business
Warren ‘Waz’ Costello, Mushroom Group Label Veteran, Dies After Battle With Illness
Warren “Waz” Costello, a kingpin of Australia’s independent label industry, died Sunday (May 29) after a battle with cancer. He was 64. Costello co-founded Liberation Records with the late Mushroom Group founder Michael Gudinski, and remained one of Gudinski’s closest and most trusted allies until his own passing in March 2021. The Mushroom family is “deeply saddened by the passing of Warren Costello after a long battle with illness,” reads a statement from the indie music company. Since joining the label division “he has been an essential fabric of life at Mushroom. He was a true music man, a beloved friend to our artists and integral to the success of our business over the past three decades,” the message continues. “Warren was renowned for his positive energy, integrity and family value...
Huobi Global acquires Latin American crypto exchange Bitex
Late last week, Huobi Global announced that it completed an acquisition of digital currency trading platform Bitex with the terms of the agreement remaining undisclosed. Bitex, founded in 2014, operates primarily in the Latin American countries of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay – a stage Huobi is keen to take root in. The former will retain its branding and management as part of the arrangement with the leading crypto global crypto entity. Huobi reported a growth in crypto and adoption rate in Latin America of 1,370% rise between 2019, when it launched Huobi Argentina, and 2021. The Bitex website shows that the exchange supported more than 15 stablecoins and several fiat currencies. “Since Huobi Group first entered the Latin American market, we have seen rema...
The Kid LAROI Reunites With Scooter Braun for Management
After parting ways last year, The Kid LAROI has re-upped with Scooter Braun for management. The Australian star previously partnered with Braun in June 2021 before leaving SB Projects last September to join Adam Leber’s Rebel Management roster. The Kid LAROI then split with Leber’s team last month. A source tells Billboard that LAROI and his mother, Sloane Howard, re-approached Braun, and a deal was finalized a week ago. After the singer previously left SB Projects due in part to Braun’s lack of direct involvement, the source says Braun will now oversee all aspects of the hitmaker’s career. During The Kid LAROI’s previous stint with Braun, the singer-songwriter linked up with another SB superstar, Justin Bieber, for the synth-pop single “Stay.” The song became LAROI’s first No. 1 hit on th...
Monthly Report: VC firms pumped funds into crypto and Web 3 despite May being harsh to investors
Hong Kong-based BABEL Finance hits a $2 billion valuation following latest funding Gaming portal and game creator Kongregate tables a blockchain game development fund with Immutable X Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz plans to heavily support start-ups in the blockchain space by allocating significant investments Israel-based StarkWare sets out to advance its ecosystem with new capital backing The first four months of 2022 appeared to bear the worst of the year in the crypto market, but the slump in Q1 is nothing close to the bloodbath witnessed this month. The total cryptocurrency market capital fell from $2.18 trillion at the start of the year to $1.755 trillion by the end of January. It briefly recovered at the beginning of February before charting successive days abo...
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 ...
Gibson Wins Jury Verdict Against Dean Over Guitar Shapes
A federal jury mostly sided with Gibson Brands on Friday (May 27) in a lawsuit that accused rival Dean Guitars of copying the shape of the company’s guitars like the Flying V, though the jurors awarded Gibson just $4,000 in damages. The verdict came after more than three years of litigation and two weeks of trial over whether Dean parent company Armadillo Enterprises infringed trademark-protected design elements of several Gibson guitars, including the Flying V, Explorer, ES, SG and the Dove Wing. In a key win for Gibson, the jurors rejected arguments by Dean that those designs had become so commonplace that they’re now “generic” and free for all to use. And with that finding, the jurors also said Dean had infringed those designs by selling look-alike guitars. But the jury also found that ...
Executive Turntable: Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus Launches VC Music Startup; S10 Promotes Four
Veeps founder & COO Sherry Saeedi, Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and Lippman Entertainment partner Nick Lippman launched Verswire, a new venture capital music startup, with Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz serving as a strategic advisor. The company’s founding team also includes director of A&R and branding Myia Ingoldsby as well as numerous advisors and investors including Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman and tour manager Gus Brandt. Verswire is described as a development incubator for both emerging and established artists that tailors a custom investment for each, including “funding, resources, tools, mentoring, support from prominent music executives and an ecosystem to own and operate their businesses within while allowing them to keep majority ownership of their masters,” according to a pre...
Dua Lipa Hires Katy Perry & Jay-Z’s Lawyer to Handle ‘Levitating’ Lawsuits
Facing a pair of copyright lawsuits over her smash hit song “Levitating,” Dua Lipa has lawyered up – hiring the same attorney who won similar cases for Katy Perry, Jay-Z and Drake. Dua has retained Christine Lepera and her law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp to represent her in both lawsuits, court records show, including one filed in New York that claims she ripped off a 1979 disco track, and another in California that claims she stole material from a 2017 reggae song. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Lepera is a go-to defense attorney in such cases. In just the last two years, she has won rulings defeating such cases against Jay-Z – he was accused of illegally sampling a 1960s soul song on “Paper Chase” – and against Drake, who was sued f...
TikTok Is Testing Ground for New Singles — Why Labels Love It (and Some Artists & Writers Don’t)
Artists have previewed unreleased songs at live performances and with radio stations for decades, but thanks to the rise of TikTok and a handful of successful DIY social media campaigns — Lil Nas X’s heavily teased and memed efforts for “Old Town Road” on Twitter and Triller is an early example — the practice has become de rigueur for artists. And not everyone thinks it’s good business. What started as a low-cost method for unsigned talents to casually test audience reaction and build up streaming service pre-saves to their songs is now the norm for even household names hoping to break their next hit before committing to a release date on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. The Billboard Hot 100 contains ample proof of the method’s success: SZA earned her first solo...
Live Nation Electronic Asia’s Label & Management Group Partners With Astralwerks, Capitol Records
Live Nation Electronic Asia (LNEA), Live Nation’s Asian electronic dance music division, has entered into a multi-year global licensing and distribution agreement for its recently launched Fabled Records label. The partnership with leading dance label Astralwerks and Capitol Records China is focused on supporting emerging Chinese electronic music and artists. Per the terms of this partnership, Astralwerks and Capitol Records China will work together on the global release and distribution of Fabled Records artists and projects, with such projects receiving access to Universal Music Group’s international divisions, with global marketing support in China helmed by Capitol Records China and Astralwerks in the rest of the world. UMG launched Astralwerks Asia in 2019 and Capitol Records China ea...
Sony Music Group Extends Program for Unrecouped Artists and Songwriters
More legacy artists and songwriters are going to be able to profit from the boom in streaming and other digital royalties after Sony Music Group expands its program for paying royalties to more artists with unrecouped royalty balances, chairman Rob Stringer announced Wednesday evening (May 25) during a presentation to Sony Corp. investors. With Artists Forward and Songwriters Forward, both launched in 2021, Sony Music decided to pay royalties to artists and songwriters who were signed before 2000 and haven’t received advance since. Sony Music didn’t wipe the slate clean by modifying contracts or adjusting the account balances. Instead, it would ignore the negative account balances of artists whose royalties earned over the previous two decades never caught up with their advance and expense...
Justin Timberlake Sells Song Catalog to Hipgnosis
Justin Timberlake is the latest artist to sell off his songs. The pop-star has sold his full catalog to Hipgnosis Song Management, the company announced Thursday (May 26). That includes Hot 100 chart-toppers “Sexyback,” “What Goes Around… Comes Around,” “My Love” and “Can’t Stop the Feeling.” Along with Timberlake’s share of ownership over his already classic song catalog, Hipgnosis now owns the multi-hyphenate talent’s entire writer and publisher’s share of public performance income (Timberlake is signed to ASCAP) and will handle worldwide administration of the compositions, subject to the remaining term of his Universal Music agreement, which expires in 2025. From Memphis, Tennessee, Timberlake has been one of the most recognizable voices in music since his time as a member of the popula...
