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SiriusXM Revenue Up Slightly to $2 Billion, Pandora Recovers in Virus-Impacted Q3
SiriusXM’s satellite service had steady improvements from the third quarter in 2019.• Satellite subscriber revenue improved 1% to $1.6 billion.• Satellite gross profit grew 7% to $596 billion Pandora had mixed results that showed the business has recovered from a pandemic-related crash in the second quarter. The following are the third-quarter year-over-year results: • Pandora’s advertising revenue dropped 3% to $306 million, a big turnaround from the 31 percent decline in the second quarter.• Pandora’s self-pay net subscribers grew by 105,000. Pandora has two subscription services: a $9.99 premium service and a $4.99 radio tier with limited interactive features.• Pandora’s September advertising increased year-over-year, said Meyer — but didn’t give the number. Three full-year guidan...
Country’s New Kids Are Back On the Block, and Headed to Radio
Meanwhile, Warner Music Nashville artist Shy Carter has launched a socially distanced radio promotion tour, a marketing step that frequently precedes an artist’s debut on the airwaves. It is, perhaps, a sign that record labels and their radio partners are finally feeling a sense of adjusted normalcy after a lengthy period of professional turmoil and national instability. With fewer people commuting to work, in-car listening declined and radio stations adopted a safer posture. Labels, in turn, held back the release of numerous debut singles until conditions became more favorable. “Most stations seemed to tighten up, play big hit records from the recent past and also uptempo, fun records that were current singles by superstars,” says Universal Music Group Nashville executiv...
BTS Label Big Hit Entertainment Doubles Shares in Smash Stock Market Debut
A strong debut was expected by industry analysts given BTS’ enormous fanbase, officially termed the BTS ARMY, who are quick to pounce on virtual and physical concert tickets, album collectibles and other extensive merchandise lines. BTS accounted for more than 80% of the company’s revenue during the first half of 2020, according to a report by investment management company Samsung Securities. The group — consisting of members J-Hope, RM, Suga, Jungkook, V, Jin and Jiminwhich — launched in 2013 and has since performed sold-out shows across the world, breaking numerous Billboard chart records in the process. BTS became the first K-pop act to top the Billboard Hot 100 last month with “Dynamite,” their first all-English song, and this week occupies the top two slo...
BTS Co-Writer Ryan Lawrie Signs Publishing Deal With Peermusic UK
As BTS make history by notching the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, indie publishing company peermusic UK has signed one of the K-pop group’s collaborators — singer, songwriter and producer Ryan Lawrie — to an exclusive global music publishing deal. The Glasgow, UK, native has co-written several songs for BTS, including Map of the Soul: 7‘s “Inner Child” (which has 52 million Spotify streams) and Map of the Soul: Persona‘s “Mikrokosmos” (125 million Spotify streams). Lawrie is now working with BTS’ label Big Hit Entertainment on the K-pop band ENHYPEN, the winners of Big Hit’s reality television competition I-LAND. Lawrie will also release his own debut album under the moniker KOOLKID later th...
Strictly Discs in Wisconsin, in a Pandemic: ‘Everybody’s on the Extreme End of Being Tired’
How did Record Store Day go on Saturday? It went really well. The same sort of pattern that we had with the first date worked well and seamlessly, and people were happy. And we did a give away five cases of New Belgium beer, [which] made people happy as well. What were some of your big sellers? Brandi Carlile is this year’s Record Store Day ambassador, and she had a 12-inch that had two covers of Soundgarden songs. That was a really big seller for us. The Bill Evans was a big seller. There was the release by the Yardbirds that did really well. One of the last times we spoke, we talked about how we couldn’t see businesses including retail getting shut down again given that people are so used to having more freedom now. But Wisconsin is becoming a really big hotspot for the ...
Hip-Hop Agent Brent Smith Out at WME Following Investigation
Hip-hop agent Brent Smith is out at WME, weeks after he was suspended for reported behavioral issues. “Following an investigation based on complaints of bullying behavior by Brent Smith, WME and Brent have mutually decided to part ways,” reads a statement from the agency. Smith, 55, represents Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Tyler the Creator and John Legend. Smith did not respond to a request for comment from Billboard. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Why Jonathan Shank Left Red Light to Launch His Own Touring Company Amid a Global Concert Shutdown
Why did you decide to launch Terrapin Station Entertainment? Ultimately the goal was to be able to continue to be aggressive and utilize this time to grow and scale and come out of this with great content and great music. Red Light was super supportive of all of the projects that I took on, but they were family shows. I was carving my own lane. Did you feel like you kind of had to go independent to pivot and be agile? Yeah, and having the ability to continue to be aggressive in the intellectual property space and continue to support my team. With these types of artists and projects, you have to have a really strong team. I felt that this is a great time to go out and license a lot of IP for the future. If you can be aggressive in that space, then when the clouds lift, we have a really stro...
Indie Venues Devastated After Trump Kills Stimulus Talks: ‘This Is Real. We Need Help’
“It’s devastatingly horrible news,” says Stephen Chilton with the Rebel Lounge in Phoenix. “More venues are going to close — I think the reason we haven’t seen even more venues shut down is because everyone is holding out hope that Save Our Stages passes. I’m not sure how much longer people can hold on — there’s rent, there’s debt obligations and there’s a lot of costs. It’s already been six months with zero revenue.” The news came as a major disappointment for two major independent arts associations who were encouraged last week when Pelosi announced that the Save Our Stages Act would be included in the $2.2 trillion Heroes Act. Save Our Stages would have provided up to $18 million to any independent music ...
Recording Academy, MusiCares Cut 13 Staffers in Reorganization
The moves stem from a major reorganization the Recording Academy began this summer when it streamlined into three divisions: the entertainment/consumer divisions (led by new COO Branden Chapman), the trade/industry group (led by label veteran Ruby Marchand) and organizations/cross verticals (led by CFO Wayne Zahner, chief diversity and inclusion officer Valeisha Butterfield Jones and chief people & culture officer Shonda Grant). “We did our reorganization in July and as part of that, we really have been doing deep dives into all the verticals,” interim president/CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told Billboard Friday night. “There’s some new alignment [and] some crossover in different sections and because of that we wanted to make sure the skill sets ...
Executive of the Week: Nonstop Management Founder/President Jaime Zeluck Hindlin
How does a typical writing credit for one of your songwriters come to fruition? Jaime Zeluck Hindlin: It’s different for everyone, to be honest. No story is the same. For writers, it’s all about the people they meet, whether it’s another writer, an artist, or an A&R that believes in them and their song and helps bring it to life. It’s about finding the champions who believe in what they’re doing. For example, with our writer Ryann, we had been setting up sessions for her with newer artists since she was a young, new writer with not too many credits just yet. We paired her with Tate McRae, who was also not as known at the time, and they wrote Tate’s breakout single “you broke me first.” Connecting those dots and people resulted in a song that is ...
This Tech Start-Up That’s Using AI To Combat Counterfeit Merch Online
Stopping the e-commerce sales of knockoff T-shirts and other memorabilia on Amazon, eBay and other major platforms is a game of whack-a-mole, but CounterFind, which was co-founded by former Dallas Cowboys safety Darren Woodson, has become an effective hammer for the music industry When a suicide bomber killed 22 people and injured hundreds following an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena in England in May 2017, the singer and her agent wasted no time in setting up a June 4 One Love Manchester benefit concert — with a lineup that included Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Coldplay and Miley Cyrus — to aid the victims and their families. And counterfeiters wasted no time in knocking off the merch that was sold as part of the fundraiser. Bootlegged T-shirts, hats, stickers and other produc...
Know Thy Customers: How Shopify’s Analytics Are Changing the Game
Everyone wants to work with the site that is growing artists into brands — and informing how the merch industry can grow, too What do fans of Beyoncé, the Foo Fighters, Lauv and Mac DeMarco secretly have in common? Though they’d never know it, they all order their merchandise through the same Canadian e-commerce company, Shopify. The 14-year-old Ontario-based business has grown into a global giant over the last six years since it launched Shopify Plus, the enterprise version of its software. Smooth setup — and robust data — make it a favorite of not just the music industry, but retailers like Staples, Heinz, Allbirds and more. It’s a Wall Street favorite as well. In 2019, Shopify hit $1.6 billion in total revenue, a 47% year-over-year increase, and during the pandemic, its stock price has ...
