Innholdsfortegnelse for August 10, 2013 i Billboard Magazine

In the race to win mainstream adoption, Google has been exploring a bundling distribution deal for its All Access subscription music streaming service with Verizon’s wireless business, according to executives knowledgeable with the discussions. ¶ The No. 1 U.S. wireless company may have had its hand forced, given the advanced discussions between rival AT&T and Beats Music’s digital music service. It would also be absorbing Muve Music through its acquisition of Leap Wireless/Cricket. A deal with Google Play Music All Access would allow Verizon to offer an on-demand music service to its 100 million wireless subscribers. Google would gain a powerful distribution partner that could seamlessly fold the monthly $9.99 fee for its service into subscribers’ cellphone bill. A distribution agreement has the potential to benefit both parties. Verizon could…

Up-and-coming artists. Hall credits his 13-year-old son with turning him on to artists prior to them breaking into the mainstream, and he expects to book viral sensations like Gary Clark Jr. and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis as much as veteran acts with a record to promote. Late-night TV. Unless Fallon goes dramatically against his character, broadcast TV will be youth-oriented on the post-11:30 p.m. talk show front. If Hall comes off as cool as Fallon and Letterman, he could attract a broader audience than his competitors. Indies in niche markets. Labels with penetration in niche demographics are in a position of influence for brands and advertisers that want to lure those eyes and ears. Vice, Fader and Decon amplify their status as a cultural authority with editorial content that also…

Just three months after launching, fan pledge site Patreon has landed nearly $2.1 million in financing from venture firms and angels. Freestyle Capital led the venture round, which also included investments from Charles River Ventures, Atlas Venture, Rothenberg Ventures and SV Angel. In addition, the tiny Menlo Park, Calif., startup received angel funding from Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, angel investor Tyler Willis and Y Combinator partner Garry Tan. Founded by musician Jack Conte and serial entrepreneur Sam Yam, Patreon lets fans contribute as little as $1 in order to become patrons of the arts. The site is processing about $100,000 of pledges per month on behalf of 2,300 artists who use Patreon. Although many are musicians, a melange of illustrators, photographers, game developers, graphic designers and video creators have also…

WHAT: Audiam, a startup that helps artists find and monetize their music on YouTube, has raised $500,000 from angel investors including TuneSat CEO Scott Schreer and COO Chris Woods, PTC Advisors’ Tom Cohen and entrepreneur Jonathan Siegel. Audiam’s business model and technology are based on finding YouTube videos that use an artist’s music and claiming it on behalf of the artist so that ads can be placed against the clips. In exchange, Audiam takes a 25% cut of the ad revenue placed on the videos it finds. Audiam can also manage artists’ own YouTube videos, passing 100% of all ad revenue for those videos back to the artist. WHY: Only about half of the estimated 30 billion monthly YouTube video views using licensed music have ads placed against them, according…

Standing Up To Bullies Growing up as a musical theater student, Carly Rae Jepsen was fortunate enough to have a popular older brother who looked out for her, so being bullied by classmates was never an issue. Jepsen’s brother also set an example by looking out for others, something that has stuck with the pop singer to this day. “One of my proudest moments ever was seeing him stand up for a kid who was being bullied in school,” Jepsen recalls. “My brother was that popular boy in school, so when he made a stance against everyone who was picking on this kid, they stopped. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is the coolest he’s ever been.’” In addition to a protective older brother, Jepsen comes from a family of educators…

SOUND & VISION PHIL GALLO The door that “Searching for Sugar Man” helped open has led to a food of documentaries about obscure artists receiving theatrical play, but none has worked as well at the box ofce as the rollout of “20 Feet From Stardom” by Radius and the Weinstein Co. (TWC). Morgan Neville’ docu about background singers in the rock’n’roll era has built steadily across seven weeks and has topped $3 million in domestic box ofce, according to Box Office Mojo. By Aug. 4, it’ll most likely top the $3.7 million that “Sugar Man,” last year’s Academy Award-winning documentary, has earned stateside. As similar as the rise of “Stardom” is to that of “Sugar Man,” naturally there’s already discussion of what this could mean come awards season. While there…

The Twist” is still the Billboard Hot 100’s all time top song, but there are some additional twists in the rankings of the top songs and artists since the last time Billboard celebrated a milestone in the chart’s storied archives. In 2008, Billboard looked back at the Hot 100’s first 50 years, dating to its premiere the week of Aug. 4, 1958. Upon its launch, Billboard branded the chart as “the fastest, most complete and most sensitive index to the popularity of recorded music in America.” Fifty- five years later, the tally has transformed from a measurement of radio airplay, sales of 45s and jukebox activity to one of airplay, digital and (minimal) physical sales, and online streams. While 55 years has brought major change to the chart’s methodology, within…

STRENGTHS ● Category leader in Internet radio ● A top three company in mobile advertising revenue (behind Google and Facebook, according to eMarketer estimates) ● Music Genome Project, its recommendation engine, is likely best in class. WEAKNESSES ● Mobile revenue, although growing, currently lags desktop revenue ● Unable to reduce royalty rates in the near term OPPORTUNITIES ● Best positioned to capture a share of the broadcast radio advertising market ● In-auto listening: Pandora is now available in more than 100 car models ● In the U.S. mobile phone market, 41% of product is feature phones ● International expansion THREATS ● Competition from iTunes Radio, SiriusXM and other radio services could hurt growth ● The listener experience could be harmed by an increased number of advertisements ● Artist and rights…

Webcaster royalties: The central issue—whether Congress should change the method by which webcaster royalties are calculated—hasn’t yet been introduced in the form of a bill, though Rep. Jason Chafetz, R-Utah, plans to reintroduce one in the fall. The previous bill from last year proposed that the webcasting royalty standard be the same as those of satellite and cable radio, which both pay a lower rate. The House Judiciary Committee, where the bill would be introduced, operates on reaching a consensus before releasing proposals for vote in the main House, suggesting a slowmoving process. Will the sense of urgency created by the upcoming 2014 rate hearings by the Copyright Royalty Board to set webcasting royalties push lawmakers to act faster? FM radio performance rights: Rep. Mel Watts, D-N.C., announced during a…

C/DC and Van Halen were the first acts that came to mind when director Harald Zwart was looking to score a two-minute fight scene in upcoming adventure film “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.” Iconic, bold, loud rock defined Zwart’s impulsive reaction to the scene before he asked his music partners what could make it different. Republic Records executive VP of A&R Tom Mackay suggested keeping the target audience of 14- to 20-year-olds in mind and began scouring iTunes to find potential EDM tracks to license. “He immediately got it. We had to ask ourselves, ‘What would the next generation [enjoy]?’” Mackay says, detailing how they came to ask 23-year-old electronic music producer Zedd to score the scene. “We gauged Zedd’s interest and he knew the book, and it all…

When it comes to taste-making hip-hop, alternative pop and R&B, Jef Bhasker has practically created a whole genre unto himself. You can hear the Los Angeles-based producer/songwriter’s quietly explosive sound in his groundbreaking work on Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, collaborations with Alicia Keys (“Girl on Fire”) and chart-topping work with fun. and Nate Ruess (“We Are Young,” P!nk’s “Just Give Me a Reason”). The A-list collaborators and Grammy Award wins are a long way from Bhasker’s of-the-radar roots: He was born in Socorro, N.M.; graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston; then worked as a keyboardist-for-hire, doing wedding gigs in Boston and playing with jam band Lettuce in New York. After expanding into production and songwriting with indie R&B singer Goapele, he landed his first major-label…

ARTIST: The 1975 ALBUM: The 1975 LABEL: Vagrant/Interscope/Dirty Hit RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3 MANAGEMENT: Jamie Oborne, All On Red/Dirty Hit PRODUCER: Mike Coffey PUBLISHING: Good Soldier, Warner/Chappell BOOKING AGENTS: Mike Mori, Windish Agency (U.S.); Matt Bates, Primary (outside of U.S.) CHART HISTORY: IV (EP, 2013), No. 164 Billboard 200, 12,000; “Sex“ (2013), No. 35 Alternative; “Chocolate” (2013), No. 39 Alternative TWITTER: @the1975 Sometimes capturing all the buzz at South by Southwest (SXSW) isn’t enough to secure safe passage through Austin. That’s what British indie-rock quartet the 1975 learned this March when it played 11 shows in five days and returned to the mansion it was renting from a professional baseball player just outside of the city. “He came home and saw that two of the guys were sharing a bed,…

George Lindsey, WXMA Louisville, Ky. Gavin DeGraw, “Best I Ever Had.” I love this song. it has tempo, a killer hook and, importantly for our identity, it’s by a core artist. We aren’t borrowing it from mainstream top 40. Adult top 40 needs this record. Sara Bareilles, “Brave.” We were early on this one, and it’s turning into a monster for us. I like that its lyrics give off a positive vibe of empowerment. And it has tempo. Again with the tempo. Passenger, “Let Her Go.” this folk track became a big hit in europe. it’s a stranges ounding song—but in a good way—that immediately becomes an earworm. i’m picking it as a hit for the end of summer.…

One Direction “Best Song Ever” (3:23) PRODUCERS: Matt Radosevich, Julian Bunetta, John Ryan WRITERS: various PUBLISHERS: various Syco/Columbia One Direction has always used bite-sized guitar licks in its clean-cut pop offerings, but the group’s latest hit, “Best Song Ever,” marks its first unsubtle nod toward bombastic arena rock. The single features a “Baba O’Riley”-esque synth buildup, which sets the table for a meaty rif that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Coldplay album. Lyrically, “Best Song Ever” utilizes that age-old rock trope of wistfully recalling other music through rose-colored glasses: “And we danced all night to the best song ever/We knew every line, now I can’t remember,” the boys declare. 1D has become a mega-selling act thanks in part to pristinely manicured pop hooks, but as the members (and…

In Cher’s latest No. 1 Dance Club Songs hit “Woman’s World,” she sings, “I’m dancin’ solo, in the dark, on the club floor.” Well, shortly after midnight on July 27, she was on the club floor at Rasputin at the Robertson Nightclub in West Hollywood—but definitely not solo. “You missed a good party,” Cher tells Billboard of the event, staged to celebrate her new No. 1. “But it was so hot. Oh, my God!” Luckily, someone in the packed crowd offer ed up a fan to the diva, which saved the day and prevented her from “melting.” “It was hot, but it was great fun. I had such a blast.” “Woman’s World” is the first single from Cher’s new studio album, Closer to the Truth, due Sept. 24 on Warner…

Radio Loves KAPTN Los Angeles-based rapper KAPTN is attracting listeners, and viewers, with his single “Ricky Ricardo” (Island Def Jam). At the rhythmic format, the song rises by 22% in plays, according to Nielsen BDS. Its clip has been viewed more than 400,000 times on YouTube since its June 21 posting. While the song is only loosely based on “I Love Lucy,” KAPTN pays homage to the iconic sitcom at its start: “Hey Lucy, I’m home/Where you been? Oh, I know/You been conga dancing? Well, me too/Now you got some ’splaining to do.” Whale Of A Hit Vancouver-based rock band Said the Whale is making inroads south of the Canadian border, as “I Love You” debuts at No. 38 on Alternative. It’s the first U.S. chart hit for the Juno…

Bullets indicate titles with greatest weekly gains. Album Charts Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 500,000 albums (Gold). RIAA certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 1 million units (Platinum). Numeral noted with Platinum symbol indicates album’s multiplatinum level. RIAA certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 10 million units (Diamond). Numeral noted with Diamond symbol indicates album’s multiplatinum level. Latin albums certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 50,000 units (Oro). Latin albums certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 100,000 units (Platino). Numeral noted with Platinum symbol indicates album’s multi–platinum level. Digital Songs Charts RIAA certification for 500,000 paid downloads (Gold). RIAA certification for 1 million paid downloads (Platinum). Numeral noted with platinum symbol indicates song’s…

The executive producers of Arsenio Hall’s new talk show, Neal Kendall and John Ferriter, gave music producer Chris McDonald a unique task when he came onboard: Book EDM artists. We want to be the first show in late night to showcase EDM,” McDonald says, noting that Kendall and Ferriter are fans of the genre and not bandwagon jumpers. “Other shows can’t quite figure out how to translate that to TV. It’s going to be tough, but we’re coming up with ideas on ways to pull it off.” McDonald, who will book musical acts and produce their segments, has yet to confirm an EDM artist for “The Arsenio Hall Show,” which debuts Sept. 9. It marks Hall’s return to late night after a 19-year absence— and the most significant aspect of…

Hip-hop festival entrepreneur Chang Weisberg launched Guerilla Union in 2004 and expanded it into a touring festival in 2007. Today, the independent promoter and entrepreneur is shifting gears to “full mode”: He’s just six weeks away from the start of the 2013 Rock the Bells Festival. The venerable hip-hop franchise rings in its 10th year with stops in Los Angeles; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; and New York this fall. Among the “bells” and whistles: performances by Wu-Tang Clan, Kid Cudi, Kendrick Lamar and Black Hippy, and J. Cole—plus original virtual performances by Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Eazy-E. 7.30 AM Wake up with sleeping 3-year-old son jabbing me in the side. 8.30 AM Phone staff for updates, ticket counts and calls I need to return right away. 9.00 AM First stop…

The global music industry is forecast to continue contracting, albeit at a much slower rate than in the past decade, at an estimated 1.7% per year during the next five years—declining from $27.6 billion in 2013 to $26.3 billion in 2017, according to a report published in July by venture capital and boutique investment banking firm Siemer & Associates. Meanwhile, digital music revenue is expected to continue growing—also at a slower rate—as download sales start leveling of. Annual growth rates for digital revenue are forecast to increase 12.1% per year during the next five years, compared with the relatively torrid annual growth rate of 28.1% that the industry enjoyed between 2008 and 2012. The report draws data from Strategy Analytics, IBIS World, Cisco Systems, AccuStream Research and Capital IQ to…

TOURING With a plan to further accelerate its growth in China, Live Nation entertainment appoints Robb spitzer managing director of Live Nation China Concerts. “As China’s appetite for international music continues to accelerate, I’m working to bring more superstar global artists for concerts here,” Spitzer says, noting that he’ll also work to develop local talent. Live Nation’s presence in China dates back to 2005 when the company launched a join venture with Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group. Spitzer has worked in the country for more than 10 years, enjoying stints at such companies as Sony Music China, concert promoter China West and Ticketmaster China. “I have been intimately involved in bringing China from relative obscurity to a full-fedged tour stop for international artists,” he says. “I was lucky to introduce…

ON THE ROAD RAY WADDELL Trying to get a read on the state of the ticketing industry by analyzing exhibitors at the VenueConnect trade show for the International Assn. ofivenue Managers is tough, but still an interesting exercise. VenueConnect exhibitors in general at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans were clearly down. And the number of ticketing companies exhibiting at Venue-Connect, by far the largest trade show for the global venue industry, was way down. By Billboard’s count, only four ticketing companies—Extreme Tix, TicketForce, PrimeTix and Ticket-e-Split—bought booth space on the exhibit hall floor, all of them relatively new to the business and all of them Web-based. This bucks a trend of an increasing number of ticketers during the past few years, a cycle that paralleled the digital and,…

Indigo girls: Britney Spears and Katy Perry met at the L.A. premiere of “The Smurfs 2” at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, Calif., on July 28. Perry voiced Smurfette in the film, and also lent backup vocals to Spears’ “Ooh La La,” the soundtrack’s single. 2 Earlier that week, Capitol Music Group executives took to the roof of Los Angeles’ iconic Capitol Tower on July 24 to kick off the first Capitol Congress, a three-day conference that brought together U.S. and international staff. From left: Capitol Christian Music Group president/CEO Bill Hearn, CMG’s Robbie McIntosh and Dennis Reese, Blue Note president Don Was, Harvest Records GM Piero Giramonti, Capitol Records president Dan McCarroll, CMG’s Todd Von Mende and Martha Braithwaite, Astralwerks GM Glenn Mendlinger, CMG’s Michelle Jubelirer, CMG chairman/CEO…

The 55th-anniversary edition of the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Songs and Artists charts are based on actual performance on the weekly Hot 100, since the chart’s inception the week of Aug. 4, 1958, through the rankings dated July 27, 2013. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. Due to changes in methodology during the Hot 100’s 55 years (i.e., the 1991 inclusion of Nielsen Entertainment airplay monitoring and point-of-sale tracking, and the more recent addition of streaming data, among earlier modifications), certain eras are weighted differently to account for chart turnover rates during various periods. The Artists chart utilizes the same point system and adjusted weighting as the Songs list, but…

The battleground explained 1 What is being debated? The debates during the last 12 months stem from the industry’s transition to a new business model. Digital radio services are frequently at odds with rights owners and performance rights organizations over the amount of royalties they pay. The two sides have the opportunity to negotiate terms agreeable to both. When agreements aren’t reached, the two sides are subject to rules and rates determined by the government. Government appointees set statutory royalty rates paid by services like Pandora to labels and artists. A court may determine royalties paid to publishers and songwriters. But broadcasters will seek alternate paths when agreements cannot be reached. Recently, broadcasters in pursuit of better outcomes have used additional tactics like the Internet Radio Fairness Act and, specifically…

The last album Phil Ramone produced is in Spanish. Due Aug. 27, Confdencias, an album of Latin- American standards by Alejandro Fernandez, one of Mexico’s biggest stars, bears Ramone’s signature: the exquisite arrangements, the live vibe, a sound that’s big and intimate at the same time. And carrying it all is Fernandez’s velvety voice, an instrument that has taken him to the top of the charts across continents for more than two decades. “These are the great songs of Latin music,” Ramone said in an interview last year. “I always loved the music of Mexico . . . There was a chance for us to meet in New York [in 2011]. And we talked about the concept of making an album together. And we thought maybe we’d do an orchestra,…

Disney Channel musical “Teen Beach Movie” attracted 8.4 million viewers during its July 19 premiere, making it the most-watched TV movie so far this year (according to Nielsen), and has sold more than 82,000 copies of its soundtrack in two weeks of release (according to Nielsen SoundScan). It’s of to a better start than even “High School Musical,” which drew 7.7 million viewers in 2006, went on to become the top-selling album of the year and spawned two sequels, a theatrical presentation and an ice show. Disney hasn’t moved forward on “Teen Beach Movie 2” and it has yet to push a single into Radio Disney’s top 30, but there’s enthusiasm for the time travel fantasy to be more than a one-time special. “This is hopefully a franchise for the…

Aplush-doll battalion stands at the ready inside the 12th floor office of Shapiro Bernstein in New York. A princess in a purple gown, a white rabbit clutching an oversize carrot, a green dragon with a dopey look on its face—the few, the proud, the googly-eyed. Give in to a boldface plea to “Press Here” and the dragon dances, spins and belts out the chorus to “Ring of Fire” in the unmistakable, if tragically fattened and slightly tinny, voice of Johnny Cash. Michael Brettler, president of Shapiro Bernstein and great-grandson of company co-founder Louis Bernstein, pokes all of the buttons with apparent glee. For a moment, the modestly sized, of-white office space is transformed into a cacophonous jamboree, with miniature animatronic revelers spouting dime-store versions of hits spanning roughly a century…

ARTIST: Lissie ALBUM: Back to Forever LABEL: Columbia RELEASE DATE: sept. 9 MANAGEMENT: Peter Leak, red Light management PRODUCERS: Jacknife Lee, Julian emery PUBLISHING: sony/AtV music Publishing, Warner/Chappell BOOKING AGENT: marty Diamond, Paradigm CHART HISTORY: Catching a Tiger (2010), no. 5 Folk Albums, no. 5 heatseekers Albums, 47,000 TWITTER: @lissiemusic Many people’s first encounter with Lissie was through a 2010 YouTube live performance video, tweeted by Kid Cudi. The clip captures the Illinois-born singer/songwriter taking a swill of tequila before attacking Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness” with her three-piece band, changing its self-determined narrative from inner monologue to plugged-in town square sermon. She shouts, strums, warbles and at one point drops her guitar and straight testifes, singing with her hands as much as her voice. Buoyed by the Cudi cover and…

ARTIST: Goodie Mob ALBUM: Age Against the Machine LABEL: Atlantic/Elektra RELEASE DATE: Aug. 27 MANAGEMENT: Primary Wave PRODUCERS: various PUBLISHING: Chrysalis (Cee Lo Green), Primary Wave (Big Gipp, khujo, T-Mo) BOOKING AGENT: Brian Ahern, William Morris Endeavor CHART HISTORY: Soul Food (1995), No. 45 Billboard 200, 704,000; Still Standing (1998), No. 6 Billboard 200, 786,000; World Party (2000), No. 48 Billboard 200, 393,000; “Cell Therapy“ (1995), No. 1 Rap Songs TWITTER: @GoodieMobMusic When you ask Cee Lo Green what took so long concerning the oft-delayed reunion album with his group Goodie Mob, he has to take a deep breath before answering. “I defnitely would have done a better job multitasking,” he admits. Since he left the group in 2000 over creative differences after its 1999 album, World Party, he’s gone…

Along with the branded apps that artists use to personally disseminate news and photos, die-hard fans need to know which news outlets, blogs, Twitter accounts and Instagram users to follow in order to be completely updated on their favorite act. That hunt for information can prove exhausting, but Seenth.is aims to get rid of that clutter by curating news about the artists you care about in a well-organized feed. Created by Swedish trio Marcus Myrberg, Jesper Benon and Robert Furelid and available for free in the App Store, Seenth.is stems from the recognition that music is “an interest that is fueled through the enormous social media data that we see today,” CEO Myrberg says. “What we’re getting tired of is having to browse multiple sources or apps to understand what’s…

one Direction “Best song ever” One Direction’s new single lives up to its title, as “Best Song Ever” gives the group its best rank on the Billboard Hot 100. It charges in at No. 2 (see page 44), supported by strong out-of-the-gate sles and a huge week of streams. 322k “Best Song Ever” crashes in at No. 1 on Hot Digital Songs with 322,000 downloads sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It’s the biggest debut since Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” bowed at No. 1 with 416,000 on 52% The tune’s all-format Hot 100 Airplay audience stands at 11.1 million for the week ending July 30 (a growth of 52%, according to Nielsen BDS). While the song isn’t on Hot 100 Airplay yet, it does rise 40-32 on Mainstream…

California folk-pop group Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros return with a selftitled third LP, which debuts at No. 14 on the Billboard 200. 2 MONTHS AGO Bryan Ling, manager of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and copresident of their U.S. label Community Music Group, had planned on getting the group’s mastered album long before the date he actually received it, at the end of May. When he finally had it in his hands, he used a face-to-face approach for the campaign— first coordinating listening sessions with industry insiders and tastemakers to allow word to spread. “The most important type of marketing that we do is hand to hand,” he says, “getting it in front of people whose opinion we value, and then using them to come up with…

Trend Report: Chart History Of No. 2-Debuting Hot 100 Songs 1. ARTISTS FOR HAITI The song may have been a No. 1 contender—had it been released on a different day. It bowed on an off-cycle Friday night, which gave it slightly more than two days of sales in its first charting week (267,000). It sold another 208,000 in its first full week. Had it had a traditional retail rollout, its sales (possibly 400,000) would have likely enabled a No. 1 debut. 2. BO BICE The “American Idol” runner-up had the last No. 2 debut driven by physical single sales. It opened with 102,000 copies, but finished with just 349,000 total. The song quickly exited the chart thanks to scant airplay: just 2,700 detections across all formats of radio, according to…

Chirpify Nabs $4M In Funding Social commerce service Chirpify has raised $4 million in Series A funding—making music a key focus of its brand. Chirpify allows people and companies to buy, sell, pay and raise funds on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, using in-stream text commands to enable transactions. Rory Felton, record executive and co-founder of the Militia Group, was hired as VP of business development for music. Among Chirpify’s music clients are Green Day, RCA Records, Amanda Palmer, Snoop Lion, hip-hop label Rhymesayers and SOL Republic headphones. Digital’s Takeover Digital research company eMarketer revealed that the average time spent with digital media per day will surpass TV viewing time for the first time this year. The average adult is spending more than five hours per day online, compared with four…

As the music business and brands form an increasingly closer bond, New York-based indie label Decon Records is seeing its business skyrocket by diversifying into a full-service creative agency. Its work developing music and video content for big brands like Visa, Rock Star Games and Absolut Vodka is driving record revenue growth for 2013— even as sales of recorded music remain modest. “We have a dif erent perspective than other creative agencies because of our experience in the music space,” Decon co-founder/CEO Peter Bittenbender says. “If a brand can find one company to produce great content and also great music, that’s what they’re really looking for.” Decon got its start releasing underground hip-hop recordings by acts like Aceyalone, Hieroglyphics and the Alchemist in the early 2000s, but it invested heavily…

What did you wake up thinking about this morning? We’re in the middle of our three-year planning process, so I got up thinking about the decisions we had yesterday. What will define your career in the coming year? We’re continuing to assert a role of influence in the music scene with 50/50/1, our 50 concerts in 50 states program, trying to do something really cool with Bud Light from a musical standpoint. And also, doing year two of Budweiser Made in America. Those are two major initiatives in our business that we’re really inserting ourselves into music. When people looked at what we did last year with Made in America, people were a little surprised at the scale and how successful it became. It was a great festival that created…

Former EMI Music publishing executive Jonathan Channon is teaming with Dutch song publisher imagem to launch a joint film/TV venture, imagem FTV. The newly created division of Imagem, which reps publishing rights for such acts as Elvis Presley, Pink Floyd, Ludacris and Daft Punk, is setting its sights on managing the music publishing assets of broadcasters, production companies and other media entities. One of the division’s launch deals is a global partnership with British independent international distribution banner avalon distribution. The agreement will have Imagem FTV manage and exploit Avalon’s library of owned composed music and collect royalties on behalf of all Avalon clients. One of Channon’s early ventures when he was at EMI was packaging the music deal for Danny Boyle’s “Trainspotting.” . . . Vivendi is selling most…

BUSINESS MATTERS GLENN PEOPLES A question for future Internet radio business models got a partial answer this week from the world’s biggest social network and second-biggest mobile advertiser. Facebook turned doubters into believers when it released its second-quarter earnings on July 24. The company’s mobile advertising, a question mark since Facebook’s initial public offering, jumped 75% to $656 million from $375 million in the first quarter and almost nothing a year earlier. Investors showed their enthusiasm for Facebook’s mobile success by sending shares up nearly 30% to a 52-week high of $34.73. shares up nearly 30% to a 52-week high of $34.73. Facebook’s mobile turnaround is good news for Pandora and other mobile-heavy digital music services. Facebook has different advertising products, but what’s important is the narrative, which goes like…

In L.A., Trevor Gale and other SESAC top brass marched on the sixth annual Songwriters Bootcamp with help from keynote speaker Rico Love. In Indianapolis, Scott Borchetta, Danica Patrick and Big Machine Label Group shifted the Brickyard 400 into high gear. 1 Writers bloc: SESAC drew more than 300 attendees to the sixth annual Songwriters Bootcamp on July 26 at Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center with help from the keynote speaker, Grammy Award-winning songwriter/producer Rico Love. From left: SESAC’s Trevor Gale, Love and SESAC’s James Leach. 2 Composer and Bootcamp panelist Chris Tyng (left) posed with SESAC’s Erin Collins at the Songwriters Bootcamp. 3 SESAC’s Trevor Gale (left) talked shop with indie singer/songwriter (and Prince protégé) Andy Allo at the Songwriters Bootcamp. 4 Western union: The Madison Square Garden Co.…

On the one side is Pandora, which has grown into an Internet radio giant. Its 70 million listeners accounted for 7% of all radio listening in June of this year, and analysts predict it could double its audience in the next two years. On the other side are music rights holders, who wonder why Pandora can claim total 7% radio listening but only 2.7% of radio advertising revenue, and who are concerned that they’re not being fairly compensated. Pandora—which pays out a bigger share of its total revenue than terrestrial or satellite broadcasters—wants a more even playing field. Labels and music publishers are paid by Pandora in different ways, but they agree on this much: Less would not be good. And so they’ve fought back, and long simmering tensions have…

Two questions are consistently asked of Pandora’s business model: Can it sell more advertisements, and will it generate more revenue? The music industry sees a company that has placed market share ahead of revenue growth. People often wonder if Pandora could put more emphasis on growing revenue as it seeks lower royalties. The short answer to both questions is yes, Pandora will sell more ads and generate more revenue. Although its business model has been widely criticized, the Oakland, Calif.-based company is well positioned to turn its massive listening audience into profits. The U.S. radio market is immense. Broadcast radio advertising totaled $14.2 billion in 2012, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau. About 242 million Americans listen to radio every week, according to Arbitron. Listenership is heavy across age groups:…

For years, Mexico has been the major path for Latin pop success in the United States. During the heyday of Latin pop in the 1990s, it was routine for acts like Chayanne and Ricky Martin to spend months on end in Mexico in order to break stateside. That requirement has loosened somewhat as an increasing number of Latin acts—including Romeo Santos, Daddy Yankee, Don Omar and Prince Royce— break from the States. Having music travel north from Mexico was virtually automatic when a majority of the U.S. Latin population was Mexican immigrants hungry for any connection to home. But the growing U.S.-born Hispanic demo is now seeking its own sound, leading labels to search for a bridge between their Mexican acts and a younger U.S. audience. Take Belinda, for example.…

Last quarter, Sony/ATV Music Publishing either owned or had a share in nearly 50% of the overall top 100 detecting songs. This quarter, that number is up to nearly 60%. In fact, in second-quarter 2013, Sony/ATV, which administers EMI Music Publishing, garnered the highest market-share total since Billboard began tracking those songs seven years ago. For the quarter, Sony/ATV chalked up a 28.7% share—improving by more than six percentage points over the 22.4% it tallied in the first quarter and more than double the 12.4% it had in second-quarter 2012. What accounts for the surge? Owning or having a stake in 57 of the top radio songs, which refects 10 additional songs as compared with the 47 it placed in the top 100 in the prior quarter. Sony/ATV’s holdings include…

With big private-equity firms finding music publishing assets attractive, an upstart company wants to see if it can create a market for selling rights to individual investors. But the ambitions of the Royalty Exchange don’t stop there: Principals also envision the development a secondary market where units of assets would be sold like a stock or a bond. CEO Sean Pearce—who co-founded the company with former Midnight Star singer Reggie Calloway and former music publicist Wilson Owens—says the firm can sell any asset regardless how big it is. But he anticipates the company’s sweet spot will be in holdings that generate annual income of $5,000-$200,000. Since its inception in July 2011, the Royalty Exchange has sold royalty-producing assets that combined have brought in $875,000, including songs by Preston Glass and…

JAMES BAY influenced by 1970s folk legends like James taylor and Carole king, u.k. singer/songwriter James bay has been playing music since he was 14. hailing from the small english town of hitchin, the now 22-year-old has spent the last few years doing local gigs in and around London. “somebody sent me a video of him playing the song ‘move together,’” says ben Adelson, senior director of A&r at republic records. “i brought him in and it was one of the best showcases i’ve ever seen. it was very easy to understand who he could be, who he could become and who he was already.” bay signed with republic in February, and in June he released “move together” as his first single. his debut eP, which arrived July 22, features…

ICONA POP Swedish electro-pop duo Icona Pop rose from online buzz act to one of 2013’s biggest breakthroughs with the success of hit single “I Love It” featuring (and written by) Charli XCX. Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo have announced plans for an international jaunt ahead of the release of their LP This Is . . . Icona Pop (Sept. 24, Company Tent/Big Beat), and aiding them is Windish agent Doug Croy, who has been working with the duo since January 2012. “We didn’t have that mainstream radio and top 40 support when I came onboard,” he says. Routing: Beginning with a slew of festival spots, Icona Pop will play Chicago’s Lollapalooza (Aug. 2), Toronto’s Grove Music Festival (Aug. 3) and Montreal’s Osheaga (Aug. 4). “They’ve been to a lot…

The debut album from British producer quartet Rudimental has already gone gold in the United Kingdom and spawned the hit single “Feel the Love.” The group is considered part of the new British electronic invasion, alongside acts like Disclosure and Duke Dumont, who have also scored big on the U.K. charts. Unlike their groovy work, Home isn’t a throwback house afair. Breakbeats, found sounds (actual spoons on “Spoons”) and pedal-to-the-metal energy earn Rudimental the “rude” in its name, recalling the kitchensink approach of Basement Jaxx. But top-shelf vocal features (Angel Haze, Foxes, Alex Clare, Emeli Sandé) add heart and soul to the mix. Sandé’s album-closer “Free” is breathtaking, an elegantly rendered song of self-acceptance with an extra layer of depth that’s been sorely lacking in pop-wise electronic music. But that…

“When people ask us why, my answer is, ‘Why not?’ We’re going to do this until the wheels fall of.” That was Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins’ declaration to fans who came to see TLC’s first U.S. performance in years at the Mixtape Festival in Hershey, Pa., on July 27, signifying the beginning of a new era for the record-breaking R&B group. Having re-signed with Epic Records/La-Face and mentor Antonio “L.A.” Reid, surviving members T-Boz and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas will release a currently untitled compilation on Oct. 15 featuring the group’s hits as well as several new songs. (Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes was killed in a car accident in 2002.) Two tracks have already been penned: “Meant to Be,” written by Ne-Yo, and “Posh Life,” written by Lady Gaga and longtime TLC…

OVER THE COUNTER KEITH CAULFIELD Selena Gomez collects her first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the arrival of Stars Dance. The Hollywood Records release sold 97,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan—a career-high frame for the singer. Each of her albums has steadily grown in terms of sales, bowing with successively bigger sums and placing higher on the chart. Her 2009 debut, Kiss and Tell, opened at No. 9 with nearly 66,000. It was followed by the No. 4-ranking A Year Without Rain in 2010, which slightly exceeded 66,000, and then 2011’s When the Sun Goes Down, which peaked at No. 3 a week after it launched at No. 4 with 78,000. The robust start of Stars Dance is due to Gomez’s growth at digital…