business
Drake Breaks Apple Music’s One-Day Song Streaming Record Three Times
“Girls Want Girls (feat. Lil Baby),” “Champagne Poetry,” and “Fair Trade (feat. Travis Scott)” Drake’s sixth album, Certified Lover Boy continues to break records on Apple Music, with three songs from the project beating the record for most-streamed songs in 24 hours, Apple Music tells Billboard. “Girls Want Girls (feat. Lil Baby),” “Champagne Poetry,” and “Fair Trade (feat. Travis Scott)” are the three biggest song debuts ever on the platform, surpassing Drake’s “Nonstop” from his 2018 album Scorpion. Released just after midnight eastern on Friday (Sep 3), the project has also landed at the top spot on Apple Music’s Top Albums chart in 145 countries in its first day of release, and songs from Certified Lover Boy earned the number one spot on 51 of Apple Music’s Daily Top 100 charts, and s...
Drake Raps About Owning His Masters on ‘Certified Lover Boy,’ His First Full OVO Album
Scorpion from 2018 was the project that allowed Drake to fulfill his contractual obligations to Young Money/Cash Money, which he rapped about on “Is There More,” the final track on Side A: “Soon as this album drop I’m out of the deal.” On Certified Lover Boy‘s final track, “The Remorse,” he boasts, “And you know what I’m on, blowing past ya, owning masters,” which indeed seems to be the case for the OVO rapper. For the new album, Drake also partnered with Republic Records — which is home to major superstars like Taylor Swift, who started releasing her studio albums starting with 2019’s Lover and beyond under the UMG label following her departure from Big Machine Label Group — to distribute&nb...
Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Takes Swipes at Recording Academy’s Diversity Efforts
The Recording Academy’s Women in the Mix initiative was launched in 2019 whereby 650 music professionals pledged to consider at least two women in the selection process every time a producer or engineer is hired. The goal was to increase abysmal representation by women in studios. The tweet would seem to reference a survey, open until Sept. 20, which is part of a broader partnership between the academy, Berklee College of Music Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship and Arizona State University, that launched in March with an analysis of gender representation within the 63rd Grammy Awards. The goal of the study is to help guide diversity, equity and inclusion objectives within the Recording Academy and the industry at large. The Annenberg Inclusive Initiative’s tweet appears to...
Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Breaks Apple Music’s One-Day Streaming Record
Certified Lover Boy is Drake’s sixth studio album, and includes a lengthy list of features from superstar rappers including Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Future, Rick Ross and Lil Baby. Drake’s 2018 album Scorpion held the record previously on Apple Music, with 170 million streams in its first 24 hours. The 21-song project has also broken records on Spotify, becoming the most-streamed album in a day on the platform as well, the company confirmed to Billboard earlier Friday. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Drake Breaks Apple Music’s 2021 Records for Most-Streamed Album, Artist in a Day
Certified Lover Boy features a long list of top-tier collaborations, including appearances from Jay-Z, Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Lil Durk, Rick Ross, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Wayne and Tems, among others. In the description for the project on Apple Music, Drake describes Certified Lover Boy as “a combination of toxic masculinity and acceptance of truth which is inevitably heartbreaking.” Apple Music has had two consecutive record-breaking weeks, with Kanye West’s latest album Donda breaking a long list of records on the platform, some of which may fall before the first week of Certified Lover Boy comes to a close. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful peopl...
Nicole Scherzinger Sued Over Pussycat Dolls Reunion
Scherzinger did promote the tour, it’s acknowledged in the complaint, but then the pandemic halted music touring worldwide. She “now refuses to participate in the tour,” states the complaint, adding she “demanded to renegotiate the terms of the MOU.” According to the complaint, Scherzinger now wants to be a 75% owner with final decision-making authority, and she’s refusing to participate in the reunion tour unless she gets what she wants. And now because tour dates can’t be confirmed, Live Nation is said to be demanding $600,000 that it put up. Because of COVID, tours are only slowly ramping up at this point, and this suit comes with a not extremely common claim of anticipatory breach of contract (along with other contract claims and one for fiduciary duty). Scherzi...
The Deals: Primary Wave Acquires Gin Blossoms Catalog; WMG Licenses to Kuaishou
Warner Music Group has signed a licensing deal with China-based short-form video platform Kuaishou. Under the agreement, WMG will make its artists’ music available on all of Kuaishou’s overseas products, including the apps Kwai and SnackVideo. According to a release, Kuaishou boasts over one billion users worldwide, a milestone it hit in June. Outside of China, it has more than 180 million active users in territories including Latin America and MENA (Kwai) and South and Southeast Asia (SnackVideo). The platform encourages its “global community to share their activities, habits, and more with the core mission to ‘embrace all lifestyles.’” Oana Ruxandra, chief digital officer & executive vp of business development at WMG, said, “We’re excited to bring our diverse music ...
Wave and Riot Games Bring Virtual Metal Band Pentakill to Online Stage
“Riot Games is an ideal Wave collaborator as they have been an innovator in using music and emerging technologies to build and extend their worlds beyond games,” Wave COO Jarred Kennedy said. “Wave has sat at the intersection of music and gaming since its inception, and we’re excited to work with Riot to help shape the future of virtual performance.” The Los Angeles-based Wave has hosted more than 50 virtual concerts, called “Waves,” with artists like Dillon Francis, Alison Wonderland and Tinashe, where artists perform as avatars in imaginative virtual settings. The company names Warner Music Group an investor and China’s Tencent Music Entertainment a strategic partner. Meanwhile, Riot Games has been steadily making inroads in the music indust...
Chvrches Leads Maisie Peters, Kanye West In U.K. Albums Chart Race
Close behind on the chart blast is Maisie Peters’ debut studio album You Signed Up For This (Gingerbread Man), new at No. 2. Meanwhile, Kanye West’s long-delayed Donda (Def Jam) album comes in at No. 3, a solid start despite its late release on Sunday (instead of the typical Friday drop), and the fact it’s not available in physical formats. According to the OCC, Donda is leading on both downloads and streaming, and if it can lift to the top spot when the chart is published this Friday (Sept. 3), it’ll mark West’s third U.K. No. 1 album. Closing out an all-new midweek Top 5 is Halsey’s fourth studio effort, If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power (EMI), and Becky Hill’s debut Only Honest On The Weekend (Polydor), respectively. Just 2,000 chart sales currently separate the Top 5, the OCC rep...
Why This Is the Right Time to Sell Your Catalog (Guest Column)
For recording artists earning meaningful royalties from catalogs in which they have full or part ownership — who are considering selling before changes to the tax law — the question of whether to proceed might feel like a double-edged sword. Yet, we crunched the numbers and the answers are both straightforward and convincing. Of course, recording artists like Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and Paul Simon are selling their catalogs now for many reasons: Some are making unique deals that guarantee their music will remain in print with their longtime labels or will be managed by knowledgeable industry insiders. Others are working to simplify their estate. But regardless of motivation, the artists who have already sold their works have been well advised that the combination of low interes...
Kanye West’s Chicago ‘Donda’ Event Coming On-Demand to Apple Music
An edited version of Kanye West’s final livestreamed listening session for his 10th album Donda is expected to go live exclusively on Apple Music Tuesday, multiple sources tell Billboard. West partnered with Apple Music to host two listening sessions at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and another at Soldier Field in Chicago, collectively bringing out well over 100,000 people to hear him complete his latest work. West’s Chicago show set a livestreaming record on Apple Music, with 5.9 million people tuning in to watch the spectacle. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos,...
D-Nice Brings Club Quarantine to the Hollywood Bowl with Common, Isley Brothers and More
In-concert version of the popular Instagram Live series coming next to Brooklyn and Atlanta One of the most uplifting events to take root during COVID-19’s stay-at-home mandates was D-Nice’s Club Quarantine. The DJ’s game-changing live sets became a culture-raising fixture on Instagram for celebs and music fans alike over the last year, attracting millions thanks to his masterful curation of R&B, soul and hip-hop classics. Last night (Aug. 29), D-Nice brought his online party to the Hollywood Bowl — and kept the house rocking for three hours. The first stop in a road show series staged in partnership with Live Nation Urban (next up: Brooklyn, Sept. 2; Atlanta, Sept. 3), Club Quarantine Live at the Bowl co-starred Common, the Isley Brothers, Deborah Cox and Trey Songz, among others. Don...
