New York alternative rock 3 piece Council releases the anthemic Born Ready. Think Imagine Dragons. The previous release “Rust to Gold” clocked over 4.1 million Spotify streams and 2 million+ on Apple Music.
Promo: The band will perform a pop up busking tour sponsored by BOSE throughout NYC subways and parks.
Placements: featured in the 2018 Winter Olympics, 2018 FIFA Mens World Cup, American Idol, World Of Dance, So You Think You Can Dance.

Billionaire Haim Saban is betting on music. He’s betting big. Like $500 million big. Who convinced him? Probably his friends Lucian Grainge and Lyor Cohen. “They thought we were on the cusp of the golden age of the music world,” says Saban. “The first thing that came to my head was, ‘If this is the golden age, why am I ignoring it?'”

He’ll invest $500 million in Los Angeles based label Saban Music Group (SMG). The company is led by CEO Gustavo Lopez, who ran the Latin company, Talento Uno Music, which was acquired in May by Saban.

“I can tell you that that $500 million is available now,” says Saban. “The timing of the expenditure will depend on the opportunities presented to us. I don’t think it will be 10 years, but I think it could be next week, or in two or three years.”

The money will go to artist development and acquisitions.

Are they hesitant being a new music label? Not really. “Bad Bunny wasn’t a superstar two years ago,” says Lopez. “We’re in a world where artists are developing at a faster pace than they ever were. One of our goals is finding artists that have strong regional appeal and make them into international stars.”

“We are not going to sign 100 artists,” says Saban. “This is going to remain a boutique label with significant resources to put behind the very few artists that we will sign. Except for hip-hop, there is no limitation to the categories of music we will look to be involved with. We will be very opportunistic.”

Bosten based CHYLD releases a new single Can We? via Tommy Boy Records. He has shared the stage with artists like Stelouse, Monster Rally, Grayson Chance and has upcoming dates with Party Nails & Prxzm . His track Cold Night has 100k Spotify Streams. He also plans to roll out a string of singles to release through the end of 2019. Give it a listen.

Taylor Swift created controversy when she accused Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande manager Scooter Braun for buying Big Machine Music Label which owns her masters. First, Taylor is not entitled to own her master recordings because she signed a contract with a music label. The music label spends money in marketing and promotion, hence owns the masters. Why would any company shell out millions of dollars and not own the masters? It doesn’t make sense. Think about it, 99% of artists who are signed do not own the masters.

Pop singer Kelly Clarkson is siding with Taylor recommended that she re-record her songs. Is this legal? No, and even if it were, she would cannibilize her own songs. You are essentially creating a black market.

“You become a competitor of your record label if you re-record and own new master recordings from the same compositions,” Brian Caplan, an intellectual property lawyer at the New York firm Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt LLC tells Billboard.

“Caplan says that standard recording agreements have a re-recording restriction that prohibits an artist from re-making a song that was previously delivered to the record company (sometimes even ones that were not released during the contract’s duration) for a set period after the deal expires, a term that typically runs three to five years.”

“A lot of us are Monday morning quarterbacks on these contract issues, but 99 percent of artists signed to labels don’t own their own masters! It’s just the way it is,” he notes. The re-recording language in most contracts is fairly boilerplate, and as a fierce artist advocate, McPherson says it’s always something a lawyer tries to make as favorable as possible during negotiations.

“I’ll say two things: ‘it has to be released by you during the term’ — this master with this song — so if I record a song during the term but you don’t release it, I should be able to re-record that. That helps you if you get dropped and you don’t release your album; if you can’t negotiate a buy-back of your masters you can just go re-cut it. And you just try to make the post-term period as short as possible.”

Look out for London based electronic artist Alexina and her new release Cool Together. Her name is derived from the Scots warrior derivative of the name Alexandra. The latest track comes off her upcoming debut EP. As an up & comer, she spends most days in the studio – be it writing or working on production.
Playlists: Added to Spotify’s New Music Friday UK.
Press: Clash, The Line Of Best Fit, V Mag