Music Industry Moves: Reggaeton Star Don Omar, Saban Music Group Partner

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWhile there was no official announcement, Sony Music is expanding its “Artists Forward” program with the opening of Artist Assistance, a service offering access to free, confidential counseling services to address stress, anxiety, depression, grief, family and relationship issues.Active-roster artists around the world will now be able connect with a dedicated, licensed therapist at no cost. Participation is completely confidential, according to a letter the company

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSplice, the platform for rights-cleared sounds and beats, has established its first Global Music Council, a strategic advisory board of artist entrepreneurs, activists and experts in major music territories. According to the announcement, the advisors were hand-picked to provide diverse perspectives, and an artist’s lens, on expanding access to Splice’s music creation platform around the world.Splice’s Global Music Council will be chaired by Caron Veazey, founder

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPioneering Puerto Rican reggaetón artist Daddy Yankee has signed with WME in all areas. Among many other feats since he first emerged in the 1990s, he recently became the only Latin artist to log over one billion Spotify streams on three tracks, and also has racked up more than 7 billion streams in the last 12 months alone on YouTube — due only in part to “Despacito,” his collaboration with Luis Fonsi.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAfter more than twenty years of horrifying and damning accusations, as of today R.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorTicketing platform Dice has raised up to to $122 million in Series C funding in a round was led by new investor, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with follow on investments from Tony Fadell’s Future Shape, Blisce, French entrepreneur Xavier Niel, Mirabaud Private Equity, Cassius and Evolution.“We believe DICE’s technology has the capacity to transform the future of live entertainment,” said Yanni Pipilis, Managing Partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRoblox and the National Music Publishers’ Association today announced an agreement that “settles any previous claims against Roblox and sets the foundation for future partnerships with global publishers that will unlock new creative and commercial opportunities on its platform,” according to the announcement.In June, a group of music publishers sued Roblox through the NMPA for $200 million-plus, claiming copyright infringement by the company.The agreement settles

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Rolling Stones opened the latest leg of their ‘No Filter’ tour in St. Louis on Sunday night, and as expected, the group paid deep tribute to Charlie Watts, their drummer since January of 1963, who passed away last month at the age of 80.The show opened with a video montage of Watts across the years, as an isolated drum track played, sometimes in sync with the video.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAtlanta rapper 21 Savage, the British born-artist who was arrested by ICE in 2019 for overstaying his visa, turned himself in to authorities on Thursday night on drug and weapons possession charges stemming from his earlier arrest. He was released on bond, his attorney confirmed to Variety.Savage (real name: She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph) was taken into custody by ICE during Grammy Week in February of 2019, which amplified awareness of his immigration status.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorEvery person who worked on Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” released 30 years ago today, says that the album basically broke itself, almost immediately taking on a life of its own in a way that could never have been planned — “Get out of the way and duck” was a phrase that record company executives said often at the time.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOn Thursday, just 15 months after it was formed, the Black Music Action Coalition will host its inaugural Music in Action Awards gala in Los Angeles, honoring musicians, executives, businesses, entrepreneurs, and activists who have made significant contributions to social justice, change, and/or equity over the preceding year.BMAC, which was formed after the transformative yet all-too-familiar events leading up to the Black Lives Matter protests last spring, will

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOn a day that has been remarkably good for music companies on stock markets, Warner Music Group — which saw its stock climb thanks in part to Universal Music’s lofty IPO — on Tuesday announced the sale of an aggregate of 2,340,000 shares of the company’s common stock by affiliates of Access Industries to Morgan Stanley & Co. as the sole underwriter in the registered public offering of those shares.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAfter months of strong words, the National Music Publishers’ Association and livestreaming platform Twitch have announced an agreement to work together “to build productive partnerships between the service and music publishers,” according to the announcement.The deal follows months of animosity toward the Amazon-owned streaming platform, from the NMPA along with other industry trade groups, including the RIAA and the Recording Academy, over what they deemed its

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBjorn Ulvaeus, co-founder of ABBA and president of CISAC, unveiled a new global initiative called “Credits Due” on Tuesday that is intended to upgrade the music industry’s payment processes.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHipgnosis Songs, founded by Merck Mercuriadis and launched on the London Stock Exchange in 2018, is one of the most disruptive upstarts in recent music industry history, spending more than $2 billion acquiring catalogs of hitmakers ranging from the Chainsmokers to half of Neil Young’s work, with a foundation in lesser-known but high-earning songwriters and producers such as Kanye West/Harry Styles collaborator Jeff Bhasker and Eurythmics cofounder Dave

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorApparently concerts, albums, documentaries, writing songs with Mick Jagger, VMA honors and writing books aren’t enough to keep the indefatigable Dave Grohl busy: Now he’s doing a book tour.Later this month and next, Grohl will undertake an extremely limited run of intimate evenings that’ll see (and hear) him bring his first book to life: “The Storyteller –Tales of Life and Music,” which is described as “a collection of memories of a life lived loud,” is out October

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWhile he’s still best known for his pastoral cover of the Knife’s “Heartbeats” popularized by a 2005 Sony Bravia ad (you know, the one with the balls bouncing through San Francisco), Swedish-Argentinian singer Jose Gonzales’ interpretation of that song includes all of the hallmarks of his stellar solo work.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn a major overhaul of its Awards department that began in May with the elimination of the controversial “secret committees” that determined final Grammy nominations and continued with the departure of longtime awards chief Bill Freimuth last month, the Recording Academy has appointed Ruby Marchand to the position of chief awards & industry officer, with Joanna Chu elevated to vice president of awards.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPost Malone has revealed the lineup for the third annual Posty Fest, the festival he holds in his home state. Hosted by Kerwin Frost and headlined by Post himself, the Dallas-area festival also includes Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Uzi Vert, Roddy Ricch, Jack Harlow, $uicideboy$, Polo G, Rod Wave, Tyga, Iann Dior, Koe Wetzel, Turnstile, Tyla Yaweh, Flo Milli, Kaash Paige, Kenny Mason, Peach Tree Rascals, RMR, Gatecreeper, Clever, LoveLeo.According to the announcement,

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFighting the gender gap in the music industry is not a role that Mattel’s Barbie doll traditionally has taken on, but the company has used the iconic figure for exactly that purpose with its awesome Music-Producer doll, which it announced earlier this week.The company, which partnered with veteran songwriter-producer Ester Dean for the series, is making empowerment the primary theme for the doll too, saying it is “designed to introduce girls to an underrepresented

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe estate of David Bowie and Warner Music Group have announced a global partnership that will bring the late artist’s vast recorded-music catalog from 1968 through 2016 under the Warner umbrella.The new deal sees Bowie’s albums from 2000 through 2016, which were originally released via Sony Music, joining his 1968-1999 catalog at Warner.