Sony Music
What Is Eldridge Industries? A Primer on Sony’s Springsteen Partner
Bruce Springsteen’s blockbuster catalog sale to Sony Music Group this week also established a new player in rights acquisitions. Investment firm Eldridge Industries, which partnered with Sony to finance the purchase of Springsteen’s publishing, now holds a stake one of the industry’s most coveted catalogs — around which it can build an attractive portfolio. Eldridge Industries is a private investment firm with holdings in tech, media, retail, entertainment and other sectors. Co-founded in 2015 by Todd Boehly, a former president at Guggenheim Partners, Eldridge investments include the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, sports gambling company DraftKings, private jet provider Flexjet and personal finance app Truebill, among others. Eldridge owns a stake in P-MRC, a joint venture of MRC and P...
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...
Two Sony Music Execs Exit Amid Workplace Culture Probe
The pair leave some two months after the launch of an independent investigation into the Sydney-based company’s workplace culture, a development broken by The Sydney Morning Herald’s Nathanael Cooper. As previously reported, Sony Music veteran Denis Handlin left in June, after more than 51 years with the company, and 36 years the helm of the domestic business. “It is time for a change in leadership,” wrote Sony Music Entertainment CEO Rob Stringer in a memo to staff at the time. “And I will be making further announcements in terms of the new direction of our business in Australia and New Zealand in due course.” It remains unclear who is guiding the company at present, or how Sony Music is progressing with the recruitment process for a new leader. A spokesperson declined to comment further....
Major Labels Hit Charter Communications With Second Copyright Suit
“Charter has insisted on doing nothing — despite receiving thousands of notices that detailed the illegal activity of its subscribers, despite its clear legal obligation to address the widespread, illegal downloading of copyrighted works on its Internet services, and despite being sued previously by Plaintiffs for similar conduct,” the complaint maintains. The new lawsuit says the labels continued to “monitor and detect infringement” occurring on Charter’s network during the current claim period and sent over 150,000 additional notices identifying the illegal download, copying and distribution of their copyrighted music through BitTorrent and other digital file-sharing services. The notices allegedly flagged the unique IP addresses of what the labels claim are “tens of thousands” of ...
Sony Music Japan Launches Hub for Remixes of Anime and Video Game Theme Songs
EDM and video games go together like peanut butter and jelly—and their relationship is about to get a whole lot cozier with the newly rebranded “Sakura Chill Beats” YouTube channel. Launched this month by Sony Music Japan, the first-of-its-kind project will be a hub for official electronic remixes of anime and video game theme songs, with new selections available every Saturday at 1AM PT (4AM ET). The first track released on Sakura Chill Beats was RetroVision‘s remix of “Ashiato -Footprints-” by the peggies, out June 19th. Bright and upbeat, the original song was the ending theme of the anime television show My Hero Academia. RetroVision transformed the indie rock anthem into an electronic banger with soaring synths and a scintillating future h...
Denis Handlin Departs Sony Music After 51 Years
The bombshell news dropped Monday morning (June 21) Australia time, closely following another report published in the national press that exposes inappropriate behavior at the music major’s subsidiary. As previously reported, The Sydney Morning Herald has detailed allegations of discrimination, bullying and harassment within Sony Music Australia. Earlier in the year, the music giant terminated a veteran executive after an probe found he had engaged in misconduct with staff, details of which were documented by the SMH. As reported on the weekend, Sony Music has engaged an Australia-based external counsel to handle ongoing investigations. Handlin was not mentioned in any of the multiple SMH articles. As noted by its author Nathanael Cooper, “the publication isn’t suggesting Mr Handlin is acc...
Sony Music Launches New “Artists Forward” Campaign, Waives Debts for Pre-2000 Artists
Sony Music Entertainment is introducing a new campaign called “Artists Forward”. The project will prioritize “transparency with creators in all aspects of their development” in an effort to offer stronger “comprehensive support” to the artists on their roster worldwide. There are three main components to the “Artists Forward” campaign, the biggest of which is the Legacy Unrecouped Balance Program, which will no longer apply existing unrecouped balances to musicians’ earnings generated on or after January 1st of this year. To be eligible for this, artists must have signed to SME prior to the year 2000 and never received an advance from 2000 onwards. Of course, every artist’s contract may differ in terms of terminology or deals, but no matter what, “unrecouped balances” in this instance will...
Sony Music Will Start Paying Royalties to Legacy Acts That Still Owe the Label Money
The letter states that Artists Forward will focus on “prioritizing transparency with creators in all aspects of their development.” It continues, “Through this program, we are not modifying existing contracts, but choosing to pay through on existing unrecouped balances to increase the ability of those who qualify to receive more money from uses of their music.” Qualifying artists and participants will be notified in the coming weeks. As a result of the new policy, these legacy acts can now use financial services available through Sony Music’s artist portal. These include a new real-time advance feature that allows artists to receive instant advances on projected future earnings. (The feature is currently available in the U.S. and UK, and will be rolled ou...
Sony Music Promotes International Marketing Execs Melissa Thomas and Monica Cornia
Thomas will continue reporting to Sony Music Group chairman Rob Stringer. Along with Cornia, she was named a Billboard International Power Player earlier this year. “Melissa knows how to harness the global power of our Company to help break our U.S. artists around the world,” said Stringer in a statement. “Her teams, in conjunction with our U.S. Record Labels, have created unique marketing campaigns that resonate with audiences and push our artists to success. I’m so happy that Melissa will be leading our U.S. Repertoire’s international marketing team for the future.” Thomas added, “Music has no borders anymore. Our audiences are global from the beginning and hits can break from anywhere. I love bringing our U.S. artists to as many audiences as we can around the globe and I’m looking forwa...
ARLO Signs With Sony Music’s Arista Records
British recording artist and actor ARLO has signed with Sony Music Entertainment’s Arista Records. Based in East London, ARLO will release new music this year with Arista Records. Named one of the new influential faces in the U.K. for music and TV in 2019 by the Evening Standard, ARLO has garnered millions of music streams and headline shows in London. ARLO most recently collaborated with rapper Mick Jenkins on “Changing.” “ARLO is an incredible talent, and his approach to his artistry is innovative and original. We are so happy to have ARLO join the Arista family,” Arista Records president and CEO David Massey said. 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 back po...
Not for Sale: After Unloading AWAL, Kobalt Says Its Off the Block
Kobalt issued a statement Monday following news of the sale, saying it will strengthen its commitment to its publishing business and AMRA. “We are both excited for the big opportunities ahead across music publishing, AMRA and Kobalt Capital,” Kobalt founder and chairman Willard Ahdritz said in a statement. “Our team and capabilities will only grow stronger and play a continued role in making the industry better for creators.” Going forward the company says it will stick to its core mission. “Kobalt’s mission from the start has been to create transparency and fairness for creators,” Kobalt CEO Laurent Hubert said in a statement. “I could not be more excited to focus 100% of our efforts on our incredibly successful music publishing business. Through our world-class creative and synch t...
Sony Music Names Jean-Sebastien Permal Director of A&R in Continental Europe & Africa
Permal, who was born in Mauritius, moved to Vienna in 2014 to pursue a career in music management and publishing. He joined Sony Music Germany’s label Four Music in 2017 before expanding his A&R role to encompass all of Sony Music’s labels across Europe and Africa the following year. “With his deep roots in African and European music, Seb is well positioned to connect the dots among our A&Rs across the world to help artists succeed on a global scale,” said Sony Music president of Continental Europe and Africa Daniel Lieberberg, whom Permal will directly report to. “He is one of the most creative and well connected executives in both regions and a most valuable source of expertise for our artists and creatives.” Since 2018, Permal has worked with Sony Music’s labels on a number of a...
