Billboard News’ Tetris Kelly caught up with Doechii after her set at Coachella and talked about her track ‘What It Is (Block Boy’) and ‘Persuasive’ going viral, her friendship with labelmate SZA, her background in dance, mixing genres, and more!
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Nate Smith on His Debut Album: ‘I Want to Sing Songs That Mean Something’
Burly-voiced vocalist and songwriter Nate Smith is swiftly accumulating career milestones. His debut major label single, “Whiskey on You,” spent two weeks atop Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, becoming the first multi-week No. 1 debut single on the chart since 2019. He’s nominated for new male vocalist of the year at the upcoming ACM Awards and this weekend he’ll make his first appearance at Indio, California’s Stagecoach Festival.
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“This past year has been crazy and a dream come true,” he tells Billboard, seated in an office at the Sony Music Nashville offices, where he shifted to the RCA Nashville imprint after his former Arista Nashville label home folded last month.
But he’s most excited about his self-titled, debut major label album, which comes out Friday (April 28), because he considers it a full-fledged testament to his devotion to writing and finding great songs.
“I want to sing songs that mean something, songs that people can relate to and take hope from,” says Smith, who is managed by The Core Entertainment. “I think of songs I love like Rascal Flatts’ ‘What Hurts the Most,’ and Keith Urban’s ‘Tonight I Wanna Cry.’ Those songs just set the bar.”
Nate Smith offers a hefty mix of heavy-hitter ballads like “I Don’t Miss You” (which Smith calls “the epitome of what I want to hear in a big rock ballad”), uplifting, romantic compositions such as “You Shouldn’t Have To,” and fun fare including “Alright Alright Alright” (inspired by actor Matthew McConaughey’s famous catchphrase in the 1993 movie Dazed and Confused).
“I think my agents have even reached out to [McConaughey’s] team, hoping he will do something with us on it,” Smith says. “It’s a nod to him in a lot of ways—it’s catchy, and people can sing along with it easily.”
As Morgan Wallen continues to top the Billboard charts with back-to-back albums with more than 30 tracks each, Smith’s debut weighs in at 20 tracks. But Smith is already augmenting his album with a deluxe version that also releases on Friday, adding six songs to the mix, because of a last minute addition that he felt passionately about releasing.
“Didn’t you think it would end up just always being singles?” he says, pondering the change in how music is released since the advent of streaming. “And then it moves back to these large albums. I think Morgan [Wallen] pioneered a lot of that.”
Smith wrote 13 of the songs on the 20-track album, and five of the six songs on the deluxe version. One of his co-writes is “Raised Up,” an ode to his small-town roots and growing up, as he sings, “Any time I lose my way, I turned to the way I was raised up.”
“I remember tearing up when we wrote that, because it made me think of home,” Smith says. “Life goes so fast and people get so busy, it’s just a great nod to remembering where you come from.”
But further fueling these songs is Smith’s formidable, rangy and raw vocal power, especially on songs such as the piano-laced “Wreckage” and the HARDY and Taylor Phillips-written “Better Boy.” The latter is among the songs Smith performed when he showcased for country radio professionals during the New Faces Show during March’s Country Radio Seminar. The song offers up an earnest warning to give a relationship a full-hearted effort, and to “never let her think somewhere out there’s a better boy.”
“It’s a miracle that I got that song before anybody else did,” Smith says. “I got the worktape from Taylor. I was listening to it, and it was HARDY singing on it. I felt such a connection to it and they let me cut it.” Growing up in Paradise, Calif., Smith says his interests always slanted toward music rather than sports.
“I went hunting a bit with my dad when I was younger. I tried every sport and I wasn’t good at sports,” Smith says. “I grew up listening to country music, artists like Garth [Brooks] and George Strait, but in junior high and high school, I was more into rock artists like Blink-182.”
At church, he honed his skills by playing worship music on Wednesday nights for his youth group and often favored jam sessions over studying. “In high school, me and my friends would skip school. We knew the secretary in the church and she’d let us sneak in,” he says. “We’d leave school and would be in there jammin’ out. I don’t know how we didn’t get in trouble, but we didn’t.”
Smith moved to Nashville in 2008 and, initially, Smith’s path seemed aligned with contemporary Christian music; he signed a publishing deal with Centricity Music and came close to inking a deal with Word Records. But the soon, the deal fell through, at the time same as Smith was weathering a divorce. The string of obstacles led Smith to return to California in 2011, where he worked as a nursing assistant. But even prior to leaving Nashville, he was already exploring his country roots.
“Before I left Nashville, I made a 10-song album and everyone was like, ‘It sounds kind of country,’” Smith recalls.
In 2018, Smith became one of the 14,000 residences who lost their homes when the Camp Fire raged through Paradise. He poured his pain and perspective into the song “One of These Days,” and was determined to give Nashville another chance. He made a month-long road trip from California to Nashville, playing bars and clubs along the way. Soon after returning to Music City, Smith released the viral track, “Wildfire.” Soon, labels came calling, he signed with Sony Music Nashville and released the radio single “Whiskey on You.”
Another fire-fueled song, “World on Fire,” which Smith wrote with Ashley Gorley, Phillips and Lindsay Rimes in November 2022, led to Smith’s decision to release a deluxe version of his debut album in tandem with the original.
“We weren’t planning on doing a deluxe album at all,” Smith says. “But the demand for ‘World on Fire’ was so high and it was doing so well on socials. We were like, ‘If we add it to the album, it takes away all our pre-saves of the song.’ We could have waited until after the album was done and just dropped it separately, randomly, but opted to include it in a deluxe version. Fans have been asking for this song, so I’m glad to finally release it.”
Later this year, Smith will perform many of his new songs as part of Thomas Rhett’s Home Team Tour 2023, which launches May 4. As much a student of the stage as he is of songs, Smith keeps finding new ways to enhance his live show, and says he paid close attention to when he was previously opening shows for Brett Eldredge.
“It feels like Brett’s never in a rush onstage, in a good way,” Smith says. “His transitions between songs are really powerful, but then when it’s just him and an acoustic, it’s magical. He taught me to realize the importance of moments. Also, he doesn’t rush off the stage — he will thank people and take his time getting offstage. And I do that at every show now, and I completely stole that from Brett.”
Looking ahead, Smith teases an upcoming collaboration with Ashley Cooke, and has his sights set on a Saturday Night Live appearance one day.
“I really want to do it because I love being silly,” Smith says. “I would love to act and be on the show and sing and all that. That would be a dream.”
Punk Icons The Damned Return With ‘Darkadelic,’ Weigh in On Banning Artists With ‘Sh-t Stuff in Their Lives’
Dave Vanian says Darkadelic, the title of the Damned’s new album, is meant to be both evocative and open-ended.
“What is it?” the vocalist and band co-founder muses to Billboard. “Perhaps a box of deluxe chocolates full of delicious and surprisingly delightful flavors, a journey to the id, self-expression or discovery. A dark tale of intrigue heavily laced with noir, romantic Gothic melodrama, a first kiss, a dangerous drug, dark love…. Truly it will represent a myriad of things to the individual and is, as it should be, defining but also undefined.”
Guitarist Captain Sensible (aka Raymond Burns) is more succinct, however. “I’m guessing it means it’s dark and it’s psychedelic,” he says with a laugh.
The Damned’s 12th studio album, and first in five years, was “pretty much finished” before the 2022 reunion tour of the original quartet, who were the first U.K. punk band to release a single (“New Rose” in October 1976) and to tour the U.S. Darkadelic reflects the band’s continuing musical evolution; its usual gothic-flavored drama is intact, but filled with intricate instrumental dynamics and textures — particularly on “Western Promise,” a song with soundscapes that are accented by trumpets and sonic nods to ’80s new romantic fare.
“For me, the only criteria was to have this album driven by more pronounced guitars,” says Vanian. “The album took on its own identity compared to our last (2018’s Evil Spirits). Plus, wanting it to sound sonically inspiring when heard on iPad or phone, a slightly more modern sound, if you will, without effecting or compromising what we do.” Sensible notes that, “We always set out to do something a little bit different. We get bored doing the same thing over and over. The first rule of the Damned is there are no rules.” The direction, he adds, “Wasn’t a conscious decision or anything. We just came together with our own demos and certain tracks got chosen and it did take on a life of its own, as they all do, and that’s the album.”
Sensible says Darkadelic was very much a band effort by the current quintet, with drummer Will Taylor making his first appearance on a Damned album. “We chose the tunes and started bashing them out, all five of us, just being a band,” says Sensible, who describes his long relationship with Vanian as friendly but “quite competitive.” “We were in there making our own holy din for most of the day for, I dunno, two weeks. It got quite hot in there.” But he and Taylor did spend some time working out arrangements for the 12 tracks during sessions with producer Thomas Mitchener (La Roux, the Futureheads) at studios near London.
“We actually sat down and we listened to a few Beatles songs, ’cause the songs were so beautifully arranged on those,” says Sensible. “Ringo (Starr), whatever anybody says about his drumming, I think the guy’s immense. He always did the right thing at the right time. We really arranged the drums for what’s right for the song. There was a lot of brainstorming during those two weeks of laying down the basic tracks.”
Sensible credits “quite a lot of jamming” for the “soundtracky” reach of “Western Skies,” while the first single, “The Invisible Man,” was influenced by an affinity for ’60s garage rock bands such as the Seeds and the Chocolate Watchband. “Follow Me” fuses a modern rockabilly verse with an anthemic chorus, while the explosive “Wake the Dead” came from Vanian and Sensible being 66 and 68 years old, respectively. “We’re of an age now when people you know start kicking the bucket,” the guitarist explains. “I go to funerals more often than I used to. I do dabble in the social networks and you see they played ‘Smash It Up’ at somebody’s funeral or, ‘We played ‘Love Song’ at my dad’s funeral. That was his favorite.’ So I thought, ‘Well, they’re playing these songs ’cause the deceased love the band. Why not write one actually for that purpose?’ So that was the idea, really. It’s a heroic kind of goth song because you’re laughing in the face of mortality. We’re all gonna go, so don’t get depressed about it and overthink it. I always celebrate the life rather than mourn the parting moment…so why not give them a really heroic, ‘F–k the Grim Reaper’ song?”
Also intriguing is the galloping “Leader of the Gang,” a not particularly veiled elegy to disgraced rocker Gary Glitter, who’s back in jail after violating probation conditions related to his child sexual abuse conviction.
“He got caught doing some really sh-t things and spent some time in prison — deservedly so,” Sensible says. “But the thing is the music was absolutely magnificent and so influential. They don’t play his music on the radio anymore in Britain, and for me that’s a shame. His band didn’t do anything wrong, and they can’t get a gig anymore. Do you ban the music or the art? If you ban one person you have to follow that and ban loads of people because some of these creatives have some some pretty sh-t stuff in their lives. [Some of them are] very, very famous people, film directors and politicians… where do you stop?”
After a European tour earlier this year, the Damned come across the pond for a half-dozen U.S. west coast dates starting May 20 in San Francisco before playing New Zealand and Australia during June and the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, England, in early August. “We haven’t done a lot of gigs with this lineup, so it’s nice things are opening up again,” Sensible says. “Live music’s really taken a hit and a lot of venues didn’t make it. The musicians are just the tip of the iceberg; you don’t see all the support people, the venue staff and the crews and the logistics people. It’s having to revive in a way.”
He’s also amenable to doing more gigs with original bandmates Brian James and Rat Scabies after last fall’s five-show run in the U.K. “They were an absolute revelation, to be quite honest — musically and socially,” Sensible says. “There was a point about 10 years ago when we all stopped slagging each other off; the fact we all made up and like each other again is just incredible to me because it was extremely bitter. (laughs) But we all got on. It was really strange backstage — everyone’s smiling at each other, arms around each other’s shoulders and stuff, really great. So I would love to work with them again, in that or another capacity.”
HHW Gaming: PlayStation Reportedly Is Working On New Handheld Called “Q Lite”
Source: YOSHIKAZU TSUNO / Getty / PlayStation
It looks like PlayStation isn’t out of the handheld business after all.
Insider Gaming exclusively reports PlayStation is actively working on a new handheld console called the “Q Lite.” The video game website says it will not center around cloud gaming but will be an extension of the PS5 utilizing the console’s remote play function that the company has been hyping up as of late.
Per Insider Gaming:
Codenamed the Q Lite, the next PlayStation handheld is the next piece of Sony hardware that aims to be yet another piece of hardware that requires the PlayStation 5. Insider Gaming understands that the Q Lite is not a cloud-streaming device but instead uses Remote Play with the PlayStation 5.
According to the report, the Q Lite will feature adaptive streaming up to 1080p and 60FPS and require constant internet connectivity.
As for its look, Insider Gaming says it will look like a PS5 DualSense controller with “a massive 8-inch LCD touchscreen in the center.” It will also have adaptive triggers and support haptic feedback, plus all of the bells and whistles you come to expect for a portable gaming device.
The Q Lite Could Be A Part of The Second Phase of The PS5
The news of the Q Lite follows reports of Sony working on a PlayStation 5 Pro and PS5 console with a detachable disc drive, and it will arrive before both consoles.
All three devices could be a part of the “second phase of the PS5,” according to Jeff Grubb’s reporting. PlayStation is also said to be working on wireless earbuds called “Project Nomad,” a wireless headset called “Project Voyager,” and The Q Lite could all be coming very soon.
Sony officially discontinued its last portable device, the PS Vita, in 2019, leaving the impression the company is done with handheld consoles.
That appears not to be the case. Are you excited about Q Lite? Let us know in the comment section below.
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Photo: YOSHIKAZU TSUNO / Getty
Rihanna Hopes to Get ‘Cool Points’ With Her Kids for Voicing Smurfette in Upcoming ‘Smurfs’ Movie
Rihanna is heading to the big screen — in animated form. The “Umbrella” singer is set to voice Smurfette in Paramount and Nickelodeon’s upcoming Smurfs film.
While the film is still untitled and does not have a release date, Puss in Boots director Chris Miller is taking on the project, which is based on the beloved characters created by Belgian artist Peyo.
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“I get to show up in my PJs in my third trimester,” the pregnant RiRi said onstage at CinemaCon, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I hope this gives me cool points with my kids one day.”
Rihanna’s reps confirmed that she is expecting her second child with A$AP Rocky after fans speculated about her appearance during her 2023 Super Bowl halftime show performance earlier this year. The singer was dressed in a curve-hugging red outfit and appeared to rub her belly during the airborne performance at the State Farm Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Rihanna welcomed her first child with the rapper last May.
The couple has yet to reveal the due date of the upcoming bundle of joy, or the sex of the baby. In the meantime, RiRi’s been rocking her signature cool pregnancy looks. Earlier this month, the “Love on the Brain” singer celebrated her brand’s partnership with Ulta in an all white look from head to toe, complete with a snug undershirt that showed off her baby bump.
Jack Black’s ‘Peaches’ Takes ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ From Box Office to Billboard Charts
Among the more unlikely global hitmakers of 2023, Jack Black scores his first entry on the April 29-dated Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart, one week after debuting on the Billboard Global 200. “Peaches,” Black’s contribution to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, arrives at No. 91 on the former chart and zooms from No. 106 to No. 48 on the latter.
In the week ending April 20, “Peaches” yielded 18.6 million streams and sold 8,000 downloads worldwide, according to Luminate. Those figures represent a 58% streaming increase and a 10% dip in sales from one week prior.
Concurrently, the original motion picture soundtrack for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which includes “Peaches,” ascends to No. 1 on the U.S.-based Soundtracks chart (9,000 equivalent album units).
“Peaches” was released on April 7, following Mario’s April 5 premiere. In its first week, the song took 70% of its sales and 49% of its streams from the United States. In its second week, those percentages slipped to 68% and 43%, respectively, with the song increasing its international reach as the film continued atop the global box office.
Mario grossed a historic $376 million upon its opening, breaking down to 54% domestic and 46% international. Its second weekend added $194.9 million to its total, and in the weekend of April 21-23, another $132 million. From frame to frame, its international earnings climbed from 46% to 52% to 55%, similar to its standout song’s streams growing from 51% to 57%.
On next week’s May 6-dated global charts, based on the tracking week of April 21-27, international streams for “Peaches” should further outdo its domestic clicks as Mario’s box office followed the same path in its third weekend. The film’s strongest non-U.S. markets include Mexico ($66.2 million through April 24, according to Box Office Mojo), the U.K. ($51.7 million) and Germany ($38 million).
Soundtrack songs have a long history on the Billboard charts. Even within the still-brief two-year-plus history of the Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S., Academy Award winning songs by Billie Eilish, Eminem and a Lady Gaga–Bradley Cooper collab have made their stamp. Meanwhile, Black’s global triumph pairs blockbuster associations with the comedy-tinged success of Bo Burnham’s “All Eyes on Me” and “Bezos I,” both of which hit the Global 200 in 2021 on the back of his Netflix special Inside. Black has a history of his own on Billboard’s comedy charts as a member of Tenacious D, though “Peaches” marks his first solo chart hit.
JoJo Learned to Be More ‘Vulnerable and Open’ by Playing Satine in Broadway’s ‘Moulin Rouge!’
“Because you can can can!” is the hedonistic rallying cry of Parisian club owner Harold Zidler at the outset of Broadway’s adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s celebrated 2001 film Moulin Rouge!. And through July 16 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in Manhattan, Joanna “JoJo” Levesque is currently proving she can can can soar in a sumptuous major musical despite no previous credits on the Gay White Way.
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Yes, experiencing JoJo in Moulin Rouge! involves a few moments of processing that the Satine in front of you is the same person who, at age of 13 in 2004, earned a No. 1 on Pop Airplay with the punchy “Leave (Get Out).” But that biographical tidbit quickly fades as you lose yourself in Satine’s journey as she sheds her performative shield and embraces love, death and everything in between.
It’s a triumphant transformation that Levesque subtly reveals through shifting reactions to the world around her — while, naturally, showing off her substantial vocal range and a nuanced ability to interpret hit songs from other artists. It’s such a convincing sublimation of her pop star identity that my companion at the Hirschfeld, despite several assurances, refused to believe it was THAT JoJo on stage in front of us and not a Broadway pro (eventually, she was convinced, and cried at the end of the play).
Of course, casting a known pop, film or TV star in a Broadway play is nothing new — and lately, it’s been a boon for theatrical box offices as they recover from the pandemic. Earlier this year, two-time Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon pulled in packed, enthusiastic audiences for Chicago as Mama Morton. But rarely do outsiders make their Broadway debut playing the lead role in a musical, which makes JoJo’s 14-week run as Satine even more impressive – and a sparkling diamond of a delight on Broadway.
Before we talk about the play, I want to ask about your initial reaction to the movie when it came out in 2001.
Obsessed. Baz Luhrmann is one of my favorite filmmakers. I love the energy, the pulse you can feel throbbing in all of his work. Nicole Kidman just shattered me with Satine. I was like 10 years old when it came out, but I revisit it time and time again because it’s so delicious. I saw the Moulin Rouge! musical theater production when it opened in L.A. at the Pantages [in 2021], and I went back and rewatched the movie again I was like, “Ugh, it’s so good!” I’m totally in love with the Baz stuff.
When you auditioned for the role of Satine on Broadway, how did you feel? Were you confident about what you delivered?
I workshopped with the producers and director and I knew that I had prepared as much as I possibly could have. I walked away feeling, “If I don’t get it, I can feel good about the work I did going into it.” And that’s what I’m looking to feel at this point in my life in general: I laid it all out there and come what may. But I was hoping that it would work out, and when it did, I was so relieved. I really wanted the opportunity to use all the different things I love that I’ve been working on since I was a little girl at once: Singing, acting, performing. This is the perfect opportunity for that.
As you rehearsed and prepared for the role, what was the hardest part for you?
The quick costume changes backstage are one of the most challenging components. Some of the changes are 25 seconds and there’s wig changes, shoe changes. That stressed me out a little bit because I didn’t want to throw anybody else off – not hit a mark and set the whole show back. But I learned. There’s a whole squad of people who are there to help it all move seamlessly. And that’s my favorite part of musical theater, the community aspect of it – we’re all parts in this living, breathing organism.
Twice in the musical you descend from the ceiling on a swing. Is that terrifying?
I have a safety harness. Sometimes I don’t click it exactly right and it gets stuck, and that gives me a little nervousness. But being up in the air is okay. It’s fun. I don’t love roller coasters, but it’s the perfect dose of a roller coaster. It sets my character up for the audience to understand who she is at the Moulin Rouge. And it helps me get into character, honestly, coming down from the ceiling. JoJo hasn’t done that before, but Satine does. That makes me feel better. I’m not myself, I’m not Joanna; I’m embodying Satine.
JoJo in Moulin Rouge
Evan Zimmerman
What’s your favorite song to perform each night?
I love doing “Elephant Love Medley” with Derek [Klena]. It’s such a cute moment of him trying to win her over and her being like, “You don’t understand what life is actually like, bro. You’re crazy.” But there’s something charming about his purity and how he has not been wounded by life the way she has. I love that moment. It’s when they’re really falling in love and when she decides she’s going to follow her heart for once as opposed to trying to do what she needs to do to survive.
The next time you hit the stage as you, do you think you might incorporate some of the Moulin Rouge! stuff?
I have a festival performance coming up May 6 for Lovers & Friends in Las Vegas, while I’m doing this [Broadway run]. It has informed that. I have a couple ideas I’m going to bring into my set in Vegas. I think this is making me a more well-rounded performer, getting to play with different people every night, sometimes two times a day. I love that repetition and finding freedom within it. And doing your own play on other people’s songs is a treat.
What have you learned about yourself doing this?
I learned how much I was yearning for some aspect of community that I haven’t had in my life before. I started so young as a solo artist and I’m an only child. I still had that sense of being an outsider, the odd girl out, and I was bullied in middle school. I was like, “Will I be embraced?” I did have those fears. And to let myself be vulnerable and be open, let people know my heart and get to know other people’s hearts, that’s been a nice experience. And [I learned] how to pace myself. If you’re doing 7-8 shows a week, you have to learn how to take care of your instrument, your body, everything.
What informs your portrayal of Satine?
I want to always keep in mind how difficult her life has been. The fact that she is performing most of her life, whether it’s on the streets or for men or at the Moulin Rouge, she doesn’t really get a moment to let her guard down. There was a time in my life where that was very much the truth for me. I didn’t even know how to be honest; I didn’t even know how to get in touch with myself. I’m still trying to find the most authentic version of myself.
Do you want to do more acting on Broadway?
I love it here. I love doing stuff like this. If they’ll have me, I’ll be here. I’d love to originate a role, I’d love to be part of writing the music for original shows. To be a part of this has been a highlight of my life. I feel like I’m growing, I’m learning, and that’s what makes me happy: to be where these amazing performers are and where we’re stretching and growing. I could definitely see more of it.
2023 Streamy Awards Set Summer Date, Introduce ‘Rolling Stone’ Sound of the Year Category
The Streamy Awards will return this year on Aug. 27 in Los Angeles, Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter confirmed on Thursday (April 27). The date change marks a move to the summer months, as the awards program has generally taken place in December since 2019.
The 13th annual Streamys, which seeks to honor people within the creator community, will recognize stars within the gaming, beauty, food and music genres. For the first time, the Streamy Awards will launch a sound of the year award in partnership with Rolling Stone, which will honor popular songs across the past year that have dominated the greater pop culture landscape and social media.
“Rolling Stone is thrilled to expand our support of creators to the Streamy Awards, a true celebration of the talent and innovation of this community,” said Rolling Stone CEO Gus Wenner in a statement. “Our shared goals to elevate the voices of creators coupled with music’s undeniable importance across the social media landscape makes for a perfect partnership.”
“Summer Streamys will be a vibe,” added Drew Baldwin, Streamy Awards founder and Tubefilter CEO. “We’re psyched to be partnering with Rolling Stone to launch a new music award that is truly native to social and captures how we discover and share music. I can’t wait to celebrate with our creator community for our thirteenth year together.”
The nominees for each of the Streamy’s over 45 total categories will be revealed in July.
DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a Penske Media Corporation (PMC) subsidiary and joint venture between PMC and Eldrige. PMC is the parent company of Billboard.
The Raine Group Partners Behind Music’s Biggest Deals: ‘This Is a New Generation of Capital Investing’
The music industry, like investment banking, is built largely on relationships, and Fred Davis and Joe Puthenveetil have built their careers on being relationship brokers to both worlds.
Partners at merchant bank The Raine Group, Davis — who is the son of music industry icon Clive Davis — and Puthenveetil are two of the most influential financial power brokers in the business. Since one of Raine’s earliest music deals advising Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates-based Mubadala Investment on its acquisition of EMI, it has advised on or invested in billions of dollars of transactions. In recent years, the pair managed the $230 million sale of CD Baby’s digital operation to Downtown Music Holdings, helped Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Charles Goldstuck raise $75 million to launch the HitCo label and led SoundCloud’s $170 million emergency investment round in 2017, which included recruiting Singapore state fund Temasek to invest alongside it. (Concord acquired Hitco’s entire sound recording catalog and certain additional releases but not the label or brand name in 2022.)
In the past year alone, Davis says the partners have had a hand in more than $1 billion in transactions, including advising Quality Control in its sale to HYBE America, advising private equity firm Francisco Partners in its acquisition of Kobalt and helping Larry Jackson raise $1 billion in capital for his new venture, gamma.
Raine remains an investor in SoundCloud and also helped create Firebird, a conglomerate of independent music labels, publishers and artist management groups that develop and advise artists and help them with business opportunities outside of music.
From left: A photo of Davis’
sons, a memento of Raine’s representation of Providence Equity in its deal with online music technology/instrument retailer Sweetwater, a family portrait with patriarch Clive Davis and a plaque commemorating Raine’s work with Downtown Music to sell its publishing company to Concord.
Paul Stuart
Puthenveetil, a graduate of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, joined Raine in 2010 and was a driving force behind the CD Baby sale and HitCo fundraising, as well Raine’s investments in SoundCloud, concert/festival producer Blackbird Presents and promoter C3 Presents, which was sold to Live Nation. He sits on SoundCloud’s board of directors, with Davis, and on Blackbird’s board.
Fordham University School of Law-educated Davis (who launched his own law firm, Davis Shapiro & Lewit, before joining Raine) says one of the starkest trends shaping music today is that more money from more sources is flowing into the industry than ever before.
“When I was coming up as a music lawyer, there were maybe three, maybe four check writers,” he says. “The diversity of capital is so enormous in this industry right now. You have HYBE investing in Quality Control from South Korea. Eldridge Capital investing in gamma, along with Apple. Francisco Partners acquiring Kobalt. It’s strategic, private equity, high net worth, sovereign wealth.
“This is a new generation of capital investing in the music industry, “Davis adds. “We’ve never had an era like this ever.” Other investors that Raine has recently advised include pro wrestling giant WWE on its $21 billion combination with Endeavor, Japan’s Softbank Group and the crypto exchange Binance.
For those who aren’t familiar with The Raine Group, please provide some background on the firm and its network of investors.
Fred Davis Raine has nine offices around the world and is very global by its DNA. The network we have now in private equity, sovereign wealth, high net worth, family offices and strategic investors is so complementary to the network a traditional music lawyer has. We can collaborate and do what’s best for the client.
Part of a collection of Nike Air Jordans that Puthenveetil’s wife gifted him.
Paul Stuart
Describe what you do and how your services differ from, say, a music lawyer’s.
Joe Puthenveetil While Fred and I specialize in music, our firm specializes in everything around media and technology. For a lot of our clients, a big part of why they work with us is to access unconventional buyers and pools of capital. Being able to leverage that global expertise and global investors, we’ve got a pretty unique and broad set of relationships across the firm.
How did HYBE America’s acquisition of Quality Control happen?
Davis Last September, we took a trip to South Korea, set up a number of meetings with the best music companies in Korea and went there to uncover opportunities. From that trip, we made the connection between HYBE and our preexisting client Quality Control. We work best with the client’s music lawyer. Quality Control is represented by Damian Granderson, with whom we work extremely well.
A plaque commemorating Davis’ inclusion on Billboard’s 2022 Power List.
Paul Stuart
What does scaling Quality Control look like?
Puthenveetil Quality Control has taken its place in music and expanded it across culture to film and TV, sports, branding, and that’s how we think of the modern music industry. Talent is more than just their music. They are real brands and businesses. And the Quality Control team [COO Kevin “Coach K” Lee and CEO Pierre “P” Thomas] understands that better than anyone. Coach and P have been public about their ambitions to make Quality Control one of the biggest businesses in hip-hop and broader Black culture. Having a partner that can help them do that with capital and expertise, they may scale further into film, TV and video games.
Davis One of the visions that Coach and P have shared with us over the years is how they want to make Atlanta the home of hip-hop and street music the way Nashville is the home of country. HYBE will help them accomplish that vision.
Are Quality Control and gamma similar in that they are both trying to take artists beyond music? What are your views on that?
Puthenveetil One hundred percent. They both approach it in slightly different ways, but fundamentally, it’s driving at the same thesis and reality that artists build their careers through music, but build their brands and communities through everything else they do. That is where we see the industry going more and more. Thinking back to our trip to Korea last September, they have fundamentally understood that for a lot longer than we have in the U.S. On the investing side, we helped create a business called Firebird that has a similar belief and is partnering with the best labels, managers and publishing companies to help them expand beyond music and touring.
What is Firebird building?
Davis We invested in [as opposed to simply advising] Firebird. They are in the process of building a new-generation music company that will be a combination of managers and independent record labels as its core. They’ve done about a dozen transactions and are well on their path to building a great new music company.
How is Firebird different from gamma, which also calls itself a new music company?
Davis Gamma will not be in the management business the same way Firebird is. There will be some elements of crossover, but the essence of each company will be different.
What role did Raine play in the launch of Larry Jackson’s gamma?
Davis We’ve known Larry for many years. Larry approached us with an idea many years ago of what he wanted to build. Our role was to find the capital to invest in gamma. We negotiated the Apple investment, and we sourced the Eldridge investment and negotiated the terms of the deal. Raine represented Chelsea Football Club, which Todd Boehly and Eldridge acquired. Through our partner Joe Ravitch’s relationship with Eldridge, we introduced Eldridge to Larry. [Eldridge is an investor in Billboard.]
Puthenveetil We also helped [Jackson] translate his vision into a business plan and marketing materials and helped educate the investors on what this all means.
Paul Stuart
Why do you think investing in the music industry will be resilient even if market conditions worsen?
Davis Simple metrics of supply and demand. There is an incredible amount of capital that wants to get into music. There are not that many great companies. That market dynamic will keep valuations high and opportunities exciting.
Puthenveetil The reason everyone is excited about music is that, structurally, it is healthy. Companies are growing, they’re profitable. There are a lot of opportunities to invest, to acquire. When you look around at the broader landscape, sure, there are a lot of challenging sectors of the broader market. But everyone is still streaming music, everyone is still attending concerts. These companies are all still making record profits.
Historically, periods of economic downturn trigger a risk-off approach to alternative investment areas, which is what music is considered.
Puthenveetil Over the past six to nine months, we have gotten more calls from investors looking to enter this space than ever before.
Where do sovereign wealth funds want to invest in the music industry?
Puthenveetil Because of the growth of these funds, they have more people looking at spaces that might not have fallen in their purview before. That has resulted in GIC [in Singapore] investing in [Universal Music Group]. We brought Temasek into SoundCloud alongside us. We’ve seen sovereign funds in the Middle East looking at this space. In every process and transaction, we see more and more of that and expect it to continue. One of the early deals we did in the music space was advising Mubadala when they acquired EMI. At that time, very few people knew who Mubadala was, let alone expected them to buy that asset.
Globally, where do you see the opportunities?
Puthenveetil All of the developing markets. That’s where streaming growth is, and the audiences are younger. But it’s the innovation we see coming out of those markets that is exciting.
Are there any pockets of vulnerability in the music industry?
Davis From a major label’s perspective, the area of vulnerability is the incredible growth of regional music. The percentage of regional music that non-major labels represent around the world in multiple territories is at an all-time high, whether it’s K-pop in South Korea, Afrobeats in Africa or native music to France that’s not on major labels. This is a huge generational trend. From that perspective, it is a vulnerability for major labels.
Marshmello & Farruko Fly Onto Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Chart With ‘Esta Vida’
Marshmello and Farruko score a top 10 debut on Billboard’s multimetric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (dated April 29) with “Esta Vida” at No. 10. The collab drew 2.2 million official streams and 450,000 radio airplay audience impressions and sold 600 downloads in the April 14-20 tracking week, according to Luminate.
“Vida” is Marshmello’s 15th top 10, the fifth-most among all acts since the chart began in January 2013; only Kygo (24), The Chainsmokers, Calvin Harris (22 each) and David Guetta (21) have more. The track is also Marshmello’s 57th total charted title, lifting him out of a tie with Skrillex for the third-most, after Guetta (76) and Kygo (62).
Marshmello owns three Hot Dance/Electronic Songs No. 1s, including “Happier” (with Bastille), which spent a record 69 weeks at the summit in 2018-20.
“Vida” is Farruko’s fifth top 10 on the tally, a collection that includes his 2021 nine-week No. 1 “Pepas.”
The EDM-Latin crossover “Vida” also bows on Latin Pop Digital Song Sales (No. 3), Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (No. 7), Latin Pop Streaming Songs (No. 10) and Hot Latin Songs (No. 42), among other chart placements.
‘A Little’ More
On the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, ILLENIUM and Nina Nesbitt return to No. 1 for a third frame on top (after a one-week hiatus) with “Luv Me a Little.”
Continuing with the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, three team-ups hit the top 10 for the first time. First, Calvin Harris collects his 21st top 10 and Ellie Goulding grabs her 11th with “Miracle” (11-8). With the move, Harris passes Justin Bieber for a solo share of the third-most top 10s since the chart began in August 2003; only David Guetta (34) and Rihanna (24) have more.
“Miracle” is drawing core-dance airplay on Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel, KMVQ-HD2 San Francisco and iHeartRadio’s Pride Radio, among other outlets. (The Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 70 top 40-formatted reporters.)
The track, for which a remix by Hardwell was released April 14, also earns top Streaming gainer honors on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs (at No. 9), up 15% to 2.8 million streams. “Miracle” also improves on Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs (15-13) and Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales, reaching a new high (11-5; 700 sold, up 59%). Further gains could be reflected on next week’s charts, following the April 21 release of its Mau P remix.
Further on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, the second new top 10 collab belongs to Audien and Codeko with “Antidote,” featuring JT Roach (15-9). The sixth top 10 for Audien, “Antidote” is the first each for Codeko and Roach.
Last but not least, Icona Pop parades to its fifth Dance/Mix Show Airplay top 10, while Galantis gets its ninth, with “I Want You” (12-10).
