Sony Music Publishing Launches Songwriter Assistance Wellness Program

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn a major move in the publishing world, Sony Music Publishing has announced the appointment of Walter Jones as executive vice president and head of A&R, effective February 22. In the role, he will oversee the company’s U.S.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorJeremy Vuernick has been promoted to president of A&R for Capitol Music Group (CMG), it was announced today by CMG chair & CEO Michelle Jubelirer.In his elevated role, he will lead the company’s A&R team, sign and develop artists for the company, as well as oversee recording projects for new and established artists spanning the company’s portfolio of labels. He also will work closely with Jubelirer as a key member of her executive team to set the creative direction of the company. He is based in the company’s Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood and reports to Jubelirer.Vuernick joined CMG’s Astralwerks label in 2013 after two years as an A&R executive at long-running electronic label Ultra Music.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorElectronic duo Milkblood have signed with Loud Robot, the record label from JJ Abrams’ company Bad Robot, and dropped their new song and video, “No Mind.” The track is featured in the end credits of the forthcoming film “Uncharted,” starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg; the video for “No Mind” highlights scenes from the film.Milkblood consists of music producers Pat Morrisey and David Dahlquist — who have worked with SZA, Hayley Kiyoko, Weezer, Saint Jhn and others — with video director Mike Diva (Doja Cat, Lil Nas X, Run The Jewels).In 2020, Morrisey and Dahlquist launched the group with their debut single “Sick of Being Honest,”  made during lockdown. The video for the track, directed by Mike Diva, has garnered almost 13.8 million views on YouTube to date.According to the announcement: From there, the three creators conceived an entire world-building narrative around Milkblood.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFor the first time since 2019, the legendary Roots Picnic is scheduled to return in June with Mary J. Blige, Mickey Guyton — both of whom performed at the Super Bowl on Sunday — Summer Walker and Jazmine Sullivan leading a packed lineup.The festival — which is headlined, hosted, and curated by the Grammy-winning hip-hop group the Roots and co-presented by Live Nation Urban — will take place at the Mann at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia for two days of music, art, and culture on Saturday and Sunday, June 4-5, 2022. Also scheduled to perform are Wizkid, Kirk Franklin, Rick Ross, G Herbo and more — see the full confirmed lineup below.A special fan club presale goes live today at 10 a.m.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBritish singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé has announced her forthcoming album, “Let’s Say for Instance,” will be released on May 6 via Chrysalis Records.Sandé has enjoyed enormous chart success in her native England, with her debut album, “Our Version of Events,” selling nearly five and a half million copies to date and becoming the biggest-selling album in the U.K. for 2012 (and the second-biggest for 2013).

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs long expected, Universal Music Publishing has acquired 17-time Grammy Award winner Sting’s career catalog of music. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but in recent months the artist was said to be seeking around $350 million.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs the Prince estate moves forward after years of confusion following the singer’s 2016 death, the six heirs are divided into two camps: the three siblings who sold their interests to Primary Wave, and the three who have retained their holdings.With the value of the estate recently determined at $156.4 million, the two parties are now establishing a structure for how to work together. In a ruling on Tuesday, a Minnesota judge decided against Primary Wave’s proposal to create a single holding company.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorKevin Liles is a name that people in the music industry have been hearing for more than 30 years, for an impressive variety of reasons. He was a top executive at Def Jam and Warner Music, he managed Mariah Carey, D’Angelo and Trey Songz, and he was even a recording artist who had one of his songs covered by Milli Vanilli, of all people, on their multi-multi-platinum 1990 debut album.But he got his biggest look yet in January, when the company he co-founded, 300 Entertainment, was acquired by Warner Music for a reported $400 million.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorVeteran rapper Talib Kweli and roots-ish rock band Dawes are set to headline the inaugural Pure Imagination festival, to be held in the geological wonderland of the Granite Dells at Watson Lake in Prescott, Arizona on Saturday, May 21.The lineup also features three-time Grammy-winning blues artist Fantastic Negrito, Rising Appalachia, Atlas Genius, Katie Pruitt, Ponderosa Grove, Chateau Chateau and Walt Richardson, with more acts to be announced. The “eco-forward” all-day event will have food, drink, on-site hiking, kayaking, and (limited) ticketed camping.“Prescott has a rich history in music and we want to continue to keep it alive.

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.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorVeteran executive LaTrice Burnette, who was named president of the relaunched 4th & Broadway Records in 2020 — has been appointed executive VP of Def Jam Recordings while retaining her post at 4th & Broadway, new Def Jam chairman & CEO Tunji Balogun announced Tuesday.The 4th & Broadway roster — which, along with Burnette, was formerly with sister Universal label Island Records — includes Young Devyn, Lil Migo, Pap Chanel, Chiiild, and Kidd Kenn; the label’s core staff will move over to Def Jam as well. Burnette will remain based in New York and will report directly to Balogun.“LaTrice is a proven leader, a consummate professional, and someone who’s work and reputation I’ve admired for a long time,” said Balogun.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAfter seeing her song “Fingers Crossed” become a TikTok smash, Vancouver Island singer/songwriter Lauren Spencer-Smith has partnered with Universal Music Group’s Island Records and Republic Records. According to the announcement, “The innovative partnership, structured with manager and business partner David Ehrlich (pictured above, right, with UMG chief Lucian Grainge, left, and Spencer-Smith), allows Lauren Spencer-Smith to keep her independent spirit via her own imprint while tapping into premium services from both labels.”After breaking through on TikTok, “Fingers Crossed” garnered over 100 million streams hitting the Top 50 on Spotify in 23 countries and peaked at No.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPrimary Wave Music announced that it has acquired the music rights from the estates of Layne Staley and Mike Starr of the Grammy-nominated Seattle band Alice In Chains.The deal will see the publisher acquire a stake in the Layne Staley’s and Mike Starr’s music publishing catalog, as well as master royalty income stream; terms of the deal were not disclosed.The work of the band’s main songwriter, Jerry Cantrell, was not included, nor drummer Sean Kinney or later members Mike Inez and William DuVall. However, the deal does encompass shares in some of the band’s biggest hits, such as “Man in the Box,” “Rooster” and “No Excuses,” as well as their biggest hit, “Would?” The latter song, released in 1992, and not only appeared in the era-defining Cameron Crowe film “Singles” but was also included on the hit soundtrack.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDr. Dre has made the historic move of bringing two deaf rappers into this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show.Sean Forbes and Warren “WaWa” Snipe, will appear alongside Dre, Eminem, Mary J.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDavid Crosby and Stephen Stills have joined Neil Young and Graham Nash in asking their labels to remove their collective recordings from Spotify.According to the announcement, in support of stopping harmful misinformation about Covid-19 on Joe Rogan’s Spotify-hosted podcast, the musicians have decided to remove their records from the streaming platform including the recordings of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby-Nash, as well as Crosby’s and Stills’ solo projects. Nash has already begun the process to take down his solo recordings.In a unified statement, the band members commented, “We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast. While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music – or the music we made together – to be on the same platform.” Reps for Spotify did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.Following a similar request by Joni Mitchell, the move reunites the five artists, who have been friends and collaborators since the 1960s, in a stance that they certainly could not have imagined 50 years ago.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs part of its first Environment Social Governance report, Warner Music Group announced on Tuesday that it will waive unrecoupled debuts for heritage artists, following Sony Music, which made that move last year.Just hours later, a source confirmed to Variety that Universal plans to make a similar announcement as part of its ESG report later this year; Music Business Worldwide first reported that news.What that means is that eligible artists, songwriters and others who had not recouped their advances and/or other expenses will now receive royalties that previously had gone toward paying down those expenses. That situation has meant that many artists have received low or even no royalty payments as the company applied their earnings to paying down debts they may have incurred through signing advances or other recoupable expenses that standard record-label contracts oblige the artist to cover.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCountry artist Mickey Guyton will sing the National Anthem, R&B singer Jhene Aiko will perform “America the Beautiful,” and gospel act Mary Mary will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” accompanied by the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, as part of the pre-game ceremonies for the Super Bowl on Feb. 13, the NFL announced on Tuesday.Also, actress Sandra Mae Frank will perform the National Anthem and “America the Beautiful in American sign language on behalf of the National Association of the Deaf, and veteran DJ-producer Zedd will act as the official pregame DJ during player warmups.The choices speak to the NFL’s recent moves toward greater diversity, announced when it first teamed up with Roc Nation as an entertainment consultant in 2019.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIsland Records has named Mike Alexander general manager, it was announced by new label co-CEOs Imran Majid and Justin Eshak. Alexander will continue to be based in New York and report jointly to Majid and Eshak.A nearly two-decade veteran of Island’s parent company Universal Music Group, Alexander has for the past year been an executive VP at Island, overseeing the operations for the label including releases by Shawn Mendes, the Killers, Demi Lovato and others. He previously served as executive vice president of international for UMG, a position that jointly encompassed Island Records, Def Jam Recordings and Republic Records.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPrimary Wave Music has expanded its partnership with long-running British group and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Def Leppard.The deal will see the company acquire an additional stake in the band’s music publishing catalog as well as master royalty income stream.Terms of the deal were not disclosed; many of the band’s biggest hits are included in deal, such as “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” “Rock of Ages” and “Photograph.”The band’s repertoire includes 11 studio albums, which have sold more than 110 million copies globally.The relationship between Primary Wave and Def Leppard began in 2009 with a deal to market and administer the band’s catalog of songs. Over the years the songs have been synced on a number of television shows, including “Cobra Kai,” “Hit the Floor,” “The Simpsons Guy,” “American Horror Story 1984” and more.