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The music business, historically speaking, has not been great at consensus. But there does seem to be growing agreement from many quarters now that the existing payment structure for streaming royalties isn’t working for everyone and that a different approach is required.
This isn’t a new idea, but it’s one that’s quickly gathering steam in the wake of Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge’s internal staff memo/open letter to the industry earlier this month, in which he called for an “updated model” for the music industry — one that will be “an innovative, ‘artist-centric’ model that values all subscribers and rewards the music they love.”
It wasn’t clear what, exactly, Grainge meant in the letter. And on Tuesday (Jan. 31), it became a little bit clearer that, as of yet, there isn’t much clarity on what it will mean — though UMG is hoping to find it. To that end, Universal has announced a partnership with TIDAL to “research how, by harnessing fan engagement, digital music services and platforms can generate greater commercial value for every type of artist,” according to a press release. Essentially, there are a lot of unknowns here other than that something needs to change.
That was more or less what UMG’s executive vp/chief digital officer Michael Nash said in a statement accompanying the release. “As the digital landscape continues to evolve, it’s become increasingly clear that music streaming’s economic model needs innovation to ensure a vibrant and sustainable future,” he said. “Tidal’s embrace of this transformational opportunity is especially exciting because the music ecosystem can work better — for every type of artist and fan — but only through dedicated, thoughtful collaboration. Built on deeply held, shared principles about the value of artistry and the importance of the artist-fan relationship, this strategic initiative will explore how to enhance and advance the model in keeping with our collective objectives.”
This is not TIDAL’s first attempt at stepping out of the traditional streaming royalties model, in which streaming income is collected and divvied up among rights holders according to their share of total streams. In November 2021, the streamer announced a new three-tier membership structure and a step into a user-centric royalty model for its premium tier, which endeavored to pay rights holders based on the streaming activity of each individual user — with the additional element that 10% of each user’s subscription fee would go directly to their most-streamed artist.
That, in itself, is a twist on the “fan-powered royalties” that SoundCloud first rolled out in March 2021, which allocated streaming revenue to artists based on which acts a given user listened to, and which Warner Music Group opted into last year. (Deezer has also publicly supported a user-centric model.) SoundCloud says that artists using FPR generate 60% more streaming revenue than those who use the more traditional model, though it’s currently only being offered to indie artists and WMG artists on the SoundCloud platform; a MiDiA study said that 56% of artists were better off with FPR. Access to the data on who the fans are who are streaming that music the most, SoundCloud has said, is the true game-changer for the model.
There has, however, been some hesitance around that user-centric idea, mainly due to studies conducted in the last few years surrounding who would benefit, and at the expense of whom, by the switch. One study found that for 99.4% of artists, the switch would equate to less than a 5% bump in royalties — for many, effectively just a few euros per year — which could be offset by the administrative costs of the switch itself for the platform. That could disproportionately affect R&B/hip-hop artists, given that the genres have thrived in the streaming era, to the benefit of other, smaller or more niche genres. And it would definitely take away from top earners’ revenue — i.e., artists who wield an outsized voice in the business. A general view became that the switch would equate to moving money from one bucket to another, without really moving the needle for most artists at all.
TIDAL, in today’s announcement, effectively conceded the point and said they are stepping away from the user-centric model they were pursuing in order to take a step back and join in this new research project with UMG. “We are setting aside our current fan-centered royalties investigation to focus on this opportunity for more impact,” TIDAL’s Jesse Dorogusker said in a statement. “This partnership will enable us to rethink how we can sustainably improve royalties’ distribution for the breadth of artists on our platform.”
What they’re saying is, essentially, it’s time for a new study to see if there are better, perhaps more nuanced, ways to change up a model that pretty much everyone is beginning to agree is no longer functioning the way it was originally intended. “At TIDAL, we learned from [fan-centered royalties] there is an opportunity to build a royalties distribution model that could be better at compensating the breadth of genres and artists that contribute to streaming catalogs,” TIDAL’s global head of communications Sade Ayodele tells Billboard. “Many of the alternative models explored, however well intended that they are, unfortunately create a new set of winners and losers. With this partnership, we’re hoping to find a fairer and more equitable distribution approach that benefits a broader set of genres and artists contributing to the culture of music.”
Which brings us, again, to the original question: What will that look like? The answer could be varied, and it could be different for each streaming service. There have been some conversations in some sectors of the industry about weighting music streams higher than background sounds, for instance, or more heavily weighting intentional listening (searching for or clicking on a song or artist) over background listening (a playlist, or an algorithmically-chosen next song). There are already different models around ad-supported vs. paid subscription payouts, and there is a conversation to be had about how fan engagement should or could influence where money is directed. What UMG and TIDAL are trying to say with Tuesday’s announcement is, let’s go try some things and see what works, and let everyone else know what we’re doing so that maybe they can try to find an innovative answer, too.
Consensus is a hard thing to come by. There likely won’t be a consensus around what the end solution is, and several options could eventually emerge. But streaming has been around for more than a decade now, and if there’s any consensus at all, it’s that something needs to change.
Music public relations veteran Jake Basden has been named president at the Jason Owen-led Sandbox Entertainment Group. The news was first reported by Variety.
In his new role, Basden will champion a roster of artists that includes Kacey Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini, Little Big Town, Midland, Faith Hill, Dan+Shay and actress-singer Kate Hudson. He will also work with Sandbox’s various media and entertainment entities, including the Broadway musical Shucked, which premieres this spring.
“Jake is the sort of star executive who recognizes this is not a business of boxes and lanes,” said Owen, Sandbox founder and CEO, via a statement. “He is beloved by all and brings elevation to everything he touches. From conceptualizing events to executing campaigns, there’s no one [else] whose vision can see a project from conception through to not just success, but the highest awards recognition for whatever arena they’re in. Sandbox’s incredible team was formed as an entertainment firm whether it meant movies, television, touring or career direction. Jake excels in all of those spaces.”
“There is so much more to a successful launch, whether it’s an artist’s project, a Broadway show or long-term development,” Basden added via a statement. “Perception can define reality, but you have to back it up with solid strategy and execution. The opportunity Jason has provided allows me to both stretch and take topflight people, TV and motion picture platforms to new places. That thrills me because I believe that marketing done as a well-thought-out strategy yields exponential returns. The Sandbox team is comprised of the highest caliber executives whom I have long admired, and I am grateful for the opportunity to join them.”
Basden previously spent 12 years spearheading publicity efforts at Big Machine Label Group, championing artists including Thomas Rhett, Tim McGraw, Lady A, Glen Campbell and former Big Machine artist Taylor Swift. Basden was named senior vp of global communication for BMLG in 2017. He announced his departure from the label group earlier this month.
Basden, a University of Oklahoma graduate, joined Big Machine from the New York offices of public relations firm Edelman, where he served as a director in their sports and entertainment division. Basden’s career accolades to date include being named Country Music Association (CMA) publicist of the year. He was also named PRWeek‘s Young PR Professional of the Year, and was honored as one of the magazine’s “40 Under 40” in 2019.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek stressed his company’s focus “on tightening our spend and becoming more efficient” in the company’s fourth quarter earnings call on Tuesday (January 31) — the first such call since Spotify announced it was laying off 6% of its global workforce.
In a statement following the layoff announcement, Ek wrote that “in a challenging economic environment, efficiency takes on greater importance.” And the idea of “efficiency” was hammered home again and again on the latest earnings call — the word was sprinkled liberally throughout the remarks of both Ek and CFO Paul Vogel. “The next era of Spotify is one where we’re adding speed plus efficiency,” Ek said, not one “just focused on speed or growth at all costs.”
But he also emphasized that “this doesn’t mean that we’re changing our strategy” overall. “We will continue to work to build the platform of the future,” Ek vowed, “and that will take investment in new opportunities that we outlined, like podcasts and audiobooks.”
While Ek acknowledged that Spotify “probably got a little carried away [in 2022] and over-invested relative to the uncertainty we saw in the market,” he said that, given the choice, he “would do it again.” According to Ek, not only did that investment help grow Spotify’s user count — the company added premium subscribers at a higher-than-expected rate — but it helped differentiate Spotify from its competitors.
Responding to a question about how Spotify was working to compete with TikTok, Ek said “we’re in a better position competitively than we’ve been for many many years.” By adding podcasts and audiobooks to Spotify’s music offering, he added, the platform has created “a much more resilient consumer experience.”
While Ek had said Spotify was exploring raising U.S. subscription prices during an earnings call last year, he said “I don’t have anything specific to announce at this point” on Tuesday. But he noted that the platform raised prices in “more than 40 markets around the world” last year and that “our priority is to grow revenue as fast as we possibly can.”
When asked about potential price increases a second time, Ek responded that “we’re thinking how we can grow our business the best possible way.” “Sometimes that is keeping the price low to grow the number of users on the platform,” he continued. “Sometimes it is increasing the revenue per user. Sometimes it’s increasing our margin per user… the important part is that this is something that creates win wins with our label partners too.”
Investors asked Spotify for additional information about two 2022 initiatives, its moves into audiobooks and selling concert tickets, but company executives were scant on specifics. “It’s early days on audiobooks,” Ek said. “We’re seeing some encouraging signs. We’re definitely seeing people take up the offering.” He added that “audiobooks have a massive opportunity and there are very few consumers currently participating in the ecosystem,” echoing his comments from Spotify’s 2022 Investor Day.
When it came to Spotify’s nascent live events business, Ek underscored that his company isn’t aiming to “go compete with the [existing live music] ecosystem.” Instead, he said, Spotify hopes to “enable the ecosystem.” “Users are asking us, ‘help me find more great things to go watch,’” Ek explained. That translated to a “tremendous uptick in the number of people visiting the concerts tab on Spotify in 2022.”
“If we can be a partner to creators and help them sell more of their tickets,” Ek added, “that’s a meaningful increase to many artists’ livelihood, which is great and something we’re focused on.”
Jenifer Mallory has been promoted to president of Columbia Records, the company announced today (Jan. 31). Mallory, who has been executive vp/general manager of the label since 2018, will continue to report to chairman/CEO Ron Perry.
Mallory has been at Columbia Records and Sony Music since 2006, when she joined and rose through a series of marketing roles over the years. She became senior vp of international at Sony in 2015, leading global campaigns for Sony artists at RCA, Columbia and Epic, before rising to executive vp of international three years later, then joining Perry as part of Columbia’s leadership team.
In her new role, she will continue to have oversight of marketing, publicity, digital, brand partnerships, licensing and video departments at Columbia, the company said.
“I’ve had the privilege of spending much of my career at Columbia Records and am proud of what we have achieved over the past few years,” Mallory said in a statement. “I’m thankful to our incredible staff and most importantly our inspiring artists. I’m forever grateful to Ron Perry and [Sony Music chairman] Rob Stringer for entrusting me with this role and their mentorship. I will continue championing our artists and honor Columbia’s legacy.”
This past year, Perry and Mallory oversaw a huge year for Columbia artists like Harry Styles, Beyoncé and Adele, all of whom are up for album of the year at this coming weekend’s Grammy Awards, as well as with a series of younger artists and burgeoning stars like Rosalia, The Kid LAROI and Lil Nas X.
“Jen’s steadfast championing of artists, extraordinary leadership abilities, and unwavering dedication to Columbia Records makes her truly Presidential,” Perry said in a statement.
Spotify ended 2022 with 205 million subscribers, annual revenue of 11.7 billion euros ($12.4 billion) — up 21% from 2021 — and an acknowledgment that “things change” regarding the company’s bold investment in podcasting and its recent “tightening” of spending.
“In hindsight I probably got a little carried away and over invested relative to the uncertainty we saw shaping up in the market,” said CEO Daniel Ek in an earnings call with investors on Tuesday (Jan. 31). “So we are shifting to tightening our spend and becoming more efficient.”
Ek added that “it was the right call to invest and I would do it again” because it set the company apart from competitors, but the souring macro economic environment requires them to pull back. “To be clear this doesn’t mean we are changing our strategy,” he asserted.
The company spent hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring exclusive rights to podcast programming (see: Joe Rogan, Prince Harry and others) and startups, but in recent months began eliminating some original shows and trimming staff at its Parcast and Gimlet studios. Earlier this month, Spotify announced it would shed 6% of its workforce, roughly 600 employees. It also canceled numerous shows that it had been promoting on its separate Spotify Live app.
“You go for growth first and then you seek efficiency,” Ek said.
Elsewhere in the call, the company laid out its fourth-quarter results, with revenue of 3.166 billion euros ($3.38 billion), representing 18% growth year-over-year. Subscription revenue was 2.7 billion euros ($2.88 billion) of that tally, a 18% increase year over year. Advertising revenue was 449 million euros ($479 million), up 14% year over year. Its user base grew to 205 premium subscribers, up from 195 million in Q3, and 295 million free (ad-supported) users, up from 273 million. Total monthly active users (MAUs) have hit the 489 million mark, up from 456 million last quarter.
Average revenue per user was 4.55 euros ($4.85) in the fourth quarter, down slightly from 4.63 euros ($4.94) in the third quarter. Excluding the impact of the foreign exchange market, Spotify attributed the change to a “product and market mix.”
Spotify’s gross margin of 25.3% — 80 basis points above guidance, the company said — was slightly better than the 24.7% registered in the third quarter but still a full percentage point below the 26.5% in the prior-year period. The company attributed the change to “lower investment spending and broad-based music favorability.”
Spotify reported an operating loss of 231 million euros ($246 million), up from 228 million euros in Q3 and a 7 million euro loss back in Q4 2021. A slew of higher personnel costs due to headcount growth — that has since been halted (except for internships) — and higher advertising costs, as well as currency movements, was cited for the rise in losses during the quarter. The company also said that its business has more than 3.4 billion euros ($3.6 billion) in liquidity and that its free cash flow was actually in the negative in the quarter — by 73 million euros — but that for the full year the company ended with 21 million euros ($22 million).
Financial Metrics (Q4 2022 vs. Q4 2021)
Revenue: 3.166 billion euros ($3.38 billion), up 18% year over year from 2.689 billion euros
Gross margin: 25.3%, compared to 26.5% the prior-year quarter
Operating loss: 231 million euros, up from a 7-million euros loss
Free cash flow: 73 million euros, down from 103 million euros
Listener Metrics (Q4 2022 vs. Q3 2022)
Paid subscribers: 205 million, up 5% from 195 million in Q3
Ad-supported listeners: 295 million, up 8% from 273 million in Q3
Total monthly active users (MAUs): 489 million, up 7% from 456 million in Q3
Average revenue per subscriber: 4.55 euros, up from 4.63 euros in Q3
Q1 2023 Guidance
Revenue: 3.1 billion euros
Subscribers: 207 million
MAUs: 500 million
Gross margin: 24.9%
Operating loss: 194 million
The University of California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative is back with its annual report on inclusion in the recording studio and, consistent with previous years, it found that women have been woefully underrepresented across the recorded music industry — though some gains have been made.
“There is good news for women artists this year,” said Dr. Smith in a release. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves — there is still much work to be done before we can say that women have equal opportunity in the music industry.”
Released Tuesday (Jan. 31), the sixth annual report on gender representation in the music industry — sponsored by Spotify and titled “Inclusion in the Recording Studio?” — examined the gender of artists, songwriters and producers across all 1,100 songs included on Billboard’s Hot 100 year-end charts spanning from 2012 to 2022. Additionally, the study assessed every Grammy nominee nominated for record of the year, album of the year, song of the year, best new artist and producer of the year within the same time frame, along with this year’s inaugural songwriter of the year category.
In 2022, women represented only 30% of the 160 artists on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart, while men made up 69.4% and artists who identified as non-binary made up less than 1%. That 30% representation number is slightly better than the 11-year average, which places women at 22.3% of the total.
In terms of race, the report found that half of all artists on the year-end Hot 100 chart in 2022 were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. This was a decrease from 2021 when the study found that 57.2% of artists came from those groups. Between 2012 and 2022, 48.1% of all artists across the 1,100-song sample came from those groups.
Women of color fared slightly better last year, with the study noting that 65% of all artists from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups were women — an increase from 55% in 2021.
In terms of songwriters, women represented roughly 14% of songwriting credits on the Hot 100 in both 2022 and 2021. That represents only a slight increase over the full 11-year period when they made up 12.8% on average. Between 2012 and 2022, more than half of songs did not credit a woman songwriter, while 43% had one or more women songwriters. By contrast, less than 1% of all songs were missing male songwriters. Additionally, the 12 male songwriters with the most credits across the 1,100-song sample (Drake led the pack with 49, while Nicki Minaj topped the women songwriters list with 20) were collectively responsible for crafting nearly 25% of them.
Women of color landed more songwriting credits than white women in 2022, though the report suggests “this is not a metric worth celebrating” since the total number of women songwriters of color in 2022 decreased compared to 2021.
The number of women with producer credits in popular music continues to be alarmingly low. In 2022, a mere 3.4% of producers were women across all songs included on the year-end Hot 100 chart. This was almost even with the percentage of women producers represented on all Hot 100 year-end charts since 2012 (excepting 2013-2015, which were not counted) when just 2.8% of songs credited women producers. Of the 50 women credited across the eight-year sample, just 13 — or 26% — were women of color.
The 2022 statistics also show that the Recording Academy’s Women in the Mix Pledge — which asked industry members to commit to working with a woman producer or engineer on a song — had no real impact on the charts. In 2022, only one pledge-taker (Nicki Minaj) worked with a woman producer (Malibu Babie) on a song that appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Chart. Meanwhile, no pledge-takers worked with a woman engineer last year.
“This industry solution has not proven effective,” said Dr. Smith. “Until women and men artists hire women songwriters and producers the numbers will not move. It’s more than just allowing an artist to credit themselves on a song, it’s about identifying talent and hiring women in these roles. That’s the only way that we will see change occur.”
The Grammy Awards, which will hold their 65th annual ceremony Sunday (Feb. 5), also have a large indifference in terms of representation, according to the study. In 2023, 15.2% of nominees across six major categories are women — virtually unchanged from 2022 when the number was 14.1%. Across the 11 years evaluated, 13.9% of nominees in the major categories were women, while 86% were men. In 2023, women were most likely to be nominated for best new artist (50%) and song of the year (33.3%) but represented only a fraction of nominees for record of the year (15.1%) and album of the year (12.2%). On the bright side, in this year’s brand-new songwriter of the year category, women made up 60% of the nominees.
Of the women nominated in the past 11 years across all major categories, 51.5% were white while 48.5% were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. But in 2023, women of color received more nominations in key categories than white women did. According to the report, 61.5% of the women nominated this year were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, compared to 38.5% who were white.
In the report, a simple solution is proposed to help lessen the inequities: hire women. “The process of creating a song is collaborative, and until women are involved in the process, we will continue to see the numbers lag,” it reads.
Pipeline programs like She Is The Music, the EQL program, and Women’s Audio Mission are also touted as ways to support inclusion efforts. “Women are stereotyped — in terms of the types of songs and genres they can create, and into the roles they can play — they are sexualized, and their talents and experience are discounted. The pipeline programs noted above are designed to address these barriers, but there is more to do. As stated earlier, women must be hired, and they require allies and champions — men and women — throughout the industry who will help demolish barriers.”
To read further findings from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, head here.
The Beatport Group has acquired a majority stake in the International Music Summit, the electronic music and culture platform known for its flagship industry conference, IMS Ibiza, Billboard can exclusively reveal.
This partnership is intended to secure the growth of IMS, which has happened annually in Ibiza since 2007 (minus the two years it rolled out online during the pandemic) and has over the years produced additional summits in Los Angeles, Shanghai, Singapore and Malta.
Via this partnership, IMS has plans to again expand its global footprint, with details forthcoming. IMS will continue to operate under the direction of its co-founders, with full support from The Beatport Group. (The Beatport Group currently encompasses digital electronic music store Beatport, open format DJ community Beatsource, Loopmasters, Loopcloud and other platforms.)
Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
IMS Ibiza was founded in 2007 by five partners including dance scene pioneer Pete Tong and industry exec and artist manager Ben Turner, with the intention to create a hub for conversation and progressive change within electronic dance music.
“We are very proud of what we’ve built at IMS over these past 16 years, driving the narrative and agenda of the culture forward from the genre’s spiritual home of Ibiza,” IMS’ founding partners say in a joint statement.
“Aligning with Beatport, who have been supporters of IMS from our inception,” the statement continues, “will enable us to action many of our ideas on how to continue to grow the platform all year round; to further educate and mentor the next generation; and to help focus the industry’s attention on the issues that matter. It will help increase our ability to have more impact for the genre.”
The next IMS Ibiza summit is set for April 26-28 at the island’s luxe Destino Pacha Ibiza resort. This three-day conference will again feature keynotes, seminars, performances, masterclasses, mentorship, health and wellness initiatives, parties and much more. A pillar of the conference is its annual presentation of the IMS Business Report, the annual valuation of the global electronic music industry presented in conjunction with data and analysis on myriad aspects of the business. IMS Ibiza 2023 will once again be hosted by Tong and fellow BBC Radio 1 presenter Jaguar.
“IMS has become one of the most impactful gatherings for the global DJ and dance music industries, and everyone at Beatport is excited to take this brand to the next level,” Beatport CEO Robb McDaniels says in a statement. “We look forward to partnering with Pete, Ben and the entire IMS team to broaden the IMS footprint as a major component of our plan to expand the Beatport brand around the world through community, education, and thought leadership initiatives.”
Priscilla Presley has filed legal documents disputing who oversees the estate of her late daughter Lisa Marie Presley.
The filing in Los Angeles Superior Court last week disputes the validity of a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie Presley’s living trust that removed Priscilla Presley and a former business manager as trustees and replaced them with Lisa Marie Presley’s two oldest children, Riley Keough and Benjamin Keough, if she died or became incapacitated. Benjamin Keough died in 2020.
A living trust is a form of estate planning that allows a person to control their assets while alive, but have them distributed if they die. It serves the function of a will if a separate will is not filed, as appears to be the case with Lisa Marie Presley.
Lisa Marie Presley, a singer and the only child of Elvis Presley, died at a California hospital at age 54 on Jan. 12 after paramedics answered a 911 call reporting a woman in cardiac arrest. The Los Angeles County coroner is investigating, and has not yet given a cause of death. She was laid to rest at her family home, Graceland, on Jan. 22.
Priscilla Presley’s court filing says there are several issues that bring the living trust amendment’s authenticity into doubt.
The filing says they include a failure to notify Priscilla Presley of the change as required, a misspelling of Priscilla Presley’s name in a document supposedly signed by her daughter, an atypical signature from Lisa Marie Presley, and a lack of a witness or notarization. It asks a judge to declare the amendment invalid.
The filing says that the business manager, Barry Siegel, intended to resign, which according to the prior terms of the trust would leave Priscilla Presley, 77, and Riley Keough, 33, as co-trustees. A message seeking comment from representatives of Riley Keough was not immediately returned.
Lisa Marie Presley left three surviving children. In addition to Riley Keough, her daughter with first husband Danny Keough, she had 14-year-old twin daughters with her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood. Presley was declared divorced from Lockwood in 2021, but the two were still disputing finances in family court when she died.
Priscilla Presley’s filing is among the first of what are likely to be many legal maneuvers surrounding the estate of Lisa Marie Presley, the only heir of Elvis Presley. It is not clear, however, how much that estate is worth. A lawsuit Lisa Marie Presley filed in 2018 alleging Siegel had mismanaged the trust said it had been worth in excess of $100 million, but most of that had been depleted.
BRISBANE, Australia – It’s a new year, and one filled with fresh optimism in the Australian music industry after the federal government presented its national cultural policy — a five-year action plan that puts in place sorely-needed infrastructure, investment and ideas.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese and arts minister Tony Burke were on hand Monday (Jan. 30) for the launch of Revive, which, as its title suggests, establishes the groundwork for what government and industry hopes will facilitate a robust music space.
It’s a document years in the making. And it’s stuffed with strategic and policy investment for contemporary music, many of them ideas put forward by a united front of music industry organizations, 18 in total.
Revive will provide a much-needed boost of strength, energy and funding into our Arts community:✔️Establishing Creative Australia✔️ The establishment of Music Australia✔️ $70 million injection into Music Australia✔️ Supporting the artist as a worker and a creator https://t.co/56aXgFrPt9— APRA AMCOS (@APRAAMCOS) January 30, 2023
Among the cornerstones of Revive is the creation of Music Australia, within Creative Australia. Government will find nearly $70 million for Music Australia, which will support and invest in the development of Australian contemporary music, and which Albanese is keen to see launch in 2023.
Speaking at the presentation at Melbourne’s Esplanade Hotel, Albanese gave the music community a well-deserved thank-you. He also mapped out a timeline for legislation which would enforce local content quotas on streaming platforms; a regional push for the Double J network, part of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; and a 50% boost for Sounds Australia, which supports homegrown artists taking their music to the world.
“Today is a bright moment for (the music) sector but it’s also an overdue one. You have endured a decade in which opportunity wasn’t so much missed as thrown away. Capped by the years of the pandemic,“ he says.
Revive, he continues, “puts the arts back where they’re meant to be – at the heart of our national life.”
Revive is structured around five interconnected pillars, First Nations First; A Place For Every Story; Centrality of the Artist; Strong Institutions and Reaching the Audience. And with it, a commitment for new, additional investment totaling A$286 million over four years.
“This is about our soul, this is about our identity,” Albanese adds. “It is so important because it’s about who we are and being able to express ourselves. It is literally through the arts that we build our identity as a nation and a people.”
When the center-left Labor government was formed in 2022, ending the nine-year administration of the center-right Liberal Party, Burke made an early commitment to develop a cultural roadmap through consultation with the music industry.
ARIA welcomes the new National Cultural Policy announced today by the Hon. Tony Burke MP and the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and Arts. https://t.co/w2hlbCkxju— ARIA (@ARIA_Official) January 30, 2023
This policy, and its instructions, “restores the place of art, of entertainment of culture, for all Australians,” Burke says.
Artists and the industry behind the music are “essential workers” he adds.
“You touch our hearts and you are a A$17 billion contributor to our economy. You create art and you create exports. You make works and you provide work. You are entertaining, you are essential, you are required.”
For video streaming platforms, a timeline is locked in. In the second half of this year, legislation will be introduced to the parliament and in July next year, Australian content obligations will apply to the streaming companies.
Revive pledges that, through binding rules on content, Australian music “remains visible, discoverable and easily accessible across platforms to all Australians, driven by a vibrant, agile, sustainable and globally facing local music industry.”
👏Today we welcome the National Cultural Policy, bold new chapter and a transformational moment for Council as we work to build Creative Australia, a new First Nations body, Music Australia, Writers Australia, and the Centre for Arts Workplaces.https://t.co/fRtBTMEwID— Australia Council (@AusCouncilArts) January 30, 2023
With the publication of Revive, the music industry is celebrating an ideal start to the week, and the year.
“The government has responded to our collective call, which I think is a real positive,” Dean Ormston, CEO of APRA AMCOS tells Billboard. “For the first time ever, there’s a whole of government recognition of us as an industry. They’re actually referring to us as an industry for the first time in my living memory. Which I think is an enormous win.”
Though the industry remains largely unsure of what are the next steps, conversations with government in the days ahead should clear-up matters.
Regardless, the opportunities are laid out. “There’s an enormous opportunity in terms of how music Australia interfaces with industry and specific government portfolios,” says Ormston. “There’ll be an evolving opportunity to have a much stronger relationship with portfolios, like education. We’ve already called out, for instance, that Music Australia should have a policy and a strategy related to songwriting in schools. That would be the beginning of the foodchain and the pipeline to improving our export opportunities.”
Although the industry will need to wait for the presentation of the May budget to see full detail, the federal government “is listening and responding,” says Stephen Wade, chair of ALMBC, whose hundreds of members represent all areas of the live music sector.
ARIA and PPCA CEO Annabelle Herd welcomed the policy. “It is true that Australian music is facing a crisis in streaming and that it is harder than ever for Australian musicians to have a charting hit in Australia,” she comments.
“We thank the government for acknowledging the need for greater support of Australian commercial music as a business that is facing key issues surrounding discoverability and export. It is our hope that the introduction of Music Australia will make important strides toward providing solutions to these issues, including a reassessment of commercial radio quotas and streaming policy.”
Today we launched our National Cultural Policy ‘REVIVE’. One of it’s main policy components is the establishment of Creative Australia. pic.twitter.com/nlc8judwUD— Tony Burke (@Tony_Burke) January 30, 2023
Read the document here in full.
All state-level charges filed against R. Kelly in Cook County, Illinois, have been dropped, state attorney Kim Foxx announced at a press conference Monday (Jan. 30). Kelly is scheduled to appear in court on the indictments, which include 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, on Tuesday morning.
In making the announcement, Foxx reiterated Kelly’s convictions in federal court in New York and Illinois to explain the prosecutors’ decision. “Due to the extensive sentences that these convictions hold, our office has decided not to continue to expend our limited resources and court time with the indictments that we previously charged Mr. Kelly [with],” she said.
In the New York federal case, Kelly was found guilty in September 2021 on all nine counts, including racketeering and sex trafficking; he was sentenced to 30 years in prison the following June. In September, he was convicted on three counts of child pornography in the Illinois federal case but acquitted of a conspiracy to obstruct justice charge that stemmed from an accusation that he’d fixed his state child pornography trial in 2008. Though he has not yet been sentenced in that case, he faces between 10 and 90 years in prison, according to Foxx.
Foxx — who previously revealed her own history as a victim of sexual abuse — grew visibly emotional during her time at the podium as she admitted that for the four victims in the state case, the outcome “may be disappointing. But I want to acknowledge that when we brought these charges forward, we brought them because we believed the allegations to be credible. And we believed that they deserved to have the opportunity to have the allegations heard.
“These women, both those who are named in our indictments and the women in New York and in the Northern District of Illinois, are to be commended for their bravery and their relentless pursuit of justice, no matter how long it took,” she continued.
Despite Foxx’s weighty and considered comments Monday, the announcement isn’t particularly surprising in light of Kelly’s dual convictions in federal court. After the disgraced singer was found guilty in the New York case, criminal defense attorney Isabelle A. Kirshner told Billboard that local jurisdictions in Illinois as well as Minnesota — where he still faces state charges — may choose to drop some of all of the charges in order to preserve resources.
Based on the New York sentence alone, Kelly won’t be eligible for release until he is around 80 years old.