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Independent label +1 Records has signed a strategic global partnership with Exceleration Music, the companies announced Wednesday (Jan. 25).
Under the terms of the deal, Exceleration has made an investment in the +1 catalog and will provide support in distribution, marketing, operations, administrative services and more to power the label’s past and future releases. Jonny Kaps, +1 ‘s co-founder and CEO, will continue to lead the label while co-founder Nat Hays Boas is stepping down to pursue other opportunities.
The first new music under the partnership will include releases from Rejjie Snow, Nate Husser, Lo Village and Anna Shoemaker. Additional artists on the +1 roster include Anna of the North, Argonaut & Wasp, DavidTheTragic, Geordie Kieffer, is0kenny and Japan, Man. The label was established in 2008 by Kaps, Boas and Josh Swade; past releases include music by The Heavy and The Kooks.
Launched in January of 2021 by industry veterans Glen Barros, John Burk, Charles Caldas, Amy Dietz and Dave Hansen, Exceleration Music has made a number of big moves in the indie label space over the past two years. Among other deals, the company has invested in labels including Alligator Records, Mom + Pop and SideOneDummy and acquired Bloodshot Records, Kill Rock Stars, Heroic Music Group and jazz label Candid Records. Exceleration also has an agreement with the Ray Charles Foundation for special releases from the music legend’s vault.
Said Kaps in a statement, “+1 Records has always been different. We are an independent record label that comes from a management perspective, specializing in artist development. Our A&R prioritizes music and artists over data. I am so happy to partner with an independent company whose values, philosophies, strategies, and resourcefulness mirror our own. Together we will be an even great resource for independent artists.”
Added Dietz, “Jonny and the +1 team have built a vibrant and impactful label by focusing on artist development and being agile and innovative. From my first meeting with Jonny it was clear his passion, vision, and artist-first ethos, completely aligned with our mission at Exceleration Music. I know that by combining the talented +1 team, with the expertise and resources of the growing and talented Exceleration team, we will together take +1 and its artists into a bright future.”
“Our investment in +1 underscores one primary way in which Exceleration serves the independent music community,” said Barros. “Jonny has done a remarkable job of creating a cutting-edge label. We believe that, with our added human and financial resources, he will have the ability to take the label to the next level and beyond – way beyond! We can’t wait to see what the future holds for this partnership.”
Penske Media Corporation (PMC) has hired Hannah Woodard as senior director of communications, the company announced Wednesday (Jan. 25). Based in Los Angeles, Woodard will report to PMC’s vp of public affairs and strategy Brooke Jaffe.
In her new role, Woodard will direct communications for PMC’s roster of entertainment and music brands, including Billboard, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter and Vibe. She will advise on and implement brand strategies, collaborate with leadership teams on partnerships and events and execute ideas for development and growth.
Prior to joining PMC, Woodard owned and operated her own public relations firm, WDRDPR, which she launched in May 2021. Before that, she worked at R&CPMK (formerly PMK*BNC) for five years, during which she straddled the brand and talent departments and worked with clients including Audi of America, American Express Platinum, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T DirecTV, Pepsi, Vice Media Group and Quibi. Prior to relocating to Los Angeles, she worked at IMPACT (formerly Pfeiffer Consulting), Scott Rudin Productions and Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis (formerly Sunshine Sachs) in New York City.
“We are thrilled to have Hannah join our team,” said Jaffe in a statement. “Hannah brings a unique combination of experience, creativity and enthusiasm to the role. I look forward to watching her amplify these world class brands.”
“With a roster of such incredible, celebrated brands, the possibilities are endless,” Woodard added. “I’m thrilled to jump in and work alongside such talented writers, editors, and respected institutions that have shaped — and continue to shape — the wide world of entertainment and music.”
Prosecutors in Kansas City, Missouri dismissed misdemeanor assault charges against Tool drummer Danny Carey on Monday (Jan. 23) in an incident that took place at the city’s airport in Dec. 2021. According to Fox 4, a spokesperson for the court did not give a reason for the dismissal of the charges, telling the outlet that the case was a “closed confidential matter” as of this week.
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Carey was arrested for misdemeanor assault at the Kansas City International Airport on Dec. 12, 2021 after allegedly getting into an altercation. Airport law enforcement received notice that evening of a “disturbance between two males at an airport terminal,” which resulted in Carey being arrested for misdemeanor assault and transported to a nearby Kansas City Police Dept. station.
The other man, whose name was not released at the time, was not taken into custody. Fox 4 reported that according to a ticket issued by officers, Carey intentionally inflicted injury when he allegedly yelled a homophobic slur at the unnamed victim while jabbing him in the chest with two fingers. TMZ video from the evening showed Carey being handcuffed at the airport and talking to officers outside the terminal, where he could be heard asking, “Who did I assault?”
At press time a spokesperson for Tool had not returned a request for comment from Billboard on the dismissal of the charges; a spokesperson for the Kansas City Prosecutor’s office had also not returned a request for comment at press time.
According to reports at the time, the Kansas-bred drummer performed in the stands with the school band during the University of Kansas’ basketball game against the University of Missouri the day before his arrest.
Reservoir Media said on Thursday it signed publishing deals for the catalogs and future works of Indian rappers MC Altaf and D’Evil and the producer Stunnah Beatz.
The deals are the result of a 2020 joint venture launched by Reservoir and Gully Gang, the label and entertainment group founded by Indian hip-hop star DIVINE. Established to sign and develop talented new songwriters in India, Altaf, D’Evil and Stunnah Beatz’s songs have racked up more than half a billion streams, including on collaborations with DIVINE like “Mirchi” and “Disco Rap” and Gunehgar, an album released late last year.
Investments by music companies based in the United States in artists, publishers and distributors based in Asia and other emerging markets has been growing at a rapid clip in recent years, with the trend expected to grow in 2023 particularly in the area of catalog investment. Luminate cited the opportunities in emerging markets, driven by the continued growth of streaming subscriptions there, as one of the main reasons investor appetite for song catalogs is growing.
India is the 17th-ranked music market globally, and it generated revenues of $219 million in 2021, up 20% from 2020, with streaming revenue jumping 87%, according to IFPI’s Global Music Report.
Founded in 2007, Reservoir has made investing in emerging markets a key prong of its diversification strategy. With its partner PopArabia, an independent music company headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, Reservoir acquired stakes in the Egyptian label 100COPIES, the Lebanese label and music publisher Voice of Beirut and signed publishing deals with Egypt’s Mohamed Ramadan, Lebanon’s Zeid Hamdan and Moroccan hip-hop star 7liwa.
Reservoir Founder and Chief Executive Officer Golnar Khosrowshahi said in a statement, “We’re proud to be ushering in these deals, which demonstrate Reservoir’s steadfast commitment to our ongoing emerging markets strategy. As we invest in these local acts and share them with global audiences, we are well-positioned to not only tap into their potential growth, but also help facilitate the flow of culture from East to West.”
Spek, Reservoir’s executive vice president of international and emerging markets and founder of PopArabia, described MC Altaf, D’Evil, and Stunnah Beatz as three artists “at the heart of some of India’s biggest rap music today.”
Chaitanya Kataria, Gully Gang chief executive officer, said he was “excited that (MC Altaf, D’Evil and Stunnah Beatz) will gain access to new global opportunities with support from Spek and Reservoir.”
Actress Esme Bianco and Marilyn Manson have reached a settlement to end her sexual assault lawsuit against the rocker, one of several such cases accusing Manson of abuse.
In a filing made Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court, attorneys for both sides alerted the judge that they had “reached an agreement in principle” to “resolve” the case. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Jay D. Ellwanger, lawyer for Bianco, confirmed to Billboard that the actress had “agreed to resolve her claims against Brian Warner and Marilyn Manson Records, Inc. in order to move on with her life and career.” An attorney for Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Bianco was one of several women to accuse Manson of sexual abuse or other wrongdoing over the past two years.
Evan Rachel Wood, who began publicly dating Manson in 2007 when she was 19 and he was 39, accused him in a February 2021 Instagram post of “grooming me when I was a teenager” before he “horrifically abused me for years.” Those allegations were followed by separate lawsuits from model Ashley Morgan Smithline, former assistant Ashley Walters, and an unnamed Jane Doe accuser.
Bianco added her own lawsuit in April 2021, claiming Warner had, among other shocking allegations, “used drugs, force and threats of force to coerce sexual acts” and had “locked Ms. Bianco in the bedroom, tied her to a prayer kneeler and beat her with a whip that Mr. Warner said was utilized by the Nazis.”
Manson strongly denied the allegations, filing a motion to dismiss the case in which he accused Bianco of “cynically and dishonestly seeking to monetize and exploit the #MeToo movement.” He’s gone so far as to file a defamation lawsuit against Wood, claiming she had “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously” with false allegations against the rocker. Wood denies the allegations and the case is pending.
Bianco’s lawsuit is the second against Manson to end in recent weeks. On Jan. 3, a federal judge dismissed Smithline’s case, citing the fact that she failed to retain a new lawyer after splitting with her old legal team last fall.
BRISBANE, Australia — Mushroom Group, the Australian independent music juggernaut, has struck a partnership with Valve Sounds, the reactivated alternative-R&B, hip-hop and soul label.
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Co-founded by Sasha Chifura and Shelley Liu, Valve Sounds is “committed to the growth” of those genres within Australia, and “dedicates to carving a space for these artists to make an impact at an international stage,” reads a statement.
With its resurrection, a string of artist signings and a release slate. The Melbourne-based label relaunches with a roster featuring Sydney R&B multi-hyphenate Maina Doe; Nigeria-born, Melbourne-based producer, vocalist, and performer IJALE; and Brisbane indie/R&B newcomer King Ivy.
To celebrate the return of Valve Sounds, the trio will release a special collaborative number, “WYA” (Where You At), next Thursday (Feb. 2).
Mushroom Group has “been looking for the right hip-hop/R&B partner for some time now to complement our other labels,” notes Mushroom Labels COO Chris Maund.
Valve and its co-founders “stood out because they are entrenched in that scene and have a clear vision to break fresh hip-hop/R&B artists globally. Valve are signing artists whose sound is both authentic and borderless, giving them real opportunity to cut-through and deliver internationally,” he tells Billboard.
Maund points to the success of the recent Maina Doe single “Primal Design.” Mushroom Group serviced the track, which went on to land “a load of global playlists,” he explains. “That, will be the start of many.”
Following its launch in 2015, Valve Sounds released recordings from UV Boi, Nasty Mars, ESESE, Villette and Maya Hirasedo, and earned a reputation for its events and parties in Melbourne, spotlighting international and local artists.
Among the highlights were events at Melbourne Music Week’s 2016 and 2017 flagship venues State Library of Victoria and St Paul’s Cathedral, and its team curated a stage at Falls Festival, featured in VICE.
“Some of my fondest memories have been at Valve Sounds parties that we threw back in the day,” recounts Liu. “Feeling grateful to be working with Maina Doe, IJALE and King Ivy – three artists who I truly believe represent the future of music coming out of Australia and beyond.”
Through the new arrangement, Valve Sounds will have access to Mushroom Labels’ full suite of services across marketing, promotion, audience building, social strategy, distribution and analytics as well as global promotion, marketing and audience label services via UMG’s Virgin Music Label & Artist Services, an alliance forged in 2022, in tandem with Mushroom’s existing U.S. and U.K. teams.
Previously, Valve Sounds had a label partnership with Sony Music.
Valve Sounds now operates among the 25-strong group of companies within Mushroom Group, established 50 years ago by the late Michael Gudinski.
Mushroom Group CEO Matt Gudinski, the son of Michael, heaped praised on his new partners. “Their clear vision for the label and expertise in the R&B and hip-hop scene excels them as key industry leaders of the future,” he comments. “It’s with great pleasure we welcome them to the family and look forward to a longstanding relationship.”
Mushroom Labels includes Liberation Records, Ivy League, I OH YOU, Soothsayer, Bloodlines, Liberator Music and 100s + 1000s.
Live Nation investors were either nonplussed or unmoved by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s political theatrics Tuesday (Jan. 24), probing the causes behind a disastrous ticket presale to Taylor Swift‘s Eras tour last November hosted on the company’s Ticketmaster platform. While Live Nation president and chief financial officer Joe Berchtold was being grilled by lawmakers about Ticketmaster’s technology and market power with a focus on monopolistic behavior, Live Nation’s share price rose as much as 2.3% to $77.71 before closing at $76.67, up 1.4% on the day, on about half of the average daily trading volume.
With that modest gain, Live Nation beat the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.3%), S&P 500 (-0.1%), Nasdaq composite (-0.3%) and Russell 2000 (-0.3%). It also outperformed two competitors, MSG Entertainment (+0.6%) and Germany’s CTS Eventim (-1.1%), that weren’t subjected to Congressional questioning.
Congressional oversight was already priced into Live Nation’s share price to a degree, though. Live Nation shares fell 7.8% to $66.21 on Nov. 18, 2022, after Sen. Amy Klobuchar, chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, penned a letter to Ticketmaster about her concerns regarding its “system failures, increasing fees and complaints of conduct that violate the consent decree” under which Ticketmaster and Live Nation operate.
The hearing, titled “That’s the Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment,” turned Live Nation and Ticketmaster into punching bags for senators who, as Sen. Richard Blumenthal noted, were brought together “in an absolute, unified case.” The legislators’ pointed questions and obvious frustration on behalf of their constituents made it clear Ticketmaster is one of the more loathed companies in the U.S. One witness, Kathleen Bradish, vp for legal advocacy at the American Antitrust Institute, called Live Nation and Ticketmaster “a very traditional monopoly” with a dominant market position that results in higher fees to consumers and less innovation.
Exactly what will come from the hearing is far less certain. While there may be some appetite amongst the senators to undo the 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, or implement some other structural remedies, Sen. Klobuchar said the committee will wait for a Department of Justice report before moving forward.
Some senators proposed non-legislative measures. Sen. Joe Kennedy suggested the person in charge of the ticketing presale should be fired. Sen. Marsha Blackburn called the bot-related service outages “unbelievable” and told Berchtold that the company “ought to be able to get some good advice” for better dealing with these kinds of issues.
The Justice Department and eight states sued Google on Tuesday, alleging that its dominance in digital advertising harms competition as well as consumers and advertisers — including the U.S. government.
The government alleges that Google’s plan to assert dominance has been to “neutralize or eliminate” rivals through acquisitions and to force advertisers to use its products by making it difficult to use competitors’ products.
The antitrust suit was filed in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press conference Tuesday that Google’s dominance in the ad market means fewer publishers are able to offer their products without charging subscription or other fees, because they can’t rely on competition in the advertising market to keep ad prices low.
As a result of Google’s dominance, he said, “website creators earn less and advertisers pay more.”
The department’s suit accuses Google of unlawfully monopolizing the way ads are served online by excluding competitors. This includes its 2008 acquisition of DoubleClick, a dominant ad server, and subsequent rollout of technology that locks in the split-second bidding process for ads that get served on Web pages.
Google’s ad manager lets large publishers who have significant direct sales manage their advertisements. The ad exchange, meanwhile, is a real-time marketplace to buy and sell online display ads.
The lawsuit demands that Google break off three different businesses from its core business of search, YouTube and other products such as Gmail: the buying and selling of ads and ownership of the exchange where that business is transacted.
Garland said that “for 15 years, Google has pursued a course of anti-competitive conduct” that has halted the rise of rival technologies and manipulated the mechanics of online ad auctions to force advertisers and publishers to use its tools.
In so doing, he added, “Google has engaged in exclusionary conduct” that has “severely weakened,” if not destroyed competition in the ad tech industry.
Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, said in a statement that the suit “doubles down on a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow.”
Dina Srinivasan, a Yale University fellow and adtech expert, said the lawsuit is “huge” because it aligns the entire nation — state and federal governments — in a bipartisan legal offensive against Google.
This is the latest legal action taken against Google by either the Justice Department or local state governments. In October 2020, for instance, the Trump administration and eleven state attorneys general sued Google for violating antitrust laws, alleging anticompetitive practices in the search and search advertising markets.
The lawsuit in essence aligns the Biden administration and new states with the 35 states and District of Colombia that sued Google in December 2020 over the exact same issues.
The states taking part in the suit include California, Virginia, Connecticut, Colorado, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Tennessee.
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: A judge says Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez must sit for a deposition in Megan Thee Stallion’s war with her record company, a member of Journey sues his longtime bandmate over allegations of lavish spending, Flo Rida wins an $82 million verdict against a beverage company, and much more.
THE BIG STORY: To Depose Or Not To Depose
When should a top executive be hauled into a deposition to answer questions in a lawsuit? It’s a difficult question. Make it too hard and you could insulate powerful people from the legal process; make it too easy and attorneys could use it as a form of gamesmanship in cases of questionable merit. Imagine if Lucian Grainge could be deposed every time someone sued Universal Music?
Courts typically resolve the problem with something called the apex doctrine, which says that busy “apex” officials only need to testify when they have unique info that can’t be derived from other less burdensome sources. Spotify cited the doctrine last year in an (unsuccessful) effort to block the deposition of CEO Daniel Ek in a copyright lawsuit over Eminem’s music.
That same tricky situation cropped up last week in Megan Thee Stallion’s ongoing legal war with her estranged record label, 1501 Certified Entertainment. Industry bigwig Desiree Perez is the CEO of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation — the prototypical kind of executive who can sometimes avoid depositions. But she’s also Megan’s actual manager, and 1501 Certified said she was “one of the most critical” witnesses in the case.
In seeking to avoid the sit-down, Megan’s legal team argued that 1501 was “harassing” Perez by seeking to depose her. But in a ruling last week, the judge overseeing the case didn’t buy it.
To get the full story, go read Billboard’s entire article here.
Other top stories this week…
TOP RAPPER BATTLES EX-MANAGER – Billboard took a deep-dive this week into an ugly lawsuit pitting Latin trap star Anuel AA against his former manager Frabian Eli – two “lifelong friends” who are now accusing each other of serious legal wrongdoing. The latest flashpoint is an emergency hearing this week over whether Eli can sell a $4.8 million Florida mansion that Anuel claims was purchased with stolen money.
DON’T STOP LITIGATING – The civil war inside the iconic rock band Journey continues. Keyboardist Jonathan Cain filed a lawsuit against bandmate Neal Schon for allegedly spending over $1 million on the band’s shared American Express card, including $400,000 in a single month last year — itself a response to a case filed by Schon last year.
PUBLISHER POO-POOS PARODY Music publisher BMG launched a copyright lawsuit against toymaker MGA Entertainment for promoting a brand of “unicorn poop” toys by releasing a song called “My Poops” — a scatological parody set to the tune of the Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps.” Is that a legal fair use or just an unlicensed commercial? We’re going to find out.
FLO RIDA WINS BIG OVER ENERGY DRINKS – A jury awarded $82 million in damages to Flo Rida in his legal battle with energy drink maker Celsius, siding with the rapper’s allegations that the company reneged on the terms of an endorsement deal. His lawyers told me: “He was due these shares, he worked for them, and he wasn’t going to just let it go.”
The full Senate Judiciary Committee has opened its hearing on competition within the ticketing industry this morning and a number of witnesses have already set high stakes for the congressional probe, calling for drastic action in the ticketing space.
Moments after Live Nation president Joe Berchtold shared lengthy remarks on the causes of the Taylor Swift ticket crash, SeatGeek CEO Jack Groetzinger, one of Ticketmaster’s main competitors told Congress, “Live Nation controls most popular entertainers, routs most of the tours, tickets most of the concerts and owns many of the venues,” noting “this power allows Live Nation to maintain its monopolistic influence over the primary ticketing market.”
The 2010 consent decree governing the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster created “has not worked at all and violated the consent decree since its inception,” Groetzinger said.
“The only effective remedy is a structural one – the disillusion of the common ownership of Ticketmaster and Live Nation,” he testified.
Amy Edwards and Parker Harrison demonstrate against the live entertainment ticket industry outside the U.S. Capitol January 24, 2023 in Washington, DC.
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Jerry Mickelson, longtime promoter with Jam Concerts in Chicago who spoke out against the merger during Congressional hearing in 2010, called the deal “a vertical integration on steroids” and said its arena promotion business has decreased 90 percent since the merger.
Berchtold argued that the company’s marketshare of the concert market is close to 50 to 60 percent, not 80 percent as many have claimed. He also denied allegations that the company used its market size to punish competitors.
“It is absolutely our policy to not pressure, threaten or retaliate against venues by using content as part of the ticketing discussion.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) encouraged critics of the company and people who are fed up with the system that exists right now to “continue your criticism” as the Department of Justice takes a third look at Live Nation following a 2019 inquiry into the company.
“If the Department of Justice establishes violations of the consent decree, unwinding the merger ought to be on the table,” Blumenthal testified. “If the Department of Justice establishes facts that involved monopolistic and predatory abuses, there ought to be structural remedies that include breaking up the company.
Before taking his turn asking questions to witnesses, outspoken Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told Berchtold: “I’m not against big, but I am against dumb and the way your company handled Ms. Swift’s tickets was a debacle. Whoever at your company was in charge of that should be fired.”
This is a developing story — check back for updates.