business
Paul Weller’s ‘Fat Pop’ Is Cruising to U.K. No. 1
Coming in at No. 2 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart Update is J. Cole’s The Off-Season (Interscope). The U.S. rapper has the most-streamed album in the first half of the week, and it’s on target to become his third Top 10 entry. Cole’s peak U.K. position in his career to date is a No. 2 for 2018’s KOD. The current leader on the Official U.K. Albums Chart, Rag’n’Bone Man’s Life By Misadventure (Columbia), dips 3-1 but still manages to lead the market in downloads. Also new to the midweek chart is St. Vincent’s sixth and latest effort, Daddy’s Home (Loma Vista). It’s new at No. 4 and is on track to give the Grammy Award-winning alternative pop artist her best-ever chart position in the U.K. Completing the Top 5 at the midweek stage is the Black Keys’ covers album Delta Kream (None...
Dylan Scott Shares the Story Behind Hit Love Song ‘Nobody’
Scott is gearing up to accompany Luke Bryan on his Proud To Be Right Here tour this summer, along with Caylee Hammack, Runaway June and DJ Rock. Below, Scott tells Billboard the origin story behind “Nobody,” what he is most excited for upon his return to live shows and more. How did “Nobody” come together and what was your headspace when making the song? We were on the road playing shows and I had a couple of writers, Matt Alderman and Dallas Wilson. My wife and I, we’ve been together a long time — since we were 15 years old — so the love songs are kind of easy to write. I just remember us being on the back of the bus late one night like, “Let’s just write a simple love song.” So my budd...
Amazon Music Drops HD Tier to $9.99, Shaking Up Hi-Fi Streaming Market
Amazon’s success with its HD service, which has grown 100% year-over-year, has pushed Spotify to announce a Hi-Fi tier as well, with rumors of an Apple Music Hi-Fi plan possibly also priced at $9.99 a month. For years, the music industry was focused on using high-fidelity audio streaming as a means to raise the average revenue per user with higher-priced subscriptions. That would mean bigger payouts for rights holders and the streaming services. But with Amazon, Spotify, and Apple all getting in on the high-fidelity push, the labels have become more amenable to lowering the price of high-fidelity tiers in the hopes of increasing the overall number of subscribers across the industry. “The other services are coming around to the fact that this is really important.” Boom says. “And that ...
Apple Music Announces Hi-Fi Streaming at No Additional Cost
“Apple Music is making its biggest advancement ever in sound quality,” Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats said in a statement. “Listening to a song in Dolby Atmos is like magic. The music comes from all around you and sounds incredible. Now we are bringing this truly innovative and immersive experience to our listeners with music from their favorite artists like J Balvin, Gustavo Dudamel, Ariana Grande, Maroon 5, Kacey Musgraves, The Weeknd, and so many more. Subscribers will also be able to listen to their music in the highest audio quality with Lossless Audio. Apple Music as we know it is about to change forever.” Apple Music is also launching spatial audio (with support from Dolby Atmos) for music, which will allow artists to re...
Kaduna paralysed as NLC begins warning strike
Activities in Kaduna State have been paralysed as the five-day warning strike directed by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over irregular sacking of civil servants began on Monday. Checks revealed that schools, banks and other business premises had been closed. The National Union of Banks, Insurance and Finance Institutions Employees had directed its members to withdraw banking and insurance services in Kaduna state from Monday 17. The Zonal State Secretary of the union, Mr Adamu Danladi explained that the directive followed the NLC’s warning strike in response to what he described as Gov. El-Rufai’s “anti-workers policies”. He said that the withdrawal of services would continue until otherwise directed by the congress. Also, while some schools were closed, others were open but only a few...
Rag’n’Bone Man Blasts to No. 1 In U.K. With ‘Life By Misadventure’
It’s the second leader in a row for the multiple Brit Award-winning artists, following his debut 2017 effort Human, which has shifted more than over 1 million chart sales in this U.K. and returns the Top 40 at No. 35. Life By Misadventure enjoyed a lift following Rag’n’Bone Man’s appearance at the BRITs last Tuesday, to perform “Anywhere Away From Here” with Pink and the Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Choir. Life leads an all-new Top 5 on the current albums chart, ahead of Michael Ball’s We Are More Than One, Dodie’s Build A Problem, Squid’s Bright Green Field and Van Morrison’s Latest Record Project Volume 1, respectively. Also new to this week’s survey is Weezer’s rock-riff album Van Weezer at 30. It’s the U.S. rockers’ first Top 40 album in 13 years. Meanwhile New Order’s live album...
J. Cole Eyes Three Strong Starts on U.K. Singles Chart
J. Cole could make a big dent this week on the U.K. singles chart, with three tracks set for high entries. On the Official Chart Company’s First Look survey, which ranks the popularity of singles after the first weekend’s sales and streaming activity, Cole has the highest new entries with “9 5 . S O U T H” at No. 9, “M Y . L I F E” featuring 21 Savage & Morray at No. 10, and “A M A R I” at No. 11. The trio of tunes are all lifted from the North Carolinian hip-hop star’s latest album The Off-Season, which includes “I N T E R L U D E, the lead single which hit No. 25 on last week’s U.K. chart. 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 ma...
NNPC selects 26 firms to lift Nigeria’s crude oil
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has picked 26 foreign and local companies as well as 12 countries to lift the country’s crude oil for the next two years. The crude term contracts, expected to run from 2021 through 2023, would see the firms and the selected nations, which would operate on a Government-to-Government (G2G) basis to purchase the commodity from the national oil company. The deal is coming less than a week after the corporation chose 16 oil and gas consortia for its new crude-for-fuel swap contracts for one year starting in August. The contracts, known as Direct Sale, Direct Purchase (DSDP) are high-stakes agreements used to supply nearly all of Nigeria’s petrol needs as well as cover some of its diesel and jet fuel consumption. However, in the fresh crude oil...
Firm cautions Nigerian government over sale of national assets
Agusto Consulting has cautioned the federal government over its plan to relinquish national assets to private hands, saying, the risk involved is unquantifiable. Agusto Consulting, in a report titled “Rethinking Nigeria’s Models for Infrastructure Development,” noted that, the benefits of relinquishing control to the private sector are glaring, but remain difficult to implement. Noting that the federal government’s handing off certain critical assets of the country that have been dormant over the years will positively impact on the country’s budgetary allocation, but added that this decision has caveats and risks associated with operating models that involve private sector participation regardless of the levels of participation. “First is the high level of corruption in the country and the...
Universal Music’s Spotify Stock Could Be Worth $2B
If it still holds the shares, their current value is $1.45 billion — which would yield a profit of nearly $1.4 billion if sold at Friday’s share price. UMG and the other major labels, Sony Music and Warner Music Group, each took equity as part of their licensing deals that allowed Spotify to launch in the U.S. in 2011. As of Dec. 31, UMG maintained a larger equity stake in Spotify than any of its competitors. Sony Music sold half its 5.707% stake for $768 million following Spotify’s IPO in April 2018, leaving it 5.082 million shares a 2.85% stake at the time — a percentage that would have been diluted since then. (Based on Warner Music, meanwhile, confirmed in August 2018 that it sold its full 4% stake for $504 million. In March 2018 UMG committed to givin...
Inside Track: UMG’s Executive Pay; Clive Davis Interviews Joni Mitchell
When post-employee benefits and share-based payouts are added, that total jumps to $132 million — almost double the $62.2 million paid to the executive team in 2018. According to the UMG website, the executive team consists of UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge; executive vp Michele Anthony; chairman/CEO of Central Europe and Deutsche Grammophon, Frank Briegmann; executive vp and general counsel Jeffrey Harleston; executive vp and chief people and inclusion officer Eric Hutcherson; United Kingdom and Ireland chairman/CEO David Joseph; executive vp marketing Andrew Kronfeld; executive vp/CFO Boyd Muir; executive vp digital strategy Michael Nash; executive vp/chief administrative officer Will Tanous; and Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) chairman/CEO Jody Gerson. The financial data ...
Understanding the strength of small businesses
The number of small businesses keeps growing in the formal and informal sectors of the Nigerian economy, due to the role of small businesses as the live-wire of any economy and the backbone of major developed economies the world over. Though Nigeria rely majorly on oil and revenues derived from it, from context observation the economy is largely supported by small businesses covering almost all spheres of activities within the country, ranging from Nano, kiosk, and Micro businesses most importantly. A visible reference usually includes the vulcanizers, corner shop owners, single retail marketers, repairers, painters, business center operators, restaurants, market women, and men in the various open markets, among others. and the formal operations such as the law firms, accounting firms, con...