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Megadeth and lead singer Dave Mustaine have agreed to pay $1.4 million to resolve allegations that they still owed commissions to a long-time manager after he was “unceremoniously” fired and replaced by Mustaine’s son.
The deal will resolve claims in a lawsuit filed last year by Cory Brennan and his Five B Artist Management, which alleged that Mustaine was refusing to hand over more than $1 million in unpaid commissions after abruptly terminating Brennan in early 2023.
In a filing made public on Wednesday (Nov. 13), attorneys for Brennan alerted a Los Angeles judge that Mustaine and Megadeth had agreed to pay the manager and Five B a total of $1,400,006 to end the litigation over those accusations.
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The settlement will not end the dispute entirely. Mustaine countersued Brennan last year, claiming his tenure as manager had been “plagued with missteps” that caused serious harm, including damaging Mustaine’s hearing. Those claims were not resolved by the settlement and will continue to be litigated.
In a statement to Billboard on Wednesday, Brennan’s attorney, Howard King, said that while his client was “displeased at having to sue an artist,” he was “gratified” by the settlement payment.
“Dave Mustaine, who has a known history of firing advisors, terminated Five B Artist Management after 9 years of their having resurrected his failing career,” King said. “Ignoring the success Five B had helped Dave achieve, including a campaign to help him win his first Grammy, the release of two hit albums, and the elevation of his touring from small clubs back to arenas and amphitheaters, Dave simply refused to pay commissions owing and forced 5B to file a lawsuit.”
Mustaine’s attorney, Richard Busch, did not immediately return a request for comment on the settlement.
In a June 2023 lawsuit, Brennan alleged that Mustaine had sought him out in 2014 to “manage his career and get it back on track,” following an extended downturn in commercial and critical success in which the beloved thrash metal band “seemed to have lost their way.” Over the next nine years, Brennan said he had “worked tirelessly” for Mustaine, including “helping him with his personal struggles” and successfully re-establishing Megadeth as “one of the greatest metal bands of all time.”
But the lawsuit claimed that Mustaine abruptly fired Brennan in early 2023, leaving him owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid touring commissions and hundreds of thousands more in merchandise commissions.
“Despite this success and their long-term relationship, on April 28, 2023, Mustaine, through his lawyer, unexpectedly and unceremoniously terminated Plaintiffs, stating no reason for the termination,” the lawsuit alleged. “The decision was made to help send business to Mustaine’s son, who has been trying to build a career in artist management.”
Months later, Megadeth and Mustaine fired back with a countersuit of their own, claiming that Brennan had been fired due to “repeated management failures” that had “dealt serious blows to Megadeth’s reputation and even David Mustaine’s physical health.”
Mustaine’s lawyers claimed that both sides had always agreed that each would “go their separate ways” following any split between Brennan and the band — and the lawsuit was simply retaliation because the ex-manager was “upset” that his “mishandling” of the band’s business had finally “caught up with him.”
“The cross-defendants’ unfounded claims are nothing more than an attempt to capstone their years of mistreatment with extortionate demands for money not earned by cross-defendants nor owed by cross-plaintiffs,” Busch wrote in the complaint.
Since the initial accusations and counter-claims, the case had spent months in discovery — the process of exchanging evidence in a litigation. No rulings on the merits of the cases have yet been issued.
Following the settlement of Brennan’s claims, Mustaine’s accusations of wrongdoing against him — including breach of contract and negligence — will continue toward an eventual trial.
This story was published as part of Billboard’s music technology newsletter ‘Machine Learnings.’
Sign up for ‘Machine Learnings,’ and Billboard’s other newsletters, here.
Last week, Universal Music Group filed a $500 million lawsuit against TuneCore and its parent company Believe over alleged copyright infringement of UMG’s recordings. The lawsuit presented two core issues: first, that bad actors used TuneCore to upload songs to streaming services that were simply sped up or remixed versions of UMG-copyrighted recordings, often listed under slight misspellings of the real artist, like “Kendrik Laamar” or “Arriana Gramde.” Second, it claimed that “Believe has taken advantage of the content management claiming system” on YouTube “to divert” and “delay… payment of royalties” that belong to record labels.
If you’ve been following the issues in this case over the last few years, this lawsuit feels like a long time coming, and the issues that UMG raises are certainly not just a TuneCore-specific issue — they’re an industry-wide DIY distribution issue. With the vast scale of songs being uploaded through these companies, and staffs that are too small to catch every bad actor, infringing material has, according to just about everybody, flooded onto streaming services.
The distributors know it’s a problem, too. It’s why TuneCore, DistroKid, CD Baby, Symphonic, Downtown and more formed the Music Fights Fraud coalition in 2023 and say they have increasingly invested in preventing fraud and infringement. Unfortunately, Beatdapp, the industry leader in identifying streaming fraud, believes the problem has only worsened since then. UMG is also not convinced that TuneCore is doing enough, saying that the company’s business model incentivizes them to “turn a blind eye” to this damaging activity.
Below, I’ve condensed some of the arguments I’ve heard among industry leaders both for and against DIY distribution continuing just as it is today. I’ll let you judge which outcome is better.
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Argument #1: Why its essential to protect DIY distribution as is
It’s easy to take for granted today that anyone who wants to release a song can do it themselves, but that wasn’t always the case. When physical records reigned supreme, record label contracts often favored the companies involved, and seldom went the artists’ way. At the time, artists were essentially forced to sign to a record label if they wanted a chance at shelf space in stores — especially worldwide. This left artists vulnerable to unequal label deals that locked them in for many albums while the label took the lion’s share of the royalties and the copyrights, often in perpetuity.
When Distrokid, CD Baby, TuneCore and the like emerged in the 2000s, they let anyone sign up for distribution services to digital outlets like the iTunes Store for a flat fee and forever altered the power dynamic. Today, the playing field has leveled significantly: hobbyists can get their music out to the world and artists with professional aspirations can wait as long as they want before they have to give up a single percentage point of their master recordings to a label. These companies helped shift negotiating power to the artists, and for the first time, started the process of allowing music fans to decide what songs would pop, rather than the labels that pulled favors with the gatekeepers who worked in radio, retail and the press.
The shift also presented a new, lucrative business opportunity. Music companies no longer need superstars in their catalogs to make their numbers. In fact, they don’t need catalogs at all. A company can now make money by providing services, like distribution, to the masses of previously-overlooked musical hopefuls instead, relying on volume to make up the numbers.
But that volume allowed for the proliferation of fraud, which is a problem that evolves every day, and bad people will always find loopholes. Already, most distributors have implemented common-sense regulations and checks to curb fraud and invested money into quality control teams. But for many experts, it feels impossible to totally solve the problem. As it’s commonly said, this is an endless game of “wack-a-mole.”
But if the barriers to DIY distribution are too significant — like limiting the number of releases, gating who can use it, hiking the platform fee, adding a streaming threshold, or slowing down release time — it could take power away from indie musicians that they have become accustomed to. Such a move would be a step backward for artistic freedom, and the cost of implementing these regulations could threaten to put some of the smaller distributors out of business. Less choice and competition in DIY distribution isn’t better for users.
It’s impossible to put the DIY distribution genie back in the bottle. Artists, who have become used to the current system, would still find ways to get their music out there quickly and cheaply — whether fraudulent or not. Likely, that music would go out on social media or to social-streaming hybrids like YouTube and SoundCloud, both of which pay out royalties and can still be cheated. Streaming services, like Spotify, Apple and Amazon, would risk losing listenership and music discovery to social media platforms — something they already struggle with in today’s TikTok era — and it might not even solve the problems it targeted.
Argument #2: Why the DIY distribution system is in need of serious reform
Currently, over 120,000 songs are uploaded to streaming services every day, a rate that has rapidly increased for years and will likely continue to do so. This is mostly due to DIY distributors. While it is great that aspiring artists can get their music out there cheaply and easily, this has also led to rampant fraud and copyright infringement that puts excessive burdens on rights holders to police their own catalogs online. What happens when we inevitably get to a point where 1 million songs are uploaded every day? We can’t keep going as we are now, and we are in need of serious reform.
While DIY distributors have announced initiatives like Music Fights Fraud and have hosted panels at industry conferences to explain the new methods they are using to stop bad actors, some people say these companies have an incentive for at least some of it to slip by their watch, given their business models rely on receiving fees in exchange for uploading as many songs as possible. Self-policing is not enough, considering this problem only seems to get worse.
The introduction of generative AI has made this matter even more pressing. While it’s impossible to know how much of the music being uploaded today is AI-generated, and to date the streaming services have no regulations against this, it is certainly contributing to the rising number of songs released to streaming services per day. AI songs are believed to be exploited by bad actors to commit streaming fraud, as we saw in the September lawsuit which alleged a musician named Michael “Mike” Smith stole $10 million in streaming royalties by uploading AI-generated songs using a distributor and then used bots to stream them. Bad actors upload AI songs en masse to spread out artificial streams and make their schemes tougher to detect.
It’s hard to argue that it makes a user’s streaming experience better when a platform has a vast number of AI songs and tracks that not a single person has streamed, and it’s clear that these songs, largely stemming from DIY distributors, are diluting the royalty pool at the expense of what some stakeholders have called “professional artists.” The negligibly low payments earned by hobbyists who have accrued hundreds or just a few thousand streams are sometimes lower than the fees one would incur from transferring the royalties into their bank account.
These distributors, the argument goes, should be penalized for the bad actors they let through. This has been proposed in many forms so far, including a financial penalty instituted by streaming services, requirements for significant “know your customer” checks to slow down uploads and verify users’ identities, a minimum stream count threshold before artists can be eligible for royalty collection, a limit to the number of songs a user can upload at a time, an additional fee for storing massive uploads to streaming services, and more.
It’s not a viable business if you rely on a massive scale of song uploads but can’t afford the proper staffers and tools to police them.
Universal Music Group wants a federal judge to dismiss a copyright lawsuit claiming Mary J. Blige’s 1992 hit “Real Love” used a famed 1973 funk sample without a license, arguing the accusers have popped up “out of the blue” to sue over two tracks that “sound nothing alike.”
The case, filed in earlier this year by Tuff City Records, claims Blige’s track borrowed from “Impeach the President” by the Honey Drippers — a legendary piece of hip-hop source material with a drum track that’s been sampled or interpolated by Run-DMC, Dr. Dre, Doja Cat and many others over the years.
But in a response on Tuesday, UMG argues that Tuff City’s case is deeply flawed and must be tossed out of court at the outset.
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“Now, more than 30 years after ‘Real Love’ was released, plaintiff appears out of the blue alleging that ‘Real Love’ contains an uncleared sample from ‘Impeach the President,’ with no allegations concerning the works’ substantial similarity,” the music giant wrote. “The absence of that allegation is fatal.”
One key claim in Tuff City’s lawsuit is that UMG’s recorded music unit (UMG Recordings, Inc.) has already reached a settlement regarding the use of the “Impeach” sample on the “Real Love” sound recording, but that UMG’s publishing arm is unfairly refusing to do the same for the musical composition.
In Tuesday’s response, UMG confirmed the existence of that earlier settlement over the sound recording, but said it was entirely separate and complete “irrelevant” to a dispute over the composition. UMG’s attorneys said the settlement did not admit that “Real Love” infringed “Impeach” — but that even if it had, Tuff City was “confusing” a basic distinction that lies at the heart of music copyright law.
“Plaintiff … insinuates that defendant infringes simply because non-party UMG settled plaintiff’s claim of infringement [over] the sound recording,” the company wrote. “Because there exist two separate copyrights in music … a work can readily infringe one without infringing the other.”
Blige’s “Real Love” spent 31 weeks on the Hot 100 in 1992 and reached a peak of No. 7 on the chart. It has remained one of the star’s most enduring hits, with more than 105 million spins on Spotify and a movie adaptation released by Lifetime last year.
Tuff City sued UMG over the track in April, claiming it had “advised defendant repeatedly” about the allegedly uncleared sample, but that Universal had done nothing about it: “Defendant has repeatedly refused to engage plaintiff in substantive negotiations to rectify the foregoing, let alone agreed to compensate plaintiff for the past infringement or on an ongoing basis.”
The lawsuit did not name Blige herself as a defendant nor accuse her of any wrongdoing.
Tuff City, which owns a large catalog of old songs, is no stranger to copyright litigation – filing cases over tracks by Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, Christina Aguilera, Frank Ocean with claims that they featured unlicensed samples or interpolations. The company has even already sued over “Impeach the President,” claiming in a 1991 complaint that it had been illegally sampled on the LL Cool J tracks “Around the Way Girl” and “Six Minutes of Pleasure.”
The company has won plenty of rulings and settlements, but the litigation process has not always gone smoothly. In 2014, a judge dismissed one Tuff City case over Jay-Z’s “Run This Town” on the grounds that any alleged sample was “barely perceptible” after multiple listens. In that ruling, the judge chided Tuff City over its approach to the case, saying it “incorrectly … assumes that every copying of any part of another artist’s protected work is infringement.”
In Tuesday’s motion seeking to dismiss the “Real Love” case, UMG directly cited that 2014 ruling – arguing that the two songs “sound nothing alike” and that Tuff City had failed to argue otherwise.
“Unwilling to learn from the lessons of its past, plaintiff again seeks to assert copyright liability without plausibly pleading substantial similarity with respect to the musical compositions at issue here,” the company wrote. “The copyright claim must accordingly be dismissed.”
An attorney for Tuff City did not immediately return a request for comment.
Anthem Entertainment has acquired a “wide” selection of songs from Darell‘s catalog, the company tells Billboard. Included in the deal is the urbano superstar’s star-studded “Te Boté (Remix)” with Casper Mágico, Nio García, Nicky Jam, Ozuna & Bad Bunny, which peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2018 and ruled the Hot Latin Songs chart for 14 weeks.
Additional Darell songs that are part of the acquisition include “Otro Trago” with Sech and “Asesina” with Brytiago, along with tracks featuring Jennifer Lopez, Rauw Alejandro, J Balvin and more.
The Darell catalog acquisition further boosts Anthem’s presence in the Latin music space. The indie music company’s publishing catalog also includes an array of hits by Latin acts such as Pitbull, Karol G, Farruko, Camilo and Ricky Martin.
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Also on Wednesday (Nov. 13), Anthem also announced that industry veteran Victor Mijares has been appointed as the company’s first vp of Latin music and will “work closely” with Anthem’s acquisitions team to “source and evaluate investment opportunities in the Latin market,” according to a press release.
“We are excited to welcome Victor as Anthem’s first-ever Vice President of Latin Music,” Anthem CEO Jason Klein said in a statement. “With his deep expertise in Latin music and culture, alongside his extensive industry experience, Victor will play a crucial role as we expand our presence in this vibrant and rapidly growing market. Under Victor’s leadership, Anthem’s acquisition of this extraordinary catalog of songs from Darell is a significant step in our strategy to invest in exceptional Latin music, further diversifying and enriching our already impressive catalog of songs.”
“I am honored and thrilled to have joined Jason Klein’s outstanding team and to contribute to Anthem’s Entertainment’s continuing success,” Mijares added. “I believe that the potential to grow our business in the Latin sector is open-ended. We have the passion, commitment, and resources to shape exciting opportunities for our partners. The acquisition of a large portion of Darell’s catalog is a very important step for us as a company as well as for the Canadian music industry. We are delighted to add Darell’s masterful works to our growing repertoire.”
Darell was represented in the deal by Angie Martinez, Esq., Denny Marte at MPA Advisors, LLC and Eddy Perdomo at EPM Entertainment.
Liberty Media signaled on Wednesday that longtime president and CEO Greg Maffei will step down at the end of the year, with chairman John Malone sliding in as interim CEO. Starting Jan. 1, Maffei will serve as a senior advisor for the company, aiding in the changeover amid a planned spin-off of its live entertainment assets into a new, publicly traded business.
Over his 19-year tenure, Maffei led Liberty Media through significant growth, investing in high-profile companies including the Charter Communications, Live Nation Entertainment, the Atlanta Braves, SiriusXM, Formula 1 and DirecTV. The company said that under Maffei’s leadership, Liberty’s composite value has enjoyed an annual growth rate of 17%.
Maffei has held numerous leadership roles across Liberty’s portfolio companies and, post-resignation, will remain as chairman of Qurate Retail, Liberty TripAdvisor, Tripadvisor and SiriusXM, and he’ll keep his director post at Charter, Live Nation and Zillow.
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In a statement, Malone commended Maffei’s impact, particularly his strategic vision that drove Liberty Media’s evolution and asset growth. Malone credited Maffei with establishing Liberty’s current streamlined structure and Maffei expressed gratitude for his nearly two decades at Liberty Media. “He has grown our asset base and made the company better and more valuable for shareholders, along the way overseeing as many as five separate public companies simultaneously,” said Malone.
The announcement of Maffei’s departure coincides with Liberty’s disclosed plans to spin off its Liberty Live Group — consisting of Liberty’s 30% stake in Live Nation and its minority interest in other companies like Kroenke Arena Company — into a separate public entity. Before the split, Liberty Media’s subsidiary Quint will be reattributed from its Formula One Group to the Liberty Live Group in exchange for private assets and cash consideration determined later. The company said the moves should simplify Liberty Media’s capital structure.
Post-split, expected to be finalized in the second half of 2025, Liberty Media will focus mostly on sports, while the newly formed Liberty Live will become a separate publicly traded company, ending Liberty Media’s tracking stock structure.
Earlier today, Charter Communications announced it will acquire Liberty Broadband in an all-stock transaction.
“Following today’s announcements at Liberty Media and Liberty Broadband, all the Liberty acquisitions completed during my tenure are now in structures where shareholders can have more direct ownership in their upside,” Maffei said. “The corporate structure is optimized, and the portfolio companies are in strong positions with talented executive teams in place. While it’s never easy to leave an organization as dynamic as Liberty, I am confident that this is the right time.”
BERLIN — GEMA, the German performing rights organization (PRO), today sued OpenAI for copyright infringement in Munich regional court, alleging that the technology company used without permission lyrics from songs to which GEMA licenses rights. This makes GEMA the first PRO to file such a lawsuit, although it controls some rights that U.S. societies do not. This also seems to be the first case involving only lyrics; the case does not involve recordings. In its announcement, GEMA described the suit as a “model action,” aimed at clarifying copyright law in Germany, and potentially all of Europe.
Since OpenAI offers copyrighted song lyrics in response to prompts, GEMA is alleging that the company trained its software on song lyrics that it has the rights to license, so it is suing the company for violations of the making available and reproduction right. (Making available is a right under European law that in this case is roughly analogous to the right of public performance, or in this case public display. It’s also alleging two infringing reproductions – one to ingest the lyrics for training purposes and another when they are output.) In the U.S., PROs do not control mechanical rights, so they would not have the standing to file such a lawsuit.
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So far, most of the music business lawsuits involving AI companies have been over the ingestion of recordings, although that by definition would also involve the underlying compositions. But OpenAI is already facing a considerable amount of litigation, including a putative class action from authors, a lawsuit from The New York Times, and one each from online publishers and other newspapers. The issue in the U.S. is whether or not copying to train an AI qualifies as a “fair use” exception to copyright law. The record label cases against Suno and Udio will involve the same principle.
European copyright law provides “exceptions and limitations” to copyright, rather than fair use, and the 2019 Copyright Directive allows text and data mining unless rightsholders opt-out. In this case, however, GEMA has opted out for all of the works it licenses. (GEMA does not license the lyrics for all the songs in its repertoire, but the lawsuit involves ones for which it does.) This lawsuit aims to clarify the law, and it has the support of some big German songwriters, as well as their publishers.
“Our members’ songs are not free raw material for generative AI systems providers’ business models,” said GEMA CEO Tobias Holzmüller in a statement. “Anyone who wants to use these songs must acquire a license and remunerate the authors fairly. We have developed a license model for this. We are taking and will always take legal action against unlicensed use.”
The lawsuit comes as rightsholders around the world are becoming more concerned about how AI will affect the value of their works, as well as how they should be compensated for how it is trained. At the end of September, GEMA presented a licensing model for generative AI software that would compensate songwriters and publishers. It has also sent letters to AI companies stating they must license GEMA works in order to use them.
Since OpenAI both operates servers and makes content available in Germany, it will presumably have to operate according to German law. This seems clearer than the U.S. system, where fair use often involves considerable uncertainty. However, European countries do not offer rightsholders the opportunity to collect damages as high as they can get in the U.S.
A representative for OpenAI did not immediately return a request for comment.
Rapper Freddie Gibbs signed with AWAL. The announcement coincided with the surprise release of Gibbs’ long-awaited album, You Only Die 1nce, which dropped Nov. 1. AWAL senior vp/head of urban music Norva Denton previously attempted to sign Gibbs twice before finally partnering with him at his former label, Warner Records. Denton went on to executive produce Gibbs’ 2022 album, $oul $old $eparately, alongside Gibbs and Gibbs’ manager/partner Ben “Lambo” Lambert. “Happy to be where they want me…I feel Celebrated,” said Gibbs in a statement. “I’m Awal Shawty! I love the freedom… We’re able to create at our own pace and it feels good at this stage in my career.”
Madison Beer (“Make You Mine,” “15 Minutes”) signed with WME for global representation. The singer-songwriter recently finished her The Spinnin Tour, which hit 63 venues on multiple continents. She continues to be managed by Tina Kennedy at Full Stop, with legal representation by Kenny Meiselas at Grubman, Shire, Meiselas & Sacks.
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Vocalist/producer/writer Oliver Tree (“Life Goes On,” “Alien Boy”) also signed with WME. According to a press release, Tree has garnered more than 2 billion streams across major platforms. His third studio album, Alone In a Crowd, was released in September 2023. He continues to be managed by Dan Awad and Paul Donatelli at Good Luck Have Fun, with legal representation by Nicky Stein.
Hard rock band Saliva signed with Judge & Jury Records, the label founded by producer Howard Benson and Neil Sanderson of Three Days Grace. The first release under the deal is the new single “Time Bomb.” Saliva is managed by Frank Mastalerz, Dino Kourelis and Bob Hathaway at FM Music Management and booked by Ian “Newy” Koletsis at Sound Talent Group and Spencer Zubrow at Pinnacle Entertainment.
Also signing to Judge & Jury Records was L.A. metal band Butcher Babies, coinciding with the release of its new single, “Sincerity.” The band is managed by Zachry Yoshioka at Powerline and booked by Jim Sennett and JJ Cassiere (North America) and Ian Fintak (rest of the world) at 33 and West.
Tunde Adebimpe, the frontman for TV on the Radio, signed a solo recording deal with Sub Pop and released the new single “Magnetic,” his solo debut. Adebimpe’s solo debut album is slated for release next year.
“Country-infused” sister quartet The BoykinZ signed to Quality Control Music, marking the indie label’s first country music signing. The group’s latest single, “Fell in Love With a Cowboy,” will be released on Friday (Nov. 15). The BoykinZ is managed by Craig King at Gentle King Group.
Singer-songwriter Ali Sethi (“Pasoori”) signed an exclusive global distribution deal with The Orchard for his label Zubberdust Media. Sethi plans to release new music later this year and into 2025. He’s managed by Aroop Sanakkayala at Roopster Entertainment.
Egyptian artist Amr Diab signed an exclusive partnership with Sony Music Entertainment Middle East. The multi-album deal includes the acquisition of Diab’s music catalog, including popular tracks like “Inta El Haz,” “Zay Manty” and “Ya Ana Ya La.”
Warner Music Nashville signed Texas native Braxton Keith to its roster. Keith just released the song “Fall This Way” from his upcoming EP Blue, out Dec. 6. Keith is managed by Alex Torrez and Emily Vincent at Torrez Music Group and booked by Andrew McWilliams at Evergreen Artist Group. – Jessica Nicholson
ONErpm signed Nashville-based artist Tyler Rich, who has notched RIAA-certified gold singles “The Difference” and “Leave Her Wild.” ONErpm will release the first single from Rich’s sophomore full-length album this fall. – Jessica Nicholson
Indonesian R&B duo Galdive signed with Mom+Pop Music and released the first single under the new deal, “Night Charade.” More music will be released soon.
Wynn Williams signed with CAA for exclusive booking representation. Texas native Williams, known for songs including “Country Therapy,” is signed with GCE Records and has opened shows for Randall King, Aaron Watson, Cody Johnson and others. – Jessica Nicholson
Japanese-British artist, model and influencer Hana Kuro signed a global production/management deal with Handcraft Entertainment, marking the second major signing for the J-pop-focused company following Anna Aya earlier this year.
Spotify, the world’s biggest music streaming platform, isn’t showing signs of slowing down. In the third quarter, revenue hit 3.99 billion euros ($4.32 billion) and subscribers grew by 6 million, the company announced Tuesday (Nov. 12).
The Swedish music streaming company has helped revolutionize how people listen to music but until recently, it didn’t have financial results to match its market power. Reacting to investors’ demands for both growth and profitability, last year Spotify tightened its belt and laid off about a quarter of its workforce, and this year’s quarterly financial results have shown marked improvements in margin and profitability without sacrificing all-important subscriber growth.
Although revenue was slightly below Spotify’s previous guidance of 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion), operating profit was a record high of 454 million euros ($500 million), exceeding guidance by 12%. After routinely posting operating losses in previous years, Spotify’s operating profit increased 70% from the second quarter and was up more than 14-fold from the prior-year quarter.
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Likewise, gross margin — revenue less cost of sales — reached 1.24 billion euros ($1.37 billion) and improved to 31.1% of revenue, up from 29.2%, 27.6% and 26.7% in the preceding three quarters. The margin improvement was attributed to gains from premium subscriptions as well as audiobooks and ad-supported gains.
Recent price increases in the U.S. and many other markets didn’t slow subscriber growth. Spotify finished the third quarter with 252 million subscribers, an increase of 6 million from the prior quarter and 11.5% higher than the prior-year period. Subscription revenue reached 3.51 billion euros ($3.86 billion), up 20.8% year-over-year. Premium average revenue per user increased 9% (at constant currency) to 4.71 euros ($5.18).
Advertising, a key ingredient to both Spotify’s freemium music model and podcasting business, continued to lag behind subscriptions. Advertising revenue of 472 million euros ($520 million) was up 5.6% from the second quarter and up 3.5% from the prior-year quarter. Music advertising was helped by growth in impressions sold and hampered by pricing weakness. Podcast advertising also suffered from pricing weakness and benefitted from growth in impressions sold.
The results sent Spotify’s share price price soaring in after-hours trading. Following the earnings release after markets closed, Spotify shares jumped over 9% to $459. Before trading closed, the stock hit an all-time high of $419.72 and posted its best-ever closing price of $419.48, up 2.3%. The stock closed above $400 for the first time on Friday (Nov. 8) and has gained 123% in 2024.
Ikenna Nwagboso, the co-founder/global head of label services and partnerships at emPawa Africa, will exit the company in January, it was announced Monday (Nov. 11)
Nwagboso launched the Nigeria-based talent incubation enterprise in 2018 alongside CEO/co-founder Mr. Eazi (real name Oluwatosin Ajibade). Since then, he’s overseen the signing and development of artists such as GuiltyBeatz, Joeboy, Tekno, Fave, King Promise, Minz, Xenia Manasseh, Nandy and Nezsa. In May, Tekno joined emPawa Africa as an investor and partner, and his Cartel Music label struck a joint venture with the company. Nwagboso has also secured crucial partnerships with Vydia, YouTube Music, Kobalt Music and Beyoncé‘s Parkwood Entertainment while spearheading the company’s flagship emPawa 100 and emPawa 30 campaigns, which are first-of-their-kind artist development programs that have launched the careers of 130 emerging artists across the continent.
“Ikenna has served emPawa with dedication over the past eight years, building some of the biggest new superstars in the industry,” Mr. Eazi said in a press release. “We look forward to building on the strong foundation he has established.”
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After Nwagboso leaves emPawa Africa at the top of next year, the Toronto-based executive will focus on developing artists through his new Image Ent./Exodus Music Group. Canadian artist Chrissy Spratt and British songwriter Geo are signed to the company, which is consulting on Rwandan artist Bruce Melodie’s upcoming debut album via S-Curve Records.
“I will continue to offer my advice to Eazi and the executive management team at emPawa, but it’s time to chart a new path. I am humbled and honored to have had the privilege to work with the artists and teams I’ve been fortunate to work with and lead. It’s all been a gift,” Nwagboso said in a statement.
Joeboy, whom Mr. Eazi and Nwagboso discovered as part of the emPawa 100 initiative, became the first artist to sign a publishing and distribution deal with the company in 2017. He left the company earlier this year to launch his own label, Young Legend, in partnership with Warner Records. In a statement, the “Sip (Alcohol)” singer credited Nwagboso with helping guide his career from an unknown artist to an international star.
“I’ve worked with Ikenna since the start of my career and he is one of the most reliable people when it comes to making sure his artists are provided with the best opportunities,” said Joeboy. “He is definitely one of the major game changers and role players to the African entertainment sector to the world. He has also been a very integral part of the foundation of my musical progress and growth.”
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: The White Stripes end their copyright lawsuit against Donald Trump following his presidential election victory; prosecutors cite Lil Durk’s lyrics in his murder-for-hire case; the rapper Plies sues Megan Thee Stallion, GloRilla, and others over accusations of a sample-within-a-sample; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: White Stripes Drop Trump Lawsuit
Back in September, amid a wave of artists criticizing Donald Trump for using their music, the White Stripes went a step further. In a scathing copyright lawsuit, Jack White and Meg White accused Trump and his campaign of “flagrant misappropriation” of one of the “most well-known and influential musical works of all time.” In announcing it, White referred to Trump as a “fascist.”
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But it seems elections have consequences, even for music litigation.
Just days after Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris, attorneys for the White Stripes asked a federal judge to voluntarily dismiss their case. As is typical in such filings, the motion did not explain the decision to drop the case, and an attorney for the band declined to comment.
Why’d they do it? After all, Trump’s victory did not mean the lawsuit had to be dismissed. But following the end of the election, the juice may simply have not been worth the squeeze.
Other top stories this week…
RAP ON TRIAL, AGAIN – Federal prosecutors unveiled a new indictment against Lil Durk over allegations he ordered his crew to murder rival Quando Rondo. The new charges notably cited the rapper’s lyrics, claiming he had sought to “commercialize” the crime by “rapping about his revenge” in a 2022 track. The use of rap as evidence is controversial, as critics argue it threatens free speech and can sway juries by tapping into racial biases. Some states, like California, have restricted the practice, but it has continued largely unabated elsewhere, most notably in the recent criminal case against Young Thug in Atlanta.
PLIES SUES EVERYBODY – The rapper Plies filed a copyright lawsuit against Megan Thee Stallion, GloRilla, Cardi B and Souja Boy over allegations that the 2024 song “Wanna Be” features an uncleared sample from his 2008 track “Me & My Goons.” The lawsuit claims Megan and GloRilla stole Plies’ material indirectly – that they had used a legally-licensed sample of a Soulja Boy song, which itself illegally borrowed material from “Goons.”
ANOTHER TEKASHI PLEA DEAL – Tekashi 6ix9ine reached a deal with federal prosecutors to resolve his recent arrest over alleged violations of his supervised release stemming from his high-profile 2018 gang case. Under the deal, Tekashi agreed to serve one month in prison followed by several months of house arrest and other restrictions. The deal will also extend Tekashi’s supervised release, which had been set to expire in six months, to a full year following his upcoming prison term.
EDM ABUSE LAWSUIT – Electronic music producer Bassnectar asked a federal judge to dismiss a long-running lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing three underage girls, arguing that all three alleged victims lied about their ages and had themselves instigated the relationships. The filing came more than three years after the three alleged victims filed their lawsuit, accusing the DJ of using his “power and influence to groom and ultimately sexually victimize underage girls.”
DIDDY UPDATES – The federal judge overseeing Sean “Diddy” Combs’ racketeering and sex trafficking case denied his request for a gag order against his alleged victims and their lawyers, ruling the demand “unprecedented,” “unwarranted” and a potential violation of the First Amendment. Elsewhere in the case, the embattled rapper renewed his calls for release on bail, cited the fact that former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries — another high-profile defendant accused of sex trafficking — was immediately released on a $10 million bond after he was arrested last month.