BMG has announced a “streamlined restructuring” of its U.S. repertoire operation as part of a growth plan “designed to allow the company to accelerate out of the pandemic,” it was revealed Friday (Feb. 5).

As part of the restructure, Thomas Scherer has been promoted to president, repertoire & marketing, Los Angeles and New York, leading the company’s West Coast and East Coast repertoire organizations. Additionally, Jon Loba, who joined BMG in 2017 following its acquisition of country label and publishing house BBR Music Group, has been confirmed as president, recorded music, Nashville. Both will report to BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch.

Scherer, who has been with Bertelsmann for nearly three decades, joined “the new BMG” at its founding in 2008, becoming one of the company’s original employees based out of Berlin. He was most recently executive vp, repertoire & marketing, Los Angeles. Before that, he served as executive vp frontline publishing, where he spearheaded the integration of BMG’s creative teams globally and was key in developing the company’s China operations.

Since Scherer signed on to lead the Los Angeles marketing & repertoire team in 2014, the company has seen success on the recording side with releases from Run the Jewels, Jason Mraz, KSI and Curtis Waters, among others. He also launched a long-term partnership with Dark Horse Records and has led the charge on developing a stable of rock-focused acts in Los Angeles.

A number of other executive promotions were also announced as part of the restructure. Monti Olson and Dan Gill have been promoted to executive vp roles and will be responsible for U.S. publishing and recorded music in Los Angeles, respectively, reporting to Scherer.

In his new role, Olson will lead BMG’s Los Angeles, Nashville and New York creative teams, in addition to creative services for the company’s film and TV publishing clients. He joined BMG in 2018 as co-head of U.S. A&R publishing, overseeing a roster that includes 21 Savage, Juice WRLD, Diane Warren and Del Records. He came to the company from Warner Records and has also served in roles at Global Entertainment and Universal Music Publishing Group.

Gill, meanwhile, will be responsible for BMG’s frontline recordings repertoire and strategy in Los Angeles, including RBC Records (KSI, Chief Keef, Waka Flocka Flame, Big L, Gucci Mane) and metal/hard rock label Rise Records (Dance Gavin Dance, AFI, Pup, Sevendust). He joined the company in 2014 after its acquisition of Vagrant Records, most recently serving as senior vp recorded music.

Jason Hradil has been elevated to executive vp, recorded music, New York, succeeding John Loeffler, who will take on a newly expanded role centered on VIP client relations, U.S.-wide business and strategic partnerships.

Loeffler, a former TV and commercial producer, joined the company in 2009 as a consultant following its acquisition of Cherry Lane Records and has since spearheaded its relationships with artists including Huey Lewis, Roger Waters, Bad Company, John Fogerty and Kenny Loggins. He also managed BMG’s New York-based S-Curve Records and was the architect of the recently launched OM Records, a partnership with French soccer club Olympique de Marseille.

In his new position, Hradil will take on a dual role; in addition to his new executive vp title, he will continue as senior vp, international marketing, a title he has held since 2019. Going forward, he will oversee BMG’s frontline recordings repertoire and marketing on the East Coast, along with the company’s U.S. interests in global recordings. He has been with BMG since 2011, when he joined as its first U.S. recorded music employee, helping develop the company’s entry into the U.S. record business and managing all marketing, sales, promotion and distribution for artist releases in North America. He previously held roles at Columbia/Epic and Sony BMG.

Lastly, Jecoure Lamothe has been upped to senior director, A&R and marketing at BMG’s rap/hip-hop label RBC Records. In his new role, he will manage all day-to-day operations of the label and its artists, reporting to Gill. He joined BMG in 2018 following its acquisition of RBC.

“The US continues to be BMG’s richest repertoire source and largest revenue generator. After a very strong 2020, we are determined to be in a position to accelerate out of this pandemic rather than resting on our laurels,” Masuch said in a statement. “This new streamlined structure will allow us to raise the bar of excellence when it comes to servicing our artists. I would like to thank Thomas, Jon, Monti, Dan, and Jason for all their contributions to the company and wish them continued success in their new roles.”

“BMG US just enjoyed its best year yet so it’s an honor to take on responsibility for our New York operation as well as LA.,” added Scherer. “I look forward to working alongside Jon Loba as we pursue our objective to provide a real partnership for our artists and songwriters: inspire, help them build and own their creative works and offer them new opportunities to express their talents into books, podcasts, films and documentaries, video games and beyond. More than ever, BMG is the most artist-friendly alternative to the traditional music business.”

In its most recent earnings report, BMG posted a 4.8% increase in revenue to €282 million euros ($310.8 million) at the mid-year point ended June 30, 2020, up from €269 million ($303.9 million) in the year-earlier period.

Marilyn Manson has been dropped by longtime manager Tony Ciulla following accusations of sexual and physical abuse against the rock star by his former fiancée, actor Evan Rachel Wood, and several other women, according to a new report in Rolling Stone. Manson has denied the claims.

Manson was previously dropped by his agency, CAA, and record label, Loma Vista Recordings. He is also being edited out of an upcoming episode of the Starz series American Gods, on which he has recurred this season, while AMC’s Shudder service has confirmed it will not be airing a segment of a forthcoming episode of its Creepshow TV series in which Manson appears.

Ciulla has not responded to Billboard’s request for comment.

Ciulla began managing Manson around 1996, the same year he released his breakthrough album, Antichrist Superstar. The two met while Ciulla was working at Trent Reznor’s Nothing Records in the early 1990s, when Manson’s band was signed by the label.

Though Manson and Ciulla’s professional relationship has weathered a number of serious controversies over the past 25 years, the tide appears to have turned following Wood’s accusation that Manson “horrifically abused” her for years after the two met when Wood was 18 and Manson was 36. The pair announced their relationship in Jan. 2007 and were briefly engaged in 2010.

“The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson,” Wood wrote on Instagram Monday. “He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander or blackmail.”

She continued, “I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”

Following Wood’s post on Monday, at least four other women also came forward with various allegations of sexual and physical abuse by Manson.

Though she did not name Manson as her abuser until this week, Wood had previously hinted at the shock rocker’s alleged abuse in both a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone (and a later Twitter post) as well as before a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee in Feb. 2018 in support of the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act. In 2019, Wood again spoke out while testifying before California lawmakers in support of the Phoenix Act, a bill she created to expand the statute of limitations for domestic violence-related crimes from three to five years. That bill was signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom in Oct. 2019 and went into effect in Jan. 2020.

Manson quickly responded to the women’s accusations on Monday with his own Instagram statement, which characterized their claims as “horrible distortions of reality.”

Since then, Manson’s ex-girlfriend Rose McGowan and ex-wife Dita Von Teese have released statements in support of the women, with McGowan specifically calling out the music industry for “protecting predators” in a video posted to Twitter.

Crow Bar owner Tom DeGeorge is not in the mood to talk to the people calling about renting his Tampa bar during the Super Bowl.

“I have told every one of them no,” DeGeorge says. “One guy complained that I hadn’t even listened to his offer and my response was ‘I know, and I don’t want to hear it.’”

With local ordinances banning dance floors, reducing capacity by 75% and requiring patrons to wear face masks, DeGeorge says it’s nearly impossible to host a concert in Tampa Bay this year for the Super Bowl. And he’s OK with that.

“It’s not safe to host concerts right now at full capacity and it won’t be until we get through COVID-19,” he tells Billboard.

And yet, about a half-dozen venues in town are moving forward with performances and parties on Super Bowl weekend, including a Catholic Church hosting a tailgating party featuring Flo Rida. Hotel and club WTR Grill + Pool is hosting the biggest events, with a Thursday show by Torey Lanez, Friday show by Steve Aoki and Saturday show with Migos and Diplo playing with 50 Cent, followed by the Qvesoir nightclub in the town’s Ybor City district, which is hosting shows by Kodak Black and Lil Baby, and then the Ritz, which is planning a big Super Bowl bash hosted by Gucci Mane.

The events — which include parties hosted by Rick Ross, Boosie, City Girls and Trick Daddy — fill in a gap left by the absence of OnLocation this year, the NFL’s hospitality and live entertainment partner that was purchased by Endeavor at the beginning of the year. OnLocation decided not to host any VIP events or concerts this year due to COVID-19 and instead focus on ticket sales, which have also been slow.

Tickets are still available for nearly all concerts happening during Super Bowl weekend — as are tickets for the big game, despite a reduced capacity at host Raymond James Stadium to 22,000 (normally 65,000), with 7,500 tickets going to vaccinated health care workers, that was supposed to mean a quiet Super Bowl weekend. DeGeorge said he planned to operate the Crow Bar at 25% capacity and host a few local bands but said he has serious doubts that venues hosting big shows within Tampa’s Ybor City entertainment district will follow the capacity restrictions.

“And that really disturbs the balance of the entire evening and puts the venues that are trying to do the right thing at risk,” DeGeorge says. One problem, he explains, is that the city’s capacity restrictions aren’t being enforced by police and Alcohol and Beverage Control. Since the state’s entertainment restrictions were loosened in October by Florida Govenor Ron DeSantis, images of packed venues and nightclubs have regularly trickled out of Ybor Center — which is home to about 100 clubs, venues, restaurants and retail businesses — and ended up on social media sites and national news broadcasts.

“It can feel like the Twilight Zone here in Florida, where half the people in the state take precautions against the coronavirus and the other half just shrug it off,” DeGeorge said. 

Jesse Lawrence with TicketIQ, which sells and distributes sports tickets, said there would have likely been more concerts and events happening at the Super Bowl this year if the hometown team weren’t playing. The people who buy tickets to concerts — the shows at WTR Grill + Pool start at $250 — are often fans visiting from out of town and not locals.

“And that has a domino effect because the people who are deciding if they want to travel for the game decide not to go because they know they won’t get the full Super Bowl experience,” he said.

DeGeorge hopes locals stay home and don’t show up in search of deals, waiting for the price of some of the big tailgate parties and concerts to drop, creating unsafe conditions for the events operating at a lower capacity. 

“We really don’t know what is gonna happen with some of these concerts or if people do come out, what enforcement of the capacity issues will look like,” he said. “We’re all just nervously awaiting the weekend and will be happy when it’s over.”

Anne Feeney, a folk singer who collaborated with Pete Seeger, John Prine and Peter, Paul and Mary and an impassioned activist who fought for workers’ and women’s rights, died Wednesday in Pittsburgh of COVID-19 complications. She was 69.

“It is with a very heavy heart that we must announce the passing of our courageous, brilliant, beautiful mother,” her daughter, Amy Sue Berlin, wrote on Facebook. “We were very lucky that she fought hard enough to open up her eyes and give us a couple days to be with her before she finally decided it was time to let go.”

Starting in 1987, when she was inspired by folk singer and activist Faith Petric to quit her job as an attorney and dedicate her life to touring and making music in support of workers, Feeney played more than 4,000 shows across North America and Europe.

She performed for striking workers on picket lines, in union halls and at protests, including the one that shut down a World Trade Organization conference in Seattle in 1999 — she is seen in the 2000 documentary This Is What Democracy Looks Like — and another at the March for Women’s Lives held in 2004 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Feeney’s 2000 anthem “Have You Been to Jail for Justice?,” sung on picket lines and in jail cells around the world, is considered one of the last true folk songs. She also gave life to classic union hymns like Woody Guthrie’s “Union Maid” and Joe Hill’s “Dump the Bosses Off Your Back.”

“Anne Feeney was a deeply committed songwriter/activist in the grand tradition of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie,” Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary said in a statement. “She was joyous and fiery in her determination to use her music to elevate those who are most marginalized and to move toward greater justice in the land. For Annie, it was a way of life. Her song ‘Have You Been to Jail for Justice?, which our trio recorded, was an anthem for all of us who joined with Annie in ‘the good fight.’”

Guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine called her “a fearless and formidable force for justice and workers’ rights onstage, in the studio and on the picket line.”

Feeney organized dozens of tours supporting various causes, including the Sing Out for Single Payer Healthcare tour in 2009, and raised tens of thousands of dollars for strike funds and progressive causes. She also served as the first female president of a musicians’ union in the U.S.

Born on July 1, 1951, in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, and raised in the Brookline neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Feeney was influenced by her grandfather William Patrick Feeney, who was a first-generation Irish immigrant and violinist who used music to support working-class organizing.

Feeney performed publicly for the first time in 1969 when she sang a Phil Ochs song at a protest against the Vietnam War. In 1972, she was arrested at the Republican National Convention while objecting to Richard Nixon’s second nomination for president.

Feeney received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1974 and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law four years later. She practiced as a trial lawyer for 12 years, primarily representing refugees and survivors of domestic violence.

Inspired by the group that founded “Women Organized Against Rape” in Philadelphia, she began a campaign for a rape crisis center that evolved into Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, which still provides services to survivors of sexual assault. She also served on the executive board of the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Organization of Women and as the president of the Pittsburgh Musicians’ Union from 1981-97, the only woman to hold that position.

Feeney released 12 albums during her career and shared stages with Seeger, Prine, Loretta Lynn, Toshi Reagon, The Mammals, Dan Bern, Indigo Girls and Billy Bragg. A lover of Irish music, she led annual singing tours of Ireland and was a regular at Kerrville Folk Festival, Oregon Country Fair and other major festivals.

Survivors include her son, Dan. Donations in her name may be made to the Thomas Merton Center, a social justice activist hub in Pittsburgh.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.