Hornets Sports & Entertainment (HSE) has announced that country music star Eric Church is set to be a minority owner of NBA team the Charlotte Hornets, as a group named the Buyer Group is acquiring the NBA franchise from majority stakeholder Michael Jordan.

The Buyer Group is led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall. Plotkin, who acquired a minority stake in the Hornets in 2019, has been an alternate governor on the NBA Board of Governors since 2019, and is the Founder & Chief Investment Officer of Tallwoods Capital LLC. Schnall is Co-President of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC, where he has worked for 27 years, and has been a significant minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks as well as an alternate governor on the NBA Board of Governors since 2015. Schnall is in the process of selling his investment in the Hawks, which is expected to be completed in the next several weeks.

Along with Church, the Buyer Group will also include Dan Sundheim, Ian Loring, Dyal HomeCourt Partners, North Carolina native recording artist J. Cole and several local Charlotte investors, including Amy Levine Dawson and Damian Mills.

As part of the transaction, Jordan will retain a minority ownership share of the team. The transaction is subject to the approval of the NBA Board of Governors. Along with the Hornets, HSE ownership includes the Greensboro Swarm (NBA G League) and Hornets Venom GT (NBA 2K League), as well as managing and operating Spectrum Center, each of which is included as part of the sale.

ASCAP is introducing a slate of AI initiatives to help music creators navigate the future while protecting their work. These newly announced initiatives include adoption of a set of key ASCAP AI principles, creator education, startup incubation and policy development.

“ASCAP has been adapting to disruption for more than 100 years. AI doesn’t scare us because we see technology as an opportunity to innovate for our songwriter, composer and music publisher members. The future is bright and we have our helmets on to fight the fight to protect the rights of music creators,” says ASCAP Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Matthews.

With the following AI initiatives, ASCAP plans to educate and inspire its members, champion music creator rights and help shape how new technologies are deployed and licensed across industry sectors.

In 2019, ASCAP launched the ASCAP Lab to drive innovation for its next century of growth. The multi-pronged effort is designed to explore how advanced technologies, new business approaches and creative collaboration can drive value for ASCAP music creator members and licensees. In each of the last three years, the ASCAP Lab has run an accelerator program in partnership with the NYC Media Lab, led by the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, exploring new technologies such as the metaverse, augmented reality, spatial audio and computer vision, helping to incubate more than a dozen startups and university research projects.

The 2023 ASCAP Lab Music and AI Challenge is designed to identify creative, cutting-edge concepts at the intersection of music and artificial intelligence, enabling ASCAP to work closely with the tech community to help guide the development and application of this game-changing technology for the benefit of music creators. Five teams have been selected to receive grants and mentorship to develop and expand upon their emerging technologies during the 12-week challenge.

This year’s teams for the ASCAP Lab Music and AI Challenge include:

• DAACI is a comprehensive AI system that composes, arranges, orchestrates and produces authentic, high-quality and original music with emotional and narrative awareness, especially for composers for video games, the metaverse, digital worlds and dynamic virtual experiences.
• Infinite Album uses AI to generate continuous copyright-safe video game music that can react to game play in real time and can be customized by gamers and viewers in collaborative, interactive and monetizable ways.
• Overture Games builds video games for beginner musicians designed to make practicing more fun and reduce burnout/quitting by using AI-based pitch detection to provide responsive visual feedback based on the musician’s playing.
• Samplifi combines classical digital signal processing techniques with the latest advances in AI to isolate and enhance the auditory information needed to harmonically orient oneself within a piece of music, making the sonic world easier to navigate for hearing-impaired musicians.
• Sounds.Studio by Never Before Heard Sounds is a browser-based music production platform that leverages AI to make producing music faster and more accessible with assistive tools like stem splitting, vocal conversion, timbre transfer and automatic song alignment.

Throughout and after the 12-week challenge, the teams will share their stories, progress and innovations with ASCAP members, some of whom will be involved in the mentoring and beta-testing processes of the program.

In addition to the ASCAP Lab Music and AI Challenge, the PRO is also bringing back the ASCAP Experience, the company’s signature event created to inspire, educate and connect songwriters and composers.

This year, ASCAP will host a panel dedicated to AI in Los Angeles on June 21. “Intelligently Navigating Artificial Intelligence” brings together experts from the creative, tech and business fields for a state-of-the-union on AI in music. The session will educate ASCAP member attendees on the potential of AI to change how music is made and consumed, how ASCAP is addressing these evolving opportunities and challenges and how to make informed decisions about using AI tools while protecting one’s intellectual property. Panelists include Lucas Cantor, Composer, ASCAP member; Rachel Lyske, CEO of DAACI; and Nicholas Lehman, Chief Strategy & Digital Officer, ASCAP.

“As the only creator-first US PRO, ASCAP always places our members at the core of everything we do and listening to them informs our strategy,” says Nick Lehman. “Our members are telling us that they want ASCAP to help them navigate technology disruption, advocate for better regulation in AI and pursue compensation if their music is used in AI-generated content.”

Texas artist Triston Marez has signed with Erv Woolsey Co. for management. The rising artist is gearing up for the release of his brand new six-song EP, produced by Jake Gear.

Marez first began playing guitar at age six, performing a Buck Owens song at his first grade talent show. His love of the genre grew from there, and he continued to craft his sound, infusing modern country with a timeless swagger. Marez released his self-titled album in 2021, collaborating with Ronnie Dunn on the track “Where The Neon Lies.” Fans will get a first taste of Marez’ upcoming latest project with the Jon Pardi-penned “Too Soon For Goodbye,” out now.

L.A.-based Cinq Music Group and Boom Music Group in Nashville will release Marez’s new music through a marketing and distribution partnership to further amplify the 60-million plus global streams the Houston native has already amassed independently.

“Triston puts in the hard work it takes in this business, from the grind of playing the honky tonks on Broadway when he first arrived in Nashville at 17 years old, to burning up the highways across the country touring the last few years,” shares Woolsey. “It’s his time to shine and I’m excited for his future!”

“Being a part of a team as notable as the Erv Woolsey Co. is truly an honor,” says Marez. “I can’t thank them enough for believing in my music and the vision. I feel extremely blessed to be able to work alongside the team. To announce that I have signed with The Erv Woolsey Co. for management, along with releasing new music and partnering with Cinq Music Group and Boom Music Group, is truly amazing and a blessing.”

The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) hosted its annual meeting at the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on Wednesday (June 14).

The event honored Brandi Carlile with the 2023 NMPA Songwriter Icon award. Ten-time Grammy nominee Brandy Clark performed “You and Me On The Rock” in a surprise tribute to Carlile, who recently produced her critically acclaimed album, and Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Allison Russell performed Carlile’s hit “This Time Tomorrow.”

Carlile, a nine-time Grammy winner, performed “The Mother” and shared some words about songwriting.

“Every once in a while I’ll know that its time for me to end my constant struggle with internal feelings of aloneness, and I write songs again,” she said. “It’s not really a song for me until I’ve shared it. I write a song and then I’m that girl that’s going to call you immediately on the phone and sing it to you… I get so much songwriting inspiration from the uniqueness of other writers who write in community.”

Ashley Gorley was also honored by the NMPA, receiving the Non-Performing Songwriter Icon award. Gorley has celebrated a whopping 67 No. 1 hits, is the NSAI Songwriter of the Decade and recently took home the ACM’s Songwriter of the Year award.

Luke Bryan honored Gorley with a performance of “What Makes You Country” and “Play it Again.”

When accepting, Gorley said “I want to say thank you to all the artists throughout the years like Luke who’ve trusted me along the way and my songs, and my instincts, or whatever it is that caused them to put their trust in me and let me be a part of the stories they were telling, that’s really special.”

Additionally, RIAA Chairman & CEO Mitch Glazier was awarded the NMPA Industry Legacy Award and Senator Dick Durbin was given the NMPA President’s Award.

During the event’s State of the Industry address, NMPA EVP & General Counsel Danielle Aguirre unveiled a new lawsuit against Twitter for alleged infringement of publishers’ songs on its platform and failure to license. The complaint seeks over $250 million in damages for hundreds of thousands of noticed infringements of approximately 1,700 works.

The event also unveiled new analysis including the size of the U.S. publishing industry. NMPA President & CEO David Israelite announced that the 2022 total revenue came to $5,605,824,140—a 19.25 percent increase over 2021. Additionally, the revenue breakdown was divided out to 48.29 percent from performance royalties, 26.07 percent from sync, 20.27 percent from mechanical royalties and 5.37 percent from miscellaneous sources.

Israelite also touted streaming revenue increases. Stemming from the CRB IV settlement which went into effect in January, growing subscribers and increased prices from some platforms, NMPA reports a 27 percent revenue uplift overall from January 2022 to January 2023. Israelite noted the true increase is likely much larger since digital services still owe songwriters and publishers repayment at increased CRB III rates, which were upheld on appeal.

The meeting also included a surprise tribute to acclaimed songwriter Liz Rose, who yesterday exited the NMPA Board after fulfilling her four-year term. The tribute was performed by Nashville singer-songwriter Alana Springsteen. Israelite announced that four-time Grammy nominee and CMA, ACM and BMI Song of the Year winner Laura Veltz had been elected to her seat for the next term.

Legendary manager and tech entrepreneur Guy Oseary was also featured in a keynote conversation discussing the implications of AI on the music industry.