business
Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Appeals Underway for Denied Applicants
Since appeal notices began rolling out Monday, 494 invitations have been accepted so far. Those entities will need to review the SVOG Eligibility Matrix to see where they believe errors were made on the behalf of an SBA reviewer. The SBA has not provided specific reasons why each entity was declined, leaving the guesswork up to the companies. “There is a balancing act we have to do. The level of specificity slows things down,” The SBA’s senior advisor for COVID-19 programs Deidra Henry-Spires told Billboard at the end of July. “There are conversations we can have after we’ve seen the whole unit of declines once we’ve gotten through [all the applications that came in the first 60 days]. But often in grant programs, you don’t...
Billie Eilish’s ‘Happier Than Ever’ Crowned on Australia’s Chart
Further down the albums tally, the latest Over You edition of The Kid Laroi’s F*ck Love (Columbia/Sony) sees the mixtape hold at No. 3, while Prince makes his first Top 10 appearance with a studio album in almost a quarter century, with the posthumous release Welcome 2 America (Legacy/Sony). Recorded in 2010, the album bows at No. 5. The last Prince studio effort to enter the Top 10 was 1996’s Emancipation, which peaked at No. 8. Since then, the Purple One landed two high-fliers with The Very Best Of (No. 2 in May 2016) and Ultimate (No. 6 in May 2016). Tasmanian outfit The Wolfe Brothers are based on the end of the world, though they’re living it up on the ARIA Albums Chart with Kids On Cassette (BMG/ADA), their fifth release. It’s new at No. 6 for the country rocker...
Nintendo Struggles To Maintain Growth Following Exceptional ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Frenzy
Despite the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic hitting most of the economy massively across 2020, Nintendo was one of the rare companies that actually saw growth in the period, achieving record profits and sales largely caused by increased Switch and Animal Crossing: New Horizons sales thanks to people being socially distanced and stuck at home. In light of this, the company is now finding it difficult to maintain that trend, seeing a decline in financial results in 2021. Drops occurred across both software and hardware sales, with the former seeing a 10.2 percent decrease while the latter suffered a more significant 21.7 percent decline. Sales of the Nintendo Switch Lite were hit the hardest, dropping by a whopping 56.7 percent compared to the same period last year, although regular S...
UK Live Industry Gets Long-Demanded Government-Backed COVID Insurance
The government says it is one of the only insurance schemes in the world to cover such a wide array of live events and not put a cap on costs claimed per event. Denis Desmond, chairman of Live Nation U.K. and Ireland, says the government-backed protection is a vital intervention that “offers certainty to artists, concert and festival promoters in the live entertainment market.” “While the new scheme won’t cover all our risk, this intervention will help protect the industry that we all know and love,” says Phil Bowdery, chairman of the Concert Promoters Association. The program follows the establishment of similar government-backed insurance schemes in a number of other European markets, including Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and Denmark. They provide a much-needed safety net...
Illinois Is Smoking: Pot Sales Peak, Thanks to Lollapalooza
Because recreational marijuana was legalized in Illinois in January 2020, pot was legal in the state during Lollapalooza for the first time in the festival’s 30-year history. Although it’s illegal to smoke or otherwise consume the drug in public or around anyone younger than 21 years old, the large crowds at Grant Park boosted sales by as much as 50% at nearby dispensaries in River North and the West Loop, operators told the Chicago Tribune. “We saw thousands of festivalgoers over the weekend at our River North store, making it our biggest weekend to date,” said Jason Erkes, spokesman for Chicago-based Cresco Labs, whose Sunnyside Dispensary in River North was the closest to the festivities. In July, Illinois’ 110 dispensaries sold a record 2.8 million recreational weed products. State res...
Dan Goldberg, Former Warner Music Vet, Tapped to Lead Music Merch Expansion at Fanatics
Dan Goldberg, the Warner Music Group veteran who recently exited the music major after more than a decade, is taking his talents to Fanatics, the leading seller of licensed sportwear. At Fanatics, Goldberg will continue to play in the music world in a role that sees him focusing his attention on shirts, caps and other merch sold at concerts and music festivals, according to Sportico, which broke the news. Goldberg has expertise in the space. Prior to his departure from Warner Music in June, he served as senior VP of the company’s Artist Services division, with responsibilities for the group’s e-commerce, tour merchandising, VIP experiences, ticketing, and fan club businesses. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It ...
UK Artists Granted Visa-Free Touring in 19 EU Countries in Post-Brexit Agreements
The coronavirus pandemic and accompanying shutdown of the live music industry have masked many of the problems created by Brexit for the live-music sector. And fears have lingered about extra customs checks and performers and crews requiring visa and work permits for when European touring does resume. According to a survey conducted by the Musicians’ Union and Incorporated Society of Musicians in April and May, 77% of U.K. musicians expected their earnings in Europe to decrease when touring resumes due to additional Brexit-related red tape and touring costs. In January, over 100 acts, including Elton John, Ed Sheeran and Radiohead, signed an open letter to the British government saying it had “shamefully failed” them with the EU trade deal that was finalized on Dec. 24 by not s...
Sylvan Esso Teams With Secretly For Psychic Hotline Label
Though the label has quietly released music since 2018 from artists in and around the group’s North Carolina community, Psychic Hotline now has a distribution partner in Secretly Distribution, part of the Secretly Group, and a vision for expansion that involves artist-centric deals. “We’ve always been really lucky to have a management that has negotiated really aggressive, very artist-centric deals for us, which I think is one of the reasons why our experience with labels has been relatively less painful,” Meath says. Those artist-friendly negotiations involved securing short-term deals with labels, which is why, for example, the band already fully owns its 2014 self-titled debut album. Meath and Sanborn plan on offering similar short-term, flexible deals to artists who sign with them. “We...
Billie Eilish’s ‘Happier Than Ever’ Is Hurtling to U.K. No. 1
Billie Eilish should be happier than ever. Her new album is crushing its rivals in the U.K. chart race. The teenage alternative pop phenomenon’s sophomore set, Happier Than Ever (Interscope), leads the midweek chart after selling more units (vinyl, cassette, CDs and downloads) than the rest of the Top 10 combined, the OCC reports. If it claims the crown, Eilish will go two-for-two, after her 2019 debut When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? logged three weeks at No. 1, making her the youngest female artist to rule the national albums chart. 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, shar...
Dave, Ed Sheeran Rule U.K. Charts
We’re All Alone is the biggest opening week since November 2019, when Coldplay’s Everyday Life started with 81,000 combined sales, and it’s the biggest opening week for a British hip-hop/rap album since October 2010 and since Tinie Tempah’s debut Disc-Overy. According to the OCC, some 56% of We’re All Alone sales are physical (vinyl, CD, cassette) and downloads, while streams account for the remainder, chalking up 38.5 million plays across the album’s dozen songs. Dave debut LP Psychodrama logged one week at No. 1 in 2019. Coming in at No. 2 is Anne-Marie’s second album Therapy (Atlantic), eclipsing her previous best of No. 3 for her debut, Speak Your Mind. Further down the list, The Kid Laroi’s evolving mixtape F**k Love (RCA) flies 52-6, for a new peak. The set fires up following the rel...
Billie Eilish Cruising to Highest New Entry on U.K. Chart
Eilish enjoyed some peak-time spotlight on Saturday (July 31) when she appeared for an interview on the BBC’s Up Close, and performed several songs. Despite its healthy weekend activity, “Happier Than Ever” is well off the pace of the leader, “Bad Habits” by Ed Sheeran. “Bad Habits” is the market leader on both sales and streams and is heading for a sixth consecutive week at No. 1. Meanwhile, The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber are on target for another week in the runner-up spot, while Jonasu’s “Black Magic” lifts 5-2, and is chasing a new peak position. The Official U.K. Singles Chart is published late Friday, local time. 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 Beaut...
Primary Wave Quietly Amasses Largest Individual Share in Prince’s Estate
New York-based Primary Wave has been acquiring expectancy interests in the Prince estate piecemeal for the last 17 months from three of his six heirs. However, the situation is complicated because the estate remains in probate administered through Comerica Bank & Trust and none of the heirs have received any distribution of assets. Sources say the probate issues could be resolved as early as the end of the year. According to documents filed July 20 in Minnesota’s Carver County district court, in March 2020 “the protocols” surrounding the estate were amended after Primary Wave purchased a portion of Prince sibling Tyka Nelson’s expectancy interest. Subsequently, an April 2021 order confirmed Primary Wave’s acquisition of 100% of the expectancy interest of Nelson’s late half brothe...
