Publishing
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Range Media Partners has launched a music publishing division and tapped Casey Robinson to lead it, the company announced Tuesday (Sept. 12).
Robinson arrives at Range Media from Hipgnosis Songs Group, where he served as executive vp of A&R and led the company’s pop division, working with artists and songwriters including Monsters & Strangerz, John Ryan, Julian Bunetta, Normani, Teddy Geiger, Imad Royal, Dan Wilson, Joe London and Steph Jones. He joined Hipgnosis following the company’s 2020 acquisition of Big Deal Music Group, where he served as co-president/partner. Robinson also previously worked as senior director at BMI, where he signed Imagine Dragons.
Other employees of Range’s new publishing division include director of A&R and publishing Sam Drake, director of A&R Federico Morris and manager and vp of A&R Jared Cotter. The division has already signed songwriter Geoff Warburton, known for his work with artists including Shawn Mendes, Demi Lovato, Keith Urban and Elle King.
“Casey and the team believe there is a tremendous opportunity to launch a boutique publishing company inside of the Range ecosystem,” said Range Music founding partner/Range Media Partners co-founder Matt Graham in a statement. “The connectivity to our management roster, label, film/TV relationships and music supervisors provide a fertile ground for developing writers and producers … His experience as a builder at Big Deal and Hipgnosis is essential to getting our strategy and culture honed to ensure maximum opportunity for our talent. We couldn’t be more excited about what we can create together.”
Added Robinson, “I’m thrilled to be joining the creative team at Range. Since the company’s creation just a few years ago, I’ve admired its spirit, culture and dynamic growth. Range’s curated approach to identifying and fostering talent across genres will serve as a blueprint for how we build the publishing company, which will be dedicated to long-term career growth for both artists and writers.”
Launched in September 2020, Range Media is led by managing partners Graham, Jack Minihan, Tyler Henry, Melissa Ruderman, Chris Thomas, Evan Winiker, Cory Litwin and Shawn McSpadden, as well as partners Michele Harrison, Greg Johnson, Rachel Douglas, Ace Christian and Joel Zimmerman.
Global organization of music publishers the International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) has partnered with piracy tracking company MUSO on a new ICMP Anti-Piracy Platform (APP) that aims to combat unlawful uses of member companies’ musical works. ICMP’s membership of major and independent music companies spans the globe, encompassing 76 national trade associations on six […]
Argentine singer-songwriter Abel Pintos has signed an exclusive global publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), the company announced on Thursday (Sept. 7). Known for his folk-tinged intimate heartfelt songs, Pintos’ career spans over nearly three decades. Since debuting at age 13, the Gardel Award-winning artist has released 14 albums (12 studio albums and two live albums). […]
Rimas Publishing — home to renowned songwriters and producers such as Bad Bunny, Eladio Carrión, Mora, and Súbelo NEO — has inked a strategic partnership with music metadata Muso.AI, Billboard has learned. Focused on businesses, catalogs, and individual profiles, the new deal will provide a new standard for next-generation transparency that will directly benefit Rimas’ […]
The U.S. Copyright Office issued a ruling on Tuesday (Sept. 5), confirming that songwriters and publishers are owed late fees when streaming services do not pay royalties to the Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) on time. This, however, does not apply to the major adjustments in royalty payments currently underway following the re-setting of Phonorecords III rates (2018-2022), according to the office.
Late fees have been an ongoing debate between the music publishing industry and streaming services dating back to the passage of the Music Modernization Act (the MMA) in 2018. That landmark law switched how streaming services licensed music, from a song-by-song piecemeal system — which many considered ineffective and cumbersome — to a blanket licensing regime instead.
The law took effect starting Jan. 1, 2021, requiring digital music providers like Spotify and Apple Music to go to the newly created MLC to obtain a blanket mechanical license to reproduce music on these platforms. As part of the new system, streamers had to pay out royalties owed to the MLC, which then pays the writers and publishers, each month. More specifically, the law stipulates mechanicals are due “45 calendar days after the end of the monthly reporting period.”
After that, any lagging payment is considered late and subject to additional penalties, according to the MMA. For the current period of Phonorecords IV (2023-2027), the Copyright Royalty Board judges say that a streaming service must pay a late fee of 1.5% per month, or the highest lawful rate, whichever of those two is lower, for any payment owed to the music’s copyright owners that hadn’t been paid on time. The late fees accrue from the due date until the copyright owner receives payment.
The main source of debate around late fees is whether they should apply in the case of a monthly payment that needs adjustment after it is paid out. Streaming services have argued that “‘[i]f a service is following the regulations by making a reasonable estimate of an input it does not know the value of, it should not be penalized with a late fee even if it so happens that the estimate is too low.”
On the other side, the MLC has argued that allowing such exceptions would incentivize the streaming services to intentionally draw up payment estimates that undervalue what is owed to songwriters and publishers.
The Tuesday ruling by the Copyright Office settles the debate: “The Office concludes that the statute’s due date provisions are unambiguous. The statute’s reference to ‘due date for payment’ clearly refers to the date on which monthly royalty payments are required to be delivered to the MLC, i.e., no later than forty-five days after the end of the monthly reporting period.”
“This is a major victory for music creators who have waited far too long to be made whole from the appeal which significantly delayed their compensation,” says NMPA President and CEO David Israelite. “The USCO’s decision reiterates our assertion that the due dates are unambiguous and any past-due payments to the MLC must come with appropriate statutory penalties.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs has reassigned his publishing rights back to all the artists and songwriters who helped build the label he founded, Bad Boy Entertainment. Ma$e, Faith Evans, The LOX, 112 and the Estate of the Notorious B.I.G. are among the creatives who have already signed agreements to regain those rights, Billboard has learned.
A Bad Boy representative declined to disclose the terms of those deals. However, sources with knowledge of the situation say the process of reaching out to the artists and writers began in May 2021 after Combs had turned down various offers to sell the catalog. While most of the parties have been contacted and have since signed their offers, the search to locate and resolve agreements with a few others is still ongoing. Publishing on behalf of Bad Boy in past years has been administered by EMI, which is owned by Sony Music Publishing/Sony Corporation of America. And EMI continues to administer Combs’ own publishing.
Coinciding with Bad Boy’s 30th anniversary this year, the surprise move by Combs arrives after a public dispute of several years between him and Bad Boy hitmaker Ma$e. After Combs upbraided the Recording Academy for taking Black artists in R&B and rap for granted during a 2020 acceptance speech for the organization’s Industry Icon award at Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy gala, Ma$e took his former label boss to task for doing the same thing.
In a since-deleted Instagram post, Mase revealed he’d offered Combs $2 million to buy back his publishing but it was declined. In the post, Ma$e alleged, “Your past business practices knowingly has continued purposely starved your artist and been extremely unfair to the very same artist that helped u obtain that Icon Award on the iconic Badboy label. For example, u still got my publishing from 24 years ago in which u gave me $20k. Which makes me never want to work w/ u as any artist wouldn’t … This is not Black excellence at all.”
And last year during an interview with The Breakfast Club, Combs alleged that Ma$e owed him $3 million for an album advance that was never delivered on.
“My n—- murder had to sit this one out. He just got his publishing back from Puff. Just finished the paper work for that yesterday,” Cam’ron wrote in an Instagram post on Aug. 30. “Congrats @rsvpmase while he getting his music back in order, I’m dumping my hard drive pause. The lost files vol 1. Sept 8.”
Founded by Combs in 1993, Bad Boy garnered success out of the gate with a string of gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums and singles by Craig Mack, the Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, Ma$e, Total, 112, The LOX and Diddy himself, among others. Over the years, the legendary label’s roster has also boasted artists such as Carl Thomas, Shyne, Dream, Danity Kane and French Montana. It was also home to an inhouse writer/producer collective called The Hitmen, whose membership at times has featured the late Chucky Thompson, Stevie J, Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie and Mario Winans. Recent Bad Boy release credits include Machine Gun Kelly’s 2022 album Mainstream Sellout and Janelle Monae’s latest, The Age of Pleasure.
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Harlem can breathe a sigh of relief this week. Cam’ron claims Ma$e has finally received his publishing back from Diddy.
As spotted on HipHopDX, the Diplomats founder made a big announcement Wednesday (Aug. 30) via his Instagram account. He congratulated the former Children Of The Corn member on the win in signature Killa fashion while promoting his new mixtape. “My n***a murder had to sit this one out. He just got his publishing back from Puff. Just finished the paper work for that yesterday,” he wrote. “Congrats @rsvpmase while he getting his music back in order, I’m dumping my hard drive pause. The lost files vol 1. Sept 8.”
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If Cam’ron is speaking facts, this makes for a hallmark victory for Ma$e. For years the ex-Bad Boy Entertainment talent has voiced his displeasure and frustration that Sean Diddy Combs still owns his publishing. Back in 2020, Betha claimed he offered Diddy $2 million dollars to get it back but was declined. But during a sit down with The Breakfast Club, Diddy explained that Ma$e still owed him $3 million dollars.
“Just in general, the Ma$e thing. I did one album with Ma$e. One album. How much money do you think I owe this guy. And then he became a fake pastor and went and conned people,” he said. “And y’all going let him throw dirt on the God’s name? Anybody can come and step up. Bring your receipts. But I’m not playing. I’m back outside, and I’m fighting back for us. And I’m also doing some fighting back for me.”
You can see Cam’s post below, which also includes a preview to the mixtape.
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Warner Chappell has signed Kaliii to a worldwide administration deal. The writer and rapper behind “Area Codes,” the rising star hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Emerging artists chart in June and is nominated for Best New Artist at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards.
Reservoir Media and PopArabia have jointly acquired the catalog of Cairo-based content production and distribution company RE Media, including the Company’s over 6,000 recordings and compositions, and the master and publishing rights for the catalog of Egyptian rap duo, El Sawareekh.
Concord Music Publishing has extended its deal with hitmaking producer and songwriter Tomas Costanza, the multi-faceted worldwide agreement extends his existing relationship with the top indie publisher and includes the acquisition of his catalog as well as representation of his future works.
Warner Chappell has partnered with BTS hitmakers Jenna Andrews (Jennasis Music) and Stephen Kirk (Sixteen Sound) to form a new publishing joint venture. To start the new union, the trio has signed Nashville-based Morgan Johnston and Tyler Jordan as its first signees.
SILO: Music has signed Grammy-nominated songwriter, producer, and vocalist Trey Campbell to a new management contract. Credited on songs by Kim Petras, Giveon, HER, Ariana Grande, John Legend, Ella Mai, and more, the hitmaker was brought to the company by director of a&r management/publishing, Jessica Thomas.
Warner Chappell has signed VALE, a Columbian alternative-pop duo, to a global publishing deal. Nominated for Best New Artist at the 2022 Latin GRAMMY Awards, the duo is comprised of sisters Valeria and Valentina.
Warner Chappell has signed Charles Wesley Godwin to a global publishing deal. Currently on tour as the opener for Zach Bryan’s tour, Godwin is gearing up for the release of his third album (and his first under his new agreement with Big Loud Records) Family Ties on Sept. 22.
Anthem Music Publishing has signed Joey Hyde to a worldwide publishing deal. A writer for talents like Jake Owen, Walker Montgomery, Luke Dick, Sam Grow, Lindsay Ell, and Ryan Hurd, he is a fast-rising talent in the Nashville scene.
Sony Music Publishing has signed Naika to a global publishing agreement in conjunction with Michael Brun, a Haitan DJ and record producer.
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has launched a new social media campaign that appears to be in response to a recent Billboard exclusive that revealed that ASCAP’s main competitor, Broadcast Music Inc (BMI), may sell itself to a private equity firm. Sources say the potential deal has an estimated price tag of $1.7 billion.
Just two days after the Billboard story was published on last Wednesday (Aug 23), ASCAP — which, along with BMI, is one of the largest U.S.-based performing rights organizations — posted a graphic on Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter) that read: “ASCAP. Creators first. Not for profit. Not for sale.” In the caption of the post, ASCAP continued to point out that it is the “only U.S. PRO that operates as a not-for-profit” and that it is the “only one founded and governed by songwriters, composers and music publishers.”
In the last three days, the organization has posted seven other similar posts on its socials, seemingly highlighting their distinctions from BMI. The posts include quotes like: “Private equity never wrote an iconic love song,” “ASCAP. Growth without greed,” and “ASCAP writers. Who owns us? Who gets paid? You. And you.”
ASCAP CEO, Elizabeth Matthews, provided a statement about the social campaign to Billboard, saying “it’s important for everyone to understand what makes ASCAP different. We are a membership association, founded and run by songwriters, composers and music publishers. We are the only US PRO that operates as a not-for-profit, and our distribution policy is set by a board of writers and publishers, who are elected by our members. ASCAP’s governing articles require us to put creators first, which puts us in a category of one. And we’ve been overwhelmed by the positive response from our members.”
“Our focus is not on how our competitors position themselves,” replied a representative of BMI when asked to comment on ASCAP’s latest social posts. “Relying on the past never sustained a business for the future. Our goal is to stay ahead of the changing industry and invest in our business to grow the value of our affiliates’ music. Any path forward would prioritize the best interests of our songwriters, composers and publishers, including their financial success. Our focus is on delivering for our affiliates.”
BMI first began experimenting with its business model in March 2022 when it hired Goldman Sachs as an outside advisor to explore new strategic opportunities for growth. This was believed to include a possible sale to an outside firm, but by August 2022, Bloomberg announced that BMI had ditched its exploration of such a sale. A few days later, Billboard found that the PRO laid off about 30 staffers from its workforce, citing “uncertain” economic conditions.
By October 2022, BMI announced that it would be switching from its 80-plus year status as a non-profit organization to a for-profit company. In an interview with Billboard at the time, the company’s CEO and president, Mike O’Neill, explained that the company made this switch because “growth requires investment, not just maintenance… This new [commercial] model will grow at a faster rate.”
This summer, reports surfaced that BMI was once again considering a sale. O’Neill explained to his staff in a memo that the company’s new for-profit model and recent investments into improving its operations “has only intensified outside interest” in purchasing the PRO.
Amid growing concern about the future of BMI, songwriter groups — including Songwriters of North America, Black Music Artists Coalition, Music Artists Coalition, Artists Rights Alliance, and SAG-AFTRA — provided Billboard with an open letter to BMI on Aug. 18. Outlining three areas of concern, the songwriter groups question how they will be impacted by BMI’s increased profits; the proceeds from any potential BMI sale; and what may happen operationally at BMI in the event that the organization is sold. “Songwriters have a right to understand these decisions and how it impacts us,” the letter read.
Days after, Billboard reported that multiple sources say BMI is considering an offer to sell to New Mountain Capital, a private equity firm that has been quietly shopping for music assets over the last few years, according to sources. The deal has yet to be signed, as New Mountain Capital has entered an exclusive window to scrutinize the deal. Sources suggest that the deal, if it takes place, will be worth around $1.7 billion.
In response to that exclusive, the same songwriter groups provided Billboard with another open letter to BMI on Aug. 28, expressing that they were “extremely disappointed and upset” to hear the news of a possible sale. The coalition asked for BMI’s chief executive to respond to songwriters with more information “prior to taking any other action” towards the possible sale to New Mountain.
A coalition of songwriter and artist groups have expressed that they are “extremely disappointed and upset” with BMI in a letter to the firm’s CEO and president Mike O’Neill. Obtained by Billboard, the letter is written in response to last week’s news that the performing rights organization may sell to private equity firm New Mountain Capital for around $1.7 billion, according to multiple sources.
Consisting of Songwriters of North America (SONA), Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), Music Artists Coalition, Artist Rights Alliance, and SAG AFTRA, the coalition’s new letter asks O’Neill for “real, substantive answers” to questions they posed to the company leader in a previous letter from Aug. 18, citing that O’Neill’s original response did “not answer any of [their] questions.”
The Aug. 18 letter addressed three major concerns: BMI’s profits; the proceeds from any potential BMI sale; and what may happen operationally at BMI in the event that the organization is sold.
Five days later, on Aug. 23, Billboard reported that BMI was, in fact, in the process of selling. Spurred by that report, the coalition wrote their second letter to O’Neill, asking for the executive to respond to songwriters “prior to taking any other action” towards its possible sale. “If you do not want to provide us with written answers, we are happy to meet with you as a group,” it says.
They also call out BMI for responding to their last request by saying that there was an uplift in BMI’s distributions last year. “Of course distributions went up — all PROs’ revenue went up,” the new letter reads. “This does not answer any of our questions. And it does not explain where the $145m EBITDA (as reported by Billboard today) came from and why that money was not distributed to songwriters.”
A representative for BMI replied to the letter in a statement to Billboard a few hours after its receipt, saying, “Relying on the past has never sustained a business for the future. Our goal is to stay ahead of the changing industry and invest in our business to grow the value of our affiliates’ music. Any path forward would prioritize the best interests of our songwriters, composers and publishers, including their financial success. Our focus is on delivering for our affiliates.”
BMI’s changing business model has been the source of concern and confusion within the music industry since March 2022. At that time, it was reported that the performing rights organization had hired Goldman Sachs as an outside advisor to explore new strategic opportunities for growth. As a non-profit organization since its inception over 80 years prior, the Goldman Sachs news signaled a major shift for BMI and was rumored to include a possible sale to an outside firm. In August 2022, however, Bloomberg announced that BMI had ditched its exploration of such a sale. A few days later, Billboard reported that the PRO laid off “just under 10%” of its workforce, about 30 people, in order to approve “efficiency” during “uncertain economic times,” said O’Neill in a company-wide email.
Last October, BMI announced that it would be switching from its non-profit status to become a for-profit company. O’Neill explained to Billboard that the company made this switch because “growth requires investment, not just maintenance… This new [commercial] model will grow at a faster rate.” Given the fast-shifting performance royalty landscape, moving from in-person to mainly digital collections, BMI appeared to want to invest more in modernizing its operations with its new model.
This summer, BMI resurfaced the potential of selling to an outside firm. In a memo to staff in late July, O’Neill said that the company has been increasingly interested in a sale over the last year. He added that by leveraging the company’s new for-profit model and recent investments made into BMI to improve its operations, BMI “has only intensified outside interest.”
Read the songwriter groups’ full letter here:
Mr. Mike O’NeillBroadcast Music, Inc.
Re: BMI
Dear Mike:
We were extremely disappointed and upset to read the announcement of BMI’s sale to New Mountain Capitol.
Songwriters have real questions and deserve real answers before any further action is taken. While we appreciated you responding to our letter, all of our questions went unanswered.
Your response was that distributions went up last year. Of course distributions went up – all PROs’ revenue went up. This does not answer any of our questions. And, it does not explain where the $145m EBITDA (as reported by Billboard today) came from and why that money was not distributed to songwriters.
We understand that a deal has been agreed, but has not closed. Prior to taking any other action, we are giving you another opportunity to provide songwriters with real, substantive answers to the questions we posed.
If you do not want to provide us with written answers, we are happy to meet with you as a group.
Sincerely,
Black Music Action CoalitionMusic Artists CoalitionSongwriters of North AmericaSAG-AFTRAArtist Rights Alliance