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While 2022 will be remembered as the year that Taylor Swift made history as the first artist to populate the entire top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 with songs from her album Midnights (among other chart records), Billboard’s annual Money Makers ranking of music’s top royalty and box-office earners reveals that she dominated 2021 as well.
Swift, who released two (Taylor’s Version) rerecorded albums, finished the year as the No. 1 earner globally with an estimated $65.8 million in take-home pay. That’s an impressive sum considering she did not tour, which usually constitutes the lion’s share of an act’s annual income, and last year’s runner-up, The Rolling Stones, spent three months on the road last fall concluding their No Filter Tour.
Swift topped the ranking because she owns half of her studio record catalog and because of the strength of her sales and streaming income, $29.8 million and $28.9 million, respectively, in a year that saw her international streams surpass her U.S. streams, 9 billion to 6.8 billion, a 34% increase.
The Stones’ live dates, all of which took place in the United States, resulted in a $44.5 million box-office take. That played the biggest role in boosting the veteran rockers to No. 1 on Billboard’s U.S. Money Makers ranking with a total income of $50.8 million.
But Swift, who finished second in the U.S. ranking — she and the Stones have swapped the top two spots since 2018 — was not far behind with $38.8 million, largely on the strength of her master recording royalties.
Compared side-by-side, the top five earners on the global and U.S. Money Makers rankings are nearly identical, with Harry Styles holding the No. 3 spot on both, $41.3 million and $37 million, respectively; and Drake at No. 5, with $30.7 million and $23.8 million. The big difference can be found at No. 4, where K-pop superstars BTS reside on the global ranking, with a $38.4 million in 2021 take-home pay, and the hard-touring Eagles occupy the U.S. tally, with earnings of $27.3 million.
Methodology
Money Makers was compiled with 2021 Luminate and Billboard Boxscore data, the RIAA’s physical and digital revenue report for 2021, and IFPI global revenue statistics. All revenue figures cited are Billboard estimates and may not equal the sum of the subcategories due to rounding and the omission of revenue categories. Global sales were extrapolated for 21 artists that ranked highest on the 2020 Money Makers list. Global artist royalties were extrapolated using U.S. revenue totals, minus 30% of international royalties in line with major-label contractual clauses for foreign distribution.
U.S. formulas were used to estimate publishing revenue. Calculating royalties from master-recording performance rights was not possible because those rights do not exist for most uses in the United States. Unless otherwise noted, references to streaming totals consist of combined on-demand audio, video and programmed streams. References to recording-career totals are the sum of an act’s sales, streaming and publishing earnings. Revenue from featured-artist appearances, merchandising, synchronization and sponsorship is not included. Touring revenue, after the manager’s cut, equals 34% of an act’s Boxscore. Sales royalties were calculated based on physical and digital albums and track sales. Streaming royalties consist of on-demand audio and video streams, and estimated royalties from webcasting, SiriusXM and Music Choice.
The following royalty rates were used: album and track sales, 22% of retail revenue; 66% of wholesale if the artist owns his or her masters. On-demand streaming royalties were calculated using blended audio and video rates of, respectively, $0.0053 and $0.0038 per stream, applied against a 37% superstar-artist royalty rate; 50% for heritage artists (acts that have released at a minimum of 10 albums or been active for at least 20 years); and 79% for artist-owned masters. Further, a blended statutory subscription per-stream rate of $0.0024 was applied to programmed streams and per-play estimated rates of 74 cents for Music Choice and $46 for SiriusXM. Royalties for programmed streams were calculated on a similar basis using a 50% base royalty rate; 68% for artists that own some of their masters and 100% for artists that own all their masters, minus 5% for side performers.
Publishing royalties were estimated using statutory mechanical rates for album and track sales. The Copyright Royalty Board streaming formula produced an average rate of 13.4% of streaming revenue, an average of $2.50 per play for hit songs; $1 per play for heritage spins and genre songs that didn’t attain hit status; and per-play publishing rates of 40 cents for Music Choice, $8.33 for SiriusXM and $0.0003 for programmed streams. A 10% manager’s fee and 4% producer’s fee were deducted from the appropriate revenue streams.
Ryokuoushoku Shakai frontwoman and songwriter Haruko Nagaya and keyboardist peppe are the next featured artists on Billboard Japan’s Women in Music interview series highlighting trailblazing women in the Japanese music industry. The initiative launched this year in the same spirit of Billboard’s annual event that began in 2007, with a mission to celebrate the women who continue to break new ground in Japan’s music business through contents including interviews, live performances and panel discussions.
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The four members of Ryokuoushoku Shakai — two women and two men — formed the now hugely popular band in high school and celebrated their tenth anniversary in music this year. The J-pop group continues to soar, successfully performing its first headlining show at the prestigious Nippon Budokan in Tokyo in September.
But Nagaya admits that until recently, she’d been hitting a wall, feeling that she couldn’t go on unless something changed. She speaks about how she overcame those obstacles and shares her newfound vision in this interview with Billboard Japan, while peppe looks back on watching her bandmate grapple with various expectations and arriving at some of her own realizations through frank discussions amongst the members.
Could you tell us about the women you look up to?
Haruko Nagaya: Mine would be (J-pop singer-songwriter) Ai Otsuka. I’ve always loved music and singing since I was a child, but after encountering Ai Otsuka’s songs, I was drawn to music even further. I fell in love with her very catchy song “Sakuranbo” (Cherry) and she has this gap between the cute first impression and her unpretentious personality that shows through her Kansai dialect. She also comes across as having a great deal of curiosity and those aspects were really attractive to me. Even now, I find that women who have that kind of distinctive individuality and unique gap like I felt with Ai Otsuka at the time are delightful, and I’d like to be that way, too.
peppe: I’ve never admired a single particular person growing up. Instead, I’ve created this image of the kind of person I admire by picking out and listing the good qualities of different people. It’s like I’m trying to incorporate as many of those qualities on that list as possible to bring myself closer to that image in my mind. If I were to explain the image in a nutshell, I guess it would be “a dignified woman.” I think when I make choices in my daily life, I’m subconsciously thinking, “What would a dignified woman do?” I want to keep accumulating even minor things like studying English, reading books, and being aware of people’s gazes as much as I can.
I’m sure there are listeners who consider you two as women who inspire them. Do you think being a woman influences your musical activities?
Nagaya: When I write lyrics, that means it’s from a woman’s point of view, obviously. A man could write lyrics with a woman as the subject, but I imagine the essence would elude him, so I think there’s significance in me expressing my honest feelings. Also, as a general tendency, more and more men are able to cleanly hit high notes and their vocal range is widening, so I feel frustrated because there’s a limit to the lower notes I can hit as a vocalist.
peppe: Those kinds of biological differences are limiting, aren’t they? As a keyboardist, it’s unfortunately true that my hands are smaller than men. But that’s a given so I make an effort to exhibit my originality through my way of expression, like how I play.
Nagaya: I also feel that people seem to expect me to present myself in a pretty specific way. I’m moved by the shows and performances of bands that expose their true selves and the things they carry within in a raw and honest way, but the things being externalized that way aren’t only the pretty parts, right? There’s a profundity that’s enhanced by expressing even the not-so-pretty parts. But maybe I’ve been putting up a barrier as well, and it’s like the people around me expect me to be a certain way.
peppe: Nagaya and I talked about this recently. I wasn’t aware of it, but when I thought about it again after she mentioned it, I could sympathize with her in some ways. She’s our vocalist and gets a lot of media exposure, so she must have felt that way often.
Nagaya: There’s a part of me that was reconciled to presenting myself in a way people expected, like uploading superficial content on social media to receive feedback. But even though I was the one doing that, there was a time when I couldn’t be genuinely happy when people wrote things like, “You’re so pretty” as a compliment. I was like, “That’s not what I want you to see, I want you to listen to my songs and look at what’s inside, at all the intensity.” It was frustrating to me that the “ideal Haruko Nagaya” and the “ideal Ryokuoushoku Shakai” had become entrenched in everyone’s mind.
Did you share this feeling with your bandmates?
peppe: We all discussed it before the Budokan concert. I thought it was difficult (to navigate) but there were some things I realized because she told us and we all became aware of it. I’m sure each member is handling it differently, but I’m glad I now know how she felt.
Nagaya: I remember peppe kindly saying, “We (the other members) were also being too dependent on those public expectations.” We’re glad people hold us up to high expectations and it’s easier to (go) along with it. And there’s no pushback that way. But I couldn’t keep going on like that anymore, so I decided to go all out for the Budokan show. I didn’t care if my makeup or hair was messed up, or if my face looked weird, I just went all out until I had nothing left inside. Now I try to stand on stage intending to convey what’s inside, even if my pitch is off somewhat.
peppe, what was it like for you, watching your bandmate’s change up close?
peppe: I felt her passion for music. There were times when I consciously wore pants to avoid being seen as feminine, but I might not have been thinking about things like that as deeply as she was. Even though we’re in the same band and were both women, we don’t feel 100 percent the same way, and I have my own way of proceeding. In that sense, I think the band itself would fall apart if we don’t know how each member feels at any given time, so I’m glad she told us. We were able to talk about it in the presence of all the crew as well as the band members, so maybe it was the right time for a change.
Nagaya: It was a great relief for me to be able to talk about it. I was able to get rid of a lot of hang-ups and change my behavior on stage, which also helped. I think the same goes for the lyrics I mentioned earlier. I want to convey genuine feelings by exposing even the most pathetic and ugly parts of myself, even if I’m a woman. I want to sing about everything including the part of me that longs to be strong but can’t always be that way.
It’s not that I only want to reach women, but I think that by (letting everything out), the music will be relatable to both men and women. There was a time when I thought about changing the first person in the lyrics to “boku” (generally used by men) to reach a wider audience. But now I want to create things that reach people in a deeper way, not just through a particular word choice.
In that sense, Ryokuoushoku Shakai is a band that’s supported by many people regardless of gender.
Nagaya: How people feel about gender can differ from generation to generation. We don’t hear much biased opinions from our fans, so I think many of them have balanced values. Since we started the band, we’ve been doing music hoping to become a household word, so we’re grateful and happy that many people are listening to our songs now, regardless of age or gender.
peppe: That’s so true. But as far as the industry is concerned, I sometimes feel that the ratio of women is still low. As a mixed-gender band, it’d be nice to have female staff members around, but they’re not always easy to find. Now I don’t mind so much, and when I’m not feeling well, I don’t hesitate to talk about it.
This veers away from the topic of music, but until recently, the main host on (Japanese) TV would always be a man and his assistant a woman. I hope we can achieve the kind of balanced society where competent people can do their jobs in appropriate positions regardless of gender.
Maybe we’re in transition when many things are changing. Looking back now, if you were to give advice to yourself in the first year of your career, what would say?
Nagaya: Sometimes I wish I’d spent my youth in this day and age. It feels like things are becoming more lenient. People are into different styles of fashion, hairstyles, and have different values, and the general vibe is more accepting of people as who they are. I really enjoy that feeling.
peppe: When we were students, it was a bit more like everyone chased the same thing, which led to a trend. It was scary to stray from that line.
Nagaya: Now, a wide variety of styles are accepted, so it’s easier to do what you want. I wonder how it would have been like if I’d spent my youth in these times, but I guess I feel that way now because I’ve reached this age. If I were still that age, maybe I’d be feeling some kind of peer pressure. But I want to tell my past self, “You’re setting your own boundaries and narrowing your possibilities.”
Listen to exclusive playlists curated by Haruko Nagaya here and peppe here.
This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan.
TOKYO — For non-Japanese music artists, Japan’s decades-long obsession with physical media has meant they must grapple with legacy strategies for getting attention in the world’s second-largest market — such as landing on a major Japanese TV show or getting CDs into a large brick-and-mortar retailer.
Now, new digital opportunities are emerging that could make it easier. A three-year-old YouTube channel, The First Take, is at the forefront of breaking new artists in Japan and nudging a market long allergic to the internet toward digital music consumption. The channel has featured a handful of big Western artists in 2022, including Harry Styles, who appeared in June to sing “Daughters” from this year’s Harry’s House, and Avril Lavigne, who in September offered up a stripped-down version of “Complicated.”
Launched in late 2019, The First Take now boasts more than 7 million subscribers. It landed its first viral videos with five episodes featuring singer-songwriter LiSA, who performed the opening theme to the anime series Demon Slayer. But it was in the early months of the pandemic when the channel — like other digital entertainment in Japan — surged in popularity.
Digital music sales, which have grown for eight straight years in Japan, jumped 13% to 89.54 billion yen ($660.3 million) in 2021 over 2020, while physical music consumption, which has fallen over the past three years, dipped slightly by 0.4% to 193.64 billion yen ($1.43 billion), according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan. (Physical sales still comprised 68.4% of total sales, easily the highest level of any major music market.)
Fresh-faced artists stepping up to the mic on The First Take to show off their skills — such as Yoasobi, Yuuri and DISH//— have gone on to top the Billboard Japan Hot 100 and produced videos with over 100 million views. They’ve done so primarily through digital and streaming channels, reflecting a shift in how listeners receive J-pop domestically.
When the team started work on the channel in 2019, “what we wanted to create was something you couldn’t see on TV, or more detailed than what you would see on a weekly music show,” says channel producer Makoto Uchida. They drew inspiration from NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts series and Germany’s Colors. “We decided to shoot it from the side, rather than the front, so that it felt like you were in the studio, getting a peek of the artist at work.”
They leaned into this sense of intimacy by positioning The First Take as, well, a first take, capturing whatever the artist sings into the microphone, with errors and emotion on full display. Channel director Naoko Furukawa says that early on, driving this point across to participating artists proved most challenging, as many came in assuming they would have the chance to redo performances.
Soshi Sakayama from The First Take
Kazuki Nagayama
The First Take saw a substantial increase in views, with uploads featuring young creators like DISH// and Yoasobi, who went from fledgling J-pop names to chart toppers, particularly on subscription services such as Spotify.
The First Take is among the first major music efforts in Japan to use streaming data to target the show’s main demographic of 20- and 30-year-olds, and to determine when artists should perform, says team member Kazuto Fushimi.
“The data shows that Japanese people listen to music by seasons,” Fushimi says. “I used that to cast songs that would fit well for this project at certain times of the year.”
Even after Japan loosened COVID-19 restrictions later in 2020, The First Take morphed into an internet-era version of weekly TV shows like Music Station, a music program featuring live performances that started airing in Japan in 1986. It has added a news platform, podcast and live concerts, and has also tried to bring in artists from other markets, initially from China and other Southeast Asian countries.
“We used anime and anime songs to get attention from those markets,” says Fushimi. “They weren’t made explicitly for foreign audiences, but we always made sure to put subtitles and other things so that everyone could follow along too.”
K-pop group Stray Kids was the first non-Japanese artist to appear on The First Take, in the spring of 2020. Fushimi says many new viewers came to the clip via Twitter, where fan communities were sharing it and explaining what The First Take was. The Korean act has appeared on the channel two more times since, which has further boosted their video views on YouTube. “The more that they’ve appeared, the more likely they are to appear on the ‘related’ videos list, which leads to more fan engagement,” Fushimi says.
Other K-pop acts have appeared on the channel since — most recently, burgeoning girl group Kep1er — as have acts from other parts of the continent, including a recent turn by Taiwanese artist WeiBird.
The team’s focus didn’t move beyond the region until this past summer when they landed Styles in June and started looking outside Asia to the West. The team put together English-language promotional materials for Twitter, knowing that it would get them new looks from abroad. Fushimi says Styles’ appearance generated the most tweets about any artist on The First Take to date. (The First Take’s producers declined to share how the Styles collaboration specifically came together.)
“Compared with Japanese artists, foreign artists really are quick about recording – they don’t take much time for rehearsals, they just jump right in,” Furukawa says. “Harry Styles only took 10 minutes after he showed up to the studio to do the actual recording.”
Lavigne’s video followed several months later, attracting over 7 million viewers (boosted by a domestic love for her music that has endured for decades), and offering The First Take another opportunity to tip-toe toward Western attention.
“It’s hard to export J-pop to the world,” Fushimi says, “but we want to use The First Take as a bridge to introduce great Japanese artists to the world.”
ReoNa from The First Take
Kazuki Nagayama
Rex Orange County has had all six counts of sexual assault dismissed in his native U.K. following an investigation by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
“Today, all charges against me have been dropped,” the British singer-songwriter (born Alexander O’Connor) tweeted on Thursday (Dec. 22). “The Crown Prosecution Service reviewed the evidence and decided that there is no merit in this case going to trial. I have always denied these allegations and am grateful that the independent evidence has cleared me of any wrongdoing. I have never assaulted anyone and I do not condone violence or abusive behaviour of any kind.”
In early October, O’Connor was charged with assaulting a woman in London on six separate occasions in June 2021. O’Connor had pleaded not guilty, and was set free on unconditional bail ahead of a provisional trial date set for Jan. 3, 2023.
The CPS concluded that the evidence “no longer met” its test for a prosecution, the BBC reported.
O’Connor reaffirmed his innocence in his statement on social media, saying that the only evidence against him was the accuser’s account, which was refuted by CCTV camera footage and testimony from another witness.
The singer-songwriter also addressed what he called “inaccuracies” surrounding the six charges.
“I was wrongly accused of touching someone one evening on their leg, neck, back, and bottom,” he wrote. “That led to 6 charges of sexual assault. The only evidence against me was the individual’s account. However, CCTV footage obtained by the police contradicted their version of events. Their partner was also present throughout the evening in question and gave a statement to the police which did not support the allegations against me.”
O’Connor concluded by noting that it’s “been a difficult time for everyone involved and I’d like to thank the people who have helped me through it as well as my family and loved ones for their continued support.”
O’Connor rose to prominence as Rex Orange County after being featured on Tyler, the Creator‘s 2017 album, Flower Boy, including the single “Boredom.” The English artist has released four studio albums, the last two — 2019’s Pony and 2022’s Who Cares? — on RCA Records in the United States. Both albums reached the top five on the Billboard 200, while Pony hit No. 1 on Top Alternative Albums. He has also tallied three singles in the top 10 of Billboard‘s Hot Rock Songs chart with “Pluto Projector,” “10/10” and “Face to Face.”
See O’Connor’s full statement on Twitter below.
TAIPEI — Back in the early 2000s, Taiwanese artists such as Jay Chou and Jolin Tsai dominated Chinese-speaking markets throughout Asia, creating a golden era for Taiwanese pop music. While some, like Chou, continued to be influential, other music stars from the island disappeared from the public eye amid increasingly fierce competition from Japan, South Korea and mainland China.
Two decades years later, Taiwanese artists are making a comeback, as TV variety shows and music platforms in mainland China, in a wave of nostalgia rife with political undertones, have pushed their re-emergence. In May, over 100 million people watched re-screenings of Chou concerts from his 2013 and 2019 world tours as part of Tencent Music Entertainment’s Live Concert Series — a record for online concerts that emerged during the pandemic.
That same month, Cyndi Wang — the now 40-year-old Taiwanese singer dubbed the “Sweetheart Goddess” for her sugary pop songs — topped a Chinese music chart after her appearance on the variety show Sisters Who Make Waves. Nine of her songs from the early 2000s took over Chinese streaming site QQ Music’s “rising hits” chart for about a week. Wang’s fans called to buy shares of Mango TV, the station broadcasting the show, and threatened to dump shares if she was eliminated from the show, according to Weibo posts.
“Her appearance on the variety show and the need for entertainment during pandemic lockdowns created the hit,” says Shao I-Te, former China representative of Channel V and general manager at EMI Music China. “It’s a sense of nostalgia. Her fans who have the most purchasing power are now in their 30s, and artists like Cyndi Wang are like a symbol of their youth. With her, everyone starts to miss the good old days of the millennium era.”
Yet with tensions between Taiwan and Beijing’s communist government mounting once again, Wang’s sudden return to fame has also drawn online criticism in mainland China. After former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s visit to Taiwan in August, netizens accused Wang of not supporting the “one China” principle after she initially failed to share a propaganda post from CCTV (Chinese state television) on social media site Weibo which declared “there is only one China in the world.”
Wang was among about 30 Taiwanese artists, including Chou and Tsai, that people online called out for not supporting the statement without hesitation. (She later reposted the CCTV message on Weibo and expressed support for the “one China” principle, which then generated criticism from Taiwanese citizens.)
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province, while Taiwan has its own constitution and democratically elected leaders. China has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control and has held military drills in the air and seas around Taiwan, including the firing of ballistic missiles after Pelosi’s visit.
The Rise and Fall of Taiwanese Music in Mainland China
Taiwan’s pop music export wave started in the 1980s when Teresa Teng swept mainland China by storm. Then Jacky Cheung‘s 1993 album The Kiss Goodbye sold 1.36 million copies in Taiwan and over 4 million copies in greater China — sales that surpassed U.S. album sales for Madonna and Bruce Springsteen around that time, which helped entice global record companies to enter the Asian market.
Universal, Warner, Sony, EMI and BMG established their Asian hubs in Hong Kong, bringing capital and production technology and further spreading the influence of Hong Kong and Taiwanese pop music across Asia.
After the financial crisis in 1997, Hong Kong’s economy struggled, and a group of newcomers appeared in Taiwan. In 2001, Shao’s Channel V named Chou best male singer; it was the first time someone replaced Hong Kong’s Four Heavenly Kings in this award category. Since then, artists such as F4, Mayday, Tsai and Singaporean artists Stefanie Sun and JJ Lin — who went to Taiwan to jumpstart their careers — started to influence the next decade’s music.
“People born from 1980 to 1995, this entire generation has become an important generation supporting these singers, who have purchasing power and great acceptance of pop music, and with their help, these artists created the music taste of a generation,” Shao says.
In 2004, during the Taiwanese golden age, Wang performed her hit “Love You” on the Sisters Who Make Waves variety show. But after the global financial downturn of 2008, and the rise of China’s economy that followed, the fortunes of Taiwanese artists began to change.
Cyndi Wang attends a press conference to promote her new album on December 16, 2018 in Taipei, Taiwan of China.
Visual China Group via GI
Around 2010, Chinese internet giants Tencent, Netease, Alibaba and Baidu kicked off an era of online music streaming that created a more distinct mainland Chinese market, which made it tougher for Taiwanese and Hong Kong pop music to break into China.
By 2018, despite a history of rampant piracy, China had grown into the seventh-largest music market in the world with $531.3 million in total revenues that year, according to IFPI. (Taiwan, which has 23.5 million people — a small fraction of China’s 1.4 billion — has held around No. 25 the past few years.)
“Taiwan continues to breed contemporary pop acts but with reduced probability of success in the mainland market,” says Xing Xiaole, French music distributor Believe’s Beijing-based head of artist services for China. He says that’s because Taiwanese artists have struggled to adapt to the distinct ecosystem of Chinese social and advertising platforms, and had to endure travel and group gathering restrictions during the pandemic.
Xing, who also deals with Taiwanese clients, says the biggest Taiwanese music influence in mainland China today comes from indie bands such as the jazz-influenced synth-pop group Sunset Rollercoaster and The Chairs, which releases songs written in English, Mandarin, Japanese and the Taiwanese dialect.
But the rise of mainland China’s market means that Chinese-speaking musicians can no longer rely on Taiwan as a starting point to become as influential as before. Some of them choose to head west to China. And when tensions flare between China and its island neighbor, they often get tangled up in the political wrestling across the Taiwan Strait.
In the 1980s, the Taiwanese government used Teresa Teng’s love ballads, which were popular across China and then banned by communist Beijing, in anti-communist propaganda broadcasts.
The Chinese government, for its part, often requires artists to toe the party line, including referring to Taiwan as being part of China. Taiwanese singers whose careers are based in China have been invited to attend CCTV’s New Year’s Gala to spread pro-unification thoughts.
“There’s always been a red line for Taiwanese artists in mainland China, ever since the 1980s,” Shao says. “What the new generation of artists can do is draw from their everyday experiences and create music that can connect with the world.”
MUMBAI — In a post-pandemic year when Hindi films finally returned to the cinemas in full force, their soundtracks were expected to claim back some of the audience they lost to “non-film” releases on Indian music streaming services. That didn’t happen.
In 2022, Bollywood lost some of its clout to movies from south India at the box-office — such as the Oscar-tipped Telugu blockbuster RRR. And on the audio-streaming charts, regional language and independent music proved that the growth of the non-film segment over the last two years wasn’t just a passing fad.
The past 12 months have shown India’s music industry that a hit can come from just about anywhere, such as a TV series in Pakistan or a Punjabi rapper in Canada. Or even from a pathologist and part-time Hindi singer in Chandigarh like Aditya A., whose two-year-old song “Chaand Baaliyaan” went viral on Instagram Reels, reached No. 5 on Spotify for the year and landed him a deal with Sony Music India.
Billboard’s look at the most-played (and viewed) tracks of 2022 on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube in India highlights the ways in which the country’s consumption patterns are evolving and how the nation, with its continent-like range of states and languages, is among the most dynamic music markets in the world.
International music’s share is shrinking
A sole English-language track, short format video sensation “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals, is on Spotify’s year-end top 10. None appear on Apple Music, on which “Heat Waves” was also the most-heard international song of 2022 (it’s in the top 15 on the platform). A year ago hits in non-Indian languages represented 40% of 2021’s top 10 tunes on both services. However, this doesn’t mean that listenership of international music is falling. As Spotify and Apple Music — global platforms whose early adopters were English-speaking users in large cities — expand their customer bases in India, consumption is increasing in absolute terms, even though the overall share of foreign tracks on the services is decreasing. Significantly, international hits account for nearly 30% of Spotify’s top 100 of 2022. Short format video fueled the streaming success of a majority of these songs, such as Ruth B.’s “Dandelions” from 2017 and Elley Duhé’s “Middle Of The Night” from 2020.
Bollywood isn’t as big as it used to be
Bollywood or Hindi film music’s share of overall listenership has been steadily falling over the last three years and this is reflected once again in 2022’s biggest hits. The percentage of Bollywood songs in Spotify’s year-end top 10 fell from 80% in 2020 to 30% this year, a proportion that includes two older tracks, “Raataan Lambiyan” and “Ranjha” from Shershaah, which were No. 1 and No. 2 for all of 2021. This time, the highest-ranked Hindi film hit is another ballad, “Kesariya” from Brahmastra, at No. 3. On Apple Music’s year-end top 10, the decline has been more gradual, from 50% in 2020 to 40% in 2021 and 30% in 2022, a share made up of the aforementioned “Ranjha” and “Kesariya” and “Doobey” from Gehraiyaan. Surprisingly, there’s not a single Bollywood smash in YouTube’s list of top 10 music videos, which only lists 2022 releases. There were two in 2020 and in 2021 when the No. 1 video of the year was “Lut Gaye” from the movie Mumbai Saga.
Regional language music rules YouTube
The consumption of music in Indian regional languages — songs in languages apart from Hindi, Urdu and English — has been increasing exponentially as internet penetration rises and streaming services gain users across the country’s smaller cities, towns and rural areas. Regional language music streamers’ first port of call is YouTube on which the 2022 top 10 includes tracks in Tamil (the official music and lyric videos of “Arabic Kuthu” from the film Beast), Haryanvi (“Kacha Badam”, a remake of a viral Bengali hit), Bhojpuri (“Le Le Aayi Coca Cola” and “Nathuyina”), Telugu (“Oo Antava Mawa Oo Oo Antava” from the movie Pushpa: The Rise) and Punjabi (“Pasoori” from the Pakistani version of music TV series Coke Studio). Notably, the three Hindi tracks that make up the rest of the chart — “Srivalli,” “Saami Saami” and “Oo Bolega Ya Oo Oo Bolega” — are dubbed versions of Telugu tunes from the soundtrack of Pushpa, an action drama that was also released in Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil.
Punjabi music has crossed over into the mainstream
Out of all of India’s regional languages, Punjabi music has the largest listenership, thanks partly to its similarity to Hindi. Over the last two decades, it’s become increasingly common for Hindi film songs to have Punjabi lyrics. Punjabi’s music popularity has even spread to parts of the country where it isn’t widely spoken. Evidence of this is seen on Apple Music’s top 10 for 2022 on which Punjabi hits comprise the top eight. Five of them feature Canadian hip-hop artist A. P. Dhillon whose breakthrough smash “Brown Munde” was No. 1 for 2021 and whose “Excuses” was No. 1 all this year. “Excuses” tops Spotify’s list too. But the Punjabi music party is not limited to one act. “No Love” by Canadian rapper and singer Shubh is No. 4 on Spotify and “Bijlee Bijlee” by pop singer and actor Harrdy Sandhu is No. 7 on Apple Music.
“Pasoori” proves a cross-border sensation
Strained relations between India and Pakistan have led to a ban on Indian films in Pakistan and a similar restriction on the hiring of Pakistani actors and singers in India. But when it comes to the charts, both nations love thy neighbor. The only hit to feature across the year-end top 10s of Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube is “Pasoori” by singer-composer Ali Sethi, vocalist Shae Gill and producer Zulfiqar ‘Xulfi’ Jabbar Khan. The song, created for the fourteenth season of Coke Studio Pakistan. “Pasoori,” was the third highest streamed track on Indian streaming platform Wynk Music after “Kesariya” and “Arabic Kuthu.” It was also the most-played tune on Amazon Music in India, which is currently available only to subscribers of its Prime service. Conversely, Indian hip-hop stars A. P. Dhillon, Shubh and King feature in the top 10 of 2022 on Spotify in Pakistan.
Top 10 Songs of 2022 on Spotify in India
1. “Excuses”, A. P. Dhillon, Gurinder Gill and Intense, Run-Up Records
2. “Pasoori” (from Coke Studio Pakistan 14), Shae Gill and Ali Sethi, Giraffe Pakistan
3. “Kesariya” (from Brahmastra), Pritam, Arijit Singh and Amitabh Bhattacharya, Sony Music
4. “No Love,” Shubh
5. “Chaand Baaliyan,” Aditya A., Sony Music
6. “Raataan Lambiyan” (from Shershaah), Tanishk Bagchi, Jubin Nautiyal and Asees Kaur, Sony Music
7. “Heat Waves,” Glass Animals, Polydor
8. “Tu Aake Dekhle,” King, Kingsclan Records
9. “Arabic Kuthu – Halamithi Habibo” (from Beast), Anirudh Ravichander, Jonita Gandhi and Sivakarthikeyan, Sun Pictures
10. “Ranjha” (from Shershaah), Jasleen Royal and B. Praak, Sony Music
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Top 10 Songs of 2022 on Apple Music in India
1. “Excuses,” A. P. Dhillon, Gurinder Gill and Intense, Run-Up Records
2. “Desires,” A. P. Dhillon and Gurinder Gill, Run-Up Records
3. “Pasoori” (from Coke Studio Pakistan 14), Shae Gill and Ali Sethi, Giraffe Pakistan
4. “Insane,” A. P. Dhillon, Shinda Kahlon, Gurinder Gill and Gminxr, Run-Up Records
5. “Ranjha” (from Shershaah), Jasleen Royal and B. Praak, Sony Music
6. “Spaceship,” A. P. Dhillon, Shinda Kahlon and Gminxr, Run-Up Records
7. “Bijlee Bijlee,” Harrdy Sandhu, B. Praak and Jaani, Desi Melodies/Universal Music
8. “Tere Te,” A. P. Dhillon and Gurinder Gill, Run-Up Records
9. “Kesariya” (from Brahmastra), Pritam, Arijit Singh and Amitabh Bhattacharya, Sony Music
10. “Doobey” (from Gehraiyaan), OAFF, Savera, Lothika and Kausar Munir, Sony Music
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Top 10 Music Videos of 2022 on YouTube in India
1. “Srivalli” (from Pushpa: The Rise), Devi Sri Prasad, Javed Ali and Raqueeb Alam, T-Series
2. “Arabic Kuthu – Halamithi Habibo – Lyric Video” (from Beast), Anirudh Ravichander, Jonita Gandhi and Sivakarthikeyan, Sun Pictures
3. “Saami Saami” (from Pushpa: The Rise), Devi Sri Prasad, Sunidhi Chauhan and Raqueeb Alam, T-Series
4. “Kacha Badam,” Bhuban Badyakar and Amit Dhull, Bajewala Records
5. “Le Le Aayi Coca Cola,” Khesari Lal Yadav, Shilpi Raj, Prakash Barud and Sarvind Malhar, Gannayak Films
6. “Oo Bolega Ya Oo Oo Bolega” (from Pushpa: The Rise), Devi Sri Prasad, Kanika Kapoor and Raqueeb Alam, T-Series
7. “Oo Antava Mawa Oo Oo Antava” (from Pushpa: The Rise), Devi Sri Prasad, Indravathi Chauhan and Chandrabose, Aditya Music
8. “Pasoori” (from Coke Studio Pakistan 14), Shae Gill and Ali Sethi, Giraffe Pakistan
9. “Arabic Kuthu – Halamithi Habibo” (from Beast), Anirudh Ravichander, Jonita Gandhi and Sivakarthikeyan, Sun Pictures
10. “Nathuyina,” Khesari Lal Yadav, Priyanka Singh, Krishna Bedardi, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Majrooh Sultanpuri, Saregama
TOKYO — A new Japanese rock supergroup called The Last Rockstars is taking aim at the international market with a deal with Universal Music Group and a mission statement “to preserve the spirit of rock music.”
The group – drummer-pianist Yoshiki (X Japan), singer-songwriter Sugizo (Luna Sea, X Japan), vocalist Hyde (L’Arc-en-Ciel, Vamps) and guitarist-actor Miyavi — has signed a global distribution deal with Ingrooves, which is part of UMG’s Virgin Music Group. It begins with the quartet’s debut single, “The Last Rockstars (Paris Mix),” which is scheduled to be released on Dec. 23, a spokesperson for the group tells Billboard.
The Last Rockstars announced their formation in November in Tokyo. Speaking to Billboard, Yoshiki says the four artists discussed making a new band together before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We all wanted to aim at the international market, beyond Japan,” he says. “During the pandemic, we talked even more about it and decided to go for it because we all had the same dreams and goals.”
The Japanese artists bonded around the mission to “preserve the spirit of rock music,” Yoshiki says. “Hip-hop and pop have really taken over in recent decades,” he says. “[Rock is] there, but not standing out like it should be.”
While noting that contemporary groups such as Italy’s Maneskin are carrying the genre’s torch, Yoshiki says The Last Rockstars can also help stimulate the global rock scene — which is why they chose their provocative moniker to leave an impression. “I came up with it, and surprisingly the other members didn’t hesitate in choosing it,” Yoshiki says.
The Last Rockstars will make their live debut at a series of four shows in Tokyo from Jan. 26 to Jan. 30, before coming to the U.S. with two shows at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom (Feb. 3 and 4) and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Palladium (Feb. 10).
The individual members of The Last Rockstars have all cultivated strong followings outside of Japan, with each having played shows in North America. Yoshiki and Sugizo’s X Japan have performed at Coachella and Lollapalooza, while Hyde’s L’Arc-en-Ciel became the first Japanese band ever to headline Madison Square Garden in 2012. Miyavi, who as an actor appeared as a psychotic prison guard in Angelina Jolie’s drama “Unbroken,” has recorded in Nashville and toured internationally in at least 30 countries, including the U.S.
Hyde and Sugizo are signed to UMG for solo work. Miyavi is tied to Purple One Star and Yoshiki is currently unsigned for solo projects, a spokesperson for the group tells Billboard.
Yoshiki’s 2013 album Yoshiki Classical peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Classical Albums Chart. Hyde saw his 2019 full-length album Anti top the Billboard Japan Download Albums Chart, with the songs “Who’s Gonna Save Us,” “After Light” and “Fake Divine” landing on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 at No. 17, No. 24 and No. 20, respectively. Subsequent 2020 singles “Believing In Myself” and “Let It Out” charted on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 at No. 43 and No. 50, respectively.
Miyavi’s had a smattering of singles on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, highlighted by his 2011 collaboration with rapper Kreva, “Strong,” which peaked at No. 15.
“I have enormous respect for each member,” Yoshiki says. “I’m really honored to be working with these three amazing rockers, and I think we can make some kind of miracle happen.”
A woman injured in a crush outside a London concert venue has died, police said Saturday (Dec. 17).
London resident Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, was one of eight people hospitalized after being caught in mayhem outside the O2 Brixton Academy on Thursday night, where Nigerian singer Asake was due to perform.
The Metropolitan Police force said she died on Saturday morning. Two other women, aged 21 and 23, remain in critical condition.
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Asake said he was “overwhelmed with grief” at Ikumelo’s death.
“My sincerest condolences to her loved ones at this time. Let us please keep her family in our prayers. I have spoken to them and will continue to do so,” he wrote on Instagram.
The police force said emergency services were called after “a large crowd attempted to gain entry without tickets” and they found people suffering from crush injuries.
It urged people with photos or video of the scene to submit it to help the police investigation.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was “heartbroken” by Ikumelo’s death.
“Rebecca had her whole life ahead of her and on behalf of all Londoners, I would like to extend my condolences to her family, friends and loved ones at this extremely difficult time,” he said.
“My thoughts remain with everyone affected by this dreadful incident. It’s vital that the investigation into what happened concludes as soon as possible.”
The Brixton Academy in south London is one of the city’s most famous music venues. Built as a movie theater in the 1920s, it has a capacity of just under 5,000.
LONDON — As the world’s first purpose-built recording complex, Abbey Road Studios has a long and storied history of pioneering technological innovation.
Opened in 1931, No. 3 Abbey Road is indelibly associated with The Beatles, who recorded most of their catalog there and named their 1969 album after the tree-lined road in London where the studios are located. The first ever stereo music recording also happened there, in 1934, and artificial double tracking was invented in the studios three decades later. Pink Floyd, Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse and Adele have laid down tracks at Abbey Road, which has also recorded movie scores for blockbusters such as Return of the Jedi, Raiders of The Lost Ark and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Today, the studios remain a popular destination for recording artists, composers and orchestras, and thousands of tourists make the pilgrimage to the English Heritage-listed site every year to recreate the image of John, Paul, George and Ringo striding on the nearby pedestrian crossing, immortalized on the Abbey Road album cover.
Abbey Road’s illustrious history is profiled in a new documentary, If These Walls Could Sing, directed by Paul McCartney’s daughter Mary McCartney, which premiered globally on Disney+ on Friday (Dec. 16).
But it’s no longer only musicians making noise inside the famous facility.
Since being acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012 as part of its £1.2 billion (then equivalent to $1.9 billion) deal for EMI, a steady flow of tech entrepreneurs, researchers and developers have also been interfacing with Abbey Road, enticed less by its cutting-edge recording facilities than by its burgeoning success as a technology hub through its Abbey Road Red program.
Launched in 2015 and billed by the studio as Europe’s first music-focused technology incubator, Abbey Road Red — named after the studios’ REDD mixing consoles used by The Beatles — is now building momentum in the hyper competitive music tech space. In February, Apple acquired London-based AI Music, which was part of Abbey Road Red’s 2017 intake, for an undisclosed sum.
Other Red alumni include music video licensing platform Lickd, which has signed deals with Universal, Warner Music Group and Merlin to provide their catalogs to online content creators — and last year secured around $7 million in funding with Warner Music and Fortnite creator Epic Games among the investors.
In March, AI-augmented adaptive music platform LifeScore Music, which was part of Abbey Road Red’s 2019 cohort, raised £11 million ($14 million) in Series A funding, with Warner again providing financial backing. Another graduate of the program, London-based Audoo, which tracks music played across public performance locations, counts among its investors ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Paul McCartney’s MPL Group.
Of the 19 businesses that have been enrolled on the incubator so far, two have folded while 17 have raised over $80 million among them. Collectively, the 17 companies are valued at more than $325 million based on their investment rounds, says Abbey Road Studios.
At the time UMG took over the facility, Abbey Road had been losing money for years. Like many other prestige recording studios, it was finding its business under threat from bedroom producers and micro-studios able to create professional-sounding songs at a fraction of the cost.
That prompted its new owners to begin diversifying the studio business to attract a wider range of clients. In 2017, UMG opened two smaller, less-expensive-to-hire studios, the Gatehouse and the Front Room. Abbey Road Institute, a specialist music production school, opened the same year as Red. In addition to running a start-up incubator program, Red is carrying out research around immersive spatial audio listening.
Isabel Garvey, managing director of Abbey Road Studios, says the Red program has transformed how the facility is perceived by executives both inside and outside the music business. It’s “not just a room for hire,” she says.
The Beatles pose outside Abbey Road Studios in London.
Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/GI
“There’s a wonderful halo effect from Red in terms of being at the forefront of technology and being able to share that with the artists in the studios and share that with our parent company,” says Garvey.
Like other tech incubators, Abbey Road Red provides early-stage companies with access to the studio’s experts and facilities, including mentorship advice around business development, brand partnerships, securing finance and commercial strategy. It also enables start-ups to tap into UMG’s global network and consult with senior management and label execs, as well as with other major and independent labels and publishers.
In return, Universal receives a 2% equity stake in each business it backs and a participation right to invest in the company’s future financing rounds. By comparison, Y Combinator, a successful Silicon Valley start-up accelerator that gave early backing to Airbnb, Dropbox and Twitch, invests $500,000 in every company that enrolls in its three-month program in return for 7% equity. LA-based TechStars’ music tech accelerator program, which counts Warner Music, Sony Music Entertainment and Concord among its partners, offers start-ups up to $120,000 of investment for 6% equity.
James Shannon, co-founder of metaverse platform XONE, which joined the Red program in July, says the incubator’s close integration with the world’s biggest music company distinguishes it from other accelerators and provides a “fast-track towards getting a product into market.”
Neither UMG nor Abbey Road Studios gives start-ups any capital investment as part of the incubation process, although Garvey says it is an idea under consideration to grow the division.
Abbey Road Red currently takes on between four and eight businesses each year with each intake lasting six months. Last month, DAACI, a tool that uses AI to assist composers, became the 19th start-up to join Red. Start-ups can apply to Abbey Road for consideration, although the majority are scouted through the team’s technology network and connections.
“We set out to find the best quality start-ups that bring value back to the music industry, whether that’s [a platform] that helps artists get paid or new technology that empowers them to create,” says Karim Fanous, innovation manager at Abbey Road Red.
Following Abbey Road Red’s lead, other music companies, as well as UMG, have ramped up their presence in the tech incubator space.
In 2017, Universal launched a tech incubator program, Accelerator Engagement Network, followed a year later by the Capitol Innovation Center, which is housed in Hollywood’s historic Capitol Studios. In 2018, Warner Music Group announced a multi-million-dollar seed stage investment fund called WMG Boost, while Sony Music Brasil recently launched a digital accelerator program to drive artificial intelligence innovations.
“We are meaningfully thinking about where the music business is going in the future,” says Garvey. “That really excites artists, the industry and the people that come through the doors every day.”
BERLIN — Austrian collecting society AKM, which manages and licenses rights for songwriters and publishers, has joined ICE Core for online licensing. That means ICE, the online licensing hub created by collecting societies in Germany (GEMA), the U.K. (PRS for Music) and Sweden (STIM), will now represent and collect for AKM compositions for online services in much of the world, excluding the U.S. and some Asian markets. The deal includes AKM mechanical rights subsidiary, Austro Mechana.
“The ICE Core reflects the best licensing solution for online music services, with the best value, for our members,” said AKM CEO Gernot Graninger in a statement. “In these times more than ever, societies need to find the right services at the right value.”
ICE was created in response to a change in European Union regulation that allows the societies that take in money for public performing rights in their local territories to compete in the online world. Inevitably, the larger societies, including France’s SACEM and the partnership behind ICE have emerged to dominate that business, since they can make the investments needed to manage the vast amounts of data generated by streaming services. Gradually, this model is spreading to other territories.
AKM had been managing its rights under a partnership with GEMA.
ICE provides several services, including licensing and online processing, and it operates a copyright database. But the core of its operation is licensing – which is why it goes by the name ICE Core. In addition to its founding partner societies, ICE also represents IMRO, the Irish collecting society; SABAM, the Belgian society, and BMI. Concord Music Publishing, Songtrust and peermusic, all based in the U.S., are also direct members.
In November, ICE Core distributed €102 million, breaking its own record for monthly distribution.
“We’re very happy to welcome AKM into the Core,” said ICE chief commercial officer Ben McEwen in a statement. “The collaboration to make this happen reflects all parties working together in the interests of rightsholders, the very DNA of everyone who is part of the ICE hub.”