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31 Oct 2023

Studies of Blondie, Louis Armstrong & More Win 2023 ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Awards (Full List)

Erin Osmon’s liner notes for Blondie — Against the Odds: 1974-1982 won an ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award on Tuesday (Oct. 31). The collection, which chronicled Blondie, which went from the underground New York punk scene to the pinnacle of the Billboard Hot 100, received a Grammy nomination for best historical album last year.

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Two studies of jazz legend Louis Armstrong were honored. Director Sacha Jenkins was cited for his Apple TV+ documentary, Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues. Keith Hatschek was honored for his book The Real Ambassadors: Dave and Iola Brubeck and Louis Armstrong Challenge Segregation, published by University Press of Mississippi.

The ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Awards, now in their 54th year, are presented to outstanding books, articles, liner notes and broadcast programs on the subject of music.

Established in 1967 to honor the memory of composer, critic, commentator and former ASCAP president Deems Taylor, The ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Awards are made possible by the support of the Virgil Thomson Foundation. Virgil Thomson (1896 – 1989) was a leading American composer and critic, and a former member of the ASCAP board of directors.

The ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Awards judging panel is comprised of ASCAP members Daniel Felsenfeld, Dom Flemons, Terry Radigan, and Dalit Hadass Warshaw.  Jim Steinblatt provided professional guidance and advice.

More information about The ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Awards is available here.

The 2023 award recipients are as follows:

The Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Broadcast/Media Award in pop music: Director Sacha Jenkins for his Apple TV+ documentary, Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues.

The Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Broadcast/Media Award in concert music: Writer and director Harry Lynch for his documentary, Florence Price and the American Migration, which aired on Now Hear This, a mini-series hosted by Scott Yoo on Great Performances, PBS.

The ASCAP Foundation Paul Williams “Loved the Liner Notes” Award for pop music: Erin Osmon for Blondie – Against the Odds: 1974-1982 by Erin Osmon on Universal Music Enterprises (UMC) and The Numero Group. The “Loved the Liner Notes” Award was established in 2016 and is funded by Paul Williams, president of The ASCAP Foundation.

The Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Book Awards in pop: Dan Charnas for his book, Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm, published by MCD, a division of Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Keith Hatschek for his book The Real Ambassadors: Dave and Iola Brubeck and Louis Armstrong Challenge Segregation, published by University Press of Mississippi.

Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Book Awards in the concert music field:

Amy C. Beal for Terrible Freedom: The Life and Work of Lucia Dlugoszewski, published by University of California Press.

Licia Carlson for Shared Musical Lives: Philosophy, Disability, and the Power of Sonification, published by Oxford University Press.

A Special Recognition Award is given to William Rothstein for The Musical Language of Italian Opera, 1813-1859, published by Oxford University Press.

The ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award recipients for articles published in 2022:

The Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award for an article in the pop music field is presented to Ted Olson for his article “The Life of Blind Alfred Reed,” published on Music of Our Mountains.com.

The Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award for an article in the concert music field goes to Jacek Blaszkiewicz for his article “Verdi, Auber and the Aida-type,” published by Cambridge Opera Journal.

The Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism in the pop music field recognizes Ashley N. Kahn for his “The New Jazz Émigrés: Insights from noted artists living abroad,” published on WBGO.com.

The Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism in the concert music field is presented to Nathan Platte for his article, “Mixed Motives: Soviet Symphonies and Propagandistic Duplicity in The Iron Curtain (1948),” published by Music & Politics.

31 Oct 2023

Gucci Mane Shares Thoughts Over Face Tattoo In New Interview

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Gucci Mane

Source: Prince Williams / Getty

Gucci Mane gets candid about his career and talks about not being in “a healthy place” when getting his face tattoo years ago.

As Gucci Mane is in the middle of doing promotions for his new album, Breath of Fresh Air, he sat down as a guest on The Morning Hustle radio show to talk about the state of self-reflection working on the album he experienced. In the conversation, he was asked if he would take credit for the current trend of rappers getting facial tattoos similar to his. “I wouldn’t take credit for starting the trend, but I think I definitely made people think it was something cool to do,” he said.

Gucci Mane elaborated on that statement. “I was going through something when I did it. If I could do it over again, I probably wouldn’t have [done] it.  He acknowledged he was dealing with a lot mentally, but has no regrets over the ice cream tattoo, which he got in 2011 and set the Internet ablaze. “People don’t know the backstory to that. I wasn’t in a healthy place at the time. That was just a sporadic thing I did.”

The “So Icy” rapper did talk about the regrets he did have, mainly his beefs with other artists. “There’s a couple things I regret doing that I see people think I think is cool, some things I said or did,” he began. “[I] disrespected people and I’m like, ‘Damn.’ I look back on that now that I’m mature and I look down like this s— ain’t even … I wouldn’t handle it like that.” He recently squashed a long-standing beef with T.I., and was recently honored by the city of Atlanta with his own day earlier in October.

Gucci Mane was also asked how he’s been maintaining his cool and avoiding trouble since pleading guilty to a charge of possession of a firearm while being a convicted felon in 2014. “Just focusing on … the job, my freedom, my family, and knowing it could be taken away from me,” he told the Morning Hustle hosts. “It ain’t too far removed from my mind sitting in the cell, and how nasty it was. You know I don’t want to go back.”



31 Oct 2023

Tapping Into Superfans and Generative AI Among Hot Topics in New Edition of ‘The Trapital Report’

Why are hip-hop and R&B still popular streaming-wise but less so on the live music front? How can superfans and generative AI help further music industry growth? Those are just two of the hot topics addressed in Trapital’s second annual report on major trends in music, media and hip-hop. Presented by the ticketing company DICE, 2023’s The Trapital Report is being released today (Oct. 31) in tandem with Billboard‘s exclusive first-look preview.

“This report is for the key decision makers in music, media and entertainment, the executives, founders and investors in the space,” Trapital founder Dan Runcie tells Billboard. “These are the people who are working actively to serve the artists that they work with. They’re working actively to provide an experience to the end consumers as well as fans. And to do that they need to be as close as possible to the current trends that are happening within the actual revenue. But looking fast forward, what are the things that they need to invest their time and money in? How do they better understand this audience? Our report is able to offer those insights.”

The report begins with a look at the slowing growth of streaming. While music streaming revenue was $17.5B in 2022 versus $15.7B in 2021, that only represents 11% growth. That percentage figure is down from 24%, 19% and 29% in prior years, per Trapital’s analysis of data from Luminate, MRC, Nielsen and the IFPI Global Music Report 2022.

Explains Runcie, “Streaming growth has started to slow down from a revenue perspective year over year, especially from the heights that we had seen in the pandemic. That has sparked a lot of industry discussions about how to split the pie like pushes to raise prices and increase the payouts to certain types of artists; reducing the noise and fraud. But I do think that the two big opportunities that the industry has to grow the overall pie is to look at the superfan and lean into generative AI.”

“I do think even alone on the streaming services, they have a lot of valuable data and understanding as to who the superfans are,” says Runcie.  “And as well to all of the combinations of things that can be offered, whether it’s exclusive access to fans, community input …  I think there are different ways to have different tiers to enable that.”

Acknowledging the intense discussions emanating over the use of generative AI, Runcie says the emerging technology represents another growth opportunity by increasing derivative work. 

“Anytime in the history of recorded music, derivative work grows and that overall demand grows the pie,” he explains. “And it can do that because the underlying asset that a lot of popular derivative work comes from is work that the record labels already own. It’s what the rights holders already have. So being able to find the right attribution, being able to do it in a way that acknowledges both the safety and rights that the artists and the rights holders have, I think all of this is possible if you accept the fact that this isn’t necessarily a genie that’s going to go back in the bottle. It’s still very early, but no different than YouTube being able to figure out Content ID. The same can be possible for generative AI and allowing superfans to create making music, anything that enables that as that continues to grow, it only adds more value adds to the artists and the rights holders who have the valuable intellectual property.”

On the hip-hop front, the report notes the genre’s total global revenue rose slightly between 2021 ($2.72B) and 2022 ($2.78B). But its share of total revenue has dipped from 27.7% in 2021 to 26.8% in 2022. And while only three rap albums have hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2023  — Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape, Travis Scott’s Utopia and Drake’s For All the Dogs — hip-hop still reigns as the top genre. It accounts for 33% of all albums on the Billboard 200, more than twice pop and rock combined at 16% each.

However, in the report section titled “From URL to IRL” it points out the glaring fact that despite hip-hop and R&B’s popularity in terms of streaming and social media, pop and rock still command the live music front: 27% of concert revenue/33% of streaming revenue in the U.S. versus 11% of concert revenue/27% of streaming revenue for R&B/hip-hop according to Trapital’s analysis of stats from Pollstar and Luminate.

The report explains the disconnect is related to several factors. Among them: that hip-hop artists didn’t consistently begin touring on a global arena level until the 2000s; the hesitancy on the part of concert promoters to book rap acts owing to violence and safety concerns even though “rock acts often had worse violence issues”; younger fan bases; and the fact that many hip-hop and R&B acts “have clustered around larger festivals like Rolling Loud, the club circuit and other festival appearances” which are more economical than paying for expensive concert tickets.

“This is something I’ve been eager to dig into,” says Runcie. “And I’m glad we were able to do it with this report. When you transition from stream URL to in real life, hip-hop and R&B don’t necessarily dominate in the same way. Even though we’ve seen hip-hop and R&B artists that have done arena tours like Drake, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar and SZA, other hip-hop/R&B artists who’ve had very popular music haven’t quite gotten to that same point on the live music side.”

To that point, the report includes a breakdown of which artists can sell out a tour at each venue level. The list encompasses 30+ stadiums (Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, Lady Gaga), 10K+ arenas (SZA, Lizzo, Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, Miley Cyrus), 5K+ amphitheatres (Lil Uzi Vert, Janelle Monae, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Baby, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie) and 2K+ ballrooms (Latto, Chloe Baily, Yeat, Denzel Curry, Glorilla).

Also of interest in The Trapital Report is a look at Latin music’s popularity, the largest DSPs and most valuable private companies, indie artist case stories, audience profiles, the most valuable songs streamed on Spotify and YouTube and the top 1% of artists in streaming. According to Runcie, the full reports features detailed analyses on streaming revenue, music genre trends, live entertainment, short-form video, chart analysis among other topics.

For more information, visit trapital.co/report

31 Oct 2023

Beyoncé Scores Three-Peat Atop Billboard’s Monthly Boxscore Recap

Yet again, Beyoncé crowns Billboard’s monthly Boxscore recap. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the Renaissance World Tour grossed $121.9 million and sold 476,000 tickets across nine shows in September.

This is the third consecutive month, and fourth overall, that Beyoncé has crowned Top Tours. That ties her with Bad Bunny for the second-most since the charts’ launch in February 2019, only behind Elton John’s seven. And while he, Bad Bunny, The Rolling Stones and others have achieved back-to-back wins, Queen Bey is the first act to go three-in-a-row.

It’s also her third consecutive month north of $100 million, after setting all-time monthly record with $179.3 million in August.

In addition to this monthly chart feat, Billboard previously reported upon Beyoncé’s Oct. 1 finale that The Renaissance World Tour is the highest-grossing tour by a woman, by a Black artist and by any American soloist in the Boxscore archives. Between its May 10 kickoff in Stockholm and its recent closing show in Kansas City, the tour grossed $579.8 million and sold 2.8 million tickets, making it the biggest of her career, and the seventh highest grossing trek of all time.

September is Beyoncé’s second month at No. 1 on Top Boxscores. After reigning in July with two shows at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, she claims the crown with three shows on the opposite coast. Playing SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. (Los Angeles area) on Sept. 1-2 and 4, the Renaissance World Tour brought in $45.5 million and sold 156,000 tickets.

More, Beyoncé follows herself at No. 2 with two hometown shows at Houston’s NRG Stadium. Those, on Sept. 23-24, grossed $31.3 million and sold 123,000 tickets. Though more than 30% off from her SoFi shows, the weekend in Houston earned more than double its next closest competition.

Depeche Mode’s trio of dates at Mexico City’s Foro Sol took in $15.4 million, leading a group of 13 reports between $10-15 million. Three of those 13 come from Beyoncé herself, at Nos. 6, 8 and 12.

While Beyoncé is one of a growing group of solo women who have shifted the make-up of Boxscore’s top earners in the last several months, she is one of just three on September’s Top Tours. P!nk follows at No. 6 with $30.2 million from a handful of North American stadium shows as part of the Summer Canival tour. Elsewhere, Lady Gaga is No. 29 with $11.1 million from eight dates as part of her Jazz & Piano residency at MGM’s Dolby Live in Las Vegas.

While these women make up just 10% of the acts on the chart, their grosses combine to 22% of the top 30’s combined earnings, in large part due to Beyoncé’s giant haul.

Notably, RBD adds to the gender shift, at No. 2. The Mexican pop group reunited with five of its six original members – three women and two men – to winning results. Through Oct. 1, the Soy Rebelde Tour has earned $90.2 million, $65.7 million on which came from shows in October. That’s more than the group’s entire concert revenues from before reuniting, from 2005-08.

The upper echelon of this month’s rankings is notably diverse. Morgan Wallen, Drake and Coldplay round out the top five spots on Top Tours, adding country, rap and rock to RBD’s Latin pop and Beyoncé’s mix of pop, R&B and dance music. In 39 editions of the Top Tours chart, this is the first time that each of the top five acts represent different genres.

While Beyoncé’s nine-figure haul includes revenue from her Sept. 11 show in Vancouver, Wallen gives Canada a spotlight among his September dates. Ten out of his 13 concerts were above the border, making up 61% of his total monthly earnings. Those include three in Toronto (Sept. 14-16; $7.2 million; 47,800 tickets) and others in Montreal (Sept. 23; $3.1 million; 15,200) and Calgary (Sept. 30; $2.9 million; 13,600).

After Wallen’s $25.8 million in Canada, Coldplay follows with $9.2 million from two shows in Vancouver, before Beyoncé with $7.9 million from her own Vancouver date. Ten other acts among September’s top 30 played shows in Canada, from Ed Sheeran and Guns N’ Roses in the top 20, to Lionel Richie and Marco Antonio Solis at Nos. 28 and 30, respectively.

While the stacked grosses by Beyoncé, RBD and others are certainly worth celebrating, September’s overall figures are record-breaking, well beyond the top-earning tours. For the first time since the charts launched, all 30 tours grossed more than $10 million, down to Solis’ $10.9 million. Previously, June ’23 set the high-mark with 27 tours.

September’s eight-figure treks go well beyond the top 30, in fact, with another eight artists above the benchmark. Fuerza Regida just misses the chart cut-off with $10.8 million, while Lana Del Rey ($10.7 million), The Postal Service & Death Cab for Cutie ($10.6 million) and blink-182 ($10.4 million), among others, follow.

Still looking at the big picture, though slightly zoomed in, Live Nation crowns Top Promoters, yet again. With over 8.4 million tickets sold in September, the concert giant has reported grosses of more than $1 billion for the first time.

31 Oct 2023

Mariah Carey Shows Off Red-Hot Jessica Rabbit Halloween Costume: See Photos

Mariah Carey may be the Christmas queen, but she’s also no amateur when it comes to Halloween. This year, the songstress looked fabulous as Jessica Rabbit, sharing photos of her Disney-inspired costume on social media Monday night (Oct. 30).

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In the photos, Carey sports a curve-hugging red dress, purple opera gloves and flaming red hair, just like the Who Framed Roger Rabbit femme fatale. “Happy Halloween!” she captioned the pictures, adding a spooky Jack-o-lantern emoji.

The “We Belong Together” singer also seemed to wink at the upcoming holiday season, which she’s all but trademarked at this point thanks to her evergreen chart-ruling hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” “#notyet,” she hashtagged her post.

The “not yet” is an ongoing joke between Carey and her fans, as the five-time Grammy winner typically kicks off her Christmas festivities immediately after Halloween concludes. Last year, she posted a video of her in a bubble bath midway through October, teasing fans who wanted to prematurely listen to “All I Want” with the coy caption “Not yet!”

Then, on Nov. 1, the star shared a video of her channeling the Wicked Witch of the West before morphing into a Santa-inspired jumpsuit, declaring, “IT’S TIIIIIIIIME!!!!!!!!”

In years past, Carey has taken on Halloween as a heavy metal rocker, a devil, a pink-haired nurse, a bride and a mermaid. This year’s Jessica Rabbit tribute comes on the heels of the pop diva’s announcement that more dates will be added to her upcoming Merry Christmas One and All Tour, which kicks off Nov. 15 in Highland, Cali. and wraps Dec. 17 with a show at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

See photos of Mariah Carey as Jessica Rabbit below:

31 Oct 2023

Sting’s Classic ‘Fields of Gold’ Reborn on Dance/Electronic Charts With Marshmello & P!nk

Sting’s enduring ballad “Fields of Gold” shines in new form on Billboard’s charts, as “Dreaming” — which reworks the song with Marshmello and P!nk — enters at No. 1 on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales survey (dated Nov. 4).

The new interpretation, released on RCA Records, sold 2,000 downloads in the U.S. in its first week (Oct. 20-26), according to Luminate.

The collaboration concurrently debuts at No. 12 on the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, also driven by 1.5 million official streams and 1.1 million in all-format radio audience. Plus, it starts at No. 34 on Adult Pop Airplay, where it’s Sting’s highest rank since 2006, when “Always on Your Side,” with Sheryl Crow, reached No. 11.

“Fields of Gold” rose to No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1993. It also reached No. 2 on Adult Contemporary, marking Sting’s highest-charting title, and No. 24 on both Pop Airplay and Mainstream Rock Airplay. Released as the second single from Sting’s album Ten Summoner’s Tales, the song, which he solely wrote, has drawn 158 million official streams – and 5.3 billion in radio reach – to date.

“I always like it when [a] different mind takes one of my songs and adds something of their own to it,” Sting mused in an Instagram post spotlighting the release of “Dreaming.” “I never feel that possessive. I’m always interested to know where it can go.”

Added P!nk, “To meld all of the worlds … it’s fun. You can take something [and] make it new again.”

“Dreaming,” behind which Marshmello was the “prime mover,” notes Sting, is set to appear on the Tour Deluxe Edition of P!nk’s album Trustfall, due Dec. 1. The LP debuted at its No. 2 high on the Billboard 200 in March, becoming her ninth top 10 set.

“Dreaming,” meanwhile, marks Sting’s second charted dance makeover of one of his songs in as many years. His team-up with Swedish House Mafia, “Redlight” – which reworks “Roxanne,” a No. 32 hit on the Hot 100 for the Sting-fronted The Police in 1979 – reached No. 20 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in March 2022.

31 Oct 2023

Chart Rewind: In 1998, Shania Twain Continued to Make Herself at ‘Home’ Atop Hot Country Songs

On Oct. 31, 1998, Shania Twain’s “Honey, I’m Home” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, becoming the most recent of her seven leaders.

Twain co-authored the single with her then-husband, Robert “Mutt” Lange, who also produced it.

The song became the third of three Hot Country Songs No. 1s from Twain’s Come On Over album, following “Love Gets Me Every Time,” which led for five weeks – Twain’s longest reign – beginning in November 1997, and “You’re Still the One” (one week, May 1998).

The set debuted at the Top Country Albums summit and proceeded to dominate for a then-record 50 weeks. Dating to the chart’s 1964 inception, Come On Over remains the longest-commanding collection by a woman. Among all acts, it’s tied with Luke Combs’ This One’s for You for the second-longest rule, after Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (97 weeks).

Twain logged her first four Hot Country Songs No. 1s from her previous album The Woman in Me, in 1995-96: “Any Man of Mine” (two weeks), “(If You’re Not in It for Love) I’m Outta Here!” (two), “You Win My Love” (two) and “No One Needs To Know” (one week).

Along with her Hot Country Songs haul, which includes 17 top 10s, Twain (born Eileen Edwards on Aug. 28, 1965, in Windsor, Ontario) has scored five No. 1s on Top Country Albums. This February, her Queen of Me LP opened at its No. 2 high, becoming her seventh top 10 set.

Now 58, Twain was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in August 2022. She is currently on the fall leg of her Queen of Me Tour. Her latest Las Vegas residency begins in May 2024 at the Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

31 Oct 2023

Peter Jackson-Directed Video for Final Beatles Song ‘Now and Then’ Sets Global Premiere

A video for “Now and Then,” which has been described as the “last Beatles song,” is scheduled to premiere on Friday (Nov. 3) at 10 a.m. ET., 24 hours after the track’s release on Thursday (Nov. 2). The clip was directed by Peter Jackson and is described in a release as a “poignant and humorous” visual that “invites viewers to celebrate The Beatles’ timeless and enduring love for one another with John, Paul, George and Ringo as they create the last Beatles song; the video will premiere on the Beatles YouTube channel.

“Now and Then,” which will be released by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe, is the final song written by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and it was finished by living members McCartney and Starr more than 40 years after the group began work on it. The double A-side single will also include a touching throwback with the inclusion of the band’s 1962 debut single, “Love Me Do,” featuring the original cover art shot by Ed Ruscha. Both songs have been mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos.

The “Now and Then” video is Jackson’s first foray into music video production and in a statement, the director behind the acclaimed 2021 The Beatles: Get Back miniseries said when Apple first approached him with the gig he was initially reluctant to say yes. “I thought my next few months would be a hell of a lot more fun if that tricky task was somebody else’s problem, and I could be like any other Beatles fan, enjoying the night-before-Christmas anticipation as the release of a new Beatles song and music video approached – in 1995, l loved the childlike excitement I felt as the release of ‘Free As A Bird’ was inching closer,” he said of the 1995 Beatles song that began as a 1977 Lennon home demo that was completed by McCartney, Harrison and Starr.

“I could have that experience once again – all I had to do was say no to The Beatles. To be honest, just thinking about the responsibility of having to make a music video worthy of the last song The Beatles will ever release produced a collection of anxieties almost too overwhelming to deal with,” the director continued. “My lifelong love of The Beatles collided into a wall of sheer terror at the thought of letting everyone down. This created intense insecurity in me because I’d never made a music video before, and was not able to imagine how I could even begin to create one for a band that broke up over 50 years ago, had never actually performed the song, and had half of its members no longer with us.”

But, as Jackson kept trying to think of new reasons to turn down the gig — to this day, he said, he still has never, technically, agreed to the job — he told Apple that the lack of “suitable footage” was worrisome because the project would require tapping into rare and unseen film of the Fab Four, not much of which is out there.

“Nothing at all seemed to exist showing Paul, George and Ringo working on ‘Now And Then’ in 1995 … There’s not much footage of John in the mid-seventies when he wrote the demo … I grizzled about the lack of unseen Beatles footage from the ’60s … And they didn’t even shoot any footage showing Paul and Ringo working on the song last year,” he said of his tortured thought process.

“A Beatles music video must have great Beatles footage at its core. There’s no way actors or CGI Beatles should be used,” Jackson continued. “Every shot of The Beatles needed to be genuine. By now I really had no idea how anyone could make a ‘Now And Then’ music video if they didn’t have decent footage to work with, and this was far from being a lame excuse. My fear and insecurity now had solid reasons why they should prevail and allow me to say no without looking too much like a chicken.”

But Jackson also knew the Beatles don’t take no for an answer once they set their minds to something, which might explain why they didn’t wait for him to decline before forging ahead. Jackson said he found himself “swept along” as McCartney and Starr addressed his worries and shot some footage of themselves that they sent to him. In addition, Apple dug up more than 14 hours of long-forgotten film shot during the 1995 sessions, including several hours of McCartney, Harrison and Starr working on the last song.

In addition, Lennon’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, and Harrison’s widow, Olivia, found some “great unseen home movie footage” that they shared with him. “To cap things off, a few precious seconds of The Beatles performing in their leather suits, the earliest known film of The Beatles and never seen before, was kindly supplied by Pete Best,” Jackson revealed of the contribution from the band’s original drummer. “Watching this footage completely changed the situation – I could see how a music video could be made. Actually, I found it far easier if I thought of it as making a short movie, so that’s what I did… My lack of confidence with music videos didn’t matter anymore if I wasn’t making one. Even so, I still had no solid vision for what this short film should be – so I turned to the song for guidance.”

Jackson described separating Lennon’s voice on the demo tape a year ago, with producer Giles Martin cooking up an early mix of the single last year that the director loved and which he’s listened to more than 50 times since. After doing a deep-dive into the song looking for ideas and inspiration for the short film, Jackson said the more he listened the more the shape of the visual began to take form, “without any conscious effort from me.”

Working with his Get Back editor, Jabez Olssen, Jackson started pulling together “little fragments, sliding pictures and music around in different ways until things began to click in.” The idea, he said, was to create a short film that would “bring a few tears to the eye,” though he began to realize that generating emotion using only archival footage was “tricky” at best.

“Fortunately, the simple power of this beautiful song did a lot of the work for us, and we finished the first 30 or 40 secs of the film fairly quickly,” Jackson said, admitting that finding an appropriate ending that could “adequately sum up the enormity of The Beatles’ legacy” proved daunting. If not impossible.

“Their contribution to the world is too immense, and their wondrous gift of music has become part of our DNA and now defies description,” he said. “I realised we needed the imagination of every viewer to do what we couldn’t, and have each viewer create their own personal moment of farewell to The Beatles – but we had to gently steer everyone to that place. I had some vague ideas, but didn’t really know how to achieve this.”

Jackson said he got lucky because Harrison’s son, musician Dhani Harrison, happened to be visiting Jackson’s home country of New Zealand at the time, and after discussing the proposed ending with him, “his [Harrison’s] eyes immediately filled with tears — so that is the way we went.”

The middle section aimed to capture the band’s legendarily silly side using a collection of unseen outtakes where the Beatles are “relaxed, funny and rather candid.”

The video will be accompanied by a 12-minute Now and Then — The Last Beatles Song documentary written by Oliver Murray, due out on Wednesday (Nov. 1). The doc will tell the story behind the track and feature exclusive footage and commentary from McCartney, Starr and Harrison, as well as Sean Ono Lennon and director Jackson.

31 Oct 2023

SiriusXM Reports 47% Spike in Quarterly Profits to $363 Million

Satellite radio giant SiriusXM reported quarterly net profits rose nearly 50% compared to a year ago, but that it also lost 96,000 self-pay subscribers in recent months.

The company reported on Tuesday (Oct. 31) that net income was $363 million, up from $247 million in the third quarter of last year, while revenues held roughly flat from a year ago at $2.27 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Chief executive Jennifer Witz said in a statement that the company’s investments in new product and technology upgrades — expected to be unveiled next week — will help grow Sirius’ subscriber base and business by helping customers find exclusive event content from top programs and artists, including Ed Sheeran and Wu-Tang Clan.

“Our content portfolio continues to differentiate us in the audio marketplace with exclusive access to live sports, talk, music, and one-of-a- kind content,” Witz said in a statement, calling the next-gen platform “a key component of our long- term vision for the company’s consumer offerings.”

“The ongoing enhancements to our user experience will ensure that our unique suite of content resonates with our audience in increasingly personalized ways,” she said. “This leading content and upcoming product upgrade will be paired with our unmatched business model, which we expect to continue delivering significant and growing free cash flow in the years ahead.”

The looming tech releases are geared toward improving “discoverability, personalization, and ease of use to both streaming and in-car subscribers,” according to a statement, and they will kick off with the unveiling of a new app, followed by in-car updates.

Investment in the app and updates was costly. In March, SiriusXM announced it was cutting 8% of its workforce to accomodate continued investment while ad sales slumped and subscriber growth was sluggish.

While SiriusXM reported a decline in self-pay subscribers and paid promotional subscribers, the total number of subscribers and the total revenue from SiriusXM held flat from a year ago at 34 million and $1.6 billion respectively. Average revenue per user was also flat at $15.69, despite getting a boost from certain full-price subscription rate hikes.

Advertising revenue for the company’s Pandora and off-platform business edged 3% higher to $418 million from a year ago, due to increases ad sales in programs and podcasts.

The number of monthly active users on Pandora fell to 46.5 million from 48.8 million a year ago. Subscriber revenue held flat at $132 million from a year ago.

Here’s a snapshot of the company’s quarterly earnings:

  • Third Quarter 2023 Revenue of $2.27 Billion
  • Net Income of $363 Million, Up 47% Year-Over-Year; Diluted EPS of $0.09
  • Adjusted EBITDA of $747 Million, up 4% compared to $720 million in the third quarter of 2022
  • Free cash flow of $291 million, down from $329 million in the prior year period

31 Oct 2023

Ms. Lauryn Hill Postpones Fort Worth Show Due to Ongoing Vocal Issues: ‘I Need to Heal and Rest the Voice’

Ms. Lauryn Hill is pressing pause again on the 25th anniversary tour celebrating her Grammy-winning 1998 solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill due to ongoing vocal issues. After postponing the third U.S. date of the tour in Philly last week, Hill announced on Monday (Oct. 30) that she’s been ordered by doctors to rest her voice.

“As you may know, I’ve been doing my best to overcome a serious case of vocal strain/injury over the past week or so,” Hill wrote in a tweet hours before showtime. “I fought through the last couple shows, pushing my voice, and masking the injury with medication. This isn’t safe or sustainable. I woke up this morning hoping to have enough voice to get through tonight, but I can barely talk let alone sing or rap.”

That situation meant that Hill had to postpone Monday night’s scheduled show at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX, because, as she told fans, “I need to heal and rest the voice in order to continue the tour. For these reasons, sadly, my doctors have advised me to postpone tonight’s show. Much love to all of you for your support, and I look forward to coming back to Texas soon.” At press time Hill had not announced a rescheduled date for the Fort Worth show.

The Miseducation tour — which also features a reunion set by the Fugees on some dates — kicked off in early September in Minneapolis. Hill postponed a Philly show due to the vocal issues, saying at the time she had to rest to prevent “any more serious strain or damage to my vocal cords.” She did make it to the United Center in Chicago on Saturday, where one of her famous fans, Chance the Rapper, made the scene with his mom.

The next scheduled date on the tour is a Thursday (Dec. 2) gig at the Ball Arena in Denver, CO.

See Hill’s statement below.