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Kakao Corp. and its subsidiary, Kakao Entertainment, increased their share of K-pop company SM Entertainment to 39.9% from 4.9% after purchasing 1.66 million shares from HYBE. That left HYBE with 54% of its shares in SM Entertainment, according to a Tuesday (March 28) regulatory filing.
HYBE sold its 1.66 million SM shares for 248.8 billion won ($191.8 million), or 150,000 won ($115.62) per share, leaving it with an 8.8% stake in SM Entertainment. HYBE had planned to sell its entire stake, the company said in a Friday filing, but it did not offload all of its shares during Kakao’s tender offer. Now that the battle for control of SM is over, HYBE’s remaining stake in SM is worth less than its purchase price. With Kakao’s tender having expired on Sunday and SM shareholders no longer able to sell at a premium, SM’s share price dropped 15% to 91,100 ($70.23) won on Monday and improved slightly to 94,300 won ($72.70) on Tuesday.
SM Entertainment, home to such K-pop acts as NCT-127 and Red Velvet, is partnering with Kakao Corp. and Kakao Entertainment to expand globally as it reorganizes following a split with its founder, Lee Soo-man. Kakao Entertainment owns K-pop group Monsta X’s label, Starship Entertainment, as well as the Korean music streaming platform Melon.
HYBE acquired about 3.5 million SM shares from Lee at 120,000 won per share, according to a Feb. 10 regulatory filing. After flirting with a campaign to take board seats and some operational control in SM, HYBE changed course and conceded to Kakao on March 13. “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 at the time. The company had hoped to acquire an additional 25% stake in SM at 120,000 won ($92.51) per share, but its tender offer fizzled and increased its stake from 14.8% to just 15.8%.
After IVE established itself as a leading girl group in the next generation of K-pop acts with three hit singles, the sextet begins the next, most international step in their career yet with the release of their next single under a brand-new label deal.
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The opening lyrics to IVE’s latest track, “Kitsch,” seems prophetic as member Wonyoung opens by singing, “It’s our time.” While the new song has all the markings of a quintessential global-pop hit to stand alongside past IVE singles “Eleven,” “Love Dive” and “After Like,” “Kitsch” crucially includes the girls’ now-signature themes and lyrics of oozing confidence and self-love.
“Even our OOTD is just so like us/ When it comes to my favorite things/ Don’t judge them,” leader Yujin sings before youngest member Leeseo ends the verse with, “I live the way I want, what more do you want/ That’s my style.”
The accompanying music video plays off the similar YOLO themes of following one’s unique path as Wonyoung sings in front of a mural of herself, and the girls ferociously and playfully dance together in front of a neon sign with the phrase: “You’re So Weird, Don’t Change.” There’s even a bit of social commentary when the camera pans to a design on one of the members’ jacket back, with details boasting the phrase “Books, not guns. Culture, not violence.”
“Kitsch” is the pre-release buzz single for the group’s forthcoming full-length album I’ve IVE dropping next month. The track comes as the first step after IVE signed a worldwide deal with Columbia Records in the States. Columbia will team with IVE’s Korean label Starship Entertainment (home to Monsta X, WJSN, CRAVITY, Jeong Sewoon, and other K-pop artists) and Kakao Entertainment America (the new, U.S.-based branch of Kakao Entertainment (the media and music-distribution subsidiary under South Korean technology company Kakao).
“We’re thrilled to be embarking on IVE’s global journey with Columbia Records, a company with a rich history in pop music,” said Joseph Chang, head of Kakao Entertainment America, in a press release. “This partnership holds significant meaning for us. By strengthening the production and distribution capabilities of our music and artists in North America, we look forward to increasing the global competitiveness of Kakao Entertainment’s music business.”
After what Kakao Entertainment describes as “IVE’s North America debut,” the company pledged overseas support for its artists careers and expanding its music business globally.
Beyond Starship, Kakao Entertainment owns and distributes music multiple K-pop labels including IST Entertainment (home to popular groups like Apink, Victon, The Boyz and Weeekly), EDAM (an agency created for solo superstar IU that recently expanded by signing WOODZ), and Antenna (the label founded by musician and TV host You Hee-yeol boasting rock bands, ballad singers, entertainment hosts and more).
For international distribution outside the U.S., IVE has signed with Sony Music’s subsidiary distributor The Orchard.
IVE’s full-length album I’ve IVE (which stands for “I Have IVE,” per press release) drops on April 10 with new songs alongside “Kitsch” as well as a new single.
Check out the video for “Kitsch” below.
Scott Borchetta, founder/president/CEO of Big Machine Label Group, was involved in a car crash while racing at a Trans Am Series event at Road Atlanta on Sunday (March 26).
A statement from the label confirmed the crash and his condition but was scant on details: “Big Machine Label Group Chairman and CEO Scott Borchetta was involved in an accident yesterday, Sunday, March 26 while racing in the Trans Am Series. He was taken to the hospital to assess his injuries and is currently in stable condition. We ask everyone to please respect the Borchetta family’s privacy during this time.”
Borchetta had to be extracted from his car after the crash, which happened on lap 24. He was taken to an Atlanta hospital, according to racing website TobyChristie.com. According to the site, Borchetta, a racing enthusiast, has competed in 34 Trans Am Series events.
Borchetta owns Big Machine Racing, a NASCAR Xfinity team, which, according to its website, has seen multiple top 5 and top 10 finishes for its drivers since launching in 2021. The team logged its first win at the Texas Motor Speedway in 2022.
Big Machine was founded in 2005. Among its first successes was Taylor Swift‘s debut album, released in 2006. Its current roster includes Carly Pearce, Tim McGraw, Thomas Rhett, Chris Janson, Brantley Gilbert and Brett Young. Ithaca Holdings bought Big Machine in 2019 for around $300 million, while HYBE bought Ithaca Holdings for $1.05 billion in 2021. Borchetta has remained head of Big Machine through the transitions.
South Korea’s HYBE said Friday (March 24) it will sell its stake in SM Entertainment, officially ending a bidding war between HYBE and the South Korean tech company Kakao for control of the K-pop agency that was key to the genre’s popularity and overseas expansion in recent years.
HYBE, home of superstar boy band BTS, said in a filing it will sell its roughly 15% stake in SM for nearly 564 billion won ($435 million) to Kakao, which earlier this month announced a tender offer aimed at acquiring up to 35% of SM Entertainment’s outstanding shares.
Kakao Entertainment owns Monsta X‘s K-pop record label, Starship Entertainment, as well as the South Korean music streaming app Melon, the North America-based webtoon company Tapas Entertainment and several media production companies. It’s a subsidiary of the tech conglomerate Kakao Corp.
HYBE acquired most of its shares in SM in February from SM founder Lee Soo-man, who was recently ousted from the company after shareholders called for changes in SM’s structure. For over a decade, Lee exercised top-down control of the company he started in 1995, and shareholders had raised questions over millions of dollars he received in producer fees annually.
Lee sold his shares to HYBE in retaliation for a move by SM to issue stock to Kakao, ultimately prompting HYBE’s attempt to secure a majority stake in SM through a tender offer. HYBE relented in mid-March because, it said, outbidding Kakao could have “a negative impact on our shareholders.”
Just days after canceling the company’s bid for control of SM, HYBE founder/chairman Bang Si-hyuk reiterated his desire to expand beyond Korea in an effort to eventually compete with the three major labels – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group — on a global scale, stating the company must have a “sense of urgency” in doing so.
Bang additionally signaled a desire for outside support for K-pop companies in their attempts to rival the majors, including possibly from the South Korean government, which has helped elevate Korean companies in other industries into global players. HYBE has already made strides on that front with two U.S. acquisitions — Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings and QC Media Holdings, parent company of hip-hop label Quality Control Music, which Bang said are “just the beginning” in its bid for worldwide domination.
SM and HYBE have in recent years dominated South Korean and global pop charts. Together they accounted for nearly half of all albums sold in South Korea in 2022, according to Korean chart company Circle Chart.
HYBE’s planned stock sale could net the company $87 million, the equivalent of a 25% return on its purchases of Lee’s shares one month ago, Reuters reported earlier on Friday.
Sony Music Nashville (SMN) has shuttered its Arista imprint, shifting the artist roster to SMN’s Columbia and RCA labels.
Old Dominion and Megan Moroney move to Columbia while Nate Smith goes to RCA. The other artists on Arista — including Brooks & Dunn, Ryan Hurd, Seaforth, Morgan Wade and Adam Doleac — will be reassigned when they have projects headed to radio. No acts are being dropped. Country Aircheck broke the news of Sony dissolving Arista Thursday morning (March 23).
In an exclusive interview, SMN CEO/chairman Randy Goodman tells Billboard the move was to realign better with radio’s needs.
“RCA, Columbia and Arista are really imprint names that we use for three different promotion teams because that gives you multiple calendars. We’re now targeting our approach to radio to be more strategic,” Goodman says.
That means bringing songs to radio that already have a story in terms of fan engagement and at digital service providers, so they don’t “languish in overnights” at radio, he continued. “What we said to radio is, ‘Give us dayparts immediately,’ and if it works, great. If it doesn’t, then we’ll move on because we’re going to be moving on things quicker in the DSP landscape as well. So based upon our more targeted approach, we just felt like this was a more efficient way to do it.”
Goodman has been vocal about the tremendous amount of time, expense and manpower it takes for songs to climb the country airplay chart, with some tunes taking as long as 52 weeks to reach No. 1.
“That’s not a model that is an efficient or effective artist development model and so we thought, ‘How do we approach this with a better model in mind?’” he says. “Let’s not go to radio until we know we’ve got something that we can go to the major chains with and show them there is momentum and there is a reason other than us just saying, ‘We want you to play it.’”
Goodman stressed that SMN will not be sending fewer songs to radio and that the realignment strengthens Columbia and RCA by increasing the number of regionals on each team by one.
In the restructuring, Arista’s senior director of promotion and artist development, Lyndsay Church, has left the company. Ali O’Connell, director of promotion and artist development, is moving to RCA, as is specialist/promotion & artist development Amy Menz. Nicole Walden, former RCA specialist/promotion & artist development, moves to the national team. Lisa Owen, also an Arista director of promotion and artist development, shifts to Columbia.
Steve Hodges, SMN executive vp of promotion and artist development, called the managers of the artists on Arista’s roster on Wednesday to give them the news. In addition to his other duties, Hodges has been running Arista Nashvhille since Chris Schuler left his post as vp of promotion at the imprint in November after a seven-month stint at the label.
The moves come as SMN is having a banner year at radio. So far in 2023, Smith’s “Whiskey On You,” Kane Brown and Katelyn Brown’s “Thank God,” and Luke Combs’ “Going, Going, Gone,” have reached the top of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, with both “Whiskey” and “Going” spending two weeks at the summit.
Goodman adds that the move is really business as usual. “Our job is artist development, our job is to break new artists, our job is to expand careers of the artists that have already broken through,” Goodman says. “And so, in this new world as things continue to change, we’re constantly evaluating what’s the best way to do that.”
The move comes a week after Miranda Lambert announced she was leaving SMN, her home for 20 years. Goodman declined to comment on her departure other than to “wish her well.”
The Nettwerk Music Group has recapitalized, bringing in a new investor in the form of Flexpoint Asset Opportunity Fund II and additional funding from existing investors Beedie Capital and Vistara Growth. Flexpoint Asset Opportunity Fund II is a buyout fund managed by Flexpoint Ford, a private equity firm with approximately $7.8 billion of assets under management. Terms of the funding weren’t disclosed.
“The capital from Flexpoint will enable Nettwerk to invest in artists and make music catalogue acquisitions that will benefit from the fast-growing independent sector of the music industry,” Nettwerk CEO and co-founder Terry McBride said in a statement. “We’re excited to partner with Flexpoint as we continue to execute on our vision of connecting artists with their fans globally.”
Nettwerk describes itself as a full-service artist development and music intellectual property brand builder with a history spanning nearly 40 years. Its current roster includes Passenger, Syml, Banners, the Album Leaf, Matt Maltese, Wild Rivers and Wrabel among many others.
“Nettwerk has been at the forefront of the evolution in the independent music sector building a compelling catalogue of music by offering white-glove services and growth opportunities to independent artists traditionally reserved for superstars,” Flexpoint managing director Mike Morris said in a statement. “We believe Terry and the team are well positioned to prosper in the rapidly evolving music industry and are excited to help the team execute their vision.”
Beedie Capital managing director David Bell added, “The team at Nettwerk are differentiated leaders in a complex industry, and we are excited to support them through continued execution of their unique, artist-centric strategy.”
Artisan served as buyside financial advisor and Latham & Watkins and Bennett Jones served as legal counsel to Flexpoint. Cooley and Morgan Daniels Slager served as legal counsel to Nettwerk.
Universal Music Group, the country’s biggest record label, has recently taken steps to rein in the costs of radio campaigns, multiple sources tell Billboard. The move comes at a time when there is debate around the music industry about the most effective methods of spending marketing dollars and promoting a record, and traditional outlets — airplay, late-night television appearances, and even prominent playlisting on streaming services — don’t always drive engagement.
As many radio formats focused on new music are struggling, more label executives say it’s an open question whether paying big money for airplay is worth it. “The math is just not working,” according to one major label promotions executive outside of the UMG system.
Record companies have long supplemented their in-house radio departments with help from contractors, known as independent promoters. Working multiple songs in multiple formats across hundreds of stations around the country requires a lot of staff and local relationships. Indie promoters often cultivate those relationships with specific stations by region or format. Some operate on a retainer basis, charging a set amount for the duration of a promotional campaign. Others charge for each add they obtain for a song on station playlists, with costs ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousand.
When it comes to the latter model, the world’s leading record company wants to limit the cost of adds, according to four veteran promotions executives. A rep for UMG declined to comment.
“It’s common knowledge Universal has drawn back” from spending as much on radio promotion, says Joey Carvello, a veteran who previously worked in-house for major labels and as an independent. “It’s a hot topic,” adds Daniel Glass, founder of Glassnote Records, who notes that Universal’s new approach was “being spoken about everywhere” at an industry event earlier this year in Los Angeles.
Major labels have attempted to limit the cost of radio campaigns multiple times over the years. More than four decades ago, Billboard’s Nov. 8, 1980 issue reported that labels in the Warner Music Group system were looking to “realize as much as $3 [million] to $6 million a year in savings by dropping their outside promotion help.” Today, a label aiming to get to the top of the mainstream R&B/hip-hop airplay chart is going to need to budget more than $100,000, executives say; in some cases, a pop campaign can cost over $300,000.
Past efforts by the majors to curb promotion costs were often undone by the necessity of radio exposure. The key difference nowadays is streaming’s ability to mint major artists with little or no radio play. Take 23-year-old rapper Youngboy Never Broke Again: Only Drake and Taylor Swift earned more streams in 2022, according to Luminate, but Youngboy has only ever cracked Billboard‘s all-genre Radio Songs chart once — as a featured act.
Streaming now accounts for 84% of U.S. music industry revenues, according to the RIAA’s 2022 year-end report. And it’s not always clear, even to the people in radio, that airplay drives more streams.
A 2021 report by the market research company MusicWatch found that streaming and listening on social media accounted for 46% of survey respondents’ weekly listening, while AM/FM radio accounted for 16%. A survey by MIDiA Research last year found that YouTube was the leading source of music discovery. And for the all-important Gen Z, TikTok was in second place.
MusicWatch’s study also indicated that streaming dominated lean-in listening — YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music accounted for 56% of this activity, as compared to 13% for broadcast radio. That’s important because lean-in listeners are likely to be more active fans, who might be inclined to buy tickets or vinyl or sweatshirts from an artist they love.
In this environment, a major-label radio promotion executive complained last year that the cost of airplay may not make economic sense. He recalls needing to spend $3,000 to get a song into rotation in a small city. That airplay would need to drive around a million streams in that area alone “to justify that expense,” he said. The city’s population was less than 150,000 people.
Of course, not everyone in the music industry feels the same. “At the end of the day, radio makes pop stars,” Carvello says. And Midia’s survey found that, outside of Gen Z, radio was the number two source of music discovery after YouTube.
Glassnote — the independent label home to Phoenix and Mumford & Sons — has no plans to change its radio strategy, according to Glass: “Independent promotion has been very important to the growth of Glassnote over the years. We’re not going to change our loyalty.”
HYBE founder and chairman Bang Si-hyuk said his company is only getting started in its bid to grow into a global music powerhouse that can rival the three major labels.
The South Korean company’s two U.S. acquisitions — Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings and QC Media Holdings, parent company of hip-hop label Quality Control Music — are “just the beginning,” Bang said Wednesday at Gwanhun Forum in Seoul. The executive behind supergroup BTS insisted HYBE must have a “sense of urgency” and look outside of Korea to continue to grow.
“We are living in an era where everything we do in the content industry resonates beyond geographical boundaries,” Bang said. “At the same time, K-pop has become a global industry that can only continue to grow by targeting both domestic and international markets.”
At home, Bang said HYBE and its Korean rivals can’t do it alone. In his speech, he called on the South Korean government to support the K-pop companies in their bid to take on the global majors – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group — by helping them become national champions in the way that electronics companies Samsung and LG have become global powerhouses with government support.
While K-pop built HYBE into a powerhouse, the company might have only a brief window to capitalize on its global success. “K-pop is in crisis,” the HYBE chief said, asserting that by most measures the genre is in decline in Southeast Asia, other than growth in China and spending per consumer. In the United States, 53% fewer K-pop tracks charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022 than the previous year, according to Bang. He attributed the K-pop slowdown to BTS’ hiatus as a group in 2022 and said he doesn’t believe the group’s eventual comeback will bring back the lost revenue.
When Bang talks about exporting K-pop around the world, he isn’t referring to just a genre of music. To him, K-pop is “a culture that encompasses music-oriented systems such as music and content production, distribution, marketing, communication with fans, and other systems of music.” In HYBE’s “multi-label” structure, he added, the Korean headquarters provides guidance to its labels and disperses the risk so its subsidiaries can operate “in a healthy competition that drives each other to improve.”
For HYBE to make inroads in the United States, the world’s largest music market, it needs “a strong network and infrastructure … to minimize the cost of trial and error” involved in exploring an unfamiliar landscape, Bang added. In the U.S., Braun leads HYBE America, the umbrella organization for SB Projects’ management clients, Big Machine Music Group and Quality Control. HYBE also has a joint venture in the U.S. with Universal’s Geffen Records to develop a girl pop group for the domestic market.
While Bang didn’t say which companies HYBE is targeting for further acquisitions, in a press conference after his speech he noted HYBE’s interest in Latin labels. The company certainly has the resources to buy additional record labels, artist management firms or tech platforms to further fuel its expansion: HYBE had cash and cash equivalents of 903 billion won ($689 million) as of Sept. 30, 2022, the latest date for which data is available. The goal, said Bang, is to achieve scale “that can’t be ignored.”
Even though HYBE dominates K-pop and generated revenue of $1.4 billion in 2022, Bang described his company in biblical terms: He is David, the three major labels are Goliath. Major K-pop companies account for less than 2% of the global music market, he said, while the majors own 67.4%.
Looking around the world, Bang sees “alarming trends,” including K-pop commanding fewer chart positions in 2022 than in the previous year. “In this context, the existence of global K-pop artists without a dominant global entertainment company inevitably leads to concerns about the industry’s ability to be on the lookout for future uncertainties,” he said.
What will it take for HYBE to turn from David into a sustainable Goliath? Bang wants more scale and stronger distribution partners to give K-pop additional bargaining power to negotiate more favorable distribution rates. In that way, he said, HYBE can improve its financial performance “and enable the company and our artists to grow.”
Further entering the U.S. market will require building “a strong network and infrastructure,” Bang said. “Through this, we need to minimize the cost of trial and error caused by situations that are difficult for us to change, or due to our unfamiliarity with the local conditions, and secure an equal level of presence and influence in the mainstream market equivalent to local companies.”
Breaking artists isn’t a matter of “luck or sheer intuition,” the HYBE founder added. Rather, success is the result of a management process that can be systemized and replicated in other markets. HYBE’s multi-label structure demonstrates this approach, Bang said: “It is a system that has been meticulously established based on experience, trial and error, and contemplation to enable the company’s success.”
Additional reporting by Jeyup S. Kwaak
It is time for all music industry professional to reflect on the ways in which our industry has perpetuated a system that benefits a select few at the expense of marginalized communities. It is time for us to embrace a new paradigm, one that values skill and merit over relationships and aristocratic privilege.
In today’s rapidly changing world, the music industry finds itself on the brink of disruption. We must recognize that our long-standing history of exploiting disenfranchised groups is incompatible with our espoused values of social justice and inclusivity. The hesitance to be proactive and embrace change is no longer acceptable. The data clearly shows the consequences of our delayed reaction. We must act now to ensure that the pendulum swings in the right direction.
Our participation in an aristocracy-based system allows white men with access to rights ownership to hijack black and brown stories. This approach is no longer effective in today’s music economy. As independent artist services have grown, ownership has increasingly been placed in the hands of artists, and a focus on “artist-preneurship” has emerged. This growth in the independent sector has led to decentralized systems that cut out middlemen and gatekeepers, promoting transparency and accountability.
We must recognize that the music industry is no longer a playground for profit-driven oligarchs who lack leadership skills and contribute to revolving door politics, loss of job fulfillment, and opportunities. In every other industry, a minimum level of skill, education, or experience is required to advance. It is essential to evaluate how the music industry holds its leaders accountable.
Aristocracy drives a wedge between culture and progression, and limited access to BIPOC at both the creative and executive levels makes the industry slow to change, perpetuating a “boys club” culture. The top 1% of the industry often rely on DEI consultants to meet an “optics quota,” promoting performative change rather than real progress. We must recognize that diversity and inclusion are not just buzzwords. They are essential for driving revenue and ensuring long-term success.
The statistics show that black and brown stories are highly valued in the music industry, with 48% of all artists being from underrepresented groups and Hip-Hop and R&B being the top-streamed genres. By embracing diversity and promoting inclusion, the industry can tap into a vast market of music consumers who are eager to hear authentic and diverse voices. It is not only the right thing to do, but it is also a sound business strategy that can result in increased revenue and success for music companies.
Despite the economic disadvantages they face, women of color are a value add, possessing a strong educational background, resourcefulness, and fundamental understanding of the music business. In producing the first research study on intersectionality in the music business, ‘A Seat at the Table: A Perspective on Women of Color in the Music Business’ (2022), we found that 87% of all WOC in the music biz have earned at least a Bachelor’s or higher degree of education, yet they remain the most underpaid demographic. The majority of WOC in the music business enter into student loan debt, while also entering into the music business via unpaid internships. Over 86% were hired without direct relationships or industry connections. Imagine how much progress would be made if resources were properly invested.
Therefore, I urge us all to shift from an aristocratic hierarchy to a meritocratic one. By valuing skill and merit over relationships and privilege, we can ensure true diversity, equity and inclusion in the music industry. We must commit to deliberate action, such as hiring more BIPOC at the senior level, committing to paid internships, and funding black-owned music businesses. These steps are crucial towards creating a more equitable and profitable music industry.
Let us embrace the future with open hearts and minds, committed to creating a music industry that is truly inclusive and reflects the diversity of our world.
Janishia Jones is the CEO and founder of Fresh N Sassy Productions. Earlier this year, she launched the music tech consultancy company ENCORE Music Tech Solutions.
On Wednesday, March 15, fast-rising rapper blxst and his business partners, manager Victor Burnett and attorney Karl Fowlkes, opened up to Billboard’s Heran Mamo during one of SXSW’s 2023 featured sessions: How Music, Entrepreneurship, & Independence Intersect.
While the three discussed everything from how they first connected to what’s coming up next (“I’m cooking up something big right now,” teased blxst), the conversation primarily focused on the artist’s multi-faceted entertainment company Evgle.
Launched as an independent label in 2018, with Burnett and Fowlkes joining as co-founders, Evgle has since expanded to be all-encompassing – a reflection of blxst himself, who compares his many skills including production, graphic design and more to the feeling of constantly playing a video game – and always leveling up.
Most recently, blxst – who was named Billboard’s 2022 R&B/Hip-Hop Rookie of the Year – released a sequel EP, Just For Clarity 2, through Evgle’s partnership deal with Red Bull Records. Here are the insights he and his tight-knit team shared about how to be a successful entrepreneur and maintain your independence along the way.
1. Build With People Who Share Your Goals.
As Mamo pointed out during the conversation, Fowlkes is the rare forefront lawyer – and, much like blxst and Burnett, never wanted to confine himself to just one role. As he put it, “Lawyers have a vantage point in so many aspects of the business, we all view ourselves as dynamic people… we don’t just do one thing. We’re the type of people who want to run a business, be a lawyer, be a professor… so having those aspirations, it was easy to connect with [blxst and Victor] because of common themes of generational wealth and building something really special.”
And while blxst added, “I always had a vision of making this bigger than me, and having other artists eat as well,” perhaps Burnett best summarized why this trio works so well. “One thing that made us like each other was: we want to own everything.”
2. Hire Believers.
When asked how they built the 10+ person team at Evgle, the three said they sought people who have specific traits: self-sufficient, already working in their craft, and able to walk into an opportunity they may not think they are capable of handling at first. “You have to hand things off and trust, that’s the base of it,” said Burnett.
Added Fowlkes, “People don’t view music companies as start ups, but this is a start-up. So we needed people who believed. Creating a culture where people believe is super important when you’re building any company at the ground stages.”
3. Learn Your LOMO.
Blxst said the debate between remaining independent and signing to a major is a case-by-case scenario, but as it pertains to him, “I wanted to build my own leverage first, I understood the importance of bringing something to the table.”
Fowlkes, speaking like a true attorney, then revealed the acronym LOMO: length obligation money and ownership. “Coming into any partnership you should know those things,” he said, noting that Issa Rae talks about the concept often. “If you want to come in at the highest point of ownership, there’s a lot you have to [do first].”
4. Make Noise.
Burnett, who has a masters in PR and media development, shared his advice for young independent artists looking to break through on their own terms. He recalled something his professor told him that stuck: “Keep your channel noisy. Stay in front of your consumer with merch, pop-up shops, activations. Make sure the consumer is always interacting with your brand.”
5. Start Now.
“Don’t wait 20 years into your career to worry about what’s next,” cautioned Fowlkes. “Jay-Z, Nas, so many have created these channels for themselves, but later in their career. The cultural currency that [blxst is] developing… If you can strike when you’re hot, when you’re at your peak, if we can capitalize at that moment, it’s [game] over.”
6. Manifest Your Goals.
Early in the session, blxst discussed where the idea for the company name came from. “I always had confidence issues growing up,” he confessed. “The eagle is one of the highest-flying birds, but doesn’t fly in flocks … That represented confidence.”