business
‘La La Land’ Composer Sues WME, Says Agency Cheated Him Out of Concert Profits
The Oscar-winning composer behind the music to La La Land is suing his former talent agency, William Morris Endeavor, for “cynically and systemically” defrauding him out of profits for live concerts of the movie’s score. In a blistering complaint filed Monday (Jan. 10) in Los Angeles court, attorneys for Justin Hurwitz accused his former agency of “deceiving” the composer with secret agreements and other “shocking conduct” in order to unfairly pocket the money from a series of so-called live-to-film performances. “Given WME’s underhanded actions and its unrepentant behavior subsequently, Hurwitz has no choice but to bring this lawsuit so that he can expose WME’s blatant conflict of interests,” wrote Hurtwitz’s attorneys, Bryan Freedman and Tamar Yeghiayan of the law firm Freedman + Taitelm...
CID Presents to Move Forward with Mexico Destination Events Following Dead & Co Cancellation
Event producer CID Presents plans to move forward with its current slate of destination events in Mexico following the cancellation of Dead & Company’s Playing in the Sand weekends. Playing in the Sand was scheduled to take place between Jan. 7-10 and 13-16 in Riviera Cancun, Mexico before the band and producers announced the cancellations Thursday due to the surge in COVID-19 cases across the globe. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In a statement provided to Billboard, CID Presents says they intend to proceed with their other January events at the same location, including Luke Bryan’s Crash My Playa (Jan. 19-22) and Hootie and the Blowfish’s The Big Splash (Jan. 26-29). “As we all know this is an ever-evolving situation and the rise and fal...
Selena Gomez Thanks Rare Beauty Team With Full-Page Ad in ‘New York Times’
Selena Gomez “was inspired to sit down and personally write” a letter to her Rare Beauty team over the holiday break, and she published that letter on the back page of the Styles section of Sunday’s New York Times. “I want to thank you for all your hard work in making the brand such a beloved part of our community. None of it would have been possible without you,” she wrote in the full-page letter, published on Jan. 9. Explore See latest videos, charts and news “My goal with Rare Beauty was to launch a brand that helped shape the dialogue around the beauty of self-acceptance and embracing your uniqueness — something that has been desperately needed in the beauty space. The heart of this brand is in recognizing that we’re not meant to look a certain way, and that we’re all unique and differ...
Glastonbury Festival Slid to Record £3.1 Million Loss Last Year Amid Pandemic
LONDON – Glastonbury Festival lost £3.1 million ($4.2 million) last year when it cancelled the event for a second consecutive summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the company’s latest financial results. Accounts filed with Companies House, the U.K.’s registrar of businesses, reveal that in the year ended March 31, 2021, turnover fell to £936,000 ($1.3 million), down from £45 million ($61 million) in the previous financial year. The total operating loss of just over £3.1 million for 2021, which followed a loss of £358,780 ($487,600) in 2020, is understood to be a record drop for the 52-year-old festival. But Glastonbury said it was able to cover the losses with profits retained from previous years. Paul McCartney, Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift had been due to headline the...
Ex-Member of The Rascals Can’t Stop Bandmates From Using Name, Judge Rules
An ex-member of the classic rock band The Rascals cannot block his former bandmates from using the name for a reunion tour, a Manhattan federal judge has ruled. Eddie Brigati accused two of his former bandmates of breaching contracts and infringing trademarks by using the “Rascals” name as part of a 2018 tour, but U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl dismissed those accusations in a ruling on Thursday. The judge cited a number of different reasons for why Brigati’s claims were legally flawed, most notably that Brigati – who left the band way back in 1970 — had long ago legally “abandoned” his interest in the “Rascals” trademark through decades of disuse. “Brigati has failed to show that he performed even one time under any version of The Rascals name between 1970 and 2012,” Judge Koeltl wrot...
Grammys Could Be Moving, Have a Hold on a Venue in Las Vegas
Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena could be the host venue for the 2022 Grammys, sources tell Billboard. Other venues are under consideration to host the rescheduled awards show, sources say, but Recording Academy officials have quietly placed a hold on the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which in just two days has gone from backup-plan venue to front-runner due to the lack of available replacement venues in Los Angeles. Located on the Las Vegas Strip inside the MGM Grand hotel and casino, the 29-year-old sports and music venue has operated as a joint venture between AEG and MGM Resorts International since 2016 when the two companies built the T-Mobile Arena, which they own and operate as a 50-50 joint venture. In terms of hosting the 2022 Grammys, it meets two essential requirements – it’s av...
John Legend Sells Music Catalog to BMG and KKR
John Legend is taking “All of Me” to another level, selling his signature song as part of a larger portfolio of compositions which were acquired last year by BMG and global investment firm KKR, Billboard has confirmed. As first reported by Bloomberg, the EGOT recipient sold both his personal share of the copyrights to his compositions as well as the recorded music royalties for his music dated 2004 thru early 2021 to the partnering companies for an undisclosed sum back in September. A UCC regulatory filing indicated that DL Music IP LP, an affiliate of KKR Credit Advisors, and BMG Rights Management each purchased a 50% stake in the Legend catalog. BMG and KKR have not formally announced the acquisition, and financial details of the sale are not yet known. Both companies declined requests t...
Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty Lingerie Brand Will Open Retail Stores in 2022
Rihanna announced on Friday (Jan. 7) that her Savage x Fenty lingerie brand will open its own brick-and-mortar stores this year. “2022, we coming in HOT! we bout to bring you a whole new #SavageXFenty experience with the launch of our brick-and-mortar retail stores!” she tweeted with an animation of what said stores would look like. It appears they’ll be featuring colorful wallpapers highlighting the rainbow assortment of lingerie, sleepwear and loungewear. Rihanna, 33, also listed out the first five locations of the Savage x Fenty stores: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. “Can’t believe it’s actually that time, and I can’t wait for you to have this experience irl,” she continued. Explore Explore Rihanna See latest videos, charts and news See latest v...
Phylicia Fant Exits Columbia Records
Phylicia Fant has exited her post as executive vp, urban music at Columbia Records, sources with knowledge of her departure tell Billboard. There was no reason given for Fant’s exit, and there’s also no word yet as to where Fant, who declined to comment, may be headed. A Columbia spokesperson confirmed Fant’s departure. Today (Jan. 7) is her last day at the label. Fant joined Columbia in December 2018 when she and Shawn Holiday were appointed co-heads of urban music. Over the last two years, the label has scored successes with projects from Lil Nas X, The Kid LAROI, Polo G, Chloe x Halle, 24kGoldn, Leon Bridges and Lil Tjay. Columbia is also home to Beyoncé, Tyler, The Creator, Pharrell and Raphael Saadiq. Holiday, who teamed with The Azoff Company’s Irving and Jeffrey Azoff in February 20...
Bad Bunny Tops Year-End Latin Songs, Albums Charts as Latin Music Consumption Soars
Latin music consumption in the United States continued its outsized growth trajectory, with a 21.1% increase in total album consumption in 2021 — more than any other core music genre and behind only comedy — according to MRC Data’s newly released year-end report. All told, total album consumption of Latin music — which comprises traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA) — stood at 48.2 million, up from 39.8 million in 2020. It’s a robust showing that once again makes Latin the fifth most-consumed music genre in the U.S. behind country (72.2 million), pop (116.5 million), rock (178.7 million) and of course the behemoth that is R&B/hip-hop, which led with 247.5 million units earned in 2021. In terms of on-demand song streams, Latin’s sho...
Sega will likely not introduce NFTs for play-to-earn if ‘perceived as simple money-making’
The leadership at video game firm Sega Corporation’s holding company has suggested that they may avoid nonfungible tokens in play-to-earn model games based on the response from users. In a Dec. 14 meeting of Sega Sammy Holdings’ CEO Haruki Satomi, senior executive vice president Koichi Fukazawa, and Sega Corporation president Yukio Sugino, the trio said they needed to “carefully assess” how to potentially introduce nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, into Sega titles to “mitigate the negative elements” and work within Japanese regulations. The executives cited “negative reactions” from users overseas rewarded in NFTs for gameplay. “In terms of NFT, we would like to try out various experiments and we have already started many different studies and considerations but nothing is decided at this poin...
UK Music Sales Up 8.7% as Vinyl Outpaces Streaming Growth
LONDON – Vinyl sales grew twice as fast as streaming in the United Kingdom last year, helping drive an 8.7% rise in overall music spending, according to year-end figures from the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA). Vinyl album sales rose by 23% to £136 million ($184 million) in 2021, compared to 10.9% growth in subscription streaming revenue over the same period. Overall music spending rose to £1.68 billion ($2.3 billion), the organization says in its preliminary annual figures published on Wednesday (Jan. 5). While vinyl sales outpaced streaming, digital music services like Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and Apple Music account for almost 80% of recorded music spending in the U.K., with subscription revenues climbing to a record high of £1.3 billion ($1.8 billion), up 10.9% f...
