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Taylor Swift began her two-week Eras Tour run in Toronto Thursday night (Nov. 14), and the city is going all out.
Before she hit the stage, footage circulated of her arriving with a whole police cavalcade on the Gardiner Expressway – which is normally filled with traffic during rush hour.
There were plenty of Swifties seen following the Taylor Swift Way signs throughout downtown. Only ticketholders could get near the Rogers Centre before the show – including the city’s unhoused population, who were cleared from encampments and compelled to move to shelters.
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An official Taylgate event took place at the nearby Metro Toronto Convention Centre with photo ops, silent discos and friendship bracelet making stations. A similar “Swift Station” activation offered similar experiences on Queen Street while decked out to look like a subway station.
News stations broadcast live from outside the stadium throughout the night, while Swift took the stage inside. Stories abounded about fans who tried and failed to get tickets, or who ended up getting scammed (the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre issued warnings as they were overloaded with complaints). Ticketmaster did, however, release some last minute tickets on the day of the show, though they were gone quickly.
Inside at the concert, Taylor Swift made some nods to the Canadian crowd. “Doesn’t it seem like the entire Folklore era just belongs in Canada?” she asked before launching into that section of the show. “The place that I envisioned in my mind where Folklore took place, it’s very natural, wilderness, beautiful, forests that have been there since the beginning of time. And it just kind of feels like we’re returning the Folklore era to where it belongs anyway.”
Her dancer, Kam, also added a Canadian touch during “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” with an exaggerated “Soorry aboot it!” during his line.
There are two more Eras Tour shows this weekend, on Nov. 15 and Nov. 16, before she returns to Rogers Centre next week for shows on Nov. 21, 22 and 23. – Richard Trapunski
Canadian Songwriters Earn Grammy Nominations for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter
The 2025 Grammy nominations were announced last week, and Beyoncé leads the list — along with her Canadian collaborators.
“Texas Hold ‘Em,” co-written by three Canadians, has been nominated for two of the biggest awards, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Writers Nathan Ferraro, Lowell, and Megan Bülow all picked up nominations for Song of the Year, which is awarded to the writers and composers behind the track, as well as Best Country Song. Ferraro talked with Billboard Canada earlier this year about his Canadian writing team.
“[The collaboration] works well for us,” Ferraro told Billboard Canada. “We’re such good friends and we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. I think we all have a lot of mutual respect, so we have a lot of confidence together and that allows us to take risks.”
Lowell, meanwhile, won the inaugural Billboard Canada Non-Performing Songwriter Award this summer.
Beyoncé’s country album Cowboy Carter is also nominated for Album of the Year with Canadian Dave Hamelin (formerly of Montreal indie rock band The Stills and now a regular collaborator with 070 Shake) named in the nomination for his work as a producer and songwriter across the album.
In total, Beyoncé picked up a whopping 11 nominations for her history-making Cowboy Carter, which features a slew of Canadian contributions.
Serban Ghenea, meanwhile, racked up the highest number of Canadian nods: a grand total of five nominations, for his work with a trifecta of pop stars: Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, and Ariana Grande.
Other Canadian nominees included The Weeknd, Kaytranada, Charlotte Day Wilson, Spiritbox and Cirkut, for his work on Charli XCX’s cultural phenomenon, Brat.
Read about all the Canadian nominees here. –Rosie Long Decter
Quebec Government Pursues Action Against Ticket Resale Site Billets.ca
The Quebec government is taking action against ticket resales.
The province’s Office of Consumer Protection announced Wednesday, Nov. 13, that the Director of Penal and Criminal Prosecutions has served 26 statements of infraction to Billets.ca.
If proven guilty, each infraction could merit a fine between $2,000 and $100,000 for the company, and between $600 and $15,000 for President Éric Bussières.
The Office is accusing Billets.ca of reselling tickets at higher prices than those advertised by authorized salespersons. It also charges that the site is reselling tickets it does not possess. The infractions took place between November 2022 and September 2023.
Ticket resales have become an increasingly hot topic in the industry. Ticketmaster issued a warning in advance of Oasis’ North American tour dates going on sale, advising consumers not to trust resale sites that were already advertising tickets. The ticketing giant has also faced allegations in the past of working with resale sites.
Earlier this year, over 250 artists signed a letter titled Fix the Tix, addressing American legislators. “Predatory resellers have gone unregulated while siphoning money from the live entertainment ecosystem for their sole benefit,” the letter stated.
Quebec’s Loi sur la protection du consommateur forbids sellers from boosting prices during resales without express permission from the original authorized vendor. It also prohibits the use of technology to bypass controls on obtaining tickets. Sites like Billets.ca have often skirted these rules by acting as a broker for individual sellers, instead of selling the tickets themselves.
Quebec music association ADISQ welcomed the news.
“It’s a relief to see charges finally laid against Billets.ca and the practice of fraudulent ticket resale,” says Eve Paré, Executive Director of ADISQ, in French.
ADISQ states that it has made numerous complaints to Quebec’s Office of Consumer Protection regarding unauthorized ticket resales.
ADISQ notes that it is also eagerly awaiting the outcome of a class action lawsuit filed against Billets.ca on October 13, 2023. –RLD
Welcome to an overflowing edition of Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music.
Read on for mostly good news and don’t forget to nominate an impactful executive for our Power 100 Players’ Choice Award, plus peep our weekly interview series spotlighting a single c-suiter and our helpful calendar of notable industry events and confabs.
Universal Music Japan named Shintaro Aki as managing director of EMI Records Japan. Reporting to UMJ president and CEO Naoshi Fujikura, the Tokyo-based executive brings over two decades of industry experience, including a successful tenure at Warner Music Japan, where he rose to senior executive producer. While at Warner, he notably spent seven years as head of Creative Room 1 (now known as Prescribe), the label home to Aimyon, Chanmina, Campanella and others. Over the course of his career Aki has played a pivotal role in developing artists like Superfly, whom he has A&R’d since 2007, Ulfuls, Ges no Kiwami Otome, WANIMA and THE YELLOW MONKEY, among others. Fujikura praised Aki’s proven track record for producing hits and strong relationships with artists, adding, “We look forward to EMI Records, which already has a long history and a broad roster of artists, continuing to shine under Mr. Aki’s new leadership.”
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Warner Music appointed Darina Connolly as general manager of Rhino UK, where she’ll report to Dirk Ewald, WMG’s svp of global catalogue, and Isabel Garvey, Warner Music UK’s COO. Connolly will lead marketing efforts for iconic Rhino artists like David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Madonna and Prince, among others. Formerly head of music partnerships at TikTok, Connolly has also held key roles at Apple Music, Sony Music, and MTV, where she managed projects with artists such as AC/DC and John Legend. A strong advocate for diversity — spot her in Billboard’s 2024 Music Industry Pride list — Connolly developed inclusion initiatives including Apple Music’s Elevate program and TikTok’s #queersounds campaign. Connolly is enthusiastic about enhancing Rhino UK’s legacy, while Ewald and Garvey anticipate her positive impact. This appointment follows the departure of Tom Gallacher, who relocated to Scotland after ten years with Rhino UK.
John Storey joined CAA as chief financial officer, bringing nearly 20 years of experience in corporate development, strategy and finance to the talent agency. Storey previously served as president of finance and operations at Asurion, a leader in smartphone insurance. CAA president Jim Burtson highlighted Storey’s expertise in strategic planning and operational efficiencies, which align with CAA’s objectives to expand internationally. “His accomplishments in building for growth match well with our ambitious goals,” Burtson said. Storey, whose background includes five years as Asurion’s CFO and previous roles as a research analyst and investment banker, said CAA is “clear in its vision to create limitless opportunities for its clients and employees” and that he looks forward to achieving those goals.
Meghan Cassin | SXSW
South by Southwest appointed Meghan Cassin as senior vp of content, aiming to strengthen its focus on content to support creatives and broaden community engagement. Cassin, with 17 years of experience in global media, previously served as vp of content at Warner Bros. Discovery, where she led content initiatives for platforms such as Nat Geo Wild, Disney Plus and Max. Jann Baskett, SXSW co-president and chief brand officer, expressed enthusiasm about Cassin’s appointment, noting her passion for storytelling. “With new ideas around content and an audience-first approach, we know she’s the right executive to spearhead our efforts,” she said.
Downtown Music Publishing promoted Jedd Katrancha to chief creative officer, where he will direct the company’s A&R, business development, sync and other creative-y strategies. A Downtown veteran since its start in 2007, Katrancha aims to expand exposure and revenue for Downtown’s catalog by aligning creative efforts to capture new opportunities across various markets. Katrancha will also lead efforts to forge strategic partnerships, helping to unlock the potential of Downtown’s catalog, which spans legacy artists like John Lennon and Miles Davis to recent signings such as Colbie Caillat and Peso Pluma. Downtown president Emily Stephenson praised Katrancha’s “dedication to fostering and executing impactful creative strategies for our artists and business clients.”
Gamma, the Larry Jackson-founded media and entertainment company, announced two key hires this week: Mike Hamilton as senior vp of commercial partnerships, and Casey Compernolle as vice president of A&R and digital strategy. Hamilton, formerly svp of commerce at Def Jam Recordings, will manage relationships with digital service providers for gamma artists, while Compernolle, previously a top playlist programmer and emerging artist advocate at Apple Music, will focus on artist development and digital strategy. “What gamma. has accomplished in under two years is nothing short of remarkable,” said Hamilton. “As independent companies continue to dominate our industry, I am honored and excited to join such a talented & impactful team.” Compernolle added that she’s stoked to “help develop the industry’s next wave of independent talent alongside a phenomenal roster of artists and an incredibly talented group of creatives.”
Opry Entertainment Group named Gary Scott as chief operating officer. Scott joins OEG from Ridgeline Hospitality Group, where he served as principal/owner and provides counsel to clients in sectors including hotel, gaming, food/beverage and hospitality. His career also includes time at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, and MGM Resorts/The Mirage Hotel & Casino. Opry Entertainment Group’s portfolio of venues includes the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, the Blake Shelton-inspired Ole Red, ACL Live at Moody Theater and Luke Combs’s Category 10. –Jessica Nicholson
NASHVILLE NOTES: 2911 Media promoted Scott Sexton from director of publicity to vice president of publicity. My top priority has always been to help our clients reach their full potential, and that will never change,” he said … The Familie added artist manager Emma Kyes to its Nashville music division. Kyes brings Sadie Bass to the Famile fam after securing deals for the singer-songwriter, including with WME and Sony Music. Royce Risser, The Familie’s evp of music, praised Kyes’ “drive and commitment” as “extraordinary.”
Matt Morgan, a former senior marketing executive at Atlantic Records UK, is the new creative marketing director at Trade Secrets Management, which represents Teddy Swims. Morgan, who joined Atlantic last November, played a pivotal role in the global success of Swims’ “Lose Control” campaign, which garnered hundreds of millions of views and established Swims in the UK market. Morgan, who also manages Amelia Dimoldenberg, Reggie Yates and Dynamo, signaled enthusiasm for continuing his work with Swims and the Atlantic team in his new role. His appointment is expected to enhance Swims’ presence and expand the reach of Trade Secrets Management’s creative marketing strategies. “Matt is one of the most creative and talented marketing minds I’ve had the pleasure of working with”, said Luke Conway, director at Trade Secrets Management. “His unique and impactful campaigns have been instrumental in breaking Teddy in the UK. We’re thrilled to welcome him to the Trade Secrets team.”
Leftbrain named Larry Tyler as a business manager, where he’ll lead a team serving a diverse range of industry clients, from indie artists to major label stars. Tyler brings over 13 years of experience from NKSFB Business Management, where he rose to partner, and has previously held roles at Gursey|Schneider LLP and GSO Business Management, specializing in tour finances and client relations. Founder and CEO Nicholas Judd said that Leftbrain, now in its sixth year, is busy expanding its mission after initially focusing on business management for musicians through tech. “Now, we’re expanding our mission by partnering with like-minded business managers,” he said. “Larry’s legendary experience and vision make him a perfect fit for our team, and we’re excited to show what’s possible together.”
ALL IN THE FAMILY: Nicole Morano is the new associate vice president of communications at Penske Media, where she’ll oversee PR and communications for New York-based brands like this one, Rolling Stone and Sportico, as well as SXSW events in Austin, Sydney and London. Based in NYC and reporting to Brooke Jaffe, svp of public affairs and strategy, Morano will also support Penske Media’s New York executive teams, including licensing. Morano was previously director of corporate communications at Condé Nast and earlier in her career handled publicity at Penguin Random House.
Michelle McCarthy officially cut the ribbon on MCC Marketing Group, a New York-based agency specializing in live entertainment and sports marketing. The agency aims to create strong connections between artists, brands, and audiences through strategic campaigns for concerts, festivals and other events. With over 15 years of experience, McCarthy previously led marketing at Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall, handling major events like Billy Joel’s residency and Harry Styles’ sold-out shows. In 2024, MCC Marketing Group successfully promoted the “Rock the Country” festival series featuring Kid Rock and Jason Aldean, and David Gilmour’s “Luck and Strange” U.S. Tour, achieving sold-out shows.
RADIO, RADIO: Jeff Littlejohn, iHeartMedia’s longtime executive vp of engineering, is retiring after 32 years. Steve George will now oversee technical operations for iHeart’s 860 local stations. Additionally, Oklahoma svp of programming JJ Ryan will expand his role to include Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri, as part of iHeart’s regional leadership restructuring. This change follows the layoff of Greg Chance, who had overseen programming for more than 20 stations … Audacy promoted Kieran Geffert as its new market manager in San Francisco, overseeing a portfolio that includes 95.7 The Game, Alice @ 97.3 and 102 Jams, among others.
ICYMI:
Greg Maffei
Liberty Media announced that longtime president and CEO Greg Maffei will step down at the end of the year, with chairman John Malone sliding in as interim CEO … Ikenna Nwagboso, the co-founder of label services and partnerships at emPawa Africa, will exit the company in January … and former MNRK Music Group president/CEO Chris Taylor officially opened the doors on Hall of Fame Artists. [KEEP READING]
Last Week’s Turntable: WCM Irons Out Head of A&R in Amsterdam
Andre Benz’s foray into the music business was not like most. He didn’t attend a music business program at a university, toil away at an unpaid internship or manage a local artist. Instead, he built his own YouTube empire at age 15.
Working from his childhood bedroom in New Jersey, Benz created the YouTube channel Trap Nation, where he featured a curated selection of dance music and remixes of popular songs. “Originally, it was just a hobby, but I think one of my positive and negative traits is I become obsessive about what I do,” he says. “I just kept doing it and doing it until one of the uploads blew up — a remix of ‘Wrecking Ball’ by Miley Cyrus.”
By the time of his high school graduation, Benz had become an unlikely but important tastemaker in the world of electronic music. He expanded Trap Nation into a whole suite of channels — Chill Nation, House Nation and Bass Nation — and he says his flagship brand grew to about 2 million subscribers. Today, it has amassed over 30 million.
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Around the same time, he met another student, Brandon De Oliveira, who went to a neighboring high school in New Jersey and had mutual friends. Their eventual collaboration led Benz to sell his YouTube channels to Create Music Group in 2022 and co-found Broke Records with De Oliveira the following year. Now 27, Benz says his goal is no less than building “the best independent record label in the history of the music industry,” and he takes inspiration from the digital-driven approach of Mike Caren’s APG and Elliot Grainge’s 10K Projects, which he says showed him what indie success can look like.
“What we’re doing would not work at any other company in the music industry — Republic, Columbia, Atlantic or Warner,” Benz says. “[Create founder] Jonathan Strauss and the entire Create team have given us full-on trust, opportunity and accessibility to do what we believe is right for the company. That means doing larger deals and taking larger risks.”
“Andre gave me this framed printed chart as a Christmas gift to commemorate the label’s launch,” De Oliveira says, “so we’d be able to look at it and grasp the level of growth the company has had over the next year.”
Jamie Pearl
Broke Records is distributed by Create and has a staff of eight full-time employees focused on finding and breaking artists. The label currently has “Embrace It” by London-based Angolan rapper Ndotz and “Alibi” by Iranian Dutch singer-songwriter-producer Sevdaliza on Spotify’s Global Top 50 chart and claims that its international roster, which includes Blackbear, Bread Beatz and Camelphat, generates more than 32 million streams a day globally on Spotify.
How does your YouTube marketing background and experience with algorithms benefit Broke Records?
ANDRE BENZ That’s our biggest advantage and the biggest difference between us and an older label — how we think about services for our artists. We don’t have to rely on paying outside people to do the [digital marketing] for us. I think a lot of companies love outsourcing work because it holds a third party accountable. If the artist complains, the label can say, “Oh, it’s actually their fault.” Some of these other labels have too much volume, too, and they’re not able to control what’s actually going on, so they outsource work.
Why are you succeeding with TikTok creator campaigns at a time when digital markets are saying they’re less effective than a few years ago?
BRANDON DE OLIVEIRA I think creator campaigns now are actually more influential than ever, but everyone’s spending way too much. We are constantly refreshing the list of creators that we’re [using]. Two or three years ago, labels got used to thinking, “OK, these are the big accounts now. We will just go to them.” These creators’ rates kept going up, and as the market kept getting more saturated, those creators didn’t move the needle anymore. In certain cases, we will spend on larger creators, but for the most part, we’re spending like $1,000 across 100 to 200 creators in really strategic markets — Eastern Europe and Latin America specifically. That’s typically where we start most of our campaigns before we move into more premium territories.
“Lowly Palace was the first label I started, at 19,” Benz says. “We created a hard-cover illustration book of our cover art to showcase the brand and vision that we had. I hold on to this to value the importance of progress and growth over the years.”
Jamie Pearl
Why those territories?
DE OLIVEIRA Cheaper cost, and these markets start a lot of trends on the internet. A lot of our marketing campaigns start as bundle deals. We spread less money across several tracks that have familiarity in whatever type of video we are into, whether it’s edits, dances, lip-syncs and so on. And a lot of those bigger creators in the more premium territories — where we would have had to spend $4,000 for one post — just jump on for free. Why? Because at some point, there’s a tipping point where creators jump on just because they see the videos using that song getting bigger.
Andre, why was Create the right partner for you? Why not continue to do things on your own?
BENZ There were three or four years after I started Trap Nation where I was, for lack of a better word, a degenerate. I wasn’t interested in music at all anymore. I couldn’t find any passion. I was just so young when I started it, and I felt like I didn’t have anybody to relate to in terms of what I was building. YouTube was declining, and our channels were declining in growth. I had never been through the process of growing quickly and then declining. I was like, “I’m out, I’m done.” I wanted a fresh start. The acquisition was less of a money thing than it was a fresh start. I was like, “OK, I can sell this company, move forward, get integrated into a new ecosystem and learn from other people who started their own company. Jonathan Strauss started [Create] around the same time I started [my company]. I thought, “I can learn from these people.”
How promising are YouTube Shorts and other features that the platform has added?
BENZ I’m super excited about YouTube Shorts. I think they’re going to continue pushing them from an algorithmic standpoint, and we see that we’re able to capture a lot of new audiences and revenue as well. We make a lot of money on YouTube Shorts for songs we are putting out because we have a really good content claiming team [through Create]. And because of our background with YouTube, we understand the platform better than any other label. They also give us a lot of support. Anytime we have songs trending on that platform, they’ll give us billboards in Times Square [in New York], in Los Angeles. They’ll feature us on the homepage. YouTube, out of all platforms right now, is by far the most powerful for the amplification of records.
Does virality on Shorts translate to non-YouTube streams?
BENZ Not really. Brandon and I share the same opinion that YouTube Shorts usually comes last in terms of virality. It’s TikTok, then Instagram, or TikTok and Instagram at the same time. Then it trickles over to YouTube a month later. But we see our songs stay super viral for a while on YouTube Shorts. I don’t think we’ve ever found a new song viral from YouTube Shorts — maybe once. We don’t look for artists or records on Shorts. It’s more of an audience-marketing opportunity.
The golden Broke hoodie “was the first piece of merchandise we produced under the new label,” De Oliveira says. “We continue to gift it to our artists and partners.”
Jamie Pearl
What are you doing to ensure the longevity of those songs that go viral and, in the long term, build a catalog?
BENZ When we started Broke, the plan was to build an incredible digital marketing team and sign a lot of these viral electronic songs because that’s what we know best. So we did that. And then we started moving to other genres: rap, alternative rock, pop. Then we hired a few more people. Now we have to start breaking artists and building longer narratives around artists, not just singles.
In two years, we want to have four to five superstars [with] 30 million to 40 million monthly listeners, selling out arenas, selling out merchandise. Sevdaliza is our first opportunity to prove ourselves. It’s a huge risk for our company because of the deal size, but I think it’s a once-ina-lifetime opportunity for us to go above and beyond. I want to prove to people that you don’t need to sign to Republic Records to get on top 40 [radio]. You don’t have to sign to Island to be the next Sabrina Carpenter. I don’t think anyone’s proved that yet.
What does the label landscape look like in 10 years?
BENZ A lot of distributors are going to start acquiring and starting up labels like ours. A lot of traditional record labels are going to continue the distribution model, which I think is a race to the bottom. It makes absolutely no sense. It’s going to be more fragmented, more democratized. You’re going to have more independent market share.
DE OLIVEIRA There will be a lower barrier of entry with [artificial intelligence] — whether that’s mixing, mastering, content production or the actual full production of songs. It’s going to be really interesting and it’s going to be super saturated. So figuring out how to create experiences and really personal moments between the artists and their fans will be the key distinguishing factor moving forward.
This story appears in the Nov. 16, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Global touring has drastically changed in the last 30-plus years, according to Live Nation Concerts president of global touring/chairman Arthur Fogel. During a conversation at the Billboard Live Music Summit in Los Angeles on Thursday (Nov. 14), the veteran promoter said infrastructure around the globe has drastically improved and opened touring to nearly double the number of countries over that time.
“The first time that I went to South America was in the 1990s with David Bowie, so 35-ish years ago. It was a different world down there. It was a very different world everywhere,” said Fogel. “It was the Wild West. It was very difficult, despite the audience being great, but you fast forward to today and the level of expertise that’s been created. There’s the ability to do business on a very serious level.”
In conversation with Haus of Gaga’s Bobby Campbell, who is Lady Gaga‘s manager, Fogel explained that global touring is “night and day” compared to 35 years ago when North American artists would only have the opportunity to tour 15 to 20 countries. Now, Fogel said there are 60 to 70 countries available to them.
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According to Campbell, touring has become more than just an economic engine for artists; it’s become a marketing driver for the music itself.
“You used to have cycles where you put out the album, promote the album through talk shows and TV performances and award shows, then eventually you go on tour,” said Campbell. “Now tours are becoming a central part of the marketing plan for the album.” He added that artists will now change small aspects of their shows, such as the setlist or certain dance moves, to create new content for each stop.
These small adjustments are a far stretch from the dramatic changes tours would have to make decades ago as they crossed continents, explained Fogel, who said that artists used to create a touring show specifically for North America and then scale back and change it for other parts of the world.
“There are so many new state-of-the-art venues coming online that have really helped propel the ability for artists to go and play all kinds of different places,” said Fogel, who pointed out that Africa, essentially the last frontier on the touring front, has recently opened up.
“South America, Central America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, India, South Africa, Eastern Europe — all those territories and regions of the world that were once very hard to access in terms of touring have really developed dramatically over the last decade and a half,” Fogel added. “To provide the opportunity for an artist to go basically anywhere in the world at this point and connect with their fans is really a pretty interesting and important piece. Maybe it’s the most important piece in terms of development in our business.”
Louis Messina reflected on his storied career in touring on Thursday (Nov. 14) at the Billboard Live Music Summit in Los Angeles.
Speaking with Melinda Newman, Billboard‘s executive editor, West Coast and Nashville, Messina spoke about the working with some of the biggest names in music, with the 11-artist roster of his Messina Touring Company including Taylor Swift, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Ed Sheeran, Old Dominion and recent signee Zach Bryan.
“I’ve worked with a lot of really goofball acts in my career,” said Messina. “All the acts I work for right now, there is not one that’s an asshole, there really isn’t.”
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Messina credited Strait with launching his own career, saying that “if there were no George Strait, there would be no Messina Touring Group.” He also spoke about helping develop Kenny Chesney, starting his work with Taylor Swift when she was 17-years-old, his impressions of Chapell Roan and much more from his historic and thriving career.
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Below, find highlights from the conversation.
On George Strait, Who “Connects With Everybody In the Audience”
Messina’s first client, George Strait, recently made history by selling 110,905 tickets at a June show in College Park, Texas, for what was the biggest ticket event anywhere in the United States in history.
Messina reflected on Strait’s special (and massive) appeal, saying that “When you’re at a George Strait concert, no matter where you’re sitting, you feel like George is singing to you. His eyes are his show, besides his voice and his music. But he connects with everybody in the audience and that, to me, is the secret of every artist… Every star artist, they know how to connect with the audience, and the audience then connects to the artist. To me that’s the key thing, and that’s what I always look out for: how does the artist and audience connect, and how do they fall in love with each other? That’s George. Every superstar artist, they know how to do that.”
On Working With Taylor Swift Since She Was 17
Newman noted that Swift’s Era’s tour, which wraps up in a few weeks in Vancouver, has grossed well over a billion dollars, then asking Messina what he’s saw in the superstar from the start. “She’s outworks everybody,” said Messina. There’s no one I’ve seen with a work ethic like Taylor Swift. I met her when she just turned 17… She had one song on the radio… By the third night [of seeing her on tour] I just knew. I saw the twinkle in her eye, I saw her work ethic, and here’s a 17-year-old girl singing about high school boyfriends and just had the audience in the palm of her hands. And then every morning, she was the first person in the production office, after she visited radio stations, and she signed notes to everybody. Fans, DJs that played her music… She would be the first one in the building and the last one in the building. That’s what’s special about Taylor Swift, because she’s one-of-a-kind and she will outwork everybody. I was just blessed to happen to be there and see that connection that she had to everybody.”
On The “Magical” Chapell Roan
Newman closed the conversation by asking Messina which artists he hasn’t worked with that he’d like to. He said he’d love to work with Beyoncé and Bruno Mars, adding “and who doesn’t want to work with Chappell Roan, though? What a superstar; what a unique artist. I haven’t seen anybody like her since — she reminds me of when Madonna first started. That attitude; she’s unique. I saw her at ACL and she blew me away… she’s one of a kind. She’s magical.”
On Sphere
While reflecting on the differences between venues, Messina reflected that ultimately “It’s the artist’s name on the ticket, not the building, except the Sphere. That’s a whole other ballgame.” Newman then asked if any of Messina’s artists might play the boundary-pushing venue, to which Messina said, “Yes I have a couple of artists that are potentially playing there.” Newman deftly observed that given that Messina has 11 artists on the roster, there are only a certain number of acts it could be.
On Guiding the Rise Kenny Chesney
Messina has been working with Chesney since the country superstar was opening for George Strait. “He was third or second from the bottom,” Messina said of the lineup he had Chesney on, “and I just saw him, and I saw his merchandise numbers, and he came back the next year, and everybody was in the stands early and he was outselling merchandise more than anybody… I just saw this magic that he had and the connection… We put Kenny on Tim [McGraw’s] tour, and then I said ‘It’s time to headline now.’ He looked at me and said ‘You’re absolutely crazy. I’m going to be playing to grass every night. I’m going to be playing to seats.’ I said ‘No you’re not. You’ve gotta trust me.’ And he did. This year was my 25th anniversary with Kenny. Kenny believed in me, and I got him to believe in himself, and then we got people to believe him.”
UnitedMasters extended its existing synch agreement with the National Football League (NFL) through the end of the 2027 season. The deal will expand UnitedMasters’ existing track delivery, allowing the NFL to continue providing music to its fans at games and across NFL programming via UnitedMasters’ fully-cleared synch library. Through the deal, NFL Member Clubs will have the opportunity to explore additional licensing packages, allowing them to create “hyper-local experiences,” according to a press release.
Warner Music India made a minority investment in India-based live entertainment and ticketing platform SkillBox, which has worked on tours for Jacob Collier, Steve Vai, Ben Howard and more and established intellectual properties including Bloomverse, K-Wave, Lemonade and LiveBox. “By integrating live events and ticketing into its portfolio, Warner Music India will offer its artists the ability to reach wider audiences, while fans will benefit from streamlined, unforgettable live music experiences,” states a press release. SkillBox, which also boasts an artist management arm called LevelHouse, boasts 1.5 million users.
Music licensing company Soundstripe is partnering with Orfium, Tuned Global, Music Reports and Cyanite to build a “click-to-license” platform for the music business that will offer pre-cleared music, with a full rollout expected for spring 2025. “Through these partnerships, Soundstripe connects several elements of licensing, which have long been separate,” reads a press release. Orfium’s SyncTracker product will ensure that all licensed music has been cleared when a video posts to platforms including YouTube, while Tuned Global will manage content delivery and asset management on the recording side and Music Reports will cover the publishing side. Meanwhile, Cyanite’s AI-driven technology will allow Soundstripe to tag and search music at scale.
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Audacy launched its first FM broadcast station with Super Hi-Fi, a leader in AI-powered radio services for broadcast and digital media companies. From Oct. 31 onward, Denver’s Front Range Country 103.1 will be powered by Super Hi-Fi’s AI-powered platform and toolset, including its program director radio operating system, which manages music curation content, ads, scheduling, voice tracking and station playout tasks.
Streaming service Deezer signed DAX, an advertising exchange from Global, as its exclusive ad sales partner in the U.S. for audio advertising. DAX previously pacted with Deezer in the U.K.
Leading Asian music company Kanjian struck a deal with AI rights management company Musical.AI to provide AI companies with access to its fully licensed music catalog for AI training. According to a press release, Kanjian’s catalog is entirely pre-authorized for AI applications.
Levellr, which helps artists use messaging tools including Discord and Telegram to reach fans, raised $1.75 million in funding from a group of gaming and media industry leaders including Dylan Collins (SuperAwesome, Jolt, Demonware), Mitch Lasky (former Benchmark and Discord board member) and Owen Mahoney (former Nexon CEO), along with senior execs from companies like Krafton, Riot Games and Amazon. The company also announced that Collins will join the company as chairman.
Redeye Worldwide, a leading independent digital and phsyical distribution and music services company (and part of the Exceleration Music family), signed a strategic agreement with Lasgo Worldwide Media to provide physical fulfillmemnt services in the U.K. and Ireland. Additionally, Redeye will consolidate its European Union physical operations through an expanded one-stop agreement with Netherlands-based pan-European provider Bertus, allowing Redeye clients to broaden their sales and marketing reach across Europe. Redeye’s Swedish subsidiary, Border Music, will continue servicing the Nordic markets.
Alt-rock pioneers the Pixies and Tickets For Good, which provides free and heavily discounted tickets to live events, announced a new partnership through which the band will donate tickets to Tickets For Good across the platform’s global network for every date on their upcoming 20-date tour in Europe and North America next year. The partnership includes tour dates that are sold out, giving registered Tickets For Good members an opportunity to gain special access via a dedicated ballot.
Indie music company Anthem Entertainment and Wax Records struck a creative partnership that will focus on “enhancing the relationship between publishing and creative, facilitating a seamless channel for songwriters and artists to produce viable projects,” according to a press release.
AI-powered music and audio technology company Mus.ic.AI is integrating its AI tools into digital asset management and monetization platform SourceAudio. Under the deal, 567,000 active SourceAudio users will be provided with AI-powered stem separation.
Virgin Music Group announced a strategic agreement with Tokyo-based Bushiroad Music, a division of games and anime producer Bushiroad Inc. Through the deal, Virgin will support the expansion of Bushiroad Music’s overseas business through digital music distribution, including theme songs for Bushiroad’s games, anime series and films.
This time, everything really is going to be different. Americans now live in a country where neither felony convictions nor dancing to “YMCA” onstage during a medical break in a political rally are disqualifying factors for the presidency; where a member of Congress who was investigated by the House Ethics Committee for allegations of sexual misconduct is nominated for attorney general; and where proposals for reckless tariffs and magic-bean-money marketed by grifters have made the stock market go up. Oy.
The music business has been humiliated. All those artist endorsements for Kamala Harris didn’t seem to matter, at least in part because most of them spoke to voters the way the Democrats did. (I found Bruce Springsteen’s ad for Harris moving, but I’m not sure it was all that convincing.) Taylor Swift, who endorsed Harris, is the dominant artist of this era. But Joe Rogan, who seems to be an idiot’s idea of an intellectual in the way that writer Fran Lebowitz once said that Trump is a poor person’s idea of a rich person, may have more influence. With just over 50% of the popular vote, Trump is now mainstream, at least statistically. Pop culture has changed.
What about the music business? Amid all of this winning, the industry may stay basically the same, according to a half-dozen conversations with industry policy executives and a dozen more with other music business figures. The basics of Trump’s economic agenda are tariffs, tax cuts and deregulation. Tariffs on imports will play havoc with some businesses, but they would only affect parts of the music industry; the price of merchandise, including CDs and vinyl, could go up, probably modestly. When it comes to taxes, successful artists and executives could end up paying much less, which seems inadvisable for the country but fine for business.
The industry’s biggest regulatory issue is copyright, power over which the Constitution specifically grants to Congress. (Even the U.S. Copyright Office operates as part of the Library of Congress, in the legislative branch of government.) It’s one of the few genuinely bipartisan issues that unites Democrats who champion the arts and Republicans who want to protect property rights, and the sheer complexity of the subject — as well as the fact that it’s always easier to stop legislation than it is to pass it — makes it hard to imagine significant change happening quickly.
The music business faces other issues, of course. Chief among them is the Justice Department’s antitrust case against Live Nation Entertainment, which seeks to break up the concert and ticketing giant. It’s impossible to know what’s going to happen with the case, although speculation suggests that it’s too popular a cause to simply drop. (Many concertgoers feel certain that breaking up the company will bring down ticket prices, which is hard to imagine; there are other important issues at play, but they’re more complicated.) There’s also the fate of TikTok, the Chinese-owned short-form-video platform that Trump tried to ban when he was president, then promised to “save.” (One of the hard things about figuring out what Trump will do is that he himself doesn’t seem entirely clear, either.) Right now, the issue is in the courts. And although TikTok’s Chinese parent company has said it does not intend to sell the platform, one could imagine a compromise that allows everyone to save face, probably without addressing the original problem.
These last two issues show just how much conflicts over media business regulation — and business regulation in general — now take place within parties as opposed to between them. Partly, this is because Republicans have been just as willing to regulate technology companies as President Barack Obama. When it comes to antitrust, for example, both traditional Republicans and corporate-leaning Democrats want to get rid of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Lina Khan, who has taken an aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement, but JD Vance has said positive things about the job she’s doing.
Antitrust isn’t the only issue that works that way. President Biden, and most traditional Democrats, understand the need to protect small investors from cryptocurrency rip-offs. (Trump was against crypto before he was for it.) Until a decade ago, how and how much the government should regulate business was the main divide between the parties. Now a libertarian, business-friendly agenda is pushed by parts of both parties, available in Silicon Valley fleece and Wall Street cashmere.
This, more than Trump, represents the real policy risk for the music business — the libertarian side of Silicon Valley, which stands to gain from Vance’s influence over Trump. (There are other issues that are much more important, of course, including economic policy and the independence of the Federal Reserve.) Imagine that Trump and Vance want to Make Silicon Valley Great Again, which in their minds means having the U.S. take the lead in artificial intelligence. Could that mean allowing technology companies to train their software on copyrighted works without licenses? Or relaxing some of the other protections that rightsholders have? Given all the laws and treaties involved, this is actually hard to imagine. Then again, what about this situation isn’t?
When the music world was shutting down for most artists in 2020, it was just gearing up for John Summit.
At Thursday’s Billboard Live Music Summit, Summit and his manager, Metatone’s Holt Harmon, joined a panel discussion titled “Inside the Rise of John Summit,” moderated by Billboard‘s Katie Bain, to detail how they managed to take the dance world by storm over the past four years.
Summit’s Billboard-charting career began in 2020 with “Deep End,” which peaked at No. 26 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs that year. Since then, he’s racked up his first two top 10 hits on the chart — “Where You Are” and “Shiver” (both peaking at No. 8 and both with singer Hayla) — and crisscrossed the globe to play the biggest festivals, set up shop in dance havens like Ibiza and Las Vegas, and wow crowds around the world.
Below, find highlights from Summit and Harmon’s conversation, starting from the beginning of their journey through the release of his first full-length album Comfort in Chaos over the summer.
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No Rules
Holt Harmon: “Part of the beauty of working with young people and being young ourselves is, nobody had put a title on what we were already. So honestly, it was like the beauty of the unknown and the beauty of being able to tackle anything — not living by rules that we didn’t know about.”
John Summit: “If you don’t know the rules, you can’t break them.”
Picking Up During Shutdown
Summit: “I just knew that the whole world was online because everyone was stuck at home. So I was doing streams every single day, posting every single day, sharing my music, sharing the process. … I think a lot of artists took it as a time to relax and see their families for once. But because I was living in my mom’s basement at the time — shout-out Tamara in the crowd! — she kept me fed while I cooked the beats.” [Laughs]
Harmon: “COVID was kind of like the great reset. It’s like, anybody who was leaning or — I hate to put it like this — but anybody who was being lazy and leaning on touring, and that was their entire career, not putting out great music, not putting out great art, but just leaning on that they could tour, didn’t have that to lean on anymore. Didn’t have that crutch. So it more or less reset the industry.”
Changing It Up
Harmon: “You come to a John Summit show, expect the unexpected. He’s gonna play whatever he wants stylistically. He might throw dubstep in. He’s gonna throw drum and bass in. He’s gonna do his thing. … For me, it’s so cool to watch him be able to be like a chameleon. But it allows him to do different things and not get pigeonholed.”
Summit: “That’s where I think songwriting really comes into play, that I can change the productions for a song. … I think kind of changing around the production for songs and adapting, but then also, you know, staying true to yourself.”
His Second Home…To a Point
Summit: “What makes Vegas so nice is that I do 20 days a year, and it’s a different crowd every single weekend. You can’t do like 20 weekends in Chicago, because it would just be the same. Because [Vegas is] a tourist destination, much like Ibiza. That’s what keeps it really fun and entertaining, that keeps things fresh, and the hospitality is so great there that I feel like it’s a second home for me. … But it would my hell if all I did was a residency and it was the same thing every weekend, so that does freak me out.”
Sony Music Publishing returned to No. 1 on the Hot 100 Songs publishers ranking for the third quarter and held on to the top spot among Top Radio Airplay publishers for the 14th consecutive quarter.
The publisher, which had finished a close second to Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) in the second quarter, scored its dual wins with a share of 67 tracks on Hot 100 Songs and 63 songs on Top Radio Airplay, including Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” — the top tune on both charts this quarter and one that benefited the quarter’s top four publishers, which all have shares of the track. SMP also counts itself as the publishing home of the Top Radio Airplay writer of the quarter, Tommy Richman, who penned and performed the hit “Million Dollar Baby.”
The top Hot 100 Songs writer for the quarter was Zach Bryan, who notched four songs on the chart this quarter, including “Pink Skies” and “28.” He’s represented by Warner Chappell Music, which took second place for a second consecutive quarter on the Top Radio Airplay ranking and rose from No. 3 to No. 2 on the Hot 100 Songs chart. Its shares of 64 tracks on the former chart and 59 on the latter translate to market shares of 23.34% and 25.32%, respectively.
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After a big second quarter at the top of Hot 100 Songs, UMPG landed at No. 3 on both charts with stakes in 48 Top Radio Airplay songs and 51 on the Hot 100 Songs list — good for market shares of 20.23% and 22.41%, respectively.
While the big three publishers jockey for those top slots, Kobalt has consistently maintained its No. 4 berth on both rankings for years. Like the three majors, it owns a piece of “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” In the third quarter, Kobalt’s share of Top Radio Airplay songs increased to 48 from 43 in the second quarter and its quota of Hot 100 Songs rose over the same period from 32 to 36. That equates to an 11.43% market share on Radio Airplay and 10.83% on Hot 100 Songs.
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Created with Datawrapper
Hipgnosis sustained its fifth-place ranking quarter to quarter. Its top track on both charts was “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter, which was No. 5 on Top Radio Airplay and No. 4 on Hot 100 Songs.
Position Music, a relative newcomer to Billboard’s Publishers Quarterly, stuck around for another quarter, finishing ninth on Top Radio Airplay and seventh on Hot 100 Songs thanks to its share of “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone.
With the arrival of Position comes the departure of an outlier: Tracy Chapman’s publishing company, Purple Rabbit Music. It finished in the top 10 on both charts for a full year, kept aloft by the success of Luke Combs’ cover of her 1988 Hot 100 No. 6 hit, “Fast Car.”
This story appears in the Nov. 16, 2024, issue of Billboard.
That warm, impish smile. Infectious laugh. Eyes that literally twinkled as he talked about music and life. Those were the first things that came to mind after learning of Quincy Delight Jones’ death on Nov. 3. And how lucky I was to get the chance to chat several times with someone who truly personified every sense of the word “legend.”
It just so happened that the day before Jones died, I was cleaning out some old files and came across the yellowed pages of the first interview I ever did with him when I was an editor at the trade publication Radio & Records. It was November 1984: two years after Michael Jackson’s seismic success with Thriller in 1982 and a year before pulling an epic all-nighter with Jackson, Lionel Richie and a collection of music superstars to record “We Are the World.” When I interviewed him for a special Radio & Records feature, “Master of Music,” the perpetually multitasking Jones was co-producing, with director Steven Spielberg, the film adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple.
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“The primary motor of pop music, as we know it today, has always been Black music,” he told me then before pulling back the curtain on his creative strategy. “The one thing I fight for is the selection of tunes,” he said. And he was way ahead of the industry’s globalization, shouting out Africa as a music “gold mine” and, in subsequent chats, South Korea and Indonesia.
Rereading the interview all these years later, it also shows Jones was more than just a creative wunderkind. He was insatiably curious, always searching for the next. Given the advent of computers at the time, he spoke about the “archaic record distribution system,” while presciently envisioning that “it could be possible in five years for you to have no inventory in your house; no records, tapes, anything. If you had access to a satellite, a code book/catalog and a television set, you could punch up anything you wanted anytime.”
A few weeks after that interview was published, I learned what a thoughtful and humorous person Jones was as well. One of my treasured mementos is a signed personal note card of thanks (stamped with an embossed “Q” in the upper left-hand corner): “With the great editing you did, I was made to look like I know what I’m talking about.” Such a simple but impactful gesture.
That was just one facet of Quincy Jones. Born in Chicago and raised in Seattle, he jumpstarted his estimable legacy as a big band- and jazz-loving trumpeter who, beginning at the age of 14, played for Billie Holiday and Billy Eckstine. After a year on scholarship at the Berklee College of Music, he toured with Lionel Hampton’s band, adding “pianist” and “arranger” to his résumé. Within a few years, he was working with Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Tommy Dorsey. In 1957, he joined Mercury Records as an A&R director and later vice president, becoming the first Black senior executive at a major label.
Best friends with Ray Charles since their teen years in Seattle (“He taught me my first music in braille”), Q — a nickname given to him by Frank Sinatra — arranged Brother Ray’s classic albums The Genius of Ray Charles and Genius + Soul = Jazz. He went on to discover and produce “It’s My Party” and other hits for early 1960s pop darling Lesley Gore, while simultaneously earning the first of his eventual 28 Grammy Awards and 80 nominations for arranging Basie’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” And there’s no forgetting Jones’ momentous collaborations with Basie and Sinatra, which produced the timeless romantic romp “Fly Me to the Moon.”
Thanks to the initial unwavering support of actor Sidney Poitier and filmmaker Sidney Lumet, Jones racked up credits for film scores to In the Heat of the Night, The Wiz, The Italian Job and The Color Purple, as well as TV series Roots and theme songs for Ironside and Sanford and Son. Jones’ own musical output was prolific and demonstrated a rare talent for evolving with contemporary music. Signing with A&M Records in 1969, he released the Grammy-winning instrumental jazz set Walking in Space that year, which sparked further forays into jazz, funk, R&B, pop and dance through 1981, with albums such as Body Heat, I Heard That!, Sounds … and Stuff Like That!! and The Dude, the last of which introduced newcomer James Ingram (“Just Once”).
Jones’ work with Jackson is well known, but his innate ear also brought other hit-makers to the forefront, such as George Benson, Patti Austin, Tevin Campbell and Tamia, through his Warner joint venture, Qwest Records, which he founded in 1980.
In the latter part of his career, Jones ventured into media that explored and celebrated Black culture and music. He produced The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which made Will Smith a bankable star, and launched Vibe as both a magazine and talk show.
After various encounters at industry events over the ensuing years, I got the chance to interview a still-indefatigable Jones — who survived two brain aneurysms in 1974 and a diabetic coma in 2015 — for Billboard during his 80th and 85th birthday celebrations in 2013 and 2018. His gait was more measured and later, he began making his rounds in a wheelchair. But his musical and entrepreneurial drive had not slowed: He established an artist management consultancy, partnered with Harman on a line of AKG headphones and squeezed in time to write his 2001 autobiography, Q.
On both occasions, we sat in the screening room of his home in Bel-Air, Los Angeles. It was decorated with vintage posters of the films he had worked on, and its hallway walls were jam-packed with Jones-produced album covers and autographed sheet music for “We Are the World.” Display cases held his 28 Grammys.
Having traded wine for protein-rich smoothies at this point, Jones discussed such topics as co-founding Qwest TV, the first subscription, video-ondemand service for jazz, and how music had substituted for the absence of his mother, who was hospitalized for mental illness when he was 7. It had served him well.
Never content to stay the course, Jones kept evolving from musician, arranger, composer and producer to label owner, artist manager, mentor, business entrepreneur and global ambassador. As he declared in 1984, “If I had 200 more years, I still wouldn’t have enough time to do all the things I dream about.”
This story appears in the Nov. 16, 2024, issue of Billboard.