State Champ Radio Business
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The first time Ashley Elzinga, a 33-year-old DJ from Traverse City, Mich., heard her doppelgänger’s voice, she was not happy. Not because the sound of an artificial-intelligence imposter was so eerie. Not because AI technology portends robots might someday replace her. She didn’t like the way AI Ashley pronounced “news.” “I was like, ‘Why are they saying nooooose?’” recalls Elzinga in her flat Midwestern accent. “I was so embarrassed.”
It took a few tries for the engineers at Futuri Media, a Cleveland-based AI specialist, to find the right vocal balance between flat and sharp, deadpan and excited. “Now she’s ironing out…,” says Elzinga, a midday host for Portland Top 40 station Live 95.5, then corrects herself: “Now it’s ironing out…. She, or it, is starting to have more emotion and be a bit more accurate resemblance.”
AI Ashley, as Live 95.5 refers to the cloned voice on the air, made “her” debut on the air last Friday, delivering news, introducing songs and hyping station promotions in alternating speaking segments with the real Ashley Z, as Elzinga is known. Live 95.5 hasn’t received any listener complaints, says Dylan Salisbury, the station’s content director: “I don’t even know if they realize it yet.”
Alpha Media, owner of Live 95.5, started experimenting with AI voice technology last fall, according to Phil Becker, the company’s executive vp of content. When company execs learned Elzinga was about to take the full-time job in Traverse City, potentially reducing her hours on Live 95.5, they saw her as a “perfect storm” case study for an on-air test, he says: “The line in Moneyball is ‘the first guy through the wall always gets bloodied.’ That’s where we are right now. We’re OK playing some Moneyball-style radio, because it wins championships.”
Elzinga and Salisbury see AI as an efficiency tool, a way of stretching DJs’ hours so listeners can hear their voices even when they’re not physically present. For Elzinga, who multi-tasks her way through a full-time morning-show gig at her hometown Top 40 station WKHQ, then “tracks” her voice remotely for Live 95.5 and another station in Seattle every day, AI Ashley allows her to work even more. She owns the rights to her voice, approves every on-air AI usage and, Salisbury says, “We have increased her fee.”
“If she says stop, we have to stop,” Salisbury adds. “We’re trying to be respectful during the wild West of AI and go where we think the law is going to go.”
We made history as the world’s first radio station with an AI DJ! Our midday host Ashley has become AI Ashley! We can’t wait for you to meet Ashley, the world’s first artificially intelligent DJ. As to the intelligence of our other DJ’s…we’ll save that for another post 😉 pic.twitter.com/CtlMhYU0IO
— Live 95.5 (@live955) June 13, 2023
Of course, what is a neat, little, high-tech, mostly risk-free magic trick for Elzinga, Salisbury and Alpha Media, the Portland broadcast company that owns Live 95.5 and 205 other stations, is a terrifying prospect for much of the radio industry. When the station posted excitedly about AI Ashley last week, Twitter erupted: An NPR host tweeted an “everyone disliked that” meme, a freelance writer wanted to know, “Why would you participate in the very public elimination of your job?” and even J. Smith-Cameron, who plays Gerri on HBO’s Succession, wondered if Elzinga was “worried you’ll have ALL the days off now that they cloned you?”
For the past three decades, the broadcast industry has faced consolidation and extreme cost-cutting that has oftentimes meant layoffs of on-air talent. Over the past few years, DJs for local radio shows have been outsourced from other markets — much like Elzinga does in Portland and Seattle from her home in Michigan.
“They are eagerly stripping away, as fast as they can, the thing that makes radio unique,” says former radio host and station manager Michele Coppola, who’s now a Portland copywriter.
“My fear is there will be some owners that will [say], ‘This is an efficiency, this is a way for us to save money — that will further deplete the body of truly talented radio people,” adds Steve Reynolds, a Raleigh, N.C., talent coach for radio personalities.
“Futuri claims it’s going to be a tool, just like any other tool, to make a job easier,” says Lance Venta, owner and publisher of Radio Insight. “Voice-tracking, when used properly, is a tool. When it’s used to have a talent voice 35 stations to save money, it’s no longer a tool — it’s a weapon.”
Radio Waits
So far, the rest of the U.S. broadcast industry has yet to plunge into on-air AI voices as aggressively as Live 95.5. But radio stations around the world, and their digital competitors, have tinkered with the technology – and have suggested they may expand. In April, a Swiss station used AI to clone five human presenters on the air; comedian Drew Carey used an AI-generated approximation of his voice on his SiriusXM show in March; and in February, Spotify launched a (voiceless) AI-curated, personalized broadcast called “DJ.” During an April conference call about a soft advertising market, Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of top broadcaster iHeartMedia, told investors after a 3.8% drop in revenue, “We and every other company are looking at how to use AI. I think AI can fundamentally change the cost structure of the company.”
At Audacy, the second-biggest broadcaster, execs have done a “fair bit of experimentation” with AI tools, from voice applications to ChatGPT-style generative text that helps produce drafts of advertising scripts, according to Jeff Sottolano, executive vp and head of programming. But he’s not convinced an AI Ashley-style experiment has “value it creates for the consumer,” because Alpha Media had to expend “up-front investment” on training, reviewing, post-production and editing — all of which, at least for now, contradict the company’s efforts for greater efficiency and cost-cutting.
“All that said, I expect it will continue to get better and easier and faster,” he says. “We don’t look at this as something that’s finished, but something that’s going to continue to evolve. Just because we haven’t done it today doesn’t mean we might not do it tomorrow.”
The human Ashley is happy with the AI arrangement as long as she and her robot counterpart are clearly identified as “Ashley Z” or “AI Ashley” every time she — or it — appears on the air. “You just need to make sure integrity comes first,” she says.
Chinese pop star G.E.M. is looking to grow her Latin American fan base — and break the mold for Chinese artists — by putting out a full-length Spanish version of her latest album, Revelation. And the idea to do it didn’t come from an executive or carefully plotted strategy by her new label, Warner Music China, which released the original Mandarin version in September.
“It wasn’t necessarily something we sat down with her and sort of guided her towards,” Simon Robson, Warner Music Group’s president, international, for recorded music, tells Billboard. “It was more that she wanted to do this, and we wanted to support her.”
Robson says G.E.M.’s Revelación, which Warner Music plans to release on July 10, will be the first Spanish-language album by a major Chinese music artist at any label (as far as WMG is aware). The experiment, the executive says, is “quite indicative of what’s happening with music at the moment and just how impactful Spanish music is becoming.”
Like her Chinese original, the Spanish album — which G.E.M. says she wrote on her own, after essentially teaching herself the language — will feature 14 songs. After debuting in 2008 with her self-titled EP G.E.M, the Shanghai born, Hong Kong-raised singer, whose real name is Gloria Tang Sze-wing (G.E.M. stands for Get Everybody Moving), became one of the top-selling female artists in Asia. Often dubbed China’s Taylor Swift, she holds the record for most-viewed music video on YouTube among all Chinese artists with “Light Years Away” (267 million views), the Chinese theme song for the sci-fi movie “Passengers.”
“It has been an incredible journey working on this project as I do not speak Spanish, but I was determined to fulfill a prophecy that was made to me 10 years ago that one day I would sing in the language,” G.E.M. says in a press release announcing Revelación. “After receiving support from South America for my Chinese album Revelation, I taught myself Spanish and wrote the entire album by myself.”
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A devout Christian, the singer rose to fame in 2014 after appearing on the TV competition show, “I Am A Singer 2.” Her second-place finish boosted her popularity in mainland China. She also received a nomination for an MTV Europe Music Award for Best Mainland China & Hong Kong Act and in 2016 Forbes named her to its 30 Under 30, the only Asian artist featured on the list. She composes songs in Cantonese and Mandarin, and also speaks English.
G.E.M. signed with Warner Music China last July, after a sticky separation from her Hong Kong-based label, Hummingbird Music, which sued her in 2019 to enforce their 2014 contract, which the label said was valid until 2022. Hummingbird was seeking HK $120 million ($15.3 million) in damages, according to Chinese media reports. G.E.M. filed a countersuit for unspecified damages, claiming Hummingbird had failed to fulfill its contractual duties. Both parties were seeking exclusive rights to her copyrighted works, including her stage name. (It is unclear if the suits have been resolved. A WMG spokesperson says he does not have any information about the situation.)
Revelation, G.E.M.’s seventh studio album, is named after the New Testaments’s Book of Revelation. In the wake of the pandemic last summer, the artist found herself prone to melancholy and other negative emotions, and developed the habit of praying, she told Billboard China. Her album was a “direct dialogue between me and heaven,” she said. “I write letters to heaven, and they write back. This is what gradually gave shape to the concept behind Revelation.”
Warner Music released two songs from the album every week — accompanied by videos — for seven weeks leading up to Sept. 22. G.E.M. began noticing that user-generated content and remakes of the song in local languages by Spanish-speaking content creators were appearing on social media platforms, particularly in South America. “Whether it was due to the album’s themes or its vibes, it was evident that it was connecting strongly with Spanish speakers globally,” a WMG spokesperson says. So, she decided to learn Spanish and convert the songs into Spanish “to better share her message and music with this fanbase.”
While the plan is still in its preliminary stages, G.E.M. is planning to perform the Spanish version of the song throughout the next year, with live performances in Latin America, the spokesperson tells Billboard.
Robson says WMG currently has no plans to release any other Chinese artists’ albums in Spanish. “But I think that obviously there is an element of seeing how successful this album is,” he says. “It’s something I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more of just because Spanish music, in the broadest terms, is becoming increasingly influential around the world.”
The Warner Music executive acknowledged that there is an element of risk for G.E.M. and the label with the Spanish project but declined to define what success would look like for the artist. “It’s more about building her fan base in Latin America,” he says. “It’s step by step, really.”
WMG continues to lean into Latin music, at a time when the genre is exploding globally. Between 2020 and 2022, Latin music grew 55.29% in album consumption in the U.S., according to Luminate, more than double the overall industry’s 21.61%.
Robson points to recent tracks like Peso Pluma’s remix of Yng Lvcas’ “La Bebe,” which is holding at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, and the upcoming album or EP from Mexican rapper Natanael Cano, which is scheduled to drop at the end of June, as signs of Warner Music’s efforts on the Latin front. (Yng Lvcas performed last week at a songwriting camp in Madrid organized by Warner Music Spain and Warner Chappell Music Spain, part of an effort by the company, Robson says, to host more joint writing camps for both publishing and recorded music.)
Two years ago, the label named former Universal Music Group executive Alejandro Duque as president of Warner Music Latin America. Duque helped oversee the release of Anitta’s Versions of Me, whose signature single, “Envolver,” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Global 200. But now the Brazilian pop star is gone, after separating with the label in April and signing with UMG’s Republic Records, a definite blow to WMG.
“We’re already starting to build up our roster [in Brazil],” Robson says, noting the recent signing of Brazilian urban funk artist Kayblack.
More broadly, “when you look back two years prior, although we were sort of active, [it is] nothing like to the degree we are now, and are not having the success we have,” Robson says. “Alejandro is an incredibly strong executive and we’re trying to support him as much as possible.”
SRMG, the largest integrated media group from the Middle East/North Africa region, has partnered with Billboard to launch Billboard Arabia. The newly launched platform is dedicated to celebrating artists with Arab roots by spotlighting their music and promoting personal stories on a global stage.
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Billboard Arabia aims to be the premier global destination for artists with Arab roots – bringing the latest releases, reviews and interviews from the biggest names, exclusive coverage of regional and global events, original photography and special video content together in one centralized location. Billboard Arabia will launch several charts over the next year, utilizing data from the top digital streaming platforms such as Spotify, Anghami, YouTube and others, to highlight the artists and songs driving the global and regional music industry.
Billboard Arabia will celebrate and amplify the work of Arab artists for a global audience by republishing content across Billboard’s digital products. It will also host the Billboard Arabia Music Awards, as well as live concerts, activations, and regional and international events to celebrate all music genres and the artists that are inspiring innovation in the industry.
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, MENA (Middle East/North Africa) is the fastest-growing music region in the world. In 2022 alone, a handful of rising Arab artists garnered more than 1 billion streams, demonstrating the significant potential of the music market in the MENA region.
“The music scene in the MENA region is rapidly transforming,” said Jomana R. Al-Rashid, CEO of SRMG. “However, there is currently no dedicated platform to spotlight and tell the stories of the Arab artists leading innovation in the global music industry. Our partnership with Billboard will help fill that void in the market. Billboard Arabia is more than just a digital platform. It will be the premier destination to celebrate the Arab music community and empower the business of music through data-driven charts, live concerts and awards. Our vision at SRMG is to ensure that creators and audiences have increased access to high-quality, original content and impactful experiences.”
“We are excited to join forces with SRMG to launch Billboard Arabia,” said Mike Van, president of Billboard. “Billboard has a strong legacy of recognizing and amplifying artists across genres, languages, and cultures with a mission to share the power of music with new fans everywhere. SRMG’s reach and access in the region coupled with our experience will ensure artists with Arab roots are heard around the world.”
Billboard Arabia was announced Wednesday (June 21) from the SRMG Beach at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. As part of the announcement of Billboard Arabia, several artists from MENA are joining SRMG in Cannes to celebrate the diversity of sounds from the region, including performances from Elyanna, Felukah, Kouz1, DJ Outlaw, Jeed, Moayad Al Nefaie, Flipperachi, Meshaal and DJ Rodge.
Billboard Arabia is now live across Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, all at the @billboardarabia handle.
Two years after the pandemic and its temporary shutdown of concerts and many stores and restaurants devastated the collective management organizations that license public performance royalties for songwriters and publishers, some of those CMOs are reporting record-setting financial results. In April, German society GEMA and the United Kingdom’s PRS both collected and distributed their highest amounts ever. And on June 21, French collective management society SACEM announced that it had collected €1.41 billion ($1.54 billion) in 2022, 34% more than in 2021, and distributed €1.06 billion ($1.15 billion) — a 19% increase over the previous year. Both numbers represent new highs — both for SACEM and at least for European societies.
“Thanks to the resumption of concerts, the explosion of digital, the new agreements signed with the many users of SACEM’s repertoire, and the strategic shift undertaken in its transformation plan, SACEM had a record year in terms of both collections and royalties distributed,” said CEO Céclile Rap-Veber in the organization’s announcement. “These results demonstrate, once again, our ability to adapt and strengthen our expertise in a highly competitive and rapidly changing sector.”
For SACEM, as for all CMOs, some of the increase in revenue and distributions comes from the return of live concerts, which are a significant source of royalty revenue. But the success also reflects the growth of streaming, as well as the ability of CMOs to negotiate better prices for the compositions they license. It’s also important to note that SACEM’s results will not just affect French composers and publishers: CMOs now compete to represent the rightsholders for online use in most countries, excluding the U.S., and SACEM licenses the work of composers around the world, as well as the repertoire of Universal Music Publishing Group
SACEM, the oldest music collecting society, is setting the pace for its rivals. Its collections of €1.41 billion ($1.54 billion) are higher than those of GEMA, which in 2022 took in 1.18 billion euros ($1.25 billion), and PRS, which had revenue of 836.2 million pounds ($1.04 billion).
Direct comparisons are inexact, however, since all of the CMOs use different accounting procedures. (The two biggest U.S. CMOs, ASCAP and BMI, are also constrained in their negotiations by antitrust consent decrees.) SACEM, for example, counts money it collected and distributed in 2022, but since it takes some time to distribute funds, the money it pays out trails slightly. This implies that distributions will rise in the first part of next year. “In 2023, taking into account collections in the second half of 2022 and the first half of 2023, we expect to reach a new distribution record,” SACEM said in its announcement.
SACEM also lowered its expenses. Its ratio of operating expenses to collections was a low of 11.65%, down 3.15 points from 2021. As competition among CMOs heats up — especially between SACEM and the ICE hub run by GEMA, PRS and the Swedish society STIM — all of the societies are trying to cut costs.
In 2022, for the second year in a row, online was the biggest source of royalties — up 38% to €493 million ($538.27 million). The second largest category of revenue was television and radio, which accounted for €353.1 million ($385.56 million), up 19%. General royalties contributed €327 million ($357.06) — up 93% partly due to the return of the live music business.
The financial results only include SACEM’s core operations of collecting public performance and mechanical royalties for composers and music publishers, both in France and for online uses in most countries around the world. They do not include SACEM’s neighboring rights revenue from television and radio play of sound recordings, or the subsidiaries like the one it operates to license the neighboring rights of newspapers and periodicals when their works are used by online companies like Google and Facebook.
A Manhattan judge on Tuesday (June 20) sentenced rapper and podcaster Taxstone to 35 years in prison following his conviction earlier this year on manslaughter charges over his 2016 fatal shooting of rapper Troy Ave’s bodyguard during a T.I. concert at Irving Plaza.
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Taxstone, whose real name is Daryl Campbell, was convicted in March of shooting and killing 33-year-old Ronald “Banga” McPhatter and seriously injuring three others – a crime that prosecutors said stemmed from Taxstone’s longstanding feud with rapper Troy Ave, whose real name Roland Collins.
“Daryl Campbell used a firearm to target his rival, which led to loss of a life and serious injuries to innocent bystanders,” District Attorney Bragg said in a statement Tuesday. “Gun violence cannot be used as a way to address conflict. The toll of guns continues to be staggeringly high and it is horrific that a night out at a concert ended tragically.”
Campbell’s lawyer, Kenneth Montgomery, told Billboard in a brief statement that his client would be appealing the conviction: “Justice wasn’t served,” Montgomery said.
Prosecutors say that Campbell, best known for his Tax Season podcast, confronted Collins in the green room at Irving Plaza on May 25, 2016, shortly before Collins was set to open for T.I. He allegedly shot McPhatter in the chest, fatally wounding him, before shooting Collins in both legs during a struggle for the gun. A man and a woman were also allegedly hit, seriously wounding both.
According to prosecutors, the incident came after years of escalating feuding on social media and podcasts. “When I see you walking up with six dudes, bang-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba,” Campbell said of Collins. Collins responded with a diss track: “Twitter fingers, how many times ya gonna tweet me? I’m always on the flier, guess you too scared to meet me.”
Campbell was eventually arrested on federal guns charges in January 2017, after federal prosecutors said his DNA was found on a handgun that was used in the shooting. After he pleaded guilty to those charges, he was arrested by New York authorities in July 2017 and charged with the shooting itself.
In March, a New York jury found him guilty of manslaughter in the first degree, two counts of assault in the first degree, one count of assault in the second degree and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.
In a rare investor reproach for Live Nation, at the company’s annual meeting held earlier in June, a majority of its shareholders voted against ratifying chief executive Michael Rapino‘s $139-million pay package for 2022.
In an advisory say-on-pay referendum on June 9, more than 53% of votes cast rejected the 2022 compensation packages for promoter Live Nation’s named executives — Rapino, president and CFO Joe Berchtold, chief accounting officer Brian Capo, executive vp John Hopmans and general counsel Michael Rowles, according to a filing released on June 15. In contrast, 94% of the votes cast at its 2020 shareholder meeting were in favor of the say-on-pay proposal, according to Live Nation.
As the shareholder vote was advisory and non-binding, Live Nation’s board will have the ultimate say on any future actions around executive compensation.
Shareholder rebukes like this are rare, and it comes as the Ticketmaster owner is already under fire from fans and regulators over its role in the Taylor Swift Eras Tour ticket debacle. As of May 31, only 1.5% of companies in the Russell 3000 index have failed Say on Pay votes so far this year, according to a report by Harvard Law School’s Forum on Corporate Governance.
In Live Nation’s proxy statement, the company said it believes its “compensation program is reasonable, competitive and strongly focused on pay for performance principles.” A company spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
“We believe that the fiscal year 2022 compensation paid to our named executive officers was appropriate and aligned with Live Nation’s fiscal year 2022 results,” the company stated in its proxy, citing the company’s 44% growth in revenue to $16.7 billion in 2022.
Influential shareholder advisory groups Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended shareholders vote against Live Nation’s executive officers’ compensation, citing a “misalignment” between pay and performance in the structure of certain stock equity grants.
ISS actually estimates Rapino’s 2022 compensation higher than what Live Nation published in its proxy — at $156 million for the year. The group raised specific concerns over a “mega grant” Rapino received in July 2022 that it said was worth $120.5 million and a similar award CFO Berchtold received worth $52.6 million. ISS contends the grants were not adequately linked to achieving sustained higher stock prices. Total Live Nation shareholder returns were negative over a one-year period and underperformed the S&P 500 Index, ISS says.
“The current structure could reward these executives for short-term or merely temporary increases in stock price,” ISS researchers wrote, adding that the large one-time equity grants paid were “multiple times larger than the total CEO pay for the company’s peer group…lack clear disclosure regarding the rationale for the size of the awards and other details necessary to assess them.”
Glass Lewis also raised concerns over cash signing bonuses of about $6 million received by Rapino and Berchtold.
“The (bonuses) are not subject to any performance or recoupment provisions,” Glass Lewis researchers wrote. “Such pay levels on a one-time basis outpace total compensation levels afforded executives at some of the largest companies in the U.S. despite being subject to considerably weaker vesting and performance conditions.”
Additional reporting by Glenn Peoples.
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: Twitter is facing a lawsuit from dozens of music publishers over copyright infringement; Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee and other reggaeton stars fight back against a massive lawsuit; unsealed documents offer key details on the gun charges against Boosie BadAzz; and much more.
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THE BIG STORY: Twitter’s $250 Million Music Problem
In last week’s least surprising development, the music publishers sued Twitter. After years of warnings from National Music Publishers’ Association — David Israelite called Elon Musk’s website his “top legal focus” earlier this year — dozens of the group’s members filed a sweeping copyright lawsuit in federal court.
Surprise or not, the case is a big deal. The publishers claim that Twitter has infringed over 1,700 different songs from writers like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé — a claim that, if proven, could put the social media giant on the hook for as much as $255 million in damages.
Damages aren’t likely the end goal for the publishers. Licensing deals outside the realm of plain ole music streaming, ranging from social media sites like Instagram to gaming platforms like Roblox to fitness services like Peloton, have become an increasingly large slice of the revenue pie for publishers and songwriters in recent years. But many of those deals only came as settlements to lawsuits — just ask Roblox and Peloton. Twitter, the publishers say, is one of the last holdouts refusing to sign such a deal.
To read more about the lawsuit, including the actual complaint itself, go read our entire story here.
If it doesn’t end in a quick settlement, the case will also be a fascinating look at the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, a federal law that limits how websites like Twitter can be sued over copyright infringement by their users — and one that has long frustrated content owners. The DMCA provides sites like Twitter with immunity from litigation over material uploaded by their users, so long as they promptly remove infringing content and ban repeated violators from the platform. The new lawsuit claims Twitter failed to do either of those things, meaning the site has legally forfeited the DMCA’s protections.
In that sense, the lawsuit against Twitter is something of spiritual sequel to a series of cases filed against internet service providers like Cox, which pioneered the argument that providers had waived the DMCA’s safe harbor by failing to crack down on subscribers who repeatedly infringed. After a federal judge ruled that Cox had lost the DMCA’s protections, a jury later ordered the company to pay $1 billion in damages to the three major music companies. Yes, billion, with a “B.”
Will those same arguments work against Twitter? Stay tuned.
Other top stories this week…
MASSIVE REGGAETON CASE – Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee, Karol G and dozens of other artists asked a federal judge to toss out a sprawling copyright lawsuit that claims hundreds of reggaeton tracks infringed a single 1989 song. In their motion to end the case, Daddy Yankee and many other stars argued that the accusers are “effectively claiming ownership of an entire genre of music.” Bad Bunny, in his own filing, said the case aims to “stake monopolistic control over the reggaeton genre.”
BOOSIE BADAZZ GUN CHARGE – Newly-unsealed charging documents against rapper Boosie Badazz revealed that his recent federal gun charge came after San Diego police tracked his Instagram account and even used a helicopter to locate him in an allegedly gang-affiliated neighborhood.
BAD SERVICE? A judge ruled that Sony Music Entertainment could serve a copyright lawsuit on a TikTok rapper by sending him a message through his DMs. The ruling detailed how the label’s lawyers had spent months unsuccessfully trying to do so in-person — including showing up to his mom’s house on Mother’s Day “in hopes that he would be there to celebrate with her.”
50 CENT ENDS BOOZE BATTLE – The rapper reached a settlement with Rémy Martin to resolve a lawsuit that claimed his Branson brand of cognac copied the design of the company’s bottles. The confidential deal will end litigation that 50 Cent’s company had called “meritless” and designed to “destroy a competitor.”
Street Mob Records has signed a worldwide deal with Cinq Music to distribute the label and expand its opportunities in branding, sponsorships, merchandising and synchronization. The deal will also include new talent discovery for Street Mob Records.
Founded by Fuerza Regida’s frontman Jesús Ortiz Paz (a.k.a. JOP), Street Mob Records’ artists include Chino Pacas, Calle 24, Ángel Ureta, Chuy Montana, Linea Personal and more rising regional Mexican music — or música mexicana as it is also called — acts.
“We have worked with Cinq for years and know that they’re committed to the genre,” said Paz in a statement to Billboard Español. “It’s only natural that we should partner with them to grow and expand Street Mob – combining their infrastructure, experience, and reach with our talent.”
“We bet on people, not just music, and it’s obvious that Jesus Ortiz Paz is going to carry his success as an artist into his label,” added Cinq Music president Barry Daffurn. “We are excited to team up with Street Mob Records to accelerate their growth. Cinq already brings billions of streams a month to the music world – now, we’re going to add incredible fuel to that fire with these important artists.”
Since 2018, Cinq Music has also been working with Rancho Humilde — Fuerza Regida’s label — another independent label at the forefront of música mexicana’s recent growth.
“Regional Mexican [music] is one of the hottest and fastest genres in the world right now, so to have that relationship with someone like Jesús means a lot to us,” continued Daffurn. “From the time we first started working in regional Mexican music, and the first time I sat down with Jimmy [Humilde] of Rancho Humilde, our goal was to bring this music global. The vision at that point was not to make it regional Mexican music, but more música mexicana, expanding it outside that network, to all the countries outside of [Latin America.] Corridos are leading that global expansion.”
Earlier this month, Street Mob Records and Cinq Music teamed up to release Chino Pacas’ “Yo Preferí Chambear,” which was the premiere of their new partnership. The video already racked up 2.1 million views on YouTube since it dropped 11 days ago.
In March, Chino Pacas entered the Billboard Hot 100 with “El Gordo Trae El Mando,” the artist’s first entry in the historic, all-genres chart.
“We’re operating as a distributor, from a technical standpoint, but as a company, we don’t work with everyone. The artists and labels that we do work with are very high touch,” said Daffurn. “We’re helping them with administrative support, full service marketing, and there’s money involved to make investments so they can build their own infrastructure and grow that way.”
Fuerza Regida earned its first entry on Billboard Hot 100 in January with “Bebe Dame” alongside Grupo Frontera, a romantic cumbia jam with a grupera swing that peaked at No. 25. Since then, they’ve placed three other tracks on the all-genres chart, “Ch y La Pizza” with Natanael Cano, “Igualito a Mi Apá” with Peso Pluma, and their latest “TQM” on their own.
Niall Horan has signed a new worldwide publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group. Already a signee of Capitol Records, his new deal with UMPG sees the artist uniting both recorded and songwriting efforts under the Universal Music umbrella. Previously, he was signed to an administrative agreement with Downtown Music Publishing, beginning in 2017. The […]
Garage rock revivalists The Hives and their management company, ATC, signed with music distributor FUGA to release the band’s first album in over a decade. The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons arrives Aug. 11, though the group has already released two singles with videos — the scorchers “Bogus Operandi” and “Countdown to Shutdown.” The sharp-dressed Swedes, who made a splash in the early-aughts with singles including “Hate to Say I Told You So” and “Main Offender,” haven’t released a new album since 2012’s self-released Disque Hives. “Bridging the gap between old and new, FUGA’s digital-first approach will help lead The Hives into this new era of music consumption, and allows us the flexibility and transparency the band were looking for with their new release partner,” said Matthew Greer of ATC.
Synthpop confectioners Magdalena Bay signed with Mom+Pop Music. The duo of Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin recently played Coachella, with Lollapalooza on deck later this summer, and are coming off the April release of digital EP Mini Mix Vol. 3 and its accompanying VHS-quality video. The band’s debut album, Mercurial World, was released in October 2021 by Luminelle. Details on their upcoming Mom+Pop releases will be announced later this year, the label said.
Red Dirt mainstays Josh Abbott Band signed with Make Wake Artists / Deep Roots Management. The Texas road warriors will be co-managed by Make Wake’s Chris Happy and Deep Roots’ Dylan Wright and be day-to-day’d by Make Wake’s Eric Berger. Since singing with new management — they were previously with Triple 8 — the band has dropped two singles off their Pretty Damn Tough imprint: “Country Nights” and “My Dad And His Truck.” JAB’s agent remains Henry Glascock at WME.
Rapper-producer Cash Cobain signed to Giant Music, the label venture launched last year by Irving and Jeffrey Azoff. The NYC artist’s first release on Giant, “Slizzy Gods,” dropped last month. Giant Music’s roster includes Tay B, Ayleen Valentine, K.Flay, New West (with Republic), and SwaVay (with Def Jam). Cash’s managers are Makeda Tewodros, Glyn Brown and Will Foster.
Nashville (by way of Long Island) singer-songwriter Ben Goldsmith signed with Sony Music Nashville, UTA and Universal Music Publishing Group Nashville, and over this past weekend played a little festival called Bonnaroo. Not bad for an artist who graduated high school less than two weeks ago. Goldsmith has released four tracks to date, the most recent being the big-voiced ballad “Flowers In Your Hair,” which’ll be part of his debut album, The World Between My Ears, coming Sept. 22. He is managed by Mike Crowley of Crowley Artist Management.
Chris Lane established his own label, Voyager Records, and formed a partnership with Jay DeMarcus’ Red Street Records ahead of new music. The country star previously was signed to Big Loud, scoring three No. 1s on Country Airplay — most recently with 2019’s “Big, Big Plans” — and a pair of No. 8s on the Top Country Albums chart. In explaining his pair-up with Red Street, Lane said the label “supports my vision for music” and called DeMarcus a “great friend.”
Nashville-based alternative pop group Nightly signed with ONErpm, which will release their sophomore album Wear Your Heart Out on Aug. 25. The trio consisting of Jonny Capeci, Joey Beretta and Nick Sainato have been featured on a slew of tracks in recent years, including by Ayokay (“Sleepless Nights,” “Amnesia”), NOTD (“About You”) and Vaultboy (“why u gotta be like that”). They recently dropped the up-tempo title track off the upcoming album. Nightly’s manager, Nikki Boon of Neon Coast, commented, “Because of the quality of Nightly’s new music and their headline touring alongside our new partner ONErpm, we believe that Nightly is poised to have their biggest year yet and grow their fanbase on an even larger international level.”
Seattle hardcore band Filth is Eternal has signed with MNRK Music Group for a worldwide deal ahead of new music this fall. Scott Givens, MRNK’s senior vp of rock & metal, says, “Filth Is Eternal are an amazing band and an amazing addition to our roster. MNRK Heavy is committed to breaking new artists, and we look forward to working together with the band to bring their artistic vision to the masses.” FIE are managed by Mike Messina at Quiet Panic and booked by Ian Koletsis aT Sound Talent Group.
Singer-songwriter Kyla Imani signed with PULSE Music Group and Stargate as part of their LAAMP Music initiative for new talent. Imani, a NYC native, has already reeled in millions of streams for her songs, including “These Boys Ain’t It” and “it’s not that deep.” — and earlier this month released the track “21 Forever.” She is managed/booked by L. Londell McMillan and The NorthStar Group.
Virtual characters Jun Akane and Yuki Kitashiro have been added to the roster of the PRISM Project, a virtual talent management agency in the Sony Music Entertainment family of virtual talent brands.
Music City Signings: Concord Music signed Lindsay Ell to a publishing administration deal … Singer-songwriter Joey Hendricks reached a joint-venture publishing agreement with Warner Chappell Nashville and daschent … Houston native Triston Marez inked a management contract with the Erv Woolsey Co.
