Tory Lanez Is an ’80s Hero in New ”87 Stingray’ Music Video: Watch

Tory Lanez is saving the day and paying homage to the ’80s in his all-new music video for “‘87 Stingray.”

The catchy, uptempo track comes as the second single from the chart-topper’s upcoming thematic album Alone at Prom — out via One Umbrella Records on Dec. 10. Lanez has dubbed the experimental project his “1980s album.”

He stars as fictional character Ashton Rain in the all-new music video, which premiered Thursday and is a continuation of his recently released visual for “Lady of Namek.” The storyline picks up where the former left off, as the hitmaker is seen hospitalized and suffering from a stab wound after fighting to save his love interest from a group of men and escaping the medical facility at which he was receiving care.

“Baby, baby girl,” he begins the tune. “Fillin’ me up, fill me with love, yeah, yeah/ You give me a feeling/ I don’t wanna lose no, baby girl, no-no/ It’s fillin’ me up, it’s fillin’ me up, yeah, yeah.”

“I’m ridin’ through the city,” he continues singing. “Liquor spillin’ like a faucet/ Phone calls to my baby/ She know I be goin’ all night/ Checkin’ on the late night/ Lord knows that I’m wrong/ For cheatin’ on you in the late night/ Can’t seem to live alone.”

In celebration of his upcoming sixth studio album Alone at Prom, Canadian artist Lanez, né Daystar Peterson, hosted an intimate listening party in Los Angeles complete with ’80s throwback arcade games, enormous props for a photo booth and more.

Watch the all- new “‘87 Stingray” music video below:

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Red Rocks Amphitheatre is the Highest-Grossing and Most-Attended Venue of the Year Globally

In an unstable year for touring, an unlikely contender has risen to become the highest-grossing and most-attended venue of the year. 

According to data provided to Billboard Boxscore, Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado is not only the biggest moneymaking venue with a capacity between 5,001-10,000 of 2021 but the top-grossing venue of any size, in the world, for the year. With 134 shows reported to Boxscore, the beloved, 9,500-seat outdoor venue brought in more than $61.6 million.

To further contextualize Red Rocks’ extraordinary performance, the amphitheater out-earned the next highest-grossing venue overall — Las Vegas’ 20,000-capacity T-Mobile Arena, which took in $37.2 million last year according to Billboard Boxscore — by more than $24 million. The next highest-reported venue in the 5,001-10,000 category was the Park Theater in Las Vegas, which took in $35.7 million in 2021.

On the attendance metric, Red Rocks’ dominance is even more striking. Starting with a four-night run by Lotus at the end of April up until Nov. 19, when Playboi Carti closed out the season, Red Rocks sold 996,000 tickets in 2021, according to Billboard Boxscore. The next highest-attended venue, Madison Square Garden, sold 248,575 tickets in 2021 — or nearly 750,000 fewer than the Colorado amphitheater. Not only that, but Red Rocks sold a whopping 225,000 tickets more than it did during its record-setting 2019 season prior to the pandemic.

“The very first night when we opened those doors and people came in literally screaming and high-fiving us and other fans – that chokes you up,” says director of marketing and business development for Denver Arts & Venues/Red Rocks Amphitheatre Brian Kitts of returning to live shows after hosting fewer than two dozen in 2020. “We will never again take for granted the ability to get together.” 

According to internal figures provided by Kitts, Red Rocks hosted a record number of concerts in 2021: 177 shows for a total of 1.32 million tickets sold. (Billboard Boxscore is based on numbers reported to MRC Data. Not all shows are reported.) This year’s run of shows is a record number for the 80-year-old venue, and all the more impressive given ever-changing COVID-19 safety regulations. The venue operated at 25% capacity from April until May, followed by a two-thirds capacity until the end of June. Since the June 22 Subtronics show, the venue has operated at full capacity.  

While selling tickets to larger numbers of people never became an issue, Kitts says the venue did have difficulty ramping up staffing. “It was crushing,” he says. “The industry felt a real pinch when it came to concessionaires, security and guest services staff. That didn’t get easier the entire season.” 

As a result, fans were faced with longer lines for food and beverages and encountered slower ingress, though Kitts adds that Red Rocks patrons were “completely understanding.” The inconveniences never seemed to diminish ticket sales, with nearly every concert of the year selling out.  

Kitts credits the commitment from artists, promoters, staff and fans for making the year an unlikely success. “It’s a combination of things,” says Kitts. “It’s an iconic venue and it certainly helps that it was outdoors. Then it was the willingness of the fans to get out there and be together again.” 

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Sting, Burt Bacharach & More to Perform at Music Center Tribute to A&M Records Co-Founder Jerry Moss

Herb Alpert, Burt Bacharach, Merry Clayton, Sérgio Mendes and Sting are set to perform at Live at The Music Center: Concerts Celebrating Jerry Moss, Co-Founder of A&M Records, which will take place at the The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Feb. 11-12, 2022.

Tim Curry will also join in the program to share his perspective. Additional performers and participants will be named.

2022 will mark the 60th anniversary of A&M Records, the legendary label that Alpert and Moss co-founded on a handshake and an investment of $200 from both men. Over 25 years, A&M grew into the world’s largest independent record label, signing such iconic stars as The Police, Carpenters, Janet Jackson, Joe Cocker, Peter Frampton and Carole King (on Lou Adler’s Ode subsidiary).

Moss won a Grammy for co-producing (with Alpert) Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ sleek instrumental “A Taste of Honey,” the 1965 winner for record of the year. Alpert and Moss received trustees awards from the Recording Academy in 1997. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, receiving the Ahmet Ertegun award for non-performers.

After selling A&M Records to Polygram in 1989, Moss and Alpert formed Almo Sounds. Moss serves as chairman of both Almo Sounds and Rondor Music Inc., a music publishing company.

“I met Mr. M in 1978 on my first trip to Los Angeles and was proud to induct him and Mr. A into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006,” Sting said in statement. “He is one of the finest gentlemen I have ever met. What made A&M so special was that the company was run and owned by artists for artists. And Jerry Moss understood how important that was. He was sensitive to our needs, respected the creative process and understood the freedom artists must have to let the art speak for itself. He made us feel like family; it was a partnership that I look back on today with great pride and gratitude.”

Proceeds from both concerts will support The Music Center’s ongoing efforts to provide free and low-cost access to arts experiences for all Angelenos. Long-time patrons of The Music Center, Jerry and Tina Moss gifted $25 million in 2020 to help support the cultivation of strong arts and culture-focused partnerships and new programming initiatives at Los Angeles County’s premier performing arts center. The Music Center’s three original venues are united by an expansive outdoor area, which is now named Jerry Moss Plaza.

The concert events will be produced in collaboration with John Beug, who worked at A&M in its early years. Beug won an Emmy in 2008 as executive producer of Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival Chicago, a PBS Great Performances special. He won a Grammy two years later as a co-producer of The Doors’ When You’re Strange, which won for best long form music video.

Larry Klein, who has won four Grammys for his work with Joni Mitchell, will serve as music producer and musical director. (Mitchell will be honored on Jan. 29 as MusiCares’ Person of the Year.)

Ticket prices range from $82 to $350. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit musiccenter.org/moss or call (213) 972-0711.

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Netease Cloud Village Stock Slips 2.5% Following Hong Kong IPO

Chinese music streaming company Cloud Village finally had its initial public stock offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday (Dec. 2) after postponing its plans in August amid a Chinese regulatory crackdown.

Investors’ initial reaction was underwhelming as Cloud Village’s share price closed at 199.90 Hong Kong dollars ($25.66), about 2.5% below the 205.00 Hong Kong dollars ($26.31) IPO price.

Tech giant Netease spun off the company, which runs NetEase Cloud Music, in an offering of 16 million shares — 7.7% of the outstanding shares — that raised 41.5 billion Hong Kong dollars ($421 million).

NetEase gained approval for the spin-off on Aug. 2 but delayed the listing indefinitely about a week later after Beijing’s tightening regulations brought attention to publicly traded Chinese companies. Cloud-based tech companies in particular have faced new regulations on data privacy.

NetEase Cloud Music’s main competitor, Tencent Music Entertainment, was among the companies Beijing singled out for anticompetitive practices. On July 26, Chinese regulators instructed TME to end its exclusive licensing agreements with record labels. The company’s stock price went into a tailspin as a result, falling from an all-time high of $32.25 on March 23 to $10.31 on August 6 (it hit an all-time low of $6.65 on Wednesday).

But NetEase restarted the IPO on Nov. 22 with a target price range of 190 Hong Kong dollars ($24.40) to 220 Hong Kong dollars ($28.20) per share. The 205 Hong Kong dollars IPO price was a fair estimate of market sentiment considering 49% of all 2021 IPOs in London, Hong Kong, India and New York are currently underwater, according to Dealogic.

NetEase Cloud Music had 185 million monthly average users and 26 million subscribers as of June 30, the latest date the data was available. Both numbers are encouraging for a market where legal music services are newer than Europe and North America. Even with tens of millions of paying users, NetEase Cloud Music is a distant second behind Tencent Music, which boasted 636 million monthly mobile users and 71.2 million subscribers as of Sept. 30.

Music streaming services are looking for growth in a broader array of audio. In January, Tencent Music announced it would acquire Lazy Audio, a provider of podcasts and audiobooks, for its ambitions to integrate long-form audio to its core music offerings. Spotify has been more aggressive by acquiring podcast producers Gimlet, Parcast and The Ringer, and nabbing exclusive licenses for popular podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience, in an effort to be “the world’s No. 1 audio platform,” CEO Daniel Ek said in 2019.

William Ding, founder and CEO of NetEase Cloud Music, sees the platform becoming an “audio-centric universe” where listeners have a wealth of options. “Audio-based content is becoming ever more diverse: music, podcasts, live streaming, karaoke, audio theatre, radio — to name a few, creating multifaceted experiences and scenarios,” he said in a statement.

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Demi Lovato Is No Longer ‘California Sober’: ‘Sober Sober Is the Only Way to Be’

Demi Lovato announced on social media Thursday (Dec. 2) that the singer no longer abides by their former “California sober” lifestyle.

“I no longer support my ‘California sober’ ways,” the singer wrote on Instagram Stories. “Sober sober is the only way to be.”

Lovato explicitly opened up about being “California Sober” in a track by the same title earlier this year from their Dancing With the Devil … The Art of Starting Over album, which revolves around the lifestyle of allowing some alcohol and marijuana consumption while steering clear of hard drugs. “I’m California sober/ It doesn’t have to mean the growin’ part is over/ No, it ain’t black or white, it’s all of the colors.”

In Lovato’s YouTube Originals docuseries of the same name, the singer opened up about their journey to recovery following a near-fatal overdose in 2018 and how they’ve felt immense pressure being the “poster child of sobriety.” Lovato discussed how they ultimately chose the path that’s best for them, with the help of recovery case manager Charles Cook, and allowed weed and wine in their life while still avoiding liquor and hard drugs.

While Lovato states in the doc that recovery is not a “one-size-fits-all solution,” Lala Kent argued in July that the “California sober” lifestyle was “super offensive” to others on the road to recovery. During an episode of David Yontef’s Behind the Velvet Rope podcast, the model and Vanderpump Rules star opened up about being sober since October 2018 and being against the idea of being “California sober.”

“There are people out there who have worked their ass off to never take themselves out of reality and to never place themselves in an altered state. When they have a cold, they don’t even take DayQuil or NyQuil. So to say that you’re ‘California sober’ or this type of sober is extremely offensive, I think,” she said, going on to describe the idea as “not a real thing. You’re not sober. If you’re drinking and smoking weed, you’re not sober.”

Elton John, who celebrated 30 years of being sober last summer and said in the Dancing With the Devil doc that he hopes Lovato also experiences the “most incredible things” in life while in recovery, simply stated “moderation doesn’t work” when it comes to sobriety.

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Megan Thee Stallion & Young Thug’s Label 300 Entertainment Close to WMG Sale

300 Entertainment, the record label of Megan Thee Stallion and Young Thug, is close to finalizing a deal worth around $400 million to sell to Warner Music Group, sources tell Billboard.

The acquisition, which sources stress is not yet finalized, would also give 300 co-founder and CEO Kevin Liles a senior role at Warner.

A source says if WMG does acquire 300, the label would continue to operate as a standalone entity.

This will mark a return to WMG for Liles, who was executive vp at the company from 2004 to 2009. Prior to that, he worked alongside his future 300 co-founder Lyor Cohen (now YouTube’s head of global music) as president of Def Jam Recordings in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Liles left Warner to launch management company KWL Enterprises, and in 2012 founded 300 with Cohen, Todd Moscowitz (now Alamo Records’ CEO) and Roger Gold (Camila Cabello’s manager) with funding from Google and several financial firms. Since then, the company has scored No. 1 singles and/or albums from Fetty Wap (Fetty Wap), Migos (Culture, “Bad & Boujee” featuring Lil Uzi Vert), Thug (So Much Fun, Young Stoner Life: Slime Language 2, Punk, Cabello’s “Havana”) and Megan Thee Stallion (“Savage,” Cardi B’s “WAP”). Liles has served as CEO since 2017, when Cohen left for YouTube.

In 2020, Liles was named Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players executive of the year, and at the time he downplayed the possibility of a sale, but says the company never rules out potential acquisitions, mergers or strategic partnerships. “Two years ago, 300 had a campaign that we’re not for sale, and although we’ve had several companies and investors approach us, we’re interested in building a billion-dollar company and servicing our artists and partners to the best of our ability,” he said. “There is never an opportunity we won’t run down if it’s for the betterment of our artists.”

Warner Music Group — which went public in June 2020 — raised $540 million through a sale of 3.75% senior secured notes offering to help fund three acquisitions worth $710 million, the company announced Nov. 17. It was said at the time the company had signed non-binding letters of intent for the three deals.

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