Believe
Believe Is ‘Maintaining All Its Operations’ in Russia — And Some Claim ‘Aggressively’ Growing Market Share
LONDON — Six months after Believe announced it had “suspended activities” in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, the French music company now says it is “maintaining all its operations” in the isolated nation. At best, that means recruiting staff to fill vacated roles and making multi-million dollar deals to renew contracts with label partners. At worst, sources say, Believe is taking advantage of the moment, “aggressively” signing Russian record labels and artists to gain market share in the region while major labels have committed to cease all new business there. In one Aug. 30 email reviewed by Billboard, a senior Believe executive in Russia offered a Russian record label 3 million euros ($3 million) for rights to its catalog and future releases. The email, which was wri...
Music’s Top Money Makers: The Highest-Paid Executives and Stockholders at Publicly Traded Companies
Kang Hyo-won is not a marquee name in the music industry. The South Korean producer is better known as Pdogg, the studio wizard behind hits by K-pop supergroup BTS and other acts on the roster of Korean entertainment company HYBE. Because Kang played a key role in HYBE’s global success, his employer gave him 128,000 stock options in 2016 that turned into about $35 million when Kang exercised them. (All currency conversions to U.S. dollars in this story are based on the average 2021 exchange rate.) That made Kang the second-highest-paid music industry executive last year among those whose earnings are publicly disclosed. Yoon Seok-jun (aka Lenzo Yoon) and Kim Shin-gyu, co-CEO of HYBE America and chief artist management officer, respectively, also benefited from HYBE going public. Yoon nette...
The Ledger: In Strong 2022, Advertising Is Rare Weakness for Music Biz
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. With a handful of music companies’ quarterly earnings releases now in the books, the outlook for the second half of the year appears strong almost across the board. There is one area of weakness, however: online advertising. On Wednesday, French music company Believe slightly raised its guidance for fiscal 2022 but warned in its investor presentation that organic growth will slow in the second half of the year “as the ad-funded streaming activities should be affected by rising inflation and economic uncertainties.” Spotify also pointed to some weakening in advertising. “For advertising, we did see some softening in tren...
The Ledger: How Much Will Music Subscriptions Grow in 2022?
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Earnings season is a great time to read the tea leaves about the future of the streaming and subscription businesses. How much growth is ahead? Where will that growth come from? Is pricing headed up or down? The answers are vital for investors but are also important to labels, publishers and creators. In the last two weeks, three companies — Spotify, Universal Music Group and Believe — provided some outlook on the streaming market during their earnings calls with analysts. Their earnings reports appeared in the wake of Netflix’s warning of subscription growth slowdown and the abrupt demise of CNN’s subscription platform...
VIDEO: Kellar Thrillz – Believe
Check out this brand-new music video coming from Kellar Thrillz – Believe. Contemporary gospel artist, Kellar Thrillz drops the official music video for his viral single “Believe”. The single was released on January 14, 2021, and according to the singer, he wrote the song to inspire anyone who’s feeling discouraged to keep up with the faith and hard work. It’s a song that motivates just about anyone to “Believe” and focus on the promises of God because one thing is certain; God has never lied and can never lie. He’s hoping this visual will portray more of the message he is trying to pass across and inspire people further to keep believing in God. This video was directed by Henrietta Pixels and you are going truly going to connect with the message. Watch and enjoy Kellar Thrillz – Believe v...
