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Sony Music Publishing returned to No. 1 on the Hot 100 Songs publishers ranking for the third quarter and held on to the top spot among Top Radio Airplay publishers for the 14th consecutive quarter.
The publisher, which had finished a close second to Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) in the second quarter, scored its dual wins with a share of 67 tracks on Hot 100 Songs and 63 songs on Top Radio Airplay, including Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” — the top tune on both charts this quarter and one that benefited the quarter’s top four publishers, which all have shares of the track. SMP also counts itself as the publishing home of the Top Radio Airplay writer of the quarter, Tommy Richman, who penned and performed the hit “Million Dollar Baby.”
The top Hot 100 Songs writer for the quarter was Zach Bryan, who notched four songs on the chart this quarter, including “Pink Skies” and “28.” He’s represented by Warner Chappell Music, which took second place for a second consecutive quarter on the Top Radio Airplay ranking and rose from No. 3 to No. 2 on the Hot 100 Songs chart. Its shares of 64 tracks on the former chart and 59 on the latter translate to market shares of 23.34% and 25.32%, respectively.
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After a big second quarter at the top of Hot 100 Songs, UMPG landed at No. 3 on both charts with stakes in 48 Top Radio Airplay songs and 51 on the Hot 100 Songs list — good for market shares of 20.23% and 22.41%, respectively.
While the big three publishers jockey for those top slots, Kobalt has consistently maintained its No. 4 berth on both rankings for years. Like the three majors, it owns a piece of “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” In the third quarter, Kobalt’s share of Top Radio Airplay songs increased to 48 from 43 in the second quarter and its quota of Hot 100 Songs rose over the same period from 32 to 36. That equates to an 11.43% market share on Radio Airplay and 10.83% on Hot 100 Songs.
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Hipgnosis sustained its fifth-place ranking quarter to quarter. Its top track on both charts was “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter, which was No. 5 on Top Radio Airplay and No. 4 on Hot 100 Songs.
Position Music, a relative newcomer to Billboard’s Publishers Quarterly, stuck around for another quarter, finishing ninth on Top Radio Airplay and seventh on Hot 100 Songs thanks to its share of “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone.
With the arrival of Position comes the departure of an outlier: Tracy Chapman’s publishing company, Purple Rabbit Music. It finished in the top 10 on both charts for a full year, kept aloft by the success of Luke Combs’ cover of her 1988 Hot 100 No. 6 hit, “Fast Car.”
This story appears in the Nov. 16, 2024, issue of Billboard.
That warm, impish smile. Infectious laugh. Eyes that literally twinkled as he talked about music and life. Those were the first things that came to mind after learning of Quincy Delight Jones’ death on Nov. 3. And how lucky I was to get the chance to chat several times with someone who truly personified every sense of the word “legend.”
It just so happened that the day before Jones died, I was cleaning out some old files and came across the yellowed pages of the first interview I ever did with him when I was an editor at the trade publication Radio & Records. It was November 1984: two years after Michael Jackson’s seismic success with Thriller in 1982 and a year before pulling an epic all-nighter with Jackson, Lionel Richie and a collection of music superstars to record “We Are the World.” When I interviewed him for a special Radio & Records feature, “Master of Music,” the perpetually multitasking Jones was co-producing, with director Steven Spielberg, the film adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple.
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“The primary motor of pop music, as we know it today, has always been Black music,” he told me then before pulling back the curtain on his creative strategy. “The one thing I fight for is the selection of tunes,” he said. And he was way ahead of the industry’s globalization, shouting out Africa as a music “gold mine” and, in subsequent chats, South Korea and Indonesia.
Rereading the interview all these years later, it also shows Jones was more than just a creative wunderkind. He was insatiably curious, always searching for the next. Given the advent of computers at the time, he spoke about the “archaic record distribution system,” while presciently envisioning that “it could be possible in five years for you to have no inventory in your house; no records, tapes, anything. If you had access to a satellite, a code book/catalog and a television set, you could punch up anything you wanted anytime.”
A few weeks after that interview was published, I learned what a thoughtful and humorous person Jones was as well. One of my treasured mementos is a signed personal note card of thanks (stamped with an embossed “Q” in the upper left-hand corner): “With the great editing you did, I was made to look like I know what I’m talking about.” Such a simple but impactful gesture.
That was just one facet of Quincy Jones. Born in Chicago and raised in Seattle, he jumpstarted his estimable legacy as a big band- and jazz-loving trumpeter who, beginning at the age of 14, played for Billie Holiday and Billy Eckstine. After a year on scholarship at the Berklee College of Music, he toured with Lionel Hampton’s band, adding “pianist” and “arranger” to his résumé. Within a few years, he was working with Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Tommy Dorsey. In 1957, he joined Mercury Records as an A&R director and later vice president, becoming the first Black senior executive at a major label.
Best friends with Ray Charles since their teen years in Seattle (“He taught me my first music in braille”), Q — a nickname given to him by Frank Sinatra — arranged Brother Ray’s classic albums The Genius of Ray Charles and Genius + Soul = Jazz. He went on to discover and produce “It’s My Party” and other hits for early 1960s pop darling Lesley Gore, while simultaneously earning the first of his eventual 28 Grammy Awards and 80 nominations for arranging Basie’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” And there’s no forgetting Jones’ momentous collaborations with Basie and Sinatra, which produced the timeless romantic romp “Fly Me to the Moon.”
Thanks to the initial unwavering support of actor Sidney Poitier and filmmaker Sidney Lumet, Jones racked up credits for film scores to In the Heat of the Night, The Wiz, The Italian Job and The Color Purple, as well as TV series Roots and theme songs for Ironside and Sanford and Son. Jones’ own musical output was prolific and demonstrated a rare talent for evolving with contemporary music. Signing with A&M Records in 1969, he released the Grammy-winning instrumental jazz set Walking in Space that year, which sparked further forays into jazz, funk, R&B, pop and dance through 1981, with albums such as Body Heat, I Heard That!, Sounds … and Stuff Like That!! and The Dude, the last of which introduced newcomer James Ingram (“Just Once”).
Jones’ work with Jackson is well known, but his innate ear also brought other hit-makers to the forefront, such as George Benson, Patti Austin, Tevin Campbell and Tamia, through his Warner joint venture, Qwest Records, which he founded in 1980.
In the latter part of his career, Jones ventured into media that explored and celebrated Black culture and music. He produced The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which made Will Smith a bankable star, and launched Vibe as both a magazine and talk show.
After various encounters at industry events over the ensuing years, I got the chance to interview a still-indefatigable Jones — who survived two brain aneurysms in 1974 and a diabetic coma in 2015 — for Billboard during his 80th and 85th birthday celebrations in 2013 and 2018. His gait was more measured and later, he began making his rounds in a wheelchair. But his musical and entrepreneurial drive had not slowed: He established an artist management consultancy, partnered with Harman on a line of AKG headphones and squeezed in time to write his 2001 autobiography, Q.
On both occasions, we sat in the screening room of his home in Bel-Air, Los Angeles. It was decorated with vintage posters of the films he had worked on, and its hallway walls were jam-packed with Jones-produced album covers and autographed sheet music for “We Are the World.” Display cases held his 28 Grammys.
Having traded wine for protein-rich smoothies at this point, Jones discussed such topics as co-founding Qwest TV, the first subscription, video-ondemand service for jazz, and how music had substituted for the absence of his mother, who was hospitalized for mental illness when he was 7. It had served him well.
Never content to stay the course, Jones kept evolving from musician, arranger, composer and producer to label owner, artist manager, mentor, business entrepreneur and global ambassador. As he declared in 1984, “If I had 200 more years, I still wouldn’t have enough time to do all the things I dream about.”
This story appears in the Nov. 16, 2024, issue of Billboard.
On Christmas Eve in 2019 — while most music business executives were headed out to holiday parties or completing last-minute shopping — Warner Records quietly finalized a label deal with Jaten Dimsdale, a former member of a hair metal cover band outside of Atlanta who had also tried his hand at hardcore and hip-hop.
Dimsdale had posted a handful of viral YouTube covers: In his version of Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You,” uploaded earlier in 2019 on the 10th anniversary of the artist’s death, his buttery tone contrasted shockingly with his grizzled beard, gauge earrings and the hourglass tattoo stamped on the side of his head. Aaron Bay-Schuck and Tom Corson, Warner Records’ then-recently appointed co-chairmen, had been scavenging for stars to revitalize the faded label — so as the rest of the world hunkered down for the night and wrapped gifts, they inked a deal with Dimsdale, who had started performing under a different name: Teddy Swims.
Fast-forward four Christmases. At the end of 2023, Teddy Swims still lacked a signature hit, but Bay-Schuck spotted some encouraging data surrounding the singer’s single that had been hovering in the middle of the Billboard Hot 100. “I remember over the holiday break, ‘Lose Control’ was taking a positive turn,” he recalls of the singer’s single released in June 2023, “so we knew that was going to be a key song for us going into ’24.”
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During that same holiday downtime, Bay-Schuck also noted some positive numbers on TikTok for another relatively new Warner signing, singer-songwriter Benson Boone: The teasers for his unreleased “Beautiful Things” were gaining traction, so the label posted more snippets before the end of the year to further fuel its growth. “And also,” Corson adds of that particularly busy December, “our A&R team had identified [country singer] Dasha and [folk artist] Michael Marcagi, who were trending [on social media] significantly. We closed those deals, essentially, over Christmas.”
With that hectic holiday season, Warner set the stage for what would become an enormous 2024. In January, “Beautiful Things” rocketed to a startling No. 15 debut on the Hot 100 upon its official release. Dasha’s country clap-along “Austin” started morphing into a viral hit following its late-2023 arrival, and Marcagi’s wistful anthem “Scared To Start” gained immediate traction when unveiled in mid-January. As for “Lose Control,” Teddy Swims’ first Hot 100 hit has become a year-defining smash: It reached the chart’s top 10 during the week of Jan. 20, went to No. 1 the week of March 30 and now, in its 64th week on the Hot 100, remains in its upper reaches — and will likely finish quite high on Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart. Boone’s “Beautiful Things,” which eventually peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and logged 27 weeks in the chart’s top 10, likely won’t be far behind “Lose Control” on the year-end list. And as the year drew to a close, Boone and Teddy Swims both notched best new artist Grammy nominations in November.
Going into 2024, Bay-Schuck and Corson had recognized it would be a pivotal year for their regime at Warner Records, even if they might not have predicted the exact way it would unfold. After all, Zach Bryan and Dua Lipa, two of the label’s flagship artists, were expected to release new music — but Teddy Swims’ raspily belted soul-revival pop anthem and Boone’s existential ballad with its out-of-nowhere wailed chorus out-charting any new song by those superstars was less expected.
When reflecting on Warner’s surprising year, Corson offers some wisdom from the Roman philosopher Seneca: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” The startling triumph of relative unknowns like Teddy Swims and Boone, along with strong performances from the label’s A-list roster of talent, has made Warner much healthier than its fallow period in the mid-2010s.
Neither Corson nor Bay-Schuck expected this resurgence would sound like “Lose Control” or “Beautiful Things,” but when the moment arrived, they had already been working overtime to meet it. Unabashed music geeks with complementary talents — Corson the master marketer, Bay-Schuck the A&R whiz — the two label leaders can easily rattle off empirical and emotional takeaways from even their roster’s tiniest artists, and they’re hustling both on and off the clock, studying market inefficiencies and, as Seneca may have wanted, placing the label in a position to scoop up potential wins. “These songs didn’t sound like anything else that you were hearing on top 40 [radio],” Bay-Schuck points out. “That’s a big part of our brand at Warner Records. We aren’t trying to do what everybody else is doing — we’re trying to take risks and stand out.”
From left: Dasha, Dua Lipa, Zach Bryan, Benson Boone, Mike Shinoda and Billy Strings.
Illustration by Israel Vargas
As slow-burning smashes with 10-figure streaming numbers, “Lose Control” and “Beautiful Things” headline a year for Warner that has also included country-rock virtuoso Bryan graduating to stadiums and scoring another hit album with The Great American Bar Scene, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200; Lipa earning her highest-charting album and best sales week yet with her third full-length, Radical Optimism; and eclectic acts like Linkin Park, Warren Zeiders, Billy Strings and Rüfüs Du Sol yielding success stories in rock, country, bluegrass and dance, respectively. As a result, Warner Records’ market share soared to third among individual labels (behind Republic and Interscope Geffen A&M) in Billboard’s 2024 midyear report, its highest ranking since Bay-Schuck and Corson were named CEO and COO of Warner, respectively, in 2018.
“Aaron, Tom and the team focus on signing and carefully nurturing original artists, and the result is a diverse roster of established superstars and emerging talent,” says Robert Kyncl, CEO of Warner Music Group. “At the same time, they’ve pioneered new ways of breaking through the clutter and grown their market share in an ultra-competitive environment.”
When Max Lousada, former WMG CEO of recorded music, recruited Corson from RCA Records and Bay-Schuck from Interscope to run Warner Records, both executives understood they had their work cut out for them. Outside of Lipa, who took home the best new artist Grammy Award in 2019, Warner ended the 2010s with an aging, rock-focused roster and a severe lack of new star power. “I’m going to quote Lyor [Cohen], a mentor of mine over the years,” Bay-Schuck says. “When we got this opportunity, he was like, ‘You better make sure they’re giving you five to seven years. That’s how long it takes.’ And I think he was spot-on, when you’re taking on a challenge like we did. We had a really unhealthy company that we inherited, and so the first couple of years were about the culture and getting the right people working here.”
In addition to bringing in deputies like executive vp/head of A&R Karen Kwak, senior vp of digital marketing Dalia Ganz and CFO Michele Nadelman, Corson and Bay-Schuck took a divide-and-conquer rebuilding approach that incorporated their personal expertise. Corson, a former president/COO of RCA Records, was tasked with maximizing the potential of Warner’s existing roster and catalog upon arrival, allowing Bay-Schuck, who previously ran A&R at Interscope, the necessary time to discover and develop new artists.
For Corson, the situation “was a combination of understanding roster catalog and needing to find revenue to buy us enough time.” Fortunately, the Warner catalog was filled with legendary artists — from Prince to Tom Petty to Fleetwood Mac to Madonna — even if, Corson says in disbelief, “there wasn’t anything strategic being done with them by the label.”
Short term, there was plenty of new revenue to uncover. Initiatives included responding to significant album anniversaries with glossy vinyl box sets for classics like Green Day’s Nimrod and Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory, strengthening relationships with the estates of artists like the Ramones and Mac Miller for special releases and also prioritizing new material from still-viable veterans like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Gorillaz. “Developing a high standard helped create a higher flow of product coming out of the catalog department,” Warner executive vp of promotion and commerce Mike Chester says. “And it really carried us. It allowed us to sign and develop Benson Boone and many others, because you need time to do that.”
With the exception of Lipa — whose 2020 album, Future Nostalgia, yielded hit after hit and also bought the new Warner regime more time to retool its roster — the label’s biggest new names are long-term development projects. Boone, a former American Idol contestant with a strong TikTok following but no original songs, signed with Warner in 2021; Bryan joined the same year, while he was still serving in the Navy and had yet to perform a proper concert. As Teddy Swims puts it nearly a half-decade removed from his own signing, “I speak for more than myself when I say just how thankful we are to [Bay-Schuck and Corson] for having the grace and patience to give artists like me the time and space to develop into what we are meant to be.”
Bay-Schuck points out that “Lose Control” and “Beautiful Things” first became hits outside of the United States, dominating parts of Europe and the United Kingdom before igniting on the Billboard charts this year — but that similarity aside, they required wholly different strategies. “ ‘Beautiful Things’ was viral as f–k — I think that’s an industry term,” Corson says with a laugh, nodding to the dedicated social following and streaming activity that helped unlock radio and tidily set up Boone’s April album, Fireworks & Rollerblades.
On the other hand, Warner had to grind out “Lose Control” with old-school radio promotion, then harness digital marketing to widen its footprint. “It’s one of the most interesting records I’ve ever worked because it’s an eight-format record,” Corson says of the single, which has, in fact, charted on eight different genre-based charts, from Adult Pop Airplay to Rock Airplay to R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, and has topped three of them in addition to the Hot 100.
As for Bryan, whose singular mix of country and rock has also transcended genre lines, the label’s executives say that his sound, release rate and social media presence all come straight from the singer-songwriter, and they just fill in any of the necessary details. “It is entirely Zach’s vision,” Bay-Schuck says. “And the legacy of this label is exactly that. No one was telling Prince what to do, no one was telling Madonna what to do. You give them advice, you challenge them, you insert your opinions where you can. But ultimately, those artists thrive because the label understood how to let them grow and mature and take swings on their own.”
As they’ve settled into their respective roles, Bay-Schuck and Corson have also clicked personally. They didn’t know each other prior to working together at Warner, but in conversation now, they often finish each other’s thoughts, thank each other for specific achievements and describe developing a friendship “off the field” while sharing a philosophy in the office. “Tom is this masterful operator, and Aaron is serious but in a very nuanced way,” Chester explains. “You have two people working full tilt to keep everything aligned, and the more wins, the greater proof of concept, just doubles down on the relationship.”
The dynamic has impressed the roster’s newer additions. Dasha, whose “Austin” peaked at No. 18 on the Hot 100, remembers meeting with Warner prior to other labels and feeling like her mind was made up before any further conversations. “Tom has been such an angel since day one. He is like my dad — he’s so funny and so kind,” she says. “Aaron, the same thing. He has so much passion for what he does and so much drive that it makes me want to work harder.”
And the label’s veteran artists, too, have met Warner’s efforts to revitalize catalogs and mine new opportunities with open arms. After working with Bay-Schuck and Corson on multiple anniversary reissues, Linkin Park set up its next chapter with new co-vocalist Emily Armstrong under cover of darkness, working with Warner to plan a global livestream, arena tour dates and the Nov. 15 release of its latest album, From Zero. “The Emptiness Machine,” the lead single from the album, debuted at No. 21 on the Hot 100 — Linkin Park’s biggest hit in 15 years and one of fall’s hottest new rock singles. The band’s Mike Shinoda says that Bay-Schuck and Corson were “instrumental” in Linkin Park’s comeback. “They helped us choose ‘The Emptiness Machine’ as a first single before it was completed,” he says.
Next, Bay-Schuck and Corson are focused on building the profiles of Warner’s new stars beyond their breakthrough hits. Teddy Swims’ uptempo follow-up single, “The Door,” has peaked at No. 24 on the Hot 100, and a new album — billed as a “second part” of his debut, I’ve Tried Everything but Therapy — is slated for a January 2025 release. Meanwhile, Boone’s “Slow It Down” reached No. 32, and he spent the year touring the globe (including a few dates opening for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour).
The executives also rattle off a dozen rising prospects on their roster — from pop singer CIL to viral country artist Maddox Batson to drum’n’bass revivalist Kenya Grace — and stress a greater focus on hip-hop and R&B in 2025, including with the impending arrival of a new head of its urban A&R division.
Meanwhile, Bay-Schuck and Corson have recently begun overseeing Warner Music Nashville, taking a more hands-on approach with artists like Bailey Zimmerman, Gabby Barrett and Cole Swindell and providing Warner Records’ global resources to help broaden those artists’ international footprints. The move was part of the summertime shake-up at WMG that resulted in Lousada’s departure, as well as the installation of a new regime at Atlantic Music Group, with Julie Greenwald departing as chairman/CEO and 10K Projects founder and CEO Elliot Grainge taking her place.
“We’re getting to know Elliot and [new COO] Zach [Friedman] and [new GM] Tony [Talamo] in real time — so far, great experience,” Bay-Schuck says. “They’re young, they’re energetic, they’re fearless. They’re going to come up with some new ways of doing business that I’m sure will prove to be really great for Warner Music Group.”
Another more subtle change followed the WMG restructuring: Bay-Schuck and Corson now report directly to Kyncl, after previously reporting to Lousada. While both executives say that Lousada’s leadership proved invaluable to their current run of success, they’re happy to be ending a momentous 2024 with a bigger seat at the table.
“We now have visibility into things that we didn’t before,” Bay-Schuck says. “With the greatest respect to those who came before us.”
Corson adds, “We’ve earned this.”
This story appears in the Nov. 16, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Ye (formerly Kanye West) is facing a new lawsuit over Vultures 1 from a group of Memphis rappers who claim the star and Ty Dolla $ign committed “brazen” copyright infringement by sampling a song after failing to secure a license.
The case – the latest in a long list of such lawsuits against Ye – claims the track “Fuk Sumn” is “riddled” with illegal samples from a 1994 song called “Drink a Yak (Part 2)” by the artists Criminal Manne (Vanda Watkins), DJ Squeeky (Hayward Ivy) and the late Kilo G (Robert L. Johnson Jr.)
Like several other previous cases against Ye, the lawsuit claims that the star’s reps reached out to clear the samples – but that he then just continued to use it without a license when talks broke down.
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“After numerous unsuccessful attempts at resolving this matter directly with the responsible parties, plaintiffs have been left with no other method of recourse than to bring this cause of action,” attorneys for the accusers write in a complaint filed Wednesday.
The use of the earlier song in “Fuk” is so “blatant” and “brazen” that the spots where samples were used in Ye’s track are “easily discernible,” the lawsuit claims. Near the start of Ye’s song, Criminal Manne can allegedly be heard rapping a lyric from “Yak” that stars with “smokin on a junt”; seconds later, Kilo G is allegedly heard rapping another line: “Stop off at the liquor store, get your yak, then we headed for the indo.”
The new lawsuit is one of more than a dozen such cases that have been filed against Ye over claims of unlicensed sampling or interpolating during his prolific career. The controversial rapper has faced nine such infringement cases since 2019 alone, including a high-profile battle with estate of Donna Summer that settled earlier this year.
Lawyers for the three accusers say that reps for Ye reached out to clear the sample in February, after “Fuk” had already been released. Those talks allegedly went on for months, but were terminated in June when the plaintiffs say they were were notified that “YE had fired his entire legal and business team leaving him without any legal representation.”
“Despite a much anticipated resolution resulting from several months of intense negotiations, Plaintiffs were informed they would need to wait to be contacted by Defendant YE’s new legal representation,” the lawsuit says.
Another Ye attorney then reached out to re-start the sample negotiations, the lawsuit says, but then were informed that he too was no longer working with Ye. The accusers say that no deal has been reached since.
“Plaintiffs have never given permission to Defendants for such use of their music,” attorneys for the three rappers write. “Meanwhile all Defendants have continued to profit from the illegal usage of the sampled [song] with over 150,000,000 Spotify streams to date.”
Reps for Ye and Ty Dolla did not immediately return a request for comment.
Former MNRK Music Group president/CEO Chris Taylor has officially opened the doors on his next venture, Hall of Fame Artists, which is currently managing artists with plans to expand into the recording, publishing and multimedia sectors.
Hall of Fame’s roster of approximately 30 acts includes much-sampled U.K. soul and funk legends Cymande, who are enjoying a resurgence in popularity, Canadian lo-fi rapper and streaming sensation, Powfu, who has 8.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify; jazz pianist and composer, Kiefer, electro pop star, Lights, and stand-up comic Brittany Brave.
Taylor, who resigned from Blackstone-owned MNRK this past summer and took its management division with him, technically opened Hall of Fame in July, but says he chose not to publicize it. Five months later, he told Billboard he has team members based in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Vancouver and the United Kingdom. They include music and comedy industries veteran Keith Hagan, a longtime publicist and marketing strategist for acts like Kenny Rogers, Paul McCartney, TOTO and Paul Weller; touring and merchandise expert Sarah Osgoode (Tragically Hip, Arkells, Lights); radio promotion exec, Polo Brewster (Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Tory Lanez); and marketing team members, Kultar “KC” Chohan and Kate Stronczer.
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“There has never been a better time to be an independent operator in the music industry,” Taylor says. “We are providing a full suite of services that clients can take full advantage of. Everybody is talking about how easy it is to do everything yourself, and I think there’s a lot of truth to that. But there are so many tools now to manage and having experience with those is vital, and I think it’s very difficult for artists to do it all on their own.”
Taylor compares navigating the music industry to negotiating tax regulations. You can master them, but they are changing all the time,” he says. ,n the music business you can master TikTok, Instagram, Spotify, Apple and all the other platforms out there, but they’re changing all the time. How does an artist stay on top of that? I don’t think they do without a team.
The company is in the process of signing their first artists to the recording and publishing divisions. Expect many more exciting updates from the company as the road to the hall of fame gets constructed.
While at MNRK, Taylor’s team worked with The Lumineers, Pitbull, Chromeo, Zakk Wylde and the estate of Chuck Berry. Originally branded Entertainment One (eOne), the company was acquired for a reported $4 billion, and in 2021, Taylor led the sale of the eOne/Hasbro Music division — which he ran, to Blackstone for a reported $385 million. Prior to his work with those companies, Prior to MNRK, he was the music attorney for Drake, Kaytranada, Avril Lavigne, Three Days Grace, Sum 41 and Nelly Furtado.
Taylor says Hall of Fame is in the process of signing its first two artists to its recorded music and publishing divisions. “For now we’re prepared to do this brick by brick,” he says. “Then we plan to scale up swiftly.”
LONDON — The British government is calling on the live music industry to introduce a voluntary levy on stadium and arena tickets sold in the United Kingdom “as soon as possible” to “safeguard the future of the grassroots music sector.”
“We believe this would be the quickest and most effective mechanism for a small portion of revenues from the biggest shows to be invested in a sustainable grassroots sector,” said the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in a report published Thursday (Nov. 14).
Earlier this year, a cross-party committee of MPs said a new levy on arena and stadium tickets was urgently needed to stem the tide of small grassroots music venue closures in the United Kingdom.
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According to the Music Venue Trust (MVT), the number of grassroots music venues (defined as limited capacity venues regularly staging live music) in the U.K. declined from 960 to 835 in 2023, a fall of 13%, representing a loss of as many as 30,000 shows and 4,000 jobs.
Responding to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s report on the grassroots live music sector, published in May, the government said Thursday that it was “deeply concerned” with the rate of venue closures and that “a small industry-led levy within the price of a ticket” would benefit the U.K.’s live music system “as a whole.”
The government said it wanted the voluntary levy to come into effect “as soon as possible” so that it could be applied to arena and stadium music shows taking place in 2025. How the funds raised will be used to support small and low-capacity music venues should be clearly explained to ticket buyers, said the government.
“We urge the live music industry, and in particular the biggest commercial players who will have the biggest impact on the success of an industry-led levy, to act and to do so swiftly,” said DCMS.
Exactly what form such a levy on arena and stadium shows will take is still to be determined. While there is broad support throughout the U.K. live music industry for a voluntary levy, some promoters would prefer that it is applied on a case-by-case basis and stakeholders are divided on whether the levy should be included within the ticket’s price or as an additional fee on top of the face value of the ticket.
The size of venue the levy would be applied to and its cost/rate is also yet to be decided, although the Music Venue Trust has previously called for a £1 levy ($1.26) to be applied to arena and stadium shows above 5,500 capacity, excluding festivals. Discussions are currently taking place between live executives around what charitable body should collect, manage and distribute proceeds from the fund.
In a statement, Jon Collins, chief executive of live music industry umbrella organization LIVE, said driving forward “an industry-led solution to the challenges currently being experienced by venues, artists, festivals and promoters remains our number one priority.”
The idea of a voluntary arena tickets levy to support the grassroots music sector is one that has already received support from several high-profile U.K. artists and organizations.
In September, Coldplay announced that it would be donating 10% of the band’s proceeds from their 2025 dates at London’s Wembley Stadium and Hull’s Craven Park stadium to the Music Venue Trust.
Other acts backing the initiative include rock band Enter Shikari, who donated £1 from every ticket sold on its February U.K. arena tour to the trust, and Sam Fender, who has pledged to do the same on his forthcoming U.K. dates. This year, Halifax-based venue The Piece Hall became the first U.K. venue to give ticket-buyers the option to donate to the charity.
A similar scheme to support grass roots music creation exists in France, where a statutory 3.5% levy on the gross value of all concert tickets sales goes into a central fund administered by the Centre National de la Musique (CNM), France’s public agency for the music industry.
“This is the beginning of a way forward,” Kwame Kwaten, director of artist management company Ferocious Talent, whose roster includes Blue Lab Beats, Hak Baker and Caitlyn Scarlett, tells Billboard.
“If [the levy] happens, it will at least begin the process of addressing something that has been left out to dry with humongous consequences, especially at the kind of levels that we have to operate at before an artist gets to the arena, stadium level, which is where 80-90% of [touring] artists are,” says Kwaten, who gave evidence to the CMS committee during the inquiry.
“We are standing at a massive crossroads,” he says, “and we have now got a chance to do something about it.”
In a statement, CMS Committee chair, Dame Caroline Dinenage, said she welcomed the government’s recognition that “swift action on a levy is needed from the bigger players who pack out arenas and stadiums,” but warned that “the lack of a firm deadline for movement risks allowing matters to drift.”
“Without healthy roots, the entire live music ecosystem suffers,” said Dinenage, who is calling for government ministers to set a clear deadline for the industry to act. If no significant progress is made within six months, she said the CMS committee will hold another hearing with representatives of the U.K. live music industry.
“Every week I hear from music managers trying to do the impossible and bridge catastrophic shortfalls in their artists touring budgets,” said Annabella Coldrick, chief executive of U.K. trade body the Music Managers Forum (MMF), in a statement. Coldrick says it is “imperative” that the music industry comes together to establish a ticket levy on “all large-scale live music shows” to support smaller scale touring artists. “The current situation is untenable,” she says.
The U.K. government’s support for an arena ticket levy is the latest in a long line of Parliament-led interventions into the music industry that have taken place in recent years, including a nine-month probe into the music streaming business and a subsequent review of the sector by the U.K. competition watchdog.
More recently, authorities have turned their attentions to the live industry. In September, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into Ticketmaster over its much-criticized use of dynamic ticketing for Oasis‘ reunion tour, which prompted hundreds of complaints from fans and fierce condemnation from British politicians.
The British government has also said it would be looking into the practice of dynamic pricing for music concerts as part of its consultation into the secondary ticketing market, which is due to begin in the coming weeks.
Pioneering producer and singer Imogen Heap has partnered with Jen, an ethical AI music creation platform, to launch two new models inspired by her musical stylings. The partnership was announced Thursday (Nov. 14) at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
First, Heap is launching her own StyleFilter model, Jen’s patented tool that allows users to create original tracks that infuse the distinct musical styles of of an artist or producer into their new works. Specifically for Heap’s collaboration, the StyleFilter model was trained on her new singles “What Have You Done To Me” and “Last Night of an Empire.” Importantly, StyleFilter is said to do this while still “maintaining transparency, protection and compensation” for Heap. Secondly, Heap and Jen have also announced a new AI voice model trained on Heap’s distinct vocals.
Jen co-founder and CEO, Shara Senderoff, and Heap took the stage at Web Summit’s Centre Stage to demonstrate how StyleFilter works, transforming prompts into compositions that weave Heap’s style into a user’s original works. Watch their explanation below:
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Over her decades-long career, Heap has been viewed as an innovator, pushing the boundaries of art and technology. Since the early days of her career, she has popularized the use of vocoders. Later, she developed her own products, like the Mi.Mu gloves, a wearable tool that allows her to record loops and edit vocals with small hand movements, and The Creative Passport, a service that combines all of an artist’s information in one place from a bio, press photos, royalty accounting, set lists and more.
Last month, in an interview with The Guardian, Heap explained her new AI assistant, called Mogen, which is trained on Heap’s interviews, speeches and TK to act as essentially a living autobiography that can answer questions for fans in her persona. Later, she hopes to expand Mogen to be trained on her musical improvisation and to become a live collaborator at gigs.
Imogen Heap and Shara Senderoff at Web Summit
Jen is an AI music making platform that puts transparency at the forefront. Its Jen-1 model, launched in June, is a text-to-music model trained on 40 different licensed catalogs (and then verified against 150 million songs). It is also backed by APG founder/CEO Mike Caren, who came on as a founding partner in fall 2023. As Senderoff explained in a August 2023 interview with Billboard, “Jen is spelled J-E-N because she’s designed to be your friend who goes into the studio with you. She’s a tool.”
Jen uses blockchain technology to ensure transparency and the ability to track its works after they are generated and put out in the world. Each of the works created with Heap’s StyleFilter will be authorized for use through Auracles — an upcoming non-profit platform, designed by Jen, that uses data provenance to give artists have more access, control and permission for what is made using their StyleFilter model.
While other AI companies have worked on creating personalized AI music models, trained on a specific producer or artists catalog before, like Soundful Collabs, the team at Jen believes StyleFilter is different because “it can learn and apply the style of an artist by training on a single song, establishing a new level of creative precision and efficiency,” says a spokesperson for the company.
“Shara’s integrity shines an outstanding light at this pivotal moment in our human story,” says Heap. “The exponential curve of innovation in and with AI attracts opportunists primarily focused on filling their pockets in the gold rush or those racing at speed to stick their ‘technological flag’ in the sand to corner a marketplace. Alongside the clear innovation in products and new revenue streams for musicians at Jen, Shara’s inspiring strength and determination to get the ethical foundations right from the start are inspiring. An all-too-rare example of a service, contributing to a future where humans are empowered, valued and credited, within and for our collective global tools and knowledge.”
“At Jen, we are determined to create innovative products that invite artists to participate as AI reshapes the music industry, enabling their artistry to take new forms as technology evolves while ensuring they are respected and fairly compensated,” says Senderoff. “Our StyleFilter is a testament to this vision, introducing a groundbreaking way for users to collaborate with the musical essence of artists they might never have the chance to work with directly. Premiering this product with Imogen Heap, a pioneer at the intersection of music and technology, exemplifies our commitment to build with respect and reverence for those who paved the way. She’s also an incomparable human that I’m honored to call my friend.”
Canadian Music Week is undergoing a major identity shift.
For the first time since 1982, the music festival and conference will have a new name: Departure. The newly-christened Departure Festival + Conference will take place from May 6-11, 2025.
Loft Entertainment and Oak View Group (OVG) bought the festival from retiring founder Neill Dixon this year. They announced the changes in a cocktail reception on Tuesday (Nov. 12) at the festival’s new Toronto headquarters, Hotel X.
“Departure honours where we’ve come from and celebrates where we are going,” said Kevin Barton, executive producer at Loft Entertainment. “We’re creating a launchpad that opens doors to deeper, more inclusive conversations and showcases the richness of Toronto’s cultural scene, celebrates Canadian creatives, and welcomes global artists.”
In speeches and a fireside chat, Barton along with Loft co-founder Randy Lennox and chief operating officer Jackie Dean joined OVG Canada president Tom Pistore to share the new vision for the festival.
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Lennox and Barton pointed to the ambition of the event, which will expand to include comedy, tech and food in year one — plus film, fashion and other subjects in the near future. They will take big swings, which might mean they may have misses along the way, they acknowledged.
This year’s festival will include a songwriter showcase, comedy performances, food trucks, and a new app and digital infrastructure.
The goal with Departure is to expand and modernize, they said, while honouring the history of Canadian Music Week. Next year, they will honour CMW’s former leader Neill Dixon with a lifetime achievement award.
Comedian Russell Peters opened with his own less rehearsed speech, and shared his hopes for the festival. He’s both a comedian and a DJ, but says he and his friends had avoided CMW in the past “because it was soup — full of crackers.” He joked that the festival’s idea of diversification was Kardinal Offishall and that’s it.
Barton stressed an inclusivity mandate and said they have been meeting with different equity-seeking communities in the Canadian arts industry. Over 160 languages are spoken in Toronto, and the goal is to represent that multiculturalism.
Pistore said Departure is part of the Denver-based Oak View Group’s expanded footprint in Canada, which includes new hires and a $280 million project to transform an arena in Hamilton, Ontario. There is an ambition to be bigger, “but rooted in a Canadian foundation.”
The response on social media and at the industry event was mixed. Some were optimistic for the long-running conference to change and evolve and provide a bigger platform for Canadian artists. Others hoped that the new ownership, including the American Oak View Group, and removal of “Canadian” from the name, will not sacrifice the Canadian identity or the focus on the homegrown industry.
Karan Chahal is a music and business lawyer and agent at LSC Law. A former musician and engineer himself, he now works with independent artists, especially in Punjabi music, including producer Deep Jandhu.
Chahal has been attending CMW for years, and credits it as one of the most important conferences in Canada. He especially appreciated last year’s edition, which included a spotlight on India’s music industry and Punjabi music in Canada, he says.
“It’s an amazing platform, because everyone there is there for the same reason: music,” he says. “The music industry in Canada is still growing, and artists need support. There’s so much incredible talent here, and CMW is a spot where the artists, the labels, the agents can gain those relationships in the industry.”
Chahal’s hope is that Departure’s expanded focus into other areas will not dilute the support for music, specifically.
“I think we need more eyes on it, we need to grow it. More strategic individuals getting involved is only going to help,” he says. “I just hope we aren’t going to lose what it initially stood for, and will uphold the duty to support the culture.”
Rudy Blair is an independent music journalist and interviewer who has been covering Canadian Music Week for nearly 30 years. Over the past few years, he’s also worked for the festival under Dixon as a conference host.
Blair says the new name will take some getting used to, but he thinks the growth can only be a good thing.
“We always have to move forward, and as long as it shows respect for what came in the past, change is a good thing,” he says. “Moving forward, looking at things differently, presenting things differently, that always needs to happen. Departure is part of that evolution.
“The mandate from day 1, 42 years ago, to 2025 is the same,” he continues. “It is all about fans, artists, educating people, and making sure the rest of the world knows that Canada has some of the best talent in the world. As much as they’re looking at other things, I hope they keep the dream Neill (Dixon) had, which is promoting Canadian talent.”
This story originally was originally published by Billboard Canada.
Streaming music isn’t much of a social experience, but Hangout, a new music service that debuted Wednesday (Nov. 13), wants to change that.
Calling itself a “social platform,” Hangout, which is available on the web, iOS and Android, launched globally with more than 100 million songs available to stream thanks to licensing deals with the three major labels — Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group — and indie rights group Merlin.
“With our broad global partnerships across the music companies in place, Hangout begins its journey to redefine the intersection of music and social media,” founder/CEO Joseph Perla said in a statement. “Our vision has always been to create a platform that celebrates the joy of music but also helps support the music industry. Today marks a monumental step toward that goal.”
The idea is simple: People set up listening rooms and play music for guests. The DJs are represented by avatars on stage, standing aside turntables and moving to the rhythm of the music, while listeners’ avatars face the stage, only the back of their bobbing heads visible. The platform has two business models: Like Spotify and YouTube, Hangout will offer premium subscriptions that eliminate advertisements, while an avatar store will be another source of revenue, the company tells Billboard.
If Hangout looks familiar, that’s because the concept, look and feel is borrowed from Turntable.fm, a website that charmed listeners with its cartoonish and communal approach to streaming music. Perla was a co-founder of Turntable.fm and later worked at Facebook and Lyft before reviving the idea and raising capital from the likes of Founders Fund (an early investor in Spotify), Elizabeth Street Ventures and 468 Capital.
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Turntable.fm exploded onto computers in 2011 and quickly attracted a following. YouTube and the just-launched Spotify had more financing backing and secured licenses with record labels, but they weren’t as engaging for users as Turntable.fm. Imitators soon appeared, showing that entrepreneurs recognized that people wanted more options to stream music.
The early ‘10s was a different era, though. Good ideas were plentiful but countless startups either failed to build momentum or secure the necessary licenses to reach a large audience. Turntable.fm shut down in December 2013 after it ran into licensing problems, was forced to exclude users from outside the U.S. and nixed the ability for users to upload unlicensed tracks. Now, nearly any track people want to hear is readily available, and Hangout faces a friendlier licensing climate.
“We’re pleased to support the continued growth of opportunities for fans to experience and listen to Sony Music artists in shared social spaces that fairly value their work,” Mark Piibe, executive vp of global business development & digital strategy at Sony Music, said in a statement. “We’re pleased to support the continued growth of opportunities for fans to experience and listen to Sony Music artists in shared social spaces that fairly value their work.”
“Social listening continues to become a key component of the fan experience, driving loyalty and conversation amongst engaged artist communities and Hangout will help power these fan experiences in a unique and compelling way,” added Kristen Bender, senior vp of digital innovation strategy & business development at Universal Music Group.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Hangout to bring our diverse catalog of artists to this innovative music platform,” said Rachel Scarpati, vp of business strategy & business development at Warner Music Group. “This partnership underscores WMG’s commitment to pioneering new avenues for music discovery, fostering community, and providing fans with dynamic ways to engage and share their love for music.”
And at Merlin, Ryan McWhinnie, vp of business & legal affairs, said, “Community is at the center of independent music. This partnership with Hangout brings new opportunities for our global membership and their artists to connect with fans and broaden their communities.”
By the time Elvis Presley’s Comeback Special was taped in 1968, The King was not just on the ropes but nearly down for the count. A lengthy period in the wilderness starring in commercially successful but critically derided musicals throughout the 1960s had left his reputation in tatters as a new wave of musicians rose to prominence. There was hope, however, that a stellar performance at the special — for which a new song, “If I Can Dream,” was written — could help him win back the hearts of the American people.
This moment in time is where Elvis Evolution, an upcoming experiential installation in London, will begin for its audience. Set to debut at the recently-opened Immerse LDN in May 2025, the show’s creators view this as the moment when Presley was at his most vulnerable and authentic, making it the perfect jumping-off point for an odyssey that will trace the arc of his musical journey — from his upbringing in rural Mississippi to Memphis’ iconic Sun Studios and Beale Street to the backlots of NBC Studios in Burbank, California, where the Comeback Special was shot.
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To bring Presley’s musical journey to life, Elvis Evolution will utilize archival material and cutting-edge technology, including generative artificial intelligence, holograms and projections, alongside live music performances from a house band and themed set designs. The show comes from Layered Reality, a production company that fuses digital technology with live theater, and Academy Award-winning special effects company The Mill. In 2023, the former secured the rights from the Presley estate and Authentic Brand Group to license the icon’s image and likeness.
The announcement of Elvis Evolution came amid renewed interest in Presley’s life and music. In 2022, Baz Luhrmann’s jukebox epic Elvis told the story of the singer and his rocky relationship with manager Colonel Tom Parker. And Sofia Coppola’s 2023 movie Priscilla examined his first and only marriage from the perspective of his wife.
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Contrary to those interpretations, Elvis Evolution’s director Jack Pirie — who shares a co-writing credit with playwright Jessica Siân — says the show will remain focused strictly on the music. “What I hope we can do with this show is to move away from the myth of what Elvis represented and the image of him in his later years in a white jumpsuit in Las Vegas,” he says. “We want to go back to who he was as a kid, and look at the music he was listening to and how that shaped him.”
Pirie says Elvis Evolution resulted from the success of other, similarly tech-heavy experiences to debut in the U.K. recently. In 2023, cutting-edge digital art venue Outernet in central London attracted more visitors (6.25 million) than the British Museum (5.83 million). The wildly popular Abba Voyage experience, which started in 2022 and features performing avatars of the Swedish pop group, just extended its run into May 2025.
Even Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour concert film, which was released in cinemas to big grosses last year, was cited by Pirie as an example of music fans being willing to celebrate in “a non-traditional environment.”
“Elvis didn’t sit at home listening to music on his phone, he had to go out and seek and experience it,” says Andrew McGuinness, founder/CEO of Layered Reality, which previously produced an immersive version of Jeff Wayne’s War of The Worlds musical and The Gunpowder Plot starring Tom Felton. “The fact that live music runs through the DNA of the story makes it a great property to do it this way.”
Elvis Evolution initially caused controversy when it was revealed that the show would use generative artificial intelligence to help recreate Presley in hologram form. But McGuinness and Pirie tell Billboard that the technology is being used only to enhance authentic moments in Presley’s career. For example, they say the technology will help bring new perspectives and sightlines to the ‘68 Comeback Special, for which only limited camera angles exist. As with any powerful tool, says McGuinness, you need to be “bloody careful” with how AI is employed: “We’re not trying to confect something and we take the responsibility with the utmost importance,” he says.
Tickets went on sale for Elvis Evolution in October, and only a limited number remain available through the show’s opening weeks — specifically, May 10 to June 1. The 110-minute experience will have timed entry, with several performances set to take place each day. Tickets start at £75 ($97), while VIP packages are also available, including the “Burning Love” experience, which includes additional merchandise and VIP seating, and the “If I Can Dream” package, which features tickets to the show, commemorative merch and premium access to the show’s daily after-party.
The show’s venue, Immerse LDN, opened at the Royal Docks’ ExCel convention center in July 2024 and is currently hosting both the Formula 1 Exhibition and The Friends Experience: The One In London, both of which use multi-sensory technology and set design. The immersive venue, which will total 160,000 square feet once completed, is part of a £300 million ($387 million) investment in ExCel.
McGuinness and Pirie’s hope is that Elvis Evolution will be successful enough to be toured globally, and they’re particularly excited about the prospect of taking it to some of the U.S. locations that have strong roles in his story, from Las Vegas to Memphis and beyond.
The show’s success could also create opportunities for similar experiences around other music icons; while McGuinness notes that the commercial demands and scale of such events make only a small group of artists “suitable,” he says discussions have already begun between Layered Reality and other artists’ estates.
Though Presley’s outsized legend makes him one of the few artists, living or dead, to be well-suited for such an elaborate and expensive production, McGuinness adds that one of the goals of the project was to strip away the iconography and get to the root of the person he was.
“There’s a humanity that can get lost with any musician or celebrity, and before I started this project, I was prone to seeing Elvis just as an ‘icon,’” he says. “But within this experience, you get to see him as a man, too.”