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Former Warner Music Group (WMG) CEO Stephen Cooper has joined the board of directors for Web3 company OneOf, it was announced Wednesday (Feb. 15).
“I am excited about how technology can reshape the future of music, entertainment and business models for many industries,” said Cooper in a statement. “OneOf has a stellar team and deep expertise in providing next generation Web3 technology to enterprises and brands. I look forward to serving on OneOf’s Board of Directors to help guide and accelerate their growth.”
During Cooper’s time as WMG CEO, the company became the most aggressive of the three major labels in embracing Web3 and the metaverse. Under the guidance of chief digital officer/executive vp of business development Oana Ruxandra — who Cooper first brought to WMG in 2012 and who returned in 2018 following a two-year stint at UMG — the company forged partnerships with and/or invested in NFT platforms like Blockparty and The Sandbox, avatar tech company Genies, immersive tech company Wave, blockchain startup Dapper Labs and OneOf, which signed a deal with WMG in January 2022 to create exclusive NFTs for the company’s artists.
In addition to its B2B pursuits, OneOf has a consumer-facing Web3 marketplace, OneOf.com, which is home to digital collectibles for artists including Doja Cat, The Notorious B.I.G. and Whitney Houston.
Cooper’s tenure as WMG CEO lasted from August 2011 to January 2023, when he was succeeded by former YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl. Prior to WMG, Cooper served as CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), CEO of Hawaiian Telecom, executive chairman of Blue Bird Corporation, executive chairman of Collins & Aikman Corporation, CEO of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and CEO/chief restructuring officer at Enron Corporation.
“We are thrilled to welcome Steve to join our board and leadership team,” said OneOf founder/CEO Lin Dai. “Web3 will revolutionize how brands connect with the consumers of the future. Steve’s expertise across music, entertainment, and consumer brands is the perfect addition to OneOf’s leadership team. With his guidance, we look forward to advancing our mission to lower the barriers to entry into Web3 for enterprises and consumers alike.”
MELBOURNE, Australia — Labels trade body ARIA has questioned the motives behind TikTok’s “test” on users in these parts and demanded the short-form video platform immediately restore access to all music, for all Australians.
Earlier this month, ByteDance confirmed it was conducting an experiment in Australia, where TikTokers would have restrictions placed on their music options to soundtrack clips.
“Over the coming weeks we will be running a test in Australia to analyse how music is accessed and used on the platform,” reads a message from a TikTok rep. “Not all music is included in this test and we do not expect it to impact everyone on TikTok.”
The “test is underway,” and the app expects “that some of our users will not be able to access our full music and sounds library. For more than half of our community there will be no change to their experience and the test will not impact them.”
It’s unclear how many users have had their experience dampened, which titles and music labels have been removed, or precisely what TikTok hopes to gain from this procedure.
In one scenario, observers say, should TikTok find its users stay and stick to the app in the absence of major-label hits, the tech firm could gain an upper hand when it comes time to negotiate on content licenses.
On Wednesday (Feb. 15), ARIA addressed the elephant in the room.
In a carefully-worded statement, ARIA questions TikTok’s “decision to limit and remove access to music for select Australian creators and users” on its platform over the coming weeks.
“It is frustrating to see TikTok deliberately disrupt Australians’ user and creator experience in an attempt to downplay the significance of music on its platform,” comments ARIA CEO, Annabelle Herd, in a statement.
“After exploiting artists’ content and relationships with fans to build the platform, TikTok now seeks to rationalize cutting artists’ compensation by staging a ‘test’ of music’s role in content discovery.”
Herd points out the contraction in TikTok’s past mission statements.
“This is despite the fact that in 2021 TikTok’s global head of music, Ole Obermann, said: ‘Music is at the heart of the TikTok experience.’” This “test,” adds Herd, “is presented as an effort to analyse, improve and enhance the platform’s wider sound library, but as little as five months ago, TikTok’s chief operating officer Vanessa Pappas said that 80% of content consumed on TikTok is programmed by algorithms.”
If this is the case, Herd explains, “then it’s difficult to trust that this is a true test. TikTok can set its Australian algorithm upfront to – within parameters they define – deliver the results they want.”
And the results ARIA wants?
“Australians deserve better,” Herd concludes. “TikTok should end this ‘test’ immediately and restore music access to all users and creators.”
TikTok is a real hit with Gen Z in Australia, and is already a more popular social platform than Twitter among all Internet users in these parts, according to data published in the Digital 2022 Australia report.
The annual study found that users spent 40% more time scrolling the app each month compared with the previous year, and it’s now ahead of Twitter among the percentage of internet users who regularly use the platform.
Separately, TikTok recently launched SoundOn in Australia, a tool that allows creators to upload their music directly, and get paid.
The new platform, which is already live in the U.S., U.K., Brazil, Indonesia and elsewhere, helps independent emerging artists navigate its service, upload music and get paid for its use, market and promote themselves on TikTok and distribute their music to outside DSPs.
A Florida judge says Drake won’t need to sit for a deposition over the murder of XXXtentacion, seemingly swayed by the star’s arguments that he has no connection to the case.
Defense attorneys for one of XXX’s alleged killers have been trying to question Drake over his alleged beef with the late rapper prior to his 2018 shooting death. But Drake’s lawyers have argued that dragging him into the case without any evidence linking him to the crime is “unreasonable and oppressive.”
In a ruling issued Tuesday (Feb. 14), Judge Michael Usan sided with Drake’s attorneys, according to a person with knowledge of the proceedings, signing off on an order voiding a subpoena that would have required the star to sit for such a deposition. TMZ was first to report the news on Tuesday.
Neither a rep for Drake nor the defense attorney who sought to depose him returned a request for comment.
Prosecutors have never claimed that Drake (real name Aubrey Graham) was involved in the 2018 murder of XXX (real name Jahseh Onfroy). Instead, they’ve charged four Florida men — Dedrick Williams, Trayvon Newsome, Michael Boatwright and Robert Allen — who they allege killed XXX during a robbery that escalated into deadly violence.
But defense attorney Mauricio Padilla, who represents Williams, listed Drake on a star-studded witness list last year. And in his opening statements at trial last week, Padilla suggested that the police had not sufficiently investigated a possible connection to Drake, who allegedly had an existing feud with XXX before his death. Such speculation has been fueled by a 2018 social media post — later deleted — in which XXX said: “If anyone tries to kill me it was @champagnepapi,” referring to Drake by his Instagram name.
With plans to make those arguments at trial, Padilla attempted to force Drake to sit for a Jan. 27 deposition but later claimed the star didn’t show up for the hearing. Last week, Judge Usan ordered Drake to appear for a deposition via Zoom on Feb. 24 or risk being held in contempt.
But Drake’s lawyers quickly moved to overturn that ruling. In a filing Sunday (Feb. 12), they said it was unreasonable to demand a deposition when “no evidence has been provided to substantiate the assertion that the [Drake] in any way contributed to, had knowledge of, or participated in the alleged incident.”
Instead, they cited that headline-grabbing December witness list — which also listed Quavo, Offset, Tekashi 6ix9ine, Joe Budden and even late Migos rapper Takeoff after he had already been killed — and argued that the defense attorneys were merely trying to pull unrelated big names into the case.
“It would appear, based on the names mentioned on the witness list filed by defendant’s counsel, that the intent to subpoena [Drake] is less for the purpose of discovering relevant evidence and testimony, but instead add more layers of celebrity and notoriety to a tragic and unfortunate event,” the star’s lawyers wrote.
Tuesday’s order granted the motion from Drake’s attorneys and tossed out last week’s ruling. It’s unclear if Padilla can try to depose Drake at a future point in the case.
The catalog of Death Row Records, which includes canonical rap albums like 2Pac‘s All Eyez On Me and Snoop Dogg‘s Doggystyle, is now available on TikTok.
Snoop Dogg acquired the Death Row catalog last year and pulled it from streaming services, though Dr. Dre‘s The Chronic returned to platforms earlier this month, licensed to Interscope Records, in honor of the album’s 30th anniversary. The SoundOn deal marks the remainder of the Death Row catalog’s first official online release since it was pulled from streamers in February 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 Dogg said in a statement. “As the Super Bowl rolled around, I knew fans would be looking for the music from our iconic performance in 2022, so I wanted to reintroduce the most historic catalog to the people.” He added that Death Row releases “will be back on streaming services real soon.”
TikTok is touting the exclusive partnership, which launched on Sunday (Feb. 12) and continues for the rest of the week, as the “first-ever catalog reissue to release exclusively through SoundOn,” the distribution and marketing service the company launched in 2022. (SoundOn will distribute Death Row music to ByteDance platforms only, not to streaming services, once the exclusivity window ends next week.)
SoundOn was initially conceived to help “new and undiscovered artists,” according to TikTok global head of music Ole Obermann.
“We were hearing from a lot of artists that they loved being on TikTok and trying to build their community and hopefully reach really big audiences, but they were pretty overwhelmed, they didn’t really understand how to get onto TikTok, get music onto TikTok, get an account set up on TikTok, figure out how to position themselves in the right way,” Obermann told Billboard last year. “So what we came up with was, let’s have a special entrance into the platform that’s only available to these new and undiscovered artists, and then we’re gonna have a chance to work much more closely with them if this is the route they choose to come in. The goal is, really, that we find the promising artist and we walk them from the backstage door right onto the main stage and they’re there, they’re performing, it’s an incredible show and they’ve found their audience.”
Artists who have worked with SoundOn include Muni Long and Nicky Youre. It was initially only available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Indonesia but launched in Australia earlier this month.
Sean “Diddy” Combs has rebranded his parent company from Combs Enterprises to Combs Global as the top rapper and record producer continues to diversify his portfolio of music, fashion, drinks and TV ventures internationally.
“Combs Global represents the next chapter in my journey as a business leader and a bigger vision to build the largest portfolio of leading Black-owned brands in the world,” Combs said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Bad Boy Entertainment Group founder, who is credited with carving out a new niche within the hip-hop genre, has in recent years expanded with new businesses like Empower Global formally Shop Circulate, Our Fair Share, Love Records and cannabis distribution by acquiring Cresco Labs.
Combs with the rebrand is looking to project continued expansion, and globally. “I’ve enlisted world-class teams of top executives, specialists and strategic partners to bring this new dream to life and put us in the best position to keep making history while leading another 30 years of dominance across industries,” he said.
Combs bought back his Sean John fashion line in 2020 and also forged a partnership with Diageo for his Ciroc Vodka label and later acquired tequila brand DeLeón. He also launched the fitness and wellness water brand AQUAhydrate.
In 2013, Combs launched REVOLT Media & TV, the first Black-owned multiplatform cable music network, which now reaches more 80 million homes and 20 million monthly viewers digitally.
More recently, Combs acquired The Nile List, invested in the creator platform REC Philly and expanded his Capital Preparatory charter school network to now include campuses in the Bronx, New York and Hartford, Connecticut.
The corporate rebrand includes a new website and logo unveiled as part of a Uber One Super Bowl commercial that starred Combs as he dreamed up a hit song for Uber One.
This article originally appeared on THR.com.
TikTok is working on a feature that will allow creators to charge a price of their own choosing for some videos, according to The Information.
In addition, the popular app is rethinking its creator fund and experimenting with a change that would pay out more to creators than the initial version of the program, The Information reports. The new iteration of the fund may also potentially change the limits of who is eligible; creators might need to have more than 100,000 followers, for example. This “Creator Fund 2.0” could launch as early as March.
“We’re committed to exploring new ways to create a valuable and rewarding experience for the TikTok creator community,” a TikTok spokesperson says in an email. “On TikTok, anyone can be a creator and everyone can enjoy entertainment from our inspiring creators, and we aim to continue innovating this experience so people can express themselves, find their community, and be rewarded for their creativity.”
TikTok originally launched its creator fund in the summer of 2020 with $200 million “to help support ambitious creators who are seeking opportunities to foster a livelihood through their innovative content.” Shortly after, TikTok announced that the fund would eventually grow to more than $1 billion in the United States.
While TikTok’s growth has been meteoric in the last few years, it actually slowed in the United States in 2022, according to The Information, which reports that after the platform hit 114 million monthly users in June, the number has since decreased to 111 million.
As TikTok explores these new features, the company is also engaged in another test in Australia, where the platform is temporarily restricting the use of major-label songs in videos. “This will only affect certain music and is scheduled work while we analyze how sounds are accessed and added to videos, as well as looking to improve and enhance the wider Sounds Library,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement. “We appreciate it’s disappointing if a certain track is unavailable or if a sound is muted on a previous video. This change will not be in place for long and not all music is affected.”
Diplo’s Mad Decent Publishing has sold its catalog to Olivier Chastan‘s music rights and brand management company Iconoclast, the company announced Tuesday (Feb. 14). Financial details were not disclosed.
Diplo launched Mad Decent with his manager and business partner Kevin Kusatsu as a record label in 2006 before branching into publishing. The deal with Iconoclast includes songs by Mad Decent Publishing songwriters Henry Agincourt Allen (professionally known as King Henry), Philip Meckseper (Jr Blender), Karen Orsted (MØ), Valentino Kahn, Clement & Maxime Picard and Dillon Francis. Songs in the catalog include Major Lazer hits like “Lean On (featuring MØ and DJ Snake),” “Cold Water (featuring Justin Bieber and MØ)” and “Know No Better (featuring Travis Scott, Camila Cabello and Quavo)” as well as Mark Ronson’s “Nothing Breaks Like A Heart (featuring Miley Cyrus).”
Previously the head of Irving Azoff‘s Iconic Artists Group, Chastan founded Iconoclast in 2021 and has been quietly acquiring assets large and small, powered by the heft of institutional backing. In February 2022, the company bought The Band musician Robbie Robertson‘s music publishing, recorded interests and name, image & likeness rights in a deal that Variety valued at worth roughly $25 million.
In a statement, Chastan described the body of work at Mad Decent Publishing as “one of the most exciting and original catalogs where Brazilian Baile Funk and Angolan Kuduro mix with EDM and pop.
“I first became aware of Mad Decent when Kevin Kusatsu and Diplo were working on the first Major Lazer album,” Chastan continued. “The sound was completely different, the songwriting utterly original and fresh-sounding, and the production uniquely creative. Our acquisition of the Mad Decent Publishing catalog illustrates our commitment to preserving and growing culturally significant art of any era including with artists that are shaping contemporary music.”
Representing Iconoclast in the deal were Scott McDowell and Peter Paterno of King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano. Mad Decent Publishing was represented by Jordan Bromley, Eric Custer and Alex Spring of Manatt, Phelps, & Phillips.
50 Cent and Fox Entertainment have agreed on a non-exclusive multi-project broadcast direct deal.
Announced Tuesday (Feb. 14) by Fox Entertainment’s president of scripted programming Michael Thorn, 50 Cent (born Curtis Jackson) will “develop scripted dramas, live-action comedies and animated series that would air on FOX. Any series created under the deal will be owned by FOX Entertainment and produced by its in-house unit, FOX Entertainment Studios, in collaboration with G-Unit Film & Television.”
“Whether it’s music, film, or television, Curtis always delivers premium entertainment that captivates millions of fans across the globe,” said Thorn in a press release. “He is the rare multi-hyphenate with a deft hand at storytelling, no matter the format or medium, and we’re looking forward to developing new and exciting series for FOX with him and his team.”
Adds 50: “I am excited to formalize a partnership with Michael Thorn and FOX that will allow G-Unit Film & Television to focus on putting multiple series on FOX, a perfect broadcast destination for G-Unit Film & Television content while our premium, streaming, scripted and non-scripted slates continue to grow in all directions.”
Last week, 50 graced Billboard’s digital cover issue that celebrated the 20th anniversary of Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and his formidable multi-media empire.
“My run was so uncomfortable that everyone would like to forget that it happened,” 50 ruminated about his fiery ’00s run. “That’s just the way it is with the artist community. I didn’t come in being friendly because I had to find a way into it — not find a way to be good enough to work in the community. The biggest compliment in the early stages was that artists felt like they’d made it when they got the deal. You had to earn the right to have the deal.”
You can read the story in full here.
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: Ed Sheeran’s lawyers move to ban a “misleading” concert clip from his upcoming copyright trial, Justin Bieber is sued over a 2022 shooting the occurred after his concert, Drake fights back against efforts to drag him into the XXXtentacion murder trial, and much more.
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THE BIG STORY: Ed Sheeran’s Lawyers Want Concert Footage Banned From Trial
Ed Sheeran is headed to trial in a few months over allegations that his smash hit “Thinking Out Loud” infringed Marvin Gaye‘s iconic “Let’s Get It On.” And unfortunately for Ed, there’s a video floating around on YouTube of him playfully switching back and forth between the two songs at a 2014 concert.
Unsurprisingly, Sheeran’s accusers (the heirs of Gaye’s co-writer Ed Townsend) want to play that video at the trial. They point to an earlier ruling in the case when the judge specifically noted that a clip of Sheeran “seamlessly transitioning” between the two songs might serve as key evidence in a jury trial.
But in a new filing last week, Sheeran’s lawyers asked that same judge to block the plaintiff’s from citing the video. The problem? They say the video is falsely incriminating – that it might look to jurors like damning evidence, but only actually shows that both songs contain a common chord progression.
“There are dozens if not hundreds of songs that predate and postdate [Let’s Get It On] utilizing the same or similar chord progression,” Sheeran’s lawyers wrote. “These medleys are irrelevant to any issue in the case and would be misleading [and] confuse the jury.”
For a full breakdown of Sheeran’s arguments – including their claim that the dispute could have a broader “chilling effect” on how artists perform at concerts – go read our story here.
Other top stories this week…
2022 SHOOTING LAWSUIT – Justin Bieber and Kodak Black were hit with a lawsuit over a shooting that occurred last year outside a pre-Super Bowl party that followed Bieber concert, filed by two men who say they were hit in the crossfire.
DRAKE’S DEPOSITION DRAMA – A Florida judge ordered Drake to sit for a deposition over the murder of XXXtentacion, but the superstar’s lawyers quickly fired back that he has no connection at all to the crime and that defense attorneys are merely trying to “add more layers of celebrity and notoriety” to the case.
ANTITRUST ANTICLIMAX – A federal appeals court rejected an antitrust lawsuit accusing Ticketmaster and Live Nation of exploiting its “impregnable market power” to foist inflated prices on hundreds of thousands of fans. Upholding an earlier ruling, the court said concertgoers forfeited their right to sue in court when they bought their tickets.
DEATH PENALTY SHOWDOWN – Lawyers for YNW Melly launched an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, seeking to overturn a ruling last year that said the rapper could face the death penalty if convicted in his upcoming murder trial. They say the state violated strict procedural requirements for seeking the death penalty.
MOFI SCANDAL SETTLED. OR IS IT? – Vinyl producer Mobile Fidelity reached a settlement that could be worth as much as $25 million to resolve allegations that the company’s pricey “all analog” records were secretly created using digital methods. But some customers are already objecting to the deal, saying it’s “tainted by the stink of collusion.”
YOUTUBE SCAMMER PLEADS GUILTY – Jose Teran, one of two men accused of orchestrating a $23 million scam to steal YouTube royalties from artists, pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges on the eve of a looming trial. Along with business partner Webster Batista Fernandez (who already pleaded guilty), Teran stole millions from Latin artists under the name “MediaMuv” in what amounts to one of the largest royalty scams in history.
Hipgnosis Song Management announced a deal on Tuesday that gives Beatclub producers access to some of Hipgnosis’ iconic hit songs and boosts its own access to more synch opportunities, the companies said in a joint statement.
Launched in 2021 by four-time Grammy winner Timbaland and his longtime manager, the head of Mono Music Group Gary Marella, Beatclub is an online marketplace built to help creators and producers monetize their beats and music.
Beatclub users can already use beats by Timbaland and others, like Justin Timberlake, Tainy, J. Cole and Mike Dean, in their own mixes. Hipgnosis, which also invested in Beatclub’s recent series A-2 funding round, will now also offer a hand-picked collection of songs from its catalog approved for sampling by Beatclub’s elite tier of producers. Any other rights that artists need to have cleared for usage are handled by Beatclub’s licensing team.
The deal could also help place more of Hipgnosis’ songs in films, TV, ads and games because Beatclub’s portal helps connect artists on its platform to synch opportunities with major brand, label, gaming and production companies. Similar strategies have been deployed by other catalog companies, like Primary Wave.
Timbaland has worked with Hipgnosis and its founder Merck Mercuriadis before, having sold his catalog to the music investment in 2019.
“At a time when interpolation and sampling has never been a more important part of creation and success, I want the greatest creators in the world to have access to our incomparable songs to make them the hits not only of the past but the future,” Mercuriadis, founder and head of Hipgnosis Song Management, said in a statement.
Calling Mercuriadis a “disruptor,” Timbaland said Mercuriadis’ “vision of the future of the music creator economy aligns closely with Beatclub’s.”
Marella, Beatclub’s co-founder, said Hipgnosis’ mission to promote songwriters and producers’ rights aligns with Beatclub’s values. “Beatclub … was built for creators by creators,” Marella said in a statement. “Our mission has always been to empower artists, song writers and producers however we can.”