U.S. Recorded Music Revenue Scores All-Time High of $15.9 Billion in 2022, Per RIAA Report

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Jay-Z’s net worth has soared to $2.5 billion, according to a new Forbes report published Friday. While the report is slim on details, it notes that the fortune of the man born Shawn Carter 53 years reached far beyond music. “Even in a year without a tour or album release, Jay-Z mints millions from his Armand de Brignac champagne and D’Usse cognac,” it says. “The Brooklyn-born rapper was crowned hip-hop’s first billionaire by Forbes in 2019, thanks to a sprawling and diversified empire,” noting assets from his Roc Nation entertainment and sports empire to a fine-art collection including works by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Rebecca Jones has shaken the entertainment world; dozens of celebrities have dedicated heartfelt messages bidding farewell to her and expressing their condolences to her loved ones. Among the stars who have said goodbye to the actress from “Cuna de lobos”, is Salma Hayek, who worked with the late actress in the 1980s on one or two television sets.The actress of films such as “Frida” or “Beatriz at Dinner” is currently on vacation in Jordan with her husband, French businessman Francois-Henri Pinault, and despite being on a trip, she took a moment to remember Rebecca Jones, who she described as an “extraordinary human being”.Through Instagram stories, she dedicated some farewell words to her former colleague at Televisa.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Sony Music has dissolved the long-running Arista Nashville imprint, a rep for the company confirms to Variety. The news was first reported in Country Aircheck‘s newsletter. Most of the artists will be absorbed into Sony Music Nashville, with Nate Smith is going to RCA Nashville and Old Dominion and Megan Moroney moving over to Columbia Nashville. Brooks & Dunn is the most famous artist on the label, having been one of its cornerstone acts since 1991, but the duo is not a going concern on the recording front. Apart from a retrospective/duets project three years ago, they have not issued an album of new material since 2007.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor To call “Spinning Gold” a labor of love is an understatement completely uncharacteristic of its subject: the late Neil Bogart, the larger-than-life founder of Casablanca Records, the famously freewheeling 1970s powerhouse that brought the world Kiss, Donna Summer, Parliament-Funkadelic and the Village People in less than five years. Some 25 years in the making, the biopic was written, produced and directed by Bogart’s eldest son Tim (who’s worked in those roles on many TV series, from “Majors & Minors” to “The Jungle Book”) with music supervision from his youngest son, Evan (a songwriter and music publisher who co-wrote Beyonce’s “Halo,” among many other hits), and other family members as producers. Out March 31, it features Tony and Grammy-nominated Broadway star Jeremy Jordan (“Newsies,” “Rock of Ages,” “Waitress”) as Bogart, Michelle Monaghan as his first wife, Lyndsy Fonseca as his second, rapper Wiz Khalifa as P-Funk’s George Clinton, singers Ledisi as Gladys Knight and Tayla Parx as Summer, among many others.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Global recorded-music revenue growth slowed down dramatically in 2022 but still was up 9% according to the year-end report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s released Tuesday. While 2021 saw an 18.5% growth, largely due to an increase in streaming numbers as the world waited at home for the pandemic to lift, a growth in global streaming numbers powered the past year’s lift, which showed total trade revenues for year at $26.2 billion. Subscription audio streaming revenues increased by 10.3% to $12.7 billion, and there were 589 million users of paid subscription accounts at the end of 2022, according to the report.  Total streaming (including both paid subscription and advertising-supported) grew by 11.5% to reach $17.5 billion, or 67% of total global recorded music revenues, according to the IFPI, which represents more than 8,000 record company members worldwide.

The Queen of Pop is linking up with the king of pop production!

There is a lot of talk and rumors floating around about if Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are planning to attend King Charles‘ Coronation on May 6, 2023.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Paramount+ is launching its first-ever mobile-only streaming subscription plan in Mexico and Brazil. Paramount+’s Basic Plan, described as “competitively priced,” will be available from April 18. It will allow subscribers to stream content on one mobile device or tablet at a time, uninterrupted and without ads. “This new offering is part of our broader strategy to scale Paramount+,” said Marco Nobili, executive vice president and international general manager for Paramount+. “With multi-tier pricing options, Paramount+ will reach even more subscribers by fitting diverse customer choices and grow our global direct-to-consumer distribution. With mobile entertainment consumption increasing around the world, a mobile-only option will make our slate of programming more accessible to our audiences in mobile-first countries.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The living hell of concert ticket-buying loomed into the foreground again this week, but this time it was not millions clamoring for a limited number of Taylor Swift or Bruce Springsteen tickets but rather attempts by long-running British alternative band the Cure to avoid gouging fans for its forthcoming “Lost World” North American tour. While the group had managed to avoid such controversial policies as platinum packages and variable pricing, frontman/founder Robert Smith was appalled to see hefty service fees added to the cost of “Verified Fan” tickets, which are intended to protect fans by keeping tickets out of the hands of scalpers, for the tour.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The entertainment business is filled with polymaths, but this week’s “Strictly Business” podcast guest, Evan Bogart, is a rarity even by its standards: He’s a songwriter of hits for Beyonce, Rihanna, Lizzo and others; owner of the large publishing company Seeker Music; chair of the Recording Academy’s new songwriters and composers wing; and not least, son of the late, legendary Neil Bogart, founder of the 1970s powerhouse Casablanca Records, which brought the world Kiss, Donna Summer, Parliament-Funkadelic and the Village People. Neil is the subject of “Spinning Gold,” a biopic directed and written by Evan’s older brother Tim, for which Evan is executive music producer, and which comes out March 31.

Salma Hayek doesn’t need a fork and knife to enjoy a chicken thigh! On Sunday, the Mexican icon was one of many stars enjoying the Oscars, arriving on the red carpet with her red daughter Valentina Paloma Pinaul. When the award show ended, the mother-daughter duo attended the Vanity Fair After Party, but Hayek had a chicken break along the way.

Valentina Paloma, the 15-year-old daughter of Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault, made her first Oscars appearance on this year’s champagne carpet. She joined her mother at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, who was there to present an award.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Amazon Music has announced the launch of two new weekly flagship music series: the hip-hop-focused “Rotation Roundtable” and the Latin/pop culture show “La Semanal Live.” “Rotation Roundtable,” premiering March 15, comprises a hybrid Twitch livestream and 90-minute podcast experience inspired by Amazon Music’s “Rap Rotation” and “R&B Rotation” playlists. It is hosted by journalist and executive producer Speedy Morman, Power 105.1 host/ producer Nyla Symone, “On the Radar” creator Gabe P and veteran journalist Rob Markman. Each episode will feature a “Big Questions” segment meant to incite discourse about current events in hip-hop. The show will also consist of “Hot Takes,” guest interviews, and a debate segment fueled by chat participation.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Pioneering hip-hop producer Prince Paul was never officially a member of De La Soul — but “The Magic Number” was always four whenever they worked together. As ambitious and creative as group members Posdnuous (Kelvin Mercer), Trugoy (the late Dave Jolicoeur) and Maseo (Vincent Mason Jr.) were, the man born Paul Huston was the glue that held it all together musically through many of the group’s biggest successes. “I think the way the dynamic changed because of me is I’m pro-everything,” Huston tells Variety. “If somebody’s considering an idea, I’m like, ‘Let’s do it!’” That fearless, kitchen-sink spirit led to “3 Feet High and Rising,” “De La Soul is Dead” and “Buhloone Mindstate,” three albums that caused three different generational shifts — for the group, their fans and often hip-hop culture. And those albums (and three others) were celebrated last week at “The D.A.I.S.Y. Experience” event in New York, where Huston, along with Posdnuous, Maseo, Dave Chapelle, Queen Latifah, Q-Tip, Common, Chuck D and many others, to commemorated the group’s music finally being released onto streaming platforms after decades-long legal entanglements.

Reese Witherspoon and Kacey Musgraves comes a new music reality competition called, which they promise is a «fresh take on» the TV genre as it «breaks down barriers in country music by providing an extraordinary opportunity to diverse artists from around the world.»  Ahead of the eight-part competition's debut on Apple TV+, the streaming platform released a trailer, offering the first look at what's to come from this one-of-a-kind experience.  On the show, three groundbreaking country artists and scouts -- Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton and Orville Peck -- have each handpicked a roster of what they consider to be «exceptional up-and-coming talent» and invited them to live together in a house in Nashville, Tennessee, where they'll showcase their unique sound and style for the judges.While there, the twelve contestants will vye for the chance to win «a life-changing experience from Apple, including global exposure across the Apple TV+ and Apple Music platforms.»In addition to watching the extended preview for the reality series, check out the three scout's full roster of competing artists below:    Chihuahua, Mexico Ale infuses herself into her music and bilingual lyrics with the mariachi, norteño, banda and other sounds she heard growing up in Mexico. At the age of 16 she taught herself how to play the guitar, and is now on the way to establishing herself as an independent singer-songwriter with a loyal following she’s gained from her popular YouTube channel.    New Delhi, India Dhruv, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer-songwriter and producer, started his musical journey at the age of seven.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Over the past couple of years, virtually every conversation about the challenges facing artists in the music-streaming economy has had one proposed quick fix: Raise subscription prices. As Milana Lewis, CEO of the distribution and payments platform Stem, told Variety last summer, “The price of everything else on earth is going up, and they all keep finding new ways to make subscriptions cheaper” via family and student plans, bundling and other initiatives. Apple Music, Amazon Music and Deezer have already done so, but others remain with the same $10 U.S. monthly price as when they started. New Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl brings a view from the other side to the top of the music industry: He was head of business for YouTube — where he led a sea change in the streaming giant’s relationship with the music industry by, guess what, introducing a paid music subscription service — and at Netflix, where he presided over the company’s shift from DVDs to streaming.

Academy Awards are this Sunday, with The Academy slowly unveiling some of its presenters, performers, and what people can expect come showtime. A list of performers was released today, sharing that Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas would be presenting some awards.Salma Hayek adds chicken soup to her skincare routine: Discover her beauty secretSalma Hayek’s matching fashion moment with daughter Mathilde Pinault: See picsA post shared by The Academy (@theacademy)The list of presenters includes various members that have a significant history with The Academy, and have made or are about to make their mark on the industry.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Today we release recorded music revenue data for 2022 showing a seventh straight year of continued growth – powered by a robust 8% increase in paid subscription streaming revenues which now make up two thirds of the market. In raw numbers, paid subscriptions hit 92 million for the first time ever, continuing a decade long run of double-digit growth. That’s practically double the 47 million paid subscribers on the books just four years ago in 2018. In the last ten years, streaming has gone from 15% to 84% of U.S. recorded music revenues, a virtual overnight transformation of our industry unmatched by any other media or art form. Other formats also saw significant growth. Streaming all together – paid subscriptions plus ad-supported services, digital and customized radio, and music used in social media platforms, digital fitness apps and others – grew 7% to a record high $13.3 billion last year, while vinyl’s incredible surge continued with revenues up 17% and, for the first time since 1987, more records sold than CDs.  (Read the full report.)

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Spotify announced Wednesday that its all-time payouts to music-rights holders are approaching $40 billion. The company said it pays out nearly 70% of every dollar it generates from music back to the industry, the announcement continues. It generates its music revenue from two sources: subscription fees from its Premium platform paying subscribers, and fees from advertisings on music on its Free tier. These rights holders include record labels, publishers, independent distributors, performance rights organizations and collecting societies, the announcement detailed. It is important to note that the payments go to rights holders first — which is rarely the artist or songwriter —which then take their fee or percentage and pay the creators their share.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The demise of the iconic Tower Records retail chain in 2006 was in many ways the final nail in the coffin of the 20th century music business model, but as vinyl sales unexpectedly revived over the past decade, the company relaunched in 2020 as an online retailer. Since then, there have been many rumblings about of some kind of bricks-and-mortar Tower relaunch — there was a vaguely defined space on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, and rumors, stickers and posters have been seen around New York for many months. On Wednesday, it made sense: The company has unveiled Tower Labs, a new creative space in Brooklyn, New York. Located on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Tower Labs “is designed to engage and stimulate music fans with a range of offerings including live music events, album listening parties, and a new speakeasy style ‘vinyl drop’ window for limited edition music and merchandise releases,” according to the announcement.