Record Labels
No Will, No Music: Nío García’s Career Restarts After Settlement With Flow La Movie’s Estate
It’s been a little over a year since the Dec. 15, 2021 plane crash that killed Puerto Rican producer Flow La Movie along with his partner Debbie Von Marie Jimenez García and their children, aged 21, 18 and four. Born José Angel Hernández, Flow La Movie was 38 at the time of the crash and is survived by a daughter, Keigelyan Hernandez. He also left behind a catalog of hit recordings released under his indie label, AH Entertainment, including the star-studded “Te Boté,” which topped Hot Latin Songs for 14 weeks, and the entire catalog of rapper Nio García, including “AM” and viral hit “La Jeepeta.” Those songs, along with García’s recording contract, have been ensnarled in a complex legal battle that has prevented García –at the cusp of his career– from releasing any further materi...
Author Ari Herstand on Success in Music in 2023: ‘It’s Not a Straight Line Anymore’
The music industry was radically reshaped in the three years since Ari Herstand last updated his how-to instruction manual for independent musicians, How to Make it in the New Music Business: Practical Tips on Building a Loyal Following and Making a Living as a Musician, first published in 2016. The pandemic changed how musicians monetize live music, social media apps re-wrote the rules about promoting music and blockchain-based products went mainstream. “A lot has changed,” says Herstand. “I would say more has changed in the last three years than probably the last 20 years.” Now in its third edition, How to Make it in the New Music Business has joined Don Passman’s All You Need to Know About the Music Business as a go-to source for navigating the industry’s dire straits. Herstand augments...
How SZA’s ‘S.O.S.’ Cut Through the Holiday Noise to Rule the Charts
The holiday season is usually a wash when it comes to new music releases: the charts are dominated by the likes of Brenda Lee, Mariah Carey, Michael Bublé and Bing Crosby, and carols are dominating the radio on just about every channel. But this year has been different: while the top 10 of the Hot 100 has been full of the usual suspects, the Billboard 200 has been dominated by SZA’s S.O.S., the first album by the alt-R&B singer/songwriter in five years that roared out of the gate upon its Dec. 9 release with the fifth-biggest debut of 2022 and that has ruled the Billboard 200 for three straight weeks, bridging the gap between the holiday season and the opening of 2023. (And the Hot 100 found room for 20 songs from the album for good measure.) The success of that release has been no acc...
Australian Music Retailer Sanity to Close Its Physical Stores
BRISBANE, Australia — It’s closing time for Sanity, the once-great Australian music retail specialist which confirmed it would close all its bricks-and-mortar stores in the coming months. In a statement issued Wednesday (Jan. 4), Sanity announced plans to close its remaining 50 stores by the end of April 2023, in line with the lease expiry of each outlet. It’s a sad end to a music and entertainment chain which, like so many brands in the business of racking physical soundcarriers, has been left behind as consumers move to streaming platforms. “With our customer shifting to digital for their visual and music content consumption, and with diminishing physical content available to sell to our customer, it has made it impossible to continue with our physical stores,” explains Sanity CEO and ow...
Warner Music Shareholder Who Named Label in Sexual Misconduct Suit Fails to Win Board Seat
Former Atlantic Records employee Dorothy Carvello lost her bid for a seat on Warner Music Group’s board of directors last month after failing to comply with certain requirements in the company’s bylaws, spokespeople for Carvello and the record label said on Tuesday (Jan. 3). Under a new rule passed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last year that makes it easier for minority shareholders to wage campaigns for board seats, Carvello sought to nominate herself for a seat on WMG’s board, to be voted on at the next shareholder meeting. The activist and author, who alleged in her memoir, Anything for a Hit: An A&R Woman’s Story of Surviving the Music Industry, that she was subjected to sexual abuse and misconduct while working at Atlantic from 1987 to 1990, plans to run again ne...
Sony Music Says Artists Have Withdrawn $50M Using Its Cash-Out and Real-Time Advance Features
On Monday (Dec. 19), Sony Music Entertainment (SME) shared a recap with the company’s artists and earnings participants on the progress of its Artists Forward initiative, which encompasses SME’s legacy unrecouped balances initiative, healthcare assistance, advances on projected earnings and more. Notably, the recap offers never-before-reported stats on Sony Music’s artist portal and real-time insights platforms. Introduced in 2019, the features offer music creators and their teams “best-in-class” payment capabilities and real-time updates on consumption of their music and audience engagement data. According to the company, artists and other earnings participants have withdrawn nearly $50 million combined from both the cash-out feature, which allows users to cash out payable monthly account...
Sean Warner to Lead Universal Music Australia
BRISBANE, Australia — Universal Music Australia taps Sean Warner for the top job, which will vacated by the incumbent George Ash at year’s end. Announced Tuesday (Dec. 13), Warner is promoted to president, Universal Music Australia & New Zealand, with effect from Jan. 1, 2023. The incoming chief is a UMA stalwart with 15 years’ experience leading the company’s commercial business, both physical and digital. Warner joined UMA in 2007 as national sales manager and has served on its senior management team in recent years, most recently as senior vice president of commercial, with duties for the commercial growth, innovation and digital development for UMA & New Zealand. During his time with Universal, Warner has overseen the commercial strategy in Southeast Asia (SEA), launched...
George Ash to Exit Universal Music Australia
BRISBANE, Australia — George Ash is stepping down as president of Universal Music Australia and New Zealand. In a surprise announcement that hit inboxes as the music industry settled in for the first day of the working week, Universal Music Group announced Ash would retire from his position at the end of the year. “The time is right for me to step down from Universal,” says the outgoing executive in a corporate statement. “I feel confident that with the brilliant leadership group we have now, the organization will continue to grow and thrive. New Zealand-born Ash will leave UMA as part of a “long-planned personal decision to focus on new goals and projects,” reads the statement, “whilst leaving the company under the leadership of a new generation of executives, who will continue to b...
Sony Music Latin Unveils New Headquarters in Puerto Rico
Sony Music US Latin has officially opened its new headquarters in Puerto Rico, Billboard can confirm today (Dec. 8). The multinational record label, which has had its facilities on the island since 1980 (formerly CBS Records), is relocating to the modern office complex Ciudadela in Santurce, where the label’s artists will have access to a press room, recording studio, content creation room for networks, and other benefits. “These new offices are a tangible demonstration of what Puerto Rico represents for Sony and for Latino culture,” Alex Gallardo, president of Sony Music US Latin tells Billboard via email. “In addition, this expansion will allow us to provide a better service and support our current artists even more.” Reaffirming its commitment to Boricua talent, Victor Manuelle, P...
What Happens to Motown Next?
When Motown Records chairwoman and CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam announced on Tuesday she would be stepping down to “pursue new endeavors,” the news was met with surprise, concern and the one inevitable question: What’s next for the storied label founded by Berry Gordy? “Nobody saw this coming,” says one veteran label executive of the stunning announcement, stemming from the fact that Habtemariam was promoted to the chairwoman/CEO post in March 2021, only 20 months ago. Her groundbreaking appointment as the third woman — and only the second one of color — ever to hold that title at a major label was concurrent with other major news: Motown was being re-established as a standalone label after first being under the Island Def Jam umbrella and most recently under the Capitol Music Group banner. Du...
Warner Records’ Web3 Label Sold 5,555 NFTs in 7 Minutes. Now It Wants to Share IP Rights With Fans
What happens when you let 5,555 music fans make decisions at a major label? Warner Records is about to find out through its new Web3 imprint Probably a Label. After selling out a collection of NFT access-passes, the holders will now gather in a Discord server to help develop artists together, share the credits of any future awards such as a Grammy, and ultimately offer intellectual property rights in some of the projects to NFT holders. The experiment is a collaboration between Warner Records UK and Web3 brand Probably Nothing, whose debut NFT collection fetched $500k in seven minutes in October. Each NFT comes with different rarity and label roles (4,000 scouts, 1,500 managers and 55 label heads), allowing holders to vote on certain decisions. The rarest — and most expensive, currently at...
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Universal Music Group Buys 49% Stake in Indie Label Group [PIAS]
Universal Music Group (UMG) has purchased a 49% stake in the indie label group [PIAS], expanding on a strategic global partnership that began last year. As part of the deal, [PIAS] founders Kenny Gates and Michel Lambot will retain control of the company, “remain fully independent” and UMG will have no seats on the indie’s board. In March 2021, [PIAS] rebranded its distribution and services arm to [Integral], bringing on a new managing director to expand its business globally. Three months later, [PIAS] entered into an agreement with UMG that gave the major label group access to the [Integral] platform, which also handles distribution services for more than 100 indie label partners including ATO, Beggars Group and Secretly Group. The newly announced minority investment is said to be an ext...
