business
Kanye West to Headline Coachella 2022, Considering Sunday Service
Kanye West — who now goes by Ye — has been tapped to headline Sunday night at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and might also stage a second Sunday Service performance a source tells Billboard. Billie Eilish is also in talks to headline the event — likely Friday — sources confirms. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The headliner news comes after a chaotic 48 hours for festival organizer Goldenvoice as it moves artists in and out of the event’s three headliner slots, originally set for the 2020 iteration that was postponed several times during the pandemic. Billboard has confirmed that previous headliners Travis Scott and Rage Against the Machine will no longer headline the 2022 edition of the festival after originally bei...
Joyce Ostin, Daughter-in-Law of Music Exec Mo Ostin, Dies at 64
Joyce Ostin, a photographer and daughter-in-law of legendary music executive Mo Ostin, died Dec. 29 at her Pacific Palisades home after a battle with cancer, her family announced. She was 64. Ostin spent her first years raising her three daughters while battling breast cancer, and in 2001, she published Hollywood Moms, a best-selling coffee-table book with a foreword by Carrie Fisher that featured photographs of Goldie Hawn and daughter Kate Hudson; Dyan Cannon and daughter Jennifer Grant; Jennifer Lopez and her mom, Guadalupe; and Rosie O’Donnell and her daughter, Chelsea. In 2007 came Hollywood Dads, with an introduction by Paul Reiser and photos of Robin Williams, Michael J. Fox, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Bruce Willis and other fathers with their kids. Explore See latest videos, char...
Moneygram buys 4% stake in crypto ATM operator Coinme
Money transmission network MoneyGram now has a minority investment in crypto ATM operator Coinme following a Series A funding round. In a Wednesday announcement, MoneyGram said it had purchased a roughly 4% ownership stake in Coinme — likely more than $764,000, given its valuation of $19.1 million in June — as part of a strategic investment in the crypto company. The investment follows a May 2021 partnership between the two firms aimed at expanding access to crypto-fiat exchanges. “We continue to be bullish on the vast opportunities that exist in the ever-growing world of cryptocurrency and our ability to operate as a compliant bridge to connect digital assets to local fiat currency,” said MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes. “Our investment in Coinme further strengthens our partnership and co...
Where Podcast Producers May Turn for Deals in 2022
If 2020 and 2021 were the years Hollywood stars proved their mettle in podcasting, 2022 could be the year top influencers find their stride in audio. A survey of U.S. listeners by Acast and Nielsen finds nearly 40 percent of respondents said they wanted podcasts from YouTubers and influencers, outranking interest in shows from music and TV personalities. “We anticipate that this consumer desire will drive content creators who are looking to please their fans to pick up microphones and test the waters in podcasting this year,” Tommy Walters, Acast’s North America Commercial Insights Manager, said in an email to The Hollywood Reporter, noting that “smart content creators” understand the potential of podcast advertising will be able to carry their followings over to t...
Ted Gardner, Artist Manager and Lollapalooza Co-Founder, Dies at 74
Ted Gardner, a longtime artist manager who co-founded the Lollapalooza festival with Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, died Dec. 28. He was 74. “I’m sad to report Ted Gardner, Our manager passed away today surrounded by his loving family,” tweeted Anton Newcombe, whose band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, has been managed by Gardner since 2004. “We will miss a great manager, mentor & friend. Our condolences to all his family & friends.” The funniest story he told me was of a meeting when @lollapalooza went mega, and he walks in and @perryfarrell goes “ted, we got Metallica to headline” he goes “fuck, you just wrecked this festival.” Perry goes “ted, they are on speakerphone now” ☎️ “hi ted” 😂 — anton newcombe (@antonnewcombe) December 28, 2021 A more tha...
Mozilla Foundation announces it is accepting crypto donations
Member of the community were displeased by the move, with some threatening withdrawal of monthly donations Mozilla Foundation disclosed last Friday that it would be taking donations in crypto coins. The foundation, whose subsidiary Mozilla corporation oversees several internet-linked applications, including popular browser Mozilla Firefox, noted it would accept Dogecoin, Ether and Bitcoin. The announcement detailed that the non-profit organisation’s move would be facilitated by the popular crypto payments processing firm BitPay. The donations received in crypto would be converted into fiat to skirt any potential volatility. “Dabble in Dogecoin? HODLing some Bitcoin & Ethereum? We’re using BitPay to accept donations in cryptocurrency,” Mozilla posted on Twitter. Many users disapproved o...
Anitta Signs Global Deal With Sony Music Publishing
Sony Music Publishing, the current leading publisher for the Top Radio Airplay and the Hot 100 Songs charts, has announced the signing of pop sensation Anitta. Known across the world for her fusion of latin, radio pop and Brazilian baile funk, Anitta’s new agreement will see the young star represented by the publisher in all territories. The new deal arrives after a breakthrough year in the U.S. market for the singer, whose songs “Girl From Rio” featuring DaBaby, and “Faking Love” featuring Saweetie, both cracked the top 40 on Billboard‘sPop Airplay charts in 2021. In her native Brazil, Anitta reigns as the country’s highest streamed artist, and she made history this year as the country’s first musical export to perform at the MTV VMAs. She is also a six-time Latin Grammy nominee and nine ...
‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Surpasses $600M USD in North America Box Office
Sony and Marvel‘s Spider-Man: No Way Home has officially surpassed $600 million USD at the domestic box office. According to reports, the Tom Holland-lead film earned an additional $52.7 million USD over the New Year holiday to increase its North American total to $609 million USD. No Way Home is now the 10th highest-grossing domestic release ever, sitting just below Incredibles 2, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Avengers. It also extends its lead as the highest-grossing pandemic film by almost $400 million USD, above Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Meanwhile, No Way Home has earned $1.37 billion USD globally and surpassed Black Panther’s $1.34 billion USD as the 12th biggest film ever. International ticket sales make up a majority of that $1.37 billion USD at $759 million USD....
Going meta: Paris Hilton, Times Square and ETFs
Following the announcement that Facebook’s parent company would be rebranding in a shift towards the Metaverse, many projects have started similar initiatives entering the virtual space, from buying property to testing the limits of what this universe has to offer. Virtual ball drop on NYE The Ethereum-based virtual reality world Decentraland announced on Wednesday that a New Year’s Eve celebration would be taking place in the Metaverse. Grayscale owner Digital Currency Group has partnered with real estate firm Jamestown to create a virtual One Times Square — the iconic New York City location where a giant ball descends on a flagpole, stopping at midnight to mark the start of the new year. The virtual event starting at 11:00 pm EST will feature a live feed of the real Times Square as...
Concerts’ Comeback Brought a Record Year for Latin Tours
In February, when Maluma unveiled details of his 24-city Papi Juancho tour, at the time it was the biggest and most ambitious announcement yet, for any genre, as concerts began returning from the pandemic shut down in the United States. “It was difficult to go back on stage during COVID,” the Colombian artist told Billboard earlier this year, after completing a few shows. “You have to be brave to announce a tour after all the things that happened, but I feel like everyone is just looking forward to feeling normal — and this type of concert will give that back to them.” Soon after, a wave of Latin artists announced North American tours, including Banda MS, Marc Anthony, Rauw Alejandro, Camilo and Karol G. Since, Latin acts have set a new record for the genre, accounting for n...
Rob Stringer, Bernie Taupin Among Names on 2022 New Year Honours List
Sony Music Group chairman Rob Stringer, lyricist Bernie Taupin, singer Pauline Black and the Spice Girls’ Mel B are among the music industry professionals recognized in the 2022 New Year Honours List, the annual U.K. tradition dating back to 1890 that bestows titles upon a number of individuals in recognition of their work and is presented in the name of Queen Elizabeth II. Rob Stringer, leading as chairman of Sony Music Group and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, received the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) honor for his service to creative industries, social justice and charity. He notably launched Sony’s $100 million Social Justice Fund to support social justice and anti-racist initiatives globally. Bernie Taupin, longtime lyricist for Elton John — the pair have been c...
Jon Batiste’s Grammy Noms Are Validation for Verve and the ‘Exciting’ State of Jazz
On Nov. 23, Dahlia Ambach Caplin was walking through her Brooklyn neighborhood, listening as a series of artists announced the nominations for the 2022 Grammy Awards. Over the course of an hour, as the genre categories and Big Four honors were revealed, one name kept surfacing again and again: Jon Batiste, the Late Show With Stephen Colbert bandleader whom Ambach Caplin had signed to the Verve Label Group in 2018. In all, Batiste scored 11 nominations, the most of any artist, including nods for record and album of the year for his single “Freedom” and We Are album, respectively. “I was [multitasking] on a Zoom call, on a completely different subject, as all the album and record of the year stuff started coming out, and I was just like, ‘I can’t stay on the phone right now!’ ” she says...
