Podcasts
Soccer Mommy on Playing the Pavement Museum in New York: Behind the Setlist Podcast
Through three albums of guitar-driven, melodic ear candy, Soccer Mommy has reveled in the sounds of ‘90s indie rock. So it was no surprise the band was chosen to perform at Pavements 1933 to 2022, the indie rock legend Pavement‘s pop-up museum in New York City that ran from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 and will be displayed permanently in the band’s hometown of Stockton, California. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “It was really fun,” Sophie Allison, a.k.a. Soccer Mommy, tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. “I mean, it was it was something that we were dying to do, honestly, because me and all the people in my live band love Pavement.” Allison and her band covered three songs at the Oct. 1 performance: “Here,” “Gold Soundz” and “Spit on a ...
311’s Nick Hexum, Chad Sexton on Status of Band, Recent Tours: ‘Behind the Setlist’ Podcast
“We went through a bit of a rough time,” 311 singer and guitarist Nick Hexum tells Billboard‘s Behind the Setlist podcast when asked about the band’s status following comments made online by bass player Aaron “P-Nut” Wills. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In May, founding member P-Nut ignited speculation about his future with the band after saying on Twitter he was “planning on taking a break from the band after I fulfill my obligations,” which extended to 2023 “and slightly beyond.” Five months later, however, the band is on stable ground, says Hexum. The band members have had “some really good conversations lately about getting getting back on track,” Hexum shares. “And you know, we’re looking forward to the future. Again, I thin...
Bebe Rexha ‘Shocked But Grateful’ for Global Success of ‘I’m Good (Blue),’ Hints at Mystery Album
In a sea of out-of-left-field hit songs this year (Kate Bush, anyone?), David Guetta and Bebe Rexha‘s “I’m Good (Blue)” stands out as one of the most unpredictable. Guetta and Rexha’s throwback dance-floor filler interpolates Eiffel 65’s 1999 novelty hit “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” (itself an unexpected success story), and as Rexha tells Katie & Keith on the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen to the new episode below), the collab was actually made years ago and then unearthed by savvy fans. “[David] had played it at a festival after we had cut it, and somebody took a YouTube video of it and posted it,” Rexha recalls. “Then somebody found that and made a remix and posted it to TikTok. Then this big gamer posted it from TikTok, and then it blew up from her page. “It’s crazy, because you just neve...
The Ledger: How Streaming Platforms Are Looking Beyond Music to Boost Their Margins
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. The 2004 documentary Super Size Me took a humorous look at the health consequences of fast-food restaurants’ practice of up-selling customers to higher-priced, larger-portioned items – a super-sized cup of Coca-Cola rather than a large, for example. To the customer, up-selling looked like a good deal: the additional soda or food cost only a few cents more. For restaurants, the tactic padded margins because the difference in price dwarfed the cost of goods. Super Size Me comes to mind when looking at music subscription services and their quest to improve their margins. Those services have the equivalent of a super...
Charlie Puth Talks Making ‘Charlie’ Album ‘By Myself’ But Also on Social Media: ‘It Felt Like I Was in the Room With Millions of People’
“I went completely rogue,” Charlie Puth says of how he made his new 12-song album Charlie. “I was by myself when I made the album, but I involved the Internet into the creation of it, so it felt like I was in the room with millions of people.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Puth is speaking about his flourishing social media presence, where millions of followers (including nearly 20 million on TikTok and 17 million on Instagram) have delighted in short videos of the self-confessed “audio dork” joyfully sharing how he makes music at home on his computer. There a clip of him recording a literal light-switch sound and placing it into Charlie’s lead single “Light Switch.” And there’s the snippet of him chatting with an unseen executive who...
Steve Lacy, Sam Smith & Kim Petras Make Some Big ‘Bad’ Moves in the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10
Harry Styles’ “As It Was” has spent an impressive 15 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (so far), and this week, it steps aside for a brand-new champ: Steve Lacy‘s “Bad Habit.” And that’s not the only major action in the Hot 100 top five this week. Sam Smith and Kim Petras‘ “Unholy” debuts at No. 3 (and atop the Global 200), marking Smith’s highest debut and Petras’ first appearance on the chart ever. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are breaking down the massive moves on the chart and why these songs are especially notable. Oh, and we’re taking a page from Gary Trust’s story and talking about every song with “Bad” in the title to ever top the Hot 100. Listen to the pod...
Black Coffee Opens Up About Near-Fatal Accident On the “Most Pivotal Day” of His Life
It’s no secret that Black Coffee has earned his spot in the dance music history books, but speaking candidly on a recent interview, the Grammy-winning artist opened up about how his life was almost cut short decades earlier. Raised in the town of Mthatha, Nelson Mandela’s hometown, the South African superstar says that a brush with fate almost led to his death. During a public gathering celebrating the release of Mandela from prison in 1990, a taxi plowed into the crowd, leading to an injury that caused Coffee to be hospitalized for three months. The scars from the devastating injury were lasting, and he was effectively left unable to use one of his arms due to severe dislocation. Speaking on Steven Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO podcast, Coffee says the emotional anguish o...
The Ledger: Spotify Beats SXM Media to Top Podcast Network Rankings
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. With the help of ratings juggernaut Joe Rogan, Spotify topped SXM Media — just barely — in Edison Research’s Q2 2022 podcast network rankings, covering April 1 to June 30, after taking the runner-up position the previous two quarters. The streaming company has made Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, a cornerstone in its efforts to expand the audio platform beyond its music roots. If Rogan’s role was to help make Spotify a podcast leader, he accomplished his mission. “Rogan is not the only reason they’re no. 1, but he’s the main reason,” says Edison Research president Larry Rosin. For all the c...
Vegas Podcasts Offering $100K To Find Who Killed 2Pac
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Raymond Boyd / Getty The shooting and subsequent death of famed rapper and actor 2Pac still remain a mystery among Hip-Hop circles. Now, a pair of podcasts is offering a six-figure payment for information leading to who carried out the crime. On September 11, The Problem Solver posted a video promising a $100,000 payout to anyone who had information on who shot 2Pac on that fateful day in 1996 in Las Vegas, Nev. Joining with The Problem Solver podcast in offering the cash is the Action Junkeez Podcast, with both sides combining $50,000 of their own cash for the effort. 2Pac, real name Tupac Shakur, was shot four times in a drive-by near the Las Vegas Strip after leaving a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM grand. 2Pac would succumb to his wounds six ...
Brett James Talks ‘Greatest Songwriting Day’ With Kenny Chesney on Behind the Setlist Podcast
Brett James has spent countless days co-writing with a who’s who of Nashville musicians and songwriters, crafting songs that would be recorded by the likes of Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean and Dierks Bentley. One day stands out as perhaps his most fruitful songwriting session: writing with Kenny Chesney at the country star’s house on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Two days after getting a call from Chesney, James was with the country singer on St. John on a December evening. “We smelled that salt there and felt the warm breeze and went out and had some fun that particular night,” the Nashville-based songwriter recalls for Billboard‘s Behind the Setlist podcast. “The next morning, I wake up an...
Twitter Adds Podcasts to Live Audio Tab
Twitter will start recommending and streaming podcasts directly to users as part of a redesigned hub that groups live and recorded audio content by category. The podcast integration, which signals Twitter’s continued expansions into audio, launched Thursday to a select group of English-speaking iOS and Android users via the Spaces tab on Twitter’s mobile app. Categories in the redesigned tab include news, sports and music; each category will include live audio rooms, replays of recorded rooms and popular podcast episodes from those categories that will be personalized based on user interests. To bring the podcast episodes onto the platform, a Twitter spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that the company is pulling from existing RSS feeds and will tailor the recommendations based on the...
Will BLACKPINK Bring Girl Groups Back to the Hot 100 Top 10 With ‘Pink Venom’?
BLACKPINK have been in our area since way back in 2016, but there are two areas they’ve yet to conquer: the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and the very top of the Billboard 200 albums chart. On the new episode of the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), Katie & Keith are wondering: Could “Pink Venom” be the quartet’s first Hot 100 top 10 hit? Previously, they’ve reached as high as No. 13, thanks to “Ice Cream,” their 2020 collab with Selena Gomez. Meanwhile, on the Billboard 200, their 2020 project The Album debuted and peaked at No. 2, but when Born Pink is released on Sept. 16, could it go all the way to the top? Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Listen to the full episode below, where we break down BLACKPINK’s chart chances ...
