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Warner Music Group reported quarterly revenue edged nearly 1% lower and net income was down almost 63% for the start of the year, as the label home of stars like Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga struggled with tough comparisons to last year’s quarter.
WMG reported overall revenue of $1.48 billion and recorded music revenue of $1.175 billion, a 1% decline, for the fiscal second quarter, which ended March 31, compared to a year ago. Publishing revenue rose 1% to $310 million. Net income was $36 million compared to $96 million a year ago, due to lower recorded music revenue, a $34-million loss due to exchange rates costing the company more on its euro-denominated loans and an $11 million increase in a certain kind of taxes.
Total digital revenue slipped 1% with streaming revenue roughly flat, which reflects the comparison to last year’s boon quarter, a lighter release slate and market share loss in China.
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WMG CEO Robert Kyncl says these results belie the green shoots showing from company’s cost-cutting and new releases strategy, which he says results in their growing market share of new releases. Songs performed by WMG artists like Mars, Billie Eilish, Benson Boone and Teddy Swims currently claim half of the spots atop Billboard’s Global 200 chart.
“Our strategy is starting to bear fruit, with our strongest chart presence in two years … As a result, our true strength this quarter was partially obscured by challenging comparisons with last year’s outperformance,” Kyncl said in a statement, referring in part to last year’s 13.5% subscription streaming growth. “As we replicate our strategy across other labels and geographies, and drive a virtuous cycle of greater reinvestment, we expect to deliver lasting value for artists and songwriters, and sustained growth and profitability for shareholders.”
Adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) declined 3% to $303 million, and adjusted OIBDA margin decreased half a percentage point to 20.4%.
Because it earns more than half of its income from outside of the United States, WMG releases earnings on constant currency basis — a method that updates last year’s revenue and other line items using this year’s foreign exchange rates.
On a constant currency basis, overall quarterly revenue rose 1% — though recorded music and publishing both still declined by 2% and 5% respectively — and adjusted OIBDA declined by 1%.
The acclaimed crew of screenwriters lined up to pen the scripts for director Sam Mendes’ four Beatles films has been revealed. The names, first reported by Deadline, and confirmed by the official Beatles website, include Tony Award-winning writer Jez Butterworth (Ford v Ferrari, Spectre) Oscar winner Peter Straughan (Conclave, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and BAFTA- […]
Universal Music Group wants a federal judge to dismiss Drake’s updated defamation lawsuit that complained about Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance of “Not Like Us,” arguing he’s just upset about a “rap artist who defeated him.”
Weeks after Drake filed an amended version of his case that claimed the halftime show was intended to “assassinate the character of another artist,” UMG fired back Wednesday – arguing that the new claims about the Super Bowl are as legally faulty as the rest of the case.
“Drake’s new allegations are astonishing,” the music giant’s lawyer Rollin Ransom writes. “As Drake concedes, Lamar’s Super Bowl performance did not include the lyric that Drake or his associates are “certified pedophiles” (i.e., the alleged “Defamatory Material” that is at the heart of this case).”
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“The focus of Drake’s new claims — that ‘the largest audience for a Super Bowl halftime show ever’ did not hear Lamar call Drake or his crew pedophiles — betrays this case for what it is: Drake’s attack on the commercial and creative success of the rap artist who defeated him, rather than the content of Lamar’s lyrics,” Ransom added.
Lamar released “Not Like Us” last May amid a high-profile beef with Drake that saw the two UMG stars release a series of bruising diss tracks. The song, a knockout punch that blasted Drake as a “certified pedophile” over an infectious beat, eventually became a chart-topping hit in its own right.
In January, Drake took the unusual step of suing UMG over the song, claiming his own label had defamed him by boosting the track’s popularity. The lawsuit, which doesn’t name Lamar himself as a defendant, alleges that UMG “waged a campaign” against its own artist to spread a “malicious narrative” about pedophilia that it knew to be false.
UMG believes the case is clearly meritless – that “hyperbolic insults” and “vitriolic allegations” are par for the course in diss tracks and cannot form the basis for a libel lawsuit. The company has pointedly noted that Drake himself was happy to make such attacks, including accusing Lamar of domestic abuse, until he lost the battle.
During the halftime show, which took place weeks after Drake filed his case, Lamar omitted the word “pedophile.” But after much speculation over whether he’d play the song at all, Kendrick really didn’t hold back otherwise – making it the centerpiece of the set and clearly rapping similar lyrics, including: “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young.”
In his amended complaint last month, Drake’s attorneys argued that the decision to censor the word “pedophile” during the broadcast failed to avoid the song’s defamatory meaning – and instead had underscored the rapper’s legal case against UMG.
“Kendrick Lamar would not have been permitted to perform during the Super Bowl Performance unless the word ‘pedophile’… was omitted from the lyrics — that is because nearly everyone understands that it is defamatory to falsely brand someone a ‘certified pedophile’,” wrote Drake’s attorney Michael Gottlieb.
But in Wednesday’s motion to dismiss the case, UMG argued that Drake’s censorship argument was logically flawed.
“Drake contends that the decision not to include the word ‘pedophiles’ … could only reflect that the language is defamatory,” UMG’s lawyers write. “But this ignores any number of other explanations for the decision — such as threats by Drake of additional meritless litigation.”
Wednesday’s motion also highlighted that Drake had “removed obviously false factual allegations” from his original complaint, including that UMG directly paid for bots to boost streams of Kendrick’s track: “Drake is now reduced to citing a different podcast host who claimed that ‘Kendrick used bots’ [and] a now-deleted anonymous X comment accusing Lamar of ‘buying promo.’”
Drake’s lawyers will have a chance to respond to the motion to dismiss in the weeks ahead, and the judge will issue a ruling at some point in the next few months.
Weezer, Car Seat Headrest, Janelle Monáe, Bright Eyes, Aurora and Sylvan Esso are among the headliners for the 2025 Bumbershoot Arts & Music Festival. The 52nd annual edition of the Seattle fest will take place over Labor Day weekend (August 30-31) and feature the usual eclectic mix of music, delicious local food and drink and visual arts programming.
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Other artists slated to take the stage at this year’s event include: The Budos Band, Indigo De Souza, Tank and the Bangas, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Pattie Gonia, Say She She, Hey, Nothing, Quasi, Tennis, Saba, The Linda Lindas, Bob the Drag Queen DJ set, Real Estate, The Murder City Devils, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Spellling, Fat Dog, Bebe Stockwell and Digable Planets celebrating the 30th anniversary of Blowout Comb.
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Bumbershoot Weekend passes are available for $199 through Thursday (May 8), with the Big Gulp joint ticket going on sale for $340 on Friday (May 9) — for both Bumbershoot and the Capitol Hill Block Party (July 19-20) — along with single-day tickets for $125. The festival is also offering a Crew Pack for $800 which features weekend passes for four people; for more ticketing information click here.
In addition to two days of music against the backdrop of Seattle Center’s 74-acre urban campus, Bumbershoot will offer food from local restaurants, Cocktail Corner, VineShoot and BumBEERshoot highlighting the best food and drink from the Pacific Northwest. It will also feature art installations, comedy, runways shows in the Fashion District, a half pipe skate program in the Recess District and a Century 21 District with large-scale contemporary sculptures.
Check out the full lineup for the 2025 Bumbershoot Arts & Music Festival below.
Marking his first solo release in two years, Stormzy has returned with a new freestyle entitled “Sorry Rach!” – listen to the track below.
The Croydon rapper has not released an album since the soulful This Is What I Mean sailed straight to the top of the U.K.’s Official Album Charts in November 2022. In the interim period, he has worked on collaborations with a series of major artists, including Chase & Status (“Backbone”) RAYE (“The Weekend”) and Shawn Mendes and Jacob Collier (“Witness Me”), among others.
In March, Stormzy – born Michael Ebenazer Owuo Junior – picked up a BRIT Award in the fan-voted hip hop/grime/rap act category, beating the likes of Central Cee and Little Simz to the prize. The win followed the criticism he received online for teaming up with McDonald’s earlier this year on a promotional Stormzy meal, a controversy which he addresses on “Sorry Rach!” “I heard they wanna hang me out to dry for a nugget meal,” he raps. “The world might never love your way again but my mother will.”
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The McDonald’s backlash began to spread after some of the 31-year-old’s social media followers pointed out that the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement had previously initiated a global boycott of the fast food chain for their support of Israeli forces in the Israel-Gaza conflict.
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Prior to the collaboration, Stormzy had been vocal in his support for Palestine. In January 2024, he performed alongside acts such as Clairo and Mustafa at an event called Artists For Aid in New Jersey to help raise funds for the ongoing crisis in Gaza. In recent months, meanwhile, the rapper appeared to remove an Instagram post from October 2023 that called for a “Free Palestine.”
Speaking on the latter incident in February this year, Stormzy clarified: “I didn’t archive the post where I came out in support of Palestine for any reason outside of me archiving loads of IG posts last year. In that post, I spoke about #FreePalestine, oppression and injustice and my stance on this has not changed.”
In the same statement, he continued to speak on the reaction to his McDonald’s partnership, adding: “The brands I work with can’t tell me what to do and don’t tell me what to do otherwise I wouldn’t work with them. I do my own research on all brands I work with, gather my own information, form my own opinion and come to my own conclusion before doing business.”
“Sorry Rach!” was followed by a second track, “Hold Me Down,” Wednesday evening (May 7). A poignant ballad that reflects on life in the public eye, the latter arrived with a live performance video.
Elsewhere, Stormzy will be performing a short run of European festival shows this summer, with appearances booked for Norway’s Palmesus, Roskilde in Denmark, and Dour Festival in Belgium. Further information and tickets can be found on his official website.
The late One Direction singer Liam Payne left behind money, property and possessions worth more than £24m ($32m) with no known will when he died last year, official records have shown.
Girls Aloud vocalist Cheryl Tweedy, his former partner and mother of his eight-year-old son, Bear, is legally responsible for Payne’s fortune after being named an administrator for his estate. The pair were in a relationship between 2016 and 2018 but did not marry. U.K. rules of intestacy state that a person’s spouse, and then any children they have, are first claim to the estate.
Court documents also show that music industry lawyer Richard Mark Bray has also been given administrator duties. According to the Letters of Administration, the gross value of Payne’s estate amounts to £28,594,888 ($37,956,568). With the deduction of debts and expenses, the figure comes to approximately £24,279,728 ($32,222,598).
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Last year (Oct. 16), Payne died at age 31 after falling from a third-floor room at the Casa Sur hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Toxicology tests revealed that before his death, the musician had traces of alcohol, cocaine, and a prescription antidepressant in his body. His cause of death was “polytrauma” from multiple injuries and internal and external bleeding, a postmortem found.
At the BRIT Awards in March, Payne was remembered with a video montage showing a clip from his time on The X Factor and then with One Direction, who won seven gongs at the music awards before they went on hiatus in 2015.
Throughout the mid-2010s, the band became one of the most successful pop acts of all time. Comprising Payne, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan, One Direction notched four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, six top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and billions of streams alongside four sold-out world tours.
After the group parted ways, Payne launched his solo career in 2017 with the Quavo-assisted “Strip That Down,” which peaked at No. 10 on the Hot 100 and No. 3 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart. His debut album, LP1, arrived in December 2019.
The Who’s Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey will gather the press in London on Thursday (May 9) for a special announcement tied to a new project titled The Song Is Over.
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According to the band’s official channels, the announcement will include a livestreamed Q&A with fans worldwide, with questions already being collected on social media, building anticipation for what could mark a significant moment in The Who’s six-decade career.
The project’s title references “The Song Is Over,” a deep cut from the band’s 1971 album Who’s Next. The group also performed the track live for the first time in March at London’s Royal Albert Hall, although that rendition was interrupted when Daltrey experienced technical difficulties. “To sing that song, I do need to hear the key,” he told the crowd at the time. “And I can’t hear. There’s no pitch here. I just hear drums, boom boom boom. I can’t sing to that.”
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This would not be the first time The Who has suggested the end of the road was near. In 1982, the band launched what was billed as a farewell tour and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone with the headline “The Who The End.” At that time, Townshend was 37 and Daltrey was 38. Today, Townshend turns 80 later this month and Daltrey recently turned 81.
Longtime drummer Zak Starkey, who briefly exited the band earlier this year, is expected to be part of any future live plans. Starkey left following the Royal Albert Hall show but was soon reinstated. “There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily,” Townshend said.
The band has not confirmed that The Song Is Over will be a tour. Fans have also speculated the project could be a studio album, a biopic or even a new rock opera. Daltrey has discussed the idea of a Keith Moon biopic for years, although no official updates on that project have been shared recently.
The Who last released an album in 2019. Who debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, marking the band’s highest-charting album since Quadrophenia reached No. 2 in 1973.
Full details of The Song Is Over will be revealed Thursday.
Gene Simmons has clarified that not all members of KISS may appear together at KISS Army Storms Vegas, the upcoming three-day fan event scheduled for Nov. 14–16 at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
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“This is much more a fan gathering,” Simmons told 94.3 The Shark radio station in a new interview. “The KISS Army are taking over the Virgin Hotel and we will show up, but I don’t even know if the entire band’s gonna be there.”
Simmons continued, “I know Paul and I are gonna be there, and Tommy. Bruce Kulick probably will show up, and we’ll jam, answer questions and stuff. It ain’t a concert, we’re gonna do none of that stuff. I may even bring my solo band up there just for fun.”
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The event will mark KISS’s first public appearance since the group wrapped its End of the Road farewell tour at New York’s Madison Square Garden in December 2023. Simmons previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in March that the band would not perform in makeup during the Las Vegas event, staying true to their vow that the MSG show was their final appearance in full costume.
“There’s no stage show. There’s no crew. We won’t have 60 people levitating drum sets and all that stuff,” he said at the time.
KISS Army Storms Vegas will celebrate the fan club’s 50th anniversary and will feature Q&A sessions with Stanley, Simmons and longtime manager Doc McGhee.
Additional performances will include sets from Thayer’s former band BLACK ‘N BLUE, former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach and tribute acts MR. SPEED and KISS Nation: The KISS Tribute Show. Kulick, who played with KISS from 1984 to 1996, is also scheduled to perform. It remains unclear if drummer Eric Singer will participate.
“There might be some KISS tribute bands, almost like a convention, if you will. So it’s much more personal. And of course, we can’t get by without playing, so we’ll get up and do some tunes,” Simmons added. “What they are, how long, I don’t know.”
Brooks & Dunn remember the first two ACM Awards they won in 1992, when they snagged both top new duo of the year and duo of the year.
“It felt like we were in the game,” said Kix Brooks. “Those were our first major awards.”
“I remember we were walking the off the stage, I was looking this way, and [Kix] was looking that way, and we were both fighting back tears,” Ronnie Dunn added.
Twenty-five ACM awards later, including winning the coveted entertainer of the year three times, the acclaimed duo received another award Wednesday night (May 7): the ACM Diamond Chairman’s Award. The honor, presented at the ACM Lifting Lives Gala at the Omni PGA Hotel in Frisco, Texas, goes to an artist who has left a mark on the academy and on the country music industry as a whole through their artistry and humanitarian efforts.
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The evening, held the night before the 60th ACM Awards, raised more than $1.3 million for ACM Lifting Lives, the philanthropic arm of the academy, which provides aid to people in need through health-related initiatives, including national music therapy programs, mental and physical health organizations, children’s hospitals and more.
The pair, talking to Billboard at the start of the evening, were more than happy to lend their name to raise money for a good cause. “If we can find something that somebody can attach anything that’s worthwhile and good for something, then we’re good to go,” Dunn says.
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They were feted by a number of artists who had grown up on their music and many of whom had developed deep personal ties with the most successful duo in the history of country music.
Keith Urban remember shortly after moving to America from Australia hearing the duo’s music, when songs like “Brand New Man” and “Hard Workin’ Man” “were just leaping out of the radio with so much energy,” Urban told Billboard. “They weren’t just great songs, they were great records.”
Urban, who performing a smoking version of “Brand New Man,” first met Brooks when Urban and his then band, The Ranch, were playing in a dive bar called Jack’s Guitar Bar that held around 80 people, “with wretched shag carpet everywhere that was beer soaked and just dreadful.” Brooks had heard of the band and after a formal event one evening came into the bar with his wife. “Kix is dressed to the nines and so is Barbara in this absolute sh-thole pub,” he says with a laugh. After finding the last seat for his wife, Brooks sat on the carpet in his tuxedo “and watched our whole set.” Even though The Ranch didn’t have a record deal, Brooks extended an offer to have the band open for Brooks & Dunn, which they did in 1997.
Similarly, Brooks & Dunn took Megan Moroney, who performed a sultry version of “Ain’t Nothin ‘Bout You,” out on her first arena tour in 2023. “They kind of took me under their wing. I would come out and sing ‘Cowgirls Don’t Cry’ with them every night, and I remember being really nervous to do that. Their confidence kind of [rubbed] off on me a little bit, and made me feel more comfortable,” she says. “I thought that that was really sweet of them to take a chance on me and let me open up for them. It was like a dream come true for me and my parents, so anytime I’m asked to do anything for Brooks and Dunn, I’m there.”
After growing up on Brooks & Dunn’s music, Cody Johnson first met them when he performed “Red Dirt Road” with the duo on 2019’s Reboot collection, which reimagined some of the pair’s greatest hits with other artists. The first line of the song, “I was raised off of Rural Route 3,” always resonated with Johnson because he actually was raised off a Rural Route 3 in Texas, just as Dunn was in Arkansas. “We just hit it off. I think that they figured out that they were my heroes, but also, I didn’t treat them any different,” he said. “And even though I was a young aspiring artist, they didn’t treat me any different either.” Johnson performed “Red Dirt Road” to open the gala’s entertainment portion and will perform the song with the duo on the ACM Awards on Thursday.
Lainey Wilson electrified the crowd with a soaring version of “My Maria,” and called the duo on stage with her to sing the last half of the song. “I was not expecting you to get up here with me,” Wilson said with a laugh after they finished the song to great applause.
“They truly are the soundtrack of my childhood,” she said backstage. “We used to steal my daddy’s hunting spotlight, and we’d turn all the lights out in the house, and my sister would follow me around the living room with [my singing into] a hairbrush. ‘My Maria’ was one of the ones that I would belt out. It is pretty wild to think that I actually really know them now.” As Dunn once again proved as he hit “My Maria’s” sky-high notes, “he is one of the best singers on the face of the earth,” Wilson said. “It’s like how is this even coming out of [his mouth?]”
Also performing in honor of the duo were Zach Top, who played “My Next Broken Heart” and Eric Church, who sang “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone.”
The evening closed with a singalong on “Play Something Country” with Brooks & Dunn, Church, Wilson, Urban, Top and Moroney.
Brooks & Dunn, who released Reboot 2 in 2024, are inching toward recording an album of new material, which would be their first since 2007’s Cowboy Town. “We’re kicking along,” Brooks says. “We’re working on it, we’re pushing that row,” Dunn says, adding that their new label chiefs at Sony Nashville—chairman/CEO Hilary Lindsey and president/COO Ken Robold—are also encouraging them to progress. “We’ve got a label that we had a really great meeting with. They can’t make us make a record, but they would love to see us do it,” Brooks says. “They don’t want to put out a record that’s not a great record.”
The pair also acknowledge they are among the top tier league of acts who have been so successful that they are competing with their own legacy.
“He’s not a country artist, but I love quoting Billy Joel,” Brooks says, “He said ‘I haven’t made a new record in [32] years and it’s working quite well.’”
But they admit there’s the nagging feeling that they have more left to say. “I still think we have the juice to be able to sell a new one,” Dunn says. “I just want to put one more through the goal posts.”
Parkway Drive, one of Australia’s heaviest musical exports to date, have returned with “Sacred, their first new piece of music in three years.
Released on Thursday (May 8), the new single sees the heavy metal quintet drawing upon their 22-year history to deliver a piece of work that is a fitting representation of their past and an indication of what the future holds.
“The mission statement for ‘Sacred’ is pretty damn simple. An anthemic wrecking ball of positive energy,” vocalist Winston McCall explained in a statement. “Our lives and the way we exist in the world has been pushed further and further through the lenses and frames of negativity and hopelessness. Obsession with everything we lack, everything we hate, everyone we blame, everything that keeps us down.
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“We sell the unique parts of us most precious just to buy back manufactured pieces of self in order that we may feel whole again,” he added. “‘Sacred’ is our identity. ‘Sacred’ is our time. Never lose sight and never lose hope.”
The release of “Sacred” comes just weeks before the band perform a sold-out, black-tie symphonic show at the iconic Sydney Opera House on June 9, before embarking on an extensive run of North American dates as part of the Summer of Loud tour with Beartooth, I Prevail, and Killswitch Engage.
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Parkway Drive first formed in the coastal New South Wales town of Byron Bay in 2003, issuing their debut album two years later. They received their first top ten album in Australia with 2007’s Horizons, which also hit No. 27 on the Top Heatseekers charts. 2010’s Deep Blue launched a four-record run which saw the group consecutively charting within the top 40 of the Billboard 200, with 2015’s Ire resulting in a peak of No. 29.
Alongside becoming their first release to top the Top Hard Rock Albums chart, Ire also was their first of three consecutive records to top the Australian charts. “Sacred” is Parkway Drive’s first release since their 2022 album Darker Still, which saw them receive their third ARIA Award for best hard rock or heavy metal album
Parkway Drive – 2025 North American Tour Dates
June 21 – iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, FLJune 22 – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre, Tampa, FLJune 24 – Lakewood Amphitheatre, Atlanta, GAJune 26 – Dos Equis Pavillion, Dallas, TXJune 27 – Germania Insurance Amphitheater, Austin, TXJune 28 – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston, TXJuly 1 – Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, Phoenix, AZJuly 2 – Gallagher Square at Petco Park, San Diego, CAJuly 5 – Great Park Live, Irvine, CAJuly 6 – Toyota Pavilion at Concord, Concord, CAJuly 8 – Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre, Salt Lake City, UTJuly 9 – The JunkYard, Denver, COJuly 11 – Somerset Amphitheater, Somerset, WIJuly 12 – Capital Credit Union Park, Green Bay, WIJuly 13 – Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, ILJuly 15 – Budweiser Stage, Toronto, ONJuly 16 – Pine Knob Music Theatre, Clarkston, MIJuly 18 – Ohio State Reformatory, Mansfield, OHJuly 19 – York State Fair, York, PAJuly 20 – Northwell at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NYJuly 22 – Xfinity Center, Mansfield, MAJuly 23 – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden, NJJuly 24 – PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJJuly 26 – Jiffy Lube Live, Bristow, VAJuly 27 – PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte, NC
