State Champ Radio Business
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A new New York City law requiring employers to disclose salary ranges in job postings has officially gone into effect this week, with music companies hiring in the city mandated to comply. On the first day of the law, a picture of at least one of the major music companies’ salary ranges has come into focus.
The day the law went into effect, several companies were criticized for overly-broad salary ranges that effectively subverted the point of the regulation, which was designed to give prospective employees insight into what they could be expected to earn at different companies in the city and address salary discrepancies between men and women and for people of color. The Wall Street Journal, for instance, posted reporting and producing jobs with ranges between $40,000 to $160,000; tech jobs at Amazon were anywhere from $88,400 to $185,000; while Citigroup initially posted some job openings as between $0 and $2 million, before revising them to a range of $59,340 to $149,320.
Among the three major labels, only Warner Music Group (WMG) seems to have complied with the law as of yet. The company has 11 listed job openings on its website across its three locations in New York City, though 10 of them relate to its Spring 2023 WMG Emerging Talent Associate Program, a part-time paid internship program that lists a range from $15 to $30 an hour for between 20 and 25 hours per week. Its final opening, for a digital marketing and content creation manager, is listed at between $58,500 and $70,000 annually.
Sony, meanwhile, has more than 40 openings in its New York locations across all its operations, though not all positions appear to have salary ranges listed; most appear to ask the applicants for a desired salary target, as part of a standard-issue form through LinkedIn. (The law allows companies 30 days to comply after a complaint is registered before facing penalties. A rep for Sony tells Billboard the company will be complying.) It does list starting salaries for its fellowship program, a 24-month position with a starting salary of $70,000 per year.
Universal Music Group has some 16 openings across various divisions in New York, many at its merchandising division Bravado. Though each posting promises a “competitive compensation package including salary, benefits and generous 401k savings plan with company matching,” none lists a salary range. (A rep for UMG did not respond to a request for comment.)
In the independent sector, several New York-based companies have also listed ranges. Concord, for example, has three non-internship positions available in New York: a publishing paralegal ($70K-$80K); a publishing sync manager ($55K-$65K); and a director of business and legal affairs for publishing ($100K-$125K). BMG has two open New York-based positions: an investments/M&A manager ($80K-$90K) and a senior marketing manager ($70K-$80K). Roc Nation has two music-related New York-based openings: one for a senior director of event sponsorships ($135K-$180K) and one for a senior director of music partnerships ($135K-$170K). A senior coordinator position overseeing royalties and income tracking at Kobalt pays between $45,600 and $57,000 in New York City.
Businesses with three or fewer employees and temp agencies are not subject to the new requirement.
Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has signed an exclusive publishing deal with one of the most essential American songwriters of all time, Irving Berlin, to represent his catalog in all territories worldwide. This expands upon the major’s existing partnership with the Berlin estate, which began in 2012, which named UMPG as Berlin’s publishing administrator outside of the U.S.
Previously, Concord and Imagem (which the former purchased in 2017) handled North American publishing administration, but under the new deal, UMPG will now cover the continent instead.
Additionally, UMPG will take over duties for brand and social marketing efforts for the Berlin estate. This includes the launch of social media channels, including a new TikTok page, which promote the legacy of the songwriter and his legendary songbook — which includes “Anything You Can Do,” “Blue Skies,” “Cheek To Cheek,” “How Deep Is The Ocean,” “It’s A Lovely Day Today,” “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm,” “Let’s Face The Music And Dance,” “Puttin’ On The Ritz,” “Steppin’ Out With My Baby,” “The Song Is Ended (But The Melody Lingers On),” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” Guinness World Records’ longtime best-selling single “White Christmas,” and many more — to the next generation of fans.
The company also launched a custom Film & TV industry site which will showcase Berlin’s catalog for sync and theatrical licensing consideration. It uses themed playlists, intuitive tagging and more to help potential licensors find the perfect match within his over 1,500 song catalog.
During his lifetime, publishing administration for Berlin, who was highly protective of his copyrights, was handled by an insular group of six individuals, working in an office on West 46th Street in Manhattan, as the New York Times reported, but in 1990, following his death at the age of 101, Berlin’s publishing administration went to the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization (RHO) for further exploitation. Nearly two decades later, RHO sold to Imagem in 2009. By 2012, rights to worldwide administration ex-U.S. was given to UMPG while the North American administration was re-signed with Imagem and expanded to include brand management and grand rights exploitation globally. Then, in 2017, there was a major sale between Imagem and Concord Music Group, moving over these duties to the Concord umbrella.
Evan Lamberg, president of North America, UMPG, says of the deal, “I’ve been in the music publishing business my entire working life. It doesn’t get any better than UMPG having the honor of representing the timeless cultural songs of Irving Berlin, as well as working with the wonderful Irving Berlin family and Estate.”
“The family of Irving Berlin enthusiastically welcomes the expansion of their 10 year relationship with Universal Music Publishing Group and looks forward to continued collaboration as the exclusive global music publisher for Irving Berlin’s extensive catalog,” adds Mary G. Campbell of JPMorgan, on behalf of the Berlin’s estate.
Adam Wright, a veteran executive at several agencies and major labels, has been appointed chief financial officer of indie rights non-profit Merlin, succeeding Helen Alexander, who exits the organization after five and a half years.
Wright arrives from CAA, where he oversaw brand licensing in Europe, Middle East, and Africa as the firm’s director of finance. Previously, Wright held top-tier positions at Sony Music, handling operations across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore; and at Cooperative Music (now [PIAS] Cooperative), which was UMG’s indie-focused global licensing and distribution network until being sold in 2013.
Based in the UK, Wright will be responsible for all of the org’s financial, treasury and tax functions on a global basis. He arrives at a time of growth for Merlin, which says it has added 37 new members since last summer and is coming off deals and/or partnerships with Pinterest, Twitch Lickd and others.
“[Wright] is highly respected in his field and brings the right blend of long-term thinking, technical skills, and impressive leadership to benefit Merlin, its members and our partners around the globe,” said Jeremy Sirota, Merlin CEO.
Wright added that he was thrilled to return to the indie sector. “Independents’ passion for music is only matched by their level of innovation and entrepreneurship,” he said. “It’s a privilege to join Merlin as they continue to deliver on that ethos on behalf of their members and digital partners around the world.”
Ryman Hospitality Properties’ country-focused entertainment business, Opry Entertainment Group, saw its revenue grow 57.3% to $77.2 million in the third quarter, the company reported Monday (Oct. 31). Through the first nine months of 2022, the entertainment segment grew 86.2% to $183.6 million.
Excluding acquisitions and investments over the last three years, Opry Entertainment Group revenue and EBITDA were 19% and 21% higher than over the same period in 2019, said CEO Colin Reed. Among its properties are Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium and Wild Horse venues, as well as the media network Circle, a three-year-old joint venture with Gray Television.
“This is the same type of growth we saw pre-pandemic,” said Reed. However, the company lowered the top end of its guidance range for full-year entertainment adjusted EBITDAre (a real estate version of EBITDA) from $80 million to $76 million (the bottom end of the range remained at $72 million).
Opry Entertainment Group is benefitting from increasingly strong tourist interest in Nashville. Outgoing CEO Reed said Nashville International Airport had a record 1.83 million travelers in June, up 9% from the same month in 2019. Nashville also set a record for hotel demand in June of 875,000 room nights, 11% greater than in June 2019.
Ultimately, Ryman wants Opry Entertainment Group to “flourish as a standalone, separate entity,” said Reed. To that end, in the second quarter, Ryman sold 30% of Opry Entertainment Group to investment firm Atairos Group and media giant NBCUniversal for a combined $300 million in a deal that closed in the second quarter. The new investors have a right to request an initial public offering four years after the deal — in 2026 — or sell their stake back to Ryman for cash or shares, said president Mark Fioravanti, who will succeed Reed as CEO on Jan. 1, 2023. Prior to the seventh anniversary in 2029, Atairos Group and NBC Universal can sell their stake back to Ryman if there has not been a sale, spin-off or IPO.
Bringing aboard new investors should help Opry Entertainment Group’s efforts to capitalize on the popularity of country music and culture. Ole Red, a chain of multi-level bar/music venues the company created in partnership with country star Blake Shelton, opened its fourth location in Orlando in 2020 and a fifth location in May at Nashville International Airport. A sixth location in Las Vegas is scheduled for 2023.
The company branched out to another fast-growing city in the second quarter by closing its acquisition of Block 21, a mixed-use property in Austin, Texas that includes ACL Live at Moody Theater, home of the television show Austin City Limits Theater, as well as the W Austin Hotel and retail and office space.
Reed is optimistic that Nashville’s growth will benefit Opry Entertainment Group without hurting its core hospitality business. There are more than 50 new hotel developments in Nashville-Davidson County, Reed said, and the city projects over 2,600 additional rooms will be available in the next two years. These hotels aren’t competitors to Ryman’s Opryland Resort and Convention Center on the outskirts of town, he noted, and they will bring additional customers to Ryman’s entertainment properties in the city.
“Many of these new visitors will end up seeing a show at the Ryman, touring the Opry House or spending an evening at Ole Red or the Wild Horse,” another downtown Nashville venue in its portfolio, said Reed. “When they leave Nashville and return home, or they go to Austin or Las Vegas for their musical pilgrimage, we’ll be there, continuing to engage with them whether through our investments in expanding the Ole Red footprint or deepening our virtual reach across linear television, digital streaming or online.”
A songwriter who sued Mariah Carey over accusations that she stole her “All I Want for Christmas is You” from his earlier song has dropped his lawsuit — for now.
Mississippi artist Vince Vance filed his copyright lawsuit this summer, claiming Carey’s 1994 holiday blockbuster infringed his 1989 song of the same name. It was no small accusation: “All I Want” has reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 during each of the past three holiday seasons.
But in a court filing on Tuesday, Vance’s attorneys moved to voluntarily dismiss the case against Carey. The move means the case will be dismissed, but leaves the door open for Vance to refile the case in the future. Attorneys for both Carey and Vance did not return requests for comment.
Vance sued in June, claiming his “All I Want for Christmas is You” was recorded in 1989 and had received “extensive airplay” during the 1993 holiday season — a year before Carey released her better-known song under the same name. Calling Carey’s track a “derivative” of his own, he demanded at least $20 million in damages from her, co-writer Walter Afanasieff and Sony Music.
The lawsuit against Carey surprised many when it was filed. Wasn’t it too late for Vance to bring his case? There must be a statute of limitations for suing over asong that’s been in the zeitgeist for nearly three decades, right?
But the surprising answer to that question is no, thanks largely to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2014 on the movie Raging Bull, which overturned long-standing rules that limited how long a copyright owner can wait before taking action in court.
In the music industry, the Raging Bull ruling has sparked a number of lawsuits in recent years over decades-old copyright disputes, like a high-profile case against Led Zeppelin over “Stairway To Heaven.” Another case accused U2 of infringement over 1991’s “The Fly,” while Meat Loaf was hit with another suit over 1993’s “I’d Do Anything For Love.”
But just because someone can bring a lawsuit doesn’t mean they’ll win it — and experts told Billboard this summer that Vance’s allegations over “All I Want for Christmas is You” would still face a difficult road ahead in court.
Though the two songs share an identical name and single lyric, that’s where the similarities pretty much end. And that name is hardly unique: records at the U.S. Copyright Office show many other songs with the name “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” including a number from before either Carey or Vance’s songs were written.
“The only similarity he claims is in the title of the song, not the music or lyrics,” Paul Fakler, a veteran music litigator at the law firm Mayer Brown, told Billboard this summer. “Words and short phrases are not protectable under copyright law, and there are dozens of other songs with that same title.”
Before Vance moved to drop the case this week, very little actual litigation had taken place in the intervening four months and the case was still in the earliest procedural stages. His attorneys did not respond to questions about why they dropped the case or whether they plan to refile it.
The long-term potential of music streaming has had a growing influence on the price investors will pay for an artist or songwriter’s catalog. That’s according to a new paper titled How Streaming Has Impacted the Value of Music by Larry Miller, clinical professor and director of the music business program at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.
Miller, with the help of graduate students Felipe Garrido and Matt Palermo, found that streaming revenues were positively correlated with the multiples paid for music catalogs. Here, the term multiple refers to the acquisition price as a multiple of net publisher share (NPS), a publishing catalog’s annual royalties; or net label share (NLS), a recording catalog’s annual royalties. From 2011 to 2021, the average catalog multiple increased from 8.6 to 20.7, according to data provided by Shot Tower Capital. In that time span, streaming went from virtually nothing to 65% of global recorded music revenue, according to IFPI. Miller found that 61.5% of the value of the average NPS multiple in 2021 came from streaming revenues paid to music publishers. By contrast, just 5% of the NPS multiple came from streaming in 2011.
Importantly, Miller found that investors’ expectations for future streaming growth were also positively correlated with NPS multiples. For those calculations, Miller and his team used MIDiA Research’s forecasts for global music publishing revenue from 2018 to 2021 and transaction data from Shot Tower Capital. When MIDiA’s forecast for four-year cumulative average growth rate was higher — due to heightened assumptions about the streaming market’s growth potential — the average NPS multiple was higher, too.
The correlation between expectations and valuations cuts to the heart of the surge in catalog investments over the last decade. Although acquisitions are usually discussed in terms of a simple multiple — upwards of 29.5 times NPS for Bob Dylan and 30 times NPS for Bruce Springsteen, but lower for the average artist — the purchase price reflects the buyers’ belief about the catalog’s ability to generate royalties in the coming years. In mathematical terms, a catalog’s valuation is the present value of expected future cash flows. Experts such as Citron Cooperman and FTI Consulting value catalogs using financial models that forecast future royalties based on songs’ historical performance and industry-wide growth trends.
Interest rates also impacted what investors were willing to pay for catalogs. Miller found that increases in U.S. Treasury Bond interest rates were negatively correlated with NPS multiples. In other words, when debt became more expensive, catalogs were worth less to buyers. Again, the value of a catalog is the sum of its expected future royalties discounted — divided by a discount rate — to a present value. If the cost of debt increases by two percentage points, the discount rate will increase by an equal amount. And the higher the discount rate, the lower the present value.
Miller is careful to point out that his analysis is “a look in the rear-view mirror” that shouldn’t be used to forecast future values. “But it is certainly useful to understand where we’ve come from,” he says. The paper was commissioned by the Digital Music Association (DiMA), a trade group that represents member companies Amazon, Apple Music, Google/YouTube, Spotify and Pandora. Miller says DiMA neither took part in the analysis nor had a role in writing the paper.
Not only has streaming created revenue growth for labels and publishers, the nature of streaming royalties — steady royalties from recurring subscription fees — has also made music more attractive to investors. To comfortably earn a return for investors, you need “predictability to the cash flow,” Denise Coletta, senior vp at City National Bank, told Miller. Compared to purchases of CDs and downloads, streaming delivers consistent royalties — even during a pandemic when some other segments of the music industry faltered. “Streaming has certainly led to much better transparency over the past 10 years, which has helped support the rationale associated with these multiples,” she added.
Music streaming services have had an undeniable impact on the music business over the last decade. As streaming boomed, record labels and publishers escaped the doldrums of the download era and now routinely post double-digit revenue growth. That momentum reignited investors’ interest in music as an asset class. In recent years, major financial players such as KKR, BlackRock and Blackstone have poured money into funds that purchase music catalogs as long-term investments — mostly because of streaming.
Streaming has also changed music’s life cycle in a way that’s attractive to investors. In the past, an album would make money quickly and fade quickly as fewer people made trips to the cash register. Now, the loss of streaming activity — called the decay rate — is much milder because streams represent repeated listening. That has allowed songs and albums to remain popular longer and changed the way labels market and promote new releases by putting less of a focus on the first few weeks of release.
Miller cites a 2017 article by Will Page, then Spotify’s director of economics, that argued the definition of catalog — a song or album 18 months or older — had become “antiquated” in the streaming era. Purchases tend to happen early in a song or album’s life cycle. On streaming platforms, however, songs can earn royalties more consistently and for longer periods. Page’s analysis showed that Imagine Dragons’ album Night Visions had 177% more streams in its first 18 months as a catalog title than during its 18 months as a current release. The album’s sales, on the other hand, fell 33% in the later 18-month period.
For this paper, Miller recreated Page’s work by comparing the performance of 500 “high-impacting albums” released in 2018 over two, 18-month periods using U.S. streaming data from Luminate. About 5% of those albums performed better in their second 18-month period than their first 18 months of release and 97 of the 500 titles declined less than 25% in the second 18-month period.
“The story here is we had been used to records peaking in the initial year of release,” says Miller. “It’s not just that 5.2% did better in the second 18 months. But the number of records that are declining, they are declining less than we had seen in previous years.”
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings, and all the fun stuff in between. This week: Major law firms cut ties with Kanye West over his antisemitic comments, Slacker fights with SoundExchange over a huge royalties judgment, Coachella sues a nearby business called “Coachillin,” and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Kanye West Is Running Out of Lawyers
After a string of antisemitic statements earlier this month, Kanye West has lost nearly every aspect of his once-formidable business empire. His representatives at CAA have dropped him, and his signature fashion partnerships with Adidas, The Gap and Balenciaga have all been terminated.You can now add his lawyers to that list.Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, the prestigious Wall Street firm that represented Kanye in his dealings with Gap, confirmed to multiple outlets last week that the firm is not currently representing him and “have made the decision not to work with him in the future.”Greenberg Traurig, a top music firm that’s repping him in both a copyright lawsuit and an employment case, said it was taking steps to withdraw from those cases as fast as ethically possible: “This firm was founded by individuals who faced discrimination and many of us lost ancestors because of that kind of hate and prejudice,” the firm wrote in a statement, referring to Jewish founders Larry Hoffman, Mel Greenberg and Robert Traurig.Robert Cohen of Cohen Clair Lans Greifer Thorpe & Rottenstreich, the rapper’s sixth divorce attorney in his split with Kim Kardashian who he only just hired in September, has also dropped him, according to a report from Reuters. And Brown Rudnick partner Camille Vasquez, who rose to prominence representing Johnny Depp in his defamation case against Amber Heard, quit just days after being hired by the embattled rapper, as first reported by the New York Post.It seems even prospective lawyers are distancing themselves. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan partner Alex Spiro, a Billboard Top Music Lawyer who reps Jay-Z and Elon Musk, told Reuters that Ye “asked me to be his attorney but the representation never formalized.” Spiro made it clear: “I do not represent Mr. West.”A lack of options for legal representation isn’t a great situation for West, because he has no shortage of legal problems.Even if he avoids any court battles over his various corporate breakups — and that’s far from certain, given the messy web of intellectual property he splits with Adidas and other former partners — he’s still got plenty of litigation ahead, including looming December deadlines in the divorce case; multiple copyright lawsuits over claims of illegal sampling; a case claiming he stiffed a production company that worked on his Sunday Service; a lawsuit claiming he refused to return clothes to a high-end fashion rental service; a case claiming he owes $4.5 million to a celebrity accountant he abruptly fired; and threats of lawsuits from the family of George Floyd over his incendiary statements about Floyd’s killing.
Other top stories this week…
SLACKER’S ROYALTY WOES – Slacker warned a judge that a recent ruling, requiring the streamer to hand over nearly $10 million in unpaid royalties to SoundExchange, would cause “economic damage” for the company that would be “unsustainable.” But SoundExchange quickly fired back that it had spent years “indulging” such excuses and that labels and artists had waited “long enough” to get paid by the streamer: “The court should deny defendants’ latest attempt to shirk their obligations with the promise that next time will be different.”COACHELLA v. ‘COACHILLIN’ – AEG’s Goldenvoice, the owner of Coachella, filed a trademark infringement lawsuit over a planned “Coachillin” business park located just a few miles north of the festival grounds at the Empire Polo Club. The suit said the 160-acre development plan, aimed at cannabis businesses, isn’t a problem — but needs to pick a new name: “The public has come to associate the phrase ‘Coachillin’ to refer to the Coachella Festival and plaintiffs, not merely to refer to the Coachella Valley — and certainly not Coachillin Holdings.” The case is the latest in a string of trademark cases from Goldenvoice, which sued Ticketmaster last year over a New Year’s Eve concert called “Coachella Day One 22″ and sued a West African company last month over an event called “Afrochella.”COMEDY CARTEL? JUDGE SAYS NO – A federal judge rejected one of Pandora’s key arguments in its legal battle with comedians, dismissing claims that a licensing group called Word Collections was operating as an illegal comedy “cartel” that violated federal antitrust laws. The ruling came in sprawling litigation filed by a slew of comics who want Pandora to start paying the equivalent of publishing royalties for spoken-word content. Faced with those allegations, the streamer responded by arguing that Word Collections and the comedians were effectively trying to create a “monopolistic portfolio” of comedy rights, aimed at “dramatically increasing” the prices streamers must pay. But in the ruling this week, the judge didn’t buy it — saying Pandora didn’t properly allege that the comics had conspired to fix prices, nor that their grouping amounted to an illegal monopoly in the comedy world.BAIL REVOKED FOR TORY LANEZ – A Los Angeles judge ordered Tory Lanezto be placed under house arrest ahead of a trial over accusations that he shot Megan Thee Stallion, citing an incident last month in which the singer allegedly assaulted singer August Alsina in Chicago. The singer is facing more than 22 years in prison over the alleged July 2020 altercation with Stallion, in which he allegedly shot her in the foot during an argument following a party in the Hollywood Hills. The trial is set to kick off at the end of November and the singer had been out on bail, but in September Alsina claimed that Lanez and his entourage attacked him following a Chicago concert. Prosecutors at the time said they were investigating those claims, and Judge David Herriford cited the accusations to revoke Lanez’ bail this week.
Taylor Swift, in case you haven’t heard, is back. Her 10th studio album, Midnights, was released on Oct. 21 and moved 1.578 million album equivalents in its first week of release in the U.S. according to Luminate, the most since Adele’s 25 seven years ago. The album’s standard edition blanketed the Billboard Hot 100 in unprecedented fashion, occupying the chart’s entire top 10 positions. And now, she has officially announced the Eras Tour, playing stadiums in the U.S. throughout 2023.
Swift is no stranger to the stadium stage. Her last tour, 2018’s Reputation Stadium Tour, played 53 shows, earning $345.7 million and sold 2.9 million tickets, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.
That was enough to make it the highest-grossing and most-attended tour of Swift’s career. She had leveled up from 2015’s The 1989 World Tour, which itself had bested The Red Tour (2013-14). From theaters to arenas to stadiums, and from smaller Midwest markets to global reach, each of Swift’s official five treks have out-grossed and out-sold the one before.
The Reputation Stadium Tour reached career-high status by staying true to its name, sticking to stadiums in all four continents that it played. Swift averaged more than 50,000 paid tickets in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, doubling her previous high in Asia and quadrupling the nightly attendance from her previous run in Europe.
To do so, the stadium-branded tour played it smart. She played 53 shows worldwide, consolidated from the 80-plus dates on The 1989 World Tour and The Red Tour, forcing high(er) demand on an exclusive routing. In Europe, she stuck to three markets in the U.K., and in Asia only played two shows in Tokyo.
Still, Swift played 38 shows in the U.S., breaking her own record for the highest-grossing stateside tour of all time (the record has since been broken by Elton John). With an even more sparse calendar in 2023 so far, Swift will challenge herself to, once again, outdo herself.
The Eras Tour announced 27 stadium shows in the U.S. (Swift assured fans that international shows would be announced at a later date), beginning March 18 in Glendale, Arizona, and wrapping with an on Aug. 4-5 double-header in Inglewood, California. If Swift were to replicate Reputation’s $7 million nightly domestic average, the tour would earn $189.1 million and sell 1.47 million tickets.
But those figures are based on Reputation’s $128.67 average ticket price. In the time since that tour closed, platinum ticketing, dynamic pricing and inflation have changed the potential for sky-high ticket prices, especially for a stadium A-lister like Swift.
And while the initial routing for Eras is light, the time between its March kickoff and August finale is wide open. Swift is only scheduled to play one or two shows a week, leaving ample room for additional markets and, just as likely, additional shows in the cities she’s already announced. Depending on demand in the two and a half weeks between registration for Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program and the tour’s general on-sale, Swift’s schedule could bulk up.
And why wouldn’t it? In the time since the Reputation Stadium Tour wrapped in 2018, she has topped the Billboard 200 with six albums and crowned the Hot 100 four times. She was nominated for the Grammy for album of the year three years in a row, winning in 2021 for Folklore. Between her latest record-breaking success with Midnights and the engagement surrounding the Taylor’s Version re-recordings of her older albums, Swift is setting the stage for the cumulative effect of her many eras on their titular tour.
SiriusXM’s profits fell in the third quarter from a year ago on higher expenses and lower profits from Pandora, but overal revenues rose thanks to SiriusXM subscriber growth, the satellite radio company reported on Tuesday.
Sirius XM Holdings Inc. reported net income fell to $247 million, or earnings per diluted share of $0.06, in the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2022, from $343 million, or $0.08, during the third quarter last year. In its Pandora and off-platform segment, gross profits fell 12% on lower subscriber revenue and higher costs from investments in podcast content, the company said in its earnings release.
Revenues rose 3.6% to $2.28 billion from $2.198 billion in the third quarter 2021, while adjusted EBITDA was $720 million for the quarter, roughly flat year-over-year. The company reiterated that it expects full year revenues of $9 billion, with an adjusted EBIDTA of $2.8 billion.
Total operating expenses rose by more than 15% to $1.813 billion in the quarter on increased subscriber acquisition costs, marketing, sales and general administrative expenses.
Subscriber acquisition costs rose 21% to $86 million due to higher equipment installations by automakers, executives said. That and along with investments and other expenses caused the company’s free cash flow to fall 44% from a year ago to $329 million.
In addition, SiriusXM announced its board voted to raise the quarterly cash dividend by 10%, which it will pay out later this month. The company returned $262 million in capital to stockholders in the quarter, chief financial officer Sean Sullivan said in a statement.
“We continue to drive growth and focus on a disciplined approach to cost management across our organization,” chief executive Jennifer Witz said on a call with analysts. “While near-term objectives remain top of mind, we are focused on the strategy and investments that will drive long-term value for our stockholders.”
SiriusXM third quarter financial highlights:
SiriusXM reported 32.2 million self-pay subscribers, reflecting an increase of 187,000.The total number of subscribers rose to 34.2 million, including a decline of number of 49,000 paid promotional subscribers. The company’s self-pay monthly churn rate remained at record-low levels at 1.5%.Revenue for SiriusXM rose 5% to $1.7 billion compared to last year on self-pay subscriber growth and a 6%-increase in advertising on the SiriusXM platform.Total cost of services at SiriusXM rose 3% to $665 million for the quarter from the third quarter 2021.
Pandora and Off-Platform third quarter financial highlights:
Gross profit for Pandora and Off-Platform segment fell 12% to $173 million for the third quarter 2022, from $197 million a year ago.Pandora monthly active users fell 7% to 48.8 million compared to 52.6 million in the third quarter a year ago, and subscriber revenue declined by 2%.Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium self-pay subscribersheld flat at 6.3 million.Advertising revenue edged 1% higher to $407 million, as total ad-supported listener hours fell to 2.75 billion in the quarter compared to 2.89 billion a year ago. Podcasting and off-platform business revenues rose 37% to $123 million.The total cost of services increased by 7% driven primarily by investments in podcast content.
Primary Wave Music has partnered with Huey Lewis and the News to purchase ownership of all Lewis and the band members’ shares of their musical composition copyrights, including writers’ shares of income. With a $20 million price tag, according to a source close to the deal, this encompasses their full discography from the group’s self-titled debut album up to 1994’s Four Chords & Several Years Ago.
This time period, spanning about 25 years, was the band’s most fruitful run, including hits like “Hip to Be Square,” “The Power of Love,” “If This Is It,” “Workin’ for a Living” and “The Heart of Rock and Roll.” The band’s landmark third album, the 7x-platinum Sports, turns 40 next year.
With a catalog that helped define 1980s rock n’ roll, Huey Lewis and The News’ likely best-known single to date is “The Power of Love” which was written for the Back to the Future soundtrack. After peaking at No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart, it earned the band nominations for a Grammy, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.
Along with the transfer of ownership of the aforementioned catalog, Primary Wave will provide Huey Lewis and The News with marketing and publishing administration. This also includes digital strategy, licensing, synch opportunities and film & TV production.
The deal follows up the announcement that Primary Wave has received $1.7 billion from the Canadian investment company Brookfield Asset Management, Inc. to fund song catalog acquisitions as well as the announcements of over $300 million worth of other deals in 2022 so far, including the purchase of music and/or estate rights from members of Def Leppard, Alice in Chains, America, The Strokes, Prince, and more.
Outside of the discography included in the catalog agreement, Huey and the band continued on into the 21st century, releasing lesser known albums like Plan B (2001) and their Stax Records tribute, Soulsville (2010). By 2018, Lewis announced that he was losing his hearing due to a battle with Ménière’s, an inner ear disease, but he brought the crew together for their 2020 comeback record, Weather.
Primary Wave Music’s David Weitzman says of the deal, “In the 1980’s, everyone heard Huey Lewis and the News’s many smashes on radio and saw their iconic & fun videos which appeared on MTV in endless rotation. Their incredibly crafted songs still made me smile, remind me of that seemingly more innocent era, and make me want to sing along at the top of your lungs. Primary Wave look forward to working with Huey to create new opportunities for his storied song catalog into the future.”
John Luneau, senior counsel for Primary Wave, added “We’re honored to welcome the music of Huey Lewis and the News to Primary Wave. Our entire team is looking forward to working with them to generate new and exciting opportunities for their iconic catalog.”
