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GRONINGEN — The Eurosonic Noorderslag Festival (ESNS) has long marked the official start of Europe’s music calendar. The festival, which just wrapped its 39th edition, looks to set the agenda for the upcoming year, with a particular focus on the live space.
From Jan. 15-18 in Groningen, Netherlands, a diverse lineup of emerging artists were presented to festival bookers, promoters, potential managers, media and other industry professionals. The goal: celebrate and champion artists and scenes throughout Europe and strengthen ties between markets.
At the heart of ESNS sits the The European Talent Exchange Program which promotes and assists festival bookings for the upcoming summer. By connecting 333 artists from 33 countries with 131 festival bookers and a number of stations within the European Broadcast Union (including the U.K.’s BBC Radio), the initiative aims to showcase artists from diverse regions and genres. The program has helped previous breakout artists, including Fontaines D.C., Idles, and English Teacher, secure bookings across Europe’s renowned festival circuit.
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“In today’s fast-evolving music industry, it’s increasingly difficult to uncover the hidden gems and truly exceptional acts,” said Tamás Kádár, CEO of Sziget Cultural Management, which runs Budapest’s Sziget Festival.
“With over 5,000 applicants every year, ESNS does an incredible job of curating a selection that not only supports artists in gaining recognition but also provides a vital resource for bookers like us,” he added. “Even if we can’t catch every performance live, the curated list allows us to discover new talent for Sziget. It’s a testament to the shared commitment to fostering quality music and supporting emerging talent.”
A number of acts made compelling cases during their appearances; unlike other showcase festivals, acts at ESNS only perform once at the event. Ireland’s Cardinals, signed to influential indie So Young records, brought intensity and bite to the city’s beloved Vera venue. The walls of the space are adorned with some of the names that went on to become international icons: Joy Division, The White Stripes, U2 and more all played early shows in the space.
Iceland’s Sunna Margrét expertly toed the line between folktronica and upbeat indie pop in her material, while Manchester-based Anthony Szmierek, who is due to release his debut album Service Station At The End Of The Universe in February, brought wit and humour to his rave-inspired bangers. Cork group Cliffords also drew a packed room on their debut show in mainland Europe, further solidifying the indie band place as ones to watch in 2025.
ESNS provides a boost for events like Focus Wales, a yearly showcase festival which takes place in Wrexham, north Wales. Andy Jones, co-founder and booker, says that their presence “ensures that Focus Wales and, more broadly, Wales as a music market, is part of the wider conversation with the European music community.”
He adds that the challenges facing the U.K.’s grassroots venues are impacting the ability for artists to level-up into festival headliners. “When I compare the current state of play to how things were even five or six years ago, it’s clear there’s a big problem that needs to be addressed,” said Jones. “I believe the good work Music Venue Trust is doing is vital, but it is time for Governments to do more, to ensure these vital cultural spaces are protected.”
Brexit brought immense challenges for many artists from the U.K. and significantly reduced the margins for profits. Jones is calling for “some real progress on simplifying the movement of artists in and out of the U.K., which will only reap benefits for all involved. This is also frankly, long overdue.”
Kádár concurs: “Artists face difficulties in standing out and reaching their audiences in a crowded market. Viral moments on platforms like TikTok can create sudden fame, but sustained recognition requires more. Added to this are rising costs – travel, accommodation, and the scarcity of funding – making it harder than ever for bands to tour successfully.”
The panel discussions and workshops held at Oosterport, the city’s cultural events center, covered a wide range of topics. In his keynote address, Alex Hardee, partner/agent of Wasserman Music in London, discussed the changing landscape for live agents and how they can react and respond. “We have to work harder for our commission and provide a bigger service,” he said, highlighting the company’s approach to securing new artists, as well as discussing the value of support slots and the “talent drain” that festivals are facing when booking headliners.
Throughout the program, the festival hosted additional discussions on the role of private equity investment into the live music space, the use of artificial intelligence in the creative and administrative process of making music, and how independent labels and boutique festivals can thrive in uncertain circumstances.
There were moments of celebration, too. The European Festival Awards celebrated honorees including Open’er Festival in Poland which scooped the best major festival prize and We Love Green for its commitment to making their event eco-friendly. In addition The Music Moves Europe Awards, a key component of the European Union’s efforts to support musicians, saw a number of acts secure grants of €10,000 ($10,321) including Yamê from France and Uche Yara from Austria.
ESNS may have highlighted the scale of the challenges ahead, but it’s one that Jones and his contemporaries are ready to meet head on. “I think it’s an exciting time, musically, with so much great new talent coming through. At the same time, it is encouraging that there seems to be a shared view, across Europe and including the major players in the industry, that there is a real responsibility now; for us all to create a more equitable industry going forward.”
Manuela Ferradas has joined SiriusXM in a senior management role, Billboard can confirm. Based out of the company’s Miami Beach studios, Ferradas will oversee the Latin artist and industry relations team for SiriusXM and Pandora. According to a press release, Ferradas will “secure talent and deliver marketing plans to external partners for various SiriusXM and Pandora opportunities […]
BERLIN — In June, the three major labels sued the generative AI music companies Udio and Suno for training their software on copyrighted music without a license. Now, GEMA, the German PRO, is also taking legal action against Suno, in a case filed today (Jan. 21) in the Munich Regional Court.
In an announcement, GEMA said that it documented that the Suno system outputs content that “largely corresponds to world-famous works whose authors GEMA represents,” including “Forever Young” by Alphaville, “Mambo No. 5” by Lou Bega and “Daddy Cool” by Milli Vanilli creator Frank Farian, among others.
“AI providers such as Suno Inc. use our members’ works without their consent and profit financially from them,” said GEMA CEO Tobias Holzmüller in the announcement. “GEMA is endeavoring to find solutions in partnership with the AI companies. But this will not work without adhering to the necessary basic rules of fair cooperation and, above all, it will not work without the acquisition of licenses.”
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This case is very different from the litigation Suno faces in the U.S., which is spearheaded by the RIAA and involves recorded music owned by the major labels. Assuming that Suno has indeed trained its software on copyrighted recordings, as seems likely, that case will involve a determination of whether this would qualify as “fair use” – the legal doctrine that allows the unlicensed use of copyrighted works in some situations, including quotation and criticism. That can be notoriously complicated and it involves both specific facts and case law. It can also involve a great deal of money, since statutory damages for willful copyright infringement can reach $150,000 per work.
GEMA’s case involves the copyrights to songs, which it represents as a PRO, rather than those of recordings. The relevant legislation would be the European Union’s AI and Copyright directives, which allow copyright owners to “opt out” of having their works scanned in order to train AI software, and require “fair remuneration” if they are used. This is one of the first big cases involving this issue in Europe, as well as the first against a big generative music company. Any damages would almost certainly be more modest than they would in the U.S., but the case could establish whether AI companies need to license copyrighted works for software training purposes. Whatever the result, it is easy to imagine it being appealed to higher courts in Germany.
In November, GEMA also sued OpenAI for using lyrics of songs to which GEMA has rights in order to train its AI software. That case, also filed with the Munich Regional Court, only involves lyrics.
In its announcement, GEMA said Suno “outputs content that obviously infringes copyrights.” However, the issue in this case is not this output, but rather the music Suno has scanned during the process of training its software. If Suno has indeed scanned music for training purposes, it would presumably be infringing the rights in the songs as well as the recordings. Although a U.S. court could determine that this is fair use, that doctrine is a feature of Anglo-American law – the UK and British Commonwealth countries have “fair dealing,” which is similar but more limited – European laws are more strict. The EU Copyright Directive lays out “exceptions and limitations” to copyright, but it also provides authors and rightsholders the ability to opt-out of having their work scanned – or, as is more likely, to opt out until a license agreement is reached.
“The lawsuit against Suno Inc. is part of an overall concept of measures taken by GEMA,” said GEMA general counsel Kai Welp in the announcement of the case, “at the end of which there will be fair treatment of authors and their remuneration.”
A British teen pleaded guilty Monday (Jan. 20) to murdering three girls and attempting to kill 10 other people in what a prosecutor said was a “meticulously planned” stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England last summer.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, entered the surprise plea as jury selection had been expected to begin at the start of his trial in Liverpool Crown Court.
The July 29 stabbings sent shock waves across the U.K. and led to a week of widespread rioting across parts of England and Northern Ireland after the suspect was falsely identified as an asylum-seeker who had recently arrived in Britain by boat. He was born in Wales.
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The attack occurred on the first day of summer vacation when the little girls at the Hart Space, a sanctuary hidden behind a row of houses, were in a class to learn yoga and dance to the songs of Taylor Swift. What was supposed to be a day of joy turned to terror and heartbreak when Rudakubana, armed with a knife, intruded and began stabbing the girls and their teacher in the seaside town of Southport in northwest England.
“This was an unspeakable attack — one which left an enduring mark on our community and the nation for its savagery and senselessness,” Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor Ursula Doyle said. “A day which should have been one of carefree innocence; of children enjoying a dance workshop and making friendship bracelets, became a scene of the darkest horror as Axel Rudakubana carried out his meticulously planned rampage.”
Prosecutors haven’t said what they believe led Rudakubana — who was days shy of his 18th birthday — to commit the atrocities, but Doyle said that it was clear he had a “a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence.”
Rudakubana had consistently refused to speak in court and did so once again when asked to identify himself at the start of the proceedings. But he broke his silence when he was read the 16-count indictment and asked to enter a plea, replying “guilty” to each charge.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and additional charges related to possessing the poison ricin and for having an al-Qaida manual.
Rudakubana faces life imprisonment when sentenced Thursday, Justice Julian Goose said.
Defense lawyer Stanley Reiz said that he would present information to the judge about Rudakubana’s mental health that may be relevant to his sentence.
The surviving victims and family members of those killed were absent in court, because they had expected to arrive Tuesday for opening statements.
Goose asked the prosecutor to apologize on his behalf that they weren’t present to hear Rudakubana plead guilty.
He pleaded guilty to murdering Alice Da Silva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6.
Eight other girls, ranging in age from 7 to 13, were wounded, along with instructor Leanne Lucas and John Hayes, who worked in a business next door and intervened. Fifteen other girls, as young as 5, were at the class but uninjured. Under a court order, none of the surviving girls can be named.
Hayes, who was stabbed and seriously wounded, said he still had flashbacks to the attack and was “hugely upset at the time that I wasn’t able to do more.”
“But I did what I could in the circumstances,” he told Sky News. “I’m grateful to be here, and by all accounts I’ll make a full recovery, at least physically. … I’m going to be OK and others won’t be, and that’s really where I I think the focus of attention should be.”
Police said the stabbings weren’t classified as acts of terrorism because the motive wasn’t known.
Several months after his arrest at the scene of the crime, Rudakubana was charged with additional counts for production of a biological toxin, ricin and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism for having the manual in a document on his computer.
Police said they found the evidence during a search of his family’s home in a neighboring village.
The day after the killings — and shortly after a peaceful vigil for the victims — a violent group attacked a mosque near the crime scene and pelted police officers with bricks and bottles and set fire to police vehicles.
Rioting then spread to dozens of other towns over the next week when groups made up mostly of men mobilized by far-right activists on social media clashed with police during violent protests and attacked hotels housing migrants.
More than 1,200 people were arrested for the disorder and hundreds have been jailed for up to nine years in prison.
Australia’s music industry is mourning the loss of Matthew Capper, the long-serving former managing director of Warner Chappell Australia, who died unexpectedly earlier this month following a surgical procedure.
Capper suffered a ruptured appendix in late December, and could not fight off the infection after the operation, reads a statement from his family.
A stalwart with more than 20 years’ service at Warner Chappell Australia, Capper led the business as managing director from 2010, until his departure in February 2024, part of a company-wide downsizing.
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Dan Rosen, president of Warner Music Australasia, remembers Capper as a top-notch executive, a good sport, and a great person. “He cared deeply about the songwriters he represented,” Rosen writes in a message to staff, The Music Network reports, “and his efforts to protect and celebrate their music made a lasting impact on Warner Chappell and the broader music community in Australia. He was above all else, in every interaction, a gentleman.”
In 2005, Capper became the youngest person ever appointed to the AMCOS board at the age of just 28. Two years later, in 2007, he became the youngest to join the APRA board, at 30. He remained a director on both boards until late February 2024, as well as serving as deputy chair of the AMCOS board from 2020-2024.
Friends, former colleagues and business rivals are paying their respects. “I’m completely shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of dear friend and colleague, Matthew Capper. I remember Matthew as an incredibly sincere, principled professional who was passionate about music publishing. He was self-deprecating, always loved a joke and enjoyed spending time with colleagues,” comments Dean Ormston, CEO of APRA AMCOS.
“He had great regard for the work of APRA AMCOS and was very proud of his long connection to the organization and staff. He will be sorely missed by us all, and our thoughts go out to his friends and family at this very difficult time.”
Jenny Morris, chair of APRA, says Capper’s death is a tough one for the industry. “We have had many losses from the music industry family in the last few years, all of which have been sources of great sadness, but Matt’s death has been a huge shock,” she remarks. “Matt was one of the most decent, wise and funny people and I feel very privileged not only to have known him, but to have had his friendship.”Capper, she continues, “worked with genuine care and a great amount of industry awareness on the APRA board, and on more than a few occasions sent supportive messages at just the right time. He was an empath as well.”
Through his career, Capper was a tireless advocate for the music publishers community. He was voted into the position as chair of the Australasian Music Publishers’ Association (AMPAL) in 2013, almost a decade after joining the trade body’s board, in 2004. Capper also represented AMPAL on the International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) board, both as non-executive director and more recently as Treasurer, a position he was especially proud of. His involvement with ICMP extended to chairing its Australasia and Asia Regional Group.
“I was lucky to spend a lot of time with Matthew on the AMPAL, AMCOS and APRA boards, often travelling to Sydney together from Melbourne for meetings,” remembers Jaime Gough, chair of AMCOS. “Matthew was a true professional, a great mentor and sounding board. He was passionate about the songwriter and publisher members we represent, and a vocal advocate for their rights.”
Gough, managing director of Concord Music Publishing ANZ (formerly Native Tongue), continues, “I am still in a state of shock at Matthew’s passing. He had so much more to give to the music industry, many more meals to cook, and will be sorely missed. My thoughts go out to his family and friends.”
The late executive will not have a funeral, per his wishes.
Capper “reached some dizzying heights, and he met a lot of people that he greatly respected, even after meeting them,” reads the family statement. “We think he was quietly proud of his achievements. We certainly were. We’re also certain he thought he had a lot more work to do. Hopefully others have been inspired by him and can continue that.”
TikTok said Sunday (Jan. 19) it was restoring service to users in the United States just hours after the popular video-sharing platform went dark in response to a federal ban, which President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to pause by executive order on his first day in office.
Trump said he planned to issue the order to give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the ban takes full effect. He announced the move on his Truth Social account as millions of U.S. TikTok users awoke to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform.
Google and Apple removed the app from their digital stores to comply with the law, which required them to do so if TikTok parent company ByteDance didn’t sell its U.S. operation by Sunday. The law, which passed with wide bipartisan support in April, allows for steep fines.
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The company that runs TikTok in the U.S. said in a post on X that Trump’s post had provided “the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans.”
Some users reported soon after TikTok’s statement that the app was working again, and TikTok’s website appeared to be functioning for at least some people. Even as TikTok was flickering back on, it remained unavailable for download in Apple and Google’s app stores. Neither Apple or Google responded to messages seeking comment Sunday.
The law that took effect Sunday required ByteDance to cut ties with the platform’s U.S. operations due to national security concerns posed by the app’s Chinese roots. However, the statute gave the sitting president authority to grant a 90-day extension if a viable sale was underway.
Although investors made a few offers, ByteDance previously said it would not sell. Trump said his order would “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect” and “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.”
“Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations,” Trump wrote.
It was not immediately clear how Trump’s promised action would fare from a legal standpoint since the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ban on Friday (Jan. 17) and the statute came into force the day before Trump’s return to the White House.
Some lawmakers who voted for the sale-of-ban law, including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, remain in favor of it. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas warned companies Sunday not to provide TikTok with the technical support it needs to function as it did before.
“Any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law, not just from (the Justice Department), but also under securities law, shareholder lawsuits, and state AGs,” Cotton wrote on X. “Think about it.”
The on-and-off availability of TikTok came after the Supreme Court ruled that the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China outweighed concerns about limiting speech by the app or its millions of U.S. users.
When TikTok users in the U.S. tried to watch or post videos on the platform as of Saturday night, they saw a pop-up message under the headline, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.,” the message said. “Unfortunately that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
The service interruption TikTok instituted hours early caught many users by surprise. Experts had said the law as written did not require TikTok to take down its platform, only for app stores to remove it. Current users had been expected to continue to have access to videos until a lack of updates caused the app to stop working.
“The community on TikTok is like nothing else, so it’s weird to not have that anymore,” content creator Tiffany Watson, 20, said Sunday.
Watson said she had been in denial about the looming shutdown and with the space time on her hands plans to focus on bolstering her presence on Instagram and YouTube.
“There are still people out there who want beauty content,” Watson said.
The company’s app also was removed late Saturday from prominent app stores. Apple told customers with its devices that it also took down other apps developed by ByteDance. They included Lemon8, which some influencers had promoted as a TikTok alternative, the popular video editing app CapCut and photo editor Hypic.
“Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates,” the company said.
Trump’s plan to spare TikTok on his first day in office reflected the ban’s coincidental timing and the unusual mix of political considerations surrounding a social media platform that first gained popularity with often silly videos featuring dances and music clips.
During his first presidential term, Trump in 2020 issued executive orders banning TikTok and the Chinese messaging app WeChat, moves that courts subsequently blocked. When momentum for a ban emerged in Congress last year, however, he opposed the legislation. Trump has since credited TikTok with helping him win support from young voters in last year’s presidential election.
Despite its own part in getting the nationwide ban enacted, the Biden administration stressed in recent days that it did not intend to implement or enforce the ban before Trump takes office on Monday.
In the nine months since Congress passed the sale-or-ban law, no clear buyers emerged, and ByteDance publicly insisted it would not sell TikTok. But Trump said he hoped his administration could facilitate a deal to “save” the app.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration with a prime seating location.
Chew posted a video late Saturday thanking Trump for his commitment to work with the company to keep the app available in the U.S. and taking a “strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship.”
Trump’s choice for national security adviser, Michael Waltz, told CBS News on Sunday that the president-elect discussed TikTok going dark in the U.S. during a weekend call with Chinese President Xi Jinping “and they agreed to work together on this.”
On Saturday, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to create a new entity that merges Perplexity with TikTok’s U.S. business, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Perplexity is not asking to purchase the ByteDance algorithm that feeds TikTok user’s videos based on their interests and has made the platform such a phenomenon.
Other investors also eyed TikTok. Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary recently said a consortium of investors that he and billionaire Frank McCourt offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash. Trump’s former treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, also said last year that he was putting together an investor group to buy TikTok.
In Washington, lawmakers and administration officials have long raised concerns about TikTok, warning the algorithm that fuels what users see is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities. But to date, the U.S. has not publicly provided evidence of TikTok handing user data to Chinese authorities or tinkering with its algorithm to benefit Chinese interests.
The Music Sustainability Alliance announced Friday (Jan. 17) that its Music Sustainability Summit is being postponed amid the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires. Originally scheduled to happen on Feb. 3, the event will now be held on April 16 at L.A.’s Solotech Studios, the same location where it was originally set to take place. Programming for the […]
Led by SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment, K-pop stocks soared above other music stocks in a strong week for markets in general. SM, home to such artists as Red Velvet and aespa, rose 13.8% to 78,400 won ($53.76) after news broke on Wednesday (Jan. 15) that the company will introduce a new girl group on Feb. 24. Meanwhile, JYP gained 6.7% to 76,400 won ($52.39), while YG Entertainment and HYBE rose 5.6% and 3.7%, respectively.
The gains made by K-pop companies in recent weeks have outpaced the overall Korean stock market. In the week ended Jan. 17, the four South Korean music companies had an average gain of 7.5%, beating the 0.3% gain of the KOSPI composite index, a measure of all stocks traded on South Korea’s exchange. South Korean stocks have rebounded from their low points since a declaration of martial law by South Korea’s prime minister on Dec. 3 that caused political turmoil and instability in the country’s market. The four K-pop companies are up an average of 20.6% from each company’s post-Dece. 3 low point, while KOSPI has gained 6.9% since hitting a low point on Dec. 9.
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The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index rose 4.7% to 2,226.11, its second-highest mark since reaching 2,280.51 on Dec. 6 and the third-highest one-week gain in the last year. Only four of the index’s 20 stocks posted losses while the remainder finished the week in positive territory. Radio companies led the way with an average gain of 13.3%. Multi-sector companies (labels and publishers such as Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group) gained 4.3%. Live music companies followed with a 3.6% gain. Streaming companies had an average loss of 1.1%.
Stocks were helped by news that the consumer price index, a widely used measure of inflation faced by consumers, rose a lower-than-expected 3.2% in December. The producer price index, a measure of wholesale prices, also beat expectations by rising just 0.2% last month. In the United States, the Nasdaq composite rose 2.4% to 19,630.20 and the S&P 500 had its best week since the presidential election, gaining 2.9% to 5,996.66. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 rose 3.1% to 8,505.22. China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed 2.3% to 3,241.82.
iHeartMedia was the top music performer of the week, rising 23.9% to $2.33 in the absence of major news. The only significant public development was Barclays’s announcement through a regulatory filing on Friday that it increased its stake in the radio giant by 513% in the third quarter. Cumulus Media rose 9.1% to $0.84. The other radio company, satellite broadcaster SiriusXM, gained 6.9% to $22.27.
Spotify shares rose 5.7% to $485.53 on Friday after surpassing $500 per share on Thursday (Jan. 16) — marking only the second time Spotify shares have hit the $500 mark in intraday trading. Investors reacted positively to UBS increasing its Spotify price target on Wednesday (Jan. 15) to $540 from $485. Then on Friday, Wolfe Research downgraded Spotify to “peer perform” from “outperform,” helping Spotify shares fall 1%.
Concert promoter Live Nation rose 5.5% to $135.61. The stock peaked at $136.21 on Friday, its highest point since Dec. 17 and just 3.5% below its 52-week high of $141.18. Live Nation will co-produce the FireAid benefit concerts to benefit victims of the wildfires in Los Angeles. The Azoff family and AEG are also producers of the concerts, which will be held on Jan. 30 at the Kia Forum and Intuit Dome.
Abu Dhabi-based music streaming company Anghami was the week’s worst performer after dropping 10.3% to $0.70, while French music streamer Deezer fell 5.3% to 1.24 euros ($1.28) and LiveOne shares fell 1.7% to $1.18. LiveOne announced on Thursday that it has reached 500,000 Tesla users and projects to reach 550,000 Tesla owners — including 150,000 new ad-supported subscribers — by Feb. 1.
Bad Bunny‘s upcoming “No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí” summer residency at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico has officially sold out, according to a press release issued by the artist’s team on Friday (Jan. 17). Produced by Noah Assad Presents and Move Concerts, the 30-date stint, set to kick off July 11 and wrap Sept. 14, sold 400,000 tickets in just four hours through online and in-person sales across the island.
The announcement further states that while more than 2.5 million people registered for online pre-sale, Bad Bunny’s team “worked diligently” to eliminate 1.8 million scalpers and bots to “ensure Bad Bunny’s loyal fans were eligible for the pre-sale.”
The first nine shows, reserved exclusively for Puerto Rico residents, officially went on sale Wednesday (Jan. 15) at nine different locations throughout Puerto Rico, including Palacio de los Deportes in Mayagüez and Plaza del Mercado Río Piedras in San Juan. (The shows sold out that day.) Subsequently, Bad Bunny unveiled nine additional dates to the residency for a total of 30 dates at El Choli. Those 21 shows, which went on sale this morning, sold out in under four hours.
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The residency has also incorporated VIP concert and hotel experiences featuring a two-night hotel stay, premium tickets and limited edition VIP gift bags, among other elements. Offered through Vibee, more than 80,000 VIP packages have already been sold, with a limited number of VIP experiences remaining.
Bad Bunny (real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) is no stranger to selling out tours or breaking records at the box office. His World’s Hottest Tour in 2022 grossed $314.1 million and sold 1.9 million tickets, breaking the record for the biggest Latin tour ever. That same year, Bad Bunny became the first Latin act, and first act who doesn’t perform in English, to finish atop Billboard’s year-end Top Tours chart.
Bad Bunny’s residency in Puerto Rico is in honor of his latest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, which he released Jan. 5. The set debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, securing him his seventh top 10-charting set. Meanwhile, the LP opened at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Streaming Albums chart (dated Jan. 18), marking the largest streaming week for a Latin title in over a year. All 17 songs on the set entered the Billboard Hot 100, upping his career total from 98 to 113 and making him the first Latin artist to tally 100 career Hot 100 hits.
Though making and distributing music has become easier than ever, the number of tracks being uploaded to digital service providers has fallen — not increased — in the last two years.
In the first quarter of 2023, an average of 120,000 tracks were being uploaded to DSPs each day, up from 93,400 in 2022, according to Luminate. That number dropped to 103,500 for the full year of 2023 and fell further to 99,000 last year, according to the company’s recently released 2024 year-end report. Normally, a decrease in the amount of new music tracked by Luminate wouldn’t merit much attention. But a 4% annual decline in new tracks is notable when today’s creators have an unprecedented number of tools to make music — including easy-to-use digital audio workstations like BandLab and generative artificial intelligence apps such as Suno — and can tap into global distribution.
Music professionals Billboard spoke to for this story pointed to numerous possible explanations for the drop in new tracks, with anti-fraud measures being the most widely cited reason for the decline. Bad actors are known to upload large numbers of tracks through do-it-yourself distributors before hacking into users’ streaming accounts to stream the songs. Erik Söderblom, chief product officer for music distributor Amuse, cites Spotify’s policy changes announced in 2023 to discourage labels and distributors from uploading tracks used to inflate streaming activity for the drop. “It has been a successful way for both of them as a DSP and us as a distributor to discourage fraudulent actors who abuse the system by releasing and monetizing large volumes of audio files through artificial streams,” he says.
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Beatdapp, which can identify when users’ accounts are hijacked and turned into bot farms that unknowingly stream music, has seen fraud rates decrease on the platforms it works with, says CEO Morgan Hayduk. While a small 4% decline in the scheme of millions of new tracks suggests there’s still ample music for these bot farms to illegally stream, Hayduk believes the financial penalties are having their intended effect. “I do think the DIY space is taking their end more seriously and trying not to be a conduit for this,” he says.
French streaming service Deezer introduced an “artist-centric” royalty payout scheme in 2023 to combat fraud and prioritize professional music over “functional” music such as background noise and nature sounds. But given Spotify’s far larger user base, the platform’s anti-fraud measures get more credit for creating outcomes favorable to artists and record labels. For instance, in 2023, Spotify began levying penalties on music distributors and labels when fraudulent tracks they uploaded had been detected. As a result, experts tell Billboard, better policing at the source of the problem could have resulted in distributors being wary of working with some creators.
While the anti-fraud measures may have had the intended effect and prevented some tracks from being uploaded, DistroKid, another self-serve distributor of independent artists, actually sent more tracks to DSPs in 2024 than the prior year. “There wasn’t a decrease in tracks uploaded to streaming services through DistroKid in 2024,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to Billboard. “The average number of tracks uploaded to streaming services each day steadily increased throughout the year.”
As for other, lesser factors, a likely candidate is Spotify’s 2023 decision to set a minimum threshold for royalty payouts at 1,000 streams. The policy received mixed reactions. Some critics called the threshold a penalty for developing artists who rely on royalties to help build their careers. But cutting off payments to the outer reaches of the long tail put Spotify in sync with major labels’ recent push for royalty accounting schemes that reward professional artists at the expense of, as Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge put it in 2023, “merchants of garbage.”
Ending the practice of cutting tiny royalty checks may help DSPs’ goal of prioritizing professional musicians over a sea of unwanted content, but “may also dishearten early-stage artists who struggle to grow their project,” says Söderblom. As a result, fewer uploads would mean fewer new tracks could enter Luminate’s database. Will Page, author of Pivot: Eight Principles for Transforming Your Business, believes that the payout threshold likely had “a material effect on what Luminate gets to count.” After Spotify set a threshold for payouts at 1,000 streams, an artist would experience diminishing returns from uploading more unpopular music. According to Luminate, 93.2 million of the 202.2 million tracks in its database were streamed fewer than 10 times. Page, Spotify’s former chief economist, estimates that 99% of the 99,000 new tracks in 2024 made the recording artist less than $100 in royalties last year.
Anti-fraud measures and artist-centric royalty schemes may not account for all of the decline, though. Another factor could be a natural ebb in the supply of music. Söderblom sees 2022 as “a great year for DIY” because many artists had additional time to work on new music due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The combination of accessible music production and distribution tools and a more or less global lockdown led to a huge influx of releases,” he says. “As the world returns to normal, it seems natural to see the volume of new uploads decline.” The same could be true of video creators. Last week, MIDiA Research declared that “the pandemic-induced content creation boom has peaked” after time spent creating content such as YouTube videos dropped in the second quarter of 2024 — marking the first decline since 2021.
Similarly, the 120,000 tracks uploaded daily in 2022 may have marked a peak of musicians uploading their back catalogs to distributors. MIDiA Research’s Mark Mulligan has surveyed amateur and semi-professional creators for five years. “A lot of them are in their 40s and 50s, and probably a lot are people who have been playing in bar bands and whatever else,” says Mulligan. “And they say, ‘Oh, we’ve got these demos. Let’s put them on Spotify.’ And so, they had a lot of back catalog that hadn’t been digitized before to put up there.” Those tracks weren’t necessarily new, but they were new to DIY distributors and streaming platforms. Once the backlog runs out, these artists may not have any other recordings to distribute.
Yet another explanation is the rise of social media as a destination for new music. Music streaming platforms and DIY distribution have leveled the playing field and given every artist an opportunity to reach listeners around the world. Still, many artists have realized they aren’t the next Taylor Swift and can’t get much traction at services such as Spotify and Apple Music. Streaming can work wonders for big artists, but the promise of democratization “has lost a lot of sheen,” says Mulligan. Small artists who don’t attract a crowd at Spotify can use social media or user-generated platforms such as Audiomack to connect with listeners. “They would rather have a small fan base who they can interact with than a large audience they can’t interact with,” he says. “Add that with the remuneration issue and it’s a much less compelling premise to go on streaming now than it was three, four years ago.”
If Mulligan’s hypothesis is true, the artist-centric approach adopted by Spotify, Deezer and others could end up hurting its biggest proponents: the major labels. Streaming platforms have essentially told long-tail artists, “We’re not going to stop you from coming in, but you’re not really welcome,” says Mulligan, which he thinks could have unintended consequences somewhere down the road. “Stop a generation of artists coming in,” he says, “and there’s a really good risk that you’ll inadvertently stop a generation of fans coming in if those artists go elsewhere to build their fan bases.”