It’s early on Friday morning. You roll over, rub the sleep out of your eyes, and open your phone to see R&B star Ne-Yo and Venezuelan singer Carmen DeLeon dancing through a cotton-candy-colored world with a mysterious new DJ who appears to be part llama. But no, you’re not still …
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Music publishing has never been more commercially vibrant — from some perspectives, at least. Institutional investors are increasingly viewing evergreen music copyrights as hot property. Merck Mercuriadis’ Hipgnosis Songs Fund is paying notoriously high multiples to acquire songwriter and publishing catalogs, and it hit an all-time share price high in …
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I n June 2019, Mitch Mills, a senior vice president of radio promotion at Elektra Records, sent an urgent text to Steve Zap, an independent radio promoter who works with a number of stations in the adult contemporary format. The pair are both longtime players in the music industry, and …
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A little more than a week after Warner Music Group‘s IPO led to a $15.3 billion valuation, Chinese entertainment behemoth Tencent — the country’s leader in music streaming — has purchased 5.2% of WMG’s Class A shares, equating to about 0.8% total of the U.S.-based recorded music company, for $100 …
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Spotify shook up the podcast world on Tuesday when popular and polarizing podcaster Joe Rogan announced his show “The Joe Rogan Experience” would become a Spotify exclusive this September. But it wasn’t a total surprise — the news further bolstered Spotify’s high-profile podcasting moves from the past year and a …
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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused one of the biggest crises the music industry has seen in decades. As the pandemic expands, artists are delaying their album releases, streaming is down, and the live sector has shut down, putting tens of thousands of mostly freelance workers in potential dire straits. The …
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On Tuesday night at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles, a sold-out crowd full of recognizable TikTokers and tastemakers greets Trevor Daniel. The 25-year-old emo-pop purveyor has found himself lingering in the industry eye as a shining reflection of the current business model: get traction on SoundCloud, amass a following …
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Fourteen years since its release, Shakira and Wyclef Jean‘s bilingual mega-hit, “Hips Don’t Lie,” is the gift that keeps on giving. As of Monday, the song has made its debut on the Rolling Stone Top 100 Songs chart at Number 79. Following Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s momentous Super Bowl halftime …
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Coming out of a decade of upheaval, the music business has never been such a challenging — or thrilling — place to work. What does a career in music look like in 2020? How do decision makers balance the traditional philosophies of their industry with new responsibilities, the endless flood …
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In May, Miley Cyrus promised three new EPs, but she hit some road blocks after releasing the first one. Three months later, she announced her divorce from longtime partner Liam Hemsworth and underwent vocal surgery last month. Now, it seems she’s setting her sights on a new endeavor: a project …
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