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In the past decade-and-a-half, Apple has built significant influence in the podcasting industry by letting creators reach its large audience of device owners without charging them a dime. But the company’s recent conversations with creative partners about introducing a subscription product to its podcasting business signals that its reign as a benevolent distributor might be coming to an end.
The talks, first reported by The Information, have been ongoing since at least last fall, sources tell to The Hollywood Reporter, and ultimately could end up taking several different forms. Regardless, it’s clear that Tim Cook-led Apple — after spending the last two years watching rival-in-music-streaming Spotify invest hundreds of millions of dollars to align itself with some of the most prolific producers and most popular personalities in podcasting — is no longer content sitting on the sideline. “There’s a huge opportunity sitting under their nose with 1.4 million iOS devices globally,” says Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives, “and they don’t want to lose out.” Apple declined to comment about its podcasting plans.
Much of the growth of the podcasting industry over the last decade can be traced back to Apple and its former CEO Steve Jobs, who in 2005 declared that he was “bringing podcasting mainstream” by adding support for the medium to iTunes. A few years later, the company introduced a separate Podcasts app that quickly became the leading distribution platform for the medium. But Apple, which netted $275 billion in sales in fiscal 2020, has refrained from turning podcasting — still a relatively small industry that the Interactive Advertising Bureau estimated would bring in nearly $1 billion in U.S. advertising revenue last year — into a moneymaking venture.
Now, however, Apple’s position as the top platform for podcast listening is being threatened as the company faces heated competition from tech and media giants including Spotify, Amazon and SiriusXM. In the years since it first added podcast support, Apple also has placed an emphasis on its growing services business, through which it already offers subscription products for music, television, video games and fitness videos.
But Apple will have to proceed carefully as it explores introducing subscriptions to podcasting, a business that has long been funded largely through advertising sales. Many longtime podcasters are vocal supporters of keeping the medium free and widely accessible, and listeners have yet to show a strong appetite for paid podcast services like two-year-old startup Luminary. Even Spotify, which has a robust music subscription business with 144 million members, has refrained from putting any of its podcasts behind a paywall. And analysts at Citi recently questioned whether Spotify’s podcast investment can pay off, noting Jan. 15 that the company’s cadence of Premium subscriber additions and download data “do not show any material benefit.”
Ives says Apple might have an easier time selling a podcast subscription if it offers a curated selection of exclusive and original shows from in-demand talent, much like it does for video programming with Apple TV+, which launched in 2019 with drama The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Apple has released a handful of in-house podcasts and discussed making podcasts that serve as companions to its original TV shows, sources say, but it has yet to go after high-profile projects or talent the way Spotify has. Last fall, Spotify paid handsomely to bring The Joe Rogan Experience, regularly the No. 1 show on the Apple Podcasts chart, exclusively to its platform.
Apple currently bolsters Apple TV+ sign-ups by offering a free subscription to people who buy new devices. It also encourages people to pay for multiple Apple subscriptions by offering discounted Apple One bundles. LightShed’s media analysts recently wrote that they “believe Apple can be successful” with a subscription podcast product if it leverages its new bundles with its “leadership position in podcasting.”
Membership platform Patreon has shown that podcast subscriptions can work on an individual level, with fans paying for exclusive or ad-free content from their favorite personalities. Apple could employ a similar feature, in which it allows people to pay à la carte to listen to shows without the advertising. But in order to entice podcast partners, Apple’s deals would need to cover any lost advertising revenue.
“It’s not like this is a layup,” Ives says, “but given how aggressive Spotify in particular is going after this market, they have to do something.”
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
Last August, the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) announced it was canceling its annual NAMM Show in 2021 due to the ongoing spread of COVID-19, while simultaneously unveiling its plans for Believe in Music, a virtual gathering “to unify and support the people who bring music to the world.”
Slated to kick off Monday (Jan. 18) and running through Friday (Jan. 22) at BelieveinMusic.tv, the event will bring together domestic and international NAMM members along with participants from GenNext (college music students and faculty), Music Education Days (school music administrators) and the Nonprofit Management Institute (NAMM Foundation grantees and nonprofit affiliates) for a week of artist conversations, product previews and over 150 professional development and training sessions for all sectors of the music products, pro audio and entertainment technology industries.
Highlights of the five-day event, which is free to attend, include opening sessions with Garth Brooks and Melissa Etheridge at 9 a.m. PT on Jan. 21 and Jan. 22, respectively; conversations with artists including Jackson Browne, Perry Farrell, Deadmau5, Nathan East, LZZY Hale , Anthrax’s Scott Ian and Charley Pride (in one of his last interviews); a products preview on Jan. 20 at 4 p.m. PT featuring merchandise from C.F. Martin & Co., Roland, Yamaha, Avid, Gibson, Shure and more; and the Grand Rally for Music Education, an annual event that brings together music education advocates “for a celebration of the benefits and pleasures of making music.”
The NAMM Show’s long-running annual events and awards ceremonies will also be incorporated. These include the 36th TEC Awards, which “recognize the individuals, companies and technical innovations behind the sound of recordings, live performances, films, television, video games and multimedia”; the Les Paul Innovation Award, which “recognizes musical artists whose work has exemplified the creative application of audio technology”; the Hall of Fame Award, which recognizes “audio pioneers, as well as the music industry’s most accomplished producers and audio technicians”; the She Rocks Awards, this year featuring the Go-Go’s, Nancy Wilson and Cherie Currie; and the Top 100 Dealer Awards, which “honor music retailers who have demonstrated a commitment to best practices, creativity and innovation in retail.”
Believe in Music will additionally host an interactive marketplace to connect buyers and sellers in an effort to provide support for those who have been most affected by the pandemic, as well as live performances by over 40 emerging and established musicians from around the world during a day-long global livestream on Jan. 20.
Register for Believe in Music at attend.believeinmusic.tv. The full schedule of events is available here.
Weezer will be releasing a new single this week and a new album by month’s end.
The band’s soon-to-be-heard new song, titled “All My Favorite Songs,” arrives on Thursday (Jan. 21). The album it will appear on, OK Human, is set to drop on Jan. 29.
“Hold on to your hard drives,” the band wrote on social media on Monday (Jan. 18). “OK Human, the new album, arrives 1/29.”
“‘All My Favorite Songs’ the first song from the album will be out this Thursday, 1/21 at 12am ET. Limited vinyl will be available for pre-order on weezerwebstore.com then too,” they posted, along with OK Human’s cover art and track list.
“p.s. Van Weezer is still coming out on May 7th,” they added, referring to their previously announced other upcoming album, which the group has said will be in dedication to Eddie Van Halen.
See the OK Human announcement below.
Weezer’s OK Human Track List:
1. “All My Favorite Songs”
2. “Aloo Gobi”
3. “Grapes of Wrath”
4. “Numbers”
5. “Playing My Piano”
6. “Mirror Image”
7. “Screens”
8. “Bird With a Broken Wing”
9. “Dead Roses”
10. “Everything Happens for a Reason”
11. “Here Comes the Rain”
12. “La Brea Tar Pits”
MUMBAI – The most-watched music video in the world last week, per YouTube’s Global Top Music Videos chart, was “52 Gaj Ka Daman” by Renuka Panwar, a song in the Indian regional language of Haryanvi. The song’s 54.2 million views doubled those of Disney star Olivia Rodrigo’s Spotify record-breaking track, “Drivers License,” which had 27.2 million views.
Panwar’s YouTube success is a testament to both the popularity of regional language music in India and its over-indexing on YouTube, for which the country is the largest market. This week, Warner Music, seeking to capitalize on such opportunities, announced an exclusive deal with Sky Digital India, the distributor of Desi Records, a local label in the north Indian state of Haryana that released “52 Gaj Ka Daman.”
Under terms of the agreement, Warner Music India will distribute Sky Digital’s repertoire within the country, and throughout the world via its independent artist and label services division ADA.
The partnership with Sky Digital is part of Warner Music’s mandate of “taking the Indian sound global,” Jay Mehta, Warner Music India managing director, tells Billboard. The tie-up follows a similar distribution deal with Bollywood label Tips Music and a licensing agreement with Punjabi music aggregator Ziiki Media, which were announced in May and October 2020, respectively.
In addition to running an in-house label whose roster includes such Punjabi singing stars as Sunanda Sharma, Sky Digital currently serves as the aggregator for over 40 Punjabi music labels as well as several Hindi, Haryanvi and Bhojpuri ones. Sky Digital also manages a suite of regional music YouTube channels in those languages that collectively have over 15 million subscribers.
Among the recent big Punjabi hits distributed by Sky Digital are “Vail” by Mankirt Aulakh and “Bambiha Bole” by Sidhu Moosewala and Amrit Maan, both of which hit No.1 on YouTube’s India Top Music Videos chart last year. Still, Sky Digital’s share of the national audio streaming market is estimated to be only around 1%. That’s because many regional music language labels only release content on YouTube.
The deal “gives us a window to now bring all of these labels, which were only on YouTube, to the entire streaming world,” Mehta says.
Punjabi music accounts for almost 14% of all consumption on audio streaming services in India, making it “by far the biggest regional language,” he says. It also has a significant audience abroad, and according to Mehta, is the regional language with “the largest consumption” in the Indian diaspora. “I was looking at the Sky Digital analytics,” he says, and “50% is outside India.”
While Haryanvi and Bhojpuri make up around 5% of total plays combined, they are two of the fastest growing languages in terms of year-on-year growth in listenership.
Ahead of this week’s inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Presidential Inaugural Committee and special guests will honor Martin Luther King Jr. and his commitment to community service during United We Serve: A Celebration of the National MLK Day of Service, which streams Monday night (Jan. 18).
“On Monday the 18th, join us for a celebration of the National MLK #DayOfService. After a day of Americans serving their communities, we’ll come together for an evening of music and inspiring speakers,” the Biden Inaugural Committee announced on social media before the event.
Aloe Blacc, Chesca with Diane Warren, Andra Day, Alejandro Fernández and Maná, Yo-Yo Ma, Bebe Winans, Rosario Dawson, Rev. Dr. Bernice King, Martin Luther King III, Rep. Sharice Davids, Rev. Al Sharpton, Sean Patrick Thomas and Lynn Whitfield are featured on the virtual event’s schedule.
“With the help of popular musicians and artists, rising stars, national, state and local leaders, and everyday Americans, we’re going to celebrate our diversity, honor those who are committed to service and reflect on our history,” Presidential Inaugural Committee CEO Tony Allen said in a press release about United We Serve. “We will come together as one nation, America united.”
Watch the one-hour United We Serve celebration via the embedded video below, at bideninaugural.org, or on YouTube, Twitter or Facebook, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
Dionne Warwick’s reign on Twitter might spill over to TikTok, once she’s got enough of a following on the new-to-her social media platform.
“Ok… Auntie created a TikTok. If I get enough followers I’ll start using that platform. Who knows what I’ll create,” she tweeted on Saturday (Jan. 16) with a laughing emoji.
“I am told that the possibilities are endless,” Warwick added in another tweet.
The legendary singer, whose wit has become a treasure to the Twitter crowd, promised she’ll start becoming active on TikTok “when I gain enough followers.”
Just don’t expect her to follow all the trends. “I just asked my team what the ‘buss it’ challenge was,” wrote Warwick, after followers apparently suggested she try it out. “Why are you asking me to do that? Don’t make me delete TikTok before I even start.”
In another message, she scolded, “Use the good sense God gave you.”
See her tweets below (and don’t worry: she has no plans to stop tweeting), and follow her on TikTok at @dionnethesinger.
Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in record-setting fashion, as it garners the largest streaming week ever for a country album. The 30-song album — Wallen’s first leader — further logs the largest overall week, by units earned, for a country set in over two years.
Dangerous, released on Jan. 8 via Big Loud/Republic Records, starts with 265,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 14, according to MRC Data.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular 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. The new Jan. 23, 2021-dated chart (where Dangerous debuts at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Jan. 20. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Dangerous’ 265,000 equivalent album units earned in the tracking week ending Jan. 14, SEA units comprise 184,000 (equaling 240.18 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs), album sales comprise 74,000 and TEA units comprise 7,000. (Of Dangerous’ 74,000 in album sales, digital download album sales comprise 50,000.)
Dangerous is Wallen’s second full-length album, following 2018’s If I Know Me, which peaked at No. 13 on the Aug. 29, 2020-dated chart. It has spent over 110 weeks on the tally and earned 1.7 million equivalent album units, while its songs have accrued 2.4 billion on-demand streams.
Prior to Dangerous’ release, the singer-songwriter had snared 13 charting hits on the Hot Country Songs chart, including eight top 10s (two of which reached No. 1). On the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart, he’s placed 10 tunes, including the new album’s “7 Summers.” The latter debuted at No. 6, marking at the time only the second top 10 Hot 100 debut for a song by a solo male and no accompanying acts that has also appeared on Hot Country Songs.
Let’s take a look at some of the notable feats that Wallen achieves with Dangerous’ debut.
Largest Streaming Week for a Country Album: As Dangerous collected 184,000 SEA units, equaling 240.18 million on-demand streams of the set’s 30 songs, it lands the largest streaming week ever for a country album. It beats, more than doubling, the 102.26 million streams achieved by Luke Combs’ What You See Is What You Get in the week ending Oct. 29, 2020. That week, Combs’ then-year-old album was reissued with bonus tracks, bringing its total track count to 23. Upon its deluxe reissue, the album shot back to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for its second week in the lead. It tallied its first week at No. 1 when it debuted in the top slot (chart dated Nov. 23, 2019).
Certainly, the fact that Dangerous has a whopping 30 songs greatly enhances its ability to accrue a large streaming total – as the stream count is based on the total streams across all of the album’s songs.
However, even if the album were trimmed down to the 18 least-streamed tracks (in the week ending Jan. 14), their sum of 105.08 million would still beat Combs’ former record.
Third-Largest Streaming Week for a Non-R&B/Hip-Hop Album: Dangerous clocks the third-biggest streaming week ever for a non-R&B/hip-hop album, trailing only Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next (307.07 million in its debut week) and Taylor Swift’s Folklore (289.85 million, debut week). Overall, Dangerous has the 22nd-largest streaming week for an album.
Biggest Week for a Country Album in Over Two Years: The last country album to have a bigger week, by equivalent album units, was Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty, which launched with 266,000 units on the Sept. 19, 2018-dated chart. Unlike Dangerous, Cry Pretty’s first week was bolstered by sales generated from a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer. (Such offers no longer contribute sales to Billboard’s charts.)
Dangerous also has the ninth-biggest week for any album, of any genre, by units, in the last 12 months.
Only the 12th Country Album to Reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 In the Last Five Years: Wallen brings a rare sight to the top of the Billboard 200, as Dangerous is only the 12th country set to reach No. 1 since January of 2016.
Strikingly, out of the 178 No. 1 albums since the Jan. 23, 2016-dated chart, only 12 were country titles (just 6.7%). Those 12 country No. 1s: Jason Aldean’s They Don’t Know (2016); Thomas Rhett’s Life Changes, Shania Twain’s Now, Kenny Chesney’s Live in No Shoes Nation, Luke Bryan’s What Makes You Country (2017); Aldean’s Rearview Town, Underwood’s Cry Pretty (2018), Rhett’s Center Point Road, Kane Brown’s Experiment, Luke Combs’ What You See Is What You Get (2018; the latter had one week at No. 1 in both 2018 and 2019); Chesney’s Here and Now (2020); and now Wallen’s Dangerous (2021).
At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, Taylor Swift’s Evermore slips one spot after three nonconsecutive weeks in the lead, with 55,000 equivalent album units earned (down 1%). Pop Smoke’s former No. 1 Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon is steady at No. 3 with 47,000 units (up 5%). Both titles were released by Republic Records, like Dangerous. In turn, Republic holds the top three for the third time in less than three months, and remains the only label to monopolize the top three since 2003, when Interscope pulled off the feat.
Jazmine Sullivan hits a career-high on the Billboard 200 as Heaux Tales bows at No. 4 with 43,000 equivalent album units earned. It beats her previous chart high of No. 6, achieved in the opening week of her debut set, and only other top 10, Fearless (Oct. 11, 2008 chart). Heaux Tales is the singer’s fourth charting effort, and first since 2015’s Reality Show debuted and peaked at No. 12 (Jan. 31, 2015).
Lil Durk’s The Voice falls from its No. 2 high to No. 5 with 42,000 equivalent album units earned (down 12%).
The Weeknd’s former No. 1 After Hours charges 14-6 with 35,000 units (up 34%). The latter benefits from the popularity of its latest single, and its new official video (released Jan. 5), for “Save Your Tears,” as well as The Weeknd’s widely-seen commercial touting his halftime performance at the upcoming Super Bowl (Feb. 7). Ariana Grande’s former No. 1 Positions falls 4-7 with 34,000 units (down 4%). Both After Hours and Positions were released via Republic Records, giving the label a stunning five of the top 10 albums – the first time a label group has claimed half of the top 10 in nearly a year (since the Feb. 1, 2020-dated chart when Interscope Geffen A&M achieved the distinction). Republic last had half of the top 10 on the Nov. 9, 2013-dated chart.
Closing out the top 10 on the new Billboard 200 are Luke Combs’ What You See Is What You Get (7-8 with a little over 31,000 units; down 3%), Juice WRLD’s Legends Never Die (holding at No. 9 with 31,000 units; up 4%) and Megan Thee Stallion’s Good News (6-10 with just under 31,000 units; down 5%).
