Darius Rucker isn’t exactly feeling like a spring chicken after a recent onstage mishap at a Hootie & the Blowfish concert.

As captured on video by a fan, the 58-year-old singer/songwriter took a tumble while performing with his band at Riverfront Revival in Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday. In the middle of singing the opening lyrics to his 2009 solo hit “Alright,” Rucker slipped, fell on his hands and rolled onto his back as a cameraman attempted to help him up by placing a stabilizing hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t need no five-star reservations/ I got spaghetti and a cheap bottle of wine/ Don’t need no concert in the city,” he sang right before falling, after which he quipped to the supportive audience: “I’m old as f—.”

Rucker then continued singing the songs lyrics like a pro. Aside from the country-rock star literally tripping up for a moment, Hootie’s showing at Riverfront overall went without a hitch, with the band writing on Instagram afterward: “Another incredible year in the books 🐡🌊 We couldn’t do it without YOUR support.”

“Thank you for sharing another weekend in #Charleston with us,” the “Only Wanna Be With You” musicians added. “We can’t wait to do it all again in 2025 🤩”

Rucker founded Riverfront Revival in 2022 in honor of his hometown. The “Wagon Wheel” artist also curates the lineup, which this year included Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Revivalists, Jamey Johnson and more.

“I grew up there, and there’s no [other] place in the world I want to be,” he told Post and Courier of Charleston ahead of the 2024 festival. “It’s just the greatest place in the world.”

Watch Rucker shake off his fall at Riverfront below.

Four influential Latina executives from diverse sectors of the music industry — including marketing, legal, artist, and label — spoke about how they bossed up and assumed their own power in leadership roles during Billboard Latin Music Week.

The panel She Runs the Boards took place on on Monday (Oct. 14) during the annual event, and was moderated by Billboard‘s social media manager/staff writer Ingrid Fajardo.

Fajarado was joined by Apple Music’s music marketing lead Andrea Portela, Dominican actress/artist Dascha Polanco, Rostrum Records president Erika Montes, and Protege Tu Música’s music & entertainment attorney Yira Santiago. During their discussion, the four panelists spoke about the strategies for overcoming challenges, building meaningful connections and thriving in a competitive landscape.

Below, find some of the best and most memorable quotes from the She Runs the Boards panel:

Andrea Portela on the power of authenticity: “Es más fácil subirte en un trend. Authenticity plays a big role in who you are as an artist. It’s easy to follow the noise. The artists who go far are those who are true to themselves. Your team is a big reflection of an artist; be authentic in every aspect. Don’t just follow the trend because there are 500 artist trying to do what you’re doing. Success doesn’t come quick and easy, invest in yourself. Know your audience is Marketing 101. Social media is such a powerful tool but it only resonates if you’re authentic.”

Dascha Polanco on the importance of the team: “The most essential thing an artist must have is a team that supports and protects you legally. Many artists have gone through problems in a contract. We believe in dreams and we are very busy being creative, seeing the vision more than you […] I’ve been working in music for eight years, time waits for no one. I have a dance project with a lot of Latin music essence. I went to Berklee College of Music online. I do my engineering and record myself. Educate yourself and invest in yourself. Letting yourself be guided, trusting the process, is a very magical thing for me.”

Erika Montes on artist development: “I look for two things when I see an artist: You have to want it more than me. Secondly, always make an assessment, what can you do well? If you’re a good songwriter, but not good at production. Know what you’re good at and look at what to build. Focus on who your audience is and not on a look. When I start with artists I let them know this is a grind. Relationships are key. We’ll do everything we can, shake hands and kiss babies. [Success] doesn’t happen overnight, be patient.”

Yira Santiago on the importance of education and transparency in music: “Opening a YouTube channel to protect your music came about when I noticed that certain information was being kept and I felt the need to share it. There were lawyers withholding this information and not sharing it on to the public. It was important for me to share this, to establish that relationship with myself and the law, and how I monetize my music. It’s also crucial to manage relationships with record labels, marketing and handlers, in addition to assistance in all other areas. To take your career to a higher level and turn it into a business, you need a team to support you. It’s essential that the team aligns with your visions.”

Latin Music Week coincides with the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards set to air at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 20, on Telemundo. It will simultaneously be available on Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app, and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional.

Who gets songwriting credit on a song and who doesn’t can sometimes lead to an uncomfortable conversation. But at the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week, that topic took the spotlight in the riveting (and informative) Why Are There 50 Writers On My Song? panel on Monday (Oct. 14).

Moderated by Pierre Hachar, managing partner at The Hachar Law Group, panelists included regional Mexican singer-songwriter Eden Muñoz, renowned producer-songwriter Sergio George and Colombian hitmaker Keityn. At one point during the conversation, the group reflected on why, today, even managers can get a songwriting credit.

“I think it is clear that the composers deserve the credit,” said Keityn while discussing the subject. “The credits go to the one who deserves it and that is the actual composer.”

The conversation also touched on how nuanced the concept of songwriting credit can be, particularly when someone is in the studio who doesn’t technically write the song but contributes somehow to the idea or inspiration of the lyrics.

Below, find the best quotes from the panel:

Eden Muñoz: “The credit has to go to whoever participates in the writing process. When you’re in a studio, you know who is a composer and you know who is not. It’s something that you can almost feel. You can’t just be sitting around in the session and expect credit. It’s extremely important to set limits in the studio. It’s how I work today. I separate the songwriters and take them to a different table and they are the only ones in that room.”

Sergio George: “In my opinion, anyone who contributes to the process should have songwriting credit. I remember I was in a songwriting camp, there were like four to five people, and there was one person who gave some ideas of how the song could be. That person actually had nothing to do with my music, but got credit because if it wasn’t for her, the song would not have been made. That’s true of the arranger, because some arrangements are so emblematic and make the song. We should be fair all around.”

Keityn: “The 50 songwriters thing is not even about the artist, songwriter or producer, to be honest. Platforms like Spotify, when they do the breakdown of who gets credit on their platform, it is always based on the actual split, and they label them as songwriters. I don’t understand why everyone who is in the split [gets listed as] as a songwriter.”

Muñoz: “Today, we are in a business where managers [have the] sin of arrogance and want to be everywhere and get songwriting credit. I remember back in the day, the manager would sometimes even hide, but now it seems like they are glued to one another. Sometimes the manager acts more like the artist.”

The 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week coincides with the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards set to air at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 20, on Telemundo. It will simultaneously be available on Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app, and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional.

As the music industry boomed in the 1980s and 1990s, the place to be for global business was MIDEM, the annual conference in Cannes. Over the past three years, though, an increasing amount of those deals have been made at the IMPF (Independent Music Publishers Forum) Global Music Summit in the fall in Palma de Mallorca, in Spain. I went for the first time this year, from Oct. 1 to 4, and it’s one of the best music business conferences I’ve ever attended. (I should point out that I got a press pass, but Billboard paid for my travel.) Now in its third year, the event drew 500 attendees, up from 320 last year. It’s the perfect size — small enough to see people you know, but big enough to meet people you should. 

The vibe is very different. MIDEM was like the throne room of the Imperial Music Business, where dealmakers held court at high-end hotels and the hamburgers cost 35 Euros. But most labels now control recording rights in most of the world, so the focus of dealmaking has shifted to publishing. The Global Music Summit is more relaxed. It takes place at two hotels in the Mallorca marina that are nice but not over the top, and you could walk around and see everyone easily. By day, you could take meetings on one of the hotel terraces or walk to the marina. At night, you could have cocktails at the Budde Music-sponsored Budde Bar. 

The IMPF itself only goes back to 2014, when a dozen or so independent publishers got together to form a trade association that would focus on their needs. The International Confederation of Music Publishers, which includes both majors and indies, has many of the same members and focuses on some of the same issues and the two organizations worth together frequently. Both are international but wield more power in Europe, where countries tend to have stronger copyright laws, and where the publishing business generates more revenue.  

Much of the action took place in private meetings, but the panels were also smart — shortish and relevant, and held one at a time. The keynotes were also worthwhile. The first was from Reservoir Media founder and CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi, who spoke about how technology has helped music publishing expand. Reservoir’s first big investment was in Music Maestro, she recalled, and data tools helped the company grow. She predicted that artificial intelligence would create opportunities and efficiencies as well as challenges, a welcome message at a time when it seems like the wild elephant in the room. 

The next day’s keynote came from BMI President and CEO Mike O’Neill, who gave an audience used to dealing with traditional, nonprofit collective management organizations a look at the alternative his company represents now that it’s owned by private equity investors. He pointed out that this might not be so different from the status quo, since SESAC has a similar ownership structure and GMR is said to have an “understanding” to sell some of the company to a private equity firm. “Why is that?” O’Neill asked. “I can only speak for BMI, and for us, it means a level of investment that we simply could not have achieved before.” 

O’Neill also discussed BMI’s plan to distribute 85% of licensing revenue and retain 15% for overhead and investment and said that the company is on track to do so. “While we have not finished our audit for the last fiscal year, I’m extremely pleased with our results and how we’re tracking towards our goals,” he said. “We’ve had a series of record-breaking distributions this year and our final distribution growth will reflect that.” 

NMPA (National Music Publishers’ Association) President and CEO David Israelite closed the event with a keynote about how the publishing business is both growing and at the same time closing the gap with revenue from recorded music, plus touched on “Spotify’s war against songwriters,” the MLC database, and how transparent collective management organizations should be. Israelite ended his speech — and, really, the entire conference, with advice for the publishing business. When Israelite started at the NMPA two decades ago, “we had a cultural problem” — the major publishers and the indies often pushed different agendas, which also differed from those of songwriters. One of Israelite’s key successes was to convince these groups to work out their disagreements in private and unite behind one agenda in public. In Europe, where collecting societies and songwriters groups have more power than they do in the U.S., this could be difficult. But it could also help the entire business get the influence it needs to make sure it can benefit from AI.  

It’s never easy to get the various parts of the music business to unite behind anything, of course. But events like the IMPF summit, held in a cool place at a scale that makes sense, make it a lot easier.