News

14 Mar 2023

Why Stephen Cooper Chose Web3 for His First Move After Warner Music

Even though NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are experiencing a lull in 2023 following a boom the two previous years, the companies behind NFT technology are pressing forward to prove the initial buzz wasn’t a fluke.

One of those companies, OneOf, got a boost in February when Stephen Cooper, Warner Music Group’s CEO from 2011 to the end of 2022, joined the Miami-based company’s board of directors. A little over a year after Warner Music announced a partnership with OneOf to create exclusive NFTs for its recording artists, Cooper has high praise for the company. “I think that it’s the right organization with the right vision and the right tech at the right time,” he says.

NFTs are part of a technological shift away from websites with user-generated content (Web2) to decentralized (Web3) applications that utilize blockchain technology. They landed on many people’s radars in April 2021 when NBA Top Shot sold a video of a dunk by basketball superstar LeBron James — a one-of-a-kind digital collectible on the blockchain — for a startling $387,600. Dapper Labs, which provides Top Shop’s blockchain technology, is one of many Web3 startups to receive financial backing from Warner Music Group during Cooper’s tenure as CEO. Indeed, Warner has given its stamp of approval to a bevy of forward-thinking platforms and technologies in recent years. It invested in such companies as Roblox two months before it went public in March 2021, as well as DRESSX, a digital fashion retailer, and generative music startups Authentic Artists and Lifescore.

Being the “next big thing” has come with disappointments, though. NFT sales fell from more than $6.3 billion in January 2022 to about $1 billion in February 2023, according to NFT aggregator CryptoSlam, and cryptocurrency enthusiasts have suffered through the collapses of trading platform FTX and stablecoin Terra, among other high-profile failures. Along the way, NFTs earned a reputation for being expensive digital artwork with little purpose other than to — hopefully — appreciate.

Today, Web3 and NFTs are behind everything from fractionalized ownership of music royalties to proof of attendance at concerts or virtual events. For OneOf CEO Lin Dai, Web3 has the potential to transform the way artists build communities. “I liken it to if this was 1997 and I went to either a music artist or music label or just a brand to say, ‘Hey, you have your fan club or your consumer following, and you have millions of mailing addresses that you communicate with them,’” says Dai. “‘There’s this thing called email that’s coming that’s going to make that relationship much easier and we have software to do that.’ This is kind of the stage where I’m at.”

Stephen, what attracted you to the board of OneOf?

Cooper: Well, I’ve known Lin for a number of years. Warner has invested in him. And I’ve not only liked the way that the company has been able to pivot over time as the tech space morphed, but more importantly, I think that what they’ve done and what they’re going to continue to do — by building out this blockchain technology and being able to utilize that technology in conjunction with the superfast capabilities to mint NFTs — it’ll create an amazing opportunity for utilization not only in music but across a spectrum of any number of consumer brands that are interested in building communities of their fans or followers or admirers, and utilize that capability to turbocharge the success in their businesses.

Lin, what do you think Stephen’s going to bring to the company?

Dai: I’ve always admired the amazing work Stephen has done at Warner Music. If you think about 11 years ago or 12 years ago, when he took on the job, the music industry was very much in disarray and disrupted by potentially the idea of digital transformation. It was able to turn that into a position of strength, to doubling down on digital transformation, like the Spotify deal and the partnership with YouTube. Warner, even as the smallest of the three major labels, has really done a tremendous job in taking market share. And Steve’s broader experience in his life before Warner — Steve was CEO of MGM and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. It just spans a lot of different industries. Over the years, I always feel like every time I talked to him, we learned a lot as a young startup with hot technology. A lot of the bigger picture of how industry moves, and how our technology can apply to industry, Steve brings a wealth of knowledge [to].

Not all artists jumped on digital downloads right away. There were some notable holdouts once iTunes was out. What are your conversations with artists and their teams like? Tell me about their understanding of Web3 and where they sit? What is that education process like?

Cooper: Well, I think that it really goes across an entire spectrum, where there are people that go anywhere from not interested all the way to people that embrace it or immerse themselves more fully into it. I think that what will happen is that, like with any new technology, there’s a period of skepticism, then there’s the period of testing, then there’s the period of early adoption. And once the early adopters begin to proselytize the technology, you can see generally that it begins to accelerate at a fairly rapid pace.

The good news, I think, for Web3, is that for many artists — and again, it’s much broader than music — but for the Gen Zs, the millennials that have grown up in a digital age as opposed to people like me, that acceptance and that adoption has accelerated. There used to be a much greater mean time between the introduction and the broad acceptance of technology. Those mean times have collapsed over the last two or three decades, where new technologies are embraced much more rapidly. There are millions of people that have, primarily through gaming, immersed themselves in these new technologies and these metaverses for some length of time now. With these better foundational technologies and the ability to keep track of who’s got what at all times it’s something that people…are far better off embracing than rejecting.

And the music industry, in large part, has had a history — as far as I can tell being mostly an outsider looking in — that if they had looked at Napster in a different way, they would have controlled file sharing. If they had listened to [former Apple CEO Steve] Jobs differently, they would have controlled downloads. And if they had acquired Spotify in the early days, the industry would have controlled streaming as opposed to allowing these technical iron curtains to get between content and fandom. And I think what people will begin to realize in Web3 is that it creates another shot for the industry to converge content with distribution, where the artists and the fan are right up against each other as opposed to being separated by this tech iron curtain.

Lin, where are we on the Web3 hype cycle? You’re familiar with this curve? There’s an initial peak of buzziness followed by a trough of disillusionment. Have we fallen down into that trough right now? And what does that mean for OneOf?

Dai: I hope we have completely fallen down and rode around for a few cycles and are ready to climb out now. You know, I think in the last 18 months, the general excitement really is great for mainstream awareness of Web3 and NFT technology, but we only really used it for two use cases. One is high-end digital art. The other is how to use this technology for a profile picture on my Twitter account. If you’re talking about the internet in, like, 1997, there’s going to be 990 other use cases we haven’t even started fathoming.

We work closely with Pepsi and Anheuser Busch, and American Express is a major investor in our last round. In music, we are working on tool sets for artists and creators, but also on things that directly impact the kind of three pillars of the music business today, like how does Web3 technology enhance the experience of streaming? How does Web3 technology do a better job at ticketing? How can Web3 technology be applied in the realm of publishing and rights? So those are much deeper and more long-term kinds of use cases. The most recent hype cycle was about speculators getting involved. That’s not really a sustainable model for any industry.

You mentioned American Express. When Amex Ventures invested in OneOf, the managing director referred to brands’ involvement in NFTs as “experimenting.” So, what have brands learned from the experiments so far?

Dai: The ask is no longer, “How do we do a profile picture collection?” It’s, “How do we build entire systems that connect our data that we know about consumers to allow them to really have a full ecosystem, whether it’s rewards, whether it’s commerce, whether it’s better communication?” So, there is kind of a quiet race for Web3 by all the major Web2 companies right now — or even Web1 companies. I think it’s unlike the dot-com bust where I think most companies wrote off the internet and everybody went back to brick-and-mortar for 10 years. And that’s how you allowed Amazon to have such dominance. There were only a few companies that really stayed the course.

Now, I think every major company, whether you’re CPG [consumer packaged goods] or you are music streaming — Spotify just rolled out some new software — everybody kind of knows and believes Web3 is going to happen. They know today’s tools suck. Today’s tools are not good for beer drinkers or fans that just want to go to a festival [to] enjoy and don’t want to connect a crypto wallet. That’s why they are actively looking for solutions.

Stephen, from a label’s point of view, how is Web3 different and how do you tackle it? Is it like traditional digital marketing or promotion? There is an element of community to it. That is a different relationship than labels have typically had, maybe outside of fan clubs. What challenges does that bring to a label?

Cooper: I think it does several things. One, it does bring challenges because I think that Web3 will heighten the requirements for many artists to introduce music on a far more regular basis. There’s some artists that will adapt and adopt. There will be some artists that won’t — but the labels will also begin to attract a new generation of artists that have been immersed in the digital world since birth, have been immersed in social platforms, and will flow naturally into Web3.

The advantage that I see for labels is that even though they will be, you know, paying a tolling fee to be on these platforms — whether it’s Roblox, Sandbox, Fortnite, whatever, inside of those worlds — they will be able to create their own worlds, to draw music fans, fans of specific artists, into those worlds where they will be able not only to interact with the artists on a regular basis, but they will be able to interact with each other on an ongoing basis. So, the relationship with the artist, one, should deepen considerably. Two, the relationships between super fan to super fan ought to accelerate. The glue that holds fans’ loyalty to those artists ought to strengthen through the ramp-up of interaction, both horizontally and vertically. I think that the labels understand this.

It’s been very public at Warner that they’ve invested heavily in Web3. They are building out spaces in Web3. They are experimenting with their artists in Web3. And I think that as they refine those experiments, as they refine their approaches, they will find that this gives them a freshened opportunity to really bring content and distribution together and take advantage of a situation that they missed in the late ‘90s, the early 2000s, and in 2010.

Some people think Web3 is an opportunity for artists to gain more independence. In some Warner earnings calls, you’ve talked about the artists’ need for labels in the Web3 environment. Are both of those true?

Cooper: I think that people will take a shot at Independence. Here’s what I see as the math problem: If you talk to YouTube, or you talk to TikTok, they will say that there 20, 25, 30, 35 million musical artists that use TikTok use YouTube [and] so on and so forth. So, you start with that number. What Web2 and Web3 have done — or will do — is democratized access. But what they can’t democratize is talent.

When you look today at the active rosters of Universal, Sony and Warner, there are probably less than 15,000 artists. Those artists — in conjunction with the catalogs [owned by] the three, plus BMG and a few others — represent 85% of all the listening on the planet. And if you think about 20 or 25 years of American Idol, of The Voice, of America’s Got Talent, after 25 or 30 years, you can name on one hand the people that have made it. When you look at TikTok, there’s only one or two or three [star] artists that have emerged over the last few years. And YouTube has been the same. Those that have emerged have ended up having the global machine of a label behind them. Because it is so hard even with extraordinary talent to be recognized and to do it on your own is almost impossible. The fact of the matter is to be able to be recognized as that talent and then have the right machine behind you with the right global footprint is just not something most young artists are capable of doing on their own.

Lin, Stephen said Web2 is not going away. This week, we saw news that Spotify is testing NFT-accessed playlists. Do you see Web2 and Web3 integrating in ways like that?

Dai: Yeah, absolutely. We did the first-ever beta with Spotify integration last year with some of our artists, that was early Web3. So Web2 companies certainly are very much embracing Web3. Web3 is not really replacing traditional businesses. But what Web3 does really well is this idea of creating community. If you think about traditional fan clubs, you used to write a letter and put $2 in there and somebody mails you back a sticker, right? That’s replaced by a kind of an email fan club. And everyone says, “Okay, here’s a link, you get to go buy our concert ticket earlier,” but it’s still kind of a one-to-many relationship. The value exchange is still a one-way street. The artist is asking the fan to please spend money for [their] product or experiences.

Web3 is interesting because it really encourages members to work with each other. Because you’re basically receiving a digital asset. That price can fluctuate based on how engaged the membership is. You’re incentivized to go out there and evangelize for your artist and really make sure you’re potentially participating in the success of the artists, whatever that may be. Now for the artists, the algorithms of Spotify really created this kind of this all-or-nothing world. You’re either one of the 500 artists that is making a killing because the algorithm just keeps feeding that or you just you don’t break through. So Web3 changes that. I can make a living only having 500 super fans. I don’t need to be the next Taylor Swift.

I grew up in China. I played the accordion. I was a very good accordion player when I was in elementary school. So, if I’m just passionate and want to play accordion, maybe I can rally up like 100, 200, 500 super fans, but it’s very, very hard for me to be on a Taylor Swift level. The reality is as a passionate musician if you just can’t make a living doing what you do now — streaming — you can’t support yourself. You have to take on a different soul-crushing job that you’re not passionate about. And at some point, life comes at you, and you have to give up your art.

But Web3 potentially enables a whole slew of creators to be able to do their art for a living, if they can use the tools to really gather and rally around just a few hundred super fans. And I think in the long run, that’s a better world, if we just have more art being created and people being happy doing what they do.

Cooper: I think Lin’s point is well taken. And I think that what will separate, whether it be at a small scale or a large scale, whether or not there’s really talent there versus just noise. And you may recall that a year or two or three ago when Spotify began to mess with their playlists and push things that they wanted to push, versus what music fans wanted to hear, they got a lot of backlash because they were pushing stuff that people just didn’t want to listen to. And people generally can differentiate what they believe is really good stuff from really bad stuff.

[Spotify CEO Daniel] Ek said, I don’t know 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago, he said you wanted a million artists to be able to make a living on Spotify. And he kind of defined that as being able to make $100,000 a year at the time. Well, it was pretty easy to do the math and figure out what that would mean by way of Spotify’s size and subscriptions and streams. Three or four months later, they quietly abandon that idea because they really don’t know how to market and promote. They know algorithms. But when you’re promoting music, an algorithm is a poor substitute for marketing and promotion to build traction. So, I think that when he abandoned that idea, it was kind of an acknowledgment that while algorithms could feed things up to people, the handoff to Web3, is that that artist may be able — to Lin’s point — [to] rally 100, 200, 300 people to make a living.

Even on TikTok, which is kind of a democratic community, even though it is Web2, all the money is being made by 1/10 of 1% at the top of the pyramid, and everybody else is just having fun. And then they end up with 1,000 or 2,000 followers, but without that talent, it’s hard to be in these environments and make a living. Web3 will actually enhance that possibility. And God bless the accordion players.

14 Mar 2023

The Rolling Stones Are Headed to Court – Plus Morris Day, The Offspring & More

This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.

This week: A song-theft copyright lawsuit against the Rolling Stones over a rare release of new music in 2020; a one-year-later update on Morris Day’s dispute with the Prince estate over his band name and music rights; a ruling for the Offspring against an ex-drummer who wanted a bigger cut of the band’s $35 million catalog sale; and much more.

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THE BIG STORY: Rolling Stones Headed To Court

More than 60 years into their legendary history, the Rolling Stones are facing a new copyright lawsuit claiming their 2020 single “Living in a Ghost Town” — a rare new song from the band — lifted material from a pair of little-known earlier tracks.

The case was filed by songwriter Sergio Garcia Fernandez (stage name Angelslang), who claims that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards “misappropriated many of the recognizable and key protected elements” from his 2006 song “So Sorry” as well as his 2007 tune “Seed of God.”

In any copyright lawsuit, an accuser needs to show that the alleged infringer had “access” to their work in order to copy it. Oftentimes, they can show that a song was simply so widely-available – millions of streams, constant airplay, etc. – that the defendant obviously heard it.

But in Angelslang’s case, the two songs each list fewer than 1000 listens on Spotify. So what does he claim? That he directly gave a demo CD to “an immediate family member” of Jagger, who then allegedly confirmed in writing that the songs had “a sound The Rolling Stones would be interested in using.”

To get Billboard’s entire breakdown of the new lawsuit – including the actual legal complaint filed in court against the Stones – read the full story here.

Other top stories this week…

PRINCE ESTATE v. MORRIS DAY UPDATE – One year after Morris Day accused the Prince estate of trying to “rewrite history” by “taking my name away,” I took a deep dive into the current status of the dispute. The results: The trademark dispute over “Morris Day & The Time” has seemingly been worked out, but key issues about Day’s copyrights in two of The Time’s biggest songs remain unresolved.

OFFSPRING OFF THE HOOK – A Los Angeles judge handed The Offspring a victory in its long legal battle with former drummer Ron Welty, who claimed he was owed millions more in profits from the veteran punk band’s $35 million catalog sale.

EARTH, WIND, FIRE & LITIGATION – The famed R&B act filed a trademark lawsuit against a rival group that’s been performing under the name “Earth Wind & Fire Legacy Reunion,” calling them imposters who are infringing the band’s trademarks to “mislead the ticket-buying public.”

SHEERAN SHOWDOWN LOOMS – With a trial set for next month over whether Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” infringed Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” a federal judge weighed in on two key pre-trial questions – whether a live performance of Gaye’s song will occur in the courtroom, and whether an infamous YouTube clip could be played for jurors.

FALLOUT FROM ROCHESTER DISASTER – Authorities in Rochester revoked the operating license from the Main Street Armory, the western New York concert venue in which a deadly stampede occurred last week after a performance by GloRilla and Finesse2tymes. No civil lawsuits have yet been filed by victims or their families, but criminal and regulatory investigations are already under way.

XXXTENTACION VERDICT WATCH – Jury deliberations are continuing in the trial of three men accused of murdering rising rap star XXXTentacion during a 2018 robbery outside a Florida motorcycle shop. The trial, which wrapped up on March 10, was sometimes overshadowed by efforts by defense attorneys to involve Drake in the proceedings. All three defendants face mandatory life sentences if convicted.

14 Mar 2023

Here’s When CBS Will Broadcast ‘A Grammy Salute to the Beach Boys’

A Grammy Salute to The Beach Boys has an air-date – Sunday, April 9. The show was taped at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Feb. 8, three days after the live broadcast of the 65th Annual Grammy Awards.

Like past Grammy Salutes specials, the show features a broad range of artists performing the honoree’s songs. The salute to The Beach Boys includes a mix of artists who seem to be on Grammy producers’ speed-dials (Brandi Carlile, John Legend, Norah Jones, Pentatonix, Take 6), and a few less automatic choices (Fall Out Boy, My Morning Jacket, Weezer).  

In addition, the special will feature appearances by music legends Sir Elton John and Bruce Springsteen; actors Drew Carey, Tom Hanks and John Stamos; Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr.; and former chair of the Recording Academy’s board of trustees, super-producer Jimmy Jam. Beach Boys members Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, Mike Love, David Marks and Brian Wilson will appear as featured guests as well.

John did the honors when The Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. He was the subject of his own special in 2018, Elton John: I’m Still Standing — A Grammy Salute.

A Grammy Salute to The Beach Boys is produced by Tenth Planet Productions. Joel Gallen, Rick Krim and Irving Azoff serve as executive producers and Rick Austin as co-executive producer. Gallen also directed the special.

AEG Ehrlich Ventures, headed by Ken Ehrlich, the former executive producer of the Grammy Awards telecast, oversaw past Grammy Salutes specials.

The special airs during a year-long celebration of The Beach Boys 60th anniversary. (As is often the case with anniversary commemorations, it’s a little late. The Beach Boys were formed in Hawthorne, Calif., in 1961. The group first cracked the Billboard Hot 100 with “Surfin” in February 1962. But 61st or 62nd anniversary doesn’t have the same ring to it.)

A Grammy Salute to The Beach Boys will air less than four months after the airing of the previous Grammy Salutes special. Homeward Bound: A Grammy Salute to the Songs of Paul Simon, aired on Dec. 21.

The Beach Boys special will air on Sunday April 9 from 8 – 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS, and will be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+. In a first for these Grammy Salutes specials, a one-hour version of the tribute will air on MTV at a future date to be announced.

Here’s something they probably won’t tell you on the special: The Beach Boys never won a Grammy in competition, despite four nominations. Even their masterwork “Good Vibrations” went 0-3 at the Grammys. (During The Beach Boys’ 1960s heyday, Grammy voters were still trying to decide what they thought of contemporary pop/rock.)

Grammy voters have since decided they like it – and The Beach Boys in particular – very much. The group received a lifetime achievement from the Recording Academy in 2001. Wilson was named MusiCares person of the year in 2005. Five Beach Boys recordings have been voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which functions as a second chance for the Grammys to reward worthy records they may have missed the first time around.

Since The Beach Boys’ heyday, Brian Wilson has received six more Grammy nominations, winning twice – best rock instrumental performance for “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow” (2004) and best historical album for The Smile Sessions (Deluxe Box Set) (2012).

In additon, Wilson was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000 and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007.

Check out a complete list of the performances set for A Grammy Salute to The Beach Boys below:

“Darlin’” – Andy Grammer

“Sloop John B” – Beck

“Good Vibrations” – Beck, Jim James

“In My Room” – Brandi Carlile

“God Only Knows” – Brandi Carlile & John Legend

“Wouldn’t It Be Nice” – Charlie Puth

“Do You Wanna Dance” – Fall Out Boy

“Do It Again” – Foster The People

“Barbara Ann” – Hanson

“The Warmth of the Sun” – Norah Jones

“Surfer Girl” – Lady A

“Sail on Sailor” – John Legend

“Help Me Rhonda” – Little Big Town

“Surfin’ USA / Fun Fun Fun” – Luke Spiller & Taylor Momsen

“Don’t Worry Baby” – Michael McDonald & Take 6

“I Know There’s an Answer” – Mumford & Sons

“I Get Around” – My Morning Jacket

“Heroes and Villains” – Pentatonix

“Caroline No” – LeAnn Rimes

“You Still Believe in Me” – St. Vincent

“California Girls” – Weezer

14 Mar 2023

Willie Nelson Hits the Road This Summer for 2023 Outlaw Music Festival: See the Lineup

Willie Nelson announced on Tuesday (March 14) he’s bringing back the Outlaw Music Festival in 2023 for a string of dates this summer.

The annual festival, which serves as a celebration of Nelson’s life and legacy, will see the country rocker bringing friends and family on the road to celebrate his upcoming 90th birthday. Guests will include Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, The Avett Brothers, John Fogerty, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Whiskey Myers, Gov’t Mule, Marcus King, Margo Price, Trampled By Turtles, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Kathleen Edwards, Flatland Cavalry, Kurt Vile And The Violators, Brittney Spencer and Particle Kid.

“I can’t wait to be on the road with the amazing group of artists joining us on this year’s Outlaw Music Festival Tour,” Nelson said in a press release. “It is always a great day of music and fun with family, friends and the incredible fans, and even more special this year in celebration of my 90th birthday.”

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The Outlaw Music Festival will kick off in Somerset, Wash. on June 23, making additional stops in Dallas, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland and more before concluding in Cinncinati on Aug. 30. Fans looking to get tickets can do so through a Citi cardmember presale beginning Tuesday, March 14, at 10 a.m. local time until Thursday, March 16, at 10 p.m. local time. General onsale starts on Friday, March 17, at 10 a.m. local time via OutlawMusicFestival.com.

See the full tour announcement and the day-by-day lineups for Outlaw Music Festival below.

Friday, June 23, 2023
Somerset, WI – Somerset Amphitheater

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
  • Trampled By Turtles
  • Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
  • Particle Kid

Saturday, June 24, 2023
East Troy, WI – Alpine Valley Music Theatre

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • Robert Plant & Alison Krauss                              
  • Trampled By Turtles
  • Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
  • Particle Kid

Sunday, June 25, 2023
St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
  • Trampled By Turtles
  • Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
  • Particle Kid

Thursday, June 29, 2023
Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • Margo Price
  • Flatland Cavalry
  • Particle Kid

Friday, June 30, 2023                                          
Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • Whiskey Myers
  • Flatland Cavalry
  • Brittney Spencer
  • Particle Kid

Sunday, July 2, 2023
The Woodlands, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • Whiskey Myers
  • Brittney Spencer
  • Particle Kid
  • More To Be Announced

Friday, July 28, 2023
Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
  • Kurt Vile and The Violators
  • Kathleen Edwards
  • Particle Kid

Saturday, July 29, 2023
Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
  • Gov’t Mule
  • Kathleen Edwards
  • Particle Kid

Sunday, July 30, 2023
Darien, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
  • Gov’t Mule
  • Kathleen Edwards
  • Particle Kid

Wednesday, August 2, 2023
Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • The Avett Brothers
  • Kathleen Edwards
  • Flatland Cavalry
  • Particle Kid

Friday, August 4, 2023
Hershey, PA – Hersheypark Stadium

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • The Avett Brothers
  • Marcus King
  • Flatland Cavalry
  • Kathleen Edwards
  • Particle Kid

Saturday, August 5, 2023
Philadelphia, PA – TD Pavilion at The Mann

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • The Avett Brothers
  • Marcus King
  • Kathleen Edwards
  • Flatland Cavalry
  • Particle Kid

Sunday, August 6, 2023
Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • The Avett Brothers
  • Marcus King
  • Kathleen Edwards
  • Flatland Cavalry
  • Particle Kid

Friday, August 11, 2023
Cleveland, OH – Blossom Music Center

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • John Fogerty
  • Kathleen Edwards
  • Flatland Cavalry
  • Particle Kid

Saturday, August 12, 2023
Pittsburgh, PA – The Pavilion at Star Lake

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • John Fogerty
  • Flatland Cavalry
  • Kathleen Edwards
  • Particle Kid

Sunday, August 13, 2023
Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center

  • Willie Nelson & Family
  • John Fogerty
  • Gov’t Mule
  • Kathleen Edwards
  • Particle Kid

14 Mar 2023

Diddy Joins List Of Those Aiming To Purchase Majority BET Stake

HipHopWired Featured Video

2nd Annual The Black Ball: Quality Control's CEO Pierre

Diddy is no stranger to involving himself in high-powered business moves as it relates to his sprawling entertainment empire. The mogul is reportedly setting his sights on purchasing a majority stake in BET, joining two other power players at the table.

Diddy, also known as Sean Combs, was the subject of an exclusive report from Variety in which the outlet obtained news from a close source to Diddy that his eyes were set on BET.

The source tells Variety that Combs is “exploring the opportunity to purchase BET as a part of his strategy to build a Black-owned global media powerhouse.”

However, another source shared that Combs has an interest in the purchase of the longtime media network bug that he has yet to enter talks with Paramount nor has Paramount made any announcements that the BET sake would be up for sale.

As most might know, Diddy is the founder of REVOLT, a media company founded in 2013.

Joining Combs in the potential stake race are Tyler Perry and Bryon Allen, both owners of successful media operations themselves.

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Photo: Prince Williams / Getty

14 Mar 2023

Blake Shelton, Keith Urban & Carly Pearce Added to 2023 CMT Music Awards Performers Lineup

The CMT Music Awards have revealed additions to the 2023 performers lineup, welcoming Blake Shelton, Carly Pearce, Cody Johnson, Keith Urban, Lainey Wilson and CMT Music Awards co-host Kelsea Ballerini.

They will join previously announced performers Carrie Underwood, as well as CMT Music Awards co-host Kane Brown and his wife, Katelyn Brown.

The CMT Music Awards will take place at Moody Center in Austin on Sunday, April 2, airing live on CBS and streaming live and on-demand on Paramount+.

Wilson leads this year’s nominees, earning four nods: video of the year (HARDY featuring Wilson, with “Wait in the Truck”), female video of the year (“Heart Like a Truck”), collaborative video of the year (“Wait in the Truck”) and CMT performance of the year (for her “Never Say Never” performance with Cole Swindell on the 2022 CMT Music Awards).

Following Wilson with three nominations each are Johnson, Brown and first-time nominee Jelly Roll. Johnson is nominated for video of the year (“Human”), male video of the year (“Human”) and CMT performance of the year (“‘Til You Can’t” from the 2022 CMT Music Awards). Kane and Katelyn Brown’s clip for “Thank God” is up for video of the year and collaborative video of the year, while Brown’s “Like I Love Country Music” is up for male video of the year. Jelly Roll is up for male video of the year and breakthrough male video of the year for “Son of a Sinner.” He’s also nominated for CMT digital-first performance of the year, for his performance of “Son of a Sinner” at CMT All Access.

Ballerini is up for video of the year and female video of the year, both for her “HEARTFIRST” visual. Pearce is nominated for two honors: female video of the year (“What He Didn’t Do”) and CMT performance of the year, for her collaboration with LeAnn Rimes and Ashley McBryde on Rimes’ “One Way Ticket,” from CMT Crossroads: LeAnn Rimes & Friends. Shelton’s “No Body” video is up for video of the year, while Keith Urban is nominated for video of the year (“Wild Hearts”) as well as CMT performance of the year (“Wild Hearts,” from the 2022 CMT Music Awards).

14 Mar 2023

Morgan Wallen Rules Artist 100, Hot 100 & Billboard 200 Charts Simultaneously for First Time

Morgan Wallen triples up at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100, Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts (dated March 18), ruling as the top musical act with both the No. 1 song and album in the United States for the first time.

Released on March 3, Wallen’s 36-track album One Thing at a Time launches as his second No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with the largest streaming week ever for a country album, as well as the biggest week by equivalent album units (501,000 from March 3-9, according to Luminate) for any album, among all genres, in 2023.

Meanwhile, the LP’s “Last Night” becomes Wallen’s first No. 1 on the Hot 100. He also claims five of the chart’s top 10, becoming the first core country act with half the tier in a single week. Three cuts reach the region for the first time: “Thought You Should Know,” up 13-7; “Thinkin’ Bout Me,” new at No. 9; and the set’s title track, which charges 51-10. They join “Last Night” and “You Proof,” Wallen’s former top five hit which rebounds 21-8.

Additionally, Wallen rewrites the record for the most songs simultaneously charted on the Hot 100, as he sends 36 songs onto the survey – the entirety of One Thing at a Time. Of those 36 songs, 27 are debuts, also a new one-week record.

As Wallen rules the Artist 100 for an eighth total week, he becomes the 14th artist, and first core country act, to triple up at No. 1 on the Artist 100, Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts simultaneously. The last artist to accomplish the feat was Taylor Swift in December, when Midnights and “Anti-Hero” led the Billboard 200 and Hot 100, respectively.

Most Weeks Simultaneously Leading the Artist 100, Hot 100 & Billboard 200 Charts:
16, Drake
15, Taylor Swift
9, Adele
5, The Weeknd
2, Ariana Grande
2, Ed Sheeran
2, Harry Styles
1, Beyoncé
1, Justin Bieber
1, BTS
1, Camila Cabello
1, Future
1, Kendrick Lamar
1, Morgan Wallen

The Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.

In other highlights on the latest Artist 100, two acts re-enter the chart and score their first appearances in the top 10: Kali Uchis, at No. 6, as Red Moon in Venus becomes her first top 10 on the Billboard 200, arriving at No. 4, and De La Soul, as the hip-hop pioneers return at No. 10, led by their No. 15 Billboard 200 re-entry for 3 Feet High and Rising (as the set surpasses its prior No. 24 peak in 1989), after the act’s catalog became available on streaming and digital retail platforms for the first time.

14 Mar 2023

Superstar Pride Stays Independent, as ‘Painting Pictures’ Sample Issue Clears Up

Superstar Pride’s breakout hit “Painting Pictures” has been one of music’s early success stories so far in 2023, as the song — part of the Mississippi MC’s 5 LBs of Pressure EP that was originally released last October — stormed onto the Hot 100, debuting at No. 99 in the week ending Feb. 25, before leaping to No. 35 the following week and No. 25 last week, reaching No. 7 on the Streaming Songs chart.

The song’s viral success — fueled in part by TikTok — caused a stir, with multiple labels coming in with offers to sign the rising rapper, who had originally uploaded the EP through independent distributor and services company UnitedMasters, launched five years ago by industry entrepreneur and Translation founder/CEO Steve Stoute.

But then, just as the song was beginning to reach new heights and seemingly poised to soar into the upper echelon of the charts, its momentum was briefly halted: The song’s production — which samples the Faith Evans song “Soon As I Get Home,” released in 1995 by Bad Boy/Arista Records — was flagged by Sony Music Publishing for not being properly cleared, the song was removed from Spotify for two days and some versions were also taken down from YouTube, though it remained available on Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube Music. The issue in part contributed to a 29% drop in U.S. streams over the prior week, from 14 million to 10 million, and “Painting Pictures” came in at No. 62 on the Hot 100 this week. (While the drop in placement on the Hot 100 is partially due to the streaming hiccup, the strong performance of Morgan Wallen’s new album One Thing At a Time saw its songs flood the Hot 100, meaning a placement jump would have been difficult regardless.)

That sample issue has now been cleared up, Stoute told Billboard this weekend. According to Stoute, Bad Boy chief Sean “Diddy” Combs, who also co-wrote and co-produced “Soon As I Get Home,” met Superstar Pride and “loved him,” and subsequently cleared the Faith Evans sample, paving the way for the song’s return to Spotify. Additionally, Stoute confirmed that Superstar Pride has decided to stick with UnitedMasters and remain independent for now, despite strong interest from major labels to sign him.

Now, Stoute and his UnitedMasters team are focused on re-starting the song’s momentum, with a video to be shot this week and a radio campaign that is now underway. In the past week, sales increased a modest 15% and radio airplay jumped significantly, up 270% week over week to 3.1 million in audience, according to Luminate.

“This video, more playlisting support, radio, that’s the next step to making a top 10 record,” Stoute told Billboard in a conversation last week. “It’s a phenomenal song that has been growing like wildfire. This seismic growth, I haven’t seen anything like this since Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road,’ or something like that. It’s been pretty crazy when you look at the steep, hockey stick growth curve. But I give credit to the platform for being able to allow artists like Superstar Pride the opportunity to put music out, be able to track his performance and have the confidence that he’s distributing music and it’s in good hands.”

Superstar Pride originally uploaded the song on his own through UnitedMasters, before the company started to track its growth and reached out to offer support with playlisting and the TikTok campaign that eventually pushed it onto the Billboard charts. But Stoute sees the song’s success as stemming from its inherent quality — and as further evidence as to how the industry is changing.

“I think the artist should always own their music, because the biggest lift in all of this is the work that they did, which is making the song,” Stoute says. “There’s nothing a record company or anyone can do to make a non-hit a hit. And if the artist has a hit, in today’s music business, it’s less about what a record company can do and more about, how can you support the artist and what they want to do? It’s not like we have this magic silver-bullet idea that the artist doesn’t understand. What are your marketing ideas? What do you believe in? We’ll give you money and support to help accentuate what you believe in. And that’s why [artists] also get a lion’s share of the revenue — because it’s you. With the old record business, they didn’t respect that. The old record business was, ‘You make the song, and we’ll take it from here.’”

Since Stoute launched UnitedMasters in 2018, the music business at large has seen a shift as more services-oriented companies have come into the industry, and some established players shifted their business models toward a more distribution-and-services offering, giving artists more choices to chart their paths than the traditional record label model, while even the majors have increased their distribution offerings to reflect the reality of the marketplace. UnitedMasters, through Stoute’s sister company Translation, has marketed itself as an option with more brand services offerings to artists than its competitors; Translation represents clients such as the NFL, NBA, AT&T and State Farm, among others. But its path towards success also lies within the broader shifts in the industry.

“[The indie path] is much bigger than a cottage industry that is an alternative for people who can’t get a record deal; this is actually a solution that empowers the artist,” Stoute says. “[Superstar Pride’s success] is just another example of an independent artist finding tremendous success without the need to give up his rights, and ownership of his rights, to a record company. And the more successes that are happening like this much more frequently, the more people are seeing that the record companies are nothing more than just banks.”

14 Mar 2023

No, Jimmy Kimmel Didn’t Mispronounce Rihanna’s Name During His Oscars Monologue

It’s Rih-ANN-a, not Rih-AH-na. Many viewers tuning in to the 2023 Oscars on Sunday night (March 12) assumed that the show’s host Jimmy Kimmel had incorrectly said Rihanna‘s name during the opening monologue — but turns out, he was right all along.

The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host’s executive producer (and wife!) Molly McNearney revealed in a Variety interview published Monday (March 13) that Kimmel had actually personally researched the correct pronunciation of “Rihanna” before the show began. “Jimmy is obsessed with pronouncing people’s names correctly,” McNearney said. “We always find video of the person saying their own name on camera.”

“And that is the way you pronounce Rihanna,” she continued. “There’s a whole interview with her about it. Jimmy said, ‘I want to call her the way the name that she calls herself.’ And that’s how she says it in Barbados. It felt funny to people.”

The interview McNearney referred to may very well have been a 2010 chat between the Fenty mogul and Ellen Degeneres, during which the former daytime talk host specifically asked Rih to clarify her name’s pronunciation. “I say Rih-ANN-a, but Rih-AH-na’s okay,” she said at the time. “I think it’s my accent that makes me say Rih-ANN-a.”

“Now America knows how to pronounce her name, although they won’t,” McNearney added. ‘They’ll just assume Jimmy f–ked up but no, he did not!”

Getting Rihanna’s name right was extra important on Oscars night because of how much the singer — who was nominated for best original song with “Lift Me Up” — was the focus of jokes Kimmel had planned for his opening remarks. “We had two versions of the monologue,” McNearney revealed.  “One if Rihanna was in her seat, one if she was not in her seat. One if Rihanna had her baby on her lap, which she wanted to do. And one if her baby was not on her lap.”

“A lot of our jokes were kind of at the mercy of people being in their seats,” she recalled. “As they were pulling Jimmy up on that harness for the open, we’re shouting up to him, ‘Rihanna is not in her seat! We’re going to adjust the prompter!’”

Watch Rihanna herself clarify how to pronounce her name on The Ellen Degeneres Show below:

14 Mar 2023

Blac Chyna Gets Breast & Butt Reductions, Wants To Be A Better Version of Herself

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54th NAACP Image Awards - Arrivals

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Looks like Blac Chyna is cutting back on some of her most noticeable assets and isn’t shy about letting her fans know why she’s doing it.

Recently, Blac Chyna went on Instagram to let everyone know she was getting breast and butt reduction surgeries. The decision is part of her “life changing journey” as she goes about living a healthier and fuller life. Dressed down looking ready to go under the knife, Rob Kardashian’s baby mama sent a PSA to all her followers who might want to one day follow in her previous footsteps. “I just want all the ladies out there to know, do not get silicone shots because you can get sick, you can die, have complications and all this other crazy stuff.”

Explaining that she’d never had a BBL, Chyna broke down the difference between a BBL and “a** shots.” She also revealed she had gotten her silicone shots when she was just 19-years-old. Now that she’s moving on a different path, she wants them removed from her body so she “can grow.”

Props to Chyna for trying to better herself and allowing her followers to share in on the journey with her.

She’s even said she’s willing to retire the “long sharp nails” look. The reality TV star revealed that the surgery went longer than it should have and explained why. “Whatever that silicone mass, whatever that was that was in my buttocks, it kept clogging the machine and breaking [it],” she said in the IG video.

That’s lowkey scary if you think about it.

The move comes on the heels of Chyna announcing she’d be shutting down her OnlyFans account for the sake of her two kids, 10-year-old son King Cairo and 6-year-old daughter Dream. Now that Blac Chyna is looking to become a better and more natural woman, it should be interesting to see how the Kardashian family goes about dealing with her. Their relationship has proven to be rocky at best over the years.

What do y’all think of Blac Chyna getting a breast and butt reduction? Let us know in the comments section below.