Mark Sutherland It’s been another tumultuous year for the U.K. music business.
07.12.2021 - 23:56 / variety.com
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorUTA has signed musician and former Poison frontman Bret Michaels in all areas.“Bret Michaels is a true multi-hyphenate. From music and branding, to sports and reality tv he brings 1000% to all his business endeavors and we are honored to welcome him to our roster,” said David Zedeck, partner and co-head of global music.
Mark Sutherland It’s been another tumultuous year for the U.K. music business.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Blues Foundation has named Judith Black its new president and CEO, effective January 1, 2022. Black is co-founder and previously served as President of the Tarik Black Foundation, which has a mission to “provide young people access to practical information and exposure through real world experiences.” She also held senior posts at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, St.
Jack Antonoff thinks the success of Taylor Swift‘s 10-minute version of “All Too Well” teaches an important lesson about the music industry.
Shirley Halperin Executive Editor, MusicThe estate of George Michael has extended its global publishing agreement with Warner Chappell Music U.K.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBrandi Carlile, Graham Nash, Herbie Hancock, James Taylor, Leon Bridges, Pentatonix, Black Pumas, Jon Batiste, Maggie Rogers and Mickey Guyton will honor Joni Mitchell as performers at the MusiCares Person of the Year concert taking placed on Saturday, Jan.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs expected, Warner Music Group has acquired 300 Entertainment, home to Megan Thee Stallion – who won Best New Artist at this year’s Grammy Awards — Young Thug and his label Young Stoner Life, Gunna, Fetty Wap, Highly Suspect, the newly signed “Queen of Hip-Hop Soul” Mary J.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorClaudia Butzky has been promoted to executive vice president of brand partnerships & sync for Warner Records. In her expanded role, Butzky will continue to lead the label’s brand partnership team while also overseeing the strategy for creative music placement and campaigns across film, television, gaming, sports and related platforms.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn what may be the biggest single-artist music-catalog deal to date, a report in Billboard claims that Bruce Springsteen has sold his entire recorded-music and publishing catalog to Sony Music for around $500 million, topping Bob Dylan’s sale of his publishing to Universal for nearly $400 million.Reps for Springsteen and Sony Music either declined or did not respond to requests for comment, but multiple industry sources tell Variety that “the deal is done.”News of
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMidem, for decades the primary international conference for the music industry, will not be returning in 2022 and the brand will be taken over by the city of Cannes, France, owner RX France announced on Wednesday.“Due to the lasting pandemic and following a review of its activity, RX France [formerly Reed Midem] has decided to no longer organize the Midem events,” the announcement reads in part.
Music Climate Pact, has been launched by the UK’s Association of Independent Music (AIM) in collaboration with the record labels association, the BPI.The Pact sets out “a series of high-level commitments that will serve as a declaration of intent for the global music sector”, including a commitment to either sign up to the Science Based Targets Initiative or join the UN’s Race to Zero programme by February 2022.Both schemes require their participants to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRepublic Records has promoted Lucas Romeo to senior VP of promotion, effective immediately, EVP Gary Spangler announced on Monday.Based in New York, Romeo will oversee promotion efforts across multiple formats, guiding the promotion team and breaking artists in today’s new landscape. Romeo joined Republic in 2014 as regional promotion manager in Nashville, before returning to New York to serve as VP of Top 40.
Escape From Evil’ in 2015. Their final album ‘The Competition’ was released in 2019.Announcing the breakup on his website, vocalist J Hunter said: “It’s time for me and Nate (Nelson) to say goodbye to Lower Dens.
South Asian writer/actor Kausar Mohammed has signed with Paradigm for representation. She can currently be seen as “techspert” Soraya on CW’s 4400. She also voices series lead, Yaz, on Dreamwork’s Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAtlantic Records has announced a new artist development partnership and joint venture label deal with Detroit-based independent music company Assemble Sound.
Cynthia Littleton Business EditorJack Harlow told tales of being in second grade. Lil Nas X admitted he “had a lot of fun pissing people off” this year.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBroadly speaking, record-label bosses tend to have similar backgrounds, rising through A&R, promotion or management ranks, usually hitting a massive success that lands them the big job. And while Max Lousada, Warner Music Group’s head of recorded music, has followed some of that model, his background is unusual by any stretch, and is reflected not just in WMG’s approach to music but in the roster itself.
HBO has fleshed out its cast for music industry drama series The Idol. Juliebeth Gonzalez has been added as a series regular, and Maya Eshet (Teen Wolf), Tyson Ritter (Preacher), Kate Lyn Sheil (House of Cards), Liz Sierra and Finley Rose Slater (Playing With Fire) will recur in the series, co-created by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and Reza Fahim. The high-profile one-hour drama is currently in production.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn this week’s installment of Strictly Business, Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment, TaP Music’s Ed Millet and Wendy Ong go deep about the rewards and challenges of managing such prominent and pioneering artists as Lana Del Rey, Dua Lipa, Ellie Goulding, Caroline Polacheck, Noah Cyrus and many more.The conversation starts with Millet discussing founding the company in 2010 with his
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorApple Music has unveiled its biggest songs of the year with its annual Top 100 charts, which not only include the most-streamed songs — topped by BTS’ smash “Dynamite” but it has also shared its “Top 100 2021: Fitness” chart—spotlighting the most-played workout music across Apple Music and Fitness+— its top 100 most-Shazamed songs and its top 100 most-read Lyrics.Following “Dynamite” in the top 5 are Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” (which had the most-read
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorInterscope Geffen A&M has announced the promotion of Matt Morris to the position of senior vice president of A&R at the label. He will continue to sign and develop artists for the label as well as oversee the company’s A&R Research department.According to the announcement, Morris is credited with signing 2021’s breakout star Olivia Rodrigo to Geffen Records, along with his A&R colleagues Sam Riback and Emerson Redd.