Record Labels
Can This Music Rights Search Tool Solve a Big Industry Problem?
Hines, who lives in Atlanta, and New Jersey-based Noble made strides in 2020, first with funding from Collab Capital, an investment fund that targets Black entrepreneurs, as well as WeWork Black Founders, Google Black Founders Academy and early angel investors. Nobles says that Google, for instance, has been “hands on” by providing resources, including a tech support contact who went “deep with us on architecture” and other questions. Hines and Nobles also worked with teams from YouTube and ContentID, the Google-owned platform’s audio recognition technology used for copyright protection. Also, Music Tech Works was in the 2019-2020 cohort of Project Music and Entertainment, the music-focused startup accelerator of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. Rightsholder...
Mac DeMarco Reveals First Act Signed to Mac’s Record Label
The first taste from it is comfy/cosy single “Sometimes I Forget,” the music video for which was filmed by director Monika Mogi on Muira Beach, a couple hours south of Tokyo. “I’ve always loved the music he’s sent me and released over those years, and now I’m able to lend a hand in sharing his newest joint,” says Mac of Crick, a multi-instrumentalist who has collaborated with Iggy Pop, Weyes Blood, Kirin J. Callinan and Connan Mockasin. “I helped mix this record, and have heard it probably one thousand times at this point, and still love it.” Mac’s Record Label was announced in early 2019, a partnership with independent distributor Caroline. With his 2012 solo debut, the Rock and Roll Night Club EP, DeMarco busted into the spotlight, equal parts DIY wizz, psychedeli...
Warner Music Makes a Play for India’s Regional Music Market
The partnership with Sky Digital is part of Warner Music’s mandate of “taking the Indian sound global,” Jay Mehta, Warner Music India managing director, tells Billboard. The tie-up follows a similar distribution deal with Bollywood label Tips Music and a licensing agreement with Punjabi music aggregator Ziiki Media, which were announced in May and October 2020, respectively. In addition to running an in-house label whose roster includes such Punjabi singing stars as Sunanda Sharma, Sky Digital currently serves as the aggregator for over 40 Punjabi music labels as well as several Hindi, Haryanvi and Bhojpuri ones. Sky Digital also manages a suite of regional music YouTube channels in those languages that collectively have over 15 million subscribers. Among the recent big Punjabi hits distri...
Changes at Capitol Studios: Consolidation, Layoffs, New Role for Studio Manager Paula Salvatore
The historic Capitol Studios in Hollywood, home to recordings by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bob Seger, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles and thousands of other artists, is undergoing some major changes. Among the moves is consolidating administration services across all of the North American studios. Parent company Universal Music Group operates three studios in Los Angeles, one in Nashville, one in New York and at least one each in Canada and Mexico. That switch led to a shift in roles for longtime vp/studio manager Paula Salvatore, who recently celebrated her 30th year with the studio. A source says Salvatore, who could not be immediately reached for comment, will continue working with the studio in a different capacity still to be announced. As word spread of Salvatore’s departur...
JBL & Culture Creators Partner on HBCU Mentor Program
JBL/HARMAN, in partnership with the Black-owned agency Culture Creators, is launching JBL Campus SoundSessions. The new mentorship program will focus on expanding opportunities for minority college students aspiring to build careers in music production, marketing, business, technology or engineering. The chosen students will also be given a chance to win a $25,000 scholarship toward their education. Starting Jan. 26 and running through Apr. 6, 2021, select HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities) students will be able to virtually attend six curated conversations featuring JBL executives, engineers and influential music industry speakers who will share their respective career journeys, challenges and other insights. Accepted students who participate in all of the 60- to 90-minut...
OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder Sells Majority Stake in Catalog to KKR
The catalog of nearly 500 songs written, recorded or produced by Tedder encompasses all OneRepublic songs — including hits “Apologize,” “Secrets” and “Counting Stars” — as well as Tedder’s work with artists like Beyoncé, U2, Paul McCartney, Adele, Stevie Wonder, Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga, Cardi B and Jonas Brothers. Going forward, KKR will collaborate with Tedder to “expand upon the success and reach” of his and OneRepublic’s music, according to a press release. Formerly known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., KKR has a long history of music industry investments. It teamed with Bertelsmann for the music rights joint venture BMG Rights Management in 2009, controlling 51% until Bertelsmann t...
Hip-Hop, Latin & Vinyl’s Popularity Grew in 2020 (Rock, Pop & CDs’ Did Not)
Roddy Ricch’s “The Box” (via Atlantic) was the top streaming song in 2020 with 1.3 billion on-demand streams, beating out Future’s “Life Is Good” featuring Drake (via Epic), which had 1 billion on-demand streams. Lil Baby’s My Turn (via Quality Control) was the No. 1 album for the year, generating 2.6 million consumption units, with Taylor Swift’s folklore (via Republic) coming in second at 2.2 million album consumption units — of which 1.3 million were from sales (including 796,000 from downloads), making it the year’s best-selling album. In fact, Swift placed four albums in the year’s top 200 albums, as her Lover album ranked No. 33 with 878,000 album consumption units; evermore was No. 70 with 569,000 units and 1989 was No. 116 with 428,000 units. For the 21st year in a...
Roblox Raises $520M From Warner Music Group and Others
Warner Music Group has been focused on growing its footprint in gaming for some time. “Ultimately, everything is going toward gaming, and we want to make sure we’re capturing value within it. It’s the future of entertainment,” Oana Ruxandra, Warner Music Group’s chief digital officer, told Billboard last September. The music industry has certainly been flocking toward gaming platforms over the past year, with Travis Scott pulling in 27.7 million participants during his Fortnite in-game performance last April, kicking off a wave of artists looking to set up virtual concerts on similar platforms. Roblox launched its first virtual concert in November, with a virtual concert by Lil Nas X that racked up 33 million views. “COVID has supercharged the demand for 2D and 3D live streaming even...
UMG Beefs Up Leadership in Africa, Promoting Sipho Dlamini to CEO Role
All three executives will work closely with UMG’s French-speaking operations principally in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Cameroon, which are overseen by Franck Kacou, directeur général, Universal Music Africa. The strengthening of its Africa leadership team is the latest move in Universal’s big bet on the continent. With an emphasis on A&R, UMG has been aggressively expanding its operations in Africa. Rather than licensing or distributing existing indie labels, Universal has invested in building lasting local infrastructure, including establishing divisions in Nigeria and South Africa, such as Def Jam Africa, which is focused around hip-hop, Afrobeats and trap. In 2018, UMG became the first major label to license its catalog to Boomplay, Africa’s largest local streaming platform. (In Sub...
Universal Music Group, Concord Extend Global Distribution Deal
“UMG and Concord have built a wonderful relationship over the past 15 years,” comments Concord CEO Scott Pascucci in a statement. “As we have grown, they have provided the support that we needed to expand the worldwide success of our frontline labels, the KIDZ BOP franchise, Craft Recordings, and the rest of our catalog. We are very pleased to be renewing this partnership with Universal.” Adds Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group: “Our partnership with Concord is built on a foundation of shared values. We both put artists and creativity at the center of everything we do.” Grainge continues, “I couldn’t be happier to extend our partnership and l look forward to even more success working with Scott, Tom, Sig and the entire Concord team.” The independent Concord music gro...
Lucian Grainge’s Year-End Memo: An ‘Incredibly Difficult’ 2020, Label Successes & His COVID-19 Scare
Taking his time to get to the usual accolades (of which there were plenty for the world’s leading music company), instead he focused on the power of music in trying times, noting, “I want this year-end note to remind each of you of the instrumental part you played in bringing to the world something powerful, inspiring, uplifting, and yes, universal: music. A force for good unlike any other in the world.” Grainge then highlighted other kinds of achievements that his company can tout, taking action during the year’s multitude of crises: “organizing, volunteering, educating, donating,” as he listed off, detailing how Universal responded to the pandemic, the nation’s racial reckoning and the election. Universal donated to a swath of organizations and d...
Joie Manda Exiting Interscope Geffen A&M: Exclusive
Formerly Interscope’s head of urban music, Manda assumed the executive vp role in 2017. With Janick, he helped bring the label to record-level market share, signing or working with top hip-hop and R&B acts including DaBaby, Summer Walker, Mike Will Made-It, Rae Sremmurd, Machine Gun Kelly, 6lack, Tory Lanez, Dreezy and Playboi Carti, and was instrumental in the 2014 partnership with J. Cole’s Dreamville Records. But he also supported the labels’ pop efforts like Billie Eilish, Selena Gomez and Blackpink. Manda previously served as president of Def Jam Records, also a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Prior to joining the UMG family, Manda served as head of urban music for Warner Bros. Records, where he worked closely with Jill Scott, Common and Rick Ross’ May...
