Brit Beat: Capitol U.K. Talks Sam Smith’s ‘Unholy’ Success; Little Simz Targets U.S. Return After Mercury Prize Triumph
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It’s been an “Unholy” Halloween month for Sam Smith, with the British singer-songwriter celebrating their and collaborator Kim Petras’ first-ever U.S. Hot 100 No. 1, and also spending most of the month on top of the U.K. singles chart.
The huge success of the duet is also a big win for the newly united Capitol and EMI labels in Britain. The two frontline Universal labels came together under the joint leadership of co-presidents Jo Charrington and Rebecca Allen back in March.
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Charrington, who signed Smith 10 years ago alongside then-Capitol U.K. president Nick Raphael, tells Variety that “Unholy” is “truly an iconic moment in pop music.”
“Becky and I couldn’t be prouder of our team working so collaboratively to do what’s best for our artist,” she adds. “We have worked hand-in-hand with [Smith’s management] Method to lead a global campaign – Sam is a true career artist and the phenomenal success of ‘Unholy’ reminds us of that.”
Charrington credits Capitol U.K. general manager Tom Paul with masterminding the “Unholy” campaign, with began with an innovative teaser of the track on TikTok several weeks before release.
“When we first started teasing it, one of the things Sam leaned into was people being like, ‘Wait, this is Sam Smith? This sounds so different…’,” Paul tells Variety. “It travelled a lot due to it not sounding like a typical Sam song. Initially our teaser period was going to be shorter, but then the Queen passed away, so we moved back a week. There were lots of comments saying, ‘You’ve messed it up, it’s too late now,’ but we held our nerve and, luckily, we were right. The record has had a life of its own since then.”
Paul worked with EMI’s senior creator & content strategist Ellie Tuvey on the TikTok campaign and he says it shows the benefits of combining the two labels.
“Capitol was always a very small, bespoke label while EMI is the biggest label in the UK,” Paul notes. “It’s been invaluable to have some fresh eyes on the campaign and some experts in different fields that we didn’t have before. It’s been brilliant to have the EMI team fully behind this artist.”
“Unholy,” which the label hopes could receive recognition in the Grammy nominations, having just sneaked into the eligibility period, seems a long way away from some of Smith’s early hits, although Paul notes Smith has also had dancefloor smashes at every stage of their career. And the exec says Smith’s fourth album, “Gloria,” due January 27, will feature a blend of old school ballads alongside material more in the “Unholy” vein. Paul declines to reveal the other collaborations on the album, but says Smith “has been working with some very exciting people.”
“Sam’s already talking about their fifth and sixth album,” Paul says. “We just have to slow them down slightly and make sure we’re shining the light properly on each release. To have the biggest song in the world for a month, 10 years into your career, is pretty unprecedented. Sam’s going to be making great records for the rest of their lives.”
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The Mercury Prize with Free Now finally took place at the second attempt this month, having been cancelled at the last minute in September when the Queen passed away.
This time, the ceremony went off without a hitch, with Little Simz’s “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert” crowned the 2022 winner. It’s a boost for the highly acclaimed rapper, who picked up a BRIT Award earlier this year but who pulled her scheduled May U.S. tour, saying American dates were financially unviable in the current climate. Variety sources indicate Simz has changed her management from long-time manager Robert Swerdlow and is now being looked after by Nathan Burke, who also works with Simz’s collaborator and “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert” co-producer (and leader of R&B collective Sault) Inflo.
According to the BPI, sales of “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert” surged 153% week-on-week after the televised win. And Paul Hitchman, president of AWAL, which released the album, tells Variety it will ensure the record – originally released back in September 2021, and now inching towards silver certification (60,000 sales) – keeps on running.
“It’s such a groundbreaking, timeless, epic record,” says Hitchman. “When a record wins the Mercury Prize, it puts the seal on a campaign and confirms its quality. For us, it’s now about working to make this the record of the year in every other way as well, including commercially.”
To that end, AWAL now also has additional financial clout behind it, having been snapped up by Sony Music earlier this year. And Hitchman says the increased firepower could help Simz return to the U.S. to play live in the near future.
“America is an important opportunity and she’s already made great headway there, although there’s a lot more we can do,” he says. “Being there is absolutely going to be part of that. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”
Despite the Sony hook-up, Hitchman says AWAL still represents the ideal home for independent artists and is actively looking for “artists who have impact and something important to say” in the Simz mould.
“We haven’t changed model,” Hitchman says. “So, if you’re an independent artist, we’re still a great partner. It’s exactly the same set-up. But AWAL’s ability to build and break records globally is one of the big areas that being part of [Sony] is certainly going to help us to do. There’s no limit to what an artist can achieve with AWAL.”
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Little Simz will also star at this month’s big U.K. industry awards do: the Music Industry Trusts Award, which honors an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the music business.
Previous executive recipients include Sony’s Rob Stringer, CAA’s Emma Banks, Syco’s Simon Cowell and Universal’s Lucien Grainge, while artists such as Kylie Minogue, Annie Lennox and Roger Daltrey have also picked up the prize. But this year’s ceremony, held November 7 at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, will see its first post-humous winner as the MITs celebrates the life of Jamal Edwards, who died of a heart attack in February of this year, aged just 31.
Little Simz will join a line-up including Jorja Smith, Mahalia and Emeli Sandé to pay tribute to the entrepreneur, who founded the hugely influential content platform SBTV and is credited with helping to launch the careers of a string of stars including Ed Sheeran, Dave and Stormzy. And new MITs co-chairmen Toby Leighton-Pope (also managing director of live entertainment company TEG Europe) and Dan Chalmers (also YouTube’s head of music, EMEA) – who took over from long-running MITs chairman David Munns after last year’s event – say it is important to acknowledge Edwards’ wider legacy.
“If you look at the work Jamal did around mental health, he was really ahead of his time,” says Chalmers. “So we want to make sure we celebrate his work as an entrepreneur, but also the work he did across society. He’s one of the most important musical figures in British society over the last couple of decades.”
“The sad thing is, we’ll never know his true potential,” adds Leighton-Pope. “What he did in his short life was amazing: he shaped the sound of the modern music industry. He was well ahead of his time and was a trailblazer, because everybody has followed what he did.”
Edwards is also the youngest recipient and the first black MITs winner, which Chalmers and Leighton-Pope say is a sign the Award is changing.
“Evolving with diversity is going to be a big thing for us,” says Leighton-Pope. “Maybe in the past we haven’t recognized people soon enough. We’re trying to recognize people earlier and not have to wait until they’re a certain age or because they ‘haven’t earned it yet’. Jamal was 31, and we want to bring more younger people into the environment.”
The MITs is also a crucial fund-raiser for music industry charities the BRIT Trust and Nordoff Robbins and this year will also benefit the Jamal Edwards Self Belief Trust, set up by Edwards’ family to honor his memory and continue his legacy.
“The MITs is one of those really special nights in the calendar,” adds Chalmers. “It’s a great chance for the whole industry to come together and network and we want to maintain that magic. But it’s also important that we cross over to a younger generation and ensure that they hold the MITs in the same esteem that Toby, I and our colleagues do, so it continues for the next 30 years.”
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Meanwhile, CISAC director general Gadi Oron warns that music creatives still face tough times, despite global royalty collections returning to growth in 2021.
CISAC, which represents over 200 collective management organizations across the world, said its members collected €8.48 billion ($8.38bn) in music royalties last year, up 7.2% on COVID-hit 2020. But, despite a 27.5% rise in digital music royalties, the overall global total remained 5.1% down on pre-pandemic levels.
Furthermore, live and background music collections remained flat on 2020, still a huge 45.1% down on 2019, and Oron tells Variety that the live sector is unlikely to return to normal levels until 2023 at the earliest.
“I don’t think the growth we are reporting is really helping to make up for the decline that most artists are experiencing,” says Oron. “Everyone is still suffering, and for the smaller artists who rely more on live, it is still more difficult. 2022 will be brighter, but we have a long way to go before we reach the levels of 2019.”
On the more positive side, the U.K. saw a year-on-year rise of 33.1% and Oron expects to see further growth in the global digital market for songwriters and publishers. Digital, despite surging during the pandemic, only represents 36.1% of global revenues for the sector, around half the recorded music sector’s figure.
“The growth is not just because streaming is becoming more popular and more people are paying for subscriptions,” says Oron. “Societies have changed their focus. They’ve become much more efficient and spent more resources on matching and claiming.”
Oron is hopeful that various legislative moves around the globe will result in the composition side of the business taking a larger percentage of streaming income, with the lion’s share currently going to recorded music rights-holders. He also hopes other streaming services will follow Apple Music’s recent lead to increase the price of streaming subscriptions and get more money to creatives. But in the meantime, CISAC has worked on revamping the system for the ISWC musical identifying code for compositions.
“We believe that better use of identifiers throughout the value chain will help everyone,” he says. “It will make life easier for publishers and DSPs and get more money into the hands of the rights-holders. We’ve made it possible to have the ISWC even with partial information, so nothing becomes an obstacle to releasing the song with the ISWC and monetization can start quickly.”
And getting money flowing to songwriters quickly is a priority with the cost-of-living crisis impacting on music creators around the world, and pressure also building on composers to accept ‘buy-out’-type contracts for film and TV music. No wonder CISAC president, ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, warns: “These are tough times to be trying to make a living as a creator.”
“You see more commercial entities going into this business, because they believe there’s money to be made and it will continue to grow,” says Oron. “But sometimes it’s forgotten how important the role of the creator is.
“They’re the last ones to get paid and we need to improve the remuneration that creators receive,” he adds. “Creators will always continue creating, but we have to make sure the young generation can see a potential career and know that they’ll be able to make a living.”
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