Randal B.’s Post

How do I get synchs????? This is one of the most common questions I get asked by artists. Synch is seen by musicians as an easier way to get proper money, but is it really? Jasmin Tadjiky and I have done well out of synch in our careers but it took a long time to build that business. It involved a lot of research, connecting with music supervisors and synch agents, building trust, being available when the opportunities came and for Jasmin, she had to tap into different parts of creativity to make music that works for ads or tv or film. Its a new skill! I think a lot of artists make a track and think ‘oh I can totally hear this on Stranger Things’ and thats enough, but the market is competitive. Its rarely as easy as that. These are sole of my tips : 1. Do your research: learn who the music supervisors are and what they’re working on. They’re busy people flooded sith music so make sure you know their work and what they look for. 2. Send them music that’s relevant. Keep it personal, short and snappy. Send it on a link they can stream from and download. 3. Admin. Make sure your metadata on the track is clear, you have your instrumental versions and lyric sheets ready. Being one-stop helps when your starting out but if you have a collborator make sure youve agreed splits etc… 4. Form relationships with people. Go to synch conferences. Find out where they hang out and try to meet them. Be useful to them. This takes time! 5. Hone your craft. Practice writing music for ads and film. Make demos for synch in your own time. Find the creative part of your brain that understands the difference between a song for your artist project and a song for ads. Sometimes they will use a released artist project track for something but I have often found that stuff written with synch in mind is more successful. Music supervisors….. are there any more tips for artists trying to build a synch business? Or if I’m wrong in these please correct me!

New Post: Shaboozey Tosses Back Third Week at No. 1 on Hot 100 With ‘A Bar Song (Tipsy)’ - https://lnkd.in/gZ9skwmP - Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” adds a third week at No. 1 to its Billboard Hot 100 tab. The single became the singer-songwriter’s first leader on the chart three weeks earlier. Related Stray Kids & Jimin Debut at Nos. 1 & 2 on Billboard 200 — K-Pop Has Top Two Albums for… 07/28/2024 The song, on American Dogwood/EMPIRE (with country radio promotion by Magnolia Music), is from the Virginia-born artist’s album Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, which debuted at its No. 5 high on the Billboard 200 in June. It has spent two weeks at No. 1 on Americana/Folk Albums and reached No. 2 on Top Country Albums. The track also became the first by a Black man, and second by a Black artist overall, after Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” earlier this year, to top both the Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs charts. “It’s a sign of the times – genres are merging, styles are blending and the audience’s music taste is broader than ever,” EMPIRE COO Nima Etminan recently told Billboard. “Artists don’t need to be put in boxes – whether it be by race, genre or eras. Good music is good music and the listeners largely get to dictate the charts.” Elsewhere in the Hot 100’s top 10, Teddy Swims’ former No. 1 “Lose Control” reaches a notable mark, tying for the 10th-most weeks spent in the bracket by any song so far in the 2020s. The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts (dated Aug. 3, 2024) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, July 30. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” continues atop the Hot 100 with 85.1 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 10%, good for top Airplay Gainer honors for a fourth week), 37.3 million official streams (down 4%) and 15,000 sold (down 7%) in the United States July 19-25. The track rebounds 2-1 for a second week atop the Streaming Songs chart, following a frame on top three weeks earlier; keeps at its No. 2 high on Radio Songs; and likewise holds at No. 2 after nine weeks ruling Digital Song Sales. Related

New Post: What You Should Know About UMG’s Q2 Earnings: Uneven Streaming Growth, Facebook Licensing & More - https://lnkd.in/g5kNXVux - Universal Music Group (UMG) got a boost from physical sales in the second quarter, but the conversation during Wednesday’s earnings call was mostly focused on streaming. Subscriptions, which accounted for more than half of total recorded music revenue, were a key factor in the company’s 8.7% revenue growth in the quarter. Even so, UMG’s streaming business is not firing on all cylinders. Ad-supported streaming continues to show weakness and UMG revealed that Facebook no longer licenses its premium videos. CEO Lucian Grainge said the industry has entered “the next phase” of the streaming and subscription business, one characterized by collaboration with streaming companies to produce new products and allow artificial intelligence to allow artists to sing their music in different languages. “The amount of work, win-win dialogue creative discussions that are going on between us is really extremely exciting,” he said.  Related Universal Music Group Revenue Up Nearly 9% on Taylor Swift Sales, Publishing and… 07/24/2024 Here’s what else you should know about UMG’s most recent quarterly earnings and what was said on the call.  Streaming is growing — unevenly  Although UMG’s recorded music subscription revenue improved 6.5%, not all subscription platforms are performing equally well. CFO Boyd Muir cited a “slowdown in subscriber growth at certain platforms” while noting that Spotify, YouTube “and many regional and local platforms” continue to show healthy growth. Generally, UMG is optimistic about the overall marketplace’s ability to find new subscribers. Michael Nash, executive vp of digital strategy, said UMG’s consumer research has identified 180 million consumers from the top 19 territories “that will form the next wave of subscription adoption,” even taking into account price increases.    “Other” streaming revenue dropped 3.9% in the quarter, which Muir attributed to a decline in ad-supported streaming and some platform-specific issues (see Facebook below). UMG warned of weak ad-supported streaming last quarter, and Muir said UMG needs to see “broad-based improvement across multiple partners and geographies over a longer timeframe before we’re ready to adopt a less cautious view.”  Meta is no longer licensing UMG premium videos for Facebook  Another reason for a slowdown in non-subscription streaming revenue was Facebook’s departure from music videos. “Meta had previously offered previous music videos on Facebook,”

New Post: Legal Fights, Transparency & Neutrality: DiMA’s CEO On Improvements Streamers Suggest for the MLC - https://lnkd.in/gbTTum3s - Five years ago, the music industry celebrated the passage of the Music Modernization Act (MMA), a landmark piece of legislation that streamlined the way songs are licensed to streaming services and created the Mechanical Licensing Collective (and the lesser-known digital licensing coordinator) to put the new license in action. Now, the MLC and DLC are going through the first-ever MMA-mandated “re-designation” process, a routine five-year review of their operations, to ensure that the organizations are working effectively. Related With the MLC’s Re-Designation Underway, Streamers and Publishers Clash Over Its Future 03/18/2024 At the end of the process, experts believe the MLC’s position as the organization that administers the blanket mechanical license will be reaffirmed. But this process still represents a rare opportunity for stakeholders — like songwriters, publishers and streaming services — to discuss what they think these organizations have done well, and how they could improve operations for the next five years.  As the re-designation, which has no set end date, stretches onwards, the relationship between some of the stakeholders has become increasingly contentious. In a guest column for Billboard, Doug Collins, a former member of Congress and co-author of the MMA, accused streaming services of “trying to redefine intent.” In a blog post on its website, the National Music Publishers’ Association also called out the streaming services, which are represented by trade organization Digital Media Association (DiMA), saying DiMA was using the MMA review as “an opportunity to re-write history and undermine the MLC’s progress.” All of this is made more bitter by what’s happening outside of the MLC re-designation: Spotify recently decided to bundle audiobooks to its premium tier offerings. Now, the service argues it owes songwriters a lower royalty rate, given it now also needs to pay book publishers from the same price tag. In reply, the NMPA launched a multi-faceted campaign to try to stop Spotify from doing this, and the MLC filed a lawsuit, calling Spotify’s move “improper.” Meanwhile, the MLC also sued Pandora, which it alleges was not paying royalties properly or on time. The MLC additionally decided to audit all of the streaming services earlier this year.  The MLC differs from other collection societies in a number of ways, one of which being that the streaming services, not the songwriters and publishers, pay for its operational cos

Our UTS Business School experts, Amanda White OAM and Nigel Bairstow, predict that Taylor Swift's merch sales could soar to an incredible $66 million just from her Sydney performances alone. 💰 🧾Dive into the details by checking out the ABC News article here: https://lnkd.in/grQwdEZK #TaylorSwift #UTSBusinessSchool #TSTheErasTour #swifties  #theerastour #taylorswifterastour  #abcnews

New Post: Who Gets Paid When a Song Is Used In an Olympics Routine? - https://lnkd.in/gUvXKda9 - If U.S. gymnastics superstar Simone Biles were to perform her triple-twisting double backflip to Taylor Swift’s “…Ready For It?” at the Paris Olympics, as she did at the trials in late June, NBC almost certainly won’t need a costly special license to air the track live. NBC pays performing rights organizations ASCAP, BMI and SESAC for blanket public-performance licenses, and the PROs distribute the royalty payments to their hundreds of thousands of members, such as songwriters, publishers and composers, from Paul McCartney to Dua Lipa to Swift herself. These payments can add up to big money: The 2020 Olympics drew more than 3 billion viewers, a key factor in determining performance-royalty payments. “The larger the audience for the broadcast will generally result in a higher royalty,” says an ASCAP spokesperson. Related Olympics 2024 Theme Composer Victor le Masne Found the Melody in Three Seconds. Then the Real… 07/24/2024 For the live TV broadcast, or online live-streaming, the blanket licenses cover all the necessary song rights — foreign PROs pay for the foreign TV broadcast rights and U.S. PROs pay for the U.S. rights. It gets trickier if NBC decides to use the song later, in a delayed broadcast, highlight video or some kind of YouTube-style on-demand streaming. In such cases, says Joy Butler, a Washington, D.C., entertainment and digital-technology attorney and author of The Permission Seeker’s Guide Through the Legal Jungle, NBC might need a separate synch license, negotiated with a publisher. “But NBC might have reasons to not obtain that sync,” Butler adds. “They’re reporting on the Olympics, which is a newsworthy event. That gives them excellent reasons to rely on fair use.” Fair use refers to a U.S. copyright doctrine in which a journalist can air snippets of a recorded song in the context of reporting a news story, or quote lyrics while reviewing a record. If an NBC news report on Biles’ Olympic performance picks up a bit of “…Ready For It?,” that may qualify, but NBC would have to tread carefully. “Fair use is very fickle,” Butler says. “The cases kind of go both ways. So you have to do risk assessment if you’ve got music in the background, and you’ve got a taped version which is delayed or on demand.” Related Here’s Who Snoop Dogg Would Have on His ‘Dream Team’ If Rapping Were an… 07/24/2024

What I don't like about Super Bowl (even though it's still the best sporting event in the world by far) Like everyone not lucky enough to live in between EST to PST time zones, yesterday I stayed up until the very night to once again watch the Super Bowl and... became same inspired and disappointed. On one hand, it's still the brightest evening produced by the sports industry worldwide, regardless of the sport itself. I was at the big game in Houston in 2017 (oh, that Lady Gaga half-time show!), been to several Olympics, FIFA World Cups, and Euros, and I can definitely say that in terms of density and level of content produced, nothing compares to the SB. On the other hand, for several hours, I couldn't shake the feeling that I've seen it all before. It's not about the Chiefs winning their third ring, of course (I get the game itself, but not the details), but rather everything surrounding it, especially the 59 commercials worth dozens of millions. Picture-perfect imagery, intricate CGI, outstanding production quality (literally no breathing room), but still the same superstars poking fun at themselves, the usual nostalgia trip, talking babies and candies, some heroes from adjacent sports, and someone buying ad space just to insert anything into it, no matter what. Last year, inspired by The Athletic, I wrote about how FIFA World Cups have become indistinguishable from each other, and then noticed the same effect with the new iPhone presentations — everything's so good that it's no longer interesting. Now it's Super Bowl within the same sequence. Am I asking for too much? Was it because the broadcast was at 3 am in my area? Or was I just not paying enough attention? Most likely, it's just my personal gripe, but I remember how back in 2016, the NFL did an absolutely great campaign about Super Bowl Babies (still gives me goosebumps, watch below), and it seems like there hasn't been anything like it since. And it feels like a bit more creativity beyond dozens of similar references might still find its demand very soon again. Just because the opposite ain't no cool anymore. P.S. I'll still give a shoutout to the whole Nickelodeon thing — it looked awesome!

New Post: aespa Achieves Fifth Top 10 on Album Sales Chart With ‘Armageddon – The 1st Album’ - https://lnkd.in/gEkYZ7Pb - aespa achieves its fifth top 10-charting effort on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart as the female K-pop quartet’s new Armageddon – The 1st Album debuts at No. 2 on the chart dated July 20. All five of the act’s entries on the chart have debuted in the top 10. Also in the top 10 of the latest Top Album Sales chart, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department nets a sixth week at No. 1 (and with a 154% sales increase), the 30th anniversary reissue and first vinyl pressing of Selena’s Amor Prohibido pushes it back onto the chart at No. 4 and Agust D (aka BTS’ SUGA) sees his D-Day album re-enter at No. 8 after its release on vinyl. Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram. Armageddon arrives with 18,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending July 11, according to Luminate. The album was released widely on CD on July 5 after previously being available as a digital download and via streaming services. CD sales power nearly all of the 18,000 sales in the week ending July 11, and the set was issued in eight collectible CD variants, all containing paper merchandise. Meanwhile, Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department holds at No. 1 on Top Album Sales with 90,000 copies sold – up 154% for the week. CD sales comprise 67,000 (up 127%), digital album download sales comprise 19,000 (up 1,266%) and vinyl sales comprise 4,000 (down 10%). The Tortured Poets Department’s overall weekly increase was bolstered in part by sales generated from Swift’s official webstore, which restocked seven earlier-released CD variants of the album (including a signed edition). The restocked items were available to purchase for a few hours on Sunday, June 7 and shipped shortly afterwards. In addition, Swift released three new digital album download variants of the album on Thursday, July 11, sold exclusively in her webstore for $4.99 each, and were only available to purchase that day. Each contained the original standard 16-song album tracklist, along with one bonus live acoustic track, recorded during her The Eras Tour stop in Stockholm (“Guilty as Sin?,” “How Did It End?” or “P

New Post: Fan Army Face-Off 2024: Vote Now In Round 3 - https://lnkd.in/gTmskG9e - The Billboard Fan Army Face-Off has returned Round 1 of the 2024 Billboard Fan Army Face-Off kicked off July 16 and lasted a week, and now, Round 3 has begun. Voting is open now – so start voting for your favorite artist to answer the question: Which artist’s fan army is the strongest? After some surprising upsets in Round 1 (including country star Lainey Wilson’s fans victorious over BTS’ ARMY by more than 2%, Round 2 featured some neck-and-neck races. Among them were Taylor Swift’s Swifties vs. Drake’s Team Drizzy, with the pop superstar’s fans ultimately moving on with a less than 1% victory; and Eminem’s Stans and Ed Sheeran’s Sheerios in a razor-tight race that had them tied at 50.0% up until the end, when the rapper’s team pulled ahead by 2%. Not so close were the matchups between Jelly Roll’s Bad Apples and aespa’s MYs, with the country star’s fans pulling in an impressive 91% of the vote, or Sabrina Carpenter’s Carpenters against GloRilla’s supporters, with the pop star winning nearly 25% more of the vote to move onto Round 3. The biggest margin of victory in the second round went to SB19’s A’TIN, who defeated Karol G’s army 98.6% to 1.4% (Scroll down to see the final tallies.) Last year, SB19 claimed the 2023 Fan Army crown thanks to A’TIN. Past Fan Army Face-Off winners include Stray Kids’ STAY, Super Junior’s E.L.F (victorious twice), T-ara’s Queens (victorious three times) and BIGBANG’s VIPs. This year, fan armies for the following artists faced off for the crown beginning in Round 1: aespa, Ariana Grande, ATEEZ, Bad Bunny, Benson Boone, Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, BLACKPINK, BTS, Cardi B, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Doja Cat, Drake, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Eminem, GloRilla, Gracie Abrams, Harry Styles, Hozier, Ice Spice, ITZY, Jack Harlow, Jelly Roll, Justin Bieber, Karol G, Katy Perry, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Lainey Wilson, Lana Del Rey, Lil Nas X, Lim Young Woong, Madonna, Megan Thee Stallion, Miley Cyrus, Morgan Wallen, NCT, NewJeans, Nicki Minaj, Noah Kahan, Olivia Rodrigo, Peso Pluma, Post Malone, Rihanna, Sabrina Carpenter, SB19, Selena Gomez, SEVENTEEN, Shaboozey, Stray Kids, SZA, Taylor Swift, Tate McRae, Teddy Swims, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Travis Scott, TWICE, Tyla, YOASOBI, Zach Bryan and ZEROBASEONE. Some of these artists have been around for decades, changing the game and shifting the direction of culture, while others are newcomers, helping push music in exciting new directions. More than a handful of them have graced the cover of Billboard magazine (some more than once), and numerous artists here have topped the Billboard Hot 100. Vote below now. The quarterfinals kick off Aug. 6 at noon ET. - #news #business #world ------------------------------------------