Record Labels
HYBE’s Quarterly Earnings Get Boost From Ithaca Holdings as BTS Concerts Await
Content featuring BTS and management fees from Ithaca’s clients helped generate record revenue in the third quarter. It took a coalition of songs, artists and merchandise — plus a big acquisition — to help Korean music company HYBE, the home of BTS, recover from a fourth straight quarter without touring revenue. BTS’ hit “Butter” and revenue from Ithaca Holdings, which HYBE acquired in April, helped the company post record quarterly revenue of 341 billion KRW ($288 million) in Q3, up 79.5% from the prior-year period, the company announced on Thursday (Nov. 4). HYBE held up remarkably well while the pandemic has brought its concert business, historically a major money-maker, to a complete standstill. Concerts accounted for 29% and 33% of HYBE...
Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss Make Music History In ‘Story of A&M Records’ Series: Watch the Trailer
A&M was masterminded by a pair boasting complementary skills (Alpert, a great jazz trumpeter, and Moss, the businessman), who trusted their gut instincts. Their lifetime achievements were recognized in 2006, when Alpert and Moss were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with duties performed on the night by one of their signings, Sting of The Police. “Whether they were totally obscure or fabulously successful,” reads an essay on the pair, published by the Rock Hall, “they always recorded acts that they believed in.” Episode One of Mr. A & Mr. M airs on Dec. 5, and traces the early days of the label, which, like so many other great creative endeavors, began life in the humblest of beginnings: a garage in Los Angeles. A week later, on Dec. 12, tune ...
John Fagot, Veteran Promo Exec, Dies at 78
Fagot got his start in the industry in the 1970s working in the mailroom for CBS Records in Atlanta. His career then took him to the role of promotion manager for Columbia Records, serving Atlanta, Dallas and the Carolinas. By 1984, Fagot became Columbia’s national director of singles promotion before being promoted to vp promotion two years later. Capitol hired Fagot in 1987 to take on a similar role at the label. In 1995, Fagot moved from senior vp promotion at Capitol to the same role at Hollywood Records. In a 1990 interview with music and radio trade publication The Network 40, when asked what makes a great promotion person, Fagot said, “You have to love music, and you have to love the music you’re working. But the most importa...
Avril Lavigne Announces Signing to Travis Barker’s DTA Records
In the midst of a prolonged pop-punk revival, Avril Lavigne has signed a label deal with DTA Records, which is run by one of the movement’s main players: Travis Barker. “Let’s f–k s–t up!” Lavigne posted on Wednesday (Nov. 3), in an Instagram caption of a shot of her alongside Barker. “Just signed a record contract to Travis Barker’s record label DTA Records! Should I drop my first single next week?” DTA Records was launched in late 2019 by the Blink-182 drummer as a joint venture with Elektra Records. The label has served as both a home for rising acts like jxdn and Caspr, as well as a hub for Barker’s collaborations across hip-hop and rock. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you...
Bruce Springsteen In Talks to Sell Recorded Music Catalog to Sony Music
The Springsteen album catalog, which has racked up 65.5 million sales in the United States according to the RIAA website, and which includes the 15-times platinum Born In The U.S.A. and the five-times times platinum The River, still has plenty of firepower, as his music has generated 2.25 million album consumption units in the U.S. since the beginning of 2018, according to MRC Data. While Springsteen has long been associated with Columbia Records and Sony Music, he was among a handful of superstar artists like Garth Brooks, AC/DC, Pink Floyd and other Sony artists Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan and Michael Jackson who all managed to win back ownership of their recorded masters in the last decades of the 20th century. But now seems to be the perfect time for artists who own their copyrights to cas...
Utopia Music Acquires Lyric Financial Amid Surge of Investment in Independent Music
Utopia Music’s strengths play well with Lyric Financial’s data analysis to determine the amount of financing it can provide an artist. Its core product is an online platform for creators, rights holders and collection societies that tracks global usage data and maximizes a catalog’s revenues — its tagline is “fair pay for every play.” A separate service for investors helps them value and assess risk when acquiring a recording or publishing catalog. In September, Utopia acquired artificial intelligence startup Musimap to improve recordings’ metadata — information about performers, songwriters and rights owners that requires accuracy for the parties to be paid properly. Investors and the companies they back are increasingly funding artists who look to Chance the Rapper, who put three a...
The Deals: A$AP Ferg Joins Roc Nation; UTA Music Signs Dillon Francis
Dillon Francis has signed with UTA Music to oversee the DJ’s film, television and alternative media pursuits in addition to his international touring business in Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Francis will continue to be represented by Canopy Media Partners and TMWRK. Having just put out his fifth record Happy Machine, Francis is working on endeavors outside of music, penning scripts for his animated series titled Gerald’s World, which is currently in development. He is also putting together a treatment for a show about his alter-ego DJ Hanzel. Big Loud Records has signed rising country singer Jake Worthington to its growing lineup of artists. Worthington, who emerged as a finalist on NBC’s The Voice in 2014,...
‘Easy’ Money: Adele’s Return Lifts Her Entire Streaming Catalog
Yet Adele’s blockbuster return has been different than her peers’ major debuts in one significant way: her one new song is causing all her older songs — yes, all of them — to dramatically surge on streaming platforms as well. As “Easy On Me” crowns the Hot 100 in its first full week of release (the single debuted at No. 68 on last week’s chart based solely on its first five hours of availability), listeners have also flocked to her old albums. For the week ending Oct. 21, the total U.S. on-demand streams for Adele’s 2008 album 19, 2011’s 21 and 2015’s 25 increased a whopping 93% to 11.34 million streams, 79% to 25.86 million and 93% to 33.39 million, respectively, compared to the prior week, according to MRC Data. Multiple songs earned even greater streaming i...
Confidence Man Signs With I OH YOU, Books a ‘Holiday’
The new deal comes ahead of “Holiday,” the first track lifted from Confidence Man’s forthcoming sophomore album. Expect this “Holiday” to blow your hair back. “We’ve been wanting to try a ‘hands in the air’ banger forever. Everybody does. It’s quite difficult,” Bones explains. “But for some reason, this song has dropped out of the heavens.” Self-produced, and mixed by Ewan Pearson, “Holiday” was “pretty much perfect from the get-go,” he notes. Speaking over the phone from Sydney, singer Janet Planet describes the new cut as “Underworld meets M.I.A.” True, that’s an unusual vibe, she admits, “but for some reason it works.” “Holiday” is due out Nov. 11. Confidence Man “embody everything an I OH YOU artist should,” comments label founder Johann Ponniah, “they make...
Triller & Veteran Exec Steve Rifkind Launch Spring Singles Artist Discovery Platform
“We’re creating a new pathway to finding and launching the kind of raw talent that makes people stop and say, ‘Whoa, there’s a new star,’” said Rifkind in a statement. “Triller’s ability to amplify these new voices to the right audiences using their AI tools and sophisticated marketing is the way we hope to empower new voices so they can have a very real opportunity to potentially break through. We want to create a rhythm to our song releases. By scheduling them every two weeks, we will hopefully have created something that people pay attention to and look forward to. We have already found some amazing talent that we can’t wait to introduce.” Added Mahi de Silva, CEO of TrillerNet, parent company of Triller, Verzuz, FITE, Triller Fight Club, TrillerVerz and Amplify.ai, “Steve Rifkind is sy...
UK Music Streaming Sector Faces Probe From Competition Watchdog
The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee raised concerns about how the dominance of Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music was “distorting the market” and that the benefits of the music streaming boom were not being passed on to musicians. In the U.K., the three majors make up 75% of the recorded music market, with independents accounting for the remaining 25%, according to the Association of Independent Music (AIM). Streaming now accounts for four-fifths (80.6%) of all music consumption in the U.K., according to labels trade body BPI. “The U.K. has a love affair with music and is home to many of the world’s most popular artists. We want to do everything we can to ensure that this sector is competitive, thriving and works in the interests of musi...
APRA AMCOS Revokes Denis Handlin’s Ted Albert Award
The PRO’s decision comes exactly a week after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation aired Facing The Music, a 46-minute report which explored allegations of systemic bullying, discrimination and misconduct at the label under Handlin’s leadership. More than 100 current and former Sony Music employees were interviewed for the report. The Ted Albert Award is one of the most prestigious honors in the Australia music industry, and is typically presented during the annual APRA Awards. Past recipients have included the late Michael Gudinski, Michael Chugg, Fifa Riccobono and Archie Roach. In revoking the accolade, APRA AMCOS said it is “committed to fostering a music industry that upholds a high level of professional respect and conduct, and does not condone any form of bullying...
