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As U.S. TikTok users brace for a potential ban of the platform, some of them are actively testing other options: Two apps with TikTok-like characteristics, RedNote and Lemon8, are now the most popular free downloads in Apple’s App Store.
Lemon8 launched in the U.S. in February 2023 and cracked the top 20 on the Apple App Store four months later, according to Sensor Tower. Like TikTok, Lemon8 features a “For You” feed that recommends clips and a “following” feed that serves up videos from creators that users follow. Sensor Tower reported in October that 94% of Lemon8 users are women and that the app had been downloaded 52 million times globally.
RedNote, which was founded in 2013, is much bigger: Bloomberg recently reported that it has more than 300 million monthly active users and that it made $1 billion in profit in 2024. The platform has a trending feed that resembles TikTok’s, allowing users to vertically scroll through short-form videos. It also incorporates regular photos, text posts, and e-commerce; one tester described it as “Instagram meets TikTok meets Reddit.”
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Both Lemon8 and RedNote are owned by Chinese entities — in fact, Lemon8 is owned by ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. That could mean these apps also have a precarious future in the U.S., as TikTok is facing a ban because the American government is worried about its Chinese ownership.
“I’ve been concerned, literally for years, that because TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese firm, and every company — based upon Chinese law — has to be first and foremost loyal to the Communist Party of China, not to their shareholders or customers, that TikTok has posed a national security concern,” Sen. Mark Warner said earlier this month. His concerns would presumably extend to other ByteDance-owned companies, like CapCut and Lemon8.
In December, the Supreme Court agreed to hear TikTok’s challenge to the law that would either force ByteDance to sell the app or bar it from the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump also asked the court to pause the ban, promising to “resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.”
But after the Supreme Court hearing last week, most legal experts believe the justices will uphold the law. In that case, ByteDance would have to offload TikTok or face a ban on Jan. 19.
At the Supreme Court hearing, Justice Brett Kavanaugh claimed that China could use data harvested from TikTok to “develop spies, to turn people, to blackmail people.” And Chief Justice John Roberts asked how the court was “supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent [company] is, in fact, subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?”
With TikTok’s possible prohibition just days away, some labels have already started gaming out alternative marketing strategies.
“It’s hard to imagine a reality where TikTok actually goes down,” one executive told Billboard in December. “But we need to be prepared.”
YouTube and Google, together with Google.org, are contributing $15 million toward relief efforts aiding those impacted by the Los Angeles-area wildfires. The contribution will go to organizations including Emergency Network Los Angeles, American Red Cross and the Center for Disaster Recovery.
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YouTube CEO Neal Mohan made the announcement in a blog post on Wednesday, Jan. 15.
“Los Angeles is the heart of entertainment and storytelling and has an impact on culture all overthe world. It’s also where many YouTube creators, artists, partners and our employees callhome. Like so many, we’ve been heartbroken by the devastation from the wildfires and want todo our part to support the community as it rebuilds,” Mohan wrote.
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He also outlined other efforts Google is making to help aid relief efforts.
“Together with Google.org, YouTube and Google are contributing $15 million to organizationsproviding immediate relief in LA, including Emergency Network Los Angeles, American RedCross and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. And Google is providing accurate and timelyinformation to LA through products and services like Google Search, Google Maps and Waze.
“When it’s safe to reopen our offices in LA, we plan to offer YouTube production facilities toimpacted creators and artists as they begin to recover and rebuild their businesses. In thecoming months, we’ll also host a number of events to bring the YouTube creative communitytogether – making space to connect and share resources.
Mohan ended the blog post by saying, “On the long road ahead, we’ll continue to support recovery and rebuilding efforts alongside our partners across the industry. In moments like these, we see the power of communities coming together to support each other – and the strength and resilience of the YouTube community is like no other.”
Google and YouTube join numerous other organizations that are helping those who lives, homes and businesses have been impacted by the Los Angeles-area wildfires. The announcement follows recent announcements from companies including Amazon, which committed $10 million to relief efforts. Sony Group Corporation previously announced it would donate $5 million to wildfire relief efforts, while the Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund pledged $1 million.
The wildfires began Jan. 7 in the Pacific Palisades area just outside of Los Angeles, and swiftly spread to areas including Runyon Canyon and Altadena. The wildfires have swept through at least 40,000 acres in the greater Los Angeles area and killed at least 25 people, according to NBC News. The Los Angeles area is still on high alert as of Wednesday, Jan. 15.
Britpop icons Pulp signed with Rough Trade Records. “Rough Trade have managed Pulp for over 30 years so it feels great to be finally on the label. We did it!” the band said in a statement. Pulp’s last release was the 2001 album We Love Life, released by Island Records, though the band has toured together in the intervening years. Pulp has released a total of seven studio albums, including 1995’s Different Class, which was certified four-times platinum by the BPI.
Maggie Rose, a 2025 Grammy nominee for best Americana album, signed with One Riot/Virgin. Her first release under the deal is a “stripped version” of “Under the Sun” with Charlotte Sands. Rose is managed by Austin Marshall and Narvel Blackstock at Starstruck and booked by Jonathan Levine and Matt Runner at Wasserman.
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Folk-country artist Evan Honer signed with Wasserman Music for booking representation ahead of his recently announced spring 2025 tour. Honer will play 36 dates across the U.S., starting on Feb. 23 in Little Rock, Ark.
Singer-songwriter Sam Ryder signed with mtheory for management. He will be represented by Lewis Allen and Derek Gridley. Ryder is gearing up to release his second album and will embark on a tour this year.
Grammy-nominated gospel artist William Murphy signed a distribution deal with Motown Gospel, which released his new single, “Double,” on Friday (Jan. 10).
Centricity Music signed singer-songwriter Rachel Purcell to an exclusive global recording and publishing deal. Under her maiden name, Wammack, Rachel previously pursued a country music career, with songs including “Damage”; her new deals with Centricity mark her foray into Contemporary Christian music. – Jessica Nicholson
Sony Music Nashville signed singer-songwriter and Georgia native Zach John King. King just released a new song, “Slow Down,” which he wrote with Thomas Archer, Kyle Fishman and Michael Tyler. Sony Music Nashville’s roster also features artists including Brooks & Dunn, Kane Brown, Luke Combs and Megan Moroney. – Jessica Nicholson
Guitarist/producer RJ Pasin launched his own record label, Isekai Records, and signed Baltimore-based artist Lindsay Chia to the imprint. The label, which was founded by Pasin alongside his managers Ewan McGregor and Jack Mangan, released Chia’s track “Ghost” on Jan. 1. On launch, Isekai released the track “Embrace It (Remix)” by Ndotz, Sexyy Red and Flo Milli, featuring Pasin on guitar.
Luke Dean, an emerging artist in the U.K. underground dance scene, signed with Enzo Siragusa‘s LOCUS imprint, which released his new EP Ready Set Go on Dec. 13.
Jeff Roberts Agency partnered with contemporary Christian singer-songwriter Claire Leslie for booking. Leslie is managed by Hyphen Media Group and signed with Capitol CMG. She released her debut single “Original” this summer and followed with songs including “Ceiling Fan” and “Passenger Seat.” – Jessica Nicholson
Nashville-based label Quartz Hill Records, led by Brown Sellers Brown partner Benny Brown, signed country-pop duo 2 Lane Summer to its roster. The duo, composed of Illinois native Joe Hanson and Mississippi-born Chris Ray, recently joined country trio Chapel Hart on their Hartfelt Family Christmas Tour. They’ve also released a new version of their song “Eyes That Ain’t Yours.” – Jessica Nicholson
Pollinate Music, a newly-launched label under Bell Partners Worldwide, signed rapper, singer-songwriter and producer Rakeem Miles, who is also known for the clothing brand Action Figure Miles.
Singer-songwriter McCoy Moore signed an exclusive booking and artist development deal with The Neal Agency, home to fellow artists including HARDY, Nate Smith, Morgan Wallen, Anne Wilson and Bailey Zimmerman. Moore is also signed with SMACK and Worktape Music for publishing and with the newly-launched TRACK mgmt’s Tracker Johnson for management. – Jessica Nicholson
Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN) has relaunched Lost Highway Records in partnership with Oscar- and Grammy-winning songwriter/producer T Bone Burnett.
The first release from the new iteration isRingo Starr’s Burnett-produced country set Look Up, which was released last Friday (Jan. 10).
The revered label, which takes its name from the song made famous by Hank Williams, had been dormant since 2012 after being launched by then-UMGN head Luke Lewis in 2000.
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From the start, Lewis and his team curated a tasty roster focused on American-leaning music from artists including Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Hayes Carll, Mary Gauthier and Lyle Lovett. It was also home to soundtracks, including the Burnett-produced, Grammy-winning O Brother Where Art Thou, Deadwood and Open Season.
Cindy Mabe had been interested in reactivating the imprint for quite some time, even before she ascended to the role of UMGN chairman/CEO in April 2023.
“It was always a mission that we were going to reopen Lost Highway,” Mabe says. “It just felt like something was missing from the marketplace. Lost Highway was 15 years before its time. Looking at what’s happening to music in general and people living for algorithms, you’re losing art, you’re losing stories.”
Other entities had approached her about using the name over the years, but she had kept it close, knowing the right time would come.
T Bone Burnett and Cindy Mabe
Chris Hollo
“None of those people felt like the right people to go into this because you either hold it at the regard of which Luke built it or you don’t redo it,” Mabe says. Then, when Burnett played her the Starr album, “It just hit me. I was like, ‘Hold on, full circle moment.’ O Brother was kind of where Lost Highway started. And he’s presenting this beautiful record and he was pouring all this joy that he had gotten from The Beatles back into Ringo. This is the mentality and this is where Lost Highway needs to be.”
Burnett, who is also known for his work with Bob Dylan, Elton John, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, immediately loved the idea of joining forces. “I think it’s something that’s really needed at the moment,” he says. “There’s a need for an American music-focused record label that takes care of the good stuff.”
Though they aren’t ready to announce names, Burnett and Mabe say they have four or five artists they’re ready to work with, and they don’t discount that some of them may have a history with the label. Mabe says there are no plans to move any acts currently signed to other UMGN imprints to Lost Highway, which will remain a boutique label. Lost Highway will share some services with UMGN labels but will hire its own A&R, marketing and publicity staff.
“T Bone and I keep talking about the reason that we’re going to win is we’re going to put quality art back into the marketplace,” Mabe says. “It’s just missing. I’m not saying that there’s not some quality art out there, but it’s not always the goal. You don’t get artist development just by spinning the wheel and seeing how many ‘likes’ are out there. You actually have to make people feel something.”
Touring will be a big part of promoting the artists, as well as pairing them with producers who bring the same sensibility to the table. Additionally, Mabe says the film and TV component will remain a big part of the label and a way to bring attention to the roster. “Can these artists have radio? They could,” Mabe says. “It’s not the intent. The intent is to put great back out there and find its way out. It’s not one specific way to market.”
Burnett, who will helm the label’s creative direction with Mabe, doesn’t have an official title yet, but adds, “I’m looking forward to the challenge. I feel like we’re in a really beautiful moment where traditional American music, American vernacular music, is ascendant in the culture.” He wants to curate a bespoke roster in the same legendary way that Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker did at Warner Bros. in the ‘70s or Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun did at Atlantic Records in the ‘60s and ‘70s. “I want every artist to touch every other artist in some way so that it’s integrated as an esthetic,” Burnett says. “It’s not just commercial grabs from here and there, but it’s about people who play great and sing great and write great.”
By launching with Starr’s country album, Burnett says it sends the signal that Lost Highway is “not going to be constricted by somebody else’s definition of what American music is. When The Beatles came out, they were playing Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins. They were playing the canon of American music that everything since has grown out of,” he says. “We’re saying that this is going to be an inclusive label. It’s going to be what I call American music, which includes blues and rhythm & blues and country music and folk music and rock and roll music.
One of Mabe’s next steps is surveying the assets from Lost Highway’s first go-round. “We’re going to put out some of the catalog that’s existed before,” she says. “It’s taking shape. We’re looking at all the pieces that are going to put the lights back on.”
Drake has filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over allegations that the music giant defamed him by promoting Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” claiming the label boosted a “false and malicious narrative” that the star rapper was a pedophile and put his life in danger.
Hours after his attorneys withdrew an earlier petition, they filed a full-fledged defamation lawsuit Wednesday against his longtime label – claiming UMG knew Lamar’s “inflammatory and shocking allegations” were false but chose to place “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
“UMG intentionally sought to turn Drake into a pariah, a target for harassment, or worse,” the star’s lawyers write in a complaint filed in Manahttan federal court. “UMG did so not because it believes any of these false claims to be true, but instead because it would profit from damaging Drake’s reputation.”
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In one of the lawsuit’s most vivid accusations, Drake claims that the release of “Not Like Us” has subjected him to risk of physical violence, including a drive-by shooting on his Toronto area home just days after the song was released.
“UMG’s greed yielded real world consequences,” his lawyers write. “With the palpable physical threat to Drake’s safety and the bombardment of online harassment, Drake fears for the safety and security of himself, his family, and his friends.”
Notably, the case does not target Lamar himself — a point that Drake’s attorneys repeatedly stress in their filings.
“UMG may spin this complaint as a rap beef gone legal, but this lawsuit is not about a war of words between artists,” Drake’s attorneys say.
A spokesman for UMG did not immediately return a request for comment.
Wednesday’s lawsuit is yet another dramatic escalation a high-profile beef that saw Drake and Lamar exchange stinging diss tracks last year, culminating in Lamar’s knockout “Not Like Us” — a track that savagely slammed Drake as a “certified pedophile” and became a hit in its own right.
Drake shocked the music industry in November when he filed petitions suggesting he might sue over the fued — first accusing UMG and Spotify of an illegal “scheme” involving bots, payola and other methods to pump up Lamar’s song, then later claiming that the song had been defamatory. But those cases were not quite full-fledged lawsuits, and Drake withdrew one of them late on Tuesday.
Now it’s clear why: In Wednesday’s lawsuit, he formally sued UMG over the same alleged scheme, claiming the label “unleashed every weapon in its arsenal” to drive the popularity of Lamar’s track even though it knew the lyrics were “not only false, but dangerous.”
“With his own record label having waged a campaign against him, and refusing to address this as a business matter, Drake has been left with no choice but to seek legal redress against UMG,” his lawyers write.
The filing of the case represents a doubling-down for Drake, who has been ridiculed in some corners of the hip-hop world filing legal actions over a rap beef. It also will deepen further his rift with UMG, where the star has spent his entire career — first through signing a deal with Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint, which was distributed by Republic Records, then by signing directly to Republic.
In his complaint, Drake’s lawyers said the label opted to boost “Not Like Us” despite its “defamatory” lyrics because they saw it as a “gold mine” — partly because UMG owns Lamar’s master recordings outright, but also because it could use the song to hurt Drake’s standing in future contract talks.
“UMG’s contract with Drake was nearing fulfillment … UMG anticipated that extending Drake’s contract would be costly,” his lawyers write. “By devaluing Drake’s music and brand, UMG would gain leverage to force Drake to sign a new deal on terms more favorable to UMG.”
This is a breaking news story and will continue to be updated with additional details as they become available.
Drake has dropped his legal action accusing Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify of artificially inflating the popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” less than two months after he first filed it.
The action, filed in November, accused UMG and Spotify of an illegal “scheme” involving bots, payola and other methods to pump up Lamar’s song — a track that savagely attacked Drake amid an ongoing feud between the two stars.
But in a filing Tuesday (Jan. 14) in Manhattan court, Drake’s company Frozen Moments LLC said it would voluntarily withdraw the action “without costs to any party.” Another similar petition, filed in Texas against UMG and iHeartRadio alleging Lamar’s song was defamatory, remains pending.
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An attorney for Drake did not immediately return a request for comment on why the case was dismissed. A spokesman for UMG declined to comment. A representative for Spotify did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Drake shocked the music industry in November when he went to court — a remarkable twist in a high-profile beef that saw Drake and Lamar exchange stinging diss tracks over a period of months earlier in the year. That a rapper would take such a dispute to court seemed almost unthinkable at the time, and Drake has been ridiculed in some corners of the hip-hop world for doing so.
The actions also represented a stunning rift between Drake and UMG, where the star has spent his entire career — first through signing a deal with Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint, which was distributed by Republic Records, then by signing directly to Republic.
The New York petition accused UMG of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the federal “RICO” statute often used against organized crime. He accused Spotify of participating in the scheme by charging reduced licensing fees in exchange for recommending the song to users. A day later, he filed a similar action in Texas, suggesting that UMG had legally defamed him by releasing a song that “falsely” accused him of being a “sex offender.”
The filings were not full-fledged lawsuits, but rather “pre-action” petitions aimed petition seeking to secure information so that a full lawsuit can be filed.
UMG had not yet responded to either action. But in a stinging response last month, Spotify called the allegations “false” and flatly denied that it struck any deal with UMG to support Lamar’s song. And the company took aim at the unusual way he filed the allegations, saying he had done so because his allegations were too flimsy to pass muster in an actual lawsuit and would have been quickly dismissed: “This subversion of the normal judicial process should be rejected.”
In Tuesday’s filing, attorneys for Drake said they had met with both UMG and Spotify ahead of the withdrawal. Spotify had “no objection” to the dismissal, according to the filing, but the record “reserved its position” about whether it would challenge the move in some way.
The new “junk fee” rules passed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to clean up the event ticket industry won’t slow the rising price of concert tickets or reduce the huge fees added by ticketing companies, a group of prominent music agents and managers is warning.
In a letter to the FTC last week, Nathaniel Marro, executive director of the National Independent Talent Organization (NITO), said the new rules are “a positive step forward” in cleaning up the business but that they do “nothing to reduce the junk fees buried inside each concert ticket.” NITO is now asking the FTC to expand its ruling to address its concerns.
So-called junk fees, which are added to a ticket purchase by ticketing companies like AXS and Ticketmaster, regularly push ticket fees up 25% to 30%, often without any sign-off from the artist, says Marro.
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“The artist is kept in the dark about how much their fans are being charged in fees for tickets,” Marro wrote in the letter. “We don’t know the fees in advance. Most agents, and artists and managers don’t see the full spread of fees until the show goes on sale.”
Some of the fees also aren’t accounted for during show settlement, Marro added, meaning that most artists don’t know how much revenue ticketing companies are making from their concerts.
Officials with Live Nation pushed back on this claim, telling Billboard that “if an artist team is ever unsure of the venue fees, it’s a simple ask that the venue rental agreement outline it,” adding, “this is never hidden as it’s a standard cost of doing business.”
Marro worries that the FTC’s new requirements that fans be shown the full price of a ticket upfront –instead of first being shown the face value before fees are tacked onto the price at checkout — will make it easier for ticketing companies to add fees to the face value of a ticket while effectively hiding them, resulting in higher ticket prices.
Recent data from Billboard Boxscore shows that ticket prices are rapidly increasing. The average cost of a concert ticket to one of the tours on Billboard’s Year-End top 100 tours chart last year was $132.30, marking an increase of 9.1% from 2023 and a 20.6% increase from 2022. Prior to the pandemic, ticket prices were increasing at a much more sustainable rate of just 3% to 4% a year.
In a statement to Billboard explaining its support for mandatory all-in pricing, Live Nation said that “fans are better off when they focus on the true cost of a ticket, which is the sum of face value and all mandatory fees. There is no basis for obscuring the all-in price on the fiction that artists do not understand ticket fees. That information is never hidden as the NITO comments suggest. It is readily available to artist teams, who also know that most ticket fees go to the venues hosting their events.”
WME has added veteran music agent Lance Roberts as a partner in its Nashville-based country music division. In addition to more than three decades of experience in the business, he brings artists including Chris Janson, Craig Morgan, Parmalee, Easton Corbin, Ian Munsick and Sammy Kershaw to the WME fold. Roberts began his career at the […]
After helping to create the watery pink-and-gray cover art for Linkin Park‘s 2024 album From Zero, Frank Maddocks, the band’s art director, chopped the visual into five pieces and adapted them into collages for four alternate vinyl releases. “I wanted to develop these unique textures I could use for whatever kind of piece they could schedule, whether it was a different vinyl or CD configuration,” says Maddocks, Warner Records’ vp of creative, who has been working with the band on album artwork for 24 years. “It’s smart to think of, ‘What would be the next tier of this artwork?’ or, ‘How can it adapt and change?’”
From Zero came out with 17 alternate physical versions, known as variants, including 11 vinyl LPs, three CDs, a CD box set and two cassettes — and the combined sales of those variants contributed to Linkin Park’s debut at No. 1 on four rock album charts in late November, including Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums. That may sound like a lot, but it’s now standard in today’s music industry, in which almost every hit artist, from Taylor Swift to Sabrina Carpenter to K-pop stars such as TWICE, ATEEZ and Stray Kids, markets highly priced variants to collectors and superfans.
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Today’s variant explosion is rooted in the early 2000s, when the Eagles’ 2007 album Long Road Out of Eden and AC/DC’s 2008 album Black Ice boosted their CD sales with heavily hyped Wal-Mart exclusives — and both landed No. 1 albums at a time when iTunes-style digital downloads dominated the business. In a way, these exclusives were the opposite of today’s variant explosion — each was available for sale at just one retailer. But they broke the dam. Up to that point, labels resisted deals involving exclusive albums for Wal-Mart, Best Buy or Target, fearing spurned old-school record stores might take out their frustrations by short-changing other releases. After the Eagles and AC/DC successes, artists and labels realized they could provide exclusives and release multiple separate versions, for sale directly to consumers through their own webstores or to multiple retailers. K-pop stars became masters of this practice, encouraging superfans to buy every single variant.
“The idea of having consumers run around and collect them all, and pick the best version of an album, isn’t really new,” says Adam Abramson, formerly Elektra Records’ head of sales and streaming. “In the mid-2000s, we could’ve had four or five exclusives — there might’ve been a Best Buy CD with two bonus tracks, a Target CD-DVD combo, Trans World would have a poster, Circuit City would have a T-shirt, Hot Topic would have some kind of merch item, the indies would have a promo item.”
Once streaming kicked in, artists and labels quickly realized CD sales had a disproportionate influence on the Billboard 200, so they could boost chart performance by offering fans extra material, like concert tickets or merch. For a while, the Billboard charts allowed artists to bundle physical albums with concert tickets. But that all changed when Billboard banned the practice in 2020. “The ticket bundles going away was almost a tipping point that opened the floodgates,” says Mike Sherwood, former executive vp of global commercial marketing and strategy at Capitol Records. “They had to be replaced by something, and that something became, ‘Well, this vinyl thing is happening over here, and you can make different colors and weights and packages.’”
As a result, many of today’s biggest artists have gone to extremes in putting out multiple variants. Swift is the master of this approach, scoring a No. 1 album earlier this year with the help of 859,000 first-week sales, including six vinyl versions of The Tortured Poets Department. And every time she sought a chart boost, she rolled out more versions — including not just physical LPs and CDs but digital downloads — allowing the album to remain atop the Billboard 200 for 17 total weeks. At one point in May, Tortured Poets managed to stay ahead of Dua Lipa’s No. 2 Radical Optimism, which arrived with 20 physical versions.
According to Luminate, in early 2019, the top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 arrived with an average of 3.3 different versions of physical albums per week. By the end of 2023, that number had jumped to an average of 8.9 versions. During this time — which included the pandemic, the greatest gift to the vinyl business since Michael Jackson’s Thriller — annual LP sales jumped from 18.8 million to 49.6 million. “It’s a great revenue play and the margins are solid, and for many years, it’s been a growing business,” says Tom Corson, co-chairman/COO at Warner Records, Linkin Park’s longtime label. “K-pop, to some degree, helped unlock this market, as we learn from their ability to service the fan. If that manifests itself in a greater chart result, great.”
The multiple-versions trend has gone over the top in recent years. Travis Scott’s 2023 album Utopia arrived with 31 variants — and hit No. 1, of course. Last year, The Rolling Stones put out limited $38 vinyl editions of Hackney Diamonds with artwork representing each of the 30 Major League Baseball teams, while a Saltburn soundtrack variant containing “bath water filled vinyl” sold out at prices ranging from $60 to $175. K-pop acts helped to pioneer this device and show no signs of stopping: In 2024, TWICE’s With YOU-th came out with 14 CD and three vinyl variants; ATEEZ’s Golden Hour: Part.2 had 23 CDs, six LPs and three digital downloads — and both hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in their debut weeks.
One artist who pushed back — gently — on the practice was Billie Eilish, who said she would limit her variants on 2024’s Hit Me Hard and Soft to a conservative eight, all packaged with recycled materials, but wound up releasing 14. “We are doing everything we can to minimize waste in every aspect of my music,” she said at the time.
But there are business downsides to the multiple-variant approach. “Fans are talking it up and figuring out what color or version they want, and there’s a fun element to that,” Abramson says. “But you’re making people choose, oftentimes with limited resources financially, which one they want, knowing they can’t get them all. It’s a little unfair to get them to spend maybe 40 extra dollars to get one extra song.”
The market for endless physical variants may show signs of over-saturation: Fall Out Boy’s 2023 album So Much (for) Stardust dropped with 31 physical versions in its first week, but LP copies were marked down by 30% during a recent holiday sale from retailer The Sound of Vinyl, suggesting low demand. “It’s a point of differentiation if you have something other people don’t have — that’s a lovely thing and you can market around it,” adds Carl Mello, director of brand engagement for New England music chain Newbury Comics, which benefits from variants when labels release exclusive LPs and CDs for release-date events and Record Store Day. But, he says, “The vinyl colors have been so omnipresent. By the time the 12th color rolls around, the average consumer will be like, ‘So what?’”
Labels nonetheless remain committed to their multiple-variant strategy — although, according to Peter Standish, Warner Records’ senior vp of marketing, they should study which artists’ fans crave collectors’ items and which ones don’t. Warner’s analytics department attempts to predict how many copies of a given album might sell so it doesn’t lose too much money, given the expense and long lead times for LPs. “We are trying to offer at least one configuration that’s competitive financially — then maybe more elaborate ones, with more packaging, for a harder-core fan,” he says. “But you also want to balance that with not overwhelming them with choice.”
A version of this story appears in the Jan. 11, 2025, issue of Billboard.
The 2025 MusiCares Person of the Year event honoring the Grateful Dead is still set for Jan. 31 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, MusiCares announced on Tuesday (Jan. 14). The announcement, first reported in Variety, came one day after the Recording Academy announced that the 67th Grammy Awards were still on for Feb. 2.
Many had expected the Academy to reverse course and postpone the date of the Grammy telecast after all, but the announcement that the top Grammy Week event outside of the telecast is still on gives the impression that the academy is indeed planning to move forward with the show.
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“Your attendance at Persons of the Year and your ongoing generosity will support these continued vital efforts, helping those in urgent need and signaling to the world that this vibrant city is on its feet,” MusiCares said in a statement that it is emailing to Recording Academy members.
“At our upcoming Persons of the Year, we will make a special appeal for donations to support our wildfire relief efforts. We invite you to join us in spreading the word to your friends and family by sharing this link: www.musicares.org/FireRelief.”
In a joint statement on Monday (Jan. 13), Harvey Mason jr., CEO of both the Recording Academy and MusiCares, and Tammy Hurt, the chair of the academy’s board of trustees, suggested that the Feb. 2 show would combine the fund-raising goal and emotional appeals of a telethon with award presentations. “This year’s show, however, will carry a renewed sense of purpose: raising additional funds to support wildfire relief efforts and honoring the bravery and dedication of first responders who risk their lives to protect ours,” they said.
Even before the Grammys announced plans to go on with the show, Lucas Keller, president/founder of Milk & Honey Management, announced that he was canceling Milk & Honey’s popular Grammy party. “It would be tone deaf to celebrate and I hope all other companies will follow suit,” he wrote on his Instagram Story.
Many followed Keller’s lead. Just hours after the Recording Academy announced that it planned to go ahead with the telecast, Universal Music Group (UMG) announced it was canceling all of the company’s Grammy-related events, including its artist showcase and after-Grammy party, and will instead “redirect the resources that would have been used for those events to assist those affected by the wildfires.” Within 24 hours, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment had also canceled their Grammy Week events. And on Tuesday (Jan. 14), BMG announced that it too was canceling its annual pre-Grammy party.
Additionally, many executives not based in Los Angeles expressed concern about taking up hotel rooms that may be needed by evacuees and planned not to attend.
The Recording Academy has yet to announce the host of this year’s Grammys. The announcement was expected last week but has been delayed to avoid stepping on the main news about whether the show was going to proceed or not. The announcement is expected soon.
MusiCares conveyed the news in an email to members on Tuesday (Jan. 14). It appears in full below.
“We hope you and your loved ones are safe. We’re reaching out to assure you that the MusiCares Persons of the Year will take place as planned on Friday, January 31, 2025, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
“As the devastation unfolds from the wildfires in greater Los Angeles, MusiCares is committed to supporting the impacted music community. When the crisis began, we launched our Fire Relief Effort with a $1 million contribution from the Recording Academy and MusiCares.
“Your attendance at Persons of the Year and your ongoing generosity will support these continued vital efforts, helping those in urgent need and signaling to the world that this vibrant city is on its feet.
“Now more than ever, our mission is critical. For more than three decades, MusiCares has been a steadfast partner to the music industry during times of need, offering aid in response to a variety of disasters. From the Las Vegas Route 91 shooting and the COVID-19 pandemic to Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Helene, the California and Maui wildfires. MusiCares is here to help—no matter the size or scope of the crisis.
“At our upcoming Persons of the Year, we will make a special appeal for donations to support our wildfire relief efforts. We invite you to join us in spreading the word to your friends and family by sharing this link: www.musicares.org/FireRelief
“Thank you for your support during this crucial time. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions. We look forward to coming together for this important cause.
Best regards,
MusiCares