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Just minutes after nominations to the 2022 Latin Grammy Awards were announced in September, Manuel Abud called all of the nominees in the best new artist category.
“One of our nominees was at school,” the Latin Recording Academy CEO says, referring to 15-year-old Yahritza Martinez, frontwoman of sierreño trio Yahritza y Su Esencia. “She stepped out to take my call and then went back to class.”
Artists don’t usually learn about their nominations in a personal call from the academy’s CEO. But Abud — who stepped into the new role in 2021, succeeding longtime president/CEO Gabriel Abaroa Jr. after 18 years — says a top priority is making the academy more accessible to the Latin music community. The goal is more participation and greater representation across what Abud calls the “four Gs”: geography, genre, gender and generation.
“Those four Gs need to be adequately represented in my membership, in my staff, in everything that we do,” he says.
Abud’s background is in TV, not music. He came to the academy as COO in 2019 after five years as president/CEO of Azteca America and was elevated to CEO at a time when the academy was under scrutiny, criticized by the reggaetón and regional Mexican artistic communities for lack of inclusion in the main categories. In response to that criticism — which included a Latin Grammys boycott by artists such as J Balvin in 2019 — the best reggaetón performance and best rap/hip-hop song categories were created for the 2020 edition. But to date, regional Mexican music has remained largely left out.
“It’s not something you can change in a day,” says Abud. “There’s only so much we can do as the academy to expose the different genres to the membership,” he says. “[But] I’ve been meeting with the regional Mexican community. I’ve invited them to be more active in the meetings, making surethey understand how to get involved. We need to evolve the artists to be more participant and the membership to be more receptive.”
While change doesn’t happen overnight, Abud is launching new initiatives. The Latin Grammy Acoustic Sessions is a globally minded series of concerts that have included performances by artists such as El Fantasma, Becky G and Giulia Be and taken place in Mexico, Brazil and Spain ahead of the Latin Grammy ceremony on Nov. 17. Notably, the Mexican show featured exclusively regional Mexican acts. “These Acoustic Sessions, which represent the four Gs, are a first step to make sure we’re getting closer to every community.”
As one of the four Gs is “generation,” Abud has beefed up the digital side of the academy to reach Facebook and TikTok users. “My responsibility is to get our celebration to as many people as possible. Of course, we love our partnership with Univision, but it is a bigger picture now and we want to be everywhere.”
Also, Abud and his team are spotlighting the best new artist nominees with a first-ever showcase event during Latin Grammys week. “This year, there’s importance of nurturing future talent. You’ll see some of that in the actual ceremony, but I’m also very excited that we’ll be able to provide a platform to all nominees for best new artists.
This story will appear in the Nov. 5, 2022, issue of Billboard.
When Alessandra Alarcón was named president of SBS’ entertainment division in 2019, she became, at 31 years old, the first woman to ever lead the Latin media company’s very lucrative live events division.
“We have a sweet little nickname at corporate for my division,” she says with a laugh. “They call us the ‘profit center.’”
“The profit center,” as Alarcón calls it, puts together SBS Entertainment’s many highly regarded and successful music events, including Los Angeles’ Calibash, the urban fest that takes place every January. In the three years since Alarcón took over, Calibash has gradually pared down the number of acts and emerged with a more star-studded lineup. “I thought the audience would be okay, because I would be okay with there being less acts but more quality sets. And I’m happy to report that I was right,” she says.
Garnering success was especially important for Alarcón given that she’s the granddaughter of SBS founder Pablo Raúl Alarcón and one of the daughters of SBS Chairman Raúl Alarcón.
In this episode of the Billboard podcast “Latin Hitmaker,” Alarcón, in her first in-depth interview since being appointed to her post, spoke about the importance of legacy, the new U.S. Latin market and balancing work and motherhood. Below you can find some highlights from the conversation.
On bringing a bilingual, bicultural perspective to a Spanish-language media company: “It gives me a very unique perspective on business and how business is done. There are a lot of deep relationships [in Latin] and there’s a certain way of thinking of how things have to get done, because that’s the way it was always done. And I think that being born in L.A., and then [living] in New York and raised in Miami […] and having that more bicultural view of business and how things get done has certainly helped me accomplish a lot of things and not getting lost in the noise, which sometimes happens.”
On her negotiating style: “I’m definitely more of a velvet hammer. This is a very male-dominated industry. Women are making strides, but it is a very male-dominated industry. There’s a time and a place to be tough, but I always like to come in, hearing someone out, making them feel heard and respected. But certainly there’s a hammer that has to come down every once in a while.”
On work advice from her dad: Raúl Alarcón always imparted on his daughter the importance of being respectful to others. “He said, ‘There’s nothing worse than having an enemy that works for you. The solution is going to come to you, but you’re not going to get it by berating someone or making them feel bad about themselves.’”
On balancing work with her six and four-year-old children: “This [is a] piece of advice I got from my aunt. She worked and she had two children and she said: ‘You can have it all, just not at the same time.’”
On her advice to those new in the business: “The obstacle is the way. There is a way through anything. There’s a solution to every problem. It might not be the exact thing that you want, and that’s where the humbling and the flexibility comes in. You know, you have to be limber and ready to adapt because if you don’t adapt, you die. You have to pivot.”
Listen to the full episode of Latin Hitmaker here:
Grammy Award-winning DJ and producer Tiësto joined forces with multiplatinum singer-songwriter Tate McRae and Dubai’s new ultra-luxury resort Atlantis The Royal to create their new single “10:35.” The song is accompanied by a music video highlighting the new high-end destination, and will appear on Tiësto’s upcoming album Drive, due out Feb. 24 via Atlantic Records.
“I’m very excited to be partnering with this iconic new property,” said Tiësto. “Tate and I wanted to create a song that captured the energy of an experience at Atlantis The Royal, and I’m proud to say the feeling of 10:35 and this property are both infectious! So excited for the world to finally hear it.”
“I’m happy to announce I’m doing a partnership with the Atlantis The Royal property in Dubai with Tiësto,” added McRae. “It’s always exciting to branch out and work with different brands and artists,” added McRae. “The music video is unlike anything I’ve seen before, and the hotel is just unreal.”
Encapsulating the essence of Atlantis The Royal, “10:35” is inspired by Dubai’s newest addition to its skyline. When first introduced to the resort’s architectural plans — the resort was designed by NYC’s Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates — Tiësto honed in on the duality of the daytime experience of luxury versus the nighttime’s focus on entertainment. This juxtaposition fueled the idea for the time where day turns to night and the experience that comes with that shift — hence, “10:35.”
McRae, who spent time growing up in the Middle East, proved a perfect partner for the track.
Slated to open in early 2023, Atlantis The Royal is 43 stories at its highest point and boasts nearly 800 rooms, dozens of pools, multiple celebrity chef-led restaurants and a skybridge connecting the two main sections of the resort.
Atlantis The Royal Dubai
Courtesy Photo
“We are beyond excited that Tiësto, a music icon, and Tate McRae, one of today’s hottest stars, have joined forces to create this incredible track to celebrate Atlantis The Royal,” said Tim Kelly, managing director of Atlantis Dubai. “’10:35′ completely captures the vibe and energy of the hotel and expresses the unmatched daytime and night-time experience we have to offer. Shooting the music video at the resort is a show stopping way for us to tease our guests and demonstrate the unrivaled luxury Atlantis The Royal promises ahead of the Grand Reveal in January. This is it.”
“The whole team at Atlantis The Royal have been a pleasure to work with throughout this campaign and Atlantic Records couldn’t be more grateful for their partnership,” added Jonathan Feldman, svp of brand partnerships and sports marketing at Atlantic Records. “Tiësto and Tate McRae created such an incredible song that aligns perfectly with the property. From start to finish the stars have aligned on this and we’re thrilled for the launch of “10:35′.”
Check out the music video for “10:35” below.
Warner Chappell Music Korea has renewed its global publishing deal with 153/Joombas Publishing, one of the top independent music publishers in the country. The two companies have been working together since 2018 and the partnership has entailed 153/Joombas’ entire catalog, including songs for aespa, BTS, EXO, (G)I-DLE, GOT7, ITZY, IU, Lim Young-woong, Monsta X, NCT DREAM, Red Velvet, SEVENTEEN, Stray Kids, and Taeyeon. Founded by Hyuk Shin — a South Korean producer known for writing “One Less Lonely Girl” for Justin Bieber, “Growl” for EXO, and discovering Blackbear and DEAN — 153/Joombas Publishing has a roster of almost 100 writers whose work both defines K-pop and popular music worldwide. CJ Kim, general manager of Warner Chappell Music Korea, said: “Joining forces with 153/Joombas Publishing again will further strengthen and solidify our position as a leader in K-pop music. We are pleased to elevate our alliance to a new level, and can’t wait to take their incredible songwriters with us on our journey as we continue to maximise the opportunities and value for K-pop music in unprecedented ways.”
Afrojack, the Grammy-winning producer and DJ, has extended his worldwide publishing deal with BMG, including all the works written and produced by the Dutch talent since he signed with BMG in 2008, including hits like “Titanium,” “Take Over Control” and “Hey Mama.”
Spirit Music Nashville has signed a co-publishing agreement with Joy Williams, half of the long-defunct duo The Civil Wars. The deal also includes the acquisition of compositions from her various song catalogs, including but not limited to The Civil Wars, as well as some of her masters. Spirit will handle her publishing on a go-forward basis with the exception of Front Porch, her most recent release, which will also be included for administration.
Reservoir has acquired rights to the entire catalog and future works of Naughty By Nature member KayGee as well as distribution rights moving forward. Beyond his Grammy-earning work with the hip-hop trio, KayGee, aka Keir Lamont Gist, made a name for himself writing and producing for 50 Cent, Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Fat Joe, Luther Vandross, and Queen Latifah. he also founded his own label in the 1990s, Divine Mill, which represented artists like Zhané, Next, and Jaheim — all of whom he produced and wrote for as well.
Baby Queen has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Sony Music Publishing. A critical darling in U.K. pop music, Baby Queen, aka Bella Lathan, says of the deal she is “excited to be working with Sony and with a team that truly undersands who [she is] as a person and as an artist.”=
Page 1 Management, a writer-producer management firm founded by Ashley Page and led in the U.S. by A&R Danielle Middleton, has signed Travis Mendes. Known for his work as a writer, producer and engineer, Mendes has played a hand in making songs like “All Time Low” and “Guillotine” by Jon Bellion, “Fools Paradise” by Isaac Dunbar, “Love Me for Now” by Cheatcodes and more. He says of the deal “I’m so happy to join this beautiful, amazing family of creatives at Page 1, and I’m excited to continue to learn and craft more amazing music for the world to hear!”
Milk & Honey Music has launched the new Milk & Honey U.S. Scholarship, an initiative to develop and mentor Australia and New Zealand-based women in songwriting and production, and its inaugural recipient is Chelsea Warner, a Sydney native making R&B, pop and hip-hop. As part of the scholarship, Warner will be given a two month residency in Los Angeles, where she will receive mentorship from top songwriters Oak Felder and Jenna Andrews. Organized by Milk & Honey leaders Lucas Keller, Milly Petriella, and Peter Coquillard, Petriella says of the program, “Less than 20% of our industry is female and the number of women in production is considerably less, it’s time to create real experiences, connections, and provide financial support if we are to truly going to change the future landscape of the music industry.”
Warner Chappell Music France has signed Some 1ne and Machynist, the duo behind some of the country’s biggest hits. They are perhaps best known for composing “Djadja” and “Pookie” for Aya Nakamura and No Crari, the sophomore album from French rapper OBOY.
Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) has won the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award. The annual award is presented to an ASCAP-affiliated musical theater composer that shows great promise at an early age. Previous recipients include Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pasek & Paul, and David Hein & Irene Sankoff.
IMPF partnered with Music Publishers Canada to host Create Nordic Bridges, a songwriting camp that promotes publisher and songwriter collaboration between Nordic and Canadian talents. The camp took place in Toronto from Oct. 27-29 and brought together 12 songwriters, producers and artists from Canada, Estonia, Finland and Sweden.
Global music copyright generated $39.6 billion in 2021, up 18% from the previous year, according to the latest report by Will Page, industry analyst and former chief economist for Spotify. “The post-pandemic fallout has seen consumer subscriptions and ad-funded streaming continue to soar,” he wrote, “whereas business-to-business licensing by CMOs [collective management organizations] has only partially recovered.”
Streaming accounted for 55% of global copyright revenue, up from 52% in 2020. The industry’s shift to streaming has been dramatic: jJust five years ago, in 2017, streaming accounted for just 30% of global music copyright revenues.
Page brings together four sources of industry data for his analysis: IFPI’s annual Global Music Report, CISAC’s annual Global Collections Report, Music & Copyright’s analysis of music publishing and MIDiA Research’s estimate of royalty-free music licensing services such as Epidemic Sounds — a new addition to his study this year. He removes double counting in the reports, such as some mechanical royalties that are counted as revenue by both record labels and publishers.
Record labels’ revenue grew to $25.8 billion in 2021 from $21.3 billion in 2020 and $19.8 billion in 2019. In terms of market share, record labels improved their percentage of global revenue to 65.2% in 2021 from 63.4% in 2020 and 60.6% in 2019 — a sign of healthy consumer spending on subscription services such as Spotify and Apple Music.
On the flip side, publishers’ share of global revenue dropped to 34.1% in 2021, from 35.7% the year before. Still, as Page points out, this is more equitable than other points in history. In 2001, when labels’ revenues were peaking at the height of the CD sales boom, publishers received just 23% of revenues. In 2014, however, when label revenues had deteriorated, publishers were growing modestly and CMOs reported “record-breaking collections” up to 45% of global revenues. Record labels grew faster than publishers over the next seven years, however.
Record labels’ share of revenue increased due to “the recovery in consumer spend on music,” according to Page, “which traditionally favors labels over publishers.” The trend was amplified by the pandemic’s impact on business licensing – such as performance rights blanket licenses for retail, radio and concert venues – that favors publishers over labels.
Had the pandemic not occurred, performing rights income would have likely grown at 6% a year and would “arguably” be $1 billion greater today – a possible $9.4 billion rather than the actual $8.4 billion. On the other hand, wrote Page, “had the pandemic not happened, streaming may never have accelerated the way it did.”
Royalty-free music is a small part of the global music business but growing quickly thanks to the increasing need for easily licensed music on online platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. MIDiA Research put the value of royalty-free music – meaning the license is a one-time purchase without residual royalties – at $250 million in 2021.
In May of 2019, Pat Houston — Whitney Houston’s sister-in-law and the executor of her estate — and music publisher and marketer Primary Wave announced a partnership that gave the company a 50% stake in Whitney’s assets — including her publishing, master recording revenues, name, likeness and brand — in a deal that valued the estate at $14 million. Since then, Primary Wave says it has quadrupled the estate’s fortunes — a figure it hopes will only explode further after a series of projects that will begin rolling out this fall, including a perfume line, a MAC Cosmetics partnership, an archival book and a biopic out Dec. 21: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, starring relative newcomer Naomi Ackie.
Centered on Whitney’s relationship with her mentor Clive Davis (portrayed by Stanley Tucci) and written by Anthony McCarten — whose previous blockbuster biopics (The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour and Bohemian Rhapsody) have all yielded Academy Award wins — the film is being produced by Pat, Davis, McCarten, Primary Wave, Sony Tristar and Compelling Pictures. “My interest with the biopic has everything to do with Clive Davis,” says Pat Houston, noting the film will also contain a previously-unreleased song. “When she was here, he was always a fighter and always leading her career, and musically, he has that same vibe and feeling. You can’t mention Whitney Houston without mentioning Clive Davis, and I wanted it to be about the music and that relationship and how she got there.”
Davis, who worked with McCarten to develop the script and consulted on the historical aspects of the film, spoke to Billboard about bringing “the full picture of who [Whitney] was” to the big screen.
How did the idea for this biopic come about?
It was time that a full-fledged theatrical biopic be done on Whitney. And by total coincidence, one of my best friends was doing some production work with Anthony McCarten, who had done so well [as screenwriter of] the Queen film, Bohemian Rhapsody. So I started meeting with Anthony, and he was very, very interested in writing it. It was my task to really inform him, make sure that every aspect of Whitney was researched. I introduced him to the family, to everyone that had worked with Whitney, including her counselor, so he really embarked on a year to two years of research about Whitney and her life. When we both agreed that we had a final script that was authentic, honest and understood the full nature of Whitney’s life, I introduced him to Pat Houston and to [Primary Wave founder and CEO] Larry Mestel.
Were you involved in the casting?
I met and spent some time with Stanley Tucci, who plays me — and who was everyone’s primary choice, though I did not meet him until after he agreed to do the part. Before he and I spoke, he wanted to and did read my autobiography and saw my documentary [Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives]. And then we Zoomed, and then I went up to Boston, where they were filming, and I met with him in person. I’m extremely pleased with the performance that he gives.
With respect to Naomi Ackie [who plays Houston], we knew it would be Whitney’s voice in the film, so we were not appraising musical performance, but acting strengths. When we watched the audition tapes of the leading candidates, we all agreed on Naomi being very, very special.
How did you feel watching this film come to life?
It hit home. It’s realistic. Scenes between Whitney and me, obviously, were emotionally impactful, from the time we first met to going through the musical, personal relationship we had, the more difficult times in dealing with her problems. I think the film is very accurate in its portrayal of the dialogues we had.
What was it like working with Larry Mestel and Pat Houston?
Larry and I got along extremely well. With our outlook, our goal, our mission, our sense of fulfillment, we were pretty much on target. I found him understanding [of] the big picture. Pat attended every meeting I did. We would all meet together, see drafts of the film, exchange viewpoints and have dialogues as to accuracy. It was obviously a very emotional experience with Pat, too.
What effect do you think the film will have on Whitney’s legacy?
I would hope a very positive effect. I think it shows real depth and understanding of who she was, as well as the magnitude of what her musical life represented. I was an admirer of Bohemian Rhapsody and the Elton John film [Rocketman]. A well-done biography film reviewing the totality of a life as far as the music certainly adds to the legacy of the subject.
With this film and the other Whitney projects coming soon, how does it feel to see her celebrated again?
It’s a combination of enormous pride, enormous regret at her premature passing, wonderment at the uniqueness of her incomparable voice and the impact she had on musicians, artists, singers everywhere, even young ones coming up today. It’s been quite the emotional human experience.
This story will appear in the Nov. 5, 2022, issue of Billboard.
Moon Projects, a new label and creative agency, has expanded into the songwriter side of the business by launching a co-publishing partnership with Warner Chappell Music. Called Moon Projects Publishing, it is the second joint venture started with a major music corporation for the Mary Rahmani-founded start-up, founded in 2021. Earlier this year, their Republic Records-partnered label operation saw major success with signee Em Beihold, the then-unknown pop act whose song “Numb Little Bug” hit No. 1 on both Billboard’s Adult Pop Airplay and Emerging Artist charts.
Rahmani, who is known as TikTok’s first-ever music hire, hopes to build out her newly founded Moon Projects as an artist services company adept at meeting the challenges of the modern day music industry. This includes offering label or publishing services through their jvs as well as creative agency assistance, providing curation, strategy and digital consulting for short-form video content to artists hoping to tap into the creator economy.
To date, Moon Projects Publishing has not signed any songwriters, and artists who signed to the Moon Projects label will not necessarily sign for publishing as well. Em Beihold, for example, recently announced her signing to Sony Music Publishing, but for the eventual members of its roster, the new publishing arm will combine “white-glove service and personal attention” common with boutique publishers with the “resources of one of the biggest music publishers in the world,” says the company in a statement.
“Mary and Moon Projects have a unique and innovative approach in this space. We’re excited to partner with them as they move into the music publishing side of the business. We look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together for songwriters and artists at all stages of their careers.” – Warner Chappell Music SVP of A&R and Venture Partners Rich Christina
“Warner Chappell Music is a true industry leader in music publishing and rights management. I am honored to be working with them in this joint venture,” added Rahmani. “Publishing was built to serve artists at every stage of their career by providing innovative and equitable catalog management strategies. I’m so excited to usher in this new era of Moon Projects, and to open up even more opportunities to work with the artists we care about and believe in. With the support of Warner Chappell Music, Moon Projects will continue to establish itself as a place where artists can grow and thrive.”
Loud And Live, the Miami-based entertainment, marketing, media and live events company, has committed to making a $1 million dollar donation to the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation, the company tells Billboard.
Marking the largest single donation in the foundation’s history, the money will be donated over the next five years to advance the foundation’s mission to further international awareness and appreciation of the contributions of Latin music and its makers to global culture via college scholarships, grants and educational programs, according to a press release.
The donation builds on Loud And Live’s culture of giving and philanthropic commitment.
“We’ve been fortunate to have great success in this industry, and for us, we feel it’s an obligation to give back to the community that we’re a part of,” said Loud And Live CEO Nelson Albareda. “Our history partnering with the Latin Recording Academy goes back to 2003, and we can’t think of a better partner to channel and make a meaningful impact with this donation, than the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation.”
For nearly two decades, Loud And Live has supported the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation by donating time, services and resources, including a private fundraising event that featured an intimate conversation with Cuban-American superstar Pitbull. Most recently, the foundation has benefited from various tours produced by Loud And Live, including those by Camilo and Carlos Vives, both of whom pledged to donate $1 from each ticket sale on their respective tours to the foundation.
“We are grateful for the generous donation of Loud And Live, a longtime partner of the Foundation,” added Becky Villaescusa, vp of strategic planning & corporate development at the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation. “Together we have the ability to continue creating opportunities, have a positive impact on our communities, and preserve the legacy of Latin music and Latin music creators.”
LONDON — Paul Pacifico, the outgoing CEO of the U.K.’s Association of Independent Music (AIM), has been hired to head the Saudi Music Commission, which is responsible for developing and championing the burgeoning music sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Pacifico takes up the post in January. He will succeed Mohammed Al Mulhem, who is listed on the Saudi Music Commission website as the incumbent chief executive.
The Saudi Music Commission was established by the Ministry of Culture in 2020 as part of a wider push to grow Saudi Arabia’s economy and status as a high-end global tourist destination.
The commission says its objective is overseeing the development of Saudi’s music market through building world-class infrastructure, providing universal access to music education, empowering music artists and creating job opportunities in the country, which has a population of 35 million.
Specific market data for Saudi Arabia’s music industry isn’t currently available, with IFPI grouping the country within its Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regional statistics. According to IFPI’s latest Global Music Report, MENA was the fastest-growing region in 2021, with recorded music trade revenues growing by 35% to $89.5 million.
International artists have, however, often faced strong criticism for performing in Saudi Arabia and helping promote a country widely accused of human rights abuses.
Last year, the Human Rights Foundation and the fiancée of murdered Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi led calls for Justin Bieber to cancel his headline performance at a concert in the Red Sea city of Jeddah to mark the end of the Formula One season.
Despite public pressure for Bieber to pull out, the concert went ahead on Dec. 5, with R&B singer Jason Derulo also performing at the show. In 2019, Nicki Minaj canceled her appearance at a concert in Jeddah. At the time, Minaj said she was boycotting the show in support of women’s rights, gay rights and freedom of expression.
Only a few years ago, concerts were banned in Saudi Arabia, where ultraconservative norms prevailed, and unmarried men and women were segregated in public spaces. That changed with the appointment of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, who has introduced sweeping reforms to modernize the country, attract foreign investment and create jobs for youth.
MDLBEAST Soundstorm, the biggest music festival in the region, launched in the capital city of Riyadh in 2019, while its latest edition set to take place Dec. 1-3 with performances by DJ Khaled, Post Malone, Bruno Mars, Wizkid, David Guetta, Marshmello, Tiësto and Carl Cox, among others.
“It is truly remarkable to see the level of support and the pace of change within Saudi Arabia as it builds a strong music sector for all to participate in,” Pacifico said in a statement announcing his appointment. He called the opportunity to help further develop the market a “huge privilege” and said he was looking forward to working with colleagues to “build a vibrant, inclusive and effective music sector.”
It is not known if Pacifico will relocate from the U.K. to Saudi Arabia when he takes up his new post.
In August, Pacifico announced he was stepping down as CEO of AIM after six years at the head of the organization, which represents more than 1,000 independent labels, artists and music companies, including Beggars Group, Domino, Warp and Ninja Tune.
Pacifico’s term as CEO officially ended on Oct. 31, but he is continuing in the role until the end of the year when his successor takes over.
Key achievements from Pacifico’s two-term tenure include last year’s Music Climate Pact, an industrywide initiative to decarbonize the record business backed by all three major labels and dozens of indies.
Pacifico is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain and is featured in Billboard’s 2022 International Power Players list. He spoke on behalf of the indie sector during last year’s U.K. Parliament probe into music streaming. And during Brexit negotiations and the COVID-19 pandemic, he petitioned the British government for greater support for independent musicians and music companies.
Prior to joining AIM in 2016, Pacifico served as CEO of the UK’s Featured Artist Coalition and founding president of the International Artist Organisation.
The U.S. Copyright Office is quietly proposing a new rule to make sure that songwriters who invoke their termination rights actually get paid their streaming royalties, overturning a previous “erroneous” policy that could potentially have kept sending money to former owners in perpetuity.
Starting in 2020, groups like the Recording Academy raised alarm bells that a policy adopted by the Mechanical Licensing Collective (the entity that collects and distributes streaming royalties) might lead to a bizarre outcome: Even after a writer takes back control of their songs, royalties might still flow to the old publishers that no longer own them — forever.
In a new rule proposed last month, the agency said the MLC’s policy was based on an “erroneous understanding and application of current law.” Ordering the group to “immediately repeal its policy in full,” the Copyright Office’s says that when a songwriter gets their rights back, they should obviously start getting the royalties, too.
“It is not clear why the statute or the case law should be read as making one particular copyright owner the permanent recipient [of royalties] because it happened to be the owner immediately before termination occurred,” the agency wrote in the proposed rule, issued Oct. 19.
The proposed rule change was quickly hailed as a win for songwriters. In a statement to Billboard, Michelle Lewis of the Songwriters of North America said the ambiguity over termination had “created stress and uncertainty for many songwriters.” Todd Dupler, vp for advocacy & public policy at the Recording Academy, says the rule change is “big news” for songwriters.
“We’re very grateful to the Copyright Office for stepping in to do this,” Dupler says. “We think the reasoning is very clear and I think they’ve reached the correct outcome.”
The MLC did not return a request for comment on the Copyright Office’s proposed rule.
Termination empowers an author to reclaim the rights to their copyrighted work decades after selling them away. In the music business, if a songwriter sold a publisher the rights to a song that later became a smash hit, termination allows them to automatically to get those rights back years later (the rule kicks in between 35 and 56 years later, depending on when the song was sold). Created by Congress when it updated federal copyright law in 1976, termination was designed to level the playing field for creators, who usually lack leverage in negotiations with big companies and are often forced to fork over rights before they know they’re valuable.
But termination comes with an important exception. Even though a publisher must hand back the rights to the original song, they’re entitled to keep selling any existing “derivative works” they created when they owned it. That means that even after a songwriter wins back ownership of their song, they can’t suddenly send cease-and-desists over a famous sample, or sue over a movie that featured the song under a synch license. Those continue to be fair game, and any fees under existing licenses keep flowing back to their old publisher.
That exception makes sense; it would be unfair to let a terminating songwriter suddenly revoke existing licenses that were legal when they were granted. But it also creates difficult ambiguity for the MLC and its so-called blanket license — the streamlined system created by Music Modernization Act in 2018 to make it easier for digital services to get mechanical royalties to the right songwriters.
Say a songwriter terminates their publisher’s control of their music. The writer is now the owner of those songs — that’s easy to figure out. But by paying the MLC for access to the blanket license, Spotify arguably already has an existing license in place with the old publisher. So, isn’t the copy of the song on Spotify an existing derivative work? And shouldn’t the royalties from it continue to go to the old publisher under that license?
Under the MLC’s termination dispute resolution policy issued in 2021, it appeared that was the case. The rules seemed to choose who to pay based on when a song was uploaded to a digital streamer’s servers; if it was uploaded prior to when a songwriter invoked their termination right, the royalties would keep going to the old owner — seemingly forever.
The MLC’s approach was not intended as a scheme to hurt songwriters. According to the Copyright Office’s filing, the MLC saw it as a “middle ground,” aimed at preventing drawn-out disputes that would lock up royalty payments “to the disadvantage of both songwriters and publishers.”
But for the Recording Academy’s Dupler, the ultimate outcome still seemed at odds with the spirit of the Music Modernization Act, which he says was designed to “help songwriters get compensated fairly for their work.”
“It raised concerns for us that this ambiguity was going to have a negative impact on songwriters,” says Dupler. “We feel pretty confident that it was never the intent of Congress that songwriters wouldn’t be receiving those royalties after termination.”
In the new rule issued last month, the Copyright Office agreed with that sentiment. In a detailed legal analysis, the agency explained that services like Spotify and Apple Music were not creating “derivative works” when they uploaded songs to their servers, meaning there was no caveats that should be imposed on a songwriter’s termination. And even if there were, the office made clear that it did not matter anyhow, stating simply: “a terminated publisher is not entitled to post-termination blanket license royalties.”
“The Office concludes that the MLC’s termination dispute policy is inconsistent with the law,” the agency wrote. “The statute entitles the current copyright owner to the royalties under the blanket license.”
Under the new rule, it won’t matter who owned a song when it was first uploaded to a digital service. Instead, it would “make clear that the copyright owner of the musical work as of the end of the monthly reporting period is the one who is entitled to the royalties.”
The text of the Copyright Office’s proposed rule is available in its entirety on the agency’s website. The rule is now open to public comments, in which interested parties can either support the changes or offer opposition. Such groups have until Nov. 25 to weigh in.
