Following new distribution
deals in 2019 with
AMPED, Membran and
Netherlands-based digital
distributor FUGA, BNM
plans to release 15 to 20
projects in 2020, including
albums from core hard-
rock acts Five Finger
Death Punch and Papa
Roach, as well as a follow-
up to the breakout success
of Mongolian rock band
The Hu. New alternative
signees AWOLNation
and Atlas Genius have
already released songs
this year about the fires in
California and Australia,
respectively. “That builds
something bigger,” says
Kovac. “It becomes
a real relationship
because they’re sharing
experiences.”
THE ARTISTS
Kovac’s five-decade-long
résumé includes stints as
a promoter and manager
of Meat Loaf, the Bee
Gees, Duran Duran, The
Cranberries and Mötley
Crüe. After launching
Eleven Seven, he founded
Five Seven Music in 2009
and Better Noise Records
in 2015. Soon after, he
enlisted Kline, a 20-year
radio promotions vet
(Lava, Geffen), to boost
Better Noise’s A&R and
artist development. Their
partnership has helped
the company’s rapid
expansion: Better Noise
Music’s staff has tripled
in size since 2015, adding
half a dozen international
heads to the nearly 50 full-
timers in New York and
Los Angeles.
BACKGROUND
58 BILLBOARD • JANUARY 25, 2020
KOVAC:RACHEL^MURRAY/GETTYIMAGES.^ A
TLASGENIUS:^ERIKA^GOLDRING/FILMMAGIC.^ Y
UMMY:^ COURTESY^OFDEFJAMRECORDINGS.BEHIND THE HIT
JUSTIN BIEBER’S
“YUMMY”
TWO YEARS AGO, KID CULTURE — A
then 16-year-old producing prodigy from
Seattle — created a bouncy beat with
fellow producer Sasha Sitora. He later
played the beat for Poo Bear, a frequent
collaborator of Justin Bieber’s, during a
trip to Los Angeles. “He loved it,” recalls
Kid Culture today. “He played Justin my
music, and he really loved it.”
In October 2019, Bieber turned the
beat into the foundation of “Yummy,” the
sultry, R&B-flavored first single, released
Jan. 3, off the highly anticipated follow-
up to his 2015 album, Purpose. Following
its release, the track became Bieber’s
17th Billboard Hot 100 top 10, debuting at
No. 2 on the chart dated Jan. 18.
Though Kid Culture (who prefers to
keep his birth name a secret) has yet to
meet Bieber, the producer credits his
love of the pop star’s 2013 R&B-tinged
compilation, Journals, for helping him
create a sound that resonated with the
superstar: “It made me think, ‘I used to
sing his songs, what do I want to hear
from him next?’ ” says Kid Culture. Once
Bieber finished “Yummy,” Kid Culture
and Sitora worked with the singer’s en-
gineer Josh Gudwin to finish the track,
adding in keyboard chords that Kid
Culture feels “really set it off.”
Along with traditional sales-boosting
efforts such as vinyl and cassette offers
(including pieces autographed by the
singer), Bieber relentlessly promoted
“Yummy” on social media in an effort to
get it to No. 1. On the eve of the song’s
release, he joined TikTok, using the app to
lip-sync and dance along to his track and
encouraging followers to do the same.
Bieber has also released six different
music videos for “Yummy,” including an
animated collaboration with his Drew
House clothing brand and a fan lip-sync.
Although “Yummy” fell one spot short
of a No. 1 debut on the Hot 100, Kid Cul-
ture has worked on several other Bieber
tracks that he’s confident have plenty of
chart-topping potential. “That’s the last
song I thought [Justin] would’ve picked
for the single,” admits Kid Culture. “He
saved some of the best ones for the al-
bum. ‘Yummy’ really set the bar for what’s
to come.” —TAYLOR WEATHERBY
While BNM’s Nashville
office is focusing on new
signing Cory Marks, whose
“Outlaws & Outsiders” —
featuring members of Möt-
ley Crüe and Five Finger
Death Punch — hit No. 1
on Billboard’s Rock Digital
Song Sales and Country
Digital Song Sales charts in
November 2019, breaking
into alternative remains the
label’s priority. “Alterna-
tive is becoming more
and more formulaic pop
music that’s manufactured
to cross over,” says Kovac.
“We brought diversity to
the rock format, and we’re
bringing nonmanufactured
alternative music back.”
KEY STATS
Netflix’s 2019 Mötley Crüe
biopic, The Dirt, led to a
329% boost in the band’s
streams, according to
Nielsen Music. Kline hopes
to replicate those numbers
with a 2020 touring musi-
cal of Nikki Sixx’s Heroin
Diaries memoir. The label is
also curating a soundtrack
to the upcoming film Sno
Babies, while Better Noise
Films will soon release
horror flick The Retalia-
tors, featuring members of
Five Finger Death Punch,
Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee
and Papa Roach’s Jacoby
Shaddix. “You can’t just rely
on CD sales and stream-
ing anymore,” says Kovac.
“Amazon has TV, film,
streams music and sells
merchandise. Why would
we limit ourselves?”
WHAT’S NEXT
In 2006, Allen Kovac, CEO of management and marketing company
10th Street Entertainment, launched the label Eleven Seven, later
signing Sixx:A.M., Hellyeah, Buckcherry and Dirty Heads. After 13
years, he consolidated the label’s three imprints — hard-rock-focused
Eleven Seven Music, alt-leaning Five Seven Music and genre catch-all
Better Noise Records — rebranding in late 2019 as Better Noise Music. “Allen noticed that major
labels were giving up on rock, so we brought in established artists who had been dropped
[like Mötley Crüe and Papa Roach] and started building up a catalog,” says COO Steve Kline,
who has been with 10th Street since 2004. Adds Kovac, “The old days of having different label
identities for different genres are over.” Says Kline, “For the past couple years, we have argu-
ably been the biggest rock label in the world, certainly in [streaming and consumption] market
share in America,” says Kline. Now, BNM plans to dominate the alternative realm with a string
of new signings — and break into the country market, too. —GIL KAUFMAN
LABEL
LOOK
BETTER NOISE
Atlas Genius
From left: 10th Street
Entertainment president
Chris Nilsson, Sixx, Kovac,
Lee, Kline and Mötley
Crüe’s Mick Mars at the
2019 premiere of Netflix’s
Mötley Crüe movie, The
Dirt, in Hollywood.
Music video still of
Bieber in “Yummy.”