that the original chorus was initially less empowering than what it evolved into. “I remember singing the tagline with the lyric, ‘But I could never love me like you can,’ and Miley and Greg wanted to flip the script and say, ‘Yeah, I can love me better than you can.’ Once we had the tagline established, the rest of the lyric came rather quickly.”
With that, a breakup anthem morphed into a hardy independent roar as opposed to something sorer. According to Pollack: “That was without a doubt one of the biggest moments of the writing process.”
Riding that inspiration, an ephemeral and anthemic moment in “Flowers” comes in the form of a cacophony of voices where Cyrus proudly announces to the world, “I can love me better, baby, I can love me better.” Pollack says the discovery of that puzzle piece was his favorite moment in the (excuse the metaphor) blossoming of the song. It came late in the process. “We had finished writing the entire song and sang it down to see how it flowed from top to bottom,” he recalls. “After the second chorus, Miley freestyled the post-chorus (when she says “I can love me better”), but the way she originally sang it was in this cool, talky tone. That section brought a sexiness to the record that we didn’t even know it needed.”
While Pollack said he “felt the magic” on the demo he recorded with Cyrus, the songwriter was taken aback by its success. “We were also so engulfed in the writing process for the album that I didn’t really overanalyze any of the individual songs we made, but instead just focused on what we were going to write next.”
In addition to other cuts on Endless Summer Vacation, Pollack has other major tracks floating around, ranging from the melancholy (Selena Gomez’s “My Mind and Me”) to the romantic (“Marry Me” from Jennifer Lopez and Maluma). But it’s the record-breaking success of “Flowers” that has grown highest; not just on the charts, but to become one of the biggest success stories in Cyrus’ already blockbuster legacy. (Rolling Stone went so far to say that “Miley’s whole career has been building to this moment.”)
“I think they’re all easy types of songs to write, as long as there is a genuine emotion to tap into and an authentic muse,” says Pollack. “I personally struggle to write songs when no one in the room can tap into the source of the emotion. Each of these songs is rooted in truth.”