business
Ed Sheeran Logs Record-Breaking Year Atop U.K. Chart
With his latest feat, Sheeran becomes the first British solo artist to reign over the chart for a full year across his catalog. In the 69 years since the launch of the Official U.K. chart, just Elvis Presley (80 weeks) and The Beatles (69) have spent more time at the top. Of Sheeran’s songs, 2017’s “Shape of You,” the most streamed song on Spotify, has enjoyed the longest stay at the summit, at 14 weeks, while “Bad Habits” ruled for 11 weeks. Other solo artists in the same ballpark as Sheeran include Englishman Cliff Richard (46 weeks at No. 1), Canadian singer Justin Bieber (38 weeks), Scottish EDM star Calvin Harris and Canadian rapper Drake (31 weeks), and the veteran U.S. pop star Madonna (29 weeks), the OCC reports. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for D...
Emmys 2021: Facts & Feats
RuPaul became the person of color with the most career Emmys. He won his 11th Emmy for outstanding competition program as an executive producer of RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1). RuPaul pulled ahead of Donald A. Morgan, a cinematographer and lighting director, who has won 10 Emmys. This is the fourth consecutive win for outstanding competition program for RuPaul’s Drag Race, which puts it in a tie with The Voice (NBC) for second place on the all-time winners list in this category, behind only The Amazing Race (CBS), which won 10 times. ‘Hamilton’ won outstanding variety special (pre-recorded), five years after it swept the Tonys. The show won one other Emmy — outstanding technical direction, camerawork, video control for a special, at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys. The show won ...
Harvey Mason Jr. on Recording Academy’s Future: ‘We Needed to Improve and We Needed to Evolve’
Still, he’s the first to admit there is plenty more progress to be made in his efforts to “modernize everything about the Academy,” including looking at new areas of revenue, making sure the Grammy voting process is as transparent as possible, and leading industry standards on diversity. Mason started his tenure forged by fire, as chairman of the board of trustees he stepped into the interim president/CEO position in January 2020 after the Academy suspended his predecessor, Deborah Dugan, for alleged misconduct only five months after she’d been hired. Dugan, who was officially fired in March 2020, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission just days after being put on leave alleging sexual harassment, discrimination and improper business dealings by the Academy...
Sound Royalties Acquired by GoDigital, MEP Capital in ‘High Eight-Figure’ Deal
Founded in 2014 by Alex Heiche and backed by York Capital, Sound Royalties provides funding to music creators against royalties from all major collection societies, labels, publishers and distributors for a finite duration. Creators who utilize the service get to keep their copyrights, as well as ongoing royalty cash flow over the amount financed. The company caters to both emerging artists, songwriters and producers and established hitmakers, including the likes of DJ Khaled, Lil Wayne, Pitbull, Rich Robinson and Wyclef Jean. In his own statement, Heiche said that joining GoDigital “will enable us to expand our technology platform and grow more rapidly, while preserving the ability for creatives to speak and work directly with our experienced Royalty Specialists to ensure they receive the...
Twitch & Music Publishers Nearing Licensing Deal
Amazon-owned Twitch has operated under the DMCA for years without backlash, but ever since the pandemic turned the music industry’s attention to Twitch for livestreaming concerts, spurring huge growth for the platform, music trade organizations like the NMPA and RIAA have accused Twitch of taking advantage of the DMCA to avoid paying for music — similar to the way the organizations have pressured TikTok, Facebook and YouTube to sign licensing deals in the past. So the two organizations have flooded Twitch with tens of thousands of takedown requests over the past year, forcing Twitch to the negotiation table by frustrating its users. In response, Twitch vp/head of music Tracy Chan has reiterated that Twitch does not tolerate copyright infringement, arguing that Twitch’s monetiza...
The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s ‘Stay’ Enters 10th Week at No. 1 In Australia
The highest debut on the current frame belongs to Ed Sheeran, as “Shiver” (Warner) shakes into the chart at No. 5, for the Brit’s 23rd Top 10 single in these parts. “Shiver” will appear alongside former No. 1 “Bad Habits” on Sheeran’s new album = (equals), due out Oct. 29. The Anxiety, the U.S. pairing of Willow Smith and Tyler Cole, make their first impression on the ARIA Chart with “Meet Me At Our Spot” (Universal), new at No. 27. Just one place behind, at No. 28, is Tai Verdes’ “A-O-K” (Sony/Orchard), for the singer and songwriter’s first appearance in the Top 50. Verdes’ career in music took off when “Stuck In The Middle” went viral on TikTok last year. Finally, The Voice Australia winner Bella Taylor Smith cracks the chart at her first attempt with “Higher” (EMI), new at No. 31....
Can Social Tokens Pave a New Future for Music? BitClout’s Still Banking On It
“It was almost too good to be true,” says Udell, who has worked with artists like Krewella and ZHU. “All these people involved? Really? But then I read the white paper, and I was super inspired.” That white paper described a platform resembling Twitter, where users have profiles and can post, like, comment and share content. Anyone who joins the platform gets a creator coin in their name, the value of which theoretically fluctuates depending on that person’s social standing and how many coins are in circulation. Users can then can buy and sell each other’s coins using the platform’s native cryptocurrency, BitClout. (“If Elon Musk succeeds in landing the first person on Mars, his coin price should theoretically go up” because more users would buy his coin...
DatPiff Owner MediaLab Buys Genius for $80M
The company has had a series of high-profile partnerships with major music streams — from a lyric deal with Spotify to display context behind songs, to a built-in Apple Music player on the Genius website — and even launched its own livestreaming platform last year called Genius Live. But none of its initiatives were enough to move its valuation up in the past few years. The result is a sale that will come with job cuts. “We are restructuring the way in which original content is produced at Genius and as part of that some very talented individuals on the content and production teams were let go,” MediaLab said in a statement to Bloomberg. MediaLab says it will invest in the “community platform” as it focuses on emerging artists for the platform. MediaLab owns a small group of co...
Helene Fischer Renews Deal With Universal Music Germany
Fischer has sold 16.3 million albums, counting equivalent streams and downloads, many of them as CDs, which still sell well in Germany. As of 2018, she had scored the top-selling album in the market for five of the previous six years. To get a better sense of how popular she is, though, remember that Germany has a population of 83 million – about a quarter that of the U.S. – and the German-speaking market is roughly 100 million. Fischer also hosts in “Die Helene Fischer Show,” an annual Christmas program on the German public television network ZDF. Fischer’s new album, Rausch, is due out Oct. 15, and the first single, “Vamos a Marte” – Spanish for “let’s go to Mars” – is a duet with the Puerto Rican star Luis Fonsi, who is signed to Universal...
David Bowie Estate and Warner Music Partner to Bring Icon’s Entire Catalog to Label
Among the artist’s later works covered by this new pact are 2002’s Mercury Prize-nominated Heathen; 2003’s Reality; 2013’s The Next Day; and his final studio album, 2016’s Blackstar, also shortlisted for the annual Mercury Prize. Blackstar dropped just two days before Bowie’s death, on Jan. 10, 2016. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, giving Bowie a posthumous, first leader. The following year, during the 59th Grammy Awards, Blackstar swept all five awards it was nominated for. Warner Music Group has controlled the lion’s share of Bowie’s recordings since 2013, when the company acquired the Parlophone Label Group, following the split-up and sale of EMI. In the intervening years, WMG has pulled the trigger of several releases showcasing Bowie’s...
YouTube Is ‘Now the Largest Content Licensor in the World,’ Says Exec
Second-quarter advertising revenue at YouTube was reported at $7 billion, up 83 percent from the year-ago period, after $6 billion in the first quarter, up 49 percent. That don’t include subscription revenue generated by YouTube Music and YouTube Premium. Netflix recorded $7.3 billion in the latest quarter, up 19 percent, after $7.2 billion in the first quarter, up 24 percent. The executive also discussed content spending. “When you think about our payouts, we are now the largest content licensor in the world,” Kyncl said. He mentioned that YouTube’s partner program covers about 2 million creators, with the company paying out $30 billion to them over the past three years. Kyncl said to ensure diversity, companies must focus on it, including in hiring and c...
The Big Boss Talks: Daddy Yankee Is Teaching Reggaetón’s Stars How to Own Their Careers
Yes. When I’ve had to pay someone for the respect, I’ve done so. “I’m worth so much” — OK. I’ve always understood an artist’s value. If we collaborate and you charge me X, that’s fine. Most of my collabs are exchanges, but remember, there’s a very fine line there. What if my song works, but yours doesn’t? Hopefully both tracks work, but that’s not always the case, and I get that. I get that you have a value that you need me to cover so that in the end, we’re all in a good place. But the business is flexible, and I’m flexible in many areas. I understand that sometimes, we’re talking about cultural moments rather than simply chart position. “China” [Anuel’s hit featuring Karol G, J Balvin, Ozuna and Yankee] is a good example. I saw it as a song that was important for the genre. Whe...
