Executive of the Week
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Much of the conversation in the music business this year has been about superfans — where to find them, how to connect with them and the ways to better cater to them during single and album rollouts. Suffice it to say that the team behind Twenty One Pilots and their latest album, Clancy, took that conversation to heart.
This week, Clancy debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and flew in at No. 1 on both the Top Album Sales and Top Rock Albums charts with 143,000 equivalent album units, landing the biggest rock debut of the year so far in the process, with a campaign that leaned heavily into super-serving the group’s biggest fans. That took the form of exclusive listening parties at independent record stores around the country, a multi-pronged sales strategy that offered more than a dozen different ways of purchasing the album and thinking holistically about each tier of fandom and what they want the most.
The result: Nearly 60% of the album’s first week numbers came from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales, according to Elektra vp of D2C, streaming and marketing strategy Thom Skarzynski, who worked on the album rollout. And the success of Clancy helps earn Skarzynski the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
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Here, Skarzynski discusses the fan-led strategies that went into the album release, as well as the career-long buildup that got the band to this point. “We went into the campaign with a refreshed mindset,” Skarzynski says. “It was all about bringing things back to the surface and carrying the story to life for not only the deeply-rooted superfans but also the more casual listeners who may have lost the plot along the way.”
This week, Twenty One Pilots’ Clancy debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on both Top Album Sales and Top Rock Albums. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
My role at Elektra is multifaceted — depending on the project, I might be involved in marketing, D2C or streaming strategy. In the case of Twenty One Pilots, I was fortunate enough to run point on all three, co-running the overall marketing on this album campaign with Katie Robinson [senior vp of marketing at Elektra], so I truly was able to engulf myself into the whole picture and curate what we needed to happen and when.
That said, the area that I’m most proud of in impacting our debut was what we were able to do via D2C on the band’s store. We took extra care to custom tailor each of our offerings, accounting for every level of fan, what would excite them, and how it would deepen their connection with the band. In the end, D2C accounted for nearly 60% of our first-week activity. Their overwhelming response shows the power of a fan base when they’re being listened to and treated right.
With 143,000 equivalent album units, Clancy nearly doubled the first-week mark from the band’s last album, 2021’s Scaled and Icy. What did you do different this time around to achieve that?
We went into the campaign with a refreshed mindset. It was all about bringing things back to the surface and carrying the story to life for not only the deeply-rooted superfans but also the more casual listeners who may have lost the plot along the way. I must credit the band themselves, management [Chris Woltman and Ashley Pimenta at Element 1] and their creative team [Mark Eshleman and Brandon Rike], as they were true architects in the early teaser campaigns we executed for the core fanbase — sending 1,500 red envelope letters out to fans across the globe, swapping all studio artwork of previous albums to have “red tape” over it. Cryptic moments like that activated their hardcore fans, and from there we just expanded. This album campaign was about bringing every level of fan together and nailing the conclusion to a story the band has been telling for nearly a decade.
The album’s huge sales week was also bolstered by its physical availability — 11 vinyl variants, plus several CD editions and deluxe box sets. What was your approach to the physical sales aspect, and how were you able to pull that off?
Very early on, we connected with the band’s creative director Brandon Rike, and went through ideas and suggestions for this launch — including my absolute favorite, the Clancy Journal — as well as box-set options and how many different vinyl variants we would need to ensure everybody from the fan base had something they loved enough to own. We chose carefully, knowing where each level of fan would be shopping and what they would engage with, and let that be our guide.
We also held listening events at over 175 independent record stores across the country the Saturday prior to album release, which brought out an estimated 20,000 fans. That indie variable was super cool and we were so happy to bring the physical community together to experience the album as one. I am a firm believer that fans want to own an item from an artist they love that they can proudly display or cherish, and that’s what we aimed to offer. Every decision we made was around “thinking like a fan.” Any mindset different from that was unacceptable as we rolled this out.
The album was the final chapter of a conceptual series. How were you able to play into that to help generate excitement among the fan base?
For me, the pressure was on to deliver on behalf of the band and their team, and simply connect the dots wherever possible. This storyline that they’ve built for nine years now is so much bigger than me and I not only accepted that fact but was humbled to be trusted to handle parts of the campaign that played into it. Ultimately, what generates the most excitement are three things: excellent music; a message and lyrics that resonate with people; and bringing fans along on the journey with you.
Clancy also represents the biggest debut for a rock album this year so far. With rock such a sales-heavy format and the industry at large so dependent on streaming, how do you leverage streaming with that sales strategy to deliver such a big debut?
The variety and cadence of the single releases leading up to the album kept the fan base engaged and built up anticipation for the full album. We also had great support from our streaming partners with multiple playlist covers, and excellent positioning in both their new music and flagship playlists across rock, alternative and pop. When it comes to sales itself, we looked at everything mathematically, and strategically pinpointed where we could find wins and where we felt we may have had some challenges. We knew how much we had total control of — D2C, physical retail, indie retail and digital albums — and making each of them the best experience possible maximized our results. We just knew the fan base so well and were able to be strategic with how, when and where we interacted with them.
How are you guys planning to continue to promote the album moving forward?
We are just getting started. “The Craving (single version)” is impacting at Top 40, Alternative and Hot AC radio right now and already getting incredible support. This is also a band that never stops: They have their massive Clancy World Tour which hits arenas and even some stadiums across North America starting in August before going overseas to Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and Europe. In my very first conversation with management back in October, they walked me through a plan that ran through 2026 and beyond. Twelve years in, this is still just the beginning for them.
When Bryan Martin’s “We Ride” entered the top 10 of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart two weeks ago, the raw, stripped-down tune became not only the Louisiana native’s first hit, but it also marked the first time in more than a dozen years that Martin’s label, Average Joes Entertainment, achieved a Top 10.
The song, which rises to No. 9 today (May 31), is Average Joes’ first Top 10 since duo Montgomery Gentry reached No. 8 in March 2012 with “Where I Come From.” That feat came the year after Average Joes’ current president, Forrest Latta, joined the label as a product manager, rising through the ranks to vp of A&R and now president. Founded in 2008 by country rapper Jason “Colt Ford” Brown and producer Shannon Houchins, who is the company’s CEO, Average Joes served as an early label home to such acts as Brantley Gilbert and LoCash, and also has a thriving film and television division, as well as publishing company.
Average Joes hired indie promotion team New Revolution to work “We Ride” to terrestrial radio stations. The radio push was part of a multi-tiered campaign that started more than a year and a half ago with “We Ride,” and its ongoing success earns Latta the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
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Here, Latta talks about “We Ride’s” slow build at streaming outlets before the move to radio and the patient approach he and his team took to breaking the song. “I don’t think we would be seeing the same level of success without the right team executing in each phase,” he says.
You released “We Ride” in October 2022. When did you decide to take it to terrestrial country radio and how long had it been since Average Joes made a push to terrestrial radio?
We started having conversations about it in May of last year and ended up deciding to pull the trigger with an impact date in September, the same week the record went gold. Prior to this, our last approach to radio was 2017 with “Better Me,” in the wake of Troy Gentry‘s tragic passing. [Gentry, one half of Montgomery Gentry, died in a helicopter accident in 2017.]
Bryan’s music has an honest rawness to it like Zach Bryan, Warren Zeiders, Oliver Anthony and Koe Wetzel. Is there strength in numbers that radio can’t ignore as we see a wave of artists like this telling their truth?
I think the market has shown that it is hungry for this style, and I think country radio does a great job of keeping their finger on the pulse of the market. That said, the level of success of others was not part of our conversation when we made the decision to take “We Ride” to radio.
What were the key steps you took to make it happen? Building out the right team was really important. We met with many people and had to make some tough decisions to get the right people with a strategy that aligned. Ultimately, the strategy took form in three phases — pre-release social push; post-release digital-first approach with our internal team; followed by a big push at radio with the New Revolution team. I don’t think we would be seeing the same level of success without the right team executing in each phase.
This is Average Joes’ first Top 10 on Country Airplay since 2012. What did you hear in the song that made you know you should push it?
We knew we had something when we heard the work tape. Bryan is a great songwriter, and this is a great example of it. The vibe is unique, and the song is uniquely Bryan. We also heard the response from the market. Being able to take a song that already had that kind of data, we didn’t have to ask radio to take as big of a chance on it because it was already a proven winner.
How much of Bryan’s success is how open he is with his very compelling story, including attempting suicide and his struggles with alcohol? And as someone who is newly sober, how did the label take steps to protect his sobriety?
All credit for Bryan’s sobriety goes to him — he’s one of the most determined people I know, and he is doing great so far. We absolutely seek to support him, whether it was helping facilitate treatment by taking a month off from recording, playing shows, and radio promo, as well as providing a safe environment to work in, and making sure he has a healthy team around him.
How important was TikTok to fans learning about the song?
It was huge building up to release. Andrew Davis, our vp of marketing, and his team put together a long lead plan focused on the platform and fought hard for it, even when some of us started to get antsy about setting a release. They deserve a lot of credit for that.
“We Ride” has more than 190 million streams on Spotify, far and away his biggest streaming song. How has streaming helped propel its success, and what was the key component to the digital campaign?
It was a little slow coming out the gates — DSPs weren’t as familiar with Bryan initially — but once they noticed the groundswell, they were quick to jump on board, and really helped grow the song early on.
Will terrestrial radio be part of Bryan’s story going forward?
Absolutely. They have been great partners, and we look forward to continuing that relationship.
When Sabrina Carpenter signed with the Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) in October 2023, she was coming off the critical and commercial success of her 2022 Island Records debut Emails I Can’t Send, a project that established her as a formidable pop hitmaker with a distinct voice and a captivating appeal. But since that album’s release, her career has launched into the stratosphere, with a string of singles — “Nonsense” off the original Emails; “Feather,” which was released on the deluxe of Emails in August 2023; and, most recently, April 2024’s “Espresso” — that have each reached higher on the charts than the last, building her into a mainstream dynamo with song-of-the-summer hitmaking potential.
It’s been “Espresso,” however, that has truly captured the zeitgeist. The song zoomed onto the Billboard Hot 100 with a No. 7 debut, eventually reaching No. 4, but has done even better globally, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart — where it spends its second week this week, establishing it as a bona fide international hit. And through the work of her label at Island and her publishing company UMPG, that’s marked the highest chart placement of Carpenter’s career — and help earned UMPG co-head of U.S. A&R and head of UMPG’s global creative group David Gray the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
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Here, Gray discusses the work UMPG has done with Carpenter in the six months since bringing her into the pubco, what sets her apart as a songwriter and the company’s global outlook. “She has always had a vision for herself as an artist and songwriter,” Gray says. “It’s rewarding to see her succeed at a global level and get all of the credit she deserves.”
This week, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” spends its second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart and its fifth week in the top 10 of the Hot 100. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
Overall at UMPG, we work to support our songwriters’ ideas and decisions in any way we can, whether putting together strategic writing sessions or working to secure great synch opportunities globally.
Sabrina signed with UMPG last October. What were your first conversations like with her about her music and where she wanted to go?
Sabrina talked about how the Emails I Can’t Send album was a step up from where she was before and she was ready to take it up to the next level from there. She has always had a vision for herself as an artist and songwriter. It’s rewarding to see her succeed at a global level and get all of the credit she deserves.
What sets Sabrina apart from other pop stars as a songwriter, and how have you helped to emphasize that?
Sabrina has such a unique and brilliant songwriting voice, both lyrically and melodically. All the years of doing sessions, working hard, taking songwriting very seriously and perfecting her craft has made her not only the artist in the writing session… but she is also an A-list-level songwriter talent-wise.
For the past two years you’ve headed up UMPG’s global creative group. How has that changed how you work with songwriters, and in what ways does it help your global reach?
At UMPG, we have always recognized that there are amazing writing opportunities for songwriters outside of their own territories. The number and quality of these writing opportunities has accelerated in the last few years. The communication between territories that the Global Creative Group provides is essential to making sure our writers get the best of these opportunities.
How are you preparing to deal with AI in the publishing world?
It’s still nascent in the broader creative community, but we know AI offers opportunities and risks. We embrace AI, just as we have other technology innovations in the past, but only AI technology that is ethical and artist-centric — in other words, only if it supports songwriters and protects their rights.
Last year, an unknown artist named Tommy Richman stunned as a guest on Brent Faiyaz’s Larger Than Life, appearing on “Upset” alongside FELIX! (The song reached No. 12 on Hot R&B Songs last November.) But now, Richman, who is signed to Faiyaz’ ISO Supremacy label, is making a much larger impression with a hit of his own.
On April 26, Richman released the bouncy “Million Dollar Baby,” on which he flexes his falsetto and genre-blurring sensibilities. The song debuted with 38 million official U.S. streams in its first week of release (April 26-May 2), according to Luminate. “Million Dollar Baby” also scored Richman his first Hot 100 entry, debuting at No. 2 — behind only Taylor Swift and Post Malone’s “Fortnight.” The song also debuts atop the Steaming Songs chart, making Richman the first artist since Olivia Rodrigo with “Drivers License” in 2021 to launch a solo first entry atop the chart.
As previously reported by Billboard, the song’s grand entrance resulted in a boost for Richman’s discography; not including “Baby,” Richman’s catalog posted nearly 2.1 million on-demand U.S. audio streams (across April 26-29), a gain of 106% from the four-day period before. And now, in its second week, the song not only remains at No. 2 on the Hot 100, it climbs to No. 2 on the Billboard Global 200 and reaches No. 1 on the TikTok Top 50, as it continues to gain steam.
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The Woodbridge, Va.-born artist was the first to sign to ISO Supremacy (in partnership with PULSE Records). In addition to scoring a feature on Faiyaz’s last album, Richman also opened for the label boss on his 2023 F*ck the World, It’s a Wasteland Tour. And now, Darren Xu, COO of ISO Supremacy, earns the title of Billboard‘s Executive of the Week.
Despite much of this success seemingly coming out of nowhere, Xu can’t help but look back knowingly, having always believed Richman would reach this moment. As “Baby” continues to grow — thanks in large part to TikTok, where the song has soundtracked 218.3K clips and counting — his team is focused on the future. As Xu, says: “It’s going to be all gas, no brakes.”
Since the Hot 100 began in 1958, only five other acts have debuted in the chart’s top two with no prior history on the chart. Why is “Million Dollar Baby” connecting so strongly?
I feel like “Million Dollar Baby” is a real testament to the climate of social media today. It really shows that if you make good music, it will reach the right audience. Tommy is creating new sounds and the music will speak for itself.
Tommy was the first artist signed to Brent Faiyaz’s ISO Supremacy — what were Tommy and the team looking to gain in signing with Brent?
There was a mutual respect and collaborative energy between the two of them from day one, so the connection just made sense. We knew we’d all win big.
What’s the key to managing an emerging star today?
Don’t let people rush or pressure you into taking steps you don’t need to, and prioritize the artist’s taste and vision.
How are you planning to keep momentum going — for the song and Tommy more broadly?
You guys are going to have to just stay tuned and keep an eye on what we do next. All I can say is it’s going to be all gas no brakes.
These days, a new Beyoncé album is generally a cause for celebration — fans pore over album covers, track listings, song lyrics and rollout plans, searching for hidden gems and rare treasures. For Cowboy Carter, her latest album released in March, one of those gems came in the form of Shaboozey, the rising country singer who had made some minor waves in his career to date and was featured on two tracks on the album, “Spaghetti” with Linda Martell” and “Sweet / Honey / Buckiin.’”
If those guest spots introduced Shaboozey to the mainstream of pop culture, it was what came next that has truly brought him to the forefront. Two weeks after the release of Cowboy Carter, the Virginia-born singer released “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” through American Dogwood/EMPIRE, a flip of J-Kwon’s 2004 song “Tipsy” that is a fun-loving, infectious romp of a song, and has quickly captured hearts, minds — and a very captive audience. This week, the song makes a historic jump on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, bounding from No. 6 to No. 1 — and replacing Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” on top of the list, marking the first time ever that two Black artists have led the chart in back to back weeks since the chart became an all-encompassing genre ranking in 1958.
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The song, which will herald the artist’s next album, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, due out May 31, has been on such an upswing that even in the week that Taylor Swift flooded the Hot 100 with her new 31-song Tortured Poets Department album, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” was one of just two songs on the entire Hot 100 to actually rise, as it moved from No. 36 to No. 27, with a possible jump into the top five on the cards for next week, as the Swift fervor ebbs. And all that momentum helps his Range Media co-manager Jared Cotter earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Cotter talks about how the Beyoncé look helped boost Shaboozey’s latest hit, the value of being in the right place at the right time (and being prepared for the moment when it comes) and the history-making hit that brought them here. “He will be a superstar that continues to push boundaries and make great music for years to come,” Cotter says. “This is just the beginning.”
This week, Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” reached No. 1 on Hot Country Songs, his first chart-topper. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
A key decision was making sure we were prepared for the Beyoncé moment. We didn’t even have it locked in 100% but I wanted the team to be prepared if it happened, so we moved our original release date for the song up by three weeks. That way we were able to take advantage of truly an extremely unique opportunity with lots of heat and algorithmic love. The Beyoncé Bounce is real!
The song replace’s Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” at No. 1, the first time in history that two Black artists led the chart back to back. What is the significance of that for you and Shaboozey?
As Black men, we are aware and in awe of the history that we’ve made. Country is a genre that historically has been very closed, and something like this typically could never happen. It’s a positive sign that times are changing and that country listeners just want great music, no matter who it comes from. Thank you to Beyoncé and her team for knocking down that door.
Shaboozey has been buzzing for a while, but he exploded into the mainstream with two features on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album. How did that come about, and how were you guys able to use that momentum to help push “A Bar Song”?
Beyoncé’ was already familiar with Boozey because her team — including her Mom, Tina Knowles — showed us a lot of love on Shaboozey’s “Let It Burn.” But primarily the Beyoncé features came about because her A&R, Ricky Lawson, happened to be at our Range Showcase Night at Winston House in Venice, Calif. Shaboozey is an incredible live performer and that night was special. It’s a testament to taking advantage of the opportunities that are presented to you because you never know who is watching.
On this week’s Hot 100, amid a flood of new Taylor Swift songs, “A Bar Song” was one of only two songs on the entire chart to actually move up, going from No. 36 to No. 27. How was the song able to do that?
It’s the perfect song. It has a tried and true interpolation in J-Kwon’s “Tipsy,” so the familiarity is there and everything about the verses and chorus is a hook. Plus, it’s fun. After also having success with Paul Russell’s hit “Lil Boo Thang” this year I truly believe that people just want to have fun again.
Shaboozey first partnered with EMPIRE in 2021, and is having this huge moment three years later. Why did the EMPIRE partnership make sense over a traditional Nashville-type deal, and how have you built his career in that period of time to lay the foundation for this type of moment now?
EMPIRE has been an incredible partner. What Ghazi, Nima [Etminan] and Tina [Davis] have built is nothing short of amazing — I don’t think they get enough credit for what they’ve done and continue to do in multiple genres. They’ve been huge supporters of Shaboozey, and have shown immense patience as he figured out his sound. Now that the timing is right, they’re throwing everything at this project with staff and resources. Their belief in him is palpable from everyone on their team. As a manager I couldn’t be happier to be in business with all of EMPIRE, including Sak Pase, Peter Kadin and Harrison Golding.
With the likes of Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan and Bailey Zimmerman, among others, country music music has had a big mainstream boost in the past year-plus. At the same time, Range has been signing more country acts of late and investing in the genre. Did you see this uptick in country music coming, and how do capitalize on the mainstream popularity of the genre moving forward?
Yes. Range is at the forefront of this country revolution and I’m happy to add my energy. It’s been extremely valuable to lean on country music veterans at Range like Matt Graham, Jack Minihan and Shawn McSpadden as I navigate a new genre as a manager. Our staff in the newly-opened Nashville office is second to none, and we’ll continue to capitalize on the uptick with passion, expertise, and boots on the ground.
What’s next for Shaboozey?
More great music and great shows coming to a city near you. He will be a superstar that continues to push boundaries and make great music for years to come. This is just the beginning.
Last Week’s Executive: Sabrina Carpenter’s Manager Janelle Lopez Genzink
In the summer of 2022, Sabrina Carpenter released her Island Records debut album, emails I can’t send. Last March, she released its deluxe edition featuring four new tracks — including standout single “Feather,” which has since become the pop star’s biggest hit to date.
Following a controversial music video for “Feather” that arrived in October, for which Carpenter filmed the risqué clip inside a Brooklyn church (with approval, of course), the song has now reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart after a 24-week climb — and it’s showing no signs of slowing down.
This moment has not only been a long time coming for Carpenter, but also her manager, Janelle Lopez Genzink. The exec recalls how emails I can’t send came out just one year after the launch of her “female-focused” Volara Management firm (which operates under the Red Light umbrella), calling it “a very special season.”
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“During that year, I was laser-focused on building out Volara with a series of strategic hires that focused on digital strategies and overall artist brand building, while also maintaining a close watch on data and analytics, which transformed Sabrina’s career,” she says. And now, those years of hard work are paying off — and have helped Lopez Genzink earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, she talks about the success of “Feather,” Carpenter’s opening gig on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and more. “Coachella is next up,” she teases, “and the rest you’ll just have to wait and see.”
“Feather” has become the highest-charting song of Sabrina’s career, reaching No. 1 on Pop Airplay after a 24-week climb. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
The song was written and recorded right ahead of Sabrina embarking on the North American leg of her tour. When tour rehearsals began, her live performance of the song made it clear to all of us that it was a record that would quickly resonate with her fans as well as the larger pop music audience. But instead of going straight to radio, we took an approach that was way more reminiscent of a traditional pop single campaign. She went on tour and shot a meaningful video which ultimately gave the song the momentum and recognition to take to radio. These more traditional steps supported the song’s growth and helped us continue to tell the story of Sabrina as a holistic artist.
Its music video made headlines for being filmed in a church, which led to the removal of the monsignor who approved access. How did that conversation help drive interest in the song early on — and how have you helped sustain that interest?
Every pop music star has a controversial story in their back pocket. Although not intentional, the setting of the music video clearly drove additional exposure and a pop culture conversation that reminded us of those from some of our favorite pop divas. Sabrina’s witty and intelligent humor in interviews continued the conversation and drove the social story to continue and grow the audience. As we now all know, “Jesus was a carpenter.”
“Feather” was released on her album’s deluxe edition, emails I can’t send fwd:. How has the deluxe release helped sustain this momentum?
The deluxe version of the album allowed us to breathe additional life into the campaign. Alongside the release, we strategically lined up an extension of the tour in North America, while launching Europe and Asia dates to keep the album campaign feeling fresh. The thoughtful timing of the deluxe release, aligned with the active “Nonsense” single campaign, gave us a chance to speak to both current and new fans of Sabrina’s music.
“Nonsense” was a single from Sabrina’s 2022 album emails I can’t send, which was her first release on Island after years with Hollywood Records. How did you help guide that trajectory and transition?
We took a look at each piece of Sabrina’s business — e-commerce, touring, publishing, publicity. Each area needed growth and we worked hard to evaluate and put partners in place that could support an A-level career. For Sabrina, this meant aligning with UMPG for publishing, CAA and AEG for touring, Merch Traffic for touring merchandise and Bravado for e-commerce. With these changes, we saw significant growth in all areas, including a 500% increase in sales with specially-curated merch drops — spearheaded by Sabrina and her sister Sarah — around music releases, holidays and special fandom moments.
The Island team — led by Justin Eshak, Imran Majid and Mike Alexander — worked closely alongside us for the release of emails and the early success and significant streaming story of the album gave us insight to the level of growth that Sabrina was seeing. The October 2022 emails I can’t send tour marked the beginning of Sabrina’s custom city-specific outros for her song “Nonsense,” which racked up millions of views on TikTok, a music video and a top 10 U.S. pop radio single. This launched Sabrina into a sold-out worldwide tour in 2023 that included a festival slot at Hyde Park alongside Blackpink, Lollapalooza and ended the year supporting Taylor Swift on her Eras Tour in Latin America.
Even as “Feather” climbs, “Nonsense” continues to make headlines for those city-specific outros. Did the response from fans influence which song to push heading into this year?
I think “Nonsense” in so many different ways was a fully fan-chosen hit song. It’s track nine on her album and wasn’t highlighted as a single going into the campaign. The contrast of the lightheartedness of a song like “Nonsense” on an album with a title track that’s so deeply emotional and personal made it an obvious standout to fans. Once she started doing city-specific outros, the song really took off. And once we released the Christmas version with a video spearheaded and shot at home by Sabrina and her sister Sarah, we knew it was going to be huge. I think that’s the beauty of a lot of our story with Sabrina’s rise — how the fans have played such a massive role in choosing the songs we ultimately focus on. It feels collaborative in a lot of ways.
As you mentioned, Sabrina has also been supporting Taylor Swift on her Eras Tour. What kind of boost has she gained from that exposure?
Being a guest as an opening act on the Eras Tour has been such a gift in so many ways. Sabrina has been a true fan from such a young age and being able to see that dream realized was incredible as a manager. Being able to tour internationally at that level has allowed Sabrina to play her music to so many people in such a short window of time and we’re so grateful for all the ways that has impacted her music and career.
What’s the key to managing a pop star today?
Flexibility, care and strategy. It’s about understanding your artist and knowing when to say yes to the right things and when to say no, even when it’s tough.
To many people, Joe Keery is the actor known for playing Steve Harrington on the beloved Netflix show Stranger Things, or Gator Tillman on the most recent season of FX’s Fargo. What those people may not know is that he’s also the creative behind the music releases under the moniker Djo and has been releasing music for the past five years under that name through Sony-owned AWAL. He started by licensing his music through the company’s distribution service and, over the years, rose through its tiered offerings to release two projects via its AWAL Recordings label.
The most recent of those projects was Decide, Djo’s 2022 album that broke through and was well received by critics, garnering him his biggest looks from the music press to date. Now, two years later, the Decide track “End of Beginning” has become a massive hit on TikTok. The song has flown to the top of the TikTok 50 chart and landed “End of Beginning” not just a spot in the top 25 of the Hot 100 (it currently sits at a new peak of No. 23) but into the top 10 of both the Global 200 (at No. 6) and the Global Ex-U.S. charts (No. 7) as the song explodes not just Stateside but around the world.
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That marks a huge success for Djo and serves as an example of how AWAL’s tiered offerings can help an artist go from hobbyist side project to worldwide success; it also helps earn AWAL CEO Lonny Olinick the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week. Here, Olinick talks about the success of “End of Beginning,” Djo’s rise through the AWAL ranks and how the company helped support the song’s growth as it began to take off on social media. “We are seeing many people who are discovering ‘End of Beginning’ and loving the song, and are digging deeper,” Olinick says. “And when they do, discovering that the person behind it is so talented in many different ways is just adding to their connection to the project.”
This week, Djo’s “End of Beginning” jumps into the top 10 of Billboard’s Global 200 (No. 6) and Global Ex-U.S. charts (No. 7), his first global chart entry and first top 10. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
Projects that create meaningful impact always begin with the right A&R decision. You never lose when you partner with artists who have a real creative vision, the drive to be successful and great music to go along with it. That has been the case with Joe and this project since day one.
When it comes to the success of this record, the way we have structured AWAL really allows us to mobilize on a global basis immediately. As we started to see “End of Beginning” react, we were able to spread the story in every country, tied in with the specific way it was reacting. That meant everything from press to content creation to DSP partnerships to radio, depending on the market. Joe even went to the U.K. to present at the Brits and visit key partners, with only a few days’ notice.
Djo first started out distributing his music through AWAL, then rose up through the company’s offering tiers to now doing full recordings deals with AWAL. How did you help guide that trajectory?
We are really lucky that we work in a system that allows us to find the best way to work with music we are passionate about. Ultimately, the projects help guide this process themselves. It becomes pretty clear when an artist is raising their hand and is in the right place to be supported further. I think the traditional way of looking at it — that an artist goes from doing everything on their own to counting on someone else to do everything — isn’t relevant in today’s world. The ramp should be guided by the connection an artist has made with an audience and the potential to grow beyond that base.
In Joe’s case, that is exactly what happened. When we first started working with him, he needed distribution and marketing/content advice. If we had pushed to do more too fast, we might have suffocated the creative process and organic growth he was experiencing as an artist. By the second project, there was a more defined fan base and he was ready for our team to handle marketing and push the story globally. And then we have a moment with “End of Beginning” where we are pushing every lever available to a record label on a global basis. And most importantly with that, pushing them in a way that is focused on creating fans of Djo, not just fans of “End of Beginning.”
“End of Beginning” was originally released two years ago, then caught a new wave on TikTok earlier this year. How were you able to capitalize on that to continue to boost the song’s success?
It is critically important that we let the artist and the art dictate what is possible. In this case, we started to see such great engagement around this song and amazing content being created. Joe was excited to continue the dialogue with the audience and so our job was to spread this in a way that respected the song and artist. From there, we dig into the who, what and where of the moment. From creating new content to support the song, to pitching DSPs, radio and press, and facilitating in-person moments, our team created and executed this strategy on a global basis. And importantly, it changes in real time as the moment evolves.
But most importantly, this has to be led and driven by the artist and that is what happened with Joe. And Joe is supported by an amazing manager in Nick Stern, who has always known when to lean into moments and when to let the fans do what they do on their own.
The song’s appearance in the top 10 on the global charts speaks to the enormous success it’s having not just in the U.S., but also around the world. How have you worked to help the song grow internationally?
To start with, we don’t care where an artist is signed or even where they are based. We let the fans tell us where there is an opportunity to engage further. Since this is ingrained in our DNA, we look at every artist with a global perspective. That has meant that our team has spent as much time focusing on what we can do in Latin America and Asia as we have on what can be done in the U.S., U.K. and Europe. As it turns out, the audience for this song is everywhere and so our team has been everywhere. But it’s easy to say we want to be global. What’s hard is to create and execute a unique plan for each and every market, and that is exactly what our team has done.
Djo — Joe Keery — is also an actor that many people know from Stranger Things and Fargo. How has his success in other mediums also helped you guys with his music career?
To be honest, this is one of the things that makes this project most meaningful and that starts with Joe. Even when I was introduced to the project five years ago, I had no idea it was Joe. I listened to the music and loved it and only found out after the fact. And that has been the way Joe has wanted it to be. He puts the music first and doesn’t want people to listen to it or discover it because he is an actor. And because of that, he has built up a hugely engaged music audience first, many of whom don’t know that he is behind Djo.
It has been interesting to watch this moment evolve. We are seeing many people who are discovering “End of Beginning” and loving the song and are digging deeper. And when they do, discovering that the person behind it is so talented in many different ways is just adding to their connection to the project.
What else are you looking to do to continue to push the song, and Djo’s career overall, moving forward?
Career is the most important part of that question. We are relentlessly focused on using this moment to create new fans for Djo, vs. just fans of “End of Beginning.” We are seeing great engagement with his whole catalogue and there are so many great songs he has put out that are getting new exposure. We believe there is a lot of life left in this song, but at the end of the day, we are spending a lot of time planning out the next two years and continuing to build a story that has already been five years in the making. So many artists have moments that they aren’t ready for and you see that, quickly, it can only be about the song. In this case, we have an artist and their team who has done the work in so many different ways and is fully ready.
How has AWAL shifted along with the music business in the last few years?
We have been fortunate to be ahead of where the industry is going for a while now. We always had fair deals and a model that allowed us to partner with artists in different ways. And most importantly, we always were a music company that prioritized being in business with artists that we love and knowing how to truly develop those artists. Our track record of developing meaningful artists really is different from any other non-traditional company.
But that doesn’t mean we are in any way complacent. I find that our team is hungrier than we have ever been. And being a part of Sony has been an incredible accelerant to everything we planned to do. We have doubled down on the creative side of our business both in helping on the music side and the content side. The creative part of our jobs is what we ultimately all are here for. We have also built out the global side of our business even further. We have new teams in India, Spain, Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria with more offices opening up in the coming months. I look at the last eight years as the hard preparation work for where the market was going. It is fun to see now how uniquely positioned we are even as so many others are trying to adapt to this new music world.
Just say the name Jennifer Lopez and surely somebody, somewhere, everywhere, will associate her with something: Films, dance, brands, hubby Ben Affleck — and, yes, music. Which is ironic because Lopez has long said music is her first love; it’s what led her to dance and, later, to acting. But as a multi-hyphenate, Lopez has never quite embraced her musicianship as thoroughly as she is now with her current, multi-pronged This Is Me…Now project.
Spearheaded by the album of the same name — her ninth studio album and first in over a decade — the project also includes This is Me…Now, a musical produced by MGM Amazon and streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime; the documentary The Great Love Story Never Told, streaming on Prime Video; and the This Is Me…Now tour, which kicks off June 26 in Orlando and will encompass 30 arena dates in the United States alone.
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“The mindset was, ‘Let’s create a Jennifer Lopez ecosystem that can push out into all the different worlds that she has traversed: her music, her filmmaking, her producing, her acting,” says her longtime manager and business and producing partner Benny Medina. “[What] does a project like that look like and how do you get the attention and placement that you can?”
The album This Is Me…Now, released by Lopez and Medina’s Nuyorican Productions and licensed to BMG, sold 14,000 copies in its debut week last week and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart. This Is Me…Now the musical was also released on Feb. 16 and was followed in quick succession by on-sale tour dates on Feb. 22 and, finally, the release of The Greatest Love Story Never Told, which arrived on Feb. 27. Coming up are more tour dates and multiple private listening sessions with fans — just one of many strategies that Lopez and Medina hope will help spread the gospel of This Is Me…Now. Vinyl, for example, which directly ties into the album’s concept of “then and now,” was a key component of its first-week sales, accounting for nearly a third of all copies sold.
Those little details, contained within such a vast picture, are telling. Medina, who began his career as a Motown artist and later worked at Motown Records under Berry Gordy, approaches every project like the multimedia entrepreneur he is.
But after over 20 years working with Lopez — with whom he’s a partner in every one of her ventures — he admits that this project was particularly challenging.
“Everybody starts with the concept of, ‘Wait a second, is this a movie, a film, a long-form music video?’” he says. “It’s not anything you’ve seen and produced. And that was what was really interesting. Here she was, along with her team, working harder than she’d ever worked to write, produce and finish an album. And then writing and producing a film while being followed around to make a documentary. The only person who’s really ever going to stick with you during something like that is yourself and the other people who’ve signed up as a result of an incredible amount of belief.”
Here, Medina — who earns the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week — breaks down the belief that allowed him and Lopez to pull off This Is Me…Now.
This Is Jennifer Lopez’s first No. 1 in 20 years. How did you do it?
With that amount of time in between a true full studio album release and very few bits of music whatsoever, there was something I found out which was really interesting, and that no record company executives or strategic partners had really thought about: We are not in the current streaming zeitgeist. In reality, her brand doesn’t live in the music world as solidly as it does in the [movie] world because there’s been so much activity on the film side. The very thing that grows you within today’s commerce strategies is the frequency of music; it’s the reason any kid around the block who puts a video on TikTok has a shot. Our goal was to approach this in some ways as a new artist that we were building the algorithm and the relationship with the DSPs and we were going back to radio with the same attitude of, “Listen, give it a shot.”
I think it’s remarkable that such a household name like Jennifer Lopez was willing to do this hard work.
What we’re really trying to do here is start a new journey as to how a legacy artist like Jennifer Lopez can position herself in the marketplace to be able to transact with all the new consumers out in the world who may not have a relationship with her for music, but may only know her as a film superstar.
In terms of the album, vinyl was a big factor in its success. Can you tell us about that?
The great news is that vinyl was having this resurgence and this whole concept was about “then and now.” At that point, we decided to make multiple covers for vinyl and worked to do some specific A&R for the different records. And from there it was to get as many platforms as you possibly could to push out the messaging of This Is Me…Now, any singles related to it, to support the film that was being launched with six of the songs in it, and to push the documentary which was about the making of the project and the mindset.
When I think of Jennifer Lopez, I think of an artist who does many things at the same time. What was different about this project?
We’ve done a lot of those things separately and apart with different partners. We’ve never done a project that encapsulated all of this, and certainly not something as personal as this one. It was from point A to point Z, try to get yourself in every place and position you possibly can, cross your fingers and hope the consumer sees you and engages with you and ultimately wants to consume what you want to put in the marketplace.
You worked with different partners: The documentary is on Amazon, the music via BMG and you worked closely with Apple as a DSP. How did you get everyone to work together?
By going to each platform, speaking with the really super smart people there [and] being really clear in saying: “We want to work with you with this Jennifer Lopez project and start to build her value algorithm and connection with consumers again.” In a way [it was looking at it] much like a new artist, even though we had this global superstar.
What did you learn from this project?
What I learned the most is I’m still so excited about getting down and dirty and in the weeds about creating a new model. It was like taking all of those learnings and putting them all into this modern era. No matter how great or vast the project is, you have to go through certain steps and practices in this era to even put yourself in a position to have a look that turns into consumption and, thus, success. There’s really no way to get around it. I come from an era of, “Let’s get it into the clubs, the streets.” Now, you have to get it out into this massive zeitgeist, and even the biggest artists need to have a program of frequent releases and frequent information.
Today, no matter who you are, from record to record, you have to look at how consumption patterns have changed. How media itself has changed in terms of how much you use it, and thus how engaging your work must be. Our thoughts were, “Let’s make sure we give them a multi-pronged experience.” The musical experience was a trilogy, where every brick was going to be falling forward, but it all emanated from a musical album that was created when Jennifer decided she wanted to speak to her fans again in a voice she hadn’t used for several years.
You have a major tour coming up. In fact, it’s only Jennifer’s third headlining tour ever. Given how successful she is in all realms, why was touring important?
That’s another world that, believe it or not, we’re building for Jennifer Lopez that people are so shocked about. She loves touring. The entertainer is the entertainer. It’s a different type of energy than being on a film set and making movies. It connects you directly to your fans. She speaks so often about being able to look into the eyes of different people who live in different parts of the world and making the connection. She’s actually an artist that’s okay with the meet-and-greet after. She likes to see for herself. And usually, the people who want to meet you after have a story to tell. So, we don’t look at it as a risk, because the flip side is, all of that movie stardom spin has her name out into the world in enough things that people are used to seeing anyway. The idea of getting up and seeing something live in this era was an absolute natural, as well as the fact that we’re looking at what we’re going to be doing in the next five years. And that’s part of our five-year plan: More music, more touring, more live.
You’ve worked with her for 20 years. What’s your secret to sticking together?
I greatly admire, respect and appreciate everything that she can do and that she dreams of doing. And I love a challenge. I’m born of a multimedia world. Where I started at Motown, you had to be able to do it all: Write, produce, and sing and dance, and over the years I personally never saw the difference between whatever studio or soundstage I was walking into because the song or the script will only be as great as the talent. And the song and the script still can be great as well. That’s how I show up every day. Thinking I’m meant to produce art, and results. The secret is our belief and trust in each other. And in my case, I’ve always had the greatest relationship with artists I admire.
Few events can stitch together the various webs of American culture like the Super Bowl, and the numbers this year bear that out: With 123.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, the Big Game last Sunday (Feb. 11) was the most-watched broadcast since the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. And that means a lot of eyeballs for a lot of high-profile advertisement slots, which were priced accordingly: Commercials for the event this year went for as much as $7 million for a 30-second ad, according to the Wall Street Journal.
That makes working on such ads a high-stakes game, not to mention one that’s highly coveted in the world of music supervision and production. This year, boutique music and sound design company Barking Owl Sound landed seven such spots, doing sound design, mixing and production for ads with Booking.com (with Tina Fey) and Etsy; music arrangement and production for Budweiser’s spot; sound design, mix, production and original music for Starry’s ad with Ice Spice (No. 10 on Billboard‘s list of best commercials from the event); mixing and production for Paramount+’s Champions League ad; sound design and production for Kia’s commercial; and original music and production for Homes.com’s Mascot ad. And that high-profile work for the firm earns Barking Owl Sound co-founder/executive creative director Kelly Bayett the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
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Here, Bayett discusses the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the sound production of a Super Bowl ad; how she helped build Barking Owl and its creative team as well as its new music library, along with the opportunities it entails for them; and what’s next for the company. “With seven spots this year, it really solidifies our position in the industry moving forward and opens us up to new opportunities,” Bayett says. “We can accept the challenge and our team can excel with a number of projects under the highest amount of pressure. Moving forward, we are strong as ever and ready for anything.”
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This week, Barking Owl worked on the music for seven Super Bowl advertisements, including for Etsy, Budweiser, Kia and more. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
In our industry, getting Super Bowl ads is definitely relationship-dependent. An agency and client will rarely go to a vendor they don’t know and trust for a piece with millions of dollars on the line. Our key decisions are actually based on building the long term and not what feels fast and easy. [It’s about] focusing on growing relationships that last and consistently keeping the work you are doing fresh and interesting.
Can you tell me about how the company got started and your philosophy around what you do and what work you choose to get involved with, particularly as it pertains to these spots?
I was a single mom and I and my then-boyfriend, now husband, decided to start a music and sound design company in our home. Fourteen years later, we have added mix, brand partnerships, gorgeous studios in L.A. and New York as well as a global team of composers and writers. Our philosophy was to create a company that focused on creative and felt like home. We care about the craft of sound. If you look at any piece of work we have done for the Super Bowl, or anything on our reel, you will see that we don’t just grab sounds out of the library. We create them for each moment and we have been really fortunate to attract clients who value and appreciate the process.
What is the typical process for how you guys work on a commercial like these?
We will get a brief from the agency, and from there, it’s go time. We get on a call and talk about the process, creative directives, and then we start to create and build. It’s important to us to have the agency involved in the collaboration so that there are no surprises on either side. We keep it fun and light, we have amazing executive producers in New York and L.A. in Ashley Benton and KC Dossett who keep everyone on task. It’s the only time of year where every job is racing to the same finish line, so it takes incredible scheduling and organization.
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Your work on these was a mix of sound design, mixing, production, arrangement and original music. How do you approach each of those roles differently?
We have different teams of specialists for each role. Original music can be the trickiest a lot of the time because we are creating themes, tones and movement with an incredibly fast timeline. You are working with personal taste, and when it comes to thoughts about music, there is no right or wrong, it’s all about feeling. Sometimes, you just don’t like something because it doesn’t move you, and that can be challenging. We have to become detectives and figure out what isn’t hitting emotionally or tonally. Sometimes the whole team is on board with the exception of one holdout, and even though majority rules, I feel like we have failed if everyone has not left happy.
Arrangements are really about timing and vision of the track. Sound design is one of the most fun pieces, and also the piece that if we do it exactly right with hours of foley recording and sound manipulation, it will feel like we have done nothing at all. Mixing is the glue that keeps all of it together, giving space for the dialogue, VO, music and sound design. A great mix is dynamic, a bad mix is overly compressed and you lose the craft of each element you have so diligently created. Having our work destroyed by lazy mixers inspired the creation of our mix department.
Music production work like this is a competitive space, dealing with both huge companies and smaller houses. How do you guys compete within that environment, and stand out against your competitors?
It’s an incredibly competitive environment and it only gets more competitive as new companies are popping up each day. I have never really been one to look around and see what others are doing. I am solely focused on our mission, our purpose and what work we are putting out there. How are we showing up each day? Is it good enough? We are also a female-founded company with female creative leads, which is highly unusual. I came up in a space that was so insanely male, we wanted to bring a different perspective and change the landscape with female composers, mixers and sound designers. Everyone matters and everyone is supported here. When people feel supported they are free to create better and more inventive work. We created a structure where we all work as a team and there is no internal competition. That is a huge difference as well. Our employee retention is incredibly high and we all know each other so well, it’s truly like family.
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You’re also building out your own music library. What will that allow you to do, and how can that allow you to grow in the future?
I am so insanely excited about this. We have this amazing library of about 15,000 original tracks from years of demos created for commercials that never sold. The quality we expect from composers and the years of crafting and scoring have resulted in an incredibly varied, diverse library of tracks that are of the highest creative level. We didn’t exactly know what to do with them or how to set up a library, but we knew that we could offer something unique to the industry, as well as broadening our reach to TV and film. Last year, we brought in a partner, Kirkland Lynch, who leads these types of strategic initiatives as CEO. Kirkland brings experience from years with Sony Music, Universal Music Group, Stevie Wonder and YouTube Music. He has been a great addition to the team bringing an understanding and knowledge we really needed.
What does success look like from your point of view for a commercial like these? And with seven spots at this year’s game, what does that allow you guys to do moving forward?
We aren’t in charge of the overall idea, so the success for us is to see if we have executed the idea in the best way possible. Sound design properly in the space, the music scored and arranged in a way that tells the story and makes you feel something, mixes where each sound element complements the other — that is success. With seven spots this year, it really solidifies our position in the industry moving forward and opens us up to new opportunities. We can accept the challenge and our team can excel with a number of projects under the highest amount of pressure. Moving forward, we are strong as ever and ready for anything.
When Apple launched its new $3,500 Vision Pro virtual reality headset this past week, the implication was clear: The future, whether people like it or not, is no longer knocking on the door but inside the living room. (If you can afford one, that is.) The immersive, three-dimensional experience that the headsets — and those from other companies, like Meta — offer is a test of where technology can go, and how humanity may interact through technology moving forward.
But while early reviews focused on the Vision Pro’s relative clunkiness, the quality of the graphics and how it all functions, the possibilities of VR technology are fascinating when applied to music — particularly the idea of 3D, immersive concert experiences. While those types of experiences have been around conceptually for a few years, now — with the company AmazeVR being one of the launch apps on Vision Pro (and also available on the Meta headset) — they are in people’s homes.
AmazeVR was founded in 2015 by Korean company Kakao and first made waves in 2021 after partnering with Roc Nation to produce a virtual reality Megan Thee Stallion concert tour, which was shown in AMC theaters in a dozen cities around the country. It also partnered with K-pop company SM Entertainment for a similar 3D concert experience with the group aespa. But for the past two and a half years, AmazeVR has been working on its app to launch with the Vision Pro headset — and later this month, on Feb. 28, it will unveil a new immersive concert experience with the band Avenged Sevenfold that will, according to AmazeVR creative director Lance Drake, be “our most dynamic and trippy, incredible show to date.” The new launch helps Drake earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Drake has been a music video director for over a decade, having worked with the likes of Miike Snow, Steve Angello and Muse. He also directed Muse’s IMAX concert film Simulation Theory, which came out in 2020 amid the pandemic and which led to what he called a bit of an existential crisis as a director, leading him to virtual reality.
“The reason why I decided to do VR was, the Muse videos that I did were adapted by Microsoft into VR games, and they took those adaptations on tour as a VIP experience, and I got to see the fans of our videos actually interact with the music videos I had made, the worlds we had built and the storylines, and I was like, ‘Wait a second, there’s something here,’” Drake says. “So when this opportunity with Amaze happened everything aligned: It’s music-driven, it’s artist-driven, and what we do is like a hybrid between a live concert, a music video and a game.”
Here, Drake discusses AmazeVR’s work in virtual reality and spatial video, the music tie-ins that are beginning to make the technology viable for artists, and the possibilities that exist moving forward. “I think just having spent a decade in music videos and feeling like 2D has hit the ceiling of what people expect, and how it’s kind of just this promotional tool, I see what we’re doing now — and spatial and VR content in general — as a new medium for musicians and visual creatives to go beyond the two dimensional,” he says. “Once you’re seeing content in 3D and it’s in your room and it’s a part of your life in a physical manifestation, it becomes way more meaningful and there’s more value to that.”
This week, Apple released its new Vision Pro VR headset, and AmazeVR Concerts launched as one of the headset’s music-centric apps. What can you do with the Amaze app?
We’re a day one launch on the Vision Pro, having been working in spatial for the past two and a half years. We create VR concerts — we’re shooting the biggest musicians in the world on stereo video and putting them in fully-immersible CG environments and giving users and fans the closest performance they will ever get. The artists are photo-real, performing to you in the most insane CG-driven world imaginable. There’s interactive moments. And over the past two and a half years we’ve been building the VR concert, which is typically four songs from an artist and an interlude in the middle, and it plays out a bit like a standard concert, but it’s 3D, the user is fully in the world with the artist, and it’s the closest performance you’ll ever get in your life. When they’re performing, they’re looking at you and they’re speaking to you.
How long have you been working on this?
I’ve been working with AmazeVR for two and a half years. We started with the HottieVerse with Megan Thee Stallion, which was our launch. We partnered with AMC and we took her show on the road to movie theaters, and fans could get a taste of the future and buy tickets. We played 12 different cities, it sold out at most locations, and then from there we grew. We’ve done five shows since, and we’ve been working on the technology, bringing the budget down. The Megan Thee Stallion project was about a year-long life cycle from creation to premiering, and since then we’ve done shows in two-month life cycles.
What was your experience like working on the Megan project, and what did you learn from it?
I think the big learning lesson was that the market was just not at the point it is right now. We’re at a real precipice with the Vision Pro launch. At the time Megan came out, which was two years ago, we had to come to the fans, we had to create a space in which fans could go to a movie theater, and oftentimes — and this was the blessing of that show — for a lot of people, their first time trying VR was with our experience, because they were fans of Megan and they had this unique chance to do something different within VR. But now we’re at a point where Meta headset sales have been growing exponentially since, and now Apple has entered the ring, and since then we’ve been hyper-focused on launching our own app, so we have our own app on Meta and now on Vision Pro. So we’re now kind of ahead of the game because we’ve been shooting spatial content and building these worlds for what people want to see in VR for over two years.
You guys also have a partnership with K-pop company SM Entertainment, right?
The founders of our company are Korean, they’re engineering geniuses, and they’ve been working in VR for nearly a decade. So we have deep ties in the K-pop industry and have a partnership with SM. And the first show we launched with was aespa; similarly, we did a theatrical run in South Korea, which did really well, and our second show [with] Kai just happened through SM [and will be out in South Korea Feb. 14]. And we’re going to continue to expand and grow in the K-pop market, especially in the theatrical market because fans are very hungry and eager there for this kind of content.
You also have a new project with Avenged Sevenfold coming out later this month. What can you tell me about that?
Avenged Sevenfold is definitely our most dynamic and trippy, incredible show to date. What sets it apart is that we were able to shoot all five members of the band truly live performing. We took their entire touring team, their back line, and they were on the stage with us and we did a full recording of them performing live on a sound stage, which to my knowledge has not been done in spatial, 3D video. We’re really excited because it’s really putting the musicianship at the forefront. Brian [Synster Gates] and Zackey [Vengeance] playing guitar, you’re seeing every note they play, you’re seeing the vocal performance, and it’s what makes spatial video so special — it gives the user permission to look wherever they want. So you can really focus on the drum fills, you can really see that particular guitar solo, and it’s really bringing that performance element and the musicianship back to the forefront with this show.
What are some of the complications that still need to be worked out with music and this technology?
It’s more just getting the word out and getting people on board. The artists that we’ve worked with — from T-Pain, who is heavily involved in Twitch and the digital world; Zara Larsson, who had a huge Roblox show; and Avenged Sevenfold, who are very involved in crypto and NFTs and Web3 — it’s taken these kinds of artists to invest in us and understand and want to be at the frontier of this. But now that we’ve entered a world where Apple is in the game, I think it’s going to be a lot easier for artists to understand what we’re trying to make, and also we’ve had to do a version of every genre of music to then show to artists for them to see how it applies to them. It was hard for us to take a Megan Thee Stallion show to rock acts and say, “We want to do this for you.” It’s really taken us to fulfill every genre and what that VR concert would look like. But now we’ve done pop, K-pop, hip-hop and now rock; I think it’s going to be a lot easier for bigger artists to see how this applies to them.
Where do you see it going from here?
What’s most exciting with the Apple launch is that it’s not only a viewer, it’s a creative tool. There’s cameras built into it, it’s gonna be a lot easier to be social with this headset, and for users to create this content. I really see this as a new medium, a new genre. For years, especially in the music space, music videos have been a dying art; they’re becoming less and less popular, and a lot more visual focus has been on TikTok. I see this as a new ceiling for creativity and a new bar for fans to invest in and get closer to their favorite artists.