business
DJ Khaled Set for Top Debuts on U.K. Singles Chart
Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo are on track for a fourth successive U.K. chart crown with “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)”. But they’ve got a battle on their hands. The Kiwi producer and U.S. R&B artist lead the U.K. sales blast with their viral hit, which races to an early lead of 1,500 combined sales lead over Joel Corry & MNEK’s dance track “Head and Heart.” After 48 hours of the new chart week, “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” takes top spot on the Official Chart: First Look Top 20. “Head and Heart” is “catching up,” the Official Charts Company reports. If the pair can outpace the incumbent, it’ll be both artists’ first No. 1. Elsewhere, DJ Khaled is set to score the two highest new entries...
England to Allow Indoor Concerts Starting Next Month
Social distancing will be required as the country enters phase 4 of a five-stage reopening plan. Audiences who adhere to social distancing can return to indoor theaters, music and performance venues beginning Aug. 1, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Friday (July 17). The policy represents the fourth phase in the country’s five-stage reopening plan for live events. In the lead up to the August start date, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will conduct pilots of performances with socially-distanced audiences — including the London Symphony Orchestra at St. Luke’s London — using the findings there to inform final guidance for venues. The announcement notes that “audiences, performers and venues will be expected to maintain social distancing at all tim...
Universal Music Group Makes Election Day 2020 a Company Holiday
The measure sprang from a recommendation by the company’s recently-announced social justice task force. Universal Music Group is making voting easier for its U.S. employees by making Election Day 2020, Nov. 3, a paid company holiday. The company announced the news to staffers in an internal memo Friday (July 17) and obtained by Billboard. “After all, the right to vote is the very foundation of democracy — perhaps of freedom itself,” reads the memo, which notes that only 56% of eligible U.S. voters cast a ballot in the 2016 presidential election. “As Americans, we have fought long and hard to win the right to vote. It took 91 years after the Constitution was enacted until people of color won the right, and even then, it was only males. It took 143 years after the...
Here’s When Billboard’s New Bundle-Banning Chart Rules Will Go Into Effect
The biggest changes start in October, but as of now, no new ticket or merch bundles are being approved. Billboard has set start dates for new rule changes to its charts doing away with the controversial practice of “bundling” albums with concert tickets and merchandise to drive market share and music sales. The changes also affect instant digital sales attached to purchases for physical albums delivered at a later date. Effective immediately, Billboard will no longer approve any new album/ticket bundle offers; moving forward albums will only be counted if promoted as an à la carte add-on sale to a ticket purchase. For existing, approved offers with an album released on or before Oct. 8, 2020: Redemptions (sales) generated by offer will be accepted for duration of the tour...
Audio Engineer Kesha Lee in Atlanta, in a Pandemic: ‘I’m Getting to the Place Where I’m Wanting to Create’
Lee was planning to travel for audio engineer work when her car broke down — now, she’s collaborating with a local songwriter on her own music. Since getting her start through a chance meeting with Gucci Mane, Atlanta-based audio engineer Kesha Lee has worked on chart-toppers like Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” and Migos’ “Bad and Boujee” and is now the go-to audio engineer for rappers including Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert. She spent the past two-and-a-half years working on Uzi’s Eternal Atake album in the artist’s native Philadelphia, before it was released on March 6 — mere weeks before the near-national lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus began. As part of Billboard’s efforts to best cover ...
AEG Partners With Resorts World for New Las Vegas Theater: Exclusive
The 5,000-capacity Theatre at Resorts World Las Vegas will be used for concerts, residencies, conventions and sporting events. While all the world’s stages have been dark now for more than four months as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Las Vegas is plotting a course for the future. Come summer 2021, the city will welcome The Theatre at Resorts World Las Vegas, the first new-from-the-ground-up casino-resort in more than a decade. The Theatre is a joint development between Resorts World Las Vegas and AEG Presents — exclusively programmed and operated by Concerts West, a division of AEG Presents. Scott Sibella, president of Resorts World Las Vegas, and John Meglen, president and co-CEO of Concerts West, tell Billboard in an exclusive interview that The Theatre and its programming ...
Atlantic Records Launches Cross-Roster Voter Registration Initiative With HeadCount: Exclusive
“With the 2020 election shaping up to be the most consequential of our lifetime, it’s crucial,” says ATLVotes co-chair Jack Hedges. In January, a group of Atlantic Records employees including Canvasback label imprint vp of marketing Jack Hedges formed a company task force to develop a plan for utilizing Atlantic’s star-studded artist roster, which includes the likes of Cardi B, Ed Sheeran and Meek Mill, to encourage voter registration. A global pandemic later, “You can imagine, the ideas and plans we were formulating were very different from where we are now,” Hedges tells Billboard. But the goal — to inspire more young people to vote in both local and presidential elections — is as urgent as ever. That’s why today (July 16), Atlantic Re...
Live Nation Shares Bounce on Encouraging Vaccine Trial
Stocks of out-of-home entertainment companies got a boost from biotech company Moderna’s announcement on Tuesday. As markets reacted enthusiastically to a promising coronavirus vaccine trial, shares of concert promoter Live Nation leaped 12.2% to $52.09 on Wednesday (July 15) before closing at $51.84, up 11.7%. On Tuesday, biotech company Moderna published the results of an initial study for a coronavirus vaccine called mRNA-1273. The vaccine “elicits a robust immune response” in all trial participants, said chief medical officer Tal Zaks in a statement, and will enter the next phase — with approximately 30,000 participants — later this month. Jumps in other entertainment companies’ stocks reflect how desperate investors were for good news about markets brought to a...
Kanye West Is Still In the Presidential Race
Stop the presses: Kanye West’s political ambitions aren’t finished. The unpredictable hip-hop superstar has filed with the Federal Election Commission and has qualified to appear on Oklahoma’s presidential ballot, the Associated Press reports. This just hours after a wave of reports which claimed West had failed to file the requisite paperwork and was no longer in the U.S. 2020 presidential race. West met the deadline for a spot on the state’s Nov. 3 presidential ballot and paid the $35,000 filing, according to a spokesperson for the Board of Elections in Oklahoma, where Ye now calls home. Two other independent candidates also paid fees ahead of the cut-off: concert pianist Jade Simmons and cryptocurrency entrepreneur Brock Pierce. The West campaign filed a “Statement of Organization” on W...
Queen’s ‘Greatest Hit’ Notches U.K. Chart Milestone
Long live Queen. The legendary rock outfit’s Greatest Hits (Virgin) album chalks up an impressive milestone by passing 900 weeks on the Official Albums Chart Top 100, and is just the third album to do so. Released in 1981, the career retrospective is behind just Bob Marley & The Wailers‘ 1984 hits album Legend (933 weeks) and ABBA’s Gold compilation, the longest-running U.K. Top 100 album ever, with 949 weeks, according to the Official Charts Company. There’s one category in which Queen’s Greatest Hits reigns supreme. It’s the best-selling album in British recorded music history with more than six million copies sold, the OCC reports. The 900-week-plus accomplishment comes at roughly the same time the band celebrates 50 years since their first London gig, on July 18, ...
Nick Cannon Apologizes for Anti-Semitic Comments: ‘I Feel Ashamed’
Nick Cannon posted an apology message via Twitter on Wednesday after he received criticism for anti-Semitic language used in a recent podcast episode. He was dropped by ViacomCBS earlier this week after the podcast surfaced and received wide visibility. “First and foremost I extend my deepest and most sincere apologies to my Jewish sisters and brothers for the hurtful and divisive words that came out of my mouth during my interview with Richard Griffin,” Cannon wrote. “They reinforced the worst stereotypes of a proud and magnificent people and I feel ashamed of the uninformed and naïve place that these words came from. The video of this interview has since been removed.” Cannon will also remain as host of Fox’s hit The Masked Singer, the network said Wednesday...
REVOLT TV CEO Roma Khanna Stepping Down After Three Years
Colin McIntosh and Detavio Samuels will step in as co-heads. Roma Khanna, CEO of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ REVOLT TV, is stepping down from her role at the cable network after nearly three years on the job. Going forward, she will serve as an advisor to REVOLT TV’s senior team and shareholders. With Khanna departing, REVOLT TV executive vp and head of finance & operations Colin McIntosh and COO and head of content Detavio Samuels will step in as co-heads, taking over day-to-day leadership of the company. Both will report to Combs Enterprises COO Tarik Brooks. Named CEO in September 2017, Khanna has launched such programing as State of the Culture and REVOLT Black News, in addition to the multi-city, multi-platform REVOLT Summit x AT&T. Under her tenure, REVOLT has also grown its distribu...
