Digital & Mobile
With more than 24 million users globally, the digital note-taking app Goodnotes is expanding into an even wider reach with a new collection themed around BTS. Billboard can exclusively reveal the news and give a first look at the collection.
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In collaboration with BTS’ management company HYBE and Goodnotes’ digital-stationery partner Webudding, the line will debut four digital planners, three notebooks and one sticker pack boasting BTS’ signature logo and fonts, and heavily incorporating their beloved animated TINYTan characters wearing looks inspired by the K-pop group’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single “Dynamite” to mark the first-ever global branded collection for Goodnotes. A press release notes that additional collections are expected to be released throughout the year, giving fans time to predict what other iconic BTS singles or looks might be featured next.
This new collab developed through Goodnotes’ strategic partnership with Webudding that took hold in February 2023, included a $1.9 million investment last September, and has since integrated more than 18,000 different digital stationery items into the Goodnotes Marketplace in the companies’ ongoing effort to develop a global digital-paper ecosystem. Since launching in 2011, the AI-powered Goodnotes has been a technology trailblazer, becoming South Korea’s largest digital stationery platform offering journaling, planning and scheduling in its app as well as different calendar templates, digital planners, stickers and notebook covers to blend the worlds of traditional and digital paper.
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“We’re beyond thrilled to bring BTS-themed stationery to the millions of BTS fans among our Goodnotes community,” says Steven Chan, founder and CEO of Goodnotes, in a statement. “We are deeply grateful to HYBE and Webudding for their partnership in creating this extraordinary and exclusive line of BTS digital stationery for the Goodnotes Marketplace. We can’t wait to bring even more beloved cultural icons to the Goodnotes Marketplace, further empowering our users to express their passion and creativity.”
Donghwan Shin, the CEO and founder of Webudding, hints that more artist collaborations could soon follow this initial partnership with BTS and HYBE, who also house popular artists like SEVENTEEN, ENHYPEN, LE SSERAFIM, NewJeans and ZICO in its multi-label system.
“We’re excited to collaborate with HYBE, especially given their artists’ enormous cultural impact, both in Korea and internationally,” Shin adds. “Celebrating their universal appeal and ability to unite people across the globe, we’re grateful to be able to create this content for Goodnotes’ more than 24 million users worldwide, bringing so many people the ability to customize their notebooks with their favorite artists. Users can expect many more collaborations like this in the future.”
The BTS-themed digital stationery collection will be available in the Goodnotes Marketplace by the end of May 2024. Goodnotes’ Chan adds that the company “can’t wait to bring even more beloved cultural icons to the Goodnotes Marketplace, further empowering our users to express their passion and creativity.”
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Cher‘s chart-topping Christmas album marked her first-ever holiday record — and now, the legendary singer will embark on another first: a trip to the metaverse.
Billboard can share exclusive first details about Cher’s four-week event on Roblox that launches today (Dec. 8) in the latest collaboration between Warner Music Group and leading metaverse game developer Gamefam. Cher will head to WMG’s music-themed Roblox world Harmony Hills, which will have its halls decked in festive decor, add new holiday-themed locations, and launch limited-time virtual merchandise inspired by some of the superstar’s most iconic looks with tinsel hair, winter fairy wings, diamond antlers and a winter crown. The activation will spotlight three of Cher’s new Christmas tracks: “Drop Top Sleigh Ride” with Tyga, “Angels in the Snow,” and her historic new No. 1 single, “DJ Play a Christmas Song.”
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Alongside a virtual Cher NPC (non-playable character) designed to match her new album cover, players can earn the wearable avatar merch by successfully completing tasks like delivering presents, climbing up Christmas trees and participating in snowball fights.
The Cher space in Harmony Hills is the latest launch in WMG and Gamefam’s partnership that kicked off in February 2023 ahead of a Super Bowl concert with Warner Records rapper Saweetie. Gamefam reports the concert holds the highest rating among any concert on Roblox with a 96 percent player rating, with the Super Bowl campaign earning over 7.5 million visits in one week. A Bebe Rexha concert in July in support of her Bebe album averaged 8,300 concurrent users amid its 4.3 million unique visits.
Leaning into the 70 million daily active users on Roblox marks a unique opportunity for a legend like Cher to reach across generations, including an entirely new audience and demographic, via festive and familiar holiday music.
“Christmas songs have this magic that always brings families together and we feel Cher’s Christmas album really captures that spirit,” explains Jacqui Bransky, vp of Web3 and Innovation at Warner Records. “We thought taking her music to Roblox would help expose her to a new generation of fans while simultaneously spreading joy. We wanted to make the whole experience feel like a story, something that really draws the audience in while still feeling authentic to who Cher is as an artist.”
Adds Alli Guglielmino, svp of Growth at Gamefam, “Cher is an everlasting, multi-generational superstar and, after seven decades, Cher continues to find innovative ways to connect with a new wave of fans…as Gen Z and Alpha turn away from traditional music consumption methods, there’s no better place to reach them than the metaverse gaming platform where they’re actively playing for 2.5 hours every day.”
Cher’s Christmas event on Roblox (launching at 7 p.m. ET on Dec. 8) joins her heavy promo run for the holiday LP that’s included performances at the iHeartRadio Z100 Jingle Ball, the Rockefeller Center Tree-Lighting Special and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
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All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Ugg and Palace Skateboards teamed up to release a new, limited-edition collaboration for the holidays. The latest Ugg x Palace collection […]
While TWICE is gearing up for the release of their highly anticipated new EP Ready to Be this week, the K-pop girl group will first open their own dedicated world in Roblox.
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Billboard can exclusively share that on Tuesday (March 8), TWICE is introducing an immersive virtual world, TWICE Square, on Roblox as the first-ever persistent fan hub on the global gaming platform with millions of users worldwide. Built by metaverse-focused brand agency Karta, the initiative marks the first-of-its-kind for TWICE’s different label partners of JYP Entertainment, Imperial, Republic Records, and Universal Music Group.
Decorated in TWICE’s signature colors through the years, TWICE Square allows the group’s dedicated fanbase — known affectionately as ONCE — to connect with other fans virtually and even the group itself. Visitors to the space can leave notes on display for the TWICE members, take selfies to share on social media, and age-verified users can utilize a voice chat function.
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TWICE Square also launches with two mini-games: “SET ME FREE” is an escape room (named after the forthcoming lead single from Ready to Be), as well as a trivia challenge (where ONCEs will test their knowledge in a race against the clock with a twist).
Fans can also buy, collect and trade items, including plushies and 20 avatar clothing items based around the real-life looks and styles of members Nayeon, Jihyo, Momo, Jeongyeon, Sana, Dahyun, Mina, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu. Emotes inspired by TWICE’s most popular dance moves are also available.
While music activations are familiar to Roblox, an ever-evolving and constantly updating fan community world like TWICE Square is a changeup from what typically has been one-time events or concerts that create new metaverse worlds that are rarely returned to again.
“We’re already seeing that many Roblox users are creating experiences dedicated to their favorite musicians,” says Karibi Dagogo-Jack, Head of Music Partnerships at Roblox. “TWICE is a natural fit given the group’s passionate fan base and their commitment to innovation…Roblox is excited to empower this behavior in our community and enable full expression, fan connections, and immersion in TWICE Square. I’m particularly keen to see how TWICE Square unveils new ways for fans to experience the group’s creativity, communicate with the group, and build friendships with other ONCE.”
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For Glenn Mendlinger, president of Imperial, building with Roblox was a straightforward way to connect to the fandom he’s seen support TWICE to three top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 and on the gaming platform itself.
“When it comes to community, Roblox has tremendous levels of fan engagement, and we knew that TWICE fans were already very active on Roblox — including a fan-made TWICE group with tens of thousands of members,” Mendlinger says. “The logical next step was to build out a first-of-its-kind experience connecting them and TWICE in an official custom-built world and environment. Leaning into the core tenant of connection and creativity on Roblox, it was all about meeting fans where they already are, then crafting the optimal experience.”
With the launch this week, Mendlinger says he and his teams will monitor fans’ reactions as Imperial hopes to create more “persistent spaces” in Roblox for their artists roster, which includes TWICE’s label mates like Stray Kids and ITZY.
“What marks a successful partnership here with TWICE and Roblox really comes down to fan reception and building a deeper community,” says Mendlinger. “At its core, we want to provide fans with a meaningful experience; a place where they can bond with other fans over their shared love for TWICE. Success is when the fans are happy, friendships are made, and we see fans continuously spending time and coming back to the experience.”
TWICE Square is said to be rolling out new features all year, along with visits from the girls themselves.
“TWICE plans to keep the experience updated with new content,” Roblox’s Dagogo-Jack adds. “The group will also be dropping into the experience. They’re hoping that their fans treat the space as a hangout and an information source for all things TWICE…we’re so enthusiastic about what TWICE has built — and plans to build — on Roblox.”
TWICE’s Ready to Be drops Friday, featuring the English single “Moonlight Sunrise,” which the group performed atBillboard’s 2023 Women in Music, and and the new single “Set Me Free” coming out in both English and Korean versions. Watch the latest music video teaser of “Set Me Free” below:
David Crosby was working on new music until the end. In an interview with Variety, guitarist Steve Postell said that the 81 year-old two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame veteran who died last week at 81 was talking about his new album on the day he died.
“David didn’t think he was gonna last for years, which he joked about all the time. But there was no sense that we weren’t gonna be able to do this show and these tours,” Postell told Variety. “We were talking tour buses, and what kind of venues, and the whole team was all back together again — the road manager and tour manager and sound guys — on top of this band we’d put together. There was not even a remote sense that we weren’t about ready to hit the world. And it’s a shame people didn’t get to hear it. This was something else. This was as close to the original thing” — specifically, the original sound of Crosby, Stills and Nash — “as we were gonna get. It was very powerful.”
Postell had been speaking on the phone with Crosby near the end after taking part in an “intimate” rehearsal in Santa Barbara the week before Crosby died; that was the follow to a full-band rehearsal in mid-December at which Postell said Crosby seemed “practically giddy with all of it.” During the latter, Crosby reportedly showed his band some new songs, asking them what they thought of the lyrics and proving that he “hadn’t lost the fire. I’d like people to know that he was on it. He was writing, playing, singing his ass off and preparing a fantastic show. That’s what he was doing. He was not lying in a bed for two years, out of it. That’s not what happened at all.”
In a testament to Crosby’s enduring love of playing and writing, Postell said he was talking to the singer on the phone on Wednesday morning discussing plans for a two-night run in Santa Barbara at the Lobero Theatre in late February that they were considering recording for a live album; Crosby’s death was announced on Thursday (Jan. 19).
The shows would have been Crosby’s first live gigs since 2019 and after spending Wednesday afternoon rehearsing the full set list they’d worked out, Postell said he texted the singer with some ideas that night and got a return text from Crosby son and bandmate, James Raymond, that his dad had died.
Though Crosby was eager to get back on the road after announcing in 2022 that he was done performing live, Postell said the CSN star was having difficulty with arthritis in his hands and could still play, but it had “gotten harder and harder for him.”
Another musician who had been working with Crosby on new material, Texas singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz, told Variety that she’d recorded some vocals remotely and sent them to James Raymond and that Raymond told her after his father’s death that Crosby had listened to the tapes and appreciated her work.
“I never got to actually be in the studio with him when I was recording those vocals,” Jarosz said. “But he and James had reached out to me about a month ago saying they were working on this new album, and he really wanted me to sing on a new song, ‘Talk Till Dawn.’ It had just been a few days since I sent the vocal off [before Crosby died], but the way James made it seem to me is that he did get to hear it before he passed, which is obviously extremely emotional for me. I guess the way that I would describe the song is quintessential David Crosby —interesting chord movement and just a beautiful, stunning vocal performance.”
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