Billboard

28 Dec 2023

Weekly U.S. Vinyl Album Sales Surpass 2 Million for Only Third Time in Modern Era

U.S. vinyl album sales surged in the week ending Dec. 21, with 2.054 million copies sold, according to Luminate. That marks the largest week of 2023 for vinyl albums, and the third-largest week in the modern era — since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991.

The only two larger weeks registered since 1991 both came in the previous two years. The second-largest frame came in the week ending Dec. 23, 2021, with 2.115 million; while the biggest week is held by the frame ending Dec. 22, 2022, with 2.232 million.

Vinyl sales got a boost in the week ending Dec. 21, 2023 thanks to holiday shopping and sale pricing and promotions across retailers.

The top-selling vinyl album in the week ending Dec. 21 (as reflected on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart dated Dec. 30) was Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) with 57,000 copies sold. Swift had the top four-selling vinyl albums of the week, and six of the top seven. Midnights, Lover and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) are Nos. 2-4, while Folklore and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) are Nos. 6 and 7.

In total, in the week ending Dec. 21, 2023, Swift’s vinyl album sales across all of her albums added up to 194,000 — 9.5% of all vinyl albums sold by all artists in the U.S. that week.

There is one more week in Luminate’s tracking year for 2023 — the week of Dec. 22-28. As that week contains three shopping days before the Christmas Day holiday on Dec. 23, there could be some sizable vinyl sales that come in before the close of the year.

27 Dec 2023

Hot 100 First-Timers: Xavi Lands First Hot 100 Chart Entries With ‘La Diabla’ & ‘La Victima’

Xavi is officially a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist, thanks to the arrival of his two breakthrough singles, “La Diabla” and “La Victima.”

Both songs debut on the Dec. 30-dated Hot 100, at Nos. 76 and 91, respectively. The former enters with 8.9 million official U.S. streams and latter with 6.9 million in the Dec. 15-21 tracking week, according to Luminate.

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“La Diabla” and “La Victima” also reach new heights on the latest Hot Latin Songs chart. “La Diabla” jumps 16-4, while “La Victima” gains 8-7. Xavi also has two additional songs on the list: “Poco a Poco,” with Dareyes de La Sierra, rises 30-26 and “Modo DND,” with Tony Aguirre, ascends 34-30.

Recent gains for “La Diabla” and “La Victima” can partly be attributed to strong activity on TikTok. “La Diabla” has soundtracked over 500,000 clips on the platform, while “La Victima” has been used in over 70,000.

Xavi (real name: Joshua Xavier Gutierrez), 19, is a Mexican-American singer-songwriter from Arizona. He appeared on his first Billboard ranking in November, when “La Victima” debuted on the Hot Latin Songs chart. Outside of his hits on the Hot 100 and Hot Latin Songs, “La Diabla” soars 104-32 on the Billboard Global 200 and “La Victima” jumps 112-79.

“Honestly, I just can’t believe it,” Xavi told Billboard about his chart success earlier this month. “Looking at the artists and songs that are in the [Hot Latin Songs] top 10 makes me feel very honored and humbled. I’m also very grateful to the team and all the fans who have supported the song. I feel truly blessed.”

27 Dec 2023

Hot 100 First-Timers: Flo Milli Finds Her Way to the Chart With ‘Never Lose Me’

Flo Milli has been churning out chart entries for over three years, and now she’s officially a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist.

The rapper, from Mobile, Ala., debuts on the chart (dated Dec. 30) for the first time with “Never Lose Me,” released Nov. 30 via RCA Records. The song opens at No. 84 with 7 million official U.S. streams (up 21%) Dec. 15-21, according to Luminate. The gains can be partly attributed to a remix of the song featuring Lil Yachty, released Dec. 1. The song, which is slated to appear on Flo Milli’s forthcoming album, Fine Ho, Stay, samples Babyface Ray and 42 Dugg’s track “Ron Artest.”

TikTok has also been a contributing factor to the song’s growing popularity. A portion of the track’s original version has soundtracked over 135,000 clips on the platform to date. On the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart, the track ranks at No. 13.

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“Never Lose Me” concurrently jumps 22-17 on Rap Airplay and 26-21 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

Flo Milli appeared on her first Billboard chart dated Aug. 8, 2020, when Ho, Why Is You Here? debuted and peaked at No. 46 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and No. 78 on the Billboard 200.

She told Billboard that year, “I just always went after my heart and my passion, and I think that’s why a lot of people feel me, because I’m not afraid of anything.”

Earlier this year, Lah Pat’s “Rodeo,” featuring Flo Milli, reached No. 9 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, No. 11 on Rap Airplay, No. 14 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, and No. 25 on Rhythmic Airplay. It also peaked at No. 39 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs – her first entry on the chart.

In March, Flo Milli released her second LP, You Still Here, Ho?, which features cuts with Babyface Ray, Lola Brooke and Rico Nasty, among others. She has also served as a go-to collaborator for numerous artists, including $NOT, Baby Tate, BENEE, Big Boss Vette, GoldLink, Tay Money and Yung Bleu.

In 2022, Flo Milli performed at Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players celebration.

21 Dec 2023

Taylor Swift Has Half of the Week’s Top 10-Selling Albums, Again

Taylor Swift once again crowds the top 10 of Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart, as the superstar has five titles lodged in the top 10 of the Dec. 23-dated tally. It’s the fifth time she’s held at least half of the top 10, with three of those weeks happening this month.

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Her most recent release, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), is a non-mover at No. 2 with 65,000 copies sold (up 21%) in the tracking week ending Dec. 14, according to Luminate. Folklore rises 5-4 (24,000; up 17%), Midnights climbs 8-5 (24,000; up 29%), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) steps 7-6 (22,000; up 15%) and Lover returns to the top 10, ascending 12-8 (20,000; up 50%). The five former No. 1s all experience gains largely due to sales of their vinyl configurations, as retailers continue to promote music on vinyl during the holiday shopping season.

Swift isn’t the only big news in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, as Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 debuts at No. 1 with 92,000 copies sold. As earlier reported, that marks the biggest sales week for any rap album by a woman in the 2020s decade and the largest sales week for an R&B/hip-hop album by a woman in 2023. In total, Pink Friday 2 is Minaj’s third No. 1 on Top Album Sales, following Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded in 2012 and Pink Friday in 2011.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

As for the rest of the top 10 on the new Top Album Sales chart, ATEEZ’s The World EP. Fin: Will moves to No. 3 (30,000; down 79%) after debuting on top a week ago, Stray Kids’ former leader ROCK-STAR falls 4-7 (20,000; down 8%), Olivia Rodrigo’s chart-topping Guts rises 11-9 (19,000; up 40%, mostly from vinyl sales) and Dolly Parton’s former No. 1 Rockstar is a non-mover at No. 10 (18,000; down 4%).

In the week ending Dec. 14, there were 3.075 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 13.6% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 2.713 million (up 15.8%) and digital albums comprised 362,000 (up 1.1%).

There were 1.058 million CD albums sold in the week ending Dec. 14 (up 4.7% week-over-week) and 1.640 million vinyl albums sold (up 24.3%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 34.921 million (up 3.3% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 46.149 million (up 16.4%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 99.256 million (up 6.2% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 81.604 million (up 10.3%) and digital album sales total 17.652 million (down 9.2%).

21 Dec 2023

Comedian Jo Koy to Host 2024 Golden Globes

Stand-up comedian, actor and author Jo Koy will host the 2024 Golden Globe Awards, airing live on CBS and streaming on Paramount+ on Sunday, Jan. 7 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Koy will host the three-hour broadcast for the first time. Comedian Jerrod Carmichael hosted the show last year, when it aired on NBC and streamed on Peacock.

“We are thrilled to have Jo host the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards and bring his infectious energy and relatable humor to kick off Hollywood’s award season,” Helen Hoehne, Golden Globes president said in a statement. “We can’t wait to see what he has in store for the stars in the room and a global audience.” 

“Jo’s genuine brand of comedy is sure to entertain our honorees in the room at the Beverly Hilton and viewers at home,” said executive producing showrunners Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner. “We are excited to work with him to make this year’s show laugh-out-loud from beginning to end.”

“I’ve stepped onto a lot of stages around the world in my career, but this one is going to be extra special,” said Koy. “I’m so excited to be hosting the Golden Globes this year. This is that moment where I get to make my Filipino family proud.”

Koy’s recent Funny Is Funny World Tour was a hit. Previously, he released five highly-rated stand-up specials on Comedy Central and Netflix, including his most recent Netflix special, Live From The Los Angeles Forum.

Koy starred in the Universal Picture film Easter Sunday, based on his own experiences and stand-up comedy. He has also appeared in Disney’s Haunted Mansion and voiced the character Bendo in Netflix’s animated film Monkey King. He’ll next be voicing the character of The Monkey King in the animated feature film, Tiger’s Apprentice premiering on Paramount+ Feb. 2. Koy released his first autobiography, Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo, in 2021 with Harper Collins Publishers.

The Golden Globes is the largest award show in the world to celebrate the best of both film and television. This year’s show boasts two newly-added awards – best stand-up comedian on television and cinematic and box office achievement.

Weiss and Kirshner of White Cherry Entertainment (WCE) will serve as executive-producing showrunners for the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards, with Weiss also set to direct. Barry Adelman and Helen Hoehne are also executive producers. Dick Clark Productions will plan, host and produce the Golden Globe Awards.

20 Dec 2023

Billboard Explains: The Year-End Charts

2023 is coming to a close, and what better way to celebrate the year than with Billboard‘s year-end charts? But what are the year-end charts? When did they start and how are they created? Billboard sits down with Managing Director of Charts Keith Caulfield to explain how we create these year-end tallies.

Alyssa Caverley:
This is Billboard Explains the Year-End Charts. Billboard first launched the annual year-end charts back in the 1940s, and they have been published every year since. What exactly are these charts? They represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 19, 2022, to Oct. 21, 2023.

Keith Caulfield:
That’s a complicated way of saying if you look at our charts and add them all together, at the end of the year, we spit out who the top artists, songs and albums are.

Alyssa Caverley:
The charts have evolved in different ways throughout the decades thanks to technological advancements, including how the year-end charts are determined. Billboard‘s managing director of charts and data operations Keith Caulfield explains.

Keith Caulfield:
The simple answer as best as I can tell you is you take all of the combined performance for all of the songs artists albums on a particular chart throughout that chart here, add them all together, and then you get a bunch of numbers. And that, generally speaking, is what the year-end version of that chart would look like.

Watch the full video above!

20 Dec 2023

Hellcats & Hip-Hop: Music Video Roundtable With Killer Mike, Funkmaster Flex & Chop Towbin | Billboard Roundtable

Dodge has been a driving force in hip-hop since the genre’s inception. To celebrate hip-hop’s 50th birthday, Billboard’s Deputy Editorial Director Damien Scott sat down with Grammy-nominated rapper Killer Mike, DJ Funkmaster Flex and legendary Dodge Dealer Chop Towbin to watch and review music videos featuring the brand’s signature models. 

Damien Scott:
What up? My name is Damian Scott; I’m the deputy editorial director at Billboard. For the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, Billboard and Dodge linked up to celebrate one of the most iconic, hottest cars to ever roll out.

To do so we’ve linked up with an amazing cast of people, but before we get to them, I think it’s important to highlight how important the brand of Dodge is and has been to hip-hop, how influential the brand has been for over 100 years — it’s set trends and delivered some of the hottest models I think we can all agree has ever has ever graced the streets. It’s only right for us to take a look at how Dodges are being represented right now with the current crop of hip-hop artists, and how it shows up in videos, so we put together a short list of videos for us to go through to get your guys’ feedback on it. The first one we’re going to check out comes from our esteemed Grammy-nominated panelist right here, Killer Mike.

Killer Mike:
Nominated me for three Grammys, hopefully, we get an album of the year so I get to celebrate this song, which was the intro and it’s called “Down by Law,” intro by Rico Wade, the founder of the Douglass Family and it has my favorite car and that cat’s in the back.

Watch the full video above!

19 Dec 2023

Hellcats & Hip-Hop With Killer Mike, Funkmaster Flex & Chop Towbin | Billboard Roundtable

In celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, Billboard Deputy Editorial Director Damien Scott sat down with Grammy-nominated rapper Killer Mike, Funkmaster Flex and legendary Dodge dealer Chop Towbin to discuss all things Hellcat, hip-hop and how Dodge made its mark in music history.

Killer Mike
What’s up, I’m Damien Scott from Billboard magazine. I got three of the illest car guys in the world today talking s–t with me.

Damien Scott:
What up, my name is Damian Scott. I’m the deputy editorial director at Billboard. For the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, Billboard and Dodge linked up to celebrate one of the most iconic, hottest cars to ever roll out. To do so we’ve linked up with an amazing cast of people, but before we get to them, I think it’s important to highlight how important the brand of Dodge is and has been to hip-hop, how influential the brand has been for over 100 years. It’s set trends and delivered some of the hottest models I think we can all agree has ever has ever graced the streets.

Let’s just jump in. I’m joined by hip-hop legend and Grammy nominated, congrats, Killer Mike. The guy who soundtracked my life in New York City, the legendary Funkmaster Flex. And one of the biggest Dodge dealers in all the United Statesm Chop Towbin. How did you guys get into cars in the first place?

Watch the full video above!

19 Dec 2023

Here’s Every Hot 100 Year-End No. 1 Song, From 1958 to 2023

Billboard has been publishing weekly rankings in one form or another for over a century.

Early in the 1900s, Billboard published charts detailing the popularity of sheet music in the U.S. In July 1940, Billboard unveiled its first chart ranking the sales of recorded songs, the 10-position “National List of Best Selling Retail Records,” with Bing Crosby, Jimmy Dorsey and Glenn Miller among its ranks.

Billboard expanded its number of weekly charts over the next few years, starting recaps for R&B in 1942 and country in 1944. In March 1956, the weekly Billboard 200 albums chart premiered (at just 10 positions deep). Two years later, in August 1958, the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart began.

At the end of 1958, Billboard printed a recap of the year’s biggest songs for the first time (that year also encompassed songs’ performance on pre-Hot 100 charts leading up to the list’s August launch). Domenico Modugno’s “Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu)” finished as Billboard‘s first year-end No. 1 Hot 100 song. The track, which spent five total weeks at No. 1, became the second song to top the weekly Hot 100, after Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool.”

Also in the 1958 year-end issue, Billboard continued its tradition of surveying the music industry via “The Billboard Eleventh Annual Disc Jockey Poll,” which “Volare” also crowned. “[The song] was really a left-field hit … one of the few disks in recent years with a non-English lyric to reach the top,” Billboard wrote at the time. In 2023, such hits are plentiful, as seven non-English language songs reached the top 10 alone during the year — the most ever in a calendar year. Thus, this line from that 1958 issue proved prophetic, given the sonic, and geographic, scope of that year’s, and this year’s, biggest titles: “The preference in tunes indicates that no one type of song or artist reigns supreme among jockeys. The list also includes several types of songs with many extremes, ranging from an old folk song to European, Latin American and tunes by American cleffers.”

Jumping to the latest year-end Hot 100 Songs ranking — with the weekly chart now blending streaming, radio airplay and sales data — Morgan Wallen’s 16-week No. 1 “Last Night” finished as 2023’s top track. It’s the first single that topped the Hot Country Songs chart to wrap at No. 1 since Faith Hill’s “Breathe” in 2000, and the first by a male artist since Johnny Horton’s “The Battle of New Orleans” in 1959.

Today, Billboard not only has the year-end Hot 100 Songs ranking, but also annual recaps for all 200-plus weekly charts, reflecting chart performance of songs, albums, artists and more over a 12-month tracking period.

From “Volare” to “Last Night” and every top title in between, here’s a look at every year-end No. 1 Hot 100 single since 1958, as published in each year-end Billboard issue.

Additional research by Gary Trust, Paul Grein and Alex Vitoulis

19 Dec 2023

Wale Ogunleye, Larry Mestel and Rob Levine Talk Music & Money | Billboard

UBS partnered with Billboard to help increase awareness about the financial resources available to all entertainers. In the fourth episode, Wale Ogunleye sits down with Primary Wave CEO/Founder Larry Mestel and Billboard Deputy Editorial Director Rob Levine to talk about new technology in the market and how the music licensing market is changing.

Wale Ogunleye:
Welcome to Music and Money series. My name is Wale Ogunleye and I’m the head of sports entertainment at UBS. Billboard and UBS has partnered to help increase the awareness around financial resources available to all entertainers. Today I’m joined by Billboard Deputy Editor Rob Levine and Primary Wave CEO/founder Larry Mestel to discuss the music license market, from A.I. to international markets and everything in between.

Before we start our questions that I have for these young men, I want to do a proper introduction for Mr. Mestel. Larry is the founder and CEO of Primary Wave Music, and has been working in the music and entertainment industry for over 30 years. In 2006. Mr. Mestel took his extensive experience working at multiple record labels and founded Primary Wave Music, one of the largest independent music publishing, marketing and talent management companies in the United States. Primary Wave controls over 50,000 songs from catalogs of legendary artists such as Bob Marley, Stevie Nicks, The Four Seasons, Whitney Houston, James Brown — I can continue to go on and on and on. Obviously, he’s a very important man in this industry. So with that being said, gentlemen, thank you for being here with me.

Watch the full video above!