Music Industry Moves: Warner Music Launches Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Institute

Preview in new tabDolly Parton’s upcoming novel will take a “dark,” autobiographical turn. The country singer/actress/businesswoman — who joined forces with best-selling “Alex Cross” writer James Patterson, 74, for their thriller, “Run, Rose, Run” — recently teased that it’s a cautionary look into the shadows of the music industry.“It shows a lot of the dark side of that – people that have been in it, like me, you know that, because you’ve lived it,” Parton, 76, told “CBS Sunday Morning” reporter Lee Cowan for a story airing this weekend.The novel tells the tale of a Rose, a young country singer/songwriter from Nashville who realizes that fame and fortune are both not all that they’re cracked up to be.

Shane/Nahley Communications has launched a diversity, equity and inclusion practice, which is headed by new hire Crisanta White.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAmazon Music has announced that Phylicia Fant has joined the company as head of music industry partnerships, a newly created role. According to the announcement, she will identify and oversee strategic music partnerships and identify cross-entertainment campaigns for Amazon Music, She will be based in the company’s Culver City, Calif.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCity of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the U.S., will honor Republic Records founders Monte and Avery Lipman (pictured above, R-L) at its 2022 Spirit of Life Gala in the fall. The prestigious award will be presented to them at a gala dinner — the first Spirit of Life Gala since 2019.According to the announcement, the Spirit of Life Award is City of Hope’s most prestigious honor and is presented to an esteemed community of industry leaders around the world who have made a significant commitment to improving the lives of others through the advancement of research and clinical innovation and the delivery of personalized, compassionate care.

Peter Andre has admitted he has a “lot of fear” about his son Junior following in his footsteps into the music industry.The 16 year old signed a record deal with Columbia Records last year and he has been busy working on new music ever since. But his Mysterious Girl hitmaker father says it’s like being “thrown into the lion’s den”. He exclusively told new!: “Of course, there's a lot of fear, because you get thrown into the lion's den.

EXCLUSIVE: Cinco Paul is set to make his feature animation directorial debut on Winter Wonderland, the live action/stop motion animation film built around the classic holiday song. Pic is a collaboration between Imagine Kids+Family and Warner Music Group. Deadline previously reported that Paul would be writing original songs for the live action/stop motion picture.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBlackRock and Warner Music Group have invested $750 million, in partnership with Influence Media, to acquire music-rights catalogs from female and diverse artists, a source confirms to Variety.Rather than joining the fray pursuing catalogs of iconic, older white-male artists like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie, the female-led Influence, which was founded by Lylette Pizarro (formerly a partner at RPM GRP) and Lynn Hazan (formerly CFO and GM of Epic Records) is focusing on newer, active catalogs, and plans to work with the artists, which will retain a stake in their work.While companies like Hipgnosis Songs also have invested in what are called “shallow” (i.e. more recent) catalogs from contemporary hitmakers like Jeff Bhasker, this partnership has already invested $300 million in 20 catalogs, including Puerto Rican powerhouse songwriter-producer Tainy, known for his work with Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Rosalía, Shawn Mendes and Cardi B’s “I Like It.” The news was first reported in the Wall Street Journal.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorUniversal Music Group has announced the launch of Def Jam India, a new label division within India and South Asia dedicated to representing the best hip-hop and rap talent from the region. According to the announcement, Def Jam India “will follow the blueprint of the Def Jam Recordings label.” The first flagship artist signings to join Def Jam India are rappers Dino James and Fotty Seven, who will release singles this month titled “Lost” and “Banjo,” respectively.

Warner Music India has announced a partnership with Indian pop star Armaan Malik which will see the major and the musician sign artists via his Always Music Global label. That venture will also release some of Malik’s own music, specifically his Hindi non-film music.The two companies say the partnership will seek to further their “shared vision to fuel the burgeoning music scene of India” and to “release, market and position Hindi pop music across the world”.Says Malik: “I’m humbled and honoured to embark on a new chapter of my career with this unique collaboration between my label Always Music Global and Warner Music India.

Tributes are being paid this morning to SBTV founder and entrepreneur Jamal Edwards, who died yesterday aged just 31. 

J. Kim Murphy Jamal Edwards, a major figure in the British music industry known for founding the music platform SBTV, which helped popularize grime and launch several major musicians, died Sunday. He was 31 years old.Edwards’ death was reported by the BBC on Sunday evening after the publication confirmed with Edwards’ company.

GIANTS, explores Herb Deutsch, an electronic composer who co-invented the Moog modular synth system.The first video, which you can watch below, looks at the earliest days of the Moog factory and the musical legacy of the synths that Deutsch helped to invent.Moog said of the episode: “We are thrilled to release the first instalment of GIANTS, focusing on the legendary Herb Deutsch, in honour of his 90th birthday today!”It continues: “The composer, music educator, and friend and collaborator of Bob Moog journeys back in time to talk about some of music history’s most prolific moments and expand on ‘the perfect definition’ of what music is and can be: sound organised in time.”Speaking about the series as a whole, Moog added: “This new documentary series, filmed and produced by Moog employee-owners, is about honouring and preserving the legacy of these artists and sharing their untold stories with the world.” “The artists in this series have left an indelible impact on electronic music history and culture, and their contributions have pushed the artform and industry forward,” Moog continued.“They are the ‘giants’ whose shoulders we stand on—the pioneers who propelled synthesisers and analog instruments into the mainstream many years ago.”“Join trailblazers like Moog synthesiser co-inventor Herb Deutsch, early modular synthesiser adopter Bernie Krause, modular synthesis legend Suzanne Ciani, and Mute Records founder Daniel Miller as they describe their passions, inspirations, origin stories, and never-before-heard revelations.“Through spoken interviews, original music, and archival footage, these artists share their perspectives around how electronic music has evolved and provide context for their place in that story.” New

COVID.Downing Street has said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will reveal details of his “living with COVID” plan on Monday (February 21) – outlining that factors such as vaccination, testing, and anti-viral drugs will be enough to keep people safe, rather than expecting infected people to stay at home.Self-isolation regulations for those who test positive and their close contacts are expected to cease by the end of this week.“COVID will not suddenly disappear, and we need to learn to live with this virus and continue to protect ourselves without restricting our freedoms,” said Johnson. “We’ve built up strong protections against this virus over the past two years through the vaccine rollouts, tests, new treatments and the best scientific understanding of what this virus can do.”He added: “Thanks to our successful vaccination programme and the sheer magnitude of people who have come forward to be jabbed, we are now in a position to set out our plan for living with COVID this week.”Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary told BBC‘s Sunday Morning today (February 20) this was “declaring victory before the war is over”, that ending mandatory self-isolation was “not the right thing to do” and that this was a distraction from the ongoing ‘partygate’ scandal.“At this stage the PM risks muddying the waters,” he said. “We want to see the government publish the scientific advice because at the moment this seems very premature.”“He continued: It seems like Boris Johnson is keen to declare victory before the war is over in the hope he gets some headlines about ‘victory day on COVID’ instead police officers asking questions about actions in Number 10.”Labour Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting tells #Raworth that dropping remaining

Spider-Man is a box office smash!

A lawsuit against Warner Music testing the rights of artists in the US to reclaim the copyrights in their recordings after 35 years has been settled. Terms of that settlement are, needless to say, confidential.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMotown founder Berry Gordy had a galaxy of star executives helping him build the company into the powerhouse it became, but not many of them shone as brightly as Suzanne de Passe.Joining the company relatively late in its heyday, de Passe moved from her native Harlem to Detroit in 1968 and soon convinced a skeptical Berry to sign a group of kids calling themselves the Jackson 5. She quickly took charge of developing the group into the pop-culture juggernaut they immediately became — their first four singles went to No.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMotown Records and Google have announced a partnership in pursuit of elevating women of color within the music industry.The Motown Records Creator Program Supported by Google will find and fund the next outstanding woman content creator, videographer, or creative producer/director and offer an opportunity to collaborate with Motown Records’ executives and its roster of artists, including TianaMajor9. According to the announcement, the initiative is aligned with Motown’s commitment to shattering barriers for talented creatives and is a continuation of Google’s ongoing mission to amplify underrepresented voices in entertainment and ensure diverse, equitable representation in our media landscape.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWarner Music set a record for quarterly revenue in the fiscal first quarter that ended on Dec. 31, 2021, with $1.614 in revenue powered by a 31% increase in publishing revenue, 19% in recorded music and 21% in digital revenue.