business
Dua Lipa Accused of Stealing ‘Levitating’ From Florida Reggae Band in New Lawsuit
Dua Lipa was sued for copyright infringement Tuesday (March 1) by a Florida reggae band that claims the British pop star stole her smash hit song “Levitating” from a lesser-known 2017 track. In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court, the members of a band called Artikal Sound System claim that Lipa’s “Levitating” – which spent 68 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart and was the No. 1 Hot 100 song of 2021 – was ripped off from the band’s “Live Your Life.” Explore Explore Dua Lipa See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The complaint was very short and contained mostly boilerplate claims of copyright infringement, with little detail about how or why Lipa allegedly copied the song. But it said that the two tracks were so similar that it was “highly un...
South Africa-based crypto exchange VALR completes a $50M Series B funding round
The raise was completed at a $240 million valuation with participation from big names like Pantera Capital The exchange will use the capital to add more products, expand into other markets, and hire more people In what is the largest ever raise by an African crypto firm, crypto exchange VALR, has today announced it completed a $50 million Series B funding round led by Pantera Capital. Several other institutional investors were involved, including Coinbase Ventures, Third Prime, Alameda Research, Distributed Global, and Fidelity Investments’ affiliate Avon Ventures. Following the raise, VALR has a $240 million valuation. VALR launched in June 2019 and has previously concluded a Series A funding round of $3.45 million back in July 2020 at a valuation ten times less than the current. Th...
Crypto dealer SFOX gets trust charter approval from Wyoming regulators
The State of Wyoming has approved California-based crypto broker SFOX for a trust charter, allowing the firm to provide custodial and other crypto-related services to institutional clients. In a Tuesday announcement, SFOX said the Wyoming trust charter will allow the firm to operate in the state as the SAFE Trust Company, offering services to institutional clients, private clients, and advisers. According to the company, SAFE will “serve in a variety of fiduciary roles” including direct trustee, discretionary trustee, trust advisor, and protector. “The new charter will enable us to provide secure, reliable and efficient investment, trading, and custodian services for a wide range of digital assets, meeting the needs of investors, particularly small-to-mid-sized firms, which until now have ...
T.I.’s Grand Hustle Films Partners With HBCU for Film & Mentorship Project
Students at Marshall, Texas HBCU Wiley College will have the opportunity to assist in producing a film alongside Tip “T.I.” Harris’ Grand Hustle Films, it was announced Tuesday (Mar. 1). The film will be bankrolled with funds awarded by The Propel Center, a recently-established HBCU technology and learning hub that provided a $300,000 grant for the project. Last Wednesday (Feb. 23), students selected to participate in the project — which is designed to help increase representation in the entertainment industry — joined T.I., the founder of Grand Hustle Records, for a virtual lunch to announce and celebrate the partnership. “I know that there is just as much of a need to cultivate and support the young creatives in our communities as there is for the young scholars and the educators. This i...
Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre Announces Crystal Longo as General Manager
Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre has announced Crystal Longo as general manager for the 93-year-old building. Longo first served as deputy general manager for the theater in January 2020 before leaving due to the pandemic. Upon her return, Longo was asked to helm the venue that underwent a $95 million renovation between 2010 and 2015. Longo started her career in live music as a bartender at New York’s iconic Webster Hall while in college. The New York native then made her way to Hammerstein Ballroom where she worked her way up from operations and concessions to booking and venue management before joining The Bowery Presents as director of operations. While with Bowery, Longo led the team at Times Square’s PlayStation Theater and worked on the renovation and reopening of Webster Hall in April 2019....
UMG Teams With Tribeca Enterprises for Music-Driven Event Series
Universal Music Group for Brands (UMGB) is partnering with Tribeca Enterprises for a series of music-driven events to take place throughout 2022, it was announced Tuesday (Mar. 1). The forthcoming series will include six exclusive events based around new film, TV and podcast projects from UMG’s Mercury Studios, Polygram Entertainment and UMG record labels. It kicks off with the world premiere of Mercury Studios’ feature documentary Mixtape, slated for Thursday, Apr. 7 at the United Palace theater in New York City. Presented by Rémy Martin, the premiere will feature a live performance from Jadakiss. Co-produced by Saboteur Media in association with Def Jam Recordings, Mixtape is directed by Omar Acosta and will feature music icons including Funkmaster Flex, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne and “mixtape k...
Songwriters Protest Spotify in LA: ‘I Just Want to Be Able to Pay My Bills’
A group of songwriters led by the organization The 100 Percenters gathered outside of Spotify’s old West Hollywood office Monday afternoon (Feb. 28) to protest the streaming service’s low royalty rates. Dubbed “#WeWroteThat,” the collection of creatives began congregating around noon while holding signs with phrases like “My time costs money,” “Would you work for free?,” “Spotify is valued at $67 billion — pay artists” and “1 cent per stream.” Event organizer Tiffany Red — a professional songwriter and founder of The 100 Percenters who has credits on songs performed by Jennifer Hudson, Jason Derulo and more — says the protest at 9200 Sunset Blvd. (a building Spotify previously occupied before moving to its current headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles’ Arts District in 2018) was motiv...
Australia’s Mushroom Group Launches Talent Management Division
BRISBANE, Australia — Mushroom Group is expanding, with the formal launch of a talent management division. Led by director Sarah Donelly, Mushroom Management opens for business with a roster of nearly 50 artists, producers, musicians, songwriters and content creators, including Tkay Maidza, Bliss n Eso, Rolling Blackouts C.F., merci, mercy and The Living End. Celebrated producers Konstantin Kersting and Scott Horscroft are also on board. Mushroom Group has a long and successful history in artist management, with its late founder and chairman Michael Gudinski guiding the careers of ARIA Hall of Fame-inducted acts Skyhooks, Jimmy Barnes and others. The new enterprise, unveiled Monday (Feb. 28), is a “natural evolution” for the business, explains group CEO Matt Gudinski, one that cements the ...
eBay teases the idea of crypto payment integration on its platform again
The e-commerce platform is looking to integrate cryptocurrencies as a payment form to attract the millennial generation Markedly, this is not the first time the company has talked about plans to bring crypto payments to the platform California-based e-commerce company eBay is exploring the possibility of adding cryptocurrency payments to its platform, according to a Sunday report by TheStreet. The report detailed that the rationale behind the move is to attract the young generation (Gen Z & millennial) that is heavily leaning towards digitalisation and has a liking for cryptocurrencies. eBay has floated the idea of integrating digital assets on several past occasions to appeal to a wider consumer base. The company first showed interest in accepting Bitcoin payments in 2014. Early May l...
YouTube Pauses Monetization for Russian Media Channels Following Sanctions
YouTube is pausing Russian affiliated channels’ ability to monetize on the video platform, the company announced on Saturday (Feb. 26). In a statement, YouTube announced it would be suspending several channels’ ability to collect ad revenue, including the state-funded media outlet RT. The move comes just days after Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine on Thursday. “In light of extraordinary circumstances in Ukraine … we’re pausing a number of channels’ ability to monetize on YouTube, including several Russian channels affiliated with recent sanctions,” YouTube said in the statement obtained by Reuters. Additionally, videos from the blocked channels will appear less often in recommendations. Following a request from the Ukrainian government, RT and the other channels that have had their ad r...
The Ledger: How Big Is the Potential Music NFT Market?
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. It seems everybody is getting — or wants to get — in on the NFT business. It’s reminiscent of the late ’90s when companies rushed to launch websites because, well, there was money to be made and everybody else was doing it. Many companies stumbled out of the gate, but the internet turned out to be a pretty good business opportunity. The jury is still out on NFTs but there’s obvious potential. It’s no surprise that people spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on digital tokens that confer rights to anything from digital art to fan club-like perks. Some fans spend dearly to support their favorite artists. And with NFTs, ...
David Dormon Returns to Downtown Music Holdings as General Counsel
David Dormon is back in the fold at Downtown Music Holdings, where he’s appointed general counsel. Based in New York, Dormon returns to the music services provider following his departure last fall as vp, legal and business affairs, whereupon he joined international law firm Reed Smith LLP. At Downtown, Dormon succeeds current general counsel Peter Rosenthal, who is exiting to “pursue another opportunity,” according to a statement issued Friday morning (Feb. 25). “I know I speak for the entire company when I welcome David back into the Downtown family,” comments Andrew Bergman, CEO of Downtown Music Holdings. “David has a deep knowledge of all of our operations, keen negotiating skills, global M&A expertise and the respect of the entire industry. I am pleased to be able to offer him th...
