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The season of gifting is finally here and we’re taking you through the best gift ideas for music lovers in your life! Tetris Kelly: From a bottle of B to The Notorious B.I.G., we got some of Apple’s best and a country queen with a necklace. If you’re wondering what to get that music lover […]
11/22/2024
K. Dot surprised the rap world with his latest offering on Friday (Nov. 22).
11/22/2024
Few documents are more carefully studied than the annual Coachella lineup poster announcing the dozens of artists booked to play the Indio, California festival each April. So this year, it didn’t take eagle-eyed fans long to notice a rare typographical change to the typically standardized playbill: A band name printed in something other than the poster’s classic Eurostile LT font.
Instead, the name of that band — legendary punk rock outfit The Misfits — was printed in the timeless “fancy horror” font it’s become known for, with oversized M’s, F’s and T’s dominating the other letters.
It’s a subtle yet substantial change to one of the most recognizable lineup posters in music, made to honor Goldenvoice’s long ties to The Misfits — listed as “The Original Misfits” to underline that the version of the band that’s set to appear at Coachella will be composed of the classic lineup of original singer/songwriter Glenn Danzig, original bassist Jerry Only and longtime guitarist Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein. The font change is a nod to The Misfits’ profound influence on live music, Goldenvoice officials say, as well as a celebration of the long history between the band and Goldenvoice, whose roots with the goth-punk outfit predate Coachella itself.
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“The Misfits are one of the first bands we promoted,” says Paul Tollett, president of Goldenvoice, which has been producing the annual music festival since 1999 and whose roots in L.A.’s punk rock scene go back to the early 1980s. Back then, Goldenvoice was a small concert promotion company run by Gary Tovar, a street-savvy supporter of LA’s growing punk movement who was known for promoting underground bands like Black Flag and T.S.O.L. that most venues wouldn’t touch.
In 1983, Tovar managed to secure The Misfits a Jan. 21. headlining gig with the Circle Jerks at a community center in Goleta, Calif. — a small beach town 100 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. The band’s energetic and blitzing performance, supporting their recently released record Earth A.D., was captured by multiple video cameras and a half-dozen 35mm toting photographers — with its most memorable line coming from a young Danzig at the end of “All Hell Breaks Loose” when he matter-of-factly declared, “We f—ed that one up.”
Bootleg recordings from the gig would solidify its cult status among fans, and Goldenvoice would promote at least one Misfits show by having the band open for Black Flag at the Santa Monica Civic Center on June 11, 1983. But by year’s end The Misfits had broken up, and eventually, Tovar’s run would come to an end as well: In 1991, he was arrested on federal drug trafficking charges and later sentenced to prison, handing the company off to Tollett and others to manage.
Fast forward four decades to early 2024, when the partners at Goldenvoice found themselves with the rare opportunity to work with The Misfits once more by staging a one-of-a-kind classic punk festival at the LA Fairplex with a supporting lineup that included Suicidal Tendencies, Black Flag, Bad Religion and The Vandals. The festival, dubbed No Values, sold out more than 40,000 tickets immediately after going on sale.
The Misfits are scheduled to headline Coachella’s Outdoor Stage on both weekends (April 12 and April 19), marking their first appearance at the festival. Tickets are now on sale at coachella.com.
When director Jon M. Chu shared that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo had been cast as Galinda and Elphaba, respectively, in the long-awaited movie adaptation of Broadway’s smash musical Wicked back in Nov. 2021, reactions were mixed. No one doubted Erivo’s thespian credentials: She’d won a Tony (lead actress, musical) for The Color Purple in 2016 and been nominated for a best actress Oscar in 2019 for playing abolitionist Harriet Tubman in Harriet. But Grande? Well, Ari’s pop career was unimpugnable – she’d released the acclaimed, Billboard 200-topping Positions a year prior to the announcement and topped the Billboard Hot 100 just months earlier on a remix of The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears” – but her acting credits were a different matter entirely.
It wasn’t that her résumé was slim. Between Victorious and Sam & Cat, Grande had been a consistent presence on Nickelodeon in the first half of the ‘10s. During the second half of that decade, Grande – who by then had earned her spot on pop music’s A-list – continued to flex her acting chops in small parts, getting killed in 2015’s Scream Queens, co-starring in Hairspray Live!, hosting Saturday Night Live and making a cameo in Zoolander 2 (all 2016).
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So it wasn’t that audiences hadn’t seen her act – it was that we hadn’t seen her act too far afield of the bubbly, ditzy Cat Valentine of her Nickelodeon days. A month after the Wicked casting was revealed, Grande showed a bit more range in the love-it-or-hate-it Netflix comedy Don’t Look Up, but considering that she was playing a pop star, it didn’t exactly assuage Wicked fan fears that Grande wasn’t qualified for one of the most beloved, sought-after roles in modern musical history.
Yes, Galinda/Glinda (the “Ga” is silent by the end of the musical) is both giddy and scatterbrained – two traits Grande excels at portraying – but Kristin Chenoweth’s iconic, Tony-nominated work in Wicked established that to play the role, you needed depth, layers and razor-sharp comedic timing. No one with ears could question Grande’s pipes, but based on her acting credits, we simply didn’t know if she was capable of filling Chenoweth’s small but mighty heels.
Well, having seen Wicked: Part 1 in theaters, I can say without exaggeration that Grande isn’t just a good witch – she’s sinceriously astonishing. From her first scene – when she descends from the sky to tell the overjoyed Munchkins that the Wicked Witch of the West is dead – it’s abundantly clear that Grande has figured out how to make the role her own.
This isn’t Grande the impressionist recreating Chenoweth’s Glinda for the big screen; this is a fresh interpretation delivered with nuance and pathos. As a traditionally beautiful pop star, it’s no surprise that Grande captures Glinda’s more-perfect-than-perfection aura; and as a Nickelodeon veteran, Grande can milk the humor of the Ozian mispronunciations (“confusifying,” etc.) without batting an eyelash. But when a Munchkin confrontationally inquiries about Glinda’s past friendship with the Wicked Witch, forcing the Good Witch to literally burst her own pink bubble, Grande is a revelation.
Caught off guard by the question, Grande’s Glinda falters, struggling to deliver a PR-acceptable reply without betraying a deeply felt kinship with the so-called Wicked Witch. Forcing a smile to cover up the pain and haunted loneliness in her eyes, Grande demonstrates from the go that she knows exactly what makes the Glinda character work: It’s not just about satirizing her superficiality — it’s conveying the sense that the experience of knowing Elphaba has fundamentally changed Glinda’s unthinking faith in institutions, public opinion and people in power. Glinda is a gently tragic figure in many ways, ultimately getting exactly what she wants while simultaneously realizing how hollow it all is.
As with the stage musical, the Wicked film plays out primarily as one lengthy flashback, which takes us back to a pre-epiphany Galinda: narcissistic, ambitious, a bit cruel, self-promoting and unhindered by one iota of self-awareness. Wicked touches on weighty themes, yes, but it’s not a Shakespearean tragedy, so all of that is naturally played for laughs, and Grande eats up every syllable, hair flip and vapid smile. She soars in the vocal showcase “Popular” – nailing some hair-raising high notes toward the end while putting her own stamp on Chenoweth’s best-known song – but more importantly, she delivers the laughs. Like a Golden Era Hollywood pro, Grande is luminous onscreen while balancing choreography and comedy, alternately subtle and silly in her performance of this winking celebration of conformity. When Wicked hits streamers, expect viewers to hit rewind more than once on this scene.
Any successful staging of Wicked needs a push-pull chemistry between the two leads, and Erivo’s Elphaba exudes a potent mixture of warmth, longing and self-loathing in the role. (It goes without saying that Erivo sings the absolute hell out of every song.) From bristling irritation to empathy and affection, her feelings toward Galinda evolve in a way that feels real and relatable — even in a musical with talking goats and Winkie princes.
When it’s time for Elphaba’s signature song, “Defying Gravity,” Erivo is stunning, overcoming disillusionment to find her self-confidence and purpose while giving the film it’s pounding, wounded heart. Grande provides deft, subtle support; these characters are on the same page morally but wired too differently to follow the same path, and that tension is magnificently acted. (Grande obviously knows “Yes, And?” as more than just a song title.)
Skeptics of Grande’s acting abilities might insist that while she soars in this role, it’s more a case of perfect casting than impressive acting. But from the opening scene to the climatic finale, Grande goes so much deeper than just playing a shallow, popular girl for laughs – she takes us on a journey that reveals the hopes, disappointments, compromises and realizations of a surprisingly three-dimensional character. Some pop stars turned actors acquit themselves competently on the big screen, but like Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born, this performance signals the arrival of a formidable cinematic talent with a lot more to show us.
11/22/2024
Dot continues to shake up the game with this surprise album drop.
11/22/2024
Taylor Swift is perfectly fine with subtly teasing her ex-boyfriend, Joe Jonas. Swift dated Jonas between July and October of 2008, and the relationship infamously ended when he broke up with the “Anti-Hero” star through a very quick phone call — a move Swift publicly shaded during a 2008 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. A […]
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Kendrick Lamar put the entirety of the greater Los Angeles area on his back with the track “Not Like Us” which was largely a diss of Drake and a call for West Coast unity. Leading this charge, Kendrick Lamar and a collective of other West Coast Hip-Hop artists are enjoying a resurgence that has put the culture at large on notice.
To best examine how the West has won in 2024, or at least why we believe they’re poised to do so, one only needs to look back to Future and Metro Boomin’s “LIKE THAT” single released in March from the pair’s WE DON’T TRUST YOU project that started the mudslinging between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, reaching a culture-shifting zenith by way of K-Dot’s explosive “Not Like Us” track.
The runaway success of “Not Like Us” remains a case study in timing, impact, and the power of directedness. There is no mystery in Lamar’s verse, no esoteric lines to parse, or prose that goes over the head. It is beyond clear that K-Dot’s Canadian rival was his target and that his relentless attacks dug into Drake’s character and image, with some in Hip-Hop crowning Lamar an absolute winner in their feud.
Adding to the layers, the video for “Not Like Us” was another celebration of greater Los Angeles with YG, Dot’s former boss at TDE Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, Mustard, and DeMar DeRozan showing off regional pride via their appearances. It has come to the point that listening back to the relatively light jabs thrown on “LIKE THAT,” it remains baffling that the beef reached the heights that it did.
All of this has naturally overshadowed other crowning achievements from West Coast artists, and we’ll do our best to examine the year that was.
Groovy Q
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ScHoolboy Q also dropped in March with his sixth studio album, Blue Lips, an album that we at Hip-Hop Wired reviewed and enjoyed immensely. To date, no other major Hip-Hop release has taken as many risks sonically as Blue Lips and further cements the legend of ScHoolboy Q as a streetwise but spiritually grounded lyricist. And as much as the production stood out on Blue Lips, the maestro in the middle of the maelstrom was always Q.
Vince Staples Continues Strong Run
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The buoyancy and chaotic energy of Blue Lips is not overtly present on Vince Staples’ sixth album, Dark Times, another example of the Long Beach native’s ability to find a reflective thread in even the starkest details surrounding his upbringing and rise to fame. Dark Times is not an overjoyous album, at least not overall. As the album reveals, Staples consistently presents himself as an artist who isn’t interested in being dissected or even understood. The album is an audio missive of someone who hopes to exist on their terms without the weight of expectations.
T Says He’s The Biggest Out The City Since Kenny
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Tyler, The Creator —no longer just the talented, if foul-mouthed, producer-rapper that fronted the sprawling Odd Future crew — is now a veteran act and eight studio albums deep. His latest, Chromakopia, is an audio hodgepodge of all of Tyler’s sounds from rapping, singing, jazz, rock, you name it, it’s here. Continuing some of his chest-out rapping that appeared on CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, T acknowledges K-Dot on “Rah Tah Tah,” signaling that the coast is unified. Chromakopia follows a concept that aims at rabid fans, tackles the abortion debate, and bashes the upkeep of fame. Some have crowned the record as the best to release this year.
Soul-O Hoe!
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Ab-Soul’s sixth studio album, Soul Burger, was seen as a surprise considering the staggered release schedule that TDE typically employs. Dedicated to his good friend Doeburger, who passed away in 2021, Soul Burger finds the “Martin Luther King of Carson” paying homage to his friend and his roots while once again showing why he might be the strongest lyricist to emerge from the Top Dawg Entertainment camp.
New Kung Fu Kenny!
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This brings us to the surprise release on Friday (November 22) of Lamar’s latest album, GNX, a body of work that seems to be a continuation of the sound examined on “Not Like Us” and features the full version of “squabble up,” a track we only heard as a snippet previously. GNX, at least on our first listen, doesn’t stick to a theme or sound and will take some time to take in all the finer points. That said, K-Dot shows off his extraordinary abilities, and the autobiographical “The Heart Pt. 6” is a highlight. And yes, there are shots at Drake, mentions of the Super Bowl, and maybe even a dig at Lil Wayne? You be the judge.
Other standout albums that highlighted the West Coast’s dominance this year include the likes of Jay Worthy and DāM FunK’s funky Magic Hour collaborative album, Tha Dogg Pound’s We All We Got, Larry June’s Doing It For Me, Big-Hit, Hit-Boy, and The Alchemist’s Black & Whites, and JasonMartin (FKA Problem) and DJ Quik’s Chupacabra.
We also got potent bar work from Planet Asia and his Trust The Chain II EP with 38 Spesh on production. TiRon and Ayomari’s The Adventures of TiRon & Ayomari, Thurz’s Yannick Koffi: In Time, and Casual’s Starbuster EP should all be included in this concise roundup.
Regional biases and arguments aside, it will be determined over time if the West Coast can sustain its momentum into 2025. But if 2024 is any indication, the West had a lot more than just something to say. It appears that the entire coast is ready to move together as a cohesive unit, and as the smoke continues to clear, any challenge to the respective thrones will be sufficiently met.
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All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. There’s little to compare to the feeling of joy you get when you see a fully stuffed stocking. Besides stocking up […]
At the beginning of 2023, Quevedo announced a stop in his career. Six months earlier, the Spanish artist had topped the Global 200 chart with “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52” alongside Bizarrap, making him and Bizarrap the first artists from Spain and Argentina, respectively, to reach No. 1 on the listing.
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By then, Bizarrap was already known for his provocative Music Sessions, but outside of Spain, Quevedo was relatively unknown — even though a few months earlier he had reached No. 145 on the same chart with “Cayo La Noche,” a collaboration with El Ima, Cruz Cafuné, Bejo, La Pantera, Juseph, and Abhir Hathi.
However, “Vol. 52” was his big ticket to a global audience that immediately connected with his deep voice and catchy mix of dance, pop and urban music. In a matter of months, Quevedo became a star — and in January 2023, he released his first album, Donde Quiero Estar, which debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard Latin Rhythm Albums chart.
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Although everything looked rosy, privately, Quevedo, who had just turned 21, felt tired and overwhelmed by the media, tours, pressure, and releases.
“From when I started to when we made ‘Cayo la Noche’ and the session with Bizarrap, I really didn’t have a chance to stop and decide: Do I like what I’m doing?” he says today. So he stopped.
For a year, he didn’t release music or give interviews. Until now.
On November 21, Quevedo returned with his second album, Buenas Noches, distributed through Rimas Entertainment, the home of his idol Bad Bunny. The 18-track set is a mix of pop and urban, with collaborations including Sech and De LaGhetto, but also surprises like Aitana and Pitbull, on a journey that ranges from totally fun to more introspective.
Not everything is as it seems. Much of the album’s aesthetic is based on red carpets and paparazzi, and the cover shows a smiling Quevedo with dark glasses talking to the cameras. But the photo is inspired by one of Michael Jordan, finally smiling when he decided to return to basketball after his father’s death. Now, after a year, Quevedo too is ready to return. Here is the story, which he tells to Billboard below.
Tell me about Buenas Noches.
It’s an eclectic album. Since I had not released music for a long time, what I most wanted was to flow in the studio and do things that I felt like doing. Make a fun album above all, not so introspective. There are songs that are more personal, but the majority are for people to have fun with. I made the album in very different stages. I released my first album in January 2023, but just before, when I had finished it in 2022, I started making this album. I made the first tracks in 2022. Then last year I did many camps, and this year I really got into the studio. But it has taken me over two years to make the album.
So, you really didn’t take a break from music?
For me, the break is not about not going to the studio. I love going to the studio. For me, it was about not being in the public eye. What I didn’t want was media pressure, keep traveling every week. It was about stopping and saying, okay, where do I want to take my career. I wanted was to disappear a bit from public view.
Why?
Everything was so pressed by the next thing that there was a moment when I said, “This was my dream, but it’s been a long time since I’ve considered if I’m happy with what I’m doing.” I started doing music because I love it. I don’t like being famous. It’s a consequence that I’m willing to assume if it means I can make music and live from it. But I don’t like being famous, I don’t like people getting into my life. What I love is that moment of creation.
I needed to stop and focus. Now I feel I have the strength to take everything up again, and I’m willing to deal with the things I don’t like so I can make my music.
Was there something that made you take the break and come back?
In 2022 I wrote “Ahora Qué,” a song that said: “2021 to sow, 2022 to reap, 2023 to crown, 2024 to disappear.” When I wrote that, I thought I’d take things a bit more slowly. But over time, in 2023, with the tour, the writing camps, there was a moment when I was making music only in camps, but not in my day-to-day. And at the same time, I moved to Madrid and was far from my family and my friends and my partner and there was a moment when I felt quite alone. There wasn’t a specific moment, but there was a moment of, “Damn, maybe I should take that song seriously.” At no point did I consider not coming back. What I specifically wanted was a moment to take for myself.
Can you describe the album?
It’s a very eclectic album, but there’s a sound with a lot of synths, drums, very 2008-2011 —Jason Derulo, Timbaland — strange mixes with new sounds and I think that’s the sound that repeats the most. The album is quite lively lyrically.
I hear many songs with many stories. The focus track, “Kassandra,” talks about a night with a celebrity who is always accompanied but ultimately is alone; “Iguales” is about a womanizing guy who sleeps with as many as he can, for example. Do all the songs have that element of storytelling?
Almost all. Ideas always flow more when I write [about] specific situations. There are many stories that I haven’t lived through 100%, but they’re inspired on things my friends tell me. That’s where my songs come from. I try to imagine situations.
You have a song with Pitbull, “Mr. Moondial.” How did it happen?
We always said, “Let’s do something very pop… very Pitbull.” We made the track, I recorded my bit, we called the song “Mr. Worldwide.” And we always said, we have to get Pitbull. But we didn’t know him. I don’t know him to this day, because he recorded two and a half weeks ago! But I’m sure we’ll meet him.
It’s an album with a beginning and an end and a context, at a time when many albums are simply collections of singles. What recent album inspires you?
In the current era, from the last eight years, I would say Motomami by Rosalía, for the way she created a new concept after El Mal Querer and all the imagery that album had. And then at a more urban reggaetón level, [Bad Bunny’s] YHLQMDLG is the album that changed the entire industry for me. Obviously, Latin music was already very popular, but that album confirmed Latin music ruled. It made people try to do things better. When I heard it, I said, “That’s it: From now on people are going to start making real albums.”
Watch the “Kassandra” video here.
In the last four months, two of the three major labels have seen their stock price punished for missing expectations of subscription growth — effectively sending the message that in 2024, delivering substantial revenue gains isn’t enough. In its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday (Nov. 21), Warner Music Group (WMG) revealed streaming growth of 8.2%, which was below some analysts’ estimates — helping explain why the company’s share price fell 7.4% on Thursday and erased approximately $1.29 billion of market value. The same thing happened to Universal Music Group in July — albeit to a far greater extent — when its lower-than-expected second-quarter subscription growth led to a 24% drop in its share price despite total revenue climbing 8.7%.
To say analysts and investors place a great deal of attention on streaming growth is an understatement. During WMG’s earnings call on Thursday, six of the 10 questions from analysts concerned subscription revenue, including topics such as drivers of expected growth, the setting of wholesale rates and how streaming royalties are calculated and distributed. That’s because analysts — and the investors they speak to — know that platforms such as Spotify and YouTube are critical to record labels and publishers’ fortunes.
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Judging from their introductory remarks, WMG and UMG would rather talk about their companies’ global expansions. On Thursday, WMG CEO Robert Kyncl highlighted the company’s focus on India, a country of 1.4 billion that he called “more like a continent than a country.” Currently dominated by ad-supported streaming, India has the fifth-largest gross domestic product but ranks just 14th amongst recorded music markets. But Kyncl said he believes the country “will become an increasingly influential global force in the music business,” adding that WMG is “well positioned to keep taking market share” through acquisitions and partnerships. Meanwhile, during UMG’s latest earnings call on Oct. 31, CEO Lucian Grainge talked about acquisitions, partnerships and expansions in emerging markets such as China, Thailand and Nigeria.
Constantly pulled back to the topic of music subscriptions, Kyncl and WMG CFO Bryan Castellani attempted to quell any concerns that streaming growth is petering out, explaining how WMG intends to obtain high, single-digit subscription revenue growth even as that growth has been slowing. Relatively few Americans have a music streaming subscription, at least when compared to streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) options such as Netflix; during the call, Kyncl noted that subscription penetration in the U.S. is 30% while SVOD services are at 50%. “There’s a lot more to grow in United States for music,” he said.
Lately, though, the success of music streaming platforms has looked one-sided. The licensees, not the licensors, appear to be keeping most of the spoils of price increases and subscriber acquisitions. As one WMG analyst put it, the major labels’ content is a must-have for digital service providers (DSPs) such as Spotify, but “a lot of value has instead accrued to the DSPs” rather than content owners. At least by one measure, Spotify has reaped the benefits of price increases far more than major labels. Since Spotify announced its first U.S. price increase on July 23, 2023, its share price has risen 177%, compared to 3% for UMG and 4% for WMG.
To level the playing field and reap more of the benefits of subscription music’s popularity, WMG intends to tweak pricing — which it believes the labels will benefit from — to help drive continued subscription growth. For starters, the company expects improvements to come from the launch of a high-priced subscription tier for superfans that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in July could cost $17 or $18 per month. Kyncl and Castellani also pointed to changes in wholesale prices that would establish per-subscriber minimums to reduce the discounts given to family plans and other multi-user accounts. “With both subscriber growth and opportunities for wholesale price increases, the formula for streaming growth is strong and there’s plenty of room for acceleration,” said Kyncl.
The U.S. and other mature streaming markets will deliver subscription growth more immediately than emerging markets still dominated by ad-supported streaming. But over the long term, said WMG, high-growth, emerging markets like India have substantial potential. As Kyncl explained, WMG is betting on countries like India that have rising gross domestic product (GDP) because advertising spending will increase as GDP increases —and rising GDP will eventually translate to more subscribers. Again, Kyncl talked about closing the gap between music and TV; in India, he put the number of music subscribers at 15 million and the number of households with TVs at 100 million.
Streaming has shaped today’s music business. WMG and UMG would not have gone public had it not transformed a once-moribund industry. Investors wouldn’t have poured money into Hipgnosis Songs Fund and other investment funds were it not generating massive royalties for aging catalogs. And prominent institutional investors such as Blackstone and Pimco would not be so enthusiastic about music assets if streaming couldn’t open new markets around the world.
That strong enthusiasm has created high expectations, though, and labels’ mandate to deliver high, single-digit subscription growth is going to transform streaming in the years to come. Prices will be higher. Streaming services will launch high-priced superfan tiers. And if the labels have their way, ad-supported on-demand streaming would no longer be free. However things shake out, the majors seem confident they can deliver.