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Inside Track: UMG’s Executive Pay; Clive Davis Interviews Joni Mitchell
When post-employee benefits and share-based payouts are added, that total jumps to $132 million — almost double the $62.2 million paid to the executive team in 2018. According to the UMG website, the executive team consists of UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge; executive vp Michele Anthony; chairman/CEO of Central Europe and Deutsche Grammophon, Frank Briegmann; executive vp and general counsel Jeffrey Harleston; executive vp and chief people and inclusion officer Eric Hutcherson; United Kingdom and Ireland chairman/CEO David Joseph; executive vp marketing Andrew Kronfeld; executive vp/CFO Boyd Muir; executive vp digital strategy Michael Nash; executive vp/chief administrative officer Will Tanous; and Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) chairman/CEO Jody Gerson. The financial data ...
TikTok Star Bella Poarch Signs With Warner Records, Shares Debut Single
Bella Poarch, the popular influencer with the most-liked TikTok video in the platform’s history, has officially launched her music career, inking a deal with Warner Records, the company tells Billboard. Poarch has also released her debut single, “Build a Bitch,” and its accompanying music video on Friday (May 14). “I feel like I found my family and part of that family is the label,” Poarch says of signing to Warner in a statement to Billboard. “When I looked up some of the artists that meant the most to me musically like Prince, Dua Lipa, and Madonna, I realized Warner has helped all of those people along the way too. So I’m very honored to have a family that gave me a chance and believes in me.” You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we re...
Influence Media Buys Stake in Julia Michaels’ Song Catalog
Also included are Michaels’ publishing stakes in several of her songs as a solo artist, including “Issues,” “I Miss You” (with Clean Bandit), “Carry Me” (with Kygo) and “Friends” (with Justin Bieber and BloodPop). Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Michaels acquisition is the second from Influence Media’s music fund with the Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (MERS of Michigan), which boasts $100 million in initial capital to invest in the recording and publishing rights of commercially proven songs. Its first joint acquisition, of select copyrights from songwriter Ali Tamposi’s catalog, was announced in April. “Like Carole King, Sia and Bruno Mars before her, Julia Michaels belongs in the pantheon of great songwriters who can write classics for themselves as well as o...
Kara DioGuardi’s New Singing Competition Puts Mental Health in Focus
“Some of the greatest songs out there were born of our artists’ struggles,” DioGuardi tells Billboard. “So as an industry, I think it’s really important that we look forward [to] helping our artists with their mental health and their wellness — that that becomes something that is on the forefront of all of these record companies’ minds when they’re signing talent today.” Sing It Forward’s eight semi-finalists (Jay Alan, Conor, Sydney Sherwood, Cameron Lane, Alexander Hensley, Jessa Pontier, Govan and Janie) were chosen from around 1,000 entrants who posted an original or cover song to YouTube, TikTok or Instagram with the hashtag #SingItForwardChallenge while explaining why the song was important to them. The winner will receive a raft of prizes, including a s...
Vivendi Sets Date for Universal Music Group Spinoff
Shares of Universal Music Group will begin trading on the Amsterdam Euronext market “before or by” Sept. 27, parent company Vivendi revealed on Wednesday (May 12). Vivendi’s proposal for the UMG share distribution will be put to a vote at the company’s shareholders’ meeting on June 22. Vivendi’s largest institutional shareholders “have been calling for the split or distribution” of UMG to better reflect the fast-appreciating value of its music division, according to Wednesday’s report. Vivendi’s own valuation suggests UMG is being grossly undervalued: on Wednesday, Vivendi’s market value on Wednesday was 32.4 billion euros ($39.11 billion), slightly below Vivendi’s estimate of 33 billion euros ($39.84 billion) for UMG — even though UMG accounted for 45.8% of Vivendi’s first-quarter revenue...
Event & Arena Marketing Conference Sets Finalists for First Impact Award
Director of marketing for KLOS-FM Wendy Ellis was nominated for the Impact Award for the creation of meal distribution service California Love Drop. Ellis teamed up with Wahoo’s Fish Tacos co-founder Wing Lam and Blue-C co-founder Eric Morley to deliver nearly 20,000 meals at 61 different locations since April 2020. Another Macon Centreplex nominee, Peyton Jeter stood out among the Impact Award submissions for her pivotal role in the creation of the venue’s Racial Reform and Inclusion Committee. The hard work of the Committee became a standard that Spectra Venue Management rolled out to the entire Management portfolio and led Peyton to be a Regional Champion where other venues can use her as a resource to get their venue’s committee up and ...
Recording Academy Job Listing Calls for New CEO to Continue Diversity Efforts & ‘Leverage Technology’
The position will have seven direct reports, including the chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, a new position filled by Valeisha Butterfield Jones last April. The broad job description does not include a specific mandate that the new CEO has led a large team before, only that the candidate has “a track record of leading through change and driving innovation,” as well as experience in developing revenue streams, and understanding the needs of helming a membership-driven organization. The position reports and “partner[s] closely” with the board of trustees. Much of the description calls for someone who is a big ideas person, using such terms as a “critical thinker” and “culture shaper,” with a “track record and experience holding themselves and team members accountable to evolving...
Here’s How ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ Performed in Its Fourth Week Compared to Taylor Swift’s Original ‘Fearless’
Taylor Swift released Fearless (Taylor’s Version), her re-recording of her best-selling 2008 sophomore album, a little over a month ago, and scored a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 chart. In the month since its release, we’ve been keeping track of how the unprecedented chart-topper — the first re-recorded version of another album to reach the peak of the Billboard 200 — has performed as compared to the original Fearless, in terms of weekly listenership. In its fourth week on the Billboard 200, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) slips out of the top 10, coming in at No. 15 after posting at No. 9 on last week’s tally. The re-recorded Fearless earned 24,000 equivalent album units for the chart week dated May 15, according to MRC Data, down from 33,000 equivalent album units in the prev...
UMG Hires Former eBay Exec Richelle Parham to Lead Global D2C Efforts
Parham’s appointment is considered significant in several ways. As the ex-CMO of eBay, she has a deep knowledge of the platforms and methods that are facilitating online sales. In recent years, she has worked with private equity firms investing in e-commerce start-ups. Parham joins UMG from WestRiver Group, where she was managing director, leading investments in the consumer experience economy, and she has served on the board of Best Buy, e.l.f. Beauty, LabCorp and, until recently, Scripps Network Interactive. UMG possesses “an incredibly talented leadership team, a global footprint, iconic labels and publishing company, as well as other music businesses,” she explains in a statement. “Together these elements form an unparalleled opportunity for a consumer-demand-driven e...
Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Payments Will Start Arriving Next Week
The amount of funding for the second and third tiers, along with any supplemental funding, will be based on what remains after the SBA awards grants to the first priority group. “This emergency relief can’t come soon enough for those on the precipice of going under. We’ll be very grateful when the money is distributed as Congress intended,” says National Independent Venue Association board member Audrey Fix Schaefer. “It’s been very hard to hold on, but even tougher to plan for reopening without the money to hire back staff, rent venues and secure acts with deposits. It will be incredible when the $16 billion Congress earmarked to save our stages becomes a reality.” As of today, 11,500 SVOG applications have been sub...
Insomniac Ruling Upheld Despite Appeal That Judge Was Heavily Medicated
The dispute is linked to a disagreement over the future of the How Sweet It Is music festival, which ran from 1999 to 2001. Rotella helped revive and finance the festival in 2005 but had a falling out with Alper and Ballou over the future of the event in 2010. Alper and Ballou claimed Rotella created a competing event called Beyond Wonderland, which still operates today, and that they were owed a piece of the festival. The legal fight went to arbitration, where the case was heard by Schiavelli, who eventually ruled against Alper and Ballou, saying the men bore most of the responsibility for the collapse of their relationship with Rotella and Insomniac due to their “cavalier and essentially non-negotiable attitude.” Schiavelli also noted that the lawsuit wasn’t filed against Insom...
Streaming Prices, New Revenue & More: 5 Highlights From WMG’s Earnings Call
The May 4 earnings call was filled with notable insights ranging from Spotify’s price increases in select markets to the importance of Warner’s data analysis. Here are the call’s highlights. Streaming Subscription Rate Increases: Cooper spoke about Spotify’s price increases in a small number of markets. He said he expects other streaming services will follow Spotify’s lead and rase their prices as well, provided Spotify does not see the higher prices increase its churn rate — which Spotify has said has not happened. “What people have a tendency to do on these services is build their library, build their playlists, and so there is a stickiness,” he said. “And I think that as Spotify and/or others experiment with these price increases, if they don’t see any meaningful churn event...
