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Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter after a protracted legal battle and months of uncertainty. The question now is what the billionaire Tesla CEO will actually do with the social media platform.
Musk ousted three top Twitter executives on Thursday, according to two people familiar with the deal who said he was in charge. Such a shakeup was widely expected, but Musk has otherwise made contradictory statements about his vision for the company — and shared few concrete plans for how he will run it.
The people wouldn’t say if all the paperwork for the deal, originally valued at $44 billion, had been signed or if the deal had closed. A Delaware judge had ordered that the deal be finalized by Friday.
Late Thursday, Musk tweeted, “the bird has been freed,” a reference to Twitter’s logo.
Twitter’s users, advertisers and employees are parsing Musk’s every move in an effort to guess where he might take the company — but the mercurial tech executive has not made the job easy.
He has criticized Twitter’s dependence on advertisers, but made a statement Thursday that seemed aimed at soothing their fears. He has complained about restrictions on speech on the platform — but then vowed he wouldn’t let it become a “hellscape.” And for months it wasn’t even clear if he wanted to control the company at all.
After Musk signed a deal to acquire Twitter in April, he tried to back out of it, leading the company to sue him to force him to go through with the acquisition.
Friday’s deadline to close the deal was ordered by the Delaware Chancery Court in early October. The New York Stock Exchange notified investors that it will suspend trading in shares of Twitter before the opening bell Friday in anticipation of the company going private under Musk.
Musk has been signaling more recently that the deal is going through. He strolled into the company’s San Francisco headquarters Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink, changed his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit,” and tweeted “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!”
The people familiar with the deal said Musk has fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and Chief Legal Counsel Vijaya Gadde. Both people insisted on anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the deal.
Musk privately clashed with Agrawal in April, immediately before deciding to make a bid for the company, according to text messages later revealed in court filings.
Around the same time, he publicly criticized Gadde, the company’s top lawyer, in a series of tweets. A wave of harassment of Gadde from other Twitter accounts followed, including racist and misogynistic attacks, in addition to calls for Musk to get rid of her. After she was fired, the harassment on the platform began again.
In his first big move earlier on Thursday, Musk said that he is buying the platform to help humanity and doesn’t want it to become a “free-for-all hellscape.”
The message appeared to be aimed at addressing concerns among advertisers — Twitter’s chief source of revenue — that Musk’s plans to promote free speech by cutting back on moderating content will open the floodgates to more online toxicity and drive away users.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk wrote in an uncharacteristically long message for the Tesla CEO, who typically projects his thoughts in one-line tweets.
He continued: “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”
Musk has previously expressed distaste for advertising and Twitter’s dependence on it, suggesting more emphasis on other business models such as paid subscriptions that won’t allow big corporations to dictate policy on how social media operates. But on Thursday, he assured advertisers he wants Twitter to be “the most respected advertising platform in the world.”
The note is a shift from Musk’s position that Twitter is unfairly infringing on free speech rights by blocking misinformation or graphic content, said Pinar Yildirim, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
But it’s also a realization that having no content moderation is bad for business, putting Twitter at risk of losing advertisers and subscribers, she said.
“You do not want a place where consumers just simply are bombarded with things they do not want to hear about, and the platform takes no responsibility,” Yildirim said.
As concerns rise about the direction of Twitter’s content moderation, European Union Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted to Musk on Friday that “In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules.”
Breton and Musk met in May and appeared in a video together in which Musk said he agreed with the 27-nation bloc’s strict new online regulations. Its Digital Services Act threatens big tech companies with billions in fines if they don’t police their platforms more strictly for illegal or harmful content such as hate speech and disinformation.
Musk is expected to speak to Twitter employees directly Friday if the deal is finalized, according to an internal memo cited in several media outlets. There is internal confusion and low morale tied to fears of layoffs or a dismantling of the company’s culture and operations.
The Washington Post reported last week that Musk told prospective investors that he plans to cut three quarters of Twitter’s 7,500 workers when he becomes owner of the company. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberation.
Musk has spent months deriding Twitter’s “spam bots” and making sometimes conflicting pronouncements about Twitter’s problems and how to fix them.
Thursday’s note to advertisers shows a newfound emphasis on advertising revenue, especially a need for Twitter to provide more “relevant ads” — which typically means targeted ads that rely on collecting and analyzing users’ personal information.
Yildirim said that, unlike Facebook, Twitter has not been good at targeting advertising to what users want to see. Musk’s message suggests he wants to fix that, she said.
Executives at one of the largest independent ticketing companies in North America believe malware hidden inside a tracking pixel used for sending customers target advertisements was the source of two-and-a-half-year credit card skimming operation.
Company officials with See Tickets North America, a subsidiary of French entertainment conglomerate Vivendi, tell Billboard that criminals were able to operate a sophisticated credit card skimming fraud on See Tickets checkout pages. While See Tickets officials didn’t detail which events were impacted, the company is one of the largest ticketing sites for indie promoters in North America with clients that include Pitchfork Festival and Disco Donnie Presents’ Freaky Deaky festival, as well as venues like the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California.
Tracking pixels are typically used to identify customers and share information about the consumer with ad networks and other large technology companies. One popular use of tracking pixels in the events business is to serve ads to fans who visited a music festivals website but did not purchase tickets, in hopes of enticing them to make a purchase.
Company officials believe that an exploit in the pixel See Tickets was using allowed criminals to take snap shots of credit card transactions as they happened without having to break into See Tickets system or database. The malicious code first appeared on the site on June 25, 2019, about nine months before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the shutdown of the live entertainment industry.
“At See Tickets we take securing customer information very seriously and deeply regret this incident occurred,” Boris Patronoff, CEO of See Tickets North America, told Billboard in a statement. “We also understand how this may have negatively impacted on our clients and their customers. We conducted an immediate investigation as soon as the issue was discovered and communicated with clients and customers the moment it was possible to do so. We have since taken additional measures to further strengthen our security,.”
Company officials became aware of the security breach in April 2021 after being contacted by credit card investigators looking at fraudulent charges linked to purchases on See Tickets website site. Within days of being notified, the ticketing company hired two forensic investigation teams to investigate the breach. In January of this year, the malicious code was eradicated from the site.
Last month, See Tickets concluded its investigation and began notifying state law enforcement officials with the details of the breach. While See Tickets’ own customer and promoter data was not accessed during the breach, criminals were able to obtain details from credit card transactions including full name, address, card number, expiration date and CVV.
See Tickets says a majority of ticket buyers who used the site were not impacted by the breach and note that social security numbers, state identification numbers and bank account information was not exposed due to this incident, as they are not stored in its systems.
The breach is the second major hack of a ticketing company in five years. In 2018, hackers briefly took over the Ticketfly home page and took parts of the company offline for months grinding much of the independent music industry to a halt. Ticketfly users and client data were stolen during the attack and wound up on the dark web because of the attack.
AEG Presents company The Bowery Presents announced today the acquisition and opening of Racket, its newest New York City venue. Opening in 2023, Racket takes over the old Highline Ballroom space on West 16th Street — right next to the Western Beef and across the street from the bustling Chelsea Market.
The general admission spot will be The Bowery Presents’ most intimate venue on the island and will serve as an important linchpin in the company’s ecosystem of artist development. The company has a well-documented history of working closely with artists as they ascend from intimate venues to sold out arenas and stadiums.
“We are excited to welcome Racket to The Bowery Presents family. Racket is very much the sister venue to Music Hall of Williamsburg: a fundamental building block for us in Manhattan, and an important addition to Bowery’s commitment to both artist development and amazing experiences for our fans and partners,” says the Bowery Presents founder John Moore and his partner Jim Glancy in a joint statement.
In addition to filling a much-needed gap in terms of capacity and location in the area’s live music scene, Racket will further expand Bowery’s venue ownership and booking footprint across NYC, joining Music Hall of Williamsburg (650 capacity), Webster Hall (1,350 capacity), Brooklyn Steel (1,800 capacity), Terminal 5 (3,000 capacity), and Forest Hills Stadium (13,000 capacity). The company also books and promotes hundreds of concerts in theaters, parks, and arenas in the region. Like all Bowery venues, Racket will be available for private events.
Racket’s opening lineup will be announced in the coming weeks.
Universal Music Group said revenues rose 13.3% to 2.66 billion euros in the third quarter at constant currency, as sales from BTS, BLACKPINK and Ado helped the world’s largest record label report growth across all segments on Thursday. Without considering changes in foreign currency exchange rates, revenues were up 23.7%.
The first of the major labels to report earnings this season, UMG said recorded music revenue grew 10.1%, music publishing revenues grew 6.9% and merchandise and other revenues grew 101.1% in the third quarter ending compared to a year ago based on constant currency conversion.
“Through our innovation, global reach, and unique understanding of the evolution of the market, we are continually improving the monetization of music and music-related content, generating high-quality revenue and recurring income from more sources than ever before,” UMG Chairman and Chief Executive Sir Lucian Grainge said in a statement.
UMG’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 9.1% compared to the year ago quarter, driven by the strong increase in revenue.
Included in the revenue growth for the quarter was a 71 million euro benefit from the settlement of a copyright infringement lawsuit with an internet service provider, the company said. UMG also said the quarter included a 21 million euro hit in its music publishing division from a change in accounting policy. These factors also provided a 52 million benefit and a 7 million euro drag respectfully to the company’s EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter.
Q3 Results:
Company-wide revenues rose 13.3% to $2.664 million in constant currency for the third quarter ending Sept. 30 from a year ago.Recorded Music revenues rose 10.1% to €2,060 million in constant currency.Subscription and streaming revenue grew 7.7% in constant currency, with subscription revenue up 8.7% in constant currency.Ad-supported streaming revenue grew 5.2% in constant currency.Physical revenue declined 9.6% in constant currency, which the company attributed to a weaker release schedule compared to the prior year.Downloads and other digital revenue were up 55.7% in constant currency in large part due to the settlement of the copyright infringement lawsuit.License and other revenue rose 30.2% in constant currency helped by strong touring revenues.Merchandising and other revenue of 189 million euros was up 101.1% in constant currency due to a rebound in touring-related merchandise revenue.
Bored Ape #9797, better known as “Jimbo,” has signed to Create Music Group for distribution and to Milo Stokes, who helped discover Trippie Redd and Tekashi 6ix9ine, for management. As a first order of business, Create will help release the NFT artist’s latest single and music video “Plastic,” out Friday (Oct. 28), which features the likeness of more than 25 Bored Apes throughout.
“Plastic” was produced by Dream Addix and written by Jimbo and Suie, a trap and hip-hop artist who is a collaborator of Lil Skies. Suie will collaborate on the creation of all forthcoming records with Jimbo, helping bring the Bored Ape to life. Its accompanying music video is directed by Themis “Reit” Chrysafidis, a young creative director and co-founder of 1UP Nova which partners with some of the most popular NFT and digital characters around the world.
When asked why he opted to choose Create as a partner for Jimbo, Stokes explained, “Create is known for being an innovative company in the music industry, and we thought it would be perfect to make a web3 initiative with Create to roll out Jimbo.”
Jimbo is one of many Bored Apes from the popular NFT collection, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), to enter the music business. As Billboard reported last year, Timbaland launched his indie entertainment company, Ape-In Productions (AIP), which uses Bored Ape characters (like its first signee, TheZoo), to perform music. Additionally, UMG’s 10:22 PM label launched KINGSHIP, a virtual group of Bored Ape characters, around the same time.
In addition to the virtual artists that have been formed from this project, BAYC has another tie-in the music biz with Guy Oseary, best known for managing Madonna and U2, who represents the BAYC project.
A key feature of buying a Bored Ape is that the NFT offers monetization or commercial usage rights of the cartoon’s likeness to purchasers. This means it is within a Bored Ape owner’s rights to use an Ape’s likeness to sell music or merchandise as a virtual artist. Although Apes seem to be the most popular collection to develop into virtual artists, Grimes, for example, has also launched an “A.I. girl group” called NPC in recent years.
This trend is in keeping with older animated acts such as Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Archies, or The Gorillaz, as well as virtual idols like Miquela — a virtual singer and influencer with millions of followers. Her song “Hate Me” peaked at No. 47 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart in 2018.
Live shows are back in full force — Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, two years after the pandemic relegated it to hockey games in front of empty seats , is currently in a run of 12 shows in a 23-day period, including country concerts headlined by Keith Urban, Jason Aldean, Reba McEntire and Wynonna Judd on successive Friday nights.
But the live-show reboot has come with its challenges. The volume of acts has caused logistical problems, including a shortage of available tour buses and operators to drive them. The loss of some venues during the shutdown — particularly at the club level — has increased competition among touring acts for bookings in the remaining outlets, creating routing issues. And artists in smaller venues often encounter spotty attendance, thanks to the glut of concert options for a fan base that isn’t entirely back: 20% of American adults remain uncomfortable with the prospect of attending mass public events, according to a May survey by CivicScience.
It’s in that context that independent singer-songwriter Gretchen Peters — whose body of smart, emotional work includes hits with Martina McBride‘s “Independence Day” and Faith Hill‘s “The Secret of Life” — has announced that her current concert tour will be her last. She remains open to performing the occasional one-off concert, much like George Strait has since he quit doing full-fledged tours in 2015. The feedback from fellow artists has been mixed.
“A couple of them said, ‘Oh, no, you can’t stop,’ you know, as if ‘the show must go on’ is actually a rule,” Peters says. “I thought that was an interesting reaction. But then I’ve also gotten — and I won’t mention their names because this is something everybody needs to make public for themselves — but I’ve also gotten quite a few ‘I’m right behind you, girl.’ I’ve gotten a few of those.”
To observers who see only the glamorous, onstage part of touring, the idea of walking away might seem shocking. But the road is never easy — it’s a business in which employees navigate a different working environment on a daily basis, and the lifestyle itself is physically taxing. The costs of putting on a concert in an era of 8% inflation have increased across the board, and many of those expenses are significantly higher. Bus drivers, when they can be located, are sometimes getting double the daily rate they charged before the pandemic. And security costs, compounded by the volume of mass shootings in the 21st century, have risen as much as six times in the last five to eight years.
Those costs are borne by promoters and the acts themselves, who already pay their bands and crews, share commissions with business associates, rent transportation and cover volatile fuel costs. Outside of the top-tier acts, artists are facing a financial squeeze.
“They can’t go out and charge $125, $150 a ticket, so they either have to cut their operating costs [or] go out with less crew, or that cost gets passed on to the promoter. And the only way for the promoter to recoup is to keep their costs down, which is very difficult to do,” says Action Entertainment Collaborative partner Nick Meinema (Trace Adkins, High Valley) . “But the audience is not willing, or in some cases not able, to afford a higher ticket price. That becomes a conundrum.”
There are ways to combat the problem. Some of Meinema’s artists are cutting fuel costs by refusing to tour west of the Rocky Mountains unless they receive a superb contract. Others are declining Canadian offers, choosing to avoid customs issues on top of the fuel costs, or they are asking to book 10-day runs that cover two weekends and the days in between instead of traveling only on the weekend before driving back home. Additionally, some artists are booking fewer dates and discovering in the process that they create higher demand — and higher grosses — by becoming a little more scarce.
“Country music artists overplay at every level,” Meinema says.
During 2023, Reliant Talent artist David Nail will be doing more soft-ticket shows — fairs and festivals — where the income is more reliable.
Transportation has not been. Nail had an issue this past summer when Nashville coach companies ran out of buses. Two days before a Thursday getaway, his team finally located a vehicle in Indiana: Someone had to travel to pick it up and drive it back to Nashville, adding gas charges in the process. And it was only the morning of their departure that they were able to fly a retired driver who still had his license from Texas to man the wheel.
“A lot of that has to do, obviously, with everybody touring, but a lot of huge tours have 15 to 20 buses,” Nail says. “I can remember thinking, ‘Man, I might have to call Luke Bryan and just see if maybe he could double up on the buses and maybe throw me a bone.’”
In the face of that shortage, Meinema has a client who plans to tour strictly in the spring and fall in 2023, taking a summer vacation from the road for the first time in 26 years after a lackluster 2022 experience.
“The shows were great, the money was great, the merch was great, the travel — it was too much, not the level that that artist was accustomed to having,” he says. “It just didn’t feel worth it.”
While much of the fan base is acting as if the pandemic is over, the coronavirus remains an unpredictable issue. Nail has picked up some good money by subbing last minute for other artists whose teams suffered COVID-19 infections. But the artists who have to back out of the shows still have to pay their bands and crews. And the thought of losing dates to the virus is haunting.
“It’s impossible to not feel a little different, whether it’s the meet-and-greets or whatever,” says Nail.
Peters has thought at times during a performance — particularly when the reboot began — that working without a mask made her vulnerable in smaller, indoor venues.
“I was very appreciative of the audience members that masked up early on,” she says. “But just to think, ‘Boy, how much air am I sucking in here tonight?’ I mean, I can’t wear a mask because I have to sing. For somebody with asthma, it was surreal and a bit terrifying.”
By contrast, Peters is comfortable with her decision to back out of touring, ready to discover how her work/life balance will change when her schedule is a little more predictable. She’ll miss the shows, but that’s the smallest portion of the day.
“There’s a whole list of other things that I really won’t miss,” she says. “[Particularly] airlines — I mean, it’s a long list.”
Nail, on the other hand, is committed to slugging it out, even if touring remains unpredictable for the near future.
“I don’t have that plan B,” he says. “This has to work, one way or another.”
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A federal judge has rejected one of Pandora’s key arguments in its legal battle with comedians, dismissing claims that a licensing group called Word Collections was operating as an illegal comedy “cartel.”
Months after a slew of comedians (including the estates of George Carlin and Robin Williams) sued Pandora to seek more royalties for spoken-word content, the streamer fired back in May with allegations that the comics had violated federal antitrust laws by doing so.
Pandora claimed that by teaming up with Word Collections to demand such royalties, the comedians were effectively trying to create a “monopolistic portfolio” of comedy rights, aimed at “dramatically increasing” the prices streamers must pay for comedy.
But in a ruling on Wednesday, Judge Mark C. Scarsi dismissed those claims. He said Pandora had not properly alleged that Word Collections and the comedians had conspired to fix prices, nor that they amounted to an illegal monopoly in the comedy world.
“Pandora’s description of Word Collections’ impressive but short list of comedians whose works it licenses does not suffice to demonstrate that Word Collections owns a dominant share of the comedy recording market in the United States,” the judge wrote.
The ruling is a blow for Pandora, though not a fatal one. The judge left open the possibility that the streamer could re-raise the issue, and the company can still pivot to other defenses, like the more fundamental argument that comics are simply not legally entitled to the added royalties they’re seeking.
A rep for Pandora declined comment.
Judge Scarsi’s decision came amid a long and tricky fight over how and when streamers like Pandora must pay for the comedy recordings that appear on their services – a more unsettled legal question than one might think.
Every piece of music is covered by two copyrights – one for the sound recording itself and another for the underlying work that’s been recorded. Streaming services like Pandora pay for both when it comes to songs, but for comedy records, they’ve typically only ever paid for the recordings.
Part of the problem is that there is no society like ASCAP or BMI to collect such royalties for spoken works. Over the past 18 months, two groups – Word Collections and Spoken Giants – have moved to fill that void and have begun asking streaming services to pay those fees for comedy; those efforts are what prompted Spotify to pull down some comedy content last fall.
And since February, a number of comedians have taken the issue to court, accusing Pandora of willfully refusing to pay for content: “Pandora did what most goliaths do: it decided it would infringe now to ensure it had this very valuable intellectual property on its platform to remain competitive, and deal with the consequences later. Later is now.”
Pandora has sharply refuted the allegations, arguing it has “always satisfied its copyright obligations” by paying “millions of dollars in license fees every year” for comedy recordings. It says that comedy records are less akin to music and more like movies, for which streamers like Netflix typically pay only a single, all-encompassing license, regardless of the various elements that are used in the film.
If Pandora’s antitrust counterclaims remain dismissed, those core arguments about copyrights and licenses could now take center stage in the case.
Richard Busch, a prominent music litigator who is representing the comedians, told Billboard on Thursday that he and his clients are “obviously very happy with the decision.”
“We always believed the antitrust counterclaim Pandora brought was ludicrous and a transparent attempt to intimidate these legendary comedians,” Busch said. “The court could not have been clearer in its ruling. We now hope to be able to focus on and litigate the serious copyright infringement claims that are at the heart of this litigation.”
Warner Music Group (WMG) is collaborating with NFT marketplace OpenSea to enable select WMG artists to build and extend their fan communities in Web3. Under the partnership, WMG artists will be offered early access to OpenSea’s new drops product along with improved discoverability, personalized storytelling on customized landing pages and OpenSea’s safety and security features. They will also receive dedicated support and best practices from the OpenSea team while enjoying their own dedicated drop pages to host limited-edition projects. The first collection will be a collaboration between Warner Records UK and Web3 company Probably Nothing, which recently launched Probably a Label, a Web3 record label in partnership with Warner Records.
Audius, a decentralized music community and discovery platform for developers, artists and fans, acquired virtual music experience platform SoundStage.fm. Based in Barcelona, SoundStage.fm offers interactive experiences for fans — enabling engagement through dancing and live-reaction based functions — while providing new branding and monetization opportunities for artists. The platform has featured artists including Firebeatz, Kill Paris and ill.Gates.
Independent digital music licensing partners Merlin signed a new partnership with China-based short-form video platform Kuaishou. Under the agreement, Merlin members’ music will be available across Kuaishou products including Kwai and SnackVideo. Kuaishou boasts over 1 billion monthly active users across the globe, according to a press release.
Exceed Talent Capital, a platform that enables people to purchase SEC-compliant shares of talent, partnered with Lil Durk to offer an IPO for his upcoming OTF collaboration release of the song “Bedtime” with his artist Doodie Lo, allowing fans to participate in revenues of royalties from the song. To celebrate the partnership, Lil Durk and Exceed will release the “Trenches All-Access Pass” NFT, enabling exclusive access to the private Grand Theft Auto roleplay server built by Lil Durk and his OTF Gaming company. The Exceed presale will grant immediate lifetime access, limited edition in-game wearables and offer holders first dibs on shares from the music IPO.
Sony Music Entertainment Middle East and Kuwait-based creative studio, music and video production company Ghmza partnered to produce music and promote emerging Khaleeji pop artists across the Middle East. Actor and Arabic pop singer Bader Al Shuaibi and Kuwaiti singer, songwriter and TV personality Bashar al-Shatti will be the first two artists to work with Sony under the new partnership.
FaZe Holdings, parent company of gaming and youth culture platform FaZe Clan, will develop original content, private fan events, exclusive merchandise and more in partnership with Xfinity. Under the deal, Xfinity will become the official internet and mobile provider for FaZe Clan. The two companies will also host The Gig, a series of private music and gaming-crossover events for college students, featuring hip-hop artist and longtime FaZe Clan family member Offset. Fans in attendance will have the opportunity to meet FaZe Clan members, learn about exclusive Xfinity offers for students and more. The first show will take place Nov. 3 at Boston’s MGM Ballroom, followed by a second at the Tabernacle in Atlanta on Nov. 10. The two companies will additionally produce an original series, Rig Raiders Brought to you by Xfinity, featuring FaZe Clan members and special guests delivering game set-ups for underserved creators and communities. Xfinity branding will also be integrated into FaZe Clan’s ongoing programming across all channels and content.
Community-driven, open-source artificial intelligence company Stability AI announced $101 million in funding. The round was led by Coatue, Lightspeed Venture Partners and O’Shaughnessy Ventures LLC. The company will use the funding to accelerate the development of open AI models for image, language, audio, video, 3D and more, for consumer and enterprise use cases worldwide. Stability AI is the company behind Stable Diffusion, a free and open-source text-to-image generator that launched in August. Stability AI’s consumer-facing product DreamStudio boasts over 1 million registered users across more than 50 countries, according to a press release.
Sony Music struck a joint venture with Josh and Sam Fluxgold under the banner Oneway Records to sign and develop artists in Israel. The JV will focus on artists with international appeal. (Variety)
Dim Mak En Fuego — the Latin imprint of Steve Aoki‘s record label Dim Mak — has signed Ecuadorian-Colombian producer and DJ 2DEEP. The co-owner of reggaeton-electronic event Reggaetonlandia, 2DEEP most recently co-produced Natanael Cano and Aoki’s “Nataaoki,” which dropped earlier this year. He’s slated to release his freshman EP next year, his first project under Dim Mak En Fuego. 2DEEP is the first producer/DJ to join the label’s roster, which includes artists such as Andrezka and AquihayAquihay. – Griselda Flores
Melle Brown and ESSEL are among the first signees to Parachute, Virgin Music UK‘s new distribution and artist services arm for dance and electronic artists with crossover appeal. The imprint is inspired by the late ’70s sounds of Casablanca’s Parachute Records. The first unofficial single from Parachute was Brown’s “Feel About You” feat. Annie Mac. It was followed by ESSEL’s “Don’t Walk Away.”
Volumetric capture and immersive content company YOOM, formerly known as Tetavi, raised $15 million from investors including Jimmy Iovine, Finneas O’Connell, SpringHill Company CEO Maverick Carter, Darkroom CEO Justin Lubliner and Main Street Advisors founder, chairman and CEO Paul Wachter. All have signed on as strategic partners, joining the company’s largest existing investors and shareholders including Insight Partners, Marc Rowan and Aaron Stone.
Musician and Web3 artist Daniel Allan signed with CAA for representation. According to the agency, Allan’s NFT music projects have generated over $700,000 and more than 20 million streams worldwide. Like his sophomore EP Overstimulated, his latest EP Glass House was released with the use of NFTs on Sept. 30.
Session and Songwriters of North America (SONA) partnered to make Session’s app, Session Studio, available to all SONA members. Session Stuio allows SONA members to capture song and recording data at the point of creation and deliver it downstream to managers, labels, publishers, CMOs and digital service providers. Members will also have access to Session Studio’s collaboration tools. Exclusive resources will be rolled out to SONA members as part of the collaboration.
American Idol runner-up HunterGirl signed with 19 Recordings/BMG. The singer-songwriter released her debut track on the label, “Hometown Out of Me,” on Friday (Oct. 21).
Oak View Group (OVG) signed an exclusive multi-year arena naming rights agreement with Baltimore-based CFG Bank. Under the deal, OVG’s forthcoming arena in the city will be renamed CFG Bank Arena. The venue is projected to open in February 2023. The agreement includes prominent exterior and interior signage, exclusive benefits to CFG Bank clients, cardholders and employees and the launch of a new community engagement program. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The Hives signed with Matt Greer at ATC Management. Greer will co-manage the Swedish five-piece rock band alongside Brian Message and Courtyard Management’s Chris Hufford. The band was previously managed by Cyndy Villano at Do Good Work Management.
Production music company KPM Music launched a Web3 community that will offer music creators the opportunity to purchase digital collectibles entitled KPM Music Genesis Collection, including music from KPM’s “Greensleeves” series. The collectibles will be available exclusively on TuneGO, a Web3 platform operating on the Flow blockchain.
Indie singer VÉRITÉ partnered with Troy Carter and Suzy Ryoo‘s Venice Music. Venice offers tools, services and support on part with major labels while allowing artists to retain ownership and creative autonomy over their work.
J-Pop star Ado signed with Geffen Records. Ado — the voice actor behind the lead character in One Piece Film Red, the 15th film in the blockbuster Japanese franchise — provided vocals for seven songs featured in the film and on its official soundtrack.
Vietnamese/Chinese-American artist Spence Lee, formerly known as Shotta Spence, signed with 88rising in partnership with Mike WiLL Made-It/Ear Drummers Records. He will release his latest single, “On God,” on Friday (Oct. 28).
Turkish rapper and DJ Lil Key signed with Atlantic Records Germany, marking the first time the label has signed an artist from outside Germany.
CD Baby signed an agreement with fan engagement platform Laylo to offer CD Baby users an exclusive discount on Laylo’s Pro tier. Laylo allows artists to notify their fans about new music releases, content, merch and event announcements via text, email and Facebook Messenger.
Nettwerk Records signed Massachusetts-based lo-fi artist and music producer Towerz and Mississippi-based rapper/singer/producer Laeland.
In 2021, collections began to rise again after their all-time low the year before due to COVID-19 and its restrictions on travel and live music, according to the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC). Still, in its annual report for 2021, CISAC has found music collections for its worldwide membership are still down 5.1% from pre-pandemic levels as live and public performance income struggles to regain footing. For 2021, collections totaled €9.58 billion ($11.33 billion) compared to €9.32 billion ($10.64 billion) in 2020.
However, there is reason to be optimistic for future reports: CISAC has found that concerts and festivals appear to be faring well in 2022 so far, and the tourism industry is eyeing 2023-2024 as a target for a return to normal collections. Japan in particular has become a thought leader in pandemic recovery, offering its citizens discounts, coupons and subsidies for domestic travel to stimulate the economy. This, CISAC says, helped the return of large scale festivals like Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic. In South America, major festivals and tours like Rock in Rio and Lollapalooza are also expected to have a strong impact on 2022’s forthcoming numbers for live music in its region.
Though in-person events were reported as off to a slow start for 2021, streaming and digital music income is “exceeding expectations” with a 27.5% increase in collections from €2.40 billion ($2.74 billion) in 2020 to €3.06 billion ($3.62 billion) in 2021. This makes digital income an unprecedented high 36.1% share of the total music collections for 2021. Futuresource, the company which provides the data for CISAC’s report, anticipates further grow with double digit hikes in music subscriptions year over year and that there will be over 1 billion music subscribers by 2026.
Subscription numbers for streaming video on demand (SVOD) are expected to falter amid inflation, recession and what they call the “cost of living crisis,” but subscriptions for music are expected to be more impermeable because users only need to pay for one service to receive a rapidly growing catalog of songs rather than paying for multiple services, each with exclusive, smaller libraries.
As Marcelo Castello Branco, CISAC chair of the board and CEO of Brazilian collection management organization União Brasileira de Compositores, wrote in his foreword for his report, “subscription prices are already undervalued and need to be raised.” His comments come just after Apple Music announced that it was raising its subscription price, as did YouTube for the price of its family plan earlier this month. More price hikes for music streaming subscriptions are expected in the coming months with some eyeing Spotify’s long awaited hifi tier as a way to up its price.
When speaking to Billboard about the report, Branco said, “as streaming services move into a more mature phase, it is the right time to review pricing policies for the future…We also need to keep the share of revenue paid to the songwriter constantly under review. This is a fundamental concern.”
Another concern flagged by CISAC leadership: data management or “metadata.” As digital becomes a more and more pivotal piece of rights holders’ income for mechanical and performance royalties, CISAC president and ABBA member Björn Ulvaeus says he estimates “hundreds of millions of dollars… is left on the table” when the data needed to identify and remunerate creators is incomplete or missing.
This can stem from ignorance on the part of composers, honest mistakes and typos, or incomplete information for songs that are released before samples and interpolations are properly cleared. Issues with metadata are expected to continue to rise if left unchecked as more and more artists and songwriters hold out on signing deals with companies who can handle these headaches for them, opting for the DIY route. Not to mention the sheer volume of songs being released has risen significantly in the past decade.
This year, Universal Music Group (UMG) CEO Lucian Grainge told a crowd at Music Matters, a conference in Singapore, that 100,000 new songs are added to streaming platforms each day, most of which are likely from do-it-yourself newcomers. While Ulvaeus notes that work to upgrade ISWC, the identifier for musical works, and educational initiatives like “Credits Due” are helping alleviate this problem, there is still a long way to go.
Certain collection societies are independently working on solutions to this issue. The newfound Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), which is not a member of CISAC, is attempting to match unclaimed mechanical royalties in the U.S. to their rightful owners. In Japan, rights society JASRAC has founded KENDRIX, a data exchange platform to protect authors from “impersonation and other abuses,” says its president Kazumasa Izawa.
Some countries, like South Korea, were greatly affected by systemic changes — some positive, some negative. KOMCA, the country’s collection society, proved to have a success story this year as changes in its digital collection rules led to increased promotion of music subscriptions by the major music platforms. However, in Bulgaria, authors are faced with continued “poor enforcement” of copyright ownership from its authorities, and in Argentina and Brazil, fluctuations in currency exchange rates left its composers and publishers negatively affected.
Brazil’s collection society found that half of the country’s musicians had lost all of their income due to lockdown restrictions over the last few years, and half of the musicians have been forced to find another professional activity.
Live income for 2021, CISAC found, grossed €1.49 billion ($1.76 billion), only up 0.1% from the €1.49 billion ($1.70 billion) made in 2020. Compared to 2019 levels, which Billboard reported as €$3.04 billion, the aftermath of a global pandemic remains stark.
Television and radio, also known as broadcast, income remains the highest revenue source for music publishing, bringing in €3.19 billion ($3.78 billion) for 2021, but its lead fell by 1.8% from 2020, giving way as users ditched their cable boxes and car radios in favor of on-demand listening and viewing options. This is the fifth successive year of steady decline for this category and weaker advertising rates in some markets have now translated into lower usage fees; still, it accounted for 38% of global collections. Digital only lags two percentage points behind it now.
Systemic shifts also led to two major bright spots in the steadily waning sector of broadcast income. Mexico’s broadcast collections rose by 47.8% after a judicial process concluded in the order for satellite broadcaster, SKY, to pay significant royalties in back payment to musicians. Spain’s broadcast income also rose 47.6% due to agreements signed with the main private TV networks in the country. Unlike many other regions, Spain’s advertising revenues were up in 2021 (though still well-below pre-pandemic levels).
CISAC President Björn Ulvaeus: “Digital royalties collected by CISAC societies are growing impressively, but the streaming world is still unfinished business when it comes to ensuring a fair environment to earn a living.” Read the Global Collections Reporthttps://t.co/rI6rB2PRFn pic.twitter.com/42hcnGcAeJ
— CISACNews (@CISACNews) October 27, 2022
CDs, video and vinyl experienced gains this year, up 3.1% from 2020’s €348 million ($397.21 million) to 2021’s €359 million ($424.66 million). Though it’s only 4.2% of total music collections, this small but gaining subset of the business is expected to grow as the vinyl boom continues. As Billboard recently reported, Nashville, Tennessee is ramping up production on new, higher capacity vinyl pressing plants to meet consumer demand after superstars like Adele and Taylor Swift sell massive swathes of vinyl to mostly American and European consumers.
CISAC also included a number of more minor forms of income for mechanical and performing royalties for the music business in its 2021 report as well:
Private Copying Assessment: this category rose an impressive 15.3% for 2021, from $283.0 million in 2020 to $338.31 million in 2021. This represents just 3.4% of the total CISAC society music collections for the year.
Sync: this is up 6.9% this year, from $30 million in 2020 to $33.12 million in 2021. This represents just 0.3% of the total CISAC society music collections for the year.
Rental and Public Lending: collections are down 16.4% this year, from $14 million in 2020 to $33.12 million in 2021. This represents just 0.1% of the total CISAC society music collections for the year.
Publication: collections are up 6.2% this year, from $6.45 million in 2020 to $7.10 million in 2021. This represents just 0.1% of the total CISAC society music collections for the year.
Repography: collections are up 38% this year, from $2.48 million in 2020 to $3.55 million in 2021. This represents less than 0.01% of the total CISAC society music collections for the year.
Looking at the largest countries by music collection size, the U.S. ranked No. 1 again for 2021 with a 23.6% market share, down from 2020’s 27% market share. It has grown collections by 3.5% and increased collections to €2.004 billion from €2.21 billion in 2020.
France, ranked No. 2 with a 11.2% market share, grew 5.4% to €951 million from €902 million in 2019
Japan, ranked No. 3 with a 9.6% market share, declined 2.8% to €818 million from €842 million in 2020.
The U.K., ranked No. 4 with a 9.6% market share, grew a whopping 33.1% to €813 million from €611 million in 2019
Germany, ranked No. 5 with a 9% market share, grew 4% to €766 million from €736 million in 2020
Italy, ranked No. 6 with a 3.6% market share went down -0.2% to €308 million from €310 million in 2020. That year the report showed Italy had fallen a precipitous 35.1% from €477.66 million in 2019
Canada, which switched with Australia to rise to No. 7 with a 3.2% market share, rose 14.0% to €268 from €242 million in 2020
Australia, which swapped with Canada to fall to No. 8 with a 3.1% market share, rose 9.1% to €264 million from €235 million in 2020
South Korea, which from No. 10 to No. 9 this year with a 2.4% market share, grew by 16% to €201 million up from €173 million in 2020
Spain, which rose to No. 10 with a 2.3% market share, rose 26.6% to €199 million from €184 million in 2020
A notable gain below the top ten countries is Scandinavia. Denmark, ranked No. 12, grew by 10.2%, Sweden, ranked No. 13, grew by 21.5%; Norway, ranked No. 18, grew by 33.5%; and Finland, ranked No. 19, grew by 9.4% for 2021. CISAC attributes this to the region’s high share of digital income compared to other countries which helped them weather the continued pandemic effects.
Below features a list of additional emerging markets that gained double digit growth in 2021. Though CISAC does not explain why each of these nations have experienced such success in the last year, the report does include that Indonesia, Thailand, and India’s growth can thank digital and streaming gains and that Mexico benefitted from the aforementioned settlement with broadcaster SKY.
Mexico, ranked no. 17, which gained 10% to achieve a 1.1% marketshare for 2021
China, ranked No. 22, rose a significant 12.3% to hold 0.6% marketshare for 2021
Czech Republic, ranked No. 24, grew 19.1% to achieve 0.5% marketshare for 2021
South Africa, ranked No. 26, grew 10.1% to hold 0.4% marketshare for 2021
India, ranked No. 28, grew a whopping 73.8% to hold 0.4% marketshare for 2021
Chile, ranked 32, grew 23.8% to hold 0.3% marketshare for 2021
Turkey, ranked No. 33, gained 37.1% to hold 0.3% marketshare for 2021
Malaysia, ranked No. 38, grew 31.3% to hold 0.2% marketshare for 2021
Thailand, ranked No. 39 grew 68.8% to hold 0.1% marketshare for 2021
Greece, ranked No. 43, grew 46% to hold 0.1% marketshare for 2021
Indonesia, ranked No. 46, grew 59.4% to also hold 0.1% marketshare for 2021
Visit cisac.org for more.
Britney Spears‘ father and his lawyers should be sanctioned and found in contempt of court for disclosing confidential medical information on his daughter that was under seal, the pop star’s lawyer said Wednesday (Oct. 26) at a hearing that ended with no decision on the issue.
“They’re trying to embarrass Britney Spears and bully Britney Spears, while trying to vindicate Jamie Spears,” said attorney Mathew Rosengart.
The sealed exhibits were included in a motion from Jamie Spears filed in July to compel the deposition of his daughter, which was denied. After the filing was submitted, Rosengart was forced to move to seal the motion to compel. Alex Weingarten, representing Jamie Spears, challenged the sealing.
“Why did he oppose the sealing motion?” Rosengart asked. He urged L.A. Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny to find Weingarten in contempt of court and to issue sanctions against him and Jamie Spears.
“None of this has anything to do with the matters before the court,” responded Weingarten. He said he’ll “refrain from commenting” on Rosengart’s “unnecessary speech.”
Penny agreed to seal the motion. She found that some of the exhibits in the filing were “already ordered sealed and are confidential,” explaining that it was “highly inappropriate for Jamie Spears to proffer these documents.”
In September, Jamie Spears moved for a state appeals court to overturn Penny’s ruling barring him from deposing his daughter over claims that he abused and surveilled her. Weingarten didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
During the hearing, the judge also denied a motion from Lynne Spears for her daughter to cover her $663,203 legal bill. In her motion for fees, she stressed that her daughter was subjected to treatment she “did not believe was warranted.” Spears opposed covering the bill because her mother was never a fiduciary.
The order denying fees was issued as Rosengart continues to probe management firm Tri Star’s involvement in establishing the conservatorship and the firm’s alleged surveillance of Spears. In a discovery order issued on Oct. 10, Penny granted parts of Tri Star’s motion to quash Spears’ subpoena while refusing its effort to get out of providing records and communications relating to allegations made by a former Spears security staffer in The New York Times documentary, Controlling Britney Spears, of electronic surveillance, cloning or monitoring of the pop star’s phone. She found that requests to depose Tri Star executives and produce documents on the issue are “relevant and discoverable.”
Tri Star executive Robin Greenhill, accused of helping Spears’ father spy on her private messages, denied any knowledge of surveillance in a declaration to the court and maintained that no one at the firm “ever suggested monitoring Ms. Spears’ electronic communications.” Lawyers for the firm called requests for information dating back 14 years “grossly overbroad,” stressing that Tri Star was not involved at the outset of the conservatorship.
In the same order, Penny limited the scope of discovery and depositions to the accounting period in 2019, which details money in and out of the estate that year. She also found that requests for information about the establishment of the conservatorship are off limits.
“Evidence of extrinsic fraud is not currently present,” reads the order from Penny, who concluded that “the scope of discovery in the present proceeding must necessarily relate to the pending petitions and filed objections to the petitions.”
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Tri Star attorney Scott Edelman called the ruling a “complete victory” for his client.
“As we have said all along, and the Court correctly held in its ruling, there is no fraud in connection with any of the prior accountings filed as part of Ms. Spears’ conservatorship,” he said. “The Court also correctly held that there was no evidence of any fiduciary relationship between Tri Star, as business manager, and Ms. Spears, as conservatee.”
According to court documents, Jamie Spears owed at least $40,000 to Tri Star for a loan it gave him. Rosengart has stressed the conflict of interest when Jamie Spears hired the firm to manage the conservatorship. Tri Star has been paid more than $18 million from Spears’ estate.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.