Yvette Medina, executive manager and head of Latin at YMU, an international artist management company, has announced a global agreement with multi-platinum-selling singer, rapper and actress, Snow Tha Product.
Snow Tha Product is a burgeoning bilingual rapper who has collaborated with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Ty Dolla $ign, Natanael Cano, and Santa Fe Klan among others. Her collaboration with music producer Bizarrap on “BZRP Music Sessions #39,” was nominated for a Latin Grammy for “Best Rap/Hip Hop Song.” She was also nominated for a Grammy, for her participation in the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music From and Inspired by” soundtrack for her song “La Vida ft. E-40.”
Outside of music, Snow portrayed the character of Lil’ T in the Spanish-language Netflix series, “La Reina Del Sur.”
Medina said, “It has been hugely rewarding to be a part of this journey alongside Snow and continue to represent women in music and our culture. Snow is a fiercely independent trailblazer whose work ethic is unmatched, and together we are going to continue to amplify what she has achieved while expanding her global presence.”
+ New Mountain Capital (“New Mountain”) has completed its previously announced acquisition of BMI, one of the two largest performing rights organizations in the U.S. The deal received the necessary shareholder and regulatory approvals required for closing.
“Our partnership with New Mountain charts an incredibly exciting new course for BMI and our songwriters, composers and publishers,” said Mike O’Neill, who will remain president and CEO of BMI. “New Mountain shares our vision to build value for our affiliates and invest in their future success. With their support, advanced level of innovation and resources, we are now in the best possible position to accelerate our growth plan and explore new opportunities to benefit our creative community.”
As part of the transaction, BMI’s former shareholders will be allocating $100 million of the proceeds of the sale to affiliates. The allocation of those funds is expected to be made this spring. While not a distribution of royalties, the allocation will be in keeping with BMI’s distribution methodologies, which are based on performance levels measured over a set period of time.
+ Stem, a music distribution and payments platform, has promoted four in its marketing, partnerships and artists-relations teams.
Seth Faber moves to general manager after previously serving as senior VP of artist and label strategy. In his new post, Faber will spearhead artist marketing and development, commerce, international, customer success, content operations and product. He will continue to report to Stem president Kristin Graziani.
Todd L. Perry II has been promoted to VP of artist and label relations, hip-hop and R&B after fulfilling his stint as head of the department. During his time at Stem, Perry brought artists including Sabrina Claudio, Mario and Ghostface Killah, to the platform.
Additionally, Natalie Sellers has been promoted to senior director of artist and label commerce and partnerships. She will continue working with acts including Brent Faiyaz, Lany, Wiz Khalifa, bbno$ and Justine Skye. Meanwhile, Lexi Roney has been promoted from marketing manager to director of brand marketing to manage Stem’s distribution marketing team.
+ Kobalt has signed Latin Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter, Julia Lewis.
Lewis’ catalog has amassed over 3 billion streams on Spotify thanks to his participation in songs including Bad Bunny and Arcángel’s “La Jumpa,” Feid and Young Miko’s “Classy 101” and NBA Youngboy’s “Kacey Talk.”
“Julia is truly unique as his deep musical vocabulary and talent spans pop, hip-hop, and Latin music,” said Jamie Kinelski, senior VP and head of West Coast Creative for Kobalt Music. “Leslie, myself, and the entire creative team at Kobalt couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with him and The Revels Group to help him excel into this next phase of his career.”
Commenting on the deal, Lewis said, “I’m so happy to have formed this partnership with a great team. I couldn’t ask for a better creative team than Kobalt – within our first week of working together we got a major cut which turned into a single. I’m excited for what’s to come.”
Lewis is managed by Matt Geffen, Jamil Davis and Matt Bauerschmidt of the Revels Group and represented by Andrew Orcutt of Orcutt Legal.
+ The Oriel Company has upped Nina Lee to vice president of communications.
Regarding Lee’s promotion, Oriel co-founders Carleen Donovan, Chloë Walsh, and Jen Appel, commented, “Nina Lee has been an integral part of The Oriel Company’s team, consistently demonstrating outstanding professionalism, tenacity and creativity. She’s an inventive media executive untethered from convention and committed to innovation. Her work ethic and vision are inspiring. It’s an honor to announce her much-deserved promotion.”
In this new role, Lee will continue to strategize and execute all-encompassing media campaigns for talent including Maxwell, Daniel Caesar, UMI, Hannibal Buress, No ID, d4vd, James Fauntleroy, Sickamore, and Betty Who, to name a few. Lee also leads the Oriel’s team representing corporate clients, including Amazon Music, Live Nation Urban, and 88rising.
Lee added, “The deep, deep care and strategic vision The Oriel team put into their campaigns are unparalleled. I’m grateful for the unwavering support from Carleen, Jen, and Chloë and I am excited to continue learning, collaborating, and growing with them.”
+ oneLand Music Group has announced a joint venture with Create Music Group, a leading independent music and entertainment company.
The deal includes Create’s acquisition of OneLand’s music catalog as well as a joint venture to release new music. The venture kicks off with the release of Dominican-based artist Atomic Otro Way’s new EP, “Dembow 5.”
“This is a full circle moment for both the Create and oneLand teams,” said oneLand Music Group’s Co-Founder Hector Morales. “In 2019 we partnered with Create to help them sign their first Latin artist. Ever since then, we’ve worked closely with Jonathan and Alex to build opportunities for oneLand artists. This venture is a celebration of our shared musical vision and we’re thrilled to be in business with Create’s growing team.”
“We’ve worked closely with the oneLand team for more than five years now,” said Create Music Group exec. “We’re excited about this new evolution of our relationship and look forward to continuing our expansion into the Latin market and fostering relationships with growing acts and labels like oneLand and Atomic Otro Way.”
+ Papa Roach has joined Wasserman Talent Agency for worldwide representation. Additionally, the band will be represented in Canada by Paquin Artists Agency.
“Since the pandemic started, we really pushed ourselves and believed that we controlled our own destiny,” said founding member Jacoby Shaddix. “We started our own label, hired the right teams, and have found an excellent niche in social media where our music, our personalities, and our fans meet. A full-service company that understands our vision & can help us navigate this growth in the multi-media landscape is essential. Next year will bring a lot of surprises!”
Papa Roach joins Wasserman Music’s client roster, which also includes Kenny Chesney, Coldplay, Deftones, Drake, Billie Eilish, Imagine Dragons, Kendrick Lamar, My Chemical Romance, Rise Against, Ed Sheeran, Sum 41, SZA, Turnstile, and more.
Papa Roach will be represented worldwide by Wasserman Music agents Corrie Martin, Geoff Meall, and Anna Bewers except for Canada, where they will be represented by Jason Furman of Paquin Artists Agency.
+ Sony Music Publishing Nashville and Relative Music Group have signed country star Carson Wallace to a global publishing deal.
The 20-year-old musician and songwriter first gained recognition from his demos on TikTok and quickly rose to stardom. The California native recently released his debut single “Lonely Look Like” and has achieved success with recent singles including “Leavin’ Season,” “Ghost In My Chevy,” “Light of Day” and more.
“Carson is the most driven writer I have come across in a long time, and at only 20 years old that’s an incredible characteristic to have. He’s got a great head on his shoulders and I truly think he understands the ins and outs of writing a hit song, as well as how the music industry works. I can’t wait to hear the hits he turns in over the years and I know it’s only a matter of time until he breaks out as a big hit writer,”said Hardy, a signee and Partner at the company.
Tuesday, Feb. 6
The Songwriters Hall of Fame is gathering Oscar nominees for the best original song category — Scott George, Jon Batiste, Diane Warren, Billie Eilish, Finneas, Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt and Diane Warren — for a virtual panel conversation moderated by Nile Rodgers and Paul Williams.
Rodgers, who currently serves asSongwritersHall of Fame Chairman, andWilliams, a Johnny Mercer Award honoree, and 1977 Academy Award winner forBest Original Song for “Evergreen,” will host the honorees for a conversation on their nominated songs, their influences, writing process and collaboration.
Batiste andDan Wilson co-wrote“It Never Went Away” from“American Symphony”; Eilish and Finneas wrote the Grammy and Golden Globe-winning“What Was I Made For?” from“Barbie”; Scott George, wrote “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from“Killers of the Flower Moon”; Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyat wrote“I’m Just Ken” from“Barbie”;and Diane Warren wrote “The Fire Inside” from“Flamin’ Hot.”
+ Warner Chappell Music(WCM) has signed aglobal publishing deal with Morgan Wallen. As a part of this deal, Wallen will be able to sign songwriters in partnership with WCM.
Wallen’s third studio album,“One Thing At A Time,” continues to break records as it has spent 48 nonconsecutive weeks in the Top 10 of the Billboard charts
“I look forward to working with Warner Chappell as my new music publishing partner and would like to thank them for also offering support in signing songwriters I believe in,” said Wallen in a statement. “In many ways, I feel like I’ve always been a songwriter first, and because of that, the publishing community is especially close to my heart. I’m honored to use this partnership as an opportunity to give other songwriters a helping hand.”
+ Luminate, the data company powering the Billboard charts, has acquired Quansic, a music artist identification service operating out of France.
Effective immediately, Quansic’s team will join Luminate, remaining under founder and chief scientist FX Nuttall. Nuttall, most recently at YouTube, will report directly to Luminate CEO Rob Jonas. Within Luminate, Quansic will continue improving the quality of identifiers within recording artists’ discographies to help artists claim earned song royalties. Quansic’s clients will also have the opportunity to access Luminate’s streaming and sales data.
“We are grateful to Rob and the Luminate team for seeing the value in what we’ve created at Quansic,” said Quansic’s Nuttall. “Combining our unique data quality with Luminate’s scale, capabilities and influence is essential for advancing our vision to unify data within the music industry. We are eager to scale that work with Luminate and look forward to bringing unprecedented value to the music industry.”
