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Hipgnosis Raises $215 Million With Stock Offering, Exceeding Target
“I am once again delighted with the support from both our existing and new shareholders with an oversubscribed raise of over $215 million, £156 million,” said Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis in a statement. “We will deploy this immediately into our pipeline of songs and I am incredibly appreciative of the incredible songwriters who have entrusted us with their iconic works. We will now have a portfolio of almost $2.5 billion of extraordinarily successful and culturally important songs, which offers a massive opportunity for us to add value with our Song Management which manages these songs with bandwidth and responsibility.” As the company announced last month, Hipgnosis expects to use the proceeds from the placing to acquire catalogs already lined up by The Family (Music) Limite...
Sony and Roblox Strike Strategic Partnership to Bring More Artists Into Games
The music and gaming industries have increasingly converged over the past two years, and while Fortnite led the way with in-game performances by Travis Scott and Marshmello, Roblox — where players don’t just play games, but create their own — has recently grown its profile as well. Lil Nas X performed the first-ever live virtual concert in Roblox in December, where he debuted new track “Holiday,” sold virtual merchandise like a cowboy hat and offered a behind-the-scenes interview, and Roblox says the experience drew 36 million visits. In May, Larsson drew 4 million visitors to the Roblox launch party for an expanded edition of her album Poster Girl, which was set in a virtual rendering of her Swedish lake house. A major selling point for these music-gaming par...
HYBE Leadership Shakeup: Bang Si-hyuk Out as CEO, Scooter Braun to Lead U.S. Unit
HYBE’s purchase of Ithaca married the two companies’ diverse range of services, including management, labels and publishing, for a deep roster that includes K-pop supergroups BTS and Seventeen, and U.S. pop stars Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande. Braun will continue to lead Ithaca Holdings, the parent of SB Projects and Big Machine Label Group, while also acting as co-CEO of HYBE America. Jaesang Lee, who led HYBE’s acquisition of Ithaca, will be moving to the US as Braun and Yoon Seok-jun’s chief operation officer. Over in Japan, HYBE is establishing a new regional division, HYBE Japan, that will be led by CEO Han Hyun-rok. The subsidiary will focus on signing local talent (a new boyband will be introduced soon) and managing the interests of other HYBE arti...
Motown Records Hires Brian Nolan to Lead Marketing Team
Motown Records announced Thursday (July 1) that music marketing veteran Brian Nolan has been appointed executive vp of the label and evp, marketing, effective immediately. Previously, Nolan was executive vp, Capitol Music Group. Nolan will report to chairman and CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam — Billboard‘s latest Executive of the Week — as he takes the lead on the label’s marketing teams and initiatives. Motown’s roster spans artists like Lil Baby, Lil Yachty, Migos, Ne-Yo, Asiahn, City Girls, Erykah Badu, Kem, The Hxliday, Tiana Major9 and Vince Staples. “I have been preparing for this role for over 20 years and I am so grateful to Ethiopia for the opportunity,” Nolan said in a statement. “We are building an incredible new legacy at Motown and ...
SBA Has Delivered $1 Billion in Shuttered Venue Grants
The SBA’s grant website states that roughly 27% of the more than 14,600 applications are currently under review, with another 21% awaiting consideration. About 1,600 applicants will be receiving a notice to fix technical corrections from the SBA as well. According to an SVOG stakeholder, these are entities that meet the criteria for approval, but something in their application needs to be fixed. The SBA is working on a process to send emails to those that need technical corrections and show them on the portal how to address them. Also in the works is an appeals process for those who have been denied but believe they are still eligible for the grant. While details of the process are still being worked out, it is estimated that businesses will have around two weeks t...
The Players Behind Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Deja Vu’: See the Full Credits
Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album Sour returned to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in its fifth week on the chart, marking its second total week atop the tally. Meanwhile, the album’s second single, “Deja Vu,” rose from No. 10 to No. 9 on the Hot 100, rising from No. 12 to No. 10 after reaching a high of No. 3 on the chart in early June. Along with “Good 4 U,” “Deja Vu” also hit the top 10 on Billboard’s Radio Songs chart this week, raising Rodrigo’s career top 10s on the tally to three — a count that includes her breakthrough smash “Drivers License.” Explore the team of musicians, producers and more behind the track with recording credits provided by Jaxsta below. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begin...
How Will #FreeBritney Deal With a ‘Ruthless’ Probate System? Law Experts Assess
After Spears gave a lengthy, emotional statement about her desire to end the arrangement, Judge Brenda Penny told Spears’ court-appointed lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, to file a formal petition. Benny Roshan, chair of Greenberg Glusker’s trusts and probate litigation group, says probate code is vague when it comes to termination protocols. (It merely says, “If the court determines that the conservatorship is no longer required or that grounds for establishment of a conservatorship of the person or estate, or both, no longer exist, the court shall make this finding and shall enter judgment terminating the conservatorship accordingly.”) Penny will have wide latitude when it comes to what factors into her decision. “The statute does not specify the type...
Jay-Z’s Lawyer and Damon Dash Clash Over Truth, NFTs and Conflict of Interest
Roc-A-Fella was founded in 1995 by Dash, Jay-Z and Kareem “Biggs” Burke, each of whom own a third of the company. Dash writes that he does not oppose the preliminary restraining order preventing him from selling the Reasonable Doubt copyright, “as I do not own the copyright nor have I ever represented that I do.” The Roc-A-Fella lawsuit allegations are based on a press release promoting the Reasonable Doubt NFT sale, but Dash claims that the press release for the since-cancelled auction was incorrect. Dash says that what he was actually attempting to sell as an NFT was his one-third ownership of Roc-A-Fella, which he says Jay-Z tried to buy at a low price in March (and suggests that the lawsuit was Jay-Z’s form of revenge). As such, Dash writes ...
Tencent Increases Stake in Indian Streaming Giant Gaana with $40 Million in New Debt Funding
Indian streaming service Gaana has raised $40 million in debt funding from Tencent, the Chinese tech giant that owns 20% of Universal Music Group. Gaana, which is also backed by The Times Internet, the digital arm of India media conglomerate the Times Group, also passed a resolution to increase its commercial borrowing ceiling in order to get funds from Tencent Cloud Europe, according to a report at Entracker. Gaana previously raised $51 million in debt funding in September 2020 — $41 million from Tencent and $10 million from The Times Internet — and $115 million through an equity sale to Tencent in February 2018. Gaana leads the Indian music streaming market with 185 million monthly users, as ...
Roblox and Twitch Are Gaming the System Against Songwriters (Guest Op-Ed)
The company has made hundreds of millions of dollars on the backs of creators, including by requiring users to pay every time they upload music — taking advantage of largely young people’s lack of understanding about copyright — and then they take virtually no action to prevent repeat infringement or alert users to the risks they are taking. The fact that mostly children, who would have no idea whether Roblox has covered its legal bases, are the ones who are being taken advantage of is particularly egregious When confronted with the need to license in order to protect itself and its users, Roblox thus far has been defiant. Not only have they refused to pay for the songs they know are on the platform, they are trying to hide behind a misinterpretation of the DMCA to avoid liabil...
Spotify’s ‘Discovery Mode’ Is Payola, Just Not the Bad Kind (Guest Op-Ed)
Anyone with an internet connection can post their music to YouTube or Spotify. The challenge now is getting people to listen to it. To reach audiences, aspiring musicians can hook up with TikTok influencers who will dance to their songs for money. Or they can pay the thousands of independent playlisters on Spotify to add their tunes to popular playlists. An entire subindustry of social media music promotion has sprung up specifically to assist musicians with these endeavors. Historically, the justifications for regulating payola were (i) that it harmed consumers, and (ii) that it harmed competition. But as we describe in a forthcoming law review article exploring the history of payola, in the 1950s and 1960s, these “harms” were often used as a cover for run-of-the-mil...
Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty Sued for Trademark Infringement by Lingerie Company
“When a customer searches for Adore Me’s products offered under the ADORE ME Mark, the search results return Savage’s prominent use of the ADORE US Mark in connection with a link to Savage’s website, thus falsely indicating that clicking on that link will take the consumer to a site with products offered by, authorized by, or affiliated with Adore Me,” the lawsuit reads. As a result, it argues, the company “loses the opportunity to sell its other goods to consumers.” The complaint further accuses Savage of ignoring a cease-and-desist letter Adore Me sent to the company on June 4, 2021, as well as a follow-up sent on June 8. “Though it appeared that infringing advertisements were removed on or about June 8, 2021, Adore Me learned this week that they were again in use by Defendant,” the laws...
