primary wave
Warner Chappell Music has signed a global publishing agreement with hitmaking songwriter John Ryan. With six writing and production credits on Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet and cuts with Thomas Rhett, Teddy Swims, Harry Styles, Benson Boone, Maren Morris, Maroon 5, Niall Horan and more, WCM president of North America, Ryan Press, calls Ryan “a pop powerhouse.”
Primary Wave has partnered with the estate of Ric Ocasek on the late Cars songwriter’s publishing catalog as well as his name, image and likeness rights. The terms of the deal will see the publishing company work with all the songs from his time with the “Magic” band and his songs as a solo artist.
Audius, a decentralized music streaming service and community platform, has signed a global licensing agreement with Kobalt. The deal provides a new revenue stream for Kobalt’s roster of songwriters, and it creates a pathway for the music fans who use Audius to support their favorite artists with direct U.S. dollar payments. This is the latest in a string of deals Audius has made this year with the music business establishment to ensure proper licenses are in place and that musicians can get paid from the platform. This includes new agreements with ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR.
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UMPG UK has signed producer and writer James Ford to a global publishing administration deal. Though he is best known as a creative collaborator of top acts like Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode via Foals, Florence and The Machine, Haim, Gorillaz and Jessie Ware, Ford also recently launched his own solo project with the 2023 album The Hum.
Savan Kotecha, renowned for his work with The Weeknd, Ariana Grande and One Direction, has joined forces with major Indian talent management company REPRESENT to launch Outwrite, India’s first incubator for songwriters. With Outwrite, Kotecha hopes to start a global hub for songwriters, producers, musicians, and engineers, offering end-to-end solutions for everything related to music creation and supervision, and to bring more Indian musical talent into the top writing rooms.
Big Yellow Dog Music has signed Trent Tomlinson to a global music publishing deal. Tomlinson is best known for penning hits like “Damn Strait” by Scotty McCreery and “In Case You Didn’t Know” by Brett Young as well as other artists like Lainey Wilson, George Strait, Chris Young, and Sara Evans.
Sony Music Publishing has signed an exclusive worldwide co-publishing agreement with hit songwriter and producer Jeremy Stover, covering his future works. As part of the deal, Sony has also acquired several of Stover’s songs, including hits by Tim McGraw and Justin Moore, underscoring its ongoing creative partnership with RED Creative Group. Stover, known for his current singles like Justin Moore’s “This Is My Dirt” and Ashley McBryde’s “The Devil I Know,” continues to work with major artists such as Luke Combs, Priscilla Block, and Travis Denning.
Position Music has signed Erik Ron to a worldwide publishing deal. A go-to collaborator in the rock and alternative space, Ron has worked with the likes of jxdn, Bad Omens, Huddy, Ellise, Charlotte Sands, Maggie Lindemann, Loveless, Jack Harris, MOD SUN, Emei, Sueco, Neoni, grandson, nothing,nowhere., Papa Roach and more.
Position Music has signed Fabio Aguilar to a global publishing deal in collaboration with Grammy-winning producer Keanu Beats. The news arrives on the heels of Auilar’s BMI Hip Hop Award win for co-producing “HOTEL LOBBY (Unc & Phew)” by Quavo and Takeoff. Just 22, Aguilar is a producer, loop specialist, beatmaker, and instrumentalist, he is also known for working with the likes of Lil Baby, Jack Harlow, NLE Choppa, Roddy Ricch, Denzel Curry and Logic.
Downtown Music Publishing (DMP) today announces a global music publishing deal with PDU, the record label and publishing company from iconic Italian singer Mina. Under this new agreement, DMP will provide global publishing administration and sync services for Mina’s prestigious catalog.
Campbell Connelly, part of Wise Music Group, has signed an exclusive songwriter agreement with Josephine Stephenson. The deal further cements Stephenson’s relationship with Wise Music Group. (Her concert repertoire is published by Leduc through Wise’s offices in Paris.) A composer, arranger, and performer, Stephenson has worked as an arranger or performer with Damon Albarn, Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys and Daughter.
ESMAA, an Abu Dhabi-based rights management entity representing global music stakeholders in the Gulf and Middle East, and Anghami, a top music streaming platform in the Middle East and North Africa region, have agreed on a new music licensing agreement on behalf of independent music publishers. The deal marks the resolution of a legal dispute between ESMAA (representing PopArabia and Reservoir) and Anghami.
Mr. David Washington stands on the grounds that he has tended for decades, amid the Georgia Pines that flood much of the property, as the early-morning June heat creeps across the lawns. Now in his 70s, he’s quick to laugh and does so often, each one punctuating his thick, Southern drawl as he tells the story of the day, some 35 years ago, when Mr. James Brown called out to him and changed his life.
It was the late 1980s, and Mr. Washington, as everyone calls him, had gotten off a 12-hour shift at the cotton mill in Graniteville, some 14 miles away, and gone straight to Mr. Brown’s estate in Beech Island, S.C., when the Godfather of Soul summoned him to the house’s front porch. He had a series of pointed questions for his groundskeeper: Did he smoke? Nothing other than his Newports, Mr. Washington said. Did he drink? He and his wife would have a glass on special occasions, but that was all. Well then, Mr. Brown wanted to know, why were his eyes so red? He explained about the mill job; that his part-time work for Mr. Brown was a way to make ends meet; that he had been on his feet, by then, for hours on end. Well, that wouldn’t do, Mr. Brown replied.
“ ‘You go back down to that plant and tell them you’re putting in your two-week notice — what you make down there, I’ll pay you double if you come work for me,’ ” Mr. Washington recalls the boss saying before breaking out in another laugh. “I said, ‘Yes, sir, Mr. Brown!’ ”
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Over the next 15-plus years, Mr. Washington became more than just Mr. Brown’s full-time groundskeeper. He became a driver, an assistant, a confidant and, after Mr. Brown’s maid fell ill, something of a jack of all trades. “I started working in the house: running his bathwater, doing his grocery shopping, making the bed, babysitting; I did a little bit of everything around here,” he says. “He didn’t like to be by himself, so sometimes I’d sit right in the house with him and we’d watch Westerns, Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, the news.” Mr. Washington was the one who, in late December 2006, drove Mr. Brown to the hospital after his dentist heard something in the Godfather’s chest and recommended he get it checked out; and he was there, in the early hours of Christmas Day, when the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business succumbed to pneumonia and took his last breath.
More than 17 years after he made the drive back to Beech Island alone, Mr. Washington is still here. He has kept watch over Brown’s house through a succession of three estate trustees, a Christie’s auction, a 15-year legal battle among Brown’s heirs over his assets and, now, under the stewardship of Primary Wave, which purchased the assets of his estate in December 2021 for a reported $90 million. Primary Wave — the publishing, marketing, branding and content firm that touts itself as being in the “icons and legends” business and also has stakes in the rights of Whitney Houston, Bob Marley, Prince and more — acquired Brown’s publishing, master-royalty income, name and likeness rights and the Beech Island property, with its 60-plus acres, the mansion in which Brown lived since the late 1970s and everything in it, including a dozen cars, two tour buses and even the food that had remained in the cabinets since his death. The company also retained Mr. Washington to look after the place. “He’s our resident historian,” says Donna Grecco, Primary Wave’s asset manager who has overseen the cataloging and archiving of the estate. “He’s a treasure.”
James Brown, who grew up picking cotton so he could afford food and clothes, kept cotton branches in vases around his house to remind himself where he came from.
Andrew Hetherington
The Brown estate in Beech Island sits on 62.8 acres on James Brown Boulevard, behind wrought-iron gates and down a sloping drive that passes through a lake and several other outbuildings. The house is built around an Asian garden in the center, where he liked to sit.
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Primary Wave, founded by veteran label executive Larry Mestel in 2006, has a long history of reinvigorating the intellectual property of music’s giants, both living and departed, whether through new remixes, samples or interpolations of their work, partnerships with brands (its first major success, in 2008, was a sneaker deal with Converse that featured Kurt Cobain lyrics on a line of shoes) or big-ticket content plays like the 2022 Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody. Several estate and asset deals the company has done came with troves of personal items and memorabilia that took months to sift through and organize.
But the Brown deal marked the first time the company acquired an actual house. (After finalizing the acquisition of 50% of the Prince estate in August 2022, Primary Wave now also owns a stake in Paisley Park.) And what the company found on the compound, which sits just across the Savannah River from Augusta, Ga., was a home almost entirely preserved as it was on the day Brown died, down to the Christmas tree that still stands in the foyer, with unopened presents underneath.
To walk through its rooms is to step into a moment frozen in time: big, clunky TVs and VCRs by brands long out of business; Christmas decorations on the mantel; a matching collection of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books in his office; phone books on the shelves. Mirrors, elephant motifs, bamboo poles and marble are everywhere. Inside Brown’s personal hair salon there’s a basket of dozens of hair curlers, with bottles and cans of hair product lining the shelves. A mix of cultural artifacts — African, Native American, Indian, East Asian — adorn every room; each light switch cover is a photo of Brown holding a street sign with his name on it. Grecco, with her team’s help and Mr. Washington’s expertise, has been working to restore everything to precisely where it was during Brown’s life, before a series of museums (including the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) and the one-time auction resulted in some items shifting around and being moved in and out.
“When we first came into this house, there were boxes everywhere,” Grecco remembers. She and a team of archivists went room by room, photographing everything, scanning documents, protecting clothing, entering information into spreadsheets and documenting where things were found and where they should go. “We’ve had this estate for two-and-a-half-years — we’re still doing it,” she says. “You put together a plan of how to approach it from the most delicate and respectful angle knowing that this isn’t a museum — this was somebody’s living space.”
Mr. David Washington, who worked for Brown for decades later in the star’s life, with Brown’s Rolls-Royce, one of several luxury vehicles — including a red Thunderbird and a ’42 Lincoln Continental — that came with the estate when Primary Wave purchased it. Mr. Washington’s favorite? “Big Red,” the lawnmower he stores at the top of the hill.
Andrew Hetherington
Brown’s bedroom was a centerpiece of his house; opposite the bed (with his monogrammed pajamas), heart- shaped mirrors flank an old TV on the wall. In the corner is a movie director’s chair, from the set of either The Blues Brothers or Rocky IV, both of which he appeared in.
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At the same time, the rest of Primary Wave got to work, and the executive team went down to Beech Island to walk through the property. “When we are stepping into the full gamut of an artist’s life and you can touch the cars and go on the tour bus, it helps us with our ideation and what we’re going to do on a marketing level and a content level,” says Ramon Villa, Primary Wave’s COO. “The closer we are to the assets and we see how the artist lived, it helps us ideate more.”
Already, some of the team’s ideas have had an impact. In 2022, Primary Wave licensed Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” to Amazon for its Mother’s Day “Woman’s World” campaign; the ad won a Clio Award in January for best use of music in film and video. The following month, plant-based milk company Silk featured Jeremy Renner singing Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good)” in a Super Bowl ad. The Netflix films You People (“The Payback”) and Shirley (“Think [About It]”) also dipped into the catalog, while the upcoming Peacock film Fight Night incorporated “The Boss” into its trailer and The Wonder Years used “I’m Black and I’m Proud” in a period-specific scene. “A lot of what we’re trying to connect the dots to is either period-specific projects in film and TV or just more generally catalog-based projects,” Primary Wave head of global synch Marty Silverstone says. In partnership with Republic Records, the estate also put out a previously unreleased archival song, “We Got To Change” — recorded in August 1970 — in tandem with the February release of a four-part A&E docuseries, James Brown: Say It Loud.
In fact, one of the challenges Primary Wave faces as it looks at content opportunities for the Brown estate is that so many things have already been done. In 2014, a biopic starring Chadwick Boseman, Get On Up, was released to positive reviews. Around a dozen other documentary-style or live performance-based films on Brown have come in the past 20 years. “There’s been a lot done,” Primary Wave partner/chief content officer Natalia Nastaskin says. “But there are so many stories that are part of Mr. Brown’s life.”
Brown’s salon, which also contained a spa and footbaths (for feet that were constantly dancing onstage), was full of dozens of the same product — he was so meticulous about his hair and appearance that when he found something he liked, he would often buy it in bulk out of fear it would sell out or be discontinued.
Andrew Hetherington
This photo of Brown holding the street sign that leads to his home adorns nearly every light switch in the house.
Andrew Hetherington
Nastaskin cites films such as 2023’s Air, about the creation of Michael Jordan’s Nike empire, and 2020’s Academy Award-nominated One Night in Miami…, centered on a meeting between Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown, as examples of how a figure like Brown could appear in a major film without making another cradle-to-grave biopic. “It’s about isolating these very important moments in time and focusing on them, and focusing on ways that they haven’t been dissected before,” she says. A live-theater project is also in the works.
But for an artist who dominated music for decades, then earned a second life as one of the most-sampled talents in hip-hop, Primary Wave is looking far beyond the obvious opportunities to keep Brown’s legacy front and center for future generations. “With new media and emerging platforms and things like [artificial intelligence], we get a ton of incoming traffic with wanting Mr. Brown, wanting to create the next ABBA: Voyage experience that is based on Mr. Brown’s live performances,” Nastaskin says, referencing the successful virtual concert series of the Swedish band that debuted earlier this year. “We’re having those conversations, but we’re very selective because it’s very hard to get Mr. Brown right as an avatar. It has to be perfect, and if it’s not perfect, then we’re not interested in doing it.”
The first thing most people notice when they get to Augusta is the heat. The summer has barely begun, but the heat already wraps the city like a cocoon, standing at 98 on the thermostat but more like quicksand on Broad Street. Anyone in their right mind is indoors, giving the streets an almost Potemkin feel, though one man lounging in the shade with a trumpet outside an empty club called The SOUL Bar hints at the history that thrums below the surface.
Brown was born in South Carolina but raised in Augusta, and the murals, statues and soul references that permeate the city reflect his continuing influence. He’s an icon, a genius and means many different things to many different people. “Entrepreneur, self-made, proud, confident,” says Bennish Brown, president/CEO of Destination Augusta, which promotes tourism in the city. “A lot of Augusta’s history and progress is tied to the way James Brown lived his life: constantly innovating, evolving and always looking for opportunities that made sense.”
Primary Wave takes special care of Brown’s iconic suits and jumpsuits, which can be particularly susceptible to the passage of time.
Andrew Hetherington
The front living room of Brown’s home, featuring a photo of him and his eldest son, Teddy, above the fireplace; a phonograph on the hearth; and a bar in the corner. The house is full of mirrors, bamboo and motifs such as elephants.
Andrew Hetherington
Though the Brown house is technically in South Carolina, Augusta lies just 8 miles away. And the city will be an important partner in Primary Wave’s ultimate vision for the house: a Brown version of Elvis Presley’s home-turned-museum, Graceland.
In pursuit of that, Primary Wave will document the continuing restoration process through a development deal with Page Turner, the licensed real estate agent/TV producer who hosts HGTV’s Fix My Flip. “We want people to be able to come and peek behind the curtain of James Brown’s home and have a space with some creative and educational opportunities, too, because education was pretty important to him,” says Primary Wave’s Songhay Taylor, who runs point on all things house-related.
But there is one important distinction between Graceland and the Brown home. “Memphis is a city that gets a lot more tourists and traffic as a music city,” Villa says. “So as we look at what is a realistic approach to having his house be open to the public, we’re working with the city of Augusta as they try to build up their tourism to make a comprehensive plan.” That, Destination Augusta’s Brown says, could include marketing the estate as the focal point of a regionwide attraction with James Brown at its center — “a dream come true.”
A photograph of Brown and his father, above the service flag that adorned his dad’s casket during his funeral. Brown had a sometimes contentious relationship with him, though he later purchased a house for the elder Brown in Augusta in the ’60s.
Andrew Hetherington
James Brown’s “Sex” jumpsuit in the music atrium of Brown’s home in Beech Island, S.C.
Andrew Hetherington
To many, Augusta is most synonymous with The Masters, the crown jewel of global golf tournaments, played each April at Augusta National Golf Club. But Brown’s story aligns better with how locals see themselves and their city than The Masters, the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business a better avatar than the golfers who visit once a year to play an exclusive course. Brown, after all, pulled himself up from sharecropping roots to the top shelf of culture; from picking cotton to shaking hands with the Pope; from dropping out of school to working with a half-dozen successive American presidents on free education initiatives for kids across the country. (His estate stipulates that his master-recording royalties support educational opportunities for Georgia and South Carolina youth; Primary Wave has honored this by contributing a portion of all revenue to a permanent trust run by Brown’s family.)
His story was one version of the American dream — good, bad and ugly. And there was an ugly. Brown’s sterling musical reputation is deeply scarred by allegations of domestic violence against a series of wives and girlfriends, often spurred by alleged drug use, as well as arrests for assault and drug possession for which he served a prison sentence in the late 1980s, among other lurid incidents and accusations, particularly near the end of his life. “We’re not running from that aspect of him, but we’re also paying homage to what he did throughout history, the trails he blazed and the things he stood on from education to Black empowerment, entrepreneurialism, his principles,” Taylor says. “It’s about not ignoring the human elements of him, but also celebrating him as well.”
If things go to plan, Augusta will soon be even more widely known as the home of James Brown — the City of Soul, perhaps, or of Funk — where his legacy and influence are on full display. (As Brown put it in an interview featured in the A&E docuseries, “I created funk. God and me.”) “In order to create an overall immersive experience, we need the city of Augusta to help tell those stories,” Taylor says. “Where he shoeshined, where he buck-danced, where he would do shows, where he went to church — all of those things that are part of the overall story.”
Brown died on Christmas Day in 2006, and this tree has remained standing — with presents underneath — in the foyer of his home ever since.
Andrew Hetherington
Two tour buses parked on the lawns of the Brown estate from the Living in America Tour in the ’80s. One housed the band, the other equipment.
Andrew Hetherington
And for some, that story is not entirely in the past. Mr. Washington recounts that long, lonely drive back to Beech Island from the hospital on Christmas Day, passing through the wrought-iron gates for the first time since the boss had gone.
“I come down the hill — you could see right to the porch — and it looked like he was standing out there with his hands folded up,” he says. “I was like, ‘Mr. Brown, you know you got pneumonia, you need to get back in the house!’ And then the closer I got, his spirit just faded away.” For a few days afterward, he remembers the house alarm going off for no reason, lights flickering in different rooms, an unsettling feeling.
He has other memories, too — driving back-and-forth with Mr. Brown to Atlanta, going down to church on Sundays and then visiting Mr. Brown’s mother in the nursing home afterward, stopping for fried chicken on the way back. “I’ve got a lot of good memories of him,” he says. “Any time he’d crack a joke or something…” Mr. Washington trails off, then laughs again. “I could visualize his face right there. I know it’s been some years, but it seems like he’s been gone just yesterday.”
For more exclusive photos of the James Brown home, read here.
This story will appear in the Aug. 24, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Primary Wave Music has acquired the producer royalty and neighboring rights royalty streams for artist manager, music critic, and record producer Jon Landau.
This deal includes Landau’s points and neighboring rights royalties to songs by Bruce Springsteen, whom he worked with as a co-producer for Born To Run, The River, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The Promise, Born in the U.S.A., Live 1975-1985, Human Touch, Lucky Town and Tracks. The deal also entails his producer and neighboring rights royalties for his production on Jackson Browne’s The Pretender.
A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Landau was a pivotal figure in rock music during his decades-long career. Landau got his start writing about music for publications like Crawdaddy and The Boston Phoenix and by 1967 he was hired by Jann Wenner as the lead writer for the brand new Rolling Stone publication, a position he held for a decade.
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By 1970, Landau was simultaneously writing for Rolling Stone and getting back to his roots as a lifelong musician by producing MC5’s studio album debut Back In The USA.
He got to know Springsteen in 1974 after he reviewed a performance by the singer-songwriter and called him the “future” of rock music. The following year, he co-produced Born To Run, cementing both his relationship with The Boss and his career as a producer. He would go on to co-produce eight more of his records. During this time, he also befriended Browne and produced 1976’s The Pretender, featuring songs like “Here Come Those Tears Again” and the title track.
Two decades later, Landau experienced another career peak as the manager for Shania Twain. He helped build the country-pop artist’s career, leading her to true super stardom with her 1997 album Come On Over, featuring the song “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and “You’re Still The One.”
Landau has also worked with artists like Natalie Merchant, Train, Alejandro Escovedo, Livingston Taylor and more.
“I thank all at Primary Wave for recognizing my contributions over the last fifty years and look forward to having an ongoing and productive relationship with them,” says Landau of the deal.
Marty Silverstone, president of global synch at Primary Wave, adds: “We’re honored to be partnering with Jon Landau and all of the legendary music he helped shape. He’s an influential figure in music, and we’re proud to welcome him to the Primary Wave family.”
The transaction between Landau and Primary Wave Music was facilitated by David Simone and Winston Simone.
Primary Wave will acquire the music publishing and select master recording assets of Nuno Bettencourt, the guitar player for Extreme, the company announced Thursday (June 27). The deal — which excludes the band’s aptly titled sixth album, 2023’s Six — includes all of Bettencourt’s publishing, such as administration rights; his share of Extreme’s master recordings in which the […]
Attorneys for Hall & Oates members Daryl Hall and John Oates clashed in a Nashville courtroom Thursday during the first showdown in an increasingly bitter lawsuit between the longtime musical partners.
At a live hearing in Davidson County Chancery Court, a who’s-who of music litigators battled over whether Hall was entitled to an order extending an existing restraining order that’s been blocking Oates from selling his share of their joint venture to industry heavyweight Primary Wave.
Representing Hall was Christine Lepera of the law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, who argued that it would be “most efficient” to issue a court order putting the sale on ice until a private arbitrator can hear the case and decide whether Oates was legally allowed to sell his stake to Primary Wave.
Firing back for Oates was Derek Crownover from the firm Loeb & Loeb LLP, who said that no additional injunction was needed — that Hall was “not entitled to any relief at all” — and the dispute should simply be allowed to play out in arbitration. Crownover said that at most, the judge should extend the restraining order by only a few weeks.
At the end of the hearing, the judge overseeing the dispute, Chancellor Russell Perkins, said he would issue a ruling later on Thursday on whether he would extend the restraining order.
Hall & Oates pumped out six chart-topping singles and four chart-topping albums during the 1970s and 1980s, and continued to successfully tour as recently as last year. But in early November, Hall filed a private arbitration case against Oates, accusing him of violating their partnership agreement by attempting to sell his half to Primary Wave, a prominent music company that’s purchased catalogs and other IP linked to many iconic musicians in recent years.
Fearing the deal would close before the arbitration case was heard, Hall then filed the current lawsuit in Tennessee, seeking a court order to block the sale. The case was filed under seal, shrouding it in mystery and leading to days of speculation about why the beloved singers were suing each other. The judge overseeing the case quickly issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the Primary Wave sale from closing until Thursday’s hearing could be held.
The live hearing came just hours after Hall and Oates directly attacked each other for the first time in court filings.
In a sworn statement on Wednesday, Hall said he had been “blindsided” by the Primary Wave deal and called it the “ultimate partnership betrayal” by his former partner. “Respectfully, he must be stopped from this latest wrongdoing and his malicious conduct reined in once and for all,” Hall wrote of Oates.
Hours later, Oates said in his own declaration he was “tremendously disappointed” about that Hall would make such “inflammatory, outlandish, and inaccurate statements” about him. “I can only say that Daryl’s accusations that I breached our agreement, went ‘behind’ his back, ‘acted in bad faith,’ and the like, are not true,” Oates wrote.
During a show last month at Madison Square Garden, Stevie Nicks announced a surprise collaboration with an unlikely partner: Barbie.
The 75-year-old musician, who rose to rock icon status as a member of Fleetwood Mac and as a solo musician, told the sold-out crowd that a doll fashioned after her 27-year-old self would soon be released (she later announced the news on X). When the $55 doll was made available for pre-order hours later, it sold out almost instantly.
The tambourine-toting Stevie Nicks Barbie doll arrives to buyers on Friday (Nov. 10) as part of a limited-edition collaboration between Nicks, Barbie manufacturer Mattel and independent publisher Primary Wave. Primary Wave’s chief brand officer, Jeff Straughn, says that “all the stars aligned” for a project that’s also creating fresh opportunities for Nicks and the company.
In 2020, Primary Wave acquired a majority stake in Nicks’ publishing copyrights as well as her name and likeness (partnering with Kobalt on administration for the catalog). As part of the deal, Primary Wave represents Nicks in brand alliance and brand marketing opportunities and offers her access to its marketing, branding, Broadway, film/TV, digital strategy, licensing and synch teams. The Stevie Nicks Barbie is the first project developed under this partnership.
The company had already established a sparkling track record in such endeavors, telling Billboard last year that it had quadrupled the value of the Whitney Houston estate after assuming 50% ownership of the late icon’s assets in 2019. Other legendary clients include Smokey Robinson, portions of the estates of Prince and Bob Marley and the entire James Brown estate.
Primary Wave had already been in general discussions with Mattel about prospective collaborations when it signed the deal with Nicks. “Given that we have a lot of legendary and active artists, I felt like there had to be a match,” says Straughn. “We went into the conversation a little broader, but we also knew, through my conversations with Sheryl [Louis, Nicks’ longtime manager] that Barbie would be something Stevie is very interested in doing.”
“She doesn’t say yes to a lot of things,” Straughn continues, “but this isn’t about branding for her, this is a passion … and what we try to do a Primary Wave is go with organic opportunities that are authentic to the brand and audience.”
Nicks and her team worked directly with Mattel on the doll’s design. There were several iterations of the face and outfit, with the team ultimately styling it after Nicks’ iconic look from the cover of Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 classic, Rumours. Nicks even sent the actual outfit she wore on the album cover to Mattel for accuracy.
“Sheryl told me from the beginning that when Stevie gets involved, she’s hands-on, and she wasn’t lying,” says Straughn.
The doll is thus dressed in a black velvet dress with gauzy flowing sleeves. She sports a pendant necklace and a moody gaze that seems to ponder the players who only love you when they’re playing, with Nicks overseeing details “all the way down to the tambourine,” says Straughn.
Stevie Nicks Barbie
Excitement about the project was already high at Primary Wave during development, but the project was brought to a new level with the 2023 Barbie movie. The film — which was released in July and grossed $1.4 billion at the box office — fostered a renewed level of appeal and cultural relevancy for the Barbie brand, helping fuel enthusiasm around Nicks’ version of the doll.
While the doll was originally slated to come out closer to the 2023 holiday season, it was Nicks’ idea to move up the release date to capitalize on movie’s success, an opportunity Straughn calls “once in a lifetime” synergy.
The Barbie movie’s appeal also synchs with Nicks’ own broad fanbase. “Not many artists like Stevie, who’s 75, can hit multi-generations,” says Straughn. “There are seven-year-olds out there that love Stevie Nicks.” He says Mattel was aware of this broad appeal and “identified Stevie as something that would be interesting to them, based on their research.”
Mattel has previously transformed rock stars into toys with Barbie versions of Tina Turner, David Bowie, Gloria Estefan and Celia Cruz. Now, Straughn says other Primary Wave artists have approached him asking for their own doll. Although he says it’s not a project every artist can do, he does hint that other Primary Wave collaborations with Mattel may be forthcoming.
The doll — already selling for more than twice its sticker price on the secondary market — isn’t likely to generate vast revenue and wasn’t intended to. (Primary Wave is not able to disclose exactly how many dolls were manufactured, although Straughn estimates it was “tens of thousands.”)
“It wasn’t as much about a financial win as much as it was about marketing,” says Straughn. The real benefit is the buzz that’s lifting all parts of Nicks’ and Primary Wave’s businesses. Straughn reports that streams of Nicks’ music have gone up since the doll’s announcement, and that it has brought multiple queries about synching her work for campaigns.
“That impact is exactly why I lead this branding team,” says Straughn. “The message here is really that these projects open up other opportunities, music-wise.”
Stevie Nicks Barbie
Primary Wave Music has acquired Skillet‘s music publishing interests as well as their recorded music royalties across five of their critically acclaimed albums, released from 2003-2016, in a multi-million dollar deal. Some of their biggest hits include “Whispers in the Dark,” “Awake and Alive,” “Feel Invincible,” “Monster,” “Hero,” and “The Resistance.”
Big Yellow Dog Music has signed BSAMZ (Brandon Sammons) to its publishing roster. With more than a decade of experience as a co-writer with artists like Lady Gaga, Kygo, Bryce Vine, Adam Lambert, Culture Club, Sam Feldt and many more, BSAMZ is still continuing to write hits, most recently with K-Pop group Girls’ Generation’s “You Think” off of their No. 1 album Lion Heart.
Reservoir has signed singer, rapper, and songwriter Armani White to his first-ever global publishing deal. The agreement entails both the artists’ back catalog and future works, including his viral hit “BILLIE EILISH” which reached No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Peermusic has signed singer-songwriter Alejo to an exclusive worldwide publishing deal. The deal encompasses all of the Puerto Rican artist’s catalog, including his new album El Favorito de las Nenas, released on May 4. The deal also includes his hit songs “Pantysito” with Feid and Robi; “Un Viaje” alongside Karol G, Jotaerre and Moffa; “Volar” by Wisin, Chris Andrew ft. Los Legendarios; and “Estrella” with boy band CNCO.
Warner Chappell Music has signed a global publishing deal with Canada-based country act Josh Ross. Named a Spotify Hot Country Artist to Watch for 2023, Ross has been building his profile with key opening slots, supporting talent like Bailey Zimmerman Nickelback, Lee Brice, Chase Rice, Brantley Gilbert.
Wise Music Group has signed a deal with DJ and producer Ron Trent. With almost 30 years of experience in the dance/electronic space, Trent first became acclaimed as a DJ with the release of Altered States at age 15. Under his new project WARM, Trent is still continuing to release enduring electronic works.
Uber Eats’ commercial featuring Diddy, Montell Jordan, “The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?),” the guy who sings “What Is Love,” an oddly-timed haircut and two pineapples may be the first clue that Super Bowl ads are going lighter in 2023 — a pattern reflected in the music synchs for the big game.
After three years of the pandemic, Jordan’s 1995 smash “This Is How We Do It” and Kelis’ 2003 hit “Milkshake,” both Universal Music Publishing Group synchs used in the Uber Eats spot, represent a shift from apocalyptic and inspirational Super Bowl commercials and soundtracks starring old-timey crooners and string sections to familiar, upbeat hits and plentiful comedy.
“Humor remains the dominant theme this year,” says Tom Eaton, senior vp of music for advertising for UMPG, which represents the Jordan and Kelis tracks and suggested them to the brand’s music supervisors. “There have been a few sentimental commercials, but the vast majority have trended towards humor — and music can be such an important aspect of creating that mood.”
“I haven’t seen that heightened seriousness, which I think is a good thing,” adds Keith D’Arcy, senior vp of sync and creative services for Warner Chappell Music, whose synchs at this year’s Super Bowl include DMX‘s “What’s My Name,” for a Downy spot starring Danny McBride. “The country is in a good place where we’re more inclined to want to laugh and celebrate.”
That means lots of feel-good tracks, many of which were released in the ‘90s – from “What’s My Name” and “This is How We Do It” to a Clueless throwback ad for Rakuten starring Alicia Silverstone and Supergrass‘ 1995 U.K. hit “Alright.” The ’90s trend may have begun last year with Doja Cat‘s cover of Hole‘s “Celebrity Skin” for Taco Bell, says Rob Christensen, executive vp and head of global synch for Kobalt, whose lone synch this year is soul singer Lee Fields’ “Forever” for pet-food brand The Farmer’s Dog. “The ’90s are back,” he says. “That seems to be around pop culture everywhere right now.”
“It’s cyclical,” adds Scott Cresto, executive vp of synchronization and marketing for Reservoir Media, which has three synchs, including a Pringles spot with Meghan Trainor singing Tina Turner‘s “The Best.” “Most folks’ favorite music is from [ages] 13 to 30. They’re down the line in their careers and making the decisions and picking their favorite songs.”
Although not all final synch tallies for nationally televised spots were available at press time — publishing execs say permissions and requests for songs were unusually late this year, including a rush job that came in from an agency this past Monday — Sony Music Publishing (SMP) scored the most with 15, UMPG had seven, Warner Chappell Music had six or seven, BMG landed five, Primary Wave and Reservoir had three apiece and Kobalt had one.
Despite inflation, layoffs, high interest rates and sporadic recession talk, synch rates were stable this year, according to publishers. “It’s in line with past Super Bowl campaigns,” says Marty Silverstone, partner/senior vp creative/head of synch for Primary Wave, whose synchs include Missy Elliott‘s “We Run This” for Google Pixel. Adds Dan Rosenbaum, vp of licensing and advertising, for BMG, whose synchs include Supergrass’ “Alright” and co-writes for Turner’s “The Best” and Elliott’s “We Run This”: “Recognizability is so important in commercial usage. If that song is going to work for them, they’ll pay the price.”
Super Bowl LVII is the first since Kate Bush‘s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” landed on Stranger Things in May 2022, became a No. 1 hit and unexpectedly dominated the synch business. Do publishers believe the big game, for which 30-second ads cost a reported $7 million, will have a similar impact for their songs? Yes and no.
“That Kate Bush song wasn’t well-known and the show blew it up. On the Super Bowl, they play it a little more safe by using more tried-and-true hits,” says Brian Monaco, president/global chief marketing officer for SMP, which represents Len‘s “Steal My Sunshine” (for a Sam Adams spot), Sarah McLachlan‘s “Angel” (Busch) and Olivia Rodrigo‘s “Good 4 U” (Pepsi). “On a TV show, it’s a little easier, because the fees are lower. If it doesn’t work, you’re on to the next one.”
Despite SMP’s success at landing Super Bowl synchs this year, Monaco’s staff was unable to successfully pitch one key artist: Bruce Springsteen, who sold his music rights to the company for a reported $550 million in 2021. “It just didn’t fit,” he says, while noting that even for a superstar like Springsteen, getting a Super Bowl synch is a coveted career highlight: “Everyone’s hope — every writer, every artist — is the Super Bowl platform. We need more big events like this to get more music played.”
Some say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but according to a new lawsuit, singer Rick Astley disagrees.
Astley filed a lawsuit Thursday in Los Angeles court claiming that while Yung Gravy and his collaborators secured rights to re-record the melody and lyrics of some of his 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” for their track “Betty (Get Money),” they recorded it too close to the original and infringed on his “right of publicity” by “flagrantly impersonat[ing]” Astley’s voice.
Recreating the magic of older songs in new hits is not unique to “Betty (Get Money).” It’s common for artists to secure the rights to use the underlying musical work, like Gravy’s team did with “Never Gonna Give You Up,” and re-record portions of the song’s melody, lyrics and more for use in a new song, a process called “interpolation.” Sometimes, this ends up sounding incredibly similar sounding to the original recording, and other times, the team will put its own spin on the old track.
By opting for an interpolation rather than a true sample, teams avoid the tedious and costly process of securing the rights to the original recording as well, a separate right from that of the musical work. With interpolations, only the songwriters and publishers involved in writing the song have to approve of the new use of their song, not the singer. Interpolations also have the added bonus of providing producers with more flexibility and creativity. But now Astley’s lawsuit has music executives questioning if it could “open the floodgates” to litigation or at least tamp down the practice.
To the average listener, the “Betty (Get Money)” intro hinges on what sounds like a direct sample of “Never Gonna Give You Up.” But, as Gravy told Billboard months ago, he and his collaborators instead “basically remade the whole song,” in the studio. “[We] had a different singer and instruments, but it was all really close because it makes it easier legally,” he said.
Similarly, “I Like It” by Cardi B, Bad Bunny and J Balvin is widely believed to include a sample of of “I Like It Like That (A Mi Me Gusta Asi)” by Pete Rodriguez, but the iconic-sounding recording is also a dupe. In an interview with The Verge, the song’s engineer, Leslie Brathwaite, explained that, “a lot of people think that’s the actual sample, but it was actually replayed. Craig [Kallman, chairman of Atlantic Records and one of the track’s producers] hired people to replay every aspect of that sample, and it turned out to be like, 60 tracks worth of stuff… because they didn’t want to clear the sample.”
Nick “Popnick” Seeley, the producer who recreated Rick Astley’s voice for “Betty (Get Money),” told Billboard in a previous interview that he was also part of the replay process for “I Like It” by Cardi B, along with “Dirty Iyanna” by Youngboy Never Broke Again (which replays “Dirty Diana” by Michael Jackson). “I have a knack for vintage stuff… this is a really cool way for me to participate in what’s going on in pop music right now,” he said in the past interview. (Seeley is named alongside Gravy, fellow collaborators Dillon Francis and David “dwilly” Wilson, and Republic Records as defendants in the lawsuit. He declined Billboard’s request for comment.)
Danielle Middleton, senior director of producer/songwriter management firm Page 1 and former A&R at Sony Music Publishing, notes that sampling and interpolation is bigger than ever. “Nostalgia is huge right now,” she says. With songs like “First Class” by Jack Harlow (which features a sample of “Glamorous” by Fergie), “I’m Good (Blue)” by David Guetta and Bebe Rexha (which interpolates “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65, Gabry Ponte), “Big Energy” by Latto (which borrows from “Genius of Love” by Tom Tom Club, which is also featured in “Fantasy” by Mariah Carey) and more dominating the Hot 100 in recent years, many artists are looking to quickly jump onto the trend by flipping familiar tunes into something new.
Music attorney Todd Rubenstein wagers that most music creators have likely not considered there could be any legal risk in creating closely imitated interpolations. Producer Marc “Fresh2Def” Soto, half of duo ClickNPress and has worked with J. Cole, Queen Naija, and Alessia Cara, says music execs have often encouraged him to convert samples into interpolations. “A record label will be like, ‘Hey we can’t get the clearance for the sample, but we can get an interpolation, would you be able to replay XYZ thing?’ I’ve been through that on several records with different labels.”
While Soto explains it’s not unheard of for a producer to strive for an exact dupe, far more commonly, he says, producers will make small changes to create distinction. Soto also says an exact imitation is often nearly impossible, anyway. Without access to the same studios and equipment as the creators of a track made decades ago did, re-recordings usually sound different from the original track, even if the attempt was to imitate. It’s most common to hear imitations of guitar parts, drum loops and other instrumentals. Vocals are more rare.
One publishing executive, who spoke to Billboard on the condition of anonymity, says they feel switching out a sample for a close interpolation is not just used to speed up licensing and save money. It’s also incredibly common for “creative reasons,” allowing the producers to control the parameters and tone of each individual element of the song.
In a previous story with Billboard, Primary Wave, the company that owns the rights to “Never Gonna Give You Up” songwriter Pete Waterman’s catalog, explained that the creation of “Betty (Get Money)” was part of a strategy the company has been working on for the past few years. In hopes of boosting the popularity and earnings of their catalog, the team will encourage artists and producers to interpolate or sample from songs they hold some or all rights to.
So far, the technique has been quite successful for Primary Wave. In addition to “Betty (Get Money),” this strategy has produced songs like “Just Can’t Get Enough” by Channel Tres (which sampled Teddy Pendergrass’s “The More I Get The More I Want”), “Thought It Was” by Iann Dior and Machine Gun Kelly (which interpolated the melody of Semisonic’s “Closing Time”) and “What a Night” by Flo Rida (which borrowed from Frankie Valli’s “Oh What A Night”). Primary Wave was not named in this lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Astley’s lawyer claims the singer has been “looking to collaborate with another artist and/or producer to create something new with his voice from ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’,” but because of the “nearly indistinguishable” imitation of Astley in “Betty (Get Money),” his opportunities to do this have been “obliterated.”
While Milk & Honey founder Lucas Keller says the popularity of Yung Gravy’s tune with such a prominent interpolation of “Never Gonna Give You Up” may hinder opportunities for a major sample placement for Astley’s original tune in the short term, the other publishing executive adds that they believe the opposite is true long-term. “If you’d look at James Brown or Parliament Funkadelic or any number of people that are often sampled, I feel like statistically, the more your work is used, it means you’re more likely to get sampled again.”
As to the lawsuit, Keller, who manages a number of top producers, says it “could set creators back.” The publishing executive agrees, arguing the case could scare creators and hinder creativity in sampling, covering and interpolating.
Soto says this would not be the first time a lawsuit affected producers in recent years, citing the controversial Blurred Lines trial, which claimed the Hot 100-topping hit of that name by Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, and T.I. plagiarized the composition “Got To Give It Up” by Marvin Gaye because some felt it centered on similar feels of the two songs — perhaps widening what elements are protected under copyright law. The same lawyer who represented the Gaye family in that trial, Richard Busch, is representing Astley in his lawsuit. With this case, Soto adds, “We might get to a place where things start to feel like, ‘Why am I interpolating anyways when I might get sued?’”
Even if Astley and Gravy settle out of court, Rubenstein believes we’re likely “going to see other lawsuits off the back of this lawsuit” from artists who feel emboldened to fight imitations or similar-sounding interpolations of their voices in songs they were not a part of. He says, “I could see older artists that had this happen to them in the past realize, ‘Hey, I have the same claim.’”
Busch, Republic Records, Primary Wave, and Gravy did not respond to Billboard‘s request for comment.
Primary Wave has announced its acquisition of Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek‘s rights as it pertains to their involvement with The Doors. This includes the guitarist and late keyboardists’ recorded music, publishing, trademarks and merchandise rights and income. Jim Morrison, the band’s lead singer, and John Densmore, its drummer, continue to own the remaining interests in the Doors’ rights.
One of the most influential and enduring rock acts of its time, The Doors formed in Los Angeles in 1965, fearlessly injecting everything from bossa nova, blues, jazz and more into their songwriting. Epic songs like “Light My Fire” (seven minutes) and “The End” (nearly 12 minutes) were proof of their boundary-pushing pursuits in popular music. Defined by Manzarek’s busy keys, “Light My Fire” became the band’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit in 1967. From there, the group went on to mint 6 gold-certified records with Morrison at the helm.
Manzarek died in 2013 at age 74 after a battle with cancer. Morrison, known as the “Lizard King,” passed away in 1971 at only 27.
Songs like “Riders on the Storm,” “People Are Strange,” “Break on Through (To the Other Side)” and more are still considered some of the most inventive and lyrically-profound of their time. “The End” took on even more cultural significance more than a decade after its release as the opening soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979).
By the 1990s, the group’s legacy was cemented with their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and memorialized in the Val Kilmer-starring biopic The Doors (1991).
As the new rights holder of Krieger and Manzarek’s interests in The Doors’ catalog, Primary Wave will work alongside Jeff Jampol, the band’s manager and founder of Jampol Artist Management, to help with the marketing, digital, licensing, sync for further empowering the band’s legacy.
“Ray and I spent a lot of time discussing the future of The Doors’ legacy, and how to handle things after he departed this plane,” says Dorothy Manzarek. “Our family has worked patiently to find the right partners to continue Ray’s lifelong efforts in protecting and promoting his art, and now we are happy to have finally come to an agreement with Primary Wave. Under the continued guidance of our manager, Jeff Jampol, Primary Wave will be the right partners in this endeavor to build future generations of new Doors fans.”
“The Doors are one of the most legendary rock bands of all time. We are looking forward to growing the legacies of Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek,” says Larry Mestel, CEO and founder of Primary Wave Music. “We are also very happy to be working alongside such an industry icon as Jeff Jampol to tastefully grow opportunities for The Doors.”
John Branca, David Byrnes, and Kelly Vallon Ciccotti negotiated the deal on behalf of the sellers.