Near Truths

MAX’S SILVER HAMMER: It’s been a little more than six months since WMG topper Robert Kyncl sent shockwaves through the business by parting ways with Recorded Music chief Max Lousada and longtime Atlantic boss Julie Greenwald and installing 10K founder Elliot Grainge to helm Atlantic Music Group.

Lousada, operating out of London and Ibiza, has been keeping a somewhat low profile since the WMG reorg, but things are said to be heating up for the universally respected exec, with multiple meetings afoot as he seeks financial partners for a new venture involving artist management, distribution and the acquisition of artists' rights and catalogs. Could heavy hitters Blackstone, owners of Hipgnosis Songs Fund, be a possible backer for Lousada’s highly anticipated newco? Will Lousada, who fared exceptionally well under WMG’s stock program, kick in his own dosh? Either way, Lousada, whose reputation with artists and bizniks alike remains sterling, should have little difficulty securing the necessary funds.

Meanwhile, Greenwald could play a role in Lousada’s next gambit, though word is that WMG and UMG have serious reservations about working with her, given the many bridges she’s burned. Indeed, some top-tier execs have privately commented that they’d never do a deal with her.

Finally, rumors of YouTube’s Lyor Cohen teaming with Lousada and his old Def Jam protege Greenwald have no merit, according to insiders, who whisper that Cohen is little more than a high-priced label-relations flack, with little access to the levers of power at the money-minting video platform. Cohen is still wiping egg off his face after coming out on the losing end of recent royalty negotiations with Irving Azoff’s GMR. Lyor’s braggadocio and shit-talking as talks began, we hear, gave way to major concessions as the terms GMR negotiated prepared the ground for pubcos and other rightsholders to bargain for similarly favorable treatment.

APPLE POLISHING: With the future of ByteDance’s TikTok resting in the teeny-tiny hands of President Trump, Ole Obermann, the company’s global head of music business development, has left the platform for a still-unspecified position at Apple Music. Might said position be Apple Music chief, reporting to Oliver Schusser, whose voluminous title is VP Apple Music, Apple TV+, sports and Beats?

As sponsor of the record-setting Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show starring Kendrick Lamar, Apple Music’s visibility has increased, as has its prominence in the culture. But it’s an understatement to say that it still runs far behind the other major DSPs in terms of marketplace impact; TikTok, Spotify and YouTube play an infinitely greater role in the career equation than does Apple, which simply isn’t part of the conversation with regard to artist development—it’s hard to name a single artist whose breakthrough can be credited to Apple Music.

Eddy Cue and Tim Cook hope to improve the situation by installing Obermann, a former WMG and SME exec who brings impeccable music and tech credentials to Apple after five-plus years at TikTok, which became an unmatched hit-making machine during his tenure. Look for him to relocate from the U.K. to Culver City, and for Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s global head of content and editorial, to continue to play a major role at the DSP. It’s expected that Obermann’s successor at TikTok, Tracy Gardner, will continue to nurture the social-media giant’s symbiotic relationship with the biz.

THE MAGIK NUMBER: Sources close to the deal suggest that the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ recorded-catalog pact will likely be done with Warner, the Eric Greenspan-repped band’s longtime label home. We’re told that, if and when such a deal is done, the catalog will fetch somewhere in the neighborhood of $300-350 million, which buys a whole lotta tube socks. Assuming it’s happening, the WMG arrangement makes all kinds of sense for the group and team, given that the company is already deeply invested in RHCP’s career as distributor and rightsholder. (The band will still have to pay a distribution fee under such a pact, some might argue, whereas a strategic investor could ostensibly absorb that fee and pay the artist more.) The Peppers, incidentally, have six tracks with more than 1 billion global Spotify streams—a rarity for acts that have been on the scene for four decades.

LET’S DO LUNCH: In other Bunny news, House Bay-Schuck and Corson’s new partnership with Tim Hinshaw’s agency Free Lunch, which gives the latter a label imprint, underscores Warner’s determination to plant a larger flag in Black music. The affable Hinshaw, a luminary at Amazon Music before hanging the Free Lunch shingle (subsequently partnering with AEG to sign up rap, R&B and gospel tours), is admired industrywide and notably respected in hip-hop and related circles. Indeed, it was widely rumored that he was offered the top job at Motown in 2023. Will Warner be announcing another venture in this space in the near future?