business
For International Artists, US Entry in the Pandemic Comes With New Hurdles
In March, Colombian superstar Carlos Vives was in the midst of filming season 2 of Telemundo’s singing competition series La Voz in Miami when COVID-19 sent most of the U.S. into lockdown. With production on hold, Vives returned to his home country to wait things out. Now, a full four months later, he is back on set. But returning to the U.S. was no easy task. “Colombia’s international borders were shut down,” says Vives’ business manager, Claudia Arcay, who notes that all commercial flights to and from Colombia were suspended, except for humanitarian and repatriation flights. “However, we had a work contract with Telemundo that we had to fulfill.” {“nid”:”9425791″,”type”:”post”,”title”:”What Do Virtual Festivals Pay A...
Warner Music Group Names Head of Global Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Dr. Maurice Stinnett has joined Warner Music Group as the label’s head of global equity, diversity and inclusion. In his new role, Stinnett will lead the charge on WMG’s equity initiatives and work towards implementing programs to help the company become a more inclusive workplace. He’ll also have a hand in talent recruitment and development, and will assist the company’s Executive Diversity & Inclusion Council. Until recently, Stinnett was vp of diversity, inclusion and culture at BSE Global, operators of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and two of the arena’s prominent tenants — the Nets (NBA) and the Liberty (WNBA). Prior to BSE, he held senior roles at Cleveland State University and Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. He will report to WMG CEO Steve Cooper and be based at the ...
Oh, Snap: Snapchat Owner Lands Music Licensing Deals to Bring Songs to Posts
Snap, Inc. has secured licensing deals with several major music companies to incorporate music into posts on its photo- and video-sharing app Snapchat, the company confirmed today (Aug. 3). Snapchat users will soon be able to add music to their posts both pre- and post-capture, from a catalogue including music licensed from Warner Music Group and its publishing arm, Warner Chappell; Universal Music Publishing Group, members of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and indie digital rights agency Merlin. The new feature is now testing in New Zealand and Australia, as Bloomberg first reported, and will reach global users this fall. “We’re constantly building on our relationships within the music industry, and making sure the entire music ecosystem (artists, labels, songwrite...
Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ Reigns In U.K.
Taylor Swift has a fifth consecutive U.K. chart-leader as Folklore (EMI) blasts to No. 1. Swift’s eighth album leads the Official U.K. Albums Chart on debut, notching up 37,000 chart sales, with two-thirds of those from streams and the remainder from downloads, the OCC reports. With that fast start, Folklore is 2020’s most-downloaded album in its first week, eclipsing the opening tally of Eminem’s Music to be Murdered By. The full rollout of Folklore on CD and vinyl is yet to come. {“nid”:”9428290″,”type”:”post”,”title”:”Taylor Swift Achieves Seventh No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart & Biggest Week of 2020 With 'Folklore'”,”relative_path”:”\/articles\/business\/chart-beat\/9428290\/tayl...
Taylor Swift Sets Records, Completes Chart Double In Australia
Taylor Swift is the absolute champion of Australia’s charts this week as Folklore (Republic/Universal) bows at No. 1 on the national albums survey and its lead track “Cardigan” rules the singles tally. “Cardigan” opens at the summit of the ARIA Singles Chart, giving Swift her sixth leader and her first since “Look What You Made Me Do” hit the top in September 2017. Swift trails only Rihanna (7), Delta Goodrem (9), P!nk (9), Kylie Minogue (10) and Madonna (10) in the list of female solo artists with the most chart toppers, according to ARIA, and she’s the only artist among them to land five No. 1s the last decade. {“nid”:”9427594″,”type”:”post”,”title”:”Taylor Swift\u2019s \u2018Folklore\u2019 Reigns In U.K.”,”rel...
Microsoft Exploring TikTok Acquisition
Microsoft said Sunday (Aug. 2) that it would continue to explore an acquisition of TikTok after discussing the matter with President Donald Trump. The statement follows Trump’s Friday evening comments to reporters that he would take action as soon as Saturday to ban the app over national security concerns. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke to Trump over the weekend, the company disclosed. “Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President’s concerns,” reads part of the company’s statement. “It is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury.” {“nid”:”9428152″,”type”:”...
The 1975, Niall Horan, Little Mix & More U.K. Artists and Music Industry Figures Unite Against Racism, Antisemitism
Hundreds of key players in the U.K.’s music industry, including artists, managers, producers and record labels, are co-signing an urgent call to speak out against racism and intolerance. A letter, supported by the likes of The 1975, Niall Horan, Little Mix, Nile Rodgers and Lewis Capaldi, major U.K. labels Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Music and a number of industry figures — and accompanied with a call-to-action hashtag, #NoSilenceInMusic — was released Saturday night (Aug. 1). It can be read in full below. “We, representatives from the music industry, write to demonstrate and express our determination, that love, unity and friendship, not division and hatred, must and will always be our common cause,” the statement begins. “In recent mont...
President Trump Says He Will Ban TikTok From U.S.
The president made the remark on Air Force One on Friday evening. President Donald Trump said he will take action as soon as Saturday (Aug. 1) to ban TikTok, a popular Chinese-owned video app that has been a source of national security and censorship concerns. Trump’s comments came after published reports that the administration is planning to order China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok. There were also reports Friday that software giant Microsoft is in talks to buy the app. “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump told reporters Friday on Air Force One as he returned from Florida. Trump said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order to enforce the action, insisting, “I have that authority.” Reports by Bloomberg News and the Wall...
AI-Driven Rights Management Agency Muserk Forms Joint Venture to Reduce Piracy of Japanese Content
Muserk, the AI tech-driven global rights management agency for music and video, has partnered with leading Japanese marketing and media research company Video Research on a new joint venture designed to cut down on piracy of Japanese content worldwide. Dubbed Muserk V.I.D., the venture “will service, manage and protect the online rights of the major broadcasters, networks, and production companies of Japan, around the world,” according to a release announcing the deal. Through the partnership with Muserk, Video Research – which provides marketing, media and TV audience research for leading media firms and advertisers in Japan – will utilize Muserk’s AI technologies, M-Match and M-PAC, to manage and protect its clients’ online video rights. Founded by CEO Paul Goldman – who will serve as CE...
AMP Music Summit Draws Inspiration From History & Community in Second Virtual Event
The AMP Music Summit presented by KCRW held its second online conference earlier this week, celebrating the power of collaboration between artists, business leaders and local communities through music, storytelling, technology, law and culture. While the main arc of the AMP Music Summit focused on culture-shifting changes resulting from COVID-19, a common theme at AMP’s second event was the power of music to inspire smaller cities while building a sense of community and collective pride. “It’s great to hear the stories of hope and that’s really a lot of what we’re trying to do with this conference,” said Simon Lamb, who along with Rebel Industries founder Josh Levine and Seth Combs co-founded AMP Music Summit earlier this year. “We want to provide a counter narrative to s...
Executive Turntable: TalentX Founder Named Triller Chief Strategy Officer, Radio Promo Vets Launch New Company
Social media star, entrepreneur and TalentX Entertainment co-founder Josh Richards has been named chief strategy officer at AI-driven music video and entertainment platform Triller, which he also invested in. In his new role, Richards will lead strategy at Triller while also overseeing the company’s implementation of live streaming and monetization tools. Triller, a rival to the wildly popular video-sharing platform TikTok, last year raised $28 million in a funding round led by Proxima Media last year, also drawing investors including Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne. In June, the platform — which currently has music licensing partnerships with Warner, Sony Music and UMG — hit 50 million monthly active users. “After seeing the US and other countries’ governments’ concerns over Tik...
Apple overtakes Saudi Aramco as world’s most valuable public company
Apple’s stock hit a record high on Friday after reporting blockbuster quarterly results, helping the iPhone maker briefly overtake Saudi Aramco to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company. Apple’s stock surged to as high as $412.22 a share, putting its market capitalization at $1.762 trillion, according to the share count provided by Apple in a regulatory filing on Friday. Saudi Aramco, which has been the most valuable publicly listed company since going public last year, had a market capitalization of $1.760 trillion as of its last close, according to Refinitiv data. Last up 6.2% at $408.78 in midday trading, Apple’s market capitalization stood at $1.748 trillion. After Apple bought back $16 billion worth of shares in the June quarter, it had 4,275,634,000 outstanding shar...
