Record Labels
Page: 39
Big Machine Label Group (BMLG) has elevated Kris Lamb to executive vp/GM of Big Machine Records, effective immediately.
Lamb, who will report directly to BMLG chairman/CEO Scott Borchetta, most recently served as senior vp of promotion and digital, where he led radio and digital strategy for the Big Machine Records imprint, which includes artists Tim McGraw, Carly Pearce and Midland. In his new role, Lamb will focus on breaking, building and retaining Big Machine Records’ roster of artists and focus on fan acquisition and engagement.
“Kris has been with the label group for 13 years; he started with us as a regional promotions director and I’ve loved watching him work his way up through our system, excelling at each new level. I am so proud that he is now leading the charge for our flagship imprint, Big Machine Records,” Borchetta said in a statement. “There is an added pressure being the imprint that founded the company and I’m thrilled he has accepted the challenge to take it even higher. Game On, Lamb Chop… GAME ON!”
“I am beyond honored to represent this remarkable roster of culture-shaping storytellers and blessed to lead this team of forward-thinking executives at Big Machine Records,” Lamb added. “BMR has always been the tip of the spear and I look forward to elevating our impressive roster of artists even higher as a team and making an impact on the future of this imprint, its talent and the country music genre.”
With Lamb’s promotion comes more shifts at the Big Machine Records imprint, with the elevation of Brooke Diaz to national director of promotion and marketing.
Lamb says, “Brooke is one of the most multi-dimensional promotion executives in the field and her passion, ideation and execution is next to none. I am so thrilled to watch her, along with Erik as VP, guide our radio promo team and strategy to the highest level.”
Additionally, Bill Lubitz has been promoted to senior director of West Coast promotion and national strategy. The promotion team also includes vp of promotion Erik Powell, director of Midwest promotion Jane Staszak, director of Southeast promotion Jay Cruze and promotions coordinator Sara Barlow.
Lamb’s promotion follows Tuesday’s (Jan. 30) news that Big Machine Label Group has promoted Mike Rittberg to COO and Clay Hunnicutt to executive vp of label operations.
In Warner Music Group‘s sprawling 2023 ESG report, released Tuesday (Jan. 30), the label outlined plans and goals for its workforce, artists and environmental impact.
“We are determined to transform our business and spur industry change to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis,” the report states in an expansive section on sustainability practices. “This includes measuring and understanding WMG’s environmental footprint, setting science-based targets to reduce emissions…and leveraging our scale, experience and partnerships to foster cross-industry cooperation to minimize the environmental impacts of making and distributing music.”
For the company, these changes start with the company’s brick-and-mortar spaces, with the goal that “WMG will source 100% renewable energy for our operations” by 2030.
The plan is to first implement this initiative in WMG’s global offices and workspaces before rolling it out to WMG-owned and operated facilities. The company also plans to decarbonize its workplaces through 100% renewable energy-based power by 2030.
The report cites WMG joining with Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group in 2023 to establish the Music Industry Climate Collective. The first initiative of this working group has been supporting the development and implementation of sector-specific guidelines for calculating Scope 3 GHG emissions within the recorded music industry. “Scope 3” refers to indirect emissions that occur in the value chain, such as those from product manufacturing, distribution and licensing.
The company also noted a previously announced partnership with MIT, Live Nation, Coldplay and Hope Solutions to understand and mitigate the environmental impact of the live events.
The company cites a goal of increasing public transportation utilization by 20% at Warner Music live events. This effort has already resulted in a partnership between Warner Music Finland Live and Helsinki City Public Transportation, which has provided fans with free public transportation included in their concert tickets.
With its environmental impact data independently reviewed and assured by a third-party auditor for the first time in 2023, WMG reports that in the past year, it has made “significant strides” in its Scope 1 and 2 data collection, analysis and methodology. (Scope 1 and 2 refers to emissions that are owned or controlled by the company and indirect emissions that result from activities of the company.)
“Despite our return to office,” the report says, its efforts “have led to an overall decrease in our reported Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions for 2023.”
The report also cites successful employee-driven initiatives, including its U.K. Wrights Lane office eliminating single-use plastic and switching to reusable cutlery and serveware. The WMG office in France has eliminated paper cups and improved waste management to increase recycling.
Regarding sustainable products and merchandise, the company outlines “an industry-first method” of creating vinyl albums using PVC alternatives. Says the report: “We are delivering these changes in partnership with our artists and songwriters, many of whom are increasingly looking for ways to share music with their fans in a sustainable way.”
Read the full report here.
Big Machine Label Group has promoted two executives, with Mike Rittberg rising to COO and Clay Hunnicutt rising to executive vp of label operations. Both are already in their new roles and report to Big Machine Label Group president of label operations Andrew Kautz. Rittberg most recently served as Big Machine’s executive vp of label […]
BMG has entered into a strategic partnership with the TUM School of Management as it looks to fast-track the implementation of artificial intelligence across the Berlin-based company’s marketing campaigns for artists. BMG said in its announcement on Tuesday (Jan. 30) that it sees generative AI as a way to help manage the complex array of […]
Go to any given spa or yoga studio and you’re likely to hear music or soundscapes designed to help you relax. Sometimes the sound is of a pan flute, or soft rain. Most often, though, you’ll hear some form of ambient music: gentle, often instrumental “chill out” productions meant to enhance the serene atmosphere.
Now, two longstanding electronic music industry executives, in partnership with leaders in the wellness and music audio technology spaces, are getting into the genre through a new ambient label: Sacred Society Music Group.
The label is a project of founders Bradley Roulier, who also co-founded the electronic music digital download store Beatport in 2004, and Barbie Beltran, a wellness expert and co-founder of a Denver wellness center also called Sacred Society. Co-founders include Paul Morris — the founder of electronic agency AM Only, which was acquired by Paradigm in 2017, and Tiësto’s longtime manager — and Dolby Atmos specialist Adelio Lombardi. Matthew Evertsen handles A&R and special projects.
With Sacred Society, the label’s founders are aiming to heighten the quality and effectiveness of ambient music by producing its entire catalog in Dolby Atmos — a move they believe can increase the well-being of listeners who use the genre for relaxation, sleep and various wellness practices.
“As label owners, we felt we could make this music that is part of life extraordinary,” Roulier tells Billboard.
Based in Denver, the label launched this week with a collection of more than 55 tracks and over six hours of immersive content. A track named “Ancient Chant” features hand drum, a rain stick and lapping water with various bells and a voice repeating, “You have it all inside.” A meditation track, “Inside The Womb Of The Earth,” is precisely 11 minutes and 11 seconds long.
This music, organized by more than two dozen tags to help users find ambient sounds best suited for certain activities and times of day, is currently available on Apple Music, Tidal and Amazon Music. (It’s not yet on Spotify or YouTube, as those platforms don’t currently support Dolby Atmos.) So far the label features music from nine contributing musicians including Dynasty Electric, Matthew James Kelly, Cobane Ivory, Sean Stolar and Roulier himself, with all artists appearing under the “Sacred Society” name.
While a barrage of ambient music already exists on the market (a search for “ambient” on Spotify results in upwards of 30 playlists), the Sacred Society founders believe their output is distinguished by its production in Dolby Atmos. The spatial audio technology adds dimension and depth to music and can only be made, and played, through specialized equipment. The label founders claim that listeners will benefit from this technology; as Roulier says, by helping them “explore meditative and ambient soundscapes more deeply than [they] ever thought possible.”
Sacred Society Music Group’s side3 studio in Denver, Colo./Photo Courtesy Sacred Society Music Group
Sacred Society music is produced exclusively at Denver’s Dolby Atmos-equipped side3 studio, which was built by Lombardi. While construction of the studio required, as a Sacred Society rep says, “significant financial investment,” it was more intensive to set up the precise technical specifications necessary to record in Dolby Atmos.
But this investment was worth it, Lombardi tells Billboard, because “adding immersive audio to this [music] experience elevates it significantly.”
This may all sound like a niche endeavor, but there’s potential to tap a wide audience given how many people engage in wellness practices at home and how often this music is licensed for use in facilities like spas and yoga studios. Roulier says the group “wants our music to be widely available within the wellness space globally,” and has discussed launching a subscription service tailored for practitioners, hotels and spas that would allow them to use Sacred Society content commercially.
The demand for ambient music is also expected to grow; the label cites a report that says the genre was valued at $1.8 billion in 2022, with that number expected to rise to $3.21 billion by 2030. The demand for Dolby Atmos is also expanding, with the label citing a statistic that 90% of Apple Music users have engaged with the format, as well as that plays for music available in spatial audio have more than tripled in the past two years.
All this work is ultimately meant to deliver on the founders’ goal of sharing the holistic benefits embedded in the genre.
“I have always enjoyed ambient music, and I truly believe that music has the power to heal,” Morris tells Billboard. “With anxiety, depression, and mental health problems having escalated to unprecedented levels in our society, I can’t think of a more fitting time for the launch of Sacred Society Music. I have made a living from music my entire career and, by helping to put this music out into the world, I feel I am giving back in a small way through a medium that has given so much to me.”
“It’s about providing a unique and serene musical journey for our listeners, regardless of market trends,” Beltran adds. “We aim to offer a path to serenity, self-discovery and inner harmony through the transformative power of sound.”
During an October earnings call, Universal Music Group CFO Boyd Muir told investors the company was conducting “a careful review” of its costs. In the world of public company statements, that was a hint that UMG expected to make cuts to its workforce of roughly 10,000 — specifically hundreds of jobs in the first quarter of the year, as Bloomberg later revealed.
UMG has plenty of company. Until late last year, the music business had mostly escaped the job-cutting that ravaged industries that depend more on advertising in 2022 and 2023. That was still the best of times for the industry, which had found double-digit revenue growth in streaming. Since 2020, 10 music companies have gone public to take advantage of investors’ enthusiasm for music, including labels and publishers (UMG, Warner Music Group, HYBE, Reservoir Media, Believe, Round Hill Music Royalty Fund), streaming services (Deezer, Anghami, Cloud Music) and live-entertainment firms (a spinoff of MSG Entertainment).
That changed during 2023. In March, WMG’s new CEO, Robert Kyncl, a former YouTube executive, laid off around 270 people — 4% of the company’s workforce — to focus more on technology initiatives and “new skills for artist and songwriter development,” as he wrote in a memo to staff at the time. Downtown Music Holdings — owner of CD Baby, FUGA, Songtrust and more — also thinned its payroll in May. BMG laid off about 30 people in October. Digital music companies fared even worse in 2023: Spotify cut about 23% of its workforce in two rounds of layoffs, TIDAL cut 10%, SoundCloud cut 8%, and Bandcamp chopped half its head count after being acquired by Songtradr.
But UMG? The company’s revenue in the first nine months of 2023 was up 9.4% on a constant currency basis, 6.8% as reported due to foreign currency fluctuations. More than two years after spinning off from former corporate parent Vivendi, UMG is a profitable, hit-making machine that controlled 29.4% of the U.S. recorded-music market in 2023, easily besting Sony Music’s 18.9% and WMG’s 15.6%. It has Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, Drake and many other big stars. Perhaps understandably, there has been talk that other labels could follow, with cuts of one size or another.
UMG’s decision may be the most dramatic example of just how profoundly the music business is changing — and how quickly. Lean is the new black. Bloat, or anything that evokes it, is out. The old ways of finding, developing and marketing artists no longer work the way they used to. How big a radio promotion department does a label need — how many radio promotion departments does its parent company need — at a time when radio no longer plays as important a part in breaking hits? Social media and data analysis might matter just as much. So could developing markets that once didn’t account for much revenue.
UMG’s next focus, chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge wrote in a memo to staff in early January, will be “creating the blueprint for the labels of the future” by building the technology to do more work in-house, expanding in developing markets and finding ways to better monetize superfans. That requires moving resources away from the “legacy business,” Muir said in the October earnings call, to “benefit from all of the opportunities that we see ahead.” What that will mean for how UMG reshuffles its organizational chart remains to be seen, but it is already building an artist services business with Virgin Music Group and making aggressive moves in developing markets with investments in TM Ventures in India and Chabaka in the United Arab Emirates.
Other music companies are also reassessing their priorities. BMG’s staffing changes were spurred by new CEO Thomas Coesfeld as a response to an international marketing structure that didn’t meet expectations and duplicated the efforts of local teams, he wrote in a memo to staff.
“Businesses are repositioning themselves slightly to become more competitive,” Downtown Music president Peter van Rijn says. “One must always be mindful to not get complacent,” he adds, noting that his company needed to stay nimble enough to respond to the marketplace. “What you do see, in general, is the music industry is maturing. The digital growth is still there, but it’s slowing down.”
The world is changing, too. Along with the major labels, companies like Believe and Reservoir Media are investing in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other regions where music revenue is growing. And both new companies and the established majors are expanding their artist services businesses to court creators who can now choose from among an increasing number of alternatives to a traditional major-label deal. Sony acquired the artist services company AWAL in 2022, UMG is building up Virgin, and WMG’s Kyncl wrote in an early-January memo that he wants to augment services to the “middle class of artists” and scale up the company’s publishing administration business.
Public companies in the music industry face pressure from investors to constantly improve their bottom lines, especially as streaming growth levels off. “Two-and-a-half years ago, we started making cuts because we knew the market was no longer about just growth,” says Rob Ellin, CEO of music streaming company LiveOne, which is cutting up to 100 staffers in a restructuring. “You had to be profitable.”
The growth-over-profits era finally ended at Spotify, too. When the streaming giant announced it would cut 17% of its global workforce in December, CEO Daniel Ek explained that costs were too high, efficiency was too low and too few people “contribut[ed] to opportunities with real impact.” Cutting roughly 1,500 jobs and seeking a replacement for CFO Paul Vogel, Ek wrote in an open letter, were necessary to become “relentlessly resourceful.”
Record labels and music publishers have better margins than Spotify, which will rarely turn a profit — but investors also expect more of them. In the first half of 2021, UMG — then a subsidiary of Vivendi — had a margin of 21.5% in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and told investors in August it expected to reach the “mid-20s” soon. Two years later, revenue had increased 34% but its EBITDA margin was almost unchanged at 21.5% (or 14.9% after deducting 345 million euros of noncash, share-based compensation for senior management). With layoffs can come better margins. Restructuring saved Warner $19 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, and Barclays analysts estimated UMG’s layoffs could save the company $70 million annually.
To those who remember the crisis caused by the death of the CD, this talk of restructuring might have a familiar ring. As piracy ravaged the music business, the majors scaled back their physical distribution businesses, sold their CD pressing plants and retooled for a digital world. That’s why Grainge reminded investors that UMG is no stranger to managing disruption. “We’ve got decades of experience in executing cost-cutting programs in the various cycles of the industry, right back to the piracy days,” he said during the October earnings call. And currently, “we’re seeing a change in the business.”
Singer 4Batz, whose track “act ii: date @ 8” erupted on social media and streaming services during Christmas week, has sparked a bidding war among several major labels, sources familiar with the negotiations tell Billboard.
Four years ago, it was routine for previously unknown artists with viral singles to score big record deals in a matter of weeks. But that path slowed to a trickle in 2023, and some label executives started to worry about a stagnant climate for new artists.
That helps explain why many A&R executives are now eager to sign 4Batz. One executive calls the singer’s rapid ascent “the most exciting thing to happen in the last six months” in the music industry. Multiple major labels, including Republic Records, Atlantic Records and Warner Records, are in conversations with 4Batz’s team about a potential deal.
While he has released just two songs to date, they are already earning more than 9 million streams a week in the United States between them, according to Luminate. “act ii: date @ 8” leads the way, climbing to No. 76 on the latest Billboard Hot 100 chart. Due to this upward momentum, two sources familiar with the label negotiations say they are all but certain to end in a robust seven-figure deal for 4Batz. When another R&B singer, Muni Long, enjoyed a viral breakout with “Hrs and Hrs” late in 2022, her subsequent record deal came with an advance of around $5 million, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations.
Legal counsel for 4Batz declined to comment.
In the heady early days of TikTok, it was common for half a dozen major labels to compete over a new act with a hot single. From 2019 through at least the end of 2021, this led to big deals for artists like Lil Tecca, Arizona Zervas, Ant Saunders and more. During that period, “it felt like every single day another artist signed a deal that was a gazillion dollars,” one music attorney told Billboard last year.
But as 2022 bled into 2023, fewer unsigned acts surged into view behind singles that streamed like crazy. Executives worried that virality on short-form video platforms no longer sparked listening the way it once did; sometimes what happened on TikTok stayed on TikTok.
At the same time, many label executives became disillusioned with the viral chase. Due to the intense competition around these deals, they invariably ended up being costly. (Though two of the acts who were able to translate viral energy into noteworthy Hot 100 success in 2023, the rapper Superstar Pride and the singer Oliver Anthony, both ended up remaining independent rather than taking a fat check from a major label.) The high cost of the deal put a lot of pressure on young artists to replicate their initial success quickly — to prove they were worthy of a hefty investment in a bottom-line-focused business. Many of the signings were unable to make the leap from popular song to popular artist.
“We’ve all been burned to a certain degree,” Tab Nkhereanye, a senior vp of A&R at BMG, said last year.
As a result, labels have been more circumspect when it comes to signing artists with viral singles in the last 18 months. They’ve also been trying to connect with more acts earlier in their careers via low-cost distribution deals; that way, they have a pre-existing contractual relationship if one of those signings starts to take off. (“act ii: date @ 8” was released through Vydia, a music tech company which is now part of the Larry Jackson-helmed gamma; this marks another win for Vydia, which also brought in Sexyy Red, one of last year’s few genuine breakouts.)
But 4Batz has shown staying power in recent weeks, spending all of January to date near the top of Spotify’s Global Viral 50. “act ii: date @ 8” is hypnotic and loop-able, with feathery come-ons and a slinky bass vamp; it already cracked the top 10 on the Hot R&B Songs chart, leapfrogging established artists like Brent Faiyaz (a clear influence on 4Batz).
R&B is on the upswing at the moment, which is another factor working in 4Batz’s favor. SZA and Victoria Monet dominated the latest Grammy nominations, with Janelle Monae and Coco Jones also scoring nods in the Big Four categories. In R&B, “it’s highly unusual for an artist to come onto the scene with the numbers and interest from labels” that 4Batz has, an executive says. “Normally an artist has to drop more music to get this level of attention.”
Rostrum Records has acquired distribution company and retail brand, Fat Beats.
The acquisition, announced today (Jan. 25), will give Rostrum artists direct backing from Fat Beats’ wholesale distribution, e-commerce support, and direct-to-consumer fulfillment with an open line to brick-and-mortar stores. In return, Fat Beats will join the Rostrum Pacific umbrella — Rostrum’s entertainment company — and continue to operate as their own entity with access to Rostrum’s various vehicles, including sister companies Spaceheater, Rostrum Pacific’s catalog marketing arm, and Rostrum Records.
“Fat Beats is a legendary brand that I’ve been a fan of for decades. From Rostrum Records to our most recent expansion of Rostrum Pacific, we’ve diligently outlined the next 20 years of our company. One of our goals has been to get vertically involved with physical distribution, and Fat Beats is a key part of that strategy,” Benjy Grinberg, Rostrum Pacific’s CEO and founder, tells Billboard. “Together, we can offer a level of professionalism, strategy, and forward-thinking that most physical companies lack. The ability to acquire Fat Beats and help it grow to new heights is incredibly exciting for us.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“As a pillar of the independent Hip-Hop community since 1994, it was important to me to ensure what we’ve built over the last 30 years is well cared for and respected,” adds Joe Abajian, founder of Fat Beats. “We have found the perfect custodians in Benjy and the Rostrum Pacific team, and we’re confident that Fat Beats now has the expertise and resources to continue growing well into the future.”
Along with acquiring Fat Beats, Rostrum announced that it would hire Kevin Engler as general manager of Fat Beats and Bobby Israeli as Rostrum Pacific’s head of e-commerce. For almost 20 years, Engler previously worked at UMG and was most recently vice president of Commercial Strategy at Ingrooves, a division of UMG, while Bobby Israeli will join Rostrum Pacific after leading the e-commerce teams and strategy for UMG’s East Coast labels, including Def Jam Records, Island Records, and Verve Music Group. Both will report directly to Rostrum Pacific COO Jonathan Partch.
Warner Music Group has launched the Warner Music Space, a new hub headquartered in Rio de Janeiro that will house Warner Music Brazil, Warner Chappell Music Brazil and ADA Brazil operations. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The newly-inaugurated collaborative space, located in Barra da Tijuca in […]
BMG is reshuffling its deck in North America as the independent music powerhouse “doubles down” on its commitment to the world’s biggest music market.
Leading the changes is Jon Loba, who rises from BMG Nashville president to become president Frontline Recordings, North America. Moving forward, Loba is responsible for BMG’s entire North American frontline records business across Nashville, Los Angeles, New York and Canada.
The realignment continues with new duties for Thomas Scherer, until now running publishing and recordings activities in Los Angeles and New York. Scherer is named as head of global recorded catalog, while retaining responsibility for publishing, North America.
Now, Loba, Scherer and CFO Joe Gillen form BMG’s North American leadership triumvirate.
“We are making good on our promise to double down on our U.S. operation with a distinctive new approach,” comments BMG CEO Thomas Coesfeld, that is, an integrated frontline operation “spanning the whole of North America plus a global catalog business steered from Los Angeles.”
BMG, he continues, “is stepping up. This is an integral part of our new strategy to deliver for artists and songwriters and go for growth.”
Loba, who joined BMG in 2017, when the company acquired Nashville-based BBR Music Group, is rewarded for delivering BMG its first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town,” and achieving success with Jelly Roll.
Loba, explains Coesfeld, is “the ideal person to take responsibility for our L.A.-based recordings business” as the group evolves in the streaming era.
A company stalwart, Scherer joined BMG in 2008, moving to L.A. as executive vp of global writer services in 2014, and enjoying several promotions thereafter.
“He is the ideal person to lead our new streaming-first global catalog operation based in Los Angeles, while also retaining oversight of our important U.S. music publishing business, the backbone of BMG’s U.S. operation,” Coesfeld says of Scherer. “With Thomas at the helm of our Global Catalog Recorded organization, BMG will step up its investments in catalog.”
The changes, announced today (Jan. 25), come six months after Coesfeld was appointed as CEO, succeeding the retiring CEO Hartwig Masuch.
Coesfeld’s “energetic and strategic approach to the business has been very inspirational for all of us, because that’s the way our Nashville team runs,” comments Loba in a statement. “I’m looking so forward to working even closer with our staff throughout North America and as important, helping bring the visions of our amazing artists to life.”
Following his promotion to the top job in July, Coesfeld wasted no time in reshaping the company to maximize growth and capture opportunities. Among the changes announced to staff last November, a new global catalog team based in Los Angeles; a “recalibration” of its presence in continental Europe in line with the new local-global emphasis, which will involve focusing on “functional centers of excellence within Europe,” as well as aggregation of budgets and expertise; a further acceleration of its investments in tech and its myBMG system for artists; and the clarification of roles and structures that the company says will make it “more accountable to its artist and songwriter clients.”
The changes didn’t end there. BMG ended its distribution agreement with the Warner Music Group’s ADA and brought its digital distribution in-house, while striking a deal with the Universal Music Group for its physical distribution; formed direct deals with Spotify and Apple Music; and “a number of existing positions” were made redundant – with some 40 staffers let go, Billboard reported.
“We are changing the way we do things,” Coesfeld said in a statement at the time. “We will combine creative intuition with data-driven insights to deliver the best service for our clients and customers.”