universal music group
Triller Removes Music From Universal, Sony, Warner and Merlin
Try using some of your favorite songs on the short-form video app Triller, and you’ll be hard pressed to find what you’re looking for. On Thursday, the music catalogs for Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music and Merlin — which provides digital licensing to many top independent labels and distributors — were removed from the platform. A Triller spokesperson says the platform is “reassessing each of our label deals as they come due as our catalogue music usage is a small fraction of our overall business with creators. “Some labels are more used than others and if we can make financial arrangements which make sense for the platform, on a label by label basis, we will. In other cases the usage does not justify the cost.” The news follows a lawsuit filed by Sony Music Entertain...
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Universal Music Group Buys 49% Stake in Indie Label Group [PIAS]
Universal Music Group (UMG) has purchased a 49% stake in the indie label group [PIAS], expanding on a strategic global partnership that began last year. As part of the deal, [PIAS] founders Kenny Gates and Michel Lambot will retain control of the company, “remain fully independent” and UMG will have no seats on the indie’s board. In March 2021, [PIAS] rebranded its distribution and services arm to [Integral], bringing on a new managing director to expand its business globally. Three months later, [PIAS] entered into an agreement with UMG that gave the major label group access to the [Integral] platform, which also handles distribution services for more than 100 indie label partners including ATO, Beggars Group and Secretly Group. The newly announced minority investment is said to be an ext...
Music Companies Must Now Include Salary Ranges on New York Job Postings
A new New York City law requiring employers to disclose salary ranges in job postings has officially gone into effect this week, with music companies hiring in the city mandated to comply. On the first day of the law, a picture of at least one of the major music companies’ salary ranges has come into focus. The day the law went into effect, several companies were criticized for overly-broad salary ranges that effectively subverted the point of the regulation, which was designed to give prospective employees insight into what they could be expected to earn at different companies in the city and address salary discrepancies between men and women and for people of color. The Wall Street Journal, for instance, posted reporting and producing jobs with ranges between $40,000 to $160,000; te...
Lucian Grainge Says Slowing Ad Market Won’t Shake Universal Music
Universal Music Group on Thursday reported its fifth-straight quarter of revenue gains since its public spinoff from Vivendi last year, increasing revenue 13.3% as its many, varied business divisions helped offset slow-downs in areas sensitive to global economic uncertainty. On a call with analysts, UMG chairman and chief executive Lucian Grainge attributed the company’s strong quarter — coming amid a downturn in the advertising market — to its diversification strategy. Over Grainge’s 17-years at the helm, UMG has built dominant positions in multiple geographic markets and across nearly every major segment in music, making it less susceptible to “the inevitable ebbs and flows in revenue of any particular business,” he said. That helped UMG offset a slowdown in ad-supported streaming revenu...
Apple Music’s Price Hike Boosts Music Stocks
Universal Music Group, Hipgnosis Songs Fund and other music stocks got a much-needed boost on Tuesday (Oct. 25) following news of Apple Music’s price hike, as investors bet it would trigger a wave of streaming subscription cost increases. Universal Music Group’s stock closed 11.6% higher, Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd ended up 7.8% and Korean music companies SM Entertainment and HYBE finished the trading day 4.8% and 4.4% higher, respectfully, on Tuesday. On Monday, Apple announced that it was raising the standard U.S. and U.K. individual plan price to $10.99 from $9.99. This 10% price hike — Apple’s first — comes amid high inflation and a darkening economic environment in many global markets. If Apple can raise prices at a time like this, that is a sign the music industry can charge more ...
The Ledger: What to Expect From Next Week’s Q3 2022 Earnings Calls
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Music companies face a multitude of pressures as 2022 comes to an end: crippling inflation, a tight labor market, a chaotic environment for breaking new artists, interest rates that are dampening catalog valuations, and high costs of touring amidst a crush of artists on the road, among other challenges. The upcoming slate of corporate earnings provides an opportunity to hear about these opportunities and challenges from leaders of publicly traded music companies who rarely go on the record. Spotify reports third-quarter earnings after the close of trading on Tuesday (Oct. 25). Universal Music Group and Deez...
TikTok to Launch Songwriting Platform for Creators With Simon Cowell, UMG & Samsung
TikTok creators will soon be handed a fresh set of tools to soundtrack their videos and potentially make hit songs when a new in-app platform created by Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment company, in partnership with Universal Music Group and Samsung, launches on the platform later this month. Called StemDrop, the initiative will provide TikTok’s more than 1 billion monthly users with access to music “stems” (the isolated components of a song, such as drum tracks or individual vocal parts) from an exclusive new track composed by hit songwriters Max Martin, Savan Kotecha and Ali Payami entitled “Red Lights,” which creators can then use to record and share their own versions. The project was conceived by British music mogul Cowell and entertainment executive Tim Van Rongen in pa...
Music’s Top Money Makers: The Highest-Paid Executives and Stockholders at Publicly Traded Companies
Kang Hyo-won is not a marquee name in the music industry. The South Korean producer is better known as Pdogg, the studio wizard behind hits by K-pop supergroup BTS and other acts on the roster of Korean entertainment company HYBE. Because Kang played a key role in HYBE’s global success, his employer gave him 128,000 stock options in 2016 that turned into about $35 million when Kang exercised them. (All currency conversions to U.S. dollars in this story are based on the average 2021 exchange rate.) That made Kang the second-highest-paid music industry executive last year among those whose earnings are publicly disclosed. Yoon Seok-jun (aka Lenzo Yoon) and Kim Shin-gyu, co-CEO of HYBE America and chief artist management officer, respectively, also benefited from HYBE going public. Yoon nette...
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy Awards Universal Music With Peace Prize for Wartime Support
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has awarded Universal Music Group the Ukraine Peace Prize for its support of Ukraine during the country’s war with Russia. At a ceremony on Monday (Sept. 5) at UMG’s Belgium headquarters in Brussels, Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, presented the award to Frank Briegmann, UMG’s chairman and CEO of Central Europe. UMG, which was among the first major labels to declare its support for economic sanctions against Russia after it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, is the first music company to receive the award from Ukraine. “Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Universal Music has proven that they are true friends of Ukraine,” Stefanishyna says. The label says its efforts include support f...
Universal Music Launches Media Platform to Better Connect Artists With Brands
Universal Music Group for Brands (UMGB) has launched an advanced media and data platform designed to more easily connect brands with exclusive UMG artist content, the company announced Wednesday (June 22). Called the UMusic Media Network, the platform will give brands access to UMG’s inventory of music video content spanning all leading social platforms as well as UMG data and insights, allowing them to hyper-target audiences at scale. Content offered through the network will include official music videos, songs and lyrics videos, artist vlogs and lifestyle content from UMG-owned platforms including Rebel Labs, Mercury Studios and Polygram Entertainment. The network will also offer branded content and partnership opportunities across all of UMG’s labels and artists. UMGB claims to boast te...
BTS Accounts for Nearly 1/3 of All U.S. K-Pop Sales & Streams: Their Domination, By the Numbers
BTS members’ decision to take time off for solo projects is bound to shake up K-pop music consumption in the U.S. because of the group’s dominance in the genre. And the band’s label, Big Hit Music — a division of HYBE, which Universal Music Group’s Geffen Records has distributed in the U.S. since last year — will have a tough time filling the hole. Since the beginning of 2021, BTS has accounted for 29.4% of sales and on-demand streams of K-pop music in the U.S., according to a Billboard analysis of Luminate data. Over that time, BTS did not release a new studio album but put out two “best of” collections — BTS, the Best in June 2021 and Proof on June 10, 2022. BTS also released multiple variations of the tracks “Butter” (including a remix with Megan Thee Stallion), “My Universe” and “Permi...
UMG Partners With Music Wellness App Vera to Help People With Dementia
Universal Music Group has been named the exclusive launch partner for Vera, a mobile application created by music wellness and technology company Music Health. Vera is an AI-driven music app designed specifically for people suffering with dementia. The technology used in the Vera application “allows Vera to curate the perfect song at the right time for every individual listener.” According to UMG, the venture took Music Health three years of rigorous research and development. The research included more than 20,000 hours of observation and analysis to effectively conclude that Vera had a positive impact on the quality of life of people with BPSD, or the Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia. “We’ve built Vera to know and find the music that mea...
