business
Bad Bunny Tops Spotify Records for Most-Streamed Album in 2022, Most-Streamed Artist Globally in a Day
Bad Bunny‘s new album Un Verano Sin Ti is already making a splash on streaming services. In its first day of release, Friday (May 6), the Puerto Rican star broke two records, Spotify announced. Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti became the most-streamed album in 2022 so far. The artist also reached the milestone of becoming the most-streamed artist globally in one day, with 183 million streams. Drake previously held this record, with 176.8 million streams. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news On Friday, all 23 songs on Bad Bunny’s new album ranked in the top 30 of Spotify’s Daily Top Songs Global chart, with nine of those tracks finding their way to the top 10. Bad Bunny, who was Spotify’s most-streamed artist worldwide in both 2020 and 2021,...
The Ledger: How Much Will Music Subscriptions Grow in 2022?
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Earnings season is a great time to read the tea leaves about the future of the streaming and subscription businesses. How much growth is ahead? Where will that growth come from? Is pricing headed up or down? The answers are vital for investors but are also important to labels, publishers and creators. In the last two weeks, three companies — Spotify, Universal Music Group and Believe — provided some outlook on the streaming market during their earnings calls with analysts. Their earnings reports appeared in the wake of Netflix’s warning of subscription growth slowdown and the abrupt demise of CNN’s subscription platform...
Dave Chappelle Attack Suspect Charged With 4 Misdemeanors
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office filed four misdemeanor charges on Thursday (May 5) against suspect Isaiah Lee after the onstage attack of comedian Dave Chappelle during his set at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday. This follows the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office announcing earlier in the day that it declined to pursue felony charges. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news City Attorney Mike Feuer said his office has filed charges of battery, possession of a weapon with intent to assault, unauthorized access to the stage area during a performance and commission of an act that delays an event or interferes with a performer. “This alleged attack has got to have consequences,” Feuer said, in part, in video footage po...
Coinbase’s plans to purchase firm behind Mercado Bitcoin fall through: Report
Coinbase and Brazilian company 2TM, the parent company of Mercado Bitcoin, have reportedly scrapped talks around the crypto exchange purchasing the firm. According to a Tuesday Bloomberg report, 2TM and Coinbase have ended discussions around the United States-based crypto exchange buying the Brazilian company, which was valued at more than $2 billion. It’s unclear what led to the purchase not going through, as 2TM reportedly declined to comment and a Coinbase spokesperson said it was simply “committed to the Brazilian market.” Coinbase and 2TM scrapped talks over a possible purchase by the exchange of the Brazilian cryptocurrency brokerage https://t.co/HmZxDj7Koi — Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) May 4, 2022 As the parent company of Mercado Bitcoin — one of the largest crypto brokerage firms in...
Cumulus Media Rejects $1.2B Acquisition Bid by Jeff Warshaw-Led Consortium
Cumulus Media has rejected an unsolicited $1.2 billion bid to buy the company and instead is offering shareholders a $50 million stock repurchase program, according to a letter to shareholders the company filed with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission in conjunction with its first-quarter financial results. In that letter from Cumulus Media president/CEO Mary Berner, the company said that its board of directors, along with financial and legal advisors, have concluded that the $15-$17 a share bid “significantly undervalues the company and is not in the best interest of it shareholders.” While the letter doesn’t reveal the identity of the bidder, Reuters, which initially broke the news about the bid on April 14, identified the suitor as a consortium of investors led by veteran radio indu...
SoundCloud Acquires Music AI Software That Claims to Predict Hit Songs
SoundCloud has acquired Musiio, an artificial intelligence imprint focused on creating technology that can “listen” to music and better predict a song’s success, the company announced this week. The acquisition will allow SoundCloud to further utilize its vast data to pinpoint up-and-coming trends in music and discover rising talent on its artist-first platform. Musiio, which is based in Singapore, was founded by British CEO Hazel Savage and Swedish CTO Aron Pettersson in 2018. The AI software is capable of “listening” to more tracks than humanly possible, which will allow SoundCloud to make confident trend forecasts that, in turn, increase their “hit-rate” and revenue. “SoundCloud hosts more music from more creators than any platform on the planet. Acquiring Musiio accelerates our strateg...
MicroStrategy booked losses in Q1, with plunging Bitcoin price
The largest corporate Bitcoin holder recorded a Bitcoin impairment loss of $170.1 million in the first three months of 2022 Its latest Bitcoin addition was funded by a $205 million Bitcoin-backed loan. The world’s largest enterprise Bitcoin hodler MicroStrategy on Tuesday released its first-quarter 2022 financials, revealing a total revenue of 119.3 million, down 2.9% on the year. A tough Q1 MicroStrategy also said it saw a cumulative impairment loss of $1.071 billion on its Bitcoin Strategy. In the three-month period ending March 31, during which Bitcoin dropped by 1.2%, the software intelligence firm held 129,218 BTC, which at the time had a total market value of $5.893 billion and a carrying value of $2.896 billion. The company’s most recent purchases saw as many as 4,167 BTC...
BTS, Justin Bieber Concerts Boost HYBE’s Quarterly Earnings
Korean music company HYBE, home to K-pop superstars BTS, posted revenue of 285 billion KRW ($226 million) in the first quarter of 2022, the company announced Tuesday (May 3). The result — which marks a nearly 60% revenue increase year over year but a decrease of 37.8% from last quarter — followed a record-breaking year for HYBE in 2021, when the company surpassed $1 billion in revenue for the first time thanks to its acquisition of Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings. The Q1 results were bolstered by a return to large-scale live events, including BTS’ Permission to Dance shows in Seoul in March, which drew over 45,000 fans in person. An additional 1.4 million fans viewed the livestream, which smashed box office records; the March 12 screening alone grossed $6.9 million in North America, making...
Drake Signs Expansive Deal With Universal Music Group That Could Be Worth Around $400 Million USD
Drake has signed a new deal with Universal Music Group covering “multiple creative lanes and revenue streams.” Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge confirmed the news during the label’s Q1 earnings call, stating that The Boy’s wide-ranging deal includes recordings, publishing, merchandise and visual media projects. Labelled by the music executive as “expanded portfolios,” Variety reports that an insider called the deal “LeBron-sized” and could be priced at around or higher than $360 million USD after Drizzy hinted at the signing with the bar “Three-sixty upfront, it all comes full circle,” which appears on the Scary Hours 2 cut “Lemon Pepper Freestyle.” A 2021 report from UBS Research named Drake as one of Universal Music Group’s 2021 “re-signings”; the label supposedly sp...
MicroStrategy may explore ‘future yield generation opportunities’ on 95,643 BTC holdings
Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy said it will consider opportunities for yield generation on 95,643 “unencumbered” Bitcoin (BTC) held by its subsidiary MacroStrategy. In MicroStrategy’s report for the first quarter of 2022 released on Tuesday, the firm said it “may conservatively explore future yield generation opportunities on unencumbered MacroStrategy bitcoins” as a consideration following a $205 million BTC-collateralized loan issued by Silvergate Bank in March. As of March 31, MicroStrategy held a total of 129,218 BTC, which the firm reported had a carrying value of roughly $2.9 billion, reflecting cumulative impairment losses of more than $1 billion and an aggregate cost of $4 billion. “The original cost basis and market value of MicroStrategy’s bitcoin were $3.967 billion an...
MicroStrategy may explore ‘future yield generation opportunities’ on 95,643 BTC holdings
Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy said it will consider opportunities for yield generation on 95,643 “unencumbered” Bitcoin (BTC) held by its subsidiary MacroStrategy. In MicroStrategy’s report for the first quarter of 2022 released on Tuesday, the firm said it “may conservatively explore future yield generation opportunities on unencumbered MacroStrategy bitcoins” as a consideration following a $205 million BTC-collateralized loan issued by Silvergate Bank in March. As of March 31, MicroStrategy held a total of 129,218 BTC, which the firm reported had a carrying value of roughly $2.9 billion, reflecting cumulative impairment losses of more than $1 billion and an aggregate cost of $4 billion. “The original cost basis and market value of MicroStrategy’s bitcoin were $3.967 billion an...
Creem Entertainment Hires Former VICE Publisher John Martin as CEO
Creem Entertainment has announced a raft of new hires, led by former VICE publisher John Martin as CEO, the company tells Billboard. Additionally, BMG Cypress Ascendant Holdings — a partnership between music manager Tautua Reed, former music executive/agent Paul Coyne and investment fund Cypress Ascendant led by businessman Bill Trzos – have come on as investors in the venture. In his new role, Martin will work alongside Creem Entertainment chairman JJ Kramer — son of Creem magazine’s co-founder and publisher Barry Kramer — as well as the magazine’s original editor Jaan Uhelszki. Martin worked in senior leadership roles at VICE Media for 18 years, starting in sales and events before working his way up to publisher. While at the company, he co-founded Munchies, a food and drink joint ventur...
