business
Mell Hall’s ‘Knock Knock’ Sets Australian Club Chart Record
The previous record belonged to fellow Australian Zoe Badwi’s “Release Me,” which dominated the ARIA club chart for seven-straight weeks in 2008. “Knock Knock” opened its chart account 11 weeks ago, before going on to claim the top position, with Hall becoming only the fifth Australian solo female artist to get there. “Knock Knock” also becomes the first ARIA club chart leader to feature two Australian female artists in collaboration, and it marks Thandi Phoenix’s first appearance on the tally. “So grateful to see my debut record getting so much love,” comments Hall. “Knock Knock” was a “joy to make, a joy to work with Thandi Phoenix and knowing that it brings audiences and my peers alike joy, what more could a girl want!? Big love to Team Sweat for the endless support. Feeling the moment ...
Ryan Hurd ‘Never Expected’ Maren Morris Duet ‘Chasing After You’ to Become a Hot 100 Hit
On Friday (Oct. 15), Hurd celebrates another career first with the release of his full-length debut album, Pelago, out via Arista Nashville. The album is a major milestone for the Michigan native, who initially moved to Nashville to be a songwriter instead of an artist. Hurd is signed with House of 42 for management (which also manages Morris), WME for booking and Big Machine Music for publishing. While studying sociology at Belmont University, Hurd focused on bettering his songcraft, and later found success writing for other artists, including two No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hits for Luke Bryan, “Sunburn, Sunset, Repeat,” and “Waves.” Hurd also penned “Last Turn Home” for Tim McGraw, “You Look Good” and “What If I Never G...
L.A.’s Hollywood Park Expands Workforce with 22 New Hires and Promotions
“We continue to add an accomplished and diverse group of leaders to our growing team,” said SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park managing director Jason Gannon in a release. “We are working hard to bring SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park to life, and we are excited to welcome these team members on our journey to deliver a global sports and entertainment destination.” For faculty and campus operations, Hollywood Park promoted Otto Bendict to svp of facility and campus operations, while Chan Onechanh becomes vp of facility operations. The department also welcomed Tina Suca as vp of event operations. Nate Goldstien was promoted to senior counsel in legal, while ...
Elton John Sets U.K. Chart Record With ‘Cold Heart’
With his latest feat, Elton eclipses the efforts of five other music greats – Elvis Presley, Cher, Cliff Richard, Michael Jackson and David Bowie – all of whom landed at least one Top 10 single in five different decades. Across his glittering career, Elton has been crowned on the Official U.K. Singles Chart on seven occasions. He could stretch that tally to eight with “Cold Heart,” which leads the midweek chart and is poised to usurp “Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers” after three weeks at No. 2. “Cold Heart” is lifted from John’s forthcoming collaborative studio album, The Lockdown Sessions, set for release Oct. 22. In his homeland, John has 32 Top 10 albums, with seven hitting the summit. His last LP to reach No. 1 was 2012’s Good Morning to the Night, Pnau’s mashup of his classic songs. The Officia...
Five Ways the Music Industry Has Changed Since Adele Last Released an Album
What we’ve heard of “Easy On Me” so far sounds much like the Adele that the world fell in love with a decade-plus ago. But even if the sound of her new music is in line with her earlier blockbusters, the music industry has evolved at a rapid pace since 2015. Her continued streak of hits is close to a foregone conclusion, but what success looks like in 2021 is slipperier and harder to define by the old metrics. Here are five ways that the music industry has changed since we last heard from Adele. Streaming windows have gone out of style Back in the mid-2010s, streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music had already begun reshaping music consumption and driving down traditional sales even further from the decline previously brought about by filesharing at the turn of the centu...
John Ashton Thomas, Conductor and Orchestrator on ‘Black Panther,’ Dies at 60
The pair also teamed on the Paul Greengrass-directed The Bourne Supremacy (2004), United 93 (2006) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007); three Ice Age films and two Rio films helmed by Carlos Saldanha; Happy Feet and Kung Fu movies; and The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002), The Italian Job (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), among other efforts. Thomas partnered with composer James Newton Howard on films including The Last Airbender (2010), The Bourne Legacy (2012) and installments of the Hunger Games, Fantastic Beasts and Maleficent franchises. More recently, he worked on Captain Marvel (2019), Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019), The Call of the Wild (2020), The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) and Operation Mincemeat, set for release next year. He also wrote ar...
Latin Music Streaming Soars, US Market Share Hits 5.8% at Mid-Year: RIAA
Latin music now represents a 5.8% share of the overall U.S. market with revenues hitting $407 million in the first half of 2021 — 96% of which came from streaming for $393 million. The genre’s growth has been rapid over the past few years: The genre’s revenue for the first half of 2019 was $250 million, and then jumped to $298 in the first half of 2020. Paid streaming subscriptions grew 41% to $279 million, while ad-supported on-demand streaming revenue increased 30% to $77 million. Revenues from digital and custom radio services also rebounded, growing 24% to $37 million after a slight decline in 2020. “It’s incredible to see continued double-digit growth in Latin music — outpacing the already strong performance we’ve seen across other music segments and catego...
Denis Handlin’s Honorary Award Is Revoked Following Explosive Documentary
“Following ongoing reports of systemic bullying, discrimination, and misconduct under Handlin’s leadership at Sony Music Entertainment,” reads a statement from Kris Stewart, CEO of QMusic, the organization “could not let this acknowledgement and celebration of Handlin’s career stand.” Those reports have been mounting-up in recent months, and reached a crescendo with the ABC’s Four Corners investigation, for which journalist Grace Tobin spoke with more than 100 current and ex-Sony Music employees as part of the broadcaster’s probe into bullying, discrimination and misconduct at the music giant. The report, notes QMusic’s Stewart, “laid bare the undeniable fact that the culture under Denis Handlin’s leadership at Sony came at significant human cost.” He continued, “toxic workplac...
Sam Fender’s ‘Seventeen Going Under’ Opens Healthy Lead In U.K. Chart Race
It’s the outright leader on the midweek chart, and is outselling the rest of the Top 10 combined, according to the OCC. Fender’s set has a lead of 20,000 chart sales over his closest competitor, Drake’s Certified Lover Boy (OVO/Republic Records). Also impacting the Official Chart Update is Trivium, whose tenth album In The Court of the Dragon (Roadrunner) swoops in at No. 3. If it holds its course, Dragon will give the U.S. metal band their second U.K. Top 10 and a peak entry. Electronic artist James Blake could also net a career-best chart position with Friends That Break Your Heart (Polydor), new at No. 5. Based on midweek data, fresh sets from Johnny Flynn (Lost In Cedar Wood at No. 11 via Transgressive) and We Are Scientists (Huffy at No. 15 via 100 Percent Records) are eying Top...
Pink Is Most-Played Female Artist In U.K. This Century
Adele (No. 6) and Little Mix (No. 9) are the only homegrown artists to crack the list, while Rihanna (No. 4), Kylie Minogue (No. 8) and the late Whitney Houston (No. 10) also appear. PPL’s most-played list is based on exclusive music usage and airplay data from U.K. radio stations and television channels. The association’s library contains data for over 15 million recordings, and it receives usage data from licensees describing the music used across billions of seconds of airplay. Pink was already a star in the U.K. before she broke through in the mainstream of her homeland. In her career so far, she’s racked up 36 Top 40 hits in the U.K., including three No. 1s, for 2001’s “Lady Marmalade,” a collaboration with Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim and Mya; 2002’s “Just Like a Pil...
Two-Thirds of Music Fans Favor Vaccine or Mask Mandates at Concerts: Study
Implementing COVID-19 safety requirements “is the number one thing anyone can do to take care of those around them and we are encouraging as many shows as possible to adopt this model,” said Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino in a letter to staff in August. MusicWatch, which surveyed 753 active music listeners, also found that just 6% of respondents would not frequent a venue where there were COVID-19 safety requirements. Only 15% of fans said they would be comfortable with attendees using “common sense” regarding vaccination and masking requirements for indoor concerts. As general manager of Tipitina’s in New Orleans, Brian Greenberg told Billboard in August that implementing vaccine requirements for his venue was met with mixed reviews. ...
The Script Notch Sixth U.K. No. 1 Album
With their sixth No. 1, The Script join an elite club of rock bands that includes Arctic Monkeys, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Kings Of Leon, Radiohead, Blur and Muse. The Specials blast in at No. 2 with Protest Songs 1924-2012 (Island), for the ska legends’ fifth U.K. Top 10 album, while Queen drummer Roger Taylor hits his first solo U.K. Top 10 with his sixth record Outsider (EMI), new at No. 3. Also new to the current frame is Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s sophomore duets effort, Love For Sale (Interscope), debuting No. 6. Hans Zimmer cuts a slice of history with his soundtrack to the new James Bond film No Time To Die (Decca). The album bows at No. 7 on the weekly chart, to become the highest-charting Bond title in the franchise’s history. The LP’s title track, led by Billie Eilish and featurin...
