Edited by Dan Rys

UMG Executive Committee’s Big Payday

Universal Music Group’s 11-person executive committee was paid a total of $128.4 million in short-term employee benefits — most likely salaries and bonuses – in 2020, according to financial information released by the music group’s parent company Vivendi.

When post-employee benefits and share-based payouts are added, that total jumps to $132 million — almost double the $62.2 million paid to the executive team in 2018.

According to the UMG website, the executive team consists of UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge; executive vp Michele Anthony; chairman/CEO of Central Europe and Deutsche Grammophon, Frank Briegmann; executive vp and general counsel Jeffrey Harleston; executive vp and chief people and inclusion officer Eric Hutcherson; United Kingdom and Ireland chairman/CEO David Joseph; executive vp marketing Andrew Kronfeld; executive vp/CFO Boyd Muir; executive vp digital strategy Michael Nash; executive vp/chief administrative officer Will Tanous; and Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) chairman/CEO Jody Gerson.

The financial data drop, which Vivendi likely released in preparation for UMG’s expected to become publicly traded in late-September, does not specify how that $128.4 million was divvied up among the 11 executives. Were it distributed equally (it’s not), it would amount to an $11.7 million 2020 payday for each executive — not enough to buy happiness, perhaps, but sufficient to purchase a yacht that would float pretty close.

Financial observers note that executive team compensation expected to look even richer once UMG goes public, as the company will probably have its own management incentive stock plan. But as things stand now, UMG’s executive team likely received higher salaries due because they don’t have such a management incentive stock plan. In order to attract and maintain top talent, UMG has to compete with the Warner Music Group, which does have a management incentive stock plan that will someday deliver hundreds of millions of dollars to its upper management team. Also, the salary structure for the executive management board probably reflects the value that the team has created down through the years through its management of UMG: In 2013 Softbank offered to buy UMG from Vivendi for $8.5 billion; currently, UMG is valued at about $40 million.

UMG’s total personnel costs in 2020, including the executive management team, were $1.42 billion of which $1.2 billion went to salaries – 17.6% of the companies $8.04 billion in revenue.

Last year, Universal carried on average 8,800 employees, up from 8,400 in 2019 and 7,900 in 2019. If the executive team’s compensation is excluded from overall salaries and total benefit compensation, that works out to an average salary of $121,000 and an average benefits package — which also includes social security and other employee costs — of $147,000. But, again, this is still skewed somewhat higher by salaries and bonuses paid to label chairman like Republic’s Monte Lipman and Interscope’s John Janick, which are generally not disclosed. (The foreign currency translations used in this story are based on the annual average exchange rates experienced by Vivendi and quoted in the company’s annual financial results for the year of 2020 — 1 euro to $1.13; and 2018 — 1 euro to $1.187.)

UMG declined to comment . –-Ed Christman

Joni Chats With Clive At Grammy Gala

When part two of Clive Davis’ invitation-only virtual Pre-Grammy Gala takes place on May 15, the festivities will include a prerecorded interview with Joni Mitchell that was conducted by the master of ceremonies. A source in Davis’ camp says that during the conversation, Mitchell, 77, cites Édith Piaf and her early exposure to Black artists as influences on her jazz-influenced style of songwriting. While growing up in Alberta, Canada, she tells Davis, “There was a sideshow when the fair came to town called Harlem in Havana. We were all forbidden by our parents as kids to be seen even standing there watching because it was Black burlesque,” she recalls. “But they played a really sexy version of [Jimmy Forrest’s] ‘Night Train’ and that piece of music really affected my writing,” she explains.

When Davis asks for Mitchell’s reaction to the multitude of artists who have been influenced by her work and covered her songs, Mitchell, who has given few interviews since recovering from a 2015 aneurysm that affected her speech and ability to walk, says that she was told repeatedly over the course of her career, “Nobody is ever going to cover your songs. They are too personal.”

Other artist conversations slated for the gala include Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor, Elton John, Paul Simon, H.E.R., DaBaby, Carlos Santana, Rob Thomas, Dave Grohl, Dionne Warwick, Slash and Donovan. –Frank DiGiacomo

On the first episode of her new podcast The Ally Brooke Show, Ally Brooke opens up about the mental and verbal “abuse” she allegedly suffered while in Fifth Harmony.

For the first time, the 27-year-old singer talked about her time with former bandmates Normani, Lauren Jauregui, Camila Cabello and Dinah Jane in the hourlong “My Time in Fifth Harmony / I Believe in Miracles!” episode that premiered Wednesday. Despite praising them for being the biggest girl group of the 2010s that will “be in the history books,” she says, Brooke shed light on some of the darker moments she experienced.

“I hate saying this: My time in Fifth Harmony, I didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t love it,” she confessed. “It was hard because there was so much going on. So much behind the scenes, so much toxicity, so much abuse, so much abuse of power, so much mental abuse, verbal abuse. And it’s just horrible and to me, it’s a shame because we were so big. I should have enjoyed myself more.”

Brooke was also candid about the “competitive” environment the girls were in, including the “fight for our lives” to see who got to sing the good parts of a song, and the environment felt hostile. “There was such inappropriateness, too, within the label — talking to us a certain way, talking to me a certain way, making me feel uncomfortable, making me feel inferior and knowing that they can make me feel that way because I was a woman,” she said.

She told Extra on Thursday about the “inappropriateness” she experienced. Brooke recalled at one point how she approached a male executive for help when the girl group was going through a breaking point, and how his alleged behavior ended up making her feel “helpless.”

“There was a lot happening within the group, and we were kind of breaking, and I went to this executive for help. This person said, ‘Oh yes, I can help you. No problem.’ And I felt so much comfort in going to someone,” the “No Good” singer recalled in the interview. “This man, he approached me with a thong. That was the first thing that he gave me. When you go to someone for help and all they meet you with is inappropriateness, it’s horrible … I felt embarrassed, ashamed. I felt helpless.”

Brooke also told Extra’s Jenn Lahmers that sharing the ups and downs she faced in 5H in her new podcast allows her to be more “vulnerable,” which she’s felt very nervous about, and be “real and raw with my fans.” She also points out in her own podcast what she hopes listeners will take away from it while sharing an important reminder for other female artists in the business.

“I’m so thankful I survived that period in my life, and again, I take the blessings with Fifth Harmony and the lessons, because I learned a lot of lessons,” Brooke said in the first podcast episode. “And I hope by me sharing my story that I can help someone else to speak out, to speak up, to maybe be alert and be aware, and know that there’s a better way to get things done, there’s a better way to live and to thrive in this industry. And we as women, we deserve our respect.”

Billboard has reached out to Fifth Harmony’s labels, as well as reps for Normani, Jauregui, Cabello and Jane.

Listen to the first episode of The Ally Brooke Show below.

Jesy Nelson is turning over a new page after departing from Little Mix, and it comes with a new hair color: She debuted her platinum locks Friday (May 14).

The 29-year-old singer showed off her new icy color in three Instagram pictures, captioning the first picture “No rain no flowers” before feeding her fans with subsequent glam shots in her white tank top, dark-washed Jeàn Vintage flare denim pants and purple Air Jordan 1s.

Nelson’s new look comes two weeks before she surprised fans with a “new do” that resembled Posh Spice’s iconic bob from the ’90s. Her former bandmates also paid tribute to the Spice Girls at the 2021 Brit Awards, where they made history for becoming the first female band to win the award for British group.

In their acceptance speech, Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall called out the “white male dominance, misogyny, sexism and lack of diversity” in the music industry while giving flowers to the girl bands who came before them. “It’s for the Spice Girls, Sugababes, All Saints, Girls Aloud, all of the incredible female bands. This one’s for you!” Thirlwall added. They also thanked their former bandmate onstage.

Nelson applauded Little Mix’s big win on Instagram by posting a picture of them holding their Brit Award with a series of heart and clapping hand emojis.

See her new blonde ‘do below.