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Independent live events tech platform Fever said on Thursday it agreed to acquire the U.K. ticketing and discovery platform DICE, according to a press release.
The news comes a day after Fever announced it raised $100 million in a funding round led by L Catterton and Point72.
The tie-up will strengthen Fever’s standing as a global tech entertainment company and will help the 11-year-old DICE scale by giving it access to the 40 countries Fever operates in, the company’s executives said in a statement.
Fever, which operates a discovery platform and media reaching more than 300 million people in 40 countries, says joining forces with DICE will strengthen its global standing while helping DICE to scale. DICE says it has 10 million monthly active fans and ticket sales have doubled in the past two years, according to the press release.
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“We are strengthening our position as the leading global tech player for culture & live entertainment,” Fever’s co-founders Ignacio Bachiller, Alexandre Perez and Francisco Hein said in a statement. “We are firm believers that data and technology have the power to elevate the live music experience — making it more accessible, more personalized, and ultimately more impactful for fans, artists, and venues alike.”
Fever, which combines audience insights, ticketing and discovery tools for promoters and venues, was most-recently valued at $1.8 billion in 2023, Music Business Worldwide reported. The company partners with festivals, such as Primavera Sound, Rock in Rio Lisbon and Pitchfork, as well as independent venues like Clapham Grand.
DICE users will be able to continue using the platform “exactly as they are today,” according to the release.
LionTree Advisors LLC served as the financial advisor DICE, and Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati LLP served as their legal counsel. Fever Labs Inc. was advised by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Morrisson & Foerster LLP.
Locked in a legal war with Jay-Z, attorney Tony Buzbee is now quoting the star’s lyrics from “Big Pimpin” in his latest court filings, claiming they describe the rapper’s views on “how men should treat women.”
Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) and Buzbee have been battling for months after the Texas lawyer filed shocking rape allegations against him last year. Those claims, which the star denied, were quickly dropped – and now Jay is suing the attorney for defamation and extortion across two different court cases.
Seeking to dismiss one of them, Buzbee took an unusual step Wednesday: directly quoting from decades-old lyrics in his legal filings. The song, the 2000 smash hit “Big Pimpin’,” includes crass references to prostitution – which Buzbee suggests contradicts Jay-Z’s claims to a stellar reputation.
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“Carter’s latest pleading bemoans what he describes as the ‘incredibly painful’ event of explaining [the rape] allegations to ‘his wife’ and ‘their children,’” Buzbee writes. “To put those allegations in their proper context, it is helpful to view them alongside the following lyrics from one of Carter’s most successful songs, which became famous nationwide around the time [the accuser] claims her sexual assault occurred.”
The filing included four lines from the opening verse of “Big Pimpin’,” including: “You know I thug ‘em, f*ck ‘em, love ‘em, leave ‘em ‘cause I don’t f*ckin’ need ‘em / Take ‘em out the hood, keep ‘em lookin’ good but I don’t f*ckin’ feed ‘em.”
“Released more than 25 years ago, this song of Carter’s, like many of the others that made him famous, contains lyric after lyric describing Carter’s views on the loss of innocence and how men should treat women,” Buzbee writes in the filing.
Jay-Z himself has previously expressed regret about the lyrics to “Big Pimpin’,” which reached No. 18 on the Hot 100 and spent 20 weeks on the chart in 2000. In a 2010 interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said that re-reading the song’s words was “really harsh.”
“Some [lyrics] become really profound when you see them in writing. Not ‘Big Pimpin’. That’s the exception,” Jay-Z said at the time. “It was like, I can’t believe I said that. And kept saying it. What kind of animal would say this sort of thing?”
The use of rap lyrics in court cases has become increasingly controversial in recent years, as critics argue that statements made in hip hop songs are unfairly treated more literally than other song lyrics. Efforts have been made to ban rap from criminal cases, and a group of law scholars recently warned that Drake’s civil lawsuit – claiming the lyrics to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” defamed him – is “dangerous” and could have a “chilling effect” on future artists.
The case against Jay-Z, filed in December, claimed that he and Sean “Diddy” Combs raped a 13-year-old Jane Doe at an after-party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. Jay-Z forcefully denied the allegations, calling them a “blackmail attempt” by Buzbee and his client. And after just two months of heated litigation, the accuser dropped her case without a settlement payment.
Weeks after the case was dropped, Jay-Z sued both Doe and Buzbee in Alabama, accusing her of defamation and accusing both of malicious prosecution and other wrongdoing. That case followed an earlier lawsuit in California in which the star accused Buzbee of extortion and defamation.
In Wednesday’s filing, the Texas lawyer asked a federal judge to dismiss the Alabama case, calling it a “clear attempt by Carter to punish his accuser and silence potential accusers.” And he cited the “Big Pimpin’” lyrics, using them to suggest that Jay-Z was being hypocritical when he said he “mourns his children’s loss of innocence.”
A rep for Jay-Z did not immediately return a request for comment on the new filing. In a statement to Billboard on Thursday, Buzbee said: “Mr. Carter’s lawyers have spent millions of dollars aggressively trying to cast me as a villain and unethical person with blatant lies and half truths. At the same time they’ve vainly attempted to portray Mr. Carter as a bastion of virtue. Look at my background and compare it to his. I’m a Marine Corps Captain who served my country in the infantry and recon during two conflicts. Enough said.”
Jay-Z’s California case against Buzbee also remains pending. As reported by Rolling Stone, the judge hinted in February that he might dismiss Jay-Z’s extortion claims while allowing the defamation claim against Buzbee to move ahead. Following new evidence about recorded conversations and a heated April hearing, the judge is still currently mulling whether and how the case should proceed.
Reservoir Media has entered into a strategic partnership with Fool’s Gold Records, adding the A-Trak co-founded independent label to its recorded music portfolio. As part of the deal, Reservoir acquires the master rights to key catalog recordings from artists including A-Trak, Danny Brown and Low Pros. In addition, Reservoir will take on exclusive marketing and distribution responsibilities for all past and future Fool’s Gold releases through its label platform.
As part of the deal, facilitated by Fool’s Gold CFO Jorge Mejias, label manager Nathaniel Heller and A-Trak’s management team at TMWRK, Fool’s Gold joins Reservoir’s roster of influential independent labels, which includes Chrysalis Records, Tommy Boy Music and New State. The partnership also extends to a new sub-label, A-Trak & Friends, which will be distributed by Reservoir. The first release from this imprint, “Reaching” by James Juke featuring LION BABE, debuted last month.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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Founded in 2007 by A-Trak (Alain Macklovitch), Nick Catchdubs, David Macklovitch, and the late Joshua Prince, Fool’s Gold has built a reputation for blurring the lines across hip-hop, dance and electronic music. The label played a pivotal role in launching the careers of artists like Kid Cudi, whose debut single “Day ‘N’ Nite” was released through Fool’s Gold, as well as Run the Jewels, Flosstradamus and Danny Brown. A-Trak’s own projects, including his duo Duck Sauce’s hit “Barbra Streisand,” are also part of the catalog now under Reservoir’s distribution.
A-Trak has also made a name for himself as a solo artist with tracks like his remix of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Heads Will Roll” and singles such as “Ray Ban Vision” and “Believe.” The Fool’s Gold catalog further includes music from Treasure Fingers, Hoodboi, Tommy Trash and Michael Christmas.
Reservoir president and chief operating officer Rell Lafargue said, “As both founder and artist, A-Trak has built Fool’s Gold into a genre-blurring label that has been at the forefront of hip-hop, house, and everything in between for nearly two decades. We’re proud to welcome A-Trak, Fool’s Gold, and its artists into the Reservoir family as we continue to champion culturally significant independent music.” He continued, “This multifaceted deal also highlights Reservoir’s ongoing expansion in recorded music and our team’s ability to deliver across the full spectrum of the music business.”
A-Trak added, “I’ve been thoroughly impressed by Reservoir ever since the first time we all spoke. Everyone at the company has a deep passion for quality music. A big part of what’s helped Fool’s Gold navigate 18 years in the music biz is staying very nimble and malleable. Reservoir was able to craft a creative deal with us that showed real agility — that’s exactly what we were looking for in a new partner.”
Rainy Monday mornings are rarely settings for celebration. But on this one, The Orchard CEO Brad Navin has 48,000 reasons to smile: The vinyl edition of Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS has finally shipped, returning the album to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the largest vinyl sales week since Luminate began tracking data in 1991.
It’s the Puerto Rican star’s fourth straight Billboard 200 chart-topper, all of which have been released through his label, Rimas, in partnership with The Orchard, the services company that launched as a digital distributor in 1997. After an initial investment in 2012, Sony bought The Orchard outright in 2015, and since — through smart mergers and competitive acquisitions of companies like IODA, RED and AWAL, as well as a global outlook and a top-tier services offering — it has become the U.S. market leader among all distribution companies, boasting an 8.9% current market share for 2025 through May 15, according to Luminate, nearly triple its next-closest competitor.
For the past 15 years, Navin — who joined the company initially in 2003, rising to interim CEO in 2010 before taking over the post full time shortly after — has steered that ship, navigating it through the streaming revolution, the globalization of the business and, more recently, the democratization of music that has led to distribution becoming the industry’s hottest sector, with dozens of new startups and millions in private equity funding flooding the space.
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Still, as Navin notes, “No one has invested in the independent sector more than The Orchard has in the last 15-plus years. We have helped our clients sign artists, grow their business, grow rights within their business, expand where their business might be located — there is not a client in The Orchard that has not grown dramatically while they’ve been with us.”
From the start, The Orchard did things differently. Co-founders Richard Gottehrer and Scott Cohen started the company years before the iTunes Store revolutionized digital downloads and quickly took a global approach. “For years, it was difficult for independent artists to get noticed and get distribution, and early on, we realized it almost didn’t matter where you were from or what language you were speaking — music was music,” Gottehrer says. “It’s a universal language and sharing that was important.”
The past decade has proved that to be prescient: In April, the RIAA reported that Latin music revenue in the United States surpassed $1 billion for the third straight year, and The Orchard is on the front lines of that through partnerships with Rimas (which itself recently bought a stake in Dale Play), Double P Records and the recent acquisition of Altafonte. The company, which maintains 50 offices on six continents, “gives you the tools to think big and not be restricted in your deal or resources,” says George Prajin, who co-founded Double P Records with Peso Pluma.
“[They] prioritize making sure that their partners can reach everyone worldwide,” says Tunde Balogun, co-founder and CEO of LVRN, which signed a distribution deal with The Orchard after exiting its joint venture with Interscope Records. “Whether it’s a genre or a region, it’s amazing to experience how they partner with entrepreneurs and artists and back them and help them grow.”
And as part of Sony, The Orchard has only strengthened its position. “A lot of the new companies springing up in the space are owned by investment vehicles or backed by finance money, and it’s not really clear what their long-term proposal is,” The Orchard president/COO Colleen Theis says. “We serve the independent community, and that’s always going to be our client base and our focus.”
With this proposition, The Orchard continues to attract new clients, from traditional partnerships to its 2022 investment in Rimas to taking stakes in Fat Possum and Mass Appeal. “Sometimes modern automation tricks us into believing these service providers are all the same, but when done right, it’s a far more complex operation than most people realize,” says Tyler Blatchley, co-founder of Black 17 Media, in which The Orchard has taken a minority stake.
“The deals we’ve done over the years have always been very strategic: a specific genre, a specific region of the world, a specific synergy or enhancing the value proposition that’s going to benefit our clients and our reach,” Navin says. “Is there a great operator or a great entrepreneur there that we want to be a part of what we’re doing? That’s where my motivation lies and that’s how we’ve done our deals historically: working with great operators.”
Brad Navin with Mass Appeal CEO Peter Bittenbender (left) and co-founder Nas.
Courtesy of The Orchard
You’ve been at The Orchard for more than 20 years. What was it like when you first got here?
We were a digital distributor before there was digital. It was pre-iTunes, let alone iPhone. I give the founders, Richard Gottehrer and Scott Cohen, a lot of credit — they had this understanding that the world was going to go online in some capacity. At the time, we were flipping over CDs and typing in label copy. That’s what digital meant for us back then.
It had to get more sophisticated to keep up with the volume and what was going to happen next. We wanted to control our own destiny, so we built around technology. And that became our great advantage because it taught us how to build a platform of services and the ability to integrate what’s next, without us needing to know what was next, necessarily. And that ethos exists today.
What did you feel The Orchard needed when you took over as CEO in 2010?
The team before me had the vision to go out all over the world — that music from everywhere matters. And now we live in a time where music from anywhere can stream everywhere. But we hadn’t yet built out our own technology. We were wildly unprofitable, we were in a terrible reverse merger from back in 2007-08, [and we were in a] total state of flux in management and what we were doing. And I came and said, “We need to build this out; here’s how I think it will transform the company.”
Sony invested in 2012 and then bought The Orchard in 2015. How did that work?
In the early days, there was some trepidation about being acquired by a major: Do they understand the independent sector? Do they understand all things digital and what’s going on? But as Richard said on the heels of the transaction, “We were bought by a f–king music company. Not by a bank, not by some people looking to liquidate.”
We had a company with the size that they are on a global level that was going to make sure that IP [intellectual property] was protected, that the value of music and how it’s going to be represented in a streaming world, or a short-form video world, would be represented in the right way, and that, ultimately, The Orchard and our clients were going to benefit. And that’s going to include whatever’s next, like [artificial intelligence]. As long as the creators are in the monetary chain and protected, I don’t know if I care what it is, necessarily.
Even in 2015, 50% of your business was outside the United States. How has that early global focus paid off?
To go into markets all over the world, where there are massively important catalogs and repertoire of varying genres, was an opportunity. As the [digital service providers] began to expand their reach and launch in those markets, we were sitting right there with all this music already available. You’ve got to be part of the local music scene and culture for the value proposition of artists and labels and the local music services. But we also need to be able to move music regionally and globally as it starts to happen. And that’s the way we function.
You said distribution used to be the unsexy part of the business. Now everyone wants to be in distribution. What changed?
The independent sector has always been about partnership, pushing the envelope on marketing, or the next format, or new ways to promote. Basically, they’ve always been willing to f–k with stuff while the big IP companies want to hold back. And as artists become empowered, they start to question: “What’s the definition of a label? What do I need going forward?” That’s a big reason why the industry’s been shifting. The definition of a label, or an artist services company, or a distribution company — it’s all in flux.
What are you focused on now?
If I think about North America, in this last year, Kelsea Ballerini on Black River Entertainment is an example of how the independent sector supports artist development. You could say the same thing in a completely different form for G*59 and $uicideboy$ and their roster. Music that I think the industry wasn’t really aware of but their fans were aware of, that’s the power of the artist being able to be out there, building audiences and driving it forward — it’s stunning. Black 17 and the whole phonk thing that’s been going on — when you work with great entrepreneurs all over the world, there’s new categories of music that we didn’t go out and look for that are happening. This is what’s going on in our sector of the business that’s so exciting.
How many different levels of service do you offer?
It’s not just the different levels. If they want us to f–k off and just put their music out, we can do that. If they want us to hold hands and really be in bed working up to that street date, we’ll do that. There’s no one size fits all at all. There can’t be.
Does that affect the deals you do, to keep them flexible?
To some degree, but not to a wide degree. The influx of outside capital into the music industry the last 10 years, and large competitors being born out of other majors or large, stand-alone distribution companies, whatever you want to call it — competition is great. We thrive off of it. Imitation is the best form of flattery. What is concerning, though, is … there’s a lot of irresponsible deals that have entered the marketplace: low margin, high capitalization. The artists deserve to be in control. They deserve to get paid.
This story appears in the June 7, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Concord Originals, the film and TV division of music company Concord, has acquired storied film studio RKO, giving the Nashville-based music company a wealth of opportunities to promote and capitalize on its publishing and recorded music catalog.
RKO is one of Hollywood’s oldest studios and produced numerous timeless films and TV productions from the ‘20s to ’50s, including King Kong, Citizen Kane, The Best Years of Our Lives, It’s a Wonderful Life, Suspicion and The Woman in the Window. Legendary industrialist Howard Hughes owned RKO for a brief stretch, buying the company in 1947 and selling it to General Rubber and Tire in 1955.
The acquisition covers derivative rights for remakes, sequels, stage productions and stories — “anything that someone with creative intent and with a little bit of sweat equity could theoretically turn into a project,” Concord CEO Bob Valentine tells Billboard. Concord’s deal for RKO gives it the opportunity “to develop new and interesting projects around that original IP,” Valentine explains. Turner Broadcasting System, now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, acquired the distribution rights to the original RKO library in 1987.
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RKO’s library includes what Valentine calls “some of the most seminal musicals” created in the mid-20th century, many of which have not yet been adapted for live performance. Among RKO’s musicals are films starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers such as Top Hat and Swing Time. “I wouldn’t underestimate the potential for theatrical development,” he says.
RKO will continue to operate as a standalone entity within Concord Originals after the transaction. Sophia Dilley, head of Concord Originals, and current RKO president Mary Beth O’Connor will run RKO has co-presidents. RKO chairman and CEO Ted Hartley will stay on as lead producer and chief storyteller of active RKO projects.
Dilley’s six-person team will expand to nine after the acquisition. RKO’s Brian Anderson will work across both companies as director of contract, administration and distribution, according to Dilley. As part of a recent restructuring at Concord Originals, Wesley Adams was upped to vp of production and distribution, Charlie Hopkins was promoted to vp of development and Imogen Lloyd Webber was given the new role of executive vp of marketing and communications of Concord Originals and Theatricals.
“Our plan will be to grow strategically, because a lot of these film companies grow too fast, they have overhead too fast,” says Dilley. “Our mission is to be really frugal and careful about how we put this together so that it’s set up for success long term.”
Concord Originals was founded in 2021 as an outgrowth of Concord’s realization that it could be “a more direct beneficiary” of derivative works that involved the company’s music rights, says Dilley. Among the productions by Concord Originals are Stax: Soulsville USA, a Peabody Award-winning, four-part HBO documentary that was co-produced with Polygram Entertainment and Warner Music Entertainment, and Let the Canary Sing, a documentary about singer Cyndi Lauper produced with Fine Point Films and Sony Music Entertainment. Concord Originals is also working on a biopic on blues legend Robert Johnson, whose publishing catalog is represented by Concord Music Publishing.
In addition, Concord Originals has a partnership with Skydance Entertainment and Jennifer Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions to develop original projects. One such project is a limited series based on Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Rogers & Hammerstein’s catalog was acquired by Concord in 2017 through its purchase of Imagem Music Group.
At an invite-only, dimly lit vinyl bar just outside of central Tokyo, a handful of pool cues are framed above the table. Each has a nameplate, but only one name belongs to an American: Brandon Silverstein. The prime placement represents much more than billiards skill — it symbolizes the years of work, and ultimate partnership, between Silverstein’s entertainment company, S10, and the bar’s proprietor, Japanese entertainment giant Avex. In March, the two companies cemented that partnership with the launch of Avex Music Group, the rebranded U.S. division of Avex (formerly known as Avex USA), and Silverstein was named CEO.
Silverstein describes AMG as “a boutique major with a global perspective” — and that ethos is exactly what drew him to Avex five years ago. After he launched S10 in 2017 as an artist management firm, his friend and collaborator Ryan Tedder suggested he start a publishing company. “I was looking for a partner — and was looking for a different type of partner,” Silverstein recalls while seated in the fifth-floor lobby of Avex’s pristine Tokyo headquarters.
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In 2019, Silverstein was introduced to Naoki Osada, then-head of Avex USA, and the two hit it off. In 2020, S10 Publishing launched as a joint venture with Avex, and soon after, Silverstein flew to Tokyo for the first time to meet with Avex founder and chairman Max Matsuura and Avex Group CEO Katsumi Kuroiwa. “From the initial meetings, [we had] very similar visions, cowboy mindsets,” Silverstein says. Today, S10 Publishing’s roster boasts nine songwriter-producers, including Harv (Justin Bieber), Jasper Harris (Tate McRae, Jack Harlow) and Gent! (Doja Cat).
In May, AMG announced it had signed fast-rising producer Elkan (Drake, Rihanna) to a global publishing deal and partnered with the hit-maker on his joint-venture publishing company, Toibox by Elkan — the first, Silverstein hopes, of many such deals. “Artists are some of the most incredible entrepreneurs, and they just need an infrastructure, the right infrastructure, to have their ideas prevail,” he says. That thinking is Avex’s backbone: The company’s approach to creation, Kuroiwa says, is “entrepreneurship, since we’re an independent company — and we would like to remain independent.”
Most recently, AMG scored a major signing with We the Band, famously known as Bieber’s backing musicians (evidence, Silverstein suggests, of his theory that “artists are finding talent first”). He says S10’s relationship with the act dates to when it signed member Harv to a publishing deal in 2021; soon after, Harv scored a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 as a co-writer/co-producer on Bieber’s “Peaches.”
For Avex — known in Japan as the fourth major, alongside Sony, Universal and Warner — the early investment in S10 Publishing was essentially a down payment on global domination, the initial step of a five-year plan that culminated this year in AMG’s launch. (In conjunction with Silverstein’s new role, Avex acquired 100% of the S10 Publishing song catalog and an additional stake in S10 Management; Avex now has the largest share in S10 Management, alongside Silverstein and Roc Nation.)
Since its inception in 1988, Avex has always moved the needle, largely thanks to Matsuura’s singular vision and healthy relationship with risk. “When we started, we were laser focused on Euro-beat, a really small genre and market,” recalls Kuroiwa, who joined Avex Group in 2001 and became CEO in 2020. “[We did] stuff that other record companies wouldn’t choose to do, and that has shaped who we are today.” It’s even part of the company motto: “Really! Mad + Pure.”
“I don’t think I would be here today if Avex wasn’t that kind of company,” adds Takeya Ino, president of Avex’s label division, Avex Music Creative, which has a roster of over 500 artists. “It’s about creating a new movement, and that has always been the way at Avex: disco booms, Euro-beat, Japanese hip-hop. And then we think about what’s next for us — and the answer would be the global market,” adds Ino, who joined Avex in 1995.
Despite now employing around 1,500 people across offices in over 50 cities and earning $1 billion in 2024, the publicly traded Avex still has that small-but-mighty mindset that allowed it to become “a comprehensive entertainment company,” Kuroiwa says. “You see a lot of that nowadays, but we were the pioneers — one of the first labels to have an in-house management business, scout and train our own artists, produce and host live events.”
Those pillars still support Avex, particularly Avex Youth Studio, the intensive training program for potential future superstars where over 200 trainees are enrolled. Scouts regularly scour around 500 arts schools to identify talent; once selected, trainees aren’t charged tuition because Avex sees them as investments.
It was at Avex Youth Studio’s main facility, avex Youth studio TOKYO, in Tokyo’s Setagaya City, that, roughly four years ago, emerging Japanese boy band One or Eight was developed. For the past two years, Avex has been testing its next act, with the current top seven boys (ages 14-16) training together. The boys’ influences include Bieber, Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran and Morgan Wallen; clearly, from the start, the goal is global success.
It’s evident in how Avex produces live events, thanks to AEGX, a deal made with AEG in 2021 that has brought superstars such as Sheeran and Taylor Swift to Japan for sold-out stadium shows. “Initially, [AEGX] was built to support the overseas artists that wanted to perform in Japan,” Kuroiwa explains. “But now we’re entering an era where Asian artists will perform and succeed overseas, which means there will be demand for both.” After helping non-Japanese stars book shows in Japan, AEGX can now help Japanese artists book shows in the United States and elsewhere. For One or Eight, Ino has his sights on New York’s Madison Square Garden.
From left: Neo, Mizuki, Takeru, Reia, Souma, Ryota, Tsubasa and Yuga of One or Eight during rehearsal at avex Youth Studio TOKYO.
OOZ
And much like how teaming with AEG helps Avex and its artists tour beyond Japan, partnering with Silverstein’s S10 helps Avex and its artists score hits.
One or Eight’s debut in August 2024 marked the first time an Avex act had U.S. management in S10 (co-managed with Avex). And in May, Atlantic Records and Avex partnered on all future releases for the group. “The staff that are involved in this project are from Japan as well as the U.S., and so we have this cross-border structure in place,” Kuroiwa says. “Visionwise, it really comes down to creating a successful case model. This whole project, the purpose is to have global hits — and not just one.”
The band’s credits exemplify one of Kuroiwa’s mottos: “Co-creation is key.” One or Eight’s debut single, “Don’t Tell Nobody,” was co-produced by Tedder, and Stargate produced its second single, “DSTM” (which prominently samples Rihanna’s Stargate-produced “Don’t Stop the Music” — the first time the hit has been officially sampled). “DSTM” also credits S10 songwriter David Arkwright, who co-wrote Riize’s “Get a Guitar,” which Silverstein says was an early win for the publishing company. (Riize is signed to SM Entertainment, which in 2001 partnered with Avex to launch the subsidiary SM Entertainment Japan.)
“Our writers are getting early access to placing songs for [One or Eight],” Silverstein says, adding that many have attended writing camps in Japan. “This is an ongoing [exchange] where we’re creating records that may work for our next boy group or girl group coming from Japan, or whatever the group is.”
Fast-rising Avex act XG — the first project under the XGALX brand, a partnership with executive producer Simon Park — also embodies Kuroiwa’s collaborative vision. The Japanese girl group, which is based in South Korea, debuted in 2022 and appeared at Coachella in April. “We’ve seen how K-pop players ventured into the global market, but we didn’t have the right Japanese talents to get on that bandwagon at that time,” Kuroiwa says. “It took us five years, also because of the pandemic, but we trained [XG] in studios, integrating the knowledge and expertise from our side as well as their side, meaning K-pop. What you get from that is something completely new.”
For Ino, the success of K-pop — which he says “built that pathway for foreign music to enter the U.S. market and to succeed globally” — is, in part, what made him confident that the world would similarly embrace J-pop.
He cites Japan’s “aging society” as one of Avex’s impetuses to take J-pop global, saying that in terms of growth potential, it’s a primary driver for needing to market outside of Japan. He also points to the sturdy U.S. infrastructure that Avex has built with S10 and beyond: “Everyone said that now is the time, there is an opportunity, there is a chance to really go into the U.S. market,” he says. “Maybe it was Ryan [Tedder] who accentuated that point the most — he said that now is maybe not the time for K-pop anymore. It’s really the time for J-pop.” But, Ino adds with a laugh, “he is working with HYBE anyway.” (In February, Tedder teamed with HYBE to form a global boy group that has yet to debut.)
J-pop is indeed its own world. To Ino, the umbrella term represents a “more diverse” class of music. “And there’s the anime, manga and V-tubers [viral YouTubers],” he adds. “We have all these categories that we can really leverage and take advantage of, so integrating them all together, it will be our forte.”
Now, with AMG, that integration will only grow. Following S10’s 2020 joint venture with Avex, the pair constructed a studio house in West Hollywood for events and to build a creative community. In April, AMG upgraded to a new, larger WeHo home that previously belonged to A$AP Rocky and Rihanna that will continue to be used for community-building, as well as housing Avex’s executives when they visit from Japan.
“Creatives are craving boutique companies that are fresh and exciting and are globally positioned, and I don’t think there’s a lot of that,” Silverstein says. “We want to back the artist’s vision and the writer’s vision and the producer’s vision and allow them to be their own CEO. I think that’s the change [we need] — and I think Avex Music Group will prevail because of that.”
As Kuroiwa and Ino see it, AMG will prevail because of the groundwork it has laid so carefully over the last five years. “[S10] really helped us in creating something new,” Kuroiwa says. “There were a couple of companies in Japan that [attempted this] in the past, but they couldn’t make it happen.”
To which Silverstein says with a confident smile: “We’ve got the right team. We’ve got the right relationships. We have the right partnership. We have the right vision. We have the right momentum. We’re ready.”
This story appears in the June 7, 2025, issue of Billboard.
On Thursday (June 5), Avex Music Group announced it has signed Justin Bieber’s longtime backing band and collaborators, We The Band. We The Band includes Harv (bass), Tay James (DJ), Julian Michael (guitar), Devin “Stixx” Taylor (drums) and O’Neil Palmer (keys). Tay James has worked as Bieber’s longtime A&R and DJ since 2009; Harv joined […]
Billboard hosted its inaugural Global Power Players event in London on Wednesday (June 4) to celebrate music industry leaders from across the world.
The invite-only event at Shoreditch House in east London honored the chosen executives for the Global Power Players list and the first-ever U.K. Power Players selections. Huge names including Sir Elton John and his husband and manager David Furnish, EMPIRE founder and CEO Ghazi Shami and afrobeats superstar Tems were recognised with special awards.
John and Furnish collected the Creators’ Champion Award, and John used his speech to warn the U.K. government that “we will not back down” in relation to the Labour party’s controversial AI bill, which proposes an opt-out approach for music rights holders. Key industry figures such as John have called upon the government to work with the creative industries to find a solution; the government’s bill has been rejected by the House of Lords on five occasions in recent weeks.
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“Copyright has to be transparent and seek permission,” John said. “These two principles are the bedrock of the industry and they must be included in the data bill as a backstop. Let’s be clear: we want to work with the government, we want our government to work with us. We are not anti-AI and we are not anti-Big Tech.”
He added: “I will fight for this until it’s done and people have a fair deal. Every young artist or new person who writes a song, I want them to have a future and have their copyright respected.”
Ahead of her headline set for Billboard Presents The Stage as part of SXSW London on Thursday (June 5), Tems collected the Diamond Award from incoming Billboard Africa editor Nkosiyati Khumalo.
“Being African and a musician is a whole new world and I feel like Billboard has been so supportive of not just African music but the whole scene and the culture,” she said. “This has been a really great honor, especially given that that African music is moving to heights that has never been seen before, and Billboard is one of the key players in moving that needle forward.”
EMPIRE founder and CEO Ghazi Shami was the recipient of the coveted Clive Davis Visionary Award, joining TDE’s Punch and Top Dawg (2024), Bang Si-hyuk (2023) and Joe Smith (2014) as honorees. Named after the iconic recording executive, the prize was presented by Nigerian musician and YNBL label boss Olamide, and follows EMPIRE alum Shaboozey’s record-busting stay atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 2024 with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Collecting the award, Ghazi said: “I often tell people that EMPIRE is a philanthropy company masquerading as a record label. I truly believe that in my heart. It wasn’t always that way. Being a visionary means you see a need in your community and you try and figure out how to serve that need. I felt that the San Francisco and the Bay Area community had a void in the music distribution space and fast-forward 15 years later, I’m blessed to say we built a global operation that reaches the four corners of the earth. We have employees in 25 countries and have probably the most diverse staff in the music business by design and intention.”
He added, “I grew up as an immigrant kid in San Francisco with Palestinian parents who were refugees of war, and sometimes as a child I often felt like I was invisible. How would I be seen in a world that didn’t see me? I took the initiative to build a company where everyone could be seen and everyone could be heard and I always like to tell people that if you’re excellent they can’t deny your existence.”
The ongoing dispute between K-pop breakout group NewJeans and its agency ADOR, a HYBE subsidiary, escalated this week as the Seoul Central District Court approved a stricter legal measure restricting the group’s independent activities. In a ruling issued Friday (May 31), the court granted ADOR’s request for indirect compulsory enforcement, ordering each member of the group — Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein — to pay 1 […]
Sir Elton John collected the Creators’ Champion Award at Billboard’s Global Power Players event in London on Wednesday (June 4) and used his speech to warn the U.K. government that “we will not back down” in relation to its controversial AI data bill.
Joined by his manager and husband David Furnish, John was awarded the inaugural trophy by Billboard editor-in-chief Hannah Karp in recognition for standing up for the creative industry and calling for fair usage and protections for music rights holders in relation to AI models.
As referenced in John’s speech, the Labour government’s data bill – which proposes an opt-out approach for rights holders, as opposed to the preferred opt-in strategy – has been voted down by the House of Lords for an unprecedented fifth time. Led by Baroness Kidron, the ping-pong between the Houses of Commons and the upper house has lasted for weeks and resulted in John calling the government “absolute losers” in a recent interview.
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Taking to the stage, John thanked Billboard for the accolade as he was honored alongside other industry leaders such as Empire’s Ghazi and Tems on the night. “Supporting the next generation of British artists is the one of the major driving forces in my life,” he said and thanked the Lords who backed the amendment saying “you rock.”
He continued: “The onus is now on the government to do the right thing and have transparency added to the bill. We’ve asked them so many times to come to us. We’ve had so many meetings with them saying that we wanted to work with you.
“Copyright has to be transparent and seek permission,” he continued. “These two principles are the bedrock of the industry and they must be included in the data bill as a backstop. Let’s be clear: We want to work with the government, we want our government to work with us. We are not anti-AI and we are not anti-Big Tech.”
John added in his passionate speech: “We are not against Labour and we want a solution. We want to bring all parties together in a way that is transparent and fair and allows artists to maintain control of their work.” He concluded: “We will not back down and we will not go away quietly. This is just the beginning.”
Read the full speech below.
Elton John’s full speech at Billboard‘s Global Power Players event
“Thank you to Billboard for honoring myself and David with this incredible award. Supporting the next generation of British artists is one of the major driving forces in my life. It’s so important. As everyone in this room is aware, the data bill is currently looming over us and our musicians and our industries and the future of the livelihood of all artists.
It is an existential issue. In the last few hours the government has been defeated for an unprecedented fifth time by the House of Lords – that’s never happened before. The Lords, who have backed our crucial amendment to the bill – thank you so much – you rock.
The onus is now on the government to do the right thing and have transparency added to the bill. We’ve asked them so many times to come to us. We’ve had so many meetings with them saying that we wanted to work with you. I voted for you, you promised me that you wanted to get young artists into Europe. I did a show for you and to get more finance into the country and investment. I did a show at St Paul’s Cathedral… and we’ve heard nothing.
Copyright has to be transparent and seek permission. These two principles are the bedrock of the industry and they must be included in the data bill as a backstop. Let’s be clear: we want to work with the government, we want our government to work with us. We are not anti-AI and we are not anti-Big Tech.
We are not against Labour and we want a solution. We want to bring all parties together in a way that is transparent and fair and allows artists to maintain control of their work. It’s so fucking important. A machine is not a human being; it doesn’t have a soul. An artist when they create or they write or they sculpt or they paint or they photograph has a soul, it’s coming from the feeling of a person. And it’s so important if we ever lose that, we are well and truly fucked.
We will not back down and we will not go away quietly. This is just the beginning and thank you Billboard and Baroness Kidron for standing up for our world beating artists and journalists and playwrights and authors.
Let’s put it like this: The entertainment industry brings £125 billion to the United Kingdom and is the second biggest industry in this Great Britain. And they are treating us like shit. They are treating us like idiots. They have their head in the sand. The Labour government at the moment should be called the Ostrich Party. I will fight for this until it’s done and people have a fair deal. Every young artist or new person who writes a song, I want them to have a future and have their copyright respected.
There’s 2.4 million people in this industry in Britain, and 70% of them live outside of London. This isn’t a case of wealthy London people, this is a nationwide thing. Please listen to us, government. If you don’t, there’s going to be trouble. If you don’t, I will come banging on your door. But let’s get together: give me a call! Let’s have a cup of tea! So far, you haven’t responded to anything we’ve suggested. Thank you!”