Jem Aswad-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Oleg Stavitsky is co-founder and CEO of Endel, a sound wellness company that utilizes generative AI and science-backed research. Today, when the music industry cautiously expresses enthusiasm for AI, it focuses primarily on AI as a new tool that producers and artists can use in the studio. The rest of generative AI’s capabilities are seen as a threat, or as RIAA President Mitch Glazer put it in a recent op-ed, as “empty knock offs and chatbot impersonations,” from which true, human-made music must be protected.  Meanwhile, The U.S. Copyright Office has put forward new requirements when registering copyright for AI-generated content: they will consider the extent to which the human had creative control over the work’s expression and “actually formed” the traditional elements of authorship. Both perspectives draw a hard line between human creativity and AI activity, rather than looking at ways the two can collaborate and co-create. 

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor While an official announcement is not expected until later in the week, multiple sources tell Variety that Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, Tool and Iron Maiden headline a new festival called Power Trip from Coachella founders Goldenvoice. The sources say the festival will take place at Coachella’s home base, Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif., in October. The news was previously reported by Hits, Desert Sun and the music blog the Scenestar, and a remarkably unsubtle teaser campaign apparently from the organizers. Despite the Coachella connection, the festival is more like a hard rock version of Goldenvoice’s 2016 Desert Trip festival, which featured a classic-rock dream team of Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Who and Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Jesse Rutherford, singer-songwriter-producer of the Neighbourhood, has signed a new solo deal with Atlantic Records. Operating under the name Jesse®, returns with two new songs, “Joker” and “Rainbow,” that will be live at 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The new songs are the first releases from the musician’s new solo chapter with Atlantic Records. “It’s been a minute since I’ve shared anything,” Jesse® said. “It feels like I moved away from home & got a new phone number. This is my message letting you know I’m back in town & trying to get together.” “Joker” arrives with a companion visual directed by Ramez Silyan; the songs will be followed by another, “Me & Universe,” on April 28, with a full-length album due out later this year.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Warner Chappell Music has renewed its global publishing deal with producer Marco “MAG” Borrero. A frequent Bad Bunny collaborator, MAG produced 15 of the 23 tracks on the blockbuster album “Un Verano Sin Ti,” which led to his 2022 Variety Hitmakers honor and his No. 1 position on Billboard’s Year-End Hot Latin Song Producers chart. “Un Verano Sin Ti” became the first all-Spanish album to top the year-end Billboard 200 chart as well as earn a nomination for Album of the Year Grammy award. The Brooklyn-born, Puerto Rican-Dominican producer was mentored by Max Martin — the most successful songwriter-producer of the past 25 years — and over the course of his career has also collaborated with Rauw Alejandro, Arcángel, Bebe Rexha, Imagine Dragons, Selena Gomez, and Demi Lovato.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Scott Borchetta — founder of Big Machine Label Group, the company that originally signed Taylor Swift — was involved in an accident Sunday while racing in the Trans Am Series. According to a statement from the label, he was taken to the hostpital for examination and is currently in stable condition. His wife, Sandy Spika Borchetta, who is also an executive VP at the company, and other family members are with him. “We ask everyone to please respect the Borchetta family’s privacy during this time,” the announcement concludes. Borchetta had to be extracted from his car after it went off course in the high-braking Turn 1 of the 12-turn course, according to a report on the TobyChristie.com website. Shortly after the accident, the Trans Am broadcast team reported, “I can tell you [Scott] is okay. He is conscious, and he’s been talking to his team, but he is on his way to the hospital. It was a big hit, but I am glad to say he is now in good care and being taken to the hospital.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Kelly Clarkson has announced that she will headline an exclusive Las Vegas engagement called “Chemistry…an Intimate Night With Kelly Clarkson,” opening Friday, July 28, 2023 at Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino (formerly Zappos Theater). The evening is described as “an intimate music experience that spans her two-decade long catalog of award-winning hits.” See Variety‘s cover story on Clarkson here. “I am so excited for these shows and couldn’t think of a better place to get back on stage than Las Vegas! The crowds in Vegas are such an amazing collection of people that simply want to have a great time and that’s what we’re going to do!” said Clarkson. “So many of my musical idols have had, and still have, incredible residencies on The Strip, and I’m so excited to create my own!”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Jay-Z’s net worth has soared to $2.5 billion, according to a new Forbes report published Friday. While the report is slim on details, it notes that the fortune of the man born Shawn Carter 53 years reached far beyond music. “Even in a year without a tour or album release, Jay-Z mints millions from his Armand de Brignac champagne and D’Usse cognac,” it says. “The Brooklyn-born rapper was crowned hip-hop’s first billionaire by Forbes in 2019, thanks to a sprawling and diversified empire,” noting assets from his Roc Nation entertainment and sports empire to a fine-art collection including works by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Sony Music has dissolved the long-running Arista Nashville imprint, a rep for the company confirms to Variety. The news was first reported in Country Aircheck‘s newsletter. Most of the artists will be absorbed into Sony Music Nashville, with Nate Smith is going to RCA Nashville and Old Dominion and Megan Moroney moving over to Columbia Nashville. Brooks & Dunn is the most famous artist on the label, having been one of its cornerstone acts since 1991, but the duo is not a going concern on the recording front. Apart from a retrospective/duets project three years ago, they have not issued an album of new material since 2007.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor In February of last year, as controversy broiled around Joe Rogan’s racially charged language and COVID-related misinformation on multiple editions of his Spotify podcast, the streaming giant’s CEO attempted to defuse the situation by apologizing to his aggrieved staff and pledging $100 million “for the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups.” Nearly 14 months later, that $100 million “Creator Equity Fund” has spent less than 10% of its funding on that work,” according to a report in Bloomberg. The initiative was behind schedule in hiring an eight-person staff to oversee the project and “has suffered from shifting priorities,” the report said, citing unnamed people familiar with the effort. At the beginning of this year, the fund had not completed its 2023 budget and had not determined its priority projects, according to a memo the publication said it had obtained, and another fund intended to promote diversity in podcasts suffered after that business was hit by layoffs last year, a union representing workers said.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The newly launched independent music publishing, rights management, and catalog marketing company AMR Songs has acquired by catalogs of former Lovin’ Spoonful frontmany John Sebastian — including such songs as “Daydream,” “Summer in the City,” “Do You Believe in Magic” and “Wecome Back” — as well as Grammy-winning reggae group Soja. Founded by industry veteran/ CEO Tamara Conniff and private equity professional/ CFO Steve Reinstadlter, the Los Angeles and New York-based company has acquired an undisclosed interest in Sebastian’s entire catalog, including his publishing and artist royalties from the Lovin’ Spoonful, which also include “Younger Girl,” “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” and “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?,” among others.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor No, Daft Punk are not reuniting — but the duo are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their epochal Grammy-winning final album, “Random Access Memories,” with an expanded edition that features 35 minutes of previously unreleased music across nine songs. Today, the duo dropped “The Writing of Fragments of Time,” the first track from the album (which comes out May 12). According to the announcement, the track is a “documentary track” that nods back to the album song “Giorgio by Moroder,” in which the iconic Giorgio Moroder discusses his own creative process and come up. “This newest behind the scenes track glimpses the actual humans at work with all their doubts, excitement and first draft imperfections.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Wet Leg lead the nominations for the 2023 Libera Awards, the celebration of independent music presented by the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM). The Grammy-winning British group lead all nominess with six, while Sudan Archives, Allison Russell, Fontaines D.C., and Soul Glo have three each. The ceremony takes place on Thursday, June 15 at the historic Town Hall in New York City, and will feature 37 categories highlighting the best in independent music, as well as performances from nominees. In addition to recording artists across all genres, the award ceremony will also acknowledge categories for Best Sync Usage, Creative Packaging, Independent Champion, Label of the Year, Marketing Genius, Self-Released Record of the Year, Best Re-Issue, Best Live/Livestream Act, Video of the Year, and A2IM’s Humanitarian Award. Nominees for this year are listed below.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor To call “Spinning Gold” a labor of love is an understatement completely uncharacteristic of its subject: the late Neil Bogart, the larger-than-life founder of Casablanca Records, the famously freewheeling 1970s powerhouse that brought the world Kiss, Donna Summer, Parliament-Funkadelic and the Village People in less than five years. Some 25 years in the making, the biopic was written, produced and directed by Bogart’s eldest son Tim (who’s worked in those roles on many TV series, from “Majors & Minors” to “The Jungle Book”) with music supervision from his youngest son, Evan (a songwriter and music publisher who co-wrote Beyonce’s “Halo,” among many other hits), and other family members as producers. Out March 31, it features Tony and Grammy-nominated Broadway star Jeremy Jordan (“Newsies,” “Rock of Ages,” “Waitress”) as Bogart, Michelle Monaghan as his first wife, Lyndsy Fonseca as his second, rapper Wiz Khalifa as P-Funk’s George Clinton, singers Ledisi as Gladys Knight and Tayla Parx as Summer, among many others.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Odesza, Lana Del Rey, Karol G, the 1975 and Tomorrow X Together are the top-billed artists for the Lollapalooza 2023 festival, taking place at its longtime home of Chicago’s Grant Park from August 3-6.  This year’s lineup also includes Fred again, Noah Kahan, A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, J.I.D., Maggie Rogers, Carly Rae Jepsen, Diplo, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Tems, the Rose, Rina Sawayama, Lil Yachty, Rema, Morgan Wade, Lainey Wilson, L’Impératrice, Ivan Cornejo, Sudan Archives, and many others (see the full 170-plus-artist lineup below). The festival, which celebrated its 30 th anniversary in 2021, will take place across nine stages and four days.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Global recorded-music revenue growth slowed down dramatically in 2022 but still was up 9% according to the year-end report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s released Tuesday. While 2021 saw an 18.5% growth, largely due to an increase in streaming numbers as the world waited at home for the pandemic to lift, a growth in global streaming numbers powered the past year’s lift, which showed total trade revenues for year at $26.2 billion. Subscription audio streaming revenues increased by 10.3% to $12.7 billion, and there were 589 million users of paid subscription accounts at the end of 2022, according to the report.  Total streaming (including both paid subscription and advertising-supported) grew by 11.5% to reach $17.5 billion, or 67% of total global recorded music revenues, according to the IFPI, which represents more than 8,000 record company members worldwide.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The first real SXSW in four years wrapped up this weekend, but it’s likely what went down this year will be looked at in the future as another transitional year. After a mid-pandemic return in 2022 that was intentionally less high-profile than past editions, this year’s South By was supposed to be a return to form of the citywide takeover that’s made SX a staple in the calendar for decades for musicians and execs alike. In practice, though, the music portion of SXSW still felt under-attended, and the current wave of music just on the fringe of popularity under-represented. Even the former Spring-break hub intersection of Sixth Street and Red River was a ghost town on Friday night, and lines to get into showcases across town were essentially nonexistent. On top of that, many of the highest-profile showcases were postponed or shut down following a massive lightning storm on Thursday night. Perhaps it’s post-Covid malaise, perhaps it’s the heightened cost of touring, maybe people were waiting to see how this year went — but something in the Topo Chico has changed, hopefully not for forever.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor One of the ironies about the rise of 100 Gecs — who have become poster children for “hyper-pop,” whether they want to be or not — is the fact that their hyperactive music, which is filled with lyrical and sonic pranks, changes direction every few seconds and has melodies that are like bubblegum pop through a garish Instagram filter, is being feted for its pretty undeniable brilliance. Critics slather over them, they signed a deal with Atlantic Records, were the subject of in-depth profiles in the New Yorker and the New York Times, and were even artists in residence at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. While it’s not hard to imagine the hardly-serious duo of Laura Les and Dylan Brady doubled over with laughter when these things started happening, now it’s almost like the joke’s on them.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The fast rise of AI technology has opened up a world of brain-busting questions about copyright and creators’ rights — for example, if David Guetta drops a song with a ChatGPT-generated verse from a fake Eminem, who gets paid? — and it’s safe to say them music industry is alarmed by this universe of new challenges. A new coalition to meet those challenges called the Human Artistry Campaign was announced at the South by Southwest conference on Thursday, with support from more than 40 organizations, including the Recording Academy, the National Music Publishers Association, the Recording Industry of America and many others.  

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The living hell of concert ticket-buying loomed into the foreground again this week, but this time it was not millions clamoring for a limited number of Taylor Swift or Bruce Springsteen tickets but rather attempts by long-running British alternative band the Cure to avoid gouging fans for its forthcoming “Lost World” North American tour. While the group had managed to avoid such controversial policies as platinum packages and variable pricing, frontman/founder Robert Smith was appalled to see hefty service fees added to the cost of “Verified Fan” tickets, which are intended to protect fans by keeping tickets out of the hands of scalpers, for the tour.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Jim Gordon, a top drummer for Eric Clapton, George Harrison and countless others who was diagnosed with schizophrenia after murdering his mother in 1983, has died. According to the announcement, he died Monday from natural causes at California Medical Facility in Vacavillle, Calif., after a long incarceration and lifelong battle with mental illness.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The entertainment business is filled with polymaths, but this week’s “Strictly Business” podcast guest, Evan Bogart, is a rarity even by its standards: He’s a songwriter of hits for Beyonce, Rihanna, Lizzo and others; owner of the large publishing company Seeker Music; chair of the Recording Academy’s new songwriters and composers wing; and not least, son of the late, legendary Neil Bogart, founder of the 1970s powerhouse Casablanca Records, which brought the world Kiss, Donna Summer, Parliament-Funkadelic and the Village People. Neil is the subject of “Spinning Gold,” a biopic directed and written by Evan’s older brother Tim, for which Evan is executive music producer, and which comes out March 31.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Clipse (a.k.a Pusha T and No Malice), Grace Jones, Lil Wayne, Skrillex, Lil Uzi Vert, Mumford & Sons, Lil Yachty, Summer Walker and more top the lineup for Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water festival, returning to Virginia Beach from Friday, April 28 – Sunday, April 30. Presented by Walmart and produced by IMGoing and Live Nation, the full lineup is 100 Gecs, Aminé, Ayra Starr, Babyface Ray, BadBadNotGood, Black Sherif, CHIKA, Clipse, Coi Leray, d4vd, Doechii, Feid, FLO, Flo Milli, gigi, Grace Jones, Jay Pharoah, Jazmine Sullivan, Jessie Murph, Kamasi Washington, KayCyy, Kaytranada, Kehlani, Kenny Beats, Kid Cudi, Kitty Ca$h, Latto, Lil Durk, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Wayne, Lil Yachty, Machine Gun Kelly, Maren Morris, Masego, Mumford & Sons, Nile Rodgers & Chic, NLE Choppa, Polo G, Remi Wolf, Riovaz, Saucy Santana, Skrillex, Summer Walker, SWV, The Kid Laroi, UMI, Wale, Weston Estate, Wet Leg, Wu-Tang Clan, Yendry, Yvngxchris and Pharrell’s Phriends. Tickets are available now.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor In a move that signals the unexpected strength of the vinyl market, Metallica has acquired a majority interest in one of the largest vinyl pressing companies in the U.S. —  Furnace Record Pressing, a leading provider of high-quality vinyl records and related services. The acquisition formalizes a long-standing relationship between the band and the company, which has produced more than five million pieces of Metallica vinyl since 2014. The projects include the deluxe boxed-set editions of Metallica’s “Kill ‘Em All,” “Ride the Lightning,” “Master of Puppets,” “…And Justice for All,” “S&M2” and self-titled albums.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Pink Floyd’s proposed $500 million sale of the rights to their iconic five-decade, multiplatinum recorded-music catalog is “basically dead” because the surviving bandmembers “just can’t get along,” four sources close to the situation tell Variety — however, sources close to the band insist that it’s not. “You could say the deal is no longer ‘active,’” one of the four sources says. “But at the same time, it’s still on the table. It’s a strange situation!” It’s par for the course with this long-running and contentious proposed deal, which sees Roger Waters and David Gilmour, the two long-feuding principals of one of the most critically and financially successful acts of the rock era, taking public potshots at each other while simultaneously trying to find enough common ground to close a deal sources say could reach a half-billion dollars.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Amazon Music has announced the launch of two new weekly flagship music series: the hip-hop-focused “Rotation Roundtable” and the Latin/pop culture show “La Semanal Live.” “Rotation Roundtable,” premiering March 15, comprises a hybrid Twitch livestream and 90-minute podcast experience inspired by Amazon Music’s “Rap Rotation” and “R&B Rotation” playlists. It is hosted by journalist and executive producer Speedy Morman, Power 105.1 host/ producer Nyla Symone, “On the Radar” creator Gabe P and veteran journalist Rob Markman. Each episode will feature a “Big Questions” segment meant to incite discourse about current events in hip-hop. The show will also consist of “Hot Takes,” guest interviews, and a debate segment fueled by chat participation.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Drake has announced dates for his 2023 “It’s All a Blur” tour presented by Cash App, Visa and Sprite. Produced by Live Nation, Drake and 21 Savage will be going on a 29-date arena run with stops including Chicago, Boston, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and more before wrapping up in Glendale, AZ at Desert Diamond Arena on Tuesday, September 5. “It’s All a Blur” marks Drake’s return to touring since headlining Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour in 2018. In the last five years, Drake has released four albums, including his most recent studio album, “Her Loss,” in collaboration with 21 Savage. According to the announcement, the tour’s title is “a celebration of the last decade,” signifying its retrospective nature

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Lewis Largent, who was known to millions in the 1980s and ‘90s as an influential alternative-music MTV VJ and DJ on KROQ, died on Feb. 20 after a long illness, his family confirms to Variety. He was 58. A native of Southern California, Largent was an enthusiastic golfer as a teen, and he met the general manager of the Los Angeles alternative-radio powerhouse KROQ while working at a country club. Impressed with Largent’s knowledge of music, the GM offered him an internship at the station that led to a full-time role in 1985. He rose quickly through the ranks and was named music director in 1989. In 1992, Largent left the station to take a VP of music programming post at MTV, where he soon began hosting “120 Minutes.” That show, a 1990s Sunday-night tradition on the channel, expanded the genre’s reach nationwide — and Largent’s. (This writer can recall a certain major label president striving to impress executives in a meeting with his ability to get Largent to take his call.) David Bowie, Bjork, Trent Reznor, Radiohead and PJ Harvey were among the many artists he hosted on “120 Minutes.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Pioneering hip-hop producer Prince Paul was never officially a member of De La Soul — but “The Magic Number” was always four whenever they worked together. As ambitious and creative as group members Posdnuous (Kelvin Mercer), Trugoy (the late Dave Jolicoeur) and Maseo (Vincent Mason Jr.) were, the man born Paul Huston was the glue that held it all together musically through many of the group’s biggest successes. “I think the way the dynamic changed because of me is I’m pro-everything,” Huston tells Variety. “If somebody’s considering an idea, I’m like, ‘Let’s do it!’” That fearless, kitchen-sink spirit led to “3 Feet High and Rising,” “De La Soul is Dead” and “Buhloone Mindstate,” three albums that caused three different generational shifts — for the group, their fans and often hip-hop culture. And those albums (and three others) were celebrated last week at “The D.A.I.S.Y. Experience” event in New York, where Huston, along with Posdnuous, Maseo, Dave Chapelle, Queen Latifah, Q-Tip, Common, Chuck D and many others, to commemorated the group’s music finally being released onto streaming platforms after decades-long legal entanglements.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Over the past couple of years, virtually every conversation about the challenges facing artists in the music-streaming economy has had one proposed quick fix: Raise subscription prices. As Milana Lewis, CEO of the distribution and payments platform Stem, told Variety last summer, “The price of everything else on earth is going up, and they all keep finding new ways to make subscriptions cheaper” via family and student plans, bundling and other initiatives. Apple Music, Amazon Music and Deezer have already done so, but others remain with the same $10 U.S. monthly price as when they started. New Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl brings a view from the other side to the top of the music industry: He was head of business for YouTube — where he led a sea change in the streaming giant’s relationship with the music industry by, guess what, introducing a paid music subscription service — and at Netflix, where he presided over the company’s shift from DVDs to streaming.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor SoundCloud has named Eliah Seton chief executive officer, effective immediately. He succeeds Michael Weissman, who joined the streamer in 2017, has served as CEO since 2021 and is departing for a new opportunity. Seton joined SoundCloud in 2021 as president, overseeing the Creator and Roster operating divisions as well as strategy, M&A, content partnerships, business development, and distribution and artist partnerships. In that role, he has been instrumental in refocusing the business on deepening the relationship between its artists and fans through new economic models, products and tools. The company also announced that Fred Wilson, founder of Union Square Ventures and member of SoundCloud’s board since 2011, has been appointed as the new chairman of the board. Wilson succeeds SoundCloud Founder Alexander Ljung who served as CEO from 2007-2017 and chairman from 2017-2022. Ljung will assume a new role as chairman emeritus of the SoundCloud board, continue to serve as a board member and will also remain closely engaged and available to the company’s management team and employees going forward.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Today we release recorded music revenue data for 2022 showing a seventh straight year of continued growth – powered by a robust 8% increase in paid subscription streaming revenues which now make up two thirds of the market. In raw numbers, paid subscriptions hit 92 million for the first time ever, continuing a decade long run of double-digit growth. That’s practically double the 47 million paid subscribers on the books just four years ago in 2018. In the last ten years, streaming has gone from 15% to 84% of U.S. recorded music revenues, a virtual overnight transformation of our industry unmatched by any other media or art form. Other formats also saw significant growth. Streaming all together – paid subscriptions plus ad-supported services, digital and customized radio, and music used in social media platforms, digital fitness apps and others – grew 7% to a record high $13.3 billion last year, while vinyl’s incredible surge continued with revenues up 17% and, for the first time since 1987, more records sold than CDs.  (Read the full report.)

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The U.S. recorded-music industry reached an all-time high of $15.9 billion in 2022, marking the industry’s seventh consecutive year of growth. While overall streaming growth has been leveling off in recent years, with 92 million paid U.S. subscriptions, it’s clearly continuing to grow and fuel the market while the steady resurgence of vinyl continues. Collectively accounting for 84% of total revenues, streaming continued to be the largest driver with paid subscriptions, ad-supported services, digital and customized radio, social media platforms, digital fitness apps and others, according to the report. Paid subscriptions were up 7% to a record high revenue of $13.3 billion. Revenues grew 8% to $10.2 billion, passing the $10 billion mark for the first time.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Spotify announced Wednesday that its all-time payouts to music-rights holders are approaching $40 billion. The company said it pays out nearly 70% of every dollar it generates from music back to the industry, the announcement continues. It generates its music revenue from two sources: subscription fees from its Premium platform paying subscribers, and fees from advertisings on music on its Free tier. These rights holders include record labels, publishers, independent distributors, performance rights organizations and collecting societies, the announcement detailed. It is important to note that the payments go to rights holders first — which is rarely the artist or songwriter —which then take their fee or percentage and pay the creators their share.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The demise of the iconic Tower Records retail chain in 2006 was in many ways the final nail in the coffin of the 20th century music business model, but as vinyl sales unexpectedly revived over the past decade, the company relaunched in 2020 as an online retailer. Since then, there have been many rumblings about of some kind of bricks-and-mortar Tower relaunch — there was a vaguely defined space on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, and rumors, stickers and posters have been seen around New York for many months. On Wednesday, it made sense: The company has unveiled Tower Labs, a new creative space in Brooklyn, New York. Located on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Tower Labs “is designed to engage and stimulate music fans with a range of offerings including live music events, album listening parties, and a new speakeasy style ‘vinyl drop’ window for limited edition music and merchandise releases,” according to the announcement.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor ASCAP, the only remaining not-for-profit performing rights organization in the U.S., announced that its 2022 annual revenue surpassed $1.5 billion for the first time, which fueled record royalty distributions to ASCAP’s songwriter, composer and music publisher members. Collections totaled $1.522 billion in 2022, an increase of $187 million or 14% over the previous year. According to the announcement, ASCAP’s strategic growth plan, launched in 2015, has resulted in a 6% compound annual growth rate for total revenues, and a 7% compound annual growth rate for total distributions to members.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor K-Pop is facing a “very clear slowdown in growth” that has inspired his company’s expansion efforts in the U.S., Bang Si-Hyuk, chairman of HYBE, the company behind bands including BTS and other acts, told CNN’s Richard Quest in an interview published Sunday, as HYBE seeks to expand its holdings in the South Korean music market by acquiring a large stake in competitor SM. The genre, which has boomed globally over the past five years, “is not as hot in the market as you might perceive,” Bang said. “Globally, it’s not occupying much of the market. On the other hand, Latin music and Afrobeat are very rapidly growing. So being where we are, it is more urgent to increase the exposure. … Looking at our export indicators and streaming growth, the slowdown in growth is very clear.”