HITS ' HIGH 5: RETREAT FROM THE HEAT

Hope you’re enjoying the heat wave where you may be with a nice Provencal quaffer, a citrusy strain of sativa or your local brewery’s take on a shandy. We’re loading up on all three as we look back on the week in the HITS High 5.

Universal Music Group had a strong first half of 2019 as revenues rose 18.6% to $3.63b. As for the potential sale of up to 50% of the company, well that will have to wait.

Live Nation had its largest second quarter ever with 27m people attending 10,000 shows.

Woodstock 50 has a new home in Maryland's Merriweather Post Pavilion.

Rusty Gaston is the new Nashville chief at Jon Platt's Sony/ATV, succeeding the exiting Troy Tomlinson, who is moving over to UMPG's Music City division.

Our president, Karen Glauber, has a new column. Among her observations and querries is this one: There weren’t many available “headliners” to satisfy the demands from radio for their summer festival concerts. The station expects loyalty from the label and band, but where is the reciprocity?