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Nearly 50 years after being forced to close its doors in 1975, venerable label Stax Records became a Grammy winner once again in 2024. During the 66th annual Grammy Awards in February, the golden gramophones for best album notes and best historical album were awarded to the seven-disc box set Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos.
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Now in further testament to the gifted artists, songwriters, producers, musicians and engineers behind the label’s treasured catalog — and the team of dedicated and persevering executives helming operations behind the scenes — comes Stax: Soulsville U.S.A. Produced and directed by Jamila Wignot, the HBO Original documentary series premieres tonight (May 20, 9 p.m.-10 p.m. ET/PT) with two back-to-back episodes. The final two episodes will air tomorrow (May 21) in the same time slot. The series is a production of Laylow Pictures and White Horse Pictures in association with Concord Originals, Polygram Entertainment and Warner Music Entertainment.
The four-part series tells the story of the family-owned Memphis label, founded by Jim Stewart in 1957 and co-owned by his sister Estelle Axton, whose color-blind approach to music turned a deaf ear to the prevailing segregation of the times. The result? Music that hurdled racial barriers to become mainstream classics by artists such as Otis Redding ([Sittin’ On] the Dock of the Bay”), Isaac Hayes (“Theme from Shaft”), Sam & Dave (“Soul Man”) and Booker T. & the MG’s (“Green Onions”).
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In relaying its story, Stax: Soulsville U.S.A. integrates restored and remastered archival performance footage and interviews with the creatives and executives who helped shape the label’s musical and cultural impact amid its business highs and lows. Stewart and Axton, former Stax president and owner Al Bell, guitarist Steve Cropper, musician/songwriter David Porter, singer-songwriter Carla Thomas and Bar-Kays members James Alexander and Willie Hall are just a few of those recalling their experiences in Soulsville.
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In advance of the documentary’s HBO premiere, director Wignot and former Stax director of publicity Deanie Parker (co-writer of the Grammy-winning notes for Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos) share their reflections about the label’s legacy with Billboard.
Why does Stax still resonate with music fans today?
Parker: Because it’s distinctive. Stax music — a fusion of Negro spirituals and gospel, influenced by white country music and nurtured on the downhome blues of Blacks – was not a sheet music rendition. But rather authentic, heartfelt, cadenced expressions recorded in legendary Studio A. It’s a style of music birthed in our souls and dubbed rhythm and blues (R&B). Stax music is a feeling.
Wignot: Because it’s great art. It gives voice to powerful and universal human themes — love, sorrow, joy, tenacity, freedom. It’s music that’s original. You can feel in it that these were artists who had the determination to make their music their way. They were in search of and achieved honest expressions.
What new revelations does the documentary unveil or is there any mis-information that it corrects?
Wignot: It was my hope that the series would provide a complex and nuanced portrait of the label’s story and of the rich community of artists who comprised that story. I think it will surprise audiences familiar with the likes of Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes and The Staple Singers to know just how tenacious the label had to be to achieve the success it did. And how determined it had to be in the face of the powerful forces — industry bias, racism, corporate greed —that stood in the way of its dream, which was a simple one: to make great music and have it reach audiences hungry for that singular sound. The emphasis we place on Stax’s latter chapter, 1968-1975, will illustrate what a profound effect the label had on the industry and the possibilities it created for Black artists.
Parker: The documentary producers’ interviews with Stax Records employees, in first person, expose the depth of the pain and trauma most of us experienced that resulted from the company’s forced bankruptcy. It also validates the joy and happiness of the authors of the hits produced and respected worldwide. The documentary reveals our pride over the music catalog’s longevity and musical influence that continues today, thanks in part to Concord and our Stax Music Academy.
What do you hope fans will remember the most after viewing the documentary?
Parker: I hope music fans will appreciate the value of teaching and preserving a uniquely soulful style of music produced collectively by talented men and women with diverse backgrounds – Black and white. Stax Records happened because we practiced and perfected creating together harmoniously.
Wignot: Stax is a music story. But it’s also a story about what can happen when you refuse to accept limitations imposed upon you by the world. Its tragic ending is made less so by the music that survives and reminds us every day of possibilities.
STAX: Soulsville U.S.A.
Courtesy of HBO
[Trigger warning: this article contains descriptions of domestic violence, as well as sexual and physical abuse.]
Marilyn Manson has signed a record deal with indie metal label Nuclear Blast, Billboard has confirmed.
In a statement sent to Billboard, the label said it is “heralding a new phase in the career of this iconic metal artist,” though it declined to provide further details on the nature of the deal. On Wednesday (May 15), the label shared a video of Manson on Instagram that appeared to tease new music.
Rolling Stone was first to report the signing.
The news comes more than three years after Manson (born Brian Warner) was dropped by his previous record label, Loma Vista Recordings, after his former girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood and several other women accused the rock musician of sexual abuse. Following the allegations, Manson was also dropped by his agency, CAA, and longtime manager Tony Ciulla.
After previously disclosing that she was sexually abused by an unnamed perpetrator, Wood named Manson as the culprit on Feb. 1, 2021, via a statement on Instagram, in which she shared that the rocker started “grooming” her when she was a teenager and “horrifically abused” her for years. After she went public, at least a dozen other women came forward with similar allegations, including three more former girlfriends: Game of Thrones star Esme Bianco, Ashley Morgan Smithline and a Jane Doe. Manson’s former personal assistant, Ashley Walters, also accused him of sexual assault.
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In the wake of the accusations, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department opened a criminal investigation into reports of domestic violence perpetrated by Manson between 2009 and 2011. The findings were submitted to the L.A. District Attorney’s office in September 2022, though prosecutors at the time said they needed more evidence before considering criminal charges.
Manson was also sued by several of his alleged victims, including Bianco, Walters, the Jane Doe, Smithline and a second Jane Doe who claimed Manson had sexually assaulted her while she was underage. The lawsuits filed by two of the women — Walters and Smithline — were subsequently dismissed, while Manson settled out of court with Bianco and the first Jane Doe. Smithline later recanted her allegations, claiming Wood and others had “manipulated” her to “spread publicly false accusations of abuse” against Manson. Last December, an appeals court revived Walters’ case, ruling that the trauma she claims to have suffered may have led her to suppress memories of the alleged abuse, thereby allowing her to override the two-year statute of limitations in California.
Manson has denied all of the women’s allegations.
While he hasn’t released an album since 2020’s We Are Chaos, Manson’s career appears to be picking up steam. In March, he announced his first live dates in nearly five years, revealing that he and Russian deathcore band Slaughter to Prevail would embark on a 30-date arena/amphitheater tour with Five Finger Death Punch that begins in August.
Sony Music warned tech companies not to mine its recordings, compositions, lyrics and more “for any purposes, including in relation to training, developing, or commercializing any [artificial intelligence] system,” in a declaration published on the company’s website on Thursday (May 16).
In addition, according to a letter obtained by Billboard, Sony Music is in the process of reaching out to hundreds of companies developing generative AI tech, as well as streaming services, to drive home this message directly.
The pointed letter notes that “unauthorized use of SMG Content in the training, development or commercialization of AI systems deprives SMG Companies and SMG Talent of control over and appropriate compensation for the uses of SMG Content, conflicts with the normal exploitation of those works, unreasonably prejudices our legitimate interests, and infringes our intellectual property and other rights.”
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GenAI models require “training” — “a computational process of deconstructing existing works for the purpose of modeling mathematically how [they] work,” as Google explained last year in comments to the U.S. Copyright Office in October. “By taking existing works apart, the algorithm develops a capacity to infer how new ones should be put together.” Through inference, these models eventually can generate credible-sounding hip-hop beats, for example.
Whether a company needs permission before undertaking the training process on copyrighted works is already the subject of a fierce debate, leading to lawsuits in several industries. In October, Universal Music Group (UMG) was among the music companies that sued AI startup Anthropic, alleging that “in the process of building and operating AI models, [the company] unlawfully copies and disseminates vast amounts of copyrighted works.”
Although these cases will likely set precedent for AI training practices in the U.S., the courts typically move at a glacial pace. In the meantime, some technology companies seem set on training their genAI tools on large troves of recordings without permission.
“Based on recent Copyright Office filings it is clear that the technology industry and speculative financial investors would like governments to believe in a very distorted view of copyright,” Dennis Kooker, Sony Music’s president of global digital business, said during the Artificial Intelligence Insight Forum in Washington, D.C. in November. “One in which music is considered fair use for training purposes and in which certain companies are permitted to appropriate the entire value produced by the creative sector without permission, and to build huge businesses based on it without paying anything to the creators concerned.”
While Kooker was adamant during his testimony that training for genAI music tools “cannot be without consent, credit and compensation to the artists and rightsholders,” he also pointed out that Sony has “roughly 200 active conversations taking place with start-ups and established players about building new products and developing new tools.”
“These discussions range from tools for creative or marketing assistance, to tools that potentially give us the ability to better protect artist content or find it when used in an unauthorized fashion, to brand new products that have never been launched before,” he continued.
Sony’s letter to genAI companies this week ended on a similar note: “We invite you to engage with us and the music industry stakeholders we represent to explore how your AI Act copyright policy may be developed in a manner that ensures our and SMG Talent’s rights are respected.”
Mon Laferte has signed a record deal with Sony Music Latin, the company tells Billboard. In this “new phase” of the Chilean singer-songwriter’s career, Sony Music will continue to “enhance” her legacy and international visibility, according to the label. The Grammy-nominated artist is currently on her Live Nation-produced Autopoiética tour in the United States, taking […]
Warner Music is restructuring its Mexican music division to strengthen its market presence and product quality, the label tells Billboard. The revamped division will feature a culturally attuned A&R team and a strategic marketing framework designed to promote artist development across multiple territories.
The initiative will be led by Tomas Rodríguez, president of Warner Music Mexico & Mexican Music, who will be spearheading the restructured division from Mexico. “The expertise, adaptability, and market acumen of the Mexican Music team will bolster our vision for the genre’s development and globalization, cementing Warner as a protagonist,” he said in a statement.
Rubén Abraham, Warner Music’s GM of Mexican music, will oversee the A&R and marketing teams from Los Angeles, aligning strategies across the United States and Mexico. “We’re primed to offer the industry’s premier platform for the genre, supported by top-notch professionals and tailored negotiation options that cater to both present needs and future prospects of Mexican Music,” he said.
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The division’s A&R team will include Brian Plascencia as director of A&R. Plascencia brings extensive experience from previous roles at Universal Music and Univision Records and as a West Coast label manager at Machete Music, where he was instrumental in launching artists such as Larry Hernandez, Fidel Rueda, El Potro de Sinaloa and Roberto Tapia. As a founding partner at Alianza Records, Plascencia has also developed artists like Grupo H-100 and Edicion Especial.
Elsewhere, the A&R team will include associate director of A&R Armando López, who brings over a decade of expertise in marketing, musical production and concert promotion. Cesar Carrillo has been appointed senior manager of A&R, with an 18-year track record in the regional Mexican music scene. His experience spans music production, artist management for acts like Tomas Ballardo and Los Buitres de Culiacán and booking for Legado 7 with Lumbre Music. AT FM Entertainment, he assisted in managing schedules for música mexicana giants such as Ramón Ayala, Banda Machos and Fidel Rueda.
María Angela Batiz, the label’s director of marketing for Mexican music, will continue to play a crucial role with her extensive experience and expertise in the genre, leading the development of marketing strategies and campaigns across the department.
Warner Music’s expansion in Mexican music is supported by its collaboration with the company’s independent distribution and label services arm ADA, enabling a range of services and partnership opportunities.
Warner Music’s Mexican music roster also includes Grupo Codiciado, El Komander, Pesado, DannyLux and Los Aptos.
SYDNEY, Australia — Universal Music Australia forms a strategic relationship with hip-hop specialist One Day Entertainment, a bond both parties are confident will unearth and launch more Aussie acts. Through the agreement, One Day Recordings will work closely with UMA label EMI Music Australia on developing and exposing local talent, both here and abroad. The joint venture, say reps for UMG, ought to strengthen the major music company’s Australian artist roster by “drawing on One Day Recordings strong A&R connections within the domestic market.”Over the past few years, notes EMI managing director Mark Holland, “I’ve seen their drive, tenacity, and hunger to succeed in the music business first-hand and am keen to help find and nurture the future generation of musicians alongside them.”The One Day team, he continues, is “already proving to be a strong A&R source in the domestic market, utilizing their established position in artist and studio management, as well as touring and event promotion.”
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Financial terms weren’t disclosed.Launching in 2013 as an artist collective comprised of Horrorshow, Spit Syndicate, Joyride and Jackie Onassis, One Day Entertainment began life as a events brand.In 2019, Sydney-based One Day Entertainment changed gears and diversified into artist and producer management, led by co-founders Nick Lupi and Adit Gauchan.Currently, One Day manages ARIA Award winning, Grammy- nominated producer 18YOMAN, and 2024 APRA Music Award-winning hip-hop ONEFOUR, the subject of the Netflix documentary, Against All Odds. One Day’s roster also includes Chillinit and tiffi.“The team at One Day,” says UMA president and CEO Sean Warner, “combined with our team at EMI Australia, will bring something unique and fresh to the domestic music ecosystem. Warner adds, “we are always on the hunt for new and up-and-coming talent, and with the help of Nick and Adit, alongside our in-house A&R teams, we aim to expand our roster even further – I’m looking forward to what this next chapter of our partnership brings.”
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The JV is announced after an impassioned plea from the artist management community on the eve of the APRA Awards, with a common goal to fix Australian artists’ “discoverability” problem. One solution, pitched by the Association of Artist Managers, is Michael’s Rule, a three-pronged industry code that would require all major tours in these parts to feature a local support act.
When Tunji Balogun took over Def Jam in January 2022 after a career working with stars such as Kendrick Lamar at Interscope; Khalid, Bryson Tiller, H.E.R. and Wizkid at RCA; and Normani at his own Keep Cool imprint, he says he found a label with “a lot of question marks. There was a lot of instability. It seemed like there were a lot of different perspectives.”
In the five years prior to Balogun’s tenure, Def Jam had been in a state of near-continual upheaval. After Steve Bartels exited as CEO in 2018, Eminem manager and Shady Records co-founder Paul Rosenberg took the job but lasted only two years. Jeffrey Harleston, executive vp of business affairs/general counsel of the label’s parent company, Universal Music Group (UMG), ran Def Jam on an interim basis — which coincided with the pandemic — until Balogun was hired. By that time, nearly a decade had passed since someone with an A&R background had led the company.
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Not surprisingly, Balogun inherited a label in serious need of reinvention. “It felt like there was an overreliance on the existing roster and not as much of a focus on what comes next,” the A&R veteran and former rapper says. “The current roster was strong, especially at that time. You still had Kanye [West], and [Justin] Bieber was releasing a lot of music; Jhené [Aiko] had a big album. But the reality is, you always need that next wave of artists that’s going to continue turning the page, and I put the focus on that from day one.”
Balogun quickly set to work reshaping the roster, signing Muni Long, Coco Jones and Armani White while expanding into dancehall with Masicka and into Afrobeats with Adekunle Gold and Odumodublvck, in partnership with Native Records. Some of it has paid off: Muni Long and Jones were nominated for best new artist at the Grammy Awards in 2023 and 2024, respectively, and each won for best R&B performance in subsequent years, a first for any label in that category.
The plaque commemorating Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” going two-times platinum reminds Balogun “of one of the most unique and impactful records I’ve been lucky enough to play a small part in bringing to the world.”
DeSean McClinton-Holland
But the path forward, which Balogun says includes “being deliberate about giving our artists resources and nurturing them,” has had its setbacks. Def Jam’s market share has declined for the past three years — a downturn that began before Balogun arrived — and sat at 0.65% at the end of 2023, according to Luminate. And the label that once released culture-shaping music by LL COOL J, Public Enemy, Jay-Z, West and Rihanna had no chart-topping albums.
There was more upheaval as a result of the restructuring and layoffs at UMG in the first few months of the year, which led to Balogun reporting to Republic co-founder/CEO Monte Lipman and Def Jam’s urban promotions and public relations staff moving into the new Republic Corps shared-services division. “It was difficult for us, just as I’m sure it was difficult for any other label to have to go through” layoffs, he says, adding, “I actually think we are more focused and more aligned and more set up for success now.”
Despite these changes, Balogun’s reset is gaining momentum and market share is on the upswing. After Muni Long’s “Hrs & Hrs” reached No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022, her latest single, “Made for Me,” reached No. 20 on the March 9 chart and became her second No. 1 hit on R&B/ Hip-Hop Airplay, where it has reigned for five weeks. That will lead into her forthcoming debut album, part of a slate of releases this year from Jones, Aiko, Vince Staples, Big Sean, Alessia Cara, Wale, LL COOL J and Chuck D, among others.
As Def Jam celebrates 40 years of history, Balogun says the label is driving forward once again. “I want to get to a place where we’re not defined by nostalgia; where nostalgia is just a part of the magic,” he says. “I do think we’re heading there. But it’s a heavy task.”
Balogun says the boombox is “a reminder of my musical roots and the magical era when Def Jam began to change the world.”
DeSean McClinton-Holland
Def Jam is 40 years old. What does that mean to you?
Def Jam, to me, has always stood for forward-thinking, cutting-edge Black music. And I’m careful to say “Black music” and not just “Black artists” because if you have something special like a Beastie Boys or eventually a [Justin] Bieber, it belongs on the label as well. It was the first label that felt like [it had] a point of view. If you plot the course of the label over time, there has always been risk-taking signings that reflect where music is going. The goal is to continue that tradition and bring it into the future. My entire career, most of my successes have been a little bit left of center: riskier signings, artists that have their own point of view.
When you accepted the role, what was your strategy, and how did it change once you got to Def Jam?
My plan was to look under the hood, meet every single artist and employee and have genuine, one-on-one conversations with them. I found that there was a lot of instability. There wasn’t a focus on the new, which is everything I saw when I worked with Jimmy Iovine, John Janick, Peter Edge.
Did the label need a cultural reinvention?
Yes. I am a walking reset button for Def Jam. That’s not to disrespect anyone who was here before me. It was more about bringing [the label] into my world and the way that I move. I try to be a reflection of what’s happening in the creative community. That’s always going to be my superpower: I’m tapped in with the producers and the artists. Def Jam has always been the culture’s label, the most down-to-earth label, that feels like a reflection of the people. I want to reestablish those values.
How do you balance that with the need for hits?
I want more hits, but to get to that point, you need to plant multiple seeds and allow them to flourish. You can’t just put [a song] on MTV and the radio and it’s over. There needs to be 100 discovery points, a digital story, an [in real life] story, an artist proposition, a song that’s special, and all those things need to align in one moment. When I started, I told Lucian [Grainge] that I’m a long-term guy and I’m willing to wait for the moment. I’m not pressed to chase numbers, chase the algorithm, chase the hot new thing of the week. I’m going to wait until I find something really special that makes my skin tingle, and then I’m going to go for it.
“My small but mighty jewelry collection”: his wedding band and his half of matching Cartier rings that he and his wife wear. His mother gave him the chain with the charm and matching ring when Balogun was in Nigeria “reconnecting with my roots. She literally took the chain off her neck and put it around mine.” A few months later, she “hooked me up to complete the look” with the ring. He wears it on his left pinky and the Cartier on his right.
DeSean McClinton-Holland
How has the UMG restructure affected you and Def Jam?
The biggest changes are in radio promotion, where now we work with Republic’s rhythm and pop staffs. We retained our urban team, which now services the whole group. Since this is Def Jam, the vast majority of these records are going to start in that urban radio space, so it actually, so far, has been really seamless. The other major change is in the publicity space, where we now share resources with the Republic Corps team. From the inside looking out, it has been pretty smooth, and there hasn’t really been much of a drastic change. We’re very much continuing on that path that we’ve been on since I got here.
What’s an example of how the new structure has worked?
A great example of the synergy has been the work that we’ve done with Muni Long’s “Made For Me” record, which our team got started. We got it to No. 1 at R&B and urban radio right as the transition was happening, and then we seamlessly passed the baton to [Republic’s] Gary Spangler and his team, and they got it to No. 1 at rhythm and now they’re building at [adult top 40] and top 40 radio. The creative and the energy and the ideas are still coming from Def Jam, but once we reach certain thresholds, we collaborate with the larger team. That song is still going from strength to strength. It’ll end up as one of the biggest R&B songs of the year, and it’ll set up Muni’s album. It feels like we have more tools in terms of artist development, and now we can approach things from different angles, depending on what the most effective strategy is.
One of the consequences of planting seeds, as you put it, is that Def Jam’s market share has been dropping. Are you worried you’re not going to have the time and space to watch these seeds grow?
No. It doesn’t change the conversation I had with Lucian at the beginning. That’s something that everyone that I deal with understands. I’m also not a dictator who thinks he knows everything. I’m willing to learn and grow, and for me, this [restructuring] is another opportunity to grow. There are things that I’m excited to work on with some of the other labels now that there’s a possibility of doing things together. I’m already moving like that.
Def Jam scored best new artist Grammy nominees in each of the past two years. What does that signify for you?
We are making progress. But every single person who I’ve spoken to who has gone through this [experience] has said it’s probably going to take three, probably four or five years. We’re at the beginning of year three. My biggest fear was, “Am I going to be able to go in there and break new acts?” Now I know we’re able to do it. Every time I’ve bet on myself, I’ve found success. I’m confident in that, and I’m confident in my team and in our artists. We’re already on an incline, so I don’t see how that stops.
How do you want the next 40 years of Def Jam’s artists to define the label?
I want Def Jam to be the destination for the next generation of global Black music. That is my mission statement. In many ways, it reflects what the label has always been, but it brings in all the new scenes and sounds and strains of music — everything from U.K. R&B, to Nigerian drill, to amapiano from South Africa, to a really special country act from Missouri, the next incredible lyricist from New York or the next really special female MC from Atlanta. All these different worlds and sounds need to exist within this label. I truly believe that we are the only major label that’s synonymous with pushing Black music forward.
This story originally appeared in the May 11, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Pete Ganbarg is stepping aside as Atlantic Records’ president of A&R, a role he has held since 2018, to launch Pure Tone Records, a joint venture with the label. The first artist signed to Pure Tone Records is platinum Canadian singer/songwriter Forest Blakk, whom Ganbarg originally signed to Atlantic.
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Ganbarg, who has worked at Atlantic for almost 16 years, will continue to A&R several acts on the Atlantic Music Group roster, including twenty one pilots, Shinedown, Gayle, Halestorm, and others.
“The launch of Pure Tone Records as a standalone label is an exciting moment for me,” Ganbarg said in a statement. “It’s the best of both worlds – a golden opportunity to run my own shop, while at the same time having the backing of the outstanding Atlantic team who I’ve worked with so closely over the past 15-plus years.”
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“For the past 16 years, Pete has brilliantly led our A&R mission – discovering, signing, and championing a genre-crossing array of hit artists, while also boosting our theatrical presence with a string of award-winning cast albums,” Atlantic Music Group Chairman & CEO Julie Greenwald and Atlantic Records Chairman & CEO Craig Kallman said in a statement. “At the same time, he’s mentored and built a fantastic A&R team who are expert at nurturing baby acts and superstars alike. The formation of Pure Tone is an important event for Pete and Atlantic, as he brings his decades of experience, his impeccable taste, and great ears to steering his own ship, and we’re thrilled to be his partners on this exciting next phase of his musical journey.”
If the name Pure Tone sounds familiar, Ganbarg has been using the moniker for nearly two decades. He formed Pure Tone Music prior to joining Atlantic as an A&R consultancy, whose clients included Kelly Clarkson, Chaka Khan, Santana, Aaron Neville, Donna Summer, and others. He also operates a pair of publishing joint ventures with WMG’s Warner Chappell Music under that name. Its writers have achieved multiple gold and platinum certifications, including the 2024 Grammy-winning record of the year, Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers.”
“I’m looking forward to making Pure Tone [Records] a home for exceptional, original talent, and at the same time, I’m very happy to continue to work with my amazing Atlantic artist roster,” Ganbarg continued. “I want to thank Julie and Craig for their tremendous support over the years, and for having the faith to join me in this new adventure.”
The New York-based Ganbarg joined Atlantic in 2008 as executive vp of A&R. Through his tenure, he signed or shepherded recordings by twenty one pilots, Halestorm, Jason Mraz, Christina Perri, Melanie Martinez, Skillet, Brett Eldredge, Matchbox Twenty & Rob Thomas, among others.
He also led Atlantic’s tremendous success with Broadway cast albums, including co-signing and A&R’ing the Diamond-certified original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton. He won Grammy Awards as a producer of the original Broadway cast recordings of Dear Evan Hansen and Jagged Little Pill, and more recently oversaw the Broadway cast recordings for this season’s Tony-nominated shows, Suffs and The Notebook. He also worked on the soundtrack for The Greatest Showman and Daisy Jones & The Six.
Ganbarg began his A&R career in 1989 at SBK Records. In 1997, while at Arista Records, he conceived and A&R’d Santana’s 30x platinum worldwide, nine-time Grammy-winning Supernatural.
There is no word on Ganbarg’s successor as president of A&R.
Atlantic Records has hired veteran executive Luis “Lu” Mota as evp of A&R, the label announced on Tuesday (May 7). Mota, who’ll work out of Atlantic’s NYC headquarters and report to co-president of Black Music Lanre Gaba, arrives from Columbia Records where since 2018 he was instrumental in the signing and developing of hip-hop stars […]
The anniversaries are piling up on Curb | Word Entertainment chairman Mike Curb.
This year is the 60th anniversary of Curb Records’ founding. April 29 marked 30 years since Belmont University announced its highest-profile program was being renamed the Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business. And the school just wrapped the 50th-anniversary campaign that celebrated the department’s founding. All those milestones come as Curb approaches his 80th birthday on Christmas Eve.
“I like everything except the last statistic,” he deadpans near the start of a three-hour interview.
The conversation acknowledges the landmarks, but it comes, more importantly, as Curb’s latest investment wraps some of his deepest passions — education, music preservation and legacy — in a structure likely to enhance the relationship between Belmont and Music Row. Belmont announced April 9 that the Curb Foundation made a $58 million donation that will seed a multipurpose Curb College building on Music Circle South, wedged between the BMG offices and the historic Columbia Studios.
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Neither Curb nor Belmont president Greg Jones could specify the breakdown of the $58 million — both called it “complicated” — but the figure encompasses the value of the land, which Curb donated; future rent; and cash. It also includes an expansion of the Buddy Lee Attractions building that’s adjacent to Columbia, while the school attempts to raise an additional $40 million for the project, which will encourage interplay between Belmont students and working music professionals. A 150-capacity performance space will provide an ideal concert-audio learning facility and offer label showcase options. Songwriting rooms will serve the college and, perhaps, some independent writers. And a coffee shop is expected to lure lunchtime visits from nearby businesses, setting up the possibility for students that a springboard for their careers could be just a handshake away.
The building is in the works at a time when large chunks of Music Row have been overtaken by non-music developers. Curb owns 12 properties on the Row — including RCA Studio B, Ocean Way and the former Masterfonics building — and he’s doggedly determined to maintain the character of the neighborhood, where he has control. That’s particularly true on Music Circle South, a block with numerous studios that have yielded hits by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, George Strait, Tom T. Hall and Dan + Shay — just for starters — through the decades.
“We made it impossible for the developers to get to it,” Curb says. “Even the WNAH radio building is just the way it is. Even the buildings that we’re using for Curb Records or for Word Records. Those are staying exactly the way they are. So we’ve got it pretty locked.”
Curb established his label as an 18-year-old college student at Cal State Northridge who was too young to sign the startup papers without a co-signer. He made a deal with Capitol, wrote a Honda commercial and landed a bundle of songs on movie soundtracks, including the 1968 Clint Eastwood picture Kelly’s Heroes. Curb became the president of MGM in his 20s, working with The Osmonds, Lou Rawls, Sammy Davis Jr. and Hank Williams Jr., and by the end of the ’70s, he was California lieutenant governor, serving alongside Ronald Reagan.
Post-government, he extended the Curb label’s independent run by partnering with the majors in the careers of Williams, The Judds, T.G. Sheppard, Lyle Lovett and Debby Boone, among others.
“Back then, you could walk up and down Hollywood Boulevard or Sunset Boulevard, there were hundreds of independents,” he remembers. “Now they’re all owned by the three majors. That’s one of the big issues now, you know: The deep catalog of our industry is owned and controlled by three majors.”
Curb arrived in Nashville in the early 1990s, earning multiplatinum sales from Tim McGraw and LeAnn Rimes along with hits by Sawyer Brown, Hal Ketchum, Jo Dee Messina and, in the 2000s, Rodney Atkins. McGraw and Rimes had public spats involving their Curb deals, and Curb ended up in litigation with Big Machine Label Group over McGraw, who ultimately moved on. Despite that battle, Curb is on good terms with BMLG president/CEO Scott Borchetta, who has partnered with him in auto racing.
“I consider Mike a genius, I consider him a friend, I consider him misunderstood by a lot of people,” Borchetta says. “The guy’s a walking encyclopedia.”
Curb’s ability to maintain relationships, even amid sharp disagreements, is a skill he perfected during his political career. His relationship with Belmont, for example, continues despite his previous opposition to the university’s firing of a lesbian coach. (The school ultimately amended its policies.) In 1978, Curb helped defeat a California proposition that would have banned gay teachers from schools, convincing conservative icon Reagan to join the battle. Currently, he continues to speak highly of Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who agreed to a meeting with his gay employees, though they were unable to change her position on key issues. Writing people off, he reasons, is a poor long-term strategy.
“What I always tried to do was not criticize the people who disagreed with me, but tried to bring them together,” he says. “As I learned from Ronald Reagan, you just need 51%.”
Curb has certainly won over Belmont’s Jones. He suggested doing something with the Music Circle South property to benefit the music business program shortly after Jones became university president in 2021. The school already had an ideal location at the Southern edge of Music Row. With the new building, it will be in the heart of the district.
“We weren’t just thinking of the present and then making incremental changes,” says Jones. “We wanted the next 50 years of music business to be really transformational.”
It’s a goal that Curb shares. His label’s 60th anniversary will be celebrated June 6 with a CMA Fest show at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater featuring Atkins, Sawyer Brown, Dylan Scott, Hannah Ellis, Kelsey Hart and Lee Brice, among others. Curb is excited over the prospects of Brice’s new single — “Drinkin’ Buddies,” featuring Nate Smith and Hailey Whitters — which debuts at No. 26 on the Country Airplay chart dated May 11 (see page 4). But he’s just as enthusiastic about Brice’s collaboration with Christian band for King & Country on “Checking In,” which could — like Curb’s efforts for Belmont and for marriage equality — make a lasting mark. The anniversaries are important, but the future still beckons.
“We’re impacting the culture of Nashville, of country music — maybe pop music, the culture of the nation,” he says with youthful enthusiasm. “That’s what’s so exciting about what we do.”
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