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04 Jan 2023

Ice Spice, Rosa Linn & More Among Shazam’s 2023 Breakthrough Predictions

Shazam unveiled its annual predictions playlist on Wednesday (Jan. 4), compiling a 50-track selection of artists who have the potential to have a breakthrough year.

Based on the music discovery app’s predictive data and algorithms and in collaboration with Apple Music’s global editorial team, this year’s selection of artists show early indicators of future growth, including consistent momentum in Shazam activity, as well as discovery trends in more than one country.

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Ice Spice, Rosa Linn, Charlieonnafriday, Young Miko and Benson Boone top Shazam’s artists with global breakthrough potential. “It’s very cool to me that people from all around the world can discover my music through [Shazam],” Rosa Linn told Apple Music per a press release. “They can hear the song, like it, and instantly find out that it’s me who is singing it. I gain fans and listeners and it directly impacts streaming.”

“Shazam has always been so useful for me whenever I needed to find the title of a song playing,” Ice Spice added. “I’m happy that it exists!”

Additionally, for the first time, Shazam is spotlighting artists who are gaining popularity regionally. Nigeria’s Carterefe, France’s Adé, Japan’s natori, Colombia’s KEITYN and Spain’s Munic HB have all made the list due to their budding stardom. “I believe Shazam is an important gateway for my music to be discovered, especially in this busy lifestyle we live in,” natori, whose “Overdose” was the most-Shazamed debut single within J-Pop over the last year, told Apple Music.

Listen to the Shazam Predictions 2023 playlist exclusively on Apple Music worldwide at apple.co/shazampredictions23 

04 Jan 2023

‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’: The Cast of Season 15 Pick Their All-Time Favorite Music Videos

Wave that checkered flag, Drag Race fans, because the competition is about to begin.

On Friday (Jan. 6), RuPaul’s Drag Race is set to return for its 15th season, with a bigger batch of queens and an even bigger cash prize — the latest season is set to feature a record number of 16 queens competing for $200,000 and the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar.

Along with its new set of queens, the season will also feature a vast array of celebrity guest judges ready to offer their expertise and advice to the competitors on how to get ahead. Ariana Grande will appear in the season’s premiere episode on Friday, with subsequent episodes set to feature stars like Janelle Monáe, Maren Morris, Hayley Kiyoko, Orville Peck, Ali Wong, Amandla Stenberg, Harvey Guillén, Julia Garner and Megan Statler.

Fans used to viewing the show on VH1 will also have some adjustments to make with season 15 — for the first time in the franchise’s history, RuPaul’s Drag Race will now be aired exclusively on MTV. In a statement released with the news back in December, co-CEOs of World of Wonder (the production company behind Drag Race) Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey said that they were “delighted” to see the show make the move. “Drag Race is about universal themes of love, self expression, and acceptance — and there has never been a more important time than now for these ideas to be expressed internationally,” they said.

With MTV’s storied history as the primary home for the most iconic music videos of all-time, Billboard asked the 16 queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 to select their favorites. Below, the queens explain their picks, from Lady Gaga to Beyoncé and beyond:

04 Jan 2023

BLACKPINK’s ‘Ddu-Du Ddu-Du’ Music Video Hits 2 Billion Views on YouTube

Hit you with that ddu-du ddu-du du! BLACKPINK has reached yet another milestone as the music video for their smash single “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” blasted past two billion views on YouTube.

The bombastic visual is the girl group’s first to accomplish the viewership feat, followed closely by the music videos for “Kill This Love” (1.7 billion), “Boombayah” (1.5 billion) and “How You Like That (1.1 billion.) Meanwhile, Jennie, Rosé, Lisa and Jisoo’s videos for their latest singles — Born Pink’s “Pink Venom” and “Shut Down” — have garnered hundreds of millions of views in just the few short months since they premiered on the platform.

Originally released in June 2018 in tandem with the K-pop quartet’s debut EP Square Up, “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” expertly combines bubblegum pop and a trap beat, and the idols’ finger gun-waving choreography on the fierce chorus instantly turned the accompanying video into a viral sensation. It ultimately became the the group’s very first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 55 and also earning them their fourth No. 1 atop the World Digital Song Sales chart.

BLACKPINK’s latest high-water mark comes just months after the release of their sophomore studio album, Born Pink, the kickoff of their a long-awaited world tour, making their U.S. awards show debut by performing “Pink Venom” at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, taking home the worldwide fans’ choice award at the 2022 MAMA Awards and earning the honor of becoming TIME‘s 2022 Entertainer of the Year.

Throughout the tail end of 2022, BLACKPINK also looked back on their successful year with their “Born Pink Memories” YouTube series.

Rewatch BLACKPINK’s “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” video above.

04 Jan 2023

BTS‘ Jimin Teaming Up With Big Bang’s Taeyang on ‘Vibe’ Single

Two K-pop legends are teaming up for a new single due out next week. The Black Label announced that Big Bang‘s Taeyang will release his collab with BTS‘ Jimin, “Vibe,” on Jan. 13. The news was revealed in a tweet from Taeyang on Tuesday (Jan. 3), which featured a snap of the two on what appeared to be the video set for the song, in which they are seen posing in a cavernous room lit by a ring of yellow light.

“Vibe” marks Taeyang’s first new solo music since his third solo album, 2017’s White Night. But more importantly, the song will be Jimin’s first official solo release since BTS announced that they were going on hiatus to allow the septet’s singers to focus on their solo ventures. Jimin will be the final member of BTS to release a solo project since the band announced that they were taking a break last year.

At press time no additional information was available on the single, which comes on the heels of solo projects from RM, whose official solo debut album, Indigo, dropped last month and Jung Kook, who has already racked up more than 100 million Spotify streams for his single “Dreamers,” which also appeared on the official soundtrack to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Jimin, 27, has previously released the solo singles “Lie,” “Filter,” “Promise,” “With You,” his festive “Christmas Love” and more. Last year, the singer dropped some moody shots from his behind-the-scenes “photo-folio” Me, Myself, and Jimin ‘ID: Chaos‘, featuring 8 images of him portraying his different musical personas.

Check out the “Vibe” tease below.

04 Jan 2023

Tom DeLonge Says Upcoming Blink-182 Reunion Album Is ‘The Best’ One They’ve Ever Made

Tom DeLonge gave Blink-182 fans an early Christmas gift last month when he revealed that the first album from the reunited band is coming “in a few months.” Then, on Christmas Eve, DeLonge pulled the curtain back a bit more and promised fans that the best is yet to come.

“This is the best album we’ve ever made. Buckle up,” wrote co-vocalist/guitarist DeLonge in an Instagram post that featured an image of the cartoon rabbit from one of the band’s 1999 tour posters. “I’m personally tripping and so proud of what we have created TOGETHER. As one unified force of fun, eternal youth, and most of all- close friends.”

DeLonge — who rejoined the band in 2022 after leaving for a second time in 2014 — tagged bandmates drummer Travis Barker and singer/bassist Mark Hoppus in the post about the eagerly awaited follow-up to the trio’s 2019 album Nine, their second, and final, studio effort featuring fill-in third member Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio).

While a release date and title for the new album have not yet been announced, the collection’s first single, “Edging,” has been on a tear at alternative radio, logging two months atop the alt radio tally. Last month DeLonge also promised that “the next single that’s coming is [fire emoji].”

As part of the slow leak of information, last month Hoppus described the follow-up to the trio’s last studio album together, 2011’s Neighborhoods, with a fire emoji, followed by a metal salute emoji. Plus, Hoppus posted what appeared to be some very on-brand lyrics from what appeared to be another new song.

“I like to eat cheese/ In my U-Haul/ And drink so much beer/ I never poop at all/ I put my dog down/ And pulled my grandma’s plug/ I was getting kinda used to be someone you loved,” read the lyrics. The latter appeared to reveal that the lyrics may have been a gag (or not), as the last line was cribbed from Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone You Loved.” That inclusion inspired the English pop singer to respond, “This is the best day of my life.”

Barker also weighed in in December, posting a killer, triple-time drum solo from the studio with the caption, “Anthem Pt. 3.” The first “Anthem” appeared on the group’s 1999 breakthrough Enema of the State album, with the sequel showing up on their follow-up fourth full-length, 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.

The reunited trio’s massive world tour is slated to kick off on March 11 in Tijuana, Mexico at the Imperial GNP festival and keep the band on the road in South America and Mexico through April 2 before shifting to North America on May 4 with a show at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota; those dates will run through a July 16 gig in Nashville at the Bridgestone Arena and then move on to Europe in September and Australia/New Zealand in early 2024.

See DeLonge’s post below.

04 Jan 2023

Round Hill Acquires Rock Producer Steve Lillywhite’s Royalty Income Stream

Round Hill Music Royalty Partners has acquired the royalty income stream of Steve Lillywhite, one of the premier rock producers of the last 45 years, in a deal that includes his share of royalties from such albums as U2’s October and War; Dave Matthews Band’s Under the Table and Dreaming and Crash; and The Rolling Stones‘ Dirty Work. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Additional recordings on which Lillywhite served as a producer or worked are covered by the deal, including music by Phish, Peter Gabriel, Morrissey, Talking Heads, Counting Crows, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Psychedelic Furs.

“As someone who grew up idolizing the bands and albums Steve Lillywhite produced, it is an honor to partner with him on this exciting transaction,” Round Hill Music CEO Josh Gruss said in a statement.  “Steve’s catalog includes royalties to some of the most sought-after songs and albums of all time.  We are thrilled to have reached this milestone transaction.”

For his part, Lillywhite added in a statement that the deal brings his catalog under “a kindred spirit [Gruss], who is a pioneer in the music royalty business and the ideal partner for me and my family as I look to my next steps.”

According to the announcement on the transaction, Lillywhite has produced or contributed to more than 500 records in his more than four-decade career. During that time, he won the Grammy for Producer of The Year in 2006 for U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which also won the Grammy for Album of the Year and Best Rock Album. He also won Grammys as one of the engineers/mixers listed on U2’s “Beautiful Day” and “Walk On,” which won Record of the Year in 2001 and 2002, respectively.

Other acts Lillywhite has produced or worked with during his career — and whose music is part of the acquisition — include XTC, The Pogues, Big Country, Joan Armatrading, Sinead O’Connor, Marshall Crenshaw, Crowded House, The Killers and Chris Cornell.

The Lillywhite deal adds to Round Hill’s overall investment portfolio, which has now taken in more than $200 million in investments in more than 40 acquisitions, according to the company.

04 Jan 2023

‘Late Show’ Roasts Lying Republican Rep. George Santos With Classic Meredith Brooks Tune

By now you’ve probably heard about the boatload of lies incoming New York Republican Rep. George Santos unleashed during his successful run to represent Long Island in the House. The 34-year-old fabulist is already facing probes from the House Ethics Committee, as well as federal, state and local authorities over his wide-ranging fibs, from lies about the elite Bronx prep school he didn’t attend and the colleges he didn’t graduate from, to the prestigious jobs he never held at a pair of Wall Street firms, lies about his grandparents surviving the Holocaust (and his Jewish heritage) and a series of whoppers he told about his mother’s death.

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It would all be pretty funny if it wasn’t potentially illegal and it didn’t put a pathological phony near the levers of government, so naturally The Late Show‘s cold open on Tuesday night (Jan. 3) took on the story by putting Santos’ many deceptions into song, cued to Meredith Brooks’ 1997 breakthrough hit, “B–ch.”

The “A Definitely True Message from George Santos” bit opened with news reports about Santos’ multiple misrepresentations of his mother’s death before a fake George said he had only one (or two, or maybe 10 things) to say. Then, to the strains of Brooks’ urgent pop hit, he proclaimed, “I’m half black/ I’m a Jew/ I graduated from Baruch/ My grandpa fled a war/ But wait there’s even more/ I invented root beer floats/ I’m the guy from Quaker Oats/ And that’s not even all the stuff I am.”

The parody went on, with fake Santos proclaiming that he’s also Chinese, from Belize and in a pair of claims outrageous even for him, that his hair is made of bees and that he’s actually Adele in disguise. Some of the fabrications sounded almost plausible, like that he ran the New York Marathon and was instrumental in demoting Pluto from planet-dom. And he swore the latter on both of his mother’s graves, so they must be true.

Santos had a pretty terrible, horrible, no good, very bad first day in Congress on Tuesday, with cameras catching him sitting by himself as other representatives seemingly shunned him and he walked briskly away from reporters, while a Washington Post writer revealed that when Santos stood up to vote for still-unseated Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a “Hispanic Democrat yelled “mentiroso!” which means “liar” in Spanish.

Watch the Late Show cold open below.

04 Jan 2023

Harry Styles, Taylor Swift Rule Australia’s Year-End 2022 Charts

Australia was Harry’s House in 2022, as Harry Styles locked up the best-selling single and the No. 2 album, according to year-end data published by ARIA.

The former One Direction star leads the ARIA Top 100 Singles Chart with “As It Was” (via Columbia/Sony Music), which racked up five platinum certifications following its April 1 release.

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Its parent LP, Harry’s House, Styles’ third successive solo No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, spawns three of the top 50 tracks for 2022, and finishes at No. 2 on the year-end albums tally. Styles confirmed his popularity when he won most popular international artist at the 2022 ARIA Awards, a fan-voted category.

The best-selling album, according to ARIA, is Taylor Swift’s Midnights (Universal), which chalked up the biggest single sales cycle of any LP in 2022 and scooped a record nine of the top 10 singles in its first week. Also, Midnights was the year’s best-selling LP on wax.

Both Midnights and Harry’s House are platinum certified (for 70,000 combined units).

U.S. and international acts dominate the year-end tallies.

The top-ranked homegrown album is the Kid LAROI’s F*ck Love (Over You), which finished 2022 at No. 21, after landing at No. 3 on the 2021 year-end survey. The Sydney-raised, Los Angeles-based singer and rapper also scores three singles in the top 100 for 2022, led by “Stay” (Columbia/Sony) featuring Justin Bieber at No. 3 (“Stay” finished 2021 at No. 2).  

Also, Pnau’s award-winning remix of “Cold Heart” (via Warner/Universal) featuring Elton John and Dua Lipa finishes 2022 at No. 4 (“Cold Heart” finished 2021 at No. 13).

The year in music will be remembered by the stranger things done by Kate Bush’s 1985 song “Running Up That Hill (Deal With God)” (via Warner), which caught fire on sales charts around the globe. Powered by Netflix’ Stranger Things, the single logged nine weeks at No. 1 on the ARIA Singles Chart, more than any other song in 2022, and arrives at No. 11 on ARIA’s year-end tally.

ARIA 2022 Top 5 Albums

Taylor Swift – Midnights
Harry Styles – Harry’s House
The Weeknd – The Highlights
Olivia Rodrigo – Sour
Ed Sheeran – =

ARIA 2022 Top 5 Singles

Harry Styles – “As It Was”
Glass Animals – “Heat Waves”
The Kid Laroi & Justin Bieber – “Stay”
Elton John & Dua Lipa – “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)”
Ed Sheeran – “Bad Habits”

ARIA 2022 Top 5 Vinyl Albums

Taylor Swift – Midnights
Harry Styles – Harry’s House
Spacey Jane – Here Comes Everybody
Arctic Monkeys – AM
Ed Sheeran – =

04 Jan 2023

Australian Music Retailer Sanity to Close Its Physical Stores

BRISBANE, Australia — It’s closing time for Sanity, the once-great Australian music retail specialist which confirmed it would close all its bricks-and-mortar stores in the coming months.

In a statement issued Wednesday (Jan. 4), Sanity announced plans to close its remaining 50 stores by the end of April 2023, in line with the lease expiry of each outlet.

It’s a sad end to a music and entertainment chain which, like so many brands in the business of racking physical soundcarriers, has been left behind as consumers move to streaming platforms.

“With our customer shifting to digital for their visual and music content consumption, and with diminishing physical content available to sell to our customer, it has made it impossible to continue with our physical stores,” explains Sanity CEO and owner Ray Itaoui.

Despite the “challenging and ever evolving entertainment landscape,” the Sanity business has “prospered and remained successful for many years, quite an achievement in the fast-changing retail space,” Itaoui adds.

Founded by retail guru Brett Blundy, Sanity began life in 1980 with just one store. The retailer grew to become Australia’s leading music and retail chain, a status which has later challenged by JB Hi-Fi.

With Blundy at the helm, his Brazin company entered the U.K. in the early 2000s with the purchase of 77 Our Price branded stores from Virgin Group. The experiment ended in 2003 when Brazin sold its 118 Sanity Entertainment U.K. stores to an investment firm for an estimated £12 million ($16.67 million).

A consortium led by Itaoui acquired the business from Brett Blundy Retail Capital (BBRC) in 2009, when the Sanity chain boasted 238 stores across Australia, including Sanity and the domestic branches of U.K. High Street brands Virgin and HMV.

In the late 2000s, Sanity launched what it claimed was Australia’s first online music subscription service, LoadIt, at a time when the business had an estimated 23%-25% share of Australia’s physical music retail market. LoadIt shut down in early 2009.

Digital platforms, and streaming, in particular, is how Australians consume music in the 2020s.

The recorded music market in these parts expanded by 4.4% to A$565.8 million ($421 million) in 2021, for the third successive year of growth, according to trade body ARIA. Subscription services, contributed $377 million ($281 million) that year, up 4.1% from A$317 million ($236 million) in 2020.

Sanity’s online business will continue to operate, and the team is currently working to dispatch all over-the-counter orders, including pre-orders.

“There is so much to be proud of,” adds Itaoui. The Sanity brand “became synonymous with the go-to place to get anything that mattered in the world of music: from vinyl, to CDs and DVDs, hardware, accessories, and of course face to face advice on everything musical.”

04 Jan 2023

Taylor Swift Set to Take U.K. Chart Crown With ‘Midnights’

If 2022 was the year of Taylor Swift in the U.K., the New Year appears much the same as Swift’s Midnights (EMI) takes pole position on the midweek chart.

Based on data published by the Official Charts Company, Midnights is on track for the first No. 1 of 2023, and land a fourth non-consecutive week at the summit.

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If it keeps its momentum, the OCC notes, Midnights will eclipse Swift’s 2020 LP Folklore to become her longest-reigning album in the U.K.

Meanwhile, SZA’s sophomore album SOS (RCA/Top Dawg) is set to lift 8-2, and the Weeknd’s career retrospective The Highlights (Republic Records/XO) could bounce 15-4 following the release of “Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength),” the Canadian R&B singer’s single from Avatar: The Way of Water. The Highlights is one of five greatest hits compilations impacting the top 10s, a list that includes sets by Elton John, ABBA, Eminem and Fleetwood mac.

Also, Eurovision contestant Sam Ryder’s former chart-topper There’s Nothing But Space, Man! (Parlophone) is on the up following the BBC’s Sam Ryder Rocks New Year’s Eve TV special.

The start of a New Year is typically a slow time for new releases. 2023 is no different, as modern-day pop classics (Ed Sheeran’s ‘Divide‘, Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour), and compilations (Oasis’ Time Flies, George Michael’s Twenty Five, Elvis Presley’s ELV1S – 30 Number 1 Hits, Michael Jackson’s Number Ones) ready for a top 40 return.

Finally, the release of Kasi Lemmons’ Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody is giving a lift to the 2012 best-of collection, I Will Always Love You. It’s on track to return at No. 14, for what would be a new peak. The Arista album has a U.K. chart best position of No. 27.