TodayInMusic: Sony Music may have no CEO in a few weeks
Sony Corp still hasn’t confirmed to insiders who will replace outgoing Sony Music CEO Rolf Schmidt Holtz, whose contract ends on March 31st. Stories (including ours) have been doing the rounds for at least 3 months now that Schmidt Holtz will be replaced by current Universal Music Group chairman Doug Morris but, perhaps unsurprisingly, that move is proving complicated.
Sources say Morris has to give a year’s notice, which would take him to Jan 1 2012 at the earliest. The problem is Schmidt Holtz has made clear to his Sony Corp he has no intention of extending his contract as he’s ready to retire, move back home to Hamburg and concentrate on his various investments like TeVeo.
If Sony and Universal can hash out some agreement on Morris’ contract, he may be able to start as early as July 1, insiders said. But that would still mean that the good ship Sony Music might be without a captain for three months, not a great thing in an industry where uncertainty reigns.
One option for Sony might be to put Sony USA CFO Rob Wiesenthal in charge temporarily until Morris can come on board.
(Photo: Reuters, picture of Sony Music artist Beyonce)
Today In Music: Sales down in US and UK in 2010, digital barely up
The numbers are in for two of the biggest music markets and unsurprisingly, sales are down yet again, continuing a trend of the last decade.
US:
According to numbers from Nielsen SoundScan, total album sales, traditionally the heartbeat of the industry, were down 13 percent in the 52 weeks to Jan 2 this year. Over 326 milion albums were sold in all formats including digital versus 374 million a year ago. Overall music sales, when you include albums, singles, music videos and digital tracks was down 2.5 percent. Music sales were helped a bit by digital track sales holding steady up 1 percent to 1.17 billion units but that’s a far cry from the double digit percentage growth seen in recent years.
The top dog in the label business is still Universal Music Group with a 30.84 percent market share of album sales, followed by Sony Music Entertainment with 27.95 percent, Warner Music Group at 20.01 percent and EMI at 10.18 percent. Others, which represent independents, are at 11.02 percent. Interestingly only Universal and the troubled EMI grew market share slightly this year, EMI likely had a Beatles digital bump as well as some rare US hits like Lady Antebellum (top selling physical album).
Top selling album was rapper Eminem’s Recovery but the top-selling artist overall was pop-country star Taylor Swift (pictured above) . Top selling digital song (which is essentially the top-selling song overall) California Gurls by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg (4.4 million units sold).
UK
Virgin, Universal give away music, fight pirates
Can Virgin Media crack the scourge of piracy with a new music download service?
The cable provider plans to offer customers unlimited streaming and downloading of MP3 music files in conjunction with the world’s largest music company, Universal, home to artists ranging from U2 to Lady Gaga and Willie Nelson. The service, which may be launched by the end of the year, could eventually include music from other major labels.
The idea is to drive back the tidal wave of online piracy, which could appeal to parents worried that their children are downloading contraband music. More than a decade after Napster made a splash by making it easy for users to download music for free, other systems still exist that give Web surfers the same power. Many of those illegally acquired songs are downloaded over cable providers’ systems.
So would you pay $16 to $24, about the cost of two new albums, for a month of unlimited access to music?
Keep an eye on:
- These days, smaller is better in radio (The Wall Street Journal)
- Even Forbes Magazine is pinching pennies (The New York Times)
- BusinessWeek prepares another site redesign (PaidContent.org)
(Photo: Reuters)
Universal Music: We’re doing great thanks v.much.
The big dog in the music pound, Universal Music Group, says rather than feeling sorry for itself as the music industry’s woes spiral out of control, it has managed to have a good 2008 so far.
Universal’s parent, Vivendi, the French telecoms and media conglomerate, said on Thursday that the world’s largest music company had actually grown revenue by 3.5 percent in the first nine months of 2008 on a constant currency basis to 3.14 billion euros. Though this is a 3.8 percent decline in actual currency.
The company was boosted by growth in music publishing and merchandising following the acquisitions of BMG Music Publishing and Sanctuary in 2007. The company also highlighted a 33 percent increase at constant currency in digital sales and higher license income. These all helped offset tumbling CD sales, says Universal.
The stars were the latest British blue-eyed soulstress Duffy, the Mamma Mia! soundtrack, new releases from Lil’ Wayne (pictured left) and Jack Johnson as well as carryover titles from Amy Winehouse and Rihanna.
Universal’s earnings before interest, tax and amortization rose 22 percent to 408 million euros boosted by the inclusion of BMG Music Publishing in the results, as well as credits from the downward valuation of compensation schemes linked to equity value and increased license income.
(Photo: Reuters)
Amy Winehouse: Who’s the daddy?
They say success has many fathers, and nowhere is that ever more evident than in the music business, where aging executives still argue over who first spotted the rasping rick-rolling talent that is Rick ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ Astley in a smoky London bar.
One talent everyone loves talking about, though not much about her music recently, is Amy Winehouse. In fact, two separate executives who’ve taken the top job at different companies both claimed to have signed the five-time Grammy Award-winning bad girl, according to press releases that landed in our inboxes this morning.
Nick Gatfield is joining EMI Music as president of A&R Labels, North America and UK. According to EMI’s release he joined from Universal Music where he had been president of Universal Island Records Group since 2001:
“As well as signing five times Grammy Award winner Amy Winehouse, who has sold close to nine million copies of her ‘Back to Black’ album, Gatfield has also overseen the recording careers of Keane, Mika, The Fratellis, McFly, Busted, Sugababes, The Feeling and new artists Robyn and Sam Sparro.”
The next email in our inbox was a press release from Universal Music Group announcing the promotion of Darcus Beese and Ted Cockle as co-presidents of Island Records Group. Again the press release:
“Darcus Beese steps up after 15 years with Island, latterly as one of the industry’s most respected Directors of A&R. In 2003 he signed Amy Winehouse, now widely acknowledged as one of the world’s most talented artists. A year earlier, he signed Sugababes and strategised their reinvention, to make them one of Britain’s most successful and enduring girl groups.”
So who signed Winehouse? To be honest it doesn’t matter much to Universal Music Group International’s top boss Lucian Grange. He’s more concerned about Amy ending up ‘otherwise engaged’ one time too many according to reports.
Running a photo of Amy from the day after the January crack binge ??? Going into Court, before the CNH detox, before Grammys night, before staph got to her eyes/face/ears/body/legs, before antibiotics, before the whole setup around her got professionalized. Before methadone. Before all the other drugs got 86\’d. Before she focused on music again — working on her Blues album, commerical appeal be darned….
MySpace Music: Any day now, actually today…
MySpace has sent out a ‘breaking news’ media advisory for a news conference featuring CEO Chris de Wolfe (left) at 11am ET, which we presume is about the launch of MySpace Music as Reuters reported yesterday to be coming in days.
Silicon Alley Insider reported later yesterday that Universal Music Group had settled with MySpace for $100 million, a figure we also confirmed from our source. The November 2006 lawsuit was the main sticking point for getting MySpace Music off to a flying start. With a third of the recorded music market under its thumb, Universal’s participation was seen as critical to the new service’s success.
MySpace’s parent News Corp. will own the majority stake of MySpace Music while Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group will each have a minority stake proportional to their market size, say our sources. The music companies also have an eye on a possible spin-off of the music company in the future, said one source.
No one knows if EMI, the smallest of the big four, will be on board in the future. This week the company appointed former Google executive Doug Merrill as president of digital.
Keep any eye on:
