business
H.E.R., Leslie Odom Jr. & More to Perform Oscar-Nominated Songs on Pre-Show, Not the Main Telecast
The Oscars have struggled with how to include the five nominated songs without having a four-hour show. The producers of the 93rd annual Academy Awards had good news and bad news for the singers who are performing this year’s Oscar nominees for best original song. The good news: All five nominees will be performed in their entirety. The bad news: They’ll be featured on a 90-minute pre-show, Oscars: Into the Spotlight, which is billed as “the lead-in” to the Oscars. Hosted by actors Ariana DeBose (Hamilton) and Lil Rel Howery (Bad Trip), the pre-show will air Sunday, April 25, at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT. The main Oscar telecast will begin at 8 p.m.. ET/5 p.m. PT. The Oscars have struggled with how to include the five nominated songs without having a four-hour show. In a few years, none of...
UTA First Major Agency to Set Optional Return to Office Date
Returning to the office is completely optional for employees. Zimmer clearly states that any staffer who is not yet prepared to return to the office, even if they’re vaccinated, will not have to do so. The agency is requiring those who do come back to have been fully vaccinated, though. Read Zimmer’s note to employees here: With vaccinations rapidly increasing across the nation and California announcing plans to fully reopen by mid-June, I’m pleased to say a return to our UTA offices is near. More details will follow in the coming weeks, but at this point we are planning for a reopening of our Nashville offices on June 1 and our Los Angeles office on June 15. We plan for our offices in London to open on August 31 and New York on September 7. A cross-company team has been consul...
Taylor Swift Smashes Records In Australia as ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ Debuts at No. 1
According to ARIA, the 17 weeks that separate evermore first summiting and the debut of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) sets the record for the shortest span between different albums to reach the top, beating Swift’s own mark of 20 weeks between her last two LPs. Three tracks from it impact the singles chart this week, led by “Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”, new at No. 19. Swift’s tally of eight No. 1 albums places her second on the all-time leaderboard for female solo artists, behind only Madonna (with 11). She also sits one release behind Eminem (9) for the most consecutive No. 1s. On the latest ARIA Albums Chart, Justin Bieber’s Justice (Def Jam/Universal) dips 1-2, while veteran Australian artist Richard Clapton starts at No. 3 with Music Is Love (1966-1970) ...
The Deals: Def Jam Strikes JV With Poo Bear; Deadmau5 Cosigns New Gaming Startup
“I’m extremely grateful for Bearthday Music to have partnered with Def Jam and Universal,” added Poo Bear. “This is truly a dream manifesting to have the support of Def Jam, and their belief not only in me but in the artists I believe in. I’m looking forward to what’s to come from this new promising venture. Thank you to Lucian Grange, Jeff Harleston and Naim McNair for this opportunity. HBD!!!!” In addition to the aforementioned artists, Poo Bear has worked with J Balvin, DJ Khaled, Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey, Billie Eilish and Ed Sheeran, among many others. He boasts nearly 300 songwriting and production credits with sales of over 350 million records worldwide. Joel Zimmerman (deadmau5) and Richie Hawtin (Plastikman) along with music industry visionaries Ben Turner, Dean Wilson and Ind...
Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei’s 2020 Pay Rises to $47.1 Million
The bulk of his overall compensation last year continued to come from option awards, stock awards and a non-equity incentive plan. Maffei’s 2019 compensation had jumped thanks to a new employment contract that boosted his option awards from $8.8 million to $27.8 million. His option awards dipped to $24.98 million in 2020. Liberty Media in its regulatory filing also disclosed the annual pay for chairman Malone, which amounted to $1.09 million. He had made $1.4 million in 2019, $1.1 million in 2018, $797,082 in 2017 and $747,156 in 2016. Liberty recently reported 2020 revenue of $9.4 billion, down from $10.3 billion, and a loss of $1.4 billion, compared with 2019 earnings of $106 million. Maffei recently suggested that streaming giant Amazon would drive an accelerated push by Big Tech ...
Joy McKean, Australia’s ‘Queen of Country,’ to Receive Ted Albert Award at 2021 APRAs
Now aged 91, McKean composed “The Biggest Disappointment, “Ringer from the Top End,” “Walk a Country Mile” and “Indian Pacific,” and did so while touring regional and remote Australia at a time when the perceived role of women was that of home maker. McKean will be in the room for the presentation during the 2021 APRA Awards, set to take place April 28 in Sydney. Her contribution to Australian country music “as a pioneering songwriter, bush balladeer, touring performer and artist manager is unparalleled,” reads a statement from APRA. The Ted Albert honor “was most unexpected,” she admits in a statement, “and I thank those who must have nominated me for such consideration by APRA.” It’s not the first time McKean been honored for her art and advocacy. In 1991, McKean was awarded th...
Minister: Nigerian government worried about rising unemployment rate
Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has said the federal government is worried over the rising unemployment rate in the country. Speaking at the 2nd Shakeholders’ Meeting on Expatriate Quota Administration organized by the Citizenship and Business Department of the Ministry of Interior, the Minister said: “Anyone that is not worried about the unemployment rate in the country is not a patriot.” He lamented that the unemployment rate of 33 per cent released by the National Bureau of Statistics was indeed worrisome and a wake up call that something urgently needed to be done to keep Nigerians employed and drastically reduce the unemployment rate. The Minister, who called on all stakeholders at the meeting to ensure quality inputs were brought to the table that will lead to the produ...
Reservoir Leading Music Publishing Funds Onto the US Stock Market
Ross CH Acquisition II is bringing $115 million to Reservoir’s public offering as part of the deal. Some institutional investors including Caledonia have been lined up as anchor shareholders, which will bring in $150 million in gross proceeds. In the end, after investment banking, legal fees and other expenses, Reservoir will be left with $246 million in gross proceeds from the transaction. The company’s current shareholders, including the Khosrowshahi family, will roll over all their Reservoir equity into the new company, giving it an enterprise value of $788 million. That means that the Reservoir shareholders will likely have a lock-up period — maybe 180 days — before they can cash in any of their shares. In the meantime, the company has an implied pro-forma equity value of $...
CAC aims to register new company within three hours
The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) says it will be possible for companies in Nigeria to be registered within three hours, before the end of 2021. The commission tweeted this on Sunday via its verified Twitter handle. It said, Garba Abubakar, the commission’s registrar-general, gave this indication at a recent dinner in honour of the chairman, governing board, CAC and Nigeria’s Ambassador-designate to Spain, Ademola Seriki. The commission announced last December the upgrade of its online registration portal for business. It said the upgrade would include features that allow the automation of key services and processes in line with the federal government’s effort to Nigeria’s ease of doing business. Newsmen had reported how the new regulation protocol has left businesses in the country s...
Demi Lovato’s ‘Dancing With the Devil…’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales Chart
Of Dancing’s debut sales of 38,000, physical album sales comprise 25,000 of that figure (all in CD sales) while digital album sales comprise 13,000. Sales of Dancing got help from the availability of a Target-exclusive CD edition of the set with two bonus tracks, a signed CD sold via Lovato’s official website, multiple CD cover variants and a deluxe edition with bonus tracks available through digital retailers. Carrie Underwood’s My Savior falls 1-2 in its second week on Top Album Sales, selling 31,000 copies (down 55%). After two weeks on sale, My Savior is the fifth-biggest selling album of 2021, with 99,000 copies sold through April 8. The year’s top-seller is Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, with 215,000 copies sold. Sturgill Simpson’s Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 2: The Cowboy Arms...
Televisa, Univision to Merge, Forming Spanish-Language Media Powerhouse
The merger will be partly financed by $1 billion of new Series C preferred equity investment led by SoftBank’s Latin American Fund, along with current Univision investor ForgeLight LLC, Google and The Raine Group; and $2.1 billion of debt commitments arranged by J.P. Morgan. The merger would create the largest Spanish-language media company in the world with bases in the two biggest Spanish-speaking markets: Mexico and the United States. Televisa is a production powerhouse, producing some 86,000 hours of content in 2020, and both companies hold big sports rights packages. “This strategic combination generates significant value for shareholders of both companies and will allow us to more efficiently reach all Spanish-language audiences with more of our programming,” said E...
Minister: Rail transportation awakening giant to help run government
Nairaland Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation, on Tuesday described the rail mode of transportation as the awakening giant that would run government. He made the disclosure at the virtual National African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) Implementation Engagement Series for the Rail sub-sector of Transportation. Amaechi, who was represented by Mr Ibrahim Mohammed, a Deputy Director at the Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMOT), noted that the Federal Government had invested heavily on the rail sub-sector of transportation to help facilitate trade. “The rail sub-sector needs consistent opening for the country to further tap into the agreement that AfCFTA creates. “This is why government has embarked on many projects, developing the narrow gauges and establishing standa...
