Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring costs.
The beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar took a serious turn this week, when Drake filed multiple legal petitions accusing Universal Music Group and Spotify of artificially inflating Lamar’s hit Not Like Us through “bots” and “payola.” UMG flatly denied the allegations.
Incredibly, that wasn’t even the most dramatic artist-label dispute this week. At a hastily assembled press conference in Seoul, K-pop group NewJeans announced they’re leaving their label, HYBE-owned ADOR. HYBE responded by saying NewJeans have no grounds to leave, and their contract is still “in full effect.”
Elsewhere in the world of HYBE, the South Korean entertainment giant’s shareholders and board approved the appointment of Seon Jeong Shin to President of its frontline label BIGHIT MUSIC, home of BTS and Tomorrow x Together.
And elsewhere in the world of promotions, Warner Music Group announced that Dan Rosen, President of Warner Music Australasia, will now also head up the region’s division of publisher Warner Chappell, uniting the recorded and publishing arms of the business under a single leader.
Finally, MBW dug through regulatory filings to discover that key executives at Spotify have cashed in around $1.1 billion worth of the company’s stock this year, including $283 million sold by CEO Daniel Ek alone.
Here’s what happened this week…
1) DRAKE FILES ANOTHER LEGAL PETITION OVER NOT LIKE US; ACCUSES UNIVERSAL OF ‘INAPPROPRIATE BUSINESS PRACTICES’ INCLUDING A ‘PAYOLA’ SCHEME TO TURN KENDRICK LAMAR’S DISS TRACK INTO A MEGA-HIT. READ THE FULL FILING.
Jacob Giampa/Shutterstock
This is turning into one heck of a dispute.
On Monday (November 25), Drake, via his company Frozen Moments LLC, filed a legal petition in New York accusing Universal Music Group and Spotify of artificially inflating streaming numbers for Kendrick Lamar’s mega-hit Not Like Us – a diss track about Drake.
UMG responded: “The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”
Drake’s lawyers also filed a second legal petition against UMG on Monday, this time in Texas…
2) NEWJEANS JUST HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE TO ANNOUNCE THEY’VE LEFT HYBE’S ADOR… BUT THE K-POP GIANT SAYS THEIR DEAL IS STILL ‘IN FULL EFFECT’
Courtesy of ADOR
If you thought that Drake’s legal action against Universal Music Group was the artist vs. label dispute of the week, think again.
Over in South Korea, the future of HYBE-owned label ADOR has been thrown into uncertainty after K-pop girl group NewJeans, the label’s primary source of income, announced Thursday (November 28) that they are terminating their contracts with ADOR.
However, ADOR says NewJeans don’t have grounds to terminate their exclusive contract, and it remains “in full effect.”
At a hastily announced press conference on Thursday evening (November 28), group member Hanni said that ADOR “has neither the ability nor the will to protect” NewJeans…
3) KEY SPOTIFY EXECUTIVES HAVE CASHED OUT MORE THAN $1 BILLION IN STOCK THIS YEAR… INCLUDING $283 MILLION FOR DANIEL EK.
Sipa US/Alamy
Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek has done it again.
According to recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ek sold 75,000 shares of Spotify on Wednesday, November 20, for USD $34.8 million, plus another 75,000 shares at $36.1 million on November 26.
SEC filings show that, so far in 2024, Ek has sold 875,000 shares of Spotify for a total of $283.0 million, and the company’s execs and former execs have unloaded a whopping $1.10 billion worth of Spotify stock since the start of the year.
That’s nearly as much money as the $1.16 billion Spotify paid to Warner Music Group in the 12 months to the end of September…
4) SEON JEONG SHIN PROMOTED TO PRESIDENT OF HYBE’S BIGHIT MUSIC, THE LABEL HOME OF BTS AND TOMORROW X TOGETHER
Courtesy of BIGHIT/HYBE
South Korea-headquartered entertainment giant HYBE has announced a significant leadership change for BIGHIT MUSIC, naming Seon Jeong Shin as the label’s new President.
BIGHIT MUSIC is HYBE’s flagship record label (HYBE was previously called Big Hit Entertainment) and the label home of K-Pop superstars BTS and Tomorrow x Together.
Seon Jeong Shin previously served as General Manager (GM) of the label. The exec’s promotion was approved at a shareholders’ meeting and Board of Directors Resolution on November 26.
The exec replaces Young Jae Shin, who has served as the President of BIGHIT MUSIC since 2020…
5) DAN ROSEN NAMED PRESIDENT, RECORDS AND PUBLISHING, AUSTRALASIA AT WARNER MUSIC GROUP
Warner Music Group has announced that Dan Rosen, currently President of Warner Music Australasia, will expand his role to encompass Warner Chappell Music.
The move unites the leadership of the recorded music and publishing businesses across both Australia and New Zealand.
Rosen will report to both Guy Moot, Co-Chair and CEO of Warner Chappell Music, and Simon Robson, President of EMEA, Recorded Music, WMG, who is currently also overseeing the recorded music business in APAC.
WMG said the move underscores its commitment to creating “a new, all-encompassing home for artists and songwriters in Australasia, while preserving the distinct identities of each division”…
MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.
