RG Ingersoll's HOtrax Music Tips - Ezekiel Lewis promoted to President of Epic Records

 

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Music Business Worldwide: Newsletter

Ezekiel Lewis promoted to President of Epic Records Ezekiel Lewis has been promoted to President of Epic Records. He will continue to report to Sylvia Rhone, Epic Records’ Chairwoman and CEO, and to lead the A&R division while helping run the day-to-day operations of the Company. Lewis has served as the company’s Executive Vice President and Head of A&R since 2020. Throughout his tenure, he has worked with artists including 21 Savage, BIA, Black Eyed Peas, DDG, Future, GIVEON, Madison Beer, Meghan Trainor, Mimi Webb, Southside, Zara Larsson and more. “Having been a hit songwriter and producer for many years, Zeke brings an invaluable understanding of the artist’s creative journey," said Sylvia Rhone on Thursday (June 1)... (MBW)

MBW Newsletter Sponsors Primary Wave: The Home of Legends. The world's leading independent publisher of iconic music CMS, CRM, Playlists, Royalty Accounting, Analytics: your music business all in one place The next generation label transforming viral moments into long term music careers.  Centtrip: The award-winning account for music payments, royalties, foreign exchange and touring expenses Viberate: Get premium music data analytics at an unbeatable price – $9.90/month! BandLab: Home to 60M creators making and sharing music without limits Voly Music The Bespoke Financial Management Platform for the Music Industry Rights & Royalties Done Right. Drive more revenue with Vistex Music Cloud. Technology + Infrastructure + Methodology ➡️ Execution = Results The complete royalty solution for labels and publishers Want your brand here? Contact Rebecca through this link...   Music's biggest companies are determined to better monetize 'superfans' on streaming platforms. Audius is already doing it. Audius is one of the most talked-about new digital streaming startups in today's music business. Powered by Web 3.0 technology – remember that?! – it describes itself as a “global decentralized music community and discovery platform that puts the artist in control”. What that really means is that Audius enables artists to connect directly with their 'superfans', while offering those superfans the opportunity to pay more for access to coveted digital products and treats – including rare catalog recordings, or even official permission to remix a track. Audius boasts over 7 million unique monthly users on its platform, and has attracted investment from some impressive people – both music artists and music executives. On this Music Business Worldwide podcast, MBW founder, Tim Ingham, speaks to Audius’ co-founder and CEO, Forrest Browning, about what differentiates his company from other music streaming platforms... (The MBW Podcast supported by Voly Music) Universal hit with lawsuit over sample used in Migos’ ‘Narcos’ Florida-based music label and rightsholder Keep On Kicking Music has filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group and other defendants over a sample used on the Migos track, Narcos.  The suit alleges that Capitol Records, Motown Records and Quality Control Music – the labels that released Migos’ album Culture II, which includes the track Narcos – got permission from the wrong rightsholder when they sampled Espoir Composition X, a 1978 instrumental track released by the Haitian band Les Difficiles de Pieton-Ville... (MBW) Reservoir aims to become the ‘largest holder of Arabic music copyrights…’ and 3 other things we learned on the company’s latest earnings call Music rights company Reservoir Media has posted double-digit revenue and EBITDA growth for its 2023 fiscal year, a success that can be chalked up to strategically sound M&A activity, and a commitment to diversity in its investment strategy. The New York-headquartered company announced Wednesday (May 31) that it had clocked revenue of USD $122.3 million for fiscal 2023, which for Reservoir ended on March 31, 2023.  Reservoir conducted an earnings call on Wednesday (May 31) following the publication of its results. MBW listened in. Here are some of the highlights... (MBW)

MBW'S QUOTE OF THE DAY "Where’s the next Whitney Houston? We haven’t seen an artist of that calibre in so long because there’s so little focus on artist development and so much focus on pushing just the music."    At UTA, Cheryl Paglierani reps some of the biggest names in US hip hop today — including Post Malone, Cardi B, Offset, 21 Savage and Chance the Rapper, to name a few. She’s spent the last 17 years journeying through the agency world, building up her contacts book and experience, stopping at WMA, CAA and The Agency Group before landing at her current role in 2016. Here, we chat to Paglierani about what makes a good agent, lessons learned across her career, the state of play in the live music market, and more... (Inspiring Women supported by Ingrooves)

SPONSORED SPOTLIGHT Announcing IC Full Service, the new royalty department in your back pocket, from Infinite Catalog. You might have better things to do than royalty accounting — we don't.  [Click here to find out more]

Don't miss: TIDAL's CEO thinks music is 'undervalued and underpriced.' Here's what he's doing to try change that. TIDAL CEO Jesse Dorogusker, a long-time Block (formerly Square) executive, has led TIDAL since the latter company was acquired by Jack Dorsey’s fintech firm in early 2021 in a $300 million-plus deal with Jay-Z (who paid €50 million to acquire TIDAL in 2015). Dorogusker also leads Bitcoin hardware product development at Block. Prior to Block, he was the Director of Engineering for Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod Accessories business. "At Square and now Block, we figured out that our purpose is to build things that provide economic empowerment," he says. "For Square, it was for small businesses, for Cash App, it's for individuals excluded from the banking system. And in the early conversations about TIDAL, it was really about artists and all of the things they don't have - all the things in the industry they're excluded from." MBW sat down with Dorogusker to talk about TIDAL’s business direction, the economics of music streaming, the rise of generative AI, and the platform's partnership with Universal Music Group... (MBW)  Don't miss: Cutting Edge strikes eight-figure deal with pop songwriter and producer Jamie Hartman UK-headquartered Cutting Edge Media Music (CEMM) has struck a deal with prominent songwriter and producer Jamie Hartman, who’s written or co-written numerous hits for artists such as Lewis Capaldi, Celeste, Calvin Harris, Rag’n’Bone Man and the Backstreet Boys, among many others. CEMM says it “will purchase the majority of Hartman’s back catalog royalties”, published through his deal with Reservoir Media. MBW understands that CEMM has bought the majority of Hartman’s writers’ share. Hartman continues to be published by Reservoir... (MBW)

JOB OF THE WEEK Van Duyne is hiring for a Senior Full-Charge Bookkeeper in Pine Brook, New Jersey. This person must have relevant work experience of at least three, but preferably five years. Music industry experience a plus... [Click here to find out more]

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