Billboard News stepped into Diddy’s home and sat down with the legendary artist to discuss his single “Gotta Move On” with Bryson Tiller reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart. Plus, Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” tops the Hot 100 once again.
Machine Gun Kelly loves The Office just as much as you do — so much so that the “Papercuts” singer showed up to the 2022 AMAs red carpet on Sunday with Michael Scott’s “World’s Best Boss” mug (content unknown) and gushed about his love of the program while chatting with Billboard‘s correspondent kenzie.
After noticing MGK’s mug, kenzie asked the rock star who his favorite character on the show was, and he has such an appreciation of the show that he was unable to pick just one person. “I like Oscar, I like Kevin, I like Kelly, I like Erin, I like Andy, I like Dwight — I love Dwight — love Michael Scott, love Pam, love Jim. Pretty much who walked into that office, I love,” he said.
The conversation then pivoted to the recent release of Machine Gun Kelly’s latest movie, Taurus. In the semi-autobiographical film — which was released last week on Nov. 18 — Kelly plays the role of Cole, who according to the movie’s official synopsis is “a rising but troubled musician [who] searches for the inspiration to record his next song, pushing himself deep into the void.”
When asked what it was like filming the movie, which also stars his fiancée Megan Fox as Mae, his ex-wife in the film, MGK said it was quite “depressing.” Why? “You should watch the movie.”
See Machine Gun Kelly’s red carpet interview with Billboard at the 2022 American Music Awards in the video above.
Sabrina Carpenter attended the 2022 American Music Awards on Sunday and dished to Billboard all about her new album Emails I Can’t Send.
“My favorite song on the album changes every single day,” the pop star admitted to Billboard’s special red carpet correspondent kenzie on the red carpet. “I’d say today it’s probably a song called ‘Tornado Warnings.’ But the most fun to write was my now single ‘Nonsense,’ which I just put out a video for.
“It’s just the silliest song,” she continued of the track, “and when we were writing it, I was like, ‘It’s never gonna be put out.’ … At first I was like, ‘It doesn’t make sense with the album,’ and then I kind of realized that there’s a lot of dual feelings to heartbreak and grieving and moving on, and it can happy and sad and confident and insecure. So yeah, that’s one of my favorites too.”
During the awards show, Carpenter presented the trophy for favorite music video alongside Dustin Lynch to Taylor Swift for All Too Well: The Short Film from Swift’s 2021 re-recording Red (Taylor’s Version).
Last month, the pop singer wrapped up a 12-date U.S. tour in support of her fifth studio album, which also contains “Skinny Dipping,” “Fast Times,” “Vicious” and “Because I Liked a Boy.” The LP as a whole peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard 200 upon its release, giving Carpenter the highest chart entry of her career.
Watch Carpenter break down her favorite songs on Emails I Can’t Send below.
The popular Arab-language music and content streaming service Anghami became the latest music company to cut staff as growing global economic uncertainty forces companies to cut costs in order to maintain profitability.
The Abu Dhabi-based company said in a statement last week (Nov. 15) that it was reducing full-time employee headcount by 22%, or roughly 39 employees.
“Given the impact of challenging macroeconomic conditions, we had to take some cost disciplinary measures to improve our bottom-line performance,” Eddy Maroun, Anghami’s chief executive and co-founder, said in a statement announcing the company’s third quarter earnings.
Several music companies have let go of staff or cut investment budgets in recent months as they prepare for a possible economic downturn. This summer, Spotify said it would cut hiring by 25%, SoundCloud laid off 20% of its staff and BMI said it was cutting just under 10% of its total workforce, through a combination of letting 30 people go and leaving certain jobs unfilled.
Launched in 2012, Anghami is the most popular streaming and content company focused on Arabic-language music, with about 58% of the Middle East’s market share and around 20 million active users, according to company filings.
Since going public on the NASDAQ in February, Anghami’s stock has declined by more than 73% to close at $2.70 on Monday. The company’s low stock price and growing investor interest in music companies based in the Middle East and Africa has fueled market chatter about the company’s future. Earlier this month, the German magazine Frankly reported that Spotify was considering buying Anghami.
In an email to Billboard, Maroun said the cuts were necessary as the company worked to reduce operating expenses and focus on profitability. Maroun declined to answer a question about whether the company was preparing for a possible sale.
In its third quarter earnings, Anghami reported that its revenues grew by 29% to $31.7 million, up from $24.5 million in the year-ago quarter. The company’s gross profit rose 13% in the quarter ending Sept. 30 from the year-ago period, helped by a reduction in cloud computing costs by 19% and a 15% increase in music traffic in the quarter.
Additional reporting by Alexei Barrionuevo
Journey guitarist Neal Schon is suing bandmate Jonathan Cain over allegations that he’s blocking access to “critical” financial records — the latest in a string of legal clashes among members of the iconic ’80s rock band.
In a lawsuit filed last month in California state court, Schon accused Cain — the only other core band member remaining from Journey’s heyday — of refusing to give him access to records from an American Express account, through which he claims that “millions in Journey funds have flowed.”
As fifty-fifty co-owners of the band’s corporate entity, Schon says each of them has a right to inspect all financial records, but claims that Cain has “improperly restricted and blocked” him from seeing the Amex records for months.
“This action is brought to turn the lights on, so to speak, and obtain critical financial information Schon has been trying to obtain but has been denied,” his lawyers wrote in an Oct. 31 complaint. “Schon has tried to avoid legal action, repeatedly requesting that Cain grant him access to the AMEX account [but] Cain has not been forthcoming and cooperative, making this action necessary.”
The case is hardly the first legal battle among Journey members.
Back in 2020, Schon and Cain filed a lawsuit against former drummer Steven Smith and former bassist Ross Valory, accusing them of engaging in an “attempted corporate coup d’état” to improperly use the Journey band name. That case ended last year with an “amicable settlement” that saw Smith and Valory depart the band.
And in September, former lead singer Steve Perry took legal action to stop Schon and Cain from registering federal trademarks on the names of many of the band’s biggest hits, including “Anyway You Want It” and “Wheel In The Sky.” Perry, who left Journey in 1998, says his ex-mates cannot unilaterally use the song names because the trio signed a partnership agreement requiring unanimous consent. The case remains pending.
Unlike the earlier cases, the new lawsuit over the Amex account pits Schon and Cain against one another. Schon says each of them should have “unfettered access” to all financial records, but that Cain “set up the account so that only he is authorized to access the records and information.”
And from the wording of the complaint, it sounds like Schon’s gripes potentially go deeper than a single credit card.
“Cain is interfering with Journey, refusing to respond to booking opportunities, blocking payment to band members, crew, and vendors, refusing to execute necessary operating documents, and in other ways as well,” Schon’s lawyers wrote. “Cain has further refused to deal with critical, time-sensitive touring contracts for Journey’s 2023 tour and ensure payment for band members and crew, who Cain contends are ‘non-essential.’ Schon believes those band and crew who are crucial to the band’s success should be paid. Cain’s conduct is inexplicable.”
A rep for Cain did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday.
Read the entire complaint here:
In honor of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which kicks off Nov. 20, Billboard has reached out to Latin artists who are big fútbol fans to ask what the sport means to them. For our third installment, we spoke to Argentine rapper LIT Killah, who is ready to support La Selección Argentina during the tournament. Below, read LIT’s “What Fútbol Means to Me,” as told to Billboard.
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My connection to soccer traces back to when I was very little because my father was a fanatic about the sport and my brother was part of a soccer club. I never really caught on to it at such a young age but just being in my hood and seeing my friends play, by default I spent my entire childhood until my early teen years playing soccer.
When Argentina plays, we get together with friends and watch the game with no exceptions. I always like to watch the matches of the national team and support Argentina in any sport. Tomorrow, for example, my country plays at 7 a.m., and Emilia, Duki, FMK, and Rusher are coming to my house to watch the game. It’s great because it’s a time to share with friends. I feel that soccer transmits that.
Soccer for the Argentine means a lot. It is the strongest passion that 90% of Argentines have. In fact, there are foreigners who come to a game in Argentina and can’t believe it. The heart that people put into it, the fact that the state of humor depends on football. If the game is lost, we go out to break things, we cry, and we are sad all week. The Argentine is very passionate.
The country is already happy about winning the 2021 Copa America, but I think that if Argentina wins the 2022 World Cup it would be the icing on the cake. There is a lot of expectation and enthusiasm due to the fact that it’s Lionel Messi’s last World Cup. With that pressure and that desire of the people to see him win a World Cup, I think we would have the country happy for the rest of our lives.
After unsuccessfully running for president in 2020, Kanye West is giving it another go in 2024.
The rapper confirmed his upcoming campaign to paparazzi over the weekend, according to Consequence of Sound. “Yes… It’s simple…. It’s just we’re moving toward the future,” he said when asked if he’s running.
Additionally, Ye revealed that alt-right political figure Milo Yiannopoulos “is working on the campaign.” Yiannopoulos, a former Breitbart senior editor, most recently worked as an intern for Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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West and Yiannopoulos have yet to post on their social medias about their political relationship.
On July 4, 2020, the rapper announced the launch of his long-shot presidential campaign under the “Birthday Party” banner. After registering for the party late, making only one major campaign appearance to go with two last-minute video ads, he only got on the ballot in 12 states — leading to only 70,000 votes total.
It’s been a particularly controversial year for West, full of antisemitic rants, violent rhetoric against Kim Kardashian’s ex-boyfriend Pete Davidson, and promoting a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt while premiering his Yeezy line at Paris Fashion Week.
Ye also threw repeated racial slurs at Daily Show host Trevor Noah, criticized comedian D.L. Hughley’s style and slammed Kid Cudi for being friends with Davidson. The posts have all since been deleted.
Miley Cyrus will ring in 2023 with Dolly Parton by her side for NBC’s annual New Year’s Eve special.
The pop star broke the news with a cute Instagram post, her arms wrapped around her famous godmother over the caption, “#NewYearNewCohost @dollyparton.” In the photo, Cyrus wears a sleek navy blue cocktail dress with her blond tresses parted in the middle while Parton stuns in a metallic gold dress of her own.
NBC also shared a fun promotional video of Cyrus and Parton on the network’s official Instagram page, in which the former states, “Miley’s New Year’s Eve party is about getting glamorous and dressing your best.”
“Well, we do that every day — don’t we, Miley?” Parton chimes in, to which her goddaughter replies, “You taught me well” before their duet version of “Jolene” kicks in.
Set to air Dec. 31 live from Miami, the sophomore outing of Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party will mark the second straight year Cyrus has lorded over NBC’s year-end festivities. Last year, she co-hosted the special alongside Pete Davidson with performances by Anitta, Billie Joe Armstrong, Jack Harlow, Brandi Carlile, Saweetie, 24kGoldn and more.
For her part, Parton will be coming off having been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame‘s Class of 2022 as well as receiving an award from $100 million from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to distribute to the charities and causes of her choice.
Get a first look at Cyrus and Parton as New Year’s Eve co-hosts below.
BERLIN – Subscription streaming services have ushered in a recorded music business boom, but the medium’s focus on hit singles has boosted genres like hip-hop and Latin more than some others. Starting today, Universal Music Group’s Deutsche Grammophon is offering its own service, Stage+, which will offer music from its own archive and that of sibling label Decca Records, plus video programming and a new live performance every week — at a cost of $14.90, or €14.90, a month.
Universal Music has no plans to remove its classical recordings from mainstream music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. Rather, the idea is to offer a specialist service that can appeal to classical music fans and create a more favorable business structure for a genre that hasn’t been well-served by mainstream services. Since many artists and orchestras record some of the same compositions, it can be difficult for aficionados to find the recording they’re looking for — and the mainstream streaming services tend to curate music for a general audience.
“There’s the urge of consumers and artists to have everything in one place, with all the right data,” says Deutsche Grammophon president Dr. Clemens Trautmann. “You can punch in a work or a recording or an artist and you’ll see the next livestream, the archive, the albums, and if there’s a documentary, behind-the-scenes footage or interviews.”
So far, no big label has managed to build its own streaming service, and it’s hard to know how many consumers will be interested in one that only offers certain recordings. But Deutsche Grammophon, with its iconic yellow logo, has culturally significant repertoire going back more than a century, as well as significant stars like Lang Lang, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Max Richter. It also has enough brand equity to get streaming rights to major live events, and its first streamed performance will be Víkingur Ólafsson’s presentation of his album From Afar in the Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík, Iceland. (Some of the live performances featured on Stage+ will be time-delayed for various reasons.)
For Universal Music, Stage+ also offers business advantages. The price is higher than the current cost of mainstream services, although it includes high-fidelity audio as well as livestreamed events. The core classical repertoire is in the public domain, which means it will not have to pay publishing royalties on about three-quarters of the music it streams. The service can also operate in a way that makes sense for the genre, and it plans to divide up the royalty pool according to the time consumers spend listening to certain recordings, rather than paying a royalty on each track, which advantages shorter songs in a way that’s arguably unfair to genres with varied or longer track lengths, like jazz and classical music.
Stage+ faces competition — from livestreaming video services like Medici TV and Carnegie Hall+ on one hand and specialist streaming services like Berlin-based classical-focused Idagio on the other. And since so many households in the U.S. and Europe now subscribe to a mainstream streaming service, in many cases Stage+ will need to have enough appeal to succeed as a second service. Apple also seems to have plans that involve a classical music service; last summer it purchased the streaming service Primephonic, whose website says, “We are working on an amazing new classical music experience from Apple for next year.” (Apple did not respond to a request to comment.)
Trautmann says that Stage+ grew out of DG Stage, which was established during the pandemic and offered ticketed livestreams of performances by Deutsche Grammophon artists. A little over a year and a half ago, he started working to develop the service with Deutsche Grammophon vp of consumer business, Robert Zimmermann, under Frank Briegmann, Universal Music chairman and CEO, Central Europe, who also serves as chairman of Deutsche Grammophon.
“DG Stage is simple and very effective, but we realized that the artist community and consumers were looking for a service where everything our artists create can be presented holistically in one place and audiences can follow their journey,” says Trautmann, who is himself a Julliard-trained musician who plays classical clarinet.
It’s hard to imagine that Stage+ will ever have enough subscribers to rival the mainstream players, but its premium price could potentially allow it to make money with a number of subscribers in the low six figures. It also offers an interesting model for genres that don’t fare as well in the streaming world as pop music — especially if they have fans who can afford a premium price.
And although no major label currently runs a streaming service, there’s no reason that Stage+ couldn’t also offer music from other labels or rightsholders — and it could potentially offer them better deal terms as a more appealing cultural and commercial environment than Spotify and Apple Music. “We’d be open to enlarge the content offering, provided it’s the right match for our curated approach,” Trautmann says, although there are no immediate plans to do so. “It might be better coming from potential partners instead of us.”
Looking to grow its share of the fast-developing Middle East music market, Warner Music Group has signed Saudi singer Dalia Mubarak, one of the country’s biggest female stars and a leading voice among a new generation of progressive Arabic artists.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The signing — Warner Music’s first Saudi artist signing since it began investing in the Middle East region about four years ago — caps a breakthrough year for 31-year-old Mubarak, who earlier this month won Best Saudi Arabian Artist at the Distinctive International Arab Festivals Awards (DIAFA) in Dubai and was featured this summer on the cover of Vogue Arabia.
Since releasing her debut single, “Turn The Table,” in 2014, the singer’s career has flourished in line with the gradual opening up of Saudi society following the appointment of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, making him the de facto ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state. His reforms have helped modernize the country of 35 million people, where, up until a few years ago, concerts were banned and ultraconservative norms prevailed, including the segregation of unmarried men and women in public spaces.
Historically rife with piracy, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) market nearly doubled between 2019 and 2021, and it was the fastest-growing region in the world last year, with recorded music revenues up 35% to $89.5 million, according to IFPI. More than 95% of MENA revenues came from streaming, helping draw the interest of major record companies, which are increasingly looking to emerging markets to find new talent and, in turn, extend their labels’ global reach. MENA’s potential is vast, with a total population of about 430 million people, of which 55% are under the age of 30, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The Mubarak signing follows a series of investments and acquisitions Warner Music has made recently in the Gulf region. Last year, the company acquired a minority stake — reportedly worth around $200 million — in Rotana Music, the Arab world’s leading independent record label, which is part of Rotana Group, owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal.
In March, Warner completed the acquisition of Qanawat Music, a leading distributor across the Middle East and North Africa. WMG put roots down in the region in 2018 when it created Warner Music Middle East and opened an office in Beirut, Lebanon.
Mubarak, who mostly sings in Arabic and has previously released music on Rotana, says she fulfilled a childhood dream by signing with Warner Music because of the opportunities and exposure it provides not just in her home country, but internationally as well.
“Everyone is now looking to what’s going on in Saudi Arabia, how it’s changed, and I want to be part of that change and show the world that we have good artists,” Mubarak tells Billboard. “I want to be the bridge [between Saudi Arabia] and the international world.”
Mubarak’s music mixes contemporary R&B and Western-style pop with traditional Khaleeji music, incorporating Arabic instruments like duff drums and mirwas. She says the music, which promotes positive messages of female empowerment, reflects the progressive changes that have occurred in her home country.
The singer has built a large following in Saudi Arabia and the wider Arab diaspora with total YouTube views surpassing 350 million, according to Billboard’s calculations (subscribers to her official YouTube channel stand at just over 600,000). Her most popular song is 2020’s “Elly Yemshy 3ady,” which was the artist’s first single sung in the Egyptian dialect; it has generated more than 66 million views on YouTube.
The singer has just under 700,000 followers on Anghami, the most popular music streaming service in the Middle East with around 20 million active users, according to company filings. (Warner was unable to provide comprehensive streaming numbers for Mubarak.)
Mubarak has also performed at many of Saudi Arabia’s biggest music festivals, including 2019’s Jeddah World Fest, where she joined DJ Steve Aoki onstage at the event’s close. (The festival also featured performances from Janet Jackson, 50 Cent and Chris Brown, and saw Nicki Minaj make international headlines when she pulled out of a scheduled appearance in protest against the Kingdom’s treatment of women.)
Dalia Mubarak with Max Lousada and Simon Robson, Warner Music UK, Nov 2022.
Warner Music
Max Lousada, CEO of Warner Recorded Music, calls Mubarak a “trailblazer for change,” saying in a press release that she symbolizes “a new generation of female artists from the country who are rewriting the rules and winning fans across the region and beyond.”
The singer, who has an American husband, divides her time between the Saudi capital city Riyadh and Dubai. “Other singers in the past were not as lucky to have this freedom and these opportunities that I’m now grateful for,” she says.
Alfonso Perez-Soto, Warner Recorded Music’s president of emerging markets, tells Billboard that the label intends for Mubarak to be the first of many artists Warner signs from the MENA region as part of its overall long-term strategy. Previously, WMG’s focus has been on establishing itself in the region, “building the access to catalogs and distribution and gaining resources” so it is fully equipped to provide “the best tools” to help break and build lasting careers for Arabic artists like Mubarak.
Perez-Soto says the best of Warner Music’s worldwide resources are being made available to help Mubarak establish an international career. That includes teaming the artist up with English producers and songwriters for a short run of demo recording sessions in London earlier this month.
The plan, says Perez-Soto, is that they will “create product and songs that will be appealing to the Western market,” as well as cater to Mubarak’s existing local fanbase by drawing on the Middle East’s rich cultural heritage. Going forward, releases will vary between English-language songs and Arabic-focused repertoire.
Perez-Soto says he hopes giving Saudi artists like Mubarak a global platform will help bring about further change in a country that, while rapidly developing, still draws widespread condemnation for human rights abuses, including a ban on political protest and discrimination against women and marginalized groups.
“The situation is nowhere near close to perfect, but the country is making a very sincere effort [to change] in the right direction and we have to be part of enabling that effort and help that to happen,” says the Miami-based executive.
“There is no hate in music,” says Mubarak. “Music is something beautiful and it creates peace and hopefully we’re going to be part of that.” She wants to inspire other females in the Arab States, including her two young daughters, to follow in her footsteps. “I hope to be their voice,” she says, “to motivate them and make their dreams happen.”
