Publishing
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Now that the Hollywood actors’ strike is over, music supervisor Justin Kamps can afford to keep his 3-year-old daughter in daycare. “Things were getting a little bit scary these last couple months,” says Kamps, who picks songs for Bridgerton, Grey’s Anatomy and other hit TV shows. “We were going through the financials and cutting back whatever we can.”
SAG-AFTRA’s 60,000 members voted to approve a deal with studios last Friday, after halting work for nearly four months, following a screenwriters’ strike that lasted from early May to late September — both of which were devastating not just to Hollywood but the $2 billion music-synch industry. “That’s been quite a dark thing,” Stephanie Diaz Matos, head of music supervision for writer-actress Issa Rae‘s music company Raedio, told Billboard in July.
With Hollywood going back to work, TV shows and movies have already resumed sending out briefs to publishers and record labels requesting songs for key dramatic moments and soundtracks. “It’s definitely a relief,” says Alison Dannenberg Frost, vp of film and TV creative for music publisher peermusic. “We saw a slowdown on the creative side and licenses coming in the door. We really just started seeing it affecting our monthly numbers.” The synch business makes up 50% of Spirit Music Group’s publishing revenue, according to Amy Hartman, the company’s senior vp of creative services, film and TV music, who adds, “It’s incredibly important.”
Had the strikes continued much longer, Spirit would have had to consider cutbacks and “do some reevaluating,” Hartman says. “Thankfully, we’re pretty lean and mean, so we weren’t forced to face that question.”
By contrast, music supervisors for films and TV shows are generally freelance contractors and had to scramble to stay afloat financially during the strikes. Laura Webb, a supervisor for Love at First Sight, Monster High and other shows, spent the first month of the strikes on post-production for existing shows, but one of them wound up getting canceled and cut the pay for that job in half. “We have no protections. We were expecting to get that money, and we just lost it,” she says. “The last week has been slower, for sure — the slowest it’s been. But hopefully good timing for things to turn around.”
Webb and her colleagues faced a separate setback over the summer, when the National Labor Relations Board ruled against part-time freelance Netflix music supervisors who’d requested a union certification election in October 2022. After Netflix refused to recognize the union, the supervisors argued they needed collective-bargaining power to improve their financial conditions: “Their responsibilities have expanded, their conditions have deteriorated, and their pay has stagnated,” the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which collaborated with the Netflix employees, declared at the time. But Danielle M. Pierce, the NLRB’s acting regional director, wrote in August that “music supervisors are independent contractors who are not employees of Netflix.”
“We’re regrouping and trying to figure out next steps,” Webb says. “It’s not over, but really a big blow.”
Throughout the strikes, music companies pivoted to an increased focus on pitching for synchs in video games and TV commercials — continuing to take music supervisors to lunch to maintain relationships and help out their struggling freelance colleagues. Peermusic donated $100 grocery-store gift cards to out-of-work members of the Guild of Music Supervisors, a non-profit organization.
Although Spirit’s Hartman is ready for the synch faucet to turn back on and “all the beautiful amount of licensing and briefs to come our way,” peermusic’s Frost expects a lag, possibly extending into early 2024. Movie and show projects are likely to restart at the “script and filming stage,” she says, while synch work generally begins during post-production at the end: “I’m predicting it’s going to be a slow pickup, especially now we’re going into the holidays.”
Because Netflix, Disney and other top studios have said they would pull back on new content, the synch business may also begin to flatten after years of growth. Frost predicts a post-strike boom in synchs in early 2024, followed by a longer-term drop-off: “I think it’s going to slow down as streamers adjust to this new world, and they’re picking up less content.” Heather Guibert, a music supervisor working on a documentary about songwriter Diane Warren, adds: “Disney used to make, let’s hypothesize, 100 projects a year; suddenly, that goes down to 50. That’s 50 fewer projects for the music supervisor to work on. It’s rough.”
During the strikes, Amanda Krieg Thomas, a music supervisor for American Horror Story and Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, had to slash the hours for the three employees of her company, Yay Team — forcing one of them to quit for another job. She’s hopeful — and “still a little cautious” — that the post-strike era will restore her company to maximum financial health. “What’s the new normal? Is there actually going to be less content, and what does that look like for music supervisors?” she asks. “But everybody’s excited to really get going again.”
In the Mechanical Licensing Collective’s (The MLC) third annual membership meeting, the Nashville-based non-profit organization revealed that it has distributed $1.5 billion in total royalties to date to songwriters and publishers, up by about $500 million from March.
This year marked the Music Modernization Act‘s fifth anniversary since passing into law — the landmark occasion that instructed the MLC’s formation. As part of the law, a new blanket license was created for musical work (also known as “song” or “composition”) mechanical royalties that greatly simplified music licensing for digital services like Spotify and Apple Music, among others.
The previous, piece-meal system was not only complicated for the services — it also led to a growing pool of over $400 million in streaming royalties that were unallocated because the compositions’ owners couldn’t be found. (This is colloquially known in the business as “black box” money, although the MLC uses the term “historical unmatched royalties.”) The MLC was tasked to implement and administer this new blanket license and distribute the money in this stagnant royalty pool. It officially opened its doors on Jan. 1, 2021.
According to its latest report, The MLC has completed 31 monthly royalty distributions to date, each one of them completed on time or early. Its match rate for all royalties processed through October is also up 1% since their last reporting in March, rising from 89% to 90%. According to the MLC, the match rate represented the percentage of total royalties processed that were able to match to a registered work in their database.
The MLC reported a membership of 32,000 people — 9,000 of which joined in 2023 — and touts 33 million works in its database, with data for over 3 million works added in 2023 alone. An MLC spokesperson clarified that this metric means that there were 3 million new songs this year, calculated by taking the total number of songs registered at the beginning of the year and comparing that to the total number registered at the end of September.
During the membership meeting, The MLC also announced some new board appointments. Alisa Coleman was re-elected by The MLC’s Class B Members to serve on The MLC’s Board of Directors for a second three-year term; The MLC’s Class A Members selected Troy Verges to fill the open seat as a songwriter director of the board, a position previously held by Craig Wiseman; The Class A Members selected Kevin Kadish to serve a second three-year term as a songwriter director of the board. (The Class C membership will not change in 2024.)
“We are proud of these accomplishments, particularly in reaching the milestone of distributing over $1.5 billion in royalties,” said Kris Ahrend, CEO of the MLC. “We have effectively illuminated the black box by empowering our members with several tools that enable them to take actions intended to eliminate the black box. We look forward to continuing our work to fulfill our mission of ensuring songwriters, composers, lyricists and music publishers receive their mechanical royalties from streaming & download services in the United States accurately and on time.”
As part of the five year anniversary of the MMA, Congress hosted a committee hearing in June to review its impact on the music business so far. Ahrend, along with Garrett Levin (then-president and CEO, Digital Media Association), Michael Molinar (president, Big Machine Music), Abby North (president, North Music Group), Daniel Tashian (songwriter, producer) and David Porter (songwriter, producer) all spoke as witnesses.
Kobalt has extended its worldwide publishing deal with rap superstar Gunna. The agreement includes global synch and creative services for all of Gunna’s catalog as well as future works. “Gunna is a superstar, plain and simple,” says Kobalt CEO Laurent Hubert. “It’s been incredible to see him attain these musical achievements while at Kobalt. We are honored to continue our partnership with Gunna and his team and look forward to supporting their efforts.”
BMG has signed a publishing deal with Daniel Johns, encompassing his entire Silverchair catalog. The worldwide deal immediately includes all of Johns’ publishing interests on his sophomore solo album FutureNever, and it will eventually include his catalogue of global hits including “Straight Lines,” “The Greatest View,” “Ana’s Song,” “Freak,” “Tomorrow” and many others reverting into the deal in 2025.
Warner Chappell Music and Madfun Entertainment have extended their publishing agreement with Matt Jenkins and have purchased Jenkins’ back catalog of music. This includes songs like “Happy Anywhere” by Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani, “Buy Dirt” by Jordan Davis ft. Luke Bryan, and more.
Reservoir has announced a new deal with Grammy-winning country songwriter/producer/engineer Brent Maher. The company’s relationship with Maher began in 2018 when it acquired rights to Maher’s full catalog, and now it will also be involved in his future works as well. over the course of his career, Maher has worked on a slew of hits, including songs recorded by The Judds, Tanya Tucker, Dottie West, Tina Turner, Kenny Rogers, and more.
Warner Chappell Music has signed rising country trio The Castellows. Comprised of Ellie, Powell and Lily, the band recently signed a record deal with Warner Records and Warner Music Nashville and released their debut song “No. 7 Road.”
Budde Music and Karma Songs have extended their publishing deal with Nick Bradley, a London-based songwriter who has written songs with James Blunt, Bow Anderson, Røry, Matteo Bocelli, Don Diablo, You Me At Six, Maneskin, Kelvin Jones, NCT 127 and Flux Pavilion.
Warner Chappell Music has renewed its publishing deal with multi-platinum songwriter Rick Boardman. His credits include songs with Marshmello, Jonas Brothers, Khalid, Bebe Rexha, Louis Tomlinson, Clean Bandit, and Jess Glynne.
Universal Music Publishing Group has signed a global publishing deal with Mexican singer-songwriter Carin Leon. He’s known best for his Latin Grammy-winning song “Como Lo Hice Yo,” but he also has a slew of other popular songs, including “Ni me debes ni te debo,” “Te lo agradezco,” “Me haces tan bien,” and more.
Concord Music Publishing has signed Nashville-based songwriter and producer Aaron Eshuis. The worldwide co-publishing deal is effective immediately and also includes a selection of his existing catalog and all future works. His catalog includes cuts with Scotty McCreery, Rascal Flatts, Joe Nichols, A Thousand Horses, Catie Offerman, Kameron Marlowe, Corey Kent, Cole Swindell, Kylie Morgan, Meghan Patrick, and Mason Ramsey.
Position Music has signed producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alex Wilke to a worldwide publishing deal. So far, the rising hitmaker has worked on songs with Maddie Zahm, Leah Kate, Lexi Jayde, Jake Miller and more.
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
Even if Spotify’s new royalty model won’t pay artists’ whose tracks don’t hit 1,000 streams in a year, songwriters will still earn money from those plays — for now, at least.
As Billboard reported last month, Spotify is planning to implement three changes to its royalty model early next year that would affect the lowest-streaming acts, non-music noise tracks and distributors and labels committing fraud. Under this new scheme, more than two-thirds of the tracks uploaded to that platform will be eligible to receive royalties — but that, notably, that will only impact about 0.5% of the royalty pool.
Nevertheless, this has sparked debate around the music community, with some questioning the ethics of not paying artists for whatever streams they garnered simply because they were not popular enough. Others supported the plan, citing the paltry sums an artist would be making for under 1,000 annual streams anyway (which amounts to about five cents). Many also believe this new rule could provide alleviate the issue of the royalty pool being divided among the exponentially-growing number of songs on Spotify’s platform, which likely dilutes the amount of money flowing to career artists.
But this change to Spotify’s royalty model does not affect songwriters and publishers payments at all, a source close to the company confirmed to Billboard. It just affects those who are involved in the master recording copyright.
For the uninitiated, there are two copyrights associated with every song released: the underlying musical work (often also called the “composition” or “song”) copyright, which protects the lyrics and melodies written by songwriters, and the master recording (also called the “sound recording”) copyright, which protects the artists’ one specific recording of that musical work.
In the United States, the royalty rates that songwriters and publishers can charge for the composition side of things are controlled by a government entity known as the Copyright Royalty Board. Every five years, the statutory rate structure for songwriters and publishers is renegotiated with the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) as well as Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) and other groups and individuals who represent the music industry’s fight to raise rates. (Other territories often base their publishing royalty rates off of those set in the U.S.)
Not everyone agrees on what specific rate structure they want, which has led to some infighting, but they all unite behind one principle: songwriters should earn more money. In fact, publishing earns just a fraction what the recorded music side does on streaming overall, the rates are far from equal. Many in the music business wish the current Copyright Royalty Board system could be abolished, freeing songwriters and publishers to negotiate rates in a free market without government interference, but this is unlikely to change, given it would require an act of Congress to overhaul an over one hundred year old law and services, many of which are owned by some of the world’s largest technology companies, would certainly lobby against it.
Those whose interests lie on the recording side, like record labels, get to negotiate directly with streaming services to set their royalty structure. This is why the streaming payment system can be experimented with in the ways seen now through Spotify’s recent changes, as well as Deezer’s new “artist-centric” payment plan, created with UMG. Overall, the publishing side of the business is handcuffed to whatever the current ruling says.
The system of streaming royalty payments for publishers and songwriters for 2023-2027 (also known as “phonorecords IV” “phono IV” or “CRB IV”), the current five year period, has already been set. National Music Publishers’ Association president and CEO David Israelite says it is possible that the next five year period, phono V, could be reconfigured to more closely mirror what is happening on the master recording side but that determination process won’t begin until about early 2026.
“We will have the benefit of watching how this plays out for a while before we ever have to address it, but it’s way too early to speculate what we might do,” says Israelite. Still, he adds, “it is horrible that we are locked in the statutory rate structure where we have no flexibility other than these five year windows but that is our situation… It’s a very different conversation than one company sitting down with another company and agreeing what they want to do [like it happens on the master side]. We are asking a court through litigation or an agreement to set a structure that applies to everyone and to build consensus around that. It’s much harder to change.”
Hipgnosis Song Management (HSM) has announced that Daniel Pounder will become the company’s next chief financial officer, replacing Chris Helm by the end of this year. HSM has also created a new position of general counsel, tapping Jonathan Baker for the job. Both join from BMG.
The news arrives after a number of personnel changes to the company in recent weeks, including Hipgnosis Songs Fund board chair, Andrew Sutch, and two other board members who either resigned or failed to win re-election to their seats.
Hipgnosis — which owns rights to songs by Journey, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, and many more — is comprised of three branches: Hipgnosis Song Management, Hipgnosis Songs Capital and Hipgnosis Songs Fund. The latter of the three has been mired in controversy in recent weeks after it was announced that the London-listed trust would not pay its investors a dividend because of new, lower projections for revenue.
During a shareholder continuation vote on Oct. 26, where investors were asked to vote on whether they wanted to keep the investment trust going or liquidate the fund, selling $440 million worth of catalogs to the private side of the company — Hipgnosis Songs Capital — which is backed by Blackstone, more than 80% of investors voted in favor of the board drawing up “proposals for the reconstruction, reorganization or winding-up of the company to shareholders for their approval within six months,” the board said in a regulatory filing. “These proposals may or may not involve … liquidating all or part of the company’s existing portfolio of investments.”
In his role as CFO, Pounder will oversee the finances and investment functions of all three. He has over two decades of experience in music finance and accounting, including senior roles at BMG, Viacom, Famous Music and Sony Music Publishing. He completed his accountancy training with Deloitte and was admitted into the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 2003. By 2013, he was admitted as a fellow.
Current CFO, Chris Helm, will pass the responsibilities to Pounder over the next month and a half. According to a press release, the two will be “working closely” together to do a complete hand over until then. Helm will then be leaving to “launch a new business of his own early next year.”
Baker will oversee the legal affairs of the company’s catalog acquisition and day-to-day legal and business affairs for Hipgnosis. He will coordinate with the company’s outside counsel, including Bill Leibowitz, and will hold the responsibility for governance and compliance matters for the company and the fund’s clients.
Previous to this, Baker has 20 years of legal experience. He joins from BMG, where he has been general counsel in the U.K. and evp legal and business affairs international since 2012. Prior to that role, he worked at Simkins, a media and entertainment law firm.
Merck Mercuriadis, CEO and founder of Hipgnosis Song Management, says of the appointments: “It is always a priority for me to continually strengthen our executive leadership team to ensure we have the best institutional investment, finance and music capabilities and experience to deliver the next stage of development for Hipgnosis and our funds. This was the case starting with the appointment of Ben Katovsky as president and Chief Operating Officer one year ago and we’re delighted to welcome Dan and Jon to round out this process, particularly as this group of leaders have a proven successful chemistry of working together.
He adds, “Dan’s extensive experience and expertise in global music finance, ability to leverage data and technology and proven track record in supporting and enabling growing businesses will be of significant value to HSM and our fund clients as we work to further institutionalize the reporting and rigor of the song asset class. Likewise, Jon’s experience and expertise in global music legal affairs will support our funds while allowing us to prioritize responsible governane and compliance for Hipgnosis.”
Reservoir Media reported Tuesday (Nov. 7) that revenue grew by 15% year-over-year to $38.4 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2024, ending Sept. 30, 2023. During the quarter, the independent music company acquired new catalogs like Joe Walsh, Latin music icon Rudy Perez and country writer Brent Maher as well as continued expansion in its Arabic music catalog through its partnership with PopArabia — contributing to its inorganic growth.
This quarter’s rise in revenue, up from $33.3 million in Q2 of fiscal 2023, was mostly thanks to growth in its recorded music division, which was up 22% from last year’s second quarter, and publishing, which was up 8%. Reservoir notes that the growth in recorded music is largely driven by Chrysalis Music (acquired in 2019) and Tommy Boy (acquired in 2021) and partially offset by lower synchronization and film/tv licensing revenue, likely hindered by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
Chrysalis’ sprawling catalog of masters includes “Dancing With Myself” by Generation X and “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’Connor, whose catalog saw a 2,885% spike in listenership after her death earlier this quarter. Tommy Boy is home to some of hip-hop’s most pioneering players, including De La Soul, the trio that Reservoir ushered on to streaming services for the first time during Q4 of fiscal year 2023 to a solid monetary boost.
In the publishing sector of their business, Reservoir’s revenue reached $25.9 million, compared to $24.1 million in last fiscal year’s second quarter. The gain was a product of strong results in performance and mechanical revenue in particular. Performance monies were up 47% YoY and mechanical was up 25% YoY. These wins, however, were offset by changes with the Copyright Royalty Board — which regulates publishing royalty rates in the U.S. — Reservoir says, leading to a decrease in digital by $2.1 million which was recognized in the prior year quarter related to the newly affirmed royalty rates for the 2018-2022 period.
The company also signed a handful of award-winning frontline songwriters in the past quarter, including Steph Jones, Rob Ragosta, Cam Becker, Josh Record, and Wé Ani.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a closely watched metric of profitability, was up 24% this quarter to $15.9 million.
Founder and CEO, Golnar Khosrowshahi, says the company is confident in its position, both in the U.S. and emerging markets “We are encouraged by the growing opportunities internationally and welcome recent additions of El Sawareekh and RE Media expanding our presence in the emerging markets,” she says. “We will continue to pursue acquisitions in the U.S. and across the globe, and we have the right team and strategy to close accretive deals enhancing the portfolio and building long term value for the business and our shareholders.”
Jim Heindlmeyer, CFO, says that, as a result of the company’s “consistent progress against our strategic growth plan demonstrates the resilience of our business model and ongoing tailwinds from the growing music industry,” Reservoir is raising both its revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance for fiscal 2024. “We are pleased to announce another quarter of strong performance, driven by meaningful top-line growth in both business segments,” he says.
The company’s outlook for fiscal 2024:
Revenue is anticipated to be $133 million-$137 million for the year ending March 31, 2024, with 10% growth at midpoint
Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $50 million-$52 million with 10% growth at midpoint
HarbourView Equity Partners has acquired what it refers to as “select” publishing assets of Kane Brown, the country music star whose catalog of three studio albums has so far generated 8.4 million album consumption units during his career. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Brown’s hit songs include such tunes as “What Ifs,” “Homesick,” […]
Ashley Gorley was named ASCAP country music songwriter of the year at the 61st ASCAP Country Music Awards. The invitation-only event, which celebrated the songwriters and publishers of country music’s 50 most-performed ASCAP songs of the past year, was held at The Twelve Thirty Club in Nashville on Monday (Nov. 6).
This was the 10th time Gorley has been named ASCAP country music songwriter of the year, which extends his record.
Gorley, 46, had a hand in writing 10 of ASCAP’s most-performed country songs of the past year, five of which were recorded by Morgan Wallen: “You Proof” (which was named ASCAP country song of the year), “Last Night,” “Everything I Love,” “One Thing at a Time” and “Thinkin’ Bout Me.” Gorley’s other award-winners for the year were “Gold” (Dierks Bentley), “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” (Cole Swindell), “What He Didn’t Do” (Carly Pearce), “Girl in Mine” (Parmalee) and “You Didn’t” (Brett Young).
This is the third time that Gorley has co-written the ASCAP country song of the year. He accepted the honor for “You Proof” alongside winning publishers Round Hill Songs and Sony Music Publishing. The song debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the first song to top Billboard’s Country Airplay chart for 10 weeks.
Gorley has received five CMA nominations for song of the year and five Grammy nominations in songwriting categories — though he has yet to win at either awards show. He has received four Grammy nods for best country song and one for best rock song (for co-writing Weezer’s “All My Favorite Songs”).
Jordan Davis, 35, collected his first ASCAP country music songwriter/artist of the year honor. The MCA Nashville artist’s top 10 Hot Country Songs hits “Next Thing You Know” and “What My World Spins Around” were also honored as most-performed songs. “Next Thing You Know” is nominated for single, song and music video of the year at the 57th CMA Awards, which will be presented on Wednesday. Davis won the CMA Award for song of the year last year for “Buy Dirt,” which he co-wrote with his brother, Jacob Davis, Josh Jenkins and Matt Jenkins and recorded with Luke Bryan.
Sony Music Publishing was named ASCAP country music publisher of the year. The company represents 21 of this year’s most-performed songs including “Heart Like a Truck” (Lainey Wilson), “Heartfirst” (Kelsea Ballerini), “Need a Favor” (Jelly Roll), “Next Thing You Know” (Jordan Davis), “What He Didn’t Do” (Carly Pearce), “Gold” (Dierks Bentley), “Everyone She Knows” (Kenny Chesney), “5 Foot 9” (Tyler Hubbard), “No Body” (Blake Shelton) and “You, Me, and Whiskey” (Justin Moore and Priscilla Block).
ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews, ASCAP chairman of the board and president Paul Williams and ASCAP vice president of Nashville membership Mike Sistad presented what ASCAP calls the “Of the Year” winners.
A complete list of ASCAP Country Music Award winners can be found here: ASCAP.com/countryawards23.
A rebound in performing rights and heightened demand for physical product helped the value of global music copyright reach $41.5 billion in 2022, surpassing the $40 billion mark for the first time, according to a report released Monday (Nov. 6).
While record labels commanded a majority of the global market, the $5 billion annual increase was “evenly shared” between recorded music and music publishing, noted the report’s author, Will Page. The 2022 tally represented a 16% increase at constant currency — and currency fluctuations played a major role. Page restated the value of global music copyright in 2021 to $36.9 billion from $39.6 billion due to updated foreign exchange rates. Almost $2 billion of the nearly $3 billion restatement came from IFPI’s global recorded music revenues, while about $1 billion of the adjustment came from music publishing.
Record labels accounted for $26 billion of the $41.5 billion sum, a 62.7% share that was lower than both 2021 (64.6%) and 2020 (63.5%). Since 2020, a slowdown in labels’ digital revenue has been offset by more than $1 billion in growth from physical formats from “accelerating demand for CDs in Asia” and an “insatiable need” for vinyl records in Europe and the United States: “And this isn’t going to slow down,” predicts Page.
Music publishers increased their share of the global total to 37.3%. Part of the reason publishers outperformed labels could be from what Page calls a “lag effect,” where labels tend to license to new streaming platforms before publishers. Another potential reason for publishers’ improvement is early accruals from the royalty increase in the United States from the Copyright Royalty Board, “a decision that will fully crystalize when the 2023 figures are calculated,” writes Page.
Publishers’ direct revenue rose from $3.7 billion to $4.1 billion but accounted for a smaller 9.9% share of total revenue, down from 10.2% in 2021. Songwriter CMOs rebounded with a 27.5% share of total revenue worth $11.4 billion, after taking a 25.3% share worth $9.2 billion in 2021 and a 27.2% share worth $8.5 billion in 2020. Page attributes CMOs’ improvement to music’s return to the live space after the pandemic, which drives gains in public performance royalties. Also, “inflation is embedded into blanket licenses,” wrote Page, meaning higher prices increase collections when the royalties are calculated as a percentage of revenue. Finally, as CISAC’s Gadi Oron has noted, CMOs have improved collections through a combination of content identification and improved licensing terms.
There’s a chance Page’s $41.5 billion figure is low. The estimate incorporates global recording revenue tallied by the trade group IFPI. But as Page notes in his report, MIDiA Research “has arguably done more research” on segments undercounted by IFPI’s various members, including the do-it-yourself artists who account for 10% of global streams, indie labels and the South Korean market. MIDiA Research put the value of global recorded music in 2022 at $18.9 billion, about 8% greater than the IFPI’s figure of $17.5 billion.
If MIDiA’s methodology is correct, says Page, the value of global copyright is closer to $45 billion than $40 billion and could be $50 billion sooner than people expect. When the music business hits that threshold, it will have doubled since Page’s 2014 report put the global value of music copyright at $25 billion.