International
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Even with BTS on hiatus, the band’s label and agency HYBE grew revenues 445.5 billion KRW ($308.7 at the Sept. 30 exchange rate) from July to September — up 30.6% from the year-prior period, according to the company’s third-quarter earnings report released Thursday. But compared to second-quarter revenue of 512.2 billion KRW ($354.9 million), revenue was down 13%.
The “artist direct-involvement” segments of the business showed mixed results in the quarter. Music sales of 129.2 billion KRW ($89.5 million) were 0.4% year-over-year and 38.7% lower than the previous quarter. Concert revenue of 47.2 billion KRW ($32.7 million) was a vast improvement over zero in the third quarter of 2021 but lower than the first and second quarters. Revenues from ads, appearances and management fell 11.7% year-over-year to 29.8 billion KRW ($20.2 million).
HYBE saw better performance from its “artist indirect-involvement” segments that are less dependent on the timing of music releases and tour dates. Merchandising and licensing revenue grew 49.5% year-over-year to 144.7 billion KRW ($100.3 million). Contents revenue climbed 22.9% to 107.2 billion KRW ($74.3 million). And fan club revenue improved 27.5% to 17.3 billion KRW ($12 million).
Though the first nine months of the year, HYBE’s revenue improved 55.7% year-over-year to 1.24 trillion KRW ($859.2 million) and its operating profit increased 59.% to 185.9 billion KRW ($128.8 million). Operating margin improved from 14.6% to 15%.
Despite the impressive growth, HYBE is facing a dilemma. The company is without its biggest artist, BTS, after members went on hiatus earlier this year and will soon face mandatory military service in Korea. Losing its cash cow — until “around 2025,” according to an Oct. 17 letter to shareholders from CEO Park Ji-won — leaves Hybe with a tricky balancing act: In the absence of BTS new music and tours, the company must make up the difference with individual members’ solo projects and a slate of successful and up-and-coming artists. With only a retrospective album, Proof, and no concert dates since April, BTS will still account for 60-65% of HYBE’s 2023 revenue, Park said during the earnings call. The remaining 35-40% of revenue will come from a growing roster of young artists and Ithaca Holdings, which HYBE acquired in 2021.
In recent years, HYBE has diversified to reduce its reliance on BTS and build a more stable portfolio of companies and artists. Through its nine record labels in Korea, Japan and the U.S., HYBE has built a diversified roster that “helps us avoid a risk of concentrating on a certain country, a certain genre, and allows us to flexibly respond to the changing external situations and trends, thereby reducing the overall business risk,” said CFO Lee Kyung-Joon.
Ithica Holdings added both recorded music catalog (through Big Machine Label Group) and artist management clients (through SB Projects). Its founder, Scooter Braun, is now co-CEO of HYBE America. When asked by an analyst what synergies Ithaca provides more than a year after the merger, Park pointed to the newfound ease and efficiency of launching projects in the U.S. under Braun and co-CEO Lenzo Yoon. Also, Ithaca’s U.S. artists will join HYBE’s WeVerse social media platform in 2023, Park added, and HYBE is pursuing opportunities for the businesses of Ithaca artists Justin Bieber (Drew House) and Ariana Grande (R.E.M. Beauty) in Asia.
In Korea, HYBE’s roster includes such up-and-coming artists as Le Sserafim, released through its Source Music imprint, whose first two albums have surpassed a combined 1 million units sold. NewJeans, released through HYBE’s ADOR imprint, has cumulative sales of 620,000 of its debut, self-titled EP released in August. Outside of Korea, HYBE is taking its model for discovering and developing new artists to the world’s two largest music markets. In Japan, HYBE Labels Japan is prepping the December launch of &Team, a nine-person, multinational boy band. In the U.S., HYBE has a joint venture with Universal Music Group’s Geffen Records and is developing a global girl group.
Hybe’s plan for global growth goes beyond its growing artist roster. A broad strategy termed by Park as “expansion through cooperation across boundaries” includes mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, equity investments and partnerships. “In order to expand the multi-label strategy, we’re considering various partnerships and investments with labels, catalog companies and talent management companies in overseas markets such as the U.S. and Japan, thereby strengthening our music I.P. portfolio,” Park said. “Through this approach, we except that greater synergies will be created with our superior solutions capability on concerts, merchandising and content to deliver greater results.”
But in the short term, HYBE doesn’t have a quick solution for replacing BTS, and Park warned that declining BTS revenue — namely lost concert revenue — will put pressure on HYBE’s margins in 2023. That should change as groups such as Seventeen and Tomorrow X Together gain popularity and perform in larger venues. Compared to BTS, those artists’ margins are “not very different from the margin of BTS — other than concert revenue,” he said. “Therefore, as these groups continue to grow, I believe that margin will improve accordingly…starting from 2024.”
With HYBE’s share price down 64.9% year to date, mostly due to BTS’s hiatus, the company is considering additional ways to improve shareholder return, including share buybacks and dividends. Park said the company will reveal more about those plans in early 2023.
LONDON — One of the 22 people killed in a suicide bomb attack outside an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in 2017 would probably have survived had it not been for “significant failures” by the emergency services responding to the atrocity, a public inquiry has found.
John Atkinson, 28, died on May 22, 2017, when bomber Salman Abedi detonated a home-made explosive device in the foyer of Manchester Arena (now known as the AO Arena) at the end of a Grande’s sold-out show. More than 800 people were injured in the terror attack, many of them children.
An 884-page report detailing the emergency services response to the attack, published on Tuesday (Nov. 3), found that Atkinson, a caregiver for adults with autism, could have survived the attack “if given prompt and expert medical treatment.”
Instead, Atkinson, who was standing only six meters (nearly 20 feet) away from the bomber when he detonated his device at 10:31pm U.K. time, suffered severe injuries to his legs. He had to wait 47 minutes before he was treated by paramedics and then went into cardiac arrest and died on the way to the hospital.
“It is likely that inadequacies in the emergency response prevented his survival,” the report concluded.
The report is the second of three being produced by the public inquiry from the U.K. Home Secretary, which began in 2019.
The chair of the inquiry, John Saunders, said many things went “badly wrong” in how the emergency services responded to the attack, including “significant failings by a number of organizations in preparation and training” for such an emergency. On the night of the bombing, the national terror threat level in the U.K. was severe, meaning an attack was highly likely.
While praising the heroism of the first responders and citizens on the scene, Saunders identified “very significant” failures by Greater Manchester Police and an “unduly risk-averse” approach from the fire service. He also cited substantial problems with how the North West Ambulance Service handled the emergency, as well as serious failings by British Transport Police.
“Some of what went wrong had serious and, in the case of John Atkinson, fatal consequences for those directly affected by the explosion,” said Saunders. He concluded that none of the other 20 victims could have survived their injuries from the explosion and “inadequacies in the [emergency service] response did not fail to prevent their deaths.”
The report is highly critical of Greater Manchester Police for failing to declare a major incident in the immediate aftermath of the explosion. Two of the department’s most senior officers were on duty that night but made “no effective contribution to the emergency response.”
There was “non-existent” communication between emergency service senior offices and “individual failures” that further undermined the joint response, the report stated.
Only three paramedics entered the arena’s foyer to help the injured following the explosion. Fire officers took more than two hours to arrive at the scene after senior officers wrongly believed they were attending a marauding terror attack and it was not safe to send in firefighters – a delay that Saunders said was “serious and unacceptable.” Their presence would have resulted “in the safer and faster extraction of the severely injured” to another location where they could receive proper clinical care, he said.
The inquiry also found that there was a “remote possibility” that eight-year-old Saffie‐Rose Roussos — the youngest victim of the attack — could have been saved “with different treatment and care.” Roussos drifted in and out of consciousness for 26 minutes after the bomb blast and was able to give her name to the first member of the public who helped her, but no tourniquets or leg splints were applied to her injuries.
She was subsequently carried out of the foyer and taken to a hospital, where trauma doctors were unable to save her.
Following the report’s publication, David Russel, chief fire officer for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, apologized for what he called a “wholly inadequate and totally ineffective” response that “will forever be a matter of deep regret.”
In all, the report makes 149 recommendations, including requiring first aid training for all police officers and firefighters and more regulation and enforcement to improve the standard of healthcare services at public venues.
The public inquiry’s first report into the terror attack, published last June, looked at whether police and security should have done more to prevent the bombing. It found that arena operators SMG, security company Showsec and the British Transport Police, who were responsible for policing the area where the bomb exploded, were “principally responsible” for missed opportunities to prevent or minimize the “devastating impact of the attack.”
The third and final report will focus on the radicalization of Salman Abedi and what intelligence services knew about him and his family. The bomber’s brother Hashem Abedi was sentenced in 2020 to a minimum of 55 years for his part in the bombing.
“Nothing will ease the pain of the families of those killed during the cowardly terrorist attack at Manchester Arena,” U.K. prime minister Rishi Sunak said on Twitter on Tuesday after the report’s release. “It is my solemn commitment to the victims, survivors and their loved ones that we will learn from the lessons of this inquiry.”
For nearly four years, the deadly shooting of trap artist Kevin Fret has remained an unsolved and salacious mystery that cast a pall over the Latin music scene in Puerto Rico.
After Fret, 24, was shot twice on Jan. 10, 2019, while riding a scooter in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan, his mother Hilda Rodriguez publicly accused reggaeton star Ozuna and his manager of ordering the death of her son, charges they have denied and that have not been proven.
Now the prosecutor who was assigned to the investigation, Betzaida Quiñones, says that unbeknownst to Fret’s family and the public, only three months after she began her probe, she was told by superiors to shut it down. In April of 2019, she was interviewing a witness, whom she did not name, when she received a phone call from a superior with a message: “From that point on I was not going to continue interviewing that person,” she said Tuesday on WAPA-TV’s Cuarto Poder. The investigation was at its “peak,” she said, “and I was never given an explanation.”
Quiñones’ public statements over the past week, made in a series of television interviews in Puerto Rico, have called the murder investigation into question, raised concerns about undue influence from the rich and powerful and added to questions about Wanda Vázquez, the former attorney general and ex-governor, who was Quiñones’ ultimate boss.
In statements to the media, Quiñones has said that Vázquez and Olga Castellón, the head of the criminal unit in 2019, were involved in the alleged freezing of the investigation.
Public officials, including the island territory’s governor and its current attorney general, Domingo Emanuelli, have promised to investigate the claims. On Thursday (Nov. 3), Emanuelli said that after reviewing “reports and documents related to the case” that he was referring the matter to the division of Public Integrity and Comptroller Affairs for further review.
“These are serious allegations that should be examined in greater detail in accordance with laws and regulations,” the attorney general said in a statement on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Emanuelli said “there should be no doubt that if evidence of any improper intervention arises it will be investigated, no matter who the person is. We are not going to put the integrity of the Department of Justice and its officials at risk for anything or anyone.”
Ignacio Fernández, an attorney for Vázquez, defended the former governor. “It’s an absolute lie,” Fernández tells Billboard. “Why did [Quiñones] wait three years? She had an obligation to come forward at that time. If she doesn’t have the moral rectitude to not bend to powerful people, then that is on her.”
Fernández also defended Castellón, saying “there is no way that Olga would agree to anything like that. She would investigate her own mom if she had to.” (A spokesperson for the U.S. Justice Department in San Juan, where Castellón is an assistant U.S. Attorney, had no comment.)
Quiñones’ claims that higher-ups influenced the investigation have also renewed concerns about the San Juan police department’s handling of the murder probe. A police spokesperson tells Billboard that the case was transferred this September from the homicide division to its Major Crimes division that deals with cases of “high complexity.”
One of the homicide officers originally involved in questioning witnesses, Tito Rivera Hernández, took a selfie with Ozuna at the police station in February of 2019 following a police interview with the Latin star, which Rivera Hernández later posted on his social media accounts.
Col. Roberto Rivera, the head of the investigative branch of the Police Bureau, said this week that his office had filed an administrative complaint against the officer related to his handling of the probe and had put him on leave pending results of the review. Rivera Hernández, who is currently working with a team of federal agents, would be reassigned to another police division if the federal team does not keep him on, according to El Nuevo Día, a Puerto Rican news outlet.
The colonel said that until this October no other agent had investigated the Fret case and that the time Rivera Hernández dedicated to the murder probe “was not extensive” and “not what one expects from such an investigation.” (Rivera Hernández could not be reached for comment.)
Quiñones’ allegations also add to the scrutiny on Vázquez, who was Puerto Rico’s attorney general from 2017 to 2019 and then governor of the island in 2019 to 2021. In August, the Department of Justice arrested her and charged her with bribery and conspiracy in an alleged scheme to finance her 2020 campaign. (She has plead not guilty and expects to go to trial.)
Persons of Interest
In April of 2019, police officials told Billboard that investigators were searching for “two male persons of interest” and were “using every resource at [their] disposal to find these persons,” as well as following up on anonymous tips.
That April, Quiñones interviewed Vicente Saavedra, who is president of promotion and marketing agency Dímelo Vi, as well as Ozuna’s manager, for more than three hours. She also had planned to interview reggaeton and trap singer Arcángel.
But just days later, she said this week, she received a phone call from a superior telling her to shut down the probe. “I had a list of possible suspects, which was communicated at one point to the chief prosecutor [Castellón],” Quiñones said on Cuarto Poder. “It was a list of the possible people who could have participated in Kevin’s murder.” She added that, “obviously, [Fret] was active at that time in the musical world, which was what he wanted to pursue.”
After his meeting with the prosecutor, Saavedra said the prosecutor’s questions focused only on allegations that Fret had extorted money from Ozuna over a pornographic video that Ozuna had appeared in when he was a minor. Saavedra said he was not asked about Fret’s murder and that Quiñones told him he was not a person of interest in the case. (Quiñones said publicly in January of 2019 that she was not investigating Ozuna for the slaying. A police spokesperson this week would not tell Billboard if Ozuna was a person of interest in the case because the probe is ongoing.)
Nevertheless, Rodriguez, Fret’s mother, who lives in Massachusetts, has been insistent that Ozuna and Saavedra were somehow involved. “I know that it was [Ozuna] who ordered my son to be killed, together with Vicente Saavedra,” Rodriguez said in a TV interview in April of 2019. She alleged that Ozuna and Fret, who billed himself as the first gay trap Latin singer, had engaged in an “intimate relationship.” She said she had turned over text messages of conversations between the two artists to law-enforcement officials.
Ozuna’s attorney, Antonio Sagardía, told Billboard this week that Ozuna was only questioned about an alleged extortion scheme by Fret — not about the murder itself. He was not asked back for a second interview, the lawyer said. The controversy involving the alleged freezing of the investigation “has nothing to do with Ozuna,” Sagardía said. “That’s an internal matter with the Department of Justice.” (Sagardía has said his client had “nothing to do” with Fret’s murder.)
Rodriguez has denied that her son had engaged in extortion. After Fret found a link to Ozuna’s pornographic video, “the only thing Kevin asked of him was to help him sing as a featured artist on a song,” she said. According to Rodriguez, “Ozuna said, ‘No, I’m going to give you money and I want you to send me the link so that I can erase the video.” But she added that her son wasn’t the only person that had the video. Rodriguez claimed that her son did not want Ozuna’s money and that he would never have mad the video public.
Fret’s mother said that Ozuna gave her son almost $400,000. Both Ozuna and Sagardía have said that at least one payment was made to Fret, but the lawyer put the amount at “close to $50,000.”
Almost two weeks after Fret’s death, a portion of the video in question, which depicted a teenaged Ozuna masturbating, was leaked to the internet and quickly went viral. That same day, Jan. 23, 2019, the artist apologized to his family and fans via a prepared statement, which also said he had been the victim of an alleged extortion plot hatched by Fret.
After she was told to stop questioning witnesses in early April of 2019, Quiñones says she asked for both verbal and written explanations, writing a memo to the Department of Justice asking why it was being held up. “None of my memos that I sent to the Department of Justice were ever answered,” she said on Cuarto Poder.
The recent move by the police to move the case to the Major Crimes unit, the prosecutor says, “opens another window for a full investigation.” And while significant time has passed since the slaying occurred and the evidence was fresh, she says she hasn’t “lost faith” that “eventually we will know the truth of what happened.”
For months, industry executives from Warner Music Group to Kobalt have been steadily beating a drum for investing in the Middle East and African markets.
On Thursday (Nov. 3), it it looked like the investor interest swirling around the region may be codified when Frankly magazine reported that Spotify was considering buying Anghami, the Arab-speaking world’s most popular streaming and content service. Billboard could not independently verify the report, however, and a source close to the situation refuted its contents. A Spotify spokesperson says the company has “no news to report regarding any potential acquisition.” Still, investment bankers say we are likely to see increasing investor interest and action around music assets in these markets, as song catalog prices remain elevated and the challenging macroeconomic outlook for North America and Europe slows down the pace of dealmaking there.
Financial players say that the dominant music streaming platforms and labels are looking to extend their global reach through popular streaming companies like Anghami in the Middle East and Boomplay and others in Africa because of those regions’ rapid growth, comparatively positive economic outlooks and the explosive potential for converting free subscribers to paid.
Anghami CEO and co-founder Eddy Maroun declined to comment on the acqusition reports out Thursday, but in a late-September interview Maroun confirmed the company has been approached by interested parties in the past.
“We believe what we are on to as an opportunity is big,” Maroun told Billboard at the time. “Until now we are independent, and we wish to remain independent as long as it’s in line with our company goals.”
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) was the fastest-growing region globally last year, with revenues up 35% to $89.5 million and a market that nearly doubled between 2019 and 2021, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). More than 95% of MENA revenues came from streaming, and paid subscribership is expected to double by 2030.
“This sends a very big message to every industry player that this is a hot region and that this is where growth is,” Maroun said in September.
Launched in 2012, Anghami is the first and most popular streaming and content company focused on Arabic-language music, with about 58% of the Middle East’s market share and around 20 million active users, according to company filings.
With investors including the Saudi Arabia-backed firm MBC Group and Middle East Venture Partners and partner Sony Music Entertainment Middle East, with whom Anghami launched a joint venture record label last year, Maroun and co-founder took Anghami public in February.
After listing on the NASDAQ through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company, Anghami stocks have fallen nearly 75% to $2.56 on the NASDAQ as of Thursday. Meanwhile, the company reported first-half 2022 revenues increased by almost 30% and monthly paid subscribers rose by 41% to 1.28 million. Bank sources described that growth as “encouraging,” and say that Anghami’s low stock price could make it an appealing acquisition for companies like Spotify.
For its part, Anghami aims to diversify its business with an entertainment division that houses a content creation studio, runs Anghami’s record label, Vibe Music Arabia, and operates a chain of music venues and lounges, the first of which recently opened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In addition to MENA, music and streaming companies in Sub-Saharan Africa, where music revenues grew by 9.6% last year, are steadily gaining big industry investors.
Major labels like Sony Music Group are adding staff to local offices in West Africa — where Sony previously had just two people — and Warner Music Group is leaning further into their strategy to acquire record labels and distribution companies in Africa, one of five priorities it pitched to investors during their 2020 IPO roadshow, say bankers familiar with the matter.
“French copyrights and Latin American copyrights became popular a little earlier,” says Michael Ryan-Southern, Goldman Sachs’ global head of music and live entertainment investment banking. “Now we’re seeing more and more music coming out of these local territories and therefore [companies] need to invest to make sure they are capturing that funnel of new artists locally to exploit globally.”
In its most recent Music In the Air report, Goldman Sachs analysts said Africa presents “a significant opportunity over time” and specifically highlighted Boomplay, one of the leading music streaming services, with 60 million monthly active users and a rapidly expanding song catalog.
Sources say streaming services and other companies that provide infrastructure for music are currently more appealing investment opportunities than catalogs by popular artists in the region because investors fear those are less mature assets with unknown decay rates.
Executives from Warner Music Group, Reservoir Media, Primary Wave, Kobalt and others have called out Africa and the MENA region in their emerging markets growth strategies in recent months.
U.S.-based Reservoir Media is one of the most vocal companies about the opportunity it sees in the Middle East and Africa. With its partner, the United Arab Emirates-based independent music company PopArabia, Reservoir recently bought the Egyptian label 100COPIES, the Lebanese label and music publisher Voice of Beirut, and signed publishing deals with Egyptian rapper and singer Mohamed Ramadan, Lebanese indie singer songwriter Zeid Hamdan and Moroccan hip-hop star 7liwa.
On a recent call with investors to discuss Reservoir’s earnings, the company’s founder and chief executive Golnar Khosrowshahi said emerging markets investments are a key part of the company’s diversification strategy.
“The thing about the emerging markets is that we could do high-volume deals, but at significantly lower price tags than what we do in Europe … North America, etcetera.,” Khosrowshahi said.
Outgoing Warner Music Group CEO Stephen Cooper said in September that Warner’s share in the Africa and MENA markets has grown from 10% to 30% in recent years through partnerships with record labels and distribution companies, and it aims to continuing investing in the region.
“Great content, great entertainers, great storytelling is starting to transcend language, and there’s a recognition that the next global chart-topping songwriter can come from anywhere in the world,” says Aaron Siegel, Goldman Sachs global head of entertainment investment banking. “That is a theme that major labels and publishing companies are willing to bet on.”
Grammy Award-winning DJ and producer Tiësto joined forces with multiplatinum singer-songwriter Tate McRae and Dubai’s new ultra-luxury resort Atlantis The Royal to create their new single “10:35.” The song is accompanied by a music video highlighting the new high-end destination, and will appear on Tiësto’s upcoming album Drive, due out Feb. 24 via Atlantic Records.
“I’m very excited to be partnering with this iconic new property,” said Tiësto. “Tate and I wanted to create a song that captured the energy of an experience at Atlantis The Royal, and I’m proud to say the feeling of 10:35 and this property are both infectious! So excited for the world to finally hear it.”
“I’m happy to announce I’m doing a partnership with the Atlantis The Royal property in Dubai with Tiësto,” added McRae. “It’s always exciting to branch out and work with different brands and artists,” added McRae. “The music video is unlike anything I’ve seen before, and the hotel is just unreal.”
Encapsulating the essence of Atlantis The Royal, “10:35” is inspired by Dubai’s newest addition to its skyline. When first introduced to the resort’s architectural plans — the resort was designed by NYC’s Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates — Tiësto honed in on the duality of the daytime experience of luxury versus the nighttime’s focus on entertainment. This juxtaposition fueled the idea for the time where day turns to night and the experience that comes with that shift — hence, “10:35.”
McRae, who spent time growing up in the Middle East, proved a perfect partner for the track.
Slated to open in early 2023, Atlantis The Royal is 43 stories at its highest point and boasts nearly 800 rooms, dozens of pools, multiple celebrity chef-led restaurants and a skybridge connecting the two main sections of the resort.
Atlantis The Royal Dubai
Courtesy Photo
“We are beyond excited that Tiësto, a music icon, and Tate McRae, one of today’s hottest stars, have joined forces to create this incredible track to celebrate Atlantis The Royal,” said Tim Kelly, managing director of Atlantis Dubai. “’10:35′ completely captures the vibe and energy of the hotel and expresses the unmatched daytime and night-time experience we have to offer. Shooting the music video at the resort is a show stopping way for us to tease our guests and demonstrate the unrivaled luxury Atlantis The Royal promises ahead of the Grand Reveal in January. This is it.”
“The whole team at Atlantis The Royal have been a pleasure to work with throughout this campaign and Atlantic Records couldn’t be more grateful for their partnership,” added Jonathan Feldman, svp of brand partnerships and sports marketing at Atlantic Records. “Tiësto and Tate McRae created such an incredible song that aligns perfectly with the property. From start to finish the stars have aligned on this and we’re thrilled for the launch of “10:35′.”
Check out the music video for “10:35” below.
Global music copyright generated $39.6 billion in 2021, up 18% from the previous year, according to the latest report by Will Page, industry analyst and former chief economist for Spotify. “The post-pandemic fallout has seen consumer subscriptions and ad-funded streaming continue to soar,” he wrote, “whereas business-to-business licensing by CMOs [collective management organizations] has only partially recovered.”
Streaming accounted for 55% of global copyright revenue, up from 52% in 2020. The industry’s shift to streaming has been dramatic: jJust five years ago, in 2017, streaming accounted for just 30% of global music copyright revenues.
Page brings together four sources of industry data for his analysis: IFPI’s annual Global Music Report, CISAC’s annual Global Collections Report, Music & Copyright’s analysis of music publishing and MIDiA Research’s estimate of royalty-free music licensing services such as Epidemic Sounds — a new addition to his study this year. He removes double counting in the reports, such as some mechanical royalties that are counted as revenue by both record labels and publishers.
Record labels’ revenue grew to $25.8 billion in 2021 from $21.3 billion in 2020 and $19.8 billion in 2019. In terms of market share, record labels improved their percentage of global revenue to 65.2% in 2021 from 63.4% in 2020 and 60.6% in 2019 — a sign of healthy consumer spending on subscription services such as Spotify and Apple Music.
On the flip side, publishers’ share of global revenue dropped to 34.1% in 2021, from 35.7% the year before. Still, as Page points out, this is more equitable than other points in history. In 2001, when labels’ revenues were peaking at the height of the CD sales boom, publishers received just 23% of revenues. In 2014, however, when label revenues had deteriorated, publishers were growing modestly and CMOs reported “record-breaking collections” up to 45% of global revenues. Record labels grew faster than publishers over the next seven years, however.
Record labels’ share of revenue increased due to “the recovery in consumer spend on music,” according to Page, “which traditionally favors labels over publishers.” The trend was amplified by the pandemic’s impact on business licensing – such as performance rights blanket licenses for retail, radio and concert venues – that favors publishers over labels.
Had the pandemic not occurred, performing rights income would have likely grown at 6% a year and would “arguably” be $1 billion greater today – a possible $9.4 billion rather than the actual $8.4 billion. On the other hand, wrote Page, “had the pandemic not happened, streaming may never have accelerated the way it did.”
Royalty-free music is a small part of the global music business but growing quickly thanks to the increasing need for easily licensed music on online platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. MIDiA Research put the value of royalty-free music – meaning the license is a one-time purchase without residual royalties – at $250 million in 2021.
LONDON — Paul Pacifico, the outgoing CEO of the U.K.’s Association of Independent Music (AIM), has been hired to head the Saudi Music Commission, which is responsible for developing and championing the burgeoning music sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Pacifico takes up the post in January. He will succeed Mohammed Al Mulhem, who is listed on the Saudi Music Commission website as the incumbent chief executive.
The Saudi Music Commission was established by the Ministry of Culture in 2020 as part of a wider push to grow Saudi Arabia’s economy and status as a high-end global tourist destination.
The commission says its objective is overseeing the development of Saudi’s music market through building world-class infrastructure, providing universal access to music education, empowering music artists and creating job opportunities in the country, which has a population of 35 million.
Specific market data for Saudi Arabia’s music industry isn’t currently available, with IFPI grouping the country within its Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regional statistics. According to IFPI’s latest Global Music Report, MENA was the fastest-growing region in 2021, with recorded music trade revenues growing by 35% to $89.5 million.
International artists have, however, often faced strong criticism for performing in Saudi Arabia and helping promote a country widely accused of human rights abuses.
Last year, the Human Rights Foundation and the fiancée of murdered Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi led calls for Justin Bieber to cancel his headline performance at a concert in the Red Sea city of Jeddah to mark the end of the Formula One season.
Despite public pressure for Bieber to pull out, the concert went ahead on Dec. 5, with R&B singer Jason Derulo also performing at the show. In 2019, Nicki Minaj canceled her appearance at a concert in Jeddah. At the time, Minaj said she was boycotting the show in support of women’s rights, gay rights and freedom of expression.
Only a few years ago, concerts were banned in Saudi Arabia, where ultraconservative norms prevailed, and unmarried men and women were segregated in public spaces. That changed with the appointment of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, who has introduced sweeping reforms to modernize the country, attract foreign investment and create jobs for youth.
MDLBEAST Soundstorm, the biggest music festival in the region, launched in the capital city of Riyadh in 2019, while its latest edition set to take place Dec. 1-3 with performances by DJ Khaled, Post Malone, Bruno Mars, Wizkid, David Guetta, Marshmello, Tiësto and Carl Cox, among others.
“It is truly remarkable to see the level of support and the pace of change within Saudi Arabia as it builds a strong music sector for all to participate in,” Pacifico said in a statement announcing his appointment. He called the opportunity to help further develop the market a “huge privilege” and said he was looking forward to working with colleagues to “build a vibrant, inclusive and effective music sector.”
It is not known if Pacifico will relocate from the U.K. to Saudi Arabia when he takes up his new post.
In August, Pacifico announced he was stepping down as CEO of AIM after six years at the head of the organization, which represents more than 1,000 independent labels, artists and music companies, including Beggars Group, Domino, Warp and Ninja Tune.
Pacifico’s term as CEO officially ended on Oct. 31, but he is continuing in the role until the end of the year when his successor takes over.
Key achievements from Pacifico’s two-term tenure include last year’s Music Climate Pact, an industrywide initiative to decarbonize the record business backed by all three major labels and dozens of indies.
Pacifico is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain and is featured in Billboard’s 2022 International Power Players list. He spoke on behalf of the indie sector during last year’s U.K. Parliament probe into music streaming. And during Brexit negotiations and the COVID-19 pandemic, he petitioned the British government for greater support for independent musicians and music companies.
Prior to joining AIM in 2016, Pacifico served as CEO of the UK’s Featured Artist Coalition and founding president of the International Artist Organisation.
The anti-hero of the Nov. 5-dated Billboard charts, Taylor Swift tallies 20 debuts on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. Every song from the expanded, “3am Edition” version of her new album Midnights launches in the top 40 of the former and the top half of the latter, led by “Anti-Hero” at No. 1 on both rankings.
The 20 songs on the set – which soars in at No. 1 on the U.S.-based Billboard 200 albums chart with the biggest week (by equivalent album units) in seven years – collectively drew 1.16 billion official streams and sold 211,000 downloads worldwide in the week ending Oct. 27, according to Luminate. That’s the biggest global streaming figure for an album this year, passing Bad Bunny’s 1.06 billion clicks in the week ending May 12 upon the arrival of Un Verano Sin Ti.
The 13 titles on the standard edition of Midnights garnered 973 million global streams, accounting for 84% of the set’s overall streaming figure despite equaling 65% of the total track listing. Standard-version tracks averaged 75 million clicks, compared to 26 million for “3am Edition”-only tracks. (The original version of Midnights arrived at midnight ET Oct. 21, followed by the “3am Edition” at, when else, 3 a.m.)
While standard Midnights songs scored nearly three times the global streams as their deluxe counterparts, the opposite was true in the sales market. The seven extra songs sold a combined 138,000 downloads worldwide, while the 13 standard songs amassed 73,000 (as many consumers likely purchased the set’s original version as a whole and upgraded to buying the seven bonus cuts à la carte, activity also reflected on the U.S.-based Digital Song Sales chart).
Meanwhile, Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy,” the No. 1 song on both global charts the previous four weeks, falls to No. 6 on the Global 200, acting as the only interruption to Midnights’ near-total takeover atop the tally, as the 13 standard-edition tracks are Nos. 1-5 and 7-14. The seven additional songs rank at Nos. 21-22, 24, 30-31, 35 and 37, giving Swift half the chart’s top 40 songs.
Swift has accumulated 94 entries on the Global 200, leading all acts, over Lil Baby (69), Drake (61), Lil Durk (55) and Bad Bunny (52), since the survey started in September 2020. She also owns the record on Global Excl. U.S. with 75 entries, besting Bad Bunny and Drake at 52 apiece.
Sony Music has set up a joint venture with label ONEWAY. Records focused on English-language repertoire from Israel.
ONEWAY. Records, which was founded by music executives and brothers Josh and Sam Fluxgold, who formerly managed Dennis Lloyd, the Israeli indie-pop artist known for his 2016 single “Nevermind” (released by Warner Italy).
The new venture will work to discover and develop new artists from Israel with “international appeal,” Sony says in a press release.
The Fluxgolds discovered Lloyd and helped guide his international success, which has featured Gold and Platinum records across several markets and sold-out world tours in the U.S., Europe and Australia. “Nevermind” peaked at No. 86 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 2018 and reached No. 3 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart.
“Josh and Sam have a proven track record for breaking Israeli talent abroad,” said Daniel Lieberberg, president of Sony Music Entertainment Continental Europe and Africa, in a statement.
The Fluxgolds will remain in Toronto, Canada, where they run ONEWAY., a Sony Music spokesperson confirms.
“During our time working in the Israeli market, we recognized the substantial talent that is being overlooked and underrepresented in the region,” the Fluxgold brothers said in a joint statement. “Together with our partners at Sony Music, we look forward to showcasing the unique Israeli sound and artists that the world has been missing.”
Sony will continue to lead its Israel business from its Continental Europe and Africa Head Office in Berlin, a spokesperson says, in contrast to its two main rivals, which have set up operations there over the past three years. Universal Music Group opened an office in Tel Aviv in 2020, becoming the first major label to set up standalone operations in the country; it is led by Yoram Mokady, a lawyer and entertainment executive. Universal Music Publishing Group followed suit in 2021, hiring Itamar Shafrir as general manager of the new outpost.
Warner Music Group said in May that it was launching Warner Music Israel and would open an office in Tel Aviv. Running the new imprint is Mariah Mochiach, general manager of Warner Music Israel, a veteran A&R and artist manager who worked for more than 10 years at Lev Group Media, which has acted as an Israeli distributor for Warner Music.
While still a relatively small market, Israel is a growing territory that ranked 27th in global music collections in 2021, with 35.6 million euros ($35.2 million), up 5.5% from 2020, according to international collections body CISAC. Pop artists like Noa Kirel, who is signed to Warner Music imprint Atlantic Records, are big at home but have struggled to cross over, though that could change for Kirel, who is slated to represent Israel at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, U.K. (Israel has won the contest four times since 1978.)
Last year, UMG and Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment said they would award an international recording deal to the winner of the upcoming season of The X Factor Israel, something previously unheard of in the Israeli music market. Cowell was set to be a judge on the fourth season of the show but pulled out in May of 2021, Variety reported.
Members of Duran Duran teased a 2023 tour, saying they would return to the U.S. and Europe, and lead singer Simon Le Bon revealed his favorite U.S. venue of all time.
In an onstage chat at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on Thursday (Oct. 27), before premiering their docu-concert film, A Hollywood High, the British new wave legends — Le Bon, keyboard player Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor — confirmed they will be back on the road next year.
“We are going to be touring again next year,” John Taylor said. “Nothing is confirmed yet, but we will be coming back to the Los Angeles area. We are going to be in Europe, we are going to be in the U.K.”
Roger Taylor added that the band will hit “all the cities that we didn’t do in the U.S.”
Duran Duran has kept up a busy touring schedule in 2022, playing 35 dates including Midsummer at Skansen near Stockholm and Sommerstemning Lillestrøm near Olso and headliner performances at Tuscany’s famed La Prima Estate Festival near Lido di Camaiore and a special one-night engagement at Caledonian Stadium in Inverness, Scotland.
The band spent August touring U.S. arenas, including a stop at Madison Square Garden in New York on Aug. 25, and an epic three-night run at the Hollywood Bowl for the release of their fifteenth studio album, Future Past.
The band is slated to perform a Halloween show on Monday at the Wynn Las Vegas’ Encore Theatre but would not reveal their costumes — though they did rule out dressing as Santa Claus (Rhodes), an M&M (John Taylor) or a jelly fish (Le Bon). Rhodes said his recent trip to a costume store left him “quite cross” because it was dominated with Christmas wear. “All the fabulous creatures were gone,” Rhodes said.
Responding to an audience member question, Rhodes said the band may also release their next album, Reportage, in 2023. “It needs a little work, but it’s possible,” he said.
On Thursday, Duran Duran celebrated Le Bon’s birthday (which is also his father’s) with the movie premiere audience — which sang happy birthday to him before the 75-minute film screened in Dolby Vision-Atomos. The film delves into the band’s early history and connection with Los Angeles to set up a performance earlier this year on the rooftop of the Aster, a private members club in Hollywood. While the group performs at sunset a drone captures sweeping shots in the background of the Hollywood sign and the Capitol Building, which at one point during the show was lit up in the yellow and light blue of Ukraine’s flag in a show of support for the nation’s effort to repel an invading Russia.
The band confirmed that in its four-decade history it had never performed a show on a rooftop, but that it made more sense during pandemic. “We kind of had to be talked into it,” John Taylor said, noting that the band initially planned to perform on a flatbed truck driving along Sunset Boulevard to promote their three-date Los Angeles swing. But that “started getting problematic,” Taylor said. “There was a point where there was a slope. And we were like, ‘How are we going to keep the drums on this?’”
Duran Duran said that the rooftop gig wasn’t intended initially to be turned into a film. “We document a lot of what we do, and it generally just goes into the archive and nobody every sees it,” John Taylor said. The show “was essentially a showcase to launch the American tour. And the fact that we didn’t know we were making a movie, you get an authenticity that you wouldn’t get if we knew we were making a film.”
Roger Taylor said that co-director Gavin Elder “kind of snuck up on us with this film. He didn’t’ really tell us he was making a movie … and [as a result] it’s very real.”
The film hits theaters in the U.S. and around the world on Nov. 3.
While the rooftop was a new special memory for the band, when asked by an audience member what was their favorite U.S. venue of all time, Le Bon enthusiastically endorsed Denver’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre. “You go there, and you look at it and it looks like some ancient alien, space-faring race had just dumped this spaceship there a million years ago,” he said, “and we turned it into a music venue.”
Additional Reporting by Dave Brooks