State Champ Radio Business
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3LAU is facing a new lawsuit that claims the DJ refused to properly share the earnings from an $11 million NFT auction with a musical collaborator who co-authored one of the songs involved.
In a complaint filed Wednesday (Nov. 9) in New York federal court, Luna Aura (real name Angela Anne Flores) says she has a 50% royalty stake in the song “Walk Away” from his album Ultraviolet — but that 3LAU (real name Justin Blau) offered her just $25,000 from the much-publicized NFT auction tied to the record.
“Despite this financial windfall, defendants only offered Luna Aura a flat one-time payment of twenty-five thousand dollars as compensation in connection with the sale of Ultraviolet and ‘Walk Away’ NFTs,” her lawyers wrote.
Even during last year’s fever-dream craze for NFTs (non-fungible tokens), 3LAU’s Feb. 2021 auction stood out as notable. By selling 33 collectible tokens linked to his 3-year-old album Ultraviolet — the NFTs gave the buyers access to vinyl copies, unreleased music and other special experiences — the DJ-producer raked in $11.7 million. “It was one of those moments in my life where I was like, ‘Holy s—,’” 3LAU told Billboard at the time. “‘I think we just changed everything.’”
But according to Aura’s new lawsuit, he didn’t share those profits with a key person who helped create the album. She says the auction was done without any notice to her, and that the sale breached her 2017 agreement with Blau, which guaranteed her a 50 percent publishing royalty on “Walk Away.”
“Luna Aura has not received any compensation from revenues generated from the NFT project, nor has Luna Aura [received] appropriate credit in connection with the ‘Walk Away’ and Ultraviolet NFTs,” her lawyers wrote. “Despite the commercial and financial success of the NFT auction, defendants only offered Luna Aura an after-the-fact, one-time payment.”
The lawsuit did not specify how much Aura believes is an appropriate cut from the Ultraviolet NFTs but demanded an accounting to determine how much is owed.
A representative for 3LAU did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday.
U.S. radio companies aren’t exactly struggling through post-pandemic recoveries, but economic conditions are preventing a stronger comeback.
The earnings releases of four U.S.-based, publicly traded radio companies – iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media, Audacy and Townsquare Media – reveal an industry in flux. While the music streaming and satellite radio businesses enjoy some security from subscription-based models that can withstand economic upheaval, the radio industry depends on advertising dollars that can fluctuate greatly. Ongoing economic problems caused some advertisers to pull back in the third quarter and cloud radio’s future.
According to Cumulus Media CEO Mary Berner, “starting in late Q2, national advertisers reduced marketing to mitigate the headwinds they face from inflationary pressures, persistent supply chain issues, finance, market turmoil and overall recession risks,” she explained during the company’s Oct. 28 earnings call. Collectively, the macroeconomic pressures resulted in a decline in broadcast revenues of roughly 5% in the third quarter, said Berner, and was the “main driver” in the company’s 2% decline in total revenue to $233.5 million.
iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman lamented during the company’s Nov. 3 earnings call that the business “doesn’t have the robustness that we expected.” Still, iHeartMedia, the country’s largest radio company, landed at the high end of its revenue guidance with total revenue of $989 million, up 7% from the prior-year period. Revenue of its multi-platform group — which includes broadcast radio — was $659.0 million, up 0.1% year-over-year, with the help of political advertising. “This will be the best non-presidential political year that we’ve had,” said president, COO and CFO Rich Bressler.
Townsquare Media’s third-quarter revenue of $120.6 million came in at the low end of its guidance range — $120 million to $127 million — and its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of $30.9 million hit the midpoint of its guidance range of $30 million to $32 million.
Audacy was hurt by advertisers’ pullback in the third quarter. Revenue dropped 3.8% to $317 million, and radio revenues dropped 6%, due to “a substantial deterioration of market conditions,” president and CEO David Field said on the company’s Tuesday (Nov. 8) earnings call. “This has obviously taken a toll on our EBITDA and [debt] leverage and has raised concerns.”
Digital remains radio companies’ growth engines. S&P Global Market Intelligence forecasts radio digital revenues to climb 4.8% next year. iHeartMedia’s digital audio segment, which includes its podcasting business, grew 23.4% year-over-year to $254 million in the third quarter. That accounted for 26% of the company’s consolidated revenue, up from 12% in the first quarter of 2020. Podcasting revenue alone accounted for $91.3 million, up 42.1% year-over-year. At Cumulus, digital revenue growth of 20% far outstripped overall revenue growth of 5% in the third quarter. Within its digital segment, podcasting revenue grew 27% year-over-year. Townsquare Media’s digital revenue increased 17%, accounting for half of total revenues, and helped the company set records for third-quarter net revenue and adjusted EBITDA.
Radio companies have taken measures to weather financial uncertainty that will extend into 2023. Cost-cutting remains popular after companies sharply reduced expenses in 2020. IHeartMedia saved about $250 million from 2020 to 2021 — a reduction of historical annualized cost base of about 10% — and targeted an additional $75 million of annual savings this year, said Bressler. Cumulus is “on track to be more than $75 million below the 2019 baseline” of fixed costs, said Berner. Audacy added to its cash reserves by selling real estate worth $56 million in the third quarter and has plans for additional sales.
S&P Global Market Intelligence expects radio local spot advertising to improve by 3% and national ad revenues to grow 1.5%, both down significantly from 2022 growth levels. Solomon Partners estimates 0.8% audio ad spending growth in 2023 based on major advertising agency forecasts from Dentsu, GroupM, Zenith and Magna.
Whatever happens in 2023, radio companies are better prepared than they were for the pandemic in 2020. That downturn “was probably the swiftest and worst downturn I’ve ever lived through,” said iHeartMedia’s Pittman. “And even in that year we had positive free cash flow.”
Still, economic pressures have weighed heavily on radio companies’ share prices. Barrington lowered its price target for iHeartMedia shares from $18 to $13 in an investor note issued Monday. iHeartMedia shares fell 15.1% over Tuesday and Wednesday, to $6.61. Year to date, iHeartMedia shares are down 68.6%.
Shares of Cumulus Media rose 8.9% following its third-quarter earnings release on Oct. 28 — although the stock gave back those gains and more over the next week and a half. As of Wednesday, Cumulus shares are down a relatively mild 38.7% year-to-date. Investors pushed up the share price 39.9% on April 14 on news of a takeover bid by a consortium led by radio veteran Jeff Warshaw. Cumulus rejected the offer and instead offered shareholders a $50 million stock repurchase program. In June, Cumulus spent $25 million to purchase 1.7 million shares, or 8.7% of outstanding Class A shares.
Audacy shares fell 6.3% to $0.298 on Wednesday following the company’s third-quarter earnings release, bringing the year-to-date decline to 88.3%. Audacy shares were trading at $0.59 per share on Aug. 1 when the company was notified by the New York Stock Exchange that it was not in compliance with a listing standard that requires a minimum closing price of $1 over 30 consecutive trading days.
Ghazi believes some stories are “better told in rewind than forward.” How EMPIRE — the independent label, distributor and publisher that he established in 2010 — acquired Dirtybird is one of them.
On October 20, EMPIRE announced its acquisition of Claude VonStroke’s stalwart dance imprint, which has nurtured an inimitable, off-kilter brand of house and techno since its 2005 launch.
Under the agreement, EMPIRE obtains ownership of Dirtybird’s back catalog and all future releases, for which EMPIRE will now handle distribution and publishing. The deal — representing EMPIRE’s first stride into the dance/electronic space — includes Dirtybird’s clothing and Web3 assets, excluding only Dirtybird’s live events and festival brands. These rights are retained by Dirtybird CEO VonStroke, known by his given name Barclay Crenshaw, who will also continue to A&R Dirtybird and direct creative for its apparel line. (The rights to Dirtybird’s live events and festival brands were not a part of the negotiations. “I told Barclay early on, ‘We’re not an events company at this time — I think [the events are] better served to stay under your umbrella than under ours,’” Ghazi tells Billboard.)
Though negotiations between Ghazi and Crenshaw’s respective San Francisco-based multihyphenates started in October of 2021, Dirtybird’s appeal was apparent much earlier, according to Moody Jones, EMPIRE’s Senior Vice President of Digital & Creative, who will lead its dance/electronic department.
As the story goes, well before he accepted a role as EMPIRE’s Digital Marketing Director in 2018 — a move that propelled him from Canada to California’s Bay Area — Jones began producing his own music. In 2007, he went to a Toronto event where Crenshaw played an opening set as Barclay Crenshaw, his hip-hop-centric artist project that predated his launch of the Claude VonStroke moniker in 2006. There, Jones first met Crenshaw. Five years later in Montreal, Jones played the first-ever Dirtybird BBQ.
Over the years, one slot at a Dirtybird event begat another for Jones, who along the way formed a professional relationship with Crenshaw, his wife Aundy Caldwell Crenshaw (who serves as Dirtybird’s Chief Operating Officer) and the sprawling Dirtybird collective at large. A friend of the brand with an ear for Dirtybird’s idiosyncratic sound and an eye for business solutions, Jones assisted the Crenshaws with advising, consulting, marketing and artist promotion. Their early collaboration — coupled with Jones’ newfound proximity to Dirtybird HQ and his continued closeness with the Dirtybird crew — organically created the circumstances that would underscore the now-17-year-old brand as a complementary fit for EMPIRE and later aid its acquisition.
“I was very interested in their business model,” says Jones. “When we were out, I’d always ask questions and they’d always ask me for advice on how things are done on our end. The conversation started shifting from being about marketing to being about operating and scaling. I’d learned so much from being around Ghazi that a lot of the things I started saying [about EMPIRE] seemed like competitive advantages to Dirtybird. We [the Crenshaws] began talking about Dirtybird and what it would take to scale it.”
Thus, when Ghazi expressed interest in expanding EMPIRE’s hip-hop-concentrated scope to include dance/electronic, Dirtybird emerged as a natural fit.
Jones highlighted the similarities of the cultures within Dirtybird and EMPIRE, Ghazi’s own homegrown business — which has been responsible for several Billboard Hot 100 hits and key releases that have raised the profiles of hip-hop mainstays like Kendrick Lamar and Anderson .Paak. Armed with proprietary software that enables EMPIRE to distribute its music to digital streaming platforms, the hip-hop stronghold has increasingly expanded its sonic purview, venturing into Afropop and Afrobeats, country, Latin, R&B, and now, dance/electronic.
“He [Jones] jumped into my office and he said, ‘Hey, what do you think about buying Dirtybird?’ And I basically responded, ‘Why not? That would be a great acquisition for us, a San Francisco company,’” says Ghazi. “And he proceeded to tell me that there might be a synergy and a possibility for us to make the acquisition.”
“Aundy and I spoke to several companies in this process,” Crenshaw tells Billboard of the deal. “EMPIRE was always the best fit, simply because Ghazi understands the value of our brand name. We kept every single employee from top to bottom, and I still run the label with Deron Delgado and our killer team. I have also been friends with Moody Jones for years and years, so it was very reassuring that he was spearheading the dance division.”
“Tons of buyers just wanted to analyze the catalog and look at pure math,” Crenshaw continues. “I’ve never been a math guy; I’m a vibes guy. Dirtybird means something special to its fans, and that is why it’s one of maybe one or two U.S.A. house brands that everyone recognizes by name. Ghazi and Moody understand that, and I think we are going to have even more fun in our new home.”
Ghazi and Jones declined to disclose financial details of the acquisition to Billboard, but expounded on their motivations for bringing Dirtybird to roost at EMPIRE.
There are a number of independent dance labels that EMPIRE might have considered acquiring. Beyond the personal association, why Dirtybird?
Jones: I don’t know if Ghazi would’ve even considered Dirtybird [if not for my suggestion]. I was at Dirtybird Campout West Coast 2021 with Nima [Etminan, also of EMPIRE], and we saw the culture, the fanbase, the loyalty, the energy, and we knew it had a synergy. I saw them being hands-on with everything.
Our company is very culture-driven. Having an impact on culture is one of the pillars for us, and being a Bay Area company meant so much to us. We wanted to move into dancefloors a little bit stronger, and I can’t think of another company that would’ve complemented us the way Dirtybird does. There’s no other company that crossed every one of those boxes for us.
And when Ghazi sat down with Barclay and Aundy and got to meet her, knowing the people behind the company and how hard they work, it [was clear that it] really was their blood, sweat, and tears that put Dirtybird together. That meant a lot to us. Family is a big thing for us, and Dirtybird is literally their family business. Luckily, we [Barclay and Aundy] had built a relationship a long time ago — and honestly, life just came full circle.
Ghazi: It was a perfect fit. Our core DNA has always been hip-hop, and Barclay had a really strong affinity for hip-hop, so there were a lot of synergies between what Dirtybird was doing primarily as a dance company, and what we have historically done as a hip-hop company that’s moved into all these other verticals — like Afrobeat, Latin, R&B, and things of that nature.
I saw that there would be this holistic approach to music. You could just see it all blend together, merge into one, and be really impactful, because it makes all the sense in the world to have a dance department or a dance arm in a company like ours. We have tons of hit records that deserve to have dance remixes and dance mixes in general, and that goes beyond even just the core of what Dirtybird has already accomplished on their own.
So, for me, the initial thought process in the very beginning was like, “Oh cool, we could have a remix arm.” And then I got to spend time with Barclay and see the festivals, the culture, and everything else, and I was like, “Yo, this is a no-brainer. These guys, through and through, mean to the dance world what I think EMPIRE means to the hip-hop space.”
Naturally, it sounds like there will be an increase in the amount of hip-hop sound on Dirtybird given EMPIRE’s strength in this domain.
Jones: If you look at the sound that Dirtybird has embodied over the last three years, you’ll notice that it’s changed so much compared to the Dirtybird sound that we had early on. They’re moving into drum ‘n’ bass, they’re doing a lot more garage, and they’re doing a lot more experimental. And Barclay Crenshaw [the artist project] is more hip-hop-leaning than electronic, so I think Dirtybird will continue to be experimental. We’re going to continue to push the boundaries of electronic music, but I think now, we’re going to be able to equip Dirtybird with the ability to work with more hip-hop artists and work in different territories to push the sound to even more regions.
Outside of hip-hop, are there any other genres that you’d like to see Dirtybird work with to a greater degree?
Ghazi: Definitely a lot of the African music [Afropop/Afrobeats] that we’re doing at EMPIRE, 100%.
Given that Barclay will continue to A&R Dirtybird, you’ll be working together to advance these sounds. What do you hope this relationship will look like?
Ghazi: We’re hoping to continue letting Dirtybird do what they do best, but on top of that, increasing the volume and variety of releases that they’re doing, and giving them the tools and resources that they need to go even further. In the past, they did a few albums per year. We want to increase that number significantly, and we want to be able to give them more music videos — whatever types of tools and resources other genres have been accustomed to. We want to bring those to dance to give dance the same spotlight other genres have.
Looking ahead, what is the value of the Dirtybird catalog going forward?
Ghazi: Definitely in syncs, stems, derivative works, physical like vinyls and merch, and emerging territories where the music might not have even touched yet. I don’t know the whereabouts of the previous distributor’s reach, but we have a very far reach, so we’ll make sure that the music is in every nook and cranny in every part of the world.
Jones: It’s also in the re-releasing of a lot of products. I think a lot of the Dirtybird sound was ahead of its time, and I think a lot of these albums and singles can resurface again and be repackaged and delivered to an audience that is ready for it today that might not necessarily have been ready for it back then. Plus, there are a lot of [digital-only] releases that might have [worked well on] vinyl.
EMPIRE is a strong proponent of artist empowerment. What are some of the resources at EMPIRE that will help empower Dirtybird artists in ways that might not have been previously possible?
Ghazi: We have a huge facility in San Francisco where we do a lot of creative work. We just did a writing camp there a few months back for an African album we’re about to release. I would love to be able to do writing camps in the dance space, and I would love to increase the output of music videos with both our in-house video staff and the resources and the relationships that we have across the video sphere in the marketplace.
Additionally, more strategic marketing, more digital marketing, and greater transparency on analytics — because we are a supply chain distribution company by design, so I think empowering the artists with analytics and information is going to give them greater insight into how to market their music. We’re a very powerful marketing company, and there could be a momentous shift onward and upward for the Dirtybird side of the company and for dance as a whole for EMPIRE.
Jones: One of the last things we’re working on — and I don’t want to give away too much too soon — [is changing the nature of label deals in dance music]. One of the things I’ve noticed is that a lot of genres [have changed] in terms of the deals that labels have with artists, and I feel dance is one of the very last ones to make that change and have more transparency in deals and give better splits.
With the aid of EMPIRE, I think we can help revolutionize the whole dance scene — not just Dirtybird — by bringing this sound onto all the digital streaming platforms, and giving artists more favorable deals. I think [the deals] are a reason why, in the past, a lot of artists haven’t been loyal to their labels. You know, when every release is with a different label. But I think we can help revolutionize that and build a proper dance culture with the artists as well.
Thundercat‘s “Them Changes” is steeped in funk history, with drums that nod to The Isley Brothers‘ “Footsteps in the Dark,” stutter-stepping at 82 beats per minute, and a wobbling bass line. On Sept. 22, the TikTok account Ezzsounds posted a simple remix of the track, pushing the tempo until the song catches the jitters. This new version was a world away from the slow-and-low original — at 114 beats per minute, it’s like a train threatening to jump the tracks. TikTokers loved it.
“By the next Monday, we had already seen the streams double,” says Will Slattery, vp of North American marketing operations for the independent label Ninja Tune. The company sent an official sped-up rendition of “Them Changes” to streaming services and worked with marketing companies to increase the new version’s exposure on TikTok. The single cracked Billboard‘s Hot R&B Songs chart in October, a first for Thundercat as a lead artist.
“Sped-up tracks feel like a thing, but I was not expecting it to happen to Thundercat,” says Josh Berman, who leads marketing efforts for the artist’s management company, Really Happening. “I’ve seen trends happen and they’re gone in 72 hours. We’re really blessed that this one’s still going.”
Sped-up versions of songs, especially older ones, have thrived on TikTok for years — Cafuné’s “Tek It,” Demi Lovato‘s “Cool for the Summer,” Ellie Goulding‘s “Lights,” Sam Smith‘s “I’m Not the Only One,” and Nelly Furtado‘s “Say It Right,” for example, all enjoyed streaming bumps thanks to the success of uptempo reworks. This style now appears to be on the verge of reaching a new level of mainstream exposure. “Sped up songs are becoming insanely popular,” says Tyler Blatchley, co-founder of the label Black 17 Media, which has producers working on pell-mell renditions of many major-label tracks.
“Back in the day, we used club remixes to diversify the visibility of a record,” explains Nima Nasseri, global head of A&R strategy for Universal Music Group’s music strategy and tactics team. “The purpose was to bring back visibility to the main version. Now people are discovering the main version from the sped-up or slowed one. Instead of spending $50,000 for a remix from a big-name DJ, you’re spending relatively minimal amounts [on a sped-up rendition] and getting much more return and reach.”
“These remixes have been a thing for a while,” adds 20-year-old Tristan Olsen (xxtristanxo on TikTok), who has amassed more than 3 million followers on the app with videos of him playing tempo-shifted edits, usually in a red-lit room, while sporting dark sunglasses. Happily for him, “the industry is catching up now.”
It’s easy to survey TikTok or scan streaming charts and conclude that songs which zip along at a breakneck pace are popular on the app. It’s much harder to explain why.
The genre known as nightcore, which also centers on music that’s sped up and pitched up, was popular long before the debut of TikTok. Nightcore eventually filtered into the PC Music scene, which spawned artists like SOPHIE and A.G. Cook, who went on to work with pop stars (Charli XCX, Madonna). But its hit-making power was negligible compared to TikTok’s sped-up song ecosystem.
Steven Pardo, digital marketing director at Secretly Group, believes that “in a video platform that prioritizes catching attention immediately, being able to get the impact of the lyrics across more quickly is advantageous.” On top of that, “dancers [on TikTok] love the chipmunk versions” of songs, according to Kuya Magik, a producer and DJ with more than 11 million TikTok followers.
Part of TikTok’s power also stems from the way it makes room for users to fiddle with songs and upload their versions of popular sounds, changing the stakes of fan engagement. “We’re seeing in consumer surveys how much Gen Z wants to actively participate in music,” notes Tatiana Cirisano, an analyst at MIDiA Research and former Billboard reporter. “They don’t just listen and consume passively; they make their own videos, remix the song.”
This ethos doesn’t only impact TikTok through sped-up tracks. The platform is awash in “sped-up versions, slowed-down versions, clap-track versions, versions that are super heavy on reverb, like turned-all-the-way-up-to-11 kind of sh–,” says Johnny Cloherty, co-founder of the digital marketing company Songfluencer. “Everyone’s experimenting with this stuff.” Jacob Byrnes, director of creator relations and content strategy for Universal Music Group’s music strategy and tactics team, recently had a meeting with a TikTok marketing company that informed him that 80% of the top 100 sounds on the app were tempo-altered; some sprint, while others crawl. (A rep for TikTok declined to comment.)
There are a number of popular TikTok pages that specialize in this material — not only KuyaMagik and xxtristanxo, but also Itsjovynn (9.7 million followers), Spxedupsongs (5 million followers), Speedysongs (2.7 million followers), and Bestspedup (2 million followers). Now artists and labels are paying some the creators in this niche to edit their tracks, seeking to harness their promotional firepower; these accounts seem to have captured some of the king-making abilities once reserved for top influencers like Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae.
While some of these pages post remixes along with eye-catching visual clips, others don’t do much more than post a new version of a track next to its lyrics. Ezzsounds, which helped launch Thundercat’s “Them Changes” onto the Hot R&B Songs chart, hails from the latter camp; the account is more than 700,000 followers strong. Pardo from Secretly Group has his eye on the page Ex7stence (4.4 million followers), which recently helped popularize sped-up versions of songs by Phoebe Bridgers and Bon Iver. “The velocity of sounds that come off that page in the past couple of weeks has been fascinating,” Pardo says.
Historically, the music industry has not been comfortable with unauthorized remixes. Nasseri and Byrnes even initially encountered some resistance from artists’ teams when they started pushing to release official tempo-altered versions of singles. “It was six months of explaining to people what this is and begging them to approve it,” Nasseri says.
“There was a long period of ‘trust us on this,’” Byrnes adds. His pitch: “This is the new remix. This is better than a remix.”
Suffice it to say that “long period” of doubt has come to an end. “I see artists dropping the sped-up version with the official one on release date to try to see if that catches on and points back to the original,” says Johnny Minardi, vp of A&R at Elektra Music Group. “It’s become one of those alternate looks to try to start the song or get a little bit more life out of it.” Two marketers say it’s routine for them to pay TikTok accounts to put out edits of songs they’re promoting; the cost is usually between $50 and $200.
Interscope just released an accelerated version of Summer Walker‘s entire Last Day of Summer project, billing it as the “first sped-up album.” UMG does “bulk agreements” with Xxtristanxo for remixes of its music, according to Byrnes. “He has 3 million monthly listeners [on Spotify] from these remixes — they generate so much money for us and for these artists,” the executive says.
The Spotify account Sped Up Nightcore, which only posts uptempo remixes of songs from Warner Music Group, is earning close to 2 million plays a day, according to the Spotify for Artists app — numbers many acts would hack off an arm for. (While none of Sped Up Nightcore’s releases on Spotify have any public credit information, Warner is claiming ownership of most of these songs on YouTube; a rep for Warner did not respond to a question about the label’s relationship with the account.)
Kuya Magik, who also does remixes for UMG, says messing with a track’s tempo and posting it on TikTok “doesn’t always work — but if that sound goes in front of the right person, you’ve got a gold mine in terms of a viral song.” Case in point: Cafuné’s “Tek It – Sped Up” has more than 95 million Spotify streams, almost as many as there are on the original, which surely makes it one of the most commercially successful singles in this style. (Minardi signed the band to Elektra.) The popularity of the jittery “Them Changes” on TikTok led weekly streams of the original to triple from mid-September to mid-October, according to Luminate. Slattery from Ninja Tune says streams of the rest of Thundercat’s catalog increased as well.
Most executives who have engaged with the sped-up ecosystem agree that it’s particularly effective for reviving songs that are more than 18 months old. “It’s a great avenue for promoting catalog tracks,” says Slattery. “People enjoy sped-up versions of songs that they already know” — like “Them Changes,” which already had more than 150 million Spotify streams before its recent surge. “When there’s familiarity with the song to begin with,” Slattery continues, “it helps it go farther and increases demand.”
That means there’s a potential opportunity for record companies. “If I was a label with a big catalog, I would start creating three to five versions of all my biggest hits with different tempos,” Cloherty says. “I would just have a producer on staff creating them nonstop all day every day.”
“What would ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ sound like sped up?” he wonders. “I don’t know. But that could be the next TikTok hit.”
A Florida appeals court ruled Wednesday that YNW Melly could face the death penalty if convicted in his upcoming murder trial, overturning a judge’s decision that prosecutors forfeited the right to seek capital punishment.
With a trial looming this past summer, Judge Andrew Siegel ruled that prosecutors couldn’t seek the death penalty because they had failed to give Melly and his attorneys proper notice that they planned to do so, violating strict state rules.
But in a ruling on Wednesday, Florida’s District Court of Appeal ruled the judge’s decision was incorrect. Since prosecutors gave notice that they might seek death when they first charged Melly in 2019, they had complied with state rules. “Notice is notice,” the court wrote in its opinion.
The ruling means that Melly could be sentenced to death if convicted in his upcoming trial. But that likely won’t take place until the Florida Supreme Court rules on the case, because Wednesday’s ruling certified the issue as one of “great public importance” that should be decided by the state high court.
In a statement to Billboard, Melly’s attorney Philip R. Horowitz said he and his client were “disappointed in the ruling” but “look forward to our opportunity to argue our position before the justices.”
The ruling came as Melly (real name Jamell Demons) continues to await trial on first-degree murder charges over accusations that he and another rapper shot and killed Anthony “YNW Sakchaser” Williams and Christopher “YNW Juvy” Thomas Jr. in 2018.
A trial had previously been scheduled for April, but was called off at the last minute, prompting Melly’s attorneys to file a so-called “speedy trial demand” that would require the case to start within 60 days. Another trial was then set for July, but the case was again delayed over the current dispute about the death penalty.
A first-degree murder defendant in Florida would typically face the possibility of execution if convicted, but Melly’s attorneys argued in April that the state had failed to comply with strict laws on how they must warn defendants that they’ll seek the death penalty.
Florida requires prosecutors to give notice 45 days after arraignment if they plan to seek capital punishment. In Melly’s case, the state attorney filed such notice when they originally indicted the rapper in 2019 but failed to do so when a so-called superseding indictment was handed down earlier this year.
In July, Judge Siegel sided with Melly’s attorneys and said prosecutors had forfeited the chance to seek death. But after prosecutors argued that the ruling was clearly incorrect, Judge Siegel acknowledged that his ruling addressed a novel legal question and halted the case until a state appeals court could rule on it.
On Wednesday, the District Court of Appeal did so – and sided decisively with prosecutors.
“We find that the state complied with its statutory obligations when it filed its notice of intent to seek the death penalty within 45 days of arraignment,” Judge Spencer D. Levine wrote for the appeals court. “The fact that the state filed a superseding indictment, requiring a second arraignment, does not vitiate the already filed and timely notice of intent. Notice is notice.”
The ruling said that rules were designed to give defendants a fair chance to prepare for a death penalty argument, and that prosecutors had lived up to that requirement with their original notice.
“Clearly, in the present case, the defendant was noticed and apprised of the state seeking the death penalty in 2019,” Judge Levine wrote. “The defendant has had nearly three years to start the preparation of his defense to the state seeking the death penalty [and] the record contains no evidence that the defendant was prejudiced in any way.”
Melly’s attorneys can appeal the ruling to the Florida Supreme Court.
Just two days after Condé Nast sued Drake and 21 Savage for using a fake cover story in Vogue magazine to promote their new album Her Loss, a federal judge has issued a restraining order forcing them to stop using it.
Siding with Condé, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff ruled Wednesday that the faux cover – one of several fake promos for the album – was likely violating the publisher’s trademarks because Drake and 21 were “misleading consumers” and “deceiving the public.”
“Issuance of the requested temporary restraining order is in the public interest to protect the public against confusion, deception and mistake,” the New York federal judge wrote.
For the past week, Drake and 21 Savage have been on a phony media blitz to promote Her Loss, which debuted Friday. They dropped a video of a fake performance on Saturday Night Live, teased an a similar appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk series, and created an elaborate deepfake interview with Howard Stern.
NPR used the stunt as an opportunity to tell the star he was “welcome anytime” on the beloved concert, and Stern laughed the whole thing off, but Condé Nast went a different route. In a lawsuit filed Monday, the publisher called the stunt a “flagrant infringement” its trademark, aimed at exploiting the “tremendous value that a cover feature in Vogue magazine carries” without actually securing one.
“All of this is false,” the publisher’s lawyers wrote, demanding an immediate injunction forcing Drake and 21 to cease all use of the “counterfeit” cover. “And none of it has been authorized by Condé Nast.”
The order issued Wednesday is what’s known as a temporary restraining order – a quick injunction designed to prevent “irreparable harm” that could not later be undone. A plaintiff like Condé can only win one if the judge decides that they are likely to eventually win their lawsuit.
Judge Rakoff’s order bars Drake and 21 from “using, displaying, dissenting or distributing” the fake cover or the actual phony Vogue copies they printed as part of the stunt. And it expressly requires them to take down websites and social media posts sharing the image, and to remove physical posters put up in certain markets.
Notably, it also explicitly requires them to stop making any mention of Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour. In its lawsuit, Conde took particular aim at the fact that Drake had thanked her in his posts sharing the fake magazine cover, saying it had been “deliberately deceptive” to suggest that the infamous editor had endorsed the project.
Reps for Drake and 21 did not immediately return requests for comment on Wednesday’s order.
A temporary restraining order is, by its nature, temporary – lasting only until the parties have a chance to argue over a longer-term injunction. A hearing on such an injunction is set for Nov. 22.
Read the full order here:
Irving and Jeffrey Azoff‘s recently-launched Giant Music record label signed Detroit rapper Tay B in partnership tie AFLN Music Group. Tay B released his most recent album, 4Eva In My Bag, earlier this year. Run by Shawn Holiday, Giant Music previously signed Atlanta-based trap artist SwaVay in partnership with Def Jam. Giant Music is a resuscitation of the Giant name for the Azoffs, with Irving having launched Giant Records in 1990 as a joint venture with Warner Bros. Records.
Podcast company Audio Up, which focuses on trying to create hit tracks by leveraging podcasts as the launch pad, announced a new strategic partnership with WME to support the development of artists from Audio Up’s podcast slate. Under the deal, WME will advise Audio Up on its touring and content opportunities across film, TV and digital and provide the company with access to its network across music, entertainment and brands. One of the first initiatives under the partnership is the development of Latin artist Balam, who will star in and contribute original music to the forthcoming Audio Up scripted podcast Day of the Dead. In tandem with promotional efforts around the podcast, WME served as an advisor on booking Balam’s Dec. 10 debut performance at reggaeton festival Viva Urbano. WME will also work with Audio Up on the podcaster’s Apple Music show The Ballad of Uncle Drank by turning the show’s title character into a real-life touring country experience.
Sony Music Masterworks made a majority investment in Dubai-based concert promotion, talent management, events and production company MAC Global. Day-to-day operations of MAC Global will continue to be led by co-founders Rob McIntosh and Daniel Goldberg, who will work with Sony Music Masterworks president Mark Cavell, senior vp of business development Josh Lerman and managing director of Senbla Ollie Rosenblatt. Under the arrangement, MAC Global will expand its remit to include comedy, sports, virtual events, orchestral events and immersive music experiences.
The Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) teamed with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for the Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis Music Makers Grant, which will award $5,000 annually to an emerging BIPOC songwriter or producer. BMAC will screen applicants, with Jam and Lewis personally picking the finalist. Online applications for this year’s grant close Nov. 15, with the winner to be announced in December.
Townsend Music signed Kaiser Chiefs in partnership with Absolute Label Services/Utopia, V2 and The Orchard for the band’s next studio album, which is slated for release next year. Townsend and Absolute will provide physical and digital distribution for the album in the U.K. under Townsend’s D2C+ model, while V2 will distribute it in France and Benelux and The Orchard will distribute it in other territories.
SoundExchange struck deals with Zelle and Cash App allowing registered creators to elect to receive their royalty payments via either of those mobile payment apps. Creators can contact the SoundExchange customer services team to learn more about app-specific eligibility requirements and sign up to receive royalty payments via the platforms.
Country newcomer Dalton Dover, who appeared on Season 16 of The Voice and has since garnered a following on TikTok, signed with Universal Music Group Nashville. He will release his upcoming music via Mercury Nashville.
Pop and melodic rap artist Zzz. signed with Warner Records in partnership with Lil Bibby‘s Grade A Productions. His major-label debut single is “All I Never Wanted.”
Live Nation has signed on as the exclusive booking partner for the nonprofit Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage festival. Ahead of the 2023 summer season, Live Nation will book all benefit concerts between June and October at the flagship Rumsey Playfield site in New York’s Central Park.
Composer Max Richter appointed Huxley as his global publicity and brands agency, which will also represent Richter and Yulia Mahr‘s Oxfordshire recording studio and multi-arts production facility Studio Richter Mahr.
U.K.-based Logan Media Entertainment teamed up with BMG to create a new record label, Tag8 Music, that will “specialize in the growing market for resurgent established artists,” according to a LinkedIn post by Logan Media. The label will launch with a roster including Blue, Pixie Lott, Roachford and a cast album of The Drifters Girl musical featuring Beverley Knight.
Naxos Music Group signed an extensive partnership with Downtown-owned FUGA. Under the deal, Naxos will have access to FUGA’s full suite of services including digital distribution, marketing services, royalty accounting and use of FUGA’s trends and analytics platform for Naxos and associated labels.
Los Angeles-based queer singer-songwriter Olive Klug (they/them) signed with Nettwerk, which will release their single “Out of Line” on Nov. 18.
European music royalty investing marketplace ANote Music partnered with Revelator, which provides digital IP infrastructure to music rights holders and music companies, for an arrangement that will allow Revelator clients to list their shares of tracks in their catalogs on ANote. The two companies will also collaborate on integrating Revelator’s technology, data management, predictive models and payment systems into ANote.
Symphonic partnered with music company Ropeadope for exclusive global distribution and marketing. Under the deal, Symphonic will provide digital and physical distribution and playlist pitching for Ropeadope’s full back catalog and key new releases. The partnership will encompass forthcoming releases by The Headhunters, Sarah Elizabeth Charles and Mthunzi Mvubu.
North Dakota pop-punk band Brooklane signed to Los Angeles-based Adventure Cat Records, an indie label from the artist management team at KMGMT. The band has new music in the works with producers Andrew Wade and Steve Knight. They are managed by David Pinder and Desanka Ilic at Cold Coffee Entertainment.
Vancouver-based artist management company Macklam Feldman Management signed on to represent acoustic folk-pop trio Tiny Habits, comprised of Maya Rae, Cinya Khan and Judah Mayowa.
BET president and CEO Scott Mills is adding to his portfolio at Paramount Global.
In the latest piece of reorganization at the conglomerate, VH1 will move under Mills’ BET Media Group. The cable outlet was previously part of the Chris McCarthy-led Paramount Media Networks, along with Paramount Network, MTV, Comedy Central, CMT and others.
Paramount CEO Bob Bakish wrote in a memo to staff Wednesday (see it in full here) that the move will allow for better alignment of priorities and make VH1 “best positioned for future success as a key part of the powerful BET ecosystem.” VH1 is the second most popular entertainment cable outlet among Black viewers, behind only BET.
It also lightens the load for McCarthy, a Bakish favorite who will add premium cabler Showtime to his purview following David Nevins’ departure at the end of the year. MTV Entertainment Studios, headed by McCarthy and Nina L. Diaz, will continue to produce a number of VH1 series, including the Love & Hip Hop franchise, RuPaul’s Drag Race and Black Ink Crew.
The VH1 move also separates it from MTV in Paramount’s structure, ending almost four decades of close association between the two networks. The cable network started in 1985 as a music-video channel targeting a somewhat older audience than the youth-driven MTV. It eventually branched into original programming with shows like Behind the Music, I Love the … and a host of “celebreality” shows like Rock of Love and The Surreal Life. And, like MTV, it has mostly left its music roots behind.
As has been the case across the cable universe, VH1’s on-air audience has declined in recent years as increasing numbers of TV consumers opt out of cable subscriptions. Within that smaller ecosystem, however, it still ranks in the upper third of cable networks in the key ad demographic of adults 18-49.
VH1 will join a BET Media Group that also includes the namesake cable channel, streaming platform BET+, BET Her, BET Studios and BET Digital. “Scott and his team continue to drive the evolution and growth of BET by building an interconnected set of leading platforms — linear, streaming, digital and studios — centered around the Black community, Black culture and content,” Bakish wrote.
Read Bakish’s full memo.
Following Adidas’ highly publicized split from Kanye “Ye” West last month after he espoused antisemitic sentiments on a multi-stop media tour, the sportswear company has plans to do what many predicted might happen: rebrand Yeezy products in order to continue selling them without Ye.
On a quarterly earnings call this morning (Nov. 9), according to Insider, Adidas shared that it intends to release more Yeezys without the artist, who began his business partnership with the company in 2013. Adidas CFO Harm Ohlmeyer confirmed what the company’s public statement, released in late October, said: “Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights registered to existing product. We intend to make use of these rights as early as 2023.”
Following Adidas’ highly publicized split from Kanye “Ye” West last month after he espoused antisemitic sentiments on a multi-stop media tour, the sportswear company has plans to do what many predicted might happen: rebrand Yeezy products in order to continue selling them without Ye.
On a quarterly earnings call this morning, according to Insider, Adidas shared that it intends to release more Yeezys without the artist, who began his business partnership with the company in 2013. Adidas CFO Harm Ohlmeyer confirmed what the company’s public statement, released in late October, said: “Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights registered to existing product. We intend to make use of these rights as early as 2023.”
In announcing their split from Ye last month, the company explained, “Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
A Los Angeles judge on Wednesday (Nov. 9) tossed out a lawsuit accusing Phoebe Bridgers of defaming producer Chris Nelson with a social media post echoing accusations of abuse made against him by another woman.
The judge cited California’s so-called anti-SLAPP law, which empowers courts to quickly dismiss lawsuits that might silence free speech. The star’s lawyers had argued that Nelson was just using the lawsuit to “chill Ms. Bridgers’ allegations of abusive conduct, which are protected by the First Amendment.”
The decision, issued by Judge Curtis A. Kin of the Los Angeles Superior Court, did not come with a written ruling explaining the judge’s rationale. An attorney for Nelson did not immediately return a request for comment.
In a statement to Billboard, a rep for Bridgers said: “We feel vindicated that the court recognized this lawsuit as frivolous and without merit. It was not grounded in law, or facts, but was filed with the sole intention of causing harm to our client’s reputation and career. This victory is important not just for our client but for all those she was seeking to protect by using her platform.”
Nelson sued Bridgers last year, claiming she had defamed him by posting false information to social media as part of a “vendetta to destroy plaintiff’s reputation.”
He pointed to a series of October 2020 Instagram posts, in which the singer said she had “witnessed and can personally verify much of the abuse (grooming, stealing, violence) perpetuated by Chris Nelson.” She also directed her followers to a separate thread from friend Emily Bannon, which contained more extensive allegations against Nelson.
Bridgers quickly moved to end the case, with her lawyers arguing that Nelson was trying to silence her allegations by dragging her through messy litigation: “It is clear that Mr. Nelson voluntarily and intentionally published his ‘amended’ complaint to the media before it was even filed in a transparent attempt to embarrass Ms. Bridgers and to get attention for his dispute with her.”
Faced with that motion, Nelson demanded the right to depose her — saying it was the only way he could prove that his allegation was valid. He said denying him that chance would violate his right to due process. A judge eventually agreed with him, ordering Bridgers to sit for questioning.
