State Champ Radio Business
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UTA has added two new hires to its Nashville office, with Brian Hill joining as music agent and Jaime Roberts joining as tour marketing director.
Hill brings more than three decades of talent agency experience, including stints at Monterey Peninsula Artists/Paradigm and Creative Arts Agency (CAA). Hill has been named Pollstar‘s Third Coast Agent of the Year twice and has worked with artists including Eli Young Band, Aaron Lewis, Frankie Ballard and Home Free.
New York native Roberts launched her career in live entertainment by promoting live family entertainment experiences with Feld Entertainment, followed by more than a decade leading in marketing and promotions at Live Nation and The Bowery Presents for events in the New York and New Jersey region. Most recently, Roberts spent seven years in Austin, Texas, where she developed and executed multi-channel marketing campaigns for major touring artists with Messina Touring Group. During her time there, she led successful tour marketing efforts for artists including Shawn Mendes, Tim McGraw/Faith Hill, Little Big Town and Kelly Clarkson.
Over the past year, UTA Nashville has added Tyler Hubbard, Bobby Bones, Chris Janson, Parmalee, Dalton Dover and more to its roster and helped develop music newcomers including Megan Moroney, Alana Springsteen, Brittney Spencer and Chase Matthew.
“We are excited to have Brian and Jaime join us at UTA as we continue to expand and elevate the music department,” said UTA co-head of global music Scott Clayton in a statement. “Their decades of experience and stellar track record of going above and beyond for their clients make them perfect additions to our world-class team in Nashville.”
Bronx drill rapper Kay Flock is among eight members of Bronx gangs Sev Side and Third Side being charged with murder and racketeering, among other “violent offenses,” according to the Department of Justice. The Thursday (Feb. 23) press release also detailed charges related to, “attempted murder and assault with a dangerous weapon arising from seven shootings committed in the Bronx between June 2020 and February 2022.”
Six of the charged individuals, including Kay Flock — born Kevin Perez — are in police custody, while the remaining two are named in the release as fugitives. “Over a span of several years, the members of these gangs allegedly terrorized neighborhoods in the Bronx and Manhattan by killing and shooting other people. Through these charges, we will hold Sev Side and Third Side members responsible for plaguing our communities with gun violence,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in a statement.
Kay Flock is currently awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on the federal charges. His alleged crimes carry a punishment of “mandatory life in prison or death,” according to the Department of Justice.
Kay Flock’s team did not respond to Billboard‘s request for comment at the time of publication.
The new charges add to 19-year-old Kay Flock’s collection of legal troubles, most notably his alleged 2021 murder of Hwascar “Oscar” Hernandez outside a Hamilton Heights barbershop in New York City, on which he is currently awaiting trial. Despite his growing rap sheet and the fact that he’s currently behind bars, he has continued to release new music, most recently The D.O.A. Tape [Care Package] in December 2022. Last year, Kay Flock’s single “Shake It” featuring Cardi B, Dougie B and Bory300 made quite the buzz, appearing on both the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 51, and Billboard‘s US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, where it peaked at No. 14.
New York City mayor Eric Adams has publicly declared his disdain for the drill genre, linking it to violence and crime in the city. Since entering office in January 2022, the retired police captain has cracked down on artists in the genre, with the NYPD shutting down a number of drill performances. In September, drill rappers 22Gz, Sha Ek and Ron Suno were dropped from the Rolling Loud NYC lineup at the NYPD’s request. Other notable New York drill artists including Dusty Locane and Sheff G are also behind bars, while 22Gz is awaiting trial on attempted murder charges.
Live Nation’s 2022 was record-breaking across basically all key metrics — revenue, concert attendance, gross transaction value and sponsorships were all at all-time highs — and the company expects 2023 to top that.
As the company reported Thursday (Feb) with its fourth quarter earnings, total revenue reached a record $16.7 billion in 2022 — up 44% from the pre-pandemic era of 2019. That growth was spread across a number of factors: more fans, more concerts, more spending per fan, higher average ticket prices and a greater number of large sponsors.
Adjusted operating income improved 49% to $1.4 billion over the year, and operating free cash flow rose nearly four-fold to $1.8 billion.
Concert revenue in 2022 was $13.49 billion, up 43.1% from 2019 and 185.8% more than 2021. Concert attendance reached 121 million fans in 2022, up 24% from 2019 and a 246% increase from 2021, a year Live Nation began to recover from the pandemic but was not yet at full strength. The concerts division put on 43,600 events in 2022, up 153.2% from 2021 and up 8.4% from 2019. Attendance for Venue Nation, the venues operated by Live Nation, reached almost 50 million.
Ticketing revenues of $2.24 billion was up 44.9% from 2019 and up 97.4% from 2021. Fee-bearing ticket volume rose 28% from 2019 to 280 million. Fee-bearing gross transaction value grew to $28 billion, up more than 50% from 2019.
The average ticket costs were higher in 2022, too. With more tickets priced dynamically to true market value, Live Nation estimates $700 million was shifted to artists (and, presumably, away from the secondary market). That said, the average entry price for tickets remained below $35 in the U.S.
Even though consumers felt the pinch of high inflation throughout 2022, music fans didn’t shy away from spending money at Live Nation concerts. Ancillary per-fan spending rose at least 20% across all venue types from 2019 levels.
Sponsorship revenue reached $968 million, up 64% from 2019 and 135% greater than 2021. Live Nation had 120 large sponsors globally, up 32% from 2019. Last year, the company added PayPal, GoPuff, Hulu and Snap as sponsors. They and other new, large sponsors accounted for 80% of sponsorship’s revenue growth in 2022.
Live Nation points to a number of leading indicators that suggest 2023 will be even stronger than 2022. As of mid-February, event-related deferred revenue — tickets sales for concerts that have not yet occurred — was up $400 million to $2.7 billion. Also through mid-February, ticket sales are up 20% and fee-bearing gross transaction value of tickets sold is up 33%.
Multimedia Music acquired the music publishing and music master rights for the entire film music library of STX Entertainment, which encompasses titles such as Bad Moms, The Gentlemen and Den of Thieves and music from composers such as Hans Zimmer, Cliff Martinez and Nicholas Britell. The eight-figure deal does not include rights in any of STX’s current or future films.
Deezer struck a long-term partnership with Sonos to power Sonos Radio and the subscription service Sonos Radio HD. Starting in April, Deezer will provide Sonos with a catalog of 90 million tracks, metadata, licensing, reporting & royalty management, business intelligence & data and strategic collaboration for growth and monetization of the service. Deezer and Sonos will deliver services to 16 countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Yusuf/Cat Stevens signed to Dark Horse Records, which will release the singer-songwriter’s forthcoming album as well as seven legacy albums from his catalog, which are owned by Yusuf’s Cat-O-Log Records. Dark Horse’s merchandising arm, DH Merchandise, will operate the official Yusuf/Cat Stevens store.
ClicknClear, a music tech company that provides access to officially licensed music for performance sports and fitness, signed a multi-year agreement with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), a leading sports organization in the United States. The NFHS promotes amateur sports participation throughout all 50 states and Washington, D.C., serving 19,500 high schools and an estimated 12 million young people across the country. It also administers high school athletics and activities and establishes regulations for the sanctioning of events. Through the deal, ClicknClear will license the catalogs of its more than 800 label and publisher partners to NFHS’s performance sports participants, with the NFHS also using ClicknClear’s license verifications system to enforce that licensing. Performance sports include cheerleading, dance, gymnastics, figure skating, marching band and show choir. ClicknClear’s music catalog currently includes 5 million tracks and more than 15 million publishing rights from Sony Music, Warner Music, Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG, Kobalt, Concord and Downtown, among many others.
Cutting Edge Media Music (CEMM) secured $100 million in new financing from a consortium of banks led by Pinnacle Financial Partners. CEMM — a financing and investment company with expertise in music for film, TV, video games and more — is supported by other businesses under its parent company, the Cutting Edge Group (CEG), including Cutting Edge Music Publishing, Lakeshore Records, Broadway Records, Music.Film and White Stork. “I look forward to our partnership with Pinnacle to help give the next wave of film and TV composers the opportunity to monetize their catalogues,” said Cutting Edge Group founder/CEO Philip Moross in a statement. CEG’s head of mergers and acquisitions, Tim Hegarty, represented Cutting Edge in the deal.
Triller acquired Julius, a software solution for influencer marketing. “We are delighted to integrate the industry-leading technology from Julius into Triller’s Creator Platform,” said Triller CEO Mahi de Silva in a statement, adding that with the acquisition, “Our unique AI-powered platform now delivers an end-to-end solution for the creator economy from brand storytelling to driving e-commerce.”
Music credits database Jaxsta executed a heads of agreement (a.k.a. letter of intent) to acquire Vampr, a music industry social networking platform. The acquisition increases Jaxsta’s footprint in the creator community by 1.3 million creators. According to a press release, Vampr’s freemium business model successfully converts 4% of the app’s weekly active users into paying subscribers — a number that’s expected to increase when Vampr Pro is bundled with the Jaxsta Creator subscription. Vampr founder/CEO Josh Simons will join Jaxsta as chief strategy officer.
GreenCity Partners and ASM Global struck a deal to develop and operate the proposed 17,000-seat GreenCity Arena in Henrico County, Va., which is part of a planned $2.3 billion mixed-use/net-zero energy GreenCity development. The agreement allows ASM Global to partner in other aspects of the development, including its main street retail and hospitality uses. Construction is slated to begin in early 2024, with completion expected in 2026.
In more ASM Global news, the company struck a long-term lease agreement and $40 million renovation plan with the City of Glendale, Ariz., for the Desert Diamond Arena as part of a strategy to increase the venue’s returns and prominence as a key component in the city’s growth as an entertainment hub. ASM Global has operated the city-owned venue for the past six-and-a-half years. The firm HOK has been selected to help with the venue’s renovation and design.
ASM Global also signed with the city of Fishers, Ind., to provide pre-opening services and professional management for the city’s new $170 million sports and entertainment center, which is set to open in Dec. 2024. In addition to hosting concerts and other events, the forthcoming 7,500-seat venue will be home to the East Coast Hockey League’s Indy Fuel. Expected to break ground in March, the venue is part of the city’s $1.1 billion in economic and entertainment investments announced in September.
Los Angeles-based rock duo Loveless signed with BMG worldwide. The duo, which released their debut self-produced EP, End of an Era, last year, is slated to embark on a headline tour this spring in North America and Europe, in addition to festival dates.
Amazon Music is the new title sponsor of The Ivors, under a global deal that will see the company showcase the Ivors’ commitment to supporting songwriters via exclusive content offerings and live performances as well as an “immersive” red carpet and backstage interviews that will be livestreamed on the Amazon Music UK Twitch channel for the 2023 ceremony. Additionally, the company will integrate the Ivors’ 2023 “Rising Star” nominees into its global developing artist program, Breakthrough.
Micro-licensing and music solutions company Lickd struck a deal with EMPIRE and Kobalt Music Group to license their music catalogs to Lickd’s Chorus music player for use in the metaverse world of Decentraland’s Vegas City.
SESAC Digital Licensing and Wise Music Australia partnered on an exclusive digital licensing deal for the Wise Music catalog in Asia (excluding Japan, South Korea and China) for rights including performance, mechanicals, grand rights, hire materials and synchronization. SESAC Digital will negotiate agreements with online service providers on behalf of Wise Music in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam. The partnership will be administered by Mint Digital Services, an alliance between SESAC-US and Swiss authors’ rights society SUISA.
Singer-songwriter Susan Tedeschi signed with Brian Greenbaum at CAA. The signing coincides with the 25th-anniversary reissue of Tedeschi’s 1998 album, Just Won’t Burn. Tedeschi and her husband, musician Derek Truck, are with Full Stop Management for their solo work.
Memphis-based music credit and information services provider Sound Credit partnered with PPL for neighboring rights collections in North America. Via its sister brand Soundways, Sound Credit’s North American artist community will now be able to take advantage of PPL’s international collections service.
Live Nation will serve as the exclusive promoter for BECU Live and the Pepsi Outdoor Summer Concert series under a new deal with Northern Quest Resort & Casino and the Kalispel Tribe of Indians in Washington state.
Grammy-nominated songwriter and artist Delacey signed to Photo Finish Records, which released her new single, “Man on the Moon,” on Friday (Feb. 17).
Underoath signed to MNRK Heavy on a global basis. The label released the rock band’s latest single, “Let Go,” on Feb. 15.
Virgin Music UK reached a sales and distribution deal with Liverpool-based independent label Modern Sky UK (Jamie Webster, Leah Weller, Red Rum Club).
Pop duo Crash Adams signed to Warner Music Canada/Warner Records, which released their latest single, “California Girl.”
British DJ/producer Riton signed with Atlantic Records/Big Beat, which released his first-ever solo single, “Sugar,” on Friday (Feb. 17).
Sony Classical signed organist Anna Lapwood and will release a five-track EP of film transcriptions in April, with an album to come later in the year.
Tuned Global singed a deal with Lululemon Studio to provide their B2B white-label playlist app for Lululemon’s in-person and virtual workouts.
Chicago trio Lifeguard signed with Matador Records. New music from the band — which previously released an album and two EPs — is expected in the spring.
Spotify is experimenting with “token-enabled playlists,” meaning users in possession of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can connect their wallets and listen to collections of music put together by the likes of Overlord (a company developing blockchain-based games) and KINGSHIP (Universal Music Group’s Bored Ape band). Android users in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and New Zealand can now test the new feature.
“At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests in an effort to improve our user experience,” a spokesperson for the streaming platform said in a statement. “Some of those end up paving the path for our broader user experience and others serve only as important learnings. We have no further news to share on future plans at this time.”
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek discussed blockchain technology — which enables the creation of unique digital files that are also uncopyable — on the Culture: Now Streaming podcast in 2019. “The most important thing is it will enable paying for things digitally in many of the places around the world where those kind of methods just doesn’t exist,” Ek said. “A service like Spotify, you can imagine what would happen by allowing users for instance to be able to pay artists directly. That can open up massive opportunities where all of a sudden, a user in Japan might pay a creator in Argentina. And that opens up huge opportunities for how we can further our mission.”
Last year, Spotify started allowing “a small group of artists [to] promote their existing third-party NFT offerings via their artist profiles,” according to a statement from the company. (At the time, Spotify reiterated that it “routinely conduct[s] a number of tests in an effort to improve artist and fan experiences” some of which “serve only as an important learning.”)
Steve Aoki and The Wombats were among those testing the feature, which was made available to Android users in the U.S.
A woman who sued Marilyn Manson for sexual assault says in a new legal filing that the allegations were untrue, claiming she had been “manipulated” by the rocker’s ex-girlfriend, Evan Rachel Wood.
With Manson currently suing Wood for allegedly orchestrating an “organized attack” of false rape accusations, the singer’s lawyers filed a bombshell statement Thursday (Feb. 23) from Ashley Morgan Smithline — one of several women who has accused Manson of sexual abuse over the past two years.
In it, Smithline claims that she had been “manipulated by Ms. Wood” and others, and eventually had agreed to “spread publicly false accusations of abuse” against Manson (real name Brian Warner).
“I succumbed to pressure from Evan Rachel Wood and her associates to make accusations of rape and assault against Mr. Warner that were not true,” Smithline wrote in the sworn statement. “Eventually, I started to believe that what I was repeatedly told happened to Ms. Wood and [others] also happened to me.”
In a statement to Billboard, a spokesperson for Wood strongly denied Smithline’s accusations: “Evan never pressured or manipulated Ashley. It was Ashley who first contacted Evan about the abuse she had suffered. It’s unfortunate that the harassment and threats Ashley received after filing her federal lawsuit appear to have pressured her to change her testimony.”
The statement by Smithline is a major revelation in Manson’s two-year legal saga, in which at least five women have accused him of serious sexual wrongdoing. After Wood posted her allegations to Instagram in February 2021, lawsuits quickly followed from Smithline, Manson’s former assistant Ashley Walters, Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco and a Jane Doe accuser.
Smithline’s case was dismissed last month after she fired her lawyer and stopped participating in the case.
Manson has denied all of the allegations and filed his own defamation lawsuit in March 2022 claiming that Wood and another woman, Illma Gore, had “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously” with false accusations against him.
In her declaration on Thursday, Smithline told a story that supported Manson’s allegations against Wood. She said she had been initially contacted by other alleged victims and, when she denied that such abuse had happened to her, was repeatedly told that she might just not remember it.
“While at first I knew Mr. Warner did not do these things to me, I eventually I began to question whether he actually did,” Smithline wrote. “On numerous occasions, I was told … that I may just be misremembering what happened, repressing my memories of what happened, or that my memories had not yet surfaced — which they said happened to people against whom these acts were perpetrated.”
Eventually, Smithline said she agreed to participate. She said Gore drafted an accusation statement for her and posted it to her account for her, and that she was then connected with Jay Ellwanger, the same lawyer who represented Bianco.
“Leading up to the filing of the complaint, I felt pressured by Mr. Ellwanger to go on a press tour, which included an interview on The View and an interview and photoshoot with People magazine,” Smithline wrote. “I was very uncomfortable doing this press but felt pressured to do it.”
Smithline also noted that she had “never received any money” from Manson as part of any settlement agreement to stop pursuing her case and that she did not intend to refile her case against him.
“Looking back, I feel I was manipulated by Ms. Wood, Ms. Gore, Ms. Bianco, and Mr. Ellwanger to spread publicly false accusations of abuse against Mr. Warner,” Smithline wrote.
In a statement to Billboard, Ellwanger said that his response to Smithline’s allegations was “constrained by ethical obligations regarding client confidentiality” to his former client. “But what I can say is that the specific allegations regarding my representation of Ms. Smithline are categorically and verifiably false.”
The new revelations come as Wood’s attorneys are seeking to dismiss Manson’s case by citing California’s so-called anti-SLAPP statute — a law that aims to make it easier to dismiss cases that threaten free speech. Wood’s lawyers say Manson’s case is exactly that: an effort to punish Wood after she chose to speak publicly about years of abuse.
“For years, plaintiff Brian Warner raped and tortured defendant Evan Rachel Wood and threatened retaliation if she told anyone about it,” her attorneys wrote. “Warner has now made good on those threats by filing the present lawsuit.”
Manson’s attorneys want to cite Thursday’s new statements from Smithline as a reason to deny the anti-SLAPP motion since such motions require courts to assess the validity of a case’s allegations. In asking the court to heed the filing, they wrote: “This newly obtained evidence is critical to Warner’s opposition to the anti-SLAPP motions, in which defendants argue that there is no ‘admissible evidence substantiating his allegations.’”
In a statement to Billboard, Manson’s attorney, Howard King, said Smithline’s declaration “proves” that the lawsuit’s core accusations are true. “As we have always said, the coordinated campaign of #MeToo lies against Brian Warner is going to go down as one of the greatest hoaxes of all time,” King said. “Vulnerable women were manipulated by unscrupulous individuals seeking to build their own brands and pursue their own vendettas.”
Read Smithline’s entire declaration here:
It’s a good thing that there’s a German word for pleasure in the misfortune of others: schadenfreude.
Just before the Grammy Awards, The New York Times published an investigation that revealed that BMG signed, then let go before it released any music, the French rapper Freeze Corleone, who had previously been dropped by Universal Music Group for lyrics in previous music in which he compared himself to Hitler. Then, the following week, on Feb. 9, the German newsweekly Der Spiegel reported that Universal Music had made a distribution deal with the band Weimar, at least some of whose members had extreme right-wing affiliations in their past — and which the label immediately dropped when this came to its attention. (The band has since issued a statement renouncing extremism, xenophobia and racism, and two of the members admitted to a “right-wing-motivated past” but said they had since changed their ways.)
The schadenfreude, directed toward both labels, came from competitors and may have been heightened by BMG’s penchant for criticizing the majors for a business model it deems outmoded. “Look what they did,” some said. “Well, I mean, sure — OK — that last bad thing we did wasn’t exactly good but wasn’t much of a story. But this? This is a story!”
Both companies can claim some moral high ground: BMG’s French operation released Freeze from his one-album contract as soon as Dominique Casimir, who is now the company’s chief content officer, asked for additional checks into the rapper’s history. (BMG’s deal with Freeze gave it the right to reject the album if it included antisemitic lyrics, which it didn’t.) Universal, which wasn’t aware of Weimar’s members’ backgrounds — the musician that Der Spiegel describes as the worst of the band’s members did not have his name on the recording contract and wasn’t in the group as far as the label knew — dropped the act when it discovered its past connections to the far-right.
But I don’t think either has much to be proud of, either. BMG knew Freeze had been dropped by Universal and signed him anyway; a memo sent by an executive in the label’s French office said the rapper “faced controversy,” which is offensive in its understatement. Less is known about the Weimar situation — Universal said in a statement that despite efforts to vet the act, “we were unaware of the band members’ background” — but a group named after the inter-war German government would seem to merit more intense scrutiny. (To be fair, the group’s lyrics, which seem so alarming given the members’ backgrounds, seem melodramatic but cliché taken out of context.) Most people in the music business seem to have an opinion on which of these incidents was worse, but there are no bragging rights for having the industry’s second-worst antisemitic issue of 2023 — especially when it’s only February.
My own opinion on all of this is complicated by the fact that I’m Jewish, and I happen to live in Berlin, not far from the offices of these companies. And I’ve already disappointed some industry acquaintances looking for an easy villain by pointing out that the people involved — Casimir directly and BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch and Universal Music Central Europe chairman and CEO Frank Briegmann far less directly — are decent people who try hard to do the right thing and in both of these cases did so as soon as they fully understood the situation. That’s important.
However unsatisfying it might seem, the villain here may be a gold-rush for streaming market share and an industrywide shift toward single-album deals and distribution agreements. Until a decade ago, most artists signed long-term recording contracts and worked closely with A&R executives. These days, some artists simply hand over finished music — which sounds really cool until something like this happens — and the economics of streaming incentivize grabbing market share now and asking questions later.
That’s an explanation, though — not an excuse. And while both BMG and UMG have admitted they messed up, neither has publicly discussed any kind of plan to avoid making the same kind of mistake in the future. Both companies should do so — and soon. That’s especially important for BMG, which is owned by Bertelsmann, a German media conglomerate that printed books for the Nazi army during World War II. Everyone who ran Bertelsmann back then is dead, and everyone I know who works there now is very nice, but the company’s past gives it a responsibility to do better.
Both BMG and UMG want to put these controversies, and these artists, behind them — but they can’t avoid taking responsibility. (This can be complicated: UMG is still distributing the Freeze album it put out before it dropped the rapper, presumably because he has an ongoing defamation lawsuit against the label. “Universal Music France (UMF) does not work with Freeze Corleone and has not done so since September 2020 when, after one week, we ended our relationship with him with immediate effect,” according to a statement from the company. “Because this is the subject of a pending legal matter, we are unable to comment further, other than to say that we deeply regret that we were unaware of the situation prior to starting collaboration with Freeze Corleone.”) In 2018, when BMG faced another controversy about rappers with antisemitic lyrics, it donated 100,000 euros to a campaign against antisemitism, which is a significant gesture — but situations like this can’t be solved with an expensive swear jar. Companies need to think about how to keep this kind of thing from happening again.
At a bare minimum, record companies need to spend a few hours learning about artists they sign or distribute. (Going out to lunch or dinner: Not scalable, usually inefficient, often worth the time.) If they release controversial music — which may well be the right move when it comes to music that’s political, rather than racist or antisemitic — they should put their brand names on it. (BMG planned to release Freeze’s album without its logo, which the label has done for other acts, for reasons that have nothing to do with controversy.) If you’re not proud of it — not necessarily as politics but at least as art and expression — don’t put it out.
And if you take antisemitism and fascism seriously, don’t just drop acts that cross the line. Tell Spotify that Joe Rogan went too far when he said on his podcast that “the idea that Jewish people are not into money” is “like saying Italians aren’t into pizza.” (I like both, as do most people I know, but crudeness aside, no one has threatened Italians with genocide for their alleged food preferences.) Try to get Roger Waters to criticize Israel in ways that don’t play into antisemitic conspiracy theories. Ask Jay Electronica why he started the 2020 album A Written Testimony by sampling the notoriously antisemitic Louis Farrakhan asking, “Who are the real children of Israel?”
These won’t be easy conversations, but it’s time to have them. Then, maybe, we can try to go the rest of the year without anything like this happening again. We only have 10 and a half months to go.
For the Record is a regular column from deputy editorial director Robert Levine analyzing news and trends in the music industry. Find more here.
Veteran talent buyer Jon Halperin has joined the expanding team at From The Roots as talent buyer for its boutique festival site and amphitheater, Poconos Park in Pennsylvania.
From The Roots is a new music real estate development, venue management and independent promoter company founded by veteran entertainment entrepreneur, executive and marketer John M. Oakes.
In early 2022, From the Roots acquired more than 200 acres of land, including the nearly $40 million- development formerly known as Mt. Laurel Performing Arts Center and the Tom Ridge Pavilion.
“From The Roots recognized the venue’s immediate potential, took action, renovated, upgraded and reopened as Poconos Park,” according to a press release.
Halperin has been buying music talent for nearly 25 years for venues like the Chain Reaction in Anaheim, Calif. (where he booked the Mars Volta’s first show) as well as The Glass House in Pomona, Calif.
“It’s great to be working with Jon again,” says Oakes. “Jon has decades of history and knowledge from booking a wide range of talent across genres. We are excited to work with him to curate headliners and continue to foster developing artists on shows as he has throughout his career.”
Halperin will work remotely from Southern California and continues to book the Isle of Light festival in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, as well as the Gridlife and Celebrez en Rose festival brand. Halperin also worked for the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, First City Festival in Monterey Calif., All Tomorrow’s Parties Warped Tour and Hootenanny.
“This opportunity allows me to continue to expand my talent buying reach,” says Halperin, “While at the same time it is very exciting to be a part of a growing a larger capacity independent venue and company!”
The European Union’s executive branch said Thursday that it has temporarily banned TikTok from phones used by employees as a cybersecurity measure, reflecting widening worries from Western officials over the Chinese-owned video sharing app.
In a first for the European Commission, its Corporate Management Board suspended the use of TikTok on devices issued to staff or personal devices that staff use for work.
TikTok faces intensifying scrutiny from Europe and the U.S. over security and data privacy amid worries that the hugely popular app could be used to promote pro-Beijing views or sweep up users’ information. It comes as China and the West are locked in a wider tug of war over technology ranging from spy balloons to computer chips.
The EU’s action follows similar moves in the U.S., where more than half of the states and Congress have banned TikTok from official government devices.
“The reason why this decision has been taken is to … increase the commission’s cybersecurity,” commission spokesperson Sonya Gospodinova said at a press briefing in Brussels. “Also, the measure aims to protect the commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyberattacks against the corporate environment of the commission.”
Caroline Greer, TikTok’s Brussels-based public policy official, tweeted that the suspension “is misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions.”
“We have requested a meeting to set the record straight,” she said, adding that TikTok, which has 125 million users in the 27-nation European Union, is “continuing to enhance” its approach to data security. That includes opening three European data centers and minimizing data sent outside of the continent.
Commission spokespeople declined to say whether a specific incident triggered the suspension or what’s needed to get it lifted.
Staffers would be required to delete TikTok from devices that they use for professional business by March 15, EU representatives said, but did not provide any details on how that would be enforced for people who use personal phones for work.
In Norway, which is not a member of the 27-nation EU, the justice minister was forced to apologize this month for failing to disclose that she had installed TikTok on her government-issued phone.
TikTok also has come under pressure from the EU to comply with upcoming new digital regulations aimed at getting big online platforms to clean up toxic and illegal content along with the bloc’s strict data privacy rules.
Two former Iowa tourism officials were each sentenced to more than a year in prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud charges related to a failed 2018 music festival headlined by Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson.
Aaron McCreight, 48, was sentenced to 18 months, and Doug Hargrave, 56, was sentenced to 15 months over charges that they lied to a Cedar Rapids bank in order to finance Newbo Evolve, a three-day music and cultural event held in the city in August 2018.
Prosecutors said the pair – executives at a local promotional group called Go Cedar Rapids — submitted inflated data about the event’s underwhelming ticket sales and projected revenues, and that they lied to the bank that Newbo Evolve was expected to turn a small profit.
In reality, McCreight and Hargrave expected to lose more than $600,000, prosecutors said. The festival eventually lost more than $2 million, and was unable to repay most of the loan to the bank. 97 vendors that provided services to the festival lost a combined $800,000 unpaid fees.
The two men — former executives at a local promotional group called Go Cedar Rapids — each pleaded guilty last January to a single charge of bank fraud.
In addition to the prison time, McCreight and Hargrave were ordered to jointly repay a combined $1.4 million in restitution, and each will be subject to three years of supervised release after their prison terms are complete.
Newbo Evolve was held in Cedar Rapids from Aug. 3-5, 2018, featuring performances by Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, The Wallflowers, Robert DeLong and others.
According to court documents, McCreight, Hargrave and Go Cedar Rapids secured $1.5 million in initial funding from a local bank, telling the lender they expected to sell 11,000 tickets to each of the two headliners and 4,000 three-day passes to the entire festival.
But three months after tickets went on sale, McCreight reported internally that tickets were “not selling as originally budgeted.” By June, the group had sold just just 6,500 total tickets and was internally projecting a loss of $644,846 — with deadlines to pay the artists and vendors looming.
“As the Newbo Evolve event dates approached, GoCR did not have enough money to, among other things, pay Kelly Clarkson, pay production costs, and buy the alcohol that was to be sold at the concert venue,” prosecutors wrote. “Without additional funding, Newbo Evolve would have to be cancelled.”
Faced with that pressure, court documents show, McCreight and Hargrave committed bank fraud. Reporting that ticket sales had “spiked” in recent weeks, they falsely told the bank that 15,000 total tickets had been sold and that the event was forecast to turn a profit of $65,653. And the move worked: the bank eventually extended their line of credit to $2,200,000.
“Ultimately, Newbo Evolve lost more than $2 million,” prosecutors wrote in charging documents. “As a result, GoCR was unable to repay much of its loan from the lending bank when the loan was due.”
When he pleaded guilty last year, an attorney for McCreight told Billboard that he was a “good man” who made a “bad decision” under “extreme pressures.”
“His motive was not based in personal greed, but in an attempt to salvage the Newbo Evolve event for the Cedar Rapids community,” said attorney William White. “Had the event sold more tickets and been profitable, it is unlikely any prosecution would have ensued. However, that was not the case, and Mr. McCreight accepts his involvement in the lending bank losing money and is extremely remorseful.”
Attorneys for both McCreight and Hargrave were not immediately available for comment on the prison sentences.
Read the full judgments against McCreight and Hargrave here:
