International
Page: 24
Nile Rodgers, who co-founded Chic and produced hits for a wide variety of artists, including Diana Ross, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Sister Sledge and Madonna, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Finnish-born composer and conductor whose long list of accomplishments include leading symphonies in Los Angeles and San Francisco, have been named the Laureates for the 2024 Polar Music Prize. Both will be honored in the presence of the Swedish Royal Family at a ceremony and banquet on May 21 at Stockholm’s Grand Hotel.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The prestigious Polar Music Prize was created by Stig “Stikkan” Anderson, famed Swedish writer/producer/label owner/publisher and manager of ABBA, and first presented in 1992. This year’s Laureates, who will be in attendance, will each receive a cash prize of one million Swedish kronor (approx. $96,700 U.S.).
Trending on Billboard
Rodgers first came to prominence as co-founder (with Bernard Edwards) of Chic, the band that made its Billboard Hot 100 debut in 1977 with “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)” and netted two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s, “Le Freak” and the oft-sampled “Good Times.”
Salonen, born in Finland, has enjoyed global success. He is currently the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and was previously the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Rodgers and Salonen both have numerous connections to Sweden. Rodgers remembers a conversation he had with Prince about the Scandinavian country. “He told me he wanted to move to Sweden because there were so many beautiful girls who drive BMWs,” Rodgers tells Billboard exclusively. “And Chic was the last band to record in the Polar Music studio. They had already closed the studio for good but re-opened it for us.” The Polar Music studio was originally owned by Stig Anderson and is where ABBA recorded many of their hits. Also, Rodgers worked with and was a mentor to Avicii, after they met following the famed DJ’s appearance at Radio City Music Hall in New York in 2012.
Growing up in neighboring Finland, Salonen first traveled to Sweden as a child, on the overnight ferry from Helsinki. “I’ll never forget my first time in Stockholm. My parents took me to a pizzeria. There were no pizzerias in Finland at the time, at least to my knowledge,” Salonen tells Billboard. “I was taken with the sheer beauty of the city. It’s one of the most gorgeous cities, partly because it’s built on a set of islands and there are also beautiful buildings.”
As an adult, Salonen lived in Stockholm for 10 years. When he returns for the Polar Music Prize ceremony and banquet in May, it will not be the first time he will be receiving a prize from the hands of King Carl XVI Gustaf. “I attended the Polar Music Prize dinner in 1996. The Laureates were Pierre Boulez and Joni Mitchell. The next day I received a medal awarded to me when I was stepping down as the chief conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The King gave me the medal and he commented on the tempo that I had chosen the night before for a performance of an overture by Wilhelm Stenhammar called ‘Excelsior!’ The King said to me, ‘You took that piece at quite a lick, didn’t you?’ I told him he was absolutely right. It was perhaps faster than usual. He was very happy. He turned to his aide and said, ‘I told you, didn’t I?’ So that’s a very fond memory. Somehow these things are mysteriously intertwined.”
“In Nile Rodgers, we honor a groundbreaking pioneer whose legacy spans his work as co-founder of Chic and as record producer and creator behind so much of the world’s greatest music,” says Marie Ledin, managing director of the Polar Music Prize. “Nile’s impact in pop culture is incomparable and his timeless songs will continue to delight, uplift and inspire for many years to come.”
Of Salonen, Ledin says that he “is an innovator. His artistic curiosity, creativity and forward-thinking approach to composing and conducting paves the way in classical music. He is a master of tone, perfectly balancing sound and emotion to produce and lead music that deeply moves the listener.”
Rodgers and Salonen join a long list of Laureates that includes Elton John, Ravi Shankar, Metallica, Ennio Morricone, Led Zeppelin, Renée Fleming, Paul McCartney, Grandmaster Flash, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Isaac Stern, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Sonny Rollins, Diane Warren, Gilberto Gil, B.B. King, Emmylou Harris, Yo-Yo Ma, Miriam Makeba, Björk, Wayne Shorter, Patti Smith, Dizzy Gillespie, Chris Blackwell, Iggy Pop, Angélique Kidjo, the Kronos Quartet, Youssou N’Dour and Chuck Berry.
For the first time, Billboard is expanding its peer-voted Power Players’ Choice Award globally, asking music industry members from all sectors across the world to honor the international executive they believe had the most impact across the business in the past year. Voting is now open to all Billboard Pro members, both existing and new, […]
After excitedly booking her showcase at next week’s South by Southwest music festival, Zoë Mead, the British shoegaze artist known as Wyldest, tried to land other U.S. club and festival gigs to offset her already-high travel expenses.
To do all this legally, she learned, required getting a temporary work visa costing $460 plus another $2,800 for faster processing. Hiring a lawyer or immigration specialist to file the application would have added another thousand dollars minimum to the bill. “It’s just too risky,” she says. “You have to reject a hell of a lot of things, which is really frustrating.”
And beginning April 1, immigration and visa entry costs for international artists playing festivals, concerts or label events in the U.S. are set to rise even higher.
Trending on Billboard
The fees for filing “O” and “P” visa petitions — the former covers “individuals who possess extraordinary ability,” the latter “internationally renowned performing groups” and music ensembles of up to 25 people — will increase from $460 to maximum costs of $1,655 and $1,615, respectively. That price includes a $600 Asylum Program Fee, which the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will use to offset the costs of adjudicating cases of immigrants seeking asylum from persecution and violence — a process unrelated to the music business.
There are, however, reduced rates for visa applications backed by a promoter, agency, festival or record company (the so-called petitioner) with less than 25 full-time employees. For those companies, the new fee is capped at $830 (including a $300 asylum levy). For non-profit petitioners, the total fee is capped at $530. (Crews and traveling production staff also require either an appropriate O or P visa to work in the U.S., while artists invited to perform at official showcase events like SXSW, such as Mead, maybe able to enter the U.S. using an ESTA/Visa Waiver, which costs $21).
USCIS representatives say the increased fees will cover rising business costs and reduce processing backlogs. They also contend the pricing surge will not affect musicians because promoters, club owners and labels will be paying the fees.
It’s cold comfort for international acts — especially those starting their live careers — who fear those costs will ultimately be passed on to them, making it too expensive for all but established artists to play U.S. dates. “It’s going to have a chilling effect,” says Rita Sostrin, a Los Angeles-based immigration attorney who represents many international acts. “I’m certainly hearing a lot of displeasure from my clients for these higher fees.”
The fear among international artists, especially those at the start of their live careers, is that the extra costs will ultimately be passed onto them, making it too expensive for all but established international acts to play American concert venues and festivals. “That burden of applying for and paying for the visas is shared across the artists, managers, promoters and venues,” says Neeta Ragoowanski, president of the Music Managers Forum U.S., which opposes the fee increases. “It’s going to affect artists’ decisions on how these tours go,” she says.
Last year, USCIS temporarily paused its plans to increase fees following strong opposition from artist and music-industry advocacy groups such as the National Independent Venue Association and UK Music.
The new fees being introduced April 1 are nominally lower than the non-tiered rises first proposed by USCIS, but still represent “a significant extra burden for touring U.K. bands and artists, particularly for emerging acts that operate on the tightest of margins,” says UK Music interim chief executive Tom Kiehl.
Those margins are being squeezed tighter by the majority of international artists needing to pay out for “premium” visa processing, says Andy Corrigan, owner of U.K.-based Viva La Visa, which specializes in immigration services for music acts and has recently work on U.S. touring arrangement for The Damned and former Spice Girl Melanie C. Premium processing fees rose in February from $2,500 to $2,805 with the time for processing applications increasing from 15 calendar days to 15 business days.
“Almost every band that we deal with has to use premium because the standard processing is so uncertain,” he says. “The whole system is loaded against new and emerging artists. It’s grossly unfair.”
Corrigan says he has lowered his company’s visa fees following the price rises “to try and mitigate the increase in costs for everybody,” but fears that some artists will be tempted to enter the U.S. illegally, without the proper visa documentation in place, as a result of the extra financial burden being placed on them.
“People have got to take a longer-term view and recognize the value of cultural exchange and music, and not just think that they can squeeze every dollar out of the sector,” says Jon Collins, chief executive of U.K. industry trade group LIVE. He calls USCIS’s January sudden announcement of the rise in visa fees – following a period of consultation – a “fait accompli” that will have a detrimental impact on the health of the U.K. and U.S. grass roots music industry.
“It just feels like you’re constantly being slapped in the face,” says Mead, who had to turn down an invitation to play a pre-SXSW festival, New Colossus, in New York next month. “It was already expensive, and they put it up even more, and it’s like, ‘how?’”
The beloved Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, a vital annual event in the comedy world, has canceled its 2024 edition and laid off about 70% of its staff.
The festival’s managing body, Groupe Juste pour rire inc. (JPR), is facing financial hardships and has sought legal measures to avoid bankruptcy. JPR said the decision is aimed at finding new investors or potential buyers to keep the festival afloat. The challenges leading to this point include the economic strain from the pandemic and other industry hurdles, including rising costs and media mergers. Despite the tough times, organizers hope to come back stronger in 2025.
“The decision to initiate restructuring proceedings was reached after thorough consideration of all options available to the company,” a news release states, “taking into account its very difficult financial situation given the significant changes in our business landscape in recent years.” – Rosie Long Decter
Trending on Billboard
Billboard Women In Music Expands to Canada in 2024
This June, Billboard Women In Music is expanding to Canada, shining a light on the influential women and gender-diverse talents who are shaping the nation’s music scene. With this expansion, Billboard Canada aims to honor those making significant strides across the industry, from production to live performances.
The music community is invited to participate, with nominations now open. It offers a platform to recognize and celebrate the outstanding contributions of individuals in the Canadian music industry while fostering a more inclusive and diverse musical landscape.
Canadian executive Golnar Khosrowshahi, the founder/CEO of Reservoir Media, one of the biggest independent music companies in the world, is an Executive of the Year hall of famer. This year, she offered this piece of advice: “Pivot to a path that allows for growth equally across your professional and personal lives. You should not have to compromise, but rather be empowered to find the route that allows for the multitudes present in you.” – Richard Trapunski
Music Canada’s Game-Changing Update: Video Streams Now Count Toward Gold and Platinum Certifications
Earlier this week, Toronto-based Music Canada announced a significant update to its Gold/Platinum Program for Single Awards: It will now incorporate official video streams into the certification calculations.
The change celebrates the evolving ways fans engage with music, particularly through video. With this update, video streams from platforms like YouTube, Vevo and Apple Music from Jan. 1, 2020, onwards will contribute to the criteria for Gold, Platinum and Diamond certifications, ensuring that artists who engage fans through music videos receive recognition toward certifications. – David Farrell
If bosses at the world’s biggest technology companies were still in any way doubting the European Union’s commitment towards regulating the digital marketplace, the 1.8 billion euro ($1.95 billion) fine levied against Apple on Monday (March 4) by the European Commission for breaking competition laws over music streaming served as a powerful statement of intent.
This week, more new EU rules come into force governing how the largest online platforms operate in Europe, now that the deadline for complying with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) has passed.
Beginning today (March 7), the six tech giants designated “gatekeepers” by the European Commission — Apple, Google parent company Alphabet, Amazon, TikTok-owner ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft – are required to comply with a raft of legislative changes designed to rein in their global dominance.
Trending on Billboard
They include outlawing companies favoring in-house services at the expense of third-party providers and forcing platforms to offer other businesses, such as apps, access to the data they generate – allowing smaller services to contact their customers directly and making it easier for users to switch services.
The laws are enforceable by fines of up to 20% of total worldwide turnover (aka, gross revenue) for repeat infringers, or, in extreme cases the “last resort option” of forced divestments and the break-up of businesses.
THIS IS FINE
The changes are already having a significant impact on digital music services and, in turn, the global record business.
In January, Apple announced that it will begin allowing European users to download app stores other than the company-operated one that comes installed on iPhones. It will additionally lower the fees it charges developers for purchases made through the App Store, reducing commission from the existing 15% to 30% level to between 10% and 17% for developers using the company’s payment-processing system.
However, Apple’s plans to charge “high volume” services with over one million users a €0.50 ($0.54) “Core Technology Fee” per download, per year, for using alternatives to the App Store has been heavily criticized by a number of European businesses, including Spotify and Deezer.
“Apple’s new terms not only disregard both the spirit and letter of the law, but if left unchanged, make a mockery of the DMA,” said the streaming services in an open letter to the European Commission, sent last week and also signed by 32 other European digital companies and associations, including trade body Digital Music Europe.
The new fee structure, which only apply in the 27 EU member states, will deter app developers from opting into the revised terms “and will hamper fair competition,” say Spotify and Deezer, calling on regulators to take “swift, timely and decisive action against Apple.” (In January, Spotify stated in a company blog post that the new fees “equates for us to being the same or worse as under the old rules.”)
Similar anti-competition concerns were behind the European Commission’s decision to fine Apple 1.8 billion euros at the start of March, following longstanding complaints from Spotify over Apple’s restrictions to outside developers and the 30% fee it charges them on all purchases made through iOS apps. (Apple has said it will appeal the fine, which was issued under existing EU terms, rather the Digital Markets Act).
Defending its response to the new EU provisions, Apple estimates that less than 1% of developers will pay the Core Technology Fee and warned that the DMA brings greater risks to users and developers by compromising its ability to detect malware, fraud and illicit content in external apps.
NOT JUST APPLE
Other so-called gatekeepers – defined by policy makers as a platform with an annual turnover of more than 7.5 billion euros ($8.1 billion) and more than 45 million active monthly users in the EU region — are also making sweeping changes as a result of the DMA.
Aside from Apple, music executives will be paying most attention to how ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok responds to the law’s provisions. In November, the company launched an appeal against the EU’s classification of TikTok as a “gatekeeper” arguing that the platform is a “challenger, not an incumbent, in the digital advertising market” and that the new rules could hamper its ability to “remain competitive and grow.”
Despite the ongoing legal challenge, TikTok has already taken a number of steps to comply with the terms of the DMA, including the launch of enhanced data portability tools that allow developers to download and export data profiles, followers and posts from TikTok to other services with users’ permission. These changes are being introduced now to European users, TikTok announced in a blog post on March 4, “with plans to roll out globally in the near future.”
In January, Google and YouTube parent company Alphabet announced that it will allow users to pick their default browser and provide more links to competing sites when searching Google – although, like Apple, Alphabet’s compliance with the DMA has been questioned.
Posting on X (formerly Twitter) this month, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney criticized the tech giant for imposing a commission fee of up to 27% for any app purchases made not using Google’s payment services. (Google/Alphabet has previously been issued three major fines totaling 8.2 billion euros by the EU over antitrust issues).
Meanwhile, Meta is allowing users to separate their Facebook and Instagram accounts to prevent personal information being shared for targeted ads. Amazon is modifying its Amazon Ads service to provide stronger data protections for customers, and Microsoft is implementing changes to its Windows operating system.
The terms of the Digital Markets Act only apply to companies and services operating in the 27-member state EU block, but their impact extends far afield. Following the EU’s lead, similar regulations to rein in tech companies’ dominance are being drawn up in several other nations, including Japan, South Korea, India, Brazil, Australia and the United Kingdom.
What meaningful impact the DMA or comparable international legislation will actually have on curbing Big Tech — and the music companies that either drive or rely upon them to reach audiences — could take years to be felt, if at all, but EU regulators say they are not shying away from the challenge.
“We are looking very carefully at how companies are complying [with the DMA]” the European Commission recently said in a statement, “and once we have full enforcement powers will not hesitate to act.”
One of the most remarkable parts of the recent Milano Fashion Week was Missoni’s tribute to its iconic striped style and creative history, which the Italian brand has carried forward with courage and innovation over the decades. That began in 1958 when Ottavio and Rosita Missoni created a provocative fitting at the Rinascente mall in Milan, covering the eyes of the mannequins with colored, striped scarves.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
It is from a harsh comment of that time (“Poor girls, luckily they are blindfolded — if they could see themselves”), that the fashion show of Missoni (“those of the stripes”) began. The models paraded on the catwalk, with the stripes moving in rhythm and appearing to expand on the clothes, dancing from head to toe, contracting and then slowing down.
The purpose is clear, the stripes help to understand it: everything is matched rather than mixed. To underline the models’ steps, Filippo Grazioli, creative director of Missoni, decided to have one long music track specially created by producer Andrea Mangia (aka Populous). Billboard Italy, Missoni’s music consultant and media partner for the show, sat down with Grazioli a few hours before the opening.
Trending on Billboard
Why did you call this new collection “The Ones of the Stripes”?
Since I arrived at Missoni almost three years ago, I have faced many challenges, both personal and professional. One of the main ones was to fully understand the essence of the brand and make it evolve. I spent a lot of time immersing myself in the archives of the historic Missoni headquarters in Sumirago and establishing a strong connection with the legacy of the company, which is a continuous source of inspiration. Working with such an iconic brand also means balancing respect for its history and the desire for innovation and change. In an unstable context like the one we live in, I wanted fashion to maintain a sense of fun – especially in the case of Missoni’s style, which is very colorful. My idea for the FW 24/25 women’s collection was to pick up Missoni’s old striped style and reinterpret it in a contemporary way.
What innovations do you think you have brought in these three years? On what principles was the concept of this collection formed?
My goal was to bring modernity, contemporaneity, desire, femininity and lightness to fabrics and graphics. In creating the collection, I tried to express a concept of freedom and femininity, playing with a contrast between masculine and feminine with silhouettes that mark the body and lengthen it and strong volumes that envelop it. To me, Missoni represents a style of “bien vivre,” in harmony with the values of “Made in Italy.” I am convinced that Missoni’s code suits many women well, offering a variety of styles that allow each to find their own unique expression.
You have a great passion for music. Who are the Italian singers who fascinate you and stimulate you the most for your work?
I have always wanted to link my work to the Italian and international music scene. Having lived in France for many years, I didn’t know Italian music that much, but when I returned to Italy, I immediately started working with Lazza, Elodie and Mara Sattei on their projects for Sanremo 2023, and then on those of Rose Villain, Emma and Negramaro for Sanremo 2024. The unique aspect of music is that it is borderless. As Missoni, our projects have opened up internationally, with Sabrina Carpenter, Beyoncé, Rita Ora and Suki Waterhouse.
How important is music for the success of a fashion show?
It is essential for its success. Music is the part that creates emotions. It must integrate perfectly with the collection, in order to convey a consistent message. Lou Reed is often my starting point. His songs always inspire me in so many different ways.
It was precisely by talking about “Walk on the Wild Side” that your creative interaction with Populous began. What did you find special about working with him?
He is a very inspirational professional. It was nice to talk to a creative mind who interpreted in music what I wanted to convey in the show. The exciting aspect was that it was the first time he wrote music for a fashion show, and he was excited. Having this type of exchange between creatives is essential.
Have you chosen an Italian artist to underline the sense of “Made in Italy” or do you not preclude collaborations with international artists?
I think it is essential to value Italian artists. We wondered whether to have an Italian voice in the show’s music precisely to emphasize the Italian identity, then we opted for lyrics in English to be able to reach the entire audience. But I don’t preclude myself from collaborating with international artists in the future.
John Richmond is a product of the British resourcefulness that has not stopped leaving its mark on fashion and music since the post-war period. An internationally renowned fashion designer, the fashion press associates him with rock n’ roll and punk, but with his works he embraces all the British musical genres that have influenced the rest of the world.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
He arrived in Italy in the early ’80s after earning a degree in Fashion Design at London’s Kensington University, and collaborated with brands that, in those years, were anticipating trends: Armani and Fiorucci. English individualism, which he himself talks about in the interview, is probably the reason why in 1987 he created the brand that bears his name.
He has a style that still influences international fashion today, thanks to his now iconic jeans model with the writing “RICH.” In the early 2000s, logo mania swept through many other brands.
Trending on Billboard
John Richmond, however, is not just fashion. Artists who perform with his clothes have included Madonna, George Michael, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Annie Lennox, Axl Rose, Bryan Adams, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and many others.
What is the song that most represented your youth?
It’s still one of my favorite songs of all time: “Life on Mars?” by David Bowie.
What musical memories do you have from your adolescence?
If you grew up in the early ’70s you can only have fond memories. We went dancing in teenage discos where Northern Soul reigned, a fantastic genre popular in the north of England. In particular, I used to go to the Wigan Casino, a renowned venue at the time. It was all a combination of things: music, clothing, appearance, style, attitude. A poor country can give you opportunities: in those years the youth were very disillusioned. Since then, all the things I’m interested in are driven by music. I grew up in Manchester, a very post-industrial, depressing place, but the great thing was we had some amazing clubs and a great music scene. After punk came new wave and then the New Romantic movement. There were artists for whom style, appearance, clothes were really important. Everyone knows Bowie’s songs, but they also know everything about his style: clothes, hairstyles, accessories, makeup. Bowie wasn’t just a singer: he embodied a powerful style.
Why has the United Kingdom, which sometimes appears to be such a detached country, been able to strongly influence the world of style, also in music?
First of all, we are able to laugh at ourselves, and that’s important. Then we live on an island, so we are completely isolated. When you have nothing else, you are forced to be creative. There were a lot of young people who didn’t have many opportunities. I think they were courageous, because they found within themselves the strength to move forward, not to remain isolated. If I look at other countries, there are great leaders in various sectors and people follow that one model, as if they don’t want to dare. In Italy, for example, there is a well-defined style. In England, if I see someone doing something in a certain way, I will do everything I can to do it better, certainly to do it my way: we English have an attitude for individuality.
As an expert in both sectors, what is the relationship between music and fashion?
I summarize it in one of my slogans: “Punk is an attitude, not a trend.” Punk is now much better known as a fashion style than for music. Punk music didn’t last long, but it never stopped permeating fashion. It came to life in the years when the fashion press was starting to become important. People who knew music well worked there. It was therefore easy to find mutual contamination in those pages. London was the site of these changes. I think of Terry Jones who, with Face and then i-D, was one of the most famous and innovative editors-in-chief. At the end of the ’80s music videos arrived, which had the same impact on the audience that TikTok has today. There was no artist who didn’t accompany his or her songs with a music video. We can therefore imagine the importance of clothes, makeup and hairdressing. In those years, if an artist needed an outfit, he or she would go and get it personally. You didn’t go to artists and say, “Here’s my dress, I’ll pay you to wear it at the Oscars.” Musicians would come to my shop, buy clothes and wear them. I remember funny things: the New Kids on the Block arrived on a small street getting out of a white limousine that couldn’t turn the corner and had to reverse. I worked with people like Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, George Michael. Now we realize that we were lucky protagonists of moments that changed the history of these two sectors: we were in the right place at the right time.
If you had to choose one music artist to best represent you, who would it be?
For me there is no absolute icon. I like to see how my clothes are interpreted by those who buy them. I’d rather think of a style. Rock n’ roll is certainly what has most pervaded my works. But I always want to evolve in line with what music offers: today I look a lot at hip-hop.
When do you listen to music?
Always. I only work with music in the background. I particularly love Gilles Peterson from BBC Radio 6 because he’s always looking for new things. Compared to before, I also changed the listening mode. I used to buy – let’s say – Horses by Patti Smith, come home, lie down in a dark room and listen to it for hours without stopping. Today I prefer to listen to what is offered to me by radio and platforms.
Besides “Life on Mars?”, what are some other songs that you would never delete from your playlist?
I would choose an album, The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. Also, a few weeks ago there was an incredible Brazilian song featured on Gilles Peterson’s show. It is “Vento de Mayo” by Seu Jorge, produced by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. I would add another album: Roxy Music’s debut, that really changed British music. And then the Sex Pistols, who influenced music all over the world.
If you wrote a song, what lines would it start with?
I could make the first line of Patti Smith’s “Gloria” my own: “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.” As a boy who grew up in a Catholic context, attending a Roman Catholic school, these words had a strong impact on me. It was a powerful and liberating realization, taking away that sense of having to carry the sins of others on my shoulders.
At the end of February, TikTok took down every song in which Universal Music Publishing Group owns a share, a complicated step in the escalating showdown between the two companies that started a month earlier during the week before the Grammy Awards.
We are now in uncharted territory: Never before has a major label used the “nuclear option” to withdraw both recorded music and publishing rights from a platform — an especially dramatic step because it includes any song in which UMG owns even a small share. (By Billboard‘s estimates, it affects over 60% of the most popular TikTok songs in the U.S.) What most people don’t know is that these negotiations might perhaps also be affected by a Feb. 9 decision from the Munich Regional Court about the German implementation of the 2019 European Union Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market — the Urheberrechts-Diensteanbieter-Gesetz (UrhDaG). It will certainly shape future negotiations like this.
The case involved the Berlin-based film distributor Nikita Ventures, which operates YouTube channels and, coincidentally, TikTok. And although it wasn’t covered much by English-language press, it shows that negotiating leverage is gradually shifting from platforms to rights holders. “This verdict,” Matthias Lausen, a founding partner of the Lausen law firm, who represented Nikita told me, “shows that there is no safe harbor in Europe anymore for platforms.”
Trending on Billboard
In the case, Nikita said that it offered to license its content to TikTok in early 2022, at a cost of three euros per thousand views, an amount based on a published rate from GEMA, the German collecting society. (Licensees often seem to pay less than this.) By summer, TikTok had not responded with a counteroffer, and Nikita said that the content it had asked TikTok to block was available until August. TikTok said in court that it was still negotiating, that its filtering system is compliant with the law and that it responded to takedown notices. The court essentially ruled that TikTok didn’t make a best effort to negotiate, though, and held the company liable for infringement, with damages to be determined, plus required it to provide information about how many times the content in question was accessed, as well as its resulting revenue and profit.
Why does this matter? Until now, the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act and laws like it have limited the leverage of rights holders in negotiations. Platforms that make available content uploaded by users have been free to build audiences, and businesses, as long as they have no direct knowledge of infringement and respond promptly to takedown notices filed by copyright holders. This has given platforms what some might call a “Free Ride,” and on a Feb. 28 UMG earnings call chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge said “there must not be free rides for massive global platforms such as TikTok.”
The 2019 European Copyright Directive was intended to address this, and it requires online platforms to make their “best efforts” to license content, as well as block content they haven’t licensed once rights holders have given them the necessary information. But this is the first court decision based on it.
Nothing will change overnight. The scope of this decision is limited, platforms could potentially get around it by better documenting their negotiations with rights holders, and it’s hard to imagine it will have a substantial effect on UMG’s negotiations with TikTok. But it shows that Europe is serious about forcing online platforms to negotiate on an even playing field, which should result in more favorable deals. (Since European countries do not have class-action lawsuits or high statutory damages for copyright infringement, though, this will not lead to a gold rush of litigation.)
Much of that is in the future, and some of these deals will involve platforms that don’t even exist yet. To get a sense of how this might play out, though, imagine a video-based nano-blogging platform that allows schoolchildren to record minute-long covers of pop songs. (I’m making this up, of course, but it’s not the dumbest idea I’ve heard this year.) That platform would have to approach rightsholders about deals early and often, then take serious steps to block the content they ask it to. That means it would have to license content before it got big — not once it’s already too big to fail.
Even now, TikTok needs to make a “best effort” to take down UMG’s publishing catalog. The company took prompt action, so it’s likely to be in the clear there, although it will be interesting to see what happens with recordings that are sped up and slowed down. At a time when songs are sliced and diced by influencers, how elaborate does a best effort have to be? Could we find out in a case that involves this dispute? The odds are against it, but stranger things have happened.
For the past quarter century, rights holders have had a hard time negotiating on an even playing field, which has arguably pushed down the price of content for both online businesses and, through them, for users. That dynamic is changing — slower than rights holders want and faster than platforms prefer — but steadily all the same. It will be hard to measure this, because these big licensing deals by their nature are complicated and intransparent. Finally, though – for good or ill depending on what side you’re
SESAC Music Group today (March 5) announced a deal with the Korean Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (KOSCAP) that calls for KOSCAP to represent SESAC’s repertoire in Korea and for SESAC-owned Audiam to administer KOSCAP’s publishing rights in the U.S.
The deal makes SESAC one of the first big collective management organizations (CMOs) to move its rights out of the established Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) to KOSCAP, a competitor that the government approved in 2014 to increase competition in the market. KOSCAP will represent SESAC’s online and offline performing rights in Korea, and the catalog of the Harry Fox Agency, the SESAC Music Group’s mechanical rights entity, will follow next year.
The Audiam deal calls for that company, which the SESAC Music Group bought in 2021, to collect performing, mechanical and other audiovisual rights in the U.S. on behalf of KOSCAP.
Trending on Billboard
Charles Park
Although this might seem like just another deal in the alphabet soup world of collective rights management, it highlights the growing competition among CMOs – and how that is leading to different kinds of international deals. In October, SESAC made a deal to have its offline performing rights in Italy managed by Soundreef, a private company just over a decade old, instead of the traditional society Italian collecting society, SIAE.
“Why did we switch?” Alex Wolf, president of international of the SESAC Music Group, told Billboard about the KOSCAP deal. “We’re convinced about the competence and the responsiveness of the management and we’re convinced that we will increase our revenues. This is a bet on the future.”
Just a decade ago, only a few markets had competition among CMOs, which didn’t compete with one another across borders. Since 2014, though, when the European Union passed the Directive on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing, European societies have had to compete for online rights in the EU, and many other countries have opened up as well. This has led to competition among established organizations, as well as new companies like Soundreef – both to represent writers and publishers and to make deals with foreign CMOs.
“It’s a great honor to partner with SESAC, a global leader with a world-class catalog and one of the premier Performing Rights Management organizations in the world, along with Audiam’s innovative technology to administer our catalog in the US,” KOSCAP COO Charles Park said in the press release announcing the deal.
London’s O2 Academy Brixton is set to reopen in April, more than a year after two people died and several people were seriously injured during a crowd stampede outside the venue.
Security guard Gaby Hutchinson and Rebecca Ikumelo were killed when fans without tickets tried to force their way into a sold-out concert by Nigerian singer Asake on Dec. 15, 2022.
A 22-year-old woman injured on the night remains in the hospital in critical condition. A police investigation into the incident is ongoing.
The famous South London venue, which has a capacity of just under 5,000 and has previously played host to everyone from David Bowie to Lady Gaga to The Clash, had faced the threat of permanent closure after the Metropolitan Police urged the local council to remove its license in the wake of the crush.
Trending on Billboard
Following a two-day hearing last September, Lambeth Council ruled that the venue would be allowed to host live music events again, but “only once it is compliant” with 77 new safety conditions, including stronger doors, new crowd management systems and new security and management.
During the hearing, much of which was held in private, it was revealed that O2 Academy Brixton owner and operator Academy Music Group (AMG) had spent £1.2 million ($1.5 million) on maintenance and improvements to the building during the period it was closed to the public.
At the time of the council’s decision, the venue’s owner, Academy Music Group (AMG), which runs 18 music venues across the United Kingdom, said it was “committed to ensuring” the tragic events of Dec. 15 “can never be repeated.”
In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday (Mar. 4), the venue announced that it will be reopening Friday, Apr. 19 with performances by tribute bands Nirvana UK and The Smyths, followed a week later by concerts from Definitely Mightbe (an Oasis tribute band) and the UK Foo Fighters.
Upcoming shows by The Black Keys and British indie rock band Editors, both scheduled for May, were also announced Monday.
“This is a significant moment not only for the venue itself but for the entire live music industry,” said Michael Kill, CEO of industry trade group the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), in a statement welcoming the news.
“Brixton Academy holds a special place in the hearts of music lovers, artists, and industry professionals alike,” said Kill, adding: “Its reopening marks a symbolic resurgence of the night-time economy, signalling a return to the vibrant cultural landscape we all enjoy.”
Prior to last year’s council hearing, more than 110,000 people signed an online petition to save the historic venue, which first opened in 1929 as a cinema and began hosting live music gigs in the early 1980s.