International
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More than 1 billion music streams in France — or between 1% and 3% of all streams in the country — were detected to be fraudulent in 2021, according to a report released this week by a French government organization that analyzed data from Spotify, Deezer and Qobuz.
If the report’s number were to hold true for the worldwide music market — which the IFPI valued at $16.9 billion in 2021 — that would mean approximately $170 million to $510 million of streaming royalties are being misallocated globally. This is roughly in line with a 2019 estimate of $300 million lost to streaming fraud cited during Indie Week.
The Centre national de la musique (CNM), an organization created by the French government in 2020 that operates under the Ministry of Culture, found that fraud is widespread in France, the fifth-largest music market, to a sobering degree: “Irregularities are spotted” on both major-label and independent releases, national and international albums, old catalog and fresh new singles alike, the CMN says in its 56-page study. “The methods used by fraudsters are constantly evolving and improving,” it notes, “and fraud seems to be getting easier and easier to commit.”
The genres which had the highest percentage of fraudulent streams detected in the CNM’s report were background music (4.8% on Deezer) and non-musical titles (3.5%). While the raw number of fraudulent streams detected was highest in rap — the most popular genre in France — that represented just 0.4% of overall plays in the genre on Spotify and 0.7% on Deezer.
CNM’s report appears to be the first country-wide investigation of streaming fraud. “We’re happy with the effort by the CNM and the French government as a whole to look into this and take it seriously,” says Morgan Hayduk, founder and co-CEO of Beatdapp, a Canadian company that provides fraud detection software to streaming services, labels, and distributors. “This issue deserves the weight and attention that they gave to it.”
CNM’s report comes with several caveats, however. The organization’s data does not include information from Apple Music, YouTube and Amazon, who declined to share information about fraud on their platforms. According to a recent estimate from MIDiA Research, those three services account for slightly more than 35% of global streaming subscriptions. (MIDiA did not share country-level figures.)
In addition, Hayduk says, the report only looks at country-level data. This means it does not account for VPN usage that allows fraudsters to mask their country of origin.
Bad actors committing streaming fraud often “rotate through multiple countries redirecting traffic constantly,” says Andrew Batey, Beatdapp’s other co-CEO. “It’s not uncommon when we find fraud cases to see 15 devices spreading plays across 30 countries.” To catch that, he says, “you need a global view.”
Fraudulent streams, once defined by former Napster executive Angel Gambino as “anything which isn’t fans listening to music they love,” have become a major topic of music industry concern in Germany, France and Brazil. That’s because undetected fraudulent streams can impact market share calculations and divert money from honest artists.
The countries have taken different approaches to combat this fraud. The IFPI led a legal effort to shut down German websites that offered streams for cash starting in 2020. The organization made the case that manipulating play counts allows artists to create a false impression of popularity, ultimately misleading consumers and violating Germany’s Unfair Competition act.
In Brazil, law enforcement worked in conjunction with Pro-Música, IFPI’s Brazilian affiliate, to shut down 84 stream-boosting sites in the country in 2021. Prosecutors there argued that sites that offered fraudulent streams were violating Brazil’s Consumer Defense Code and treated the activity as a criminal act.
Brazil’s coordinated effort — dubbed Operation Anti-Doping — determined that the fraudulent streams were actually being generated outside of Brazil, illustrating the limitations of a single-country approach to fraud reduction. “No company in Brazil has the technology to make these fake streams,” Paulo Rosa, Pro-Música’s president, told Billboard in 2021. “This technology comes from websites hosted in Russia.”
The U.S. industry has historically appeared less bothered by streaming fraud — or at least less willing to acknowledge its existence publicly, with executives and streaming services reluctant to discuss the subject. This may be starting to shift, however. At a Music Biz panel in May, SoundCloud vp of strategy Michael Pelczynski noted that the current streaming ecosystem is rife with “very prevalent fraud and abuse,” and that this activity has “cultural ramifications.” When undetected fraudulent streams “start influencing the way we measure the success of music, we are literally supporting inauthenticity,” Pelczynski said.
The CNM appeared heartened by the fact that, since the summer of 2021, it has seen “the growing mobilization of platforms, distributors and producers” worried about fraud, resulting in the creation of “dedicated teams” and the outlay of increased resources to battle “manipulation.”
But there remain several key challenges when attempting to tackle fraud. The lack of transparency from some streaming platforms, and the inability to push toward assembling a comprehensive global data set, means that the scale of the problem is still unknown.
What’s more, as the CNM points out, it’s nearly impossible to punish those engaged in fraud because they are rarely identified. The penultimate section of the report lays out potential legal remedies that could be used to fight fake streams in France — if authorities were able to prove that bad actors violated laws related to illegal hacking or unfair business practices. They include fines of up to 300,000 euros ($324,000) and prison sentences of up to five years for perpetrators.
The CNM pledged to release a follow-up report in 2024.
All Quiet on the Western Front leads this year’s BAFTA nominations with 14 nods, which puts it in a tie with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) as the most-nominated non-English language film in BAFTA history.
The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All at Once are tied for second place in overall nominations this year with 10 nods.
All three of these films are nominated for best original score. Volker Bertelmann scored All Quiet on the Western Front; Carter Burwell scored The Banshees of Inisherin and Son Lux scored Everything Everywhere All at Once.
The other nominees for original score are Babylon (Justin Hurwitz) and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (Alexandre Desplat).
All five of these scores were among the 15 scores shortlisted for Oscars on Dec. 21. Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday Jan. 24.
Desplat is a three-time winner for original score at the BAFTA Awards — for The King’s Speech (2010), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and The Shape of Water (2017). Only two other composers have won three or more awards in this category in the history of the BAFTAs. John Williams leads with seven wins, followed by Ennio Morricone with six. Hurwitz won in this category at the BAFTAs six years ago for La La Land.
Bertelmann referenced All Quiet’s strong showing in a statement: “I am deeply honored to be nominated for a BAFTA, especially in connection with such a well-crafted and meaningful film. The collaboration with [director] Edward Berger gave me the freedom to work on a score without compromise. I am very thankful for that. Congrats to Edward, the producers and the entire team on their 14 nominations.”
In a statement, Son Lux, the composer of Everything Everywhere All at Once, said: “Our heads are spinning and our hearts are full. Thanks to BAFTA for this honor, to Daniels [directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert] for their boundless vision and trust, and to each and every member of the EEAAO [Everything Everywhere All at Once] family for inspiring us beyond words.”
The BAFTAs do not have a best original song category.
In other nominations of interest to the music community, Austin Butler was nominated for leading actor for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in Elvis, and Brett Morgan’s David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream is up for documentary.
These are the first BAFTA nominations for Butler, Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin), Brendan Fraser (The Whale) and Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once), among others.
Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical family drama The Fabelmans received just one BAFTA nomination, for original screenplay – on which Spielberg collaborated with Tony Kushner. Sarah Polley’s Women Talking was shut out entirely.
In the best director category, four of the six nominated directors are first-time nominees in that category: Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King); Todd Field (Tár), Kwan and Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once) and Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front).
Actors Hayley Atwell and Toheeb Jimoh announced this year’s BAFTA nominations via a live broadcast from BAFTA’s London headquarters on Thursday (Jan. 19). This year’s awards will be presented at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, Feb. 19.
Here’s the complete list of BAFTA Award nominations.
Original score
All Quiet on the Western Front – Volker Bertelmann
Babylon – Justin Hurwitz
The Banshees of Inisherin – Carter Burwell
Everything Everywhere All at Once – Son Lux
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio – Alexandre Desplat
Best film
All Quiet on the Western Front – Malte Grunert
The Banshees Of Inisherin – Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin Mcdonagh
Elvis – Gail Berman, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Patrick Mccormick, Schuyler Weiss
Everything Everywhere All at Once – Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang
Tár – Todd Field, Scott Lambert, Alexandra Milchan
Leading actress
Cate Blanchett – Tár
Viola Davis – The Woman King
Danielle Deadwyler – Till
Ana De Armas – Blonde
Emma Thompson – Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Leading actor
Austin Butler – Elvis
Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser – The Whale
Daryl Mccormack – Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Paul Mescal – Aftersun
Bill Nighy – Living
Supporting actress
Angela Bassett – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Hong Chau – The Whale
Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin
Dolly De Leon – Triangle of Sadness
Jamie Lee Curtis – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Carey Mulligan – She Said
Supporting actor
Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin
Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin
Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Eddie Redmayne – The Good Nurse
Albrecht Schuch – All Quiet on the Western Front
Micheal Ward – Empire of Light
Director
All Quiet on the Western Front – Edward Berger
The Banshees of Inisherin – Martin Mcdonagh
Decision to Leave – Park Chan-wook
Everything Everywhere All at Once – Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Tár – Todd Field
The Woman King – Gina Prince-bythewood
Original screenplay
The Banshees of Inisherin – Martin Mcdonagh
Everything Everywhere All at Once – Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
The Fabelmans – Tony Kushner, Steven Spielberg
Tár – Todd Field
Triangle of Sadness – Ruben Östlund
Adapted screenplay
All Quiet on the Western Front – Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell
Living – Kazuo Ishiguro
The Quiet Girl – Colm Bairéad
She Said – Rebecca Lenkiewicz
The Whale – Samuel D. Hunter
Film not in the English language
All Quiet on the Western Front – Edward Berger, Malte Grunert
Argentina, 1985 – Santiago Mitre, Producer(S) Tbc
Corsage – Marie Kreutzer
Decision to Leave – Park Chan-wook, Ko Dae-seok
The Quiet Girl – Colm Bairéad, Cleona Ní Chrualaoí
Documentary
All That Breathes – Shaunak Sen, Teddy Leifer, Aman Mann
All The Beauty and the Bloodshed – Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, Nan Goldin, Yoni Golijov, John Lyons
Fire of Love – Sara Dosa, Shane Boris, Ina Fichman
Moonage Daydream – Brett Morgan
Navalny – Daniel Roher, Diane Becker, Shane Boris, Melanie Miller, Odessa Rae
Animated film
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio – Guillermo Del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar, Alex Bulkley
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On – Dean Fleisher Camp, Andrew Goldman, Elisabeth Holm, Caroline Kaplan, Paul Mezey
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish – Joel Crawford, Mark Swift
Turning Red – Domee Shi, Lindsey Collins
Casting
Aftersun – Lucy Pardee
All Quiet on the Western Front – Simone Bär
Elvis – Nikki Barrett, Denise Chamian
Everything Everywhere All at Once – Sarah Halley Finn
Triangle Of Sadness – Pauline Hansson
Cinematography
All Quiet on the Western Front – James Friend
The Batman – Greig Fraser
Elvis – Mandy Walker
Empire of Light – Roger Deakins
Top Gun: Maverick – Claudio Miranda
Editing
All Quiet on the Western Front – Sven Budelmann
The Banshees of Inisherin – Mikkel E. G. Nielsen
Elvis – Jonathan Redmond, Matt Villa
Everything Everywhere All at Once – Paul Rogers
Top Gun: Maverick – Eddie Hamilton
Production design
All Quiet on the Western Front – Christian M. Goldbeck, Ernestine Hipper
Babylon – Florencia Martin, Anthony Carlino
The Batman – James Chinlund, Lee Sandales
Elvis – Catherine Martin, Karen Murphy, Bev Dunn
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio – Curt Enderle, Guy Davis
Costume design
All Quiet on the Western Front – Lisy Christl
Amsterdam – J.R. Hawbaker, Albert Wolsky
Babylon – Mary Zophres
Elvis – Catherine Martin
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris – Jenny Beavan
Make up & hair
All Quiet on the Western Front – Heike Merker
The Batman – Naomi Donne, Mike Marino, Zoe Tahir
Elvis – Jason Baird, Mark Coulier, Louise Coulston, Shane Thomas
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical – Naomi Donne, Barrie Gower, Sharon Martin
The Whale – Anne Marie Bradley, Judy Chin, Adrien Morot
Sound
All Quiet on the Western Front – Lars Ginzsel, Frank Kruse, Viktor Prášil, Markus Stemler
Avatar: The Way of Water – Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Julian Howarth, Gary Summers, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
Elvis – Michael Keller, David Lee, Andy Nelson, Wayne Pashley
Tár – Deb Adair, Stephen Griffiths, Andy Shelley, Steve Single, Roland Winke
Top Gun: Maverick – Chris Burdon, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Mark Taylor, Mark Weingarten
Special visual effects
All Quiet on the Western Front – Markus Frank, Kamil Jafar, Viktor Müller, Frank Petzoid
Avatar: The Way of Water – Richard Baneham, Daniel Barrett, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon
The Batman – Russell Earl, Dan Lemmon, Anders Langlands, Dominic Tuohy
Everything Everywhere All at Once – Benjamin Brewer, Ethan Feldbau, Jonathan Kombrinck, Zak Stoltz
Top Gun: Maverick – Seth Hill, Scott R. Fisher, Bryan Litson, Ryan Tudhope
Outstanding British film
Aftersun – Charlotte Wells, Producer(S) Tbc
The Banshees of Inisherin – Martin Mcdonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin
Brian and Charles – Jim Archer, Rupert Majendie, David Earl, Chris Hayward
Empire of Light – Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande – Sophie Hyde, Debbie Gray, Adrian Politowski, Katy Brand
Living – Oliver Hermanus, Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley, Kazuo Ishiguro
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical – Matthew Warchus, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jon Finn, Luke Kelly, Dennis Kelly
See How They Run – Tom George, Gina Carter, Damian Jones, Mark Chappell
The Swimmers – Sally El Hosaini, Producer(S) Tbc, Jack Thorne
The Wonder – Sebastián Lelio, Ed Guiney, Juliette Howell, Andrew Lowe, Tessa Ross, Alice Birch, Emma Donoghue
Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer
Aftersun – Charlotte Wells (Writer/director)
Blue Jean – Georgia Oakley (Writer/director), Hélène Sifre (Producer)
Electric Malady – Marie Lidén (Director)
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande – Katy Brand (Writer)
Rebellion – Maia Kenworthy (Director)
British short animation
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – Peter Baynton, Charlie Mackesy, Cara Speller, Hannah Minghella
Middle Watch – John Stevenson, Aiesha Penwarden, Giles Healy
Your Mountain Is Waiting – Hannah Jacobs, Zoe Muslim, Harriet Gillian
British short film
The Ballad of Olive Morris – Alex Kayode-kay
Bazigaga – Jo Ingabire Moys, Stephanie Charmail
Bus Girl – Jessica Henwick, Louise Palmkvist Hansen
A Drifting Up – Jacob Lee
An Irish Goodbye – Tom Berkeley, Ross White
EE rising star award (voted for by the public)
Aimee Lou Wood
Daryl Mccormack
Emma Mackey
Naomi Ackie
Sheila Atim
The mayor of the northern French town of Amiens is appealing to pop star Madonna to loan them what they believe is a missing 200-year-old Neoclassical painting that disappeared from their museum during World War I.
But is Madonna’s version the genuine article, or a copy?
Brigitte Fouré, the mayor, says in a video that the oil painting the singer reportedly owns, called Diana and Endymion, was “probably a work that was lent to the Amiens museum by the Louvre before the first world war after which we lost trace of it,” according to a report in The Guardian.
Now Fouré wants the “Material Girl” singer to provide the artwork as a loaner to help Amiens’ bid to become the European capital of culture in 2028.
The painting, which depicts the Roman goddess Diana falling in love with Endymion, is thought to have been painted by Jérôme-Martin Langlois, and dates to 1822. After being commissioned by Louis XVIII to hang in the Palace of Versailles, it was acquired by the French republic in 1873, and was exhibited in Amiens at the Musée des Beaux-Arts – now the Musée de Picardie – beginning in 1878.
The Langlois went missing after the Germans pounded Amiens with bombs and artillery fire for 28 days in March 1917, destroying much of the city including part of the museum. The paintings were taken to safety, but after the war the Langlois was listed as “untraceable” and later deemed to have been “destroyed by the falling of a bomb on the museum,” the Guardian reports.
The painting — or one nearly identical to it — reappeared in 1989 at a New York auction where Madonna paid $1.3 million for it, more than three times its estimated price, says French newspaper Le Figaro.
Madonna is an avid art collector known to have a collection worth an estimated $100 million, People magazine has reported. It includes Frida Kahlo’s My Birth (1932), one of only five painting she created while in Detroit; an extensive collection by Polish Art Deco painter Tamar de Lempicka; and Pablo Picasso’s Buste de Femme à la Frange (1938), which she paid almost $5 million for at Christie’s in 2000.
In 2015, a sharp-eyed curator from Amiens spotted the Langlois painting in the background of a photograph of Madonna at her home that was published in Paris Match magazine.
The painting Madonna bought is reportedly one inch (three centimeters) smaller than the artwork that disappeared from Amiens and was unsigned and undated, leading experts to wonder if it is the original — or a copy.
The museum has lodged legal action against “persons unknown” for the theft of the painting, the Guardian reports. But Fouré, the mayor, says the town doesn’t dispute that Madonna acquired the work in a “perfectly legal auction.”
The singer “bought it and she owns it,” the mayor says. “I’m not asking her to give it to us but to allow us to borrow it for just a few weeks so people here can see it.”
Fouré would welcome a visit by Madonna to Amiens, a town best known for textiles and its gothic cathedral, and as the birthplace of French President Emmanuel Macron.
“It would be amazing to have her come here but I can’t imagine it happening,” she says. “Still, now everyone is talking about Amiens!”
Billboard reached out to Madonna’s team, which had no comment.
LONDON — A U.K. Parliament committee is calling on the British government to address the “pitiful” returns that many artists and creators earn from music streaming and says it should develop and implement a “wide-ranging national strategy for music.”
A report from The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee published Friday (Jan. 13) urges the government to take a “more proactive strategic role” in the music industry to help ensure creators and performers receive a greater share of streaming revenue.
The report doesn’t go into detail about what form an overarching national music strategy would take. But it nevertheless recommends it be developed and overseen by the DCMS and looks at the impact of new digital technologies on musicians, songwriters and composers, as well as the U.K. industry’s potential for growth.
Taking such an approach could help address many of the issues caused by the government’s current approach to policymaking for the music business, which sees policy and trade negotiations handled by multiple different government departments and, says the report, is “too scatter-gun to be effective.”
The DCMS Committee’s recommendations come 18 months after it published a damning report in July 2021 on the economics of music streaming that called into question the major record labels’ dominance of the industry — and how they leverage that market power at the expense of artists, songwriters and independents. It concluded by saying that the global streaming model is unsustainable in its current form and “needs a complete reset.”
In response to that report, the U.K. competition regulator carried out a market study review of the record business. It ended in November with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) surmising that low returns from streaming “are not the result of ineffective competition” between the three major labels — Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.
The British government has also set up a number of working groups — led by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and made up of industry stakeholders — to look at issues raised in the Parliament probe, including problems around transparency and metadata.
Reviewing the progress that has been made since July 2021, the DCMS committee commended the government and IPO for the work and research it has undertaken but said that more still needs to be done on core issues, such as creators’ share of streaming royalties.
In particular, the committee recommends the IPO establish working groups to look specifically at remuneration and performer rights, with greater involvement from government officials and ministers. It also says there needs to be greater transparency around membership of the working groups, agendas and deadlines, none of which are currently made publicly available.
“Over the last 18 months the Government has made some welcome moves towards restoring a proper balance in the music industry, but there is still much more to do to ensure the talent behind the music is properly rewarded,” Damian Green MP, acting chair of the DCMS Committee, said in a statement.
Green says too many musicians and songwriters are frustrated at receiving “pitiful returns” from streaming and says the government “now needs to make sure it follows through on the work done so far to fix the fundamental flaws in the market.”
The committee has also requested that the three major labels provide it with evidence of the royalties they have distributed to legacy artists under the various unrecouped advances programs introduced over the past two years.
Sony Music Group was the first to announce, in June 2021, that it would start paying royalties to artists with unrecouped advances from pre-2000 record deals. Warner Music Group followed in February 2022 and Universal Music Group in March 2022.
A spokesperson for the DCMS committee says that while it has no formal powers to compel businesses to provide them with information, businesses are expected to comply with the request. The government now has two months to respond to the committee’s recommendations and outline any actions it will be taking. (The DCMS committee, which is made up of 11 members of Parliament, is responsible for monitoring the policies and practices of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and its associated bodies, including the BBC.)
Responding to Friday’s report, David Martin, CEO of the Featured Artists Coalition, and Annabella Coldrick, chief executive of the Music Managers Forum, said they “wholeheartedly” welcomed Parliamentary support for improved remuneration and contractual rights.
“Our organizations are in complete alignment with other creator bodies on the need for greater fairness, transparency and remuneration.” Martin and Coldrick said in a joint statement. “These issues are not going away, and neither are we.”
A spokesperson for U.K. labels trade body BPI thanked the committee for highlighting “the positive steps that the industry has taken” since its original 2021 report but cautioned against any calls for sweeping government reforms.
“At a time when the global music market is more competitive than ever,” the spokesperson says, “public policies must be firmly rooted in driving sustainable growth across the entire U.K. music ecosystem.”
The current images of Iran on the news and social media are of impassioned protests from a resilient people who’ve had enough of their country’s oppressive Islamic regime. Most recently, the regime’s brutal retaliation methods have taken center stage, yet the Iranian people continue to resist.
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These uprisings, which have rippled across the globe and ignited similar protests among the Iranian diaspora in U.S., throughout Europe and beyond, were sparked by the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16, 2022. Her death was the result of beatings by the Islamic regime’s morality police, given as a punishment for her insufficient hijab — in this case, her head covering.
In the nearly four months since Amini’s death, the Center for Human Rights in Iran reports the wrongful imprisonment of more than 18,000 protestors and over 500 government-sanctioned murders, including barbaric public hangings. Among the prisoners facing possible execution are doctors, journalists, athletes, actors, directors, poets and musical artists. These include rappers Toomaj Salehi, Saman Yasin and Behrad Ali Konari, who are charged with “corruption on earth,” a capital offense in Iran. Per Newsweek, Yasin was convicted of this crime October, with a petition to save his life garnering thousands of signatures.
Early in the protests, Iranian musician Shervin Hajipour was also arrested for his song “Baraye.” Hajipour took the song’s heart-wrenching lyrics from online messages posted by Iranians speaking about what they are protesting, his emotional delivery resonating whether listeners understood the Farsi-language lyrics or not. In October, Coldplay performed a version of the song with Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani at the band’s two stadium shows in Buenos Aires. And 95,000 of 115,000 submissions to the Recording Academy for its new special merit award, song for social change, were for “Baraye.” (The Islamic regime forced Hajipour to take down the song — although it lives on via social media.)
Since October, when Hajipour was released on bail to await trial, there has been no news on the musician’s whereabouts. Still, “Baraye” is the movement’s unofficial anthem — and is sung at global Iran protests, which continued this week (Jan. 8), as thousands of people marched in solidarity in London, Lyon and Rome.
This Iran of today stands in sharp contrast to the Iran of less than 50 years ago. At that time, under the rule of the country’s monarch, or shah, Iran was thriving in industry, healthcare and education. It was a progressive country becoming a player on the global stage — yet there was dissatisfaction among Iran’s lower classes.
Tapping into this longstanding discontent, the Islamic Revolution took place over the course of less than three months. The Islamic Republic of Iran was established by referendum on April 1, 1979. Overnight, the country rewound back 1,357 years to the time of the Prophet Muhammed and fundamentalist Islamic laws. Gone were all the entertainment venues. Artistic voices were silenced. Women were required to shroud themselves. The excitement of having a new regime that promised freedom of expression was quickly replaced with cowering fear.
As hardstyle queen Lady Faith puts it, “On one hand, you had so much history on display at all times, a representation of an advanced cultural history full of color and happiness. On the other hand, you have a regime that did everything in their power to cover the people in darkness, stamp out individual lights and force an entire population to live in the past.”
Many families fled the country, including that of house music stalwart Dubfire, who left with his family during the Islamic Revolution when he was seven years old, settling in Washington D.C. Dubfire – who won the Grammy for best remixed recording (non-classical) in 2002 – didn’t get immersed in Western music until he moved to the U.S., but was always drawn to the “atmosphere and sonic power” of traditional Iranian instruments.
Other families, like that of Faith, remained in Iran. Faith was born after the Islamic Revolution and grew up surrounded by art, in the form of the music and fashionable creations of her clothing designer mother, both of which were hugely influential on her. While she was gestating as an artist at home, nonconformist Faith was a misfit at school and a target for the morality police. In part to protect Faith’s safety, her family eventually moved to Portland. Her songs “Speak My Mind,” “We the People” and “Different” carry direct links to her teenage experiences in post-revolution Iran.
Up-and-coming producer Starfari, on the other hand, was born and raised in the U.S., long after the establishment of the Islamic regime. He visited Iran for the first time when he was 16, experiencing the country as a tourist.
In many ways, the oppression of the Islamic Republic has impacted these artists and their styles, with electronic music functioning as both a release for their challenging experiences and as a platform to pay homage to their homeland. Here, the three discuss how this heritage has helped shape their work, along with their feelings about the current protests.
What are your thoughts and feelings about what’s been happening in Iran since Mahsa Amini’s murder?
Starfari: My thoughts and feelings are mixed. I think it’s horrible what’s happening now, and especially what’s been happening the last 40 years, but I think it’s incredible that people are coming together to fight for what they believe. It’s surprising and remarkable how the people have held up, worked together, helped each other, and stayed resilient through it all. They’ve had enough. They have nothing to lose. The courage of the people of Iran should be praised. Since the beginning, I was optimistic that the people would be successful — even though my older relatives and parents weren’t. Regardless, Iran will never be the same.
Dubfire: Even though I never returned, I still feel a strong connection to my birthplace and people. Like most Iranians scattered around the globe, I too feel incredibly inspired by the brave youth, especially women, who are leading the movement for change. Their slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom,” as well as the protest song, “Baraye,” by Shervin Hajipour, has captured the hearts and minds of Iranians and non-Iranians the world over, including many of my artist friends. While the resistance to the Islamic Regime is not a new topic in Iran, the sheer energy and intersectionality of this current movement — along with the immediate access to online information — make it the [Iranian people’s] most promising crusade for change to date.
Lady Faith: The world is so colorful these days, and this Iranian regime is working overtime to keep its population isolated from having dreams and believing their lives could be better. This regime is determined to impose their will on everybody, because without the suppression, freedom for the people ends their corruption. Change, however, is inevitable sometimes.
Dubfire
Esteban Starfish
What are your impressions of the musical artists that have been arrested by the Islamic regime?
Dubfire: I was not familiar with any of these artists prior to the protests. Toomaj had previously been jailed [Salehi was arrested in September 2021 for speaking against the regime], yet he had the courage to once again openly criticize this regime from the streets of Iran. Despite the regime’s attempts to silence these pivotal artists, what we are witnessing is the opposite effect: They have been propelled into the international spotlight and are fueling much stronger opposition to this regime and its atrocities.
Lady Faith: One of the most effective ways to communicate is through music, and great Iranian artists such as Shervin and Toomaj have done just that. The Iranian regime knows the power of music to a population that wants to dream of a better future. Music is more powerful than guns, batons, pepper spray or even the most fearsome Basiji.
“Baraye” has received global attention including a 2023 nomination for the special-merit best song for social change Grammy. What do you think it will mean for Iranians across the globe if it wins?
Dubfire: Music has always been in part political, and so I’m thrilled to see Shervin’s beautiful and haunting “Baraye” resonating with so many people around the globe. As an Iranian Grammy-winning artist myself, I feel proud that his protest song has flooded the organizations’ submission box in an important new category, which is bound to be a highlight of all future awards and will undoubtedly embolden the revolutionaries in Iran.
Lady Faith: A Grammy for Shervin will be a powerful acknowledgment by the Western community of our struggles and sacrifices. Global attention will bring about change.
Starfari: It would show that the power of art extends beyond just personal enjoyment, to its strength in providing a lasting human connection around the world. It will also show that the music and art world stand in solidarity with the people, most importantly the women, of Iran.
What are some of your own experiences in Iran?
Dubfire: Most of what I recollect from those early childhood years [is] a bit hazy, but I was very happy and free, surrounded by the love I felt around my extended family. Our gatherings always involved the most lavish display of Persian cuisine one could imagine, and poetry readings backed by live instrumentation.
I have scattered memories of the revolution. My mother worriedly turning off all the lights in our home and holding my brother and I in the darkness while peering out at the madness in the streets. The fires, marches, chants and random acts of violence on full display. And me yearning for my father’s protection, absent at the time, as he was pursuing his doctorate in Washington, D.C.
Lady Faith: I was born in Tehran and the Islamic Republic of Iran is all I had ever known. It was adherence to a strict interpretation of Islamic law. For me, this was life as normal, but for my parents, it was a transitional time where everything changed and there was societal pressure to conform.
I developed a pretty rebellious spirit. It wasn’t long before I attracted the attention of the morality police, or Basij. These radicals, either plainclothes or covered in head to toe, were constantly chasing me and my friends. It was a lifelong game of hide-and-seek. I was never caught, but for those that were, the punishments were severe. I personally was threatened at gunpoint for playing Metallica within earshot of the Basij. It’s sad that almost every group of Basij had a conservative female or two with them. Women suppressing other women. Shameful!
Starfari: [When I visited], Iran had a much more somber feel at times than the photos. It was cold and rainy in Tehran. There were soldiers on many corners wielding automatic weapons. The energy I felt in homes of friends and family and in restaurants or out and about from the people was warm and welcoming. The people of Iran are how I had expected, at least the ones I met. I even went snowboarding! It seems to surprise people that Iran isn’t a desert.
Lady Faith
Courtesy of Lady Faith
What was it like assimilating to American culture? How did music help you in that process?
Dubire: The biggest challenge for my parents, brother and I was that we suddenly found ourselves in a strange and unfamiliar place, isolated from our relatives, most of whom stayed behind. Soon after, we were subjected to a great deal of hostility due to the prevailing hostage crisis. Intense images of Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers chanting “Death to America” were all over the media, and we watched in horror as life back home became even more foreign to us. And though we didn’t really feel welcome in our new home, we had no choice but to stay and rebuild our lives from scratch.
This was especially hard on my parents who had to work odd, low-paying jobs and long hours. Since I didn’t speak the language, I spent a great deal of time expressing myself through drawing, which in later years extended to photography and music. I quickly realized that I had a deep passion for the creative arts.
Lady Faith: The journey was not easy. It was a complex time, and music became my salvation. I had a passion for heavy metal and gangster rap, and while my family was very musical, these styles were taboo in Iran. I would listen with my friends behind closed doors. Music helped blunt the transition from the negative and colorless things that surrounded me wherever I went out in public. I was particularly rebellious during my teenage years. I am so lucky that my family was able to bring me to America. I truly understand the suppression going on among the youth and females in Iran. It breaks my heart to see their struggles.
Starfari
Priscilla Anne
Have the uprisings in Iran and the murders of Iranian people by the Islamic regime served as inspiration for you to create anything of your own?
Dubfire: Yes of course, but perhaps there is a different angle or approach I can take, musically speaking, which isn’t obvious and would resonate deeper into the fabric of the global electronic music community to galvanize the masses towards a specific goal. I will actually find out once I dive back into the studio [early this year.]
Lady Faith: The situation in Iran right now is very stressful and has great impacts on all Iranians. It is a cause that is very important, and I am still processing my feelings. When the time is right, I will consider making a musical contribution to the cause — but right now I do not wish to make any promises to my fans that I may not fulfill.
Starfari: I think what’s most important as far as my involvement in providing a response is my connection to people here in the States. When they can see something they have a connection to, it’s easier to make the horrors be more tangible.
What is your hope for the future of Iran?
Lady Faith: I hope and pray that there is major change in Iran, where its amazing people can become individuals living their own lives how they want and are allowed to dream of things that are not forced upon them. I have been blessed to be a part of the American society where freedom is something we take for granted — but I have lived in both environments, and I truly hope that more Iranians get to experience just a touch of what we get to take for granted.
Dubfire: We can all contribute by shining a spotlight on, and echoing the voices of, the brave protesters in Iran who are risking their lives for basic freedoms and democracy.
TikTok’s CEO met Tuesday with European Union officials about strict new digital regulations in the 27-nation bloc as the Chinese-owned social media app faces growing scrutiny from Western authorities over data privacy, cybersecurity and misinformation.
In meetings in Brussels, Shou Zi Chew and four officials from the EU’s executive Commission discussed concerns ranging from child safety to investigations into user data flowing to China, according to European readouts from two of the meetings and tweets from a third.
TikTok is wildly popular with young people but its Chinese ownership has raised fears that Beijing could use it to scoop up user data or push pro-China narratives or misinformation. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.
U.S. states including Kansas, Wisconsin, Louisiana and Virginia have moved to ban the video-sharing app from state-issued devices for government workers, and it also would be prohibited from most U.S. government devices under a congressional spending bill.
Fears were stoked by news reports last year that a China-based team improperly accessed data of U.S. TikTok users, including two journalists, as part of a covert surveillance program to ferret out the source of leaks to the press.
There are also concerns that the company is sending masses of user data to China, in breach of stringent European privacy rules. EU data protection watchdogs in Ireland have opened two investigations into TikTok, including one on its transfer of personal data to China.
“I count on TikTok to fully execute its commitments to go the extra mile in respecting EU law and regaining trust of European regulators,” Vera Jourova, the commissioner for values and transparency, said after her meeting with Chew. “There cannot be any doubt that data of users in Europe are safe and not exposed to illegal access from third-country authorities.”
Caroline Greer, TikTok’s director of public policy and government relations, said on Twitter that it was a “constructive and helpful meeting.”
“Online safety & building trust is our number one priority,” Greer tweeted.
The company has said it takes data security “incredibly seriously” and fired the ByteDance employees involved in improperly accessing user data.
Jourova said she also grilled Chew about child safety, the spread of Russian disinformation on the platform and transparency of paid political content.
Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, who’s in charge of competition and antitrust matters, met with Chew to “review how the company is preparing for complying with its obligations under the European Commission’s regulation, namely the Digital Services Act and possibly under the Digital Markets Act.”
The Digital Services Act is aimed at cleaning up toxic content from online platforms and the Digital Markets Act is designed to rein in the power of big digital companies.
They also discussed privacy and data transfer obligations in reference to recent news reports on “aggressive data harvesting and surveillance in the U.S.,” the readout said.
Chew also met with Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders and Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson.
Reynders tweeted that he “insisted on the importance” of TikTok fully complying with EU privacy rules and cooperating with the Irish watchdog.
“We also took stock of the company’s commitments to fight hate speech online and guarantee the protection of all consumers, including children,” he said.
Chew is scheduled to hold a video chat with Thierry Breton, the commissioner for digital policy, on Jan. 19.
Madrid is hosting the first UMusic Hotel, a venture that aims to become an entertainment hub in the heart of the capital of Spain. Co-created by Universal Music Group and Dakia Entertainment Hospitality Group, the hotel is located inside the historic Albéniz Theater building, just a few steps from downtown tourist sites such as Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor.
The hotel opened on Nov. 14, 2022 at a 60% capacity and is now fully operating, with Antonio Banderas‘ take on the musical Company showing at the theater until Feb. 14. Next, Spanish singer-songwriter David Bisbal will take the stage for 20 days between March and April as part of the celebrations of his 20th music career anniversary.
The Albéniz Theater was inaugurated in 1945 and was in operation for more than 60 years until it closed its doors in 2009, when its owners wanted to demolish it and build a luxury residential building in its place. A group of citizens came together to create the Albéniz Theater Aid Platform and asked for it to be declared an Asset of Cultural Interest to prevent its demolition, which was finally granted in 2016. This allowed the 898-seat venue to be rehabilitated, and negotiations began for what is now the UMusic Hotel Madrid.
UMusic Hotels is a new international brand that offers first-class accommodations and entertainment. The goal is to create a unique experience for both guests and artists staying at their hotels, and to offer a wide range of music-related services and activities.
Music is in every corner of UMusic Hotel Madrid. Details such as the “Pasillo de la Música” (Hall of Music) — which connects the two buildings that make up the venue, and where you can see works of musicians such as Freddie Mercury, Lady Gaga, Alejandro Sanz and Katy Perry created by the Mexican artist and athlete Hubertus de Hohenlohe — is magical. Upon entering the access foyer located on Carretas Street, visitors are greeted by a neon sign that says, “Vente Pa’ Madrid” (Come to Madrid,) like the famous Ketama song, a cheerful welcoming. On one wall is a verse from Bob Dylan’s classic “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
The hotel has 130 rooms divided into four categories: classic, deluxe, premium and ultimate, all equipped with Nespresso coffee machines and Marshall speakers. There’s also the Artist’s Suite, an exclusive two-floor room with a private solarium terrace, living room and guest bathroom.
Guests can enjoy a vinyl library, gym, bar, amphitheater, outdoor pool, three meeting rooms, a two-level solarium, events spaces, a gastronomic experience at El Albéniz restaurant, 24-hour room service, and the Nota Alta (High Note) bar, located on the rooftop with a lovely city view.
Universal Music Spain has said it will keep working with the hotel to continue attracting top international stars to Madrid. UMusic Hotel confirmed that it is already working on the development of a second hotel, this time in South America, in Barranquilla, Colombia.
HONG KONG — Zhang Haisheng feels like his business may never go back to normal under China’s strict and constantly changing pandemic policies. Zhang, who runs three live houses in Shanghai under the brand Yuyintang, struggled over the past three years to navigate China’s “zero-COVID” curbs, which shifted from blanket bans on live events in early 2020, to quarantines, to sudden city-wide lockdowns last spring when cases surged — bringing Yuyintang’s operations to a halt.
Since early 2020, Zhang has canceled close to 1,000 shows. Even during some windows when performances resumed, to meet the country’s strict testing rules he had to hire extra workers to check customers’ nucleic acid test records — and ended up operating at a loss. “In the first two years of the pandemic, sometimes performances could be held normally,” Zhang tells Billboard. “But [2022] was bad, the loss has been relatively huge.”
Now, after a series of street protests, the Chinese government appears to be abandoning its zero-COVID strategy. On Dec. 7, it began easing mass testing requirements and allowing people who have mild symptoms to quarantine at home instead of at government-managed facilities.
More than a year after most of the world resumed concerts and festivals, China’s live industry is finally looking at a rebound. That recovery is likely to focus mostly on domestic acts, live executives tell Billboard, in part because Western artists were already electing to skip China on their Asian tour swings because of stricter Chinese permitting rules — a trend that is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
While other parts of the world were lifting travel restrictions and bracing for a reopening early last year, the fast-spreading Omicron variant spurred dozens of cities across China, including Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan and Guangzhou, to lock down. During one virus surge, more than 4,000 performances were canceled or postponed throughout China from mid-February to mid-March of 2022, the China Association of Performing Arts estimates.
Citizens reacted angrily to the measures, triggering some of the most widespread anti-government protests in years. On Nov. 25, a fire killed 10 residents of Ürümqi in northwest China, which many suspected was linked to strict COVID policies that have trapped people in their homes. Workers, students, and residents in a dozen cities across China took to the streets, demanding changes to the Chinese government’s harsh COVID rules. Some protesters even called for China’s leader Xi Jinping to step down.
With the lockdowns lifted, musicians, live music venues and concert bookers are bracing for a surge of infections, while at the same time looking for ways to recover their previous losses.
Zhu Ning, founder of VOX Livehouse, one of the best-known live venues in Wuhan, has been finding ways to leverage his empty venues throughout the pandemic. He ventured into the world of music training, turning his three live venues into rehearsal rooms with recording studios. Zhu also operates his own music label, which has signed bands such as Chinese Football, a four-piece indie rock group. “Since it’s impossible to perform during the pandemic, we did more work on the songwriting and recording side,” he says.
As the founding drummer of SMZB, one of China’s early punk bands, Zhu supports and promotes new indie acts in Wuhan. “Since China’s borders were closed and foreign bands were not able to come in, there has been more space for local acts to perform, and I guess that’s one of the silver linings coming out from this pandemic,” he says.
Starting in early December, Chinese authorities have begun to review show permits again, and he expects local performances to go back to normal levels in 2023, which for VOX would mean around 230 shows per year. “It was quite frustrating in the past three years,” Zhu says. “It affected us too much, and we are almost unable to bear the consequences.”
Protesters march along a street during a rally for the victims of a deadly fire as well as a protest against China’s harsh Covid-19 restriction s in Beijing on November 28, 2022.
NOEL CELIS/AFP via GI
While some have high hopes for the future, Ai Jing, who runs the concert booking agency Haze Sounds, is still struggling to resume operations. Touring musicians from outside of China — who have not been allowed to perform in the country for three years — are still unable to obtain a visa and show permit, since China’s borders are still closed to outside performers.
Acts booked through Haze Sounds, such as Novo Amar, who were scheduled to perform in March of 2020, have been postponed multiple times, currently to November 2023. “I have fans who bought tickets for this performance when they were freshmen in college, and now they have all graduated,” Ai says.
Western Artists Eschewing China For Other Asian Cities
Even with a reversal of zero-COVID policies, the reemergence of China’s live music market is likely to be almost entirely domestic for at least the first half of 2023, as global touring artists decide to skip China and perform elsewhere in Asia, one live music industry executive tells Billboard. International acts such as Arctic Monkeys, Aurora and Kings of Convenience have announced their Asia tour dates for 2023, but China is not on their schedules.
Even before the pandemic started, Western artists were already doing fewer shows in China, often because of permitting and other challenges. Chinese officials “made it harder and harder to get permits for quite a long time, so a lot of artists just stopped going there,” the industry source says. “Everything started to somehow potentially step into the world of politics.” (Promoters typically need permits from China’s Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Public Security.)
A Billboard review of eight major venues — including Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai and Wukesong/Cadillac Arena in Beijing — shows that the number of major Western artists performing in China has been falling since 2013. In that year, 21 artists visited China, including Justin Bieber, Alicia Keys and OneRepublic, compared to only five in 2019, when The Chainsmokers and Shawn Mendes played Mercedes-Benz and Westlife visited Cadillac Arena.
Global acts have adjusted to the challenges of touring in China by finding other cities in Asia to fill out their Asian tour schedules, which typically total between eight and 12 shows. The absence of Shanghai and Beijing, the Chinese cities with the most viable venues, is not affecting the profit and loss picture for most Western acts, the source says.
Ai, the concert booker, is worried about the long-term effects a border shutdown would have on China’s culture sector and global reputation. “I hope we can open to the world again,” he says. “It would be better if we could be more inclusive and accept more diversity and different voices, but I dare not expect too much.”
In Shanghai, Zhang says that if pandemic measures don’t ease soon, to cut costs he’s considering closing one of his three venues, which host mostly indie rock, folk and jazz acts and have a capacity of about 300 people each. “I hope the policy will relax gradually, because people’s demand for performances has not decreased, and their expectations for overseas bands still exist,” says Zhang. But, he adds, “it will take time for us to get back on our feet.”
–Additional reporting by Alexei Barrionuevo
A record 159 billion music tracks were streamed in the United Kingdom last year, up 8.2% on 2021 and more than double the volume of audio streams registered five years ago — and more than 40 times bigger than a decade ago — according to year-end figures from labels trade body BPI.
In 2017, just over 68 billion music tracks were streamed in the U.K. That number soared to 159.3 billion in 2022 when an average of more than three billion audio streams were listened to on music streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music every week (the numbers don’t include video streams on YouTube or other video streaming platforms).
BPI reports that it now takes an average of 1.3 million audio streams to break into the U.K.’s official Top 40 singles chart and a combined seven million audio and video streams to score a number one.
Across digital and physical formats, the equivalent of 166 million albums were streamed or purchased last year, up 4.3% on the previous 12 months. Contributing to the rise in music consumption was the ongoing resurgence of vinyl, which shows no signs of slowing.
Sales of vinyl LPs climbed 2.9% year-on-year in the U.K. in 2022 to 5.5 million units — marking a 15th consecutive year of growth for the once considered dead format and the highest level of vinyl purchases in the country since 1990, when …But Seriously by Phil Collins was the year’s biggest-selling studio album.
Vinyl now represents just under one third (31.7%) of all physical music sales in the U.K., while CD sales fell 19.3% year-on-year to 11.6 million units and cassettes climbed 5.2% to 195,000 units. The CD’s share of the U.K. physical market now stands at about 67%, while tapes account for 1.1%, up from 0.9% in 2021.
Overall, streaming now accounts for just over 86% of all music sales in the U.K., up from 83.1% in 2021. That leaves physical formats with 10.4%, digital albums at 2.2% and track equivalent albums with 1.2% of all sales.
Five years ago, streaming accounted for just over 50% of the British market. In line with the year-on-year increase in music streaming, digital download sales fell 18.9% year-on-year to 3.7 million in 2022.
The U.K. is the world’s third biggest recorded music market behind the U.S. and Japan with sales of just over $1.8 billion in trade value, according to IFPI’s 2022 Global Music Report.
BPI’s preliminary year-end report, published Wednesday (Jan. 4), doesn’t include financial sales data. Instead, it uses Official Charts Company data to measure U.K. music consumption in terms of volume. The London-based organization will publish its full year-end report, including recorded music revenues, later this year. Another British trade body, the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), is due to report on annual music retail spending later this month.
For the first time since year-end charts were introduced more than 50 years ago, British artists accounted for the top 10 biggest-selling singles in the U.K. last year (either as the lead or as a featured artist), led by Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” which topped the U.K. singles chart for 10 consecutive weeks (as well as 15 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100) and was streamed more than 180 million times in the United Kingdom.
Hit singles by Ed Sheeran, Cat Burns, Glass Animals, Lost Frequencies & Calum Scott, LF System, Sam Fender made up the rest of the top 10, joined by Kate Bush, whose 1985 track “Running Up That Hill” spent three weeks at number one following its high-profile Stranger Things synch and was streamed 124 million times in the U.K.
Styles also landed the year’s best-selling album with his third studio set Harry’s House. He is the first artist to have both the U.K.’s top single and top album since Lewis Capaldi in 2019. Sheeran’s = (Equals) and Taylor Swift’s Midnights were the year’s second and third best-selling albums, respectively, with Midnights the only album to achieve more than 200,000 chart-eligible sales in a single week. More than 60,000 of those first week sales were vinyl purchases, says BPI.
Last year was also a strong year for independent artists and labels in the U.K. Independent labels grew their share of the U.K. music market for a fifth consecutive year to account for 28.6% of album or their equivalent purchases across streaming and physical, up from 26.9% in 2021. Nine independently released LPs topped the U.K. albums chart in 2022 including records by The 1975, Central Cee, Fontaines D.C. and Wet Leg.
In a statement, BPI chair Yolanda Brown said the success of homegrown talent in 2022 was down to a “compelling mix” of musical creativity and artistry, coupled with the “the ever-expanding opportunities afforded by streaming” and the support of record labels.
Queen guitarist Brian May and record producer Robin Millar top the list of music industry professionals recognized in the King’s 2023 New Year Honours List, an annual tradition celebrating the achievements and service of exceptional individuals from across the United Kingdom.
Brian May, who co-founded British rock band Queen in 1970 and continues to tour and record with the group, receives a knighthood for services to music and his charity work. May was previously made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2005.
Becoming a knight or a dame is one of the highest-ranking awards in the British honours system, followed by CBE, and then Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). A knighthood or damehood entitles recipients to use the title of sir or dame if they wish to do so.
Record producer and businessman Millar is also made a knight for services to music and charity in King Charles’ first New Year Honours List, announced Friday (Dec. 30).
Best known for his work with Sade, Millar produced and arranged the band’s multi-million selling 1984 debut Diamond Life and its acclaimed follow-up Promise, which topped the Billboard 200 upon its release in 1985. Other artists that Millar has produced include Randy Crawford, Everything But The Girl, Fine Young Cannibals and Big Country.
In 2014, Millar and Jeremy Lascelles co-founded Blue Raincoat Music, an artist management company, music publishing company and record label that runs offices in London, New York and Los Angeles. Blue Raincoat purchased Chrysalis Records in 2016, relaunching the imprint as a frontline label four years later.
Millar, who has been registered blind since the age of 16 and is chair of U.K. disability charity Scope, serves as executive group chairman and chief creative officer of Blue Raincoat Chrysalis Group.
Other music professionals recognized in the 2023 New Year Honours List include Geoff Taylor, outgoing chief executive of U.K. labels trade body BPI, and BPI chair Yolanda Brown.
Taylor, who exits the London-based organization Saturday (Dec. 31) after 15 years as chief executive, is awarded an MBE in recognition of his services to music. In a statement Taylor said the honour “means a great deal to me” and dedicated the award to the “whole BPI team, who work every day to protect and value music.”
Brown, who was appointed BPI chair in July, has been awarded an OBE for services to music, music education and broadcasting.
The same title is bestowed upon Peter Leathem, CEO of U.K. collecting society PPL since 2012. In a statement, Leathem called being awarded an OBE for his services to the music industry “an enormous honour.”
Other music honourees include composer George Fenton, who receives a CBE award.
In total, 1,107 people are recognized on the 2023 New Year Honours List, spanning all walks of life. The awarding of honours is overseen by the U.K. Cabinet Office with nominations submitted by either government departments or members of the public. A selection committee then produces a list of honourees, which is submitted to the British monarch, King Charles, for approval.