UMG: The music group that the legendary Doug Morris built into an empire is still a resounding #1 in new-release share, registering an essentially flat 34.5%. The biggest contributor was Mel Lewinter’s UMRG, which made a dramatic jump from 3.9% to 6.5%, with the year's biggest seller in Universal Motown’s Lil Wayne, at 2.8m. Sylvia Rhone’s slam dunk wasn’t the only jaw-dropper though, as Monte Lipman’s Universal Republic hit the trifecta: Jack Johnson (#5, 1.5m) Taylor Swift’s 2007 album (#6, 1.4m) and her new Fearless (#10, 1.3m), as the young Country superstar hits the last weeks of the year with tremendous momentum. That gives UMRG four of the Top 10.
SONY BMG: The merger that failed to cohere is now history following Sony Corp.’s acquisition of BMG from Bertelsmann, as SBMG’s combined share dropped from 21.9% to 20.3%. At the Rob Stringer-led Sony Music, which will finish the year with 9.7%, up a tick from a year ago, Steve Barnett’s Columbia team, with GM Mark DiDia overseeing the day-to-day, gained a half point to 5.3%, with a pair of Top 10 entries in #4 AC/DC (1.6m and headed to 2m)—in a personal triumph for Barnett, who once managed the band—and #22 Beyonce (900k en route to a projected 1.4m), while also scoring with newcomers Adele (250k) and MGMT (230k). Meanwhile, the second-guessing about the 2007 appointment of
WARNER MUSIC: While WMG stock went into free fall this year and now dangles just above $2, the music group managed the only significant increase for any of the Big Four under the oft-criticized Edgar Bronfman and Lyor Cohen from 2007’s 14.9% to 16.1%. This gain was primarily due to Craig Kallman’s
EMI remains EMI, down slightly to 7.9% from 8.1%, but the struggling British company has several reasons to be hopeful, thanks to the arrivals of respected A&R executive Nick Gatfield (whose first hire was the highly regarded former IDJ exec Rob Stevenson) and promotion expert Greg Thompson. The big sales story was the brilliantly orchestrated, possibly game-saving performance of Coldplay (#2, 2m), as well as the breaking of new artists Katy Perry (#49, 610k) and Saving Abel (250k). The latter two hits were parting gifts from exiting Capitol Music Group head Jason Flom, who is in the process of reinventing his Lava imprint at
MANAGEMENT: That term is now practically synonymous with Irving Azoff’s Front Line empire, which grows bigger by the hour, as the acquisitive mega-manager brought several newcos into the fold, notably Ken Levitan and Jack Rovner’s Vector (Kid Rock, Bon Jovi, who had one of the year’s biggest tours, and the exploding Kings of Leon), Michael McDonald’s Mick Management (John Mayer, Ray LaMontagne), Jordan Feldstein’s CAM (Maroon 5, Staind) and Dan Field (Weezer). Azoff also reinvented the big-box exclusive, following his wildly successful Eagles-Wal-Mart deal, hooking up Target with a Christina Aguilera hits package and setting up Andy Gould-managed GNR with Best Buy. Not having enough on his plate, Azoff created Ticketmaster Entertainment, with himself as CEO, as the balance of power continued to shift away from the majors. The latter move changes the relationship between Azoff and Michael Rapino’s Live Nation, which is launching a rival ticketing operation, while making noise this year with the 360 mega-deals it signed with Jay-Z, Shakira, Nickelback (turning down WMG’s 360 offer) and U2 (minus records), while staging the wildly successful Madonna tour, the first under her 360 deal with LN… The other high-profile management action was generated by Jeff Kwatinetz, who split from The Firm and started anew with much of the same roster and staff, and his former partner Michael Green, who’s quickly became a factor with his own new venture … Coldplay manager Dave Holmes had a resoundingly successful year, getting hands-on with the album setup during EMI’s restructuring, while the bold “pay what you want” online move of Radiohead managers Chris Hufford and Bryce Edge led to 620k in domestic sales…
PUBLISHING: This part of the business continued to be the most profitable part of the biz as the same players, David Renzer’s Universal Music Publishing, Roger Faxon’s EMI Music Publishing, Marty Bandier’s Sony/ATV and Warner/Chappell (under new head Scott Francis). On the indie front, Chris Wright’s Chrysalis rejected buyout offers and kept rolling, with
DIGITAL: Despite Amazon’s late-2007 entry into the arena, Apple continued to command the lion’s share of the legal download biz. Among the year’s milestones for Steve Jobs’ geek squad were total sales of 150m iPods and 5 billion downloads at the iTunes Store, which, according to some disputed figures, has passed Wal-Mart to become the #1 music retailer...
NAMES IN THE RUMOR MILL: YouTube, Lucian Grainge, Allen Grubman, Don Passman, Joel Katz, John Branca, Ari Emanuel, Andy Schuon, Amanda Ghost and Brian Avnet.
LIVE NATION POSTS (ANOTHER) RECORD QUARTER
More butts in seats than ever before. (5/3a)
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THE NEW UMG
Gosh, we hope there are more press releases.
TIKTOK BANNED!
Unless the Senate manages to make this whole thing go away, that is.
THE NEW HUGE COUNTRY ACT
No, not that one.
TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN PLAYLIST
Now 100% unlicensed!
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