Shared workspace fans can say goodbye to WeWork in Miami Beach. The company has announced plans to cut locations after it filed for bankruptcy last year. WeWork decided in May … Click to Continue »
A climber was rescued near the peak of the highest mountain in North America — two days after his climbing partner died inside their snow cave, officials said. The climbers … Click to Continue »
For over 20 years Florida school board races have been non-partisan, but voters will have a chance this election season to once again place party labels on school board candidates. … Click to Continue »
for King and Country won artist of the year for the record-extending sixth time at the 2024 K-LOVE Fan Awards, which premiered on TBN on Friday (May 31). Brandon Lake and Sadie Robertson Huff co-hosted the show, which was taped at the iconic Opry House in Nashville on May 26. Both artists also won awards – Lake won male artist of the year and worship song of the year for “Praise You Anywhere.” Robertson Huff won podcast of the year for Whoa, That’s Good.
tobyMac’s “Faithfully,” which reached No. 10 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, won song of the year. As noted above, Lake’s “Praise You Anywhere,” which topped that chart for six weeks, won worship song of the year. Seph Schlueter’s “Counting My Blessings,” which is currently No. 2 on that chart, won breakout single.
Anne Wilson received her second female artist of the year award. The New England Patriots’ Matthew Slater received the Sports Impact Award.
The show featured performances by Wilson, Lake, CAIN, Crowder, Elevation Worship, Jeremy Camp, Matthew West and Terrian. There were also several surprise collaborations, including Housefires with the trio of Ryan Ellis, Blanca and Stephen McWhirter; Josh Baldwin and Jenn Johnson; Katy Nichole and Naomi Raine; Lauren Daigle with Ellie Holcomb; Rachael Lampa and Andrew Ripp; and Tauren Wells joined by Davies.
Colton Dixon and Danny Gokey introduced a special tribute to Mandisa and to tobyMac’s band member and friend Gabe Patillo, both of whom died this past spring. Dixon, Gokey and Mandisa were all contestants on different seasons of American Idol.
The ceremony culminated a weekend full of events for fans, including a Friday night kick-off concert, Saturday morning’s Worship in the Round, an Emerging Artist Showcase, Songwriter’s Showcase and Sunday morning Worship Service.
See the full list of 2024 K-LOVE Fan Awards nominees, with winners marked, below:
Artist of the year
Anne Wilson
Brandon Lake
Casting Crowns
WINNER: for King & Country
Lauren Daigle
Matthew West
Phil Wickham
TobyMac
Song of the year
“Come Jesus Come” – Stephen McWhirter
“Don’t Stop Praying” – Matthew West
WINNER: “Faithfully” – tobyMac
“I Thank God” – Housefires f/JWLKRS & Ryan Ellis
“Praise” – Elevation Worship
“Praise You Anywhere” – Brandon Lake
“Somebody To You” – Rachael Lampa f/Andrew Ripp
“Strong” – Anne Wilson
Male artist of the year
WINNER: Brandon Lake
Chris Tomlin
Crowder
Jeremy Camp
Matthew West
Phil Wickham
Tauren Wells
tobyMac
Female artist of the year
WINNER: Anne Wilson
CeCe Winans
Katy Nichole
Lauren Daigle
Natalie Grant
Rachael Lampa
Tasha Layton
Terrian
Worship song of the year
“Fear is Not My Future” – Maverick City Music
“Firm Foundation” – Cody Carnes
“Holy Forever” – Chris Tomlin
“I Believe” – Phil Wickham
“I Thank God” – Housefires f/JWLKRS & Ryan Ellis
“Praise” – Elevation Worship
WINNER: “Praise You Anywhere” – Brandon Lake
Breakout single
“Big God”- Terrian
“Come Jesus Come” – Stephen McWhirter
WINNER: “Counting My Blessings” – Seph Schlueter
“Good Day” – Forrest Frank
“Hallelujah Feeling” – Caleb & John
“The Prodigal” – Josiah Queen
Group of the year
CAIN
Casting Crowns
Big Daddy Weave
WINNER: Elevation Worship
Maverick City Music
MercyMe
We Are Messengers
We The Kingdom
Film impact
Sound of Freedom
The Shift
After Death
WINNER: The Chosen Season 4 (Theatrical Release)
Big George Foreman
The Blind
Journey to Bethlehem
Ordinary Angels
TV/streaming impact
WINNER: Jonathan & Jesus
Chasing CAIN
Eleanor’s Bench
Going Home (Season 2)
The Wingfeather Saga
Book impact
Mostly What God Does – Savannah Guthrie
Like a River – Granger Smith
Untangle Your Emotions – Jennie Allen
Practicing the Way – John Mark Comer
WINNER: Rescue Story – Zach Williams
The Digital Fast – Dr. Darren Whitehead
Upon Waking – Jackie Hill Perry
The Awe of God – John Bevere
Podcast impact
Cooper Stuff – John Cooper
WINNER: WHOA That’s Good – Sadie Robertson Huff
That Sounds Fun – Annie F. Downs
Made for This – Jennie Allen
The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast – Candace Cameron Bure
Back Porch Theology – Lisa Harper
Beyond his illustrious career as an NBA legend and sportscaster, Bill Walton was a massive Deadhead. The 6′ 11″ center died on Monday (May 27) at age 71 following a battle with cancer, and the surviving members of the Grateful Dead paid tribute to their biggest fan during Dead & Company’s residency show at Las Vegas’ Sphere on Thursday (May 30).
During their performance of 1978’s “Fire on the Mountain,” the screen of the Sphere showed a montage of photos of Walton hanging out with the band, wearing the merch and more. The tribute also featured a stunning display of Walton’s jersey number, 32, adorned in tie dye and roses.
See the photos via Dead & Company’s Instagram here.
Earlier this week, following the news of Walton’s death, the band paid tribute to the late athlete in an Instagram post on the Dead & Company feed, saying, “Fare you well, fare you well, we love you more than words can tell. Bill was an irreplaceable force and spirit in our family. Father Time, Rhythm Devil, biggest deadhead ever. Over 1000 shows and couldn’t get enough. He loved this band and we loved him.”
The post continued, “We will miss our beloved friend, @BillWalton, deeply. Rest in peace and may the four winds blow you safely home. 🌹💀⚡️.” The post included several pics of Walton in tie dye outfits at Dead shows over the years, including times he’s worn elaborate, colorful costumes — most notably a “Father Time” outfit for Dead shows on New Year’s Eve.
Ready to captivate our present-day world and across dimensions, Armeggedon marks an artistic evolution in aespa‘s musical journey by taking their narrative into an expansive multiverse to blur the boundaries between reality and virtual realms.
While the K-pop girl group is known for blending their real and virtual personas, their first full-length album explores parallel worlds, giving KARINA, GISELLE, WINTER and NINGNING infinite possibilities as both otherworldly idols and relatable young women navigating adulthood.
The adventurous spirit of Armageddon was set through the pre-released buzz track “Supernova,” when the group speaks of opening doors to different dimensions and brought to life by the title track single’s music video establishing the aespa multiverse.
Last year, aespa saw Drama: The 4th Mini Album peak at No. 33 on the Billboard 200, a far drop from their two prior entries landing in the Top 10. But already “Supernova” has been well super received by listeners: debuting at No. 5 on the World Digital Song Sales chart last week for the group’s highest position since 2021’s “Next Level,” plus rising to No. 19 on this week’s Billboard Global 200 for their first Top 20 single. With the promising start, a larger amount of tracks ready for streaming, and a larger range of sounds and themes tackled in the LP, Armeggedon looks poised to boost aespa back up the album charts to reestablish the girls’ place as a leading force in K-pop.
From the singles “Armageddon” and “Supernova” to what are sure to become new beloved b-sides like “Live My Life,” “Prologue,” and the fan-dedicated anthem “Melody,” here’s our ranking of the songs on aespa’s first full-length album Armageddon.
Earlier this week, hackers on a “dark web” site claimed to have stolen data from hundreds of millions of Ticketmaster user accounts — but a source with knowledge of the investigation into the attack says there is no evidence that Ticketmaster fan accounts were compromised or that private user data was stolen.
Officials at Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, acknowledged a breach Friday (May 31) in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, noting it had identified “unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment containing Company data (primarily from its Ticketmaster L.L.C. subsidiary) and launched an investigation with industry-leading forensic investigators to understand what happened.”
The statement noted that the company was “cooperating with law enforcement” and that “as of the date of this filing, the incident has not had, and we do not believe it is reasonably likely to have, a material impact on our overall business operations or on our financial condition or results of operations.”
According to the source, federal authorities are currently working to understand how a “dark web” site seized by the federal government was recaptured on Monday (May 27) by hackers with the group ShinyHunters and used to ransom 1.3 terabytes of private data allegedly stolen from Ticketmaster for $500,000. Investigators aren’t sure what, if any, Ticketmaster files are being held in the 1.3 terabyte file, the source adds.
The hack, the source tells Billboard, did not involve a breach of the core Ticketmaster system. Rather, company officials are looking at cloud hosting service Snowflake as a possible site of the hack. A hacker claiming to be involved in the attack told the website Bleeping Computer that they had breached Santander Bank and Ticketmaster after hacking into an employee’s account at Snowflake, which provides cloud hosting services for major companies. According to that report, Snowflake is disputing the claim. Billboard independently confirmed that Ticketmaster uses Snowflake’s cloud hosting service.
When reached for comment, Live Nation directed Billboard back to the SEC filing. Snowflake did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Australian ticketing firm Ticketek also reported Friday that it had fallen victim to hackers, notifying customers that the names of some of its users, as well as their dates of birth and email addresses, may have been accessed in a data breach. In a statement on its site, Ticketet said the user information had been stored in a cloud-based platform hosted by a “reputable, global third-party supplier”.
“Ticketek has secure encryption methods in place for all passwords and no Ticketek customer account has been compromised,” company officials said in a statement. “Additionally, Ticketek utilises secure encryption methods for online payments and uses a separate system to process online payments, which has not been impacted. Ticketek does not hold identity documents for its customers.”
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Calling all Bridgerton fans! The hit television series, Bridgerton created by Shondaland for Netflix has a book dropping on July 23. The Duke and I & The Viscount Who Loved Me: Bridgerton Collection by Julia Quinn is a special edition set that includes the first two novels in the beloved Bridgerton series.
Although it is not available yet, you can start pre-ordering the hard cover version now. You can find it on Amazon, Walmart, and Target. Take advantage of its 34% off discount and add it your library.
If you’re shopping on Amazon, consider taking advantage of all Amazon Prime has to offer and sign up for a 30-day free trial, including access to Prime Video, Prime Gaming and Amazon Music. Get fast, free shipping in less than two days with Prime Delivery. Want free shipping? Join Walmart+ for free for the first 30 days. The membership includes free shipping and free delivery from your local store, free Paramount+ and so much more!
Bridgerton Collector’s Edition: The Duke and I and The Viscount Who Loved Me (Hardcover)
In the first novel, The Duke and I, it focuses on Daphne Bridgerton’s story of love and societal expectations. In the second novel, The Viscount Who Loved Me, it follows Anthony Bridgerton’s romantic journey. Both novels celebrate emotional depth, love, and engaging storytelling.
This collection offers readers an immersive journey into the world of high society, romance, and tight-knit Bridgeton family dynamics.
With this edition, you won’t only enjoy the words on the paper, but also add an aesthetically pleasing book on your shelf. According to Amazon, this edition features: sprayed edges, integrate foil iconography, ribbon bookmark, and endpapers.
For more product recommendations, check out this Amazon book haul, best journals for storytelling, and best country music books to add to your reading list.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
The 2024 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships launch on Thursday (May 30) with more than two dozen athletes competing for a spot in the upcoming Summer Olympics.
Olympic all-around gold medalists Simone Biles and Suni Lee are among the athletes competing in this year’s championship. Unfortunately, fellow Olympic gold medalists Gabby Douglas was forced to withdraw from the Championship on Wednesday due to injury. Douglas plans to try out for the 2028 Olympics.
Keep reading for ways to watch and stream the 2024 U.S. Gymnastics Tryouts from anywhere.
Where to Watch the 2024 U.S. Gymnastics Tryouts
The 2024 U.S. Gymnastics Championships will broadcast on NBC and CNBC and stream on Peacock. The competition is scheduled to take place at Dickie’s Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, from May 30-June 20.
Want to stream the U.S. Gymnastics Championships on Peacock? You’re in luck! New subscribers can join Peacock Premium for $19.99 (reg. $59.99). Use code STREAMTHEDEAL to save $40 off the annual plan.
Related
Peacock offers a large selection of must-watch entertainment — from movies to sports and Peacock Originals such as The Traitors, Ted, We Are Lady Parts, Love Undercover, Bel-Air, Love Island USA, and Poker Face.
Peacock also features WWE, Premier League, MLB Sunday Lead Off, U.S. Open Golf, IndyCar, FIFA and other sports.
Viewers who don’t have access to NBC can stream local and cable channels (including MSNBC) on DirecTV Stream, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV and Sling TV.
DirecTV Stream lets you watch free live TV for five days. Besides a free trial, the streamer offers plans for under $80/month to stream 90+ channels, no hidden fees and you can cancel anytime. The channel lineup includes NBC, MSNBC, ESPN, CBS, ABC, Fox, CNN, HGTV, Disney Channel, A&E, BET, MTV, VH1, BIG Network, Bounce TV, Lifetime, E!, Bravo, TLC, TNT, WEtv, TBS and OWN.
Fubo’s streaming plans start at $79.99/month for 189 channels (MSNBC, NBC, Fox, FX, ESPN, Nickelodeon, FS1, NFL Network) and the first week free.
Sling TV also offers MSNBC, ESPN, CNN, and other cable channels along with ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS in select regions. Click below to join Sling TV and save $10 off your first month.
A total of 26 athletes will compete in this year’s U.S. Championships ahead of the 2024 Olympics Team Trials next month. The team trials will take place from June 27-30 at Target Center in Minneapolis.
The U.S. Gymnastics Championships is scheduled to stream on Peacock from 8-10:30 p.m. ET on Thursday and 8-10 p.m. ET on Friday. The championship is scheduled for 8-10:30 p.m. ET on Saturday and 7-9 p.m. ET on Sunday. CNBC will re-air Day 1 and Day 2 of the men’s and women’s sessions on Saturday at 12-2:30 p.m. ET and 2:30-5 p.m. ET.
For those who miss the first showing, the senior men Day 2 session will re-air on NBC on Sunday from 3-4 p.m. ET.
Coverage of the junior men, junior women and Session 1 of the senior women competition will stream on the U.S. Gymnastics YouTube channel.
U.S. Gymnastics Championships Schedule:
Day 1: Senior Men’s Session, Thursday, May 30 on Peacock
Day 2: Senior Women Session, Friday, May 31 on Peacock
Day 3: Senior Men Session, Saturday, June 1 on NBC, CNBC and Peacock
Day 4: Senior Women Session, Sunday, June 2 on NBC, CNBC and Peacock
Los Angeles-based electronic producer Jauz partnered with global distribution company OneRPM to relaunch his six-year-old label, Bite This. Together, the two teams are planning label takeovers, pop-up events and compilations as they bring genre-spanning sounds by rising artists to the release calendar. The partnership with OneRPM — whose client list also includes artists like Chance Peña, Yelawolf, A$AP Twelvyy and Alejo — will provide projects from emerging Bite This acts like Albert Breaker and Edison Cole with label services that would normally be rare to have at an artist-run imprint. – Katie Bain
U.K.-based ATC Management, whose clients include Bring Me the Horizon and Bullet for My Valentine, signed a new cooperation agreement with Chinese independent music company Modern Sky. Through the deal, the two companies will leverage their resources across management, live representation, merchandising, marketing and digital to drive artists’ careers in their respective markets.
AWAL partnered with L.A.-based networking and mentoring program Creative Futures Collective to launch the AWAL Futures program, which will focus on launching the careers of artists and supporting creatives from underrepresented communities. The artists selected into the program will receive an EP release from AWAL (including an EP release event at Soho Warehouse in July) as well as mentorship from AWAL executives. Creatives from the Creative Futures Collective community will assist with marketing assets including music videos, photos and other artwork. Selected artists for the inaugural program are Brooklyn-based project BITTERS featuring British frontwoman Claudia Mills; Columbus, Ohio-based Ghanian-American singer-songwriter NanaBCool; and Chicago rapper/producer Jay Wood.
Two French collecting societies, the SCPP (for sound recording producers) and ADAMI (for music and audiovisual artists), signed a partnership agreement to pool their respective databases and distribution tools for private copying remuneration and equitable remuneration. A study is currently underway to draw up the operational implementation of the pact, which includes a clause under which the two companies may decide to merge within a joint subsidiary being created under the deal. The creation of the subsidiary will be submitted for approval at each company’s upcoming general shareholders meetings. “Both companies jointly acknowledged that the situation in France creates inefficiencies that are detrimental to all rights holders and weakens their ability to negotiate their rights,” according to a press release. “This is because there are 7 related rights collective management organizations in France, whereas in most European countries there is only one.”
U.K. physical distributor Proper Distribution signed a deal with U.S.-based Firebird Music Holdings to service Firebird’s partner labels, artist management agencies and other creative businesses. Proper will spearhead physical sales and distribution for Firebird’s frontline and catalog releases across the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and Europe (via Proper’s partner Bertus) for select signed and self-releasing artists on Firebird’s partner rosters. Firebird partners will be granted access to Proper’s facilities and resources, specialist knowledge of local record retailers and marketing and sales teams in agreed-upon territories. Self-releasing artists under Firebird will enjoy a streamlined process to release music on physical formats. The deal will encompass releases by Slash, Chase Rice, The WAEVE, Moonchild Sanelly, Whiskey Myers, Danielle Bradbery and Rainbow Kitten Surprise, among others.
Keywords Studios, an international provider of technology-enabled solutions to the gaming and entertainment industries, partnered with Reactional Music, a music personalization engine that allows music and audio to be generated live in video games. Under the deal, Keywords will offer help facilitate the integration of Reactional into game development projects on behalf of its clients. “Collaborating with [Keywords’] teams and studios provides an incredible opportunity to scale Reactional,” said Reactional Music president David Knox in a statement. “We believe that Keywords’ implementation teams can also enable Reactional to extend its generative music and creator tools in innovative ways beyond the core gaming space.”
Producer Eli Brown (Drake, Giveon, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Chris Brown) signed an exclusive deal with Warner Music Canada through which he will develop and sign Canadian artists to the label via his imprint, Loophole Records.
Code.org, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools, particularly for students from underrepresented groups, partnered with Amazon to launch Music Lab, a platform through which K-12 students can learn to code through interactive music composition featuring hit songs by artists including Tinashe, The Chainsmokers, Rosa Linn and Aloe Blacc. Through an educational partnership with Amazon, each artist contributed tracks and samples for use in the platform. Over the past six months, Code.org has tested Music Lab with thousands of students and teachers.
The European Music Managers Alliance (EMMA) announced a new partnership with AI-driven msuic funding platform beatBread, which uses billions of data points to forecast an artist’s earnings potential in order to offer advances on existing catalog as well as new and unreleased music. Artists then repay their advances as a percentage of their revenue over a period of time that artists can set. The partnership will kick off with an exclusive online workshop for EMMA members on July 2 that will focus on funding and business building.
.MUSIC, a top-level domain name designed for the global music community, partnered with global identity verification provider Shutfi Pro. Through the deal, Shufti Pro will authenticate the digital identity of the music community to create a “trusted ecosystem of verified artists, creators, industry professionals, organizations, businesses, and brands” under the .MUSIC domain.
Mastercard Midnight Theatre, a 150-seat venue in Manhattan, selected Oak View Group (OVG) to manage its operations. OVG plans to debut a new restaurant concept at the venue, an investment of Dolphin Entertainment, this spring.
U.K. taxi app FREENOW announced a third year of financial support for Music Venue Trust (MVT). Under the arrangement, FREENOW customers can opt in via the company’s app to round up the cost of their fares and donate to MVT, which supports grassroots music venues across the United Kingdom. Donations will be collected for every trip completed and sent to MVT, which will use the funds to operate its emergency response service — one MVT claims has saved “hundreds” of venues from closure since being established in 2017.
