business
Bonnaroo Postpones for Third Time, Moves Festival to September 2021
The 2021 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival has been pushed yet again over concerns about the length of the COVID-19 pandemic, marking the third time dates for the festival were shifted due to the virus. The annual event will now take place Sept. 2-5, 2021. The festival, which typically takes place in mid-June, was moved to September 2020 in March after the coronavirus took hold in the U.S. In June, it was moved a second time to June 2021, before being rescheduled for a third time earlier today. The original dates for Bonnaroo 2021 have changed. Bonnaroo will now take place on Sept. 2-5, 2021. Stay tuned for info on lineup, camping + more. We encourage you to rollover your tickets to the new dates, but refunds will be available for those who cannot attend. pic.twitter.com/i78MnMITdY —...
Round Hill Music Signs Rob Thomas to Worldwide Publishing Deal
Round Hill Music has signed multi-Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Rob Thomas to a long-term worldwide publishing deal, which will cover his full catalog, including past and future works. Best known as the frontman for Matchbox Twenty, Thomas has led the rock band through four studio albums beginning with debut Yourself or Someone Like You in 1996, which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, was certified twelve-times platinum by the RIAA and included hit singles like “Push” and “3AM.” Other top-charting songs from the band include “If You’re Gone,” “Unwell” and “How Far We’ve Come.” Arguably Thomas’ biggest hit, however, came from outside of the band: “Smooth,” his 1999 col...
BTS Set to Make Millions as Big Hit Entertainment Goes Public
The seven members of the K-pop supergroup BTS are set to make millions when their label Big Hit Entertainment goes public in October. Demand for shares in Big Hit has hit record levels, driven in part by fans of the boy band, giving the music giant a valuation of $4.1 billion. Big Hit’s Oct. 15 IPO will be South Korea’s largest in three years. The IPO will make Big Hit founder and co-CEO Bang Si-hyuk, known widely as “Hitman” Bang, a billionaire. In August, Bang gave each BTS member shares in the company, which are currently valued at almost $8 million. As well as being home to RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, Big Hit’s roster includes the five-member boy band TXT and singer Lee Hyun. BTS makes up the vast majority of Big Hit’s revenue, gen...
Warner Music Australasia President Niko Nordström Is Returning to Finland
Warner Music Australasia president Niko Nordström is returning to his homeland, Finland, to take on a familiar role with the music major. Announced Tuesday, Nordström is named executive vice president, Warner Music Nordics and managing director of Warner Music Finland, based in Helsinki. Nordström will report to Mark Fry, the newly appointed president of Warner Music Nordics. “It’s fantastic news that Niko is returning home to the Nordics,” Fry comments in a statement. “He’s a friend and a partner, as well as one of the most admired figures in the history of the Finnish music industry. He moved the business and culture into the modern age, while nurturing an entire generation of groundbreaking artists.” Niko played a “central role in making Finland a pioneering global music market,” ...
Keith Urban Snags Australian Chart Crown With ‘Future Of Now’
Australia’s country superstar Keith Urban bags a fourth chart crown in his homeland as Future Of Now opens at No. 1. Urban, a five-time ARIA Awards winner, previously ruled the ARIA Albums Chart with The Story So Far in May 2012, Fuse in September 2013, and Ripcord in May 2016. Future Of Now is the followup to 2018’s Graffiti U, which peaked at No. 2 on the national albums survey. Also new to the ARIA Chart this week is Ava Max’s long awaited debut album Heaven & Hell, which starts at No. 7. The LP contains the U.S. pop artist’s breakout single “Sweet But Psycho,” which hit No. 2 in Australia following its release in 2018. Just one place below is Mildlife’s sophomore album Automatic at No. 8. It’s the award-winning Melbourne psych-jazz outfit’s first appearance on the ARIA Albums Chart...
Miley Cyrus’ ‘Midnight Sky’ Makes Its Move on U.K. Singles Chart
Miley Cyrus’ “Midnight Sky” (RCA) is looking to climb high on the U.K. singles chart this week as 24kGoldn’s “Mood” (Black Butter) featuring Iann Dior gets set for a second week at No. 1. Miley’s latest single races 11-5 on the Official Chart: First Look, which measures sales and streaming activity for the first 48 hours in the chart cycle. Based on early data published by the Official Charts Company, “Mood” continues at the top of the leaderboard, ahead of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” (Atlantic) and “Ain’t It Different” (Relentless) by Headie One, AJ Tracey and Stormzy, respectively. Last Friday, “Mood” ended the three-week reign of “WAP.” 24kGoldn could land another track in the Top 10. The rising British rapper is a guest artist on Clean Bandit’s “Tick Tock” (Atlantic),...
How Mushroom Group’s Michael Gudinski Pivoted and Built New Channels During the Pandemic
Michael Gudinski always has something extra up his sleeve. When the 360-degree company became a fashionable term, Gudinski had his own spin. Mushroom Group, his independent music empire, was a “365” company, reflecting the number of days it operated in a regular year. Launched in 1973, Mushroom Group today spans more than two-dozen companies and brands from Frontier Touring, one of the world’s leading independent promoters, to The Harbour Agency, labels I Oh You, Liberation and Bloodlines, Mushroom Music Publishing, neighboring rights operation Good Neighbour, and the new addition, Reclusive Records. The pandemic has caused income to dry up for so many entertainment companies, particularly those exposed to concerts and touring. Mushroom Group is built on a bedrock of live music. Gudi...
Apple Music’s Karlie Hustle on Getting Cancer, Finding Perspective & the New Film That Documents It All
It was December 2018, and music executive/podcast host Karlie Hustle was about to fulfill her longtime dream of directing a documentary. But on Christmas Eve, she received a diagnosis that changed the trajectory of her life. “Right as we were getting ready to book flights and get everything together for a shoot in April of 2019, I was diagnosed with [breast] cancer,” Hustle tells Billboard. At a point when many would have bowed out of the project altogether, Hustle and her producer Dan Eason instead made the decision to lean into her diagnosis. Originally intended as a feature-length documentary that would focus on Hustle, a self-described “city slicker,” “getting back in touch with nature” in the Oregon wilderness, the focus pivoted to become a story about her journey through the ri...
24kGoldn’s ‘Mood’ Ends ‘WAP’ Reign In U.K. as Pop Smoke Makes Chart History
24kGoldn is in a right mood. With “Mood” (Black Butter), the British rapper’s collaboration with Iann Dior, 24kGoldn dethrones Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion as the U.K.’s chart champion. After a six-week climb “Mood” lifts 2-1 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, after finishing the week more than 7,000 chart sales ahead of “WAP,” snapping its three-week streak at No. 1. According to the Official Charts Company, “Mood” snags 61,000 chart sales, including 7.8 million streams. “WAP” (Atlantic) dips 1-2, as Justin Bieber grabs the highest new entry with “Holy” (Def Jam) featuring Chance The Rapper. “Holy” is new at No. 10 for Bieber’s 21st Top 10 single, and the Chicago hip-hop star’s fifth. Also impacting the current frame is Sam Smith’s “Diamonds” (Capitol), which starts at No. 22, for the...
Strictly Discs in Wisconsin, in a Pandemic: ‘People Are Cautiously Optimistic and Pleasantly Surprised’
Store owner Angie Roloff says her store and other independent record shops have done better than expected during the pandemic. In October 1988, Angie Roloff and her husband Ron opened Strictly Discs in Madison, Wisconsin, after Ron left a career in the biomedical research field to pursue his love of music full time. Nearly 31 years later, the couple made the difficult decision to shutter in-store operations due to COVID-19, roughly a week before Governor Tony Evers forced a mandatory shutdown of all non-essential businesses. Now that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has overturned Evers’ stay-at-home order — ruling it “unlawful” and “unenforceable” — the Roloffs and their employees have reopened the store. As part of Billboard’s efforts to best cover th...
Max Merritt, ARIA Hall of Fame Inductee, Dies at 79
Max Merritt, the ARIA Hall of Fame inductee best known for the soulful songs “Slippin’ Away” and “Hey, Western Union Man”, died Thursday (Sept. 24) in a Los Angeles hospital following a long battle with a rare illness. He was 79. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand on April 30, 1941, Merritt made his mark when he formed The Meteors in the 1950s and reeled off a string of catchy rock ‘n’ roll numbers, including “Get a Haircut,” “Kiss Curl” and “C’mon Let’s Go.” Soon, Merritt and his band outgrew Christchurch and by 1962 they’d relocated to Auckland, and later, Australia, where he earned the moniker “king of Soul”. With the Meteors, Merritt had a No. 2 hit in Australia in 1975 with the soaring ballad “Slippin’ Away” and were sig...
BMG Launches Record Label With French Soccer Club Olympique de Marseille
BMG has struck a strategic partnership with French Ligue 1 football (soccer) club Olympique de Marseille (OM) that includes the launch of OM Records, a new hip-hop, rap and R&B label. OM Records will be headquartered in Marseille, France, which has been a hotbed of French hip-hop since the 1990s and served as a proving ground for artists including BMG publishing clients IAM and Fonky Family. Emile Hauck will manage the new imprint and all of the club’s other music activities as OM Records’ A&R and project manager. He will report to BMG France general manager Sylvain Gazaignes. Under the agreement, BMG will be the exclusive partner for all OM music projects and activities; it also includes a licensing deal for BMG’s production music library, which OM will use for all inte...
