The Masked Singer is always big on surprises, though Wednesday night’s episode came from out of leftfield.

If you were expecting to see another celebrity unmasked, you were in for a shock.

All the remaining six contestants — Black Swan, Chameleon, Piglet, Robopine, Russian Dolls and Yeti — survive to sing another day, as the popular Fox series went with a change of programming: The Maskys.

For an hour, viewers were treated to some of the best moments of the Series 5, with host Nick Cannon passing out Masky prizes.

It was good, light-hearted, sing-a-long fun and a change of tac after a brutal double-elimination. Barring any more big surprises, the final six will battle it out each Wednesday until the finale on May 26.

Spotify stock fell as much as 12.9% to $256.84 on Wednesday (April 28) after the streaming service decreased its forecasted listener count for the end of 2021. Share prices ended the day down 12.3% at $256.84.

The considerable drop followed Spotify’s first quarter 2021 earnings report, a mix of encouraging trends and subtle misses. The company’s guidance for end-of-year listeners, referred to as monthly average listeners, decreased by a mere 5 million — from a range of 407 million to 427 million down to 402 million to 427 million.

That adjustment followed Spotify’s reported first-quarter monthly active users (MAU) of 356 million, falling on the bottom end of earlier guidance.

There was good news too, though. First-quarter subscriptions were at the high end of guidance, and Spotify did not revise its 2021 guidance for subscribers (172 million to 184 million), suggesting it expects the dip to come from “freemium” listeners. Average revenue per month on those free listeners is 0.35 euros ($0.42), compared to subscribers’ 4.07 euros ($4.94) per month. (Subscribers account for about 90% of the company’s total revenue.)

That MAU adjustment could have a larger financial impact in the future, as Spotify uses its freemium business model to acquire new subscribers. So, fewer free listeners this year means there will be fewer potential subscribers in the future.

Chopping $7.2 billion from Spotify’s market capitalization is an overreaction, according to Brian White at Monness Crespi Hardt. White wrote in a note to investors on Wednesday that he believes Spotify’s fundamentals remain strong and Wednesday’s sell-off is a good buying opportunity. “We have found the market often takes issue with a particular data point during a Spotify earnings call and the stock subsequently plummets,” he said.

How big was investors’ reaction? Compared to the plummet in market capitalization, the financial impact is a drop in the ocean. In simple terms, the revenue loss from a 5 million decrease in free listeners is worth just €20.8 million for all of 2021, or 0.2% of annual revenue, according to Billboard’s estimate.

Of course, many factors could be behind the price drop. MAU growth in Latin America and Southeast Asia has slowed after they were “strong outperformers,” CEO Daniel Ek said in Wednesday’s earnings call. Average revenue per user (ARPU) fell 1% to 4.12 euros ($5.00) per month and has consistently fallen because more subscribers buy family plans, which allow up to six people on one account, and expansion into new markets with lower prices.

ARPU is a messy metric for gauging a subscription service’s performance — Spotify would point out that family plans have lower churn rates, which directly impact a subscriber’s value. Nevertheless, ARPU is a highly visible and closely followed metric.

JP Morgan’s Doug Anmuth is still upbeat about Spotify, especially about opportunities to engage listeners with new services such as Locker Room. Even so, Anmuth dropped his price target from $385 to $330 because of “mixed results” in a note to investors on Wednesday. White, calling MAU concerns “nothing more than noise,” maintained his price target at $380.

Investors have been excited by news of podcast acquisitions and deals for exclusive and original content with the hopes spoken-word audio would improve their margins that stem mostly from music companies’ royalties demands. Spotify’s exclusive licensing with The Joe Rogan Experience, its top podcast in numerous markets, started in December. It rolls out one original podcast series after another, most notably Renegades: Born in the USA with Bruce Springsteen and Barrack Obama, which premiered Feb. 19.

Spotify’s share price began 2021 at $317.42 and rose to $387.44 on Feb. 19 before falling as low as $249.00 on March 30 — a 35.7% tumble in just 39 days.

Lee Brice’s “One of Them Girls” was named song of the year by the Nashville chapter of the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP). Brice co-wrote the song, which topped the Country Airplay chart and reached No. 2 on Hot Country Songs, with Ashley Gorley, Ben Johnson and Dallas Davidson.

In other top awards, Hillary Lindsey won songwriter of the year, Ashley McBryde won artist-writer of the year and Big Machine won publisher of the year. The awards were presented at a socially distanced event at The Listening Room Café in Nashville on Wednesday (April 27). Actor, musician and comedian Charles Esten served as host.

Brice is on a hot streak at award shows. On April 18, he won in two categories at the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards. “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” His duet with Carly Pearce, was voted single of the year and vocal event of the year.

The AIMP event featured live performances by McBryde, Pearce, HARDY, Jon Pardi, Maddie & Tae, and Tennille Arts & Adam Hambrick and video performances by Brice and Ryan Hurd. But the producers deliberately changed things up to make it more interesting. Hurd performed Brice’s “One of Them Girls.” Brice performed HARDY’s “Give Heaven Some Hell.” HARDY performed Jameson Rodgers’ “Some Girls.”

“Last night was a reaffirmation of the Nashville independent music community and the powerful work they have done to get us through this past year,” said Ree Guyer, vice president of the AIMP Nashville chapter and co-chair of the AIMP Nashville awards. “As we approach the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are excited about the return of in-person songwriting sessions, writers’ rounds, and live performances, and know our winners and nominees will continue to create amazing music to soundtrack the hopefully joyous year ahead.”

“Congratulations to all the independent publishers and songwriters who won or were nominated for AIMP Nashville Awards this year!” said John Ozier, AIMP national chair and president of the AIMP Nashville Chapter. “In an unprecedented and dark time, their songs provided a light for so many…”

Here’s the full list of winners.

Songwriter of the year:
Hillary Lindsey (Concord Music Publishing)

Artist-writer of the year:
Ashley McBryde (Jody Williams Songs)

Rising songwriter of the year:
Matt Alderman (Curb | Word Music Publishing)

Rising artist-writer of the year:
Ruston Kelly (Concord Music Publishing)

Publisher of the year:
Big Machine Music

Song champion of the year:
Ward Guenther (Whiskey Jam)

Song of the year:
“One of Them Girls” written by Ashley Gorley, Ben Johnson, Dallas Davidson, Lee Brice;
Independently published by 8Minute Publishing, Artist Publishing Group, Big Blue Nation Music, Caleb’s College Fund, Play It Again Music Group, Natalia’s Music Money, Round Hill Music; recorded by Lee Brice

Publisher’s pick:
“Give Heaven Some Hell” written by Ashley Gorley, Ben Johnson, Hunter Phelps, Michael Hardy; Independently published by Big Blue Nation Music, Caleb’s College Fund, Relative Music Group. Round Hill Music, Tape Room Music; recorded by HARDY

The Offspring return to Billboard’s album charts with the band’s first studio effort in nearly a decade, as Let the Bad Times Roll debuts at No. 1 on the Alternative Albums chart (dated May 1). The set was released via Wabi Sabi/Concord on April 16 and earned 19,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending April 22, according to MRC Data.

The Alternative Albums chart ranks the most popular alternative albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of Let the Bad Time Roll’s 19,000 equivalent album units earned in the tracking week ending April 22, album sales comprise 17,000, SEA units comprise 2,000 (equaling 2.42 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks) and TEA units comprise less than 1,000.

Let the Bad Times Roll is The Offspring’s 10th studio release and first since 2012’s Days Go By.

Let the Bad Times Roll is The Offspring’s first No. 1 on the 13-year-old Alternative Albums chart. The set also launches in the top 10 across multiple other Billboard tallies, including Top Album Sales, Top Rock Albums, Independent Albums, Vinyl Albums and Tastemaker Albums. On the Billboard 200 chart, the set starts at No. 27, marking the act’s ninth top 40-charting album – the entirely of their charting releases.

The new album includes the 2015 single “Coming For You,” which hit No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Airplay and No. 16 on Alternative Airplay. The album’s latest hit is its title track, which is climbing both Mainstream Rock Airplay (6-4 on the chart dated May 1) and Alternative Airplay (24-20).

Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s first song as Silk Sonic, “Leave the Door Open,” earned them a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit and a spot performing at the 2021 Grammys.

The single comes ahead of their full-length album, An Evening With Silk Sonic, which features funk legend and “special guest host” Bootsy Collins. The pair picked apart how they cooked up “a groove from scratch” to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in an interview. “You guys are trying to figure out what’s going to work. What’s the math behind this that’s going to get everybody feeling good? What is it? Is it too heavy? Is it not heavy enough? And especially with this song, it’s a song that requires so much patience and delicate…,” .Paak said before Mars jumped in with the word, “Delicatessen.”

“Delicatessens. A lot of meat went into this song,” .Paak confirmed.

Check out the lyrics and music video below.

Say baby, say baby, say baby

What you doin’? (What you doin’?)
Where you at? (Where you at?)
Oh, you got plans? (You got plans?)
Don’t say that (shut yo’ trap)

I’m sippin’ wine (sip, sip)
In a robe (drip, drip)
I look too good (look too good)
To be alone (woo-hoo)

My house clean (house clean)
My pool warm (pool warm)
Just shaved (smooth like a newborn)

We should be dancing, romancing, in the east wing
And the west wing of this mansion, what’s happenin’?

I ain’t playin’ no games
Every word that I say
Is coming straight from the heart
So if you tryna lay in these arms

I’ma leave the door open
(I’ma leave the door open)
I’ma leave the door open, girl
(I’ma leave the door open, hopin’)

That you feel the way I feel
And you want me like I want you tonight, baby
Tell me that you’re coming through

Ooh, you’re so sweet (so sweet)
So tight (so tight)
I won’t bite (uh-huh)
Unless you like (unless you like)

If you smoke (what you smoke?)
I got the haze (purple haze)
And if you’re hungry, girl I got filets (woo-hoo)

Ooh, baby, don’t keep me (waiting)
There’s so much love we could be making (shamone)

I’m talking kissing
Cuddling
Rose petals in the bathtub, girl, lets jump in
It’s bubblin’

I ain’t playin’ no games
Every word that I say
Is coming straight from the heart
So if you’re tryna lay in these arms

I’ma leave the door open
(I’ma leave the door open)
I’ma leave the door open, girl, mmm
(I’ma leave the door open, hopin’)

That you feel the way I feel
And you want me like I want you tonight, baby
Tell me that you’re coming through
(C’mon girl)

La, la, la, la-la-la-la
I need you, baby

La, la, la, la-la-la-la
I got to see you, baby

La, la, la, la-la-la-la
Girl, I’m tryna give you this
Ah

Hey, hey
I’ma leave my door open, baby (I’ma leave the door open)

I’ma leave
I’ma leave my door open, girl
(I’ma leave the door open, hopin’)
And I’m hopin’
Hopin’ that you feel the way I feel
And you want me like I want you tonight, baby
Tell me that you’re coming through, woo

(La, la, la, la-la-la-la)
Tell me (tell me that you’re coming through)

Woo, woo-woo, woo, woo-woo, woo, woo-woo
Woo, woo-woo, woo, woo-woo, woo, woo-woo

(La, la, la, la-la-la-la) la, la, la, la-la
(Tell me that you’re coming through)

Girl, I’m here just waiting for you (ayy)
Come on over, I’ll adore you (I gotta know)
(La, la, la, la-la-la-la)
I’m waiting, waiting, waiting for you (tell me that you’re coming through)
Girl, I’m here just waiting for you
Come on over, I’ll adore you
(La, la, la, la-la-la-la)

Lyrics licensed & provided by LyricFind

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Written by: Brandon Anderson, Christopher Brody Brown, Dernst Emile, Peter Hernandez

Rhonda Anderson and Kirk Menendez will be Coral Gables’ newest commissioners after beating their opponents in a Tuesday runoff election to determine the successor for two elected officials who gave … Click to Continue »
A man was seen hitting a woman, chasing her, pushing her into a car and then driving off at Miami International Airport Monday night, police said. On Tuesday, police called … Click to Continue »
Once again, Miami is showing that when it comes to tech, if you tweet it, people will come. This time, a message on the social media platform Twitter spawned an … Click to Continue »
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — After almost three hours of debate Tuesday, the Missouri Senate shelved a plan to invalidate federal gun laws after facing intense pushback from Democrats who worried … Click to Continue »
After having second thoughts about the constitutionality of his bill to undermine three ordinances approved by Key West voters, the House sponsor of the measure said Tuesday he has concluded … Click to Continue »