News
Page: 284
11/22/2024
From K-pop gossip to the star-studded afterparty in West Hollywood, here’s what Billboard learned and overheard during the first-ever MAMA Awards ceremony in the States.
11/22/2024
J. Cole’s packing on the nostalgia for fans before 2024’s out. The Dreamville boss followed The Come Up‘s DSP arrival with the release of his sacred The Warm Up mixtape to streaming services for the first time on Friday (Nov. 22). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news […]
Playboi Carti continues to drop music on social media instead of streaming services. On Friday (Nov. 22), the Atlanta rapper released “Play This” on his @opium_00pium Instagram account to follow up his recent ComplexCon performance in Las Vegas. The strategy is an interesting one, as he’s dropped a bunch of songs this year, but most […]
JYP Entertainment, the K-pop company behind such artists as TWICE and Stray Kids, is on a roll, with its stock closing Friday (Nov. 22) at 66,100 won ($47.06) — up 11.3% for the week and marking its highest closing price since May 10. This week, the company seemingly got a nudge from the Monday (Nov. 18) announcement of Stray Kids’ 20-date, Live Nation-produced stadium tour in 2025 that will cover North America, Latin America and Europe. But the momentum has been building for a while; over the last three weeks, JYP shares have gained 35.6%.
Other K-pop stocks also posted gains this week: YG Entertainment rose 7.7% as “APT” by ROSÉ and Bruno Mars spent a fourth week atop the Billboard global charts and reached No. 1 in Japan. Elsewhere, HYBE improved 4.4% and SM Entertainment increased 4.3%. Collectively, the four K-pop companies have gained an average of 20.7% in the last three weeks and narrowed their average year-to-date deficit to 15%.
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Another high-flying music stock was Live Nation, which jumped 8.7% to an all-time high of $140.26 on Friday after more analysts increased their price targets. Citigroup increased its target on the concert promoter to $163 from $130, while Deutsche Bank upped its target to $150 from $130. As of Friday’s closing price, Live Nation shares have gained 49.8% in 2024 and 19.8% in just the last three weeks. The company’s third-quarter earnings on Nov. 11 can take credit for some of the recent gains, though Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election played a part, too, as investors believe Live Nation’s ongoing lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice will see a more favorable resolution with the incoming administration.
In other music stocks news, Spotify continued its hot streak by gaining 3.7% to $475.27, marking its second-highest closing price ever. A week earlier, Spotify shares gained 14.5% after the company’s third-quarter earnings showed the company achieved a record operating profit. The streaming company’s stock has gained 153% in 2024 and is up 23.6% in the last three weeks alone.
The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index rose 2.1% to a record 2,208.32 as 14 stocks finished the week with gains, putting it in line with stocks around the globe. In the United States, both the Nasdaq composite and S&P 500 increased 1.7%. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE was up 2.5%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 3.5%. Only China’s Shanghai Composite Index was an exception, dropping 1.9%.
Elsewhere, music streamer LiveOne gained 12.8% to $0.88, while iHeartMedia improved 8.6% to $2.40 after the radio giant announced terms for a debt exchange that will ease the company’s financial burden and extend most of the maturity dates for its debts. As of Nov. 14, note holders representing approximately 85% of outstanding debt have agreed to exchange notes under the new terms.
Just six of the index’s 20 stocks finished the week in negative territory. The sharpest drop came from German concert promoter CTS Eventim, which fell 9.7% this week after the company’s third-quarter earnings showed an increase in revenue but a drop in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) margin for both the promotion and ticketing segments.
Lastly, label giant Warner Music Group (WMG) dropped 3.3% to $31.85 following the release of its latest quarterly earnings on Thursday (Nov. 21). JP Morgan dropped its price target to $40 from $41 after lowering its estimate for fiscal 2025 adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) to $1.49 billion from $1.527 billion. Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank cut its WMG price target to $34 from $36.
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Kendrick Lamar still has a couple axes to grind. The Compton rapper surprised everyone by dropping his sixth studio album, GNX, and he addressed a bunch of things. A couple of the most notable topics he broached were that of Lil Wayne and his friends being upset that Lamar was chosen by Jay-Z and the […]
Back in 2007, Diplo and Switch were ready to launch the music they’d been working on together; they just needed to figure out what to call themselves. They each chose a bunch of words at random, wrote them on pieces of paper and threw them in a hat. They pulled two out, first was “major” and the second was “lazer.”
With that, one of the most influential dance music projects of the late 00s and 2010s was christened.
Billboard News recently spoke with Diplo and Switch for a rare joint interview, with the duo discussing the origins of Major Lazer and the 15-year anniversary of the group’s debut album, Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do.
The pair first met at Fabric London, realizing, Switch says, that “we both had a soft spot for Jamaican music at the time, and we were both doing our individual sounds, so it was a good excuse for us to come together and do stuff.”
Both producers had been working with M.I.A. on her albums Arular and Kala, with Diplo calling her “the catalyst for our music.” Shortly thereafter, the guys were making monthly trips to Jamaica to make music, falling into the local music community and having Jamaican artists including Vybz Cartel and TKTK record music that would ultimately end up on the Major Lazer debut.
They knew they were doing something right when they heard their track “Pon de Floor at a gas station in Kingston, realizing that their music was, Switch says, “penetrating this market that we felt was very special.” From Jamaica, they took the sound to the U.K., where the pair played one of their first big shows at London’s Notting Hill Carnival. Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do was released on June 16, 2009, hitting No. 169 on the Billboard 200 the next month.
The catalog of the group — which included Diplo, Walshy Fire and Jillionaire after Switch’s departure and now features Walshy Fire and Diplo alongside Ape Drums — has since aggregated 4.8 billion streams, according to Luminate.
“With our videos and everything we did, [Major Lazer] would be cancelled [nowadays] before we even started,” says Diplo. “Because people wouldn’t have given us a chance. They would have been like ‘We don’t really understand this and this isn’t correct.’ But back then, nobody really gave a shit. They were like, ‘I like the way this sounds.’ Today there’s too many tastemakers and rules.”
The group continued having breakthrough moments, with Beyoncé sampling “Pon de Floor on her 2011 smash “Run the World (Girls)” and Major Lazer and DJ Snake’s “Lean On” becoming what was, at the time, Spotify’s most streamed song of all time.
“We had really invented something with the Major Lazer language,” Diplo continues, “but by the second project we were able to make records that were actually hits. It was awesome to see our trajectory, something so chaotic and then to build something that made sense for people.”
Watch the full interview above to hear the pair talk about why Switch left the group, why Diplo thinks “Get Free” is Major Lazer’s best song and what it’s like working with Beyoncé in the studio.
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It’s been almost two decades since Eddie Murphy released his classic film The Nutty Professor and while many of today’s Hip-Hoppers aren’t familiar with the comedy film, DaBaby seems to be a fan and incorporates it’s storyline into his latest music video.
In his new visuals to “PHAT,” DaBaby finds himself as an overweight scientist who struggles with his social life but instead of slimming down via a scientific formula (a la The Nutty Professor), he goes about his day and turns up every chance he gets while munching on donuts and burgers. DaBaby really do love making some cinematic clips.
Back in Brooklyn Fivio Foreign is still going hard with the drill rap and in his clip to “Jason’s Plan,” double F rolls through his borough while puffing on some magic dragon to spit his bars and before landing in the projects where in interesting story unfolds revolving around his wifey.
Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from Cordae, Zaybang, and more.
DABABY – “PHAT”
FIVIO FOREIGN – “JASON’S PLAN”
CORDAE – “MAD AS F*CK”
ZAYBANG – “MAD”
JAY CRITCH – “I [LOVE] SL*TS”
JESSIE REYEZ FT. ARI LENNOX – “JUST LIKE THAT”
TEMS – “TURN ME UP”
EST GEE – “GO”
Diplo & Switch of Major Lazer sit down and share everything you need to know about the group. From first meeting to picking out their name, to creating ‘Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do,’ the duo share stories about their time together, their journey over the last 15 years and more! Katie Bain: I’m here […]
Rosé and Bruno Mars brought the MAMA Awards over to their “APT.” on Thursday night (Nov. 21), performing their new collaboration live for the first time at the Los Angeles ceremony. The duo rocked matching oversized grey suits as they sang the high-energy track, backed by a band and supporting singers. The duo later accepted […]
Ever since Taylor Swift began dating Travis Kelce, the multi-Grammy winner has become a mainstay at Kansas City Chiefs games, often seen supporting her Super Bowl champion boyfriend from a suite in Arrowhead Stadium. Beyond her reactions to the intensity of the games, Swift has become known for the Chiefs-themed outfits she wears to the […]