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Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s Who Believes In Angels? has hit No. 1 in the Official Albums Chart, giving the former his 10th chart-topper in the U.K (April 11). The Andrew Watt-produced record was written and recorded by John and Carlile alongside John’s longtime songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. The collaborative record is Carlisle’s maiden No. […]
Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” has earned its fourth consecutive week at No. 1 on the U.K. Singles Chart, staving off competition from Ed Sheeran’s comeback track “Azizam” (April 11). Sheeran ends the week at No. 3, but looks set to be a fierce competitor to Warren’s crown over the next seven days. The “Bad Habits” singer has […]
Interest in superfans and their revenue potential has become so strong that market research firms and equity analysts are digging into the topic. This week, Bernstein released a report on music streaming services’ potential moves and MIDiA Research released a new report about music streaming pricing strategy.
For the uninitiated, a music superfan has been defined by Luminate as those fans who interact with artists and their content in multiple ways, including streaming, social media, physical music purchases and buying merchandise. These superfans make up 19% of U.S. music listeners, according to Luminate, and are more likely than the average fan to buy physical music, spend more on music, discover new music, connect with artists on a personal level and participate in fan communities.
Efforts are well underway to tap into superfans. Labels and artists employ e-commerce to sell merchandise, LPs and CDs directly to consumers, circumventing traditional retail channels and building a direct billing relationship with the most valuable fans. Startups such as EVEN and Fave — Sony Music and Warner Music Group are investors in the latter — are focused on connecting artists with their most fervent supporters. Given the multi-billion-dollar size of the music streaming market, though, Spotify’s plan to launch a superfan tier could be the most impactful play.
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Bernstein’s “Superfan Economics 101” report argues that a super-premium tier will help music streaming platforms achieve “sustained success in an increasingly competitive environment.” Analyst Annick Maas sees superfan-focused products as a function of the shift from mass consumption to direct-to-consumer tactics. Reaching out to smaller subsets of a larger audience, he writes, allows a streaming platform to “create a sense of belonging for its subscribers” and increase loyalty and engagement. That an equity analyst would highlight superfans in a report to investors speaks to the revenue potential in targeting subsets of consumers and the likelihood that publicly traded companies will make superfans a larger priority.
MIDiA Research also added to the superfan knowledge base this week by releasing a report based on a survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers. The main takeaway is that MIDiA found widespread interest in paying a higher price for a streaming service with additional features: Just under three-quarters of people surveyed have “some level of interest” in paying for a super-premium tier as an add-on to the basic subscription plan.
Exactly what people are willing to pay varies greatly, though: 22% of respondents are willing to pay an additional $1.99 per month fee while 10% are willing to pay an additional $13.99, more than double the current $11.99 price for an individual subscription.
To give an idea of the amount of revenue at stake, consider that there was an average of 100 million subscribers of subscription music services in the U.S. in 2024 who paid an average of $8.91 per month, according to the RIAA. (That figure does not include limited-tier subscriptions such as ad-free internet radio.) Those 100 million subscribers generated $10.69 billion over the year, which works out to $106.87 per subscriber per year.
If 10% of those 100 million subscribers — which include student and family plans in addition to standard individual plans — paid more than double the current price, total revenue would increase 10.8% to $11.76 billion, equal to $117.56 per subscriber annually or $9.80 per month. The 10.8% revenue growth is equal to $1.15 billion of incremental royalties.
The RIAA’s average revenue per user (ARPU) of $8.91 for 2024 is lower than the $11.99/$12.99 price being charged for the most popular individual plans, suggesting the 100 million subscribers figure includes many student and family plans. So, to measure the effect of the price increase on the RIAA’s ARPU, I multiplied ARPU by the ratio of the super-premium individual plan ($12.99 + $13.99) to a standard individual plan ($12.99).
So, without an increase in the number of subscribers or a price hike, doubling the fee for a tenth of subscribers would deliver a 10.8% revenue boost. Not all of those consumers would jump to the super-premium tier at once, however, meaning a double-digit increase in subscription revenue would accrue gradually over multiple years.
Charging an additional $1.99 super-premium fee on top of a standard subscription price would result in an incremental $334 million. Total revenue would increase 3.1% to $11.02 billion and ARPU would rise from $8.91 to $9.18.
Another option to expand the subscription base is a low-priced, “subscription-light” tier that incorporates advertising into paid subscriptions. Music streaming subscriptions have kept advertising out of their paid products, but there have been suggestions — namely from Goldman Sachs analysts who prepare the influential Music in the Air report — that a subscription-light tier that includes ads could help expand the subscription market.
Paid video subscriptions used to be a respite from the advertising world, but advertising has become well established on video platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu. Amazon Prime now inserts ads in movies, and Netflix and Hulu offer a low-cost, ad-supported option to make their products palatable for more price-conscious consumers.
But MIDiA’s survey suggests a subscription-light option is unpopular. About three-quarters of respondents who aren’t currently subscribed to a music streaming service aren’t interested in starting. This sizeable group of consumers doesn’t listen to music often enough to pay, or they find the current prices too high. Excluding the 100 million U.S. subscribers, there are approximately 188 million Americans aged 13 or older who do not subscribe to a streaming service (there are 51.9 million people under 13). Based on MIDiA’s findings, roughly 141 million of them aren’t interested in paying for a subscription. For them, there’s also YouTube and ad-supported radio.
What’s more, a subscription-light offering could be problematic. MIDiA found that ad-supported paid streaming attracted interest only “at very low price points” and warned it could harm overall subscription revenues by cannibalizing normal subscription tiers. With paid subscriptions currently creating the majority of U.S. recorded music revenue, and with subscription growth playing a prime role in Wall Street’s expectations for music companies, both platforms and labels may be unwilling to put that revenue at risk by offering a less expensive choice to millions of consumers who may soon be looking for ways to tighten their belts.
Dissident Iranian composer Mehdi Rajabian is barred from leaving his country by its Islamic Republic government, but his work continues to gain traction in the West.
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On Sept. 17, André Bellmont, the conductor, composer, orchestrator and professor at the University of the Arts in Zurich, Switzerland, will conduct four of Rajabian’s pieces — “An Epitaph on the Tomb of Companions,” “Whip on a Lifeless Body,” “Murmur of the Naked Nun” and “Coup of Gods” — with the university’s orchestra at the Neumünster Church there. The concert will also include works by Hans Zimmer, Iranian singer and artist Parastoo Ahmadi, Swiss-Armenian multi-instrumentalist Valeri Tolstov’s Authentic Light Orchestra and Swiss-Iranian harpist Asita Hamidi.
“Mehdi is a real artist. A real artist will never compromise his own artistic vision and his believes, even when he has to sacrifice his own existence,” says Bellmont, who begins rehearsing the pieces on April 12. “One of the reasons why Mehdi was arrested in his home country is because he was writing music for a female voice. It seems quite strange that Mehdi’s music now will be performed in a western church. But we have to admit that our concert venue is a very appreciated place for acoustic jazz concerts, too.”
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Rajabian was arrested in 2013, put in solitary confinement for three months, released on bail and arrested again in 2015 for recording an album titled The History of Iran Narrated by Setar (a lute-like instrument used in traditional Persian music).
After his 2015 conviction, he says he was moved to Evin prison in Tehran — where, in 2016, he began a 40-day hunger strike that led to his release on parole in 2017. (He says that his three-year prison sentence, which was suspended, could be enforced at any time.) Rajabian was arrested again in 2020 but not imprisoned, because of his album Middle Eastern, which was released, but was part of a larger performance art project that involved dance, painting and a book that were not realized. The charges levied against him then were that he was “encouraging prostitution,” he says — because female vocalists, who are banned in Iran, sang on the album.
The long-term effects of Rajabian’s imprisonment and hunger strike took a toll on his health. “My body and soul have been damaged,” he told Billboard in 2021 after the release of his symphony, Coup of Gods, which was engineered by Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. “I lost 15 kilograms of weight [33 pounds] and 40% of my vision and my joints swelled because of the hunger strike,” he explains. “I couldn’t even play an instrument on my album. I could only compose and arrange. I did it just to say that no power can stop the freedom of music.”
Rajabian tells Billboard this is the first time his music has been performed live. “I have never been able to have a concert in my life,” he says. “I will have to watch it remotely, but I am happy that the Islamic Republic cannot cancel the concert like the many concerts it cancels in Iran.
“André listened to my pieces and called me to say that he was planning to perform them,” he adds. “We spent about a year sending the scores back and forth to edit them.”
Bellmont says “there’s a big technical challenge in performing Mehdi’s music live,” explaining that “you need a modern recording session approach as applied in Peter Gabriel‘s New Blood Orchestra concert tour or in Snarky Puppy‘s studio performance with the Metropole Orkest. To figure this out with a tiny budget is quite tricky and gave me some headache during the last one-and-half years, but it gave me also the motivation and the kick to move forward and to realize this project.”
As a result of Rajabian’s several months of work with Bellmont, the university presented the Iranian composer with a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) which means further studies. Rajabian calls this “an important event” in his life because, “the Islamic Republic has banned me from studying.”
Recording Academy Chair of the Board of Trustees Tammy Hurt congratulates (L-R) Kali De Jesus, Kaitlin McGaw, Tommy Soulati Shepherd, Maya Fleming, Tommy Shepherd III of the Alphabet Rockers with the Best Children‚Music Album award for The Movement in the press room during the 65th GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony at Microsoft Theater on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Leon Bennett/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Rajabian is also moving outside his orchestral and New Age music comfort zone to work with the Oakland, Calif.-based BIPOC hip-hop family music group, Alphabet Rockers. Co-Leaders Tommy Soulati Shepherd & Kaitlin McGaw say Rajabian is helping with production on a song-in-progress called “Shades” that is intended for a “global” project by the Rockers, who won a Best Children’s Music Album Grammy in 2023 for The Movement.
“We strive to show solidarity with and amplification of those most marginally punished by the culture wars,” McGaw says. “We want to create communities that are rooted in belonging. That’s human rights at its core.”
“So, if we can give a musical home to Mehdi that is larger than four walls and larger than the nation, that’s a gift to everyone,” Shepherd adds.
“I had already listened to their music and followed their activities in the field of children’s awareness. The power of their singing attracted me a lot, it was full of technique and emotion,” Rajabian says. “I would like to do this new experience. I think something good will happen — an exciting album and different from the previous styles that I have experienced.”
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After a two-year hiatus, The Last of Us is back for season two. Based on the very popular Sony PlayStation video game series, the hit TV drama stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, a pair of survivalist making their way through a post-apocalyptic world after a global pandemic has wiped out most of humanity.
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See below for ways to watch and stream the show.
The Last of Us airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO, but you don’t need a cable subscription to check it out. You can watch HBO and other cable channels with a subscription to DirecTV Stream’s Premiere package.
Meanwhile, the series also streams on Max.
The Last of Us season two premieres on Sunday, April 13 with new episodes dropping every Sunday until the season finale on Sunday, May 25. Season two features seven episodes throughout its run on Max.
Not subscribed? You can join Max starting at $9.99 per month for the ad-supported plan via Prime Video, or starting at $16.99 per month when bundled with Hulu and Disney+ (starting at $16.99 per month).
Max is home to movies, sports and must-watch TV series, including HBO and Max exclusives such as House of the Dragon, Hacks, And Just Like That…, The White Lotus, Succession, The Gilded Age and Euphoria.
The streaming service is also the home to exclusive Music Box documentaries, such as Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary, Woodstock ’99: Peace, Love and Rage, Juice WLRD: Into The Abyss, DMX: Don’t Try to Understand and others.
Created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, The Last of Us season two takes place five years after the end of season one. Joel (Pascal) and Ellie’s (Ramsey) past catches up to them, as the world spins into further chaos and destruction — thanks to a deadly fungal infection.
The cast also includes Kaitlyn Dever, Brendan Rozario, Gabriel Luna, Catherine O’Hara, Rutina Wesley and others. For the new season, Award and Grammy-Award winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla and TV composer David Fleming created the music for The Last of Us.
Watch The Last of Us season two on Sunday, April 13 on HBO and Max at 9 p.m. ET/PT. In the meantime, watch the trailer for season two below.
Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
Canadian singer-songwriter Bells Larsen is cancelling his forthcoming U.S. tour after the Trump administration made it impossible for him to travel in the country as a trans man.
In a lengthy post to his Instagram on Friday (April 11), Larsen revealed that, according to an email from the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), he would not be able to apply for a travel visa to the United States since his Canadian passport designates his gender rather than his biological sex.
“To put it super plainly, because I’m trans (and have an M on my passport), I can’t tour in the States,” Larsen wrote. “I hesitate to include a ‘right now’ or an ‘anymore’ at the end of my previous sentence, because — in this sociopolitical climate — I truly don’t know which phrasing holds more truth.”
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Billboard has reached out to the AFM for comment.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigrant Services (USCIS) announced at the beginning of April that they had updated their policy at the outset of April to only recognize biological sex on immigration forms, in accordance with the Trump administration’s executive order requiring travel documents (including passports and visas) to designate a person’s sex as assigned at birth.
In his post, Larsen admits that he was already feeling trepidatious about touring the U.S. amidst an onslaught of anti-trans initiatives being pursued by the current administration, especially when it came to the administration’s treatment of trans people crossing the border. “If random people are getting randomly questioned/stopped/detained at borders, how can I — as someone wanting to make money abroad by exhibiting my lived experience as a trans person — expect to pass go and get out of jail free?” he asked. “My plan was to tour with harm reduction in mind.”
Larsen said that after speaking with two separate immigration lawyers and the AFM, he decided that there was “no way to move forward” with his scheduled tour, despite his eagerness to see his U.S. fans. “This new policy has crushed my dreams,” he wrote. “I’m cradling a very broken heart and the realization that I don’t know if or when I will be able to tour in the States again.”
The singer-songwriter was set to bring his forthcoming new album Blurring Time stateside this June, with dates in Boston, New York City and Los Angeles throughout the month. The new LP deals extensively with Larsen’s experience transitioning while using vocal recordings from both before and after his transition (his “high” and “low” voices, as he calls them in a statement) to create harmonies between his former and current self. The latest single from that album, “Might,” was released on Wednesday (April 9).
“I was hoping that the album would help me break into the US music market and connect with cool, likeminded American musicians,” he wrote. “More than anything, thought, I just really wanted to perform my album for queer and trans people in the US who saw their stories reflected in my own.”
Bells Larsen’s new album Blurring Time drops on April 25 via Royal Mountain Records. Read his full statement on his cancelled U.S. tour below:
On Monday, April 8th, the roof of the Jet Set nightclub in the Dominican Republic collapsed, resulting in numerous injuries and fatalities, including the death of iconic singer Rubby Pérez. Cardi B, Natti Natasha and others have spoken out about the tragic event. Keep watching for the full details. Tetris Kelly: Tragedy struck in the […]
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Toni Braxton and Birdman’s love story took a wild turn when they reportedly got married and divorced, all in the same month.
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According to legal docs that TMZ got their hands on, the two made it official on August 8, 2024. After years of on-and-off dating, it seemed like they were ready to settle down. But hold up just two days later, on August 10, they were already separated. Talk about a whirlwind.
Braxton didn’t waste any time and filed for divorce just two weeks after the wedding, saying their marriage was “irretrievably broken.” Fans who’d followed their ups and downs weren’t exactly shocked by the drama. Toni and Birdman’s relationship had always been a bit of a rollercoaster, full of reconciliations and sudden splits. But no one expected the lovebirds to hit pause so soon after saying “I do.”
Then came the plot twist. Fast forward to January 2025, and Toni pulled back her divorce petition, with Birdman reportedly on board with the decision. It’s unclear if they’re fully back together, but the move made it clear that there’s more to the story than just the legal paperwork. Their relationship has always been unpredictable, keeping fans guessing whether they’re together, apart, or somewhere in between. So, are Toni and Birdman really giving it another go, or is this just the latest chapter in their never-ending love saga? Only time will tell.
Lady Gaga is set to make her headlining performance at Coachella on April 11, and we’re breaking down what the pop star could have in store for festivalgoers. Keep watching for all the details!
Are you excited for Lady Gaga’s performance? Let us know in the comments below!
Tetris Kelly:Gaga is returning to the desert before she embarks on her world tour. She’s bringing Mayhem to Friday night at Coachella, and we’re telling you everything you need to know. It isn’t Mother Monster’s first time at the rodeo — she headlined Coachella back in 2017 when Beyoncé had to bow out due to pregnancy. But this time around will likely be all about her album Mayhem that she told us all about.
Lady Gaga: It started to slowly remind me of, like, my earlier work, the mayhem of my approach to pop music, which is like something that, like, is mine, that I feel proud of.
Tetris Kelly:The set contains No. 1 single “Die With a Smile,” the bombastic track “Disease” and the viral smash “Abracadabra.”
Lady Gaga:I tried to really, like, own who I am, and just be proud of, like, my approach to music, my approach to pop music, and then also, like, even through “Abracadabra,” which is very different from “Perfect Celebrity,” take ownership over something that I started a long time ago
Tetris Kelly:Right after Coachella, she’s embarking on the Mayhem Ball and had this to say about the outing: “This show is designed to be the kind of theatrical and electrifying experience that brings Mayhem to life exactly how I envision it.”
And we should be ready for surprises. In 2017, she premiered the new song “The Cure.” What Mayhem song can’t you wait to see live in Indio? Let us know in the comments.
Quavo is facing a copyright lawsuit centered on a recent music video — not over an uncleared sample or a stolen melody, but a quartz sculpture of a 1961 Ferrari that he used as a prop.
In a complaint filed late last month, attorneys for sculptor Daniel Arsham claim the rapper (Quavious Marshall) “unlawfully exploited” the Ferrari sculpture by rapping in front of it in a video he posted to TikTok and other social platforms in December.
“Without his consent, and without his knowledge, defendants created a video which prominently featured the artwork to promote the music of Quavo,” Arsham’s lawyers write in the March 31 lawsuit. “Mr. Arsham never consented to the artwork being used in the infringing content.”
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Arsham created the sculpture — fully entitled “Quartz Eroded 1961 Ferrari GT” — in 2018 as part of a series portraying famous cars that have been “eroded” like an ancient archeological find. He says it’s been publicly displayed twice, most recently at Los Angeles’ Petersen Automotive Museum in 2023.
In December, Quavo posted a video to Instagram and other platforms under the caption “Back To The Basics 2025!!”, featuring him rapping in front of what appears to be Arsham’s work. The video, which remains on TikTok, focuses heavily on the sculpture, including close-ups on its eroded features.
Just like music, books and paintings, sculptures are protected by federal copyright law, and reproducing one without permission can theoretically amount to infringement. Back in 2018, the artist behind Chicago’s “Bean” sculpture sued the National Rifle Association for using the famed statue in a promotional video.
Copyrighted works captured in the background of video footage raise tricky legal questions. A federal judge ruled in 2018 that a Detroit graffiti artist could move ahead with suing General Motors after his mural appeared in a Cadillac commercial. But last year, another federal judge dismissed a case filed by a photographer whose image briefly appeared in the background of a documentary about Billie Eilish.
In his lawsuit, Arsham says the use of his sculpture was hardly coincidental or brief: “The infringing video features Quavo performing in front of the Artwork. The Infringing Video is 45 seconds long and features the Artwork prominently throughout.”
According to the artist’s attorneys, when Quavo posted still images of the video to Instagram, he actually tagged Arsham’s Instagram handle in the caption. They say that not only confirms that he knew he was using a copyrighted work, but also violated Arsham’s likeness rights.
“Mr. Arsham never consented to his name being used in connection with the Infringing Post or any promotion of Quavo,” his attorneys wrote. “Defendants are using Mr. Arsham’s name for commercial advantage.”
A rep for Quavo did not immediately return a request for comment on Friday (April 11). The lawsuit also names Quavo’s label, Quality Control Music, and its parent company, HYBE America, as co-defendants.