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Warner Music Group’s global catalog division has struck a deal to represent Yes’ complete Atlantic Records works, an era that spans 12 studio albums and includes the prog-rock legends’ Grammy Award-winning ‘80s classic 90125.
WMG announced today (Jan. 23) that it has acquired the recorded music rights and income streams to a raft of albums, from 1969’s Yes through the band’s final studio album of its Atlantic/Atco period, 1987’s Big Generator, along with various live recordings and compilations. (See a full list below)
Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers “came together and worked enthusiastically with Warner Music Group to secure this historic deal,” reads a statement from the band, “ensuring that these iconic recordings will continue to be curated in the optimum manner to delight their fans across more than five decades, while also finding and developing new audiences for this timeless music.”
Covered by the acquisition is 90125, the multiplatinum album from 1983 that yielded “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” the biggest hit from Yes’ 50-year-plus career. The single peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and at No. 28 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart; a 2005 remix, credited to Max Graham vs Yes, went to No. 9 in the U.K., one of the group’s two top 10 hits in their homeland.
Also, an instrumental track from the 90125 album, “Cinema,” went on to win the Grammy Award for best rock instrumental performance.
While Yes did not have any No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, the band did land seven in the all-genre chart’s top 10: 1971’s Fragile (No. 4), 1972’s Close to the Edge (No. 3), 1973’s Tales From the Topographic Ocean (No. 6), 1974’s Relayer (No. 5), 1977’s Going for the One (No. 8), 1978’s Tormato (No. 10) and 90125 (No. 5) — all of which are covered by the new deal.
Global album sales total 30 million units worldwide, according to WMG.
“My introduction to Yes came while working at a record store in Ohio in 1983,” comments Kevin Gore, Warner Music’s president of global catalog. “I loved the 90125 album and went to see the band live, where I was introduced to their catalog of incredible songs. I’ve been a fan ever since and we’re absolutely thrilled and deeply honored that the strong relationship between Yes and Warner Music will continue forever.”
The Yes lineup evolved much like the group’s music. The 90125 incarnation featured Trevor Rabin on guitar, alongside singer Jon Anderson, late bassist Chris Squire, late drummer Alan White, and original keyboardist Tony Kaye. In 2021, private equity firm Round Hill Music Royalty Fund acquired the music publishing catalogue from Rabin.
Yes entered the Rock Hall in April 2017 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, on a night when folk icon and social justice activist Joan Baez, string-augmented rock hitmakers Electric Light Orchestra, arena rock titans Journey, grunge pioneers Pearl Jam and West Coast rap god Tupac were all elevated.
Rush bassist and fellow Hall of Famer Geddy Lee inducted the band and joined them onstage for a “crushingly loud” run-through of “Roundabout,” Billboard reported at the time.
Speaking backstage about it, Lee said, “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t f— it up. They are without question my favorite band.”
Yes studio albums, live recordings, and compilations included in the deal:
Yes (1969)Time and a Word (1970)The Yes Album (1971)Fragile (1971)Close to the Edge (1972)Yessongs (1973)Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973)Relayer (1974)Yesterdays (1975)Going for the One (1977)Tormato (1978)Drama (1980)Yesshows (1980)Classic Yes (1981)90125 (1983)9012Live: The Solos (1985)Big Generator (1987)Yesyears (1991)Yesstory (1992)Highlights: The Very Best of Yes (1993)In A Word: Yes (1969-) (2002)Yes Remixes (2003)The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection (2003)The Word Is Live (2005)High Vibration (2013)Progeny: Seven Shows from Seventy-Two (2015)The Steven Wilson Remixes (2018)Topographic Drama: Live Across America (2017)Yes 50 Live (2019)
Spotify Technology SA said on Monday it would cut its workforce by 6% amid a broader leadership shuffle, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company said it estimates 35-45 million euros ($38-$49 million USD) of charges related to letting these employees go, and that its chief content & advertising business officer Dawn Ostroff will also leave the company. Ostroff will act as a senior adviser helping to facilitate the reorganization, which will include Alex Norström, currently freemium business officer, and Gustav Söderström, currently chief research & development officer, becoming co-presidents of Spotify.
Spotify is the latest big tech company to announce a wave of layoffs, following a similar announcement by Google parent company Alphabet, which said last week that it would let go of some 12,000 workers.
Companies, including Spotify and Alphabet, staffed up during the pandemic and are now looking to cut costs amid slowing global economic growth.
Spotify employed 9,800 employees, according to recent filings. The company will announce its most recent quarterly earnings on January 31.
Several music companies let go of staff or cut investment budgets in the second half of 2022 in preparation for a possible economic downturn. Spotify said it would cut hiring by 25%, SoundCloud laid off 20% of its staff and BMI said it was cutting just under 10% of its total workforce, through a combination of letting 30 people go and leaving certain jobs unfilled.
Spotify is set to have layoffs as soon as this week as the company moves forward with plans to reduce operational expenses, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The layoffs are expected to be more broad than a previous round of cuts in October, which impacted staff members working on canceled shows from in-house podcast studios Gimlet and Parcast.
A representative for Spotify declined to comment.
Spotify executives have previously signaled plans to reduce headcount-related expenses, with CEO Daniel Ek telling staff last June that the company would reduce its hiring growth by 25 percent and “be a bit more prudent with the absolute level of new hires over the next few quarters.” Paul Vogel, the company’s chief financial officer, also pointed to “increasing uncertainty regarding the global economy” at Spotify’s investor day in June as a reason for “evaluating [Spotify’s] headcount growth in the near term.”
Though the exact number of layoffs — first reported by Bloomberg — is not immediately clear, other tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have each announced major rounds of layoffs impacting thousands of employees in recent months. The most recent layoff announcement came from Google parent company Alphabet, which is set to reduce its staff by 6 percent, which represents around 12,000 employees.
As of the end of the third quarter, Spotify employed around 9,800 people. The audio company brought in €3.04 billion in revenue and added 195 million paid subscribers during the third quarter. At the time, Ek said the economic downturn had not had a “material impact” on the company’s business but that Spotify would be “more selective” with its “overall spending.”
Spotify will report its fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 31 before the market opens.
This article originally appeared in THR.com.
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The way things are going, music rights valuations are likely to remain steady in the new year, according to dealmakers.
Total music consumption in the United States rose 9.2%, according to Luminate’s 2022 year-end report. While that was slower than the 11.3% consumption growth in 2021, “9.2% relative to 11.3% is not a massive move in growth,” says David Dunn, managing partner at Shot Tower Capital. “As a whole, the growth rates are within expectation for me and still very healthy,” adds Andy Moats, executive vp and director of music, sports and entertainment at Pinnacle Financial Partners. Last year’s numbers were also in line with the expectations of Daniel Weisman, principal at Bernstein Private Wealth Management. “Goldman Sachs’ report published in June of 2022 put streaming CAGR [cumulative annual growth rate] at 12%,” he says.
A mitigating factor is the difference in margins between digital and physical formats. On-demand song streaming — both audio and video — climbed 12.2%. On-demand audio streaming grew 12.1%, the same rate achieved in 2021. Physical album unit sales dropped 3.5%. CD unit sales fell a modest 11.6%, while vinyl LP unit sales grew 4.5% to a record 43.5 million units. Despite Taylor Swift selling nearly 1 million units of her Midnights album on vinyl and Beyoncé showing strong album sales across vinyl and CD formats, music consumption was — again — more digital than the prior year.
With streaming up and physical formats down, that mix is favorable for catalogs. “Margins are improving” as a result of increased digital consumption, says Dunn. Digital music is less expensive to distribute than physical formats — especially vinyl, which has relatively weak margins and high shipping costs. The cost of producing an additional download or stream is effectively zero, aside from negligible costs of data storage and bandwidth. That’s a net positive for catalog valuations. Experts value music catalogs by discounting future cash flows to a single present value. When revenues shift to higher-margin digital formats, rights holders will receive more cash.
The gains do not accrue evenly to all recordings and compositions, though. Last year’s streaming growth could “potentially” support current valuations for a catalog 10 years or older, “especially against a rising rate environment,” says Weisman.
Younger catalogs with decaying royalty growth, however, are a different matter. “I think for newer catalogs that have not yet leveled off and whose royalties are not increasing, it’s hard to argue that all the external economic factors — rising interest rates, inflation, etc. — do not have an impact,” says Weisman.
The shift in product mix carries implications for recorded music valuations specifically. As consumption increasingly skews toward digital, recorded catalog margins will catch up to those in the publishing business, says Dunn. “I generally think margin growth is continuing and I think investors are realizing you can exploit recorded catalog at margins similar to publishing.”
Focusing only on unit sales doesn’t tell the entire story, however. Vinyl records may have relatively poor margins, but rising vinyl prices create more margin dollars for labels. In the first half of 2022, the average sale price of vinyl in the United States rose 5.6% to $26.16, according to the RIAA.
Streaming is also becoming more valuable. After more than a decade of flat subscription prices, companies such as Apple, Amazon and Deezer are raising prices. Spotify’s CEO has indicated the company intends to raise prices in 2023, as well. Due to these increases — often just $1 per account — the U.S. streaming market could generate hundreds of millions of additional dollars this year without sacrificing a meaningful number of subscribers.
Nari Matsuura, partner at Citron Cooperman, believes the U.S. market is even healthier than Luminate’s data shows. That’s because music is becoming more ubiquitous with tech in our everyday lives, meaning there is revenue growth that consumption data can’t track.
“While streaming growth captured the whole narrative of the U.S. market a few years ago, now the narrative has changed to include much more than streaming,” she says. “Growth also needs to take into account the licensing of alternative music platforms, such as Peloton and Facebook, as well as the stellar growth in synch licensing due to the volume of new programming by SVODs as they compete for subscribers.”
The Queen of Pop’s return to touring was a thunderous success this morning, with more than 23 concerts added to the 37 dates already announced for Madonna‘s The Celebration Tour thanks to massive fan demand.
Only a handful of tickets are still available — the tour is 98% sold out — after fans bought up 600,000 tickets in a matter of hours to see Madonna’s retrospective run in North America and Europe. Additional shows were added today in Los Angeles, Montreal, Boston and beyond to meet the demand.
“It was a huge day for Madonna and a massive success thanks to her fans,” says Arthur Fogel, Madonna’s long-time promoter with Live Nation.
In total, 51 shows went on sale today, with 35 of the shows completely sold out by 5 p.m. EST. Fogel and Madonna’s team added a fourth New York show after the first three sold out in 15 minutes and two additional London shows after the first two concerts at the 02 Arena sold out in 20 minutes. Tickets to see Madonna’s Paris shows sold out in under seven minutes, while her Amsterdam date sold out in 10 minutes.
Fogel says additional dates will be announced for Europe next week before presales begin for ten North American shows that were not part of today’s sale. Presales for The Celebration Tour dates in Denver, Phoenix, Atlanta and more begin Jan. 23, with the general public onsale scheduled for Jan. 27.
Madonna’s last major arena run, the 2015-2016 Rebel Heart Tour, grossed $169.8 million and sold 1 million tickets across 82 shows.
The Celebration Tour begins July 15 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver and will include performances of music from Madonna’s entire catalog, spanning her 40-year career as the best-selling female touring artist of all time.
For more information, and to buy tickets, visit www.madonna.com/tour.
A Houston judge ruled late Thursday (Jan. 19) that Megan Thee Stallion’s manager, Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez, must sit for a deposition in the star’s ongoing war with her record company, rejecting Megan’s arguments that the label was “harassing” Perez by seeking to depose her.
For months, the two sides sparred over whether the Roc Nation big wig must answer questions from lawyers for 1501 Certified Entertainment amid Megan’s litigious split with the Houston-based label. The company’s lawyers called Perez “one of the most critical” witnesses in the case; Megan’s lawyers said 1501 was simply trying to “harass” a busy executive who had little pertinent info to share.
In a ruling made public on Thursday afternoon, Judge Robert Schaffer sided with 1501 — denying a motion from Megan’s lawyers seeking a so-called protective order that would have shielded Perez from the deposition. Though he ruled on detailed arguments from both sides, the judge included no written opinion explaining his rationale for the decision.
It’s unclear when such a sit-down between 1501’s lawyers and Perez will take place. A representative for Megan and for Roc Nation did not immediately return a request for comment on Friday.
The star rapper (real name Megan Pete) has been fighting with 1501 for more than two years, claiming the company duped the young artist into signing an “unconscionable” record deal in 2018 that was well-below industry standards. She says that when she signed a new management deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2019, she got “real lawyers” who helped her see that the deal was “crazy.”
That core dispute has mushroomed into additional litigation, with both sides accusing the other of various forms of wrongdoing and claiming millions in damages. A judge ruled in December that the case will need to be decided by a jury trial; a date has not yet been set.
With both sides preparing to make their case, 1501 sought to have Perez sit for a deposition — meaning she would meet with the company’s lawyers and answer questions about Megan’s case under oath. But the rapper’s lawyers quickly threw a challenge flag in November, seeking the protective order that would have shielded Perez from what they called “gamesmanship” by 1501.
Megan’s lawyers pointed to what’s known as the apex doctrine, which limits when high-ranking executives can be forced to give a deposition. (That’s the same rule that Spotify cited last year when it tried to shield CEO Daniel Ek from questioning in a copyright lawsuit.) Under the apex doctrine, busy top officials only need to testify when they have unique info that can’t be derived from other less burdensome sources.
The label quickly fired back in December, arguing that Perez was instead a key “fact witness” who had been “directly, personally, and substantially involved in the underlying facts of the lawsuit.” They claimed she’d had direct conversations about whether Megan’s 2021 release Something for Thee Hotties counted as an “album” under her deal — a central dispute in the case. And they said Perez had personally negotiated one of Megan’s record contracts at issue in the lawsuit.
Attorneys for 1501 declined to comment on the decision on Friday.
Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain is suing longtime 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.
The new allegations came months after Schon sparked the legal battle by filing his own lawsuit accusing Cain of blocking access to “critical” financial records linked to the Amex account.
In a countersuit filed last week in California state court, Cain said it was Schon’s own actions that had led to those restrictions on his access to the Amex account, including “misusing” the card to deal with his own “financial problems as a result of an extravagant lifestyle.”
“Schon’s use of the [shared] AMEX card for personal expenses created serious liquidity problems for the band, as the AMEX balance had to be paid every month, and there were insufficient revenues to pay for other expenses as Schon saddled Journey with over $1 million of his personal expenses,” Cain’s lawyers wrote in the new complaint, filed Jan. 13.
Cain’s countersuit included a number of specific allegations about Schon’s spending habits. Once given access to the band Amex, Cain says Schon promptly spent over $100,000 in January 2022. Then in March, he allegedly spent a whopping $400,000 in charges at Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City and other retailers.
At the end of a recent tour, Cain says Schon demanded suites at a Hawaiian hotel that cost north of $5,000 per night, then stayed a week longer than necessary and racked up more than $100,000 more in charges on the card.
Schon’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment on the new allegations.
Members of Journey have been sparring in court for years. Back in 2020, Schon and Cain teamed up to file a lawsuit against former drummer Steven Smith and former bassist Ross Valory over the band’s name. And in September, former lead singer Steve Perry took legal action to stop Schon and Cain from registering federal trademarks on the names of many of the band’s biggest hits. But in both of those cases, which have since settled, Schon and Cain were on the same team.
In October, Schon and Cain finally found themselves on opposite sides of the courtroom. In his complaint, Schon said Cain had unfairly blocked access to the Amex account, “interfering” with the band’s activities and delaying payments to crew members and vendors. “This action is brought to turn the lights on, so to speak,” Schon’s lawyers wrote at the time.
But in the new countersuit, Cain told his side of the story, arguing that it was Schon’s reckless spending that was interfering with the band’s activities.
“Schon’s charges placed considerable pressure on Journey and its ability to cover normal tour expenses,” his lawyers wrote. “Schon was spending Journey’s money, and Cain is the one who was and is ultimately liable for the AMEX Account and Schon’s charges on the AMEX Card.”
In technical terms, Cain is accusing Schon of breaching his fiduciary duty to the band’s shared corporate entity, called Nomota LLC, and of unjustly enriching himself at Cain’s expense.
The music industry was radically reshaped in the three years since Ari Herstand last updated his how-to instruction manual for independent musicians, How to Make it in the New Music Business: Practical Tips on Building a Loyal Following and Making a Living as a Musician, first published in 2016. The pandemic changed how musicians monetize live music, social media apps re-wrote the rules about promoting music and blockchain-based products went mainstream.
“A lot has changed,” says Herstand. “I would say more has changed in the last three years than probably the last 20 years.”
Now in its third edition, How to Make it in the New Music Business has joined Don Passman’s All You Need to Know About the Music Business as a go-to source for navigating the industry’s dire straits. Herstand augments the book with a podcast of the same name and his long-running blog, Ari’s Take, that are informed by his own music career. As a solo artist and the front man of the Los Angeles-based funk band Brassroots District, Herstand understands the tribulations of the working musician.
“It’s not a straight line anymore,” he says about becoming a successful musician in 2023. Marketing and promotion is fragmented. Some artists use TikTok while others reach fans through old-fashioned SMS marketing. Some artists take a traditional path of building a fan base through touring. They have multiple options for crowdfunding and merch sales. Independent artists can follow Herstand’s examples of getting their music used in television, films and advertisements. “There is no one way to create a successful music career.”
How to Make It in the New Music Business has sold well and become regarded as a must-read for musicians. Are you surprised by its success?
I’m grateful that so many people have taken to the book. You know, the reason that I felt I needed to write this was because I had felt there was a void in the industry for manuals and helpful guides for the working musician. There were no books out there helping musicians navigate this new music business. Most of the other music business books that were widely regarded as kind of the go-to music industry Bibles were written by lawyers decades ago, and started with the incorrect premise that the only way to succeed in the music industry is by getting a record contract and a record label.
I hear from musicians every day. I had my book signing last night and so I got to meet and talk to a lot of them. People have told me how much the book has really helped them. I’ve heard from Grammy winners, I’ve heard from other people who are navigating [the industry] as middle-class musicians.
Is the notion of a do-it-yourself musician kind of outdated in a complex music business or has the term DIY always undersold the amount of teamwork involved in an artist’s success?
There is no artist that is truly DIY. I think that the DIY term now refers to artists that aren’t working with a traditional team. But there are non-traditional teams, and I outline what the “new team” looks like in the new music business. It can be everyone from a graphic designer that you’re working with, or someone to help you run your social media ads, to a videographer, to someone that can help guide you with royalty collection. Everybody needs team members. It’s impossible to do all of this on your own. And so, it’s just about finding those people who believe in what you’re doing, want to be part of the journey with you in any capacity, and then use their strengths to fill in the blank where your weaknesses may lie, or maybe where you just don’t have the time, or knowhow or desire to do those things yourself.
It’s far too much to manage and handle for one person. I encourage artists to learn everything that they need to get done and then delegate. Some people will delegate with a traditional role like a manager. Other people will delegate to their friends who just want to come help out. They might not have the traditional title of manager, but they might be partners in various capacities.
At my book signings last night, I interviewed Theo Katman from the band Vulfpeck. I think he is a great example of a DIY icon. This is a band that has no manager, no record label, and they sold out Madison Square Garden, the Greek Theatre and Red Rock [Amphitheatre]. That’s something that was previously unheard of. Theo, as a solo artist, also does not have a manager. He told me he likes to maintain control. He doesn’t want to give up percentage of his career – 15-20% of gross – to anyone, and he’s playing to 3,000 capacity rooms all over the country right now and selling out these rooms.
About three years passed between editions of your book. What changed in the music business during that time that demanded inclusion in the new edition?
For one, the pandemic. You know, the industry looks quite different post-pandemic. There were over 100,000 livestream concerts that happened just in 2020 and 2021. TikTok came into prominence over the last three years. In the previous edition, I have one mention of TikTok. And now, I have an entire rewritten chapter on social media telling a lot of the stories of how TikTok has really enabled musicians to find an audience – some in a massive way and others in just a sustainable way. I talked about what’s happening with NFTs in the metaverse. And with the MLC [Music Licensing Collective] now in place I updated how royalty collection works, and how artists can structure their royalty collection and the parties that they need to work with if they’re remaining independent and aren’t working with a traditional publisher to collect their royalties or publishing royalties like mechanicals and performance.
And I talked about how record label record deals are structured. I interviewed a lot of artists that were offered 50-50 licensing deals from major record labels. This is something that was completely unheard of. I’ve never really seen a 50-50 licensing deal with a big advance –usually a six- or seven-figure advance – to completely independent artists with very little track record other than a TikTok song going viral.
I think the major labels are looking at these bands and they need to be far more competitive with the label services companies out there. Independent artists are realizing they don’t really need the record labels like they once did.
Independent artists tend to be quick to adopt new technologies. Let’s talk real quickly about a few of them. You mentioned TikTok. What’s the opportunity there for the independent artist?
I have never seen a social media platform be as effective as quickly. There’s never been on platforms to launch songs as quickly and as powerfully as Tiktok has been able to. I’m less interested in superstar stories – there’s always some people and money behind the scenes pulling the strings. But what is is more interesting to me are some of these artists that are completely independent where sure some of them go viral and then get offered major record deals, but more so it’s the ones that are using it on an ongoing basis to build a sustainable fan base and interact with their audience, tell stories about themselves.
And where TikTok is now moving in 2023, which I think is actually very exciting for the independent artists, is the “For You” page has become so niche and fragmented that artists can find their community and not have any songs go viral. The algorithm now has become so honed that it is now connecting artists with fans in a way that feels natural and is under the radar from most of the industry and the labels. It’s really helpful for these artists.
Web3: for the independent musician, is it a mirage, or a good place to put resources and time?
I think Web3 is going to continue to find its footing. And I don’t think it’s a fad. I know that it got a lot of hype a year or two ago when NFTs were all the rage. There’s a lot of utility that I’m seeing happen. There is the company Royal. There’s another company Labelcoin. [Herstand is on Labelcoin’s advisory board.] Fans are able to invest in artists’ songs that they might believe in participate in the share of royalties. Web3 technologies give a very streamlined ability to do this. It’s kind of like crowdfunding. I call it crowdfunding 3.0 Crowdfunding 1.0 was Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Crowdfunding 2.0 was Patreon, that ongoing support. Now crowdfunding 3.0 is a fan investing model. So that’s where some of the utility of Web3 is moving.
I see Web3 as something that is constantly evolving and starting to find its footing. I don’t see it going anywhere. It’s like, the internet wasn’t a fad. Social media wasn’t a fad, but it evolved and it isn’t what it was when it first came out. So that’s, that’s what we went through. It’s still very early stages. But it is a very exciting frontier.
There are a lot of platforms and services these days for funding, whether it’s crowd funding or advances or loans. What do you think of these opportunities for independent artists? Are they on artists’ radars?
Yeah, there are distributors out there that have built right into their platform. TuneCore does this. Because they have all of your streaming data, they can get through their own internal algorithms crunch the numbers offer their artists advances. There’s standalone companies out there as well that that artists can apply to to get royalties and get advances from. I don’t think enough artists know about these platforms, and they’re more popping up every day. But it is very exciting that they can say, “All right, well, let’s look at the previous three years of your streaming data. Okay, this song earned about $10,000 a year. So we anticipate this is probably going to earn $10,000 a year for the next five years. So, we can write you a $50,000 check today. And then we’re going to kind of take the first $60,000 that comes in from the song over the five-six years, and we’ll make a little profit, and you get $50,000 today.” That’s happening. That’s kind of what the TuneCore model is and what a lot of these other companies’ models are. That’s available for artists that have pretty good streaming numbers. It’s modest but that advance could help them with the marketing of their new music and help them go on tour or help them buy inventory.
It’s been a little over a year since the Dec. 15, 2021 plane crash that killed Puerto Rican producer Flow La Movie along with his partner Debbie Von Marie Jimenez García and their children, aged 21, 18 and four.
Born José Angel Hernández, Flow La Movie was 38 at the time of the crash and is survived by a daughter, Keigelyan Hernandez.
He also left behind a catalog of hit recordings released under his indie label, AH Entertainment, including the star-studded “Te Boté,” which topped Hot Latin Songs for 14 weeks, and the entire catalog of rapper Nio García, including “AM” and viral hit “La Jeepeta.”
Those songs, along with García’s recording contract, have been ensnarled in a complex legal battle that has prevented García –at the cusp of his career– from releasing any further material.
Until today, with the release of “Yeska”, his first single in more than a year.
The track is out on Glad Empire, the Orlando-based indie entertainment company that used to distribute AH Entertainment, and also works with artists like Anuel. Glad is now in the process of negotiating a new distribution deal Garcia.
“For a while, I thought this moment would never come,” García said in a press release. “I was crazy to release new music for my fans.”
But García could not release music because his recording contract was tied to AH and Flow La Movie, aka Hernandez.
According to García’s lawsuit, filed last year, the problems started when Hernández’s mother, Ilianes Ruiz, claimed to be the sole heir to Hernández’s estate, via a will allegedly signed by Hernández. Because she controlled the estate, Ruiz did not allow García to release new music, as his recording contract was part of Hernández’s estate.
However, the signature on Hernández’s will was determined to be suspect. As a result, Hernández’s only living child, Keigelyan Hernandez, claimed the inheritance as hers, and joined the lawsuit that García had already filed against Ruiz.
Hernández’s estate went into probate, and all contracts and music tied to it came to a screeching halt until Dec. 13, 2021, when all parties signed a global settlement agreement that names Hernández the personal representative of her father’s estate. The agreement, shared exclusively with Billboard, also released García from any obligation with AH, allowing him to enter a new recording agreement with Glad Empire.
“The only thing we wanted to do was continue to release music and carry out Flow La Movie’s wishes and legacy,” says Camille Soto, CEO of GLAD Empire, who late last year, after the agreement was signed, released a compilation of Flow La Movie’s top hits, titled Flow Movie Remixes.
“I am so happy his music can live on.”
Music publisher BMG is suing a toymaker for promoting a brand of “unicorn poop” toys by releasing a song called “My Poops” – a scatological parody set to the tune of Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps.”
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, the publisher accused toymaker MGA Entertainment of infringing the copyright to the band’s smash 2005 hit, which reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 and spent 36 total weeks on the chart.
Released to promote MGA’s Poopsie Slime Surprise toys – unicorns that release sparkling “unicorn poop” slime – the song at issue features similar musical elements to the original, but with joke lyrics like “Whatcha gonna do with all that poop, all that poop.”
In addition to copying key musical elements, BMG says MGA’s song features a lead vocalist who “sounds very similar” to Black Eyed Peas lead singer Fergie.
“Music, especially a hit song such as ‘My Humps,’ adds great value when incorporated into a product or used in a video advertisement, because it increases consumer recognizability, consumer engagement and attention to the product,” BMG wrote in its lawsuit. “The infringing work is so substantially similar to ‘My Humps’ that it is obvious that the infringing work was intentionally copied.”
MGA’s song was released as a music video on YouTube, but BMG claims the copycat song was also incorporated into actual products. A sticker on the Poopsie Slime Surprise packages directed users to the video, the publisher says, and the actual dolls will play a snippet of the song when a “heart-shaped bellybutton” is pressed.
“Defendant has been selling the Dancing Unicorn Toys incorporating the Infringing Work all over the world and has received substantial revenue,” BMG’s lawyers wrote. “The Poopsie Slime Surprise product line has generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue for Defendant.”
In musical terms, BMG says that MGA’s song stole a number of key elements, including the melody, bass line, rhyme scheme, chord progression, cadence and others, and that the “My Poops” singer uses “a similar delivery and vocal inflections as used by Fergie.” It also says the name of the song is “an obvious play” on the name of the original.
Neither BMG nor MGA immediately returned requests for comment on Friday.
The new lawsuit sets the stage for a high-profile dispute over parody songs – a complex area of federal copyright law.
The legal doctrine of “fair use” expressly empowers people to parody existing copyrighted works, and one of the U.S. Supreme Court’s most seminal copyright rulings held that 2 Live Crew was legally allowed to release a bawdy parody of Roy Orbison’s rock ballad “Oh, Pretty Woman” without paying royalties. But the music industry’s premiere parodist, “Weird Al” Yankovic, voluntarily chooses to license all of the songs that he parodies. And the legal analysis is undoubtedly trickier when a parody song is used for outright commercial advertising or as part of an actual consumer product, rather than merely as a new song.
A more recent case pitted the Beastie Boys against a toy company called GoldieBlox, which released a viral parody of the group’s 1987 song “Girls” to promote its engineering and construction toys for girls. After the band threatened copyright infringement, GoldieBlox argued fair use – saying it had aimed to criticize the “highly sexist” message of the original Beastie Boys track and “further the company’s goal to break down gender stereotypes.”
But six months later, GoldieBlox agreed to a settlement in which it apologized to the Beastie Boys and agreed to donate a portion of its revenues to charities of the band’s choosing.
Read BMG’s entire lawsuit here: