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For the record… We’re hiring!” reads the lawn sign in front of Nashville’s United Record Pressing, the largest vinyl pressing plant in the United States. With an expansion underway that will bring in 48 new presses — upping the manufacturer’s count to nearly 100 and more than doubling its total output from approximately 40,000 to over 100,000 units of vinyl per day — the need to staff up is crucial. And URP isn’t the only Tennessee plant on the prowl.
As the vinyl boom continues — the format generated $570 million in revenue through June 2022 (up 22% year over year), according to the Mid-Year 2022 RIAA Music Revenue Report — pressing plants around the world are not only striving to keep up with demand but planning how to get ahead of it. Tennessee is aiming to take the lead, increasing its number of plants from two to five in 2022 and planting a flag as the U.S. vinyl hub. The state offers advantages in distribution, in taxes and, most notably, in culture.
“All music resonates from Tennessee,” says Brandon Seavers, CEO of Memphis Record Pressing (MRP), which was founded in 2014 and is undergoing its own $30 million expansion. “We really take pride in our musical heritage.”
“We’ve got wine country in California,” adds Drake Coker, CEO of Nashville Record Pressing, one of three new manufacturers that have come online in the past year in Music City. “Tennessee is going to be vinyl country.”
The growth in Tennessee’s vinyl production capacity is substantial. MRP — owned by Czech Republic-based GZ Media, the world’s largest vinyl record manufacturer — is adding 33,000 square feet to house 36 new presses to be up and running by early 2023; NRP, also owned by GZ Media, opened in June. Physical Music Products, a smaller plant with three presses currently online (and five more expected by early 2023) that was founded by Nashville-based mastering engineer Piper Payne, opened in March, and The Vinyl Lab, a music venue and boutique two-press plant, has been operational since April 2021.
“Nashville is exploding right now,” says URP CEO Mark Michaels. He cites everything from “attractive” economics and state tax rates to the presence of tech giants like Amazon and Oracle as drivers for the city’s growth.
And, as Coker points out, an estimated 75% of the U.S. population lives within a 24-hour drive of Nashville, making it what he calls “a distribution heaven.” (Nashville and Memphis are centrally located to two of the country’s major distributors in Franklin, Ind., and La Vergne, Tenn.)
It’s not just proximity to distributors that makes Nashville and Memphis ideal cities to house a pressing plant. The Vinyl Lab founder Scott Lemasters believes it’s about proximity to everything. “The components that you need to make a record: the mastering houses and studios, the people who cut the lacquers. There’s even a plating facility in town. Everything is within a 10-minute radius,” he says. “Half our jobs are just running around town.”
But not everything can be done locally, and surely not everything can be sourced locally. So how did so many plants within one state manage to break ground on expansions or entirely new facilities all at once — and during a global supply-chain shortage?
Michaels believes URP, which was founded in 1949, had a bit of luck on its side. After the plant relocated to its current, larger facility in 2017, Michaels never thought it would need to further expand. “And then, as we saw 2020 and the growth of vinyl, it created an incredible acceleration and demand,” he says. “All of our customers were just crying for capacity.” By the top of 2021, URP decided to grow its operations yet again — fortuitous timing, with Michaels noting that supply-chain challenges got much worse soon after.
It’s something Seavers can attest to as well. At the start of 2021, MRP booked three-and-a-half months of work in five weeks. “It was more than a flood,” he says. “It strained every system that we had.” With the financial support of GZ Media, MRP added another 36 presses to its facility for a total of 52, which will eventually boost its vinyl units per day from 36,000 to 130,000. “Having GZ behind it all really has been key,” says Seavers.
The hustle to get GZ-backed sister plant NRP operational is further proof of how essential that kind of backing can be for a plant at any stage and of any size. For decades, GZ has been building a family of plants across North America, including Precision Record Pressing in Ontario. It was that plant’s president, Shawn Johnson, who approached Coker about relocating to Nashville to head up the newest sibling. Coker arrived in fall 2021, secured a space for NRP by December (because of Nashville’s current growth, he says commercial real estate was hard to come by) and started construction and operations in March. He compares the process to a plane leaving the runway as it’s still being built.
Capital and technological support from GZ have allowed that plane to take off, fueled by already existing customer relationships. “Every record that we can make in the next four years is already presold,” Coker says. “Who gets to start a company and not worry about sales?”
The Vinyl Lab — a multifunctional space that includes a pressing plant and a venue that will open in October — has enjoyed a similar safety net from the start. Scott first conceived the idea for The Vinyl Lab in 2015 and, after a series of setbacks, leased its space in January 2020. The following December, the Grand Ole Opry called. The Opry had continued holding shows in an empty hall during the pandemic, recording each one and eventually choosing 12 performances to release as an album — which it wanted on vinyl. “They called us, and we were like, ‘Our machine is not even in its final resting spot yet,’ ” he recalls with a laugh, noting he secured the company’s first Phoenix Alpha press in 2019. “We were fully transparent with [the Opry]. That order was due on June 3, and we delivered it on June 2.”
Lemasters, who operates The Vinyl Lab alongside Clint Elliott and Heather Gray, says their orders have mostly been word-of-mouth (in addition to ads they posted in bathroom stalls). He praises both the city and the vinyl community as a whole for the eagerness to help one another, recalling the time Jack White and Ben Blackwell of Third Man Records referred Dualtone Records to The Vinyl Lab, which led to a steady flow of work early on.
“That’s what’s great about the industry right now, is that we are still in a very collaborative phase,” says Seavers. “We would never be where we are if we hadn’t had that.”
SEOUL — South Korea’s Intellectual Property Office has thrown up a roadblock to HYBE’s efforts to trademark the iconic “I purple you” term BTS member V created during a fan meeting six years ago.
The KIPO says that HYBE’s trademark application for V’s “I purple you (Borahae) cannot be registered as its application has been filed against the principle of good faith,” according to a notice sent to the company.
The patent and trademark office essentially says that HYBE, the parent company of BTS label Big Hit, is not allowed to trademark the phrase that V uttered, even though he is signed to HYBE, because he used it first.
V, real name Kim Tae-hyung, first created the phrase “Borahae” during a Nov. 13, 2016 fan meeting, when he said, “Borahae, like the last color of the rainbow purple (bora), means we will to the end trust each other and love each other for a long time,” the KIPO said.
“I purple you” has become synonymous with BTS. So much so that McDonald’s, in its collaboration with the group, has used the term on the side of its purple-packaged BTS Meals, which have become yet another collectible for fans.
In 2018, after BTS launched its “LOVE MYSELF” campaign, Henrietta H. Fore, the executive director of UNICEF, used the term in a special video thanking the group for its work in helping raise money for a campaign to end violence against children. “We here at UNICEF purple you,” she said at the end of her speech.
In explaining its refusal to allow HYBE to secure a trademark, however, the KIPO sided with V as the creator: “We accept that the applicant has filed a trademark that is similar to or the same as a trademark used by a different person that has a contractual or working relationship such as partnership or employment.”
It cited article 34, paragraph 1, subparagraph 20 in Korean trademark law.
V, who is known to be among the quieter members of BTS, has been active on his Instagram since the notice to HYBE became public knowledge, but hasn’t commented on the case.
An official at the KIPO, who requested anonymity because they aren’t authorized to comment on an ongoing case, tells Billboard that its decision is not final. HYBE has been given two months to file an addendum that strengthens the company’s claim, and that period could be extended further, without an explicit limit, the official says. “Citation of the subparagraph 20 is very rare, and as far as I know there are no precedents involving BTS,” the person says.
The case follows an earlier unsuccessful application by LALALEES, a Korean cosmetics company specializing in nails, to trademark the “Borahae” term in 2020 under the classification of soaps, fragrances, essential oils, cosmetics, hair products, polishes, and other cleaning agents. After the rejection caused an uproar among fans, the cosmetics company issued an apology.
K-pop companies are known for trademarking names and phrases associated with their artists. When boybands leave their management companies they often cannot perform under their previous name because the companies have registered and own the rights to the boyband’s name.
In 2015, the idol group Shinhwa reclaimed the rights to their name after a 12-year battle with agency ShinCom Entertainment and June Media (formerly known as Open World Entertainment). In that case, Shinhwa’s original agency, SM Entertainment, gave the rights to “Shinhwa” to a new agency, Good Entertainment, and then trademarked the name in 2005, before handing trademark rights over to June Media completely, according to according to K-pop publication Soompi.
And in 2020 a Korean court stripped SM Entertainment director Kim Kyung Wook of trademark rights to the name and logo of first-generation boyband H.O.T. (Highfive of Teenagers), which he originally cast and produced in 1996. While planning a reunion tour, the group in 2018 was forced to remove its name and logo from promotional materials after failing to come to an agreement with Kim over trademark rights, Soompi reported.
Grammy-nominated DJ and producer Steve Aoki takes another step into the metaverse in a special Halloween fashion collaboration with Deadfellaz — an NFT project made up of 10,000 undead, zombie characters.
The collection features a limited-edition run of varsity jackets, skate decks, tees and hoodies designed by Deadfellaz co-founders Betty and Psyche. The centerpiece of the “Deadfellaz x Dim Mak” collection — a nod to Aoki’s record label and fashion brand — is an ultra rare varsity jacket, complete with a twin digital “wearable” that can be unlocked in the metaverse.
“NFTs and Web3 are the future,” said Aoki. “It has been such an adventure to create alongside pioneers such as Betty and Psych of the Deadfellaz Horde. Deadfellaz is an incredible project and a community that I am proud to also be a part of. I am honored to drop this collaboration for our Horde and share our passion with the world – the pieces are colorful, effervescent, and luxurious; I can’t wait to rock them!”
This is not the first time Aoki has partnered with the Deadfellaz community, known as the ‘Horde.’ He DJ’d at their first virtual Halloween event last year while Betty and Psych created a custom 1/1 zombie character for him called the ‘Aoki-fella.’
“Working with Steve has been so fun,” said Betty and Psych, co-founders of Deadfellaz. “He has embraced Web3 and helped shape the space as it is so far, which has been especially impactful given his incredible success given his incredible success in a multitude of spaces like music, fashion, art, tech, and more. This collaboration comes a year after Steve DJ’d an exclusive set for The Horde at our very first Deadfellaz metaverse event last Halloween, so it feels very special to us.”
The fashion collection will be fully revealed at this year’s Deadfellaz Halloween party, Deadzone LA, October 29. Taking place at Skylight ROW in LA’s Art District, the party will feature live performances, DJ sets and “multisensory experiences.”
Aoki has been an early-adopter of Web3 and a core part of the NFT community. He launched the Aokiverse in 2021 — a metaverse fan club powered by NFT access, which allows fans to unlock guest list passes for concerts, free NFTs and exclusive merch. Aoki is also a prolific NFT collector with a wallet full of Crypto Punks, Doodles and Deadfellaz.
Launched in August 2021, Deadfellaz is a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs based on zombie artwork by acclaimed digital artist Psych and co-founder Betty who has been a champion of diversity and inclusivity in the NFT space. Between them, they have created a global brand with more than $80 million in sales.
Chase Matthew, whose moody 2021 song, “County Line,” was certified gold by the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) this August, has formed a partnership with Warner Music Nashville.
The Nashville native previously released a 2021 EP, Country Line, and a 2022 full album, Born for This, via Ryan Upchurch’s Holler Boy Records.
“There are a lot of things that are important to me as an artist. I want to be able to stay true to who I am and make music I know will resonate with my fans,” says Matthew in a statement. “Ryan Upchurch gave me an opportunity that put me on the map. Looking forward, we wanted to maintain how we work, but grow the team in order to build bigger. Warner Nashville understood our goals and provided the opportunity for a true partnership. I’m thrilled to be able to work with the Warner Nashville team and take this thing to a whole new level for the fans – all while keeping God’s plan first!”
Matthew’s representatives declined to expand on details of the deal and what makes it a “true partnership.”
“Chase’s mix of rebellion and reverence is what drew us to him,” said Cris Lacy, co-president of Warner Music Nashville. “The impact he has on his mass of loyal fans comes from music and messages that are unapologetically redemptive and put him squarely in the center of this format’s most authentic storytellers.”
Ben Kline, co-president of WMN, added, “The fan reaction to Chase and his music, both in his live show and in the streaming and engagement metrics, are proof of just how talented he is.”
Matthew is the latest signing under Lacy and Kline, who were promoted to co-presidents earlier this year following John Esposito’s move to CEO Emeritus. It follows the recent signings of country singer/songwriter Madeline Edwards and alternative rock band Giovannie and the Hired Guns. Matthew’s first single from Warner Music Nashville will be “She Loves Jesus,” out Oct. 28, with more new music coming over the next several months.
Matthew is on a headlining tour with upcoming dates including Portland, Ore. tonight and Medford, Ore. Friday (Oct. 14) before playing the Golden Sky Festival in Sacramento, Calif. on Saturday (Oct. 15) alongside Tim McGraw, Brothers Osborne and Carly Pearce.
Carlton James Group invested $50 million in Bristol, U.K.-based distribution and artist label services company 3tone Music Group to fund the additional expansion of the company’s distribution platform. 3tone, which is run by CEO Dean Roberts and managing director Chris Borud, was first backed by Carlton James Group in 2019. The company offers indie artists unlimited digital distribution to multiple streaming platforms for an annual fee, a model that echoes more established companies like DistroKid and TuneCore.
Warner Music acquired a stake in Serbian label Mascom Records. The acquisition expands the companies’ relationship, as Mascom has acted as Warner Music’s local distributor for more than 20 years. Under the new arrangement, they will work together to build a roster of local artists, with the opportunity for artists to be upstreamed into Warner’s global network. Mascom’s catalog will continue to be distributed by Warner’s ADA. The companies have recently been jointly working with Serbian artist Sergej Panic on his new releases “Kabul” and “Mia Bella.” In a statement, Izabela Ciszek-Podziemska, general manager of Warner Music South East Europe, called the deal “a landmark development” for Warner in the region.
U.K.-based livestreaming company Driift acquired the livestreaming technology and sales platform Dreamstage, with the combined businesses set to operate under the Driift name, led by CEO Ric Salmon and COO Claire Mas. Driift also secured an additional $4 million investment from Deezer, bringing the company’s total investment from the European streaming service to $7 million in 2022. Deezer is now the largest shareholder in Driift; it had become a majority shareholder in Dreamstage prior to the acquisition.
Atlantic Records partnered with Record Store Day for a new series that will showcase developing artists at independent music retail stores across the U.S. The first artist to be highlighted by the program is Neon Gold/Atlantic singer-songwriter Joe P, who will kick off the series with the release of a deluxe vinyl edition of his debut EP, Emily Can’t Sing. The series will feature 10 to 12 emerging artists over the next year while incorporating exclusive in-store signings and performances. Joe P has already signed on for eight upcoming in-store signings while he’s on tour. The partnership was negotiated by Record Store Day’s Michael Kurtz and Atlantic Records’ Jack McMorrow. In November and December, the series will feature the artist Surf Curse.
Warner Music Poland and Groupa STEP, owner of the independent Polish hip-hop label Step Records, launched a new business partnership to support local hip-hop artists. No further information was provided about the deal.
Cyanite, which offers AI-powered music tagging and search, will provide BMG with automatic tagging to make its entire 3 million song repertoire more searchable and accessible for synch placements. Under the agreement, Cyanite’s technology will be integrated into BMG’s internal content management system BMG Songs.
Social-first media company The News Movement will use UnitedMasters‘ independent music repertoire to soundtrack its news stories on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Snap under a new partnership.
Session, the company behind the collaboration app Session Studio for music creators, partnered with SoundCloud in a deal that will see the streaming platform become the first to digitally receive both song audio and essential song metadata directly from the Session Studio app. Session Studio is designed to make it easier for songwriters, artists, producers and more to track who contributed what at the point of creation across mobile, desktop and online.
Web3 platform OneOf signed an exclusive three-year partnership with the Latin Recording Academy. Under the deal, OneOf will host the first-ever NFT collection tied to the Latin Grammy Awards. The first collection will debut throughout October 2022.
Pop-rock singer Charlotte Sands (“Dressed,” “Loved You a Little”) signed a distribution deal with Vydia, as did house DJ Robbie Rivera, for whom Vydia will also handle marketing, synch, project management and DSP pitching for forthcoming releases on Rivera’s Juicy Music Group along with Rivera’s existing catalog. The Rivera deal includes a catalog transfer of over 350 songs via Juicy Music.
Ryan Oakes signed a recording and publishing deal with Position Music that will cover both new and existing repertoire.
New York artist VÉRITÉ partnered with Troy Carter and Suzy Ryoo‘s Venice Music, which offers tools, services and artist support while allowing artists to retain creative autonomy and ownership over their work.
Berlin-based house and techno record label Get Physical Music signed a global sales and distribution deal with independent digital label services provider LabelWorx. The deal covers Get Physical’s full catalog, along with its imprints Cocada Music, Kindisch, Metaphysical and Poesie Musik.
Digital collaboration-based music platform BeatConnect closed an initial investment round of $2.2 million. Participants include lead investors FICC (Fonds d’investissement de la culture et des communications) and its partners, which contributed a total of $1 million. Also joining the round was angel investor network Anges Québec with around $615,000 and entertainment tech investment fund Triptyq Capital with around $540,000. BeatConnect will use the funds to build a new tool aimed at linking multiple DAWs together for cross-platform collaboration and remote sharing sessions for music creators.
R. Wayne Martin‘s boutique management firm mthree signed music producer John Hiler (Rihanna, Madonna, Smashing Pumpkins) to its new division focused on managing music producers. His day-to-day manager at the firm is Jeff Betten.
Nettwerk Records announced a slew of signings, including lo-fi trio PanCake, Flemish lo-fi producer Phlocalyst, Germany-based singer-songwriter M. Byrd, Berlin-based songwriter and producer Chris James, Los Angeles rock band The Strike and pop singer Michal Leah, whose new single “the way i love you” drops on Friday (Oct. 14).
Triple 8 Management signed singer-songwriter Erin Kinsey, who is signed to RECORDS/Columbia Nashville.
Texas-based singer E Bleu signed a 10-song partnership with AWAL that will provide him with marketing and streaming support while allowing him to keep his masters. His most recent release is the Shawn Barron-executive produced single “No Biggie.”
Create Music Group signed Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) #9797 (a.k.a. Jimbo).
Membership of the Secretly Group Union has ratified a contract with the company’s managers, the union announced on Twitter Wednesday (Oct. 12).
Although the union — which represents workers at indie labels such as Secretly Canadian, Dead Oceans and Jagjaguwar — declared it “could not be prouder to be the first independent label group union,” it did not disclose contract terms. It described contract negotiations with management as a “long and very difficult fight.”
In a Twitter statement Wednesday, Dead Oceans said, in part: “This agreement marks a new chapter in Secretly’s ongoing commitment to our staff, to our workplace and to the core values we bring to artist and label partners every day.”
Secretly reps did not respond to a request for a comment, and an anonymous union spokesperson said they weren’t ready to discuss the terms of the contract, announced last night. “At the moment, we’re all exhausted from yesterday’s events,” the spokesperson said.
Working with the Office and Professional Employees International Union, or OPEIU Local 174, the Secretly employees formed their union in March 2021 and set a recognition deadline for management — which the company quickly agreed to do. Secretly Group artists include indie stars such as Phoebe Bridgers, Japanese Breakfast, Bon Iver and Angel Olsen, several of whom have expressed support for the union effort over the past year.
Last year, a Secretly Group Union rep told Billboard, “The enthusiasm for the culture in which music industry workers contribute can be weaponized against them and lead to exploitation and unfair treatment. . . . We absolutely hope this inspires others to unionize.”
The company, which employs 150 people, responded, “It’s always difficult to hear that there are people within the company who are unhappy . . . but we hope that this union effort speaks to their belief that our common ground — love for the work we do, and for the music and culture we share with the world — is truly and deeply shared.”
Unions are common for musicians, who belong to longstanding groups like the American Federation of Musicians, but they’re rare among record labels. After the Secretly union began its bargaining process last year, the group put out statements from workers to draw support for its cause. “I believe we can set a precedent for ourselves — and others working in the industry — that mandates fairer wages, inclusivity, and increased diversity, all in a collaborative workplace,” Michael Brennan, a designer for the company, said in an August 2021 union Instagram post.
The comedian & his co-plaintiff Clayton English allege they were racially profiled and illegally stopped at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.