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Inside Amazon’s Big Push in Latin Music: Exclusive
The online retail giant launches its first major Latin music brand. Amazon Music is placing a new big focus on Latin music with the launch of “Amazon Music LAT!N,” a Latin music brand with a broad umbrella that includes over 100 new and revamped playlists, an emerging artist program, merchandise, video and multiple catalog programs among many other initiatives. Using the tagline “La Musica que nos conecta” (The music that connects us) — a reference to the fact that Latins come from many countries and cultures but are connected by music and language — the LAT!N hub, which includes music in Spanish and Portuguese, will live within Amazon at amazon.com/latinmusic. It seeks to establish Amazon as a major player in Latin music streaming and content, as well as retail. “T...
Apple Unveils All-In-One Subscription Bundle
Apple will bundle some of its subscription services together for discount. Customers who want to buy subscriptions to Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade and iCloud storage will soon be able to do so for a combined price that starts at $15 per month. The company has unveiled Apple One, a series of bundles of its various services. Plans range in monthly price from $15 to $30 depending on how many people are accessing the bundle and what offerings are included. The Apple One individual plan will cost $15 per month and includes Music, TV+, Arcade and 50GB of iCloud storage. The family plan, which includes access for up to six people, features the same mix of services and more cloud storage for $20 per month. The premiere plan, which also includes access for up to six people, adds News+ and n...
YouTube Launches TikTok Competitor in India
YouTube Shorts allows users to record and upload 15-second videos straight from their mobile phones. YouTube is entering the race to usurp TikTok’s dominance in the short-form video space with YouTube Shorts, a new tool that will allow users to record and upload 15-second videos straight from their mobile phones. This week, YouTube will launch an early beta of Shorts in India, which in late June banned TikTok and dozens of other Chinese-owned apps, citing security concerns. Since the ban, the popularity of TikTok competitor Triller exploded in India, surging to No. 1 on Apple’s App Store in the country. In its early beta launch in India, Shorts will boast a number of creation tools similar to those on TikTok and its competitors, including a multi-segment camera allowing users t...
Lamb of God’s Willie Adler Talks Coffee, Bill & Ted, and Livestream Shows
Lamb of God’s Willie Adler, photo by Antonio Marino Jr. During a pandemic that’s drastically altered the day-to-day operations of the music industry, Lamb of God have forged ahead. The metal veterans released their new self-titled studio album in June, despite not being able to tour in support of the LP. And the decision brought much-needed joy to metal fans everywhere, as the album ranks among Lamb of God’s finest works. Upon completing the album, the band was then commissioned to write a song for Bill & Ted Face the Music. The film’s music supervisor handpicked the Lamb of God, who delivered “The Death of Us”, a crushing anthem to friendship that cemented 2020 as a veritably productive year artistically for the band. With one full-length and a major soundtrack appearance in the...
TikTok Sale: ByteDance Partners With Oracle
ByteDance has selected Oracle as its partner for a deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S., a source familiar with the talks confirms to The Hollywood Reporter. The decision comes as ByteDance has rejected a bid by Microsoft that earlier this summer was seen as the likely option for the company as it looked to avoid a shutdown of the popular social media app amid increased tensions between the U.S. and China. Microsoft confirmed that its bid had been rejected in a statement on its corporate blog on Sunday night. “We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests,” the company wrote. “To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, priv...
Executive Turntable: WMG Names Head of Investor Relations, FUGA Makes Key Leadership Hires
Warner Music Group has hired Kareem Chin as senior vp head of investor relations effective immediately. Chin arrives at WMG from iHeartMedia, where he served in the same role. Chin, whose appointment follows WMG’s recent IPO, will lead the company’s investor relations efforts and work closely with the company’s finance and corporate communications teams. He will also oversee key events, including quarterly earnings calls and attendance at investor conferences. At iHeartMedia, which he joined as it was emerging from bankruptcy, Chin developed and built out the company’s investor relations function as it explored listing options and later made its debut on the Nasdaq exchange. Prior to that, he was vp investor relations at Viacom, a role that followed over a decade in investment banking. Mus...
U.S. Recorded Music Business Still Growing (A Bit) Amid Pandemic: RIAA 2020 Mid-Year Report
The good news: The U.S. recorded-music business was still in an upswing in the first half of 2020, growing 5.6% at retail to $5.7 billion, up from $5.4 billion, continuing a trend of growth that extends back to the industry’s nadir in 2015. The less-good news: That growth, like most everything else in the music business and beyond so far this year, took a pandemic-related hit, ending a short streak of double-digit gains after a 17% boost at mid-year 2017, 10% at mid-year 2018 and 18% at mid-year 2019. Of course, percentage-based growth, by its nature, is always increasingly-difficult to improve upon, and once-in-a-generation pandemics were never going to help keep that streak alive. And within that context there’s still plenty of good news for the industry in its continued recovery amid th...
Netflix and Chills Halloween Schedule: The Haunting of Bly Manor, Adam Sandler, Unsolved Mysteries, and More
Netflix is getting into the spooky business. Today, the streaming giant announced their Fall programming, which they’ve aptly dubbed Netflix and Chills. This includes new movies, shows, and all kinds of tricks and treats for the living room. Among the many highlights is Mike Flanagan’s new miniseries The Haunting of Bly Manor, Adam Sandler’s kooky new comedy Hubie Halloween, Ben Wheatley’s reimagining of Rebecca, and a second volume of Unsolved Mysteries. That’s all without mentioning Ryan Murphy’s creepy Cuckoo’s Nest prequel series Ratched, Rachel Talalay’s A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting, and a number of children’s programming like The Worst Witch and A Go! Go! Cory Carson Halloween. Peruse the full calendar below and stay tuned for more things to go bump in your night. Let’s no...
SiriusXM Boosts 2020 Subscriber Forecast on ‘Strong’ Demand
Audio entertainment giant SiriusXM has raised its 2020 subscriber forecast ahead of an appearance by CEO Jim Meyer at a virtual investor conference on Wednesday. SiriusXM now expects full-year self-pay subscriber net additions of approximately 700,000, up from 500,000. The company reiterated its financial guidance for the year. “Our business continues to demonstrate strong performance and favorable trends since we resumed providing our subscriber and financial guidance in conjunction with our second- quarter earnings report” following the initial hit from the novel coronavirus pandemic, Meyer said in a statement. “It’s clear that demand for SiriusXM remains strong – quite simply, consumers continue to find immense value in our unique audio bundle and all of the ente...
BMI Posts Record Revenue Despite Pandemic Hit to Licensing
Collections from April to June fell by an estimated $60 million, but a digital boost helped make up the difference. BMI generated $1.311 billion in revenue in the year ended June 30, 2020, a 2.2% increase over the $1.283 billion it reported in the year earlier period. Distributions were up too, totaling $1.233 billion — a 3.1% increase from the $1.196 billion paid out to songwriters and publishers in the prior fiscal year. Domestically, the performance rights organization collected $961 million, increasing 1.9% from the year-earlier period. Foreign receipts grew 2.9% to $350 million. As a percentage of revenue, that breaks out to 73.3% domestic and 26.7% foreign, a 0.2% shift in favor of international collections compared to the prior year. BMI estimates that its fourth quarter reven...
In The Duchess, Katherine Ryan Plays a Single Mum With a Beautiful Wardrobe – Here’s Why That’s So Important
Things you don’t typically see being worn on the morning school run: ballgowns, funeral attire, and satin pyjamas. Oh, and a jumper that says “world’s smallest p*ssy” worn over the top of the most fabulous feather-hemmed pyjamas. But that’s exactly what we see Katherine Ryan wearing at the school gates in her new scripted Netflix series The Duchess. The styling in the opening scene is just a slice of what’s to come in the rest of the show and plays an important role in the narrative. The Duchess is Ryan’s first-scripted series that she not only stars in, but also wrote and produced. The six-part, semi-biographical series follows a single mum whose name is also Katherine ( confusing, yes, but Katherine the comedian said she was “too lazy”...
What’s Streaming on HBO Max in September 2020
HBO Max shows no signs of slowing down heading into Fall. September sees the network adding a number of original series, in addition to all kinds of goodies being added to its ever-evolving vault of content. For exclusives, subscribers can look forward to Ridley Scott’s new series Raised By Wolves, the star-studded quarantine comedy Coastal Elites, Luca Guadagnino’s We Are Who We Are, and Jude Law’s latest venture The Third Day. It should also be noted that all five seasons of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! are now available to stream. So, if you’re looking for a good laugh — even if it’s at the risk of a cardiac arrest — by all means binge away, baby. Editors’ Picks Of course, we have to remember, it’s not TV, it’s HBO, and every weekend subscribers get new premieres of last ...
