business
Block, formerly Square, will allow users to gift BTC for the holidays using Cash App
Digital payments company Block, formerly called Square, has announced that Cash App users will be able to gift friends and family both crypto and stock over the holiday season. According to a Tuesday tweet, Cash App said its users — roughly 40 million active monthly — could send as little as $1 in Bitcoin (BTC) or stock as a gift in the same way they had been sending cash. The payments firm joins others including PayPal and Coinbase in allowing users to send crypto as payments or gifts to third parties. With Cash App, you can now send as little as $1 in stock or bitcoin. It’s as easy as sending cash, and you don’t need to own stock or bitcoin to gift it. So this holiday season, forget the scented candles or novelty beach towel, and help your cousin start investing. pic.twitter.com/HS...
Adele’s ’30’ Sales Prove She Can Still Deliver at Retail in a Streaming Industry
With Adele’s 30 breaking through with 1.45 million album consumption units and selling consistently with the holiday sales rush in full force, an initial fear that Columbia/Sony Music may have shipped too much product into the U.S. marketplace has dissipated. While it didn’t take off like a moonshot the way 25 did when it opened with 3.5 million units sold in 2015, Adele’s latest “did fantastic in the debut week and now there are consistent sales,” says one physical music executive. “This title feels like it definitely has legs.” Nevertheless, industry sources initially speculated that Sony had shipped anywhere from 1.2 million to 1.7 million pieces of physical product in the U.S., with that higher figure fueled by the belief that as much as 1 million combined CD and vinyl albums went to T...
Recruiters say crypto firms seeking leadership in engineering, legal and finance
The crypto industry has enjoyed astronomical growth over the last couple of years. Now, talent recruitment experts say that crypto firms are in dire need of good leadership to scale their businesses. Previously seen as a nascent market, crypto is now a fast-maturing industry that attracts a lot of talent, David Richardson, partner at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, told Cointelegraph. “It’s all driven by the growth rate of these firms and hiring leaders that can help them continue to scale and continue to keep pace with the growth rate in the business,” he said. Crypto companies are looking for executives who have scaled businesses successfully. They are ready to onboard such talent without prior knowledge of crypto or digital currency, added Heidrick & Struggles ...
Nick Holmstén’s Next Venture Will Attempt to Reinvent the Superstar Rollout
Nick Holmstén wants to reinvent the superstar rollout and revitalize Times Square with his new startup, the former Spotify executive tells Billboard. When Holmstén first sat down with Billboard to unveil his next move in November 2020, he unveiled a “multi-billion-dollar development with a street-facing stage and retail space in Times Square,” in partnership with Fortress Investment Group called TSX Entertainment with plans to open in 2022. A year later, Spotify’s former global head of music and the architect of its playlist strategy has more to share about his new startup, his vision for the future of music marketing, and one of his biggest goals: “I believe there is a fair to big chance that this will be the place where future New Year’s Eve celebrations will be,” Holmstén says. Holmstén...
Austria Poised to Loosen Online Copyright Restrictions — Will Other EU Countries Follow?
BERLIN — A spectre is haunting the European music business: The 2019 European Union Copyright Directive, intended to give creators and rightsholders more power to control the use of their content on online platforms, could instead create another set of problems. One of the pillars of the Copyright Directive was a provision that would hold online platforms responsible for unlicensed copyrighted material uploaded by users. In May, however, Germany passed a law implementing the directive with an exception that classified clips of under 15 seconds shared on online platforms like YouTube as “minor use,” presumptively allowing the use of the material without a license unless copyright holders specifically objected. Although the German law is contrary to both the text and the intention of t...
Lewis Black Calls for Spotify to Remove His Content Until Comedy Licensing Dispute Is Resolved
Comedian Lewis Black is calling for Spotify to remove his content amid a licensing dispute between the streaming service and hundreds of comics. Black’s request comes in response to Spotify’s removal on Nov. 24 of numerous comedy recordings it offers, including work from major comedy stars like Mike Birbiglia, John Mulaney and Jeff Foxworthy. The streaming giant is currently battling with collection agencies Spoken Giants and Word Collections over whether comedians and spoken word artists should receive royalties for their underlying works, as well as their recordings. “I believe that the written words that go into making songs or comedy should be valued equally,” Black said in a statement to Billboard. “Comedy is an art form that starts on the page before it moves to the stage. Just as in...
Duke Concept Launches Live Nation Joint Venture
While Burna Boy will make history this spring when he becomes the first Nigerian artist to headline New York’s Madison Square Garden, the April 28 concert also marks a major milestone for promoter Osita “Duke” Ugeh, CEO of concert promoter Duke Concept, who has spent the past 10 years bringing African artists to the U.S. With Burna Boy’s Madison Square Garden show, Ugeh — who’s Nigerian-born and based in New York — launches a new joint venture with Live Nation to co-promote African artists touring in the U.S. Through Duke Concept, Ugeh and Live Nation have been co-producing concerts together for years, and under the new arrangement, Ugeh will retain the autonomy to continue to independently promote his own events. “Over the past few years working with Duke, our relationship has grown immen...
Travis Scott’s Cacti Hard Seltzer Discontinued by Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch InBev revealed Friday (Dec. 10) that it is discontinuing its Travis Scott-backed hard seltzer brand, Cacti, less than nine months after the product first went on sale. “After careful evaluation, we have decided to stop all production and brand development of CACTI Agave Spiked Seltzer,” said an Anheuser-Busch InBev spokesperson in a statement. “We believe brand fans will understand and respect this decision.” The discontinuation comes a little over a month after 10 people died and hundreds more were injured in a crowd crush that occurred during Scott’s performance at the Astroworld festival in Houston, Texas, on Nov. 5. An Anheuser-Busch representative would not confirm whether the discontinuation was related to what happened at the festival, but a spokesperson for Scott tel...
Warner Chappell Taps Christine Belden to Head Global Film, TV and Media Music
Warner Chappell Music has hired Christine Belden for the new role of vp global head of film, TV and media music. This role sees the major publisher investing more resources and attention to its film and TV music catalogs. Reporting to Rich Robinson — the company’s executive vp global sync and media original music — Belden will oversee acquisitions of broadcast rights in the film and TV industry. Coming over from Kobalt, where she was responsible for the company’s creative and strategy for its global film and television publishing business, Belden brings her experience working with some of the top names in the film business to Warner, including A24, National Geographic, Black Label Media and more. She also previously held a position as an agent at CAA, representing composers and music super...
Secretly Group Releases Sustainability Plan, Aims to Be ‘Climate Positive’ by 2026
Over the course of its 25-year history, Secretly Group has made numerous stabs at implementing more environmentally friendly practices — from nearly eliminating its usage of plastic jewel cases to installing a solar array on its main warehouse. Now, the company is unveiling a wide-ranging sustainability plan designed to cut down on its greenhouse gas emissions across the board. Officially dubbed The Secretly Affiliates Sustainability Plan, the 11-page document outlines a series of concrete actions Secretly Group will take to lessen its climate footprint, including investing in energy efficiency in its buildings, assessing opportunities to replace natural gas equipment with electric options, switching to 100% renewable energy and measuring and reducing the company’s “Scope 3” emissions — a ...
Discord Testing Subscription Feature Allowing Creators to Monetize Their Servers
Discord is introducing monthly subscriptions to its service, initially with a pilot program for select creators. The subscriptions, which have been dubbed Premium Memberships, are designed to support Discord servers – digital conversation hubs that connect Discord users via audio, video or text – and the creators who lead them. Creators have the option of dividing memberships into tiers, with each tier boasting unique pricing (subscriptions can range from $2.99 to $99.99 a month) and perks. Creators will also have access to analytics to see how their memberships are performing. Long before this announcement, which was made Tuesday, Discord creators had been figuring out ways around the lack of a subscription feature on the platform, including by tokenizing communities as well as selling ac...
Flavor Flav Domestic Battery Charge Dismissed
Attorneys for entertainer Flavor Flav said Wednesday (Dec. 8) he’s working to stay sober following dismissal of a misdemeanor domestic battery charge stemming from a scuffle with his girlfriend at home in suburban Las Vegas. Explore See latest videos, charts and news The 62-year-old former rapper, hip-hop and reality TV star, whose legal name is William Jonathan Drayton Jr., pleaded no contest in Henderson Municipal Court to a nonviolent misdemeanor coercion charge, admitted he took a cellphone, and paid $640 in fines, a court official and his defense attorneys said. “Mr. Drayton and his family are grateful to bring an amicable close to this matter and appreciate everyone’s support as he continues his one-year journey of sobriety,” defense attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld sai...
