Business news
Music’s Most Compensated: 5 Top Money Makers You May Not Know
Kang Hyo-won, Yoon Seok-jun (aka Yenzo Loon) and Kim Shin-gyu are hardly marquee names in the music business, but they accounted for three of its five largest paydays in 2021, according to Billboard Pro‘s inaugural Executive Money Makers ranking — a breakdown of executive compensation and stock ownership at publicly traded companies. All three are valued members of HYBE, the South Korean entertainment giant behind BTS, Tomorrow X Together, NewJeans and other K-pop acts, and in 2016, their efforts turning the company into a global success were rewarded with stock options that netted them the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars when the company went public last year. Stock options are often used to incentivize and reward employees when a company is privately held. In a statement to Bil...
Music’s Top Money Makers: The Highest-Paid Executives and Stockholders at Publicly Traded Companies
Kang Hyo-won is not a marquee name in the music industry. The South Korean producer is better known as Pdogg, the studio wizard behind hits by K-pop supergroup BTS and other acts on the roster of Korean entertainment company HYBE. Because Kang played a key role in HYBE’s global success, his employer gave him 128,000 stock options in 2016 that turned into about $35 million when Kang exercised them. (All currency conversions to U.S. dollars in this story are based on the average 2021 exchange rate.) That made Kang the second-highest-paid music industry executive last year among those whose earnings are publicly disclosed. Yoon Seok-jun (aka Lenzo Yoon) and Kim Shin-gyu, co-CEO of HYBE America and chief artist management officer, respectively, also benefited from HYBE going public. Yoon nette...
The Ledger: Buying Into the K-Pop Craze Just Got Less Risky for US Investors
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. An exchange-traded fund, or ETF, focused on Korean music started trading on the NYSE Arca exchange on Thursday, giving American investors a means to buy shares of companies that trade on exchanges in South Korea. But the ETF stands out for another reason: a bundle of K-pop stocks will carry less risk than standalone companies that rely on dozens of labels, each with a handful of top artists as well as deep catalogs. Trading under the aptly named ticker KPOP, the ETF includes the stocks of 30 corporations, including several music companies: HYBE, the home of K-pop megastars BTS and up-and-coming acts Tomorrow X Together ...
NFL’s First Head Of Music On Halftime Show Planning & Why They Don’t Pay Performers
Even before the National Football League announced that Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem would perform during the Pepsi-sponsored halftime show at Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13, Seth Dudowsky knew he had a crucial sound issue to solve. One of his many responsibilities as the point person for the production at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., which would be seen by 103.4 million television viewers (and rack up more than 121 million YouTube views), was keeping the set list under wraps. The problem, however, was the venue, which is next door to the NFL’s Los Angeles-area headquarters where he works and is anything but soundproof. “It’s technically an outdoor stadium with a roof,” Dudowsky says. “So sound blows out the [open] sides of the stadium.” Knowing that medi...
Bandcamp Fridays to Return in September
Bandcamp Fridays are making a return. The popular monthly promotion, during which the platform waives its usual revenue share and gives all proceeds straight to artists and labels, is making a comeback on September 2 after a several-month hiatus following the company’s acquisition by Epic Games in March. Historically, Bandcamp Fridays have taken place on the first Friday of every month, and, according to a blog post from Bandcamp co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond, the promotion will resume this fall. In addition to the September date, Bandcamp Fridays are scheduled for October 7, November 4 and December 2. Since launching Bandcamp Fridays, the company claims the promotion has ceded more than $78 million from over 800,000 fans to artists and their teams over a total of 21 days. On promotion ...
Executive Turntable: Warner Records Names A&R VP; Exceleration Music Taps Legal Head
Sean Stevens was promoted to vp of A&R and head of research & analytics at Warner Records in Los Angeles; he was previously senior director. Exceleration Music named Jennifer Newman Sharpe as the company’s head of legal & business affairs and general counsel. Based in New York, Newman Sharpe will oversee the process of developing agreements and negotiating contracts across all areas of the business. Raoul Chatterjee, SoundCloud‘s vp of content partnerships and operations, announced he will exit the streaming platform effective Aug. 31 after more than 6 years with the company. His departure follows SoundCloud CEO Michael Weissman‘s announcement earlier this month that the company would be cutting “up to 20%” of staff. The Blues Foundation named Kimberly Horton interim president ...
AIM CEO Paul Pacifico to Step Down at End of 2022
Paul Pacifico will exit the U.K.’s Association of Independent Music (AIM) at the end of 2022, the organization announced Monday (Aug. 15). His departure coincides with the end of his second three-year term as CEO, which officially ends on Oct. 31, though he will remain in the role through the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition. During his tenure, Pacifico led AIM through such earth-shattering chapters as Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. He also oversaw the establishment of a free Associate Membership tier and the launch of last year’s free Future Independents online conference to foster access to learning resources and networking opportunities for entrepreneurs and artists from diverse backgrounds. More recently under Pacifico’s leadership, the organization co-created a new MA ...
The Ledger: In Strong 2022, Advertising Is Rare Weakness for Music Biz
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. With a handful of music companies’ quarterly earnings releases now in the books, the outlook for the second half of the year appears strong almost across the board. There is one area of weakness, however: online advertising. On Wednesday, French music company Believe slightly raised its guidance for fiscal 2022 but warned in its investor presentation that organic growth will slow in the second half of the year “as the ad-funded streaming activities should be affected by rising inflation and economic uncertainties.” Spotify also pointed to some weakening in advertising. “For advertising, we did see some softening in tren...
HYBE’s Revenues Soared in Q2, But That Doesn’t Account for BTS Break
With BTS on a break since June and its members pursuing solo projects, HYBE’s solid second-quarter earnings release was as much about what happens next than what already happened. HYBE’s total revenue improved 83.8% to 512.2 billion KRW ($397.7 million) from April to June. Most growth came from the company’s “artist direct involvement” segment, which increased 153%. Concert revenue grew to 85 billion KRW ($66 million) from nothing in the prior-year period on the strength of BTS’s four concerts in Las Vegas and Seventeen concerts in Japan. Revenue from ads, appearances and management grew 39% to 30 billion KRW ($23.3 million) While merchandising and licensing improved 97.2% to 98.8 billion KRW ($78.7 million), contents fell 22.6% to 70.7 billion KRW ($54.9 million), partially because online...
Janet Yang Is Fourth Woman Elected President of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
Producer Janet Yang was elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by the organization’s board of governors. Her election was announced on Tuesday (Aug. 2). Yang is the fourth woman, and second person of color, to serve in that post. The first woman to serve as president was screen legend Bette Davis, though she served for just two months in 1941 before resigning. The other women to serve as president are Fay Kanin (1979-83) and Cheryl Boone Isaacs (2013-17), who is also the only previous person of color to serve in the post. Yang is beginning her second term as a governor-at-large, a position for which she was nominated by her predecessor as Academy president, David Rubin, and elected by the board of governors. Yang, a member of the producers branch since 2002, b...
Billboard Welcomes Andrei Radaza to Executive Team, Promotes Anjali Raja
Billboard is pleased to announce two updates to our executive team: Andrei Radaza is joining Billboard as svp/head of sales and Anjali Raja has been promoted to svp of business ops and audience development. Radaza is a new hire who began his advertising career with True Agency back in 2004 working on multicultural accounts for Nissan and Infiniti. Since then, he’s also held sales positions at Blackrock Digital, Vox Media and Complex, where he was vp of brand partnerships and oversaw the outlet’s Style vertical. Radaza also comes to Billboard with a requisite passion for music grounded in an early love of ’90s and 2000s hip-hop. The proud father of two currently has everything from Tyler, the Creator and Freddie Gibbs to Snoh Aalegra, Tems and Cleo Sol cycling on his playlist of favorites. ...
Brad Paisley, Lady A Sell Music Rights to HarbourView
In another move reflecting its diversified genre approach to music acquisitions, HarbourView Equity Partners has entered the Nashville scene in a big way with new investments in Brad Paisley and Lady A‘s catalogs. Paisley, who has won three Grammy awards and has generated activity totaling 17.4 million album consumption units in the U.S., has sold his music royalty income stream to his master recording catalog to HarbourView. Beyond his successful music career, Paisley remains in the spotlight most recently thanks to his involvement in Nationwide Insurance advertising campaigns and due to his partnership with Boot Barn for the Moonshine Spirit clothing line. His last studio album was Love and War in 2017, which reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart and peaked at No. 1 on Top Country Al...
