NEWS
Olivia Rodrigo
Louis Browne*There seems to be something in the air at the top of 2022, with several high-profile stars hopping on and off the management merry-go-round and switching up their teams in the first few weeks of the new year.
The big two, of course, are Olivia Rodrigo parting ways with Camp Far West’s Kristen Smith and signing on with Lighthouse Management + Media’s Aleen Keshishian and Zack Morgenroth; and Dua Lipa splitting with TaP Music co-founder and co-CEO Ben Mawson, and holding open auditions for a new team, according to sources. Both came as somewhat of a shock, given their respective partnerships had been in place as each of the stars ascended into stardom in recent years, and because both are either just starting or about to start significant tours.
The two are hardly alone; there seems to be a bit of a management revamp at the top of the year that has several artists shuffling the decks. Mitski shifted from Salty to Good Harbor, after a sexual harassment complaint against Salty’s Chris Crowley led to the firm’s dissolution; Remi Wolf has moved from Take & Thrown to be managed by Sophie Lev, her former product manager at Island. Lil Pump has parted ways with Tha Lights Global; Saweetie, after a trial run with Full Stop, split amicably with the firm and ultimately returned to being managed by her uncle, Louis Burrell. Meanwhile, rumors of a few other heavy hitters shaking up their teams are continuing to swirl.
There’s not much word as to what happened in Dua land just yet, though now that Olivia has landed with Lighthouse there’s a little more to see. In what was a highly-competitive negotiation, Lighthouse beat out at least one other high-level firm, and its roster of clients — Selena Gomez, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Rudd — has strong Hollywood connections, though Rodrigo has made it clear her focus is on music as she eyes her tour kickoff in April.
Each situation comes with its own reasons, of course, though one person pointed to the slow but steady re-emergence from the pandemic as one reason why artists may be reassessing their teams in the new year. One manager also put it down to the calendar. “Maybe people have time to reflect over things at the holidays,” the source says. “A second to breathe, because all of these artists are so busy all the time and that’s the only time the whole industry truly shuts down.” — Dan Rys
When AEG officials renewed a naming rights deal for L.A.’s Staples Center in 2009 with office supply chain Staples, a press release announcing the renewal explained that the deal included a first of its kind “lifetime naming rights extension for a major market arena.”
No details were released at the time on how the forever clause would work, but the news was met with applause by many in the corporate world, wanting more long-term value and commitment for the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in naming rights that protected companies from being outbid.
How a forever naming rights deal worked remained a mystery, although most analysts assumed the agreement came with some kind of mechanism to end the deal if a breach occurred.
They turned out to be half right. AEG had sold the naming rights to Staples in perpetuity for a lump sum payment in 2009, Lee Zeidman, president of Staples Center, Microsoft Theater and L.A. Live, recently told Billboard. But, he said, the Crypto.com name change for what was the largest naming rights deal in history — $700 million over 20 years — was only possible because AEG’s Global Partnerships division “bought the name back from the private equity company that now controlled Staples.”
While neither the price of the 2009 deal nor the 2019 buyback were released, Zeidman noted that discussions with Crypto.com didn’t start until fall 2021 and said AEG bought the naming rights back without a specific buyer in mind.
AEG owner Phil Anchutz “had a criteria of what we wanted and we were in the process of looking for a new partner when the pandemic hit,” Zeidman said. While AEG didn’t expect it would take more than two years to find a partner, the historic price tag did also come with the added bonus of beating SoFi Stadium in nearby Inglewood, which inked a $625 million naming rights deal in 2019.
“A $700 million deal, for a 23-year-old arena is unheard of,” Zeidman said. “There’s no better testament to what he have built in Los Angeles than that.” — Dave Brooks
Edited by Dan Rys
NEWS
R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe has given a live debut to a new solo song ‘The Rest Of Ever’ on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert – watch below.
The legendary singer has been working on his first full solo album for several years and while he has said in recent weeks that it has taken “longer than I wanted”, he has said he is now adding the finishing touches to the record, and has said it should be out in 2026.
On Thursday (April 23), Stipe appeared on Colbert to play the never-before-heard song ‘The Rest Of Ever’, alongside the house band Louis Cato and The Great Big Joy Machine.
The mature, contemplative track sounds like a slower-tempo version of an outtake from R.E.M.’s ‘Monster’, with Stipe earnestly addressing a loved one, embracing the deep huskiness of his current vocal register.
Watch the performance here:
Also on the show, Stipe attempted to describe the sound of his new album. “One of the songs is the sound of a tree hearing itself for the first time,” he said. “It’s this confusing situation. My friend recorded a tree in my backyard in Georgia and played it back to itself, and so it sounds like Daft Punk, but I’m putting a sea shanty [in the song].”
Colbert then asked which sea shanty it was, to which Stipe said, “It’s the most familiar that everyone knows,” before breaking into ‘Drunken Sailor’.
“The tree has not responded yet,” Stipe added. “We’re gonna let his people get back to my people and see what happens.”
Speaking about the album’s delay in March, Stipe said: “Covid didn’t help, but I’m finishing it. When the band split, I just needed a break. I took five years but I got pulled back into music. It’s been a struggle. That’s the main thing. I want it to be great, but I’ve got the pressure of having been in R.E.M. and it’s a high bar, because I want this to be as good as that, and that’s near impossible.”
Previous Stipe solo releases include the 2019 single ‘Your Capricious Soul’ and ‘Drive To The Ocean’ the following year. He also released ‘No Time For Love Like Now’ with Aaron Dessner’s Big Red Machine in 2020.
Last month, he also joined forces with Andrew Watt, Josh Klinghoffer and Travis Barker to share the new theme song for the show Rooster.
By all accounts, Stipe remains on good terms with his former R.E.M. bandmates – guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry – and they appeared together in summer 2024 when they were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The band split amicably in 2011, while Berry had left the group during the height of their commercial success in 1997. However, at the ceremony, the quartet gave a surprise acoustic performance of their 1991 classic ‘Losing My Religion’. That marked the first time the four played live together since their 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
Last month, Stipe joined Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy at one of their ‘Lifes Rich Pageant’ 40th anniversary tour shows in Brooklyn. They played versions of R.E.M.’s ‘These Days’ and ‘The Great Beyond’. A year ago, he also sang ‘Pretty Persuasion’ with them.
Stipe has also been clarifying lyrics from ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’ on Bluesky, revealing that many fans have been getting some of the lines wrong for decades.
