Rodney Jacobs, the leader of a police watchdog agency created by Miami voters more than 20 years ago, is running for state Senate. But he says his campaign won’t interfere … Click to Continue »
As efforts continue to sort out damage from Hurricane Idalia, Florida insurance regulators have approved proposals by seven private insurers to pull as many as 202,000 policies from the Citizens … Click to Continue »
ATLANTA — A federal judge on Tuesday reallowed enforcement of Georgia’s law banning certain hormone therapies for transgender minors. U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Geraghty about two weeks ago temporarily … Click to Continue »
Beyoncé played three sold-out nights at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., over the holiday weekend — and Billboard was there for all three shows.
On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, we’ve put together a roundtable discussion about the trio of concerts with Gail Mitchell, Billboard‘s executive director, R&B/hip-hop; Cat Johnson, Billboard‘s business development and talent relations manager; along with your two regular Pop Shop hosts Katie & Keith. Katie attended Friday night, Gail and Keith attended Monday night, and Cat attended all three nights and covered the shows (read her Friday/Saturday recap and birthday concert recap now).
Listen to our full discussion below to hear about all the surprises, all the standout moments, and all the silver, sparkly fashion.
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Zach Bryan takes over the top of both the Billboard 200 albums chart and Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, thanks to his new self-titled album and its breakout track “I Remember Everything,” featuring Kacey Musgraves. It’s Bryan’s first No. 1 on both charts and Musgraves’ first Hot 100 No. 1 (and top 10!) too. Plus, Miley Cyrus’ “Used to Be Young” debuts straight into the top 10 on the Hot 100, marking her 12th top 10 hit.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
Final nominees for the 57th CMA Awards will be announced Thursday at 8 a.m. ET. It’s been an exceptional year for country music, with artists like Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs dominating the pop and country charts. Newer acts like Zach Bryan and Oliver Anthony Music have seemingly come out of nowhere to top the charts and, in some cases, the national conversation.
Many of the acts who have broken through this year, like Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson, who swept the Academy of Country Music Awards, don’t sound like anyone who has come before them.
While it’s easy to predict a handful of the nominees, several of the categories are harder to figure out because in some cases, like new artist of the year, there is such a wealth of talent to be considered.
The CMA Awards, which are voted on by eligible CMA members, will be handed out Nov. 8. Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning return as co-hosts on the program, which will air live on ABC. The eligibility period for the 2023 show is July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023. According to CMA rules, “singles, albums, music videos and qualified music products for the annual show must have been released or reached peak national prominence during the eligibility period.”
Below are my predictions for the artist categories. I decided to go young this year, given the strength of some of the artists coming up.
Spotify is currently testing a feature that would put song lyrics on the app behind a paywall for free users, the company has confirmed to Billboard.
“At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests, some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others serve only as an important learning,” said a Spotify spokesperson in a statement sent to Billboard. “In keeping with our standard practices, we’re currently testing this with a limited number of users in a pair of markets. We don’t have any further news to share at this time.”
The Verge was first to report on the test.
The paywall test has been noted by Spotify users in the free (ad-supported) tier for more than a week on platforms including Reddit and X (formerly known as Twitter), with some decrying the move as “ableist” against the deaf community. Spotify did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment on that criticism.
Spotify developers are beginning to test lyrics restrictions for free users (1.2.19)
by u/Hidden_pool_ in truespotify
With the test, Spotify seems to be looking at ways to potentially convert more free users into premium subscribers on the service, which in the most recent quarter reported an 11% increase in revenue from premium subscriptions and 10 million net new accounts — amounting to a total of 220 million premium subscribers. During the same period, the company also reported a 12% increase in ad-supported revenue. Critically, average revenue per user fell 3% in the quarter while operating losses were €247 million ($272.7 million), leading to some disappointment from investors (its stock has since regained nearly all of those losses).
In July, Spotify announced it would institute a $1 price hike for its premium individual plan in North and South America, Europe and Asia following repeated calls from investors and the music industry to do so following price increases by competitors including Apple, Amazon and Tidal. On its July earnings call, Spotify executives said the move would improve the company’s quarterly operating losses through the remainder of 2023.
Asake shares how he feels about his success on the Billboard charts with his first album, Mr. Money With the Vibe, how his second album (Work of Art) is different, his crazy live shows, how the Afrobeats genre has grown across the globe, his mindset on collaborations, his dream collab and more!
Asake:
The only thing I could remember is I tried to do, you know, the dance they do in Nigeria where everybody do like this.
Hi! What’s up, everybody? It’s your boy, Asake — aka Mr. Money With the Vibe — right now, and you’re watching Billboard News.
Tetris Kelly:
It’s Tetris with Billboard News. Today, we got Mr. Afrobeats himself, Asake.
Thanks for coming to hanging out with us. Let’s talk about the genre itself. OK, so Afrobeats is obviously having this huge explosion globally. So how’s it feel from the artists standpoint, seeing your genre blow up like that?
Asake:
I think it’s a good thing. You know, it’s like you having a baby, and your baby’s growing. You know, you feel good when you have something around you and the thing is growing, and I feel like in a couple of years or in years to come, it will be bigger.
Tetris Kelly:
Well, speaking of getting bigger, I mean, next year will be the first year the Grammys ever have a category — best African musical performance — so that’s huge. Do you think that’s going to affect the genre? Like, are you even thinking like, “I want to be Grammy nominated?”
Asake:
No, it’s never going to affect anything. Like, everybody wants to be big. So if the whole genre is bigger, that means there is the happiness of the whole country, you know, it’s the happiness of everybody.
A man was stabbed multiple times in the Florida Keys Monday evening, according to Monroe County Fire-Rescue. The stabbing happened near the Key West Golf Club on Stock Island, said … Click to Continue »
A math teacher was killed at a South Miami-Dade home by a gunman who took his own life, Miami-Dade police say. The name of the gunman in Friday afternoon’s triple … Click to Continue »
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