State Champ Radio Blog
Related Images:
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were featured together for only a split-second in 15 and The Mahomies Foundation’s new Instagram reel, but of course, they still stole the show. Posted Sunday (April 28), the video compiles clips from the organization’s Las Vegas charity gala, which the “Anti-Hero” singer attended alongside the Kansas City Chief tight […]
Diana Montes was working in sales and sponsorships at the Latin Recording Academy in 2013 when Turner Media Group contacted her with an ambitious proposal: Could she create a Latin music awards show outside the United States to air on HTV, the Latin music channel then owned by TBS? It was a challenging idea because at the time, all major Latin music awards shows were produced stateside.
“We decided to make a Latin music award for Latins, made in Latin America,” Montes says. She pitched the concept to multiple cities and countries and finally partnered with the Dominican Republic’s burgeoning tourist destination of Cap Cana.
Today, 10 years after its first broadcast by the seashore, the event has grown from a homey show to a major ceremony with a massive online following and a cadre of devoted artists — including Karol G and Feid — who have been feted by Premios Heat throughout their careers.
Trending on Billboard
Montes plans to honor many of them during the anniversary edition of the awards show on July 11, set once again for the beaches of Cap Cana.
How has Premios Heat evolved?
We have only existed for 10 years but have grown in a huge way. When we started, HTV was only seen in Latin America, and there was no great impact in Mexico or the U.S. Now we’ve expanded. Since 2020, 2021, our biggest audiences are in the United States, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, in that order.
What makes this awards show different?
The staging. We’re a beach awards show where the beach is a protagonist. Our slogan is “The only awards show with the Caribbean Sea as the stage.” We’re unique because it’s very complicated to stage an awards show on a beach. And yet, in 10 years, we’ve never had a weather disaster. And obviously, having an awards show on the beach is very different than in an arena. Artists come with a different vibe, and all our concepts are tropical chic.
Did you initially have skeptics?
When I first started, people used to say this wasn’t an awards show but a beach festival that happened to hand out awards. Now they say I created a unique format and we’ve connected with a younger audience.
Diana Montes
Andrea Ramirez PR
How are the finalists and winners decided?
Nominations are based on video rotation on HTV, and we also have a committee of radio programmers throughout Latin America who tell us what’s playing in different countries. Once nominations are out, they’re public, and people vote for the winners. Anyone can vote. We also give out two editorial awards: social commitment, to an artist who has effected change through their foundation, and a golden award, which is the big award of the night that we give for career trajectory.
What’s different this year?
It’s a very special year because it’s our 10-year anniversary. We’ve expanded our categories, and this year, we’ll name winners in 29 categories, including a video-game streaming song. We’re also going to give out song of the year for the first time, and we’re launching a salsa category. We’re also excited about our app, Heat.TV. We launched it in 2021, and we have 647,000 unique monthly users. Last year, we had 5.2 million people watch the show in its entirety on the app.
This story originally appeared in the April 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.
When singer Manuel Turizo released his single “La Bachata” in May 2022, it was a risky move. The Colombian singer was venturing into Dominican territory not only by singing bachata — a very regional Dominican music genre — but by cheekily titling his foray “La Bachata” (The Bachata).
The risk paid off. By August, Turizo’s pop- and tropical-laced take on bachata landed at No. 1 on Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart, where it ruled for 14 weeks, and it rose to No. 1 on the Latin Airplay chart in October. The track also reached No. 6 on the Billboard Global 200 (becoming the first bachata song to enter the top 10 since the chart’s inception in 2020) and No. 3 on the Global Excl. U.S. chart. It peaked at No. 67 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 in October.
“Music is universal,” Turizo told Billboard following the song’s success. “These are the influences Dominican music left in me.”
Trending on Billboard
Turizo is far from the only Latin star influenced by Dominican music. In the past few years, a number of non-Dominican superstars — including Rosalía (with The Weeknd on “La Fama”), Shakira (with Ozuna on “Monotonía”), Karol G (“El Barco”) and, most recently, Chayanne (with 2023 hit “Bailando Bachata”) — has topped the charts by capitalizing on the broad appeal of bachata, known for its signature percussion and plucked guitars.
Bachata’s popularity, along with a rising interest in dembow and the strength of other traditional Dominican genres like merengue, have refocused attention on the music coming from the small Caribbean country that shares its island territory with Haiti but has distinct idiosyncrasies and a booming economy fueled by tourism. Despite its size, the Dominican Republic is second only to Mexico in Latin America in the number of tourists who visit every year, according to statistics site Statista.
When it comes to music, the DR — as it is affectionately known — is teeming with it. As beloved global star Juan Luis Guerra once famously said, “Even the avocados sing.” The DR’s vast roster of international stars includes the more global Guerra, as well as Romeo Santos, Aventura and Prince Royce (who, although all born in the Bronx, identify with their Dominican music and roots). In Latin America, the list includes merengue stars Milly Quezada, Los Hermanos Rosario and Sergio Vargas, who are all active today.
Juan Luis Guerra
Ricardo Rubio/Europa Press/Getty Images
Romeo Santos
Paras Griffin/Getty Images
While music from the DR has been less ubiquitous than music from Puerto Rico, for example, in the past five years, the country has significantly upped its musical exports, thanks in part to a new generation of stars including Natti Natasha, El Alfa, Tokischa, J Noa and Amenazzy. Major labels have taken notice, with Natasha, Tokischa and J Noa all now signed to or distributed through Sony Latin. This is in no small part due to the explosion of Dominican dembow — an exciting, vibrant fusion that’s filling arenas thanks to artists like El Alfa, who, in turn, has helped globalize the style by working with genre-bending acts such as Camilo, Fuerza Régida, Rauw Alejandro and Peso Pluma. Tokischa has recorded with Rosalía and traded an onstage kiss with Madonna during the legend’s Celebration tour stop in New York, while Natasha has emerged as the country’s most prominent pop star.
The DR is poised to assume an even bigger role on the global music stage. This year, in addition to its local Premios Soberano, Premios Heat — which has traditionally taken place on the beaches of DR — celebrates its 10th anniversary on July 11 as a Latin American-produced live music awards show that’s viewed regionwide. For the first time, in addition to broadcasting on HTV, the awards will also stream on YouTube.
Industrywise, the newly minted Dominican Music Week returned April 16-18 for a second year of panels and new-artist showcases. “The music industry in the Dominican Republic is clearly growing,” Premios Heat president Diana Montes says. “Although the big companies and streamers have long been in the territory, we see more artists working hand in hand with them, and the growth impact is palpable.”
Billboard spoke with industry leaders about the present and the future of a country that lives and breathes music.
Greeicy (left) and Mike Bahía at Premios Heat in 2023.
Premios Heat
A Fusion Of Rhythms
Although the Dominican Republic has always been rich with a wealth of Latin genres — bachata, merengue, merengue típico — Montes is particularly excited about the surge of dembow, “which has taken over the global charts,” and the new mix of rhythms that has come with it. “There’s an amazing fusion of genres going on,” she says, citing Peso Pluma’s collaboration with dembow pioneer El Alfa and Chimbala’s many collaborations with reggaetón acts. New talent is proliferating, and, she says, “Tropical music is coming back. That fills me with enthusiasm.”
On the radar: Montes mentions J Noa, a rapper recently signed by Sony Music, as an “incredible” talent, as well as proponents of new tropical music like Chimbala.
Dominicans Take On The World
Never, perhaps, have Dominican music and its artists enjoyed as much global recognition as they do today. “The increasing value placed on Dominican music and its music-makers in the global market is exciting to watch,” attorney Rosa Mayra Tejada says. That recognition, she adds, goes hand in hand with the growth of the market itself and the increased participation of Dominican artists on international hits, as well as composers and producers. “I’m excited about a musical market that’s growing and where all our creators have more and better opportunities to prepare for this changing market,” Tejada says.
A place to learn: “Dominican Music Week is the best place to acquire or refresh knowledge and interact with music executives,” Tejada says.
Music That’s A Cultural Heritage Of Humanity
The DR birthed two genres of great significance: “merengue and bachata, which have also been declared by the UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,” a designation of cultural heritage including traditions or living expressions inherited from ancestors such as the performing arts, says Valerio de León Severino, president of the country’s general society of authors, composers and editors, Sgacedom. “2024 is shaping up to be a year of growth for Dominican music genres, given the fact that important international artists have placed their eyes on the music and market,” Severino continues. “Likewise, Dominican talent is more aware than ever of the importance of digital platforms to internationalize their music.”
On the radar: “Established acts Juan Luis Guerra, Eddy Herrera, Milly Quezada, Sergio Vargas, El Prodigio, Elvis Martinez, Sacarías Ferreiras and El Chaval,” Severino says.
Sergio Vargas
Johnny Louis/Getty Images
Educating For Growth
As CEO of indie music company and distributor Aparataje, Jairo Bautista has focused on educating his artists and creators since 2015. “Topics like royalty splits, publishing rights and neighboring rights are common topics of discussion in recording sessions,” he says. “This has also led to a surge in a new generation of Dominican executives with deep knowledge of the business.” The versatility of Dominican artists and musicians has allowed them to adapt and interact with other genres, “thanks to the rich mix of cultures and genres, including orchestral merengue, typical merengue and, particularly, urban music.” The lattermost is where Bautista sees the most growth, with urban artists selling out shows throughout the country and with labels willing to invest “up to $10 million” in signing advances.
On the radar: “Without a doubt, dembow is the main mass-consumption genre right now,” Bautista says. “TikTok has become the main platform to viralize the music. And merengue típico is living a resurgence thanks to new artists who are bringing a fresh take to this legendary Dominican genre.” Artists to watch include Chimbala, Bulova and Don Miguelo.
Local Expertise That Translates To Global Recognition
International superstars may have globalized bachata and merengue, but their foundation lies in the expertise and musicianship of local composers and musicians. The DR “has been able to position genres like bachata, merengue and dembow on an international stage, and this means that locally you can find an industry of musicians, producers, composers and arrangers who are experts in those genres,” says Emiliano Vásquez, an A&R manager at Sony Music Latin. “It thrills me to say that tropical genres have increasing presence in international markets and that it’s increasingly common to see Dominican musicians being tapped for their expertise.”
Hidden talents: Composers like Brasa have credits on tracks with Bad Bunny, Prince Royce and Diego Torres, while writer-producer Cromo X has credits on a merengue song with Kali Uchis that was made in the DR.
An ‘Inexhaustible Source Of Talent And Grace’
Amarilys German, longtime manager for Guerra, describes her country as an “inexhaustible source of talent and grace. Here, even the trees sing and dance.” But German has also seen a tangible change in live music since the end of the pandemic. “The growth in massive shows has been huge,” she says, noting fans’ behavior has changed dramatically. “Prior to the pandemic, you went on sale, and truly, until the last week, you had no idea what was going to happen, and there was no presale.” Now tickets sell from the first day, “which allows managers, artists and promoters to have clarity and work with added precision.”
On the radar: J Noa, SNENiE and Damn Goldo.
Rap, Dembow And DIY
Vulcano Music Entertainment CEO Juan Carlos Restituyo has seen a dramatic shift in the urban side of the Dominican music industry, with up-and-coming artists either launching their own imprints or partnering with established labels like his. The move underscores the growing viability of Dominican urban sounds, which Restituyo splits into two front-runners: Dominican rap and dembow, represented by Rochy RD and El Alfa, respectively. Rochy RD’s “Ella No Es Tuya” (with Myke Towers and Nicki Nicole) made President Barack Obama’s summer 2023 playlist, and El Alfa’s most recent collaboration, “La Botella,” features Enrique Iglesias. “The Dominican Republic has become a popular destination for both music and tourism,” Restituyo says. “Those foreigners are the main distributors of Dominican happiness at a global scale, and they’re our major music exporters.”
On the radar: “We’re doing very well with our roster of El Alfa, Bulin 47, Rochy RD, Kiry Curu, Lapiz Conciente, Ceky Viciny, El Mayor Clásico and Paramba,” Restituyo says, “and also excited about emerging acts like Rosaly Rubio and El Chuky de Lewa, among others.”
A Vibrant Live Music Scene
According to SD Concerts president Saymon Díaz, “Music is the entertainment industry that generates the most income and audience in the country.” Post-pandemic, he says, Dominicans have changed their live-music consumption habits. Where before fans waited until the last minute to buy tickets, today, “shows sell out online in 24 hours and websites collapse.” Fandom now extends beyond shows themselves, with fans buying merchandise and some restaurants even offering themed menus on show days. Most importantly, Dominicans’ musical taste is vast and goes beyond tropical and local genres. “K-pop and fusion are consumed in a big way,” he says.
On the radar: The new Capitalia festival premiered April 20 with shows by four icons: Guerra, Sting, Juanes and Residente. “We want to make Capitalia an annual trademark that we eventually export,” Díaz says. His artists on the rise include J Noa and urban singer-songwriter Chris Lebrón.
Tokischa
Medios y Media/Getty Images
An Explosion Of Dembow
While long associated with merengue and bachata, the DR has produced music of many genres, including pop, ballads, boleros, jazz and, most recently, dembow. Now music festivals worldwide are booking dembow artists like El Alfa, Tokischa and Chimbala and composers such as Brasa, Cromo X and Maffio, who are collaborating with stars like Bad Bunny and Karol G — marking a “major change,” says Porfirio Pina, president of indie La Oreja Media Group and founder of Dominican Music Week. “It’s exciting to see the development of our music industry at a local level and the presence of [digital service providers] and multinationals in the country.”
On the radar J Noa, Solo Fernández, Techy Fatule, Yendry and Letón Pé.
This story originally appeared in the April 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Lainey Wilson, Jelly Roll and Chris Stapleton are among the first performers announced for the 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards, which will be held at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, on May 16.
The show will also feature performances by Jason Aldean, Kane Brown, Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert and Thomas Rhett, as well as Reba McEntire, who was announced as host last week. McEntire will perform new music. Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.
The show will stream live globally on Prime Video at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. The ACM stresses that a Prime membership will not be required to watch live. They note: “Everyone is invited to the Party of the Year.”
Trending on Billboard
Stapleton and Wilson both received five ACM nominations this year. Jelly Roll is a beat behind with four.
This is McEntire’s 17th time hosting or co-hosting the ACMs. She first co-hosted the show in 1986 with actor/singer John Schneider and the late Mac Davis. McEntire is closing in on the all-time record for most times hosting or co-hosting a major awards show. That record has long been held by Bob Hope, who hosted or co-hosted the Academy Awards 19 times between 1940-78.
The 2023 ACM Awards, hosted by Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks, garnered more than 7.7 million viewers on Prime Video plus additional viewership across Amazon Music, the Amazon Music channel on Twitch, and Amazon Live, making it one of the year’s most-watched awards shows.
This marks the ACM Awards’ third year streaming on Prime Video; its second in a row coming from Ford Center at The Star. The venue opened in 2016 and serves as the practice facility for the Dallas Cowboys, as well as the home for many major sporting events throughout the year. Last year’s ACM Awards were the first awards show to take place there.
The 59th ACM Awards is produced by Dick Clark Productions (DCP). Raj Kapoor is executive producer and showrunner, with Patrick Menton as co-executive producer. Damon Whiteside serves as executive producer for the ACM , and Barry Adelman serves as executive producer for DCP. John Saade serves as consulting producer for Amazon MGM Studios.
Kapoor was one of three executive producers of the Grammy Awards on Feb. 4, along with Ben Winston and Jesse Collins. He also served as executive producer and showrunner of the Oscars on March 10. Menton was a co-executive producer of the Grammys.
A limited number of tickets to the 59th ACM Awards are available for purchase on SeatGeek.
Fans can also tune into the official ACM Red Carpet on Prime Video, the Amazon Music Channel on Twitch, and Amazon Live, starting at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT. The full rebroadcast will be available directly following the stream on Prime Video and available the next day for free on Amazon Freevee and the Amazon Music app.
Fans can also stream the Official ACM Awards playlist available now on Amazon Music.
DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a Penske Media Corporation (PMC) subsidiary and joint venture between PMC and Eldridge. PMC is the parent company of Billboard.
The Weeknd has pledged another $2 million from his XOP Humanitarian Fund to the World Food Programme’s humanitarian response efforts in war-torn Gaza. According to a statement released on Monday morning (April 29), the money from the artist who now goes by his real name, Abel Tesfaye, will be used to provide more than 1,500 […]
When Morgan Wallen headlined the Sunday (April 28) lineup at Indio, Calif., country music festival Stagecoach, he performed many of his signature hits, but the Grammy-nominated singer also had some help surprising the audience during his festival-closing set on the Mane Stage. Wallen brought out Post Malone, who joined Wallen for a new song called […]
Now that Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department has entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 and smashed sales records, thoughts turn to its next big test – how it will fare with Grammy voters.
If it is nominated for album of the year, Swift will become the first woman to receive seven album of the year nods, breaking out of a tie with Barbra Streisand, who received six nods from 1964-87. (All years in this story refer to the year of the Grammy ceremony.)
Trending on Billboard
Swift would be the sixth artist to land seven or more album of the year nominations – and just the second artist to reach that mark strictly with solo albums.
Paul McCartney is the leader with nine album of the year nods – five with The Beatles, one (Band on the Run) with Paul McCartney & Wings and three as a solo artist.
Frank Sinatra and George Harrison are next in line with eight album of the year nods. Sinatra scored with seven solo albums and one collab, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim. Harrison scored with five Beatles albums; a solo album (All Things Must Pass); an all-star live album, The Concert for Bangla Desh, which was credited to George Harrison & Friends; and a Traveling Wilburys album (Volume One) on which he teamed with Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.
Paul Simon follows with seven album of the year nods –- two with Simon & Garfunkel (Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water) and five on his own. Swift, if nominated, would pull into a tie with Simon for third place.
Swift’s last three studio albums, not counting her Taylor’s Versions re-recordings, were nominated for album of the year, though one of them just barely made it. The Recording Academy confirmed the accuracy of a New York Times report that Evermore placed ninth or 10th in the voting and was nominated only because, at the eleventh hour, the Academy expanded the field of nominees in each of the Big Four categories from eight to 10 that year (2022). After keeping the number of nominees at 10 the following year, the Academy returned to eight nominees in each of those categories for the telecast in February and will presumably hold it at that number for next year’s telecast, so Tortured Poets will have to do better than Evermore to be nominated. (Fittingly, that was a rather “tortured” explanation.)
If Tortured Poets is nominated, Swift will become the first artist to receive album of the year nominations with four consecutive official solo studio LPs since Kendrick Lamar (Swift’s colleague on “Bad Blood,” a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100) scored with good kid, m.A.A.d city, To Pimp a Butterfly, DAMN. and Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. The last artist before Lamar to achieve this feat was Billy Joel, who scored with 52nd Street, Glass Houses, The Nylon Curtain and An Innocent Man.
It’s of course way too early to know with any certainty if Swift will be nominated. Compared to Swift’s recent releases, the new album has drawn somewhat mixed reviews. The album has a 76 rating on Metacritic.com, the review aggregation site. That’s a bit below the marks registered by her four previous studio albums (excluding Taylor’s Version albums). Lover had a 79, folklore an 88, and evermore and Midnights, both an 85. (An expanded version of the new album, dubbed The Anthology, has a lower rating, 69.)
Billboard’s Jason Lipshutz took stock of Swift’s album in a thoughtful review headlined, “Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Is Messy, Unguarded and Undeniably Triumphant: Critic’s Take.” Here are the first four paragraphs from Lipshutz’s review, which posted on April 19, the day the album was released.
“One of the constants of Taylor Swift’s storied career has been the chances she’s taken at the precise moment when taking a chance wasn’t necessary. She was a country superstar who didn’t need to go pop; she was less than a year removed from a major pop album and didn’t need to take an indie-folk detour; she was in the middle of a blockbuster run of new albums and didn’t need to re-record her old ones.
“Time and again, Swift has identified artistic opportunities that other stars would have blanched at (or at the very least, set aside for a different time, so as to not muck up any professional momentum), and she has leapt into them fearlessly, always coming out on top.
“So right now — in the middle of a mega-selling stadium tour, after a record-breaking fourth album of the year Grammy win, in a high-profile new romance and at the commercial zenith of an already all-time career — is, naturally, the time Swift has chosen to release a knowingly messy, wildly unguarded breakup album.
“She didn’t have to do this! But then again, making an album like The Tortured Poets Department is exactly what separates Swift from her more careful peers. Challenging herself to shape-shift, to accomplish something new at the moment anyone else would rest on their laurels, is what makes her so fascinating.”
Other albums that are seen as front-runners for album of the year nominations include Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter, Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine and Bad Bunny’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Manana. Upcoming albums that are seen as likely prospects include Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism (due May 3) and Billie Eilish’s Hurt Me Hard & Soft (due May 17). The eligibility period ends Sept. 15.
If both Beyoncé and Swift are nominated, this will be the second time the two superstars have faced off in this category. In 2010, Swift’s Fearless beat Bey’s I Am…Sasha Fierce.
Could Swift possibly win her record-extending fifth award in the category? I have learned to never say never, especially when it concerns Swift at the Grammys. But more than a few Grammy watchers would howl if Swift won a fifth album of the year award before Beyoncé won her first in the category.
It would probably be better for Swift if she lost the big one and was seen leading the cheers for Beyoncé. If that does happen – and at this moment, it seems the likeliest scenario – this would be the third time in Grammy history that there has been a reversal of fortune in the top category, where there was a different outcome in a rematch.
At the first Grammy Awards in May 1959, Henry Mancini won album of the year for The Music From Peter Gunn, his jazzy score to the TV detective series of the same name. It beat a pair of Frank Sinatra albums, Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely and Come Fly With Me. (Did the double nominations cause Sinatra to “split his votes”? We’ll never know for sure, but the rules have since been changed so that an artist can be nominated with only one album as the lead artist in any one year.)
Mancini and Sinatra competed again at the second Grammy Awards in November 1959 (yes, there were two ceremonies that year) with the opposite result. Sinatra’s Come Dance With Me! beat More Music From Peter Gunn, a sequel to Mancini’s album.
Sinatra and The Beatles competed for album of the year three years in a row, 1966-68. Sinatra’s highly regarded thematic album September of My Years (which contained the classic “It Was a Very Good Year”) won the award in 1966, beating The Beatles’ Help! soundtrack. Sinatra’s A Man and His Music, a two-disc career retrospective, won the award in 1967, beating The Beatles’ Revolver. (That victory by Ol’ Blue Eyes is harder to defend, since his album was a career recap, and Revolver was another step forward by a group that was growing by leaps and bounds.) In 1968, The Beatles’ landmark album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band beat Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, the singer’s widely admired collab with the architect of the bossa nova sound.
Swift co-produced her new album with Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner and Patrik Berger. Antonoff has been nominated for producer of the year, non-classical the last five years running – and has won the last three years in a row.
If Antonoff is nominated again this year, he’ll be the first producer or production team to be nominated six years in a row since Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, who were nominated each year from 2001-2006. Moreover, if he is nominated again, Antonoff will become one of just five producers or production teams to land six or more producer of the year nods (whether consecutive or nod). He will join Jam & Lewis (11 total nods), Quincy Jones (eight), David Foster (eight) and Babyface (six).
If Antonoff wins in that category again early next year, he’ll become the first producer to ever win four years in a row. Babyface is the only producer to win four times – in 1993 (with L.A. Reid) and then on his own from 1996-98.
K-pop group SEVENTEEN dropped their anticipated greatest hits album, 17 Is Right Here, on Monday morning (April 29), along with the futuristic video for the lead single, “Maestro.” The two-CD, 33-track compilation pulls together the Korean versions of eight previously released Japanese singles, 20 singles from the 13-man band’s Korean releases, as well as four new tracks and a digital-only instrumental version of the boy band’s 2015 debut single, “Adore U.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Fresh single “MAESTRO” will be followed by the hip-hop team’s “LALALI,” the performance team’s “Spell” and the vocal team’s “Cheers to youth.” The edgy “MAESTRO” visual, directed by Han Sungsoo, drops group members Woozi, S. Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu, Vernon, Jeonghan, Jun, DK, Joshua, Hoshi, Dino, The8 and Seungkwan into a sleek future scape filled with dancing robots and mechanical dogs in which they bust out high-energy choreo with their machine companions and conduct a gothic symphony orchestra through the hip-hop-influenced track’s dance attack.
“Aligning with the group’s core message around solidarity, this captivating dance R&B track illustrates how together, we can orchestrate our own universe like a ‘maestro,’” read a statement announcing the clip. To further the message, it aded that the video is set in a dystopian future where “anything, including music and art, can be easily created with technology.”
Trending on Billboard
According to the band’s label, 17 Is Right Here got more than three million pre-orders as of April 19. During a press conference announcing the album on Monday, SEVENTEEN also announced plans for a world tour int he fall, with the full roster — including U.S. dates — to be announced later.
Listen to the album and watch the “MAESTRO” video below:
[embedded content]
Tommy Richman has taken the internet by storm in the last few days after releasing his new song, “MILLION DOLLAR BABY.” Released Friday (Apr. 26), the record is already firing on all cylinders on streaming because of its funky sound and Richman’s seamless vocal riffs. Last week, Richman first teased the track on TikTok using […]
Superfans have become an very buzzy topic within the industry since last summer, when Goldman Sachs projected that this segment of fans could put more than $4 billion into the music industry by 2030.
As previously reported by Billboard, in January Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl called for “stok[ing] the blue flames of superfans” and additional “direct artist-superfan products and experiences”, while Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge highlighted the value of “superfan experiences and products”; and Spotify hinted at future “superfan clubs” in a blog post.”
Defined by Luminate as listeners who “engage with artists and their content in five-plus different ways” superfans were a topic of conversation at IMS Ibiza 2024, which last week brought hundreds of electronic music industry figures to the island for three days of panels and parties.
Trending on Billboard
On Friday (April 26), programming included a conversation on superfans presented by industry knowledge platform Music Ally. The talk featured Evie Thomas of Atlantic Records and Warner Music Group UK, Jack Bridges of SoundCloud, Myradh Cormican of U.K. management company Frame Artists and was moderated by Marlen Hüllbrock of Music Ally.
The conversation cited statistics from Music Ally which found that superfans spend 80% more on music each month than the average listener and that 2% of an artist’s monthly listeners on Spotify account for more than half of that artist’s monthly merchandise purchases.
Additionally, superfans are 54% more likely to be the first among their friends to discover new music and new artists, and superfans are 59% more likely to say they want to connect with an artist on a personal level. Around 15-20% of all music listeners consider themselves superfans.
These are five other takeaways from the talk.
1) Even 100 Superfans Can Successfully Launch a Campaign — If You Can Find Them
Fanbases are spread across myriad platforms, which makes it challenging for artists to understand who their fans are. This is particularly true because given that data is segmented and also often controlled by third parties, meaning that artists have no direct access to fans and must rely on different tools and platforms to figure out who their superfans are.
Music Ally’s Hüllbrock noted that it’s “incredibly important” for artists and labels to figure out how to directly speak to their own fans, “because they’re battling the algorithm if they’re just posting on their own channels.” One solution here is cutting through the content clutter by taking artist/fan conversations to more more closed and direct spaces like WhatsApp and Discord.
“It’s about how to cut through the noise in an authentic way but also a relative way so even if an artist has 10,000 fans, they’re reaching a 1,000 or even 100 to successfully launch a campaign,” added Bridges. Thomas noted that it’s key for teams to test to see what different platforms are working and where engagement is happening for each particular artist, “as it’s not one size fits all; every artist is different; every community is different.”
2) Soundcloud Has Long Been a Home For Superfans
“I think there’s also been an underestimation of how much the superfans mattered before they were being properly identified,” said Bridges, citing the 2022 hit “Afraid To Feel” by U.K. duo LF System. That song “went to No. 1 but lived on Soundcloud for nearly a year before it got picked up and signed,” he added. “When that got signed and as part of the release strategy, it came off of Soundcloud, and straightaway the artists were inundated with messages every day asking where the record had gone.”
Bridges cites this as a moment “where the labels, the artists, the artist managers really realized how important it was to not mess with certain things or go to market without certain platforms.”
He says that over the last 18 months, as the industry has sharply focused on superfans, there’s been a change in strategy that’s seen “a lot more artists and labels go to Soundcloud early… and build records from nothing and by artists messaging their fans directly, because we have the tools to do that.”
3) Strategy Is Not One Size Fits All
“You have to look at how much time you have to invest, the reward you have made for your fanbase and where your fans really messaging you and commenting and which platforms are you seeing that on,” said Thomas, adding that ones those factors are sorted, the process can be very bespoke. “Maybe for a bigger artist with bigger budget,” she continued, “you can do something like Discord where you can bring in agencies and there’s a lot of paid features.” Meanwhile for artists that want a simpler solution, “something as simple as a WhatsApp group can be amazing.”
Cormican of Frame Artists cited Scottish DJ Arielle Free as a success story in terms of using WhatsApp to connect with superfans. “It’s been an easy lift thing to do, we’ve just given it space to develop,” she said, noting that the conversation in the group is often about topics beyond music and that many fans from the group meet IRL to attend Free’s shows.
The panelists also agreed that an artist’s language and tone should be tailored based on what platform they’re using and what fan group they’re talking to. On WhatsApp, the artist will likely be more open and relaxed, whereas Instagram caption will be shorter and sharper. Overall, the key is creating different spaces for different fan types.
4) Filtering Superfans By Territory Is Effective
When data is used to separate superfans by location, artists can easily reward these people with special experiences — meet and greets, guest lists, etc. — when they come to town.
Thomas cited Atlantic Records artist Fred again..’s March tour of Australia, for which the team cross-referenced people that were in the artist’s Australian fan community and anyone who had their birthday on the day of one of the Australia shows. The team then DM’d these fans from the Fred again.. account saying that they’d been put on the guestlist +2 for their birthday.
“That’s such a unique experience,” said Thomas, “I think it really heightens the user experience of that fan.” In terms of longterm benefits, she compared it to receiving a surprise upgrade by an airline: “You’re going to want to fly with that airline again.”
5) Bring Superfans Into The Narrative
When coordinating Chase & Status‘ 2023 Boiler Room set, their management at Frame Artists told organizers they wanted a small guest list dedicated to superfans “because,” said Cormican, “we wanted to have their energy in the room.”
This guestlist offer was distributed via the U.K. duo’s Discord channel. When the recording of this set was made live, there were a few people in the crowd who knew every lyric, danced the entire time and never once looked at their phones: the superfans who’d gotten in on the Discord guestlist.
The team from Frame Artists then messaged one of these fans, Don Lemons, and had him take part in a merchandise campaign. (And offered him “free guest list for life, obviously,” said Cormican.) When Chase & Status performed at the 2024 Brit Awards, fans from the artists’ Discord were invited to be part of the performance, as the team “wanted real ravers onstage.” This group got to take part in show rehearsals and the live show, and a video clip of this performance is now Chase & Status’ highest performing piece of content ever, with 100 million views. The video includes Dom Lemons “who,” said Cormican, “is now a legend in our scene.”
