Innholdsfortegnelse for November 24, 2012 i Billboard Magazine

The live entertainment business is often about risk-taking, and as the business becomes more complex thanks to advances in technology, diversity in content and social media, it has become increasingly smart to share some of that risk with partners. The new partnership between live entertainment giant AEG and secondary ticketing company StubHub appears at first to be an attempt by AEG—and its concert promotion division, AEG Live— to capture some of the ticketing revenue that primary issuers lose to the secondary market. But while lead generation and ticket sales are no doubt the primary drivers of this deal, the AEG-StubHub pairing has much more: dueling e-commerce heavyweights, potential for mobile innovation and even political intrigue. Big dollars and big market shares are in play. In terms of gross sales volume,…

www.billboard.biz >>>SOUNDEXCHANGE PAYS OUT $122.5M IN Q3: LARGEST SUM YET SoundExchange continues to grow its payout, hitting $122.5 million in royalty payouts to artists and labels in the third quarter. That figure makes it the largest quarterly payout by the organization since its inception. For the year, the agency has paid out $326.9 million, surpassing the $292 million in royalty payments it made in 2011. It also brings total payouts since Sound Exchange’s inception to about $1.2 billion in master rights performance royalties for artists and labels. The organization says that it now distributes royalties on behalf of more than 2,000 digital music services. >>>EASTERLIN NAMED GM OF ROADRUNNER Mike Easterlin was named GM of Roadrunner Records on Nov. 15, filling the void created by the departure of longtime label…

Last year, after a lifetime with EMI Latin, Tejano/norteño fusion group Intocable decided not to renew its contract and instead went independent, self-releasing its music and handling distribution through deals with retailers and indie distributors. It was a bold move from one of regional Mexican’s most successful and best-selling acts. And it yielded results: 2011 debuted atop Billboard’s Top Latin Albums while single “Te Prometi” topped Regional Mexican Airplay. Despite the success, however, Intocable has changed gears. The group signed a global licensing deal with Universal Music Latin Entertainment, which will release and market its upcoming album, due in early 2013. The shift isn’t so much an about-face as a strategic move designed to raise Intocable’s profile in countries where it couldn’t function effectively as an independent. It’s a decision…

Of Gentleman and Cowards, a rock quartet from Hamilton, Ontario, landed a track on the soundtrack to “We Made This Movie,” and four days after the premiere appeared on “Late Show With David Letterman.” The band owes a considerable debt to crowd-sourcing. The rest of the debt can be paid to “Letterman” executive producer Rob Burnett, who made his directorial debut with “We Made This Movie” and chose a DIY approach aligned with the one that went into making the film. After creating several versions with music pulled from YouTube, Burnett and his co-writer, Jon Beckerman, turned to Red Bull Soundstage for assistance in getting original music. The filmmakers, who kept the budget at less than $1 million but didn’t have any money for music, loaded four scenes, described the…

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO, EMI production music chief Peter Cox summoned a punk rocker named Russell Emmanuel into his London office. Emmanuel had launched Extreme Music just a year earlier in 1997 and was the talk of London after he mailed out condoms to a thousand music industry executives. The condom package read, “Extreme Music: The Only Safe Thing You’ll Get From Us.” Instead of scolding Emmanuel, Cox shook his hand and told him, “You really are the bad boys of production music.” In the world of production music—with its dodgy history of sound-alike recordings—that was saying something. “It’s always been our duty to shake shit up, rip the industry a new one and create music so sexy you’re going to need a safe word,” Emmanuel says. “If it’s in our…

THE NINTH ANNUAL Billboard Touring Conference & Awards were held Nov. 7-8 at the Roosevelt Hotel in a weather-f logged Manhattan still recovering from Hurricane Sandy and its associated power outages, not to mention a nor’easter that blew through the area on the first day of the conference. Despite all that, the event brought in a record 650-plus attendees and, whether it was a hunker-down mentality in the wake of the storms or the relief of putting the slump of 2010 two years in the rearview with a healthy 2012, the overall mood was solution-focused and far less acrimonious than past events. Even the sometimes cynical Seth Hurwitz, president of Washington, D.C., independent promoter I.M.P., felt it, telling Billboard after the awards (where he picked up yet another top club…

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif., rocked the North American festival scene when producer Goldenvoice, a division of AEG Live, announced it would stage two Coachella fests on consecutive weekends with identical lineups for 2012. They both sold out in three hours, and the resulting gross of $47.3 million was enough to garner Coachella top boxscore and top festival nods at the Billboard Touring Awards. But the festival almost stalled out of the gate, as the Goldenvoice team of Paul Tollett, Bill Fold and Skip Paige related during “Coachella: The Grass, the Palms, the Music,” a keynote session at the Billboard Touring Conference. Paige on the financial aftermath of the first Coachella: “When we did the first show in 1999, we…

With more than a decade in the rap game, Freeway still has a hustler’s spirit. The Philadelphia native broke into music as one of the f lagship members of Jay-Z’s Roc-a-Fella Records, and his 2003 debut, Philadelphia Freeway, bowed at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and has sold 542,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. After 2007 follow-up Free at Last, and his release from Roc-a-Fella and Def Jam the following year, Freeway took the independent route with 2010’s The Stimulus Package with producer Jake One—a precursor to his Babygrande Records debut, Diamond in the Ruff, due Nov. 27. Freeway, who inked a one-album deal with Babygrande in July with an option to release another LP through the label, says the partnership was a no-brainer because of the artistic freedom.…

On Oct. 9, Keyshia Cole re-entered the reality scene with the debut of her second BET series, “Keyshia & Daniel: Family First.” The premiere, which revolves around Cole’s new roles as wife to Cleveland Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson and mom to son Daniel Jr., attracted 2.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Now, the R&B singer/songwriter is aiming to scale similar heights with the Nov. 19 arrival of her fifth Geffen album, Woman to Woman. Helmed by producers like Rodney Jerkins, T- Minus, Darhyl “DJ” Camper Jr. and Carlos McKinney, Cole’s back-toher-roots set has already spun off the No. 7 R&B/hip-hop hit “Enough of No Love” (featuring Lil Wayne), and second single “Trust and Believe” is starting its chart climb. After three platinum albums—2005’s The Way It Is, 2007’s Just Like…

“ome” wasn’t originally where rock radio PDs’ hearts were. Phillip Phillips takes his introductory single “Home” to No. 1 on Billboard’s Nielsen BDS-based Triple A chart this week, but the road to the top contained potential potholes in the form of programmer bias against Fox’s “American Idol,” known best for discovering pop stars. When triple A prides itself on championing artists before they break into the mainstream, as evidenced by its track record with such acts as Adele and Mumford & Sons, how can it maintain rock cred by spinning a track by a singer that millions of people have seen and heard weekly; one introduced, no less, by the practical spokesman for pop culture, Ryan Seacrest? “Oh, I was totally nervous about adding Phillip Phillips,” KGSR Austin assistant PD/music…

‘HO’ GOES TOP 10 >>The Lumineers’ “Ho Hey” hits the top 10 on Hot Digital Songs for the first time, rising 16-8 with its best sales week yet: 101,000 (up 48%). It’s the song’s fifth straight weekly sales gain and its rise coincides with its steady gains at radio. It climbs 23-22 on Mainstream Top 40 and HOLIDAY BOYS >>Backstreet Boys debut at No. 1 on Holiday Digital Songs (see page 39) with “It’s Christmas Time Again,” marking the group’s first No. 1 on any Billboard chart since 2001. HERITAGE STREAK >>Shinedown maintains its streak of reaching the top 10 on Heritage Rock with every chart entry as “Enemies” rises 14-10. It’s the band’s 16th straight top 10, stretching back to 2003’s “Fly From the Inside.” Only Nickelback has more…

The departure of Tune-Core CEO Jeff Price this summer, just months after the exit of cofounder Peter Wells, shocked the music industry, but the online distribution company insists it remains on course and retains its grand vision as it prepares to open up shop in Japan. “Our vision and mission is exactly the same,” COO Scott Ackerman says. “That is why we are growing internationally and continuing our plan to be in every market possible in the world so that all [indie and/or known DIY] artists can be successful.” But the departure of a highprofile executive like Price, who was never afraid to voice his opinion loudly on behalf of artists about the lack of transparency and other industry issues, creates a big void at the 7-year-old company. TuneCore and…

As electronic dance music, or EDM, has exploded in popularity, dance music download site Beatport has transformed into a commercial and community hub far beyond its origins as a place that sold high-quality dance MP3s to DJs. Beatport’s growth spurt actually preceded the recent EDM upswing when its business started to blossom four years ago, CEO Matthew Adell says. The last year has been especially strong. Beatport had 10 million more visitors in the current quarter than in the same quarter in 2011. Some of Beatport ’s growth can be ascribed to the increasing popularity of EDM, but the site hasn’t been sitting idly by in hopes people will come. The company has reimagined itself, added new features and built new layers into the site. Beatport is now far more…

PEPSI LOOKS TO LATIN MUSIC FOR SUPER BOWL Pepsi will target the Latin market during the 2013 Super Bowl with music partnerships including a concert with Univision. The Fan Jam Concert takes place Feb. 1 and will feature such acts as reggaetón rapper Don Omar and regional Mexican singer/songwriter Larry Hernandez. Pepsi is also sponsoring Tazon Latino, a flag football game featuring NFL alumni and other celebrities. JUANES, GUERRA TO PLAY BENEFIT FOR SANDY VICTIMS Juanes and Juan Luis Guerra are doing their part to support those affected by Hurricane Sandy by hosting a concert at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Nov. 24. Proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross as it continues providing assistance to victims of the disaster. “With so many people from these regions…

Tuesday, Nov. 6, wasn’t just Elec t ion Day for Jay Brown. It was also the day the Roc Nation president/ cofounder had to hand over the final cut of Rihanna’s seventh album, Unapologetic (Island Def Jam), just 13 days before its scheduled release. “We had our songs ready way beforehand, but we never stop recording,” Brown says a week before Unapologetic’ release. “If we can record a month later, two months later, all the way to Nov. 6, we’re never going to stop until that date. We’re never content.” Hours after Brown turned in the album at 6 a.m., 90-second snippets intended for iTunes were leaked online. Fans were familiar with a good chunk of Unapologetic by mid-afternoon. Three days later, Rihanna debuted the album in full at a…

MICHAEL SIMON, the new president/CEO of the Harry Fox Agency, says he has a simple goal for HFA: combine his deep love of music with his desire to build the industry’s digital infrastructure to help young people discover musicians like Hal Blaine, a legendary session drummer and a personal favorite. “I got into the music industry to ensure that there was an infrastructure in place to ensure musicians get paid a fair royalty when a digital service uses their music so that they can keep creating music that I want to listen to,” Simon says. “Michael is the right guy to lead HFA,” says an executive who has worked with him in the past. “He has the industry knowledge, he has the digital vision, and he is a music guy.”…

Irving Azoff doesn’t tweet anymore, thanks to Live Nation lawyers who asked the candid chairman to keep mum in social media. But in an hour-long keynote Q&A with Billboard editorial director Bill Werde at Billboard’s Touring Conference on Nov. 7, he had a whole Twitter feed’s worth of opinions, stories and frank assessments of the music industry’s past, present and future. Three excerpts: ON GETTING HIS START UNDER THE WING OF BILL GRAHAM: “I was working at Associated Booking Corp., and my territory was California. Bill would call me on the phone, and I’d booked a bunch of stuff into the Fillmores and Winterland, but we hadn’t met. So he says, ‘Well, come up to a show.’ So I go out to the front of the Fillmore, and there’s Bill…

At Billboard’s Latin Music Conference in April, Pitbull explained the meaning behind the title of his upcoming album, Global Warming. “Our career, our culture is just like global warming,” he said. “When people said [about me], ‘He just made it, he just made it.’ No. I’ve been here. We’ve been here for years. And it’s the same thing with global warming. It’s been an urban legend, a myth for so long, and now it’s that relevant.” While it’s a coincidence that Global Warming is arriving mere weeks (Nov. 19) after Hurricane Sandy caused devastation in the northeastern United States, the timing does further drive home the point. For few pop acts in recent memory have been as ubiquitous and yet as increasingly relevant as Armando Christian Perez, the Miami-based rapper/producer/impresario…

Timeless hearts: After a near six-decade career, country music legend George Jones has begun what he’s terming a farewell tour. Dubbed the Grand Tour and booked by the Richard de la Font Agency, the run kicked off Nov. 11 at the Mansion Theater in Branson, Mo., and will make stops at the Realto Square Theater in Joliet, Ill. (March 15) and the Fox Theatre in Atlanta (April 19), all leading up to a final performance at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Nov. 19, 2013 . . . Surf’s up: Following a November swing through Germany in support of The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy (Barsurk), New York alt-rock outfit Nada Surf will close the year with a string of stateside dates including stops at the Fine Line Music Cafe…

WORLD DOMENICO Cine Privê Producer:Domenico Plug Research Release Date:Nov. 6 Brazi lian-Italian singer/percussionist Domenico keeps to the path he has created with partners Moreno Veloso (who co-produced 10 of new album Cine Privê’ 13 tracks) and Kassin on recent releases. Yet as a leader without a “plus two” tag after his name, Domenico’s stylistic overview remains expansive while the music moves inward, closer to the heart. It’s samba for a living room rather than street parade, bossa nova and tropicalia as one-on-one conversations. An instrument listed on the sultry “Pinguinhos” is “giggling penguins,” an apt description of Domenico’s melodic comportment; his relaxed vocals suggest a man whose smile rarely fades. Instrumentation is sparse yet charismatically off-center. The gentle sway of “5 Sentidos,” for example, is never in doubt, yet the…

Future is one of the few artists to get another shot at making a first impression. The Atlanta native spent the past two years releasing a handful of mixtapes ahead of his debut album, Pluto (Epic/A1/Free Bandz), that arrived in April. The LP rode the buildup from buzzy street singles “Magic” and “Tony Montana,” bowing at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 with 41,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But since Pluto’ release, Future’s star has shone brighter. His single “Turn On the Lights,” the first from the LP that wasn’t previously included on a mixtape, peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, while his latest cut “Neva End” is No. 34 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay tally. Now, the 26-year-old is repackaging his debut as…

2 & 34 The new Now 44 starts with 99,000—compared with the 111,000 that greeted Now 43’s first week. The new compilation is the 43rd straight Now album (in the regular series) to debut in the top 10. Meanwhile, the new Disney-themed Now set starts at No. 34 with 13,000. 3 Clearly the early winner in the race for this year’s biggest holiday set, the album slips by only 17% in week two (74,000). A year ago this week, Michael Bublé’s Christmas was in its third chart week, jumping 8-2 with 123,000 (up 38%). 16 The fifth volume in the series (21,000) is the fourth in a row to reach the big chart, and the highest-charting since 2009’s Volume Two debuted and peaked at No. 15. Among the covers: Gotye’s…

In entering the Japanese marketplace, TuneCore has partnered with international marketing agency Wano and initially is servicing only Japanese artists to digital services. But eventually the company will service U.S. acts there as well. The Japan launch, which began three weeks ago, started with a small client base of about 100 Japanese artists who have been serviced to Amazon and iTunes in that market. TuneCore is starting small because it wants to ensure its digital pipeline is performing accurately before looking to add more artists and services. In prepping for its Japan incursion, TuneCore used its own systems and technology, but Wano handles operations and marketing, and collaborates on developing technology. “We wanted to build a platform that could be used worldwide,” TuneCore Japan CEO Iichiro Noda says. “Our goal…

Latin Notas LEILA COBO Pablo Alborá sings and plays the guitar—a timeless combination. But his particular pairing has struck the kind of collective chord that only comes along every decade or so. His self-titled debut album, released in February 2011, was the top-selling album of the year in Spain. His follow-up acoustic set, released last November, is the top-selling album so far this year. All told, Alborán has sold half a million units in Spain in less than two years, with each of his albums going six-times platinum (40,000 units sold). The numbers are extraordinary for the country. And they keep coming. Now, the challenge is replicating his success in both Latin America, where he’s made headway in countries like Argentina and Puerto Rico, and the United States, where he…

Just about every marketer in the live entertainment business is tapping into the transition from traditional to social/mobile marketing, including Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest promoter. But as these means of marketing take hold, the sheer size and scope of Live Nation on a global level will move this transition forward in ways that will ultimately forever change how live events are marketed. A concert is a social experience: It always has been driven by wordof-mouth, and social changes that game exponentially. In its third-quarter investor report, Live Nation said that $125 million in its marketing budget has gone to social media and the company plans to double that for 2013. Early tests with acts ranging from Swedish House Mafia to P!nk or Ticketmaster’s RSVP program show that when…

The third-quarter Publisher Airplay chart produced the most dramatic changes in the rankings since Billboard began its quarterly tracking of chart share for the top 100 songs in 2006. For the quarter, Sony/ATV Music Publishing was by far the top-ranked publisher with a 25.7% share, eight percentage points ahead of the closest competitor. But it’s an accomplishment that will have to be marked with an asterisk: Sony/ATV has vaulted to the top because it now serves as the administrator for EMI Music Publishing. On June 29, a Sony Corp. of America consortium acquired EMI Music Publishing and assigned Sony/ATV as its administrator. That means Sony/ATV had control over those EMI copyrights for the entire third quarter, which is why Billboard combined the EMI and Sony/ATV chart shares into one ranking.…

RICHARD STUMPF HAS BEEN a man on a mission since arriving at Imagem with the mandate to lead the Dutch-owned company into the U.S. pop/rock marketplace. As part of that mission, Stumpf, who serves as president of Imagem Music USA, has been working to ensure Imagem emerges as a midsize U.S. music publisher. It would fill the void created by BMG Rights Management, when it acquired Bug Music, Stage Three Music, Cherry Lane Music Publishing and Evergreen Copyrights, among others. Besides BMG, Round Hill Music has also made acquisitions while Spirit Music and Bicycle Music continue to buy artist catalogs. “With all of the acquisitions and the [BMG] rollup, the upper-tier indie-music publishing space is almost virtually vacant,” says Stumpf, who joined Imagem in September 2010 after BMG picked up…

@dancingastro: Overheard @billboardbiz: “Corporations want to enter the space. They just don’t want to be corporate about it.” #touringconf @Chachi: All I know is as valuable the lineup for @coachella the SPICY PIZZA is just as important! Let’s be honest! #touringconf @djfreshproduce: So to make stacks of paper you haf to go paperless #touringconf @aaziz830: “I like to watch what people do wrong in the space, too -- so I’m watching Google and You-Tube in the music space” - @mcuban #TouringConf @ty_cunning: “I don’t think you can rely solely on Facebook. The news feed is becoming more and more irrelevant.” - Gogi Gupta #TouringConf @GoogleLiveEvent: “When you have a connection with the fans, they are much more susceptible to the upsell” @iancriancr example: ofwgkta #touringconf @joseph_rees_ii: Azoff - “If you…

For Richard Andrew, who records as Outasight, things started looking up when he began talking to Warner Bros. Records in 2008. Then a relatively unknown rapper/pop act from Yonkers, N.Y., with a few mixtapes and 2007 EP Employee of the Year under his belt, Andrew was signed to an indie label that, he says today, wasn’t conducive to making and releasing music. “There was a few different labels I was talking to and Warner Bros. liked me so much that they were willing to work with this extremely stubborn label,” Andrew says. “It took nine months of negotiations where I couldn’t release music just to get out of it . . . That was an amazing leap of faith to begin with. I really thought it was going to be…

Inf luential hardcore punk band Bad Brains, which formed in Washington, D.C., in 1977 and reunited its original lineup in 1994, have experienced quite a few incarnations and lived on several record labels (including Epic and Maverick). But the foundation—innovative hardcore infused with reggae and rock—remains. The group’s most recent (and eighth) album, Build a Nation, was produced by late Beastie Boys member Adam “MCA” Yauch and arrived in mid-2007 pegged to the band’s 30th anniversary through Megaforce Records. It bowed at No. 100 on the Billboard 200 with 8,000 sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and has sold 40,000 to date. Five years later, the band has readied its follow-up, Into the Future, which will arrive Nov. 19 also on Megaforce. “When you get to be O.G. status you go…

WILLY MOON Yeah Yeah (2:43) Producer:Willy Moon Writer:W. Moon Publisher:EMI Music Publishing LuvLuvLuv/Universal Island/Cherrytree/Interscope Only 23, New Zealand-born Willy Moon sounds like an artist your parents might recommend. His sound puts him appropriately alongside soul-spirited U.K. exports like Jessie Ware and Duffy. His second single off an upcoming EP, “Yeah Yeah” is throwback in spirit and sound: Moon sings, “And everybody goes/To the sound of the radio/To the sound of beat,” as one imagines groups of ponytailed sock-hoppers clapping along with a jukebox. “Yeah Yeah” is a welcome right turn following Moon’s first single, “Railroad Track,” which was full of claps, stomps and whistles, and plays out like “Jesus Walks” without the Jesus. When Moon goes on tour with Jack White this month, “Yeah Yeah” will have enough pop moo…

Taylor Swift’Red reigns supreme for a third week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 196,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan (down 43%). Swift beats the No. 2 title—the debuting Now 44 collection—by nearly 100,000 units. The latter arrives with 99,000, marking the 43rd straight title in the regular Now series to debut in the top 10. (The first Now set debuted outside the top 10, but eventually climbed into the region.) The Now series’ earlier release, Now 43, debuted at No. 1 on the Aug. 25 chart with 111,000 sold. Red is Swift’s first album to spend its first three weeks at No. 1. Her 2010 set, Speak Now, earned two frames atop the list from the start and then dropped out of the No. 1 slot for…

EXECUTIVE TURNTABLE Send submissions to: exec@billboard.com RECORD COMPANIES: RCA Records promotes Keith Naftaly to executive VP/head of A&R. He was senior VP of A&R at RCA/Jive Label Group. Warner Bros. Records taps Alex Wilhelm as director of A&R. He ran the website Crazed Hits. PUBLISHING: Sony/ATV Music Publishing promotes Walter Jones to VP of urban music. He was director of A&R. Warner/Chappell Music names Ben Vaughn executive VP of Warner/Chappell Nashville. He was executive VP/GM of EMI Music Publishing Nashville. The National Music Publishers’ Assn. appoints Mark Fried to its board of directors. He is founder/president of Spirit Music. TOURING: VenuWorks taps Andy Long as VP of events and entertainment. He will head up the facility management company’s new booking and promotions division, scheduled to launch in early 2013. He…