business
Doja Cat & Adele in Billboard & VersusGame Matchups: Recapping the Latest Winners
Will Doja Cat have two simultaneous top 10s on the next Hot 100?Answer: No. Doja Cat has one top 10 on the latest Hot 100, with “Need to Know.” The song rises 11-9, becoming her fourth career top 10. Prior single “Kiss Me More,” featuring SZA, helped make way for her new top 10, as it dips 10-12, after hitting No. 3. As announced last week, Billboard and VersusGame have joined forces to bring music fans a one-of-a-kind, user-generated experience with games that test knowledge of pop culture for a chance to win prizes and monetize trend predictions. Billboard is hosting biweekly head-to-head challenges on entertainment and pop culture gaming app VersusGame, where fans can vote on their favorite artists and songs and wager on who will top the charts and more. In previ...
Ticketek Unveils ‘World First’ Integrated Mobile Ticket and Vaccination Check-In
The check-in upgrade gets its first proper consumer trial from this Thursday, beginning with the Kennedy Oaks Day at Flemington Racecourse, through a partnership with the Victorian government. With that particular experience, guests at Ticketek venues can verify their check-in and vaccination status at bag check, by way of a deep-link into the Service Victoria app. The one-stop will be rolled out across Ticketek venues in other Australian states in the coming weeks, a spokesman confirms, and concerts will come on line in due course. Ticketek’s upgrade is a timely one. Restrictions are currently being eased across New South Wales and Victoria, Australia’s two biggest states, after their respective populations nudged past the 80 per cent double-dose vaccination milestone. By hitting those bi...
Ed Sheeran Sprints to Lead on Midweek U.K. Albums Chart
Sheeran should keep his streak alive. His debut + (from 2011), x (2014), and ÷ (2017), all went to No. 1 in the U.K., as did his 2019 LP No. 6 Collaborations Project (2019). With = leading the chart update, and his track “Overpass Graffiti” ruling the singles chart blast, Sheeran is in pursuit of a rare chart double. In a midweek Top 10 stacked with new releases, former Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft bows at No. 2 with Acoustic Hymns – Vol. 1 (BMG), the 25th anniversary edition of Spice Girls’ Spice (UMC/Virgin) is at No. 3, and The War on Drugs’ I Don’t Live Here Anymore (Atlantic) begins at No. 5. All will be revealed late Friday. 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 ba...
Rüfüs Du Sol Shines Atop Australia’s Albums Chart With ‘Surrender’
To nab the best-selling album in the land Down Under, “honestly, it’s mind-blowing,” comments the act’s drummer James Hunt. “To have been pipped at the post and debut at No. 2 with their last album, it makes this No. 1 debut even sweeter,” adds Dan Rosen, president of Warner Music Australasia. This leader “cements this incredible band as one of the great Aussie bands of the modern era,” Rosen continues. “We can’t wait to have the band back in the country soon for their amazing live show.” The Sydney outfit, currently based in the U.S., shaped Surrender during lockdown stints between Joshua Tree and Los Angeles. North American tour dates in support of the new album kicked off over the past weekend, and, in the weeks ahead, include a pair of headline shows at Banc of Califo...
How the Grammys Upgraded Its Voting System for the 2022 Awards
Through the voting portal, the Academy has increased the personalization of each user’s ballot. Voters can customize their ballot by clicking on the fields in which they choose to vote. That way, they can easily see and browse through the categories that are most relevant to them. Voters’ ballots now offer a search box to find the field, artist or category they are interested in. Using the search tool, voting members can more easily maneuver through the 22,000 entries on the ballot. The upgraded ballots offer more flexibility. Voters may select and de-select categories before they make their final submission. Voters are free to change their minds on which categories and fields they wish to vote in. The porta...
The Deals: A$AP Ferg Joins Roc Nation; UTA Music Signs Dillon Francis
Dillon Francis has signed with UTA Music to oversee the DJ’s film, television and alternative media pursuits in addition to his international touring business in Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Francis will continue to be represented by Canopy Media Partners and TMWRK. Having just put out his fifth record Happy Machine, Francis is working on endeavors outside of music, penning scripts for his animated series titled Gerald’s World, which is currently in development. He is also putting together a treatment for a show about his alter-ego DJ Hanzel. Big Loud Records has signed rising country singer Jake Worthington to its growing lineup of artists. Worthington, who emerged as a finalist on NBC’s The Voice in 2014,...
Olivia Rodrigo Leads 2021 American Music Awards Nominations: Full List
The AMAs added three new categories this year: favorite trending song (with nominees from TikTok on the year’s most viral songs), favorite gospel artist (to go along with the returning favorite inspirational artist) and favorite Latin duo or group. With this year’s continued expansion of the Latin field, there are now as many awards for Latin (five) as there are for pop and country. That’s remarkable because there weren’t any categories for Latin at the American Music Awards until 1998, when Julio Iglesias took the first award for favorite Latin artist. This year, there are four awards each for hip-hop and R&B and one each for rock, inspirational, gospel and dance/electronic. Three categories that were on last year’s nominations list are MIA on this year’s list: favorite social artist ...
Mort Sahl, Top Comedian & Host of First Grammy Awards Ceremony, Dies at 94
At a time when comics often traded in tired jokes about their mothers-in-law, Sahl demonstrated that he had read the paper. Mort Sahl, one of the most successful and influential comedians of the 1950s and 1960s, died Tuesday at age 94. On top of many other things, Sahl owns a little piece of Grammy history. On May 4, 1959, Sahl emceed the presentation of the first Grammy Awards in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. The black-tie dinner and awards presentation, which was not televised, drew such guests as Henry Mancini (whose Music From Peter Gunn won album of the year), Frank Sinatra (who was the night’s leading nominee with six nods but won only for best album cover), Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Gene Autry, Johnny Mercer and Andre Previn. Sahl was al...
Elton John, Rüfüs Du Sol Aiming for Top Debuts on Australia’s Albums Chart
It’s all still to play for, as Rüfüs Du Sol’s latest effort Surrender aims high. The Sydney electronic act, now based in Los Angeles, is coming off a career-defining release in 2018’s Solace, which was nominated for two Grammy Awards (for best dance/electronic album and best dance recording) and three ARIA Awards (winning for best dance release) and was voted as the best electronic album of 2018 by Billboard’s Dance. None of the act’s three previous albums have charted lower than No. 2. Their debut Atlas (from 2013) and Bloom (2016) both hit No. 1 in Australia, while Solace peaked at No. 2. Keep an eye out for Lana Del Rey’s chart position with Blue Banisters, which could give the American alternative pop singer her seventh Top Ten title and second album for 2021. And finally, British...
CISAC 2020 Report: Global Publishing Collections Fell 10.7% Last Year
That 10.7% overall decline for music, however, was “considerably less disastrous than was foreseen one year ago,” as Oron observed, while TV and radio — still the largest sources of income for collection management organizations — declined less than expected due to a resilient economy. At the front-end of the COVID-19 pandemic, CISAC was anticipating a 25%-30% decline in collections for 2020, based on estimate reports then from member organizations, Oron tells Billboard. As well, “digital collections have managed to mitigate the fall in other income sources in many countries,” Oron said. “The surge of digital collections globally is a tribute to the efforts of CISAC societies to change strategy, shift resources and step up digital licensing activit...
Walter ‘Herbie’ Herbert, Manager Who Helped Launch Journey, Dies at 73
He was a protege of Bill Graham, and also worked with Santana, Steve Miller Band, Roxette and Europe during his career. Longtime artist manager Walter James “Herbie” Herbert II, who worked with groups including Journey and Santana, has reportedly died. According to Variety, Herbert was 73 years old. Herbert began his career in the early 1970s working with famed promoter Bill Graham. Graham helped Herbert land a gig as a roadie for Santana, whom Graham managed at the time. Herbert befriended Santana musicians Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon, and after they went on to found Journey they recruited Herbert to work alongside them. Schon was one of the first people to acknowledge Herbert’s passing in a Facebook post Monday, saying, “I’ll cherish all the incredible times and trials and tribu...
Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. Revives Plans to Acquire Austin’s Block 21 Complex
The deal is set to close near the end of the fourth quarter of this year. Opry Entertainment, one division of Ryman Hospitality Properties, includes the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, WSM 650 AM, Ole Red, and Circle, a country lifestyle media network owned via a joint venture with Gray Television. The $260 million price tag includes the assumption of nearly $138 million of existing mortgage debt. Ryman Hospitality Properties will also receive approximately $11 million of existing cash reserves. Colin Reed, chairman and CEO of Ryman Hospitality Properties, said, “We are pleased to again have the opportunity to add this one-of-a-kind asset to our growing entertainment portfolio. Much like Nashville, Austin’s leisure and hospitality industry is recovering and is well-positioned for growth ...
