Record Labels
Universal Music’s Going Public: Here Are Your Options for Buying a Share
But U.S. investors won’t have easy access to UMG shares because they’re trading on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange, not a U.S. exchange such as the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. So, besides Tuesday’s listing starting at 3 a.m. EST, U.S.-based investors will have other complications getting in on the action. Some brokerage accounts that cater to international trading, such as Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab, provide access to exchanges in dozens of countries. However, these accounts are good for frequent, serious investors, not casual investors who might be burdened by tax issues, fees and currency fluctuations. Alternatively, a U.S. individual can eventually buy shares of a mutual fund that owns shares of UMG, or an exchange traded fund that includes UMG. The benefit is a...
Nashville Labels Turn to Pop Partners as Streaming Changes the Game
This kind of arrangement is growing more common to the point that every big Nashville label now works with a pop counterpart. Sony Music Nashville has teamed with RCA Records to promote several acts including Tenille Townes and Kane Brown, who has released songs with several acts on RCA’s pop roster, including Khalid and H.E.R. At first, Brown’s deals were renegotiated per song, but as it became clearer that the country star would continue to delve into pop, SMN and RCA now have a “broader partnership” for the “Be Like That” singer, says SMN executive vp/COO Ken Robold. “Basically it was [RCA Records COO John] Fleckenstein and I coming up with what we thought was a fair deal.” While he wouldn’t give specific percentages, Robold says RCA is “incenti...
Helene Fischer Renews Deal With Universal Music Germany
Fischer has sold 16.3 million albums, counting equivalent streams and downloads, many of them as CDs, which still sell well in Germany. As of 2018, she had scored the top-selling album in the market for five of the previous six years. To get a better sense of how popular she is, though, remember that Germany has a population of 83 million – about a quarter that of the U.S. – and the German-speaking market is roughly 100 million. Fischer also hosts in “Die Helene Fischer Show,” an annual Christmas program on the German public television network ZDF. Fischer’s new album, Rausch, is due out Oct. 15, and the first single, “Vamos a Marte” – Spanish for “let’s go to Mars” – is a duet with the Puerto Rican star Luis Fonsi, who is signed to Universal...
David Bowie Estate and Warner Music Partner to Bring Icon’s Entire Catalog to Label
Among the artist’s later works covered by this new pact are 2002’s Mercury Prize-nominated Heathen; 2003’s Reality; 2013’s The Next Day; and his final studio album, 2016’s Blackstar, also shortlisted for the annual Mercury Prize. Blackstar dropped just two days before Bowie’s death, on Jan. 10, 2016. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, giving Bowie a posthumous, first leader. The following year, during the 59th Grammy Awards, Blackstar swept all five awards it was nominated for. Warner Music Group has controlled the lion’s share of Bowie’s recordings since 2013, when the company acquired the Parlophone Label Group, following the split-up and sale of EMI. In the intervening years, WMG has pulled the trigger of several releases showcasing Bowie’s...
Dorothy Carvello’s ‘Anything For A Hit’ Exposé Being Adapted Into Docuseries: ‘We’re Going to Tell the Truth’
Stern and Sundberg are the filmmakers of such acclaimed documentaries as Reversing Roe, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Surviving Jeffrey Epstein and Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing. Their company, Break Thru, will also run production on the docuseries along with One Foot Forward, which produces content aimed at major streaming services, and Stroud, who has worked on the HBO Max series, Genera+ion. One Foot Forward is a division of Michael Yudin‘s MY Entertainment, which has produced content for Discovery, National Geographic, MTV and the Travel Channel. The producers have not revealed whether Anything For A Hit has been acquired by a streaming service, but Carvello says the project should be ready to run sometime next year. In a statement, Stern and Sundberg said, “We are...
Warner’s ADA Adds Heads of US and International
“The independent music community is a vital part of Warner Music Group’s global business, and this move ensures that ADA is set up to continue super-serving our label partners and artists in the long-term,” said Kreidich. “With Marcus and Adriana at the helm, we’ll be organized to work even more strategically across the organization—accelerating our global capabilities and local impact as we push full speed ahead. I am thrilled to welcome these deeply respected, forward-thinking executives to the ADA family.” Siskind, known as “DL,” got started in the music industry in the late ’90s with the launch of his label and management company Mass Appeal Entertainment and over the years has worked with Lil’ Kim, Backstreet Boys, DJ Khaled and others. He formed the music comp...
Drake Raps About Owning His Masters on ‘Certified Lover Boy,’ His First Full OVO Album
Scorpion from 2018 was the project that allowed Drake to fulfill his contractual obligations to Young Money/Cash Money, which he rapped about on “Is There More,” the final track on Side A: “Soon as this album drop I’m out of the deal.” On Certified Lover Boy‘s final track, “The Remorse,” he boasts, “And you know what I’m on, blowing past ya, owning masters,” which indeed seems to be the case for the OVO rapper. For the new album, Drake also partnered with Republic Records — which is home to major superstars like Taylor Swift, who started releasing her studio albums starting with 2019’s Lover and beyond under the UMG label following her departure from Big Machine Label Group — to distribute&nb...
The Deals: Primary Wave Acquires Gin Blossoms Catalog; WMG Licenses to Kuaishou
Warner Music Group has signed a licensing deal with China-based short-form video platform Kuaishou. Under the agreement, WMG will make its artists’ music available on all of Kuaishou’s overseas products, including the apps Kwai and SnackVideo. According to a release, Kuaishou boasts over one billion users worldwide, a milestone it hit in June. Outside of China, it has more than 180 million active users in territories including Latin America and MENA (Kwai) and South and Southeast Asia (SnackVideo). The platform encourages its “global community to share their activities, habits, and more with the core mission to ‘embrace all lifestyles.’” Oana Ruxandra, chief digital officer & executive vp of business development at WMG, said, “We’re excited to bring our diverse music ...
Drake Confirms Release Date For ‘Certified Lover Boy’
In July, Drake announced during his appearance on Fri Yiy Friday — a Sirius XM radio show spearheaded by his OVO Team — that he’d finished work on his follow-up to 2018’s Scorpion. “Album’s ready … Album’s cooked, looking forward to delivering it to you. Certified Lover Boy on the way, and that’s for anyone in the way,” he said at the time. While Drake, 34, and Kanye, 44, won’t really go head-to-head, the two superstars appeared to be setting up an epic chart clash withs some salty verses, with Drake firing first on Trippie Redd’s new song, “Betrayal.” “All these fools I’m beefin’ that I barely know/ Forty-five, forty-four (Burned out), let it go/ Ye ain’t changin&...
Kanye West Claims Universal Music Group Released ‘Donda’ Without His Approval
Billboard has reached out to Def Jam for comment. The Donda track “Jail pt 2,” featuring DaBaby, was originally unavailable when the album first appeared on streaming services Sunday morning, but became available later in the afternoon. In a now-deleted Instagram post from early Sunday, West shared screenshots of text messages saying the track was being held up because of clearance issues from DaBaby. During Ye’s third large-scale listening event for Donda at Chicago’s Soldier Field on Aug. 26, it was revealed that Jay-Z’s verse on “Jail” had been replaced by a new one from DaBaby, who has been under fire for making homophobic and misogynistic comments at Rolling Loud Miami in July. Fans were pleased to learn Sunday that Jay’s verse had been ...
Tomorrowland Forms Dance Label With Universal Music Germany
Through the partnership, Tomorrowland will enjoy direct access to a collective pool of UMG’s international label divisions, including Virgin Records and Astralwerks in the U.S. Leading the partnership will be Berlin-based Virgin Records executives Alexander Neipp, Daniel Schmidt and Magnus Textor, and Tina Adams at Virgin Music Label & Artist Services. Over the past 15 years Tomorrowland has built a reputation as one of the world’s leading festivals and electronic music brands by consistently expanding and evolving their relationship with music fans,” Frank Briegmann, chairman and CEO, Universal Music Central Europe and Deutsche Grammophon, said in a press release. He added that the partners had created a “uniquely flexible model” that will “help drive success and create global hits fo...
New L.A. Radio/Record Promotion Hall of Fame Will Honor Local Trailblazers: ‘It’s About Time!’
A 20-member committee, led by board member Steve Resnik, is spearheading a list of candidates that will include Southern California radio trailblazers, personalities, programmers and executives in all formats; and local and national leaders in record promotion from the music industry. Inductees will be honored at an in-person event. Like Alexenburg, Resnik achieved considerable success in the record industry. He worked at A&M, ABC/Dunhill and United Artists/EMI. He started New Marketing/The Charts with former Billboard associate publisher Tom Noonan before moving on to The Gavin Report and Radio & Records. He is co-founder and partner of RAMP (Radio and Music Pros) industry magazine. Other board members include top radio personalities Rick Dees and Shadoe Stevens. Los Angeles radio...
