Innholdsfortegnelse for June 15, 2013 i Billboard Magazine

MIXED PWC REPORT The U.S. music market is scheduled to grow by 1% through 2017, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The digital music business, including recorded music and publishing, is pegged as the fastest-growing sector, anticipated to climb by 5.1% during the next four years. The concert biz, meanwhile, should increase by 3%—from $8.9 billion this year to $10 billion in 2017. Dragging down growth is a decline in physical sales: The market is expected to decline 13% during the next four years to $1.4 billion. SAMSUNG SNAGS JAY-Z? Jay-Z’s next big move could be a partnership with Samsung worth around $20 million, according to reports, and the hip-hop mogul might have a new streaming platform in mind that would tie in to his Roc Nation stable of acts. The deal, if…

Music branding agencies. GMR is one of the few music branding agencies backed by a major holding company, compared with indies like Cornerstone and Steve Stoute’s Translation. By leveraging the scale of its sister agencies, GMR can superserve a client list that includes Pepsi, Hershey’s, the NFL and Miller Brewing. Brands as publishers. The NFL isn’t the only brand exploring music publishing. Coca-Cola acquired a minority stake in new publishing company Music Dealers in 2011, partly to help collect revenue on its original songs and jingles. Indie bands. Emerging acts Vintage Trouble and Ken Loi got exposure when they were featured in national TV ads for Supercuts’ “Rock the Cut” campaign, created by GMR and DDB. Future tools being developed by GMR will help indie artists and brands develop partnerships…

.biz Following endorsement deals with Jason Aldean and Brantley Gilbert, Mountain Dew has introduced a new platform called “Concrete Country” in partnership with CMT. Since originating as a digital series for CMT.com in 2012, “Concrete Country” will expand to a series of 10-minute specials featuring upand-coming country acts performing on iconic U.S. streets. As the June 10 opening of the four-day Apple Worldwide Developers Conference neared at press time, Apple appeared to be in the final stages of signing up the major music companies for its planned music streaming service. While Apple so far has inked deals with both the recorded-music and publishing operations of Warner Music and Universal Music Group, sources say Sony Music Entertainment and Sony/ATV are close to an agreement, but still haggling over rates. The holdup…

The primary market. Primary-market stakeholders complain that resellers— using bots and other unpopular mechanisms— profit from a business without investing in its costs or sharing its revenue. AEG and StubHub have figured this one out. The secondary market. Consumers want a trustworthy secondary market or StubHub wouldn’t exist. But the secondary market in general is fraught with controversy, and StubHub’s association with the O2 brings a new level of legitimacy to the overall secondary market on a global level. Ticketmaster. As groundbreaking as the StubHub/AEG deal is, CEO Nathan Hubbard and Ticketmaster have captured secondary-market revenue since 2008 through reseller TicketsNow. At stake is a huge market, which StubHub dominates on the secondary level, much as Ticketmaster does on the primary level.…

“I’d like to think that anybody, not just Oklahomans, who was in a position to react that quickly would have done the same thing,” Blake Shelton says. The country star is reflecting on “Healing in the Heartland,” a benefit concert that aired May 29 on NBC, just nine days after a mile-wide tornado devastated the singer’s home state of Oklahoma. The hour-long event (see story, page 48) helped raise more than $6 million for the United Way of Central Oklahoma to aid victims affected by the tornado that hit the Oklahoma City area. Shelton hosted and performed at the concert, which was speedily organized in part due to his side gig as a coach on “The Voice.” “We worked well together—they wanted to jump onboard and I was able to…

What if subscription services started eating into download and CD purchases? It’s not an unlikely scenario. Consumers allot only so much of their income for entertainment spending. If spending on streaming services increases, spending on other forms of music is likely to decrease. Americans spent 4.1% of their after-tax income on entertainment in 2011, down slightly from 4.4% in 2002 and 4.6% in 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some forms of entertainment may grab a greater share—recorded music competes with games, movies, live music and other categories—but consumers will spend roughly the same share of their income on entertainment from one year to the next. Through 2012, subscription services grew rapidly while digital purchase revenue grew as well. While there’s always been concern that streaming services…

“It’s a lovely film. Well, maybe lovely’s not the right word.” —Matt Bellamy 1 Zombie rock: After Muse rung in the June 2 premiere of “World War Z” with a performance at the Horse Guards Parade in London, frontman Matt Bellamy (left) hung with Brad Pitt, the film’s producer and leading man, at the after-party at Massimo Restaurant & Oyster Bar. Muse also contributed to the film’s soundtrack and score. 2 Also at the “World War Z” after-party were (from left) Paramount’s Geoff Stier and Randy Spendlove with Muse’s Dominic Howard. 3 King and queen: Mary J. Blige and former Warner Music CEO Lyor Cohen put their best smiles forward at the Peace, Love & a Cure Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation Benefit in Cresskill, N.J., on May 21. 4…

In 2005, when digital audio interface maker Apogee Electronics moved its headquarters to an old print shop in Santa Monica, Calif., legendary mixer Bob Clearmountain, husband of Apogee owner Betty Bennett and consultant to the company, turned an unused space in the rear of the building into the studio of his dreams. “We just had junk stored in here,” says Clearmountain, seated in the cozy control room of what’s now called Apogee Studios. “I thought it could be a studio that doubled as a live venue—something to do for fun.” Clearmountain and Apogee tricked out the exposedbrick space with a mix of top-notch vintage analog gear and Apogee’s cutting-edge digital products. During the last three years, more than 30 acts, including Patti Smith, James Blake, Nas and the Shins, have…

At 5:58 on a warm and sunny spring evening in North Quincy, Mass., Frank Sullivan is stirring a pot of homemade jambalaya on the stove with a smile on his face. “I love cooking,” he says. “It’s a gift—and a curse—from my father. He said you can never make enough food for a party.” Frank’s wife, Maribeth Sayers, is taking a breather at the kitchen table after setting out an array of chips, dip and vegetables. Mindful of the guests, she and Frank have stocked the adjoining enclosed porch with coolers of beers, their longnecks poking through the ice. About 40 people are due to arrive, some friends and family, at “Chez Saysull,” as regular visitors dubbed it many get-togethers ago. (“We just call it home,” Frank says.) But as…

DARLENE LOVE BACKED: Sam Cooke, the Righteous Brothers, Sonny & Cher; also a member of the Blossoms SOLO: Uncredited lead on the Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel”; three Billboard Hot 100 singles in 1963 CURRENTLY: Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s autobiography “My Name Is Love” is being rereleased; appearances on “Good Morning America” and “Today” (June 13) MERRY CLAYTON BACKED: The Rolling Stones (“Gimme Shelter”), Lynyrd Skynyrd (“Sweet Home Alabama”), Elvis Presley, Ray Charles SOLO: Six albums (1970-’94), five Hot 100 singles CURRENTLY: Sony Legacy releasing The Best of Merry Clayton (June 25) LISA FISCHER BACKED: Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick, Patti LaBelle SOLO: Her one album, So Intense (1991), won the Grammy Award for best female R&B vocal performance CURRENTLY: On tour with the Rolling Stones (a gig she’s had…

BERRY GORDY: PIONEER AWARD One of the essential narrators in the American music story, Motown founder Berry Gordy (ASCAP) is the first living person to receive the SHOF’s Pioneer Award, created in 2012 to honor “the career of a historic creator of an extensive body of musical work that has been a major influence on generations of songwriters,” according to the SHOF’s announcement. The inaugural Pioneer Award was presented posthumously to Woody Guthrie. Gordy, an iconic visionary who created not only a label but a distinct genre of music, nurtured the careers of Diana Ross & the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, among other musical legends. His contributions transformed the social landscape as much as they did the music industry. An active proponent of…

A “huge sense of optimism” pervades the Goo Goo Dolls’ 10th album, Magnetic (June 11, Warner Bros.), according to frontman/primary songwriter John Rzeznik. “We’re just at a better place in our lives,” he says. “For one, I don’t attempt to drink an entire bottle of vodka every day like I used to. That helps.” The album was primarily recorded at New York’s Quad Studios, in a window-filled space overlooking Times Square. Fittingly, much of the record is bright, high-energy and laced with electronic flourishes like drum machines and synthesizers that will surprise some longtime fans of the hit-making trio’s nearly three decades of rock. “We were basically at the cultural epicenter of Western civilization,” Rzeznik says of the studio. “The energy is pouring in through the windows all day and…

Bradley Ryan, adult top 40 KPSI Palm Springs, Calif. Bruno Mars, “Treasure.” With all his recent success, his music is top of mind for listeners. On “Locked Out of Heaven,” I thought, “Wow, he sounds like Sting!” On this one, I found myself saying, “Wow, he sounds like Rod Stewart!” Daft Punk, “Get Lucky.” Maybe because I love the Neptunes and N*E*R*D, or I’m just hoping that this is the year Daft Punk comes nearby to play Coachella, but I really dig this. Pharrell Williams lends his amazing vocals and it actually sounds like a record from the analog age of recording. Capital Cities, “Safe and Sound.” Hopefully this hits. At first it reminded me of “Too Young” by Phoenix. As it played more, I couldn’t figure out if it…

Did twin-sister duo Megan & Liz just not-so-quietly issue the most catchy song of the summer? “Release You,” the lead single from the YouTube-bred group’s forthcoming first album, certainly has a showy pedigree, with Max Martin and Shellback producing and Savan Kotecha recruited as a co-writer. But the song’s power resides in Megan and Liz Mace’s arresting vocal tics: After brashly attacking the verses of the breakup song with claws drawn, the duo falls back and delivers the titular lyric in a fluttering falsetto. The juxtaposition combines the sneer of Icona Pop’s “I Love It” with P!nk’s harmonious kiss-offs, and although Megan & Liz are relative newcomers, they confidently glide over the song’s candy-coated synth hook and chopped guitar lick like seasoned pop performers. Few radio offerings this season will…

.biz Jack White dropped $142,000 on Detroit’s Masonic Temple— where he’s performed nine times—to save it from foreclosure. The building had gotten into tax debt in recent years, and had until June 3 to pay its outstanding balance and avoid foreclosure. One of the temple’s two theaters, the Cathedral, will be renamed the Jack White Theater in the hometown rocker’s honor. “Stompa,” Canadian singer/songwriter Serena Ryder’s muscular pop-rock single and lead track from her forthcoming album Harmony, spends its sixth consecutive week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Triple A chart. It’s a joyous song about the rapturous power of music—its title is found in the onomatopoeic refrain: “Nothing is wrong if you move to the beat/Clappa your hands, stompa your feet”—and has grown its audience thanks to showy placements on…

5 MONTHS AGO 88 Classic/RCA Records released a new version of Kid Ink’s single “Bad Ass” on Jan. 3 to announce the rapper’s signing. This version of the track, originally off last year’s mixtape Rocketshipshawty, features new verses from Meek Mill and Wale. An official video for the song premiered March 3. At that point, “Bad Ass” was meant to be a one-off single to tide fans over until the full-length. “We wanted to continue along the theme of being an indie and releasing music all the time,” RCA associate director of marketing Shani Fuller says. “We just really wanted to feed his fans with new music and a new look as we approached his album later in the year.” 1 MONTH AGO On May 2, RCA greenlit Kid Ink’s…

Blood ‘Lines’ Select sets of parents and offspring have each reached the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10 during the chart’s nearly 55-year history, but until this week, a mother and son had never both earned the honor. Robin Thicke makes history as “Blurred Lines” (featuring T.I. and Pharrell) rises 11-6 to become his first top 10 on the tally. In 1986 (when Thicke was 9), his mother, Gloria Loring, rose to No. 2 with “Friends and Lovers” (with Carl Anderson). Among fathers and sons, John and Julian Lennon have each notched top 10s, while fatherdaughter pairings include Pat and Debby Boone, Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus, and Frank and Nancy Sinatra. THE BIG NUMBER 51 Where the original Broadway cast recording of “Kinky Boots” bows on the Billboard 200, the…

When Coca-Cola and Spotify first announced their “global strategic partnership” in April 2012, the vague marketing buzzwords only hinted at the products to come. However, the weekend before Spotify founder Daniel Ek announced the partnership at Ad Age’s Digital Conference in New York, the two companies held a “hack den” where developers feverishly worked on new coding for PlaceLists, a location-based global app for the Web that will be featured on Spotify. ¶ PlaceLists provides a new platform for Spotify users to share and update playlists around the world. Using the app, for example, music fans in New York can listen to and vote on songs being played in Ibiza and vice versa. Using Facebook Connect, Spotify users can also create events and add various songs inspired by different PlaceLists.…

.biz Slacker launched its “EQ” metric for measuring the hotness quotient of millions of tracks to present a weekly top 40 list, becoming the latest streaming music company to give artists and listeners a glimpse of the vast treasure trove of data it has accumulated from billions of hours of listening. A new presentation by longtime Internet business guru Mary Meeker concludes that the U.S. consumer’s infatuation with smartphones will continue to have major implications for the music biz. According to Meeker’s analysis, music ranks as the fourth-most-important smartphone function, with an average of 13 daily play sessions leading to nearly 10% of total interactions. And those figures are expected to grow dramatically. Meeker, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and a former star equity…

Marty DiamondFounder, Little Big Man Head of Music, New York, Paradigm Marty Diamond has worked in all facets of the music business. After starting as the concert chairman at the University of Delaware, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications, soon he was booking at Manhattan club the Ritz. He followed that by working at Bill Graham Management, as an international marketer for PolyGram and a product manager at Arista. After a stop at ITG Agency he started his own boutique booking agency, Little Big Man, in 1994, and was instrumental in starting Lilith Fair and building Coldplay’s touring base. In 2006, he agreed to be acquired by Paradigm, and now heads the New York office of one of the industry’s most powerful agencies. 6.45 AM Wake up…

$4.5b U.S. secondary market (estimate) 8m Number of tickets AEG Live sold in 2012 1.6m Number of tickets the O2 Arena sold in 2012 EXECUTIVE TURNTABLE RECORD COMPANIES Sire Records chairman Seymour Stein will take on additional responsibilities as senior label A&R executive for independent music, working closely with the management team at Warner Music Group’s Alternative Distribution Alliance to develop the company’s roster of labels and global infrastructure. In addition to identifying emerging indie labels and artists, Stein will help scout new executive talent at ADA. Furthermore, he will use his contacts in developing markets like India, China, Russia, South Korea and Africa to help expose local entrepreneurs and artists to worldwide audiences. “Technically, I’ve not been an indie since Sire joined Warner back in the late ’70s, but…

When E3, the videogame industry’s annual extravaganza, presses play on June 10 in Los Angeles, many will be looking for signs of how the beleaguered games sector plans to cope with the tectonic shifts that are disrupting the $78 billion global business. Among the forces hitting the market: New console cycle: With the new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 expected to hit shelves in time for Christmas, gamers have been postponing purchases of both games and consoles. This drags down sales—at least temporarily. It’s unclear how much money consumers will uncork once the new systems are out, however. The latest Nintendo Wii U console, released last November, has sold only 3.5 million units through March 31, causing major game publishers like Electronic Arts to stop developing titles for the platform…

What did you wake up thinking about this morning? I wake up every morning with the same thought: “I wonder if our competition has gained a step on us in some way.” We have always preached that we are competing with more than other record labels: videogames, books, the NFL and movies. We need to maintain a level of excellence that will allow us to compete against any entertainment distribution company . Describe a lesson you learned from failure. I have had a lot of failures, and the one thing I learned over time is that the world doesn’t come to an end. It just means you tried something and it didn’t work. When you’re not trying, that’s when it’s scary. We tried the Velocity program—a great idea on paper.…

BROWSE Thousands of music fans will converge on Ådalen, Denmark, June 14-16 to catch the Northside Music Festival (northside.dk), where Phoenix, fun., Imagine Dragons, the Flaming Lips and others will rock out. While many of the acts are international, Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, a few hours’ drive from Ådalen, has undeniably amped up its own music profile in recent years, producing a bevy of buzz bands including Kashmir (who will perform at Northside), Quadron, Indians and Efterklang. Kashmir frontman Kasper Eistrup says Copenhagen is his favorite city in all of Scandinavia, insisting it has “more original food, fashion, art and culture than Stockholm, Oslo or Helsinki.” The festival is a perfectly timed excuse to visit, as winters can be brutal. “We all wait for summer,” says breakthrough folk hero Indians (real…

Wondaland smells like sugar cookies. No one is baking in the towering Atlanta home, though there is a delicate spread of dip and crudités arranged on the kitchen counter, next to a jug of a fruity cocktail known as Wondapunch. But the cookie scent is both mouth-watering and pervasive: It’s being pumped through the AC, augmented by scented candles in every room, and seems meant to relax everyone who steps across the threshold. It gives an olfactory depth to a place already set up to foster ideation: the theme-roomed studio/playhouse in a tony area of Atlanta, where soul-funk cyborg-goddess Janelle Monáe records all of her music. Wondaland is HQ for Monáe’s label and music community, known as the Wondaland Arts Society, a self-described “transmedia manufacturing company and mystery school” with…

Before they were getting acclaim from Pitchfork and Spin, Brooklyn-based “nervous soul” sextet Ava Luna built up its following playing as many DIY and house shows as it did small club dates. “DIY shows can be more fun than your average club show, and even lucrative when they’re well-booked and -timed,” says drummer Julian Fader, the band’s “de facto booking agent.” “But when they’re not, they can suck.” Fader offers five musts and five must-avoids for first-timers. MUSTS 1 The acts on the bill are more important than the venue. “A well-booked show will rule, no matter where you do it,” Fader says. “If you have bands that go well together and are friends, people will have a good time, even if you play in a meat storage locker.” 2…

Theatrical releases of music-driven non-fiction films are at a higher-than-usual rate this summer, beginning with the release of “Twenty Feet From Stardom” on June 14 and “Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me” in early July (see review, page 47). Here are some of the major music documentaries hitting the big screen amid tentpoles, franchises and sequels that dominate summer at the cineplex. “A BAND CALLED DEATH” (Drafthouse Films, June 28) The Hackney brothers did something unheard of in a black neighborhood in Detroit in the mid-’70s: They formed a rock band. The name of the band, Death—chosen by the group’s songwriter/guitarist—stood in the way of securing a recording contract and eventually led to the band’s demise. Decades later, the band’s self-released single became a collector’s item, and Death was celebrated…

Despite economic conditions that continue to challenge Americans, family shows still offer value for consumers and an important footprint for venues. Selling strategies for these and other tours will be on the agenda when the Event & Arena Marketing Conference opens June 12 in Austin (see story, page 40). Tim Reese, manager at the University of Tennessee’s Thompson Bowling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn., says family shows make sense for his market. “The family show still offers enough of a price reduction for children that it encourages attendance by complete families,” he says. “At this point in the live entertainment area there are not a wealth of activities where entire families can participate at an affordable price.” John Graham, executive senior associate athletics director for the University of Texas’ Frank Erwin…

Derek Vincent Smith calls his fourth album, A Color Map of the Sun (July 2, Pretty Lights Music), “the most challenging, massive project” he could envision. The DJ/producer, who performs as Pretty Lights, certainly put in his time. The album, the first Pretty Lights LP to get a proper physical release in addition to being available for free download, has been in the works since 2010. “It’s something that I’d always wanted to do and I was always working toward,” he says. The album also marks the DJ’s first sample-free creation. Best-known for combining seemingly disparate aural snippets within his tracks, the 31-year-old holed up last year at Brooklyn’s Studio G, and later in New Orleans, enlisting the help of such artists as Talib Kweli and Preservation Hall Jazz Band…

For Mac Miller, an album isn’t a vehicle for promoting a slew of singles. The 21-year-old Pittsburgh rapper’s second LP, Watching Movies With the Sound Off (June 18, Rostrum Records), is just the latest element of a nearly nonstop process of delivering music to fans. But there’s still anticipation—produced by Miller (under the name Larry Fisherman) along with guest production by names like Diplo and Flying Lotus, the album is the follow-up to his 2011 debut, Blue Slide Park, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. “His radio is YouTube, his radio is touring. That’s the way he gets new fans. That’s the way he expresses himself.” —BENJY GRINBERG, ROSTRUM RECORDS “I got this house in L.A. and I built my own studio,” Miller says from his cellphone…

Chris Bell, who died at 27 in a car crash, gets his due as the creator of Big Star’s sound in Drew DeNicola and Olivia Mori’s finely detailed documentary “Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me.” The founder of the Memphis group, who brought the higher-profile Alex Chilton into the band, has gotten lost in the Big Star mythology—both in its initial run and rediscovery, where Chilton always held the role of brahman. That point is amplified through Bell’s late-in-life solo singles “I Am the Cosmos” and “You and Your Sister,” two songs replete with the magical ingredients of the group’s revered #1 Record. Chilton’s post-Big Star career by and large mystified his former bandmates and family. It’s a minute point, perhaps, but “Nothing Can Hurt Me” is filled with the…

NBC’s charity special “Healing in the Heartland: Relief Benefit Concert” makes waves on the charts. The May 29 TV show, benefiting victims of the May 20 Oklahoma tornado, was organized by Oklahoma native Blake Shelton (see story, page 11). It aired live and featured performances by Shelton and wife Miranda Lambert, Usher, Reba McEntire, Luke Bryan and others. More than $6 million was raised from pledges and ticket sales to the event, with the funds going to the United Way of Central Oklahoma. 13.2M The one-hour broadcast earned 8.4 million total TV viewers, according to Nielsen, and was the most-watched show of the night. NBC says 13.2 million tuned in to at least a portion of the concert on NBC and sister networks Bravo, CMT, E!, G4 and Style. 42K…

Smallpools’ Big Splash Following in the vein of pop-leaning rock acts like Phoenix, Grouplove and current format kings Capital Cities, Los Angeles’ Smallpools are approaching the Alternative chart with the buoyant “Dreaming” (RCA). Ahead of the quartet’s debut EP, the song is breaking thanks to major-market West Coast radio support. KKDO Sacramento, Calif., played it 26 times in the May 27-June 2 Nielsen BDS tracking week, while KROQ Los Angeles gave it 21 plays. SiriusXM’s Alt Nation channel led all panelists with 36 spins. Showtime For ‘Apollo’ Australian singer/songwriter Amba Shepherd is breaking through stateside thanks to her featured turn on Hardwell’s “Apollo,” which is No. 7 in its 17th week on Dance/Mix Show Airplay (after peaking at No. 5 two weeks ago). It’s the first Billboard hit for the…

I’M LOOKIN’ RIGHT AT THE OTHER HALF OF ME. THE VACANCY THAT SAT IN MY HEART IS A SPACE THAT YOU NOW HOLD. “MIRRORS,” JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE Justin Time Justin Timberlake scores his highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 hit in more than four years as “Mirrors” rises 3-2. Passing the No. 3 peak of previous single “Suit & Tie” (featuring Jay-Z), Timberlake tallies his highest rank since “Dead and Gone,” on which he assisted T.I., peaked at No. 2 for five weeks in February/March 2009. He last placed higher as a guest, with Nelly Furtado, on Timbaland’ two-week No. 1 “Give It to Me” in April 2007. A month earlier, he’d crowned the chart with his own “What Goes Around . . . Comes Around.” “Mirrors” tops Hot 100 Airplay for a…

.biz The global success of One Direction and Adele helped nudge British acts to a record worldwide album sale share of 13.3% in 2012, the highest on record and up from 12.6% in 2011, according to the BPI. Gary Reynolds hopes to make the music industry a friendlier place for major brands by establishing a full-service marketing concern that will focus on original content and publishing, the latter an area in which he says brands have only begun to dip their corporate toes. Reynolds has worked in sports and music marketing for more than 33 years as founder of GMR Marketing, an agency he sold in 1998 to Omnicom, one of the world’s largest advertising holding companies in terms of revenue. More brands are starting to embrace music, with sponsorship…

When Tom Lipsky’s Loud & Proud Records parted ways with Roadrunner Records amid restructuring at the latter label last year, Lipsky faced both good and bad news. Unfortunately, the split meant that all of the artists signed to Loud & Proud since launching in partnership with Roadrunner in 2007, including Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rush, would remain with Roadrunner and its parent Atlantic Records Group, making Loud & Proud a label without a roster. Fortunately, however, the split allowed Lipsky to fulfill his life’s mission: recording and preserving the work of veteran musicians. This spring, Lipsky inked an exclusive distribution and label services deal with RED/’Stache Media, hired former Roadrunner VP Madelyn Scarpulla as Loud & Proud’s GM and set to work on rebuilding the label’s roster. His first three signings…

WHAT: StubHub’s increasingly deep engagement with global sports and entertainment giant Anshutz Entertainment Group increased its visibility quotient exponentially with the June 3 announcement that StubHub would become London venue the O2’s “official ticket resale vendor,” firmly aligning the world’s highestgrossing arena (according to Billboard Boxscore) with the industry’s leading secondary-market player. AEG owns and operates the O2, and the firm’s fast-growing ticketing platform AXS is now fully integrated with StubHub’s ticket reselling platform at the O2, as in several U.S. venues. WHY: Essentially the O2 deal is the next phase in what started last year as a joint venture between AEG and StubHub parent e-Bay, initially built around investment in mobile platforms. Stub-Hub rose to the forefront in inking a multiyear deal for naming rights at AEG’s professional soccer…

Rhapsody has expanded its subscription music service to 14 additional European countries in a bid to compete more effectively with international services like Spotify and Deezer. The far-reaching expansion increases the number of territories where Rhapsody is available by greater than a factor of five. New countries include France, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and Portugal. As part of its efforts to woo foreign subscribers, iterations of the service in each country launched with custom playlists and editorial content developed during the course of a year. . . . Pandora is making a bid for the living room with a new version of its Internet radio player optimized for TV sets. TV.Pandora.com is a standards-compliant Web app that works with Internet-enabled TVs and Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles. The…

On Nov. 8 in New York at the 2012 Billboard Touring Awards, the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh on New York’s Long Island captured the venue’s first top amphitheater award. The much-loved venue was water-logged at the time, having been submerged by the wrath of Hurricane Sandy a week earlier, to the point where only those closest to the theater were remotely convinced it would be operating early enough to contend for the award in 2013. More than $20 million and many long days later, the amphitheater, popularly known as Jones Beach, opened its doors again with Rascal Flatts on May 31. Sandy’s 10-foot storm surge submerged the substructures and pathways under Jones Beach Theater, which sits on Zach’s Bay. The stage, the seats, backof-house, concessions and VIP…

1 Dream team: Surprise guest Mariah Carey joined Miguel onstage for a performance of their hit “#Beautiful” at WQHT (Hot 97) New York’s Summer Jam XX at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on June 2. 2 Kiss and make up: After a swipe from on-air personality Peter Rosenberg prompted Nicki Minaj and her Young Money labelmates to pull out of last year’s Summer Jam, the pair officially put their differences aside onstage during Minaj’s set. 3 Rolling deep: New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz welcomed producer/Def Jam South president DJ Khaled and rappers Rick Ross, Ace Hood and Meek Mill (from left) to MetLife Stadium, his home away from home, at Hot 97’s Summer Jam. 4 MusiCares’Kristen Madsen and Scott Pascucci, the Recording Academy/MusiCares’Neil Portnow, skateboarding legend Tony…

GO TIME TRAVEL ESSENTIALS Dalton Sim began his career in 1995 by managing Guster out of the band’s apartment in Somerville, Mass. Since that humble start, he’s helped shape the careers of Ben Kweller, Alexi Murdoch, Dispatch, State Radio and, most recently, fun., through his joint venture with Nettwerk Music Group. Along with his clientele, Sim’s time on the road has skyrocketed: He’s now away from home an average of three months a year. “That’s the thing about being a manager, agent or anyone in this business: You’re either on tour, meeting up at shows, setting up records internationally,” Sim says. “You’re all over the place.” His latest jaunt? Overseeing fun.’s 5,000-seat gig at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on April 18. “I still enjoy going to different parts of…

Between headlining shows and nightclub walkthroughs, interviews and studio sessions, Wale doesn’t rest much. On this spring afternoon, he’s fresh off a brief nap he snuck in after a slew of morning promotional appearances at New York radio stations. But it’s probably the only sleep the 28-year-old, born Olubowale Falorin, will get today: He’s still feverishly putting the finishing touches on his third album, The Gifted, due June 25 on Maybach Music Group/Atlantic, in Manhattan’s Quad Studios—appropriately located in perhaps the most sleepless place in the world, Times Square. “I’m just working,” he says, adjusting his Houston Rockets snapback. “I don’t have anything in my head that’s like, ‘Yo, chill out.’ All I know is the studio. That’s really all I do. I eat in the studio, I sleep in…

Documentaries do not have press junkets. That’s for scripted studio films with stars, big budgets and the potential to pull in eight or nine figures at the box office. Yet on June 7, director Morgan Neville gathered in Los Angeles with four of the stars of “Twenty Feet From Stardom”— Merry Clayton, Tata Vega, Claudia Lennear and Judith Hill—to discuss the making of a documentary about the heyday of background singing and the lives being led by singers who were once the best in the business. Bookending the junket were premieres in L.A. on June 6—with Clayton, Hill and the Waters Family singing— and New York on June 8—with Darlene Love as the featured act—that re-created the combination of a film and live concert experience seen at the Sundance Film…

.biz Performers and presenters at the SHOF gala will include Peter Asher, Petula Clark, Lou Gramm and Mick Jones, Billy Joel, Wiz Khalifa, Alison Krauss, cast members from “Motown: The Musical,” Jordin Sparks, Sting, Rob Thomas, and Steve Tyler and Joe Perry. Every year “just naturally falls into a theme, and this year it’s the rock of ages.” So declares Songwriters Hall of Fame president Linda Moran about the organization’s 2013 class of inductees and special honorees—and the rocking tribute that’s sure to unfold at the SHOF annual gala on June 13 at the New York Marriott Marquis. With an inductee class that includes Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Foreigner’s Mick Jones and Lou Gramm, Holly Knight, J.D. Souther and Tony Hatch, rock’n’roll is most definitely in the house,…

The Event & Arena Marketing Conference set for June 12-15 in Austin aims to educate, entertain and provide networking opportunities, not necessarily in that order. The EAMC, held at the Hyatt Regency, continues the mission set forth in 1980 when 10 arena marketers assembled for the first official meeting of what was then called the Arena Sales and Marketing Conference to share ideas and discuss common problems within the industry. More than 30 years later, the conference is still going strong. The 2013 edition begins with a “state of the music industry” discussion featuring veteran promoter Louis Messina of the Messina Group, who will talk about managing stadium shows for Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney and George Strait’s farewell tour, among other topics. Livestrong Foundation president/CEO Doug Ulman will deliver the…

GRIZ Grant Kwiecinski, who has been performing under the name GRiZ for the past few years, may be the only DJ to play saxophone live onstage. The Detroit-born artist, who got his start performing at house parties while in college at Michigan State, is interested in the many possible combinations of usual sounds. “I’m obsessed with the sound of today but I was raised on the Motown sound,” Kwiecinski says. “My vision is a blend of the old school and the new school, but with zero rules. It’s like future funk music.” The 22-year-old DJ, who has toured with acts like Big Gigantic and Bassnectar, relocated to Boulder, Colo., last year and moved in with his manager, Nicholas Guarino, who is also responsible for the blog This Song Is Sick.…

KURT VILE Since 2009, booking agent Eric Dimenstein of Ground Control Touring has been helping Kurt Vile and his band the Violators spread their folklore to lo-fi and hi-fi audiences alike, this year promoting Vile’s critical darling of an LP, Walkin’ on a Pretty Daze. “When I first started working for him he was coming out of a lo-fi scene,” Dimenstein says of the Philadelphia native. “The first time I saw him was some warehouse in Brooklyn.” AUDIENCE: For Dimenstein, the journey has been a gradual build since 2010’s Smoke Ring for My Halo. “The last album was the breakout album and Walking on a Pretty Daze is breaking it out even further in terms of draw, sales, attendance. Tickets are selling faster out the gate.” On his last tour,…

During the course of eight previous albums, Skillet has become increasingly deft at straddling the tricky line between faith-based idealism and secular universality. Rise takes the balance a step further, mixing new sonic flavors into the group’s hard-rock bombast—notably in the earnest melodicism of “Good to Be Alive” and “My Religion”—for a loose concept album about growing into adulthood amid “all this pain in the world we made.” Faith is the ultimate answer, but even albumclosing pieces like “Hard to Find” and “What I Believe” have an open lyrical duality that also makes them relevant to those who don’t believe. And there’s still plenty of crank on Rise, from the industrial-strength title track to the urgent “Sick of It” and the heavy-duty “Madness in Me.” New guitarist Seth Morrison makes…

The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here has been a more comfortable experience for Alice in Chains than 2009’s Black Gives Way to Blue. The latter album was the Seattle group’s first in 14 years, the first since the death of original frontman Layne Staley and the first with new member William DuVall. There was skepticism and something to prove—and Alice in Chains did, with a top five debut, a pair of No. 1 rock radio singles and two Grammy Award nominations. So, co-founder/guitarist Jerry Cantrell acknowledges, the group went into its new album—which debuts this week at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 61,000 units sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan—with “a certain amount of confidence. I’m not going to say this record is better than the last. The last one’s…

DAFT PUNK’S RANDOM SALES THIS WEEK 93,000 72.6% CUMULATIVE SALES OF YTD TOP 200 ALBUMS 36 MILLION 0.4% ROBIN THICKE’S “BLURRED LINES” SALES THIS WEEK 229,000 20% Daft Punk’Random Access Memories holds at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a second week, as the set shifts another 93,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Its 73% drop isn’t an alarming decline, considering that plenty of the album’s first week was bolstered by digital pre-orders. Comparably, Daft Punk’s second-week slide is only slightly less steep that the average fall for No. 1 debuts this year. Of the 15 No. 1 bows so far in 2013, the average second-week decline has been 68%. Random Access Memories is the seventh No. 1 debut this year to slip by more than 70% in its…

This week Billboard looks at the current Hot 100 and which of its songs are powered more by sales, airplay or streaming points. Those three data elements are weighted, and then blended together, for Billboard to arrive at the Hot 100’s overall ranking. The below graph shows the five songs with the greatest percentage of points in either sales, airplay or streams. 1 DANIELLE BRADBERRY Sales: 100% Airplay: 0% Streams: 0% As this is a single from a contestant on NBC’s “The Voice,” it’s natural that all of its Hot 100 points are derived from download sales. It’s rare that a TV-driven song (be it from “The Voice” or a show like Fox’s “Glee”) draws significant airplay. 2 ZACH SOBIECH Sales: 73% Airplay: 1% Streams: 26% The late singer/songwriter, who…