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11 Apr 2024

88rising Founder Talks 2024 Coachella Showcase & Why It May Be Their Last

As music and media company 88rising gets set for another showcase at Coachella this weekend, founder Sean Miyashiro has only one regret: He should have told festival founder Paul Tollett to make the company’s name bigger on the lineup poster.

“I would have told him to [feature] us more prominently,” says Miyashiro, who curated a special 88rising Futures showcase for this year’s Coachella — adding that Tollett told him last year’s 88rising set “blew up the [streaming] numbers for YouTube, especially in Asia. Indonesia and The Philippines were really big — viewership form there that they have never experienced before.”

Miyashiro expects this year’s 88rising takeover will make a similarly big impression. Taking place at the Mojave stage just after 5 p.m., the label’s third consecutive Coachella set will feature performances from genre-defying quartet ATARASHII GAKKO!; male supergroup Number_i; Awich, popularly known as the queen of Japanese hip-hop Awich; and pop sensation YOASOBI. Both ATARASHII GAKKO! and YOASOBI will perform their own individual sets, though the former act tells Billboard to expect additional magic from the 88rising showcase.

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88rising Futures

88rising Futures

Courtesy Photo

“The 88rising set is where the magic of collaboration happens!” ATARASHII GAKKO! says via email, adding that it intends to debut new tracks from its forthcoming album during the performance. “The collaborations with YOASOBI and Awich are something special that can only happen on the 88 stage. We cannot wait to show everyone the vibrant AG! energy. We hope it will be an unforgettable experience for everyone in the crowd!”

While the showcase will represent talent from several Asian countries including Japan, China and Korea, it will also feature several surprise acts from additional countries as the music company continues to act as a “bridge between East and West, West and East,” explains Miyashiro.

Sean Miyashiro

Sean Miyashiro

Nick Sutjongdro

“When we started, I don’t think that we tangibly knew how to [be that bridge], but, over time, there are these platforms that we’ve been able to create or partner with like Coachella [that are] really meaningful,” Miyashiro says, adding that while these artists are blowing up around the world, it can be hard to break through the noise and make their way onto the lineup of an American festival like Coachella.

“When I ask some of these artist [to come perform],” he adds, “they cry. Even their managers cry.”

For Miyashiro, developing artists and helping them break through is a major part of the company’s mission. “That is what we started the company for,” he says, “and a lot of that is coming true.”

While the 88rising set during Coachella’s first weekend is expected to be filled with special guests, the second weekend lineup will also have an element of surprise — even for Miyashiro. With some artists having to fly back home, he continues, “frankly speaking, we’re still figuring out what we’re trying to do,” he says with a laugh. “But we’re figuring it out pretty quickly.”

With the latest 88rising set at Coachella just days away, Miyashiro says he’s already looking ahead to 2025, with the company already working on developing a stage musical. “This [year] is going to be the last 88rising does something like a showcase. Next time it is going to be like a movie,” says Miyashiro. “In 2025, we’re going to need the main stage.”

11 Apr 2024

Inside the Business of Western Songwriters in K-Pop & J-Pop: ‘The Money Is Too Good to Ignore’

Lately, most Western songwriters want to work with K-pop or J-pop acts. But Beckuh Boom — the American songwriter behind hits for BLACKPINK and Twice — remembers when that wasn’t the case. “When I started taking trips to Seoul back in 2012, everyone I talked to about it kind of laughed at me or just didn’t get it,” she says. “They’d say, ‘Why would you waste your time? They’re not even close to the biggest market.’”

It took the global breakthroughs of Korean acts like BTS and BLACKPINK and Japanese acts like XG a few years later for Western talent to take the songwriting opportunities in Asia’s two largest pop markets as seriously as Boom had. Now, they are among the most lucrative and sought-after gigs in the global publishing business, drawing in top American hitmakers like Ryan Tedder, Victoria Monet and Jacob Kasher “JKash” Hindlin.

But to land a hit in Korea or Japan, Western songwriters have to conform to the local ways of doing business, and both markets have clear distinctions from the American industry. Typically, this involves English-language demos being funneled to a native, local-language songwriter, who then re-writes or translates most, or all, of the original lyrics into Korean or Japanese, earning them a songwriting credit in the process. Some sources estimate that roughly 80% of K-pop songs and 30%-40% of J-pop songs released today have ties to American or other Western sources — usually with totally different lyrics.

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“When demos are sent to Korean labels, they are almost always in English,” says Kevin Woo, a former K-pop idol who now works as a songwriter and has translated English demos into Korean. “That’s how we first hear the songs as artists and idols — in English. Then we pick whichever track we vibe with, and then they get that song translated into Korean.” Japanese music executives say this is similar to how it works in J-pop.

This is a fast-growing part of the job description for Korean or Japanese writers, as more songs are imported from Westerners each year. Naoki Osada, founder/CEO of Avex USA, the Japanese entertainment powerhouse’s American branch, says that since he started in the Japanese music industry 20 years ago, the number of songs written by Americans has more than doubled.

To adapt these English-lyric pitches, Young Chance, a Korean songwriter and producer, says “we usually keep the title of the song from the demo, but then when we translate, we take a different perspective on the same title.” In Japan, where speaking English as a second language is less common and there is less emphasis on capturing a global audience overall, it is even more important to rework the words of a Western demo to fit the needs of the local listener.

Common words and phrases like “let’s go” or “boom,” or slang like “Westside,” which are often derived from American rap music, might still make the cut in a K-pop or J-pop song, but that’s about it. Unless, of course, it’s a song intended to be a Western crossover hit, like BTS’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Dynamite” or BLACKPINK’s “Ice Cream” featuring Selena Gomez — both of which were penned entirely by Americans and kept in English.

Chance says he recently finished a “word-for-word English translation” that is coming out with a “major Korean act” soon, but says this approach to re-writing is far less common, given the difficulties of fitting the same story and meaning into the same meter and rhyme as before. Because Western songwriters now expect their lyrics to be tossed almost entirely, lyric writing is not highly emphasized when writing pitches for K-pop and J-pop.

There are other distinctions between K-pop and Western songwriting. Torsen Ingvaldsen, an independent A&R who is part of the growing class of middlemen that connect Western writers to Korean idols, says translated K-pop songs often also edit out explicit words or inappropriate themes. This, he says, is due to the young age of the average K-pop superfan, as well as cultural differences — though Jung Kook’s recent, sexually-charged single “Seven” may foreshadow changing attitudes towards explicit themes in Korea.

On the business side, Western songwriters know that when they pitch Korean and Japanese labels, they will have to give up a significant amount of publishing to local lyricists that they will likely never meet or work with directly. In Korea, it’s common to give up 12.5% to the person who re-writes the lyrics. “Sometimes they ask for a little more, but this is almost such a hard and fast rule it is often not even negotiated,” says Mary Megan Peer, CEO of peermusic, an indie publisher with offices in Korea and Japan. In Japan, however, 50% is typically expected, due to differences in the publishing industries of Western countries and that of Japan.

“In Japan, publishing is completely divided into two halves: one lyric, one melody,” says Osada. “Copyright ownership is 50/50 and it is fixed.” In America, songwriters are often also the producers — crafting lyrics, melody and track — and they work on all three elements with other creatives in the same session. In Japan, songwriters and producers take a much different approach. “There are three roles: one is the producer, who is also called the ‘track maker’ or arranger,” says Osada. “Some topliners do lyrics and melody, but there are people that exist who only write lyrics. Each of the three works alone in their own room by themselves, and then they send the completed demo. It’s not like Western writers where they all work together.”

The Korean publishing business lies somewhere in the middle, given its stronger and longer-term ties to Western music. There is still a clear distinction between the roles of producer and songwriter, like in Japan, and toplining is a major focus of the Korean songwriter’s vocation, but the way lyrics are weighted is not the same.

Western songwriters largely believe these opportunities abroad are well worth it, even though up to half of their publishing is given away. In a time when the popularity of streaming has undercut songwriters’ potential earnings in the United States and other Western nations, pop audiences in Korea and Japan still purchase full albums, physically and digitally, meaning “the publishing money [in Korea and Japan] really is unlike anything else for a writer,” says Ingvaldsen.

But why do Japanese and Korean labels use so many songs from Western songwriters when their local industries are thriving? First, J-pop and K-pop have always found inspiration from American music, especially bubblegum pop and rap, so many believe working with Western — especially American — talent is a natural fit. Taking foreign pitch records also might increase a K-pop or J-pop act’s ability to capture the attention (and dollars) of the music market abroad as well as at home.

Ingvaldsen also personally believes that there’s a “lack of songwriters locally. I’ve found there’s only a few major [Korean] songwriters that participate on everything from every major label.” Osada says that in Japan the cohort of working songwriters is “more condensed for sure.” He adds it’s a more “hidden role” in Japan’s industry as well. “I see big differences in the personality of writers there and in the U.S. In the U.S. there are writers that are almost like artists — very creatively outgoing, outspoken. Japanese writers and producers are introverts.”

A Seoul-based songwriter, who wished to remain anonymous, echoes that sentiment. “There’s not a lot of Korean writers that actually work on the big hit songs — that goes to the Western industry,” he says. “The big labels work with [fewer] Korean songwriters.”

And this trend shows no signs of stopping, as the biggest Japanese and Korean labels continue to strengthen their ties to the West, particularly in the United States. Hajime Harada, an A&R at Avex USA, says that “since I started at Avex USA in 2022, the percentage of U.S. songs that have landed with Japanese artists has easily doubled.” His boss, Osada, believes this is thanks to Avex’s increasing investment in their American outpost in West Hollywood, Calif. Korean music companies have also aligned closer with the Western music business: In late March, HYBE struck a new distribution deal with Universal Music Group, while JYP has a partnership with Republic and Starship Entertainment has a deal with Columbia, to name a few.

Nascent AI technology might also present more opportunities for lyric rewrites in the future. Woo was recently hired by AI voice synthesis start-up Hooky and American pop artist Lauv to translate the singer-songwriter’s new single “Love U Like That” into Korean. Woo then sang his own Korean version of the tune and Lauv’s voice was mapped on top of it using Hooky’s technology as a way to cut down on the difficult process of Lauv learning Korean pronunciation. “I think these kinds of opportunities will grow for [bilingual songwriters] in the future as AI grows,” says Woo.

Osada could see it working for Japanese audiences, too, who have appreciated Japanese translations of K-pop in the past and may be open to AI making those translations more commonplace. “I think there’s some market there,” Osada says. “Japanese people see lyrics as a very important factor in enjoying songs, so I think local-language translation could help.”

As the music market becomes increasingly global, publishing professionals are confident the trend of pitching Western records to Eastern talent will keep expanding, with some even looking to China and India as possible future frontiers. “The money [in exporting pitch records] is just too good to ignore,” says Ingvladsen.

11 Apr 2024

‘Fallout’ Is No. 1 on Prime Video: Here’s How to Stream the Post-Apocalyptic Series for Free

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.

Fallout, the apocalyptic drama based on the popular video game series, shot to No. 1 on Prime Video hours after its release on Thursday (April 11).

According to Amazon Studios, Fallout tells the story of the “haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have.” The series centers around denizens of a sheltered vault who are “forced” to return to a world referred to as “the irrigated hellscape their ancestors left behind” centuries earlier. Needless to say, the inhabitants are shocked to find an “incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them,” per Amazon Studios.

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Fallout stars Ella Purnell as “Lucy,” one of the first among the citizens to venture out of the vault and into the real world. The remaining cast includes Walton Goggins, Aaron Moten, Moisés Arias, Kyle MacLachlan, Sarita Choudhury, Michael Emerson, Leslie Uggams, Frances Turner, Dave Register, Zach Cherry, Johnny Pemberton, Rodrigo Luzzi, Annabel O’Hagan and Xelia Mendes-Jones.

Westworld director Jonathan Nolan helms the series, which he executive produced along with Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Graham Wagner, Lisa Joy, Athena Wickham, Todd Howard and James Altman. Fallout is produced by Amazon Studios and Kilter Films in association with Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks.

Read on for direction on how to stream online.

How to Stream Fallout Online

Fallout premiered on Prime Video at 12:00 a.m. ET on Thursday.

Amazon Prime members can stream the series directly from the homepage on the Amazon app. Prime Video is accessible on a smart TV, phone, computer and other compatible devices.

If you’re not already subscribed to Amazon Prime, click below to launch a 30-day free trial to stream the new series and everything else that Prime Video has to offer.

How much does it cost? Prime Video is free for Prime members. You can subscribe to Amazon under a 30-day free trial to test out Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Gaming, Prime Reading and enjoy free shipping on millions of items. Prime memberships costs $14.99 per month (or $139 a year) after the free trial. Amazon also offers 50% off for students and qualifying EBT/Medicaid recipients.

Fallout is the latest Prime Video original joining a list of exclusive shows, movies, and documentaries such as Gen V, The Boys, Invincible, J-Hope on the Street, Road House, Reacher, American Rust: Broken Justice, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Ricky Stanicky. Prime Video also has movies that you can buy, rent and stream free including The Exorcist: Believer, Kung Fu Panda 4, One Life and A.I. Revolution.

Plus, you can add Paramount+, Max, Starz and other channels to Prime Video, so you don’t have to worry about switching between streaming platforms.

Watch the trailer for Fallout below.


https://youtube.com/watch?v=V-mugKDQDlg&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

11 Apr 2024

Phish Announces New Album ‘Evolve’ Ahead of Las Vegas Sphere Dates

Phish is continuing an exciting year by announcing their upcoming 16th studio album, Evolve.

The band revealed that the album will be arriving on July 12 via JEMP Records, and also dropped the title track on all DSPs and streaming services on Thursday (April 11). The album will follow 2020’s Sigma Oasis, which peaked at No. 16 on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.

The announcement comes just a week before Phish is set to play a four-show run at Las Vegas’ eye-popping Sphere venue from April 18 to 21, 2024. “From the moment we first heard about Sphere and its potential, we’ve been dreaming up ways to bring our show to this breathtaking canvas,” Trey Anastasio, Phish’s guitarist and vocalist said in a statement at the time. “We’re thrilled to present this completely unique experience to Phish fans.”

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The Sphere run will be followed by an extensive tour, which will kick off on July 19 in Mansfield, Mass., and stretch all the way until Sept. 1 in Commerce City, Colo. For more information on tickets and venues, check out Phish’s website here.

Listen to “Evolve” below. Pre-order details for the album of the same name will be available in the coming weeks, according to Phish’s Instagram announcement.

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11 Apr 2024

Best Eco-Friendly Electronics: Sustainable Tech Gadgets to Buy for Earth Day (and Beyond)

Walmart Restored

From premium headphones to laptops and cameras to 4K TVs, instead of buying your brand new tech, consider getting refurbished tech from Walmart Restored.

All products are tested to be working like-new, inspected and cleaned to have a renewed appearance, while you can also have peace of mind with one-year warranties and 90-day return policies. So you can rest easy that the tech — including from top brands like Apple, Sony, Samsung, Nikon, HP and others — you’re buying is certified and reliable. However, if it’s not, then you can get your money back without any hassles or problems. It’s really a win-win for everyone, including for yourself, Walmart and the environment.

11 Apr 2024

Lana Del Rey’s 10 Biggest Billboard Hits, From ‘Summertime Sadness’ to ‘Snow on the Beach’

Lana Del Rey was crowned Billboard‘s Visionary Award-winner at its 2023 Women in Music event — but the angel-voiced New York native had already been an alt-pop pioneer for over a decade at that point.

Born Elizabeth Grant, Del Rey has been challenging the norms of songwriting since the very beginning of her career, sometimes garnering controversy in the process. She’s known for pairing unflinching lyrics with sprawling, cinematic arrangements, exploring all corners of Americana’s sonic landscape from dreamy old Hollywood soundtracks to folksy Western elegies.

Lana earned her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 when “Video Games,” the lead single to her 2012 debut album Born to Die, entered the chart at No. 91. From there, she would slowly work her way up the listing, earning her first top 10 hit in 2013 thanks to her timeless single “Summertime Sadness” peaking at No. 6 — a feat she wouldn’t top until nearly a decade later, when her “Snow on the Beach” duet with Taylor Swift would open at No. 4.

From her early 2010s debut to her 2024 headlining set at Coachella, keep reading to see the 10 biggest Hot 100 hits Lana Del Rey has scored so far over the course of her career.

Lana Del Rey’s Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits ranking is based on weekly performance on the Hot 100 through the charts dated April 13, 2024. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at lower spots earning the least. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted differently to account for chart turnover rates during various periods.

11 Apr 2024

Shakira’s ‘Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)’ Named the ‘Catchiest’ Soccer Song of All Time

Shakira’s “Waka, Waka (This Time For Africa)” has been named “the catchiest soccer song,” according to new research obtained by SeatPick. 

The Colombian singer’s trilingual bop featuring Freshlyground — which served as the official FIFA song for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa — earned an 8.4 of 10 score based on danceability, energy, speechiness (the number of spoken words), and valence (how positive the track is), in the report from the Israel-based event technology company. 

“The main phrase ‘Waka Waka’ has been repeated a significant number of times to emphasize its importance (Waka Waka means ‘do it’ in Cameroonian),” Jacob Cohen, professor of music appreciation from Baruch College, New York, said in a press statement. “There is a major change at 1:04, as a cymbal-like instrument is introduced to add more variation to the melody. Furthermore, the new vocalist at 2:12 generates a unique kind of exotic sensation to its listeners.” 

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SeatPick conducted the research in honor of the upcoming UEFA European Football Championship taking place June 14 to July 14 in Germany. The methodology included: collating the top 25 World Cup songs from platforms Deezer, NME, ThisIsDig, and UDiscoverMusic; scraping data from the Spotify API; and views from YouTube videos were also considered. Data was collected on Nov. 22, 2022. 

“Waka Waka” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs, Latin Airplay, and Latin Pop Airplay charts in July 2010. On the Latin Rhythm Airplay, it peaked No. 8 and reached a No. 38 high on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the same period. It also spent 42 weeks at No. 1 on Latin Digital Song Sales, Shak’s longest-leading title on that chart. 

During the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the song resurfaced the charts and made its debut on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart, peaking at No. 46, and No. 96 on the Billboard Global 200, making history as the only official World Cup song or anthem from previous years to appear on the Billboard global charts.

Other “catchy” Latin soccer anthems that ranked on SeatPick’s research include Ricky Martin’s “La Copa de la Vida;” Pitbull’s “We Are One (Ole, Ola);” and Nicky Jam’s “Live It Up.” 

See the full chart below: 

Shakira, Catchiest Football Songs

SeatPick

11 Apr 2024

10 Pop Stars Turned Poets

Ahead of Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department,’ we’re Stanning these stanzas.

Lana Del Rey photographed on January 27, 2023 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Lana Del Rey photographed on January 27, 2023 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Lia Clay Miller

Poetry has always been inextricably linked to the world of rock. Bob Dylan famously argued that he considered himself a “poet first and a musician second” (even if his poetry collection Tarantula was widely lambasted when officially published in 1971). Patti Smith was mentored by none other than Beat Generation icon Allen Ginsberg. And everyone from John Lennon and Joni Mitchell to Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed proved their words could be just as effective when unaccompanied by melodies.

Artists including Billy Corgan, PJ Harvey and Ryan Adams have all tried their luck at the art form with varying degrees of success. But this kind of moonlighting is no longer exclusive to rock or folk. Since the late 1990s, a whole host of names from the worlds of pop, R&B, hip-hop, soul and country have attempted to stake their claim as modern day bards.

In fact, you can’t peruse the poetry section of your nearest bookstore without stumbling across at least half a dozen names more synonymous with the Billboard charts than the T.S. Eliot Prize. Mary Lambert, Cody Simpson, Mike Posner, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Ashanti, Jill Scott — these are just some of the hitmakers who have poured their hearts out in verse, sonnets or prose.

In the middle of National Poetry Month, not to mention the impending release of The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift, what better time to celebrate these double threats? Here’s a look at 10 who have officially published material designed to snap your fingers at.

11 Apr 2024

Taylor Swift Is Back on TikTok. Can Other Artists Do the Same?

When licensing negotiations between TikTok and the Universal Music Group collapsed at the end of January, many official recordings from UMG artists vanished from the platform. UMG chief digital officer/executive vp Michael Nash told financial analysts in February that the company had been “providing notices to effectuate the muting of millions of videos every day for the last two weeks.” Yet a number of songs connected to UMG — or its publishing wing, Universal Music Publishing Group — remain available on TikTok anyway.

Some are user uploads, which might theoretically be harder to find and take down or mute. Others are official tracks, including recent releases from prominent stars and fast-moving viral hits. And much of Taylor Swift’s catalog returned to TikTok on Thursday (April 11), raising the question of how other artists may be able to find workarounds while the licensing dispute continues.

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One possible reason that some songs are staying on TikTok: Several artist lawyers tell Billboard they are devising contractual carve-outs to allow their clients to keep their music on the platform. Others note that even though they haven’t added these clauses to recording agreements yet, it has become a topic of conversation with their clients.

“Some labels are allowing some of their artists to exclude newly created music from the grant of rights until the label has a deal in place” with TikTok, says David Fritz, founding partner at Boyarski Fritz. “Because the issue is so new, we are developing on the fly to meet the needs of talent — songwriters and artists — that want their music on TikTok. This is an issue, and workaround, that came about solely as a result of UMG taking down its catalog from TikTok.”

Reps for UMG and TikTok declined to comment.

Some artists have invested years of their life building a following on TikTok. (Predecessor Musical.ly was acquired by Bytedance in 2017 and then relaunched in the United States as TikTok the year after.) For more than two months now, they’ve been unable to share official recordings with those fans on the platform — the same fans who may have earned them their major-label deal in the first place.

“Some artists are concerned about this,” says Josh Binder, founding partner at Rothenberg Mohr & Binder. “They don’t want to be uncompetitive, unable to use TikTok to muster up an audience.”

“TikTok is mostly used as a new-music discovery tool — discover a clip on TikTok, listen to it on a DSP,” Fritz adds. “So those who are trying to get their music discovered are the most concerned” about being unable to promote new songs on the app.

In 2022, MIDiA Research found that TikTok was the second-biggest driver of music discovery for Gen Z, after YouTube. In recent months, TikTok popularity has helped little-known acts like Dasha, Good Neighbours and the Red Clay Strays explode at streaming services — leading to major-label deals — and contributed to breakout hits for Djo, Flo Milli and Benson Boone, among others.

UMG pushed back against the idea that TikTok has a lock on discovery during its most recent earnings call. Chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge told financial analysts that TikTok was “not a material part of the multidisciplinary jigsaw where we promote and market our music globally.” And UMG CFO/executive vp Boyd Muir said that UMG would “focus on accelerating [its] partnerships” with other social media platforms, including Meta, Snap and YouTube, to provide alternative promotional avenues for its artists.

But the job of an artist lawyer — a good one, at least — is to help their client get what they want. Labels typically aim to control as many rights as they can for as long as they can. In the modern music business, artists have more ability to push back; because they can generate momentum on their own, without a record company’s help, more aspects of a record deal are negotiable. “You can cherry-pick what you want to be in your contract to some degree,” Scott Booker, the longtime manager of The Flaming Lips, recently told Billboard.

As with any negotiation, artists’ ability to get their preferred terms comes down to their leverage — for stars especially, there are few rules that can’t be bent — and the skill of the lawyers involved. “If you successfully reserve the right to license to TikTok directly in your contract with UMG, you would be able to do so directly or via a third-party service,” says Leon Morabia, a partner at Mark Music & Media Law. “It would be a difficult point to win in a deal, but it is contractually feasible.”

Josh Love, partner at Reed Smith, says he has been able to get “a carve-out” in the past that allowed an artist “to do a direct license with a DSP” — a digital service provider like TikTok or another social media or streaming service — “if the label or distributor is ever not licensed with that DSP and [the artist] wants to remain on the platform.” This is meant to act as interim coverage for an artist; if the label or distributor were to form a new licensing agreement, that would likely supersede that deal made between the artist and the DSP in the meantime.

Some clauses that are already in record deals could also be expanded by artist attorneys to ensure their clients’ music remains available on TikTok. “Release commitments,” for example, are put in place to “force the label to guarantee that a record will be released within certain months after delivery so that the artist’s record doesn’t get ’shelved,’ with the artist stuck in the deal,” says Gandhar Savur, a music attorney.

These clauses have become increasingly comprehensive, stretching “to cover commitments by the label over more specific aspects of the release — the exact countries in which the album will be distributed, formats that the album will be released in such as vinyl and digital, and even including specific major DSPs by name like Spotify and Apple Music.” After negotiations between UMG and TikTok unraveled, Savur continues, “it would be a natural response that artist attorneys will gradually start to require release commitments to cover all platforms generally so that if a label is not licensed with a particular platform for any reason, the artist can deal with that platform directly.”

Savur believes that artists who are signed to labels that are distributed by UMG, rather than signed directly, probably have more latitude to try to deal with platforms like TikTok on their own. “Although I believe that what Universal is doing overall is a good thing for the industry, Universal-distributed labels might be more sympathetic to their artists’ desire to stay on TikTok because the increased streaming and ticket sales [that] result from any tracks going viral on the platform can be a big win for the artist and label alike,” Savur says.

If the UMG-TikTok deadlock rolls on, Fritz says, “smart lawyers” with leverage will find “a workaround that enables their clients to continue to use the most popular discovery tool while the large-scale license gets worked out.”

11 Apr 2024

How Joe Keery Turned ‘The Simplest Thing We Could Possibly Make’ Into His Biggest Hit Yet

For the better part of the last decade, Joe Keery has most of his time bouncing between worlds. In the more literal sense, he’s navigated to-and-from the Upside Down as Steve Harrington, the bad boy-turned-fan favorite, on Netflix’s Stranger Things. But outside of the hit series, he has balanced his growing prominence as an actor — recently starring in the dramedy Marmalade with Camila Morrone, and in the latest season of Fargo alongside Jon Hamm as his sheriff character’s son — with Djo, his ever-burgeoning solo music project.

For part of his 20s, Keery attended college and lived in Chicago, also cutting his teeth in the indie scene as part of psych-rock band Post Animal. Though he ultimately departed the band as Stranger Things caused too many constraints with his schedule, Keery continued to create music during his free time, ultimately leading to the birth of Djo. Debut album Twenty Twenty arrived in 2019 as an independent release through AWAL; three years later, he utilized the same route for his follow-up set, Decide.

Funnily enough, Keery, 31, is now returning to Chicago in a way — as his dreamy, synth-pop single “End of Beginning” from Decide has transformed into a viral hit in recent months. Reminiscent of new wave hits from the likes of Crowded House and INXS (Keery has noted influence from Annie Lennox’s “No More ‘I Love You’s’” as well), listeners have gravitated in particular to the lyrics in its chorus: “And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it/ Another version of me, I was in it/ I wave goodbye to the end of beginning.”

Trending on Billboard

“Your late 20s are a wild time,” he tells Billboard. “The gist of it is being sad that I wasn’t more appreciative for something in the moment — longing for something that’s over, but also being happy that it happened.”

Since the song has gained new legs in 2024, it has reached a No. 11 high on the Billboard Hot 100 (Djo’s first career entry on the chart), while also hitting No. 1 on Hot Alternative Songs and continuing to gain momentum at alternative radio. It could be just the start of a breakout year for Keery’s musical project, as the multi-hyphenate notes he’s finishing a third album and hopes to go on a proper tour, which he still is yet to do in support of Decide, due to his acting career.

In the meantime, he’s also currently filming the final season of Stranger Things. At the time of our Sunday morning call, he’s enjoying a day off by moseying through a number of yard sales in Atlanta, one of which he says has happily yielded a vintage edition of The Settlers of Catan for just $5. Below, Keery tells Billboard about the makings of “End of Beginning,” compares successes as an actor versus successes as a musician, previews what to expect in the year ahead and more.

How did the song come together? Was the demo you posted on social media the first time that you worked on it?

No, I had had the idea. At the time [in fall 2021], I was living in Los Angeles. I had punched the chords out really quick and had an idea for a melody. That demo that I posted was me arranging and starting to figure out what the other parts might be. Then, I banged it out in the studio, at least the instrumental, pretty much in a day, with [co-producer] Adam Thein and [Slow Pulp drummer] Teddy Mathews. We all tracked the bare bones of it — guitar, bass and drums — and filled it in from there.

It was a swift process for this one. The album [2022’s Decide] is full of extra production in a lot of places, so I was just feeling like, “Let’s just make the simplest thing we could possibly make.” Verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus and be done with it. That was the goal: Try to work fast and not overcomplicate things, and that was what we did. The lyrics came a fair bit later. I really like to take the songs outside and walk around; that’s generally when I’m best at thinking up lyrics.

When did you know the song was a finished product?

You never really get to that point. I feel that, personally. There are always things that I wish we could go back and redo or improve this or improve that. But we gave ourselves until the end of March, and then at that point, we thought, “Okay, let’s just set a date for ourselves and then be done with it.”

“End of Beginning” has plenty of accolades to go around: your first Hot 100 entry, No. 1 on Hot Alternative Songs, RIAA certified gold and many more. Do those sort of accomplishments resonate with you?

It has never even been on my radar, to be honest with you, with the style of music that I’m making. It’s really cool, but I almost feel like I don’t have the perspective to really appreciate what’s going on in a way. I think that in time, it’ll come to me even more. They’re cool milestones to hit, but at the end of the day, the greatest thing is being able to go into the studio and work.

Has the song’s meaning changed for you at all over time, or is still the same as when you created it in 2021?

I guess it does mean the same thing; I feel that I’m in a different place, though. Maybe I’ve slightly come to terms more with what I was feeling. I don’t know, your late 20s are kind of a wild time. I’m not a huge believer in astrology, but I do feel like there is something to the whole Saturn return thing.

Are there conversations happening right now behind the scenes about pushing listeners back toward the rest of Decide or even debut album, Twenty Twenty, versus trying to strike while the iron is hot with new music?

I’m much more focused on new stuff than old stuff — and finishing the new stuff. But the song has opened up possibilities for some new ears to hear the music, and I’m looking forward to getting the new stuff out, because it has been something that I’ve been working on basically since Decide came out. I’m really trying to embrace the newness that has come along with entering my 30s and now living in a different city as well. I’m excited. I feel like it’s a little bit different. It’ll be fun to see what people think.

Do you find that the location where you’re living and recording impacts the creation of the music itself?

One hundred percent, yes I do. I also think that the process of how you go about recording [impacts the music]. To me, it’s all about process over product and letting that process inform the music you’re making. I spent a lot of the last album starting making music on the computer, and I’m trying to take a different approach this time around.

Last time we talked, you told me how the sessions at The Sound Factory really inspired your affinity for in-studio collaboration. Does that still hold true?

Definitely. I have wanted my whole life to get into the studio. So, now to have a little bit more leeway under my belt, it was really cool to get into a professional environment. When you make music at home, you have all these tools, plug-ins and stuff that try to emulate real gear that exists out in the world. To be able to use some of that gear … I don’t know. Working at home is really cool because you can do it whenever, but to be able to go into a place to work feels really good. I really enjoyed that.

How does the song’s success affect your marketing strategy for this side of your career?

In the same way that we haven’t really been able to tour the music — a lot of that has been up to my schedule for shooting [Stranger Things] being all over the place — the same kind of thing with this marketing stuff. You spend all this time making the music, and you do want to market it properly. Now that the word is out a little bit more on the project, and it’s a little less of a secret between the people who know, a change in the way that the project is marketed could be cool. I’m still figuring it out, really.

You’ve talked ad nauseam about your disguises and making an effort to make Djo something of a separate entity than your acting career. When you’re having a big moment like this, is there any part of you that wants to maximize the audience by making the connection between Joe Keery and Djo abundantly clear for people?

Not sure about that. Maybe, but I’m not trying to shove it down anyone’s throat — it’s pretty easy to tell when things are like that. The fact that this all popped off naturally and happened on its own is best possible scenario for me. I’m really happy that it has happened this way. It’s cool for me because all the rules have seemed to changed a little bit.

How do you mean the rules have changed?

It just feels like the project is in a different place. Before, it was this thing that was sort of my own little secret. And now, I don’t know. It makes me think how I could treat it differently. I always am really interested when people use marketing to their advantage — that’s what I tried to last time with the disguise and the name. Maybe there’s a new way to embrace that, and I guess it’s time for me to figure out what that is.

Is there a difference in how you feel receiving praise for something you’ve acted in versus something you’ve created as a musician?

Definitely. [Being] a performer as opposed to a writer is really the distinction to be made that I’ve found rewarding. That’s kind of the point of art, in general: To share something that people take in as their own and repurpose it for their own life. To be on the receiving end of that is really cool. Obviously, I’ve had some amazing experiences being on [Stranger Things]. The fan base is incredible. To see people wearing your character as a Halloween costume, that’s unbelievable. But [music] does scratch a different itch, and it’s really rewarding. I just feel super lucky.

Are there are any plans for a tour?

Yeah, I’ve got a fair amount of work ahead of me on the show, but the plan would be to do that sooner rather than later. And hopefully to do it right.

I would imagine it’ll be extremely cool to see all the fans in person that either found Decide immediately or as a result of this more recent wave. Looking at numbers on a page can probably only yield so much of a dopamine rush.

Yeah, it’s funny. You release something, and in this day in age — and in my situation — I kind of just released it, and then it was like, “Okay.” I didn’t really play any shows, it just came out, and that was sort of it. So, for me, it still exists as this tiny little thing. This kind of reaction to this song has been a little bit of a wake up call like, “Oh, people are actually listening to this! This exists in the world.”

To see that physically embodied at the shows would be overwhelming I’m sure, but extremely exciting. Live performance is what got me into being an artist in the first place. Just doing plays and enjoying the energy you get in a live setting. I definitely am itching to get out there. At the end of the day, it’s really about the live experience.

Are there lessons that you’ve learned from creating Decide, Twenty Twenty or anything else in the past few years that are influencing how you’re making music now?

This song has taught me the lesson of specificity being something that is important. Also, becoming less interested in something sounding perfect or polished, and more interested in trying to capture something that is a one-of-a-kind thing, whether it’s a sound or a vocal take or a drum sound. I think those are the things that stand the test of time and make things sound different. I’m chasing that more recently.

A version of this story originally appeared in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.