State Champ Radio Business
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Earlier this year, Oleg Stavitsky, co-founder/CEO of Endel, laid out a vision for how his company’s AI-driven functional soundscapes could help the major labels — even as anxiety around AI was reaching new heights. “We can process the stems [the audio building blocks of a track] from Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue and come back with a functional sleep version of that album,” Stavitsky told Billboard. At the time, he said his company was in talks with all the major labels about this possibility.
A few short months later, Stavitsky will have a chance to do exactly that: Endel announced a new partnership with Universal Music Group on Tuesday (May 23). In a statement, Endel’s CEO said his company will put “AI to work and help UMG build new and exciting offerings to promote wellness and banish the perceived threat around AI.”
“Our goal was always to help people focus, relax, and sleep with the power of sound,” Stavitsky added. “AI is the perfect tool for this. Today, seeing our technology being applied to turn your favorite music into functional soundscapes is a dream come true.” Artists from Republic and Interscope will be the first to participate — though the announcement omitted any names — with their soundscapes arriving “within the next few months.”
Endel focuses on creating “sound that is not designed for conscious listening,” Stavitsky told Billboard earlier this year. “Music is something you consciously listen to when you actually want to listen to a song or an album or a melody,” he explained. “What we produce is something that blends with the background and is scientifically engineered to put you in a certain cognitive state.”
Endel’s technology can spit out these soundscapes effectively at the click of a button. “The model is trained using the stems that are either produced in-house by our team, led by co-founder and chief composer Dmitry Evgrafov (who’s himself an established neo-classical artist), or licensed from artists that we’ve worked with,” Stavitsky said. “The trick is all of the stems” — Endel has used stems from James Blake, Miguel and Grimes —”are created following the scientific framework created by our product team in consultation with neuroscientists.”
Some people in the music industry have taken to calling sounds designed for sleep, study, or soothing frayed nerves “functional music.” And while it maintains a low profile, it’s an increasingly popular and lucrative space. “Science tells us that nature sounds and water sounds have a calming effect on your cognitive state,” Stavitsky noted this winter. “So naturally, people are turning to this type of content more and more.”
Early in 2022, Endel estimated that the size of the functional music market is 10 billions streams a month across all platforms. (The company has since raised its estimate to 15 billion streams a month.) If true, that would mean functional music is several times more popular than the biggest superstars. “Every day, hundreds of millions of people are self-medicating with sound,” Stavitsky wrote in March. “If you look at the top 10 most popular playlists at any major streaming service, you’ll see at least 3-4 ‘functional’ playlists: meditation, studying, reading, relaxation, focus, sleep, and so on.”
But this has caused the music industry some concern. Major labels have not historically focused on making this kind of music. Most streaming services pay rights holders according to their share of total plays; when listeners turn to functional music to read a book or wind down after a long day, that means they’re not playing major label artists, and the companies make less money. In a memo to staff in January, UMG CEO Lucian Grainge complained that “consumers are increasingly being guided by algorithms to lower-quality functional content that in some cases can barely pass for ‘music.’”
But record companies can’t eliminate listener demand for functional music. It makes sense, then, that they would try to take over a chunk of the market. And Stavitsky has been savvy, actively pushing Endel’s technology as a way for the labels to “win back market share.”
Back in 2019, Endel entered into a distribution agreement for 20 albums with Warner Music Group. And the company announced its new partnership with UMG this week. In a statement, Michael Nash, UMG’s evp and chief digital officer, praised Endel’s “impressive ingenuity and scientific innovation.”
“We are excited to work together,” Nash continued, “and utilize their patented AI technology to create new music soundscapes — anchored in our artist-centric philosophy — that are designed to enhance audience wellness, powered by AI that respects artists’ rights in its development.”
Riser House Records has signed LANCO, welcoming the group to its artist roster. Known for the two-week No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hit “Greatest Love Story,” from the group’s 2018 debut album Hallelujah Nights, LANCO also earned an Academy of Country Music Award for new duo or group of the year, in addition to nominations […]
Lizzy McAlpine, whose TikTok-driven hit “Ceilings” topped Billboard‘s Alternative Streaming Songs chart in March while also marking her first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100, has signed with artist development company Godmode for management, Billboard can reveal.
McAlpine, who recently completed her North American tour, signed with RCA Records in April and is represented by Ben Buchanan, Marlene Tsuchii and Brian Greenbaum at CAA for booking.
Led by co-founder/CEO Talya Elitzer, Godmode’s roster also includes Channel Tres, SG Lewis and JPEGMAFIA. The company additionally encompasses a record label and publishing arm.
Poolside, the artist project of producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Paradise, signed with Ninja Tune imprint Counter Records after self-releasing his three previous albums via his Pacific Standard Records imprint. Poolside’s first release under the label, the single “Each Night” featuring Australian indie-pop band Mazy, dropped Wednesday (May 17). He’s represented by managers Bryan Duquette and Michael Bigham at Another Planet Management and booking agents Avery McTaggart at TBA and Latane Hughes at Wasserman.
Australian electronic rock band Pendulum signed with Mushroom Group and Universal Music Group’s global independent music division Virgin Music Group, which will release the group’s new single, “Halo” featuring Matt Tuck of Bullet For My Valentine, on June 2.
Country singer/songwriter Matt Schuster (“Vienna”) signed with WME for booking and Extended Play for management; he previously signed a publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group.
Rock band Krooked Kings and its label home, Nobody Gets It, signed a deal with Matt Geffen‘s Coup D’Etat Music for distribution (in partnership with ADA Worldwide) and publishing (in partnership with AVEX USA). This is the first signing for Coup D’Etat’s newly-launched distribution division. The band, which just released the album All Out of Good Days, is represented by manager Wade Davis of Nobody Gets It and Alex Douma of CAA for booking.
Country singer/songwriter Tyler Halverson signed to The Erv Woolsey Company for management. Halverson recently released his major label debut single, “Her,” on Atlantic Records.
Lebanese singer Maya Diab (“Sawa,” “Habibi”) signed to Warner Music Middle East, which will release her EP, #MyMayaV, later this year. In addition to her music career, Diab is known across the Arab world as a music producer, TV personality and fashion influencer.
Los Angeles-based indie-electronic duo The Hellp (comprised of vocalist Noah Dillon and producer Chandler Ransom Lucy) signed with Atlantic Records, which released its new single, “California Dream Girl,” on March 16.
Ambient artist/mastering engineer Taylor Deupree signed to Nettwerk, which released his latest song, “Eev,” on May 12. Deupree previously released music via his own label, 12k.
Country, bluegrass and gospel duo Dailey & Vincent signed to Morris Higham Management. Made up of Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent, the duo is signed to BMG Nashville and represented by booking agents Tony Conway, Brandon Mauldin and Cody Payne at Conway Entertainment Group.
Grammy-nominated production and songwriting team Futuristiks: Mike & Keys signed a two-album partnership with Lowly/Create Music Group, kicked off by the release of their new EP, 10 Toes Down featuring Casey Veggies. The duo served as executive producers on Nipsey Hussle‘s Crenshaw mixtape and have also worked with Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Lupe Fiasco, 50 Cent and more.
Los Angeles-based, Toledo, Ohio-bred rapper CNN Mikey signed to Polo G‘s label ODA (Only Dreams Achieve), which will drop the video for his ODA debut single, “FOR MY PEOPLE,” on Wednesday (May 24). CNN Mikey is managed by Mike Maloian and Patrick MacDonald of 25/7 Management.
Sony Classical signed Frankfurt, Germany-based cellist Anastasia Kobekina and will release her debut major label album early next year. Kobekina is managed by Gregor Kotow and Shannen Liu at Liu Kotow International Management & Promotion.
Lauren Records signed Talking Kind, the solo project of Big Nothing member and former Spraynard frontman Pat Graham. The label released his first song, “Damn Shame,” on Thursday (May 18).
One of the most prominent developers of do-it-yourself music creation platforms, BandLab Technologies, raised $25 million in Series B1 financing at a valuation of $425 million, the company announced Tuesday (May 23).
The round was led by existing investor Cercano Management – formerly Vulcan Capital, the venture capital arm of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. Holding company – with participation from Prosus Ventures, a giant technology investor with a portfolio that includes e-commerce, delivery, fintech and education platforms.
The new funding will allow BandLab to augment its work force, offer more emerging creator campaigns, boost its support services – such as BandLab for Education – the company stated in a press release. Last year, the company raised $65 million in a Series B round that valued BandLab at $315 million – $110 million less than the latest valuation – and was led by Vulcan Capital with participation from Caldecott Music Group and K3 Ventures.
BandLabs Technologies is best known for its namesake platform, BandLab, a mobile-first digital audio workstation with over 60 million registered users. The company also owns the long-running digital audio workstation Cakewalk, which it acquired in 2018; ReverbNation, a 16-year-old independent artist services provider acquired in 2021; and Airbit, a beats marketplace acquired in February.
It competes in a growing category of cloud-based music creation tools that offer a far more simplified user experience than common studio platforms like ProTools. Like BandLab, Soundtrap, acquired by Spotify in 2017, makes creating songs an easy and collaborative process. RapChat boasts more than 10 million music creators on its feature-rich mobile app.
“BandLab serves a vital role in today’s music creation ecosystem, enabling more artists to break through at previously unfathomable levels,” Meng Ru Kuok, BandLab CEO and co-founder, said in a statement to Billboard.” This additional investment amplifies our position in today’s environment to accelerate our vision and deepen meaningful collaborations, bridging the gap between emerging talent and established industry players. We’re ready to double down on our mission, empowering artists at scale.”
Over the last two decades, independent musicians have been given digital tools that markedly lowered the barriers to entry. Digital audio workstations like Apple’s GarageBand gave anybody with an Apple computer the ability to easily record and edit audio files. Digital distribution services such as TuneCore allowed anybody to sell their music online. Now, tools to create music have been simplified to mobile phone apps and artificial intelligence-powered products – such as BandLab’s SongStarter – give the average internet user the ability to make music.
Sometimes, BandLab users have found legitimate chart success using the app’s entry-level toolkit. Last year, “Romantic Homocide,” created on BandLab by 17-year-old Houston artist d4vd, reached No. 45 on Billboard’s Hot 100 after another of his songs “Here With Me” got him signed to Darkroom/Interscrope Records. Also last year, BandLab teamed with Billboard to launch the Bringing BandLab to Billboard portal to help expose its creators to a global audience. Two artists were featured at Billboard.com as a result: The Moon City Masters and Hitha.
A federal judge on Monday (May 22) dealt a major blow to a lawsuit that claims YouTube enables piracy by restricting access to copyright tools like Content ID, refusing to allow the case to proceed as a class action that could have included tens of thousands of rightsholders.
The lawsuit, filed by a composer named Maria Schneider, claims that YouTube has become a “hotbed of piracy” because the platform provides “powerful copyright owners” like record labels with Content ID to block and monetize unauthorized uses of their content, but fails to do the same for “ordinary owners.”
But in his ruling on Monday, Judge James Donato said that Schneider could not team up with tens of thousands of other rightsholders who she claims suffered similar harm from YouTube’s policies, dramatically reducing the scope of the lawsuit.
Cases can only be “certified” as class actions if the various accusers share similar complaints against the defendant. And in Schneider’s case, Judge Donato said different rightsholders would have very different cases against YouTube.
“It has been said that copyright claims are poor candidates for class-action treatment, and for good reason,” the judge wrote. “Every copyright claim turns upon facts which are particular to that single claim of infringement [and] every copyright claim is also subject to defenses that require their own individualized inquiries.”
Filed in 2020, Schneider’s lawsuit claims that YouTube (owned by Google parent Alphabet) forces songwriters and other smaller rights holders to use “vastly inferior and time-consuming manual means” of policing infringement, allowing piracy of their material to flourish on the platform.
For its part, YouTube says it’s done nothing wrong. In court documents, the company has argued that it’s spent “spent over $100 million developing industry-leading tools” to prevent piracy, but that it limits access because “in the hands of the wrong party, these tools can cause serious harm.”
With a trial date looming next month, attorneys for Schneider had urged Judge Donato to let the case move forward as a class action. An expert retained by her legal team suggested that the class “at a minimum” would include between 10,000 and 20,000 aggrieved copyright owners.
“The Copyright Act does not countenance such blatant disregard of individual artists’ intellectual property rights,” her attorneys wrote. “Class actions were created for this institutionalized misbehavior that relies upon the disincentives and lack of resources for a lawsuit absent collective action. A class action is the superior method through which YouTube’s participation in and facilitation of copyright infringement can be held to account.”
But in Monday’s ruling, Judge Donato strongly disagreed. He said the many individual claims against YouTube would require “highly individualized inquiries into the merits,” including a case-by-case assessment of whether YouTube possibly had a valid license to those particular songs.
“Whether YouTube has a license for a particular work will be a matter of intense inquiry at trial,” the judge wrote. “The answer to this inquiry will depend upon facts and circumstances unique to each work and copyright claimant.”
Monday’s order won’t end the case, but it will now proceed to trial based only on copyrights owned by Schneider and two other plaintiffs (Uniglobe Entertainment and AST Publishing). The lawsuit is scheduled for a June 12 trial, though it’s unclear if that date will be changed in the wake of Monday’s decision.
An attorney for Schneider and a representative for YouTube did not immediately return requests for comment on Monday’s order.
Social media company TikTok Inc. filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to overturn Montana’s first-in-the-nation ban on the video sharing app, arguing the law is an unconstitutional violation of free speech rights and is based on “unfounded speculation” that the Chinese government could access users’ data. The lawsuit by TikTok itself follows one filed last week by five content […]
Warner Music Group executive vp/CFO Eric Levin reiterated the label’s call for streaming services to raise their prices while speaking at a conference hosted by JP Morgan Chase & Co on Monday (May 22).
Levin, who worked at HBO between 1988 and 2002, told the group of investors and Wall Street analysts that, unlike streaming services, the cable network almost annually raised prices during that period because the company knew customers wanted its content enough to pay a premium.
“I think and I am hopeful now that much of the [streaming] industry has done a round of rate increases successfully…that they start to understand that the industry can bear it,” Levin said.
Levin’s comments echo WMG CEO Robert Kyncl‘s previous call to streaming company hold-outs to raise prices, delivered during a wide-ranging presentation in March that touched on WMG’s growth strategy if streaming growth slows as well as its light release schedule in the first two quarters.
An increase in music streaming revenue, the main driver behind WMG and other major music companies’ double-digit growth in recent years, is expected to decline from 10% growth in 2024 to 3% growth in 2029, according to a recent presentation by MIDiA Research. That projection, which is far gloomier than Goldman’s forecast for a 12% compound annual growth rate for streaming revenue until 2030, prompted several questions to Levin about WMG’s streaming revenue expectations and how it may grow even if the streaming engine slows.
“We still have a lot of conviction that streaming has a lot of growth,” Levin said while noting that growth may come from a series of drivers.
“When we went public three-ish years ago, our growth story really revolved around subscription streaming,” he said. “Now … it includes ad-supported streaming [and] emerging [sources] of streaming, social, fitness, gaming, etc. So the facets of growth have really diversified.”
The industry has seen steady growth in subscription streaming since roughly 2015, and growth in that area remains present in all economic forecasts, Levin added.
Other revenue drivers like ad-supported streaming, he continued, are more impacted by “cyclicality based on slowdowns when the economy slows and rapid recovery when the economy is solid.”
Emerging sources of streaming revenue, such as from social media and short-form video apps, have significant growth potential, Levin said, because “you have potential for multiple products per person in a home — people have multiple social media accounts in one home.”
This month, WMG reported its second straight quarter of basically flat recorded music revenue, driven by a slower first half of the year for music releases. Recorded music streaming revenue declined nearly half a percent from the prior year due to the light release schedule.
Pressed to provide greater detail around why the company is experiencing a modest release slate this year, Levin said the May 5 release of Ed Sheeran‘s – (pronounced Subtract) is expected to be the first in a slate of upcoming releases by prominent artists — and indeed, the company is already showing signs of a second-half rebound. Still, he acknowledged WMG has lost ground to its competitors.
“We lost a little bit of momentum, but we fully expect to get it back,” Levin said.
Veeps, the Live Nation-owned streaming platform has named Eileen Mercolino as its first chief marketing officer. She joins Veeps most recently from SPIN where she served as CMO and has held a number of senior marketing and partnership roles at leading entertainment brands including The Walt Disney company, festival producer Danny Wimmer Presents, Hard Rock […]
Terrace Martin — the artist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist known for working with Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, and Robert Glasper, among others — announced a partnership between BMG and his Sounds of Crenshaw label on Monday (May 22). The results will be six jazz albums, with the first of which is due out this summer. According […]
The Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective (BMC) and Amazon Music selected five students as the recipients of the Your Future Is Now scholarship, designed to give students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) the opportunity to learn and explore all facets of the music industry.
The scholarship, first launched in February 2021, offers students the chance to receive $10,000 for the 2023-24 school year and the opportunity to be part of an immersive rotation program with Amazon Music and Recording Academy department leads, providing each student a detailed look at their particular field of work within the music industry.
The five students chosen are Joseph Michael Abiakam (Norfolk State University), Langston Jackson (Hampton University), Kennedi Amari Johnson (Clark Atlanta University), Courtney Roberts (Texas Southern University), and Caleb Wilkerson (Florida A&M University).
“We are immensely proud to collaborate with Amazon Music in renewing this exceptional scholarship program for the third consecutive year,” Ryan Butler, vp of DEI at the Recording Academy said in a statement. “The imperative of Black representation in the music industry cannot be overstated, and this scholarship is a tangible manifestation of our unwavering commitment to promoting the aspirations of future Black music leaders.”
“The Your Future Is Now scholarship was created to foster an inclusive environment where Black creators can realize their career objectives,” Phylicia Fant, head of music industry and culture collaborations at Amazon Music, said in a statement. “…This year’s class of students represents the next generation of Black musicians and executives, and it’s an honor to play a part in their development as individuals and future leaders.”
The BMC and Amazon Music will also award two HBCUs a $10,000 grant each for equipment for their music programs to be announced later this summer.
In addition, as part of Your Future Is Now, Amazon Music, The Same House and the Recording Academy are coming together to host the Your Future is Now Business Development Seminar for select members of the 2023 graduating class of Morris Brown College. Revealed this past weekend at Morris Brown’s commencement by the Recording Academy’s chief DEI officer, Zing Shaw, this new, half-day music business seminar taking place on June 17 will offer professional development expertise in music business, publishing and music production. Facilitators at the event will include Recording Academy’s Atlanta chapter president Justin Henderson and Frankie Yaptinchay of Amazon Music.
Following the music business seminar, graduates will be treated to a suite experience at State Farm Arena in Atlanta for the annual ATL Birthday Bash Concert where they will have the opportunity to network with representatives from the Recording Academy and Amazon Music, as well as other key music industry executives.
For more information on the Black Music Collective and the Your Future Is Now scholarship, visit here.
