Business news
Steve Smith, Legendary Radio Programmer Who Helped Launch the Hip-Hop Format, Dies at 62
The radio world is mourning the loss of revered programmer and consultant Steve Smith, who died suddenly last Thursday (July 7). He was 62. Tim Richards, Smith’s partner in Smith Richards Collective who first met Smith in 1992 at the MTV Awards in Los Angeles during a Westwood One broadcast, wrote on his Facebook page, “Steve was (that’s so hard to type) an incredible man. He was a radio innovator and one of the kindest and most creative programmers I’ve ever learned from.” Smith’s family confirmed his death in a statement to radio trade All Access, writing, “Steve unexpectedly passed away peacefully at home, in his sleep on July 7…Steve’s highly successful career spanned 40 years and has broken countless records, won countless awards, and has irrevocably changed the landscape of American ...
Steve Smith, Legendary Radio Programmer Who Helped Launch the Hip-Hop Format, Dies at 62
The radio world is mourning the loss of revered programmer and consultant Steve Smith, who died suddenly last Thursday (July 7). He was 62. Tim Richards, Smith’s partner in Smith Richards Collective who first met Smith in 1992 at the MTV Awards in Los Angeles during a Westwood One broadcast, wrote on his Facebook page, “Steve was (that’s so hard to type) an incredible man. He was a radio innovator and one of the kindest and most creative programmers I’ve ever learned from.” Smith’s family confirmed his death in a statement to radio trade All Access, writing, “Steve unexpectedly passed away peacefully at home, in his sleep on July 7…Steve’s highly successful career spanned 40 years and has broken countless records, won countless awards, and has irrevocably changed the landscape of American ...
How Brazil Is Stepping Up to Tackle Digital Piracy and Eying Metaverse Infringement
RIO DE JANEIRO – Authorities in Brazil are finding that fraudsters are using illegal download apps and websites to lure in music fans eager for a stronger connection to specific artists – and then profiting from reams of personal data they are mining from them. London-based IFPI and its recorded-music affiliate, Pró-Música Brasil, have been cooperating with a cybercrime unit of Brazil’s Ministry of Justice for over a year, working to root out services illegally peddling MP3 singles and albums from some of Brazil’s most popular artists, including Alok, Bruno & Marrone, Luccas Neto and Barōes da Pisadinha. Last month authorities shut down 461 illegal download apps and 11 websites — a record haul for a single anti-music piracy operation in Brazil. The apps generated more than 10.2 million...
SXSW Expands Into Australia
Austin’s famed South by Southwest conference and festival is headed to Australia. The Texas-born event bring its famed celebration of the technology, film and music industries to Sydney, Australia across seven days and nights from Oct. 15-22, 2023. SXSW Sydney will bring together the industries of music, gaming, film, television, technology and innovation much like the American version that launched in 1987. “Every day of the year we connect people to each other, developing events and content that celebrate the inter-relatedness of current and emerging topics. We continue to push our own boundaries by evolving and expanding as we strive to deliver an experience of unexpected discovery and inspiration,” said SXSW CEO Roland Swenson in a release. “We believe that Sydney’s similar future-focu...
Sony Music to Offer Financial Support for College Students With New Initiative
Sony Music Group will offer financial and other support to students studying music and music business-related fields via a new program announced Tuesday. Funding for the program is being provided by Sony’s $100 million social justice fund, unveiled by the company in June 2020. The Sony Music Group Global Scholars Program will provide scholarships to up to 50 students from diverse backgrounds who are enrolled at accredited colleges and universities across the globe. Students accepted into the program will receive annual financial support for the period of the degree program or upon completion, whichever is sooner, depending on a student’s financial need and the region where they’re based. For students in countries where colleges and universities are publicly funded or subsidized, applicants...
One of Music’s Biggest Wholesalers Is Going Public
Alliance Entertainment, the giant music, video and gaming wholesaler, will be going public and trade on the New York Stock exchange, the company announced Thursday (June 23). The public listing will be done through a reverse merger with Adara Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The deal is subject to the approval of the shareholders of Adara Acquisition Corp., which trades on NYSE under the symbol ADARA. If the deal closes — as expected in the fall — Alliance Entertainment will trade under the symbol AENT. The deal has assigned Alliance Entertainment a pre-deal valuation of $480 million. Alliance Entertainment serves as a one-stop for all titles to brick-and-mortar and online retailers. In the first nine-months of its fiscal year ended March 31, the compan...
Vinyl Prices Might Seem High Today, But They Were Worse in 1978
As far as albums go, 1978 was one for the record books. The Saturday Night Fever and Grease soundtracks topped the Billboard 200 album chart for a combined 36 weeks. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, released in 1977, was the No. 1 album in the U.S. the first two weeks of the year. Billy Joel’s 52nd Street topped the chart for the final seven weeks of the year. The Rolling Stone’s Some Girls and Boston’s Don’t Look Back each topped the chart for two weeks. It was also a notable year for another reason: In 1978, vinyl records were more expensive than any other time since the RIAA began tracking sales in 1973. That year, the average retail sale price of a vinyl EP/LP was $7.32 – equal to $30.18 in today’s dollars when adjusted for inflation. That was the second-highest vinyl sales year in U.S. histor...
BTS Accounts for Nearly 1/3 of All U.S. K-Pop Sales & Streams: Their Domination, By the Numbers
BTS members’ decision to take time off for solo projects is bound to shake up K-pop music consumption in the U.S. because of the group’s dominance in the genre. And the band’s label, Big Hit Music — a division of HYBE, which Universal Music Group’s Geffen Records has distributed in the U.S. since last year — will have a tough time filling the hole. Since the beginning of 2021, BTS has accounted for 29.4% of sales and on-demand streams of K-pop music in the U.S., according to a Billboard analysis of Luminate data. Over that time, BTS did not release a new studio album but put out two “best of” collections — BTS, the Best in June 2021 and Proof on June 10, 2022. BTS also released multiple variations of the tracks “Butter” (including a remix with Megan Thee Stallion), “My Universe” and “Permi...
Beatport to Host Inaugural Electronic Industry Summit This Fall In New York
The electronic music world’s leading digital download store is expanding further into physical reality. Beatport announced on Wednesday (June 15) its first ever ReConnect Summit, a two-day conference happening at Williamsburg, Brooklyn event space 74Wythe on September 21-22, 2022. Summit programming will focus on electronic music culture, creative innovation, technology, Web3 and more. Electronic-oriented companies including wellness initiative Art Of Areté, harm reduction group Dance Safe and representation nonprofit Women in Music will host keynote speeches and one-on-one discussions, with metaverse company PIXELYNX and Web3 streaming platform Audius curating a slate of Web3 focused conversations. Additional programming, including performances, will be announced in the coming month...
Music Stocks and Cryptocurrencies Hit by Recession, Inflation Fears
Music and other entertainment stocks fell sharply on Monday (June 13), following a string of worrisome events and expectations the Federal Reserve will make a substantial rate hike to slow inflation. The S&P 500 declined 3.9%, putting the index in bear market territory — down more than 20% from its high in January. The Nasdaq declined 4.7%. Radio broadcaster Cumulus Media fell 20.3% to $9.17, the largest decline of any music-related stock on Monday. Cumulus is “thinly traded and has high leverage,” Noble Capital Markets’ Michael Kupinsky tells Billboard in an email response. “Both are issues when [the stock is] out of favor and the market has its sights on an economic downturn.” Radio stocks had the worst day among music-related companies on Monday as four leading companies’ stocks dro...
The Ledger: Music Companies That Didn’t Go Public Missed a Crucial Window
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. If a music company was thinking about going public last year and didn’t, it may have already missed its opportunity – at least for the foreseeable future. Since Universal Music Group went public on Sept. 21, 2021, the S&P 500 is down 5.9% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is down 18.5%. From that date to the end of 2021, the markets rose 9.4% and 6.3%, respectively, and it looked like UMG might have left money on the table. But in 2022, stock prices turned south due to a combination of factors – namely rising interest rates and high inflation – and recession fears have multiplied. With the U.S. and other major economies on ...
Facebook’s Longtime COO Sheryl Sandberg Steps Down
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Sheryl Sandberg, the No. 2 executive at Facebook owner Meta, is stepping down. Sandberg has served as chief operating officer at the social media giant for 14 years. She joined from Google in 2008, four years before Facebook went public. “When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life,” Sandberg wrote on her Facebook page Wednesday. Sandberg has led Facebook — now Meta’s — advertising business and was responsible for nurturing it from its infancy into an over $100 billion-a-year powerhouse. She’s leaving Meta in the fall and will continue to serve on the company’s board. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in his own Facebook post that Javier Olivan will serve as Meta’...
