Universal Music Restructuring Continues, East Coast Labels Unite Under Republic Corps Division

As its public dispute with TikTok continues, Universal Music Group has set an expanded strategic relationship with Spotify.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Universal Music Group and Spotify — the world’s largest music company and the world’s largest paid music-subscription service — have unveiled an expansion of their “strategic relationship” in an announcement that has very few details but is likely the opening of a new maneuver in UMG’s ongoing battle with TikTok. UMG and the China-based platform, which has been the leading source of music discovery for the past five years, have been in a standoff over multiple issues, primarily the platform’s low royalty payments and AI policies, since their licensing agreement expired earlier this year.

HYBE, home to K-pop juggernauts BTS, have inked a new 10-year “global alliance” with Universal Music Group (UMG).HYBE – also home to other K-pop groups such as SEVENTEEN, NewJeans and more – announced an expanded agreement with UMG. The new deal will give UMG “exclusive distribution rights” to HYBE releases for the next 10 years, while HYBE’s roster of artists will have access to the former’s “global network”.The new agreement will also see UMG further working with HYBE’s fan platform Weverse, in order to “[bring] more of a direct connection between UMG artists and their fandom[s]”.

K-pop music purveyors HYBE today announced an expanded long-term agreement with Universal Music Group (UMG), providing them exclusive distribution rights across HYBE music for the next 10 years.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hybe, the Korean firm behind K-pop’s BTS, has struck an expanded 10-year deal with Universal Music Group (UMG), providing Hybe’s roster of artists and labels access to UMG’s leading global network. UMG will further collaborate with Hybe’s global superfan platform Weverse, bringing more of a direct connection between UMG artists and their fandom. Hybe and UMG will additionally collaborate on artist promotions and marketing activities in North America under the oversight of Scooter Braun – who, in his time as CEO of Hybe America, acquired QC Media Holdings and incorporated SB Projects as well as Big Machine Label Group into the existing roster. Hybe and UMG first teamed up in 2017 on BTS, through a distribution agreement in Japan. In 2021, the companies expanded their relationship with a global strategic agreement which saw collaborations across multiple projects and use of Weverse for fan communication.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The U.S. recorded music industry grew its revenue by 8% in 2023, reaching an all-time high of $17.1 billion and marking eight consecutive years of growth. However, there’s no question that the streaming boom of the past decade, which produced years of double-digit growth, is leveling off and the industry is reacting with layoffs and talk of a “transformational moment” in the months and years to come.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Joker and Harley Quinn are set to serenade audiences in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” but if, and how many of original songs will be included in the film, is a mystery. Insiders privy to filming and early versions of Todd Phillips’ eagerly awaited sequel to “Joker” tell Variety the movie leans heavily towards being “mostly a jukebox musical,” as it integrates at last 15 reinterpretations of “very well-known” songs. One is said to be “That’s Entertainment” from the 1953 musical “The Band Wagon,” famously associated with Judy Garland.

EXCLUSIVE: Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Waves) has been set to lead a new, untitled Universal feature project from director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and producer Pharrell Williams (Hidden Figures), according to multiple sources, who also tell us that 2024 Academy Award winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) is in talks.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music If there’s a top jack-of-all-trades in the music industry, there’s a good chance it’s Ryan Tedder. He’s a hugely successful recording artist (as leader of OneRepublic), one of the top songwriter-producers of the past 15 years (Beyoncé’s “Halo,” U2, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Ed Sheeran, Maroon 5, Ariana Grande and many more) and is also a more savvy music publisher than many full-time music publishers.

Willy Kambwala has heaped praise on Manchester United's matchwinner against Liverpool on Sunday, Amad Diallo.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Despite and also because of its puzzling inside-joke name, Trouser Press was one of the greatest music magazines in history. It existed for just a decade — from 1974 through 1984 — but in the process, it nurtured the careers of thousands of musicians and exponentially more fans, future musicians, writers, music executives and others.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music For their headlining set opening the Rolling Loud California festival in Los Angeles on Thursday night, Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign merely stood onstage for an hour while pre-recorded music from their already released first album played over the loudspeakers. While the wording in the official announcement of the late-added performance was unspecific — “Vultures headlining new Thursday night,” the since-deleted post read — it’s safe to say that most people expected the duo, who have been working together under the name Vultures, to at least deliver vocals.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The standoff between Universal Music Groupand TikTok over royalty payments and AI policies has resulted in a near-complete blackout of all music owned, distributed and published by the company on the platform — the videos are still there, but the music is muted. Yet new songs by UMG artists, including Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello and Niall Horan could be found on TikTok at the time of this article’s publication. How and why is that happening? While reps for UMG and TikTok declined comment, and an explanation of the platform’s logistics and process quickly devolves into a mind-melting blizzard of jargon and abbreviations, here’s a vast oversimplification of a couple of possibilities.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music East Village Radio, the influential streetfront online radio station that broadcast from 2003-2016 and Mark Ronson hosted an influential show for several years, has announced it is planning to relaunch next month. The station, formerly located in a tiny studio behind a glass window at the front of a restaurant on First Avenue in New York’s East Village, opened directly onto the sidewalk, offering an almost surreal intimacy between passersby and the DJs.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music As the standoff between Universal Music Group and TikTok over royalties, AI and other matters continues to boil amid angry words from both sides — and the National Music Publishers Assn. stating last weekthat it does not plan to renew its license with the platform — the official trade group for independent publishers has weighed in with its own advice.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has insisted that defender Ibrahima Konate has a "good chance" of featuring in next week's FA Cup clash with Manchester United.

Jonathan Taplin Jonathan Taplin is the Director Emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California and the author of “The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars and Crypto.” He was tour manager for Bob Dylan and The Band in 1969. He has written this op-ed at the request of Universal Music Group. On Monday, these pages featured a defense of TikTok that could easily have been ripped from the headlines of the 2000’s.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The standoff between Universal Music Group and TikTok took another turn on Wednesday when the trade group National Music Publishers Association sent a letter to its members saying that it does not expect to renew its license with the China-based platform when it expires at the end of next month. “Recently, the press has highlighted concerns around TikTok’s licensing practices, concerns that NMPA has heard directly from many of our members,” the letter reads in part.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Veteran singer and Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry has entered into a partnership with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group “to develop and expand the renowned artist’s musical legacy to new generations of fans,” according to the announcement. The deal sees the company acquiring 50% of Ferry’s sound recording, publishing, and name, image and likeness rights from his solo work and Roxy Music catalog, which reaches back to the group’s galvanizing 1972 debut album and includes such hit songs as “Love Is the Drug,” “More Than This,” “Avalon,” “Virginia Plain,” “Dance Away,” “Slave to Love” and more.

Not even the most optimistic of Manchester United supporters would have anticipated Erik ten Hag's side beating Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.