Record Labels
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Miranda Lambert is leaving her longtime label home at Sony Music Nashville, the singer-songwriter revealed in a social media post.
“Since I was 19 years old, Sony has been my home in Nashville. Over the last 20 years together we have released albums that allowed me to share my story with the world, and we’ve reached heights I’d never even dreamed were possible,” Lambert said. “I’m so thankful for our time together and everything they made possible for me, yet I wouldn’t be true to myself if I wasn’t constantly looking for the next challenge and a new way to stretch my creativity. With that in mind, I’ve decided to say goodbye to my Sony family. I can’t wait to see what the next adventure holds.”
A representative for Sony Music Nashville had not responded to Billboard‘s request for comment by press time. Lambert’s manager, Marion Kraft, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lambert’s statement caught Sony executives off guard, according to sources.
During her time with Sony, since the release of her debut major label album Kerosene in 2005, Lambert has taken seven albums to the top of Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and seven songs to No. 1 on Country Airplay as a solo artist or collaboration. The reigning ACM Awards entertainer of the year (and a coveted ACM Triple Crown winner) has won 37 ACM trophies, the most of any artist.
Lambert has also won Grammys in the country album of the year category for her projects Wildcard and Platinum, while her song “The House That Built Me” won a Grammy for female country vocal performance.
Annual revenues for French music company Believe grew 31.8% to 760.8 million euros ($723.5 million) in 2022 as the company capitalized on investments and expansion in Europe, India and China. Digital sales accounted for 92% of Believe’s revenue while non-digital sources represented just 8%.
The company’s premium solutions segment grew 31.6% to 712.6 million euros ($677.7 million). Automated solutions, which includes the TuneCore distribution platform, improved 34.5% to 48.2 million euros ($45.8 million). TuneCore’s launch of an “unlimited pricing” plan in 2022, which allows artists to distribute an unlimited amount of music for a fixed annual fee, was “extremely successful and translated into an acceleration of growth,” CEO Denis Ladegaillerie said during Wednesday’s earnings call.
“We ended 2022 strongly delivering above our IPO commitments both operationally and financially for the second year in a row,” Ladegaillerie said in a statement. “In 2022, as we have done each year since 2005, we did what we said we would do … or better. We grew our market share; we improved profitability; we generated significant cash flow from our operations.” Free cash flow was 52 million euros ($49.5 million), an improvement from negative 30.7 million euros in 2021.
Believe also revealed that it invested in French pop label Structure, which it called “a new French pop label partnering with two successful producers, behind the recent success of several multi-platinum French pop artists.” It additionally noted an investment in Madizin Music, “a German well-known brand managed by two renowned producers, composers, and entrepreneurs,” as well as an exclusive partnership with Panorama Music, a new Indian label founded by a Bollywood film producer.
Digital revenues improved 34.7% organically as Believe served an additional 200,000 artists, to 1.3 million, either directly or through record labels. In France, Believe was the second-largest music company in digital local repertoire in 2022. Believe was the third-largest recorded music company in Germany “on local repertoire in the streaming market,” and the market’s second-largest company in hip-hop. The company pointed to the chart success of TuneCore artist Theo Junior and Milky Chance, who amassed 1.2 billion streams in 2022 on the strength of the track “Stolen Dance.”
In Asia, Believe has invested in India and Southeast Asia and now has about 80 people spread throughout five offices in China. “The level of activity remained sustained throughout the year as the digital monetization increased in Greater China, which led to the signings in Premium Solutions of more than 300 labels and above 250 artists directly,” the company said.
Looking forward to 2023, Believe expects to post organic revenue growth of 18%, improve its adjusted EBITDA margin to between 5% and 7% and again be cash flow positive. “In 2023, we will continue our profitable growth strategy: invest in our teams to grow market share, innovate in audience development products for our artists and labels, and further drive operational efficiencies through technology and scale to increase profitability,” said Ladegaillerie.
Universal Music Group has acquired the British indie classical label Hyperion Records, the company announced Wednesday (March 15).
The 43-year-old label — which is home to artists like Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt and Stephen Osborne and represents a catalog of 2,5000 recordings, some of which date back to the 12th century — will operate as a standalone label within Universal Music U.K. alongside Decca Classics. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Hyperion will now join Decca Classics and Deutsche Grammophon in UMG’s classical portfolio, while Simon Perry — who has overseen the label for more than 20 years, after taking over from his father, Hyperion founder Ted Perry — will remain as managing director.
“I’m thrilled to bring Hyperion to Universal Music Group, a company that shares Hyperion’s commitment to bringing the most distinctive and brilliant musicians to as wide a public as possible,” Perry said in a statement. “By being part of UMG, while keeping our artists and staff together, we can continue to build on my father’s legacy and that of everyone who’s been part of the Hyperion family over the past 43 years. My debt to all of them is huge and I look forward to leading this incredible label into an exciting new chapter.”
Hyperion is next set to release Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia Antartica and Symphony No.9 with BBC Symphony Orchestra, a series it says is dedicated to the Masses and Magnificats of Cristóbal de Morales, as well as recordings from the London Haydn Quartet and Stephen Layton and the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, among others. In a statement, UMG president/CEO of global classics and jazz Dickon Stainer called Hyperion “a jewel of a label,” adding that “we are committed to continuing the magnificent work done by the Perry family and to preserving and building on the special place Hyperion occupies in the hearts of artists and music fans alike.”
The acquisition comes amid a veritable wave of news spilling from the world of classical music lately. In November, Deutsche Grammophon launched a new standalone streaming service, Stage+, catering to its own catalog and that of Decca Classics. And earlier this month, Apple Music announced its own standalone streaming app, Apple Music Classical, which will roll out later this month and stems from its August 2021 acquisition of Primephonic.
“We are enormously proud that Hyperion has joined Universal’s family of classical labels to sit alongside Decca Classics in London,” Decca Label Group co-presidents Tom Lewis and Laura Monks said in a statement. “Simon and his father have created a very important recorded classical catalogue that serves a dedicated global audience. And the label continues to work with artists who are the best of the best. We are determined to celebrate the label’s legacy and continue its extraordinary story.”
Nigerian Afropop singer Adekunle Gold has officially signed with Def Jam Recordings, the company tells Billboard.
“I’ve been following Adekunle Gold since I first heard his record ‘Sade’ in 2016. Over the years, everything in AG’s world has elevated — his songwriting has refined, the scope of his artistry has widened, his vocals have strengthened, his approach to fashion is more distinct, and his showmanship and performance ability have grown exponentially,” says Def Jam CEO/chairman Tunji Balogun in a statement to Billboard. “He’s stepped into stardom on his own terms and is completely comfortable being his true self.”
Balogun added, “When I started at Def Jam, I knew I wanted to bring the label into the Afrobeats space tastefully, with the right artists and partnership. Adekunle felt like the perfect fit – he’d already done so much work on his own to build a base, but I knew that we could scale his audience to an even bigger level if we combined our energies and worked together.”
Gold (real name Adekunle Almoruf Kosoko) describes his signing as a “full circle moment” after Balogun tried signing him years ago, prior to the executive’s 2022 arrival at Def Jam. The “5 Star” singer said that because he and Balogun share Nigerian roots, “he understands it, so signing to Tunji makes sense. He’s like my studio buddy that just comes everywhere I go. The day he doesn’t have time to be there, I know he must’ve been like stupidly busy. He’s great.”
When it comes to signing with Def Jam, Gold continued, “The track record is there. The history is there. They break artists, and they have niche, unique artists like me, so I think it’s the right move for me. All of the things that I’ve done for myself already, they know already and that’s why they’re on board.”
Balogun was in Lagos, Nigeria, says Gold, when he and fellow Nigerian singer Zinoleesky were writing and recording “Party Dey no Stop,” Gold’s new single featuring Zinoleesky that marks his Def Jam debut. “When we started to make the music, it was so easy for me to go in and just attack the song. I wrote my verse, I wrote the chorus, and it was a rap. I knew from then that this song was a jam,” Gold says of the track.
“Party Dey no Stop” arrives ahead of Gold’s fifth studio album due in June. In support of the project, he’ll embark on a four-month world tour that’s set to kick off in North America in September and run through the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South America and the Caribbean through next year.
Gold first rose to fame in 2015 with the single “Sade,” a highlife love song that samples instrumentals from One Direction‘s 2013 hit “Story of My Life.” “Sade” went on to win best alternative song at the 2015 edition of The Headies, a Nigerian music awards show. Gold eventually signed his first record label deal with Olamide‘s YBNL Nation and released his debut studio album, Gold, in 2017. It peaked at No. 7 on Billboard‘s World Albums chart.
After Gold’s YBNL Nation contract expired, “I didn’t quite know what to do,” he says. “I was signed for two years, fresh off the industry. I was just thinking, ‘What am I going to do from here?’ [And] I’m like, ‘You know what? I got this. Let me just start my own thing.’”
The Afrobeats star then started his own label, Afro Urban Records — “one of the best decisions I’ve made,” he says — and put out two albums: 2018’s About 30 and 2022’s Catch Me If You Can. He released his 2020 album, Afro Pop, Vol. 1, under EMI.
In a previous Billboard interview, Gold explained why he switched labels and the benefits of working with distributor Platoon, which helped with the rollout for his last album, Catch Me If You Can, featuring Davido, Lucky Daye, Fatoumata Diawara, Fousheé, Ty Dolla $ign and Stefflon Don. “When I was fully Afro Urban Records and no distribution label, me and my manager [Elizabeth Sobowale] had to do a lot of work. Platoon has the best hands in everything from PR to marketing,” he said at the time. “All I had to do was work on the music and they’re ready to take the rest upon themselves.”
After his groundbreaking success with Wizkid and Tems during his tenure as executive vp of A&R at RCA, Balogun has been playing a monumental role in bolstering Def Jam’s roster with more talent from the African diaspora. In September 2022, the label signed an exclusive worldwide joint venture with Native Records to develop African artists.
“I think AG is a truly global artist, and a rightful ambassador for Nigerian music and the emerging Afrobeats scene,” Balogun says. “He has the talent, virtuosity, focus, work ethic and temperament required to be a worldwide superstar. I’m excited to work with him and the Def Jam team to bring more fans into his world.”
“Hear it from me,” Gold says. “Afrobeats is taking over the world.”
Superstar Pride’s breakout hit “Painting Pictures” has been one of music’s early success stories so far in 2023, as the song — part of the Mississippi MC’s 5 LBs of Pressure EP that was originally released last October — stormed onto the Hot 100, debuting at No. 99 in the week ending Feb. 25, before leaping to No. 35 the following week and No. 25 last week, reaching No. 7 on the Streaming Songs chart.
The song’s viral success — fueled in part by TikTok — caused a stir, with multiple labels coming in with offers to sign the rising rapper, who had originally uploaded the EP through independent distributor and services company UnitedMasters, launched five years ago by industry entrepreneur and Translation founder/CEO Steve Stoute.
But then, just as the song was beginning to reach new heights and seemingly poised to soar into the upper echelon of the charts, its momentum was briefly halted: The song’s production — which samples the Faith Evans song “Soon As I Get Home,” released in 1995 by Bad Boy/Arista Records — was flagged by Sony Music Publishing for not being properly cleared, the song was removed from Spotify for two days and some versions were also taken down from YouTube, though it remained available on Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube Music. The issue in part contributed to a 29% drop in U.S. streams over the prior week, from 14 million to 10 million, and “Painting Pictures” came in at No. 62 on the Hot 100 this week. (While the drop in placement on the Hot 100 is partially due to the streaming hiccup, the strong performance of Morgan Wallen’s new album One Thing At a Time saw its songs flood the Hot 100, meaning a placement jump would have been difficult regardless.)
That sample issue has now been cleared up, Stoute told Billboard this weekend. According to Stoute, Bad Boy chief Sean “Diddy” Combs, who also co-wrote and co-produced “Soon As I Get Home,” met Superstar Pride and “loved him,” and subsequently cleared the Faith Evans sample, paving the way for the song’s return to Spotify. Additionally, Stoute confirmed that Superstar Pride has decided to stick with UnitedMasters and remain independent for now, despite strong interest from major labels to sign him.
Now, Stoute and his UnitedMasters team are focused on re-starting the song’s momentum, with a video to be shot this week and a radio campaign that is now underway. In the past week, sales increased a modest 15% and radio airplay jumped significantly, up 270% week over week to 3.1 million in audience, according to Luminate.
“This video, more playlisting support, radio, that’s the next step to making a top 10 record,” Stoute told Billboard in a conversation last week. “It’s a phenomenal song that has been growing like wildfire. This seismic growth, I haven’t seen anything like this since Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road,’ or something like that. It’s been pretty crazy when you look at the steep, hockey stick growth curve. But I give credit to the platform for being able to allow artists like Superstar Pride the opportunity to put music out, be able to track his performance and have the confidence that he’s distributing music and it’s in good hands.”
Superstar Pride originally uploaded the song on his own through UnitedMasters, before the company started to track its growth and reached out to offer support with playlisting and the TikTok campaign that eventually pushed it onto the Billboard charts. But Stoute sees the song’s success as stemming from its inherent quality — and as further evidence as to how the industry is changing.
“I think the artist should always own their music, because the biggest lift in all of this is the work that they did, which is making the song,” Stoute says. “There’s nothing a record company or anyone can do to make a non-hit a hit. And if the artist has a hit, in today’s music business, it’s less about what a record company can do and more about, how can you support the artist and what they want to do? It’s not like we have this magic silver-bullet idea that the artist doesn’t understand. What are your marketing ideas? What do you believe in? We’ll give you money and support to help accentuate what you believe in. And that’s why [artists] also get a lion’s share of the revenue — because it’s you. With the old record business, they didn’t respect that. The old record business was, ‘You make the song, and we’ll take it from here.’”
Since Stoute launched UnitedMasters in 2018, the music business at large has seen a shift as more services-oriented companies have come into the industry, and some established players shifted their business models toward a more distribution-and-services offering, giving artists more choices to chart their paths than the traditional record label model, while even the majors have increased their distribution offerings to reflect the reality of the marketplace. UnitedMasters, through Stoute’s sister company Translation, has marketed itself as an option with more brand services offerings to artists than its competitors; Translation represents clients such as the NFL, NBA, AT&T and State Farm, among others. But its path towards success also lies within the broader shifts in the industry.
“[The indie path] is much bigger than a cottage industry that is an alternative for people who can’t get a record deal; this is actually a solution that empowers the artist,” Stoute says. “[Superstar Pride’s success] is just another example of an independent artist finding tremendous success without the need to give up his rights, and ownership of his rights, to a record company. And the more successes that are happening like this much more frequently, the more people are seeing that the record companies are nothing more than just banks.”
Warner Music Group’s chief financial officer Eric Levin told staff on Tuesday that after a “transformative decade” for the company, he will retire at the end of the year, according to an internal memo viewed by Billboard.
Levin said he decided to announce his retirement early in the year to allow the company to move forward with a public search for his successor, similar to WMG’s handling of the successor search for former WMG CEO Stephen Cooper, who stepped down Feb. 1.
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.
“He helped WMG return to growth and profitability, making important contributions to its long-term strategy and the funding of its global expansion and major acquisitions,” WMG CEO Robert Kyncl wrote in a staff memo about Levin’s planned retirement. “Eric will be leaving WMG in a much better place than when he joined it.”
Prior to WMG, Levin was based in China as the North Asia CFO and regional controller for Ecolab, a leading maker of disinfectants, and prior to that he was the CFO of the Hong Kong-based English language newspaper the South China Morning Post.
Levin saw WMG through its 2020 initial public offering, which valued the company at around $12.5 billion, and managed through the leadership transition from Cooper to Kyncl. On Tuesday, Levin wrote that he is “ready to pass the baton to a new CFO.”
“It’s going to be a natural progression, at a natural time,” Levin wrote. “Whoever takes this role will be very fortunate. I’m looking forward to helping set them up for another successful decade of growth.”
Last fall, the 25-year-old English singer Raye was on the hunt for her first U.S. hit after several years of U.K. chart success. Initially, the loping hip-hop soul single “Escapism” seemed to bring her no closer. After the first week, streams of the track started to fall, according to Luminate. But in mid-November, its trajectory dramatically reversed, leaping from 185,000 streams one week to 500,000 the next to over 6 million two weeks later. “Escapism” went on to peak at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100.
What happened? The burgeoning popularity of a homemade sped-up remix of “Escapism” that captivated TikTok users, spurring them to incorporate it into their videos and driving streams of the original. Raye’s label, Human Re Sources, responded by releasing an official uptempo rework of the single that has over 114 million streams on Spotify alone.
“I wish that I could sit here and say, ‘We were in our marketing meeting, we decided that we were going to do a sped-up version of this particular spot in the song, and that’s going to ignite all the rest of it,’ ” says J. Erving, a longtime music manager, founder of the artist services and distribution company Human Re Sources, and executive vp of creative development at Sony Music Entertainment. “The kids are taking control of the songs, and they’re determining what part of the record is sticky and what version of it is sticky.”
Those “sticky” versions — often just sped up or slowed down, or a pair of tracks mashed together — can spark streams. “These remixes can really create careers and reignite careers,” Universal Music Group vp of A&R strategy Nima Nasseri says. “They’re great mechanisms for growth. Every label is putting them out,” often releasing official versions of the remixes that trend on short-form video platforms.
Sped-up remixes also spurred recent chart surges for Miguel’s “Sure Thing” (actually a resurge, as it first charted over a decade ago), The Weeknd’s “Die for You,” Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary,” and Mariah Carey’s “It’s a Wrap,” as well as boosting streams for tracks like Lizzy McAlpine‘s “Ceilings.”
Remixes — extended for club play, shortened and punched up for radio — are nothing new. And listeners taking control has been a hallmark of the shift to digital, starting with YouTube fan covers in the 2000s and progressing in the streaming era to fan response helping labels determine what tracks to focus on for promotion.
The difference today is the extent to which power has shifted to social media users. The process, says Erving, is no longer about label executives and managers deciding “this is our single, insert remix producer here, add rapper here, this is going to be the thing — those days are over.” In fact, according to a major-label A&R executive, “it’s not about the recording anymore. It’s about what you’re offering the user base to say, ‘Hey, you’re an intelligent consumer. Here are the stems [individual audio components] for our songs. Do what you want to it.’”
“Is anything in its final form now?” one major-label marketing executive asks. “Or are we just putting out clay for fans to mold?”
Part of this change is technological — it has never been simpler to manipulate audio. “These [remixes] are being made easily by fans in real time on their computer or phones,” says RCA Records COO John Fleckenstein.
Many in the music industry believe this remixing activity is also part of a generational shift. “Gen Z in particular has been raised online alongside meme culture,” says Scott Plagenhoef, global head of music programming at Apple Music. “They’re accustomed to content that is repeated but manipulated, and music is no different.”
While it’s common to encounter both sped-up and slowed-down remixes on short-form video platforms, Plagenhoef says “sped-up remixes seem considerably more popular and prevalent than slowed-down ones” at the moment. “Sped-up songs allow for more of a track to be heard within the time constraints of a TikTok video and mirror the pace at which users consume content online,” he adds. Increasing tempo can also “make the songs better — it brings out a different emotion,” according to Josh “Bru” Brubaker, a TikToker (4.5 million followers) and radio personality for Audacy.
Many remixes don’t replace or distract fans from the original track — they draw attention to it. “From a discovery standpoint, we see a large amount of referral traffic make its way back to original tracks from remixes,” says Roneil Rumburg, co-founder/CEO of Audius, a blockchain-based streaming service. For example, the original of Raye’s “Escapism” (304 million streams) is significantly out-streaming its sped-up remix on Spotify.
Since discovery is increasingly difficult to engineer in a time of content overload, the music industry is encouraging fan experimentation with songs and aiding the creation of remixes. “There’s a whole community of TikTok DJs solely making these sounds to try to make them go viral because you get so much exposure,” Brubaker says. Labels and marketers say they sometimes pay these DJs anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $20,000 to remix and post songs.
Labels have also worked to get officially released sped-up remixes visibility on streaming services. UMG started the Spotify account Speed Radio to highlight its sped-up tracks, according to Nasseri; it has more than 9 million monthly listeners. Another account, sped up nightcore, does the same for Warner Music Group releases. (A WMG representative did not respond to requests for comment on this account.) “Anytime we get one of these remixes that has traction, we tag it with ‘Speed Radio,’ and it just amplifies the growth,” says Nasseri. “That’s a very valuable tool for artists to use.”
The streaming services have created playlists for these remixes as well. Spotify’s Sped Up Songs, launched last June, now has over 1 million followers. Apple Music recently unveiled Viral Remixed. “Over the past year, the DSP partners have been really helpful,” Nasseri says. “Casey Compernolle at Apple and Lizzy Szabo at Spotify are people we work with closely who have a great understanding of the remix space.”
Even as these remixes have helped create hits, not every artist wants to participate in this economy. “I completely respect if an artist chooses not to release a sped-up version if it doesn’t suit the song,” says Ian Quay, co-manager of Cults, who have a popular sped-up version of their song “Gilded Lily.”
But much of the stigma around tempo-shifted remixes seems to be fading. “Two years ago, I’d say 5% or 10% of artists were receptive to this,” Nasseri estimates. “Now it’s probably about 70%.” Meng Ru Kuok, CEO of music technology company BandLab, adds, “rights holders understand that this process is inevitable, and it’s one of the best ways to bring new life to tracks.”
While sped-up and slowed-down versions run wild on TikTok, they haven’t penetrated the mainstream — yet. “It still feels more specific to the short-form platforms right now than ‘I heard a great sped-up version at the club last night,’ ” says Fleckenstein.
But this could change. The rock duo Cafuné broke out with “Tek It”; the sped-up version now has more Spotify streams (143 million) than the original (137 million). Fleckenstein points to young RCA act Ari Abdul, who has enjoyed streaming success with the synthwave single “Babydoll.” “Sometimes the sped-up version is actually outperforming the original,” he says.
Will these tempo-shifted remixes eventually reach all the way to radio? “If it’s good enough,” Fleckenstein adds, “you never know.”
Korean alt-rock artist LØREN has signed with 88rising, the company tells Billboard. The label will release his debut EP, Put Up a Fight, on March 24 in partnership with THEBLACKLABEL.
LØREN gained traction in 2021 with the release of three singles: “All My Friends Are Turning Blue,” “NEED (ooo-eee)” and “EMPTY TRASH.” He has also written several songs for K-pop superstars BLACKPINK and starred in one of their music videos. His social profile is also robust, with over 1.2 million followers on Instagram, and he has graced the covers of magazines including Vogue Hong Kong, DAZED Korea and i-D. He currently models for Saint Laurent.
Put Up a Fight is described as “a pop-punk-meets-indie-rock inspired project” that features “grungy” vocals by LØREN sung in both Korean and English (pre-save here). It’s preceded by the single “Folks.”
Ahead of the EP release, LØREN is set to perform his first-ever U.S. shows at SXSW on March 15 as part of the all-Asian music festival Tiger Den (performing alongside Balming Tiger) and 88rising’s Head in the Clouds New York on May 21.
“I’ve been looking forward to Put Up a Fight‘s release for a while now, and I’m thrilled to join forces with 88rising through the process,” said LØREN in a statement. “I’m a huge fan of their work, and I’m very happy to take part in their vision. It feels surreal to have SXSW, album release, and HITC New York ahead of me. To say I’m excited would be an understatement—I absolutely cannot wait for what’s to come.”
88rising’s roster also includes Jackson Wang, Warren Hue, BIBI, Joji and NIKI.
SEOUL — K-pop juggernaut HYBE has withdrawn its bid to control rival agency SM Entertainment and has instead decided to collaborate with SM as well as rival bidder Kakao, marking a sudden détente. Announced early Sunday, the resolution paves the way for K-pop agencies to not only bury the hatchet but also continue their push to monetize fandom with idol-related online content.
“Proceeding with a higher tender offer [to beat Kakao’s bid] may have in turn caused a negative impact on our shareholders and we also judged it may have further overheated the market,” HYBE said in a statement. The agency of boy band BTS had secured about 15% of SM, a former market leader, mostly by acquiring shares from SM founder Lee Soo-man, who was recently pushed out from the agency. A previous tender offer to increase HYBE’s stake in SM didn’t move the needle and a counteroffer by Kakao remains outstanding until March 26.
On Monday, the market reacted by dragging SM stock down more than 23% to 113,000 Korean won, making Kakao’s current offer at 150,000 won more attractive. A HYBE representative said Monday it has not decided whether to sell the SM shares. He added that it was studying possible avenues for collaboration with SM and/or Kakao but declined to comment further. HYBE and Kakao shares have jumped 3.21% and 4.65%, respectively.
SM, which has played a key role in K-pop’s popularity and overseas expansion, has resisted HYBE’s acquisition, slamming it as “anticompetitive.” The two agencies in recent years have dominated the charts, together accounting for nearly half of all albums sold in 2022, according to Korean chart company Circle Chart. But despite its success, shareholders have been calling for changes to the Lee-controlled single-pipeline structure, as rival agencies grew larger by delegating creative direction to mostly autonomous teams. Lee was also being paid millions of dollars a year in producer fees, though he held no managerial position there, an arrangement that shareholders have scrutinized in recent years.
In a drive for reform, SM’s management in February said it would issue new shares to be sold to Kakao as part of a wide-ranging partnership. Lee, then-the biggest shareholder, protested but management overrode him. Lee then offloaded most of his shares to HYBE, which in turn tried to up its stake with a tender offer. Lee successfully challenged the Kakao deal in court, prompting the latter to issue a higher counteroffer.
“Kakao vows to guarantee operational independence at SM, respecting its strongest asset and impetus, the employees, artists and fans,” said Kakao chief investment officer Bae Jae-hyun in a statement on Sunday. Bae added that Kakao and SM would “create new synergies, based on SM Entertainment’s global IP and production system as well as Kakao’s IT expertise and IP value-chain business capacity.”
HYBE, SM and other rivals have in recent years pushed proprietary platforms like Weverse and Beyond Live to foster online fan communities for all fan activities, free or for-pay. Kakao’s platform and search-engine rival Naver in 2017 also inked a deal with YG Entertainment, home to girl group Blackpink, to push YG artists’ content.
SM did not return calls for comment.
Warner Records is stepping further onto the dancefloor.
On Monday (March 13), the label announced the launch of its first-ever flagship dance label, Major Recordings. The label is led by executive Sam Mobarek, a longtime figure in the global dance music scene.
The label’s first signing, in partnership with Parlophone’s FFRR, is PARISI. The duo’s recent work includes behind-the-scenes production with Fred again.. and Swedish House Mafia and an official collaboration with Buy Now, the project from Swedish House Mafia’s Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. PARISI’s signing to Major Recording marks the launch of their artist project. (“They’re the producer’s producers,” says Mobarek.)
The launch of Major Recordings expand on Warner’s recent marquee successes in the dance realm, with label trio RÜFÜS DU SOL winning the best dance/electronic recording Grammy in 2022, producer Illenium earning a Grammy nomination that same year and David Guetta and Bebe Rexha‘s “I’m Good (Blue)” becoming a major 2022 hit, with the song reaching No. 4 on the Hot 100, where it’s currently in its 27th week.
With Major Recordings, Mobarek will take this momentum and focus it on the ground level of the dance music scene by discovering, signing and developing talent that reflects the breadth, depth, diversity and roots of the sonically sprawling genre.
“I don’t want to sign a bunch of things just because they’re going to give us streams,” she says. “I want to create something focused on community and good music.” Mobarek plans to achieve this goal by creating an artist-friendly label with personality and emotion, one that’s strongly tied to the underground, which has a strong network of artists and fans, and that’s not simply driven by bottom lines.
“Term-wise,” Mobarek says, “that means being fair and exploring how to be inventive about how we do our deals. We want everyone to make money, but because it’s dance music we’re not just gunning for hits; we’re gunning for cultural importance.” Additional signings will be announced in the coming months, with these to include both full artist signings and one-off singles, in order to create flexibility. Music signed to the label will represent the wide spectrum of dance music — a genre that offers a subgenre to fit every conceivable emotion or time of day.
“It will definitely be all over the place in that someone can come to us and be like, ‘What am I in the mood to do? Am I in the mood to sleep? Am I in the mood to rage? There’s [going to be] something here for all of those moods,” says Mobarek.
The label’s focus on authenticity aligns well for Mobarek, who’s been in dance music for nearly two decades. Her previous experience includes Ultra Music — where she led the marketing department and helped propel artists like Calvin Harris and Steve Aoki during the height of the EDM boom — the digital download store Beatport and her own marketing agency, Mob Creative, where clients included house music legend MK.
This on-the-ground experience, combined with Mobarek’s genuine love for the genre, have given her a deep understanding of sounds, trends and how to break artists and tracks not just across radio and streaming, but into the furthest corners of clubland.
“It’s not just about hiring a DJ servicing company and pushing music out via them,” Mobarek says of her strategy. “It’s about using the relationships I have with artists directly, timing things correctly, knowing who would care about [new music], knowing the difference between what Diplo’s Revolution and BPM would play [on Sirius] and which DJs are playing what.” In addition to signing acts and music, she’ll also work with Warner Music Group’s director of global strategy for electronic music, Anton Partridge, to identify dance acts signed to Warner in other territories and break them in the States.
“There’s a whole roster of Warner acts that I’ve been able to be like, ‘I know what to do with them here,” she says.
Such a nuanced understanding of the scene was key in making Mobarek the right fit for this new role. “With Major Recordings, we’re doubling down [on our strong presence in the dance music community], putting renewed energy and dedicated focus on supporting even more acts from around the world,” the label’s co-chairman & COO Tom Corson and co-chairman & CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck say in a joint statement. “Sam will be the driving force behind our success, helping us ensure that this music and these artists make a true global and cultural impact.”
“I can feel it in my stomach; we’re on the cusp of something,” Mobarek says of the energy behind dance music in the U.S. at the moment. “There are all these signs that point to it coming like [David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s success and Skrillex, Four Tet and Fred again..’s sold out Madison Square Garden show].”
“I’m not going to try and predict what it looks like,” she continues, “but I’m going make sure people see it.”