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Audacy, the second-biggest broadcast company after iHeartMedia, laid off 200 employees this week, according to a radio business source. “Audacy has made workforce reductions to ensure a strong and resilient future for the business,” added a company spokesperson, who wouldn’t confirm or elaborate on the layoffs. “We are streamlining resources to stay competitive in a rapidly […]
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Keefe D continues to claim his innocence. He says former head of security at Death Row Records Reggie Wright Jr. organized the 2Pac’s murder.
The former South Side Compton Crips shot caller is finally coming forward since being arrested in 2023. This week he participated in an interview with ABC News. During the sit down he doubled down on his original claim that he did not have a role in the murder of Tupac Shakur on Sep. 13, 1996 in Las Vegas. “I did not do it,” he proclaimed before he dismissed the state’s case against him. “They don’t have nothing. And they know they don’t have nothing. They can’t even place me out here. They don’t have no gun, no car, no Keefe D, no nothing.”
He went on to point the finger of blame at Reggie Wright Jr., former Compton police officer and Death Row Records executive. “It’s heartbreaking they keep dragging in my name. I didn’t have anything to do with that. One of the worst days of my life when I heard that that happened,” he added. Keefe D says orchestrated the infamous hit via his team of security personnel and “mercenaries.”
When asked about his 2019 book Compton Street Legend he dismissed it and explained that the author, Yusuf Jah, took his story and just ran with it. “I’ve never read the book,” he said. “I just gave him details of my life. And he went and did his little investigation and wrote the book on his own.” Keefe D also explained that he was paid to say he was in the car that killed Tupac Shakur in the multiple interviews he participated in following the release of his memoir.
Reggie Wright Jr. has continued to deny claims he had anything to do with Tupac’s murder. You can see Keefe D’s interview below.
Elton John adds his record-extending 43rd top 10 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart, and Brandi Carlile earns her first, as their duet “Who Believes in Angels?” ascends a spot to No. 10 on the survey dated March 15. The song adds Greatest Gainer honors, thanks to its 22% surge in plays Feb. 28-March 6. (The […]
Little Monsters everywhere have spent all day Friday (March 7) rejoicing, after Lady Gaga unveiled her long-awaited new album Mayhem. One of those fans, it turns out, is Gaga’s fellow pop star Bebe Rexha. In a series of posts shared on X, the “I’m the Drama” singer shared her first impression of Gaga’s new album, […]
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President Donald Trump is facing questions after walking back threatened tariffs on Mexico & Canada for the second time.
On Thursday (March 6), President Donald Trump reversed course and postponed tariffs of 25% of goods that he levied against Mexico and Canada on Tuesday (March 4) for the second time, leading many to question his process. He stated that they would be postponed until April 2. Trump had bragged about the tariffs at his State of The Union address then, claiming they would lead the U.S. to success. “Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again. And it’s happening, and it will happen rather quickly. There’ll be a little disturbance. We’re okay with that. It won’t be much,” he said at the time.
Canada, Mexico, and China immediately responded with their retaliatory tariffs, which sent the stock market tumbling on Wednesday (March 5)with the Dow falling 1,300 points in response to consumer concerns stateside about rising prices. On Thursday, Trump spoke with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said afterward in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that they “had an excellent and respectful call in which we agreed that our work and collaboration have yielded unprecedented results.” Hours later, Trump signed an executive order granting the same postponement to Canada.
Commerce Secretary Harold Lutnick mentioned the possibility of tariff postponements in a CNBC interview, stating that it would cover all goods. “ I think it’s likely that it will cover all USMCA-compliant goods and services,” he said. The USMCA refers to the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that was signed in 2018, and enforced beginning in 2020. Initially, Trump was seeking to relieve tariffs on automakers, no doubt in response to a Fox News segment where an auto dealer explained that the immediate effect of the tariffs would add $20,000 to the price of a car on the lot.
Trump’s backpedaling didn’t come without criticism. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blasted him in a press conference on Tuesday. “Today the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend. At the same time, they are talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying, murderous dictator. Make that make sense,” he said. China was more direct, expressing that they would “resolutely counter” all tariffs placed on their goods.
Shinedown adds to its record number of No. 1s on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, strutting to the top of the March 15-dated survey with “Dance, Kid, Dance.”
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The song becomes Shinedown’s milestone 20th leader on Mainstream Rock Airplay, which began in 1981. The Brent Smith-fronted rockers first reigned with “Save Me” in 2005. They have earned their two most recent rulers consecutively, as “Dance, Kid, Dance” follows the four-week rule of “A Symptom of Being Human” in January-February 2024.
All of the band’s No. 1s on the chart have been released on and promoted to radio by Atlantic Records.
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Most No. 1s, Mainstream Rock Airplay:20, Shinedown18, Three Days Grace15, Five Finger Death Punch14, Foo Fighters14, Metallica13, Godsmack13, Van Halen12, Disturbed12, Linkin Park
“Dance, Kid, Dance” is one of two Shinedown songs currently on the tally. “Three Six Five,” which was released concurrently with “Dance, Kid, Dance” on Jan. 24, reaches a new No. 38 high.
“Dance, Kid, Dance” also lifts 7-6 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 3.3 million audience impressions (up 1%) in the week ending March 6, according to Luminate.
On the most recently published, multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart (dated March 8, reflecting data Feb. 21-27), “Dance, Kid, Dance” ranked at No. 9, after it debuted at its No. 3 high (Feb. 8). In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 344,000 official U.S. streams.
“Three Six Five,” meanwhile, is the lead radio single at other radio formats. It rises 17-16 on Adult Pop Airplay and holds at its No. 19 best on Alternative Airplay.
Both songs are the first tastes of new music from Shinedown since 2022’s Planet Zero. A new studio album, the band’s eighth, has not yet been announced.
All Billboard charts dated March 15 will update Tuesday, March 11 on Billboard.com.
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Last year, we learned that famous crypto scammer Sam Bankman-Fried was set to be locked up in the same jailhouse as “The Diddler” himself, Diddy. And as interesting as that was, what’s more intriguing is that it seems like the two public pariah’s have actually crossed paths behind bars, and Fried had nothing but love for him.
According to the Daily Mail UK, Sam Bankman-Fried sat down for an interview with right-wing media darling, Tucker Carlson (of course) from a remote room at the Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, and during the wide-ranging interview, which included his charges, prison life and evil Democrats (of course), Tucker bluntly asked him “Have you made friends there? Are you hanging with Diddy? I think he’s in there with you.”
While you’d think that fresh fish like Fried would have a hard time in jail given the nature of his blue collar crime and his overall appearance, he says that he’s been treated well by his fellow inmates and Diddy, in particular, has basically been living up to his moniker “Brother Love” from what he could tell.
Per Daily Mail UK:
‘He is.. he’s been kind. I’ve made some friends, it’s a weird environment. It’s a combination of a few other high-profile cases and a lot of alleged ex-gangsters.
‘I’ve only seen one piece of him, which is Diddy in prison. He’s been kind to people in the unit, he’s been kind to me.
‘It’s kind of a soul crushing place for the world in general and what we see are just the people that are around us on the inside rather than who we are on the outside.
‘Some of them I think are thinking well this is sort of an opportunity to meet people they wouldn’t otherwise get to meet,’ Bankman-Fried said.
‘It makes sense from their perspective, but boy is that not how I think about prison.’
Yeah, most of us are actually good on having to go to prison to get the opportunity to meet celebrities or people we wouldn’t normally interact with, but hey, that’s just us.
While we’re glad to hear that Diddy is in good spirits while behind bars, we just hope that Fried doesn’t end up getting shaken down for some “chon chon” at some point on some Blood In Blood Out sh*t. Just sayin’.
Luckily for him, Fried also added that “The fortunate thing, the place I’m in, I’m not in… I’m not in physical danger.” Let’s hope it stays that way.
What do y’all think about Sam Bankman-Fried’s description of Diddy and their current prison environment? Is he good, or do you think it’s only a matter of time before things go left? Let us know in the comments section below.
Normani went public with her relationship and credited Ciara and Russell Wilson for the setup, Kai Cenat debates who the GOAT is between MJ & LeBron, and GloRilla is ready to take the stage for various sports events. What’s your favorite sports and music update from today? Let us know in the comments! Kai Cenat: […]
Get ready for a new era of innovation by streaming services. That was the message sent by Universal Music Group (UMG) chief digital officer Michael Nash during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call on Thursday (March 6), during which he noted that the label is currently in talks with all of its streaming partners — not just Spotify — about super-premium tiers.
“There’s a continuing wave of innovation that we’ve seen really transform our business and transform the digital landscape in particular, over the last decade, and we anticipate that that’s going to continue as the market grows,” said Nash.
Not that streaming services haven’t been innovating since day one. Listeners have enjoyed new ways to discover music (the growth of playlists, personalized listening and algorithm-driven radio stations), follow their favorite artists (album pre-saves) and view concert listings and lyrics. From 2011 to 2014, Spotify allowed developers (Rolling Stone, Billboard, Tunewiki and Songkick, among others) to build apps that lived inside its platform and utilized its song catalog. Services such as Tidal and Qobuz have made high-fidelity audio a part of their brand identities. And over the years, the types of subscription offerings expanded from individual plans to encompass family plans and affordable student options.
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But the type of innovation that Nash referenced is different. Except for high-fidelity audio, streaming innovations haven’t resulted in greater revenue per user — all the features packed into streaming services haven’t cost the consumers anything extra. That’s going to change. The next wave of music streaming will have products and services that carry higher prices. After decades of providing the same service to all customers, streaming platforms will segment the market and offer premium products to a subset of their subscribers.
Super-premium streaming is one component of what UMG calls “streaming 2.0.” On Thursday, CEO Lucian Grainge explained that streaming 2.0 “will build on the enormous scale we’ve achieved thus far in streaming’s initial stage. This next stage of streaming will see it evolve into a more sustainable and growing, artist centric ecosystem that improves monetization and delivers great experiences for fans.” Offering multiple tiers rather than a single subscription plan, Grainge said, “enabl[es] us to segment and capture customer value at higher than ever levels.”
Conversations about superfan offerings have extended as far as concert promotion and ticketing. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino revealed during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call that streaming services are interested in pre-sale ticket offers. “We’ve talked to them all about ideas on if they wanted inventory,” he revealed on the Feb. 20 call. “There’s a cost to that, and we would entertain and look at that option if it made sense for us in comparison to other options we have for that pre sell.”
Spotify is known to be working on a superfan product — CEO Daniel Ek revealed in February that he is testing an early version — but Nash suggested other streaming services could follow suit. “We’re in conversations with all of our partners about super-premium tiers,” he said. “We think this is going to be an important development for segmentation of the market.”
JP Morgan believes the customer segmentation that Nash referenced will be a component of UMG’s growth over the next 10 to 20 years. “In a streaming 1.0 world UMG was reliant on DSPs raising retail price rises if it was to benefit from a higher wholesale price; in a streaming 2.0 environment UMG has visibility on wholesale price rises that underpin its growth algorithm, while still having potential upside should DSPs raise prices above the minimum,” analysts wrote in a March 6 investor note.
UMG’s market research suggests that 20% of music subscribers are likely to pay for a superfan streaming product, according to Nash. If Spotify reaches that threshold, it will have converted roughly 53 million of its 263 million subscribers into higher-paying customers (as of Dec. 31). It’s already worked for at least one company outside the U.S., as Tencent Music Entertainment has already proven there’s demand for a high-priced, value-added streaming product: Its Super VIP tier, which costs five times the normal subscription rate, had 10 million subscribers at the end of September — over 8% of TME’s 119 million total subscribers. If other streamers can successfully follow suit, new superfan streaming products will generate more revenue for artists, rights owners and streaming platforms — and help the music business continue to grow for years to come.
Cash Cobain makes addictive music. Since he previewed “Trippin on a Yacht” on PlaqueBoyMax‘s stream earlier this year, the snippet has been all over TikTok, as has become a tradition when it comes to music he purposely teases on social media. And when he finally dropped the single, we included it on our Fresh Picks […]