Sony Music
Sony Music Says Artists Have Withdrawn $50M Using Its Cash-Out and Real-Time Advance Features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 According to the company, artists and other earnings participants have withdrawn nearly $50 million combined from both the cash-out feature, which allows users to cash out payable monthly account...
Triller Removes Music From Universal, Sony, Warner and Merlin
Try using some of your favorite songs on the short-form video app Triller, and you’ll be hard pressed to find what you’re looking for. On Thursday, the music catalogs for Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music and Merlin — which provides digital licensing to many top independent labels and distributors — were removed from the platform. A Triller spokesperson says the platform is “reassessing each of our label deals as they come due as our catalogue music usage is a small fraction of our overall business with creators. “Some labels are more used than others and if we can make financial arrangements which make sense for the platform, on a label by label basis, we will. In other cases the usage does not justify the cost.” The news follows a lawsuit filed by Sony Music Entertain...
Megan Moroney Inks Deal With Sony Music Nashville/Columbia Records
Singer-songwriter Megan Moroney has inked a label deal with Sony Music Nashville and Columbia Records. During her opening performance slot for Warren Zeiders: The Up to No Good Tour on Wednesday evening (Nov. 16) at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, Moroney announced her label signing, and also told the audience that her song “Tennessee Orange” will be sent to country radio. According to Moroney’s manager, Punch Bowl Entertainment’s Juli Griffith, Moroney and her team were in talks with 18 record labels before signing with Sony Music Nashville and the NYC-based Columbia. “We picked this combination because they understand exactly who Megan is and what she has already created,” Griffith tells Billboard. “Their plan is to come in and enhance what we are already doing under her creative vi...
Sony Lawsuit Claims Triller Hasn’t Paid in Months But Is Still Using Its Music Catalog
Sony Music Entertainment is suing Triller for breach of contract, claiming the video-sharing social networking app has failed to make payments for months and after being served a termination notice has also failed to pull the company’s catalog of music from the platform. According to Sony’s lawsuit filed Monday (Aug. 29) in New York, Triller has “historically failed to make payments in a timely manner” but those “failures” escalated in March 2022 when the company “failed to make any monthly payments required under the Agreement, totaling millions of dollars.” Since then, Triller has allegedly continued to fail to pay its outstanding fees, despite Sony’s requests (“and near-total radio silence in response,” the suit states). On July 22, Sony notified Triller that it was in material breach o...
Insomniac Music Group and Sony Music Publishing Ink Global Administration Partnership
Insomniac has signed a global administration deal with Sony Music, inking a partnership that has the look of watershed moment for the electronic music powerhouse. Billboard reports the deal entails royalty collection between the two companies as well as collaborative A&R schematics. The partnership arms Insomniac Music Group with an established administration partner to expand the services they provide to producers and songwriters, like in-house accounting and a new online royalty portal. “It’s an honor to work with Sony, who is the world’s largest publishing company,” explained Insomniac founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella in a press statement to Billboard. “Expanding our reach to support Insomniac Music Group artists to showcase their work strategically worldwide is a ...
Mariah Carey Accused of Stealing ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ in $20M Lawsuit
Mariah Carey is being sued for $20 million by a Mississippi artist who claims the singer stole her perennial holiday blockbuster “All I Want for Christmas is You” from him and denied him his rightful profits from the song. In the complaint, which was filed on Friday (June 3) in Louisiana district court by attorneys Douglas Schmidt and Andrew Abrams, Vince Vance (née Andy Stone) says Carey and her “All I Want” co-writer Walter Afanasieff willfully infringed his copyright of the song and have been unjustly enriching themselves ever since. Afanasieff and Sony Music, which released “All I Want for Christmas is You” on Columbia Records, are named as co-defendants in the suit, along with Sony Corp. of America. Described as a “self-employed artist,” Vance says he co-wrote the song of the same nam...
The Ledger: Sony Music’s Cautious Catalog Approach & Other Investor Call Highlights
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Sony’s annual investor presentation was a rare opportunity for Rob Stringer, chairman of Sony Music Group and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, to go on record on the important financial issues of the day. Any analyst or investor listening in got some helpful insight into Stringer’s thinking about how Sony spends money and what will account for future revenue growth. Stringer’s presentation recapped Sony Music’s fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, as well as its double-digit growth over the previous five years. Revenues were up $3 billion since 2017, profit margins have improved and streaming now accounts for 70% of total ...
Mexican Rapper Gera MX Signs With Sony Music
Gera MX has signed a deal with Sony Music, Billboard can exclusively announce today (May 3). The Mexican rapper and major label have joined forces to “continue the steady growth and impact of his career and celebrate his arrival to the home of artists,” says an official statement. “I feel really excited about this new stage in my career,” Gera (real name: Gerardo Daniel Torres Montante) said. “I know this strategic alliance with Sony will be crucial to continue growing what has already been highly achieved in my career.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Born in Monterrey and raised in San Luis Potosi, the former Billboard Latin Artist on the Rise has a trajectory that spans over 10 years and credits artists such as Molotov, Control Mache...
Inside Track: Labels’ Back-to-Office Plans Include Massages, Mediation, Free Lunch & Concerts
As COVID-19 restrictions ease, music companies are welcoming back employees with a wide range of healthy perks to lessen the stress of returning to the office after two years of working from home. Warner Music Group and publishing arm Warner Chappell offer staffers massages, reiki sessions and even sound baths in their Los Angeles, New York and Nashville offices, as well as complimentary lunches and smoothies. Baristas also man coffee stations to encourage face-to-face conversation and collaboration among returning workers who may have only seen each other over Zoom for months. There is also a full slate of virtual programs ranging from yoga, wellness classes and meditation. WMG’s recorded music division began welcoming staffers back in late February, while the publishing company and corpo...
The Hello Group Launches Music Publishing Arm in Partnership With Sony
The Hello Group, a multi-faceted entertainment company, is adding to its capabilities with the launch of a music publishing operation that has pacted with Sony Music Publishing for global administration and other services. Hello Group – which provides label services, artist management, digital marketing and other capabilities – has added a music publishing arm, dubbed THG Publishing, whose initial roster includes Alawn, Andy Love and Lauren Dyson. THG’s core focus will be on placing songs in the K-pop and J-pop markets. THG Publishing’s clients have been involved in writing or co-writing songs that have appeared on No. 1 albums on at least a dozen Billboard albums charts, as well songs that have attained high positions in global and international song charts. They include ITZY’s “Icy,” (Dy...
Sony Music Publishing UK Launches Second Songs Joint Venture
Sony Music Publishing UK has teamed up with creative executives Caroline Elleray and Mark Gale to launch Second Songs, a joint venture publishing and songwriter management company. Helmed by both Elleray and Gale, who both previously served as executives at Universal Music Publishing Group, Second Songs will focus on making sustainable careers for both developing and established songwriters. Under its management arm, producer and songwriter Steph Marziano — who has penned songs with Hayley William, Matilda Mann, Denai Moore and more — will act as Second Songs’ first signee. At this time, there have been no announcements regarding publishing clients. During their tenure at UMPG, Elleray and Gale were responsible for signing some of the hottest artists and writers of the last two decade...
David Waxman Appointed President of Ultra Records
Ultra Records has a new leader. On Thursday (Jan. 20), the venerable dance music label announced David Waxman as its president. Ultra’s parent company, Sony Music, confirmed that it now owns 100% of Ultra Records and that Ultra’s founder and now-former president Patrick Moxey has left the label. Moxey founded Ultra Records in 1995, and Waxman has been with the label as its head A&R for more than 20 years. The label entered a partnership with Sony Music in 2012, as dance music was experiencing a major rise in popularity in the United States. As president, the New York-based Waxman will oversee the day-to-day operations of the label, identify and develop new artists and projects and work with Sony Music to expand the Ultra Records roster and back catalog. During his tenure at Ultra Recor...
