Streaming
The Ledger: Leaving Russia Will Have Little Impact on Streaming Services, Record Labels
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. Strong steps taken by Western music companies to cease operations in Russia will have a big impact on the country but will do little damage to the global market. Russia is the 16th largest recorded music market in the world with a trade value $199 million in 2020, according to the IFPI. That was on par with Sweden, which has about 7% of Russia’s population, as well as Mexico, India and Switzerland. For the largest record labels, music publishers and music streaming companies, each with multi-billion-dollar revenues, Russia is a tiny part of their worldwide businesses. Spotify’s decision to suspend operations in Rus...
Executive of the Week: Spotify Global Head of Editorial Sulinna Ong
As global head of editorial at the biggest music streamer in the world, Sulinna Ong has plenty on her plate — not least of which is overseeing the programming of Spotify’s playlists across genres, territories and fandoms. And this past week has been a big one for Ong and her team, as they revamped Spotify’s flagship K-Pop playlist, K-Pop ON! (온), with a new name, a massive marketing push and a focused plan for new content catered to fans of the genre that has expanded significantly around the world in recent years. And the push has already started to pay off: daily streams and listening hours for the playlists grew 40% week over week, according to Spotify, and the playlist moved into the top five of the company’s most-streamed playlists, which Ong says is “a first for the playlist and the ...
Spotify Suspends Premium Accounts in Russia
Spotify has suspended its premium accounts in Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, a company executive said on Wednesday (March 9). Paul Vogel, the streaming platform’s CFO, said the shutdown would result in a loss of about 1.5 million paying customers in the first quarter of 2022, Variety reported. That is not expected to be material for the company: Russia represents less than 1% of Spotify’s total revenue of 9.67 billion euros ($10.93 billion) in 2021, up 22.7% from 2020. In the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Spotify said last Wednesday that it was closing its office in Russia and removing content from state-sponsored broadcasters RT and Sputnik. The platform has been unable to add new premium accounts or to run advertising in Russia since credit card companies Visa, Mas...
‘Euphoria’ Synchs Drive Streaming Gains ‘Unlike Any Other TV Show’
Since its debut in 2018, HBO’s high school drama Euphoria has been a sensation, but when the show came back for its long awaited second season on Jan. 9, 2022, it reached new heights — and helped a handful of hits experience a second spike of popularity along the way. With a viewership doubling over the first three episodes, as Variety reported in February, Euphoria‘s new season quickly became an important vehicle for massive streaming bumps of older tracks. For the show’s music — which pivots from Thelonius Monk or Judy Garland to Lil Xan and 100 Gecs’ Laura Les within a single hour-long episode, all curated by music supervisor Jen Malone and featuring an original score by producer-artist Labrinth — there was a measurable spike in listenership after each episode aired for nearly every s...
Joe Hadley Exits CAA, Joins Spotify as Global Head of Artist and Audience Partnerships
Joe Hadley is leaving his position as one of the most powerful booking agents in hip-hop to join Spotify, the streaming company confirmed to Billboard. In his new role, Hadley will serve as Spotify’s global head of artist and audience partnerships. Based in Los Angeles, Hadley joined CAA in 2016 after five years at Windish Agency and was promoted to serve as global co-head of hip-hop and R&B at the agency along with Mark Cheatem in February 2021. The 34-year-old’s clients at CAA include Beyonce, A$AP Rocky, Zayn, Anuel AA, Koffee and Jorja Smith. Hadley is also reported to have led CAA’s diversity and inclusion efforts. A graduate of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Hadley got his start in music by promoting concerts in Germany before relocating to Chicago, wher...
Netflix Appoints Former Spotify Head of Music Marian Lee as CMO
Netflix has appointed Marian Lee as its chief marketing officer, the company confirmed to Billboard. Lee replaces former CMO Bozoma Saint John, who has departed the company. The news was first reported by Variety. Lee, the former co-head of music at Spotify, joined Netflix as its vp, U.S. and Canada last July. “Netflix is an incredible brand with the best content and creative teams in the world,” Lee said in a statement to Billboard.”I am confident our most exciting work is ahead of us and I am honored to lead this best-in-class global marketing team into the future, and continue to connect our incredible series and films with audiences around the globe.” “Marian is a strategic marketer with deep experience not just in entertainment but also more broadly having worked at fashion and media ...
U.S. Investigation Launched Into TikTok’s Effect on Kids’ Health
State attorneys general have launched a nationwide investigation into TikTok and its possible harmful effects on young users’ mental health, widening government scrutiny of the wildly popular video platform. The investigation was announced Wednesday by a number of states led by California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. U.S. lawmakers and federal regulators have criticized TikTok, citing practices and computer-driven promotion of content they say can endanger the physical and mental health of young users. The platform has an estimated 1 billion monthly users and is especially popular with teens and younger children. Last month, Texas opened an investigation into TikTok’s alleged violations of children’s privacy and facilitation of human traff...
Who Gets Paid for a Stream?
Over a trillion times a year, somebody streams a song within the United States and sets in motion the process of paying royalties to the rights holders and creators responsible for the music. Each individual payment is minute — usually less than a cent — but for the most popular songs, royalties can add up to millions of dollars in a single year. Dua Lipa’s “Levitating,” for example, which was 2021’s most-streamed song in the U.S., according to MRC Data, earned her, its songwriters and its various rights holders about $4 million, Billboard estimates. Exactly how each involved party is paid varies, but the recipients are the same: record label, performing artist, songwriter, music publisher and an intermediary or two. Both the sound recording and its underlying musical work receive royaltie...
SoundCloud, Solid Foundation Management Form ‘Groundbreaking’ JV
SoundCloud and Solid Foundation Management form a joint venture that both parties hope, with its combined might, will weaponize more artists and unearth new talent. Described in a statement as “groundbreaking,” the alliance sees Solid Foundation parent QC Media Holdings’ invest in Soundcloud with an undisclosed sum. Also, QC Media co-founders Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas and their Solid Foundation artist management team, based in Atlanta, will work collaboratively with the SoundCloud to “identify, invest in, and foster the careers of artists featured.” “Coach K and P are two of the most influential voices in music, having identified, developed and grown some of the most successful hip-hop acts of our time,” comments Eliah Seton, president of SoundCloud. With this deal, Seton c...
Steve Aoki Says He Made More Money From NFTs In 1 Year Than a Decade of Streaming Royalties
The most fervent purveyors of NFTs have remained adamant in the technology’s ability to spark a paradigm shift in music, whereby the silos of power transfer from centralized companies and labels back to the artists. Now, Steve Aoki, one of the earliest adopters of the Web3 blueprint, has shared some eye-opening comments illuminating how his bets on NFTs are paying off. At a private Gala Music event, Aoki said he’s made more money from NFTs in the past year than he has through streaming royalties over the last decade, Decrypt reports. “But if I was to really break down, okay, in the 10 years I’ve been making music…six albums, and you [combine] all those advances, what I did in one drop last year in NFTs, I made more money,” Aoki explained. Released last year on ...
NBA All-Star Game: How to Watch the Halftime Show, Slam Dunk Contest & Other Events Online
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Now that the Super Bowl is behind us, sports fans can set their sights on NBA All-Star Weekend. This year’s NBA All-Star Game and festivities such as the slam dunk contest, celebrity game and the halftime show, begins Friday (Feb. 18) in Cleveland. All-Star Weekend takes places until Feb. 20. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The Ruffles Celeb Game — which includes Machine Gun Kelly, Jack Harlow, Anuel AA and Quavo as the celeb players — goes down on Friday night and will air on ESPN followed by Clorox Rising Stars...
Kanye West Touts $1.3M in Stem Player Sales, Says Exclusive ‘Donda 2’ Release Sinks Apple Deal
After announcing Thursday that his forthcoming album, Donda 2, would be streaming exclusively on his branded Stem Player, Kanye West (now known as Ye) says he’s raked in over $1.3 million in sales over the past day alone. On Instagram Friday (Feb. 18), Ye posted that as of 11:09 a.m. PST he had sold more than 6,200 Stem devices in the past 24 hours, with sales totaling over $1.3 million. “Thats faster than I’ve ever sold any T shirt. God has a plan. New frontier,” Ye wrote of the sales figures. “Everyone that is supporting our revolution is changing the game for all artist. We no longer have to bow to people who don’t even truly care about music. I feel like I’m back at SOB’s performing Jesus Walks.” Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news At the time ...
