Record Labels
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New year; new vision.
As 2023 draws closer, Alex Sholler — known to many as the mega-successful producer/singer/songwriter/instrumentalist/party-starter Alison Wonderland — is revving up the engines of her latest venture: FMU Records.
With the label, Sholler intends to spotlight left of center electronic music made by up-and-coming artists along with her own Dark Electronic genre currently coming into greater focus via her Whyte Fang project.
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This Thursday (December 8), FMU Records will drop its debut release, “I Surrender.” A collaboration between Argentinean producer Dabow and South African artist Jon Casey, the track is a play-it-loud tapestry of percussion punctuated with trap bass and wavy synths that serves as a mood setter for FMU.
With the label, Sholler hopes to use her global platform to give shine to rising stars and provide a place where artists can release music without bowing to the kinds of craven, algorithm-based marketing strategies many begrudgingly endure.
“For FMU, we are just going to push good music,” she tells Billboard. “Artists won’t have to do TikToks to ensure their tracks do well. I just want to get cool, good music out there.”
Distribution for FMU is being handled via Ingrooves, while Alison Wonderland music will continue to be handled by EMI/AUS — which released Alison Wonderland’s three studio albums, including 2022’s Loner, which hit No. 3 on Dance/Electronics albums this past May.
But early 2023 sees Sholler putting her focus outside of Alison Wonderland, with FMU Records set to drop the debut album from her Whyte Fang project this spring. After spending six years on the backburner while Sholler took over the scene as Alison Wonderland, the project soft-launched earlier this year with a trio of singles — “Girl,” “333” and “TIDES” — that showcased a hypnotic, hard-edged sound well-suited for late nights in dark clubs.
Dropping March 31, 2023, the Whyte Fang album will include that trio of previously released singles and come in tandem with a warehouse launch party happening in New York earlier that month. The event will feature a Whyte Fang performance, which Sholler calls “not just a musical, but a whole artistic experience where the lighting, visuals, set, and live listening experience is all very cohesive.
“I’m just excited for people to see what’s going on in my mind,” she adds, “and [I’m excited] that I have complete creative control over it.”
The launch of this label was described in a press release as “one of the most important steps” in your career thus far. Does that feel true for you and if so, why?
Yes, this does feel true to me. I have always felt like I should take advantage of my reach as an established artist and give up-and-coming artists a chance to use my platform and keep control of their music — it’s something I feel very passionate about now.
I think that currently, artists feel a lot of pressure to be content creators, marketing managers, and promoters. I don’t want artists to feel like a statistic, I want them to feel like humans. I’m finding it hard to navigate myself in this world, with the pressure of only looking at numbers rather than the music. I just want to throw cool parties and hope things grow organically. I want to use my platform to give these young artists exposure.
My understanding is also that the label is intended to give you yourself more freedom. What does that mean to you? What will it look like in practice?
My Alison project is not able to be signed to FMU Records, but Whyte Fang is, so I’m able to really do what I want, without the opinion of teams of people. I guess I also have the freedom to sign whatever track I want, which is really exciting.
Do you feel like you haven’t had as much freedom as you would have liked in prior label relationships?
I 100% didn’t have as much freedom in past relationships, but I don’t think anyone does with big record labels. Don’t get me wrong, I have always had the freedom to release the music I wanted, but in terms of getting marketing budgets or singles supported you have to play ball with what the label wants to spend money on. Things like being told to do TikToks for my songs to get more budget makes me sad; it feels sterile and not the type of creative I am, and I’m sick of it. It’s archaic.
What’s the tone for FMU? Is there one song that sort of sums up your ethos?
I’m all about people being open-minded. Dark Electronic music is really what comes to mind; it’s what I gravitate towards and with this label, I’m really going to be able to showcase that. I used to run warehouse parties, and I really find the dark, minimalistic vibe very appealing.
Will FMU release future Alison Wonderland projects and if so, where does that put your relationship with EMI/AUS?
For the record, EMI/AUS have always been incredibly supportive and always has let me do what I want. I love that team, they support this [new project], and they are aware of this. I love the people that work there, and they have done an incredible job. They have always given me freedom and fought for me — they are the rare exception of people in this industry who are decent and care about the artist, and I mean that with all my heart. There should never be any negativity toward that team. I love them. My previous comments are about the larger record label machine, not about any particular individuals.
Tell me about the Whyte Fang album and why 2023 is the right time to release it?
Because I’m f–king ready! I’ve been bursting at the seams, and I’m going to go so hard. I’m putting my heart and soul into this album. I feel like so much of the experimental music I make is overshadowed by what my record label has picked to put into the forefront, and I need a home for that, because I really gravitate towards those beats.
Critics who complain that all country music sounds the same should check out the artist rosters at the genre’s most successful labels, teeming with what appears to be a broader range of artists than at any time in history.
Warner Music Nashville (WMN) recently signed Giovannie & The Hired Guns, a rock band with country and Tejano shadings; and Madeline Edwards, whose blend of country storytelling with pop and R&B sonics is an engaging test of stylistic boundaries. Big Machine’s 19-year-old Kidd G fuses twang and hip-hop with a rebel flare. And Universal Music Group’s Boy Named Banjo and The War and Treaty weave bluegrass/Americana and soul/gospel elements, respectively, into their own left-of-center takes on country.
The proliferation of boundary-pushing artists for the future represents a distinct philosophical change for Nashville labels who historically have played it safe, routinely stocking their rosters with acts that fit established norms. In one of the most-derided examples, country followed its golden era of the early 1990s with “hat acts,” overloading the system with male country artists whose sound and imaging were clear attempts to copy the successes of Garth Brooks, George Strait and Alan Jackson.
“We tend to chase the path of least resistance,” Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN) president Cindy Mabe says. “A lot of times there’s money that follows that, but what happens is you end up alienating audiences that don’t want to hear just that. There has to be more than one thing happening, [with] appeal for more than one audience. That’s how we grow.”
This expansive approach to rosters is part of an uphill climb for country music, which was considered a Southern-based niche genre for rural white audiences in its infancy. Over time, the size and location of that audience has changed — it remains a dominant force in farming communities across the United States, though its largest fan cluster is likely in the suburbs.
A ream of cultural, technological and organizational changes have required the business to rethink its parameters, widening the potential definition of the format as well as the makeup of its target audience.
“Things that might have been considered left of center, even just two years ago, would be considered more mainstream now,” says WMN senior director of A&R Stephanie Davenport, “because I think our fan base’s horizons have broadened quite a bit.”
Indeed, new and recently developed acts across rosters include trap-country figure Blanco Brown (Broken Bow), pop/R&B-flavored Tiera Kennedy (Valory), bilingual duo Kat & Alex (Sony Music Nashville), piano-based/pop-influenced Ingrid Andress (WMN), multigenre singer/songwriter BRELAND (Atlantic/WMN), moody and elegant music-maker Sam Williams (Mercury Nashville), rock-shaded Elvie Shane (Wheelhouse) and rock-/hip-hop-threaded Lily Rose (Big Loud).
Plenty of developments influenced that level of musical fence-busting:
• Country’s wide-ranging sound: The current chart accommodates Carrie Underwood’s arena-rockish “Hate My Heart,” Kane Brown’s slow-jammin’ “Thank God” and Parker McCollum’s solid country “Handle on You,” so there’s precedent for roster variety. “There’s been a lot of diversity of sound on country radio, and the things that you hear back-to-back-to-back are more varied than you’d hear on top 40,” says WMN senior director of A&R Rohan Kohli. “So I think the signings are a reflection of the diversity that we’ve been hearing for a while.”
• The proliferation of radio chains: When country stations were locally owned, management tended to be more provincial about the genre. Now that chains frequently have programmers overseeing four or more formats, radio is more receptive to artists such as Jelly Roll or Dan + Shay working beyond their home base. “A big hit for one of those executives is something they’re going to be aware of,” says Big Machine Label Group president/CEO Scott Borchetta. “You don’t have to go and reeducate everybody because it’s the same people.”
• DIY technology: With budding artists able to learn music-making at home and promote themselves on social media, a la UMGN’s Priscilla Block, they arrive in the business with built-in knowledge that makes them less apt to bend to accepted norms than previous generations. “We don’t try to fit any of our artists into a box,” Kohli says. “We tell them to go make the music, and we’ll follow it.”
• Digital consumption: Streaming sites have given the consumer easy access to music on country’s margins, allowing fans to find outside-the-box artists such as Corey Kent or Bailey Zimmerman, while they’re still indie acts, forcing labels to be more nimble in reacting to the marketplace.
• Precedent-setting change artists: A wide range of acts — from Willie Nelson to Chris Stapleton to Florida Georgia Line — have made the mainstream bend to their style instead of conforming to the format’s preexisting sound. The genre has been rewarded for pushing the limit in the past: Sound-alikes, as in the hat-act era or the bro-country era, have actually hurt the format, and the business is more committed to widening the playing field instead of just staying inside of it.
• Better inner-division cooperation: Music can still get lost, but the Nashville offices of major labels and publishers are generally working better with coastal pop divisions. That means greater potential for nontraditional acts, which also makes them less risky to sign.
• Expanding demographics: Music Row is more interested than ever in expanding its core audience, intent on attracting more young fans and minorities, especially Blacks and Latinos. In particular, the increase in Black artists — most of whom blend country and R&B influences — means more acts are stretching the sound of the genre.
• Faster trends: In the entire 1980s, country had two trends: the Urban Cowboy movement and New Traditionalism. The last 10 years have seen bro-country, Motown country, boyfriend country, ’90s retro country and, now, the lightly produced, gruff Yellowstone country (think Warren Zeiders and Zach Bryan). The format changes quicker than ever, and labels have to be prepared to shift with it. “If you don’t diversify in some regard, you’re going to have to scrap a whole roster really quickly,” Mabe says. “You have to have a vision of where you’re going.”
• The next big thing: While ’90s-style country and Yellowstone country are current, labels are already looking to the future, unpredictable as it is. “We always are fighting to stay on the edge of what’s next,” Borchetta says. “You want to be early, you want to figure out if there’s more to it than just a TikTok moment. You’re always looking for the next one that has all the right parts and pieces or could grow the right parts and pieces.”
Ultimately, those new artists are stepping into a genre that already has consistent hitmakers with Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert and Keith Urban. Thus, predicting the format’s future direction is only part of the challenge; the new acts also have to be capable of making a difference when matched against the genre’s established voices.
“New artists are competing against artists who’ve had many, many No. 1s,” Davenport says. “It’s not enough to have a good story. You have to have the best story as new artists.”
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When Motown Records chairwoman and CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam announced on Tuesday she would be stepping down to “pursue new endeavors,” the news was met with surprise, concern and the one inevitable question: What’s next for the storied label founded by Berry Gordy?
“Nobody saw this coming,” says one veteran label executive of the stunning announcement, stemming from the fact that Habtemariam was promoted to the chairwoman/CEO post in March 2021, only 20 months ago. Her groundbreaking appointment as the third woman — and only the second one of color — ever to hold that title at a major label was concurrent with other major news: Motown was being re-established as a standalone label after first being under the Island Def Jam umbrella and most recently under the Capitol Music Group banner.
During Habtemariam’s tenure — which also includes six years as president — she has rebuilt Motown into the strongest position it’s held in years. After overseeing the label’s relocation from New York to Los Angeles in 2014, Habtemariam announced her first major signing in 2015: a joint venture with Atlanta-based Quality Control. The alliance yielded such now-marquee names as Lil Baby, Lil Yachty, Migos and City Girls for the label’s roster. Other entrepreneurial ventures ensued, including Blacksmith Recordings (Vince Staples) and Since the 1980s (Asiahn, Njomza), alongside roster mates Erykah Badu, Kem, Tiana Major9 and Nigerian star Tiwa Savage. This fall, Motown signed Youngboy Never Broke Again after inking a global joint venture with his Never Broke Again collective last year. Also new to the roster are Brandy and Sean “Diddy” Combs with a one-album deal for the first release from his R&B-focused label Love Records.
At the time of Habtemariam’s promotion to chairman in 2021, Motown’s overall U.S. market share was 0.85%, having grown from 0.4% in 2017 to 0.59% in 2020, and she’s since grown it further, to 0.95% to date in 2022. While catalog had primarily driven Motown’s performance in the past, its market share growth in 2020 and 2021 was largely due to its frontline commercial releases, thanks primarily to the QC roster, Staples and veteran R&B chart-topper Kem. In April 2021, its current market share — essentially the performance of music released in the 18 months prior to the measurement period — was just shy of 1%. That’s after averaging 0.14% from 2015 to 2019 and more than doubling that number to 0.32%, according to Luminate data. In 2022 so far, Motown’s current market share has risen to 1.30%.
Habtemariam has also wielded influence at the corporate level, too, having co-founded and served as co-chair of Universal’s Task Force for Meaningful Change, dedicated to supporting initiatives designed to support marginalized communities battling injustice, inequality and inclusion issues. Having spent 20 years at UMG in various roles, Habtemariam was well-respected internally, several sources note.
Habtemariam’s pending departure will leave only two people of color running major labels as chairmen/CEOs: Epic Records’ Sylvia Rhone, now in her eighth year at the label and third as chairman/CEO, and Def Jam Recordings’ Tunji Balogun, who will celebrate his first anniversary at the label in January. As to who will succeed Habtemariam, inside sources say nothing has been decided yet. And in talking to several other industry executives, no one had any contenders they wanted to suggest. Given past precedent, however, UMG could opt to have a senior executive oversee the label for an interim period, as happened in 2020 when Paul Rosenberg exited as Def Jam CEO and Universal tapped Jeffrey Harleston, its general counsel and executive vp of business & legal affairs, to temporarily oversee label operations while it conducted a search, which lasted almost two years and ultimately resulted in the appointment of Balogun. Universal Music Group had no comment when contacted.
Just as important as diversity and inclusion in the search for Motown’s next chief is what happens now with the label itself. Will it remain a standalone or be folded back into the Capitol Music Group or another sister label?
One senior-level executive notes that Motown “has never been set up to run on its own.” The label shares some services through Universal and still uses Capitol’s radio promotions team, while its market share still goes through Capitol Music Group, a setup similar to those at other UMG labels like Island, whose market share goes through Republic. Another label executive who agreed to talk on background said that while it’s too soon to predict what happens with Motown, bringing the label back under CMG isn’t an unrealistic scenario. In an uncertain economic climate that’s already sparked layoffs at CNN, Twitter and other companies, such a move would reduce overhead while strengthening Capitol’s R&B/hip-hop presence.
However, given the strides made under Habtemariam’s watch, one major label executive says Motown shouldn’t be viewed as “disposable.” They continue, “I would hope that Motown stays standalone. Its legacy remains an important part of Black culture and pop music, thanks to its generational talent then — and now.”
Additional reporting by Dan Rys.
What happens when you let 5,555 music fans make decisions at a major label? Warner Records is about to find out through its new Web3 imprint Probably a Label. After selling out a collection of NFT access-passes, the holders will now gather in a Discord server to help develop artists together, share the credits of any future awards such as a Grammy, and ultimately offer intellectual property rights in some of the projects to NFT holders.
The experiment is a collaboration between Warner Records UK and Web3 brand Probably Nothing, whose debut NFT collection fetched $500k in seven minutes in October. Each NFT comes with different rarity and label roles (4,000 scouts, 1,500 managers and 55 label heads), allowing holders to vote on certain decisions. The rarest — and most expensive, currently at $2,138 — come with priority voting and access to exec dinners.
“This is a vehicle for us to explore new ways of working as a label,” says Sebastian Simone — vp of audience & strategy at Warner Records UK. For the first time at a major label level, fans will be involved in artist development, starting with the creation of a virtual artist. “[The virtual artist] will be built in conjunction with the community of holders through a voting system on design, storyline and other creative.”
Holders have already been gifted a free music NFT — “Money on the Table” by Diddy and Jason Martin — but the label isn’t just focused on NFTs. It will also run traditional campaigns to help break emerging talent within the Web3 space. Simone envisions a future where Web3-native artists developed through the label are “Selling out global tours, winning awards and crossing over into the mainstream.” There will also be crossover from the existing Warner roster where Probably a Label will act as the first touchpoint for established acts to experiment with NFTs.
Warner has been an early-adopter in Web3, launching the Stickmen Toys NFT project in August — an early experiment in granting IP rights to fans from a major label. Stickmen Toys holders own the full rights to the music and can use it however they like. Warner Records also landed the UK’s first ever No. 1 with a chart-compatible NFT release through Muse’s Will of the People. “WMG is focused on ensuring that our artists are deeply embedded in this world of Web3 so that they are not just using the technologies but helping to define them,” says Oana Ruxandra, chief digital officer and executive vp, business development. “We are putting a lot of time and energy behind this burgeoning space.”
Courtesy Photo
Rather than keep everything inside the Warner machine, however, the label partnered with Probably Nothing — a Web3 brand founded by former restaurateur and TV chef Jeremy Fall. The brand already has a community of thousands and previous experience with NFT drops including the Probably Nothing Genesis Pass which generated 879 ETH (~$1.03 million) in volume since launching in May 2022. The idea is to co-sign Warner’s NFT activities with an established name in Web3. “We’re in a new market exploring and learning,” says Simone. “It’s crucial we partner with people who have a deep, early-adopter understanding of new technologies and the culture.”
On paper, it’s a smart move. Many music companies and major label artists have blundered into Web3 without engaging with the existing community or taking the temperature of the market, leading to disastrous results and backlash. Collaborating with native Web3 teams appears to be a winning formula for bigger corporate entities.
For Fall, the venture allows him to dive deeper into music, which he says has always been part of his identity. During his days as a TV chef, he hosted a “Beats for Breakfast” show with Miguel. “Anytime I can be creative in a new way gets me excited. I have a vision on how I could help impact the music industry … and having Warner Records help bring those ideas to life excites me the most.”
The label’s biggest promise of all, however, is to “redefine IP ownership in music.” Although specific details are still cloudy, Fall says “We will be granting IP rights to certain [label] projects, depending on how they are structured … disrupting the traditional label model by opening the doors to sharing ownership in valuable content.” The team can’t yet confirm whether this will extend to the virtual artist currently in development or any of the songs.
Some of this IP experiment will also be explored in an initiative called Studio A and Studio B. “Studio A is our IP incubator,” explains Fall. “It allows our holders to pitch their existing [NFT-related] IP to us.” For example, if a member of the community owns a Doodles, Azuki, Bored Ape Yacht Club or select other NFTs, they can pitch an idea to the label based around the NFT, such as a music video, virtual artist, song or short-film. If accepted, Probably a Label will help provide resources, financing and marketing.
Studio B is more like a pooled music library. Anyone with a label pass can submit tracks to Studio B, and someone else from the community could use that music in their own project, such as a movie or sample for a beat. “If someone from our community wants to use one of the tracks for a project,” says Fall, “We will broker the communication between holders that allows them to license it.”
Critics might ask whether any of this requires NFTs at all. Fan voting mechanisms and shared communities can be created without Web3. Fall explains, “The traditional Web2 model doesn’t allow us to … give [fans] any ownership in projects. NFTs are this exact core that give people emotional ownership and value in projects they are a part of.” Important to note, however, that owning an NFT does not automatically guarantee IP ownership unless it’s explicitly stated.
In terms of providing value, the NFT label pass could be expected to rise if the label and its artists are successful, rewarding holders for their participation. However, the label will have to contend with the fact that the current price of the NFT (0.03 ETH) is now worth less than half the mint price (0.09 ETH). Anyone that purchased on the day of launch is now underwater unless they pulled one of the 55 rarest passes. While this is not unusual for NFT projects in the current down-market, it is uncharted territory for a major label that will now have to manage expectations of thousands of music fans who may have lost money on paper. The team isn’t fazed yet, though. “We’re focused on providing the best experience and value to our community,” says Simone. “The rest will fall into place.”
For record executives, the story of Michael Jackson‘s Thriller begins in 1979, three years before the album came out, when disco crashed and record stores returned millions of unwanted LPs to major labels. That year, recorded-music revenues dropped 10% from the previous year prior, according to RIAA data, and vinyl sales were just beginning to decline after years of growth. CBS Records had massive layoffs that summer; Warner Bros. followed with 55 in December.
“When I came in on Monday, there were half-smoked cigarettes in ashtrays and half-typed memos in typewriters,” recalls Jim Urie, then CBS’ New York branch manager, who pink-slipped 40 on his staff. “It was really, really brutal.”
The industry-wide malaise, coinciding with a worldwide recession, lasted two or three years. “It was the first time all of us young people in the music business had business hit us in the face,” says Dan Beck, Epic Records’ head of publicity at the time, who recalls another “major” wave of company wide CBS layoffs in summer 1982. “One of the first things people cut back was the disposable income — so if somebody bought three or four albums a month, and now they only bought one or two, that was pretty dramatic to our business.”
Thriller, released exactly 40 years ago, on Nov. 30, 1982, helped usher in the music business’ comeback, along with the explosive growth of MTV and the adoption of the compact disc. Jackson’s follow-up to 1979’s Off the Wall took off instantly, beginning with the opening single, “The Girl Is Mine,” a duet with Paul McCartney designed to cross the album over to a white radio audience. All seven of its singles would land in the top 10 of the Hot 100, and the album would spend 37 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Thriller coaxed fans back into record stores to buy multiple copies, thus providing labels with resources to market Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper and, later, hair-metal bands. At the end of 1981, CBS Records, which owned Epic at the time, took in $1 billion in revenue, its worst earnings since 1971; by the end of 1983, its net income increased 26% to $187 million.
“It pulled the music industry out of the doldrums,” says Larry Stessel, then Epic’s West Coast marketing vp. “It helped pull us out of the disco days and it became a whole new world.”
Stessel, who worked closely with Jackson on music videos, says the industry recession from roughly 1979 to 1983 helped his staff learn to economize — which made Epic and other labels leaner and stronger when the business came back.
“It allowed us to utilize our dollars more efficiently, develop local campaigns — if you could break an artist out of Kansas City, then obviously your next goal was to spread it to St. Louis, and maybe your next stop would be Milwaukee or Chicago or Detroit, depending where the airplay was,” he recalls. “It made us smarter marketing people when the doors opened up again after Thriller was released.”
Famously, Thriller‘s sales run kept going and going — it spiked after every new single and video, and surged after Jackson did the moonwalk during NBC’s Motown 25 anniversary special in May 1983. Today, Jackson’s label, Sony, claims Thriller as the best-selling global album of all time; in the U.S., according to the Recording Industry Association of America, it is 34 times platinum, behind the Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, at 38 times platinum. Even as Jackson’s legacy is tainted with allegations of child sexual abuse in HBO’s 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, the album has generated 3.87 million U.S. album-equivalent units in the past 10 years, including 1.2 million in physical album sales, according to Luminate.
“I knew then,” Stessel says of Thriller‘s staying power. “We started literally selling 1.2 million copies over the country every week. The album went from 4 to 6 million copies to 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.”
Thriller did more than reverse CBS Records’ fortunes in the early ’80s. It helped encourage Sony Corp. to buy the label home of Jackson, Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond and many other stars for $2 billion in 1988. The idea was to unite software (music) with Sony’s new hardware (compact discs), and Thriller was the most valuable content of all. “You don’t buy Michael Jackson because he sounds like somebody else. You buy him because he resonates with you,” says Mickey Schulhof, then Sony’s top executive in the U.S. “Having content, we knew, was going to be an important part of Sony’s future, and the largest content library in the record industry was CBS Records. It was an easy decision.”
Thriller made Urie, CBS’ New York branch manager back then, forget those painful 1979 layoffs — almost. “If you have a big enough record — and this is certainly true today — it throws off so much profit over its lifetime that it really can change things,” he says. “It cures all ills.”
Universal Music Group (UMG) has struck a deal to acquire a 49% shareholding in PIAS Group, the leading European independent music company.
Financial terms of the arrangement, announced early Wednesday (Nov. 30), were not disclosed.
By taking a minority stake in PIAS Group, UMG, the world’s leading major music company, expands on its strategic global alliance struck with the indie powerhouse in June 2021.
PIAS, or Play It Again Sam, was founded in Belgium 1982 by Kenny Gates and Michel Lambot, both career-long advocates for the independent music sector.
Gates and Lambot will retain majority control of the company, a joint statement reads, and UMG will have no seats on the company’s board.
Headquartered in London and Brussels, PIAS is said to be one of the largest independent and privately-owned music companies in the world.
The group includes the PIAS Label Group, which oversees the business’ various record label interests, and Integral Distributions Services, which provides support to its own, in-house labels and upwards of 100 independent label partners, including ATO, Beggars Group, Bella Union, Chrysalis, Domino, Epitaph, LSO, Mute, Ninja Tune, Partisan, Secretly Group, Transgressive and Warp.
Today, PIAS boasts 16 offices around the world with 300 employees.
“The boldly independent and music-centric culture that Kenny and Michel have built over the last four decades has provided a vital creative network to so many artists,” comments UMG chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge, in a statement.
“While much of the past was focused on ‘majors versus indies,’ it’s clear that today, the important divide in our industry is about those committed to artist development versus those committed to quantity over quality. “
He continues, “We share Kenny and Michel’s passion for developing artists and moving culture, and we recognize that a healthy music ecosystem needs companies like PIAS who are committed to amplifying the best voices in independent music.”
As PIAS celebrates its 40th anniversary, Gates and Lambot insist the new arrangement will enable its artists, clients and team to flourish.
Says Lambot, one of the founders of the pan-European independent music companies’ trade body Impala, “we are still as ambitious as we were when we started out about growing our global presence and providing a world class service to the independent music community.”
Gates adds, “These days we are competing with finance and tech giants and a partner like Universal Music Group provides the additional support for us to compete and grow. Universal made it clear that they like us, they trust us and they need us, because they can’t do what we do and they value it highly.”
This move, Gates continues, “makes us stronger and secures the future of our brand, our staff and our partners while maintaining control of our destiny.”
Created in a Brussels cellar four decades ago by Gates and Lambot, PIAS began life as a distributor of independent labels. Four years, the pair launched publishing company Strictly Confidential, and PIAS continued to grow its footprint, including the opening of offices Paris and London (in 1994), Hamburg (1995), Madrid (2000), New York and Stockholm (2013), and Sydney (2017) through the acquisition of Inertia.
Universal Music Group (UMG) has purchased a 49% stake in the indie label group [PIAS], expanding on a strategic global partnership that began last year. As part of the deal, [PIAS] founders Kenny Gates and Michel Lambot will retain control of the company, “remain fully independent” and UMG will have no seats on the indie’s board.
In March 2021, [PIAS] rebranded its distribution and services arm to [Integral], bringing on a new managing director to expand its business globally. Three months later, [PIAS] entered into an agreement with UMG that gave the major label group access to the [Integral] platform, which also handles distribution services for more than 100 indie label partners including ATO, Beggars Group and Secretly Group. The newly announced minority investment is said to be an extension of that initial deal.
“We have enjoyed an excellent relationship with the Universal Music Group team since we announced our strategic global alliance with them last year,” said Lambot — who co-founded [PIAS] in Brussels, Belgium, in 1983 alongside Gates — in a statement. “Kenny and I are celebrating our company’s 40th anniversary this year and we are still as ambitious as we were when we started out about growing our global presence and providing a world class service to the independent music community.”
“These days we are competing with finance and tech giants and a partner like Universal Music Group provides the additional support for us to compete and grow,” Gates said in his own statement. “Universal made it clear that they like us, they trust us and they need us, because they can’t do what we do and they value it highly. For Michel and I this is our life’s work and an ongoing journey and I am excited about the prospect of this new chapter in the life of [PIAS]. This move makes us stronger and secures the future of our brand, our staff and our partners while maintaining control of our destiny.”
The expansion of the deal comes at a time when many major labels — Capitol Music Group, Republic, 300, Interscope and more — are increasingly launching or enhancing their distribution offerings for independent artists and labels. This deal with [PIAS] presumably expands UMG’s access to independent distribution moving forward.
“The boldly independent and music-centric culture that Kenny and Michel have built over the last four decades has provided a vital creative network to so many artists,” UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge said in a statement. “While much of the past was focused on ‘majors versus indies,’ it’s clear that today, the important divide in our industry is about those committed to artist development versus those committed to quantity over quality. We share Kenny and Michel’s passion for developing artists and moving culture, and we recognize that a healthy music ecosystem needs companies like [PIAS] who are committed to amplifying the best voices in independent music.”
Motown Records chairwoman and CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam is stepping down from her position “to pursue new endeavors,” the label and parent company Universal Music Group (UMG) announced Tuesday (Nov. 29). A successor will be announced at a later date.
In a statement, Habtemariam said, “It has been the greatest honor to work with some of the most incredible artists, songwriters and partners in the world. I have always had a clear vision for the talent that I’ve had the privilege to work with, which has led Motown to global success and returned the label to the forefront of contemporary culture. I would not have been able to make that vision come to life without the support of my amazing team at Motown, my UMG colleagues around the world, and Sir Lucian. I am incredibly proud of what we have created during my tenure, and I consider this the perfect finale to my 20 years at UMG spanning publishing and recorded music.”
UMG chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge added, “Under Ethiopia’s leadership, Motown has seen strong growth, continuing its legacy of bringing important new voices to modern culture. Not only has Ethiopia been instrumental in developing and breaking incredible artists, but also she has strategically identified and amplified key partnerships that have been, and will continue to be, cornerstones of the UMG creative ecosystem. While I will miss working with Ethiopia, I know she will achieve great things going forward and she leaves with our enduring love and respect.”
Habtemariam was elevated to Motown chairman and CEO in March 2021 following six years as president, making her just the third woman and only the second woman of color ever to hold that title at a major label. During her tenure, she orchestrated creative and entrepreneurial ventures with partners including a 2015 deal with Quality Control Music, under which Motown helped shepherd the careers of QC artists including Migos, City Girls, Lil Yachty, Layton Greene and Lil Baby.
At the time of her hire as chairwoman and CEO, Habtemariam noted Motown would move forward as a standalone label with some shared services, spinning out from under the Capitol Music Group umbrella. Since that time, the label has put out music from Migos, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Vince Staples, Tiwa Savage, Ne-Yo and Kem, among others. In addition to the Quality Control partnership, under Habtemariam’s leadership Motown has also signed joint venture deals with YoungBoy Never Broke Again and his label; singer and rapper Smino, in partnership with his Zero Fatigue and EQT (Equative Thinking) labels; and Sean “Diddy” Combs and his label Love Records.
Before joining Motown in the dual role of label president and executive vp of Capitol Music Group, Habtemariam worked at Universal Music Publishing Group for more than a decade, rising from creative manager to president of urban music & co-head of creative.
In an internal note sent to her team following the announcement, Habtemariam paid tribute to her Motown colleagues while noting her nearly 20-year run with UMG. During her tenure at the publishing division, she built a team that signed and developed songwriters including Cardo, Childish Gambino, Chris Brown, Ciara, Big Sean, Hit-Boy, J. Cole, Jhene Aiko, Justin Bieber, Miguel, Stacy Barthe and Quavo.
Habtemariam also emphasized her dedication “to bringing a renewed vision of Black excellence to Motown – rooted in the past but connected to today, global in nature and a platform for the future.”
“The business has changed so much over those twenty years but throughout its ups and downs, I’ve always felt blessed to have the opportunity to work in so many aspects of the industry,” she continued. “My hunger to learn and continue to evolve led me to the unique experience of working across publishing and recorded music simultaneously. The fact that I was empowered to this unique position reflects my passion for supporting those that are blessed with the gift of music but also speaks to the incredible opportunities I was offered here and for that I want to thank Lucian who recognized my talent as a creative in publishing and gave me the opportunity to lead at a label as well.”
Habtemariam started her career in 1994 at age 14 as an intern at L.A. Reid‘s LaFace Records, where she worked for four years before moving to Universal Music Group. She has been named to numerous Billboard lists, including the 2022 Power List in January. In September, she was honored with The Clarence Avant Trailblazer Award at the first annual BMAC Music in Action Awards.
You can read Habtermariam’s full note to her team below.
Team:
Some of you may or may not know that the top of 2023 marks my 20th year at Universal Music Group. And, after two amazing decades, I’ve made the incredibly hard decision to leave for my next adventure. I’ll address my future plans soon, but today is all about Motown, UMG and you.
First and foremost, to the Motown team, your commitment to our artists, the legacy of this label, and the community at large is not lost on me. It’s been a privilege and honor to work with each and every one of you and I’m so excited to see how you continue to move Motown forward. Over 60 years ago, Mr. Gordy forged a core for this company – one that respects and celebrates artistry and strongly supports creative entrepreneurship – and this continues to live on thanks to all of you. I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve built.
When I think of my time at UMG, it occurs to me that my career really started at this company. I was a creative manager at UMPG 20 years ago, then by 2010 worked as an A&R consultant and manager while building a creative team at UMPG that signed and developed some amazing songwriters such as Cardo, Childish Gambino, Chris Brown, Ciara, Big Sean, Hit Boy, J Cole, Jhene Aiko, Justin Bieber, Miguel, Stacy Barthe and Quavo among many others. In 2014, I was promoted to the position of President of Urban & Co-Head of Creative at UMPG and appointed to President of Motown Records.
It was a busy time being in dual roles and laying the foundation for what was to come in an industry with an ever-changing landscape. While continuing to build at UMPG, I was also deeply dedicated to bringing a renewed vision of Black excellence to Motown – rooted in the past but connected to today, global in nature and a platform for the future. In 2015, we signed a landmark deal for Motown with Quality Control which included a distribution agreement ensuring support in developing the next generation of global superstars. By 2016, as that strategy brought Motown success with new groundbreaking artists, Motown became my sole focus as we continued to grow the company with artists including BJ the Chicago Kid, Brandy, Kem, Diddy, Erykah Badu, Lil Baby, Lil Yachty, Migos, Sebastian Kole, Smino, Tiana MAJOR9, YoungBoy and Vince Staples among others.
The business has changed so much over those twenty years but throughout its ups and downs, I’ve always felt blessed to have the opportunity to work in so many aspects of the industry. My hunger to learn and continue to evolve led me to the unique experience of working across publishing and recorded music simultaneously. The fact that I was empowered to this unique position reflects my passion for supporting those that are blessed with the gift of music but also speaks to the incredible opportunities I was offered here and for that I want to thank Lucian who recognized my talent as a creative in publishing and gave me the opportunity to lead at a label as well.
But one thing that has never changed is the love I have for music—and the artists, songwriters and producers that make such incredible art. That continues to drive everything I do professionally, and it always will.
This is an exciting time in music and I look forward to exploring new creative and entrepreneurial opportunities. I will share more about my future plans but for now I want to focus on winding down my role as we get to the end of the year.
Thank you for this incredible journey. Know that I will always be here to support you all.
With love, gratitude and respect,
Ethiopia
MILAN — Warner Music Group has hired Pico Cibelli, a Sony Music Italy executive involved in the global breakthrough of rock band Måneskin, to helm its Italian label.
Cibelli, who will be based in Milan, will take over as president of Warner Music Italy, which Marco Alboni led for nine years. Cibelli will start in the role “in the near future” and report to Simon Robson, president of international, recorded music for Warner Music Group, the label said in a press release.
Cibelli spent more than a decade at Sony Music Italy, where he worked in A&R and helped develop the company’s frontline domestic artists. According to Italian media reports, Cibelli’s early involvement with breaking Måneskin could have played a major role in Warner’s decision. While at Sony, he was instrumental in hiring A&R Fabrizio Ferraguzzo, who has acted as Måneskin’s manager since June 2021.
Before joining Sony in 2011, Cibelli spent 10 years at Universal Music Group, first as television marketing manager and dance music A&R, then as A&R manager. Cibelli previously worked in an independent, family-run record store; as a DJ/producer; and later as an executive at local independent distributors Dig It International and Self Distribuzione.
The announcement of Cibelli’s appointment comes in a week when Warner artists hold two spots on Italy’s Top 10 album charts: Trenches Baby by Milan-based trapper Rondodasosa, whom Alboni signed, and The Beatles Songbook from veteran singer Mina.
“The success of artists such as Måneskin,” Cibelli said in a Warner Music press release, “has shown that Italian artists can take the world by storm, something we’ll see more of in the years ahead.”
Robson, in a statement, said that Cibelli “has a proven track record of developing artists and maximizing their potential.”
As a source of domestic talent, Italy is one of the strongest markets in the world. In 2021, Italian acts accounted for 76 % of the annual Album Top 100 compiled by FIMI, the local federation for the recorded music industry with which major companies and some local independent labels are affiliated. The Italian music market regained the No. 10 spot in the world in 2021, according to FIMI, showing an 18.33% increase from 2020 and a turnover of 153 million euros ($170.8 million) in the first half of 2022, with digital sales accounting for 83% (revenues from subscription streaming rose by 13.7%).
Alboni has not indicated where he is heading next, saying only on his LinkedIn page that he will soon start a new job as a music industry executive. He has worked as an artist manager and had prior stints with EMI Music Italy, PolyGram and Virgin Music Italy before being appointed Warner Italy’s chairman and CEO in 2013 when WMG acquired EMI Music Italy.
TikTok is known for compulsively addictive short-form video, and for the past three years, much of the music industry has been hooked. By now, the platform is widely viewed as the most potent driver of streaming activity; marketing strategies often center on trying to harness the app’s users to touch off hits.
Lately, however, there’s been a noticeable shift in the way the music business talks about TikTok. One major-label executive with experience running campaigns on the platform recently mused to colleagues that he thought it was “dead” for breaking new songs. Another calls it “not workable.” “Does TikTok break hits now?” asks an A&R executive. “There’s a bunch of stuff going off there that’s not even a hit. We’re running on the inertia of what it was.”
“TikTok is eating itself,” declares Max Bernstein, who founded the marketing agency Muuser. “It still drives consumption if you get it right, but it’s much harder to maneuver now. Trends are siloed when they used to be community-wide, and influencer media is becoming prohibitively expensive.”
A number of A&Rs and marketers feel similarly, and they are trying to adjust strategies when it comes to signing artists and allocating marketing dollars. It’s the music business’ version of algorithmic anxiety: An industry accustomed to figuring out how to leverage promotional tools to favor its artists is learning that TikTok is increasingly tough to control.
Not everyone agrees, of course. Tyler Blatchley, co-founder of the label Black 17 Media, which has had success on TikTok, calls the idea that the platform is “not workable” “absurd.” The app’s users helped singles like Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” soar on streaming services; at this point, it’s hard to think of a recent hit that wasn’t aided and abetted by TikTok. “The biggest game in town is TikTok,” says Chris Anokute, an A&R exec-turned-manager. “Everyone who wants to tell you otherwise is delusional, they don’t understand it, or they missed the boat.”
But even some of those who believe, as one rap label-head puts it, that TikTok “is the main platform to focus on for marketing,” still acknowledge that the industry’s attitude towards it has shifted. “People are frustrated because they can’t finesse the system so easily anymore,” the hip-hop executive says.
This frustration relates to larger anxieties in the music industry. Managers, A&R executives and marketers say it’s harder than ever to command listener attention, and they believe TikTok’s position as the preeminent music discovery platform is partially to blame. “If we’re asking, ‘how do people find new great artists that they’re going to fall in love with,’ hearing a nine-second snippet of a song is probably not the answer that any of us would give,” says Justin Lehmann, founder of Mischief Management (Aminé, Khai Dreams).
Still, TikTok is where people are spending their time — more than 90 minutes a day, according to the data analytics company Sensor Tower, nearly twice as much as they spend on Instagram. The music industry has no choice but to try to reach those potential listeners. It’s just getting harder and harder to do.
“There are a lot of songs that pop quickly [on TikTok], but it doesn’t have the same effect,” says Talya Elitzer, co-founder of the indie label and management company Godmode. “It’s not the golden era of TikTok by any means,” confirms another veteran digital marketer. “Things aren’t performing the way they used to.”
And executives say the impact of their marketing budgets is waning. According to a recent report by music consulting agency ContraBrand, based on analysis of TikTok’s top 200 from the first half of 2022, “paid-for tactics, such as influencers and ads, accounted for success in under 12% of the platform’s viral tracks.” “You can do your best to manufacture something on [TikTok], but I haven’t seen too many people be super successful,” says Cassie Petrey, CEO of the social media company and management firm Crowd Surf. “There’s an illusion of control people think they have over TikTok because we can pay influencers and push more video usage.”
As awareness of that illusion grows, “a lot of major companies, the savvy ones, are not spending as much on TikTok as they once were,” according to Elitzer. Another marketer says that he’s cut TikTok spending in many cases by more than 50%.
Labels may be shifting their signing strategies around TikTok as well. Whereas record companies have been signing acts off a single viral explosion, hoping for quick returns on their investment, a bevy of one-hit wonders has caused some to contemplate changing course. “I’ve heard a lot more A&Rs that I’ve been speaking with go back to signing artists based on musicality, which is exciting,” says Tim Collins, co-founder of Creed Media, an entertainment marketing agency.
“Too many people got caught with empty bags — labels overpaid for these deals, and the artist never delivered a better song or couldn’t rise to the occasion,” Anokute adds. “People were making multi-million dollar offers without even meeting the artist! The race to jump on everything moving on TikTok has slowed down.”
After a period where the app seemed to overshadow everything in music, executives seem more open to the idea that focusing all resources solely on TikTok may not be a viable long-term strategy. Petrey preaches a zen attitude about it all. “You’ll have moments on social media that are big, and you’ll have other times where you thought that song was the one and it didn’t go,” she says. “Continue to make good work.”