Billboard's 2022 40 Under 40 Revealed

Olivia Rodrigo’s and Adele’s managers; marketing and merch leaders; Web3 pioneers — they’re all among the honorees in Billboard’s annual celebration of the next-gen executives defining the future of the music industry.

Shauna Alexander VP/global head of partnerships, SoundCloud

Alexander, 38, sees herself “as a bit of a Robin Hood,” who “instead of stealing from brands,” edu-cates them “on why they need to invest in emerging artists.” SoundCloud, for example, dove into gaming partnerships over the past year, working with Adobe, Swiffer and Xbox on a Fortnite Battle Royale co-hosted by Rico Nasty that pitted eight SoundCloud rappers against each other. The tournament racked up over 700,000 views. “In a time where artists have been really struggling,” Alexander says, “I’m proud of my team and I for constantly finding nonconventional ways to get emerging artists paid.”

The Next Big Thing My Colleagues Should Get Hip To Is…: “The concept of digital fashion and how that space is evolving. There is so much opportunity for creativity, individualism and innovation all while maintaining an eco-friendly impact through utiliz-

ing these new digital fashion apps. Plus, it’s a ripe medium for brand partnership opportunities.”

Toby Andrews President, Astralwerks

While Andrews, who manages all day-to-day aspects of the Capitol Music Group imprint, has over-seen the expansion of Astralwerks Asia and recently helped launch Fabled Records — a new China-based label created in partnership with Live Nation — the 32-year-old executive says, “none of this can over-shadow what we do every day at the company.” In March, Astralwerks released The Silence in Between, the third studio album by Bob Moses, which Andrews describes as “a true honor,” given that he was the electronic duo’s first manager.

Andrew Asare Senior director of streaming (urban), Warner Records

Paraphrasing hip-hop fave Gunna, Asare says his daily version of “pushin’ P” is “prayer, pitch notes and pushing “send” on emails to platforms for placement on playlists and beyond.” The 34-year-old Ghana-ian’s work proved instrumental in Saweetie’s rise

Billboard’s 2022 40 Under 40 Revealed

BY BILLBOARD STAFF

(continued)

YOUR DAILY ENTERTAINMENT NEWS UPDATE

BulletinM AY 1 2 , 2 0 2 2 of 44

• Big Machine and Blac Noize!

Recordings Partner in New Hip-Hop Label

Venture

• ‘You Owe Me’: Songwriter Accuses Former Publishing Exec of Leveraging His Power for Sex

• Major Labels Bolster Diversity of Music Teams With ‘A&R Academies’

• The New Label Deal: Why Artists Have More Power

Than Ever (Music Biz 2022)

INSIDE

MARKET WATCHPAGE 41

SONGWRITERS & PRODUCERS

CHARTSPAGES 42 - 44

https://www.billboard.com/author/billboard-staff/

https://www.billboard.com/deep-dive

https://www.billyjoel.com/

of 44

from 2019 Billboard Hot 100 debutante with “My Type” to two-time 2022 Grammy Award nominee. And his promotion of rap-per Isaiah Rashad’s The House Is Burning fu-eled its No. 7 debut on the Billboard 200, where it charted for six weeks. When he’s not busy expanding an artist’s reach, Asare supports his alma mater Howard University through Warner Music Group’s mentorship program.

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Grant scholarships to two students who wish to pursue careers on the business side of mu-sic. And run two New York City Marathons.”

Ryan Beuschel VP of A&R strategy, Warner Chappell Music

Beuschel, 38, says he spends “a lot of time with my songwriters discussing strat-egy as trends change in the overall music landscape as well as the country market,” in which he specializes. His fostering of singer-songwriter and friend Randy Mon-tana’s career led to the “Beer Never Broke My Heart” co-writer landing his first Coun-try Music Association Triple Play Award in May — a highlight of the past year, because “Randy and I started our careers together at Universal Music Group,” Beuschel says. Oth-er top notes include adding Brett Eldredge, Riley Green, Hailey Whitters, Priscilla Block, Justin Lynch and Warren Zeiders to Warner Chappell’s roster.

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “See Mich-igan football win a national championship.”

Alexis Brown Artist manager (Adele), September Manage-ment

As the point person for one of the big-gest pop stars in the world, Brown, 28, played an instrumental role in the release of Adele’s 30, the top-selling album of 2021, and in a promotional and marketing campaign that included NBC and CBS TV specials; the latter drew more than 12 mil-lion viewers, becoming the second most-watched televised entertainment special of that year, according to Nielsen. The Syracuse University graduate also guides the careers of Grammy-winning mix engineer Tom Elmhirst (“Rolling in the Deep”) and emerging talents Orion Sun and MorMor.

Darcy Brown Head of music merchandise, Amazon Music

Last year, Brown, 35, worked closely with Kanye West and Balenciaga head designer Demna on limited-edition merchandise for the Amazon Music-hosted #FreeLarry-Hoover benefit. “That collection was indica-tive of how Amazon Music is transforming artist merchandise experiences beyond the typical band T-shirt,” says Brown, who em-ployed a similar strategy around livestreams for the 2022 Dreamville Festival and album release events for The Weeknd and Tyler, The Creator. “The way we listen to music has changed with new technology, but the merch booth hasn’t been reinvented for decades,” says Brown.

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Go to a concert with the team I built virtually at the start of the pandemic — we are due for an outing.”

Laura Carter Senior vp/head of urban marketing, Inter-scope Records

Leading a 10-member team that shares her “passion for artist development,” Carter supervised marketing campaigns for releases from J. Cole, Summer Walker and Moneybagg Yo, as well as a second posthu-mous Juice WRLD album — all contributing to Interscope’s 10.08% overall market share in 2021. As the industry readjusts back to pre-pandemic marketing opportunities, Carter says, “It’s exciting to watch tour-ing and events start to thrive again, and for fans to get a piece of the artist they’ve been missing.”

Briana Cheng A&R, 4AD; founder, b4

Cheng landed at 4AD in 2018 as an A&R executive, signing Velvet Negroni, Tkay Maidza, Erika de Casier and HAWA to the British label during her four-year-plus tenure. Cheng is also founder of b4, a label and management company, and notes that all the acts she manages — includ-ing 27Delly, Tama Gucci and Mia Carucci — “are people of color and/or queer and huge advocates for their community and culture outside of making forward-think-ing, genreless music.”

IN BRIEF

AUTHORITATIVE INTELLIGENCE.DELIVERED DIGITALLY. CLICK HERE

FOR FREE DELIVERY

DIGITAL NEWSLETTERS

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/

https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200/

https://www.billboard.com/newsletter/preferences

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

� ��

� ��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

� ��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

� ��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

� ��

��

� ��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

� ��

� ��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

� ��

� ��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

� ��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

� ��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

� ��

SONG OF THE YEAR

��

��

��

��

��

SONGWRITERS OF THE YEAR

��

��

��

PUBLISHERS OF THE YEAR

��

��

ICON AWARD RECIPIENTS

��

��

MUSIC MOVES

OUR WORLD

CELEBRATE WITH US

��

.....................................................

THR fulll pg template.indd 1 5/6/22 2:08 PM

https://www.bmi.com/award-shows/pop-2022/

Thomas Coesfeld CFO, BMG

Since joining BMG in April 2021, Coes-feld has helped lead its biggest acquisition program in nearly a decade — boosted by a $1 billion partnership with KKR. Over the past year, BMG has picked up catalogs from Tina Turner, ZZ Top and Mötley Crüe, among others, and is projecting more than $1 billion in annual revenue over the next three years. “The market has turned our way,” says the 32-year-old executive, who hails from Germany. “It has become clear that the service-orientated agenda we pioneered similarly resonates with the new financial investors entering the field of music.”

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Finally see The Rolling Stones play live.”

Michele Cranford Senior vp of digital marketing, Atlantic Records

Cranford, 38, oversees a team of 30 “digi-tal marketers, social platform experts, and gaming and Web3 specialists” that, she says, creates “cutting-edge digital lifestyle and tastemaker marketing campaigns across all major social digital platforms.” Her team has both helped break new acts and contributed to long-term artist development, and she notes that her division is increasingly fo-cused on short-form content, which thrives on TikTok and has increasing traction on YouTube. “I love that we are connecting

with fan audiences earlier, ahead of releases, to build excitement,” she says.

Patch Culbertson Senior vp/GM, Big Loud Records

Promoted to senior vp/GM in 2021, Culbertson, 36, helped curate Morgan Wal-len’s Dangerous: The Double Album, which was the most popular album of last year. Wallen’s success — alongside that of label-mates Jake Owen and Chris Lane — earned Big Loud the top position on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Label 2021 year-end chart. Culbertson, whose role spans A&R, data analytics and strategy, is known as “Stat Daddy” at Big Loud, and understandably so: The label was earning 5 million on-demand audio streams a week when he came aboard in 2017. That number is now 100 million per week.

Sophia Dilley Senior vp of film/TV development and pro-duction, Concord Originals

“I am in awe at the sophisticated level of storytelling that is being produced right now,” says 33-year-old Dilley, who last year launched Concord’s new division for developing projects onstage and onscreen, utilizing its artists and music and theatrical catalogs. Her development slate includes three projects mining the works of Rodg-ers & Hammerstein; documentaries on Billy Preston and Shari Lewis and Lambchop; and a genre film using blues legend Robert Johnson’s catalog. Dilley says she’s also ex-

cited about working with Skydance TV and Jennifer Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions to adapt musicals for the screen based on Concord’s own legacy works.

The Next Big Thing My Colleagues Should Get Hip To Is…: “Music-driven films like CODA.”

Jacob Fowler Chief technology officer, The Orchard

In the increasingly fast-paced digital-first world, Fowler has helped The Orchard build out its suite of products for its artists and labels. A partnership with payment service Wise allows for faster payouts across countries and currencies, and OrchardGo is a new analytics-focused mobile app. But Fowler says he is most proud of building “a more inclusive and diverse team. The results always take longer than you hope for, but we are now in a place we can be proud of, especially as we look toward the future.”

Mandy Gabriel VP of film, TV and advertising, Universal Music Publishing Group

Gabriel, 37, helped place UMPG synchs with Apple, Peloton, Toyota, Campbell’s Soup and Taco Bell over the past year. She has also worked on internal synch-educa-tion sessions called Office Hours to help songwriters keep up to date on synch trends and the intersection of music and media. “A large part of my job is thinking outside the box to make interesting connections that lead to exciting and creative opportunities,”

of 44

IN BRIEF

Sam Hunt’s second studio full-length, and first in over five years, Southside (MCA Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville), debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart dated April 18. In its first week (ending April 9), it earned 46,000 equivalent album units, including 16,000 in album sales, ac-cording to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.

Southside marks Hunt’s second No. 1 on the chart and fourth top 10. It follows freshman LP Montevallo, which arrived at the summit in No-vember 2014 and reigned for nine weeks. To date, Montevallo has earned 3.9 million units, with 1.4 million in album sales.

Montevallo has spent 267 weeks on the list, tying Luke Bryan’s Crash My Party as the sixth-longest-running titles in the chart’s 56-year history.

On the all-genre Billboard 200, Southside ar-rives at No. 5, awarding Hunt his second top 10 after the No. 3-peaking Montevallo.

Hunt first released the EP X2C, which debuted and peaked at No. 5 on Top Country Albums in August 2014. Following Montevallo, Between the Pines: Acoustic Mixtape started at its No. 7 high in November 2015.

Montevallo produced five singles, four of which hit the pinnacle of Country Airplay: “Leave the Night On,” “Take Your Time,” “House Party” and “Make You Miss Me.” “Break Up in a Small Town” peaked at No. 2.

Hunt co-penned all 12 songs on Southside, including “Body Like a Back Road,” which was released in 2017. The smash hit ruled Country Airplay for three weeks and the airplay-, streaming- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart for a then-record 34 frames. It now ranks second only to Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant to Be” (50 weeks atop the latter list in 2017-18).

“Downtown’s Dead,” which is also on the new set, reached Nos. 14 and 15 on Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay, respectively, in June 2018. “Kin-folks” led Country Airplay on Feb. 29, becoming Hunt’s seventh No. 1. It hit No. 3 on Hot Country Songs.

Latest single “Hard to Forget” jumps 17-9 on Hot Country Songs. It’s his eighth top 10, having corralled 8.2 million U.S. streams (up 96%) and 5,000 in

sales (up 21%) in the tracking week. On Country Airplay, it hops 18-15 (11.9 mil-lion audience impressions, up 16%).

TRY TO ‘CATCH’ UP WITH YOUNG Brett Young achieves his fifth consecutive and total Country Airplay No. 1 as “Catch” (Big Machine Label Group) ascends

2-1, increasing 13% to 36.6 million impressions.Young’s first of six chart entries, “Sleep With-

out You,” reached No. 2 in December 2016. He followed with the multiweek No. 1s “In Case You Didn’t Know” (two weeks, June 2017), “Like I Loved You” (three, January 2018), “Mercy” (two, August 2018) and “Here Tonight” (two, April 2019).

“Catch” completes his longest journey to No. 1, having taken 46 weeks to reach the apex. It out-paces the 30-week climb of “Here Tonight.”

On Hot Country Songs, “Catch” pushes 7-5 for a new high.

COMBS ‘DOES’ IT AGAIN Luke Combs’ “Does to Me” (River House/Columbia Nashville), featuring Eric Church, ascends 11-8 on Country Airplay, up 10% to 24.7 million in audience. The song is Combs’ eighth straight career-opening top 10, following a record run of seven consecutive out-of-the-gate, properly promoted No. 1 singles.

Church adds his 15th Country Airplay top 10.

THAT TOOK QUITE ‘A FEW’ MONTHS Travis Denning shatters the record for the most weeks it has taken to penetrate the Country Airplay top 10 as “After a Few” (Mercury Nashville) climbs 12-10 in its 57th week, up 4% to 21.4 mil-lion in radio reach.

The song surpasses two tracks that took 50 weeks each to enter the top 10: Easton Corbin’s “A Girl Like You,” which reached No. 10 in January 2018 be-fore peaking at No. 6 that February, and Aaron Watson’s “Outta Style,” which achieved its No. 10 high in December 2017.

“After” is Denning’s second Country Airplay entry. “David Ashley Parker From Powder Springs” traveled to No. 32 in September 2018.

SamHunt’s Southside Rules Top Country Albums; Brett Young ‘Catch’-es Fifth Airplay

Leader; Travis Denning Makes History

ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected]

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 13, 2020 | PAGE 4 OF 19

HU

NT

: M

ICH

AE

L M

AR

TIN

/NH

LI

VIA

GE

TT

Y I

MA

GE

S. Y

OU

NG

: E

TH

AN

M

ILL

ER

/GE

TT

Y I

MA

GE

S

HUNT YOUNG

https://www.billboard.com/newsletter/preferences

2 0 2 2

ISSUE DATE 6/4 | AD CLOSE 5/25 | MATERIALS DUE 5/26

4th, 4th

says the eight-year company veteran, who previously worked at Kobalt — “the best thing to happen to me,” she says.

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Be proficient enough in woodworking to build a piece of furniture from scratch for my home.”

Joe Gallo Senior vp/head of sales, Columbia Records

In 2021, Columbia held the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 for 33 weeks thanks to nine different songs, including Polo G’s “Rapstar” and The Kid LAROI’s Justin Bieber-assisted “Stay.” Gallo, 33, says “the determination within the label to achieve such a feat was contagious,” and his team worked along-side departments throughout the company “to craft each artist’s release timing and strategy.” He executed campaigns with individually tailored strategies to maximize consumption, with help from a unit on his team dedicated to data analysis across new releases at the label.

Javier González Owner/CEO, Tamarindo Rekordsz

Ten years ago, González was doing oil changes at an Acura dealer while pursu-ing songwriting and working on launch-ing his regional Mexican label, Tamarindo Rekordsz. Now 35, with signings like Carin León — who has 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify and has guested on a remix of Walker Hayes’ country hit “Fancy Like” — the indie label is going global. “In today’s landscape, it’s not just Mexico and the U.S. interested in Mexican artists,” he says. “Latin American and European countries are listening, too.”

The Next Big Thing My Colleagues Should Get Hip To Is…: “Today’s listeners are incredibly open to music of all kinds. It has made rules and limits a thing of the past, which is exciting for those of us behind the scenes because it gives us more leeway in how we can approach song production. I can’t wait to see how we can develop new sounds and styles through artistic experi-mentation.”

Matt Graham Co-founding managing partner, Range Media Partners

Graham, 38, considers himself a “mul-tihyphenate,” with good reason. As one of

the architects of Range’s 360 approach to management, the company secured a label partnership with Capitol Music Group and Virgin Music Label & Artist Services in 2021; helped found Web3 platform Classick Club in early 2020; and secured film, TV and branding opportunities for clients Jack Harlow, Wale, Justin Tranter and Midland. Range is also preparing to launch a publish-ing division, but Graham says he’s most thrilled with the return of touring, calling it “the lifeblood of our business.”

Oscar Guitián Jr. Co-Founder, GM, WK Records

Guitián — who learned the music biz working at his father’s independent label — helped make Walter Kolm’s 2-year-old WK Records one of Billboard’s top 10 Latin labels of 2021, thanks to global hits like “Fiel” by Los Legendarios, Wisin and Jhay Cortez. Guitián, 32, spends his days “looking for viral songs and artists to sign, negotiating deals with managers/attorneys and help-ing grow the business overall.” He is eyeing Spain as the next generator of Latin hits and adds that “the frequency of how quickly music is coming out and the levels of deals being made” keeps things exciting.

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Own a sports team, either basketball or soccer.”

Tiara Hargrave VP/GM, Alamo

Working alongside Alamo founder/CEO Todd Moscowitz, Hargrave, 36, served as a key player in helping Lil Durk dominate “the charts and culture,” as she proudly puts it. Durk secured his first Billboard 200 No. 1 album (7220) last March after Alamo aided in pushing his 2021 release, The Voice, to platinum status. If she wasn’t busy building superstars, Hargrave says she might have been a sociologist. “I just might still do it,” she quips. “We deal with so many different types of people, it might be helpful.”

Nick Jarjour Global head of song management, Hipgnosis Songs Management; artist manager (Starrah, Trinidad Cardona)

With Hipgnosis continuing to snap up classic song catalogs, Jarjour, 36, deals with billions of dollars in song assets on a global scale. On the management side, R&B singer Trinidad Cardona signed to Def Jam,

while Jarjour and client Starrah co-founded publishing venture 3:02 Music Group, negotiating partnership terms with Pulse Music Group. He calls producer-songwriter Starrah “a trailblazer of creating more rep-resentation and equality within the music industry,” adding that the five businesses he has invested in this year “have been female-founded, and the data indicates female founders exit 25% faster and at higher valu-ations than their male counterparts.”

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “See a songwriter of the year Grammy Award.”

Alex Kamins Senior vp of new business and ventures, War-ner Music Group

Kamins leads the WMG team that over-sees Web3 strategy and venture-capital investing. Last March brought a partnership with STYNGR, which helps gaming compa-nies license tracks from the label’s catalog; in June came a partnership with Songclip, which makes searching for music clips easier on social media. Kamins also works with gaming giant Roblox, in which WMG invested eight figures last year; WMG’s twenty one pilots performed a virtual con-cert on the platform that drew 13 million views last September. “We are on the verge of a new golden age in the music industry,” says Kamins, 37, referring to the emerging metaverse and Web3 ventures that “allow artists to better incentivize their superfans.”

Jennifer Kirell Senior vp of catalog and retail marketing, AWAL

For Kirell, 32, the many facets of her job boil down to a singular goal: “help cre-ate and deepen fan relationships with an artist and their existing body of work.” Sometimes, that means overseeing global marketing campaigns for acts like Bruno Major, Rex Orange County and Dashboard Confessional. Other times, it means leading the catalog strategy in partnership with Glassnote Records that turned AURORA’s 2015 single “Runaway” into a TikTok sensa-tion and No. 1 trend on Instagram Reels more than five years after its release.

The Next Big Thing My Colleagues Should Get Hip To Is…: “Music nano-com-munities. We are rapidly shifting away from an entertainment monoculture, and music

of 44

IN BRIEF


2 0 2 2

On June 4th, Billboard will publish its annual Indie Label Power Players List. This special feature in advance of Indie Week (6/13-6/16) and the 11th Annual Libera Awards will profile leading executives at top independent record labels, publishing companies and distribution companies. Positioning themselves as the driving force behind the success of independent music, these executives contribute to the independent music sector and to the world of music at large.

Take this opportunity to advertise and congratulate this year’s 2022Indie Label Power Players.

C O N T A C T SJoe Maimone201.301.5933 | [email protected]

Lee Ann Photoglo615.376.7931 | [email protected]

Cynthia Mellow615.352,0265 | [email protected]

Marcia Olival 786.586.4901 | [email protected]

Ryan O’Donnell +447843437176 | [email protected]

INDIEL A B E L

P O W E R P L AY E R S

fans are finding one another through all kinds of unconventional online and [in-real-life] means, building networks around very niche common interests. It makes marketing more challenging but also more rewarding.”

Thomas Krottinger VP of creative, Sony Music Publishing

Krottinger’s massive success with Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album, Sour, was a few years in the making. He heard one of Ro-drigo’s demos, “All I Want,” in 2019; met her a year later; and vividly remembers “calling my boss, gushing about how I had to work with her.” He and senior vp/head of West Coast A&R Jennifer Knoepfle also found success in 2021 with pop artist-songwriter Salem Ilese, who broke through with her own “Mad at Disney” and contributed to Bella Poarch’s “Build a B-tch.” Krottinger, 32, hopes the future of the business brings more respect to “young female music fans,” noting, “They are a driving force in our cul-ture and should be taken seriously.”

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Be like Melissa McCarthy at the end of Brides-maids and have so many golden retrievers people think I have a problem.”

Cory Litwin Executive vp, Hallwood Media

As Hallwood Media’s executive vp, Litwin, 36, is involved in all levels of A&R, marketing and operations at the producer/songwriter management company. He also manages his own roster, which in-cludes Murda Beatz (who has produced for Cardi B, Doja Cat, Drake and Migos) and Quay Global (Lil Baby). Over the last year, Litwin had a hand in three No. 1 songs and eight No. 1 albums and launched the herbal mood-booster Psychedelic Water, while he and his wife welcomed their first child. He says Hallwood’s “unofficial mission state-ment” — and the thing that drives him — is providing clients the ability “to make money making music.”

Katie McCartney GM, Monument Records

Under the leadership of McCartney, 36, country singer-songwriter Walker Hayes became a crossover star with his No. 3 Bill-board Hot 100 smash, “Fancy Like,” and its follow-up, “AA.” The success of the former song — sparked by Hayes’ DIY TikTok dance

video with his daughter going viral — “cata-pulted Monument to a whole new level,” she says. The song gave the 5-year-old label its first No. 1 hit (on four Billboard country charts), spawned a national Applebee’s ad campaign and was a social media phenom-enon. “It is something our team has been preparing for for years. And it’s unreal to see the magic work.”

Andrew McInnes Co-founder/CEO, TMWRK

This year, McInnes, 38, worked with star client Diplo to finalize the sale of the producer’s catalog — a project that has been in the planning stages for over a decade and which utilized the resources of TMWRK’s full team. (Details of the sale were not disclosed.) “At TMWRK, all 23 of us view our artists as entrepreneurs and business partners,” says McInnes. “The goal may be a tour deal, artist-owned label, publishing company, film project, comic book deal, investment strategy — we provide advice and creative ideas to build our clients’ busi-nesses.”

Josh Mendez Co-founder/COO, RichMusic

Mendez has grown his Miami-based indie label to 35 employees, renewed the contracts of up-and-coming Panamanian urban star Sech and producer Dímelo Flow, and signed its first female act, paopao. RichMusic also launched a series of philanthropic initia-tives including local youth empowerment through music education — with partner the Miami Music Project — and equity for women in entertainment. The 33-year-old executive, who calls himself a “professional dreamer,” says, “Every step at RichMusic has been intentional and prepped us to scale up,” adding that the label is focused on TikTok growth, artificial intelligence, non-fungible tokens and the metaverse.

Simone Mitchell President, Quality Control Music, Solid Foun-dation Management

As the head of City Girls’ label, Mitchell, 32, who was promoted to her current posi-tion in October, is heavily involved in the rap duo’s brand development and ran point on the pair’s first Coachella performance in April, “a major win for our team and a piv-otal moment in their career,” she says. She

also manages the careers of Quality Control artists Layton Greene and Lakeyah at Solid Foundation. As one of a growing number of women promoted to high-ranking positions in the industry, Mitchell says, “The flowers are nice, but the recognition highlights that women are a powerful force that must be reckoned with.”

The Next Big Thing My Colleagues Should Get Hip To Is…: “The metaverse. I’m truly excited to see how this new form of technology can create a completely dif-ferent lane for the music industry, such as concert experiences from home [and] fan interactions, as well as the overall aspect of NFTs. This will give people a completely different viewpoint on music.”

Hannah Montgomery Bay-Schuck A&R, Prescription Songs

Montgomery Bay-Schuck, 30, describes herself as a “professional cheerleader, coach and champion” for her songwriters, and last year, she had a lot to cheer about. As A&R executive to five of the seven songwriters on Saweetie and Doja Cat’s smash “Best Friend” as well as to talents like Lauren LaRue — who has penned songs for Sam Hunt, Lil Yachty and Illenium — she has helped her roster reach the top of the charts in nearly every genre.

The Next Big Thing My Colleagues Should Get Hip To Is…: “Paying writers songwriting fees and giving them points on records.”

Zack Morgenroth Partner, Lighthouse Management & Media

Though he is now the co-manager of su-perstar multihyphenates Olivia Rodrigo and Selena Gomez, Morgenroth, 35, says with a laugh that he “didn’t even know this was a job” growing up.

That changed his sophomore year at the University of Southern California when he landed an internship at a management com-pany and realized “there’s a world out there that me in high school could have never thought about.”

His next internship, at Brillstein Enter-tainment Partners, proved even more fruit-ful. It was there he met Aleen Keshishian, founder of Lighthouse Management & Me-dia, where Morgenroth joined as a partner at the company’s inception in 2016. Having

of 44

IN BRIEF


COUNTRYPOWER PLAYERS

2 0 2 2

Billboard’s ninth annual Country Power Players issue will profile the people who have driven another solid year for the country music industry in sales, streaming and publishing.This special feature will highlight the top executives, artists and change-makers who kept the music playing during chal-lenging times, as well as coverage of the changing face of country music.

Advertise in Billboard’s Country Power Playersissue to congratulate this year’s honorees while reaching key decision-makers who are driving the music business.

C O N T A C T SJoe [email protected]

Lee Ann [email protected]

Cynthia [email protected]

Marcia Olival [email protected]

Ryan O’Donnell [email protected]

known Keshishian for nearly 15 years, he says, “gives us such a shorthand when we’re working together on clients,” says Morgen-roth. “It’s like yin and yang — and you get the brain power of two people.”

Keshishian says Morgenroth has evolved “into one of the most talented and visionary artist reps I’ve ever seen,” adding, “his mas-tery of all of the verticals necessary to create business for our clients is truly rare.”

Lighthouse’s A-list roster of talent is spread across music, TV, film, beauty and other sectors — and a major selling point for a young ascendant artist like Rodrigo, who signed with Lighthouse in February and is eager to do it all. Morgenroth describes the process of getting to know a new client as “incredibly delicate,” adding that the start of any successful management relationship comes down to asking plenty of questions: “It’s big-picture things to things as small as what they are allergic to.”

Rodrigo, of course, got her start on the Disney+ show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series; broke a slew of chart records with her 2021 debut single, “driv-ers license”; and became a superstar with first album Sour, scoring seven Grammy nominations. In March, she was named Bill-board’s Woman of the Year, then in April scooped up three of those Grammys and announced a partnership with Glossier as the first celebrity ambassador of the direct-to-consumer makeup brand.

Morgenroth says it’s important to have “the ability to do all these different things and have expertise in different [areas] and have a track record in working with artists in different [lanes].” It’s exciting to him as well. He says management feels “much more entrepreneurial than ever,” adding that it is “incredibly rewarding to be able to con-nect the dots with clients and be able to do multiple things.” Recent cross-field victories include collaborating with John Janick and Justin Lubliner at Interscope and The Dark-room, respectively, to executive produce the 2021 Apple TV+ documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry (along with Eil-ish’s co-managers, Danny Rukasin and Bran-don Goodman); and later that year, watching Gomez earn her first Grammy nomination for her first Latin album, Revelación.

He says a key part of the Lighthouse pitch is to always think long term — as far ahead as “what are the goals for, hopefully, 20 to 30 years from now?”

“Especially when you have a young client, you want to be thinking about a career,” he continues. “You want to pace yourself and only do things that feel organic to the client and what they want to accomplish.”

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Have a day off.”

Robby Morris Creative director/senior director of creative and strategy, Secretly Group

Morris, 36, notched several big wins overseeing marketing and strategy for Secretly’s labels last year, including a pair of Grammy nominations for Japanese Break-fast and a top five album for Mitski on the Billboard 200. As the pandemic appears to recede, he’s eager to apply lessons learned during lockdown to a less restrictive 2022. He says, “There’s no set template to setting an artist up for success, but we have a lot more tools to help maximize their creativity than we did three years ago.”

Samantha Robinson VP of neighboring rights, Songtradr

Robinson, 38, manages neighboring rights throughout the world for Songtradr, with a focus on challenging markets like Latin America, where she says the company has been one of the most successful U.S.-based collection agencies for masters owners in that region over the past year. Robinson, who works with artists and labels to carve out and untangle their rights, says she is excited by Latin America’s growth in the music sector and how it is “becoming one of the most impactful regions in neighboring rights and audiovisual as a whole.”

Stephanie Shim Head of East Coast label relations, YouTube

Over the last year, Shim, 37, played a criti-cal role in the global launches of two major artist campaigns through YouTube Shorts: BTS’ #PermissionToDance challenge, fol-lowed by Ed Sheeran’s #SheeranShorts promotion. The activations generated almost 9 million and more than 400 million views, respectively. In addition to facilitat-ing massive engagement for both artists, Shim helped with the platform’s Asian

Pacific American Heritage Month campaign, a project Shim says she’s “particularly proud of and something I am looking forward to expanding upon this year.”

Seon Jeong Shin Training and Development (T&D) business department leader, HYBE

Shin, 38, helped advance a system for training future artists on the South Korean K-pop giant’s labels, including BigHit Mu-sic, Source Music, PLEDIS Entertainment and ADOR. The T&D system, which HYBE has also initiated in Japan (where Shin is GM for that market’s T&D department), has been used to develop K-pop stars like BTS, Tomorrow x Together and ENHYPEN. Shin says, “I feel like understanding the evolv-ing demands of the public and the fans is the most important trend for people in this business.”

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Learn how to swim.”

Matt Signore COO, 300 Entertainment

Ten years ago, Signore, 32, was starting his first job in the music industry. Today, he speeds the plough when it comes to 300’s business operations and strategies, and was a key part of the team that orchestrated the company’s $400 million sale to Warner Mu-sic Group in December and its subsequent integration into the major. The executive, who became a first-time father in June 2021, says he’s a proponent of “providing a clear value proposition to employees with empa-thetic resources and programs for them.”

Jen Tanner VP of brand partnerships, RCA Records

Tanner, 32, unlocks the affinities of RCA artists by digging into their hobbies and dreams, then connects those interests to the music strategies of agencies and brands. She helped spearhead Doja Cat’s deals with Postmates and Girls Who Code, as well as a labelwide partnership with Essentia Water, which included rising pop artist Tate McRae starring in a campaign alongside NFL su-perstar Patrick Mahomes. Tanner says she “would love to do more partnerships like this that tap into the breadth and diversity of the roster.”

La Mar C. Taylor Co-founder, XO, HXOUSE

of 44

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/music/features/olivia-rodrigo-billboard-woman-of-the-year-2022-interview-1235034016/


ASHANTI2 0 2 2

Ashanti is a Grammy Award-winning singer/song-writer, actor and author. Ashanti burst onto the music scene with her smash hit, self-titled debut album Ashanti. It landed the #1 spot on both the Billboard Top 200 and R&B album charts, selling a whopping 504,593 units in its first week and set a SoundScan record as the most albums sold by any debut female artist in the chart’s history, granting her a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, which she still holds today. Ashanti has released six studio albums and received eight Billboard Awards, a Grammy, two American Music Awards, two Soul Train Awards, six ASCAP Awards, and many more awards and illustrious honors. Ashanti has continued to reign at the top as one of Billboard’s “Top Females of the Decade from 2000-2010” and continues to break Billboard records as having a Hot 100 entry in the 2000’s, 2010’s and 2020’s. To celebrate her contributions to music and recording, Ashanti will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in April 2022.

Please join us in celebrating 20 years of the Princess of R&B, the Queen of Written Entertainment and “Baby” the woman that is never “Foolish” and writes the melodies that stay in our minds and hearts forever…..ASHANTI.

C O N T A C T SJoe Maimone201.301.5933 | [email protected]

Lee Ann Photoglo615.376.7931 | [email protected]

Cynthia Mellow615.352,0265 | [email protected]

Marcia Olival 786.586.4901 | [email protected]

Ryan O’Donnell +447843437176 | [email protected]

20TH ANNIVERSARY

Taylor, who describes his role as “a hybrid of janitor, firefighter and therapist,” helped shape the 2021 Super Bowl halftime per-formance of The Weeknd — his co-founder and friend since high school — along with the creative vision and marketing for the pop superstar’s 2022 album, Dawn FM. Having continued “breaking boundaries while in the middle of a pandemic” through the rollout of The Weeknd’s record-setting release After Hours and XO’s Toronto-based creative incubator, HXOUSE, Taylor is working on plans for The Weeknd’s global ambassadorship with the UN World Food Programme.

Vic Trubowitch Head of artist and label partnerships, North America, Spotify

A decade ago, Trubowitch, 35, was trying to get Hype Machine blogs to embed MP3s from artists signed to Vagrant Records. These days, he oversees the team that helps acts like Olivia Rodrigo and Silk Sonic “tell their stories” to Spotify’s 180 million sub-scribers. The mission is similar — connect artists with new listeners — but the medium keeps advancing. Trubowitch says he’s excited about Spotify Live, which streams concerts on the platform, and is testing an initiative “where artists can interact di-rectly with their biggest fans” in “live audio rooms.”

Charles Wadelington Manager of public policy and government relations, Universal Music Group

From his vantage point as an advocate for UMG’s business objectives with the govern-ment and a “voice for the music industry on Capitol Hill,” Wadelington, 31, had a front-row seat for last year’s negotiations over the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, including a “virtual lobby day” that UMG’s Task Force for Meaningful Change held in support of the proposed legislation. While there’s “more work to be done on that issue,” Wadelington says it was “a career highlight to unite so many notable figures from the music, sports and entertainment industries to help move the needle on police reform.”

Nic Warner Co-founding partner/GM, Milk & Honey

Warner, 33, describes himself as a “big-picture” executive who’s “still rolling up my

sleeves and getting granular with clients and their careers.” While the pandemic continued to stifle the industry in 2021, he kept Milk & Honey growing and its staffers and roster of songwriters — including Jenna Andrews, J White Did It, Noah Goldstein, Y2K and Andrés Torres — busy. While cli-ents scored writing credits for Ed Sheeran’s “Afterglow,” Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” and BTS’ “Butter,” among other hits, Warner oversaw the opening of offices in London, Amsterdam and Australia, along with sports and Web3 divisions.

Contributors: Darlene Aderoju, Katie Bain, Alexei Barrionuevo, Starr Bowenbank, Leila Cobo, Stephen Daw, Chris Eggertsen, Griselda Flores, Josh Glicksman, Lyndsey Havens, Steve Knopper, Carl Lamarre, Elias Leight, Jason Lipshutz, Joe Lynch, Rebecca Milzoff, Gail Mitchell, Melinda Newman, Jessica Nicholson, Kristin Robinson, Neena Rouhani, Glenn Rowley, Dan Rys, Colin Stutz, Andrew Unterberger

Methodology: Billboard’s 40 Under 40 list was chosen by editors based on factors including but not limited to nominations by peers and colleagues, timely career ac-complishments and overall impact on the music industry. The nomination process for each Billboard power list opens at least 120 days in advance of publication. The nomination link is sent to press representa-tives and/or honorees previously featured on Billboard lists, as well as those who send a request to [email protected]. (Edi-torial calendars are also available through him.) Nominations close not less than 90 days before publication. Unless otherwise noted, Luminate ( formerly MRC Data) is the source for chart achievements, tour grosses and sales/streaming data.

This story originally appeared in the May 14, 2022, issue of Billboard.

Big Machine and Blac Noize! Recordings Partner in New Hip-Hop Label VentureBY MELINDA NEWMAN

Big Machine Label Group and Blac Noize! Recordings have formed a partnership to sign and promote hip-hop and R&B acts globally.

The first release from the two indepen-dent companies is viral sensation Hitkidd and Glorilla’s summer anthem, “F.N.F. (Let’s Go),” which has already earned millions of views on YouTube.

As a sign of how nimble the two labels plan to act, Blac Noize! closed the deal for “F.N.F.” on May 1 and within 24 hours, BMLG had claimed the original music video, which had gone up two days earlier, and republished the song to streaming services as the official record label.

“To have partners and a distributor that can help us put something up within 24 hours without any question [or] pushback was very important,” says Blac Noize! part-ner Chioke “Stretch” McCoy. “As far as the majors, we love them to death, but some-times they’re a little bloated and we plan to be thinner and more efficient.”

Active Management’s McCoy formed Blac Noize! Recordings in 2020 with market-ing agency 740 Project’s Jesse “Punch” Edwards, Rahim Wright and Charley Greenberg.

Scooter Braun‘s SB Projects had part-nered with 740 Project on marketing initia-tives, and brought the company to BMLG founder/president/CEO Scott Borchetta‘s attention.

“We became aware of their desire to get a more formal label opportunity together,” Borchetta says. “Now that we’ve partnered with HYBE America [and] have the ability

of 44

IN BRIEF

https://shop.billboard.com/


https://www.billboard.com/author/melinda-newmanbillboard-com/

to expand, this opportunity came at just the right time.”

HYBE bought SB Projects and BMLG in April 2021 as part of the South Korean entertainment conglomerate’s purchase of Braun’s Ithaca Holdings. (Ithaca bought BMLG in 2019).

BMLG invested in Blac Noize! after the latter parted ways with its initial investor, ex-Warner Bros. Records chairman Camer-on Strang, six months ago. “We are backing the venture 100%,” says BMLG’s COO An-drew Kautz.

Blac Noize! will handle A&R duties, while BMLG will take care of backend functions, distribution and other infrastructure needs.

Both labels stress they will make deals tai-lored to each artist. “In 2022, there is no set structure on how things should or shouldn’t be, just more or less what we feel the market needs and what we can provide,” McCoy says. “Being artist friendly means we aren’t going to say we are going to dictate how we want every single deal to go.”

Initial plans call for at least eight releases this year to go through the new partner-ship, including projects from artists already signed to Blac Noize!, among them Whoppa Wit Da Choppa and Jdot Breezy.

“Not everything will be as immediate as [“F.N.F.”],” McCoy says. “We will find stuff that will have a longer burn, but at the same time, we want to be able to react to things that we feel is so good.”

Both labels say that have the staffing to handle the release slate and will outsource as needed. Blac Noise! already has indie promo teams in place to handle urban and rhythmic releases, Greenberg says.

Expanding their global reach was impor-tant for both labels. Big Machine has offices in Toronto and London outside of the U.S., and worldwide distribution through Univer-sal Music Group.

“As we have a global footprint to release music, we really want to make sure we’re putting out music that travels,” Kautz says. “When you look at hip-hop and urban, it definitely has a broad audience. We feel like it will help us grow and expand our brand in conjunction with Blac Noize!”

BMLG launched in 2005 and quickly became a country powerhouse with acts

like Taylor Swift, Thomas Rhett and Florida Georgia Line. A rock division, whose roster includes The Struts, Badflower and Star-crawler, followed. Under Borchetta’s en-trepreneurial zest, the company has moved into other ventures include Big Machine Distillery and Big Machine Racing.

“The vision we’ve always had for Blac Noise! and we’ve been building toward is to really be able to redefine what an independent hip-hop label can look like and how strong and powerful it can be,” Greenberg says. “What Scott and Andrew and their team have already built indepen-dently is really incredible, so it was really a perfect fit.”

‘You Owe Me’: Songwriter Accuses Former Publishing Exec of Leveraging His Power for SexBY ELIAS LEIGHT

In March, the songwriter Nataliya Ni-kitenko posted a photo of Sam Tay-lor, former executive vp of creative at the music publisher Kobalt, on her

Instagram story along with the incendiary allegation that the executive was a “sexual predator.” That same month, she sent an email to company executives seeking to be released from her publishing administra-tion deal, claiming that her alleged experi-ence with Taylor left her “traumatized” and charging that the company “has barely, if ever, had my back.”

From 2016 to 2019, Taylor had worked as Nikitenko’s “point person” at Kobalt as she amassed a string of credits that includ-ed Little Mix‘s “No More Sad Songs” and A Boogie wit da Hoodie‘s “Streets Don’t Love You.” Nikitenko appeared to be building a strong songwriting resume.

But she alleges her success came with a

price. Nikitenko accuses Taylor of “abuse of power,” claiming that, in 2016, she gave in to pressure from the executive to have sex because she feared there would be “conse-quences for my career” if she didn’t submit to his advances. She says they had sex five more times between the fall of that year and February 2020.

In a statement to Billboard, Taylor’s law-yer said “Sam and this woman were together a total of three to four times over three years. Their relationship was completely consensual at all times. And it is a shame that his efforts to genuinely help her career, unrelated to any relationship, are being turned on him in this manner. We assume that she’s doing this with full knowledge of the complete lack of linkage between his efforts on her behalf and any relationship. That relationship has long since ceased.” (Through his lawyer, Taylor declined to answer a detailed list of questions about Nikitenko’s allegations on the record.)

It appears that Nikitenko is not the only person affiliated with Kobalt who com-plained about Taylor’s conduct while he was there. Speaking with sources familiar with the executive and his time at the music publisher, Billboard has learned that several employees flagged Taylor’s behavior to Ko-balt’s human resources department — one complaint alleged a sexual relationship be-tween the executive and another employee, while another claimed that the executive had threatened a co-worker.

Kobalt declined to respond to specific questions about these complaints, but issued a statement to Billboard that reads, “Since the beginning, Kobalt has had a zero-toler-ance policy for harassment of any sort. It’s against our culture, values, and policies.”

Taylor joined Republic Records in 2020 and is now the head of hip-hop and R&B A&R. Republic declined to comment for this story.

#MeToo in MusicStories of sexual misconduct in the music

industry have circulated behind closed doors for decades. In a study published by Midia and TuneCore in 2021, roughly two-thirds of the more than 400 women surveyed named sexual harassment as a major problem in an industry characterized

of 44

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/author/eleight/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/little-mix/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/a-boogie-wit-da-hoodie/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/a-boogie-wit-da-hoodie/

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/women-music-study-sexual-harassment-biggest-problem-9546708/

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/women-music-study-sexual-harassment-biggest-problem-9546708/

by “unbalanced power dynamics.”Yet victims of sexual misconduct rarely

go public with their claims. There are many reasons for their silence, according to experts; among them, fear of personal humiliation, victim-shaming, and the real-ity that even when they do come forward, the consequences are rarely severe for the alleged abusers. “There hasn’t been a public reckoning with #MeToo in music in the way you expect there to be,” says Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law center.

Maybe that’s beginning to change. Sony Music Australia recently faced allegations of sexual harassment and a toxic work en-vironment spanning two decades; the CEO of the Australian operation was ultimately held responsible for the workplace culture and removed from his position. Earlier this year, Rolling Stone reported that Warner Music Group chief executive Stephen Coo-per allegedly propositioned an employee in 2017 — he denied the accusation — and the investigation into that claim and sexual misconduct allegations against two other executives led the company to revise its Code of Conduct, roll out additional train-ing programs, and fire one of the other two executives.

As for Nikitenko, she says she is explor-ing possible legal action and hopes that, by going public, she can be a catalyst for more accountability in the music industry. She believes that accountability should extend beyond individuals to the companies that employ them. She has asked Kobalt to let her out of her publishing deal, but is wary of the termination agreement the company offered her because it contains a non-dis-paragement clause.

“There Was Nothing Professional About It”

When a young songwriter inks a publish-ing administration deal with a company like Kobalt, having an executive who is proactive on her behalf “is of the highest importance,” says one source with extensive experience in music publishing. “You need someone who will ride for you internally but also just make connections for you,” the source adds. “In fact, [having that] is the only thing that matters beyond making sure the publishing

deal a writer signs is not some draconian trap.”

Paige Parsons had originally signed Nikitenko — who wrote under the name Tash Phillips — to Kobalt, but parted ways with the company a few months later. In February 2016, when Nikitenko attended the company’s annual Los Angeles “Writ-ers’ Hang,” which offers writers a chance to mingle with their peers, she says she first met Taylor, an industry veteran who previ-ously worked at both major labels (Elektra and Atlantic Records) and music publishing companies (Warner/Chappell and Sony/ATV, now Sony Music Publishing).

I profiled Taylor for Rolling Stone in 2019, not long after he earned a promotion at Kobalt. (I have spoken or texted with him a few times since then, in addition to reach-ing out to him for this piece.) Producers I spoke with at the time admired Taylor’s ear and his ability to facilitate their next hit — “Sam really helps the people that he signs,” J. White (Cardi B‘s “I Like It”) said, “linking them up with each other, bringing them more opportunities.” When Kobalt promoted Taylor, the company praised him for being “integral” to “key signings and [the] development of songs that have gone on to generate billions of streams.”

At the Writers’ Hang, Nikitenko says Tay-lor asked for her number and later texted her, “don’t forget me.” He became more flir-tatious, according to Nikitenko, at a meeting later that year where she played music for several Kobalt executives. Taylor was pres-ent, she says, and complimented some of her demos. After the meeting, she recalls that he asked to take her to dinner.

“I just turned 21. I thought this guy was like 40,” Nikitenko remembers. “There was nothing professional about it.” She says her response at the time was to laugh nervously.

After several months, Nikitenko eventu-ally met Taylor outside of work. She says she tried to make the meeting “a publisher-cli-ent situation,” proposing via text that it take place in a public place. But Taylor messaged that he wanted to meet at her house. “That’s not really how I roll,” Nikitenko replied. “I was always down to go out [to dinner] with u not just meet up at my apartment.”

In another text, Nikitenko wrote to Tay-

lor, “I didn’t hit u up for u to just meet at my apartment and sleep with u.” “That’s your problem,” the executive texted back. “You think I’m saying let’s do that.” He added “I’m not that guy” and “whatever happens happens.”

The pair met at a restaurant in October 2016, according to Nikitenko. She claims Taylor asked to drive her home that night, and she recalls thinking, “I felt like I had no other option than to let him come back to my place. If I didn’t do this, I know there are going to be consequences for my career.”

They had sex that night, she says, then Taylor “immediately left.”

“It’s Inherently Inappropriate”Texts show that, a few days after that

initial encounter at Nikitenko’s apartment, Taylor messaged, “2nd [round] soon.” “It wasn’t, ‘do you want [to sleep together again]?’ It wasn’t a question,” says Nikiten-ko. “I remember going to [one of my best friends] and crying and saying, ‘I don’t know what to do.’”

That longtime friend confirmed to Bill-board that Nikitenko frequently confided in her about Taylor. When the friend first heard of Nikitenko’s interactions with the executive, “my initial thoughts were: This is so inappropriate, he’s taking advantage, he’s manipulative,” she says. The friend recalls that during one dinner that devolved into “a sobbing flurry of information,” Nikitenko said she worried that Taylor was “going to start withholding opportunities.”

Another text from Taylor read, “Only 3somes with me FYI.” When Nikitenko wrote back “… not into threesomes really… lol,” the executive responded “… couple drinks you’ll think diff lol.”

A different confidant of Nikitenko’s describes the songwriter’s interactions with Taylor as “gross,” noting that the executive was married. (Sources say Taylor kept a photo of his wife in his office at Kobalt.) “It wasn’t non-consensual,” the friend says of the interactions. “But with a power dynamic like that, it’s inherently inappropriate.”

That friend remembers asking Nikitenko, “why don’t you walk away?” To which she says the songwriter replied: “you don’t understand how much power he has over my career.” Taylor would remind Nikitenko

of 44

IN BRIEF

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/jun/21/sony-music-australia-allegations-toxic-work-culture

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/jun/21/sony-music-australia-allegations-toxic-work-culture

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/warner-music-stephen-cooper-harassment-nda-1319103/amp

https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/future-25-sam-taylor-evp-of-creative-at-kobalt-888924/amp/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/cardi-b/

https://www.kobaltmusic.com/press/kobalt-promotes-sam-taylor-to-executive-vice-president-creative

https://www.kobaltmusic.com/press/kobalt-promotes-sam-taylor-to-executive-vice-president-creative

of the work he claimed he’d done on her behalf. Among his texts: “ask around on how much I’ve pitched or pushed your name;” “half your shit inside that [office] is because of me defending or pushing them to go for you.”

Some institutions have long regulated sex-ual interactions between people who work together with differing levels of power. (In the wake of the #MeToo movement, more organizations have followed suit.) “When there is a power dynamic in a workplace relationship, it is very difficult to verify true consent,” says Shannon Rawski, an assistant professor at Ivey Business School who has studied sexual harassment and the effective-ness of sexual harassment training.

“That’s because there is always a potential threat for the person with less power [in the interaction] — economic loss, negative career impact, possible retaliation — even if it is not expressed,” adds Lynn Bowes-Sperry, an associate professor at Cal State East Bay who has been studying and writing about harassment-related issues since 1996.

Experts say that’s why many prominent corporations try to regulate or prohibit sexual interactions at work between em-ployers and their subordinates. At organiza-tions which don’t have these rules in place, Rawski says that “people in formal positions of power have a special responsibility to not put any of their subordinates in a situation where they’re not sure what the conse-quences would be for saying no to a sexual or workplace romance request.”

But abuse of such power dynamics can be hard to police. And in the music business, it’s made harder by the fact that employ-ment relationships are often unconven-tional. Nikitenko says she believed Taylor had influence over her career — a belief his texts fostered — but he wasn’t her boss in the traditional sense: She had entered into a contractual relationship with Kobalt, but was not a W-2 employee.

A version of Kobalt’s U.S. Employee Handbook obtained by Billboard “strictly prohibits harassment of any employee by any supervisor, employee, customer or ven-dor on the basis of sex or gender.” Examples of “prohibited behavior” include: “Unwel-come sexual advances, requests for sexual

favors… sending sexually explicit e-mails, text messages and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” But while the Handbook prohibits harassment of employ-ees, it does not address potential situations in which employees harass artists who have contractual relationships with the company.

“Kobalt maintains robust employment policies prohibiting discrimination, harass-ment, and retaliation, and all Kobalt employ-ees are required to complete mandatory harassment training,” the company said in a statement.

“You Owe Me”Taylor made a mark at Kobalt by signing

ascendant hip-hop stars Gunna and Roddy Ricch along with hit-making producers like Teddy Walton and Ben Billions. But behind the scenes, one person in the music industry who knows Taylor describes him as “a master manipulator” who would strategically forge alliances and friendships by doing things like telling one person that someone else was talking about them be-hind their back. Two of Nikitenko’s longtime friends also use the word “manipulative” to describe the way he interacted with her.

“He would position [Nikitenko] to do things for him,” another confidant says. She offers a hypothetical example of how Taylor would talk to Nikitenko: “‘I’m gonna send your stuff over to Drake, don’t you worry. Are you gonna send me a little something? Am I gonna get a reward for this?’”

In 2017, a song Nikitenko had written titled “Him” attracted the interest of an ex-ecutive at Republic Records as it was putting together the soundtrack for the third install-ment in the 50 Shades of Grey franchise, 50 Shades Freed. This type of placement is a potentially career-changing look for a song-writer. “We get this 50 placement you owe me something lol,” Taylor texted. (The song did not end up appearing in the film.)

Nikitenko received similar texts when she sent Taylor some demos in 2018 that she hoped would make it to the R&B singer Kehlani (“I have them and you owe me,” he wrote) and when he helped connect her with a new manager (“you owe me dam-mit”). “He says, ‘you owe me, you owe me, I need my fee,’” Nikitenko recalls. “Which meant sex.”

Although she discussed her situation with close friends — the second confidant recalls that Taylor “made her so nervous all the time” — Nikitenko says she did not report the executive’s behavior to Kobalt until recently because she did not believe the company would come to her aid. Staying si-lent is not unusual for people in her alleged situation. According to a 2016 report by the Equal Employment Opportunity Com-mission, studies found that just “6% to 13% of individuals who experience harassment file a formal complaint.”

“I Have to Speak Out”Kobalt promoted Taylor in July 2019,

but a few months later, Nikitenko says he called her to say he had been fired from the company. “Kobalt does not discuss the circumstances under which employees leave Kobalt, including with respect to Sam Taylor,” the company said in a statement to Billboard. “However, he has not worked at Kobalt since October of 2019.”

On the phone with Taylor that year, as Nikitenko recalls it, he warned her, “‘if you tell anyone, anyone, about us, we’re both fucked.’” She alluded to this call again in her recent post on Instagram.

Nikitenko told two senior executives at Kobalt — Sas Metcalfe and Sue Drew — about her allegations against Taylor on a Zoom call in September 2020, according to information reviewed by Billboard. Ni-kitenko says the two women offered their sympathy, while also telling her that they had previously been unaware of any of her accusations. It’s not clear whether Metcalfe and Drew would have been told about the other alleged incidents involving Taylor that had been reported to the human resources department, and Kobalt declined to respond to questions about the other complaints.

Taylor was promoted to his current posi-tion at Republic Records in December 2021. When Nikitenko found out about his new role, she says she thought, “that’s so much power over young women coming into the office. I have to speak out.” (Since 2020, she has also been going to a therapist that specializes in processing trauma.)

Nikitenko says she felt comfortable enough to share her allegations more widely during a trip back to Australia to see her

of 44

IN BRIEF

https://www.nyu.edu/about/policies-guidelines-compliance/policies-and-guidelines/policy-on-consensual-intimate-relationships.html

https://www.nyu.edu/about/policies-guidelines-compliance/policies-and-guidelines/policy-on-consensual-intimate-relationships.html

https://www.syracuse.com/su-news/2018/08/syracuse_university_bans_romantic_relationships_between_students_employees.html

https://www.billboard.com/artist/gunna/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/roddy-ricch/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/roddy-ricch/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/drake/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/kehlani/

https://www.eeoc.gov/select-task-force-study-harassment-workplace

https://www.billboard.com/pro/sam-taylor-republic-head-hip-hop-rb-ar/

family in March. With an ocean between her and Taylor, she posted the “sexual predator” accusation on Instagram. She says he has not contacted her since that post, though she messaged him to say, “who’s the one liv-ing in absolute fear now?”

The same month, Nikitenko also sent an email to Kobalt executives, which she shared with Billboard, asking to be let out of her deal. Among the reasons she wrote that she wanted to leave: “Sam Taylor putting me through what he did and doing every-thing he did to me and my body leaving me traumatized.” She also alleged that Kobalt allowed an artist to record one of her songs without her permission, a charge that the company denied via email. “Kobalt consid-ered the allegations baseless,” the company added in a statement, and “communicated that view to [Nikitenko].”

Metcalfe wrote back to the songwriter and, without referring to Taylor, said the company would let Nikitenko walk, ac-cording to emails viewed by Billboard. The executive then looped in the company’s head of business affairs, Jim Arnay, who sent over paperwork that would formally dissolve Nikitenko’s relationship with Kobalt. But the document, which she shared with Billboard, came with a provision that read, “you agree not to disparage Kobalt and its officers, directors, employees, or agents in any manner likely to be harmful to them or their business, business reputation or personal reputation.”

When reached for comment, Kobalt said in a statement that “to settle this matter and avoid further engagement, Kobalt offered to terminate the Term of [Nikitenko’s] agree-ment early. The terms ultimately offered by Kobalt were favorable to [her] and did not require repayment of her outstanding ad-vance.” And the company noted that “non-disparagement clauses” are “standard.”

Nikitenko says she views those clauses as an attempt to muzzle her and prevent her from speaking about her interactions with Taylor in the future. “It’s basically an NDA,” she says of the paperwork Kobalt sent her.

She still has not signed the document.Stories about sexual assault allegations

can be traumatizing for survivors of sexual assault. If you or anyone you know needs

support, you can reach out to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). The organization provides free, confidential sup-port to sexual assault victims. Call RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE) or visit the anti-sexual violence orga-nization’s website for more information.

Major Labels Bolster Diversity of Music Teams With ‘A&R Academies’BY RICHARD SMIRKE

LONDON — Growing up in the town of Watford, located 15 miles outside of London, Zara Stew-art dreamed of pursuing a music

career. But she felt she lacked the connec-tions or background to make it a reality. “I assumed it was an industry where it was all about who you know,” says Stewart. “And I didn’t know anybody.”

Believing music wasn’t a viable option, Stewart focused her education on languages, studying Spanish and Portuguese at Leeds University. After graduating in 2019, she briefly worked in fashion retail and medical recruitment, but still found herself pining for a job in the record business.

Now Stewart, 25, has landed her dream job as a paid A&R intern at Sony Music UK imprint Dream Life Records. She joined the company earlier this year as part of its A&R Academy – one of several new recruitment initiatives that record companies are taking to bolster and diversify their A&R teams at a time when the role of label A&R is rapidly changing due to the dominance of streaming and social media.

The ubiquity of digital platforms means that when discovering new music, A&R reps now place a greater emphasis on data — how a song is performing, the engagement level of fans, where in the world a track is taking off — than traditional A&R metrics of live

performance and ticket sales. That requires A&Rs to have a different tech-savvy skillset compared to execs working in the pre-streaming era.

Meanwhile, the popularity of local-lan-guage repertoire in many music markets has intensified competition between labels to sign the hottest new local acts.

In response, record companies – both the majors and leading independents — are ramping up investment in A&R and increas-ingly recruiting staff from non-traditional music industry backgrounds.

Sony Music Entertainment is using its A&R Academy program to target people who want to work in the music industry but lack the experience or qualifications that’s normally required. Sony Music Russia man-aging director Arina Dmitrieva launched the first A&R Academy in Moscow in September 2017 in response to the chang-ing market requirements and her concerns that the small number of experienced A&R people in Russia “were probably too old school, a little bit in the past.”

“We really needed new home-grown tal-ent, with skills tailored to the needs of our business, that could really understand the new streaming reality,” she says.

Since then, Sony Music has rolled out the model to some of the biggest music markets in Europe, beginning with France in 2019, followed by Germany last year. Sony Music U.K.’s A&R Academy enrolled its first five A&R trainees in March. (Reflecting the ma-turity and needs of the market, the academy model differs in each territory.)

In Russia — where the A&R Academy originated and took place annually un-til Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine shut down the Russian music business, prompting all three major labels to exit the market in March — trainees would spend up to six weeks attending workshops and seminars at Sony Music Russia’s Moscow offices, as well as visiting local recording studios and offices of streaming services. There, they would learn about the role of an A&R manager, the digital music business, marketing, intellectual property rights and how to develop an artist’s career.

Trainees would end with a final presenta-tion judged by senior label execs, with the

of 44

IN BRIEF

https://www.rainn.org/

https://www.billboard.com/author/richard-smirke/

of 44

highest scoring participants being offered paid internships.

In other markets, such as Germany and the U.K., A&R Academies more closely re-semble traditional paid internship schemes. In Germany, two trainees are embedded in Sony Music’s Berlin-based A&R team for 12 months, where they gain experience work-ing for a range of labels, including Columbia, RCA/Ariola, Four Music and Epic. In the U.K., five A&R trainees are enrolled on a year-long paid internship program, spread across five sub labels: RCA, Columbia, Since ‘93, Black Butter and Dream Life Records.

To widen the potential pool of talent, the A&R Academy application process deliberately avoids traditional recruitment styles, such as the need for a CV and specific academic qualifications. Instead, the focus is placed on a person’s passion for music and creativity, while applicants are recruited from ads placed by Sony labels on Insta-gram, LinkedIn and company websites.

From Fashion Retail To Music ScoutWhen Stewart applied for the academy,

she was juggling a part-time job in fashion retail with volunteering at a local recording studio, where she hosted a YouTube channel interviewing visiting artists. An aspiring music producer she had recently started managing alerted her to the A&R Academy after he spotted an ad on LinkedIn. “He said: ‘You’ve got an eye for scouting new talent. I think you would be great at this’,” she recalls.

Patrick Mushatsi-Kareba, CEO, Sony Music GSA (Germany, Switzerland and Austria) says the academy compliments traditional employment routes into A&R by opening the door to a broader, more diverse set of candidates that mirror artists’ diverse backgrounds.

“We felt that the ways we were looking at people in the A&R sector was a little too tra-ditional,” says Mushatsi-Kareba, “There was maybe too much of an [imbalance] where, on one hand, you have [an A&R] person who comes from a very linear background… interacting with someone who maybe has a less linear background. That’s not the balance which brings out the best creative results.”

Sony execs hope that they can replicate

the success of the A&R Academies in Russia elsewhere in Europe. Since launching in 2017, more than 3,000 applicants have ap-plied for a place at Sony Music Russia’s A&R Academy, with 61 people graduating from the scheme, at least half of which were still working in the music industry prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Of those 61 graduates, 16 landed paid in-ternships with Sony Music Russia and seven trainees gained full-time employment – six in A&R roles and one in marketing.

In the four years that the A&R Academy ran in Moscow, Sony Music Russia’s A&R team grew from just one person looking after local repertoire to six dedicated A&R personnel, plus five staff members in sup-porting roles.

The academy has also helped lift Sony’s share of the Russian music market, says the company, with artist signings made by acad-emy alumni delivering 27 top-10 singles and 15 top-10 albums on local streaming service charts.

One of the artists signed to Sony Music Russia as a result of the academy scheme is pop artist Ramil’, whose single “Siyai” (“Shine”) topped the Russian charts for six weeks in 2020 and has been streamed 350,000,000 times, according to the label. Ramil’ was signed to Sony by Tural Fakhraddin Ogly Mamedov, who attended an A&R Academy in 2018, and then was hired by the label as a full-time A&R.

Other labels are also making a concerted effort to diversify their A&R departments. Warner Music U.K. will soon start its own A&R internship program, which will offer three internships targeted at women and nonbinary people from underrepresented socioeconomic and racial backgrounds.

Universal Music Group already runs local initiatives and paid internships in a variety of countries, including the U.S. and U.K., dedicated to developing future industry executives, although most focus on multiple skill sets rather than purely A&R. Earlier this year, Universal Music U.K. began what a label spokesperson described as a “pioneer-ing initiative” aimed at recruiting female A&Rs.

Of the six interns enrolled in Sony Music U.K.’s inaugural A&R Academy, five are

women and all six are from ethnic minority backgrounds. A spokesperson for the label says the recruitment process wasn’t de-signed to specifically target women but was focused on “getting in as diverse a pipeline as possible.”

Since being appointed CEO of Sony Music GSA in 2018, Mushatsi-Kareba has more than doubled the number of internal A&R staff at the label, from 17 to 35. Schemes like the A&R Academy, he says, offer another valuable tool in ensuring record companies have the “best possible people” within their ranks to discover, develop and work with artists. Sony Music GSA plans to expand the A&R Academy to applicants from Austria and Switzerland when it takes place again this fall.

“The main goal is not to lower the age [of A&R execs],” says Mushatsi-Kareba. “The main goal is to get the best people, who fit into the team and who can bring better mu-sic and contribute to better business.”

The New Label Deal: Why Artists Have More Power Than Ever (Music Biz 2022)BY DAN RYS

Over the past several years, the music business has gone through seismic changes, lead-ing to a variety of shifts in how

revenue is generated, how music is valued and how artists can find success. That, in turn, has led to a change in power dynamics, which can affect how deals are structured and negotiated as well as what’s included within them — and opens up questions about whether artists even need to sign label deals at all.

That was the topic of the panel “The Future of the Artist Deal” at the Music Biz 2022 conference in Nashville on May 11, which was moderated by Karl Fowlkes, an

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/author/dan-rys/

of 44

attorney, professor and founder/managing partner of The Fowlkes Firm. Joining him was independent singer/songwriter Spen-cer Crandall; Crandall’s manager, Jeff Cherry; Samantha Juneman, senior vp/head of marketing and services at ADA; and Riveter Management founder Charlene Bryant.

Crandall has built a successful career with Cherry, with 1.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify as an independent artist. The two opened by explaining why they haven’t taken a deal so far, despite several offers. “Labels can obviously be super helpful, but you need to know what you need and how they can help you,” Cherry said, emphasiz-ing that signing to a label isn’t akin to just waving a magic wand and having all of your needs taken care of; rather, they need to add value, while an artist needs to know what they need help with in the first place. “You have to ask yourself, ‘What is the end goal?’” said Cherry. “Is it to have money today or to build a long-term career?”

Crandall said he values flexibility and tailored deals in looking for partners, rather than the traditional industry model; stan-dard record deals of the past don’t neces-sarily appeal, he says, given that he’s built a strong career so far on his own. “My big goal is to play a football stadium, and to scale to where we are to a football stadium is still a big jump,” he said, acknowledging that that will eventually mean traditional radio sup-port and the bigger budgets that partnering with companies can provide. But “patience is an underrated part of the conversation,” he said. “How do you scale naturally?”

With ADA, Juneman said, an artist can often enjoy the freedom to operate indepen-dently while being able to take advantage of the resources offered by the broader Warner Music Group ecosystem. “The indie mental-ity of testing and trying something new is in our blood,” she said.

In a way, the access to data that artists and managers can get through streaming services has made the need for labels less immediate. Not that they aren’t important or don’t play a key and often essential role, but it can behoove artists to take their time to build up a fan base on their own before signing. That can allow for better terms, give

them the ability to fight for ownership of their recordings, or even sign distribution or artist-services deals depending on their needs. That said, there is also the entic-ing allure of the big advance — and Bryant stressed that it’s often not how much money an artist can get, but how they spend it, that is truly the most important.

“Coming from the world of hip-hop I see a lot of artists take huge advances and spend it on a chain. That drives me crazy,” Bry-ant said. “The thing is being more creative with our money. I’m looking at this deal as the bank. But there are ways to be fiscally responsible with other people’s money.” She referenced a year-round focus on a merch operation as something that many artists overlook, but that can both pay off finan-cially and be a strong investment in a career, making that big advance less of a need. “Artists think about merch when they go on tour,” she said. “But people wear clothes every day.”

Financial flexibility and access to data for artists are a big piece of what’s driving the change in deals. “There needs to be more of a middle ground for partnership,” Crandall said. “That’s starting to become more of the conversation, which is exciting.” Bryant agreed, saying that what she values most in a potential deal is equity and ownership. “I’m thinking long-term,” she said. “I’d rather get back end money in royalties for years to come…Getting a huge bag right now is not a forever thing.”

But there are plenty of reasons artists sign deals, from impatience to trying to capital-ize on viral moments to the desire to put the business piece of their careers in the hands of someone else. And then there are those who aren’t truly thinking about the contents of an artist’s deal at all. “People get caught up in that clout: ‘I want to be on the same label that Dua Lipa is on, or Roddy Rich is on.’ People say that and they sign deals based on that,” Bryant said. “This business is sexy and ap-pealing, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But you just have to be smart about it.”

LGBTQ+ Music Pros Talk Challenges, Opportunities for Queer Artists & Fans (Music Biz 2022)BY DAN RYS

You can find all of Billboard‘s Mu-sic Biz 2022 coverage here.

On Wednesday (May 11), a new report produced by

Luminate in partnership with Billboard and Queer Capita found that those who identify as queer spend $72 more per year on music on average than the general public, are 20% more likely to buy merchandise and are 15% more interested in finding and listening to new and emerging artists, among other findings.

That report, dubbed The Power of LG-BTQ+ Music, was the jumping-off point for a wide-ranging and engaging panel at the Music Biz 2022 conference on Wednesday, which highlighted takeaways from the re-port as well as a discussion of the challenges and opportunities for queer artists, fans and other LGBTQ+ individuals working in the music industry.

Other findings were even more demo-graphic-focused: LGBTQ+ Gen Z listeners averaged $136 per month on music as com-pared to $110 per month more generally and were 78% more likely than their peers to lis-ten to music on vinyl, suggesting a dedicated and invested community of listeners that over-index on spending. As panelist and Bill-board staff writer Stephen Daw put it, “It speaks volumes that the queer community is not some monolith that you can pander to occasionally. We are out here spending more money than other groups.”

Daw was joined on the panel by Evan-geline Elder, senior director of music and

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/artist/spencer-crandall/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/spencer-crandall/

https://www.billboard.com/author/dan-rys/

https://www.billboard.com/t/music-biz-2022/

https://luminatedata.xyz/reports/power-of-lgbtq-in-music/



of 44

brand partnerships at Roc Nation; Ari Fou-riezos, head of member relations at Queer Capita and an artist manager at Friendly Announcer; Joe Lynch, executive digital di-rector, East Coast at Billboard; and Hannah Waitt, vp of digital marketing at mTheory and head of partnerships at Queer Capita. The panel was moderated by Luminate’s head of research Matt Yazge, who led the presentation and the conversation.

Yazge also highlighted data around the streaming power of both LGBTQ+ listeners and artists who publicly identify as such, with Tyler the Creator, Lil Nas X, Queen, Halsey, Frank Ocean, Miley Cyrus, Sam Smith, Elton John, Demi Lovato and Keh-lani making up the top 10 most-streamed LGBTQ+ artists. Meanwhile, J Balvin is the non-LGBTQ+ artist with the largest per-centage of his fan base identifying as queer, among other findings. It showed that “queer audiences like all kinds of music,” Yazge said. “We’re not gonna be put in a box.”

“At this point, genre doesn’t really matter in that regard,” added Fouriezos. “There’s not that confusion of, ‘Can I make this kind of music and be out?’”

The panel used the report to kick off the conversation but also delved into several other topics, including how artists and companies can engage with the LGBTQ+ community and better market to, include and embrace them — and not just during Pride month in June. “At this point, it’s inauthentic to do things only during Pride month,” said Elder, referencing efforts by brands and companies in the music space. “You really do need a year-round strategy — these people aren’t only gay in June.”

One important topic was the need for art-ists to be able to foster safe spaces for their queer fan bases, both in-person and online. “One thing that queer folks are really good at is creating community — because they’ve had to,” Waitt said. She added that digital fandoms and engagement online by artists can be huge, especially for fans who live in places where it’s not safe to be publicly out — and that engagement with the community can be significant in ways that artists don’t always realize. “Kacey Musgraves ‘liked’ one of my Instagram comments two years ago and I’m still talking about it,” Waitt said to

laughter in the room.It also goes beyond just engaging with

the community, but making sure that the community is represented. “Visual identity is important,” Elder said. “If there’s no queer people in any of your videos, your single art, your photo shoots, your dancers, it makes it extremely hard to call on that community when it’s time to do a show.”

Often, however, there’s a burden placed on LGBTQ+ artists that’s not there for straight performers. And while some aspects of the queer experience in music have gotten easier, others have become more difficult. Fouriezos referenced the anti-trans bills that have proliferated in several state legislatures recently as a reminder that safe spaces are as important as ever, and that queer artists and industry figures often need to take more into account when booking shows or communicating with fans than their straight peers. “Artists are no longer just songwriters or recording artists or per-formers, they’re so many other things,” they said. “And queer artists take on even more.”

While things are getting better in some respects, there is still more work to be done. “There is more visibility for queer artists, but the bar was basically on the floor,” said Daw, adding that the music industry has changed so much that artists are able to build fan bases in different ways and on occasion make the industry come to them, with Troye Sivan as an example. “Now artists are democratizing the idea of, ‘I am queer, and you have to just deal with it now,’” Daw added.

With panelists from different sectors of the music business, the conversation also turned to representation within those circles — and advice for those trying to break into the industry. “Sometimes there’s a fear of being pigeonholed — the idea of, ‘That’s what this person is focused on,’ and you don’t get other opportunities,” Lynch said. “But you never know who you’re going to inspire, so it’s really important to be out. It’s validating.”

“Be honest and authentic,” added Fou-riezos. “Be kind in all of your interactions. You never know who you’re going to meet and what that interaction will lead to. But remember your worth. If you remember

your worth from the beginning then you will be able to transfer that everywhere.”

Fraudulent Streaming is on the Rise – But Solutions Exist (Music Biz 2022)BY GLENN PEOPLES

In the world of music industry confer-ences, panel discussions have histori-cally been a useful, practical forum to both sound alarm bells about prob-

lems – everything from peer-to-peer piracy to strained vinyl manufacturing capacity – and propose solutions. At a panel hosted by the 2022 edition of Music Biz in Nashville on Tuesday, a new issue rose to prominence: Fraudulent streaming, or the practice of using bots or other illegal means to create often-massive numbers of streams.

When Pandora first experienced an initial surge of fraudulent streaming activity, it received 10 million logins a day from bot accounts that amounted to half a bil-lion requests and “a large, large fraction of spins…nearly equaling” the number of actual requests received from humans, said panelist George White, vp of music licens-ing and head of publishing at SiriusXM and Pandora.

Although fraudulent streams are nothing new, the frequency of questionable activ-ity picked up in recent years. “We’ve found it increased over COVID,” said Matthew Eccles, senior vp & general counsel at Nap-ster, who also appeared on the panel. That’s problematic for all stakeholders: Artists, labels and publishers want to be properly compensated for the number of times their music was legitimately streamed. Brands shouldn’t have to pay for advertising played on illegitimate listens. Distributors don’t want their clients to game the system. And streaming services targeted by fraudsters have an obligation to run clean operations

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/author/glenn-peoples/

of 44

that remunerate everyone correctly.There are huge financial implications

here. As Billboard reported on May 3, 2.5% of ad-supported streams and 1.2% of subscription streams from the Merlin Network, which handles digital licensing for numerous indie labels and distributors, didn’t qualify as “fans listening to music they love” in February. Misallocating even a mid-single-digit share of streaming royalties would re-route hundreds of millions of dol-lars in a global market worth $12.3 billion in 2021, according to the IFPI.

The problem appears to be emanating from everywhere, according to the panel-ists. Fraudsters’ ability to use VPN networks to mask their location means the streams appear to come from around the world, not just countries like the U.S. with relatively high royalty rates. White noted that the war in Ukraine didn’t result in a drop in fraudu-lent activity, indicating any disruption to Russian fraudsters was quickly absorbed by competing fraudsters in other countries.

“What that suggests to me is the fact that maybe at the time, Russia was one of the more economical choices, but others have popped up to fill the void,” said panel-ist Morgan Hayduk, co-CEO of Beatdapp, a Canadian company that makes audit and fraud detection software for labels and streaming companies. “There are lots of places around the world you can buy illicit activity. And there are lots of ways that you can deploy it to look like it’s coming from other markets. And that’s reflected in the data we see.”

“This is a near-infinite resource,” added White. “If you want to spend money on it, the resource is there.”

Of course, there’s a financial benefit to receiving credit for an inordinate amount of streaming activity, but there are numer-ous reasons why a person would buy illegal streams. People might feel pressured to buy fraudulent streams “just to be in the arms race,” said panelist Michael Pelczynski, vp of strategy at SoundCloud. Just as an athlete might take performance-enhancing drugs only to keep up with their peers, artists might feel that competing honestly puts them at a disadvantage.

There are non-financial motivations to

buying streams in large quantities, too. Fraud can happen “anywhere there’s a chart to manipulate,” said White, which would give an artist visibility or bragging rights that can offer career momentum. Or an art-ist simply wants enough of an uplift to gain somebody’s attention or trip an algorithm and end up on a streaming service’s playlist.

One thing that could alleviate the problem is changing how royalties are paid. Subscrip-tion services pay rights holders on a pro-rata basis: All subscription fees are pooled and divvied up according to tracks’ share of total streams. That means a portion of any given subscriber’s fees will end up in the pockets of artists they don’t listen to. “It’s one of the pitfalls of the pro-rata model,” said Pelczynski. Since March 2021, Sound-Cloud has employed a user-centric model for independent artists that pays royalties from an individual subscriber’s fees. For major and independent labels, however, the pro-rata method remains the standard at SoundCloud and other platforms.

In the meantime, companies will have to find deterrents and punishments to alleviate the problem. Infringing artists will be re-moved from services and distributors’ cata-logs. However, aggressive fraudsters would try to work around those roadblocks by resubmitting their content to other distribu-tors. Non-music tracks – streamed purely for royalties, not for chart position or career advancement – are especially problematic because their generic song titles are easily changed in attempting to avoid capture.

Ultimately, the music industry needs the kind of cooperation that brought the panel-ists together in the first place. White said industry working groups should help share knowledge and best practices, while Hayduk suggested distributors and labels share data sets to maximize the effectiveness of the machine learning used in fraud detection since streaming fraud is essentially data manipulation. In that spirit, said Hayduk, “If you think you’re sitting on something valu-able, raise your hand.”

Bob Dylan’s Share of Traveling Wilburys Rights Purchased by Primary WaveBY KRISTIN ROBINSON

Primary Wave has acquired a few key rights from Bob Dylan‘s share of the Traveling Wil-burys catalog, including master

royalties and neighboring rights royalties from both of the group’s albums as well as their 2007 box set, the company announced Wednesday (May 11).

Comprised of Dylan (aka Lucky Wilbury) and fellow superstars George Harri-son (Nelson), Jeff Lynne (Otis), Roy Orbi-son (Lefty) and Tom Petty (Charlie), the Traveling Wilburys’ formation was a happy accident. After the five-some gathered to record a B-side single with Harrison in 1988, they went on to record two full-length LPs: the three-times platinum Traveling Wil-burys Vol. 1 and platinum-selling Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.

For their work, the Traveling Wilburys earned an Album of the Year nomination at the 1990 Grammys for Vol. 1, won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for the same album and received vast critical acclaim, but by the late ’90s, their records faded out of print, creating a scarcity that continued until the release of their 2007 box set The Traveling Wilburys Collection. The release created a massive Wilburys resurgence, with the set reaching No. 9 on the Billboard 200 and being certified gold by the RIAA.

With the acquisition, Primary Wave is investing in a share of music history beloved by Dylan, Harrison, Petty, Lynne and Orbi-son superfans across the globe. This is the company’s first investment in the catalog of Dylan, whose entire song catalog sold to Universal Music Publishing Group in December 2020 for a price estimated at

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/pro/fake-streams-spotify-merlin/

https://www.billboard.com/pro/soundcloud-fan-powered-royalties-user-centric-payment-system/

https://www.billboard.com/pro/soundcloud-fan-powered-royalties-user-centric-payment-system/

https://www.billboard.com/author/kristin-robinson/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/bob-dylan/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/traveling-wilburys/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/traveling-wilburys/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/george-harrison/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/george-harrison/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/jeff-lynne/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/roy-orbison/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/roy-orbison/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/tom-petty/

https://www.billboard.com/pro/bob-dylan-publishing-sale-whats-next/

https://www.billboard.com/pro/bob-dylan-publishing-sale-whats-next/

of 44

between $375-400 million. In January 2022, it was revealed that Sony Music had quietly purchased Dylan’s master recordings (es-timated to be worth over $200 million) sometime during the previous summer.

Notably, Primary Wave is home to many of the master recordings from Sun Records’ catalog, including that of Traveling Wilburys member Orbison.

In a statement about the deal, Samantha Rhulen, vp of business & legal affairs at Primary Wave Music, said, “To acquire even a small portion of Bob Dylan’s work as part of Traveling Wilburys is exciting to say the least. We’re honored to add this bit of his-tory to our growing music catalog.”

Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective & Amazon Music Bring Back Scholarships for HBCU StudentsBY PAUL GREIN

Are you a student at a HBCU pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music, music business, business administration, marketing, com-

munications, or a related field? Do you have at least a 3.0 GPA? Could you use a $10,000 grant? This just may be your lucky day.

The Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective (BMC) and Amazon Mu-sic are re-teaming on their Your Future Is Now scholarship program for the second year. The program seeks to provide select students at HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) the opportunity to learn and explore all facets of the music industry.

First launched in February 2021, the program offers select HBCU students networking opportunities with members of

the music industry, including an immersive rotation program with Amazon Music and Recording Academy department leads. This year, the BMC will select four students (up from three last year) currently enrolled at a HBCU for the program. Each will receive a $10,000 scholarship.

The BMC and Amazon Music will also award two HBCUs a $10,000 grant each for equipment for their music programs.

“Our commitment to show up for the next generation of Black talent and create path-ways for them to succeed continues with the return of the Your Future Is Now scholar-ship,” Rico Love, vice chair of the Record-ing Academy’s Board of Trustees and BMC chair, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to bring back this program with Amazon Music that creates invaluable mentorship opportunities for students as they begin their careers in the music industry.”

“We are honored to continue collaborat-ing with the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective,” Ryan Redington, vice president of music industry at Amazon Music, added.

The scholarship application goes live on Thursday (May 12). The deadline to apply is Friday June 10 at 5:00 pm PT/8:00 pm ET. Recipients will be notified on or before June 13.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens or perma-nent residents; currently enrolled, in good standing, at a HBCU, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music, music business, business administration, marketing, communica-tions, or a related field; and have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale (or its equivalent).

Applicants must also upload the follow-ing documents: a current and complete transcript of grades; a personal statement (300-500 words); a creative video (three minutes maximum); and a signed letter of recommendation from a professor or music industry mentor on official letterhead with contact information.

The personal statements should address “your college goals and choice of major, what you intend to do with your education, and why a scholarship is important to you. Include any academic and non-academic ac-complishments, personal characteristics, or

experiences that make you uniquely worthy of scholarship consideration.”

The 2021 scholarship recipients were Akeal Evans (Morehouse College senior), Jawan Davidson (North Carolina Central University senior) and Nyah Hardmon (Howard University junior).

The Recording Academy’s BMC and GRAMMY U will host conversations so interested parties can more about this op-portunity and hear personal accounts from past winners.

May 21 Instagram Live – @recordingacademy Instagram Live – @blackmusiccollec-tive, @GRAMMYU

June 8 Instagram Live – @blackmusiccollec-tive, @GRAMMYU Twitter Space – @RecordingAcad

Email any other questions to: [email protected]. For complete instructions and to apply, visit here.

Ghostly International Forms All Flowers Group With New Label drink sum wtrBY ELIAS LEIGHT

In June 2020, Ghostly Interna-tional joined forces with Secretly, the label group that encompasses Jagjaguwar, Dead Oceans and Secretly

Canadian. “Secretly provided a shared com-munity for Ghostly for years” — via Secretly Distribution, which put out its releases — “before we officially partnered up, and it really helped build our confidence as a company and take bigger risks,” says Ghostly CEO Sam Valenti, reflecting on the move last week. “I like that idea of helping extend that runway for other labels in a different

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/pro/sony-music-bob-dylans-master-recordings-200-million/

https://www.billboard.com/pro/sony-music-bob-dylans-master-recordings-200-million/

https://www.billboard.com/author/paul-greinbillboard-com/

https://www.billboard.com/t/recording-academy/

https://www.billboard.com/t/black-music-collective/

https://www.billboard.com/t/black-music-collective/

https://www.billboard.com/t/amazon-music/

https://www.billboard.com/t/amazon-music/

https://www.billboard.com/t/your-future-is-now/

https://www.billboard.com/t/your-future-is-now/

https://www.billboard.com/t/hbcus/

https://grammy.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3b5cb1550f39156742743cb10&id=ae061478ab&e=9f4be1d803

https://grammy.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3b5cb1550f39156742743cb10&id=97975bb4ca&e=9f4be1d803

https://grammy.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3b5cb1550f39156742743cb10&id=97975bb4ca&e=9f4be1d803

https://grammy.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3b5cb1550f39156742743cb10&id=aacaf07012&e=9f4be1d803

https://grammy.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3b5cb1550f39156742743cb10&id=ff6fdc2f42&e=9f4be1d803

https://grammy.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3b5cb1550f39156742743cb10&id=5069519219&e=9f4be1d803

https://grammy.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3b5cb1550f39156742743cb10&id=5069519219&e=9f4be1d803

https://grammy.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3b5cb1550f39156742743cb10&id=f595a205e7&e=9f4be1d803

https://grammy.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3b5cb1550f39156742743cb10&id=a404d6c0df&e=9f4be1d803

https://grammy.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3b5cb1550f39156742743cb10&id=2462fcc032&e=9f4be1d803

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgrammy.us1.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3D3b5cb1550f39156742743cb10%26id%3Dcafb6f9ac0%26e%3Dfad5ba4504&data=05%7C01%7CPaul.Grein%40billboard.com%7C727f16aca98b47d5a41808da3417620d%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637879572303559356%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2B6jPYIfyE9PzzheNuBGyC%2B66fFkcrZyW0J%2BudvQ%2FXHY%3D&reserved=0

https://www.billboard.com/author/eleight/

https://www.billboard.com/pro/ghostly-international-secretly-group-merger-indie-labels/

of 44

capacity.”To that end: Ghostly announced on

Thursday (May 12) that it is forming All Flowers Group, a collection of labels that sits adjacent to Secretly yet shares some of its services. The idea of one group of labels spinning off another can be slightly confus-ing; Valenti says All Flowers will “connect to the Secretly mothership, but operate as is its own entity.”

The first new member to join Ghostly in All Flowers is drink sum wtr. Nigil Mack, a veteran major-label A&R (he helped sign and worked closely with Kid Cudi) and manager (Shelley FKA DRAM, among others), will serve as the company’s CEO, while Alexandra Berenson will join as head of A&R after a five-year stint at Vinyl Me, Please.

“We’re all fans of the good parts of what a record label can be — the commonality of spirit, a dedicated team focused on an artist for the long term, 50-50 profit splits,” Valenti says. “This is a bet that labels, when done well and ethically and spending ap-propriately, have a seat at the table in 2022 and beyond.”

“My ultimate goal was always to start my own label,” Mack adds. “The time is perfect now.”

Getting the chance to operate alongside Ghostly is an exciting development for Mack, a longtime fan of the label, which Valenti founded back in 1999. Mack met Valenti for the first time last year and “kind of geeked out,” he says. “I’m a huge Adult Swim fan” — Ghostly has released a pair of compilations in conjunction with Adult Swim.

In addition, Mack admires Secretly’s track record of vaulting independent artists “into the mainstream conversation.” “You look at Bon Iver, Moses Sumney, serpentwithfeet, Japanese Breakfast, they’re killing it,” the executive says. “Secretly is very strategic, and they have amazing taste. I want to work with people like that.”

Mack also brings with him a long track record of success in hip-hop and R&B, which has not historically been a strength for either Ghostly or Secretly’s labels. “I’m a little in awe of what he’s done, what he’s been able to accomplish, and the network

that he has,” Berenson says.Labels in All Flowers Group will lean

on Secretly for distribution. In addition, “some members of the marketing and radio teams overlap,” Valenti says. The relation-ship between the two label groups will be “bespoke,” he continues, “depending on the project and what’s needed.”

The first official signing of drink sum wter — “I wanted a name that was A, easy to remember, and B, kind of funny,” Mack says — is the rapper Deem Spencer. Mack previ-ously worked with Spencer as his manager, and Berenson is also a longtime fan of the rapper; she helped him put out a pair of re-cords when she oversaw the Rising program (among other duties) at Vinyl Me, Please.

“I like that he collaborates with artists you might not typically expect,” she adds, “like Okay Kaya or the tour he’s doing with Orion Sun.”

In addition to signing Spencer, drink sum wtr is planning a single series that will start with Shelley FKA Dram and include install-ments from Sol Galeano and Wahid. “Some artists may not be thinking about a label yet, but if there’s a way for them to partner with us on a single, it makes it a little bit easier,” Berenson explains. “It’s a good opportunity to be continuously putting out great music by artists that we’re excited to be working with.”

And it fits with drink sum wtr’s pitch to artists, which Berenson describes in the simplest of terms: “Put out the art you want to put out,” she says, “and we’re here to sup-port you in any way we can.”

Machine Gun Kelly & Dan + Shay Are In, Red Hot Chili Peppers Are Out as 2022 Billboard Music Awards PerformersBY PAUL GREIN

Machine Gun Kelly and Dan + Shay have both been added as performers while Red Hot Chili Peppers had to drop

off the lineup of the 2022 Billboard Music Awards, set to be broadcast from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sun-day.

The Peppers dropped out due to “un-foreseen circumstances,” according to a message on social media from the Billboard Music Awards on Wednesday (May 11). The BBMAs announced MGK’s booking with a message on social media that same day. A BBMA representative has con-firmed Dan + Shay’s booking to Billboard.

Both MGK and Dan + Shay are BBMA finalists this year. MGK is a finalist for top rock artist, an award he won last year (along with top rock album). Dan + Shay are final-ists for top country duo/group, an award they won in 2019.

This will be MGK’s performance debut on the BBMAs. The rapper-turned-rocker en-tered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 last month with his sixth album, Mainstream Sellout.

This was to have been Red Hot Chili Peppers’ first performance on the BBMAs since 1999, when they sang “Scar Tissue” and, with Snoop Dogg, “Red Hot Mama.”

Both country and rock will be well-represented on the show. Dan + Shay will be joined on the country side by Morgan Wal-len and the high-powered team of Elle King

IN BRIEF


https://www.billboard.com/artist/machine-gun-kelly/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/machine-gun-kelly/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/dan-shay/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/dan-shay/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/red-hot-chili-peppers/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/red-hot-chili-peppers/

https://www.billboard.com/t/billboard-music-awards/

https://www.billboard.com/t/billboard-music-awards/

https://www.billboard.com/t/bbmas/

https://www.billboard.com/t/dan-shay/

https://www.billboard.com/t/red-hot-chili-peppers/

https://www.billboard.com/t/red-hot-chili-peppers/

of 44

and Miranda Lambert. That pair’s broadly appealing country hit “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” is a finalist for top rock song, which promises to give the show some extra rock flavor. Florence + the Machine will also boost the show’s rock presence.

Even with the Peppers dropping out, it promises to be a stacked show. As previ-ously announced, Mary J. Blige will receive the Billboard Icon Award and will also perform on the show. Other perform-ers include Silk Sonic (their first perfor-mance since they swept four Grammys, including record and song of the year, in April), Travis Scott (his first awards show performance since 10 people were killed during his performance at the Astroworld Festival in Houston in November) and Ed Sheeran (performing from Belfast, North-ern Ireland, where he’s in the midst of his + – = ÷ x stadium tour — pronounced The Mathematics Tour).

Other performers set for the show are hip-hop stars Megan Thee Stallion and Latto; Latin stars Rauw Alejandro and Becky G; R&B star Maxwell; and Nigerian singer Burna Boy.

The BBMAs will broadcast live coast-to-coast from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 15, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on NBC, and will stream live on Peacock. Hosted by Sean “Diddy” Combs, the show will honor the year’s top artists on the Billboard charts in 62 cat-egories. Additional information about the BBMAs, including presenters, will be an-nounced in the coming days.

The 2022 Billboard Music Awards is produced by MRC Live & Alternative. In ad-dition to hosting the show, Combs will serve as executive producer alongside Robert Deaton.

Tickets to attend the show are open to the public. Prices per ticket start at $90 and are available for purchase here Doors open at 3:30 p.m. PT.

For the latest news on the Billboard Music Awards (BBMAs) visit billboardmu-sicawards.com and billboard.com/bbma. For exclusive content and more, follow the BBMAs on social media (Twitter, Face-book, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, You-Tube) and join the conversation by using

the official hashtag for the show, #BBMAs.For more information about the BBMAs

on Peacock, visit Peacocktv.com.Billboard recently announced Billboard

MusicCon, a first-of-its-kind event which will feature exclusive conversations, fan experiences, headline performances, and more. Visit billboardmusiccon.com for event details and tickets.

The Billboard Music Awards are produced by MRC Live & Alternative, a division of MRC. MRC and Penske Media are co-parent companies of Billboard.

Resound and Heard Presents Merge to Become One of Austin’s Biggest Indie PromotersBY DAVE BROOKS

Texas promoters Resound Presents and Heard Presents are merg-ing, creating one of the biggest indie concert promotion outfits in

Austin. The agreement unites longtime busi-ness partners and Margin Walker Presents co-founders Graham Williams and Ian Orth with Heard Presents co-founders Ste-phen Sternschein and Dave Machinist, who own Austin’s Empire Control Room, Garage and the Parish.

The merged companies, and their com-bined staff members, will operate out of new offices in South Austin with aims to expand into Central Texas.

“Both of our companies were growing in the same direction and ultimately we were either going to have to hire a bunch of the same people and have duplicative resources or we could just share the resources,” Stern-schein tells Billboard.

Williams adds that many in Austin’s inde-pendent music scene had gone through the COVID-19 pandemic and “barely made it out

alive.” He says, “We all went through this re-ally tough, scary thing that we thought may be the end of our careers and livelihood and for survival, we came together around the culture that we have built and found a way to move forward.”

Prior to Transmission, Williams was the talent buyer for Emo’s, one of the city’s best known venues during the late ’90s and 2000s and experienced the frustration many smaller club owners face in a competitive market like Austin.

“We would take these unknown artists and help them grow to the next level, which meant not being able to work with them again once they outgrew the club,” he says. “When I started my own company in 2007 the idea was that no artists should be forced to play a room they don’t want to play, just because they played there last time and they owe a favor to the promoter. Fans should be able to see artists in different places and all the businesses should be busy enough that they all survive and do well. Austin is such a busy city right now and we just need more and more of that. So my hope was to build something that was wasn’t an island on its own, but a part of something bigger that could grow and connect all the dots locally.”

Resound will continue to specialize in producing, presenting and marketing shows and events in multiple locations and mar-kets in and around the region, Williams and Sternschein tell Billboard, while Heard will focus on venue operations and management, concessions and event production.

“It helps us continue to build up our private events business and creative agency work,” Sternschein says. For a private client, that include everything from white label production services to marketing or artist services. “If the client is looking for talent, we can have resound book talent, in a much more streamlined and effective way than we were able to in the past.”

The combined companies plan to produce 1,000 shows through the Resound Presents brand, and working in partnership with the Red River Cultural District (RRCD), will do-nate a portion of its ticket sales to a different charitable cause each month as part of its in-vestment into creative communities through live music events and experiences.

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/artist/mary-j-blige/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/silk-sonic/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/travis-scott/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/ed-sheeran/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/ed-sheeran/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/sean-diddy-combs/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/sean-diddy-combs/

https://www.axs.com/events/426263/2022-billboard-music-awards-tickets

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboardmusicawards.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.grein%40billboard.com%7Cb88d77e6c5eb4f9e735808da31548cac%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637876536464127404%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=XJJ04H6hAdS2cc8w7Z9wCdftBXApMyOx0UdULLJxpO8%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboardmusicawards.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.grein%40billboard.com%7Cb88d77e6c5eb4f9e735808da31548cac%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637876536464127404%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=XJJ04H6hAdS2cc8w7Z9wCdftBXApMyOx0UdULLJxpO8%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fbbma&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.grein%40billboard.com%7Cb88d77e6c5eb4f9e735808da31548cac%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637876536464127404%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Vfzt9rpu1vnQRgmAPxtlGTlxr5ZMbgSgmATqOvIgUVU%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FBBMAs&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.grein%40billboard.com%7Cb88d77e6c5eb4f9e735808da31548cac%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637876536464127404%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cQeIPdohzBAiwC8m0kLDUaK9gXALH9uR3tMFWdTOtiU%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FTheBBMAs&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.grein%40billboard.com%7Cb88d77e6c5eb4f9e735808da31548cac%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637876536464127404%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=WGcugoSsBZJTyhGQn3tiyW9xjfJl6%2FmzR7JZlMfzOSE%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FTheBBMAs&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.grein%40billboard.com%7Cb88d77e6c5eb4f9e735808da31548cac%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637876536464127404%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=WGcugoSsBZJTyhGQn3tiyW9xjfJl6%2FmzR7JZlMfzOSE%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Finstagram.com%2FBBMAs&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.grein%40billboard.com%7Cb88d77e6c5eb4f9e735808da31548cac%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637876536464127404%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=B5mqWcUHpr4hvVA8y8aesh6hw%2BT%2BbcFoPLYWaFr0Wr4%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.snapchat.com%2Fadd%2Fthebbmas&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.grein%40billboard.com%7Cb88d77e6c5eb4f9e735808da31548cac%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637876536464127404%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=tSQk9cumP05xTt8cUNVAaLgBzYv3LGNX%2BuLiCIso6mc%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tiktok.com%2F%40bbmas&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.grein%40billboard.com%7Cb88d77e6c5eb4f9e735808da31548cac%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637876536464127404%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2FqN9RlD0BQG3I%2FOQ1iATS6wc1miHlsJzy3GuGM7hME0%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fyoutube.com%2Fbbmas&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.grein%40billboard.com%7Cb88d77e6c5eb4f9e735808da31548cac%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637876536464127404%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=US8nw9EFbnHJJiARe7GTZrDBYd2wOX03LOlHH7%2B%2FGh8%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fyoutube.com%2Fbbmas&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.grein%40billboard.com%7Cb88d77e6c5eb4f9e735808da31548cac%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637876536464127404%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=US8nw9EFbnHJJiARe7GTZrDBYd2wOX03LOlHH7%2B%2FGh8%3D&reserved=0

https://www.peacocktv.com/stream-event/2022-billboard-music-awards

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboardmusiccon.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.grein%40billboard.com%7Cb88d77e6c5eb4f9e735808da31548cac%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637876536464127404%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2BghjPxMjl3J%2B4C3BmxOoSbQ%2Fn0HX1o7LX2J8tS%2BEmTs%3D&reserved=0

https://www.billboard.com/author/dave-brooks/

of 44

At the Parish — now located at 501 Brushy St. in Austin, after moving due to a lawsuit with the venue’s landlord — Resound and Heard Presents have launched a listening lounge concept called My Oh My, featur-ing upgraded sound and audio equipment, DJ booth and easy-to-order classic and batch cocktails, beer and wine and food options from the kitchen connecting the complex out front all from one easy-to-order menu. The Parish soft-opened with Moontower Festival in late April and a number of touring shows, and plans are in the works for both a restaurant partner to open the food service component and for a grand opening celebration to take place in the coming weeks.

Resound was founded by Williams and Orth in 2021, months after closing Margin Walker Presents in 2020 after four years due to the COVID-19 venue shutdown. Williams was previously the founder of both Trans-mission Entertainment and Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Festival. Prior to Margin Walker, Orth produced the popular dance party Learning Secrets, an event he cofounded in 2005.

Heard has been producing live music for Austin since 2012. Machinist is a profes-sional musician and recording studio owner, while Sternschein was a founding board member of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), which formed in 2020, and helped organize a grassroots lobbying effort that resulted in a $16.2 billion federal aid program that benefited professional artists, agents, managers, promoters and venue operators. He was also an executive producer for the award-winning Save Our Stages Digital Fest.

The new offices for Resound Presents and Heard Presents are located at 211 East Al-pine Rd, Suite 100 in South Austin. For more info, visit ResoundPresents.com.

Mom+Pop Looks to ‘Supercharge’ Growth With Exceleration Music InvestmentBY CHRIS EGGERTSEN

Mom+Pop Music has struck a strategic financial alliance with Exceleration Music that will allow the esteemed indie

label to expand the scope of its operations, including with new signings and expanded services, the companies jointly announced Thursday (May 12).

Exceleration has invested in Mom+Pop’s catalog — which includes releases from Courtney Barnett, Sleater-Kin-ney, Tom Morello and more — and will provide resources to help propel the label’s new release program while allowing it to retain its independence. In that vein, Mom+Pop will continue to be solely owned and operated by partners Michael Gold-stone and Thaddeus Rudd.

Mom+Pop’s forthcoming releases include projects from Beach Bunny, Caamp, Ashe, Orion Sun, FKJ and Seb as well as re-cently announced signings Tegan and Sara and Madeon.

The Exceleration deal is being contextu-alized as part of a larger expansion plan by Goldstone and Rudd that began with the Mom+Pop’s 2018 agreement with indie digi-tal rights licensing partner Merlin, which established a global direct distribution and marketing platform for the label. That was followed in 2020 by the announcement of a joint venture with Brent Battles and Chris-topher Brown’s radio promo and artist development company Further Music to expand Mom+Pop’s reach in radio.

Founded in January 2021, Excelera-tion Music is an investment fund that was established specifically to support art-ists, creators and entrepreneurs in indie music. Its founders include music industry

vets Glen Barros, John Burk, Charles Caldas, Amy Dietz and Dave Hansen. In addition to Mom+Pop, the fund now owns or has established partnerships with compa-nies including Alligator Records, Bloodshot Records, Candid Records, Kill Rock Stars, the Ray Charles Foundation and SideOn-eDummy. In August, the company brought on digital media vet Darin Soler as head of global marketing & partnerships, among other hires.

“This deal with Exceleration allows us to forge ahead having the financial ability to attract and sign the artists that we believe in,” said Goldstone in a statement. “Excel-eration Music understood our needs and worked with us in customizing the deal to fit our vision.”

Rudd added, “We’ve created a hybrid in today’s market, offering artistic controls and boutique service, pairing it with the power and reach of a larger system. This expansion is a bet on our artists, our staff, and our col-lective future.”

In his own statement, Exceleration found-ing partner Barros said Mom+Pop “has an incredible track record and exciting future prospects, and we believe that the flexible partnership we offer via this deal will enable them to supercharge their growth.”

The Chainsmokers Giving Fans a Share of New Album’s Royalties as Free NFTsBY KATIE BAIN

With the new Chainsmok-ers album So Far So Good dropping next week, the duo are ramping up

promo in a most unusual way: by giving a portion of album royalties away to their fans, for free.

This giveaway will happen via the block-chain on music NFT marketplace Royal,

IN BRIEF

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fresoundpresents.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cdave.brooks%40billboard.com%7C097b407027834fcb052708da31e2dff3%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637877147738411094%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=MBcw1BHPV9m5KXwZvdkoaAPRUd79LOngWp35LJQqqT0%3D&reserved=0

https://www.billboard.com/author/chris-eggertsen/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/courtney-barnett/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/sleater-kinney/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/sleater-kinney/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/tom-morello/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/beach-bunny/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/caamp/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/ashe/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/fkj/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/seb/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/tegan-and-sara/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/tegan-and-sara/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/madeon/

https://www.billboard.com/author/katie-bain/

https://www.billboard.com/music/features/the-chainsmokers-billboard-digital-cover-story-2022-interview-1235067709/

https://www.billboard.com/t/royal/

of 44

where The Chainsmokers — Drew Taggart and Alex Pall — are minting 5,000 lim-ited digital assets (or LDAs, Royal’s term for NFTs) representing 1% of the album’s master streaming royalties. Fans who snag these NFTs will also gain access to The Chainsmokers private Discord channel fea-turing exclusive content and other benefits.

“A number of artists have done this in the past, but not for free,” the duo say in a statement. “It was important for us to do it this way because this isn’t about profiting off some new tech for us, it’s about connecting more deeply with you and harnessing a new disruptive technology in an effective way that truly shows what is possible as we head towards a Web3 world.”

The drop happens via Royal on Tuesday, May 17, with the album dropping Friday, May 13. In the phase one drop, 4,000 tokens will be available for The Chainsmokers VIP list starting at 6 p.m. EST. At 8:00 p.m. EST, an additional 700 tokens will be available in a phase two drop for The Chainsmokers VIP list along with general access fans. No cryptocurrency is required for fans to claim one of the NFTs, and all associated fees will be covered by Royal.

Fans who claim the NFTs will be free to sell them on the secondary market, should they so desire. The Chainsmokers will not be taking a cut of these secondary sales, with the 7.5% secondary fee instead being distributed equally between the 14 song-writers who wrote songs on So Far So Good.

“Because of antiquated laws and old judgments, we believe songwriters are underpaid,” said Pall and Taggart in a state-ment. “We couldn’t have written these songs without this core group of amazing writers and we wanted to find a way to give them something extra for being a part of our journey.”

Pall and Taggart are well-versed in the Web3 world via investments in startups including Royal, Magic Eden, Axie Infinity, Mythical games, Superplastic, Metaplex and RTFKT.

Created by electronic producer 3LAU, Royal has recently hosted royalty drops from artists including Nas and Diplo. In March, a total of 20% of the royalties from Diplo’s recent Miguel collaboration “Don’t Forget

My Love” were sold in the form of 2,110 tokens for a profit of $293,000, according to data shared by Royal.

Ultra Music Festival Will Stay in Miami’s Bayfront Park Through 2027BY KATIE BAIN

There’s no place like home for Ul-tra Music Festival.

On Thursday (May 12), the dance fest announced that it

will stay at Miami’s Bayfront Park through at least 2027, following the City of Miami Commission unanimously passing an agree-ment between the festival and the Bayfront Park Management Trust. This Trust man-ages the 32-acre park, which is located in the heart of downtown Miami on Biscayne Bay.

The longstanding music festival has happened at Bayfront Park for much of its 23-year history, returning to the site this past March after a much-maligned outing at Miami’s Virginia Key in 2019 and two years off due to the pandemic. The 2019 edition of the festival in Virginia Key experienced myriad noise complaints and major trans-portation issues, including — as Billboard re-ported in 2019 — “tens of thousands of attendees forced to walk two-and-a-half miles across the Rickenbacker Causeway following a complete breakdown of trans-portation logistics.”

The relocation to Virginia Key came after Miami City Commission unanimously voted down a renewal for its contract at Bayfront Park. This decision left festival organizers with only four months to figure out logistics for the new site, which had only one way off the island and was the first time the event had to handle transportation since it was no longer in an urban epicenter of a city.

Meanwhile, Bayfront Park is in the heart

of downtown Miami, making it possible for attendees to easily walk, Uber or taxi to the festival, with transportation at the 2022 event being remarkably smooth and looking to stay that way for the next five years. In 2022, Ultra reported hosting 165,000 attend-ees from more than 100 countries.

Hosting the who’s who of the global elec-tronic music scene, the next edition of Ultra happens March 24-26, 2023.

Hulu to Stream Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits Festivals in 2022-2023BY GIL KAUFMAN

For the first time ever, Hulu will serve as the official streaming platform for C3 Presents’ three biggest festivals. The streamer

announced the collaboration with Live Nation on Thursday (May 12), which will bring Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits Music Festival to Hulu for 2022 and 2023.

Hulu streamed Lolla last summer and will kick off its broadcast of the three events this summer when Bonnaroo kicks off on June 16, followed by Lolla beginning on July 28 from Grant Park in Chicago and Austin City Limits on Oct. 7. According to a release, select performances will be livestreamed exclusively to Hulu SVOD subscribers at no additional cost.

Addition behind-the-scenes and unique footage will also be available to subscribers, with the specific livestream schedules to be announced in the weeks before each event. Two different live feeds will be available Friday-Sunday for each festival, with an ad-ditional feed from the Thursday shows from Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza; ACL does not have Thursday programming.

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/artist/the-chainsmokers/

https://www.billboard.com/t/nfts/

https://www.billboard.com/t/web3/

https://royal.io/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/nas/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/diplo/

https://www.billboard.com/pro/diplo-song-royalties-warner-music-styngr-games-deals/

https://www.billboard.com/author/katie-bain/

https://www.billboard.com/t/ultra-music-festival/

https://www.billboard.com/t/ultra-music-festival/

https://www.billboard.com/t/dance/

https://www.billboard.com/t/miami/

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/ultra-miami-2019-day-one-8504853/

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/ultra-miami-2019-day-one-8504853/

https://www.billboard.com/author/gil-kaufman/

https://www.billboard.com/t/festivals/

https://www.billboard.com/t/bonnaroo/

https://www.billboard.com/t/lollapalooza/

https://www.billboard.com/t/austin-city-limits/

https://www.billboard.com/t/austin-city-limits/

of 44

“Hulu and Live Nation are both commit-ted to delivering exceptional entertainment to fans, so we are thrilled to be collaborat-ing with them, again, as we expand our offering to include these three legendary festivals,” said Hulu president Joe Earley in a statement. “Each event is unique, but all three bring people together for incredible music, artistry, and experiences, which we are fortunate to be able to share with Hulu subscribers.”

This year’s ACL will run from Oct. 7-9 and Oct. 14-16 in Zilker Park in Austin Texas and feature sets from the Red Hot Chili Pep-pers, P!nk, The Chicks, SZA and Lil Nas X, while Bonnaroo will unfold from June 16-19 in Manchester, Tennessee with headliners Stevie Nicks, Machine Gun Kelly, Roddy Ricch and J. Cole and Lolla will take place from July 28-31 on the Chicago lakefront and host Metallica, Dua Lipa, Green Day and Doja Cat.

“The demand for live music is at an all-time high and the live experience has never been more connected to digital,” said C3 Presents’ Charlie Walker in the statement. “By expanding our partnership with Hulu, even more fans will be able to tune into each of these incredible festival experiences in real-time and enjoy live performances from their favorite artists with the fans on-site.”

The Deals: Napster Has a New Owner; SoundCloud Acquires AI Tech Firm MusiioBY CHRIS EGGERTSEN

Hivemind Capital Partners and cryptocurrency company Al-gorand acquired Napster. A tweet announcing the

deal noted that the new owners plan “to once again revolutionize the music industry

by bringing blockchain and Web3 to artists and fans,” with music industry vet Emmy Lovell coming aboard as Napster’s interim CEO. Napster was previously acquired by virtual reality live music firm MelodyVR for $70 million in 2020. The following year, MelodyVR announced it would be changing its name to Napster Group PLC.

SoundCloud acquired AI technology company Musiio, allowing SoundCloud to enhance its discovery experience and “help to identify talent and trends,” according to a press release. Musiio’s machine-learning tools include B2B audio reference search (described as AI that can “listen” to music), automated tagging and playlisting. Follow-ing the acquisition, Musiio co-founder/CEO Hazel Savage and co-founder/CTO Aron Pettersson were named vp, music intelligence and vp, AI and machine learning, respectively; SoundCloud will also fully integrate any remaining Musiio employees.

Believe renewed its deals with Chinese digital platforms Tencent Music Enter-tainment and NetEase Cloud Music, al-lowing the company to continue developing its local and international artists on the plat-forms. Believe currently provides its labels and artists with daily streaming stats from both Tencent and NetEase, offering them the ability to monitor their performance on both platforms in real-time. Believe has operated in China since 2016.

Our Happy Company, a blockchain technology company for the creator economy founded by John Legend, Chris Lin and Kevin Lin, raised $7.5 million in a seed round led by Infinity Ventures Crypto and Animoca Brands. The funds will be used to continue growing and de-veloping the company’s recently-launched social NFT platform OurSong, including the rollout of new features for creators to add experiences to their NFT projects that blend the physical and digital worlds. The seed round also included participation from Che-rubic Ventures, Circle Ventures, FBG Capital, Highstreet, HTC, Jump Trad-ing and North Island Ventures.

Multimedia Music acquired the catalog of Atlantic Screen Music, which houses rights to scores from films including 2

Guns, Lone Survivor, The Host, Dredd, Es-cape Plan and Broken City, in a seven-figure transaction. Composers represented in the catalog include Max Richter, Lorne Balfe, John Paesano, John Debney, Atticus Ross, Antonio Pinto, Steve Jablonsky, Clinton Shorter and Paul Leonard Morgan. The acquisition follows an initial $100 million fundraising round for Multimedia from Metropolitan Partners Group and Pinnacle Bank that previously allowed it to acquire the catalog of all music income and copy-rights for composer James Newton Howard. Multimedia was represented in the Atlantic transaction by UK law firm Russells.

S10 Entertainment founder and CEO Brandon Silverstein partnered with Simon Fuller to develop scripted and unscripted projects across film, TV, documentaries and audio under the S10 Films banner. The partnership will open a pipeline between the two companies and potentially lead to opportunities for S10 cli-ents including Anitta and Normani; S10 also has partnerships with companies founded by Jay-Z, Ryan Tedder and Max Matsuura.

SoundExchange signed a data partner-ship with VEVA Sound to increase the accuracy and efficiency of royalty payments to creators. SoundExchange will accom-plish this with VEVA Sound’s cloud-based audio file-sharing, credits and metadata platform VEVA Collect, which collects and compiles creator credits with all associated audio assets to ensure fair compensation for everyone who works on a recording.

Streaming service Qobuz expanded to six new countries: Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Portugal, bringing the total number of countries where the platform operates to 25. The expansion fol-lows Qobuz’s recent $23 million fundraising round.

Polyvinyl Record Co. has acquired an equity stake in San Francisco-based indie label Father/Daughter Records. Under the deal, the two labels will work together while allowing Father/Daughter to maintain autonomy over all creative decisions. Fa-ther/Daughter will continue its worldwide distribution deal with Secretly Distribution, while Polyvinyl will now handle direct-to-customer fulfillment.

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/author/chris-eggertsen/

https://twitter.com/HivemindCap/status/1524027670941556739

https://twitter.com/HivemindCap/status/1524027670941556739

https://www.billboard.com/pro/napster-melodyvr-sale-price-details/

https://www.billboard.com/pro/napster-melodyvr-funding-london-stock-exchange/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/john-legend/

of 44

The Apple Music app is now available on the Roku streaming platform, allow-ing Apple Music subscribers to stream the service on any Roku device, including Roku streaming players, Roku TV models and Roku premium audio products including the Roku Streambar Pro. Current Apple Music subscribers can access the app using their existing log-in credentials; Roku users with-out an Apple Music subscription are being offered a one-month free trial through the Roku channel store.

Independent record label and creative agency Big.Ass.Kids (B.A.K) signed an exclusive joint venture and global distribu-tion deal with WMG’s indie label and artist services arm ADA Worldwide. Founded by industry veteran le’Roy Benros in 2021, Big.Ass.Kids’ first project with ADA will be See You Next Year, an emerging artist platform and multi-tiered campaign in partnership with Complex Network’s Pigeons & Planes that will be anchored by a compilation album featuring 10 exclusive tracks from up-and-coming acts.

Def Jam Recordings, 0207 Def Jam and Def Jam Africa have signed Ghanian Afropop, dancehall and reggae artist Stonebwoy. Def Jam Africa will rep-resent Stonebwoy’s music across Africa, Def Jam Recordings will be his label home in the U.S. and 0207 Def Jam will support him in the U.K. Stonebwoy’s first release under the deal was the single “Therapy” on May 3. It serves as the lead single from his forthcom-ing album due out mid-2022.

Bertus signed Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation to a global distri-bution deal for all physical releases. Under the agreement, which encompasses new releases as well as reissues of previously released albums, Bertus will be responsible for development, execution, pressing, sales and both B2C and B2B distribution.

NFL player and artist Antonio “AB” Brown launched CAB Records, a new label specifically geared to athletes who want to pursue music, in partnership with Vydia. At launch, professional athletes Jerry Jeudy, Le’Veon Bell and Robby Anderson have plans to work with the label. Last month, CAB released Brown’s new album Para-digm under his performing name AB.

Wisin signed newcomer Andrea Serrano to his record label La Base Music Group, making her the first female artist on the roster. Artistically known as Dreah, Serrano formed part of Wisin’s group on the TV competition series La Voz and made it to the finals. Dreah now joins La Base’s roster of rising artists, including Linares, Chris An-drew, Abdiel and Wisin’s longtime produc-ers Los Legendarios.

R&B artist GoGo Morrow signed with Harmony “H-Money” Samu-els’ B.O.E. Records/Universal Music Canada in partnership with Kenya Bar-ris’ Khalabo Music label (a joint venture with Interscope Records). The first release under the deal is Morrow’s debut single “In the Way.”

Rapper-producer Killboy signed to At-lantic Records. The first release under the deal is Killboy’s latest single “Daddy Issues.”

Disney+ Hits 137.7M Subscribers, Beats Wall Street ExpectationsBY ALEX WEPRIN

Disney once again beat Wall Street expectations last quarter in streaming, adding 7.9 million Disney+ subscribers, and sug-

gesting that the company may be positioned to take a lead in what has become a cut-throat race to the top in streaming.

While Wall Street expectations for Dis-ney+ were varied, a midpoint expectation was 4.5 million to 5 million adds.

Disney reported revenue of $19.2 billion and income of $3.7 billion, with earnings per share of $1.08. Wall Street expectations were for revenue of $20.1 billion, operating income of $3.3 billion, and EPS of $1.17. The EPS miss could be due to a change in tax regulations, which saw the company’s effec-

tive tax rate balloon from 8.8 percent a year ago to 45.8 percent last quarter. Disney also took a $1 billion hit related to ending con-tent licensing agreements early that it could use it on its own streaming service. Disney didn’t break out what that programming was, but it is likely the output deal with Netflix, including the streaming services’ Marvel series.

Despite a high-profile stumble by Netflix last quarter, the streaming business remains the division where Wall Street is placing much of its focus, and the company updated its efforts in the space Wednesday, with Disney+ adding 7.9 million subscribers last quarter to hit 137.7 million total. Hulu added 300,000 subscribers to reach 45.6 million subs (a Black Friday promotion last quarter may have pulled forward some growth), and ESPN+ added 1 million subscribers to reach 22.3 million.

Disney CFO Christine McCarthy also sug-gested that Disney+ subscriber growth could slow down in coming quarters. “It is worth mentioning that we had a stronger than ex-pected first half of the year,” McCarthy said on the quarterly earnings call, adding that some markets expected to go live in Q3 are in eastern Europe, including Poland, which may be impacted by the war. However, a stronger content slate in the second half of the year should keep Disney+ growing.

Disney’s media and entertainment distri-bution division, which includes streaming, had revenues of $13.5 billion in the quarter, up 9 percent from a year ago. Streaming led the way, with revenues up 23 percent to $4.9 billion. Linear networks were up 5 percent to $7.1 billion. The Academy Awards helped bolster ABC, with advertising revenue up from the same quarter a year ago, “partially offset by a decrease in viewership and, to a lesser extent, fewer units delivered,” the company said.

Disney’s parks, experiences and consumer products division, meanwhile, had revenue of $6.6 billion, up more than 100 percent from a year ago, when COVID-19 impacts were still being widely felt around the globe.

The company also took a $195 million impairment charge related to the Disney Channel in Russia. The company had said it would take steps to exit the country after it

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/artist/stonebwoy/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ssrSMfcxGs

https://www.billboard.com/artist/wisin/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?src=Linkfire&lId=bcea8f86-4273-4e7b-877c-3a53df106586&cId=d3d58fd7-4c47-11e6-9fd0-066c3e7a8751&v=CkOCLwR39d4&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?src=Linkfire&lId=bcea8f86-4273-4e7b-877c-3a53df106586&cId=d3d58fd7-4c47-11e6-9fd0-066c3e7a8751&v=CkOCLwR39d4&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?src=Linkfire&lId=63d95272-eb24-4701-9543-d69240386469&cId=b99d25f0-7cf0-43da-80c9-750d3f2cccf0&v=c62JyweS24A&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?src=Linkfire&lId=63d95272-eb24-4701-9543-d69240386469&cId=b99d25f0-7cf0-43da-80c9-750d3f2cccf0&v=c62JyweS24A&feature=youtu.be

https://www.billboard.com/author/alex-weprin/

https://www.billboard.com/t/disney/

https://www.billboard.com/t/disney/

https://www.billboard.com/t/wall-street/

https://www.billboard.com/t/wall-street/

https://www.billboard.com/t/streaming/

of 44

invaded neighboring Ukraine.Disney’s latest earnings report comes at

a critical moment for the entertainment giant, and for the world of streaming video at large.

The entire streaming business is under pressure after Netflix badly missed its earnings numbers last quarter, and released lower projections for upcoming quarters. Netflix also announced plans to crack down on password sharing and add an advertising tier, both of which indicate that the com-pany believes growth in its mature markets may have peaked.

But Disney is bullish, with an ad-support-ed tier of Disney+ on the horizon, and a full slate of shows expected to allow the com-pany to raise prices on its ad-free tier, even as it adds less-expensive ad-backed options.

“That is going to give us the ability to ad-just our price while maintaining our strong value position,” Disney CEO Bob Cha-pek said on the call. “We believe that great content is going to drive our subs, and that greater subs will drive profitability.”

As for the advertising-backed tier, Chapek said that ahead of the TV Upfronts next week “we are expecting a very positive reaction from advertisers overall. They have been asking for this for years.”

Since the beginning of the year Disney has found itself at the center of a major political controversy surrounding Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill. After initially declining to take a position on the bill, the company pushed back publicly after dealing with blowback from employees. However, that public opposition then led to Florida’s Republican-led legislature and governor retaliating by revoking Disney’s special privileges surrounding the Reedy Creek Im-provement District, a pseudo-governmental entity, controlled by Disney, which gives it flexibility with how it operates Walt Disney World.

Meanwhile, Disney’s theme parks busi-ness faces new challenges as lockdowns in China and overall market instability threaten the lucrative division, even as U.S. attendance appears poised to rebound, with strong results last quarter.

And in the theatrical business, a strong showing from Doctor Strange 2 may give

pause to any future day-and-date plans.As for the future of Disney’s linear TV

channels, like ESPN: “linear networks are cash generators,” Chapek said, adding that “the hesitancy to move too fast away from those is really a cashflow situation.”

However, Chapek did tease a future where ESPN is available directly to consum-ers.

“At some point, when it is going to be good for our shareholders, we will be able to fully go,” he said, noting that whenever they decide to do it, “It will be the ultimate fan offering that appeals to super-fans of sports, and it is really only ESPN that could pull that off.”

This article originally appeared in THR.com.

Ari Elkins Launches Spotify Live Show ‘Soundtrack Your Day’BY KRISTIN ROBINSON

Spotify has tapped music cura-tor Ari Elkins as its newest Spotify Live host. Every Monday, starting May 16, Elkins’ show will be an

interactive space for fans to join him and his special guests to create a collective playlist, centered around different situations and moods.

Dubbed “Soundtrack Your Day,” the show is a next generation spin on the traditional Spotify-made playlists which have made the company a standout streamer for music listening. Traditionally, its mood and genre playlists have been formed by a staff curator who privately selects songs based on listen-ing metrics and personal taste, but with “Soundtrack Your Day,” Elkins and Spotify are opening the doors to let Spotify’s users, musicians, and curators to create their own official playlists together.

Elkins says he first came up with the idea

last fall after brainstorming ways to engage his mostly-Gen Z audience using the Spotify platform. One of the largest music curators on TikTok and Instagram, with 2 million fol-lowers on both platforms combined, making the jump to partner with Spotify officially felt like “a natural progression” for him. It’s one of his first forays into longer form content, and he says, “Spotify is the perfect partner for it because I have already built a substantial following with my personal playlists there.”

While Elkins is best known for recom-mending new songs and interviewing musi-cians, on “Soundtrack Your Day” he will invite public figures outside of the music industry to discuss each week’s theme. One week, for example, Elkins plans to make a beach-y summer playlist to kick off the season, featuring a professional surfer and a few of the surfer’s favorite musicians. For independence day, he hopes to have a popu-lar chef help him make a barbecue-ready playlist.

Inviting other cultural figures and fans into the show is Elkins’ way to provide a fresh take on the traditional artist interview. For “Soundtrack Your Day,” its not about having serious one-on-one conversations centered around a release cycle. He wants artists to relax and talk freely among an audience of fans and talents from all back-grounds. Having non-musical guests is also a nod to Obama’s annual playlists, which have inspired the curator for years. “I love his playlists because Obama isn’t a musician himself, but he’s an influential figure. I know I always want to hear what [the former president] has been listening to.”

The hour-long live show will launch with an introductory episode, starring Elkins, Quinn XCII, Ashe, and influenc-er Connor Wood (@fibula).

IN BRIEF

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/netflix-q1-2022-earnings-1235132028/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/disney-q2-2022-earnings-streaming-1235144837/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/disney-q2-2022-earnings-streaming-1235144837/

https://www.billboard.com/author/kristin-robinson/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/quinn-xcii/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/ashe/

of 44

Brian Tyler Named BMI Icon (and Wins Four Other Awards) at BMI Film, TV and Visual Media AwardsBY PAUL GREIN

Usually, when someone wins a career-capping lifetime achieve-ment award, it comes at the twilight of their career. That’s

not the case for Brian Tyler, who received the top honor – BMI Icon – at the 38th Annual BMI Film, TV and Visual Me-dia Awards while also receiving four regular awards for his scoring work. The awards were held on Tuesday (May 11) at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

It amounted to a slightly belated 50th birthday celebration for Tyler, who hit the big 5-0 on May 8. In addition to the Icon award, Tyler won two BMI theatrical film awards for F9: The Fast Saga and Scream, one streaming film award for Those Who Wish Me Dead, and one cable TV award for Yellowstone. This ups his career total of BMI Awards to 38.

BMI president and CEO Mike O’Neill presented Tyler the BMI Icon accolade, not-ing that he exemplifies the term “rock-star composer.” O’Neill added, “Your outstand-ing music and unique artistry enrich the emotion and stories of the films and shows we love to immerse ourselves in.”

A video tribute followed, in which Justin Baldoni, Jon Chu, DJ Caruso, Taylor Sheri-dan, Sylvester Stallone and others shared their experiences of working with Tyler. As he accepted the honor, Tyler said, “I will look back on this as one of the highlights of my life. It is a privilege to be among you talented and incredible human beings to receive this honor.”

Previous BMI Icon Award recipients include Alan Silvestri, Alexandre Des-plat, James Newton Howard, John Wil-liams and Terence Blanchard.

The event also celebrated 18 first-time BMI Film, TV and Visual Media award recipients including Carlos Rafael Rivera, who received two awards honoring his work on the film The Queen’s Gambit and the TV series Hacks.

Other first-time recipients included Nicholas Britell (Cruella), Alex Lacamoire (Vivo), Tamar-kali (The Lie) and Awkwafina (Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens).

Atli Örvarsson dominated his category – BMI network television awards – with six awards for his work on two franchise hits. He won for Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chi-cago P.D., FBI, FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted.

Other multiple winners included James Newton Howard, Blake Neely, Thomas Newman, Mac Quayle and Atticus Ross.

As previously announced, BMI compos-ers Amy Andersson, Miriam Cutler, Isolde Fair, Penka Kouneva, Starr Parodi and Lolita Ritmanis received the BMI Impact Award. The award recognized their work on the groundbreaking Women Warriors: The Voices of Change project, which celebrates female activists who have fought for human rights and equality over the years.

Andersson wrote, directed and produced the live-to-picture symphony concert and documentary film, which has played on the international festival circuit. The project won a Grammy for best classical compen-dium at the 64th annual Grammy Awards on April 3.

O’Neill and BMI EVP of distribution, pub-lisher relations & administration services, Alison Smith, presented the award.

Upon receiving the award, Andersson said, “As BMI composers and lyricists, we accept this Impact Award with deep honor and a sense of accomplishment and pride.” Parodi added, “Women Warriors was born from a dream and from the deep desire to pay tribute and honor these women whose shoulders we stand on.”

The private ceremony was hosted by O’Neill and BMI senior vice president, cre-ative, Alex Flores.

For a complete list of winners, visit BMI.com.

BURNA BOY’S GLOBAL VISION: TAKING AFRO-FUSION TO THE NEXT LEVELBY HERAN MAMO

Gbese!”

Burna Boy is soaring over the crowd at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome, yelling the Yoruba term

that loosely means “move your legs.” His six-foot-one frame explodes into the air, seemingly powered by enough energy to fuel the Space Drift Tour race car he zoomed onto the stage in earlier. Wearing a blue custom Botter jumpsuit, he looks like some kind of Afro-futurist astronaut, ready to fly even higher.

“He gives his all. And when he comes off [stage], you’ll see him in the dressing room, falling flat out on the floor and shaking,” says his younger sister Ronami Ogulu, who’s also his stylist and creative director. “Then he comes up and we patch him all together and we go again the next day.”

Burna Boy will speak at the inaugu-ral Billboard MusicCon on May 13 at AREA15 in Las Vegas. Get your tickets to the event here.

Three days later, Burna is in South London and decidedly more earthbound, slouched in an antique red leather chair. He takes long, drawn-out puffs from his Backwood, taking care that his denim Off-White ensemble doesn’t turn into a designer ashtray. He speaks in aphorisms, like “It is better to stick with the devils you know” (why he keeps family, including his sister and “momager” Bose Ogulu, on his team) and “I hope for the best and am prepared for the worst” (when he thinks about the future of the African continent). When he laughs, tiny diamond tooth gems glint at the edges

IN BRIEF


https://www.billboard.com/artist/brian-tyler/

https://www.billboard.com/t/bmi-icon/

https://www.billboard.com/t/awards/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/alan-silvestri/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/alexandre-desplat/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/alexandre-desplat/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/james-newton-howard/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/john-williams/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/john-williams/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/terence-blanchard/

https://www.bmi.com/award-shows/film-tv-2022/

https://www.bmi.com/award-shows/film-tv-2022/

https://www.billboard.com/author/heran-mamo/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/burna-boy/

https://www.billboardmusiccon.com/

https://www.billboardmusiccon.com/

https://www.tixr.com/groups/billboardmusiccon/events/billboard-musiccon-41437

of 44

of his kilowatt smile. When he’s finished answering a question, he gestures toward me with his hand and sternly commands, “Proceed.”

Especially for a fellow African who shares his passion for our motherland, an audi-ence with Burna feels a bit like one with a dignitary. And while he may have just flown here from Amsterdam a few nights before, his exhaustion does not take precedence over his calling — his mission — to spread his signature Afro-fusion music all over the world. “It has always been my vision to build a bridge between all Black people in all parts of the world through the music and performance,” he states. “Music is the No. 1 messenger.”

The 30-year-old artist, born Damini Ebu-noluwa Ogulu in Port Harcout, Nigeria, now splits his time between London and Lagos. And as his career gets more globe-spanning, the concept of his homeland seems to only become more and more important to him — and central to his identity as an artist. After pandemic delays, he has finally been touring the songs from his fifth album, Twice as Tall, released nearly two years ago on Atlantic Records/Bad Habit/Warner Music Interna-tional and his own label, Spaceship Collec-tive.

It won the 2021 Grammy Award for best global music album, along with the praise of Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who called the award “a global endorsement for the Afrobeat genre of music that has propelled Nigeria’s increasing dominance of the music world.” And Burna is adamant that his signature “Afro-fusion” sound — a blend of Afrobeats folklore, dancehall riddims, hip-hop swagger, reggae and R&B, all sung in his distinct baritone mix of Yoruba, Eng-lish and pidgin — is leading the way.

“It’s making people who don’t even speak the same language start dancing with each other,” Burna says. Even in his more vulner-able lyrical moments, “you’re dancing to it,” he explains with a hearty laugh. “At that point, it becomes bigger than me.”

Over the last couple of years, Afrobeats has steadily migrated West thanks to cross-over hits like Wizkid and Tems’ Billboard Hot 100 top 10 “Essence” and CKay’s “Love

Nwantiti (ah ah ah),” which became the first-ever No. 1 on Billboard’s new U.S. Af-robeats Songs chart in April. As the genre’s profile has risen abroad, more Afrobeats art-ists have, post-lockdown, embarked on their first U.S. tours, and among that group, Burna has played the biggest stages yet — the kind that can mint superstars. With historic sold-out shows at London’s Wembley Arena and Paris’ Accor Arena already accomplished, he became the first African artist to headline Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl in October 2021. Then in April, he became the first Nigerian act to headline and sell out New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“He’s a fantastic performer. Even though I’ve watched Burna more than 100 times on-stage, I still get excited,” says Osita “Duke” Ugeh, who, as CEO of promoter Duke Concept, has been booking U.S. tours for African acts like Burna for the last decade. (He secured Burna’s first sold-out U.S. show in April 2019 at Harlem’s Apollo Theater — where he again made history as the first Afrobeats artist to sell out the venue.)

But as Ugeh knows well, Burna’s arrival at the Garden was far from preordained. Since founding Duke Concept in 2013, he has struggled to get artists like him into big rooms. “[Production managers and theaters] would be under the assumption that Afro-beats artists cannot sell this number of tick-ets. They didn’t believe in the genre,” Ugeh recalls. In 2019, even as he and Mr. Eazi made history as the first Afrobeats perform-ers to play Coachella, Burna grumbled about the tiny printing of his name on the festival slate. “l am an AFRICAN GIANT,” he wrote on his Instagram story. “I represent a whole Generation of SOLID AFRICAN creatives going Global.”

“We took the stairs,” Bose says, quoting her son’s description of the slow path he was forced to take in the live sector. “We didn’t do any elevators. We spent a lot of time and money planning to go around the world. We ran through the label’s tour support pretty quickly, so we were using money he’s making from shows in other places, particularly in Africa, to bankroll our initial touring. Yes, it has been hard, but there is no way we’re per-forming 16,000- to 20,000-capacity venues when we didn’t start with 3,000.”

Now, as Afrobeats continues to expand its reach, Ugeh says he and his 15-person team are starting to see that reflected in the kind of venues the genre’s artists can play: He has gone from booking two to three U.S. tours for Afrobeats artists a year to booking two to three a month, with Davido, Tiwa Savage, Rema and more scheduled for later this year. A different concert promoter, Cokobar, is helping Burna book shows in the United Kingdom and France. And with both the Bowl and the Garden in the books — as well as recent gigs at the Outside Lands and Governors Ball festivals last year — Burna and his team have their sights set on bigger stages, and more of them. “When the art-ist gives you good music, and gives you a fantastic show, you’re able to sell the artist,” Ugeh says. “Burna puts in the work with his performance, his production.”

When his “One Night in Space” show at the Garden was announced in December, Duke Concept launched a joint venture with Live Nation, expanding upon a relationship that began in 2018, when Burna himself approached the company about a tour deal. He insisted on bringing Ugeh along; subsequently, UTA’s Christian Bernhardt, Burna’s touring agent, introduced Ugeh to Live Nation’s director of touring, Andy Messersmith.

“The deal is a good one because it also gives us access to a lot of their stages across the world, which is what we’re talking about — trying to get the artists in the right rooms,” Ugeh says. “Burna paving the way in the North America arenas shows that it can be done. It makes it easier for every other person coming right behind him to get to that place.”

Selling out the Garden was one kind of history; opening the door for other Afri-can artists to do so could be another huge staircase to climb. But Burna is used to it, and no one’s more confident in his abilities than he is. “It’s like I’m better at [perform-ing] than making music. And that says a lot because I’m really good at making music,” he says with a loud laugh, the gems on his teeth sparkling. “You see how with Christ, there’s B.C. and A.D.? I feel like that’s how it is for me with performing. There’s going to be a ‘Before Burna Came’ and ‘After Burna’s

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/t/afrobeats/



https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-u-s-afrobeats-songs/

https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-u-s-afrobeats-songs/

of 44

Death’ time period in the performing arts world. That’s my legacy.”

The African Giant stands on the shoul-ders of giants.

Benson Idonije, Burna’s maternal grand-father and one of Nigeria’s most widely respected music critics, was the first band manager for Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. Growing up, Bose witnessed her father’s relationship with Kuti, the first artist to combine American jazz and funk, Ghanaian highlife and Yoruba chanting and drumming with unabashedly political lyrics addressing the reality of life in his home country.

“The one thing that stuck out to me was, here was this man with so much talent, but he didn’t have a clue about how to manage his business,” Bose recalls. “When things weren’t working, the band members didn’t go to [Kuti], they came to my dad.” Long after he stopped managing Kuti, she recalls, the singer would still call Idonije to play him new music or for help if he was in trouble. “It was clear to me that a manager plays a big role in an artist’s life,” Bose continues. “And it was also clear to me that a manager has to be someone that the artist respects.”

Bose, known to her son’s fans as “Mama Burna,” has managed Burna since “before he gave himself a stage name” and in 2015 co-founded a label, Spaceship Entertainment, with him. (Her daughter Nissi — a musician and animation artist she also manages — is signed to it.) Launched as a one-stop shop for Burna, she expanded the label to its current incarnation as Spaceship Collective, a home for both artists and producers that recently added a publishing division.

For Bose, launching the company was not only about ownership of Burna’s business, but of his inherently African personal nar-rative, too. “I strongly believe that African music is born out of our everyday life — our woes, our tears, our joys, our celebrations, our problems — and no one is able to tell the story better than us,” she says. That attitude rules how Burna’s sister Ronami runs his creative endeavors, too. She helped him se-cure a 120-piece collection with U.K. fashion retailer boohooMan in 2020, featuring odes to the green-and-white Nigerian flag, and a spot in Calvin Klein’s spring 2022 campaign alongside Vince Staples, Solange and Domi-

nic Fike — something Ronami says Burna would never have done two years ago, when he wasn’t comfortable being “some sort of spectacle” offstage. But after starting to attend fashion shows with her, she says her brother has taken an interest in everything from “talking about fabrics and buttons” to “modeling a product” — always, of course, on their own terms. “Even when they come to us, if we’re not able to do [that], then it’s not worth it,” she says.

“They operate as a family, but they’re focused on building a legacy. They’re pre-serving that legacy to push African music globally, and that’s what I love and support,” says Jason Johnson, vp of marketing and brand strategy at streaming platform Au-diomack, which has the biggest footprint on the continent among Western digital service providers (DSPs) and is the No. 1 free music app on Apple’s App Store in Nigeria. John-son and the team have worked closely with Burna’s to amplify his streaming presence through playlisting and editorial projects — like a Trap Symphony performance with a string, piano and percussion ensemble and a “Burna Comics” pop-up in Brooklyn to promote Twice as Tall. Backstage at the Hollywood Bowl last fall, Johnson pre-sented Burna with a plaque celebrating his 300 million-plus streams on Audiomack, where Johnson says he is “one of the biggest global artists.” (He’s now up to over half a billion streams.)

It was 2017 when Matthew “Baus” Ade-suyan — the Nigerian American co-founder of Atlantic Records imprint Bad Habit — heard Burna on a PartyNextDoor playlist and became determined to sign him and bring his music to a wider audience. The same year, Burna had signed to Warner Music International for territories outside Africa. “What we could definitely do was run our own business in Africa, so we took that out of every deal we made,” Bose says, “so that we could control that side of the narrative.” Adesuyan, who acts as Burna’s main A&R representative, now describes Bad Habit as “the center” of a 50/50 joint venture: The imprint handles all aspects of the album creation process for Burna while Atlantic and Warner act as global marketing partners.

As his profile continues to expand far beyond the continent, Burna has re-corded with artists outside the Afrobeats world — like Ed Sheeran on the Stormzy-assisted “Own It,” his first U.K. No. 1, and Justin Bieber, whose Justice: Triple Chucks Deluxe he’s featured on (and for which he therefore also received a 2022 Grammy album of the year nomination).

Still, he’ll only jump on a remix if he feels it’s in the larger service of his Pan-Africanist manifesto. When the 2019 gospel-tinged house anthem “Jerusalema,” by South Af-rican musicians Master KG and Nomcebo, was rereleased in 2020 — sparking a global TikTok dance challenge — Burna recorded his verse in one of South Africa’s official languages, isiZulu. “You have to know who you’re speaking to,” he says. “Some people don’t want to speak to the whole world. Some people want to speak to certain parts of the world.”

On Twice as Tall, Burna intended to speak to the whole world — and he did so in all of the languages he grew up speaking. Execu-tive-produced by Sean “Diddy” Combs and Bose, its themes double down on Burna’s Pan-Africanist principles and lean further into Kuti’s “music has to be for revolution” mandate, with Timbaland and Burna’s child-hood favorite, Naughty by Nature, making appearances. Twice as Tall reached No. 1 on the World Albums chart and debuted at No. 54 on the all-genre Billboard 200, approximately 50 spots higher than its pre-decessor, African Giant.

That leap is an impressive one, albeit indicative of the robust U.S. audience Burna is still working to build on the radio and streaming services — not that that worries him. Recording music is “more therapy than business — it’s business second,” he says, before admitting, “You can only say that if you have money. I’ve got the money. It’s not about that for me. It’s about that for my mom and my sister, though. That’s why we have arguments when it’s time to release stuff, because I just want to do what I want to do. And sometimes what I want to do is not the best thing for business.” (That side of things, Bose says, is left to “the marketing team, the whatever team, and above all, we leave it to God.”)

IN BRIEF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYwbGaSurCQ

https://www.billboard.com/charts/world-albums/


of 44

And the next stage Burna wants to con-quer may, in fact, not be a stage at all. “My dream venues, other than all the stadiums in the world, are unorthodox, like a theme park or a f–king train station,” he says, imag-ining what that would look like: “A concert in a big-ass train station, and there’s no trains and the whole tracks are filled with people. I just want to do weird sh-t like that for my own pleasure.”

His publicist interjects to gauge whether Burna wants to speak about his upcom-ing sixth album; he looks at me and says I haven’t asked him about it, waiting for my direct query. As always, the world comes to Burna — so I ask. He waits a beat before revealing that it’s called Love, Damini and due on his birthday, July 2.

“That’s how I like to sign all my letters, because I didn’t know the proper [signoff ],” he says of the title with a chuckle. “It’s a bit personal [because] it’s bringing you into my head on my birthday — when you turn 31 and ain’t got no kids, everything is going good and bad at the same time. You reflect and then you get as lit as possible. Then you sleep and wake up and reflect again. I’m re-flecting on everything — what I’m doing and what’s happening where I’m from. Where I’m from is a part of where I’m going.”

This story originally appeared in the May 14, 2022, issue of Billboard.

Young Thug Denied Release From Jail On New Charges Over Guns, DrugsBY BILL DONAHUE

Young Thug was denied release from Atlanta jail Wednesday on new charges over drugs and illegal firearms, complicating ef-

forts to free the rapper while he awaits trial in a more sweeping case against dozens of alleged gang members.

Court records show that a Fulton County judge denied bond over the new charges, which were tacked onto Young Thug’s rap sheet based on items found in his home dur-ing his arrest on Monday. The new counts include possession of drugs and unidentified illegal guns, such as a machine gun.

The chart-topping rapper, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, has not yet had such a bond hearing in the separate, more sweeping case unveiled Monday. That case accuses the rapper – and dozens of others – of conspiracy to violate the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organi-zations Act through alleged involvement in violent street gang called Young Slime Life.

It’s unclear where the decision leaves Young Thug’s efforts to avoid jail while awaiting trial. The new charges are techni-cally separate from the RICO case, and it’s not clear whether the judge overseeing the newer charges would change his mind if Young Thug is later granted bond in the big-ger case. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the original 88-page indictment re-leased Monday, prosecutors claimed Young Thug, Gunna and 26 others were alleged members YSL committed a wide-range of crimes over the past decade, including mur-der, carjacking, armed robbery, drug dealing and illegal firearm possession. Prosecutors say the group wrought “havoc” in Atlanta over the past decade.

In particular, the indictment claims that Young Thug rented a car that was used in the 2015 drive-by shooting that killed 26-year-old Donovan Thomas and wounded two others. The case also alleges that other YSL members sought permission from Young Thug before they attempted to mur-der rival rapper YFN Lucci in prison.

Young Thug was arrested on Monday. Gunna was booked in jail Wednesday morning. Other alleged YSL members have also been arrested, but a number have still not been taken into custody.

Young Thug’s attorney has said that his client “committed no crime whatsoever” and would strongly fight the charges. Attorneys for Gunna have said the rapper is “innocent” and that the indictment “falsely portrays his music as part of criminal conspiracy.”

‘Intensely Problematic’: Gunna’s Lawyers Blast DA For Citing Rap LyricsBY BILL DONAHUE

Attorneys for Gunna are sharply criticizing Atlanta prosecutors for using the rapper’s lyrics as evidence against him, calling it

“intensely problematic” and warning that it could lead to criminal charges against “any artist with a song referencing violence.”

Gunna, whose real name is Sergio Kitch-ens, was charged in Monday’s sweeping indictment against Young Thug and dozens of other alleged members of the gang Young Slime Life. They stand accused of violat-ing the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by running a gang that wrought “havoc” on Atlanta for a decade.

Like the charges against Young Thug, the allegations against Gunna were filled with references to his music – like the line “watch me whack that bitch, pop em like a cyst, Glock with the assist.” Prosecutors say such statements were “an overt act” that contributed to the overall RICO conspiracy.

But in a motion filed Wednesday seeking to have Gunna released from jail ahead of trial, his attorneys blasted the Atlanta DA for including such lyrics in the charges, say-ing they were “not part of a RICO conspira-cy but are entertainment.”

“It is intensely problematic that the State relies on song lyrics as part of its al-legations,” his attorneys from the law firm Garland Samuel & Loeb PC wrote in their filing. “These lyrics are an artist’s creative expression and not a literal recounting of facts and circumstances. Under the State’s theory, any artist with a song referencing violence could find herself the victim of a RICO indictment.”

Gunna’s attorneys are not alone in such

IN BRIEF



https://www.billboard.com/author/bill-donahue/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/young-thug/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/young-thug/

https://www.billboard.com/t/atlanta/

https://www.billboard.com/business/legal/young-thug-charged-seven-more-felonies-rico-indictment-1235069840/

https://www.billboard.com/business/legal/young-thug-indictment-quotes-lyrics-controversial-1235069258/


https://www.billboard.com/business/legal/gunna-arrested-custody-atlanta-criminal-case-1235069590/

https://www.billboard.com/business/legal/gunna-arrested-custody-atlanta-criminal-case-1235069590/

https://www.billboard.com/author/bill-donahue/

http://billboard.com/artist/gunna

https://www.billboard.com/t/atlanta/



https://www.billboard.com/pro/rap-lyrics-cited-court-criminal-evidence-legislation/

of 44

criticism. The use of rap lyrics as criminal evidence has become increasingly contro-versial in recent years, over concerns that the tactic threatens free speech and unfairly sways juries. Though courts have largely upheld the use of music in the courtroom, a proposed law in New York championed by Jay-Z and Meek Mill would sharply limit the practice in that state.

Beyond pushing back on the use of lyrics, Gunna’s attorneys also argued Wednesday that he should be released because the single charge against him was “so thin as to be transparent.”

“There is no allegation that he commit-ted any act of violence. There is no allega-tion that he ever sold any drugs,” Gunna’s lawyers wrote. “The few ‘overt acts’ in the indictment that mention Mr. Kitchens mostly describe non-criminal conduct such as quoting song lyrics.”

A bond hearing for Gunna has not yet been set, and it could be days or even weeks before a judge decides whether to release him. A hearing has also not yet been set for Young Thug, but a judge denied him release Wednesday in a separate case over drugs and guns found at his house.

Casanova Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy & Marijuana Charge, Hopeful ‘Court Will Accept His Remorse’BY DARLENE ADEROJU

On Wednesday (May 11), Ca-sanova pleaded guilty to two counts — for racketeering and marijuana conspiracies — after

his alleged involvement with a gang.

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, claims that Casanova (né Caswell Senior) played a “leadership role in the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation Bloods Gang (‘Gorilla Stone’) in Westchester County, New York City and Florida.” As part of his racketeer-ing conspiracy offense, Casanova admitted to his involvement in a 2018 robbery at a Manhattan diner and a 2020 shooting in Miami following a “gambling dispute.” He was allegedly affiliated with the gang, which is described as “particularly violent,” from 2004 to December 2020.

Senior’s attorney James Kousouros tells Billboard, “Mr. Senior pled guilty to the racketeering conspiracy and in that regard he admitted to selling marijuana and a rob-bery in which he took a phone from a lady who refused to stop filming him. He deleted the videos and returned the phone to her. He is sincerely sorry for his involvement in this case and hopes that the Court will accept his remorse and positive plans for the future. Mr. Senior has every intention of giving back to the community in a positive way.”

Williams said in a statement, “Like 12 of his co-defendants, Caswell Senior, an ac-complished recording artist and performer, now stands convicted of playing a leader-ship role in Gorilla Stone, a particularly violent Bloods gang that operates through-out New York and across the country. In addition to his supervisory role, Senior was an active, hands-on participant in the gang’s senseless violence, including a shooting in Miami and contributing to a robbery at a Manhattan diner.”

Senior is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern on the morning of Dec. 6.

Prior to his guilty plea, Casanova was poised for success in his music career. He peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s Next Big Sound chart in 2019 after the release of his album Behind These Scars. Chatting with Billboard at the time, Casanova was hopeful for the future and excited that his music was being recognized globally.

“I go out to these different places overseas and they recognize who I am, I’m shocked,” he said then. “Like right now I’m by myself

and people can walk right by. But when you’re out in London by yourself and they call out your name it’s amazing and I love it. I think that’s because I’m beginning to travel more and people are getting to know who I am now more than ever.”

Per a statement from the DOJ, the maximum prison sentence for Senior’s charges is 60 years.

Trevor Strnad, Vocalist for The Black Dahlia Murder, Dead at 41BY RANIA ANIFTOS

Trevor Strnad, the vocalist for influential metal band The Black Dahlia Murder, has died. He was 41 years old.

The band announced the news via a social media statement on Wednesday (May 11). “It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Trevor Scott Strnad,” the statement reads. “Beloved son, brother, and Shepard of good times, he was loved by all that met him. A walking encyclopedia of all things music. He was a hugger, a writer, and truly one of the world’s greatest entertain-ers. His lyrics provided the world with stories and spells and horror and whimsy. It was his life to be your show.”

The statement concluded with the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255.

Strnad formed the Michigan-based metal band back in 2000, naming the group after the infamous 1947 unsolved murder of actress Elizabeth Smart. The Black Dahlia Murder released a demo album, What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse, in 2001, and after releasing a string of EPs, they signed label Metal Blade Records and dropped their studio debut, Unhallowed in 2003. The group went on to release eight more albums, the most recent being 2020’s Verminous.

IN BRIEF

https://www.billboard.com/pro/rap-lyrics-cited-court-criminal-evidence-legislation/

https://www.billboard.com/author/darlene-aderoju/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/casanova/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/casanova/

https://www.billboard.com/t/casanova/

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/recording-artist-gang-leader-pleads-guilty-racketeering-and-narcotics-trafficking

https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/casanova-behind-these-scars-interview-8541745/

https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/casanova-behind-these-scars-interview-8541745/

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/recording-artist-gang-leader-pleads-guilty-racketeering-and-narcotics-trafficking

https://www.billboard.com/author/raniftosbbthr-com/

http://billboard.com/music/the-black-dahlia-murder

http://billboard.com/music/the-black-dahlia-murder

of 44

IN BRIEF

The Black Dahlia Murder had previously announced plans to tour later this year, including a May 20 show as part of Daytona Beach, Florida’s Welcome to Rockville Festi-val. The group has yet to reveal any updates on their upcoming live shows.

Eurovision Has Long Struggled, With Varying Success, to Hold a Politics-Free Song ContestBY FRED BRONSON

The European Broadcasting Union has long mandated that politics should be kept out of the Eurovi-sion Song Contest. The policy has

not always worked.While Eurovision officials have tried to

create an inclusive vibe at the event — Euro-vision “is about unity around values, not di-vision through politics,” Martin Österdahl, the song contest’s executive supervisor tells Billboard — politics have nevertheless crept into the event, at which more than 40 countries participate.

Sometimes the political spats have focused on an internal matter, such as song lyrics, and sometimes they involve an external situation outside of the contest, like when one country’s song was used as a coded signal for a military coup.

This year’s event in Turin, Italy, has not been an exception. One day after invading Ukraine — the largest conflict in Europe since World War II — Russia was banned from the 2022 contest by the EBU, which expressed concern that Russia “would bring the competition into disre-pute,” says Österdahl.

Russia suspended its membership in the EBU one day later, on Feb. 26, saying that “broadcasters see Russia’s withdrawal from the competition as an ‘inappropriate

political sacrifice’ in a music forum that has always emphasized its non-political status.”

With the song contest now underway, and Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra still the odds-makers favorite to win it all, Billboard looked at other political skirmishes over the con-test’s 66-year history.

1974: A Portuguese Military CoupIn 1974 – the same year

that ABBA claimed victory for Sweden with “Waterloo” – the Portuguese entry, “E Depois Do Adeus” by Paulo de Carvalho, tied for last place. Exactly 18 days later, at 10:55 p.m. local time, a Lisbon radio station played the song as a coded signal to military forces to begin a coup that would topple the country’s authoritarian government.

2000: Reconciliation Over CyprusOn July 24, 1974, Turkish military forces

invaded Cyprus, ultimately occupying a portion of Northern Cyprus. Some 26 years later, in May of 2000, delegations from Cyprus and Turkey were staying in the same hotel in Stockholm for that year’s Eurovi-sion when one afternoon members of both delegations found themselves in the lobby at the same time.

“I remember a deep yearning to connect with my Turkish colleagues,” Alex Pan-ayi, a Cypriot singer, recalls. Panayi had sung for Cyprus in the 1995 contest and he and Christina Argyri were representing Cyprus in 2000 as the duo Voice. Pinar Ayhan was singing for Turkey.

“Dr. Sühan Ayhan, the composer of the Turkish entry, had his guitar in hand and started playing a popular Greek song,” Pan-ayi says. “And then like magic, Pinar and I and everyone else burst into song and dance in the lobby of the hotel. They knew our songs! We ended up in each other’s arms, sobbing, trying to heal the wounds of the lost generation of the war. It felt like I had been reunited with my long-lost family.

“I truly hope the wounds of the tragic Russian invasion of Ukraine don’t have to last as long as they have in Cyprus which, 48 years later, is still under Turkish occupa-tion.”

2005: Lebanon Is Denied Its Debut Over Anti-Israeli Action

In its more than six-decade history, Euro-vision has consistently added new countries

to the list of participating nations. Lebanon was set to make its debut in 2005. Aline La-houd was chosen to represent her country with “Quand Tout S’enfuit.” In December 2004, Lebanon announced it was withdraw-ing because of financial considerations, but five days later the country came to an agree-ment with the EBU that would allow them to participate.

There was another stumbling block. The state-owned broadcaster, Télé Liban, was planning not to air the Israeli entry due to Lebanese law prohibiting the airing of Israeli content on the government station. That violated EBU rules and Lebanon was forced to withdraw, with a three-year ban. Lebanon has never returned to the contest. Lebanese-born artist Mika. who wanted to represent his country in 2008, has been named one of the three hosts for the 2022 competition in Italy.

2019: Iceland Is Fined For Promoting Palestine

In 2019, Iceland sent the techno/punk rock band Hatari to Eurovision. Known for their pro-Palestinian stance, the group had spoken about “Israeli occupation” and were warned by the EBU not to bring their politi-cal sentiments to the contest. Jon Ola Sand, then-executive supervisor of the contest, told them that if they did they would be disqualified.

Hatari did not make any political state-ments during their performance. But during the reporting of the votes, when cameras found them in the green room, they held up the flag of Palestine. The EBU fined the Icelandic broadcaster, RÚV, 5,000 euros ($5,260).

2021: Belarus Struggles to Find a Non-Political Song

For the 2021 contest, Belarus’ entry was a song by the band Galasy ZMesta which mocked protests against the country’s au-thoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko. The EBU said the song, “Ya nauchu tebya” (I’ll Teach You), “puts the non-political nature of the contest in question.”

The EBU asked Belarus to rewrite the lyr-ics or submit a different song. Lukashenko also made it known that he wanted the Be-larusian state broadcaster to submit a differ-ent song. Galasy ZMesta submitted another

https://www.billboard.com/author/fred-bronson/

https://www.billboard.com/pro/russia-ukraine-invasion-eurovision-rivals/

https://www.billboard.com/pro/russia-ukraine-invasion-eurovision-rivals/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/kalush-orchestra/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/abba/

of 44

IN BRIEF

song — “Pesnya pro zaytsev” (Song About Hares) — but the EBU also considered it too political for mentioning the opposition forces in Belarus and for an alleged homo-phobic reference, which the band claimed was merely ironic.

The EBU suspended Belarus’ member-ship and they were asked to respond to stay in Eurovision. When no response came, the EBU expelled Belarus.

ATL Jacob Tops Hot 100 Producers Chart, Thanks to Hits from Future’s ‘I Never Liked You’BY XANDER ZELLNER

ATL Jacob hits No. 1 on Bill-board‘s Hot 100 Producers chart (dated May 14), reigning as the top producer in the U.S. for the

first time, thanks to his work on Future‘s new No. 1 LP, I Never Liked You.

ATL Jacob (real name: Jacob Canady) produced or co-produced nine charting hits on the latest Billboard Hot 100, all from Fu-ture’s new set, which launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 as Future’s eighth leader. Leading the album’s Hot 100 haul, “Wait for U,” featuring Drake and Tems, soars in at No. 1. The song, which ATL Jacob co-pro-duced with production duo FnZ (Michael “Finatik” Mule and Isaac “Zac” DeBoni), is the first Hot 100 No. 1 for ATL Jacob and FnZ in any role.

With the track, Future scores his sec-ond Hot 100 – and his first as a lead artist – Drake adds his milestone 10th and Tems achieves her first.

Also contributing to ATL Jacob’s chart coronation is his work on Kodak Black’s “Super Gremlin,” at No. 16 (after reaching No. 3 in March), and Lil Baby’s “Right On,” at No. 52 (after hitting No. 13).

Here’s a recap of ATL Jacob’s production credits on the latest Hot 100:

Hot 100 Rank, Artist Billing Title (co-producers in addition to ATL Jacob) No. 1, Future feat. Drake & Tems, “Wait for U” (FnZ) No. 12, Future, “Love You Better” (FnZ, Jayla Darden) No. 15, Future feat. Kanye West, “Keep It Burnin” No. 16, Kodak Black, “Super Gremlin” No. 20, Future, “Massaging Me” No. 24, Future feat. Gunna & Young Thug, “For a Nut” No. 45, Future, “We Jus Wanna Get High” (Southside) No. 46, Future, “Holy Ghost” No. 52, Lil Baby, “Right On”

ATL Jacob has been a steady hitmaker on Billboard‘s charts since 2018. He debuted on the Hot 100 as the sole producer of Meek Mill’s “Splash Warning,” featuring Future, Roddy Ricch and Young Thug, in December 2018 (No. 77 peak). He’s upped his count to 21 entries as producer or co-producer, including the No. 1 “Wait for U” and “Super Gremlin,” his other top 10.

ATL Jacob concurrently ranks at No. 2 on the Hot 100 Songwriters chart, as he’s also credited as a writer on all nine tracks listed above.

Future returns to No. 1 on Hot 100 Song-writers for a third total week on top, thanks to 18 entries on the Hot 100, all of which he co-wrote. Here’s a rundown (with all debuts on the chart, except where noted):

Hot 100 Rank, Title No. 1, “Wait for U,” feat. Drake & Tems No. 4, “Puffin on Zootiez” No. 8, “712PM” No. 10, “I’m Dat N***a” No. 11, “I’m on One,” feat. Drake No. 12, “Love You Better” No. 15, “Keep It Burnin,” feat. Ye No. 20, “Massaging Me” No. 24, “For a Nut,” feat. Gunna & Young Thug No. 26, “Chickens,” feat. EST GeeNo. 29, “Gold Stacks” No. 39, “Voodoo,” feat. Kodak Black No. 45, “We Jus Wanna Get High” No. 46, “Holy Ghost” No. 58, “Back to the Basics” No. 60, “The Way Things Going” No. 68, “Pushin P,” with Gunna & feat.

Young Thug (down from No. 53; peaked at No. 7) No. 76, “Me or Sum,” with Nardo Wick & Lil Baby (down from No. 66; peaked at No. 58)

The weekly Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and produc-er, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on the Hot 100; plus, genre-based songwriter and producer charts follow the same methodology based on correspond-ing “Hot”-named genre charts. As with Bill-board‘s yearly recaps, multiple writers or producers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to oc-casional ties on rankings).

The full Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts, in addition to the full genre rankings, can be found on Billboard.com.

Lorde Launches Curated Sonos StationBY LARS BRANDLE

Lorde’s journey from Auckland, New Zealand to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks is just one, important leg in the

singer’s success story.There’s much more in the memory banks,

which the Kiwi star cracks open for a new curated station, through a collaboration with Sonos.

Available now for no cost on Sonos Ra-dio, Lorde takes a stroll down memory lane for SOLARSYSTYM, and recounts some of the starting points in music career, from her school bus CDs, emptying her piggy-bank for Drake’s “Take Care,” and the inspiration of such songs as ABBA’s “S.O.S”.

The new station is a soundtrack to every-thing Lorde, “covering zits, trying to feel my feelings, or now at 25. It’s a crazy collec-tion,” she explains in a statement.

To celebrate the station launch, Lorde will share a special “Radio Hour” episode next Wednesday, May 18, during which she’ll chat with host Elia Einhorn on her

https://www.billboard.com/author/xander-zellner/

https://www.billboard.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/05-14-22-SP-online-bulletin.pdf

https://www.billboard.com/artist/future

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fmusic%2Fchart-beat%2Ffuture-i-never-liked-you-number-one-billboard-200-chart-1235068356%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cxander.zellner%40billboard.com%7Cadc1ff9fe2e24d7d9b9e08da335ee53a%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637878779918305087%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=dsE5ZmnXmfgDwOO7Du41mo7dCwh1ozMkG6LvKigBNOE%3D&reserved=0


https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fmusic%2Fchart-beat%2Ffuture-drake-tems-wait-for-u-hot-100-chart-debut-1235068559%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cxander.zellner%40billboard.com%7Cadc1ff9fe2e24d7d9b9e08da335ee53a%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637878779918305087%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Ne5OTQzKTgKS%2FRgiuq4bR9zk1LG%2F4TBedGlAfY%2BqU8g%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fmusic%2Fchart-beat%2Ffuture-drake-tems-wait-for-u-hot-100-chart-debut-1235068559%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cxander.zellner%40billboard.com%7Cadc1ff9fe2e24d7d9b9e08da335ee53a%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637878779918305087%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Ne5OTQzKTgKS%2FRgiuq4bR9zk1LG%2F4TBedGlAfY%2BqU8g%3D&reserved=0

https://www.billboard.com/author/lars-brandle/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/lorde/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/lorde/

https://www.billboard.com/t/sonos/

https://www.billboard.com/t/sonos-radio/

https://www.billboard.com/t/sonos-radio/

https://www.mixcloud.com/sonos/solarsystym-curated-by-lorde-exclusively-on-sonos-radio/

of 44

IN BRIEF

influences and how her relationship with the natural world has been “a perspective shifter, mood booster, and equalizer in my life.”

Lorde’s music career has been stuffed with highlights, from a months-long reign at No. 1 in the U.S. with “Royals”, a leader on the Billboard 200 with her 2017 sophomore album Melodrama, to a brace of Grammy Awards, and having the honor of performing a tribute to David Bowie at the 2016 BRIT Awards. She’s even found the time for a Instagram side-hustle, with her “onion rings worldwide” account.

Her third and most recent album, 2021’s Solar Power, debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, and No. 2 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart.

The Sonos Radio station is “a collection of forms, gravitationally bound. A handful of planets, dozens more dwarf planets, and countless little rocks. All orbiting, all reflect-ing the light from a sun, these are the forms that have altered my course — for better… and otherwise,” she comments.

“Everything from the tunes my parents pulled from their super sick CD tower to the songs I ripped off YouTube as a pimply teen to the records I include in full because they were that shapeshifting for me as a thinker and feeler. This cluster of celestial bodies will tell you who I am, not who I’m trying to be, but how it really is in here. It’s all in the SOLARSYSTYM.”

Lorde’s Solar Power world tour kicks off May 25 with a sold-out show at the O2 Academy in Leeds, England.

Kehlani’s ‘Road’ Extends Top-Five Streak on Top R&B Albums ChartBY TREVOR ANDERSON

Kehlani extends her perfect top-five streak on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart as Blue Wa-ter Road debuts at No. 3 on the

list dated May 14. The set, released on April 29 through Tsunami Mob/Atlantic Records, began with 22,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending May 5, according to Luminate.

15,500 of Road’s 22,000 first-week units derive from streaming, equating to 20.2 million U.S. official on-demand streams of the album’s songs. Just over 6,000 units are from traditional album sales, and the re-maining sum come through track-equivalent album units. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 in-dividual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.)

As mentioned, Road continues Kehlani’s unbroken run in the top five of Top R&B Al-bums. Here’s an updated look at her history on the chart:

Album Title, Peak Position, Peak DateYou Should Be Here, No. 2, May 16, 2015SweetSexySavage, No. 1 (one week), Feb.

18, 2017While We Wait, No. 1 (one week), March

9, 2019It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, No. 1 (one

week), May 23, 2020Blue Water Road, No. 3 (to date), May 14,

2022Elsewhere, Road debuts at No. 8 on Top

R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and at No. 13 on the all-genre Billboard 200.

As Road arrives, three of its songs debut on the Hot R&B Songs chart. “Everything” leads the first-timers at No. 17, “Any Given Sunday,” featuring Blxst, follows at No.

22, and “Wish I Never” starts at No. 23. In addition to the new entries, two more of the album’s songs appear on the list. “Up at Night,” featuring Justin Bieber, rallies 21-14 to come one rank below its previous peak, while “Little Story” returns at No. 25 after having peaked at No. 17.

Beyond the Road tracks, Kehlani also claims one more spot on Hot R&B Songs with “Beautiful Lies,” her collaboration with Yung Bleu. The song dips 12-13 in its 29th week on the list and peaked at No. 5 in March.

Thanks to the three debuts, Kehlani climbs to 40 career entries on Hot R&B Songs. She ranks second among female artists for the most chart hits since the list began, trailing only Summer Walker and her 41 appearances. The Weeknd leads all acts with 71 placements.

Jelly Roll Racks Up First Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1 With ‘Dead Man Walking’BY KEVIN RUTHERFORD

Jelly Roll garners his first leader on a Billboard radio ranking – after he first hit Billboard‘s charts in 2011 – as “Dead Man Walking” hits No. 1 on

the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart dated May 14.

The song brings the artist born Jason DeFord to the chart’s summit with his first entry on the tally.

Jelly Roll is the third soloist to crown Mainstream Rock Airplay in 2022, follow-ing Nita Strauss and David Draiman, who co-led with “Dead Inside” for three weeks beginning in January. Comparatively, just one act topped the chart as a lead artist in 2021: Ayron Jones, with “Mercy.”

The three soloists reigning as lead acts

https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/lorde-onion-ring-instagram-page-9503996/

https://www.billboard.com/t/solarsystym/

https://www.lorde.co.nz/tour

https://www.billboard.com/author/trevor-andersonbillboard-com/



https://www.billboard.com/charts/r-and-b-albums/

https://www.billboard.com/charts/r-and-b-albums/

https://www.billboard.com/charts/r-b-hip-hop-albums/

https://www.billboard.com/charts/r-b-hip-hop-albums/


https://www.billboard.com/charts/r-and-b-songs/

https://www.billboard.com/author/kevin-rutherfordbillboard-com/

https://www.billboard.com/music/jelly-roll

https://www.billboard.com/music/jelly-roll

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-mainstream-rock-tracks

https://www.billboard.com/music/nita-strauss

https://www.billboard.com/music/david-draiman

https://www.billboard.com/music/ayron-jones

of 44

IN BRIEF

in 2022 mark the most for Mainstream Rock Airplay in a single year (by songs new to No. 1 in that calendar year) since 1998, when Lenny Kravitz ruled with “Fly Away” and Jimmy Page and Robert Plant teamed up on “Most High.” (Though not technically a soloist, Kenny Wayne Shepherd also led that year with “Blue on Black” as part of his eponymous Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band.)

Jelly Roll’s “Walking” additionally steps 31-30 on Alternative Airplay, where it’s also Jelly Roll’s first appearance. The track jumps 9-6 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 3.2 million in audience, up 1%, accord-ing to Luminate.

On the multi-metric Hot Rock & Alter-native Songs list, “Walking” ranks at No. 33, a week after reaching No. 32. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 750,000 official U.S. streams and sold 500 downloads April 29-May 5.

But “Walking” isn’t the only Jelly Roll song currently climbing a Billboard airplay chart. His first Country Airplay entry, “Son of a Sinner,” concurrently bullets at its No. 28 high, up 3% to 4 million impressions. The song also bounds 21-14 on Hot Rock & Al-ternative Songs and 39-33 on Hot Country Songs, with its radio audience joined by 2.5 million streams and 800 sold.

Jelly Roll becomes the first act to have a song simultaneously charting in the top 30 on Country Airplay while reigning on Mainstream Rock Airplay since Brantley Gilbert, who led the latter as a featured art-ist on Five Finger Death Punch‘s cover of the aforementioned “Blue on Black” (along-side Shepherd and Brian May) for five weeks in 2019 while Gilbert’s country single with Lindsay Ell, “What Happens in a Small Town,” was climbing Country Airplay. Before then, Zac Brown Band crowned Mainstream Rock Airplay with the Chris Cornell-featuring “Heavy Is a Head” in 2015 while a pair of its singles, “Homegrown” and “Loving You Easy,” ranked within the top 30 of Country Airplay.

Largely a rapper early in his career, Jelly Roll released his latest album, Ballads of the Broken, last September, fusing hip-hop, rock and country on the set. It’s become his first

release to garner bona fide radio success; he had never appeared on a Billboard airplay survey before “Walking” and, subsequently, “Sinner.”

“Some music’s meant to be heard and some music is meant to be felt,” Jelly Roll recently told Billboard. “Personally, I try to make the kind of music that’s meant to be felt.”

Virlan García Lands First No. 1 at Radio as ‘Híbrido’ Tops Regional Mexican Airplay Chart: ‘I Hope It’s the First of Many!’BY PAMELA BUSTIOS

Virlan García earns his first No. 1 on a Billboard airplay chart thanks to the single “Híbrido,” as the banda-sierreño track lifts

2-1 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart dated May 14.

“Híbrido” became the artist’s highest-charting hit on the list two weeks ago, when it jumped 8-3 (April 30 chart), surpass-ing the No. 4 peak of “Quiero Intentarlo” (February 2019). “Híbrido” is Garcia’s third top 10.

“I’m beyond happy and grateful with my team and label,” García tells Billboard. “We’ve reached the top 10, but never did I score a No. 1, so this is a great satisfaction after so many years. It’s also the result of the support of the people and I hope it’s the first of many No. 1s. I feel blessed and enthusi-astic.”

García’s maiden entry on Regional Mexi-can Airplay arrived in June 2017 with “Cam-bió Mi Suerte” (No. 24 peak). The 24-year-old’s first leader lands almost five years later

thanks to “Híbrido’s” 10% gain in audience impressions, to 6.6 million, earned in the U.S. in the week ending May 8, according to Luminate.

“Híbrido,” released on Sony Music Latin, arrives at the summit in its 13th week, ty-ing for the third-longest climb to No. 1 in 2022. It matches matching La Adictiva’s “Ya Sólo Eres Mi Ex” and Banda El Recodo de Cruz Lizárraga’s “Esta Vida Es Muy Bo-nita’s” 13-week trek. Only two other tracks have taken longer to the hit the top this year: Calibre 50’s “Si Te Pudiera Mentir” (24 weeks) and Angela Aguilar’s “Ahí Donde Me Ven” (19 weeks). On the current chart, García evicts Aguilar’s “Ahí” which falls to No. 9 after a one-week lead.

Notably, García joins just two other acts who scored their first Regional Mexican Air-play champ in 2022: Banda Rancho Viejo de Julio Aramaburú with “Me Vale Perderte” (chart dated April 16-dated) and Maluma with “Cada Quién,” with Grupo Firme (Feb. 5-dated survey).

The norteño singer-songwriter concur-rently scores his best ranking on Latin Airplay, dating back to his first entry in 2018 (“Mi Vida Eres Tú,” No. 24-peak), as “Híbrido” cracks the top 10 mark on all-Latin genre at No. 9.

Meanwhile, the song rises steadily on the all-metric Hot Latin Songs chart (a blend of airplay, streams, and digital sales), where “Híbrido” reaches a No. 27 high mainly on the strength on its radio push.

Doja Cat Earns Historic Hat Trick on Rhythmic Airplay ChartBY TREVOR ANDERSON

Doja Cat scores a historic hat track on Billboard’s Rhythmic Airplay chart (dated May 14) as the first woman with three

simultaneous top 10s all in a lead role. The trio includes the new No. 1 on the list

https://www.billboard.com/music/lenny-kravitz

https://www.billboard.com/music/jimmy-page

https://www.billboard.com/music/robert-plant

https://www.billboard.com/music/kenny-wayne-shepherd

https://www.billboard.com/music/the-kenny-wayne-shepherd-band

https://www.billboard.com/music/the-kenny-wayne-shepherd-band

https://www.billboard.com/charts/alternative-songs

https://www.billboard.com/charts/rock-airplay

https://www.billboard.com/charts/rock-songs

https://www.billboard.com/charts/rock-songs

https://www.billboard.com/charts/country-airplay

https://www.billboard.com/charts/country-songs

https://www.billboard.com/charts/country-songs

https://www.billboard.com/music/brantley-gilbert

https://www.billboard.com/music/brantley-gilbert

https://www.billboard.com/music/five-finger-death-punch

https://www.billboard.com/music/brian-may

https://www.billboard.com/music/lindsay-ell

https://www.billboard.com/music/zac-brown-band

https://www.billboard.com/music/chris-cornell

https://www.billboard.com/music/chris-cornell

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fmusic%2Fcountry%2Fmakin-tracks-jelly-roll-son-of-a-sinner-1235066182%2F&data=05%7C01%7Ckevin.rutherford%40billboard.com%7Cc756d39d29a244e6980e08da34336f6f%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637879692775613072%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ln0mab9DSuSOPxMAJmRRs6KvWYIiyl%2Fjw9aPWoCQ%2FmY%3D&reserved=0

https://www.billboard.com/author/pamela-bustios/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/virlan-garcia/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/virlan-garcia/

https://www.billboard.com/charts/latin-regional-mexican-airplay

https://www.billboard.com/charts/latin-airplay


https://www.billboard.com/charts/latin-songs

https://www.billboard.com/author/trevor-andersonbillboard-com/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/doja-cat/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/doja-cat/

https://www.billboard.com/charts/rhythmic-40/

https://www.billboard.com/charts/rhythmic-40/

of 44

IN BRIEF

“Freaky Deaky,” her latest collaboration with Tyga.

“Freaky” crowns the list in its 10th week on the chart as it advances from No. 3. The single gained 16% in week-over-week plays to become the most-played song at U.S. monitored rhythmic radio stations in the week ending May 8, according to Luminate.

Notably, the “Freaky” ascent aveng-es Tyga and Doja Cat’s prior charted col-laboration “Juicy,” which peaked at No. 2 on Rhythmic Airplay in January 2020.

The new champ is Tyga’s fourth No. 1 on Rhythmic Airplay. It joins these former champs: a featured turn on Chris Brown’s “Loyal” (two weeks at No. 1 in 2014), “Taste,” featuring Offset (four weeks, 2015) and “Chosen,” with Blxst and featuring Ty Dolla $ign (three weeks, 2021).

For Doja Cat, “Freaky” marks her seventh Rhythmic Airplay leader. Here’s an updated look at her collection:

“Say So,” No. 1 for three weeks, beginning April 18, 2020 “Best Friend,” Saweetie feat. Doja Cat, one, April 10, 2021 “Kiss Me More,” featuring SZA, two, June 26, 2021 “You Right,” with The Weeknd, four, Aug. 28, 2021 “Need to Know,” five, Nov. 6, 2021 “Woman,” five, March 26, 2022 “Freaky Deaky,” with Tyga, one (to date), May 14, 2022

With seven No. 1s, Doja Cat ties Mariah Carey for fifth place among women for the most Rhythmic Airplay champs since the chart began in 1992. They trail Rihanna (17), Beyoncé (10), Cardi B and Nicki Minaj (8 each). Overall, Drake leads all artists with 33 No. 1s.

In addition to the new chart-topper, Doja Cat also ranks in the top 10 with two more songs. Former champ “Woman” retreats 4-6 after a 10% drop in weekly plays, while “Get Into It (Yuh)” ascends 13-9 following a 23% gain. Thanks to the trio, Doja Cat becomes the first woman with three simultaneous top 10 hits all in a lead or co-lead role in Rhythmic Airplay history. She is the fourth female act overall with a top 10 triple-play, following Ashanti, Rihanna and Cardi B, though all three predecessors had at least one featured appear-

ance contributing to their achievement.Three concurrent top 10s underscores

Doja Cat’s dominance at the rhythmic for-mat in the past year. “Get Into It” marks the fifth top 10 from the singer/rapper’s Planet Her album, which was released in June 2021. All four prior singles hit No. 1 on the radio ranking, making Doja Cat’s album just the fifth – and only set by a woman – to achieve the feat.

Sofi Tukker Nets Top Dance/Electronic Albums Chart Debut With ‘Wet Tennis’BY GORDON MURRAY

Sofi Tukker serves its way onto Bill-board‘s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart (dated May 14) as Wet Tennis debuts at No. 12. The

set opens with 2,700 equivalent album units earned in the April 29-May 5 tracking week, according to Luminate.

Wet Tennis is Sofi Tukker’s third charted title, after EP Soft Animals (No. 14, 2016) and Treehouse (No. 5, 2018).

On the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electron-ic Songs chart, the duo – Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern – has scored 12 hits, including one top 10, “Best Friend,” featuring NERVO, The Knocks and Alisa Ueno (No. 5, 2018). Tennis has yielded four of those dozen entries: “Sun Came Up,” with John Summit (No. 34, September 2021); “Original Sin” (No. 25, February); “Forgive Me,” with Mahmut Orhan (No. 47, March); and “Summer in New York,” which starts this week (No. 27).

“Summer” sizzles with 590,000 U.S. streams in its opening frame. The song interpolates DNA’s oft-reworked “Tom’s Diner,” featuring Suzanne Vega, a No. 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and a No. 7-peak-ing single on Alternative Airplay in 1990. The song – originally recorded by Vega a

cappella on her 1987 album Solitude Stand-ing – resurged this spring on the LyricFind Global list (No. 1, April 9), helped by An-nenMayKantereit and Giant Rooks’ version, which hit No. 8 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (April 2).

Additionally, Tyga and Doja Cat’s “Freaky Deaky,” the new No. 1 on the Rhythmic Airplay chart, credits Vega as writer, given the song’s similarities to “Tom’s Diner.” The composition about the real-life Tom’s Restaurant in New York (as famously seen during the run of Seinfeld), has also been rei-magined by Fall Out Boy and Britney Spears, among others.

Additionally on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Dxrk darts to its first top 10 with “Rave” (13-9). The track, whose profile has been boosted by TikTok, wins top Stream-ing and Sales Gainer honors, up 37% to 2.1 million official U.S. streams and 25% to 400 downloads sold.

Shifting to the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, Imagine Dragons earn their third top 10 and JID jumps to his first with “En-emy” (14-10). Previously, Imagine Dragons reached tier with “Believer” (No. 10 peak) and “Thunder” (No. 7), both in 2017.

“Enemy,” which recently enjoyed five weeks at its No. 5 high on the Hot 100, ex-cels on the strength of mix show play. (The Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on nearly 80 top 40-formatted reporters.)

Rammstein Notches Third Top Hard Rock Albums No. 1 With ‘Zeit’BY KEVIN RUTHERFORD

Rammstein reigns on Bill-board‘s Top Hard Rock Al-bums chart for the third time thanks to Zeit, which bows atop

the survey dated May 14.

https://www.billboard.com/artist/tyga/

https://www.billboard.com/t/tyga/

https://www.billboard.com/t/doja-cat/

https://www.billboard.com/author/gordon-murraybillboard-com/

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fartist%2Fsofi-tukker%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cgordon.murray%40billboard.com%7C9d86ae60ffe74b7b9cb208da33bb5ed2%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637879177094808225%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=AVgpTKgvk6ipFRx0tVFd1EAczkBdmOwBlcVyrK9KBqY%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fartist%2Fsofi-tukker%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cgordon.murray%40billboard.com%7C9d86ae60ffe74b7b9cb208da33bb5ed2%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637879177094808225%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=AVgpTKgvk6ipFRx0tVFd1EAczkBdmOwBlcVyrK9KBqY%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fcharts%2Fdance-electronic-albums%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cgordon.murray%40billboard.com%7C9d86ae60ffe74b7b9cb208da33bb5ed2%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637879177094808225%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=TQO6KYSXDy%2FyXzzUTG7yu%2FFWGRAwtdGcC4ldx3sxGj4%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fcharts%2Fdance-electronic-albums%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cgordon.murray%40billboard.com%7C9d86ae60ffe74b7b9cb208da33bb5ed2%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637879177094808225%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=TQO6KYSXDy%2FyXzzUTG7yu%2FFWGRAwtdGcC4ldx3sxGj4%3D&reserved=0

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100

https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/doja-cat-top-10-record-rhythmic-airplay-chart-1235069860/

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tomsrestaurant.net%2Fabout-us%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cgordon.murray%40billboard.com%7C9d86ae60ffe74b7b9cb208da33bb5ed2%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637879177094808225%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=8mTmJ5Rcag20qQ7ld7m0z5M7x31F3l%2BRb9uZwhgn1eM%3D&reserved=0

https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tomsrestaurant.net%2Fabout-us%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cgordon.murray%40billboard.com%7C9d86ae60ffe74b7b9cb208da33bb5ed2%7Ce950f25546e44144a778a6ff4f557492%7C0%7C0%7C637879177094808225%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=8mTmJ5Rcag20qQ7ld7m0z5M7x31F3l%2BRb9uZwhgn1eM%3D&reserved=0

https://www.billboard.com/author/kevin-rutherfordbillboard-com/

https://www.billboard.com/music/rammstein

https://www.billboard.com/music/rammstein

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hard-rock-albums

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hard-rock-albums

of 44

IN BRIEF

Zeit arrives with 21,000 equivalent album units earned (17,000 in album sales) in the April 29-May 5 tracking week, according to Luminate.

Rammstein first crowned Top Hard Rock Albums, which began in 2007, in 2009, with the one-week leader Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da. The German band, which formed in 1994, followed with fellow one-frame ruler Rammstein in 2019.

Concurrently, Zeit starts at No. 2 on Top Rock Albums, tying Rammstein’s best rank, first set by Rammstein.

On the all-genre Billboard 200, Zeit ar-rives No. 15, the band’s third top 20 en-try. The group first appeared on the list with Sehnsucht, which peaked at No. 45 in 1998.

Three songs from Zeit also reach the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Hard Rock Songs chart, paced by “Angst,” which debuts at No. 12 with 997,000 official U.S. streams and 500 downloads sold. It’s joined by the re-entries of previously re-leased tracks from the set “Zick Zack” (No. 17; 602,000 streams) and the title track (No. 22; 504,000 streams).

All three songs also place on the Bill-board Global Excl. U.S. chart, at No. 109 (“Angst”), No. 166 (“Zick Zack”) and No. 180 (“Zeit”).

Luis Figueroa Secures Third Top 10 on Tropical Airplay Chart With ‘Todavía Te Espero’BY PAMELA BUSTIOS

Luis Figueroa claims his third top 10 on Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart as his latest single “Todavía Te Espero” jumps 12-10

on the May 14-dated survey.The song, released March 24 via Sony

Music Latin, rises to the upper tier with a 5% boost in audience impressions, to 2.6 million, earned in the U.S. in the week end-ing May 8, according to Luminate.

One of the new voices of the salsa move-ment, Figueroa scored his first No. 1 on Tropical Airplay less than a year ago when his version of the 1993 classic “Hasta El Sol De Hoy” landed at the summit in July 2021.

“Todavía,” which was written by Luis Figueroa and ICON and produced by Motiff, is the first single from Figueroa’s epony-mous upcoming album and follows the Puerto Rican’s second chart entry “Si Tú Me Dices Ven” (No. 6 peak, Oct. 2021).

Elsewhere, the track breaks into the all-Latin genre Latin Airplay chart at No. 45, also his third career entry there.

ENHYPEN Bows at No. 1, Official HIGE DANdism Holds at No. 2 on Japan Hot 100BY BILLBOARD JAPAN

ENHYPEN’s “Tamed-Dashed” rules this week’s Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated May 11, hitting No. 1 for sales with 386,142 copies sold

in its first week.The lead track off the seven-member

multinational boy band’s second single in Japan ruled this week’s tally powered by physical sales, while also coming in at No. 10 for look-ups, No. 6 for Twitter mentions, No. 20 for downloads, No, 32 for streaming, and No. 49 for video views. The single sold about 150,000 more copies than the group’s previous release, indicating the expansion of its core fanbase.

Meanwhile, Official HIGE DANdism’s “Mixed Nuts” holds at No. 2 for the third consecutive week. The SPYxFAMILY theme dominates downloads and streaming this week, the former with 19,062 units (up from 17,487 last week) and the latter with 9,145,511

weekly streams (up from 8,587,467). The new girl group LE SSERAFIM —

consisting of four South Korean and two Japanese members — debuts at No. 9 with “FEARLESS,” the title track of its first mini-album. One of the Japanese members is Sakura Miyawaki, formerly of HKT48 and IZ*ONE, and her debut from a group formed by HYBE — home of BTS — created quite a stir in her home country. The track launches in the top 10 after coming in at No. 12 for downloads, No. 11 for streaming, No. 4 for video, No. 29 for Twitter, and No. 67 for radio, and how it continues to perform on the charts in the coming weeks is worth watching.

The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, Twitter mentions, YouTube and GYAO! video views, Gracenote look-ups and karaoke data.

Check out the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from May 2 to 8, here.

https://www.billboard.com/charts/rock-albums

https://www.billboard.com/charts/rock-albums

https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-hard-rock-songs

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-hard-rock-songs

https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-global-excl-us/

https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-global-excl-us/

https://www.billboard.com/author/pamela-bustios/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/luis-figueroa/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/luis-figueroa/

https://www.billboard.com/charts/latin-tropical-airplay

https://www.billboard.com/charts/latin-tropical-airplay


https://www.billboard.com/author/billboard-japan/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/enhypen/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/enhypen/

https://www.billboard.com/charts/japan-hot-100/


https://www.billboard.com/t/japan/

https://www.billboard.com/artist/official-hige-dandism/

https://www.billboard.com/t/billboard-japan/


of 44

A WEEKLY NATIONAL MUSIC CONSUMPTION REPORTMarket Watch

W E E K LY U N I T C O U N T

A L B U M C O N S U M PT I O N U N I TS BY FO R M AT

Y E A R TO DAT E

Album consumption units — also known as albums plus TEA plus SEA — consists of album sales; track-equivalent album (TEA) sales whereby 10 tracks equal one consumption unit; and stream equivalent albums (SEA) whereby 1,250 paid and/or 3,750 ad-supported audio on-demand streams (OAD) equal one consumption unit.

Source:

300b

270b

240b

210b

180b

150b

120b

90b

60b

30b

0

2022 2021 Change

CD Sales 11,370,000 12,961,000 -12.3%

Vinyl Sales 13,406,000 12,841,000 4.4%

Digital Sales 7,275,000 9,006,000 -19.2%

Other Sales 169,000 137,000 23.7%

Track Equivalent 5,565,000 6,960,000 -20.0%

Audio On-Demand Equivalent 272,434,000 240,418,000 13.3%

2022 2021 Change

Total On-Demand Streams 425,344,175,000 380,738,890,000 11.7%

Audio On-Demand Streams 372,867,739,000 330,507,704,000 12.8%

Digital Track Sales 55,645,000 69,599,000 -20.0%

Album Sales 32,221,000 34,944,000 -7.8%

Albums Consumption Units 310,220,000 282,322,000 9.9%

*All data measures U.S. activity as of the week ending May 5, 2022. All units counts are rounded to the nearest thousand.

TotalStreams

AudioOn-Demand

VideoOn-Demand

AlbumSales

DigitalAlbum Sales

DigitalTracks

Albums Consumption Units

ThisWeek* 24,867,027,000 21,848,517,000 3,018,511,000 1,826,000 406,000 3,119,000 18,102,000

LastWeek 24,775,333,000 21,746,721,000 3,028,611,000 2,325,000 384,000 2,967,000 18,516,000

Change 0.4% 0.5% -0.3% -21.5% 5.9% 5.1% -2.2%

This Week Last Year 22,096,166,000 19,251,029,000 2,845,136,000 1,914,000 499,000 3,764,000 16,344,000

Change 12.5% 13.5% 6.1% -4.6% -18.6% -17.1% 10.8%

Y E A R TO DAT E AU D I O O N - D E M A N D ST R E A M I N G BY AG E

Cur

rent

Cat

alog

272,

965,

794,

000

2022

226,

976,

626,

000

2021

99,9

01,9

45,0

00

2022

103,

531,

078,

000

2021

-20.3% -3.5%

1 #1 3 WK S FUTURE

2 ATL JACOB 3 DAVE BAYLEY 4 LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA 5 ED SHEERAN 6 TM88

TIE 7 HARRY STYLES TIE 7 KID HARPOON TIE 7 TYLER JOHNSON

10 DOJA CAT 11 LIL BABY 12 SOUTHSIDE 13 DRAKE 14 ISAAC DEBONI 15 GREG KURSTIN 16 LUKASZ GOTTWALD 17 MICHAEL MULE 18 JOHNNY MCDAID 19 SHANE MCANALLY 20 WHEEZY 21 KODAK BLACK

TIE 22 KAROL G TIE 22 OVY ON THE DRUMS

24 GUNNA 25 BLAKE SLATKIN

HOT 100 SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

1 WK ATL JACOB 2 GREG KURSTIN 3 OVY ON THE DRUMS 4 DR. LUKE 5 FNZ 6 DAVE BAYLEY 7 JOEY MOI 8 SOUTHSIDE 9 MATTMAN & ROBIN

TIE 10 KID HARPOON TIE 10 TYLER JOHNSON

12 TM88 13 TOREY MONTANA 14 BLAKE SLATKIN 15 WHEEZY 16 PETE NAPPI 17 LOUIS BELL 18 DMC GLOBAL 19 TRENT WILLMON 20 EVAN BLAIR 21 RICKY REED 22 VAUGHN OLIVER 23 CHARLIE HANDSOME 24 CHARLIE PUTH 25 PARKED UP

HOT 100 PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 2 WK S ZACH BRYAN

2 SHANE MCANALLY 3 ASHLEY GORLEY 4 JESSE FRASURE 5 CHASE MCGILL 6 ERNEST K 7 WALKER HAYES

TIE 8 BEN MERRITT STENNIS TIE 8 MATT ROGERS

10 JESSI ALEXANDER

COUNTRY SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

66 WK S JOEY MOI 2 SHANE MCANALLY 3 ZACH CROWELL 4 DAVID FANNING 5 TRENT WILLMON 6 MICHAEL KNOX 7 RYAN HADLOCK 8 PAUL DIGIOVANNI 9 JACOB DURRETT

TIE 10 JOE THIBODEAU TIE 10 WALKER HAYES

COUNTRY PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 3 WK S FUTURE

2 ATL JACOB 3 TM88 4 SOUTHSIDE 5 DRAKE 6 LIL BABY 7 GUNNA

TIE 8 ISAAC DEBONI TIE 8 MICHAEL MULE

10 WHEEZY

R&B/HIP-HOP SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

14 WK S ATL JACOB 2 FNZ 3 SOUTHSIDE 4 TM88 5 TOREY MONTANA 6 WHEEZY 7 DR. LUKE 8 DMC GLOBAL 9 VAUGHN OLIVER 10 CHARLIE HANDSOME

R&B/HIP-HOP PRODUCERSTM

of 44D A T A F O R W E E K O F 0 5 . 1 4 . 2 0 2 2

The top songwriters and producers on the Billboard Hot 100 and selective genre songs chart that utilize the Hot 100 formula (blending streaming, airplay and download sales data) for the charts dated May 14, 2022. Rankings are based on accumulated weekly points for all charted songs — on the specified chart for the week — on which a songwriter or producer is credited. If a song is written or produced by more than one person, points are divided equally among all credited parties.

SON

GW

RITE

RS &

PRO

DU

CER

S

1 #1 9 WK S SZA

2 TEMS TIE 3 AARON HORN TIE 3 AYNZLI JONES TIE 3 DOJA CAT TIE 3 JIDENNA MOBISSON TIE 3 LINDEN JAY TIE 3 YETI BEATS

9 KEHLANI 10 PHARRELL WILLIAMS

R&B SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

25 WK S D’MILE 2 SHIZZI

TIE 3 BLAKE SLATKIN TIE 3 RICKY REED TIE 5 DYLAN GRAHAM TIE 5 RALPH TILLER

7 MIKE WOODS 8 POP WANSEL

TIE 9 AARON HORN TIE 9 AYNZLI JONES TIE 9 LINDEN JAY TIE 9 YETI BEATS

R&B PRODUCERSTM

MAY142022

AIR

PLAY

/STR

EAM

ING

&SA

LES

DAT

A C

OM

PILE

D B

Y

of 44

TIE 1 #1 32 WK S BERNIE TAUPIN

TIE 1 #1 32 WK S ELTON JOHN

TIE 1 #1 32 WK S NICK LITTLEMORE

TIE 1 #1 32 WK S PETER MAYES

TIE 1 #1 32 WK S SAM LITTLEMORE

6 TIESTO TIE 7 AVA MAX TIE 7 CLAUDIA VALENTINA TIE 7 PABLO BOWMAN TIE 7 PETER RYCROFT

DANCE/ELECTRONIC SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

6 WK S TIESTO 2 LOSTBOY

TIE 3 CHRIS THOMAS TIE 3 GUS DUDGEON TIE 3 NICK LITTLEMORE TIE 3 PETER MAYES TIE 3 SAM LITTLEMORE

8 ALESSO 9 LOST FREQUENCIES 10 ACRAZE

DANCE/ELECTRONIC PRODUCERSTM

SON

GW

RITE

RS &

PRO

DU

CER

S

1 #1 48 WK S DAVE BAYLEY

2 ZACH BRYAN 3 BOYWITHUKE

TIE 4 DAVE PITTENGER TIE 4 GAYLE TIE 4 SARA DAVIS TIE 7 ELLE KING TIE 7 MARTIN JOHNSON TIE 9 BEN MCKEE TIE 9 DAN REYNOLDS TIE 9 DANIEL PLATZMAN TIE 9 MATTIAS LARSSON TIE 9 ROBIN FREDRIKSSON TIE 9 WAYNE SERMON

ROCK & ALTERNATIVE SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

4 WK S MATTMAN & ROBIN 2 DAVE BAYLEY 3 PETE NAPPI 4 RYAN HADLOCK 5 FINNEAS 6 BOYWITHUKE 7 MIKE CLINK

TIE 8 BRANDON PADDOCK TIE 8 MARTIN JOHNSON

10 TRAVIS BARKER

ROCK & ALTERNATIVE PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 2 WK S OVY ON THE DRUMS

2 KAROL G 3 KEITYN 4 JUAN MOISES CARDENAS 5 YAHRITZA MARTINEZ 6 ELENA ROSE 7 EDGAR BARRERA 8 EDEN MUNOZ 9 LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA 10 BECKY G

LATIN SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

17 WK S OVY ON THE DRUMS 2 JIMMY HUMILDE 3 SUBELO NEO 4 TAINY 5 RODOLFO EDEN MUNOZ CANTU 6 EDGAR BARRERA 7 JESUS JAIME GONZALEZ TERRAZAS 8 DADDY YANKEE 9 PEDRO VARGAS VACA JR 10 CHAPAS

LATIN PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 3 WK S FUTURE

2 ATL JACOB 3 TM88 4 DRAKE 5 SOUTHSIDE 6 LIL BABY

TIE 7 ISAAC DEBONI TIE 7 MICHAEL MULE

9 KODAK BLACK 10 WHEEZY

RAP SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

16 WK S ATL JACOB 2 FNZ 3 SOUTHSIDE 4 TOREY MONTANA 5 TM88 6 DMC GLOBAL 7 WHEEZY

TIE 8 DR. LUKE TIE 8 VAUGHN OLIVER

10 PARKED UP

RAP PRODUCERSTM

AIR

PLAY

/STR

EAM

ING

&SA

LES

DAT

A C

OM

PILE

D B

Y

D A T A F O R W E E K O F 0 5 . 1 4 . 2 0 2 2

MAY142022

of 44

1 #1 53 WK S DAVE BAYLEY

2 BOYWITHUKE TIE 3 DAVE PITTENGER TIE 3 GAYLE TIE 3 SARA DAVIS TIE 6 BEN MCKEE TIE 6 DAN REYNOLDS TIE 6 DANIEL PLATZMAN TIE 6 MATTIAS LARSSON TIE 6 ROBIN FREDRIKSSON TIE 6 WAYNE SERMON

ALTERNATIVE SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

4 WK S MATTMAN & ROBIN 2 DAVE BAYLEY 3 PETE NAPPI 4 FINNEAS 5 BOYWITHUKE 6 DAZY 7 TRAVIS BARKER

TIE 8 CHARLES EKHAUS TIE 8 THE WALTERS

10 STEVEN SACCO

ALTERNATIVE PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 11 WK S MATT BELLAMY

TIE 2 AXL ROSE TIE 2 DUFF MCKAGAN TIE 2 JEFFREY ISBELL TIE 2 SLASH TIE 2 STEVEN ADLER TIE 7 BRENT SMITH TIE 7 E-BASS TIE 9 A GHOUL WRITER TIE 9 FAT MAX GSUS

HARD ROCK SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

3 WK S MIKE CLINK 2 HOWARD BENSON 3 E-BASS

TIE 4 OLSEN INVOLTINI TIE 4 RAMMSTEIN

6 MUSE 7 SCOTT “THE NINJA” STEVENS

TIE 8 RONNIE RADKE TIE 8 TYLER SMYTH

10 WZRD BLD

HARD ROCK PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 19 WK S MATTHEW WEST

2 JEFF PARDO 3 COLBY WEDGEWORTH 4 ETHAN HULSE 5 BEN GLOVER 6 ANNE WILSON 7 AJ PRUIS

TIE 8 BLESSING OFFOR TIE 8 SAM ELLIS

10 MITCH WONG

CHRISTIAN SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

10 WK S JEFF PARDO 2 AJ PRUIS 3 COLBY WEDGEWORTH 4 JONATHAN SMITH 5 TEDD T 6 SAM ELLIS 7 PAUL MOAK 8 JEFF SOJKA 9 KYLE WILLIAMS 10 BEN GLOVER

CHRISTIAN PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 1 WK CHANDLER MOORE

2 KANYE WEST 3 STEVEN FURTICK

TIE 4 CHRIS BROWN TIE 4 NAOMI RAINE TIE 6 OJIVOLTA TIE 6 RAUL CUBINA

8 JAHMAL GWIN 9 JEKALYN CARR 10 DJ KHALIL

GOSPEL SONGWRITERSTMTIE 1 #1

8 WK S JONATHAN JAY TIE 1 #1

7 WK S TONY BROWN 3 KANYE WEST 4 OJIVOLTA 5 BRYAN FOWLER 6 BOOGZDABEAST 7 MIKE DEAN 8 DJ KHALIL 9 30ROC

TIE 10 CHRIS BROWN TIE 10 JASON INGRAM TIE 10 STEVEN FURTICK

GOSPEL PRODUCERSTM

SON

GW

RITE

RS &

PRO

DU

CER

SA

IRPL

AY/S

TREA

MIN

G &

SALE

S D

ATA

CO

MPI

LED

BY

D A T A F O R W E E K O F 0 5 . 1 4 . 2 0 2 2

MAY142022

Billboard's 2022 40 Under 40 Revealed

Documents

Transcript of Billboard's 2022 40 Under 40 Revealed