Record Labels
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Maryland rapper Joony and his 211 label have entered into a partnership with Red Bull Records and Blxst‘s Evgle imprint, Billboard can exclusively announce today (Sept. 22).
The 22-year-old artist (real name Jonathan Negero) initially started 211 as a collective in 2014 with his best friend Max Free, but he transformed it into a label in 2022 with his managers Jason Zeigler and Darren Xu. The other core members are fellow artist Swegah and photographer Gio Vaun. Joony has released two projects under 211, his 2022 album Pretty in Black and his 2023 album SHITUMISS.
“My team and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out who was the right fit for us, not only for me as an artist, but as a company as well. We ended up loving the synergy between us and the Evgle/Red Bull Records teams, and I’ve always been a fan of Blxst, so it’s huge getting to work with him,” Joony says in an exclusive statement to Billboard. “We arranged a one-of-a-kind deal that empowers the artist with terms that have substantial gain for everyone involved, and we’re excited to launch the partnership today.”
Joony made his Billboard Hot 100 debut last July due to his appearance on Brent Faiyaz‘s “FYTB” off his critically acclaimed sophomore album, Wasteland. The two previously collaborated on “Paper Soldier” from Faiyaz’s surprise three-pack Do Not Listen from 2021.
Prior to the Evgle partnership announcement, Jordan Ward and Joony’s “IDC” track was included on the NBA 2K23 season 7 soundtrack, which Blxst curated.
“At Evgle, we think Joony is a generational artist and songwriter, and he and 211 are building something we truly admire in terms of creativity and business,” says Karl Fowlkes, COO/co-founder of Evgle. “With additional resources of Evgle and Red Bull Records at their disposal, the sky is the limit. We look forward to helping Joony and 211 reach their heights.”
Joony also announced his upcoming EP MEMENTO today, which will be released this fall as his first project under Evgle/Red Bull Records. The 10-track project includes collaborations with Tony Shhnow, TTM Dawg, Lancey Foux and Lil Candy Paint. Ahead of MEMENTO, he dropped the first single, “Need It,” with an accompanying music video directed by Zaiem.
“This partnership will bring a better look into who I am as an artist and what I want to portray with my art. There are more resources for me to get as creative as possible and give my supporters more to grab onto — bigger and better art, visuals, and most importantly, music,” Joony says. “I’m excited for fans to finally get this new music and see all of the creative endeavors I’ve been working on over the past year and a half. My new EP MEMENTO is definitely one for the books, and I’m happy as hell that y’all get to hear the project soon and take it in with the visuals we worked so hard on, starting with ‘Need It.’”
Adds Kenny “Tick” Salcido, senior vp & head of A&R at Red Bull Records: “Evgle continues to identify culture-moving artists with the newest addition to our partnership in the signing of Joony. Joony has unlimited potential as he brings a different sound with his melodic delivery and unique sonic choices. He represents a career artist at its core and we’re thrilled to welcome him.”
Joony will also accompany Lil Tjay on nine dates of his Beat the Odds Tour’s European leg, which kicks off Nov. 2 at London’s OVO Arena Wembley and wraps on Nov. 11 at Vienna’s Gasometer.
Big Hit Music, the longtime label home of BTS, announced its plans to sign exclusive agreements with all its members and also “work with the group on their future releases from 2025 onwards.” “With the renewal of their contracts, we are looking forward to supporting BTS’ group activities expected in 2025,” Big Hit’s parent company […]
Universal Music Group announced a new wellness app and a partnership with Ariana Huffington‘s Thrive Global on Tuesday during its first-ever Music + Health conference. Held at the One Hotel in West Hollywood, the event featured keynote remarks from Huffington and UMG chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge, plus panels and conversations deep-diving the therapeutic and medical benefits of music.
During the event, UMG said it is working on a forthcoming, music-centric wellness app called Sollos that will deploy “cognitive science and proprietary audio technology to support focus.” As Music Business Worldwide spotted, the label group submitted a trademark application for the brand in late August, however no additional information on the app has been released.
UMG also announced a new partnership with Thrive Global that will see UMG become the exclusive music partner for their Thrive Reset stress management tool. Huffington launched Thrive in 2016 as part of her years-long campaign to stamp out “burnout” and to help companies improve the well-being of workers through science-based actions. The Thrive Reset app uses music and breathing exercises to help users reduce stress in 60-second bursts.
“Universal’s catalog will make Thrive Resets more engaging, personalized and joyful to drive even greater behavior change through our platform, helping people reduce stress and connect each day with what they love about their lives,” said Huffington, who famously installed “sleep pods” — in rooms with names like Napquest — while leading The Huffington Post. “As we learned today from neuroscientists, historians, doctors and entrepreneurs, we’re just getting started with all of the ways we can leverage music, both for preventive health and to augment medical treatment, and I am looking forward to using today’s conference to accelerate this growing movement of music and health.”
On the licensing front, UMG announced it would provide selections from its vast catalog to digital therapeutic company soundBrilliance for use in closed clinical trials. According to the label, these trials will use music, psychology & measurement techniques “to create tools & exercises which empower people to better self-manage the fundamentals of health.”
The day featured a Zoom chat with music producer Rick Rubin on the topics of creativity, music and wellbeing, plus panel discussions featuring Dr. Lisa Miller, Dr. Daniel Levitin, Dr. Assal Habibi, Jaron Lanier and neurosurgeon and scholar Dr. Ali Rezai, as well as a presentation from MedRhythms co-founder and CEO Brian Harris. The day ended with a conversation on mental health between Grainge, Huffington and Selena Gomez.
There were also performances by Republic Records’ artist Chelsea Cutler and Decca Records’ Chad Lawson, plus panel appearances from UMG partners including Apple Fitness +, Endel, Music Care, Universal Production Music, Thrive Reset and a Havas Health panel that looked at music’s power to help end the health equity crisis.
“Throughout my life, I have experienced countless examples of how music can change people’s mood, comfort them in times of emotional crisis, or even help them physically,” Grainge said. “At Universal, I wanted this powerful relationship between music and health to not simply be a series of anecdotal observations, I want it to be a key component of our strategy, so we can really put music to work in ways it has never been used before. As a company, we are fundamentally rooted in the belief that music is a powerful force for good, and now we have the science and technology—with AI and therapeutics and more— to help accelerate these developments. It really is one of the most interesting and exciting new frontiers for music.”
Warner Music has hired Disney veteran Bryan Castellani as the label group’s next executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective Oct. 16. Based in New York, Castellani will report to WMG’s CEO, Robert Kyncl.
Castellani has nearly 30 years at The Walt Disney Company under his belt, most recently serving as CFO for Disney Entertainment & ESPN. Prior to that, he held such roles as evp of finance for Disney Media, where he oversaw its distribution, ad sales and networks businesses, and previously he was evp and CFO of ESPN proper and he also spent time in the C-suite at Disney Japan. He started at the company in 1995 as a financial analyst, following a stint at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C.
“Bryan has wide-ranging experience helping one of the world’s most impactful creative enterprises build long-term value and unlock new global possibilities,” said Kyncl. “A dynamic, operational CFO, he’ll be an excellent addition to our executive leadership team, as we grow the WMG of the future for the benefit of our artists, songwriters, investors, employees, and partners.”
Castellani will succeed longtime CFO Eric Levin, who announced his retirement in mid-March after nearly a decade at the company. He’ll officially retire in January. Levin joined WMG in 2014, overseeing the company’s global financial operations at a time when piracy and streaming were overhauling the fortunes of companies across the music industry. Notably, he saw WMG through its 2020 initial public offering and managed through the leadership transition from Stephen Cooper to Kyncl.
Kyncl noted that Levin departs “with our deepest respect for his many contributions during an extraordinary period of growth that included WMG’s global expansion, numerous major acquisitions, and a successful IPO.”
Castellani said: “I’m delighted to be joining WMG at such an exciting and pivotal time for the company and the music industry. Music is a powerful global force, unconstrained by any specific model or format, and has significant business upside. Robert’s vision for differentiating WMG is inspiring, and I’m looking forward to working with the leadership and finance teams to take the company to the next level in a rapidly evolving landscape.”
Halfway through 2023, the U.S. recorded music industry has set a record for first-half retail revenue, generating $8.4 billion, according to the new RIAA mid-year 2023 report released Monday (Sept. 18). But within that headline number, there are several trends and statistics that are worthy of their own exploration, from increasing revenue to slowing growth figures and the factors behind them. Digging deeper into the numbers, here are four takeaways (and a bonus fifth) from the mid-year report.
Ad-Supported Revenue Flatlines
The RIAA reported that ad-supported on-demand streaming revenue came in at $870.1 million — just a 0.6% bump over the $865 million it generated in the first half of 2022. Looking at the 2022 mid-year report, the ad-supported revenue figure was $871.5 million, up 16.4% from $748.5 million midway through 2021. (The RIAA regularly adjusts and updates figures each year as more data becomes available, hence the discrepancies.) What it points to, at best, is a stagnant advertising market; and at worst, one that risks going backwards.
On one hand, it’s not surprising, given the adverse advertising market across the board in 2023 so far. On the other hand, it’s yet another blow to a part of the model for services like Spotify and YouTube that has been maligned for years and considerably detracts from the value of music. Still, revenue from the “other ad-supported streaming” category grew 56.8% year over year for an increase of $58 million after a few years of negligible growth at best.
The Big Pricing Shift
In the past two weeks, a lot of conversation in the industry has revolved around how royalties from streaming services should be divided moving forward. But the broader issue that many executives are, and have been, pointing to has been about pricing. Music streaming services have fallen behind the times in keeping the price of a monthly subscription largely static over the past decade-plus, while video streamers (with fractionalized offerings) have raised prices regularly.
That’s now starting to change — and it’s being reflected in the numbers. Apple Music and Amazon Music both raised prices for their streaming services at the turn of the year, and that has translated into paid subscription streaming revenue growing 12.4% in the first half of 2023 — even as the average number of subscriptions grew at a much slower rate, increasing just 6.4% from 90 million to 95.8 million. With YouTube Music and, most critically, Spotify increasing prices over the summer — numbers that were not reflected in the first half of this year — the additional value realized will be something to keep an eye on moving forward.
But It’s Not Just Streaming
Those streaming service price hikes get a lot of attention — and rightly so. But the industry is seeing increased revenue from consumers in more than just streaming. The physical product market has continued to grow in revenue, up 5% overall, with vinyl revenue rising 1.3% year over year (up $8.2 million) and CD revenue growing 14.3% (up $29.6 million). What’s more interesting — apart from, perhaps, the winding down of the “vinyl explosion” double-digit increase narrative of the past several years — is that both formats grew in revenue while being down in unit counts.
Vinyl, overall, seemed to be a little static year over year. The number of records sold dropped by about 400,000 or so, even as revenue ticked up. But the discrepancy in CDs was stark: despite the type of double-digit revenue growth that’s been associated with vinyl in years past, there were actually 3.2 million fewer CDs sold in the United States in the first half of 2023 compared to 2022. Whether that’s a reaction to the hyper-fandom of artists who tend to do well in the physical market raising prices significantly or a marker of an industry-wide price hike there, it’s another example of how pricing is shifting across the industry and changing the revenue picture as a result.
Subscriptions Slowing Down?
As noted above, the average number of paid music streaming subscriptions grew by 5.8 million in the first half of the year to 95.8 million. That represents the slowest level of growth — both in raw numbers and in percentage — since at least 2015, when the U.S. streaming industry was still in its nascent phases. The growth in the number of subscribers has been slowing down now for about five years straight, as those who haven’t already gotten on board with paid music streaming slowly sign on. But it’s unclear how much room for growth remains — and, either way, the focus will continue to shift from acquisition and retention to growing value.
As subscriptions continue to near critical mass in the United States, the industry will need to continue its growth rate by convincing digital service providers to get more from the subscribers they already have. Whether that comes from price hikes or finding new ways to monetize fans on platforms — or, more likely, some combination of both — is an area to watch.
And, Finally…
A last word for our favorite sector of the RIAA report each year: ringtones and ringbacks. U.S. consumers spent $6.0 million on them in the first half of 2023 — down slightly from $6.2 million halfway through last year — while the unit count also slightly declined. We are a long way away from the Billboard Ringtones Chart of 2004, yet they continue to hang on as a line item year after half year. What a blessing.
BMG is exiting its current distribution agreement with Warner Music Group’s ADA and taking direct control of its 80 billion-stream digital business in a move the company called “the biggest change to its recorded music strategy” yet, according to a statement released Monday. The fourth largest global music company will begin phasing in the new […]
Today we are releasing U.S. recorded music revenue data for the first half of 2023, reflecting 9.3% growth over the first half of 2022 — the ninth straight year of positive growth.
With overall first-half revenues hitting an all-time high of $8.4 billion at retail value and paid streaming subscriptions nearing 96 million, this report makes clear the strength of American recorded music’s fundamentals.
For example, this new data shows broad strength across formats — especially digital streaming, which now comprises some 84% of recorded music revenues and grew at a robust 10.3% rate this period. Looking solely at paid streaming subscriptions, that figure climbs to 11%.
In fact, paid subscription services were responsible for nearly two-thirds of total revenues and more than three-quarters of streaming revenues. And they continued to grow at an even faster rate than ad-supported revenues.
But it’s not only streaming; the new data also show the lasting power of physical formats — which grew by 5% — including growth in the value of sales of CDs and vinyl. Overall, physical revenues reached their highest level since a full decade ago, topping $880 million so far this year.
And digital and customized radio music revenues, which include SoundExchange distributions for revenues from services like SiriusXM and internet radio stations, grew 16% to $657 million for the period.
As we’re fond of saying, “Music doesn’t just happen.” This success reflects the hard work, innovation, and creative genius of the artists, songwriters, labels, publishers, and services that make up the U.S. music community.
Finally, with annual Latin music revenues in the U.S. exceeding $1 billion for the first time in 2022 and the first half of 2023 showing continued growth faster than overall revenues, Latin music continues to shine — both economically and creatively. We look forward to releasing a full report on the Latin segment during Hispanic Heritage Month and as a capstone to our upcoming RIAA Honors Celebration of Latin music where we will recognize legends Gloria and Emilio Estefan, superstar Sebastián Yatra and other Latin music trailblazers as well as the policymakers who protect it all.
RIAA is proud to develop and release this transparent data which shows the continued power and vitality of U.S. recorded music.
Mitch Glazier is chairman/CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America.
Recorded-music revenues in the United States grew 9.3% in the first half of 2023, reaching an all-time mid-year high of $8.4 billion at retail value, the RIAA said in its mid-year report released today (Sept. 18). That reflects a second year in a row of 9% increases at the mid-year mark, as growth steadies after the upheaval of the pandemic led to market unpredictability.
Once again streaming was the primary driver of both revenue and growth, increasing 10.3% over the first half of 2022 to reach $7 billion, accounting for 84% of all revenue and marking the fourth year in a row that it has accounted for 83%-84% of the overall total.
Paid subscription streaming accounted for the bulk of that number, growing 11% year over year to $5.5 billion, up from $5 billion halfway through 2022 — making up 65.4% of the total revenue figure, and 78.6% of streaming. Notably, the RIAA points out that subscription streaming revenue is growing at a faster rate than the average number of subscriptions — the latter number is up to 95.8 million, from 90 million last year, up 6% — suggesting that some of the price hikes instituted by digital service providers like Apple Music and Amazon Music have begun yielding results. (Increases from YouTube Music Premium and Spotify are too recent to be reflected in the first half of this year.)
Ad-supported streaming, however, is a different story. Total revenue from such services was essentially flat year-over-year, at $870 million, up just 0.6% from 2022. Digital and customized radio revenues were up 16% year over year, reaching $657 million; within that, SoundExchange distributions ticked up 7% to $498 million.
Overall, sales revenue reached $1.1 billion, up slightly from the same period last year, with the growth in physical sales offsetting a decline in digital downloads. Digital sales accounted for just 3% of revenues, and dropped 12% year over year to $225, with digital albums dropped 12% to $107 million and digital tracks declining 14% to $97 million.
Meanwhile, physical revenues of $882 million marked the highest level since the first half of 2013, growing 5% year over year. Vinyl continued to dominate, accounting for 72% ($632 million) of the sector, despite growing just 1.3% year over year, while CD revenue grew 14.3%, to $236 million. Vinyl, for the third year in a row, outsold CDs. But as a window into how prices are changing, unit sales of both vinyl (down 1.8% to 23.4 million) and CDs (down 17.2% to 15.1 million) both declined, despite those increases in the revenue derived from them.
“This report describes a thriving, growing music ecosystem that continues to reach new heights and shape our culture,” RIAA chairman/CEO Mitch Glazier said in a statement accompanying the report. “And it reflects the creative human genius and hard work of all the artists, songwriters, labels, publishers and services who make the music happen and meet fans and audiences where they are in today’s forward looking and innovative music community.”
As the COO/executive vp of Sony Latin Iberia, María Fernández is one of the most powerful people in Latin music. She not only runs the operational and financial aspects of the largest Latin music company but is also an artist and management-forward executive who oversees her multiple divisions with a famously empathetic style.
This week, Fernández’s work is at the forefront, as the RIAA Honors, which is celebrating Latin music this year, announced it was recognizing her as industry executive of the year for 2023. Fernandez will be feted during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday (Sept. 19) alongside Gloria Estefan (Icon), Emilio Estefan (industry trailblazer), Sebastian Yatra (artist of the year) and representatives Veronica Escobar and María Elvira Salazar (policymakers of the year).
A native of Venezuela who started her career in media, Fernández is a finance whiz who joined Sony as CFO and rose to the rank of COO five years ago. Her role expanded during the pandemic when she made mentoring and training young executives a central part of her job and a personal mission. She now oversees the strategic approach of the company and all of its different operations, including finance, people experience, technology and acquisitions, and is regularly involved in big artist deals. And ahead of the RIAA Honors, Fernández is Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Fernández discusses her finance background, her role as a mentor within her community and the state of Latin music around the globe. “It’s a moment in history when you can show that Latin music is not only one genre, and the fact that we have amazing artists representing each one of those genres and seeing that on global charts is extremely fulfilling.”
You have a background in finance. How do you apply that to your job at a music company?
I think I bring to the more strategic, financial and operational areas the understanding of artists’ needs and therefore how we can organize ourselves to incorporate those needs in everything that we do. For instance, an artist will want to do a more expensive video because they have a creative vision. From a purely financial standpoint, you won’t see a return from that investment because the streaming of the video won’t compensate for the level of investment. But when you understand why that is important for the artist and how it fits into the whole strategy, not only do you understand the logic of what you want to do, but you can sell it.
That’s interesting because “Let me talk to finance” is among the more dreaded words one can hear.
Historically, the financial group is the team that says no to everything. And there’s a struggle between the creative and financial groups. One thing we’re trying to do more and more is make sure both sides understand each other’s needs. By the way, you can say exactly the same thing when we’re talking about employees because the base of the values in our region is that we have two rosters: artists and employees, and we need to take care of both of them. You need superstar employees and executives to manage superstar artists.
I think you’re unusual in that you work often and directly with managers. I cannot tell you how many times a manager has told me, “I’m meeting with Maria Fernández today.” What happens when your mutual needs don’t align?
I work with a lot of managers and maybe there’s a logic as to why a manager needs something for their artist, but that need doesn’t necessarily align with our needs in that moment. But it’s always [about] how to make sure we understand each other even if we’re not always going to be on the same page. To me, it’s the messaging. The way I see it, we are here to serve. We’re here to make things easier, [even] with all the limitations we have in a corporation and making sure we follow procedure.
What are you proud of in the last year?
The presence of our artists on the charts and the variety of genres on the charts. Right now, you have urban songs, but you have Shakira on the top of the charts with a song like “Acróstico.” Then you have regional Mexican artists like Fuerza Regida and an artist like Luísa Sonza from Brazil at the top of Spotify Brazil with a bossa nova song called “Chico.” It’s a moment in history when you can show that Latin music is not only one genre, and the fact that we have amazing artists representing each one of those genres and seeing that on global charts is extremely fulfilling. And to be honest, what I’m doing in terms of helping the next generation of executives, especially women, to make sure they’re prepared continues to be the highlight of my career at this point. I’ve dedicated a lot of time to that and I feel very proud of the accomplishments in terms of getting them ready to be promoted, changing jobs, doing new things in the organization.
What did you specifically do in terms of your mentorship work?
What I’m doing personally is I am dedicating a significant amount of time to take care of the career development of employees in the U.S. and also in the region, in order to allow them to take over executive leadership positions in the future. We do mentoring, talk to them, we develop career plans, if they have an issue we discuss the issues, if they need training in a particular area, through conversations we figure out what they’re missing to get to the next level. We follow up on plans to make sure they have everything they need.
That sounds very time-consuming for a busy executive. How do you manage?
You’d be surprised. Sometimes you don’t need to do too much. Sometimes someone simply has a blind spot and the second you tell them about it, they can go in and fix it. We’re always busy. And we’re not always taking the time to analyze where you’re at, what do you like, what makes you happy. My policy is very simple. Anyone who wants to talk to me can get on my agenda. If they need to talk to me every week, I’ll be there every week.
Is this mandatory?
No. But anyone that asks me to mentor them, I do. At this point, it’s 80% women and 20% men. And the fact that I can do it, shows that others can do it too. If we can have that ripple effect that we can make a little bit of time in our very busy schedules to help someone else when they need it, I think by default this will make us a better company. Formally I started during the pandemic, around 2020. And I’m proud to say that some of the people I started mentoring at that time are now in senior positions in the organization.
I still see very few women in really senior leadership positions in our industry. How can this change?
I am very happy to report that I’m seeing it happening. I personally don’t like the idea of a woman getting the position because she’s a woman, but because she’s the best candidate. And what I’m proud of is, we’ve been able to have many more women in senior positions applying and making sure they’re the best of the best. In Sony Music, we have such talented women in the structure that I don’t think it’s going to be challenging to find very compelling female candidates when you’re trying to fill a position.
What do you see happening with Latin music now?
A big difference is people [who are not Latin] are used to equating “Latin music is urban music,” and that’s not the case. Latin music is very rich, it has a lot of genres, it has a lot of history. “Latino” is not reggaetón. Latino is 100 genres per country. And that to me means more and more artists are open to collaborating with artists from different places. Camilo collaborated with an artist from India; Luísa Sonza is on a song that features Demi Lovato, singing in Portuguese. Soon we will see what will happen with Korean music being more present in the U.S. I think it’s a new era in terms of music.
What is your biggest challenge?
The challenge for a region like ours is, how do we make sure we collaborate with everything that is happening and make sure people understand the music, the artist and what they want to accomplish? How do you create global artists when their presence in some charts is limited? For example, in Brazil, over 90% of the chart is local music, and in general, most of the countries are going back to local music. So, as a global company, how do you balance those things? The importance of the local artist, [and then] the local artist wants to be global. How do we fulfill those dreams?
BERLIN — After introducing himself in German — a daring act for a foreigner — Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl said a few words about why he was so excited to be at the opening of the company’s new Berlin office. “The world is noisier than ever,” he said, just as the roar of nearby S-Bahn made it so, but there was considerable excitement about the music coming out of Germany. He shared one example: “Komet,” a recent hit by veteran rock artist Udo Lindenberg and rapper Apache 207 that has broken chart records.
While the German music business has historically been divided among its major cities, Berlin is emerging as the country’s music capital, and although Warner’s German headquarters will remain in Hamburg, it celebrated the opening of its new Berlin office with a big party. (The new office is for both Warner Music Central Europe and Warner Chappell Music Germany.) Next week, during the Reeperbahn Festival, the company will have a second “hauswarming” party at its remodeled Hamburg offices.
“We see this new space, alongside our revitalised Hamburg headquarters, as a sign of our commitment to local players in the creative and cultural scene,” said Doreen Schimk, co-president of Warner Music Central Europe, who spoke in German. “It shows the importance of Berlin as a European metropolis and a location for the music industry.”
Fabian Drebes, also co-president of Warner Music Central Europe, spoke about how the new building would serve as a “new creative hub with possibilities for events, concerts and more to support our national and international artists.”
Lars Karlsson, Managing Director Warner Chappell Music GSA & Nordics, Doreen Schimk, Co-President Warner Music Central Europe, Natascha Augustin, Vice President Warner Chappell Music Germany, Fabian Drebes, Co-President Warner Music Central Europe
Doering Agency
Warner occupies the top floor of the Schicklerhaus, a late-19th-century building near the Jannowitzbrücke S-Bahn stop, a block from the River Spree, not far from where the Berlin Wall once divided the city. These days, it’s about a mile from AEG’s Mercedes-Benz Arena. It’s a sleek, modern office, with prime roof space that overlooks the river. As about 500 partygoers mingled on the roof and a terrace, a drone hovered overhead taking photos. German artists attending included Peter Schilling, Katja Krasavice, and Shirin David.
“The music industry is of increasing importance for Berlin,” said Franziska Giffey, a deputy mayor for business, energy and labor. Speaking in what she called “Berlinish” — a mix of German and English that’s increasingly popular in a city filled with newcomers from all over the world – she said that music business jobs increased by 700 to about 6,800 this year, and that Warner would add another 150.
“Without the scene of such a vibrant city, we wouldn’t be the No. 1 publisher,” said Natascha Augustin, vp of Warner Chappell Music Germany. Warner Chappell leads the German music publishing business partly because of Augustin and her signings in German hip-hop. She told a story about starting out with a small Berlin office, moving to a slightly bigger one, and ending up here.
“Berlin,” said Lars Karlsson, managing director of Warner Chappell Music Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and Scandinavia, “is one of the most important cultural cities in the world.”