| Dominic Harrison has always felt misunderstood by the music industry. As a teenager growing up in central England, he couldn't convince a record label to sign him. When he finally was signed, the label tried to change his sound. And after his first album went gold in the UK, nobody wanted to back his ideas for a clothing line or music festival. "A lot of people have tried to contain my imagination," the 27-year old said during an interview from a recording studio in London. "That has always been my biggest fight." Harrison, who performs under the name Yungblud, finally found the right partners last year in Nathan Hubbard and Nat Zilkha, two college friends who offered Harrison a check to do whatever he wanted. Hubbard and Zilkha run a company called Firebird Music and have partnered with Yungblud to form a new company, YB Inc., in which they own equal shares. Yungblud will funnel all of his earnings from his music, touring and merchandise into the business, while Firebird invests tens of millions of dollars for the artist to build his festival, clothing line and other ventures. Firebird will also provide marketing and analytics. "He brings his creativity and his fan base, we bring capital and expertise," Hubbard said on Zoom as he was about to fly off to see Sabrina Carpenter, another Firebird client. Firebird is the latest music company pledging to help artists leverage their popularity and take greater control over their businesses. Major artists no longer make most of their money from recorded music. They tour the world, market themselves on social media and sell merchandise. Some even start companies. They are artists and entrepreneurs and need help connecting all the dots. Record labels fund artists' music, but don't play a big role in touring. Concert promoters fund tours but aren't involved in recording. Neither entity controls an artist's social media or other business activities. The people who sit at the center of all this are the artists' managers, most of whom are looking after several clients. Firebird is taking a novel approach to this conundrum by forming a new company with each artist. Hubbard and Zilkha are trying to create dozens of such companies and hope YB Inc. will provide a template. Unlike many other entrepreneurs in this space who have pledged to undercut the record labels, Firebird is working within the industry. Hubbard and Zilkha have focused on management, acquiring several companies that work with artists such as the Dave Matthews Band, Maggie Rogers and Chris Stapleton. Hubbard and Zilkha first met at Princeton University in 1994, two nerds who bonded over their love of music. Zilkha went on to a successful career in finance, working at Goldman Sachs and then KKR, where he helped acquire more than $2 billion worth of music catalogs. Hubbard has spent most of his career working in media, including stops at Twitter and Ticketmaster. The two remained friends and decided to go into business together a couple years ago to pursue their shared vision. "We look around and see consolidated companies in the live event space, we see it in recorded music and in tech. We don't see a large consolidated company around artists," Hubbard said. Zilkha and Hubbard raised money from the Raine Group, a boutique investment bank with a large music practice, as well as Goldman Sachs and Liberty Global. In 2022, they acquired a controlling stake in Red Light Management, one of the biggest. They then acquired stakes in the Latin music company Ntertain, the British indie record label Transgressive and a couple more boutique management firms, including the one that represents Yungblud. Now that Firebird has amassed a roster of hundreds of artists, Hubbard and Zilkha are approaching certain acts about their dreams beyond music. Most artists aren't candidates for these kinds of deals. They don't have dreams of starting a business, or don't have a a big enough fan base to stage their own event. For every Jay-Z or Rihanna, there are thousands of people who just want to make music. But there are dozens of artists who fit this model, especially in the age of social media. Stapleton introduced a whiskey brand in conjunction with Buffalo Trace Distillery called Traveller, the name of the country-rock star's debut album. Yungblud grew up admiring groups like Slipknot and the Dave Matthews Band, which had built fan communities that were always in contact with one another. In 2021, he started a fashion line called BRAT – Beautifully Romanticized Accidentally Traumatized. (While Charli XCX made the phrase a household name, Yungblud has the copyright.) He's now going to use some of Firebird's money to invest in a brick-and-mortar store that will double as a coffee shop. Last year, Harrison started a music festival called BludFest at an amphitheater midway between London and Birmingham. He booked the lineup himself and sold 30,000 tickets. He's bringing it back in 2025 and has already sold more tickets. He's also going to start a record label and publishing company, with the intention of signing new artists. "I have so any ideas a minute," Harrison said. "I wanna build a system like the solar system, where I'm the sun." And the ""planets revolve around me." Of course, these plans all depend on the continued popularity of his music. Later this year, he will release his first album since 2022 — a double album rock opera that will be followed by a tour and a concert film. Yungblud plans to direct the film himself. The Best of Screentime (and other stuff) | Hollywood is making fewer TV shows | The number of new TV shows in the US fell by 7% last year and 17% the year before that. While many of the world's largest media companies said they were cutting programming budgets, the new data from Luminate show just how much. Warner Bros. Discovery has cut its output almost in half over the last five years while Netflix, the biggest producer among streaming services, has cut back by double digits. The number of comedy series has declined by 39% over the last five years. That said, Hollywood is still producing more than three TV shows every single day. As for what people watch… - US viewers spent more time watching original series on Netflix than every other streaming platform combined. Netflix had seven of the 10 most-popular series, led by Fool Me Once and Bridgerton.
- Taylor Sheridan had two of the 10 most-popular series with Landman and Tusla King. He beat Amazon (1), Disney (0) and Max (0).
- Animated films accounted for six of the 10 most popular streamed movies, led by Moana.
Spotify makes peace with (some) songwritersSpotify agreed to a new deal with Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, which both resolves a conflict involving songwriters and paves the way for new Spotify initiatives. Songwriters had been upset because Spotify was changing their royalty rates as part of its new bundle involving audiobooks. This deal only resolves that dispute with songwriters at Universal, but should pave the way to similar deals with other music companies. The deal also establishes the framework for royalties around Spotify's upcoming super premium plan, which will include higher-quality audio and new tools. The two sides have agreed to the economics that will establish how Spotify compensates artists for using their music to sell things like tickets, as well as Spotify's push into video. Universal has been talking a lot about super fans, as it would like to build tools and product to help artists (and their label) make more money from ardent fans. Spotify will be an important partner in that endeavor. Our tech overlordsTake a look at the latest edition of Nielsen's The Gauge. YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Roku now account for one-quarter of all TV viewing. Nielsen is combining Disney+ and Hulu going forward, which will make Disney's total more impressive. It will be larger than Amazon but much smaller than Netflix and YouTube. Squid Game > everything elseThe new season of Squid Game delivered the biggest debut of any new TV show last year. MrBeast's reality TV show hit the charts for Amazon, but its audience is about 10% of Squid Game. Deals, deals, dealsMy favorite movie from Sundance so far is Oh, Hi!, a very sweet comedy that is somehow also a horror film. The new Sly Stone documentary — due out next month — will be an opportunity to revisit one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. | 
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