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Selena Gomez announced her engagement to Benny Blanco on Wednesday, December 11th. Keep watching to see the cute pictures she shared along with reactions to the engagement! Tetris Kelly: Selena Gomez is engaged! We got the story on her and producer Benny Blanco and how Taylor Swift is ready to get involved. Selena Gomez and […]
Shaboozey talks about the success of “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” on the Hot 100, who he’s been listening to and more at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards.
Shaboozey:Charting on the Billboard charts is super important to me. It’s definitely something I feel like it has, like, a long-standing history. And being able to have a song, or, you know, have a couple songs this year, you know, finally break that. It just shows that, you know, it’s a testament to all the hard work and dedication and sacrifice we just put in. I really think it’s been a really cool year for music.
Listen to our Sabrina Carpenter. Listen to a lot of, you know every Benson Boone, Teddy Swims, Chappell Roan, Beyoncé, but yeah, just a lot of, just my friends. You know, it’s really cool to be able to listen to your friends, or like to, you know, to start with something. And we have this respect for each other. But there’s been so much good music I can’t say, you know, one artist and my taste jumps around a lot.
Having the longest charting song is crazy. Last year, I remember just checking out some of just looking at the charts and just being like, “Man, I would love to have a song, you know, even just enter in for me, having my first Hot 100 entry this year, my first two, and getting the longest No. 1.” It’s pretty cra… I don’t know if that’s ever happened before, making history has always been like a big thing for me, and just having an impact as an artist and as a human being. So it just shows that I didn’t let my childhood self down.
A billionaire in the music business usually doesn’t start out in the music business. They begin in less glamorous industries until, with a large enough bank account, they can buy a record label, music venue or concert promoter and earn entry into the world of media moguls. Or the billionaire joins the equally exclusive fraternity of professional sports team owners. Some do both music and sports.
Charles Dolan, the patriarch of the Dolan family, majority owners of MSG Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment Group —not to mention a few sports teams —began with a closed-circuit service that sent tourist information into New York City hotel rooms. Ron Burkle got his start working for a grocery store before turning into a grocery M&A titan. Len Blavatnik, whose Access Industries holding company owns most of Warner Music Group, earned his fortune buying aluminum smelters after the breakup of the Soviet Union. For Vicent Bolloré, maritime freight and paper manufacturing were the pathway to media and entertainment. For Phil Anschutz, it was oil. For Hassan Khosrowshahi, it was consumer electronics.
In a few instances, billionaires came to the music business through Wall Street. Two celebrity hedge fund kings, Bill Ackman (Pershing Square Holdings) and Steve Cohen (Point72), have purchased stakes in public music companies. Ackman acquired 10% of Universal Music Group (UMG) before its 2021 initial public offering, becoming a helpful cheerleader for UMG — and music assets in general — as more institutional investors put money into a growing slate of public and private music companies. Cohen, owner of the New York Mets, quietly has small stakes in two of the Dolan family’s companies, MSG Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment Co.
Warren Buffet is an outsider here. Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Holdings looks for undervalued companies with competitive advantages — think insurance companies and railroads. A media mogul he isn’t. Buffet has a reputation for investing in boring companies with good management and avoiding the crowds that drive up prices. “Price is what you pay; value is what you get,” he once said. Berkshire Hathaway owns a considerable stake in a radio company, SiriusXM, that is trying to keep satellite radio relevant in an era of high-flying streaming services. But SiriusXM, which represents just a small part of Berkshire’s portfolio, isn’t an entryway to glitz and glamour.
For this list, Billboard is highlighting ten billionaires — some well-known, others less so — who have built music companies or invested in them but didn’t originally build their fortunes in the music business. Billboard excluded CEOs or musicians. According to Forbes, Jay-Z is worth $2.5 billion, Rihanna is worth $1.4 billion and Taylor Swift is worth $1.1 billion. Two founder/CEO billionaires, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and CTS Eventim CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, are also excluded.
Phil Anschutz
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In the lead-up to the brand’s 40th anniversary in 2025, Nike has been re-releasing a number of Air Jordan sneakers. So if you ever wanted to pick up a new pair of Jordans, now is the best time to shop — especially since drops come in new styles and colorways.
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Priced at $230, the Nike Air Jordan 11 Retro “Legend Blue” sneakers — which were originally released in 1995 and are the shoes Michael Jordan wore when his Chicago Bulls won 72 games in one season — are made for playing basketball and for everyday casual use, thanks to their strong lines and classic silhouette.
The Nike Air Jordan 11 Retro “Legend Blue” drop on Saturday (Dec. 14) at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT at nike.com
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The uppers of the sneakers are made from a blend of genuine and synthetic leather for shape and toughness, while they even have a strip of premium white leather running around their toe caps to round out the style of the shoes.
In addition, the sneakers feature the iconic “Jumpman” logo on the back of each heel with a “hidden” No. 23 placed just above the logos. The design and silhouette are iconic, while the style of the sneakers are mid-’90s basketball — one of Michael Jordan’s most poplar shoes. These sneakers come in a black, white, and legend blue colorway.
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Nike Air Jordan 11 Retro ‘Legend Blue’
Release date: Saturday, Dec. 14 at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT
Meanwhile, if you want more from Nike, the sports and fashion apparel company also dropped new Travis Scott x Jordan Jumpman Jack “Dark Mocha” sneakers, as well as a new Nike Solo Swoosh Varsity Jacket.
The Nike Air Jordan 11 Retro “Legend Blue” sneakers are come in men’s and women’s sizes for $230, while the sports apparel company has the sneakers in big kids’ sizes for $185 and little kids’ sizes for $100 at nike.com.
For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
Taylor Swift and Keith Urban go way back. Long, long before she was one of the world’s biggest pop stars, the 14-time Grammy winner was an up-and-coming country artist opening for the Australian-American star on tour — memories of which Urban shared during an appearance on Thursday’s (Dec. 12) Jennifer Hudson Show. Speaking to host […]
Teddy Swims talks about his favorite thing about performing “Lose Control” live and why the BBMAs are special this year at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards. Teddy Swims:I tried my very best that when we performed, I always make it feel like it’s our living room, you know. And in my living room, I walk […]
Taylor Swift spent her last day as a 34-year-old giving back to fans in Kansas City, stopping by a hospital and visiting with young patients on Thursday (Dec. 12).
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Local news network KCTV5 reports that she spent at least an hour meeting children and fans on the hematology and oncology floors of Children’s Mercy Hospital, with some witnesses saying she sang for and with patients in the facility. Pictures of her visit have also started circulating on X; in one photo, the pop star poses with a service dog in a children’s hospital room.
In other pictures, she smiles next to hospital employees and wraps her arms around young patients, at one point laughing while looking at a “Go Taylor’s boyfriend!” Kansas City Chiefs towel. KCTV5 also shared a video of the 14-time Grammy winner exiting the hospital, smiling big and waving goodbye at people watching in the halls.
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Billboard has reached out to Swift’s rep for more details.
The heartwarming visit comes less than 24 hours ahead of the “Karma” singer’s 35th birthday on Friday (Dec. 13) — which it now seems she plans to spend in the city where boyfriend Travis Kelce plays on the Chiefs — and just a few days after she wrapped her two-year global Eras Tour in Vancouver, B.C., on Dec. 8. The trek found Swift traveling through North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia between March 2023 and this past weekend, at one point stopping in Kansas City for two nights at Arrowhead Stadium July 7-8, 2023.
The tight end recently congratulated his superstar girlfriend on the feat, saying on his New Heights podcast, “Shout out to everybody that was a part of that show … Obviously, it’s her music, her tour and everything, but that was a full production, man. That thing was the best tour in the world because of a lot of people, but mostly because of Taylor.”
Swift has visited hospital patients numerous times over the course of her career. She’s also gotten more involved in Kansas City since she started dating Kelce in the summer of 2023, attending the Mahomies Foundation auction in April and donating $100,000 to the family of a local radio DJ who was killed in a mass shooting that broke out at the Chiefs’ victory parade in February.
Since the Kendrick Lamar–Drake beef broke into the mainstream earlier this year, the six tracks at the heart of the rap battle have generated nearly $15.4 million in streaming, digital sales and publishing revenue in the United States through the week ending Nov. 21, according to Billboard estimates based on data from Luminate. Kendrick’s “Not […]
Selena Gomez has wedding bells on the horizon, and her Only Murders in the Building co-stars are ready to watch her walk down the aisle. After the “Rare” singer announced her engagement to music producer Benny Blanco, Steve Martin and Martin Short took to Instagram to congratulate the happy couple. “Congratulations to Benny and Selena, […]
Gene Simmons spent decades traveling the world as the fire-breathing bass player for KISS, taking with him the large road crews required for massive — and expensive — productions on some of music’s biggest stages. Since KISS’s final show in December 2023, Simmons has been traveling considerably lighter as the frontman for the Gene Simmons Band, playing KISS favorites, some rarely heard Simmons solo tunes and familiar classics by the likes of Van Halen and Motorhead.
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Simmons says he has stripped down the tour to the essential elements — the musicians — and pockets more money from a Gene Simmons Band show than he netted as a member of KISS. “The local promoters provide the back line, and we just get up there and play,” Simmons tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. That’s a sharp contrast to the complex — and expensive — production required to take KISS on the road.
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As a solo artist playing festivals and theaters, Simmons has “no managers, no private jets, no 20 tractor trailers, no 60-man crew, no huge shows — and the pyro alone for every [KISS] show is ten grand, sometimes 50 [thousand dollars] if you go outdoors,” he explains. “Enormous, enormous costs for doing that.”
Simmons is “proud” to have performed those massive productions, but the Gene Simmons Band tour isn’t trying to replicate the KISS stage show. “It’s almost as if you decided to rent some amps in a garage and plug in,” he says, “and then everybody from the neighborhood comes in … It’s very informal and a lot of fun.”
Outside of the four band members, the band takes two additional people on the road, says guitarist Brent Woods, who manages the travel and concert production details: an assistant who helps with business duties and Simmons’ security, and one crew member for the musicians. As for equipment, Woods says the band — which also includes guitarist Zach Throne and drummer Brian Tichy — takes only its guitars and pedal boards, and Tichy may take his own snare drum on the upcoming tour. Otherwise, everything is rented. “It does save a lot of money,” says Woods. “And then in turn, everybody benefits, right? The band included. Everybody makes more money.”
The stripped-down traveling arrangement wouldn’t work with a larger group of people, Woods admits. Nor would it work if Simmons wasn’t comfortable riding in a splitter van and going without rock star trappings. “But Gene’s so easygoing,” says Woods. “He’s just so relaxed and he’s low maintenance. He doesn’t need a lot. He’s not the quintessential rock star that has to have a certain room or a suite that’s on this floor far away from the elevator. He just is not that way.”
Simmons readily admits he didn’t pioneer this approach to touring. “It used to be done by black musicians on the Chitlin’ Circuit, what used to be the black clubs, because they couldn’t play white clubs,” he said. Rock pioneer Chuck Berry took it a step further, touring only with his guitar and arriving in each city with a local band that had learned and rehearsed his songs. (Bruce Springsteen once played in Berry’s backing band for a concert in 1973.) “Now, I don’t do that,” said Simmons. “I take my band with me, but Berry would show up and would, you know, he’d tell the guys, ‘Study the records, learn these songs, I’m going to show up,’ and no rehearsal, nothing.”
To Woods, the Gene Simmons Band’s do-it-yourself touring approach is simply a longer version of the “weekend warrior” touring artist. “Bands go out Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and they play two, three shows. It’s the same thing. They’re flying to the destination, the back line’s there for them.”
Extending the weekend warrior approach into longer tours requires the knowledge Woods gained from decades as a traveling musician for decades, first as a member of the group Wildside and more recently as a member of Sebastian Bach’s band. “I’ve learned since the 90s,” he says, “when I started going out and touring. And you kind of learn by a lot of mistakes and your own mistakes and other people’s mistakes, and you finally figure it out.” Woods’ time on the road has also allowed him to built a network of professionals he can call to work at his shows in different cities. “It’s hard for younger bands to do that because they don’t know a lot of people,” he says.
Listen to the entire interview with Gene Simmons in the embedded Spotify playlist or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, Podbean or Everand.