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19 Dec 2022

Fyre Festival Felon Billy McFarland Says Prison Pal-Turned-Investor Is Trying to Extort Him

Most people probably didn’t even realize that Billy McFarland, founder of the failed Fyre Festival was out of prison until he popped up on TikTok Oct. 24, with a video showing an old pirate-style map taped to a whiteboard. He was hyping a new project that he claimed would be “a little crazier and a whole lot bigger than anything I’ve ever tried before.” Full details would follow in November, he said, as he pulled off the map to reveal a phone number, “but this time, everyone’s invited.”  

It’s been over four years since McFarland’s planned Fyre Festival on Great Exuma in the Bahamas imploded, leaving concertgoers with soggy sandwiches and emergency tents instead of Blink-182 and luxury accommodations. A year later, he was perp-walked into Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center after being arrested for selling tickets he didn’t have to events like the Grammy Awards and the Met Gala, while out on bail awaiting sentencing for fraud charges after stealing $26 million from investors in Fyre Fest.  

McFarland tells Billboard in an exclusive interview that his new idea will help him pay back the $26 million the judge in the Fyre Festival case ordered him to reimburse those investors. He says he came up with the idea during a tough stretch in solitary confinement, where he was sent after the prison warden realized that he had recorded a podcast while locked up.  

“Ninety percent of the ideas that I had in there were for pure survival,” says McFarland. “If I wasn’t brainstorming this project, I would have gone crazy — it’s hell.” 

His idea, which he first shared with his longtime girlfriend Anastasia Eremenko, a Russian-born model featured in the documentary Fyre Fraud, was to start smaller, by talking small groups of people into traveling to Great Exuma — then get bigger. So, he started posting videos and appeared on Good Morning America and the Full Send podcast talking up “PYRT” — pronounced “pirate” — which he described as a luxury Bahamas resort property, clothing line and digital metaverse that would kick off with a global treasure hunt. The prize, he said, was a private island in the Bahamas. 

In October, before he posted the first TikTok video, he had even invited potential investors to sit in on a call with a regional Bahamian official, who assured McFarland he was welcome back on the island, according to Peter Vincer, the producer of the Dumpster Fyre podcast, which told McFarland’s story.  

But, it won’t be that easy. On Nov. 14, Bahamas Acting Prime Minister Chester Cooper released a statement that the government would not approve any event affiliated with him. “He is considered to be a fugitive,” the statement read. “Anyone knowing of his whereabouts should report same to the RBPF” — the Royal Bahamas Police Force.  

Until then, McFarland assumed the bigger problem would be getting permission from his probation officer to leave the Southern District of New York. “That was personally super tough,” McFarland says about his Bahamas ban. “The reality is that I owe a lot of workers money for their work on the festival, and they need to get paid back. And I just don’t have the money right now.” 

That wasn’t his only problem. By the time he posted his first TikTok video, McFarland had fallen into a financial dispute with the lead investor in PYRT, who he met in Elkton Federal Correction Institute in Ohio, and the investor’s young business partner, Eric Bratcher, an alienated McFarland fan, now says his main goal in life is to “be known as the person who brought down Billy McFarland.” 

Bratcher’s beef with McFarland is personal. He says he put his life on hold to help McFarland publish his memoir and launch PYRT, a project that Bratcher believes could have been successful had it not been for repeated misrepresentations by McFarland about its finances. (McFarland said he was always forthright about the PYRT’s money situation.) 

Bratcher had invested with a businessman — identified by The Daily Beast as John Taylor — who put $640,000 into PYRT, mostly with wire transfers and checks made out to McFarland’s longtime friend and partner in PYRT, Michael Falb. Taylor, a private investor who served four years in prison for sex trafficking a 15-year-old prostitute, helped capitalize McFarland’s business without a contract or formal agreement. 

Months after Taylor made that investment, McFarland kicked Taylor out of PYRT, which Taylor had been managing as one of three partners. Taylor says he was fired after he started to raise questions about how money was being spent, but McFarland tells Billboard that he fired Taylor because he had lied to him about the details of his conviction.  

Bratcher was also let go because of his connection to Taylor. And since Bratcher had been hired to transcribe some of McFarland’s notes from prison to turn into a memoir that McFarland said he had a publishing deal for, he threatened to auction off the notes if McFarland didn’t pay him $75,000 to $150,000 for the work he had done. McFarland says he never told Bratcher he had a publishing deal in place. 

A little more than a week before McFarland appeared on TikTok, he offered to buy out Taylor from the company in a deal that would have repaid his $640,000 investment, plus an additional $360,000 over the next six months. (Taylor says that he considered his investment in PYRT to be a loan collateralized against the $2 million book deal that McFarland allegedly told him he had made.)  

Taylor didn’t believe that McFarland would be able to pay him back, so he countered that he wanted his money back in a week, plus an additional $5 million over the next two years, according to emails provided to Billboard. McFarland’s attorneys rejected this offer on Oct. 31, despite threats from Taylor and Bratcher to tell the FBI and the U.S. Probation and Parole Office that McFarland had misappropriated Taylor’s investment. After McFarland’s attorneys rejected Taylor and Bratcher’s offer, Bratcher tells Billboard that he and Taylor did go to the FBI.  

Amid all of this, McFarland is still planning PYRT. “One of the things I should have done early on is cut out all of the jail people from my life,” McFarland says. He’s still pushing forward, despite this fight, his ban from the Bahamas, or the issues involved in raising investment after a fraud conviction. After all, he owes his $26 million under the terms of his sentence, and how else could he possibly raise it? 

McFarland was able to garner more than $26 million for Fyre Festival because he offered potential partners more than just a return on investment. Most ventures show plenty of potential on paper. McFarland’s also offered something that potential investors couldn’t buy: status.  

“People will give you money if you can give them access to something they don’t have,” McFarland wrote in a draft of his memoir, which Bratcher showed to Billboard. (He does not have a book deal.) So, to raise money for the Fyre Festival, he created a sizzle reel with video of Ja Rule and IMG models in swimwear on jet skis, and showed potential investors pictures of the island where Fyre would take place. When that wasn’t enough, according to an SEC complaint, McFarland resorted to forgery.  

Among the documents McFarland created for investors was a false revenue report which showed that Fyre Media, the festival’s parent company, had generated $34 million (actual revenue: $1.5 million); a fake brokerage statement showing McFarland owned $2.56 million worth of Facebook shares (real holdings: $1,599 in shares) and a fabricated email from a private bank saying McFarland had been approved for a $3 million personal loan. McFarland created enough fake documents to be convicted of criminal fraud, defined under U.S. law as “intentional deception to benefit yourself or someone else.” He was ultimately sentenced to six years in prison and served four and a half years in five different facilities.

McFarland started serving his time in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, a squalid prison where billionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was found hanging from his lower bunk in 2019. After his sentencing, McFarland was moved to Otisville Federal Correctional Institute in New York, a minimum-security camp for white collar criminals that operates on the honor system and has also housed Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino and Donald Trump confidants Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. There, McFarland was caught with a digital recording device, thrown in solitary confinement for three months and shipped off to Elkton Federal Correction Institute in Lisbon, Ohio. 

In Elkton, McFarland met Taylor, now 49, who loved scuba diving and had battled cocaine and alcohol addictions for most of his life. Despite being two decades apart in age, Taylor and McFarland became close behind bars, where they would talk business and discuss their mutual interest in startups. After Taylor was granted early release in April 2020, the men promised to stay in touch. 

Six months later, Taylor was ready to be part of McFarland’s first redemption project — the Dumpster Fyre podcast, produced by publicist and media executive Peter Vincer with Notorious LLC. The concept for the show was to document McFarland’s life in the general population of Elkton as prison officials dealt with a brutal COVID-19 outbreak that killed nine inmates. Prison officials had no idea McFarland was recording episodes of Dumpster Fyre from the prison phone until a trailer for the show aired. Hours after airing, McFarland was again hauled off to solitary confinement for a six-month bid, the hardest time he says he served behind bars. 

“It’s fucking awful,” says McFarland, adding that he lost track of time, as hours, days and later weeks ran into one another. “As soon as you lose hope, you go crazy.” 

It was in solitary confinement that McFarland first came up with the idea for PYRT, a fantastical island getaway in the Bahamas that would be part hotel and part digital universe, linked together through VID/R technology that would allow digital visitors and real-life resort guests to interact. 

To generate awareness, PYRT would begin with a major stunt — the crash of a twin engine prop plane on the pristine beaches of Norman’s Cay (“…Aviation experts will be engaged to adhere to environmental and local regulations,” McFarland wrote in the draft of his memoir.) The crash would then kick off a global treasure hunt that would end where it began, in the Bahamas where the crashed plane would be converted into a diver’s reef, not far from a luxury hotel that would serve as PYRT headquarters. 

McFarland continued to work on PYRT once he was released from solitary confinement in April 2021, then came up with an investor deck, which he sent to Taylor. When McFarland was released, Taylor was one of the first people to show up at the halfway house McFarland moved to, and he eventually gave McFarland and his business partner, Falb, a total of $640,000 — about $590,000 in wire transfers to Falb, about $40,000 through a debit card, and about $10,000 in cash. Bank records show that Taylor transferred $8,000 to $10,000 a month into a bank account and that McFarland was withdrawing money from the account at an ATM near his apartment. 

McFarland says Taylor knew how he was spending the money and only shut down the account after the two had a falling out. It’s unclear why Taylor — who has a background in lending and originated and financed more than $100 million in international loans, according to his company’s website — would hand over so much money without any paperwork. 

Whatever arrangements McFarland makes to pay back Taylor, he already owes $26 million to his former investors, and he says he has already found some ways to make money — recording videos for the app Cameo, signing a trading card deal and working on a TV project. But he still believes that PYRT represents his best bet for paying back his victims and moving forward with his life. 

Eventually, that is. “I’d be stupid to say I could pay the money back in seven years or some set amount of time,” McFarland says. “Unless I win the business lottery, that’s just not realistic.”  

19 Dec 2022

How Red Rocks Amphitheater Raised $165K for Charity in 2022 By Tapping Into Artists’ Fan Bases

A social impact tech platform long aligned with the music industry has found success at the iconic Red Rocks amphitheater near Denver, raising money and awareness for more than a half-dozen non-profits working with nearly 30 artists and comedians in 2022. 

Founded by CEO Brandon Deroche in 2015, Propeller was originally created for the band Incubus to help raise money for their foundation and educate donors about the various nonprofit groups the foundation was supporting, Deroche explains. It was designed to promote “a deeper level of involvement from the fans,” beyond charitable giving, he continues, educating fans on how to support causes by volunteering, advocacy work and contacting their local legislators.

“Fans might have known that a dollar per ticket from the show they attended went to a good cause, but they don’t always know who the organization is and what that organization does,” Deroche says. “It’s a missed opportunity to turn those fans into supporters of that cause. And that’s a big aspect of what Propeller tries to do – provide education and understanding of the different ways fans can take action.”

The goal for many non-profits, Deroche says, is to expand their marketing efforts to a younger audience, which is more difficult to reach in the current media landscape. By working with Propeller, non-profits are able to tap into the active fan bases of many artists, he explains.

The decision to partner with a venue was part of a larger effort to expand Propeller’s footprint and meet different types of audiences and artists. While Deroche was looking for the right venue partner, the city-owned management team behind Denver’s Red Rocks amphitheater was also looking for new charity-based partners to expand the venue’s own impact. After averaging about 80 shows a year for the past decade, Red Rocks had won approval to host 200 concerts in 2022 and was looking for ways to create a more meaningful experience for its growing audience.

“We recognize that artists want to have an impact, and venues do too,” says Brian Kitts, director of marketing & communications at Red Rocks. “When Propeller came along and said they could match the venue with the artist and the organization, we felt like it was the complete package.”

Propeller connected with every performer from the more than 200 concerts at Red Rocks in 2022, offering each the opportunity to support a cause of their choice with special activations including exclusive post-show meet and greets, memorabilia and side stage viewing access. That included an after-party with The Black Keys and Molson Coors for fans who took action to support Save The Music, with 100 winners selected from the audience at Red Rocks and chartered via private shuttle buses to a secret dive bar location. 

“They make it really easy for me to show up, participate and raise awareness and a little bit of money for a good cause,” says comedian Bert Kreischer, who gave away free tickets and airfare to see his show at Red Rocks in September in an effort to raise money for Climate Action Now.  

Before each show, a short video is shown encouraging fans to take action for the chance to win a ticket upgrade. Propeller also operates an interactive booth with a prize wheel on Red Rock’s upper deck section to engage fans. 

In total, Propeller interacted with more than 95,000 music fans and raised $165,784 in its first year, “a very impressive first year here at Red Rocks,” says Kitts.

Propeller covers the costs of the activations and getaways included in the promotions it runs and collects a fee from each charity and non-profit it represents. Deroche says Propeller will be back in 2023 and is looking to expand even further.

 “We learned a lot,” Deroche says. “We feel like we barely scratched the surface on what’s possible there. Next year we are looking to go a lot bigger with our efforts and really dive in and apply everything we’ve learned.”

19 Dec 2022

Jung Kook, Maluma, Ozuna & More Musicians at FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar: Photos

The 2022 FIFA World Cup officially concluded Sunday (Dec. 18) when Argentina and France faced off for the esteemed soccer title. Lionel Messi led Argentina to victory in the game, which came to a close after the team beat France 4-2 following a penalty kick shootout. The World Cup also resulted in a series of thrilling performances from some of the world’s biggest musicians, which continued throughout the monthlong tournament.

The opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup took place Nov. 20 at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Qatar, and sent BTS ARMY into a tizzy, as Jung Kook appeared on the stage — notably without the rest of the K-pop septet to accompany him — to perform “Dreamers,” one of the many official songs that appear in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Official Soundtrack. During the performance of “Dreamers,” the BTS singer was joined by Fahad Al Kubaisi.

Latin music stars were also in attendance at the World Cup, notably Maluma and Ozuna. Maluma took the stage with Lebanese singer Mryiam Fare for their song “Tukoh Taka,” which also features Nicki Minaj and serves as one of the official FIFA Fan Festival songs. Ozuna took the stage alongside French-Congolese rapper Gims (in a mash-up performance including Davido and Aisha) to perform a live rendition of their track “Arbho” at the games’ closing ceremony.

See photos from all the musicians featured in this year’s FIFA World Cup below.

19 Dec 2022

How Mickey Factz Made The First-Ever Hip-Hop Academy

As a professor, Method Man isn’t calling attendance, he doesn’t care who shows up late, and he damn sure isn’t going through bullet points on a syllabus. Wearing glasses, a baby blue Versace t-shirt and a navy baseball cap with the rim to the back, Meth is sitting down, carefully but effortlessly rolling a blunt as he prepares to address the student body.

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No, this isn’t some scene from How High. This is real life, and Method Man is the instructor tonight on a class held via Zoom called “Rhymecology.”

“The anxiety in the studio bruh, because Doc is incredible,” Meth says, giving props to his How High co-star and longtime friend Redman, when questioned by a student about collaborating. “I give credit where credit is due. That dude, he is music… The reason I said ‘anxiety’ is because you want to be at your best…. This n—a is going in the booth spitting straight ether every f—in’ day. And you gotta keep up, son. Even outside the studio, onstage. He helped my creative process so much. Big bruh molded me into the MC I am today.”

Throughout the night, Meth shares revelations, advice, tutelage and insights on everything from the genius of rap battle MCs (“The most brilliant rappers in the world — these muthaf—-s is driving the culture right now”), to being “miserable” for eight straight years making music, to constructing hooks, to his goal for his legendary hip-hop family, Wu-Tang Clan. And that is the Wu making it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“I want that for my crew,” Meth declares. “We have a very strong stake in that.”

Rhymecology, dedicated to the mental health aspect in hip-hop, is just one of the courses laid out as part of the curriculum at the virtual school, Pendulum Ink Academy. At Pen Ink, one of the prime goals is “nurturing creativity through lyricism.”

Pendulum was conceived, developed and co-cultivated by Bronx wordsmith Mickey Factz, who ascended in rap during the rise of the blog era in the mid 2000s. He quickly became adept at multimedia marketing skills (Mickey’s marketing firm and indie label GFC New York had Nipsey Hussle on their roster of clients looking for help with branding), and showcased his wordplay through his freestyles, mixtapes and song collaborations, which helped him landed on the cover of XXL’s coveted Freshman Issue in 2009.

Along with his cover stars Wale, Kid Cudi, and Curren$y, Mickey was tapped to be a leader of the new school. Fast forward to 2019: Mickey was 10 years removed from being up next, and contemplating what was going to be next in his life.

“It was an epiphany moment,” Factz, sitting in his Atlanta high rise office, recalls. After a decade in the game, he felt he has reached his ceiling. “I was like, ‘I kind of feel like this a dead-end job for me right now. I’m working album to album. This doesn’t make sense to me. What am I gonna do when it’s time to retire?’ I started thinking about retirement a lot. So I was like, ‘You know what? I need to retire into teaching.’”

Mickey began researching how he could actually teach without a degree, and came to the conclusion that, sans the credentials, it was almost impossible. The rapper (born Mark Williams) had attended NYU and was a paralegal at a law firm before dropping out of school and quitting his job to focus solely on his rap career in 2007. Even if he had graduated NYU and became a lawyer like he was tracking to do, Mickey says there weren’t too many schools willing to make hip-hop an actual course in 2019 anyway.

Then the pandemic hit, and while so many of us were sequestered at home, Mickey locked his focus on MasterClass. Hip-hop icons such as Nas and Timbaland were lecturing virtually for a fee. Factz felt he found his pathway to rap retirement.

“I DMed them, ‘Yo, I would love to work with you guys,’” Factz recalls. “They hit me back a couple hours later like, ‘Yo man, don’t call us. We’ll call you.’ That was January 2021.

“I’m from the Bronx, man,” Mickey continues with a light chuckle, before revealing his found extra motivation in the wake of MasterClass’ rejection. “I said, ‘Aight. I’m gonna make my own MasterClass.’”

On Dec. 1, 2021, Mickey lectured an online class of 10 people — he was hired for $250 to speak for an hour. Factz realized that not only could he teach students, but he knew his dream could grow. “You can’t do a MasterClass of hip-hop in one class,” he explained. “It’s impossible in terms of writing.”

Factz reached out to his friend, battle rapper Chilla Jones, for help. Jones began to contact some of his associates, and soon a five-man team was formed. Together they came up with an eight-month curriculum, and Pendulum Ink Academy was created. 

Along with the core brain trust of the Academy (all of whom teach classes), Pendulum boasts certified college professors on their staff, and courses like Rap Theory, where the students learn cadence and how to rhyme on beat. Rap Theory is taught by jazz musician Comikbook Cam. Meanwhile, Chilla teaches Advanced Technique: Pendulum Ink has 35 rap techniques copyrighted, and put names to skills that MCs have been displaying their entire careers.

“Some of these courses were rejected at universities,” Factz says. “Criminology in Hip-Hop was rejected by three universities. So I said to our professor Ahmariah Jackson, ’Listen, come here. I’ll pay you. Teach it once a month.’” 

Pendum Ink launched last February, and Factz recalls not knowing exactly what to expect. “February 24th, we had our first person sign up,” he says. “They paid the full tuition, $2,000. Then every day after the 24th, for about 45 days, people were paying. I was like, ‘Alright, we got something here.’ And mind you, this is the beta [stage], just six courses: Rap Theory, Advanced Rap Techniques, Rhymecology, Mickey Money Class, Battle Rap, Content Creation Class.”

Soon after, Mickey signed up some of his close friends and peers to be guest teachers for these classes. “I told them I had a school and then I walked them through it, and then I asked them if they want to teach or give a lecture,” he remembers. “They said ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘Good, because I pay.’ I find it easier for them to do this than to do a record.”

Phonte from Little Brother, Masta Ace and Cory Gunz were all among his first phone calls. Fittingly, Inspectah Deck was Pendulum’s very first guest lecturer: Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was the first album Mickey bought with his own money as a kid. “Its essential to bring back the art form, and Pendulum Ink does that,” Deck says. 

“It’s a gift to receive instruction from a living legend,” says Pendulum student, Al Billups. He signed up and participated in the recent Rhymecology class with Method Man. “The opportunity to peel back the layers of a composition with the actual creator is a treat for any fan of the culture. Participating in a Pendulum Ink session exposed me to an incredible instructional ecosystem that is designed to help MC’s gain a better understanding around the nuances of lyricism.”

Pendulum Ink’s graduation is set for February 26, 2023; Bun B is confirmed as commencement speaker. Veteran hip-hop journalist Sway has also been tapped to participate in the ceremony along with Big K.R.I.T., Stalley and Skyzoo.

Pendulum Ink also just started a nonprofit organization called Pen Pals, where kids from 7 to 17 can learn how to MC. Pen Pals will also serve as space for known MCs to learn how to teach. Factz says his hope is that some of those MCs could be professors at universities one day.

“I want them to have a crash course in our lexicon,” he notes. “You can do it your own way, but structure is very important.”

One of Pen Ink’s students has been hired at Fredrick Pilot Middle School in Boston, and is teaching some of the Academy’s programs to kids ranging from 11 to 14 years old. Meanwhile, Factz himself has accepted an offer to teach at the University of Hawaii, and will teach one month at a time for the whole of March, July and November.

Pendulum Ink has also delved into the actual ink game with their very own textbook coming next year, featuring a foreword written by Big Daddy Kane. The roster of new professors coming to teach in year two of the academy is shaping up to be impressive: Big Boi, Pharoahe Monch, Rah Digga, K.R.I.T., Lord Finesse, AZ and DMC are all locked in to give lectures, while Black Thought has agreed to be the 2024 commencement speaker at the graduation.

“Ten years from now, I’ll be 50,” says Factz, “and God willing, I’ll have three [physical] schools across the country. I’ll have one in the Bronx by 2027, then one here in Atlanta and one in L.A.” The former Freshman still performs shows and puts out his music independently, but says, “I want to have schools for hip-hop and lyricism. I want to be able to create jobs and opportunities for younger students and older people to be able to make money from. It’s important that the culture remains within with us. Because let me tell you something, if I didn’t do this, somebody else not of the culture would’ve done it.”

19 Dec 2022

Here’s Why Fans Think RBD Is Planning a Comeback Tour in 2023

RBD fans, get excited: The Mexican pop group just announced some exciting news on social media.

On Monday (Dec. 19), the @RBD_Musica Twitter and Instagram accounts shared a minute-plus video, captioned “Soy Rebelde,” which combines a scene from the telenovela Rebelde and recent footage of group members Anahí, Dulce María, Maite Perroni, Christian Chavez and Christopher Von Uckermann at an intimate dinner. Alfonso “Poncho” Herrera is not in the clip.  

“You know what’s my dream?” Anahí said in the snippet from the telenovela. “I dream of being able to go back in time and that one day everything will be as before.” In that same clip, Von Uckermann replied “maybe we can’t go back but we can still hold it for a while.” 

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The social video — which comes on the heels of all the members clearing posts from their Instagram accounts — is accompanied by a Soy Rebelde website that leads to a save the date. “Prepare your tie, January 19, 2023,” the site noted.

Though Anahí, Perroni, Chávez and Von Uckermann reunited in 2020 for the virtual event “Ser o Parecer,” and considering it’s been more than a decade since RBD’s last concert, fans on social media believe the group will announce its highly awaited comeback tour next month. The hashtag #RBDTour2023 also became a trending topic on social media. However, we will have to sit tight until the big announcement is unleashed on Jan. 19.

The band, inspired by the hit telenovela Rebelde (2004-06), became an unstoppable force, performing sold-out shows around the world. On the Billboard charts, RBD had a total of seven entries on the Billboard 200 chart, including Rebelde, Celestial and Nuestro Amor and eight entries on Top Latin Albums, with six hitting the top 10. Over on Hot Latin Songs, the band had 10 total entries and out of those, five hit the top 10.

19 Dec 2022

Savoy Brown Founder Kim Simmonds Dies at 75

Kim Simmonds, founder of Savoy Brown, died on Tuesday (Dec. 13), according to a statement released by the band. He was 75 years old.

“Kim Simmonds passed away peacefully in the evening of December 13th — may he rest in peace,” the group shared on social media. “Please note one of Kim’s last requests was to thank the fans of Savoy Brown — your support was and shall always be immensely appreciated.”

In August, the blues guitarist announced that he had been fighting stage 4 colon cancer — specifically, a a rare form called signet cell colon cancer –for more than a year. He noted that the chemotherapy he was receiving had made it difficult for him to play his instrument due to the side effect of “peripheral neuropathy which has now deadened the nerves in my fingers and hands (feet too).” At the time, Brown explained that his type of cancer “is rarely found early enough to provide a chance for cure,” and occurs in less than one percent of cases.

While Simmonds initially formed The Savoy Brown Blues Band in 1965 with singer Brice Portius, bassist Ray Chappell, drummer Leo Mannings, keys player Trevor Jeavons and harmonica player John O’Leary, he remained the sole constant member of the band throughout nearly six decades of lineup changes. Throughout their career, the band released more than 40 studio albums with the two most recent — Ain’t Done Yet and Taking the Blues Back Home: Live in America — arriving in 2020.

Read Savoy Brown’s tribute to Simmonds below.

19 Dec 2022

Machine Gun Kelly Picks Legal Fight With ‘HouseBroken’ Network Over Rival ‘Diablo’ Trademarks

For Machine Gun Kelly and Fox, the devil might be in the details.

Citing the name of Kelly’s 2019 album Hotel Diablo, lawyers for the superstar last week quietly launched a legal battle to block the television network from securing a trademark on the term “Diablo” — the name of a character on Fox’s animated sitcom HouseBroken.

Fox Media LLC applied to register the term as a trademark for selling a wide range of goods “in connection with an animated, dog-like character.” That was clearly a reference to “Diablo,” an anthropomorphic terrier voiced by Tony Hale on the hit animated show, which rolled out its second season earlier this month.

But in a case filed on Tuesday (Dec. 13) at the federal trademark office, lawyers for Kelly’s company Lace Up LLC argued that Fox’s trademark was “confusingly similar in overall commercial” to the term “Hotel Diablo,” meaning consumers might be duped into thinking that Kelly was somehow involved in the Fox merch.

Kelly’s lawyers appear to have filed the case because their own application, seeking to register “Hotel Diablo” as a trademark, was suspended earlier this year due to the existence of the Fox “Diablo” application.

Released on July 5, 2019, Hotel Diablo wasn’t as big a hit as Kelly’s more recent chart-topping albums Tickets To My Downfall and Mainstream Sellout, but it still reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and eventually spent 20 weeks on the chart.

In December 2020, Kelly’s Lace Up LLC applied at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to secure a trademark registration on the album name — a maneuver commonly used by major artists that makes it easier to sue over fake merch, online scammers and other brand infringements. Kelly’s company already owns such a registration for his “MGK” logo, and is currently seeking similar protection for “Machine Gun Kelly” itself as well as the name of his famous “Rap Devil” diss track and many other terms he claims as trademarks.

But in February, the USPTO suspended Lace Up’s application on the grounds that it might be confusingly similar to Fox “Diablo” application, which had been filed six months earlier in June 2020.

So last week, Kelly’s lawyers filed the current case at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, a court-like body within the USPTO where rival trademark owners can battle over who has better rights to a disputed name. They say the star has “priority of use” and that Fox’s application must be denied.

“Because of the similarity between the DIABLO Mark and the HOTEL DIABLO Mark, and because the goods covered under the DIABLO Application are related to the goods sold under the HOTEL DIABLO Mark, consumers are likely to be confused, mistaken, or deceived into believing that Applicant’s goods originate with Opposer or are in some way associated with or connected, sponsored, or authorized by Opposer,” Kelly’s lawyers wrote.

The filing of the case will initiate a lawsuit-like proceeding, in which Fox will have a chance to respond to defend its “Diablo” trademark and the board will ultimately issue a ruling. But many such disputes end with settlements, including with a simple agreement that the two brands can co-exist peacefully without confusing consumers.

An attorney for Kelly’s company and a rep for Fox did not immediately return a request for comment.

19 Dec 2022

How Much Does Mariah Carey Make From ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’?

Mariah Carey‘s holiday classic, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” is the gift that keeps on giving for its writers and label. In 2021, the master recording of Carey’s version of her song, co-written with Walter Afanasieff, generated 1.747 million song consumption units in the U.S., according to Luminate. Of that, 48,000 were from track downloads, 200 million came from on-demand audio streams, 52.5 million came from video on-demand streams and 24 million from programmed streams.

Combined, those plays and downloads generated $1.36 million for Carey and her label, Sony Music, Billboard estimates.

Meanwhile, the song’s publishing, including mechanicals for the track from the physical sales of five Carey albums it appears on brought in another $378,000 last year.

However, the U.S. only accounted for 51% of download sales and 30.7% of on-demand streaming, so when you look at the song globally and take into account a total of 94,000 song downloads and 823 million streams, Billboard estimates that in 2021 the Carey master recording version of the song brought in almost $4.5 million, while its publishing royalties generated another $1.66 million. Combined, that comes to $6.16 million in global revenue and publishing royalties.

Of the master recording revenue, Billboard estimates Carey’s royalties at $1.55 million, which would leave Sony with $2.95 million.

As for publishing, she is one of two songwriters credited on the song —Afanasieff being the other — so if they each wrote 50%, that means that Carey’s share of the publishing would be $830,000. If she owns her publishing, after a 10% administration fee her take home pay would be $747,000. If she has a 75/25 co-publishing deal, her share would be just over $622,000; and if she doesn’t own the publishing on that song, her publishing royalties would be about $415,000.

This estimate excludes cover versions of the song and the revenue from whatever financial arrangements were struck for Christmas TV specials and soundtracks from those television shows.

According to Songview, the joint ASCAP and BMI song database system, the publishers for Carey’s holiday staple are Beyondidoliztion and Universal Music Corp, both administered by Universal Music Corp., which probably means Universal Music Publishing Group; Sony/ATV Tunes Inc. and Tavla Vista Music, both administered by Sony Music Publishing; and Higpnosis SFH I Ltd, administered by Kobalt.

19 Dec 2022

Jimmy Iovine Shares His Pro Tips for Producing a Hit Christmas Album and What He Loves About Some of His Favorite Holiday Songs

Since the business of Christmas music is growing so fast – it occupies five of the top 10 places on the Billboard Hot 100 this week – we are re-presenting some of our stories from Christmas past. This piece, about Jimmy Iovine’s “Pro tips for producing a hit Christmas album,” originally ran in 2019

As Christmas music compilations go, only two have stood the test of time: The first, 1963’s A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector, featured songs performed by the “Wall of Sound” producer’s stable of artists, including The Crystals, The Ronettes and Darlene Love. The second, A Very Special Christmas, is the 1987 collection of holiday tunes executive-produced by Jimmy Iovine before he went on to co-found and run Interscope Records; found with Dr. Dre (and then sell for $3 billion) Beats Electronics; and serve as the architect for Apple Music. The album was an extremely personal endeavor for Iovine — a tribute to his father, Vincent “Jimmy” Iovine, who loved Christmas and died in 1985 at the age of 63. In 2014, Iovine told Billboard that making the project “was the purest thing I’ve ever done.”

Stacked with the most popular artists of the time — many who remain popular and relevant to this day, including Madonna, Whitney Houston, Run-D.M.C.,  Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Sting, John Mellencamp, Chrissie Hynde and U2 — A Very Special Christmas, an A&M Records release, went on to sell some 4.7 million copies (when its RIAA double-platinum certification and post-1991 Nielsen Music numbers are combined). It also spawned nine more volumes — Iovine was only minimally involved in the second — that have raised over $100 million for the Special Olympics.

Given the initial album’s success — the lion’s share of its tracks continue to be holiday season staples on radio and streaming — Billboard Pro asked Iovine for his do’s and don’ts of producing a hit Christmas album. In the process, he talked about some of his all-time favorite Christmas songs (see carousel) and why they will always be part of his holiday-music playlists.

Do Use Top Talent “If you don’t want to make disposable Christmas music, don’t start with disposable artists. You’ve got to work with artists that are going to last,” says Iovine. “When I play Christmas music, I play Spector’s album, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Nat “King” Cole — the people that will be around forever.”

Don’t Do It for the Money “I made that album from my stomach and my heart. I didn’t give a shit what we did with the money. I just knew we were going to give it away. And no one — not A&M, not a publisher, none of the artists, not me — made a dime from that record. That’s why $100 million has gone to the Special Olympics.”

Do Be Original “If you are doing a Christmas album, you’ve got to come at it in a unique way. If you are going to take on Phil Spector producing Darlene Love singing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” you’ve got to go with a male [singer], because you can’t touch it otherwise.” Hence, U2’s exuberant cover on A Very Special Christmas, which captures the longing of the original without copying it, thanks to Bono’s soaring vocals. Iovine says the song was recorded backstage in Scotland before one of the band’s shows “in a giant room with real echo — ‘our version’” of Spector’s famed Wall of Sound.

Don’t Fear the Corny “Some parts of Christmas are corny — and that’s cool. Over the top is good at Christmastime.”

Do an Album — Even If It’s a Compilation “A Very Special Christmas had a feeling behind it and an idea. There was supposed to be joy and a tug at your heart at the same time. It wasn’t made like, ‘Here’s 10 Christmas songs.’ It was made like one artist’s album.”

Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Sequencing “Today no one sequences anything, but when I was making albums, sequencing was almost as important as the songs. A Very Special Christmas is put together like that. The sequencing took forever. I pictured myself at dinner or at a Christmas party, and I would just play a song and ask myself, “Am I bored?” That’s why I opened the album with The Pointer Sisters. They came in and just killed ‘Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.’ And then I went from there. What song comes next is very, very important. What makes a great DJ is he or she gets bored before you do and knows what to play next. That’s what’s missing in a lot of streaming today.”