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After Uruguay’s parliament passed a bill that changes the country’s copyright laws, Spotify issued a statement on Monday (Nov. 20) saying that it “will unfortunately begin to phase out its service in Uruguay effective January 1, 2024, and fully cease service by February.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts […]
Each year dozens of primary ticketing systems hit the market, and rarely do any last long enough to generate significant attention or revenue to survive. Lyte is the likely exception.
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That’s because founder and CEO Ant Taylor has a proven track record of innovating the ticketing space, starting with its Lyte ticket exchange allowing fans to sell tickets to one another, directly driving the price of tickets down on the secondary market. In his new bid, Taylor is launching the Lyte Returnable Ticket, which allows buyers to return their tickets for a refund, funded by Lyte, along with tools for fair market pricing and simplified ticket buying tools integrated into the platform.
“Event creators equipped with data intelligence and pricing solutions don’t just increase their revenue potential—they also pave the way for more fans to have richer, more transparent ticketing experiences,” says Taylor. “With the Lyte Returnable Ticket, we’re putting fans first by providing a world-class experience, and generating more demand for creators.”
Lyte is the first platform to upend the industry standard policy of no refunds and no cancellations for ticket purchases. Fans gain early access, dedicated support lines, and exclusive tickets unavailable to other ticket holders.
Lyte’s current ticketing partners includes Australia’s music and arts festival Lost Paradise, Madrid’s MadCool Festival, the Association for Volleyball Professionals Pro Tour, and event powerhouse ReedPop, owner of PAX and numerous Comic Con events.
Lyte’s demand-first ticketing platform is powered by SmartPricing and SmartFulfillment, a powerful ecommerce engine with a history of outpricing scalpers and giving event creators total control of the sales experience for fans. Lyte’s SmartPricing feature dynamically prices tickets at fair market rates.
SmartFulfillment introduces an intelligence to who gets tickets by empowering event creators to decide which fans are fulfilled first. Fulfillment logic can prioritize group orders, repeat buyers, local fans and more, giving true priority treatment to event creators’ best customers beyond stressful, finite early access windows. Lyte’s platform also includes a Subscribe and Request buying interface, enabling fans to request tickets months in advance to avoid painful on-sales. The new experience helps creators sell out earlier, with 95.7% of requested tickets converting to tickets sold.
Mexican music star Espinoza Paz has signed a global deal with Virgin Music Group, Billboard has learned. Born Isidro Chávez Espinoza in Sinaloa, Mexico, the prolific singer-songwriter is known for his deep and emotional songs penned for other artists – such as Jenni Rivera and Banda MS – and for himself. Explore Explore See […]
Microsoft snapped up Sam Altman and another architect of OpenAI for a new venture after their sudden departures shocked the artificial intelligence world, leaving the newly installed CEO of the ChatGPT maker to paper over tensions by vowing to investigate Altman’s firing.
The developments Monday come after a weekend of drama and speculation about how the power dynamics would shake out at OpenAI, whose chatbot kicked off the generative AI era by producing human-like text, images, video and music.
It ended with former Twitch leader Emmett Shear taking over as OpenAI’s interim chief executive and Microsoft announcing it was hiring Altman and OpenAI co-founder and former President Greg Brockman to lead Microsoft’s new advanced AI research team.
Despite the rift between the key players behind ChatGPT and the company they helped build, both Shear and Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said they are committed to their partnership.
Microsoft invested billions of dollars in the startup and helped provide the computing power to run its AI systems. Nadella wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was “extremely excited” to bring on the former executives of OpenAI and looked “forward to getting to know” Shear and the rest of the management team.
In a reply on X, Altman said “the mission continues,” while Brockman posted, “We are going to build something new & it will be incredible.”
OpenAI said Friday that Altman was pushed out after a review found he was “not consistently candid in his communications” with the board of directors, which had lost confidence in his ability to lead the company.
In an X post Monday, Shear said he would hire an independent investigator to look into what led up to Altman’s ouster and write a report within 30 days.
“It’s clear that the process and communications around Sam’s removal has been handled very badly, which has seriously damaged our trust,” wrote Shear, who co-founded Twitch, an Amazon-owned livestreaming service popular with video gamers.
He said he also plans in the next month to “reform the management and leadership team in light of recent departures into an effective force” and speak with employees, investors and customers.
After that, Shear said he would “drive changes in the organization,” including “significant governance changes if necessary.” He noted that the reason behind the board removing Altman was not a “specific disagreement on safety.”
OpenAI last week declined to answer questions on what Altman’s alleged lack of candor was about. Its statement said his behavior was hindering the board’s ability to exercise its responsibilities.
An OpenAI spokeswoman didn’t immediately reply to an email Monday seeking comment. A Microsoft representative said the company would not be commenting beyond its CEO’s statement.
After Altman was pushed out Friday, he stirred speculation that he might be coming back into the fold in a series of tweets. He posted a photo of himself with an OpenAI guest pass on Sunday, saying this is “first and last time i ever wear one of these.”
Hours earlier, he tweeted, “i love the openai team so much,” which drew heart replies from Brockman, who quit after Altman was fired, and Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer who was initially named as interim CEO.
It’s not clear what transpired between the announcement of Murati’s interim role Friday and Shear’s hiring, though she was among several employees on Monday who tweeted, “OpenAI is nothing without its people.” Altman replied to many with heart emojis.
Shear said he stepped down as Twitch CEO because of the birth of his now-9-month-old son but “took this job because I believe that OpenAI is one of the most important companies currently in existence.”
His beliefs on the future of AI came up on a podcast in June. Shear said he’s generally an optimist about technology but has serious concerns about the path of artificial intelligence toward building something “a lot smarter than us” that sets itself on a goal that endangers humans.
It’s an issue that Altman consistently faced since he helped catapult ChatGPT to global fame. In the past year, he has become Silicon Valley’s most sought-after voice on the promise and potential dangers of artificial intelligence.
He went on a world tour to meet with government officials earlier this year, drawing big crowds at public events as he discussed both the risks of AI and attempts to regulate the emerging technology.
Altman posted Friday on X that “i loved my time at openai” and later called his ouster a “weird experience.”
“If Microsoft lost Altman he could have gone to Amazon, Google, Apple, or a host of other tech companies craving to get the face of AI globally in their doors,” Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, said in a research note.
Microsoft is now in an even stronger position on AI, Ives said. Its shares rose nearly 2% before the opening bell and were nearing an all-time high Monday.
The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.
Shakira agreed to a deal with Spanish authorities on Monday (Nov. 20) on the first day of a $15 million tax fraud trial in Barcelona that could have resulted in a significant prison sentence for the singer. According to the Associated Press, after maintaining her innocence for five years, the star agreed to a last-minute agreement, telling the presiding magistrate, José Manuel del Amo, that she accepted the agreement reached with prosecutors.
Shakira answered “yes” to confirm her acknowledgement of six counts of failing to pay the Spanish government 14.5 million euros (about $15.8 million) in taxes between 2012 and 2014. Under the agreement, Shakira will receive a suspended three-year sentence and pay a $7.6 million fine.
In a statement shared with Billboard, Shakira said that throughout her career she has always strived “to do what’s right and set a positive example for others. That often means taking the extra step in business and personal financial decisions to procure the absolute best counsel, including seeking the advice of the world’s preeminent tax authorities such as PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, who advised me from the start, and subsequently Ernst & Young Global Limited.”
Unfortunately, she added, despite those efforts she said Spanish tax authorities pursued a case against her, “as they have against many professional athletes and other high-profile individuals, draining those people’s energy, time, and tranquility for years at a time.”
Shakira said she was determined to defend her innocence at trial where her lawyers were confident she’d prevail, but decided to finally resolve the matter with the “best interest of my kids at heart who do not want to see their mom sacrifice her personal well-being in this fight.”
According to the AP, the trial that would have included more than 100 witnesses over the next few weeks adjourned after just eight minutes. In July, prosecutors said they would seek an eight year prison sentence and a fine of $26 million for the 46-year-old singer, with the case hinging on where Shakira lived during the period in question. Prosecutors alleged that the star spent more than half of that time in Spain and should have therefore paid takes on her worldwide income in the country despite listing the Bahamas as her official residence; tax rates are much lower in the Bahamas than in Spain.
“I need to move past the stress and emotional toll of the last several years and focus on the things I love – my kids and all the opportunities to come in my career, including my upcoming world tour and my new album, both of which I am extremely excited about,” Shakira wrote in the statement. “I admire tremendously those who have fought these injustices to the end, but for me, today, winning is getting my time back for my kids and my career.”
In July 2022, Shakira turned down a deal offered by prosecutors to settle the case, saying at the time that she “believes in her innocence and chooses to leave the issue in the hands of the law.” The singer’s spokespeople had previously said she already paid all that she owed plus an additional $3.2 million in interest.
Shakira’s defense team said in November 2022 that she had not spent more than 60 days a year inside Spain during the period in question; they said she would have needed to have spent half the year in Spain to be considered a fiscal resident. Her defense argued that she was away from Barcelona for long stretches due to a 2011 world tour and spent time in the U.S. when she was on The Voice.
Prosecutors disagreed, with the judge writing in 2021 that he found there was “sufficient evidence of criminality” for the case to go to trial. In a separate investigation, Spanish state prosecutors charged Shakira in September with alleged evasion of 6.7 million euros in tax on her 2018 income. Spain has cracked down on soccer stars such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo over the past decade for not paying their full taxes; both were found guilty of evasion but avoided prison time after their sentences were suspended.
Shakira (born Shakira Esabel Mebarak Ripoll) has two children with Barcelona soccer star ex Gerard Piqué; the couple lived together in Barcelona before ending their 11-year relationship last year.
At Thursday’s 2023 Latin Grammy awards, Shakira performed “Acróstico,” an emotional, open letter to her children and gave a shout-out to her fans all over the world at the awards show in Seville, Spain. “I want to share this Grammy with my colleagues with whom I have had the pleasure of working and learning,” the Colombian singer said in acceptance speech for best pop song (“Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vo. 53”).
“With my Latin audience in Spain, in Colombia, in the United States, in Latin America. The Latin public that has taken me to the highest heights, those places I dreamed of since I was a child and to whom I owe everything,” she added. “I also want to share this with my Spanish public who has been with me through thick and thin … who have never stopped giving me love and support for a single day. I will never forget that. This is for you.”
One day after Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former romantic partner and R&B singer Cassie Ventura sued him for years of alleged physical abuse and even rape, the pair have resolved the claims she filed in Manhattan federal court.
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“I have decided to resolve this matter amicably on terms that I have some level of control,” Ventura said in a statement issued late Friday night (Nov. 17) by her attorney, Douglas Wigdor. “I want to thank my family, fans and lawyers for their unwavering support.”
Combs responded with a statement, adding, “We have decided to resolve this matter amicably. I wish Cassie and her family all the best. Love.” No terms were disclosed and the release states that “the parties will have no further statements.” When reached by Billboard, Wigdor declined to comment further. Combs’ attorney, Ben Brafman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment or to verify the resolution.
In the lawsuit, attorneys for Ventura claimed she “endured over a decade of his violent behavior and disturbed demands,” including repeated physical beatings and forcing her to “engage in sex acts with male sex workers” while he masturbated.
According to the complaint, after she attempted to separate herself from him in 2018, Combs “forced her into her home and raped her while she repeatedly said ‘no’ and tried to push him away.”
“Ms. Ventura has now fully escaped Mr. Combs, but the harm that the assaults and sexual abuse he caused her to experience for nearly a decade will forever haunt her,” wrote Cassie’s attorney Douglas Wigdor, who has filed a number of high-profile sexual abuse cases. “She cannot, however, continue to live in silence about what she endured. Mr. Combs remains immensely powerful, and immensely dangerous.”
Combs’ attorney, celebrity defense lawyer Brafman, said his client “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” alleging that for the last six months, Ventura had demanded $30 million “under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail.” In the statement, Brafman continued, “Despite withdrawing her initial threat, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ reputation and seeking a pay day.”
Wigdor responded that Combs had offered Ventura “eight figures” to prevent her from filing the lawsuit, an offer she rejected.
Ventura, who had an on-and-off public relationship with Combs for 11 years until they split in 2018, says that she met the hip-hop mogul in 2005, when she was just 19 and he was 37. After he signed her to his Bad Boy Records label, she says Combs “lured” her into a romantic relationship – albeit one in which he “asserted complete control over Ms. Ventura’s personal and professional life.”
During the relationship, Ventura says she suffered “episodes of horrific abuse,” including times when he would fly into an “uncontrollable rage” and “beat Ms. Ventura savagely.” She says he would remind her of his ability to harm her, including by requiring her to carry his gun in her purse.
The suit also accuses Combs of blowing up a car belonging to Kid Cudi in 2012 after the rapper expressed interest in Ventura. “Mr. Combs told Ms. Ventura that he was going to blow up Kid Cudi’s car, and that he wanted to ensure that Kid Cudi was home with his friends when it happened,” Ventura’s lawyers write. “Around that time, Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway.”
The case was filed under newly enacted laws in New York and California that revised the time limits for bringing abuse lawsuits, creating limited windows for alleged survivors to take legal action over years-old accusations that would typically be barred under the statute of limitations. In New York, the look-back window closes later this month.
In a statement issued tonight, Wigdor added, “I am very proud of Ms. Ventura for having the strength to go public with her lawsuit. She ought to be commended for doing so.”
While most music stocks have posted gains over the last two months, or at least have treaded water, K-pop stocks are floundering in the closing stretch of 2023.
Four South Korean music companies — HYBE, SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment — had an average loss of 13.3% this week and have fallen an average of 21.4% in the last eight weeks. SM Entertainment has performed particularly poorly, falling 29.4% in eight weeks. Those losses occurred despite a rally two weeks ago after South Korean regulators’ ban on short selling until 2024 sparked a surge in the country’s stock prices.
Elsewhere, music stocks are generally surging in late 2023. Non-Korean stocks in the Billboard Global Music Index have gained an average of 9.1% over the last eight weeks. Only two of those 18 stocks — iHeartMedia and Deezer — have suffered double-digit losses, and 11 of the 18 have posted gains over those eight weeks. Companies’ latest earnings reports have been mostly positive. Stocks also reflect both investors’ enthusiasm for music industry trends and larger macroeconomic trends such as a slowdown in inflation and an expectation that central banks will stop hiking interest rates.
While South Korea’s KOSPI composite index has held steady over the last 8 weeks with a 0.2% gain, South Korean music companies have suffered from a string of headline-grabbing news that appears to have dampened demand for their stocks and eroded what were large year-to-date gains. This week, a Kakao executive was arrested for allegedly manipulating SM Entertainment’s stock price to help Kakao beat out HYBE to become the K-pop agency’s largest shareholder. In previous weeks, K-pop stocks faltered when a member of the group EXO broke away from SM Entertainment, and also when G-Dragon, a member of the YG group BIGBANG, was arrested on charges of illegal drug use.
Even after the eight-week decline, the four K-pop companies have an average year-to-date gain of 20.2%. Non-Korean stocks in the Billboard Global Music Index have an average gain of 6% this year (excluding Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which spun off from Sphere in April).
The Billboard Global Music Index rose 2.6% to 1,426.49 this week, falling just 1.4% shy of the all-time high of 1,447.32 set on July 21. The index has had a remarkable three-week run, gaining 9.3% since Oct. 27 and erasing most of a 9.9% decline since the July 21 peak. Its year-to-date gain stands at 22.1%.
Music stocks outperformed many other major indexes this week. In the United States, the Nasdaq composite gained 2.4% and the S&P 500 improved 2.2%. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 gained 2%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index rose 2.5%.
One of this week’s biggest gainers, iHeartMedia, rose 25.4% to $2.52 after the company announced a multi-year podcast partnership deal with Global, a U.K.-based media company, that will make iHeartMedia’s podcasts available on Global’s podcast player and its digital advertising exchange. Perhaps more importantly, CEO Bob Pittman purchased 100,000 iHeartMedia shares on Tuesday (Nov. 14), according to an SEC filing, at an average price of $2.06 per share. At Friday’s closing price, Pittman’s investment has already gained over 22%.
Abu Dhabi-based music streamer Anghami gained 27.2% to $1.17 — the latest in a series of large fluctuations since September. In October, the company was warned of a potential de-listing for failing to trade above $1. At the time, Anghami shares were trading at $0.82. Over the next five weeks, the share price gained 42.2% without an earnings report, news release or management change that would typically coincide with such a large swing.
Shares of SiriusXM rose 9.7% to $5.08 after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed on Tuesday that it purchased nearly 9.7 million shares with a market value of approximately $44 million. Investors pay close attention to the famous stock picker, who is known for seeking undervalued companies with competitive advantages (Berkshire Hathaway has large stakes in Apple, Coca-Cola, Bank of America and Kraft Heinz, among other public companies). In May, Capital One Financial shares jumped 13.5% on news that Berkshire Hathaway bought a $900 million stake.
Warner Music Group fell 2.6% to $31.81 after reporting earnings for its fiscal year on Thursday. Tencent Music Entertainment, which announced it had reached 103 million subscribers in its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, gained 13.6% to $8.37.
Coming, up German concert promoter CTS Eventim will report third-quarter earnings on Tuesday (Nov. 21).
A small percentage of Taylor Swift fans made huge profits reselling their Eras Tour tickets on sites like StubHub as professional scalpers mostly had to watch from the sidelines, according to data reviewed by Billboard.
The unusual dynamic underscores the challenges major tours face in combating scalpers — and the unintended consequences of efforts to keep tickets off the secondary market.
Swift’s touring team sought to keep tickets for the Eras Tour off the secondary market, according to Ticketmaster officials, and met with Ticketmaster executives to discuss how to best prevent mass ticket scalping. One option was that Ticketmaster could use its Safetix service to digitally lock tickets in place and prevent fans from transferring their tickets, effectively blocking all ticket buyers from reselling their tickets on sites like StubHub. But the downside was that, while many fans liked the idea of blocking scalpers, they didn’t like having their own tickets made non-transferable and found such restrictions inconvenient.
Ultimately, the tour decided to use Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan platform to screen out scalpers from the initial ticket sale, asking buyers to register in advance. Fans identified as legitimate fans were sent a code allowing them to buy tickets during the presale, which opened on Nov. 15, 2022, and subsequently crashed as millions of fans, scalpers and bots flooded the site.
Ticketmaster officials would later say the website meltdown was the result of a massive denial of service attack that disrupted the presale but didn’t defeat the security measures put in place to screen out scalpers from fans. As proof of its success, Ticketmaster announced that less than 5% of the approximately 5 million tickets sold for the tour ended up being listed on secondary markets.
It’s an impressive feat compared with other major tours in 2023 that took fewer steps to keep tickets off the secondary market and on average saw 20–30% of available tickets sold through StubHub.
While secondary tickets for tours like Beyonce’s and Coldplay’s were initially listed at major markups several times the face value, as more tickets moved through the secondary market prices dropped over time.
Swift’s Eras Tour saw the opposite effect. Eras tickets on StubHub were marked up 10 times face value, and then never dropped. The huge spike in price allowed resale sites, which collect a percentage of sales from both sellers and buyers, to make up the revenue it would have generated had they sold a higher volume of tickets, according to a StubHub rep.
Selling the tickets was easy, but getting them into the hands of fans proved difficult. StubHub noticed that orders for Eras tickets were experiencing an unusually high volume of delays and complaints from buyers. When company officials investigated the issue, they discovered that 83% of the Eras Tour tickets sold on its site were coming from new accounts with no record of past sales. The vast majority of those tickets are believed to have come from Swift fans, and they were making big bucks. A ticket with a face value under $150 could fetch $1,700, while tickets close to the stage were going for as high as $10,000.
While the outcome of the story is surprising, the fact that 83% of the available inventory of Eras Tour tickets on StubHub was sold by fans and not ticket brokers is a testament to how efficiently Swift and Ticketmaster were screening out professional scalpers, reducing their access to inventory to less than 1% of available tickets. While Swift would probably prefer that none of her tickets be flipped on the secondary market, at least she can take solace knowing that her fans, not professional scalpers, reaped most of the financial rewards.
For artists who choose not to sign with a record label, some may be independent and others will be do-it-yourself independent.
What’s the difference? Take Laufey, the Icelandic jazz artist whose latest album, Bewitched, reached No. 23 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in September. Laufey is signed to AWAL, the Sony Music-owned company that provides marketing and distribution services for independent artists. She hasn’t signed away the rights to her music, but AWAL helps promote her recordings at digital service providers and retail.
Oliver Anthony Music, on the other hand, is DIY independent. By all appearances, the “Rich Men North of Richmond” singer, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, has left his recordings on autopilot without any kind of marketing behind them since he broke into the national consciousness in August and topped the Hot 100 for two straight weeks. Following the success of “Rich Men,” Lunsford has released more songs without the usual promotional muscle required to get new music noticed. As he told Billboard earlier this week, he manages himself and is avoiding record labels as he prepares to record an album.
He’s clearly getting some help. Lunsford has a basic but professional website and an e-commerce store that sells a handful of variations on Oliver Anthony Music hats, T-shirts, bumper stickers and beer koozies. For concerts, Anthony signed with UTA for representation and has a year of touring ahead of him, starting in February with dates in Europe and the Eastern half of the United States. He has an informal publicist who helps with media requests. And he told Billboard he has encountered “many artists,” such as country star Jamey Johnson, who have lent support and guidance.
Comparing “Rich Men” to other tracks to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 this year, though, suggests being DIY creates some missed opportunities. Combined sales and streams of Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” and SZA’s “Kill Bill” dropped between 17% and 55% over the 10-week period after the last date those tracks were No. 1. “Rich Men,” in contrast, dropped 83.4%. It makes sense: A major label marketing machine is better than an independent artist’s system in helping a track get hot and maintain momentum over months and years.
With a little help, “Rich Men” could arguably have far more sales and streams. As a DIY artist, Lunsford uses social media activity to keep listeners engaged and depends on the continued interest of journalists to keep him in the public eye. As he told Billboard this week, becoming a full-time musician means “you’re essentially a business owner and an entrepreneur and a lot of other things, too. And those are things I’m not quite used to yet.”
But Lunsford has done extremely well taking the DIY route. Billboard estimates that “Rich Men” has grossed $2 million from recorded music and publishing royalties from U.S. sales and streams since its release in August. While his weekly download sales are down sharply from their peak in August, our estimates still put the track’s royalties at an impressive $60,000 per week. And because Oliver Anthony Music is a DIY independent artist who retains the rights to his master recording and publishing, he should be pocketing nearly all that money (less any fees for distribution and publishing administration).
Besides, Lunsford seems content being a DIY artist — even if that means leaving money and celebrity on the table. There’s something to be said about saying “no” to the usual impulses to staff up and scale a business as fast as possible. Lunsford can ease into stardom at a comfortable pace rather than jump headfirst into the music business’ shark-filled waters. Read through the YouTube comments to his videos and you sense that listeners put value in Lunsford not being an industry insider — it adds to his authenticity. At the end of the day, not being too much of a business is probably good for Lunsford’s business.
Surprisingly, “Rich Men” has held up better than a couple of other No. 1s in 2023: Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” and Jimin’s “Like Crazy.” Track sales and streams for “Try That” dropped 91.1% in the 10 weeks after it was No. 1. For “Like Crazy,” the first No. 1 for a solo member of superstar K-pop group BTS, track sales and streams dropped 92.9% over the same period. Although “Rich Men” has fallen far from its peak, its 83.4% drop in track sales and streams is considerably better than those other two hits.
There are obvious parallels between “Try That” and “Rich Men.” Both reached No. 1 because of widespread media attention. Both started conversations about social issues: race for Aldean, class for Lunsford. Both were celebrated as conservative anthems, although Anthony has distanced himself from political partisanship. Both are country tracks — Aldean’s a mainstream song built for maximum radio play, Lunsford’s a more old-fashioned slice of Appalachian roots music.
What’s more, both “Try That” and “Rich Men” did brisk business in track sales. As Billboard noted when “Rich Men” ascended the chart, artists popular with conservatives often have strong download numbers. In a typical week, the No. 1 track on the Hot 100 might sell 15,000 downloads, but when the culture wars stoke demand, the No. 1 will sell ten times that many. “Try That” sold 175,000 downloads in the week it was No. 1, while “Rich Men” averaged 132,000 weekly downloads in its two weeks atop the Hot 100.
Download buyers don’t offer the same consistency as streamers, though, and both “Rich Men” and “Try That” lost 99% of their track sales in the 10 weeks after they topped the chart. And because download sales were a big reason why those tracks reached No. 1, their total consumption (measured in both download sales and streams) dropped more than No. 1s that relied more on streaming. But heavy download sales were instrumental in getting each track to No. 1, and “Rich Men” still sells well, too: Last week, the track was the No. 41 most purchased track in the United States., according to Luminate.
Lunsford could easily ditch the DIY approach and assemble a team, but he’s in the rare position of not necessarily needing one. “Rich Men” succeeded without help from a marketing expert, social media guru or even a manager. Instead, Lunsford benefitted from an unprecedented groundswell of interest that gifted him an immense online following. His 1.15 million YouTube followers give him a similar audience as more established country musicians Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown Band, and twice as many as Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves. He has about as many Spotify followers as Bailey Zimmerman, a rising country star signed to Warner Music Nashville and Elektra Records.
When Lunsford eventually releases a new album, he won’t need many resources to instantly reach millions of fans — and he prefers it that way. “I think the most special thing about it being on the chart at all,” he told Billboard, “is that it made it to the chart without some big, corporate schmucky schmuck somewhere pumping a bunch of money into making it get there.”
This past week has been one of the big ones on the music calendar, with the Recording Academy announcing the nominees for the 2024 Grammy Awards, set to take place on Feb. 4. When they were unveiled, one of the year’s biggest honorees was Victoria Monet, whose album JAGUAR II was a critical smash when it debuted in September of this year. Monet, who started her career as an artist in a girl group before seeing success as a songwriter for Ariana Grande, Blackpink, Travis Scott and others, earned seven nominations, the second-most of any artist, including nods in the coveted best new artist and record of the year categories.
The nominations span a variety of areas: in addition to best new artist and record of the year for her song “On My Mama,” she earned nods for R&B album, R&B performance, R&B song, traditional R&B performance and engineered album, non-classical, recognizing her for artistry, songwriting, performance and overall quality. It’s a testament to Monet’s work rate and vision, as well as to the team around her, including manager Rachelle Jean-Louis, who earns the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Jean-Louis discusses the work and planning that went into setting up and delivering JAGUAR II, how the album campaign extended into every facet of Monet’s career and the dedication and teamwork that it took to pull off a feat that is now being recognized with so many nominations by the academy. “One thing I’ve heard people say is, ‘If the music is great, people will find it,’” Jean-Louis says. “Sure — but they’re more likely to find it if you can give them as many touch points and opportunities as possible.”
This week, Victoria Monet was nominated for seven Grammy Awards, including best new artist and record of the year, the second-most of any artist for the upcoming 2024 awards. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
The first important decision was made years ago, on the heels of her writing two No. 1 records. She had an opportunity to open on a tour she was excited about, and I advised she focus on her artistry and developing an identifiable world and sound, specifically as an artist, for fans. That was our first “tough” conversation — convincing someone I’d just started working with to pause and reflect on the big picture. We focused on developing her own sound with longtime collaborator D’Mile. That world became JAGUAR — the first project we released independently in 2020, and now, JAGUAR II. I A&R’d and co-executive produced both projects and worked alongside her and D’Mile to make something we were all proud of.
The next important decision at that time was choosing to stay independent and partner with Platoon for the first JAGUAR so she had full creative autonomy and as bulletproof of an identity as possible before going back into a major label system. Back then, she had interest from the majors because of songwriting success, but I wanted loyal core fans there for her, not just anyone she was affiliated with, so if and when she did decide to partner with one, it would be a true partnership to help amplify her vision. JAGUAR II was released via Lovett Music in partnership with RCA Records to help her music reach new heights.
She was a songwriter for years before beginning her recording career, which is not always an easy transition for artists to make. How did you help that process, and what were the challenges involved?
This is actually a common misconception. Victoria did start her music career as an artist; she was signed in a girl group that ended up getting dropped from their label. To provide for herself and keep working while sorting out contracts and having developed further under an incredible songwriter like Lashawn Daniels, who wrote hits like “Say My Name” for Destiny’s Child, she tried to keep her dream of artistry alive by songwriting. It can be incredibly difficult for people who have success as songwriters first to be able to brand themselves and differentiate the songs they write for others from their own work. Victoria has always been great at that. Victoria’s artistic voice really is unique. After the music was made, I wanted to make sure her visual identity was credible and set her apart. I searched Vimeo for hours looking for directors before finding Valentin Petit, an incredible French director, to shoot “Moment” as the first true music video from JAGUAR. It’s important to me that the visual art match the caliber of the music. We have an incredible creative team that is dedicated to that, which you can see by the videos for JAGUAR II. Our creative director Charlotte and art director Jess are both fearless, talented women who work hand in hand with us to push the art and story forward.
This nominated album, JAGUAR II, is the second half of a two-project series. How did you approach the entire rollout differently from perhaps a more traditional release schedule?
Attention spans are so short. One thing I’ve heard people say is, “If the music is great, people will find it.” Sure — but they’re more likely to find it if you can give them as many touch points and opportunities as possible. When we first started talking about the rollout for JAGUAR in 2019, we were going to do three parts to be consistent and give fans more chances to discover Victoria and her music. More singles to focus on one at a time to point back to a cohesive world. We didn’t plan for a pandemic to happen in the middle of that process, but we adapted and released four singles off a nine-song project to keep it going consistently for as long as possible over the course of a year. A lot of the rollout for both JAGUAR and JAGUAR II is sustained by content in between our videos and singles, and great press moments thanks to our longtime indie publicist Dana Meyerson at biz3. We released two singles in 2021 after the birth of her daughter to stay in the conversation, did her first pre-show award show performance at BET Awards that year, then revisited the remaining songs for JAGUAR II.
Coming back to the remaining music years later, Victoria felt something was missing and that she could do better, so I set more sessions for her. Those songs were “Cadillac,” “Party Girls (feat. Buju Banton),” “Alright” produced by Kaytranada, “How Does It Make You Feel,” “Stop (Askin Me 4Shyt)” and “On My Mama.” More than half of the album. She was right.
For JAGUAR II specifically, how did you want to present it, given it was such a long-awaited project and yet, also, her debut album?
Victoria is one of the most dedicated perfectionists I’ve ever met — in the way that I imagine the greats I’ve always respected were when they created some of the most important albums of our time. We wanted to continue the theme of JAGUAR being a representation of Victoria as a complex Black woman, making sure each song showed another side of her so it could speak to women everywhere. We still believe in albums as experiences, not chasing singles, so that was a determining factor of what songs to pick to represent JAGUAR II. The singles were all different enough to keep fans engaged and looking forward to the album.
We started with “Smoke” featuring Lucky Daye since it continued the sound established with D’Mile on the first project. It served the true R&B purists in her fanbase. Victoria felt strongly about “Party Girls” as the next single to get out ahead of the summer given the island influence. Our label supported her vision to deliver a visual that continued to elevate her art, and it accomplished that by raising the bar for her.
“On My Mama” was the easiest entry point for all of the above — there’s enough musicality for the purists, a recognizable sample that isn’t overused, a hip-hop element to bring in new fans, a universal celebratory message and an incredible video with choreo that continues to have its own viral moment. It’s an ode to Black culture and Victoria’s identity on multiple fronts as a Black woman. “On My Mama” is where she arrived, right before we put out the album. Thanks to our passionate radio team led by Sam Selolwane, “On My Mama” has hit No. 1 on urban radio and is making its way across the charts at other formats as well.
In addition to the singles, the key to this rollout was using her live show to propel the music. Victoria is an incredible performer. In March of this year, we kicked off her new era with “Smoke,” and quickly followed with the announcement of her first-ever solo show in partnership with Spotify to bring the experience to Los Angeles. We did this again right after “On My Mama” came out in June, announcing her highly anticipated first solo tour, which sold out in minutes. By the time the album came out, we had a sold-out tour for loyal fans and so much positive feedback on the songs. The tour intentionally brought most of the songs on JAGUAR II to life to keep people going back to the album after its release. Word of mouth, whether via the Internet or real life, is still some of the most valuable advertising, and the tour has accomplished that.
There is a wide breadth to these nominations, which celebrate artistry, songwriting, performance and overall quality. What does that say about Victoria as an artist, and to the work you guys have put in?
It says a lot about Victoria. Her dimensions as an artist are mirrored by her dimensions as a person: she’s already wearing many hats of intersectionality as an openly bisexual Black woman. She’s also a mother, so these nominations are already serving as lessons for her daughter that she can do whatever she chooses to. It’s a beautiful thing to watch Victoria be nominated as an artist for the first time and share that experience with her daughter, who is also making history as the youngest ever to be nominated. Representation matters deeply. The nominations amongst her peers in the Recording Academy speak to seeing the range of her skills, each of which she works hard to hone.
The nominations speak to the years of hard work collectively by Victoria and our largely female team. It’s a largely affirming moment in my own life and career for every time I thought maybe the world would not recognize what I have been working hard to get people to see and sacrificing time with family and loved ones to do. I advocated for a difficult path in favor of creative control for Victoria and she trusted me.
I’m an independent manager that is also an openly queer Black woman. I’m a first-generation American and daughter of Haitian immigrants. This is something I have dreamt of since I was a kid. The majority of superstars have male managers, and most of them are white. While the journey was incredibly difficult and at times isolating, it makes these nominations very rewarding for me personally. It’s a reminder to trust my instincts. This is a moment for our entire team, in which we are being seen. Everyone has been working tirelessly at their crafts before meeting Victoria and came together to make something we are all proud of.
What can all these nominations help you guys further accomplish moving forward — and what is next for you guys?
The nominations have started opening doors to opportunities our team has been pitching and campaigning for Victoria for years, but the work doesn’t stop. There’s certainly a tangible validity to them that is really helping our cause. Things aren’t necessarily automatically easier or not requiring work per se, but they absolutely are helping as another co-sign to the credibility of Victoria as an artist.
Victoria has been telling me just about every week she’s been doing promo, touring or working that she can’t wait to get back in the studio because she’s inspired, and I can’t wait to dive back into the creative process. There’s still so much to do. We’re looking forward to releasing more music and content and doing more collaborations. We’re excited to bring her live show to more people and continue to build her audience globally. She’s expressed a desire to act as well.
And what do these mean for you as a manager?
I want to be able to continue to open doors for myself and others through these nominations. I have two stellar artist clients — one being Victoria and one being an incredible rising vocalist named Saint Harison that I want to make sure reach as many people as possible with their talent. The journey for Victoria has been an incredible story that people are authentically connecting to. I’ve always been a creative first and foremost, and my heart has been in storytelling. Whether that’s helping to get out the stories of my clients or telling stories of my own, that has been the root of my passion that I’m excited to keep exploring.