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“Time Is on My Side,” the title of The Rolling Stones’ first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 way back in 1964, couldn’t have been more prophetic. Nearly 59 years after that song became a hit, The Stones have become the 25th artist to receive a BRIT Billion Award by the BPI. The […]
Investors in Hipgnosis Songs Fund on Thursday overwhelmingly demanded a new board make structural changes to the troubled music rights company in ways that don’t include selling off part of its 65,000-song catalog, which includes compositions by Neil Young, Shakira and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
At the company’s annual meeting of shareholders in London, a majority of investors voted no on a resolution “to continue running the fund in its current form”–what’s known as a continuation vote — and they rejected a plan to sell a package of 29 song catalogs to Hipgnosis’ Blackstone-backed sister fund, according to the fund.
The ‘no’ vote signals unequivocal shareholder anger with the company founded by Merck Mercuriadis, and it kicks off a 6-month countdown for the board to come up with a plan “for the reconstruction, reorganisation, or winding-up of the company,” possibly “liquidating all or part of the company’s existing porfolio of investments,” according to the board’s statement.
“While shareholders have not supported our proposed transaction or the continuation vote, it is clear that they share our belief in the inherent quality and potential of these assets,” Sylvia Coleman, senior independent director of Hipgnosis Songs Fund said in an emailed statement. “Directors are now expediting the appointment of a new chair who will drive the strategic review we have already announced, with a clear focus on delivering improved shareholder value.”
Investors voted against the re-election of Hipgnosis Songs Fund board Chair Andrew Sutch at the meeting, speeding up the timetable for his departure. Sutch had already announced he would step down before the company’s next annual general meeting in 2024. On Wednesday, the day before the company’s annual meeting, fund directors Andrew Wilkinson and Paul Burger resigned, and last week, the board embarked on a strategic review into the company’s management team.
“Shareholders have spoken and sent a clear message that the status quo is unacceptable and that a total reset is required,” Tom Treanor, the head of research at Asset Value Investors, which owns a roughly 5% stake in the fund, said in an email. “We look forward to a refreshed board working closely with shareholders to turn the company around.”
Mercuriadis, the former manager of Elton John and Guns N’ Roses, will continue as Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s investment advisor. Mercuriadis founded Hipgnosis in 2017 and took it public on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in July 2018.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s share price rose 1.2% to 75.90 British pence ($0.92) at 11:20 in London.
Deezer is partnering with French collective management society SACEM to explore the potential impact that “artist-centric” streaming royalty payment models will have on remuneration for songwriters and publishers.
In a joint announcement on Wednesday (Oct. 25), Deezer and SACEM said they were carrying out an “in depth” study that will analyze streaming data to evaluate the viability of different economic models “aimed at remunerating songwriters, composers and publishing rights owners more fairly.”
A representative for Deezer tells Billboard that the first stage of the study commenced earlier this month using data from paid subscription accounts in France in the first quarter of 2023.
The next stage of the project, which is expected to last several months and focuses purely on the French digital music market, will see Deezer and SACEM specifically evaluate the impact that an artist-centric streaming model would have on the society’s 210,000-plus members and international partners, which include Universal Music Publishing Group and Wixen Music Publishing, as well as collective management organizations (CMOs) SOCAN and ASCAP.
“Songwriters, composers and publishers play a crucial role in the music industry as the creative driving force behind the songs we love, and it’s time to evolve how we reward these efforts,” said Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira in a statement.
The joint initiative comes less than two months after Deezer announced it was partnering with Universal Music Group (UMG) on what it calls an “artist-centric music streaming model” for recorded music.
The new artist-centric model for recorded music replaces the traditional pro-rata model whereby one stream equals one play and the total number of plays is divided up by artists and labels according to how many they each accrue.
Since launching Oct. 1, the model has been exclusively limited to France, Deezer’s home market, and, so far, only applies to artists signed to UMG and French independent label Wagram Music. However, a spokesperson for Deezer says discussions are ongoing with all labels and content providers and that the company plans to have achieved “a full rollout with all providers and countries” in 2024.
The new model promises royalty “boosts” for “professional” artists whose music is actively searched for by users, as well as boosts for artists who maintain a level of 1,000 streams per month from at least 500 unique accounts.
It also includes a monetization cap of 1,000 streams for each user, meaning that every single user’s contribution to the royalty pool is counted as 1,000 plays no matter what the actual amount is. (If a subscriber listens to 2,000 streams, for example, then their streams will count half.) Deezer says the cap will help tackle fraud and ensure that royalties are shared more fairly between artists and rights holders.
Following in Deezer’s footsteps, Spotify is understood to be planning similar changes to its streaming royalty model that will come into effect in 2024. These are reported to include introducing minimum annual stream thresholds and financial penalties for music distributors and labels committing fraudulent acts, as well as a minimum play-time length for non-music tracks, such as bird sounds or white noise, before they can generate royalties.
Over the past two years, several other streaming services, including Soundcloud and Tidal, have either introduced or announced that they are exploring different economic models to the standard pro rata streaming model following criticism from creators over low royalty payouts.
In a statement, SACEM CEO Cécile Rap-Veber said the launch of the study into how alternative remuneration models will impact publishers, authors and composers was an “essential” development, “which we hope will make it possible to increase the value of streaming for our members.”
Last week, the the 28th edition of the annual Amsterdam Dance Event brought thousands of dance industry professionals and nearly 3,000 artists to the city. Over four days (Oct. 18-21), they attended hundreds of panels and more than a thousand after-dark events in more than 200 locations around the city.
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There was much fun and many parties. Of course, a lot of knowledge about the dance music ecosystem was also dropped amidst it all. The conference is “inspiring and gets everyone together,” ADE co-organizer Meindert Kennis told Billboard ahead of the event, but, “we also focus on hands-on information … In the end, that’s what a lot of professionals are coming for, and they need to take home value for themselves or their organization. We try to implement that in all the different elements of ADE to really help the industry push itself forward.”
Here are ten such takeaway points from ADE 2023.
Greater sustainability in the industry can be achieved by more strategic tour routing.
A presentation by Claire O’Neill, the CEO and co-founder of sustainability nonprofit A Greener Future, explored the many ways dance music and the wider industry can mitigate carbon emissions, from limiting meat consumption to avoiding private jets to routing tours more efficiently.
“When we have high-speed tours that are happening and you throw on an extra gig and have to go from one place to another … it’s costing a lot of extra expense, people’s time, trucks on the road, flights,” said O’Neill. “Slower tours and better planning are something we’ve been working on with agents and promoters for some time. It’s a slow burner, because these are very entrenched cultures … in order for us to change some of these systems, we’re going to need to actually change the deal structures … If we have to do dartboard tours and fly people all over the place in order to achieve [a show or tour], it’s never going to be sustainable.”
Labels can help break an artist from emerging markets by focusing on listeners from that market who live elsewhere.
During a discussion on how artists from big, foreign markets can gain global traction, Selina Chowdhury, the Head of Marketing for Emerging Markets at Warner Music Group, noted that “something that’s been key and a focus for our artists is marketing to diaspora markets. For example, [for] India, we’re looking at Canada, Australia, the U.S., the U.A.E. and more. There’s probably well over 30 million people.”
She added this this marketing can be achieved by collaborations with artists in these diaspora markets, through touring in these places or through “custom short form content” that can travel and resonate with potential fans thousands of miles away.
Punjabi music is about to be huge.
“I think something that we’ve been starting to hear a lot about in the international music scene, and we’ll hear a lot more about, is Punjabi music — which is really exciting,” Chowdhury added during this presentation, referring to the style of music that originated in India’s Punjab region. “We have a lot of artists that are using traditional rhythms of melodies and are fusing them with more contemporary styles like R&B and hip-hop, especially out of Toronto.”
She specifically name checked Canadian artists Ikky, AP Dillon and Indian artist Diljit Dosanjhdoji, who this year became the first ever Punjabi artist to perform at Coachella.
There’s a method artists can use to get their music noticed by Beatport curators.
Roughly 30,000 tracks are submitted to digital download store Beatport every week. “We’re still one of the only platforms that really puts a lot emphasis on human curation, but obviously we have limits,” the platform’s SVP of Creator Services Helen Sartory said during a panel on essential info to know about the brand. “We can’t listen to and put judgments on 30,000 tracks a week.”
Sartory said that the most crucial thing artists can do to stand out is to have a great relationship with their distributors. “It’s the distributors that send us their list of priorities every week and say, ‘Out of all of the tracks we’re sending this week, these are the ones that we really want your curation team to spend some time on,’ and we do listen to everything on that priority list,” she noted. She added that despite some misconceptions, the platform does not require that artists have a certain social following or level of revenue attached to their music to get placement on the platform.
“It really just is about, ‘Do our curators vibe with the music, and do they think there’s a place for it in their genre?’” Sartory said.
Track tags and IDs are essential to help curators understand what’s working “in the wild.”
“If you’re a DJ and you’re posting clips of an amazing moment in your set, please credit the track and credit the artist, because we’re looking at all that stuff,” Sartory said during this same Beatport presentation. She referenced a statistic that 90% of DJs are not ID-ing their tracks in their social media clips, making, she says, “a real problem for the industry, because we want to be able to track that data.”
She also encouraged managers to push for music recognition technology to in clubs and at festival and for artists to register all their music with CMOs, so everyone gets paid when music is played in a set. Such registration also ensures that “when the music performed in the wild, we know about it,” says Sartory. “All of these data points are super important. It sounds boring, but through this [data] we can really spot exciting things happening, and that’s what we can get behind as a platform.”
Some artists had totally different careers before making it in music — just ask HoneyLuv.
During the conversation, Black Dance Music – A Conversation Across Multiple Generation, Detroit legend DJ Minx, BBC Radio 1 presenter Tiffany Calver, and house producer HoneyLuv, this latter artist referred to herself as “someone who likes to live multiple lives.” Indeed. Before rising through the dance scene, she played college basketball, which was “literally my life until I was 21. But then I suffered my second ACL tear in my knee and was like ‘yeah I can’t keep doing this, or I’m not going to be able to walk.’”
Having seen members of her family serve in law enforcement and the CIA, she then decided she also wanted to be in the CIA. To help get herself there, she enrolled in the navy, “but after the second year I was like’ this is not for me.’ I felt like I wasn’t challenged, and I like to be challenged in life.” During this “depressing time,” her friends suggested she do something in music, so she’d practice DJing in her barracks until 1a.m., then be back on duty at 4.am. That was just three years ago. “Never in a million years,” she said, “did I think I’d be in this position.”
Beyoncé‘s Renaissance “shined the light” on Black house artists.
“I did not appreciate them saying that Beyoncé brought back house music — because girl, where did it go, it’s always been right here,” DJ Minx observed during this same conversation. “That was the one thing that got to me. But I also have to say that we have to think about it from the other perspective, as well. Hundreds of thousands of people saw the Renaissance tour. Those people are now onto us that weren’t before… Let [Beyoncé] shine the light where it wasn’t before, because a lot of people do not know that we’re over here killing it. They didn’t, but they do now.”
The White Lotus theme song is meant to give you anxiety.
In a conversation with The White Lotus theme song composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer, he said the song’s “chaos somehow resonated with [the show’s] characters. This music is not really about Hawaii or anything like that, it’s really more about the chaos these stories are creating and the way the characters behave. They’re like savages. They’re abusive. It’s pretty wild, so the wild side of the music is representing that, and somehow mocking them too.”
He added that all the screaming in the song, by design, contributes to the show’s tension. “That’s something we talked about with [series creator Mike White],” added Tapia de Veer. “He wanted it to feel like something terrible was going to happen by the end of an episode…and even though the music is groovy, it made people anxious in some weird way.”
There are straightforward steps artists can take to gain traction on Spotify.
A panel discussion with several Spotify employees noted that the platform currently has 551 million monthly active users, including 222 million paid subscribers in 184 markets. The team said that artists can help connect with fans on the platform by keeping their artist pages current, citing a 77% traffic bump on these pages when an artist releases new music. But given that 50% of artists customize their artist pages after a release, audiences are often missing key info.
Spotify’s Canvas feature, with which artists can pair an eight-second visual loop to a song, also impacts consumption. The presentation noted that listeners who see a Canvas are 5% more likely keep streaming the song, 145% more likely to share it, 20% more likely to add it to playlists, 1.4% more likely to save the track and 9% more likely to visit an artist’s profile page.
A redesigned events feature is also helping artists make more money through Spotify.
A repositioning of the upcoming events of an artist’s Spotify page has, according to the presentation, given these events sections 70% more views, generating 15% more ticket sales.
The K-pop agency ATTRAKT announced that it has terminated its contracts with three of the four members of the girl group FIFTY FIFTY, stating that the three members — Aran, Sio and Saena — had “slandered and defamed the agency” and sought to break their contracts.
The termination is in response to an apparent contract dispute between all four members of the group and ATTRAKT that arose in June, according to the Korea Times, wherein the group alleged that ATTRAKT had breached its contract by “failing to provide accounting data” and neglecting the group’s mental health, according to the outlet. Since then, the fourth member of the group, Keena, dropped her lawsuit and returned to the agency.
FIFTY FIFTY broke out onto the charts in a major way earlier this year with their hit “Cupid,” which initially gained momentum on TikTok before rising to No. 17 on the Hot 100 and spending two weeks at No. 1 on the Global Ex-U.S. chart in May, while also reaching the top 10 of the Pop Airplay chart in July, peaking at No. 7 and becoming just the second K-pop group, behind BTS, to reach that territory. The group, which was formed by ATTRAKT last year, signed a deal with Warner Records / Warner Music Group Korea in April of this year.
A rep for Warner Records did not return a request for comment..
In its statement, ATTRAKT also alleged a “conspiracy” between the three members of the group and Sung-il Ahn, also known as SIAHN, who is the founder/CEO of The Givers, a K-pop consulting firm that co-managed the group alongside Attrakt and who is the producer of “Cupid.” According to the Korea Times, Attrakt has filed a suit for damages against SIAHN and The Givers over its involvement in the contract dispute, alleging SIAHN attempted to poach the group away from ATTRAKT.
In April, SIAHN told Billboard that ATTRAKT and The Givers were taking a different approach towards the group than the typical K-pop company does with its artists, which typically combine management and label services under one roof.
“We plan to propose a new label structure for FIFTY FIFTY — a separate label for them, solely concentrating on the artist’s development,” SIAHN said at the time. “K-pop companies have an entrenched ‘artist-agency’ relationship, which poses a significant obstacle to an artist’s long-term global expansion. To overcome this persistent problem, The Givers is exploring a structure where the label directly contracts with the artist while the main producer oversees the creative aspects of the group and collaborates with the label.”
A new documentary about the life and career of Moses Michael “Shyne” Levi Barrow is now in production. The Honorable: Shyne is the latest project in the works from Andscape, the Black-led multimedia platform affiliated with Disney and ESPN. Leading production on the documentary is ColorCreative, the Black-owned and female-led management and production firm whose principals are Issa Rae, Deniese Davis and Talitha Watkins.
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The Honorable: Shyne will document Barrow’s trajectory from rapper to politician. Currently Leader of the Opposition in the Belize House of Representatives and leader of the Belize United Democratic Party, Barrow was launching his recording career with Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy label when a shooting incident outside Club New York in 1999 led to his incarceration for nearly nine years. Released in 2009, Barrow is known for such hits as “Bad Boyz” and “Bonnie & Shyne.”
In an exclusive statement to Billboard about the upcoming documentary, Shyne said, “Immigrating from Belize to Brooklyn as a child left to survive and thrive in the concrete jungle of New York, hip-hop had a massive influence on my life, giving me the space and community to explore my creativity and amplify the voice of my pain and purpose. The difficult decisions of my life have shaped me into the person I am today, steadfast in my desire to build a better life for the people of Belize and humanity. By bringing my story to audiences, I hope to inspire them to find the indomitable spirit within so they can overcome all adversities and be the best version of themselves positively impacting their part of humanity with their unique footprint as I have done through music, faith and public service.”
The Honorable: Shyne is being directed by Marcus A. Clarke, whose credits include Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali and The WIZRD about Atlanta rap star Future. In a press release announcing the Barrow documentary, Clarke said, “I intend for this film to immerse audiences in Shyne’s remarkable journey of transformation, as he transitions from a Brooklyn rapper to a prominent diplomat in Belize. It captures his profound process of self-discovery, marked by redemption, ultimately guiding him toward a life dedicated to public service. The world has waited patiently to hear Shyne’s story, so it’s truly a privilege for me to collaborate with ColorCreative and Andscape to bring this film to life.”
Executive producers for The Honorable: Shyne include DJ Khaled, Talitha Watkins, Carolina Groppa, James Shani, Ameer Collier and Raina Kelley. Noted Watkins in the press announcement, “The Honorable: Shyne will capture the essence of Barrow’s journey, providing viewers with unprecedented access to his experiences. It paints a comprehensive picture of a man who has overcome immense challenges, to redefine his life, make a positive impact on his community and reconcile with his past.”
Spotify reported its first profitable quarter in more than a year on Tuesday, after subscription price hikes, lay offs and marketing budget cuts helped boost revenues and operating income for music streaming and podcasting giant.
Spotify reported revenues for the third quarter rose 11% to 3.4 billion euros ($3.6 billion), and operating income over 32 million euros ($34 million). The company beat its growth guidance on both monthly active users and subscribers, adding 23 million monthly active users, a 26% uplift, for a total of 574 million compared to the year ago period. The number of premium subscribers rose by 6 million, or 16%, to 226 million from the year ago period.
The company said that the uptick in revenue is due to the early effects of its $1 price hike on premium individual plans and a rebound in the ad market, as improving podcasting trends and lower operating expenses after January’s company-wide cost cuts helped operating income turn a 1% profit.
The company told investors they could expect total monthly active users (MAU) and premium subscribers to continue to grow for the rest of the year–by 27 million net new MAUs and 9 million new subscribers in the fourth quarter 2023–which is expected to boost total revenues by 3% and gross margin by 0.2%.
Spotify reported a free cash flow of 216 million euros for the quarter, up from 25 million euros a year ago. As of Sept. 30, the company says it employed 9,241 full time employees worldwide, down from roughly 9,800 at the end of 2022.
Spotify has been managing a reboot of its podcasting strategy this year, moving away from the hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring podcast start-up and programing under former Chief Content Officer Dawn Ostroff. Spotify now hosts over 100 million tracks, 5 million podcasts titles, and 350,000 audiobooks.
The company also benefitted from a rebound in ad-supported revenue, which rose 16% to 447 million euros ($475 million), helped by a 20% uptick in music. “Podcast advertising revenue growthremained in the healthy double-digit range,” according to a Spotify release.
Monthly active users rose by 26% to 574 million, compared to the third quarter 2022, beating guidance by 2 million.
The number of subscribers rose by 16% to 226 million from the year ago period, also ahead of guidance by 2 million.
Ad-supported monthly active users rose by 32% to 361 million from the year ago period.
Total revenue rose 11% to 3.36 billion euros ($3.57 billion) from 3.04 billion euros ($3.2 billion).
Revenue from preimium subscriptions rose by 10% to 2.9 billion euros ($3.08 billion).
Revenue from ad supported users rose 16% to 447 million euros ($475 million).
Operating income was 32 million euros ($34 million), bosted by higher gross margin and lower personnel and marketing costs.
The company’s gross margin was 26.4%, compared to 24.7% in the third quarter 2022.
Rema and Davido were the top winners at the 2023 Trace Awards, which were held in Kigali, Nigeria, on Saturday (Oct. 21). The Trace Awards are a new awards franchise created by Trace, a global TV and multimedia platform. The purpose of the awards is to recognize African and Afro-influenced musicians from Africa and around the African diasporas.
Rema won two awards — song of the year for his global smash “Calm Down” and best global African artist (in a tie with Nomcebo). A remix of “Calm Down” with Selena Gomez reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Davido also won two awards — best male and best collaboration. He won the latter award for “Unavailable,” a collab with Musa Keys.
Burna Boy won album of the year for Love Damini.
The Trace Awards included performances by approximately 50 Africa and Afro-inspired artists from around the world, including Davido, Yemi Alade, Mr Eazi and Diamond Platnumz.
In addition to the competitive categories listed below, awards were presented in three categories in which no nominees were announced. They were: a lifetime achievement award to 2Face, a Change Maker award to Mr Eazi (Nigeria) and the aforementioned best Global African artist award to Rema and Nomcebo.
Here’s the full list of winners and nominees from the 2023 Trace Awards:
Album of the Year
DNK – Aya Nakamura (France)
WINNER: Love Damini – Burna Boy (Nigeria)
Maverick – Kizz Daniel (Nigeria)
More Love, Less Ego – Wizkid (Nigeria)
Timeless – Davido (Nigeria)
Work of Art – Asake (Nigeria)
Song of the Year
“BKBN” – Soraia Ramos (Cape Verde)
“People” – Libianca (Cameroon)
“Suavemente” – Soolking (France)
“Encre” – Emma’a (Gabon)
“Sugarcane” – Camidoh (Ghana)
“Last Last” – Burna Boy (Nigeria)
“Rush” – Ayra Starr (Nigeria)
WINNER: “Calm Down” – Rema (Nigeria)
“Peru” – Fireboy DML (Nigeria) with Ed Sheeran (UK)
“Sete” – K.O (South Africa)
“Cough” – Kizz Daniel (Nigeria)
“MORTEL 06” – Innoss’B (DRC)
Best Music Video
“2 Sugar” – Wizkid (Nigeria) feat. Ayra Starr (Nigeria)
WINNER: “Baddie” – Yemi Alade (Nigeria)
“Kpaflotage” – Suspect 95 (Ivory Coast)
“Loaded” – Tiwa Savage(Nigeria) & Asake (Nigeria)
“Ronda” – Blxckie (South Africa)
“Tombolo” – Kalash (Martinique)
Yatapita” – Diamond Platnumz (Tanzania)
Best Male
Asake (Nigeria)
Burna Boy (Nigeria)
WINNER: Davido (Nigeria)
Diamond Platnumz (Tanzania)
Didi B (Ivory Coast)
K.O (South Africa)
Rema (Nigeria)
Best Female
Ayra Starr (Nigeria)
Josey (Ivory Coast)
Nadia Mukami (Kenya)
Soraia Ramos (Cape Verde)
Tiwa Savage (Nigeria)
WINNER: Viviane Chidid (Senegal)
Best Collaboration
“Many Ways” – BNXN (Nigeria) with Wizkid (Nigeria)
“Mine” – Show Dem Camp (Nigeria) with Oxlade (Nigeria)
“Peru” – Fireboy DML (Nigeria) with Ed Sheeran (UK)
“Second Sermon” – Black Sherif (Ghana) with Burna Boy (Nigeria)
“Sete” – K.O (South Africa) with Young Stunna (South Africa), Blxckie (South Africa)
“Stamina” – Tiwa Savage with Ayra Starr (Nigeria) & Young Jonn (Nigeria)
“Trumpet” – Olamide (Nigeria) with Ckay (Nigeria)
WINNER: “Unavailable” – Davido (Nigeria) with Musa Keys (South Africa)
Best Newcomer
Azawi (Uganda)
Krys M (Cameroon)
Libianca (Cameroon)
Nissi (Nigeria)
Odumodublvck (Nigeria)
Pabi Cooper (South Africa)
WINNER: Roseline Layo (Ivory Coast)
Best DJ
Danni Gato (Cape Verde)
DJ BDK (Ivory Coast)
DJ Illans (France)
DJ Spinall (Nigeria)
WINNER: Michael Brun (Haiti)
Uncle Waffles (Swaziland)
Best Producer
DJ Maphorisa (South Africa)
Juls (Ghana)
Kabza de Small (South Africa)
Kel-P (Nigeria)
WINNER: Tam Sir (Ivory Coast)
Best Gospel Artist
Benjamin Dube (South Africa)
Janet Otieno (Kenya)
WINNER: KS Bloom (Ivory Coast)
Levixone (Uganda)
Moses Bliss (Nigeria)
Best Live
Burna Boy (Nigeria)
WINNER: Fally Ipupa (DRC)
Musa Keys (South Africa)
The Compozers (Ghana)
Wizkid (Nigeria)
Yemi Alade (Nigeria)
Best Dancer
WINNER: Robot Boii (South Africa)
Tayc (France)
Uganda Ghetto Kids (Uganda)
Yemi Alade (Nigeria)
Zuchu (Tanzania)
Best Artist Africa – Anglophone
WINNER: Asake (Nigeria)
Ayra Starr (Nigeria)
Black Sherif (Ghana)
Davido (Nigeria)
Diamond Platnumz (Tanzania)
Fireboy DML (Nigeria)
Best Artist Africa – Francophone
WINNER: Didi B (Ivory Coast)
Emma’a (Gabon)
Fally Ipupa (DRC)
KO-C (Cameroon)
Locko (Cameroon)
Serge Beynaud (Ivory Coast)
Viviane Chidid (Senegal)
Best Artist Africa – Lusophone
Gerilson Insrael (Angola)
WINNER: Lisandro Cuxi (Cape Verde)
Perola (Angola)
Plutonio (Mozambique)
Soraia Ramos (Cape Verde)
Best Artist – Rwanda
Ariel Wayz (Rwanda)
WINNER: Bruce Melodie (Rwanda)
Bwiza (Rwanda)
Chriss Eazy (Rwanda)
Kenny Sol (Rwanda)
Best Artist – East Africa
Bruce Melodie (Rwanda)
WINNER: Diamond Platnumz (Tanzania)
Zuchu (Tanzania)
Khaligraph (Kenya)
Nadia Mukani (Kenya)
Azawi (Uganda)
Best Artist – France & Belgium
Aya Nakamura (France)
Booba (France)
Nihno (France)
Ronisia (France)
Soolking (France)
WINNER: Tayc (France)
Best Artist – UK
WINNER: Central Cee (UK)
Headie One (UK)
Ms Banks (UK)
Raye (UK)
Stormzy (UK)
Best Artist – The Caribbean
Admiral T (Guadeloupe)
Bamby (French Guiana)
Kalash (Martinique)
Maureen (Martinique)
Popcaan (Jamaica)
Princess Lover (Martinique)
WINNER: Rutshelle Guillaume (Haiti)
Shenseea (Jamaica)
Best Artist – Indian Ocean
Donovan BTS (Mauritius)
GaEi (Madagascar)
WINNER: Goulam (Comoros)
Mik’l (Reunion)
Sega el (Reunion)
Terrell Elymoor (Mayotte)
Best Artist – Brazil
Djonga (Brazil)
Iza (Brazil)
Leo Santana (Brazil)
WINNER: Ludmilla (Brazil)
Luedji Luna (Brazil)
Best Artist – North Africa
Amira Zouhair (Morocco)
Artmasta (Tunisia)
WINNER: Dystinct (Morocco)
El Grande Toto (Morocco)
Kader Japonais (Algeria)
Raja Meziane (Algeria)
Kanye West‘s planned concert in Italy will likely not be taking place after all, sources tell Billboard Italy. West, who now goes by Ye, had been planning to perform at RCF Arena (formerly known as Campovolo) in Reggio Emilia on Oct. 27. The show, which was being organized by Italian promoter Vivo Concerti, was never […]
aespa – “Spicy”
Agust D (Suga) – “People Pt.2” (Feat. IU)
AKMU – “Love Lee”
Anne-Marie, Minnie – “Expectations”
ASH ISLAND – “Goodbye” (Feat. Paul Blanco)
BIG Naughty – “Hopeless Romantic” (Feat. Lee Suhyun)
BIG Naughty – “With me” (The Interest of Love OST)
BSS (SEVENTEEN) – “Fighting” (Feat. Lee Young Ji)
BTOB – “Wind and Wish”
BTS – “Take Two”
BTS – “The Planet” (BASTIONS OST)
DAWN – “Dear My Light”
(G)I-DLE – “Queencard”
Hwasa – “I Love My Body”
IVE – “I AM”
J-Hope – “on the street” (with J. Cole)
Jay Park – “Candy” (Feat. Zion.T)
Jeon Somi – “Fast Forward”
Jihyo – “Killin’ Me Good”
Jimin – “Like Crazy”
Jisoo – “FLOWER”
Jungkook – “Seven” (Feat. Latto)
Kai – “Rover”
LE SSERAFIM – “UNFORGIVEN” (Feat. Nile Rodgers)
Lee Chae Yeon – “KNOCK”
Lee Mujin – “Ordinary Confession”
Lim Jae Hyun – “Heaven (2023)” (It Was Spring OST)
Lim Young Woong – “London Boy”
M.C the MAX – “Eternity”
MeloMance – “A Shining Day”
NCT 127 – “Ay-Yo”
NCT DREAM – “Candy”
NewJeans – “Ditto”
Parc Jae Jung – “Let’s Say Goodbye”
Paul Kim – “You Remember” (The Glory OST)
SEVENTEEN – “Super”
STAYC – “Teddy Bear”
Stray Kids – “S-Class”
Taeyang – “VIBE” (Feat. Jimin)
Taeyong – “SHALALA”
TXT – “Goodbye Now” (Love Revolution OST)
TXT – “Sugar Rush Ride”
V – “Love Me Again”
ZEROBASEONE – “In Bloom”
Zior Park – “CHRISTIAN”