Business
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In the ‘00s, The Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan looked at the disruptive nature of early social media platform MySpace and saw the death of the record label. It didn’t exactly work out that way — not with MySpace, not with Facebook, not with TikTok. In fact, the major music companies became adept at using these platforms to break artists and perpetuate their market power; if there’s a breakout song on TikTok, labels rush into an old-fashioned bidding war. While social media certainly disrupted the music business, it didn’t uproot the traditional record label model.
There have been numerous other game-changers over the years that failed — on their own, at least — to radically alter how major labels do business, including independent distribution. After TuneCore launched in 2006, major labels continued to sign artists and own their intellectual property, albeit to broader “360” deals that incorporated more than recorded music rights. Nor did the advent of streaming by itself reshape the structure of major record labels. The artists with the most streaming success are involved with major labels in one way or another, be it a traditional record contract, a joint venture or, in rare cases like Taylor Swift, a distribution deal.
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Corgan may have misjudged social media’s sole impact on record labels, but he wasn’t entirely wrong about its ultimate influence. When combined, social media, independent distribution and streaming form a potent combination that has changed the balance of power and induced major labels to change how they promote music around the world. This dynamic isn’t exactly new, but it was never clearer than in 2024. This year, major labels have increasingly embraced the role of being service providers to those parties who prefer to remain independent and retain ownership of their intellectual property.
A few years ago, Universal Music Group (UMG) was pouring money into superstar acquisitions such as Bob Dylan’s and Sting’s song catalogs. More recently, the company has been focusing on its artist services model. In the last three months alone, UMG acquired indie label group [PIAS] and agreed to acquire Downtown Music Holdings for $775 million, though the proposed deal has encountered opposition from the independent music community and will need to pass regulatory scrutiny before being finalized. The company also purchased Outdustry — which has an artist- and label-services arm that focuses on China, India and other high-growth emerging markets — and bought a stake in Chord Music Partners, giving UMG distribution and publishing administration duties for the more than 60,000 songs in the investment vehicle’s catalog.
In fact, 2024 played out much like UMG CEO Lucian Grainge said it would. His January memo predicted the company would continue to expand globally and offer labels outside of mature markets a “full suite of artist services” while “acquiring local labels, catalogs and artist services businesses.” To be fair, UMG was already on that path: In 2022, it acquired m-theory’s artist services company and installed its founders, JT Myers and Nat Pastor, as co-CEOs of Virgin Music Group to expand Virgin’s independent music division globally.
Warner Music Group (WMG) appears to have sensed the shifting landscape, too, as there has been a noticeable shift in messaging during Robert Kyncl’s tenure as the company’s CEO. In the Stephen Cooper era, WMG was the music community’s leading investor in Web3 startups. In contrast, Kyncl has chosen to focus on expanding WMG’s footprint globally. WMG briefly signaled its interest in acquiring Believe in March and April after the French company announced a CEO-led effort to take the company private. Notably, Believe has a global label services business and a presence in developing markets that take advantage of the “glocalization” of local markets and global streaming platforms’ ability to help music travel across borders. WMG ultimately passed on pursuing Believe, but Kyncl has followed his peers’ interest in emerging markets, purchasing stakes in Indian companies Divo and Global Music Junction.
The service model isn’t an entirely original approach. Grainge wrote that UMG is “creating the blueprint for the labels of the future,” but UMG is doing what major music companies have always done: following trends and buying independent companies that established a particular market. Sony Music already bought into the service model with The Orchard and AWAL, the latter purchased in 2022 for $430 million. Independents such as Believe, OneRPM and Symphonic Distribution have become established players by combining distribution and artist services, while investors have poured money into independents such as Create Music Group — which this year raised $165 million at a $1 billion valuation — and gamma, which is backed by $1 billion.
But the well-established blueprint was never more of a hot commodity than in 2024. In the music business, nothing signifies the relevance of a business model like the major labels’ desire to buy it and integrate it into their systems — especially when the largest music companies feel they have no choice. The holy trinity of social media, independent distribution and global streaming platforms has given artists an alternative to the much-derided major label record contract. Artists who want to own their intellectual property and have more creative control have never had more of the tools necessary to be independent. That includes financing options, such as advances from well-funded independents or royalty advances from a new breed of financial services companies. When there’s no need for radio promotion and shelf space at brick-and-mortar retailers, the independent model looks a lot more attractive — not only for artists but for the major labels that have become increasingly keen on buying into it.
Ironically, the major labels’ acceptance of the independents’ business model means the music business is becoming less independent. Trade groups such as the Association of Independent Music and IMPALA quickly spoke out against UMG’s agreement to purchase Downtown, just as they did with Sony Music’s purchase of AWAL. U.K. regulators ultimately concluded that AWAL was a “relatively small player” and that the deal did not substantially reduce competition. Time will tell if competition watchdogs feel the same about UMG’s much larger purchase of Downtown. In any case, the independents have proved that artist and label services businesses are a good fit for the modern music business. The next step was always going to be consolidation.
The Canadian government’s so-called “streaming tax” is on pause.
The CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) revealed in June 2024 that major global streaming companies would be mandated to pay 5% of their annual Canadian revenues into funds that fuel Canadian content. The decision was part of the Online Streaming Act, new legislation that modernizes Canada’s Broadcasting Act for the first time in a generation.
Since then, many of the biggest streaming companies — including Spotify, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Disney — have been fighting the decision in court. This week, the Federal Court of Appeal decided to put the companies’ required payments on hold until their appeal is heard.
The Canadian Press reports that the payments, estimated to be at least $1.25 million each annually, will not have to be made until the court process is finished. They’ve agreed to expedite the hearings to June 2025, with the bulk of the money due in August.
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While pursuing legal challenges, many of the biggest streaming companies have also launched an online campaign to lobby against the decision in the court of public opinion. A group called DiMA (the Digital Media Association) — whose members include Amazon, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, Apple and more — launched a website with a petition and letter-writing campaign under the name Stop the Streaming Tax. The campaign has at least one high-profile advocate in musician Bryan Adams, a longtime critic of CanCon regulations.
The 5% contributions “could lead to higher prices for Canadians and fewer content choices,” the website argues. “As a result, you may end up paying more for your favourite streaming services and have less control over what you can watch or listen to.”
Many Canadian music associations like CIMA (the Canadian Independent Music Association), meanwhile, have praised the CRTC’s decision. In June, CIMA president Andrew Cash called it “good news for the Canadian music sector” and said it “lays the groundwork for a dynamic partnership with digital platforms where Canadian talent can thrive both domestically and internationally.”
The mandated contributions would go to music funds like FACTOR and Musicaction as well as the Canadian Starmaker Fund, funds to support commercial and community radio, and to the Indigenous Music Office and other Indigenous music incubators.
More on this story as it develops.
This story was originally published by Billboard Canada.
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Richard Parsons, a Black executive lauded for his efforts leading Time Warner and Citigroup, died on Thursday (Dec. 26) at the age of 76. Richard Parsons navigated deals such as splitting one-time Internet giant AOL from Time Warner and other notable moves.
Richard Parsons, who also went by the shortened version of his name Dick, was born on April 4, 1948, in New York and was raised in the South Ozone Park in Queens. Raised by parents of middle-class means, Parsons was an exceptional student in grade school ahead of attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa on a basketball scholarship. Returning to the mainland, Parsons entered Albany Law School of Union University, New York, and earned his Juris Doctor degree in 1971.
Parsons’ legal career began after he was invited to work for New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, who was later appointed as Vice President of the United States by President Gerald Ford. Parsons traveled to Washington to work alongside Rockefeller in 1974, crossing paths with fellow lawyer Rudolph Giuliani during this stretch. From 1977 to 1988, Parsons worked for the Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler law firm and was made partner.
In 1991, Parsons was asked to join Time Warner’s board and later became its president in 1995. Parsons oversaw Time Warner’s merger with AOL in 2000, but the partnership did not create the financial windfall some expected. After Time Warner Chief Executive Gerald Levin retired in 2001, Parsons stepped in to take Levin’s place. Under Parson’s leadership, Time Warner successfully split from AOL by removing the name association with the company and lowering the company’s $30 billion debt to $16.8 billion after selling Warner Music and portions of the wider business.
After stepping down in 2007 from Time Warner, two years later Parsons became the chairman of Citigroup, using his management and business oversight skills to help the banking company after it was hit by the financial crisis. In 2014, Parsons worked as the interim CEO for the Los Angeles Clippers after the NBA banned owner Donald Sterling for life for his racist remarks. Parsons, a Republican Party voter, did not involve himself with racial politics and famously downplayed race in interviews electing to focus on other aspects of himself.
In 2015, Parsons was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and officially retired in 2018 due to health concerns. Parsons passed away at his Manhattan home according to reports. His death was confirmed by Lazard, where he was a board member.
Richard Parsons is survived by his wife, Laura, and their three children.
[h/t CNBC]
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Photo: Getty
Richard Parsons, one of corporate America’s most prominent Black executives who held top posts at Time Warner and Citigroup, died Thursday. He was 76.
Parsons, who died at his Manhattan home, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015 and cited “unanticipated complications” from the disease for cutting back on work a few years later.
The financial services company Lazard, where Parsons was a longtime board member, confirmed his death. Parsons’ friend Ronald Lauder told The New York Times that the cause of death was cancer.
Parsons stepped down Dec. 3 from the boards of Lazard and Lauder’s company, Estée Lauder, citing health reasons. He had been on Estée Lauder’s board for 25 years.
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“Dick was an American original, a colossus bestriding the worlds of business, media, culture, philanthropy, and beyond,” Ronald Lauder said in a statement on behalf of the Lauder family.
David Zaslav, the CEO of Time Warner successor Warner Bros. Discovery, hailed Parsons as a “great mentor and friend” and a “tough and brilliant negotiator, always looking to create something where both sides win.”
“All who got a chance to work with him and know him saw that unusual combination of great leadership with integrity and kindness,” Zaslav said, calling him “one of the great problem solvers this industry has ever seen.”
Parsons, a Brooklyn native who started college at 16, built a track record of steering big companies through tough times.
He returned Citigroup to profitability after turmoil from the global financial crisis and helped restore Time Warner after its much-maligned acquisition by internet provider America Online.
Parsons was named to the board of CBS in September 2018 but resigned a month later because of illness.
Parsons said in a statement at the time that he was already dealing with multiple myeloma when he joined the board, but “unanticipated complications have created additional new challenges.” He said his doctors advised him to cut back on his commitments to ensure recovery.
“Dick’s storied career embodied the finest traditions of American business leadership,” Lazard said in a statement. The company, where Parsons was a board member from 2012 until this month, praised his “unmistakable intelligence and his irresistible warmth.”
“Dick was more than an iconic leader in Lazard’s history — he was a testament to how wisdom, warmth, and unwavering judgment could shape not just companies, but people’s lives,” the company said. “His legacy lives on in the countless leaders he counseled, the institutions he renewed, and the doors he opened for others.”
Parsons was known as a skilled negotiator, a diplomat and a crisis manager.
Although he was with Time Warner through its difficulties with AOL, he earned respect for the company and rebuilt its relations with Wall Street. He streamlined Time Warner’s structure, pared debt and in early 2004 sold Warner Music Group to an investor group led by the Seagram heir Edgar Bronfman Jr. for about $2.6 billion. For Parsons, the sale represented the fulfillment of a key promise to Wall Street — he had pledged to reduce Time Warner’s debt by $8 billion by the end of 2004. Before selling the music division, Parsons had already offloaded a half-stake in Comedy Central, a share in the satellite TV company operating DirecTV, and the Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers sports teams. He also secured a $750 million settlement from Microsoft to resolve an antitrust lawsuit.
He later fended off a challenge from activist investor Carl Icahn in 2006 to break up the company and helped Time Warner reach settlements with investors and regulators over questionable accounting practices at AOL.
Parsons joined Time Warner as president in 1995 after serving as chairman and chief executive of Dime Bancorp Inc., one of the largest U.S. thrift institutions.
In 2001, after AOL used its fortunes as the leading provider of Internet access in the U.S. to buy Time Warner for $106 billion in stock, Parsons became co-chief operating officer with AOL executive Robert Pittman. In that role, he was in charge of the company’s content businesses, including movie studios and recorded music.
He became CEO in 2002 with the retirement of Gerald Levin, one of the key architects of that merger. Parsons was named Time Warner chairman the following year, replacing AOL founder Steve Case, who had also championed the combination.
The newly formed company’s Internet division quickly became a drag on Time Warner. The promised synergies between traditional and new media never materialized. AOL began seeing a reduction in subscribers in 2002 as Americans replaced dial-up connections with broadband from cable TV and phone companies.
Parsons stepped down as CEO in 2007 and as chairman in 2008. A year later AOL split from Time Warner and began trading as a separate company, following years of struggles to reinvent itself as a business focused on advertising and content. Time Warner is now owned by AT&T Inc.
A board member of Citigroup and its predecessor, Citibank, since 1996, Parsons was named chairman in 2009 at a time of turmoil for the financial institution. Citigroup had suffered five straight quarters of losses and received $45 billion in government aid. Its board had been criticized for allowing the bank to invest so heavily in the risky housing market.
Citigroup returned to profit under Parsons, starting in 2010, and would not have a quarterly loss again until the fourth quarter of 2017. Parsons retired from that job in 2012.
In 2014 he stepped in as interim CEO of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers until Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took over later that year.
“Dick Parsons was a brilliant and transformational leader and a giant of the media industry who led with integrity and never shied away from a challenge,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said.
Parsons, a Republican, previously worked as a lawyer for Nelson Rockefeller, a former Republican governor of New York, and in Gerald Ford’s White House. Those early stints gave him grounding in politics and negotiations. He also was an economic adviser on President Barack Obama’s transition team.
Parsons, whose love of jazz led to co-owning a Harlem jazz club, also served as Chairman of the Apollo Theater and the Jazz Foundation of America. And he held positions on the boards of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Parsons played basketball at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and received his law degree from Albany Law School in 1971. He is survived by his wife, Laura, and their family.
The woman who accused Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs of drugging and raping her when she was 13 years old can remain anonymous for now, a judge ruled Thursday (Dec. 26), citing the “highly sensitive” nature of her accusations.
According to court documents obtained by Billboard, Judge Annalisa Torres wrote that “the weight of the factors” in the case “tips in favor of allowing Plaintiff to remain anonymous” for now. In justifying the decision, the judge cited the Jane Doe’s assertion that she continues to suffer from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other health effects due to the alleged rape, as well as a claim by the woman’s attorneys that Combs has threatened other alleged victims who have filed suits against him for speaking out. However, the judge acknowledges that “because the balance of these factors will certainly shift” as the case moves forward, she plans to revisit the question of anonymity at a later date.
Also in Thursday’s ruling, the judge turned down a request by Jay-Z’s legal team to fast-track a hearing on their motion to dismiss the case against him and criticized the rap mogul’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, for his “relentless filing of combative motions containing inflammatory language and ad hominem attacks” against the plaintiff’s attorney, Tony Buzbee, calling them “inappropriate, a waste of judicial resources, and a tactic unlikely to benefit his client.” The motion to expedite the hearing was tied to a Dec. 13 NBC News interview in which the Jane Doe admitted to inconsistencies and “mistakes” in her narrative of the alleged assault and was contradicted by her own father.
In the woman’s complaint, filed earlier this month, she accused Combs and Jay-Z (born Shawn Carter) of drugging and sexually assaulting her following an MTV Video Music Awards after-party in 2000. The case was an updated version of a previous complaint the woman had filed against Combs alone.
Since the updated case including Carter was filed on Dec. 8, the rap mogul and his attorneys have forcefully denied the allegations, with Carter calling the lawsuit a “blackmail attempt” and characterizing Buzbee as a “fraud” with an aim “to exploit people for personal gain.” Buzbee has filed a host of lawsuits against Combs over the last several months and has said he represents dozens more victims who have yet to file their own complaints.
In a statement sent to Billboard in response to Thursday’s court ruling, Buzbee said that “the coordinated and desperate efforts to attack me as counsel for alleged victims are falling flat.”
An attorney for Carter did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment.
The latest decision in the case comes as part of a mounting legal war between Jay-Z and Buzbee. On Dec. 18, Buzbee filed a lawsuit against Jay-Z’s company, Roc Nation, and its attorneys (including Marcy Croft and law firm Quinn Emanuel) accusing them of “engaging shadowy operatives” to derail his case against the rapper, including by allegedly offering money to one of his former clients (Gerardo Garcia) to convince him to file bogus lawsuits against his firm — an incident Buzbee claims was caught on tape. “Defendants have conspired to obstruct justice by engaging shadowy operatives to illegally seek out more than two dozen current and former clients of The Buzbee Law Firm to convince those clients to bring frivolous cases against [the firm],” Buzbee wrote.
In response, a Roc Nation spokesperson called Buzbee’s lawsuit “nothing but another sham” and “a pathetic attempt to distract and deflect attention,” while Croft reacted by calling the allegations in the lawsuit “false” and “a desperate attempt to distract from his mounting legal woes.”
Buzbee’s Dec. 18 lawsuit is actually the second he’s filed against Carter’s attorneys over the past month. The first, filed earlier in December, accused Quinn Emanuel of retaliatory behavior, including alleged harassment of Buzbee’s colleagues, clients and family. That came in response to a lawsuit Jay-Z secretly filed against Buzbee in November in which the rapper accused the Texas attorney of spearheading an effort to extract settlements from innocent celebrities after threatening to link them to Combs.
The Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) has officially launched its first-ever radio station in Texas called La Ley 92.1 FM. The radio station’s morning show — which begins at 5 a.m. local time — is hosted by popular Mexican radio personality Raúl Brindis, who has over 30 years of on-air experience and promises to bring “a […]
iHeartMedia subsidiary iHeartCommunications pushed back the maturity date of much of its debt by three years and reduced its amount of long-term debt by $440 million. In November, the company’s debt holders were given the opportunity to exchange existing debt for new debt with higher interest — and approximately $4.8 billion, or 92.2%, of them […]
Hit songs come and go — artists last. What lasts even longer, though, are Christmas songs, which stream every year — and generate revenue accordingly.
The biggest example is Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which reemerges on the Billboard Hot 100 toward the end of every year — it has hit No. 1 annually since 2019 — heralded by a Carey video announcement that “It’s Tiiiiime.” How popular is it? It is the No. 16 biggest song of all time by U.S. consumption, a weighted measure of digital sales and streaming used by Luminate for about a decade. It is also the No. 42 song of all time in U.S. on-demand audio streaming.
The steadiness of the song’s popularity suggests that there’s a chance it could be the biggest hit of the 21st century, although it’s obviously impossible to know, or even figure out how such things might be measured in the future. There is a precedent, though. Bing Crosby’s 1942 recording of “White Christmas” is said to be the best-selling single of all time, with 50 million copies worldwide, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Is “All I Want for Christmas” emerging as a next-century successor of sorts?
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It’s possible. Most hits get big fast, stay big for a while, and remain big-ish for years, sometimes with a boost from an artist’s subsequent releases. Holiday hits get big every year and disappear like Frosty the Snowman, only to come back the following fall, as predictable as the holiday season itself. Carey released “All I Want for Christmas” as a radio single from her 1994 album Merry Christmas, but it didn’t hit the top 10 of the Hot 100 until December 2017. By then, the charts reflected rising streaming listenership, as well as radio play and decreasing sales. Streaming fueled the song’s rise to No. 1 in 2019 (for three weeks), then in 2020 (for two weeks), 2021 (three weeks), 2023 (two weeks) and now 2024 (three weeks as of the chart dated Dec. 28). It has now spent 17 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in total — the most of any song except Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” (featuring Billy Ray Cyrus), each of which occupied the top spot for 19 weeks. Unlike those songs, though, “All I Want for Christmas” may continue to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 for years to come.
The list of songs with the most on-demand streams skews toward songs from a few years ago, since they have had a few more years to generate streams, and toward music that appeals to younger listeners, who were early adopters of Spotify and other services. Of the top 100, most of the songs came out after 2010, and almost all of them after 2000. The only older songs that have been streamed more than Carey’s are Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” (No. 27) and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” (No. 31), according to Luminate; the only other older songs in the top 100 are the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and, at 95, Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”
Like most holiday hits, “All I Want for Christmas” does well worldwide — especially in English-speaking markets like the U.K. and Canada, where this year it hit No. 1 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100. It’s also popular beyond the Anglosphere: This year the song topped the German Top 100 Single Chart, as well as the Austrian chart and the Swiss chart, and its popularity is growing elsewhere. (At a time when Anglo-American recordings are losing market share to local-language music in most European markets, English Christmas songs still do well. For the chart week of Dec. 20-26, for example, nine of the top 10 singles on the Official German Charts were English-language Christmas songs.) “All I Want” is No. 48 on the songs with the most on-demand streams internationally, according to Luminate.
One reason for the song’s success is how much Carey leans into the song’s seasonal success. She is far more popular than any of the other acts with big Christmas songs: She has had 19 No. 1 Hot 100 hits, second only to The Beatles, with 20, and she has hit No. 1 in a record 20 different years. Some artists with that kind of career would blanch at the idea of being identified with holiday music, but Carey embraced it — to the point that she applied for a trademark on the title “Queen of Christmas,” albeit unsuccessfully. In addition to her annual video announcement of the season, now something of an event in itself, she does an annual Christmas tour, which this year included 18 arena shows. In 2023, “All I Want for Christmas” accounted for 23% of her streams, according to Luminate.
It’s impossible to predict whether the song will become the most popular of the century — or even how Billboard might measure such things by then. “All I Want for Christmas” certainly isn’t going anywhere: Its on-demand streams grew 15% and 8.3% in 2022 and 2023, respectively, according to Luminate, compared to overall on-demand streaming growth of 12.1% and 12.7%. But it’s also not gaining ground on the current on-demand streaming champion, Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower,” which had 333.12 million on-demand streams in the U.S in 2023, compared to 249 million for “All I Want for Christmas.”
Then again, holiday songs are nothing if not evergreen. For the past few years, the top four songs on Billboard’s Holiday 100 chart have been Carey’s, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Last Christmas.” Carey’s is by far the newest of the four. The second-biggest holiday hit, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” which hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 for three weeks last holiday season, was recorded in 1958 — 66 years ago. If “All I Want for Christmas” has the same kind of run, it could still be No. 1 in 2060 — whatever kind of listening that might include 35 years from now.
Days after a panel of federal judges voted to uphold a new law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning on Jan. 19, the independent label Artist Partner Group (APG) started assessing how that might potentially impact its marketing campaigns — and how the company should adjust.
“It’s hard to imagine a reality where TikTok actually goes down,” says Alec Henderon, head of digital at APG. “But we need to be prepared. We are doing video shoots ahead of time, so if it does go, we have top-tier content hitting other short-form video platforms very quickly.”
J.D. Tuminski, former digital marketing lead at Def Jam and founder of Casadei Collective Marketing Agency, is also advising clients to be ready. “If folks are being smart right now,” he says, “they’re already putting plans in place for other platforms and thinking about alternative marketing strategies.”
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At least most music marketers have been down this road before. President Trump tried to ban TikTok in 2020 but was blocked by the courts. “We’ve had this conversation internally so many times,” sighs Rafael Rocha, CEO of the marketing agency NuWave Digital. “If I was a betting man, I would bet confidently that it will not get banned.”
Or maybe not banned for long. President Trump returns to office on Jan. 20, and recently he has appeared more enthusiastic about TikTok, saying he had “a warm spot in my heart” for the app. In addition, on Wednesday (Dec. 18), the Supreme Court agreed to hear TikTok’s challenge to the law that would ban it in the U.S. TikTok’s stance is that a ban would lead to “massive and unprecedented censorship of over 170 million Americans.”
Marketers are trying to prepare for the app’s potential disappearance nonetheless. No one wants to be caught flat-footed, especially because TikTok has “become such a large part of our execution when music is released and for teasing new music,” says Allison Laughter, vp of digital, marketing and streaming for Red Light Management. If the app were outlawed in the U.S., it would “hurt us in the short run for sure.”
The pain would probably be felt more acutely by rising artists who don’t yet have name recognition. “Where is new artist discovery happening in 2025 if this app completely disappears?” asks Johnny Cloherty, co-founder of the digital marketing company Songfluencer. “There is new artist discovery on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts — it just doesn’t happen on the same scale as it does on TikTok.”
Some genres that are reaching a new audience abroad might also be more vulnerable if TikTok use is prohibited. “Country music is bigger than it’s ever been, and we’re seeing more global success than we ever have,” Laughter adds. “It would be a shame to have an international platform taken away from us at a moment when we really have leverage with country acts. It’s slowing down a rocket ship while it’s hot for us.”
Many executives got some practice grappling with a TikTok-less existence earlier this year. On Feb. 1, Universal Music Group’s deal with the platform expired, and all its artists’ music was pulled from the app. A month later, many songs from other labels that featured contributions from Universal Music Publishing Group writers were removed as well.
“That was a wake up call for a lot of people,” says Dan Roy Carter, a former TikTok employee who recently launched Carter Projects, his own music marketing company. “That made people look at other platforms [outside of TikTok] and realize they have to develop them.”
But most marketers did not find that other short-form video platforms could fill the void left by TikTok’s absence. “Anyone I’ve spoken to who tried to pivot to another platform during that time frame generally didn’t find anything that was comparable straight away,” Carter says. That was certainly Laughter’s experience: “I don’t think that we found the sweet spot of how to mimic the success or reach we might see on TikTok with any other platform.”
If the TikTok ban did go through in the U.S., however, the platform would still be available for hundreds of millions of users globally (at least for now). And clips that are popular on TikTok often make their way to other social media platforms. “Say TikTok is banned here — that doesn’t mean that internationally it can’t be a part of a strategy to drive streaming,” says Jen Darmafall, director of marketing for ATG Group. “When you see Reels and Shorts make an impact on music consumption, it is often following something that’s going viral on TikTok first.”
Several marketers discussed using VPNs to circumvent a potential ban Stateside and continue to market their acts to audiences in Europe, Latin America and Asia. And digital marketers abroad would almost certainly see an influx of business from American artists and labels. “Hiring companies to be a liaison to TikTok creators outside of the U.S. is something that I would think about if I was a musician,” Tuminski notes.
Artists and labels would also watch carefully to see where TikTok’s large, famously active user base in the U.S. ends up. “If this goes down, we’ll need to be reactive towards where the content and the traffic and energy shifts,” Henderson says. “Short form video is not going away,” Cloherty agrees. “The TikTok audience will go somewhere.”
Reels and Shorts are typically mentioned as potential TikTok substitutes due to their short-form video focus. But other platforms can also serve as potential conduits for conveying music to listeners.
X, formerly Twitter, doesn’t pop up in many music marketing conversations these days, but Henderson has seen it bring in new listeners for rappers. He’s been focused on trying to harness the power of Twitch as well. The APG artist Flawed Mangoes saw a sizable jump in streams after appearing on the stream of Kai Cenat, one of the most popular personalities on the platform.
Marketers are also intrigued by the possibilities of Snapchat. “It’s still very heavily used by kids, but it’s not as heavily used by artists,” says Jenna Rosenberg, former vp of digital marketing at Atlantic Records. “There is an audience on there, it’s just that no one’s talking to them.” Darmafall has observed “more and more artists posting about following them on Snapchat.”
And if TikTok gets outlawed, the audience hunting for a substitute might end up on another app altogether, something that isn’t currently part of everyday conversation. “Platforms ebb and flow,” Rosenberg says. “Kids will find one that they’ll gravitate towards, and then we’re all going to have to learn it really quickly and educate the artists on how to utilize it.”
For now though, TikTok continues to operate in the U.S., driving new listeners to songs like Lola Young’s “Messy” and Sam Barber’s “Indigo.” “As people are building out their plans for any releases that are coming at the start of the year, they are still including TikTok as part of that plan,” Darmafall says. “It just can’t be your only plan.”
Universal Music Group and Amazon Music have expanded their global partnership, embracing “Streaming 2.0” as both companies aim to enhance artist-to-fan engagement through exclusive content with UMG artists, innovative product opportunities and increased fraud protection.
The partnership will explore new and enhanced product opportunities, including advancements in audiobooks, audio and visual programming and livestreaming content. UMG and Amazon Music will also collaborate to combat issues such as unlawful AI-generated content, fraud and misattribution, ensuring the integrity of creative works.
“We are very excited to advance our long-standing, excellent partnership with Amazon Music that marks a new era in streaming — Streaming 2.0,” said Sir Lucian Grainge, chairman & CEO of UMG. “We appreciate Amazon Music’s deep commitment to the interests of our artists, and look forward to progressing our shared artist-centric objectives through product innovation and accelerating growth of their service.”
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UMG laid out its Streaming 2.0 strategy — focusing on innovation, consumer segmentation, geographic expansion and higher average revenue per user (ARPU) — at the company’s capital markets day gathering in August. UMG plans to grow subscriptions in developing markets, where subscribers significantly boost ARPU. Additionally, UMG aims to attract audiobook listeners and satellite radio subscribers to convert them into music streaming users, leveraging these new audiences to drive further growth.
Steve Boom, vp of audio, Twitch and games for Amazon, noted that the expanded partnership would redefine streaming services by introducing more artist-to-fan connections through innovative products and exclusive content. “We’re thrilled to expand our relationship with UMG which will enable us to partner on meaningful new ways for artists to deepen their engagement with fans around the world, while working together to protect the work of artists, songwriters and publishers,” he said.
UMG has partnered with several AI technology companies to enhance artists’ creative and commercial opportunities while ensuring ethical practices. These collaborations include YouTube/Google, ProRata.AI, Endel, SoundLabs and BandLabs, among others.
The two companies expanded their working relationship in 2022 as well, providing Amazon Music and Twitch users with greater access to UMG content, including live streams, spatial audio, artist merchandise and other exclusive experiences.