Village People’s Song Catalog, Brand Acquired by Primary Wave Music

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Veteran singer and Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry has entered into a partnership with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group “to develop and expand the renowned artist’s musical legacy to new generations of fans,” according to the announcement. The deal sees the company acquiring 50% of Ferry’s sound recording, publishing, and name, image and likeness rights from his solo work and Roxy Music catalog, which reaches back to the group’s galvanizing 1972 debut album and includes such hit songs as “Love Is the Drug,” “More Than This,” “Avalon,” “Virginia Plain,” “Dance Away,” “Slave to Love” and more.

Pitbull is celebrating Dolly Parton after collaborating with the country star on “Powerful Women,” which Mr. Worldwide dropped in February.

Katcy Stephan Gravitas Ventures has acquired worldwide rights to Uinta Productions and Paper Street Pictures’ “Snow Valley,” the directorial debut from the late Brandon Murphy. Murphy, who died in January 2022, was the screenwriter for “Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.” He also wrote the script for “Snow Valley,” which was in post production at the time of his death.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music As expected, layoffs began hitting Universal Music Group almost immediately after the company’s earnings call on Wednesday. The moves, which have been signaled by chairman-CEO Lucian Grainge since last fall, were still evolving at the time of this article’s publication, and follow the broad consolidation of the company’s labels under Interscope (West Coast) and Republic (East Coast) groups, under CEOs John Janick and Monte Lipman, respectively.

Ashley Benson and Brandon Davis are officially parents!

New York Dolls’ David Johansen, John Lyon and more.The lawsuit was in an effort to regain control of the artists’ masters, and has finally come to a settlement after years of closely-watched class-action litigation against major record labels over copyright law’s termination right.Announced in court papers last week, the agreement between the music label and the musicians will resolve a case which saw artists accuse Sony of unfairly rejecting their efforts to invoke termination – a federal law that’s supposed to let authors take back control of their works decades after they sold them away.Per Reuters, Johansen, Lyon and Paul Collins sued Sony Music back in 2019, accusing the label of barring their termination notices for their music and proceeding to sell it without permission. The case had ben on pause for settlement since 2021.The musicians based their claims off of a part of the Copyrights Act.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The lineup for Elton John‘s upcoming Gershwin Prize tribute taping was announced Wednesday, with the pop superstar’s musical BFF Brandi Carlile not surprisingly among the cast, but also some unusual suspects, like the band Metallica. Garth Brooks, who was the recipient of the Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize for songwriting himself four years ago, is also among the cast, along with Annie Lennox, Maren Morris, Charlie Puth and Jacob Lusk of the group Gabriels. Billy Porter will host as well as perform.

Brandon Jenner and his wife Cayley have some exciting family news!

Kendall and Kylie Jenner are going to be aunties again! On Tuesday, their half-brother Brandon Jenner and his partner Cayley announced they are expecting baby number 3. It’s the fourth child for Brandon, who shares Eva James Jenner with his ex-wife, Leah Felder.A post shared by Brandon Jenner (@brandonjenner)The couple shared the news on Instagram with joint posts.

Brandi Glanville is still looking for a genuine apology from Andy Cohen.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The bruising battle over royalties between Universal Music Group and TikTok entered a new and more severe stage in the early hours of Tuesday as songs published by UMG began to be removed from the platform. The standoff, which began earlier this month, initially saw recordings owned by UMG removed from the platform, but now is extending to a much larger number of songs by including those published by the company.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music As expected, Atlantic Music Group announced on Monday that it will be laying off around two dozen people, with the majority coming from the radio and video departments. In an internal memo to the company’s staff obtained by Variety, chairman-CEO Julie Greenwald said Atlantic will be “bringing on new and additional skill sets in social media, content creation, community building and audience insights” in an effort to “dial up our fan focus and help artists tell their stories in ways that resonate.” The move reflects similar ones at the major labels recently, as they recalibrate to meet the leveling-off of streaming growth.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Universal Music Group has announced a majority investment in the Nigeria-based Afrobeats powerhouse label Mavin Global (Mavin). The label, based in Lagos, is home to such hits as Rema’s “Calm Down” — the Selena Gomez-featuring remix of which was No. 12 on Variety’s 2023 Hitmakers chart and is the most-viewed video on YouTube by an African artists — and other artists including Ayra Starr, Ladipoe, Johnny Drille and more.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music One of the saddest ironies in the music world is the fact that songwriters are at the very bottom of the streaming economy. While there’s no question that streaming, and Spotify in particular, saved the music business after 15 years of financial freefall, the jury is still out on who exactly was saved. Major music companies are enjoying record profits, as are many superstar artists — but many others further down the income scale, and especially songwriters, have been left behind by the streaming payment model.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The Songwriters Hall of Fame has announced that Diane Warren will be the 2024 recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award at the organization’s induction and awards gala slated for Thursday, June 13, 2024, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. The Johnny Mercer Award, the Hall’s highest honor, is reserved for a songwriter or songwriting team who has already been inducted in a prior year and whose body of work is of such high quality and impact that it upholds the gold standard set by the legendary Johnny Mercer.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Chan Marshall — a.k.a Cat Power — is one of the most distinctive singers of her generation, emerging from the indie-rock scene of the early ‘90s to become a unique artist fusing a multitude of styles that range from rock to folk to low-key soul, in a long string of albums that alternate between originals and covers. Raised in Georgia, Charlyn Marshall (Chan is a childhood nickname that is pronounced “Shawn”) relocated to New York in the early ‘90s and was adopted by the city’s indie-rock community, releasing a string of increasingly strong albums.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Austin Butler was hospitalized after he wrapped filming on Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” and it appears it was something of a miracle he avoided a similar fate on the set of Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two.” The Oscar nominee joins the epic franchise as Feyd-Rautha, the cruel and sadistic younger nephew of and heir to Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård). Butler told Entertainment Weekly that heat stroke impacted several people on set during his first week of shooting. How’s that for a welcome? “It was 110 degrees and so hot,” Butler said.

visit to Canada ahead of the 2025 Invictus Games go? It seems like it went pretty perfectly, as a matter of fact. The couple even shared a previously unseen photo of themselves from the One Year to Go Dinner in Vancouver.The photo, published in , shows Meghan in an olive green gown by Canadian designer Greta Constantine, with a draped, single-shoulder neckline which she accessorized with a simple diamond chain necklace. The better to show off the dress, Meghan wore her hair up in a slick bun with a side-part.

EXCLUSIVE: After we broke news of the studio acquiring Margot Robbie starrer Big Bold Beautiful Journey, we can reveal that Sony Pictures has boarded another of the European Film Market’s most in-demand projects: Past Lives director Celine Song‘s next movie, Materialists, which A24 is selling.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Philosophy Tube star Abigail Thorn has added to the cast of her upcoming Nebula original short film, “Dracula’s Ex-Girlfriend,” with “Helluva Boss” stars Morgana Ignis and Brandon Rogers. Described as “‘Jennifer’s Body’ meets ‘Euphoria,’” the “sexy and irreverent” short will debut in early Summer 2024 on Nebula under the Nebula Originals banner. Per Nebula’s description, “Two former rivals who share the same toxic ex, Count Dracula, reconnect over dinner and drinks — but one is more healed and moved on than the other.