Business
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Restructures at Universal and Warner, standoffs with TikTok, hot streaks by iconic labels, and a focus on fraud make up some of the biggest label stories of the past year.
After closing multiple deals in the past several months, Prediction Enterprises has officially launched as a music rights management company. Co-founded by industry veterans Matthew Limones and Nicolás González, the firm focuses on the rights and revenues of top music industry creatives and rights owners.
“I’m proud to have been able to found a company that offers essential and meaningful services in the sector of the business where I saw the need,” said Limones, CEO, in a press release. “After my tenure as an executive at one of the most important collective management organizations in the world, I saw an opportunity to jump in and start an operation that managed the rights and revenue of creatives that grew their business on the recorded music side.”
The company provides services for labels, publishers, artists, producers, and songwriters, and negotiated “multi-million dollar transactions of music catalog rights” and deals for top names that include Pitbull, Natanael Cano, Gerardo Ortiz, Sech, Darell, Belinda, Gabito Ballesteros, Cristian Castro, Nacho, Fariana, Lit Killah and brands such as Latin music festival Vibra Urbana and media company Rapeton.
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González, COO, added in the press release, “Many creative artists’ music careers move very fast and don’t have time to understand and learn which music rights belong to them or where to start claiming their rights and collecting their royalties. We saw an opportunity to help them.”
Limones brings a rich background in music technology, policy and label management to his role as CEO of Prediction Enterprises. Before co-founding the new company, Limones served as vp of artist relations at RichMusic; he was also the director of marketing at Universal Music Group/Capitol Latin, and manager of artist and label relations at SoundExchange, where he expanded the company’s Latin digital footprint. Limones has been featured on Billboard’s 40 Under 40 list and is a Billboard Latin Power Player alum.
González also offers a diverse background in tech, music business, and production to his role as COO. Before this, the exec was integral to the Uruguayan pop group Rombai, contributing as a music director, composer and producer. His work earned him accolades including the Uruguayan Music Graffiti Awards and honors from the Viña del Mar International Song Festival. He also serves as vp of the Music Managers Forum in Miami.
Check out Prediction Enterprises’ official website here.
Sony Music UK has appointed Azi Eftekhari as its chief operating officer, effective immediately. Reporting directly to Jason Iley, chairman and CEO of Sony Music UK & Ireland, she’ll oversee key operational areas, including the label’s Commercial Group, and play a pivotal role in shaping the company’s overall growth strategy.
Eftekhari brings two decades of experience in the music and entertainment industries to her new position, having most recently served as co-president of Universal Music Recordings, managing global artists such as The Beatles, Elton John, Amy Winehouse, The Rolling Stones and The Spice Girls at the label’s catalogue division.
Prior to UMG, Azi held a significant role at YouTube as head of label relations, where she spearheaded the launch of YouTube Music across Europe and secured a landmark partnership with The BRIT Awards, further cementing her reputation as an innovator in the intersection of music and technology. Additionally, she co-led Remedy Inc., a creative agency delivering projects across music, theatre and branding.
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Eftekhari’s career began at Mercury Records, where she collaborated with Iley as director of digital and publicity, contributing to campaigns for artists like U2, Justin Bieber and Rihanna. Her leadership extended beyond individual companies, as she also served on the boards of the Official Charts Company and the Entertainment Retailers Association, showcasing her influence within the broader music industry.
Iley expressed confidence in Eftekhari’s “depth of experience straddling the world of music, tech and culture combined with commercial acumen,” while Azi voiced her gratitude for the opportunity to work with Illey. “He’s built an exceptional, future-facing company and I look forward to playing a part in continuing to champion the incredible roster of artists,” she said. “In this rapidly changing marketplace, there are many exciting opportunities to harness, and I can’t wait to help drive the business into the next chapter.”
FACTOR Canada says it has fallen victim to serious cyber theft.
Court filings by the music funding body, The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings, reveal claims that $9.8 million was stolen from a Scotiabank account earlier this year.
FACTOR distributes millions in funding to thousands of artists and music organizations in Canada — last year, the organization dispensed $50 million. Now, it’s alleging that an amount equivalent to nearly a fifth of that annual distribution was transferred by a cyberthief to a numbered company.
James Campagna, shareholder for said company, then allegedly transferred $9.4 million to a cryptocurrency-owned account and converted the funds into crypto.
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Today (Nov. 29), a hearing took place at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on the matter.
In a statement on the foundation’s website titled “FACTOR’s Response to the Scotiabank Cybertheft: The Facts,” the company clarifies its side of the story that was reported on in the media and says that it aims to “defend the baseless allegations being made by Scotiabank against our systems and staff.”
“It is true that FACTOR has been a victim of a significant financial crime that occurred on June 12, 2024, by way of a one-time fraudulent wire from our Scotiabank account on ScotiaConnect in the amount of $9,772,875.33,” the statement reads.
But the response from FACTOR adds new details to the story, particularly in regards to Scotiabank’s involvement.
The organization says it reported the crime to law enforcement on June 14, but that Scotiabank “has acknowledged it has never reported this financial crime to law enforcement.”
The statement also asserts that the money transfer was 300x larger than any transfer previously made from that account, “with no alerts to FACTOR of this highly unusual, suspicious, and illegal activity.”
If the funds aren’t recovered swiftly, there’s reason to be concerned that artists — who rely on FACTOR funding for recording, music video production, touring and more — could be affected.
More on this story as it develops – Rosie Long Decter
Drake Tells Interviewer to Turn Off The Weeknd and Put on Blink-182
Drake’s got a lot of enemies right now.
After Kendrick Lamar released his new album but before news broke of Drake’s two different legal actions against his parent label Universal Music Group and Spotify, the rapper joined Quebecois streamer xQc for a livestream on Kick on Sunday (Nov. 24).
You never know what Drake will say with a live mic, so many fans tuned in to see if he’d have words about the Kendrick beef or any other hot topics. Between confirming an upcoming Australia tour and giving an update on his collaborative album with PartyNextDoor, he also threw some subtle shade at his former friend The Weeknd.
As his song “Starboy” started playing, Drake quickly told xQc to “switch that one off.” When the host asked him why he doesn’t listen to it, he answered “we’re real 6ixers, we don’t listen to that.” He told him to turn on Blink-182 instead. “I want to hear that real sh-t,” he said over the sounds of “Dammit.”
The Weeknd was born in Scarborough, Ontario, a district of Toronto, a.k.a The 6ix. The Weeknd began his career affiliated with Drake, but the two have had their own long-simmering beef. The Weeknd was spotted in the audience at Kendrick Lamar’s “Pop Out” concert on Juneteenth, which included performances of all of the rapper’s diss tracks and multiple performances of the scathing “Not Like Us.”
Former Toronto Raptor DeMar DeRozan was also at that concert. That clearly upset Drake, who called him out on a recent game broadcast. Evidently, he still has beef with The Weeknd too.
Drake didn’t address Kendrick or his new album by name, but did reference Kendrick and his “false accusations” indirectly. “You need facts to take me out, fairy tales won’t do it,” he said. –Richard Trapunski
Universal Music Group’s Virgin Music Group struck a global distribution and marketing partnership with Brooklyn-born independent label Partisan Records, which is home to IDLES, PJ Harvey, Blondshell, Cigarettes After Sex, Laura Marling, Ezra Collective and more. Partisan also includes the imprints Desert Daze Sound and section1. The deal follows Universal’s acquisition of Partisan’s longtime partners [PIAS] and [Integral] last month. “The combination of the Virgin and [Integral] teams allows for Partisan to marry the best of the [PIAS] and [Integral] teams that helped get us here with the extra resources of Virgin required to meet our ambition to be the most trusted music company for artists of all genres, worldwide, said Partisan COO Zena White in a statement.
SoundExchange and the South African Music Performance Rights Association (SAMPRA) reached a reciprocal agreement that will see U.S. and South African performers paid royalties for the use of their recordings in the U.S. and South Africa, respectively. This will be the first time U.S. performers are paid neighboring rights when their music is used in South Africa. “This agreement is a result of SoundExchange’s efforts to ensure American creators are treated the same as their South African counterparts in the country,” states a press release on the deal. The multi-lateral agreement, which also includes the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund, is retroactive to the 2022 distribution period and will also benefit non-featured artists including studio musicians and backup singers. Those non-featured artists will also see South African royalties deposited into the fund, which is administered by the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) and SAG-AFTRA. “This is similar to how, in its U.S. collections, SoundExchange distributes 5% of collected royalties to non-featured artists through the Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund, 45% to featured artists, and 50% to rights owners,” the release adds.
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Live Nation acquired a majority stake in Lisbon, Portugal’s 20,000-capacity MEO Arena, marking a major investment for the touring giant in the country. First opened in 1998, MEO Arena will soon be renovated to upgrade premium seating, skyboxes, dressing rooms and concessions. Live Nation also plans to build on the arena’s sustainability efforts to focus on reducing its environmental impact. Daily operations at MEO Arena will remain under its current leadership team. The acquisition follows formal approval by the Portuguese competition authority and is subject to closing conditions. The agreement is expected to be finalized late this year or early next.
Warner Music Group’s merchandise and fan experience division WMX has signed on as the official merch partner for Oasis‘ upcoming comeback tour, Oasis Live 25. The merch offering for the show will include pop-up stores, fan experiences, exclusive brand collaborations and event merchandise. The band is slated to hit stadiums in the U.K., Ireland, North Americ, South America and Australia next year.
Create Music Group acquired Manchester, England-based record label and music publisher Ostereo, which has worked with artists including Joel Corry, J.Fla and Shania Yan. As part of the agreement, Ostereo founder Howard Murphy will exit the company to focus on a new venture, leaving his longtime partners, Ramin Bostan and Nick Kirby, to oversee day-to-day operations.
Dallas-based Regional Mexican label Elegante Records signed a global distribution pact with Warner Music Group’s ADA. The Elegante roster includes Conjunto Rienda Real, La Pócima Norteña and Distinto Norte.
The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) partnered with artist, songwriter, indie label and distributor funding platform beatBread, effectively providing A2IM members with beatBread’s data-driven funding solutions that enable artist or catalog acquisitions, new release funding and support for general operations and growth. Other benefits include free distribution via Too Lost, free OpenPlay subscriptions and discretionary A&R funds on top of any advances taken (up to 20% of the advanced amount).
Downtown-owned business-to-business distributor FUGA signed a partnership with L.A.-based independent label Mind of a Genius Records (MOAG). FUGA will provide MOAG with its suite of comprehensive services, including digital and physical distribution, synch and licensing opportunities and advanced data analytics. MOAG’s roster includes Mindchatter, Kwaye, Karnaval Blues, Peter $un, and Jordan Astra alongside its frontline releases.
Independent distributor IDOL struck a global partnership with London-based label Full Time Hobby and its alt-rock imprint Hassle Records. IDOL will handle global distribution, marketing and audience development for both labels’ frontline and catalog releases, excluding Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Over 21 years, Full Time Hobby has developed artists including GHOSTWOMAN, Michael Nau, Squirrel Flower, The Saxophones and Casey. Under the deal, IDOL will service new Full Time Hobby releases from artists including Bananagun, Canty and Tunng and new Hassle Records releases from BRUTUS, Dead Pioneers and Jools.
A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday (Nov. 27) again refused to release Sean “Diddy” Combs on bail ahead of his sex trafficking and racketeering trial next year, citing the rapper’s “propensity for violence” and evidence that he poses “a serious risk of witness tampering.”
The star’s lawyers had argued he could be released on a $50 million bond and live under house arrest with “near-total” restrictions, but federal prosecutors had argued that Diddy had been trying to “subvert the integrity” of the case from jail and would continue to do so if released.
In a ruling issued late Wednesday, Judge Arun Subramanian sided with the government, saying that “no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community” if Combs was released ahead of trial.
“There is compelling evidence of Combs’s propensity for violence,” the judge wrote. “There is evidence supporting a serious risk of witness tampering.”
In denying bail, Judge Subramanian cited evidence that Combs had “initiated and had unexplained communication” with a witness who had been called to testify before the grand jury and that he had likely already violated prison rules since he was arrested in September. The judge also cited a legal precedent that said “wealthy defendants” should not be released on bail to “self-funded private jails.”
“Given the nature of the allegations in this case and the information provided by the government, the Court doubts the sufficiency of any conditions that place trust in Combs and individuals in his employ —like a private security detail — to follow those conditions,” Judge Subramanian wrote.
A spokesperson for Combs did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday evening.
Combs was indicted in September, charged with running a sprawling criminal operation aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.” The case centers on elaborate “freak off” parties in which Combs and others would allegedly ply victims with drugs and then coerce them into having sex, as well as on alleged acts of violence to keep victims silent.
A trial is currently set to start on May 5. If convicted on all of the charges, Combs faces a potential life prison sentence.
At a hearing in September, Judge Andrew L. Carter refused to release Combs on bail, saying that prosecutors had presented “clear and convincing evidence” that he posed a danger to the community. He said “no condition or set of conditions” could guard against the risk of Combs obstructing the investigation or threatening or harming witnesses.
Earlier this month, Combs’ lawyers renewed their request for bail with Judge Subramanian, who took over the case last month after Judge Carter recused himself. They again offered to pay a $50 million bond but with a “far more robust” package of restrictions. They also cited the recent release of former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries after he was arrested on similar sex trafficking charges.
“There is no legal basis for continuing to force Mr. Combs to prepare for trial from jail,” his lawyers wrote in court filings.
The government fired back last week, arguing that Combs would still pose a grave risk of obstruction of justice if released. In doing so, they accused Diddy of trying to tamper with the case from behind bars, including reaching out to witnesses, leaking favorable materials, and orchestrating “social media campaigns” to influence public opinion and taint the jury pool.
“Defendant has continued to engage in a relentless course of obstructive conduct designed to subvert the integrity of these proceedings,” the prosecution wrote in the filing.
The decision means that until trial, Combs will remain in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal prison in Brooklyn often used to house defendants awaiting trial. He will also likely re-launch his appeal of the bail issue to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which has been on hold while he asked Judge Subramanian to reconsider.
The .MUSIC registry announced on Wednesday (Nov. 27) two new tools to help music creators and professionals manage their digital identities: SmartBadge and SmartPage.
The SmartBadge, a digital badge similar to a blue checkmark seen on social media profiles, uses an embedded watermark QR code that helps protect identities by only linking back to verified, legitimate .MUSIC profiles and content. The SmartPage provides artists with a branded page where they can post an official biography and verified links to social media and the artist’s music at various digital service providers.
“With .MUSIC’s SmartBadge and SmartPage, we are setting a new industry standard for authenticity, security, and connection within the global music industry,” Constantine Roussos, the founder/CEO of .MUSIC, said in a statement. “This is a significant leap in the digital music identity space, providing the music community with enhanced brand protection and promotion opportunities, while fostering trust and transparency across the entire music ecosystem.”
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“I have seen the industry change a lot over the years, but this .MUSIC thing? It is next level,” said Fred Durst, frontman of Limp Bizkit. “It is not just about stopping fraud. It is also about creating a trusted space where we can connect with fans without worrying about imposters or scams. It is a game-changer for artists at every level.”
In her own statement, songwriter and recording artist Skylar Grey said she’s attracted to .MUSIC’s potential to help musicians receive the royalties they are due. “It always bums me out that I do not own SkylarGrey.COM,” Gray said. “Now, a verified .MUSIC feels more official than a .COM. I am excited to see how having a verified MusicID can also be used by the global music industry to help musicians get paid and solve the problem of unclaimed black box royalties.”
“Finally, artists can get their verified music identity and be trusted,” added Elliott Taylor, a recording artist and songwriter for artists such as Celine Dion and Eminem. “.MUSIC is much needed because it guarantees that an artist’s identity is truly and undeniably authenticated.”
After a lengthy process to win industry support and beat out other interested parties such as Google and Amazon, .MUSIC began offering top-level domains in October. Unlike the familiar .com domain, .MUSIC domain names are available exclusively to the music community, just as.gov and .edu domains are reserved for proper entities in government and education, respectively. Artists, songwriters, producers, other industry professionals and music companies all have the option of acquiring .MUSIC domains.
Another feature offered by .MUSIC is a single sign-on to access the .MUSIC ecosystem and other digital service providers. Using a secure set of credentials is meant to enhance security for creators, reduce the chance of data breaches and make on-boarding easier for music organizations, collection societies, digital service providers and distributors.
You can check out Limp Bizkit’s SmartBadge and SmartPage for examples of the new products.
Charles Goldstuck‘s GoldState Music is quietly bulking up thanks to two back-to-back catalog acquisitions in the last six months.
According to sources, GoldState has laid out some $200 million to acquire portfolios of music publishing and recorded music royalty income streams from two boutique music asset investment firms: CatchPoint Rights Partners in a deal that sources say closed in the last month; and AMR Songs, whose catalog GoldState acquired earlier this year.
The CatchPoint portfolio includes stakes in songs like Kanye West‘s “Flashing Lights,” Sheryl Crow‘s “If It Makes You Happy” and Panic! At The Disco‘s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” along with slices of songs and/or recordings by the likes of Brantley Gilbert, Smash Mouth, Avril Lavigne and others.
Meanwhile, the AMR catalog includes John Sebastian’s writer’s share of all of his The Lovin’ Spoonful songs, including “Summer In the City,” “Daydream” and “Do You Believe In Magic,” as well as all rights from Sebastian’s solo catalog, which includes “Welcome Back.” AMR has also made investments in SOJA’s catalog, from the band’s inception through 2020 — covering music publishing and artist royalties and various master recordings — as well as stakes in songs by the likes of Macy Gray and Ivan Neville.
While the above list includes artist names, the two firms have also invested in co-writer shares of songs or producer points on artist royalties — and their websites don’t always specify, when citing song and recording investments, which assets have been acquired.
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All told, the two firm’s catalogs each had about $7 million in annual income, or a combined $14 million, in a combination of music assets that split about 50/50 active and passive income, sources say. (Passive income would be the writer’s share of a song owned and controlled by a publisher or an artist’s royalty income stream from a master recording owned by a label. Active income would be ownership of the song publishing and/or the master recordings.)
Goldstuck has a long history in the music industry, having held senior executive positions at such labels as Arista Records, Capitol Records, J Records and RCA before becoming president/COO of the Bertelsmann Music Group. More recently, he was co-chairman of Hitco Entertainment, which was sold to Concord. Moreover, Goldstuck is the founder of The Sanctuary At Albany, which is described as a state-of-the-art recording studio in the Bahamas, and is also currently the executive chairman of TouchTunes Interactive Networks, the digital jukebox company with over 80,000 locations, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The GoldState Music website says Goldstuck founded the GoldState investment firm in 2022 and lists Flexpoint Ford, Pinnacle Financial Partners and Regions as its financial backers. The website also lists TouchTunes, The Sanctuary at Albany and Create Music as part of the GoldState Music growth portfolio. In June, GoldState Music participated in Flexpoint Ford’s $165 million funding round to Create Music Group, although the amount it invested was undisclosed.
Prior to making its latest catalog acquisitions, Goldstuck began by acquiring music intellectual property rights on its own, including by buying — based on the GoldState website — the rights of music by recording artists such as EDM DJ/artist Alan Walker, Christian group Anberlin, pop singer Daya, punk band Dead Kennedys and legendary soul singer Sam Moore, among others. The company’s website doesn’t specify which rights of those artists it has acquired.
In moving on to bigger acquisitions like its recent CatchPoint portfolio and AMR Songs deals, Goldstate so far appears to be eschewing iconic songs and catalogs that trade for frothy prices and multiples and instead has chosen to buy the catalogs of two firms, which separately on their own pursued niche genres and name artists — but not superstars — whose music rights assets produce steady income streams that trade at more reasonable price points.
CatchPoint was founded in 2020 by former BMI executive Rich Conlon, Wall Street executive Patrick Riordon and PJ Miklus, a business executive with a background in finance and the music industry. Sources suggest that CatchPoint sold its portfolio of songs to GoldState as a proof-of-concept to potential investors. Sources add that the firm didn’t sell all of the music assets in its catalog and has funding for further music asset acquisitions.
Meanwhile, AMR was founded by Tamara Conniff, a former music publishing executive at such firms as Roc Nation and Artist Publishing Group, and Wall Street private equity executive Steve Reinstadtler. According to the GoldState website, Conniff and some of her team have joined the GoldState staff.
Executives at GoldState, Catchpoint and AMR either didn’t return phone calls seeking comment or declined to comment on the transactions.
Nvidia, the computer chip giant, has entered the AI music race by announcing its new model, Fugatto, on Tuesday (Nov. 26). The company calls Fugatto, short for Foundational Generative Audio Transformer Opus 1, a “Swiss Army knife for sound.”
Using text or audio prompts, Fugatto can generate new music at the click of a button and edit existing audio, including removing or adding instruments from a song or changing the accent and emotion in a voice, in seconds.
With Fugatto, Nvidia aims to take on today’s top AI music models, including Suno, Udio and many more. Though it is a late entrant in the race to create the best music AI model, Fugatto appears to have crisp audio quality and a number of capabilities that could change the music-making process for producers and composers.
According to the announcement on Nvidia’s blog, “One of the hardest parts of the effort was generating a blended dataset that contains millions of audio samples used for training,” which the company says it worked on for more than a year to get right. “The team employed a multifaceted strategy to generate data and instructions that considerably expanded the range of tasks the model could perform, while achieving more accurate performance and enabling new tasks without requiring additional data.” It is unclear whether or not this dataset included copyrighted material. Nvidia has not responded to Billboard’s request for comment.
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Nvidia proposes a number of use cases for Fugatto, including generating a score for visual media; editing certain parts of a score; and altering a voice to have different accents, emotions and timbres. “Fugatto can make a trumpet bark or a saxophone meow. Whatever users can describe, the model can create,” says Rafael Valle, a manager of applied audio research at Nvidia.
“The history of music is also a history of technology,” says Ido Zmishlany, a producer/songwriter and co-founder of One Take Audio, a member of Nvidia Inception, its program for cutting-edge startups. “With AI we’re writing the next chapter of music. We have a new instrument, a new tool for making music — and that’s super exciting.”
Nvidia claims this is the first AI music model that showcases “emergent properties — capabilities that arise from the interaction of its varous trained abilities — and the ability to combine free-form instructions.” Valle adds that Fugatto is “our first step toward a future where unsupervised multitask learning in audio synthesis and transformation emerges from data and model scale.”
So far, Nvidia has not provided a release date for Fugatto.
Erick Brian Colón—a former member of famed Latin boy band CNCO—is launching his solo career under an exclusive deal with Warner Music Latina and Big Bad Wolf Management Group. With the focus on sharing high-quality music that will showcase his evolution as an artist and storyteller, Erick Brian (his artistic name) will officially debut his […]