On Thursday (Oct. 17) at the Amsterdam Dance Event, representatives from SoundCloud, along with Dutch producer Mau P, took part in a panel during which SoundCloud revealed that electronic music listeners are the most engaged demographic on the platform, among other insights.

This takeaway is based on data that found that electronic music fans over-index for all music activities on SoundCloud, company representatives said, adding that compared to fans of other genres, electronic music fans are 52% more likely to comment, 104% more likely to share music and 85% more likely to repost.

SoundCloud has long been a key hub for electronic music producers, offering a place where remixes and live sets, which aren’t available on many other DSPs, can live alongside new productions, creating a catalog that’s unique to the platform. The way SoundCloud allows for direct artist-to-fan communication has also helped foster the kind of superfans the general industry has become increasingly interested in finding and cultivating. As Jack Bridges of SoundCloud said during a panel this past April, “A lot more artists and labels go to SoundCloud early… and build records from nothing and by artists messaging their fans directly because we have the tools to do that.”

The platform is becoming increasingly popular among producers. The company reports that the platform is seeing increased uploads of electronic music, with those uploads projected to rise by approximately 21% in 2024 compared to last year. Plays of electronic music genres on the platform have also grown, by roughly 6% since 2022, with electronic music expected to account for nearly 22% of all plays on the platform this year.

And while electronic music is a truly global genre, some areas naturally over-index, with SoundCloud finding that Vietnam has the third largest electronic listener base. Elsewhere, Central and Northern Europe have the most consistent and engaged SoundCloud electronic listeners, while Belgium, Austria and Germany are among the top countries where electronic music is the platform’s most-streamed genre.

In terms of subgenres, house music gets the most SoundCloud plays, listening time and listeners. Hardcore is second in plays and listening time, while trance is second in the number of listeners and third in plays and listening time. SoundCloud reports that trance is also the fastest-growing genre, with a 24% increase in listening time and an 11% rise in listeners since 2023.

From serenading celebrities with surprise cover songs to releasing his own original music, Harry Daniels delivered his debut single “I’m Him” first thing Thursday (Oct. 17).

The electro-pop song, which made its radio debut on New York’s Z100 first thing Thursday, was inspired by Daniels’ rise to fame as a viral star on TikTok, where he boasts 1.6 million followers and has scored more than 1 billion views with his “Can I sing for you?” videos. (Daniels even references his TikTok claim to fame on the new song by quite literally crooning “Can I sing for you?” in the lyrics of “I’m Him.”)

“I wanted to talk about my new experiences and how all the rapid growth has made me feel in relation to what I aspired to be growing up, sort of my ‘When I Grow Up’ by The Pussycat Dolls moment,” Daniels exclusively tells Billboard of his first song.

Since joining the video-sharing app in 2022, Daniels has performed pop-up covers for unsuspecting pop stars like Katy Perry, Doja Cat, Sabrina Carpenter, Christina Aguilera, SZA, Camila Cabello, Dua Lipa and more, as well as for current presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and Presidents Obama and Biden.

Now, Daniels is turning the focus to his own music career. He designed the “I’m Him” single cover art himself and will perform his debut single for the first time at iHeart’s Dunkin’ Music Lounge in New York on Friday at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Daniels says he’s currently working on new music and will release more singles in 2025. Listen to Harry Daniels’ debut single “I’m Him” below.

The X Factor has paid tribute to One Direction member Liam Payne following his death yesterday (October 16). The 31 year-old died in a fall in a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The British group formed in 2010 during their appearance on U.K. version of The X Factor‘s seventh series. During their six-year career, the group went on to have four No.1 albums on the Billboard 200 and six top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.

A post on the TV show’s official social media said: “We are heartbroken by the sad passing of Liam Payne. He was immensely talented and, as part of One Direction, Liam will leave a lasting legacy on the music industry and fans around the world. Our thoughts are with his friends, family and all who loved him.”

One Direction went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016 and the five former members – Payne, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson – have all embarked on solo careers in the years since.

According to local police, Payne died after falling from a third-floor hotel room in Buenos Aires. Prior to his death, the police received a call from the hotel following reports “of an aggressive man who may have been under the effects of drugs and alcohol”.

The city’s emergency medical services director Alberto Crescenti told local media that Payne had suffered “serious injuries” from his fall, but declined to answer any additional questions in readers to Payne’s fall.

Payne had released one solo album, LP1, in 2019 and said that work had begun on a follow-up. He is survived by one child, Bear, who he shared with former partner Girls Alouds’ Cheryl Cole.

Hip-hop legends N.O.R.E. (who rose to fame with duo Capone-N-Noreaga) and Fat Joe teamed up for a riveting conversation about the intersection of Latin and hip-hop during the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week.

The chat, moderated by Jesús Triviño, senior director of industry relations and global Latin culture and content, TIDAL, centered on the similarities between reggaetón and hip-hop and their role in taking the genre to mainstream in the United States.

Below, some of the best quotes from The Intersection of Latin and Hip-Hop panel:

N.O.R.E.: On when he first heard reggaetón. “I was in Puerto Rico and I had a party that I thought I sold out but it was Tego Calderon’s show and he didn’t show up. I heard reggaetón and was like what is that it? It sounded like ‘boom boom mami mami.’ I was like is that Spanish reggae? Everywhere in Puerto Rico they were playing it. Radios in New York weren’t playing it so I was like how do I change this? So I kept asking DJs to play it [on the radio]. I thought the was best way to help this music was to sacrifice myself.”

FAT JOE: His interaction with El General. “Vico C he wasn’t reggaetón, he was hip-hop and because of him I heard El General from Panama. I tried to charge El General once for [something] and he cursed me out. It was through him that I first heard reggaetón, then Puerto Rico had its explosion and the guys who paved the way were Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Tego, Ivy Queen, Wisin y Yandel.”

FAT JOE: On similarities between reggaetón and hip-hop. “Hip-hop is the birth of everything. If you want to learn something here is that hip-hop started everything. A lot of the things that you see in reggaetón and Latin hip-hop we’ve seen it already, from fashion to flows, right now it’s latin trap and trap comes from Atlanta, hip-hop and reggaetón they’re side by side.”

N.O.R.E.: On the impact of “Oye Mi Canto.” “Never in a million years people would get behind that. When you listen to that track, you become Latino for three minutes. Label records didn’t want to get behind that record but they did when it got 500 spins. I can say that the first reggaetón on MTV was mine. First reggaetón track on BET was mine. Daddy Yankee left ‘Oye Mi Canto’ out of a documentary he just released and I don’t know why. I sacrificed my own community for it.”

Fat Joe: On recording to reggaetón. “They used to offer me millions of dollars to do reggaetón but I was hip-hop, I couldn’t do that because it would seem like I was a wannabe. But I’ll do whatever for him (N.O.R.E.). I was like, ‘You sure you wanna do reggaetón?’ And he was like, ‘I love the way they feel, it makes me feel more of my Latino side.’ I was like alright I’m with you. And he was legendary. I always worked with reggaetón artists. I was behind this mixtape called Boricua Guerrero but some people say, ‘Oh Fat Joe didn’t embrace reggaetón’ when I put the reggaetón guys on that mixtape. We’ve been embracing reggaetón since day one.”

N.O.R.E: On his place in history when it comes to reggaetón. “When I started doing reggaetón, I had to fly out to these artists and it was a great experience. Back then R. Kelly was doing a gospel album and I thought, maybe it’s my turn to test my creativity. I claim it was my doing when reggaetón came to America.”

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.

J Balvin, Billboard‘s current cover star, spoke with Billboard‘s chief content officer Leila Cobo for a Superstar Q&A on Wednesday (Oct. 16) during Billboard Latin Music Week 2024. He spoke about his vision on the future of reggaeton, the power of collaborations and the importance of mutual support in difficult times.

Here are the best ten quotes from the Colombian superstar:

About A Great Day With J Balvin: “[The series] is really about sharing with artists, public figures, and getting them out of their comfort zone. Talking about topics that normally no artist talks about— their fears, their concerns. I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to get a lot of information out of them about their spiritual and mental health situations. With Jimmy Butler, Demi Lovato, Anitta and Brooklyn Beckham.”

About collaborating with new talents: “Since I started [my career] I have always loved collaborating with new artists. It’s not something that’s just happening at this stage of my life. [When I started] I always wanted the opportunity that gave me that thrill to collaborate with [established] artists that could allow people to get to know me. So, I want that to happen for others, to be able to share in that dream of elevating their careers; to serve as a medium, without any interest of absorbing what they do.”

About Latino Gang: “My mindset has not only been about José or J Balvin, but about the general Latin culture, with Latino Gang. That our culture continues rising, that we are present, that in places where before we did not have the opportunity to sit, now we [are seated at the table].”

Explosion of Latin music: “Now there is a movement in Colombia with artists from different urban genres, trap, drill, dancehall, afrobeats, reggaeton. Now there is indeed a movement. Before in Colombia there were very few. The first ones who had the opportunity to get that exposure in the United States… at the beginning I was alone. Not because I was the best; simply because I worked and I was allowed to be one of the first to open the door for reggaeton [in the United States].”

About his friend Karol G: “Carolina is a person to be admired and highly respected. I had the opportunity to see all her process, all her patience and resilience to endure until her time finally came. I always had faith that this moment would come, and she knows it, and I think it has just begun. There’s a lot more to do. She is definitely the woman who strongly empowers everyone, not only women, but all the people who dream and say it can be done.”

About Colombian reggaetón: “We didn’t have a map, but we had a desire. Obviously reggaeton came from Puerto Rico. [In Colombia] we had Juanes, Carlos Vives, Shakira, but in the end, it’s a completely different genre. We lack a reggaeton artist that represents Colombia. We don’t have one. And I saw the opportunity to achieve that.”

About his downfall: “After that storm that fell on me, that earthquake, well here we are, stronger and more mature than before. We have had so many No. 1s non-stop, for a long time. I felt like, I was laughing, ‘why does all this happen to them, and nothing happens to me?’ And then, when it happened to me, I said: ‘Ah! Okay, I wasn’t the exception, it happens to me too.’ And that learning served me a lot, it helped me to know who my friends are and who are not, to give myself more to my family, to my wife, to my closest friends, accompanying me at the time of darkness.”

About his latest album Rayo: “Thank God, that I can make music, not out of necessity, as we did before, but being able to do it from another point of view and from another situation. It allowed me to connect with that inner child and enjoy the music without caring if it sells or not, but what makes me happy.”

About Coachella, extraterrestrials, and Will Smith: “I have always been very fanatical about extraterrestrial life, it makes me very curious. And I, wanting to revive my inner child, decided on that concept. I explained to Will Smith, from artist to artist, that the alien was part of the original concept. We both had our problems. The greatness of a person cannot be overshadowed by a few mistakes. I am not going to judge Will Smith for his mistake. You cannot erase the legacy that man has made.”

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