Streaming
Elon Musk’s Sister Has a Streaming Service Dedicated to Romance and Erotica
Apparently Tosca Musk cares about romance novels the way her brother Elon Musk cares about posting memes on Twitter. That’s why she’s launched Passionflix, a growing streaming site dedicated to steamy adaptations of Harlequin page-turners, erotic fan-fic and more. Profiled by The New York Times, the fledgling entrepreneur explained that she’ll be sitting in the director’s chair for many of the platform’s adaptations, while also licensing existing content such as 2013’s Random Encounters starring a pre-Royal Wedding Meghan Markle and the 2014 rom-com Two Night Stand starring Miles Teller as well as tried and true swooners like 1995’s Sabrina — yes, the one with Harrison Ford — and 1996’s The English Patient. Subscriptions to the site cost just $6 per month and content is rated on a unique s...
St. Vincent Channels Her Inner Disco Queen on ‘Funkytown’ Cover for ‘Minions’ Soundtrack: Listen
St. Vincent is ready to go to “Funkytown” — are you ready? The singer released her cover of the Lipps Inc. classic on Friday (June 3), which appeared on the forthcoming soundtrack for Dreamworks’ Minions: Rise of Gru soundtrack. The reimagined track, which was produced by Jack Antonoff — who additionally curated the soundtrack, and is featured on it alongside his band, Bleachers — sees the singer tapping into the song’s disco roots. Artfully placed autotune to her vocals and distorted strings sets the “Funkytown” cover apart from the original, while the video for the track shows a Minion-ified version of Vincent, complete in a maroon suit and her signature blonde bob and bangs. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news H.E.R., Bleachers,&nbs...
The Changing World Of: Record Label Streaming
In 1999, Pavement put out the single “Spit On a Stranger,” pairing it with the B-side track “Harness Your Hopes” as a CD-only release. A decade later, in 2008, the band’s 1997 album Brighten The Corners was released in expanded form to digital retailers like Apple’s iTunes Store, complete with bonus tracks and B-Sides from those sessions, including “Harness Your Hopes,” which appeared digitally for the first time. And that’s where the journey for many of those songs would have ended: as footnotes and rarities for collectors and superfans. But the rise of streaming and social media changed all that. In 2017, for reasons that are still a little mysterious to both the band and its label Matador, “Harness Your Hopes” began to explode on Spotify, leaping into the top spot among Pavement’s most-...
Bradley Cooper Is Unrecognizable as Leonard Bernstein in ‘Maestro’ First Look Photos
Netflix unveiled a glimpse at their new film Maestro on Monday (May 30), including Bradley Cooper‘s jaw-dropping transformation as West Side Story composer Leonard Bernstein. In the photos released from set, a ’50s-era Cooper is rendered in black and white alongside Carey Mulligan as Bernstein’s wife, actress Felicia Montealegre. He’s also miraculously aged up to portray the conductor in the 1980s, when he was in his 60s, using makeup and a wig. In one snap, he sits behind a desk, virtually unrecognizable as a cigarette burns between his fingers; in another, he paces in an auditorium as he waves his finger, either conducting the action on stage or giving a note. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The biopic of the West Side Story composer is ...
The Ledger: Sony Music’s Cautious Catalog Approach & Other Investor Call Highlights
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. Sony’s annual investor presentation was a rare opportunity for Rob Stringer, chairman of Sony Music Group and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, to go on record on the important financial issues of the day. Any analyst or investor listening in got some helpful insight into Stringer’s thinking about how Sony spends money and what will account for future revenue growth. Stringer’s presentation recapped Sony Music’s fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, as well as its double-digit growth over the previous five years. Revenues were up $3 billion since 2017, profit margins have improved and streaming now accounts for 70% of total ...
Donald Trump to Launch Streaming Platform for “Canceled Content” and “Non-Fake News”
Donald Trump is plotting his return to television. The former president’s company Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) is currently building out a streaming service, which will be home to undoubtedly highbrow broadcasting like “canceled content” and “non-fake news.” Per The Hollywood Reporter, TMTG — which is led by CEO Devin Nunes — recently unveiled their mess of an S-1 filing, which attempts to outline their specific plans: “TMTG+ intends to offer programs including, but not limited to blue collar comedy, canceled shows, Trump-specific programming, faith-based shows, family entertainment, shows that embrace the Second Amendment, and news. TMTG intends to license, produce, and deliver news, sports, and non-woke entertainment content through this platform.” These plans sound ...
Sony Music Group Extends Program for Unrecouped Artists and Songwriters
More legacy artists and songwriters are going to be able to profit from the boom in streaming and other digital royalties after Sony Music Group expands its program for paying royalties to more artists with unrecouped royalty balances, chairman Rob Stringer announced Wednesday evening (May 25) during a presentation to Sony Corp. investors. With Artists Forward and Songwriters Forward, both launched in 2021, Sony Music decided to pay royalties to artists and songwriters who were signed before 2000 and haven’t received advance since. Sony Music didn’t wipe the slate clean by modifying contracts or adjusting the account balances. Instead, it would ignore the negative account balances of artists whose royalties earned over the previous two decades never caught up with their advance and expense...
‘WTF With Marc Maron’ Podcast Inks Multi-Year Deal With Acast
Marc Maron has struck a three-year deal with Acast to host, monetize and distribute the comedian’s hit podcast, WTF With Marc Maron. As part of the deal, which begins on July 1, WTF will also offer bonus content, merchandise and live event offerings via Acast+, the podcast company’s subscription service. The back catalogue of WTF, currently available without ads on SiriusXM’s Stitcher Premium, will also be taken down and moved over to the open feed when the deal goes into effect, though a “small portion” will be paywalled on Acast+, according to Acast spokesperson Ryan Hatoum. New episodes of the show will continue to be released twice a week and will be available for free across all major podcast platforms, while advertisers will be able to pla...
Lizzo Is Getting Her Own HBO Max Documentary
A documentary about Lizzo is officially in the works, and honestly, it’s “About Damn Time.” The singer announced the news on Wednesday (May 18) at the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront presentation at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, and revealed that HBO Max will be taking on the yet-to-be titled project, which is set to arrive this fall. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news An official press release about the forthcoming documentary says the film will explore “the journey of a trailblazing superstar who has become the movement the world desperately needed just by being herself. The HBO Max documentary shares the inspirational story behind her humble beginnings to her meteoric rise with an intimate look into the moments that shaped her h...
Tencent Music Revenues Fall 15%, Subscriptions Grow Amid Regulatory ‘Headwinds’
The effects of government intervention on Tencent Music Entertainment, the leading music streaming platform in China, were visible in the first quarter as the company’s revenues dropped 15.1% to RMB 6.64 billion ($1.05 billion) from the prior-year period. Shenzhen-based TME operates QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music and WeSing. In a statement, executive chairman Cussion Pang attributed the decline to “headwinds in an evolving market landscape,” a reference to the difficulties created by increased Chinese regulations and increased competition from Cloud Village, the music streaming platform spun off by Netease in Dec. 2021, and Quishiu Yinyue, a new music service by Douyin, the Chinese version of short-form video platform TikTok. The quarterly report’s bright spot was music subscripti...
The Ledger: How the Industry Went From Discussing Fairness to Accuracy – And Why it Matters
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. What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago, most music industry conferences played like long, geeky arguments between technology companies that said they represented the future of the business and labels and publishers that wanted that future to involve getting paid. At one memorable SXSW panel, independent artists and small label owners seethed over their inability to get YouTube to permanently remove their music from user-generated videos. At MIDEM in 2010, a year before Spotify launched in the U.S., Americans heard horror stories from European executives about the platform’s minuscule royalty rates for ad-suppor...
Disney+ Hits 137.7M Subscribers, Beats Wall Street Expectations
Disney once again beat Wall Street expectations last quarter in streaming, adding 7.9 million Disney+ subscribers, and suggesting that the company may be positioned to take a lead in what has become a cutthroat race to the top in streaming. While Wall Street expectations for Disney+ were varied, a midpoint expectation was 4.5 million to 5 million adds. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Disney reported revenue of $19.2 billion and income of $3.7 billion, with earnings per share of $1.08. Wall Street expectations were for revenue of $20.1 billion, operating income of $3.3 billion, and EPS of $1.17. The EPS miss could be due to a change in tax regulations, which saw the company’s effective tax rate balloon from 8.8 percent a year a...
