Business news
Bandcamp Fridays to Return in September
Bandcamp Fridays are making a return. The popular monthly promotion, during which the platform waives its usual revenue share and gives all proceeds straight to artists and labels, is making a comeback on September 2 after a several-month hiatus following the company’s acquisition by Epic Games in March. Historically, Bandcamp Fridays have taken place on the first Friday of every month, and, according to a blog post from Bandcamp co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond, the promotion will resume this fall. In addition to the September date, Bandcamp Fridays are scheduled for October 7, November 4 and December 2. Since launching Bandcamp Fridays, the company claims the promotion has ceded more than $78 million from over 800,000 fans to artists and their teams over a total of 21 days. On promotion ...
Executive Turntable: Warner Records Names A&R VP; Exceleration Music Taps Legal Head
Sean Stevens was promoted to vp of A&R and head of research & analytics at Warner Records in Los Angeles; he was previously senior director. Exceleration Music named Jennifer Newman Sharpe as the company’s head of legal & business affairs and general counsel. Based in New York, Newman Sharpe will oversee the process of developing agreements and negotiating contracts across all areas of the business. Raoul Chatterjee, SoundCloud‘s vp of content partnerships and operations, announced he will exit the streaming platform effective Aug. 31 after more than 6 years with the company. His departure follows SoundCloud CEO Michael Weissman‘s announcement earlier this month that the company would be cutting “up to 20%” of staff. The Blues Foundation named Kimberly Horton interim president ...
AIM CEO Paul Pacifico to Step Down at End of 2022
Paul Pacifico will exit the U.K.’s Association of Independent Music (AIM) at the end of 2022, the organization announced Monday (Aug. 15). His departure coincides with the end of his second three-year term as CEO, which officially ends on Oct. 31, though he will remain in the role through the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition. During his tenure, Pacifico led AIM through such earth-shattering chapters as Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. He also oversaw the establishment of a free Associate Membership tier and the launch of last year’s free Future Independents online conference to foster access to learning resources and networking opportunities for entrepreneurs and artists from diverse backgrounds. More recently under Pacifico’s leadership, the organization co-created a new MA ...
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...
HYBE’s Revenues Soared in Q2, But That Doesn’t Account for BTS Break
With BTS on a break since June and its members pursuing solo projects, HYBE’s solid second-quarter earnings release was as much about what happens next than what already happened. HYBE’s total revenue improved 83.8% to 512.2 billion KRW ($397.7 million) from April to June. Most growth came from the company’s “artist direct involvement” segment, which increased 153%. Concert revenue grew to 85 billion KRW ($66 million) from nothing in the prior-year period on the strength of BTS’s four concerts in Las Vegas and Seventeen concerts in Japan. Revenue from ads, appearances and management grew 39% to 30 billion KRW ($23.3 million) While merchandising and licensing improved 97.2% to 98.8 billion KRW ($78.7 million), contents fell 22.6% to 70.7 billion KRW ($54.9 million), partially because online...
Janet Yang Is Fourth Woman Elected President of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
Producer Janet Yang was elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by the organization’s board of governors. Her election was announced on Tuesday (Aug. 2). Yang is the fourth woman, and second person of color, to serve in that post. The first woman to serve as president was screen legend Bette Davis, though she served for just two months in 1941 before resigning. The other women to serve as president are Fay Kanin (1979-83) and Cheryl Boone Isaacs (2013-17), who is also the only previous person of color to serve in the post. Yang is beginning her second term as a governor-at-large, a position for which she was nominated by her predecessor as Academy president, David Rubin, and elected by the board of governors. Yang, a member of the producers branch since 2002, b...
Billboard Welcomes Andrei Radaza to Executive Team, Promotes Anjali Raja
Billboard is pleased to announce two updates to our executive team: Andrei Radaza is joining Billboard as svp/head of sales and Anjali Raja has been promoted to svp of business ops and audience development. Radaza is a new hire who began his advertising career with True Agency back in 2004 working on multicultural accounts for Nissan and Infiniti. Since then, he’s also held sales positions at Blackrock Digital, Vox Media and Complex, where he was vp of brand partnerships and oversaw the outlet’s Style vertical. Radaza also comes to Billboard with a requisite passion for music grounded in an early love of ’90s and 2000s hip-hop. The proud father of two currently has everything from Tyler, the Creator and Freddie Gibbs to Snoh Aalegra, Tems and Cleo Sol cycling on his playlist of favorites. ...
Brad Paisley, Lady A Sell Music Rights to HarbourView
In another move reflecting its diversified genre approach to music acquisitions, HarbourView Equity Partners has entered the Nashville scene in a big way with new investments in Brad Paisley and Lady A‘s catalogs. Paisley, who has won three Grammy awards and has generated activity totaling 17.4 million album consumption units in the U.S., has sold his music royalty income stream to his master recording catalog to HarbourView. Beyond his successful music career, Paisley remains in the spotlight most recently thanks to his involvement in Nationwide Insurance advertising campaigns and due to his partnership with Boot Barn for the Moonshine Spirit clothing line. His last studio album was Love and War in 2017, which reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart and peaked at No. 1 on Top Country Al...
FaZe Clan Goes Public After Completing SPAC Merger
FaZe Clan, the esports collective and youth culture brand that’s received investment from an array of heavy hitters in the music business, went public on the Nasdaq exchange Wednesday (July 20). The listing follows the completion of FaZe Clan’s special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger with 150 Merger Corp., an affiliate of B. Riley Financial. The combined company has been renamed FaZe Holding and will trade under the ticker symbol FAZE. On its first day, the stock finished down more than 24% to $9.88 after debuting with a share price of $13.07. It’s rebounded slightly to $10.19 in after-hours trading. With a fan network of roughly 500 million across social platforms, according to the company, FaZe Clan has drawn a number of high-profile investors from the music industry, including...
UTA Nabs Private Equity Investment From EQT to Fuel Expansion
A fund operated by the private equity firm EQT Partners has made a strategic investment in talent agency UTA, in a deal the agency says “will help fuel the next phase of investments in talent, innovation and international expansion.” EQT will become the largest outside shareholder in UTA in the acquisition, which will also see the firm acquiring stakes from some of UTA’s existing investors, including Investcorp and PSP Investments. UTA partnership and leadership will remain the controlling shareholders of the agency. Specific terms of the deal, including valuation, were not disclosed. However, everyone at UTA is expected to benefit financially from the investment. UTA has been on something of an acquisition spree in recent months, acquiring the strategic advisory firm MediaLink, the U.K. l...
Anitta Takes a Stand on Brazil’s Presidential Election – And Her Influence Could Help Sway Voters
With fewer than three months to go before the next presidential elections in her country, megastar Anitta has officially declared her support for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a left-wing former Brazilian president who is leading in the polls against far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Anitta stated her position on Twitter on Monday (July 11), two days after a leftist official supporting da Silva, the Workers’ Party candidate who is better known as Lula, was brutally murdered at his own birthday party by a Bolsonaro supporter in the state of Paraná in the country’s south. “If there had been no murder involved … I’d say that the stupidity of these people is almost funny. But it’s not. It’s frightening,” Anitta tweeted, referencing Bolsonaro supporters. “I’m not a Worker’s Party supporter, and ...
Twitter Sues Elon Musk to Force Him to Complete $44B Acquisition
Twitter sued Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday, trying to force him to complete his $44 billion takeover of the social media company by accusing him of “outlandish” and “bad faith” actions that have caused the platform irreparable harm and “wreaked havoc” on its stock price. Back in April, Musk pledged to pay $54.20 a share for Twitter, which agreed to those terms after reversing its initial opposition to the deal. But the two sides have been bracing for a legal fight since the billionaire said Friday that he was backing away from his agreement to buy the company. Twitter’s lawsuit opens with a sharply-worded accusation: “Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.” “Having mounted a public spectacle...
