business
Sean Warner to Lead Universal Music Australia
BRISBANE, Australia — Universal Music Australia taps Sean Warner for the top job, which will vacated by the incumbent George Ash at year’s end. Announced Tuesday (Dec. 13), Warner is promoted to president, Universal Music Australia & New Zealand, with effect from Jan. 1, 2023. The incoming chief is a UMA stalwart with 15 years’ experience leading the company’s commercial business, both physical and digital. Warner joined UMA in 2007 as national sales manager and has served on its senior management team in recent years, most recently as senior vice president of commercial, with duties for the commercial growth, innovation and digital development for UMA & New Zealand. During his time with Universal, Warner has overseen the commercial strategy in Southeast Asia (SEA), launched...
George Ash to Exit Universal Music Australia
BRISBANE, Australia — George Ash is stepping down as president of Universal Music Australia and New Zealand. In a surprise announcement that hit inboxes as the music industry settled in for the first day of the working week, Universal Music Group announced Ash would retire from his position at the end of the year. “The time is right for me to step down from Universal,” says the outgoing executive in a corporate statement. “I feel confident that with the brilliant leadership group we have now, the organization will continue to grow and thrive. New Zealand-born Ash will leave UMA as part of a “long-planned personal decision to focus on new goals and projects,” reads the statement, “whilst leaving the company under the leadership of a new generation of executives, who will continue to b...
How Bad Bunny Staged His Record-Setting Stadium Tour: 36 Trucks, a Cargo Jet & 100 Tons of Equipment
Few things faze Noah Assad, Bad Bunny’s manager. But even he admits that launching a stadium tour barely three months after an arena tour was a bit daunting. “We knew it was going to be a learning experience and something none of us had done before,” Assad says now, “but we went for it and worked through it with the help of old and new partners and set new industry standards.” Bad Bunny ends the year as the top touring act of 2022, grossing $373.5 million from 1.8 million tickets across 65 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore, and that number doesn’t even include his last 20 Latin American stadium shows. This makes Bunny — born Benito Martinez Ocasio — the first act who doesn’t perform in English to ever top the year-end tally. World’s Hottest Tour broke venue revenue records in 12 of th...
CZ and SBF duke it out on Twitter over failed FTX/Binance deal
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, and former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF, have revealed new details about the failed agreement between the exchanges during FTX’s liquidity crisis in November. In a Dec. 9 Twitter thread, CZ referred to Bankman-Fried as a “fraudster,” saying Binance exited its position in FTX in July 2021 after becoming “increasingly uncomfortable with Alameda/SBF.” According to the Binance CEO, SBF was “unhinged” at the exchange pulling out — a claim that prompted an online response from the former FTX CEO. Bankman-Fried criticized CZ for his public admonition of FTX, adding details about the negotiations between the exchanges amid FTX’s reported “liquidity crunch” in November prior to the firm filing for bankruptcy. SBF said at the time that FTX had reached a ...
Justin Bieber and The Weeknd Sued Over Alleged Bored Ape NFT Scheme: ‘Drastically Inflated Prices’
Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd and dozens of other celebrities are facing a new class action alleging they were secretly paid to “misleadingly” promote NFTs like the Bored Ape Yacht Club, leaving investors with “staggering losses.” In a complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, attorneys for a pair of consumers claimed that Bored Ape parent company Yuga Labs Inc. perpetrated a “vast scheme” in which they “discreetly” paid “highly influential celebrities” to pump up the value of the NFTs (non-fungible tokens). “Defendants’ promotional campaign was wildly successful, generating billions of dollars in sales and re-sales,” the lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote. “The manufactured celebrity endorsements and misleading promotions … were able to artificially increase the interes...
K-Pop Promoter Behind BTS, BLACKPINK Tours Partners With AEG Presents
AEG Presents, a global leader in concert promotion and artist development, on Thursday (Dec. 8) announced an official strategic partnership with K-pop touring and marketing company Powerhouse. The two live music companies, which have worked together on many successful K-pop artists over the past 13 years, will collaborate on all aspects of the live K-pop business including touring, production, marketing and media across every level. “In the course of last two decades, K-pop has grown to be one of the most popular genres in the global music industry.,” says C.S. Hah, Powerhouse chief executive and president. “The K-pop market has proven its depth and width to be more matured than ever, and I hope our launch of this formal partnership with AEG Presents can help K-pop grow to reach new horizo...
Sony Music Latin Unveils New Headquarters in Puerto Rico
Sony Music US Latin has officially opened its new headquarters in Puerto Rico, Billboard can confirm today (Dec. 8). The multinational record label, which has had its facilities on the island since 1980 (formerly CBS Records), is relocating to the modern office complex Ciudadela in Santurce, where the label’s artists will have access to a press room, recording studio, content creation room for networks, and other benefits. “These new offices are a tangible demonstration of what Puerto Rico represents for Sony and for Latino culture,” Alex Gallardo, president of Sony Music US Latin tells Billboard via email. “In addition, this expansion will allow us to provide a better service and support our current artists even more.” Reaffirming its commitment to Boricua talent, Victor Manuelle, P...
Congressional Bill to Get Artists & Labels Paid for Radio Airplay Clears Critical House Vote
The American Music Fairness Act (AMFA), which would require AM/FM stations to pay performance royalties to music creators and copyright holders for radio airplay in the U.S., just cleared a key hurdle in Congress — though the bill is unlikely to pass before the new session of Congress convenes in January. In a mark-up session on Wednesday (Dec. 7), the House Judiciary Committee (which deals with copyright matters) voted to advance the bill, clearing its way for a full vote on the House floor. To become law, the bill would need to be approved by the full House of Representatives as well as the Senate and then signed into law by President Biden. However, the proposed legislation is unlikely to pass in the current session of Congress, which is drawing to a close at the end of the month, unles...
What’s a TikTok Hit Worth? This Year’s Most Popular Track Grew Over 1,000% on Streaming
TikTok has proven its success at renewing widespread interest around old songs countless times over the past several years. 2022 was no exception, as the short-form video platform announced Swedish Sadboy rapper Yung Lean’s 2013 track “Ginseng Strip 2002” was its most popular track of the year thanks to a trend of users singing along for about 10 seconds and then kissing at the end. The nearly decade-old track was used in almost 11 million videos across the app in 2022, and while TikTok royalties are notoriously low to music rights holders, the upside proposition has been established that a viral hit there will drive streaming elsewhere. With “Ginseng Strip 2002,” that was most certainly true. Since the “Ginseng Strip 2002” TikTok trend started to take off around the turn of the new year, ...
What’s a TikTok Hit Worth? This Year’s Most Popular Track Grew Over 1,000% on Streaming
TikTok has proven its success at renewing widespread interest around old songs countless times over the past several years. 2022 was no exception, as the short-form video platform announced Swedish Sadboy rapper Yung Lean’s 2013 track “Ginseng Strip 2002” was its most popular track of the year thanks to a trend of users singing along for about 10 seconds and then kissing at the end. The nearly decade-old track was used in almost 11 million videos across the app in 2022, and while TikTok royalties are notoriously low to music rights holders, the upside proposition has been established that a viral hit there will drive streaming elsewhere. With “Ginseng Strip 2002,” that was most certainly true. Since the “Ginseng Strip 2002” TikTok trend started to take off around the turn of the new year, ...
UK Music Indie Body AIM Appoints Silvia Montello as New CEO
LONDON — Less than a year after being appointed chief executive of the Association for Electronic Music, Silvia Montello is exiting the global trade body to become CEO of AIM, the London-based Association of Independent Music. Montello takes up the new post on Jan. 31. She will succeed Paul Pacifico, who leaves AIM later this month to head up the Saudi Music Commission, where he will be responsible for developing and championing the music sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In April, the London-based Montello was appointed the first female CEO of the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM). The New York-headquartered non-profit organization, founded in 2013, represents the interests of over 250 electronic music companies across 25 countries. ...
UK Music Indie Body AIM Appoints Silvia Montello as New CEO
LONDON — Less than a year after being appointed chief executive of the Association for Electronic Music, Silvia Montello is exiting the global trade body to become CEO of AIM, the London-based Association of Independent Music. Montello takes up the new post on Jan. 31. She will succeed Paul Pacifico, who leaves AIM later this month to head up the Saudi Music Commission, where he will be responsible for developing and championing the music sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In April, the London-based Montello was appointed the first female CEO of the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM). The New York-headquartered non-profit organization, founded in 2013, represents the interests of over 250 electronic music companies across 25 countries. ...
