Innholdsfortegnelse for October 9, 2021 i Billboard Magazine

Executive director: Lucian Grainge UMG chairman/CEO Executive director: Vincent Vallejo UMG deputy CEO, corporate Chairman of the board/independent nonexecutive director: Judy Craymer Mamma Mia! producer, co-founder of Littlestar Services Vice chairman of the board/independent nonexecutive director: Antoine Fievet Chairman/CEO of multinational cheese company The Bel Group Independent nonexecutive directors: Anna Jones Co-founder/CEO of global women’s club AllBright Margaret Frerejean-Taittinger International development manager for the Michelin Guide Nonexecutive directors: James Mitchell Tencent senior executive vp/chief strategy officer, Tencent Music Entertainment Group director Manning Doherty Senior vp of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, part of the Tencent-led consortium that owns 20% of UMG Cathia Lawson-Hall Head of coverage and investment banking for Africa at financial services firm Société Générale Luc Van Os Co-owner of agricultural brand publisher Misset Uitgeverij, former Hearst…

➜ Age 20 ➜ Label MSFTSMusic/Roc Nation ➜ Publisher Buglife Music Publishing ➜ Management Three Six Zero ➜ Total streams 570.5 million Willow’s natural progression from pop preteen to neo-soul experimentalist to now a pop-punk rocker proved fruitful when her latest and fourth solo album, Lately I Feel Everything — featuring collaborations with Travis Barker and Avril Lavigne, among others — earned the 20-year-old her first top 10 release on the Top Rock and Alternative Albums charts. She’s now on her headlining lifE tour, and will soon open a string of dates on Billie Eilish’s worldwide trek. Thinking back, what surprised you most about the process of getting discovered and signed? I think the most surprising part would have to be how hard it ended up being to actually…

Under Jesús López, chairman/CEO at Universal Music Latin America and Iberian Peninsula, the company’s urban-leaning acts continue to chart throughout the globe, fluidly crossing barriers of language and genre. While J Balvin and fellow Colombian Karol G may be Universal Latin’s most prominent success stories — Karol G scored her first No. 1 on Top Latin Albums with KG0516, the biggest week, by units, for a female-led album on the chart since 2017 — López says the company still thinks locally “so that our artists keep expanding their music outside their countries of origin.” Via streaming, some of Universal’s brightest and youngest stars — including Colombia’s Sebastian Yatra (managed by Universal-owned GTS); Puerto Rico’s Jhay Cortez, Guaynaa and Feid; and Mexico’s Christian Nodal and Danna Paola — have done…

Jimmy Humilde’s first foray into the music business was in 1993, when he was 14 years old and organizing neighborhood parties in his friends’ backyards in Los Angeles. That entrepreneurial, DIY approach continued with his launch of Rancho Humilde, the independent promotion company and label, which he runs with business partner José Becerra and CFO Roque Venegas. Informed by crowd reaction to live performances, Humilde has signed mostly local, underground regional Mexican acts since 2011, fueling their success with a nontraditional digital marketing approach that initially didn’t rely on radio or TV. Things really clicked in 2019 when Humilde tapped into a wave of acts like Fuerza Regida and Natanael Cano, who mixed traditional corridos with rap and trap. Those artists effectively ushered in a new subgenre of Mexican…

BMG Revenue 602 million euros ($707 million) for the year ending Dec. 31, 2020* EBITDA 137 million euros ($160.7 million) for the year ending Dec. 31, 2020* Valuation $5 billion*** EBITDA multiple 30 times*** When BMG reemerged as an independent music company in 2009, it initially focused on buying publishing rights, and it acquired catalogs from companies like Bug Music and Cherry Lane Music Publishing when a net publishers’ share multiple of 12 was considered aggressive. Now that multiples run from 16 up to 30 in some cases, could BMG try to cash out some of its equity? The odds were thought to be against this, because the company is part of the German media giant Bertelsmann, which is controlled and partly owned by the Mohn family, which has…

Over the past year, pop-punk and alternative rock have reasserted their place in mainstream music — and this year’s 21 Under 21 list reflects that resurgence, with nearly half of the artists loosely fitting that mold. In 2020, on the heels of TikTok fame, jxdn became Travis Barker’s first signee to his DTA Records label (an imprint of Elektra). “I was interested in someone his age venturing into that [pop-rock] sound,” Barker told Billboard in August 2020, emphasizing how jxdn’s social media savvy is a huge selling point for breaking an artist now. “It’s a big reason why he’s popular, but it’s one of the reasons that rock bands in general are not popular, because they don’t know how to use social media,” said Barker. “I just feel like…

➜ Age Pedro Tovar Jr. (19), Brian Tovar (17), Ulises Vázquez (20) ➜ Label DEL Records ➜ Publisher DEL Publishing ➜ Management DEL Records ➜ Total streams 973 million Just six months after Eslabon Armado’s third album, Corta Venas, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Albums chart in January, the teenage band from Patterson, Calif., landed another chart-topper on the tally with Tu Veneno Mortal, Vol. 2. The 12-track set was the act’s fourth No. 1 in less than 13 months. With new member Ulises Vázquez now in tow, the trio — which won top Latin album artist of the year, duo or group at the 2021 Billboard Latin Music Awards — doesn’t plan to slow down. “I have a new strategy for the remainder of the…

➜ Age 18 ➜ Label RCA ➜ Publisher SONY MUSIC PUBLISHING ➜ Management HARD 8 WORKING GROUP ➜ Total streams 1.4 BILLION Since breaking out in 2020 with “You Broke Me First,” an emotive hit that cracked the Hot 100’s top 20, Tate McRae has been enjoying success in the fast lane. The Canadian artist — who moved to Los Angeles and splurged on her first apartment after graduating high school — has scored collaborations with Khalid and Troye Sivan, performed at Lollapalooza and Governors Ball, and will soon hit the road opening for Shawn Mendes on his Wonder: The World tour. “My situation is so weird, because everything happened for me during a pandemic,” says McRae. “I haven’t been performing as much as usual artists. I’ve never experienced…

Sony Music Entertainment (SME) has had a year of explosive new Latin talent development combined with aggressive and flexible deal-making under chairman/CEO of Latin-Iberia Afo Verde. Sony is home to Latin music’s biggest roster of stars: Maluma, Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Shakira, Carlos Vives, Romeo Santos and Marc Anthony, among others. All of them released new material, while a close partnership with Sony-owned distribution company The Orchard generated opportunities for creative marketing and exploitation of Latin repertoire. Sony and The Orchard combined had a 43.71% market share of the Latin market year to date in August. “We worked closer [with The Orchard] than ever before, and we were able to provide A-class services to the talented Latin artistic community,” says Verde, who not only negotiated hybrid deals but is…

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“Kobalt is so passionate and aligned with my vision as an artist and my creative process.”—MADISON BEER, ARTIST “As a songwriter and independent publisher, the Kobalt app is a dream utility. If I could only have one app on my phone it would be email, but if I could have two, the second would be the Kobalt app.”—GARY GO, ARTIST-SONGWRITER-PRODUCER (RIHANNA, SKRILLEX) “Kobalt has been such a massive supporter of mine since the very start. From the early synchs on ‘Waves,’ the team has been so instrumental in helping get my music out to the world.”—DEAN LEWIS, ARTIST-SONGWRITER “Three big cheers to Kobalt on being the best publisher in the business.”—PAUL McCARTNEY, ARTIST-SONGWRITER “Kobalt is the perfect partner to work for Raedio’s publishing division. Their transparency with songwriters, producers…

2001 Kobalt offered the first full-service deals — encompassing categories of A&R, synch and administration — for its music creator clients. To further differentiate itself, the company also offered writers the ability to keep 100% ownership of their songs. 2002 Kobalt became the first platform to collect and register directly in all major markets on behalf of its music creator clients, eliminating intercompany sub publisher charges. 2002 Kobalt launched the first-ever online portal giving statements and royalty analysis for every writer, allowing clients to track and access their individual incomes and manage their rights and royalties directly. 2008 The publisher’s portal evolved to become the first to offer online advances, show global registration status and counterclaim data, flexible royalty analysis and a live pipeline of synch activity. 2010 Kobalt…

Saxophonist Carlos Sosa has been on the board of directors of the health services nonprofit SIMS Foundation for seven years, but it wasn’t until he performed at the 2017 Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas, where a gunman killed 59 people and injured another 800, that he realized just how crucial the organization could be. When Sosa returned to Austin with post-traumatic stress disorder, he and his family received support from SIMS, which had already been providing him and his spouse with subsidized therapy since 2006 to cope with the stresses of touring. “I’d never experienced anything like it,” he says. “It gave me more reasons than ever to do whatever I can to push SIMS Foundation.” As touring resumes around the country, the nonprofit is looking ahead…

STACIA MAC DESCRIBES HER management style as “analytical,” and she recently put that skill — honed while guiding her son, hip-hop star Polo G’s career — to use during a terrifying incident that could have turned deadly. In early September, Mac posted security camera footage on Instagram — which she has since deleted — of armed masked men attempting to break into her Georgia home. A few weeks later, she recounts the coolheaded action she took to protect herself and her 8-year-old daughter, Leia Capalot. “Nothing prepares you for that, but I’m from Chicago, so you’re always ready,” says Mac. “I had my gun on the nightstand. I was on the phone with a friend, and I told him to call the police so I could continue to monitor…

As the pandemic sidelined his superstar management clients Maluma, Carlos Vives and Wisin from arena touring — their A biggest source of revenue — WK Entertainment founder/CEO Walter Kolm took an educated gamble and started his own label, WK Records. “We were on track to launch a label to develop new talent, and also, our artists wanted to develop their own artists, parallel to their own careers,” says Kolm. “Once the pandemic hit, we simply shifted our focus to the label.” In July, WK Records celebrated its first anniversary, having notched two No. 1 hits on Latin Airplay with “Fiel,” from Wisin, Los Legendarios and Jhay Cortez, and “Mi Niña,” with Wisin, Los Legendarios and Myke Towers in association with Wisin’s label, La Base. That success, says Kolm, made…

SEATED IN THEIR NEWLY reopened West Hollywood office under a portrait of rock disruptor Frank Zappa, Kobalt Music Group founder/chairman Willard Ahdritz and CEO Laurent Hubert can’t help but laugh at the irony. The two are looking back on two decades of disruption of their own — a period when, to hear them tell it, Kobalt was the only company speaking about the merits of the digital revolution within the music business, as well as the only one actively pushing for it. “There has been resistance — I joke that I was the guy who told the wife about her husband’s mistresses,” says Ahdritz with his trademark smirk. “That’s how popular I was among the old, cigar-smoking executives.” For the past 20 years, Ahdritz has driven and defined Kobalt.…

No. 1 PEAK ON BILLBOARD’S CHRISTIAN AIRPLAY CHART Anne Wilson grew up in Kentucky playing piano and dancing ballet but never considered singing — she dreamed of becoming an astronaut. That changed in 2017, when her older brother, Jacob, died in a car accident at 23. “I’d never written a song, and I’d never sang in front of anyone until [his] funeral,” recalls Wilson. She performed Hillsong Worship’s “What a Beautiful Name” at the service, and says now, “That was the first moment I felt God calling me to music.” Prompted by friends and family, Wilson posted a video of herself singing the song to YouTube. The clip gained traction, making its way to Noble Management’s Jason Davis, who reached out at the top of 2018. “You could tell…