Record Labels
Page: 77
Atlantic Records nailed it when they promoted Brandon Davis and Jeff Levin in tandem a couple years ago, so naturally they’re doing it again. The star A&R execs have been upped to executive vice presidents and co-heads of pop A&R at the Warner Music imprint, with both Los Angelenos — and now-former senior vps — reporting to the president of A&R, Pete Ganbarg.
“Our mission has always been to attract, sign, and nurture the greatest talent across every genre,” commented Atlantic Records chairman & CEO Craig Kallman. “Brandon and Jeff are our pop A&R stars, bringing us a string of game-changing artists. They’ve got spot-on musical instincts, combined with the insight and ability to nurture artists at every stage of their careers.”
Davis has been with Atlantic for 11 years, having joined the company as an assistant in the A&R department. In partnership with producer Ricky Reed, he helped sign and develop Lizzo at the label in 2015 and also worked on the bestselling soundtrack for The Greatest Showman, and recently co-A&R’d Charli XCX’s album, Crash, and Ava Max’s forthcoming sophomore album.
Levin, meanwhile, joined Atlantic in 2010 and has signed Melanie Martinez, Jaymes Young and Oliver Tree, among others. He A&R’d Ben Platt’s debut album Sing To Me Instead and Charlie Puth’s third album, Charlie, and has worked with Warner Chappell Music to A&R G-Eazy and Bebe Rexha’s hit single “Me, Myself & I” and sign Logic to a global publishing deal.
“At Atlantic, we pride ourselves as much in executive development as we do in artist development,” noted Ganbarg. “Both Brandon and Jeff have worked at Atlantic their entire professional lives, rising from entry level intern and assistant positions to become an integral part of the leadership of our A&R team.”
Earlier this year, Davis spoke with Billboard about his success with Lizzo and the changes in the industry — such as the TikTokification of artist promo — since the release of her first album.
“The marriage of A&R and marketing has become closer than ever before,” he said. “As an A&R executive, I now need to think like a marketing and digital executive. I have spent more time than ever before working hand-in-hand with our marketing staff, and also letting them into the record making process earlier. A&R in the current environment has become about so much more than just music and record making — you need to be entrepreneurial and have a sophisticated understanding of many different verticals.”
Over the past several years, Burna Boy has grown into a legitimate international star, with each of his last three albums achieving higher and higher slots on the Billboard 200 and his 2021 album, Twice As Tall, winning a Grammy for best global music album. And as his music has grown in popularity in the U.S., he’s been able to reach new milestones like selling out Madison Square Garden, which he did earlier this year. But one aspect of stardom had until recently eluded him: U.S. radio airplay.
That has changed over the past few weeks, as his single “Last Last” from his latest album Love, Damini has begun climbing the Billboard radio charts. And this week, it has finally crowned one of them, having reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, a testament to the work put in by his label Atlantic Records. And it helps earn Atlantic’s executive vp of black music promotion Kevin Holiday the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Holiday explains the strategy that brought a song that was originally released in May to the top of the airplay charts in October. “Radio is a long game, and it takes time for records to organically connect with an audience,” he says.
This week, Burna Boy’s “Last Last” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
The key decision was to ask urban radio to collectively move in one direction at the same time. Another crucial decision was making sure we highlighted all the latest and greatest information on Burna Boy the week prior to achieving the No. 1. These decisions put us in position to attain our goal.
The song has not just reached the top of that chart, but it’s also climbing the all-format Radio Songs chart, reaching a new peak of No. 24 this week. How are you expanding its airplay audience?
The regions with the highest populations aid the growth in audience airplay. With that said, we are expanding Burna’s airplay audience by targeting the major markets, in hopes they play the record more.
The song has been out for five months now, since first being released in May. Why is it climbing and peaking at radio now?
It takes some time to get folks on the same page and increase airplay. Radio is a long game, and it takes time for records to organically connect with an audience.
Last year, Wizkid‘s “Essence” broke through on U.S. radio, opening up a lane for music by African artists that hadn’t really existed before. How has that changed what’s possible for Burna at radio?
Wizkid helped reshape the sound of traditional U.S. radio from just playing American hip-hop and R&B records. Burna Boy’s music has a grassroots structure of R&B mixed with a “feel good” vibe, which doesn’t completely break the boundaries of the music played within the formats. Ultimately, the possibilities are endless for Burna Boy.
Recently, we’ve seen songs make inroads at pop radio with a pop artist remix. Is that something you guys are exploring? What could that do for a song like “Last Last”?
Although “Last Last” is perfect as is, a pop remix can give a different twist and widen the audience. As of now, I believe there are no plans for such a remix… But never say never!
How can success at radio like this help boost Burna Boy’s career moving forward?
As U.S. radio continues to create global superstars, the sky is the limit for Burna Boy and his future endeavors. We are just getting started!
Interscope Records has announced a partnership with RB Music, the regional Mexican indie label that’s home to Grupo Marca Registrada.
According to both companies, the alliance is an effort to “power” both the catalog and new music of the norteño-sierreño group that hails from Sinaloa. The first release under the venture is Marca’s new single “Puro Campeón,” a collab with corridos singer-songwriter Luis R. Conríquez that released on Friday (Oct. 14).
“From afar, I’ve admired what Ricardo Bobadilla and the entire RB Music team have done over the past few years,” says Nir Seroussi, executive vp at Interscope Records. “Their impact with Grupo Marca Registrada is game-changing. They catalyzed the group’s evolution from a local favorite to an international contender. Together, we have the collective and combined platform to launch Grupo Marca Registrada into the stratosphere.”
With more than 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify, three entries on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart this year (“Si Fuera Facil,” “Solo Me Dejaste” and “El Rescate” with Junior H), Grupo Marca Registrada has carved a lane for itself in regional Mexican collaborating with artists such as Grupo Firme and Gerardo Ortiz.
RB Music CEO/founder Ricardo Bobadilla added, “Music to me is a family business. When we were introduced to Nir and his team there was an instant family-like connection with their knowledge of our business and focus on quality, artistic creativity, and integrity. At RB Music, we have always done things our own way and on our own terms. But I knew I wanted to partner with Nir, as he approaches music with an independent spirit that we at RB Music identify with. In the end, I believe Interscope understands where we want to go and is willing to invest significant time and resources to get us there.”
The partnership between Interscope and RB is the latest example of major labels teaming up with indie regional Mexican labels companies. Most recently, Sony Music Latin teamed up with Rancho Humilde to support Fuerza Régida. Meanwhile, Warner Music Latina signed DannyLux via a partnership with the indie VPS Music.
Japanese record labels historically haven’t felt the need to venture beyond their country’s shores to boost revenue. Japan’s recorded music market, the second largest in the world, has been big enough to sustain companies like Tokyo-based Avex Inc., considered a fourth major label in Japan.
But a rapid market shift in Japan — along with South Korea’s surge onto the global scene with K-pop —have created new impetus for Japanese music companies to try to penetrate the toughest of markets: the United States.
Last year, Japan’s sales of physical CDs and vinyl still made up 68% of the 283.2-billion-yen ($2.46 billion) recorded music market. But digital sales jumped 14% to 89.5 billion yen ($624 million) — the fourth-consecutive year of double-digit growth in the category, which is now 83% streaming, according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan.
Avex, an entertainment conglomerate founded in 1988, has developed legendary J-pop talents like Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro, and forged a live-music partnership with AEG Presents to co-promote artists in Japan. But it has struggled to create new superstars, or to successfully expand to the U.S. and China.
A 2016 effort to set up a U.S. operation fizzled after about two years. Now Avex is trying again. This time, the brass in Tokyo have turned to Naoki Osada, an 18-year company veteran with an M.B.A. from UCLA, a passion for West Coast hip-hop and several years of familiarity with the U.S. music business.
The new entity, which features a publishing arm, a record label and an investment fund, is based in Los Angeles, where Osada holds sway at the Avex House, a recording studio and artist-producer hangout, which has an infinity pool and a rooftop deck with 360-degree views of West Hollywood. During the pandemic, Osada oversaw extensive renovations to the five-bedroom house, which the company says it is renting.
“One of the reasons why we weren’t successful in our past endeavors to expand into China and the U.S. was that we didn’t have a clear mission, an agenda that we shared across the entire company,” Katsumi Kuroiwa, Avex’s CEO, tells Billboard from Tokyo, adding “we weren’t able to pick the right person to expand the business outside of Japan.”
This time Kuroiwa believes the company has gotten it right — and he has given Osada, who serves as president of Avex USA, a longer runway: five years to make the U.S. entity a success.
Naoki Osada the Japanese exec is leading the project/entity Avex USA.
Caity Krone
Avex started its latest U.S. effort with publishing. The initial focus is on building U.S. intellectual property with U.S. and Canadian songwriters through songs that can be placed with U.S. pop stars like Justin Bieber, and Japanese – and even Korean – artists. Osada created a publishing joint venture with Brandon Silverstein, manager of Normani and Brazilian star Anitta. Silverstein was looking for financial backing for his S10 Publishing and says he bonded with Osada over his vision to make the Avex House into a creative hub. Osada also hired Lucas Thomashow, 29, a Google-trained data and social media marketing specialist, to run Avex USA’s new label, SELENE, which is named after a Japanese spaceprobe that orbited the moon in 2007.
Avex has 13 writers on its U.S. roster, including six signed jointly with S10 Publishing: HARV, who co-wrote Bieber’s hit song “Peaches” (before S10 signed him); Jamaican dancehall artist Shenseea, who shared the stage with Anitta in Las Vegas during the Billboard Music Awards week; Cxdy (Internet Money), who works with The Kid Laroi; Toronto-born David Arkwright, who co-wrote “Build a Bitch” with Bella Poarch; Belizean artist Kosa; and Declan Hoy.
One challenge is working both globally and locally. “There’s that double edged sword where we’re always thinking strategically about how to bridge that gap [between Asia and the U.S.], because there’s a lot of cross over,” Thomashow, Avex USA’s senior vp, tells Billboard, sitting with Osada by the Avex House pool one morning. “And that’s whether it’s our U.S. writers and producers putting together hits for some of the biggest Japanese or Chinese artists, or how do we think strategically about Japanese artists.”
In one of the publishing arm’s biggest overseas successes, Arkwright and J. Que co-wrote a debut single for Japanese-American singer CAELAN (real name: Caelan Moriarty), “Forever With You,” which went viral with CAELAN’s sprawling Asian social-media fanbase, hitting No. 1 in China on the Weibo Asia New Songs Monthly ranking in September of 2021.
SELENE, meanwhile, has signed five artists so far, notably Austin George and 19-year-old singer-songwriter Sadie Jean, who had a TikTok open verse challenge hit with “WYD Now,” which counts over 200 million aggregate world-wide streams across all DSPs (she has more than 88 million on Spotify). The label says Zach Hood’s three singles on SELENE have generated more than 150 million aggregate streams. Sophie Holohan’s “Butterfly Effect” has 120 million hashtag views on TikTok, and the artist has more than 322,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. In finding rapid streaming success for newer artists, the label, says Arkwright, “is doing something that major labels, in my opinion, kind of wish that they could do with that kind of efficacy.”
(Sadie Jean is the only SELENE artist with any Billboard chart history. She spent seven weeks on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, peaking at No. 35 on the Dec. 25, 2021-dated chart. “WYD Now” spent a week at No. 91 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100.)
Lucas Thomashow the American exec leading the new U.S. based Avex label, SELENE.
Caity Krone
Silverstein has built a relationship with Avex founder and chairman Masato “Max” Matsuura back in Japan, but credits Osada for the initial progress out of Los Angeles. “We’ve gotten our successes based on [Osada’s] support from Japan, given the writers that we’ve signed,” he says.
Osada, who was previously in charge of corporate venture capital for Avex back in Tokyo, also oversees Avex USA’s Future of Music Investment Fund, which has $25 million to spend on seed and Series A startups, mostly music-tech companies like WaveXR, a VR music platform that created Bieber’s 2021 avatar concert. (The fund has also attracted investment from Bieber and his manager, Scooter Braun.) He sees his Avex USA role as “half investor, half music executive.”
Trying to Catch The Koreans
While Avex executives say they don’t see the Korean labels as direct competitors, they nevertheless want to emulate their formula for success. With a much smaller domestic market than Japan, the Korean music industry naturally had to look outside for growth, which led acts to work harder to create global fanbases. “The Korean companies are at this stage more superior and advanced in terms of breaking global artists,” says Kuroiwa. “Unfortunately, Japanese artists haven’t been able to gain fans around the world like South Korea…and that’s where we have to learn.”
The Koreans labels have also been making moves in the U.S. over the past few years. JYP Entertainment and HYBE, home to BTS, have set up offices and entities in Los Angeles, and even created joint-venture labels like HYBE’s imprint with Universal Music Group’s Geffen Records, which plans to launch a girl group together.
Back in 2014, Avex surprised the industry when it beat out Sony Music for the largest mid-year share of the recorded music market in Japan at 16.1%, according to the Soundscan Japan. More recently, however, Avex held an 8.6% share of the Japanese market in 2019, placing them in third place behind Sony and Universal Japan. The Japanese company’s total assets have been declining in value for four straight years, according to company filings.
Among its challenges, sales of the company’s biggest J-pop artists, Hamasaki and Koda Kumi, peaked more than a decade ago. “We’re in the middle of trying to create a next generation of artists,” says Kuroiwa.
The pandemic also hit the company hard. Avex recorded a net loss of 1.1 billion yen ($10 million) in fiscal 2020, which led Avex to downsize staff and sell its 18-story Tokyo headquarters. The sale price of more than 70 billion yen (more than $673 million in late 2020) generated a profit of 29 billion yen ($279 million), a company spokesperson says.
Sales rose 20.7% to 98.4 billion yen ($686 million) in fiscal 2022, while net income fell 92.8% to nine billion yen ($62.7 million). The income drop-off followed a surge in net income to 128 billion yen ($892.6 million) in 2021, which related to the sale of the building.
Escaping the Past
Avex’s previous foray into the U.S., in 2016, involved Universal Music Japan executive Kimi Kato, former Warner Chappell Music Chairman and CEO Richard Blackstone and Avex executive Ryuhei Chiba. The trio spent about $30 million buying content, including a worldwide publishing deal for a Bruno Mars album, two people familiar with the matter tell Billboard. Matsuura, upset the group had blown through so much money, rallied the board to fire Chiba and then shut down the U.S. entity, the sources say. (A spokesperson for Avex says the $30 million was not restricted to buying content and noted that “the strategy in the U.S. didn’t change because Matsuura got angry, but Avex did decide to change its approach in the U.S. to [a] lean startup model.”)
Osada says the previous team was “trying to do too much at the same time,” including bringing U.S. artists to Japan and launching local businesses. “At that time the company was more about aiming for support to the headquarters’ [Japanese] artists,” he says. “We had a dream, but we didn’t actually try seriously to be successful as a U.S. company. I was like, ‘Why don’t we try to expand the business here because that eventually supports the global operation of Avex?’”
Osada, who started at the company in 2004 as a newly minted J-pop A&R manager fresh out of college, had a front-row seat on the legendary tussle between Matsuura and Tom Yoda, Avex’s co-founder. Yoda wanted to expand Avex into other entertainment-related ventures, including movie production. He accused Chiba, then the company’s executive director and president, of pursuing personal profit from some of the label’s biggest artists, according to Japanese media reports.
The Avex board backed Yoda’s bid to get Chiba to resign. Matsuura resigned along with Chiba, who denied any fault. Osada recalls a staff meeting with about 300 people where Chiba and Yoda were screaming at each other from across the auditorium. “I saw the battle [play out] in front of me,” he says.
But with the support of the staff and artists, including Hamasaki, who said she would leave the label (a declaration that led Avex’s stock price to dip by 16% in one day) – and the threat of bankruptcy looming – Yoda resigned. Matsuura and Chiba later rejoined the company.
A few years later it was Matsuura who gave Osada his instant blessing to study business administration in Los Angeles, at a time when the physical music industry was still in freefall from piracy site Napster. Not only did he avoid the chaotic company restructuring happening back in Tokyo, Osada says he was able to immerse himself in Los Angeles’ music and startup cultures, and inadvertently train himself for his current assignment.
Harv at Avex House
Courtesy Avex
At the Avex House, Osada holds lunch for writers and producers, and his Friday night dinners have drawn an eclectic group of artists and industry types. Thomashow fondly recalls the night Normani‘s cousin cooked authentic New Orleans food for a small group. Events there have drawn the likes of A$AP Rocky and James Blake. Harv hosted Bieber’s “Peaches” release party at the house. (On one evening, Billboard met DJ Richie Hawtin and Dean Wilson, Deadmau5’ manager, along with music executives from Meta.)
The house has also become a magnet for artists, writers, managers and A&R execs to connect and collaborate. Blake, Normani and Anitta have worked on songs there. Arkwright says he’ll sometimes grab an acoustic from the wall of Gibson guitars hanging in the living room and head up to the roof to jam with artists like Austin George, and then pop down to one of the three studios to lay down a track.
“It’s just like this beautiful hang spot that you don’t get very often,” Arkwright says.
Additional Reporting By Rob Schwartz
Chase Matthew, whose moody 2021 song, “County Line,” was certified gold by the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) this August, has formed a partnership with Warner Music Nashville.
The Nashville native previously released a 2021 EP, Country Line, and a 2022 full album, Born for This, via Ryan Upchurch’s Holler Boy Records.
“There are a lot of things that are important to me as an artist. I want to be able to stay true to who I am and make music I know will resonate with my fans,” says Matthew in a statement. “Ryan Upchurch gave me an opportunity that put me on the map. Looking forward, we wanted to maintain how we work, but grow the team in order to build bigger. Warner Nashville understood our goals and provided the opportunity for a true partnership. I’m thrilled to be able to work with the Warner Nashville team and take this thing to a whole new level for the fans – all while keeping God’s plan first!”
Matthew’s representatives declined to expand on details of the deal and what makes it a “true partnership.”
“Chase’s mix of rebellion and reverence is what drew us to him,” said Cris Lacy, co-president of Warner Music Nashville. “The impact he has on his mass of loyal fans comes from music and messages that are unapologetically redemptive and put him squarely in the center of this format’s most authentic storytellers.”
Ben Kline, co-president of WMN, added, “The fan reaction to Chase and his music, both in his live show and in the streaming and engagement metrics, are proof of just how talented he is.”
Matthew is the latest signing under Lacy and Kline, who were promoted to co-presidents earlier this year following John Esposito’s move to CEO Emeritus. It follows the recent signings of country singer/songwriter Madeline Edwards and alternative rock band Giovannie and the Hired Guns. Matthew’s first single from Warner Music Nashville will be “She Loves Jesus,” out Oct. 28, with more new music coming over the next several months.
Matthew is on a headlining tour with upcoming dates including Portland, Ore. tonight and Medford, Ore. Friday (Oct. 14) before playing the Golden Sky Festival in Sacramento, Calif. on Saturday (Oct. 15) alongside Tim McGraw, Brothers Osborne and Carly Pearce.
Membership of the Secretly Group Union has ratified a contract with the company’s managers, the union announced on Twitter Wednesday (Oct. 12).
Although the union — which represents workers at indie labels such as Secretly Canadian, Dead Oceans and Jagjaguwar — declared it “could not be prouder to be the first independent label group union,” it did not disclose contract terms. It described contract negotiations with management as a “long and very difficult fight.”
In a Twitter statement Wednesday, Dead Oceans said, in part: “This agreement marks a new chapter in Secretly’s ongoing commitment to our staff, to our workplace and to the core values we bring to artist and label partners every day.”
Secretly reps did not respond to a request for a comment, and an anonymous union spokesperson said they weren’t ready to discuss the terms of the contract, announced last night. “At the moment, we’re all exhausted from yesterday’s events,” the spokesperson said.
Working with the Office and Professional Employees International Union, or OPEIU Local 174, the Secretly employees formed their union in March 2021 and set a recognition deadline for management — which the company quickly agreed to do. Secretly Group artists include indie stars such as Phoebe Bridgers, Japanese Breakfast, Bon Iver and Angel Olsen, several of whom have expressed support for the union effort over the past year.
Last year, a Secretly Group Union rep told Billboard, “The enthusiasm for the culture in which music industry workers contribute can be weaponized against them and lead to exploitation and unfair treatment. . . . We absolutely hope this inspires others to unionize.”
The company, which employs 150 people, responded, “It’s always difficult to hear that there are people within the company who are unhappy . . . but we hope that this union effort speaks to their belief that our common ground — love for the work we do, and for the music and culture we share with the world — is truly and deeply shared.”
Unions are common for musicians, who belong to longstanding groups like the American Federation of Musicians, but they’re rare among record labels. After the Secretly union began its bargaining process last year, the group put out statements from workers to draw support for its cause. “I believe we can set a precedent for ourselves — and others working in the industry — that mandates fairer wages, inclusivity, and increased diversity, all in a collaborative workplace,” Michael Brennan, a designer for the company, said in an August 2021 union Instagram post.