Business news
Al Mair, Canadian Music Industry Pioneer and Attic Records Co-Founder, Dies at 82
<!– <!– _ _ _ ____ _ _____ _ ___ | | (_) | _____ / ___|___ __| | ___ | ____| |__|__ \ | | | | |/ / _ \ | | / _ \ / _` |/ _ \ | _| | '_ \ / / | |___| | Al Mair, Canadian Music Industry Legend & Label Founder, Dead at 82 – Billboard Skip to main content ad [flexi-common-toolbar] [flexi-form class=”flexi_form_style” title=”Submit to Flexi” name=”my_form” ajax=”true”][flexi-form-tag type=”post_title” class=”fl-input” title=”Title” value=”” required=”true”][flexi-form-tag type=”category” title=”Select category”][flexi-form-tag type=”tag” title=”Insert tag”][flexi-form-tag type=”article” class=”fl-...
Twitter Users Can Soon Get Blue Check for $7.99 Monthly Fee
Twitter has announced a subscription service for $7.99 a month that includes a blue check now given only to verified accounts as new owner Elon Musk works to overhaul the platform’s verification system just ahead of U.S. midterm elections. In an update to Apple iOS devices available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K., Twitter said users who “sign up now” for the new “Twitter Blue with verification” can receive the blue check next to their names “just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow.” But Twitter employee Esther Crawford tweeted Saturday (Nov. 5) that the “new Blue isn’t live yet — the sprint to our launch continues but some folks may see us making updates because we are testing and pushing changes in real-time.” Verified accounts did...
Diddy Makes a Big Move Into Cannabis Game With $185 Million Purchase of Major Pot Players
Sean “P. Diddy” Combs never does anything halfway. On Friday (Nov. 4) the music/fashion/sprits/media mogul announced that he plans to make a major investment in the legal marijuana game with a $185 million deal to buy licensed weed operations in three states. If approved, the deal would create the nation’s largest Black-owned and licensed cannabis company, a platform Diddy said he wants to use to increase Black participation in the field. “It’s diabolical,” Combs, 53, told the Wall Street Journal about his desire to get into the pot business to help address long-running inequities that have seen Black people disproportionately arrested and jailed for marijuana crimes even as they make up a “tiny” percentage of the market for legal weed. “How do you lock up communities of people, break down...
The Latin Grammys Are Evolving — And Asking Members to Come Along
Just minutes after nominations to the 2022 Latin Grammy Awards were announced in September, Manuel Abud called all of the nominees in the best new artist category. “One of our nominees was at school,” the Latin Recording Academy CEO says, referring to 15-year-old Yahritza Martinez, frontwoman of sierreño trio Yahritza y Su Esencia. “She stepped out to take my call and then went back to class.” Artists don’t usually learn about their nominations in a personal call from the academy’s CEO. But Abud — who stepped into the new role in 2021, succeeding longtime president/CEO Gabriel Abaroa Jr. after 18 years — says a top priority is making the academy more accessible to the Latin music community. The goal is more participation and greater representation across what Abud calls the “four Gs”: geog...
The Ledger: Music Subscription Prices Barely Budged for a Decade. That’s Quickly Changing
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. Apple Music may have opened the floodgates on Monday when it announced that it will raise prices on its Apple Music subscription service, as well as its Apple TV+ streaming video on-demand service and its Apple One bundle of services (which includes Apple Music). Apple wasn’t the first music streaming company to broadly raise prices. Deezer started raising prices in France in January. In May, Amazon hiked prices for Prime members for Amazon Music Unlimited from $7.99 to $8.99 (or $79 to $89 if paid annually) and for the single-device plan (for Amazon’s Echo and Fire TV devices) from $3.99 to $4.99 per month. And ...
Executive Turntable: Warner Records Appoints Marketing SVP; iHeartRadio Vet Adds Digital Music to Prez Purview
Shawnae Corbett-Rice was promoted to senior vp of marketing at Warner Records. Based in Los Angeles, she will continue to oversee marketing campaigns focused on artist development. She reports to executive vp of marketing & artist development Dionnee Harper. Jon Zellner was named president of programming operations and digital music for iHeartRadio, effective immediately. Zellner was previously president of programming operations. In the new role, Zellner will manage the programming, content and strategy for iHeartRadio’s digital channels and playlists while continuing to oversee iHeartMedia’s programming operations. In addition to running programming and strategy for the iHeartMedia custom and format center stations, he will continue to lead the company’s commercial production center,...
Spotify Launches ‘Your Wrapped Soundcheck’ For Artists to Connect With Top Fans
This year, Spotify is making the streamer’s annual year-end Wrapped campaign more artist-friendly. Called Your Wrapped Soundcheck, the new feature, available via Spotify for Artists, will allow artists to upload videos thanking their biggest fans for a great year on Spotify, list their latest merch and ensure tickets for their upcoming shows are available on the platform. These videos and offers will then be promoted to top fans as a part of their Wrapped experience. By uploading short, video messages of 30 seconds or less to their Spotify for Artists profiles, artists can let fans know what their support meant to them over the past year, tease what they’re working on next and/or tell a story that defined their year. Artists are encouraged to list merch on Shopify (the e-commerce gian...
The Ledger: What to Expect From Next Week’s Q3 2022 Earnings Calls
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. Music companies face a multitude of pressures as 2022 comes to an end: crippling inflation, a tight labor market, a chaotic environment for breaking new artists, interest rates that are dampening catalog valuations, and high costs of touring amidst a crush of artists on the road, among other challenges. The upcoming slate of corporate earnings provides an opportunity to hear about these opportunities and challenges from leaders of publicly traded music companies who rarely go on the record. Spotify reports third-quarter earnings after the close of trading on Tuesday (Oct. 25). Universal Music Group and Deez...
Taylor Swift Is Selling Over 20 Versions of ‘Midnights’ in Different Styles and Formats
For over a decade, Taylor Swift has been offering fans a multitude of options when it comes to purchasing her albums across physical formats with exclusive editions available through a longstanding partnership with Target. But with her new album, Midnights, out Friday (Oct. 20), she’s truly outdone herself. There are over 20 different versions of the album available on CD, LP and cassette in various colors, with different cover artwork, censored and uncensored, with and without autographs. That plethora of options is great for fans who may want a different version than their friends, or who — as many seem to — feel driven to collect them all. It’s also great for Swift, who’s earning more money from increased sales that will impact her performance on the Billboard charts and likely add up t...
Why Jann Wenner Doesn’t Think Springsteen’s Lawyer Is Rock Hall Worthy
An inductee of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is protesting one of the Hall’s upcoming inductions. Complicating matters is that the protest comes from Jann S. Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone and a co-founder and former chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, who was himself inducted into the institution as a non-performer in 2004, when he was a recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Award. Wenner says that entertainment attorney Allen Grubman, who is also a founding board member and set to receive the Ertegun award next month, does not meet the Hall’s criteria for the honor. “Allen Grubman has made no contribution of any kind, by any definition, to the creative development or the history of rock & roll,” says Wenner. “He has been chosen because of his clout as entertain...
Downtown-owned CD Baby and Soundrop Lay Off Employees, Citing ‘Economic Conditions’
CD Baby and Soundrop have both laid off employees, citing “economic conditions” and “uncertain times,” according to a company-wide email written by Downtown’s new chief people officer Love Whelchel on Oct. 5. Whelchel started at Downtown just last month. News of the layoffs was first published by Digital Music News. While the outlet reported that 30 employees were let go from the two companies, a spokesperson for CD Baby and Soundrop tells Billboard this figure is incorrect. It remains unclear how many people were laid off from the companies. News of these layoffs arrives about a week after parent company Downtown announced that it would be combining multiple of its businesses to consolidate and streamline its B2B operations under the new monicker Downtown Music. This new one-stop-shop wil...
Inaugural ‘Hollywood & Mind’ Mental Health Summit Set for May 2023
Hollywood & Mind, a new mental health and entertainment-focused event, will launch its inaugural iteration in May 2023. The one day experience and brainchild of veteran entertainment journalist Cathy Applefeld Olson will take place on May 11, 2023, at the Beverly Hills campus of founding sponsor United Talent Agency. Additional sponsors include Hallmark Media, Milk & Honey Music + Sports + Ventures, MTV Entertainment Studios and Publicis Health. “Hollywood & Mind is a formal expression of the need and willingness for both mental health professionals and the entertainment industry to come together to provide a powerful platform for discussion,” Olson said in a statement. “We are thrilled to be having our in-person launch event on UTA’s beautiful campus.” Cathy Applefeld Ols...
