Blake Lively, who is expecting her fourth child with husband Ryan Reynolds, posted several personal photos of herself with her friends and family Saturday (Sept. 17) on Instagram — featuring her baby bump and a cameo from Taylor Swift.
The actress posted the photo album in hopes that showing herself pregnant would make the paparazzi less interested in getting a shot of her without permission.
The seventh photo in Lively’s 10-image collection of personal pictures showed her in a bikini, hugging her pal Swift. The pair both grinned at the camera for the snapshot.
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“Here are photos of me pregnant in real life so the 11 guys waiting outside my home for a unicorn sighting will leave me alone,” Lively wrote on Instagram Saturday evening. “You freak me and my kids out.”
“Thanks to everyone else for all the love and respect and for continuing to unfollow accounts and publications who share photos of children. You have all the power against them. And thank you to the media who have a ‘No Kids Policy.’ You all make all the difference,” she said.
Lively and Swift are longtime friends whose paths have also crossed professionally: Swift used the names of Lively and Reynolds’ children (James, Inez and Betty) in her 2020 song “Betty” after featuring their daughter James introducing her 2017 track “Gorgeous,” and Lively directed Swift’s “I Bet You Think About Me” music video in 2021.
See the photos Lively shared of herself while pregnant on Instagram.
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Life Is Beautiful, Las Vegas’ block-party festival, returned to the streets downtown for its ninth edition on Friday (Sept. 16). The three-day cacophony of music, art, comedy and food set amid the lights of 18 electric blocks always delivers a number of surprises for both attendees and performers. 2022 was no exception. With stand-out sets from Charli XCX, Alison Wonderland and Blu DeTiger, this one belonged to the women who dominated Friday’s lineup.
Blu DeTiger
Rising star Blu DeTiger performed not once, but three times on Friday: first her own set on the Huntridge stage, then at the Toyota Music Den and later at the official Life Is Beautiful after party at the Sand Dollar Lounge inside the Plaza Hotel, where she DJed and riffed on her bass. During her festival turn, the bass prodigy was dreamy, funky, poppy heaven on her own tasty songs such as “Cotton Candy Lemonade,” “Toast with Butter” and “Crash Course” — and then with covers of Gorillaz, OutKast and M.I.A. Closing out the 40-minute set with Vintage, and ripping on the bass, DeTiger left us wanting more and assured she would deliver.
Billboard talked after the set with DeTiger, who shared that while she embraces her following on TikTok, where she rose to fame, nothing beats the live crowd. “I released most of my music during the pandemic. I got a lot of my fanbase during the pandemic, and I started playing shows at a certain level because that’s how the trajectory was going. I suddenly had all these people that knew the words,” she says. “I’d rather the real human performance over performing to a phone.”
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Alison Wonderland
Australian DJ and producer Alex Sholler, also known as Alison Wonderland, is the current reigning queen of EDM — and she straightened that crown closing out day one with a booming set that showcased her range of talents. Playing until 1 a.m. in the Fremont tent, she provided a divergent sound to the other headliner of the night, indie rockers Arctic Monkeys on the Downtown Stage. The Church of Wonderland was the theme of the set with stunning lasers and projections as she played her remix of Dua Lipa’s “New Rules,” “U Don’t Know” and numerous tracks from her new album Loner, like “Something Real.” Singing, DJing and cello playing, she offers something fans just can’t get from other EDM artists. Seeing her live is like taking a trip through her soul — raw, visceral, churning and burning, yet delicate and intricate. Sholler told Billboard that playing Life Is Beautiful in 2018 stills stands out in her mind.
“It was the energy. It’s always the energy that makes me remember a show. I remember it just being such a rush. And I was having a really good moment in life at that time, too,” she says.
Charli XCX
Playing the intimate Huntridge stage, Charli XCX easily could’ve occupied space on the main stage. It’s through her festival sets that you really get the scope of her body of work and its hits. From “Lightning” to “I Love It,” the Greek goddess-themed staging created a stunning visual presence while the sing-along quality of her catalog was pure auditory pleasure. Her energy carried over to the crowd, which bounced back to the stage and her dancers. The biggest treat of the night was “Hot in It,” a Tiësto collab — playing it in the town the DJ unquestionably dominates.
Shaggy brought the party with all fun tracks that everyone sings along to, including “Angel,” “Boombastic” and “It Wasn’t Me.” He shouted out his collaboration with Sting on the Frank Sinatra-homage album Com Fly Wid Mi, performing “That’s Life.”
Playing off the fun house vibes of the night at the BACARDÍ stage, Oliver Tree was a delicious festival snack, riding on stage in a scooter, making reference to the heat by describing himself as a pork chop and playing an extra huge guitar. Appropriately, his album Ugly Is Beautiful was prominently featured.
T-Pain, who dropped in when Migos dropped out, was the perfect day one closer on the BACARDÍ stage. His collaborative hits “Black and Yellow” with Wiz Khalifa and “Good Life” with Kanye West are festival bangers that never grow stale.
Before closer Arctic Monkeys, Cage the Elephant could have easily been the headliner of the night. The band, fronted by Matt Shultz, moved up the lineup quite a bit from their turn in 2017, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the theatrics. Shultz has the persona of Iggy Pop crossed with Mick Jagger, and he banged out the hits, wore at least three extravagant hats and stage dived into the crowd while wrapping himself in his fishnet tights. At one point, he even stopped and started a song over as a drone show appeared in the night’s sky for the website Factz.com. Unrelated to the festival, the colorful flying devices paraded into a letter “Z” pierced by an arrow.
Day two will feature Lorde, Gorillaz, Bob Moses, Hope Tala, Kygo and many more.
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Lorde teased the possibility of new music during her headlining set at Primavera Sound in Los Angeles on Friday (Sept. 16).
The 25-year-old alt-pop pioneer, who has been touring North America in support of her latest album, 2021’s Solar Power, delighted fans at the Southern California festival after revealing that her next release may be arriving soon.
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“Who knows what will come next?” the New Zealand songstress casually stated while running though the themes of past three albums. “Well, I know. And you’ll know sometime soon.”
She added about her past music, “When I was a teenager it was about not being a teenager, when I was 20 it was about a boy, (and) now it’s about the climate.”
Lorde’s debut album, Pure Heroine, arrived in 2013, bowing at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The set featured the hit song “Royals,” which spent nine weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 that same year. “Team,” which was also featured on the set, reached the top 10 of the chart.
The singer-songwriter’s 2017 follow-up album, Melodrama, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and last year’s Solar Power started at No. 5.
Lorde also touched on the climate change theme of Solar Power during her gig at Primavera Sound.
“You all felt that heat wave last week,” she said, referencing California’s epic mid-September temperatures, which exceeded 100 degrees in many areas. “Do not forget that this is an emergency. Don’t acclimatize to 112-degree weather. This is f—ed up; it’s the defining crisis of our lives and I’m so terrified f—ing terrified for the future. All we can do is be really present to it, try and vote with the climate in mind, and go outside — it’s the best thing.”
Watch a fan-captured video of Lorde hinting at new music during Primavera Sound on Twitter here.
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Three South Florida men face possible life prison sentences after being accused by federal agents of holding Cuban migrants hostage in a Hialeah stash house in exchange for $15,000 from … Click to Continue »
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After the state’s Board of Education chair insinuated Thursday that he wants Broward Schools Superintendent Vickie Cartwright suspended or fired, three of the nine Broward School Board members said Friday … Click to Continue »
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TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s unemployment rate might be about as low as it can go as it remained at 2.7% in August. The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity on Friday released … Click to Continue »
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LOS ANGELES — Mario Lundes greeted first lady Jill Biden at the Homeboy Industries bakery Friday afternoon eager — but nervous — to share his redemption story. “It’s hard, but … Click to Continue »
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Bad Bunny isn’t tip-toeing around some of the most pressing issues facing his beloved Puerto Rico. In his most recent music video — which really is a nearly 23-minute long documentary for his blunt track “El Apagón” — the chart-topping artist addresses blackouts and gentrification, among other topics, taking aim at the local government for their inaction when it comes to these social issues.
“I hope people in PR can watch my video before the lights go out,” he posted on Instagram Stories Friday (Sept. 16), minutes after releasing the clip, which begins with the song’s intro powered by thumping beats while featuring locals singing along to his song. Then, at the one-minute-mark, the song stops and in come news reports of blackouts that’ve now become the norm in Puerto Rico, impacting the daily lives of citizens — including children having to do their homework in the dark.
There are also reports about LUMA Energy, the company the Puerto Rican government hired to “modernize and maintain” the island’s power grid, and the little action they’ve taken to fix electricity issues. The Puerto Rican power grid has been in poor shape since Hurricane Maria struck in 2017, leaving the island’s energy infrastructure in bad shape. Bunny has criticized LUMA before, specifically during his concerts in Puerto Rico right before singing this track.
The video then goes back to the song, this time featuring a handful of people at a club having the time of their lives. Shortly after, the remainder of the short film is dedicated to gentrification and displacing Puerto Ricans are facing. “They are displacing the native boricua from here,” a woman says sitting in front of a group of people who are figuring out where to go after they’ve been displaced from their own homes.
The documentary’s news reports are led by Puerto Rican journalist Bianca Graulau, who’s done significant reporting on these topics. On Instagram, she posted: “What an honor for them to trust me to tell the stories of our community. Thank you to all of those that made this project a reality. And thank you, Bad Bunny, for sharing your platform and supporting independent journalism.”
The track is part of his Billboard 200-topping album, Un Verano Sin Ti, which currently hit its 10th nonconsecutive week at No. 1. Watch “El Apagón: Aquí Vive Gente” below:
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The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online.
With the help of ratings juggernaut Joe Rogan, Spotify topped SXM Media — just barely — in Edison Research’s Q2 2022 podcast network rankings, covering April 1 to June 30, after taking the runner-up position the previous two quarters.
The streaming company has made Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, a cornerstone in its efforts to expand the audio platform beyond its music roots. If Rogan’s role was to help make Spotify a podcast leader, he accomplished his mission. “Rogan is not the only reason they’re no. 1, but he’s the main reason,” says Edison Research president Larry Rosin.
For all the controversies — from accusations of racism to Neil Young‘s demand that Spotify pull his catalog over Rogan’s comments about COVID-19 — TJRE has delivered an audience like no other podcast. Rosin compares Rogan to Aaron Judge, whose 57 home runs is 20 more than the next best hitter in major league baseball, and American Idol, which in its prime could have lost half its fifth-season audience and still rank in the top 10 shows on television. “That’s kind of what Rogan is to the rest of the field in podcasting,” says Rosin.
That said, Spotify’s lead over SXM Media is tenuous because networks regularly gain and lose shows, which means their market shares are in flux. “That’s part of what happened,” says Rosin. “SXM had a bunch of shows come out,” such as Exactly Right Media switching from SXM Media to Amazon’s Wondery (taking its flagship podcast, the No. 5-ranked My Favorite Murder). “That was really the difference,” he says. It was enough to allow Spotify to nudge out SXM Media “by a tiny margin.”
Topping Edison’s podcast network rankings is a notable achievement for a music-first company that is pushing hard to build a broad audio platform. The company sees spoken-word audio as a necessary means to help deliver the growth Spotify’s investors expect. Not only can podcasts help attract and retain subscribers, but they can also provide additional advertising revenue. As its podcasting business scales, it can improve upon music margins that are surrendered to licensing deals with record labels. In Spotify’s June 9 investor presentation, Spotify executives said the company can achieve podcast gross margins of 30-35% within three to five years and sees 40-50% as attainable further in the future. In 2021, Spotify’s podcast business left a $103 million negative impact on gross margin.
Spotify has spent handsomely on podcast-related acquisitions for content creators The Ringer, Parcast and Gimlet and technology platforms Anchor and Megaphone. That’s not including exclusive licensing deals for TJRE, Call Her Daddy, Barack and Michelle Obama‘s Higher Ground (which left for Amazon’s Audible in June), DC Comics and others.
SXM Media is the sales organization of SiriusXM Holdings Inc. and covers three companies: SiriusXM, Pandora and Stitcher, a podcast platform. It has some of the most popular podcasts in the U.S., including No. 2 Crime Junkie, No. 10 Office Ladies, No. 11 Dateline NBC, No. 18 Pod Save America and No. 23 WTF with Marc Maron. In all, SXM Media has seven of the top 30 podcasts in Edison’s Q2 2022 ranking.
Spotify has only two shows in the top 30: The Joe Rogan Experience and Call Her Daddy. But both shows are in the top 10 — Call Her Daddy is No. 8 — and Spotify has both exclusively through lucrative licensing deals. It has one other podcast in Edison’s top 50: Reply All, from Spotify-owned Gimlet, which ranks No. 49.
But for Spotify, success in podcasting isn’t necessarily reflected in its position on Edison’s podcast ranking chart. Spotify needs a wide range of shows to be interesting to ad buyers, says James Cridland, editor of Podnews, in an email to Billboard. “Total time spent listening is important when it comes to revenue, and this is something that Edison Podcast Metrics doesn’t measure.”
This is where Spotify’s acquisitions of Anchor (in 2019) and Megaphone (in 2020) come into play. Anchor gives creators tools to make their podcasts; Megaphone distributes the podcasts and sells advertising. In June, Spotify had over 4 million podcasts on its platform, up from 500,000 in 2019, and 75% of them come from Anchor, said Maya Prohovnik, Spotify’s head of talk verticals, at the June 9 investor presentation. By owning two podcast hosting companies and publishing a wide range of shows, “Spotify has access to both the big hits and the breadth of content that will help them achieve both a high number of total audience and a wide range of different shows,” says Cridland.
Just as hit-focused major record labels have built businesses around selling and distributing music’s long tail, Spotify is tapping into the value of podcasting’s ocean of niches and less-than-mainstream content. In May, Edison found that more than half of all listening in the top thousand podcasts is happening in the top 100. “That doesn’t mean they aren’t avid audiences,” wrote Rosin, “and it certainly doesn’t mean they are not monetizable audiences.” Outside the top thousand podcasts are hundreds of thousands of creators with millions of episodes. Each title by itself has a small audience, but in aggregate they can make a noticeable difference on Spotify’s bottom line.
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