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For International Artists, US Entry in the Pandemic Comes With New Hurdles
In March, Colombian superstar Carlos Vives was in the midst of filming season 2 of Telemundo’s singing competition series La Voz in Miami when COVID-19 sent most of the U.S. into lockdown. With production on hold, Vives returned to his home country to wait things out. Now, a full four months later, he is back on set. But returning to the U.S. was no easy task. “Colombia’s international borders were shut down,” says Vives’ business manager, Claudia Arcay, who notes that all commercial flights to and from Colombia were suspended, except for humanitarian and repatriation flights. “However, we had a work contract with Telemundo that we had to fulfill.” {“nid”:”9425791″,”type”:”post”,”title”:”What Do Virtual Festivals Pay A...
DOJ Workshop on ASCAP & BMI Consent Decrees Lays Out Key Issues With Heavy-Hitter Speakers
Pharrell Williams, LeAnn Rimes, top executives from the performing rights organizations and other leading trade groups all spoke at Tuesday’s session. At the top of Tuesday’s (July 28) Department of Justice public workshop regarding the federal consent decrees that govern ASCAP and BMI, assistant attorney general for the antitrust division Makan Delrahim laid out the main focus for the two-day hearings and panel discussions: competition. Or more specifically, as he put it, “Competition for the benefit of the American consumer, competition for the benefit of innovation and competition for the benefit of songwriters, composers and artists.” That set the tone for four hours’ worth of discussion on the potential review, which was undertaken by the DOJ as part of i...
Brazilian Funk Powerhouse KondZilla Launches Twitch Channel With Exclusive Deal
The arrangement — which involves exclusive music, video and gaming content — follows the Twitch deal with rapper Logic earlier this week. Brazilian funk music company KondZilla, which operates one of the biggest YouTube channels in the world, has signed a partnership with Twitch to operate a channel on the streaming platform, in one of the first major deals Twitch has done with an international artist or label. Under terms of its deal, KondZilla is providing exclusive music, gaming, video and podcast content, including live remixing of video game tracks produced by DJs on Kondzilla Records, Andre Izidro, head of marketing and intelligence at KondZilla, tells Billboard. The Twitch channel will promote games, chats and feature funk music and stars from KondZilla, such as Mc Jotta...
Bloodshot Records Staffers Claim Co-Owner Botched Royalty Payments, Warn of Potential Sale
“Nothing is more important to me than making sure all accounting is entirely accurate,” co-founder Nan Warshaw responded in a statement to Billboard. In March 2019, Bloodshot Records co-founder Nan Warshaw announced her resignation from the Chicago-based independent country label after Bloodshot artist Lydia Loveless accused Warshaw’s partner of sexual misconduct. The plan was for co-founder Rob Miller to buy Warshaw’s 50% share in the company. But more than a year later, artists and staff members at Bloodshot, home to acts like Jason Hawk Harris and ROOKIE, say the label’s issues are far from resolved. On Monday, the entire non-ownership Bloodshot staff sent a letter to every artist on the roster, warning them that because Miller could not pay fair ...
Canceled Virgin Fest Sues WME, Demands Agency Return $6M Artist Deposits
Virgin Fest is suing talent agency William Morris Endeavor Entertainment for failing to return artist deposits paid in advance of the now-canceled June 6-7 event in Los Angeles. The deposits totaled $6 million for performers Lizzo, Ellie Goulding, Kali Uchis and others to reserve their availability for the inaugural festival in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park, which was scrapped in May due to the coronavirus pandemic. The contract Virgin Fest signed with WME included a force majeure provision that outlined that the money would have to be returned in the if any “act beyond the reasonable control of the producer, which makes the performance impossible, unfeasible or unsafe,” according to court documents filed Friday and reviewed by Billboard. The concert promoters say that the...
Universal Music Group Makes Election Day 2020 a Company Holiday
The measure sprang from a recommendation by the company’s recently-announced social justice task force. Universal Music Group is making voting easier for its U.S. employees by making Election Day 2020, Nov. 3, a paid company holiday. The company announced the news to staffers in an internal memo Friday (July 17) and obtained by Billboard. “After all, the right to vote is the very foundation of democracy — perhaps of freedom itself,” reads the memo, which notes that only 56% of eligible U.S. voters cast a ballot in the 2016 presidential election. “As Americans, we have fought long and hard to win the right to vote. It took 91 years after the Constitution was enacted until people of color won the right, and even then, it was only males. It took 143 years after the...
Here’s When Billboard’s New Bundle-Banning Chart Rules Will Go Into Effect
The biggest changes start in October, but as of now, no new ticket or merch bundles are being approved. Billboard has set start dates for new rule changes to its charts doing away with the controversial practice of “bundling” albums with concert tickets and merchandise to drive market share and music sales. The changes also affect instant digital sales attached to purchases for physical albums delivered at a later date. Effective immediately, Billboard will no longer approve any new album/ticket bundle offers; moving forward albums will only be counted if promoted as an à la carte add-on sale to a ticket purchase. For existing, approved offers with an album released on or before Oct. 8, 2020: Redemptions (sales) generated by offer will be accepted for duration of the tour...
Live Nation Shares Bounce on Encouraging Vaccine Trial
Stocks of out-of-home entertainment companies got a boost from biotech company Moderna’s announcement on Tuesday. As markets reacted enthusiastically to a promising coronavirus vaccine trial, shares of concert promoter Live Nation leaped 12.2% to $52.09 on Wednesday (July 15) before closing at $51.84, up 11.7%. On Tuesday, biotech company Moderna published the results of an initial study for a coronavirus vaccine called mRNA-1273. The vaccine “elicits a robust immune response” in all trial participants, said chief medical officer Tal Zaks in a statement, and will enter the next phase — with approximately 30,000 participants — later this month. Jumps in other entertainment companies’ stocks reflect how desperate investors were for good news about markets brought to a...
REVOLT TV CEO Roma Khanna Stepping Down After Three Years
Colin McIntosh and Detavio Samuels will step in as co-heads. Roma Khanna, CEO of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ REVOLT TV, is stepping down from her role at the cable network after nearly three years on the job. Going forward, she will serve as an advisor to REVOLT TV’s senior team and shareholders. With Khanna departing, REVOLT TV executive vp and head of finance & operations Colin McIntosh and COO and head of content Detavio Samuels will step in as co-heads, taking over day-to-day leadership of the company. Both will report to Combs Enterprises COO Tarik Brooks. Named CEO in September 2017, Khanna has launched such programing as State of the Culture and REVOLT Black News, in addition to the multi-city, multi-platform REVOLT Summit x AT&T. Under her tenure, REVOLT has also grown its distribu...
Spotify’s Russian Push Targets New Market With Considerable Growth Potential
The streaming service has announced an expansion into 13 new markets, reaching potentially 250 million new users — if only it can sign them up. Spotify is launching its streaming service in Russia and 12 other countries in Europe, marking an important expansion that will bring the music streamer to nearly 250 million new listeners and effectively blanket Europe with the service. In addition to Russia, the 16th-largest streaming market, Spotify will push into Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine. The launch comes as the digital streamer has been expanding aggressively into new markets. It introduced the platform in India in 2019; in 14 markets in the Middle East and Africa in 2018 (inc...
How We Work Now: Sofar Sounds VP City Operations Amanda Presson
In a series amid the coronavirus pandemic, Billboard is asking individuals from all sectors of the music business to share stories of how they work now, with much of the world quarantined at home and unable to take in-person meetings, attend conferences or even go into the office. Submissions for the series can be sent to HowWeWorkNow@Billboard.com. Read the full series here. This installment is with Amanda Presson, vp of city operations at intimate concert series company Sofar Sounds. Amanda Presson: [The shutdown] was such a huge shift for us, because we are so focused on the live event experience and bringing our communities together in person. After we had to halt our core business, our first thought went to, “How do we continue to support artists?” That was such a big part of our miss...
Why NYC’s Entertainment Commissioner Sees Reopening Music Venues as a Chance to Rethink a ‘Flawed’ System
“It strengthens the argument that we really need to support our local venues, and for us to represent their needs at the table,” says Anne del Castillo. This week, New York City enters phase three of reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, meaning the return of hair and nail salons, basketball courts and more spaces in addition to outdoor dining. But for local music venues from (Le) Poisson Rouge to Brooklyn’s Elsewhere — many of which faced rising rents, gentrification and other challenges even before the pandemic began — the road to reopening remains ongoing and uncertain. Anne del Castillo knows this struggle well. The New York City native took over as commissioner of Mayor Bill de Blasio‘s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) in April 2019, with a foc...
