Miami's Having A Big Penthouse Boom

Five years ago, the housing market was in such bad shape in Miami that developers stopped building. Today, 94 towers are under construction–three featuring penthouses with price tags of $50 million or higher. Two with similar list prices have already gone into contract.

Investors Put $2.4 Billion Into Music

In the 57 investment deals totaling over $2.4 billion tracked by Billboard, nearly 9 in 10 dollars invested went to a traditional music company, an EDM concert promoter or a company that streams music. Most of the investments were made in small, digital startups. Some are trying to improve how people discover concerts. A handful of them are changing how people create music.

A similar company hoping to disrupt the recorded music market is Beats Music, a subscription service that launched Jan. 21. An offshoot of Beats Electronics, the maker of the popular Beats By Dr. Dre headphones, Beats Music raised $60 million from Access Industries, the owner of Warner Music Group. (A year earlier, Access placed $130 million in Deezer, a competitor of Spotify and Beats Music.)

Warner Music Group’s acquisition of Parlophone Label Group was the biggest single investment in music in 2013. The $765 million deal, representing nearly a third of the year’s music investments, gave Warner not only Parlophone and Chrysalis but EMI’s operations in a handful of European countries. Also in this category was the acquisition of Nettwerk Music Group for $10.3 million in April.

Investors in streaming music were attracted to scale, potential and momentum rather than profitability. Services that provide on-demand streaming either audio or video raised $406.5 million. The largest deal was a $250 million investment in Spotify, an unprofitable company that’s a category leader and has 24 million active users — not all of them paying customers — across 55 countries.

SFX Entertainment accounted for the next-largest bucket, concert promotion, worth $480 million. The EDM-focused company’s initial public stock offering in October raised $260 million. It also acquired three EDM promoters: ID&T for $130 million, i-Motion for $21 million and Totem OneLove Group for $69.1 million.

In spite of a reputation for difficult business models and costly licensing fees, services that use licensed music attracted $838.8 million, or 49% of all investments. Four deals landed by Internet radio companies raised $443.3 million. Following Pandora’s $393.3-million secondary stock offering were smaller venture capital rounds by TuneIn ($25 million), DeliRadio ($9.4 million) and Songza ($4.7 million). There is a catch: TuneIn is merely an aggregator of Internet radio streams and doesn’t itself pay any royalties.

Investors backed numerous companies that help consumers find music they like. The smallest investment was $100,000 in Bop.fm, an online tool that aggregates songs from various digital music services. Two other startups that offer aggregation tools, Songdrop and MFiveLabs, received funding. Investors also backed numerous companies that help people discovery music or concerts. Most such deals were small, but music identification app Shazam received a $40-million investment from the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim.

Related articles

• Last.fm tests free Internet radio service powered by YouTube
• 2013 Saw $2.4 Billion Go To Investing In Music
• Warner Music Buys Parlophone [Cold Play, Pink Floyd, David Guetta] For $765 Million
• ARN marketing executive moves to Warner Music as head of digital

Will Kanye West Surpass Jay-Z?

For the better part of hip-hop’s existence, it was solely considered a genre of music. We now recognize the larger cultural movement surrounding the New York-bred art form as a leading force driving growth in fashion, entertainment, food and beverage, and technology. As a result, the top 10 highest earners of 2019 on Forbes’ annual list of hip-hop’s richest account for a staggering $633,500,000 in combined earnings. And for the first time in his career, Kanye West ($150 million) has outpaced the rest of his competitors to take the top spot — leapfrogging JAY-Z by $69 million.

It was certainly a banner year for West, especially considering he claimed to be $56 million in debt just over three years ago. While earning the top spot is certainly noteworthy, his income jumped dramatically between 2018 and 2019, accounting for a net increase of $122,500,000. Although the entire industry had a great year — with the top 20 acts’ revenue increasing by 33 percent since 2018 — the huge financial increase poses an interesting question: with an album on the way, YEEZY accounting for $1.5 billion in annual sales, and a track record of exploring radical projects, will Kanye West be joining JAY-Z in the billionaire’s club?

Which Couple is Richer? Kim Kardashian and Kayne West or Jay-Z and Beyonce?

 

Jay Z, who has a net worth of $1 billion, is worth more than Beyoncé, but Kim Kardashian West is the breadwinner in her marriage with Kanye West.

Who's got the hottest album? Who's got the most valuable product line? Who is the biggest celebrity in the world? Who has the biggest TV/Netflix contract? Who sold out more shows? Who has the best house? Who has more houses?

For a long time the answer to that last question has definitively been Jay-Z and Beyonce. For over a decade, Kanye's net worth couldn't hold a candle to Jay's. In 2013, Jay-Z was worth $500 million, while Kanye was worth around $75 million.

Clayton Kershaw New $215 Million Dollar Deal

The +Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher +Clayton Kershaw have agreed on a seven-year, $215 million deal. It is the richest deal for a pitcher in Major League Baseball history, eclipsing the seven-year, $180 million contract Detroit gave Justin Verlander last winter and his average annual salary of $30.7 million is the highest ever for any baseball player.

The NBA’s Highest-Paid Players 2019-20

At $92 million, including salary and endorsements, James is the NBA’s highest-paid player for the sixth straight year. It is a record haul for an active basketball player. Nike is his biggest backer, and the company is naming a new research lab at its Beaverton, Oregon, corporate campus after James.

The four-time NBA MVP added a pair of endorsement deals in 2019 with Rimowa luggage and Walmart, which joined Coca-Cola, Beats By Dre, Blaze Pizza and NBA 2K in his sponsorship stable. He also has a budding digital media company, Uninterrupted, and a production firm, SpringHill Entertainment, which will release a sequel to the 1996 Michael Jordan vehicle Space Jam in conjunction with Warner Bros. in 2021. All of the off-court work is worth an estimated $55 million for James this season.

Stephen Curry comes in at No. 2 on the earnings list this year and is expected to generate $85 million this season, including $45 million off the court. Under Armour represents nearly half of his off-court income.

Curry’s $40.2 million salary from the Golden State Warriors is the highest in the history of the NBA; he’s in the third season of the five-year, $201 million contract he signed in 2017. Curry’s production company, Unanimous Media, has a development deal with Sony Pictures. Unanimous’ first movie, Breakthrough, was released in April, with Curry playing a role in marketing the Christian-oriented film, which grossed $50 million on a $14 million budget.

Durant has the NBA’s second-biggest annual shoe contract after James’ at an estimated $26 million this season. His total earnings from his playing salary and endorsements is $73 million. Nike sells more KD shoes in China than in North America, according to Durant’s business partner Rich Kleiman.

Like James and Curry, Durant has his own production company, which is co-producing a new basketball-themed drama, Swagger, that is inspired by Durant’s youth basketball experience and will air on the Apple TV+ streaming service.

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How a Hustler From Brooklyn Became a Billionaire

 

Jay-Z has long been known as one of the greatest rappers of all time, but now he’s known even more for his business acumen and massive wealth. Forbes recently named him Hip-Hop’s first billionaire, and with his diverse portfolio of investments, business ventures, and personal assets, it’s not hard to believe.

Despite the fact that it may seem like Jay-Z earned all of his wealth overnight, it was actually a long process that was decades in the making. Many people know the man, but few know the story.

Diddy Reigns Supreme As Hip-Hop Cash Kings

Forbes is back with their Hip-Hop Cash Kings list, and for the second consecutive year, Diddy reigns supreme. The hip-hop mogul sits atop the list, raking in a cool $62 million over the past year. Much of the money isn't from music, but rather his very lucrative Ciroc vodka deal and other ventures. However, he hasn't let the stage entirely as his Bad Boy Reunion Tour runs through the fall.

Cat Makes $100 Million

How would you feel if you woke up and found out your cat had made $100 million dollars? You see, there’s something about miserable-looking cats that makes people feel uncontrolled emotions. So much so that the most famous Grumpy Cat of all was alleged this morning to have earned in the region of $100 million. Of course that’s not true, but stay with me for a while. Its owner isn’t poor.

The Express reported the figure. Grumpy’s owner, 28-year-old Tabatha Bundesen of Morristown, Ariz., was quoted as saying she’s overjoyed about Grumpy’s success.

The Express also quoted her as saying: “I was able to quit my job as a waitress within days of her first appearance on social media and the phone simply hasn’t stopped ringing since.” She described Grumpy ascent to stardom as “unstoppable.” And Grumpy’s still less than 3 years old. So the future is unlikely to be catastrophic.

It’s unclear, though, which part of Grumpy’s vast performance portfolio — the pictures, the personal appearances, the sponsorships and, well, the pictures — has earned her the most money.

Bundesen has told The Huffington Post that the $100 million figure is “wildly inaccurate.” The miserable-looking little thing is, though, something of a money-spinner.

Grumpy’s real name is Tardar Sauce. She looks the way she does because she has feline dwarfism, as well as an underbite.

She has more than 7 million likes on Facebook. Justin Bieber, however, has more than 72 million. She has more than 256,000 followers on Twitter. Bieber has more than 57 million. Forbes estimates that Bieber made around $80 million last year.

Scottie Pippen’s Terrible Bulls Contract

 

Chicago managed to lock him down long-term at a bargain-basement price.

But how? And how did they get away with it for so long?

Black Panther Movie Reaches $1 Billion

The Ryan Coogler directed movie has now officially passed the $1 billion mark at the global box office. It took only 26 days to accomplish the feat.

Jay-Z’s $1.3 Billion Fortune Has Nothing to Do with Music

Jay-Z started his music career as Shawn Corey Carter in the ’80s. He rapped to escape the poverty around him. Carter met his mentor Jaz-O and joined the older man in recording “The Originators.” The duo’s song earned them an appearance in Yo! MTV Raps.

This was the moment when Carter took up the name Jay-Z, paying homage to his mentor. The moniker punned on his childhood hood name, Jazzy. It also referred to the subway station near his home known as J/Z. Little did Jay-Z know it would become a household name.

Mega Millions Hits $650 Million In Jackpot

The jackpot for Mega Millions has jumped to $654 million, with a cash option of $372.6 million, after no one won in Friday night’s drawing. Friday’s winning numbers numbers were 4-24-46-61-70 and a Mega Ball of 7.

The prize is $2 million shy of the all-time highest Mega Millions jackpot of $656 million. Mega Millions jackpots start at $40 million and roll over until the jackpot is won. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot with a $2 ticket are 1-in-302.5 million.

Source

Winners can accept the prize as an annuity to be paid out over nearly three decades, or they can choose to receive a lump-sum cash payment. The lump sum is the current value of the jackpot in cash — for Tuesday’s drawing, that figure is expected to be nearly $373 million.

Bitcoin Raises $50 Million

Circle, a company that lets users easily send and receive bitcoins, has raised a $50 million funding round led by Goldman Sachs and China’s IDG Capital Partners. Launched in October 2013, Circle had two funding rounds prior to this one — $9 million at time of launch and another $17 million in March 2014. This latest round of funding brings Circle’s total raise to date to $76 million. According to the Wall Street Journal, the round brings the company valuation to around $200 million.

Circle founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire (former CEO of Brightcove, which navigated that company through an IPO in 2012) wrote that the company “could not be happier” with the new investors, and it’s easy to see why. With Bitcoin exchanges failing left and right in the last year or so, sometimes under suspicious circumstances, a banking giant such as Goldman can bring a Bitcoin startup stability and confidence.

Even though Bitcoin exchange Buttercoin was shut down in April due to lack of interest from investors, 2015 has been kind to several Bitcoin startups. Bitcoin trading platform Coinbase raised $75 million in January (with one investor being the New York Stock Exchange), and the Winklevoss twins launched another Bitcoin exchange called Gemini, also in January.

Circle also announced a new feature Wednesday — the ability for users to hold, send, and receive U.S. dollars as well as bitcoins. The new feature is rolling out “selectively” for customers with dollar accounts; Circle plans to open it to more users on a weekly basis until it becomes available for all.

Can Music Keep Up in the Attention Economy?

Music streaming services have continued to add U.S. subscribers this year, according to MIDiA Research, growing by 11 million paying users from January to September, to 117.9 million. But in a potentially troubling sign for the recorded music business, the number of total streams has remained the same.

Tony Romo To Become New CBS Broadcaster

Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is leaving football and going into broadcasting with CBS, league sources told ESPN. Romo has reached a verbal agreement with CBS to be its No. 1 color commentator — replacing former NFL quarterback Phil Simms — alongside play-by-play veteran Jim Nantz, sources confirmed to ESPN. He also had drawn interest from Fox and NBC. The Sports Business Journal first reported Romo’s agreement with CBS.

The Cowboys are planning to release him Tuesday. Dallas is expected to designate Romo as a post-June 1 release, softening the blow against the Cowboys’ cap this season. Instead of counting $24.7 million against the cap in 2017, Romo would count $10.7 million this year and $8.9 million in 2018. The Cowboys would gain $14 million in cap space this season, but it would not become available until June 2. The Cowboys will carry $19.6 million in dead money for the 2017 season, $8.9 million in 2018 and $3.2 million in 2019.

Romo’s decision came down to his health, sources close to the situation told ESPN. Romo, who turns 37 on April 21, believes his family and his health are paramount at this time in his life. He was limited to playing in just parts of five games over the past two seasons because of collarbone and back injuries, and he suffered a compression fracture in his back last August that led the way to Dak Prescott’s emergence.

Michael Jordan Is Now A Billionaire

+Forbes has just named +Michael Jordan a billionaire. According to Forbes, Michael Jordan is now a billionaire due to an increase in his stake of the Charlotte Hornets to 89.5% from 80%. Sports bankers say the Hornets are presently worth between $600 million and $625 million USD. 

The Milwaukee Bucks sold for $550 million USD in May, and they are considered the least valuable team in the league. Forbes‘ net worth figure for Jordan uses the $600 million figure. The Hornets have $135 million USD of debt, which makes Jordan’s equity in the team worth $416 million USD. After subtracting all the cash Jordan has invested in the team, they estimate his net worth outside of the Hornets to be $600 million USD, giving him a net worth of a $1 billion USD.

$680 Million Donated To Restore Notre Dame

France’s leading billionaires and companies have rallied to pledge $670 million (€600 million) to restore Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral following a devastating fire.

“This tragedy is striking all the French people, and beyond that, all those attached to spiritual values,” Francois-Henri Pinault said in a statement. “Faced with this tragedy, everyone wishes to give life back to this jewel of our heritage as soon as possible.”

Francois Pinault, announced on Tuesday they would donate $113 million (€100 million) via their family investment company, Artemis. The Arnault family, owners of luxury goods group LVMH, also pledged $226 million (€200 million) after French President Emmanuel Macron called for donations to rebuild the French national icon.

Kanye West Breaks Apple Music Record

 

Kanye West’s second Donda listening party on August 5 has broken the record for the most-watched Apple Music event in history. The listening session, which saw Yeezy debut a slew of new songs before he ascended to the Heavens and almost, touched the sky was streamed by 5.4 million viewers.

Corporation Invests $122 Million to Support Black Businesses

 

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has invested $122 million to support the growth of Black-owned banks and businesses.

LISC announced the investment that was closed through LISC’s Black Economic Development Fund (BEDF). The massive funding came from major companies, including Netflix, Paypal, Square, HubSpot, Aflac, Costco, Dicks Sporting Goods, ThermoFisher Scientific, Wayfair, McKinsey & Co., and Dupont.