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01 Nov 2022

Migos’ Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits

The late Takeoff, who died on Tuesday (Nov. 1), at age 28, shaped an entire chapter and sound of hip-hop as one-third of the rap group Migos. The rapper, born Kirshnik Ball, formed the trio near Atlanta with Offset, his cousin, and Quavo, his uncle, and began recording in the early 2010s. Migos made its first Billboard chart appearance in July 2013, as “Versace” debuted on a handful of sales and airplay charts. From there, the trio established itself as one of hip-hop’s most popular acts, with multiple top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 — Culture in 2017 and its follow-up, Culture II — the next year.

Though Migos was on an “indefinite hiatus,” per Rolling Stone in an October interview, Takeoff and Quavo teamed up for a 2022 album, Only Built for Infinity Links, released Oct. 7. The set became yet another top 10 success on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 7, and debuted at No. 1 on the Top Rap Albums list.

As fans and his fellow musicians mourn the rapper, let’s recap Takeoff’s impact through a countdown of his biggest hits on the Billboard Hot 100, both as a solo act and member of Migos.

Song Rank, Title, Artist (if other than only Migos), Peak Position, Peak Date

20. “Notice Me,” featuring Post Malone, No. 52, Feb. 10, 2011

19. “Bon Appetit,” Katy Perry featuring Migos, No. 59, June 3, 2017

18. “Handsome and Wealthy,” No. 79, Nov. 8, 2014

17. “Key to the Streets,” YFN Lucci featuring Migos & Trouble, No. 70, Nov. 5, 2016

16. “Having Our Way,” featuring Drake, No. 15, June 26, 2021

15. “Need It,” featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again, No. 62, June 6, 2020

14. “Hotel Lobby (Unc & Phew),” Quavo & Takeoff, No. 59, June 4, 2022

13. “Fight Night,” No. 69, Sept. 6, 2014

12. “Narcos,” No. 36, Feb. 10, 2018

11. “Drip,” Cardi B featuring Migos, No. 21, April 21, 2018

10. “Straightenin,” No. 23, June 26, 2021

9. “Slippery,” featuring Gucci Mane, No. 29, July 22, 2017

8. “Slide,” Calvin Harris featuring Frank Ocean & Migos, No. 25, June 3, 2017

7. “Pure Water,” with Mustard, No. 23, May 4, 2019

6. “T-Shirt,” No. 19, Feb. 18, 2017

5. “Walk It Talk It,” featuring Drake, No. 10, Aug. 14, 2018

4. “I Get the Bag,” Gucci Mane featuring Migos, No. 11, Nov. 4, 2017

3. “Stir Fry,” No. 8, Feb. 17, 2018

2. “Motorsport,” with Nicki Minaj & Cardi B, No. 6, Dec. 30, 201

  1. “Bad and Boujee,” featuring Lil Uzi Vert, No. 1 (three weeks), Jan. 21, 2017

Migos’ Top 20 Billboard Hot 100 hits chart is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 through Nov. 5, 2022. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, certain eras are weighted to account for different chart turnover rates over various periods.

01 Nov 2022

Huey Lewis and the News Catalog Sells to Primary Wave in $20M Deal

Primary Wave Music has partnered with Huey Lewis and the News to purchase ownership of all Lewis and the band members’ shares of their musical composition copyrights, including writers’ shares of income. With a $20 million price tag, according to a source close to the deal, this encompasses their full discography from the group’s self-titled debut album up to 1994’s Four Chords & Several Years Ago.

This time period, spanning about 25 years, was the band’s most fruitful run, including hits like “Hip to Be Square,” “The Power of Love,” “If This Is It,” “Workin’ for a Living” and “The Heart of Rock and Roll.” The band’s landmark third album, the 7x-platinum Sports, turns 40 next year.

With a catalog that helped define 1980s rock n’ roll, Huey Lewis and The News’ likely best-known single to date is “The Power of Love” which was written for the Back to the Future soundtrack. After peaking at No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart, it earned the band nominations for a Grammy, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.

Along with the transfer of ownership of the aforementioned catalog, Primary Wave will provide Huey Lewis and The News with marketing and publishing administration. This also includes digital strategy, licensing, synch opportunities and film & TV production.

The deal follows up the announcement that Primary Wave has received $1.7 billion from the Canadian investment company Brookfield Asset Management, Inc. to fund song catalog acquisitions as well as the announcements of over $300 million worth of other deals in 2022 so far, including the purchase of music and/or estate rights from members of Def Leppard, Alice in Chains, America, The Strokes, Prince, and more.

Outside of the discography included in the catalog agreement, Huey and the band continued on into the 21st century, releasing lesser known albums like Plan B (2001) and their Stax Records tribute, Soulsville (2010). By 2018, Lewis announced that he was losing his hearing due to a battle with Ménière’s, an inner ear disease, but he brought the crew together for their 2020 comeback record, Weather.

Primary Wave Music’s David Weitzman says of the deal, “In the 1980’s, everyone heard Huey Lewis and the News’s many smashes on radio and saw their iconic & fun videos which appeared on MTV in endless rotation. Their incredibly crafted songs still made me smile, remind me of that seemingly more innocent era, and make me want to sing along at the top of your lungs. Primary Wave look forward to working with Huey to create new opportunities for his storied song catalog into the future.”

John Luneau, senior counsel for Primary Wave, added “We’re honored to welcome the music of Huey Lewis and the News to Primary Wave. Our entire team is looking forward to working with them to generate new and exciting opportunities for their iconic catalog.”

01 Nov 2022

Billie Eilish Shares First Couple Pic With Jesse Rutherford

Instagram official! Billie Eilish took to social media on Tuesday (Nov. 1) to share her first photo as a couple with rumored love Jesse Rutherford amid her Halloween celebrations.

The pop star tucked a snapshot with the lead singer of The Neighborhood at the end of a spooky slideshow captioned “life is craaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy…happy halloween” with a clown emoji followed by a jack-o-lantern and happy face surrounded by hearts.

In the snap, Eilish is dressed as a baby with her blonde hair framing her face in ringlets, while Rutherford transformed himself into an elderly man, possibly making reference to the pair’s 11-year age gap. (Eilish is 20, Rutherford is 31.)

In the comments, Eilish’s fans weren’t quite sure how to feel about her posting the photo of the couple, let alone the choice of costumes. “Honestly yikes on the last photo,” one wrote, with another commenting, “i know y’all see dat last pic.”

Yet another wrote, “SO WE POSTING JESSE NOW??” with a concerned emoji face.

Rutherford — who also appears in another video in the carousel dressed as a clown — wasn’t the only famous face to pop up in Eilish’s post. She also spent part of her spooky season hanging out with Dylan Minnette of Wallows, who’s dressed in a simple pumpkin costume in a separate snap.

On Nov. 8, Eilish will take part in the 2022 #iVoted Festival, with the Election Day webcast also featuring performances by Run the Jewels, CNCO, Rise Against, The Revivalists, OK Go, Lake Street Dive and more than 400 other artists

Click through Eilish’s Halloween post for a look at her costume with Rutherford below.

01 Nov 2022

Makin’ Tracks: Maren Morris Turns a Spat Into an Upbeat Single With ‘I Can’t Love You Anymore’

Maren Morris’ Humble Quest, currently nominated for the Country Music Association’s album of the year, is full of plot lines and small details that emanate directly from her life, her friendships and her marriage to fellow artist Ryan Hurd.

First single “Circles Around This Town” is an autobiographical recap of her ascent in Nashville’s music community, “Nervous” reveals psychosexual passion and sensitivity, and a handful of songs — “Background Music,” the title track and closer “What Would This World?” — grapple collectively with the meaning of life in all its temporal, elusive mystery.

“I definitely made some personal choices on this record, particularly that I was more vulnerable than I maybe had been previously,” Morris says. “Maybe it’s just time and a little bit more wisdom, but I definitely feel like I allowed myself to share a little bit more behind the curtain.”

The project’s second single, “I Can’t Love You Anymore,” is a breezy celebration of making up. Heard on its own merits separate from Humble Quest, that might not be entirely evident — it references hard times and conflict, but there’s no sense that any sort of bitterness might have been in the mix when Morris and Hurd wrote it in January 2021.

But, in fact, the cheeriness in the three-minute jaunt reflects a post-tiff rebound while they visited the Hawaiian home of co-writer/producer Greg Kurstin (Adele, Kelly Clarkson).

“Ryan and I were bickering about something — I can’t even remember what, it was so stupid,” she says. “But we were kind of arguing that morning, and then going into the write, Ryan threw that title out and it just sort of lightened the mood: ‘I can’t love you any more than I do now.’ So the song ended up becoming couples therapy for us.”

That little window in a relationship, when the cloud of negativity has lifted after a spat and the couple reasserts its commitment, is one of the joys in the process, and the positivity of the moment is reflected in both the song’s effortlessly happy melody and its unencumbered lyrics. Morris, Hurd and Kurstin wrote the chorus first, turning out an easy singalong by repeating the I-can’t-love-you-anymore hook six times in a row.

“It’s a very simple one, and yet repetitive,” she says of the chorus. “It just felt good to sing the same hook over and over again. But then I felt like for the verses — because the chorus, lyrically, was so simple, I wanted to really get colorful with the language on the verses. So that’s why there’s a lot of imagery and opposites. And we could really get a little more edgy with the verse.”

That aspect starts right at the song’s opening as she kicks it off with an unlikely rhyme scheme: “Shoulda known what I was gettin’ in/Fallin’ for a boy from Michigan.” It identifies up front that she’s singing about Hurd, who spent his formative years in Kalamazoo. 

A follow-up thought, “You like drivin’ to Texas/ You put up with all my exes,” similarly pinpoints Morris’ roots in Arlington, though her exes inhabit their marriage because of her and Hurd’s occupations — not because she keeps them in her day-to-day orbit.

“They’re not in my life, but they are in my songs,” she says with a laugh. “It’s part and parcel of being married to a songwriter who’s had a past. You do have these relationships internalized in songs. I have songs about previous relationships, and so does he. It’s just something we accept about each other. 

“But honestly, I was going for the rhyme, and it felt like a cool ode to George Strait. ‘Texas’ and ‘exes’ just go together so perfectly.”

Verse two took some additional edgy steps. Morris sings about the times “when I’ve been a bitch” (the single version blanks out the profanity), and it closes with her singing, “You’re so good-lookin’, it kinda makes me sick” — it’s amusing to consider Hurd helping write a song that lets his wife cast him as a sex symbol.

“We just don’t get awkward anymore,” she says. “I think because we’ve written so many songs together, we’ve been able to tap into this very intimate role with each other in the room and not feel cringey.”

Following the second chorus, they opted for a vocal interlude that ultimately featured Morris in triple harmony with herself, in a spot that would typically support a guitar solo. Appropriate for a song about a rebounding relationship moment, the final verse has Morris self-effacingly calling herself “an acquired taste,” while looking forward to many more years of bliss… and occasional bickering.

“I think that it takes a very strong person to be with someone like me or, really, any artist,” she says. “Maybe it’s my Texas upbringing, but I’m very stubborn and like things done my way. Being in a relationship takes a lot of balance and compromise, which I’ve learned the hard way.”

Kurstin attended to the musical track as the writing session progressed, laying down a light drum foundation and strummed acoustic guitar playing four basic country chords. When the song was completed and the visit to Hawaii was over, Kurstin continued building the instrumental support at his No Expectations Studio in California. Morris, meanwhile, had time to live with the recording from the writing session and wanted to lean heavily on the country component. Kurstin brought in Rich Hinman to overdub steel guitar in L.A., and he captured Bennett Lewis (of Morris’ road band) on Dobro during additional overdubs at Sheryl’s Barn, the recording studio owned by Sheryl Crow in Tennessee.

Morris ultimately decided the chorus was too repetitive and rewrote the fourth and fifth occurrences when she did her final vocal at the studio, nailing it in a single take. Hurd applied harmony to the choruses, underscoring their relationship’s centrality in the narrative. “I wanted it to feel like we were facing each other and just singing it at each other,” she says. 

Columbia Nashville released “I Can’t Love You Anymore” to country radio via PlayMPE on Sept. 13. It has slipped on and off Country Airplay a couple of times while it finds its initial footing, but it ultimately feels well-timed for a fan base that craves authenticity but also could use an emotional break.

“I truly listened to my fans’ reaction to what could be potential singles,” Morris says. “It just felt like people don’t want to stew in depressing, heavy shit right now. They want to hum something over and over again that just feels good. We’ve faced heavy truths plenty. So let’s just dance.” 

01 Nov 2022

How a 95-Year-Old Grandmother Nabbed a Latin Grammy Best New Artist Nomination

What began as a grandson’s personal mission to preserve his Nana’s unpublished musical legacy turned into a passion project that led to an album, a documentary, a role in a Hollywood movie, and ultimately, a Latin Grammy nomination for best new artist.

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At 95, Angela Alvarez is fulfilling a lifelong dream that began in her native Cuba, where she learned to sing and play the piano early on, and later took on the guitar and started writing her own songs.

“I loved music very much,” Alvarez tells Billboard Español in a video-call from her home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana — where the work of her husband, a mechanical engineer in the sugar industry, took her decades ago. “When I was a child, I had two aunts that played the piano and taught me how to sing. Whenever there was a family gathering, I was the artist; they made dresses for me and I always liked to perform.”

It’s something that kept growing with her. So when she was about to graduate high school and her father asked her what she wanted to do next, she didn’t hesitate: “I want to be a singer.” Not finding that kind of life suitable for his only daughter, he said, “No. You sing for the family, but not for the world.”

“I loved him very much and I obeyed him — I did not insist,” Alvarez says with a sweet, infectious smile, not a hint of resentment in her voice. She decided to put her dreams on the back burner, eventually finding happiness in marriage and a family of her own. (Alvarez had four children and today is the grandmother of nine and the great-grandmother of about 15, she says beaming with pride.)

But music was always there for her, as it helped her cope with the ups and downs of life: from love and motherhood, to a months-long separation from her children after the Cuban Revolution triumph, when she was supposed to travel to the U.S. with them but was not allowed to board the plane; to her relentless efforts to reunite her family and the eventual loss of her beloved husband and, years later, of her only daughter — both to cancer.

“I think that music is the language of the soul,” says Alvarez, who estimates that she has written around 50 songs, including “Romper el Yugo” (Break the Chains,) “Añoranzas” (Yearnings,) “Mi Gran Amor” (My Great Love”) and “Camino Sin Rumbo” (I Wonder Aimlessly,) all included in her 15-track, self-titled debut album, independently released (via Nana Album LLC) in June, 2021.

“If I could break the chains that imprison you with such great might / How happy I would be, I would sing a hymn of peace,” she sings to Cuba, in Spanish, in the 1969 Afro Cuban tune “Romper el Yugo”.

“I wonder aimlessly, how sad it makes me / I wonder aimlessly finding nothing / I look for solace, I look for peace”, she cries in “Camino Sin Rumbo,” a Cuban Bolero-Son she wrote in 1978 after her husband’s passing.

Angela Alvarez, Carlos Jose Alvarez

Angela Alvarez & Carlos José Alvarez

Bryony Shearmur

Listening to many of these songs while growing up was especially impactful on her grandson Carlos José Alvarez, a professional musician based in Los Angeles who attributes his love of music largely to his Nana, as her grandchildren call her. As Angela was getting on in years without ever recording any of her work, he had an “epiphany” that made him fly quickly to Louisiana to document each and every one of her songs, for “the legacy of our family.”

“I didn’t know there were so many, I had no idea,” Carlos recalls on the same video call, laughing as he recounts the conversation he had with his grandmother about finally recording those songs. “When I got back to L.A., that’s when it clicked. I called her up and I said, ‘Nana, do you want to do this?’ First she said, ‘¡Yo no voy para Los Ángeles! ¿Pa’ qué?’ (‘I’m not going to Los Angeles! For what?’) And I say, ‘To record your album!’ And she’s like, ‘OK, I’m there!’”

But a few more years went by as he kept “waiting for the perfect moment” to undertake the project, while juggling family and work. Then, during a trip to Spain, a fire was lit under him by his close friend, producer Misha’al Al-Omar, who looked him in the eye and bluntly asked him: “Are you waiting for her to die? […] Whatever you need, let’s go do it.”

“I owe that man the credit for waking me up,” Carlos says of Al-Omar, also a producer on the album. “I got back from Spain, I called her, and I said ‘Nana, I’m already doing your arrangements. You’re coming to L.A. We’re doing this.’”

With his grandmother on board, he started calling musicians he knew to help bring the project to life. “These are friends of mine and people that I admire, the best of the best,” Carlos says of the professionals he recruited. “I play them her music and they just can’t believe it. They’re like, ‘We’re in!’ They were blown away. They were like, ‘These are her songs? These sound like classics, but I’ve never heard them before!’”

Angela Alvarez

Angela Alvarez

He also contacted Cuban-American actor and musician Andy Garcia, who was very impressed, and immediately on board. So much so, in fact, that he not only served as executive producer and narrator of a documentary on Alvarez, Miss Angela, but also invited her to appear in his Father of the Bride remake as Tía Pili (Aunt Pili), and to sing “Quiéreme Mucho” (Love Me a Lot) as part of the soundtrack.

“Her story just blew me away — she represents a generation, perhaps our greatest generation of Cubans,” Garcia says of Alvarez in Miss Angela. The quote comes as Garcia is introducing Alvarez before her concert at the historic Avalon in L.A — her first ever concert, on the day of her 91st birthday — where the actor also played the bongós with the band.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in finally making a teenage girl’s dream come true and welcome the star of tonight’s show singing her own songs, the extraordinarily talented and sublimely beautiful, Mrs. Angela Alvarez,” Garcia continues.

In a written statement, Al-Omar tells Billboard Español that working with Angela and Carlos was always a “labour of love” for everyone involved. “It was never about money, or recognition, dimensions that can really get in the way of doing things for ‘the right reason’. And the simplicity of that purpose made it a lot easier to stay focused on what’s important,” he noted.

As for how Angela Alvarez ended up with a nomination to the Latin Grammys in one of the most coveted categories, her grandson explains that it was Al-Omar’s idea. “He said, ‘You know how fitting and incredible it would be if she was nominated for best new artist at her age? You know the message that that would send to the world?’” Carlos recalls. “And we laughed about it! We sent it, and two days ago I was checking on my neighbor’s cat, and I’m standing there and I get text messages: ‘Congratulations!’ And I’m like, ‘For what!?’ And it hit me, based on the person who was writing, and I said ‘No way!’ […] It’s unimaginable”.

Angela couldn’t believe it either. “It was a very big but very beautiful surprise, and I thought afterwards that all my dreams came true. At 95, but that doesn’t matter,” she says, laughing.

Now both grandmother and grandson plan to attend the Latin Grammy celebrations in Las Vegas the third week of November — where Alvarez is scheduled to perform at the Best New Artists showcase on the 15th, and attend the awards ceremony on the 17th.

“I hope this entire project inspires young people to sit down and talk to their elders. Ask them questions. Ask them about the dreams they had once upon a time. They will be surprised at what they will find,” Carlos concludes. “If we don’t ask them, they won’t tell us, and their wisdom and dreams will leave with them.”

Angela Alvarez

Kimberly Yatsko

 

01 Nov 2022

Migos’ Takeoff: His Life in Photos

Takeoff, born Kirshnik Khari Ball, was shot and killed on Tuesday (Nov. 1) in Houston, Texas. According to a spokesperson from the Houston police department, Takeoff was at a private party at a bowling alley in downtown Houston when shots rang out around 2:35 a.m.

As one third of Migos (alongside his uncle Quavo and cousin Offset), the rapper was an influential force on the mic and on the charts for the last decade. Migos’ 2013 single “Versace” just scraped the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at No. 99) but set the tone for the next several years of hip-hop. By early 2017, the trio topped the Hot 100 with their Lil Uzi Vert collab “Bad and Boujee,” hailing from the group’s Billboard 200-topping album Culture. Overall, Migos has earned 9.39 million equivalent album units in the U.S. for their catalog of albums, per Luminate, and 14.09 billion on-demand official streams of their songs.

Takeoff himself netted 558,000 in equivalent album units for his solo albums, including the recent collab set with Quavo, this year’s Only Built for Infinity Links.

“There are so many artists,” Takeoff told Billboard in a 2017 Migos cover story. “You got to keep coming like bow! bow! bow!, making so much music that they wonder, ‘Who are the Migos?’ We play a beat for 15, 20 seconds and know if we want to get on it. When we record a verse, it’s no more than 15, 20 minutes. We don’t have a pen and paper. We bounce off each other.”

“I try not to be cocky,” Takeoff continued. “But hey, we the sh-t, man.”

01 Nov 2022

Here Are the Biggest Music NFTs in October: Probably A Label, Mike Shinoda & Alan Walker

Mainstream buzz around NFTs is fading, but the Web3 music space is quietly gaining momentum. Sales volume across the top 10 projects in October rose sharply for the second month running, largely driven by a high-profile drop from Warner Records’ new Web3 label and a new project featuring Linkin Park‘s Mike Shinoda.

Independent artists are also building strength, with primary sales doubling in October on Sound.xyz — the leading platform for independent drops — to a total of $200,000 according to Token Terminal. Meanwhile, last month saw a music project on the Solana blockchain enter the top 10 for the first time.

Total volume across the top 10 climbed 50% in October to reach 2,164 ETH. In dollar terms, the volume climbed 73%, hitting $3.38 million helped by the rising price of crypto. Based on analysis of sales data from 19 different NFT platforms, independent releases and secondary sales volume on OpenSea, here are the 10 biggest-selling music NFTs and collections in October 2022.

1/ Probably A Label
Monthly trading volume: 1,196.95 ETH ($1,873,226 at month-end conversion rate)
Primary sales (Oct.): 499.95 ETH
Secondary sales: 697 ETH
Drop date: Oct. 6

Probably A Label is the new Web3 imprint from Warner Music UK. It sold 5,555 NFT access passes at the start of October, minting out in seven minutes through an exclusive drop page on OpenSea. NFT holders will shape how the label is run, collaborate on the development of a virtual artist and even share IP rights in some future projects. “This is a vehicle for us to explore new ways of working as a label,” Sebastian Simone, vp of audience and strategy at Warner, tells Billboard. “We believe Web3 allows artists to create with more freedom and connect with fans on a much deeper level.”

The label is a joint venture with Probably Nothing, an established Web3 brand founded by former restaurateur Jeremy Fall. The team is now preparing the first airdrop for holders — a free music NFT featuring production from Diddy.

View the collection on OpenSea.

2/ SAN Origin
Monthly volume traded: 502 ETH ($785,630)
Primary sales (Oct.): N/A
Secondary sales: 502 ETH
Drop date: Sept. 16

SAN Sound is a project that aims to launch a Web3 music streaming service, using a “listen-to-earn” model where holders earn crypto tokens while streaming. It exploded to the top spot in September and remained strong in October through secondary sales.

Over the last month the project has encouraged holders to ‘soulbind’ their NFT — which ties it permanently to their wallet — allowing fans to access the streaming platform. Those that bind their NFT will also be eligible for a free airdrop of governance tokens enabling them to vote on how the platform develops.

View the collection on OpenSea.

3/ Secret Garden – “Wind Chime ft. Mike Shinoda”
Monthly volume traded: 153 ETH ($239,445)
Primary sales (Oct.): 114 ETH
Secondary sales: 39 ETH
Drop date: Oct. 12

Secret Garden is a unique beat making tool built on the Ethereum blockchain. Fans can interact with it by choosing which stems (drums, bass, synths) to activate until they find a beat they like. The project had some early success through collaborations with electronic producers Robotaki and Smle, but Secret Garden launched its biggest mint yet in October with Mike Shinoda.

Shinoda joined the project as an advisor and created the music stems for the latest Wind Chime collection. It sold 2,000 NFT players and went on to generate 39 ETH in secondary sales. Secret Garden is under the umbrella of the Capsule House NFT project which is among the most successful anime profile picture (PFP) projects founded by renowned digital artist Seerlight.

View the collection on OpenSea.

4/ KINGSHIP – “Keycards”
Monthly volume traded: 85 ETH ($133,025)
Primary sales (Oct.): N/A
Secondary sales: 85 ETH
Drop date: July 15

The Bored Ape Yacht Club band remains in the top 10 for the fourth month running due to strong secondary sales on OpenSea. In October, the project teased an upcoming airdrop where holders will get a free NFT or item sent to their wallet. Producers Hitboy and James Fauntleroy are still busy in the studio preparing music for the project.

View the collection on OpenSea.

5/ Blocktones
Monthly volume traded: 49 ETH ($76,685)
Primary sales (Oct.): N/A
Secondary sales: 49 ETH
Drop date: Sept. 16

Founded by Grammy-winning producer Gino the Ghost, Blocktones is a collection of 2,500 generative music NFTs. Each one was created using a random combination of music stems. One of the collection’s rarest NFTs, with production by Timbaland, sold for 5 ETH ($7,825) this month. The team also ran an experiment where holders could sign a non-exclusive license using their wallet to allow Blocktones to stream their NFTs on a YouTube radio channel. Holders were sent $10 back as a royalty straight to their wallet.

View the collection on OpenSea.

6/ Alan Walker & Ava Max – “Alone Pt. II”
Monthly volume traded: 46.6 ETH ($72,929)
Primary sales (Oct.): 35 ETH
Secondary sales: ~11.6 ETH
Drop date: Oct. 20

“Alone Pt. II” is among the biggest dance tracks in the world with almost 500 million streams on Spotify. Now, fans can own a small piece of the future streaming royalties. This is the third drop launched on rising platform Anotherblock.

The company typically partners with a songwriter or producer to unlock a small percentage of a song’s streaming rights. In this case, the ownership share comes from The Very Good — the publishing company behind many of Sweden’s biggest songwriters. “The Alone Pt. II” drop offered 500 editions, each granting 0.001% of future streaming royalties.

View the collection on OpenSea.

7/ Daniel Allan – “Glass House Remixes”
Monthly volume traded: 35.02 ETH ($54,806)
Primary sales (Oct.): 9.9 ETH
Secondary sales: 25.12 ETH
Drop date: Oct. 20

Independent artist Daniel Allan first appeared on this list back in July with his landmark Glass House collection. Now he returns with the remix package. Allan dropped four remixes from the Glass House EP via Sound.xyz’s new protocol — allowing him to host the drop on his own website and Sound.xyz simultaneously — making almost 10 ETH in primary sales. He also generated a flurry of secondary sales on this collection and his back catalog through October.

View the collection on OpenSea.

8/ Oshi – “U&I” and “Fight For This”
Monthly volume traded: 27.84 ETH ($43,569)
Primary sales (Oct.): 10.54 ETH
Secondary sales: 17.3 ETH
Drop date: Oct. 6

Independent artist Oshi has been at the heart of the Web3 music scene since 2020. He was also the first artist to release an NFT on Sound.xyz when it launched in 2021. In October, he dropped two new tracks, generating more than 10 ETH in primary sales. Secondary activity also picked up with around 17 ETH traded on OpenSea and Sound.xyz’s newly-launched marketplace.

View the collection on OpenSea.

9/ Kids of the Apocalypse – Noise Genesis
Monthly volume traded: 1,283 SOL ($41,825)
Primary sales (Oct.): Free mint
Secondary sales: 1,283 SOL
Drop date: Sept. 30

Kids of the Apocalypse (KOTA) is the first music project on the Solana (SOL) blockchain to make the monthly top 10. It’s an ambitious music project with a dystopian graphic-novel storyline which has been in development for several years, before Web3 was a popular concept. The 666 genesis NFTs grant holders access to the KOTA community and will act as a key for all future music drops.

The project was founded by Stefan Storm, a Swedish producer whose credits include Lady Gaga and Tiesto, and Derek Davies — the founder of Neon Gold Records. The NOISE Genesis project was free to mint but quickly generated more than 1,000 Sol in secondary trading volume.

View the collection on OpenSea.

10/ Chillrx
Monthly volume traded: 21 ETH ($32,865)
Primary sales (Oct.): N/A
Secondary sales: 21 ETH
Drop date: Sept. 16

Founded by Grammy-nominated producer Sidney Swift, Chillrx is a community record label where holders of the 10,000 NFTs get to participate in label decisions. The big goal, according to Swift, is to “win a mf-ing Grammy” as a community, via the label’s virtual artist called ChillPill. In October, Chillrx launched a new ‘staking’ feature. Holders can lock up their NFT (so that it cannot be sold). In exchange, they receive a loyalty token $CHILL which they can use to buy exclusive songs and eventually get access to other NFTs. The Chillrx floor price doubled after staking went live and more than a quarter of all NFTs are currently staked.

View the collection on OpenSea.

Methodology: The chart was compiled using data from primary music NFT sales across 19 different NFT platforms, independent releases and secondary volume data from OpenSea. Data was captured between October 1 – October 31, 2022. Conversion rates from crypto to US dollars were calculated on September 30.

01 Nov 2022

See Metallica’s James Hetfield as ‘Stranger Things’ Eddie Munson for Halloween

Never change, James Hetfield. This Halloween, the Metallica frontman paid tribute to Stranger Things by dressing up as fan-favorite character Eddie Munson, whose performance of “Master of Puppets” in a season four episode sparked a renaissance for the band’s song earlier this year.

Hetfield debuted his 1980s-inspired outfit in an Instagram photo posted to Metallica’s official account, just a couple hours after Halloween ended. In the photo, the singer-guitarist does one of Eddie’s signature poses — two rock n’ roll hand-horns signs held to the top of his head, tongue sticking out — while dressed in a denim jacket, shaggy hair and a recreation of the “Hellfire Club” T-shirts worn by his group’s Dungeons & Dragons players in Stranger Things.

“Eddie Munson says Happy Halloween!” read the post’s caption.

Played by Game of Thrones actor Joseph Quinn, Eddie Munson captured the hearts of millions of Stranger Things fans when the character debuted this summer in the Netflix sci-fi series’ fourth chapter. One of his most beloved scenes came in the season’s finale, when Eddie whipped out his electric guitar and performed an epic cover of Metallica’s 1986 track “Master of Puppets” in an alternate dimension known on the show as the Upside Down, earning his long-awaited hero moment when the concert successfully distracted evil creatures from harming his friends.

After the episode premiered on Netflix in July, Metallica took to Instagram to praise Quinn and the show’s creators, The Duffer Brothers. “We were all stoked to see the final result and when we did we were totally blown away,” wrote the band, also comprised of Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo. “It’s so extremely well done.”

Following the song’s use in the show, “Master of Puppets” appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time, 36 years after the song was originally released. It reached a peak at No. 35 and also experienced a surge on streaming services, with daily on-demand U.S. audio streams growing nearly 400% in a matter of days.

See James Hetfield’s Eddie Munson Halloween costume below:

01 Nov 2022

Kanye West’s Donda Doves School Basketball Team Bounced From Tournament Over Rapper’s ‘Divisive’ Statements

The fallout from Kanye West‘s recent spate of antisemitic remarks has once again impacted the students at the rapper’s private Christian K-12 Donda Academy school. Atlanta’s historic HBCU Morehouse College announced on Monday (Oct. 31) that it was canceling a basketball tournament slated for Nov. 6 at the city’s Forbes Arena between the Donda Doves and The Skill Factory due to Ye’s “divisive and unproductive” statements.

“Throughout its history, Morehouse College, perhaps more than any other institution, has stood for social discourse which advances equity and healing, particularly in areas involving race, culture, and socio-economic disparities,” the university said in a statement. “We therefore cannot condone, in perception or implication, the recent divisive and unproductive statements by Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.”

This is the second event the Donda team has been kicked out of recently, coming on the heels of the squad being uninvited from the Dec. 11 Scholastic Play-By-Play Classics tourney in Louisville. West (who now goes by Ye) had his Instagram account restricted again on Monday following his latest reported violation of the platform’s policies. This 30-day lockdown comes after Instagram and Twitter both placed temporary restrictions on his social media accounts after he posted antisemitic comments earlier in October.

Billboard has not been able to reach a spokesperson for West. While Instagram parent company Meta did not specify what caused West to be locked out again, the move came as Ye continued to amplify hateful antisemitic tropes in a series of interviews and social media posts, actions that have resulted in many of the former partners in his once-sprawling fashion and music empire cutting ties with the rapper.

Ye appeared to react to the news that the Donda Academy has shut its doors on Sunday by sharing a graphic photo of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black teen who was tortured and lynched after being accused of offending a white woman in 1955. He also posted a series of photos of Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, who wrote in an op-ed for the Financial Times last week that West’s business partners, including companies that profit off his music — such as Apple, Spotify, Adidas and his touring partners — should stop working with the star.

“Can you find a place for the Donda Academy kids to go to school that’s properly zoned for a school? I got about 60 children that have no place to be as they look to transfer,” West wrote in an Instagram caption on Sunday before his account’s restriction. He also referenced the Donda basketball team’s freeze-out, writing, “They tried to dismantle our basketball team. Those boys are being penalized without reason. Even professional athletes were threatened by their owners to disassociate.”

See the Morehouse statement below.

01 Nov 2022

John Legend Has to Choose Between 3 of His Most Talented Contestants in ‘The Voice’ Knockouts: Exclusive

The Voice is doing three-way knockouts for the first time this season, and on Tuesday night (Nov. 1), three of John Legend‘s best team members went head-to-head-to-head for a spot in the competition’s next round.

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First up, Ian Harrison took views down a more alternative route with a smooth rendition of Young the Giant‘s “Cough Syrup,” before Omar Jose Cardona took on Imagine Dragons‘ “Radioactive,” which led to a standing ovation from Legend and fellow coach Camila Cabello. Morgan Taylor wrapped things up with a fresh, feminine take on the James Brown classic, “I Got You (I Feel Good).”

“You got a problem now, don’t you?” Blake Shelton told Legend after the three impressive performances.

The “All of Me” singer then began to address his contestants directly. “Ian, you sound like you should be making alternative records. No question,” he told Harrison. “But when you perform live, you need to make sure people feel it, not just vocally but physically. I think that’s the only thing that’s missing.”

Legend then told Taylor, “You started to open people’s eyes to how amazing you can be, and that’s exciting. You just nailed it, it was so good.”

Lastly, he gushed over Cardona’s performance, telling the singer, “You were building the performance and holding back in the right moments and then unleashing the dragon when necessary. You just built a journey in that short time.”

Fans will have to wait until the episode tonight to see who wins the knockout round, but check out the performances exclusively on Billboard below. The Voice airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.