Universal Music Posts Nearly $11 Billion in 2022 Revenue as Company Expands Efforts for ‘New Streaming Model’

EXCLUSIVE: Hot on the heels of longtime client Michelle Yeoh becoming the first Best Actress Oscar winner of Asian descent for Everything, Everywhere All At Once, Artist International Group is expanding. AIG has named Kimberly Hines as partner, and Ian Stack as manager. They join AIG’s international talent and producing divisions. They will be based in New York and Rome. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Tencent Music Entertainment grew its 2022 profits by 21% to $533 million (RMB3.68 billion), helped by cost cutting and a growing subscription base. It achieved this despite a 9% decrease in revenues to $4.1 billion (RMB28.3 billion). The group, which is backed by Chinese tech and entertainment giant Tencent and has stock market listings on the New York Stock Exchange and in Hong Kong, is China’s largest digital music outfit and controls large equity stakes in Spotify and (in a consortium with Tencent) Universal Music Group. Tencent Music’s own operations divide loosely into two clusters: mass market music streaming, with paid-for and free tiers; and “social entertainment,” including karaoke and other derivative products.

All inquiries from members of the press directed to Twitter’s official press email now receive the same automatic reply: a poop emoji.

A night out on the town or an evening at home? Whichever your preference, celebrate the weekend like an A-lister with these celeb must-haves.

Jordan Moreau Variety’s 2023 Power of Women: New York event will honor Judy Blume, Natasha Lyonne, Rosie Perez, Kelly Ripa and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez. The Power of Women issue will release on Wednesday, March 29, and the event, in partnership with Lifetime, will celebrate the honorees in New York on Tuesday, April 4. This year’s honorees include: The program will be hosted by actress, comedian and writer Ego Nwodim, who has been a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” since 2018.

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.”

The universe’s biggest drag queen singing competition is back.

is finally back with season 2. The world's fiercest competition, which sees each drag queens debuting a new musical number in front of a live audience and a «Pop Dival Panel» of judges, returns to Paramount+ on Friday, June 2. And among this year's contestants are queens from nine countries including the United States, Mexico, Brazil, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Israel, the United Kingdom, Italy and Australia. Executive produced by RuPaul and hosted by Graham Norton, follows some of the world's most talented performers as they battle it out for global domination during head-to-head singing battles spotlighting their wide range of talent.

Roberto Stabile, head of special projects, Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual-Ministry of Culture at Cinecittà, told Variety. “This support will increase the presence of Italian audiovisual content not only in cinemas, but also on streaming platforms, online distribution, television, everything,” he added.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, said it is considering launching a new Twitter-like social network. “We’re exploring a standalone, decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. The rep said the company had no additional info on the prospective social network to share. News site Moneycontrol first reported on the potential Meta service, which is code-named “P92.” The new Meta app would be based on — and interoperable with — the framework that powers Mastodon, a Twitter-like service that launched in 2016 and has seen a surge in popularity since Musk’s takeover of Twitter last October.

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.

Netflix has just dropped a brand new clip for Murder Mystery 2!

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 ASCAP, the only remaining not-for-profit performing rights organization in the U.S., announced that its 2022 annual revenue surpassed $1.5 billion for the first time, which fueled record royalty distributions to ASCAP’s songwriter, composer and music publisher members. Collections totaled $1.522 billion in 2022, an increase of $187 million or 14% over the previous year. According to the announcement, ASCAP’s strategic growth plan, launched in 2015, has resulted in a 6% compound annual growth rate for total revenues, and a 7% compound annual growth rate for total distributions to members.

Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 16 additional years in prison, three months after he was convicted on three counts of rape and sexual assault.This sits on top of a 23-year sentence for a 2020 conviction of two counts of rape and sexual assault in New York, meaning his remaining prison time has nearly doubled. It’s been six years since Harvey Weinstein’s crimes led to an opening of the gates which would lead to #MeToo - a movement that has reshaped the way we think about sex and power, at the very least.

bestselling novel of the same name, Amazon Prime Video’s TV adaptation of  premiered today, March 3. Starring Riley Keough — daughter of the late Lisa Marie Presley — opposite alum Sam Claflin, the musical drama charts the rise and fall of Daisy Jones & the Six — a fictitious 1970s rock band undeniably inspired by the likes ofFleetwood Mac. The first three episodes of  have arrived with new episodes dropping every Friday until March 24.Watch on Prime VideoThis limited series cast also includes Camila Morrone, Will Harrison, Suki Waterhouse, Josh Whitehouse, Sebastian Chacon, Nabiyah Be and Tom Wright. 24 original songs were written and recorded by the cast for the series, 11 of which will be released on, a real-life debut album from the now-not-so-fictional Daisy Jones & the Six, also out on vinyl and digital platforms March 3.Produced in part by Reese Witherspoon’s company, Hello Sunshine, with the hit author Reid herself serving as executive producer, is shaping up to be a TV show that rivals the success of its popular source material.

Jon Stewart faced off with an Oklahoma state senator on gun regulation and the Second Amendment, calling out the lawmaker for “hypocrisy at its highest order” for his contradictory stances.In a sit-down for his Apple TV+ series “The Problem With Jon Stewart” airing Friday, the host confronted Oklahoma State Sen. Nathan Dahm on his views about regulating guns and the idea that more guns make the country safer.Dahm has written multiple bills loosening gun restrictions, including the nation’s first anti-red flag law against restricting gun access to those deemed dangerous.The Republican lawmaker stood his ground on the fact that the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms is the only one that the Constitution says “shall not be infringed,” to which Stewart shot back that it’s also the only one that uses the phrase “well regulated.” “Just for clarity’s sake, I’m not against the Second” Stewart said.

Scowl have released a new single and accompanying music video – listen to ‘Shot Down’ below.The band’s new single arrives ahead of their forthcoming EP, ‘Psychic Dance Routine’, which is set for release on April 7. The hardcore five-piece will then make their debut appearance at Coachella the following week (April 15).Explaining the inspiration behind the track, vocalist Kat Moss said: “This song is supposed to represent a battle between concealing your fears and vulnerability and desperately opening up about said fears.

Elon Musk continues to be the richest person in the world, despite briefly losing the No. 1 spot for over two months.

Streaming pay-TV bundle provider FuboTV closed 2022 with 1.445 million subscribers in North America and posted healthy numbers in many financial categories in the fourth quarter.