Anitta stopped by Billboard News and spilled about the music she’s been listening to, what she’s working on next, the questions she hates being asked during interviews, and more!
The largest publicly traded music companies gained this week as investors digested the impacts of another increase in the Federal Reserve’s benchmark interest rate.
Billboard‘s Global Music Index rose 2.1% this week to 1,213.30 despite 11 of its 20 stocks being in negative territory. Shares of Universal Music Group, the most valuable component of the 20-stock Index, rose 6.7% to 22.82 euros ($24.58). K-pop company HYBE rose 4.5% to 187,500 won ($144.70), Warner Music Group improved 4.3% to $31.50, SiriusXM rose 3.6% to $3.77 and Spotify was up 1% to $128.30.
The Index’s greatest gainer was streaming company LiveOne, which climbed 13.1% to $1.12. On Tuesday, LiveOne said it is extending the record date for the previously announced spinoff of its PodcastOne subsidiary to April 7. “We expect the special dividend and trading of PodcastOne to begin in April,” said Robert Ellin, LiveOne CEO and chairman. The company also announced it gained 136,000 paid subscribers since Jan. 1, to more than 2 million monthly paying members, and plans to reach 2.75 million subscribers by the end of the year.
Broadcast radio company Audacy, a relatively small component of the Index, had the week’s biggest decline of 21.4%. On March 16, a B. Riley analyst cut the price target for Audacy shares from 50 cents to 10 cents. The stock closed at 11 cents per share on Friday and is down 52% year to date.
The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank raised its benchmark interest rate a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday — from 4.75% to 5% — and suggested additional hikes may not be needed “to return inflation to 2% over time,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement. That decision sent markets into negative territory on Wednesday: both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq composite fell 1.6% while the S&P 500 dropped 1.7%. But stocks rallied on Thursday and Friday. The Dow finished the week up 1.2% while the Nasdaq composite and S&P 500 rose 1.7% and 1.4%, respectively.
50 Cent has reached a settlement to end a lawsuit in which he accused a Miami medical spa of falsely suggesting that he’d had penis surgery, according to court documents filed Friday (March 24).
The rapper claims that Angela Kogan and her Perfection Plastic Surgery & MedSpa exploited an innocent photo he’d “graciously agreed” to take with her to imply that he was a client — and, more startlingly, that he had received penile enhancement surgery as part of his work.
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But in a joint filing made Friday in Miami federal court, attorneys for both 50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) and Kogan said they had “reached an agreement in principle to settle Mr. Jackson’s claims” and were “in the process of preparing an agreement to finalize and memorialize” the deal.
An attorney for 50 Cent did not immediately return a request for comment. A lawyer for Kogan declined to comment.
50 Cent sued Kogan in September, arguing that he took a photo with “someone he thought was a fan” and had “never consented” to the use of the image for commercial purposes in any form. He says Kogan not only posted the image to Instagram herself but also engineered an article on the website The Shade Room that used the post to make the “false insinuation” that she’d provided him with penile enhancement.
The article in question (“Penis Enhancements Are More Popular Than Ever & BBLs Are Dying Out: Cosmetic Surgery CEO Angela Kogan Speaks On It”) did not directly claim that Jackson had the surgery. But it allegedly said he was a “client” of the practice while repeatedly using the image of him with Kogan, leading Jackson’s lawyers to say the “implication was clear.”
“Defendants’ actions have exposed Jackson to ridicule, caused substantial damage to his professional and personal reputation, and violated his right to control his name and image,” the star’s lawyers wrote at the time. They included social media comments in which users mocked the rapper, including one that “crudely” said the rapper should be called “50 inch.”
Kogan strongly denied the allegations and immediately moved to dismiss the case, saying 50 Cent actually was a client and had consented to the use of the image as payment for the work he received. She argued it was just an “innocuous” use of the photo, not a direct suggestion that he’d endorsed the office.
But in December, Judge Robert N. Scola, Jr. denied Kogan’s request to toss out the case, saying that 50 Cent might eventually be able to prove his allegations at trial.
“As the proverbial saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words,” Scola wrote. “This one in particular depicts a worldwide celebrity next to Kogan with MedSpa’s name repeated all throughout the background. The promotional value is evident.”
As the U.S. government considers banning social media app TikTok, the U.S. music industry faces a few scenarios regarding the platform that’s become a lifeline for discovering and breaking artists — and most aren’t good.
The grilling of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew by members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday (March 23) had all the political theater expected from a Congressional hearing. It also had one important characteristic unusual for the United States in 2023: bi-partisan agreement. Despite Chew’s insistence that U.S. TikTok users’ data cannot be accessed from China, home of parent company Bytedance, neither Democrats nor Republicans seem intent on allowing TikTok to operate within their borders.
The showdown seemed inevitable given TikTok’s foreign entanglements and the app’s quick ascendence. The app accounted for 17% of total time spent on mobile apps globally in 2022, according to Data.ai — second behind WeChat’s 19.5% and well ahead of No. 3 YouTube’s 12.7%. Chew told lawmakers that TikTok has 150 million users in the U.S. That’s 50% more than the 100 million figure TikTok previously made public (and eMarketer’s latest estimate of 95.8 million at the end of 2022). Among U.S. Gen Z consumers aged 18 to 24, TikTok ranks No. 2 behind Instagram in monthly average users, according to Data.ai.
But the app’s fate in the United States “is on shakier ground than ever,” according to eMarketer principal analyst Jasmine Enberg. “TikTok’s decision to highlight how entrenched the app has become in US society was miscalculated,” Enberg said in a statement. “It actually strengthened U.S. lawmakers’ argument that TikTok poses a threat to both national security and young people.”
Brendan Carr, a commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission, agrees. The vocal TikTok critic told CBS News “the day could not have gone any worse for TikTok” and that Chew “completely failed” to gain “some level” of trust and credibility with members of Congress.
While a TikTok ban appears popular amongst politicians, not everybody is supportive. The Cato Institute’s Paul Matzo called a ban “a hamfisted mistake” born from “neo-Cold War paranoia.” It wouldn’t necessarily make America safer, he argued, and would amount to a bail-out for Meta, whose TikTok competitor, Instagram, has failed to win on a level playing field. The Brookings Institute’s Darrell M. West and Michaela Robison argue that a ban would open up U.S. companies in China — such as automaker Tesla — to similar scrutiny.
If a ban could withstand a legal challenge — former President Donald Trump’s attempt to ban TikTok and Chinese messaging app WeChat both failed — TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, would be forced to sell the company. President Joe Biden’s administration has encouraged Bytedance to sell TikTok. But it wouldn’t be a straightforward process. China would “strongly oppose” a forced sale, a Ministry of Commerce spokesperson said Thursday, and TikTok is subject to Chinese law on tech exports and would require government approval.
A prompt sale of TikTok, which is reportedly valued at $60 billion, would be the best outcome for the music industry in search of new sources of streaming revenue. TikTok’s revenue rocketed from $4 billion in 2021 to $10 billion in 2022, according to reports. Research firm Omdia projects that TikTok’s ad revenue will climb to $44 billion by 2027 — presumably assuming there are no geopolitical interferences — and surpass the combined video ad revenues of Meta and YouTube. Although TikTok is not a major source of revenue for labels and publishers, rights holders expect to eventually have licensing agreements that give them a share of advertising revenue for user-generated content (like their deal with YouTube).
The current hodgepodge of bans also hurts both TikTok and the music industry. In the United States, TikTok has already been banned by some federal agencies, state and local governments and universities. Elsewhere, TikTok has been banned from the official phones of staff of the European Commission, U.K. parliament, Canadian government, Belgian government, Danish Defense Ministry and Latvian Foreign Ministry, to name a few. Fewer TikTok apps installed on fewer smartphones is twice the punishment for an app that depends on user-generated content. Lower usage means fewer people creating and viewing videos.
Perhaps the biggest question is what would happen to TikTok under new ownership. If, say, Oracle owned a stake in TikTok, as was proposed during the Trump administration, would the app continue to have the same magical recommendation algorithm that has made TikTok so irresistible and its competitors unable to keep up? New ownership would eliminate restraints on TikTok’s revenue and user growth, but if the product suffers, the music industry would be handed a less effective promotional tool and a less valuable source of revenue. The only certainty in this TikTok controversy is that such unintended consequences are guaranteed.
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Here are nine things you didn’t know about TWICE.
Morgan Wallen will headline an all-star benefit concert for ACM Lifting Lives during ACM Awards week in May. ACM Lifting Lives LIVE: Morgan Wallen & Friends, Presented by VGT by Aristocrat Gaming, will be held Wednesday, May 10, on the golfing green at Topgolf The Colony.
The show will take place a day prior to the 58th annual ACM Awards show on Thursday, May 11, set to be held at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.
Joining Wallen will be reigning ACM new female artist and song of the year winner Lainey Wilson, “Rock and a Hard Place” hitmaker Bailey Zimmerman, and Wallen’s Big Loud Records labelmates HARDY and ERNEST. Also on the bill is DJ 13lackbeard.
Just prior to the benefit concert, ACM Lifting Lives will welcome the return of Topgolf Tee-Off and Rock On Fundraiser at Topgolf The Colony.
General Admission tickets on the green are separate from the Topgolf Tee-Off and Rock On tournament access and will be available to ACM Members, ACM A-List subscribers, 58th ACM Awards ticket holders, and Topgolf Friends and Family through an exclusive presale, which launched Thursday (March 23). Remaining tickets will be available for a general public on-sale beginning this Friday, March 24 at 10 a.m. CST through AXS. Those who have purchased bays for golf will be able to remain in their bay for the concert, with the bay serving as a suite to watch the show.
“ACM Lifting Lives does great work providing aid in times of need to folks inside and outside of the music industry,” Wallen said via a statement. “My band and I are excited to help them raise funds to continue doing this amazing work.”
“The support of Country Music artists and the industry as a whole are who make the impactful work of ACM Lifting Lives possible,” added ACM Lifting Lives Executive Director Lyndsay Cruz. “We are so thankful to Morgan, HARDY, Lainey, ERNEST, Bailey and DJ 13lackbeard for volunteering their time to help us raise money and awareness, and we know music fans in Texas will be blown away by this all-star lineup!”
In addition to distributing more than $4 million to date through its Covid Relief Fund, ACM Lifting Lives provides critical support through the Diane Holcomb Emergency Relief Fund, significant annual commitments to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, Music Health Alliance, and the Ryan Seacrest Foundation, and individual grants to organizations that reach communities all across America.
The ACM Awards will air live on May 11, exclusively via Prime Video.
Wallen recently broke the record for the most songs simultaneously charted on the Billboard Hot 100, entering 36 songs on the chart on the survey dated March 18, marking the entirety of his new album, One Thing At a Time. The album also marks a second week at the pinnacle of the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart.
