Record Labels
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High-flying former Columbia Records executive Jay Schumer joins Island Records, where he’s named as executive VP, head of marketing & business development.
Announced today (Nov. 8), Schumer will oversee all marketing initiatives for the label’s frontline roster and historic catalog. Based in New York, he reports to Mike Alexander, GM, Island Records.
Justin Eshak and Imran Majid, co-CEOs of Island Records, welcomed the new recruit as one of the top creative minds in the business.
“Jay is one of the most creative, experienced, and respected executives in the industry today. He’s also a music fan first. His passion and dedication to artists and artistry is a huge addition to the Island staff, artists, and our partners,” comment Eshak.
Schumer’s ability to “foster creativity while executing strategic planning is unmatched in every campaign he touches,” adds Majid. “Nothing speaks louder than the relationship he has with his artists and the global success they have had.”
Schumer’s appointment follows the recent decision by ex-head of marketing Sharon Timure to “pursue new opportunities” after 19 years at the label, reads a company statement.
At Columbia Records, Schumer served as senior VP / co-head of marketing, and earned the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week in 2021, following his contributions to the chart-topping success of Tyler, The Creator, Polo G, and campaigns for Miley Cyrus, blink-182, Pharrell, AC/DC, Dominic Fike and others.
In his new role, Schumer is reunited with Eshak and Majid, whom he worked closely with at Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music.
“I’m so appreciative that Imran and Justin have given me this opportunity to be a part of the exciting culture they’re building at Island.” Schumer comments. “I couldn’t be more honored to reconnect with them at such an iconic and historic label, shaping the future together. I’m thrilled to be working with an incredible roster of artists, staff and the leadership of Justin, Imran and Mike.”
Upon its Oct. 27 release, Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) quickly eroded both sales and streams of the original 2014 version released by Big Machine Records.
In the week Swift released her album of 1989 re-recordings, the original 1989 had 21,000 album equivalent units (AEUs) — down 43.6% from the previous week and down 36.9% from the trailing 12-week average, according to Billboard analysis of Luminate data for the United States. That was a deeper first-week decline than the previous two times Swift released re-recordings. The original Red lost 38% of its AEUs — a metric that combines physical and digital album sales, track sales and streams — the week Red (Taylor’s Version) was released in November 2021. The original Speak Now dropped 40% the week that Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) came out this past July.
On-demand audio streams for the original 1989 declined 56.4% while track sales — a smaller component of 1989’s total consumption — fell 67.8%. Video streams declined 56.4% and programmed streams (from non-interactive internet radio services such as Pandora) dropped 23.6%. At the same time, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) amassed over 375.49 million on-demand streams — compared with just 27.8 million total on-demand streams for the original over the same period.
The Taylor’s Version series of re-recordings stemmed from Swift’s outrage that her catalog had been acquired by Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in 2019. News that Braun took ownership of her catalog brought her back to “the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at [Braun’s] hands for years,” she wrote at the time. “Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy,” she continued. By the end of that year, Swift was talking about recording new versions so her music “could live on,” she told Billboard in a December 2019 interview. “I do want it to be in movies, I do want it to be in commercials. But I only want that if I own it.”
Swift released her first album of re-recordings, for the 2008 album Fearless, in April 2021, and licensed the lead-off single, “Love Story,” to a Match.com television ad. The track debuted at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart and No. 11 on the Hot 100 in February 2021. Fearless (Taylor’s Version) debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 291,000 AEUs.
With each new Taylor’s Version, Swift changes the playbook on how an artist can repackage previously released material for a growing legion of diehard fans. While it’s remarkable that Swift’s album releases have become pop culture moments unto themselves, each new wave of re-recordings carries large business and financial implications, too. If 1989 (Taylor’s Version) performs like its predecessors, the re-recordings will crowd out the original version and further erode the value of the Big Machine original catalog that Shamrock Holdings paid a reported $300 million to acquire in 2020.
Surprisingly, while Swift collectors scooped up 1.36 million units of the 1989 (Taylor’s Version) album — it has five versions on vinyl, eight versions on CD and two versions on cassette — consumers still purchased about 1,000 units of the 1989 album in physical or digital formats during the same period.
Expect more of the same in the coming weeks. If 1989 (Taylor’s Version) follows the trends of the two most recent Taylor’s Version albums that came before it, the original 1989 will lose close to half or more than half of its weekly AEUs. Average weekly consumption of the original Red dropped 40% in the 12 weeks following the release of Red (Taylor’s Version). The original Speak Now lost 59% of its average weekly consumption in the 12 weeks after its counterpart was released.
The lone bright spot for the original 1989 was radio: U.S. airplay spins from the original recordings jumped 57.4% last week. Combined with airplay of the Taylor’s Version recordings, U.S. spins rose an astounding 157.4%. The catch, however, is that recordings do not earn royalties from broadcast radio performances in the United States. As a result, the original recordings’ owner, Shamrock Holdings, benefits only from the promotional value of those radio spins. Swift, however — along with various co-writers and publishing companies — earns publishing royalties when either version of 1989 recordings are played at radio.
Veteran entertainment executive Alison Ball and Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Eric Benét have partnered to establish JBR Creative Group. Ball will serve as CEO and Benét as president of the new creative agency, whose first artist signing is singer-songwriter Maxine Ashley.
Ashley’s upcoming project for JBR Creative Group includes her debut single, “Somebody Else.” The signing of the singer-songwriter, whose writing credits include Ariana Grande and Black Coffee, embodies Ball and Benét’s goal of empowering the creative community by fostering an equal playing field for emerging and legacy acts within the music, film/TV, sync and music tech industries.
“Eric and I see JBR as an old-school, new-school blend,” Ball tells Billboard. “Our collaboration with the younger creative generation has been a learning experience, with fresh perspectives on artist promotion. Simultaneously, we share our insights and expertise to help them with monetization, expansion and, above all, achieving success while enjoying their craft. Our environment at JBR is to be successful while having fun, making money and, most importantly, building this company on teamwork.”
Adds Benét, “I had a conversation with my dear friend. We talked about how recording artists are often the last to get paid, if at all. It’s almost criminal how little financial gain some artists make. It was bad when I was 25 years old, and it’s even worse now. But somehow, record labels are still able to be multibillion-dollar industries while artists suffer. We talked about creating a company to combat that; to be an example of something more egalitarian for both labels and artists. And that was the birth of JBR.”
Ball, also president of TuneGO, is a veteran A&R executive. Prior to serving as vp of A&R at Warner Bros. Records, she held posts as senior director of A&R at RCA Records and director of A&R at EMI. During the course of her career, she has worked with Prince, Chaka Khan and Curtis Mayfield, among other artists.
The other artists include four-time Grammy nominee Benét, who launched his solo recording career with Warner Music in 1994. His string of hits includes “Spend My Life With You” featuring Tamia — which garnered his first Grammy nod for best R&B performance by a duo or group — and “Georgy Porgy” featuring Faith Evans.
Grammy winners Miranda Lambert and Jon Randall have partnered with Big Loud Records to launch their own imprint, Big Loud Texas. Lambert and Randall will be directly instrumental in signing and developing artists on the roster. Meanwhile, Randall will serve as president of A&R for the imprint, while also contributing as a producer.
“As a teenager chasing my dreams in the honky-tonks of Texas, Nashville seemed so far away,” Lambert said in a statement. “Every time I’m back home I get to hear the incredible talent our state produces, and I feel a responsibility to help get more of those Texas voices heard. I’m really excited to team up with my buddy Jon Randall and Big Loud to do just that. Get ready, y’all – we’re bringing even more Texas to town!”
“When I was a kid playing in bands and kicking around Texas, I knew that making music was all I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Randall added. “Since then, I’ve gotten to play with so many of my heroes produce legends and friends and travel all over the world… but all those roads lead right back home. I feel very blessed to share this full circle moment with one of my best pals, Miranda Lambert, and help some other dreamers chase their song around the world.”
Longtime friends and creative allies, Lambert and Randall collaborated on 2021’s Grammy-nominated The Marfa Tapes, alongside fellow Texas singer-songwriter Jack Ingram. Randall also served as a producer alongside Lambert and Luke Dick on her 2022 album, Palomino. A Grammy, CMA and ACM Award-winner, Randall has spent three-plus decades in the music business seemingly doing it all as a solo artist, guitarist, songwriter and critically acclaimed producer. In addition to his longstanding relationship with Lambert, he has written with and for artists including Guy Clark, Kenny Chesney, Reba McEntire and many others, plus produced projects for Dierks Bentley, Parker McCollum, Dwight Yoakam, Jack Ingram, Pat Green and more.
“I’ve admired what Miranda and Jon have done – both as musicians and as champions of young talent – for many years, so it’s an honor to join forces in this way,” Big Loud CEO/partner Seth England said in a statement. “One of the most important things to us at Big Loud is to align with cultural camaraderie. Texas exudes that spirit and no one knows that better than Miranda and Jon.”
Big Loud Records is also home to Morgan Wallen, who has had a stellar year, dominating the Billboard Hot 100 with “Last Night” and the Billboard 200 with One Thing at a Time. The label’s roster also includes Lauren Alaina, HARDY, ERNEST, Hailey Whitters, MacKenzie Porter, Larry Fleet, Charles Wesley Godwin, Stephen Wilson Jr., Dallas Smith, Maggie Rose, Griffen Palmer, Shawn Austin, Lily Rose, Jake Worthington, Ashley Cooke, Lauren Watkins and Zandi Holup.
Big Loud Records was honored as the No. 1 Billboard Hot Country Songs label in 2021 and 2022. Big Loud’s executive team has earned recognition as part of the Billboard 40 Under 40: svp / GM Patch Culbertson (’22), svp of radio promotion Stacy Blythe (’21) and CEO / partner Seth England (’14). Additionally, members of the Big Loud brass — partners England, Moi and Craig Wiseman, as well as Adams, Blythe and SVP of Marketing Candice Watkins — have been honored as Billboard Indie Power Players and Billboard Country Power Players. England was named the inaugural peer-voted Country Power Players’ Choice Award recipient, an industry-wide nod honoring the executive that voters believe made the most impact across the country music business over the past year.
After seven years working for regional Mexican indie labels — including DEL Records and most recently AfinArte Music — and helping grow the música mexicana genre, industry veteran Maria Inés Sánchez has been appointed Sony Music Latin’s new vp of West Coast operations.
Based out of Los Angeles, Sánchez, who began her career over two decades ago with stints at Sony and Universal, will report directly to Esteban Geller, general manager of Sony Music U.S. Latin, and oversee a team that includes other new hires such as Gonzalo Herrerias, senior director A&R and label manager Juan Tapia.
With Sánchez’s appointment, the label doubles down on its dedication to support the genre, which has seen extraordinary global growth this past year alone. “Sony Music Latin is really committed on continuing this explosion,” Sánchez tells Billboard. “The commitment being that we have to support a new generations of artists and help develop them because these young artists will only continue to fuse and evolve the sound, which has helped the genre grow.”
With indie labels mainly driving the the genre’s surge, Sánchez says the key to keep pushing the genre forward will be creating key alliances between major labels and indies. Sony Music Latin has already entered partnerships with labels such as Lumbre Music (Yahritza y Su Esencia) and Rancho Humilde (Fuerza Regida).
“We saw Mexican music grow because artists started to collaborate,” explains Sánchez. “It’s the same thing if companies start joining forces. Major labels like Sony, we can reach a broader spectrum of the business in general. We have eyes where indie’s perhaps don’t with offices internationally, which help export the music and work in other key markets such as Latin America and Spain.”
It aligns with how Sony U.S. Latin president Alex Gallardo visualizes the label’s role in regional Mexican music today. “We want to be the best possible partner for any artist, label, manager, or any Mexican music project, for this we have reinforced the West Coast team, and we have a clear vision to take Mexican music as far as possible,” says Gallardo.
Sony U.S. Latin also has an alliance with Sony Music Mexico to work both countries, Mexico and the United States, as a “single market,” Gallardo explains.
Adding that, ultimately, the plan is to break regional Mexican music beyond those two countries and enter new markets throughout Latin America and Spain. “We have already taken steps like getting Christian Nodal to sell out a WiZink Center in Madrid for 15,000 people … In countries like Colombia, Chile or Spain [the genre] is entering little by little and I believe that the strength of Sony in all these markets should be focused on bringing this wonderful music that is coming out of this new wave of artists.”
Naming Sánchez as vp of West Coast operations, a role previously served by Manny Prado (now at Interscope), means having someone who has a “very complete vision of both the business and Mexican music” having experience in both indie and major labels. Plus, having a woman in charge is something that “makes us very happy,” adds Gallardo.
“As a woman, I bring passion and conviction to a genre that I respect and love,” says Sánchez. “I’m committed to keep fueling this música mexicana explosion and impacting on a bigger level.”
In a year that’s been dominated by familiar albums and re-releases at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, this week served up a refreshing new No. 1: veteran punk rock band blink-182, which returned with the album One More Time and scored its first placement atop the tally with its original lineup — Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker — since 2001.
The album’s coronation was not a flash-in-the-pan, news cycle nostalgia play. Instead, it was the result of a year-long reunion and rollout plan that included a massive world tour, a string of singles and a behind-the-scenes video series with hundreds of thousands of views that both allowed the band’s original fans to get a glimpse inside the lives of their longtime heroes and brought in new fans drawn to the group’s irreverent humor and oddball visuals. For a group that came of age in the heyday of MTV — and was well-known for its provocative and hilarious music videos — the visual element was a key part of re-engaging that fan base, helping earn Columbia Records senior vp of video production Saul Levitz the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Levitz breaks down the content plan behind the group’s big comeback, the nostalgia factor of a beloved band’s reunion, how the visuals reflected the music and more. “We wanted to bring context and emotion to every visual,” Levitz says. “Whether it be the album trailers or music videos, we needed to bring the audience into the cathartic moment that the band was going through.”
This week, blink-182’s One More Time debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the group’s first No. 1 with its original lineup since 2001. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
We wanted to bring context and emotion to every visual. Whether it be the album trailers or music videos, we needed to bring the audience into the cathartic moment that the band was going through. When Ron [Perry, Columbia chairman/CEO] first sent across the song “One More Time” I cried every time I listened to it and felt the visuals needed to match this place it was taking the listener. Both because the band was processing their own lives with a directness they hadn’t before and also because it’s a universal message that can be applied to any relationship that has gone silent due to ego, mismanagement, or just time letting it slip away.
blink obviously has been around a long time, but it had been years since they released an album. How did you approach the content given that history?
There’s always a pull between nostalgia and making things feel fresh and modern. The modern approach usually wins out because no artist wants to rest on their laurels when rolling out new music. But this time it felt more appropriate because the band was acknowledging their past in a way that confirmed a lot of what the fan base had been thinking in their heads but never heard them say to each other. Never had I seen the fan base live vicariously through each member’s journey. They saw a piece of themselves in Tom, Mark or Travis’s personal journey, so we had to acknowledge that and not make it seem like it didn’t mean anything.
blink’s original incarnation was also at the height of the music-video era, and many of their videos are iconic. How did you balance that track record with bringing in new elements for this project?
Oh man, this is the best part of the job — living up to expectations and a visual history. We literally went inside so many of these iconic music videos for the “One More Time” video so this process was less about living up to those videos and more about celebrating them. There is so much expectation for their videos to be funny and self-aware. The band wanted to push beyond this expectation, though. Their personalities have also evolved so much that as soon as something felt too much like something the old blink-182 would do it stopped feeling fresh. But trust that Tom kept things OG on set with the humor and personality that people remember the band for.
This album also had an extended rollout, with the first single being released a full year before the album. How did that help you develop and roll out the content for it?
Being on the “EDGING” set was a revelation. The band hadn’t played together in forever, and even though they were playing to track there was something so clear about how they all locked in musically together and how their personalities melded together to create this nexus of what the band was. I remember being on set and thinking, “How could these guys ever have not been together?” It seemed so effortless and perfect the way they complemented each other through friendship and music. And Cole Bennett did a tremendous job with the video having the POV of a younger fan who has embraced the band’s legacy and sees their influence on a ton of new artists in genres you wouldn’t expect. It’s rare that you have a gap this long between a first single and then the album, but it certainly made us realize early the power the band had in this trinity coming together.
In a way, this entire project could be seen as a throwback: an extended rollout strategy, big radio singles, a major tour around the world and a beloved rock band topping the charts. What’s the significance of that in this era of the music industry, when things are often on much tighter timelines and rock rarely reaches No. 1?
I attribute the success as much to the music just being f—ing great and everyone seeing a part of themselves in the journey of these three individuals that come together and put aside their differences and find that spark again that made them special and unique and beloved. It was amazing to have the amount of time needed to get everything right, and that is rare nowadays, but without those other elements being in place the time is irrelevant. This album is less about the story of rock returning and more about how the audience can see themselves within artists that share so much of themselves and their journey. If you can make them cry, you’ve got something.
Lawyers often say that bad facts make bad law – meaning that unusual or unlikely details of a case can shape precedent in unpredictable ways. But bad facts can also make for bad contracts, to judge by the contractual restrictions on re-recording that major labels may be adopting in the wake of the success of Taylor Swift‘s “Taylor’s Version” of her albums.
Re-recording restrictions, a common contractual provision that has been part of record deals for decades, are intended as a kind of post-term noncompete. Their understandable economic purpose is to stop an artist from re-recording songs released under a contract that has run its course in order to benefit a subsequent label – and let the subsequent recording compete with the original without a comparable investment. Under that logic, the reasonable duration of a re-recording restriction would be a few years, as was the practice before the “Taylor’s Version” releases came out. It’s harder to justify locking up artists for a protracted period that might be longer than the duration of the original recording agreement.
That duration could be limited, too, by a potential legal challenge. Both the federal government and many states restrict the enforceability of noncompete clauses in employment agreements, particularly when they limit economic freedom. (Examples include California Business and Professions Code Section 16600, and the recently passed New York Senate Bill S3100A, which New York governor Kathy Hochul is expected to sign.) Next year, the Federal Trade Commission will vote on banning noncompete clauses in employment agreements altogether. Labels often say that recording artists aren’t employees, but that wouldn’t necessarily put these kinds of restrictions above the fray – especially if they last longer than seems reasonable.
Few artists re-record anything, and those who do usually only revisit one or a few hits, maybe their biggest album at most, and that’s more likely if there’s a contractual dispute. It’s unprecedented for a significant artist to re-record his or her entire catalog, repackage each album and promote their rerelease – particularly when the original hit releases are still readily available. That requires motivation. Or, in Swift’s case, perhaps, frustration. But in a “Taylor’s Version” world, who wants to be the one who let it happen again?
Chris Castle
Laura Lee Nall Photography
Without getting into the he-said-she-said of the sale of Big Machine, including Swift’s recording catalog, it’s important to note that it was an unusual case. So, it’s worth asking if there’s a lower-risk alternative.
If a label is going to sell a living artist’s entire catalog – or sell a company whose value is dominated by that catalog – the safe thing to do might be to offer the artist a chance to bid on it. Or, failing that, at least consult with the artist to create a comfortable situation, even if that requires additional assurances or an additional payment. If you think it’s only necessary to do the minimum, look at what can happen with an overly legalistic approach. To artists like Swift, these recordings are their life.
Changing the recording agreement template to try to guarantee an outcome may backfire. “Taylor’s Version” simply isn’t a normal situation – it’s one that involved the world’s most popular artist, who is as attached to her catalog as any performer, plus just as business-savvy as most executives. It’s a situation that was almost impossible to anticipate – so making contracts even more one-sided may not help. Instead, a change like this could draw the attention of President Biden’s FTC, which seems to have an abiding interest in noncompete clauses. Especially if a number of competitors just happen to push the same contractual change at the same time.
If labels must have extended re-recording restrictions, couldn’t they add a sweetener, such as offering living artists a right to match the highest bid if their recording catalogs are ever sold individually, or a blocking right over the buyer or something similar? Alternatively, they could also just leave things be.
An overreaching re-recording restriction could also provoke retaliation from artists’ lawyers. They could make leverage points like post-term marketing restrictions and audits more important deal points in order to fight restrictions. That means disfavored buyers might have to wonder how hard it could be to get the approvals they need, or how much they would like continual audits. And in cases where artists are also principal songwriters, buyers could also have trouble clearing song rights, especially for new purposes like AI.
Some labels may be less concerned with expanding this restriction than they are with winning a competitive negotiation to sign a new artist. And if a competing label agrees to a shorter restriction, it could be an easy compromise that would cost little or nothing.
There’s always a temptation to add restrictions to contracts, but in this case, the exercise could backfire. Labels might be advised to be careful what they wish for.
Chris Castle is an Austin-based lawyer. He represents artists, publishers, songwriters and startups on commercial and public policy matters.
Led by strong sales and a world tour by the group Seventeen, K-pop giant HYBE’s third quarter revenues grew 20.7% year-over-year to 537.9 billion won ($410 million at the quarter’s average exchange rate), the South Korean company announced Thursday (Nov. 2).
When counted over the first nine months of 2023, Seventeen sold 11 million albums, including 5.1 million copies of Seventeenth Heaven, an eight-track EP, in the week after its Oct. 23 release. Seventeen also performed 18 times in nine cities across Asia, including shows at Japan’s five major domed stadiums that attracted 515,000 fans. In the third quarter alone, Seventeen performed two shows at the Tokyo Dome in Japan as well as a concert at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea.
HYBE also pointed to a string of successful solo releases by members of BTS for contributing in the quarter. V’s Layover sold 2.1 million albums in the week after its Sept. 8 release. J-Hope’s Jack in the Box, released July 15, reached No. 1 on the Tunes chart in 49 markets. D-Day by Agust D, also known as BTS member Suga, performed 28 times in 10 cities in North America and Asia.
HYBE’s music sales of 264.1 billion won ($201 million) was up 104.4% from the prior-year period and was 7.4% better than the 245.9 billion won ($187 million) in the second quarter. Concert revenue was up 83.9% year over year to 86.9 billion won ($66 million) but fell 44.8% from the prior quarter.
The company’s acquisition of Atlanta-based hip hop label Quality Control has quickly made a major impact. Home to such artists as Migos and Lil Baby, Quality Control accounted for 19% of HYBE’s streaming revenue in the quarter.
Big Machine Label Group, picked up in 2021 through the acquisition of Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, contributed 27% of third-quarter streaming revenue while South Korean labels took a 54% share.
Weverse, HYBE’s social media platform, increased its monthly active users to 10.5 million in the third quarter from 9.5% in the previous quarter and 6.9 million in the third quarter of 2022.
Shares of HYBE gained 5.4% to 243,000 won ($180.89) in early trading on Thursday in South Korea.
Total revenues grew 20.7% to 537.9 billion won ($410 million).
Music revenues gained 104.4% to 264.1 billion won ($201 million).
Concert revenue jumped 83.9% to 86.9 billion won ($66 million).
Merchandising and licensing revenue fell 25.3% to 85.7 billion won ($65 million).
Fan club revenue grew 21.3% to 21 billion won ($16 million).
Adjusted EBITDA grew 13.1% to 90.8 billion won ($69 million).
Net profit improved 5.9% to 98.6 billion won ($75 million).
Colombian star Andrés Cepeda has signed a deal with Warner Music México, Billboard can announce today (Nov. 1). With this new alliance, the singer-songwriter of hits like “Desesperado” and “El Mensaje” seeks to continue developing his musical career in the coming years, according to a press release. “I feel very excited to start this new […]
Ñengo Flow has signed an exclusive record contract with Rimas Entertainment in a bid for his international expansion, Billboard can announce today (Oct. 31). The alliance that includes touring, merchandising, and brand partnerships strategies, “marks a significant step in the evolution of the reggaeton genre pioneer, known for the distinctive touch of his rhymes and […]