NEAR TRUTHS: A TOUR OF '24 (PART ONE)
RAINMAKERS AND UMBRELLAS: 2024 has been another year of significant change in the biz, characterized by top-level label reconfigurations, the emergence of a new class of star acts, explosive growth—and fluctuation—in the live sector, female dominance at pop, the mainstreaming of country and new commercial frontiers for K-pop, to name but a few examples.
Sir Lucian Grainge’s highly successful realignment of UMG’s North American company as East and West divisions under the Republic and Interscope banners, respectively, codified the reality that had existed for some time. The market-share monsters of Lipman and Janick both enjoyed tremendous years.
As the Lipman brothers expanded their brief (with Jim Roppo captaining the Corps), Republic’s banner ’24—during which it was steadily tops in current market share, wrapping the year with 12.3—was headlined by the force of nature called Taylor Swift, whose juggernaut THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT spent 15 nonconsecutive weeks at #1 and whose AEG tour dwarfed all other such outings (it grossed well over $1b). She also leads all artists in overall U.S. streams with 14.8b+. Tay’s pop-cultural dominance continued undimmed, and her year culminated in Album, Record and Song of the Year Grammy noms. Not long before press time, Tay dropped the physical iteration of her 31-track “ANTHOLOGY” edition of TTPD via Target and notched another 370k in pure sales—not to mention 800k+ sales of her Eras Tour book, which had the #2 nonfiction bow of the modern era, behind only Barack Obama’s autobiography (his title had the advantage of being sold beyond Target).
Morgan Wallen (on Seth England’s Big Loud) is second only to Tay in YTD activity—and #3 in streams with 7.5b+—and he spent much of the year on what has become the top-grossing country tour ever. CAA-repped Post Malone’s pivot to country earned strong chart action and Grammy love—not to mention a headlining spot at Coachella 2025. Noah Kahan (like Malone, via Tyler Arnold and Ben Adelson-led Mercury) consolidated the prior year’s growth and is now fully established as a star, with 3.4m in ATD for his Stick Season. (CAA-booked The Weeknd, who’s been off-cycle for much of the year, is poised to rule in 2025 with a fresh album and tour.) It’s also worth noting that the Verve/Republic ST to Wicked outperformed expectations with its initial sales and is now surging at DSPs. Drake (Wasserman), despite some drama you might’ve heard about, is #2 in domestic streams with 8.8b.
Imran Majid and Justin Eshak’s career arc hit dizzying new highs as the blazing-hot Island produced the two biggest artist breakthroughs of the year in Volara-repped Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan (Wasserman). Sabrina was a dominant force on DSPs throughout the year thanks to two gigantic singles, her album is #3 in overall activity YTD at 2.2m, her tour sold out in nanoseconds and she is nominated in every Big 4 Grammy category. The same is true for her labelmate Chappell—no other label has had two acts in Album, Record, Song and BNA in the same year—whose rocket ride to fame, though a little bumpy at times, has made her not just a music star but a cultural force. (Her 2023 album is at 1.8m ATD U.S. and growing.) The label has another big record in “Sailor Song” by Gigi Perez, who may well become a larger force in 2025.
The annus mirabilis of Messrs. Janick, Berman and team (leaders in overall market share with 14.7) was highlighted by a career-milestone album from Darkroom’s Billie Eilish (WME)—also singled out for a Grammy tongue bath—who leveled up commercially (2m ATD) and creatively and has never seemed so at home in her own skin. (It’s worth noting that several female stars, led by Billie, Chappell and Charli xcx, have dominated the charts with songs that are openly, joyously queer. Their voices will be more crucial than ever in the coming years.)
And then there's pgLang’s Kendrick Lamar, whose virulent beef with Drake produced one of the true giants of 2024, “Not Like Us,” which is also one of the few recent crossover smashes produced by a hip-hop act, becoming in the process the year’s #5 act in U.S. streams (about 4.6b). He followed that gigundo track with the surprise drop of his album GNX, recipient of a thunderous #1 chart bow, and the announcement of the star’s 2025 tour with fellow Wasserman client SZA, doubtless a boffo proposition. K. Dot's halftime set at the upcoming Super Bowl has generated even more buzz than is regularly occasioned by that enormous platform thanks to Drake’s lawsuit alleging that UMG used illicit means to pump up Kendrick’s jam and defame him (or something).
Lady Gaga, who has stretched in multiple directions of late, scored an absolute smasheroo in tandem with Bruno Mars. The pair’s “Die With a Smile” has logged 1.1b+ worldwide streams on Spotify alone and is a contender for a SOTY Grammy. Look for a new Gaga set sometime in February, ahead of the CAA-repped superstar’s headlining gig at Coachella. Another Interscope veteran who came roaring back to the forefront: Paul Rosenberg-repped Eminem, whose Grammy-nominated Shady/Aftermath set was both a brilliant, hilarious capper to the Slim Shady saga and a chart champ that's amassed 933k+ U.S. ATD.
Geffen superstar Olivia Rodrigo (who, like Roan, has the brilliant writer-producer and Producer of the Year Grammy contender Daniel Nigro as a collaborator) remains in the Top 20 YTD. The WME-repped star has also become a significant live presence. The label has meanwhile enjoyed a huge track by BTS member Jimin, in tandem with BIGHIT.
Several artists on Janick’s roster are positioned for big breakouts in 2025, notably Gracie Abrams (CAA), who sits at #1 on Spotify’s U.S. chart as of this writing and is poised for a terrific run in ’25. GloRilla has also been cutting through the noise and is emerging as one of several women rappers charting the course of the form.
Capitol Music Group, topped by Brit Tom March, was moved under Janick’s oversight as a big piece of the West Coast behemoth. The retooling label got a nice boost from Grammy when TDE artist Doechii—another female rapper with serious cred—got a BNA nom as well as nods in the Rap categories. The WME-repped artist’s Camp Flog Gnaw performance felt like a star-making turn.
“CONTROL” GROUP: As the year winds to a close, both WMG tentpole labels are hot. The superb performance of Aaron Bay-Schuck and Tom Corson's Warner was led by country superstar Zach Bryan (who was #4 in U.S. streams with 7.6b) and not one but two Best New Artist contenders, Benson Boone (WME) and Teddy Swims. Boone’s “Beautiful Things” was one of the top songs of the year (contributing the bulk of his album’s 1.5m ATD), while Swims’ “Lose Control” was also a huge streamer. Either or both could hit a new peak after getting a look on the Grammys show. Meanwhile, the return of rockers Linkin Park (WME) has had a real global impact, with both streams and ticket sales taking off in Europe. Speaking of the Bunny’s heritage rockers, Crush-repped Green Day’s Saviors was hailed as a return to form. The CAA-booked trio will co-headline Coachella.
The biz was rocked by Robert Kyncl’s change at the top of Atlantic Music Group as a new team led by Elliot Grainge brought fresh energy to a storied label that had gone through a decidedly fallow phase. Grainge, who made his 10K compadres Zach Friedman and Tony Talamo his top lieutenants at AMG, subsequently brought in Columbia promo veteran Brady Bedard and comms wizard Cara Donatto (returning to the company after a stint at IGA) to round out the team. The arrival of the young Brit coincided with the explosion of CAA-repped Charli xcx—up for multiple Grammy statuettes, whose BRAT (1m ATD) became a pop-cultural byword—and a streaming biggie from BLACKPINK member ROSÉ, who, like Gaga, hit paydirt by collaborating with Bruno Mars. The K-pop thrush’s Bruno-enhanced banger, “APT.,” has logged a half-billion worldwide streams on Spotify, where the two Bruno collabs reside in the top two spots on the global chart. 2024 also saw the emergence of WMG board member Val Blavatnik as a behind-the-scenes player.
SONY’S SIDE UP: With boss Ron Perry busily developing a number of potential breakouts—notably fizzy pop arrival Addison Rae, BLACKPINK member JENNIE and country comers Megan Moroney (in tandem with Sony Nashville and booked for live by UTA), Ella Langley and Koe Wetzel—Columbia saw the culmination of Parkwood star/CAA client Beyoncé’s fascinating country project, COWBOY CARTER (1.4m ATD), which had already produced a big hit track, in a fleet of Grammy noms, including AOTY, ROTY and SOTY and nods in the Country, Rap and Pop categories. Tyler, the Creator issued one of the strongest hip-hop debuts in some time (714k in U.S. ATD), and the WME-booked star’s Camp Flog Gnaw sold out in the blink of an eye. The label likewise fielded a colossal confection in Hozier’s “Too Sweet,” his first big hit since his 2014 breakthrough, “Take Me to Church”; it’s done north of 1.1b global streams on Spotify. (The WME-booked Irishman has also become a robust live act.)
Peter Edge, John Fleckenstein and Team RCA continued to score with Grammy-nominated, TDE-repped SZA (6.2m ATD), who will undoubtedly see an activity spike when she hits the road with Kendrick next year, and the redoubtable Doja Cat, while Tate McRae showed herself a streaming player and a killer live act (she’s booked by CAA) and BRITs Rising Star Myles Smith had a left-field hit with “Stargazing.” The Red Clay Strays (WME), a stellar rock act, are fixin' to make a big noise in 2025, and the label is anxiously awaiting music from Steve Lacy.
Epic’s status as a hip-hop haven remained unchallenged as Travis Scott—whose last two releases have together done 3.5m in U.S. ATD and who just wrapped an absolutely, dare we say, epic world tour (he’s booked by Cara Lewis)—scored with a new edition of a classic mixtape and will “design the desert” (whatever that means ) at Coachella. House Rhone's Future (Wasserman) also dropped a mixtape this year, and his We Don’t Trust You collab with Metro Boomin is Top 10 for 2024. 21 Savage’s most recent set is Top 25 YTD.
