Table of contents for No. 1391 in Music Week

Standing on ceremony Between sending the last issue of Music Week to press and the one you’re now reading, two major events in the music industry calendar have come and gone: The Grammys and The BRITs. Three, if you include my post-BRITs takeaway. I write this the day after the likes of Raye, Dua Lipa and Kylie Minogue wowed The O2, and while the official viewing and chart uplift figures weren’t available in time to make our print slot, that matters not. The debrief I want to do doesn’t concern them. Scanning the headlines the morning after each event, the dominant story for both was a positive one: the improved gender representation of their nominees and winners. It is, of course, six years since the (now-ex) Recording Academy president Neil…

THE BIG RESULT UMG’s revenue increased by 11.1% year-on-year to €11.1 billion in 2023. Top sellers included albums from Taylor Swift, and releases from Morgan Wallen, King & Prince, Karol G and The Weeknd. CEO and chairman Sir Lucian Grainge used the earnings call to address UMG’s TikTok licensing dispute. “There must not be free rides for massive global platforms such as TikTok that refuse to meaningfully address issues around AI, platform safety, or pay their fair share for our artists’ and songwriters’ work,” he said. THE BIG ROLE Damaris Rex-Taylor has been promoted to managing director at RCA Records UK. She joined in 2019 as director of marketing, and was promoted to general manager in 2021. She is co-chair and a founding member of Sony Music UK’s Social Justice…

@JanayMarie That middle ground between rest and running a business is really something. ( Janay Marie, Tallawah UK ) Sunday, February 25 @Wretch32 I’m jealous of you people that can quit music lol. (Wretch 32, artist/0207 Def Jam) Sunday, February 18 @dniellechelosky Losing an audio recording from an interview is a worse pain than a break-up. ( Danielle Chelosky, journalist) Thursday, February 1 @BombayBicycle Virgin Media did a tweet about our gig in Southampton last Saturday, and now our mentions are mostly irate Virgin media customers. ( Bombay Bicycle Club, artist) Thursday, February 22 @LilNasX Beyoncè finna make me put my cowboy hat back on (Lil Nas X, artist) Monday, February 12 @empilbeam Why are 387 albums coming out on 19th april???? ( Emily Pilbeam, BBC Introducing/6 Music) Monday, February 19 @SianAnderson…

RELEASES: Lil Boo Thang, Say Cheese LABEL: Arista Records MANAGEMENT: Jared Cotter & Abas Pauti, Range Management WHAT THE TEAM SAY: Stacey Tang, co-president, RCA UK: “Paul represents a return to great times, pop music with international appeal, which is a joy to work on. The traction Lil Boo Thang received online when it launched suggests that the appetite for happy, upbeat music is there. Paul has come to the UK on his first promo trip to meet key partners and show them what he has to offer outside of this viral hit, and we are excited to keep delivering for him in 2024 and beyond.”…

A hugely experienced creative executive and a Music Week Women In Music Awards Roll Of Honour inductee, Shauni Caballero is the senior director of creative at Sony Music Publishing. She launched her music industry career in 2017 as the founder of The Go 2 Agency – a music publishing, neighbouring rights and consultancy company – and joined SMP as a frontline A&R in 2022, the same year she was named one of Complex’s 15 Black British Music Execs Shaking The System. Caballero signed record-breaking UK rap star Central Cee shortly after joining SMP, and over the last year has worked with artists including Russ Millions, Strandz, JayO, Clavish and Nippa. During the summer last year, she spearheaded SMP’s songwriting camp at Miloco Studios, attended by the likes of Central Cee,…

One warm LA night three weeks after the birth of her daughter Delphi, Natasha Khan lay awake in bed and had the feeling that one part of her life was ending and another just beginning. The midwives that had helped her adjust to the first few Oweeks of motherhood had departed and now, surrounded by a sleeping baby, her partner and the family dog, a Californian breeze drifting through the French doors, Khan sensed a sudden shift in the cosmos. Life would never be the same again, she thought to herself, the sun coming up as she contemplated what lay ahead. Everything was starting over. “That night was this liminal period between my old life and my new life,” she says, sitting in a meeting room at Decca, which signed…

TRAVIS SCOTT SICKO MODE (FEAT. DRAKE) One of the biggest hip-hop collaborations of this century, Travis Scott’s Sicko Mode featuring Drake has racked up over two billion streams on Spotify since its release in 2018. Here, producer Tay Keith tells us the story behind the iconic track, and talks the sound of Memphis and working with the stars… Whenever somebody releases a song or an album, you always have that moment where it’s like, ‘Oh, this is what I was waiting for.’ When you listen to it the first time, it just sticks with you, you always remember it. That’s what it was like for me with Sicko Mode. I was a big fan of Travis [Scott] before we met. I was listening to his music in college and got…

01 SPECIAL KAHAN NOAH KAHAN Stick Season (Republic/Island) SALES: 285,399 It was quite the month for Noah Kahan, who tops our February albums and singles lists, replicating the feat he pulled off in the penultimate frame. Adding 285,399 sales, Stick Season saw a 2.1% increase in consumption and now has 1,162,629 total sales to date. As well as becoming the Vermont singer’s first million-seller, Stick Season spent a magnificent seven consecutive weeks at No.1 to become the longest-running, entirely self-penned chart-topper by a male solo artist ever. It surpassed Lionel Richie’s Hello (1984), Michael Jackson’s Earth Song (1995/1996) and Ed Sheeran’s Perfect (2017), all of which reigned for six weeks. Kahan’s hit held off the challenge of Sophie Ellis Bextor’s Murder On The Dancefloor before falling victim to ACR and being…

UNITED KINGDOM Good Neighbours Home Video Creations: 179,800 Described by Good Neighbours as an ode to “the moment you hold a loved one after some time apart”, Home is a sentimental anthem that is a throwback to indie tracks of the early 2010s. The song quickly took over For You Pages after an early demo went viral on TikTok. Since then, the pair have enjoyed enormous success on and off the platform, with the track entering the Official Charts, becoming their first Official Top 40 entry. Creators have used the sound to share slideshows of their loved ones through the years. TikTok’s music partnerships manager, Alice Razack, outlines the success of Home on the platform and how TikTok’s music discovery tools are essential to upcoming artists’ growth. “This debut independent…

TANGK Chart Position: No.1 Label: Partisan Records TEAM Idles Management: Mark Bent/Lucy Bent (Mother Artists Management) Live Agent: Natasha Gregory (Mother Artists Live) A&R: Tim Putnam (Partisan) Creative: Joe Talbot (Idles), Joshua Hughes-Games/Jake Crossland (Partisan) Marketing: Ellie Rumbold/Annie Horvath/Jeff Bell (Partisan) Commercial: Ross Hampl (Partisan) International: Alice Oliveira (Partisan) Digital: Connie Rose/Francesca Harvey/Asher Breuel-Weil (Partisan) Socials: Pact Digital National Press: Morad Khokar (MoKho PR) Regional Press: Rob Kerford/Thom Williams (Sonic PR) National Radio: Kevin McCabe (KMRP) Regional Radio: Julie Barnes (RadioActive) TV: Emma Bailey (Your Army)…

Senior artist manager, Chosen Music @dakhov You joined Chosen Music as an intern in 2019. Did you always want to have a career in music? “When I was young, as far back as I can remember, I spent a lot of time in the studio as there was one in the house that I grew up in, so I was lucky enough to be able to watch and listen to incredible music being made. Ever since then, it’s been a huge passion of mine. Chosen gave me the opportunity to build on that and I’ve been able to learn about, discover and ultimately nurture talent from the ground up.” You discovered Caity Baser in 2020. What was it about her music that drew you to her? And what are the…

LANA LUBANY Stanna (AWAL) Newly signed to AWAL, Lana Lubany is set for a big March, with the release of this new single and a debut London headline gig. With singing, rapping and lyrics switching from Arabic to English over propulsive rhythms, Stanna is a bombastic listen that marks the arrival of a new pop force. Contact: Sarah Richardson sarah@allstrip.es PEARL JAM Dark Matter (Monkeywrench/ Republic) Recorded in just three weeks at Shangri-La with producer Andrew Watt, Pearl Jam’s 12th LP has been billed by Eddie Vedder as their best yet. That’s some statement, but the coruscating title track proves why he’s feeling so confident about it. Contact: Barbara Charone bc@mbcpr.com JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE Drown (RCA) Justin Timberlake’s sixth album, Everything I Thought It Was, shows that he still has a…

Management: Rich Austen Smith, Tiger Hagino Reid & Isla Fabinyi (Giant Artist Management) Label: Mercury KX CEO & chairman: David Joseph (Universal Music UK) Co-presidents: Tom Lewis & Laura Monks A&R: Cerys Weetch Director Of Marketing: Holli Sullivan Director Of Streaming & Audience: Benedict Curran Audience/Digital Marketing: Lee Barter Marketing: Jessica Graham-Wright Publisher: BMG Agent: Emma Banks (CAA) Print & Online Press: Ethan Beer & Henry Evans Harding (Satellite 414) Radio: Rosie Crocombe & Sam Kitchen TV: Joe Baxter (Baxter PR) Commercial & D2C: Aaron Spence, Sarah Carton & Jessica Van Der Werf…

SPECIAL REPORT “In 2013, I was warned that neighbouring rights was the ‘Wild West’ of the music industry” ANN TAUSIS, KOLLECTIVE NEIGHBOURING RIGHTS You don’t have to look too far back in the annals of music industry history to find a much less sophisticated neighbouring rights business. According to the IFPI, the market hit £2 billion in revenue in 2022, but was a vastly different place little over a decade ago. “Back in 2013, I was warned that neighbouring rights was the ‘Wild West’ of the music industry – were they right? Yes, indeed,” laughs Ann Tausis, CEO of Kollective Neighbouring Rights (KNR), which represents artists such as Calvin Harris, Miley Cyrus, Wiz Khalifa, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Burna Boy. “A lot has happened since then and improvements have been…

“We don’t need a strict definition of a DJ, as long as people are having fun that’s great for us’” MATT GRALEN, BEATPORT Beatport’s revenue has tripled in the last six years. What’s been driving that performance? “There is this movement across the industry for more and more people to create digitally. I saw a stat in a study that was done in 2020 showing that there were 15 million digital music creators. We think there are at least a few million DJs out there. The company’s done an incredible job of making it easier for people to start [DJing] – that’s one of the ways that we’ve grown.” Is part of that growth down to targeting a wider audience with more products? “Yes, absolutely. So on the DJ side, the…

As Paul Russell prepares for his first-ever BBC Radio 1 performance and a television interview with Graham Norton, it’s hard to believe that this time last year, he was still envisioning a career in tech. “For most of my life, if you’d have asked me what my dream job was, I would have said something similar to what I was doing before this,” the Los Angeles-based star tells Music Week, during his first-ever visit to the UK. “I worked on finance stuff at a tech company in the start-up world, and I was super interested in it. I was like, ‘This is what I want to do!’” It was an unexpected viral moment in August 2023 that turned Russell’s career, and indeed his life, upside down. The Atlanta-raised rapper and…

Davda, DJ, KISS SKEETE – VIBES DON’T LIE I have been a big fan of Skeete ever since I heard Vibes With Me in 2019. He is an artist with an ever-evolving sound, and the intimacy of his songwriting and cadence have kept me hooked no matter what genre he’s drawing from. Hailing from Nottingham, his sound has developed into a well-balanced fusion of dancehall and R&B with Afrobeat elements. He has no fear when it comes to experimentation. Last summer, he released his seven-track debut EP Vibes Don’t Lie and the project is a fluid string of heartfelt hits. With lyrics dealing with the relationship issues that many dancehall songs address, combined with a general sentiment of love, the record keeps you present and wanting more. Tek Buddy is…

MARCH 22 408 Hot Mess Big Noise Adrianne Lenker Bright Future 4AD Aoife O’Donovan All My Friends Yep Roc Butthole Surfers Reissue: PCPPEP Matador Butthole Surfers Reissue: Psychic… Powerless… Another Man’s Sac Matador Butthole Surfers Reissue: Rembrandt Pussyhorse Matador Cakes Da Killa Black Sheep Young Art Chris Young Young Love & Saturday Nights Sony Dee C Lee Just Something Acid Jazz Elbow Audio Vertigo Polydor Empress Of For Your Consideration Giant Fears Affinity Tulle Fletcher In Search Of The Antidote Capitol/EMI Good Morning Good Morning Seven Polyvinyl Gossip Real Power Columbia Halo Maud Celebrate Heavenly Julia Holter Something In The Room She Moves Domino Kaleida In Arms Embassy One Kat Eaton Honestly Reason & Rhyme Leaves’ Eyes Myths Of Fate AFM Sam Evian Plunge Flying Cloud/ Thirty Tigers Starsailor Where…

“What we’re building to is a product that ties livestreaming, commerce, merch and music together in ways that don’t exist today” RYAN REDINGTON Ryan Redington was in Los Angeles for this year’s Grammy Week, but he has no regrets about skipping the main event. “My wife’s grandmother had a 90th birthday party in the Midwest,” explains the Amazon Music GM. “I took a red-eye flight from LA to Chicago on the Friday night, so I missed the show. But I got to go to a church and drink punch and eat cake with a 90-year-old, so that was kind of cool…” Redington was part of the team that launched Amazon’s Prime Music streaming service back in 2014 and has become part of the furniture in 15 distinguished years with the company.…

Victor Omos, co-founder/director: “EGA Distro is a manifestation of our belief that talent, hard work and creativity come from the most unlikely of sources. We always look beyond the trend, why follow when you can lead?” Charley Snook, MD: “Not only have we managed to assemble top-tier artists, we also hand-picked the best executives who conduct brilliance and innovation with every decision. The trust I have for my team is unparalleled, and with the collective determination and mutual respect we hold for each other, there is no limit to what we can achieve together.” Ali Neale, GM: “EGA Distro is working with your best friends, on your favourite artists, every single day. Our ethos of quality over quantity allows us to truly give every artist the time, dedication and creative…

One thing I am often asked about, or challenged with, is the idea that the downturn in the grassroots music venue circuit is representative of changes in how people are choosing to consume live music. There’s no need to have all these venues across our towns and cities, runs the argument, because these days people only encounter new music through social media and streaming platforms, not through live gigs. In January, the BPI published statistics about, and commented positively on, another successful year for the British music industry. The statistics that were released are an interesting insight into where music comes from and where it ends up. Firstly, the very positive: whilst there is still a lot of work to be done, there is great progress being made in the…

To mark the release of his band’s new record, Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album, Ricky Wilson looks back on their big breakthrough, the departure of drummer/lead songwriter Nick Hodgson, and why their success is really all down to Ant & Dec… The proudest moment in my career is that Kaiser Chiefs stayed together when Nick left… “This is not in any way in detriment to Nick, but it was the maddest thing to do and also possibly harder than getting signed in the first place, us going on an odyssey of meeting people, finding producers and trying to write an album when we’d never written without Nick. It was exciting, it was liberating and no one expected anything. I was so happy [subsequent 2014 record] Education, Education, Education & War…