Robert Kyncl Named CEO of Warner Music Group

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor One of the new honors the Grammy Awards will introduce at their next ceremony is song for social change — a special-merit award that “recognizes creators of message-driven music that responds to the social issues of our time and has the potential for positive global impact.” While the honor is “curated by a blue-ribbon committee,” there’s little question that the number of submissions will have an impact — and according to the Recording Academy, 95,000 of the 115,000 submissions received have been for Iranian musician Shervin Hajipour’s song, “Baraye,” a protest song about 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested and beaten by Iran’s so-called morality police for not wearing a proper head covering, in line with the country’s Islamic law.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Primary Wave Music, a top player in the music-catalog and publishing boom, has joined forces with Brookfield Asset Management in a $2 billion deal to invest in music copyrights, the companies confirmed. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Brookfield, which is new the space, will take a significant minority interest in Primary Wave, and commit $1.7 billion to fund a permanent capital vehicle focused on acquiring music rights from top acts. Primary Wave Music is primarily a music publisher but has become a leader in the catalog-acquisition business with its ability to market those catalogs biographical films, Broadway shows, song interpolations and brand deals. Its assets include interests in the catalogs of Whitney Houston, James Brown, half of the Prince estate, Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks and more.

China still has much to gain from its current relationship with Russia even as the invasion of Ukraine drags on, turning Russia into an international pariah and threatening to rub off on China’s reputation as well.  "China has, in effect, doubled down on its support for the Putin war effort, and we saw this, for instance, last month when China's third rank leader went to Moscow, spoke to the State Duma, and in very clear terms, expressed Beijing's support for Russia," Gordon Change, author of "The Coming Collapse of China," told Fox News Digital.  "Then, [we] see Jinping himself when he was in Uzbekistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, actually confirmed that endorsement," Chang added. "The only conclusion that we can come to is that Beijing is not backing away from Russia."  The China and Russia dynamic has remained a troubling one for the United States since even before the invasion of Ukraine started in March 2022.

Kim Kardashian will pay $1.26 million and has agreed not to promote any crypto securities for three years to settle charges with the SEC that she didn’t disclose payments for touting assets that were offered and sold by EthereumMX.

LABELS & PUBLISHERSWarner Music has partnered with NFT marketplace OpenSea to help the record company’s artists do some of that Web3 stuff. “Fundamental to music’s DNA, is community – it’s artists and fans coming together to celebrate the music that they love”, says WMG’s Chief Digital Officer Oana Ruxandra. “Our collaboration with OpenSea helps to facilitate these communities by unlocking Web3 tools and resources to build opportunities for artists to establish deeper engagement, access, and ownership”.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Phil Collins and his Genesis bandmates Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford have agreed to sell their publishing copyrights and “a mix of recorded music-income streams” to Concord Music Group, the company confirmed to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. Sources told the publication the deal was for upward of $300 million. The deal includes the solo material of all three, most notably Collins’ multiplatinum solo albums and Rutherford’s band Mike & the Mechanics, which achieved chart success in the 1980s. The catalogs of Peter Gabriel and other former members of Genesis were not included in the deal. A rep for Concord tells Variety an official announcement will be made Friday morning.

Hailey Bieber has set the record straight about those social media posts suggesting she cried at the 2021 Met Gala when the crowd shouted Selena Gomez’s name.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Orlando Wharton has been named executive vice president of Capitol Music Group and president of Priority Records. The announcement was made by CMG chair & CEO Michelle Jubelirer, to whom Wharton will report.  According to the announcement, in his new position, Wharton will sign and guide artists across CMG’s portfolio of labels, and will relaunch the legendary Priority Records label as a dedicated home for new, developing and established hip hop artists.  Wharton will assume his positions at CMG early next year, and will be based at the company’s offices in New York. The announcement closely follows the company’s hiring of Doja Cat co-manager Gordan Dillard as EVP of A&R and artist development.

Always the starting QB in her heart! Cooper Rush stepped up for the Dallas Cowboys after quarterback Dak Prescott got injured in September 2022 — but wife Lauryn Rush has been by his side for years.

Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo has revealed the song he believes is the best to introduce to prospective new fans of the metal icons.Across a 40-year career and 10 studio albums, the band have shared hundreds of songs, and Trujillo picked a somewhat off-the-wall choice for what he believes is the best one to play to listeners you hope to convert.“For me that’s pretty easy,” Trujillo told Revolver when being asked the question as part of the publication’s ‘Point Of Entry’ series, which asks bands which song of theirs they would use to introduce the band to a new listener.After picking ‘Master Of Puppets’ track ‘Disposable Heroes’, he explained: “The reason is because it’s really in a lot of ways – especially in metal – the perfect balance of what I call ‘power groove’.”“I liked that song before I even joined the band,” he added. “I used to go running in the hills in the Santa Monica mountains to prepare for Suicidal Tendencies tours.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Days after top YouTube exec Robert Kyncl was named as the next CEO of Warner Music Group, the company revealed in an SEC filing that he will earn approximately $15 million in his first year on the job, depending on performance targets. When Kyncl’s name was first mentioned as a potential successor to outgoing CEO Stephen Cooper, who leaves after 11 years in the role, many wondered whether the job would be sufficiently appealing for the executive who led Netflix from DVDs to streaming and has been YouTube’s business chief for much of his 12 years at the company. However, the SEC filing makes clear that the job is financially appealing: He will receive a base salary of $2 million, a target performance-based bonus of $3 million and an annual grant of performance share units with an aggregate, pre-tax value of $10 million.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Since the dawn of radio, the United States has been and remains the only major country in the world where terrestrial radio pays no royalties to performers or recorded-music copyright owners of the songs it plays — a situation that is largely due to the powerful radio lobby’s influence in Congress. While the more than 8,300 AM and FM stations across the country pay royalties to songwriters and publishers, they have never paid performers or copyright holders, although streaming services and satellite radio do. On Thursday morning, Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced the bipartisan American Music Fairness Act, which aims to rectify that situation by “ensur[ing] artists and music creators receive fair compensation for the use of their songs on AM/FM radio. This legislation will bring corporate radio broadcasters up-to-speed with all other music streaming platforms, which already pay artists for their music.”

A man who messaged a child decoy online was found to have been having vile conversations with three actual kids. Joseph Cooper, 22, added the ‘girl’ on Facebook before sparking a sexual chat with her.

Robert Kyncl, a 12-year veteran of YouTube’s senior executive team, will become CEO of Warner Music Group on January 1.

Shirley Halperin Executive Editor, Music Gordan Dillard is trading SALXCO, management home to Doja Cat, for Capitol Music Group where he joins as executive vice president of A&R and artist development. The Los Angeles-based Dillard, who plans to maintain a “strong presence” in New York, reports to CMG chair and CEO Michelle Jubelirer and is tasked with signing and developing artists across the pool of Universal Music Group labels. His start date was Sept. 19. Dillard will continue to manage Doja Cat alongside Lydia Asrat, Josh Kaplan and SALXCO founder/CEO Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, who noted: “SALXCO is about building a culture of young entrepreneurs to watch them grow into some of the industry’s most powerful players. I am so proud of Gordan and all his success.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor When YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl announced late last month that he’ll be leaving the company after 12 years in the job, many observers quickly moved him to the front of the line to replace outgoing Warner Music CEO Steve Cooper, who’d announced just two months earlier that he’ll be stepping down after 11 years in the job. After all, Kyncl knows the music industry  — YouTube is both the world’s largest video-streaming platform and the largest music-streaming platform, and he played a huge role in its negotiations with labels and publishers and generally received high marks (remarkably, considering the often-contentious relations between the two sides). He’s also pioneering force in the streaming business: Before he was chief business officer of YouTube, he led Netflix from DVDs to digital, a transition that was much more complex and fraught with potential failure than he and the company made it seem.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Though she’s just 22, Noah Cyrus has seen some stuff. As Miley’s younger sister, her music and acting careers launched early — at 16 and 2 (!), respectively — and she released several pop-leaning singles and EPs during her teens, opened an arena tour for Katy Perry in 2017 and was even nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy in 2021. On the less positive side, there was substance abuse, a bad relationship and lockdown isolation — but she overcame all of it, and that battle informs nearly every song on “The Hardest Part,” her long-percolating debut album, which sees her truly finding her voice in a way that her previous recordings only hinted at. Surprisingly or no, the Nashville native did it by returning home, musically speaking. Although her main collaborators here are Northern Irish producer Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, the 1975) and Australian songwriter PJ Harding (Chromeo, Ruel), the sound is country-leaning, heavy on harmonies, organic instrumentation and Music Row-friendly melodies; its big, stacked harmonies recall everything from the Chicks to Boygenius.

EXCLUSIVE: Nesta Cooper (See) has signed on to star in the feature-length drama Kemba, inspired by the life of criminal justice reform advocate Kemba Smith, which Kelley Kali (I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking)) is directing for MPI Original Films and BET.