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From the football field to the baseball diamond! Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce went to Yankees Stadium on Monday night (Oct. 14) to watch the first American League Championship Series game between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In […]
Utattemita is Japan’s online culture of uploading vocal covers of Vocaloid tracks or pop songs to video sharing sites, and the singers who post such covers are generally referred to as utaite. From Nov. 22, the country’s largest video platform, Nico Nico Douga, will be hosting Utattemita Collection (commonly referred to as Uta-Colle), a four-day event inviting utaite singers to submit such covers. Uta-Colle is the utattemita version of The VOCALOID Collection (aka Voca-Colle) submission project that began in 2020.
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At the Uta-Colle event held this spring, utaite Underbar (officially stylized as __) submitted an a cappella cover of “Igaku” by Sasuke Haraguchi. He reproduced all the notes using only his own voice without using any musical accompaniment, and ranked No. 5 among the top 100 submissions to the event. Underbar is a veteran utaite with 1.05 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, celebrating the 15th anniversary since his debut this year.
Sasuke Haraguchi began composing music at the age of five and made his major label debut in 2018 as track maker SASUKE when he was 15 years old. He submitted his representative track “Hito Mania” to the Voca-Colle Summer 2023 event, and this hit song went on to achieve 18 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard Japan‘s Nico Nico Vocaloid Songs Top 20 list.
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The two artists sat down together to chat about today’s utattemita culture ahead of the upcoming Uta-Colle Autumn 2024 event, sharing their views from the standpoints of utaite and track maker.
Underbar, you covered “Igaku” a cappella for the previous Uta-Colle event. Why did you choose that style to cover it?
Underbar: When listening to the way the sounds are put together (on the track), I got the impression that it was unusual and quite different from other Vocaloid producers (Vocalo-p). I really like the way it uses sound effects as accents and male voices, and thought, “I want to try doing this with my own voice.” I thought it would be interesting to be able to express a composition of unusual sounds with my mouth instead of using a normal guitar or bass. He’d officially released the stem data, so I also used that as a reference.
Haraguchi: I thought the stem data would be used for remixes or something, so I never imagined it would be used for utattemita (a vocal cover). [Laughs]
I’ve heard that when you create tracks using Vocaloid, you try to be aware of things that make people want to cover them. Could you elaborate on that?
Haraguchi: There are a few, but one is to keep the tracks short. People seem to think I do this to make them TikTok or (YouTube) Shorts-friendly, but that’s not the case. It’s to make recording vocals easier when covering them. I sometimes record temporary vocals for commercial productions so I know how singers feel, and I’m glad when (the tracks) are short. Some songs have the same lyrics in the chorus, so you could copy and paste if worse comes to worst.
Underbar: I really like your videos, as well as your music, of course. I think it’s amazing how you make such stylish videos at a low cost. Nowadays, it’s like a race to see how much money you can spend to come up with a good video, the utattemita community included.
Haraguchi: Yeah, there are music videos that make you go, “Is this an opening sequence for an anime series?”
Underbar: Right? So it’s amazing how you create that stylish collage feel using live-action footage. I’m like, “Wow, I never would have thought of that!”
Sasuke, could you share what creative aspect about Underbar that you respect?
Haraguchi: You were already well known when I was in elementary school, and I respect the fact that you’ve been consistent all this time. Rather than taking years to establish the way you do things, you had it all worked out from the start. That’s awesome, and at the same time, you’re expanding the scope of what you do.
Underbar: I’ve always liked festivities. This might be something common among people of my generation who post videos on Nico Nico Douga, but the main thing is that I wasn’t doing it for the money. This is the big difference between now and then. Now, many people start posting with the aim of earning ad revenue or becoming a major-label or professional artist, but back then there was no such thing as ad revenue, and just because you became famous didn’t mean you could be signed to a major label or appear on TV and stuff. At the base of why I got started was, “It’s popular and seems like fun.” That still hasn’t changed for me, and when I see a new fad that seems like fun, I get the urge to join in.
When did you start watching utattemita videos, Sasuke?
Haraguchi: Around 2015 or 2016, maybe?
You were probably already composing by that time. Did utattemita videos influence your own production?
Haraguchi: I did hope singers would cover my works like that someday. But I wasn’t making that kind of music at the time. If you want to make a song that people will want to cover without using Vocaloid software, it either has to go pretty viral or be tied to an anime series. I wasn’t doing either.
Underbar: When choosing a song to cover, it’s certainly easier to choose a Vocaloid track. Songs that use Vocaloid are open to a wide range of interpretation, so everyone can be “correct.” With the ones that have human vocals, both the cover artists and listeners tend to think that the original version is correct, so the singers will cover them in a way that’s closer to the original. I tend to prefer utaite singers putting their own spin on their covers.
Haraguchi: I know what you mean. Maybe because my songs are a little unusual, some people sing them in a way that’s similar to the original Vocaloid version, but I don’t think that’s necessary. I want people to just do whatever they want and mess with it.
Have you noticed any changes in the feedback you receive, or any differences in your fanbase since you started releasing Vocaloid tracks?
Haraguchi: Yes, very much so. With the music I’d been doing up until then, I never really had the chance to hear directly from listeners, so I didn’t really know how many people were listening to it. The culture in the Vocaloid community is that if you think something is good, you make sure to say so, whether you’re the listener or the creator. The comment section on video platforms are like that, and communication on X (formerly Twitter) is, too. I feel like I’ve suddenly been thrown into such a place and it worries me in an opposite way. Sometimes when I’m at home alone, I tell myself, “Don’t get carried away, you have to work hard.”
How do you feel about events such as Voca-Colle and Uta-Colle that Nico Nico Douga has primarily been organizing since 2020?
Haraguchi: There was a period when Vocaloid culture had cooled down, so I’m glad many people are making (tracks) and watching (the videos) again now. But I also think that it’d be scary if the mood became like, “We have to work hard at it.” I want to use the opportunity to expose myself to a lot of other people’s works to feel things like, “This trick is interesting” and “I want to do this too,” no matter how they’re ranked.
How about you, Underbar?
Underbar: I think projects like Uta-colle are great. The reason is that utaite have never really had a clear goal to aim for. Now it’s possible to be signed to a major label, but even if that happens, if you don’t make it big then it’s over. And a song you covered could become a hit, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you will become famous, because the original version is the main focus. After all, utattemita is derivative. So even if you suddenly decide to write your own lyrics and music, people might be like, “No, that’s not what I want to hear.” The hard thing about being an utaite is that just because you’re good at singing doesn’t mean you’ll make it big. I’d like to see a trend where utaite can dream and be like, “If I keep doing what I do on Nico Nico Douga, I can get this far,” and Nico Nico Douga actively promotes the winner of the Uta-Colle.
—This interview by Yuuka Higaki first appeared on Billboard Japan
Fred again.. doesn’t do many interviews, but he seemed genuinely delighted while opening up to Nardwuar in a conversation published Monday (Oct. 14). “One of my absolute heroes so I’m just honored to have been in a room with him,” Fred wrote upon sharing the 45 minute chat.
The pair cover a lot of territory during their talk, discussing everything from a night Fred had in New Orleans after an Ed Sheeran show and his thoughts on Sheeran’s live shows generally, to Fred’s current roommate (Henry Counsell of Joy Anonymous) to getting his first copy of of Logic when he was 11 years old.
Fred tells Nardwuar that he’d previously been using a complicated analog method to create multiple tracks, and that his world opened up when his guitar teacher gave him the software that would allow him to layer as many tracks as he wanted. “That was kind of the beginning of the greatest love affair of my life,” Fred says.
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Speaking on his long history of working with his friend and mentor Brian Eno, he also talks about how Eno turned him on to U.K. electronic legends Underworld, who he recently went to see at London’s Alexandra Palace with Skrillex. “Sonny walked in and was like ‘This is the rarest crowd dynamic I’ve seen in years,’” Fred recalls of the show. “Phoneless, present, in it, it was all feeling loose in the best possible way.”
Fred also expounds on about how he prefers working in cafes rather than in studios. “There was a coffee shop in central [London],” he says a cafe he liked in particular. “They’d bring out the extension cord, and I got too comfy to the point where I was plugging in interfaces and a mic… It’s nicer to be in the world as opposed to in some closed off, no natural light room.
“I think the reason why I like writing in places that aren’t studios and out in the world is because you get this constant collage of humanity,” he continues, “this thing just walking by, it’s always moving and changing… I think it just keeps your brain alive and moving versus gradually getting stiller and stiller in the vacuum of a dark room.”
He also talks about the personal conversation he had with the Mayor of Perth, Australia, in order to convince city officials to let his team turn decibel levels up by two or three degrees during a recent show there. “‘Two or three?’” Fred recalls the mayor saying, “‘You can push it to 15!’ Shout out the people of Perth.”
The flannel-clad Canadian interview icon then inquires about Fred’s frequent collaborator Four Tet, asking specifically about Four Tet’s early band, Fridge. “I think he’s got this very exploratory, childlike mindset, which makes everything he does have this kind of through line to me,” Fred says. “I think he could do 20 different bands and it would all have the same sort of Kieren-ness to me.”
At the end of the interview, Fred presents Nardwuar with a hand drawn card illustrating major points of Nardwuar’s career and life and a little calendar with a circle around “September 29,” which Fred calls “Nardwuar day.”
The 2024 MAMA Awards are just around the corner, and the first set of star-studded performers have officially been announced.
The three-day event, which celebrates the brightest stars in K-pop, will kick off on Nov. 21 at the Hollywood Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the first time, where KATSEYE, ILLIT and RIIZE will perform. The awards ceremony will then take place at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka, Japan on November 22 and 23, with ENHYPEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER and IVE performing on the first day and Aespa, INI and ZEROBASEONE taking the stage on the second day.
This year’s MAMA Awards, presented by Visa, will feature the concept of “Big Blur: What Is Real?,” reflecting the growing trend of blurred boundaries between industries, culture, music genres and technology. In correspondence with the theme, the ceremony will “present surreal but real experiences and showcase visually captivating performances through the convergence of art and technology,” per a press release.
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In addition to the performers, the 2024 MAMA Awards nominees were also revealed by entertainment company CJ ENM. The eligibility period ranged from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024, and the nominees were decided on based on an evaluation of global music data as well as a panel of specialists.
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One of the new categories this year is best choreography, and the Visa Fans’ Choice awards have returned. The first round of votes will take place from Oct. 14 to 25, and the second round will follow starting on Nov. 1. Fans can vote on X as well as the global K-pop platform Mnet Plus, which will list out the nominees.
See the full list of 2024 MAMA Awards nominations below, and catch the show when it airs worldwide in November.
Best New Male Artist82MAJORALL(H)OURSAMPERS&ONENCT WISHNOWADAYSTWS
Best New Female ArtistBABYMONSTERILLITMEOVVQWERUNISYOUNG POSSE
Best Male GroupENHYPENNCT DREAMSEVENTEENStray KidsTOMORROW X TOGETHERZEROBASEONE
Best Female Group(G)I-DLEaespaIVELE SSERAFIMNewJeansTWICE
Best Male ArtistBAEKHYUNJiminJung KookLim Young WoongTAEMIN
Best Female ArtistIUJENNIENAYEON (TWICE)TAEYEONYUQI ((G)I-DLE)
Best Dance Performance Male SoloJimin– WhoJung Kook – Standing Next to YouKEY – Pleasure ShopTAEMIN – GuiltyTAEYONG – TAP
Best Dance Performance Female SoloHWASA – NAJENNIE – You & MeNAYEON (TWICE) – ABCDSUNMI – Balloon in LoveYUQI ((G)I-DLE) – FREAK
Best Dance Performance Male GroupNCT 127 – Fact Check RIIZE – Love 119SEVENTEEN – God of MusicStray Kids – LALALALAENHYPEN – Sweet VenomTWS – plot twist
Best Dance Performance Female Group(G)I-DLE – Super Ladyaespa – SupernovaILLIT – MagneticIVE – BaddieLE SSERAFIM – EASYNewJeans – How Sweet
Best Vocal Performance SoloBIBI – Bam Yang GangIU – Love wins allLEE MU JIN – EpisodeLim Young Woong – WarmthTAEYEON – To. X
Best Vocal Performance Group(G)I-DLE – FateAKMU – HeroDAVICHI – A very personal storyPLAVE – WAY 4 LUVRed Velvet – Cosmic
Best Rap & Hip-Hop PerformanceDEAN – DIE 4 YOULee Young Ji – Small girl (Feat. D.O.)Leellamarz -Boys Like Girls (Feat. Gist, Jayci yucca)RM – LOST!ZICO – SPOT! (Feat. JENNIE)
Best Band PerformanceDAY6 – Welcome to the ShowHYUKOH, Sunset Rollercoaster – Young ManLUCY – The knight who can’t die and the silk cradleN.Flying – Into YouQWER – T.B.H
Best CollaborationGroovyRoom – Yes or No (Feat. HUH YUNJIN of LE SSERAFIM, Crush)Jay Park – Taxi Blurr (feat. NATTY of KISS OF LIFE)Lee Young Ji – Small girl (Feat. D.O.)Sung Si Kyung, Naul – Even for a momentZICO – SPOT! (Feat. JENNIE)
Best OSTCrush – Love You With All My Heart (Queen of Tears OST)ECLIPSE – Sudden Shower (Lovely Runner OST)LEE CHANGSUB – Heavenly fate (A Not So Fairy tale OST)Roy Kim – Whenever, Wherever (My Demon OST)TAEYEON – Dream (Welcome to Samdal-ri OST)
Best Music Videoaespa – ArmageddonIU – Love wins allIVE – HEYAK.Will – No Sad Song For My Broken Heart (Prod. Yoonsang)SEVENTEEN – MAESTRO
Best Choreographyaespa – SupernovaILLIT – MagneticLE SSERAFIM – CRAZYNewJeans – SupernaturalRIIZE – ImpossibleTAEMIN – Guilty
Tick tock on the clock! The Halloween party isn’t going to stop just yet, but the Christmas season is coming early to Spotify. The music streamer is set to release five new Spotify Singles at the stroke of midnight local time on Tuesday (Oct. 15), including one by Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 chart-topper Kesha.
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This year’s annual singles collection — which arrives a little earlier than usual this time — will feature four other artists and their covers of holiday tunes. The featured musicians and their yuletide songs are:
“Holiday Road” by Kesha
“Driving Home for Christmas” by Dasha
“River” by Max Richter
“Run Rudolph Run” by Mark Ambor
“Emmanuel” by Miel San Marcos
“As you’ll hopefully hear, each single really showcases the personality and style of each artist — often reinventing holiday classics in an entirely new way,” Talia Kraines, Spotify’s senior editor of pop, tells Billboard.
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“With ‘Holiday Road,’ Kesha has taken this really fun ’80s song – which wasn’t originally a holiday song – and brought it to the modern day. We just knew she would sound amazing singing it, and she does. Her vocals make me think of The Go-Gos or The Bangles here. It feels like a monumental year for Kesha, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it – she’s reclaiming her joy and owning her own voice,” she adds of the Grammy nominated artist. “It also seemed fitting to have Kesha make a holiday song with us because her music actually hits a high each year on Spotify during the holiday season. Tracks like ‘Tik Tok’ and ‘Timber’ have come to be known as New Year’s and celebration anthems.”
Kesha for Spotify Singles
Courtesy of Spotify
As for “Driving Home for Christmas,” Kraines notes that it’s “huge in the U.K. and Europe” if not the U.S. “We saw this as a great opportunity to give this holiday song a whole new audience in America while sharing a new version for countries where the song is already beloved,” she says of Dasha’s contribution.
Last year’s Spotify Singles’ holiday collection was announced during mid November, usually when the music streamer decks the speakers with holiday tunes. It featured Laufey’s interpretation of the classic “Winter Wonderland,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 and No. 80 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 charts; Kirk Franklin’s gospel take on “Joy to the World”; Ezra Collective’s cover of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”; and Musica Mexicana artist Panter Bélico offered his original tune “Un Vaquero En Navidad.”
Previous Spotify Singles for its Holiday Collection include Kurt Vile’s take of Bob Dylan’s version of holiday classic “Must Be Santa,” IVE’s holiday mix of its own “After LIKE” and more. The overall Holiday Collection playlist on Spotify also includes contributions from Miley Cyrus, DMX, Demi Lovato, Sam Smith, Liam Payne, John Legend, Fifth Harmony, Camilo, Black Pumas and many, many more.
Unity, camaraderie and constant collaboration among Argentine artists have become a fundamental contribution to their success and globalization.
On Monday (Oct. 14) at Billboard Latin Music Week 2024, Argentine rapper and singer La Joaqui and Mexican star Kenia Os discussed the importance of friendship and support among colleagues within the industry, particularly for women.
La Joaqui and Kenia Os, who have released two collaborations together this year — “Kitty” and “San Turrona RMX” — participated in the “Entre Amigas” panel, moderated by Flor Mauro, editorial content director of Billboard Argentina.
“We are in an industry where, especially if you are a woman, media wants you to treat each other as competition — ‘Such female artist surpassed another female artist’ — when both surpassed 10 male artists,” La Joaqui said. “However, many women are making noise.”
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“It brought me a lot of relief when I collaborated with Kenia,” she added, mentioning that she was already her “No. 1 fan” when she wrote to her hoping to meet, and the Mexican artist replied that she was in the studio recording an album and immediately invited her to collaborate in it. “She opened the doors of her kingdom to me, let me enter this world so new to me. I was very afraid of these kinds of connections, but […] it was a genuine connection, that’s why I think we did so well.”
or Kenia, who also declared herself a fan of La Joaqui, collaborating with another woman was something refreshing because it doesn’t happen often among female artists in Mexico, where “the media pits women against each other a lot,” she said.
“My first collaboration was with La Joaqui […] and from day one it was a beautiful connection. It was incredible,” she said, noting that it not only gave her entry into a difficult market for Mexicans like Argentina, but led to new opportunities to collaborate, including with Mexican artists like Peso Pluma, with whom she recorded the hit “Tommy & Pamela.”
For both, authenticity is a priority in their careers. “It’s super important for artists who are starting out,” said Kenia Os, recalling that it took her a while to find her own voice because she started young in the business, going from teenager to adulthood in the public eye and being influenced by other people’s opinions. La Joaqui, who started as a rapper, said she found her authentic place in RKT, a subgenre of cumbia villera characterized by its influences from cumbia villera, reggaeton, and electronic music.
To sum up the importance of friendship in music, La Joaqui said it is “crucial” in a world where artists are constantly mistreated on social media, and called for “more friends and less business.”
“We move in an environment where there is impunity,” said the Argentine star. “Where it’s normal for people to tweet: ‘Your music is crap… I hope you die.’ It’s no longer an opinion, it’s abuse. And you are simply getting up and doing something you like.”
“There are times you pretend so much madness that you become mad and you need a friend to simply ask you, ‘How are you? Are you okay? How do you feel?’” she continued. “Most of the time I’m not okay, I cry once a week, and having friends in the industry has allowed me to cry in private. I recommend making real friendships to make songs. That integrated feeling is a sure hit.”
Over the past 35 years, Latin Music Week has become the one, steady foundation of Latin music in this country, becoming the single most important — and biggest — gathering of Latin artists and industry executives in the world. Initially named Latin Music Seminar, sponsored by Billboard, the event traces back to 1990, where it kicked off as a one-day event in Miami featuring a two-artist showcase and awards show.
Latin Music Week coincides with the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards set to air at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 20, on Telemundo. It will simultaneously be available on Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app, and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional.
PartyNextDoor gave an update about his upcoming joint album with his label boss Drake and he sounds pretty confident. During a recent appearance on OVO’s The Fry Yiy Show on SiriusXM, the singer says he and Drake have been hard at work while also placing lofty expectations on the already highly-anticipated project. “I have had an […]
Idina Menzel has experienced more than her fair share of people mispronouncing her name — but she’s drawing the line when it comes to Kamala Harris.
With Election Day less than a month away, the Broadway alum issued a video PSA via Instagram on Sunday demonstrating the exact way to say the VP’s moniker. “You have to get the pronunciation of Kamala Harris correct,” she says in the clip, standing outside while addressing the camera. “It’s getting really exhausting. It’s Kamala, like a comma. ‘Comma-la.’”
“I tend to be an expert on pronunciations of names, since mine is always screwed up, as you know,” Menzel continued, before referencing one of the most viral moments of her career: when John Travolta butchered her name while introducing her performance at the 2014 Oscars.
“And not just as ‘Adele Dazeem,’” the Frozen star says. “People call me Indiana, ‘Eye-dina’ … I was just at an event in Oklahoma, and they called me ‘Ay-deena Menzul.’”
Though Menzel says people are constantly mispronouncing her name, Travolta’s flub is definitely the most memorable. Though he’d later say that a last-second change to the teleprompter was to blame, he mistakenly set up her performance of “Let It Go” by saying, “Please welcome the wickedly talented, one and only Adele Dazeem.”
At the time, Menzel took it in stride and, at the next year’s ceremony, got the Grease actor back by referring to him as “Glom Gazingo” as the two presented onstage. Earlier this year, the Rent performer celebrated the viral moment’s 10-year anniversary with a funny TikTok, telling the camera: “Hey, Adele Dazeem! It’s Idina Menzel … I just wanted to say happy birthday. Sending you so much love and positive energy.”
When it comes to Harris, however, Menzel isn’t joking around. At the end of her PSA, the star adds, “I think that the vice president and soon-to-be president should have her name pronounced correctly.”
Watch Menzel’s tutorial on how to say Kamala Harris’ name below.
Legendary comedian and influential late-night host Arsenio Hall says he overheard a conversation between former president Donald Trump and former Danity Kane member Aubrey O’Day during their days on Celebrity Apprentice. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news While sitting down with the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast, Hall […]
Three “OGs” from the Latin music industry converged on Monday (Oct. 14) at the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week, where they discussed the challenges they face today from the perspectives of recording, management and live entertainment.
During the “Power Players: The OGs” panel — moderated by Billboard‘s Leila Cobo — Alex Gallardo, president of Sony Music Latin; Alex Mizrahi, CEO of OCESA Seitrack; and Nelson Albareda, CEO of Loud And Live, agreed that while today’s music offerings are more diverse and democratic than ever, all sectors of the business face significant challenges for this very reason.
From standing out and conquering the market, to the importance of building a career step by step, here are some of the best quotes from these Latin Music Power Players.
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Gallardo: “From the label’s point of view, something that we find very interesting now is the variety of genres that are working, that are emerging. Three years ago, there was one dominant genre which was more urban; now we see cumbia, salsa, Argentine music, regional Mexican, and I find that very interesting and a great opportunity. [But] now it is more difficult for an artist to conquer all of Latin America because, for this very reason, it becomes more local. Making that regional conquest is a bit more complex.”
Mizrahi: “I would add that, from the recording point of view, it is easier to generate a hit today more than ever because the platforms are more democratic than ever. The artist’s access to the fans is direct. From the live music side as management, the biggest challenge is that the artists reconcile their repertoire, that they generate enough hits to make their fans want to buy a ticket. Today I feel there are more successful artists than ever before and I don’t see many artists selling tickets. For me, that’s the biggest gap between recorded music and live shows.”
Albareda: “From the live point of view […] ticket sales are not what they used to be. You have 20 markets, and now not all of them sell, especially this year. Before the covid pandemic, artists didn’t have to work much, they posted something and it sold. Even the price, if we were selling a ticket at $110-120, now it’s at $80. I would say we have to work even a bit more than before the pandemic.”
Gallardo: “Twenty years ago, for an artist to access a studio there were a series of filters, a label would have to be interested, etc. Now it’s a beautiful era where any kid at home can create […] That means there are more potential artists, but also the offer is much greater. The last data I was told about is 120,000 songs a day. When there is such much offer, what does the audience stick with? That’s our job.”
Abareda: “There are so many artists, how can we give them the opportunity to play live? There is also a saturation of the live show. Streams themselves are not hurting you because you are already paying for a subscription to a platform, but when you have to pay for a ticket…”
Mirzrahi: “When people leave their house (to go to a show), they don’t go alone; they have to pay for parking, they go to eat something. The live concert is an experience. We as management have to say, ‘this artist has to have the power in the music, the personality, the speech to get you out of your house […] and bring you to this world, to this experience. And you should leave saying, ‘It was worth it.’ What is our challenge? Building the experience with repertoire, with personality.”
Gallardo: “Something that never goes out of style for an artist is to work your repertoire in the best way possible, make the best songs possible, and raise the bar. There’s more competition. How do I stand out? By raising the bar in my songwriting, and then, once I have this song, seeing how I release it, how I tell the world about it. Releasing a song is not something you can do one day to the next.”
Abareda: “We have to do a reset. Artists want to go out and sell arenas, but you have to start small, grow and build an audience. If you want the money today, you’re not building a career […] You have to build an audience, invest in a career, and take the long road.”
Mizrahi: “The role of the manager is sensibility, he has to talk to his artist. The industry is undergoing a revolution on all sides. These mega hits that are made on Spotify and Youtube with millions of streams and views […] that’s good news, but from there to be releasing 100,000 songs every Friday, wow! The algorithms (shoot up the ticket prices)… artists want more, and you have to have the sensibility to talk to the artist, explain things.”
Over the past 35 years, Latin Music Week has become the one, steady foundation of Latin music in this country, becoming the single most important — and biggest — gathering of Latin artists and industry executives in the world. Initially named Latin Music Seminar, sponsored by Billboard, the event traces back to 1990, where it kicked off as a one-day event in Miami featuring a two-artist showcase and awards show.
Latin Music Week coincides with the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards set to air at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 20, on Telemundo. It will simultaneously be available on Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app, and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional.