State Champ Radio Business
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A rebound in the live music business helped German concert promoter CTS Eventim improve its revenues to 694.4 million euros in the third quarter ($699.3 million at the average exchange rate in the quarter), 84% higher than the same period in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, the company announced Thursday.
Revenue increased due to contributions from pre-sales, the staging of events and higher income from currency conversion. That was offset by a reduction in COVID-19 economic aide, received as compensation for event cancellations or events with reduced capacity, of 76.8 million euros ($77.3 million) from the prior-year period.
“These excellent results are testimony to the fact that our strategic initiatives are taking us from strength to strength following the post-pandemic restart of live entertainment,” said CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg in a statement. “Even in the face of new uncertainties caused by the high level of inflation and geopolitical factors, we will maintain this proven course in order to continue to drive our profitable growth, both at home and abroad.”
The live entertainment segment’s revenue was 563 million euros ($566.9 million) in the third quarter, up 103.6 from the same period in 2019, and 1.11 billion euros ($1.11 billion) in the nine-month period, a 42% improvement. Live entertainment EBITDA was 64 million euros ($64.4 million), about triple the amount in the same period of 2019.
The ticketing segment’s revenue improved to 137 million ($138 million) in the third quarter, up 28% from the same period in 2019, and to 339 million ($341.1 million) for the nine-month period, up 10.4% from 2019. CTS Eventim sold 17.2 million tickets in the quarter and 45.1 million tickets in the nine-month period, increases of 31% and 23%, respectively, from the pre-pandemic periods in 2019.
The company’s staff, including part-time workers, grew from 2,357 a year ago to 2,956 at the end of the third quarter.
The company sounded an alarm about rising costs stemming from higher personnel costs in security, catering and stage technology “induced by an increasing shortage of specialists in the event industry and at least temporarily higher demand due to the fact that both postponed and new events are currently being held at the same time,” it explained in its earnings release. The fourth-quarter results could be hampered by rising energy prices and a possible pullback of fan spending due to inflation’s impact on household purchasing power.
Still, CTS Eventim is going to have a record year in 2022. The company expects full-year revenue of 1.7 billion euros ($1.71 billion) and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 330 million euros ($332.3 million). That would represent gains of 17.8% and 16.2% over 2019, which was a record year for CTS Eventim. The company’s tenor improved from a quarter ago, when management was unable to provide a precise forecast for 2022 “owing to uncertainty about the pandemic and the geopolitical situation going forward.”
CTS Eventim shares fell 0.3% to 56.00 euros on Thursday. Year to date, the share price is down 13%.
David Nieman was promoted to senior vp of sports & gaming at Interscope Geffen A&M Records (IGA), where he will continue to be the label’s chief liaison with the sports and gaming sectors. During his tenure, Nieman has helped forge partnerships with the NFL, ESPN, the NBA, the UFC, Barstool Sports, Bleacher Report, Epic Games, Ubisoft, 2K, Rockstar, EA, Nintendo and more. “David and his team have built our sports and gaming capabilities into a very important commercial driver for our artists,” said Interscope Geffen A&M vice chairman Steve Berman in a statement. “I am pleased to be able to offer him this expanded role as he continues to create important opportunities for our diverse array of artists.” Nieman can be reached at David.Nieman@umusic. com.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) promoted Jackie Jones to senior vp of artist & industry relations. Based in Nashville, Jones will remain the RIAA’s chief representative in the market. She reports to RIAA chief policy officer Morna Willens and can be reached at jackie.jones@riaa.com.
ASM Global promoted Alex Merchán from executive vp of marketing to CMO. He will spearhead the company’s branding and positioning across key areas including global partnerships, digital and CRM strategy, business development and advisory and investing efforts in the U.S. and internationally. Merchán can be reached at amerchan@asmglobal.com.
Bob Workman was promoted to the dual role of senior vp of international brand partnerships, Warner Music and general manager of WMX UK. In his new international role — which coincides with Warner Music’s UK brand partnerships team becoming part of the global WMX division — Workman will coordinate the work of brand partnership teams outside the U.S. and establish them in emerging markets where Warner Music operates. Workman will keep his place on the Warner Music UK senior management team to ensure close alignment between WMX and the U.K. recorded music business. He reports to WMX president Maria Weaver and will work closely with Warner Music Group president of international, recorded music Simon Robson. He’ll also be working alongside Atlantic Records U.S. chief partnerships officer Camille Hackney and Warner Records U.S. executive vp of brand partnerships and sync Claudia Butzky.
ADA Worldwide named MaryLynne Drexler head of business & legal affairs. Drexler, who arrives at the company from Sony Music’s The Orchard, will help craft ADA’s global strategy while overseeing artist and distribution deals along with acquisitions, JVs, investments, new technologies and partnerships. Also hired is Bryan Roberts, who was named vp of A&R and label acquisition. The New York-based Roberts joined ADA earlier this summer from The Orchard, where he was senior director of A&R. He will spearhead ADA’s development and growth while bringing in new talent and partners. Both Drexler and Roberts report to ADA Worldwide president Cat Kreidich.
Kazuhiro Shimada was named COO of Warner Music Japan. Joining from Amazon Music Japan where he served as director & general manager, the Tokyo-based Shimada will be responsible for the company’s daily business operations, including by leading key initiatives, while also implementing organization-wide strategies and policies. He reports to Warner Music Japan CEO Kaz Kobayashi.
Ulf Zick will return to Universal Music Germany as president of international repertoire on Jan. 1, 2023. He re-joins the label from Utopia Music, where he was hired in March as chief marketing officer. He will take over management of Universal Music International in Germany and oversee the Virgin Music Label & Artist Services operations in the country. Zick previously helmed Universal Music Germany’s international division between 2018 and March 2022.
Tizita Makuria was appointed vp of A&R at Pulse Music Group. Makuria joins the company from Artist Publishing Group (APG), where she served as senior director of A&R. Based in Los Angeles, her responsibilities will include signing and developing Pulse’s roster of artists, songwriters and producers.
Blue Raincoat Music/Chrysalis Records hired James Meadows as senior vp of marketing, Rachel Forde as campaign marketing manager and Aaron Skates as catalogue marketing manager. Meadows joins the company from BMG, where he served as head of marketing. He reports to COO Alison Wenham and CEO Jeremy Lascelles. Forde comes to Blue Raincoat/Chrysalis from Warner Music Group, where she worked at Parlophone Records. In her new role, she will oversee campaigns for Chrysalis Records releases including Emeli Sande‘s album Let’s Say For Instance and Ben Harper‘s album Bloodline Maintenance. Finally, the London-based Skates joins from indie distributor state51, where he served in marketing, A&R and production roles. At Blue Raincoat/Chrysalis, he will coordinate marketing activities for the company’s catalog release schedule while also driving engagement on key releases. He reports to Dermot James, senior vp of Chrysalis Catalogue.
RECORDS hired Jordan Sargent as director of A&R and Jeff Juin as senior vp of A&R. Sargent, a former journalist, joins from Capitol Records. Juin previously signed and developed Shordie Shordie and also signed “Whoopty” singer CJ, among other accomplishments. Sargent can be reached at jsargent@recordsco.com and Juin can be reached at jjuin@recordsco.com.
Mara Frankel was named CEO of companyX, a new brand strategy agency launched by independent music booking agency Arrival Artists and ATC Management. The agency will represent artists on both Arrival and ATC, including Santigold, Hayley Kiyoko, Yaeji, Mayer Hawthorne, David Archuleta, Khruangbin, Mt. Joy and Goose. In her new role, Frankel will oversee strategic brand partnerships for music artists across categories including name and likeness campaigns, ambassador programs, branded editorial content, paid social media, video product placement and other third-party revenue opportunities. She arrives at companyX from Atlantic Records, where she most recently served as senior creative director, brand partnerships.
Chris Schuler departed his role as vp of promotion at Arista Nashville, Billboard has confirmed. Schuler joined the company in April from Universal Music Group Nashville. During his tenure, he was responsible for developing, implementing and supervising the strategic and tactical radio promotional plans for artists on the Arista Nashville roster.
YMU appointed Mike Kadziulis as executive manager & head of radio. Based between Los Angeles and Chicago, Kadziulis joins YMU from his own artist management company Mad Ones. He brings clients Aluna, Kacy Hill and Brevin Kim with him to YMU. In the new role, he will foster the careers of his clients while bringing his marketing and radio promo experience to the wider YMU roster.
Audacy named Seema Kumar senior vp of advertising platforms. Kumar will lead the team members responsible for the tech platforms for Audacy’s revenue organization, ensuring that roadmaps and requirements are prioritized for vendors and IT ad tech engineers, aligned with ad product strategy and revenue goals and optimized to meet business operational needs. She arrives at Audacy from WarnerMedia, where she served as vp of advertising technology.
Shauni Caballero was appointed senior A&R manager at Sony Music Publishing UK. Based in London, Caballero is responsible for developing the company’s songwriters, fostering collaborations and more.
Capitol Christian Music Group promoted Karrie Dawley to senior vp of A&R (previously vp of publishing), David Gutekunst to senior vp of publishing (previously vp of church resources), Joe Brazil to senior vp of business affairs (previously vp of marketing and operations) and David Sylvester to senior vp of operations (previously head of business affairs). Dawley can be reached at karrie.dawley@umusic.com, Gutekunst can be reached at david.gutekunst@umusic.com, Brazil can be reached at joe.brazil@umusic.com and Sylvester can be reached at david.sylvester@umusic.com.
Ryan Fleming and Victoria Sou launched Disruptive Vision, a creative studio designed to provide artists with services including creative direction, apparel design and production, art direction, brand development, brand partnership strategy, experiential events, marketing strategy, photography, social media management, videography, wardrobe styling and more. Fleming can be reached at Ryan@disruptive-vision.com and Sou can be reached at Victoria@disruptive-vision.com.
Mikaela Duhs and Grace Fleisher were promoted to senior account executives at Shore Fire Media. Both were previously account executives.
A man charged with arranging the killing of Young Dolph pleaded not guilty Thursday (Nov. 18) — one year after the rapper and record label owner was ambushed and shot to death while buying cookies at a bakery in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.
Hernandez Govan, 43, made a brief appearance in Shelby County Criminal Court in Memphis. He was arrested last week after he was indicted on charges including first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the killing of the rapper, who was 36 when he died. The judge scheduled Govan’s next hearing for Dec. 16.
Govan is the third man charged in the Nov. 17, 2021, slaying of Young Dolph, whose real name was Adolph Thornton Jr. The killing in broad daylight stunned Memphis and shocked the entertainment world. Police said two men exited a white Mercedes-Benz and fired shots into Makeda’s Homemade Cookies, which is near the rapper’s boyhood home in the Castalia neighborhood. Police released photos taken from surveillance video that captured the shooting, and authorities later found the car abandoned.
Justin Johnson and Cornelius Smith Jr., have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges in the shooting and are being held in jail without bond. They are scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 20.
In a weekly newsletter, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said Govan “solicited the murder and put it in motion.” But no evidence has been made public to support that statement, and a suspected motive has not been disclosed. The investigation is ongoing.
“I know that you all are wanting details, you’re wanting facts, you’re wanting sort of answers to some of these mysteries and things like that,” prosecutor Paul Hagerman told reporters after Thursday’s hearing. “Even if we knew them, we couldn’t tell you. As a matter of ethics and our requirements under the law, we’ve got to confine ourselves to what’s made public.”
Govan’s lawyer, Bill Massey, said he was seeking the prosecution’s evidence in the case, which Massey said may not go to trial until after next year due to the amount of evidence and the number of defendants.
Known for his depictions of tough street life and his independent approach to the music business, Young Dolph was admired for charitable works in Memphis. He organized Thanksgiving turkey giveaways, donated thousands of dollars to high schools, and paid rent and covered funeral costs for people in the Castalia Heights neighborhood where he was raised.
His work as a rapper, producer and owner of the independent label Paper Route Empire took him away from Memphis, but the father of two had returned to the city days before his killing to visit a sick relative and organize a turkey giveaway that took place without him.
After Young Dolph’s death, a section of a street near his boyhood home was renamed for him. A private funeral was held and he was honored during a public celebration at FedExForum, the home of the Memphis Grizzles of the NBA and the University of Memphis men’s basketball team.
City officials and community activists also pointed to the killing as a symbol of the scourge of gun violence in Memphis. Since the rapper’s death, Memphis has seen several other high-profile killings this year, including the shooting of a United Methodist Church pastor during a carjacking in her driveway; the kidnapping and shooting of an elementary school teacher who police said was abducted during an early morning run; and a man’s daylong shooting rampage that was partially livestreamed and led to the death of three people.
Young Dolph is one of several prominent hip-hop artists to be killed in recent years. His independent approach to the music business drew comparisons to Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle, who was fatally shot in 2019. Other rappers who have lost their lives to gun violence since 2018 include XXXTentacion, Pop Smoke and, most recently, Takeoff, who was killed outside of a bowling alley after a party in Houston on Nov. 1.
In an article in The Atlantic dated Tuesday, rappers Too Short and E-40 called for the hip-hop community to find ways to come together and support each other amid the spate of gun deaths in the industry.
Young Dolph was born in Chicago and moved to Memphis with his parents when he was 2. He released numerous mixtapes, starting with 2008′s Paper Route Campaign, and multiple studio albums, including his 2016 debut King of Memphis. He also collaborated on other mixtapes and albums with fellow rappers Key Glock, Megan Thee Stallion, T.I., Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz and others.
He had three albums reach the top 10 on the Billboard 200, with 2020′s “Rich Slave” peaking at No. 4. Makeda’s, the bakery where he was shot, was boarded up and closed before it reopened in September.
Drake and 21 Savage‘s fake Vogue cover is no more.
After publisher Condé Nast hit them with a lawsuit for promoting fake cover story in the heralded magazine to market their new album, Her Loss, the rappers have “voluntarily ceased and desisted” from all uses of the Vogue cover and trademark as well as the name, image or likeness of editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and any false or misleading statements concerning the magazine to promote the album. This includes taking down all public displays of the fake cover, including online and social media posts and any physical copies. Importantly, all of those actions were required under a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge on Nov. 10 backing up the publisher’s lawsuit.
The new document, filed in New York federal court on Thursday (Nov. 17), notes that Drake and 21 Savage agreed only to take down the image “to avoid unnecessary cost and expense” while they continue to fight the case. The filing explicitly noted they were not “conceding any liability” or “wrongdoing” in the matter.
The fake Vogue cover was one of several fake promos for Her Loss, which dropped Nov. 4. These so-called deepfakes also included sham appearances by the rappers on NPR’s Tiny Desk series and The Howard Stern Show.
Though Tiny Desk greeted the stunt with good humor — even inviting the rappers to appear on the show for real — and Stern joked about the incident on his SiriusXM series, Condé Nast was less than amused. In a complaint filed Nov. 9, the publisher’s lawyers characterized the stunt as a “flagrant infringement” of the company’s trademark rights, designed to exploit the “tremendous value that a cover feature in Vogue magazine carries” without actually being granted that privilege. The suit demanded an immediate injunction forcing the rappers, along with Drake’s PR agency Hiltzik Strategies, which was named as a co-defendant, to cease all uses of the “counterfeit cover.”
On Nov. 10, the Condé Nast lawsuit was followed by a temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who ruled the fake cover was likely violating the publisher’s trademarks because Drake and 21 were “misleading consumers” and “deceiving the public.” Notably, such restraining orders are only granted to plaintiffs who are deemed likely to win their case.
One particular point of contention outlined in the complaint was an Instagram post by Drake teasing the fake cover story, in which the superstar personally thanked Wintour for the honor. In the suit, Condé Nast’s lawyers wrote that Vogue and Wintour in fact “had no involvement in Her Loss or its promotion, and have not endorsed it in any way” and that the publisher did not “authorize, much less support,” the release of “a counterfeit version of perhaps one of the most carefully curated covers in all of the publication business.”
The lawyers went on to write that the deep fake was so convincing that several media outlets reported that the cover was in fact real, adding, “The confusion among the public is unmistakable.”
As the legal drama continues to unfold, Drake and 21 Savage may argue that the fake media blitz was meant as a parody of the way media and artists work together to promote album launches; in some circumstances, laws allow for the proliferation of such spoofs without repercussion. That may be a difficult argument to make, however. As Condé Nast noted in its lawsuit, the fake Vogue issue disseminated both online and physically represented “a complete, professionally reprinted reproduction” of the magazine, with “no indication that it is anything other than the cover of an authentic Vogue issue.”
Condé Nast did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest filing.
TOKYO — This summer, the Japanese entertainment company Avex launched the seven-member girl group XG on a weekly music TV show — in South Korea, instead of Japan. The move was strategic. Rather than promote the group, which was five years in the making, at home, Avex leveraged Korea’s K-pop-rich media market to make an international splash.
It’s a prime example of the newest chapter in K-pop’s globalization: non-Korean acts tapping into the training, promotion, styles and strategies that made the genre an international success.
Korean networks’ many music programs showcase dozens of bands and live performances, which are readily available on YouTube — a key factor in K-pop’s international expansion, according to industry experts. In stark contrast, Japanese TV networks have been slow to embrace YouTube because sharing original content there often leads to unauthorized reuse. “Japanese TV shows are really inside — we can’t really reach to the global fans,” says Reina Aiguchi, a manager in Avex’s digital marketing group who works with XG. “In order to gain the global fans, we had to go on Korean TV shows.”
XG — like JO1 from Japan and boy band SB19 from the Philippines — followed the K-pop star incubation model, drawing their members from thousands of auditioning hopefuls and undergoing yearslong training regimens. Thanks to instruction from K-pop vocal coaches and choreographers, they appear to be gaining traction, accumulating millions of audio streams and YouTube views. What remains unclear, though, is whether they will lure non-Korean listeners away from Korean bands or grow the genre’s fan base by having lesser-known artists attract more listeners.
Either way, experts say the development could help boost K-pop’s long-term viability worldwide. Non-Korean K-pop bands may displease some existing fans, but this expansion evolves the genre beyond Korean pop. “If globalizing Korean acts was the model in the past, now the mindset is to create global-level groups around the world,” says Kim Young-dae, a Seoul-based music critic. “It didn’t happen overnight. This has been the goal that [the industry] has been working on for the last two decades.”
K-pop acts with members from outside Korea aren’t a new phenomenon. Starting in the 1990s, agencies recruited from the Korean diaspora and later expanded the talent pool to such key target markets as Japan and China. From Super Junior to TWICE to Aespa, bands have benefited from members who communicate with fans and media in relevant markets in their own languages.
But this latest wave of K-pop groups has no Korean members. Instead, they are working within Korea to take advantage of the know-how, distribution channels and global attention K-pop has established. They were often exposed to K-pop from childhood and see Korea as a platform for international stardom.
XG
Courtesy of XGALX
XG, for example, is produced by an agency led by Simon Jakops, a former K-pop idol who was born in the United States to Korean and Japanese parents. Avex selected XG’s members from a pool of 15,000 Japanese girls in 2017 and put them through five years of training — starting when they were ages 10 to 15 — to master hip-hop and R&B music, as well as English and Korean. They lived together in a dormitory in Tokyo and moved to Seoul during the pandemic. Singing and rapping in English — with the occasional Japanese word thrown in — the group made 14 appearances on six different Korean TV shows in June and July to promote its first two singles, “Tippy Toes” and “Mascara,” Aiguchi says. The group is marketed by XGALX, an agency overseen in Tokyo by Avex, which, in recent years, has struggled to repeat its J-pop idol successes from the 1990s and 2000s.
“We wanted to refer to K-pop and have those methods for XG,” says Yudai Hasegawa, manager for XGALX, speaking through Aiguchi’s translation. “Second is, we wanted to shoot those music videos in Korea, where they have good music video directors.” Such strategies appear to be making a difference: XG has about 700,000 subscribers on YouTube and around 600,000 on TikTok, while “Mascara” reached No. 14 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, spending 11 weeks on the chart. In addition, the group won the Rising Star award at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan in November. Comments below the group’s videoclips contain English, Bahasa (Indonesia) and Spanish, alongside Japanese.
JO1, a Japanese boy band formed from the 11 winners of the 2019 reality TV contest Produce 101 Japan, also received training in South Korea. Their music, often a collaboration between Japanese and Korean producers, is sung in Japanese with English words peppered into the mix, a K-pop formula for upping the songs’ global appeal. The members have appeared on Korean variety shows and K-pop-focused YouTube channels. (Their latest single, “SuperCali,” borrows the famous compound word from Mary Poppins.) JO1 has racked up several No. 1s on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, including “Bokura no Kisetsu” (“Our Season”), which topped the chart last December and has nearly 420 million combined views on YouTube.
Korean agencies in recent years have also launched non-Korean bands that perform K-pop-like music — notably SM Entertainment’s China-geared boy band WayV, as well as NiziU, an all-Japanese girl group from JYP Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment Japan.
After an open call for auditions beginning in 2014 involving hundreds of Filipino boys, SB19 was formed by ShowBT Philippines, a subsidiary of Korean agency ShowBT Group. The five-member boy band, which sings in English and Tagalog, trained in South Korea for three years before signing with Sony Music Philippines in December of 2019. They recently have begun cracking the Billboard charts and touring overseas, including a show at Los Angeles’ Avalon nightclub this past Saturday (Nov. 12). “They’ve really raised the bar, the Koreans,” Roslyn Pineda, general manager, Sony Music Entertainment Philippines, said in September. “Number one is the discipline” SB19 members learned in Korea, which led to a “sharpness of [dance] movements…that doesn’t lie,” she says.
“We can’t deny the K-pop influence [on JO1],” says Choi Shin-hwa, CEO of Lapone Entertainment, a joint venture between entertainment conglomerates CJ ENM of South Korea and Yoshimoto Kogyo of Japan that produces JO1. He doesn’t describe Lapone artists as K-pop, but rather envisions “a new genre that is a hybrid of K-pop and Japanese culture.”
In an interview in Tokyo, some members of JO1 told Billboard they grew up listening to K-pop CDs from boy band TVXQ and pop rock band CNBLUE, which their respective mothers, as fans, had played around the house. The members nervously denied they were already stars. “We keep on working with the hopes of catching up with all the awesome K-pop artists who are active today,” says member Issei Mamehara.
Additional reporting by Alexei Barrionuevo
How did Taylor Swift‘s 2023 Eras tour presale turn so calamitous? Ticketmaster service delays and website crashes outraged fans trying to buy tickets to the superstar’s 2023 tour this week, causing widespread outcry and condemnation for the ticket service as high up as Congress. And, finally, on Thursday (Nov. 17), company officials announced they had decided to cancel the general ticket sale scheduled for Friday — blaming a surge of unregistered fans and billions of bots for the failure.
Fans already bought up more than 90% of the ticketing inventory on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Ticketmaster, breaking the record Tuesday for the most tickets ever sold in a single day by a touring artist at 2 million. But with that success came catastrophe. More than 3.5 million fans registered for the chance to buy Swift tickets, and 1.5 million were invited to participate in Tuesday’s ticket sale for a crack at seats on the 52-date tour. Company officials say, however, it wasn’t pre-registered fans buying tickets who caused the crash on Tuesday, but that tens of millions of uninvited fans and billions of bots trying to access the sale early were to blame.
A Wednesday presale for Capital One card holders again brought a second unreported massive traffic of traffic to the site, as millions of fans — most without presale codes or an invitation — again tried to flood the presale meant only for a few hundred thousand card holders.
With little inventory left and even bigger crowds expected Friday, on Thursday Ticketmaster and Swift’s team decided to cancel the final onsale. It’s unclear how the remaining ticketing inventory will be distributed or sold. Meanwhile, the bad press has brought unwanted attention to the ticket giant.
Earlier Thursday, in an open letter to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, argued that “Ticketmaster’s power in the primary ticket market insulates it from the competitive pressures that typically push companies to innovate and improve their services,” resulting in “dramatic service failures,” like the crash of Tuesday’s Taylor Swift sale.
Hours after the letter surfaced, Ticketmaster published a blog on its website offering an in-depth explanation of what caused the Swift presale to crash. Ticketmaster’s explanation for the crash — that it misjudged demand for presale tickets and was ill-prepared for the millions of fans that tried to log in — is not likely to satisfy Klobuchar and the bi-partisan criticism that the company is cutting corners due to it’s massive marketshare in the concert space.
According to Ticketmaster, about 3.5 million fans pre-registered for Taylor’s Verified Fan program — “the largest registration in history,” the company’s blog claims. The huge amount of demand “informed the artist team’s decision to add additional dates” to Taylor Swift’s Eras tour earlier this month, increasing the number of shows on sale from 26 to 52 stadium shows — 47 of which would be ticketed by Ticketmaster.
Despite doubling the number of shows that it was now selling tickets for, Ticketmaster didn’t increase the window of time it would need to process the large uptick in volume. That meant that instead of having 11 East Coast shows go on sale at the same time (10 a.m. EST), Ticketmaster was now putting 21 shows on sales at once.
Making matters worse, far more people showed up to buy tickets than was expected. On Monday night, the day before the presale, Ticketmaster sent out invitations to 1.5 million fans who had signed up for the presale with instruction on how to purchase tickets. “Historically, around 40% of invited fans actually show up and buy tickets,” according to Ticketmaster’s blog post, meaning Ticketmaster was only expecting about 600,000 people to actually try to log in. Not only did far more invitees show up, millions more uninvited guests tried to crash the party. Ticketmaster estimates that with uninvited guests and massive armies of bots, about 3.5 billion requests were made requesting access to the presale, causing the system to meltdown.
Company officials ended up having to do what they probably should have done in the first place — pushing back the remaining sales to give the Ticketmaster team more time to deal with the traffic issues and high demand. About 15% of fans attempting to buy Swift tickets experienced some type of disruption while trying to buy tickets or were unable to do so because of the site crash, according to the Ticketmaster blog. Still, the company did sell more than 2 million tickets that day — the most ever sold for a single artist in a day — and Ticketmaster has agreed to not allow Swift tickets to be sold on any of the secondary resale sites it controls, restricting markups to fans on its service.
A Georgia judge on Thursday (Nov. 17) refused to delay the closely-watched criminal case against Young Thug, Gunna and others accused of participating in an Atlanta gang, rejecting calls from prosecutors to move the start of the trial from January to March.
Prosecutors sought the delay — from Jan. 9 to Mar. 27 — on the grounds that some of the 28 defendants in the case still lacked court-appointed attorneys. But with Young Thug, Gunna and many others stuck in jail until trial, defense lawyers opposed efforts to push back the proceedings.
At a hearing on Thursday, Fulton County Judge Ural Glanville denied the government’s motion to delay the trial, court documents show, and set jury selection to begin on Jan. 5.
Both Young Thug (Jeffery Williams) and Gunna (real name Sergio Kitchens) were indicted in May, along with dozens of others, on accusations that their group YSL was not really a record label called “Young Stoner Life,” but a violent Atlanta street gang called “Young Slime Life.” The charges include allegations of murder, carjacking, armed robbery, drug dealing and illegal firearm possession over the past decade.
The two stars, who strongly deny the charges, have both repeatedly sought to be released on bond ahead of their trials. But both have been refused on multiple occasions, largely because prosecutors have warned that they might threaten witnesses or otherwise obstruct the case. More than 20 other defendants have also been refused bond, meaning they’re also stuck in jail until trial.
The case is built around Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a state law based on the more famous federal RICO statute that’s been used to target the mafia, drug cartels and other forms of organized crime. Such laws make it easier for prosecutors to sweep up many members of an alleged criminal conspiracy (in this case, 28 total) based on many smaller acts that aren’t directly related.
But indicting that many people in a single case has apparently led to a shortage of court-appointed defense attorneys. In an Oct. 6 court filing, prosecutors asked to push the trial back by nearly three months, arguing that eight defendants still lacked lawyers and that any attorney retained after that point could not “properly prepare” for a January trial.
But that request did not sit well with Young Thug’s lawyers, who said it was prosecutors’ own fault for not preparing more public defense counsel before handing down such sweeping indictments – and “disingenuous” to now argue that a delay was needed.
“It is unjust that Mr. Williams rots in the county jail and … is being required to wait on the appointment of counsel for co-indictees,” the rapper’s lawyer, Brian Steel, wrote in an Oct. 10 filing that also renewed the rapper’s request to be released ahead of trial. “It has been too long to leave a human being in custody without trial, without discovery, without the statutory right to a speedy trial and without bond.”
Beyond indicting two of rap’s biggest stars and leaving them in prison to await trial, the YSL case has also made waves because it cited their lyrics as supposed evidence of their crimes — a controversial practice that critics say unfairly sways juries and injects racial bias into the courtroom. California recently banned the tactic in that state, but Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has strongly defended using it against Young Thug and Gunna.
R. Kelly’s former manager was sentenced Thursday to 20 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he stalked one of Kelly’s sexual abuse victims in an effort to keep her silent.
Donnell Russell pleaded guilty in July to using threats, harassment and intimidation to silence one of the women abused by Kelly, who was convicted last year on sex trafficking and racketeering charges and sentenced to 30 years in prison in June.
Ahead of his sentencing, Russell’s lawyers argued he should receive only probation, arguing he’d led an “otherwise exemplary life” before “crossing the line in his attempts to curry favor with Robert Kelly.”
But prosecutors strongly disagreed, citing dozens of prior arrests and calling his conduct “abhorrent.” They asked for 24 to 30 months, saying it was needed to deter such behavior: “If victims are concerned that this type of conduct will not be adequately punished, it could chill victims from pursuing legal remedies and from cooperating with law enforcement investigations.”
Following Thursday’s sentencing, Russell’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment from Billboard.
Prosecutors say Russell, a self-described manager, advisor and friend to Kelly, used “reprehensible” tactics against the unnamed victim after she filed a civil lawsuit against the singer in 2018. They included sending threatening messages to the woman and her mother, and then publishing explicit photos of her on the internet.
“Just a sample. We will seek criminal charges. You’ve been warned,” Russell wrote in a December 2018 message to the victim and her mother, referring to the nude images.
Separate from the stalking charges, Russell was also convicted in July of making a phone threat that gunfire was about to occur at a crowded Manhattan theater that was preparing for a premiere of Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly series. The phone threat prompted a call to police and an evacuation that forced the premier to be canceled.
Russell awaits sentencing next week on those charges.
LONDON — More people around the globe are listening to licensed music services than ever before, but piracy continues to have a harmful impact on creators’ careers, according to a new report from international trade body IFPI measuring global consumption and listening habits.
IFPI’s “Engaging with Music 2022” study reveals that music consumers are spending on average 20.1 hours listening to music weekly, a 9% increase from 18.4 hours in 2021.
The London-based organization found that 46% of the 44,000-plus music fans it surveyed for the report listen to their favorite artists through a premium subscription streaming service such as Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music, either using their personal subscription or via a shared account. That number rises to 74% when ad-supported music streaming is factored in alongside paid subscriptions.
Those streaming service numbers are slightly down from IFPI’s 2021 figures — when about 47% of respondents used a paid subscription service and 78% of people said they used either ad-supported or paid streaming – but IFPI says any decreases are the result of a change in accounting methodology, rather than a drop in real terms.
In this year’s report, the adoption of subscription streaming services is highest among younger listeners, with 54% of 16–24-year-olds and 56% of 25-34-year-olds surveyed saying they use subscription music platforms. Usage drops to 26% in the 55-64-year-old age bracket.
The top five countries where people spent the most time listening to music through a subscription streaming service were Sweden (56% of people surveyed), the United Kingdom (52%), the U.S. (51%), Germany (51%) and Mexico (50%). (Overall, IFPI reports a 10% rise in time spent listening to music on paid streaming services compared to the prior year.)
The IFPI report was compiled by surveying internet users aged 16-64 between June and September across 22 countries, including the United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Brazil, Canada and Mexico. Collectively, these markets accounted for more than 89% of global recorded music revenues in 2021, according to this year’s IFPI Global Music Report.
Writing in the study’s foreword, IFPI chief executive Frances Moore says the report’s findings show “how music engagement is thriving, driven by new genres [and] new formats,” as well as the global value of music, “and the need to protect and support it.”
Video-Based Music Consumption Dominates
Of those surveyed in the “Engaging with Music 2022” report, more than three-quarters say they consume music in multiple formats. On average, people use more than six different methods to engage with music, the most popular being video streaming, says IFPI.
Of the people surveyed, 82% said they regularly consume music through video streaming services like YouTube. Audio streaming was the second most popular listening format, followed by radio listening, and then short-form video formats such as TikTok. Meanwhile, 32% of respondents said they had watched a music concert livestream in the last month with more than half (58%) having recently watched a music-focused TV show or film.
Driven by the huge global popularity of TikTok, which says it has over one billion monthly active users, half of those surveyed said they use short-form video apps with 63% of respondents saying music is a key factor in choosing what content they consume on the platforms. South Africa and Mexico were the countries with the highest percentage of short-form video app users (both 78%), followed by Brazil (71%) and Argentina (66%), reports IFPI.
Pop was named as the most popular music genre globally, followed by rock, hip-hop/rap, dance/electronic, and Latin. When it comes to physical music, 12% of the people surveyed had bought a CD within a month of submitting their responses and 8% had purchased a vinyl record.
Survey data from China and India is not included in the main report’s global figures because IFPI says the size of the countries would have a “considerable impact on the weighted average figures used.” The listening study contains separate reports looking at music consumption in China, India, Indonesia and Nigeria. Results from Indonesia and Nigeria were also not included in the global round up as they were included in the survey for the first time this year.
In China, 96% of people surveyed use licensed music streaming services with 94% using short form video platforms. In India, 88% of respondents use music streaming services with 65% consuming short-form video.
Despite the growth in global music listening, the availability of unlicensed repertoire continues to pose a serious threat to the future health of the record industry, says IFPI. It found that almost one in three respondents (30%) admitted to using unauthorized or unlicensed methods to listen to or download music.
Stream-ripping sites remain the most popular way for consumers to access copyright-infringing music, IFPI found, with 40% of 16-24-year-olds confessing to using them. Almost one in five people (17%) said they had used an unlicensed mobile app to illegally download music.
Responding to its findings, Moore said IFPI will continue to fight against all forms of music piracy “to ensure that those seeking to profit from unlicensed and unauthorized music cannot threaten the vibrancy of a music ecosystem that is essential to artists and fans.”
Singer-songwriter Megan Moroney has inked a label deal with Sony Music Nashville and Columbia Records. During her opening performance slot for Warren Zeiders: The Up to No Good Tour on Wednesday evening (Nov. 16) at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, Moroney announced her label signing, and also told the audience that her song “Tennessee Orange” will be sent to country radio.
According to Moroney’s manager, Punch Bowl Entertainment’s Juli Griffith, Moroney and her team were in talks with 18 record labels before signing with Sony Music Nashville and the NYC-based Columbia.
“We picked this combination because they understand exactly who Megan is and what she has already created,” Griffith tells Billboard. “Their plan is to come in and enhance what we are already doing under her creative vision.”
Moroney’s “Tennessee Orange” made its Billboard Hot 100 debut in October, entering the chart at No. 94. The song is currently at No. 19 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Moroney wrote “Tennessee Orange” with Ben Williams, David Fanning and Paul Jenkins, with production from Kristian Bush. Moroney released her six-song EP Pistol Made of Roses in July.
A portion of the early appeal of “Tennessee Orange” lies in its backstory, with many fans believing Moroney wrote it about country singer-songwriter Morgan Wallen. In the song, Savannah, Georgia, native Moroney sings of being a University of Georgia fan (Moroney’s alma mater), but she is so besotted with a love interest that she is even willing to wear the University of Tennessee’s trademark orange color (Wallen is a UT fan).
In addition to her new label deal, Moroney’s team includes Griffith’s Punch Bowl Entertainment for management, as well as UTA booking agent Elisa Vazzana, and tour manager Alexandra Kolea.
“We are so happy to have built what we did with a small group of four amazing women (Team Lasso as we call ourselves). The time has come that we need to expand, and we are thankful to have been able to hand pick an amazing team to help us go forward in this journey,” Griffith adds.
