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As of January, Warner Music Group (WMG) executive vp/general counsel Paul Robinson has worked in the legal department of the company for 30 years. During that time, he has seen “three different owners, seven CEOs and we’ve gone private and public two different times,” he says. “There also have been all of these macro changes in the music business” — which is something of an understatement. What hasn’t changed much, he says, is the culture of the company: “It’s always been an artist- friendly, songwriter-friendly culture, and we’ve always had a great relationship between recorded music and publishing.”
Robinson was slated to receive the 2025 Entertainment Law Initiative Service Award on Jan. 31 at the organization’s annual Grammy Week luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. But since the event was canceled in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires, he will receive the honor at next year’s gathering.
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Robinson started at WMG in 1995 after working at Mayer Katz Baker Leibowitz, which at the time did a significant amount of the label group’s legal work. Robinson got the top job in 2006 and helped steer the company through the worst years of the music business, to its 2013 acquisition of Parlophone Label Group from Universal Music Group, and into the streaming-led recovery and a successful 2020 initial public offering.
Like the rest of the industry, WMG is now at a point where streaming growth in developed markets is slowing and the challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) loom — and in a way that will especially test it as the smallest of the three majors. Which is why, Robinson says, “From my point of view, it’s important to be perceived as, and to be, the most artist-friendly, songwriter-friendly company” — a message that WMG sent by being the first major to adopt artist-friendly policies on “digital breakage” in 2009 and on sharing gains from equity sales, such as with Spotify in 2016. “Jac Holzman, when he started Elektra, used to have this love-and-affection clause in his contracts that said the label will treat artists with love and affection and the artist will treat the label with a modicum of respect,” Robinson recalls. “And it’s great because it brings to mind the imbalance: Artists will not always love their labels, but we always have to love them and we hope that they at least respect us.”
Your father is Irwin Robinson, the prominent publishing executive who ran Chappell/Intersong and then EMI Music Publishing. Did you purposefully decide to follow him into the same business?
That was how it ended up, but they say there are no accidents. In some ways, I was afraid to go into the music business. There were huge shoes for me to step into. I thought I wanted to be a doctor, and then I worked at a hospital one summer and I decided, “Maybe I don’t want to be a doctor.” I was a huge music fan as well as a singer, and I thought, “I’ll just go to law school and see what happens.” Maybe I was avoiding it.
Robinson’s father gave him this 1956 letter from legendary songwriter-composer Cole Porter to his lawyer, John Wharton, at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. “I like it because in a single letter, he talks about the relatively important issue of assigning his renewal rights to Chappell and the relatively unimportant issue of a songbook being able to stay on a piano rack,” he says. “God is in the details.”
Krista Schlueter
Billboard can reveal that you were the singer in a new wave band.
I was one of the singers. We were called The Doctors. The musicians in the band all wore scrubs, and we were the hit of Williams College campus for a year. In fact, they asked The Doctors to play at my college reunion and we’re doing it.
You’re one of the few people who has been in the same department at the same company since the Napster era. Any lessons from then on how the industry should deal with AI?
Probably to lean into change. Maybe there were people in 1999 at Warner Music Group who saw peer-to-peer coming, but I feel like we were caught very much off guard, and I don’t think that’s been the case with AI. Also, with peer-to-peer, there wasn’t a great deal around until iTunes in 2003, so we’re also in a better place that way. There are services we can strike deals with now.
What are the best- and worst-case scenarios for the industry for generative AI?
[That’s] probably less of a general counsel question than [one for] business development, but I think the worst-case scenario is that somehow it’s determined that you don’t need permission to train an AI model and the market is flooded with a huge volume of content that dilutes legitimate music, in the same way services are flooded now with music that very few people listen to — but in turbo. The best case is that AI becomes an incredible tool for artists and songwriters and lets them up their game and release content in languages they don’t speak.
“This is a 1994 photo from my wedding of
my then-partners from Mayer Katz Baker Leibowitz & Roberts and their wives,” he says. “WMG was Mayer Katz’s biggest client.”
Krista Schlueter
The streaming model seems to be evolving. There’s talk of “Streaming 2.0.” What kind of terms are you looking for now in streaming deals?
Trying to lock in per-subscriber minimums and reduce discounts for family plans and so on. That’s where we are focused.
When you started in the music business, there were six major labels. Now there are three. Does that change the nature of competition?
Even though there are only three majors, it feels like it’s never been more competitive. All you have to do is look at the change in artist deals over time.
I’m assuming you mean that deals now favor artists? Is it harder to invest in them under these circumstances?
No. Every year, our A&R spend increases. When I started, we were getting eight-album deals, but we were signing artists where, because there was no internet, their following was probably their hometown and they needed a huge amount of development. Today, we hardly ever sign an artist that doesn’t have a significant social media presence, and those artists don’t need as much development.
“Believe it or not,” Robinson says, he has had the same office chair for 30 years. “It definitely looks like a chair from 1995, but I just can’t seem to let go of it.”
Krista Schlueter
Now you also compete with distribution deals.
From an artist’s point of view, there’s a trade-off. In a distribution deal, you’re getting a bigger piece of the pie, but you’re getting less development and it’s a shorter-term relationship, so there’s probably not going to be as much investment. If you sign a frontline label deal, you’re committing to more albums and you’re getting a smaller piece of the pie, but you are getting a whole team of people behind you to develop your career. The great thing is that artists have more choice than ever.
How do you make sure artist contracts feel like win-win deals?
Deals get renegotiated all the time if they’re out of sync. If there’s an artist with a small record deal that has tremendous success, the economics of their next albums are going to look different. We’re in the personal services business and we’re in the relationship business. We want to maintain the best relationships with artists and songwriters.
Is there a deal you did that you’re especially proud of?
When we bought Parlophone Label Group, that was a huge regulatory fight, and I would say it was a win-win. UMG had to sell Parlophone, we were the best buyer, and they were looking for a good price, which today looks like a really low price. We paid about $800 million, probably about a seven-and-a-half times multiple, which at the time was huge. We were much more U.S. weighted in our revenue, and we bought a bunch of European assets. So it rebalanced us in terms of geography, and we acquired great repertoire and some great artists.
What has been some of the most memorable litigation that you have overseen? The case in which Led Zeppelin was sued for copyright infringement by a trustee for the estate of Spirit frontman Randy Wolfe comes to mind.
The exciting thing about the Zeppelin case was not only winning, after having been dealt a bunch of blows — we won in trial court and we were reversed — but changing the trajectory of copyright infringement litigation. It was a beat-back of what was, I think, the bad law of the “Blurred Lines” case.
Robinson never met Prince, but he is such a big fan that two people gave him signed limited-edition lithographs of the New Yorker cover commemorating the artist’s death. “He was an incredibly distinctive artist. For his first album, Warner Records let him do everything. They basically said, ‘Go in the studio and do it.’ That didn’t happen much in 1977.”
Krista Schlueter
This story appears in the Jan. 25, 2025 issue of Billboard.
01/29/2025
With 2025 in full swing, 18 top executives from across the music business share predictions for the year.
01/29/2025
Spotify won a ruling Wednesday dismissing a lawsuit from the Mechanical Licensing Collective that accused the streamer of unfairly slashing royalty rates, with a federal judge ruling that Spotify’s move was supported by “unambiguous” regulations.
The MLC sued last year, claiming Spotify had “unilaterally and unlawfully” chosen to cut its music royalty payments nearly in half through bookmaking trickery – namely, by claiming that the addition of audiobooks to the platform entitled the company to pay a lower “bundled” rate.
But in her decision on Wednesday, Judge Analisa Torres said that federal royalty rate rules clearly allowed Spotify to legally claim the lower rate, rejecting MLC’s argument that the company was not actually offering a “bundle” of services.
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“Audiobook streaming is a product or service that is distinct from music streaming and has more than token value,” the judge wrote, alluding to the specific wording of the federal rule. “Premium is, therefore, properly categorized as a Bundle.”
A spokeswoman for the MLC did not immediately return a request for comment on the ruling.
The MLC, which collects streaming royalties for songwriters and publishers, filed its lawsuit in late May — a week after Billboard estimated that Spotify’s move would result in the company paying roughly $150 million less over the next year. In its complaint, the MLC claimed Spotify was “erroneously recharacterizing” the nature of its streaming services to secure the lower rate.
“The financial consequences of Spotify’s failure to meet its statutory obligations are enormous for songwriters and music publishers,” the group’s attorneys wrote at the time. “If unchecked, the impact on songwriters and music publishers of Spotify’s unlawful underreporting could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
At issue in the lawsuit is Spotify’s recent addition of audiobooks to its premium subscription service. The streamer believes that because of the new offering, it’s now entitled to pay a discounted “bundled” royalty rate under the federal legal settlement that governs how much streamers pay rightsholders.
In Wednesday’s ruling, Judge Torres agreed. She said the rules required only that Spotify offered a different service and that it provided users with more than “token value” – and that the addition of audiobooks was clearly covered by those terms.
MLC’s attorneys had argued that audiobooks were that kind of “token” non-factor, since Spotify didn’t raises prices when it added them and only a small proportion of subscribers actually listen to them. MLC had claimed Spotify added the books was merely a “pretext” to cut rates for music.
Spotify moved to dismiss the case in August, calling it “nonsensical” and “wasteful.” The company’s attorneys blasted the MLC’s argument that the audiobooks were aimed at a legal loophole, saying it “profoundly devalues the contributions of the tens of thousands of book authors.”
In her decision on Wednesday, Judge Torres sided with Spotify’s argument. Though she said the new offering might strike ordinary consumers as more of a “two-for-one deal” than a traditional bundle, she said Spotify’s addition of the books had clearly brought more than nominal value to its users.
“MLC cannot plausibly claim that having access to audiobooks is not something of intrinsic and monetary value to many, even if only a fraction of Spotify’s millions of Premium subscribers may take advantage of it,” the judge wrote. “The court can draw only one conclusion: that 15 hours of monthly audiobook streaming is a product or service that has more than token value.”
If anything, Judge Torres said, Spotify had “likely paid more in royalties to MLC than it was otherwise required to pay” because it did not immediately claim bundled status after introducing the audiobook feature.
In addition to dismissing the lawsuit, Judge Torres did not give MLC a chance to refile the case, saying the law was clear and that amending the accusations would be futile. The group can still challenge the ruling at a federal appeals court, however.
In a statement to Billboard on Wednesday, a Spotify spokesperson said the company was “pleased” with the court’s decision: “Bundle offerings play a critical role in expanding the interest in paying for music and growing the pie for the music industry. We know the regulations can be complex, but there’s plenty of room for collaboration—and our recent deal with [Universal Music Publishing Group] shows how direct licenses can create flexibility and additional benefits.”
From the late 1990s into the 2000s, “VH1 Save the Music” was a household name known for its annual Divas Live benefit concerts featuring such bold-faced icons as Aretha, Whitney, Mariah and Celine. But by the end of the 2010s, following the television network’s pivot to reality series like Love & Hip-Hop and Basketball Wives, the branding no longer made sense.
“In 2019, it was pretty clear strategically that going forward, the VH1 brand was not going to be part of our future,” says Henry Donahue, executive director at the Save the Music Foundation. As a result, “VH1” was dropped from the organization’s name that same year.
Far from being a disaster, unbundling from VH1 gave Save the Music new life, says Donahue — and in 2025, it’s arguably doing better than ever. According to Donahue, Save the Music’s annual operating budget in 2018 — the year before the VH1 name was dropped — was $4.7 million. Last year, that number had risen to nearly $11 million, including more than $1 million from a new $10 million endowment fund that the foundation formally announced on Wednesday (Jan. 29). (Save the Music notes the 2024 numbers are still unaudited.)
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The fund, of which $4 million has already been raised, will “ensure the cultural institution’s sustainability and long-term support for music education,” according to a press release. Notably, the endowment coincides with a formal split from Save the Music and VH1’s longtime corporate parent Paramount Global (formerly Viacom), though the entertainment giant has pledged an initial six-figure donation.
The breakup had been a long time coming. In the five years since it dropped the VH1 branding, Save the Music has substantially reduced its dependence on Paramount after the company opted to move away from social responsibility initiatives, the foundation says. By 2024, 95% of Save the Music’s organizational budget came from non-Paramount sources, with notable backers including tech and music industry behemoths like TikTok, Live Nation, Meta, Amazon and AEG Presents.
The split from Paramount marks the end of a long and productive relationship. Since it was founded by then-VH1 president John Sykes in 1997, Save the Music has donated more than $75 million worth of instruments and technology to over 2,800 school music programs in more than 300 districts across the U.S. and improved the educational fortunes of countless under-resourced students.
Sykes tells Billboard that the foundation came about after he visited Brooklyn elementary school P.S. 58 as part of a “principal for a day” initiative and, while sitting in on the school’s music class, “saw these kids playing their instruments [that] were held together with tape, literally tape, and strings missing on violins, and they didn’t care. They were so, so excited and so connected to the music… they had no idea that the instruments they were playing were falling apart.”
While speaking with the music teacher, Sykes (now president of entertainment enterprises at iHeartMedia and chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) learned that the music program would likely have to close down for lack of funds. “And I said, ‘Well, how much do you need?’” he remembers. “And she said, ‘Well, a lot — $5,000.’ I said, ‘You got it.’”
Sykes was particularly encouraged by something else the teacher said: That the children who played instruments tended to earn better grades in math and English. Around the same time, he read a magazine article that described how music “helps wire a kid’s brain.”
“I said, ‘Oh, my God. This is bigger than one school. This could impact the country,’” he says. “And VH1 was a national channel. So I went back to our team and I said, ‘We’re going to adopt more schools across the country and partner with our cable systems to raise money and start using the power of VH1’s reach to go and influence local governments not to cut music programs. And we’re going to raise money to fund those programs.’”
Soon enough, Save the Music had equipped roughly a dozen New York schools with musical instruments. When Sykes put in a personal call to President Bill Clinton, who had famously played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show during the 1992 election campaign, Clinton agreed to donate one of his saxes to an underprivileged school in Washington, D.C. When the President sent First Lady Hillary Clinton to hand the instrument over, says Sykes, “It became a national story.”
The foundation was formally unveiled in April 1997 during that year’s VH1 Honors awards show, which raised $150,000 for the organization and featured callouts from A-list artists touting the importance of music education. The following year, VH1 Divas Live — a once-annual concert special benefitting the foundation — was launched with Dion, Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain and Gloria Estefan and became a phenomenon, grabbing big ratings and even selling albums. (A series of commercially-released VH1 Divas albums sold a combined 1 million copies in the U.S., according to Luminate.)
In its current iteration, Save the Music makes a capital investment in between 100 to 150 school music programs in the U.S. every year, says Donahue. The foundation identifies districts to support via a rubric that looks at two primary factors: economic need, which accounts for everything from median income and racial demographics to free and reduced lunch rates; and readiness and willingness of the district to work with them, including by providing a certified music teacher. They also look at scale, preferring projects that allow them to target “30 or 50 or 100 schools all at once” in a district or a region, says Donahue.
The gradual de-coupling from Paramount brought opportunities and funding Save the Music otherwise wouldn’t have had. In 2021, the new paradigm “was validated,” Donahue says, when the foundation received a $2 million grant from MacKenzie Scott — the co-founder of Amazon and ex-wife of Jeff Bezos — “which we never would have gotten had we been VH1 Save the Music.”
The shift away from Paramount also allowed Save the Music to become much more responsive to communities’ needs, says Donahue. “[We wanted to] push towards a strategy where our work was much more community based,” he says. “So we were listening to the people in the communities that we served, as opposed to taking direction from the corporate parent or however we fit into the corporate strategy.”
Save the Music’s sought-after post-VH1 program is the J Dilla Music Technology Grant, which invests in music technology curriculums and equipment for elementary, middle and high schools in an effort to help train the next generation of producers, engineers, songwriters, DJs and more. Chiho Feindler, who has served as Save the Music’s chief program officer since 2008, says the grant allows kids to be trained early in the kind of behind-the-scenes jobs that can lead to real careers.
“We often talk about everybody wants to become the Jay Z…but there are a thousand other jobs behind that that can be equally, if not more satisfying,” Feindler adds.
“[It’s] our most-demanded program,” Donahue says of the J Dilla grant, which has gone to more than 100 schools, including “35 or 40” just during the 2024-25 school year. “That’s the thing that schools now ask about most often and it’s the thing that people in the music industry ask about most often.”
A more recent focus has been expanding the foundation’s grants for Latin music programs to encompass additional genres and styles beyond mariachi — another result of the new freedom and depth of engagement with communities made possible by the gradual split with Paramount. “Mariachi is really a small part of the Latin community,” says Feindler, “[but] mariachi is not a solution for all of the Spanish-speaking community.” (Full disclosure: Billboard recently hosted a fundraiser via Instagram for Save the Music’s “Miami Saves Music” project, which is aiming to invest in instrumental and music tech programs for roughly 100 public schools in Miami-Dade County by 2027.)
Feindler adds that Save the Music is also looking to offer more support to preschool and elementary school-aged music programs by providing kid-friendly instruments like xylophones and drums after focusing “for the longest time… on more of the band and stringed [instruments],” she says.
Another new initiative was announced on Wednesday: a giveaway campaign hosted on the charity platform Propellor that will allow fans to bid on more than a dozen auction items from artists including Sabrina Carpenter, The War and Treaty, Blake Shelton and Patti LaBelle to support the foundation.
Though Save the Music is far from its nationally televised Divas Live days, it still attracts A-list talent. In 2023, Ed Sheeran teamed with the foundation to surprise five schools with “pop-up” classroom visits while donating a portion of the proceeds from digital album sales from his Autumn Variations album, along with 100% of the ticket proceeds from an Amazon Live performance, to the organization. Last year, Save the Music also secured the support of Jelly Roll, who visited and performed at his former high school in Antioch, Tenn., and made a substantial donation to the foundation. And in October, Maren Morris, Brittney Spencer and Live Nation Women’s Ali Harnell were honored at Save the Music’s Hometown to Hometown benefit in Nashville, which raised more than $300,000 for music education programs in under-resourced public high schools.
With or without Paramount, Save the Music will continue to endure, says Sykes, because at heart it’s not just about learning to play an instrument but about giving kids a chance at carving out a successful path in life.
“This is not just, ‘Junior is happy because he’s playing the flute or the violin,’” he says. “That kid’s going to go to college, that kid’s going to do better, that kid’s going to stay in school, that kid’s going to feel better about himself or herself. There’s so many different positive outcomes of music education.”
Audacy president/CEO David Field is stepping down, with current Audacy board member Kelli Turner to serve as interim president/CEO, effective immediately. A search is underway for Field’s permanent successor, the company said on Wednesday. Field has served as president of Audacy since 1998, and added CEO duties to his role in 2002. He will continue […]
Before the first note is played at FireAid on Thursday (Jan. 30), more than $60 million dollars will have already been raised from ticket sales and sponsorship dollars for wildfire recovery and prevention efforts from the fires that have ravaged the Los Angeles area. Add to that the donations from viewers watching live on more than 25 streaming outlets that will be matched dollar for dollar by Steve and Connie Ballmer and the event will undoubtedly raise tens of millions of dollars more for the cause.
The Los Angeles concerts will feature Billie Eilish, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gracie Abrams, Jelly Roll, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Lil Baby, Olivia Rodrigo, Peso Pluma, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Sting and Tate McRae at the Intuit Dome, while Alanis Morissette, Anderson .Paak, Dave Matthews and John Mayer, Dawes, Graham Nash, Green Day, John Fogerty, Joni Mitchell, No Doubt, P!nk, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stephen Stills, Stevie Nicks, and The Black Crowes will take the stage at the Kia Forum.
The idea for the benefit, which was announced three days after the catastrophic fires that have destroyed more than 22,000 homes started on Jan. 7, was born after Shelli Azoff called Los Angeles Clippers CEO Gillian Zucker to see if they could hold a benefit at Intuit Dome, home to the Clippers. So many artists volunteered to play that the concert quickly overflowed to the Kia Forum.
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Irving Azoff, who is producing the event with his wife Shelli and his family in conjunction with Live Nation, talked to Billboard on Tuesday night as he headed to the Kia Forum to watch the two Stevies — Nicks and Wonder — rehearse. In addition to talking about the shows’ logistics, he primarily wanted to express his extreme gratitude to the Ballmers, the artists and nearly 40 sponsoring partners who have made the event possible.
It’s really remarkable how fast this has come together.
After the fires started, Shelli says we’ve got to do something. Some else says the only thing we know how to do is put on shows. Shelli calls Gillian, she offers us Intuit and it’s off to the races…So many [artists] volunteered that we knew we could do both [venues]. You don’t want to tell people no and obviously the ability to raise more money when you got two going instead of one is even greater.
At any point did you think, “Let’s move it to Sofi Stadium” or add a third location, given how many artists were eager to play?
Look, there were three pieces to this: There’s the live gate and the corporate sponsorship for the live gate, which, I’m happy to say, is already north of $60 million. The sponsorships, which Scott Sonnenberg at the Clippers organization and Dan Griffis and his team at Oak View, went out and, they’ve done just an incredible job. People just called and said, “Can I [help]”? But we also knew that this is about helping everybody and getting everybody together so everybody can begin to heal and enjoy this wonderful music to try and get everybody a bit back on track. We knew from the start we wanted to do a modern digital telethon where you text to donate. Ballmer offers the building and the Clippers organization is picking up the expenses so every single dollar of ticket money is going to the charity and with Steve and Connie matching anyone that gives money during the telethon, no, we never thought about Sofi, nor should we.
Rod Stewart was the first artist to volunteer to play, right?
Rod was first in, then Stevie Nicks called me personally and she was second in.
Were you surprised by the sheer number of artists who wanted to donate their time?
I’m not surprised because musicians are among the most caring, heartwarming, giving people in the food chain. So, no, I wasn’t surprised–delighted, but not surprised… It’s not just the money raised; we’re going to create a worldwide consciousness for what these fires really were. [Executive producer] Joel Gallen has put together [segments] with some incredible footage from KTLA of the survivors and fire people. It’s a different kind of show.
You’ve got nearly 40 sponsors. Can sponsors still come on?
We sold out earlier today. Every suite is gone, and all the sponsorships are gone. A lot of sponsors said, “Here, just take our money.” We said, “Tickets should come with that. You want to give us back the tickets for first responders and people that lost their homes?” And many of them did that. I think about 2,500 impacted first responders and homeowners or more will be in the two rooms. Many of [the sponsors] are using their suites. Everybody did what they felt was right. I would guess that for a one-night event in the music business, it’s probably the biggest sponsorship haul in history. We were talking about it today. We don’t think anybody’s come anywhere close. We get the credit for getting the ball rolling, but then the community really took over.
What role is Live Nation playing?
[Live Nation president of California Region] Geni Lincoln–like my wife and daughter Allison and many others–has been working 18 hours a day. [Live Nation CEO] Michael Rapino is an executive producer with Shelli and myself and Gillian Zucker and Joel Gallen. He’s been on calls all day and all night. We’re all out raising money. We’re all out putting it all together. Live Nation has been incredible. I’m just so proud of them and their team and what they brought to the party.
What has been the biggest challenge for you logistically?
Look, it’s rock and roll. What can go wrong will go wrong. Since we’re trying to go back and forth between the arenas most of the night for the telecast, the biggest challenge is going to be that we don’t have technical issues that delay anybody getting on the stage at the right times.
What can fans expect from the sets?
Most people are doing two to three songs. A few are doing four. After it was already on sale and [artists] are all set, then other [artists] called. Since all the slots were gone and God knows how long the show is going to be–right now it’s five-and-a-half hours–[we said], “It’s too late to add you to the bill and we don’t have a slot, but how would you like to go do XYZ with such and such an artist?” I think there’s a good half dozen really surprise moments.
In Tuesday’s New York Times article, you and Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason went out of your way to say you and the Feb. 2 Grammys are not competing with each other even though the shows are only a few days apart.
We’re not in any sort of competition. They’re an award show. They’re a broadcast television show. We wanted to make this a streaming telethon, meaning a digital streaming moment, right? We didn’t do any over-the-air broadcast. Granted, we’re going to have our moments to tell the story of some of the people impacted by the fires, but this is more like a stream from a music festival. It’s not an award show. They’re two very separate things. I’m on the board of [Recording Academy charity] MusiCares and I hope our board will see fit to give some of the money that we’re making to MusiCares.
How did you pick the date?
We looked at other dates. Remember, our show because we’re trying to solicit donations from consumers– unfortunately, people don’t have a big, long attention span–you want to get up while the fires are still fresh in everybody’s mind. It was kind of guesswork as to when the weather was going to turn and they were going to get control of the fires. We couldn’t go next week because it’s the Super Bowl and we didn’t want to go anywhere near Super Bowl week. And the following week we didn’t have building availability. We didn’t try to go, “Oh, let’s go Grammy week.” Nearly all of the people that are involved either live in LA or have an LA connection, so it wasn’t, “Oh, everybody’s in town for the Grammys. It’s easy to book.” Most of the people would have been here three weeks from now that are here now, so it’s just the way it fell in place.
Was there any thought of going on a broadcast outlet or was it always streaming?
When it became obvious that we were going to do 27 performers, there was no way. You’re not going to put a five-and-a-half hour show on broadcast television.
You’ve already raised more than $60 million. What do you hope the total will be?
We’re already grateful for what we have. I mean, there’s never been a fundraising effort on streamers like this, so I can’t even begin to think about… we’re going to be happy whatever it is. It’s kind of new territory. The outpouring is historic, but, unfortunately, so are the fires.
Audiences can tune into FireAid on a number of platforms, including iApple Music, AppleTV, DIRECTV, MyFree DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM, and DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS, Disney+/Hulu, FanDuel, iHeartRadio, KTLA+, Max, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix/Tudum.com, Paramount+/Pluto TV, Peacock/NBC News Now, Prime Video and the Amazon Music Channel on Twitch, SiriusXM’s “LIFE with John Mayer” channel, SoundCloud, TikTok, Veeps, X, and YouTube. Some outlets are also making donations, including DirectTV, which announced it was donating $1 million to FireAid.
Additionally, several AMC Theater and Regal Cinemas will host screenings of the event, which can also be heard on iHeartRadio’s more than 860 radio stations, digital platforms and iHeartRadio app.
Sponsoring partners include Kaiser Permanente, Live Nation, Scopely, American Express, AT&T, Capital Group, Netflix, Snap Inc., U.S. Bank, UBS, Venmo, and Visa Foundation. Gold Partners are DIRECTV, Goldman Sachs, Intuit, Starbucks, YouTube, and the Verizon Foundation.CalHOPE, Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, JPMorganChase, Salesforce, Schuman Family Foundation, SiriusXM, Sony Honda Mobility, Spotify and TikTok.
For donations and concert information, go to FireAidLA.org or @FireAidLA.
As the music industry prepares to celebrate at the 67th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 2), the latest report from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative suggests that things for women in music are holding steady but not moving forward. The study is based on the year-end Billboard Hot 100 chart and Grammy nominations in key categories.
After documenting significant change for women last year, the Spotify-supported study finds that there was little movement in 2024. Women comprised 37.7% of artists across the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart last year, which is a bit better than 2023 (35%) and a significant improvement from 2012 (22.7%). More than a third (38.9%) of individual artists on the year-end chart were women, compared to 40.6% in 2023 and 35.8% in 2012.
“Women artists in 2024 saw little change,” Dr. Smith said in a statement. “In fact, it is the number of men that has declined while the number of women in 2024 was consistent with prior years. This suggests that it is fluctuations in the number of men, not gains for women that is driving these findings. For those interested in seeing change in the music industry, this is not a sign of progress.”
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The percentage of women songwriters on the year-end Hot 100 chart in 2024 was 18.9%, which was similar to the percentage in 2023 (19.5%) and significantly higher than the 11% of songwriters in 2012 who were women. Whereas women of color were responsible for the gains seen for women in 2023, this was not the case in 2024. Last year, the number of women of color represented on the year-end chart as songwriters dipped while the number of white women songwriters increased. Just over half (54%) of those songs featured at least one woman songwriter, on par with 2023 and significantly higher than 2012.
“While there may be movement in the independent space, the songs and charts evaluated represent the agenda-setting music that has the greatest opportunity to launch and grow a career,” said Dr. Smith. “Until the people in the executive ranks and A&R roles take seriously the lack of women in the industry, we will continue to see little change.”
Looking to producers of popular songs in 2024, once again there was no increase for women. A total of 5.9% of producing credits on the Hot 100 year-end chart were held by women, compared to 6.5% in 2023 and 2.4% in 2012. And of the 14 women producers on the year-end chart in 2024, only two were women of color. Across all 13 years of the study, 93.3% of songs lacked any women producers.
“Behind the scenes, women have not lost ground since the gains we saw last year,” said Dr. Smith. “However, the numbers are not growing. Programs like Be The Change, Keychange, She Is The Music, Spotify’s EQL, Women’s Audio Mission, and others are supporting talented women who are ready to take on opportunities. These numbers can continue to grow if the industry looks to these organizations and the many qualified women ready to work as songwriters and producers.”
Artist race/ethnicity was also assessed in the report. The percentage of artists of color (what the study calls “underrepresented artists”) on the year-end chart in 2024 (44.6%) fell significantly from 2023, when the number stood at 61%. Despite the decline, the percentage of artists of color remained on par with the proportion of the U.S. population that is people of color. Additionally, it was still meaningfully greater than 2012 (38.4%).
The drop affected both men and women of color, though the decline for women was steeper. In 2024, 40.8% of all women artists were women of color, while 46.9% of men were men of color. In 2023, nearly two-thirds of women on the popular charts were women of color (64.9%) as were more than half of men (59.4%).
The report also assessed Grammy nominations in the six categories that comprise the General Field: album, record and song of the year, best new artist, and producer and songwriter of the year, non-classical. According to Annenberg, just under a quarter (22.7%) of all nominees in these categories in 2025 were women, similar to 2024 (24%) and significantly greater than 2013 (7.9%).
The Annenberg analysis counts all nominees in album and record of the year, not just artists; in those two categories, producers, engineer/mixers and mastering engineers are nominated alongside artists. (There are no so-called “supplemental” nominees in the other four categories named above.)
This year, female solo artists took four of the eight nominations for best new artist, the same as last year. But last year, a male/female duo (The War and Treaty) was also nominated. That represents a slight drop for women this year, but women still had parity.
In song of the year, the number of female songwriters who are nominated inched up this year, from eight last year to nine this year.
Annenberg reports that the one nomination for a woman in the producer of the year, non-classical category represented a significant jump, as Alissia is only the second woman to be nominated in the category since the study began tracking nominations. (Linda Perry was nominated in the category six years ago.)
Meanwhile, four of the five nominees for songwriter of the year, non-classical this year are women: Jessi Alexander, Amy Allen, Jessie Jo Dillon and RAYE. The only male nominee is Édgar Barrera. This compares to just one female nominee last year.
“The Recording Academy has demonstrated that it can recognize the contributions of women to the music industry—this is clear through the increase we observed last year and that it has continued into this year,” said Dr. Smith. “The challenge now is to continue that growth and to see more women receiving acknowledgement of their talent and effort through awards like the Grammys, particularly for women in producing roles.”
The latest report from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative can be found here.
LONDON — Musicians and creator groups are calling upon the British government to take legislative action to help end the “endemic” misogyny, bullying and discrimination that many female artists still routinely face throughout the industry.
“We need a cultural change in the music industry… and the only way that can happen is if people are educated and there are consequences to their actions,” Charisse Beaumont, CEO of Black Lives in Music (BLiM), told a cross-party committee of MPs on Tuesday (Jan. 28).
Appearing alongside Beaumont at the Parliamentary session was singer-songwriter Celeste, classical soprano singer Lucy Cox and Naomi Pohl, general secretary of the U.K. Musicians’ Union, who all echoed calls for greater protections and support for women working across all sectors of the music business, particularly those in freelance employment.
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“What is most prevalent in my daily experience of being a female in the music industry is this idea of an ingrained bias or even an unconscious sexist bias,” Celeste told MPs.
“I think that all women will deal with it but there will be a scale of how much you [encounter it]. I can imagine that what I might experience might be different to an artist who is on a global scale and I know, for example, from some of my close friends and peers who are just starting out in music … [that they] experience things that I haven’t experienced when I have had the protection of already being established,” said the singer, whose debut album, Not Your Muse, topped the U.K. charts in 2021.
Beaumont called on the current Labour government to enact the original recommendations made by the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) in its highly critical report “Misogyny in Music,” published last January.
That report painted a damning picture of the music business as an industry “still routinely described as a boys club” where a “culture of silence” prevailed with many victims of sexual harassment or abuse afraid to report such incidents.
It followed an inquiry into misogyny in the U.K. music industry, which began in June 2022 and saw artists and executives give evidence, including senior executives from all three major labels, representatives of the live industry, former BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac and British pop singer and Ivors Academy board director Rebecca Ferguson.
In response, the committee made a number of recommendations, including banning the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and other forms of confidentiality clauses in cases involving sexual abuse, bullying or misconduct, as well as stronger rights for freelance music workers, nearly all of which were rejected by the then-Conservative government.
With Sir Keir Starmer‘s Labour Party now in power, musicians and artist representatives used Tuesday’s catch-up session with committee members as an opportunity to exert pressure on politicians to act.
In a statement, Beaumont said her organization had heard “hundreds” of stories from women about harassment they had faced in the music industry, including being “sexually assaulted by male artists, as well as promoters, [and] people assaulting women in music education” since the launch of its anonymous survey YourSafetyYourSay in April.
BLiM’s chief executive also described accounts of young women being pressured to take part in “almost naked casting videos” and feeling “pressured to drink and take drugs,” as well as “male producers grooming young female vocalists.”
Black Lives in Music reports that 71% of respondents to its anonymous survey feel that bullying and harassment is accepted as being part of the industry they work in and only 29% feel there are people in their U.K. music business who will protect them.
NDAs are frequently used to protect perpetrators, says the organization, which identifies a normalization of harassment and objectification of women in the industry, particularly Black women. These problems are often underreported, says BLiM, as women fear the consequences and lack of support.
“Often there is no recourse or accountability, so reporting incidents is futile as those doing the bullying control the narrative. It’s happening under their watch and they are too powerful,” said Beaumont in a statement following Tuesday’s session.
BLiM said its research into bullying and harassment in the British music business will be made available to the newly formed U.K. body The Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA), which has the remit of upholding and improving standards of behavior across the creative industries, including music, and is due to officially launch later this year.
Retail and shopping mall giant Simon Property Group is teaming up with former American Idol judge Randy Jackson and music A&R veteran Paula Moore‘s new company Greater Than Distribution to launch Scouting for Stars, a nationwide tour meant to give Gen Z a front row seat to all aspects of the music industry.
The “Scouting for Stars @themall” tour will feature performances from a revolving lineup of more than 150 rising artists, including Jules Walcott, Tealousy, Karma and Nicolas McCoppin, along with a talent search with auditions on the first day of each tour stop. One person from each city will be selected to perform on the second day of the tour stop.
“The mall is where generations come together to have fun and make memories,” said Lee Sterling, SPG’s chief marketing officer. “We know Gen Z loves the mall and connecting in person, just like their parents did. Since music is also about connecting, this tour is a natural fit.”
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Beyond connecting signed artists with fans at Simon malls, the Scouting for Stars @themall tour also aims to elevate and educate emerging artists in each city the tour visits. The tour will provide a platform for yet-to-be-discovered artists to interact and learn directly from music industry executives through on-site educational workshops focusing on songwriting and content creation.
“I’ve been fortunate throughout my career to witness what can happen when doors open and talented newcomers get an opportunity to grow and shine. I’ve seen it and lived it as a musician, mentor and music executive,” said Jackson. “There is so much talent out there, and as the first music company to go on tour to discover stars city by city, this experience may very well bring about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a budding new artist.”
Moore added, “We are glad to bring this to life with our friends at Simon as their malls are often the third space for Gen Z and others.”
The Scouting for Stars @themall tour is scheduled to launch Feb. 22 in Houston at Katy Mills and runs through August, stopping at 20 locations total and include special retailer promotions, “brand hauls” and other on-trend giveaways reflecting popular culture, fashion, and music. Trevor Andrew, aka Trouble Andrew, is developing street wear and specialty apparel and accessories to drop throughout the tour.
The tour kicks off Feb. 21-22, 2025, at Katy Mills in Houston. The final stop is Aug. 22-23 at the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas. Registration is mandatory for some events and is free, but spots are limited. All who pre-register will receive an exclusive limited edition tote bag and shirt. Pre-register here.
Scouting for Stars @themall Tour DatesFebruary 21-22, 2025 – Houston, TX – Katy MillsFebruary 28-March 1, 2025 – Oklahoma City, OK – Penn Square MallMarch 7-8, 2025 – Austin, TX – Barton Creek SquareMarch 14-15, 2025 – McAllen, TX – La Plaza MallMarch 21-22, 2025 – Knoxville, TN – West Town MallMarch 28-29, 2025 – Chicago, IL – Woodfield MallApril 4-5, 2025 – South Bend, IN – University Park MallApril 11-12, 2025 – Boston, MA – Northshore MallApril 25-26, 2025 – Philadelphia, PA – King of PrussiaMay 2-3, 2025 – Trenton, NJ – Quaker Bridge MallMay 9-10, 2025 – Woodbridge, VA – Potomac MillsMay 16-17, 2025 – Atlanta, GA – Mall of GeorgiaMay 23-24, 2025 – Miami, FL – Dadeland MallMay 30-31, 2025 – Orlando, FL – Florida MallJune 6-7, 2025 – Garden City, NY – Roosevelt FieldJuly 18-19, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA – Ontario MillsJuly 25-26, 2025 – Anaheim, CA – Brea MallAugust 1-2, 2025 – San Jose, CA – Great MallAugust 8-9, 2025 – Mission Viejo, CA – The Shops at Mission ViejoAugust 22-23, 2025 – El Paso, TX – Cielo Vista Mall
UTA signed Mexican singer-songwriter Jasiel Nuñez. Managed by George Prajin, founder/CEO of Prajin Parlay and co-founder of Double P Records along with global superstar Peso Pluma, with whom he has a longstanding creative partnership. The Guadalajara native contributed to Peso’s 2023 album Génesis on tracks like “Laguna” and “Rosa Pastel,” the latter of which reached No. 24 on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart. In 2024, Nuñez also joined Peso on his Éxodo tour. Nuñez’s latest album, La Odisea — featuring collaborations with Luis R Conriquez, Tito Double P and Danny Lux — landed at No. 8 on Billboard‘s Top Latin Albums chart and at No. 6 on Regional Mexican Albums. “I’m excited and thankful to become part of the United Talent Agency family,” said Nuñez in a statement. “This marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter, and I’m ready to push música Mexicana to new heights.” — Isabela Raygoza
Americana music luminary Charley Crockett signed with Island Records and will release his upcoming 15th album, The Lonesome Drifter, with the label in March. In 2024, Crockett released the indie albums $10 Cowboy and $10 Cowboy Chapter II: Visions of Dallas. He is nominated for best Americana album at this year’s Grammy Awards. — Jessica Nicholson
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Alternative rock trio The Hunna (“Bonfire,” “She’s Casual”) signed with FLG, the recently launched imprint of Frontiers Label Group. According to a press release, the band has racked up more than 750 million streams since hitting the scene in 2015.
EaJ (“Car Crash”), formerly a member of the Korean rock band Day6, signed a global label deal with Position Music. Born Jae Park, eaJ is managed by Coulter Reynolds and Jerren Devine of Reynolds Management.
Metal/alt-rock singer-songwriter Violent Vira signed with Mom+Pop Music, which released her latest single, “Saccharine,” on Friday (Jan. 24) and will put out her next album later this year. Booked by CAA, Vira recently got off a 34-city tour and also played last year’s Sick New World festival.
Peso Pluma’s Double P Records added Mexican singer-songwriter Julian Mercado and legacy group Reynaldos de la Sierra to its roster. Both artists, plus newcomer Saul Villareal, will be managed by George Prajin, whose roster includes superstar Peso Pluma as well as Tito Double P, Santa Fe Klan and Gabito Ballesteros. “Double P Records is a place where artists can come to grow their careers, but also a place where they can feel at home with their family, their mentor, their manager and their friends all at once,” Peso said in a statement. Prajin added, “We are excited to be welcoming Julian, Reynaldos de la Sierra and Saul to our family. As fans of their music, we have been witnessing their drive to propel their career and are confident that with our team onboard we can help them grow even further than they ever imagined.” — Griselda Flores
Provident Entertainment/Sony Music has signed former American Idol contestant Madison Watkins to the label’s roster. Watkins, who has been making music since 2019, just released a new song, “Spin,” and is readying a new project for release in 2025. — Jessica Nicholson
Monument Records, in a joint venture with Sony Music, inked a deal with six-piece, Denver-formed band Clay Street Unit. Fronted by lead singer/guitarist Sam Walker, the group recently released the EP Introducing Clay Street Unit. — Jessica Nicholson
North Carolina-based Ramseur Management signed Americana singer-songwriter Jack Blocker, who is prepping his upcoming debut LP. The firm is led by Dolph Ramseur, long-time manager for folk band The Avett Brothers, and its roster also includes Amythyst Kiah, Big Richard and Colby T. Helms. Blockers’s day-to-day managers will be Morgan Deese Locklear and Lisette Rodriguez. — Jessica Nicholson
Nashville-based label River House Artists signed twin-brother duo The Kentucky Gentlemen to its roster. The band, composed of Brandon and Derek Campbell, has previously toured with The War and Treaty and been featured on songs by Will Hoge and Fancy Hagood. The duo recently released the song “Country Hymn.” — Jessica Nicholson
Composer Mara Keen signed with ABKCO Music & Records. Keen has contributed to film and TV projects including Netflix’s Princess Power and Scrappack Production’s Just One More Thing.