International
Australia’s Live Industry Welcomes Fine for Viagogo
In one example, the ACCC said the total price for two Cat Stevens (aka Yusuf Islam) tickets was found to increase from A$450.00 ($357) to A$579.95 ($460), a rise of 29%, when the A$125 ($100) booking and A$4.95 ($4) handling fees were added. Justice Burley described one category of representations as having been made on “an industrial scale”. The company’s business practices were “unacceptable,” says ACCC Chair Rod Sims. “Viagogo misled thousands of consumers into buying tickets at inflated prices when they created a false sense of urgency by suggesting tickets were scarce and when they advertised tickets at a lower price by not including unavoidable fees.” The federal court’s stiff penalty is meant as a warning to other companies that breached consumer protections. The court also or...
Queen Is Ready to Rule the U.K. Albums Chart
If Live Around The World holds its position when the Official U.K. Albums Chart is published Friday, it will mark the Queen’s 10th U.K. No. 1 album, and Lambert’s first. Another iconic British rock band is at No. 2 on the Official Chart Update as Oasis’ sophomore album (What’s The Story?) Morning Glory (Big Brother) flies high following its vinyl reissue. On an Official U.K. Chart Update stuffed with new releases, Bon Jovi is chasing a 16th U.K. Top 5 album with 2020 (EMI) arriving at No. 3, while former Pink Floyd vocalist and bass player Roger Waters could bag a fourth solo Top 10 as his live album Us + Them (Sony Music CG) starts at No. 4. Rounding out the Top is CMFT (Roadrunner), the first solo album from Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor. Meanwhile, K-pop girl group Blackpink bow at No....
Idles, 24kGoldn Rule U.K. Charts
Meanwhile, Machine Gun Kelly scores a career high with his pop-punk album Tickets To My Downfall (Bad Boy/Interscope), which opens at No. 3. Of MGK’s previous four albums, just one cracked the Top 40 (2017’s Bloom peaked at No. 37). Following Michael Kiwanuka’s Mercury Prize win with KIWANUKA (Polydor), the album fires up on the Official U.K. Albums Chart. The winning album enjoyed a 4,537% week-on-week rise in physical and digital sales, according to the BPI, powering the 2019 album to a No. 4 return, just two places below its peak position. Rounding out the Top 5 is the Deftones’ Ohms (Reprise), new at No. 5. It’s the veteran rockers’ third Top 10 album. Over on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, 24kGoldn extends his chart reign into a second week with “Mood” (RECORDS/Black Butter) featuri...
24kGoldn Strikes Chart Gold In Australia With ‘Mood’
Elsewhere on the weekly chart, Canadian singer-songwriter Tate McRae bags a Top 10 as “You Broke Me First” rises 14-10.Travis Scott “Franchise,” his team up with Young Thug and British rapper M.I.A., cracks the Top 40 on debut. It’s new at No. 31. There’s a surprise reentry in the Top 40 for Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 classic “Dreams,” which is enjoying chart spikes around the globe following a viral video on TikTok. It returns to the ARIA Top 50 Singles Chart at No. 39. Over on the national albums survey, Australian-Japanese artist Joji scores his first No. 1 with Nectar, which features guest slots with the likes of Benee, Lil Yachty and Diplo. Joji is the first artist part of the hip-hop collective 88rising to have a chart-leader in Australia. Machine Gun Kelly’s move from rap to pop-punk appe...
Korean Supermodel Irene Kim Launches Capsule Collaboration Project With TikTok
The combination of TikTok’s playful world and Irene’s vibrant aesthetics are said to encourage individuality and carry the important message of spreading positivity, especially during 2020’s difficult times. The #GoodFriendChallenge was created to capture the spirit of friendship and invite users to co-create with friends and share viral-worthy moments. The challenge has so far seen more than 65 major TikTok creators take part, as well as K-pop stars, models and influencers like Eric Nam, Red Velvet’s Seulgi, Jessica Jung, CLC’s Sorn, Holland V, Heize, Nayoung Kim, Hojung Lee, and Lia Kim. The challenge has garnered more than 37.9 million views and 10,000 videos since its launch. The 15-second track, titled “Good Vibes,” was composed by R&B star Jooyoung, $un and Mins...
Why BTS Donated $1 Million to Black Lives Matter
From left: V, Suga, Jin, Jungkook, RM, Jimin and J-Hope of BTS photographed Jan. 19 at Korea House in Seoul. Styling by Lee Ha Jung. V, Suga and J-Hope wear Saint Laurent tops and jackets. Jin wears a COS top and Saint Laurent jacket and shoes. Jungkook wears a COS top, Saint Laurent jacket and Prada shoes. RM wears a Saint Laurent jacket and shoes. Jimin wears a Saint Laurent top, jacket and shoes. 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.
It’s Here! Blackpink Unleashes ‘The Album’: Stream It Now
Blackpink is finally in your area! After much anticipation, the superstar K-pop girl group unveiled their debut full-length studio album on Friday (Oct. 2) via YG Entertainment/Interscope Records. The project, simply titled The Album, features eight tracks, including the previously released Selena Gomez collaboration “Ice Cream” and the smash hit “How You Like That.” The Album also features another much-anticipated collaboration: “Bet You Wanna” with Cardi B. Late this summer, Blackpink earned their highest-charting hit in their career with the Ariana Grande-penned “Ice Cream,” which bowed at No. 13 upon its Aug. 28 release. “How You Like That” peaked at No. 33. Listen to The Album in full below. You ...
BTS Open Up About Politics, Grammy Goals in New Interview: ‘It’s a Dream’
BTS sat down with Variety magazine recently to talk about politics, how much they want to share with their ARMY and what their Grammy goals are. The interview found member Jin paying tribute to the fan gang that has elevated the seven-member K-pop superstars to the top of the pop heat, including helping to boost them to their first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles tally with “Dynamite.” “Our goal is to try to show ourselves, expose ourselves to ARMY as much as possible,” Jin said. “There are a lot of platforms now.” That includes The Tonight Show, where the group is in the midst of a weeklong residency, which has so far included three performances and a hearty shoutout from superfan actor/wrestler John Cena. And though they don’t consider...
BTS Set to Make Millions as Big Hit Entertainment Goes Public
The seven members of the K-pop supergroup BTS are set to make millions when their label Big Hit Entertainment goes public in October. Demand for shares in Big Hit has hit record levels, driven in part by fans of the boy band, giving the music giant a valuation of $4.1 billion. Big Hit’s Oct. 15 IPO will be South Korea’s largest in three years. The IPO will make Big Hit founder and co-CEO Bang Si-hyuk, known widely as “Hitman” Bang, a billionaire. In August, Bang gave each BTS member shares in the company, which are currently valued at almost $8 million. As well as being home to RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, Big Hit’s roster includes the five-member boy band TXT and singer Lee Hyun. BTS makes up the vast majority of Big Hit’s revenue, gen...
Warner Music Australasia President Niko Nordström Is Returning to Finland
Warner Music Australasia president Niko Nordström is returning to his homeland, Finland, to take on a familiar role with the music major. Announced Tuesday, Nordström is named executive vice president, Warner Music Nordics and managing director of Warner Music Finland, based in Helsinki. Nordström will report to Mark Fry, the newly appointed president of Warner Music Nordics. “It’s fantastic news that Niko is returning home to the Nordics,” Fry comments in a statement. “He’s a friend and a partner, as well as one of the most admired figures in the history of the Finnish music industry. He moved the business and culture into the modern age, while nurturing an entire generation of groundbreaking artists.” Niko played a “central role in making Finland a pioneering global music market,” ...
Kis-My-Ft2 Leads, Arashi’s New Bruno Mars-Produced Single Bows at No. 6 on Japan Hot 100
J-pop boy band Kis-My-Ft2’s “ENDLESS SUMMER” debuts at No. 1 on this week’s Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Sept. 14 to 20, selling 180,763 copies in its first week. The septet’s 26th single leads physical sales and look-ups, while also performing well in Twitter mentions (No. 3) and radio airplay (No. 27). Arashi’s new single “Whenever You Call” — an all-English R&B ballad produced by Bruno Mars — dropped digitally last Friday (Sept. 18), and the highly anticipated track racked up 58,989 downloads in just three days to blast in at No. 1 for the metric this week. The song also buzzed on Twitter (No. 1) and fared well in video views (No. 9), bowing at No. 6 on the Japan Hot 100. [embedded content] This week sees two other acts besides the two Johnny’s boy bands debuting in the top 10, wh...
Billboard Japan & NTT Data’s Joint Research Predicts Future Hits From Chart Data & Cerebral Information
Billboard Japan and NTT Data/NTT Data Institute of Management Consulting (NTT Data/IMC) partnered on a new project that combines the former’s chart data and the latter’s neuroscientific technology to develop a new way to analyze music trends. Billboard Japan’s Hot 100 song chart is based on a weighted formula incorporating eight metrics such as CD sales, downloads, streams and Twitter mentions. NTT Data/IMC is a pioneer in the advancement of the brain information business, in part through its development of the “NeuroAI” that predicts the cerebral activity and perceptual content of people viewing moving images. The underlying technology of NeuroAI was adopted by this year’s AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-20). The collaborative project used technology called “NeuroAI-Music...
