State Champ Radio Business
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Songclip has announced a partnership with Hipgnosis. Known as the “world’s only patented music clip company,” Songclip helps the music industry get clips of songs uploaded and properly licensed for apps like TikTok. The deal will allow Songclips to work with 100,000 new songs administered by Hipgnosis. This news arrives months after the 2022 NMPA Annual Meeting in which its CEO and president, David Israelite, announced that the organization will be partnering with Songclip to help remedy the issue of unlicensed music on emerging apps. To date, Songclip also has deals in place WMG, UMG, BMG, Kobalt and more.
Sony Music Publishing U.K. has signed producer and artist Lostboy to a global publishing deal. Known for his work with Tiesto and Ava Max’s “The Motto” as well as cuts with Bebe Rexha, Zedd, Kehlani, Why Don’t We, and more, he is considered by the Sony team to be one of brightest talents straddling pop, dance and electronic music. “He is without a doubt one of the world’s most exciting songwriters,” says Saul Fitton, senior a&r manager at SMP U.K.
Concord Music Publishing has signed Russell Dickerson, a multi-platinum country artist and songwriter. The deal includes Dickerson’s back catalog of songs — including “Yours,” “Every Little Thing,” and “Blue Tacoma” — as well as works made moving forward. Dickerson says of the deal, “I love that they are an independent company with worldwide reach. They value songwriters and today I’m humbled to be joining their roster of incredible talent.”
Bosworth Music (Wise Music Group) has announced its new worldwide publishing deal with Grandbrothers. The German-Swiss duo, made up of Erol Sarp and Lukas Vogel, release records via indie label City Slang and also work on respected film compositions, including a score for Hors Normes which debuted at the Cannes International Film Festival.
Warner Chappell Music has signed up-and-coming Nashville talent Jon Kraft to a publishing deal. A songwriter and artist in his own right, he will be represented by the company worldwide.
BDi Music has signed Aimée to a global publishing deal. The up-and-coming Irish pop writer and singer has been releasing music since 2018, and she now joins talents like Novo Amor, Amy Wadge, and more on BDi’s roster.
Cardi B didn’t hold back when she took the witness stand Wednesday (Oct. 19) in a lawsuit claiming her sexually-suggestive album cover left a man “humiliated,” repeatedly sparring with an opposing attorney, requesting “receipts” and claiming her accuser is “harassing” her in hopes of scoring a settlement.
The rapper’s testimony came in an unusual case filed by Kevin Brophy, a California man who claims parts of his back tattoo was unwittingly photoshopped onto the cover of Cardi’s 2016 mixtape Gangsta Bitch Music Vol. 1 to make it look like he was performing oral sex on the now-superstar.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Cardi and Brophy’s attorney, A. Barry Cappello, battled repeatedly. At two different points during their sparring, the judge dismissed the jurors from the courtroom to calm the bickering down. On the second dismissal, things got so heated that the judge told Cappello he had “totally crossed the line,” and even threatened to declare a mistrial after jurors had left the courtroom.
Earlier in the day, Brophy’s attorneys said they had sent the star a cease-and-desist seeking to have the image removed – prompting Cardi to fire back that the case was really about money, not changes to an album cover.
“This is not about taking anything down. Y’all have been harassing me for $5 million,” the star said to Cappello. Cardi later noted that the mixtape did not even earn that much, and her cut was even less.
The star also took exception to the suggestion that Brophy’s image on the cover had somehow contributed to her meteoric success over the past decade – a key part of his legal case against her. She said she had been “working my ass off [for] two kids” and that it’s “really insulting to me as a woman that a man is claiming responsibility.”
Released in 2016, the cover image of Gangsta Bitch certainly raised eyebrows. In it, the then-rising star is seen taking a swig of a large beer, staring directly into the camera with her legs spread wide and holding a man’s head while he appears to perform oral sex on her.
The actual man in the image was a model who had consented to the shoot, but a giant tattoo on the man’s back belonged to Brophy. Unbeknownst to Cardi, a freelance graphic designer had typed “back tattoos” into Google Image, found one that fit (Brophy’s), and Photoshopped it onto the model’s body. It apparently didn’t occur to him that he would need anyone’s approval to do so.
Brophy sued in 2017 for millions in damages, claiming he was “devastated, humiliated and embarrassed” by the cover. He says Cardi and others violated his so-called right of publicity by using his likeness without his consent, and also violated his right to privacy by casting him in a “false light” that was “highly offensive.”
Cardi’s legal team has argued those accusations are “sheer fantasy” and “vastly overblown” – and that Brophy is just suing her in an effort to “cash in the legal equivalent of a lotto ticket.” Her legal team says nobody would have recognized a relatively unknown man based merely on his back, and that he has little proof anyone did.
The trial kicked off on Tuesday, when Brophy testified that Cardi’s “raunchy” image had caused severe stress on his life. He called it a “complete slap in the face” that had caused him “hurt and shame.”
But at Wednesday’s hearing, Cardi pointed out from the witness stand that the model in the image was “a Black man that’s fit” who has hair. Brophy is white with a shaved head.
“It’s not Mr. Brophy’s back. It doesn’t look like Mr. Brophy at all,” she told Cappello. “There has been not one receipt he has provided in the court claiming, ‘Hey, that’s you on Cardi’s mixtape.’”
Wednesday’s proceedings also featured testimony by Brophy himself and his wife, as well as Cardi’s former manager Klenord “Shaft” Raphael. Testimony will continue on Thursday, with a verdict expected on Friday or Monday.re
Miley Cyrus has settled a copyright lawsuit a month after she was sued for posting a paparazzi photo of herself to Instagram, according to court documents filed Wednesday (Oct. 18) and obtained by Billboard.
In the original complaint, filed on Sept. 12 in Los Angeles federal court, photographer Robert Barbera claimed that Cyrus reposted his 2020 image of her without a license or permission to do so. In the snap, the “Midnight Sky” singer is seen waving to fans as she exits a building.
In his complaint, Barbera claimed Cyrus has an “immense presence” due to her millions of followers on Instagram, and that posting the image “crippled if not destroyed” his ability to make money licensing it.
According to court documents, the lawsuit was subsequently dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning Barbera cannot refile the same claim again in that court.
The lawsuit against Cyrus is not the first Barbera has filed. The New York-based photographer previously filed copyright complaints against Ariana Grande in May 2019 and January 2020, and Justin Bieber in October 2019, though both cases were later settled on confidential terms. Earlier this summer, he filed another lawsuit against Dua Lipa that at the time of publication is still pending in court.
Though these cases may seem unfair, the law is on the side of photographers like Barbera, as they own the copyrights to the images that they take — and using those photos without a license constitutes infringement. Simply appearing in an image does not give a celebrity co-ownership of it, nor does it give them a right to repost it for free.
Had the court found that Cyrus had infringed Barbera’s copyright, the singer could have faced damages totaling as much as $150,000. For that reason, most celebrities accused of infringement by photographers opt to settle out of court, likely for a smaller sum, in order to avoid the time and expense that come with continued litigation. Though the terms of these settlement deals are nearly always private, for a single photo, amounts likely range in the tens of thousands of dollars.
TikTok creators will soon be handed a fresh set of tools to soundtrack their videos and potentially make hit songs when a new in-app platform created by Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment company, in partnership with Universal Music Group and Samsung, launches on the platform later this month.
Called StemDrop, the initiative will provide TikTok’s more than 1 billion monthly users with access to music “stems” (the isolated components of a song, such as drum tracks or individual vocal parts) from an exclusive new track composed by hit songwriters Max Martin, Savan Kotecha and Ali Payami entitled “Red Lights,” which creators can then use to record and share their own versions.
The project was conceived by British music mogul Cowell and entertainment executive Tim Van Rongen in partnership with Universal Music imprint Republic Records and Samsung.
“With tens of thousands of songs uploaded every day this idea will give aspiring artists the opportunity to collaborate with some of the most successful songwriters in the world,” said Cowell in a statement announcing the project.
Sir Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, paid tribute to the “incredible team” Cowell has assembled to launch the platform, “harnessing the scale of TikTok, to leverage the artistry of creators worldwide.”
StemDrop debuts on Oct. 26, when 60 seconds of “Red Lights” will be exclusively released on TikTok, along with individual “stems” from the track which can be accessed through a dedicated micro-site or an in-app StemDrop Mixer, enabling users to play with production effects and create new versions of the song.
A spokesperson for StemDrop tells Billboard that Universal/Republic Records retain ownership of the master recording of “Red Lights”, the publishers own their share and with any future versions, the contribution of any new creator will be added to the royalty split.
It’s not clear if Martin — who co-wrote and produced multiple Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s, including Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time,” Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” – or “Red Lights” co-writers Kotecha and Payami will be involved with the platform beyond its first phase, which is officially titled “’StemDrop’ – A Song for the World.”
Following its launch, a StemDrop profile on TikTok will share new versions of the track from around the world, curated by the platform, Syco, Republic Records and Universal Music Group. TikTok music curator Ari Elkins, singer-songwriter Astrid S and digital creator Your Boy Moyo will act as global ambassadors for StemDrop and host daily content on the @StemDrop TikTok channel. Syco Entertainment and Republic Records will provide creative direction and drive the StemDrop talent discovery program going forward, according to a press release from TikTok.
“Every day, brilliant, undiscovered artists and songwriters turn to TikTok to share their music and find a global audience,” said Ole Obermann, Global Head of Music at TikTok. “StemDrop will put a spotlight on this talent and act as a springboard to help them build their careers.”
Over the past two weeks, Ye — the artist and and entrepreneur formally known as Kanye West — has worn a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt, spread antisemitic conspiracy theories on a popular Revolt podcast and falsely blamed George Floyd’s death on fentanyl. That could cost him some fashion and branding deals – Adidas has said its partnership with the rapper is “under review.” So far, though, in the United States his music remains just as popular as it was on audio and video streaming services, although on terrestrial radio his daily spins and average daily audience were down about 21% since Meta and Twitter restricted his social accounts, according to Luminate.
West’s streaming numbers haven’t changed much over the last few weeks. For the seven days after Oct. 3, when West wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt at the Paris Fashion Week show for his Yeezy line, his catalog had an average daily streaming tally of 13.1 million in the U.S., according to Luminate, compared to 13 million in the seven days before that. A change like that — less than 1% — would seem to reflect the normal fluctuations of the streaming business.
West’s daily streaming numbers also stayed steady before and after the antisemitic tweets starting on Oct. 7, which resulted in restrictions being placed on his Instagram and Twitter accounts. In the week following the restrictions placed on West’s social accounts, his average daily on-demand audio and video streams in the U.S. was 13.1 million, just 3.5% lower than the previous week — a negligible difference that’s also best explained by normal fluctuations in streaming activity.
West’s radio airplay is a different story, however. There was a noticeable decline in the artist’s radio spins and audience size following Twitter and Meta’s decisions on Oct. 9 to restrict access to his social media accounts, leaving West’s controversial posts but preventing him from publishing additional posts or comments. West’s daily spins declined 21.1%, from 325 in the eight days preceding his social account restrictions to 258 in the eight days following them; and his average daily radio audience fell 21.4%. Representatives for iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media, two of the country’s largest radio companies, did not comment.
Last week’s radio audience was West’s lowest in more than two years — lower than levels seen before the radio promotion push for his 2021 album Donda, which sent the songs “Hurricane” (No. 6) and “Off the Grid” (No. 11) onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart — and lower than anything since a brief spike in airplay in June around the release of the third single from Donda 2, “True Love.”
Despite West getting skewered on late-night television and criticized by everybody from actress Jamie Lee Curtis to singer Ariana Grande, there is some evidence that West’s latest outbursts have spurred greater engagement online: his Twitter following grew by 182,000 on Oct. 8, to 31.28 million, according to Chartmetric, an online analytics platform that measures artists’ social and streaming activities. At the same time, West’s Chartmetric rank — an overall measure of fan engagement online — improved four spots to No. 30 in the past month (meaning only 29 artists rank higher). Based on that, “I would say consumers see controversy as a source of entertainment and not concern,” says Rutger Rosenborg, marketing manager at Chartmetric.
West’s streaming activity may just be on autopilot as a result of placement on playlists on music streaming platforms. As of Wednesday (Oct. 19), West’s music is featured on 1,270 and 1,951 in-house playlists at Spotify and Apple Music, respectively, according to Chartmetric. Additionally, West can be found on 1.3 million user-generated playlists on Spotify. (Not all of these playlists result in streams within the U.S., however.) Significant streaming activity also comes from personalized, algorithmically generated playlists such as Spotify’s Your Time Capsule. The only significant week-to-week changes in West’s streaming numbers come when he releases a new track or album.
Radio play depends more on human decision-making. Radio programmers remain powerful gatekeepers in an increasingly decentralized, automated world of streaming platforms less affected by the decisions of corporate executives under the influence of advertising clients. Country singer Morgan Wallen saw radio programmers’ power in February 2021 after a video surfaced online of him using a racist epithet. In the two weeks following the incident, weekly radio spins and audience dropped 95.7% and 97.2%, respectively, according to Luminate. At the same time, Wallen’s streaming numbers remained strong enough that Dangerous spent 10 straight weeks atop the Billboard 200 album chart.
Controversies tend to blow over eventually. Wallen’s radio spins recovered to pre-controversy levels within 15 months and in September Dangerous set a new record for longevity with 86 non-consecutive weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard 200. “Even if DSPs remove an artist from editorial playlists for a period of time, that doesn’t stop users from adding that artist to their own playlists,” Rosenborg says. “Once everything blows over, those artists are added back to editorial playlists by DSPs as well.”
Calls to break up Live Nation Entertainment are getting louder.
The American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit advocating for more aggressive antitrust enforcement, urged the Department of Justice on Wednesday to unwind the merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation for allegedly price gouging customers in addition to strong-arming artists and venues into accepting unfavorable conditions. In a letter to the DOJ obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, the group claims that the live-events behemoth continues to violate the conditions of a 2010 settlement greenlighting the deal.
“Ticketmaster’s market power over live events is ripping off sports and music fans and undermining the vibrancy and independence of the music industry,” said Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project. “With new leadership at the DOJ committed to enforcing the antitrust laws, our new campaign helps connect the voices of fans, artists and others in the music business who are sick and tired of being at the mercy of Ticketmaster’s monopoly with enforcers who have the power to unwind it.”
Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged in 2009, two years after the live-events organizer announced plans to build its own ticketing service. Prior to the deal, Live Nation was Ticketmaster’s largest customer.
The merger was met with pushback. Bruce Springsteen, upset at Ticketmaster for steering concertgoers toward its own secondary ticketing platform, wrote in a 2009 letter to his fans that “the one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan than it is now would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming up with a single system, thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing.” (Springsteen’s current tour lists dates with Ticketmaster listings.)
At the time, David Balto, an antitrust attorney at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, testified to the Senate that the combined company “will cut off the air supply for any future rival to challenge its monopoly in the ticket distribution market,” and use its newfound reach to “diminish competition in independent concert promotion.”
Antitrust regulators approved the deal with certain conditions. They required Ticketmaster to sell its ticketing service subsidiary, Paciolan, to Comcast and to license its ticketing software to Live Nation’s rival, AEG. The new company was also not allowed to bundle or retaliate against venues for working with other ticketing services.
The American Economic Liberties Project argues that Live Nation is violating the consent decree. It points to conditioning the availability of the company’s performers to independent venues using Ticketmaster’s services.
“Live Nation essentially uses its concert promotion services to bully venues away from using the few competitors that Ticketmaster still has,” states an analysis from the group. “If a venue opts not to use those services, Live Nation retaliates by effectively boycotting the venue. Because Live Nation controls so much of the market for concert promotion, being able to book performers who contract with Live Nation can make or break a venue’s ability to survive.”
In 2019, the DOJ found that Live Nation had been violating the terms of the settlement by forcing venues to accept Ticketmaster’s ticketing services as a condition for hosting Live Nation performers and retaliating against those that refused. The agency, in turn, threatened to assess monetary penalties for additional violations and installed a monitor tasked with investigating further breaches of the consent decree, which was extended until 2025.
The organization also claims that Ticketmaster wouldn’t be able to charge hidden and excessive fees if it weren’t an illegal monopoly and that it facilitates price gouging by encouraging scalping. The company runs a secondary ticket market called Ticketmaster Resale, where they charge a second, more lucrative fee in addition to the fee assessed on its primary ticket market. By allowing scalpers to buy up the majority of tickets, Ticketmaster can essentially assess a second fee on consumers who missed out on the initial sale of concert tickets.
“Ticketmaster has an incentive to minimize the genuine sales by concertgoers on the primary market, by either restricting sales or allowing scalpers to buy, and then profiting from the price gouging in the secondary market, where consumers pay far more,” the analysis states. (The American Economic Liberties Project’s petition is here.)
This article was originally published on THR.com.
Michael Knox has been promoted to president of peermusic Nashville. Knox, who joined the company in 2010, previously served as senior vp of peermusic Nashville.
Under Knox’s guidance, peermusic Nashville published the 2016 SESAC country song of the year, Dierks Bentley‘s “Somewhere on a Beach,” co-written by Michael Tyler and Jaron Boyer, as well as the 2013 ASCAP country music song of the year, Randy Houser‘s “How Country Feels” (co-written by Neil Thrasher and Vicky McGehee). Other peermusic Nashville publishing highlights include Jason Aldean‘s “Rearview Town,” Jon Pardi‘s “Ain’t Always The Cowboy,” Cole Swindell‘s “Love You Too Late,” Riley Green‘s “There Was This Girl” and Dustin Lynch‘s “Hell of a Night.”
“In the 12 years that he has been with peermusic, Michael Knox has distinctively guided our Nashville office song by song, hit by hit, resulting in major impact for our roster of songwriters,” said Kathy Spanberger, president/COO peermusic, via a statement. “Knox is one of the most prolific publishers and music producers in Nashville with an extraordinary amount of production credits to his name, but it’s his thoughtful approach, quick humor, and devotion to our music creators that really draws people to want to build their careers with peermusic Nashville. Knox is delivering career-making opportunities for our writers.”
“For over 94 years, the Peers have been widely considered the first family of country music publishing with a history of delivering ‘firsts’ in the industry,” Knox added. “I jumped at the invitation to be a part of this publishing team 12 years ago and to work alongside some of the best and most trusted music publishers in the business. The important legacy that we’re building upon here in Nashville, our commitment to continue delivering ‘firsts’ for songwriters, and the genuine connections we have with our peermusic writers is something that I’m flat-out proud to be a part of. I’m thankful to Kathy, Mary Megan Peer, Ralph Peer II, and our peermusic team for this opportunity.”
In addition to his work leading peermusic Nashville, Knox is an accomplished producer known for his longtime work with Aldean and others. Knox topped Billboard’s Top Country Producers chart for the first time last year (notching his 13th year earning Top 10 Country Producers honors) after the release of the Aldean/Carrie Underwood collaboration “If I Didn’t Love You,” which Knox solely produced. The song stayed atop the Billboard Country Airplay chart for three weeks, and earned single of the year honors at the 57th annual Academy of Country Music Awards. The song is nominated for music event of the year at the upcoming 56th annual Country Music Association awards.
Knox’s production credits have contributed to over 55 million singles and 30 million albums sold, including songs recorded by Thomas Rhett (“It Goes Like This”), Trace Adkins (“Just Fishin’”), Kelly Clarkson and Aldean (“Don’t You Wanna Stay”), Aldean, Luke Bryan and Eric Church (“The Only Way I Know”), Montgomery Gentry (“Where I Come From”) and more. He also co-produced “The Wrong Song,” featuring Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere with T Bone Burnett for the television show Nashville.
Prior to joining peermusic, Knox opened the song plugging company Hit Pluggers in 1991. From 1992 until 2002, Knox served as a vice president at Warner Chappell, responsible for writer and artist development and song placements. He signed and oversaw writers and catalogs including Aldean, John Rich, Gretchen Wilson, Emily West, Jeff Stevens, Steve Bogard, Marv Green, Terry McBride, Wendell Mobley, and Dave Loggins. Knox has previously served on the ACM Board of Directors and the CMA Board of Directors.
Additionally, Knox is a label exec with the Music Knox Records imprint with BBR Music Group/BMG. He signed Tim Montana to the label in 2020. He also launched the nationally syndicated radio show Knox Country 360, which he serves as host and producer on. Earlier this year, Knox became a first-time ACM national weekly on-air personality of the year, alongside co-host Shalacy Griffin.
Live Nation Concerts has announced Geni Lincoln will be joining the company as their new president of California region. Lincoln will oversee all booking, marketing and business operations in California for the leading live entertainment promoter. She previously served as the GM and senior vp of live events for the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
“I am very excited to return to Live Nation and join the stellar California team,” said Lincoln. “I have been fortunate enough to have worked with some of the best teams in the business and look forward to continuing growing those relationships in this role at Live Nation.”
Concert industry veteran Rich Best, who previously served as president of California is now joining Live Nation’s global team. Under the leadership of Arthur Fogel and Omar Al-joulani, the global promoting team produces and promotes Live Nation’s worldwide tours for artists including The Weeknd, Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, Post Malone, Bruno Mars and more. Best has been with Live Nation for over 20 years, and in his time as a promoter has continued to help a roster of artists plan worldwide tours including Pearl Jam, Rufus Du Sol, and more.
Lincoln has worked at the Kia Forum for nine years and was part of the team responsible for maintaining the legendary venue’s high rankings every year and transforming the artist experience there. Live Nation booked hundreds of shows during Lincoln’s time at the Forum and Lincoln has worked very closely with much of the team she is now leading.
“We are thrilled to welcome Geni back to Live Nation, leading our California team,” said Jordan Zachary, co-president of US Concerts. “In her prior role at the Forum she has worked incredibly closely with our teams and we’re excited to see her continue to support even more of our division and the artists we support across California.”
Best added “This is a great opportunity for my friend Geni and I give her a warm welcome to one of the most vibrant concert markets in the world. At the same time I’m incredibly excited to take the next step living out my dream working with artists on a global stage.”
Her move to Live Nation is full circle as she began her career working for House of Blues Entertainment at Universal Amphitheatre in Hollywood, which became part of Live Nation during her tenure. (Universal Amphitheatre closed in 2013). In addition to her work in live events, Geni has also spent the last five years volunteering with Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Los Angeles – a non-profit social justice organization empowering young girls through music education.
Armani White, Algiers and Balming Tiger are just a few of the artists confirmed for the 37th annual South by Southwest showcase event and conference, set to take place March 13-18, in Austin, Texas.
Organizers today (Oct. 19) announced the first round of artists, a batch totaling 191 up-and-comers and established performers from around the globe.
Other artists confirmed for SXSW 2023 include Beenzino (Seoul, South Korea), Edie Bens (Swansea, U.K.), Great Gable (Perth, Australia), iLe (San Juan, Puerto Rico), Ladaniva (Lille, France), Son Rompe Pera (Naucalpan, Mexico), and Yogetsu Akasaka (Setagaya-Ku, Japan).
In addition to musical performances, the six-day event also typically gives audiences access to panels and Q&A sessions.
Major artists regularly grace the showcase stages. Shawn Mendes this year debuted his song “Wonder”, in addition to performing hit songs “In My Blood” and “Monster.”
Among its partners for the 2023 edition are Anniversary Group, Atomic Music Group, Athens in Austin, British Music Embassy, Don Giovanni Records, Fire Records, FOCUS Wales, Gorilla vs Bear, Jazz re:freshed Outernational, Pop Montreal, M for Montreal, Music From Ireland, New West Records, Space Agency, and Wide Days Scotland.
The music showcase is just one part of the larger South by Southwest festival, an event founded in 1987 and dedicated to celebrating entertainment and culture.
Additional announcements will be made as the 2023 event approaches.
SXSW signed a “lifeline” deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC, in April 2021, making P-MRC a stakeholder and long-term partner with the Austin festival. P-MRC is the parent company of Billboard.
Visit SXSW.com for more.
Punk icon Iggy Pop has signed with Atlantic Records, in partnership with producer Andrew Watt‘s Gold Tooth Records, for the release of his next album, the companies tell Billboard.
“I’m the guy with no shirt who rocks,” said Pop in statement. “Andrew and Gold Tooth get that, and we made a record together the old-fashioned way. The players are guys I’ve known since they were kids and the music will beat the s— out of you. Have a great day.”
The first release from Pop’s forthcoming album, debut single “Frenzy,” is slated to drop on Oct. 28. The album is Pop’s first since 2019’s Free, released by Caroline International/Loma Vista.
“We’re incredibly excited to welcome Andrew and Gold Tooth into the Atlantic family,” said Atlantic Records chairman and CEO Craig Kallman. “As a brilliant producer and stellar musician, Andrew has the gift of elevating every project into a work of art. And, of course, we’re over the moon to have the legendary and phenomenal Iggy Pop as our first joint signing. Iggy’s groundbreaking work forever changed the rock landscape, and he continues to make boundary-crashing music. This also marks his return to the Warner family, more than 50 years after he made his recording debut with the Stooges on our sister label Elektra. Iggy’s never stopped evolving, and he’s made a fantastic album that we can’t wait for the world to hear.”
Added Watt, “Iggy Pop is a f—ing icon. A true original. The guy invented the stage dive…I still can’t believe he let me make a record with him. I am honored. It doesn’t get cooler. This album was created to be played as loud as your stereo will go…turn it up and hold on…”
Pop rose to fame as the lead singer of Detroit-bred band The Stooges, which released three seminal proto-punk albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s: The Stooges, Fun House and Raw Power. After parting ways for over three decades, the group re-formed and released two additional albums: 2007’s The Weirdness and 2013’s Ready to Die. As a solo artist, Pop has released a total of 19 albums, including classics like The Idiot and Lust for Life, both produced by David Bowie.
