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Strong subscription revenue, improved margins and successful new releases by Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Post Malone helped Universal Music Group (UMG) post revenue of 2.87 billion euros ($3.16 billion) in the third quarter, up 4.3% year-over-year (4.9% at constant currency).
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) reached 621 million euros ($683 million), up 8.2% from the prior-year period. The Amsterdam-based company’s adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 21.6% from 21.1% in the prior-year quarter and was helped by cost savings from the organizational redesign announced in February and lower A&R and marketing costs, CFO Boyd Muir said during Thursday’s (Oct. 31) earnings call.
If not for a one-time gain in the prior-year quarter, the revenue growth rate would have been 7.6% and adjusted EBITDA growth would have improved to 10.8%. Last year, Universal Music Publishing Grou (UMPG) recognized the accrual of a catch-up payment from the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) Phonorecords III ruling. That resulted in revenue of 53 million euros ($58 million) and added 11 million euros ($12 million) to UMPG’s adjusted EBITDA.
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UMG had a typically strong quarter of chart-topping new releases. CEO Lucian Grainge noted during the call that Carpenter’s album Short n’ Sweet, released on Aug. 23, went to No. 1 in 15 countries and topped the Billboard 200 albums chart in the U.S. for four non-consecutive weeks. Elsewhere, Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess topped Billboard’s Album Sales Chart in September, while Malone’s latest album, F-1 Trillion, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and also summited the Top Country Albums chart. Island also has a top 10 hit song in the U.K. with Gigi Perez’s “Sailor Song,” which peaked at No. 28 in the U.S.
The recorded music division improved 5.4% to 2.15 billion euros ($2.36 billion) on the strength of a 7.6% improvement in subscription revenue. Other streaming revenue, however, dropped 0.8% (up 0.3% at constant currency) to 354 million euros ($389 million). Physical sales dropped 2% to 288 million euros ($317 million) while licensing revenue jumped 20.4% to 325 million euros ($357 million). Subscription growth was negatively affected by “just over a percentage point” from “ongoing challenges” in the home fitness subscription market and the departure of the record label 10K Projects to Warner Music Group, said Muir. Lower CD sales in Japan were partially offset by strong vinyl sales, he added, especially in the U.S.
Muir affirmed UMG’s previously announced guidance of an 8% to 10% compound annual growth rate for recorded music subscription revenue through 2028. UMG may not always hit that target range in any given quarter, however, and Muir reminded listeners that the fourth quarter marks one year since a Spotify price increase that has helped UMG — and other record labels — experience a surge in year-over-year subscription growth.
UMPG improved 1.8% (2.2.% at constant currency) to 500 million euros ($550 million). Excluding the CRB accrual, publishing revenue was up 22.4% (22.9% at constant currency). Digital revenue grew 0.3% to 295 million euros ($324 million), synchronization royalties jumped 18.5% to 64 million euros ($70 million) and mechanical revenue climbed 12% to 28 million euros ($31 million). Performance royalties fell 4.7% to 101 million euros ($111 million).
UMG’s Bravado merchandise division had revenue of 237 million euros ($261 million), up 4.4% from the prior-year period. The company attributed the growth to stronger direct-to-consumer sales and higher touring merchandise sales. In the U.S., Bravado benefitted from the touring activity of such artists as Slipknot, Imagine Dragons, Nicki Minaj, blink-182 and Malone, according to Muir.
Thirty years ago, when Megadeth was the first musical artist ever to participate in a “chat room” on its “website” on the “Internet,” an anonymous troll posted a single word over and over, to the point of driving Dave Mustaine crazy. “I looked at it like, ‘How do I get rid of this thing?’” the metal band’s frontman and guitarist tells Billboard. “I still, to this day, don’t know who the guy was. There was no one else, so this guy saw that as an opportunity.”
What was the word?
“S—,” Mustaine recalls.
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Such were the travails of the virtual city of Megadeth, Arizona, in October 1994. As envisioned by Robin Bechtel — then sales director for Megadeth’s label, Capitol Records — Megadeth, Arizona, based on the location of the band’s new studio in Phoenix, was the concept for the first-ever artist website. In addition to the chat room, called the Megadiner, the site featured an art-and-digital-postcard repository, Vic’s Cactus Hut and Souvenir Shop, a newspaper titled Horrorscopes and links to videos and online-radio tracks. It was designed to promote Megadeth’s album Youthanasia, but its legacy ultimately became to “onboard people onto the World Wide Web,” according to Bechtel, today an angel investor in Uber, Everlane and others, “which is wild to think about.”
Megadeth
Courtesy Photo
Bechtel, a digital music pioneer who later worked at Warner, first envisioned the Megadeth concept while touring a multimedia studio in Los Angeles and learning about the use of Macromedia software in videos and websites. She signed up for the dial-up service CompuServe and set up a modem at her apartment. At Capitol, she wrote a proposal for the Megadeth website and requested a $30,000 budget. Her boss, Lou Mann, senior vp of sales and field marketing, agreed, even if other Capitol employees had no idea what she was talking about. Earlier that year, Tim Berners-Lee had invented the World Wide Web, and it was catching on among tech insiders and early adopters, but the idea would take years to spread to music fans — and record executives.
“I wrote a proposal. It’s hysterical — it’s me trying to explain what a website would be,” Bechtel recalls. “We had a Megadeth record coming out. I was invited to the meeting. Nobody knew what the Internet was. Everyone was focused on who was going to shoot the album cover, and would the cover make the poster and would the cover and poster be in the record stores.”
It was the first time among many, during Bechtel’s label career, that she would be told the Internet was a fad.
Megadeth
Courtesy Photo
“She made a big presentation about it, and there were maybe 10 people in the room. Nine of the people didn’t even understand what she was talking about: ‘What is this fake city?’” recalls Mann, now CEO of StageIt, which broadcasts live performances online. “There were a lot of traditionalists in our industry. You play it on the radio, you get it in the stores. But this was a new way of marketing. It was tough. They were dubious and it affected other things.”
Mann believes the industry skepticism of Megadeth, Arizona, represented a broader overall skepticism of new technology threatening music’s business model, largely built on marketing and selling CDs. This attitude, within labels, lingered through the late ’90s. For example, Capitol released a Duran Duran single online, and old-school record retailers did not react kindly. Later, when Napster popped up and threatened the business model of selling CDs in stores, piracy-fearing label execs neglected an opportunity to create a new business model. “It was a whole industry education that was taking place,” Mann recalls. “Nobody wanted it, because it challenged the protocol. On the other hand, that was the beauty of it.”
Megadeth
Courtesy Photo
Megadeth, Arizona, launched with grey backgrounds and Times Roman typefaces — “That’s how limited it was back then,” Bechtel says. And while the website may not have moved the needle on Youthanasia sales, it generated copious attention in newspapers and magazines. “Once Megadeth got involved, it took off,” she adds. “The band was always in there logging into the Megadiner. They saw it, I think, as modern-day tape-trading. They totally got it.”
Soon other artists were demanding websites, too. Mustaine heard KISS‘ Gene Simmons had said, “I want a website just like Mustaine’s,” and contacted the band’s manager to confirm the rumor. An hour later, he received a call from Simmons himself. “There was nothing like this before,” Mustaine says. “It’s such an unfathomable concept: There was no Internet back then.”
Mustaine, who is once again planning to release a new Megadeth album, today is the focal point of an official website, megadeth.com, which contains standard features like tour dates, videos, T-shirt-selling web stores and band-member biographies. Plus social media, of course. But he retains a fondness for the denizens of Megadeth, Arizona, “If you go to Megadeth concerts and find somebody that was a member of the Megadiner,” he says, “that’s real street cred.”
Megadeth
Courtesy Photo
The infamous 2016 surveillance video showing Sean “Diddy” Combs assaulting his former girlfriend wasn’t illegally leaked to the media by prosecutors, government attorneys argue in a new filing that accuses the rapper’s lawyers of trying to “suppress a damning piece of evidence.”
In a motion filed late Wednesday, federal prosecutors responded to leaking accusations made by Combs’ lawyers earlier this month. They say it was impossible that they had leaked the video of Combs striking Cassie Venture to CNN because they didn’t even have it at the time it was published in May.
The government says Diddy’s attorneys know that, but that they’re using the leak accusations as a way to prevent jurors from seeing Combs “brutally physically assaulting a victim” — a crucial piece of evidence.
“Without any factual basis, the leak motion seeks to suppress highly probative evidence … by claiming that it was grand jury material leaked by government agents,” prosecutors write. “But, as the defendant is fully aware, the video was not in the Government’s possession at the time of CNN’s publication and the Government has never, at any point, obtained the video through grand jury process.”
Combs, also known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, was once one of the most powerful men in the music industry. But last month, he was indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking over what the government says was a sprawling criminal operation aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.” If convicted on all the charges, he faces potential life prison sentence.
Wednesday’s new filing came three weeks after Combs’ attorneys demanded an investigation into the alleged leaks, claiming they had “led to damaging, highly prejudicial pre-trial publicity that can only taint the jury pool and deprive Mr. Combs of his right to a fair trial.”
Diddy’s attorneys pointed specifically to the Cassie video, which showed Combs striking his then-girlfriend in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016 and made headlines when CNN released it in May.
“The videotape was leaked to CNN for one reason alone: to mortally wound the reputation and the prospect of Sean Combs successfully defending himself against these allegations,” Agnifilo wrote. “Rather than using the videotape as trial evidence, alongside other evidence that gives it context and meaning, the agents misused it in the most prejudicial and damaging way possible.”
Wednesday’s filing from prosecutors also addressed Diddy’s recent demand that the government reveal the names of his alleged sexual abuse victims. In a motion earlier this month, his lawyers arguing he cannot fairly defend himself without knowing their identities.
In the response, the government argued that such disclosures “poses serious risks” to the safety of the victims, citing Diddy’s “significant history of violence and obstruction” that resulted in him being denied release on bail last month.
“Due to the defendant’s history, the Government has serious concerns about victim safety and the possibly of witness tampering if a list of victim names were provided to the defendant,” prosecutors wrote.
French music streaming company Deezer’s revenue increased 11.0% (13.0% at constant currency) to 134.0 million euros ($147.3 million) in the third quarter, the company announced Wednesday.
That was slightly slower than the 15% growth rate in the second quarter and first quarter but ahead of the 7.4% revenue growth the company posted in calendar 2023.
Partnerships accounted for most of the quarter’s improvement by growing 21% to 41.5 million euros ($45.6 million). Deezer powers music streaming services for such companies as Germany’s RTL and Argentinian e-commerce company Mercado Libre. Through partnerships, Deezer offers its branded service to the likes of DAZN, a sports streaming platform, and Mexican mobile carrier WIM, whose customers get a 20% discount on Deezer Premium.
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Subscriber growth was helped by the conversion of “the first cohort of MeLi+ subscribers from trial accounts to premium accounts with higher margins,” said CEO Alexis Lanternier during Thursday’s earnings call. Also, Lanternier added, the Mercado Libre partnership, which provides 12-month trials, has produced results “higher than our initial expectations.”
Revenue from France was 78.5 million ($86.3 million) and 58.6% of total revenue, down from 59.4% in the prior-year period. The rest of the world generated revenue of 55.5 million euros ($61 million). The “other” category was 6.7 million euros ($7.4 million), up 63.8%, in part due to new verticals such as its wellness app, Zen.
The growth in France and contraction in the rest of the world is part of the plan, said CFO Carl de Place. “The strategy has been to improve the profitability and moving to positive profitability for Deezer, which has made us be more selective in the way we invest, in terms of marketing and making sure we invest in markets where we can see that the return on the investment is positive for for this. So that’s the reason why we are growing in France and over the rest of the world has been declining.”
Direct subscribers represent the majority of Deezer’s business but grew at a slower 4% to 85.8 million euros ($94.3 million). The number of direct subscribers rose 4.1% to 9.9 million; 5.2 million of them came from Deezer’s home market of France while the rest of the world produced 1.8 million subscribers, down from 2.0 million in the prior-year period. Deezer’s subscriber base took a hit because the company removed 400,000 “inactive family accounts,” but the company explained that the move had no impact on revenue and benefitted gross margin.
Despite the positive momentum in the quarter, the company chose to maintain its guidance from the previous quarter. Deezer forecasts 10% revenue growth in 2024 and expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to improve to a loss of 10 million euros ($10.9 million) and plans to have positive free cash flow.
Deezer was among the first music streaming platforms to raise prices in 2022 and did so again in 2023. There will be “potential for price increases” as Deezer continues to “upgrade the experience to add value to the user,” said de Place.
Following the release of third-quarter earnings after the market’s close on Wednesday, Deezer’s share price was practically unchanged, falling just 0.4% to 1.345 euros ($1.46) on Thursday. Year to date, Deezer’s stock price has fallen 36% from 2.095 euros ($2.27) per share.
Deezer’s third quarter financial metrics:
Revenue: up 11% to 134 million euros ($147.3 million)
Total subscribers: up 4.1% to 9.9 million
Direct subscribers: down 1.4% to 5.2 million
Partnership subscribers: up 11% to 4.7 million
Direct subscriber average revenue per user (ARPU): up 5.8% to 5.40 euros ($5.90)
Partnership subscriber ARPU: down 4.7% to 2.80 euros ($3.10)
While attending the University of Madison-Wisconsin as a journalism and marketing major from 2003-2006, Rick Stoner fondly remembers roaming the aisles of Strictly Discs — the Monroe Street record store he acquired from longtime owners Ron and Angie Roloff last fall — just as the world was on the cusp of the digital music explosion.
“Strictly Discs is where I bought CDs before I had an iPod,” Stoner says. “That’s another way of saying that I’m 40 years old.”
Buying the beloved local business, which Ron opened in 1988 as a single-level, 800-square-foot shop (he later expanded it by converting the store’s 1,700-square-foot basement level into a retail space) was a full circle moment for Stoner — albeit not one he actively sought out. “I was not looking for a record store,” he says. “I was looking for a business at a certain price point. And the fact that I saw this listing was a very happy coincidence.”
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The relatively quick five-month acquisition process concluded exactly one year ago, on Halloween 2023. And in January, after serving in advisory roles for three months during the handoff, the Roloffs fully exited the business (which was a subject of Billboard‘s “In a Pandemic” series from 2020 to 2021) to officially embark on their retirement, leaving Stoner to pilot the future of a store that has been a part of Madison’s cultural heart for 36 years. It’s a legacy he doesn’t take lightly, and, to foster a sense of continuity, he felt it was important to keep as many of the store’s existing staffers on board as possible.
Record Store Day 2024 at Strictly Discs in Madison, Wis.
Courtesy of Strictly Discs
“Retaining the team has been really my number one priority,” Stoner says. “Maintaining the business, maintaining the customers — to me, all those things are achievable if you’re retaining the brain trust and knowledge and vibe that comes with the team that has been there for a long time.” The store’s entire staff stayed on after the acquisition, including longtime employees Evan Woodward — who now serves as GM and runs the shop on a day-to-day basis — and Mark Chaney, who fills the role of assistant GM. “Everyone’s worked together really well,” Stoner adds. “I think they appreciate maybe a different approach to things, a little more structure, and I certainly appreciate the knowledge of music that they bring.”
Stoner’s 18-year background as a high-level advertising executive focused on management and new business development at companies including Brado, Derse, BBN and Bader Rutter makes him well-equipped to expand into new areas and supercharge what the store was already doing well. One of the first changes under his purview was instituting a new inventory management system that would be capable of handling the shop’s roughly 500,000 used vinyl records in addition to new product (he chose a system that was originally designed for grocery stores).
Another major item on Stoner’s to-do list was already in motion prior to his acquisition of the business: the conversion of 1,000 square feet of the 5,000 square foot Strictly Discs warehouse in neighboring Cambridge, Wis., into a second retail location, which officially opened Oct. 19 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule (a grand opening is slated for sometime in November after the store’s permanent exterior sign is installed). “We have plenty of customers that aren’t in downtown Madison, and it takes them a while to drive downtown through traffic, find parking,” he says of opening the new storefront. “Now those people will be able to come here. And I also think we’ll be serving a rural customer that maybe just isn’t exposed to the cultural curiosities that come with a record store.”
Stoner is currently looking at creative strategies to build interest and excitement in the new location, including giving customers access to the music lover’s paradise contained in the back 4,000 square feet of the building, which boasts the majority of the business’ used product. Though Stoner has yet to settle on what that would look like, some ideas include quarterly bin-picking days and a “buy a crate and fill the crate” promotion.
Opening day at Strictly Discs’ new retail location in Cambridge, Wis.
Courtesy of Strictly Discs
Strictly Discs’ mountain of used product is one of the business’ key strengths. Beginning in 2010, Ron Roloff focused his energies on acquiring large private music collections in Wisconsin and beyond, leading the store to become known as the home of a treasure trove of hard-to-find records in all different genres. “I think what sets us apart is the volume and quality of more niche genres: jazz, classical,” says Stoner. “We have an extensive soundtrack collection that, before buying the business, I never could have imagined or guessed how well that does for us.”
Those used records are key to another major initiative Stoner has in mind: creating a subscription model that would allow customers to choose a certain number of new or used records per month — which would require integrating the store’s website with the Shopify platform — and either pick up their chosen product in-store or have it delivered to their homes. The idea was partially inspired by similar plans offered by the likes of Vinyl Moon and Vinyl Me, Please — though, as Stoner points out, those companies don’t allow customers the kind of choice Strictly Discs can offer. “If you’re paying $50 or $100 a month, especially if you live in a rural area, the record store is coming to you,” he says. “And I don’t see a lot of shops doing that.”
With a goal of launching some iteration of the subscription model during this year’s holiday shopping season, Stoner and his employees are currently focused on what he calls “the Herculean effort” of cataloging the store’s warehouse inventory. Stoner aims to initially target customers within Wisconsin but outside of Dane County (where Madison is located), drawing interest through targeted ads online and via the store’s email newsletter. “I think my main concern about it is that it doesn’t cannibalize our store,” he says. “So my hope is someone could subscribe to that, pick up things in store, they would get a discount in store for being a member, and it would allow us some growth and customer loyalty.”
Stacks of used vinyl at the Strictly Discs warehouse in Cambridge, Wis.
Courtesy of Strictly Discs
The focus on getting the subscription plans off the ground ties in with Stoner’s overarching goal of beefing up Strictly Disc’s e-commerce efforts. On that front, the Roloffs were already ahead of the game, with a sales mix of 70% in-store and 30% online (within that, the mix is 90% vinyl and 10% CDs; while 65% of vinyl sales are new product.) “I’ve learned that that’s pretty atypical,” he says. I think [we have] the highest online [sales percentage], at least of record stores in our coalition [the Coalition of Independent Music Stores].” And in the long term, he’s looking to flip those stats on their head: “I want that 70-30 to look like 20-80 without hampering the growth of the store,” adds Stoner, who’s hoping to triple the store’s business through online sales.
The plans don’t end there. In addition to supersizing the store’s Record Store Day activities — this year, the store closed down part of Monroe Street with the city’s permission and threw a block party for the event — he’s looking to launch pop-up record shops at music festivals and other events outside of Madison to extend the physical store’s geographic reach.
For all of his ambitious plans, the store’s longtime customers probably won’t notice much of a difference. Like Ron, Stoner is currently intent on keeping Strictly Discs a pure music shop, steering clear of merch sales and other non-music items — which would be difficult to institute in any event, he says, given the shop’s relatively small footprint — and keeping intact what people loved about it in the first place.
“[In] our main record shop in Madison … almost nothing has changed, and that’s been intentional,” Stoner says. “It’ll be a staple of the community for the next 36 years, just like it has been the last 36 years.”
More in this series:Twist & Shout in Denver, Colo.Grimey’s in Nashville, Tenn.Home Rule in Washington, D.C.Sweat Records in Miami, Fla.
SiriusXM reported a 4% decline in revenue and a nearly $3 billion net loss last quarter after it completed a financial maneuver that was aimed at simplifying its publicly traded stock, the company reported on Thursday.
The $2.96 billion quarterly net loss stemmed from a $3.36 billion non-cash impairment charge, a type of accounting expense the means an asset’s value on the company’s balance sheet was written down. When SiriusXM merged with Liberty Media’s tracking stock in September, Liberty Media valued the company’s goodwill based on a sustained lower stock price.
The charge does not impact on SiriusXM’s cash flow. However, lower subscriber revenue and softer-than-projected advertising revenue in the second half of this year caused the company to trim its 2024 revenue goal to $8.675 billion from $8.75 billion targeted earlier in the year.
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SiriusXM’s stock price was down 3.27% at $26.50 as of 11:20 a.m. in New York.
The company reported total third quarter revenue fell 4% to $2.17 billion, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and assets (EBITDA) fell 7% to $693 million, representing a 32% margin, compared to the year-ago quarter.
Tom Barry, SiriusXM’s chief financial officer, described seeing green shoots from the company’s investments in its subscription business and content, including 14,000 more net self-pay subscribers and a 6% increase in podcast advertising revenue.
“We are focused on executing our long-term strategy of strengthening our subscription business, enhancing our advertising offerings, and optimizing costs as we reinvest in the business,” Barry said in a statement.
The growth in self-pay subscribers due to lower churn reversed the contraction the company saw in the third quarter last year when it lost 96,000 subscribers. SiriusXM’s average revenue per user fell $0.53 to $15.16 due to a “higher proportion of subscribers on self-pay promotional and streaming-only plans,” the company said.
Known for its in-car satellite radio subscriptions, SiriusXM launched a new in-car subscription priced at $9.99 for just SiriusXM’s music channels. The company reported seeing podcast and on-demand listeners increasing on the app it rolled out last year.
The company invests heavily in its content. In the third quarter, SiriusXM signed an exclusive deal with “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper and launched shows with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Gen Z political commentator Dylan Douglas, and the beloved former football coaches Jimbo Fisher and Bill Belichick.
Revenue from the company’s Pandora and off-platform business segment slipped 1% to $544 million as Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium’s self-pay subscriber-based declined by 76,000 to 5.9 million. The company said the decline stemmed from fewer trial starts and churn after the price of certain plans was hiked.
A woman who has accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of rape cannot proceed with her lawsuit under a “Jane Doe” pseudonym, a Manhattan federal judge says – a ruling that could potentially impact the many other cases filed against him by anonymous accusers.
In a decision Wednesday, Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil ruled that the privacy rights of Combs’ alleged victim did not trump the right of all defendants “to defend themselves” in open court against such “heinous” allegations.
“Plaintiff’s interest in avoiding public scrutiny, or even embarrassment, does not outweigh the interests of both Combs and the public in the customary and constitutionally-embedded presumption of openness in judicial proceedings,” the judge wrote.
“Plaintiff has chosen to bring this lawsuit, leveling serious charges against Combs and, as such, she has put her credibility in issue,” the judge added. “Combs is, therefore, entitled to investigate her background and challenge her allegations and her credibility.”
The ruling came in one of at least 15 lawsuits brought against Combs in recent weeks by Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, all of which have been filed under “Doe” pseudonyms. Though Vyskocil’s ruling is not binding on other judges, it could influence how they handle the issue in Buzbee’s other cases, as well as numerous other lawsuits that have been filed anonymously against Combs.
Buzbee did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday morning.
Combs has faced a flood of abuse accusations over the past year, starting with civil lawsuits and followed by a bombshell federal indictment last month in which prosecutors allege he ran a sprawling criminal operation for years aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.” If convicted on the charges, which include sex trafficking and racketeering, he faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
In the current case – filed last week by one of the 120 alleged victims that Buzbee claims to represent – the accuser alleges that Comb raped her and threatened her life in 2004 when she was 19 years old.
The case was filed under the Jane Doe pseudonym without prior approval from the judge — a common tactic in such lawsuits but one that Vyskocil ruled Wednesday was technically a violation of federal litigation rules.
In her decision, the judge said anonymous lawsuits are supposed to be the exception rather than the rule – both because American court cases are supposed to be open to the public, and because accused defendants have a right to know who is accusing them of wrongdoing.
Buzbee had argued that abuse accusers can face backlash after filing such cases, and that other accusers might be scared away from speaking out if forced to reveal their identities. Though Vyskocil acknowledged the “toll” that such public scrutiny can take, she repeatedly pointed to the “fundamental unfairness” of allowing only one side to remain anonymous.
“Plaintiff, who is an adult, has now decided to file a lawsuit in which she accuses a famous person of engaging in heinous conduct approximately twenty years ago and, further, accuses a number of businesses of complicity in that alleged conduct,” the judge wrote. “Defendants have a right to defend themselves, including by investigating Plaintiff, and the people have a right to know who is using their courts.”
TIDAL plans to lay off additional employees, its second round of cuts in less than a year. “We have made some internal changes to our TIDAL team to focus on serving artists in the most meaningful way,” a TIDAL spokesperson told Billboard in a statement. “This involved the elimination of some roles across our business […]
EMPIRE is officially stepping into Asia as the powerhouse independent label announces the appointment an executive with a track record of fostering crossover talent. Known for being pivotal in developing several breakout Asian acts, Jeffrey Yoo has been appointed EMPIRE’s senior vp of East Asia, the company announced on Thursday (Oct. 31). The seasoned exec […]
G-Dragon is reclaiming the spotlight on his terms.
The K-pop icon’s first single in seven years, “POWER,” drops Thursday (Oct. 31) as part of a new partnership with his Korean agency, Galaxy Corporation, and EMPIRE, the major independent record label that boasts Shaboozey on its roster.
Known for shattering K-pop conventions and cracking the Billboard charts early in K-pop’s rise as both the leader of boy band BIGBANG and as a solo artist, G-Dragon’s unmistakable confidence — “Guess who’s back/It’s your boy, GD!” — kicks off the hip-hop-infused, high-energy anthem. The comeback cut was co-written by G-Dragon alongside Tommy “TB Hits” Brown, Theron Thomas and Steven Franks.
“‘POWER’ manifests the essence of music,” G-Dragon said in a statement. “I express myself through music. This marks the beginning of a new era and I hope to inspire people who listen to my music.”
“G-Dragon is a cultural force that has laid the foundation for K-Pop’s global dominance,” added Ghazi, founder/CEO of EMPIRE. “This partnership reinforces our mission at EMPIRE to work alongside artists that will shape the future of global music.”
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G-Dragon was signed to EMPIRE by the company’s newly appointed senior vp of East Asia, Jeffrey Yoo.
The signing with the indie label marks a new freedom for the Seoul superstar following his exit from longtime record label YG Entertainment (home to BLACKPINK, TREASURE and BABYMONSTER) last year after two decades.
During his time at YG, G-Dragon led BIGBANG in becoming the first K-pop act to land a Korean-language album on the Billboard 200 in March 2012. He’s also scored three solo entries on the Billboard 200 and held a record for the most entries on the tally among K-pop soloists for years; he now shares the record with BTS‘ RM and J-Hope. While his music career has led to collaborations with the likes of Diplo, Missy Elliot, Sky Ferreira, Skrillex and M.I.A., plus a placement on the 2023’s Elvis soundtrack, G-Dragon also became an integral figure in the fashion and art world with his streetwear brand PEACEMINUSONE along with campaigns with Chanel and Nike.
Looking ahead, the K-pop king will perform at the upcoming MAMA Awards in Japan on Nov. 23, marking his first performance in nearly a decade at the influential K-pop awards show. Earlier this month, Billboard also reported that Tencent Music Entertainment Group had partnered with Galaxy Corporation for his upcoming tour.
G-Dragon
Galaxy Corporation